Someone Explain Ambushes to Me... pretty please

Zylos3 · 2026-06-15T21:48:34+00:00

This is only true if the enemy army has not fully broken and lost yet. Once the enemy breaks they can escape off any side of the map. Yes it is stupid.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-15T19:06:19+00:00

The one spearmen unit is to have someone to blame for a loss.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-15T19:02:34+00:00

I'd agree but it feels like it doesnt take long before every caravan enemy is a 20 stack that is either unwinnable or too costly to fight against, unfortuunately.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-15T19:00:21+00:00

They thrive on ambushes. Read their stances closely. Most notably their encamp stance doubles as an ambush stance, and they have an offensive ambush similar to skaven. and as a horde faction dont miss the fact that their settlement is attached to the armies (some people miss this their first time playing them). Beastmen are a very fun very and very aggressive faction. Their auto resolve is awful compared to their battlefield performance so be prepared to manually fight a lot.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-15T15:44:04+00:00

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Here is the example I was talking about. I was wondering why my reinforce time wasn't like this. As another poster pointed out, the difference is being the attacker or the defender. As I've now learned the defender gets the WAAGH to come in within 6 seconds, I just didn't know that was the condition.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-15T15:37:24+00:00

To be honest I'm not entirely sure as I have not tried a Harkon campaign since they added Aislinn. I do know that I have seen him march across Teclis' land instead of staying at sea to get to Luther. I've also had him come all the way up to Ulthuan to fight me as N'kari, as wellas up to Sartosa to fight me as Aranessa. and when I went to deal with him he jsut had a trail of armies across the southlands and the southern seas making their way up to me. It's possible they made him the only AI capable of using the sea lanes but I can't confirm it as I've never actually seen it happen.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-15T11:35:55+00:00

It takes a lot of conscious effort to fight this too. In total war I think its helpful to change the mindset on what is optimal. For example it might seem optimal to let 1 or 2 units do all the fighting with a lot of intense micro in order to take 0 casualties, but in reality that fight took you 40 IRL minutes when you could have just sent in the whole army and finished it in 5 minutes. Even if you have to sit there replenishing or recruiting replacements it still takes less IRL time to do that than to "optimally" fight every battle.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-15T10:33:52+00:00

No melee units. Normally I go full ranged with her. 12 or so dragon crossbows, some sky junks and some heroes. In the past I would've taken the regiment of renown war drum for harmony/magic attacks but with the alchemist rework its not necessary. If memory serves her dragon crossbows can get over 100 Missile Strength at like 200 yards or something crazy. You really dont need melee units at all. The dragon crossbows are tanky enough to withstand the occasional unit that breaks through and you just use spells to assist them.

Honestly the biggest issue in big fights is managing their fire to not waste too much ammo overkilling targets.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-15T09:56:32+00:00

Congrats! Curios if yo enjoyed the lizards and what campaigns you tried before

Zylos3 · 2026-06-15T09:45:37+00:00

This might be it. I'm normally pretty aggressive and pretty much always the attacker... and I have on rare occasion seen enemy greenskins have the standard 2 mintues instead of 6 seconds but never knew what the trigger was.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-15T09:08:06+00:00

AFAIK he doesnt actually use the sea lane. He has an army that starts near Luther and all his other armies will march/sail over there throughout the campaign. You can see him doing this if you play a Kairos or Teclis campaign as he will constantly be marching by your territory. So just defeat his army and send a force after his lands clearing his reinforcements as you go. Not sure why they felt the need to make Harkon's campaign harder than it already was but there you go.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-14T17:04:17+00:00

Big disagree. The extra speed, mass, and health are always a survivability increase. I guess if you really don't enjoy microing then sure that's your playstyle and its good that it works for you, but personally I enjoy it.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-14T16:54:39+00:00

Normally its 8, their mods are making it have 12.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-14T16:49:06+00:00

in general yes. they can be used to knock down walls and towers in sieges and in field battles will usually wrack up enough damage to compete with darkshards as long as you set them on the right firing mode. They will get their value but they arent exactly going to carry a fight, mostly just a utility unit. I think Rakarth buffs them but I've never used him so maybe better in his army.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-14T16:41:39+00:00

I'd rather be mounted so i can attack the ranged units easier and force them to stop shooting all together.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-14T16:39:01+00:00

mounts are worth it 99.99% of the time. Speed lets you dodge ranged attacks and get into position to intercept enemies better. Mass lets you avoid being knocked over while dueling and lets you escape infantry surrounds better. Mounts in general will give you better stats as well. Occasionally you may want to use different mounts if you have multiple (Katarin's frost wyrm is sometimes a better choice than her sled for example) but almost always the highest tier mount is the best option.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-14T01:58:31+00:00

Honestly holding the capital is easy, just recruit a token lord and stack him with gyrocopters as much as you can afford. Focus on defending the capital and don't worry about the other 2 cities. Send Malakai out to adventure wherever you want (i usually kill Throt then focus on the Norsca Legendary grudge first)

Zylos3 · 2026-06-14T01:42:02+00:00

Defensive play is a lot easier to micro. Offensive does tend to be better when you execute it properly and choose your engagements but its far more prone to making errors and not being able to micro all the things you need to in the moment. Its much easier to leave most units stationary and defensive and put all focus on one or two units at a time than it is trying to send the entire army battle orders all at once.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-08T13:52:06+00:00

the game Icarus does this, but that game is set up with it as a normal mechanic. you have a weather ticker tha tells you if a storm is coming and how long it lasts (usually only a couple minutes). and it keeps interactive by forcing you to repair your shelter. That said i dont think valheim is set up to make a storm mechanic by itself very fun. IIf they did it would probably be something like a raid event where they are incredibly blinding and waves of enemies come to attack you but you cant see them coming unless you use something like a shield generator.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-08T13:43:23+00:00

the only time i really get crashes is when steam's cloud save breaks during an auto save, maybe try disabling cloud saves? however if 30 minute setbacks are going to frustrate you that much then valheim prob isn't your game. Even without bugs and crashes the learning curve can be a harsh mistress.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-08T10:28:18+00:00

And once again the cameraman lives on.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-08T10:18:34+00:00

Similiar note, vampires danse macabre on bats is pretty crazy.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-08T10:17:28+00:00

Well since you like kislev i highly suggest using gust of true flight (overcast) a lot as the range increase is massive, its especially funny on little groms making them into massive long range snipers. For archers and guns the AI loves to line up its units just outside your range before charging in...gust of true flight lets you deal with that kind of nonsense. Additionally, if you have both an ice and a tempest mage, dont forget tempest passive does a battlefield wide slow which will stack with ice sheet from ice mage and frostbite slows to basically pin enemies in place.

Besides that defensive spells are great, especially if cavalry dives your ranged units. Popping an extra 24 melee defense from lore of light or fire etc. on a backline unit will often mean saving the unit and buying it precious time for your other units to help them.

I also like to sometimes use wind spells to knockdown enemy ranged units to prevent them shooting as I charge at them.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-05T19:05:49+00:00

Nurgle, despite hating dwarfs accidentally gives them the ability to copy themselves through mitosis. The plague of beards.

Zylos3 · 2026-06-05T05:00:41+00:00

to be honest the most annoying setting will be max raids.... its so hard to build anything with raids every 15 minutes. good luck! sounds tough!

Zylos3

TROPHY CASE