The Empire has changed a lot since the original release of Total War: Warhammer, all the way back in 2016, but one thing remains true–The Empire is still one of the most fun factions to play on the grand campaign, Immortal Empires. The Empire boasts a pretty balanced range of units, mainly focusing on heavy Calvary charges. If all the different options in the Empire campaign are making your head spin, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s our Total War: Warhammer 3 Empire Guide for the Immortal Empires Grand Campaign.
Are you planning on turning to the dark side? See our Be’lakor guide to learn how to be the baddest demon on the campaign map.
Total War: Warhammer 3 Empire Guide (Immortal Empires)
The primary concepts in your Empire Immortal Empires grand campaign include:
- Lord Selection
- Electoral Machinations
- Elector Counts
- Technology Tree
We’ll go over each of these concepts in the guide.
Lord Selection
The first thing you need to do before you start your campaign is select what Lord you want to lead your faction.
In Immortal Empires, players can choose from the following four Lords for the Immortal Empires Grand Campaign:
- Emperor Karl Franz: Reikland
- Balthasar Gelt: The Golden Order
- Markus Wulfhart: The Huntmarshal’s Expedition (DLC)
- Volkmar the Grim: Cult of Sigmar
How to Choose Your Empire Lord in Immortal Empires
Both Balthasar Gelt and Karl Franz are fairly balanced Lords. Gelt focuses more on high-DPS magic and debuffs, while Karl Franz focuses more on fighting and flanking in melee combat. Franz also has more faction-wide buffs focusing on diplomatic relations and Prestige, while Gelt’s effects focus on buffing your army’s battle competency. However, all Empire lords have powerful skills that buff the troops they lead.
On the other hand, while not in the heart of the Empire territory at the start, Volkmar is an absolute beast on the battlefield as a DPS melee hero, smashing away at enemies and buffing his armies. Markus Wulfhart is a paid DLC character, who we may go over more in a separate guide in the future.
This guide will mainly cover the campaigns for Karl Franz and Balthasar Gelt, as they are the only two lords to possess the Electoral Machinations and Elector Counts mechanic in the Empire’s Lord lineup. That’s not to say that Markus Wulfhart and Volkmar are weak; it’s just to say that their campaigns are different from the typical Empire experience.
Choose your Lord based on your playstyle. If you’re usually heavily reliant on army buffs & debuffs and major magic damage, then Balthasar Gelt is your Lord.
If you’re obsessed with the economy and want a good all-around option, choose Karl Franz.
The decision comes down to what kind of Lords you prefer.
Click Unit & Spell Browser at the Lord selection screen to view their spells before starting your campaign.
Electoral Machinations
Electoral Machinations are a mechanic for the Empire in Total War: Warhammer 3 Immortal Empires, and enable you to use Prestige to influence the relationship between Lords within The Empire. This screen also shows you Fealty, another campaign mechanic important to Confederating other factions.
Use this mechanic to improve your relationship with other Empire factions or turn certain Empire factions against each other, taking the attention off of you and opening up opportunities to take over more settlements.
To access Electoral Machinations, press the right-most button above the End Turn button in the bottom right of your screen.
Prestige in Immortal Empires
Prestige is gained after successfully winning on the battlefield or through specific quests that you’ll occasionally receive. This Prestige can then be used to influence different factions in The Empire. Each time you use Prestige to increase or decrease a Faction’s relationship, the Prestige cost for subsequent actions increases.
So, make sure you’re using your Prestige at specific moments. It’s also very important to note that certain quests will require Prestige for a desirable outcome, so it’s best if you store some up instead of spending it all.
Fealty in Immortal Empires
To gain Fealty in Immortal Empires, improve your relationship with the given faction, protect their settlements, or trade Prestige or Gold for Fealty when given a mission.
Fealty is also another important mechanic for your Empire campaign. Instead of the typical way to Confederate other factions to your side, when you play the Empire in Immortal Empires, you’ll need to increase Fealty to 10 before the given faction offers Confederation–or absorption of all towns, settlements, and armies.
On the flip side, once Fealty reaches 0, the given faction will try to Secede from The Empire, which costs a considerable amount of Prestige to prevent. Fealty can be viewed in the Electoral Machinations under the character portraits.
How to Confederate Other Factions in the Empire
To confederate other factions in The Empire, raise the Factions Fealty to 10. You can improve your relationship to over 100 using the Diplomacy screen to set up non-aggression, trade, and military access alliances. You can also use the Electoral Machinations mechanic to quickly boost your relationship with the given faction.
Monitor the Electoral Machinations, and once Fealty reaches 10, you’ll be provided with the option to Confederate the given faction in the next turn. Doing so will give you a -40 relationship with all Empire factions, but not doing so will bar you from Conferderating that faction for another 20 turns.
Elector Counts
Another unique mechanic for the Empire is Elector Counts. This mechanic enables players to assign certain generals to become a Count over different Provinces and provides powerful buffs to that Lord or General.
To assign an Elector Count to a Province, you must take over that entire Province and control it. Then, enter the Elector Counts window and click and drag the General you want to rule over the Province.
All (living) past recruited and currently recruited generals are eligible to become a Count over the Province.
These buffs provide powerful economic and combat bonuses to the Lords that occupy the position. Check the Elector Count window to view your characters’ potential bonuses.
Technology Tree
The Empire tech tree in Immortal Empires boasts a variety of combat, economic, and growth bonuses in it. Strategically, you’ll want to select bonuses like Tithe Rebates and Assembly Line to bolster growth in your settlement during the early game.
You should have no issues taking over your initial Province, so putting points initially into your military is a waste of research time. We suggest concentrating on the Trade and Industry and Imperial Colleges trees first, then moving into the military tree of choice, depending on the main composition you plan on having for your armies.
Lastly, investment in Diplomatic Corps as your game progresses might be useful if you plan on having a network of allies and vassals on the map.
How to Play Your Total War: Warhammer 3 Empire Campaign in Immortal Empires
At the start of your campaign, do your best to secure your starting Provence. Start by accessing the Diplomacy screen and seeing who you are at war with at the beginning of the game. Doing so will give you the ability to enable the Council of Burgomiesters Commandment, which provides you with +20 Growth and Factionwide trade bonus which will help pad your coffers.
At the beginning of your campaign, concentrate on leveling up your main capital. If you are playing as Karl Franz, it would be Altdorf in Reikland. Construct Fields and Tailor’s Guild to increase your income and growth. Concentrate on buildings that contribute to your growth and income, as it will enable you to field more armies as your campaign progresses.
Do not go to war if you don’t have to. Most factions within The Empire can be Confederated using the above Electoral Machinations mechanic. Concentrate on destroying Factions that go to war with you first–and if this is an Empire faction, they will likely suffer severe relationship penalties, as will you if you’re the one that starts the war.
Army Compositions
The Empire starts with a pretty balanced pallet of units to choose from. Concentrate on building Spearmen and Crossbowmen first, as they can carry you well into the early game and are incredibly cheap to Garrison.
As you enter the mid and late game, your army composition will shift to mostly long-ranged artillery and flanking attacks with cavalry. Late-game melee units like Greatswords will melt under most other melee units from other armies in pitched battle.
Instead, concentrate a larger portion of your army towards Demigryph Knights, Steam Tanks, and the Hellstorm Rocket Battery to goad enemy armies to come to you so you can utilize hit-and-run tactics with Huntsmen, Handgunners, and the aforementioned Demigryphs.
And that’s it for our Total War: Warhammer 3 Empire Guide for Immortal Empires! If you read this guide, you should be equipped with all the knowledge you need for a successful Empire campaign.
If you think we missed anything, be sure to let us know in the comments below.
For more Total War: Warhammer 3 guides, see our Total War Section.
