YouTuber The Grim Kleaper has shown that Total War Warhammer 3 can be bested without recruiting a single regular unit. In a recent YouTube video, he took on the self-imposed challenge of beating a campaign while only recruiting heroes.
The task was attempted with the Total War Warhammer 3 faction Lizardmen. This seems like a wise choice, as it gives you access to Gor-Rok and Lord Kroak, a very tanky lizard, combined with one of the game’s best wizards.
Recruiting heroes but no units does a very strange thing to Total War Warhammer 3’s campaign mode. You don’t need any of the regular military buildings, except the ones that let you recruit heroes or upgrade your hero capacity. Leveling up all those heroes presumably gets super tedious, but that’s pretty quick on the decision-making front too – you just need combat abilities, no unnecessary army buffs.
As you’ll see from the video above, the tricky part of this challenge is the battles. The autoresolve calculator doesn’t fancy your chances much when you face down an army of 1,000 Warhammer Skaven with just two dudes.
But it’s easier than it looks at the start: classic hammer and anvil strategy – lure the units in with Gor-Rok, explode them all with Kroak. It helps that you can exploit the AI and wait ages until your Winds of Magic is maxxed out before actually engaging.
It all gets a little bit more complicated later in the game, however. That’s when the Grim Kleaper has to deploy some sneaky strategies like kiting towers, ganging up to dispatch troublesome units, or bum rushing capture points. And of course, sometimes pesky garrison troops turn up when your settlements are attacked – at which point Kleaper has to work to try and keep them out of the battle to preserve the challenge’s sanctity.
We won’t spoil the outcome – although perhaps our title gives a little hint – you’ll have to watch for yourself to find out how it goes. For more content about Creative Assembly’s fantasy epic strategy game, check out all the currently available Total War Warhammer 3 DLC.