Total War: WARHAMMER - Realm Of The Wood Elves

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To outsiders, the forest realm of Athel Loren is a brooding and malicious place. The creak and groan of living wood echoes from its dim interior, the canopy seems to absorb all light, and half-seen spirits dart between the twilit bowers. To enter is to place your fate in their hands.

Within dwell the Asrai, the Wood Elves. Though they hail originally from Ulthuan to the west as all Elves do, they spurn the sanctimonious arrogance of the Asur, the High Elves, and the murderous decadence of the Druchii or Dark Elves. The Asrai consider themselves to be the only true Elves left in the world, as they embrace all aspects of their nature – both light and dark – and for thousands of years, they have lived in harmony with the sentient forest.

The Realm of The Wood Elves Add-on for Total War: WARHAMMER has 10 achievements. Buy Total War: Warhammer - Realm of the Wood Elves cheaper on Instant Gaming, the place to buy your games at the best price with immediate delivery! Popularity Name ↑ Name ↓ Price ↑ Price ↓ Ratings ↓ Ratings ↑ Discount ↑ Discount ↓ Release date ↑ Release date ↓. The Wood Elves campaign offers a uniquely different campaign experience to the other playable races of Total War: WARHAMMER. Their major infrastructure is housed in the Wood Elf settlements of Athel Loren, though they are capable of expanding outwards, capturing settlements and building limited outposts, known as Asrai Lookouts, in their stead.

Cosmic Reviews total war: warhammer realm of the wood elves the new DLC expansion for RTS Total War Warhammer by Creative Assembly and SEGA. Enjoy this total. Total War: Warhammer the Realm of the Wood Elves is an expansion pack to the original Total War: Warhammer game. This expansion brings the epic Wood Elves story campaign, with the most arrogant Elves of them all, they embrace both the light, and the dark and the light aspects of their nature and for thousands of years they have lived in harmony, but even they cannot remain still with the ever.

The Asrai share the wilds of Athel Loren with its spirits and protectors: the Dryads, Branchwraiths and the ancient guardian Treemen. They adopt its steeds, hawks and Great Eagles for their warhosts, and even rare Forest Dragons may deign to join them when the need is dire. Peerless archers and riders, the Wood Elves pay fealty to the demigod Orion, who dies in flame each midwinter, only to be reborn into thunderous life in spring beneath The Oak of Ages.

Wild, lithe, and utterly ruthless in defence of their land, only a fool would goad the Wood Elves and their spirited allies to conflict. For those who witness the awesome spectacle of an Asrai host marching out of the woodlands on a Wild Hunt, it is likely the last thing they will ever see.

Total war warhammer realm of the wood elves review

Campaign playstyle
The Wood Elves campaign offers a uniquely different campaign experience to the other playable races of Total War: WARHAMMER. Their major infrastructure is housed in the Wood Elf settlements of Athel Loren, though they are capable of expanding outwards, capturing settlements and building limited outposts, known as Asrai Lookouts, in their stead. The heart of the campaign is The Great Oak, a unique 5-tier building related to the new Wonder victory condition.

In battle, the Wood Elves are swift and deadly, fielding many ‘glass cannon’ style units. While less physically robust than most other races, and with smaller unit sizes, they make up for this with excellent melee and ranged capabilities. They field some of the best archers in the game, many of whom can move and fire, and may later be upgraded with a range of specialised ammunition. They are often accompanied in battle by the woodland kin of Athel Loren, such as Dryads, Eagles and Treemen. Their spellcasters wield the Lores of Life, Beasts and Shadows.

New Story Campaign: The Season of Revelation
Set across a beautiful and highly-detailed campaign map of Athel Loren and the surrounding Duchies of Breton, The Season of Revelation is playable as either Durthu or Orion, the Wood Elves’ two Legendary Lords. This campaign tasks the player with uniting Athel Loren in the face of Bretonnian incursions and, later, from a series of fearsome, climactic attacks by the Beastman warlord Morghur, and his corrupted bray-herds.

The Oak of Ages
The vast, ancient bowers of The Oak of Ages mark the spiritual heart of Athel Loren and the source of its sacred power.

In the Grand Campaign, The Oak of Ages is a unique 5-tier Wonder building sited in Athel Loren which the player must grow over the course of the campaign. As the Wood Elf player advances it to each new tier, they will receive increasing bonuses to their campaign.

Growing The Oak to tier 5 initiates The Battle of The Great Oak, a climactic multi-stage assault on Athel Loren’s spiritual centre by the combined and massed hordes of the Beastmen and Chaos Warriors. Victory (or survival!) marks the completion of the Wood Elves’ key campaign objective.

New additional currency: Amber
Alongside Gold, the Wood Elves require Amber to recruit certain elite units, to unlock certain technologies, and to expand the Oak of Ages. This is a finite resource in the world however, and can only be gained by capturing settlements and setting up Asrai Lookouts.

As Amber is limited, this presents the player with a constant choice over whether it should be spent on faction development, military might or achieving their key victory condition.

Wood Elf Settlements and Outposts
The Wood Elves are capable of capturing any province in The Old World, regardless of its race origin. However, these settlement locations can only ever house Asrai Lookouts with very limited building options, turning them into army replenishment stops, recruitment stations (with access to the global recruitment pool but at local recruitment pricing), or as centres to exploit any regional trade resources. Major building chains will need to be built in the regions of Athel Loren itself, the only true home of the Wood Elves. Settlements in Athel Loren have 10 building slots, providing space to explore the Wood Elves’ extensive building trees.

Wood Elves infrastructure
The Wood Elves have unique tech trees and buildings, and as a highly developed and somewhat aristocratic race, the Wood Elf Council presides over matters social and military.

This Council has a number of Offices to which characters may be appointed, and is subtly connected to the Wood Elves’ infrastructure. Certain buildings unlock Offices for example: if the Wild Heath building is unlocked in the tech tree, it can be built in a settlement, thereby unlocking the Herald Of The Hunt office. If one of the player’s Lords is appointed to this role, he will periodically call a Wild Hunt. This gives the Herald and his army a series of very significant bonuses for the turns in which the Wild Hunt event is active, heightening their marshal prowess and encouraging aggressive actions. Players are advised to explore these interconnections in order to get the most out of their Wood Elf campaigns.

The two Wood Elves legendary Lords, Orion and Durthu, both have Offices to which only they can be appointed, providing them with further campaign bonuses.

New Legendary Lords
A Wood Elves Grand Campaign may be led by one of two Legendary Lords: the demigod Orion, The King in The Woods, or the ancient Treeman, Durthu. Each begins play in a different starting position, controlling a different Athel Loren faction, and bring their own suite of campaign bonuses.

Orion The King in The Woods

Orion is the immortal demigod-king of Athel Loren and the Wood Elves. When his realm is threatened, he is the first to take up arms and fight in its defence. Every Elf feels the lure of their king’s wild summons, and many are overcome by their primal urges, abandoning civilised concerns and for the thrill of the hunt, and the heady tang of blood upon the wind.

Orion is a powerful melee warrior who also can deal sizeable ranged damage with his long-range spear attacks. He also has two unique area-effect abilities: Hounds of Orion, a magical vortex, and Hawk’s Talon, a magical bombardment. These attacks are bound to Orion and do not consume Winds of Magic.

Orion has two combat skill trees, two battle skill trees, and a campaign skill tree. This great range of skills, many of which are unique, allows him to specialise as he levels up. In particular, he can bring numerous improvements to the many bow units in the Wood Elves roster. When recruiting forces, Orion must pay an extra cost in Amber to hire woodland spirit units.

Durthu
Most ancient of the might Treemen of Athel Loren, Durthu was once a benevolent creature who found joy in the weave of forest life. It was he who first bound the spirits of the woodlands to the fate of the Asrai. And for a time, things existed in balance and harmony.

After many bloody incursions into Athel Loren however, with countless tress felled by outsiders for fuel, or merely out of spite, Durthu has become embittered. Worse still, he believes the Wood Elves themselves invited many of these calamities. Now, he does not consider them friends: merely allies in a common cause.

In the grand Campaign, Durthu leads the woodland spirits of the region of Argwylon in Athel Loren. When recruiting forces, he must pay an extra cost in Amber to hire Wood Elf units. A powerful warrior and spellcaster, Durthu also wields the Lore of Beasts, and may summon Manticores into the thick of battle using The Transformation of Kadon.

New Lords

Wood Elves armies may recruit two new types of Lord to command their armies: Glade lords and Treemen.

Glade Lords
The Highborn lords and ladies of Athel Loren have ruled the Wood Elves for millennia, and when the race goes to war, it is these nobles that direct their forces. Powerful warriors and excellent archers, they have two personal combat skill trees, each of which brings improvements to their archery and melee abilities. Likewise, their Battle trees augment their armies along two different paths – mell and ranged. They may also unlock three mount options as they level up: the Elven Steed, Great Eagle, and Forest Dragon.

Ancient Treemen
Ancient Treemen are colossal in stature. Revered by Elf and forest-creature alike, their strength rivals that of even the dragons of the deep glades. The true guardians of the forest, these mighty woodland spirits are Spellcaster lords who wield the Lore of Beasts. While they have no mount options (there are few creatures in the world big enough to accommodate them), they have unique skills which grant increasing protection to all Tree Kin units in their armies.

Heroes
Wood Elves armies may recruit three new types of Hero units to support their armies and perform Campaign Map actions. Each offers strong specialisation paths via their skill trees.

Spellsingers (Mage focus)
Wood Elf mages have a unique relationship with Athel Loren. Connected to the deeper intelligence of the forest, they are highly attuned beings, sharing a bond with their surroundings in much the same way the Dryads, sprites and Treemen do. Spellsingers may be recruited to wield the Lores of Life, Shadow and Beasts.

Branchwraiths (Melee/Mage focus)
Eldest of the Dryads, Branchwraith serve as handmaidens to the ancients of Athel Loren. Before the coming of the Elves, it was they who ruled the forest and tamed the Winds of Magic to bring sustenance to the wild woodlands. There is no love lost between Branchwraiths and the Asrai, though the uneasy peace continues, and these skilled practitioners of The Lore of Life can be found in many Wood Elf warhosts, casting spells in the thick of battle one minute, striking down foes with their powerful limbs the next.

Waystalkers (Spy, Ranged focus)
The most skilled marksmen of the Waywatchers, Waystalkers are obsessed with The Hunt. Taciturn, solitary individuals, they show a dedication to their path that puts them in closer touch with the forest than their Elven kin. Expert snipers, they can move – and even remain hidden – while firing, singling out targets for the kill with a ruthless precision that no other archer can match.

Unit roster

The Wood Elves roster contains many skilled archer units. When certain structures have been built, Glade Guard, Deepwood Scouts and Glade Riders may be recruited to fire three specialised ammunition types:

Starfire shafts (Fire damage)
Hagbane Tips (Poison damage)
Swift Silver Shards (Magical damage)

Melee Infantry

Eternal Guard
Eternal Guard (shields)
Wardancers
Wardancers (Asrai spears)
Wildwood Rangers

Ranged infantry

Glade Guard
Glade Guard (Starfire Shafts)
Glade Guard (Swift Shiver Shafts)
Glade Guard (Hagbane Tips)
Deepwood Scouts
Deepwood Scouts (Starfire Shafts)
Deepwood Scouts (Swift Shiver Shafts)
Deepwood Scouts (Hagbane Tips)
Waywatchers

Melee Cavalry

Wild Riders
Wild Riders (shields)

Ranged cavalry

Glade Riders
Glade Riders (Starfire Shafts)
Glade Riders (Swift Shiver Shafts)
Glade Riders (Hagbane Tips)
Hawk Riders (flying)

Magical cavalry

Sisters of The Thorn (may cast bound spells)

Woodland Spirit units

Dryads
Tree kin
Treeman

Monstrous Units

Great Eagle (flying)
Forest Dragon (flying)

Key Features

New Wood Elves Race in the Grand Campaign
New additional Race-specific currency: Amber
Wonder-based Campaign victory condition
Wood Elves may conquer any region on the map
Two New Playable Legendary Lords: Orion and Durthu
Two new Lord types with deep-specialisation skill trees
Three new Hero types with deep-specialisation skill trees
Comprehensive Wood Elves army roster
Adds an additional campaign map to the game with the unique ‘Season of Revelations’ Wood Elves story Campaign
New Unique Monsters, Heroes, Magic and Game Features

I’d make a terrible general in real life in that I almost always eschew risk to preserve the lives of my troops in strategy games. In my book, the best kind of war to fight is the kind where you’re killing lots of people without your guys getting killed. That’s why I’ve always loved the bow-toting skirmish masters that are Warhammer’s Wood Elves, introduced into Total War: Warhammer alongside the recent ‘Update 5’ patch and the Realm of the Wood Elves DLC. While many factions saw tweaks and re-balancing, the presence of the Wood Elves in the campaign and multiplayer roster is the change that has the most impact.

Most Total War armies fight in a hammer and anvil fashion, where a front line of sturdy infantry pins down the enemy while both sides maneuver on the flanks to get in position for a rear charge, the Wood Elves play more like the Huns or Mongols in historical Total Wars, but with fewer horses and more homicidal ents.

Some of the key traits that make Wood Elves unique include:

Forest Stalker (All Humanoid Units): Bonus to speed and missile accuracy when standing in woods. The Wood Elves can outmaneuver any army in heavily-forested terrain. Trees also don’t impede accuracy like they do missile troops from other factions - it actually sharpens their aim.
Good Range (All Missile Troops except Deepwood Scouts): The archers of Athel Loren can outrange the missile troops from any other faction, allowing them to engage the enemy’s skirmish line without being engaged themselves.
Master Ambusher (Deepwood Scouts and Waywatchers): These shorter-ranged archers can hide in any terrain, including plain sight in the middle of an open field, and have the ability to fire while moving.
Forest Spirit (Monstrous Units): The eagles and treekin that assist the Wood Elves have a strong resistance to non-magical damage. However, most of them take additional damage from fire.

This sets the Wood Elves up to be a very micro-heavy skirmish army that is going to get most of their kills at range and doesn’t really want to get tied up in melee engagements. Baiting opponents, using the forest to your advantage, and making the most of your tougher forest spirit units when the enemy does close in.

To see some of the Wood Elves’ most elite units in action, check out this video on the Loresworn Order's channel:

What about the other factions? This isn’t a huge shake-up of a patch for most, but some tweaks have been made.

BRETONNIA

All flying mounts +50 Multiplayer Point Cost
Pegasus: -5 Ground Speed, -5 Fly Speed
Pegasus hero mount: -100 Mass
Hippogryph: -200 Mass
Spearmen-at-Arms: -2 Melee Attack, +1 Bonus vs Large (According to CA, this is to make them weaker against other infantry without losing any potency against larger units and cavalry)

This is a fairly significant nerf to Bretonnia’s flying cav. Since they’re not fully fleshed-out as a faction yet, I wouldn’t consider any of this set in stone. Once they have a full unit roster with their FreeLC campaign patch early next year, it will likely be necessary for the devs to take another pass at their overall multiplayer balance. Hippogryphs are now going to be much weaker on the charge (and less cost-effective), meaning you won’t be able to just bypass walls by landing a flock of angry Buckbeaks on them. Plan accordingly, and bring some siege equipment in city battles.

BEASTMEN

Ungor Spearmen: -2 Melee Attack, +2 Melee Defense for the shielded variant
According to CA: “Both Ungor Spear units were inconsistent in attack speeds and required animation and entity tweaks. They now equal their corresponding Empire units in both combat strength and cost, while Primal Fury gives them an edge in speed.”
All Minotaur units: -100 Multiplayer Point Cost
Razorgor Chariot: +8 Melee Defense, +6 Bonus vs Infantry, -6 Charge Bonus
Razorgor Herd: -150 Multiplayer Point Cost, +2 Weapon Damage, -4 Armor Piercing Damage, -12 Hit Points, -2 Speed, Minor changes to splash attacks and charge
According to CA: “Razorgor have been rebalanced to fit the lower price point. A contextual example: with a bit of luck, they can defeat a unit of Greatswords in 3 charges while a unit of Crossbowmen is firing at them, and then have just enough HP left to also defeat the Crossbowmen.”

Making minotaurs more cost-effective in multiplayer should definitely not be underestimated, as for my money, they’re the best unit in the entire Beastmen roster and possibly my favorite monstrous infantry in the game. The changes to Razorgor Chariots will also likely change their role significantly. They’re no longer quite so deadly on the charge (especially against armored units), but are now much more able to get stuck in a scrum and last a while.

CHAOS

Chaos Marauders: -25 Multiplayer Point Cost for the shield variant, +1 Melee Defense for the Great Weapon variant
According to CA: “In wide formations, the Great Weapon Marauders take out the improved Dwarf Warrior with ~30% HP left. They cost more, but also have a decent speed advantage. They are also cost-effective against Greatswords.”
All Chariots: -100 Multiplayer Point Cost, +8 Melee Defense
Gorebeast Chariot: -10 Charge Bonus, +5 Melee Attack (on top of the above)
Chosen (Halberds): +4 Bonus vs Large, -2 Melee Attack, +4 Melee Defense
According to CA: “We buffed the Halberd version of Chosen to be a bit more Anti-Large focussed, while holding their ground longer in all melee engagements.”
Kholek: +300 Hit Points, +10 Bonus vs Large, Shorter attack interval, Added tail-swipe attacks
Shaggoth: +400 Hit Points, +10 Bonus vs Large, Reduced chance to be interrupted when taking damage, Reduced chance to be interrupted when taking damage, Shorter attack interval, Added tail-swipe attacks
According to CA: “Kholek and Shaggoths can now convincingly defeat 1 Demigryph Halberd, 2 Reiksguard or 5-6 Squig Herds. They are still not cost effective against spearmen, but the tail attacks help against getting swarmed.”
Giants: Reduced chance to be interrupted when taking damage

While among the least flashy, the most impactful change I see here is reducing the cost of Chaos Marauders with shields by 25. This makes them cheaper than Empire swordsmen, and they are arguably a better unit pound-for-pound. I’m a big fan of marauder-heavy chaos armies (my old tabletop army was swarming with them), and so I say the more the merrier. The chariot changes are consistent with what we’re seeing across other factions, making them better at sustained fighting. Shaggoths just got a whole lot scarier, as if they needed that.

DWARFS

Miners with Blasting Charges: -25 Multiplayer Point Cost
Dwarf Warriors: -25 Multiplayer Point Cost, +2 Melee Defense, +2 Hit Points, +5 Armor for all variants, -1 Damage and +1 AP Damage for the Great Weapon variant
Warriors of Dragonfire Pass: +2 Hit Points
Longbeards: +1 Melee Defense, +2 HP for all variants, Charge Defense vs Large added and -4 Charge Bonus for the Great Weapon variant
The Grumbling Guard: +1 Melee Defense
Irondrake Trollhammers: -100 Multiplayer Point Cost
Slayers: -2 Weapon Damage, +2 Armor Piercing Damage
Ironbreakers: -100 Multiplayer Point Cost
Norgrimling’s Ironbreakers: -50 Multiplayer Point Cost
Gyrocopter and Gyrobomber: Increased Turn Speed, -5 Fly Speed for all variants, Increased Accuracy and Damage at Center of Impact for the Steamgun variant
Thunderers: +1 Weapon Damage
Dwarf Cannon: +20 Range
Organ Gun: +15 Range

The biggest take-away here is that a lot of core dwarf melee line units have become stronger and more cost-effective, including a number of their Regiments of Renown. Increased range on their artillery pieces is also pretty significant, especially when mixing it up with those new elves on the block who can split a beard at 500 meters. While the damage change to Slayers may seem odd, I think in more cases than not it’s going to help them be better at their core job of killing big stuff.

EMPIRE

All flying mounts: +50 Multiplayer Point Cost
Griffon: -200 Mass
Spearmen: -1 Melee Attack, -1 Charge Bonus, +1 Bonus vs Large for all variants
Greatswords: Spacing and charge animations changes
Accoring to CA: “Now fewer entities in the 2nd rank get an attack, slightly reducing overall charge damage.”
Handgunners: +1 Damage
Hellblaster Volley Gun: -150 Multiplayer Point Cost
Outriders with Grenade Launchers: -1 second Reload Time, +4 Explosion Damage, +2 Explosion Armor Piercing Damage, +10 Range, -2 Ammo
Free Company Militia: -50 Multiplayer Point Cost, Increased Accuracy
Knights of the Blazing Sun: Reduced Magic Resistance

From what I’ve seen of the Greatswords change, they’re still a really good unit - just maybe not as ridiculously good as they were before. Here we can see some of the same nerfing to flying units as we did for Bretonnia, which seems to suggest that CA really doesn’t want flying cav to be the obvious choice over siege weapons and towers for city battles. My favorite changes here are the buffs to Handgunners (who have felt underpowered from day one) and Free Company Militia. I love running pike-and-shot Empire armies, and this patch will make those builds more viable without increasing their cost.

GREENSKINS

All Chariots: -100 Multiplayer Point Cost, +8 Melee Defense
Orc Boar Boy Big Unz: -2 Charge Bonus, +1 Weapon Damage, -1 Armor Piercing Damage
Broken Tusk Mob: -2 Charge Bonus, +1 Weapon Damage, -1 Armor Piercing Damage, -4 Morale, -2 Melee Defense, -1 Melee Attack, +200 Multiplayer Point Cost
Giants: Reduced chance to be interrupted when taking damage
Squig Herd: -12 Speed, Removed Vanguard Deployment, Reduced Mass

Poor squigs. They always get the short end of the half-digested wizard corpse. As a newer addition to the Greenskin roster, they’re still finding their place in the meta, however, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more fiddling with their stats in the next few patches. Other than that, most of the Greenskin changes seem to be motivated by someone getting rekt by the Broken Tusk Mob regiment in office multiplayer and beating it into submission with the nerf bat, along with a spiteful glare at the plain ol’ Boar Boyz for good measure.

VAMPIRE COUNTS

Hellsteed: -5 Ground Speed, -5 Fly Speed
Grave Guards with Great Weapons: +2 Armor Piercing Damage, +1 Melee Defense, -2 Charge Bonus, Spacing and animation changes consistent with Empire Greatswords (see above)

Very little has changed for the pallid lords of Sylvania. Even still, the small tweak to survivability in protracted engagement for Grave Guards will make them a more attractive frontline choice than they were previously. Oh, and more nerfs to anything that flies.

All the faction changes aside, the most exciting part about this patch is definitely the very different playstyle Wood Elves bring to the table. I look forward to seeing how skilled players come to use them, and the tactics the other armies will be forced to develop to deal with them. See you on the battlefield!