Total War: WARHAMMER III Beginner's Guide: First 20 Turns & Faction Picks

Which campaign should you play?

The game offers two main campaign modes, and they teach different things:

• Realm of Chaos — the narrative campaign shipped with WARHAMMER III. It is more guided: you take souls from four Chaos realms along a clearer path. Good for a first campaign because the objectives tell you what to do next, and a short victory runs roughly 30–50 turns.
• Immortal Empires — the free mega-campaign that merges the maps of all three games into one sandbox with 100+ factions. There is no fixed story; you set your own goals. It is the long-term mode most players settle into, but it is better as a second campaign once you know the basics.

Recommendation: do a shorter Realm of Chaos campaign first to learn the systems, then move to Immortal Empires with a faction you enjoyed. If you already know Total War, you can start directly in Immortal Empires.

Which faction should you pick?

"Best faction" depends on how you like to play, but for a first campaign the goal is a faction that punishes mistakes gently. These are the common beginner recommendations:

Save for later: the four mono-god Chaos factions (Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, Tzeentch) and horde factions generally demand tighter battle micro and a grasp of the campaign economy. They are rewarding, just not the gentlest first teacher. For a deeper breakdown, see our best WARHAMMER III factions guide.

Your first 20 turns

The simplest early plan is: one war, one core province, one main army. Concretely:

1. Turn 1: check your province, build an income building, and recruit your starting force. Don't overspend — early gold is precious.
2. Turns 1–6: take the full starting province (the capital plus its minor settlements) to unlock the province-completion bonus. Put economy buildings in safe towns.
3. Turns 6–15: upgrade your capital, add a growth building, and sign non-aggression or trade deals with neighbours. Trade income is a large, passive early boost.
4. Turns 15–20: clear nearby rebels or the single enemy blocking your region, and field your first full army (roughly 15–20 units).

Turn counts are experience guidelines, not fixed rules — your faction and difficulty change the pace. What matters is the order: secure, earn, recruit, then expand.

Economy & provinces

• Complete provinces pay more. Owning a capital and all its minor settlements grants a province bonus — prioritise finishing a province over grabbing distant settlements.
• Watch public order. Low order spawns rebels. Use garrisons, an order building, or an agent, and don't raise taxes too high too early.
• Build walls on border towns. A walled city stalls a siege and buys time for your main army to march back.
• Centralise recruitment. One safe military province is enough early; duplicating military buildings everywhere slows your growth.
• Avoid bad-climate settlements and far-flung conquests at first — each new holding is another thing to defend.

Building your first army

Armies work by role, not by collecting the strongest units. A forgiving template for a 20-unit army:

• Front line (6–8 units): sturdy infantry to hold the enemy in place.
• Missile / magic damage (4–6 units): ranged infantry, artillery or casters firing over the front line.
• Flankers (2–4 units): cavalry, fast monsters or flyers to charge the sides or run down routers.
• Anti-large answers: keep a few spears, armor-piercing missiles or monsters for enemy giants and monsters.

Add your legendary lord and one or two heroes where their spells and auras matter. A single strong, full army beats several half-filled ones — concentrate your power before you spread it.

Battle basics

• Deploy a shallow front line with fragile units behind it and fast units held back on the wings.
• Focus fire. Concentrate missiles on one enemy unit to break it before it reaches your line, rather than spreading damage.
• Flank, don't frontal-charge. Once the enemy line is locked, wrap a wing with cavalry instead of charging straight into spears.
• Use terrain. High ground extends ranged range; rivers and marshes slow attackers — put your archers where they can shoot safely.
• Use magic at the right moment. Winds of Magic spells such as a well-timed blast or debuff can decide a fight; watch the WoM bar before committing.
• Auto-resolve the easy fights and save manual battles for close sieges and battles where losing expensive units would hurt.

Mistakes to avoid

• Opening several wars at once. One turn of loot can cost ten turns of stability; keep enemies coming from one direction.
• Splitting your army. Two weak groups die separately — merge until your main force is strong.
• Recruiting elites too early. Expensive units without support drain the treasury and lose to cheaper counters.
• Chasing every army. Capture the settlements that shape your region first; don't chase across the map.
• Ignoring public order and corruption. A restless province quietly costs you gold and turns.
• Expanding before you can defend. A bigger map you can't hold is worse than a smaller one you can.

Part of the WarhammerGuide WH3 series. Independent fan project; not affiliated with Creative Assembly or Games Workshop.