WARHAMMER 3 FACTIONS: Daemons of Chaos | Grand Cathay | Khorne | Kislev | Nurgle | Ogre Kingdoms | Slaanesh | Tzeentch
The first of the main “good” factions of Total War: Warhammer 3 is the Eastern European-inspired snow-blasted country of Kislev. These hardy folk stand guard against the threats from the Norsca and the Chaos Wastes, protecting the vibrant life of the Empire, Brettonia, and others within the Old World. Kislev has a number of tools to set them apart from the other factions that give them their unique icy flavor.
Here are the main facets of Kislev’s faction in Total War: Warhammer 3:
– Devotion
– Motherland
– Atamans
– Ice Court
– Army
And here’s everything you need to know about Kislev.
Devotion
Kislev’s main faction-specific resource is Devotion – a representation of the people’s zeal, religiosity, and loyalty to Kislev’s leadership. This resource has a number of key uses: protection against Chaos incursions, technology, buildings, and Motherland invocations.
When Devotion is low, usually around 150 or less, Kislev will have a chance to suffer a Chaotic incursion. This is essentially a Chaotic rebellion where a Chaos-aligned army spawns near a Kislev-controlled settlement. If not promptly defeated, it may grow and cause all sorts of issues.
Devotion is also needed to research specific technologies, which are usually improvements to specific Motherland invocations (more on them later), and to construct important buildings, such as city landmarks, like the Bokha Palace in the city of Kislev, and religious buildings.
To get more devotion players will need to build structures that generate devotion passive, complete quests, benefit from random events, and, most importantly, fight battles against Chaos-aligned factions. This will net you huge amounts of devotion, especially if you are able to capture many battle captives and sacrifice them to Kislev’s pantheon in the post-battle screen.
Motherland
When opening the Motherland screen, at the top of the pop-up menu, players will notice that they can do one of four invocations, each lasting up to 10 turns. These invocations cost devotion to activate and give a variety of strategic benefits based on the target gods theme.
Players can invoke Salyak, Tor, Dazh, or Ursun. Invoking Salyak will increase population growth, army replenishment, and your faction will gain a supporter every time a character levels up.
Invoking Tor will increase army melee attack, unlock a tactical ability that increases unit damage, and your faction will gain two supporters for every battle fought. Dazh’s invocation gives more income from trade and all buildings, while also adding a supporter for every building constructed.
Finally, Ursun’s invocation incurs attrition on enemy armies in friendly territory and gives a tactical ability to use in combat. You will also gain additional supporters for occupying settlements.
The political portion of the Motherland system concerns the struggle between Tzarina Katarin’s Ice Court and Kostaltyn’s Great Orthodoxy over the leadership of Kislev. This section tracks the progress of either faction’s gain in supporters, with the first faction to reach 600 supporters dominating Kislev’s politics with the ability to confederate the smaller faction. Here, players can use Devotion or money to reduce the total amount supporters the opposing Kislev faction has.
If you’ve unlocked Tzar Boris, he doesn’t participate in the same struggle as Katarin and Kostaltyn’s faction but instead has the option of sending support to one or the other for some strategic benefits. Boris’ faction is too focused on saving the God-Bear to meddle in politics.
Atamans
To help govern and strengthen Kislev’s positions, players will have the option of assigning governors or Atamans to their provinces to give additional benefits. Each Ataman will provide their own bonuses to the province, while also acting as a lord in battle if the province capital is attacked.
Over the course of the game, Atamans will develop as governors and will request direction from the player on how they should best serve Kislev. An Ataman can be recruited as an army commander if necessary, but then they will be taken away from their gubernatorial post and the player will be prompted to assign a new Ataman.
Ice Court
Unlike many other factions that can recruit magic-wielding heroes and lords as soon as they become available, Kislev gets a chance to train their Frost Maidens and Ice Witches in the Ice Court before sending them off on missions. Aspiring lords of Kislev will first need to research and unlock training slots for Ice Court before training their first recruits.
Once a slot is unlocked, it will cost 1200 gold to begin Ice Court training, taking around eight turns, six for Katarin’s faction, to complete. Every turn or every other turn players will be prompted to select the character’s lore of magic and various other characteristics that can specialize the Maiden or Witch into a desired strategic or battlefield role. Once training is complete, the Hero or Lord will be available in their respective recruitment menus, ready for deployment.
Army
Kislev’s army is characterized by sturdiness and flexibility. The most defining aspects of Kislev’s army roster is the prominence of hybrid infantry units, equipped with a close-quarters and ranged weapon, and fast-moving hard-hitting shock cavalry, including the speedy Winged Lancers and the lumbering War Bear Riders.
As such, Kislev’s forces can respond to a variety of threats on the fly, due to their inherent flexibility. In addition, Kislevite units have a special ability that makes them unbreakable for a short period of time on the battlefield, giving weakened units a kind of second wind before fleeing and regrouping.
It may be wise to create armies that utilize Kislev’s solid ranged weaponry, as nearly every infantry unit has a bow, pistol, or musket that can harm enemies from afar. A small contingent of cavalry, war bears, or even monstrous elemental bears can cover the flanks, pursue routing enemies, or provide an additional backbone to the main corps of Kislevite infantry.
Kislev is definitely an intriguing and multi-faceted faction to play with plenty of potential for exciting last stands and careful politicking. Since Kislev stands as the bulwark between the invading forces of Chaos and the rest of the non-Chaos human world, you will need to be ready for a fight, as invaders may come from any direction and lay siege to the Motherland.
Total War: Warhammer 3 is available on PC.
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