Total War: Warhammer II – Eltharion the Grim campaign guide

Total War: Warhammer II – Eltharion the Grim’s campaign basics

Vortex campaign victory conditions

• At the start of your turn, have 100 or max Yvresse Defense Level.
• Win the Final Siege of Tor Yvresse.

Campaign start locations

The campaign maps and Eltharion’s skills infographic (discussed shortly) come from Total War: Warhammer II‘s official website. In the Eye of the Vortex campaign, Eltharion starts in the Northern Yvresse province of Ulthuan.

If you’re playing a Mortal Empires campaign, Eltharion’s main army starts in the Southern Badlands province controlling the Gronti Mingol settlement. He’s also surrounded by Orc factions such as the Top Knotz, Teef Snatchaz, and The Bloody Handz.

He does, however, have another settlement, Tor Yvresse, on Ulthuan (which is also where his Loremaster of Hoeth hero, Cavill, is located). Unfortunately, multiple settlements in the province of Yvresse are controlled by the Skull Crag Greenskin tribe.

Eltharion the Grim’s unique abilities

The Warden of Tor Yvresse has the following perks in Total War: Warhammer II‘s campaign:

Eltharion’s not a powerhouse when you start the game and, unlike Grom the Paunch, he needs to be built up properly to withstand a lot of damage. What does make him useful early on is his Apotheosis spell which heals quite a bit of HP. Later, you can obtain more spells such as Soul Quench, Tempest, Arcane Unforging, and Fiery Convocation.

Eltharion also has his unique yellow line of skills starting with Storm of Blades. The remaining perks help with movement range, recruitment costs, and the capabilities of missile units. Later, you can get the Dedicated to Ladrielle perk. The Elven goddess is also known as the “Lady of the Mists,” and Eltharion’s patron deity who buffs the prowess of Mistwalker-type units.

Early-game units and the Mistwalkers

Here are Eltharion the Grim’s starting units:: 1x Spearmen, 1x Silverin Guard, 1x Athel Tamarha Faithbreakers, 2x Archers, 1x Arcane Phoenix, 1x War Lions of Chrace.

The Silverin Guard and Spearmen counter large units and cavalry, while your Athel Tamarha Faithbreakers wreak havoc once they’re frenzied. Both the War Lions of Chrace and Arcane Phoenix are great for harassing ranged infantry or taking out lords and heroes that are locked down by your Warden’s Cage ability. Likewise, the Arcane Phoenix can fly over a battlefield and use its fire cyclone attack to devastate a bunch of hostiles. In a few turns, make sure you’re recruiting Lothern Sea Guard to make battles a breeze — “sea breeze,” get it? Oh, nevermind.

Eltharion also has a Loremaster of Hoeth hero named Cavill (seen below). It’s actually a reference to Hollywood actor Henry Cavill who plays Geralt in Netflix’s Witcher series. Cavill is an avid fan of both The Witcher and Total War franchises. Don’t forget that Loremasters of Hoeth have access to spells from various Winds of Magic, including those for healing, debuffs, and damage.

As for your Mistwalker units:

• Athel Tamarha Faithbreakers have comparable stats to Phoenix Guard and Swordmasters of Hoeth, barring significantly lower armor. They do have the “Frenzy” trait, but they also lack any anti-large or anti-infantry bonuses.
• Spire Guard of Tor Yvresse are hybrid infantry (able to use bows and switch to spears). They have anti-large capabilities and a ridiculously high ammo count compared to other ranged units for the High Elves.
• Sentinels of Astaril are also hybrid infantry units. They have anti-armor capabilities and have the highest range stat among all units in your roster. Sadly, they also fire very slowly.
• The Skyhawks are another type of hybrid infantry units. They have anti-infantry capabilities and the “Stalk” attribute, though they’re weak versus armored foes.
• Last but certainly not least, the Knights of Tor Caval are your monster flying cavalry units who can deal a high amount of damage and zip across the battlefield. Upon closer inspection, it looks like only their griffons are attacking troops, and they somehow don’t use their lances.

Note: You have a limited number of these units that can be recruited. However, you can increase the unit pool’s capacity by upgrading your Mistwalker building chain and Athel Tamarha’s facilities.

Warden’s Supplies, Athel Tamara upgrades, and the Mists of Yvresse

Finish some easy tasks early on in Eltharion the Grim’s campaign as these provide him with warden’s supplies. Warden’s supplies are used to buy upgrades for Athel Tamarha’s facilities. Here are some early-game missions that provide warden’s supplies:

• Research a tech: +500 gold; +1 influence; +2 warden’s supplies
• Occupy an Arachnos settlement (Tralinia): +1,000 gold; +2 warden’s supplies
• Construct a Sawyer building: +500 gold; +1 influence; +2 warden’s supplies
• Destroy the Arachnos faction: +2,000 gold; +3 influence; +2 warden’s supplies

As for Athel Tamarha, in Warhammer Fantasy Battles lore, that’s Eltharion’s base of operations. In Total War: Warhammer II, it’s simply represented as a panel. There are two branches — the Silent Sentinels branch which has buffs for your Mistwalker-type units (ie. the aforementioned Faithbreakers) and the Watchers of Yvresse branch which has more campaign-oriented results.

Each Athel Tamarha upgrade costs 5 warden’s supplies and, in turn, you’ll get points to “Ladrielle’s Blessings” (a bar at the top of your screen showing Athel Tamarha’s defense level). Basically, the higher the level, the better, since you get additional spells:

There’s also an additional effect once you reach Athel Tamarha defense level 1, and that’s the Mists of Yvresse. This becomes active once you start Eltharion’s unique rite, the Invocation of Ladrielle.

The good news is that, if you’ve been upgrading Athel Tamarha and you’re inside a region covered by the Mists of Yvresse, you’ll gain boosts movement, ambush chance, winds of magic reserves, and recruitment time. The bad news is that these regions are limited to the northern and southern parts of Yvresse. Even after Athel Tamarha is fully upgraded, at best, the Mists of Yvresse will only cover the outer ring of Ulthuan.

Unfortunately, I had very little use for this during my Total War: Warhammer II playthrough. Ulthuan was hardly getting invaded, so the mechanic was just there to help reduce turn times for high-end units.

The same can be said for Athel Tamarha’s prisoner mechanic. Eltharion the Grim has a spell called Warden’s Cage to capture characters. It’s also possible for some characters to be considered “insignificant” (such as leaders of rebel factions), that they’d get automatically executed instead.

Imprisoned characters can be interrogated in the Athel Tamarha panel. You’ll gain a few bonuses, including warden’s supplies and “Mirror” spells for your Mistwalker units (which can be very cool). Sadly, the entire mechanic also feels a bit tacked on and not fully fleshed out, at least in comparison to Grom the Paunch’s recipes.

Note: For a more in-depth explanation of this mechanic, including branch upgrades, the Warden’s Cage imprisonment, mirrored abilities from interrogation, and warden’s supply sources, head over to our Athel Tamarha guide.

Mistwalker titles

When your other lords or heroes reach level 15, you’ll be given a dilemma called “Rise of the Mistwalkers.” You can choose from three titles to hand out, each with its specific buffs Additionally, you gain +1 warden’s supplies for each character that’s granted a title. Of course, you could choose to “Do nothing” which gives, well, nothing.

Of the three, “The Shadow” is easily one of the most useful titles to grant, especially if you’ve got several Archmage lords or Mage/Loremaster of Hoeth heroes. Because these bonuses stack, it’s possible to have a ridiculously high Winds of Magic pool when fighting battles, or when you’re trying to surprise enemies with an ambush.

Because it’s important to reach level 15 as soon as possible, having a Loremaster of Hoeth hero (like Cavill) embedded in your armies is always a good idea since they have the “Training” passive effect. Also, on a personal note, I do think it’s funny to see Alarielle being called “Alarielle the Radiant the Shadow.”

Next, let’s take a look at how Eltharion the Grim’s Total War: Warhammer II campaign progresses. Head over to part two of our guide.