Today I will show you the best-ranged faction in Total War Warhammer 2. This list is updated to the most recent DLC in Total War Warhammer and includes all the factions up to The Silence and The Fury.
Everyone knows how powerful ranged/missile factions are in Total War Warhammer the higher the difficulty, the more important it is for you to boast a ranged advantage, due in large part to the melee and leadership bonuses that the AI gets at a higher difficulty setting. So if you’d like to stay competitive at very hard or even legendary difficulty, it would be ideal to pick one of the factions below.
Want to see what the best missile faction is in Total War Warhammer 2? Keep reading.
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Best Ranged Faction for Vortex Campaign
Without a doubt, the single best-ranged faction in Total War Warhammer 2 is Clan Skryre, from the Skaven. Clan Skryre is one of the most broken factions of the game because they take powerful artillery and or missile units like the Ratling Gun, and then say, “why not give them infinite ammo?”.
The thing about this faction that makes them so absurdly broken is the faction-specific mechanic, the Forbidden Workshop. With this workshop, you can research so many bonuses for your little rat pals that it’ll make your head spin. Missile strength increases, ammo capacity increases, automatic ammo replenishment, and even regeneration. All of these upgrades, when combined, make your army incredibly hard to beat and impossible to outlast, as you will never run out of ammo.
A favorite tactic of mine is to have entire armies of ratling guns that mow down every enemy army in seconds. Even dragons or other strong end-game units won’t be able to handle hundreds of rat-men shooting at them all at once.
But besides that, clan Skryre also has one other significant advantage, their nukes. You can manufacture nukes at the forbidden workshop, allowing you to drop one per battle on a group of enemies (or even yourself if you’re feeling extra spicy). These nukes are incredibly powerful and can wipe several units out at once, regardless of the unit’s strength, making the creation and usage of these nukes one of the key ranged advantages Skryre has.
In other words, you won’t find a better-ranged faction in Total War Warhammer 2 than clan Skryre. If someone can find a faction that can beat literal nukes, please share.
This is a DLC faction, however, so be prepared to pay-to-win.
Second Best Missile Faction
So, before the multitudes of DLC came out, the Vampire Coast had by far the best-ranged units in the game. In fact, even though they aren’t number one right now, they are, at the very least, a top-three ranged faction in Warhammer 2. With almost half their roster being some form of the ranged attacker, the Vampire Coast is incredibly deadly if given the opportunity to use their ranged advantage.
Why is the Vampire Coast so strong, you might ask? Well, first off, they are undead. This means that the Vampire Coast units will never rout when their leadership dips below the threshold, instead, they disintegrate, causing damage to themselves over time. Ideally, you don’t want your units to slowly take damage over time, but it is far superior to breaking ranks and losing the battle.
Also, the Vampire Coast field some of the strongest artillery in the game, with Queen Bess being one of, if not THE strongest cannon in the game. A Queen Bess can decimate an entire army on the level with Lord Kroak. One Redditor even posted his personal record with Queen Bess, an astonishing 3700 kills! If that doesn’t make you want to join the VC, I don’t know what will.
Not only are their missile units extremely powerful (Necrofex hnngggg), but their hero units can also wield ranged weapons, and even greater still, the Gunnery Wights can refill the ammo of your most important units (did I hear infinite Queen Bess???).
Most units in the Vampire Coast DLC are ranged, and even some of their monster units (looking at that sexy-ass Necrofex) are ranged. Luther Harkon, one of the best Lords in the game, is also a good ranged fighter as well who gets his own Necrofex mount!
When I played Vampire Coast I rarely had more than a couple of melee units with me and they were just meatshields for my Mob Gunners. Sometimes, I even ran an army without any melee. It is honestly insane to watch an entire stack of infantry melt to a line of gunmen.
So if you want a ranged faction that has numerous amounts of archer/missile units to choose from, play the Vampire Coast.
And for those of you wondering why I didn’t put the High Elves here, the answer is pretty simple, the strongest ranged unit for the HE is the Sisters of Averlorn, which is more of a doom stack than anything. Whereas the Vampire Coast is more wholly devoted to artillery/missile units.
This is another paid DLC.
Best Missile/Ranged Faction for ME Campaign
This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. The Dawi are, without a doubt, the best-ranged faction in the entire Total War Warhammer series. Closely followed by the Empire.
Dwarves were made to be a defensive race of stout infantry holding the line while their artillery line decimates the enemies. Even against enemy artillery, the Dwarves have an answer.
For infantry units the grudge thrower is king and when dealing with large units or enemy artillery the bolt thrower has your back. As for archers/missile units, the Dawi field great Armoured Piercing units that can tear up-armored opponents.
If you want the de-facto king of ranged units in Total War Warhammer, play as the Dwarves.
Also, the dwarves are completely free, unlike the other two factions on the list. No DLC required!
Honorable Mentions
- Wood Elves – Great skirmishers and lots of archers to choose from.
- Empire – Almost as good as the Dawi with their tanks.
- High Elves – Their Sisters of Averlorn doomstack is one of the strongest ranged doomstacks you can create
And those are the best two ranged factions in Total War Warhammer 2. If you agree or disagree let us know in the comments.
