Here on Unmapped Worlds, I either like games without maps, or games almost exclusively focused on maps. Total War: Warhammer III is the game in the latter category - it’s my comfort game. I regularly revisit it when new DLCs come out, and the game always has something new to experience.

Like the zombietide: a really dumb way to have a great time. While I’m not a big fan of building near-unbeatable armies or hyperoptimizing the game, building an unending hoard of zombies feels just right. You’ll be commanding hordes of zombies, fielding dozens of cheap armies which can grind away endgame opponents. It’s immensely satisfying to overwhelm even the most powerful enemies with the countless undead. Zombies aren’t the strongest opponents, but how do you defeat an enemy that comes back to life time and time again?

South Park: How do you kill that which has no life?

Zombietide is made possible through two mechanics: increasing unit stats and healing during the battle.

Zombies are generally a weak, expendable unit generally useful only as cannon fodder. Low (35) leadership means they’ll crumble once they take damage, laughable attack (5, yes, 5 out of a 100), defense (6), weapon strength (18), and complete lack of armor mean they won’t come out on top even against the lowest tier opponents. The only two things zombies have going for them are low upkeep and recruitment cost and a relatively high health pool.

Vampire Counts rely on regeneration and healing in battle, as healing reanimates dead entities. By default, you can only heal 75% of a unit’s health per battle (referred to as battle healing cap). That ain’t much, but it can be improved nearly tenfold through technology unlocks and lord skills!

A hoard of zombies fighting black orcs in Total War: Warhammer III. The zombietide grinds down another unit of black orcs. Waagh army couldn’t save the greenskins.

We start the game as Helman Ghorst, legendary lord of the Caravan of Blue Roses. Helman is a Master Necromancer (and quite frankly the most minor character from Warhammer lore to become a lord) who rides a corpse cart pulled by his reanimated brothers. I think this paints an accurate picture?

From the get go, Helman Ghorst grants all zombies in his faction poison attacks (which reduce enemy stats), and grants +30 armour to zombies in his army (it’s a minor benefit in the grand scheme of things, but it does help us get his campaign off the ground). But it’ll get better once he levels up.

At level 13, Helman Ghorst unlocks access to the following legendary lord skills which provide factionwide buffs (with Path to Ruin being a prerequisite you must pick up at level 12):

  • Unholy Fury: melee attack +12 for zombie units
  • Unnatural Toughness: ward save: 10% for zombie units
  • Uncanny Resilience: battle healing cap a whopping +500% for zombie units
  • Ever Onward: +0.40% heal per second when in melee and +50% weapon strength for zombie units

Helman Ghorst shares other army-specific skills with Master Necromancer lords (who will be leading our countless armies):

  • Invocation of Nehek: our primary healing spell, get the overcast version right away - that’s our primary way to heal large chunks of damage on our zombies
  • The Unliving Host: 3 levels of this skill result in +8 to melee attack and +8 to melee defence for zombies
  • The Curse of Undeath: +0.05% heal per second for 7 seconds whenever the lord casts a spell - this adds up
  • Master of the Dead: up to +0.05% heal per second for nearby entities for each death within range - and there will be plenty, both when the enemies are smothered under the never-ending tide, and when your own zombies drop dead only to stand back up from all the healing they receive
  • Immortal Horror: +50% battle healing cap
  • Lord of the Scourge: 2 levels of this skill increase battle healing cap by +30%
  • Legions of Dead: once you have enough rank 7 units, 3 levels of this skill provide +5 melee attack, +12% weapon strength, and +15% spell resistance for rank 7 and above zombies

These skills can be trained on every Master Necromancer - making every zombie army a formidable force.

Finally, we have The Book of Arkhan part of the tech tree, which further provides factionwide zombie buffs:

  • The Book of Arkhan reduces zombie upkeep by 35% and improves leadership by +5
  • Raise Newly Dead increases speed by 25%
  • Risen Standard Bearers increase melee defense by +5
  • Bonds of Flesh increase zombie battle healing cap by +100%
  • Rotten Gift adds 20% physical resistance
  • Risen Champions adds +4 melee attack

While Master of Putrid Horde adds vanguard deployment, it isn’t helpful since you unfortunately can’t deploy your Necromancers with the zombies, and Necromancers riding corpse carts are extremely vulnerable when not surrounded by their entourage.

Once we add everything up, here’s what a rank 7 zombie stats look like (with lower rank zombies not being far behind):

Total War: Warhammer III Zombie stat card.

32 speed lets you outrun dwarfs and just about keep up with on-foot targets. Melee attack of 37 (remember that we started with 5?) and weapon strength of 29 is on par with tier III infantry, and melee defense of 22 is enough to prolong unit lifespan just a little bit more. This will get even higher (+5 melee attack and defense) once within the proximity of a corpse cart, another part of this strategy. And don’t forget about the poison, which reduces enemy stats once zombies are in melee.

Most importantly, zombies boast a fully upgraded 825% battle healing cap: as long as the unit doesn’t get killed (which is very hard to do with these zombies, they effectively have eight times their listed health - putting even the Nurgle roster to shame.

Oh, and this unit of zombies costs a meager 24 gold in upkeep, with your army count being governed by how many lords and heroes you can afford.

Each army should have a Master Necromancer lord and a Necromancer hero (both on corpse carts once available), a dedicated corpse cart (at least until the lord and hero can each afford one), and as many zombies as you can fit. In battle, cluster your zombies within your lord’s or hero’s leadership auras (zombie leadership still isn’t particularly great), and enjoy watching the undying zombietide destroy anything in their way with minimal casualties - I once watched a zombietide whittle down fully decked out Grimgor Ironhide.

Even though your zombies must be clustered in a giant blob around a lord or a hero for this strategy to work, you still can still employ battle tactics like flanking. More Necromancers in the army increase tactical flexibility, as you can split off a blob of zombies.

Your kryptonite is fire, since fire damage stops regeneration - and you’ll want to prioritize taking out fire wielding enemies using heroes and spells as soon as possible. Powerful area of effect spells and artillery can also be made devastating if you cluster your army in a single giant blob.

A hoard of zombies surrounding Plague Father Kugath in Total War: Warhammer III. The zombietide surrounding the plague father after drowning his army in a sea of bodies.

On a campaign map, prioritize building Lychyards (a tier II growth building), which increase Necromancer hero capacity (as well as recruit rank), making hero capacity a non-issue for this campaign. Since the armies are cheap to produce, you’ll want to move your armies in pairs (or even triples for tough opponents) to speed up the battles and make flanking easier.

While I played through this campaign on Very Hard difficulty, you might want to drop down combat difficulty to improve your chances in autoresolve. Zombietide is nearly unbeatable, but autoresolve doesn’t quite know it yet: lower combat difficulty will reduce the number of battles you’ll have to fight manually - which you’ll be thankful for since you’ll be able to field countless armies of shambling undead.

Finally, I recommend playing with Victory Conditions Overhaul mod, as it’ll set engaging, lore-friendly objectives with worthwhile rewards (including even more ridiculous buffs for your zombies).