Choose Katarin and The Ice Court
Katarin is a Kislev Legendary Lord and an Ice spellcaster. Choose her if you want to practise holding a formation while bows and guns work, then use magic and reserves to control the close fight.
Start in Immortal Empires and inspect your home province before choosing an expansion route. Keep a route back to your settlements and compare the next objective with nearby enemy movement. Kislev’s campaign systems demand attention alongside the army.
Court & Orthodoxy, Devotion and Atamans
Patch 6.1 replaced the supporter race with Court & Orthodoxy. Build support with both institutions and spend their Boon tokens on upgrades; favouring one side too heavily causes instability.
Devotion operates at province level in place of Control. Army and settlement invocations use local Devotion. Atamans are defensive governors with skill progression, while Ice Court training develops your spellcasters.
Learn hybrids before adding more tasks
Kossars carry bows and melee weapons. Let them shoot while the enemy approaches, then decide which regiments must hold the front and which can keep firing. Ordering the entire group into melee at once gives up the ranged part of that formation.
Streltsi add firearm pressure, but they need a clear view of the target. Leave firing lanes and inspect slopes before deployment. A line that looks neat from above can block its own guns once the fighting starts.
Treat bear cavalry as a later lesson in timing and movement. Once your infantry and missiles work together, practise sending a mobile unit around the side while keeping a reserve near the vulnerable part of your line.
Give magic and heroes a clear purpose
Use Katarin’s Ice magic to support a fight you are already managing. Read the spell description, choose a useful target, and watch the result before adding another cast. Keeping the formation intact makes it easier to judge whether the spell helped.
A Patriarch adds battlefield support. A Frost Maiden adds another spellcaster, with Ice and Tempest variants. Choose the role the army needs and include its training and recruitment in your spending plan. Ulrika is a Legendary Hero recruited through her mission route, rather than an alternative campaign leader.
Recover before opening another front
After securing a settlement, look at army losses, construction and the next enemy approach together. Move forward when you can support the new border. If your main force needs recovery, use the pause in expansion to review diplomacy and provincial management.
Keep your first regional goal small enough that Katarin can return to help. A distant conquest can create another exposed province without solving the threat near home. Before ending a turn, check whether the next movement leaves your missile troops or settlements needing support.
Boris is another Kislev campaign choice: patch 6.1 removed the old Realm of Chaos battle requirement for selecting him in IE. You can learn Katarin without completing a separate Boris unlock campaign.