Glossary

This is a glossary of terms used in the Total War: Warhammer games and by players for various concepts.

Official gameplay terms[]

Duellist - A character who is better at fighting a single unit, especially Lords and Heroes.
FLC - Free downloadable content (DLC)
Global - All over the campaign map.
Hero capacity - How many Heroes you may have. You cannot train any more Heroes after the limit, so if you reach the limit, you either increase the limit, or you let one of your Heroes to be killed.
Land battle - All battles take place on land in the battle map, there are no ship battles.
Local - Specific to one province.
Recruitment capacity - Being able to train more than three units for a Lord, without the extra turn penalty.
Recruitment rank - Allows your Lords and Heroes to start with a higher level and one or more skill points.
Region (lore) - Various areas on the campaign map which are talked about in flavour text and cutscenes, but do not serve a gameplay purpose (eg: Ulthuan).
Reserves - Additional Winds of Magic the player has at the start of a battle, allowing their army to use more spells.
RoR - Regiments of Renown
Siege battle - A battle that takes place in a fortress or walled city. In Total War: Warhammer III, siege battles have been expanded with multiple control and resource points for the defenders to gain supplies and build defences.
Splash damage - An attack that can hit multiple units or an an area, as opposed to striking one other unit.
Survival battle - A sort of battle where the attacker receives supplies for holding several capture points, which they can use to protect their own forces as they storm the defenders. It is like an inversion of a siege battle, where the attacker uses supplies to build structures instead of the defender.
- One example of survival battles is in the Realm of Chaos, where the player fights four daemonic champions to defeat them and claim their souls.
Unit capacity - How many units of a type you can recruit. If you reach that limit, you cannot recruit any more units of that type until any have been disbanded or killed.
- In order to raise unit capacity, the player must build certain buildings, and research some technologies.
- In all factions, most units limited by unit capacity tend to be Heroes and Lords. Beastmen, Tomb Kings and Chaos Dwarfs have unit capacity on units, forcing them to rely on technologies to recruit more units.
Winds - How many Winds of Magic points a player currently has, to cast spells in a battle.

Fans' gameplay terms[]

Blob - A large cluster of characters in a single unit, or a cluster of multiple units, that may impede movement.
Butt Ladders - The ability of sieging infantry units to automatically scale walls, seemingly by producing a ladder from an intimate part of their body.
Cav - Cavalry.
Chaff - A cheap, poor quality unit whose main function is to tire the enemy out, waste their time or shield more expensive units.
Crow, Crows - Flock of Doom.
Cycle charge - Ordering a cavalry unit to go back and then charge at enemies again.
Day 1 - The release day of any of the three Total Warhammer games.
Doomstack - An army with very powerful units, often with many of the same unit.
Evil (as in "evil races") - Races hostile to the Shield of Civilization races, like Daemons of Chaos, Skaven, and Dark Elves.
Farming - Fighting enemy armies to raise more money and faction's unique resources for your faction, more experience for your Lords and their armies or farming a specific legendary lord's defeat trait.
Game 1 - Total War: Warhammer.
Game 2 - Total War: Warhammer II.
Game 3 - Total War: Warhammer III.
Good (as in "good races, good enemy settlement") - Order-aligned civilisations and races, like the Empire, Bretonnia, or High Elves.
Hammer and Anvil - Using a resilient frontline to hold an enemy in place (the anvil) while a faster unit, usually cavalry, flanks the enemy to hit them in the rear (the hammer). A very common and effective tactic.
Kite - Using a unit to draw other units away, without letting them catch or fight that unit.
LL - Legendary lords.
LoS - Line of Sight. Ranged units with weapons that fire in a straight line, rather than arc as arrows do, need to be able to draw a clear line between themselves and an enemy in order to fire upon them.
Minor - A minor faction, a faction that is unplayable.
Min-max - Minimum-Maximum, a way to create an efficient strategy.
IE - Immortal Empires.
In the red - A negative amount of money; out of money or income being reduced (instead of increasing) by more costs.
RoC - The Realm of Chaos.
SEM - Single entity monster - A monster unit which consists of only a single model. Eg: Giant.
Stack - A full, 20 unit army.
Steamroll - To easily defeat an enemy army or faction.
Tarpit - A tactic of holding an enemy in melee with a large or resilient unit so they are vulnerable to flanking and spells, or a unit that performs this function well.
Total Warhammer - Total War: Warhammer (as a franchise or any of the three games).
Turtle/Cornercamp - A very defensive tactic of setting your army up in the corner of a battle map or in a highly defensible area, and then refusing to move from it. Usually adopted by range-heavy armies and frowned upon in multiplayer.
Winds - Amount of Winds of Magic a player can use in a battle.
Macro - The "big picture" aspect of the game, typically refers to either the management aspects outside of combat (economy, politics / relations, etc.) or how one is utilizing their whole army / large groups of units in a battle.
Micro - The act of giving specific a unit extra attention in regards to it's management in a battle, typically a unit that has special abilities or requires a large amount of movement or flanking to be effective, such as cavalry, most lords, or a unit with a grenade throwing ability.

Fans' lore terms[]

Chorfs ("tchorfs", not "korfs") - Chaos Dwarfs.
Delves - Dark Elves.
Donut - Ulthuan, due to the shape of the island or continent.
Helves - High Elves.
Kroxies - Kroxigor.
Monogod - Factions aligned with any one of the Chaos Gods.
Neverchosen - Archaon the Everchosen, Neverchosen being a derogetory nickname due to his character's weak stats in the campaign.
Ordertide - Shield of Civilization, which allows enemies of Chaos Invasions to defeat Chaos armies more easily.
TEB - Tilea, Estalia, and Border Princes, minor nations who use similar units to those of The Empire.
Thunderbowl or Lustriabowl - Lustria, due to the many factions starting on the continent leading to so much war.
- In TWW3, the Southlands replaced Lustria as the new "Thunderbowl" due to the many factions spawning there.
Vampirates - Vampire Coast
VC - Vampire Counts, Vampire Coast
White Lions of Trash - White Lions of Chrace, named for their weak stats in earlier versions of TWW2
WoC - Warriors of Chaos

In-universe terms[]

These are words that appear in official Warhammer Fantasy-related works by Games Workshop.

Bony, Bonies - The undead (Greenskins).
Boyz - Warriors (Greenskins).
Chaos - The mutating, corrupting power of raw magic, also the various Chaos-aligned races; both a proper noun and an adjective.
Cohort - A group of Lizardmen warriors.
Dark Gods - The Chaos Gods.
Elf-thing - An Elf (Skaven).
Git - A loser (Greenskins)
Gobbo, Gob - A Goblin (Greenskins, Ogres).
Hashuti - Under Hashut.
Hold - A Dwarf fortress-city (Dwarfs).
Humie - A Man (Greenskins).
Krump - Greenskin term for "kill".
Khornate - Under Khorne.
Kislevite, Kislevian, Kislevarin - Related to Kislev.
Manling - A Man (Dwarfs).
Man-thing - A Man (Skaven)
Maelstrom - The Great Vortex.
Norse - Norscan.
Northman, Northmen - A Norscan.
Nurglite - Under Nurgle.
Old Ones - The god-like beings who created the Warhammer World, now worshipped by the Lizardmen.
Ratman, Ratmen - Skaven.
Rattie - A Skaven (Greenskins).
Ruin, Ruination - Chaos, especially as Daemons and its barbaric armies.
Ruinous - Chaos.
Ruinous Powers - Chaos, especially the Chaos Gods.
Saurian - A Lizardmen (The Empire); the Lizardmen's language.
Scalie - A Lizardmen (Greenskins).
Sigmarite - Under the god Sigmar.
Slaaneshi - Under Slaanesh.
Spiky Boy(z) - Warrior(s) of Chaos (Greenskins).
Stunty, Stunties - A Dwarf (Greenskins).
Throng - An army of Dwarfs.
Tzeentchian - Under Tzeentch
Urfather - Nurgle, as the oldest of the Chaos Gods..
Yes-yes - Yes (Skaven).

Words in various in-universe languages[]

Anad - Will have done (Khazalid).
Aqshy - Red, bright; the Lore of Fire (Dark Tongue).
Asrai ("AS-ray") - Wood Elves (Fan-Eltharin).
Asur - High Elves (Eltharin).
Ataman - A local leader (Kislevite).
Cadai - The heavenly gods of the Elves (Eltharin).
Chamon - Yellow, golden; Lore of Metal (Fan-Eltharin).
Dawi - Dwarfs (Khazalid).
Dawi-Zharr, Dhrath-Zharr - Chaos Dwarfs.
Druchii - Dark Elves (Druchii).
Dwari-Thagi - Dwarfs, as opposed to Chaos Dwarfs (Zharralid).
Elathrin, Eltharin - Eltharin language of the High Elves, based on a mixture of Greek and Sindarin.
Elgi - Elf, Elves (Khazalid).
Festag - Festival (Reikspiel).
Ghur - Brown, savage; Lore of Beasts.
Ghyran - Green, fertility; Lore of Life.
Grobi - A Goblin (Khazalid).
Heldenhammer - Hammer of the Goblins, Sigmar (Reikspiel).
Hexenstag - "Witchcraft night", the final night of the Imperial year when the Undead are more active. (Reikspiel).
Hysh - White, radiance; Lore of Light.
Khazalid - Khazalid language of the Dwarfs, based on Khuzdul from Lord of the Rings and some Germanic languages.
Khazukan Khazakit ha! - "Look out! The Dwarfs are in the warpath!" (Khazalid, a war cry).
Oblast - A region (Kislevarin).
Nuis-Ghurleth - A title for a Beastmen leader (Beastmen). The "s" is silent.
Pulk - A large army (Kislevite).
Reiksmarshal - Highest military rank in the Empire of Man, second to only the Emperor.
Reikspiel - Language of The Empire, based on German (Reikspiel).
Rota - A squad or band within a pulk army (Kislevarin).
Shyish - Purple, time; Lore of Death.
Stanitsa - A settlement.
Tduigu-Uis - A greeting (Beastmen).
Thaggoraki - A Skaven, "murderous rat-man" (Khazalid).
Tzar - King or emperor (Kislevarin).
Tzarina - Queen or empress (Kislevarin).
Ulgu - Grey, doubt; Lore of Shadow.
Umgi - A Man, poor quality (Khazalid).
Urk - An Orc (Khazalid).
Waaagh! - A war waged by Greenskins (Greenskin), typically refers to a larger scale loosely organized assault.
Wanrag - Where? (Khazalid).
Wazzock - One who has purchased something for more than its actual value. A catchall insult in both Khazalid and Zharralid.
Xa'Kota - "Unnatural Spawn of the Rat", Skaven (Saurian).
Yang - The bright, masculine, hot force (Cathayan).
Yin - The dark, feminine, cold force (Cathayan).
Zangunaz - A Vampire, a "blood drinker" (Khazalid).
Zharralid - Language of the Chaos Dwarfs, a bastardised version of Khazalid that they and their servants speak in exclusively. Based on a mixture of the Black Speech from The Lord of the Rings, some Germanic languages, and Akkadian.

Eltharin runes[]

See: High Elves names

These are runes from the Eltharin language of the High Elves, used by High Elves characters and the Fay Enchantress of Bretonnia when casting magic. Some are also used as names for High Elves lords and heroes.

Ceyl - Law, order.
Lacoi - Might, glory, fear of death.
Menlui - Water, life.
Oriour - Blood, birth.
Senlui - Swiftness.
Yenlui - Balance.

Names of the Old Ones[]

The Old Ones were the creators of the many races of the Warhammer world, nowadays worshipped as a pantheon by the Lizardmen of Lustria.

Sotek - God of war and serpents.
Chotec - God of the sun.
Huanchi - Jaguar god.
Inhamex - A wrathful, unspeakable deity.
Itzl - God of beasts.
Quetzl - Warrior and protector god.
Tepok - Feather serpent.
Tlanxla - Warrior god.
Tzcatli - God that grants strength to warriors' arms.
Tzunki - God of water.
Xapati - A god related to ranged weapons.
Xhotl - Chooses those destined for greatness.

Names in other languages[]

Kharneth - Khorne (Dark Tongue).
Tchar - Tzeentch (Norscan).
Tzeen'neth - Tzeentch (Dark Tongue).
Slaaneth - Slaanesh (Dark Tongue).