| “ | The ultimate irregular warriors, Huntsmen appear suddenly, throwing the enemy into disarray before melting away again just as swiftly. | „ |
Huntsmen are an 
Empire missile infantry unit introduced in Total War: Warhammer II with The Hunter and the Beast.
Recruitment[]
The Empire
- Unlocked with: Barracks
- The Huntsmarshal's Expedition
- Unlocked with: Barracks (requires unlocking the building with the Emperor's Mandate mechanic)
- gained from the Imperial Regiments option with the Imperial Supplies mechanic and recruiting them in the Imperial Supplies tab
Description[]
In the untamed wilds of the Empire there lurk countless mutants who are ever hungry for human flesh. Huntsmen are masters of the wilderness and skilled trackers who patrol the forests surrounding their homes to cull these foul monsters. Armed with little more than a bow and their wits, these grim warriors are adept at luring their quarry into lethal ambushes.[1a]
When an Elector Count, especially those from the wilder, less 'civilised' provinces, such as Ostland, Stirland and the Ostermark, muster regiments of militia, they are keen to gather as many Huntsmen to their banners as they can. These seasoned hunters are organised into groups of skirmishers who can scout ahead of the main body of the army to gather intelligence, disrupt enemy movements and pick off war machine crews with deadly accurate bow fire.[1]
Attributes[]
- Missile Infantry
- ▲ Anti-Large: Anti-Large: Anti-large units have an advantage against targets that are at least as large as a horse. This advantage can be a damage bonus against large targets or an attack that focuses on a very small area. However, some units are simply better against large targets because their attacks are slow and easy to dodge by skilled melee combatants.
- ▲ Vanguard Deployment: This unit can deploy in an expanded deployment area, allowing it to start the battle within striking distance of the enemy - or somewhere unexpected.
- ▲ Stalk: This unit can move hidden in any terrain.
- ▲ Fire Whilst Moving: This unit can fire while on the move.
Strategy[]
Huntsmen are valuable units who pack a significant punch against large threats. They lack armour-piercing, but the damage boost against large units makes up for it. Their ability to be hidden until close to the enemy or firing allows them to avoid artillery and missile pressure before they are ready to return fire.
They will absolutely MINCE low-armour cavalry units, like wolf/spider-riders, pistoliers, dark riders and ellyrian-reavers.
Adding 2-4 Huntsmen against armies that typically field a lot of large units i.e. Nurgle, Ogre Kingdoms, Bretonnia, Lizardmen and Beastmen gives you excellent damage potential to shut down dangerous units. This coupled with the Huntsmens Stalk and Fire Whilst Moving ability gives the Empire access to strong flank protection. In addition, they are a non-gunpowder unit which means that placements and line of sight issues are much less of a problem.
Do note that if Huntsmen gets run down, especially by armored units they are basically dead in the water with terrible melee stats and low leadership. Positioning friendly cavalry to cover for them and/or having access to snare abilities trough magic or bound spells makes Huntsmen much more versatile and deadly.
The Huntsmarshal's Expedition
The Huntsmarshal's Expedition has some of the strongest bonuses to ranged troops in the entire game, in particular also for Huntsmen.
Markus Wulfhart and his unique heroes Kalara and Jorek all buff missile units by using auras in combat.
In addition to this, Markus Wulfhart's starting trait reduces Huntsmen upkeep by -50%.
Through this the simple Huntsman, with it's damage bonus against large units can with all related techs and all related character skills go from (16/24) damage per 10 seconds (regular/large) to ~(100/150) damage per 10 seconds.
For this Markus Wulfharts skill Sleight of Hand is crucial as it gives Huntsmen double projectiles, giving them a immediate double damage output.
Since most buffs Markus and his heroes gives also applies to missile units overall, Huntsmen with their low armor pen works amazingly well with missile units that has high armor-piercing i.e. all Empire artillery units and War Wagons.
Keeping your largely missile based army safe by good positioning and protected by a line of Halberdiers/Spearmen is crucial since your only real weakness will be armored cavalry or monsters.
Also, with the extreme damage output you will achieve against low-armored units do be careful and try to micro your Huntsmen's targets as you will quickly break units and route them. Wasting shots on fleeing enemies will mean higher risks of other enemies managing to reach your frontlines which are not nearly as strong as most other factions.
Don't forget to use the incredibly powerful abilities of Markus and his heroes:
Markus can 3x per fight use a AoE Snare that lasts 22 seconds.
Kalara can 3x per fight use a single target snare that increases damage taken that lasts 16 seconds.
Jorek can use Ballistic Coordination to give all ranged units a massive accuracy and reload time buff.
References[]
