Hail Commanders!

The true test of your mettle in Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is to face off against a human opponent in multiplayer. Battling in either 1v1 or 2v2 matches, you will only find victory by mastering your faction’s strengths and exploiting your opponent's weaknesses.

In multiplayer matches, you and your opponents compete to take and hold the three Victory Points arranged across the battlefield. As soon as one side holds two of these key locations, their opponents’ score will begin to drain. Whichever side’s score reaches zero first loses.

When facing a human opponent there are a number of tactics you can attempt to increase your odds of victory.

Keep Moving

The battlefields in Realms of Ruin are large, with Victory Points and resource-generating Arcane Conduits dotted all over the landscape. It is impossible to take and hold all these important points without spreading your forces too thinly. Instead, it is good to keep your troops moving, patrolling locations for enemy incursions and taking what territory you can.

You will find territory in multiplayer games often changes hands as you and your opponent mount attacks and abandon defences. So long as you aren’t losing Bastions or ceding the Victory Points to your opponent, you aren’t in a bad spot just because your enemy took an Arcane Conduit from you. Try to make sure you’re taking ground from them just as frequently.

New to Realms of Ruin? Read our Beginners Guide to Realms of Ruin to learn more about the basics.

Starve Your Enemy

Realms of Ruin - Stormcast Eternals head to battle

While you must seize and control Victory Points to win each battle, starving your enemy of resources can make your fight much more manageable. Without a steady supply of Command and Realmstone, your foe will struggle to recruit units, acquire upgrades, or even use active abilities.

You will significantly reduce your enemy’s resources if you advance into their territory and take Arcane Conduits from them. With their resources throttled and supplies dwindling, your foe will struggle to replace any units destroyed in battle. They will also find it much harder to amass the forces needed to attack a well-defended Victory Point or retake a stolen Arcane Conduit.

You also don’t need to fully take the Arcane Conduits to impact your enemy. The size of the territory you hold determines the amount of resources that are generated. The region that shrinks when you stand near an enemy’s Arcane Conduit represents their control shrinking, and the ring that expands out from the point once you capture it is a sign of your control growing. You reduce their income simply by sending your units into enemy territory and shrinking their hold of a region.

When you have tied up the bulk of your enemy’s forces in combat, you can send a single fast-moving unit into their territory and reduce their income. You will force your enemy to withdraw troops to seek out your interloper and restore their control.

Learn From Your Defeats

While it is never easy to lose a battle, especially one against another person, you should analyse each loss to try and work out where you went wrong. As well as making notes of how you fared in each skirmish, what unit pairings seemed ineffective, and what tactics didn’t achieve what you hoped.

After each battle, you can see detailed breakdowns of actions you and the other players made. Some of those stats include a list of what units were recruited and when, how each type of unit performed, and graphs of how much Realmstone and Command you and your foe were generating.

By looking through those statistics, you can see how your enemy was spending their resources and what they were doing to counter your units. These insights can be invaluable in helping you win in the future.

Faction Multiplayer Tips

Deny Terrain with The Stormcast Eternals

Realms of Ruin - Stormdrake Guard burns orruks

Thanks to their Sigmarite armour and weaponry, the Stormcast Eternals are exceptional warriors. However, their units are costly, making any loss on the battlefield expensive to replace. You should aim to establish a strong defence of captured Victory Points and learn the right moment to retreat your army to avoid losses.

With strong starting units and a hero who can reinforce units on the battlefield, you are in an excellent position to seize Victory Points early. Liberators paired with Vanguard-Raptors will dominate encounters with other factions. This allows you to assert an early score lead over your enemy. However, do not forget to take Arcane Conduits. Without a source of Realmstone, you will not be able to use your warrior's most potent abilities or recruit your best units.

The Stormcast Eternals are excellent at area denial. A unit of Vanguard-Longstrike or a Celestar Ballista stood behind a line of Liberators will be able to tear apart your enemy long before they can take a Victory Point from you. Beware your enemy flanking your battle groups; even the most vigorous Stormcast Eternals defence will crumble when attacked from the sides and rear.

Learn more about how to leverage Sigmar’s might in our Stormcast Eternals Faction Guide.

Stick to the Shadows with The Orruk Kruleboyz

Realms of Ruin - gameplay screenshots - 11

The Orruk Kruleboyz are competent melee fighters and can bring effective ranged weapons to battle, but their real strength lies in ambushes and raids. Use the Kruleboyz stealth to harass your enemy, weaken their grip on territory, and pounce on any unattended Victory Points.

Using your Man-Skewer Boltboyz’s Lie In Wait ability and the Swampcalla Shaman’s Summon Boggy Mist ability, you can hide how large your force is from the enemy. If you frequently launch attacks out of the shadows, you can cause your foe to hesitate from starting assaults: a single Orruk unit stood on a Victory Point may be easy pickings, or they could be a trap.

When you reach the mid-game and cannot avoid engaging in pitched battles for Victory Points, you need to start recruiting beasts. These units have significantly more health than your Orruk warriors, and their passive abilities, such as the Marshcrawla Sloggoth’s Krew Drummer upgrade, will keep your forces in the fight for longer.

Learn more about the devious battle tactics of these cunning warriors in our Orruk Kruleboyz Faction Guide.

Overwhelm Your Enemy with The Nighthaunt

With most of the factions in Realms of Ruin, you must be protective of your units, as replacing them is costly and slow. The Nighthaunt are the exception; the underworld is overspilling with souls ready to be summoned to the battlefield. You should aim to overwhelm your enemy with disposable units, locking them in combat while you seize territory and hold victory points.

Press your numbers advantage early in the map by recruiting a large force and sending them out to capture Arcane Conduits and Victory Points. An early economy and score advantage can propel you into the mid-game quickly. You will also need a steady supply of Command to replenish your ranks when you lose units.

Construct Bastions over your captured Arcane Conduits, as each one allows you to summon an additional unit simultaneously, making it easy to swiftly spawn entire battle groups of cheap units.

With the other factions, it is sensible to retreat units that are near death. With the Nighthaunt, it’s a less straightforward decision; often, it is better to lose a unit by holding your enemy in combat and simply summon a replacement than to reinforce them at your Black Rose Cemetery.

Learn more about the spectral forces of Nagash in our Nighthaunt Faction Guide.

Keep Your Enemy at a Distance with The Disciples of Tzeentch

Realms of Ruin - Disciples of Tzeentch screenshot - Ogroid

With a strong focus on ranged power, the Disciples of Tzeentch can infuriate and eradicate their foes from a distance. However, your need to hold ground against the enemy often requires you to enter melee combat, which is not the faction’s strength.

The Disciples of Tzeentch are excellent harassers; even their starting melee unit, the Kairic Acolytes, can attack foes at a distance. Whenever you find an enemy unit defending a Victory Point, shoot at them from afar. With you whittling their forces away, you force your opponent to either retreat or try and engage you in direct combat. If they choose to advance, pull your troops back. In this way, you can tie up your enemy’s attention while you assault their units elsewhere.

In the late game, after you've upgraded your Inflexion Point, you unlock Screamers of Tzeentch and Tzaangor Skyfires, who make excellent raiders. Send them into enemy territory to attack Arcane Conduits and Bastions, or keep them close to Victory Points, ready to seize them when your opponent leaves them undefended.

Learn more about the arcane power of these demonic forces in our Disciples of Tzeentch Faction Guide.

Realms of Ruin - Stormcast and orruks clash

Multiplayer battles in Realms of Ruin are unpredictable, with a tactic often working in one battle but failing in the next. If you try to learn from your defeats and look for ways to lean into your faction’s strengths, you will find opportunities to defeat your opponents.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is available to play NOW on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S|X.

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