Total War WARHAMMER III: Kislev Guide

^ See my “Ultimate Guide – Essentials for All Campaigns” for all the info that everyone should know, like how Rifts work, guide to the Realms of Chaos, how to Trade Settlements, etc.

This guide is specifically for Kislev, currently based upon my experience playing as Tsarina Katarin.

And like that guide says, before you start your Kislev campaign, take a look at the starting locations for each of the other playable factions. That way if you want to “Traverse Rifts” to reach their capitol and take them out of the race, you know where to go.

When playing as Tsarina Katarin, your goal is to beat Kostaltyn to “Loyalist Supremacy” (600 supporters), which if achieved will immediately force Kostaltyn to confederate with you. It will also give +100 diplomatic relations with any other remaining Kislev factions so if they have not already confederated with you, they should be ready to soon. Even the Ropsmenn Clan you start at war with should be able to be made peace with then eventually confederated with that high of a positive relations modifier.

You gain supporters from Buildings, Events, Fighting Chaos, and Invoking the Motherland (using the invocations).

You lose supporters from Events and from Fighting Kislev.

You want to check the change each turn just before you hit End Turn to what your actions that turn did with regard to supporters, because the support bar is tracking “Change this turn” rather than all the events which caused you to gain or lose support.

I noticed after destroying the Ropsmenn Clan on Turn 29 that Kostaltyn had 74 supports to my 7. And that is after I had been using the Dazh Invocation and had built at least 14 buildings.

At the start of your campaign, you probably want to Invoke Tor because Katarin will probably only be gaining levels after battles, so Tor will out perform Salyak for gaining supporters. But as soon as you have a few heroes recruited, you want to start using Salyak because let’s say you get 3 Frost Maiden and 1 Patriarch from recruitment or events and put them all in Katarin’s army. Every time they all level up that is 5 supporters. So assuming you start using Salyak when Katarin is Level 10 and from Level 1 with all 4 of those heroes, and the max rank is 50, that is about 240 supporters gained just from those 5 leveling up to Rank 50. The more lords and heroes you get out fighting and leveling, the faster you’ll get supporters. This is not counting the benefit from fighting Chaos or support generating buildings each turn.

In every minor settlement, you want to build at least the Palisade at Tier 2, and eventually Tier 3 Walls (more on that later); the market for income, and you want to build the Tier 3 Orthodoxy Church which gives 2 supporters per turn.

Once you take Gerslev from the Vanheimlings, keep checking to see if you can trade Gerslev to the Ropsmenn Clan in exchange for peace. Once you have peace, as your supporters grow your diplomatic relations modifier will also and eventually you should be able to confederate all of Kislev without violence. By confederating Kislev instead of conquering it, all those Kislev factions will act as a buffer against Chaos and Norsca and will grow their cities until you confederate them. If the AI gets a city to Tier 4 but then you capture the city, it will be reduced to Tier 3, possibly Tier 2 if you sack it first. Much better to confederate it.

Kislev starts with a barrack at Tier 1. At Tier 2, build both Growth buildings. At Tier 3, build the Watch House and Market. Once Kislev has the “City Watch” chain that gives extra units it should be able to beat off any attack on it by the Ropsmenn Clan while Katarin goes conquering elsewhere.

You can start a new campaign and see what the base Invocations offer, no need to list them here.

All invocations always last 10 turns

I struggle to decide which Invocation I would upgrade first, Dazh or Salyak. Dazh because the upgrade provides the Elemental Bear summons to all your armies which is immensely helpful in battle, it could possibly be a lifesaver. On the other hand Salyak first for the extra growth and replenishment especially if you plan on keeping it active until you max support. I suppose you could do Salyak followed immediately by Dazh. Once you max support and have a decent amount of regions and trade, upgraded Dazh is the only Invocation I used for the extra money and the summons.

Tor would be the last I would upgrade because it only increases the Melee Attack by +3%

Supporters generated: 1 when constructing a building
Income from Trade: +20%
Income from All Buildings: +12%
Army Ability: “The Land Awakened” (all armies) – [Summons an Elemental Bear, 1 use per battle]

Supporters generated: 1 when gaining a character rank
Growth: +30
Control: +2
Casualty Replenishment Rate: +15% (all armies)

Supporters generated: 2 when fighting a battle
Army Ability: “Wrath of the Bear” (all armies) – [+50% Base Weapon and AP damage, 3 uses]
Melee Attack: +8% (all armies)

Supporters generated: 5 when occupying a settlement
Causes attrition to enemy units within your territory
Army Ability: “The Bitterness of Winter” (all armies) – [Leadership, Speed & Vigour debuff, 3 uses]
Melee Defense: +5 (all armies)

Just a quick tidbit, if being friendly with Stirland is part of your plan, you can Join War against the Jagged Horn Tribe in order to get a trade agreement with Stirland, the beastmen will get wiped out so no worries about going to war with them.

1) Rifts left open very quickly (like 3 turns) cause 100 corruption of their respective chaos god which causes -300 growth, meaning that province aint making it to Tier 5 any time soon if it wasn’t already Tier 5. And at around 7-10 turns being open a rogue chaos army spawns intent on ruining your day. If it isn’t obvious, you really, really want to close any Rifts in your territory quickly, other than say 1 Rift you leave open for your Legendary Lord to travel through and which you can guard with a 2nd army, and only in a province where every settlement is max tier already.

2) The more territory you own means the more Rifts that directly impact you instead of the AI. You can prepare for this with heroes to a decent extent, but note that if you have 10 provinces where you’d want Rifts closed immediately so they don’t destroy Growth, then you’d need 10 heroes dedicated to closing the Rifts, and to close 10 Rifts with heroes in 1 turn would cost 15,000 gold.

3) Scrag the Slaughterer starts to the southwest of Reikland (which is to your southwest). Know that if you don’t take out Scrag the Slaughterer early, he becomes a wrecking ball against Empire factions. This sucks because if Reikland is destroyed or can’t grow enough to build the building to get Hellstorm Rocket Batteries, then you cannot get Hellstorms via alliance, and that is tragic. So I definitely recommend killing Scrag and cleaning out that southwest corner of the map quickly. You can then sell any regions you capture to Reikland or another Empire faction to build them up nicely so that hopefully they go north to crusade against chaos, and so that you can get those sweet, sweet Hellstorms.

4) Legion of Chaos (the Daemons of Chaos faction) starts in Doomkeep which is straight north (maybe slightly northwest) of Kostaltyn’s start.

5) Castle Drakenhof to your south has a Gold Mine…

6) You’re probably gonna be stuck with just 3 Frost Maidens for awhile, so think carefully how you plan on using them. Will you embed them with Katarin and fight, or use them to Steal Research and Assassinate enemy heroes? Frost Maiden hero actions will gain you 10 Devotion each time you succeed by the way.

Important Reminder that you can sell or gift settlement to factions that neighbor the settlement you are wiling to trade…

Capture Gerslev. I made the mistake of going east capturing Ropsmenn Clan’s settlements in Eastern Oblast province before taking Praag. If you want to take Praag, blitzkrieg it and then try to get peace with Ropsmenn Clan, perhaps by offering them Gerslev. But otherwise you don’t want to fight other Kislev factions as that slows down your supporter growth.

I recommend you go south and capture Waldenhof and Konigstein Tower first so that Stirland doesn’t get them, and then capture Castle Drakenhof. Get that sweet, sweet Gold Mine.

Becomes allies with Zhufbar and Karak Kadrin to your east, they will act as a buffer for you against the dangers to the east, keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t die. You can also ally with the Kraka Drak Dwarfs to your north, like the Empire they too need help to survive because they are in the path of Chaos and Norsca coming south.

Once you capture the Vampire Count territory, what to do about the Empire? On the one hand, the Empire factions should be easy to conquer if you want the territory. On the other hand, they make for great allies, if you keep them all alive you could go for the 10 Military Alliance achievement. Only annoying issue is if someone of the Empire factions go to war with others, how to get them to make peace with each other so you can have alliances with all and get them to go crusade against chaos.

If you do decide to conquer Empire territory, I’d still probably go no further than Hochland (meaning conquer Ostermark, Stirland, Ostland, Talabecland, Wissenland, and Hochland, securing everything to the south of Kislev and west of your Dwarven allies). I’d try to save and keep alive Reikland, Middenland and Nordland, and possibly Marienburg. I might take Marienburg though if the port provides insane wealth like Erengrad does.

If you secure your south and southwest quickly (only having Empire factions and maybe Laurelon the Wood Elf faction left alive below Castle Alexandronov and the Bay of Blades), and by this point you will probably have done at least the first Rift wave, hopefully you are fast approaching 600 supporters and the confederation of all Kislev. Once you confederate all Kislev, you no longer have separate AI Kislev factions to act as a buffer, so now you have a whole new front to your north, northwest and possibly northeast if the Skaven from Karak Vlag come at you via the pass east of Novchozy. But if your South and Southwest are secure then this should be no problem and even a joy because now you can focus on eliminating the Legion of Chaos and Norsca to your immediate northwest and then figure things out from there. Just remember to keep a bunch of Patriarchs in your territories and enough gold to close the next waves of Rifts.

If you have done all this then you really just need to not make any monumental mistakes and beat the other factions to get all 4 souls, and then win the final battle.

There are 4 Tech groups: The Land, Kislev, Erengrad, Praag.

Note that in order to unlock the 2nd Tier of Erengrad and Praag Tech, you have to own those cities.

Research Order:

Ice Sculpting
Ice Court Discipline
Ice Court Control
Ice Court Indoctrination (only if you plan to buy Ice Witches every chance you get to hunt for a lord with the best 3 traits, because otherwise your economy can support so few lords that a new Ice Witch every 7ish turns should be plenty to supply an Ice Witch whenever you are ready to add a new army)

Campaign benefiting Tech you want early:

Cold Storage (+5 growth)
Improved Lookouts (+1 Recruitment capacity)
Currency Exchanges (Awake the Land commandment gives +2 income)
Salyak Cult Customs (for the +10 growth and extra replenishment)
Troll Country Pathfinder (+5% campaign movement range)
Devotional Creed (Plagues suuuuck and you want that extra devotion early)

Unit benefiting Tech you want early:

Pirate’s Weapons
Hooked Axe Blades
Glacial Prism
Convalescence

Great 2nd Tier Tech:

Orthodoxy Interdiction (+2 Global Recruitment which is huge because you will use it a lot)

Siege Mentality (gives more ammo to all ranged infantry and benefits you in sieges)

Improved Harbour Defenses (important note! – This tech requires you to own Erengrad which may take awhile, and I believe this tech only benefits walled settlements, because I had a Minor Settlement that only had the Tier 2 Palisade and it was “Encircled” for a couple turns before the enemy attacked, and I had this tech, but got no extra supply. I believe a settlement must be “Besieged” which requires walls, and then you’ll get extra supply based upon how many turns you were besieged)

Unit Specific:

Toughened Sanctions and Arabyan Fire is great for War Sleds

I never used Armoured Kossars in my armies, but Breechloaders tech would have been beneficial for garrison units.

Aggressive Cultivation and Ice Rites would be fantastic for the Elemental Bear summons from Dazh, along with Fortify the Land and Ur-Stones if you could get and afford Elemental Bears in your armies.

Streltsi Arsenal is essential if you are going to use lots of Stresltsi but they are so expensive and you can can field Ice Guard so barely used them.

Bear Baiting would be fantastic once you have Boris Ursus and a full stack of War Bear Riders.

Before I go into all the options that use either Kossars, Kossars (Spears), or Ice Guard, you should know how to set them up. If you just line them up in a long line, the enemy is going to charge into them, prevent them from shooting, or end up mulching them in melee and you will lose.

Instead look at the image above and follow this advice. Let’s says you have 14 Kossars (Spears) or Ice Guard, doesn’t matter because it works the same for both.

You take 7 of them, and create a line. Then select the 2nd unit from the right, the middle unit, and the 2nd unit from the left, and then on your keyboard, look at the arrow keys below Delete, End, Page Down, with those units selected press the Down Arrow Key 2-3 times.

Then line up the other 7 behind those 3 creating a third line. You could leave that third line as is, it may be fine, or you can again select the 2nd unit from right, the middle, and 2nd from left of the third line, press the down key 2-3 times, and now you have a 4th line. If you have another 2-4 units, you can probably figure out where to put them if you follow the pattern of the formation.

This formation seems to confuse the AI who hesitate to charge, and if they do, they get stuck on the outer units will those behind are able to continue firing. This also allows unit to rotate as needed to target different threats, especially if you keep the unit as square as you can instead of being in a thin line.

Doing this I was able to beat Khorne and Slaanesh armies that I probably would have lost handily to if I had just lined my forces up in a line like a newbie.

You get your 3 Frost Maidens (1 with Ice Magic and the other 2 with Tempest Magic) and 1 Patriarch asap and embed them with Katarin. Max Scouting with just 1 of the Frost Maidens, max Replenish Troops and Salyak’s Lullaby (and get Healer at Rank 21) with the Patriarch. Fill the rest of Katarin’s army with Kossars (Spears). With Katarin and your Ice Magic Frost Maiden use Ice Sheets to slow down the enemy while your Tempest Frost Maidens cast Upgraded Gust of True Flight on as many Kossars (Spears) as they can, then have Katarin & Maidens use Guardian Call to summon 4 snow leopards to tank the enemy, then when the leopards die use your Lord and Heroes all on War Bears to tank the enemy, all while your Kossars rain death on the enemy. The Patriarch heals Lord & Heroes with Salyak’s Lullaby at the end of the battle.

When you are able to, transfer all the Kossars (Spears) to another lord and replace them with Ice Guard (I’d go all Glaives for the Armor Piercing and Anti-Large but if money is terribly tight or you want some of them to be anti-infantry you could go half Glaives and the rest regular Ice Guard)

Use the exact same strategy that worked with Kossars (Spears) with the Ice Guard.

This army is basically a light Doomstack so you should have no problem beating the campaign once you have your Ice Guard Doomstack-lite.

Same as 1 but instead of Frost Maidens you put 3+ Patriarchs in Katarin’s army. Katarin and the Patriarchs (ideally on War Bears) will tank the enemy while your archers rain death. The Patriarchs can heal everyone with Salyak’s Lullaby. Upgrade to Ice Guard when able same as before. The benefit of this is that maxed combat skills Patriarchs (particularly equipped with magic items) and very tanky and deadly.

Same as Option 2 but if only one Replenish Troops will benefit the army, then have Katarin and 1 Patriarch who has max Replenish Troops and Salyak’s Lullaby, and then have the other “tank” units be Snow Leopards or War Bear Riders or War Sleds (Light or Heavy) and finally Elemental Bears. If Elemental Bears, use the Patriarch’s Salyak’s Lullaby to heal all the single-entities at the end of the battle.

Replace Kossars with Ice Guard when able

Option 3.5 is have Katarin and 1 Patriarch with those same skills, and have the rest just be Kossars (Spears) then Ice Guard when able, make up for lack of heroes with increased firepower.

Once you get him, Boris Ursus could go all War Bear Riders with 1 Patriarch for healing and replenishment, since Boris gives -50% upkeep for War Bear Riders.

Kostaltyn does not buff any specific unit, but he does reduce recruitment costs to 0, so use him to recruit everything if you can. I’m not even sure how he does it. Firebrand reduces recruitment cost by -50%. The Burning Brazier by -10%. Leader of Renown by -15%. He got the Musterer trait which gives -5%. He has a Militiaman follower who gives -5% for infantry. That’s -85%, but under Campaign Effects it says -80%, so not -100%, and he is not in a province with the Relief Columns commandment active, yet he can recruit even Elemental Bears from the Global Recruitment Pool for 0 gold. Crazy.

Oh, but if you start your campaign as Kostaltyn, then Patriarchs get 20% Ward Save. Which means you give Kostaltyn 19 Patriarchs on War Bears with maxed Combat skills and Salyak’s Lullaby to heal and you have a proper Doomstack.

Ice Witches can copy Katarin’s army composition both with Kossars (Spears) and Ice Guard, but Ice Guard will be their normal price and Ice Witches aren’t as tanky as Katarin is. Or…

https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/syt8nd/pro_tip_for_anyone_struggling_with_a_kislev/

^ you can read the comments from that post to verify what I’m saying below.

Light War Sleds are ridiculously good. If Ogres terrify you, bring Light War Sleds. LWS can kite while shooting with Armor Piercing missiles (and they have a ton of ammo), they can snipe lords and single monsters like Stonehorns, and then once all the single entities and anti-large units are dead and if they are out of ammo, they can charge into infantry like chariots and as long as you keep them moving and cycle charging (which is a lot easier with sleds than cavalry) they will eventually slaughter all the infantry.

And if you mess up an a few sled units die, LWS are just 1 turn to replace, even from Global Recruitment if you have the Citadel of Praag unique building built. I haven’t tested this out myself yet, but u/Clawsonflakes says that Heavy War Sleds are even better because “they’re invulnerable” and don’t die.

Now, Light War Sleds are faster than Heavy War Sleds, which may make them better at running away from enemy anti-large, but if Heavy War Sleds are really that tough and have even more mass for charging through infantry, they may be a true doomstack. I would possibly consider a stack of Light War Sleds to be a Doomstack, or at least a Doomstack-Lite.

Also, during training, Ice Witches and Frost Maidens may get the prompt to choose between 2 traits, one trait that gives -30% upkeep for War Sleds, and one that gives -30% upkeep for Little Grom units. I always choose War Sleds. If you have an Ice Witch with that -30% War Sled trait, plus the -17% upkeep from Quartermaster and Renowned & Feared, combined with just 1 Frost Maiden with the -30% War Sled trait, that is -77% upkeep for War Sleds. Add 1 more Frost Maiden with -30% War Sled Upkeep, and you have -107% upkeep for War Sleds.

And of course, Elemental Bears are probably Kislev’s version of Carnosaurs or War Hydras or Dragons, etc, that is to say Doomstack material. Basically make a full stack of Elemental Bears with 1-3 Patriarchs on War Bears with Salyak’s Lullaby to heal them back to full health at the end of the battle, and you have a true Doomstack.

Additional comments regarding Light War Sled epicness:

“They dont get stuck. That is their #1 attribute. They also turn much faster than cav as well. They dont do that [thing] where they stop if you turn them at too great of an angle, they just [go].”

u/jennis89
On Turin’s early access stream his 14 stack of light war sleds went up against 2 full stacks of demons undivided – 40 units and he managed to win without losing a single unit.

u/NotUpInHurr
SHH you’re letting everybody know! I love the war sleds, they’re so so so good! Auto-resolve wrecks them which is why they probably don’t get as much use, but if you like manually battling they absolutely destroy everything

u/Abort-Retry
“Auto-resolve wrecks them”

That’s a positive when you are trying to lure out the defenders of walled settlements

u/No_House9929
These are the key to winning a kislev campaign. Enjoy them before an inevitable nerf. Don’t even do “combined forces” literally just 17 stack these guys with an ice court mage with the reduced upkeep and the heals/replen from the patriarch

Norscans invading from the north? Believe it or not, war sleds

Legion of chaos invading kislev itself with three stacks? Believe it or not, war sleds

Skrag gobbled up your allies and invades the south? Believe it or not, war sleds

Tough garrison with a full stack inside? Believe it or not, war sleds

Edit: one additional note, the bane of this army is walled settlements so it sounds ridiculous but your best bet in that scenario is trapping an enemy army inside so they think they can sally out. Then crush them in the open field and auto the remaining forces that routed

You start with a barracks, you can level it to T3 or not depending on whether you want Streltsi, but you really only need T1 for the Kossars (Spears). Level up to Tier 2 then build both +Growth buildings and level to max at each tier. At Tier 3 build the City Watch and the Market and level them to max at each tier. At Tier 4 build Bokha Palace and Grand Citadel and level them to max tier. At Tier 5 build the Temple of Ursun and the Animal Den and level them to max tier. If you end up with a better Major settlement to put a barracks in (where it doesn’t take up a slot needed for a better building), then you can demolish the barracks and build the Convent of Ice (which you only need in Kislev for the +1 to Frost Maiden capacity, a very expensive building just for that).

Tier 1 build the Roadhouse for the +Growth and level it to max as you go. Tier 2 build the Breastworks and level it to max as you go. Tier 3 build the Gold Mine (you need the money). Tier 4 build the Toolmaker (for the income boost and the Light War Sleds) and the Market, level them to max. Tier 5 build a Farm for more income and the Convent of Ice for +1 Frost Maiden. At Tier 5 you can demolish the growth building and build either the Grand Ur-Szalas for the 24 furs (boosted 50% by the Tier 5 Caravans) or build the Orthodoxy Church for +1 Patriarch.

In Sylvania’s minor settlements, build the +Growth building, the Garrison building, and Orthodoxy Church, until Drakenhof is Tier 5 then demolish the Growth building to build a Trade Quorum (market).

Tier 1 build Growth and max it along the way, Tier 2 build Garrison and max it, Tier 3 build Exotic Animal Market and max it, Tier 4 build Market Square and max it, Tier 5 build Convent of Ice and demolish the Growth building and build either the Smithery for +Global Recruitment Capacity and income boost, the Grand Ur-Szalas for the furs boosted 50% by the Caravans building, or an Orthodoxy Church for +1 Patriarch.

Tier 1 build both Growth buildings, Tier 2 build the City Watch, Tier 3 build the Citadel of Praag and the Magnus Gardens, Tier 4 build the Market and the Marble Quarry (unless you still don’t have the Toolmaker for Light War Sleds yet, then build the Toolmaker instead of the Marble Quarry I guess), Tier 5 build the Convent of Ice (or another Orthodoxy Church if you really love Patriarchs and don’t care for Frost Maidens for some reason) and either the Toolmaker or the Marble Quarry depending on what you did at Tier 4.

By the time you confederate Erengrad it will probably already be Tier 4, but this is how I would build it if it got razed and I had to start fresh. Tier 1 has The Harbour occupying 1 slot permanently so for the other slot build the Tallow-keepers Guild. Tier 2 build the Tribal Encampment (unless your position is really insecure then build the City Watch). Tier 3 build the City Watch and Frosthome. Tier 4 build The Lynsk Bridge and Market. Tier 5 build the Clay Pit and Convent of Ice.

Lords & Heroes can now reach Level 50 in TWW3, which means 49 skill points to spend. You can spend them on:

Character Skills (Yellow)
Battle Skills (Red)
Campaign Skills (Blue)

Note that if you haven’t played Warhammer 2 prior, then Warhammer 3’s Red on Red UI might make you think “what, each skill line is red, what are you talking about?” I completely understand your confusion. Pull up your Lord’s skill screen, and at the top left (to the left of the Lord & Hero portrait bar), there is the circular “Rank” icon that if you hover your mouse over, will break down how you have spent skill points so far, and you will see the colors I mentioned.

Katarin has an inherent Lord Trait that gives -50% upkeep reduction for Ice Guard units. At the start of my campaign Ice Guard were barely more expensive than Kossars, and at one point in my campaign I noticed that Ice Guard were actually cheaper than Kossars with her. She also buffs them with Indomitable Spirit and Shield of Ice, so all this noted, Ice Guard should end up being the main units you give her besides any heroes, if not a whole 19 stack of them.

Route Marcher > Ice Maiden’s Kiss (IMK) > Ice Sheet (IS) > IMK 2nd point > IS 2nd point

You can hold off on her magic line after those skills.

Skip the Warhorse, but get Katarin on the War Bear at Rank 14 immediately.

Get all of Katarin’s Unique Character (Yellow) skills from Ice Mistress -> Shield of Ice (you unlock Ice Mistress at Rank 12, and one guide I read recommended saving up skill points from Rank 7 to 12 so that you can buy all 6 unique skills immediately at Rank 12, and I probably agree with that, they are really good skills)

Guardian Call unlocks at Rank 12 as well, so I’d put just 1 point into it at Rank 13 if you already got all the Unique skills.

Red Line: You want max Best of the Court and Skirmisher Traditions to buff her Ice Guard. Inspiring Presence and Rally are a given, so this means you need to figure out where you want to spend another 3 points. Skilled Craftsmen would be my first choice to buff War Sleds and Little Grom, because you might want 1-2 Little Grom in your army, or you might want a couple Light War Sleds to distract and pull away enemies so they all don’t charge your Ice Guard at once. But since you will be starting out with just Kossars available to you, you might max out Firing Drills for them (and if you lose some Ice Guard you can always replace them with Kossars in a pinch so this skill could still be of benefit even once you’ve replaced Kossars with Ice Guard on Katarin). Or, if you intend to eventually have a few Elemental Bears as a frontline to stop and bunch up the enemy so your Ice Guard can shoot unhindered, and maybe use Snow Leopards in their place until then, then Creatures of the Land would be an excellent choice. Up to you. Depending on what you choose you may end up throwing a skill point into Battle Engineers or Ursun’s Favored.

Blue Line: After Route Marcher, put 3 points into Reassuring Presence (you’ll thank me when you enter Nurgle’s realm or if your army gets afflicted by one of Nurgle’s plagues). I’d put the 4th point you need to proceed in Leader of Renown. Get Draftmaster and then max Lightning Strike
and Quartermaster and then get Renowned & Feared.

Yellow Magic Line: Now we come back to her Magic line. Max Death Frost, get Evasion, then get Magical Reserves, Earthing, and max Heart of Winter, then get Arcane Conduit.

(8) points so far for Guardian Call, War Bear, and Unique skills
(9) points for Red Line
(13) points for Blue Line
(12) points for Magic Line
= 42 points spent, 7 remaining
Note that if you aren’t going to have any other units besides Ice Guard in Katarin’s army and decide that Skirmisher Traditions isn’t worth wasting 4 other points to get it, then that saves you 5 skill points
=37 points spent with 12 remaining if you just max Best of the Court and stop in the Red Line.

But since your Ice Guard are going to easily be Rank 9, I think it is worth it.

So assuming 7 points remain, up to you at this point what to do.

Red Line Focus: If you went with Creatures of the Land because you plan to use Snow Leopards and/or Elemental Bears, then get Ursun’s Favored, Snow Leopard Stalk, 2 more points to max Guardian Call, then 3 wherever you want (get all three remaining 2nd tier Red Line skills, or invest into maxing another 1st Tier Red Line skill in case you want to try something different).

Blue Line focus: Max Logistician and Alert, then throw the final point wherever.

Magic Line Focus: max Crystal Sanctuary, max Frost Blades, get Frost Shield, leaves 2 free points for whatever.

Note that maxing Guardian Call does make that Snow Leopard summon very deadly, but since it only lasts for about a minute it isn’t really worth it. Likewise Snow Leopard Talk isn’t worth it unless you plan to use Snow Leopard buffed by Creatures of the Land.