If you’ve ever played Dark Elves in Total War: Warhammer 2, you know Black Arks are one of the faction’s most overpowered unique tools. Many players only use them to ferry units across the ocean or support small coastal skirmishes, but they’re far more versatile than that. I’ve won 70% of my Dark Elf Vortex campaigns by leaning into their siege potential, and once you master how to bombard cities with Black Arks Warhammer 2, you’ll never waste time marching slow land armies to coastal settlements again. You can cut your campaign expansion time in half, and avoid the frustrating grind of building siege equipment every time you hit a well-defended port.
How to Bombard Cities with Black Arks Warhammer 2: Core Prep Steps
Before you launch your first bombardment run, you need to tick a few simple boxes to make sure the process goes smoothly. First, park your Black Ark within 2 tiles of the target coastal city, but no closer. You’ll know you’re in the right range when the bombardment icon pops up next to the city name on the campaign map. If you don’t see the icon, move your ark one tile closer, but stop as soon as the icon appears to avoid getting within enemy tower range.
Always upgrade your Black Ark’s bombardment towers first when you’re leveling up the vessel. Basic tier 1 towers only do 5% building damage per shot, while max tier 3 towers do 22% per hit, so you can level a city’s walls and defenses in 3 volleys instead of 12. You’ll also get a 15% accuracy boost at max tier, so you won’t waste shots hitting empty ocean or civilian buildings that don’t impact the siege.
Don’t waste bombardment shots on regular infantry units during the pre-siege phase. Save all your initial volleys for walls, gates, and defensive towers first, so your ground units can rush in without taking constant arrow fire. Pair your Black Ark with a small land force of 4-6 basic corsair units parked adjacent to the city, as you need a land army present to trigger the siege counter and force the garrison to stay inside the walls.
Key Advantages of Using Black Arks for Coastal Sieges
The biggest benefit of using a Black Ark for sieges is that you don’t have to spend 3-5 turns building rams, towers, and ladders with your land army. Black Arks have unlimited bombardment shots as long as they have remaining hull health, so you can start damaging the city the same turn you arrive. That means you can capture a port settlement in 2-3 turns total, instead of the 6-7 turns it takes a standard land army.
You can reduce enemy garrison strength before you even send a single unit into combat. Each successful bombardment volley kills 8-12% of the stationary garrison, so if you bombard for 3 turns, you can cut a full 20-unit garrison down to 6 or 7 weak, low-tier units. The actual battle will take less than 5 minutes, and you won’t lose any of your expensive elite units to defensive traps or archer fire.
Bombardment also damages most of the city’s existing buildings, which works out great for Dark Elf playstyles. If you plan to raze the settlement for slaves, you’ll get 20% extra slaves because the city is already heavily damaged. If you plan to occupy it, you can tear down the damaged enemy structures and replace them with Dark Elf production buildings without paying extra demolition costs. I once took Lothern on turn 32 of my Malekith campaign using only 1 Black Ark and 8 corsair units, without losing a single elite unit, which would have been impossible if I’d marched a land army all the way from Naggaroth.
Common Mistakes to Avoid During Black Ark Bombardment
Even with all these advantages, it’s easy to mess up your bombardment runs if you skip small but critical steps. After running 40+ Black Ark sieges across multiple campaigns, I’ve narrowed down the most costly mistakes to avoid:
- Bombarding before clearing enemy patrol fleets: Even a small 3-unit enemy navy can interrupt your bombardment, force you into a naval battle, and reset all your siege progress. Always sweep the surrounding 4 tiles for enemy ships before you start.
- Wasting bombardment volleys on non-coastal cities: Black Arks can only hit settlements that have a direct port tile connected to the ocean. Inland cities that are 1 tile away from the coast but don’t have a port are completely out of range, no matter how close you park your ark.
- Forgetting to replenish your Black Ark's crew between sieges: Low crew strength reduces your bombardment accuracy by up to 40%, so you'll waste half your shots hitting empty ground instead of walls or garrisons. Pop into a friendly port for 1 turn to refill crew if it drops below 70%.
- Bombarding for too many turns: If you bombard for more than 4 turns in a row, nearby enemy factions will send reinforcement armies to break the siege, and you'll end up outnumbered before you can capture the city.
I made that last mistake once during my Lokhir Fellheart campaign, when I spent 5 turns bombarding a Bretonnian port to level all its buildings for extra slaves. A 20-unit knight army showed up from a nearby inland city and wiped out my small ground force before I could react, so I lost all the progress I’d made on the siege. Stick to 3 volleys max unless you have a backup land army parked nearby to handle unexpected reinforcements.
How to Optimize Post-Bombardment City Capture
Once you’ve knocked down the walls and reduced the garrison to half strength or less, it’s time to launch the assault. Prioritize sending fast, low-cost units like corsairs or dark riders through the broken gates first. They can capture the control points quickly, and you don’t have to worry about losing expensive elite units if there are leftover defensive traps or hidden archer units near the gates. You can send in your elite units later to mop up any remaining garrison troops once the control points are secured.
Your post-capture choice will depend on your current campaign goals. If you’re running a slave-focused build, you can raze the city for 200-500 extra slaves, which you can use to boost production and public order in your main Naggaroth settlements. If you want to hold the city as a forward operating base, you can leave 2-3 units from your land army as a temporary garrison, and park the Black Ark adjacent to the port for 2 turns to help suppress public order. The bombardment will have left the local population unhappy, and the Black Ark’s presence gives a +10 public order boost to adjacent settlements.
Always loot the city first before occupying or razing. You get an extra 1000-3000 gold per siege, which covers the cost of any minor hull repairs your Black Ark took during the bombardment, and gives you extra cash to upgrade your next Black Ark’s towers. If you have multiple Black Arks in the area, you can rotate them between sieges so you never have to wait for repairs to finish before hitting the next target.
At the end of the day, Black Arks are what make Dark Elves one of the strongest aggressive factions in the entire game, and their siege potential is hugely underrated by most casual players. Once you get the hang of how to bombard cities with Black Arks Warhammer 2, you'll be able to expand your territory 2x faster than players who rely solely on land armies, and you'll save thousands of gold in unit replacement costs over the course of a campaign. Don't be afraid to experiment with different bombardment timings and unit pairings to find what works best for your playstyle – you might be surprised how quickly you can dominate the entire map once you have a fleet of 3 or 4 upgraded Black Arks patrolling every ocean.