The Tithe (Zombies)

are a Regiment of Renown melee infantry unit introduced in Total War: Warhammer for The Grim and the Grave.
== Recruitment ==
* Recruited with: Regiments of Renown Recruitment panel
==Description==
Zombies are shambling horrors that stagger towards the enemy battle lines in a noisome horde. Grotesquely reanimated corpses, they are compelled by the Dark Magic of a Vampire or Necromancer, and driven by the will of their master to commit acts of extreme violence. To call the way a Zombie attacks "fighting", is perhaps to give the foul creature credit beyond its due. These sickening half-things have no skill to speak of, but are instead driven only by the insatiable urge to rend, kill and consume the living. Any warrior unfortunate enough to be pulled down by a Zombie horde will find himself torn slowly apart by a mass of desperate clawing fingers, his flesh gouged from his body in grisly, glistening chunks. The fortunate die quickly, but those unlucky souls who are trampled beneath the horde spend their death throes in miserable agony as their innards become a crimson feast.
==Attributes==
* Sword Infantry
==Strategy==
Gaining 40 unit models, 15 armor, 5 leadership, 2 speed, 3 melee defence, 3 melee attack, and 20% physical resist, the Tithe at first glance seems a bit mathematically weak for double priced Zombies. With only a 25% increase in unit size, they seem very underwhelming. However, that is that nature of Zombies, low stat meat shields. While the unit size increase is nice, it is compounded on by the 15 armor and 20% physical resist. Zombies have 0 armor naturally. 15 armor is an average of 11% physical damage reduction, although only non armor-piercing. The 20% physical resistance is then multiplicative, as is the model count increase and melee defense increase. Comparing a completely unbuffed Tithe to a completely unbuffed unit of Zombies, the Tithe has a whopping 50% greater effective health when facing physical attacks, up to 65% greater if the armor is fully effective. While still not amazing considering we're paying for 2 Zombies, this is all compressed into one unit. As such, the Tithe benefits more from healing and has a higher healing cap than normal Zombies, further increasing their effective toughness. Of course, in the end, the Tithe is still just a better zombie. While the previous sentences may have given it a fair bit of hype, it is still a meat shield for your actual units, albeit a pretty good one.
In multiplayer, it is almost always better to take two units of Zombies as opposed to the Tithe, you will likely do better by doing so. This is primarily because it gives you more flexibility in how many enemy units you can pin down. While both Multiplayer and Campaign have a 20 units per army cap, in Multiplayer you'll almost never hit said cap. Taking one better meatshield isn't worth the flexibility of 2 unless you really need every last point of health from a single unit you can get.
In the Campaign, even if you aren't playing Helman Ghorst, you will quickly stack up a few bonuses that reduce Zombie prices so low that their cost is almost meaningless. As such, the Tithe serves as a way to further optimize even early game armies. Taking in to account the previously mentioned bonuses, the Tithe is a very good way to improve your early game army at low cost. It doesn't matter much if it dies, as it can be instantly recovered at almost no cost if you have some friendly territory nearby, or just replaced with a Raise Dead Zombie and given to another army that is closer to home. In addition, remember that even though those above melee bonuses aren't very big, for a Zombie they're enormous. The extra melee defense combined with flat physical resistance can push the Tithe just far enough to be worth much more than 2 normal Zombies. In addition, as a Regiment of Renown, they instantly start at max rank, which while not terribly impressive due to the minimal benefits Zombies get for it, is still decent because once again, Zombies have low stats to begin with.
Also the +2 speed, despite looking silly on the outside, is once again relevent due to how slow zombies are. If you are forced to advance towards your enemies the Tithe will eventually pull slightly ahead of the rest of your horde and start taking more hits. However, their higher damage to healing efficiency means this isn't necessarily a bad thing, as lets you hit their line with more evenly distributed effective health so that no part of your line is too weak. However, if you run your Tithe and Zombies very far and the Tithe truely pull ahead, then they will most likely be hit by the entire first ranged volley or charge, as their fellow Zombies are no longer clumped enough with them to absorb some of the hits. 
Category:Total War: Warhammer units
Category:The Grim and the Grave units
Category:Regiments of Renown
Category:Vampire Counts units
Category:Vampire Counts melee infantry units
Category:Vampire Counts Regiments of Renown