The Battle for Windhelm is the final Imperial Legion quest, ordered by General Tullius, who wishes to take over the city of Windhelm to find Ulfric Stormcloak and force him to submit. After doing the quest 'Battle for Fort Amol' Legate Rikke will order you to meet outside Windhelm for General Tullius' speech. After an inspirational speech by General Tullius, the Dragonborn fights through waves of Stormcloak soldiers alongside the Legionnaires. The Palace of the Kings is then raided, where Ulfric and his right-hand man Galmar Stone-Fist await. Once Ulfric is defeated, he will request that the Dragonborn be the one to kill him, as it would "make for a better song," although the Dragonborn can refuse and allow General Tullius to strike the final blow.
After Ulfric and Galmar are defeated, General Tullius will reward the Dragonborn with a leveled sword. Upon returning to Windhelm, Brunwulf Free-Winter will become the new Jarl and will offer the Dragonborn the title of Thane of Eastmarch as well as the opportunity to buy Hjerim, the house available in Windhelm (12,000). At this point the city is now under Imperial control, thus the Stormcloak guards are replaced by Imperial Soldiers.
During this battle, Stormcloak Soldiers will keep spawning if the Dragonborn stays in one area too long, or if the Dragonborn goes into an area without breaking down the barricades for the Imperial Soldiers to join the fight.
After Ulfric has just been killed is a good time to loot the palace if desired. A room upstairs via the first door on the left after entering the palace is filled with the Stormcloak-aligned Jarls and their housecarls, many of whom are unkillable, (but not all).
After General Tullius is done making his speech, both he and Legate Rikke will leave, but the group of Imperial soldiers will not.
It is impossible to betray General Tullius at this point, he cannot be killed.
Once killed, the bodies of Stormcloaks de-spawn almost instantly, making looting them very difficult.
It is possible for a dragon to spawn during the battle outside the palace.
If Tullius and Rikke and all the imperial soldiers are killed using console commands after the speech, Ulfric and Galmar's body will not disappear from the Palace of the Kings, but Tullius, Rikke and all the Imperial Soldiers' bodies disappear.
If the Call Dragon shout is used during the battle. Odahviing will only kill Stormcloaks, and not Imperial soldiers.
After the quest is over, if the Dragonborn talks to Rikke she'll say she expects them to clear out any Stormcloak camps they come across, however, the Stormcloak officers in those camps will still be essential so they can't be killed.
PC 360 PS3 The option to buy and upgrade Hjerim will not be in the speech list. This only happens in the same sitting as killing Ulfric. Saving and resetting the game will fix this.
360 If all of the improvements for Hjerim are bought except clean up the murder mess, and then the conversation is exited, the mess from the murder will still be there. However, the clean up murder improvement option will not be there.
PS3 PC If a dragon appears while Rikke is telling the Dragonborn to meet up with Tullius, the quest may glitch and keep directing the Dragonborn to her.
PC 360 PS3 Occasionally, after Ulfric and Galmar have been killed, the replacement Jarl (Brunwulf Free-Winter) will not spawn inside of the Palace of the Kings. Neither waiting for several game days nor leaving and returning to Windhelm have solved this problem. This makes purchasing Hjerim impossible
Fix - If this scenario happens, open the console and type " setstage a7b33 10 " without the quotations. The Dragonborn will get the house and be able to talk to the steward to purchase decorations for the home, whether the new Jarl is there or not.
PC 360 PS3 When entering the Palace of the Kings, General Tullius and Legate Rikke will be attacked by Windhelm guards, which slowly wear them down-preventing Tullius from talking to Ulfric, which freezes the Dragonborn in place while they are attacked. Loading to a previous save will not help this. Bring up the console with "~", click on a guard and type "kill," then hit Enter. Repeat for the other one. This will enable the dialogue to occur. After Ulfric's execution, outside, the Imperials will be finishing up the rest of the Windhelm Guard, so the two would have ended up dead anyway.
PC 360 PS3 Sometimes during the battle with Ulfric and Galmar, both enemies are still tagged as essential, and both of the allies just stand around after making their pre-fight speech. If this happens, the Dragonborn is stuck in the Palace of Kings with two unkillable enemies and two characters. Loading an earlier save does not prevent this from happening, and the console doesn't help either.
FIX - problem can be solved via console. To make Ulfric and Galmar killable, type (without quotes): "setessential 0001414D 0" (that's for Ulfric) and "setessential 00014128 0" (for Galmar). That will make them mortal, and quest will be completed.
If this does not work and Ulfric and Galmar are still immortal after using these commands; to kill Ulfric, add the following lines to Skyrim.ini: [GamePlay] bEssentialTakeNoDamage=0 Ulfric is now killable after restarting the game, (though he may have to be healed first if he's already kneeling). Remember to remove the ini value afterwards to avoid killing other essential NPCs.
This has also been patched for the Xbox 360.
PS3 In some instances, there will be no Stormcloak soldiers stationed inside of Windhelm, and the city will be empty with the exception of a few guards. Not even Rikke or Tullius and their forces spawn inside of Windhelm.
PC 360 PS3 Ulfric and Galmar's bodies may not disappear from the Palace of Kings, even when Brunwulf Free-Winter is Jarl.
PC 360 PS3 Sometimes one will not receive General Tullius' sword, even if the quest is finished. This is because the sword gotten from Tullius is same one that is gotten if the Dragonborn kills Ulfric themselves.
PC 360 PS3 Sometimes Hadvar will glitch and follow the Dragonborn everywhere. Reload the game to solve this issue.
If one loots too early an Imperial guard may follow the Dragonborn, preventing fast travel anywhere. Run out of the city and past the stables and constantly check for fast travel availability. (Upon return, there may be a bounty.)
360 If the quest is completed before doing "Blood on the Ice", the guard one has to receive permission from may not be there.
PC 360 PS3 When meeting up with the soldiers, some may already be dead.
PC 360 PS3 Days after the Battle for Windhelm, some people will be sitting at the long table in the Palace. If engaged in dialogue, some of them will act as if they were still where they used to be, the Rift, Markarth etc. saying stuff like "If you need a drink, go to [Inn in their homecity]"
PC 360 PS3 Right after getting into the Palace of Kings and defeating Ulfric, there is a possibility of involuntarily going into third person mode, (which there is no fix for yet).
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