Wow Kristi, this seems incredibly grueling. I was two turns away from completing the long campaign for Empire, when my grand alliance fell apart and Lothern declared war on the Dwarfs. All my armies we in Naggarond going slowly mad and the main part of my empire was split in two by the now angry massive Dwarf kingdon. I basically rage quit.
Back in TW:WH1-land, I’ve basically finished my Empire campaign. TBH it wasn’t super challenging in the end, but that’s my own fault for two reasons: N/N difficulty, and save-scumming when I got blindsided (usually by beastmen that spawned in Bretonnia somewhere and decided to pay me a visit). I guess I also save-scummed a bit when the particulars of strategic map movement got confusing (things not reinforcing when I thought they would).
The good guys have basically won. I took out the vampires fairly early on, but left the Von Carsteins (confusingly the vampire counts (also “VC”, heh) also have a lord named Von Carstein) with one territory to keep the Border Princes distracted (it seems to have worked). The Chaos invasion, which seemed to coincide with some major incursions by the various Viking ahem Norsca factions, really hammered Ostland and r-e-k-t rekt Kislev–they had one town left when I came to the rescue. I managed to get things under control, more or less, by razing the nearer Norscan towns and pushing the Chaos out of (now barren) Kislev. Ostland has pretty much rebuilt, but Kislev not so much. (Nordland is doing quite well, too.)
Bretonnia even sent two armies on what I guess was a crusade of some sort to help out. Which was awesome, but (alas) only from an RP perspective, as it turned out to be a peasants’ crusade–not a knight to be seen. The dwarves, on the other side of the map, provided more substantial help. Alliances have been solid all around, too, which is a nice change from earlier TW’s. I think all I have left to do is acquire one province from the Border Princes; I haven’t seen this Acheron fellow, but Chaos is currently defeated.
Federation is a really nice mechanic; it allows the game to keep the feel of good-vs-evil by allowing you to expand without having to conquer your friends. Similarly, the whole I-can’t-occupy-the-regions-that-the-dwarves-can mechanic is cool.
There is some funny business with the AI, though–I federated a single-town faction, and they had a full army with demigryphs and top-level buildings for the city, infanty, cavalry, and smithy lines. No way they could have afforded that on a single-town income, even with the +2000 free money you get.
I really wish there were a way to respec your lords, because I just figured out that some perks have multiple levels. I have taken so many useless perks, needlessly! Oh well.
And boy, did I flub my building choices in my capital province. All my cool troops come from provinces the next ring out, which I guess is more useful, anyway.
RH I rage quit on that Belgar ironhammer campaign 4 times. But I just kept coming back. Save scumming was minimal. I had some lucky battles.
I will put this out there without having played with the new betas: Human Empire probably pretty tough campaign. There are NO humans left in my campaign – unless you count the chaos hordes.
RH Might be time to start a new one.
ooomalley? Warhammer 2 Mortal Empires campaign is pretty tough with all the factions. Your strategy you mention would work in the short run but after 200 turns? Start a new one!
Ooomalley about that ability for the AI to afford big armies – the AI factions get a significant free gold boost. I know it is unfair but there you go. Even a single city ai faction can be a problem.
RH mortal empires is a huge CPU drain. And 3-4 minute turns just suck.
Yeah, maybe I should wait for an upgrade before diving in again. But I want to play more fantasy kingdoms!
Kristi, what strategy of mine do you mean? Savescumming? I don’t consider that a strategy. ;)
As to the AI gold bonuses, I don’t really mind them, since I’m not looking for an all-players-are-equal kind of experience (a la Civ or Age of Wonders).
So this Archaon fellow appears, with his two henchmen, the turn before I take my final required province. (It was a pretty neat, single turn declare war/assault the castle/propose peace and vassalize of the poor Border Princes, but that’s what happens when you conquer away from the border, I guess.) My two armies that had been holding down the border between Kislev and the wastes were easily outgunned by three stacks of glowing red armor, so they retreated while I brought four more armies to help out. My sole witch hunter was a massive hero, delaying armies and assassinating left and right. When they got to Praag, Larry, Curly and Moe split up as one stayed behind to lay siege. I pounced on that and eliminated one. The other two I finally cornered with four armies and settled in for a meat grinder of a battle…
My poor swordsmen did surprisingly well against the Chaos Chosen, actually… better than my Reiksgard did against their cavalry and chariots, anyway. Probably helped that their warriors were advancing through a massive amount of artillery and gunfire. Archaon himself got pretty well wrecked by a focus fire of steam tanks, handguns, two heroes and the Emperor himself. (And the remaining stooge fared no better when he showed up.) I had two mages with that quick mana recharge ability and a charging stone item, so I was blazing through the 100+ winds of magic reserve (lots of hedge wizards on the sidelines). In the end it was a pretty sweet battle that used all areas of the Empire’s roster, even if I didn’t get to try out the Luminark thingy and the demigryphys didn’t make it there either (but at least I got to play with them elsewhere).
I gotta say I was disappointed by the reinforcement mechanism, though; I thought I’d get more units when I withdrew some (or they got killed), but that didn’t happen. Instead my initial reinforcement army drew from the tops of my three reinforcing armies, but most of my troops seemed to be unavailable. (I had the control large army box checked–maybe I shouldn’t have?)
I also federated Nordland on the last turn, just to make my blue blob even bigger. Also, this vampire faction appeared in Bretonnia somewhere and saw fit to lead me on a chase though my southwestern provinces… I’m also kinda disappointed by how hard it is to chase down a rogue army.
All in all a great run. Started a new one with the Dwarves. Boy, do they have a great starting spot! The greenskins just bounce off the dwarven armor, and they have the corner of the map at their back! Dealing with cavalry is a little tricky, though.
No ooomalley I don’t think I meant savescumming but now I am not sure as I haven’t followed the thread in a few days. I think I meant maybe that Warhammer 2 (mortal empires) is a like the grand campaign in Warhammer 1 except with a ton more bad guys and a worse position. Just a lot more factions is all. It takes (me at least) 100s of turns to get stabilized in the ME campaign. BTW Oooma I bet Warhammer 2 is probably pretty durn cheap atm in the steam sale… not to be a Warhammer pusher!
But your campaign narrative is great I am reading it all. You know when I play humans as empire I sorta bee line to halberds quick so I can get some decent infantry,
Yes I am save scumming damn my eyes. Just went back to turn 66. Grrrrrrrr.
Btw Playing a (human) empire campaign now in me (mortal empires)… and holy crap it is tough.
Let us be clear if possible. A Warhammer 2 ME campaign is way way beyond any Warhammer 1 campaign. If you only have the first game then good, it is a great learning place.
Warhammer 2 (Vortex) campaign is an excellent campaign to struggle with dynamics and time.
But when you want to get serious try finishing a Warhammer 2 Mortal Empires campaign as any faction. Good heavens. There is nothing easy about that because it is a 150 turn never even know what is gonna come and get you campaign.
Agreed. Playing a Dwarves ME H/N campaign and it’s tough. Green Skins coming from every direction. And with Dwarf armies being so expensive, I can only afford a stack and a half. Lots of great strategic decisions to be made on the campaign map. And each battle needs to be won. Great game!
ME difficulty varies significantly based on faction, and it’s less about the virtues of the faction and more about the relatively safety of the starting position. High Elves are relatively easy in ME because once they unify their starting continent they have a stronghold from which to build a solid economy and pick further fights at their discretion. Dark Elves also have it pretty easy for similar reasons, because they can just work on fortifying their corner of the map and then decide where to strike out. The old world starting positions are much messier with multiple fronts to worry about for basically everyone.
New slayer king is probably the easiest dwarf. Trade with the blue dwarf, they will probably be the only ones left alive. You get to fight relatively weak undead as opposed to unending orc hordes. Once you wipe out the undead you can safely turn towards the southern orcs (which are probably next to you already).
I’m playing as Grombrindal. I am trading with both Dwarfs next to me, one not producing any income. Looking at some forum threads, the advice is to turtle until you have walls in your home province, which I do, and tech up a bit, which I’m still working on. I took one GS settlement and now I need to defend it all.
I don’t mean to imply it’s easy, I mean it’s easy compared to the other dwarfs. The other dwarfs are quite difficult because the orcs got buffed so much.
Next time I play Dwarfs I’ll use him.
I actually think a lot of the ME labels for difficulty are misleading. As wisefool was pointing out, most of the dwarves don’t really qualify as “easy” anymore, with the exception of Slayer King, who I would still call a comparatively easy start.
The Empire notably went from a simple faction to a fairly challenging one over the course of WH1, because Beastmen, Skarsnik and Norsca all got added as new threats.
They were always fairly difficult because all the Empire factions were warmongers so you’d end up in fights with like 4 people at once. They added bonuses to Franz and the like to make it easier to unify or at least be at peace eventually, but for a while there all those extra threats just got piled on top of the already rough start of fighting all the other human factions and it was pretty miserable.
My empire campaign at around 150 turns is getting dicey… let me say an old strategy game adage:
“If you are pulling back to your secondary redoubts you are probably starting to lose”
I am worried I may be losing.
BTW with all the dlcs added in there is no easy me campaign. Not one.
Ok so let me comment on Warhammer 2 ME campaign. This is not easy… on any faction. Now one thing I like about playing the empire faction (on me) is that you get 3-4 legendary lords and some great set piece quest battles. But as empire? You are in a tough place.
Just tried a nagarythe (sp) me campaign and by turn 150 the whole elven island looks like a rats nest. I mean wow. II know I am in the western wastelands but if all the other elves are gone … well…)
And all respect aside I don’t think there is ONE dwarven faction that has it easy. Even the slayer king has his hands full.
I plan on digging in again on a new avelorn campaign. She is a bit touchy feely and she has some makeup issues sure. But by gosh it isn’t easy to win a me campaign.
(esp with all dlc loaded- pirates esp)