How to play WoC (Valkia) ?

[The Alchemist]

Just need some advice with Valkia -- I feel like I might not be playing or understanding her correctly...

Obviously with WoC, we have much better vassalization options than before and the game is pushing us to use them, but I'm not 100% sure if im doing it right

so for example, as valkia, should I basically be ONLY occupying capitals or dark fortresses?
If i occupy a non-dark fortress, there are limited building options and I'm not sure if it is better to raze for the souls, etc. ?
Should I raze then gift to vassal? Which vassal should I choose?
Should I ALWAYS vassalize or should I wipe them out for their land?

People always say they want to "paint the map", but with WoC, it seems we are mostly grabbing key settlements and burning the rest?

Like when I get down to more southern regions (away from norscan tribes) such as the empire or southlands, is it expected that I coordiate with my vassals and make them follow me???

Thanks!

[tiavals]

Now, I have only archaon experience, but IMO you should only keep the dark fotresses. Sack or Raze everything else, then colonize it and gift to vassal(or let the vassal colonize it if they're close behind).

Maybe keep a single settlement if you need the boosts they give(such as in the heartland of the empire where you have 5 hostile provinces adjacent to the one you occupied).

The vassal income you get is a nice bonus since you get zero Favor/gold from the settlements yourself.

Oh, and ALWAYS keep the dark fortresses yourself. Vassalize everything that isn't a dark fortress.

As for the vassals, IMO the coolest thing is that you can take direct control of their armies(not lead by primary leader), which is great for coordinated warfare. The "please attack this army/location" commands rarely work, so it's better to take direct control.

Painting the map is worthless as a warriors of chaos, which is a great design choice in my opinion.

[Ashardalon]

you should take only the dark fortresses except when there is a resource in the village that you can use
for example iron will improve the armor of all your chaos warriors and chosen
no point giving something so precious away for some vassal

[Porpoise]

Idk if you are playing IE or ROC but i tend to gift my first two provinces to my vassal and i occupy all dark fortresses after two provinces i start to raze settlements for the souls and use war coordination to tell my vassal what settlements occupy. I also try and get a second vassal at some point and the norscans are generally pretty easy to vassalize

[Icy K]

ill tell you what i do and u decide for urself ... I take all the dark fortresses and give all the other to vasals , Dark fortresses have the money buildings and actual defences all the other places have nothing that is that worth fighting for imo what matters is painting the map with ur vassals and ur own colors and sometimes vassals can defend stuff for u even if they are slightly useless ... i find wierd that some vassals take corruption dmg from your corruption since they spread it but that is another story xD

[pahrias]

honestly Ive been playing her like khorne for the most part. I use her as a mini skarbrand with anti-flying/anti-large focus. On the map I just raze and sack my way across it. did try populating some, but you get such a pitiful garrison that its almost pointless. Use them to get magic find and souls for neighbouring regions armies and just slash and burn the rest. My vassal didnt do a right lot, took most of the starting location, then just sort of camped at the back until end game dwarf armies showed up at about 140ish, then died. I kinda ignored them, just let them do their thing. Was a little annoying when every one was declaring against them, but skulls for the skull throne, right?

[Tyrlkol]

Originally posted by Ashardalon:

you should take only the dark fortresses except when there is a resource in the village that you can use
for example iron will improve the armor of all your chaos warriors and chosen
no point giving something so precious away for some vassal

Chosen don't currently benefit from iron. My rank 9 chosen have 172 armor in Valkia's army, but the Warriors of Khorne have 202, which makes Chosen a downgrade in terms of damage soaking, but an upgrade in terms of damage dealing density.

Skullcrushers are also like that, in that they miss out on key buffs that are available to their predecessor unit (Chaos knights get magical attacks through tech that skullcrushers don't inherit, and skullcrushers don't benefit from exotic animals or the Blood Greed Chaos gift)

I don't know if any of that is intentional, but Skullcrushers are a downgrade from Lance Knights in my campaign, and Chosen are a sidegrade.

[CrUsHeR]

For the vassals, if you get the dilemma wether their leader should be wounded - always let him be wounded. Then you can take over his full main stack for free, with that you can quickly swipe large parts of the map. So don't waste allegiance points on anything else besides request army.

[Mr Misogyny]

I'm on turn 170 and I've just taken Altdorf, with Ulthuan done 40 turns earlier. Yeah make your way east for loads of dark fortresses and get them built up ASAP for the cash.

Outside of that, occupying is only for the replenishment. Giving your settlements to your vassals are a good option.

Be sure to keep an eye on corruption as Khorne corruption is a big benefit for replenishment and warband recruitment, so make sure to use commandments or own a settlement in contested regions.

Moreover, remember to ONLY VASSALISE non-order factions, or your military allies will declare war on you, by proxy. (No Bretonnia, No Empire, Def no High Elves, No Dwarfs etc)
The best way to keep your vassals and allies in line, is to make sure they either can easily become friends or at the very least have common enemies. (Norsca, Beastmen, Dark Elves, WoC, Greenskins, Vampires etc)

Other than that Valkia is a super fun campaign, just make sure to only discover factions when you're ready to fight them.

[Targaryen22]

Almost turn 300 on my current Valkia campaign. I've completely wiped the HE's off Ulthuan, Morathi is a vassal and the Quintex is a Valkia owned dark fortress and I've got norscan vassals with settlements in Lusitannia. (Pretty sure that's what the jungle down south with Hoxeoatl is called no?) and ulthuan is controlled by one of my norscan vassals. Take dark fortresses for yourself, obviously. They are your only source of passive income. Keep valkia aggressive, build up souls and post battle loot income. Don't worry bout going in the red (Been in the red in passive income for the last about 100 turns in my campaign. Still got over 300+k)
If a minor settlement or provincial capitol that ISNT a DF has a resource that is useful (iron is goated for khorn stabby boys) keep it. Otherwise, if you're vassals are close enough. Just raze everything to the dust and let them occupy it all behind you. If not, sack/raze or occupy and hold it til you can gift it to a norscan vassal.

[Cacomistle]

Imo, you should only keep dark fortresses, and a few settlements with resources. For instance wine gives +5 attack for marauders, furs give +10 armor to marauders, and iron gives +10 armor to chaos warriors.

You can also get things like 25% more ammo on marauder horsemen from wood, and I forget which one but one of the resources gives like 10% missile strength for them, but I don't think those are worth it especially as khorne where your marauder horsemen's biggest bonus is they're actually pretty good in melee. I don't remember most of the rest, but that's because I found them not that significant (I think its diamonds that's like 5% more income from buildings, and its probably marble for like -5% factionwide construction costs or something along those lines. I don't think they're worth because they're like 3000 which is gonna take a long time to pay off).

Everything else, imo you should occupy, then sell it to your vassal, or gift directly if you have the option. The norscan vassals in my experience never amount to much, so its probably best to occupy and then sell to them because their money doesn't matter, but I usually don't bother. If you get a vassal other than norsca, they're often much more useful (especially skaven, because the ai can't ♥♥♥♥ up skaven economy since every building gives income. If you gift skaven enough settlements they actually will become powerful, even if they just spam skavenslaves they're at least somewhat useful. Idk about dark elves though, if the ai actually builds their income building they're likely better)

[Targaryen22]

Originally posted by Cacomistle:

Imo, you should only keep dark fortresses, and a few settlements with resources. For instance wine gives +5 attack for marauders, furs give +10 armor to marauders, and iron gives +10 armor to chaos warriors.

You can also get things like 25% more ammo on marauder horsemen from wood, and I forget which one but one of the resources gives like 10% missile strength for them, but I don't think those are worth it especially as khorne where your marauder horsemen's biggest bonus is they're actually pretty good in melee. I don't remember most of the rest, but that's because I found them not that significant (I think its diamonds that's like 5% more income from buildings, and its probably marble for like -5% factionwide construction costs or something along those lines. I don't think they're worth because they're like 3000 which is gonna take a long time to pay off).

Everything else, imo you should occupy, then sell it to your vassal, or gift directly if you have the option. The norscan vassals in my experience never amount to much, so its probably best to occupy and then sell to them because their money doesn't matter, but I usually don't bother. If you get a vassal other than norsca, they're often much more useful (especially skaven, because the ai can't ♥♥♥♥ up skaven economy since every building gives income. If you gift skaven enough settlements they actually will become powerful, even if they just spam skavenslaves they're at least somewhat useful. Idk about dark elves though, if the ai actually builds their income building they're likely better)

Carved Obsidian gives you the maurader horse ranged weapon damage bonus. Though I don't know if I would say that's very worth it. I just get Khorne chaos knights. Skullcrushers.
I tend to give settlements to one or two norscan vassals primarily, they don't do much but whatever. Gets to the point where khorne armies just roflstomp anyways lol. Good hp on the units, lots of armor. Pottery gives +5% favour from buildings faction wide so pottery is a nice one to scoop up.

[The Grand Mugwump]

Warriors of Chaos can build outposts for their vassals. For some inane reason, the game doesn't prompt us for it. Because of this, I consider it a worthwhile trade if a chaos faction with units I'm interested in gets subjugated instead of me getting a dark fortress. All of my armies getting access to 6 tier 3 units with allied recruitment is pretty nice. For example, this is an easy way to get ratling gunners or chosen units from a minor monogod chaos faction.

[jonoliveira12]

How to Valkia:

-Bash nearby tribe.
-Get a big ball of Marauders, or whatever better units may become available, as soon as possible.
-Upgrade all your Undivided units into Khorne units.
-Every turn, have a battle, specially against large armies.
-Always give every settlement to allied tribes.
-Go for unlocking Chosen and Chaos Knights as priority.
-By turn 20 you will be stable, with a falling Economy, but piles of Gold from all the combat and pillaging.
-You need no more than 2 Armies.
-Territory control is an illusion, you need only to keep killing, until you become unstoppable.

[Kilo Wyatt]

Pretty much just what everyone else is saying raze/sack and then gift any non dark fortress settlement to one of your vassels and vasslize anyone you can since it just more money and cool outposts armies, it's fun playing chaos and getting war hydras or a skaven weapon team