Kairos Fateweaver IE Campaign start is nearly impossible

[Strategist]

Or do I just suck? (I'm very experienced so I doubt that)

Idk what others are experiencing, but I play on Very Hard campaign difficulty + Normal Battle difficulty... and this campaign is the hardest I've probably ever played in any total war.

The Nurgle faction you fight at the start is easy, but then Rapturous Excess and Teclis declare war on you instantly. Teclis has 2 full stacks and Rapturous Excess has an EXALTED DAEMONETTE spam army, by default (its there every time). I've tried playing the first 15-20 turns or so at least 5 times now and there is no way to get a good start.

Even tried using Changing of the Ways to create a buffer, but then that means you cant get a whole province. I never played this with the Fortress of Dawn start position, but I can't imagine this being easier. To make matters worse. Your "ally" tzeentch faction to the west gets obliterated by Oxyotl, who then ALSO declares war instantly by around turn 20, not giving enough time to clean up any of these 3 factions after taking out Nurgle. Meanwhile, I only have money for 1 full stack, maybe 1.5 stacks at most. WTF

[Zeek]

Havnt tried the new start location but this was pretty much the same problem when he started at the fortress of dawn. Zerged by multiple factions on multiple fronts and you were at the mercy of what the AI did during the very early game.

Sounds like moving him to Southern wastes didn't fix that.

[fmalfeas]

So far, my strat is to blitz down the nurgle, adding Forsaken to my troops by the end of the blitz. Then, /immediately/ press on to the pervgod daemons. If fast enough, should be able to burn them down before Teclis shows.

Where my strat falters is I'm still trying to figure out how to deal with Teclis + Oxyotl. When the skink heads east, that's way too much pressure.

[Aurelian]

Yup, same experience here. After multiple tries my best result happened when I continued east and managed to get all four Slaanesh cities by the time Oxyotly took out my original four. I thought I would be able to push west but as soon as I started, a beast man army spawned behind me a razed a city. I took them out and tried to face the lizard men but 3 three full stacks from them made it difficult. I managed to wipe out two of their armies but the last one I couldn't defeat because of their army composition compared to mine.

My army was mainly Blue and Pink horrors along with a Cultist hero. Not sure what the optimal early game army composition would be. Dont have much time to field anything else due to the time constraints/income. Thought about getting a few Exalted pink horrors but never got around to it plus their upkeep seemed high.

Definitely the hardest campaign I have had in WH total war.

[A.Pot]

Turning down the difficulty is always an option

[Ashardalon]

their towns have no wizards
so the god of magics need to boost the local winds to make any money means the enemy gets a lot of magic to fight you while you get nothing
beyond that you have blue horrors
its like undead towns having a single zomby as garrison or chaos having to defend their towns with a single warhound
the ammo of the entire garrison might take down half a unit
its a fundamentally broken faction from towns to armys to spells

[Kel'Thuzad]

I took out Nurgle & Slaanesh to the East, then Oxytl besieged my capitol with 2 full stacks (at turn 22...).
I started heading back West to re-take my capitol, only to have all of my Eastern settlements razed by the f---ing Beastmen that lurk about hidden.

The long, thin shape of the terrain really demands that you have two armies (one on each front). But his early economy simply can't afford it.

Oxytl also has some pretty OP units.. The Skink Oracle in particular is ridiculous.
He also had Blessed Kroxigors, Bastilidons and gold rank Chameleon Skinks.
Kairos' early units are just no match for them. Especially 2 stacks against 1.

[Karol]

Can just insta peace out nurgle on turn 1 or 2 giving them back their settlement in a deal. Then take out tzeentch (they have scary looking army but it's easy to kill in an ambush, just lure them out).
So it's turn 10 and just 1v1 lizards, like how can you not win that with ambush attack.

[Kel'Thuzad]

Originally posted by Karol:

Can just insta peace out nurgle on turn 1 or 2 giving them back their settlement in a deal. Then take out tzeentch (they have scary looking army but it's easy to kill in an ambush, just lure them out).
So it's turn 10 and just 1v1 lizards, like how can you not win that with ambush attack.

Wouldn't Slaanesh just take out Nurgle if you don't? Whichever way you choose to expand first, you still end up with a threat coming from the other direction.

[Karol]

Yeah but that's not a legendary Lord, should be easier to deal with.

[IonizedMercury]

Play on VH, complains that it's hard.

Lower the difficulty then?

You are aware you are playing the faction that should be all about smarts, right?

[Karol]

I don't see much complaining just people trying to figure out how to deal with it. This one indeed is a bit tricky.

Going straight for oxyotl also means you won't meet teclis. And nurgle vs slanesh actually can't kill each other, so you have time to decide what to do next.

[Random bystander]

Originally posted by PMarricks:

Play on VH, complains that it's hard.

Lower the difficulty then?

You are aware you are playing the faction that should be all about smarts, right?

Be smart Yourself and don't give advice to player to lower the difficulty if he want to know the way to beat game on hardest.

[Fendelphi]

Originally posted by Random bystander:

Originally posted by PMarricks:

Play on VH, complains that it's hard.

Lower the difficulty then?

You are aware you are playing the faction that should be all about smarts, right?

Be smart Yourself and don't give advice to player to lower the difficulty if he want to know the way to beat game on hardest.

Still, if the issue is "I do not know how to play Kairos in his new start position against these faction, on very hard", then lowering the difficulty and learning the new position and its quirks first(where to expand and pacing), seem prudent.

[Kalon]

Have you tried getting better at the game? I looked at IE for Kairos and he looks to have one of the best starting positions. I was going to do my legendary run as Kairos on IE until I found out that IE doesn't give achievements.
Like, do you use ambushes? You know if you attack in teleport stance, its an ambush right? What is your army composition? Tzeentch can spam pink horros and forsaken for some EZ wins. Tzeentch spell casting is OP.
Are you not playing aggressively and letting the computer amass power?

[moradim]

Originally posted by Fendelphi:

Originally posted by Random bystander:

Be smart Yourself and don't give advice to player to lower the difficulty if he want to know the way to beat game on hardest.

Still, if the issue is "I do not know how to play Kairos in his new start position against these faction, on very hard", then lowering the difficulty and learning the new position and its quirks first(where to expand and pacing), seem prudent.

Lower or up the difficulty , will change nothing .It is an economic problem, that of Kairos is so bad that it is difficult to raise a second decent army.

And with the increased AI aggro, the player will still take Teclis and Oxyotl within the first 20 turns.
In addition, the garrisons are so pathetic at the moment that it is almost impossible for a minor city to defend itself even against a full army composed of only tier 1 units.

Ha and for those who don't know whether you are in legendary or easy the money you receive on each turn is 3000 gold. Winnings for battle results whether you are in legendary or easy are also the same. The only thing that the difficulty mode changes in terms of money is the sum that we have in round 1 in total.