Is there an easy way past Last Defenders start?

[Kalvix]

Been going through all the factions and my god this is by far the worst so far. You don't have the money for more than 1 army, thats fine normally you don't for a few turns. BUT the issue is you are surrounded by skaven with 2 full stacks, sure you have better troops and can beat them, but the jungles and jagged paths mean they just underway everywhere, so you end up chasing them around the map non stop or just accepting you are losing towns.

Is there actually anything you can do about this? or do you just need to go south to kill those skaven first and accept your 1st 2 towns will probably get taken, then move on to deal with the rats to the north as they tunnel through jungles you slowly slog through non stop while praying maybe your hero can actually block them for once.

[Aleera]

Kroq-gar has a bonus to ambush, utilize it.

[Kalvix]

That has helped tidy up after, but ye the accept your capital will be taken strat has proven the way to go.

Why is it some factions have a nice chilled start, but others you basically need to accept you'll lose most of your settlements over and over until you finally stabilise. No wonder there are some factions people just don't play much. If I wasn't forcing myself on a short victory for all of them I'd probably have given up there as well as it just looks like such a pain in the bum start.

[Enelith]

Originally posted by Kalvix:

Why is it some factions have a nice chilled start, but others (...)

It's called diversity (and "luring newcomers").
And tbh, the "chilled start" factions are kind of an heresy. They should all struggle in different ways.

[Kalvix]

Theres a difference between struggle and "my god you're going to die" though. Last Defenders the only way I can find to progress well is just accept settlement losses at the start. Theres no much else you can do when you can only afford 1 reasonable army but are flanked by 2 skaven factions that hate you and field 2 full stacks very early on.

I mean you could sit in your starting area and ambush to deal with them slowly, but you'll end up way behind.

[Enelith]

Nah, you won't fall behind.
You're smarter than them, and considering losing a settlement as more xp for your Lords.

[Kalvix]

God I hate the last defenders... try and move north and EVERYBODY up there hates you and starts a huge screw you party, and meanwhile while not at war with me Tzneetch steals a capital city from me, then the dwarves declare war on me as well.

I'm guessing you aren't meant to go into Khemri from this, as doing so seems like completele suicide for how many people instantly declare war on all sides.

[Balkoth]

Astromancy Stance really increases chance of intercept and you should have enough starting money at that point to afford two basic armies (basically either two stacks of mostly Skinks or two smaller Saurus armies). Crush the Skaven to the north before the southern Skaven declare war on you.

Here's an example of where I forgot Astromancy Stance existed and I didn't split into two basic armies (both of which can kill a Clan Rat/Skavenslave army) and I managed to pull through anyway on VH/VH:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoXdIxCtXxWdFaBoAabMvGEb4Axst21Cy

[Kalvix]

Ok seriously just screw the last defenders, finally kill both Skaven, decided to kill Lahmia and the dwarves to the north as they will declare war on me if I don't and oh look, its the other Lizardmen declaring war on me in the far south while I have 2 full stacks of dwarves in the north after just killing Lahmia.

Oh goody, oh great, oh fantastic, oh I love how once again I basically need to decide to let half my settlements get taken as I can't possible defend against so many huge powerful enemies declaring war for no reason. I didn't know Dwarves and Lizardmen were such big lovers of Skaven and the undead as thats the only people I've killed so far.

[Balkoth]

What turn are you on and what difficulty are you playing?

Is there a reason you didn't get a non-aggression pact with Tic-Tac-Toe at that point?

[Kalvix]

hard hard on turn 48, and I didn't get one as the first faction I could ally was the HEs down there and the smaller lizardmen faction, but apparently my Tic Tac is a psychopath who wants to murder all order factions near him so he declared war on both of them giving me huge negatives to him so he wouldn't go near me.

I guess I'm going to have to restart and just wait for him to like me enough for a non-aggression and accept he's going to kill every other order faction near me, and just hope I guess that I'm not 1 of the order factions his AI just decides needs to die before even thinking about going near the undead or Tzeentch

[Fryskar]

Originally posted by Balkoth:

What turn are you on and what difficulty are you playing?

Is there a reason you didn't get a non-aggression pact with Tic-Tac-Toe at that point?

^
Decided to try it on H/H.
Just mopping up clan mors on t60, after wiping the initial 2 skaven clans, then rolling over lahmia.

[Kalvix]

Well I don't know what I did wrong, but if I was just fighting Skaven and Lahmia this would be easy, but Tic Tac is declaring war on me, and the dwarves declared war on me a while ago forcing me to go north to wipe them out before they got to powerful.

So ye I think I just need to restart and not ally anybody until Tic Tac lets me be his friend.

[Kalvix]

Well turns out the dwarves are fight Mor and dying Tic really didn't move fast enough to take more than 1 town so I'm somehow ok... but seriously why are 2 people who should be my allies now going to be the people I take all the land of?

[Balkoth]

Originally posted by Kalvix:

So ye I think I just need to restart and not ally anybody until Tic Tac lets me be his friend.

Alternatively plan on going to war with him. He didn't declare war on you for fighting Skaven, he declared war on you for being friends with Teclis and possibly the other Lizardman faction down there. In theory you could hold down the northern front and then fight TTT to the west instead.

Either way you need to make sure you get non-aggression with people or assume they'll declare war on you eventually -- especially how the AI really absolutely HATES it when it feels you don't have significant enemies (so either not at war with anyone or only at war with factions you've already effectively beaten and are mopping up).

Is it dumb? Yeah, means it's really hard to choose your targets. But it affects all factions, not just Last Defenders specifically or something.

In my most recent Last Defenders I had an early NAP with TTT and then got NAP with Dwarfs because they liked me fighting Lahmia. Then I sailed east to take out Kugath/Nurgle and went from there...but I could have also decided to fight the Dwarfs and continue north or gone after TTT after Lahmia too.

[Balkoth]

Originally posted by Kalvix:

but seriously why are 2 people who should be my allies now going to be the people I take all the land of?

Why should they be your allies? You have a different interpretation of the Great Plan compared to TTT and why would the dwarfs consider lizards a friend?

Not being mortal enemies does not mean they're steadfast allies.