How do you deal with AI multiple armies early game?

[Veg]

First, I think it's important to mention that I'm not a really experienced total war warhammer 3 player and I play on Normal/Normal.

Now, the problem that I have. In almost every campaign that I've played so far, AI gets a second army really early on, when I can afford only one army, so I have to fight 2 armies of like 30 or even 40 units with only one army of 20 units. And it leads to me having disaster battles right from the start of a campaign, with pyrrhic victories and extremely high casualties, which makes early game so frustrating and annoying. So far, the only solution I've been able to come up with is just rushing lightning strike no matter what lord you play, this way you can actually negate the AI's superiority in numbers by denying it reinforcements and beating those 2 armies separately. Is it a valid strategy? May be I'm just doing something wrong? Have you ever had a similar problem, and, if so, how do you deal with it?

[capybaras are cool]

the ai shouldnt really be outnumbering you on normal outside of goofy chaff factions like vampire counts or skaven. you probably arent expanding fast enough to get the economy you need.

[capybaras are cool]

also a pyrrhic victory of 20 units against 40 of similar tier is a pretty good outcome especially in the early game when your units are easily replaced.

[Avallac]

Battle AI is pathetic, so normally you can just kill them all with your ranged units without even any cheese. If you have cavalry you can easily kill their ranged units with cav and have your archers shoot their melee, or even flank around and shoot their units in the back. The AI also loves to just run all its units piled up on top of each other in big blobs, so a couple spells and their army is gone. If they have cavalry you should counter them with anti large monsters or anti large cav and then flank and destroy their melee infantry or archers if there are any left still after your cav is finished with theirs. If you can't get to their archers with large/cav just use your own archers to kill theirs. AI is braindead so will just stand around doing nothing with their archers trying to shoot into the melee row while LOS is blocked.

If you still struggle, perhaps you will enjoy Radious overhaul. Its similar to vanilla but much improved. The upkeep is reduced so both you and AI can have more armies (depending on difficulty) and you will actually see proper 40 vs 40 units battles sometimes and there are more fights overall so you don't just win 1 battle and then capture a bunch of empty settlements for the next 10 turns like in vanilla. Overall at easier difficulty settings you should be able to have more armies so that should help with your specific issue of not having enough units to fight outnumbered.

Also rush growth and higher tier military buildings as fast as possible, use any way you can to speed it up, that way you can get an upper hand on unit quality vs the AI and win outnumbered much easier when you have better units.

[raynay]

Having a small army (or even just a lord) baiting the enemy and ya main army in ambushstance in its sphere is a known tactic....on YT look for zerkovich he has some pretty good "noob" guides helping getting into the game

[OpalGotMyHeart]

So in my experience theres 4 tactics that work well.

first: rush lightning strike, since this skill removes reinforcements when attacking you are able to just disregard them and fight a fair one on one fight with only minor debuffs.

second: lean into ambush, these similar to the lightning strike remove all reinforcements, even if the ambush fails on contact, and if it suceeds you can really devestate the army in a full flanking position.

third: combat retreat, in combat if you have not fled that turn from a fight you are allowed to retreat from that fight, this means you can utilize your winds of magic and offensive abilities or artillery to weaken the army then retreat away before you take any losses. Then if they attack you again youll have a better chance.

fourth, rush a second army, the easiest way to deal with enemy reinforcements is to build your own reinforcements and even out that playing field.

[Veg]

thank you for your comments guys, may be I just should reconsider my overall strategy. also, the idea of using ambush with a bait army really appeals to me :)

[Avallac]

Originally posted by Veg:

thank you for your comments guys, may be I just should reconsider my overall strategy. also, the idea of using ambush with a bait army really appeals to me :)

You can also use encamped stance, it gives +5 melee defense when you get attacked which can actually make a good difference when fighting outnumbered. You can also position your army in tree area on the map (it will show different ambush success chances based on terrain your army is in) and you can try and ambush if the chance is good with your main army, no need for a bait as well if you know which path the enemies are gonna take to go to your closest settlement.

[Pönnukaka]

Originally posted by Veg:

thank you for your comments guys, may be I just should reconsider my overall strategy. also, the idea of using ambush with a bait army really appeals to me :)

Depends on faction, but I tend to build up my growth and income early. This allows you to try and catch up to AI making them out of thin air. But it requires more skill with an army (as you will roll with 1 stack tops) and magic. Manual battles early are a must. If anything, I tend to lean into magic (or skills or items, be flexible) and creating the best situations to utilize it - got some nice aoe? Burning head against undead? Metal caster? Pit of Shades? Look around the map. Maybe there is a tighter spot that will force them to come grouped up from a certain angle. When they do, you pepper them with that spell, hitting multiple units. Learn the timing and synchronize with their approach so it catches as many as possible. If you're facing a bigger force, it might be good to wait and load up on winds first if they are not attacking, (that's why it's good to be attacker, you decide the flow of battle a lot) since using spells will slower how fast you gain winds from reserves.

AI won't dodge like mad on normal, but they will run away from bombardments usually - wait for them to connect with your frontline to do those. Sometimes it's a bit cheesy when you find that one way tight gap and just wait creating perfect line, so your wind spell can just obliterate them..but that's how you gain advantage to build up money, without losing too much army strength (important, so others don't attack you and so you can keep attacking current enemy) - at least that's how I try to transition from early game.

[Raider Deci]

Originally posted by Veg:

First, I think it's important to mention that I'm not a really experienced total war warhammer 3 player and I play on Normal/Normal.

Now, the problem that I have. In almost every campaign that I've played so far, AI gets a second army really early on, when I can afford only one army, so I have to fight 2 armies of like 30 or even 40 units with only one army of 20 units. And it leads to me having disaster battles right from the start of a campaign, with pyrrhic victories and extremely high casualties, which makes early game so frustrating and annoying. So far, the only solution I've been able to come up with is just rushing lightning strike no matter what lord you play, this way you can actually negate the AI's superiority in numbers by denying it reinforcements and beating those 2 armies separately. Is it a valid strategy? May be I'm just doing something wrong? Have you ever had a similar problem, and, if so, how do you deal with it?

I also get a second army very early on. Both might not be at full strenght but I usually have 2 lords working togheter. Even a secondary with cheap but boosted units can give great results during the first turns (example a huntsmarshal-lord with Archers for the Empire, 180 range after 2 upgrades for a tier1-unit). I lean into ambushes very heavily, one army sits at bait & the other in ambush at a distance I know I can retreat from.

Always try to choose where to fight on as favorable terms as possible, keep an eye on their movement & distance and always scout ahead.
A hero that blocks movement, so usually not the first turns, is also a very good tool to have around & should not be underestimated.