Why does the empire suck

[Mr. Frost]

I enjoy a good challenge in the game. But holy hell does the Empire suck ass to play as. The early game economy alone is the worst. One full stack army with basic troops nothing over tier 2, cept the starting special units with 4 provinces owned and no other armies or heroes. All income buildings built in every city.....500 gold per turn. Anyone else think this messed up? I have been playing a Elspeth campaign and this girl needs to apply for food stamps.

[bearfieldlee]

Karl Franz happens to be my favourite campaign. You can do a lot with a couple of generals levelled up with lightning strike and by picking your battles carefully. I don't usually have much of a problem with money to be honest. I build lots of industry.

[Malaficus Shaikan]

Because the empire is the protaganist of the setting and this gets the most enemies?

The empire doesnt suck as much as you need to spend your first 50 turns saving middlehem from beastmen and the east from vlad.

Early game empire is you doing what the empire does in lore:
Save the empire from its enemies.
Unlike other factions you are disencouraged from just conquering your neighbors.
But letting middlehem fall and taking the lands from the beastmen?
Perfectly fine.
And like every other faction: 2 armies of low tier units will win 90% of the auto resolves.

[JaredNomac]

Elspeth is absurdly strong

[Enelith]

Most likely, you're just not used to play them.
They're strong, if you know what you're doing and how to play regular humans.

[badger vortex]

empire aren't a strong faction as far as roster goes, they are middle of the road. however they do have some lords with very strong mechanics that make up for it to some degree

in particular with elspeth you shouldn't be struggling, her buffs to gunpowder and unique amethyst units do put her as one of the best empire lords, gelt is probably top though with his wizard doomstack

[Frenker]

i would think you are just not aggressive enough ? or something
this is what i was thinking

Originally posted by JaredNomac:

Elspeth is absurdly strong

same with wizard guy...

[dulany67]

Elspeth may be the easiest campaign in the game.

[badger vortex]

Originally posted by dulany67:

Elspeth may be the easiest campaign in the game.

not by a long shot. deceiver is easiest, most beastmen factions you won't get attacked and ambushing on attack is very powerful, most warriors of chaos now are much stronger because vassals recruit armies quicker and with better compositions, skarbrand bonus campaign movement and just general killing power puts him ahead too. i'd argue all dwarf factions are easier too just because of how strong their early armies are

[heh]

Eh? Karl is really powerful now, with the new prestige mechanics, and Elspeth is powercreeped as well. Gelt is super strong too, whether you stay in cathay or return to the empire. And Volkmar's books are super strong as well. Haven't played the huntmaster. But empire doesn't suck at all. Even with all the beastmen and chaos factions and vampires in the middle of the empire, the imperial factions don't have a problem managing it anymore.

[Froz7y]

The good guys depend on heroes more than the bad guys.

[PhyrixisGaming]

I would argue that the Tomb Kings have the worst early game economy. But that's me.

[ChaosKhan]

Originally posted by Mr. Frost:

I enjoy a good challenge in the game. But holy hell does the Empire suck ass to play as. The early game economy alone is the worst. One full stack army with basic troops nothing over tier 2, cept the starting special units with 4 provinces owned and no other armies or heroes. All income buildings built in every city.....500 gold per turn. Anyone else think this messed up? I have been playing a Elspeth campaign and this girl needs to apply for food stamps.

Something is very wrong with the numbers you presented. 4 "provinces" (I think you mean settlements, but whatever), should drop way more income than you describe. Here a couple screenshots on VH/VH:
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198007295077/screenshot/2392061126909087147/

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198007295077/screenshot/2392061126909086466/

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198007295077/screenshot/2392061126909086048/

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198007295077/screenshot/2392061126909085303/

As you can immediately see, the income is generous. You can easily afford recruiting even abouther half-stack without going red. So it's not Empire that "sucks" but something going on on your end.

If you keep insisting, feel free to post your screenshots

[ChaosKhan]

Originally posted by ✨𝒞𝑜𝓈𝓂𝑜𝓈 ✨:

Originally posted by Mr. Frost:

I enjoy a good challenge in the game. But holy hell does the Empire suck ass to play as. The early game economy alone is the worst. One full stack army with basic troops nothing over tier 2, cept the starting special units with 4 provinces owned and no other armies or heroes. All income buildings built in every city.....500 gold per turn. Anyone else think this messed up? I have been playing a Elspeth campaign and this girl needs to apply for food stamps.

Check out the Empire with Radious mod:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3315116226

It's much more fun with a lot more units :LIS_pixel_heart:
And the Radious game economy is better, allows you to create multiply armies, same for the enemy :LIS_Arrow:


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2791750313

Radious is a gold coated pile of garbage imho. Sure, the first 40 turns or so are fun, but once you have to start invading a single province with 15!!!!! stacks because you need to fight down 12+ enemy stacks, the mod shows, that it doesn't respect the players time at all. In all seriousness: Who wants to spend a whole evening doing a single turn on turn 40 because you need to fight 6+ 2v2 or 3v3 battles and then spend another half an hour regrouping and moving. The mod turns the game into a chore and the balance isn't even better. Just more units, but those units take away from the factions individuality, because the philosophy of the mod is to give every faction every unit type, no matter how badly it breaks the game and the lore. So you will have Empire fielding top tier infantry that can take on chosens, Vampire Counts being capable of building ranged armies, etc.

I honestly don't want to know what happens in this mod around turn 100. You probably need whole days to resolve a single turn and get something done.

[Zeek]

Are you purposely trying to lose the campaign? That's the only thing i think of if someone is struggling as Elspeth.

[Delicia Suprema]

Originally posted by Mr. Frost:

I enjoy a good challenge in the game. But holy hell does the Empire suck ass to play as. The early game economy alone is the worst. One full stack army with basic troops nothing over tier 2, cept the starting special units with 4 provinces owned and no other armies or heroes. All income buildings built in every city.....500 gold per turn. Anyone else think this messed up? I have been playing a Elspeth campaign and this girl needs to apply for food stamps.

Tip. Always use spear for big enemies and sword for small enemies. For some reason Total war thinks that spears are bad for attacking. Have you seen a swordman try to attack a spearman ? Almost all the time spearman have the advantage.