How do you play as Karl Franz without losing in under 14 turns?

[Just Terrible Gameplay]

14 turns in and I'm at war with Nordland and Wissenland because 0 fealty. 2 other empire factions are dead, Vlad and Festus are destroying everything, I'm at war with Kazrak and the Ork faction which own The Black Pit. I'm getting 25 prestige per turn and I have negative authority at 42. I have 1 army. I've just quit playing that campaign.

It's nice to see that the Karl Franz faction mechanics still suck. Prestige sucks, authority sucks and fealty sucks...

[Aleera]

Or, you just suck?

I mean, I can manage it and I'm far from competent.

[Zeek]

You're doing something majorly wrong if you're fighting *againsit* fellow empire factions.

Karl's early campaigns should always follow this:

1. Kill rebels, control reikland
2. Head north, kill Khazrak
3. Kill Festus
4. Kill black put.

Return settlements to electors to build fealty

Once you've done that, you should have a great foundation made and a decision to make.

Either
A. Deal with kimmler before he comes to you, or
B. Kill vlad before he comes to you.

Whichever one is more immediately dangerous.

[JODEGAFUN]

At turn 14 Kazrak should be dealt with, Key is to resurrect fallen Electors.

[Immortalis]

How the heck did you manage to get fealty down to 0 with Nordland *and* wissenland?!?

First turn take grunburg; second turn recruit as you move to the ubersreik; third turn take ubersreik (as a bonus you can move Franz in ambush stance as you recruit with a second lord, ideally a huntsmen general, prompting the separatists to attack him and falling in the ambush; if you’re particularly lucky you might manage to snatch an artillery piece as well); fourth turn take eilhart and kill off the separatists.
Move your second lord back to altdorf and kill off Khazrak when he attacks there.

The Black pit should have killed middenland by now so next turn advance with Franz over to Carroburg and kill their army.
Next advance on Middenheim; again, if you’re lucky the auto resolve at Altdorf did not kill Khazrak and you get his defeat traits with both lords. Transfer whatever units you need to fill Karl’s army and move on.
Take middenheim and kill Khazrak off.
Advance on the black pit and restore middenland there. Leave your second lord in the area to recruit and colonise the last two settlements in Middenland. Meanwhile move Franz towards Marienburg and take on Kemmler and then Grom, gobbling up as much of Bretonnia as you can.

Whilst you do that, focus on building up the territory you get and improve your economy.
By turn 30 you should have done all of the above (mind you, it doesn’t require any crazy microing of battle, pretty much anything can be autoresolved) and enough of an economic base to afford Karl’s army, a spearmen and archers army in Middenland guarding the North and another similar army protecting your Bretonnian provinces.

As Karl moves back to Reikland he should be able to recruit better units to go hunting for Festus and Vlad.

As for the rest, imperial authority is not something you should be concerned, the maluses are negligible in the early game and elector counts dying off one after the other is actually advantageous to you; the only one you should really want to confederate is Elspeth, the rest are just generic lords with a lore name attached (Todbringer has a unique model but doesn’t bring anything to your faction, either).

[JODEGAFUN]

Originally posted by Immortalis:

How the heck did you manage to get fealty down to 0 with Nordland *and* wissenland?!?

First turn take grunburg; second turn recruit as you move to the ubersreik; third turn take ubersreik (as a bonus you can move Franz in ambush stance as you recruit with a second lord, ideally a huntsmen general, prompting the separatists to attack him and falling in the ambush; if you’re particularly lucky you might manage to snatch an artillery piece as well); fourth turn take eilhart and kill off the separatists.
Move your second lord back to altdorf and kill off Khazrak when he attacks there.

The Black pit should have killed middenland by now so next turn advance with Franz over to Carroburg and kill their army.
Next advance on Middenheim; again, if you’re lucky the auto resolve at Altdorf did not kill Khazrak and you get his defeat traits with both lords. Transfer whatever units you need to fill Karl’s army and move on.
Take middenheim and kill Khazrak off.
Advance on the black pit and restore middenland there. Leave your second lord in the area to recruit and colonise the last two settlements in Middenland. Meanwhile move Franz towards Marienburg and take on Kemmler and then Grom, gobbling up as much of Bretonnia as you can.

Whilst you do that, focus on building up the territory you get and improve your economy.
By turn 30 you should have done all of the above (mind you, it doesn’t require any crazy microing of battle, pretty much anything can be autoresolved) and enough of an economic base to afford Karl’s army, a spearmen and archers army in Middenland guarding the North and another similar army protecting your Bretonnian provinces.

As Karl moves back to Reikland he should be able to recruit better units to go hunting for Festus and Vlad.

As for the rest, imperial authority is not something you should be concerned, the maluses are negligible in the early game and elector counts dying off one after the other is actually advantageous to you; the only one you should really want to confederate is Elspeth, the rest are just generic lords with a lore name attached (Todbringer has a unique model but doesn’t bring anything to your faction, either).

Todbringer has a very cool wapon which make him better then the generic general

[Immortalis]

Originally posted by JODEGAFUN:

Todbringer has a very cool wapon which make him better then the generic general

As any other lord but Karl Franz yes. As Karl however you can get legbiter simply by naming a new elector count of Middenland and you can do that as soon as you take over Middenheim (turn 8-9).

Boris is slightly better than a generic lord but only just slightly.
However I mentioned him precisely because he might be the only one OP might care about confederating beside Elspeth. The rest aren’t even worth wasting time on, the sooner they die off the better so you can easily take over their lands (and sell it to Elspeth; you’ll get money and she’ll develop those settlements. When all is said and done confederate her via the imperial authority mechanic and ta-da)

[Kameh]

I'm impressed you're at with other empire factions this early, or at all now really.

[I Throw Spears.]

Guys, OP's name is accurate. Im not sure he can be saved.

[Talilover]

Hate to hop on the wagon but can assure you it's not the faction mechanic that sucks, really got a major glow up with the update.

I like to keep a minimum of 1k prestige to prevent successions/ civil wars but beyond that you should always be spending it on the decrees, my personal favs other than the confed option being the instant pop surplus and free support army for one of the electors (not sure how much it helps, but I like the thoughts and prayers idea behind it at least).

Speaking of factions I understand hochland is always pretty much a write off and more often than not that spirals into middenland biting the dust early on but what did you do to lose fealty with wissenland (top priority to confed imo) and nordland?

Karl Franz definitely isn't a freebie campaign like Tyrion or Ikit claw but he has the tools to dominate if you just use your head a bit, maybe lower the campaign difficulty to get the hang of things?

[pascal.difolco]

Originally posted by Zeek:

You're doing something majorly wrong if you're fighting *againsit* fellow empire factions.

Karl's early campaigns should always follow this:

1. Kill rebels, control reikland
2. Head north, kill Khazrak
3. Kill Festus
4. Kill black put.

Return settlements to electors to build fealty

Once you've done that, you should have a great foundation made and a decision to make.

Either
A. Deal with kimmler before he comes to you, or
B. Kill vlad before he comes to you.

Whichever one is more immediately dangerous.

There should also be "1b - Take Marienburg", this stops Kemmler from expanding North and makes good money
Also Khazrak army usually suicide itself assaulting Altdorf, recruit a cheap Lord and a couple archers to be sure of it
You can do 1- 1b- 2 in under 12 turns (even at Leg difficukty)

[dulany67]

Yeah, there is an issue. It's with you.

[VonFIDDE]

Wow after this post it's pretty darn clear we need Halflings in order to boost the Empire.

[Ashley]

If you lose a campaign in 14 turns that's on you I think

Or is this one of those "whaaa the start is hard so I rage quit" topics where a person has to struggle for like 10-15 turns

[Zeek]

Originally posted by I Throw Spears.:

Guys, OP's name is accurate. Im not sure he can be saved.

Lol

[Filthy Pollo 🐔]

Originally posted by Just Terrible Gameplay:

14 turns in and I'm at war with Nordland and Wissenland because 0 fealty. 2 other empire factions are dead, Vlad and Festus are destroying everything, I'm at war with Kazrak and the Ork faction which own The Black Pit. I'm getting 25 prestige per turn and I have negative authority at 42. I have 1 army. I've just quit playing that campaign.

It's nice to see that the Karl Franz faction mechanics still suck. Prestige sucks, authority sucks and fealty sucks...

Skill issue