What are some good coop faction combos?

[Forblaze]

I have a friend that's new to the franchise that wants to play a coop campaign. What are some good combinations of legendary lords that start close to each other, don't step on each other's toes, and one of whom is new player friendly?

[Father Ribs]

Beastmen and Khorne go good together because beastmen destroys settlements and prevents re-settlement until their herdstone is destroyed, while khorne can passsively still settle those territoriess.

Try to find two factions that don't share the same favored terrain (like say, Dwarf and Empire), sso that more can be settled and less inter-competition, or if you're into army building, pick one that will supplement your faction (like VC allying with a faction with missile troops).

Or how about the two main cathay factions, or western cathay and the ogres?

[Sovereign Star]

You can do some weird alliance, or rather inside-job alliance.

Dread Fleet helping Tyrion or Allariel securing Ulthuan, Clan Skrye helping Wood Elf save for Drycha, Changling assist Karl Franz or Elspeth securing Empire, Clan Moulder helps Ice Court
or Malakai fighting back Chaos invasion, Archaeon the Neverchosen and Boris Ursus have a little fun together razing down Chaos together.

The list can probably go on, but on and all, helping your friend as Changling while he play as Empire, Dread Fleet keep an eye out for him playing as High Elf, or assist Forest recovery operation as Ikit Claw would be most fun way to introduce new players into the game.

[Pönnukaka]

Originally posted by Forblaze:

I have a friend that's new to the franchise that wants to play a coop campaign. What are some good combinations of legendary lords that start close to each other, don't step on each other's toes, and one of whom is new player friendly?

Any faction that lacks certain types of units and/or are close to each other. 100% ignoring anything 'lore wise', you can pick up for example Grombi + Malekith or any other combo you wish to see as long as it is covering each other back and possibly gives you units that normally you couldn't have and you might need. The main idea being that you have certain plan for the region and how to split it between you two. You don't need to be so close to each other, but since your friend it new, probably a lot of autoresolve power will be useful - get him some dwarf going and support him with something from not too far.

[Lord Farquad]

man,dwarf. man elf, elf lizardmen, lizardmen dwarf. elf,dwarf.(but you wouldn't do that right? they shaved a dawi's beard!) Chorft, and any chaos goes well. Greenskins,chaos. to name a few, and alot of them will start near eachother

[Adamsevs]

A combo of a horde/semi horde faction with one that is not is rather good

Vampire counts / Vampire coast duo

Ogres / any non corruption faction (ogres can put a camp inside the proviince of other player from which he could build armies, also allowing recruitment of ogre mercenaries for the ally's tropps nearby)

Monogod faction / beastmen or warrior of chaos

[KoboldUtopian]

Franz + Louen. Ikit + Wurzag. N'Kari + Morathi.

Good to find partners with similar corruption. Ideal combo is on the same side of order/destruction/chaos, otherwise you will find that everyone hates you for being friends with their enemy.

Currently playing Arhkan + Mannfred. It's quite fun since we start close and have natural enemies/allies. Also we are racing against each other for the books to add a little competition.

[KoboldUtopian]

Originally posted by Father Ribs:

Beastmen and Khorne go good together because beastmen destroys settlements and prevents re-settlement until their herdstone is destroyed, while khorne can passsively still settle those territoriess.

This one can be tough though because Skarbrand needs to fight a lot of battles each turn and will mostly need to fight them manually; could get tedious for the other player unless you're happy sharing units.

[Cenwalh]

Besides the combos already mentioned, I'd like to add a tip when playing co-op:
Try to start the co-op campaign in a neutral relation with your fellow human. That is, don't start it on the same team with them, that will automatically create a military alliance from the start.
Rather, I would suggest you give a try to starting on free for all. The big reason is, if you want to try weird combos such as Noctilus + Tyrion as someone suggested earlier, then you will have a really hard time earning the trust of your fellow Elves - since you have a military alliance with Noctilus, they will hate you.

This goes for a lot of combos. If you don't want to ruin the diplomatic standing with potentially friendly factions, I suggest giving FFA a try. This doesn't rule out a military alliance - you can basically do an alliance with your human co-op partner at any time (provided you meet their faction), so that's still on the table.

Of course, if you go for a combo such as Chaos-aligned faction + another Chaos-aligned faction (Skarbrand + Beastmen, for example), then starting with military alliance is not an issue, since everyone will hate you anyway.

For Order-aligned factions, it's a bit trickier and it depends entirely on specific factions. Humans + Dwarfs is usually a very safe combo in terms of what I was saying with diplo relations. Humans & Wood Elves, on the other hand, that's a bit sketchy and you will anger some Order factions. And so on...

On the other hand, there's also the consideration of choosing to have a much harder campaign by forgoing any potential friendly relations with AI-controlled factions. I did that once and it was a much, much more difficult campaign - I was playing as Archaon and my ally was playing as Throt. This made it extremely difficult for him to confederate the other Skaven leaders (some actually impossible), but overall it was basically us 2 vs. every other faction in the game.

[Falaris]

Do you want a lore-friendly matchup?

By default, I would recommend the Chemical Bromance - Balthasar Gelt and the earth dragon, I forget his name. (Cathay guy, not gal, not green.).

Trying to keep the list names that are close in both location and power.

Grimgor/Zathan (yeah, not very loreful, but it works.).
Drazoath/Greasus
Greasus/Grom the Paunch (The Weight Watchers gimmick, but not that close).
Morathi/Ostankya/Mazdamundi (any two of those work
Mazdamundi/Yuan Bo
Karl Franz/Thorgrim Grudgebearer (The most iconic of loreful teamups)
Azhag/Vlad (Iconic and loreful)
Morathi/Malekith (Iconic)
Karl Franz/Louen Leoncour (Very iconic)
Boris Ursus/Malakai Makaisson

Kairos, Changeling, Clan Eshin, Vilitch, Oxyotl deserve special mention as factions that can help out your teammate in unusual and potent ways despite being far away. Karl Franz can also help out other empire factions effectively, but.. only Elspeth is close and she's currently quite potent. Still, if you play as Karl Franz and your buddy as Elspeth, that works since he's quite new.

Wood Elves, Warriors of Chaos are special in that they require only specific territories and not so much painting the map; that makes them good teammates with factions where one paints the map and the other nabs their 'homelands' - and wood elves can use their teleport to move close to wherever their teammate faction is.