I'm losing the Imrik campaign in under 15 turns consistently.

[C-zom]

On VH/VH, have beaten multiple campaigns no problem on this difficulty so far. I just can't crack Imrik.

I take my starting three settlements as fast as possible, get a NAP with the useless dwarves to my West and VC to my South as buffer states. Get up to a full stack as soon as possible to prepare for the quest dragon fight, cheese it, and win. I have this down to a science, and have gotten my casualties under 100 with the dragon fight. It's a thing of beauty... and seaguard cheese.

And then I get clobbered. First time Skarsnik and 20000 night goblins took me out. The second time, the rats (with 3 stacks) appeared on turn 11. The third time, both of them didn't attack me but the chaos dwarves did and I drowned in artillery on turn 13. The forth time, hysterically, Skaven and Skarsnik declared war on me on turn 7 and force marched their already-full-armies directly to my Western settlement. They had allied with each other.

Due to how bad the economy is, I can only afford my one army and literally don't have the turn count needed to get beyond sea guard, rangers, archers, and spearmen. If I go north, W/E/S attack me. If I go south, N/W/E attack me. Etc. Everyone is -30 / -40 NAP and I can't afford the bribe.

Genuinely, I don't see what I'm supposed to do here.

[Holy Fool Sehrael]

Personally I had the best time taking the islands south east ASAP, then discover Khalida and help her if necessary and then ally with her. After that I usually *try* to get Nagashizzar to get rid of the rats and gift it to Khalida. Worst luck is if Skarbrand goes to town against her, but if he doesn't it's free real estate as long as you don't get dragged into wars. The rest is a bit more complicated, but that's just how Imriks situation is ^^ Would also advise to befriend the Dragon Siblings north east of the isles. Theoretically nothing should come from the west or south unless chaos dominates or goes on a road trip (Most likely candidate being Nurgle factions) for a while so you can eradicate the undead, rats and ogres if you want and only after setting up good camp in that corner I'd consider going north or northwest. (Just to clarify I'd just try and defend the settlement you start with because of the landmarks and beeline to the isles)

[(Steelclaw)]

Just picked up a new Imrik campaign on Legendary and I absolutely stand by what I said about moving north into Drazhoath as soon as you've conquered your starting province. It's a tough fight, but a necessary one. Related tips:
- Ending a turn in neutral stance is almost always wrong. Ambush stance is a great manipulation tool, and if you're not doing anything else, you should be either channeling or recruiting. Fighting in channel stance is also well worth doing since it'll level your mage faster.
- Hiring a lone Archmage (Lore of Life) to follow Imrik around will pay off far better than getting an extra full army. High Elf replenishment is rough and a healer will let you get around that for your single entities.
- Once you've taken Drazhoath's territory, selling your northernmost territory to Dwarfs will help secure your northern border and allow you to turn your attention to other volatile situations.

Of course, as others have said, there is more than one way to play it. Imrik's start is not a puzzle with a single solution.

But above all, bear in mind that Imrik's campaign is and always has been one of the harder earlygames, almost certainly the hardest High Elf one. There's no shame in getting into a losing position and needing to reset; it's not a trivial start.

[Ska_Boss]

The trick to surviving early game with Imrik is to not expand too quickly and use ambush, a lot. The rats, chorfs, ogres and nurgle will target you unfairly, often teaming up against you. If you attack them one direction, the others will attack you from behind with teleport. Best to let them come to you, lose their best army in an ambush then you take their territory in a counter attack.

[pascal.difolco]

Messaggio originale di Superbia:

Messaggio originale di pascal.difolco:

You can get a second army (Archers/spearmen) by turn 15
You got the money from the Caledor Confed additional revenue (disband the armies) and trade with other H Elves faction that it triggers (I had it by turn 12/13 iirc)
It's still hard against Tretch, even at low difficulty level you'll be stomped if ambush-attacked, but you'll win in other cases
I just did it in my current campaign (VH/VH), but still can't get rid of those pesky Skaven running arount tho

Archers/Spearmen is hardly an army, it's a rabble that easily gets squashed by Chorfs, Nurgle, Orcs and even Skaven on VH/VH. Even if I took your word that you were able to afford two full stacks by turn 15, the army quality you describe is a waste of resources anyway.

The Caledor confederation dilemma only triggers once you've occupied, looted or razed 6 different settlements and the prerequisite is that the Caledor faction is still standing. Simply put, 90% of the time, Caledor will have already either been razed by Noctilus or held by another High Elf faction by the time you can trigger the dilemma (usually Tyrion), so it won't even trigger for you. In the unlikely event that Caledor somehow survived Noctilus' onslaught long enough for you to trigger the dilemma, you're still going to have to pick the "favors abound" option and spend 25 influence if you want to get good relations with the other High Elf factions so they will eventually want to trade with you, which is a lot for that stage of the game. Caledor is better left alone for that very reason.

Huh no, I've fully beat Chorfs on VH with a Spearmen/Archers/Some LSC, and heroes ...
Can't say it's easy tho sure!!
Problem is vs Skaven if they ambush you you're dead
Anyway you can't get much better units until way later, so have to do with it, sitting in place waiting is never a good strategy, especially for Imrik that has no easy expansion way
Regarding Caledor it was maybe a stroke of luck for me but it was standing, and given I got no real use for Influence I got it for gold

[Jack Deth]

Messaggio originale di pascal.difolco:

Messaggio originale di Jack Deth:

Claim cities you don't want or need in connection to factions at war with you.

Build as many tier 1 red unit buildings as you can in the settlements. Offer them the trade for peace and usually a huge stack of cash.

Not a cure all but I've found it works wonders.

But Imrik has no neighbours to sell to for quite some time, he's surrounded by Skaven and Chorfs... you can sell the Ulthuan Caledor settlements to Tyrion for quick cash though
Imo you need to agressively destroy Drazoath and Tretch asap. While Tretch armies are weaker, Imrik has really more difficulties with Skaven because High Elf early armies are super vulnerable to ambushes
Then you can do some alliance with Dawis to fight Queek, or maybe with Ogres

Doesn't matter.

For example in my Vamp Coast campaign I can selljudge. (1 red blunt production building) back to Zhao Ming who I'm at war for 19k plus a peace treaty.

Friends or whatever doesn't matter. It's about stemming off conflicts piece meal at a time so it's easier to juddle.

It'd also how I juggled my early game dealing with Lizardmen, Empire and Brets (all who I was at war at one point or another and even at the same time).

AI is dumb and over values red unit production buildings. My suggestion is give it a shot to see how effective it actually is.

[Man of Culture]

To everyone saying archers and spearmen can't do anything are dead wrong too. High Elves have very good starting troops even if they're boring. If you can get a stack of mixed lothern sea guards and archers you can just about chew through anything early game by volume of arrow fire. Most chorf armies early on are just a ton of slaves with handfuls of actual good units. Most skaven armies are about the same only their good units die even faster to concentrated arrow fire. Should be totally fine having an army made up of spearmen and archers. Just don't let your frontline sit and fight too long without backing them up and it'll do just fine especially with some red line buffs.

Oh and I just attempted another campaign with him to test the other dudes theory of waiting and ambushing armies then going on a counter offensive but wound up just turtling a few extra turns and came out pretty well on top of things. Economy won't be great but once the other factions start to get tired of wasting their stacks on you and have other things to worry about you can just cross right over and take the islands off of kugath if he still owns them and you won't be touched by a whole lot after that. Once you fortify your original province you can mostly frig off in any direction you want. So that is a solid strategy so long as you don't mind chilling for a few more turns.

[Froz7y]

Learn to ambush

[Buldor]

Messaggio originale di C-zom:

On VH/VH, have beaten multiple campaigns no problem on this difficulty so far. I just can't crack Imrik.

I take my starting three settlements as fast as possible, get a NAP with the useless dwarves to my West and VC to my South as buffer states. Get up to a full stack as soon as possible to prepare for the quest dragon fight, cheese it, and win. I have this down to a science, and have gotten my casualties under 100 with the dragon fight. It's a thing of beauty... and seaguard cheese.

And then I get clobbered. First time Skarsnik and 20000 night goblins took me out. The second time, the rats (with 3 stacks) appeared on turn 11. The third time, both of them didn't attack me but the chaos dwarves did and I drowned in artillery on turn 13. The forth time, hysterically, Skaven and Skarsnik declared war on me on turn 7 and force marched their already-full-armies directly to my Western settlement. They had allied with each other.

Due to how bad the economy is, I can only afford my one army and literally don't have the turn count needed to get beyond sea guard, rangers, archers, and spearmen. If I go north, W/E/S attack me. If I go south, N/W/E attack me. Etc. Everyone is -30 / -40 NAP and I can't afford the bribe.

Genuinely, I don't see what I'm supposed to do here.

My first point is, you have seaguard. So you built, and upgraded the barracks and spent 5-10 turns recruiting, no? So the time you'd have 3-4 provinces and looking at a second army.

By doing those pacts and diplomacy, you're making them hate you and declare war sooner. And when 1 major does, you drop lower in power comparison and the others that hate you declare. Your diplomacy should be with the rats or chorfs, not against them.

You're also sporting mid tier units. Just recruit archers and a few spears. It would actually be more effective in the early game. Seaguard only make a difference in melee compared to archers.

It seems you've made a few moves out of what would seem the obvious action, but without realising the consequences of said actions. Such as NA with the dwarves that will anger everyone around you, for a NA with a faction that won't ever attack you nor help you in any meaningful way.

Seaguard seem good and you see they are better. But, they are weaker than archers for range. They're a mid point between a spearman and an archer. They're good, but they're also twice the cost of an archer. So for an army of seaguard, you can afford 2 armies of mixed arms (spearman frontline + archers).

You can easily go with chorfs, have them fight skaven and fight with them, and at the end, betray chorfs and finish them off.

[pascal.difolco]

Update on my Imrik campaign (VH/VH) : for me the difficulty started turn 13 when I attacked Tretch !
It's a nightmare, you just can't catch 4 armies with 2, plus they tunnel behind your armies, sack cities then I had countless rebellions as well
Had my second army destroyed by Tretch and friends in ambush
Took me 20 turns to eliminate Tretch and restabilize the area, got the first Dragon and the Quest battle as well
Economy is crap too, Imrik is a hobo High Elf
Sheesh this campaign is hard but above all it's frustrating to not have the tools to counter the opposition, I understand the hate !

[Chief Minister of Gaming]

Messaggio originale di Ska_Boss:

The trick to surviving early game with Imrik is to not expand too quickly and use ambush, a lot. The rats, chorfs, ogres and nurgle will target you unfairly, often teaming up against you. If you attack them one direction, the others will attack you from behind with teleport. Best to let them come to you, lose their best army in an ambush then you take their territory in a counter attack.

This works.

Basically... you know you mostly going to have one army for a time.

So don't expand

Keep the one province, and sack others, try to only have one enemy.

And let them come to you.

And if they totally overwhelm you, like say they are strength 2, like clan Mors.

You will fight 3 rat armies at once. But in this case trade a settlement for survival.

You have to think like--- okay.. one army... and hold back a bit, and build up...

You can use influence intrigue.

You can stop being attacked by multiple people.

You can have it so only one is coming to you.

The only one that might be too hard is clan mors. Because they bring so many and so many stormvermin. But usually clan mors wont attack you

It does not necessarilly get easier at turn 40 either. Where I am at.. I am just about to get the total upperhand on chaos dwarf.

But Its a good solid challenging campaign thats for sure

My plan on, is to get dragon princes and make real use of them. And yes I am not going to be very expansive. Cos again, having those dragon princes will be expensive.

Now.. I am not yet confed caledor. I am one or so off. Very soon. If they still exist.

Of course, this advice given tho is not about the times ahead, but only getting to where im at like turn 40. And that just requires playing slower, you can spend lots turns just sitting. Building the order up, letting them come to you.

At the start I keep only the miminal units to build up some cash too. To take that upper settlement only with minimal units. Then I slowly expand very so slowly.

I even wait for the BONUS for recruiting combat, or missile. So then you can get like rank 4-5-6 units depending on tech.

Then I recruit to 20, unless I am warred

The dragon quests can help you in the battles if you see big battles coming up.

Otherwise the influence will be very very helpful, and I think rather than expensive nobles, use it to keep neighbours happy.

When they do come to you, switch to the ambush province bonus yes, but that is actually more helpful in catching them before they run away -10% movement, so its often better to stay in city, cos you want that bonus order

Then the next thing is how you use what you have to fight the battles.

And imrik should be able to defeat those Lords, to rid their lord in battle and leadership. If you target their lords more.

Oh and eleyirian reavers are pretty useful to have a couple, to do alot of kiting play

What this does, is it breaks up their armies too, if you send reavers around the backs. You just set two reavers or three, I have three, to skirmish, and you attack his lord with your lord, and you can win many harder battle this way.

So I confederated with caledor on turn 38, got vauls anvil and other minor, and I count this then, success, because if I die over there, I am on ulthuan.

[hottnova75]

Find a map corner, conquer from there. OR kill the rats on the left in the mountains first, build a second army and take the chaos dwarves. The auto battle will really screw you over, so don't use that. Manually fight the big battles. Use the settlements as temporary bases, but build up the starting Fortress the best you can to fall back on. Imrik is a tough campaign. I also restarted a few times thinking I would have better luck. It is a good challenge. The best games are challenging.

[Chief Minister of Gaming]

I was sent back to calador by Kugath on turn 60 or so. It continues to be hard. But I am safe there.

I nearly got the upperhand nearly. But I was swamped real bad by Kugath in a siege with help from chaos dwarves at pigbarter, then at the same time 4 units of Dim Sunz horde attacked my inner kingdom, where I had Imrik at pigbarter, and half health army.

Next time I am not taking pigbarter, and staying for longer in the original province, and I figure I can work with that. Because those dim sunz right? One army. I expanded. And that happened.

Don't leave those horde armies to raid and build up. They will get you when you weak otherwise.

(I did have another army at caledor just keeping protection and order) (but only one army in the imrik lands)
(I think next time I will find a way to disband all armies in ulthuan and maintain order, not easy with the difficulty handicap on order)

It continues to be hard I would say harder than the earlier turns later, alot of bad stuff is coming for you in strength. That was legendary setting. But I figure it cannot be much different on VH.

But Grimgor is coming big time, for all. And he would have been the next enemy. Cos after I was sent back to calador with my tail between my legs, Grimgor conquered the last of chaos dwarves, and is about to conquer all.

So very challenging campaign. I will try again, or maybe with the one I am playing, I will try to take back those places I lost and regain the province from caledor? not sure

I like the new random cults. I wonder if they grow from level 1 to higher.