How to have fun in an Aislinn campaign when the high elves get wiped out? And is this normal?

[HeartofAmerica1776]

I was really enjoying my run as Sea Lord Aislinn, finally getting my sea legs. After securing the Dragon Isles, I decided to continue my quest toward Ulthuan proper. When I arrived, I discovered that Estalia had already been destroyed. At that point I figured, why not establish a local colony off the main donut and build myself a stable power base. I could spread out some colonies for my good friends Teclis and Imrik while I was at it.

After doing that and defeating all the Skaven and Chaos forces in the region, I thought this is such a fun character. So I zoomed out to see what the rest of the world looked like and immediately learned that Ulthuan had completely collapsed. The entire donut was basically fifty percent Slaanesh and fifty percent Vampire Coast. I guess it is supposed to be my job to stop the pirates and daemons from overrunning everything, but I had no idea how it got so bad so fast.

It did not even feel like mid game, and yet there was a level thirty seven Vampire Coast lord who had conquered half the island and wiped out most of the High Elf factions. So I spent ages trying to reconquer the donut, but now I have run into a mechanical issue. I only have three High Elf allies left. Everyone else has been destroyed.

That means I do not even have enough ally colony slots to return all the ruined settlements. I also cannot realistically colonize everything myself because the map is covered in enemies. I have been at war nonstop, so I have only managed to fully upgrade one of my Dragonships. My economy is fantastic, but I physically cannot expand anymore, and the remaining High Elf factions only exist because I am keeping them alive. The only survivors are people like Imrik and Teclis, who were not on Ulthuan to begin with.

On top of that, Settra and the Tomb Kings started extorting me for gold. I thought they were far enough away that it did not matter. I was wrong. They have conquered their entire homeland, they have sent multiple Doomstacks across the sea, they wiped Teclis off his little island in the south, and they have started invading Estalia while my entire navy is tied up trying to save Ulthuan.

It is ridiculous. I have seen the High Elves get beaten badly before, but never this badly.

What makes it worse is that I have not been able to use most of Aislinn’s unique mechanics. Instead of creating new colonies across the world and sailing triumphantly as the Lord of the Sea, I have spent the entire campaign desperately trying to keep the last embers of Ulthuan alive while the undead and Slaanesh devour everything around me. The High Elves feel one disaster away from becoming a forgotten species.

Meanwhile the rest of the world looks just as cursed. Lustria has been completely conquered by the Dark Elves. The Wood Elves have taken over Bretonnia. Apparently every elf except mine are thriving.

At this point Malekith was right. I will call him Phoenix King myself if he comes and rescues me from this catastrophe.

Honestly, I think this world is doomed. I am probably going to restart and hope for better RNG, but before I do I have to ask something. Is this normal. With Nagash coming, are the undead overtuned, or did I just get incredibly unlucky and end up in a world where every High Elf forgot how to defend a gate?

I just do not want to start a new campaign if I will be locked out of High Elf mechanics again because Ulthuan gets wiped out instantly. Because I just don’t feel like I’ve been able to engage with the court mechanics. The colonies or anything else that was intended, sure snagging a couple high value cities on Ulthuan would be nice, but still.

[Pseudok]

With a sample size of just one, I was surprised at how big the empires became. I don't think I've ever witnessed a game before where Throgg owned a whopping 114 settlements. This wasn't Aislinn campaign, though. Dark Elves were absolutely dominating too with modest 60+ settlement empires. Perhaps that encourages a second attempt for you, although High Elves were gone in this campaign also.

[HeartofAmerica1776]

Originally posted by Pseudok:

With a sample size of just one, I was surprised at how big the empires became. I don't think I've ever witnessed a game before where Throgg owned a whopping 114 settlements. This wasn't Aislinn campaign, though. Dark Elves were absolutely dominating too with modest 60+ settlement empires. Perhaps that encourages a second attempt for you, although High Elves were gone in this campaign also.

I do like the bigger empires, it is cool seeing these bigger threats. I just wish it wasn’t the High Elves getting conquered to make them when I’m playing them lol

[HeartofAmerica1776]

Originally posted by Tunguska:

I wish my campaign was like that, I played on Legendary and they took care of Ulthuan by themselves just fine. Everything was peaceful, enemies were easily wiped out and once that happened everyone still alive was friendly to helf factions, which formed a massive alliance as per usual.

Originally posted by HeartofAmerica1776:

It did not even feel like mid game, and yet there was a level thirty seven Vampire Coast lord

Turn count? Because if it was turn 30+ or something yet didn't "feel like mid game" because you hadn't done ♥♥♥♥ or were weak that's on you.

Originally posted by HeartofAmerica1776:

That means I do not even have enough ally colony slots to return all the ruined settlements.

There are no "ally colony slots," those are outposts. The rewards for giving them to a specific lord cap out, but there's no limit to how many you can establish.

It's telling that you don't even know this despite giving settlements only to two factions. It means you haven't even given 20 settlements total (or have lost outposts, which isn't any better) despite AI lords already reaching level 37. Yeah, you weren't doing ♥♥♥♥ with your time.

Originally posted by HeartofAmerica1776:

I also cannot realistically colonize everything myself because the map is covered in enemies. I have been at war nonstop, so I have only managed to fully upgrade one of my Dragonships.

You have a fully upgraded ship but still have trouble? How? Let's just forget how you should probably have long victory in the bag by now. If the map is covered in enemies, just systematically wipe them out one by one. When you're fully upgraded, wiping out three or four armies with one of your ships shouldn't be a problem.

Originally posted by HeartofAmerica1776:

My economy is fantastic, but I physically cannot expand anymore

You can help other factions expand indefinitely.

Originally posted by HeartofAmerica1776:

the remaining High Elf factions only exist because I am keeping them alive. The only survivors are people like Imrik and Teclis, who were not on Ulthuan to begin with.

You can resurrect factions by going to their starting settlement and making an outpost there or something? CA did it in their Aislinn livestream. If you're on Ulthuan, why haven't you just resurrected Tyrion and Alarielle?

Originally posted by HeartofAmerica1776:

my entire navy is tied up trying to save Ulthuan.

Just make the garrison building with Merwyrm? You hould have access to it by the time you've got a fully built ship. That should be enough to crush those mediocre AI stacks and free up some armies, since you apparently can't just wipe out the enemies.

Originally posted by HeartofAmerica1776:

What makes it worse is that I have not been able to use most of Aislinn’s unique mechanics. Instead of creating new colonies across the world and sailing triumphantly as the Lord of the Sea

Ouposts and Dragonships are most of his mechanics. The rewards from various lords are just some extra on top, the cooldown is global from what I saw, and Imrik's factionwide movement reset is basically the best option there anyway. The court ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ all helves have is just some fairly minor buffs.

Originally posted by HeartofAmerica1776:

I am probably going to restart and hope for better RNG, but before I do I have to ask something. Is this normal. With Nagash coming, are the undead overtuned, or did I just get incredibly unlucky and end up in a world where every High Elf forgot how to defend a gate?

If this isn't just you being bad (which is certain to be at least 50% of the issue from what you wrote), the real question is: why are these excellent rolls wasted on nooblets that can't enjoy the odds being stacked against them? It really sucked how I barely had anything to do, with every other helf faction holding their own just fine.

I can definitely see that a lot of it is me not understanding the mechanics of this guy or the Highelves, and I normally don’t play a horde character, which is fair since I haven’t played this game in a good long while. With out a doubt it’s mostly user error. I think a lot of my problem was the fact that I felt like I was gonna hit a point where I could never fully reclaim it because I thought I couldn’t plop down more outposts, seeing now that’s just when the buffs end changes that.


As to why I didn’t resurrect them I didn’t know I could, but I believe I found the source of the problem you get the option to resurrect them when you conquer their capital, but I had already conquered the lower to your settlement first, and given them to living Lords, which means I didn’t get the option to resurrect them since you can only have one faction per territory you give outposts to.

The only thing I’ll give in my defense as the rest is user error, is that Ulthuan had fallen by turn 15 and the level 37 pirate lord had already taken the inner kingdoms around in that time.

But now that I have a better grasp it should be easier to reverse, I won’t lie the fact I didn’t know how to get my dragon ship supplies off the ground until later in my run was bone headed of me.

[GeoG85]

That's kinda why I like a Warhammer Campaign. Just one campaign can tell an imaginative story.

[HeartofAmerica1776]

Originally posted by GeoG85:

That's kinda why I like a Warhammer Campaign. Just one campaign can tell an imaginative story.

Yeah, it certainly is a true sandbox and I really do love how you never know how things are gonna turn out!