Third story mission

[CatSlave]

Ok so I have been enjoying the game etc etc. However that third campaign mission, where its all vs all, I always get swarmed by one of the other godir after taking 3 or 4 free cities. I have played through and won pretty much every other map, but at no time do I get nearly this swarmed. I am talking 8-9 full stacks come at me at once. Am I missing a trick here? Should I expand slower? How the hell does the enemy afford that many troops?

[Ferousfang]

If it is the caldera map I got lucky once and the map was shaped as a U around lava that let me fight the AI one at a time.
The second time I picked the starting bonus that let me see the enemy capitols so I didn't have to fight two on one at the start.
Also made sure to get war breeds with chaos tomes asap there is a bonus with chaos affinity tree that lets all your cities get a bunch of draft . I got 4 then 4 more in a few days, split in two forces and turned every free city into vassals.
The last 2 AI's had a lot of troops but there is a chaos tome that lets you turn vassal pops into tier 3 and 4 units. Use this on vassal cities closest to your stacks to reinforce your armies. This was a lot faster trying to use teleport gates.

[ZirosLlewelyn]

You can knock out all but one of the enemy leaders very easily if you use Lithyl's Mind Reader spell. Most of them will spawn an objective roundabouts wherever your Leader is which will instantly defeat them when completed.

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If you want to win via combat / get the achievement, then its gonna take a lot more time and effort but I have a few ideas. Taking out the 2 Leaders next you should make things a lot easier for you (For me it was always Karissa to the south and the Seducer guy to the east). Between the distance to you and the fact that they're all at war with each other, they should be less inclined to send armies your way. Also, the enemy is less likely to send armies your way if you've got a strong army, so make sure to keep your forces up to snuff. I'd say minimum 3 heroes, each with a full stack of their own.

Given the nature of the caldera and how far everyone is from each other, getting your teleporters online ASAP is critical especially if you don't have many armies. Getting your forces where you need them ASAP is key for both offense and defense. The teleporter from the Empire Development Tree's general track is the best option since it also works with Outposts, but you can use the Wizard Tower's teleportation spells or the Chrono Gate special province improvement from the Tome of Amplification until you unlock it. Personally I like the Barbarian culture for this since you can send scouts off in the opposite direction of your hero stacks to set up Outpost Teleporters. If you're not playing a Barbarian culture, you should be able to get the scouts from Karissa's cities after you defeat her.

Fielding Celestial units (Unicorns, Lightbringers, Blessed Souls, racial units with the Celestial Transformation) can also help a lot. The Celestial type is inherently immune to Control Loss affects, so they shouldn't be affected by the Realm's Domain of Mayhem (Its what drives units insane in combat and has them attack allies. If you're only doing auto battles you may have noticed your units are more injured than usual, that's why). Effects that boost status resistance, like Anointed People or that Wards transformation in the Tome of Warding might also help while you build up to Celestial Transformation.

Honestly Order Tomes in general are really helpful on this map. Army Heal will keep your HP up outside of friendly territory, Keeper's Mark for general survivability, Condemnation and Mass Condemnation should make it more likely your opponents become berserk in combat, the aforementioned Celestial Transformation and Lightbringers, etc. The only wrinkle is with the paladin lady since she also uses Order tomes and will probably have Spirit Resistance by them time you face her.

Finally, every character in the game has set personalities and build paths. They're not randomly selected, but part of their character. Personalities don't really for the caldera since its permanent war, but knowing each of the enemy Leader's preferred build paths can help you know how best to counter play. Like Karissa (Who was a Master of Fire magic in the older games) focuses pretty exclusively on Chaos tomes and leads a Barbarian culture. So expect lots of hard hitting melee units backed up by Fire magic from her. Paladin lady is a High culture with all Order, so expect to deal with lots of Spirit damage (Another good reason to get Anointed People). The demon-cat-man is an Industrial culture, and I believe he picks up Joy Siphoners. So you'll want to bring magic to bear against his high defense forces and have ways to boost morale when fighting him.

[Ferousfang]

I also forgot to mention that I used this strat to get the Achievement also that the CPU starts with higher levels and extra troops. The red leader was level 7 at 2 weeks in and I don't think you can level that fast. Also some free cities will have 6 tier 3 units at 30 turns or less and I don't think that is possible normally.