How to beat Empire as Norsca? Campaign

[Wiggler-sempai]

While I can win battles I feel I am constantly losing the war.

For one, they inevitably become the number 1 power. The empire in this patch gets so many ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stacks and every time I bust 4 of their armies they confederate for 2 more and I have to beat a retreat that leaves my stacks destroyed or clinging to life. My stacks are doomy but not enough to keep sacking and get the income I need to overwhelm them.

Additionally, I was hoping to rush the everchosen buff early, but last save I tried that on my doom-stacks got back-stabbed by imperials before I could finish Archaon, leaving me 2 legendary lords and about 40k of troops short.

In playthroughs where I try to kill the empire early, I just cannot seem to get enough armies to match their endless supplies of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ backup. Same if I rush Carcassonne to get that capital early- No amount of razing seems to stop them!

Anyone got any better ideas than camping the crap out of the edge of Norsca and letting them brain themselves on the tower of Karak over and over? Or at least a really cost-effective stack? I mean, 20 mammoths worked for a while but they had another 2 stacks waiting to finish off the damaged mammoths.

[† Bayonetta †]

As norsca first 30 turns, you should take Fire shamen and steal tech to nearby city until you reach level 20 with two or three shamens, Fire is your main you must have one and Shadow should be in your reiforcement army, while you wait that you need to try kill Throgg before Ai f*** his build so best if you can hunt him when he is level 6/7. and dont leave norsca before you get your shamens and 2nd army at bay probably Throgg army. Kill kislev if you finish norscan tribes fast but dont kill Kislev sack them over and over. if Brettonia or someone send some ♥♥♥♥ at you just fall back to your main Settlement and dont lose it, other cities in norsca are not that importent you will have them all by turn 100 anyway. just focus on thoes Shamens without magic you cant kill Empire or very hard/lag. no way.

[Wh♂♂par]

Yeah, as the poster above said, magic is your friend. Mammoths will work wonders, but a single well placed Vortex spell or Fire Skull can do what 12 Mammoths can not. And against their cavalry, you'll have enough to deal with. You're Norsca after all. Try to get an ally that can take remaining settlements - Moulder for example.

[Madi92]

Or use mods, like no confederation.

[Wiggler-sempai]

Originally posted by .:|MP|:. Madi:

Or use mods, like no confederation.

I'd use one that enforces the same supply-line limit the player suffer through.

Originally posted by Wh♂♂par:

Yeah, as the poster above said, magic is your friend. Mammoths will work wonders, but a single well placed Vortex spell or Fire Skull can do what 12 Mammoths can not. And against their cavalry, you'll have enough to deal with. You're Norsca after all. Try to get an ally that can take remaining settlements - Moulder for example.

Against their cav... So more skinwolves and Javlin guys then? I tend to abandon the latter for more monsters later on but they are a damn good unit...

[† Bayonetta †]

What do you need more vs cav but some spear units xd + you can infuse them with Fire buff from Shamen or that AP and Meele Attack from Shadow wizard. that will pierce through any armor for like 26/32 secs thats is more then enough. You also have wolf cheriot and axe riders that can harrass and outrun nearly any cav in the game wtf. Do you play for the first time, use everything you got.

[TVMAN]

Originally posted by 17th Orb:

Originally posted by .:|MP|:. Madi:

Or use mods, like no confederation.

I'd use one that enforces the same supply-line limit the player suffer through.

Originally posted by Wh♂♂par:

Yeah, as the poster above said, magic is your friend. Mammoths will work wonders, but a single well placed Vortex spell or Fire Skull can do what 12 Mammoths can not. And against their cavalry, you'll have enough to deal with. You're Norsca after all. Try to get an ally that can take remaining settlements - Moulder for example.

Against their cav... So more skinwolves and Javlin guys then? I tend to abandon the latter for more monsters later on but they are a damn good unit...

Skinwolves absolutely. They absolutely eat cavalry and they're your best tool against it.

Also altdorf is easy to reach by water. You've got river access to it directly from the sea, so go gank it really quick and then run away before they can respond. Sacking the heart of the empire would be a massive setback for them and should give you plenty of cash.

[Tanaka Khan]

Well I just conceded a campaign as the Dark Elves, when faced with the Empire sending 7 armies against me with 8-10 Emperors Wrath Steam Tanks plus 4-6 Helstorm rocket batteries.
No matter what faction I play the Empire just dominates.

[Wiggler-sempai]

Update: I reloaded a save and managed to step on the warriors of chaos (thanks Fimir and mammoths!), and now the upkeep reduction is letting me raze my way south. It helps that the empire brained their best armies on my dwarf allies (who are probably regretting the whole "alliance with satanic vikings" thing) and archeon misplaced himself where I could gank him with Wulfric and Throgg.

Keep posting advice though, because-

Originally posted by Tanaka Khan:

Well I just conceded a campaign as the Dark Elves, when faced with the Empire sending 7 armies against me with 8-10 Emperors Wrath Steam Tanks plus 4-6 Helstorm rocket batteries.
No matter what faction I play the Empire just dominates.

Yep.

Originally posted by Ashigaru 足軽:

What do you need more vs cav but some spear units xd + you can infuse them with Fire buff from Shamen or that AP and Meele Attack from Shadow wizard. that will pierce through any armor for like 26/32 secs thats is more then enough. You also have wolf cheriot and axe riders that can harrass and outrun nearly any cav in the game wtf. Do you play for the first time, use everything you got.

I was more confused about why empire cavalry is an issue in the first place. I’ve found that even with demi-griffons the javelin-throwers/skin wolves are enough to take them out fairly easily. And I’m not sure if it's worth fielding spearmen over marauder champs or berserkers lategame, as they destroy infantry and do decently against everything else.

The things that are the real issue are their artillery and ranged units: the former does painful amounts of damage and with the latter the Ai loves to field massive stacks of them on skirmish mode and they are a pain in the ass to run down. Any advice for them, aside from running them down with marauder horsemen or flying units?

Originally posted by TVMAN:

Also altdorf is easy to reach by water. You've got river access to it directly from the sea, so go gank it really quick and then run away before they can respond. Sacking the heart of the empire would be a massive setback for them and should give you plenty of cash.

Well, there's the problem in my other campaigns! I kept trying to keep it so I could reinforce, but they are always super-desperate to reclaim the capital. Same with Brettonia really.

No longer an issue in this playthrough, but next time I’ll sack it and run, then come back just long enough to the get the sweet unique tech and then let them take it back.

[Venom]

2 words
war mamoths

[† Bayonetta †]

For art. against any faction you use Magic/Cav/or Superior flying lords in this case no one, but for Vampires any lord can do the job.

[Captainbeastfeast (Rat-ee-JiK)]

quicklyunite all of norsca and then destroy reikland ASAP. This will prevent the unification of the empire with each of its provinces and will give you access to the best tech available to norsca (much higher weapon strength for ALL units).

With wulfrik marauder champions are your vanguard troops, with throgg you can rely on ice trolls for heavy hitting. Throgg is bettter imo due to reduced troll upkeep and some nice skill buffs. From his start position norscan unification tends to be faster as well..

Divide and conquer, systematically wiping out each empire province.

When you have enough god allegiance complete all the story quests and choose to fight archeon. Killing his hordes win basically wins you the game, giving you near 0% upkeep for the rest of the game. This is your strategic priority in every norscan playthrough and enables you to become a superpower.

Mammoths are very strong but too expensive early on. Only keep the ones that you can win in confederation. Same goes for frost drake. Picking slanesh as your patron god is a good idea because of the upkeep reduction and because kihar the tormentor is an absolute beast when kitted out properly. As far as economy goes, your priority is always upkeep reduction and increasing settlement income as much as you can. Norscan early economy is poor and needs to be improved as much as you can. Confederate fast and improve the economy as much as you possibly can.