(Eye of the Vortex) Ritual Defense Advice?

[Ahzagothis]

Looking for advice against the rediculous stacks of chaos and other armies that spawn when you start doing a campaign ritual, especially the third and higher rituals. I've got about 3 half finished campaigns of various factions and went all the way to the end with the skaven once, but it seems every time the game likes to spawn about twice as many stacks of guys as I have (In the current case, I'm doing Kroq-gar and have two complete stacks. Started ritual. I got two fleets coming by sea and two on the other side in land. One of my cities is way away from the coastline. It's always murder defending against so many, even if I try to keep both of my armies close.

In every case I am ahead of the competition. In most of those games, I am even as far ahead of the competition by an entire ritual (As in, starting third, nearest competitor hasn't started second but will within a few turns). I do not have the economy to afford a third stack of troops, really (Current income is 1800). Chaos seems to be hella durable and hellcannons can be a pain to deal with. I'm not sure how to handle so many stacks at one time as the attrition tends to get massive by the time I get to the end of that. Is there some mystic secret to handling these incursions?

Other than economy. In my dark elf campaign I actually managed hydras and dragons as my highest tech. In the lizardman game though, my highest tier unit is temple guard. I just finished the lord kroak quest a few turns before the ritual is available. I'm not sure if i'm lagging behind the arms race or not in this regard. Lastly, I do try to tech up city defenses and fight there, but the problem I run into is the twice outnumbered issue. I have trouble holding two cities with one stack and a garrison.

[zefyris]

your priority is always the spawned armies on land.
AFAIK those from the sea will go right for one of your 3 ritual settlement, which are usually picked by the game for having the biggest garrisons; add to that the fact that those armies aren't as strong as those in land, and you should be able to hold with just those garrisons if you need to.
The biggest danger is losing a lot of money if they siege your capital because it cuts all trading as long as it continues, so don't let them siege that (and beware of intervention that will do that to for the same reason), but that's about it.

Chaos/skaven armies spawning inland are your priority, as they are far stronger AND more numerous AND will attack anything in range, including your small settlements that are nowhere near strong enough to defend from that.

Inland armies usually have a few possible spawning point depending of your LL chocie, so if you know them you can prepare a bit more; but outside of that, be sure to only do the ritual when you have amrour piercing, anti large armour piercing, and something that can deal with enemy artillery quickly. If your current armies can't do that, you're better off either fighting them in a defensive way (close of one of your settlements), or far, far better, simpl ywait before you do the ritual. The later is simply far superior as you get to pick what you fight and can remove enemy armies that aren't grouping with each other to gang up on you. If you stay defensive, they will chose to engage on their terms, and will usually gang up.
On that point, putting heroes around where the enemy spawn and blocking some of the enemy is super useful. That way, you're sure that those armies won't be in range of each other after they moved.

There's no problems with falling behind the competition, as the AI will usually fall behind you regardless of that by the time they reach the last ritual.

[Chaoslink]

The other issue could be that you’re taking too much land too quickly and starting the rituals too fast. If you’re not going slow and steady, your economy can’t keep up with your conquest and you’ll lack the amount of money needed to keep all your towns upgraded to max. Mix that with the lower levels of your towns and you’re bound to lose stuff. Build a garrison in every town. Even the capitals. The walls and extra troops do two things, gives you a stronger fighting force to hold them off and potentially makes them take time to build towers and rams so you have some time to reinforce before they attack.

You should always have about 2000 gold income. It obviously varies as the stage of the game changes, but 2-3k should be normal for a large portion of it. If you have a decent amount of land and don’t have this much, you’re starving your economy with rapid expansion. Alongside the upkeep reduction of the ritual, you should easily be able to afford two more armies of about ten units to garrison areas about to be attacked, alongside your normal forces.

Economy is important. Don’t get greedy for land and ignore your territory and income. More land might mean more potential income, but it also means more potential costs. You’re better off capturing a whole province, then sitting on it until everything is at least level 3 before moving on. Take the time to stabilize public order and have your armies sack your neighbors instead of capturing them. Sacking lowers the town level by one, meaning it’ll be an easy take later and the funds will help upgrade your current territory faster.