How do you deal with the pirates?

[TigerBhaiAffy]

Hi

So I have just bought TW WH2 with the The Queen & The Crone dlc and the tomb Kings dlc. I haven't bought the undead vampire pirate dlc.

Played around 40 turns and started the first ritual. And in those 40 turns I have been constantly fighting of the pirates Aranessa Saltspite and Luthor Harkon and now I have the 2 sets of chaos armies at my doorstep due to the ritual which have defeated but it left my armies crippled. Pirates have razed two cites and now I don't have enough military to feed them off.

The few other elves around the island have fell to either the chaos or the pirates.

Is the starting few turns always like this? Can you give any tip on how survive?
Thanks.

[Iriath Zhul]

I assume you're playing as Tyrion?

1) Don't antagonize everyone, and that means don't break deals. The AI takes this very seriously even if you didn't break a deal with them personally. Pirates are particularly aggressive.
2) As you've now learned, the rituals summon some pretty bad armies right at you. Make sure you don't summon them unless you're already in a comfortable spot to defend.
3) Seems a little weird your elf allies are fighting Norsca already. What difficulty are you playing on? I assume you aren't running any mods.

[Selrach]

Well first of all as HE you get a monstrer of a economy (especially if you play as tyrion).
So you should focus on it early on that and grow(so farm everywere).
As HE again you start to get massive bonus when your hapiness is above 75 so you should unlock your legendary artefact which give public order boost ASAP.
Don't be too concerned with rituals, if you feel that you aren't safe to do them skip them until you feel ready. And when you do them to it at the start of a turn before moving your army so you can react to their position 1 turn sooner.
But be aware that the more you wait to do the ritual the stronger the chaos army are..
Those are just some free tips but feel free to look into some guides out there if you want some more in deep tactic

[TigerBhaiAffy]

Yes. I am playing as tyrion. Only mods I am using are camera mods, not any gameplay or game overhauls.

I am playing on normal difficultly.

I have been rejecting military pacts for they drag me in to unwanted wars. I have just been on the defensive at the moment. I keep getting raided by the priates

[Selrach]

Originally posted by TigerBhaiAffy:

Yes. I am playing as tyrion. Only mods I am using are camera mods, not any gameplay or game overhauls.

I am playing on normal difficultly.

I have been rejecting military pacts for they drag me in to unwanted wars. I have just been on the defensive at the moment. I keep getting raided by the priates

very good ! NEVER accept any military alliance with anybody of same race as you because it will prevent any chance of confederation(defense pact are fine)
Also try to do trade agreement with everybody, having a agent crossing the sea to encounter new people can get you lot of money later on

also a heaven mage with the wind blast spell of is hightly effective against weak unit like zombie and skaven, get one for each of your army

[Iriath Zhul]

Originally posted by TigerBhaiAffy:

Yes. I am playing as tyrion. Only mods I am using are camera mods, not any gameplay or game overhauls.

I am playing on normal difficultly.

I have been rejecting military pacts for they drag me in to unwanted wars. I have just been on the defensive at the moment. I keep getting raided by the priates

Vampire Coast (when played by the AI) are very slow to rebuild their armies, so don't feel bad about putting together a force and chasing them down for one good beating. You don't have many threats internally as long as you don't get into a two-front war with your neighbors.

But mostly, focus on consolidating Ulthuan through wars and confederation before venturing out. Get some upgrades for Lothern Sea Guard and just build a ton of those. They're a ludicrously cost-effective unit.

[rlee87]

sounds like you started a ritual at the wrong time.

[Toby Larone]

Shielded Lothern Sea Guard will do well against coast.

Archers will do as well but they will suffer from the return fire.

[Linjo]

For the Vortex campaign I found it actually more easy to ignore rituals altogether and focussing on eradicating the ones competing for them. Then when you rule it all, just chain them up :)