Legendary Imrik Mortal Empires Campaign (Strategy discussion)

[JoeVonFo]

Hi guys
The purpose of this thread is to discuss strategies and share tips about the Imrik campaign.
It's mostly intended for legendary campaigns (battle difficulty doesn't matter) as some of the tricks possible on lower difficulties are too risky on legendary, but all inputs are wellcome :)


Personally, I really enjoy Imrik's campaign so far, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the pressure is high..
How do you guys handle the early game?

Imrik have an awesome capital and 2nd city above him with inherently strong garrisons so those are pretty easy to defend, but from there things get exponentially dicey :P
You have no trade available, which usually is the high elves primary source of economy, so a second lord is a very tall order..

The 3rd part of the region are a few turns away, but everyone else can go under the mountains, so that's at constant risk of being taken by a wild skaven, dwarf or greenskin appearing..

To the right Eshin is an eternal source of XP and gold, but I find them extremely risky to actually advance against, due to their ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stealth stance, that potentially make any attack an inescapable ambush.

My plan was to stick with the first two towns, and bumrush Eshin once their garrisons could hold of the enemies for some turns.. The idea was to get Sniktch deathmaster snikch and his stealth stance out of the way, but literally the turn before taking his capital, they where confederated by ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Moulder, throwing that prospect out the window :D
Additionally Caledor was confederated by Tyrion before I could get my hands on them, marking the end of my campaign :P


I'm now considering three options when I restart the campaign:

1) Go on a burn and pillage spree in order to confederate caledor early, in order to enable some trading (hopefully?). My hope is that this would be enough to boost my economy significanlty and Vaul's Anvil have a pretty strong garrison on it's own if memory serves me right

2) Go ultra aggressive early and simply raze every Eshin village early on to eradicate the vermin, as taking them requires too much micromanagement with public order on legendary. Then reclaim the towns later.

3) Try to maintain the two early cities, while going for Malus instead and using Eshin as an xp factory..


What is your strategy and how are you rebuilding the Glory of the Dragon princes in your legendary campaign? :)

[Sarcastro]

1) Secure main province.
2) Kill of Dwarves, don't settle the last settlement yet will just revolt on you.
3)Take Eshin main city first as it can hold if they sneak back. Most of Eshin's armies will be moving into the Orc faction. You can then work your way south to wipe out Eshin as you get them caught between Immrik and the orcs.
4) Wipe out the orcs then move to take out Dragon Isles.
5) Face the orc swarm of Grimgor as you march to a port you can actually use for trade.

Some side notes, race to get lighting strike first as you will need it. Don't worry about the skaven faction to the northwest as it will get mobbed by Grimgor. I was even able to sign as non-aggression pact with them till they were wiped from the map. Don't worry too much about getting a quest dragon right away as the buffs are greatl and rangers and your archers trade great against Eshin.

Biggest issue will be that you are dirt poor till you can get to the Barak port.

[zefyris]

for the 2) you can settle. It's fine if they revolt, that means more money either way.
I agree with all the other numbers though.
Except you don't need lightning strike.

[Sarcastro]

Originally posted by zefyris:

for the 2) you can settle. It's fine if they revolt, that means more money either way.
I agree with all the other numbers though.
Except you don't need lightning strike.

For number 2 I did settle and then it did revolt and had to take out again later. Just looking back I thought it was a mistake as I got nothing out of it.

As to the value of Lighting Strike I can't think of any skill that is more valuable as you will tend to have to fight multiple stacks of up to 40-55 units and your archers will run out of ammo well before the fight ends. So even when you do win you then need sit for a little to regroup. Lighting Strike lets you roll through stuff and have the ability to do the same thing the next turn.

[JoeVonFo]

Originally posted by Sarcastro:

1) Secure main province.
2) Kill of Dwarves, don't settle the last settlement yet will just revolt on you.
3)Take Eshin main city first as it can hold if they sneak back. Most of Eshin's armies will be moving into the Orc faction. You can then work your way south to wipe out Eshin as you get them caught between Immrik and the orcs.
4) Wipe out the orcs then move to take out Dragon Isles.
5) Face the orc swarm of Grimgor as you march to a port you can actually use for trade.

Some side notes, race to get lighting strike first as you will need it. Don't worry about the skaven faction to the northwest as it will get mobbed by Grimgor. I was even able to sign as non-aggression pact with them till they were wiped from the map. Don't worry too much about getting a quest dragon right away as the buffs are greatl and rangers and your archers trade great against Eshin.

Biggest issue will be that you are dirt poor till you can get to the Barak port.

Was this in a legendary campaign?

The "Rush Eshin Capital" strat was the one I initially atempted, but how do you protect your main province in the meantime?

Reaching the Eshin Capital takes at least 3 turns (which is in march, which is extremely risky on legendary).
Even then you're still missing the other Eshin town, which is another two towns, and if you leave that provice you'll get a revolt in a turn or two..

So what's going on in your home-province?
I've had the third town of the home-province taken by both the other skaven and the dwarves that broke a treaty (granted, dwarven faction is an easy fix, by killing them).

I also tried waiting longer until going for the Eshin capital..
Waited until I had around 25k gold from sacking, got a second lord to defend home-province, but at that point Grimgor had a huge empire and the green tide, including both Wurrzag, Grimgor and their entire crew decended upon me :D
Managed to hold them off, but ran out of gold very fast due to a second lord leading to a huge deficit.

I agree that lightning strike is highly valuable in this campaign.

Anyhow.. Nothing left to do but start over and start cracking skulls once more :D

[Android Poetry]

Lightning strike . . . some say it is most valuable some say it is pointless and never bring it. I never bring it on VH/VH and I do just fine.

[JoeVonFo]

Originally posted by Fire Spell:

Lightning strike . . . some say it is most valuable some say it is pointless and never bring it. I never bring it on VH/VH and I do just fine.

For me it depends on the campaign.
I typically avoid it when I'm primarily facing less spam-heavy factions, but as Imrik both greenskin and skaven have an extreme amount of able bodies, and in that case lightning strike is awesome for sniping, when 5 full stacks lays siege on your capital :D

[Sarcastro]

Originally posted by JoeVonFo:

So what's going on in your home-province?
I've had the third town of the home-province taken by both the other skaven and the dwarves that broke a treaty (granted, dwarven faction is an easy fix, by killing them).

In my campaign the Skaven to NW get taken out by Grom which takes a bit. Still put up walls on your smaller province as will need later. Razing the last Dawi settlement I think is best while you clear out the east and south.

[The Sylvan Learning Center]

This campaign is so frustrating.

It's in my favorite part of the map, near nagashsizzar, but you are surrounded by enemies after securing a foothold by killing the dwarves.

Imo you need to secure the corner of the map asap so you can fortify against grimgor and push out against him safely.

Eshin to the east will attack you as soon as they kill the weak orcs. This is a dense forest, and you will waste many turns chasing rats around the forest.. need to ambush them and catch them using their skaven underway.

Hag graef is below you on the islands and I ended up chasing malus in circles, wasting many turns.

I kept the vampires and Khalida to the south from attacking me, but I think sometimes they will declare war on you and make your life more difficult.

This campaign was very annoying for me and I wasted too much time fighting eshin and malus, and grimgor came with 3 stacks eventually and crushed me.

But it was fun and I wish I hadn't died. Such a cool, unexplored part of the ME map

[The Sylvan Learning Center]

Oh and I didnt even bother with confederatingn caledor. That seemed like it would be suicide. Maybe you should just relocate there completely and give up on the plain of bones.....

[Sarcastro]

Originally posted by The Sylvan Learning Center:

Oh and I didnt even bother with confederatingn caledor. That seemed like it would be suicide. Maybe you should just relocate there completely and give up on the plain of bones.....

Correct. Only really take Caledor confederation if you plan on ditching out your starting position. Which might be fun as you pillage your way to the coast and then your homeland. And you are needed there as Morathi is wrecking the place most likely.

Not sure what would happen if you get a Dragon Event while at sea though, might cause an issue.

[yuzhonglu]

With enough influence you don't need to face the Ork swarm. Buddy up to Grimgor and instead, focus all your effort on taking Tiranoc (gold mine) while holding on to your three provinces in the Old World. and whatever else you can pick off in Ulthuan.

Then stall until you mass entrepeneurs and win.

[Sarcastro]

Originally posted by Fire Spell:

Lightning strike . . . some say it is most valuable some say it is pointless and never bring it. I never bring it on VH/VH and I do just fine.

It has never been stronger now as it will let you bypass WAAAGH armies and they disappear after you win. Had Grimgor set a WAAAGH target as my capital around turn 50 when he had like 36 settlements and largest power. Had to take out multiple stacks with bonus armies on back to back turns. No way you can do that without Lighting Strike.

[The Sylvan Learning Center]

Originally posted by Sarcastro:

Not sure what would happen if you get a Dragon Event while at sea though, might cause an issue.

It just puts the blue glowy waypoint in the water next to your boat

[The Sylvan Learning Center]

Originally posted by yuzhonglu:

With enough influence you don't need to face the Ork swarm. Buddy up to Grimgor and instead, focus all your effort on taking Tiranoc (gold mine) while holding on to your three provinces in the Old World. and whatever else you can pick off in Ulthuan.

Then stall until you mass entrepeneurs and win.

Haha I tried that on normal, with a mod that deactivates the AI penalty it has against the player. And even with all that, and all the influence you get from dragon events, spamming influence, grimgor dont give a ♥♥♥♥ mate

[Tachrin]

This campaign is definitely a lot crazier than any of the other legendary campaigns I've done! Both times I tried it I had Eishin invading me with five armies by around turn 15, I've never seen such aggression! By that point I usually have only one medium sized army without lightning strike, and ambush stance *maybe* lets me ambush one of their armies, before getting reverse-ambushed by their other four.
I haven't tried rushing Eishin yet, since I'm usually busy dealing with rebellions, but it seems like that might be the only way.