Tips for the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that is my Itza ME campaign?

[Insertclevername]

This is simultaneously a story of a huge ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of a campaign, and a cry for help.

So in my current campaign, it started off pretty normal. Took out Clan Pestilens by like turn 4 by bumrushing them, followed by the dark elves.

It was at this point, I think I ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up. I thought having an ally watching one of my flanks wouldn't be such a bad idea, and since the lizards are nigh impossible to confederate (which makes absolutely no sense to me, but alright) and they don't enjoy living in the mountains (I don't blame 'em), I decided to make friends with the dwarves.

Thing is, they were at war with the Sentinels. So I figured "Okay, I can declare war to make them like me enough to get the ball rolling on an alliance" and I did so. Cue the hundred years war, no matter how many times I beat these pricks into submission they will NOT give up. At the same time I was fighting the Sentinels, I was fighting my northern neighbors. Apparently declaring war on one lizardmen empire means all of them HATE you. Thankfully, it was actually the high elves who declared war on me first. They were fairly simple, and opened the way for my conquest of the Awakening, which I didn't have too many troubles with because they'd been occupied with the Cult of Sotek this entire time. Thing is, they were also keeping the Cult occupied.

The moment I finished with the Awakening, both the mutineers AND the Cult declared war on me the same turn. So now I'm at war on 3 fronts, with one and a half armies because lizardmen armies are expensive as hell. Cool.

Keep in mind, this entire time, I'm having rebellions in my home provinces because even with public order buildings and trying to rid my provinces of corruption, skaven corruption is STILL high, probably an undercity or something.

The mutineers were fairly easy, only real hiccup was when they snuck an army down to the High elf islands and took the city there, and to be honest I didn't even see the Cult's armies, because they were, once again, preoccupied with another serious threat. The Drowned had managed to, in what little time I'd been playing, expand all the way to the Temple of Tlencan and Xahutec.

Cylostra's army gave me a run for my money, but once I dealt with that she was... wait, why are all of her cities covered with an orange flag now?

So I beat the Drowned army, but apparently while she was pestering me in the south, Hexoatl had been ruthlessly tearing up her backside. By the time I beat her army, which was only possible when she besieged the Awakening, Tlencan and Xahutec were the only cities she had left.

While I'm trying desperately to hold off the superpower that is Hexoatl, the Sentinels decide my backside looks so very appealing that they decide to send not one, but two armies straight for it. So now I'm getting tag teamed on both sides. The Sentinels take one of my cities (Chaqua), and set their sights on another, but thankfully by this point I've managed to kill off enough troops that I can divert some from the north to deal with the threat. So I send my armies down south to deal with the flood of purple that is brutally penetrating my backside and totally ignoring the safe word. I take the city back, go to take out the army, and I kid you not, it takes me five turns to catch the guy. I chase him all the way from Chaqua and eventually end up pinning him against the Vampire Coast and taking him down, but wait, there's more!

By this point, we've gotten far enough in the game. It's that dreaded time of the month when the map gets painted red with blood... or chaos corruption, take your pick. A boatload of ships appear at the coast of Lustria, and I hear that dickbiscuit of a "helper" go on and on about Chaos.

Cool. So now three fronts. With two armies, three if I take some serious liberties with what I call an "army". And pretty much all of my cities are underdeveloped because wars are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ expensive and I haven't had a chance to breathe since I finished off the Dark Elves.

"But Insert" I hear you say, "What are those dwarves doing? Didn't you get yourself into this mess to have some friends helping you out?" Oh those guys? Yeah, they made peace with the Sentinels like three turns in and have been sitting pretty twiddling their thumbs in their homeland. I dragged them back into the Hundred Years war like four turns later, and they just sat around before making peace again in like five more turns. Oh and they're also at war with Hexoatl, but I haven't seen them make a single move beyond that mountain. Where's that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ book? I think I have a grudge to write down.

If I get out of this mess, I see a dwarven genocide in my future. But first, I need to get out of this mess. Anyone have any tips for fighting a war on 3 fronts with expensive troops, while completely underfunded and barely able to field two and a half cheap (Relatively. We all know lizardmen are more expensive than a high class hooker, though admittedly twice as fun) armies

Oh and did I mention... This is only on normal difficulty.

[matlajs]

Very bad. Need to improve somewhere.

[Insertclevername]

Originally posted by matlajs:

Very bad. Need to improve somewhere.

Helpful.

[yojimbo1111]

Not much more you can really do. Focus building in regions that are safe(Itza?), don't keep paying to build settlement's you may lose (borders). The signing and breaking treating could have given you low reliability which will make the enemies more likely to attack you. And kill the people you are already at war with before declaring another war, if possible.

[Darklordnj]

Originally posted by yojimbo1111:

The signing and breaking treating could have given you low reliability which will make the enemies more likely to attack you.

Being more specific here, any time you make a diplomatic deal with the AI (except for begging for gold) you must wait ten turns before ending it. And if you break a deal, you must wait ten turns before you can declare war. And if you start a war, ya gotta wait ten turns to make peace.

Basically maintaining reliability in a nutshell: Wait 10 turns to break a treaty, Wait 10 turns from broken treaty to start a war, Wait 10 turns from starting a war to make peace

[Skydan]

If you play any faction in Lustria, I think its actually easier to leave the coastline on the east well alone until the chaos invasions are finished. Just let one of the other factions own them, chaos will destroy them anyway.

[yuzhonglu]

Not enough details. Sounds like you did something wrong. How are you struggling with Lord Korak in your army?

[Shirome Artiste]

Itza is remarkably easy on normal if you keep 3 things in mind.

1: Bumrush Skrolk and Memeheart (Which you did right)
2: Consolidate and expand slowly afterwards (Which you did not)
3: Don't use alliances. Especially on normal. Factions that like you enough won't suddenly 180 on you on normal anyway.

Seriously. Taking the province of Itza and the province you should have Skrolk kicked out of by turn 10 is enough for like the first 50 turns easy. All the rando AI factions should be aimlessly trading minor provinces with the Coast anyway for all that time, giving you enough time to get two fully developed provinces (Build garrisons everywhere, you're right next to one of the chaos spawnpoints!)

If things feel pretty secure far earlier (Not that uncommon on normal) you can cross the mountains to kick the Sentinels of Xeti to the curb, as that part of the map literally never, EVER sees any traffic in ME. EVER. So it should as well be yours, right? The province just to its north is also fair game, and then SLOWLY work your way eastward and nom up everything that exists.

Also, don't forget that with Kroak siege attacks become a total pushover. All his spells can be cast onto walls, and the AI never actually sallies out of the gates during the fight, so you can just sit juuuust outside of tower range and continue deleting unit after unit.

[Cpt. Obvious]

Congrats. You actually managed managed to turn well known for its meaningless itza slog into something interesting!
My advice: send scouts across the ocean, find the empire-dwarfish conglomerate and declare war on them. You need to do that before the real chaos strikes.

[vesuvius.magma.dragon]

I'm having a problem with mine. So far, I've cleared out Skrolk, Fellheart, back stabbed Teclis, confed with Tehenhauin and destroyed Harkon. However, while doing that, for almost 30 turns straight for reasons completely unknown, when i go to recruit a Scar Veteran, it says, "no agent is available, please try again next turn". How many Scar Veterans do i currently have, 1 out of 3. And that one Scar Veteran spawned during a random event, but i have been unable to recruit a single Scar Veteran. Is there something am i completely missing something, or is this a bug? because 30 turns straight saying there is nothing available in the scar veteran recruitment tab is plain ridicules.

[Wh♂♂par]

Mods? Missing any DLC? OS?

[Sn3z]

(I can't play Itza) but did you try the Rite of Primeval EZ game?