Tips for people that suck at the early campaign?

[Fel]

I love total war games but usually I can pick a faction that isn't going to be assaulted on all fronts and slowly build up my way (in normal difficulty of course, this doesn't work on legendary).

In this and the previous though, I always end up getting swarmed on at least 3 fronts by full stacks pretty early on.
Relying on garrison on top of a full stack army I can definitely take on those armies one at a time, and with the replenishment reward after winning it's not taking too many turns to fully replenish my troops.
But that army can only be in one place at a time and the 2 full provinces I manage to secure before the insanity starts end up getting crippled badly.

When I try to see how things go for others via youtube videos and such it doesn't seem like they get that storm of war declarations all at once like I do, at least not until later when they can afford to make a strong second army.

Even hero units that can stall enemy armies are based on luck so you can't rely on that too much.


It is pretty obvious that the fault is mine, either there is a way to not get all those wars declared on me out of nowhere or a better way to handle the defense.
Ideally I would try to get defensive buildings in every settlement but it needs to be tier 2 before you get access to those and that tier is pretty far for at least half of my territory when the insanity starts.

I have tried everything I could think of, including diplomacy but it doesn't seem to be working well and I always end up getting sent back to defend my capital and lose everything else, setting me back too much to be able to do much from that point onward.


Is there a good guide out there on how to handle the first 15-20 turns or something along those lines maybe?

[Ape-tier Buffoonery]

I dont have a good guide on hand and am about to head out so I can't type too much.

But look into trying Krok'Gar/Last Defenders.

You're literally in a corner of the map. Your army is really cheap with super beefy units this early in the game. Most of the enemies you fight within the first 20 turns crumple when faced with a stack of Saurus charging them.

But hopefully someone can help you better and good luck!

[Hieronymous]

If it makes you feel any better, I think the first 20 turns or so are always the most difficult. I'm no expert but here goes.

1. Figure out who your natural allies are. Look at the diplomacy modifiers in the diplomacy screen to help you figure this out. Do not fight natural allies! Unless it's part of a well thought out plan, attacking potential friends exposed you to attack from others.

2. Figure out who your natural enemies are. Find who hates you or might want your land and consider going right for them.

3. Make money by raiding and sacking, use that money to build your 2nd army. If you build up a treasury, you can go into negative income and make money purely by military action.

[Raider Deci]

Playing legendary is all about being as effective as possible with what you got. Just winning isnt good enough, units that just perform decent in a 1v1 scenario isnt good enough.

Legendoftotalwar has some first 20 turns on legendary guides

[Fel]

In my last attempt (in normal difficulty) I wanted a dark elf spell caster so I went for morati (admitedly listed as hard starting location in part because of the beastmen and undead on the other side of the mountains), but legend of total war's channel doesn't seem to have her in his first 20 turns videos so I found a similar guide in very hard from nitros14 (which helped me quite a bit in how to play dark elves during battles, what early game units to go for and how to make the most of the hydra and harpies she has at the start).

The problem is that his rear was never threatened while he was forging ahead (bribing the beastmen for peace with a bit of gold did work which was quite helpful since that near full stack right next to the capital was stressful) and the natural ally to the south managed to hold on in his case (he gets wiped out by turn 15 in my games in normal and his enemies then come to flood my land from the south).
As a result, just after taking over the settlement that you absolutely have to take because of the ritual currency everything goes to hell completely unlike that guide.

I'll try krok'gar, even if it isn't exactly the king of faction I typically like to play to see if I can get a better start there at least.

[Elliott]

Early game can be really stressful sometimes it feels like every situation has to go your way and one bad thing derails the campaign like an enemy agent getting lucky and wounding your lord.

You can change battle difficulty to easy to give you a little bonus in the fights then once your out of that early game stick it back up to normal.

[Wh♂♂par]

Morathi is one of the hardest starts to survive in. Hexoatl, Nagarythe, Western Ulthuan High Elves (all of the factions), Khatep - all declare war on you. It's a turtling situation for her early on. You want to have the Lizardmen liking you at least, so feed them some money. Other than that, try to take out Alith very soon, keep your sea border clean and use ambushes whenever possible.

[Fel]

It's not so much the battles themselves (easy for battle difficulty won't allow a garrison of 6-7 units to defeat a full stack army and even 20 vs 20 is manageable in normal for me) as it is the armies and enemies declaring war all at once and all coming in to take appart my decent start of an empire, every single time, no matter what lord I pick (I even managed to get screwed like that with tyrion which is supposedly the easiest of the starting locations).

[Wh♂♂par]

Getting beaten up as Tyrion, OK. I'd honestly favour a video of the first twenty turns, lol!

[Fel]

Well, Tyrion and his army were undefeated (for obvious reasons since nobody nearby has OP units or legendary lords of that ranking near his starting city and his capital is just flooding your coffers with gold) but when armies popped up from 4 different sides I was pushed back all the way to the capital, and after defeating the invading armies in succession there and trying to re-take territory I was betrayed by my allies as well and I just rage-quit the game until recently.
It was in the first weeks after launch so maybe things changed a bit and I am just paying the fact that I mostly picked starting scenarios that are not "easy".

EDIT: It doesn't change the fact that most of it is my fault one way or another, I suck at these games even if I love how they play.

[Ape-tier Buffoonery]

Also dont be afraid to lose battles and campaigns. They help us learn!

If you're playing on easy/normal having an extra general sitting in a town with 3-9 extra low tier troops + the garrison can often hold a front. While being relatively inexpensive to boot.

Theres also no harm in slowing expansion. Taking your full starting province and holding there while you consolidate the order + build economic buildings will help you take over you next province. Where you can take a few turns to build up again.

Also getting minor towns to level 3 and building the garrison building to get walls (and a decent garrison as well) helps cover fronts nicely!

[Ashley]

Legendoftotalwar is a decent enough for a legendary start I suppose not that I play that difficulty. Just as long as you aren't going in with full cheese strategies of his.

[Raider Deci]

Originally posted by Not Lorenz:

Legendoftotalwar is a decent enough for a legendary start I suppose not that I play that difficulty. Just as long as you aren't going in with full cheese strategies of his.

What you call cheese im calling being effective on his behalf. Mostly. The AI will have more income and recruit faster and replenish faster. Units that dont perform have no place

And as far as Im concerned its the AIs choice to waste arrows on single entities

[ChairmanMeow]

First twenty turn are usually the hardest turns. Total war games in general have an issue where the game is super hard until you get your second twenty stack then it becomes super easy since you can just work in tandem with your other army and the ai it too stupid to figure out how to counter it

[Fel]

Plus it's fun to save your whole army from tower shots in a siege just by putting a lot or hero up front and watch them shoot those army-wreaking bolts directly into the ground.
In higher difficulties you definitely need to use at least some cheese because the AIs cheat, a lot.
Thankfully in normal it's not that bad, the enemies don't get full stack armies out of nowhere right away so you don't have to cheese as much (and it matters less if you can't catch an army that is in marching stance for example).

[Xaphnir]

Originally posted by Elliott:

like an enemy agent getting lucky and wounding your lord.

That only happens in the first game except for Alith Anar's rite agent, and when he uses that it's 100%.