Mazdamundi the fraud

[caol.davies]

Mazdamundi legendary campaign seems utterly impossible. with the huntsmarshalls expedition or orks knocking on your door early underneath with the tomb kings or dark elves from turn 15-25 keeping you soft at the top til dark elves can drop 4 (silver to gold tier) doom stacks on you at around turn 60-75. Sometimes I can keep them off me with one army and a garrison, but its expensive to field an army that doesnt expand, plus expansion is essential to field armies necessary to complete the rituals and with your ever aggressive enemies to the north living in uninhabitable settlements, south is the only way to go. Sure you can raze settlements, but they are re settled within 2-3 turns. This will cause you to unleash the wrath of the orks, new world colonies and huntsmarshalls expedition without fail as you NEED their land. Along with this Teclis and Vampire coast will often sail vast distances to simply be annoying for the sake of it.

I have seen absolutely no one who can show passed ritual 2 for a mazdamundi vortex campaign on legendary. No one on YT has gotten past turn 20 and most threads have people claiming to have done it, but offering nothing on how.

Can anyone help? Has anyone actually done it? Is mazdamundi, herald of the old ones, just a fat useless toad??

[A.Pot]

Legendary difficulty is supposed to be the hardest difficulty for a reason.

[Lain]

vortex yea? since you said rituals, are you doing those rituals as you go?
and also its hard doing a walkthrough for more than 20-30 turns because alot can and does change, so what one person might have may be completely opposite for another
the first dozen or so turns though are usually pretty predictable, after that no


id really suggest taking out those savage orcs quick enough though and expanding to take um titan peaks? i believe thats the province morathi starts in.. and its one of the richest if not the richest province in the game. which if you leave her with it it only will make her economically stronger which is why they can easily send doomstacks your way
i can only suggest somethings for you though nothing hard and solid that is a surefire victory

[Budoshi]

Originally posted by al_potenciano:

Legendary difficulty is supposed to be the hardest difficulty for a reason.

i mean yeah.. i guess some faction gonna be harder then the other but still ,.. legendary supposed to be hard right,,

[Budoshi]

Originally posted by caol.davies:

Can anyone help? Has anyone actually done it? Is mazdamundi, herald of the old ones, just a fat useless toad??

Still + 1 for been funny

[Maku]

Maz can be hugely effective in battle and lizards have the best starting infantry in the game. When I play any lizard faction I'm always super aggressive from the start on neighboring factions.
Greenskins and skaven are especially easy if you go at them from the start because of their poor leadership. Both also are really easy before having high tier inf and monsters.

Perhaps try something differently diplomatically because I have never had any issues with high or dark elves close to my territory and actually almost never have to fight them at all unless I want to steal delf lands.

[GamerHubert]

Vortex campaign on legendary ist rly hard on the lizardmen. starting rituals need to have 3-4 good armies to defend the ♥♥♥♥. But mazdamundi overall is a rly good lord. Dont do autofights on legendary. Only manuell fights bring the win.

[Overt Operations Specialist]

Wow, thankyou for the motivation to play vortex.

I’ll have a look after I wake up.

[Overt Operations Specialist]

I can see why you think it's hard. I played L/VH for reference.

By turn 8 skeggi was gone. I left skeggi main settlement to the new colonies (help them fight the orcs), started trade and NA with new colonies.
Turned attention to the rats, took 2nd province to the left.
Easy to control rebellions because both Main settlements are close, pushed rats back to 1 settlement, (main settlement to the north).
Rats dragged cylostra into war with me, she had no settlements so took one of mine, destroyed her faction.
Peace treaty with rats.
War with luthor harkon, farming his stacks at my minor walled settlement. Mazda on mount, spell of banishment, lightning strike turn 70.

DE to the north are weak and ready for destruction, orcs and colonies fighting to the south. game is doable man.

I think you need to fight the battles, no auto-resolve. Also give skeggi capital to new colonies, so they can resist the orcs, (seemed effective).

[caol.davies]

Originally posted by Stairs:

vortex yea? since you said rituals, are you doing those rituals as you go?
and also its hard doing a walkthrough for more than 20-30 turns because alot can and does change, so what one person might have may be completely opposite for another
the first dozen or so turns though are usually pretty predictable, after that no


id really suggest taking out those savage orcs quick enough though and expanding to take um titan peaks? i believe thats the province morathi starts in.. and its one of the richest if not the richest province in the game. which if you leave her with it it only will make her economically stronger which is why they can easily send doomstacks your way
i can only suggest somethings for you though nothing hard and solid that is a surefire victory

Thanks for the advice, I did try everything through the game that you have suggested it simply was not viable however (in the circumstances I created with this game), to occupy titan peaks with the penalty to public order providing rebellions and thus opportunities to circumvent defending forces for the ai (eg more likely to split doomstacks).

Additionally Morathai was never a problem on her own, it was combined with the Tomb Kings that start in that area of the map, who were as you may have guessed, also at war with me, that made expansion impossible and retention of at least one army necessary to prevent the collapse of the northern front.

I seem to struggle the most with army composition because of the high cost of fielding units for LM. Getting effective armies (especially ones to deal with Black guard) is extremely expensive and maybe this would free up the upkeep I need for forces elsewhere? Any suggestions?

Also yes I know, Autoresolve is blasphemy haha

[caol.davies]

Originally posted by Overt Operations Specialist:

I can see why you think it's hard. I played L/VH for reference.

By turn 8 skeggi was gone. I left skeggi main settlement to the new colonies (help them fight the orcs), started trade and NA with new colonies.
Turned attention to the rats, took 2nd province to the left.
Easy to control rebellions because both Main settlements are close, pushed rats back to 1 settlement, (main settlement to the north).
Rats dragged cylostra into war with me, she had no settlements so took one of mine, destroyed her faction.
Peace treaty with rats.
War with luthor harkon, farming his stacks at my minor walled settlement. Mazda on mount, spell of banishment, lightning strike turn 70.

DE to the north are weak and ready for destruction, orcs and colonies fighting to the south. game is doable man.

I think you need to fight the battles, no auto-resolve. Also give skeggi capital to new colonies, so they can resist the orcs, (seemed effective).

Cheers for the detailed reply bro

Skeggi for me are never an issue and yea I made friends with the NWC for ork defence and trade early game too.

How can you increase the odds of DE ready for destruction? In my experience, even with my pesky agents depleting armies and damaging walls in favour their enemies in the north the DE are always, unequivocally, ready for total war lol. What did I think I was getting into right?

What are your army comps like? How do you deal with doomstacks of black guard? I always struggled traditionally with the fact that LE have no late game, armour piercing anti infantry, infantry. Gold tier temple guard will still lose toe to toe against silver tier black guard on legendary.

[caol.davies]

Originally posted by Aki:

Maz can be hugely effective in battle and lizards have the best starting infantry in the game. When I play any lizard faction I'm always super aggressive from the start on neighboring factions.
Greenskins and skaven are especially easy if you go at them from the start because of their poor leadership. Both also are really easy before having high tier inf and monsters.

Perhaps try something differently diplomatically because I have never had any issues with high or dark elves close to my territory and actually almost never have to fight them at all unless I want to steal delf lands.

Thanks for answering my man.

Effecting ones will in diplomacy has always been a chore in total war games lol, on legendary its like pissing in the wind (almost).

What are your strategies for achieving this as LM. High elves and other races have mechanics geared towards improving diplomatic relations. I suppose however it is lore friendly for the LE to not want anything to do with anyone to some degree.

[caol.davies]

Also are you guys playing battle difficulty on VH? I was under the impression to get the achievements such as Verminlord, both battle and campaign difficulty had to be on VH.

[Lain]

Originally posted by caol.davies:

Originally posted by Stairs:

vortex yea? since you said rituals, are you doing those rituals as you go?
and also its hard doing a walkthrough for more than 20-30 turns because alot can and does change, so what one person might have may be completely opposite for another
the first dozen or so turns though are usually pretty predictable, after that no


id really suggest taking out those savage orcs quick enough though and expanding to take um titan peaks? i believe thats the province morathi starts in.. and its one of the richest if not the richest province in the game. which if you leave her with it it only will make her economically stronger which is why they can easily send doomstacks your way
i can only suggest somethings for you though nothing hard and solid that is a surefire victory

Thanks for the advice, I did try everything through the game that you have suggested it simply was not viable however (in the circumstances I created with this game), to occupy titan peaks with the penalty to public order providing rebellions and thus opportunities to circumvent defending forces for the ai (eg more likely to split doomstacks).

Additionally Morathai was never a problem on her own, it was combined with the Tomb Kings that start in that area of the map, who were as you may have guessed, also at war with me, that made expansion impossible and retention of at least one army necessary to prevent the collapse of the northern front.

I seem to struggle the most with army composition because of the high cost of fielding units for LM. Getting effective armies (especially ones to deal with Black guard) is extremely expensive and maybe this would free up the upkeep I need for forces elsewhere? Any suggestions?

Also yes I know, Autoresolve is blasphemy haha

thats really really weird that the tombkings didnt go for morthai and went for you?

and really for lizardmen at the start people have said the saurus infantry are some of the best for the start of the game
and then they have the best monster units after that
stegodons are probably the best lizardman monster unit , its practically a siege weapon, great health, good melee, rather fast

if your having troubles with dark elf melee fights, get your infantry and dinos to fight together, so the infantry holds them off surrounding your dinos and your dinos help your infantry fight
with a bit of heaven magic you should be able to reck a bunch of blackguards and other ♥♥♥♥ DE have

Vhard/legendary is really fkin hard though most of the time its just cheesy strategies that are going to get you out of situations

& always be on the offensive :P battles are always easier if im the one attacking ive found.
unless youve like purposely let them attack you for whatever reason

[fmalfeas]

I generally go with mostly saurus until I can add Salamander/Razordon hunting packs for ranged support (I hate using skinks). Then start cutting down the saurus numbers. Replace them with stegadons (NOT FERAL) except for a couple Spear+Shield ones, or Temple Guard who's job is to hang back and defend the hunting packs. With luck, you can get a Blessed Carnosaur or Stegadon fairly early, but that obviously can't be relied upon.

During the Saurus stage of things, Mazdamundi's magic is critically important. I generally make the first lord I add be a fire slann, as one of those with a few Saurus to hold things off him is generally enough to wreck most early armies.

Later on when you're fielding LOTS of dinos and heroes, Life Slann becomes borderline OP.

Because of the value of Life and Fire slann, getting Star Chambers built is critical.

[Maku]

@OP what is your reliability? Being at war with the whole continent by turn 25, or even turn 70 smells of low reliability. Unless of course you are actively declaring war on everyone?

I would say that expanding south a bit faster allows you to build your strength which is a good deterrent to dark elves being aggressive. Having another army floating around even if you don't need it for battles can be useful to stop being attacking or declaring war (even if its just a load of skinks).

Early-mid game TKs you can get away with a ton of skinks, couple of saurus and beasts. If they have constructs then carnosaurs or spear riders are useful. Obviously late game you are going to need more expensive armies but most of the time, your crap will be better than TK crap so just field a mostly crap army. 1/2 stronger dudes and a heavens mage as damage dealers can do all the heavy lifting.

Delf I find a tougher one for lizards. Magic is even more important and you want more beasts. Flyers or cav for fast flank on their archers is a must if they are going crossbow heavy. If they are black guard heavy, know that temple guard wont beat them but normal saurus + krox will so if you want to win the infantry fight you have to focus a bit to break through and flank, accepting you will take losses.