So, I am trying to improve my strategy to save both balthazar and wulfhart playing as hard empire.

So far I rush a Tavern lvl 2 on my first city and send a witch hunter to the east to make contact with the elves (easy trade deals for extra money) and to contact wulfhart. I invest heavy on the relations with balthazar and intervene on his early war with vlad, even at the cost of reducing my defenses.

Last game all went well, my intervention on the balthazar vlad war forced a peace treaty and i had to move my army from there to counter a sneak attack from manfred. Shortly afterwhile the rats attacked bathazar and killed him. My witch hunter on the other hand for several games couldnt reach wulfhart on time before the vampire coast and lizards overwhelm him.

Any hints?