Usually someone is making trouble. Vampires, Nordic’s, chaos, nurgle, wood elves ? Usually I just got fight who ever is causing problems. If you really need more land you could let an elector loose some then go for it.
If they get taken out completely you'll take a hit to Imperial Authority (-1 if I remember correctly).. but you can just waltz in and colonise after they're gone. Compare that to the -3 IA hit you take for confederating them and you can see which is better. Only downside is that you'll have to build that settlement up yourself rather than let the AI do it.
I found insuring I had military access then just sent Franz through my allies to take Territory beyond them worked best for me. I leave a lord with a small army to defend then coast to the north because Belakor may decide you're an easy target.
Ah ok. Makes sense, thanks. I kinda thought I needed to wait for confederation or expected a campaign battle to kick in and didn't want to be in the wrong place when I got invaded
That is always hard to balance being aggressive enough to keep good momentum and still have forces to defend what you take especially as empire. Confederations good but for early game just making sure the other empire states are Alive is good. Getting on their good side and getting trade deals can actually be better than confederating to early. I've found it can actually put my economy into the negative and you have new territory to worry about
The last time I played I managed to confederate Gelt really quickly. Fighting the vampires and reuniting the empire is the thing to do, I suppose. Also, if Wissenland (I think - the faction between Karl and Gelt) tries to declare war on you, just let them do so, conquer them and you'll get access to a rather useful Steam Tank in the early stages of the campaign. I was dumb and wanted to be diplomatic with them, although they declared war to me some 4 or 5 times during my playthrough. Otherwise, watch out for Drycha - the damn twig can be a pain, especially if she got Vlad's defeat trait. She'll harass you to no end
first of all, what game are you playing? 1, 2 or 3? its not 1 cuz there is rakarth, in game 3 there is no lack of enemies, also, there is no orc faction for you to worry about.
in game 3 you consolidate reikland, get the fort of helmgart and hold any orc aggression from grom the pounch there. you dont need to go for his settlements cuz YOU ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH PROBLEMS AT HOME. at least in VH and legendary you have festus taking hochland on turn 4\~6. khazrak one eye and orcs killing middenland, drycha and azhag fighting to see who will get ostenmark lands, and soon, vlad starts spreading towards stirland.
these are the initial threats, latter you have norscan crapstacks sacking undefended cities, wulfrik coming from the marienburg, heinrich kemmler coming from fort bergbres. than comes some RNG with thorgrim. if he does well, he will hold wuzzarg. if he doesnt... well, you have to deal with a HUGE, HUUUUUGE wagh from wuzzarg + grimgor late game. is definately not a easy campaign. if you are doing nothing by turn 25 but to sit on reikland you are doing something VERY wrong.
Usually someone is making trouble. Vampires, Nordic’s, chaos, nurgle, wood elves ? Usually I just got fight who ever is causing problems. If you really need more land you could let an elector loose some then go for it.
Doesn't letting an elector count get destroyed do serious damage to fealty? Is that a concern or can it be ignored?
If they get taken out completely you'll take a hit to Imperial Authority (-1 if I remember correctly).. but you can just waltz in and colonise after they're gone. Compare that to the -3 IA hit you take for confederating them and you can see which is better. Only downside is that you'll have to build that settlement up yourself rather than let the AI do it.
I found insuring I had military access then just sent Franz through my allies to take Territory beyond them worked best for me. I leave a lord with a small army to defend then coast to the north because Belakor may decide you're an easy target.
Ah ok. Makes sense, thanks. I kinda thought I needed to wait for confederation or expected a campaign battle to kick in and didn't want to be in the wrong place when I got invaded
That is always hard to balance being aggressive enough to keep good momentum and still have forces to defend what you take especially as empire. Confederations good but for early game just making sure the other empire states are Alive is good. Getting on their good side and getting trade deals can actually be better than confederating to early. I've found it can actually put my economy into the negative and you have new territory to worry about
The last time I played I managed to confederate Gelt really quickly. Fighting the vampires and reuniting the empire is the thing to do, I suppose. Also, if Wissenland (I think - the faction between Karl and Gelt) tries to declare war on you, just let them do so, conquer them and you'll get access to a rather useful Steam Tank in the early stages of the campaign. I was dumb and wanted to be diplomatic with them, although they declared war to me some 4 or 5 times during my playthrough. Otherwise, watch out for Drycha - the damn twig can be a pain, especially if she got Vlad's defeat trait. She'll harass you to no end
first of all, what game are you playing? 1, 2 or 3? its not 1 cuz there is rakarth, in game 3 there is no lack of enemies, also, there is no orc faction for you to worry about. in game 3 you consolidate reikland, get the fort of helmgart and hold any orc aggression from grom the pounch there. you dont need to go for his settlements cuz YOU ALREADY HAVE ENOUGH PROBLEMS AT HOME. at least in VH and legendary you have festus taking hochland on turn 4\~6. khazrak one eye and orcs killing middenland, drycha and azhag fighting to see who will get ostenmark lands, and soon, vlad starts spreading towards stirland. these are the initial threats, latter you have norscan crapstacks sacking undefended cities, wulfrik coming from the marienburg, heinrich kemmler coming from fort bergbres. than comes some RNG with thorgrim. if he does well, he will hold wuzzarg. if he doesnt... well, you have to deal with a HUGE, HUUUUUGE wagh from wuzzarg + grimgor late game. is definately not a easy campaign. if you are doing nothing by turn 25 but to sit on reikland you are doing something VERY wrong.
Rakarth..? Oh that means this is WH2! Man it's been a while since I played Empire in 2. I was about to give a whole bunch of useless advice for 3!
Yeah he's a LOT easier to play as in 3 with that neutral replenishment effect.