I tried a Skarsnik campaign and honestly was suprised on how far nasty skulkers can take you, once you hit late game its not as good but you can spread quickly
Still my favorite campaign to this day. A duo with Azhag meant my north side was safe, so I could entirely focus on dem pesky dorfs. Sieging with 5.5k goblins was peak comedy, me and my friend could not stop laughing, while literal waves of gobbos poured through the walls.
Yeah it starts off pretty easy since you can just win through sheer numbers, but I found that once you encounter queek's roided up rats and heroes he can't really win even fights. Plus Queek gets explicit bonuses against you, it's kinda rough. Skaven lords are also way better than the two goblin lords.
How isn't kugath here?, I mean, his starting province is horrible for him since you can't spread plagues between isles, most of the factions around him straight up counter his strengths, several of his technologies are useless because are climate or race dependant and a large amount settlements around him have mountain climate which is unstable for him
It’s a shame I was really looking forward to Nurgle and the way Kugath is atm we’re better off playing WOC Nurgle, sad that marauders with Nurgle buffs are better than the Nurgle roster
I'm still figuring out his campaign on legendary, it takes a bit of practice. You can get around the island plague issue by using a second lord to just spread plagues. Ghost isn't too bad to be honest. Getting the military buildings up early is pretty key for me. I barely use the infrastructure ones. Also nurglings don't do it for me so I never build his skill tree that way.
I have to admit, K'ugath and Festus are the only LLs I have not even started a campaign with, just not fond of Nurgle but I have seen a lot more complaints about him than Festus.
Skarsnik is the most fun I’ve had in a campaign. Just hordes and hordes of WAAAAGH goblins. When I took Karak Eight Peaks I was also fighting the Empire. I had 6 armies and still had 2000 coin surplus per turn. Each army was a 40 stack because of waaaagh and I was demolishing everything.
To be fair the tomb kings start in game 3 is far better now. More desert to expand into, more quiet place as well. Easy to sail across the map to Cathey deserts. All is good.
I think Nurgle is harder than any of this list, going against tough early game factions being weak yourself and really really poor. If you don't take them fast enough any of your neighbors can just steam roll you including the lizardmen you start being at war.
i was starting his "normal" campaign 3 times, before i could actually start to expand and recruit decent units. think all you need at the start is hitting Helman as fast, as you can. then it suddenly feels good even against coming Grimgor's waagh.
I recently completed a Nurgle campaign. I can state with confidence one thing : winning it is entirely up to how lucky you are with the Chaos Dwarves to the west. In my case i got insanely lucky and the Chaos Dwarves essentially manage to stomproll most of the western territories to my starting position. Thus after dealing with Ghorst and going straight for Grimgor, i didn't have to worry about what happened west. Cathay on the other hand... I'd say the worst thing about Nurgle is the plague mechanic... it's, weridly underwhelming for the most part and there's only a couple of them that are actually good (like the +20% physical save one is very powerful against non-magic attack armies - you can easily tank most of everything without even trying.) As for their buildings, economy and recruitment... i'm very conflicted : it's extremly powerful in late game but very difficult in early game. Brutally so. I guess i just have to be glad i got lucky with mine. But that's really not a campaign i'd look forward trying again any time soon.
I’ve started a Skarnik campaign as my first foray into the Greenskins. So I didn’t know what I was doing. Headed straight for Eight Peaks. Couldn’t take it. Started a Waugh, but didn’t know how it worked. Did terribly. Wasted my Waagh, ran home after Wurrzag declared war on me. Figured I’d harass some of his settlements since he wasn’t nearby. He showed up quick. Somehow I managed to auto resolve a win. All of a sudden I’m in first place and I make my way over to take Eight Peaks. Was a lot of fun, and still very early into the campaign.
Knockout the nearby Orks and take Marienburg if you can. Confederate the nearby duchies with the skill tree and don’t research anything else until that’s done. Then take the Vampires, then the Fat Ork, then Belakor.
Yeah, Louen was always brutal to me, because you start out surrounded. You can smooth thing over with Marienburg, thankfully, but them it starts the drama with Norsca + Vampires + Dark Elfs + Chaos. It's really a lot to do fast, you basically can't stop while playing as him.
I usually just take marienburg and raze the nearby orcs, than I just turtle there until I couronne is tier 5 (easy to do as bretonnia), so I can have a OP army early, from there I raze albion and kill belakor and than I expand south, you can even make peace with moussilon before that because belakor will usually land ther to fight them, if you are lucky the fae emchantress will still be alive so you can confederate her, but besides her I usually dont confederate anyone
Imho greenskins Don't have that one "op" multi purpose unit. Nasty skulkers are just that great because they are the can opener skarsnik desperately needs. But yeah they are cheap and especially in an gobbo great Shaman army they hurt
Yep, this is the only really weird pick on the list, no GS should be in the top 10 hardest campaigns and Skarsnik is just about the easiest GS start, maybe only Grimgor is easier due to how much a pushover the Ogres are.
I'm surprized nakai is seen to be soo hard he's my favorite lord in the game to play and I like to play him when I don't want to try :P I actually have more problems with all the other lizard men. I'm just built incorrectly
I mean not really lizards as a whole take a long while to get their settlments going, nakaie is straight up easy as long as you keep an army around in your back lines you can rampage forever die and just wait a few turns to recruit nakaie again. Overall it's a campaign that you almost can't fail honestly.
Honestly I can understand the feeling, Nakai is like the last pure Horde faction in Warhammer 3, and it can be much easier when you don’t need to manage an empire’s worth of cities.
Skarsnik is probably one of the funnest hard campaigns to play. You're in no hurry to reclaim Karak 8-Peaks, unlike Bealgar. Yeah, you've got dirt cheap goblins, but you also got GOOD goblins, like night goblin fanatics that will devastate armies in the early game with their abilities, and you can afford multiple armies, and most of them you're gonna use to goad your enemy into attacking your weaker ones so you can ambush with your main. Skarsnik is all about ambushing and it's a pure goblin experience, more so than Grom the Pouch. And it's GLORIOUS.
Eltharion's campaign is difficult but there's nothing stopping you from just disbanding eltharions army at the start and focusing solely on yvresse. It's much easier this way but I like to spam influence onto skarbrand and make him my friend and then make him declare war on all my enemies :)
he should’ve replaced eltharion with imrik who doesn’t immediately hold caledor and he has a fuckton of chaos dwarfs on his head and ghorst to the right
@@ce5122 Yeah, Eltharion is my favorite HE campaign precisely because of that split start but... you can pretty quickly take out nearby threats on Yvresse and then disband that army and recruit that Lord to help Eltharion in the Badlands, once Eltharion gets a walled capitol province in the Badlands he can defend really well while Yvreese is secured then start expanding comfortably, only the first 30 turns are tough to secure Yvresse and keep Eltharion alive in the Badlands at the same time. Imrik often has 40 turns of multiple front wars but Imrik's faction bonuses/mechanics are better and he has very reliable allies with Khalida and Thorgrimm so his campaign seems more varied, sometimes it is really hard, sometimes Thorgrimm or Khalida do really well and totally secure half the map so Imrik only has to finish off Queek, Tretch, and K'ugath, then focus on CD.
Skarsnik used to be difficult with his starting position in WH2 and the instant full stacks from clan angrund. Now he is a good and balanced campaign. Easy to eliminate the dwarfs in 15 turns
I remember first picking up Repanse, she stood out to me from the other Bretonnians, and she's still one of my favourite campaigns. Brutal if you're new to the game.
Same here, played her when she came out and it was one of the most enjoyable campaigns I’ve had yet, but I don’t think I’ll be going through that in IE anytime soon 😂
@@Brimfarm The start can be made much easier if you rush a mill out for Fire Arrows and take Saratosa quickly for all the tradable resources. Makes Arkhan and the Coast substantially easier to bring down before investing into your choice knights.
I'd argue it's a pretty easy campaign. Not if you're new though then it's a nightmare. Easy because you have all the tools you need to deal with every enemy, although there are a lot
She’s still one of my favorite campaigns in IE. Can be a hard start but becomes incredibly rewarding. Once you take most the desert you begin steamrolling.
@@R_J8 that actually sounds really fun you could venture north early on and meet the other brettonian factions to make strong alliances, adding that to my shortlist of future campaigns lol ty
Don’t know about that cylostra placing 😅 She’s definitely not the best, but she’s also not tied to her starting location. I used to abandon the starting area, invest in her pirate ship, and sail/raid the donut which made it easy enough. Admittedly, it’s been awhile and maybe game mechanics have changed, but Saltspire is just stuck at sartosa
You are not wrong about Saltspite being stuck at Sartosa, but you can get some easy alllies in Ickit claw and the vampires of the Nehhekarah to act as distractions that keep Sartosa safe
Yea sartossa also has easy areas to expand to for a long while she can go below and take out some brettonia and response for an easy Allie in Arkhan and you have yourself easy ways to continue the game.
Cylostra's ethereal gimmick is also much, much better than he gives it credit for. He overestimates how plentiful magic damage really is and the only consistent source of it in the early game are spells which are easily avoided. Syreens under Cylostra are a very effective unit, especially with a strong back line of handguns and a plethora of excellent magical lores.
@@dickwraith8974 well she isn't helped by having tourox and elith anar around the corners where if you go after one your bound to get shanked by the other
@@dickwraith8974back in WH2 Cylostra was my favorite vampirate lord. I used tons of Syreens backed up by gunnery... I do NOT think that will work in WH3. And not because of Magical Attacks. Syreens in WH2 got 90% physical damage reduction. And now they only have 70%. Yes their HP was buffed but now they are taking 3x more damage from every non magical source of damage. I don't care Magical Attacks because it is a Vampire Coast faction. They can pick and choose which races to fight because they have the Ship building to operate all around the map. You have 4 Special Lords to create stacks to fight any factions with significant magical attacks and Cylostra can spend her time with her ghosts picking on the factions that rely on Physical attacks.
Repanse, Skarsnik & Markus... sorry Col, but if you find it difficult, then you have a gameplay issue. Repanse confederate so fast the other Bretonnian lords, and get a huge territory very fast. Skarsnik has countless units, with one of the stronguest of the game in terms of quality/price (goblins...) and it's very easy to overwhelm the ennemies, and Markus has the best of all the imperials armies with his hunters, and a very easy position at the begining.
What difficulty are you playing on? Sounds like not Very Hard or Legendary. Skarsnik is extremely hard on legendary and Markus usually is pretty akward. Skarsnik has countless units? What on easy? I just beat his on legendary, early game I had 2 stacks when other nations my size can afford 4+. I won not because it was easy but because I played smart. You literally need 2 stacks to each dwarf stack because they have so many powerful units and you cant win a fair fight, And you need to ambush alot. you cant play a campaign on normal then say its easy bro literally the entire game is a joke below very hard.
I love playing wolf hart. The constant feeling of fighting for survival against lizardmen and skaven is so fun, really feels like a proper empire experience; fighting for you life.
I tried all the campaigns on this list, but Manfred is still the only run I've ever abandoned out of frustration, not boredom. His main gimmick revolves around the Books of Nagash and taking Castle Drakenhof, both of which are near impossible since every single faction that you encounter will declare war on you, even on Normal, so you end up having to fight every single turn just to keep your provinces. This means you can spend 50 turns not getting a single bit closer to your goal, and even if you could afford to send a top-tier army to get a book or Drakenhof, you wouldn't be able to force march since you'd end up losing the army to attrition. It really is funny how they finally fixed the Lustriabowl, only to replace it with the Arabybowl instead.
When almost every region let alone province has its own LL... Mannyboi, Settra, Arkhan, that one Lizard, Dorfs, fucking *Skarbrand* and Malagor, you name it.
The one thing about these campaigns is that they are short term lost long term gain campaigns. If you survive the early game you will take over if you wish in the late game which is extremely rewarding.
That didn't help me in WH2. I have no desire to put myself through the torture that was the Wulfheart campaign ever again. Stuck in Lustria surrounded by Lizardmen known for their tough high leadership infantry and high armor monsters without armor piercing tools to get the job done. Unable to fight more than a few battles without a free army rampaging on the other side of your territory. That said I don't doubt the people saying Karl Franz may have been a better choice for this spot.
@@toddwittie4421 i dont have wh3 i meant wh2 i just thinks his mechanics are super fun and make game easier especially his special lords ohh boy. i remmber getting slapped by gorok (i had a mod that allows me and the npc hiredefeated lords. and i just summoned a granade horse stack on them and bomb them to hell it was great
@@dregosor I think Markus early game is highly RNG dependent. His start in WH2 was quite variable too. In WH3, he has a bretonnian as a friend, but the New World Colonies die always now, the savage Orcs to the west are harder to finish off. Daemons are to your south being eaten by lizards. Vampire Coast will likely fight you. And 2 dark elves to the west makes for a tough position.
@@alecshockowitz8385 idk about wh3 i only have expirience in wh2 and the only time i wasnt steam rolling with him wa then noctilus decided to appear out of no where and hit my main coastal cities
@@dregosor you're the first person I've ever seen say that Markus was easy. He was consistently considered one of the hardest campaigns. Early steamtanks weren't enough to make up for the difficulty he had accessing any of the tools the Empire had. WH3 seems to have improved things for him. It moved a bunch of Legendary Lords out of Lustria and gave him a good friend in Alberic to help protect his territory.
Yeah, I hard disagree on Nakai, Saurus infantry is great in the early game, combined with his Balistadon, Skink Priest, and great replenishment thanks to being able to camp at any time, and Nakai himself, makes his campaign is very manageable and very fun. The _only_ reason his campaign sucks is cause he can't get Kroxigors due to a bug, but iirc he could get them from another lord Also disagree with Eltharion, Teclis or Alith Anar are worse, Teclis cause of Kairos, Alith cause he's surrounded by enemies. With Eltharion you can disband him turn one then use the army you have in Ulthuan to clean up the Greenskins, from there it's pretty smooth.
The problem with Boris's campaign and how you described it is...that's playing it the way CA WANTS you to. The "correct" way to play it is to just immediately ditch the wastes and take down the Norscans to the south. It makes everything so much better than trying to play around orange territory that causes attrition to everything except your LL. Plus if you're lucky/willing to do some civil warring, you can take Praag and unlock part of the tech tree.
I see Skarsnik's propaganda that goblins are poor in combat has spread far and wide. Many an opponent has confidently pursued what appears to be a small scouting force of goblins only to realise their terminal mistake when they're ambushed by a 5000 strong Goblin horde that was lying in wait for them the whole time.
I actually found Nakai even easier in TWW3, and his mortal empires campaign was fine imo... Nakai can get his short victory in about 20 turns or so. And the kroxigor spam is so adorable and fun.
Yeah in Warhammer 2 lot of people were struggling with him but I've always used the trick of saying "fuck this shit" and go to Ulthuan instead. At the same time in 3, you don't have a lot of dangerous ennemies around. It's a pile of minor cathay and vampire factions before reaching LL.
I was going to make a very similar complaint. So I will just add it here. I recently did a Nakai campaign, and it was one of the easiest most braindead campaigns I have done in all 3 total warhammer games. His horde growth is crazy, so you will have access to all your important buildings very quickly. The whole downside of his secondary armies can't use normal recruitment, is easily bypassed by transferring units from Nakai, and then recruiting new ones on Nakai. The Vassal income gets crazy very quickly if you rush it in the tech tree. I was supporting 6 full armies of temple guard, kroxigors, and Dinos by the time I cleared Snikch and started fighting Ghorst. Having access to blessed units anytime you want them from faction mechanics is also crazy. I moved around my armies in teams of 2 to avoid Skaven ambush stance. I just used encamp or astromancy. Not a single skaven army ever approached me except for Snikch main stack. He failed his ambush roll, and I curb stomped his army 2v1. Lastly, between skills, buildings, and victory conditions, you get access to a lot of heroes very quickly. Those hero turn into more Dinos with extra hero abilities very quickly as they unlock their mounts. Nakai's early snowball potential is ridiculous, but plateaus later in the game when you reach your maximum army cap. By then you can easily have both his short and long victory conditions completed.
It's funny how individuals may vary, I love Nakai. He basically takes all the pressure off maintaining your empire and just lets you focus entirely on offensive wars.
Honestly I'm surprised you didn't put Skrolk on here, his start's brutal, stuck between Tehainhuain and Gor-Rok, with Dwarves to the west and a minor lizardmen faction to the east. Skrolk doesn't even get plagues yet so he can't even weaken them up.
Played Skarsnik a month ago and was one of the best greenskin campaigns ive ever done. I took out Thorgrim as quick as possible and then focused on Ungrim and the campaign became unbelievable easy by turn 30ish
If you don't mind fighting a lot of manual battles because of the BS autoresolve. Skarsnik is incredibly fun to do the whole Goblintide strategy with. Grom might get slightly stronger Goblins. But Skarsnik starting with -40% upkeep means he can field more armies for the same cost. It is very possible to have 3, 3½, or even 4 full stack armies by the time you can call your first Waaagh.
@@danielgloyd4529 just beat it with him on legendary. I had 3 armies on first waagh. Two alright armies and one total trash army. the waaghs basically win the game for you as orks. silly faction.
Number 5, 4 and 3 all become much easier campaigns when you manual resolve all your early battles for 15-20 turns. For example, Nakai's first battle in manual resolve can be done with very low casualties, especially after they changed it to a major settlement. By starting on the front of the castle, walking down the left side to the farthest gate, breaking through and simply walking around the outskirts of the city into the main capture point to take it and defend it and if you play it well you can probably win the battle with no casualties. It's a bit cheesey I suppose but it works.
The whole point of Boris is playing Doom Guy and solo the Chaos wastes... But, if you don´t wanna do that, simply turn around in the first few turns and go conquer Norsca. You will be able to secure an alliance with Kraka Drakk, take out Throgg before he becomes a threat and secure the MotherLand before returning to your true target in the campaing. Now with proper support.
I like Eltharion’s start. Some of these are meant to be hard, and some are hard because of bad game design or weak factions. Eltharion’s is well designed and a powerful faction with an intentionally difficult start.
You can always just not settle in Badlands. Disband Eltharion entirely to begin with and focus on Ulthuan. Bring him back after a few turns and play him like any other HE LL. Not having to pay for his high tier units means you can fullstack quicker and have more spare cash to dump into eco. Nothing overly special in his starting roster anyway.
I think Aranessa is fun, but god damn is the unit replenishment tricky af. I'm at turn 40 something and all I've done is waiting for the hp bar to fill up and waiting for recruitment. Only at number 11 of pirate list, with like 4 pirate coves and only 2 treasures found. Lords and heroes are at like level 7-8, all with skills on unit replenishment. I don't mind slow burn but the thing is everyone has conquered a province while Aranessa has only managed to barely reach that one treasure at the edge of the map without significant progress.
Agreed, Boris was my first kislev faction that i started im immortal empires, just dealt with Archaon fast and there no more really dangerous enemy out there, you can easily take 4-5 provinces and keep building your army to fully conquer entire north
I have to disagree with Nakai being a bad campain. Sure, Lokhir can give you a hard time in the early game, but besides that Nakai's campain was the most fun i've had in a while.
Lyoness and Skarsnik are probably two of my favorite campaigns to play. Skarsnik with goblins in early game is crazy good and his economy is great. Late game you should have Karak Eight Peaks so you are good to go but honestly even without that Skarsnik buffs his goblins enough to make them really good. And Lyoness is just badass 1lord doomstack, she crushes spooky skelies no problem.
They should make naki like oxelot let him teleport around the map doing missions fighting ppl while his vassal defends “his” lands Let his vassal make armies but out it in technology like you research a tech and they get to make 1 army research another tech they get to make a second army etc
Eltharion is just crazy. Usually, what happens is.. orcs fight you cuz u have -60 on orc relation, then u have ogres that can snowball from the north, vampires east, and skarbrand south.. and idk if I'm just unlucky, but beastmen herd also wants some of the pie
i've played most of the campaigns so far and i gotta say khalida is the one that gives me the most trouble, every time i finally take out the vampires and f'in thorek shows up with 2 full stacks of dwarves and just steamrolls me
Nakai was one of my more fun runs recently to be fair compared to the other Lizardmen anyway, conquering the coast, allying Cathay and taking the sea lanes over with three army stacks to save and confederate lustria from the rats, empire and bretonnia. He has way way more freedom than ANY of the other lizardmen Legendary Lords, he can wander north into the chaos wastes and be Lore friendly by bashing chaos or take the sea lane to the dark elves to help Mazda or the sea lanes to Lustria to help there. Some tweaks to how his AI cities work would be all he needs in my opinion. Seriously though I spawned in two AI armies and both decided to go on a pointless walk through Cathay, without military access, pissing them all off and having all of China declare war on them and subsequently me while I was in Lustria, safe to say though thats more an AI thing than specifically a Nakai thing but some rework to his cities and less reliance economically on this rando faction that *literally cannot build armies* would be ideal.
howdy there partner I just got this game a few days it was on the front page of steam and saw you could play as humanoid rat people so I knew I had to get it I dont know anything about warhammer or the total war series but been having a blast playing the game and binge watching your videos keep up the work
Wow welcome to the party buddy. Some times all the screens and stuff get overwhelming even though I've played the game for years. I still find myself just clicking "Yes" or "Ok" or "Inhale the warp dust' without knowing what I just did.
@@kman12275 thank you its a little overwelming but I think im getting the hang of it I just put everything on easy till I understand it better the last 3 days ive found myself staying up way too late playing and going ok one more turn which ends up being 10 😆
i found boris really fun with how much harder it can be too reach the point of snowballing, enemy's on all sides so long as you stay in your original location. focusing entirely painting the upper chaos wastes cyan (i think it was cyan) before even thinking of expanding down. it was such fun experience i also unintentional took out archion with in the first 30 turns or so which made it quite a bit easier nakai was the first faction i played at release. it did have a sorta hard start with how slow it is to gain units. you really needed too avoid losing anything early on but by the time you take half of Cathay. the snowballing starts. its an interesting play style and ones that takes given that your focus is entirely on your army's and defending your vassal but it can be boring fast
Great video! Only disagreement is Eltharion, if you start with a sea encounter in the badlands his campaign is easy and ramps up to be the strongest High Elf faction by far. Level 5 with 12k on turn 1? Influence galore, unique title bonus lvl 15, armor piercing ranged units, best climate choices, central on map, best starting hero, proximity to Nagashizaar all make him OP
can't believe you'd do cilostra dirty like that. she's actually my favorite of the coast LL's. She has strong spells, her summonable Knight unit is very nice to have in the back pocket, and physical resist is still quite useful.
Yeah she is inane she carries hard and you can win battles with her that you couldnt even come close to winning with the other vampire coast lords. She is my fave too.
With Cylostra direfin i feel like i got the most close battles that i ever have constantly early on Like 2-3 units out of the 20 remaining at the end it was rough but a pretty fun challenge Also you mentioned that her not having lore of vampires is a downside, but lore of the deep is really strong as well so it doesn't hurt too much
Cylostra's main problem is the game starts her next to Taurox. He'll make the entire west side of the map a chaos wasteland then declare war on you when your best anti-large is a limited number of handguns. Even if you do manage to beat him down, now you are in a wasteland as a money starved sacking faction. Colonization just seems like your spending money for the next enemy to destroy VP's weak garrisons. It's almost like the expected campaign direction is a Warhammer 1-esk trap guiding you to a quagmire or doom and the "secret" strategy is to sell the buildings in the capital, sack the initial DE settlements, build up your ship and get underway to make money on the sea.
Surprisingly I did amazing for my first Skrag playthrough/First ever successful playthrough. I mean it was on normal mode and I was running the ogre-haul mod which changes things a bit but still. Conquered the whole coast, had non-aggression pact to all my most alarming neighbors and just kinda rode the costal port train to economical superemacy.
I played a Wulfhart campaign and I will not deny its a hard campaign, and I had a rough start but once I got rolling, I steam rolled everyone except Kairos. But it’s chaos, they’ll always be strong to humans. I may give myself the challenge of Eltharian though, since I’m looking for a new LL to play as
Honestly, Nakai should just get the beastman treatment but in reverse, building temple cities like herdstones across the map that benefit order races and prevent corruption of any type from being spread. Add unit caps and remove upkeep from units and increase building costs tenfold to compesate. the defenders get basic armies that you improve via your tech tree. So they would run an all skink army, then you unlock your second army and they get better skinks, third army unlocks saurus, and so on.
To get a wonderful campaign with Wulfhart, once I got all the settlements of Txanxla I went for the Bretonnians there so I had a good starting territory. Then I allied with Yuan Bo and went for the demons just south, the vampire coast on the east and slowly build forces to go for the Pestilens Clan who took all southern Lustria, and after that I went for the dark elves. Took me some time as they were spread out on the sountern and western coast but eventually I had all of Lustria for myself, I then went north for Mazdamundi and the campaign victory as well as east to invade Araby and Khemri
So is this just “Skill ussue the list”? Yes, yes it is. Also not very honest here, I feel. For example no mention of Eltharion’s starting diemma of selling Tor Yvresse. Or the fact that Khatep starts close to Sisters of Twilight and Grombrindal who make for incredible allies and will absolutely carry you. Or the fact that Skarsnik not only makes goblins incredibly cheap, but also buffs them massively and nasty skulkers are one of the best units in the game. Oh yeah, and Nakai campaign “Right Click The Adventure” sure is hard, here I agree, of course. Insane content here.
Go play skarsnik on very hard/legendary and tell me how easy he is. I see alot of people saying hes easy well you definitely are playing on normal lol. Nasty Skulkers? Yeah the glass cannon with zero morale what an op unit. Theyre okay early game but I never used them once after I got fanatics. I just beat his campaign on legendary.
I don’t think Markus is that bad as you can ally Rakarth easily. He hates everyone you hate more than he hates you. Then you can stab him in the back to take all of Lustria. The only issues in the campaign is Kairos, as he is with anybody near him, and the Dark Elves to the north who don’t care if Rakarth is your buddy.
Repanse does have some allies in Nehekhara now. Volkmar and Thorek are both pretty close. Its a neat little triumvirate of Ordertide. Same for Wulfhart with Alberic. Albeit Id argue his start is worse than ever, because he IS your only friend in the entire continent. (You can try and save dwarf minor faction in the mountains, but unlikely.) All Lizardmen are hostile, and so are the baddies of Lustria. For more friends, you have to cross the ocean and trade with Ulthuan, just dont expect much help from them. Any invasions for Lustria only come lategame, if HE even survive. One good thing about Wulfhart now is that the random spawning armies via hostility can be permanently overcome. Somewhat surprised Karl and Kugath didnt make the list. Lot of people seem to agree theyre amongst the hardest. Karl certainly has a trying start, but as soon as you get lategame artillery, youre sorted against everyone. You should be able to make do until then. Id say about Boris kinda what you did. Try and kill Archaon, then just abandon the Wastes, help save Kislev, then return later. Agreed with Ogres, Vcoast and TK who made the list. Id say since they only ever had one DLC and very little touch-ups they do feel sucky for early game overall.
Tzarina Katerin can get difficult because you're constantly dealing with threats from all sides, even goddamn Rasputin Man Kostaltyn, so you basically need to spam basic kossars until you build up enough devotion and growth to get the really good units.
Eltharion might have the hardest start for the Asur but its a fun challenge playing Donut politics and dealing with N'kari on one hand and fully embracing the Bad lands thunderdome on the other (highly recomand allying with Kroq'gar he's saved my ass on multiple occassions) the dual start is incredibly fun and fairly unique (only other LL that does this is Malus, though Imrik and Rakarth can also go dual location aswell via confederating their homelands) and i honestly love the dual starts cause it almost like sorting out two campaigns at once and thing more factions need methods to get this to happen
I think that the hardest campaign in the game is obviously Skrolk. Starts in Lustria close to gor rok, tehenhahuin, alberic, luthor and he as a reduce unkeep on one of the baddest unit of the skaven roaster.
I wasnt expexting nakai idk what i did when i first played him but he was one of my easiest most snowballed strength campains that i needed no thought to dominate with
Boris is the hardest, isolated in the chaos wastes against enemies from all sides. Even if you retreat and try to rebuild in krak drak (or whatever you speel it), it is still hard because norsca and Chaos Dwarfs still surrounds you
Playing as KF for the first time since Wh2. Everywhere I go I find new enemies in place of the ones I've just defeated. Khazrak was replaced by the Forest Goblins who were in turn replaced by the Norscans. Confederating Gelt brought me in contact with the Disciples of the Maw and Wurrzag. Waging war on Vlad brought Drycha and Bonerattlaz who were joined eventually by Skarsnik who exchanged Karak Eight Peaks for Karaz-a-Karaz. In this playthrough I am lucky Grom is constantly buisy with the Barrow Legion and Marienburg otherwise I'd have to wage war on him too and march across the Grey Mountains. For my non-agression pacts with the Dwarves I was rewarded with a declaration of war by Durthu. Clearly greenskins and undead are not as bad for Athel Loren as Humans. There is also red taint of Khorne all over the Southern Badlands. Oh and don't forget Festus the rightful Kurfurst of Hochland! Luckily I knew better to deal with him right away. Karl haven't been in Reikland for the past 50 turns and I am stuck to endless stacks of un-shielded spearmen and archers. No pistoliers, no knights, no cannons, not even crossbows... There is no time, there is no money, there is no one to march them from across the Empire to the frontier. A constant action with no pause. I think I'll do a High Elf dounut racing after that one and then try Get off my lawn Settra.
If you go south with Boris and take Praag right off the bat it makes his start way easier. If you get lucky you can get an early confederation with Katarin.
I remember you saying in a prior video how people disagree with your lists. I get why.. but thank you for making total war Content! WE ALL LOVE THIS NICHE GAMe. I won't even try to understand how it is that many of these factions you listed were my easiest playthroughs. And your list on easy factions mirrors this sentiment... idk
like repanse? seriously? skarsnik my first try at greenskins and i owned the map by turn 65. SAME WITH BELAGAR just grab the peaks. I didn't even know about the dwarven casino at that time either.
@@jzmott82 What difficutly? All factions are easy below very hard difficulty. Try skarsnik on legendary and lemme know how ez it is lol. You are fighting two full stacks of slayers you cant rout immediately and then Thorgrim to the south. I actually have a strategy developed that almost always succeds now but still saying Skarsnik is easy is pretty funny considering 99% of players willl faill his campaign if its above normal difficulty.
I guessed the reworked nakai, because He can win his first battle on auto, I played him, and built tons of armies with him and was dominating the game, on HARD, so if he wasn't updated, idk what you are on about
I really had fun with Repanse and Markus! Also enjoyed my second playthrough with a lightly-modded Nakai a lot better than vanilla. Can't stand playing ogres - they just seem to be worse in battle all round than you'd expect and they desperately need some more LLs/mechanics.
I have seen Cylostra somehow absolutely devour every faction near her. I have no idea how or why but she somehow almost soloed the Druchii and was fighting Grombrindal and the Wood Elf Twins when I got there with my Helves.
AI still gets economic cheats when they play her. If you are playing her, you can quickly get stuck in a protracted land war with DE and Taurux where the nasty weaknesses of VP's weak garrisons, poor land based economy and poor early units become pronounced.
You really don't have Kairos as one of these? You got to be kidding, the guy is literally surrounded by enemies two of which are legendary lords who go to war with you before turn 10 and proceed to steam roll you.
Kairos is kind of hard at start with that doom slayer lizard on ur left while you still dealing with slaanesh, also that elf on top every time wants some money from you for not killing you, can be a hard campaign for inexperienced player like i was when started with him
playing as Eltharion rn and haven’t even expanded outside Ulthuan bc beastmen, dark elves and pirates wiped all high eleven facts so i had to take over the continent
Skarsnik used to be really hard before greenskin rework but he is really not that bad now. He can recruit a lot of unit now so just recruit two full stacks of Goblin, then when you have your first whaaaaag send your 80 units take Karaz-a-Karak then Karak height peaks.
Belagar Reponse Eltharion Skragg Are 4 of my fav campaigns I agree with the rest. But would have added Morathi Tiq taq to Khaleeda Crone and or throt I also play on legendary/very hard for reference. Might just be where my interest lay and where im willing to put the effort in with my attention.
I think Tiktaq'to isn't as hard as other Lizardmen. I only got started playing VH campaigns before I stopped playing WH2 2 years ago. I just started playing WH3 so I'm only playing Hard until I get back into the swing of things. But the Terradons give so much power to the armies for such little cost that I find it makes his faction much easier. With TTT Terradons are the same cost as Goblins are so you can easily maintain 2 armies from the very beginning that I was never able to do with any other Lizardmen faction because Saurus are so expensive. The second armies with TTT don't have to spend as much to be effective because the Terradons are able to help more effectively break units. The only thing is he is more reliant on Lightning Strike than other LM factions because his power comes from one use per battle abilities.
Belegar can easily steamroll his way to Eight Peaks due to dwarf armor being hard to crack in early game. Then you roll in cash once you get Eight Peaks. Kairos has it pretty rough against Teclis and Oxyotl, making for a hard start. Ku'gath has a really bad starting province. Karl Franz has it really tough midgame due to Vlad, Festus and Azhag killing off Electors like flies. Finally, Imrik can get a deathball rolling, but with Chaos Dwarf and their fire immunity stalking about his starting province, it can get out of hand quickly.
Boris Ursussy is a tough early game and very easy late game. Kislev is one of those factions if you rush their late game infantry most of their problems are solved since almost every unit is hybrid range and melee and not being horrible at either.
This List is just wrong. First place Markus? His campgain is the second easiest for the empire, because you do not have to deal with the authority (which is pretty hard compared with 2 because you have way more enemies now). You have an early Bretonnian ally and you do not have to high tier buildings to get high tier units and you are able to get a strong army early on (or just just him with a marksman doomstack and get a second normal army).
I expected to see Lokir Fellheart. Maybe its just me but I got wrecked just trying to establish myself in a few provinces. I started well, bullying the Cathay faction but I got declared on by the skaven and lizardmen to the south and all the surrounding factions within a couple turns i tried to fight them off but was just outflanked and out numbered. I decided the jump ship to the other side of the world coast but its locked down by Hexoatl who was snowballing to 20 provinces. The only option was to turn on a weak potential dark elf ally and got declared on by Hexoatl anyway. It was a relentless game.
The only one I disagree on is probably Nakai. He's really not that bad, just gotta focus on the green-colored settlements, get a few heroes quick to enable more replenishment, and don't tank your income too hard with Saurus spam. Skinks will work just fine at the beginning. I just tried him on H/H and haven't had to do any manual fights in 20 turns so far, aside from that first one.
I think Repanse is pretty easy. With boris you go south and take out the yellow norscans. You will get some kislev "friendlies" and dwarfs near by. Marcus has 2 friendlies not far away in bretonnia and new world colonies.
Honestly, I'd argue thatKarl Franz has a hard go of it; The whole imperial system makes it hard to expand, The elector counts are horribly uncooperative at the best of times (and that's when they're not actively trying to murder each other), you have Festus, Skarbrand, Sometimes brettonia, Norscans, Vampires, Orcs and probably a dozen other threats all actively fucking with you, and Reikland is just really shitty to try and defend because of how big it is.
Markus hard??! You've got to be kidding me. Kairos or Kugath are a lot harder. Queen Khalida isn't exactly a picnic either, having to deal with an angry dwarf before you have the tools to do so.
I tried a Skarsnik campaign and honestly was suprised on how far nasty skulkers can take you, once you hit late game its not as good but you can spread quickly
Still my favorite campaign to this day. A duo with Azhag meant my north side was safe, so I could entirely focus on dem pesky dorfs. Sieging with 5.5k goblins was peak comedy, me and my friend could not stop laughing, while literal waves of gobbos poured through the walls.
Skarsnik is so good. sure, one army can't do much (more than you think) but you can afford 2 or 3 very early on. drown the stunties in gobbos.
Yeah Nasty Skulkers are some useful little gits.
Yeah it starts off pretty easy since you can just win through sheer numbers, but I found that once you encounter queek's roided up rats and heroes he can't really win even fights. Plus Queek gets explicit bonuses against you, it's kinda rough. Skaven lords are also way better than the two goblin lords.
Lategame you can transition to Black Orcs, once you have the Karak.
How isn't kugath here?, I mean, his starting province is horrible for him since you can't spread plagues between isles, most of the factions around him straight up counter his strengths, several of his technologies are useless because are climate or race dependant and a large amount settlements around him have mountain climate which is unstable for him
I think he's so bad that most people forget about him.
It’s a shame I was really looking forward to Nurgle and the way Kugath is atm we’re better off playing WOC Nurgle, sad that marauders with Nurgle buffs are better than the Nurgle roster
I'm still figuring out his campaign on legendary, it takes a bit of practice. You can get around the island plague issue by using a second lord to just spread plagues. Ghost isn't too bad to be honest. Getting the military buildings up early is pretty key for me. I barely use the infrastructure ones. Also nurglings don't do it for me so I never build his skill tree that way.
I suspect they didn’t really know what to do with him in immortal empires. Surprised they didn’t just stick him in or near brettonia
I have to admit, K'ugath and Festus are the only LLs I have not even started a campaign with, just not fond of Nurgle but I have seen a lot more complaints about him than Festus.
Skarsnik is the most fun I’ve had in a campaign. Just hordes and hordes of WAAAAGH goblins. When I took Karak Eight Peaks I was also fighting the Empire. I had 6 armies and still had 2000 coin surplus per turn.
Each army was a 40 stack because of waaaagh and I was demolishing everything.
To be fair the tomb kings start in game 3 is far better now. More desert to expand into, more quiet place as well. Easy to sail across the map to Cathey deserts. All is good.
I think Nurgle is harder than any of this list, going against tough early game factions being weak yourself and really really poor. If you don't take them fast enough any of your neighbors can just steam roll you including the lizardmen you start being at war.
i was starting his "normal" campaign 3 times, before i could actually start to expand and recruit decent units. think all you need at the start is hitting Helman as fast, as you can. then it suddenly feels good even against coming Grimgor's waagh.
Yeah Kugath is a difficult and railroaded campaign start. Ghorst, Greasus, Imrik, Cathay, every game, in that order, to the death.
I recently completed a Nurgle campaign. I can state with confidence one thing : winning it is entirely up to how lucky you are with the Chaos Dwarves to the west.
In my case i got insanely lucky and the Chaos Dwarves essentially manage to stomproll most of the western territories to my starting position. Thus after dealing with Ghorst and going straight for Grimgor, i didn't have to worry about what happened west. Cathay on the other hand...
I'd say the worst thing about Nurgle is the plague mechanic... it's, weridly underwhelming for the most part and there's only a couple of them that are actually good (like the +20% physical save one is very powerful against non-magic attack armies - you can easily tank most of everything without even trying.) As for their buildings, economy and recruitment... i'm very conflicted : it's extremly powerful in late game but very difficult in early game. Brutally so.
I guess i just have to be glad i got lucky with mine. But that's really not a campaign i'd look forward trying again any time soon.
Can't not mention the fact the Khatep lost his hierotitan too, it was what set him apart the most from the other TKs
I’ve started a Skarnik campaign as my first foray into the Greenskins. So I didn’t know what I was doing. Headed straight for Eight Peaks. Couldn’t take it. Started a Waugh, but didn’t know how it worked. Did terribly. Wasted my Waagh, ran home after Wurrzag declared war on me. Figured I’d harass some of his settlements since he wasn’t nearby. He showed up quick. Somehow I managed to auto resolve a win. All of a sudden I’m in first place and I make my way over to take Eight Peaks. Was a lot of fun, and still very early into the campaign.
I think I'd put Leoun ahead of Repanse in difficulty. Spooky vampires in the south and a horde of demons with Bel'akor at its head in the north.
Louen is hardcore in immortal empires
Absolutely
Knockout the nearby Orks and take Marienburg if you can. Confederate the nearby duchies with the skill tree and don’t research anything else until that’s done. Then take the Vampires, then the Fat Ork, then Belakor.
Yeah, Louen was always brutal to me, because you start out surrounded. You can smooth thing over with Marienburg, thankfully, but them it starts the drama with Norsca + Vampires + Dark Elfs + Chaos. It's really a lot to do fast, you basically can't stop while playing as him.
I usually just take marienburg and raze the nearby orcs, than I just turtle there until I couronne is tier 5 (easy to do as bretonnia), so I can have a OP army early, from there I raze albion and kill belakor and than I expand south, you can even make peace with moussilon before that because belakor will usually land ther to fight them, if you are lucky the fae emchantress will still be alive so you can confederate her, but besides her I usually dont confederate anyone
Skarsnick was probably my easiest campaign, Nasty Skulkers are probably the best greenskin unit and he reduces their upkeep by half.
Easier than grom?
@@cheezusJ I didn't play Grom in WH3 yet
Imho greenskins Don't have that one "op" multi purpose unit. Nasty skulkers are just that great because they are the can opener skarsnik desperately needs. But yeah they are cheap and especially in an gobbo great Shaman army they hurt
Me too cheap Goblins strong, + more waghh so easy
Yep, this is the only really weird pick on the list, no GS should be in the top 10 hardest campaigns and Skarsnik is just about the easiest GS start, maybe only Grimgor is easier due to how much a pushover the Ogres are.
I'm surprized nakai is seen to be soo hard he's my favorite lord in the game to play and I like to play him when I don't want to try :P I actually have more problems with all the other lizard men. I'm just built incorrectly
I mean not really lizards as a whole take a long while to get their settlments going, nakaie is straight up easy as long as you keep an army around in your back lines you can rampage forever die and just wait a few turns to recruit nakaie again. Overall it's a campaign that you almost can't fail honestly.
Honestly I can understand the feeling, Nakai is like the last pure Horde faction in Warhammer 3, and it can be much easier when you don’t need to manage an empire’s worth of cities.
@@jackjones2454the beastman sorry?
@@agentkronos6438 they can build settlements???
XD
Skarsnik is probably one of the funnest hard campaigns to play. You're in no hurry to reclaim Karak 8-Peaks, unlike Bealgar.
Yeah, you've got dirt cheap goblins, but you also got GOOD goblins, like night goblin fanatics that will devastate armies in the early game with their abilities, and you can afford multiple armies, and most of them you're gonna use to goad your enemy into attacking your weaker ones so you can ambush with your main.
Skarsnik is all about ambushing and it's a pure goblin experience, more so than Grom the Pouch. And it's GLORIOUS.
Eltharion's campaign is difficult but there's nothing stopping you from just disbanding eltharions army at the start and focusing solely on yvresse. It's much easier this way but I like to spam influence onto skarbrand and make him my friend and then make him declare war on all my enemies :)
he should’ve replaced eltharion with imrik who doesn’t immediately hold caledor and he has a fuckton of chaos dwarfs on his head and ghorst to the right
diabolic
@@ce5122 Yeah, Eltharion is my favorite HE campaign precisely because of that split start but... you can pretty quickly take out nearby threats on Yvresse and then disband that army and recruit that Lord to help Eltharion in the Badlands, once Eltharion gets a walled capitol province in the Badlands he can defend really well while Yvreese is secured then start expanding comfortably, only the first 30 turns are tough to secure Yvresse and keep Eltharion alive in the Badlands at the same time.
Imrik often has 40 turns of multiple front wars but Imrik's faction bonuses/mechanics are better and he has very reliable allies with Khalida and Thorgrimm so his campaign seems more varied, sometimes it is really hard, sometimes Thorgrimm or Khalida do really well and totally secure half the map so Imrik only has to finish off Queek, Tretch, and K'ugath, then focus on CD.
Skarsnik used to be difficult with his starting position in WH2 and the instant full stacks from clan angrund. Now he is a good and balanced campaign. Easy to eliminate the dwarfs in 15 turns
I remember first picking up Repanse, she stood out to me from the other Bretonnians, and she's still one of my favourite campaigns. Brutal if you're new to the game.
Same here, played her when she came out and it was one of the most enjoyable campaigns I’ve had yet, but I don’t think I’ll be going through that in IE anytime soon 😂
@@Brimfarm The start can be made much easier if you rush a mill out for Fire Arrows and take Saratosa quickly for all the tradable resources. Makes Arkhan and the Coast substantially easier to bring down before investing into your choice knights.
I'd argue it's a pretty easy campaign. Not if you're new though then it's a nightmare.
Easy because you have all the tools you need to deal with every enemy, although there are a lot
She’s still one of my favorite campaigns in IE. Can be a hard start but becomes incredibly rewarding. Once you take most the desert you begin steamrolling.
@@R_J8 that actually sounds really fun you could venture north early on and meet the other brettonian factions to make strong alliances, adding that to my shortlist of future campaigns lol ty
Don’t know about that cylostra placing 😅 She’s definitely not the best, but she’s also not tied to her starting location. I used to abandon the starting area, invest in her pirate ship, and sail/raid the donut which made it easy enough.
Admittedly, it’s been awhile and maybe game mechanics have changed, but Saltspire is just stuck at sartosa
You are not wrong about Saltspite being stuck at Sartosa, but you can get some easy alllies in Ickit claw and the vampires of the Nehhekarah to act as distractions that keep Sartosa safe
Yea sartossa also has easy areas to expand to for a long while she can go below and take out some brettonia and response for an easy Allie in Arkhan and you have yourself easy ways to continue the game.
Cylostra's ethereal gimmick is also much, much better than he gives it credit for. He overestimates how plentiful magic damage really is and the only consistent source of it in the early game are spells which are easily avoided. Syreens under Cylostra are a very effective unit, especially with a strong back line of handguns and a plethora of excellent magical lores.
@@dickwraith8974 well she isn't helped by having tourox and elith anar around the corners where if you go after one your bound to get shanked by the other
@@dickwraith8974back in WH2 Cylostra was my favorite vampirate lord. I used tons of Syreens backed up by gunnery...
I do NOT think that will work in WH3. And not because of Magical Attacks.
Syreens in WH2 got 90% physical damage reduction. And now they only have 70%.
Yes their HP was buffed but now they are taking 3x more damage from every non magical source of damage.
I don't care Magical Attacks because it is a Vampire Coast faction. They can pick and choose which races to fight because they have the Ship building to operate all around the map. You have 4 Special Lords to create stacks to fight any factions with significant magical attacks and Cylostra can spend her time with her ghosts picking on the factions that rely on Physical attacks.
Repanse, Skarsnik & Markus... sorry Col, but if you find it difficult, then you have a gameplay issue. Repanse confederate so fast the other Bretonnian lords, and get a huge territory very fast. Skarsnik has countless units, with one of the stronguest of the game in terms of quality/price (goblins...) and it's very easy to overwhelm the ennemies, and Markus has the best of all the imperials armies with his hunters, and a very easy position at the begining.
What difficulty are you playing on? Sounds like not Very Hard or Legendary. Skarsnik is extremely hard on legendary and Markus usually is pretty akward. Skarsnik has countless units? What on easy? I just beat his on legendary, early game I had 2 stacks when other nations my size can afford 4+. I won not because it was easy but because I played smart. You literally need 2 stacks to each dwarf stack because they have so many powerful units and you cant win a fair fight, And you need to ambush alot. you cant play a campaign on normal then say its easy bro literally the entire game is a joke below very hard.
I love playing wolf hart. The constant feeling of fighting for survival against lizardmen and skaven is so fun, really feels like a proper empire experience; fighting for you life.
I tried all the campaigns on this list, but Manfred is still the only run I've ever abandoned out of frustration, not boredom.
His main gimmick revolves around the Books of Nagash and taking Castle Drakenhof, both of which are near impossible since every single faction that you encounter will declare war on you, even on Normal, so you end up having to fight every single turn just to keep your provinces.
This means you can spend 50 turns not getting a single bit closer to your goal, and even if you could afford to send a top-tier army to get a book or Drakenhof, you wouldn't be able to force march since you'd end up losing the army to attrition.
It really is funny how they finally fixed the Lustriabowl, only to replace it with the Arabybowl instead.
When almost every region let alone province has its own LL... Mannyboi, Settra, Arkhan, that one Lizard, Dorfs, fucking *Skarbrand* and Malagor, you name it.
The one thing about these campaigns is that they are short term lost long term gain campaigns. If you survive the early game you will take over if you wish in the late game which is extremely rewarding.
i always found marcus as one of the easier campaings especially with early steam tacks and grenade cav
That didn't help me in WH2. I have no desire to put myself through the torture that was the Wulfheart campaign ever again.
Stuck in Lustria surrounded by Lizardmen known for their tough high leadership infantry and high armor monsters without armor piercing tools to get the job done. Unable to fight more than a few battles without a free army rampaging on the other side of your territory.
That said I don't doubt the people saying Karl Franz may have been a better choice for this spot.
@@toddwittie4421 i dont have wh3 i meant wh2 i just thinks his mechanics are super fun and make game easier especially his special lords ohh boy.
i remmber getting slapped by gorok (i had a mod that allows me and the npc hiredefeated lords.
and i just summoned a granade horse stack on them and bomb them to hell it was great
@@dregosor I think Markus early game is highly RNG dependent. His start in WH2 was quite variable too.
In WH3, he has a bretonnian as a friend, but the New World Colonies die always now, the savage Orcs to the west are harder to finish off. Daemons are to your south being eaten by lizards. Vampire Coast will likely fight you. And 2 dark elves to the west makes for a tough position.
@@alecshockowitz8385 idk about wh3 i only have expirience in wh2 and the only time i wasnt steam rolling with him wa then noctilus decided to appear out of no where and hit my main coastal cities
@@dregosor you're the first person I've ever seen say that Markus was easy. He was consistently considered one of the hardest campaigns.
Early steamtanks weren't enough to make up for the difficulty he had accessing any of the tools the Empire had.
WH3 seems to have improved things for him.
It moved a bunch of Legendary Lords out of Lustria and gave him a good friend in Alberic to help protect his territory.
Kairos campaing is should have been here i mean you need to deal with oxiotle and teclis.
Kairos campaign is extremely easy.
Wha? Nakai is one of the simplest campaigns!
Agreed, on legendary I steamrolled the whole area no problem.
Nakai was legit one of the best campaigns ive ever had
Yeah, I hard disagree on Nakai, Saurus infantry is great in the early game, combined with his Balistadon, Skink Priest, and great replenishment thanks to being able to camp at any time, and Nakai himself, makes his campaign is very manageable and very fun. The _only_ reason his campaign sucks is cause he can't get Kroxigors due to a bug, but iirc he could get them from another lord
Also disagree with Eltharion, Teclis or Alith Anar are worse, Teclis cause of Kairos, Alith cause he's surrounded by enemies. With Eltharion you can disband him turn one then use the army you have in Ulthuan to clean up the Greenskins, from there it's pretty smooth.
@@JopieAI never thought about disbanding Eltharion before lol... I'll have to give that a shot
@@chalzen1012 I got the strat from Legend of TW's IE guide, works wonders
The problem with Boris's campaign and how you described it is...that's playing it the way CA WANTS you to. The "correct" way to play it is to just immediately ditch the wastes and take down the Norscans to the south. It makes everything so much better than trying to play around orange territory that causes attrition to everything except your LL. Plus if you're lucky/willing to do some civil warring, you can take Praag and unlock part of the tech tree.
I see Skarsnik's propaganda that goblins are poor in combat has spread far and wide. Many an opponent has confidently pursued what appears to be a small scouting force of goblins only to realise their terminal mistake when they're ambushed by a 5000 strong Goblin horde that was lying in wait for them the whole time.
I actually found Nakai even easier in TWW3, and his mortal empires campaign was fine imo... Nakai can get his short victory in about 20 turns or so. And the kroxigor spam is so adorable and fun.
Yeah in Warhammer 2 lot of people were struggling with him but I've always used the trick of saying "fuck this shit" and go to Ulthuan instead. At the same time in 3, you don't have a lot of dangerous ennemies around. It's a pile of minor cathay and vampire factions before reaching LL.
I have not played him in WH3 but I thought he was really easy and fun. I think he's on here caz people don't like him not that he's hard
I was going to make a very similar complaint. So I will just add it here. I recently did a Nakai campaign, and it was one of the easiest most braindead campaigns I have done in all 3 total warhammer games.
His horde growth is crazy, so you will have access to all your important buildings very quickly. The whole downside of his secondary armies can't use normal recruitment, is easily bypassed by transferring units from Nakai, and then recruiting new ones on Nakai. The Vassal income gets crazy very quickly if you rush it in the tech tree. I was supporting 6 full armies of temple guard, kroxigors, and Dinos by the time I cleared Snikch and started fighting Ghorst. Having access to blessed units anytime you want them from faction mechanics is also crazy. I moved around my armies in teams of 2 to avoid Skaven ambush stance. I just used encamp or astromancy. Not a single skaven army ever approached me except for Snikch main stack. He failed his ambush roll, and I curb stomped his army 2v1. Lastly, between skills, buildings, and victory conditions, you get access to a lot of heroes very quickly. Those hero turn into more Dinos with extra hero abilities very quickly as they unlock their mounts. Nakai's early snowball potential is ridiculous, but plateaus later in the game when you reach your maximum army cap. By then you can easily have both his short and long victory conditions completed.
It's funny how individuals may vary, I love Nakai. He basically takes all the pressure off maintaining your empire and just lets you focus entirely on offensive wars.
Honestly I'm surprised you didn't put Skrolk on here, his start's brutal, stuck between Tehainhuain and Gor-Rok, with Dwarves to the west and a minor lizardmen faction to the east. Skrolk doesn't even get plagues yet so he can't even weaken them up.
Played Skarsnik a month ago and was one of the best greenskin campaigns ive ever done. I took out Thorgrim as quick as possible and then focused on Ungrim and the campaign became unbelievable easy by turn 30ish
Skarsnik is very fun tho in my opinion, he is a bit goofy but especially the fanatic goblins are pretty good
If you don't mind fighting a lot of manual battles because of the BS autoresolve. Skarsnik is incredibly fun to do the whole Goblintide strategy with. Grom might get slightly stronger Goblins. But Skarsnik starting with -40% upkeep means he can field more armies for the same cost. It is very possible to have 3, 3½, or even 4 full stack armies by the time you can call your first Waaagh.
@@danielgloyd4529 just beat it with him on legendary. I had 3 armies on first waagh. Two alright armies and one total trash army. the waaghs basically win the game for you as orks. silly faction.
Number 5, 4 and 3 all become much easier campaigns when you manual resolve all your early battles for 15-20 turns. For example, Nakai's first battle in manual resolve can be done with very low casualties, especially after they changed it to a major settlement. By starting on the front of the castle, walking down the left side to the farthest gate, breaking through and simply walking around the outskirts of the city into the main capture point to take it and defend it and if you play it well you can probably win the battle with no casualties. It's a bit cheesey I suppose but it works.
The whole point of Boris is playing Doom Guy and solo the Chaos wastes... But, if you don´t wanna do that, simply turn around in the first few turns and go conquer Norsca. You will be able to secure an alliance with Kraka Drakk, take out Throgg before he becomes a threat and secure the MotherLand before returning to your true target in the campaing. Now with proper support.
I like Eltharion’s start. Some of these are meant to be hard, and some are hard because of bad game design or weak factions. Eltharion’s is well designed and a powerful faction with an intentionally difficult start.
You can always just not settle in Badlands. Disband Eltharion entirely to begin with and focus on Ulthuan. Bring him back after a few turns and play him like any other HE LL. Not having to pay for his high tier units means you can fullstack quicker and have more spare cash to dump into eco. Nothing overly special in his starting roster anyway.
@@anon4854 I like that we’re given the choice, but there aren’t many campaigns where you have two starting areas so I prefer to embrace the difficulty
@@Pyromaniac77777 agreed the only interesting way to play eltharion is stay in the badlands. Ulthuan is boring generally because its ez
I think Aranessa is fun, but god damn is the unit replenishment tricky af. I'm at turn 40 something and all I've done is waiting for the hp bar to fill up and waiting for recruitment. Only at number 11 of pirate list, with like 4 pirate coves and only 2 treasures found. Lords and heroes are at like level 7-8, all with skills on unit replenishment. I don't mind slow burn but the thing is everyone has conquered a province while Aranessa has only managed to barely reach that one treasure at the edge of the map without significant progress.
kislev is op in any starting spot just because of their kossars. easily carries you through 50 turns if you can micro them well in late game
Agreed, Boris was my first kislev faction that i started im immortal empires, just dealt with Archaon fast and there no more really dangerous enemy out there, you can easily take 4-5 provinces and keep building your army to fully conquer entire north
Kislev can be easy, or sometimes, your at war with 40 factions by turn 10 lol
Boris is really fun, if you manage to push through east to cathey
Markus and Repanse might be difficult campaigns but they by far are the most fun campaigns I've played and the ones I've done the most runs of
Me over here who tried Nakai on normal difficulty for my first ever campaign and absolutely stomped everything
I have to disagree with Nakai being a bad campain. Sure, Lokhir can give you a hard time in the early game, but besides that Nakai's campain was the most fun i've had in a while.
Lyoness and Skarsnik are probably two of my favorite campaigns to play. Skarsnik with goblins in early game is crazy good and his economy is great. Late game you should have Karak Eight Peaks so you are good to go but honestly even without that Skarsnik buffs his goblins enough to make them really good. And Lyoness is just badass 1lord doomstack, she crushes spooky skelies no problem.
Played Skarsnik after the video. One of the most fun total War campaigns that I held for a while.
They should make naki like oxelot let him teleport around the map doing missions fighting ppl while his vassal defends “his” lands
Let his vassal make armies but out it in technology like you research a tech and they get to make 1 army research another tech they get to make a second army etc
Eltharion is just crazy. Usually, what happens is.. orcs fight you cuz u have -60 on orc relation, then u have ogres that can snowball from the north, vampires east, and skarbrand south.. and idk if I'm just unlucky, but beastmen herd also wants some of the pie
i've played most of the campaigns so far and i gotta say khalida is the one that gives me the most trouble, every time i finally take out the vampires and f'in thorek shows up with 2 full stacks of dwarves and just steamrolls me
That whirling in rags soundtrack over ur ad was a nice surprise
Nakai was one of my more fun runs recently to be fair compared to the other Lizardmen anyway, conquering the coast, allying Cathay and taking the sea lanes over with three army stacks to save and confederate lustria from the rats, empire and bretonnia. He has way way more freedom than ANY of the other lizardmen Legendary Lords, he can wander north into the chaos wastes and be Lore friendly by bashing chaos or take the sea lane to the dark elves to help Mazda or the sea lanes to Lustria to help there. Some tweaks to how his AI cities work would be all he needs in my opinion.
Seriously though I spawned in two AI armies and both decided to go on a pointless walk through Cathay, without military access, pissing them all off and having all of China declare war on them and subsequently me while I was in Lustria, safe to say though thats more an AI thing than specifically a Nakai thing but some rework to his cities and less reliance economically on this rando faction that *literally cannot build armies* would be ideal.
howdy there partner I just got this game a few days it was on the front page of steam and saw you could play as humanoid rat people so I knew I had to get it I dont know anything about warhammer or the total war series but been having a blast playing the game and binge watching your videos keep up the work
Wow welcome to the party buddy. Some times all the screens and stuff get overwhelming even though I've played the game for years. I still find myself just clicking "Yes" or "Ok" or "Inhale the warp dust' without knowing what I just did.
@@kman12275 thank you its a little overwelming but I think im getting the hang of it I just put everything on easy till I understand it better the last 3 days ive found myself staying up way too late playing and going ok one more turn which ends up being 10 😆
i found boris really fun with how much harder it can be too reach the point of snowballing, enemy's on all sides so long as you stay in your original location. focusing entirely painting the upper chaos wastes cyan (i think it was cyan) before even thinking of expanding down. it was such fun experience
i also unintentional took out archion with in the first 30 turns or so which made it quite a bit easier
nakai was the first faction i played at release. it did have a sorta hard start with how slow it is to gain units. you really needed too avoid losing anything early on but by the time you take half of Cathay. the snowballing starts. its an interesting play style and ones that takes given that your focus is entirely on your army's and defending your vassal but it can be boring fast
Great video! Only disagreement is Eltharion, if you start with a sea encounter in the badlands his campaign is easy and ramps up to be the strongest High Elf faction by far. Level 5 with 12k on turn 1? Influence galore, unique title bonus lvl 15, armor piercing ranged units, best climate choices, central on map, best starting hero, proximity to Nagashizaar all make him OP
can't believe you'd do cilostra dirty like that. she's actually my favorite of the coast LL's. She has strong spells, her summonable Knight unit is very nice to have in the back pocket, and physical resist is still quite useful.
Yeah she is inane she carries hard and you can win battles with her that you couldnt even come close to winning with the other vampire coast lords. She is my fave too.
With Cylostra direfin i feel like i got the most close battles that i ever have constantly early on
Like 2-3 units out of the 20 remaining at the end it was rough but a pretty fun challenge
Also you mentioned that her not having lore of vampires is a downside, but lore of the deep is really strong as well so it doesn't hurt too much
Cylostra's main problem is the game starts her next to Taurox. He'll make the entire west side of the map a chaos wasteland then declare war on you when your best anti-large is a limited number of handguns. Even if you do manage to beat him down, now you are in a wasteland as a money starved sacking faction. Colonization just seems like your spending money for the next enemy to destroy VP's weak garrisons.
It's almost like the expected campaign direction is a Warhammer 1-esk trap guiding you to a quagmire or doom and the "secret" strategy is to sell the buildings in the capital, sack the initial DE settlements, build up your ship and get underway to make money on the sea.
Not going to lie that bear pun with Boris had me cringing hard😂
Surprisingly I did amazing for my first Skrag playthrough/First ever successful playthrough. I mean it was on normal mode and I was running the ogre-haul mod which changes things a bit but still. Conquered the whole coast, had non-aggression pact to all my most alarming neighbors and just kinda rode the costal port train to economical superemacy.
I played a Wulfhart campaign and I will not deny its a hard campaign, and I had a rough start but once I got rolling, I steam rolled everyone except Kairos. But it’s chaos, they’ll always be strong to humans. I may give myself the challenge of Eltharian though, since I’m looking for a new LL to play as
Markus Wulfhart maybe difficult to do but remember this.
“Have a little faith.”
Honestly, Nakai should just get the beastman treatment but in reverse, building temple cities like herdstones across the map that benefit order races and prevent corruption of any type from being spread. Add unit caps and remove upkeep from units and increase building costs tenfold to compesate. the defenders get basic armies that you improve via your tech tree. So they would run an all skink army, then you unlock your second army and they get better skinks, third army unlocks saurus, and so on.
Boris, Repanse and Belegar are three of my favourite campaigns because I don't get to steamroll as fast as I usually do.
To get a wonderful campaign with Wulfhart, once I got all the settlements of Txanxla I went for the Bretonnians there so I had a good starting territory. Then I allied with Yuan Bo and went for the demons just south, the vampire coast on the east and slowly build forces to go for the Pestilens Clan who took all southern Lustria, and after that I went for the dark elves. Took me some time as they were spread out on the sountern and western coast but eventually I had all of Lustria for myself, I then went north for Mazdamundi and the campaign victory as well as east to invade Araby and Khemri
As a new player, I didn’t mind the Nakai campaign. Had fun
So is this just “Skill ussue the list”?
Yes, yes it is.
Also not very honest here, I feel. For example no mention of Eltharion’s starting diemma of selling Tor Yvresse.
Or the fact that Khatep starts close to Sisters of Twilight and Grombrindal who make for incredible allies and will absolutely carry you.
Or the fact that Skarsnik not only makes goblins incredibly cheap, but also buffs them massively and nasty skulkers are one of the best units in the game.
Oh yeah, and Nakai campaign “Right Click The Adventure” sure is hard, here I agree, of course.
Insane content here.
🤡
Go play skarsnik on very hard/legendary and tell me how easy he is. I see alot of people saying hes easy well you definitely are playing on normal lol. Nasty Skulkers? Yeah the glass cannon with zero morale what an op unit. Theyre okay early game but I never used them once after I got fanatics. I just beat his campaign on legendary.
I would say Louen is also actually hard now. Between Be'lakor, kemmler, grom, mousillon and wulfrik, you're gonna have a hard time.
I don’t think Markus is that bad as you can ally Rakarth easily. He hates everyone you hate more than he hates you. Then you can stab him in the back to take all of Lustria. The only issues in the campaign is Kairos, as he is with anybody near him, and the Dark Elves to the north who don’t care if Rakarth is your buddy.
Repanse does have some allies in Nehekhara now. Volkmar and Thorek are both pretty close. Its a neat little triumvirate of Ordertide. Same for Wulfhart with Alberic. Albeit Id argue his start is worse than ever, because he IS your only friend in the entire continent. (You can try and save dwarf minor faction in the mountains, but unlikely.) All Lizardmen are hostile, and so are the baddies of Lustria. For more friends, you have to cross the ocean and trade with Ulthuan, just dont expect much help from them. Any invasions for Lustria only come lategame, if HE even survive. One good thing about Wulfhart now is that the random spawning armies via hostility can be permanently overcome.
Somewhat surprised Karl and Kugath didnt make the list. Lot of people seem to agree theyre amongst the hardest. Karl certainly has a trying start, but as soon as you get lategame artillery, youre sorted against everyone. You should be able to make do until then. Id say about Boris kinda what you did. Try and kill Archaon, then just abandon the Wastes, help save Kislev, then return later. Agreed with Ogres, Vcoast and TK who made the list. Id say since they only ever had one DLC and very little touch-ups they do feel sucky for early game overall.
Tzarina Katerin can get difficult because you're constantly dealing with threats from all sides, even goddamn Rasputin Man Kostaltyn, so you basically need to spam basic kossars until you build up enough devotion and growth to get the really good units.
Eltharion might have the hardest start for the Asur but its a fun challenge playing Donut politics and dealing with N'kari on one hand and fully embracing the Bad lands thunderdome on the other (highly recomand allying with Kroq'gar he's saved my ass on multiple occassions) the dual start is incredibly fun and fairly unique (only other LL that does this is Malus, though Imrik and Rakarth can also go dual location aswell via confederating their homelands) and i honestly love the dual starts cause it almost like sorting out two campaigns at once and thing more factions need methods to get this to happen
I think that the hardest campaign in the game is obviously Skrolk. Starts in Lustria close to gor rok, tehenhahuin, alberic, luthor and he as a reduce unkeep on one of the baddest unit of the skaven roaster.
Wulfrik and Kugath was hard for me, they deserve honorable mentions.
I wasnt expexting nakai idk what i did when i first played him but he was one of my easiest most snowballed strength campains that i needed no thought to dominate with
Having hard campaigns is good. Certainly better than the ones that snowball incredibly quickly.
I like having a challenge run once in a while.
For Belegar i blame his %250 lord upkeep bug for his painful eco start. If they ever fix it it ll be much smoother.
0:36 enemies? You mean fast food
Boris is the hardest, isolated in the chaos wastes against enemies from all sides. Even if you retreat and try to rebuild in krak drak (or whatever you speel it), it is still hard because norsca and Chaos Dwarfs still surrounds you
Wait did they remove khateps hierotitan in his starting army? If so whyyyyyy
Playing as KF for the first time since Wh2.
Everywhere I go I find new enemies in place of the ones I've just defeated. Khazrak was replaced by the Forest Goblins who were in turn replaced by the Norscans. Confederating Gelt brought me in contact with the Disciples of the Maw and Wurrzag. Waging war on Vlad brought Drycha and Bonerattlaz who were joined eventually by Skarsnik who exchanged Karak Eight Peaks for Karaz-a-Karaz. In this playthrough I am lucky Grom is constantly buisy with the Barrow Legion and Marienburg otherwise I'd have to wage war on him too and march across the Grey Mountains. For my non-agression pacts with the Dwarves I was rewarded with a declaration of war by Durthu. Clearly greenskins and undead are not as bad for Athel Loren as Humans. There is also red taint of Khorne all over the Southern Badlands.
Oh and don't forget Festus the rightful Kurfurst of Hochland! Luckily I knew better to deal with him right away.
Karl haven't been in Reikland for the past 50 turns and I am stuck to endless stacks of un-shielded spearmen and archers. No pistoliers, no knights, no cannons, not even crossbows... There is no time, there is no money, there is no one to march them from across the Empire to the frontier. A constant action with no pause.
I think I'll do a High Elf dounut racing after that one and then try Get off my lawn Settra.
Hell yeah, brother.
If you go south with Boris and take Praag right off the bat it makes his start way easier. If you get lucky you can get an early confederation with Katarin.
I remember you saying in a prior video how people disagree with your lists. I get why.. but thank you for making total war Content! WE ALL LOVE THIS NICHE GAMe. I won't even try to understand how it is that many of these factions you listed were my easiest playthroughs. And your list on easy factions mirrors this sentiment... idk
like repanse? seriously? skarsnik my first try at greenskins and i owned the map by turn 65. SAME WITH BELAGAR just grab the peaks. I didn't even know about the dwarven casino at that time either.
@@jzmott82 What difficutly? All factions are easy below very hard difficulty. Try skarsnik on legendary and lemme know how ez it is lol. You are fighting two full stacks of slayers you cant rout immediately and then Thorgrim to the south. I actually have a strategy developed that almost always succeds now but still saying Skarsnik is easy is pretty funny considering 99% of players willl faill his campaign if its above normal difficulty.
I guessed the reworked nakai, because He can win his first battle on auto, I played him, and built tons of armies with him and was dominating the game, on HARD, so if he wasn't updated, idk what you are on about
I really had fun with Repanse and Markus! Also enjoyed my second playthrough with a lightly-modded Nakai a lot better than vanilla. Can't stand playing ogres - they just seem to be worse in battle all round than you'd expect and they desperately need some more LLs/mechanics.
I have seen Cylostra somehow absolutely devour every faction near her. I have no idea how or why but she somehow almost soloed the Druchii and was fighting Grombrindal and the Wood Elf Twins when I got there with my Helves.
AI still gets economic cheats when they play her. If you are playing her, you can quickly get stuck in a protracted land war with DE and Taurux where the nasty weaknesses of VP's weak garrisons, poor land based economy and poor early units become pronounced.
Boris is for sure rough in IE but is pretty fun in ROC.
You really don't have Kairos as one of these? You got to be kidding, the guy is literally surrounded by enemies two of which are legendary lords who go to war with you before turn 10 and proceed to steam roll you.
Need Tzeentch on list - very difficult in current patch on Leg/ VH . Markus is easier now with friendly Cathay nearby . Great video ty
I think my hardest campaign was Festus the Leech Lord. Surronded by the Empire with no allies, they just kill you.
Kairos is kind of hard at start with that doom slayer lizard on ur left while you still dealing with slaanesh, also that elf on top every time wants some money from you for not killing you, can be a hard campaign for inexperienced player like i was when started with him
playing as Eltharion rn and haven’t even expanded outside Ulthuan bc beastmen, dark elves and pirates wiped all high eleven facts so i had to take over the continent
Skarsnik used to be really hard before greenskin rework but he is really not that bad now. He can recruit a lot of unit now so just recruit two full stacks of Goblin, then when you have your first whaaaaag send your 80 units take Karaz-a-Karak then Karak height peaks.
Belagar
Reponse
Eltharion
Skragg
Are 4 of my fav campaigns
I agree with the rest. But would have added
Morathi
Tiq taq to
Khaleeda
Crone and or throt
I also play on legendary/very hard for reference. Might just be where my interest lay and where im willing to put the effort in with my attention.
I think Tiktaq'to isn't as hard as other Lizardmen. I only got started playing VH campaigns before I stopped playing WH2 2 years ago. I just started playing WH3 so I'm only playing Hard until I get back into the swing of things.
But the Terradons give so much power to the armies for such little cost that I find it makes his faction much easier.
With TTT Terradons are the same cost as Goblins are so you can easily maintain 2 armies from the very beginning that I was never able to do with any other Lizardmen faction because Saurus are so expensive.
The second armies with TTT don't have to spend as much to be effective because the Terradons are able to help more effectively break units.
The only thing is he is more reliant on Lightning Strike than other LM factions because his power comes from one use per battle abilities.
Markus is EZ mode since you get all the heroes plus OP reinforcements (like grenade launch riders).
Belegar can easily steamroll his way to Eight Peaks due to dwarf armor being hard to crack in early game. Then you roll in cash once you get Eight Peaks.
Kairos has it pretty rough against Teclis and Oxyotl, making for a hard start.
Ku'gath has a really bad starting province.
Karl Franz has it really tough midgame due to Vlad, Festus and Azhag killing off Electors like flies.
Finally, Imrik can get a deathball rolling, but with Chaos Dwarf and their fire immunity stalking about his starting province, it can get out of hand quickly.
Boris Ursussy is a tough early game and very easy late game. Kislev is one of those factions if you rush their late game infantry most of their problems are solved since almost every unit is hybrid range and melee and not being horrible at either.
Surprised Ku'gath wasn't on here with Ghorst just to his north.
This List is just wrong. First place Markus? His campgain is the second easiest for the empire, because you do not have to deal with the authority (which is pretty hard compared with 2 because you have way more enemies now). You have an early Bretonnian ally and you do not have to high tier buildings to get high tier units and you are able to get a strong army early on (or just just him with a marksman doomstack and get a second normal army).
I expected to see Lokir Fellheart. Maybe its just me but I got wrecked just trying to establish myself in a few provinces. I started well, bullying the Cathay faction but I got declared on by the skaven and lizardmen to the south and all the surrounding factions within a couple turns i tried to fight them off but was just outflanked and out numbered. I decided the jump ship to the other side of the world coast but its locked down by Hexoatl who was snowballing to 20 provinces. The only option was to turn on a weak potential dark elf ally and got declared on by Hexoatl anyway. It was a relentless game.
I knew Markus was gonna be here. Getting in a good spot with him is such a bitch. You just eventually fighting from all directions.
The only one I disagree on is probably Nakai. He's really not that bad, just gotta focus on the green-colored settlements, get a few heroes quick to enable more replenishment, and don't tank your income too hard with Saurus spam. Skinks will work just fine at the beginning. I just tried him on H/H and haven't had to do any manual fights in 20 turns so far, aside from that first one.
I think Repanse is pretty easy. With boris you go south and take out the yellow norscans. You will get some kislev "friendlies" and dwarfs near by. Marcus has 2 friendlies not far away in bretonnia and new world colonies.
You rock, dude! Love your videos
I really enjoy Marcus, it's a great challenge and fun :)
Honestly, I'd argue thatKarl Franz has a hard go of it; The whole imperial system makes it hard to expand, The elector counts are horribly uncooperative at the best of times (and that's when they're not actively trying to murder each other), you have Festus, Skarbrand, Sometimes brettonia, Norscans, Vampires, Orcs and probably a dozen other threats all actively fucking with you, and Reikland is just really shitty to try and defend because of how big it is.
Markus hard??! You've got to be kidding me. Kairos or Kugath are a lot harder. Queen Khalida isn't exactly a picnic either, having to deal with an angry dwarf before you have the tools to do so.