Mortal Empires Update 1 - Dominate the World
Welcome to the Mortal Empires campaign. This campaign rather than following the race to the Vortex instead focuses on domination, conquering as much of the world as possible. It is less time constrained, allowing for you to play the long game without fear of losing objectives. It also uses the Old World, the world map from Total War: Warhammer. In Mortal Empires both game maps are combined into one massive map with nearly every faction(Norsca is coming in May) available in both games appearing. This story is more related to the End Times and the invasion of Chaos.
High Elves (Tyrion)
Tyrion is the melee focused of the twin Elven princes. He is the heir of Aenarion and is possibly in line for the Phoenix Crown. As the Faction Leader for the High Elves he deals with their diplomacy while leading from the front-lines. People have nicknamed him the “Blender” for his ability to single-handed defeat hundreds of foes in battle.
Tyrion begins with a Prince, one of the Hero units available to the High Elves. Princes are excellent melee fighters who can later on gain mounts, but while their flying mount is available it makes them a bit too weak for fighting in sustained battle. When a Prince is high enough level they can give a factionwide bonus to diplomacy with Lizardmen, Elves, or Humans.
We begin with the capital of Ulthuan, the home of the High Elves. It begins with a special port that increases growth and gold production a good deal. First we’ll upgrade the settlement and get to work recruiting. While the early game in Vortex campaign is a bit easier for Tyrion in Mortal Empires you start out quite surrounded.
Oh would you look at that, someone wants to chat. They wish to have a trade agreement. The AI or you can initiate diplomacy with effectively anyone but sworn enemies. When engaging in diplomacy you can decide on exchanges of gold, influence, set up alliances, declare war, and in this instance make Trade. Trade requires you to have a physical path to another faction. This is much easier when there is a sea port. You have the ability to exchange resources that are based upon settlements that have them. This creates revenue for both factions involved, so trade is a net bonus.
Ah the Life in the Lagoon. Our prince gets to decide on suitors for the Phoenix King and how they should be treated. We lack the Influence to allow for a happy populace, and are in need of Influence for diplomatic reasons. Influence can be used to, well, influence. When you are using it you can cause factions to have negative or positive reactions towards you or other factions. As well Heroes and Lords that do not have seriously bad flaws require influence to recruit.
Tyrion is one of the best melee fighters around, as such we’ll be leveling him up down the path that makes him the most powerful. We want him to be able to lead undefeated in battle while allowing him to hold out on his own and kill other Lords.
Taking the province was a bit tricky. Tyrion starts out surrounded but by waiting and building up a large army while stretching our funds we were able to defeat all our starting enemies. Something to note is that the Vortex and Mortal Empires campaigns do have a slightly altered New World map. They have lowered the number of settlements and provinces to make it so it isn’t quite a cluster.
Empire (Emperor Karl Franz)
The Empire is the legacy of the great Sigmar. Once what were divided human tribes were united by the great hero of humanity, Sigmar, the first Emperor. His time has now long passed, with Emperor Karl Franz now holding the position. An Emperor is elected by the Elector Counts, which have chosen Karl. Karl is the Prince of Altdorf of the Reikland. He needs to unite the Empire in these trying times and make it into the once great power it was.
The Reikland is divided as well, Imperial Secessionists have taken up three of the Reikland’s settlements, refusing to serve under Karl Franz. We’ll have to defeat them in battle to show them who the true Emperor is.
For Karl we’ll be leveling him up mainly as a leader foremost, focusing on his army. With Route Marcher and the upkeep for his troops lowered, Karl Franz can more easily host elite infantry. As we focus on his army we’ll be building him up to make his infantry much better.
Boris Todbringer wants a Non-Aggression Pact. With it in effect we agree to not be aggressive towards one another. That way we can put our focuses elsewhere knowing we won’t be a threat to one another. The Reikland is surrounded by friends and foes and in the future diplomacy will be highly important.
In battle against the Secessionists we have gained a banner. Banners can be placed on a single unit to improve how they do in battle. This banner makes said unit deal fire damage, highly useful against the Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings as well as Tree units which are weak to fire.
With Karl Franz leading the Empire of Man it was a walk in the park, after building up the necessary forces. Reikland is now ours. It is time to start looking elsewhere for new land to take up.
Beastmen (Morghur the Shadowgave)
Possibly the greatest and most wicked of the Beastlords, Morghur is the Shadowgave, the Master of Skulls, an ancient creature of unspeakable evil. This immortal being is a taint upon the lands, drawing in the touch of Chaos wherever he goes. Morghur is favored by the Gods of Chaos. He leads his horde in an unending march through the lands to defile the Empire of Man and return them to a primal chaotic existence, one akin to the Beastmen.
We begin up between Nordland and Middenheim. These two provinces are a great danger to us. We are unprepared to fight them both, so instead we head towards Altdorf.
We have a few systems to go over. The Beastmen have Chaos Corruption which they spread. In provinces afflicted by it there is a loss of public order for those who are not aligned with Chaos. Rebellions caused by this will be Chaos Rebellions, with Chaos forces attacking the province.
Starting with two armies is handy. The Beastmen are a Horde faction, the other playable one is the Warriors of Chaos. They suffer attrition when their armies are near to each other due to infighting. But the Beastmen don’t have this problem. What we can do is use our second army for reinforcements in battle.
Beastmen have a few odd stances. They’re able to ambush nearly all the time and can raid. Their best stance is using the Beastpaths. These secret paths allow Beastment to easily traverse natural landmarks and hazards that would stop other armies.
For starters with Technology I have chosen to research an increase to raiding loot. But what’s important is later in the tree, I want the Replenishment available as a Horde faction we’ll be severely lacking with it.
Horde factions do not build up settlements, instead they have their Horde, their armies each have their own growth and buildings. Without settlements they make little gold, and instead rely upon raiding and looting enemy settlements to make money. When a Horde is killed it is wiped out completely. Losing all it’s upgrades and units. If all your Hordes are wiped out you lose, making it much easier to lose as Horde factions.
Since we cannot take settlements instead the Beastmen Raze them. Razing a settlement completely destroys it, spreads Chaos Corruption, and requires complete colonization to make it into a new un-upgraded settlement. When we Raze them we can focus on looting gold or gaining Growth.
It is time to choose a Hero unit. Bray-Shamans are useful casters especially with the spell Flock of Doom, which was once incredibly broken. But instead I decided upon a Gorebull, a massive minotaur that will be useful in battle.
Our main army is weakened. At times Beastmen get special events based upon phases of the moon. We’ll be taking instant Replenishment to allow us to continue our battles without fear of Karl Franz coming and destroying us.
Morghur is strong enough in battle to hold, what we want instead is for him to have campaign benefits. I find them more useful when playing as Horde factions, allowing you to not worry as much about gold and to get the useful skill Lightning Strike. I’ll go into what that is later.
Coming Soon
Next we will be adding some more factions, but this is what we will start with.
I’ll be adding Tomb Kings(Settra the Imperishable)
Greenskins(Azhag the Slaughterer)
Vampire Counts( Vlad).