Total War: Warhammer II – Imrik Hard Mortal Empire Guide

Guide to Imrik

All credit goes to Sir Malicious!

Turn 1

• Manual battle.
• Occupy Settlement (Not loot).
• Research bows.
• Destroy both small buildings for 100 gold.
• Upgrade second settlement for 450 gold dragon building (not main one).
• Recruit 3 archers.
• Imrik skill towards sweet personal buffs (2 influence per turn one ASAP). lightning strike later on for the orcs. Dragon/Army buffs can come later to max out your doom stack. Imrik does not actually need the dragons as badly as the doughnut but will if he has to face down Grimgor mega stacks.

Turn 2

• Move to border and recruit 3 spears.
• Build two gold buildings one at each settlement. Do not take any of the gold buildings past level 1 for the start. Probably until after confederation. Payback on L1 = 6 turns L2 = 35 turns.

Turn 3

• Hard fight for dwarf province.
• Loot and Occupy.
• Ditch white lions and dragon princes.
• Recruit another lord at the last dwarf base you just took (option, check financials on this (~6 or 7 turns of xp sacking for $3,500 but later recruits nearer dragon fight can save more per turn until then).
• Recruit to 14 guys (later Hero will fill out the last spot and 3 spears 1 archers and one regiment of renown archer brought up by other lord if he can in one turn with the skill from lightning strike tree).

Turn 4

• Move all the way into the enemy territory on a march.
• March the new lord (+hero when you can get one at turn 12) behind Imrik to rally up for shared XP.

Turn 5

• Sack the city on Imrik and then wait until the start of next turn to pop the xp rite when its available (assuming you have not had three fights yet).
• Build Dragon building.

Turns 6

• Pop XP Rite!

Turn 7-9

• Build defense buildings and continue doing so until all three home provinces have max buildings.
• Watch for when the sacking province will rebel and go into siege mode before it does.

Turn 9

• Dragon inc, good idea to save.
• Send second general back to province and recruit guys to cap out the main army on a transfer assuming noble is recruited in time for dragon (maybe turn 15 for him to get to Imrik and ready to actually do anything). Do not do this too early. Calc out when you will get 14 and want to fight the dragon and be sure you don’t pay for the guys longer than you have to.
• If there is a second noble take that into account for the 20 stack and only recruit 4 guys (regiment of renown is one and three normals) to make the full stack.
• Be sure Imrik is parked on the right side of the city to hopefully pop the dragon on your way to skaven.

Turn 10+

• Watch for when the sacking province will rebel, should be very close now.

Imrik Level 12

• Take the 2 influence skill that unlocks nobles.
• Recruit one noble if they have tolerable traits at your top settlement to rally up with Imrik before the dragon fight.
• If a second is available next turn without a horrible trait recruit him and send him up as well. Otherwise this one has to wait until after dragon to buy with decent influence.

Turn 14 or 15’ish

• Wait at least until level 14 for the dragon fight to get Imrik his own dragon. When you are ready to fight it, attack the sack settlement at the start of the turn on the small general then raze it on the small general which will kill his movement but allow imrik to ride off and do the dragon.
• After the dragon fight merge units down to at least 17 units or fewer if they are highly damaged as there will be one turn of regen before skaven on your way over there. Merge to leave small numbers missing if possible to take advantage of everyone regaining troops.
• 2 slots for heroes (disband troops as they arrive and 1 for the dragon are the 17). Do not recruit the dragon. You probably wont even need it for the skaven conquest unless you have to fight stacked 20 stacks.

Continue West to Eschen

• If they are not yet at war with you then try to hit a couple of their armies in march mode on your way to their top city.
• Sack the raze the first two top settlements. If your gold is not great yet or you need to wait for a bit leave the one razed and sack the other a few times before heading south. Note, with this plan once you hit Pigbarter you will have to confederate.
• Then once you’re ready move down and capture pig. Save your gold for confederation.
• On the final city be sure you are ready to confederate and can handle the negative gold for at least enough turns to take some doughnut cities.

Confederation

• Confederate at this point and spend the 25 to gain better diplomatic relations.
• Move the confederated armies to attack Tyrion if no one is in the rich settlement or the Elves to the north if he is looking present and burl.

*Note* Lord on the Doughnut

• If it’s just a mage of the wrong type or with a bad trait use her as a recruitment shuffler and transfer the units then ditch her. If she’s good, keep her. If they give you two if you can afford it go double team. If you do ditch the second recruit a tanky lord or a princess with money perk if you can.
• Be sure to pop the rite of Vauls Hammer before going for the doughnut settlements. This should not be needed for skaven so it can be saved.
• Ditto the public order Rite. Wait until you have taken the skaven province and a few donuts and only use if needed. Otherwise save it for later when you have more. It will reset however so use it when you need it. Same with the minus corruption once you have much of that going.
• If you only get 1 province and the other is at war go up and sack if you can afford it then raze it after however many turns then take it. Assuming the elves aren’t already at war with you (use influence) then regen and let some public order establish while heading for Tyrion or north depending on where his armies are. You will need to recruit something like a 25+ stack or need a second dragon to take his home base and the Gates.

The Midgame

• If the capital is safe you will be moving your other home area lord up towards the border and recruiting 4 or 5 spear troops to occupy the top two Skaven provinces.
• If the dark elves on the islands have attacked then Imrik needs to go down there and proceed to fight the southern Skaven until they are dead while you prioritize all the money you can on the doughnut.
• Imrik blitzes for the southern elves most likely depending on the situation at home before heading up to fight dwarves and orcs for a trade opening.
• Hopefully the second army (though its going to start as just a gen for all you can afford) and base garrisons can hold off the skaven and or elves while you focus on Tyrion and the Doughnut to come back to these worthless lands.