Is Eltharion's expedition doomed? Yvresse strategies, Mortal Empires

The high elves of Yresse have a challenging start in Mortal Empires. Eltharion has taken a small army far from his homeland in Ulthuan to the Badlands. Meanwhile in Ulthuan, three of the four regions in your home province have been invaded.

In my Yvresse campaigns, if I keep an army on Ulthuan to re-take the lost regions while maintaining Eltharion's expeditionary army, there's a problem. I can only afford 8 or 9 units in each army. Both armies are likely to be heavily outnumbered and defeated.

It's tempting to abandon Eltharion's expedition (disbanding his army and abandoning his one settlement in the Badlands) and raise one big army to liberate Yvresse's home province. However, if I do that, Eltharion's abilities (causing fear when fighting the greenskins and immunity to barren wastelands attrition) will be wasted, at least until I can send him back to the Badlands (and it's a long, long way from Ulthuan). I could reduce the expeditionary army to a minimum and try to hold the one region in the Badlands which Eltharion's expedition captured while expanding on Ulthuan - but the greenskills will send a large army to attack that settlement. This isn't a complaint against the developers - I like a challenging start, I just haven't worked out how to deal with it.

If you play Yresse, what do you do in the early campaign?

Can't you, you know... disband some of your armies back home, holding on slivers and trying to make peace, even humiliating one, till you get a good enough economy? I haven't played that part of the game, so I don't know. But the way you describe it and the way the game presents it when I click that game, it seems to me that you should back the expedition and retake your homeland later.

Thanks, yes I could do that - I'll start a new campaign and try your idea.

Part of the difficulty with Yvresse is that you're at war from the start, both at home and in your expedition. This means that, if I disband my army at home, Tor Yvresse - my home region - will be vulnerable to the invading orcs.

As you said, the solution could be to make peace with the orcs who invaded my home province, so that Eltharion can raise the troops he needs for a successful expedition in the Badlands. I'll be interested to see if I can make peace with them and, if I can, whether another elven ruler, such as Tyrion, will take over the three regions that Yvresse lost to the invaders. Even so, if this strategy allows Eltharion's expedition to succeed, it might be worth it.

You will probably have to consolidate and fight it out in the home region with the garrison troops for a time to keep funds flowing till the expedition starts bringing in $$$, or so I think.

I am not yet playing this faction. but she is quite difficult

Rush clan Eshin. They will absolutely batter and demolish you. Then focus Greenskins, and just go all out on the Dragons and ride their OP-ness to glory. I disregard Caledor etc, because Morathi usually swallows that up within a few turns of it becoming available.

I wasn't able to make peace with the orcs who were invading my home province. That, for me, is what makes Eltharion's starting position so interesting - you start with your faction divided into two locations. The locations are very far apart (the army in Tor Yvresse would take many turns to reach the Badlands where Eltharion is fighting). You start at war in both locations. In both places, your enemies are likely to bring a full-stack army to attack you (or multiple armies which have a full stack of units in total), and you can only afford a half-stack army in each location. That's why I tend to abandon Eltharion's expedition, raise a full stack army to reclaim the three lost cities of my home province and expand from there. However, of course, Eltharion has bonuses linked to fighting orcs in the Badlands, so if he isn't doing that, those abilities are wasted.

Thanks, King Athelstan, that sounds like good advice for Prince Imrik's expedition, which I also struggle with! When I tried playing as Imrik, Clan Eshin's hidden armies and ambushes were a big problem. Any tips for defeating Clan Eshin as Imrik in the early campaign? I know about basic things, such as sending heroes to look for hidden armies and using encampment stance to try to prevent an ambush.