Preamble: avoid Norsca in the early game. They're good matchups and easy XP, but Bjornling comes back at lvl X after chaos spawns and they become a hassle if you're elsewhere. The game doesn't tell you when a temple is attacked or lost, so distant temples are always at risk because god forbid the AIs fight each other for a change and the idea of letting the player know their religion is being threatened in game completely slipped past CA. Suffice it to say, albion and Norsca are poor locations to defend. unless the game forces your hand, avoid colonization in any northern region as hard as possible. If it does force your hand, you're in for a rough ride but this will help. Also, this is assuming that you're a gamer and don't like using the sword of khaine.

recruit skink chiefs early from the temple of the gods (faction store). They'll save you from wasting skillpoints on casualty replenishment and they function as amazing support for nakai seeing as he struggles with fighting small single entities. using the temple of the gods can get you a skink at lvl 3 and it temporarily increases the cap so you can get an extra one to do campaign stuff

get yourself extra recruitment slots before that replenishment and horde growth. sounds like it would slow you down, but Nakai benefits greatly from reduced recruitment cost and his OP recruitment pool.

If you're not about to fight the next 1-10 turns, you only need your heroes and maybe two kroxigors in your army. This saves on upkeep and allows you to have some sacrificial lambs to cover withdrawal from battle. Taking a boat trip with a light army not only increases income but the time it takes you to travel means you're accruing horde growth. The campaign is designed around being a belligerent vagrant who has friends that can fight, play the part.

each turn you can encamp so long as you aren't marching. after each battle you should be merging troops and disbanding the ones at low health. Nakai can recruit so many so fast, that you shouldn't get attached to a unit because they got a little xp. This is why casualty replenishment skills are nonsensical unless you get some big monsters you want to keep around.

Raising a full Army of Kroxigors in two turns is nice. But imagine if you recruited a second lord for the sole purpse of being march bait? have them follow Nakai around, maybe even give them a few troops. NPCs know your faction is str rank X, but they're opportunistic little bullies. the sight of a lone LL in march stance is WAY to enticing for them, even if they saw Nakai in the area just one turn ago, they'll ALWAYS risk it for the biscuit. and ALWAYS get themselves ambushed. Tried and true cheese method, but 7x better since it's kroxigors laying an ambush.

Lore of beasts is amazing for melee based Armies. Get one of those SOBs in your army ASAP. Kroxigors are strong and tough alright, but imagine what they do with extra physical resistance and anti-large resistance. Fun fact, also works very well with Sisters of Slaughter. I know people are obsessed with the fire meta, but beasts will take a tough army and make them not bigger but definitely 'arder .

Make your vassal pay for your recruitment. 1300 gold is about four Kroxigors for me. Four Kroxigors can take a small settlement with ease.

Your job as Nakai is to walk the world punching all the forces of evil in the face. Turns out people like it when you punch greenskins in the face. Hold up, Karl Franz is people! And he's rich!!! after you see reikland give you a green face, feel more than free to hit up karl every couple of turns. He's very grateful for not having to fight A-NOTHER war and unlike everyone that isn't your vassal, he knows what a badass like Nakai is worth. Sometimes, he'll even give you more money than your vassal does (collectively) over the course of 10 turns. Don't be shy about asking people for money, You're literally acting like a PMC in their territories but without all the war crimes.

if they're one of those filthy humans, don't agree to an alliance. eventually they're just going to start fighting each other and then you'll have to make a choice and then YOUR reliability takes a hit because CA doesn't realize that neutrality is still in the dictionary.

usually by the time you need this piece of advice, you've got some favor saved up. pursue your research as needed, but don't neglect that the temple of the gods can help you stand up and reinforce weaknesses in an army rapidly. Need cav? spawn some. Need flyers? spawn em.but always make sure you have about 5-600 leftover in case the AI tries being opportunistic. This way you can buy more holdout time for your temples and subsequently force the enemy to suffer from attrition that it's immune to. completely useful mechanic, I promise (that's a lie). You're also able to summon a non-replenishable army, but according to CA that just means that they die slow over about 6 turns. Best to summon them and immediately give them a target. They won't take settlements, because...reasons

in battle, it's best to pretend that Nakai is a cav unit. He needs to be cycle charged to get the most out of his abusive charge attacks. Those things will demolish any infantry unit that isn't too heavily armored and even then, Nakai is still probably going to win. His downfall will always be magic. Magical attacks MELT Nakai before he gets his items. It is HIGHLY recommended that you hunt down Azhag for his 30% magic resist trait. Add this to nakai's skills and items and he walks away with around 40% magic resist which is very helpful against chaos' aspiring champions. Taking a trip to slap Marcus Wulfhart one good time wouldn't be too bad. just beware of angering his buddies.

*repetition alert, this is that important*


You're going to take damage if you go full kroxigor. They're designed to be tanky damage dealers, getting hurt is kinda why they signed up. it's redundant, but always merge troops if you know you've got until next turn before something goes down. it cannot be stressed enough how much faster your army recovers and reinforces when it drops dead weight.

bonus round: blobs are great, especially when you've got magic. but try this grouplocked formation with the Krox in neat squares

-
-
-
- m m m m
- - - - - - - - - - - -

looks wierd but with your monsters inside the box, and said box closing in, it makes the AI derp out almost every time. The only units that will behave normally or even try to assault are hellcannons and cav the rest will try to create a new formation constantly as you close in on them. Maybe a more seasoned player can explain it, but it's great for giving your guys an easy approach or setting up long flanks, and it's so easy to envelop if you're not too bust laughing.

Well that's really it. These tactics changed the enitre way I looked at Nakai. Sure his skills are all over the place, his mechanics are unpolished, and his vassal is a stingy bastard sometimes. But what makes this campaign shine isn't how crazily you can cheese it, there's very little cheese here, it's how little you need to cheese it; Kroxigors are just that tough.