"So this is how legendary difficulty feels..."
Warning ! These are just... tips. Due to the fact that legendary campaigns are unpredictable, you may still struggle. Sometimes everyone will declare war and you'll lose. Sometimes you won't have enough movement to escape your enemies and you will be crushed. That's legendary. Still, this guide will provide you with some basic strategies. Rest is up to you on how to save the Old World ! Have a good reading !

First of all, some basic tips on how to run a legendary campaign.

- Don't do battles yourself. Use auto-resolve instead. Why ? Because in legendary AI gets stats improvements, to the point it gets very difficult to win battles. Armies have very high morale, even killing their lord don't seem to affect them badly. Battles are also very fast and that doesn't allow you to flank fast enough before most of your troops begin to run. The AI is still stupid though and make mistakes that you can exploit, but counting on AI faults is not the best strategy. Unlike in Attila or Rome 2 you can't defend settlements in 1vs10, and you don't have better (or broken - who said pikes ?) units. Thus the best strategy is to overwhelm the enemy strategically, destroying one army at a time with superior numbers. Auto-resolve is incredibly nice to the winner as casualties are very low, and that allows you to keep attacking without spending turns to resplenish.
Play battles if you want, but at your own risk.

Only engage battles you are sure to win. Bring more armies than them, bring better troops than them... or dodge armies if you can't. The goal is to take settlements, and destroy the enemy after when it is weak.
There are some exceptions to that of course : manually defending during sieges can be done very sucessfuly against unfair odds. Also, sometimes your army composition outright beats the enemy's. For example, the enemy has a lot of missile cavalry and you have a lot of crossbowmen (Marienburg army at the beginning). Then by all means play it. But most of the time, you have to play strategically and always outnumber, outpace the enemy.


- Don't do field battles against the enemy at first. And that's only half a joke. Field battles are hard and difficult at the beginning, it's best to dodge enemy armies and directly siege and take their settlements. Ever tried fighting dwarves with spearmen and swordsmen ? Yeah it doesn't work. But maybe they are occupied sieging your lands ? Great ! Send one army to capture their barely defended towns. Keep another army to defend your most precious cities and repeal the attacker once you have razed everything.

There are only 2 times you actually fight an enemy :
- you have twice their number (or better troops), so you'll win.
- you are defending a settlement, so you'll have the advantage.

Fair battles should be avoided, they are too risky. Always keep an escape route. Use agents to spot where enemy armies are.

Also keep in mind that the AI is slow to take walled settlements : sometimes they wait 3 or 4 turns before assaulting. Use this time wisely. You the player only need one turn to build a ram, and then you instantly assault, so you will always outpace the AI in conquest speed.
For example, conquer their settlement and then order forced march to go back defend yours. Use the garrison to attack and use your army as reinforcement. The AI might be nice enough to wait for your army.

- One of the most important thing is the city building. In fact, a legendary campaign is a huge city builder and diplomatic challenge.

Always upgrade your villages to level 3 and build defenses level 2. This will allow you to protect them and slow down the enemy. Upgrading can be done faster than you'd imagine. If you don't do this, believe me that protecting your territory while the enemy can conquer any settlement in one turn is a nightmare.
Be careful to not upgrade villages that are vulnerable to the enemy or you'll lose all your previous and pending upgrades.
But note ! Putting your army inside a non-walled village to protect it is very risky, because the AI can bring 2 or 3 stacks and destroy your army right away.

Money is everything : the more money you have, the more army/units you can field and the easier everything becomes. Apart from your starting region, you don't really need any other military production region. A basic setup is : city with fortified walls (very important !), cult of sigmar, tavern, and economic buildings. Villages can have taverns and economic buildings too.
Losing an army is not a disaster if you can still defend yourself, because you can use the sudden surge of money to upgrade buildings for even moar money.
Reikland only needs to have barracks and armoury (for greatswords). You might want some barracks in other cities to recruit troops in a hurry, but that's all. Focus on economic buildings.

- Diplomacy is key.

And the key to diplomacy is vassalisation. Ai has a lot more money than the player, so use it well. When you can, make as many vassals as possible - as long as it doesn't penalize you too much. Capture cities first (because you need money), then make the last village vassal. It will even allow you to make commandements to the whole region, as if you had all provinces.
Note that even with one shi***y province the AI can field 2 full stacks, and it will happily resettle in any settlement razed by chaos. Vassals can also raid Norsca coast and raze it if ordered. Last but not least, they will kill any rebels attempting to capture your cities (as long as it's not too far away).
You're the Emperor ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, what is an Emperor without vassals ?

Also, don't wage too many wars at once. Seek or Accept peace if you are not currently destroying that faction - don't take risks. Refuse to join wars if it's not in your interest. What if another enemy declares war on you and you get bogged down in 3-4-5 difficult wars at the same time? And of course, always ask for money.

Your late-game goal as the Emperor is to protect bretonnians, dwarves and your (rebellous) imperials subjects. Yes, even if they are not allied to you. Why you might ask ? Because at turn 100, once Archaon invades, the surviving imperial, dwarves and bretonnians will be eager to ally with you. The more of them there are, the less difficult it becomes. Don't fight over imperial territory if it's not critical for you. I finished my campaign with only Marienburg, Nuln, and Couronne provinces. Rest were either my vassals, or allied. Once Archaon invades, vassalize or ally all possible factions.
I didn't made any confederation, although it may be possible to win with this strategy.

Oh of course, it's mandatory to destroy all imperial/dwarves/bretonnians that are a threat to you. But don't overdo it, you don't need to kill everyone to win the game : just vampires counts and chaos.

- Skills

- The first skill to rush is Lightning Strike (Blue, 2nd block). It allows you to attack enemy armies without them being able to use reinforcements. It's incredibly useful. You only need to spend 1 point there.
I also use Fervor (corruption reduction), Autoritharian (Public order bonus, but only 1 point spent there because it's just to unlock 2nd tree), and skills that lower upkeep and speed unit reinforcement.
The red skill "Honest Steel" that increase melee attack and defense for imperial troops is also great. (+12).

- For agents, I mostly took skills to counter corruption and augment happiness.

I never took any combat related skills, because I don't do manual battles.
(I still took the Flying Monster for Karl, because Karl. Yes, I love Karl.)

Introduction

I hope you haven't launched your campaign yet.
Because it's best to take Karl. Karly has better starting troops, and he looks cool.
Always take Karly.



" I AM the Emperor. And I don't give a **** to the tutorial and bloody separatists"


First steps : capturing Marienburg



The most important asset to capture at the beginning is Marienburg. It gives a lot of money, and because it only has 2 provinces you can easily vassalize it by capturing the last village.
However, it quickly builds troops and if its army does not get out of the city, you won't be able to capture it. It has a lot of garrison, and coupled with their army it'll make you cry.

So to take the city, you have to make the Marienburgian army move. There are 2 ways to do it.

Splitting Marienburg army

- Declare war on Middenland and raze their settlement north of Altdorf. Why ? Because Marienburg will try to resettle it.
Don't worry, Middenland usually accept peace soon enough along with its Nordland ally. Try to make peace every turn afterwards.
- Recruit a Lord and 3 swordsmen at Altdorf. You don't want to waste time.
- Upgrade barracks

- Capture the separatist village west of your location. Recruit 3 swordsmen.
- Move your lord to Karl location.

- Keep recruiting until Marienburg splits its forces.
- Attack and siege the city when it does.
- Once the city is yours, capture the village north of Altdorf again.
- Vassalize Marienburg when capturing their last province.

Make Marienburg attack Skullmashers Orks

- Same strategy as below, but don't raze Middenland province. Capture it or loot it.
- At around turn 6-7-8 (you need 20 units in total at least, with 3 more crossbowmen to take out Marienburg pistoliers) place your army at the frontier with Marienburg. Ask marienburg to attack Skullmashers, the ork tribe right west of them. Once they accept, wait for them to move their army. Attack their army while it is besieging the ork settlement.

if you find yourself idle, then by all means attack separatists.


Second step : Bretonnia



"Chargee ! Oh wait, aren't empire armies made of spearmen, halberdiers, and demigryphs ? OH CR*P"

So this is where it becomes trickly. Bretonnia, or another bretonnian kingdom, might declare war on you. I went for Bretonnia right away and captured their capital.
Try to ally with Bretonnia enemies. I managed to ally myself with Bartonne.
Bretonnian armies are not difficult to handle : keep recruiting troops and you'll eventually destroy them with auto-resolve.

Dwarves might pose a problem ; ignore them as long as possible. You need more cities before taking them out. When you have the opportunity (after the conquest of bretonnia if possible) raze all their settlements in the grey mountains. Dodge their armies and try to not fight them at all.

Once you have Couronne and Marienburg, and razed dwarves settlements you have a good and secure foothold for your Empire. Spend some turns fortifying your villages and cities. Then you have to decide where to strike next - if you still have the time

Next target : Nuln or Southern bretonnia, Stirland... or more vassals

"NOW WE ARE STRONG ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU FEAR US !"

The first chaos invasion will be soon (around turn 50). You might have time to expand a bit more : I chose Nuln because its city is close to Altdorf, but expanding further into Bretonnia is also possible. Also look for imperial States with one province. It's the perfect time to attack and vassalize them.
If Vampires did expand, then strike back.
If you don't have time to expand don't worry. Focus on economic buildings, make sigmar cults in every region and make the armoury in Reikland. You will need greatswords.

Then you're on your own


If chaos raze your closest neighbours, protect your vassals. They will resettle. Use your garrisons to have better odds while fighting invaders. Also, use Lightning strike on your Lords to take out stacks of chaos one by one.
Always have 2 armies protecting each other if possible.
Try to destroy vampires counts before the great chaos invasion (turn 100), or shortly after.

Your goal is to survive until turn 100 with the Empire and Bretonnia (not as important as the Empire but still useful) as intact as possible. By intact I mean that imperial and bretonnian factions must still control imperial and bretonnians lands. Estalians/Tileans, Border Princes, Orks, Vampires Counts... are enemies that must be dealt with. Take them out first before attacking fellow imperials/bretonians or even dwarves. Then by turn 100 ally with your brothers in arms, make more armies, and use autoresolve. Smile.



"Hell yeah baby "

If it fails, then restart the campaign. I think I restarted around 70 times before finding a good early strategy, trying all kind of different - and foolish - rushes. At least this one worked.

Good luck and may Sigmar be praised !

Please comment if you like it, dislike it, have a better strategy or anything else. I'll reply to any question below.