My first reaction is don't do that, as playing them all in short order would leave you with nothing new to look forward to. But then again, there are so many to choose from (I think my DLC soup gives 45 LLs) and there is new DLC regularly, and until that stops, there will always be new LLs to play. And with two campaigns to choose from, the replayability is high. So yeah, why not, right?

I'd be interested which one ends up being your favorite after you've tried them all. For me it was a surprise, as my favorites were ones I would not have guessed beforehand. I've played nearly all of them now, and frankly there have been only a couple that I didn't care for. Easy to please I reckon

A good point, but like you said, there are so many to choose from, esp with 2 campaigns. I'm eager to try a bunch of different ones and see which I find most interesting.

I will say I'm enjoying the TK so far. I'm finding the unit limitation an interesting mechanic, esp now that I've unlocked a second army. All of a sudden I can't get enough archers. And I've recruited a Legion of Legend - The Flock of Djaf, a flying war beast. I haven't been able to use it in combat yet, but hopefully soon.

If you do I'd be interested in your thoughts on each.

If I were to name a top ten factions for me to play, it might look something like this

1. Clan Mors
2. Clan Skryre
3. The Awakened
4. Karaz-a-Karak
5. Naggarond
6. Reikland
7 .Khemri
8. Eataine
9. Clan Pestilens
10.Hexoatl

Yeah, I like Skaven

What is it about Skaven that you enjoy so much?

Skaven are cool for a number of reasons. Their monstrous units are lame, but everything else is good, especially the ranged options like the Plagueclaw Catapult, Ratling Guns and Jezzails. Infantry is an interesting mix of solid heavy units (Stormvermin) and clanrats/slaves. The lower tier units are dirt cheap, and expendable really. It's not uncommon to just light up the whole mess when these units are engaged with the enemy infantry. You can always buy more slaves. The ranged units are pretty devastating.

No real cavalry, but there are the doomwheels which while not as strong as a full heavy cav unit, are great at harassment and have good staying power. Skaven infantry is faster than most races, giving you the mobility advantage, and most units can kite the enemy, and the Skaven have a few archer units that can fire on the run. Kite while firing is effective. Skaven's mobility gives you the ability to gain tactical position more easily.

They have a battlefield ability called The Menace Below, which will spawn a unit of rats anywhere on the battlefield, which is very cool in a number of scenarios. Like raising them in the middle of a stand of archers or an artillery battery. Lots more uses as well.

In the campaign they have some advantages as well as some restricting mechanics. Expansion is tempered by the food mechanic. Each new settlement or army costs one food, and if you go below the food threshold you suffer penalties. Stay above and gain some buffs. Some players don't care for it, but for me it adds some more strategy to the campaign which I like. One of their best campaign abilities is they always have a chance to get an ambush battle, from any stance. So you can attack another army and have it be your ambush, not just waiting in ambush stance for an enemy army to wander past.

And I also like the undercity mechanic. Skaven can build an undercity beneath any settlement. This can be used in a number of ways, to siphon gold, generate food, spread corruption or even to raise an army in the enemy's heartland. Vampire Coast factions have Pirate Coves which work in the same way.

I also like almost all of the Skaven roster. Aside from not having cav and good monstrous units, they have a very diverse and effective roster, with plenty of armor piercing and specialized units. Their best infantry is not among the best in WH2, but they fit in the fireteam concept I tend to roll with, and their mobility helps to even out their stat disadvantage. When the full roster in unlocked, a Skaven army is capable of taking on any composition due to the variety of damage and skills they have. Queek Headtaker of Clan Mors is my favorite. I dig his vibe, the bring it on attitude. No one really likes the Skaven, so you don't expect much in the way of allies,confed targets or trade agreements. But in the campaign and on the battlefield I find them the most fun to play. Us against the world, if you can find us.

Sounds cool, maybe I'll make them my next stop on the whirlwind tour! I'm still enjoying TK, but I see the mistakes I've already made in the campaign, so maybe it's time to move on to another faction.

I would be interested to see what you think if you do. I think there are currently five LLs to choose from, all with different characteristics and starting positions of course. I think the best ones to play are Mors, Skryre and Pestilens. Eshin I didn't care for too much, they have doubled costs for many of my favorite units, and Rictus starts in a poor position.

Queek's Mortal Empires start is labeled very hard. I didn't find it so (maybe some luck), but you do come up against Last Defenders (lizards) and a dwarf faction early on, before you've unlocked your roster. That is a challenge since they are much stronger at the start. Lizards and Dwarfs both have strong early armored units, which is difficult for the Skaven's squishy low-tier units to counter, and I try to rush Plagueclaws to help offset this. A good challenge

This sort of assymetry is a large part of Warhammer 2's appeal for me. Different opponents present entirely different problems, and effectively countering their compositions is one of my favorite parts of the game.

I'm seeing that with just hitting a couple of factions. TK plays way differently than Eataine did. The campaign priorities are different, and the mindset is different too. I don't mind whelping an army when I can just go and recruit replacements at no cost, esp if I can do a lot of damage to my opponent in the process. With Eataine, I was very conscious of my losses and tried to avoid situations that I didn't have a clear advantage. I also don't have a problem with recruiting a full stack as soon as I get a new lord unlocked. Again with Eataine, it was more of a gamble in terms of how much army can I afford - both recruitment costs and unit upkeep.

Odd thing is, money is no problem for me right now. I'm making pretty good cash per turn, whereas it seemed I was always scrounging with Eataine. I had a lot of income, but most of it was eaten up by my upkeep costs.

Yes, agreed on all points. And this is why I go on endlessly about the replayability

Empire is the most traditional (Warhammer 1, or "Old World" faction). They play more like a historical-title type faction. I've only played Reikland, but have done several times as I like their starting location.

Speaking of the historical titles, I'm also getting the urge to jump into one of the historical TW games I own just to get a different flavor of the series, but it's hard to put down WH.

Still cranking along in my TK playthrough. I've gotten most of the northern half of my starting continent. Along the way I eliminated a couple of Bretonnai factions, a couple other TK factions, a Dwarf faction (who was sitting on a city housing one of the Books of Nagash. Taking that city gave me the book. I gained another when I defeated a particular rogue army to the south of me. As it stands, the primary landholders of our continent are me and Clan Mors.

I'm going to have to go after them, as they have a city I need to conquer for another book. I'd like to clean them off completely, as the corruption is giving me headaches. I've had a bunch of rebellions pop up - easily handled but annoying. It doesn't help that I had an event fire in which I could either take a -10 diplo hit with all factions and a +8 public order or take a -8 public order and +10 diplo bonus. Since I was/am in the process of trying to get some allies to go after Clan Mors I took the public order hit and have had to deal with that.

Clan Mors has done some pretty heavy confederation, they've joined with at least two other Skaven clans. Fortunately, they just went to war with Eataine, who are currently #1 in the game (I am at 3, not sure where Clan Mors is right now). As my public order hit has just finished, I'm finalizing a couple of my armies (I've got 5 now) by upgrading some of the units. Once that is done (1 or two turns at best) I'll ally with the other groups at war with Clan Mors and do some war target coordination while I start my campaign. Hopefully the multiple fronts they are finding themselves on will keep them from focusing on me while I begin laying siege.

Watch out for Queek, he's a sneaky bastage

Have you used the war coordination thing? You can assign targets to your allies at war with the same faction. They don't always respond, but it's a good way to get your allies hitting the targets you want them to.

I'm sure - but he's been busy too. He's at war with practically all the top 10 factions. So naturally I'm going to take advantage of that! Of course that doesn't mean he's actively engaged with any of them I guess.

So far I've only been able to ally with one other faction who is at war with them. Apparently the enemy of my enemy is NOT necessarily my friend. I tried the war coordination thing a couple of times before with mixed results. I'll do it again just on the off chance it actually works.

If the faction you are trying to coordinate is strong with multiple armies they seem to respond most of the time. Smaller factions tend to ignore the request.

That would explain it.
So far the war goes well. Clan Mors is not making much of an attempt to defend their cities on this continent, so I figure their main territory is elsewhere. I've only had a single invading army show up, and most of the city battles are so one-sided I just auto-resolve.

The one army they sent did some damage though, they took out 2 of my lords and armies - those little buggers pack quite a punch. Both times my armies were ambushed while in March stance. They didn't stand much of a chance. I've built myself up to 7 full stacks, so this was more of an annoyance than a setback. All are back up and running now.

I've got a handful of cities to clear on this continent, and one more book available here as well. That will put me at 4 books. I'll bling out a few of my armies while travelling to get book five and then have the boss battle. Looks like I may see the end of this campaign after all.

Unless I get sidetracked by Troy...

Ah you're so close to victory! Don't get sidetracked too much until you've won. I want to see what you think of the final battle. Just one more book and then victory is within your grasp

The last battle is going to be ridiculous, isn’t it.

Yep.

Or, I thought it was. It was all going well, and then they got reinforcements and it became chaos. It's the one where I said at the end I had a single Titan left standing.

Skill cranking along agains Clan Mors. Man, that ambush ability Skaven has is deadly. I've lost multiple armies to him in a turn a few times. I've almost evicted him from the continent, there's only a few settlements left.
I'd love to just peace out from here and move on, but they aren't having it.

Skaven misbehavin'!

Yeah, that ambush ability is one of my favorite things about Skaven. When playing AS them anyway. Starting a battle with the enemy all bunched up for the march is perfect when you have such awesome artillery. Does Queek have your last book? Just one more to go right?