Is it even possible to defend the empire?

[Flazz]

I've been a fan of the roman aesthetic my whole life. So I was really looking forward to playing the empire in pendor.

But... it really sucks. I've played 3 damn games now and every time I just restart because they get their ass beat.

And it isn't even the AI's fault. It's the fact that our homeland is infested with insanely strong armies that nobody can kill. I can't even travel between the three cities without having to evade an 800+ death stack.

The worst part is that, even when i've managed to kill one of the serpent armies with the marshal, it doesn't matter. Because another army spawns a week afterwards. And the shrines are damn near impossible to beat, and even if you do, they immediately spawn back, so the endless tide of serpent men pillaging everything continues.

Also, the noldor are REALLY damn close. I've literally been attacked and captured by noldor right next to the capital ethos. They wander right into our territory like they own it all.

The dshar and sarleon take advantage of this and take all our castles because we were too busy dealing with the thousands of bandits everywhere.

Seriously, this is awful. This faction is even worse than swadia, because at least swadia only had looters to deal with.

 

[sher]

You can kite snake armies to disrupt enemy invasions. In time snakes will not be so numerous anyway. Empire and Pendor are the strongest cultures if you're in command so there should be some obstacle to not let Empire to trample all. They're really hard to stop when they're on the roll - often caused me problems since most of the time I join them.

 

[Kushana]

The Baccus Empire doesn't exactly play like Imperial Rome of 1st century AD (which is the image most commonly ingrained in pop culture). Rather it's more like late medieval Italy, i.e. what the Western Roman Empire could have actually been like if it survived into the Middle Ages as opposed to a warring cluster**** of city states.

That still doesn't stop them from having in my opinion, the most broken roster in the entire game. They have the best KO's, the best lord armies composition in field battles and a common line of troops that can counter even top tier KO stat line units (e.g. gladiators, pikemen and armored crossbowmen)

They literally have no weaknesses if played right, unlike other factions which feel missing out in some category. Best of all, the cheap easily trainable crossbowmen/heavy infantry combo make paramount garrison troops in terms of cost effectiveness, which is something very important in late game.

If you're finding Noldor battles to be too much of a challenge (and they're intended to be that way) you can easily befriend them early on by following their small squads around with a minimal party and joining each scrap they partake in with other random mobs. Alternatively, as lord of a fief, you can release their prisoners that are periodically placed in the prisons of the castles or cities that you own, which is even faster.

Large snake armies are actually a boon, since they yield large amount of xp for you and your party as well as much needed gold, prisoners and loot. As marshal you can gather your faction lords together and have them chase down those pesky snake hordes whenever they show up. Once the initial wave of Serpent Priestesses and Anaconda Knights (which Empire KO's have no trouble dispatching) is dealt with, the rest of their 500-700 or so army is a pushover. If you're lucky you might even get a qualis gem drop from Maltise.

 

[MetalCh3]

The Baccus Empire doesn't exactly play like Imperial Rome of 1st century AD (which is the image most commonly ingrained in pop culture). Rather it's more like late medieval Italy, i.e. what the Western Roman Empire could have actually been like if it survived into the Middle Ages as opposed to a warring cluster**** of city states.

That still doesn't stop them from having in my opinion, the most broken roster in the entire game. They have the best KO's, the best lord armies composition in field battles and a common line of troops that can counter even top tier KO stat line units (e.g. gladiators, pikemen and armored crossbowmen)

They literally have no weaknesses if played right, unlike other factions which feel missing out in some category. Best of all, the cheap easily trainable crossbowmen/heavy infantry combo make paramount garrison troops in terms of cost effectiveness, which is something very important in late game.

If you're finding Noldor battles to be too much of a challenge (and they're intended to be that way) you can easily befriend them early on by following their small squads around with a minimal party and joining each scrap they partake in with other random mobs. Alternatively, as lord of a fief, you can release their prisoners that are periodically placed in the prisons of the castles or cities that you own, which is even faster.

Large snake armies are actually a boon, since they yield large amount of xp for you and your party as well as much needed gold, prisoners and loot. As marshal you can gather your faction lords together and have them chase down those pesky snake hordes whenever they show up. Once the initial wave of Serpent Priestesses and Anaconda Knights (which Empire KO's have no trouble dispatching) is dealt with, the rest of their 500-700 or so army is a pushover. If you're lucky you might even get a qualis gem drop from Maltise.

In my games D'shar and Fierds always seem to trample all other factions when I don't tip the balance. Sarleon is the first dead followed by the Empire and in the end it is a standoff between Fierdsvain and the D'shar. However I remember people saying being a vassal of the fierdsvain is the best because they recruit more troops but they are of lesser quality. So when you break up from them your opponents are mostly weak against cavalry (As Fierdsvain recruits are) and they claim a lot of land that you can conquer easily through sieges.

I've never actually joined the Empire though. Waiting for 3.9.4 before starting a new game.

 

[Huillam]

In my last playthrough the empire had conquered most of the D'shar and Sarleon and I had to take matter into my own hands.
Weakened factions usually don't get any better with time as landless lords don't take an active part in wars (they just stay in the capital) but which factions will be weakened is usually pretty random.