Lords of game 3 Alarielle (Patreon)

Aaand done!

So, again Warhammer, Total War, but this time High elves of Alarielle, the Everqueen.

Before all, a bit of Lore!

 High Elves are  one of the most ancient race in the Warhammer world. They live so long they're seen as immortal  by the other races (even if they indeed age over millenia). Are highly proefficient at magic, and if they're now at the dawn of their empire, still one of the strongest  army and fleet in the world.
And they're also MASSIVE DOUCHBAG! Centuries of fighting the force of Chaos made them sure that no one else could take the mantle, even if the Lizardmen did more than their share in this mission. They see Humans as disgusting savages, even if their tech is way more efficient than their own in several domains. They're sufficient, pridefull, Scornfull, Racist and Megalomaniac. If it wasn't for the current Phoenix King, they would have stay hidden in their island, till the forces of Chaos  come to kick their butt once they would have end the world.
The guy was an explorer, he retook contact with Wood elves, discovered the great empire of men, and launched several expedition and fleet that went everywhere, from the depht of Lustria to the foreigns lands of Cathay and Nippon. He is sometimes nicknames the Ghost king, cause if he is a strong and benevolent king, and a great diplomat, he isn't a man of war, and therefor, never seen in a battlefield.

Alarielle is the Everqueen. She represent the purity of Ulthuan and the shield that protect them from Chaos. Despite the past queen being nothing more than beautifull creature that stay in their palace, Alarielle took her responsability seriously. She raised armies and went to battle, to restore the purity of Ulthuan, and kick the ass of any opponent that could oppose her reign.

The Campaign:

The campaign got a funny special mecanic. The shield of Ulthuan. To resume, High Elves are douchebags, and when something goes wrong, as any douchebags, instead of taking care of the problem, they prefer to point someone else to took the responsability. So if there's someone that isn't High Elves, that own a land in the continent of Ulthuan, all the elves will look down at you. You got then malus in diplomacy to other Elves factions, and a malus in your local authority, risking revolt and riots in the street.

That said, your first mission is to kick everyone that isn't blond, with blue eyes, and mandatory 15cm long ears, out of Ulthuan.. Sound bad enough for you? Told you they're assholes!
Your first ennemy, is the Cult of Khaine, quickly wiped out with the use of the sisters of Avelorn! Imagine a sexy elf girl. Now imagine she is ok melee fighter, and one of the best archer in the game. Now imagine she got a magic bow that fire arrows of magic fire, that hit like a truck, and they can fire 1 every 5 seconds. now you put 60 of them in a unit, and you got your sisters. With Alarielle, they cost as much as the regular archers, so i packed 7 in my army, a bit of lancer with shield for front line, some other stuff like Dryads and Ents (as the Everqueen she can get some for her). Two heroes (one archer girl one big sword guy) to finish, and this army Rolled over the whole world!

Once Those druchy were done, i man,age to confederate one of my southern neighboors,  who was under attack of Morathi, queen of the dark elves. Kicked her butt, and was going to bring war to her when.. another Ulthuan elve nation attacked me in the back. Why? Because some dudes in the south let himself invaded, and that made my diplomacy with elves melt, that and the confederation malus to diplomacy... So instead of kicking bad elves, was supposed to take my army back and defend against the dudes. Worst, once i had retook all the cities he had captured, i couldn't get his, cause someone had confederate him at this point, and a strong ally with that.
And at that moment, the others elves, seeing Morathi had no more army, had invade her territory. At this point Lothern (major High Elf faction in lore) steamroll, and i couldn't become stronger than him before the 2/3 of the campaign, making disapear all my possibilities to confederate Ulthuan for good.

For the turn following, i attacked skavens, and Norscan raiders to make money and cheap land, and once strong enough i attacked Naggarond the siege of Dark elves power. Weakened by other elves factions i could easily took over a large part of their land, and at that point Chaos forces started to spawn in the world.

Darkelves being history, my south border being held by a strong alliance with lizardmen, and anything west and north being allied, i noticed that to win, i needed only to hold 12 of the 24 biggest cities in the world, by myself, or alliance buddies. And to erase Norsca of the earth.
And i get the best item in the world, something that reduce by 10% your army move, but make your army immune to any usure... i gave it to my painTrain Alarielle, and went WooWoo on the north. I Also noticed that the Empire of men had like... kicked everyone's butt,and owned by himself  6 of the 12 needed cities. just need to ally Karl Franz, the Emperor... =D

And that, is the moment that almost made me loose my temper.

I used all the sheme possible by high elves plot systemto better our relation, attacked all his ennemies, and sent my maiden suck half the human dicks in Altdorf, Nothing to do, he was friendly, willing to trade and  make non aggression pact, but no alliance.
He was at +354 love point (as reference, most empire propose you alliance around 100), was allied to all my allies, and i proposed him 100k gold, and he still refused.

Was very trustfull, as i never broke any pact in the whole game, but he didn't wanted it. I'm quite sure it's a thing like "i don't want Gurls in my alliance buddies" or something like that, PHALLOCRAT!

In the end, it was 120k gold, me alliancing the dwarves and Bratonia, and certainly Allariele giving him a head personaly that made him agree for a DEFENSIVE Alliance. Not enough but something at last.
Took 15 more turn and 75k gold more to upgrade it to full alliance. At this point i had razed 90% of Norsca by Allariele herself, and destroyed like 20 armies of chaos, lost in the ocean, when Archaon popped in. Was glad, Alarielle was close, i would be able to.. Chaos destroyed....
The empire had 10 armies in the north, as they were finishing to exterminate the remnant of the Vampire count, that had invade Kislev. When Archaon popped in, they just ALL went directly into the chaos land and engage the poor 4 noob chaos armies.
Archaon wasn't killed, he was wipped out of existence.
And that's what closed my campaign, and why on the screen you see a valiant army of the Empire with one of mine trying to reach the chaos in the back. X)

my advice:

High elves aint my fav faction. They re fun, but their whole point is to be strong in diplomacy and trade, but diplomacy isn't really interesting in TotalWar Warhammer. it's just, ally that, or be at war at this.  it lack the complexity of other games in the franchise. it's kinda logic tough, as most races would use diplomacy quite differently, would mean integrate way of diplomacy for each race, and how it could work between different races, etc etc
But the point is, they're strong in a thing that isn't that good to use in the game.
Exept of that most of their trengh is the long distance unit. Precise and deadly archers, with a line to hold the ennemy the time your arrow destrooy them. You can find tactics to make it aggressive, but it's mostly a defensive faction, and not really my playstyle.

Alarielle herself is kinda cool, she can become quite poserfull in the end of the game, and can even win a few fight, with the correct ennemy (as she get strong bonus against chaos forces).
That's about it! The vote must spawn soon! 

Thanks for reading so far, if you still are!

and C ya soon!