The discussion did inspire me to fire up a new Malus campaign earlier this week on VH campaign / N battle / VH chaos (or legendary I don't remember what I toggled it to) / Battle Realism with self-imposed ironman. I think it's pretty clear that Malus is intended to be one of the tougher Dark Elf campaigns. Right now, I'm at turn 63. This is what the map looks like (my territory in dark red).
I started off by making a beeline to Snikitch to try to wipe him out as quickly as possible. I consolidated the Dragon Isles by turn 7. By turn 16, shortly after a heroic victory against three stacks of rats, I assaulted Flayed Rock and was defeated. I think I could have won if I had assaulted the walls and not one of the surrounding stacks. I was just overwhelmed by all the junk. It's pretty remarkable that in the four turns since I defeated all their armies (they had 0 balance of power) they were able to recruit so many rats.
Fortunately, I was able to bounce back pretty quickly by just recruiting a new army. I finally took Flayed Rock by turn 30, with minimal resistance from the rats. By that time, Imrik was starting to probe near Pigbarter, so I swung around and batted him back going back and forth putting down a rebellion in Flayed Rock. I really, really did not want Snikitch to come back. The early defeat was really fairly painless -- really more of an opportunity cost.
I think I should not have drank so many potions in the first 20 turns. I went roughly from turn 20-60 without drinking a single one. It was fine until I recruited a non-black ark lord. I also probably could have used the ritual that gives you an agent sooner, since a high level wizard probably would have enabled me to get rid of Clan Eshin within the initial turns. Instead, I used it for a Death Hag (for the replenishment) and recruited a normal fire wizard from the Black Ark. The high elves did not really put up that much of a resistance because it seemed like they were split in war with the dwarven minor faction to the north. I spent until around turn 54 just sacking Darkhold and Ash Ridge Mountains to keep the high elves off balance and to level up Malus, the sorceress, and the death hag. Actually finishing them off at this point would only put me into contact with more factions and draw me into wars that wouldn't benefit me that much. At around that time, I also recruited a second stack to take Malus' old army and made a new hydra/shade/scourgerunner army for Malus in the now mostly-upgraded black ark. I left a secondary black ark with the old army in the north. I will keep recruiting black arks on cooldown even if they just sit in the little sea to just accumulate upgrades. I'm anticipating using them later on in the campaign by disbanding and re-recruiting it in the ocean.
Malus just reached the Serpent Coast last turn. It looks like those jungle provinces are shared between the minor Teotiqua lizardman faction and a minor skaven faction that I'll be annihilating next turn. Once those are dead, I will just go north to take on Lahmia. Once those provinces, Nagashizzar, and Karak Zorn are all taken, that'll be nearly the requirement to get the free potions. My secondary army is just going to push the high elves onto their last city and sack them for level-ups while they guard that entrance to my regions. Grimgor is bouncing around to the west and north, and I think he's probably won the conflict with the dwarfs, and I'm not eager to get into an offensive war with him while I am cleaning up the south. Once my goals in the south are done, I'll be able to consolidate my armies somewhat, recruit a third stack, and firmly decide on which direction to go.
In terms of economy, I've been just filling up the slaves at Dragon Isles. I went through a dilemma after taking Gnoblar Country as to whether or not to build it up or not, because I wasn't sure if the high elves would be able to sneak in through the west or not. Dragon Isles wasn't eligible to get to Tier 4 until turn 51 or so, so that really put a damper on the economy. My plan is to finish upgrading dragon isles, dump slaves in Gnoblar Country (at least it has 4 settlements even if it is orange terrain), and to then make a decision later as to what the third slave province should be based on the situation. I'm guessing Karak Zorn because it has a gold mine and is all mountains, but I may change my mind.
My overall plan is to take this entire corner of the map to fulfill the mission from Malekith. After that, it should just be a big victory lap to fulfill the other Long Campaign objectives. I would like to go straight west to beeline for the other coast, and then just crumple the map inwards from the coast as I crawl slowly and opportunistically up the World's Edge mountains to the north.
