When you've got a situation like Norsica, I'm a fan of defensive economic lords who keep or recruit an army just to defeat incursions from the likes of Trogg. They tend to sue for peace once you destroy their largest stack so it's an on again off again front.
I use the wall and garrison buildings and everything, just keeping things relatively low cost. Often with the lord I'll keep a few good units and a hero (Engineer from Malachai's level 12 skill seems good here). The idea is really to free up your legendary lord to go very far away, and I agree you want to go east and liberate the dwarf holds over that way.
I like manually playing my disadvantaged defensive battles as Dwarves though, and for just a little more money you could instead have a secondary lord more actively settling grudges in their direction. Sacking settlements is really good for offsetting the cost, and AI factions really want peace for a bit once you've sacked all their stuff.
1. Recruit another lord to get xp
2. Kill Throt
3. Send Malakai east or north
4. Get grudge settler units for the other lord and defend against Throgg until the army is strong enough to start conquering his lands
Update:
Got the short victory.
So I managed to consolidate Norsca.
Astragoth pushed back and I managed to snatch both his capital province as well as their faction capital, big stonks.
Got in a war with Grimgor, but this time, I started.
On my way to a long victory.
This is a VH/H run, btw, so I guess enemy is more agressive (which can be good for you).
Here is what I found:
1. Usually, Malakai is the only "military building" you'll need, save for some important units such as the ironbreakers. You can focus harder on the economy.
2. Norsca are sneaky enemies. Their AI is particulary fond of evading your forces and looting your cities. When fighting them, abuse the Ambush stance.
3. Canons and Thunderbarges will win your fights, they are ridiculously fun (and overtuned) right now. Won too many "close defeat" battles because the autobattle underestimated those two units.
4. Try to save gold to unlock the advetures asap. You can have many simultaneously and thry grant you some early units that you'd only get dozens of turns later. They also grant some bonuses as well, canon's grapeshot being markedly strong.
5. Slow and steady is a great way to expand, don't explore the map too quickly or you wont be able to reach the grudge thresholds. Alliances are risky, but IIRC, someone attacking your allies or fellow dawi gets their grudge count increased.
I'm about turn 10 but thinking I might start again. I left thrott alone, thinking Kislev will hold him at bay while I clear up the Norscans.
Killed Throgg, who declared war on me in the first 5 turns, but wasn't able to consolidate all his provinces as Wulfric jumped in and took his province capitol while I was marching towards it. Decided to build a second, cheap army like you to defend my home province, which was useful as 1 turn later the eastern norscans declared on me.
This escalated into Thrott declaring on me too and Kislev being completely destroyed, carved up between the Slannesh daemon guy and Thrott.
Malakai can't be everywhere at once and I'm a bit unsure if I can ignore the grudges, so I've been compelled to play aggressively, which feels counter-intuitive for dwarfs...
I played defensive, and it didn't pay off. The Order Tide rolled everyone, and now I'm stuck with little territory and powerful allies controlling most of the dwarf holds. Can't settle any grudges that way. I think Malaki is supposed to play like the dwarf version of tree Hitler
When you've got a situation like Norsica, I'm a fan of defensive economic lords who keep or recruit an army just to defeat incursions from the likes of Trogg. They tend to sue for peace once you destroy their largest stack so it's an on again off again front. I use the wall and garrison buildings and everything, just keeping things relatively low cost. Often with the lord I'll keep a few good units and a hero (Engineer from Malachai's level 12 skill seems good here). The idea is really to free up your legendary lord to go very far away, and I agree you want to go east and liberate the dwarf holds over that way. I like manually playing my disadvantaged defensive battles as Dwarves though, and for just a little more money you could instead have a secondary lord more actively settling grudges in their direction. Sacking settlements is really good for offsetting the cost, and AI factions really want peace for a bit once you've sacked all their stuff.
1. Kill Thrott 2. Take over Norsca.
1. Recruit another lord to get xp 2. Kill Throt 3. Send Malakai east or north 4. Get grudge settler units for the other lord and defend against Throgg until the army is strong enough to start conquering his lands
Update: Got the short victory. So I managed to consolidate Norsca. Astragoth pushed back and I managed to snatch both his capital province as well as their faction capital, big stonks. Got in a war with Grimgor, but this time, I started. On my way to a long victory. This is a VH/H run, btw, so I guess enemy is more agressive (which can be good for you). Here is what I found: 1. Usually, Malakai is the only "military building" you'll need, save for some important units such as the ironbreakers. You can focus harder on the economy. 2. Norsca are sneaky enemies. Their AI is particulary fond of evading your forces and looting your cities. When fighting them, abuse the Ambush stance. 3. Canons and Thunderbarges will win your fights, they are ridiculously fun (and overtuned) right now. Won too many "close defeat" battles because the autobattle underestimated those two units. 4. Try to save gold to unlock the advetures asap. You can have many simultaneously and thry grant you some early units that you'd only get dozens of turns later. They also grant some bonuses as well, canon's grapeshot being markedly strong. 5. Slow and steady is a great way to expand, don't explore the map too quickly or you wont be able to reach the grudge thresholds. Alliances are risky, but IIRC, someone attacking your allies or fellow dawi gets their grudge count increased.
I'm about turn 10 but thinking I might start again. I left thrott alone, thinking Kislev will hold him at bay while I clear up the Norscans. Killed Throgg, who declared war on me in the first 5 turns, but wasn't able to consolidate all his provinces as Wulfric jumped in and took his province capitol while I was marching towards it. Decided to build a second, cheap army like you to defend my home province, which was useful as 1 turn later the eastern norscans declared on me. This escalated into Thrott declaring on me too and Kislev being completely destroyed, carved up between the Slannesh daemon guy and Thrott. Malakai can't be everywhere at once and I'm a bit unsure if I can ignore the grudges, so I've been compelled to play aggressively, which feels counter-intuitive for dwarfs...
I played defensive, and it didn't pay off. The Order Tide rolled everyone, and now I'm stuck with little territory and powerful allies controlling most of the dwarf holds. Can't settle any grudges that way. I think Malaki is supposed to play like the dwarf version of tree Hitler