Can you guess what happened for the next 25 years?

I'm playing Esthil and keep constantly getting these "refugee fleeing war" events despite not being in a war, and not having any war exhaustion or overextension. Anyone know how to stop it, it keeps stealing my development.

Oi. Shut it an' listen, ya gits.

I'm Dûsh Strongblood, wot used to be Dûsh Dogeater, an' dis is da story of da greatest greentide since da last one.

Krumpin' da Clouded Eye

Da Clouded Eye clan out east was gettin' too big for dere boots, so I krumped 'em. One month into da game I hired a mob of merc rabble an' piled straight on. I'm a rubbish ruler, I'll give ya dat, but I'm a proppa general wiv six shock, which mostly means walkin' all over da Clouded Eye.

Da Clouded Eye is pals wiv da Heart Grinders down south, so da Heart Grinders piled in an' all. Krumped dem too.

Finishin' da first mission an' farmin' up enough prestige let me viciously mock three of da orc clans, which finished da mission to conquer da Clouded Eye an' insult other orcs before peacin' out. Dat opened up pillagin' da Heart Grinders an' showin' strength to da Clouded Eye.

How da first missions pay out

Two fings worth knowin'. First, it hands ya an event to annex da Clouded Eye, so ya can trigger da mission before ya peace out an' get da double whammy of showin' strength an' den annexin' 'em for free.

Da second mission gives 100 teef an' 50 monarch points in every category for pillagin', for humiliatin' an' for showin' strength. Dat's why I pillaged da Heart Grinders as a separate job before showin' strength.

So me first scrap come home wiv 200 teef, 200 monarch points, war reparations, an' whatever teef I shook out of da Heart Grinders.

Second scrap: Blade Breakers an' Bloodguts

Da Bloodguts are da ones ya get a mission to krump. Decent mission, dat. It gives ya an extra religious power or lets ya flip yer religion. I stuck wiv da old gods, 'cos dat extra religious power matters a lot later on.

Da war was easy again 'cos da region is mostly empty. Boyz stay in dere own territory, so ya can krump 'em one mob at a time. I sat on da capital an' let 'em recruit single stacks dat I wiped wiv me leader in charge, 'cos dat feeds him da event called The Rabid. Win 25 battles wiv him leadin' an' he upgrades to four military points. Still an arse of a ruler, but 0/0/4 beats 0/0/0.

Bloodgut was one of me rivals. I'd rivalled one of da grot lots an' all, so I declared on da goblins wiv show strength too. Altogether dat's 200 monarch points of each from da show strengths, plus another 150 from da mission rewards for beatin' up each orc clan.

Feudalism off da stunties

I could've teched up for some proppa dakka at dat point, but da Count's Adventuring Company was allied wiv da dwarf stunties in Marhold, an' I reckoned dat was an easy war even wiv worse tech.

It was. I took enough feudal land dat once it cored I could embrace feudalism. Took loans out for it, but it meant I went straight to mil tech 4.

Corintar, an' siegin' too early

Dis was da first real pain point of da campaign. Da war finishes da Corintar mission, which matters 'cos it gives ya an insult CB on every adventuring company, lets ya pillage dere capitals, an' hands over 50 monarch points of each an' 100 teef.

Trouble is, dese are all one province minors an' I sieged 'em too early. One of da requirements is beatin' 'em in battle nine times, an' I ended up waitin' ages for dat.

I left one province empty for 'em to recruit into, but den another orc declared on 'em, so I had to sit through dat git fully occupyin' an' peacin' out before I could take me turn killin' 'umie armies as dey spawned. Nine wins, den peace.

Why war exhaustion an' stability don't matter

As Dogeater, dey just don't. Every capital ya pillage strips off a pile of war exhaustion, an' if yer at -3 stability it bumps ya to -2 so ya can declare yer next scrap.

Rebels, reforms an' breakin' coalitions

Don't pile up too much aggressive expansion before ya got truces wiv most of everybody. I did run a no-CB war round den against da Blade Breakers an' da Heart Grinders 'cos I wanted three different rebel mobs sat in me lands at da same time, which one of da missions asks for.

Dat free rebels mission is one to rush. Every war ya win after it gives 20 government reform progress, an' dat's where most of yer reforms come from. Earlier ya get it, faster ya climb.

Wiv da insult CB on pretty much everyone, I had to wait out a small coalition. I'd underestimated da aggressive expansion a bit dere, but only a few of 'em joined, so no big deal. Da kunnin' bit for breakin' a coalition is to declare on dere allies wot aren't in it. Peace out dat other war separately an' it drops 'em from da coalition.

Da truce breakin' phase

Dat left me wiv a separate truce against nearly every tag in da region, apart from a couple I didn't fancy fightin'. Den da proppa stompin' started. I had six or so adventuring companies fully occupied an' held at 100% till I was ready to break again. Like I said, every capital ya pillage is 50 monarch points, 100 teef, war exhaustion gone, an' a free stability if yer at -3.

I had me eye on some land settled by da Sword Company an' one other, so I went in an' took as much as I could, which is harder dan it sounds 'cos one of yer government reforms puts up province warscore cost. Den I pillaged one of da adventuring companies for da free stability, which let me truce break again. Did dat about five times.

Den I went south an' did da same fing till da empire was more or less da size ya see in da screenshot.

Farmin' rebels for points

All dis gives ya loads of rebels, which is good, 'cos da Rule of the Strong government reform gives 10 monarch points for every rebel stack dat spawns. Loads of rebels is loads of points.

I'm ten years ahead in mil tech an' I've nearly filled out Quantity, mostly off razin' provinces an’ killin’ rebels.

Coring ain't much of a problem.

Da power projection headache

Power projection was sittin' at -50 when a later mission wants 90, an' dere was nobody left to rival 'cos I was too big. I took a quick dip into Exploration so I could burn off da fog of war an' get eyes on Gawed, wot da great power list said was right next door an' about me size.

Turned out I didn't need to. One of da adventuring companies had settled enough land dat, once me boyz was chewed up from fightin' rebels, it counted as small enough to rival. I declared, humiliated 'em, an' scraped power projection up to where it needed to be. Proper borderline, dat. Any slower an' I wouldn't have got da humiliation in time to hold 90.

Settin' off da rebels on purpose

One of da missions in da tree gives ya a religious power dat clears da recent uprising modifiers an' provokes rebels in any province wiv enough unrest. Wot ya see in da screenshot is da aftermath of dat.

Beatin' rebels gives admin points, an' da bigger da stack da bigger da bonus to yer armies, so ya can actually win. Manpower would be an issue, except sumfink in da mission tree gives ya manpower for killin' rebels, or for takin' da decision. I dunno where it comes from. I've just got boyz comin' out me ears.

Da Final WAAAGH, an' a spoiler

Once da map's cleaned up an' da rebels is dead, I'll trigger da final mission. By den I should be a couple of mil techs ahead of everyone wiv a completed idea group, just from krumpin' 20 or 30 stacks of rebels, which is another 300 monarch points of each. I'm waitin' on truces to expire an' all, since I got nobody left to pillage for free stability.

Here's da spoiler bit. Finishin' da mission gives ya a fixed cut to province warscore cost whatever da size of da coalition, den an extra bonus on top for each coalition member. In my opinion dem per-member bonuses ain't worth buildin' one big coalition war round.

Da important bit is dat da cut lasts a year an' works in any war yer fightin', coalition or not. It's still dragged down by da province warscore cost yer own government reforms saddle ya wiv, mind.

Da plan

Declare as many separate wars as I can, take 'em all to 100%, fight da coalition war alongside dat lot, an' finish da mission. Den I got a year of cheap provinces to peace out every one of dem wars separately an' haul in a stupid amount of land in one go.

Fight it da way it's meant to be fought an' da cut only ever lands on da single coalition war. I tested dat in da console, an' it weren't even enough to take all da provinces I needed out of da main war.

I might declare on Corvuria to da south an' Gawed to da west an' all, see if I can swallow da pair of 'em in one war. Dat should put me level wiv da Command on development. We'll see how it goes.

Wot comes after

Den it's a question of which formable. I'd form da Greentide, except its mission tree ain't finished, so I'm leanin' towards a tag wot has one. I ain't been able to dig out da details of dem trees beyond da vague direction dey go in. Dis is Ironman an' I never back up me saves, so I might load an autosave, back it up, an' mess about formin' each of 'em to read da trees before I decide.

If any of ye gits knows more about da other mission trees lemme know.

After dat I'm probably done wiv da run. I don't enjoy world conquests. Done exactly one, Three Mountains, Very Hard, just to prove I could. I might take a chill run down da peaceful formable instead an' build a post-monster orcish nation dat's moved on from da atrocities of da past. Still plenty of gits left to krump either way.

Finishing thoughts

All in all, a very fun nation to play. I think once you get familiarity with the mission tree and lean into the play style, it is quite busted.

Getting mana from rebels can get you 30 or so a month when you are reasonably big with overextension, and can give you more manpower than it takes. Money is the only real issue at that point, so you need to take loads from your wars.

If you for the province warscore cost it would be easy to conquer the whole region, but as is you have to do multiple truce breaks just to eat one moderately sized tag.

You get some pretty big boosts to your armies as well so i rarely lost any fights after a certain point.

PS- I think the final mission is a bit glitchy, I did the strategy above where I declared on everyone separately but left a few people free to form a coalition, and when I clicked on the mission, a coalition formed. The problem is that the coalition is supposed to instantly declare on you, and it didn't, and then before I really had much of a chance to think about what to do, everyone had left the coalition.

Now, even though the mission is ticked to say that the criteria have been met, it doesn't seem to actually want to complete. Even though I seiged down absolutely everyone, three hours of real time.

All feels like a bit of a shame. It would have been nice to see the final step of having my name painted all over east cannor, but without the mission, I can only take one or two provinces from each power.

I even tried a second round of wars, attacking a coalition that formed to the west, but there was a stupid new world trading company I couldn’t fully occupy.

Just finished Parusahan Saya, which was a really fun tree. Now on to Castanor. Which nation should I choose to form them?

Only caveat I have is no tags that are already on the list. So, not Elikhand or Wyvernheart or whichever other made the cut.