Super late on the draw so you probably got it, but in case anyone else sees it, Win the first fight manually with Eltharion to get the capture, then attack the army and autoresolve to finish it off. Replace Eltharion with another lord then disband his army completely. Put a garrison building at the port and just resign yourself to the fact that it is wholly impractical to try and hold it early game. Yes I know people have done it, and do it on legendary. SFO is tougher, and you'd be putting a lot of work for little gain. The garrison might hold for a good while and you can get some captures until they double stack it or doom stack it. Dismissing Eltharion's army is good for around 2k income per turn which is great in the early game.

On the yvresse side, have the loremaster meet your army there, manually fight the battle, get a capture (make sure you've killed the previous guy), and hold that prisoner so you can execute him next turn (executions in the same turn don't stack). Eltharion can still get experience while he's dismissed. Don't chase this army, instead recruit at the edge as it will likely end up on the little island.

Smash it next turn and try and recruit with that army every turn thereafter without using global and that should at least get you the next yvresse province and with a couple of defenses against greenskins(going into ambush stance on the way if you don't have to recruit case they try going for your new province) put you in a good position against the last province. By this point Eltharion should be back and you can either replace him into your Yvresse army or get him is own, and either 1 1/2 stack the last yvresse province or just the one stack if you fight it on the field.

After that it's a little bit personal choice. I personally like to set up ambushes against Tyrion till lothern is empty and double stack it. Otherwise he tends to take all of Ulthuan if left unchecked. You could also go north of Yvresse for the smaller high elf factions and hope you win Tyrion over with diplomacy.

TL:DR, Disband Eltharion and abandon the badlands, You'll never defend those massive provinces early without struggling.

Oprindeligt skrevet af SirH:

Super late on the draw so you probably got it, but in case anyone else sees it, Win the first fight manually with Eltharion to get the capture, then attack the army and autoresolve to finish it off. Replace Eltharion with another lord then disband his army completely. Put a garrison building at the port and just resign yourself to the fact that it is wholly impractical to try and hold it early game. Yes I know people have done it, and do it on legendary. SFO is tougher, and you'd be putting a lot of work for little gain. The garrison might hold for a good while and you can get some captures until they double stack it or doom stack it. Dismissing Eltharion's army is good for around 2k income per turn which is great in the early game.

On the yvresse side, have the loremaster meet your army there, manually fight the battle, get a capture (make sure you've killed the previous guy), and hold that prisoner so you can execute him next turn (executions in the same turn don't stack). Eltharion can still get experience while he's dismissed. Don't chase this army, instead recruit at the edge as it will likely end up on the little island.

Smash it next turn and try and recruit with that army every turn thereafter without using global and that should at least get you the next yvresse province and with a couple of defenses against greenskins(going into ambush stance on the way if you don't have to recruit case they try going for your new province) put you in a good position against the last province. By this point Eltharion should be back and you can either replace him into your Yvresse army or get him is own, and either 1 1/2 stack the last yvresse province or just the one stack if you fight it on the field.

After that it's a little bit personal choice. I personally like to set up ambushes against Tyrion till lothern is empty and double stack it. Otherwise he tends to take all of Ulthuan if left unchecked. You could also go north of Yvresse for the smaller high elf factions and hope you win Tyrion over with diplomacy.

TL:DR, Disband Eltharion and abandon the badlands, You'll never defend those massive provinces early without struggling.

10/10 Cheers for taking the time to answer, Did manage to salvage the badlands and keep Eltharion going did turn down the difficulty tho'..