NOTE: Giving “diplomatic contact” allows the AI to see each other (or you if you play as that faction), allow for war declarations or other diplomacy related actions. Without this contact, the AI cannot do anything and that is why I add it to many factions.

~~~~Chaos~~~~

Near total overhaul of Chaos. Only Valkia is untouched. Problem with Chaos was being too cramped in the north, empty in the south, and weird positions for Skarbrand and Kugath that left the northern wastes without much demonic presence. Warriors of Chaos have the best early game mechanics in all of Warhammer 3 (OP Recruitment mechanics), so it was also important to get WoC away from factions with weak early games. Azazel's start position was too strong for Kislev, for example. AI Kislev almost always gets deleted in vanilla.

Finally, the southern wastes have 4 Dark fortresses but zero Warriors of Chaos to actually try and claim any of them. The only exception is if the player goes Be'lakor and teleports down there. Overall the southern wastes were completely pointless and devoid of content.

-- Moved Azazel out of Empire, and moved him to where Vilitch starts. He starts at war with a minor Norscan faction and the Imperial Wardens (the bastion), and a negative relationship with Skarbrand, to put it mildly.

-- Moved Skarbrand out of the Southlands (anti-lore, terrible gameplay that results in Ordertide) up above the Bastion to have a tenuous alliance with Azazel to bring down the Bastion. They hate each other, but they hate the wall more. Will they be able to cooperate?

**Both Vilitch and Azazel have near blank lores and thus as long as they start in the chaos wastes they can be put anywhere. Cathay needed some kind of threat from Slaanesh corruption, as humans and elves already have such threats, and Vilitch's teleport was either too strong because it could bypass the Bastion, or it's worthless and cannot be used at all because CA prevented teleporting over the Bastion. Makes no sense to even have a Tzeentch LL behind the bastion.**

– Vilitch starts in the Southern Wastes in the same position as Kairos. Given diplomatic contact with Teclis, starts at war with minor Nurgle faction, and a highly negative relationship with Kugath.
– Kairos is moved up north above the Palace of Princes, which houses an important Tzeentch landmark. Starts at war with minor Khorne faction, given diplomatic contact with Teclis and Gelt.
– Kugath moved to Ockham's Mindrazor in the Daemonium Hills. Starts at war with minor Slaanesh faction (just like Kugath trailer) and given diplo contact with Teclis. The minor Slaanesh faction is also given diplo contact with Teclis in case Kugath is killed by Vilitch and allies with them.

**Now Chaos wastes get more demonic presense in the north, and a WoC to use dark fortresses in the south. I moved Kugath from the Dragon Isles down to the Daemonium Hills to give demonic presence there, as well as provide Kugath a powerful defensive position to spread plagues all over the world.

The problem with having Kairos next to Teclis was that Teclis would almost always win, if they bothered to even discover each other. Half of the time Kairos would just battle Oxytl forever and never leave the south, and even if he beat him he still would just sit in the south. Conversely, Vilitch has a powerful early game that can beat Teclis, but a high cost to his army. So it is balanced. Kugath may or may not survive, but if so he will declare war on Teclis and can actually make an alliance with Malus to the north.

Kairos, like all Tzeentchen factions, are powerful late game factions, but weak early game factions. By swapping positions between Kairos and Vilitch, the early game imbalance between Teclis and Kairos is addressed, while allowing Kairos the space and time to grow into a powerful late game threat in the North next to the Tzeentch landmark at the Palace of Princes. And since Kairos has diplomatic contact of The Golden Order, he can actually use the changer of ways to cause a civil war inside of the Empire and really slow down Ordertide if there is a risk of it.

It's a good setup because the outcome cannot be predicted.**

– Sigvald starts in northeast Norsca by Varg tribes, and starts at war with Bretonnia.

**This frees up some space in the northern wastes, and adds presence to the Norscan territories. I also noticed that Sigvald was one of the dumber lords out there who just wandered around for 10-20 turns doing nothing in the Northern Sea of Chaos until someone bumped into him. So, I gave him something to do, by starting him at war with Bretonnia. Far away enough that early game Bretonnia has a chance to prepare, but also far away enough that Sigvald may get pre-occupied by other forces along the way, such as a war declaration from Wulfrik or B'lakor.**

– Kholek starts at war with both Thorgrim and a small nurgle faction north of his positon.

**Had to do this because Kholek has the most broken AI in the game, and generally will sit on the challenge stone for 50+ turns otherwise. Even if you put his AI at war with someone, it's rare he'll even move to attack. Something is wrong with Kholek's AI and the only thing I found to actually make him move and fight stuff was to start him at war with two factions, one near and one far. Even then he still sits around for 10 turns doing nothing.

Of course, if the player starts as Grimgor, as soon as Kholek sees you he will declare war, such as the anti-player bias, but if he starts at war with two other factions he will hesitate before declaring war on Grimgor. This helps balance things out since Kholek has a far superior early game to Grimgor.**

– Archaon is giving diplomatic contact with Karl Franz.

** This helps prevent Archaon from staying in the Chaos wastes past turn 50. Once he is ready, he will invade the lands of men. Makes the game far more interesting and prevents Ordertide inside the Empire, which is needed since Living World takes out Drycha and Azazel from inside the Empire. But now the threat comes from the wastes, just like it does in lore.**

~~~~ Daniel ~~~~

- Daniel starts at Malus's vanilla position, and starts at war with a powerful minor WoC faction Khazag and his vassal.

**With the area north of the Great Bastion now full, this meant the minor WoC faction who normally is at war with Vilitch, has no more purpose. He is also an interesting minor faction because it's a WoC faction, which has a very strong early game compared to other factions. Thus, Living World starts Daniel at war with Khazag so that Daniel will have a lengthy early game (10+) against a decent opponent that is tough to take down, which really helps level Daniel up. Daniel can easily leave the early game at Lv. 7 or above, which is extremely helpful for his survival going forward.**

~~~~ Empire ~~~~

- Karl Franz now starts with a broken province, just as if he were player selected. This is because Karl does very well, he doesn't need a full province or it just makes him too powerful.


Feel free to tell me your thoughts on these changes below!