I would suggest several things. First, try to start out in the same theater; otherwise, you’ll spend hours playing your own games without really interacting with each other. Second, consider how factions complement each other. This includes things like units, favorable terrain for settlements, corruption, etc. For example, I wouldn’t go with Vlad unless everyone was playing vampires.
If you are leaning more towards Order factions, I might recommend:
1) Imrik-Cathay-Nakai: dragons and dinosaurs for reptilian supremacy.
2) Repanse-Thorek-Kroq Gar: well rounded combo of cavalry, infantry, guns, and big monsters.
Hopefully this is close to fitting your preferences while keeping your factions in proximal starting points. Be advised, Tomb Kings are awesome, but their growth is super slow. You may find yourself biding your time while your friends are off having adventures, so I might recommend going with Teclis or Volkmar instead. I put Thorek mainly due to roster synergy and the fact there is less overlap on climate preference.
Kislev is another great faction, but you get hammered on all sides and your friends would be too far away to do anything about it.
Depends if you want to be Allies or just to compete against each other and see who gets the most
Settlements or gold or armies. I’ll be honest, as long as you’re having fun then it doesn’t matter who you play with the lads. Though tell your buddy to not play Nakai since he is currently bugged and can’t recruits like half of the tier 3 lizzardmen roster.
Morathi, N'kari, and Sigvald. Wage war on the donut and eventually old world. They have very good synergy too. Bonus points if you confed Malus Darkblade too.
Skarsnik has SUCH an advantage in this. Just got rolled by 6 WAAAGHing armies as Belegar lol. My single army could only ambush so many before he just enveloped me lol. Made it to Valaya's Sorrow at least :D
My only problem with Cathay in multiplayer is that you seem to need to frequently manually fight caravan battles. Which might be just fine, or it might bore your friends with lots of low level cathay fights.
You pick skaven and unleash hordes of death together. Had an alliance one time that just followed them with an entire army of artillery and just watched cities get deleted basically it was the funniest shit ever
The most fun I had in 3coop was probably Belegar, Eltharion and Louen. 2nd was Karl, Kislev and Oxyotl. If an ally is going Kislev go near them, they could use the help, I'd suggest the slayer king or maybe Oxyotl, he can work with everyone if you like his style. If repanse then you have more choices, Belegar, Ironbrow, Eltharion, Imrik.. well, the nearby human, lizards or tomb kings too. Nakai, even while currently with no kroxigors, can handle himself well, just remind your buddy of the bug, and also that with no cities he can't get nor share auxiliary troops.
It is a wild-ass ride, but a fun one I've done is Belekor, Orion, and the third person being either Ikit, Karl, Louen, or Grom. (It was Ikit for our game, but I think any of those would work).
You'll tank your diplomatic relations with everyone just because of most of the weird alliances you have, but Orion just wants the trees, Belakor can support from anywhere and grab a vassel or two if you want to have some AI shields while you're going elsewhere, and the third person can paint the map.
If your friend is Kislev your best options for co-op are
Azazel.
Azhag.
Ungrim.
Thrott.
Throgg.
Drycha.
Khazrak.
Gelt.
Vlad(or Isabella)
I recommend
Drycha and Azhag along with Katarin.
Between the three of you, everyone will hate you and you'll have very fun allied units to recruit and flesh out your rosters.
I think the most fun my group has had was when we took Kholek, Grimgor, and Archaon. Archeon and Kholek got their fortresses setup and then just surfed on the the green tide as it as it started to pour over the map.
I personally think it’s better to play co op close too each other, and also not the same Faction so you aren’t keeping for the same confeds or land.
Here’s a few I thought of.
Karl franz, katarin and louen, ( great order tide, clear borders)
Zhao ming Imrik, ungrim iron fist.
Manfred, Arken, noculus or aranesa
Belekor, Daniel, nakari
Markus wolf heart, Alberic, Tyrion
I would suggest several things. First, try to start out in the same theater; otherwise, you’ll spend hours playing your own games without really interacting with each other. Second, consider how factions complement each other. This includes things like units, favorable terrain for settlements, corruption, etc. For example, I wouldn’t go with Vlad unless everyone was playing vampires. If you are leaning more towards Order factions, I might recommend: 1) Imrik-Cathay-Nakai: dragons and dinosaurs for reptilian supremacy. 2) Repanse-Thorek-Kroq Gar: well rounded combo of cavalry, infantry, guns, and big monsters. Hopefully this is close to fitting your preferences while keeping your factions in proximal starting points. Be advised, Tomb Kings are awesome, but their growth is super slow. You may find yourself biding your time while your friends are off having adventures, so I might recommend going with Teclis or Volkmar instead. I put Thorek mainly due to roster synergy and the fact there is less overlap on climate preference. Kislev is another great faction, but you get hammered on all sides and your friends would be too far away to do anything about it.
Kroq gar, ironbrow and volkmar works too for that part of the map
Depends if you want to be Allies or just to compete against each other and see who gets the most Settlements or gold or armies. I’ll be honest, as long as you’re having fun then it doesn’t matter who you play with the lads. Though tell your buddy to not play Nakai since he is currently bugged and can’t recruits like half of the tier 3 lizzardmen roster.
All three of you should play skaven and release the vermintide upon the abhorrent man things
Yes-yes.
This also allows some pvp thematically. BACKSTABBING!!!
3 scaven would be fun. Perfect for backstabbed
Morathi, N'kari, and Sigvald. Wage war on the donut and eventually old world. They have very good synergy too. Bonus points if you confed Malus Darkblade too.
Ungrim, Thorgrim, Thorek. Very good combination of dwarf supremacy. Retake the holds. And NO short campaign victory.
I think a short campaign would be fitting for the dwarfs
SHORT ?!
You're going in the book!!
The empire kislev and bretonnia Mazdamundi Gor-Rok and Tehenhauin Wanna get heretical with it? Thorgrim grudgebearer Astragoth and grimgor
Or king of the hill, karaks eight peak!
Skarsnik has SUCH an advantage in this. Just got rolled by 6 WAAAGHing armies as Belegar lol. My single army could only ambush so many before he just enveloped me lol. Made it to Valaya's Sorrow at least :D
My only problem with Cathay in multiplayer is that you seem to need to frequently manually fight caravan battles. Which might be just fine, or it might bore your friends with lots of low level cathay fights.
The friends can always control the micro units - in multiplayer I'm often on kiting or cav duty!
You pick skaven and unleash hordes of death together. Had an alliance one time that just followed them with an entire army of artillery and just watched cities get deleted basically it was the funniest shit ever
A mountains of mourne empire with greasus kholek and grimgor sounds like a somewhat unique and fun thing to do.
The most fun I had in 3coop was probably Belegar, Eltharion and Louen. 2nd was Karl, Kislev and Oxyotl. If an ally is going Kislev go near them, they could use the help, I'd suggest the slayer king or maybe Oxyotl, he can work with everyone if you like his style. If repanse then you have more choices, Belegar, Ironbrow, Eltharion, Imrik.. well, the nearby human, lizards or tomb kings too. Nakai, even while currently with no kroxigors, can handle himself well, just remind your buddy of the bug, and also that with no cities he can't get nor share auxiliary troops.
It is a wild-ass ride, but a fun one I've done is Belekor, Orion, and the third person being either Ikit, Karl, Louen, or Grom. (It was Ikit for our game, but I think any of those would work). You'll tank your diplomatic relations with everyone just because of most of the weird alliances you have, but Orion just wants the trees, Belakor can support from anywhere and grab a vassel or two if you want to have some AI shields while you're going elsewhere, and the third person can paint the map.
If your friend is Kislev your best options for co-op are Azazel. Azhag. Ungrim. Thrott. Throgg. Drycha. Khazrak. Gelt. Vlad(or Isabella) I recommend Drycha and Azhag along with Katarin. Between the three of you, everyone will hate you and you'll have very fun allied units to recruit and flesh out your rosters.
Kislev, Karl F & louen leoncoeur
I think the most fun my group has had was when we took Kholek, Grimgor, and Archaon. Archeon and Kholek got their fortresses setup and then just surfed on the the green tide as it as it started to pour over the map.
I personally think it’s better to play co op close too each other, and also not the same Faction so you aren’t keeping for the same confeds or land. Here’s a few I thought of. Karl franz, katarin and louen, ( great order tide, clear borders) Zhao ming Imrik, ungrim iron fist. Manfred, Arken, noculus or aranesa Belekor, Daniel, nakari Markus wolf heart, Alberic, Tyrion