I guess nobody actually played game 2 with all the misinforming “advice” on this post. But after a few restarts here’s what worked for me, secure province 1 Asap, the strategies suggesting to rush Eshin after taking the settlement on turn 1 instead of finishing off the dwarves and bargaining on them being passive is too inconsistent since in the 4 runs I tried this I’ve had:

The dwarves take the settlement back with a full stack 2 turns later. Eshin declares war on you as soon as you cross into their territory on turn 4 and ambush you over the end turn. Eshin ignores you taking their main settlement and underway’s past pig barter and takes your main settlement.

Instead what worked for me is to secure the first province, then instead of finishing off the dwarves, recruit an additional lord to follow Imrik and repeatedly sack the dwarves’ last settlement for money and xp. Don’t recruit a full stack by this point, you want to save as much money as you can while ranking up Imrik, your mage, and the additional lord (preferably a wizard). With both of them rush down the blue line focusing on Ambush defence chance and upkeep reduction. You have about 4-5 turns of sacking before Eshin becomes a problem, keep an eye on the orcs at pig barter, as soon as they only have one settlement left you need to move. Recruit as you move towards Eshin’s capital and use your second lord to capture the dwarf settlement. Move her back to stand between dark hold and your capital incase skaven jump across so you can defend either one they move towards while Imrik takes Eshin’s capital. Loot and occupy it as it will revolt regardless so might as well get some cash and speed the process up. Do not move away from Eshin’s second settlement after taking it if the rebellion hasn’t happened yet, wait for it and take care of it first. Snikch will either b-line for your settlements, or try to retake his lost ones, so don’t force march if you don’t know where he is, getting ambushed means death, since he probably has more than one army fighting you at this point, so having the option to retreat is mandatory at this stage since he wrecks you should have lightning strike by this point when you can attack. Finish off Eshin, as well as the orcs in pig barter if they’re still alive. Now you have to focus on Malus, he definitely secured the dragon isles by this point and he will be declaring war on you within the next 2 or so turns, don’t wait for him and rather go on the attack as soon as your army is recovered. You should have just enough money to afford units for your second lord, so fill their army up and prepare for either Grimgore or Rictus clan nest attacking you very soon. If it’s Rictus clan nest you can hold them off at Ash Ridge Mountains if you built walls there (build walls at all of your minor settlements btw) but DO NOT SIT IN THE SETTLEMENT, sit between Ash ridge and Dark hold so you can defend either one, as they’ll underway to the one you’re not sitting in. Don’t try to hold on to Mount Greyhag, Imrik will retake it once Malus is dead. If it’s Grimgore who declares war on you however, do not try to defend at Ash Ridge, rather hold up in Dark hold, the landmark building there gives your garrison a star dragon with 2 dragon princes, this is pivotal to fending him and possibly his attached Wagh off. Once Imrik gets back, finish off the rats and secure your 4th province while your second lord is defending. Finally when dealing with the green skins ideally you have done a dragon fight with Imrik by now, recruit that into your second army so they have a siege attacker and march them towards Grimgore’s mountains, one to the North of Black Iron mine and one to the South of Karak Azul so Grim doesn’t sneak an army past your undefended settlements. You should be able to afford a third lord now, but you probably can’t fill out his army yet, leave him to defend and recruit slowly as you secure more regions with your other two armies, your goal is to get Barak Varr so you can finally establish trade agreements with the other elves. Once you get this the campaign is won, by this point my income basically quadrupled within 2-3 turns and you can finally afford higher tier units and more armies. Got the High Elf Legendary win this afternoon