Need Gondor Guide

[Bokuzen]

Hey, i have had some trouble starting gondor in the campaign. I just cant seem to grasp the start, Im more of a sit back and develop guy so im a slow invader.

tl;dr
what are your tips to starting off gondor?

[Fauli]

Well I'm not too experienced (only recently found out about TATW as well) but here's what I learned from some of the ludicrous mistakes in my first campaign (second one went much better):

- You MUST take Cair Andros and Western Osgiliath as soon as possible. With those, you control the two chokepoints where Mordor will attack you. Take all the units you find nearby and capture those in the first couple of turns.
- Don't underestimate Harad attacking you from the South, they'll become a constant threat after not too long. Your third chokepoint is the mouth of the river Anduin. Develop Linhir as a basic recruitment center, or capture Barad Harn to the South rather soon, develop and hold on to it.
- Take the rebel settlement in the far West with your units in the area
- Set taxes to low in your smaller cities (especially those at the coast), develop farming. It will pay off in time.
- disband units where you don't need them and there is no free upkeep. Trying to move them to the frontline is usually futile (rule of thumb: if it takes more than three turns, it's cheaper to disband and build a new one). Always use free upkeep, however, to have a few reserves in the rear.
- a detailed guide that helped me a lot can be found here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=279302

In a nutshell: You must maneuvre into a decent, defensible position in the first turns. Only then can you sit back a little and develop your economy. But if you wait too long, there's of course the risk that your enemies might grow too strong (especially if Isengard manages to defeat Rohan)
Also, don't waste too much of your limited funds on military infrastructure at the beginning. Militia infantry, archers and cavalry is more than adequate to deal with most of your foes. Put that money into your economy instead.

Sidenote, when you capture Osgiliath, make sure to build a grain exchange first, or move your general out of the settlement if you don't want him to get the "bad trader" trait.

Cheers

Yay, first post!

[AgentGB]

hey im gonna put together a brief guide for Gondor on VH/VH, ill post here when im done, just gotta revise and add to it,

[AgentGB]

hey dude give this a read thru, i will get round to sortin out all the bad grammer, spellos etc, if you need tips for in battle let me no, but your probably be busy with 2.0 for now

Originally Posted by AgentGB
Dude if you every play as Gondor again, a short not to well explained guide

Economy

First thing, draw all units that aren't havin there upkeep paid by from the settlement or castle, and start marchin them to your potential front lines, use troops in settlement in the east to take the two rebel settlements leavin behind one unit to keep the settlement garrsioned, you shud be able to take them quite simply with a few unit, but feel free to take more, but you have no threat of being attacked there,

Always pour money into your settlements, castles that arent on the frontline, build them as you would a settlement
Try to only build military building at mina tirith at the start, then naturally build military buildin where you need them.

Military

Mordor - Osgiliath, is where the main threat of Mordor will land, if you decide to attack from beyond here, only do so to temporary occupy(leave a single unit, then withdraw) dont get drawn into a pitch war with mordor yet, hold Cair Andros too, but leave a few unit there, 5 at the most, this castle wont develop much anyway, if it gets taken, muster up all units from the forts surrounded mini tirith, but troops from there, then lay seige to it.

(basically the idea is, to go on a "Gondor World Tour" with your best stack, and medicore stack, land the best stack center center of harad, plunder and kill your way back to Gondor, stoppin off for a "gig" at each town. Then with your medicore stack, land them at the back of Harad, you should mop up no problem down there, but send these guys on a do or die" mission, you have to hit as many Harad city as possbile, and send them back to the stoneage)

*if you hit that scripted stack, that move on and leave it, the objective is a blitzkrieg plunder, they will be in to much chaos to react, trust me! the AI doesn't no what to do, or where to defend

This should generate you tons of money, at the same cripple harad, only allowin them to send low tier units for a while, you can keep repeating this process and financin your economy, but once Mordor trolls arrive.

It times for "Gondor World Tour" of Mordor, when you hit these guys, you wanna do it once and stay there. Draw all your forces together, and put together two good stacks, you will still defend agasint harrad, but you can pull alot of troops of the front line there, leavin like 1 - 2 full stacks there, i get away with 1 1/2, then roll into mordor with full 3 stacks of your finest, battle harden troops. But remember to keep sending milita behind to garrsion the newly aqquired settlements, after the culture goes up, they will benefit from free upkeep. I tend to hold my vetetran Milita in reserve for this fuction to stop potential counter attack. But basically cause havoc in Mordor securing there 3 choke points, then your at a stage where the game is no longer loseable

i never allow Mordor to get out there armoured trolls, and by the time your secured Mordor, Harad wiill be back up to full strength, but your deal with no problem. If you can managed a campaign agasint Harrad and hold mordor at bay, when the time comes to attack Mordor, your high levels of management by then will see Mordor a wall in the park.



Other Points
_____________
(This is the full back line, these place shud never be under manned)
always use your agent to scout ahead, and always save ten turn back

Hold Mordor at Osgiliath & Cair Andros,

Place a full stack at East Osgiliath, always send troops to be retrained at minia tirith. Always use a good mixture of troops
6 Gondor archers. 1 lossnarch, 3 marines(especially when trolls arrive) then a fountain guard unit, only to be used when things start gettin heavy in a serious battle, unless your trainin it up,

Harad - Take the island(tolfalas) and guard the land bridge(near Ethir Anduin), Harad are your biggest worry, as they can cause havoc if these places aren't guarded. Harad can be tricky, you need to keep sending spearmen from tirith or Dol armoth(thou u shud try to let that populate) Tirith should be the main place where troops are trained and retrained. You should have ad hoc battered stacks going back to minas tirith, and freshy retrained units from a previous battle rolling up to take there place. Dont move them in dribs and drabs, but like your preforming a quick exchnage of the garrison over a travellin period of let says 9 turns. But always keep the frontline manned, even if it means you cant send a few back, and they end up getting kill off in a defence.

(also how to deal with the Invasion of Rohan, basically you must support them asap, always send that stack on standby guardin minia tirith to defend rohan, cair andros will be fine for the meantime, and quite easy to capture back. but until yur stack arrives, there a chokepoint in the mountains, you have a settlement there, send several units, to block all 4 bridges plus that choke point, Invasion army wont attack you, and will seek another way round, your basically glitchin)

Edit: Also use a half size stack fleet to defend the island from harad ships landing forces, i tend to go round with a half size stack, battering as many harrad ships, send them in for repair while havin another half sized stack take over, when you launch you "gondor rock tour" use these ships to transport your two stacks, while the expeditionary stacks launch and move to there landing destination, you will have to do some tricky defendin at the chokepoints mentioned with harad. But keep tryin to keep this area reinforced as well as you can! you will get some epic battle here, as your be defendin with probably half sized stacks on the island, and land bridge, if you doubt you can win a battle out in the open, pull back and let other unit join up with them

also never allow Harad to muster unit together, you will see the AI stand unit close by to yur settlement, waitin for more unit to arrive before they attack, why wait? just attack/kill them and pull back to the settlement, anything to buy time

[Bloodly]

Umbar, Umbar, UMBAR!

Harad has two port towns at game start in Umbar and South Umbar. They are the only ports it has for a significant time. It's possible, though difficult, for your initial forces in the south, all mustered together, to take these places(Even with Garrison Script). Do it. This will neuter Harad's sea efforts(Thus ensuring safety for your coastal lands and sea trade, and leaving only Barad Harn and the nearby land bridge as a southern point of entry into Gondor) and kill their most effective recruitment point. It helps that at game start, Umbar has some Dunedain culture in place: take it and you can recruit immediately.

[airborne guy]

@Agent GB--- I would like to see a video on that. I think its quit impossible to do it giving the circumstances of Mordor. I call BS on that one, sorry

[Barsoom]

I never understood why it is recommended that Gondor take Cair Andros early. W.Osgiliath, sure, you want to build it up and position your army on the bridge. I'm all for taking E.Osgiliath from the orcs when it's possible; it's a great way to disturb his buildup, you can besiege it from the bridge, and as long as you don't leave a large garrison (your most damaged militia unit is fine), you can be in and out with little trouble. But why rush to Cair Andros? That place has no natural defensive positions, it's a castle so very hard to build up, and it's likely to be overrun when the call comes for the invasion of Rohan. I much prefer to leave the rebels there to take the first blow. Once Mordor takes it, I'll of course try to take it from them, but I'm just as quick to leave to get out of the way of an invasion force.

[Kayslay]

I don't know if it's a bug, but I was playing vh/vh and i had W Osgilith with men in it. But Mordor just walked through it and went to attack minas tirith.
I thought West Osiligith was a natural choke, how could they just walk past it?

[tjd123]

I don't know if it's a bug, but I was playing vh/vh and i had W Osgilith with men in it. But Mordor just walked through it and went to attack minas tirith.
I thought West Osiligith was a natural choke, how could they just walk past it?

You can access the bridge from 3 ways. You just get caught in the enemies battle zone or whatever it's called. You can get around it after a turn I think.

[Maltacus]

Yes, from the tile that is the bridge, an enemy can proceed to the tiles directly north or south of the Osgiliath halves. The true chokepoint is the bridge itself. Another thing is of course that enemies often tries to take Osgiliath anyway, allowing themselves to be broken against its walls.

@Agent GB--- I would like to see a video on that. I think its quit impossible to do it giving the circumstances of Mordor. I call BS on that one, sorry

What excactly is impossible? Invading Mordor? Invading at a specific time? None of his suggestions seem impossible to me, although I don't agree with the necessity of them all, but that is another thing.

About the OP, at last:
In battles, arrows and cavalry charges work well against the orcish armies since they generally wear little armour. Gondors infantry is good defenders with their heavy armour and shield so they can easily bind large enemy forces to let your archers and cavalry do the damage. Later, the trebuchets are of course also a force to be reckoned with...who doesn't like throwing huge rocks at massed little orcs?

It is not necessary to defend only at cities or the bridge, although it is effective. A mobile force can cover several places at once, and thus it may be more efficient than several fixed garrison forces. It is all depending on your playing style and skills. And the stage of the game, of course, since the militia is a bit too undisciplined and weak to truly excel in field battles.

Javelins have huge bonuses against elephants (thanks to the "thrown" attribute), so the Pelargir marines can be quite valuable to hunt mumakil when that time comes.