Playing as Dale

[sevenfivesix]

Hello,

I recently downloaded Third Age: Total War and have been amazed by its quality and the level of immersion it offers while playing. I've attempted two campaigns (VH/VH) playing as Dale, as I prefer playing with a small faction and slowly growing.

The first campaign ended up with a slowly losing war of attrition with Rhun. I could hold them off in the castle (North Rhovanion) quite comfortably, but I was getting 2/3-full stacks every three turns or so meaning I had no time to replenish my forces between each attack. So I decided to start over.

The next time, I mass up my garrison forces and head straight to North Rhovanion, but this time I also take my army east to Dorwinion. As soon as I besiege Dorwinion (about turn 15), a Rhun army besieges my almost empty castle in Rhovanion and proceeds to take it. So I march west after taking Dorwinion and try to defeat the army in the field (it has split up by this time into a field army and a small garrison).

Dale's early unit roster is very weak, nothing can resist a charge from the Bodyguard cavalry, even braced Hearth Watchmen lose about 40-50 men instantly and everything else just caves in. My Yeoman cavalry end up just being murdered by the bodyguard too, so that isn't an option. I simply can't beat Rhun in the field so long as it has a general's bodyguard unit in it, and if I could do, it would end up being a pyrrhic victory anyway with ~60% losses.

So my question is, to anybody who has done a Dale campaign, what was your strategy and how did you deal with Rhun's considerable superiority early on?

[jản]

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The key to a successful Dale campaign are archers. Use them - a lot of them - especially in
the starting phase of a campaign. Dale militia archers are really good against militia units.
And the most annoying units of Rhûn are Balchot tribesmen (javelins), clansmen and clan hunters.
All of them are quite simple to beat with dale Woodsmen and Longbowmen.

Use the Palantir to plan what units you have to deploy against rhun: www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=255647

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[Miroslav Klose]

Archers are awesome. And trade rights with the Silvans are useful as well. Take Uldonavan, major recruiting place. Dale is a good faction with a nice economy, when you manage your economy well and are fighting your battles well Rhun shouldn't be that difficult to handle.

[Baywatch]

Gobble up as many of those rebel settlements to the south of your starting position as you possibly can asap. If you can manage to get a hold of them before Rhun, just play defensively for a bit until your economy starts kicking in. Build up economic buildings in your settlements before building up military buildings. And as others have already mentioned: archers, archers, and more archers.

[sevenfivesix]

Ok, well I'll take this advice into account. I've never had any issues with Dale's economy, I've been using the 'tricks' with VH tax on the last turn and such to get good bureaucrat traits and ancillaries and in both campaigns, I have never had any problems with money.

It just feels a little cheap to simply spam archers and have a token amount of melee/cavalry, but I guess if that's the way to win, then that's the way to win.

I'll start another campaign, making a beeline to Uldonovan straight from the beginning and report back here soon.

[3MKA]

The "Need Rohan guide" thread in this section also turns into a Dale guide from page 6 onwards.

starting here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...=374924&page=6

[delra]

Rush for Uldonavan with cannon fodder strategy, hold ground there, start training castle level troops and shipping them across the Sea of Rhun on boats to take their cities which aren't defended as well as their border ones...

[LH47]

Just a bit of advice on facing cavalry charges, standing still isn't going to do you any good unless you have some decent heavy infantry, like barding hird. With militia units, use the schiltrom formation to minimise losses or just charge the cavalry to inflict maximum casualties.

[Elitewolf]

Just a bit of advice on facing cavalry charges, standing still isn't going to do you any good unless you have some decent heavy infantry, like barding hird. With militia units, use the schiltrom formation to minimise losses or just charge the cavalry to inflict maximum casualties.

Pay attention to the dates: The last post was a month ago :p

Good advice though, although I personally just use deep ranks instead of schiltrom