Third Age 3.0 with Baron Samedi's Mod Pack?

[DiplexHeated]

Welcome to the forums, Diplex

Really lookin forward to your vids again

Thanks!

[AragornElessar]

Oh, dont make me flattered

I'll be playing as Rhun, but dont worry, ill get myself involved with bigger battles such as Osgiliath. No worries

A royal welcome would be good no? Let me grant you one

Welcome to the Forums I have watched your funny Gondor video

[Dwarven Berserker]

Thanks!

np

Oh, have you recieved my message about the tips btw?

[Baron Samedi]

The only problem with Rhun is that it's far from almost all of the custom settlements and it doesn't really show off most of the other new features. For the most part it's going to look like a 2.1 campaign.

Agreed, but this only counts for the early campaign. If he managed to somewhat defeat Dale, he has different options to expand: team up with Mordor and go for SE territory, Rohan territory or finally Gondor territory. Besides Rhun should be one of the most stable factions if he wants to prevent CTD's etc. Also there aren't many alternatives: Diplex already has made a LP for Isengard, Dwarves, SE and Gondor. I consider the Orc factions not so appealing due to their rosters. Rohan is too difficult (unless you completely disable invasions) and it requires too much micro managing with horse units. HE might be a little bit unbalanced right now as Bungo pointed out. What you have left is Harad (he already played many battles against them as Gondor), Eriador, Dale and Rhun. Rhun is the best alternative from this list imo or trying to form Arnor with Eriador could also be fun (but right now pretty much impossible due to the growth mechanics for the human player ???).

Btw Diplex can also launch invasions on custom settlements such as Edoras and MT, so that is no excuse not to choose a campaign with Rhun imo.

EDIT: I do wonder though why not accepting "good vs evil", "immortal nazgul" and eventually shelob ? Rhun is an evil faction and close to mordor, it'd profit from being allied to harad/mordor/any orcish faction as well as isengard eventually. Having immortal nazgul is no threat to Rhun at all if/when allied to mordor nor should shelob be if you don't wander around the borders up there. Next, IF you play with invasions, i'd let them start only after 50 turns at minimum.

one last edit for the obviousness and to play on safe: you need the latest version of Baron's submod, so the one you have laying around from tatw 2.1 won't work properly on it.

Trust me, I know what I am talking about. Unless you want to fight Dwarves & Dale from the start of your campaign (= you will get owned), I don't recommend to play a good v.s. evil campaign with this faction. Also there is pretty much zero chance he will be backstabbed by his most powerfull ally Mordor. It should be no problem to stay allied with Mordor (or Harad for that matter) for a whole campaign. Playing with the immortal Nazgul feature could be activated if Diplex wants to do so.

Also why should he play with the Shelob feature unless he wants to take Cirith Ungol at some point???

as soon as i downloaded third age 3.0, the 1st thing i did, was install barons mod. without even running the game, then played one hour, turned off, and installed archer accuracy mod, and now im in third age heaven.


really recommend it. i cannot play tatw now without samedis compilation, i just cant do it lol.

O why thank you.

[DiplexHeated]

Hey Diplex

First I have to say I really enjoy all of vids, you are really an awesome commentator

But I have to admit that I'm quite sad to see you lose all the time (though your Gondor campaign went quite well, untill that little issue ), so, as an experienced TATW player I'd gladly gice you some advice/tips for it, if you'd like to

Some small tips to begin with:
1: Don't blindly accept all adoption offers, as each general costs a hefty 250 every turn. Only accept if you get offered a good general and you really need him.
2: On the bridge battles, don't put your units on the bridge. It might be quite tempting, but this way the battle will be decided be the strengh of the armies, and no strategy is involved. Instead, try to defend your side of the river as if it were a gate. This way your units will preform much better and if something goes wrong, you can retreat more easily.
3: Very small tip, but on the campaign map, try to keep as many "free upkeep" units in the settlements as possible. Free defences are always welcome right (you do this quite well already though )
4: Don't destroy orcish buildings. There absolutely no need for that. You can use orcish buildings as if they were your own

Anyway, I hope I've been helpfull If you are interested in more tips (I'll just watch your vids and give tips according to what I see) please contact me. (or otherwise, don't )

~Dwarven Berserker

P.S. Don't take the dudes who say you suck at total war to seriously, TATW is very hard indeed (AI gets a lot of bonusses) and thereby, you have to do it in an entertaining way as well. And entertaining it is

Very useful hints for nubcakes!

[Dwarven Berserker]

Haven't thought about posting those tips here actually, but yeah it might help some other people as well. Thnx for putting it on here

[FC Groningen]

Oh, dont make me flattered

I'll be playing as Rhun, but dont worry, ill get myself involved with bigger battles such as Osgiliath. No worries

Be careful you do not piss off too many factions at once. I saw a lot of campaigns go wrong because someone simply picked too many enemies. Just scroll around what happened to a lot of Rohan and Isengard players for example.

If you are going to pick a fight with Gondor, you can probably expect Rohan to join in as well; especially if you border Rohan. The AI tends to cross the Anduin more easily in 3.0, so keep that in mind. The Silvan elves are usually very eager to jump on you as well once you border them. It will pay off to assist Mordor in Mirkwood/ if they do well, they usually attack Dale as well.

Dale is very archer heavy and the Dwarves very heavy infantery/spearmen heavy. So, cavalry on Dale, horse archers/archers on the Dwarves. Above all, you must take Uldonavan first; it is the best castle around for a long time. If you can, try to lure the AI in attacking you most of the time so you don't have to charge uphill. If you do attack, keep the influence of the weather in mind. If you have superior missle troops, attack at bright day, if the enemy has missle superiority, attack in the rain.

Since you play with Baron Samedi's mod and with a fixed setup, make use of invasions as fast as possible. If you attack Dale, make use of the many bridges/cross overs in which they will have to attack you. Since they are that missle heavy, they gain an extra disadvantage in bridge battles. Just make sure your units stay out of range in which they will be forced to cross the bridge.

[DiplexHeated]

Thanks for the help, i'll do my best to remember it

[Baron Samedi]

@ FC Groningen
Great tips man.

I am currently playing a Rhun campaign on VH/VH just to test all the features and everything is working perfectly as it should. Like FC Groningen pointed out, it is for the early campaign vital if you take this castle:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

If you let Dale thake that castle, then it is pretty much game over for you.

I have pretty much defeated Dale in 50 turns. They are desperated now, sending one man stacks around trying to bother me :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Also I recommend to sack conquered settlements and to exterminate captured prisoners. It will give you a nice cultural boost in conquered settlements, so you are able to recruit units faster once enough population is converted.

[FC Groningen]

Won't sacking cities destroy some of the buildings? I personally wouldn't do it if it was the case since the money and turns you lose on rebuilding it usually can't outweigh the benefits of sacking, including the culture bonus.

[Dwarven Berserker]

@Baron Samedi: Was the money script deleted in your compilation? Because in 2.1 vanilla Dale actually become more powerfull when they only had a couple of cities. In my 2.1 Rhun campaign I was actually in the pretty much same situation as you around turn 50 (I posted that map in "who am I ") And destpite Dale only having 3 cities they managed to field a lot of stacks. (I destroyed them nevertheless )

Oh and Diplex, try to keep the dwarves uninvolved in your war as long as possible (in 2.1 they started neutral towards you, not sure about 3.0 though). I'd say you don't attack the dwarves before dale is dead. With a little luck they won't attack you and you'll only have Dale to fight against

[BlueLion]

Thanks so much for the mod, you should have seen my face when I realised I could reunite Arnor and Gondor )))))))))))))))))))))))

Other than the really slow population increase speed which was literally o% when I was playing as the Silvan elves and thus made remaking the kingdom impossible, great work!

[Meisterdan]

So now the question is will the compilation work for 3.1? I'm assuming yes but I really don't know...

[Baron Samedi]

Won't sacking cities destroy some of the buildings? I personally wouldn't do it if it was the case since the money and turns you lose on rebuilding it usually can't outweigh the benefits of sacking, including the culture bonus.

Don't remember exactly, but I remember I always kept the barracks which is by far the most important building you need. At least for me it is important to quickly push your armies into enemy terrority. It takes too much time to keep moving you units back to your own cities to retrain them. Besides you will need your armies on the frontline so that is why I think it is very important to convert the population of newly captured settlements as quicky as possible. Also you don't want the A.I. to recover too quickly after facing defeat.

@Baron Samedi: Was the money script deleted in your compilation? Because in 2.1 vanilla Dale actually become more powerfull when they only had a couple of cities. In my 2.1 Rhun campaign I was actually in the pretty much same situation as you around turn 50 (I posted that map in "who am I ") And destpite Dale only having 3 cities they managed to field a lot of stacks. (I destroyed them nevertheless )

Oh and Diplex, try to keep the dwarves uninvolved in your war as long as possible (in 2.1 they started neutral towards you, not sure about 3.0 though). I'd say you don't attack the dwarves before dale is dead. With a little luck they won't attack you and you'll only have Dale to fight against

No the money script is still there. But unlike vanila, the A.I. has not unlimited access to it. This will force them to play more defensively more after losing settlements or battles. So you will not face another full stack out of nothing after you have defeated one very recently. This is much more realistic imo.

Thanks so much for the mod, you should have seen my face when I realised I could reunite Arnor and Gondor )))))))))))))))))))))))

Other than the really slow population increase speed which was literally o% when I was playing as the Silvan elves and thus made remaking the kingdom impossible, great work!

Pop growth is vanilla feature not related to my compilation.

So now the question is will the compilation work for 3.1? I'm assuming yes but I really don't know...

It is compatible now with patch 3.1, so check it out!

[FC Groningen]

Don't remember exactly, but I remember I always kept the barracks which is by far the most important building you need. At least for me it is important to quickly push your armies into enemy terrority. It takes too much time to keep moving you units back to your own cities to retrain them. Besides you will need your armies on the frontline so that is why I think it is very important to convert the population of newly captured settlements as quicky as possible. Also you don't want the A.I. to recover too quickly after facing defeat.


No the money script is still there. But unlike vanila, the A.I. has not unlimited access to it. This will force them to play more defensively more after losing settlements or battles. So you will not face another full stack out of nothing after you have defeated one very recently. This is much more realistic imo.


Pop growth is vanilla feature not related to my compilation.


It is compatible now with patch 3.1, so check it out!

Well the thing I remember is that it will take out or at least downgrade some buildings. Might remember wrong, but if so, I don't want to spend money and turns on rebuilding that as well. Even if so, there is no need to sack a settlement for each 5/10 settlements you take.

Apart from that, a simple thing any player should keep in mind is that the AI will never try to take a settlement that does not border his own lands, unless an invasion is involved. You can easily disrupt the enemy's plans by timing the capture of certain settlements well. Works wonderfully well when you see a full stack moving through your lands to attack the settlement. Once you've "cut them off", you probably notice the stack buggering off/not bothering you for some turns.

edit: the opposite holds true as well. A lot of players automatically attack the enemy settlements right next to theirs. Just remember that each faction starts with a few key settlements and can be blitz'd to death (except Mordor probably). Don't be afraid to run past enemy stacks as well. As long as you position your stack well (on a hill side or something or in a good forest spot) the enemy either won't attack and let you pass or will suffer a great defeat.


If you're afraid the enemy takes too much profit from the money script, send a diplomat over and give them a small amount of money. Might cost you some, but it will keep the AI poor. Just make sure they do not remain "bankrupt". In this case, it pays off to give them some small tribute for some turns.

Another thing you want to keep in mind is being able to dodge garrison scripts if you decide to play with them. If you bring catapults, you can attack right away without giving the AI the chance to reinforce itself out of nothing. You can also push back a damaged or small stack back against the settlement walls and attack it so the settlement garrison must come out to reinforce. Decimate them and make sure you kill of the general/captain. If so, you get the settlement for free. You can also stand outside the settlement with a smaller stack than the garrison is and you're bound to be attacked. Same rules apply; kill off as many as possible, captain/general included. After the battle, you must execute the prisoners or they might retreat back into the settlement.

[FC Groningen]

*bump* hope to see the first video's soon

[Warlord Skorr]

Welcome Diplex, the legend himself! I'd like to recommend playing as Mordor as you get to fight in real Minas Tirith and Osgiliath.

He already has. Go check out the video he announces he'll do Third Age 3.0, and he played Mordor for about 30 minutes and took West Osgiliath.

[Deedlit]

Yes mate it's compatible with 3.0, so yeah plz start a new one. You will make me very happy (and a lot of other folks as well) if you decide to do so.

Awww, but all my awesome and messed up traits will go like Gandalf the morgoth worshiper

[aaron98201834]

Diplex himself lol welcome man and good luck in your new Lp

[SonOfThunder]

Baron - just wanted to let you know I downloaded your sub mod and getting ready to start my first campaign(Gondor) of 3.0/1!! Looking forward to it greatly..