Hello everyone. My favourite faction in Third Age Total War is Dale and I have heard several people are having difficulties playing it and that is why I have decided to create a Dale Guide for those of you who have given up on the faction or just have yet to experience its campaign. I have played the Dale campaign three times and two times captured half of the Middle Earth so I want to give you my knowledge about Dale and its first turns. If you wish me to play on to show you more guidance then just ask for it and I will try to find some time for it.
This is Dale, your kingdom. You start with only 4 regions, but no worries. You have King Bard. A fantastic general capable of defeating the mightiest of enemies. Economy is the first factor you need to take into account when playing Dale. Build markets or roads in Dale, Grasgard and Esgaroth to begin with. I prefer starting with markets as their constructiontime is much lower than when constructing roads. You also need to be careful about spending too much of your treasury in the beginning if your campaign, you will need money for your troops. In Riverrun I suggest you build a town watch as you still have a decent amount of money left in your treasury. It may come in handy later on in the game if Rhun is closing in on you and you are in desperate need of more men.
I first move King Bard and all of his men south along with all the men from Esgaroth towards Araw. I also move all units from Riverrun to meet King Bards army as the army closes in on Araw. Recruit units in all cities, you will need more reinforcements following King Bard later. I move all the men from Grasgard towards Araw and recruit the mercenaries. Mercenaries are rare in Middle Earth and most of them are heavy infantry or heavy cavalry so be sure to buy them if you can afford it! Before you end your turn, you might want to use your spy to check out the rebel army. Not only will that give you a heads up on what the rebel army contains, but it also gives your spy some experience and sometimes it gives your factionleader 1+ in command when using spies. Enough of turn 1, press end turn and prepare yourself for the second turn.
It is turn two and you will soon experience your first battle as Dale. Use your general from Grasgard and siege the fortress of Araw. It is a key city and you will definitely need it later on in the game. It borders seven regions and can potentially trade with all of them provided you either own the surrounding regions or obtain a trade agreement with a faction owning some of these regions. Araw is a castle and can thus deliver more troops quickly as well as it gives your free upkeep for some of the units garrisoned in the castle. Like other important regions, Araw can offer you special features. Go to the Castle tab and right click on the book. It will tell you more about what this castle can offer.
Use your spy in the nearbyarea to scout for other cities in the nearby area. A bit further southwest you will find the city of Rhovanost. Its a town with about 1000 - 1300 inhabitants and potentially a moderately rich city.
Move King Bard and his men further south and combine them with the army waiting for them there. In Dale, recruit a diplomat. You will need a good economy to support your armies and what better way to gain money than establishing trade agreements with other factions! You can also earn some extra money by offering map information for a low amount of money. You should also just make a trade agreement with The Orcs of The Misty Mountains as well. Since they are AI, they receive an AI bonus and have a huge treasury. Giving them a bit more money through trade will not help them significantly, but it will surely help you. End turn and lets move on to the third turn.
It is turn three and you are sieging Araw with your army. King Bard should be close now. The market has been constructed in Grasgard. Now construct a road there. It will give you increased tradeable goods as well as it allows your troops to move faster. If you think you can win the battle of Araw without too many casualties, then go for it, but remember you will not be able to retrain those Athala Rangers for a long time. Sieging the castle for a while longer will also starve the enemy. They will lose men every turn until they surrender or sally out to meet your army. Note that if you do capture Araw, do not sack or exterminate it. I will come back to this later. Now move your diplomat from Dale and either go straight for the Silvan Elves in the northwest or try to earn some extra money from the dwarves, demanding money in exchange for your map information.
Theres not much else you can do this turn other than raise some taxes. Worried about the population growth? Well, it doesent matter very much as you wont be able to upgrade any of your cities before turn eighty or hundred. It takes very long for your population to reach the requirements for upgrading your city/castle so you might as well increase the taxes, as long as the population happiness does not turn red. I put my taxes at high because I want there to be some population growth. End turn.
It is turn four and King Bard should now be in reach of Araw. If you have not captured Araw yet, now is the time. You may either combine King Bard`s army with the one already sieging Araw or head straight for Rhovanost. That is your choice. If you capture Araw now, you can build more essential buildings which you will need in your inevitable war against Rhun. If you capture it repair the damages done and construct Garrison Quarters. It will enable you to build Dalesmen and improve the public order. Move your Grasgard general, who probably has no loyalty at all towards the outer border of your region and construct some watchtowers just in case Rhun tries to rush you. Remember to move your diplomat before you end your turn. Ask for an alliance, trade agreement and possibly some money if you feel lucky. End your turn!
It is turn five and you dont know where to head. You have three ways to travel. Southwest towards Rhovanost, south towards Uldonavan or east towards Dorwinion. I usually travel to Dorwinion because I want to let the reinforcements from the northern cities to take that city. So I move King Bard and his men towards the east. Note that you may be offered to capture Rhovanost for about 1,5 k. If you are in need of some quick money then head there. In Esgaroth you should construct a Leather Tanner. It seems tempting to buy the stables, but if you do that you cannot afford to construct Town Guard the next turn and you will need that more than stables at the moment. End turn.
It is turn six and you are now close to Rhovanost or Dorwinion. As you will notice in your campaign, other factions are interested in Dorwinion as well and it is a good reason for that. Dorwinion can potentially be one of your richest cities. Not only does it have valuable resources, it also has a port and can trade with the other cities bordering the Sea of Rhun. Its population should be approximately 1800 - 1900 and it means that it is soon able to upgrade to a large town. You need to take it quickly, but dont be too hasty, there are several units in the city and the governor of the city has often got
4/5 + command. Recruit some more men in your cities before you end your turn and dont forget about your diplomat!
It is turn seven and not much is happening. Construct a Town Guard in Esgaroth, recruit some more men and siege Dorwinion. You should not attack Dorwinion too soon as Rhun might just appear with a full stack and take advantage of your army losses. Sometimes, if you are very lucky, the Dwarves will come from their mountains and attack Rhun, allowing you to focus on the west.
Turn eight will be a bit uneventful. Recruit some more troops and prepare to move your men south towards Araw. At turn nine, move all your men from Dale and Esgaroth towards Araw. You will now take Rhovanost. You can still make the mission to take Rhovanost before time runs out!
It is turn eleven and the rebels at Dorwinion have sallied out to meet you. I suggest you play the battle as autoresolving will leave you with a lot of unecessary casualties. The battle should not be too hard. Move your infantry infront, archers behind. You dont have time to move the archers infront as the enemy will rush you. Send the cav behind the enemy lines and charge them as soon as they clash with your infantry, that should have them routing. Now Dorwinion should be yours. It has a lot of potential to become a rich city. Remember not to sack or exterminate it. This is because high populations are rare in Middle Earth and the population growth is slow. You need every inhabitant you can get. More population = more people paying taxes = more income for you! Now construct a town watch, a grain exchange or roads. Use your units from Araw and unite them with the army which have traveled from the northern cities. Now head that army in the direction of Rhovanost! The Town Guard in Esgaroth should be done by now, thus enabling you to recruit more units.
It is turn fourteen and if the dwarves have no intention of helping you in the east you will have to do all the work yourself. Send your army towards Kugaovd and prepare to siege the city. It will be reinforced within the next two turns. Note this. If you have only one unit in a city bordering Rhun, they will notice and take advantage of it. They will always attack an unprotected region, so be sure that you are able to fight them back!
You should be sieging Rhovanost by now as well and be ready to take it the next turn. Turn fifteen is when you take Rhovanost. Play the battle and capture it. Construct whatever you see fit. Now you might want to reinforce King Bard`s army before you move it further to the east towards Kugaovd. Perhaps the dwarves will come after some time? From Dorwinion you can rebuild and recruit more troops. At the same time you must move further south with your other army. Recruit a new spy and make sure Rhun does NOT take Uldonavan, which you can see where is on the picture below. It is one of the few big castles in the game and a key city in your war against Rhun. From there you will send out all your troops.
If it has been attacked by Rhun and is almost defeated, then go for it, but if it has several undamaged troops, then wait for Rhun to take it and then strike as soon as they have wasted their men. Many times the best thing to do is just ignore Uldonavan and go straight for the other enemy cities. You could also move further south and sack some Rhun cities so they cant recruit enough units to face you. Always remember to retrain units as well. Dont use too much of your money on things you dont need. From now you should focus on military and building merchant wharfs, ports, fairgrounds etc. The choice is yours. What I have shown you so far should be enough to keep you on your foot for a while.
Additional Tips:
- Remember to have your capital in the center of your empire, it can increase your income and can potentially improve the public order as it shortens the distance to the capital.
- Build Army Barracks in your largest cities. Dale has very weak units to begin with and Dale Swordsmen which you can recruit when having a level 3 barracks can help you a lot! Bardian Marksmen are also excellent units. Not only are they fantastic archers, but they also have a great defence/attack.
- Recruit lots of spies. They can be used to open enemy gates, allowing you to make a direct attack on a settlement. Having spies also lets you know if another enemy is approaching you.
- Mordor may interfere with your war with Rhun and randomly attack you from the west, so send a spy down there so that you can prepare in time.
- Keep your allies alive. Gift them a region if necessary. You will be grateful when an enemy is attacking you and suddenly your allied faction appears with a whole stack next to your cities or the enemy cities.
- You can gain some extra money by demanding money for your map information. Insignificant amount you say? Ask for money every 5 turn and you have gained thousands...
- Sometime blitzing the enemy can be extremely helpful. The enemy is often willing to make peace if you take 2 or more settlements in one turn. Be aware of that this does not work all the time. The AI knows which one of you has the largest military and will take that into account.
- These are the units most effective against Rhun:
Archers:
Rhun`s armies will consist mostly of skirmishers. They can only throw their javelins from a short distance and you therefore rely on archers to take them out before they reach you. The skirmishers have low armor, low melee and a short range of fire, though when they are in range and throw their javelins, you will have a lot of casualties. That is why these archers on the picture below are ideal for your war against Rhun. The Longbowmen and the Athala Rangers can fire from a very long distance, and their melee is not that bad, though it is advisable that you keep them away from melee for as long as possible, their arrows will deliver more damage to the enemy. The Bardian Marksmen are fantastic archers, not only do they have a great accuracy, but if an enemy unit charges them, they can repel them and sometimes easily. With 10 attack-points and 11 defence-points, The Bardian Marksmen can defeat most of your enemies. Dont go charging in with them all of the time now, they are rare units and the recruitment-time is long.
Infantry:
Hearth Watchmen is the unit you will recruit the most in the beginning of your campaign, though it can not deal much damage to the enemy and that is why you should upgrade your barracks so that you may recruit the infantry units on the picture below. After a while I suggest you begin recruiting Rivermen, because very much like the Rhun skirmishers, the Rivermen can inflict a lot of casualties on the enemy troops. Their attack and defence - points are also pretty decent so dont be afraid to send them into melee fights. Dalesmen are not heavy infantry but you need them to charge the enemy if they get to close to your Rivermen. Now you come to the units you will rely on the most, Dale Swordsmen. With good attack and defence - points they can defeat strong enemy units. Your should have about 4 or 5 of these units in your armies. The finest Dale infantry is in my opinion the Dale Swordmasters with their excellent attack and defence, but you must not recruit too many of these. If you do, you may soon find yourself in a financial recession where you can only support one army with these sort of men. If you have mixed armies with the units on the picture below, you can support up to 3 armies and still have a great economy. Remember to retrain your units if they have a lot of experience. It gives them more morale and attack - points. The Gadrauhts are a decent type of units and in some cases more effective than the Dale Swordsmen and especially when facing opposing armies with cavalry. I simply decide not to use them because after having spent an eternity using spearmen I get tired of them as well as I feel like they are not good enough when they face heavy infantry. However, I do believe you should have these units when defending in a siege, because they will prove themselves to be valuable when the enemy is running through the gate and you will notice your Gadrauhts will hold them off until they have been overrun.
Cavalry:
Dale cavalry isnt particularly good other than the Earls who have great defence stats. They are expensive so dont recruit them unless you know your treasury can handle it. Most of the time I just use the Yeomen. They are fast and useful to hit your enemies from the rear or to simply route the enemy archers. They are also very cheap for cavalry units and their upkeep is not very high. You will need the Yeomen against Rhun`s skirmishers. One unit can make a whole lot of difference. Look on the picture below for more information!
The pictures used above are from brandybarrel`s Palantir Unit Guide which you can find Here!
Anyways, I hope you have liked my guide and please comment if you have any questions or ideas!