Eriador - Campaign Guide for H/H & VH/VH
Eriador - Campaign Guide
Hello once again everyone! You might have read my previous Dale guide and it seemed people liked it so I have now made an Eriador guide after receiving a request to make one. I have now played the Eriador campaign a couple of times so I could learn some more tips and tricks. Note that I will be updating this tutorial as frequently as possible. That is the reason why there is not as much text here as there is in my Dale guide. I will update it later on! If any of the readers have any ideas as to other things one can do as well, dont hesitate to tell me and I will add it in the tutorial so that everyone may take use of your wise advices!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
These are the cities you will start with as Eriador. Bree is your capital and is the city with the most inhabitants. It is from here you will send most of your units. Your cities in the west, Hobbiton, Michel Delving and Longbottom will start with no barracks at all, so I recommend you construct a town watch in all of them, if you dont want to spend that much money, build a market in Michel Delving instead. NOTE that if you accept the request of autonomy in Shire, you can not recruit any units! In Annuminas you should construct roads. It will not only give you increased tradeable goods, but also allows you to travel quickly from city to city. At turn 1 you will not be able to recruit any troops at all so you might as well move your men out of your cities and try to seek out the nearby rebel cities. Increase the taxes in Bree and Annuminas. Dont raise the taxes in the other cities unless you can have the population happy. Where you move your spy is up to you, though I prefer sending it north towards OOG, because I know they will attack you sooner or later. Use your spy on rebel armies and cities so that he can gain experience.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
In the west empty your cities and gather your men and prepare yourself to head south. In the north, send your men south towards bree. Leave the generals in the cities, they have only got 18 soldiers in their unit and can not do much help, besides, you need someone to watch your city! Having your generals in the city boosts the income, which reminds me that you should also raise the taxes in both Bree and Annuminas. In the east, near Bree and Staddle, combine your troops and head for Amon Sul. It is a fortress from which you can recruit many troops. Remember to recruit a diplomat in Bree as well. You need to establish trade agreements with Rohan, High Elves and possibly Isengard if you REALLY need some extra money. Before you end the turn, send your spy to the north to keep OOG under watch. End turn.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
It is the second turn and you will without doubt receive a mission from the Council of Nobles asking you to capture either Allimir, the small village in the west, or Amon Sul in the east. Move your armies further towards the rebel cities, your diplomat towards Rohan and end the turn. Next turn you can attack Allimir, do so, but do not include all of your units, you will only end up with more casualties. Use your generals and 2 archer units and attack the city. Use your archers to fire at the enemy and once the arrows are spent, send your generals in. It does not matter if you lose a lot of your general units, because they will all be replenished because they belong to a general unit. Now as you have taken Allimir, You should move your men from the city towards the east. Your mission has also been successful so you should now have 3 new units in Bree, which you must combine with the army coming from Fornost. Now move that army towards the rebel city near Bree. Its name is Barrow-Downs. Remember to move your diplomat closer to Rohan and Isengard. If you want to earn some money, you can demand money for map information, that should give you a bit of a money.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
At the fourth turn, you can both attack Barrow-Downs and Amon Sul. I try to avoid attacking Barrow-Downs at once, because then you have to be the attacker and since the rebels consist of heavy infantry orcs with twice as many soldiers as you in one unit, you will have a lot of casualties, but if you feel lucky then you should give it a try. Amon Sul on the other hand you can attack now. You will get some casualties, but you will survive. Amon Sul has no walls, but you must still construct ladders and siege towers. If you do not, your general might get the "Questions Technology" trait which can cost you some victories later in the game. Your troops are superior to those in Amon Sul so you should not have any significant losses. Once you have taken the fortress, rebuild the castle if it is damaged, and if not then construct either stables or an archery range. OOG should now be on its way to you so I suggest you prepare an army to counter their invasion. I usually send out Gandalf first to build watchtowers. The Weather Hills has domain over a large region and watchtowers are needed if you are to be prepared. The Barrow-Downs rebels will now sally out to attack your sieging army and you will most likely win. Simply target their general with your archers, and if you manage to kill him, the rest will fall like flies. After you have captured the city move the army south to combine with the one which just came from Allimir.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Further north of Bree, Aragorn and his men should be on their way to Fornost to meet with the new units you were bequiefed by the Council of Nobles upon the capture of Barrow-Downs. Gandalf should also be back from your borders after having constructed watchtowers. If you can not construct any more economical buildings, then construct blacksmiths in your fortresses. Your army from Barrow-Downs should now have been combined with the one from Allimir and should now be sieging Argond. You should, if you have done what I suggested, have a lot of units. The battle should be won easily. This fortress has very few inhabitants, but you will still be making a decent amount of money because you have a port. It can also give a stabile flow of units if you plan on attacking Isengard. Now you have gained A LOT of regions in just 10 turns! Only 1 or 2 more cities and you can reunite Arnor. Though I do not suggest you unite it, because in my experience, all you get is fewer troops, more upkeep and a lowsy economy. If you want it for sentimental reasons, then go for it! You do gain some new units which I suppose will be to your liking. In the south in the castle of Argond you have a half stack, which you can either send to the west and try to take the coastal cities, south to the rebel cities in the forests or to the southwest and attack Isengard. In the north you can either declare war to OOG or simply choose to rebuild and capture more rebel settlements before making war.
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 a barracks in each city where you can, but at the same time do not waste all of your money.
- 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.
- After you kingdom grows, you will have to rely on watchtowers to watch your borders because you can not recruit a lot of spies.
- If you border for example Gundabad and your city has only got 1 unit in it, they will take advantage of it and attempt to seize it. This can also be a smart thing to do, because then you can lure the enemy into an ambush.
- Do not capture Hoarwell in the east. OOTMM will most likely capture Rivendell and will thus border you if you capture Hoarwell. They will then look upon you as their primary target and send endless waves of orcs towards you, so do NOT take Hoarwell unless you are confident you can beat the enemy. Having a rebel city between two nations allows you to do sneak-invasions and the enemy will not attack you.
- If you are low on cash, demand money from other factions when you are offering them map information.
- 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.
- You can buy other faction`s cities for low prices. This can allow you to slowly defeat a faction, but through diplomacy. Remember that castles go for less then cities.
- Once constructing a building, go into the city description and you can see how much more the city will make if you decide to make that building. That way you can see if the building you are constructing is helping at all.
- Build roads. They give you much tradeable goods as well as a quick route between the cities.
These are the units most effective against both OOG and Isengard:
Archers:
Against Isengard and OOG, the units below are the ones best suited for Eriador. Isengard use Snaga Skirmishers and Uruks most of the time, which means that you cant just have spearmen and archers, you also need heavy infantry to counter the Uruk-hais which do not only outnumber your units, but are also superior in both attack and defence. Since you are using so much money on heavy infantry, theres not much left for archers, so that is why I suggest you have mostly Bandobras archers. They are cheap, have a low upkeep and can also fire from a long distance. The only downside with these units is that they are terrible if they come in combat with the enemy. That is why you should also have Dunedain rangers. These units can fire from an even longer distance, using their great accuracy to kill the enemy. If they should enter melee with the enemy, they can hold them back for a while and in some occasions even win. If you reunite Arnor you can recruit more archer units, but these are just as good as the ones listed below, and most of them also cost a lot more and have a higher upkeep cost.
Look at the picture below for more information.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Infantry:
In the beginning of your campaign you will have to use Breeland Militia for quite a long time. They are one of the weakest units in the game, but they do not cost much and are fast on foot. If you face an enemy army which has several heavy infantry units, you will have to rely on numbers and strategy to win. Since they are so weak you have to use your numbers to go around the enemy and charge them from behind. That usually does the trick. After a while you will be able to recruit more heavy infantry. I recommend using a lot of Merchant Militia. They are fantastic. Not only do they have a decent attack rate, but they also have a great defence rate. They are not that expensive either, which allows you to have more than just one army. I usually have a mixture of Merchant Miltia and Greenway Guards. Both of them have about the same skill and they work good against OOG and Isengard. If you have a great upkeep you can include some Battleready Dunedain knights as well. They are extremely good, but expensive, so avoid recruiting them unless you are certain your treasury can handle it.
For more information look on the picture below:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Cavalry:
Eriador has a great cavalry roster, but strangely, the unit which you can recruit first is the best one. Merchant cavalry is the only type of cavalry I use. They are fast, strong in melee and anyone you hit with your cavalry will fly through the air and eventually flee. They are a bit expensive, but they are definitely worth the money. Unlike other factions, where their cavalry flees as soon as it has charged the enemy, the merchant cavalry sometimes fight until the end or until only 4 or 5 troops remain. Against OOG`s snaga skrimishers, this cavalry unit is completely essential if you want to win a battle or have a victory with low casualties. Look on the picture below for more information!
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
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!
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Re: Eriador - Campaign Guide for H/H & VH/VH
. I will give you rep as soon as I can. I've given too much in the last 24 hours. You did as you promised.
:
? I get it in a few turns, without any information about it(except that there comes a post that the place is rioting
).
Originally Posted by Bowmaster
But yeah, you get much better units. The two downsides:
).
