How to keep Rhun in check with the Dwarves?

**Gallus** · January 12, 2013, 05:41 PM

Always keep a half stack at Kugavod. That will give Dale only 1 front against Rhun.

**Mhaedros** · January 13, 2013, 02:14 AM

It happened to me once as Dwarves that Rhun went north of the Kugavod forest and attacked me in the back...I obviously held the bridge, so I had reinforcements to bring, but if I did that, I would've had to let the remaining Rhun stacks through without a fight. First time I've ever been outsmarted by an AI

**Cyricist** · January 13, 2013, 09:48 AM

Originally Posted by Jojobobo

I think that's part of the fun - doing things that run counter to the lore. What would happen if King Dain started turning evil - that's what I'm about to find out. Currently I've allied with Mordor too, and called a ceasefire with the OotMM (costing them 15000) whilst I deal with the OoG.

Agreed. I started a game as Lorien in the MOS submod, recently. Planned to play as normal. Allied to the Silvan Elves, then got trade rights with Rohan, but they refused to ally with me. Went to Gondor, and no matter what I offered, Denethor refused to ally with me, refused to trade with me, refused to share map information, etc. Just being a total jerk.

Then Grima Wormtongue shows up at Caras Galadhon speaking of alliance, and conquest, and the doom of man. I smile, hit accept, and begin the unholy abomination of Isengard + Lorien + Dunland vs the world.

**~~gordanlord~~** · January 13, 2013, 10:36 AM

Originally Posted by Cyricist

Agreed. I started a game as Lorien in the MOS submod, recently. Planned to play as normal. Allied to the Silvan Elves, then got trade rights with Rohan, but they refused to ally with me. Went to Gondor, and no matter what I offered, Denethor refused to ally with me, refused to trade with me, refused to share map information, etc. Just being a total jerk.

Then Grima Wormtongue shows up at Caras Galadhon speaking of alliance, and conquest, and the doom of man. I smile, hit accept, and begin the unholy abomination of Isengard + Lorien + Dunland vs the world.

Hahahaha

**clumsywordsmith** · January 13, 2013, 01:31 PM

Thus far I've found it rather effective to just steamroll across Rhun from the very first turn as the dwarves; Gimli and Co. haven't had any trouble keeping the orcs in check to the west, and more than that have actually been expanding despite having nothing better than dwarven warriors. Meantime I pushed straight through the Rhun capital and on to the south, with a second invasion force poised to mop up what's left of Northern Rhun.

The trick, lame as it is, is to rely on auto-resolve more than anything else when facing off with Rhun. Those javeliners will ravage your dwarves in an actual fight, but the computer can usually give me far better victories than I can manage on my own. Even with Dalish cavalry support. (So depressing, to watch a troop of dwarven warriors get melted as they charge for a band of lowly tribesmen...)

Quite the opposite of the orcs, on the other hand, where dwarves are quite capable of scoring victories against four times their number in the early game.

First time playing the dwarves, and I must say they are the single most frustrating faction I could imagine. It seems like simply everything outruns them...

**Brave Brave Sir Robin** · January 13, 2013, 02:00 PM

Put 3-4 units in the fort across the river from Dorwinion. Two will be free to upkeep and early on it stops Rhun from taking Dorwinion and they start focusing to the south more. When Rhun focuses on the south of the sea, they expand slower and Dale does better. I did this and Dale stood their ground against Rhun until I had destroyed OOG and was moving south on Moria.

**Jojobobo** · January 14, 2013, 10:26 AM

It turns out my alliance to Rhun (and later Mordor) wasn't destined to last: I called a truce with the OotMM whilst I finished off the OoG, and then when I started fighting the OotMM Rhun had conveniently made an alliance with them. As such, they used this as grounds to cleave the alliance they had made with me and immediately started being hostile. I just formed alliances with the majority of good factions after that point.

So I took Kugavod and Dorwinion, and keeping a half stack on the Kugavod bridge did work fine to rebuff attacks. In the mean time I had taken Moria and killed off the OotMM, but of course an invasion got called there in short order. Although I valiantly defended Moria for a good 50 turns or so, eventually it fell as I just didn't have strong enough supply lines of new troops to support it. However, the High Elves immediately re-took it, and so I traded them Kugavod and Dorwinion for it being the settlements least important to me. In short order, as the High Elves didn't have any units in Kugavod and Dorwinion (no mercs in the area for them and no culture to recruit units) they got taken back by Rhun.

Finally, after taking Mordor's Mirkwood settlements, I'm back to trying to kill off Rhun about 200 turns in - starting with Kugavod and Dorwinion (I have 2 full stacks comprised of 3 generals each and then Dale Cavalry, Iron Crossbows, Iron Guard and Axemen of Erebor) and seeing how far I can get through their settlements until I run out of steam. With any luck things will go well!

Originally Posted by Mhaedros

It happened to me once as Dwarves that Rhun went north of the Kugavod forest and attacked me in the back...I obviously held the bridge, so I had reinforcements to bring, but if I did that, I would've had to let the remaining Rhun stacks through without a fight. First time I've ever been outsmarted by an AI

This happened to me too, fortunately they didn't try and come over the bridge at the same time. As such I could just use the stack at the bridge to fend them off, I used spies to keep track of their comings and goings anyway so I couldn't be taken at unawares.

Originally Posted by Brave Brave Sir Robin

Put 3-4 units in the fort across the river from Dorwinion. Two will be free to upkeep and early on it stops Rhun from taking Dorwinion and they start focusing to the south more. When Rhun focuses on the south of the sea, they expand slower and Dale does better. I did this and Dale stood their ground against Rhun until I had destroyed OOG and was moving south on Moria.

I would actually let them take Dorwinion as, in my experience, what then happens is they send the majority of armies from Dorwinion west into Dale territory. If you keep Dwarves in that fort north of the river, you are less than 1 turn's worth of movement from a siege (plus the fact Dwarves shouldn't really be concerned if Rhun choses to turn the tables and siege the fort as most Dwarvern armies excel in sieges). Have a spy in the settlement, and when they have left very few units in the town take them at unawares - as there is no garrison script I took the settlement when there was only one general unit there which is presumably a lesser force than whatever rebel army was in it beforehand. Doing this cuts off the Rhun supply line into Dale territory - as even if Rhun has managed to take a Dale settlement they won't have the culture to make troops or fresh supplies from Dorwinion to maintain their efforts and the Dale will in time re-take it. Effectively, you have weakened Rhun by cutting off fresh troops to a fruitless offensive and covered your ass at Kuvagod in one fell swoop.

**Radzeer** · January 14, 2013, 03:34 PM

Originally Posted by Mhaedros

It happened to me once as Dwarves that Rhun went north of the Kugavod forest and attacked me in the back...I obviously held the bridge, so I had reinforcements to bring, but if I did that, I would've had to let the remaining Rhun stacks through without a fight. First time I've ever been outsmarted by an AI

Once they caught me on the bridge south of Rhomen. It is not that difficult to go around that bridge, but the AI was smart enough to attack with a small force across the bridge, and bring a major army to my back. My army was typical for bridge defense, lots of crossbowmen and artillery that were quite unprepared for the attack from the back where the edge of the map is really close to where I deployed my troops. It ended up being a heroic victory, but I lost 75% of the army. It was really cool.

**C.Maximus** · January 14, 2013, 08:28 PM

Attack rhun early ... Dont let them Kill dale... Dale is the dwarfs most trusted and valuable resource.. Attack rhun from the north while dale holds them in the south

**Ethien** · January 14, 2013, 11:04 PM

Oddly enough in my Dwarf campaign Rhun is on the ropes. The Silvan Elves hold the southern lands that lead east into Rhun's kingdom. Then Dale holds the central and area north of the Sea of Rhun. I've been able to eradicate the Orcs of the Misty Mountains and Gundabad. Currently I'm beginning a Dwarven sprinting blitzkrieg against the Elves of Lorien.

Oh, I am using the submod MOS.