Build me a challenge worthy of Mordor

[Gigan]

use generals camera

[muller227]

use generals camera

You know I have tried this a few times and I have to say I really don't do that well, and clearly am not as bright as I generally think I am.

[Macilrille]

That doesn't sound hard. What makes it the ultimate challenge?

Try it and you will see ;-)

Imagine conquering all the world in Vanilla with an army of peasants and... peasants. While your enemies have elite troops. That is what OoTMM is like.

[Terrorgnom]

well... some of the peasants are kinda big and have those really big clubs... and could tramble down dwarfes and elves...

still OotMM with MOS ans the suiting skripts might fit you. but if you set your goal to "conquer the world", letting mordor and isengard have evil scripts, too might make it even more challanging when you start backstabbing, and the whole south and east of the map would be in hands of mordor, rhun and harad, coming with those golden guys, troll catapult, nazgul regiments and mumakil at you.
the best you got is...

heavy goblin infantry/helberd, the only non-general units with armor worth to mention. but still weak.
trolls, but mordor got better ones
wargs, just looking at them make them die.

have fun winning with this... right now i manage to hold my citys with half stacks of elves vs. two stacks or more from OotMM, and since it's impossible to attac some citys from more then 2-3 fields, you can't have so many more orks then elves. same goes for dwarfes.

[Chieftain Khuzaymah]

When I was a bit more unexperienced in (TA)TW, I started a Harad campaign as my fifth campaign or something on VH/VH. I spent many hours in this campaign and somewhere around turn 400-500 ( I can not recall exactly anymore ;p ) I had conquered the entire map, with a treasury of 3M+ and an army upkeep of more than 200.000 each turn. ( Of course no cheating involved )

I just started a new Harad campaign, got soon bored though, because you have to fight almost every battle because Harad AR is . But if you were to accept a large challenge. How about.... conquer Middle-Earth with Harad within 300 turns.

[Macilrille]

Nah CK, I could do that. If Legend wants a real challenge, go for one of the above.

[Chieftain Khuzaymah]

Ok Mac, when will you provide me screenshots?

[Macilrille]

I do not blitz. Against my style, but Harad is very much stronger then the factions I usually play and even restraining myself and Turtling I usually own 5- 60% of the map on Turn 300 with FoE, Gondor or HE.

[LuckyPistol]

How can anything Harad be challenging? They have an easy campaign, and to fight them all you need are arrows and javelins. Most of their units have barely any armor. The only challenge Harad really gives are Mumakil (which can be countered with fire arrows and javelins) and the corsair script

[Chieftain Khuzaymah]

If you are forced to play a harad campaign with auto-resolve battles only, you will not come close...

Idk if you AR only or also play battles Mac, but HE or Gondor is not that hard in if you play your battles.

If you do not blitz with Gondor, you can not own that much at turn 300. You play vanilla VH/VH ? How does it feel when literally every turn a full stack of Harad is at your doorstep. If you do not rush Harad you can't survive.

[muller227]

Harad is an interesting enemy in MOS, (spam is worse in MOS BTW) Harad's units are cheap compared to Gondor's both purchase and upkeep, and they regenerate faster. I almost always have to rely on Imrahil to hold my Southern fiefs. I turtle as Gondor as well but have two offensive measures both aimed at the economy of Harad. First is Assassins, sabotage is an excellent weapon to delay stack building, second is seaborne raiding with catapults, I don't just break down one section of a wall I pulverize the damn things. I think the engine prioritizes repair. Umbar's Huge wall costs a lot to repair when you destroy it 100 percent. OK I don't just turtle I wage economic war against Harad.

Mumakil in MOS are ridiculous and you don't have AP javelins which means I love ballistae, I have never seen my fire arrows do a darn thing to them. My funnest campaigns though are when I play for another faction's win. Usually HE for a gondor win and no good faction can be destroyed. I only can take (and Hold) Lindon settlements or those next to starting settlements. One exception being Tol Anfalas. It is amazing how reluctant AI Gondor is to actually win this game. Tring to save Dale from late game Rhun, when your supply base is Rivendell and you always make sure the Goblin have Goblin town is fun. Buffing OotMM is necessary, I add a few units to them buff their kings purse, maintaining HE Elven Armies far afield is a pain.

[Macilrille]

I agree with Muller, Harad in MOS is a worthy opponent and very challenging.

[LuckyPistol]

I think you guys are really overestimating Harad. When you turtle as any faction, ESPECIALLY IN TATW, all of your opponents become harder to face. However, when playing progressively and not blitzing, Harad is not too much trouble. They are a glass cannon, they can't take as much as they dish out. I agree that they are the leading evil faction along with Rhun early game, but even if you don't take them out early, they become less of a threat as their only notable late game units are Mumakil compared to Gondor's amazing-ness. Invading Harad has always been a piece of cake for me, they don't do well in sieges.

If left unchecked, Harad can be trouble, but they pale in comparison to Mordor and Rhun

[muller227]

I agree that invading Harad is easy, Rhun definitely causes more fits later game especially in MOS with AUM resulting in the Golden Horde. Though once long ago when Mumaks were my bane I adjusted the EDB to lessen their number, holy Mary was that a mistake, I never saw that many Serpent Guards before or sense (before troll men). Mumakil may be the single best troop spam limiter there is. Gondor's late game units and armor upgrades are an issue one thing that needs adjusted is starting armor values for the Regular Gondor troops they are still starting with the base plate value that should be decreased as it no longer matches them. I take it down to 9 from 11. (I am referring to MOS here)

[c.ryo]

Challenge? Try playing on VH/VH as Eriador with all the extra armies of the bad factions scripts enabled. You wont last.

[Redgrave]

Playing as any faction, VH/VH, declare war on every faction you encounter. No ceasefires or vassalisation. Exterminate populace all of the time, but release all prisoners. Also, every stack is limited to 5 'elite' units and 5 'good' units. I challenge you to survive this...

[SirNat]

Playing as any faction, VH/VH, declare war on every faction you encounter. No ceasefires or vassalisation. Exterminate populace all of the time, but release all prisoners. Also, every stack is limited to 5 'elite' units and 5 'good' units. I challenge you to survive this...

This is just horrible. Imagine going with these rules as OoMM where your 5 "elite" troops would be the halberds. Your 5 good units would be the goblin inf. To be fair the OoMM do have the snaga skirmishers who are criminally underrated- 250 javelin chuckers are excellent anti-elite troops.
Turtling as Gondor-admittedly only to turn 60 was actually fairly straight forward. Purely because East Osgiliath is so damn easy to defend. Although I have yet to try it with the new map which may alter things dramatically.

[Macilrille]

This is just horrible. Imagine going with these rules as OoMM where your 5 "elite" troops would be the halberds. Your 5 good units would be the goblin inf. To be fair the OoMM do have the snaga skirmishers who are criminally underrated- 250 javelin chuckers are excellent anti-elite troops.
Turtling as Gondor-admittedly only to turn 60 was actually fairly straight forward. Purely because East Osgiliath is so damn easy to defend. Although I have yet to try it with the new map which may alter things dramatically.

Turn 75+ it gets harder, Turn 100+ it gets really hard, Turn 120+ it gets impossible (for me at least), after that point you cannot afford buildings, all your income go to army upkeep and recruitment of units.

[LuckyPistol]

^ by turn 120 what buildings would you have left? hahaha

[Macilrille]

You do not play MOS Gondor turtling with all evil-advantage options on I take it LP?