I'm quite appealed by the thought of making Saruman the god-king of Middle-Earth fuelled by the might of industry. However Isenagrd seems like a difficult faction to play as.
For starters, they are an orcish faction, which means weak rank-and-file units. They also neighbour lots of good factions, and merely one evil faction, which happens to be the weakest faction in the game. Unlike Mordor they don't have a geographical position which is possible to fortify with a few heavily manned strongholds, and they don't have the mighty Easterlings coming to their aid. From what I understand they also have a poor economy due to having few family members appearing.
So how does one play Isengard efficiently and successfully?
Whcih unit will Saruman be if I take him into battle?
Pike ´em horses. slaughter all horselords and horseladies, then Eriador, and bye bye middle earth...
No seriously, I am not super sure how the things are in Vanilla, but as you are surrounded by enemies everywhere, you must be really good at battles and winning even with bad odds.. That was always the key for me.. You can count only for yourself, try to blitzkrieg Rohan I guess...
I choose to die on my feet, rather than live on my knees!
A common strategy is to ally with Eriador as well as possibly Silvan and High Elves so that they won't attack you and you can concentrate on Rohan. You may have to bribe them money or with small settlements such as Fangorn or North Tharbad, even though occasionally they consider trade rights a gift and will require no additional compensation for alliance. Alliances with good factions cannot be broken unless you are allied with both good and evil factions and they go to war with each other. That's why you shouldn't ally with evil factions. It's not necessary because they won't attack you (well the ootm attacked me but they only had Moria left so I stomped them). Without alliances it's going to be really hard, but with them it's rather easy.
Saruman will have an unit of orthanc guards with him.
Isengard will provide you with advanced units relatively early in the game, possibly the earliest of all factions. Later, it's possible to turn at least also Hornburg and Moria into advanced unit recruitment posts pretty fast, if you have conquered them. When intending to use a settlement for recruitment purposes, always build Melkor's shrines first so that your culture will increase faster.
Since you are going to be allied with the Western and Central good factions, you will be killing Rohan first and then Gondor. It's the easiest to attack Gondor from the West since this will allow you to quickly take the poorly fortified remote forts and weaken the faction. Mordor and Harad will finish the job.
After Rohan and Gondor are destroyed, you can take your pick on the next good faction to destroy. Usually Eriador and High Elves are allied with each other so you may not want to break the alliance yet, and instead go for the Silvan elves. Dwarves are in the north so they are not a concern at this point.
Isengard has great late units and is also my favorite faction. The economy isn't that poor either, I'm not sure how it works but as long as you refuse to accept too many generals (their upkeep is pretty expensive) and keep expanding your territory, you should be fine. After destroying Rohan and Gondor I could wield three and half stacks.
What I have done is ally with Gondor, Rohan, Eriador and the High Elves. Then I conquered all the rebel settlements nearby and conquered Moria, Goblin Town and the Castle between them. After I deal with the Orcs of the Misty Mountains and Gundabad, I'm planning to burn down Eriador and kill all the Elves, and then I will invade Gondor and Rohan.
People like to tell you to make alliances, but I can tell you other than the Silvan Elves and Eriador you're not going to achieve alliance/ceasefire easily. That bribe money will be better off spent building your economy.
Do your best to rush Foldburg and Helm's deep with your armies at Isengard. Saruman is a good general unit, he has Guardians of the Orthanc, perfect cavalry killers! Use your Dunland general to seige out and take over the western rebel settlements. Remember to use the Invasion button to put pressure on Rohan, they will get a dreadstack spawned after losing Helm's Deep, Edoras, and having 3 or less settlements.
As others have said, your pikes are your greatest asset. Pikes and archers/crossbowmen are a great combo for taking out Rohan, and your Uruks > Rohan infantry.
Ironically, your single cavalry (wargs) unit is only useful for taking out enemy archers and running down routing units-....oh wait, you're playing Vanilla?
Get your Wargs and Berserkers ASAP and proceed to rape all but the mightiest of Rohan's units. You want a reliable Isengard tactic? Engage the enemy with Dunland Spearmen or Snagas then follow through with your Berserkers or general unit. Have some Skirmishers or Archers for support if you want or substitute them for more infantry. When you get Wargs, use the same tactic and have the Wargs charge into the rears or flanks of the engaged enemy Your Wargs are decent and can take on Rohan Scouts and Horse Archers due to their bonus/fear against cavalry.
I find Isengard to be uncomplicated because you can immediately get a cease fire and trade agreement with Rohan. The you turtle while taking all the rebel settlements all over western Rohan and Dunland. Nobody will attack you and by the time you unleash your storm you will be a power house. Economy and conquering Rebel towns at least until the Dark Lord declares himself. Works every time and it allows you to build up a powerful army closer to lore that you unleash all at once.
When fighting against Rohan, use sieges as it takes a lot of the power out of their cavalry.
Beserkers are a great unit in sieges along with the xbows and pikes.
From an old post in the screenshot thread. Works best with Real Combat submod-like statistics but as long as the pikemen don't have secondary weapons and drop their pikes it's viable and hideously good against most enemies.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Isengard pike-and-shot - the best tactic when you need to get away to get a drink or some food.
Takes ages to deploy and group properly but then there is hardly any need for more orders. Few things can penetrate the pike walls except halberdiers, other pikemen and monsters.
Maltacus: Right, hold your ground and don't do anything stupid.
Uruk-Hai pikeman: We are the fighting Uruk-Hai! We fight for Saruman the White and the White Hand, the hand that feeds us fresh meat of hobbits, men and elves!
Maltacus: Not exactly. You are the stationary, holding-your-ground Uruk-Hai and you fight for me, meaning that you just stand still the entire battle until the crossbowmen have killed the foe or they retreat from exhaustion. Unless trolls appear, in which case you will be brutally mangled until the troll-hunting berserkers can relieve you.
Uruk-Hai Crossbowman1: You know, a funny thing happened to me this morning on the way to the field; I was...
Uruk-Hai Crossbowman2: Shut up and keep shooting!
Uruk-Hai Crossbowman1: What, there is no need to rush things. It's not like they are getting anywhere near us.
Uruk-Hai Crossbowman2: No but we have to at least pretend that we are in grave danger, even if they only have useless swordsmen. We have to make this look like a devastating tactic by our genius general, and not an exploit by the lazy Maltacus!
Uruk-Hai Crossbowman1: Is it an exploit? I mean, there are weaknesses after all. Artillery will be devastating against this packed mass of men, as will missiles. Monsters will tear us apart and we cannot flee from them to let our archers skirmish with them. Also, enemy halberds do actually get past our pikes.
Uruk-Hai Crossbowman2: Ok, you may have a point, but think of the viewers! They come here to see dramatic screenshots, at least try to make it look like an epic, exciting battle that could theoretically end in defeat for us.
Uruk-Hai Crossbowman1: Right...RAAGH! We are the Uruk-Hai! We do not know fear, we do not know pain! We do not know...Wait a second, we don't know much at all, do we?
Uruk-Hai Crossbowman2: Would we really be here if we did? Just keep shooting.
Maltacus: I'm getting AFK a while. I'll be making some pancakes to eat later.
Uruk-Hai Officer: We are in the middle of battle and you go away to make pancakes?!
Maltacus: What's wrong with that? I like pancakes. I know you prefer raw meat but you can have the slaughtered orcs for dinner after battle.
Uruk-Hai Officer: You miss the point, sir, how can you leave in the middle of battle?
Maltacus: Well, it's not like I'm gonna give any more orders. Just keep holding them off with your overlapping pikes and keep shooting them with the first rank made up of crossbowmen.
Uruk-Hai Officer: I'm just going to stand here stunned by this lack of zeal and soldierness...
Maltacus: Well, that is the captains job after all. Standing still and doing nothing except carrying banners. You're a bit like decoration actually...Uhm, hehe, carry on standing still, soldier...
Maltacus: Still fighting I see?
Uruk-Hai Officer: No, we're having a picnic!
Maltacus: No need to get mad like that. Where is the famous Uruk'Hai discipline?
Uruk-Hai Officer: The timer is almost up and we are near losing the battle because we are the attacker, strategically, if certainly not tactically, speaking! Because our great leader is away making dinner for himself! Besides, our front ranks are out of bolts.
Maltacus: Ok, ok, you have permission to send out flanking companies of crossbowmen to mop that sorry lot up.
Uruk-Hai Officer: About time!
Uruk-Hai Pikeman1: Saruman is indeed a great general! Look a this neat forcefield around our pikes!
Uruk-Hai Pikeman2: Forcefield?
Uruk-Hai Pikeman1: Yes! Look, they can't reach us even though our spear points are well above them. It has to be an invisible forcefield!
Uruk-Hai Pikeman2: If it's invisible, how am I suppsed to look at it?
Uruk-Hai Pikeman1: You know, just...Ah heck, you got me there...
Uruk-Hai Pikeman2:
If you're feeling hungry, here's the layout I use: Three companies of pikemen, three ranks deep and placed on top of each other. One company of crossbowmen on top of that, placed so that the front rank of crossbowmen stand just in front of the foremost rank of pikemen. Put all in guard and watch them shoot while the phalanx keep the foe away.
Take the three parts of pikemen and one part crossbowmen and blend with milk, eggs and some salt and stir... Oh, sorry, I SAID this was a tactic for the hungry player...
Uruk-Hai Pikeman1: I'm tired of this, We ain't got nothing but maggot-eaten orders for three stinking battles!
Uruk-Hai Pikeman2: Yes, why can't we have some proper leadership? And some meat?
Uruk-Hai Crossbowman1: What about him? He's fresh (Reasonably, at least...).
Maltacus: Take it easy guys, get back in formation NOW!
Uruk-Hai Crossbowman2: Just a mouthful...
Uruk-Hai Pikeman2: What about his legs? He doesn't need those.
Maltacus: (Self-aware, rebelling Third Age units... As if I needed more problems...)
Uruk-Hai Officer: Looks like meat's back on our menu, boys!
Maltacus: Yaaargh!
Regarding the waiting time before pikes and crossbows come into play; I have often found that a full garrison of even the cheapest units deters attacks for quite some time if you want to take it easy until then.
Last edited by Maltacus; August 30, 2014 at 10:16 AM.
That is a nice exploit there, putting units on each othere... I dont think AI does that... what about true battle tactics that give some entertenmaint?
I choose to die on my feet, rather than live on my knees!
Just spam uruks and uruks rush to helms deep send a small force to conquer the western Rohan settlement defend helms deep from the "Emergency Stack" wich is easy since their cavalary isnt efective in the fortress.
Turtle around, build a good economy.
Spam stacks of armys, call an invasion to Edoras.
GG rohan.
After that blitzkrieg The Free people of Eriador.
JPEmpire is gone!Sauron will conquer all TWC!!!! BUT I can also enjoy the mods (yes I have a computer don't judge Mordor ok?)
Recommended Mods:
EUROPA BARBARORUM 2,ROMA SURRECTUM 2,RISE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS,STAINLESS STEEL
Well I almost lost which never happens to me, since I usually can win just about any land battle. Best thing to do if you don't want to go the lame way and not be at war with Rohan: Siege battles. The Rohan cav will destroy your useless early units, and getting "there" where you can field only pikes and berserkers is hard. What will help you is to take Helms Deep to get that nice insta-fortress.
Problem though is that nearly every Rohan city got garrisons, at last they did in the version I played.
Oh and someone should add wargs (Modded roman wardogs) to the Isegard rooster. Same to OoMM. No idea why that has not happened yet.
Last edited by Påsan; September 01, 2014 at 09:57 AM.
Yah like Wardogs in Rome 1. They have it in the Warhammer mod for some Ork blob creature nonsense so the animation is transferable.
I mean from lore alone, the Fellowship was attacked by wargs outside Moria, Gandalf outran Isengard wargs in Rohan while gathering the remnants from the Fords of Isen and in the Hobbit the wargs play a major part not just in "Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire" chapter but count as one of the armies by themselves in the Battle of Five Armies. All of this without having riders to goad them like horses, they are intelligent and have a language, after all.
Therefore there should be warg packs in this game, for Isegard and the OoTMM (And maybe a white version for OoG). Preferably modeled after the Hobbit version since its superior to the LotR one. You could even do a "Wolf pack" with stats like the wardogs from the TW rome I&2 games, then "Warg pack" with good stats and lesser number, and then "Warg Chieftain Pack" with red eyes and armor and with like 7-10 members. Would certainly spice up the lamer orc factions.
Hell there's even lore for Werewolves aplenty from Silmarillion.
Last edited by Påsan; September 02, 2014 at 08:07 AM.
I'm quite appealed by the thought of making Saruman the god-king of Middle-Earth fuelled by the might of industry. However Isenagrd seems like a difficult faction to play as.
For starters, they are an orcish faction, which means weak rank-and-file units. They also neighbour lots of good factions, and merely one evil faction, which happens to be the weakest faction in the game. Unlike Mordor they don't have a geographical position which is possible to fortify with a few heavily manned strongholds, and they don't have the mighty Easterlings coming to their aid. From what I understand they also have a poor economy due to having few family members appearing.
So how does one play Isengard efficiently and successfully?
Whcih unit will Saruman be if I take him into battle?
I play this mond on vanilla (no sub-mods).
First of all, start attacking Rohan as soon as possible. Resist the urge to sack captured villages, since they will provide a ridiculously low amount of money for no benefit. dont face off against rohan in the open, either. Go straight for their cities and assault them, where your infantry will shine.
For an economy, you will need to 'colonize' the rohan cities, and these are ridiculously poor. take over rohan's western provinces first, so you dont get attacked in the back when you turn to the right. Siege and capture both the Hornburg and Edoras, and build temples there ASAP, to turn them into future recruitment centers.
For an army, build a mixed force; snagas are a great way to absorb rohan charges, letting them get bogged down and then countercharged by your infantry. Uruks are good units, but they will still need numbers to win against enemy forces. Keep your generals stacked together (at least Saru, Ugluk and Lurtz) to form a powerful fighting core army with their special abilities.
There are a LOT of posts as to how to play/win as isengard (i think i started one back in '09 or later i believe), so look for those. the guidelines are:
- conquer the rebel settlements
- attack the hornburg and edoras
- avoid field battles
- truce Gondor
- Go north to destroy and conquer Eriador/elves
- Turn on sauron
How to successfully play as Isengard?
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Your Wargs are decent and can take on Rohan Scouts and Horse Archers due to their bonus/fear against cavalry.
with like 7-10 members. Would certainly spice up the lamer orc factions. 
Originally Posted by Funeh
