Why are the Silvan Elves considered one of the easiest factions?

[alreadyded]

There are rebel armies in mirkwood that consist entirely of spider. They will wreck your elves.

Are the spiders OP in vanilla?

[DrDragun]

The spiders are surprisingly powerful, but nothing you can't handle with a small attack force. They mostly prevent you from redeploying your starting garrisons or moving small units around Mirkwood in the early game. I think the rebel armies are usually 2 units of spiders which are a match for 2 units of Silvan spearmen each.

[Phalanx300]

Just tried them and they definately are nice, those spiders are powerfull but against an army they can't do much. Really like how the forests and mountains are modelled with a lot of passages inside and between them really adds to the atmosphere.

[Calypze]

It's pretty easy to use a spy and avoid the spiders that way.

[Joseignacio]

There are rebel armies in mirkwood that consist entirely of spider. They will wreck your elves.

Thanks.

I had played once the silvans but it was my first game and I didn't expand in the North (exactly the opposite to what must be done...

... so I had not seen them. I started a new one and I have a lot. Too many, considering the power of each army.

I destroy one of them with the terrible spiders, which by the way are much more powerful than 2 spearmen (somebody mentioned as an option) at a terrible cost with an almost complete army (since the couple of spider units had alongside the rest of a half of an army), only to have a new unit 15 turns later, a much higher rate than anywhere else.

And it's not only about sending a spy to locate them. They block the lanes, making difficult the transit of units to and fro.

[Joseignacio]

They are much stronger than a normal heavy cav unit. I would compare them to trolls.

[DrDragun]

Rebel armies will spawn more frequently if your Faction Leader (Thranduil) has low authority or if the province has low law I believe. So give Thranduil those Mordor Banners and Orcs of the Misty Mountains Banners you win in battle! People have also reported the Silvans having a high rate of deserting armies and turncoats, which is a problem with low authority.

And sorry, I meant 2 units of spearmen PER spider. I was also unpleasantly surprised by their strength... I thought spearmen would be advantaged vs cavalry but the spiders chewed through 1 unit without pause and almost got through the second one.

[Joseignacio]

Thanks for the tip about the authority. Had no previous idea of that although it somehow makes sense.

As for the number of spearmen, I got it right, two per spider. It didn't work for me. ¿Should they do schiltron? BTW I forgot what schiltron is for...

It could depend on the experience level of the spearmen and/or the leader stats...

[the lightning legion]

if you move all your guys south you should have enough archers to kill them before they even get to you

[Dude with the Food]

It might not be the "honest" option but spiders are massively disadvantaged in autoresolve. 2 units of spearmen a pretty much all you need against a unit of spiders and you can can clear them out pretty quickly like that.

[Joseignacio]

For me, it's totally honest, since I think it's not honest to have such disturbance that no other faction "enjoys".

[the lightning legion]

well gondor has bandits and high elves have trolls

[Withwnar]

And it isn't like the spiders are only out to get the Silvans. They are rebels and so at war with everybody, and they're closer to Mordor (Dol Guldur) than the Silvans so it could be argued that they're more Mordor's problem. It just depends on who goes exploring those parts of the forest first.

[Veteraan]

It's been a while since I played a Silvan campaign. I used the old tactic of (Parthians anybody?) deploying Horse Archer armies and when used right they pretty much beat everything.

[Joseignacio]

Problem is they have few arrows and finally you have to charge, which wears up these units.

[Woold]

Hit and run. If you are patient enough to let them earn some valuable experience, they are sure to slaughter atleast light infantry and harass some of the Heavies. (+ A lot more arrows)
It sure works with arhcers on foot too, but wargs will become quite a problem in the end, and trolls, those damn Trolls... Last, the last thing you want to do with H. Archers is charging unless It's crucial. Just retreat instead.

I've never figured out how to play against enemy archers with my own Horse Archers though. I always manage to lose more troops (Value-wise) than the damn orcs and their Snagas! Boo!

[Veteraan]

It takes quite a bit of micro managent, but this method always worked for me:

First get rid of the Trolls and Wargs. Don't use all your ammo, it shouldn't be needed unless there are a lot of them. Troll Catapult should be priority. Retreat if you get into the range of the regular archers or skirmishers. Try to keep 8 to 10 HA in "reserve" for later use to kill the general and Halberdiers and as much spearmen as possible. Charge regular archers and all skirmishers with the HA that are out of ammo. Retreat and repeat. By now the general should be killed and over 50% of the enemy army. It should be possible to rout and kill what's left.

You will have lost quite a few archers, but if you made enough stables you should be able to retrain them pretty quickly. Also the veterans will have gained a ton of experience which will be a great asset in later battles.

[Joseignacio]

Thanks!. And Woold, I don't mind too much to use elven archers as cannon fodder, they are abundant and I can save the less frequent swordmen for serious enemies, sending them to battle only to get more expertise...

What Veteraan says is mainly what I do, with some variant (for example I don't consider catapult a priority maybe I am wrong, and I usually don't have so many HA...). Sending archers to engage and HA to exterminate, once the enemy has heavy losses, especially of those effective against horsemen seems to be a good tactic. And archers get experience ad for sure they can get retrained easily.

[Matamelcan]

Spiders in mirkwood just wreck my Sindarin elves.
But by turn 35, I had conquered Dol Guldur, and Goblin town and all of Mirkwood...
The main problem is just keeping the army upkeep, and recruiting troops. 480 for a group of infy.
But then again I've only done one campaign before, and am on VH/VH...

[Matamelcan]

The archers are just murderers, string a line of spearmen with some shock troops to reinforce in front of them, and it'll be a slaughter. Most losses I've had in a battle with them is like 300, and 200 of those were killed climbing ladders at Dol Guldur...