Campaign Reports

[webba84]

Seems like some discreet editing would help you out there, cutting out some one sided battles or uneventful turns. Do you record the audio as you play, or as you watch it back later?

I suppose in hindsight you could have gone for a shorter and faster campaign than the map spanning RK one, Beornings would be rather good, or Tharbad, though that's a bit harder.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Yeahh... you overestimate my dedication. Most of the time I just upload the raw footage, except when the battle AI bugs out at me and I don't want to make the viewers spend ten minutes staring at an empty battlefield. It isn't just that editing is annoying (although it is, since it takes three hours for a video to render and I can't do much on my potato laptop during that time), but rather that I just really, really, really hate the sound of my own voice. Like, I got a ton of praise from lots of people for my first episode, so I decided to go watch it back myself to see what all the fuss was about. I lasted fifteen seconds before I turned it off and was all despondent for the rest of the day- I sounded so dumb. Sad times. Also it's more difficult for me to make cuts since I tend to babble on more than other YouTubers. But you're right. I recorded four videos yesterday, but once those are done I'll be less conservative with my editing. I tried to circumvent the problem entirely by following CountMRVHS' advice and occupying Osgiliath, but that went... poorly. I don't really want to cut out full turns on the campaign map, though. A better video editor could probably work wonders, but I can't even be bothered to make thumbnails. Which is why I have less than 100 subs after over a year of YouTube, I make the videos I want to make the way I make them and don't really worry about being wildly incompetent. Fun times.

I record all the audio in real-time. I've seen YouTubers try to go the postrecorded route in the past and it's always felt less engaging.

Yeah, I agree that Tharbad would've been better. It's just that RK was my faction in the New Shadow, and I felt like RK would be more enticing for the viewers than the more obscure Tharbad.

Also, it's really nice to see people like Wambat talking about my videos in the wild. The devs here have been very supportive which is obviously happyful, but they have a vested intrest in getting me to make more videos so it's nice to see that people without that incentive also like them. Hip, hip, huzzah!

[webba84]

I sympathise with the voice thing, I can't bear to listen to recordings of myself either, and avoid at all costs.

[webba84]

A couple of shots from my elven test campaign -





Wonder if Dale regrets messing with me yet?

[CountMRVHS]

No kidding, Dale, look at Adunabar!

(I wonder if anyone notices the interesting thing about these shots...

[webba84]

[demagogos nicator]

Beautifull screens, what about rebel Dale settlements? Does it signify that civil wars have been implemented alredy? If so are they active also for AI factions?

[webba84]

Nope, its not civil war

[athanaric]

How'd you get the settlements to rebel? Have you switched rebellion (and, I assume, fog of war) back on for non-humans?

[webba84]

In a manner of speaking. You should be aware that those are not things you can just switch on or off.

[athanaric]

Well, I'm not that familiar with the inner workings of the game. Is it a custom thing or are you planning to make the entire mod revert to these settings?


In other news, the Ost-in-Edhil thing seems to be working for the AI. I just hope the general stays there long enough for the requirements to be met.
Anyone wants to hazard a guess as to why Harad hasn't managed to reach the North Pole yet in my campaign?

[Stark1]

(I wonder if anyone notices the interesting thing about these shots...

New elven walls maybe? Not sure if that's in main realease.

[CountMRVHS]

Well, I'm not that familiar with the inner workings of the game. Is it a custom thing or are you planning to make the entire mod revert to these settings?


In other news, the Ost-in-Edhil thing seems to be working for the AI. I just hope the general stays there long enough for the requirements to be met.
Anyone wants to hazard a guess as to why Harad hasn't managed to reach the North Pole yet in my campaign?

Are you heroically holding the line of the Poros, like Folcred and Fastred?

The rebellion thing will be active for anyone who plays the Elves/Dwarves.

New elven walls maybe? Not sure if that's in main realease.

Nope, it's the fact that he sacked Dale's settlements and had them rebel, which is not the case for the current release. Definitely makes playing the Elves/Dwarves less of a stompfest. Well, you're still stomping everyone in the battles, but the trick is consolidating any conquests you make.

[athanaric]

Are you heroically holding the line of the Poros, like Folcred and Fastred?

Actually, both the Poros and the Harnen. The latter is held by 7 soldiers and one spy... The trick is not to get involved in a war with Harad.

[CountMRVHS]

I'm intrigued... I'd guess you have a fort at the northern end of the bridge(s), but how does Harad not attack you?

[athanaric]

No, it' just an army (or in that case, a heavily depleted unit) standing on the bridge. No fort needed. Harad won't attack that army as long as I don't share a border with them, and the diplomatic stance remains neutral. Though recently, I've pulled the plug at the Poros to allow the RK to conquer Harondor, while I prepare several invasion armies to hit Umbar and surroundings from the sea. The downside to this is that there's a huge crimson blob milling around Ûr. I was hoping that Harad and Rhûn would get into a fight, but no luck so far.

By the way, the Elves actually managed to upgrade OiE (I've double-checked with the process_cq cheat).

[CountMRVHS]

No kidding - I never thought they'd be so hesitant to attack in that situation. Good to know!

Also good to know about OiE.

[Wambat]

I wanted to get a few more turn under my belt before reporting again. It is slow going for me, given my play style. nevertheless, events have been exciting so I just wanted to share. Turn 18 now and I am finally getting some good challenges from a more proactive AI.

Adunabar has attacked my army of conquest in Arnor twice out on the open in one round with stacks of equivalent or better strength. The first was all Orcs; I fought them head on and, largely due to being able to take out some of their more dangerous units with massive ranged fire, was able to win with less than 100 casualties. Still my greatest losses in a battle thus far. The second stack was regulars with Trolls and cavalry. I played it smarter and hid my army and had Adunabar chase my general around the map until they where exhausted. I then had my forces grab some high ground and wore the enemy out with my archers till they gave up and tried to quit the field. I think only one general escaped.

The even bigger surprise; and I am kind of proud of them; is that Adunabar was able to take back Cirith Gorgor. They seem to have a hard-on for that stronghold. In beta they made consistently for Cirith Duath, but now all there efforts are northwards. They managed to take it by the use of catapults. I actually abandoned the stronghold when I saw them coming, knowing that I could not hold it with my tier 1 archers. I besieged the stronghold afterwards but they sallied and I could not take them all out, though I did get 65% of their force before running out of ammo. I am now scrambling to get some infantry and catapults of my own to the area to take back the stronghold before they can exploit their momentum. I do hope that those catapults where made at Barad-eden, and not just some they had since the beginning of the campaign. Getting the AI to build interesting and effective armies is damn hard.

[Highland Laddie]

Faction: Elves
Difficulty: Bullroaring

Okay, well I'm at somewhere around 50+ turns into my campaign.

My initial strategy was to turtle until I could stabilize my population while also trying to grow my economy. Unfortunately, this strategy spelled doom for the RK in the north, and Adunabar wiped them out. I managed to grab Lune to at least give me one mannish settlement, and I used hired mercs or elvellyn units and moved them to Mithlond to disband them in order to help prop up my population and allow me to recruit more elvish units. A bit of a cheat, I know.

Once RK was gone, I took it upon myself to be the mantle of the West in Middle Earth, and began the long campaign to destroy Adunabar, who in the meanwhile began invading Rohan. I managed to push Adunabar out of the Eriador entirely, and was kinda forced to occupy the Shire as well, because their pacifism had been problematic, especially after they randomly decided to ally with the Beornings for no reason.

Which brings us over to the other side of Misty Mountains, where things had been rather quiet for me. Had my alliance with Dale, which helped keep things quiet with them, and meanwhile the Beornings decided to become power-hungry turds and attacked Amon Lanc, which they succeeded in taking. In retribution, I erased their presence from Middle Earth entirely.....hah!

I decided to play a bit more daring, and I sent a full army of Mariners and Elvish Bows and a few Swordsmen and Threshhold troops with 1 general and sailed them down to attack Dol Amroth and begin attacking Adunabar from "behind," so to speak.

I succeded in in taking the city, but in doing so it was apparently an invitation for Harad to also attack Dol Amroth (they had not been fighting Adunabar otherwise, and had focused on conquering Harondor and then going eastward into Rhun.

So, now Dol Amroth is mine, but under siege by 4 full stacks of red. Meanwhile, Adunabar is knocking on Tharbad's door and preparing to take them apart slowly. I am currently holding steady at Threeways and will see if they can hold. I will probably only intervene once Tharbad is taken (which will also conveniently open the door for me to go take Ost-en-Ethil.

Back in the east, Dale has been expanding eastward, owns Dorwinion, and is simultaneously fighting North Rhun and Rhun, who are also being squeezed by Harad. Dale has been having a 20-turn staring contest with Adunabar in Rhovanion, but neither has decided to fight one another. Dale, on the other hand, sent an army down through the Gladden Valley and took Langwyk from me (it was undefended). I managed to regain peace with them with a hefty bribe, but now they currently have an army sitting in between Foerfel and Caras Galadhon, which puts me in a now awkward position: I want to march a rather large army from CG into Rohan to attack Adunabar, but am blocked by that army from Dale. Do I risk going into a war with Dale (and possibly the Dwarves?), or just wait for Adunabar to take Foerfel from me, or March my army the long was around the east side of Anduin and attack into Rohan from that route? Choices, choices....

[webba84]

...and was kinda forced to occupy the Shire as well, because their pacifism had been problematic, especially after they randomly decided to ally with the Beornings for no reason.

You Monster!

Semi-seriously, I would really advise against disbanding mannish units in elven (or dwarven) settlements so as to train more elven units. Not because its a cheat (single player game, do whatever you enjoy) but because it can very easily remove all challenge from the campaign, and take the fun with it.