Saul's City-Kingdom of Tharbad Let's Play

[Wambat]

That's as good an idea as any, Wambat. Don't suppose you have the time to try it? (Or anyone else?)

I am going to need the document which gives the starting positions for enemy agents in an RK campaign. Any idea which that is?

[webba84]

should be descr_strat.txt

[Wambat]

Well, that certainly was tedious, but I have proven to my satisfaction that, indeed, it is the scout/spy which offers protection from either scouts/spies or rogues/assassins. The governor can as well, if he s a good one, and established. The rogue/assassin offers no defensive protection no matter how skilled.

Also, agents forced to move into one of their own cities are not destroyed.

[webba84]

Interesting, and very good to confirm, thank you muchly Wambat!

[Wambat]

I seem to be more helpful when I have no campaign to occupy me.

[Saul Tyre]

Part 3 of my FATW: Dominion of Men 3.2 Let's Play as The City Kingdom of Tharbad is up, go to the first post in this thread for the playlist link if you would like to view it

[Saul Tyre]

Part 4 of my FATW: Dominion of Men 3.2 Let's Play as The City Kingdom of Tharbad where we capture Ridhmallen is up, go to the first post in this thread for the playlist link if you would like to view it

[Saul Tyre]

Part 5 of my FATW: Dominion of Men 3.2 Let's Play as The City Kingdom of Tharbad is up, I have a feeling things are gonna get tough, my economy is struggling and Adunabar could be a big problem methinks
Go to the first post in this thread for the playlist link if you would like to view it

[gasas]

I've done Tharbad campaign until turn 100 so I can provide some tips for you Saul. First of all your best archers have very high upkeep so in early game you should use mariners version. Bree is still with RK so that's a big problem since it's economy can be a huge boost for you. In my campaign I crush Adunabar in Eriador arround year 390. This is the best way to survive. I was unlucky because Rohan and RK was destroyed by Dunland and Adunabar (I was allied with both). Then RK backstab me from Annuminas, Dunland bring 3 full stacks to my capital and I decided to end campaign. Avoiding Dunland was my biggest mistake so far.

[Saul Tyre]

@gasas: Thanks laddie, my thoughts at first were that it was a good idea to try and keep RK in the game by allying with them and giving support to Bree, that army could also protect Threeways against Adunabar too. The plan was to then take the 3 provinces on the west side of the Greyflood and come back for Swanfleet before attacking Dunland, you do not think this is a good strategy?

[gasas]

In your position now you should send some scouts/diplomats to check what is going on with dunland vs rohan and use every opportunity to attack them from north, as I said before don't attack Adunabar until you can get Bree. Ofc it's your game and you decide what you want to do, this is only my suggestion. Anyway using cheaper archers can lower your upkeep very much

[CountMRVHS]

My one successful Tharbad campaign involved a hard push northeast against Adunabar as soon as I could. I left the western rebel settlements be until I could raise an additional army to take them, and until I was confident that Adunabar wouldn't win against the army that I was using to push them out of Eriador.

The rebel settlements like Swanfleet, Ridhmallen, etc. aren't going anywhere, really, so you can take them at your leisure. It's crucial, I think, that you destroy Adunabar's recruitment capabilities.

To that end, I try to get Lastbridge and the 2 wall-less Adunabar settlements nearby. Lastbridge is probably the last one to grab, since you can waltz into the other 2 without a siege.

The difficulty of such a move is that a campaign over there is several turns away from your recruitment center, so you have to scout out the area and make sure Adunabar's army is doing something else. If they're besieging Fornost or Annuminas, fine. While their army is gone, you smash their towns and make them your own. Even if Adunabar captures the RK's settlements, you will have hollowed out their most useful towns, and can turn to 'liberate' the RK's former territories for yourself.

Dunland can be a tricky one, and I admit my strategy could be problematic if Dunland ever decided to turn north early.

[athanaric]

Well, that certainly was tedious, but I have proven to my satisfaction that, indeed, it is the scout/spy which offers protection from either scouts/spies or rogues/assassins. The governor can as well, if he s a good one, and established. The rogue/assassin offers no defensive protection no matter how skilled.

But all agents make settlements more difficult to bribe. Not that it's impossible - I remember bribing a spy or two in Europa Barbarorum along with some town.

[Saul Tyre]

@gasas Dunland are slowly expanding West/North. RK hold Bree at present and Adunabar have started to attack Threeways. The reason i have Longbowmen(I only have 4 units) is because I am playing on VH battle difficulty & Mariner bowmen are next to useless against most forces, especially Adunabar, also I had the Trolls in mind too for when they appear.

@Count: I have already started the on the rebel settlements, I am about to take the last one then that only leaves Swanfleet. Dunland hold Limfalas and Anghal but are being pushed out as Rohan hold Dol Baran & Dunfreca and are besieging Dunchrioch with 2 armies, meanwhile RK are strong in Gondor, Harad are nowhere to be seen and they have moved beyond the Mountains and taken Erindol ( I don't usually do this but I had a wee peek off camera by lifting the fog_of_war)....it appears I could be well and truly....looks like I got this one wrong too but!!.....he who dares, I will battle on

[athanaric]

The reason i have Longbowmen(I only have 4 units) is because I am playing on VH battle difficulty

Why, if I may ask? Sounds quite masochistic, especially as an infantry civ (and not even the strongest one. Tharbad's unit line-up is solid, but pretty average. Their real strength is economy and tech) and against Adunabar.

[Saul Tyre]

@athanaric: force of habit I guess, the AI is not a human opponent and I try to even the balance. I don't see the point of uploading LP videos unless it's on the hardest battle difficulty. I often play as an underpowered faction because what do I prove in bullying an already moronic AI by playing as the strongest (I've never played a full campaign as Rome eg), although it does often leave you having to win against the odds, and even then being good at battles doesn't always translate into being good at wars I'm new to this mod, it's quite different and I would compare it against my favorites (and recently updated) Roma Surrectum 3.1 and Europa Barbarorum 1.21 as challenges go.

[Wambat]

looks like I got this one wrong too but!!.....he who dares, I will battle on

You may have yourself in a situation where you need to pump out as many mariner bowmen as you can, and use them as effectively as you can. Even weak bowmen can be quite effective if you concentrate your fire on the enemy's rear, and quantity of fire will trump quality of fire against the poorly armored Dunlandings and Beornings. Perhaps if you could use some spies to figure out where Adunabar's Trolls are, so you can direct your Longbowmen to that task specifically, you can use you forces more efficiently.


I have gotten myself in a bit of trouble in the past biting off more than I could chew, but I have always found that greater relief will come from an offensive that takes out or severely damages the enemy's production centers, than constant defensive holding actions waiting for the enemy to run out of troops (Spoilers: they don't run out of troops). Don't worry about holding their settlements, just work on kicking them out of them. So long as you keep them on the defensive, your home provinces can concentrate on making more money and more units. Don't let them box you in and start besieging your settlements.


Never give up! Never surrender!:sparta:

[Saul Tyre]

@Wambat: Aye this is true, I have already disbanded some more expensive units to do precisely that my friend(spoiler: the next 2 episodes are awaiting upload), gasas made a similar suggestion as did Count, Oh! and btw I'm really flattered by the interest shown by you guys I thank you all......I too have a habit of biting off more than I can chew and I have done it again here so I will be using some of your suggestions I think, at least in part, I certainly won't let them box me in, I can see that coming from the way the script appears to be going........Sparta? didn't they all die?

[athanaric]

@athanaric: force of habit I guess, the AI is not a human opponent and I try to even the balance. I don't see the point of uploading LP videos unless it's on the hardest battle difficulty. I often play as an underpowered faction because what do I prove in bullying an already moronic AI by playing as the strongest (I've never played a full campaign as Rome eg), although it does often leave you having to win against the odds, and even then being good at battles doesn't always translate into being good at wars I'm new to this mod, it's quite different and I would compare it against my favorites (and recently updated) Roma Surrectum 3.1 and Europa Barbarorum 1.21 as challenges go.

I just think that Tharbad is particularly ill-suited to higher-than-recommended difficulty because they have no native heavy cavalry (the closest heavy cavalry you can get is at the Hornburg. It's very good, but that place is far away from your core provinces). They also don't have many AP specialist (unlike Dale or Dwarves), no javelin units (unlike Dunland) and aren't particularly good at psychological warfare (again, unlike Dunland). I find that the FATW AI is quite tough even "only" at Medium battles. As for EB I, the EB team strongly recommends playing on Medium...

[gasas]

@Saul Tyre VH battles with Tharbad? Scottish people must be very brave. As athanaric said Tharbad roster is difficult to manage vs nations that you have to border with. I can't even imagine battle vs Dunland with their javelins on that difficult.