Author: Nehcrum
Original thread: Guide: Rohan

Rohan Guide
Introduction
Inspired by StealthEvo's guide to RK, I'm going to do one for Rohan. Rohan is another rather newbie-friendly faction in FATW, and a faction I think many want to play.

Gameplay Overview



Rohan starts out very nicely with it's territory very compact, it is not hard to move armies from one front to another, Rohan lands are also behind easy to defend choke-points. All your campaign targets are also in such places that Rohan can use it's best advantage full out, namely it's superior cavalry. Your first enemy, and the one that will be gunning for you, is Dunland. They will go all out for you and will seldom bother going south to RK, and since Dunland only has one rebel settlements in their vicinity to capture, which they have an army starting right next to, they will attack you as soon as they have captured it (which won't take long).
So your first priority is to send forces to the west, to halt Dunlands approach. There are generally two ways of going at it, either to put a strong stack at the bridge into Dunlands territory, or to let them enter and try to beat them at Helm's deep, which is usually the city they go for first. Helm's deep has powerful walls and will be very hard for Dunland to break, so facing them there gives you a real advantage, but might be risky if they should choose to bypass Helms deep. Dunlands most important cities are the ones that lies right next to the mountain range that separates Dunland from Rohan. These are the only cities where he can build orcs and the only large cities for him. If you cross the bridge and follow the road going north just west of the mountains, you will quickly come upon Dunchrioch, which also holds the Orthanc wonder.
Capturing that takes the sting out of Dunland. Continuing further north you will find Dunhold, which aside from being Dunlands capital is also one of your campaign targets.
If you capture Dunhold as well, Dunland is pretty much neutralized, since they will have a hard time even getting enough cash together to train any new units.
On the eastern side you also have a bridge, going parallel to the mountain range that separate you from RK. The city on the other side is held by Adunabar, and is a bit cut off from the rest of Adunabar by RK.
That means this front will usually be calm for a while, as Adunabar can't really reinforce it and is busy with RK anyways, and RK won't go after you since you don't share any borders.
Entwade sits on the only other river crossing into your core territories, and only the faction that controls Entwade can go across there, which is real nice.
A trick is to put units on these three choke points, aside from blocking enemy units, it will also keep spies, assassins and emissaries out of your territory, so they can't cause any trouble or be used for spying, this works well even later in the game, all you need to block out agents is a single unit. In the Entwade crossing you need to put a unit on the river crossing itself, since spies can enter Entwade and then continue out on the other side.
Your campaign goals will take you east, as soon as you are finished with Dunland. You can choose to ignore RK and hope that they stay friendly with you, but that is not guaranteed.
The little trinity of Minas Tirith, Minas Ithil and Emyn Arnen also means nice trade incomes and access to some excellent units as well as forge upgrades. In Minas Tirith and Minas Ithil you can recruit Kings long bowmen and Royal long bowmen, which is a very good infantry unit, far better than your own archers.
But your campaign goals lies far to the east, and you will run into Rhun there. Rhovanion, the area north of Adunabar, is a big place with few settlements that are very small and without much population growth or economic value. There is also a lack of proper roads, so both you and Rhun are gonna have to send forces from your core territories a long way, taking several turns to get where you want them.
Rhun will be much harder than Dunland, since they aren't relying on just a few cities like Dunland, and by the time you're facing them, they will have grown considerably, giving them a good economic base to recruit large amounts of troops that he can send at you.

Starting Settlements



Your two most important settlements are Edoras and Helm's deep. Both of them also have a special impact on your units. Edoras have a stable that is higher than what all other settlements can build, aside from giving access to all your cavalry units, they also get 1 more experience than anywhere else.
Helm's deep gives your infantry units 1 more experience than anywhere else, when you have the highest barracks built there, but unfortunately barracks start at a lower level than that. Both these settlements also has access to Rohans two special units, the Helmingas and the Guards of the King's House. Your other settlements are all pretty small and underdeveloped. Of special note is Aglarond, which lies protected behind Helm's deep, so no one can get there without first taking Helm's deep. That means you won't need any units there other than for policing. Aglarond is also the home for your unique units, Dwarves. These Dwarves are very powerful, but you can't retrain them or get any new in any way, so try not to waste them. Having them in Helm's deep when it gets sieged is such a waste, since you will lose several Dwarves every turn that you are sieged.
Your economy will be a bit weak since your cities aren't that big and developed and you don't have access to the sea with the trading incomes you would get there. With no one friendly next to you to trade with, you are restricted to trading between your own regions. Unfortunately, almost all your regions have horses as a resource, a region will only trade an item to another region if that region doesn't have it. So while horses have a good value, you don't get much out of it early on.
The big exception is Aglarond, which has lots of trade able resources, unfortunately so are they only bordering to Helm's deep but that one trade route is enough to give good incomes. Aglarond starts out with no buildings, just the lowest level of town hall and a stockade. Aglarond also has problems increasing it's population, but it is good to build it up and get markets and mines, since that increases your trade income. But you are going to have to add population from the outside, since Aglarond will have a hard time even keeping it's population from shrinking. (Enslaving Dunchrioch or Dunhold is a good way of getting pop, just make sure you have a general in Aglarond and no general in any city that you don't want a population increase in).

Unit Roster
Rohans best units is of course it's cavalry, but while Rohan has few infantry units, those that they do have aren't that bad.

Axes of the Mark


Your basic infantry unit, you also have the levies, but they are just militia and shouldn't be recruited for anything other than police duties.
Axes are a good unit, good attack and decent defense. While not as good as Gondorian Swordsmen, they are cheaper. They are good enough to do their job, which is mainly to fight on the walls in sieges. You get access to them with the second level of barracks.

Bowmen of Rohan


Your basic, and only, foot archer. They are cheap, and they are a little bit better than Dunlands archers, which is pretty much all you can say about them. They will do their duty as archers, but don't expect them to be able to fight in a melee.
Good garrison unit due to low upkeep costs, and archers are always good when fighting a siege. These also come with the second level of barracks.

Shields of the Mark


Your "best" regular infantry unit. While they have better defense than Axes, their spears are significantly weaker. They do have access to javelins which they will throw, but they only have 2 of them.
You also need to build the third level of barracks to get them. In my opinion, Axes are a better unit, fighting cavalry is easy for you since you have access to some of the best cavalry, and your units should be kept to fighting in sieges, where they will face infantry and spears are a disadvantage.

Riddermark Scouts


A low level cavalry unit, but it's cheap and they are good horse archers, but just as with bowmen, don't expect them to stand up for long in a melee fight although they do pack a pretty good punch, especially when charging.

Riddermark Bowmen


The scouts bigger brother. Their main advantage lies in better armor, morale and stamina. These guys are fully capable of melee combat, despite being archers. One of your main units later in the game, due to their versatility. Few units can match them in the open, just ride around and shoot arrows, and then charge what is left and they will run right over it. Nothing that can beat them can catch them, and anyone fast enough to catch them will be crushed in a melee. If they could only fight on walls, you would need no other unit.

Riddermark Spears


Your heavy elite cavalry. You also have access to Riders of the Mark, that has a shield, giving them better defense. But Riddermark Spears have a higher melee attack and higher charge bonus. They also frighten foot, which means they are a lot more effective than Riders of the Mark when it comes to breaking enemy infantry. Put something to hold the enemy in place and then hit them in the back with these guys, and all but the most elite units will break and run.

Guards of the King's House


Heavy spear infantry, supreme defense and good attack. And not all that expensive either.
But do you really need spear infantry that much? And the only place they can be recruited is in your capital, where you can recruit all cavalry with 1 more experience than anywhere else.

Helmingas


A general unit only recruitable in Helm's Deep, but you can start recruiting them right from the start. By far your best infantry unit. They only come in small units though, but they are relatively cheap in upkeep and they come with a general and they don't need to be retrained but will regenerate it's soldiers over time, making them excellent units when you are fighting far from your own regions. They are especially good in tight places, where numbers doesn't matter all that much, such as on the walls against enemy infantry. While the unit card says only 25 soldiers, the unit will be bigger than that since it is a bodyguard unit, sometimes as big as 50-60 men, depending on the influence and ancillaries of the general in question.



Hints and Tips
Build a forge in your capital, and then retrain all your cavalry there, and they will get both experience and weapons upgrades. Don't do it early on though, since it costs money which you badly need elsewhere.

Build up Aglaronds population and town level by enslaving enemy settlements, it is worth it in the long run.

Rohan has the worst diversification buildings in the game. The foundry can only be built in Minas Tirith and the horse trader gives the smallest bonus of all such trader diversification buildings.
The only one you can build anywhere is the feasting halls, and that only gives +5% to law and +20% to happiness compared to the "normal" diversification building you need in order to build it.

Rohans strength lies in it's cavalry, keep your armies cavalry only so that they move faster on the strategic map and allows you to run around the enemy in combat, softening them up with arrows and then charging home with your heavy units. You can defeat armies much bigger than yours by using your mobility to its fullest. Infantry is only needed for taking and defending cities and Axes and Bowmen are at least decent here, but march them on their own so they don't slow down your cavalry.
If you attack a town, send your cavalry ahead to siege the town and start building siege equipment, so the infantry can attack as soon as they get there. Or the enemy will try to break out, in which case you can slaughter him in the open outside of the walls.

The enemy will often hit your army in the back when you are sieging a town, giving you a field battle with one enemy in front and another that comes in from behind with you in the middle. Position your cavalry so that you will only face one army at a time and it will be much easier. You can even take cities this way, if you completely wipe out the army sallying forth from the city, and win the battle, you will conquer the city you were sieging.

Enslaving enemy cities can give you some much needed population in your core regions. When you enslave a town, the population will be evenly distributed between towns that have a general in them. So move generals out of the towns that don't need more population just before attacking, so that the new population ends up where you need them. This is a good way, and possibly the only way, to make Aglarond grow

Helmingas are good as units on their own, you can just ignore the fact that they are generals, they are not that expensive to recruit and it's not that big of a deal if they die.

Some really hard cities, like Minas Tirith and Minas Ithil can be taken by just laying siege to them and wait them out, usually they will send a relief army, giving you a field battle, where you can cut down the defenders and making the assault on the town either a lot easier, or sometimes not even needed at all.

Units fight worse and break easier when they are tired. Your units are fast and have good stamina, if you are outnumbered, tiring out the enemy units will make the fight easier. You will also regain stamina by standing still. Running your unit halfway across the map and standing still there and waiting for the enemy infantry to come trudging usually means your units are fresh while the enemy is tired.

Aglarond has quite a few triggers for various ancillaries that affect hitpoints and a few other things, putting your generals there when they have nothing better to do is often beneficial.