Official 'Third Age 1.0 - 3.2 Question & Answer' Thread

[Woodrow Skillson]

I have been playing a m/m eriador campaign to get my feet wet and am curious about how things should be progressing. Obviously I am playing on an easy setting, but all I really want is to mess around with Middle Earth units and such in a TW game. Despite the easy setting, I am running into issues. Its turn 45 I think and I am in a war wit hIsengard and OoG. I ahve taken Duneared, the tharbads, and that settlement east of Tharbad. In the north I ahve taken Athilien (sp) and jsut got Coldfells. While I'm doing fine militarily, economically I am sucking hard. I am barely making over 900 a turn, and it is all going towards army upkeep. I am building something here or there, but its just not consistent at all. This is only for 2 main stacks of units. I have never played a TW game where I can be the largest player barely maintain 2 stacks of mostly poor quality units. I'm guessing I have too many generals, but even then this is very counter intuitive to how a TW game normally goes.

It seems like I should have somehow only gotten into one war at a time, and tried to subsist in the north on garrison units. Overall I'm sure I am coming out on top since I eliminated Isengard as a real threat in the first 40 turns, but I do not plan on staying at m/m forever, I just wanted to get a feel for how long events take and the like before diving into more. This issue I'm having is the military event fires at turn 41 and I am nowhere near being able to produce any of the good units at all. You need cities to produce the neccesary barracks, and I am 40-60 turns away from any of my cities having enough growth to even come close to that. Not to mention the time needed to upgrade the city and start producing units. Am I supposed to have at least one city ready to start producing professional units when the event fires? When are you supposed to be able to do the Arnor shift in terms of turns? To get to the largest city seems like it will take nearly 175-200 turns, even with Aragorn and all the pop growth buldings in it.

[Loki_999]

I am barely making over 900 a turn, and it is all going towards army upkeep.

Main thing is you are generating positive income, but you answered your own question. You want more cash reserves to make buildings? Reduce your army size. You cannot expect to have multiple large stacks early on.

[knight of meh]

for a start most of your concerns are eriador related

it is easier to have one war at a time
this mod was made to be hard even on easy so don't recruit general that aren't going to be useful and you have to try and subsist on the least units possible
king kong set the settlement growth specifically so that you wouldn't get huge cites by turn 200
i am not sure about eriador but basically ever other faction has a city that they can construct the elite units stuff at start ..

might be bree or Annúminas..not sure

honestly you seem to be doing well the problem i find with your strategy is that you got into to wars were you are the aggressor on opposite sides iof your territory . not a good idea in this mod unless you are late game and built up

[Woodrow Skillson]

Yeah, I can tell that I am skating by because I got lucky and its on the easier setting. Granted OoG moved 3 units into my territory, so obviously that is a good reason to wage total war right?

It seems if you are not one of the factions on the edge of the map, the wisest course of action is to have only one goal to attack while maintaining just enough troops in reserve to respond to an invasion from one of the other directions in 1-3 turns. Is the general idea that major wars should really not be happening until 50-60 turns then? When I toggled fog of war to see what was going on, it seems like no one really had changed all that much from their starting areas. No one is dead or near it that is for sure.

[DrDragun]

Yeah, I can tell that I am skating by because I got lucky and its on the easier setting. Granted OoG moved 3 units into my territory, so obviously that is a good reason to wage total war right?

It seems if you are not one of the factions on the edge of the map, the wisest course of action is to have only one goal to attack while maintaining just enough troops in reserve to respond to an invasion from one of the other directions in 1-3 turns. Is the general idea that major wars should really not be happening until 50-60 turns then? When I toggled fog of war to see what was going on, it seems like no one really had changed all that much from their starting areas. No one is dead or near it that is for sure.

The mod has a number of mechanisms designed to make it more challenging for the player but these same mechanisms help factions to hold their starting territory. Many settlements, if they are particularly significant to lore, use a garrison script which will place a defensive army in them instantly if attacked. It would be too boring to sack Helm's Deep with just 1 unit of spearmen inside But this script activates when the AI attacks each other as well, helping factions to keep their home territory.

And yes, the real offensive stacks start coming in turns 20-50

[Woodrow Skillson]

Yeah I was approaching it too similarly to other TW games, where even on harder difficulties its not hard to have a couple stacks.

Edit: Also I imagine the first 50 turns really should not take as long as mine have since I have been going a'conquerin and fighting tons of battles every turn.

[❋ Flavius Belisarius ❋]

Is there someone working on reskin silvan elves units ??

[Mank]

I certainly will be once the next hobbit movie comes out. Hopefully there will be some shots of the new silvan armour design...if not then I'm sure there will be stills from the battle of the five armies that come out soon after that will have lots of new material to work with. I'm definitely hoping to differentiate the Silvan and Lorien elves a bit more, but it will be many months before you see anything like new rosters from my efforts.

I'm not aware of anyone else doing work with the silvan elf roster at the moment, though that doesn't mean its not happening. I'm not sure if the DaC sub-mod that is still pre-release will have new silvan units or not, but that would be a good place to ask or keep an eye on. I think the biggest single modder to devote his efforts to the Silvans has to be dIRECT0R. I seem to recall him saying that he has plans to do more work on dIRECT0R's Cut once MOS 1.5 was released, so you might also want to check that thread out as well.

[❋ Flavius Belisarius ❋]

I certainly will be once the next hobbit movie comes out. Hopefully there will be some shots of the new silvan armour design...if not then I'm sure there will be stills from the battle of the five armies that come out soon after that will have lots of new material to work with. I'm definitely hoping to differentiate the Silvan and Lorien elves a bit more, but it will be many months before you see anything like new rosters from my efforts.

I'm not aware of anyone else doing work with the silvan elf roster at the moment, though that doesn't mean its not happening. I'm not sure if the DaC sub-mod that is still pre-release will have new silvan units or not, but that would be a good place to ask or keep an eye on. I think the biggest single modder to devote his efforts to the Silvans has to be dIRECT0R. I seem to recall him saying that he has plans to do more work on dIRECT0R's Cut once MOS 1.5 was released, so you might also want to check that thread out as well.

Thank you for your quick and complete answer. At the release of the film there will probably be books that come out with some silvan artworks.I also think it's time to differentiate silvan from Lorien Elves.

[Spajjder]

I have sieged alot now and I'm not certain but i dont think ive seen any custom made ones. Silvan elves for example which of theirs are custom?

Also. I'm playing as the orcs of misty mountain. Is there any reason to build the upgraded troll cages? Seems to do no difference

[DrDragun]

Calas Galadhon, Moria, and Imladris are early custom settlements that OotMM encounter in that region.

Higher level troll pens reduce the training cooldown I believe, and also reset the cooldown when construction is complete.

[Wolfeson]

Most of the settlements with custom maps are places seen in the movies. So basicly if you trace the journey of the ring, you'll run into most of them: Hobbiton, Imladris, Moria, Caras Galadhon, Edoras, Hornburg (Helm's Deep), Isengard, Black Gate, Minas Tirith, Osgiliath (both halves), Minas Morgul. Also Erebor, Cair Andros, and Henneth Annun have custom maps, and I may be forgetting one or two others.

[DrBeast]

...and I may be forgetting one or two others.

Amon Sul and Dol Guldur.

[RInger]

Also Esgaroth (Lake-town) and Cair Andros in TATW 3.2. And MOS 1.5 includes leo's custom settlements, which gives unique maps for Barad-dur, Durthang, Cirith Ungol, Azanulimbar-dum, Dunharrow, Goblintown, Fangorn, and Carn Dum. And I think leo is working on or has just finished a custom settlement for Dain's Halls, also.

[PandaChef]

If I siege west Osgillath when it has one unit inside, when its their turn if they move units to the outside of it, will they be able to reinforce in a battle?

[knight of meh]

If I siege west Osgillath when it has one unit inside, when its their turn if they move units to the outside of it, will they be able to reinforce in a battle?

they should be able to if they get close enough

[wohnzimmer]

What exactly are the effects of the loss of stamina? How does it effect the morale, attack, defence? I'm only sure about that the units get slower.

[zax]

What exactly are the effects of the loss of stamina? How does it effect the morale, attack, defence? I'm only sure about that the units get slower.

Fresh->warmed up->winded->tired->very tired->exhausted
At Winded I cannot determine it, possibly there is penalty but it seems to be very low, bearly noticable.
At Tired level units receive attack and defence penalty, based on my play tests it seems to be roughly 15 % - is it true? I don't know, It's my estimate so don't rely on it. Charge bonus seems to be still in action
At Very tired penalty is increased around 30%, charge penalty is applied.
At Exhausted unit completly looses charge momentum, penalty seems to be 45%. Unit receive morale penalty (that can be offset with good general with lots of stars).
Also the higher tiredness level the longer it takes to recuperate, and with each level regiment looses stamina even faster but that is obvious.

[lolIsuck]

I think it decreases morale too, not sure about the offensive or defensive stats though.

[Flinn]

furthermore, when the unit goes red in the state (if I remember correctly Tired, Very Tired and Exausted) they can't charge