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

[Veteraan]

That Patch look amazing! Have you ever tried it? I've been trying to avoid these huge Sub-Mods like MoS but this one seems to be maintaining and improving the 3.2.

Further questions about and discussion on submods in the submods forum please. This is not the place for it.

[DonnyBrasko]

Hello,

of the 'good' factions, which campaign is the easiest?


Can you recommend a good guide for Gondor in 3.2 vanilla, and related to Gondor, are they one of the most difficult 'good' factions to play?

[Ngugi]

Hello, hello

The general consensus is that it's the hIgh Elves, because of their secure position and splendid units. A fun faction none the less, I'd say.
Just make sure to secure a good economy early on, move the capital to Mothlond at turn 2 or 3, after you started to construct economical buildings such as roads, farms etc.
Try to manage on the starting units for as long as you may, avoid recruiting at the beginning if you may, it will save you trouble before the economy is on the stable side. And chose either the Havens or Imladris to make your offensive from, do not try to expand on two fronts in the beginning.


As for Gondor, here are some writings about it (not all for 3.2 but often apply perfectly well);
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...Guide-Released
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...ghlight=gondor
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...tips-on-Gondor
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...d-Gondor-Guide

My own tip is to do quite what Aragorn did before LotR, hehe: get an army onto a ship ASAP and strike at Umbar. Take that and you cripple Harad severly, as well as secure your coastline...

[DonnyBrasko]

Hello, hello

The general consensus is that it's the hIgh Elves, because of their secure position and splendid units. A fun faction none the less, I'd say.
Just make sure to secure a good economy early on, move the capital to Mothlond at turn 2 or 3, after you started to construct economical buildings such as roads, farms etc.
Try to manage on the starting units for as long as you may, avoid recruiting at the beginning if you may, it will save you trouble before the economy is on the stable side. And chose either the Havens or Imladris to make your offensive from, do not try to expand on two fronts in the beginning.

Thanks for the advice, I went and started a new campaign with the High Elves and am thoroughly enjoying it. At the moment I'm in a war with the OOTMM, spotted Moria was guarded with only 1 set of troops so went after it with my 1/2 stack. Then a huge army materialised in Moria, presume this is the garrison script in action? Pulled back after seeing it with the Balrog, trolls etc. This 3/4 stack is now very close to Imaldris and I've only a few troops there.

What are tips to take Moria?
The Balrog can leave Moria, is this suppsoed to be the case?
How does one defeat the Balrog (11)?
Elven population growth is quite slow?

Have you any links to good HE guides?


Thanks!!!

[Ngugi]

Thanks for the advice, I went and started a new campaign with the High Elves and am thoroughly enjoying it. At the moment I'm in a war with the OOTMM, spotted Moria was guarded with only 1 set of troops so went after it with my 1/2 stack. Then a huge army materialised in Moria, presume this is the garrison script in action? Pulled back after seeing it with the Balrog, trolls etc. This 3/4 stack is now very close to Imaldris and I've only a few troops there.

Hahaha, I recall my first time laying siege to Moria, many years ago now but still vivid in memory: my few brave Free Men of Eriador soldiers awoke shadow & fire, almost gave me a heart attack
Retreated in panick, only too see the Balrog lead a full army away. Made it feel like a true 'world war', as it appeared now and then in my sight, fighting Dwarves and Silvans and High Elves in turn. Slowly reduced because of that, long time after, Gandalf with many brave riders under his command could defeat the army in the north close to Gundabad. Felt like me & my allies done a true deed, not together at once, but still together over time. Durin's Bane was no more!
So yes, the Balrog may leave Moria, once he appeared, and glady it's naturally a one off.

What are tips to take Moria?
The Balrog can leave Moria, is this suppsoed to be the case?
How does one defeat the Balrog (11)?
Elven population growth is quite slow?

Have you any links to good HE guides?


Thanks!!!

Make sure you have a strong army before you attack, since it will continue to get a bonus garrison (garrison script indeed), but it should not be to much a challenge if you're prepared.
High Elves have strong units but is a weak faction when it comes to take out the Balrog because you lack AP [armour piercing] units, like axemen. Swarming him with units with higher defence is the best solution, unless you can hit and run the beasts with cavalry or hit them with ballistas & catapults.
In TATW all factions have slow pop growth, Elves a bit more so since their units are so good, but make sure to have farms & town halls, and keep tax at low (it will repay in the long run, since more pop = more taxpayers) and it'll improve.

Not at hand, but there ought to be something over here; http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forum...ther-Resources

cheers

[ace37]

Hello all,

A couple of questions I have had since starting to play only last week. None of which are important but all of which I have not found an answer for so far online.

I noticed in my initial play through as the silven elves that Wormtounge appeared. He didnt seem to belong to Isenguard (or at least it didnt say he was), but he did seem to have traits that would make him a diplomat. Can anyone shed some light on what he does/how he works? I know who he is in lore, just wondering in game.

While playing as the dwarves I had a OoG army trolling around my western half. I didn't have an army quite large enough to beat them in the field, but they were initially hesitant to siege anything either. Sorta stuck in limbo due to their size. I have the whole place watch towered so I was kind of shocked when I noticed that the army got bigger every turn eventually turning into a full stack and were then able to start sieging my towns down. Now I like a challenge so its not the end of the world here, but they were far enough in and i have good enough vision that I know this was a script of some sort that was boosting their numbers. Was just curious which and why it was made so the army's can spawn so far behind enemy lines.

I see the Nazgul on the map occasionally and noticed that they are modeled on the inquisitor line. Do they act the same way as inquisitors (do they just kill my generals/govenors?), or do they also do other things such as seek the one ring or something.

Does the one ring always appear somewhere in the north? Don't have a lot of play time, but it seems to always spawn somewhere in the misty mountains area. Am just curious as that might be a bit hard to deal with if you are playing as Gondor or someone else as the AI doesn't seem motivated by the ring meaning it will inevitably fall into his hands if you don't do something.

Appreciate any and all responses! And love the game so far.

[Ngugi]

Hello ace37

Wormtongue is a diplomat for Isengard, correctly.

Unless they hired mercenaries, it must been reinforcment units coming west, merging with the main army. There's no script to boost an army in the field (but, in case you have not experienced it yet, there will be a garrison script when you siege key settlements).

They're called 'Servants of Sauron' and are not actual Nazgul, but, well 'something', hehe. They act inquisators indeed, and can put evil generals of little faith to the stake; they don't do anything else no.

Nope, it can spawn all the way down in Harad, it's random.
The AI do not care for the Ring whatsoever, that's entierly a feature for the player.

[ace37]

Hello ace37

Wormtongue is a diplomat for Isengard, correctly.

Unless they hired mercenaries, it must been reinforcment units coming west, merging with the main army. There's no script to boost an army in the field (but, in case you have not experienced it yet, there will be a garrison script when you siege key settlements).

They're called 'Servants of Sauron' and are not actual Nazgul, but, well 'something', hehe. They act inquisators indeed, and can put evil generals of little faith to the stake; they don't do anything else no.

Nope, it can spawn all the way down in Harad, it's random.
The AI do not care for the Ring whatsoever, that's entierly a feature for the player.

Awesome, thanks for the reply!

[Rolepgeek]

So, looking at the EDCT...is there really no way for me to get BattleDread on my generals if I'm Rhun or Harad? And are there any mods/compilations of fixes for just the minor stuff in the game to how it was intended like traits, ancillaries, some building images (more names cougheriadorcough)? I want to try Alternative Patch and MOS, I think, but I'm not really certain whether they help with stuff like that or not.

[bAptist]

Looked through the FAQ and in many other places, could not find anything about cutscenes....

They do not seem to work for me (for example when I encountered shire, it looked like there was supposed to be a video but it did not play), is there a place where I need to switch them on?

[ElvenKind]

Looked through the FAQ and in many other places, could not find anything about cutscenes....

They do not seem to work for me (for example when I encountered shire, it looked like there was supposed to be a video but it did not play), is there a place where I need to switch them on?

Open your TATW.CFG file in your Medieval II TW/mods/Third_Age_3 folder, and search for:

[video]
movies = false - change false to true

Save and Exit.

If that doesn`t fix it, then there is:

[game]

;event_cutscenes = 0

change it to:

event_cutscenes = 1

Save and Exit.

[bAptist]

Open your TATW.CFG file in your Medieval II TW/mods/Third_Age_3 folder, and search for:

[video]
movies = false - change false to true

Save and Exit.

If that doesn`t fix it, then there is:

[game]

;event_cutscenes = 0

change it to:

event_cutscenes = 1

Save and Exit.

Doesn't look like either worked.... the only video I got so far is the crusade one when Sauron launched an attack...

[♔atthias♔]

Doesn't look like either worked.... the only video I got so far is the crusade one when Sauron launched an attack...

do you use steam if yes try what elvenkind said in your medieval2 preferences cfg in your medieval II folder

[bAptist]

I seem to not have the file you are talking about, I play MTW2 on Mac btw and using steam...

[Ngugi]

And for the record, in case you play as Free Peoples of Eriador you begin with the region, so then there's no video shown.

[DonnyBrasko]

if a good faction does not border a bad faction but are at war with them, will they march through your lands or other 'good' lands in order to attack them?

[Socrates1984]

if a good faction does not border a bad faction but are at war with them, will they march through your lands or other 'good' lands in order to attack them?

It has never happened to me, which leads me to believe that the AI invades only adjacent provinces. Although there is always the possibility of scripted attacks, i.e. spawned or generally predefined attacks made by the AI and organized by the evil mod creators to never let you rest and torment you while you sleep.

[♔atthias♔]

if a good faction does not border a bad faction but are at war with them, will they march through your lands or other 'good' lands in order to attack them?

no due a hardcoded vanila
MTW2 AI bug

[DonnyBrasko]

ok, thanks.

Another Q, in large scale fights, almost a full stack force, battling with the Ents seems to cause the game to crash. Is this a known occurrence/bug?

Q2: How many turns does the one ring stay in a settlement?

Q3: Is it random as to how long the Ents stay with you

[♔atthias♔]

ok, thanks.

Another Q, in large scale fights, almost a full stack force, battling with the Ents seems to cause the game to crash. Is this a known occurrence/bug?

Q2: How many turns does the one ring stay in a settlement?

Q3: Is it random as to how long the Ents stay with you

Q1 see this http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...wolves-crashes
Q2 somewhere between 5 to 10 turns IIRC
Q3 I dont know hopefully modders can give the answer to you