An Orcs of the Misty Mountains thread (OOtMM)

[tyrannus]

So, I'm really liking these orcs because I get to fight those pointy eared maggot elves, but it's a little hard to keep track of everything. By like turn 6 I had elves encrouching on my lands and am not really sure in which direction I should begin expanding. Feel free to post your experiences and/or your tips!

[RedEclipse]

i haven't been the OOtMM yet but i would think take out those annoying Dwarves. But the Silvan Elves are probably the biggest threat. After destroying them, there isn't much else to threaten you. The High Elves will only have 2-3 territories near you.

[tyrannus]

I should probably take note as to which direction they are when I start a new campaign. I'd rather destroy the High Elves first and then work my way into the kingdoms of man.

[carth]

lorien is very close to moria and really innoying, i should take out those first, the first village is only a pallisade so it shouldnt be that hard (i you dont count the garrizon)

[Space Voyager]

OoMM were my first (and so far only) choice, love them. Than again, they are not loved by many. Silvan and High elves and Dwarves all at my throat... Aaaand a surprise with garrison script, he he he!

[Palanthir]

OoMM were my first (and so far only) choice, love them. Than again, they are not loved by many. Silvan and High elves and Dwarves all at my throat... Aaaand a surprise with garrison script, he he he!

surprise?

[Space Voyager]

surprise?

Well, it was at the time... I was sure I was going to get rid of the damn elves when their army multiplied by like 4 times. I had serious problems to later defend myself against their free-gotten army, dammit!

Love the garrison script! For those cities I'm waiting for siege equipment (or loads of dough).

[Palanthir]

Well, it was at the time... I was sure I was going to get rid of the damn elves when their army multiplied by like 4 times. I had serious problems to later defend myself against their free-gotten army, dammit!

Love the garrison script! For those cities I'm waiting for siege equipment (or loads of dough).

If you have spies in the city (and they open gates) and bring siege engines the script spawns less units

[Dazo]

Hello there filthy goblin fellows ^^,

- Some basic advices since OoMM are underdevelopped in the beginning (need to survive without trolls for some time):
* don't overtax your cities recklessly and let goblin town grow quickly, build level 1 farms and roads first (that can apply to many factions)
* call a crusade against dwarves of Azanulimbar-dum on the first turn before your reputation with Sauron drops to the point you can't do it anymore. Mordor and Rhun will keep dwarves busy a little and if invasion succeeds, dwarves will lost their biggest fortress (west settlements are low levels ones).
* make several "crusade" armies to get the free upkeep cost and get all those orcs looters to stuff your stacks (warning: recruit them before you leave your beginning regions)
* if you make one in gundabad for example, you can roll over the two northern rebel settlements in northern Anduin, giving you a milk cow town and a stronghold to protect it.
* another army in Moria can take the large town at the west (ost in endil I believe) to cover the capital (it's also a milk cow and you can build quickly a diplomat before sending him to Isengard). Then just try to get rid of those pointy ears in Lorien, even if you fail you'll keep them at bay while a minor stack of yours take the two remaining rebel settlements in lower Anduin.
- A strategic decision to made is wether or not going all out against high elves on the western flank: you'll need a third crusade army and that'd be your cash limit or you'll need one of your first two invasion army to go there (meaning it'd most likely vanish in the process because of desertion).
- Since there's only two main passes towards the west (the northern ones doesn't count since it's guarded by Carn dum fortress and you have a lot of ground between you and Eriador/Dwarves while the other is far away with a fort) and the southern one is near Isengard with ost in endil and a fort in the way, your more vulnerable flank is the eastern one. By invading the east you'll also make contact with Mordor northern settlement pretty quickly, that can help against sylvan elves.
- With dwarves and elves weakened, Dale would be the only strong faction remaining but they'll have you on western borders, Mordor on the southern one and Rhun on the eastern one...
bonus: seems calling an invasion against eastern dwarves sometimes prevents the war between Eriador and High Elves and since all crusade armies will go north-east, it will ease the first turns for Gondor and Rohan, giving them some time to build defense, thus allowing for more fun later .

Hope it was of some help for you OoMM players .

[Aradiel]

So far i like Ootmm best, and i dont think they are hard to play at all unless you use mithrandirs submod which makes it ultrahard to play them.

Heres my strategy:

1. Draw all forces from goblin town, fort and moria together, plus recruit additional 4 units.

2. Attack lorien and take the first settlement, in the meanwhile bring reinforcements from moria.

3. If possible take the 2nd settlement, the garrisonscript will most likely cause them to sally forth,
if that happens, rush in and attack them when they are still stuck in the gate, while your goblin warriors hold them the snagas will do the killing. If they stay inside, rush the wall with ladders, they will root quickly and once your in town the fight isnt that problematic anymore.


At the same time in the north:

Move all aviable troops to take the andiun vale settlements, make sure your northeastern flank is covered, dwarves and silvan elves will attack soon. Goblin town will get attacked by highelves soon also.
Note that i did not take the settlement north of trollshaws, Eriador will go for it, and so you dont have a 2nd border with trollshaw highelves. The remaining southern force with reinforcements takes the lower anduinvale, you may also go west from moria and take the town. At this point i would not go any further but build up economy.


Taking trollshaws is the next goal, once the highelves are driven out there you only have eriador in the west, i wouldnt borther them as dwarves will come in by that time, from the far west and east. A crusade against them may be a smart move, especially rhun can draw some attention of you. Build up economy and field trolls, then finish of the silvan elves in the woods, you may also go for dale as the dwarves have to be vanquished too.

2 Problems: 1. problem comes when the economy isnt good enough and your early troops still have to hold the line against heavily armored dwarves, thats why you need trolls to shake their lines.

2. You dont have cavalry, unless you install the additional units mod to get wargs, which i would do. Nothing more annyoing to chase masses of elves in skirmish mode across the battlefield.

[tyrannus]

Yes, the Orc skirmishers are just utterly fantastic. I love them to death. Dazo, some of your posts is confusing; wouldn't using my invasion army for something other than sacking the dwarf capital (which the invasion was called on) make them desert?

[Taiji]

Take the bandit lands to the east to provide a buffer between you and the elves and dwarfs.

Then take the high-elves settlement and kill off Elrond Also grab the settlements either side of Moria since they already have a high Mordor culture percentage

You can get that lot done easily by turn 20 or so if you're careful.

The most important thing with MotMM seems to be running away, do not bother to defend settlements just run away and regroup, then attack in force. One downside/exploit to leaving settlements undefended is your chance of being offered vassalage seems to go up... enough so that the Silvan elves became my loyal ally...

[Dazo]

Hello tyrannus ^^,

- Yes they will desert if you stay too long wandering around but if you advance towards the invasion objective while taking settlements, it will gain you some time before desertions occur (ex: Moria --> Lothlorien --> Celebran). Anyway your army will probably be destroyed in battle before all your units desert, so...
- I see invasions as a tool to get more troops with free upkeep, your crusading armies will mostly be shattered in the process (sacrifice) but why going all the way to Azanulimbar just to take one undefendable fortress ? Let it to Rhun or Mordor. Better use the invasion to conquer all nearby settlements and weaken bordering foes.
- The free upkeep will give you more cash each turn and you'll be able to rebuild "regular" armies quickly, no need to bother with deserting snagas. Invasion is here to buy you time, you can focus on rebels and sylvans elves (or high elves if that's your choice), eastern dwarves won't be able to send more than a half stack west (against you) with other evil powers knocking at their door.

To Taiji:
- That's a good alternative but I usually let at least one unit (snagas skirmishers) in any settlement: can gain one turn to regroup and inflict some losses to the enemy then besiege him in the town (perfect trap where elven archers can't run away all around the map).

Hope it was clearer this time .

[tyrannus]

I underestimated the pointy archers and am losing a lot of infantry. What, usually should a typical early army look like in terms of unit composition?

[Palanthir]

I underestimated the pointy archers and am losing a lot of infantry. What, usually should a typical early army look like in terms of unit composition?

I use the human (ok ork) wave tactic vs the elves usually the second wave makes contact and the 3rd routs them

[Morray]

Whoa guys you're all getting it wrong,

Doesn't it say at the start that the best way to play this game is to not rush the AI at the beginning and let him build up a little?

I haven't attacked a single faction until turn 30 (I've defended my lands sure enoughs o it is by no means boring!)

You need to savour this game like a fine wine, let the AI Distil as it should in it's fine factiony Oak casket then watch at it unleashes hell on you and has great established cities and forts.

By the time i began attacking Rohan with my Goblins it was actually annhialated and Isengard has taken all it's lands, then Isengard Mordor and Gondor were having an awsome 3 way battle which I chose to try and get involved in and got obliterated cause they all had massive empires!

Trust me when I say this, the game is so much more fun when you give it space to breath!

Not everything in this world needs to be rushed to be enjoyed!

[Dazo]

Whoa guys you're all getting it wrong,

Doesn't it say at the start that the best way to play this game is to not rush the AI at the beginning and let him build up a little?

I haven't attacked a single faction until turn 30 (I've defended my lands sure enoughs o it is by no means boring!)

You need to savour this game like a fine wine, let the AI Distil as it should in it's fine factiony Oak casket then watch at it unleashes hell on you and has great established cities and forts.

By the time i began attacking Rohan with my Goblins it was actually annhialated and Isengard has taken all it's lands, then Isengard Mordor and Gondor were having an awsome 3 way battle which I chose to try and get involved in and got obliterated cause they all had massive empires!

Trust me when I say this, the game is so much more fun when you give it space to breath!

Not everything in this world needs to be rushed to be enjoyed!

Hello ^^,

Yeah sure, we just described our best strategies but I believe we played some turns to make them effective so it doesn't mean we always use the rushing play. Once you are used to OoMM weaknesses you can allow yourself to play it "cool" for sure .

yeah, it's really important to leave some forces near your goblin town. after a few turns unmolested, the high elves sent a medium stack at it. my problem is managing such a large stretch when the mountains cross upwards into the top section. Like, the top of a T. unsure of what to do with those. but the punching the wood elves in the wangs strategy works really well.

- The "top of a T" settlements can be quite a headache, I agree but there are not so much options:
* the western ones aren't that important, you can lose them to dwarves or Eriador if needed but for the beginning, you'll be ok with a half stack garrisson for the whole (8 field units and 2 generals). Don"t build too much (roads, farm lvl 1, some watchtowers east and south). If you spot an army going for one of your towns regroup your 2 1/4 stacks to defend the targeted settlement, recruit 1 or 2 more units if necessary. That'd be enough to deal with dwarves for some time.
* the eastern ones are strategic block points, gundabad is your poorest town but it controls the main crossroad between your settlements and can develop quite well with silver mines. It's also far away from any enemy so you can send the garrisson towards the eastern castle to reinforce it or use the units as backbone for a crusade army (need to build barracks before). Don't overbuild in Dain's Halls, focus on Moria and Mountain Fort at the beginning, you'll pour money in the northeast later.
* There is a low chance dwarves and/or elves get crazy and send a full stack or combine armies (saw it only once) to get rid of Dain's Halls, just fall back if you're too weak or inflict them heavy losses with an all out defense if you can get some units together, then besiege the remaining fools in the castle and wipe them out .

- For reputation with Mordor, I'm not sure but I've thought of several things:
* As OoMM player you get the One Ring early and Sauron wants it you know ? Just put a white dress on your leader and go to the chur... er... the altar of Melkor I mean... (I'm just kidding here, don't do that !!!).
* Reputation drops a little by itself each turn (just go do some bowling or barbecue with your nazgul mates to strengthen relationship )
* If you don't go quickly on crusade you lose standing
* If you don't attack the targeted faction (crusade) you lose standing
* If your invasion doesn't success (stack disbanded whatever the reason) you lose standing
* If you don't take on Mouth of Sauron's missions, you lose standing
- It's why I said to trigger the invasion on turn 1, after that it's difficult to get Sauron ok and you probably won't have a dwarven settlement as available target anymore... That's the main drawback of the invasion strategy I think, but it's not that bad.

- For early armies, I try to get (full stacks in theory):
* 1/2 snagas skirmishers
* 1/4 snagas archers
* 1/4 goblin heavy infantry
* 1 general

- Later armies:
* 1/3 snagas skirmishers
* 1/4 goblin archers
* 1/4 heavy armoured infantry
* 2 troll units
* 1 general

+

[orvarth]

i think moria should be split in three , deep moria as a city and two castles est/west .

[tyrannus]

Dazo, these tips are making my game experience be a lot better now. Thank you!

[Beregond]

I underestimated the pointy archers and am losing a lot of infantry. What, usually should a typical early army look like in terms of unit composition?

I'd say MORE skirmishers.Haven't played these nasty Goblins,but fighting with them in the beginning is hard because of skirmishers