My first try - but not the last.
Hey I finally got around to trying out this mod, now that I'm finished with ETW.
My first impressions are good, nice looking units, good map, and those details such as videos etc. makes this probably the best total conversion mod I've seen in the total war games.
I've started with Gondor, but played on M/M since I usually don't care for the AI getting too much bonuses, especially the 10k per turn on VH. Maybe that makes my game too easy but no matter.
I've expanded a bit in the beginning, and noticed that Gondor has a steady income, a pretty large empire that could be very rich, possibility to get huge cities very quickly (Osgilliath) and a kickass citadel of Minas Tirith. It also seemed to be pretty well proteced with it's ally in the north, and "only" Mordor and Harad to worry about in the east. A bit later in the game I noticed to my pleasure that Corsairs (harad) had attacked me from the south, and captured one of my cities! I thought this was once of the fabled naval invasions, but it turned out to be a land bridge. Oh well, at least it works, although it means most attacks towards Minas Tirith comes from the south and not the east as in the books.
Otherwise the Gondor rooster is very good - cheap swordsmen, decent and armored cavalry, armored archers. Even all the militia variants are good enough to form an army, and after some major battles I have defeated armies from all the evil factions (while I defended Rohan), and even brokered cease-fires with all save Harad (they refused, possibly for actually making it hard on me). It's a bit silly that Mordor agrees to a cease-fire, as there would probably be little incentive for Sauron to do so (or the Witch King). Still, easily fixed with a house rule, and the AI is often relucant to initiate cease-fires anyway.
Now I do have a few issues, some that may be resolved by sub-mods:
1. Sauron hates Rohan. Yeah I know he would want to rule any man including northmen, but really wasn't he suppose to hate Dunedain over all? In which case you would think Gondor, especially Minas Tirith and Osgillith would be the prime targets. Still in my game He has declared invasion on Edoras once (success but I recaptured it and liberated it) and Hornburg twice! Even when at war with Mordor they never even attacked beyond Dagorlad and North Ithilen, and they don't dare to attack Osgilliath with it's huge walls more than once. Is there some way to make the Dark Lord favor Gondorian cities, especially Minas Tirith and Osgilliath?
2. Trolls, Mumakils and Ringwraiths may be powerful (only fought trolls so far). But other than that, the orcish factions seems fairly weak. Yeah they have large units, but that just gives my superior Gondorians more xp when they totally destroy the orcish units. Even worse, I've found no evidance of standard cavalry in these armies not even warg riders (which would make sense). The Ringwraiths may have awesome cavalry, but they are few and far between, while the Uruk bodyguards are no match for a cavalry charge by even Gondorian captains. I now the battles against evil are supposed to be epic and the good forces were often outnumbered in the books/films, but it becomes silly that 3000 orcs who live only for battle and violence have no chance at all against 1000 gondorian militia! Thus most of my "heroic victories" are merely the inevitable slaughter of orcs by arrows and cavalry charge, ending with them breaking totally. Besides I dislike the concept in this game that orcs are always stupid, physically weak, without cunning and te ability to craft, and generally unfit for battle except to die in droves! That's not how tolkien picture them, he described them as warlike, with long strong ape-like arms, and excellent abilities to craft effective, if crude, weapons and armor. They were even especially skilled at creating complex and viscous decices of war, such as crossbows and siege engines (though never as good as dwarves or elves in crafting).
So in short, better orcs, warg cavalry and possibly other units to replace horse cav in evil armies, and maybe a reduction in orc unit sizes.
3. Some factions seems to have been merged together, either becoming too big (harad), or too divided (Noldor).
4. Dol Guldur was the abode of Sauron himself. Although never as huge and awesome as Barad-Dur, it should still be something more than wooden-walled city. A castle at the very least. In fact, it was Sauron's plan that while hige forces were arrayed against Gondor, forces from Dol Guldur would attack and destroy the elves in northern Mirkwood and even Lothlorien. So in other words this settlement should be very signfificant.
5. After conquering most of Harad I notice they lack any good size cities. At least Umbar and the Haradrim capitol should be large. Also, I can't see if they have any Castles/Keeps at all.
6. Time scale. The war of the ring seem to start right off the bat while in canon it would still be a generation until Mordor would occupy Osgilliath and threaten Gondor. I suppose the few years in the actual war would be too quick to have a satisfying campaign, but most seem to be settled long before Frodo is born. Also, the Gondorian succession line is wrong, and Denethor seems to have neither Boromir nor Faramir as sons. Is there no way to keep it from being random in name? Also, after the initial ruler I can't see any famous person having a biography in the traits.
6. Some traits seems to be over abundant. My people are woefully ignorant, and the aggressive commanders get high dread scores. Yeah i guess this is a M2TW problem, but it's a bit hard to play "alignment." Doing something in between (killing orcs while sparing men for instance) only means respect/dread will stay close to balanced, this losing out of the bonuses of either. Besides ransoming or even freeing orcs doesen't seem like common practice to even the good factions. i could see having the entire ransom system done with anyway, although I like it in vanilla MTW.
Well that's all for now. I consider trying the many factions submod, but I don't want to change too much. The RR/RC mod are supposed to make the elves and dwarves alot more badass than now, and maybe even making orcs even worseso I don't think I'll try that yet. But feel free to convice me otherwise.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by TheArtfulDodger
Ah well, I tried. 
. Take heed that RR+RC is constantly updated, so you might be having good campaign going that lasts over several updates. But it's nothing to worry, just start the next campaign with the newest update. Make sure also that you report any bugs or suggestions you have in order to help make the mod better and better all the time.
