Some help to beginners!

[Captain Iglo]

I've created this thread so the new guys in TATW can find which faction is the easiest to play for a start. So you experienced guys which faction do you recommend to start with and why?

[servium]

well i guess rhun, because they are far away from potential enemies and espacially have better troops later in game (golden armies )
but at some point that really gets to easy because u can kill dale because they dont have the troops to qonquer. u can kill half the dwarves because they are seperated and its hard for them to get armies fast to citys in help. and they can betray mordor and harad very easily. cuz mordor has no troops at the east of its land and with gondor pushing from the west u can crush them. and harad is easily overcome because u can use the pathway to the south-east to kill them off. and with that in mind u easily get around 30-40 citys in just 50 turns. and from that on u can easily crush the rest of the guys

[Lordinquisitor]

Easiest? Well...

Rhun. (Mordor an close second.)

1. Rhuns starting position is very good- You have only to fight dwarves and dale, and you have only to defend your northern and western border.

2. Rhun got an great economy. If you are doing it right (high taxes in every town, to get good traits, only free units as garison in your inner land, gold mines as soon as you can build them, etc...) You`ll be swimming in gold.

3. Rhun got great units! They have (one of) the best roster(s).. And they look simply awesome. They got skirmishers, cavalry, mounted archers, bowman, crossbowman, pikes, halberds, light and heavy infantry and heavy cavalry.

4. If you use balchoth tribesmen and your general units at the beginning nothing can stop you. For dwarves lack mobility and they won`t be able to touch your skirmishers, and your generals will break every unit with enough charges. Dale only got an mediocre roster and won`t be an great threat either.

5. The only bad thing about rhun is, that you`ll get your elite units very late, because your towns start off quite small. I suggest taking the dwarven city azanulimbar-dûm as fast as possible. So that you can recruit your best units soon after the advanced barracks event .(which unlocks stronger units)

6. The vanilla (unmodded third age game) game is fine as it is, but don`t seek balance. There is none. If you feel, after trying one, two games, that something is not balanced and you value lore accurateness, try the submod RC/RR. It fixes a lot of balance and lore issues. (For example in vanilla elves get pwned by simple orc soldiers.. And you can spam elves! In RC/RR Elven units are much stronger than orcish untis, but also more less in numbers.)

[jinjo]

all evil factions are easy to play
dwarves and high elves also are not hard to play
i think only gondor, rohan and silvan elves campaigns are more or less challenging

[Lordinquisitor]

Dwarves are an pain for beginners.

[MasterBigAb]

all evil factions are easy to play
dwarves and high elves also are not hard to play
i think only gondor, rohan and silvan elves campaigns are more or less challenging

Yes, i agree, the evil factions are all much easier than the good ones, but it can be really great and challangeing to play as isengard and wait a few turns before you attack rohan and don't conquer settlements at the beginning, than you get a powerful rohan as enemy and it's also hard to beat them
as for the easiest i think rhun as well, but harad and mordor are also very very easy, especially harad, as your settlemest are save and you fight only at one little front, and have mordor attacking gondor as well

[Captain Iglo]

I think too that Rhun is easy to play but when you 've conquered Dale and you get to fight the Dwarves it can be a bit hard because they attack you from the north with their elite units which are very strong (that's why I think the Dwarves are a bit overpowered) and you have many fronts.

[Blackorc]

Hmm I think Harad is the best campain for beginners. They got only 1 enemy who gets verry fast crushed by mordor got good ecenomy and verry good units.
Also mordor and rhun are good for beginners.

[Lordinquisitor]

I think too that Rhun is easy to play but when you 've conquered Dale and you get to fight the Dwarves it can be a bit hard because they attack you from the north with their elite units which are very strong (that's why I think the Dwarves are a bit overpowered) and you have many fronts.

Balchoth tribesmen and archers, mounted archers are even better. They won`t get near you and after you got no arrows left, kill them with one general unit. In normal Third Age dwarves are under powered.

[Captain Iglo]

Balchoth tribesmen and archers, mounted archers are even better. They won`t get near you and after you got no arrows left, kill them with one general unit. In normal Third Age dwarves are under powered.

I let them grow stronger in VH/VH so they can send me some of their best. That's why I said that. And one group of archers only kill 100 Axmen of Erebor before they have no arrows left... But ,anyway, it's a good faction to start with!

[jinjo]

Yes, i agree, the evil factions are all much easier than the good ones, but it can be really great and challangeing to play as isengard and wait a few turns before you attack rohan and don't conquer settlements at the beginning, than you get a powerful rohan as enemy and it's also hard to beat them
as for the easiest i think rhun as well, but harad and mordor are also very very easy, especially harad, as your settlemest are save and you fight only at one little front, and have mordor attacking gondor as well

yeah i agree with u if u wait and dark lord waits then rohan gets stronger
but generally, dark lord calls invasion almost immediately and if u still wait, some other faction will come and conquer edoras

[Blackorc]

yeah i agree with u if u wait and dark lord waits then rohan gets stronger
but generally, dark lord calls invasion almost immediately and if u still wait, some other faction will come and conquer edoras

Also even without invasion Rohan is overrunned by Isengard.

[jinjo]

Also even without invasion Rohan is overrunned by Isengard.

no we thought if we choose isengard and wait until rohan gets stonger

[tallstark]

Agreed on either Rhun or Harad. Map edges are safest borders ever. However from a normal fan perspective I imagine the majority of us were on the good guys side when we read the books or saw the movie, so from a playing good perspective, I would make a case for playing Gondor if you want to play on M/M, or High Elves if you want to try anything harder. Gondor has most balanced unit roster so whatever your playing style it can accomodate it. Although you will be attacked from two evil and large nations right away, you basically only have to look to the land bridge and get to E. Osgilliath and most of the battles will be there. If you keep those two points and provide early help to Rohan then your northern front will be safe for a good long while. Keep Rohan viable, and get eastr quickly. As soon as you have a strong garrison in Osg, you can also throw a curve ball and launch your own naval invasion of Harad! As in almost every mod ever, the AI almost always leaves the back door lightly defended. Gondor is also the one good faction where trade ports can really be important, where your use of navy can impact your life, and you have access to an extended roster of special units that are a lot of fun. My personal favorite is Rohan but that first crusade and lack of strong missile or infantry and low economy to start make it an acquired taste.

[Point Blank]

Yep Rhun or Harad.

[FriendoftheDork]

I second Gondor on M/M, because of their excellent and easy to use starting units. Rhûn may have better units early on, but Gondor has some of the best and most versatile militia units, easily defended huge cities and castles, and a decent potential ecconomy. Besides, someonetimes you just want to play the good guys like in the lore and Gondor is the iconic one while the other factions (except Rohan) was mostly sitting at the fence doing nothing.

[Muffer Nl]

was mostly sitting at the fence doing nothing.

Well...
Eriador send 34 men (four hobbits and the grey company)
Silvan Elves killed off about the same army that was attacking Gondor AND destroyed Dol Guldur.
Dale and the Dwarves destroyed an army superior in weapons and equal in numbers to the one attacking Gondor.

Who won the war again?

[Juli]

Eriador send 34 men (four hobbits and the grey company)

Yep, indeed

Silvan Elves killed off about the same army that was attacking Gondor AND destroyed Dol Guldur.

The size of the force attacking Lorien is not mentioned, so... no

Dale and the Dwarves destroyed an army superior in weapons and equal in numbers to the one attacking Gondor.

Again, the size of the host is not mentioned, though I can agree that the army attacking Dale must have been of almost the same size as the one on Minas Tirith. However, I´ve got my doubts about the "superior in weapons" thing. The army attacking the North seems to have been made up of Easterlings, while the one attacking Minas Tirith had Orcs and Uruks of various kinds, who fought with heavy equipment, also Men of the East with big axes, many Haradrim both on horse and foot, and Variag warriors, and trolls, and Mumakil, and there were also heavy siege weapons (catapults and Grond)... So the host attacking Gondor was superior in weaponry (and MAYBE in number) to the host attacking Dale and Erebor

Besides, Sauron´s armies in the South had the Nazgul...

[Hermes Trismegistos]

Funny that some people recommend Gondor as best faction for beginners while it won at the poll "which is the most difficult faction" (though I think this might be partly because many have tried Gondor)...

Not all the evil factions are easy, the Orc of the Misty Mountains are very hard at in early game.

I would recommend High Elves, they can be challenging later when they clash with Mordor which will be heavily upgraded at this time but at the beginning it's quite relaxing and you have a soft learning curve.

[Twist of Cain]

Not all the evil factions are easy, the Orc of the Misty Mountains are very hard at in early game.

I would recommend High Elves, they can be challenging later when they clash with Mordor which will be heavily upgraded at this time but at the beginning it's quite relaxing and you have a soft learning curve.

Ironically I find myself worrying about tactics less with elves than as OotMM. Just plop elves on a hilltop, click attack, arrows kill all, laugh, repeat.

OotMM are in the position to be a primary target for Eriador, the dwarves and both elven factions, which all 4 decided I was priority target last game I played as this faction on VH/VH. Very challenging, but fun.