Goblins. I feel so hated...

**Lordwims** · December 15, 2009, 05:59 PM

Hi there, my name is Lordwims. This is my first time posting in these forums, but I love this mod.
I have taken an interest in the Orcs Of The Misty Mountains, but I am struggling with playing them on vh/vh. All the other factions I can manage, but OOTMM seems to be very hated and low on resources and tech.

Are there any tips or tricks for managing this campaign on vh/vh?

Many thanks.
- Lordwims.

**Oldtimer** · December 16, 2009, 06:04 AM

Yes, I hate them too, very much.

Regards, Oldtimer

**PSIHOPAT** · December 17, 2009, 04:50 AM

I love them..too...

But until they will be seriously improved...i can't play with they...

**Hermes Trismegistos** · December 17, 2009, 12:03 PM

Early game with OotMM is always hard, you need to thin well about every single step...

1) I would recommend to bring down Imladris as early as possible, that should give you some rest at least from the High Elves for some time - now you can focus totally to the east.
Try to keep peace with Eriador as long as possible, if necessary give them maps, they don't cost you anything.
2) Next step should be to take the rebel settlements Framsburg and Wrakyaburg and concentrate your forces in Wrakyaburg - from here you can defend against offences from the Sylvan Elves as well as helping out Dain's Halls if it is sieged by the dwarves. In siege defences against dwarves never rely solely on the fight at gates and walls, dwarves will always be superior in melee on little space. Bring out snagas through the side gates and pepper the flanks of the dwarves advancing towards the main gate with javelins, attack them from all sides once you run out of ammunition.
3) I managed to bring down the only two dwarven family members Dain and Thorin in an early invasion towards the Iron Hills - if you can achieve something similar, it would be very helpful of course...
4) Take the two well-developed settlements in Lothlorien. I'm not going lie to you, it's going to be really hard. Use many archers and always use them with flaming arrows - that way you can at least partially substitute their inferiority. Even elven archers have a hard job vs. mass-flaming-arrow-crossfire. Otherwise spread out your formation wide and try to engage them in melee with superior numbers (opposite with the dwarves, always harrass them with arrows and javelins).
5) Once Lothlorien is down, the Sylvan elves mostly use their fighting spirit. Now you can build up, soon there should be trolls and wargs available which solve most of your problems. Now you can freely choose whom to attack next, depending on how the campaign plays out, you shpuld be able to match all of them.

This way it worked for me - of course every campaign plays out different, so I can't guarantee it to work...

PS:

It should look more or less like this in the end...

Attachment 66512

**Shocked** · December 17, 2009, 10:26 PM

Lol

I have never seen that before.. Nice work lol

**Withwnar** · December 18, 2009, 12:22 AM

Great post Hermes +rep. Awesome map too. So only Dale and Rohan left... good ol' Northmen.

I was going to say, before I saw that map, that lore-wise OotMM wouldn't be a hugely successful faction on their own and so maybe try and work with the other evil factions. Meaning: see if you can drag Isengard and/or Mordor into wars in your region so the good guys are not focused just on you.

For example: capture a settlement in northern Eriador, gift/sell it to Isengard, wait. Eriador might decide to take back this region in the middle of their beautiful realm and bang!... war with Isengard. From what I've heard the AI is more likely to try and take it back if the region is not a border region (i.e. is an inner region), and, I think, also if it's one of their victory condition regions.

Needless to say alliances are a good thing, if only to prevent them turning on you.

**Shocked** · December 18, 2009, 02:30 AM

Im surprised Rohan lasted longer than other nations

**Hermes Trismegistos** · December 18, 2009, 11:02 AM

My screenshot doesn't show the final situation, it went on for a few turns further. I conquered two of the remaining Dale provinces and Rhun one, then Rhun attacked me, I conquered two of their settlements and the rebel province in the Blue Mountains and was victorious.

The reason why Rohan lasted so long is probably that I always directed the invasions to other places: Iron Hills, Bree, Dale and so Rohan never was at war with Mordor. But soon after my screenshot Isengard and Mordor went at war and in the same turn Mordor declared war to Rohan 8probably to get a shorter way to Isengard) and Rohan was down within a few turns.

So all good factions were down? No not all good factions. One little province populated by brave Gondorians, barely visible on my sreenshot was the last to survive - Andrast.

EDIT: And concerning alliances of course they are good but I never managed to achieve a single alliance in this game not even with evil factions (except something like three turns before the end with Mordor after all the evil factions turned against each other). I guess it was because my brutal behaviour vs. the populace of conquered cities... in my HE game I was very honorable and everybody liked me, could even trade maps with everyone... (like Mordor, Harad, Rhun)