Oh, not again...

[Maiden_Ante]

So, I'm at turn 140-150 with Dale, Rhûn has one sorry region left, Silvan Elves has done alright... however, Gondor are surely but surely getting grinded to crap by Mordor and Rohan are nonexistent. Mordor has in the usual manner 6-7 full stacks of soldiers inside my country and has taken Dale in an invasion.

So... this is my fifth campaign that ends about the same... first Gondor, then Gondor again, then Silvan Elves and then Gondor again. What am I doing wrong? The only thing I know is that I need to use diplomacy more (but how?) and that I don't build enough soldiers.

So... tips? And what would be a good faction to play now?

[Lordinquisitor]

YOU have to send help to Gondor if you want them to survive.

[Maxamus]

I dont know :/ but as HE if you play defense against ootmm and wipe out isengard, then rohan does fine and you can help gondor. Or kill ootmm lol HE is my favorite faction so good luck and have fun!

[jinjo]

it's hard question as i dont know your game style
try to play with evil factions it's easier
if u want to play only good factions, try dwarves and HE, they are easier

[Painis_Cupcake]

I am at 70 turn and Rhun has 1 region left, Khand. Very poorly defended and will soon fall, I think.

I have alliances/trading with all good factions, so they don't fight with themselves. I also have trading with Harad and Isengard.

Silvan Elves are very well faring - they took down Mordor from forest! They are besieging that little rebel city there and I hope they fail, as I have few squads around, just waiting for their failure.

I was surprised to see that Rohan got smaller because of Isengard's attacks. However, High Elves are taking them from the north. And Eriador too.

Gondor is faring surprisingly well, they even killed the Witch-King very soon. I'm going to attack Mordor as soon as all Rhun is mine and my best generals have full armies made of very good units.

And, you need to expand quickly. Attack Mordor, it will help Gondor too, as Mordor will have to concentrate on two opponents.

If you want, retake former Gondor's settlements and give it to them.

[Pietrak]

So, I'm at turn 140-150 with Dale, Rhûn has one sorry region left, Silvan Elves has done alright... however, Gondor are surely but surely getting grinded to crap by Mordor and Rohan are nonexistent. Mordor has in the usual manner 6-7 full stacks of soldiers inside my country and has taken Dale in an invasion.

So... this is my fifth campaign that ends about the same... first Gondor, then Gondor again, then Silvan Elves and then Gondor again. What am I doing wrong? The only thing I know is that I need to use diplomacy more (but how?) and that I don't build enough soldiers.

So... tips? And what would be a good faction to play now?

I don't understand your problem. Simply attack the enemy of your ally that you want to save. Mordor will massacre Gondor unless it is attacked by you from some other side, so it has to divide it's resources. Isengard will most probably destroy Rohan, unless it gets attacked by the HE and Eriador.

In my current campaign as the Silvans, I'm at turn 75 - Rohan is down to 4 settlements - Hornburg, Foldburg, Limlight Fort, Tirith Anduin, the rest taken by Mordor - as you see, no settlement was taken by Isengard, because Isengard is busy fighting the HE and Eriador.
Gondor suffered initial defeats, but now is starting to push Mordor back - Gondor is divided directly in half, from north to south, between Gondor and Mordor.
In the North-east, Rhun is doing surprisingly good against both Dale and the Dwarves - Rhun just conquered North Rhovanion region.
Currently, I am busy with pushing the OotMM back from the vale of Anduin into the Misty Mountains - when I finish with them, I'll press south and attack Mordor - when that happens and Mordor will have to pay full attention to me, Gondor and Rohan will start to seriously regain their territories.

[Bulvine]

In my experience, no matter what faction I play, it is Harad that is the real undoing of Gondor. Sure, most of the territories once belonging to Gondor are owned by Mordor, but that is only because the stupid Gondor AI runs stacks and stacks of vital soldiers into Harads armies in the south, thereby practically holding the door open for Mordor to crush them. there is very, very little any faction can do to save Gondor...eventually it will fall, you simply can't stop it. Harad needs a serious nerf and ocean travelling HAS to be improved. My last game (HE) I put Glorfindel and his posse on some boats and went shore crashing in Harad. Took out 4 coastal regions destroying EVERY building in them and blockading every port. This was had zero to no effect on their invasion of Gondor...in fact, it got WORSE for Gondor. The thing is...it takes a million turns to run these pirate missions and its the money you make from ransacking cities is only slighty better than the upkeep required to ship the army down there...because it takes a million turns to get there.

I hate Harad. Hate Hate Hate.

[IrishBlood]

In my experience, no matter what faction I play, it is Harad that is the real undoing of Gondor. Sure, most of the territories once belonging to Gondor are owned by Mordor, but that is only because the stupid Gondor AI runs stacks and stacks of vital soldiers into Harads armies in the south, thereby practically holding the door open for Mordor to crush them. there is very, very little any faction can do to save Gondor...eventually it will fall, you simply can't stop it. Harad needs a serious nerf and ocean travelling HAS to be improved. My last game (HE) I put Glorfindel and his posse on some boats and went shore crashing in Harad. Took out 4 coastal regions destroying EVERY building in them and blockading every port. This was had zero to no effect on their invasion of Gondor...in fact, it got WORSE for Gondor. The thing is...it takes a million turns to run these pirate missions and its the money you make from ransacking cities is only slighty better than the upkeep required to ship the army down there...because it takes a million turns to get there.

I hate Harad. Hate Hate Hate.

sorry dude im gonna have to disagree with you on that, as rohan i found it easy to save gondor, i just sent one of my unwanted/unused adoped son's to osgiliith. i placed him beside the gondorian armies so when they were attacked he was in the battle, that way battles were fought properly, im desgusted at how badly gondor seems to come off in automatically resolved battles. if my general was of a superior rank to that of the gondor army i'd be able to tell them weather to fight defensivly, offensivly or to skirmish, also having an elite bodyguard unit like rohans gave me the chance to turn the tide of plenty of battles by taking out the orch generals and archers. and the most important thing is that i ran down the fleeing units, that might not sound too important, but in one battle, my one unit of generals bodyguard killed 300 orcs and captured 1000!!!! then later on when i could afford to i send like 2 full stacks of men to take the offensive againt morder.
in my current save as dale i have just liberated E./W. osgilith as well as cari andros and given it mback to gondor, and will soon retake minas tirth for them soon, thats at turn 93 and they still have dol amroth and peligar, aswell as the smaller settlements to the west

[MAMO72]

With 1.4 and thanks to Rammas I found Gondor much more strong on defense (AI, 'cuz I'm playing HE) against both Mordor and Harad; I think you have chosen the wrong faction to start with; if you are not well skilled with VH/VH level is better for me to start with HE, Dwarves or SE (stronger units even in the early stages of the game when you will probably face economy troubles and no much more money to spend in units); My usual first step, once arrived at the right number of settlements owned (it vary from faction to faction), is help Rohan before Iseganrd become too strong for them, once destroyied Isengard you can easily help Gondor sending them a full stack of yours, this would be sufficient to let them survive to both Mordor and Harad; I'm also used to conquer small villages, even if far from their homeland to give to Rohan and Gondor to let them stay alive if I have a lot of troubles that don't let me help them directly.

[Maiden_Ante]

@Pietrak: I'm in FULL war with Mordor, but it doesn't matter, they've got ten times the soldiers.

[Pietrak]

If you were at full war with Mordor, they wouldn't have so much soldiers. I had only one campaign when Mordor did not decimate Gondor - I was playing Dale before the remake, RR/RC. I destroyed Rhun, retook Mirkwood from Mordor (Silvans were no more then), I took the Black Gates and had 2 stacks of soldiers marching into Mordor from the east - imagine the surprise when I found whole Mordor occupied by Gondor, with 2 Gondorian stacks sieging Barad-dur! Don't tell me that making the AI fight on multiple fronts doesn't help.

Tip for you: go into "submods" section and download the latest Real Recruitment/Real Combat mod by PointBlank. It really improves the gameplay.

[Arágion]

Well, another story:

I'm playing as Gondor and I'm at war with every evil factions...

I started a war with Rhun when I was around turn 20, I quickly pushed them away from Anduin river.
Everything went wery well, untill Sauron "showed" up and called an invasion on Minas Tirith. (as always)
Then the attacks on Osgiliath, Ithilien and Cair Andros started.

Soon I saw 5 invasion armies marching to Minas Tirith but they were stopped by Rammas Echor.

Well, I started to lose money, about -7000 per turn...

Harad used a lot of cavalry, I lost almost all my armies in there...
then my luck changed...

I started to win every fight against Mordor (they only took Henneth Annuin), and also Harad suffered heavy losses.

Minas Tirith is safe because of Rammas Echor, but outside the wall, well... there were like 30,0000 orcs waiting for getting to Minas Tirith (invasion)

Turn is around 100-110, I've taken half of the Harad territories, I push mordor's attack away every time they attack on me. I'm using RC/RR, so Mordor uses Guards of Bard-Dur and dismounted black Numenóreans too (they are a pain in the a**)


Rohan is keeping Isengard at bay, they do not have problems with them (Isengard is at war with eriador and Dwarves too)

Silvans and Dwarves are fighting each other, as well Silvans and Rohan...
but it's fine as long as they don't take each other's cities as they haven't


I also gathered an army in Minas Tirith to meet the invading armies... after Aragorn had offered his help.
Aragorn, Boromir and Faramir led an army (about 2000 troops) from Minas Tirith to outside of Rammas.
They provoked two of mordor's invading armies in a fight on open field....
They all fought well and...

my 1600 men won a open field battle against 9500 enemies (a big fight)
(I have screenies of it...)

And now....:
Gondor will rule the world!!!

[Lordinquisitor]

Your mistake was that you didn`t sent help to Gondor. One Full stack to help them defend against Mordor is usually enough to help them survive.

[Maiden_Ante]

@Pietrak: I have RR/RC. Humbly enough I cannot say I am a God at gaming as thyself, oh mighty one. Mordor are overmighty since I didn't deal with them soon enough. If I'd attack them earlier then Rhûn would still mess at the eastern front. Anyhow, you're probably right. Although I did send Gondor perhaps 15000 gold in total as financial support, perhaps I should've sent some troops as well...

Anyway. Thinking about restarting as Rohan, any tips?

[Pietrak]

@Pietrak: I have RR/RC. Humbly enough I cannot say I am a God at gaming as thyself, oh mighty one. Mordor are overmighty since I didn't deal with them soon enough. If I'd attack them earlier then Rhûn would still mess at the eastern front. Anyhow, you're probably right. Although I did send Gondor perhaps 15000 gold in total as financial support, perhaps I should've sent some troops as well...

Anyway. Thinking about restarting as Rohan, any tips?

Mistake. Sending money to the AI is useless, because the AI gets loads of cash from money scripts.

Don't get me wrong, I'm just a seasoned veteran of Total War games. I played them since Shogun Total War. Also, I've spent a lot of time at Medieval 2 Total War, so sometimes I just don't understand problems people have with this game.

As for Rohan:
-take as much rebel settlements as you can before Isengard gets them.
-keep a big garrison at Foldburg, that way you will keep Isengard at bay.
-Helmingas are the force that will make your battles WAY easier. Since Isengard armies are massive in numbers, you need to thin them down - no better unit for that - also, they are superb at defending walls.
-if an invasion gets called on Edoras, gather a full stack there and you will be ok. Also, try to defeat the enemy invading armies in the field, don't let them siege you.
-your best defence against Mordor is Gondor, so don't hesitate to send a few units under an able general East, to help Gondor in the defense of the Anduin line, for example.
-once you dispose of Isengard, devote your full attention to Mordor.

[alhoon]

-if an invasion gets called on Edoras, gather a full stack there and you will be ok. Also, try to defeat the enemy invading armies in the field, don't let them siege you.

Why if I may ask?

[Pietrak]

Why if I may ask?

Because cavalry sucks if caught in a city?

[ashenhigh]

@Pietrak: I have RR/RC. Humbly enough I cannot say I am a God at gaming as thyself, oh mighty one. Mordor are overmighty since I didn't deal with them soon enough. If I'd attack them earlier then Rhûn would still mess at the eastern front. Anyhow, you're probably right. Although I did send Gondor perhaps 15000 gold in total as financial support, perhaps I should've sent some troops as well...

Anyway. Thinking about restarting as Rohan, any tips?

Nothing is better than full stacks of cavalry. 10 horse-arches, 10 Heavy Cavalry (lancers, royal guards, bodyguards included).

NOTHING IS BETTER. Its not only the most fun way to fight a battle but its also quite the sight.

[Lordinquisitor]

We have some Rohan Threads here already. Search for them.

[Black_ice_Spain]

my best tip vs mordor its always the same, get a general with many elite soldiers, and rape orcs with him, when he gets full command and fear (or almost), battles will be so easy that you can take even the black door with him (refilling his army after battles and maybe doing a 2nd army go with him too)

once you have black door and minas ithil (later, mainlly black door), its done.