Upgrading settlements

[Incontinenta Buttox]

I am at turn 75 in an Eriador campaign. Only now have I managed grow Annuminas into a city. Bree is still only a large town. Fornost and Amon Sul have less people than a Gordon Brown fanclub.

I think population growth is a bit low in 2.1, or population required to upgrade settlements is a bit high.

75 turns in and I am having to fight off trolls with Bree militia. I know Eriador was sparsely populated, but the rate my castles are growing, i may never get to upgrade them.

What is the general opinion on this?

[gamevn]

I am at turn 75 in an Eriador campaign. Only now have I managed grow Annuminas into a city. Bree is still only a large town. Fornost and Amon Sul have less people than a Gordon Brown fanclub.

I think population growth is a bit low in 2.1, or population required to upgrade settlements is a bit high.

75 turns in and I am having to fight off trolls with Bree militia. I know Eriador was sparsely populated, but the rate my castles are growing, i may never get to upgrade them.

What is the general opinion on this?

In my Eriador campaign, Annuminas reach 18000 population (large city) in about 80 turns. Grow speed 3,5-4% per turn. Let your highest respect general (Aragorn or Gandalf) govern Annuminas and set tax lowest.

[slowbro]

I am at turn 75 in an Eriador campaign. Only now have I managed grow Annuminas into a city. Bree is still only a large town. Fornost and Amon Sul have less people than a Gordon Brown fanclub.

I think population growth is a bit low in 2.1, or population required to upgrade settlements is a bit high.

75 turns in and I am having to fight off trolls with Bree militia. I know Eriador was sparsely populated, but the rate my castles are growing, i may never get to upgrade them.

What is the general opinion on this?

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=377362
among other threads yes the pop growth is reduced in 2.X

[Lordinquisitor]

He knows that the growth is reduce in 2.1

He just wanted to know whether we like it or not.

I haven`t played 2.X yet and thus i can`t say anything.

[Gharbad the Weak]

The wooden castles are the largest problem, they take far too long to upgrade. The towns are fine.

[Withwnar]

75 turns in and I am having to fight off trolls with Bree militia. I know Eriador was sparsely populated, but the rate my castles are growing, i may never get to upgrade them.

What is the general opinion on this?

I am thoroughly enjoying the Eriador campaign and I don't mind the slow pace (settlement upgrades) but now OoG/OotMM are starting to send trolls my way. I can recruit Merchant Infantry (?) in Bree only and my castles are still a long way from the "Castle" upgrade, even with having Gandalf (high Respect + Architect) living in Amon Sul for most of the game.

In retrospect I should have expanded into the Orc realms earlier to reduce their Troll production capability but that's not how I wanted to play it. I had a real sense of Eriador under attack by occasional Orc armies that provided a fair fight (given my low army numbers). But now that Trolls are in the equation I'm worried.

So, yes, I think it is too slow to upgrade but purely because of the Troll factor.

[Messremb]

Hi there, folks!
Another thread with pop problems?
You can build recruitment buildings in cities too!!!! Screw the Castles!
Haven't played Eriador too much (HE got pwned and The Last House destroyed so- restart) and I don't know if it's a Arnor req or something but like I said: screw the castles!
Move Gandalf to Annuminas; if you want to pwn all keep Aragorn in Bree or move him to Amon Sul if not, the other guy with starting bonus in Fornost and the others- let them loose.
I always keep all cities at low tax and still got money to boot.
Make a balanced army and break the spine of who you see as a threat if you want to play relaxed or turtle and litter the map with heroic wins.

But keep in mind that all of this advise is from Medium/Medium play- H/H and VH are a bit too masochistic for my taste.

Almost forgot: Trolls are frightening only on the map, in this version they die properly hard/easy.
There was an unit stats database somewhere for Stainless Steel that showed the exact defense distribution on all sides of a unit- conclusion: charge cav at their backs then veer away through another charge at another enemy unit and repeat. They die surprisingly easy.

[Incontinenta Buttox]

I am thoroughly enjoying the Eriador campaign and I don't mind the slow pace (settlement upgrades) but now OoG/OotMM are starting to send trolls my way. I can recruit Merchant Infantry (?) in Bree only and my castles are still a long way from the "Castle" upgrade, even with having Gandalf (high Respect + Architect) living in Amon Sul for most of the game.

In retrospect I should have expanded into the Orc realms earlier to reduce their Troll production capability but that's not how I wanted to play it. I had a real sense of Eriador under attack by occasional Orc armies that provided a fair fight (given my low army numbers). But now that Trolls are in the equation I'm worried.

So, yes, I think it is too slow to upgrade but purely because of the Troll factor.

I am in exactly the same situation. I am up to turn 87, and I have OOG sending stacks with at least one unit of trolls at me. All I can recruit are the early militias. I have no units capable of standing up to trolls.

Because of this I am now in trouble.

[Withwnar]

Higher tier troops are available at castles earlier than cities. By "earlier" I mean less upgrades but I'm thinking that time wise it's longer. You might have a point there. Rangers are only available from castles though (I think).

[Withwnar]

There are AP Lumbermen mercenaries somewhere about. I don't know where - haven't looked yet.

I would have been quite happy to keep fending off the Orc attacks for a lot longer. Bree is my only hope for recruiting anything higher than Merchant Infantry - but that's a fair way off too. I'm expecting many trolls before then.

[Incontinenta Buttox]

There are AP Lumbermen mercenaries somewhere about. I don't know where - haven't looked yet.

I would have been quite happy to keep fending off the Orc attacks for a lot longer. Bree is my only hope for recruiting anything higher than Merchant Infantry - but that's a fair way off too. I'm expecting many trolls before then.

I have just started to be able to recruit merchant infantry at Annuminas, but still not at Bree yet. I don't know how much use a few units of merchant militia are going to be against trolls.

I have just lost Fornost to an OOG army with two units of trolls. I only managed to kill 7 out of 24 trolls when I lost Fornost.

The one unit of lumbermen that you start with weren't very effictive against Trolls. I think I am screwed now to be honest.

By this stage, any other good faction would have had access to better units for some time now.

[slowbro]

There are AP Lumbermen mercenaries somewhere about. I don't know where - haven't looked yet.

I would have been quite happy to keep fending off the Orc attacks for a lot longer. Bree is my only hope for recruiting anything higher than Merchant Infantry - but that's a fair way off too. I'm expecting many trolls before then.

Ap units are not very good vs trolls. AP only halves the armor value and trolls total defence is 75% defence skill 25% armor. AP unit only lowers trolls defence by max 4 points.

[Withwnar]

I don't expect the merchants to be either; just making the point that that's my highest level recruitable unit. Lumbermen no good? This is not looking good.

If all fails maybe we can get together and form a "how I lost Eriador" support group.

[Ethien]

I've kept Gandalf with half a stack of units up near OoG's castle north of Gram. I'm not sure if this is a factor, but since the beginning of the game I've been neutral with the Orcs of Gundabad. Annúminas has just finished building the required building after having Aragorn in it since turn two or three, low tax in addition to all buildings being built first that contribute to population growth. I'm just over turn 100 and not one castle has had the option of being upgraded beyond their initial state.

Aragorn had a daughter, so he'll have no biological son to continue his line which irks me (Oh wait, there is Araglas. But he's ugly, so I don't count him). Halbarad, Araphor and Araglas have all had almost four sons each, so now I have an immense amount of generals adding to my upkeep.

I may have to send them all as their own stack.

[Withwnar]

I'm toying with the idea of giving AP to Aragorn and Ranger missiles. I have one unit of each and no chance to recruit others any time soon. So these would become my Troll assassins.

Cheating. Yes. Or rather, a compensation for not playing Eriador as (I suspect) it needs to be: expanding into those Orc realms early to reduce their number of settlements which later will all become Troll spawners.

Alas poor Araglas.

EDIT:

...now I have an immense amount of generals adding to my upkeep...I may have to send them all as their own stack.

That gives me an idea. Maybe band all of my generals together for an assault on OoG. It would be glorious!

P.S. Getting off topic now I suppose but did Imladris fall in anyone else's Eriador campaign? I think that this might be a significantish factor.