Creatures of Mordor amass!

[Daily]

Yay my first post on this forum. It's truly a good day!

Well I am not here to rant about the weather or the birds and the bees. I am here to talk about the dark faction Mordor which all enemies will vapor in the cruelty of destruction! I hope that some veterans of this faction will help since I am quite new both to the mod and Mordor.

I have now played the faction for a while, and already once have my empire been crushed. This second time I have done a better job but still I am having trouble to beat my archenemy Gondor. Each turn a army walks trough e.Osgiliath which I newly lost and parades towards Minas Morgul. Luckily to both luck and some skill I managed to beat the biggest army so far consisting of 4000 men from Gondor at the steps leading up to Minas Morgul. That was 6 turns ago and now I have rebuilt my army with trolls and strong units. Problem lies as I said with Gondor massive unit spam. To my north I have a large force but they are also fighting at their limit and no hope of replenishment because of lack of funds. My goal is the take e. Osgiliath and the town north up the river. Then reinforce so that I can have my "way" with Gondors southern settlements.

Now good folk I ask you of military and financial advice. What should I do? Try to kick the pesky elves out of their forest and establish a kingdom there or do as I plan in the section above? My kingdom doesn't have many resources and could need more expanding.

And btw creds to TATW team, thanks for an awesome mod.

[Romaneck]

Call for an invasion on Minas Tirith
???
Profit

Mordor should not be too hard, just send your Nazguls straight for the enemy commander and once he is dead you rout the hell out of the Gondorians.

if you have trolls behind city gates you should have an easy time defending, but yea invasions are the icing on the cake, that way every evil faction comes to bust the target a new one

[Outlawstar15a2]

One word: Anduin

Your ability to hold the Anduin River will make or break your game.

I would suggest at the very beginning sacrificing Dol Guldur. You can always reclaim it later either give it to Rhun or OotMM. I would suggest Rhun cause eventually Silvan Elves will besiege and take the city and then that will spur Rhun to wage war in the north which will seal one front for you for the time being.

The Anduin is where it's at for you the south part of the Anduin is usually used by Harad to walk across into southern Gondor and they usually go for Pelagir north towards the fortress that overlooks Pelagir (It's name escapes me). So you need to take and hold Cair Andros and E.Osgiliath. Forget W.Osgiliath until your ready to take all of Gondor on. Sit in Cair Andros and on the Osgiliath bridge and let the enemy attack you there. If you hold these two points then Gondor can't reach Mordor as the AI army never goes through Amon Hen and down through the Dagorlad. Mordor relies on numbers in a one on one fight your soldiers will never beat Gondor. THATS WHY WE HAVE TROLLS! WHEEEE!!!! Use trolls on the Anduin front. Abuse them. Spam them to the best of your ability. And when you have enough of them GET MORE. Seriously these guys are awesome. And their your battering ram where the rest of your army is the anvil used to hold the enemy in place.

After you've grown rich and have many stacks of your own then surge forward and press toward Dol Amroth taking Minas Tirith as you go. If you can take Minas Tirith you've already won the war against Gondor since that's the source of the impressive Fountain Guard and the hardest Gondor city to take because of the aforementioned unit. By far the most dangerous and strategic city to take is Pelagir it's the home of the Gondor Navy so I find the AI produces a lot of ships here but beware of the Pelagir Marines their javelins shred trolls like ghetto gangbangers do virgins.

Taking Minas Tirith and Pelagir usually gives you a free march across Gondor as it has lost access to two of it's best melee units. It is also a proving ground for your army groups as you'll see for yourself if your truly ready to fight the might of Gondor as most of their armies hang around east Gondor. Usually by the time you get to Dol Amroth you've killed most if not all of the ruling family however Denethor himself sometimes hangs in Dol Amroth and I like to kill Imrahil as well for safety's sake.

After you kill Gondor either through attrition, conquest, or regicide you can focus on your next biggest foe.... Rohan. But they're nowhere as near as dangerous as Gondor was though some take this time to knock off the Silvans and reclaim Dol Guldur after Gondor you can do whatever you want and have free reign to become a military hyper power in the game.

-Pleasure, for Pleasure's sake.

[Francisco de Miranda]

Call for an invasion on Minas Tirith
???
Profit

Mordor should not be too hard, just send your Nazguls straight for the enemy commander and once he is dead you rout the hell out of the Gondorians.

if you have trolls behind city gates you should have an easy time defending, but yea invasions are the icing on the cake, that way every evil faction comes to bust the target a new one

I'm having the same problem as Daily: What's a Nazgul?

[slowbro]

spam catapults then tell the crew to go melee once the enemy is near
use witch kings -6 morale to enemy special 2 per battle

[Daily]

Hey thanks for fast reply.

Yeah Outlaw we are on the same track. But with giving away the towns to Rhun wouldn't they be conquered by the elves before they could reinforce? It's four towns in the woods. But I think you are right since if I gather all my forces up north I could beat back Gondor. Hmm maybe instead of eating all my prisoners I should ask for ransom since I am lacking funds?

My problems are not the battles I feel.

[Smoggy On Tour]

I'm having the same problem as Daily: What's a Nazgul?

Ringwraiths. You have 3 to start off with (I think): The Witch King, one in Minas Morgul and one in Dol Guldur. They are pretty rock hard. Use them as much as you can!!

[slowbro]

don't give any towns away to anyone... EVER

[Outlawstar15a2]

Hey thanks for fast reply.

Yeah Outlaw we are on the same track. But with giving away the towns to Rhun wouldn't they be conquered by the elves before they could reinforce? It's four towns in the woods. But I think you are right since if I gather all my forces up north I could beat back Gondor. Hmm maybe instead of eating all my prisoners I should ask for ransom since I am lacking funds?

That's what we want. We want to incite Rhun to declare war with the Silvans they'll then move to reconquer the captured Dol Guldur that you gave them and that'll keep the Silvans occupied.

And Mordor only starts with Dol Guldur in the north unless you conquered the Mirkwood rebel settlements.

[Daily]

Ha there! Denethor lies dead, this was a good day! Yeah outlaw I have been waring with the elves and capturing some towns.

Slowbro could you elaborate?

[Francisco de Miranda]

Ringwraiths. You have 3 to start off with (I think): The Witch King, one in Minas Morgul and one in Dol Guldur. They are pretty rock hard. Use them as much as you can!!

THANKS for all the help you guys. I'm going off to study Palantir's unit guide and will start the game again.

[slowbro]

Basically you can join your empire at beginning by declaring a invasion on Cair Andros on turn 1 and in orc fashion empty every town i mean take every unit you can get and make under turn 1 that should be 4 stacks and march to Cair Andros 2 stacks through south and one through north passage and the last one from north from dol guldur.
You should be able to get there just before Gondor and take it. That gives all your units xp. The rest of your armies: one should be on way to Cair Andros from south and just passing E.osgillath and there is a Gondor army besieging it. I usually beat that army and position myself on that bridge with east osgillath behind i can defend that bridge forever.sometimes when you beat the attacking gondor on the army W. osgillath will be empty after a massive victory) The army that went out through black gate continues north taking the settlements between Mordor and dol Guldur eventually reinforcing it Dol army goes back they were just after free xp

[Daily]

Ahh good advice but the problem is that they already have both Cair Andros and e.Osgiliath. Of course I should have done that at the beginning but where I am standing now I can unite my northern territories with my south and start moving troops. But I need a big hammer and crush the Gondor swine!

[slowbro]

you need that bridge it makes your life LOT easier
you can build catapults every 5 turns and trolls every 20 turns but catapults ARE trolls and work just as well when ordered to melee

[tallstark]

That's what we want. We want to incite Rhun to declare war with the Silvans they'll then move to reconquer the captured Dol Guldur that you gave them and that'll keep the Silvans occupied.

And Mordor only starts with Dol Guldur in the north unless you conquered the Mirkwood rebel settlements.

Nah, Rhun has hands full first 15-20 turns at least with Dale and Dwarves. If Rhun declares war it doesn't do much in terms of slowing the SE. Its a good strategy tho, give it to OOTMM, then they are at war with SE and will immediately start to have battles around Wrakyaburg, Beorns Halls, etc... and SE will have to fight to expand. Be sure to destroy all buildings first, use gold for initial stacks to secure E. Osg and Cair Andros, then you are pretty much home free. If you call an invasion as previously mentioned, its almost too easy...with extra movement and no upkeep you can sack 3-4 cities on your way to the target but thats kind of cheating...

[Outlawstar15a2]

don't give any towns away to anyone... EVER

Disregard this advice. In the future for future reference abandon the north and concentrate on the south. I won many games this way. Fighting both Silvans and Gondor drains a lot of time, resources, and units that you won't have at game start. However, if you've gotten a stronghold in the north you might as well hold onto it.

[Daily]

Thanks everybody for good hints and tips. I will start my strategy when I get home tonight from the movies. Lets see if the movie Inception is as good as they say.

[slowbro]

Disregard this advice. In the future for future reference abandon the north and concentrate on the south. I won many games this way. Fighting both Silvans and Gondor drains a lot of time, resources, and units that you won't have at game start. However, if you've gotten a stronghold in the north you might as well hold onto it.

Makes no sense giving away settlements that you must take back later that only strengthens your enemy

[Outlawstar15a2]

Makes no sense giving away settlements that you must take back later that only strengthens your enemy

It does. It's only one settlemnt, is hard to reinforce, and will usually break a early Mordor as they get stuck with a distant war in the north they now have to fight.

Sometimes it's preferable to give up a settlement and return in greater force. I normally give up Dol Guldur because I don't want to get dragged into a protracted war with the Silvans.

[tallstark]

It for sure makes sense sometimes. I would agree that in general you are better off keeping settlements, but only when you can defend them and when they are connected to your core area. For instance, say someone gave you Mithlond as Mordor. The distance from capital means it probably loses money; the upkeep on the amount of units you need to defend it loses more money; your recruitment is crap there and you will be defending it constantly. When it often makes sense is to take a city, sack it, destroy all buildings then give it away. The AI puts too much emphasis on cities. Even giving an empty city can get you alliances, 10,000's gold, or best of all area swaps. Take a boat and go take out Linhir and Pelagir. Destroy both completely and then offer Gondor both cities for Cair Andros for instance. AI almost always takes 2:1, and which would you rather have? Now they spend gold building back up cities, you have Cair Andros and a solid Western Front. Thats a smart trade all day long. I have traded Isengard back to Isengard when playing Rohan and gotten 20,000 gold and Duneard in return. Isengard was completely empty so they couldn't recruit crap, then attacked them 10 turns later and gotten another 8K sacking it again. It's a strategy game after all, its fair to use some!