Questions for you 3rd age experts

**vectorsrule** · August 29, 2010, 05:51 PM

1. Are all of you playing very hard/very hard as suggested? My first time playing I played the high elves and was crushed. I had no money to improve anything and got relentless attacks by massive stacks of ocrs. I am playing Gondor now on hard/hard and have managed to survive and do quite well. (it is the only time I quit (lost) a game in almost 10 years of TW play)

2. Do you know where I am trying to find a map online with detail? I can find 100 middle earth maps but when you enlarge them the writing is fuzzy so you can't read the town. I was curious to know what Frodo's journey was and also I can't find Moria (the Dwarf fortress that the fellowship traveled through). Where is Moria on the map?

Thanks for the help

**Lordinquisitor** · August 29, 2010, 05:53 PM

To your first question:

Rather ironic that you lost with one of the easiest campaigns but manage to play one of the harder ones- I guess you just need some practice. But you should always play VH/VH; For most the a.i is too weak even on VH/VH.

**David93** · August 29, 2010, 06:55 PM

Don't know about the map, but morias in the misty mountains, a couple of inches behind isengard.

**delra** · August 29, 2010, 08:08 PM

2. Frodo went in this map's terms Hobbiton -> Bree -> Amon Sul -> Imladris (Rivendell) -> Ost-in-Edhil (Eregion) -> Cerin Amroth (Lothorien) -> Magalad (marshes) -> Black Gate (couldn't sneak past here) -> Cair Andros (Ithilien in general) -> Minas Morgul (sneaked past) and then straight for the volcano. Press "`" and write "toggle_fow" to see whole map and find cities you need found. LOTR Wikia has a lot of maps too, google it.

1. I never played below VH/VH in this mod. :-) Money problems end when you have paved roads and ports built - with Elves especially in Forlond, this city is the best trading port on the whole coast. So learn to grow your cities fast and efficiently and you will quickly notice (around turn 80-90) when cities hit stone walls that suddenly you can afford more than you need. I gave Gondor like 80k already in my Dale campaign just to offload it and not get bad traits on generals. Early on try to keep forces to minimum - Elrond can defend Rivendell with a half-stack of Elves, he needs a few units of infantry only and some basic archers to sit on walls and also shoot at enemies at walls from city level. I often killed 4000-4500 Orcs with under 1000 of Elves losing almost noone - they are so strong.

**Louis Lux** · August 30, 2010, 12:23 AM

Biggest and most detailed map you'll probably find http://www.freeinfosociety.com/media.php?id=4878

**Avatar** · August 30, 2010, 03:05 AM

To see Frodo's journey, you could just play the Fellowship campaign, since the mechanics of that dont really let you take him in any other direction until the breaking of the fellowship event. At that point you just have to follow the question marks that pop up on the map.

**TiFlo** · August 30, 2010, 04:30 PM

Originally Posted by Louis Lux

Biggest and most detailed map you'll probably find http://www.freeinfosociety.com/media.php?id=4878

Wow, that is quite the map! Thanks for sharing (although it is clearly stated on the map that consequently to the movies and possible copyright issues the author doesn't wish it distributed. Anyway, great find!).

**Death Blade** · August 30, 2010, 03:41 AM

For me it seems the AI is kind of the same in every difficulty, in higher difficulties they attack more thou, and are a bit smarter

For the frodo journey thing you can google it im sure you can find it somewhere, or just play Fellowship campaign and experience it first hand kind off

**muller227** · August 30, 2010, 02:20 PM

Originally Posted by vectorsrule

1. Are all of you playing very hard/very hard as suggested? My first time playing I played the high elves and was crushed. I had no money to improve anything and got relentless attacks by massive stacks of ocrs. I am playing Gondor now on hard/hard and have managed to survive and do quite well. (it is the only time I quit (lost) a game in almost 10 years of TW play)

2. Do you know where I am trying to find a map online with detail? I can find 100 middle earth maps but when you enlarge them the writing is fuzzy so you can't read the town. I was curious to know what Frodo's journey was and also I can't find Moria (the Dwarf fortress that the fellowship traveled through). Where is Moria on the map?

Thanks for the help

If you want to play the High Elves again move the capitol to Mithlond and go. Their tier 1 units combined properly dominate all other units except Olags and Mumaks be smart there and you own the game with them.

**Messremb** · August 30, 2010, 03:06 PM

At first I didn't play VH/VH either 'cuz in 1.4 was a bit masochistic on the player, but 2.1 is fine. Takes a bit of exp and every faction has it's little quirks without which can't win but it's WAY more balanced and rewarding.
The AI is still utter rubbish though, you just have to play smarter to survive.

I'm totally toying with Rhun as Dale now on VH/VH and it's FUN! HElves are too easy on all settings.

**muller227** · August 30, 2010, 03:47 PM

Originally Posted by Messremb

At first I didn't play VH/VH either 'cuz in 1.4 was a bit masochistic on the player, but 2.1 is fine. Takes a bit of exp and every faction has it's little quirks without which can't win but it's WAY more balanced and rewarding.
The AI is still utter rubbish though, you just have to play smarter to survive.

I'm totally toying with Rhun as Dale now on VH/VH and it's FUN! HElves are too easy on all settings.

agree totally the high elves should be far lesser archer oriented, indeed elven archer take away from they enjoyment of the game as elves they just kill everything. turned their archers down and infantry up and suddenly it is much harder and funner to play them. 1 point on damage for archers changes everything at leat with HE

**vectorsrule** · September 21, 2010, 08:28 PM

Originally Posted by muller227

If you want to play the High Elves again move the capitol to Mithlond and go. Their tier 1 units combined properly dominate all other units except Olags and Mumaks be smart there and you own the game with them.

I now play on factions on very hard. Yes, giving up rivendale allowed me to build up powerful units and cities and avoid warfare for a very long time. I now field the advance archer units and the orcs don't stand a chance. I love being in the mountains with rows of archers and being outnumbered four to one and winning the battle with 10 to 1 casualty rates.

**Space Voyager** · September 22, 2010, 01:49 AM

Originally Posted by vectorsrule

I now play on factions on very hard. Yes, giving up rivendale allowed me to build up powerful units and cities and avoid warfare for a very long time. I now field the advance archer units and the orcs don't stand a chance. I love being in the mountains with rows of archers and being outnumbered four to one and winning the battle with 10 to 1 casualty rates.

True, but NOT giving up Rivendell will take up a lot of the heat on the other good factions, and it is a great start for settling in Misty Mountains, and Moria is a great asset...