Silvan campaign advice

**Tusk** · September 16, 2010, 04:55 AM

Silvan campaign advice.

I am 100 turns into my Silvan campaign. Mordor have eaten up Gondor and Rohan and are coming for me.

Both Mordor and myself are the largest factions of the map. I have taken a number of settlements from Moror and given them to the dwarves, dale and Arnor. This was to get alliances and to help them develop but also to get a barrier between myself and mordor so I could focus my attack.

However all these settlements have over run by Rhun with total ease as the gifted towns did not raise any defence.

So do factions defend settlements gifted to them? Does the settlement have to be close enough for their army to get there?

Secondly I have taken a settlement on the west side of the river just north of Mordor (Milgihad I think I don’t have a map since I am at work right now).

I have one unit in the settlement and Mordor are about to attack with a full stack. Who do I give the settlement to?

Isengard for an alliance to help seal up my eastern boundry or Rhun to help seal up my western boundry or a good faction to help with my battle against Mordor?

Will allainces with evil factions last while a destroy Mordor?

PS I have alliances with all the remaining good factions and both the Orc factions have been beaten. This is in VH/VH

**gloin99** · September 16, 2010, 05:01 AM

Don't give any settlements away! The AI is just too dumb to build cultural buildings. If you give the buildings to another culture they won't be able to hire troops.
Besides alliances with weak factions (especially good factions) aren't worthy loosing a settlement cause they cannot hold the line against agressive evil factions.

**jản** · September 16, 2010, 05:20 AM

Originally Posted by gloin99

Don't give any settlements away! The AI is just too dumb to build cultural buildings. If you give the buildings to another culture they won't be able to hire troops.

Except you can give the settlement back to its original owner and they have some
own culture (more than 15%) left in there.

Some times i led a small town rebel and taken over by rebels. I sell all buildings
i can to decrease the public order for that. than i remove all units and set the taxes
to "very high". Some turns later they rebel and a mediocre rebel army spawns in there.

**Tusk** · September 16, 2010, 05:18 AM

I am about to lose the settlement anyway so who do i give it to?

**gloin99** · September 16, 2010, 05:28 AM

I am about to lose the settlement anyway so who do i give it to?

You mean an evil faction that is not in war with Mordor? In my campaign with SE Mordor got excommunicated for attacking Isengard and now all evil factions started an invasion against Mordor. Nonetheless Mordor is as strong as ever.
You can give settlements to Isengard or Rhun and ask for an alliance. You can use evil factions as a buffer but if you really want to go forward you have to manage it youreself an go on the offensive.

**Isildur's Heir** · September 16, 2010, 05:47 AM

I say defend to the last

**Australia** · September 16, 2010, 06:27 AM

Originally Posted by Tusk

...

The only time a faction puts troops in a settlement you've gifted them, is if you've done it before and they've lost it.

As for your settlement about to be overrun, keep it. You'll kill more of the enemy that way most likely. A single Silvan unit isn't exactly something to scoff at. The question is though, why do you only have a single unit in a settlement on the front of one of/the most powerful faction in your game? Especially one generally predisposed to wanting to destroy you?

As for alliances, figure out which one is most likely to not attack you, and which one you would be best able to fight while fighting Mordor. Isengard would probably be your best bet, especially because they're likely to be at war with Mordor(?), and I've found you tend to have better relations with them, while Rhun will probably just attack you.

**MaccabiFanatic** · September 16, 2010, 06:38 AM

Give it to mordor in return for a cease fire
they are gonna capture it anyways
a cease fire will buy you more time to retrain your armies and prepare to defend your borders better.

**wohnzimmer** · September 16, 2010, 07:00 AM

If you decide to ally with one of the evil factions you should know that sooner or later they will attack you, when an invasion is called to one of your cities...

Don't trust the evil factions, beat them

**jinjo** · September 16, 2010, 07:20 AM

evil factions will break alliance with you, when u attack mordor (99% probability), so alliance with evil factions is useless

**gloin99** · September 16, 2010, 07:43 AM

Originally Posted by jinjo

evil factions will break alliance with you, when u attack mordor (99% probability), so alliance with evil factions is useless

Not true. If you're relations to this faction is better than Mordor's there is e very good probability that this faction will choose you in case of a war. It's just a matter of diplomacy.

**Tusk** · September 16, 2010, 10:33 AM

Well Isingard are not allied with anyone so may be happy to be ally with me. As to why i have such a poorly defended settlement, I had previously given the settlement to the dwarves but due to culture or a mordor invasion they took it back but left it empty after my spy popped in. So i thought i might send a cheeky single woodsman sword unit to investigate. As it turned out it was empty and i took it. But on the horizon is a huge stack. So I wanted to get short of it.