Reunited Kingdom Economy

[Chicken]

As a keen LOTR fan, I recently discovered this mod! (I know, I'm 5 years late, but oh well )

I also play lotr-tw, but FATW looks very intriguing....

just started a new campaign as "Gondor" (or "RK" here I suppose....), and was shocked by the "-" sign in my financial tab....

anyone has any tips on how to go about managing my economy? and tips for the first 10 turns?

cheers!

[Aradan]

Get your troops to do some fighting, so you either have more regions (ie money) or fewer troops (ie less upkeep cost)

[CountMRVHS]

Ships are expensive in upkeep too, iirc, so don't forget you start out with quite a few: use 'em to attack Harad (keeping one of the cheap ones in port to serve as a transport), losing some in the process.

Lots of players might tell you to disband troops, but I hate to do that myself. Instead, gather them together into armies and send them out to conquer. Priority targets include Emyn Arnen and Minas Ithil; just taking those 2 should go a long way toward stabilizing your economy.

You start with lots of soldiers around Dol Amroth; I like to send those SE across the mouths of Anduin to take some of the rebel/Harad coastal towns. Conquer your way south to Umbar and you'll be looking pretty good; inland regions can wait.

While you're doing that, use your units further west to block the pass through the White Mountains north into Dunland's territory; they'll come calling sooner or later.

Good luck, and keep us posted! I'd like to see some more AARs around here, personally.

[StealthEvo]

Nuff said

Most insane read EVER

[Wambat]

Adunabar also has this challenge early on. I found that you could get quite a bit of money out of the Harad negotiating trade-rights and alliances early on. This is what kept me solvent until I could take Minas Tirith. Don't worry about alliances slowing you down, you can count on the computer breaking them for you in short order.

[Chicken]

Nuff said

Most insane read EVER

cheers!

[ucah8er]

Nuff said

Most insane read EVER

excellent guide good sir!

i'm going to try the RK now

[darkdexter]

Here is what i do, early in the RK faction, Adunabar will have full stacks of army thrown against your Minis Tirith,destroy every building you have but leaving only the ones that will give culture penalty and religous deductions to your enemy( ex.alignment to west men). Then make a last stand, kill as many enemies as you can, but of course chances are you will lose the city, but thats ok, let them have that city. Fall back to the next nearest city and began upgrading those. Do scorch earth tactic always if adunabar keep advancing, they lose retrain capability and you gain a lil bit of money this way. Since Adunabar are blocking the Harad's expansion to the North, they will soon declare war to each other. Now adunabar will be busy and will have to split their army to counter Haradian army. Now that you can breathe, either you start recapturing what you have lost OR start expansion to the North West, conquer Dunland. Now i have not done this but im assuming the Dunland Coastal waters is a key port location, more ports, more money. Establish trade rights with Harad. But don't kill the Dunland faction though, if Dunalnd is down to 2 province, conquer the one city that border ROhan, sack the city, burn everything then leave, so dunalnd will take that city back, now you conquer the other city but now you keep it that city. So you have Dunland that is very weakened, borders Rohan, that way your alliance with Rohan is kept. Start upgrading your army, start retaking minis Tirith,weaken Adunabar,propose a ceasefire,after that send naval invasion to Harad so you conquer there ports, if done successfully you now owned the sea and trade.

[Chicken]

that's not what i've done so far.....

I've fought 2 heroic victories against the Adunabar, successfully held out at Minas tirith, now also taken Emyn Arnen and Minas Ithil

Now onto Harad

here's a screenie

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Nehcrum]

Quick suggestion, grab Calenhad.
The settlement to the NW of Minas Tirith, on the northern side of the mountain range.
That will open up trade routes with Minas Tirith, Minas Ithil and the Rohan settlement, which will all in all give you a considerable income boost.

[athanaric]

That will open up trade routes with Minas Tirith, Minas Ithil and the Rohan settlement, which will all in all give you a considerable income boost.

And silver mines.

[Thangaror]

Quick suggestion, grab Calenhad.
The settlement to the NW of Minas Tirith, on the northern side of the mountain range.
That will open up trade routes with Minas Tirith, Minas Ithil and the Rohan settlement, which will all in all give you a considerable income boost.

But you'll also share borders with Rohan than, who might attack you. If you want to maintain the alliance as long as possible, leave Calenhad to Adûnabâr.

[Wambat]

I my opinion there isn't much point to maintaining an alliance with somebody with whom you cannot trade. Since you also cannot maintain an alliance with anybody you can trade with, don't worry about the benefits of an alliance beyond whatever you can extort from the other factions in exchange for it.

Expand your empire to increase your trade and try to maintain river crossings as your borders.

[StealthEvo]

Pfff. Wheres the fun in making people walk into your wall of unmoveable steel from a chokepoint

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

I remember having lots of fun beating back 6 timurid stacks with *fixed* pikemen and a load of musketeers + siege engines in M2TW that way

[StealthEvo]

Yeah but that was at least more balenced then a bunch of AI controlled Haradians and Rohanites which rarely choose the awesome armies with the well above average player stacks. Plus they had cannons on elephants if i recall

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

I wouldn't call elephant-back rocket launchers balanced

[StealthEvo]

Against muskets and a bridge with pikes? Plenty balenced

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Yes, ...but....but...



...but they had horse-archers that were overpowered!

Alright this is going a bit off-topic.

[Chicken]

heh