Am I just rubbish at this game?

**Duinhir** · February 28, 2011, 07:32 AM

Ok, I gave up my Gondor campaign when, after much bitter war with Mordor, Harad stormed into Southern Gondor with several full stacks of elite troops and cleared me out!

I thought I would give Lorien a bash as it was a little more 'removed' from the main conflict but still close enough to get stuck in! How wrong was I!!

Misty Mountains Goblins by the dozen came pouring out of the mountains and even though they were arrow fodder for the most part, there were so many of them, I just couldn't plug all the holes they were leaking from and still keep any sort of economy??? Then Rhun started giving me beats from the East along with full stacks from Dol-Guldor, with a sigh, I 'nearly' gave up.

I mean, this is my third campaign effort, ok I did put it on VH/VH so it is VH!!! (what was I expecting??) but the AI really appears to be able to feild WaaaaaaaaaYY more units than me with a weaker economy? This puts me at a severe disadvantage.

Eventually, rather than giving up, I discovered the add_money cheat, from which I have recovered my kingdom and begun to expand but only after adding about 2,000,000 gold in 50,000 increments!?! and even then I am hard pressed to progress as I am under attack from Rhun, Isengard and Dunland!!

So after 2,000,000 in fraudulent gold, I am still at the bottom of the statistics nearly! What am I doing wrong? Is it that the game is too imbalanced against us? I mean I tried to take Dol-Guldor early but the damn garrison script gave it a full stack of elites!!!! Add to that the crusade option and the forces of Sauron appear to really have a lot in there favour??

**Beregond** · February 28, 2011, 07:41 AM

TATW is indeed harder than vanilla game.

If you are not an experienced player of vanilla or better SS for example, you could try some easy factions for the beginning, just to familiarise yourself with the game.
High Elves for example. Or Harad if you wanna try bad guys.

try to read some guides here
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=1249
there are many of them.

wish you good luck

**DeadlyPhoenix** · February 28, 2011, 07:59 AM

It might serve you well to delete the garrison script as well.
I, myself, am having trouble to play as any "evil" faction, they require a whole totaly different and new strategy compared to previous factions ever played in any TW game so far (for me at least).

Deleting the garrison script will make it so that there will be no more full stack army spawning when you're sieging city's of other factions.

You could also alter the money script so that the AI isn't able to build/recruit when being broke. Now, everytime they go into the "red" they receive 10 000 florins in difference to you, who as a player won't receive any extra 10 000florin gifts out of nowhere when being broke.

I don't know for how far that unbalances the AI strategy and if they're then still able to actually build themself a good economy to keep running without going broke or if they just stop doing anything at all then, other than dying that is.

these scriptmodifications can be found under the FAQ if i'm not mistaken

**Hartassen** · February 28, 2011, 08:31 AM

Duinhir when it comes to Gondor I tend to take western osgiliah with faramir and basically every archer militia you start with + the ones you can recruit in Minas Tirirth. I also take all the lossarnoch axemen and put it in faramirs stack. After I take western osgiliath (I usually starve them out) I put faramir on top of the bridge. Use the axemen to hold the small bridge choke and line up all your archers so they can fire into the advancing army on the bridge causing massive casualties. First thing you want to do in osgiliath is to recruit up to ithilien rangers, therefore make the practice/archery range line first. As for cair andros you need to take boromir + all the gondor militia you dont need as unit garrisons and take that castle. Afterwards advance along the garrison quarters/drill square line to get gondor spearmen. Also don't forget to reinforce both cities with the units from minas tirith. You also want the capacity to create spearmen from minas tirith to help both cair andros and osgiliath.

The remaining generals (all of them except denethor) need to move south to watch the entrance from harad, use pelargir marines and archer militia (from fornost, make a practice range there) to hold the south. Focus on roads, mines, farms to build up your economy. Set taxes as high as possible without obstructing growth.

This is the most important things to get off to a good start. If you want a more detailed guide I might be persuaded to write one but hopefully this gets you off to a strong start. Soon you can field 3 fullstacks, one for cair andros, one for osgiliath and one for harad in south while still keeping up with construction.

Oh and don't forget to make tarnost the capital at turn 1 to receive extra income.

**jinjo** · February 28, 2011, 08:43 AM

Originally Posted by Hartassen

Oh and don't forget to make Fornost the capital at turn 1 to receive extra income.

hm why? i received it, did i get reduced income?

**Hartassen** · February 28, 2011, 09:02 AM

Originally Posted by jinjo

hm why? i received it, did i get reduced income?

I don't know what you mean by that but tarnost is in the center of gondor therefore it helps to reduce corruption and increase income when it's the capital.

**Largon** · February 28, 2011, 09:20 AM

Originally Posted by Hartassen

I don't know what you mean by that but fornost is in the center of gondor therefore it helps to reduce corruption and increase income when it's the capital.

You know that Fornost is in Arnor and not in central Gondor

Edit: Damn you Deputy. Haven't seen your post

**Death's Deputy** · February 28, 2011, 10:19 AM

Originally Posted by Largon

You know that Fornost is in Arnor and not in central Gondor

Edit: Damn you Deputy. Haven't seen your post

Mwhahaha all part of my...evil plan?

**Death's Deputy** · February 28, 2011, 09:15 AM

Pretty sure Fornost is in Arnor/Eriador guys; perhaps you are thinking of Tarnost?

**Hartassen** · February 28, 2011, 09:19 AM

Damn you right.

**JinShepard** · February 28, 2011, 11:29 AM

Does deleting the garrison script not make it to easy?

If not, how do I delete the script?

**Astarte** · February 28, 2011, 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by JinShepard

Does deleting the garrison script not make it to easy?

If not, how do I delete the script?

Maybe not, but little stupid... Imagine Minas Tirith guarted by 150 militias...
Also I think good factions will get their asses kicked more, cuz more often they are in defencive.

"Open,

M2TW/mods/Third_Age/data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/campaign_script.txt

Open the file with notepad, and find the line that says
;########################### SLAVE CONQUERORS ##############################
Delete everything under it until you find the line that says
;########################## ADDITIONAL NAZGULS ##############################

Save the file and you're done!"

From FAQ, I think you should read it. Wont take much time and maybe you find some intresting info. =)

**shikaka** · March 02, 2011, 10:41 AM

Originally Posted by JinShepard

Does deleting the garrison script not make it to easy?

If not, how do I delete the script?

If you are having trouble, just attack with catapult/ballista units, or with spies. (If you attack and take the settlement on the same turn, there is no scripted army)