Need a little help with basics of the game.

**Phyon** · March 04, 2011, 07:45 PM

So this more then likely stems from the fact that this mod is my first time playing a total war game other then shogun 2 demo. But playing the game now the highest I have made it has been turn 100 as harad actually made it their twice as harad the first time I killed mordor with gondor then gondor killed me. lol Second time I killed gondor with mordor and then attacked isengard and isengard swarmed me with troops killing me lol My deaths usually come from getting swarmed by so much they eventually wear me down.

So any ways I don't quite get how to get the higher teir units the only time I have seen something higher then the southern warband was when I took over a gondor city on my second playthrough and eventually the city let me make some southern archers and ninja like guys oh and finally horse archers.

Other then that though I spend 100 turns with the slightly above basic troops being southern warband and coirsair archers. I did read the FAQ and tried on my second play through to build as many shrines of melkor to get my culture up but that seemed to not be working very well. So I guess I would just like to know the basics behind running cities and a army I can make a army usually about one full stack of troops will send my into negative money.

So far my campaigns seem to run out of steam around turn 100 when I enter a fight with a force that just overwhelms me.

**thespaniard** · March 04, 2011, 10:25 PM

ive never played as harad before so please excuse me if im wrong but i dont think they have any high populated cities/castles so they cant get the higher tier troops i would blitz a high population city and and then convert them to melkor to get higher tier troops

**Muffer Nl** · March 05, 2011, 01:10 AM

Try to keep your taxes low and build wall upgrades as soon as possible. You need to make your cities larger to be able to recruit better units.

**Vifarc** · March 05, 2011, 02:21 AM

Originally Posted by Phyon

I don't quite get how to get the higher tier units

Yeah it's very long, even with the Osu advice. Some submod change this.
When I play Silvans with vanilia TA, I keep my better units to guard my settlements for free (as their upkeep is very expensive), and IIRC I start attacking with some pack of heavy not before turn 150.

**Beregond** · March 05, 2011, 04:26 AM

basically what Muffer said (ow, pardon, Osu

)
the ebst chance for high-tier units is your Umbar coastal city. I am moving my capital there often as well. Try to select a good family member to govern the city you want to develop. Look for the general with the most respect and some useful traits. To get those useful traits try to use this guide
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=386432

capturing developed AI cities also help, cause AI has a population growth bonus which makes his life much easier. [personally I find castles in the last version of TA having ridiculously low population to ever take them seriously. Hell, I had to cheat population in Dain's Halls cause I was bored of waiting for the Dragonslayers]

**Phyon** · March 05, 2011, 11:25 AM

Ok well that link had some good advice answered a lot of my questions about city building to.

**Lemoniser** · March 05, 2011, 12:34 PM

Other than everything said here if you are still set on playing harad I'd suggest going for Dol Amroth or some other Gondor cities. You might be able to get one of the Osgiliaths before Mordor gets in but then your war with Gondor will probably get pretty heavy. However this is your only front so it shouldn't be too bad. Oh and you may want to stay with your team. Although I haven't played much and I always stick with my team anyway if you go against yours it seems like the other side will gun you down anyway.So its safer to just stick with good or evil from the start.

Also don't feel obligated to play on very hard/very hard, that was put in for veteran total war gamers. Being the stubborn person that I am I played on it from the start and lost 3 or so reasonable campaigns before I got around to High Elves and got around the forum enough to learn what I've been doing wrong. And I've played 3 other total wars before this.

**Phyon** · March 05, 2011, 01:58 PM

On my recent harad campaign that went all to hell against isengardI actually owned most from the left of Minas Terith and pelegir I think the town is. The reason I declared war on Isengard was they took two cities to the far left from Gondor that I wanted. They had come down through Rohans territory and I wanted those two cities. lol I actually found out later Rohan had been completely wiped out other then Edoras and the city next to it Sent a diplomat to see if they would help but mordor and isengard was siegeing him. The reason I actually started getting the slightly above standard units was actually from Dol Amroth it was the main town supplying my army against Isengard.

About the difficulty its weird in battles I can usually come out ahead fairly well. Even against Gondor out numbering me a few times I was able to win the real reason I ended up losing to Isengard was they Just swarmed me I would fight a army of 3000 guys kill it decently take some damage and then have to fight 5 more armies of 3000+ troops The only time I really have lost is way outnumbered or when Isengard fought me on a bridge they refused to come across the bridge even after I will all their archers and catapults. So I charged across the bridge and pretty much got shredded.

After that they just sent in this unending horde of troops to take over every thing. The other annoyance I ran into was they never Peaced They took pretty much all of Gondor from me and moved into Harad and well never could get a ceasefire from them so Finally just gave up on it.

They may of had good reason not to peace me thinking about it since in the first turn of the war I trapped Saruman killing him and then followed that up by turn 2 taking the two cities I wanted from him .
I was so happy about my little trap I took a screen shot of him alone with his guard surrounded lol They got revenge on me for that one.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

So with the difficulty I feel it is pretty good in battles but it seems the computer in most wars can just grind my armies to dust. I really hate losing generals to because it makes me have to move troops out of my cities and I always forget after the city governor leaves to set the taxes out of military that messes me up so often as I will take one out forget about it and the city will end up revolting on my shortly after he has left.

**Erunion Telcontar** · March 05, 2011, 01:48 PM

Playing as one of the evil teams and 'switching sides' is a lot of fun (especially as Isengard). However, it's also really, really hard - you need to be good at diplomacy.
For getting higher-tier units, get a big city with upgraded barracks. There are two ways to do this: The first, and easiest, is to take one from somebody else. Dol Amroth, Osgiliath and Minas Tirith all start off reasonably well developed, just take 'em and convert them using Shrines of Melkor. The more traditional way is to upgrade one of your own cities. For Harad, your best bet is probably Umbar. Set the taxes in that city to low (the lower the taxes, the faster the population grows), max out your farms ASAP and put a governor in the city with high Chivalry, high Obedience and traits that either "Reduce Squalor", "Increase Population Growth" or "Increase Farm Output".

Good hunting!