Adunabar Campaign

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

So, while we wait for the new version, I thought I might just as well start this thread to see how other players handle them. Or actually, how other players handle their campaign.

You see, the Adunabar campaign is hard. Like in the sense of "you're being attacked from all sides"-kind of hard. Oh, it's doable. Especially when you blitz your way to Umbar, but it just doesn't make it easier. Rhun will just be stabbing you in the back (literally; their starting position has direct access to your weak points, and given that they are arguably the strongest AI faction...), so when you're campaigning in Harad, you'll have to defend yourself in Mordor and Rhovanion as well. Conquering the RK first is not really an option, I assume, considering you'll then border every single faction in the mod

So what's your strategy with them? When do you start -the inevitable- orc production? Which faction to conquer first?

[Themea]

I conqured RK. They have the best base income. Its also easier to transition beacause you don't have to build new barracks every single time. From there, well Rohan. There really isn't much choice. You're going to lose in the east up to mordor. The south will pester Emyn Arnen but never break it. Rohan has the best ability to to defeat the faction as a whole.

I do agree than Rhun is over powered. They like the zurg thing way too much.

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Alright; gonna try conquering the RK first, then.
I assume Mordor can just start cranking out orcs ASAP? Considering your Mannish soldiers will just come from the RK territories anyway...

[Spike]

Only produce the 0 turn Orkish units from the 3 certain regions in mordor, especially minas Ithil for Olog hai, and use them to check the Rhun

the Mannish troops are still much more stronger than orcs, and conquering RK early will pay you with top royal longbowmen and swordsmen, who can easily muscle the way into Harad.

[Flaviafelix]

Go for RK, I have done it with success and I'm definitely not a great TW player. The key is orcish hordes flanking and trolls.

[CountMRVHS]

I don't think Rhun is overpowered. They train lots of troops, sure, but those are only so much fodder for your longbows and sturdy Dunedain infantry.

Adunabar is hard but not impossible. I did a guide to them on the other forums; no idea if it's still floating around somewhere, but in a nutshell my strategy was as follows:

Build toward Olog-Hai in MI and Uruk types in Durthang - but be careful not to "switch" over to orcish troops too quickly or you'll lose the ability to train your best Mannish troops in MI, which is your strongest city.

Your starting forces should be enough to deal with the RK's starting army. It will be a tough fight, but if you can position your army directly to the left of MI, the RK will likely attack you uphill on the slope, which is a great advantage for you. Once that initial RK army is dealt with, you may want to take Emyn Arnen - or, if the garrison there is very small (& thus won't be bothering MI), you could head over the river and work on MT. MT should be waited out rather than assaulted, as its defences are very formidable and you run the risk of losing too many troops. Alternatively, you could skip MT and wreak havoc in Pelargir and further inland, coming back to MT at your leisure. Either way, driving into Gondor is a great payoff, as you won't have to worry about culture penalties or rebuilding barracks for your great Dunedanic soldiers.

South of Emyn Arnen, expect Harad to be an annoyance. I will usually build a fort just N of the Poros crossing and stand an army on the bridge, where I hold off wave after interminable wave of Haradrim. I'd rather fight them there than at the walls of Emyn Arnen and lose income from being under siege. It's a contest of patience more than anything - just be sure to reinforce every so often, and make sure you've got plenty of Royal Spearmen (in shieldwall) and Longbowmen; some trolls are fun heavy-hitters when you get 'em too. Eventually, when RK is basically subdued, you can work your way down the coastline, thus distracting Harad from the bridge, and start taking their own lands, but don't get yourself dragged into warfare in the inland deserts; the coastal towns are the real prizes here.

In the East, as others have noted, you'll find that Rhun will come knocking early. I was able to hold much of Mordor, actually, through careful use of militia troops and heavier guys like your basic swordsmen. Mannish troops are the key here; your orcs are just too weak and too far from resupply lines to be useful I find. Fortunately, Swordsmen and Bowmen, with a few cav thrown in and backed by Militia, should be enough to hold what you've got. Eventually you should take the plunge and invade Eastward, if only to prevent Rhun from getting too big to deal with. Keep a lookout for useful mercs like horse archers - or anything, really, as your eastern Mordor towns are fairly poor troop producers - and keep the pressure on Rhun. Still, you'll most likely need to take towns in Rhun multiple times, exterminating to keep the barbarians cowed.

The north (i.e., Rohan) will be a problem for you in the late game. To this end, at the outset you should try to grab the settlement in Southern Rhovanion (can't remember its name - Lith Morchant?) with the intent of training Wargs there ASAP - keep taxes low, build for growth, don't train troops, etc. Meanwhile, Durthang should be built toward Uruk Halberds. Wargs and Halberds are *great* for dealing with Rohan's cav. My favored strategy here is to hold the line of the Anduin, using forts for defence and planting armies at river crossings to entice the horseboys to attack. Uruk Halberds will hack down their cav nicely in the shallows of the river, and the Wargs are surprisingly effective in the open field battles - which you should usually avoid against a cav-heavy faction like Rohan. Keep moving west, take their towns, and drive to Edoras.

I should also mention that a fort at the crossing west of Calenhad (Anorien) is also good, along with an army posted there to deny Rohan access to MT by that route.

Not everyone likes the river crossing/fort strategy, but I find it allows me to really control my (and my enemies') expansion. If you like attacking more than defending, this probably won't be much fun for you, though.

Another word of advice: To really enjoy the "unlocking" of Adunabar's full roster, you might consider advancing in a slow, measured fashion. If I can afford it, I like to wait until my armies are built up to a certain level before taking out RK altogether - I'd prefer to send Olog-Hai and Uruks against the RK rather than just the Dunedanic guys. This also allows the RK to do a little buildup of their own, so the battles are a bit more entertaining than if you just blitzed them.

Good luck.

[Thangaror]

Not everyone likes the river crossing/fort strategy, but I find it allows me to really control my (and my enemies') expansion. If you like attacking more than defending, this probably won't be much fun for you, though.

Interesting. Could you please elaborate your fort strategy? For I *never* build forts. I prefer open battles, I hate sieges, wether defending or attacking. Does it give any advantages to you? I don't really see them.

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Ironically, I did exactly that. Adunabar campaign is really fun now.
Found a nice offensive army that really manages to destroy everything the enemy can throw at you (battle against full stack of Haradrim with 1 full gold-chevroned unit of Mumakil: 2000 kills vs 55 dead, on H/H!)
It's more or less like this:
1x General
4x Swords of the Shadow
6x Uruk Halberds (strongest and most steadfast orc unit in the mod. I checked the edu on that. Won't do much damage in this army and are mainly there to hold the enemy in place, but they at least don't rout. Also do wonders against cavalry.)
3x Cavalry of Massive Morale Drop (aka Shadow Riders )
1 or 2x Olog-hai
4 or 3x Orc Hunters, depending on the trolls

I only started using this army when I had Minas Tirith, Pelagrir and Dol Amroth, though. Built orc outposts in those three cities, but only so I could churn out Cultic units (mainly swords and riders) from those places while Mordor provided the trolls, hunters and halberds. Some key places in Gondor (the one coastal city between Pelagrir and Dol Amroth + Emyn Arnen, for example) remain "Mannish" to give me access to weapon upgrades, siege weapons and ships. I now have all of Gondor + Mordor and I'm currently flanking Harad by sending a stack like the above one on a boat trip to Umbar, while simultaneously attacking with 2 of these stacks from the North. Easterlings are a laugh.

[CountMRVHS]

Nice!

Adunabar is a blast. They always seemed to me like the faction that is "destined to rule the world" - perhaps even more so than the RK. Adunabar would see themselves as the "rightful" heirs of Numenor, in the tradition of Ar-Pharazon the Golden, and would want to become the Kings of Men - so I have no qualms about conquering lots of lands when I play them (in contrast to factions like Rohan or Harad, where I have a hard time picturing them invading certain areas).

I like the cultic units too, but I also try to keep some non-cultic cities so I can have a steady supply of the Longbowmen and Royal Spearmen.

Oh, and once you get a city in Rhun & build it up, the Dark Companions are fun as well. They don't see much action in my campaigns, but I like big axes and I cannot lie.

[Tia]

Ironically, I did exactly that. Adunabar campaign is really fun now.
Found a nice offensive army that really manages to destroy everything the enemy can throw at you (battle against full stack of Haradrim with 1 full gold-chevroned unit of Mumakil: 2000 kills vs 55 dead, on H/H!)
It's more or less like this:
1x General
4x Swords of the Shadow
6x Uruk Halberds (strongest and most steadfast orc unit in the mod. I checked the edu on that. Won't do much damage in this army and are mainly there to hold the enemy in place, but they at least don't rout. Also do wonders against cavalry.)
3x Cavalry of Massive Morale Drop (aka Shadow Riders )
1 or 2x Olog-hai
4 or 3x Orc Hunters, depending on the trolls

I only started using this army when I had Minas Tirith, Pelagrir and Dol Amroth, though. Built orc outposts in those three cities, but only so I could churn out Cultic units (mainly swords and riders) from those places while Mordor provided the trolls, hunters and halberds. Some key places in Gondor (the one coastal city between Pelagrir and Dol Amroth + Emyn Arnen, for example) remain "Mannish" to give me access to weapon upgrades, siege weapons and ships. I now have all of Gondor + Mordor and I'm currently flanking Harad by sending a stack like the above one on a boat trip to Umbar, while simultaneously attacking with 2 of these stacks from the North. Easterlings are a laugh.

It's not ironic it's just coincidental!

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

but I like big axes and I cannot lie.

...
I'll ignore that

I like the cultic units too, but I also try to keep some non-cultic cities so I can have a steady supply of the Longbowmen and Royal Spearmen.

Did this in eastern Mordor, at Lond Nurnen (or whatever the settlement's name is). Got a full stack of Royal Spears & Bows there. Easterlings haven't sieged it yet, frankly.

Adunabar is a blast. They always seemed to me like the faction that is "destined to rule the world" - perhaps even more so than the RK. Adunabar would see themselves as the "rightful" heirs of Numenor, in the tradition of Ar-Pharazon the Golden, and would want to become the Kings of Men - so I have no qualms about conquering lots of lands when I play them (in contrast to factions like Rohan or Harad, where I have a hard time picturing them invading certain areas).

I feel your pain. I'd like to play as Harad because I love their units, but something just stops me from hitting the end turn button. I just can't.
Adunabar is really the only faction that can justify to be the conquerors of the world, field orcs and trolls, and still be noble enough to be considered "Dunadaín".

edit: Coming to think about it; if you think of Harad as the numerous tribes that have slowly fallen under the sway of Umbar, then you basically have a reason to conquer at least Gondor and Adunabar. I think the Black Numenoreans would be more than happy to replace the Reunited Kingdom with a new "Royalist" Numenor. If you think of it that way, the Haradrim and Adunabar are actually 2 factions with the same background and goals, but with a different playing style.

[Spike]

I feel your pain. I'd like to play as Harad because I love their units, but something just stops me from hitting the end turn button. I just can't.
Adunabar is really the only faction that can justify to be the conquerors of the world, field orcs and trolls, and still be noble enough to be considered "Dunadaín".

one phrase : Evil Noblemen

just try to keep orcs merely for border patrol and overall "cannon fodders" they are useful especially against Khandian Mounted archers and Haradrim bowmen, since the snagas are cheap, dirty, and numerous, plus your mannish troops will just laugh and kick the leftover orc heads anyway and ate orc babies for breakfast, since they are evil men

[Revelo]

I'm wondering if it is entirely possible to play Adunabar as a mix of both Men of the West and the New Shadow? I'm generally a goody two-shoes who thinks worshipping Morgoth and the Shadow is a bad idea but at the same time I know if you decide to play as Adunabar it's more favourable if you breed Uruk's and Olag-hai. I was wondering if can be done to play them more like anti-heroes who don't forsake mannish troops but use Orcs and Trolls to ensure mutual strength and the best of both worlds?

I'm just envisioning a realm that allows both good and evil to be practised freely as long as one or the other doesn't get too out of hand, a utopia of sorts. Plus it gives me more reason to try and conquer everything then

[Rahwana]

I'm wondering if it is entirely possible to play Adunabar as a mix of both Men of the West and the New Shadow? I'm generally a goody two-shoes who thinks worshipping Morgoth and the Shadow is a bad idea but at the same time I know if you decide to play as Adunabar it's more favourable if you breed Uruk's and Olag-hai. I was wondering if can be done to play them more like anti-heroes who don't forsake mannish troops but use Orcs and Trolls to ensure mutual strength and the best of both worlds?

I'm just envisioning a realm that allows both good and evil to be practised freely as long as one or the other doesn't get too out of hand. Plus it gives me more reason to try and conquer everything then

just edit out the "follow my leader" trigger that convert your FMs automatically to Zoroastrianism (Shadow Cult), and give some potential birth/adoption trigger to have Christian (Men of The West) FM from birth for Adunabar.

If you wish, you should make some RK diversivications available for Adunabar as well, I personally have tried to make that, so you can have a mix of both Orcs and Men

[Revelo]

just edit out the "follow my leader" trigger that convert your FMs automatically to Zoroastrianism (Shadow Cult), and give some potential birth/adoption trigger to have Christian (Men of The West) FM from birth for Adunabar.

Wouldn't the 'Cultist' traits disappear anyway the more they spent in MoW alligned settlements? I've bribed Harad generals into joining RK and after a while they converted from MoD to MoW.

If you wish, you should make some RK diversivications available for Adunabar as well, I personally have tried to make that, so you can have a mix of both Orcs and Men

I assumed I could just set some cities towards the Shadow Cult and some towards MoW, obviously the neighbouring regions influence might disrupt things but I thought it would generally be stable with enough buildings and influence.

If you keep some cities mannish, it's already possible. But I guess you mean being able to recruit orcs and men in the same city, like Dunland.

I was kinda going for having some cities devoted entirely to orcish production and others devoted soley to mannish production.

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

I'm wondering if it is entirely possible to play Adunabar as a mix of both Men of the West and the New Shadow?

Same here.

m generally a goody two-shoes who thinks worshipping Morgoth and the Shadow is a bad idea

lol, for me it's the other way around. I'm always the "mannish at first, turning to Morgoth within 30 turns" kind of player

I was wondering if can be done to play them more like anti-heroes who don't forsake mannish troops but use Orcs and Trolls to ensure mutual strength and the best of both worlds?

If you keep some cities mannish, it's already possible. But I guess you mean being able to recruit orcs and men in the same city, like Dunland.

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

I was kinda going for having some cities devoted entirely to orcish production and others devoted soley to mannish production.

Well...
As I said, that's already possible

[CountMRVHS]

Could you please elaborate your fort strategy? For I *never* build forts. I prefer open battles, I hate sieges, wether defending or attacking. Does it give any advantages to you? I don't really see them.

I use forts as a backup, to block choke points when my defending army suffers a loss, and to give the AI a target other than my cities.

I use them mostly in an rp sense - so I never really build them as a "barbaric" faction. But for RK/Adun. and other "defensive" factions, I like to have them.

Usually, I'll plant a fort right behind a river crossing, and put a defending army on the bridge (this is the basic idea when I defend the Poros - the fort, when I'm playing as RK/Adun., goes just north of the bridge). When the AI attacks my army, my fort troops (I usually just leave a single junk unit in there) appear as reinforcements, but more importantly, if I lose, the fort is still there, and the AI generally can't just blitz through my territory. It gives me more time to get troops & kick the AI back out.

Another example of fort building when I play the RK is at the gap in the White Mountains between Gondor and Dunland. I put a fort in that pass to prevent Dunland from coming south and wreaking havoc with my interior cities, which are usually too weak to face a big Dunland stack. Again, I'll put a defensive army just north of the fort, so the AI will have to attack the army first.

Note that I basically use forts in places where I know I won't be invading/attacking for some time. In other words, I'll plug the gaps in some parts of the kingdom, and focus on expanding in others. Eventually, I'll invade Harad or Dunland or whatever, and the fort will lose some of its relevance.

Another nice feature of forts that I really want to believe is that they supposedly decrease the occurrence of rebels in the province. Again, that probably doesn't apply to fourth age, but it's nice to think so.

But the AI will sometimes attack forts even when it doesn't have to. For example, playing as Adunabar, one way to distract Rhun from attacking your cities in eastern Mordor is to set up a fort in the area, preferably one that is reachable in one turn from one of those cities. Just leave a crappy unit in the fort, keep your main army in the city, and when Rhun sieges the fort, attack them if you feel strong enough. If you don't feel strong enough, at least they're besieging a fort rather than your valuable city - I hate being besieged, as it cuts down your income and prevents you from training.

So I basically think of forts as a kind of insurance.

I never fight in forts if I can help it. If I have to defend a fort from assault, it usually means something has gone wrong - but again, at least it slows down the AI and lets me retrain & get troops to counter the threat.

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

I use forts as a backup, to block choke points when my defending army suffers a loss, and to give the AI a target other than my cities.

I use them mostly in an rp sense - so I never really build them as a "barbaric" faction. But for RK/Adun. and other "defensive" factions, I like to have them.

Usually, I'll plant a fort right behind a river crossing, and put a defending army on the bridge (this is the basic idea when I defend the Poros - the fort, when I'm playing as RK/Adun., goes just north of the bridge). When the AI attacks my army, my fort troops (I usually just leave a single junk unit in there) appear as reinforcements, but more importantly, if I lose, the fort is still there, and the AI generally can't just blitz through my territory. It gives me more time to get troops & kick the AI back out.

Another example of fort building when I play the RK is at the gap in the White Mountains between Gondor and Dunland. I put a fort in that pass to prevent Dunland from coming south and wreaking havoc with my interior cities, which are usually too weak to face a big Dunland stack. Again, I'll put a defensive army just north of the fort, so the AI will have to attack the army first.

Note that I basically use forts in places where I know I won't be invading/attacking for some time. In other words, I'll plug the gaps in some parts of the kingdom, and focus on expanding in others. Eventually, I'll invade Harad or Dunland or whatever, and the fort will lose some of its relevance.

Another nice feature of forts that I really want to believe is that they supposedly decrease the occurrence of rebels in the province. Again, that probably doesn't apply to fourth age, but it's nice to think so.

But the AI will sometimes attack forts even when it doesn't have to. For example, playing as Adunabar, one way to distract Rhun from attacking your cities in eastern Mordor is to set up a fort in the area, preferably one that is reachable in one turn from one of those cities. Just leave a crappy unit in the fort, keep your main army in the city, and when Rhun sieges the fort, attack them if you feel strong enough. If you don't feel strong enough, at least they're besieging a fort rather than your valuable city - I hate being besieged, as it cuts down your income and prevents you from training.

So I basically think of forts as a kind of insurance.

I never fight in forts if I can help it. If I have to defend a fort from assault, it usually means something has gone wrong - but again, at least it slows down the AI and lets me retrain & get troops to counter the threat.

I use forts as well - though not as sophisticated as you do. Very nice strategies

[Thangaror]

I use forts as a backup, to block choke points when my defending army suffers a loss, and to give the AI a target other than my cities...

Nice. Thanks for sharing. + rep