Post Your Empires Here!

[Double X]

Didn't see one, so I figured I'd start one. I thought that the stickied screenshot thread is more for the developers of the new game. If I'm wrong I'm dreadfully sorry...anyways

Gondor (RK) H/M, just conquered Lond Elenath, and boy I'm regretting it. Stack after stack after stack after stack of Harad spam. Have a very battered group of Men-At-Arms, King's Spearmen, and mercenaries who have become veterans of urban warfare. Numbers are dwindling and I might abandon the city soon.

Adunbar has become a huge problem. They throw stacks of uruks and orcs at me like it's nothing. They completely converted, their armies are normally at least 80/20 orcs/men. My current army is shown below after beating back a stack with minimal losses. In forests, Rangers are beautiful. I hide them in on a far-away flank, fight the battle normally, when troops engage line to line, I reveal them and hit the enemies backs. Not sure how I am ever going to break my way into Minas Ithil though, full stack in there alone with a half on the outside, and they send a stack or two or uruks/orcs my way every other turn.

Neutral with Duneland and Rhun.

Allied with Rohan.

[CountMRVHS]

Cool, I love these threads!

Looks like you have a quite advanced army - but the fact that you have yet to capture MI seems to suggest you're turtling. That's my preferred way of playing too, although I think I'd allow myself to take MI pretty early to avoid this exact scenario. Nevertheless, it sounds fun.

Is Rhun at war with Adunabar? Looks like they could be your biggest friend if so.

Great to hear that Adunabar went Cultic; it's more fun that way, I think, especially if they're training some more useful units like Uruks.

Of course, the longer you fight with Adunabar in Ithilien, the longer you're going to have to fight with Harad. Actually, I'm surprised that Harad hasn't attacked you in Emyn Arnen yet (maybe they have). Usually I have to distract Harad with a 2 or 3 pronged approach: 1 army parked on the bridge south of Ithilien to absorb their endless stacks; a second army working down the Harondor coast like you've done - and, if it can be spared, a 3rd army to send by ship wayyyy down the coast, to take Annumbar, then Umbar, and so on. By that point you'll begin to see Harad's constant attacks drop off ... slightly.

Anyway, cool report; keep us posted!

[Thangaror]

Rangers are nice, true. Longbowmen are better. And where is your cav? Try to hold Lond Elenath. It's better to have Harad there than at Emyn Arnen. Faramir btw is a great gouvernor, but not that good a captain. Usually I mean. If I were you I'd sent him to Pelargir, Dol Amroth or MT to increase income. Battles can easily be won with a worse general, too.

[Flaviafelix]

I just prefer Knights or Kings bgs because with the rangers they die way too quickly.

[CountMRVHS]

Yeah, but Rangers get points for style. Anyone can crank out King's Longbowmen from game start, but the Rangers of Ithilien have a certain (hoods) understated (hoods) .... je ne sais quoi (hoods).

And the Rangers are quite useful anyway, especially in the terrain he's fighting in. I can't remember the exact stats (not a numbers guy), but my impression based on the few times I've played the RK is that the Rangers certainly hold their own, both in ranged and certain melee situations. Not that the Longbowmen wouldn't have done as well or even better, but I like to have the variety.

[Double X]

I just prefer Knights or Kings bgs because with the rangers they die way too quickly.

Rangers are too cool not to use though, I like the flavor (saw them in the movies) and the sneak attacks. Their low armor rating makes them susceptible to missile fire, but they are quite capable in melee, at least the ones I use. I've seen the stats, I know they lose one on one against Royal Longbowmen.

Rangers are nice, true. Longbowmen are better. And where is your cav? Try to hold Lond Elenath. It's better to have Harad there than at Emyn Arnen. Faramir btw is a great gouvernor, but not that good a captain. Usually I mean. If I were you I'd sent him to Pelargir, Dol Amroth or MT to increase income. Battles can easily be won with a worse general, too.

I don't know how these traits work but Faramir get's +4 command or something like that for commanding infantry, so I stick 'em with all infantry. My other army has cavalry, and I'll add 'em to the Ithilien army eventually. I wasn't going to use him to fight but with Cemendur and my other good general...one died of old age and the other was assassinated, and Faramir had 3 stars when he took over my Ithilien army. White Company is pretty slick too.

Cool, I love these threads!

Looks like you have a quite advanced army - but the fact that you have yet to capture MI seems to suggest you're turtling. That's my preferred way of playing too, although I think I'd allow myself to take MI pretty early to avoid this exact scenario. Nevertheless, it sounds fun.

Is Rhun at war with Adunabar? Looks like they could be your biggest friend if so.

Great to hear that Adunabar went Cultic; it's more fun that way, I think, especially if they're training some more useful units like Uruks.

Of course, the longer you fight with Adunabar in Ithilien, the longer you're going to have to fight with Harad. Actually, I'm surprised that Harad hasn't attacked you in Emyn Arnen yet (maybe they have). Usually I have to distract Harad with a 2 or 3 pronged approach: 1 army parked on the bridge south of Ithilien to absorb their endless stacks; a second army working down the Harondor coast like you've done - and, if it can be spared, a 3rd army to send by ship wayyyy down the coast, to take Annumbar, then Umbar, and so on. By that point you'll begin to see Harad's constant attacks drop off ... slightly.

Anyway, cool report; keep us posted!

I love turtling (and hate corruption), so I let Adunbar sit for awhile because I wanted to have big, epic battles. Haven't been disappointed, enjoying the mod greatly and can't wait for next version to be released (with playable elvish faction in the campaign <3). I'm definitely too poor to make a third army. The army in Ithilien is actually larger than my Harad army, so I'm stretched pretty thin. Harad has gone to Emyn once with a stack, and since their defeat their they have been sending all of their military forces to retake Lond Elenath. It's been in constant siege, I've fought two battles in the city just since the original post. Mariners are replacing my Men-At-Arms, and I've taken advantage of shield wall in the narrow urban confines.

But I didn't make this thread for attention, I want to see everyone else's empires and stories!

[Thangaror]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

So, this is a shot of my most recent Dunland save (the game keeps crashing after battles).

I blitzed Rohan and took HD in the very first or second turn and continued to Edoras. Initially I just wanted to sack the Edoras, destroy all buildings and retreat when threatened. But I think I broke Rohan's neck with those blows. Now I bitterly regret it, because I didn't have any fun battles against my arch-enemy. But Dunland economy is just terrible and without both cities I'll be bankrupt within three turns.

In the south I started war on RK (or they did? Can't recall), and I took Thoronburg and Andrast and also sent a small army to take that town in Minhiriath. Now I have one main army, a strong garrison at Edoras, Thoronburg and HD (just because of unrest) and a full-stack of Orcs, which was thought to invade far into enemy country to cause some trouble and distract the AI.
Adûnabâr is surprisingly strong and RK is struggling to hold them at bay. Adûnabâr even made for Aldburg and now keeps sending stacks towards Edoras, so I had to react and send my armies from Western Gondor towards the Folde. Ironically I'm now allied with RK and Rohan and I try to support those two with money and, preferably, spies to cause unrest and revolts. I'm more or less ok with this, because I don't really regard Dunlendings as 'bad guys'.

[Blatta Optima Maxima]

How did you get HD without losing several fullstacks?

[CountMRVHS]

Wow, 2 games w/ strong Adunabar presence. Nice! Well, not so nice for you guys, but...

How are the finances as Dunland? Looks like you're pretty advanced, but even so money is often tight in TNS.

[Thangaror]

How did you get HD without losing several fullstacks?

Easy. AI is stupid, so just sit and wait until they attack with a second army and you'll have an open-field battle.

Dunland is really tough. As you can see, I have about 400 miriain. Of course usually this is more, about 2000 I think, but Edoras lies under siege and she is really important for economy. Without capturing at least HD you won't make any money. Also Dunwhatever (the capital) is a real problem, because there's really a lot of unrest and I have to have several units there as garrison.

Also Dunlandish units are *SO* crappy! Fighting RK is horrible, MaA just walk through your best men like mower through corn. King's Horsemen are even worse, despite the pikes. I always have to rout the weaker units and then attack the MaA from rear and flank. Still they will slaughter half of any unit I throw at them. Thus in order to have a strong army at the front I need a half-stack in the nearest city and several more units who 'shuttle' between the hinterland cities and the front to be retrained.


BTW, from what I see RK still holds Minas Tirith. It's interesting that Adûnabâr's economy is so strong that they can hold Harad at bay, and be offensive agains Rhûn (I guess) Rohan and myself. RK performs way worse without holding MI or EA.

[Themea]

Just to end the streak of strong Adunabar. Fought Dunland tooth and nail for all of Rohan. Never did finish off Harad. Decieded to subjagte them instead. And now my long term ally Rhun has betrayed me. Its been a long war, and will be even longer. Though Harad's production is very low, and their finances limited.

[Thangaror]

Did you have to fight Rohan or where they overrun by Dunland?

[CountMRVHS]

Nice! I have never gotten that far as RK. Played every other faction to completion, but not them.

In addition to Thangaror's question, how is Rhun matching up to your forces? I imagine your armies are able to see off the Easterlings fairly easily.

And, that RK-held region south of Khand... the result of a chevauchee-style raid through Harad, or something more elaborate?

[Themea]

Well, Rohan was crushed by Dunland. It didn't take long for it to happen either. Rhun is able to match pretty much any force I can send out at the moment because all the lands bordering their are recently acquired Adunabar lands, don't let the minimap confuse you, there is no more Adunabar. Also they're small towns so the only soldiers I have access to are militia. Rhun also for some reason, has a strong economy and is able to churn out their best units and well slaughter my militia. As for that territory all the way down there, as I said Harad is now a protectorate and that was taken from Rhun.

[CountMRVHS]

I see. When you said "subjugate", I assumed you meant just generally keep Harad down without finishing them off - actual protectorates are something I practically never get.

How did you manage that, by the way?

[Themea]

They have no economy. They have no army. Also they made the mistake of asking the king for a ceasefire.

[Blatta Optima Maxima]

You can make a protectorate with guaranteed success, if you:
1. Don't play above medium - otherwise they will always have spare money;
2. Destroy their economy;
3. Destroy their army;
4. Besiege as many cities as you can at one time;
5. Offer them all your money and some provinces back. You will get the money back next turn, due to a hole in the game mechanics.

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Ah, yes. Won a grand campaign in Med2 that way. Only 3 provinces (my starting ones) were directly under my control - the rest belonged to my 11 protectorates (but due to me getting all their money I could easily support multiple armies to continue to subdue them).

[Thangaror]

Never did this protectorate thing, so being a noob I'll ask: What does it do? Any benefit?

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

You get 3/4th or all (something like that; can't remember) of their money. That's the case in Med2, at least.