Best Faction?

[ryan1266]

Hi, I'm planning on doing a campaign for this and I was just wondering what is the best faction to get the full experience of the mod as. All opinions would be appreciated, thanks!

[sventoby]

Gondor is in the middle of the action and seems to have the most content made for it.

[scouter535]

Gondor is probably the most interesting but it is also probably the hardest good faction. The elves (high or silvan) are generally considered the easiest with high elves a little easier but also more remote. The orcish factions (OOM, OOG, and to some extent Mordor) are harder. Rhun or Harad would probably be a better first choice if you want to try evil.

[Gallus]

this mod was made for playing as Gondor

[Spartan777]

Gondor and Rohan are right in the thick of all the action. But this also makes them relatively challenging to play as you can often get assaulted from multiple fronts. Rohan also has to deal with far more invasions (the equivilant of crusades) than any other faction. So if I where you I would try either Gondor if you want to feel like your in the film. Or if you want a chance to get to know the basics, I'd try the dwarves first as they have great quality infantry and they are out the way up the top of the map. Just be aware they have two seperate territories. I missed that for a few turns the first time I played them.

[Spartan777]

Hey anybody know what the hell I'm doing wrong here. I'm trying to add a signature from a file I have on photobucket and no matter what I do the edit signature tool won't accept it except as a link (see below).

I've copied the Image code but I keep getting this error: Your signature cannot be longer than 10000 characters including BB code markup.

Any ideas anyone? It's driving me nuts!

Nevermind I sorted it!

[lolIsuck]

Gondor- good mix of heavy inf, missiles and cav. You'll most likely get a 3-front war with Mordor, Harad and Isengard so it's challenging but fun.

Rohan- Good cavalry. You'll have to deal with Isengard pretty early on but you'll be able to handle that better then the AI. Later you'll get OotMM and Mordor at your door too.

Dwarves- very good infantry but you'll have to prepare for hours of chasing snagas. You'll have to face OoG and OotMM (pretty weak but as you lack missiles even snaga skirmishers can annoy you) and Rhun with it's awesome BG and Balchot tribesmen

Dale- Good missiles and infantry. You'll have to face Rhun and Mordor, haven't played them so don't know how easy it is. AI Rhun and Dale normally take turns on who beats who

Eriador- mainly militia with some Dunedain units, you rely a lot on your BG's. Has the possibility of changing to Arnor after certain conditions are met. Faces OoG, maybe OotMM and later Isengard, you'll have to hope HE or Dwarves don't backstab you. Fighting OoG isn't that hard but for Isengard it would be good to change into Arnor (allround better)

High Elves- easiest faction, easy starting position. You'll only have to beat the OoG and ootMM off at Imladris, you have probably the best infantry (I think they're better than Dwarves), great archers and some good heavy cavalry, only problem is the availability of the units.

Silvan Elves- great archers, good infantry, lacking cavalry. More challenging then the HE, they will face Mordor and OotMM (maybe later Rhun) but are far superior

Rhun- great BG, early game you'll rely mainly on Balchot tribesmen and your BG. Later you'll get some awesome units. You'll face Dale and Dwarves, if Mordor helps you it will be easier but you should be able to handle them on your own

Harad- have an ok army, becomes really fun with Mumaks. Only faces Gondor and you'll just have to hold off the crossing at the Anduin and you're safe. When on good strenght you can cross the Anduin and together with Mordor defeat Gondor

Mordor- Not a lot of high-quality units but you have trolls and black numenoreans. You'll directly face Gondor and SE, maybe Dale. If you go further you'll also have to deal with Rohan (if they are still around)

Isengard- face Rohan, later Eriador, Gondor and maybe HE. First you have but later you'll have access to Uruk-hai, facing Rohan's cavalry might be difficult at the start but won't be a problem later.

OotMM- you'll get a pile of utter crap with some trolls. You'll have to face SE, HE, maybe Eriador, Rohan and Dwarves. Have fun with this

OoG- about the same as OotMM. You'll face HE, Eriador and Dwarves

[Qba]

High Elves- easiest faction, easy starting position. You'll only have to beat the OoG and ootMM off at Imladris, you have probably the best infantry (I think they're better than Dwarves), great archers and some good heavy cavalry, only problem is the availability of the units.

I agree, HE is the easiest faction to play. One of their drawbacks may be victory conditions - you have to defeat Mordor, which is pretty far from your homeland.

[lolIsuck]

I agree, HE is the easiest faction to play. One of their drawbacks may be victory conditions - you have to defeat Mordor, which is pretty far from your homeland.

They do have the best army in ME so just saying destroy OoG, OotMM and Isengard would be a bit too easy and shorten the campaign

[Eohelm]

Personally, I'm a total Rohan fanboy. The infantry isn't that bad, and if you can hold your opponents in place long enough, your infantry and cavlary become an anvil with a mithril hammer.

Infantry by itself isn't all that bad, the main thing that makes them work is that most of your army is equipped with armor-piercing axes. Their quality isn't as good, but those axes can ruin the days of quite a few orcses.

Don't rely on archery with Rohan. Just don't. Basic archer unit is crap in my opinion unless you mass them, and the advanced unit can only be hired form Helm's Deep. Ranged cavalry is useful, but they take a while to get to good units, and sometimes the cost just insn't worth the results.

Seeing as they are the Rohirrim, cavalry is your best bet. At least in 2.1, Rohirric Cavalry isn't the best in quality man to man (Swan Knights hold that title, I believe) but the advantage is all the choices you get. Instead of having to wait to hire just one cavalry unit over and over again WHEN it is available, you can hire many different kinds at once that all work roughly to the same effectiveness. Numbers are your friend.

The only other faction I really have any experience with are Dale. On that, the focus is mainly on your archery. Dale archers are the best archers in the race of Man. They're only beaten by Silvan Elvish units, in my opinion.

Hope this helped. Cheers.

[Incomitatus]

Rohan is great fun, though I continually face money problems with them. I've been playing a hotseat as all the 'good' factions, with FROME. My observation has been that as long as Gondor stands, Rohan is pretty much undefeatable. There are only two fords across the Isen, and the battle map for both of them has the road coming up from the bridge into hills... meaning those 'crap' archers you get, can fire down onto a bridge packed with enemies from an elevation advantage, and I have to say, once they have triple gold chevrons they aren't so crappy anymore. Assuming you lose or abandon the lands west of the Isen, and hold the fords, it's ridiculously easy to train up troops and generals. Both fords are only two turns' march from Edoras, one or two turns respectively from Helm's Deep and one turn from Foldburg. The northern ford is in Isengard's territory.

What that means is, you can hold the fords as you develop your land, racking up serious kills, and then when you can afford the army, sack Isengard. If you're playing vanilla TATW, that's pretty much game over for your enemies to the west. The rest of Isengard's land can be mopped up. If you're playing FROME, you still have to deal with Dunland, but your border with Dunland at that point will be Isengard (Citadel), Foldburg (Wooden Castle and #1 on the get upgraded list), and Helm's Deep (Fortress). Even without the fords, that makes you pretty darn secure while you plan your attack.

I LOVE Rohan's infantry, and keep having to force myself to keep a cavalry army in the field for the sake of lore. The higher level Rohan infantry is deceptively weak - they have no stamina, despite good combat stats - but the lowly Rohan Axemen are fantastic! Cheap, plentiful, good stamina, okay defence, and a deceptively good attack (it's AP, makes up for the low number) make then dependable workhorses, while your 'better' infantry waits in reserve to deliver the final blow. Likewise, Rohan Archers may not be the best archers, but they have good armor and an AP axe for hand to hand, making them great flankers. Fire a volley of fire arrows into the backs of the engaged enemy and then charge = rout.

I'm not sure I'd recommend starting with Rohan, but it's certainly a better game, in my opinion, than Gondor. Rohan is also right in the thick of things, but doesn't have the slow grinding stack-after-stack always-about-to-perish gameplay that Gondor does.

[Eohelm]

Rohan is great fun, though I continually face money problems with them. I've been playing a hotseat as all the 'good' factions, with FROME. My observation has been that as long as Gondor stands, Rohan is pretty much undefeatable. There are only two fords across the Isen, and the battle map for both of them has the road coming up from the bridge into hills... meaning those 'crap' archers you get, can fire down onto a bridge packed with enemies from an elevation advantage, and I have to say, once they have triple gold chevrons they aren't so crappy anymore. Assuming you lose or abandon the lands west of the Isen, and hold the fords, it's ridiculously easy to train up troops and generals. Both fords are only two turns' march from Edoras, one or two turns respectively from Helm's Deep and one turn from Foldburg. The northern ford is in Isengard's territory.

What that means is, you can hold the fords as you develop your land, racking up serious kills, and then when you can afford the army, sack Isengard. If you're playing vanilla TATW, that's pretty much game over for your enemies to the west. The rest of Isengard's land can be mopped up. If you're playing FROME, you still have to deal with Dunland, but your border with Dunland at that point will be Isengard (Citadel), Foldburg (Wooden Castle and #1 on the get upgraded list), and Helm's Deep (Fortress). Even without the fords, that makes you pretty darn secure while you plan your attack.

I LOVE Rohan's infantry, and keep having to force myself to keep a cavalry army in the field for the sake of lore. The higher level Rohan infantry is deceptively weak - they have no stamina, despite good combat stats - but the lowly Rohan Axemen are fantastic! Cheap, plentiful, good stamina, okay defence, and a deceptively good attack (it's AP, makes up for the low number) make then dependable workhorses, while your 'better' infantry waits in reserve to deliver the final blow. Likewise, Rohan Archers may not be the best archers, but they have good armor and an AP axe for hand to hand, making them great flankers. Fire a volley of fire arrows into the backs of the engaged enemy and then charge = rout.

I'm not sure I'd recommend starting with Rohan, but it's certainly a better game, in my opinion, than Gondor. Rohan is also right in the thick of things, but doesn't have the slow grinding stack-after-stack always-about-to-perish gameplay that Gondor does.

Absolutely agree with the fact that Rohan is the better campaign in terms of fun. And yes, I play vanilla. Never really found any issues with it. After dealing wtih Isengard, something that usually doesn't take me more than forty turns, I go across the ford at the Anduin and start giving Mordor the buisness, also taking some stress off Gondor. Two humans playing Gondor and Rohan are a very tough nut to crack.

Also, after thinking and reading your view on archers, you are right on their multi-purpose abilities. I never really thought about that, because my infantry role was always really well filled by my axe-men. Love those boys. They know how to rock it. And they know how to rock it CHEAP. So, I never really thought of my archers as an offensive melee tool. And as for the bridge example, lol any archers are good there. Snagas are good in a situation like that.

Altogether though, I have to agree with you. Only way I differ is that I have never played a hotseat campaign before. Not that I don't want to, I just...well...don't really know how, per se. Don't know how to handle it with someone online.

[Incomitatus]

Absolutely agree with the fact that Rohan is the better campaign in terms of fun. And yes, I play vanilla. Never really found any issues with it. After dealing wtih Isengard, something that usually doesn't take me more than forty turns, I go across the ford at the Anduin and start giving Mordor the buisness, also taking some stress off Gondor. Two humans playing Gondor and Rohan are a very tough nut to crack.

Also, after thinking and reading your view on archers, you are right on their multi-purpose abilities. I never really thought about that, because my infantry role was always really well filled by my axe-men. Love those boys. They know how to rock it. And they know how to rock it CHEAP. So, I never really thought of my archers as an offensive melee tool. And as for the bridge example, lol any archers are good there. Snagas are good in a situation like that.

Altogether though, I have to agree with you. Only way I differ is that I have never played a hotseat campaign before. Not that I don't want to, I just...well...don't really know how, per se. Don't know how to handle it with someone online.

I should have been more clear. I'm not playing online, I'm taking charge of all the 'good' factions. On the one hand, it eliminates the ally backstabbing problem especially common with the Dwarves. On the other, it means, in my case, none of the 'good' factions are getting money or troop bonuses, creating a serious income imbalance. It's taken me 90 turns to get on an even footing with the 'evil' side. Quite challenging. I wouldn't recommend it as a way for a new person to play.

[Pyres Δt Varanasi]

Try The High Elves or the Silvan They are too easy.

[Trailhog250]

There is one simple way to dominate as Gondor... Fight Mordor and JUST Mordor. To avoid conflict with Harad until you're ready make sure the settlements that border you and them have a rebel settlement in between them and get a fleet with 1 unit or so and simply go up and down their coast letting it sit there and ALL their armies will chase it. If you want it super hard though, by all means let them attack Gondor. Though this is MUCH, MUCH harder and can become neigh impossible once Serpent guard and Mumakil arrive and Mordor will most likely still be capable of great damage.

@Incomitatus

You have modified the TATW/M2TW preference file so that you can defend in all battles right? As in get to choose to fight/auto resolve/withdraw? I can give you a link on how to do it if you do not

[Incomitatus]

@Incomitatus

You have modified the TATW/M2TW preference file so that you can defend in all battles right? As in get to choose to fight/auto resolve/withdraw? I can give you a link on how to do it if you do not

Sorry, Trailhog, I didn't see your question. If you're still following this thread, the answer is yes, but... if you know how to get ambushes working right, I'd appreciate that information.

[Incomitatus]

Huh, I just load a fleet up with Pelagir Marines and travel up and down the coast with a spy, capturing Haradrim settlements by surprise and sacking them before moving on. Keeps my treasury nice and full, Harad weak, and the people happy.

[Trailhog250]

Yeah, my method is basically the same. Except they just sit there, though sometimes I attack their settlements. Usually only after I'm mopping up Mordor though.

[Eohelm]

Playing Hotseat with all good factions by yourself sounds messy at best, honestly. I wouldn't really be able to handle that. Always was more of a team player than a lone wolf. lol If you can do it, more power to you, mate. I can't see myself doing that.

[Trailhog250]

I wouldn't want to do it for having to fight TONS of battles. Though I have thought about doing 2 factions by myself before. It can really let you coordinate attacks and defenses I'll say that

But it will take much more time as well (but then again you're playing more than one campaign )