Looking for advice with the Dwarves on VH/VH

[Slywolf15]

I'm looking for some advice on playing the dwarves. I really enjoy the race but I have trouble doing well especially with my economy on VH/VH. My general plan is to recruit a unit or two of dale calvery and try and converge my eastern and western forces at the misty mountains taking out OoG and moving down to Moria and then challenging Isengard. Is that a pretty sound plan or is there a better alternative? Any help or advice anyone could give me I would greatly appreciate it especially with doing well on VH/VH.

[Mhaedros]

That's my usual plan, but keep a force ready if Rhun attackes you

[Maestro Ugo]

I'm looking for some advice on playing the dwarves. I really enjoy the race but I have trouble doing well especially with my economy on VH/VH. My general plan is to recruit a unit or two of dale calvery and try and converge my eastern and western forces at the misty mountains taking out OoG and moving down to Moria and then challenging Isengard. Is that a pretty sound plan or is there a better alternative? Any help or advice anyone could give me I would greatly appreciate it especially with doing well on VH/VH.

I'm currently playing with dwarves on VH/VH and have a very healthy economy (over 100,000 in gold). This is how one might go about doing things:

1) Ignore Rhun in the beginning, send a diplomat to gain trade rights and exchange maps. You want to be on good terms with these guys as their reliance on archers, skirmishers and cavalry could pose a huge threat to you in the beginning. Send them a few gifts if need be.

2) Take Wormcove, Dain's Halls and Wrakyaburg with your Erebor armies. At the same time use Gimli to capture Lunelaith and Nenunial. This should be doable with the starting armies plus a few miners and warriors. If you have sufficient armies in the east try to take Gundabad also.

3) Try to take a little brake from expansion and secure peace with both orc factions for some time - this might be possible only after you beat them in a few battles. They will often give you money to leave them alone (I got 7000 gold from OoMM).

4) Don not build anything but pighouses and mines in the beginning - later switching to corruption reduction buildings, markets and barracks. Mines are your best friend as dwarves - they give you extra income AND increase growth. Refrain from building any more troops than needed and don't accept characters offered unless they are really good. Once these basic buildings are built in all your settlements you should have an income of well over 5000 with a small standing army.

5) Missions and diplomatic ventures can be a great source of income early in the game - try to make the most of them. I managed to get 4000 gold from silvan elves for trade rights, map info and alliance. Thats one mine right there.

6) When you feel strong enough attack OOG first and later destroying the Misty mountain variety. One precise and well timed swoop is best for attacking the remnants of Angmar - Press from both east and west and you could have them on their knees in 4 or 5 turns.

7) Once you have Gundabad lands move your capitol (If this is something you feel comfortable with doing). I found that Wrakyaburg worked best for me, but it will depend on the overall layout of your conquests, somewhere in that area definitely.

8) Rhun will attack sooner or later so you should have a small force there as Mhaedros mentioned. Free upkeep units and a healthy network of spies are all you need to have a relatively secure border. When they attack build a few units in Erebor and Azanulimbar-Dum, defeat their invasion and do a counter-strike. If you don't want to go deep in their territory (which is advisable) securing Kugavod is the key. Once this settlement falls in your hands you will have a strong wall against the red devils.

From east the province is defended by a bridge - just position a small force of a few miners and 2 or 3 crosbowmen there and you will be able to fend of all but huge stacks. Also put one general there if you can spare him. The western crossing is defended by a fort - put a small force there with 2 elite units (free upkeep in forts!). This plus a small garrison in the city and a small roaming army in that area are all you need. This basically means that in a short time any of the two choke-points (bridge and fort) can be defended by almost a fullstack. The great thing is that Kugavod is a really nice settlement it has a mine and a port, so if you develop it it might produce over 3000 gold per turn - paying for the defense around it and some more. I did this and right after taking the city secured a peace with Rhun and they haven't bothered me since.

9) Onward to Khazad Dum!

[Swad]

4) Don not build anything but pighouses and mines in the beginning - later switching to corruption reduction buildings, markets and barracks.

You probably know this, but many people I've talked to don't seem to be aware so I'll just post it here to be sure. Be careful where you build buildings that increase trade, they can be a potential money well. Trade bonuses depends on regions, some regions when a trade building is built will recoup the costs withing a dozen turns, others will take 250 of those 500 turns to recoup the costs.

Make sure that the building is actually going to make a sufficient amount money by looking at the settlement breakdown screen. The faded out figure gives the amount that will be made if the building is built (it will only show this if you queue the building up). There aren't many provinces that are economically feasible. While this may suck up 3000-7000 altogether in an unmodded TATW game, if you're using a mod that gives you many more trade buildings, make sure you don't blow all your money building them in places where its not profitable to do so.

[Mhaedros]

Indeed, an invasion on Rhun before the defeat of OotMM and OoG will result in financial crisis. Mostly since it takes waaay longer time to recruit units in Rhun than in the mountains. You need at least a full stack with semi-elite warriors to cut down their defences

[Maestro Ugo]

Indeed, an invasion on Rhun before the defeat of OotMM and OoG will result in financial crisis. Mostly since it takes waaay longer time to recruit units in Rhun than in the mountains. You need at least a full stack with semi-elite warriors to cut down their defences

Not necessarily - I did this before taking down OoMM - if you have a good economy 100 turns in the game you can easily have two fullstacks one near the orcs and one near Rhun - made by miners, warriors, axetrowers and a few crossbowmen and axemen - nothing fancy.

Also, I forgot to mention - avoid field battles at all costs. In cities noone can match the might of Durin's folk. I never hired a single unit of Dale cavalry and did fine. I have also literary never fought a big battle in the open, just some sweeping here and there.

[brapollo]

DON'T go over 50,000 in gold in your treasury. When you do, you're generals will start to pick up bad financial traits. There's no reason even ever to be holding that much money - spend it on your armies and infrastructure instead. Also follow the rule of raising taxes in cities to "high" when a building is to be built. It gives your generals better tax traits. This game is as much an exercise in managing your money as it is in winning battles. As a general rule, your offensives should be directed to taking settlements that give you a reduced front with the enemy. The more settlements you have exposed, the more you must defend. Also concentrate on advancing on one front at a time. You can't afford an offensive against Rhun and OOTMM at the same time.

Also, kill off any extraneous generals. That includes all with bad financial traits that you aren't specifically using as generals (Really you need only one or two with good command stars). Generals cost money and if they can't recoup their upkeep cost by being good settlement administers, they should die. And finally, never recruit so many troops that you can't build any more UNLESS you intend to use those troops to make a massive offensive taking multiple settlements that improves your financial situation. At a bare minimum at the start of a turn, check your financial stats. You should AT LEAST be earning 1000 gold a turn before building or recruiting. Preferably you should be earning a lot more.

Otherwise, what others have said is pretty useful.

[iffi]

Also, kill off any extraneous generals. That includes all with bad financial traits that you aren't specifically using as generals (Really you need only one or two with good command stars). Generals cost money and if they can't recoup their upkeep cost by being good settlement administers, they should die.

This mantra is recited quite often. It was solid advice in 2.1, however, in 3.1 it depends. If you are active in offense with your generals, they pay back their wages by the free replenishment. Also, now that recruitment is slower, auto-replenishing units are more useful to have.

I used about 8 dwarven noble units in the front-line in my main stack. Oh, what wonders they did! Sometimes one general died, so what. New ones kept coming.

And since it is now less useful to keep generals in your settlements (less growth bonuses), you don't have to make those agonizing decisions anymore: do they stay or do they go? To war they all go..

Finally, from roleplaying point of view I find it more pleasing to have several heroes and their retinues in one army.

[Morkern]

Not that I might be as good as these guys that has already given you plenty of valid tips - but I find taking wormcove(as mentioned before) and dains hall, the OOMM held castle and having them on low tax + building pig farms asap works great. As you can much faster produce dragonslayers, which you only get from those two regions - and dragonslayers are a real treat! That and when you fight rhun you better have some crossbowmen - and if you just wanna hold em off, do as maestro ugo said. And for these bridge battles/fort vs massive stacked rhun armies - a few crossbowmen + dragonslayers make a sturdy defense. The only thing I do different than maestro is to construct all buildings that gives me bonus on income, roads, markets and mines - of course focusing much on mines. And when you feel strong enough, you could actually try taking moria quite quick. Even though the balrog is a bit hard, you can either autoresolve it, as long as there isnt a massive force in moria. Khazad-dum has mithril mines! which gives you a lot of extra income + here you get another legendary unit besides the dragonslayers, the guards of khazad-dum, which are pretty nice as well! (I like variety in units, instead of only having the standard dwarf army ) + from moria you can push up the misty mountains quite easily! Moria is also easily defended!
And for getting a break from the orcs, if you've pounded an army or two of them and taken a settlement you can offer them ceasefire and they'll say its "very generous" which means you can as others have said, extort money from them, massive sums! and if they do not have the single ammount, take the cash per turn instead. During these small peacebreaks you can build up your cities

Hope it helps!

[traxx91]

Maestro Ugo made some good suggestions, but I would use my Gimli-army to take Carn Dum right away, its not too hard.

[Gimli]

By turn 120...I own all of OOTMM, OoG, and Isengard (All of it) and i also own the One Ring! Theres some good advice. If you want proof i will show you a screenshot if you need.

[brapollo]

iffi, you're right about the generals. They are good battle fodder. I used 6 generals myself on the front lines to conquer the Misty Mountains. But after an extended push, you need to consolidate your territories. So your extraneous generals still should die in those intermediate periods between offensives.