good starting faction?

[Palandiell]

wow this is bascially a new game, based on the TW principle. everything seems to be new. can anybody suggest me a easy first faction to play, so I can get used to the new stuff?


and oh, what is the second campaign type, this folliower of the ring?

[Keyser_Soze]

I'll give you a brief runover of the factions:
Gondor: Specialises in high-quality heavy infantry- diverse unit list, large territory- most action-packed campaign, have to deal with mordor and Harad from the start- One of the harder campaigns out there for beginners.

Rohan: Emphasis on cavalry. Unmatched cavalry power, and average infantry and archers (though some more notable infantry and archers exist high-tier)- Fighting Isengard can be tough, though.

dale: Best archers that any man faction can field, emphasis on them, though also powerful heavy infantry late-game- Have to fight against Rhun from the start, and eventually Mordor as you expand southwards, though archers make this doable.

dwarves: think gimli. Very hardy, powerful infantry, though complete lack of cavalry. No difficult enemies early-on, though Rhun may attack you later on. Best armour in game.

high elves: possibly easiest faction to start with. the most powerful high-tier infantry in the game, some of the best archers, heroic victories will be an easy outcome to any battle. Units have good armour. Poor economy, so move your capital from Rivendell at the start. you start fighting orcs of the misty mountains, who aren't too tough, though don't leave cities undefended or you'll be overrun.

silvan elves: similar to high elves with a greater emphasis on archers- best archers in game. Tougher campaign than high elves, have to fight orcs of the misty mountains and mordor at same time to begin with.

Free peoples: rather poor faction as they are- Some decent units (dunedain units), though you have to fight a war of attrition against Orcs of Gundabad from the start with weak units, which can be tough, as you start with next to nothing and a very poor economy. If you survive this, and build up your economy, things get much better- After fulfilling certain conditions, it is possible to reform the kingdom of Arnor, which transforms Eriador into one of the best factions in the game, with a layout similar to that of Gondor, though focusing on Dunedain units.

Mordor: Focuses on overrunning enemies with hordes of units- few extraordinary units, though armoured trolls and mounted nazgul are excellent, and if you manage to find the one ring, Sauron will be resurrected, and he is incredibly powerful. Start off fighting Gondor and Silvan elves, so this may be tough for you, though. No cavalry other than nazgul.

Isengard: Focus on Uruk-hai- Heavy infantry, some of the most powerful infantry in game in high numbers- Start with few regions, and have to fight Rohan, and later, possibly high elves, so it's a tough campaign. Cavalry represented by wargs.

Orcs of the misty mountains: little unit diversity, though you do get wargs, trolls and after fulfilling some conditions (build mithril mine in moria), you can get the balrog, second most powerful unit in game after Sauron- Have to fight against dwarves, High elves and silvan elves from start. defensible mountain terrain.

Orcs of Gundabad: very similar to the above- Bit more of a focus on heavy infantry, access to more types of more powerful trolls

Harad: good, diverse unit roster- good infantry, and in late game, access to mumakil, which is pretty cool! Have to fight against Gondor though, which can be tough.

Rhun: High-quality infantry with good armour, excellent bodyguard, decent archers- Have to fight dale and maybe dwarves from start.

My advice would be to go for the High elves to begin and you can decide what to do next from there.


The fellowship campaign is a campaign in which gameplay roughly follows the events of the films, with some added elements. However, it is currently incompatible with 3.1, though this is due to change in the future.

[Vifarc]

silvan elves: similar to high elves with a greater emphasis on archers- best archers in game. Tougher campaign than high elves, have to fight orcs of the misty mountains and mordor at same time to begin with.

Even tougher than TA2.1, as at start you have to fight against many giant spider 'armies': it very slows the begininng of the campaign and bring many dead elves who won't go taking bandit (or not) settlements..

[Loke-Shah]

Harad and Rhun are easiest. Rhun has one of the best economy in the game. so they're both good to start yoour TATW adventure

[FC Groningen]

I second Rhun as well. I consider them without weak points actually and economy wise, they have great potential.

[johntarmac]

Rhun is a good starting faction to learn the ropes with.
Excellent economy and starting units will cope easily with Dale and the Dwarves.
Turn 100 in present campaign and I am building units just so their upkeep helps keep my bank balance below 50,000.

Cheers

[brasswire]

I've always found Eriador to be a nice starting faction.

There's a lot of familiarity for people who have seen the movies (Shire, Bree, hobbits, etc) and you get to use Gandalf and Aragorn as generals. You have lots of room to expand in the early turns, fighting mostly bandits. The one thing you do have to watch is that in 3.0 there are a ton of bandit ambushes now, so don't try sending any smaller armies anywhere unless you've already cleared the way first.

Eriador isn't really under a lot of pressure so you get to take time to build if you want, and you can get plenty of settlements in the early turns once you "conquer" the shire, and you tend to have an excess of generals. You also have a strong ally nearby in the High Elves which is nice. Isengard generally won't attack you first, and the OotMM are busy fighting the Elves/Dwarves, which means the only enemy you really have to worry about is the Orcs of Gundabad.

[MichaelKendrick]

Gondor. Difficulty aside, and to be honest it isn't really that difficult, it's easily the most enjoyable and strategically satisfying. Plus you'll get to fight over Osgiliath very early on in the game, and its one of the coolest new custom settlements.

[Emperor of Hell]

Rhun and silvans are the easiest

[Ngugi]

I second Keyser_Soze that High Elves are the best for a beginner. Beside Rivendell/Imladris no settlements are in danger with some basic diplomacy (befriend the Dwarves) while its fewer but great units is easier to wield than the large but weaker units you have to handle as evil Men.
If the capital is moved west soon (but not at the first turns) economy will be good as well.

If to play the Drak side is of interest though I agree upon Rhûn.

[Queller]

Rohan is very easy, if you don't fear lead your riders yourself at battlefield. (on m/m I conquer Isengard in 12 turns.)

[McDrewbs]

Spiders are horrid to face, they seem to munch through everything

[Ngugi]

Spiders are horrid to face, they seem to munch through everything

Welcome to the forum McD'
Get up a bunch of stakes with good amount of archers behind and you are quite safe. Otherwise... ^^

[Vifarc]

Against Spiders get up a bunch of stakes with good amount of archers behind and you are quite safe. Otherwise... ^^

Good idea, as spiders are cav. But at the beginning of the game, we have almost no stakes units, and we can't build (nor repair) more. But, ok, for my next Silvan game, the building of stakes unit could be the main goal.

[Miskow]

Queller is right, Rohan is good first faction to play i TATW 3.1. They have good economy and strong cav. After taking some rebel settlements you need to fight against poor Isengard and focus later on Mordor.

[joshko]

If you're a defensive player start with high elves or eriador. If you're aggressive start with Rohan or Gondor.

Rohan is very easy if you can take Isengard(settlement) early, same with Gondor if you can blitz Minas Ithil, maybe Cirith Ungol, and keep Harad at the choke point.

TA is very much for the aggressive player, find key settlements (both bandit and AI) and take them ASAP, the trick is to kick your opponents early and keep them down, if you turtle up you will be over run.

If you know your play style pick a faction that suites you best other wise you will it will be tough to keep your armies.

For example I like lots of archers with some infantry, and a few cavalry to clean up so I do very well as dale but usually rage quit as dwarves.

[Malinwa]

Hardest: Isengard (Terrible (!) economy, very hard)
Easiest: Rhun (Extremely easy, even on vh/vh)

[Swad]

I would agree with Maliwa and everyone else who says Isengard is the hardest faction to play.

Although for a more diplomatic focused game, I will suggest Isengard for the sheer challenge of it (I'll be using VH/VH for this case). It's like Venice with steroids without all the money, trade fleets, and good units for the first half of the beginning.


Due to its nature- limited expansion, tiny rebel settlements, limited income, giant neighbors next door with the ability to spam full stacks every turn with no consequences whatsoever, military action isn't an option for most of the beginning of the game (you're game will probably take you through most of those 550 turns) you're going to have to rely on diplomacy and keeping your reputation in the green and slowly outbuild enemy forces.

Your diplomative maneuverings are going to be incredibly important, and even this isn't a guaranteed track of action since there aren't even that many settlements around that can support diplomatic buildings. It's likely that your few diplomats are going to do around putting our fires every where.

All in all, Isengard has to be incredibly careful where it steps. With no real army units until turn 40 it's inadvisable to start with any sort of war with major factions, although you could take Rohan's two southern cities West of the Ford if you think you can survive the political fallout with Rohan afterwards and achieve a peaceful nominal relation with it for most of the game.

[Laaer]

I don't play with evil factions so I can't comment on them. Easiest of the good factions is probably High Elves.

In the beginning, if you don't mess with Orcs of Gundabad or Isengard, you only have to fight with Orcs of the Misty Mountains which is easy because, they generally field light armoured infantry and killing them is very easy as HE boast the best archers in Middle-Earth. Even OotMM's cavalary(wargs) are weak against HE archers, if you use flaming arrows they fry in a second Needless to say that Imladris is almost impossible to lose because of AI pathfinding issues.
A few disadvantages of HE may be divided territories and poor economy because of that, due to high amount of corruption.

I have played with Rohan mostly in 2.1(vh/vh), and it was pretty hard. I guess difficulty of Rohan is decreased in 3.0 but I'm not sure though.
I wanted to try an easier faction in 3.0, so I went with HE(h/vh). I destroyed OotMM in less then 70 turns without losing any battles, so I can say HE is somewhat very easy

[FC Groningen]

As High Elves, you eventually need to get controle of 3 settlements in total to secure the victory. Carn Dum, Moria and Isengard. The player may pick the order. If you do it well, you can rush 1 of those right away with the starting units/generals and another one very soon after that. Since Isengard is usually taken rather early in most campaigns by Rohan (Baron Samedi's Submod), this leaves a very easy campaign indeed.