Grandgnus Isengard 3.2 VH/VH Guide

[grandgnu]

I did try that but with the inital poor relations you have with the good factions on VH stopped it from working, and because I only had the initial 3 settlements (I was still in the process of sieging out or trying to take surrounding rebel settlements) at that point the trade agreement was only "barely accepted" and brought the relations back down to poor after they were so-so from the gifted map information. I guess it's one of those things that is probably a bit chancy - perhaps if I had left out the map information they'd have took the alliance without any money - but using gold will certainly seal the deal anyway.

Yes, there does seem to be some luck factor involved. As you experienced, I had a game where I offered trade relations separately and it was barely accepted and then my relations weren't good enough to get the alliance.

But a reload of my save and offering the trade agreement with the alliance was accepted, so I guess you have to play around a bit.

In my first time around I was friendly with all the good factions and it got a bit boring not doing any fighting. So in my current game I allied Gondor only (as far as good factions go) and Rohan hasn't bothered me almost 200 turns in. I've got Eriador down to one territory (Long Bottom) and I'll be preparing to wipe them and then focus on the High Elves.

My efforts seem to have kept the Orcs of Gundabad and The Misty Mountains alive, since Eriador/Arnor wasn't able to push against them in addition to the Dwarves. I haven't seen much support from the Orcs in the north though, fought my battles myself, so unsure how they're doing on other fronts.

[Bloodly]

My belief is that Eriador, in order to turn into Arnor, must ally with Gondor.

True only for the PLAYER. AI doesn't follow that restriction; it'll auto-turn with a 10% chance after Turn 90 as long as Lake Evendim is under AI control.

From camapign_script:


;########################## AI Arnor Union #############################

monitor_event FactionTurnStart FactionType turks
and IsFactionAIControlled
and I_TurnNumber >= 90
and RandomPercent < 10
and I_SettlementOwner Lake_Evendim = turks
;set_faction_banner
;faction turks
;banner byzantium
;end_set_faction_banner
;give_everything_to_faction byzantium turks false
set_religion turks numenorian
change_population_religion turks numenorian 90 northmen
destroy_buildings turks academic true
destroy_buildings turks castle_academic true
set_event_counter union_accepted 1
historic_event ai_arnor_reunited event/arnor_reunited.bik
terminate_monitor
end_monitor

[SmartMrT]

For some reason I cant produce urk-hai infantry or pikemen. can you tell me the city you produce them in.

[DrDragun]

For some reason I cant produce urk-hai infantry or pikemen. can you tell me the city you produce them in.

These units require 2 things: an Army Barracks (level 3 barracks which requires a large city or large castle to build) as well as 75% Melkor culture. You can check a city's culture level by clicking the city details menu (3 little circle icons in the bottom-left of the city management screen). You will see 4 bar graphs for population growth, public order, income, and culture. Mouse over the culture icons to see what % your culture is.

Before this, you can only build Uruk-Hai Raiders from a level 2 barracks or Uruk-Hai Archers from a level 2 bowyer.

[Bowmaster]

I think they can be recruited only after you have the the Barracks Event, which comes up at turn 40-44. Also they are not AOR, meaning you can recruit them in any city with the right culture and barracks.