Isengard questions

[Alex-ander]

I am a returning player back after a long break. I am playing Isengard on H/VH and so far i am finding it a frustrating experence. I have some questions regarding Isengard,

How can i use the plantir i have reached turn 50 and i have still not been able to use it.

When can i call an invasion. It would be great to call one and get Rohan off my back.

How do i make progress, i have captured a couple of rebel settlements. But i seem stuck now defending them and fighting off the armies Rohan sends against me. I am an experanced player i have won the campaign with three of the good factions in the past. But this is my first time playing an evil faction and its hard going.

Thanks

[Wizad]

You can use the Palantir every 5 turns starting from turn 5.
You need the Family Member with the Palantiri Authorisation trait to be in the city with the Palantir. At the start, Saruman is the person who has this authorisation. You can transfer this trait between Family Members. So if you want to use Saruman to march through Rohan, you can give the Palantir Authorisation to still be able to use the Palantir while Saruman is not present in the Orthanc.

So:
1. Have the Family Member with "Palantiri Authorisation" present in the Orthanc, this is Saruman if you did not move the trait.
2. Click on the Orthanc.
3. If you are able to use the Palantir, the orb in the bottom left of your screen will glow green for a second.
4. Press F3. This is by default the zoom out (?) function. If you haven't changed it, this is the key you must press to actually activate the Palantir.

Any further questions?
Also Isengard is probably the hardest faction in the game. So good luck!

[grandgnu]

I am a returning player back after a long break. I am playing Isengard on H/VH and so far i am finding it a frustrating experence. I have some questions regarding Isengard,

How can i use the plantir i have reached turn 50 and i have still not been able to use it.

When can i call an invasion. It would be great to call one and get Rohan off my back.

How do i make progress, i have captured a couple of rebel settlements. But i seem stuck now defending them and fighting off the armies Rohan sends against me. I am an experanced player i have won the campaign with three of the good factions in the past. But this is my first time playing an evil faction and its hard going.

Thanks

Welcome back. I experienced the same frustration, but after some play time have come up with a strategy for VH/VH that I posted in the Guides section here:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=557027

It should help you to get a solid foothold and go to war when you're ready, rather than getting hammered by four full stacks of Rohan troops early.

To commission an invasion, you have to click the diplomacy button. I'm going from memory because I'm at work, but there should be a Dark Lord Sauron tab that you can click on the page that comes up, and there at the bottom left I think is an image of an orc that you click to request an invasion target.

[xEomerx]

haha , a new power is rising!
you can ally with rohan by making peace with gondor.
get some armies , conquer eriador and the high elves and then focus on the horse riders and down their necks

[LoGaL]

remember that to use the palantir they guy with the autorizathion must be the governor of the settlement

[Valdeee]

Can there something be done that you get more family members?

[Flinn]

Can there something be done that you get more family members?

you mean for Isengard or in general?

Anyway, for Good factions they do come time by time as sons of your family members or be presented as husbands for your "princesses" or they can be offered for adoption.

For evil factions is a little bit different if I'm not completely wrong, as you can rely on adoption only.

Still not sure if captain promotions (due to winning a main battle with an army lead by a captain) still occurs, as in TATW I only fought (or at least won ) battles with my armies led by a general.

Bwt, welcome to the forum

Flinn

[sanderman2]

Hmm , the last time i played with Isengard i edited a little thing so i started out with little more money , and my kings purse increased with 1k.
This made me Blitz Rohan .
Its really effective when you take out rohan´s main cities/fortresses.
Like :
- Hornburg
- Edoras
- Foldberg ( i thought it was called , wooden castle close to Isengard)
- ( wooden castle south-west of the Hornburg)

[Cyricist]

Are there no pikemen or crossbow units for the Uruk-hai, for Isengard? They were featured heavily in The Two Towers film, seems strange that I can't find them in the roster...

EDIT: Sorry, nevermind. Apparently you can only recruit the crossbows + pikemen from cities, not castles. My bad.

[Garriath]

Isengard is definitely one of the hardest factions (at least in the early game), but it can be incredibly rewarding. Search the forums a bit and dig up some old threads on this topic, but here's the rundown:

Your campaign against Rohan will probably come in three stages. The first is going to be your first few turns, where you need to take all Rohan settlements west of the river Isen (that flows out of Isengard.) If you can do that, you've narrowed the fight to a single front war, gives you easy access to the rebel settlements west of Isengard, and forces the enemy to attack you at a bridge, and not in open ground. Hold them off until you've built a real army, and then the second stage is going to come when you're able to take Edoras and Helm's Deep. If you take both cities before too late in the game, Rohan won't be able to produce effective units to fight you, meaning that your final stage will just involve fighting dreadstacks and taking down Rohan's final settlements. Once you've taken Rohan out, though, the game really opens up and becomes a lot more fun. You can totally decide if you help Mordor finish off Isengard, fight the Silvans in the East, or take out Eriador in the North. Your units are generally very good, and with Rohan conquered you'll have an enormous economy backing you up.

A few quick notes:

-When fighting Rohan, always engage larger armies at river crossings. It's the only setting where you can reliably produce the kill-to-death ratios you need to win the game. Siege cities only after you've taken out nearby armies at the rivers.
-Diplomacy is very much your friend. An early alliance with Gondor will give you a short break from Rohan. Bear in mind that the AI never backstabs allies without cancelling alliances, so if you can ally the Silvans, Eriador, and the High Elves (which isn't hard), you can be guaranteed to only worry about Rohan.
-It's a very challenging campaign, and don't expect rapid progress. I've taken Rohan down in about 70 turns, but it could easily have taken longer. Rohan, on the other hand, can easily wipe Isengard out in less than 20 turns.
-If I remember correctly, you can still produce crossbows and pikes from your castles, but only after the barrack event.
-Once you have a strong enough economy, get some warg riders. They do wonders for picking off routing infantry.

Hope this helps. I love playing Isengard very much, but it's a very challenging game. Thankfully, unlike the other hard factions (Gondor, Dale, OotMM), if you play your cards right, the game gets much easier, not harder, as the campaign progresses.

[Ego123]

Isengard its not a good faction on open batlle,especially against Rohan,hurry up to build good infantry and avoid openfields battles,there is now unit of Isengard to resist of Rohan medium cavalry WHEN ROHAN ARMY USE VERY GOOD HIT AND RUN TACTICS,when you atack one of Rohan setlements be sure you have catapults to conquer in same turn when you atack,if not a renforce of Rohan whit medium cavalry can strike you hard in the next turn.On the openfields battle put a lot of accent on Wargs and archers,help your archers by defending whit your wargs units.Sorry for my bad english.

[Mhaedros]

Adoptions and children are completely decided by how many settlements you have. So basically, if you have 3 settlements and 4 generals it's unlikely you'll get a new potential general (son) or adoption.

[Flinn]

Adoptions and children are completely decided by how many settlements you have. So basically, if you have 3 settlements and 4 generals it's unlikely you'll get a new potential general (son) or adoption.

I wasn't aware of this fact, thanks for the info

Flinn

[Wizad]

Are there no pikemen or crossbow units for the Uruk-hai, for Isengard? They were featured heavily in The Two Towers film, seems strange that I can't find them in the roster...

EDIT: Sorry, nevermind. Apparently you can only recruit the crossbows + pikemen from cities, not castles. My bad.

You can recruit crossbows and pikes from high level cities and castles!
They are not available for recruitment till turn 41 though. You will receive a message that turn that your barracks are running at full capacity.

[NoldorinWrath]

What I like to do when I play isengard is
1st: snap up talsir, south and north tharbad, and lond daer if I'm lucky.
2nd: place a half-stack on that crossing just south of Isengard ASAP.
3rd: Slowly build up and take rohan's western settlements, and place a half to full stack on that other crossing.
4th: continue building up, and then UNLEASH Isengard's true might! Show the Rohirrim who is boss! March upon Helm's Deep!
5th: Once The hornburg has fallen, press towards Edoras, and by then rohan is pretty much done for except for dreadstacks and garrison scripts.

[eugenioso]

of course you can be cheap like most of the people here and play the BS version of isengard, the one where Saruman of many colours allies with the elves, eriador, and, hell, gondor, all the while them being totally cool with letting those stinky horseriders die.

if you want to be cool, play Isengard like intended.

[Wizad]

When I play Isengard, first I ally with the Elves and other good factions while harassing Rohan. I take Fangorn, and all of the northern and western rebel settlements.

At turn 50, I unleash Isengard and I declare war to every good faction. At turn 60, I betray the eye and I declare war to every evil faction.

That way you can still build up, and have a challenge when you get all of your fun units.

[androcathr]

you can ally with rohan by making peace with gondor.