V4 Uruk Dominion Fan Thread

[Peelyposter]

Well, Uruks aren't going to follow a human's orders, so he has to put on a cunning disguise

The financial side of things is starting to get me down. Vanilla/Retrofit has got me used to building up the economy and being able to support some armies and develop settlements at the same time. In Thera I have t save up for two or three turns just to build something and can only afford a couple of rag-tag half stacks. The income from settlements just seems so low and they grow terribly slowly, even with low taxes and farming improvements. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong; any tips would be gratefully received

[Peelyposter]

Well, Uruks aren't going to follow a human's orders, so he has to put on a cunning disguise

The financial side of things is starting to get me down. Vanilla/Retrofit has got me used to building up the economy and being able to support some armies and develop settlements at the same time. In Thera I have t save up for two or three turns just to build something and can only afford a couple of rag-tag half stacks. The income from settlements just seems so low and they grow terribly slowly, even with low taxes and farming improvements. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong; any tips would be gratefully received

[Encablossa]

Having a human general be an uruk during battle is an engine limitation I think. I though I would get an uruk bodyguard when I bribed one of their generals as the romuli but it was just a normal romuli bodyguard .

The easiest way to make money is by keeping mostly free garrison units in cities. This mod allows very high amount of free upkeep. Even forts are able to free up expenses for 5 units. Then just blitz the enemies with artillery. The uruks actually excell in city battles since they aren't really for flanking.

[Lord of the Drunk Penguin]

They excel at flanking too.

[Peelyposter]

I haven't managed to develop any of my settlements to the point where I can build any artillery, not even a catapult. I don't think any are actually big enough yet. Actually, looking at the building browser I can't even see any siege workshops or similar available. How do I go about getting artillery?

Right now I have a Romulii stack just outside Tartarus, which I should be able to deal with, but goodness knows how many others they have.

[Encablossa]

Hire manchu mercenary units to the left of your starting regions. I think I ended up just going to Syrianna to recruit a monster bombard unit for taking out walls.

They are really good when flanking but most of my battles with them are usually siege battles but that works out since they can't get mobbed by the higher count enemies.

[Peelyposter]

Does that mean that the poor old Dominion doesn't get any form of siege weaponry as standard?

My main issue is that I can't afford mercenaries (or a navy): I could recruit a few, but the upkeep would wipe out the meagre income I bring in each turn (about 1,000 - 1,500g profit).

From what I can glean form the various threads, finances were tightened up a bit in V4, but I haven't been able to find any detail on this. The starting treasury has clearly been cut, from 50,000 to 20,000, and I suspect the king's purse was reduced too, but it's not clear if any other changes were made.

I do like to moan about the financial side of things, don't I

I suppose my question is, is being eternally short of money par for the course in v4 (turn 51, 4 towns, 4 castles), or am I just going wrong somewhere?

[Peelyposter]

Does that mean that the poor old Dominion doesn't get any form of siege weaponry as standard?

My main issue is that I can't afford mercenaries (or a navy): I could recruit a few, but the upkeep would wipe out the meagre income I bring in each turn (about 1,000 - 1,500g profit).

From what I can glean form the various threads, finances were tightened up a bit in V4, but I haven't been able to find any detail on this. The starting treasury has clearly been cut, from 50,000 to 20,000, and I suspect the king's purse was reduced too, but it's not clear if any other changes were made.

I do like to moan about the financial side of things, don't I

I suppose my question is, is being eternally short of money par for the course in v4 (turn 51, 4 towns, 4 castles), or am I just going wrong somewhere?

[Encablossa]

Ideally you'll want to convert some of the castles in the middle of your territory into cities. For some reason there are a crapton of castles everywhere.

I'm not sure what's causing you financial problems. Maybe you're recruiting too many non-free upkeep troops or have them lingering in the field. More likely t's having a war so soon eating up your money. I preferred to ally the romuli with trade rights and just keep a near full stack in the city bordering theirs so they get no funny ideas. That way you could siege out Lao Che who are worse at city battles than the romuli.

No more advice I can give other than don't expand too quickly and try to make friends out of other factions..

And I think the last time ai gets money boost is turn 40 so it should even out in your favor soon.

[Peelyposter]

Thanks for the advice. I fear I may need to start over and see if I can get things working a bit better.

[Iguanaonastick]

I've found this game to be quite generously financially in my campaigns. Basic points to have money would be the same here as in just about any total war mod: build income-boosting structures first, military structures later. Use high chivalry generals in your most profitable cities. Lower taxes to boost growth and increase chivalry (if you can afford to, it'll help in the long run.) Get trade rights with everybody around you. Conquer as many rebel settlements as possible. Convert as many settlements to cities as you can afford. (75% cities minimum, I'd say.) Never pay upkeep for garrison troops if you can help it. Another helpful tip: forts in this mod are permanent, cost only 1000 gold and house 3 units with free upkeep. Any unit, even the expensive ones that normally can't garrison for free. When you have a half-stack somewhere not doing anything, put them in forts instead of in a city. You'll earn your money back in 1-2 turns. Also, in general, you need money to make money. If your spending is so high you can't upgrade your infrastructure and can't afford to lower taxes, you have a problem. It's usually caused by having too many soldiers. Therefore, there are two solutions: either conquer a bunch of new settlements with those soldiers, ideally losing a lot in the process to lower upkeep cost, or simply disband some expensive units. The former obviously is the preferred solution. Once you have money, put everything you can into upgrading the economy, as I mentioned above. For buildings, I always buy roads first since they help both income and armies, then ports, farms, markets, etc. The exception is one castle which invests in troop buildings instead since you do need those. And as Uruks I might rush to the biggest temple in my capital since that gets you the immensely powerful priests I mentioned earlier in this thread.

[Lord of the Drunk Penguin]

Disband my fighting Uruk Hai ?


Never.

[Candy_Licker]

I've started a campaign with the Lao Che, and I can attest that the Uruks are a real pain. They have some really nasty units. I think I don't need to go into detail about the Priests. The Bodyguard unit is really hard to kill, all I can do is sacrifice my infantry until my cavalry can finish them with repeated charges. The Arcebusarii are real cavalry killers, the AI likes to snipe my general unit. And those hounds of Demos are pretty nsaty too. I really hate to fight those guys.

[Lord of the Drunk Penguin]

The unthinkable has happened: Faye Hades my most charming princess has married a Faustian general by the name of Guderian.

Now, the Dominion throne by law of blood will go to him. I can't wait to see how their children will look.
General portraits are now pretty much standard templates, I've noticed.

I don't mind. At least the heir is human.
Alpha Yar Heinz has a certain appeal to it, doesn't it?

[Winterwolf00]

So would I be correct in assuming that it would be impossible to have Ly Kan generals and bodyguards to go with my all Ly Kan armies?
Don't look at me like that, Uruks are freaking expensive in the early game.

[Encablossa]

Not possible. Even generic generals have Uruk bodyguards. Honestly, while it is gamey, you can just spam a bunch of Uruk generals since they are powerful and cost less than the second highest tier uruks available.

[Heart of Madness]

Started a campaign today, and I've more or less performed average in comparison to other campaigns.

Years ago I established a reputation on these forums for blitzing using cavalry generals (even after V4), yet it's just no longer possible as this faction. Having just seized my 4th settlement at turn 6, I'd say I'm in for a major change of pace.

I was attacked by the Romuli on turn 5, so to Encablossa: I agree with you whole-heartedly on the Lao Che approach, yet I still believe it is easily possible to defend myself from the Romuli much as you have prepared by stationing a garrison on the border.

The economy is growing slowly due to my small armed forces. The plan was to carve out a buffer zone and then proceed to consolidate, which does appear to be working.

What really bites is that Alpha Cerberus burned after I witnessed for the first time the Priests of Callisto in action, and then the new heir, Alpha Yar Odo, turfed the next turn.

In all: a great campaign. I'm used to few casualties, so I really had to persevere and see the positives of pyrrhic victories (there are few).

Thank you again, TheFirstONeill. You've brought us all a mod that sticks with us.

[bitterhowl]

Hi! Whom should I ask for permission to use this unit models in mywork with submod for Westeros?

[Encablossa]

First O-Neill has been gone for a long time so anything he made would be difficult to ask about. I believe Caki from made some of them as well so you could try hitting him up for permissions.

[Kaiser Leonidas]

I think Caki was just involved in the Romuli units, might still be worth asking though I guess.