I'm new, Not sure what's going on, help with Harad

[kosomoto]

So I'm playing Gondor and it's turn 50. I just bought MTW2 for this mod, been meaning to for a while but finally was bored enough.

Harad has been appearing in the South and invading with full armies. I was crushed at first, then started a new campaign and had roughly 1k men ready for them. I then managed to kill their armies that appeared, and lost a good amount of units. I thought this would hold them off for a while but to my surprise the next turn two full armies appear in the same place! In the most epic battle of my life in turn 48, I won and their armies were gone. Turn 50 comes, two full armies appear in the same spot right next to my city, and I just exit the game because there is no way I can create units and move them down there fast enough. Why does harad have an infinite number of armies appearing in the same spot? It's making me lose all will to play, what should I do to counter this? If I somehow manage to fend off the third wave, is a fourth coming in two turns? If so, I see now way to possibly fight off Harad.

[muller227]

Welcome to the forums.

My assumption is that you are playing Vanilla TATW, and the city you are defending is Linhir. Anyway I think most people move their capitol too I think Tarnost which cuts down on corruption losses financially I never did. I am a great believer in over using BG's too stem early Harad, Their are some very good guides too Gondor much more detailed made by smarter people than me though in the resources section.

[beermugcarl]

gondor is a tough campaign.
Harad doesn't have unlimited troops though. i bet that those last two armies would of been their final push for a while.

what difficulty are you playing?

and as somebody said, move your capital.

[knight of meh]

or use ships to block them?

personally i don't "fend" them of i go for the throat and raze the coastal towns on my way to Umbar that keeps them occupied

[sharkbait459]

When I play I use BGs to fight Harad. I find it is the most efficient method because they regen a couple men after every turn so you don't have to send them back for retraining. I would only advise this if you are decent with cavalry though.

[Krieglord]

If you went out of your way to get MTW2 just for TATW why not make that extra leap and download one of the submods which add so much more? (no offence meant to vanilla team of course)

[jinjo]

so, first of all, welcome kosomoto
then, gondor is one of the hardest faction in tatw, especially if u play very hard/very hard
when i played with gondor at first, i chose to defeat mordor and after that harad and i think it's major mistake. mordor has better army and opportunity and it's harder to blitzkrieg mordor than harad.
harad doesnt have enemy on the map besides gondor, so he moves his full forces to gondor, so the correct decision is to crush harad and then mordor. harad is not big problem at the first period of game, because gondor's army is better than harad's light armoured army.
try to keep mordor at osgiliath, hold west osgiliath and try to defeat mordor's army at the bridge of west-east osgiliath.

P.S. read prevoius posts too, there are many useful tips here

[Lortano]

I agree with Jinjo, Harad is a prime target early on for your armies. I recommend creating a larger army to send by boat to Umbar to take it early on and use it as a stronghold, while keeping a reasonably sized garrison at Linhir to fend off any attacks. Umbar is the cornerstone of Harad's military, taking it down completely destroys their ability to make decent units that pose a threat.

[jinjo]

I agree with Jinjo, Harad is a prime target early on for your armies. I recommend creating a larger army to send by boat to Umbar to take it early on and use it as a stronghold, while keeping a reasonably sized garrison at Linhir to fend off any attacks. Umbar is the cornerstone of Harad's military, taking it down completely destroys their ability to make decent units that pose a threat.

i totally agree with u too

[seanbg]

I've just begun my Gondor campaign. it's my first time playing too, but I'm a veteran at the Silvan, Dale, Isengard, H.E and Eriador.

It's turn 60. I've reclaimed Minas Ithil, and taken the pass.

I've just finished a BEAAAUTIFUL ambush with 1200 men killing 1600 men of a 2000 strong Harad army. Sweet stuff..

I'm not sure about what the others said. Personally, I've gone for attacking both factions.

I couldn't attack Umbar straight off, because my economy wouldn't allow it. I can hardly scrape enough to get some troops, how do you afford the navy!? Especially since Harad has strong Corsair units?

Luckily for me, successful defence of Linhir, and subsequent conquests of the shore territories have given me some much needed cash, to raise that navy, and I've sunk quite a number of invasion fleets. At least 3000 Harads have gone down to their watery deaths... Extremely satisfying.

Me thinks you should go on the offensive. You need a buffer zone, so that your core territories are protected. I've done this by pushing the enemy out of Ithilien, and Handor. Do not give the enemy time to gather troops. establish a strong naval presence as soon as possible. Very helpful. Allows you to transport troops and retreat quickly.

Harad is a tough opponent late game. But Mordor isn't something to take lightly. A strong Mordor will soon send trolls, Oolog Hais and Troll catapults. The stuff of nightmares. Mordor will also attack Rohan, if unchecked. This will lead to Rohan collapsing, and your entire rear exposed. This was why I opted to invade Mordor with 1300 troops, with Boromir leading the charge.

Remember, Orcsies are vulnerable to a good cavalry charge, and the Harads aren't too good against your superior swordsmen. Fight accordingly. Both are lightly armoured, and archers are your best friends. Ambush where possible, kill generals, and take lightly defended towns to deny enemy control of area. Retreat if must, and abandon towns (poor) if cannot be held. I've successfully used this mouse trap tactic twice now. Abandon town to enemy - Enemy occupies - You siege town - Enemy dies, when forced to sally / even funnier if you have long range archers and you attack the town over the walls. Also very fun, when they are trying to exit gates with your archers firing.

Don't have heavily defended towns. Wastes your money. Instead try for a mobile defence. Intercept them in battlegrounds of your choosing, and fighting them in detail instead of whole armies. Four unit melee, two unit archers, one general, and a cavalry unit. That's a good size for a mobile defence force. If outnumbered, simply retreat to city garrison and send for reinforcements to help sally that seige if need be.

Also remember that it is better to lure the enemy garrison out into the field by attacking their units near the city than it is to siege or assault it. Allows you to rout enemy forces entirely, and simply stroll into town. This also helps to avoid that annoying garrison script.

Hope this helps!

[Peahead]

Third age was made by gamers for gamers... it's very difficult. I have won with Gondor a few times now on VH/VH. I gather every unit that isn't free upkeep from all cities and move them up to osgiliath, the bodyguards i put in one stack and send against harad. Just put cavalry in your harad stack nothing else, split the body guards into 2 groups and attack the enemy from different sides withdraw reform and charge again, you will have a string of heroic victories. Try to kill the enemy general and the rest will break very easily. If you really want to be sneaky capture the black gate and sell it to ootm, then mordor will only be able to attack through the morgul vale. Gondor will have a very strong economy especially if you take out harad early and grow all their settlements