Comments, Suggestions and Gameplay Issues (v3.0)
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GAMEPLAY INFO
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DIFFICULTY LEVELS
We have tried to balance the mod so it is well balanced for any difficulty level, though I would like to explain the main differences:
CAMPAIGN: It seems the main effect of higher levels is to make AI more aggressive against the human player, but I think the probability of allies attacking you is similar in all levels.
BATTLE: It seems the effect of battle difficulty is just a bonus to attack: +4 at hard, and +8 at very hard.
In battle, I suggest MEDIUM if this is your first campaign, because the mod already gives some bonuses to AI units (+2 to experience).
The best way to choose the battle difficulty is to start a custom battle, with 12000 gold, flat land, choosing the same faction that you are going to play in campaign. Then play some battles in Medium, High, and Very high (or Easy), until you see the forces are even.
I like to play VH/VH, but most of the testing for the mod was made at M/M, with large unit settings.
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CAMPAIGN BALANCE
There is a script that reduces the population to the minimum (400) when an enemy settlement is captured. It has a big impact on the campaign gameplay, because it forces players to wait many turns until they can start recruiting units consistently in the outer cities, and they must rely on the core regions to recruit most of the units.
Many units require the appropriate resources to be recruited (for example horses, wargs, or trolls), and most factions can only recruit their elite units in their home regions.
Some special units may appear randomly (5%) in certain cities (for the home faction) when there is a named character acting as governor, and the happiness in the city is at green level.
* Urabhaya: trollman
* Hobbiton: hobbit archer, hobbit militia
* Minas·Tirith: gondor fountainguard
* Fornost: gondor ranger dunedain
* Nenuial: gondor ranger dunedain
* Beorn: beorning
* Barad-dur: battle trolls
* Fangorn: ents
In order to make the campaign more challenging, there are several scripts which give bonuses to the AI (a kind of cheating that players should be aware):
* Extra armies for the main enemy factions, that use to appear during the initial turns of the campaign.
* Extra money every turn (1000 gold), the double for the main enemy factions.
* Units are recruited with 2 extra chevrons. Building costs and times are reduced (almost halved).
* Garrison armies are replenish whenever a homeland city is being sieged.
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SPECIAL VnVs
Some traits introduce in the game new rules that you should know to play properly:
* WOUNDS: When your general is wounded, you should send him to a settlement and keep him there until the wounds are healed. If the injured character moves or stays out of a city there is a chance that the wounds get worse (so he loses command and hit points). If the wounds reach the 3th level (seriously injured), he has a chance to gain the permanent trait "scarred" that reduces his influence progressively until the wounds are healed.
Wounds are better healed in large cities, and better if the city has healing houses.
This rule tries to avoid that players use always the same character for every battle.
There is a special wound produced when you fight against a Nazgul. Dark wounds are harder to heal, and they can remove the movement points of the character if he doesn't reach a settlement soon.
* CORRUPTION: When your character carries items which sum more than 25 burden points, he has a chance to gain a demoralized trait. The chance is higher if the burden points are more than 50 or 100.
To counter this trait, the character must rest in a happy settlement or to reduce his burden points under 0.
This rule tries to avoid that players give all the best items to the same character.
The One Ring also causes a special corruption trait that has no going back. If the corruption of the Ring bearer reaches level 3 (Entranced by the Ring), all the other factions start declaring war on you (except if the Ring bearer is a hobbit).
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UNIT BALANCE
In lotr-tw, each unit type has its own characteristics, and sometimes they are hidden. I'll try to list the hidden parameters here so people can evaluate them properly:
Spearmen:
* Slow attack (Kill ratio ~ 0.6)
* They use to have more mass or closer formations to stand better against charges.
* 2 handed spearmen: they get the "spear" attribute, a big bonus to defense against cavalry, and a similar penalty against other infantry.
* Spearmen with shield: they get a plain bonus to attack against cavalry. They are vulnerable to cavalry charges, but they do not get penalties against other infantry.
2 Handed:
* Fast attack (Kill ratio ~ 0.8)
* They do not have "armour piercing", but 2 handed animation is faster than anyone else, so they kill quicker than other units, even if their attack is lower.
* They use to have higher charge and mass values than standard infantry, and at the same time looser formations.
Infantry:
* They use to have the better balance between attack, defence/shield and killing speed.
* Swordsmen: Normal attack (Kill ratio ~ 0.7)
* Daggermen: Slow attack (Kill ratio ~ 0.6)
Missiles:
* Units with arrows have more range and more ammunition, compared to thrown weapons, but they are also more expensive.
* Thrown weapons (like javelins and axes) have an special attribute (rebound value) that makes them more effective than arrows against units with shield.
* Arrows and thrown weapons are equally effective against elephant units (unlike vanilla RTW).
Cavalry:
* Charge values are lower than in vanilla RTW, but in this mod there are no units with bonuses against charging cavalry, so charges are still very powerful.
The best way to use the cavalry is to charge and retreat, keeping the horses always in the move, because they do not last long while engaged in melee.
* Units with spears are a bit better while charging, and units with swords use to survive a bit better in melee.
* The mass of horses is not enough to break close formations. They are better used to surround the enemy, or to attack missile units.
Note that armoured archers in this mod are not killed easily, it is better to use cavalry with heavy armour against them.
* Heavier cavalry has more mass and more charge, but lower speed.
Heavy or medium cavalry can not catch mounted archers. You need light cavalry (or Wargs) to eliminate them.
* Rohan cavalry is the only one with wedge formation, that can be used to attack units in the 2nd line of the enemy army, causing huge damage to the units in the 1st line when they charge through them.
Chariots:
* One chariot alone has not much power, but several units of chariots together can beat any kind of cavalry, and can be used to slaughter loose infantry units.
* If you place your chariots behind the enemy formation and you move them close to the back of the soldiers, the razors of the chariots will kill many soldiers and will cause panic to the others. So, instead of attacking the infantry, keep your chariots moving close to their backs and they will be more effective.
Creatures:
* Trolls, Ents, and Berserkers are powerful in melee, but vulnerable to missiles. They have penalties to attack other creatures, so they are not very effective to kill each other.
* Mumaks and Fellbeasts are powerful while charging, but as other cavalry, they are vulnerable when they stand in melee.
* Mumaks, Trolls, and Ents can break gates in a siege battle, but there is a bug that prevents Fellbeasts from doing it.
Detailed info about unit stats, as well as an automatic cost calculator, can be found at:
...\alexander\lotrtw\Lotrtw_Tablas.xls
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Originally Posted by Blatta Optima Maxima
(I don't know of it's possible to play with a faction that is protectorade by a major).
