General armies

[Loki_999]

Third thread today... i'm on a roll!

So, what about all general armies? Yes, i know, balanced forces are usually the most adaptable, and an army of Uruk Bodyguards isn't going to be a good raiding force, but perhaps factions with Cavalry generals could be good.

My thoughts:

1) Unit cost/upkeep: While cost per individual unit per turn is higher than for most units, the big advantage is that they regenerate. No need to send them back for retraining to get more units. Saves a lot of wasted turns travelling. Just need to pop them back for armour upgrades when available.

2) All cavalry armies are good for raiding and due to larger movement distances/faster speeds can outmanouver armies on both battle and campaign maps.

3) General units are pretty tough, especially at the start of the game when you normally can only recruit lower tier units. So even though your numbers are less, overall strength should be decent.

4) All cavalry units are fine for taking cities if you simply siege and wait. They enemy counter attacks then you attack them over open ground.

5) Sucks if you are fighting in a heavily forested area though.... best if pick location of fights wisely.

6) You get offered new generals fairly frequently. No need to wait for recruitments to be available, and they usually appear where their sponsor is, which hopefully will be with the army of roaming generals.

As far as i know, apart from special generals (eg: Elrond, Aragorn, etc), there are only melee and melee cavalry as standard general bodyguard types. Can't think of any horse archer or foot archer bodyguards. Can anyone contradict me on this?

Anyone tried something like this?

[Mikail Mengsk]

It hasn't particular weaknesses besides massed lancers and upkeep cost.

Anyway, i find it horrible to see and never use it.

Take Rhùn for best bodyguards.

[Loki_999]

Looking at the Palantir Unit guide, Rhun and Gondor seem about the same. High Elves also pretty good. Dale's bodyguard don't seem to be listed, so not sure what they are like statwise. Rohan's look silghtly weaker, which is strange, would have thought they would have some of the best cavalry bodyguards.

Shame none of them possess the ability to form wedges.

[knight of meh]

Dale might not be too good they are bardian marksmen i think so could get nasty with some stacks

[Loki_999]

Dale might not be too good they are bardian marksmen i think so could get nasty with some stacks

Thanks. Ah, thats interesting to know (and just noted it is mentioned as a footnote under the unit card in the Palantir guide).

I like playing with all archer stacks. Works wonderfully with elves (accepting that elven archers rock).

[LuckyPistol]

Rhun, Gondor, and Rohan and Harad have enough generals at the start of the game to accomplish the good ol' general blitz. I've never used this strategy myself, as I like keeping generals who boost city income by 500+ to not die Just remember you'll never hear the beautiful sound of marching infantry if you go down this path

[GideonAI]

In my first Eriador campaign I fought a very intense war with Isengard early on. Due to lack of many generals available to lead my forces, I was often stuck with a mere captain. However, many of those captains got promoted during that campaign, and when I went to invade Gundabad I utilized whole stacks of generals. They absolutely destroyed the orcs, with repeated charges and flanking attacks. I used infantry for garrisoning cities that my generals had captured. If I recall I was only defeated once.

[Flinn]

As long as you fight against militia / 1st tier units you'll be ok with this strategy, but be aware that some 2nd and 3rd tier anti-cavalry units (like Uruk-hai Pikemen for instance) can cut down your cavalry easily, even if they are attacked at the same time by more than one unit (clearly, provided they are not routing ); also, due to their low number they shouldn't be left in melee, better to retreat them and charge over until the enemies are routing.

I only used this strategy once with Eriador, it proved very good against OoG but against Isengard it was a mess, so at the most you can consider this a good blitzing strategy for the very first part of the campaign.

notice: Dwarven generals are infantry, Dale/SE/Lorien have foot archers and of course all orcs generals (and Dunland) are infantry

F

[Melbobaggins]

This is a fun strategy, especially with early Gondor .

Prince Imrahil has a regenerating unit of Swan Knights of Dol Amroth supported by military minded generals who also regenerate is great for raiding and scouting parties.

Another good tip is to distribute your retinue (armor, banners, swords) to your supporting generals so you can keep regaining them after each Heroic battle.

If you are bold, you can take some of Harad's coastal cities, raise them to the ground, and trade them off with a diplomat.

[Loki_999]

Prince Imrahil has a regenerating unit of Swan Knights of Dol Amroth supported by military minded generals who also regenerate is great for raiding and scouting parties.

Another good tip is to distribute your retinue (armor, banners, swords) to your supporting generals so you can keep regaining them after each Heroic battle.

Oh, that's interesting to know.

And good idea about distributing the retinue... cheeky, i like that.

@pojansetan - very cheeky. Stops the corsair raids nicely and means you don't have to try holding a remote region. Smacks of exploit... i like it!

[pojansetan]

take Umbar and give it to Rhun. if u lucky enough Harad will turn against Mordor and Rhun

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

When you play as Gondor group Denathor, Borimir, & Farmir in one stack and send them at Mordor. Then take the Prince from Dol Amroth with the Swan nights, group him with the general with the blac-kroot-vale archers and send them at Harad. I've found that the special abilities of the Steward and his sons to be devasting when used together.

As others have said....Generals group toghether equals quality, self replenishing heavy cav. Use it if you have it.

[CatoTheYounger]

The Nazgul and mounted black Numenoreans are the best bodyguard. In the Mos campain they get all nine of them off the bat. But i hold them back until after the Dark Lord has declared himself.

Gondor campaign i used to use centralized administration so i couldn't put all my generals in the field in big groups. But since i stopped using that and listend to some on this site i have raided Harad with great results by bunching my generals Bg. However this is just early game. As the enemy troop types become stronger this tactitc won't be so effective mid late game. Eventualy you will need Gondors Armies.

[Loki_999]

So, i've been testing this as Gondor. First thing i did was send Boromir, Faramir, and the guy with the archers off to their deaths, just because i'm evil like that. And got myself a general stack so they are all cavalry, and went on a run against Harad, starting with some small local battles then took them down to Umbar. After half a dozen turns of sieging they brought up reinforcements and sallied. Numbers wise i was facing odds of 3-1, but of course Cavalry have advantages and the Harad armies appeared on opposite sides of the field so i could take them on separately.

Was an awesome battle, smashed one army then the other with very few losses.

Just had another one as well, this time the Harad stack was almost full and a smaller stack was also there. Took the small stack without issue then turned to face the big one. Took lots of casualties, but only lost one general, was a cool battle.

Barracks even is coming soon though, I except things will get a bit trickier then.

[Bladvak]

I've tried the BG rush with Gondor and High Elves and I can say that both of them were exceptional, slaying tens of thousands of soldiers in their paths.

It's a bit harder with HE as they will really be unsupported, but you can conquer everything up to Moria with this, and help Eriador in the process. Just gather your generals from the safe havens, conquer the rebel provinces and make sure that normal units follow, for garrisoning and other. make sure that you attack with at least one of your normal units, so that you will be offered a general upon victory. the beauty of HE BGs is that they don't have a shield (but they have very good armour), hence no time blocking attacks and the men can keep hacking at enemies. with BGs with shields, you lose an animation each time when the shield takes a hit. If the man has an animation, then that man cannot attack at that frame.

with gondor it's more simple management-wise, since you have Cavalry Militia, which have the same campaign movement points as the BGs. 10 BGs into Harad and they don't know what hit'em, you can actually take Harad out before the barracks event. I usually leave Denethor&sons against Mordor, they're very much needed there. Make sure that your Prince Imrahil does not die, he will be your piece de resistance, the one rock upon which your whole BG-army can wheel. In Alexander's hammer and anvil tactics, Prince Imrahil is your anvil.

piece of advice, if there was a need for one : never auto-resolve battles where you have a stack of BGs. You will almost always lose, big time.