Evil factions too difficult?

[AqD]

Playing as Isengard, my towns are very poor and armies are weaker than humans. There is no room for economical development and I have to keep capturing human cities to keep my soldiers fed.

I only managed to finish Rohan by blitzkrieg after disabling the "HELP WEAKENED FACTIONS" scripts. Can't imagine where I would be had I given them the chance to build up.



The whole situation is much worse than my elves campaign. It doesn't feel like evil faction at all, more like leading bunch of poor peasants against medieval knights.

[Æsir]

Here it is:
1) Make alliance with Gongor, then Rohan, then Elves and Eriador;
2) Take Moria from Orcs (should be done befor Sauron emerges);
3) Enjoy your two powerhouses and endless flow of monies, take out humans one faction by one.

[AqD]

Umm, they would accept alliance with Isengard? I didn't think that's possible..... Should have joined the winning side

[Æsir]

Umm, they would accept alliance with Isengard? I didn't think that's possible..... Should have joined the winning side

Well, why do you think you have Grima the Wormtongue?

[Space Voyager]

Umm, they would accept alliance with Isengard? I didn't think that's possible..... Should have joined the winning side

NO! Bad to the bone, that is what you're playing! Surely you will not join sides with walking trees?!

Fiiiiiiight!

Well, ok, this is the lore version. Do as you wish, naturally.

[Tomxx]

managed to finish Rohan by blitzkrieg

blitzkrieg: that's the key-word playing as Isengard.

Destroy Rohan, then Gondor and u will be okay ;D

[Jmonstra]

You did manage to defeat Rohan with peasants though.

[LuckyPistol]

Isengard starts out as a horde faction but eventually becomes sort of a hybrid. Vanilla and MOS Isengard play differently though, so which are you using?

[AqD]

Divide and Conquer 1.4 with unofficial patch 3.3.


I only defeated Rohan after disabling part of script which gives Rohan full stacks of elites on the losing of capital and fortress....

[LuckyPistol]

Oh I haven't played D/C yet, so I don't know if my advice will help. But if its anything like MOS, you need to hold bridges with a good amount of Uruk Archers or Snaga Skirmishers. Early game your Uruk Raiders should beat any infantry that Rohan sends out, save for Heavy Axemen. Horses don't do well on bridges either, and the AI usually just rushes then in to get killed. The early Isengard plays as a Horde faction, so use Snaga Archers as fodder so you can focus on your better units. After Barracks event, gameplay changes to a Hybrid Faction. Your Uruk Infantry and Pikes (not to mention Crossbows) will even the odds while your snaga make good distracting fodder. And Most importantly, get wargs by at least turn 20-25.

[Cytek]

Strange... I'm playing at Vh/Vh... all scripts on. I did even lower my own king purse by -1000 gold per turn (all other faction have theirs normal purse) and the game is still a bit easy...

The main thing for each faction:
- use main general with the most powerful stats (mostly, the highest one with command stars) and focus at training units when you only can.
- focus at building farms and later barracks
- use the highest tax lv for each town
- use berserkers/wargs as a "cavalery" and always hide the at the flanks. Later run arround main enemy forces at battle map and hit with "charge" into enemy bodyguard to own him as fast as possible.
- without general even the 2000 units from Ai force will run, if you will use special ability of your main heroes
- if you are 3x-5x+ weakaer then Ai stack.. try to hide at bridge or fort and then w8 for enemy (i prefere bridges, easy to slay 3/4 of the army with simple arrow salve"

I did never cheat like "taking main settelments of my evil or good side. Try to handle it with lore history Sometimes if you are out of money.. try to take some main city of elves or eriador and sell it for 3000-8000 gold to your ally OOMM or Angmar orcs.

If you are still having big problems with Rohan or Eriador... just w8 for sauron and then use a invasion at capitol of them and meantime go to take your main enemy fortress or the biggest city )the second one after capitol). I prefere to sack every town and sell each of their bulding... leaving it without garrison.

[DrDragun]

If you have no lore goals then the game is not difficult as Cytek says. Simply train every militia unit possible and always be pushing on offense, only pausing to prepare for garrison scripts where they are applicable. When you try to play by lore, or develop governor traits, or unlock elite units, you are actually playing imperfectly. The easiest way to win is just flood the map with militia, choose your conquers to produce a narrower border when possible, and try to be efficient in your tactical battles (different factions can have different efficiencies... Silvans can go 100:1 against Mordor, but Gondor is lucky to get 4:1 in battles with Harad)

[AqD]

I'm afraid to use generals because they are all infantry and 1vs1 they seem inferior to Rohan axemen, which are already mass recruited by turn 10... (I changed the pool setup..)

[Ego123]

I never played Isengard but i played Rohan all the time in the vanilla in the Divide and C. and Mos,in DaC you have a a small disadvantage before the first barracks event,your best unit are the bodyguards,but mens of dunland are extremly good if they are ready to bee hit by the cavalry of rohan they have long spears and do a lot of damage,when you see cavalry charge in you,atack them,you will get a small damage,avoid fighting in the open places whit any cost,in DaC you have the advantage to build a good economy before the barracks event try to make peace whit rohan and take rebel settlements instead,your snaga Archers and Skirmishers are very efficient if they are allways protected by infantry like dunledings,or even uruk-hai riders,if you get well to firs barracks event you are the boss from there,you got berserkers and all stuff of elite units,but if you wanna finish faster whit rohan make a army whit minimum 4-5 unit of bodyguards and even saruman whit those guard of orthanc and a lot of snaga archers and skirmishers don't forget dunland wild mens and veterans (they are the top unit after bodyguards) and smash that rohirrims,don't look back but this will not be lore love to much,finish whit rohan before you get some superb elite units is not so interesting.And Rohan is weak they have a lot of regions but is dificult to defend them.If you wanna a powerfull Isengard at start try Mos in Mos your Uruks Riders and Archers are very good and you have a lot of good generals at start including that beast Lurtz,whit five units of bodyguards,two or three of uruks riders and a lot of archers you can't easy bring down gineard,foldburg,dunlonstir and derwath if you are a good battle player.Sorry for my bad english and that was just a opinion about how i think is better to play isengard.

[Warsmith17]

In Vanilla I'm having a tough time with Isengard, just took the Hornburg, and with my economy, if I want to have garrisons of like 2 units per town, I can only afford about 1 and 1/2 to 1 and 3/4 stacks, and now Rohan just showed up with a full stack army of experienced units, seemingly out of nowhere.

The worst part is having to take units all the way back to Isengard if I want to replenish them.

[LuckyPistol]

In Vanilla I'm having a tough time with Isengard, just took the Hornburg, and with my economy, if I want to have garrisons of like 2 units per town, I can only afford about 1 and 1/2 to 1 and 3/4 stacks, and now Rohan just showed up with a full stack army of experienced units, seemingly out of nowhere.

The worst part is having to take units all the way back to Isengard if I want to replenish them.

Rohan gets a dread stack for three scenarios:

1. Hornburg lost
2. Edoras lost
3. Down to 3 settlements

There's very little chance that the AI will send it towards your settlements in the next couple turns, so don't get too worried. Build roads, farms, and markets in that order everywhere before anything else! Make sure your generals are out fighting and not sitting in settlements, as evil generals just suck up bad traits for governing. With what little troops you have, try to bait Rohan into attacking you on bridges, and keep plenty of ranged units. You need to play like a horde until you can regularly recruit Uruk Infantry, so keep hiring snaga to throw in front of the enemy, they don't cost much. Make sure you take those western settlements so you don't get sandwiched and keep your taxes low to boost growth. as long as you can recruit Uruk Raiders, you should be fine, they can outclass most of Rohan's infantry, and keep those Dunland speamen, they're your horse defense

[ElvenKind]

Why is everyone saying DaC? It is not out yet..

You all probably mean DaC Reworked Campaign Map with 3.3 Unofficial Patch..

[AqD]

Doesn't Rohan recruit axemen in vanilla? One axemen unit can easily kill my general's bodyguard. And raiders are useless against cavalry - I saw one full unit fought in melee with their general and all vanished without killing anyone.

[LuckyPistol]

haven't played Vanilla Isengard in ages, MOS may have nerfed Rohan infantry.

Doesn't Rohan recruit axemen in vanilla? One axemen unit can easily kill my general's bodyguard. And raiders are useless against cavalry - I saw one full unit fought in melee with their general and all vanished without killing anyone.

You're comparing a tier 2 infantry unit to the General's Bodyguard of the greatest cavalry faction? Raider > Scouts, Rohan Riders (w/out charging) in melee. Your bodyguard are out numbered and highly armoured, that's why they lose. Axemen have armour piercing, so they have the edge. You need to focus range on axemen, if you can, or otherwise swarm them with snaga. Rohan's lower tier axemen aren't too impressive.

[Ngugi]

Yeah, axemen are specialized for armoured foes, AP removes half the armour value of the enemy when counting damage; it's tactical Rock-paper-scissors as usual.