If you could rank the top 3 hardest factions in divide and conquer what would they be?

[Ravagers Prey]

If you could rank the top 3 hardest factions what would they be? Mine is:

(1. Angmar- poor cities, crappy starting units dunedain stacks, bree stacks, erebor stacks and ered luin stacks all attacking you at once from all sides and the worst part is those stacks are full of quality units! And cities are hard to defend (excluding Carn Dum).

(2. Misty Mountain orcs- poor starting units, enemies on all sides, (I didn't put orcs of the misty mountains first because they have wealthy cities, which are also easy to defend)

(3. Enedwaith- really poor units, elite unit are about as good as most factions middle tier units, poor economy (cant even sustain a half stack at the beginning). Also you border Bree, currently an unstoppable powerhouse who rivals Mordor in the amount of units they send at you, their one desire is to crush all who stand before them, as a way to make all of middle earth like the shire. Tolkien may have stretched the truth about how peaceful hobbits really are:

Maybe the ring was really just an excuse to let hobbits let out there true selves?

[Red Viper]

Only played good factions and not all of them.

So far for me:

1. Northern Dúnedain

Maybe my favorite faction. But economy is very difficult. Before the latest patch I always took Cameth Brin, which makes good money, but the Elves have it now. It's a pain in the $ss to take Fornost and Annuminas and you loose money if you siege them for long. Defending the south against Dunland is difficult, they have big armies and money.

2. Imladris

Same problem with ND. Money is tight. If an invasion is called money becomes more tight. Their starting units aren't that good, except from the bodyguards. You need Eregion to make more money, but Dunland usually sets there with a big garrison.

3. Khazad-Dûm

I never played with the Dwarves before and I find it very difficult. They are slow on the battlefield, no cavalry and the Balrog is a nightmare. When you take the settlement, a dread stack comes up and sieges the city.

[Steward Denethor II]

Imladris? They are painfully easy, literally no one threatens you, expect the Northern Orcs who are pitifully weak and preoccupied. And your Horse Archers are devastating against most enemies you face early on.

[Red Viper]

Imladris? They are painfully easy, literally no one threatens you, expect the Northern Orcs who are pitifully weak and preoccupied. And your Horse Archers are devastating against most enemies you face early on.

Yes, but I wanted to give this thread a bump and I only played a few factions, mostly Elves, and when I played Imladris I had more difficulties than say Lórien or Lindon.

[LordKasten]

You gotta be kidding about Imladris.

It's a tricky faction because you hardly get any troops as in EVER, but if you don't waste them and take the right settlements you become a real powerhouse.

They key is to go after the Misty Mountains sttlements right from the start and you will be swimming in money from their mines. (I'm making 15k per turn and have 50,000 gold in my treasury).
I managed to destroy full stack after full stack of OotMM relatively easily due to how powerful the elven units are, although I really couldn't believe how I was actually beating them due to the numbers differnce.

[the lightning legion]

I would expect gondor to still be reasonably high up there in terms of difficulty

[Ravagers Prey]

Gondor is quite challenging but they have decent starting units, a ton of territory and all their enemies are to the east and south.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Enedwaith- really poor units, elite unit are about as good as most factions middle tier units, poor economy (cant even sustain a half stack at the beginning). Also you border Bree, currently an unstoppable powerhouse who rivals Mordor in the amount of units they send at you, their one desire is to crush all who stand before them, as a way to make all of middle earth like the shire. Tolkien may have stretched the truth about how peaceful hobbits really are:

Maybe the ring was really just an excuse to let hobbits let out there true selves?

Well.... I certainly agree that the Shire is filled with Greedy, mutated, land gabbing little hobbitzes....

.....now as to the Enedwaith, it's best to play to their strengths...and they are after all a faction of misslemen. {long range/javlins.} Think of them as you would Spain in MTW II., except with good long range capability. So their attributes are...

* Long range
* Javelins
* Can hide anywhere
* Strong spears for holding the line
* Strong flanking units
* 2nd tier unit max out. {in other words, all their units can be had from towns/large towns.}

Now let's look at their units....

Melee units
* River spearmen...3-17-4-5-8-attack-defense-armour-def skill-shield, plus shield wall {now that's not too shabby for a line holding unit.}

* Wildmen............6-3-6 attack-charge-defence, armour piercing. {not bad for a flanking unit.}

*River Swordmen..5-12 attack defense, {meh, nothing to see hear, move along please...}

Javlin units
* Greyflood Raiders..3-5-5 attack-missile-defense

* Angren Raiders.....4-8-12 attack-missile-defense, excellent morale

Range units
* attacks of 4-6-8 not shabby at all. {That'll do pig, that will do....}



So basically all the tools are there, but the player really needs to bust a move{hit the ground running} and placate the Lindon Elves {a province for an alliance} or the show's over.

To me their a fun faction and can really hold their own if the player embraces the factions strentghs...

[LuckyPistol]

Well.... I certainly agree that the Shire is filled with Greedy, mutated, land gabbing little hobbitzes....

.....now as to the Enedwaith, it's best to play to their strengths...and they are after all a faction of misslemen. {long range/javlins.} Think of them as you would Spain in MTW II., except with good long range capability. So their attributes are...

* Long range
* Javelins
* Can hide anywhere
* Strong spears for holding the line
* Strong flanking units
* 2nd tier unit max out. {in other words, all their units can be had from towns/large towns.}

Now let's look at their units....

Melee units
* River spearmen...3-17-4-5-8-attack-defense-armour-def skill-shield, plus shield wall {now that's not too shabby for a line holding unit.}

* Wildmen............6-3-6 attack-charge-defence, armour piercing. {not bad for a flanking unit.}

*River Swordmen..5-12 attack defense, {meh, nothing to see hear, move along please...}

Javlin units
* Greyflood Raiders..3-5-5 attack-missile-defense

* Angren Raiders.....4-8-12 attack-missile-defense, excellent morale

Range units
* attacks of 4-6-8 not shabby at all. {That'll do pig, that will do....}



So basically all the tools are there, but the player really needs to bust a move{hit the ground running} and placate the Lindon Elves {a province for an alliance} or the show's over.

To me their a fun faction and can really hold their own if the player embraces the factions strentghs...

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Enedwaith is nowhere near hardest faction. All you need to do is make an alliance with Gondor and Rohan, conquer Isengard and Dunland before Rohan does, and rake in the cash. You don't have to, but it would be wise to get a ceasefire with the Dunedain and Breeland so the elves don't attack.

I haven't tried angmar yet, but as a Gundabad veteran, I'm eager to try them out and face the dwarven menace!

[Discord1996]

Since i only played 4 campaigns i made a Top 4
4. Isengard (latest patch) the begining was easier than expected. I held rohan back at the fords of isen and slowly took all their settlements. Now i am fighting a war against the mordor of the good (breeland and shire)
3.OotMM (first release)
The Start was quite hard at the north i had about 20 battles at wrakyaburg (mostly against elves) and i only lost it twice i slowly took all settlements of the vale and then i assembled a mighty force and took dale esgaroth and erebor in 3 turns after that i had infinite money and the campaign was basically won
2.Dunland (first release)
Oh boy i never figured out how to play dunland. first i took all rebel settlements nearby. after i took both tharbads, the northedain declared war on me and the campaign was basically over. I couldnt expand with my poor economy and a 3/4 stack of dunedain near tharbad.
1. Remnants of Angmar
It started quite easy i took every rebel settlement in the near and then i crushed the dunedain everything was fine until i reached bree. But bree wasn't the real Problem, it was the dwarves who caught me offguard in the north after that i quitted and started my isengard campaign.
In the next release i will probably try enedwaith or dunland.

[Arachir Galudirithon]

I haven't played with any evil factions as I care very little for Orcs but I would say this:
I haven't found any campaign 'difficult' but the most arduous and grinding ones I have played have been
3) Vale of Anduin - Not particularly 'hard' but lots of battles, surrounded on all sides and you have to use the fact that your basics can hide anywhere to ambush everyone

2) Vale of Dorwinion - Again, not hard per se but man alive to Rhun like to assemble huge armies turn after turn, I found the only way to win was to keep taunting them to attack me on bridges were their numbers and superior units counted for less and then sail into their heartland and strike a crippling blow. I am particularly fond of raiding their border towns (taking a town, destroying every building for the income, raising taxes to Very High and then leaving immediately). My other favourite tactic was to gift all settlements on the northern banks of the sea of Rhun to the Dwarves ad that forced the Dwarves into the war properly and took almost all the pressure off of me as I could hit just one location and split Rhun in two from Lest.

1) Northern Dúnedain - The reason I wouldn't call this hard is because your units are machines, total and utter killing machines, heroic victories are more frequent than any other battle result. Having said that, Angmar are everywhere, they hit you early, they hit you hard and they hit you all across your border. Your finances are also low and so you can only really defend for the majority of the early years. Very arduous indeed but if you enjoy watching Dúnedain Rangers mowing down hordes of Orcs then this one is very appealing.

On a side note, I recently adapted the Dúnedain to fit more with how they lived. They had no towns or villages, they had no 'support' population and so they lived entirely of the land but, there were very few of them. This has been reflected by giving them very low upkeep costs with relatively high recruitment costs and very long replenishment times. So now you can field a larger army but it takes a lot longer to get them all trained. (This is just an information titbit, if you wish to discuss it please do so in the main DaC thread )

[Hummingbird]

Angmar and OotMM have got to be the two hardest for me. You're surrounded on all sides by strong enemies with much better quality troops than you. Few things spell disaster for Angmar more than Ered Luin kicking down your back door while you're busy trading punches with Bree and the Dunedain!

Dorwinion's tough because your pre-barracks event units are utterly terrible (and Rhun's Clan Guards can cut your heavy cavalry bodyguard to pieces if you aren't careful!) but the Valesmen have it worse. Unlike Dorwinion they're not particularly wealthy and they're sandwiched between the very aggressive OotMM and Shadows of Mirkwood. Thankfully they have a trump card in the awesome Skin-changer bodyguard units.

[ukkoperkele]

dúnedain? at start I win everything with my superb units and when money was low i did ceasefire with orcs of the misty mountain for 10000.

[Ravagers Prey]

I haven't tried angmar yet, but as a Gundabad veteran, I'm eager to try them out and face the dwarven menace!

Your going to be in for one hell of a ride when you start your angmar campaign because in divide and conquer angmar is very different then gundabad was in vanilla third age. Do you play on hardest difficulty? Because that makes all the difference. Also a tip do not let the dunedain reclaim any land it doesn't matter if you lose it to bree or Ered Luin just do not let the dunedain get there land back, or you are screwed. Also watch Gundabad because erebor will be knocking at your backdoor at around turn 100, hope that helps .

[Gigan]

Your going to be in for one hell of a ride when you start your angmar campaign because in divide and conquer angmar is very different then gundabad was in vanilla third age. Do you play on hardest difficulty? Because that makes all the difference. Also a tip do not let the dunedain reclaim any land it doesn't matter if you lose it to bree or Ered Luin just do not let the dunedain get there land back, or you are screwed. Also watch Gundabad because erebor will be knocking at your backdoor at around turn 100, hope that helps .

How is the Angmar roster different compared to vanilla gundabad? cant find any info in DAC thread

[Pandarr]

How is the Angmar roster different compared to vanilla gundabad? cant find any info in DAC thread

They get some new units from the "Wrath of Angmar" mod, made by AdmiralThrawn. I won't say anything else and let you discover it.

[Suppersopp]

I dont see why anyone can call Northern Dunedain Hard. I just destroyed Angmar by using Aragon whit 2 rangers in one army and 2 genrals whit 1 ranger in another army. Aragon alone kills at least 300-400 orks in every battle. And the economy is not so bad, making about 3000 k pro turn

[Funeh]

So I started a Dunedain campaing a while ago and their units are super awesome owerpowered berserks, especialy Aragorn bodyguards... I kill with him at least 500 units every battle... But I have a really bad economy, since having settlements with 10-30 population doesnt give me really any money so I am always at 0 money... I cannot train any more units and Im constantly repeling angmar forces but I dont know how long can I keep it...

One famous battle was 400 dunedain vs 2700 orcs... lol I won heroicly with 200 loses and Aragorn alone killing 600 orcses

[Goth]

Only Played vale of Anduin so far and was really up against it with pressure from orcs of Mirkwood and the OMM. I was just hanging on to my settlements when I killed the last OMM family member and destroyed the faction( Maybe this needs addressing for the next patch). I took advantage and held off Mirkwood and launched full scale attacks to capture every former OMM settlement before anyone else could. After that the money started to flow in and I could hold my borders while building up my economy and strength until I eventually began to expand destroying Mirkwood, Dunland, Enedwaith, and Isengard. Now I am poised for an Invasion of Mordors lands.
Brilliant campaign and thouroughly enjoyed it though without the collapse of the OMM to what effectively is a bug(They should have more family members) I would have lost early on.

[Red Viper]

Only Played vale of Anduin so far and was really up against it with pressure from orcs of Mirkwood and the OMM. I was just hanging on to my settlements when I killed the last OMM family member and destroyed the faction( Maybe this needs addressing for the next patch). I took advantage and held off Mirkwood and launched full scale attacks to capture every former OMM settlement before anyone else could. After that the money started to flow in and I could hold my borders while building up my economy and strength until I eventually began to expand destroying Mirkwood, Dunland, Enedwaith, and Isengard. Now I am poised for an Invasion of Mordors lands.
Brilliant campaign and thouroughly enjoyed it though without the collapse of the OMM to what effectively is a bug(They should have more family members) I would have lost early on.

This happens to me also. The OMM die off before turn 100. It happens 4/10 campaigns I guess.