Need some help with strategy playing High Elves

[Calypze]

I have ahd some problems playing with High Elves, and would like some tips on what to do. I usually start with moving the capital to Mithlomd, build various economic buildings and immediately start to take rebel provinces neighbouring the western HE provinces, such as Luneland and those down south. The western parts of the HE realm are initially secure, and far away from the evil factions.

Imladris in neighbouring the provinces of hostile factions (and eventually will be surrounded by them), and as such is a frontier province. As such it needs a relatively large army in order to defend itself. It is also a frontier province providing no shielding for other provinces, as it is surrounded by enemies. Should I try to keep it, or let it fall, thereby liberating me from the massive upkeep cost of maintaining its defending army?

It seems that the most dangerous enemy the HE face initially is Isengard. Eriador might be able to hold its ground (but not advancing, or at least not significantly) against Gundabad, but will be decimated by Isengard. If I do nothing, Isengard will defeat Eriador, and soon border the western HE provinces. They will be very powerful due to controlling large swathes of Eriador and Rohan, and HE and Isengard will fight over the lands of Eriador (the factions Eriador either outright destroyed or reduced to irrelevancy). If I try to erect a wall of provinces to defend Eriador against the Isengardian onslaught, I will have several armies stetched out defending the territory of another faction that provides questionable value to me (as I said, they contribute very little against Gundabad). What path should I go down?

The endgame of playing HE seems to be that HE (and possible Eriador and Dwarves) will be cornered in the northwestern corner of Middle-Earth against the might of the evil factions. If the AI runs its course, Gondor, Rohan, Dale, and the Silvan Elves will be defeated, and relatively quickly so. The only AI faction that seems able to put up somewhat of a fight are the Dwarves, so they might linger on in the easten corner. The prospects for the HE look rather grim.

Looking at units, even the HE Quendi units perform rather well against elite orc units, especially so with the help of HE generals cavalry. This is just as well, beacuse the replenishment rate for HE elite units is so incredibly slow that they will at most be some extra sprice to the HE armies, rather than the rank-and-file. But Isengard typically sends stack after stack faster than the frontier cities' armies can have their losses reinforced, which eventually makes the HE defenses break down.

[eugenioso]

I play the radical strat of going with Imladris to conquer the OOG and OOTMM.

[Davek]

Lots has been written about; how to play the High Elfs. You do seem to have the right strategy already, a tip I give you is to expand fast to the south along the coast taking Isengard. In this way you get more provinces and income and you hinder Isengard. Hit them early and hard and you should be able to contain them.

Some guides to help you:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...-H-H-amp-VH-VH One of most comprehensive guides.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...r-airborne-guy
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...the-High-Elves

ps; this thread/qeustion is probley more suiteble for the Maps Guides and other resources subforum found here:http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forum...esources/page2

[DrDragun]

Davek raises some good points, there is a strategy sub-forum with plenty of discussion on the High Elf campaign.

I think your core strategy is correct... press southeast along the river to attack Isengard and form a connection between Imladris and your western settlements. It's best if you act quickly to avoid an awkward shaped territory. For example, it's best if you can take Argond instead of Eriador; that territory is a bit of a free-for-all in terms of whether Isengard or Eriador will hold it. Nab Hoarwell and the Tharbads and baby you've got a soup going.

With regard to Imladris, definitely keep it! If you find sieges tedious, defend the 2 bridges instead. Keep a force of about 4-6 archers + 3-4 basic infantry (half of that will be free upkeep) in Imladris and use watchtowers in the huge territory of Imladris to spot incoming OotMM armies. When they approach, move your force out to the bridge and the enemy will attack it because it seems like a small force. Of course, on a bridge the massed orcs will be cut down like grass. When the time is right, grab Moria or Isengard and your money problems will be gone. The easier way is probably Isengard-Fanghorn then use the Ents to fight the Balrog and take Moria. Be careful though, as Sauron likes to launch Invasions soon after Moria is taken by a good faction.

[Carl Jung was right]

A lot of players consider HE campaign to be TaTW's easiest. While I love the faction, the characters and especially their unit roster, there are a number of things that lead to that conclusion, compared at least with Gondor or Rohan. First of all you are well balanced - your roster is the most diverse amongst elven faction, consisting of no gaps in combat role. Simply put, you have potential access to the best archers, the best infantry and the best cavalry units in the game. The first mid tier unit, noretirno warriors, can be recruited relatively early in the campaign and can easily match the best units of other armies in melee. Oh and I forgot to say, it's a very long range archer with 9 attack (in vanilla, it was nerfed to 8 in MoS) making it one of the best main line units in the game that can fill almost any role. The only thing elves appear to lack are early spear units and free garrisons (due to the small size of their settlements). Secondly, and this is a crucial, your starting location is very safe and distant from enemies, enabling plenty of opportunities for early land rush. I find that the absence of enemies near the elves' starting location tends to a boring early campaign and a rather dismally repetitive end game, as you effortlessly swap away stack after stack of orcs. The exception to this is Imladris, which is quite possible, easy even, to defend with Elrond and some quendi archers against 2 full stacks of early Moria orcs. Hint: bottleneck them on a bridge and pick them off with arrows. You might have some trouble with trolls later on, but by that time you get access to noretirnos anyway, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

Regarding battle tactics. It seems that you forgot that elves carry martini henry rifles magically disguised as piddly bows. If you're losing more than 80 men in a typical mob stomp it appears you are doing something wrong. Against any "bad guy" army, there are only two unit types that can pose a threat - trolls and catapults. The first are relatively easy to kite (elves are fast ya know) and the second can be abated by a mixture of AI shenanigans, luck and right starting deployment. The rest of orc trash can be shot down long before they reach your lines. What I usually do is deploy in a kind of "checker" formation where you position your general and melee units so that they serve as a shock absorber for the brown or black blob long enough (believe me it wont take long) for the archers in rear ranks to pelt them with a hail of arrows. Don't worry about being horrendously outnumbered - the more the orcblob envelops your sole defending melee unit, the more its flanks get exposed to your archers. Remember to keep your archers firing - that way they cause the most amount of casualties. Once an enemy routs, it's a death sentence for em. Usually enemy units retreat back a certain distance, recover their morale, and charge right back, but against elves they will have arrows sticking out of their backs long before they can move out of range. In this way, an elven army can beat stack after stack of orcs, and only take casualties from stray catapult shots and the occassional nazgul or troll.

Playing as HE means that yes, you will likely fight on all fronts at once at some point in the game, as the orcs practically overrun all of the starting "good faction" settlements, due to their dismal ineptitude at defending (which was partly canonic to say the least). At that stage however you should be way past the point where you faction is under any serious risk and the stakes are high. I would write more but it seems to me that most of your problems are caused by not taking advantage of the elves' best trait, their ranged lethality. This means logistics isn't such a big deal for the elves when they can win a key battle of two and still keep most of their army intact.

[liburn]

Playing as HE atm. I love them since you have the chance to go for help on Gondor after crushing orcs and urukhais.

First step, change your capital from Imlradis. That means at least 1300 gold extra per turn.

Second step, capture orc generals and they pay for them in early game.

Due to their very powerful combo of quendi inf, quendi archers and noble cavalry it takes few units to truly decimate any army in the early period. If possible dont wage war on Gundabad, they will have their problems with dwarfs and eriador.

After defeating an orc stack get a diplomat on them and see if they are willing to pay really big for peace.

The fun part of HE as i said is sending help especially to rohan in early invasions. I'm roughly at turn 400 and i didnt allow any invasion to be sucessful. No war with Harad or Rhun means they will not attack if you camp around a city they want to besiege, hence time to prepare for rohan. They are crucial for holding off mordor. If by any chance you get to war with the two southern people, and you have no armies close to them send a diplomat, they pay for peace.

Orcs cities are a piece of cake at any time, block em inside and get bored by archer spam

The hard part of TATW comes at very late game, you'll find like 10-12 stacks of enemies around the map and it will take a lot of cooperation with the good factions to deal with them properly

[Ajpav]

I know this post is YEARS old, but I wanted to comment on a SUREFIRE winning strategy for anyone looking for assistance later on: THIS TOTALLY WORKS.

1) Create 1-2 stacks (5 or more) of Imladris Riders (HE Horsearchers) - place them at your front lines in Ambush in enemy territory, just outside your borders.
2) Attack any enemy stack with them and WITHDRAW as soon as you have exhausted your ammunition -
2a) Attack CAREFULLY, do NOT engage in close-combat if you can, Keep them out of counter-fire range (just look at the enemy archers/artillery if they STOP, that means you are within their range)
3) THE POINT OF ALL THIS: This will cause MASSIVE casualties, and even if you don't win the 1st 2-3 battles with the enemy, you WILL cause casualties - this means that when the enemy stack FINALLY reaches your/allies' towns they will be down to 3-4 units that are badly beaten up.
4) Meanwhile your Imladris Riders should be leveling up really quick. Giving you more options and better casualty-ratios.
5) This will effectively hold your borders while allowing you time (till the cows come home) to build massive stacks and attack in key weakened locations.


Moved from closed thread //Ngugi

[ShockBlast]

Ah, the High Elves, such an interesting faction to play.

I would say that you can and should hold Imladris, it`s the only city that borders the bag guys thus the rest of your lands are safe.

As others have said concentrate on missile units and adapt your strategy so that you minimise melee and use the archers to their fullest extent.I wouldn`t recommend making only archers armies, that would kind of boring, make it that you have like 50% of your army archers, the rest cavalry and infantry.

Now that we got the tactical part over let`s talk about the grand strategy.

In the very beginning you should concentrate on conquering 3 or even 4 neutral settlements surrounding Imladris and the the ones close to your heartland but I suggest letting the ones that should be part of Eriador for them, they are your allies after all.
By having secures some settlements bordering Imladris you can can properly reinforce and/or retrain forces so that you can defend that part of your realm against the Orcs and by doing so you will let Eriador have a breathing room to grow.

Now that you secured yourself even more land and Imladris is safe move your capital somewhere in the middle of it so that you maximise taxation if you haven`t done this already.

Your next grand strategic objective would be helping Rohan against Isengard and any other evil faction you around Isengard.Hit Isengard hard, if they conquered part of Rohan concentrate on reconquer them and give them to Rohan.
Your objective is to give the upper hand to Rohan not flat out eradicate all the evil factions in that area because that would impade you in your next big objective.

So by now Imladris is well defended, Eriador is helping you and is quietly growing, Rohan has the upper hand against Isengard....the time has come to set sail for Gondor.Bord your mighty war vessels and go to Gondor because if Gondor falls, Rohan falls and you and your allies would be fighting 3/4 of the map.

Usually Gondor doesn`t take the island of Tolfalas so that can be your HQ down there.Help Gondor stabilise the line and then help them expand into Harandor and Ithilien.

On what front you concentrate to push, it`s up to you and of course the actions taken by the bad guys.

The High Elves offer the possibility to concentrate on many things at the same time, from fighting with the Orcs of the Misty Mountains to Isengard to Mordor or Harad.

[Patronus86]

A lot has already been said on this faction's gameplay and strategy. I might add:

The elven factions in general (Silvan and High Elf) are declared by many to be "easier" factions to play, with their very high-quality units, good starting generals and relatively easy starting positions.

The above is true, but the Elves, HE included, require a more nuanced approach, and more a more cautious approach for the following reasons:
-They have slow unit replenishment and smaller-sized units, and they are generally more expensive. This means recruiting armies or replenishing battle-worn ones is expensive and time-consuming. You have to plan well ahead of your battles, to make sure you have enough to win the battle and continue to fight/seize territory in the aftermath.
-They both have a limited, or slow, cash income with their starting positions. The solution to this in the early game is open trade with as many factions as you can, focus on economic buildings and carefully choose your battles. One pyrrhic victory or defeat may crush your finances in one turn. The solution for the mid-game and long-term is to focus on taking out your nearby enemies (Moria, Isengard, Gungabad) by the mid-game and taking some of their profitable cities (Moria for example).
-The HE are somewhat isolated from the real fights going on in the game (Mordor/Harad vs Gondor and Dale vs Rhun, Silvan vs Mordor and Moria). Not only are these some of your traditional allies (lore-wise) but their existence is essential to keeping the enemy distracted while you take out the evil factions one or two at a time. You can't save them all (Gondor is especially hard when the Harad Oliphant onslaught starts). But you can save some, focus on saving those factions that are within your reach so you have some allies in the east to conduct the "final" fight against Mordor and the easterners. This requires you defeating Isengard, Gungabad, and Moria by the mid-game (if you want to be proactive, Isengard or Moria should be destroyed by the end of the early-game).
- Remember, as with all elven factions, the elven units are the most well-rounded and elite out there (the only faction that has better infantry on average are the dwarves, but they lack cavalry, good archers and mobility), but don't throw your elven armies into melee expecting the best. Yes, they will likely win, but at what cost to your treasury and the momentum of your campaign (time it takes to recruit, replenish and gather reinforcements). Use your archers and cavalry to the utmost to whittle down the enemy, only commit your infantry when you have no other choice or the the enemy is on the verge of routing...this approach requires more patience and micro during battles, but will save your troops' lives and will reduce costs associated with retraining and recruiting fresh troops.
-End game for HE should focus on a surprise attack on Harad and Mordor. There are different ways to do this, but my favorite is to launch an "Inchon" style attack from the sea on Harad's and Mordor's rear holdings/territories (this location will depend greatly on how far they have advanced on Gondor and if Gondor is even alive). Gain a foothold, cut off their forward provinces from their rear ones and start to expand. You should have the money and resources to commit to this type of action, if you don't, something probably went wrong with your early and mid-game expansions. Also, another strategy, that I was particularly fond of using during my late game in a Silvan Elf campaign, was to send "General Sherman" type raiding armies into the enemies rear territories and raze/destroy their main recruitment and economic centers...it not only nets you a lot of cash from demolishing the buildings, but also absolutely wrecks the enemy's ability to recruit and finance their war.


There was a lot of good stuff posted previous to my post, but thought that I would add my own experiences to the mix. All, in all, the HE are a very interesting and fun faction to play, you just have to make more of an effort to get involved in the fighting since you are initially somewhat removed from it.