Rhun OP as hell!

[cen1]

Where to begin.. I absolutely love this mod and I consider myself a TW veteran. My first campaign was High Elves which went nicely, no real complaints except maybe army replenishment is super slow which stalls you quite a bit. It is almost impossible to progress when East Osgiliath gets hit every fifth turn with Mordor or Harad stack. Luckily I managed to gift a buffer region to Rohan which saved the day but that's another story.

Now to this topic, second campaign with Dwarves. The hardest campaign I've played so far in all TW history. I clean up all the north and Misty Mountains, fair enough. Rhun is the logical next choice (it was at that time, but I really should've went straight to Mordor). Oh boy, I did not know what I was getting into!
The map is just swarmed by stacks and stacks of Rhun armies and I am in stalemate even with Dale and Silvan Elves participating in the war. I can manage to diminish their stacks 1 to 2 but it's simply not enough. Retraining takes ~8 rounds and by the 10th round new stacks appear. Even worse, Dwarven armies are abysmal against Rhun ranged weapons so it's a pain to fight the battles. To top it off I just lost Khazad Dum to Harad on a crusade (should have gifted it.. big mistake) and now I'm also losing Misty Mountains! Not that I could afford to defend it anyway, the economy can only take 2-3 stacks. I was barely coping against Rhun and now I'm basically thrown back at least 100 rounds, to complete waste!

Engaging with Rhun in open battle was the biggest mistake ever and the faction is OP to the infinity. It's a river of stacks coming from endless territories and cities.

Does anyone else have Dwarves-Rhun experience to share?

[alreadyded]

Just focus on sieges as Dwarves, they are the best at close quarters combat mainly from axes and AP on all their units. If you rush Rhun's settlements they can't spam you. When defending just pile your units behind the gate and leave it open for them. Vanilla TATW encourages rushing to weaken your enemies early since replenishment rates increase with each barracks upgrade and the AI gets bonuses to replenishment, pop growth, etc. By turn 100 you should have enough regions to be able to take on anyone, that is how hard you should be rushing them.

If you really have to fight an open battle you can literally just blob your units together as far forward as it will let you and run them straight into the enemy right away (a run command behind the enemy), you will crush them and chase down leftover cavalry.


That is my experience with vanilla TATW anyway. Try some mods if it seems like more work than fun. I fixed the stack spam problem in my mod, not sure what others have done but they all probably did something for it.

[Joseignacio]

cen1: The same happened to me a couple of times. SO I changed my strategy, I crushed the orcs at Dain's Halls immediately (with the setup units) and ally with the elves and Eriador or at least make them go into the war by giving them towns I take form orcs and that I don't really want. Then sometimes I made peace with orc, and early on, before turn 30 or 40, go for Rhun, even if you still hold an attrition war in Angmar. Before going to Khazad-Dum/Moria,...

It's true that Moria is extremely valuable but you need strong stacks to take it, and at first you cannot hope to, so you go for Rhun, that early their units are not so deadly and your dwarfs are super tough. If you can take like 4 of their cities, better if like 6, they are doomed and you'll get a inflow of money, cause their towns are very rich (although this works more for towns taken later own because their riches come mainly from mines but caravans (and the growth they give as well, so they have huge cities later on) too.

If you cannot hold them, then sell all sell-able specially the barracks and so on. First you get a lot of money, second the units they will be able to build there will be low tier for a long time.

Don't worry about stacks, a full stack of low tier dwarves can defeat several low tier Rhun armies, just make sure to be producing soldiers all the time, so you can send another stack or half stack once you killed 3-4 Rhun stacks and your old army is worn off. I many times send a full stack to open way and then a half one to siege / assault or to reinforce and then siege/assault, while new enemy stacks arrive.

For any strategy in general, dwarfs or not, you need to spend money at first in developing riches and growth for all of your cities, that is what will allow you to have one and a half stack against Rhun while playing guerrilla in the West. Mines are basic, but they are expensive, you can fight your first battles with the original deployment's units and buid the mininimum till turn 30/40 while you build up your economics. From there you'll get the money for those rich mines.

[eugenioso]

Where to begin.. I absolutely love this mod and I consider myself a TW veteran. My first campaign was High Elves which went nicely, no real complaints except maybe army replenishment is super slow which stalls you quite a bit. It is almost impossible to progress when East Osgiliath gets hit every fifth turn with Mordor or Harad stack. Luckily I managed to gift a buffer region to Rohan which saved the day but that's another story.

Now to this topic, second campaign with Dwarves. The hardest campaign I've played so far in all TW history. I clean up all the north and Misty Mountains, fair enough. Rhun is the logical next choice (it was at that time, but I really should've went straight to Mordor). Oh boy, I did not know what I was getting into!
The map is just swarmed by stacks and stacks of Rhun armies and I am in stalemate even with Dale and Silvan Elves participating in the war. I can manage to diminish their stacks 1 to 2 but it's simply not enough. Retraining takes ~8 rounds and by the 10th round new stacks appear. Even worse, Dwarven armies are abysmal against Rhun ranged weapons so it's a pain to fight the battles. To top it off I just lost Khazad Dum to Harad on a crusade (should have gifted it.. big mistake) and now I'm also losing Misty Mountains! Not that I could afford to defend it anyway, the economy can only take 2-3 stacks. I was barely coping against Rhun and now I'm basically thrown back at least 100 rounds, to complete waste!

Engaging with Rhun in open battle was the biggest mistake ever and the faction is OP to the infinity. It's a river of stacks coming from endless territories and cities.

Does anyone else have Dwarves-Rhun experience to share?

One arm defends, while the other one strikes. This should be your dwarven policy at all times. Your main provinces are Erebor and the other location to the east of it whose name i dont recall, and your main enemy will not be the orcs, it will be rhun.

First of all, avoid field battles if at all possible. Rhun's forces are not better at melee than your tank of an army, but they are however more agile and you will never catch them, unless you either use Dale cavalry, which you must not use for combat but to run down enemy forces, or you trap the enemy against a map corner, which IMO is kinda gamey ("We reached the edge of the battlefield sir! WERE DOOMED!"). Even with an impressive siege train field battles are not necessary. Dwarves stand out in close melee, so instead go straight for the enemy cities and fight them inside. Dont worry if the AI has more men than you inside the settlements, your dwarves will handle themselves well enough. Personally i dont take a siege train with my dwarven forces as its far too slow for me; id rather take a big ass army straight to the enemy settlements and... ehem... 'Rhuin' their settlements. Leave a garrison, and keep moving. Once the army is exhausted and you feel you cant take more settlements without risking your army, camp up the city and turn it into a dwarven colony: get the cultural buildings for them to the maximum so you can recruit new units there, a slow process but necessary for 2 reasons: army padding (more disposable units like miners for new garrisons/axemen for frontline fighting) and free upkeep. While all of this happens, send a new army from the north or a steady stream of reinforcements if you wish, but do keep moving.

In regards to the orcs, its ok to push west as long as your main Rhun drive is not affected by it. If you are sacrificing men to the western campaign in detriment of rhun, then Rhun can still rally back and counter you. If you focus on two fronts, both fronts will suffer a diversion of efforts. The same thing happened to the germans defending France: Rommel wanted armor on the beaches, while Rundstedt wanted the tanks on the back to smash the beachhead. Diversion of effort is fatal, dont allow it. Once you have the situation under control somewhat you can risk an attack westwards towards Gundabad, which has valuable mines, more to the west towards Carn-Dum, and finally southwards to help the elves (uugh).

[LuckyPistol]

As others have said, stick with sieges.

Some tips for Rhun, their units either have great armor, or practically none. Your crossbowmen are essential in combating Rhun, and your halberds and pikes work wonders against their cavalry (axes are fine for flanking, not taking on charges head on). Let Rhun come to you, and wreck them when they initiate the siege. Dale should eventually be able to start taking settlements unless they've been crippled.

You shouldn't be having too much trouble against the Orcs. Your miners are the only ones that can really get overwhelmed and wrecked by the AI's wargs and such.

[Joseignacio]

Dale should eventually be able to start taking settlements unless they've been crippled.

Or give them some cities you don't really care about, and you don't wish to defend, cause you're moving further in Rhun's territory and need your army... this way they'll be better off, cover your flanks and imply in the war...

[LuckyPistol]

Or give them some cities you don't really care about, and you don't wish to defend, cause you're moving further in Rhun's territory and need your army... this way they'll be better off, cover your flanks and imply in the war...

I only give settlements that were lost in an Invasion and ones that I know where the faction receives a garrison script. The AI rarely sends forces to defend settlements given to them, even when adjacent, so in the Dwarves' position it's just giving Rhun a free settlement to take.

[Joseignacio]

Well, in my case, I have seen the AI set garrisons, especially when they are close or are a natural core area (of them). More than sending units, I believe, building them.

Of course this may take some time for the AI to build, but on the other hand:

- You don't need to garrison this city, so you usually (depending on how restless it is or it could get Neutral through rebellion) can go ahead and take the next one. I usually assault not siege... providing I previously defeated their stacks and so there is a very week garrison.

- If the settlement is ungarrisoned but belonging to your ally and it is taken by your enemy, because it's not well garrisoned, anyway you get a secondary objective, your ally becomes involved in the war if not already, and IMO it gets more active if it was, contributing to your war effort.