Help requested from the community with Rohan and more generally, how to choose the development path for regions

[FFJean]

Dear all,

I am starting again to play FATW. Again, a great mod! No doubt, BI pushed again and again to its limits, this is just amazing. I am starting a Rohirrim campaign, without any guide, because I just love this faction in Tolkien's books, and horse archers in BI . But I would be very much thankful if I could get some understanding on how to chose the development path between Financial and Military, for all the regions that are not able of both. I prefer to develop regions (the turtle way, I know that it may not be perfect for FATW ) and am inclined to go Financial. However, I do not know how to know whether each region has real financial potential or should much better be used as a military hub.

Same, if I have to choose between different industries, how to? On which rationale?

Lastly, even within a type, how to chose the way forward? For example, for Hornburg, I have chosen Mines, then have the choice between Gold and Gem. When I do as recommended, testing both buildings, they bring exactly the same amount of additional money. How should I choose?

Sorry for my English, I really would very much appreciate support from this community.

All the best, and first, many thanks to the team(s) members that have bring this mod to us.

FFJean

[Saul Tyre]

@FF Jean; I'm far from being an authority on this but I'm finding this guide by athanaric & Count MRVHS quite helpful https://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...ameplay-Guides also this guide by wambat is proving quite useful in it's domain too https://www.twcenter.net/forums/show...iplomacy-Guide I'm pretty sure one of these guys will come across your query soon and will probably help you further, maybe you could join the discord community Fourth Age discord, and chat with them(& others) direct and probably get a quicker response, they are all well versed in this mod and it's submods and are a really nice bunch to boot

[webba84]

G'day mate, welcome back!

It seems to me like your understanding and instincts are pretty spot on when it comes to the settlement policies, it is a good general rule that a settlement should always be a financial one unless you have a specific reason for it to be something else (e.g. you want to train a lot of high tier units there).

Generally in FATW the largest portion of settlement income, and the income that is most improved by financial policy and settlement development is trade income, so the best way to check is to look at the settlement details screen and see how much you're getting, both in total and per resource/region. You can see pretty clearly that while Edoras has decent trade income Hornburg is far and away the best, and it gets even better once you take Dunfreca and Dol Baran to maximise the number of regions it can trade with.

If a region has really poor income you still may want to make it a financial settlement, but you will know to develop better regions first and only spend money there later on. For Rohan, I find you really don't need many military settlements in your homelands, Edoras starts out already being able to train and retrain most of what you want, and Dunfreca is an easy early addition to your territories that also doesn't require a policy choice. Two training centers is more than enough, but possibly I would consider ultimately developing the Wold into a military settlement as well, especially if you're choosing to make that your north-eastern border.

Additionaly, in your homelands the T2 barracks you can get in financial settlements still give you pretty decent units, including a light horse archer, and you can get away with using mostly those low tier units until very late in the campaign.


For industries, there are some significant choices, but in some cases, such as with Hornburg, it really doesn't matter and you can feel free to choose whichever one you personally like more (for Hornburg I go gems because of the Glittering Caves). It's very rare for a region to have two such high value trade resources so you won't be making that choice very often.

There are a few categories of trade resources but practically speaking they can be divided into two types - construction, and income. Construction resources (wood, stone, iron) decrease the cost or time it takes to develop provinces, while all other trade resources primarily provide an income boost. At the top tier, there are some additional effects to be aware of:

Iron provides +1 armour upgrade
Hides provides +1 armour upgrade
Wood & Stone both provide factionwide construction cost discounts (these stack, so if you can get a few T2 wood or stone industries things get a lot cheaper)
Fish & Incense provide 5% health improvement (good for maximising population)
Pipe Weed and Wine provide 5% happiness boost

An industry without any of these effects provides even more trade bonuses instead, and are generally the most directly profitable of the resources (gold, gems, ivory, etc.) For Rohan horses are a common and pretty decent trade resource and their industry boosts that quite a lot, though when alternatives are available you will want to have a close look (a military settlement should probably go for hides or iron if they are available, and wood and stone are always good choices anywhere for the construction discounts)

[FFJean]

Dear both,

Thank you very much for the time you spend helping me! @Saul, I had read the guides, but don’t really know how to practically use the paragraphs on economics. I still don’t really know how to assess the potential of a region (apart from number of neighbouring regions). And the fact there is no guide for Rohan is not easy for a newbie like me . @webba thank you very much also, I think what you wrote to me would very well fit in the guide section (« go Financial usually » for example). I will follow your advice, and try to report here how things develop.

Again, many thanks to both!

FFJean

[athanaric]

With Rohan, the horse resource is unsurprisingly important. You can only train your heavy HAs and elite lancers in provinces with this resource. For the latter (Riddermark Spears), you also need a homeland region, so you'll only get them in Rohan itself. You can get Riddermark Bowmen as far away as Fornost in Eriador, or some places in Rhovanion. You can also use this resource for your main financial SB.
As stated in the guide, the optimal economic build is to have the military policy in Woldburg (where you can get the +3 armour upgrade thanks to resource and SB combination) and Easthold, which has mediocre trade and is the most northeasterly settlement where you can get Riddermark Spears, and financial policy for everything else in Rohan (and open policy wherever possible of course). Although if you go financial in the Hornburg, you'll miss out on the Helminga unique foot bodyguard.
As already said, Rohan has one of the best second tiers in the game, because their T2 roster is so versatile. One of the new features that isn't in the guide yet is the reworked Northmen tech tree. Basically, the taverns, which were previously just a money sink, are now useful and provide a law bonus. The Marshal's Hall SB now provides extra XP for your infantry (including foreign levies!) instead of the previous happiness boost. That means that it's ideal to build in Gondorian regions (you'll get strong infantry there) and everywhere else you can't make proper use of your horse-related tech.

[FFJean]

Thank you Athanaric.

[Wambat]

... I had read the guides, but don’t really know how to practically use the paragraphs on economics ...

I am always looking to improve my guide on diplomacy. If there are parts of that guide that are difficult for you to understand, please help me identify those sections so they can be made more clear. I have been playing this mod for over a decade now, so it could be easy for me to assume something goes without saying which should be explained in more detail.

As for trade, you will want to explore the settlement details scroll. One scroll will show you total trade income, but another will break down you trade income by provinces you trade with.