Total Victory (VH/VH) Game with Breeland
This is a playthrough of a campaign for Third Age Divide and Conquer 3.0 The Cold North.
Hello, I just finished quite a tough total victory game with breeland - meaning I played until every single evil faction was destroyed completely and only the free peoples remained. To a very large extent I exploited my allies and throughout most of the game relied on "crusader tactics" where I sent armies from the safety of my realm to aid my allies and donated any conquered towns to them...
The Fates of Factions
Breeland (me!): I defeated Dunland and Enedwaith and battled Isengard and the Dunedain eventually defeating them later on as well. I spent most of the game sending armies from my realm in Eriador to aid Gondor, Rohan, Khazad Dum, and Lothlorien. I also donated millions of gold in aid money.
Dunland: They were rushed by Breeland and crushed. Tharbad was taken from them very quickly and they were overpowered by my archer spam. When Enedwaith declared war on them they lost as they couldn't handle war from two sides. Dunland was the first faction to die.
Enedwaith: They sat around and did nothing at first and conquered territories very slowly. At around turn 50 they declared war on both Breeland and Dunland and launched attacks in all directions. They captured some Dunnish towns and killed Bilbo in western Shire but were pushed back by Bree. The fighting lasted many turns but Breeland defeated them and advanced from all directions - they were pushed back to the south of the Eriador river. They lived on for many more turns and served as nothing more but a buffer-state against Isengard until they lost all their heirs and their empire turned rebel.
Isengard: They battled Rohan and had them almost destroyed very quickly. They could never take the Hornburg though. They then expanded westwards battling Enedwaith and destroyed them by killing their leaders. They were swept away quite quickly and got destroyed by Breeland when their own leaders were killed and all their provinces turned rebel. They lived by regicide and died by it.
Dunedain: They fought Angmar and the Moria orcs for many turns and did quite poorly. However, when the Blue Mountain dwarves came to help they started beating Angmar badly and gained many territories. After Breeland attacked the dwarves they broke off their alliance and attacked Breeland. In the long war the Dunedain were destroyed by Bree and most of their territories were divided between them and Angmar.
Blue Mountains: They fought Angmar most of the game until they were attacked in the rear by Bree who marched at them through the lands of Lindon. They continued to fight Angmar and Bree until they were defeated. Bree kept taking all their towns and giving them away to the elves making it impossible for the dwarves to recapture them.
Lindon Elves: They did nothing most of the game. The corsairs stole Mithlond from them and Bree then captured it from the corsairs. They attacked Bree a few times when Bree broke the Northern Alliance but Bree always made peace with them by bribing them (10,000 gold or a town usually solved the issue). They eventually came to control most of the north until Bree turned on them and captured all their towns and gave them to Lorien instead.
Angmar: They fought a desperate battle against the dwarves and the Dunedain and almost lost. Their saviour legion event saved them and they captured back a lot of lands even though they only had two towns remaining. Together with Breeland they crushed the Dunedain and the dwarves but were later backstabbed by Bree who killed their king and heir on the same turn. Though Angmar is not a teautonic faction their royal family wasn't very large. They were defeated.
Imladris: They expanded a bit after the Moria orcs were defeated by the Khazad Dum dwarves. Mordor launched an invasion against them but it failed. They broke their alliance with Bree after Bree betrayed the Blue Mountain dwarves and eventually they attacked Bree's passing armies. They were conquered by Bree. Both Elladan and Elrohir chose to starve to death in Goblin Town (renamed to Orcgraveburg) instead of facing the sieging Bree forces and their nation was defeated.
Lothlorien: The Lorien Elves expanded their domain after Isengard's demise and captured many lands to the east of Lorien. However, they were no match for Mordor which eventually conquered everything in its path and pushed Lorien back to Caras Galadhon. Breeland saved Lorien by allying with them, giving them scores of towns in the north on the corpses of Lindon, and then buying Caras Galadhon from them for 300,000 gold. They adapted slowly to their new home and conquered territories reluctantly. They eventually made war with Gundabad and took several towns from them. They were the ones that landed the killing blow on Gundabad and soon, with Bree's help, controlled all of the north from Lindon all the way to northern banks of the Sea of Rhun. Later on they fought the Easterlings slowly but surely until the game was won.
Khazad Dum: The Moria dwarves sent out an emissary and allied with Breeland early on in the game. Quickly they exterminated all the Moria orcs and defeated them by killing all their heirs. Afterwards they sat in Moria doing nothing until Bree betrayed the Northern Alliance. Khazad Dum was the only faction to choose to side with Bree and itself broke its alliance with the Blue Mountains. Bree rewarded Khazad Dum later by buying up all their provinces in Eriador forcing them into the confines of Moria. Bree had its eye on Moria too but the 8 full stacks of dwarves at the gates rendered those thoughts fruitless. When Mordor stepped to their town over the corpses of many elves the dwarves pushed back fiercely. They expanded greatly to the east capturing many lands and began the war over mirkwood. Bree, impressed with their ardour, came to their aid with many armies and gave them hundreds of thousands of gold. Eventually the dwarves took everything in their path. Their domain expanded from Moria stretching over all of Mirkwood, Dorwinion, and the lands south of the Sea of Rhun. Of all the allies of Bree they were the fiercest, the most pro-active, the least money-draining, and the overall the most loyal.
Orcs of the Misty Mountains: They fought mostly Rivendell and the Moria dwarves until they were suddenly defeated. They were the second faction to be destoyed and died because all their heirs were killed.
Gundabad: The orcs of the north performed very well in this campaign. They swept across Mirkwood and conquered everything in their path. They defeated the woodland elves, Dale, and Erebor, locking Rhun out of the western provinces and out of Mirkwood. They couldn't, however, defeat the Beornings who held fast against them and even took their snowy capital for a few turns. They suffered heavy losses when the Moria dwarves were unleashed upon them and they lost all their lands in Mirkwood. Their mountian homes were conquered by Bree and Lorien and they even lost one town to the Beornings. Eventually their heirs all died and their final holding in the east bordering Rhun turned rebel.
Mirkwood Elves: They performed quite well from the start. They conquered most of Mirkwood and together with the Beornings destroyed Dol Guldor completely. They couldn't, however, withstand the northern orcs of Gundabad who quickly swept them away and killed them all.
Dol Guldor: They died quite quickly. At first they dealt many defeats against the Beornings but after the Beorning saviour legion came they were routed and pushed back. They lost everything and the nazgul fled to Mordor as their faction was divided between the woodland elves and the Beornings.
Anduin Vale: The Beornings fought Dol Guldor until they became a mighty empire in their own right. At one stage they were one of the leading world powers until they clashed with Dol Guldor's papa - Mordor. Mordor could not be stopped and took almost everything from them until they had only two region left north of Moria near the Misty Mountains. They stayed there for the rest of the game slightly helping the free peoples fight Gundabad and did very little. They never got their empire back and stayed locked out of the war with three irrelevant territories until the end.
Dorwinion: They fought Rhun and were destroyed by Rhun. They were the third faction to be destroyed.
Dale: They fought Gundabad and Rhun but they were no match and their lands were divided between the two nations. Dale and Esgaroth were held by Gundabad and they were destroyed.
Erebor: They lost all their territories very quickly but held on to one province near Dain's Halls for a very long time. They were finally overrun though by Gundabad and were destroyed.
Rhun: They crushed everything in their path. Nothing could stop them: Dorwinion, Dale, Erebor, Khand, Harad, and the Ar Adunaim all fell to them. Their realm was massive and they were the world's super power for a long time. They started clashing with Gondor once they got into Harad. The fighting was bitter and towns exchanged hands many times. Eventually Gondor, with Bree's aid, pushed through and conquered all the lands in Harad and Khand. From the north Rhun faced the free peoples too. Khazad Dum, Rohan, Lorien, with the help of Bree all pinched away at their borders until there was nothing left. The last stand of Rhun was just behind Mordor where their heir and king died and their last province, the town in the Sea of Rhun, turned rebel.
Harad: The Haradrim were dominant in the early game where they crushed the rebelious Khand and conquered many provinces. Khand, however, recovered with their saviour legion and began crushing Harad. Harad had only two towns remaining for a long time until Rhun captured them and they were vanquished. With their defeat Mordor was robbed of their Haradrim cavalry units.
Khand: They sided with the free peoples and betrayed Mordor. After a bitter battle with Harad they faced the wrath of both the Ar Adunaim and Rhun. Their lands were divided between the two nations but the Ar Adunaim controlled most of them.
Ar Adunaim: These non-canon numenoreans did little early on. They captured Mithlond but were driven back by Bree. They fought Khand and eventually decided to betray Harad, their ally. Their domain expanded and they came to control all of Harad and Khand until they clashed with Rhun. Rhun was bigger and badder than them and after many dozens of turns of fighting the Ar Adunaim fell into decline. They lost everything to Rhun and were defeated. They had a few provinces in Gondor but they were recaptured by Gondor with Bree's help.
Dol Amroth: They fought the Ar Adunaim and Mordor early on. They suffered no losses until they lost all their heirs against Mordor and Dol Amroth turned rebel. Gondor recaptured the rebel controlled Dol Amroth and continued the struggle without them.
Gondor: They lasted for a long time against Mordor and lost Osgiliath very late into the game. Once they started losing, however, they started losing fast. Their towns fell to Mordor like dominos and soon enough they defended from the outskirts of Morthond. They were rescued by Bree which sent many armies into Gondor and recaptured it for them. Bree defeated over 36 full stacks of Mordor troops in Gondor alone in the struggle to save them. Eventually Gondor got back on its feet and retook Minas Tirith and Osgiliath all on its own. They fought Rhun over the lands of Harad until they won and achieved victory for the free peoples.
Rohan: They were swept away by Isengard quite quickly but never yielded. Rohan defended Hornburg until finally help from Bree arrived. Bree conquered back many lands and gave them to Rohan. Rohan continued to be only a minor player in the war but slowly their domain expanded thanks to Bree. They never did conquer any lands on their own like Gondor or the Moria dwarves and only served as stalwart defenders of lands given to them by Bree. Eventually they would come to controll Cair Andros, Henneth Annun, and all of the lands past the Black Gate in Mordor. Their mounted troops provided great support to the armies of Breeland in manually played-out battles where they made short work of the weak footsoldiers of Mordor.
Mordor: The hosts of Sauron performed very well in this campaign. They fought Gondor to a stalemate and expanded northwards taking many provinces bordering Dol Guldor. They would eventually break through into Gondor and expand ever more in Rhovanion. They beat the Lorien elves and the Beornings and finally came to border Khazad Dum. That's where they were halted as 8 full stacks of dwarves were unleashed upon them and they were pushed back. With the help of Bree Mordor was beaten in Rhovanion and Khazad Dum conquered many of their lands. In Gondor they would have won completely if not for Bree which defeated them and drove them back beyond the Black Gate. They were kept in Mordor for a while longer until their allies in Rhun were subdued. Rohan was used to clobber them and their lands were conquered. With Mordor's defeat the free peoples reigned supreme.
End Game Map
End Game Stats
Fighting Mordor
Overall the game was tedious. Most of the battles had to be fought manually since the auto-resolve acts weirdly. When it is almost literally impossible to lose and it gives you a crushing defeat... In the end I began starting battles and AFKing and still winning because Mordor armies are trash, particularly when their elite armies are already exhausted and they're robbed of their Haradrim allies. Against Mordor Bree has the upperhand or is at least on equal footing. Their watchmen units are similar to Uruks and their elites, the Dunedain and the elves, are better. They also actually have cavalry in good numbers and can run down the pathetic orc rabble Mordor likes to field. Great beasts were a bit of a problem but they were too few to cause me any severe headaches (other than sceweing up auto-resolve outcomes).
Fighting Rhun
Rhun at first seemed very strong. However, after facing them many more times I learned about their units and realised.... these guys are actually not that strong! Rhun overall appears like a heavily armored cavalry based faction. Their strengths are: heavy armour, lots of melee cavalry, khand auxilary cavalry, crazy chariots, and fierce and tanky spearmen and pikemen. Their weaknesses: poor charger infantry and mediocore archers. Their dedicated golden charger units turned out to be even worse at charging than my watchmen - and I though chargers were one of Bree's weak points! I had to adapt my tactics and instead of aggressive manoeuvers with cavalry and crossbowmen I was forced to form a defensive square against their cavalry. Often their armies had 10 or more cavalry units but even their fierce golden horsemen faltered when they charged headlong into farmhand pikemen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b48RjbEKbpU
Fighting Gundabad
Gundabad was a big surprise for me and I actually had the most trouble against them. I thought I was fighting orcs when I faced them but they appeared more akin to dwarves. Very tough, very strong infantry with high morale and a fearsome bite. Pale Uruks just chewed through everything I threw at them. Blackshield archers couldn't be run down like Uruk archers of Mordor and instead just killed my cavalry and made them flee in fear. Half-trolls were the worst. I found it annoying that a non-canon faction was so strong. These snow orcs are superior to the Mordor Uruks and then you have the Pale Uruks and then you have Half-trolls and then you have Snow Trolls. Sauron's pathetic rabble of orcs looks like childsplay in comparison to such reckless hate. I suspect they were made this way to try and balance the overpowerdness that is the dwarves. Luckily the Khazad Dum AI killed most of them for me but I always had to outnumber them if I wanted to win against them on my own.
Mercenaries VS Dunedain
At around turn 80 Bree makes a choice between the Dunedain and the mercenaries. I picked the Dunedain choice in this playthrough for Bree just because I wanted to test them out as I have already tried the mercenaries in another campaign. The downside was supposed to be a hit on the economy but I never felt it. The great roads I could build greatly increased the money my towns produced so in a way they also have an economy boost. Another upside is that you have fewer elites to bother about. Only half my armies even had them and when they did have them they were limited to mostly 4 or 5 units. Mercenaries expanded my roster greatly with many units I would add to most armies. I would get: Sons of the Fallen, Privateer axemen, Privateer cavalry, Harondor mercenaries, Dunnish pikemen, Salarin mercenaries, Rhovanion hunters, Rhudaur warriors, and even sometimes Rhovanion spearmen. It becomes annoying when survivor amies keep getting 5 Privateers and 5 Dunnish pikemen left over who can't merge with anyone! Those a slots wasted on them! A more watchmen-based army is more merge-friendly. The big plus of the Dunedain was mainly the archers I got. Rangers are amazing and the Elves were nice too. Mercenaries on the other hand had more practical units they offered - javelin/throwing axe units. These weapons slay Great Beasts of Mordor with ease and give the armored hordes of Rhun a much harder time than a few arrows.
Early Game
The main campaign in the normal sense had me mostly fighting Dunlad and Enedwaith. I rushed Undertowers with an army of hobbits and rushed Tharbad with my men. I killed as few rebels as possible to try and avoid losing soldiers. Dunland was more or less easy to fight because half their army was made up of pikemen and I had so many archers. Militia archers, woodland hunters, hobbit archers, Dunedain rangers... It was like shooting fish in a barrel. Dunnish hunters on the other hand were trash and got massacred.
I knew Enedwaith was going to attack me from the Shire, from my experience in my previous Breeland campaign, so my plan was to conquer the Dunnish capital, loot it, destroy all their buildings, cut out the population, and sell it back to them for peace. My plan failed when I noticed a giant Dunnish army coming to attack me anyway and I was forced to break the peace I had bartered for and conquer their capital again. I controlled the decimated area and used it as a fortress against their attacks - it appeared I'd have to deal with their harrasment all the while fighting Enedwaith. I denied myself lots of money accidently thinking I'd be denying it to my enemies.
On turn 50 Enedwaith declared war. I fought them on 3 fronts: at the Dunlander capital where they came from the south pass near the river, over the road-less hills between the two rivers, and near the Shire. Their fast attack did make me lose western Shire and Bilbo was slain. I did retake it but the fighting was fierce on all fronts. Enedwaith was tougher to fight than Dunland because their units were: fast, stealthy, and could shoot back. They fielded many river archers and river swordsmen which outclassed my militia armies. I even began to believe Enedwaith was a strong faction because of how their units outclassed mine. Their charger axemen were also very fierce and killed many of my bodyguards including Barliman himself. Throughout the whole war I was completely broke and only could make units thanks to looting enemy camps. I could barely build anything and my armies consisted of: greenway spearmen, greenway riders, militia spearmen, milita archers, merchant militia, journeymen, and hobbits. I only built watchmen units after I won the war... because I didn't realise they trained from the blacksmith.
I slowly pushed Enedwaith back. Around turn 70 I had them pushed back past the river and it is then when I could finally breathe. With the war for survival over money started becoming abundant and the real building began. I made peace with Enedwaith by blitzkrieging one of their forts and selling it back to them. At this point my domain was large and I was ready for my war of the north that I had planned.
The War of the North
The reason why I killed: Imladris, the Dunedain, the Blue Mountain dwarves, and Lindon, 4 northern good factions which posed no threat to me, was because they were, in the long term, wasteful and harmful to the war effort against Rhun. There are only 3 passes through the Misty Mountains. In order to fight Rhun effectively what the free peoples' needed is one powerful faction that ruled the north and could muster up the wealth of the entire region to throw against Rhun through some of these passes. Having two-territory Rivendell or ally-locked Lindon in the way was wasteful. If they did not border their enemies they would never fight them.
My intitial plan was to abuse the power of the elves by giving all of the north to Lindon and having them pour through Gundabad and Goblin Town into the Rhunic Empire. However, I forgot about the bug-feature which made it impossible to ally with factions whose ally you have killed. I never could re-ally with Lindon after killing so many of their allies so I opted for a new plan and killed Lindon too replacing them with Lorien. Luckily Lorien wasn't even allied with Rivendell and they accepted my alliance. In hindsight though it would have been more effective giving the north to Khazad Dum and having them control a truly vast domain.
Grand War and Allies
Differing from the early game the prospect of a grand war is quite daunting. If my own empire was to encompass the whole map the amount of micromanaging for its successful operation would be insane. Instead I opted to try and use allies to do most of my dirty work. Another perk of this approach is that I would get access to powerful ally troops when we fought together in manuall battles. E.g. when an army of Rohan was nearby I could easily expect them to pretty much win the day for me against the forces of Mordor. Though perhaps if I opted for conquering the whole world I would have simply stack-spammed my enemies to death and auto-resolved everything. Though this requires an obscene amount of micro-managing too especially when it comes to merging troops from wrecked armies.
The One Ring
Sauron got it. His retinue conquered its way through Mirkwood and he served as a governor of a small town for many turns until my army found him there and auto-resolved him to death. The Ring resurfaced again in the Easterling capital and I had an army there ready to take it. I was excited and when I finally got it I though of using it to quickly take Mordor out of the picture. However, a message asked me to go to Rivendell. At first I accepted and it told me my general had to footslog there, the other corner of the world, and only had 25 turns... I loaded my saved and declined thinking I could destory the ring regardless. Sadly I could not no matter how long my general stood next to Mount Doom. I had to kill Mordor the normal way. In the end I gathered an entire stack full of Dunedain soldiers and had an awesome final battle near the sea in Mordor.
Thank you to the mod team for the experience! At this point I probably played this more than the Stainless Steel mod. It does have a charm to it since you can't cheese with assassins and the AI doesn't betray you for no reason all the time. Lots of lore-bending with overpowered snow orcs and extinct black numenoreans coming back from the grave but it's still quite fun. As a long time player of The Last Days of the Third Age Mod I also keep seeing weapons and shields and models taken from that mod and it makes me smile.
The one bug I did find that I think needs addressing is: Greenway Riders charge without orders! This is a fact! So add it to their description.
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Originally Posted by UncleBilbo
