Third Age: Divide and Conquer: How do you defeat Great Beasts?

[Mr. Banana]

I've been playing a Gondor campaign for some time now and recently made a full stack professional army of Gondor infantry, spearman, archers, cavalry, some catapults, and of course my general. The army had the best armor for Gondor, the weapon bonus from the armsmen guild as well as being recruited with level 4 experience. The first battle the army got into was 2200 of my men against 2600 of the enemies. There were only a few units I thought I would have trouble with: 3 units of mountain trolls and a unit of great beasts. The amount of casualties on both sides was pretty even at the start thanks to the trolls ruining my defensive line, and attacking my archers in the back, but eventually the trolls, enemy general, and all their infantry were either dead or withdrawing. Victory was near, but then the great beasts arrived. I still had probably around 500 men left. I attacked the great beasts with everything I had. Volleys from my archers, cycle charges from my cavalry, and all of my infantry attacking them at once. They didn't lose a single man. after them running around stomping on the rest of my forces I decided a tactical retreat was in order. Then I realized I couldn't hit the withdraw button.

How do you kill these things?

[TheBlackKnight]

If I remember correctly, Great Beasts are elephants in the files. The mod authors suggest javelins or armor piercing units. If your playing as Gondor, Fountain Guard or any similar pikemen should do reasonably well in melee.

[Mr. Banana]

Originally posted by TheBlackKnight:

If I remember correctly, Great Beasts are elephants in the files. The mod authors suggest javelins or armor piercing units. If your playing as Gondor, Fountain Guard or any similar pikemen should do reasonably well in melee.

Alright I'll try that.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Grapeshot

I can mention a word on trolls - effective against armor units (which Gondor doesn't get many of...) will fare very very well in melee (much better than vanilla TATW due to changes of how trolls work).

Crossbows will wreck Trolls and Great Beasts alike but again Gondor doesn't get them.

Siege weaponry is a one-hit-kill and the higher the siege weapon rank the better its accuracy... so ballistas will murder anything large (v. good vs trolls in original TATW).

[Mr. Banana]

Originally posted by aidenpons:

Grapeshot

I can mention a word on trolls - effective against armor units (which Gondor doesn't get many of...) will fare very very well in melee (much better than vanilla TATW due to changes of how trolls work).

Crossbows will wreck Trolls and Great Beasts alike but again Gondor doesn't get them.

Siege weaponry is a one-hit-kill and the higher the siege weapon rank the better its accuracy... so ballistas will murder anything large (v. good vs trolls in original TATW).

Never thought about using ballistas I'll try that too. Thanks!

[Inardesco]

Javelins and ballista are your best friends against Mumakil/Great Beasts.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Javelins and ballista are your best friends against Mumakil/Great Beasts.

No, grapeshot is your best friend. Guaranteed to wipe out at least half on the first blast, if not all.

Javelins and ballista are second-best.

[Inardesco]

Originally posted by aidenpons:

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Javelins and ballista are your best friends against Mumakil/Great Beasts.

No, grapeshot is your best friend. Guaranteed to wipe out at least half on the first blast, if not all.

Javelins and ballista are second-best.

Grapeshot has shoddy range and need dorfs.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Originally posted by aidenpons:

No, grapeshot is your best friend. Guaranteed to wipe out at least half on the first blast, if not all.

Javelins and ballista are second-best.

Grapeshot has shoddy range and need dorfs.

You don't need high range against melee units :P