Third Age DaC, any tips?

[Quantuvius Maximum]

I've never been able to play this mod and actually do good. First of all, I've checked for best factions for started, the only threads were old ones, they all reccomended rhun or harad. Which have both been nerfed to the ground. Every other faction is really hard for me. As Harad I have no money, no good troops, not enough troops, provinces don't make enough money, independant realms have to many armies/ garrisons, and they have elite troops as well. I can't win seige battles involving walls you can stand on at all. This is due to ai being the dumbest pieces of ♥♥♥♥, and the buffs for archers on walls. If I starve them out by the end I will be millions of dollars in debt. And I can't wait till turn 200. I know I may sound like I'm overexaggerating, this is because of how tilted I am trying to find a good faction to play as. Any tips?

[Inardesco]

Uhm....Mordor and Mithlond are both easy af.

There are no buffs for archers on walls, that's just the nature of walls, you can't dump 3million men on them at once.

The only faction that might be portrayed as hard is Orcs of the Misty Mountains.

So counterquestion. What is it that you want to be good as?

Money? Bree, Rhun and Dorwinion have that covered, as does every Dwarven faction with the negative that Dwarven units are expensive.
Infantry? Mordor, Isengard, Gondor, Mithlond/Imladris, Northern Dunedain, Ar-Adunaim have you covered with that.
Just want to spam as much as you can? Bree, all Orc nations, Anduin, Dunland and Enedwaith have you covered.
Good cavalry? Rohan, Dol Amroth and Khand have you covered, maybe even late game Rhun.
Good all round nation? Gondor, Imladris and Mithlond have you covered.
Safe startin position? Mithlond, Rhun, Mordor, Ered Luin, Khand, Harad,Ar-Adunaim, perhaps even Imladris.
Want to rek using archers? All Elven factions and Northern Dunedain.


So....What do you consider a good faction and why? Also....You might get more detailed information about every faction by just watching this; Everything is explained. Regions, diplomacy, scripts, units and difficulty.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLesZst-z4ywZEjZFD2DAkAdIFMGZgRMFx

[Quantuvius Maximum]

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Uhm....Mordor and Mithlond are both easy af.

There are no buffs for archers on walls, that's just the nature of walls, you can't dump 3million men on them at once.

The only faction that might be portrayed as hard is Orcs of the Misty Mountains.

So counterquestion. What is it that you want to be good as?

Money? Bree, Rhun and Dorwinion have that covered, as does every Dwarven faction with the negative that Dwarven units are expensive.
Infantry? Mordor, Isengard, Gondor, Mithlond/Imladris, Northern Dunedain, Ar-Adunaim have you covered with that.
Just want to spam as much as you can? Bree, all Orc nations, Anduin, Dunland and Enedwaith have you covered.
Good cavalry? Rohan, Dol Amroth and Khand have you covered, maybe even late game Rhun.
Good all round nation? Gondor, Imladris and Mithlond have you covered.
Safe startin position? Mithlond, Rhun, Mordor, Ered Luin, Khand, Harad,Ar-Adunaim, perhaps even Imladris.
Want to rek using archers? All Elven factions and Northern Dunedain.


So....What do you consider a good faction and why? Also....You might get more detailed information about every faction by just watching this; Everything is explained. Regions, diplomacy, scripts, units and difficulty.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLesZst-z4ywZEjZFD2DAkAdIFMGZgRMFx

I guess I'll try mithlond next, thanks! By archer buffs I just meant how they would get longer range and easier shots. But my a.i would always get stuck on the walls and not fight at all.

[Inardesco]

Just put your archers on a hill and they can fire further. Its simple physics.

And men not moving on walls is cuz walls have a limit to how many men can be on it, the larger the wall, the more men.

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Ridiculously easy factions:
- Erebor (despite their nerf)
- Rhun (also despite their nerf, last time I checked)
- Mordor
- Mithlond

Easy factions that don't really have much 'challenge' due to few enemies near them:
- Rivendell (or is it Imladris?) (turtle up in Rivendell itself)
- Ered Luin (Angmar is aaaaages away and there's only villages between you and them)

Ered Luin is basically sandbox due to the total lack of threat :P

Ridiculously difficult factions, do not attempt if you are having trouble:
- Khazad-Dum
- Gondor
- Any other 'evil' faction TBH (Dol Guldur, OoMM, Angmar, etc etc etc)
- "Unalinged" factions (Bree, Enedwaith, Dunland...)

Originally posted by Baconstrips:

And I can't wait till turn 200.

Oh yes you can. DaC has ludicrously long campaigns. Dying of old age (generals) basically isn't a thing for half the factions on the map. Spend 2-3 turns building some siege towers (not ladders) and then assault.

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by aidenpons:

Ridiculously difficult factions, do not attempt if you are having trouble:
- Gondor

How? You have access to:
- pretty reliable infantry on turn 1 and after the barracks event you get the best readily available infantry in the game
- you can train ranger units in several regions
- after the barracks event you get the mod's #2 heavy cavalry unit

You have a big starting domain while at the same time you don't have that many fronts: you can stop the entirety of Mordor at eastern Osgiliath (just reinforce it from western Osgiliath when besieged and sally out) and Henneth Annûn (attack with another army when it's besieged. It's going to be a bridge battle where you have units on both sides. Easy). It's 50-50 if Rohan can keep Isengard at check, and Enedwaith's roster is a joke. That leaves south, which is a natural expansion direction as well, so it's going to be your offensive front. The key-idea is not to expand to every direction at the same time. Turtle on every other front but one and expand on the one you don't turtle.

Plus several of your starting settlements are going to be enormously ridiculous money-makers. The biggest one is going to be Lond Galen. It's one of those "absurdly hilariously rich" settlements.

I'd say Gondor is the easiest one after the OP non-human factions. I'm going to reuse a joke I made a few days ago: the only way how Gondor could be easier is if they would have a javelin unit that throws mumakils...

[Inardesco]

First off; You have Mordor, Harad, Khand and Ar-Adunaim annoying you.

Your regions are severely underdeveloped.

Enedwaith will ignore Dunland and Bree until they are forced to go to war with them via script at turn 35-40ish.

Mordor isn't the issue when playing as Gondor. Like you said, Osgiliath can easily handle several stacks. It's just that they keep coming and coming. Your recruitment will fall behind at one point and because you're constantly recruiting, your building falls behind.

It's a war of attrition.

Offcourse, you can rush Minas Morgul and such but then Mordor is completely useless.

Khand obviously has the chance of joining you but often they just...you know, get wiped one way or the other.

My last play with Gondor saw me attacked by Enedwaith, Harad, Ar-Adunaim *cuz Dol Amroth lost various regions to them* Mordor and Khand.

You're simply overwhelmed, which, as a seasoned player can easily be countered, though still grindy, but for someone just starting. Could be a tad much.

Originally posted by Gekkibi:

- after the barracks event you get the mod's #2 heavy cavalry unit

You mean that 1 unit of Swan Knights you can recruit every 15 turns that'll by that time you can recruit it be so far away from the front you'll hardly use it?

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Originally posted by Gekkibi:

I'd say Gondor is the easiest one after the OP non-human factions.

er you are playing DaC v2 and not DaC v0.5.1?

[Gekkibi]

I've had no such issues. I've been able to hold Osgiliath with mostly a handful of militia units and 4 fiefdom cavalry units I keep in the eastern fort.

It's important to get your finances working before you start to expand. You don't need big armies at first. In the first 20 or so turns I only captured the 2 rebel settlements in the west. Only in turn 40 or so I started to expand, and my finances were so great that I was able to do that both in south and in west.

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Originally posted by Gekkibi:

- after the barracks event you get the mod's #2 heavy cavalry unit

You mean that 1 unit of Swan Knights you can recruit every 15 turns that'll by that time you can recruit it be so far away from the front you'll hardly use it?

You only need one per army stack. If more than 1-2 die per battle then you're not using them properly.

[Inardesco]

Holding it isn't the issue, it's the attrition next to the absurd lag you can get on Osgiliath battle map.

Mordor won't be much of a trouble. It;s mainly the spam from Harad/Enedwaith/Ar-Adunaim until and the insanely large empire you have. It takes up to 10 turns to move an army from one end to the other so you really have to commit an army to a certain front, unlike with a Dorwinion or a Rhun where you can easily move an army from one front to the other.

[Inardesco]

Originally posted by Gekkibi:

Originally posted by Inardesco:

You mean that 1 unit of Swan Knights you can recruit every 15 turns that'll by that time you can recruit it be so far away from the front you'll hardly use it?

You only need one per army stack. If more than 1-2 die per battle then you're not using them properly.

They're too slow for my liking anyway. I rather have quick cavalry than devestating cavalry.

[Gekkibi]

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Holding it isn't the issue, it's the attrition next to the absurd lag you can get on Osgiliath battle map.

I don't get any lag. The only problem I'm having is the mandatory coffee break I must take before all the reinforcement units are on the east side of the city.

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Mordor won't be much of a trouble. It;s mainly the spam from Harad/Enedwaith/Ar-Adunaim until and the insanely large empire you have. It takes up to 10 turns to move an army from one end to the other so you really have to commit an army to a certain front, unlike with a Dorwinion or a Rhun where you can easily move an army from one front to the other.

You have the finances to recruit an army in the west and recruit an army in the east.

Originally posted by Inardesco:

Originally posted by Gekkibi:

You only need one per army stack. If more than 1-2 die per battle then you're not using them properly.

They're too slow for my liking anyway. I rather have quick cavalry than devestating cavalry.

If that's your personal preference. Then you can use the fiefdom cavalry and the other Dol Amroth cavalry, so they still have access to reliable cavalry.
...Or just basic Gondor cavalry, because there's nothing wrong with it. It's just "okay", and that tells a lot about the Gondor's roster if the weakest link is only "okay".

[Inardesco]

The squires are nice, tad slow recruitment though but honestly, as Gondor your focus shouldnt be on cavalry. You have solid infantry and thats enough. You can counter everything the AI can throw at you with just infantry.

Cavalry helps with that but the Amrothian units are AoR and Gondors cav is just....subpar.

That said, I like playing the more infantry heavy factions than roflstomping with cavalry. Cuz I find myself getting more casualties the more cav I use instead of less.

[Gekkibi]

I guess the reason why some consider Gondor to be harder than what I consider it to be is simply because I prioritize on economy first (including mason buildings).

The hardest part is definitely the boredom when I have to do the-same-old defense battles every 2-3 turns. I'm on turn 115 and the steamroll started to do its thing after turn 70 or so. Western front is in Tharbad, southern front is in Umbar (well, more specifically only Khand is left...), and Mordor is still where it has been all these turns.

[Inardesco]

It all depends on how aggresive you get. AA can be taken out if you take Umbar. You can sail straight to Faen'o'bel if you like. Does it make the game fun? For some yes. Others maybe not.

I personally took a more defensive stance in my last campaign and got quite annoyed with AA constantly attacking Gobel Tolfalas. Morder often did nothing.

Enedwaith rolled over once Dunland and Bree got involved and Harad jusf crumbled when I looked at them a bit more serious.

Its just a matter of when you start expanding.