From Noob to Nerd - Full Invasion 2 Guide

This is a detailed guide which is about more or less everything there is to know to be good at Full Invasion 2, as an individual and as a group.
This is mainly focused on the LOTR faction but most tips can be used with the rest of FI2.

INTRODUCTION

This guide will suppose that you already read this guide -> https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php/topic,345313.0.html
which is pvp centered (and that i didn't write). It will give you the solid and necessary bases which you need if you want to progress. It's short and will teach you how to do the maximum damages possible to bots.
This guide aims to give you tips for FI2.
If you don't have time to read this guide at least read the golden rules.

It's centered on LOTR but most tips can be used with the rest of FI2, and some even against warband bots in general.
The main difference is that LOTR combined have the best variety of troop choices of all factions , and have stronger troops in general, so game with this faction will be easier than with most factions (except factions with automatic guns). Ah and there are big units a bit special, the trolls.
If you don't like LOTR especially you should just read from here to the end of HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTER AND GEAR, then from DEV WAVE to the end.


It's a bit "fat" but i received a lot of positive feedbacks, so I suppose it's good fat.

GOLDEN RULES (Rules 2,3,5 are for all FI2)

1 Don't use cades (barricades).
2 Don't stick to player's back, especially in shieldwall.
3 Don't hit a shieldman who is blocking. If he's looking at you, rather press block for 0.3 second then hit. (This works in all warband)
4 Archers must keep big trolls away from melee players.
5 Cavalry must be careful to not bump into each other.

Here is the explanations of the golden rules, if you want to know more, or else you can just jump to FOR BEGINNERS or ALL CLASSES GENERAL
-1 Don't use cades.
It may break the map (that means players will fall through it and bots will be stuck in the air), it will create lags and can crash the server. If it's not THE last hope they must be avoided (and are not needed most of the time anyway). If you use very few of them it's usually safe (like 4 maximum).
Some server allows it, on the LOTR server we don't, because it's not needed 99,9% of the time, because LOTR is easy, so we often go far, and when the map is broken after 2 hours of game because of not needed cades it logically do the equation cades = nazis.
-2 Don't stick to player's back, especially in shieldwall
Hits are blocked by bodies and textures, so if you stick to someone's back he can't do up attacks and you won't be able to hit enemies too because of his body. You can see that you're blocking someone's attack when he is stopped at the beginning of the animation swing. So try to hit between players if you can, or somewhere else, or switch to a ranged weapon, or wait to replace someone who is hurt, but never stick to someone's back.
-3 Don't hit a shieldman who is blocking. If he's looking at you, rather press block for 0.3 second then hit.
If the shieldman is looking at you and doesn't attack you, when you'll press block he'll try to attack you. But since he attacks you with a small delay, if you attack just after blocking, you'll hit him before. After you hit a shieldman he'll often stay in block position for a few seconds so you can repeat that until he dies.
Note: it works in a shieldwall, or with bots without shields on server in which bots know how to block in different directions.
-4 Archers must keep big trolls away from melee players
Trolls are the big fat ugly things, present in mordor and goblins factions. They do huge damages to melee.
In shieldwall they are hard to reach because they can hit from far (and will often stay far) so melee players will be destroyed by them while killing weaker bots closer to them.
When you see a melee player who have like 1 troll and 20 other kinds of bots, you must shoot the troll first. If he has a rather good character and is not too bad he can easily take care of the 20 bots. But with 20 bots and the troll here's what will usually happen, the troll will stay out of reach while spamming the player, doing huge damages and making him often fall, and in the meantime the poor player will only success to kill some normal bots until he dies.
Anyway I could tell you more situations but I hope you got my point, trolls are dangerous in groups and/or with other normal bots. So if you see that kind of group close to melee you need to help them or else melee will be tomato soup in seconds.
-5 Cavalry must be careful to not bump into each other
90% of the time cavalry dies of trying to charge too many bots at once and were blocked, or getting blocked by another cav then were swarmed by a lot of bots. So try to look all your screen before charging and to anticipate trajectory of other cav.

FOR BEGINNERS

FI2 is a survival cooperative mod where players aim to survive 53 waves of bots.
There are 4 kinds of waves :
-Normal waves : Normal bots, with more and tougher bots until the wave 53 (a normal wave too).
-Challenge wave : Specials, tougher and usually fewer bots
-Boss wave : Like challenge wave but with a boss
-Dev wave : Wave 52, 5 special insanely powerful bots which aims to force players to use teamwork to be beaten. Each developper created one bot that "represents" him or her in the game.

At the beginning you have to choose a troop and your outfit then click confirm.
Your health is in the right down corner of the screen, you can heal yourself at beds.
You can heal your horse at trough.
If you die, you lose your outfit and character but keep your money (which you win by hurting (200) and killing (1500) bots).
Every 3 waves there is a boss/challenge wave. You can respawn after these waves (and after dev wave too).
You can refill any ranged weapon in orange quivers.
You can change your troop/outfit with Escape then go to wardrobe and maintain F, be careful you'll lost what you had on you.
You can put items on the ground, for me it's G.
You can buy random weapons in weapon boxes, sometimes you will have a legendary, which is often a really good weapon. You will need to spend a lot of money in general though, about 100 to 300k.

Keep in mind that it's a cooperation mod. Read the chat, even if there sometimes are trolls or else (that you can mute), players often discuss a strategy to beat all 53 waves, especially for the hardest ones. Cooperation really matters a lot. You can beat devs at 5 players as you can lose at 30. Use P to talk, T isn't used in FI2.

Even if you're a monster in pvp, it will take some times to be really good in FI2, because FI2 have some particularity. For example you can forget to melee against crowds naked, furthermore armor works really good in this mod

ALL CLASSES GENERAL

F8 – Mini map
F6 – See the life of all enemies
Escape then click mute to mute a player
Escape then hover your items to see their stats
L to reset fps. Do it BEFORE the beginning of each wave if you have a potato (bad) pc. If you do it AT the beginning of a crowded wave and you have a potato pc you will crash.
The view outfit key (~ by default i think) – Use it to look around you without losing speed, useful while falling back.

Archers can't shoot you after about 1 second when you crouch (with Z)
They can't shoot you if you have a 2handed weapon, maintain left attack and look at the ground (though it's not as safe as crouching, you can still move. Use the view outfit key to look in front of you).
Throwers still can, but it will be harder for them
Don't hesitate to mix classes (when not in event) by spawning with a weapon/horse/shield/etc then go to wardrobe to change your class while putting your stuff on the ground. I'll give some good mix later.

INFANTRY GENERAL

All in the pvp guide.
Hit the head when you can it does more damages (it works for trolls and horsy too).
The golden rule 3 (maybe the most important of the tutorial for melee players, tell me if it's unclear).

=When to use which hit ?
-Thrust hits
Thrust are especially useful against cavalry, or when a bot isn't blocking and is coming at you.
When you do a thrust don't forget to go forward and don't be too close of the enemy (move with your hits, it's in the pvp guide).
Don't forget bots without shields always block down on lotr only and some FI2 servers.
-Side hits
Often useless in tight formations.
Side hits are useful when it's a bit messy and bots are spread everywhere (like at ground floor of Minas)
They are usefull in crowd too, to avoid being circled, example you see they begin to circle you from the left do left hits.
If you hit while aiming the head and using tips of the pvp guide, their is not a great difference of damages for Up and side hits
Faster to use than up hit, useful against enemies with fast melee weapon
-Up hits
Best hit to use in tight formations, or to hit a particular enemy

Miscellaneous
When a bot chamber block you i find that it's rather easy to counter chamber block him (if you don't know what's a chamber block is it's explained in the pvp guide)
Be careful bots are dumb but are strangely good for chamberblock, especially high level bots like bosses or devs
Don't fight until you die, when you're 1/3 health point begin to fall back. That seems logic but I see so many players do that that I prefer to write that here rather than in beginner's part.
Having a light shield at beginning then a tough one later on is a good idea, even as 2handed, if you failed to fall back and need help, or to replace a shieldman in a shieldwall, for throwers, etc.

ARCHER GENERAL

Golden rule 4, of course
Crouch when you don't move (cf all classes general)
Aim the head when you can, you need to aim a bit up the head to do headshots when a bot has a shield.
To hurt shieldbots, you can aim the head or the leggs. In general try to learn where are the limits of the shields, like some shields protect the leggs much more than the head (like dunlendings shields), some protect all the body (like devs shields) some protect a little part (like goblin's low level shields) etc...
Wether choose a good half melee/half archer build or go 100% archer and avoid melee in every instances.
I wouldn't recommend melee weapon with legolas ... he can outrun 99% of enemies and he's really weak in melee (low armor, poor power strike).
When you can take a horse, but if you do this be careful to don't block allies footmen, always keep your distance from their back.
You need to protect any footman in danger, especially low health infantry and newly dismounted cav.
+5 is the highest damage for arrows (fire arrows, numeronean arrows)
If you don't aim like a pro (like me) i recommend taking fire arrows it helps a lot, you can shoot from very far with that and still see where you shoot. And at least you know why you missed.
Keep in mind that if players hold a choke point, a non-hero thrower will kill more than an non-hero archer (and will usually be better than an archer in melee).

CAVALRY GENERAL

Golden rule 5
Use crouched lance with X! This could have been a golden rule
You can mount some staires (like in minas), by going backward, if you still can't try backward in diagonal
On open map you're the most important support for footman so try to help them when you can. If a troll follow a footman, it's the one you need to lure. A good way to lure bots is to ride over them, then staying not too far from them. A common mistake that i see is that cav often ride over them then go, but if you do this bots will still follow the footman so it's not enough help if there are too many bots. For example if there are a long line of bots following a footman you don't even need to ride over them you just need to ride close to the line then most of them will follow you.
Try to avoid charging big groups of bots that are draw by you, because they will try to hit you and if there is a polearm that can be your end.
On small zones it's a good idea that all cav turn in the same direction.
To be the most effective possible you can do normal hits while your crouch lance ability is "cooling"
It's a good idea to have at least 1 horse archer on most of map, like that if everyone is dead someone can still finish the wave with little risk.
When fighting high level bots melee cavarly should use crouched lance only, especially against devs, you take high risk by going close to them and you do about 10 times less damages with a sword.
Don't forget to heal your horse often

THROWERS GENERAL (thanks to Andre White)

The throwing is always lucky shoot but there are some help to shoot.
1) Try to aim large groups of people, you can hit someone easier.
2) Try to follow the launch when you are not an expert yet, this way you can adjust your aim.
3) When you are alone vs a group, try to hit the enemies without shields first, then you need to shoot the feet of the enemies with shields
4) If you are at 2-3 meters from enemies don't be afraid, you can always throw before they attacks you
5) When there is someone with a big shield in front of you (that cover all the body), jump when he is near you and shoot toward the ground, you can hit him in the head because he can't forecast this move
6) When you become an expert use the instictive launch like with a bow you don't need to think about the shoot or look where the stuff you threw go. It's important because your mind know already how to shoot if you think at it you lose the ability
7) If you are in a good team and you don't have much skill at melee, you can throw stuff while keeping distance with bots. When someone is low hp you're in a good position to cover him and kill the bots who follow him

ADVANCED MELEE

-To begin a very useful tip that i discovered not long ago, as i said a bit before some strong enemies are awfully good to do chamber blocks, i found a trick to counter that ! Instead of spamming attacks you just have to charge your attacks (maintain left) a bit longer, then hit, you will hit after he began his attack, so no chamber block for him ! And since you charged your attacks you'll do more damages so this is perfect to counter tough enemies.
-If a horseman is charging at you while blocking down, you can do a thrust in diagonal towards the ground, you'll bypass his block and will hurt the horse, hopefully kill it.
Note : The two tips above work in all warband !

-So what would be the best way to fight with melee ?
-You need to simultaneously think about several thing, don't worry if it seems really hard it becomes natural with practice (We'll take an example where you're alone with 20-30 bots that follow you)
- Be careful to don't be circled, a bot try to circle you from the left, do left hits until he's back in the line
-Know which enemys are to block, unless you're low armored you can let some bots hit you and instead you can kill him directly. Blunt weapons, polearms and bots that look tough (like with heavy armor) are in general the ones to block.
Note : For Isengard it's all bots
-So to resume, by default always hit, when you see that some bot that need to be blocked will hit you before you hit him : block, then if you have a shield in front of you press block to make it lower it then attack.
-If you begin to be circled you can charge a side hit, jump opposite side of bots, then let go your attack while turning, it works most of the time and saved me often.
-And to finish, i'll talk to "good players". If you die too much (more than 1 or 2 times for 53 waves, with LOTR combined) it can't be only because of other players. Except if it's intentionnal (troll) you have to anticipate their mistakes, for example when you're a cavalry, always look around to see if a cavalry won't get in your way. If you're a melee always keep an eye on the mini map and the other players (and your health !!), if they all begin to fall back at a hard wave you need to do the same, maybe you think they shouldn't but that's the best thing to do to stay alive. Then we play against IA, which mean that all they will do is predictible. Try to understand how they are programmed, to see how they react.
=Now how to handle 1 troll + a few bots
You have to block the troll then hit a bot, and repeat. Obviously you need a good armor to be able to not be stagger each time by the lesser bots.
=Now how to handle 2 trolls
Well same strategy (you block one then hit the other, you need a good timing)
You can try to turn around them while hitting, try to be the closest to them as possible. The method 1 is safer.
You can do both if you're brain can handle it. It may be what works the best, especially when alone, because you need to always turn around them and stick to them.
And to finish, using walls or textures in general can save you
=Then the art of fleeing
Sometimes you need to flee. And sadly you have to do it without cover, sometimes.
So for that the best thing is to be out of reach at first.
Else you need a heavy armor.
Ok so you need to kill the strong bots without killing the weak bots, then you can flee, if you have an armor good enough they won't stagger you so you'll begin to outrun them at some point.
Note that it's much easier to do in a turn, sometimes you don't even have to kill strong bots
-Some important mistakes to avoid:
Don't wait to be too low hp
Don't try this against Isengard if not sauron
Avoid to be in this situation. If you see that you can't fight a group that follow you, it's always better to run before being close to them, then fight them when they are split or you have help.

THE ART OF THE CHOKE POINT

Why a special part for choke points ? Because it's sometimes the only solution to survive all waves. (depends of map)
=What makes a choke point good ?
It needs to be tighest possible (very important), and against mordor and goblins a low roof helps.
Having walls on each side (tall enough to block side hits).
Being up stairs
Only one entrance, or an other tight entrance maximum
Some space behind it for pikes, throwers and archers.
Having beds available behind.
Note : All characteristics aren't needed, they just makes the chokepoint better. The only necessary point is tight.
In general, you always need more melee than the number of spot to make a full shieldwall.
While waiting backup can use bow/throwing weapons, or hit beetween the shieldwall with huge weapons, if their is room for it
=The art of holding a choke point
The most important thing is to not let the bots pass.
So if you see that bots begin to come DON T FLEE but THROW YOUR BODY IN IT.
Honestly this can save the entire game. Still it's better to do it with a shield, or high armor and blocking up.
That's why a tight spot is important, because it needs less people to be hold ...
Sometimes it helps to let the bots come just a bit if there are a lot of melee, like that bots will be spammed and won't be able to hit so it's perfect.
Throwers can go behind (but not too close) the shield wall, they can do a lot of headshots here. It's really good when i join late and have a weak build i can often have 100k in about 6 waves when i do that. You will kill more than normal archers.
Archers are needed to keep trolls away, throwers can do it too; always aim the head, of course.
And to finish if beds are behind you can replace each others, and honestly with a good team you could hold infinite waves with that method.

To see a really good guide on how to do the best shieldwall possible in general (not specific to LOTR), it's here : http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=772158456

HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR CHARACTER AND GEAR

Hp = life (lel)
Strenght = you need at least 20 strenght to use sauron's mace
Proeficiency = Use weapon faster and with more damages
Power draw = you need at least 7 draw to use legolas bow.
Power throw = you need at least 5 throwing skills to use gimli axes
For the rest of what each skill does, EVERYTHING is explained here http://mountandblade.wikia.com/wiki/Skills
Part of being a good player is, after the skill through hours of your life wasting on the game, the smart choice of your equipement. You can't do a massacre with low gear and high skill, especially not in FI2. When you know how to spot the best weapon, you'll always have an advantage, in any mod, solo or multiplayer. Anyway, that's why you should learn what the skills do, the weapon type stats etc
For damage type "b" damages type is better than "p", which is better than "c", cf pvp guide.
Try to always take the best armor possible, not only for less damages, but for less stagger !

==SOME GOOD MIX OF CLASSES

Some normal classes are good as is, but the best classes are often mixed class (this is true for all FI2)
As i said before you can spawn with some weapon/shield/horse, then edit your outfit (escape), go to a wardrobe, put your stuff on the ground and buy a stronger character.
So I searched a lot in LOTR combined and i selected what i personnally think are the best mix of classes.
Of course take always best armor if you think you'll melee.
If you don't have enough money you can still spawn naked with a weapon and kill a few bots. If you're not good in melee take a bow or some throwing weapons (by good i mean if you think you will be able to avoid/block all hits from a few bots).

=NORMAL

=Pure thrower (no melee at all)
-Dunlending : 4 Numenorean jarids (Numenorean Warrior) OR 4 Rohan Throwing Axes (Rider of Rohan)
(So for example here, you spawn with the throwing weapons, then you put them on the ground and buy Dunlending)
Fast and throws hard, useful for shoot and run
=2handed/thrower
-Dwarven Warrior : Great axe OR High Numenor Great Scord OR Rhun Great axe (Soldier of Rhun) + 3 Numenorean jarids OR 3 Rohan Throwing Axes
Perfect for shieldwall if there is too many player at chokepoint you can be a thrower, then switch to melee if the shieldwall need you
=2handed
-Berseker (faster) OR Dwarven Warrior (more armor, slow) : Great axe OR High Numenor Great Sword OR Rhun Great axe
Dwarven Warrior is more polyvalent and has more armor, but he's so slow that you won't be able to outrun some enemies. So on map where players kill the bots while falling back, bersekers are often a better choice. Honestly if you take Dwarven warrior, you should take throwing weapons and/or shields.
=1handed+shield+ throw / 1handed + shields
-Dwarven Warrior : Dwarven Shield + War Pick OR Rivendell longsword (Noldorin Elf) + 2 Numenorean jarids OR 2 Rohan Throwing Axes
The 1handed dwarf axe could work too but this ones seemed to have better stats for me
You can do a tank with the same but 2 shields instead of throwing weapons
=Pure archer
-Ithilian ranger : Eagle guard bow (Haradrim Warrior) + 3 fire arrows
=Archer/Melee
-Silvian Elf : Great axe OR High Numenor Great Sword OR Rhun Great axe + Eagle guard bow + 2 fire arrows
=Horse archer
-Silvian Elf : Hollow Steel Bow (Numenorean Warrior) + 2 fire arrows +High Numenor Great Sword OR an other fire arrows + Lorien War Horse
=Horse 2handed
-Noldorin Elf : High Numenor Great Sword + Lorien War Horse
You may want a Rohan Glory Lance to do crouch lance when needed, example for trolls, devs etc.
=Horse lancer
If you wants to use a shield while dismounted
-Knight of Gondor : Dol Amroth Knight Sword OR Rivendell longsword + Rohan Glory Lance + 2 shields + Lorien War Horse
Then 2handed version
- Noldorin Elf : High Numenor Great Sword + Rohan Glory Lance + 1 shield + Lorien War Horse

Note 1 : the High Numenor Great Sword isn't the more expensive, there must have been a mistake. The one just before the more expensive is better.
Note 2 : For devs a Gondor shield works better to stop the arrows of the archer ( so it's best if you're cav)
Note 3 : If you know how to block in different directions a 2handed sword would often be better than a 1handed one


Some may actually become a bit crazy because their isn't their favorite class but keep in mind that this is a personnal classement. I just can assure you that none of this class are bad, since i made at least a few hundreds of kills by game with each of them, which i couldn't do with a bad class.
Some exceptions :
-1handed + shields : based on stats and a quick test, seemed to work well
-Horse 2handed : Same it didn't seem quite effective, but i think it's more that goblins are a bit harder to hit like that, or lack of training, i am waiting for the answer of a good player who often uses this class.

=HEROES (expensive)

-Gimli : His Great axe + 3 Numenorean jarids OR 3 Rohan Throwing Axes
-150k Legolas : Mordor Horse (75k Nazgul) + his bow (150k) + 3 fire arrows (can be used for devs)
-Sauron : 3 Dwarf shields (Shields are for devs)
And the more expensive to finish
-100k Nazgul : His sword + gandalf staff (115k)
Like that you're good in melee and have a great range weapon

-100k Nazgul : Gandalf's horse + Rohan Glory lance + gandalf staff + Witchking sword + Gondor shield
You may want a Lorien War Horse for devs instead.
To use gandalf staff on horse you can dismount, press X, then mount, then X again.
The lance is for devs only.
If low in money normal nazgul is great too
For devs you may want to use a blunt weapon as nazgul, like the huge hammer in boxes or the 2handed one of Haradrims

==NORMAL WAVES

There are 3 enemies factions in the LOTR part of FI2, Isengard, Mordor and Goblins.

=ISENGARD

They are composed of a lot of sword + shield and 2handed, pikes, a bit of archers, crossbow, dunlending and small bots (moria orcs?). Problem is almost all kick ass so isengard is way harder than the 2 other factions.
But hold a choke point works great since there are no trolls (and is needed on most maps)
Sometimes, if you hold a choke point with too many melee, it's a good idea to let the enemies come a bit to make the choke point wider
Using melee cavalry is hard because of their huuuuge pikes (320 reach)
Horse archers can make them turn while the melee fight them in group (they have big heads so it's easy to shoot it up the shield)
Their shields are tough it's hard to crush through blocks
Careful to crossbows aimbot, and pikes that magically hit through other bots
Saurons are much better than nazguls against them, they are less stagger by those awfull pikes.
Crush through blocks works less than other factions, except with sauron but ... it's sauron.

=Strategy by map
-On Minas Tirith
A few good melee (good means good, not meh) with nazgul/sauron and a lot of archers/horse archers to cover them while you all fall back to the top fighting
Else everyone with ranged weapons works well too, but it's a bit longer
-On Hornumburg
The choke point in front of the gate of the keep, on inner wall, can be held by a few melee. All archers can go behind the choke point. Well that's all with just a few melee you can hold until wave 50. You'll need more than a few melee for last waves though, or a few saurons.
-On Battle of Pelennor Fields
Not the best since a lot of people will take melee cavalry and die fast at high waves, that's why you need to be smarter and take horse archer, if you want a horse. You can't predict those pikes, since they have a huge range they can be lure by someone else then suddenly turn in your direction and stop your horse like a ninja.
So on Pelennor fields horse archers, and some saurons/nazguls that fight side by side to kill groups works very well.
-On Battle of Edhellond
There is a good place to hold on this map, it's in the tower up the entrance where all the enemies pass. If nobody bring them by the left (while looking the exterior part) all enemies will come by default by the right, it's a place that can be held by 3 melee. There is place for archers up the stairs. And if a troll or a noob take them to left side you just need 3 other melee, so i think it's the best spot.
But people will often prefer the stairs which are a bit bugged but with the huge pikes of isengard you can't really defend this point, as melee.
In all cases it's better to stay at tower for hardest waves.
Note : Seems that bots have a problem to come, so stairs may be alright until hardest waves, don't fall back when you're already in the ♥♥♥♥ though it will be too late
-On Minas Morgul
Well to begin this map isn't really good, because :
_There are no beds at where the cavalry have to make turn the enemies to avoid getting swarmed
_There are invisible walls that may kill you if you get block between it and enemies at the wrong time
_It's so dark ! I always have to raise the luminosity of my screen to see distinguish the black bots and the map
But it's a good map to train melee skills
Well i think the most important thing is to have always at least a horse archer where the enemies spawn when they spawn, like that other players won't get swarmed. After we can have a line of archers behind a line of melee who take enemies by little groups and it's done
-On Rivendell
A good place to hold is the staires next to main gate, left or right. It can be hold by a few melee, but no beds in the back. After most of the time if this map is win it's with glitchs...
-On Siege of Dale
A good spot is the tower in front of spawn, a floor up for archers and throwers, tight entrances (2) and usually bots come only by one entrance, so it's really easy to hold
=Mordor
They are rather easy, trolls are hard but other bots are rather weak, and one with nazgul can handle 30/40 of them in line, so the biggest danger are the trolls
So wether you find a tight spot where trolls can't hit too (best)
Wether ranged players must keep them away from the shieldwall
Lancer are op against all bots as well

=GOBLINS AND MORDOR

I'll write only the differences with ISENGARD here, the main explanation of strategy is in ISENGARD
_The big difference is that their are trolls and other bots are weaker (... than Isengard ones. You follow ?)
_Melee cav works better
_Crush through blocks weapons and axes are much more useful because they have weaker shields
_Choke points with low roof are much better, else you need archers to keep them away

=Goblins vs Mordor
_Goblins seems to have more shields, mordor more diversity
_Shields of goblins are oranges, the ones of mordor are blacks
_Goblins have more blunt weapons
_Else the main difference is in their special waves
_They can be beaten with the same strategys


=Strategy by map
-On Minas Tirith
Same as Isengard but you can do it with a few archers and most people melee
-On Hornumburg
Same but you need more archers to keep the trolls away from choke point
-On Battle of Pelennor Fields
With these factions melee cavs works, else it's the same. Note this map doesn't have a low roof so it will be harder for trolls wave
-On Battle of Edhellond
Same but stairs works better
-On Minas Morgul
With these factions melee cavs works, else it's the same. Note this map doesn't have a low roof so it will be harder for trolls waves
-On Rivendell
Same but the shieldwall may need to be held a bit in the back on the wall, to let archers have time to kill the trolls. Note that you should held the shield wall next to a pillar
-On Siege of Dale
Same and it works even better since trolls can't hit you

ISENGARD CHALLENGE/BOSS WAVES

Hard ones are, well all high waves and pikes
Wave 3 (Uruk-Hai veteran raider)
Weak Sword + shield
Wave 6 (Elite Uruk-Hai tracker)
Archers
Wave 9 (White hand Rider)
Horse archer
Wave 12 (Isengard orc)
Mix of melee weapons
Wave 15 (Fighting Uruk-hai Brute)
Sword + shield
Wave 18 (untamed wargs)
Wave 21
pikes
Wave 24
Dunlendings
They can be hard if the map is Minas and there are archers only, so you need to aim their head because their legs are fully protected (the textures are bugged ?), aim a bit up the head.
Wave 27
crossbow
Wave 30
Crossbow
Wave 33
unarmored bersekers
Wave 36
pikes
Wave 39
Sword + shield
Wave 42
sword + shield
Wave 45
armored bersekers
Wave 48
armored bersekers (tougher)
Wave 51
Wave 52
see DEVWAVE

MORDOR CHALLENGE/BOSS WAVES

Hard waves are 6, 27, (36), (45), 48, 51
Wave 3
Well nothing special, careful if you fight naked
Wave 6
Uruk brute
Fight in group or crouched lance, often hard because people are not yet warm
Wave 9
Nazgul on horse
You can one hit the nazgul with a crouched lance
Else a good 2handed can take one or 2 nazgul alone
Fighting in close group as melee help
Cav support is of course of great help
Note that they are always 9, so it's easy at 30 players and really hard at 3
Wave 12
Elite orc archers
Wave 15 mid
Goblins moria + balrog
To kill the balrog, the best strategy is to block him in a corner or under a low roof
Make him come against a wall at your left he can't hit you because his sword will be blocked in textures, then when close to the corner go behind him and hit him until he's in the corner.
On a map without corners and low roof (rare) crouched lance when he's not lure by you
Wave 18
Olog-hai of Mordor (or unarmored trolls)
Same as balrog, avoid big groups, cav works well, infantry can kill them fast but they must be as numbered as the trolls
If there is a low roof they can't hit you, you better try a new spot with only one troll first, because some roofs seem low enough but they arn't
Wave 21
Elite Moranon Orc (It's rather good sword + shield and a boss on a warg)
Well they should not be a problem for not too bad infantry, avoid being circled and it should be good
Wave 24
Armored trolls
Same as wave 18
Wave 27
Black Numenorean
This wave kick ass so much for a rather low one that it's a good way to see if you'll make it to devs. So there are mostly 2 handed guy, then a bit of spears, shields, and cavalry with lance.
Since little shields ranged weapons are efficient against them. Cavalry need to lure them and or/ melee need to fight side by side, with ranged to cover their retreat.
Wave 30
Easterling
Wave 33
spiders
You have to hit them perpendicular to the head or the ass, with lateral hits
You'll hear a different sound and see blood when your hit success
For archers you need to aim same zones
Wave 36
Khand/variag
Big polarms some throwers a bit of cavalry
They are hard for infantry, the best is to fight side by side
Wave 39
archers + mumakill
Don't be afraid of the mumakill, it's meh. Sometimes hit hard though, so meh if you have are a well armored infantry
Cav must be careful because muma can one shot your horse, as I said it's a bit random, so try to charge from sides, never front.
Wave 42
Corsairs
A feast for good melee
Wave 45
Nazguls on dragons
The best is to go on stairs or hill, avoid flat zone, and try to split them
Or crouched lance, aim up it's really useful against them, you can 2 shot them like that if i remember correctly, you need to charge front while they are coming at you for a maximum damage output
Wave 48
Ghosts
Best is to have a tight spot, and inf can fight them side by side, or cav can make them turn and infrantry kill them by little group
Wave 51 hard
Sauron and heavy sword + shield
Careful to sauron, even with strong weapon you can hit him without staggering him so 2 strategy
Wether a lot of crouched lance
Or corner him, an infantry needs to spam kick him and the others kill him without problem
Wave 52 see DEV WAVE

GOBLINS CHALLENGE/BOSS WAVES

Hard ones are 36,42,51
Wave 3 (Goblin footman)
"sword" + shield
Wave 6 (Goblins scout)
throwers with spear + shield
Wave 9 (Troll tamer)
Spears
Wave 12 (Goat rider)
Goat, spear+shield
Wave 15(Goblin Spearman)
Spears
Wave 18 (wolf rider)
Wolf, spear+shield
Wave 21
Crossbows
Wave 24
spiders, spear+shield
Wave 27
A little bit more strong goat riders with sword, no shields, except boss
Note boss goat is a strong one, it has about 500hp, good "horse" for pure archers
Wave 30
spiders
You have to hit them perpendicular to the head or the ass, with lateral hits
For archers you need to aim same zones
Wave 33
spears + boss thrower and sword + shield
Wave 36 (mephisto) First Absurdly op wave
Archers with AWFULLY OP hammers, they are deadly in melee, hit really fast and with good damages. They stagger for a long time and will make you fall rather often. Best way to kill them someone with good shields and 2handed guys in the back (each side), a lot of ranges, or split them. Most important don"t fight them alone you can be spam without being able to do nothing at all by only 2 of them, even as sauron
Wave 39
A bit like 36 but i think it's one handed axes, they are weaker than last challenge wave bots though
i think that's when there is the armored troll too, he crushs through blocks more often than normal trolls
Wave 42
2handed Big fat axes, all tips are the same than 36 but shields will break much fasters
And honestly this wave is awfull, so you need good teamwork, if you hold a choke point you need a lot of melee to relay, a cav can really help too
Wave 45
Lances (or spears ?)
If you did 42 you can't lose at this one
Wave 48
Throwers
Even easier, the joke wave
Wave 51
Sword + shield and boss, they are really fast (faster than footmen) and hit fast and hard, so it's a good idea to use cav or a chokepoint, if you fight them on open ground they will circle you because of there high speed.
Wave 52
see DEVWAVE

DEVS WAVE

Ok so devs need often a different strategy, and good teamwork.
=In general
Two things to do first:
1 Dismount cav guy
2 Lure away the archer if you're a cavalry, crouch if you're a footman to avoid arrows + bullets
A horse archer can be useful to make the devs turn without risk
Split Split Split them they are really strong in group only, and if you hit one of the dev with your lance an other won't be stagger, and thus you'll take much more risk for nothing
Careful to the archer he can one shot unarmored horse and most of things in general, but if you always turn around him and never go in straight line toward him you can make him waste his ammoes
Devs outrun all footmen

=In general cav will die at dev wave because :
-They bump into each other
-They miss their hit and get hit
-They charge 2 devs at once, who aren't split, and get kill by an other dev
-They bump in a wall
-They are shoot by the archer (that's why you need to lure him/ kill him fast)
If you're careful about that as cav you should die far less frequently

=On flat map + corners (example pelennor fields, hornumburg, minas-last floor)
-1 Cavalry only with crouched lance works well (On pelennor fields it's the best because it's a huge flat map)
-2 Cavalry and a little group of infantry with saurons/nazguls, that kill the devs one by one (80% cavalry, 20% infantry)
For this second strategy we need 3 groups
Group 1 (all cavs except one) must make the devs turn, while hurting them, or not if just a little group of cav
Group 2 (one cav) need to bring the devs one by one to infantry
Group 3 a small group of infantry (even 2 is good if it's sauron/nazgul) kill the devs one by one, if you can begin by the archer or the cav guy, they are the biggest threat for cavalry

Note : that in theory devs could be killed by only 4 players (1/1/2) so when we lose against dev at 15 that means that we did ♥♥♥♥ somewhere

Note 2 : Strategy one is longer, and thus strategy two is clearly safer, it just needs a bit more teamwork
And "rarely" done, but you can do groups of 2 in different part of the map then a cav bring one dev to each group, honestly this works really great.
+ with a cavalry even if you never fail your crouched lance (hard to do because sometimes they do ninja moves) sometimes devs chamber block your crouched lance ! (see pvp guide).

Note 3 : To be in group 3 you need to be good in melee AND know how the devs react. They are better scripted than the other bots, they will chamber block very often, will often avoid corners, can have unpredictable moves, are faster and much tougher than you, so i recommand to have at least one veteran by group, who will attract the attention of the dev most of the time.
Why ? Dietary The Meek (thanks to him) told me that i wasn't clear enough, and just yestarday, there were 2 devs on group 3, we were 6, i got a dev alone (see below) and the 5 other players got destroyed by the other dev, only one survived and finally cornered him. So to resume, of course that this group needs at least 1 veteran to put the dev in a corner.
In general in all this guide, when i say good that means really good, not good enough. But we all have our own scale. Like when i said a good melee can handle 20-30 bots, or 2 nazguls at once, it's really good too.

=On map without big flat zone (example rivendell)
On this map a cav can still try to split the devs (it helps a lot) while the rest of players can be infantry and try to beat devs in a tight spot though it's better to try to split them and form group of 2 and corner the devs in different place.
If one dev is alone let it pass the spot then kill him while the others keep the tight spot ! It's still one less to worry. If you're sauron you can take care of him alone, see below

Maybe you noticed that i didn't speak of archers, well except if you're legolas and aim for the head archers are useless, because devs have high armor and thus you do almost no damages, and 2 devs have tough shields that cover absolutly all their body. If you still want to help your team and is bad in melee then horse archer is a good choice. It's not bad in this case because you can do a lot of headshot without dying, and while keeping one for yourself, so it sure is a great help for the team.

Good dev weapons are cav sword+shield, ice cream+oreo and the bow of the archer

And btw
Cav = Maroon
Ice cream + oreo = Ashley
Archer = borridean
2handed guy = tak
And gunner = navy

A TINY CLAN PART

I'm an admin on the LOTR server and a Drill sergeant of the clan's server. We do events every Saturdays at 22/23h GMT on the LOTR only event server (who is only open to non clan members for events).
I do training sessions every sunday around 16 hours GMT for those who wants.

WHY DID I WROTE THIS GUIDE ?

In fact i didn't write the guide for the clan, I want to help people, especially new players, to get better. A lot of new players come and go, with often no knowledge because there are really few infos on how to be good at this mod easily available (that means the indexing of the steam guides is ♥♥♥♥).
Furthermore a too big part of regular players don't play as a team.
So if you want to have better teammates, tell people to read a guide please, especially beginners. This one, the others, it doesn't matter. The one focused on how to do a good shieldwall (the ultimate trick to doing well in Full Invasion 2) is really good. So yeah, if you found it helpful, spread the word. And don't hesitate to push other players to do teamwork for hardest waves, because teamwork is contagious.

CONCLUSION

Ok i think it's done, well thanks to have read it, i hope that you learnt a lot of new tips
Don't forget to read the chat and play as a team
If you see someone with a huge amount of kills and a few death, that could be a good idea to stay in spectator and watch him play a bit (that's how i learn the most i think. This and trying new things)
If anything is unclear, seems wrong i would be pleased to exchange
If you're a good player and think something need to be added/modificated you can tell me this on the discord ,in game on the LOTR only server if i'm here, or in the comments.

[RoA]Drill_Sgt_MrOeleo

[Jellysy]

@polliy no, it's for minecraft

[nekro]

Is this for Warband?

[Sudo Modding]

Read "For Beginners" i explained it in this part

[nekro]

What is Full Invasion?

[Sudo Modding]

You don't need to read all it's half guide half wiki there is few info on this mod so i tried to write a lot

[Rami]

Anyone know if you can mod your rider to look like theoden?