Third Age Total War -

A guide for Rohan

Introduction

Hello community! Rohan is one of my favorite factions in Third Age Total war and I am quite experienced with it. This guide has been made to give you a pointer on how to start your campaign out against the evil forces of Isengard. I have played the Rohan campaign a couple of times before and all of the times I have beaten Isengard even though their spearmen is like fire in the dry weed that is my cavalry. I intend to show you what most people playing as Rohan does, which may cost them their kingdom. I can make a more elaborated guide if you wish me to do so and I will find the time to do it. Now, lets begin!

Part 1

What you see infront of you now, is your kingdom. It is a mighty realm with several strong cities, the most powerful of them all Helms Deep and Edoras. You start with several generals, including both King Thengel and Lord Theoden. They are the generals you will be using most of the time because of their ability to win nearly all battles. If you have ever played Rohan, you must know that you will sometimes have your economy drop drastically. This very reason is caused by too much focus on war and creating huge armies. It can work to blitz Isengard in the beginning of your campaign, but remember that you must NOT only have your armies consist of cavalry only. At turn one you must choose one of three ways for Rohan. The first option is to go all in for recruiting units, making your kingdom a military powerhouse, though remember that it can cause your economy to be crippled. The second option is to make your kingdom insanely rich, thus enabling you to defeat the mighties of enemies, but beware! If you only construct economical buildings your plan might backfire because Isengard will take advantage of your lack of military. That is why you must always have an army ready to face the enemy. The third option, which is also my favorite, is to mix option one and two. In Edoras and Hornburg I construct a barracks because you can`t have your armies consisting only of cavalry. Rohan has an underrated infantry roster. They are quite powerful if you wield them correctly. In Entwade and Woldberg I begin the construction of roads. Giving you more tradeable goods as well as a faster way between your cities.


I start by moving my units towards the west where Isengard will without doubt soon invade you. Raise the taxes in Edoras because it is already a huge city and will not grow fast enough to reach the next level. If you want to raise taxes in the other cities then you can do so if you wish, but some of them actually have a chance of upgrading to the next level within 50 - 60 turns. Send your spy to Isengard and end turn! Turn 2 is up. Move King Thengel and Lord Theoden`s army towards Gineard where they will combine their forces with the ones already garrisoned in the village. You will only have about 2300 if you did what I did, so I suggest you construct a Bowyer in Aldburg. It is your safest city and home to more than 2600 inhabitants. Rohan does not start its campaign with a diplomat and if you wish to maintain a stabile economy you must establish trade agreements, even sometimes with your enemies. Send out your general from Gineard and have him make watchtowers in the west. End the turn and proceed. Move Theodens army further towards Gineard and send your army from Helms Deep to Foldburg to support your frontline. There is not much more to do this turn so end the turn again and you should now be on turn 4.

Part 2

Now, this turn I am going to give you an important tip. Your dirt roads should be finished next turn, so before you end your turn, raise the taxes in those cities to very high. By doing this your general can earn traits such as Trader, Skilled Bureaucrats, Architect and Taxmen. This can increase your income drastically. Remember that you do not get it every time. Dont raise the taxes if you only have 1 unit/general there, because then they might riot and you will end up with nothing but dead citizens and we certainly dont want that! Move your diplomat and Theoden as well. Recruit a couple of units if you feel like its needed, and do so in your frontline cities. You also have enough money to construct a landclearance in Foldburg. Its the city closes to Isengard and if both of you have better roads constructed, you can actually reach Isengard in one turn, or if one of your generals have improved movement points. End turn!

I assume one of your generals received one of the traits mention above? if so then good job! If not then its always another time. It is turn 5 and time to become offensive. Your frontline should look something like on the screenshots below. Send Theoden and his army towards the west and try to seize the Isengard city. You must also begin mustering men in the east by Woldberg. Theodred, the governor, is a decent general and can potentially become incredibly valuable if you play your cards right. Start recruiting men there and also one Eorling Axemen unit in Helms deep just in case Isengard closes up on you. Besides, it takes 17 turns before you can recruit a unit such as that again so you might as well recruit it now and let the recruitment timer start. In the east, once you have recruited enough men, leave for the north. There lies a city near the Anduin and if you capture it I believe you can earn quite a bit on trading with Caras Galadhon, an Elven city a bit further north. End the turn and do what I previously said. Recruit more units in the east, a spy in Edoras and move Theoden towards Enedwaith.



This is my favorite turn because not only can Theoden and his army reach Isengard`s city, your barracks in Helms Deep and Edoras has been finished! It has given you the oppertunity to create some of the best infantry units Rohan has to offer. Dont go on a recruiting spree now! It will completely cripple your economy at this point in the campaign. You will also need some cash to construct mines in Aldburg later on.

Next turn you will be able to attack Talsir with Theoden. Either autoresolve or play the battle. I suggest you play it so that you may get an idea on how to fight against Isengard`s armies. Now that you have won, construct the standing stones. These will increase your culture in Talsir and enable you to leave the city with only 1 unit instead of having to use a large garrison to hold the public order under control. Move Theoden`s men north and build watchtowers at the borders when you get further towards Isengard`s northern cities. By now, your army in Woldberg should be sieging the city north by the Anduin. It is called Tirith Anduin. Recruit some more units, or if you feel like it is not needed, simply establish diplomacy with Eriador and end the turn.



If Theoden`s army is below half a stack I suggest you retreat to Talsir and wait for reinforcements from Helms Deep. Once reinforcements has arrived. Move your men to siege Duneard. Remember that you want to be the defender. If you siege a city and an external army attacks you, you will have an enormous advantage because many times you have the highground. Since Rohan uses so much cavalry you must spend them all in a wise way. Dont just mass charge the enemies. Rather make a circle around the enemy as they close in on you. Once you take Duneard, Isengard will fall pretty quickly. You will now be earning approximately 11 000 a turn. Remember to send half a stack to Fangorn and capture the city. Once again I must say, construct standing stones! You want the city to be 100% Northmen culture! Im not sure that you should capture the wooden castle west of Tirith Anduin and north of Fangorn, as then OOTMM will border you and without doubt declare war to you.

Now you should have quite a powerful kingdom already. Now the only cities which remain in Isengard is N/S Tharbad, Byrig and Isengard it self. Eriador will most likely have attacked Isengard from the north by now so that should relieve you of some pressure. Well now that you make a lot of money I can suggest you either build military or economical buildings all over your kingdom, or simply recruit all the elite units in Helms Deep and Edoras and go for the grand prize which is Isengard! Once Isengard falls you have the whole Middle Earth in front of you. I shall not show you how to do more, because after all, I just want to give you a pointer. The kingdom is yours to forge!

Additional Tips

Additional Tips:

- Remember to have your capital in the center of your empire, it can increase your income and can potentially improve the public order as it shortens the distance to the capital.

- Build Army Barracks in your largest cities. Rohan can only recruit cavalry and spear militia in the beginning of the game. You can survive with it for about 10 turns, but after that, you MUST be able to recruit heavy infantry.

- Recruit lots of spies. They can be used to open enemy gates, allowing you to make a direct attack on a settlement. Having spies also lets you know if another enemy is approaching you.

- You can gain some extra money by demanding money for your map information. Insignificant amount you say? Ask for money every 5 turn and you have gained thousands...

- Sometime blitzing the enemy can be extremely helpful. The enemy is often willing to make peace if you take 2 or more settlements in one turn. Be aware of that this does not work all the time. The AI knows which one of you has the largest military and will take that into account.

- When in battles, remember to use your generals! The great thing about them is that they replenish by themselves and in addition to that, when you use your generals to charge in the battles, they often receive a lot of traits. Just take a look on the picture below, which was from only a single battle!


- Dont adopt generals if they have less than 3+ command. The only exception is if they chivalry and loyalty is high. Crappy generals dont do anything other then cost you money because of the upkeep.

- When using your cavalry superiority over Isengard, remember not do charge with everyone at the same place and time. You must attempt to make a circle around the enemies and once they charge your lines, ram them with your cavalry fromm all sides. It often makes them flee and can give you heroic victories such as this:

Units

Archers:

I use almost only Eorling Archers as I believe them to be the best regarding effectiveness/cost ratio. They are pretty cheap and have a quite decent defence rate. You MUST have archers in your armies when playing as Rohan because of Isengard`s armies consist mostly of spearmen. That is why you need archers! Atleast have 4 units of archers in one army. Target the heaviest spearmen and let your other divisions in your army take care of the infantry. If you really want to use the Helmingas then do so! They are pretty decent in addition to having a great defence rate. This is why you should have a mixture of both Eorling Archers as well as Helmingas, giving a good balance of cost and effectiveness. I simply decide not to recruit a lot of them because I would rather have 4-5 Eorling Archers rather then 2-3 Helmingas. Look on the picture below for more information regarding their attack, charge and defence stats.



Infantry:

Despite what several people think, Rohan has a varied infantry roster. They have some excellent units. You will rely on Eorling Militia for a long time, unless you like me construct a barracks immediately. You can survive with the Eorling Militia for about 10 - 15 turns, but after that heavy infantry is essential if you are to win against Isengard`s heavily armored uruk-hais. Once you have constructed the barracks you can recruit a lot of fantastic troops. The first heavy infantry unit you will recruit the most in the beginning of your campaign will most likely be the Riddermark Axemen and you should! These units are strangely recruitable in the early era even though their skill fits in the middle era! They are powerful infantry-units and surprisingly one of the cheapest units. Their recruitmentrate in your cities is also quite fast, enabling you to recruit several of them, but you must not only use these units! By creating a barracks you do not only receive better units, you also receive MORE units. If you are in need of troops quickly, having a small unit roster in your city can mean the difference between a loss and a victory. If you have a barracks you can recruit lots of units quickly. My favorite are the Eorling Swordsmen. They dont cost much for an elite infantry unit and they also have a great defence rate which is essential when fighting Isengard. They must be able to hold off the Isengard infantry for a long enough time for your cavalry to surround them. The Riddermark Axemen are also really effective. but I like to have an army with various units. The lancers are the units I use the least. The reason why I sometime recruit them is because in Third Age Total war, it takes ages before you can recruit another unit of the same kind so it is great to be able to recruit elite units if you are in need of them. I also sometimes recruit the Dismounted Royal Guards, because they look amazing and to be honest are crazy good. They are great against both cavalry and infantry at the same time as they can resist archers. They also fight until they are dead sometimes, which makes the battles feel more epic. Anyways, look on the picture below if you wish to see more information regarding the infantry units:



Cavalry:

Well I guess this is what most of you have been waiting for, the cavalry of Rohan. The cavalry roster is just amazing. If you look on the picture below you can see how many sorts of units they have. The scouts and the Rohan Riders are the cavalry units you will use in the beginning of your campaign, because those are the units which you begin with. Do not let the heavy cavalry go to waste! My favorite mixture of cavalry units are the one which includes both Armored Heavy Lancers and the Armored Horsearchers. They work perfectly together. By placing the cavalry horsearchers in front of the lancers, you can inflict a lot of casualties if you attack at the right moment. As soon as the enemy is about to charge your horsearchers, charge them with your lancers. The reason why you can then inflict so much casualties is because once the enemy units come close to your archers, they have locked their attacks on the horsearchers and by hitting them with the lancers it would be as if they were ambushed. It works great. Repeat and do the same and I promise you that there will be few casualties on your side and plenty of casualties on the enemy side. I do not recommend recruiting the other cavalry units because of two reasons. One, the ones furthest to the right are extremely expensive and their upkeep will kill your economy and second, they all have about the same skill. I still think you should try to recruit some of these different cavalry units, because some of you might think they are better then I give them credit for.

[daniel.booth1234]

On your first couple pictures you can see how your cities are doing without putting your mouse on them how can i do that it worked once now its gone

[Inardesco]

Great guide, however you forget one tiny teeny bit that can really change the status quo quickly (though temporarily!) and that is Fangorn.

I've used the Ent Reinforcements in order to take conquer Moria (only using General's bodyguard and Ent unit). I used Ent's for taking out the Balrog! One Ent unit can take out an entire stack worth of enemies without much trouble. Now imagine that ent unit to be backed up by an army! They have saved me from plenty of Invasions already because no unit (I haven't tested them against Sauron yet) seem to be resistant against them.

[Paur0]

awsome mod!

[Brave Sir Robin]

I highly recommend that anyone playing Third Age install the MOS submod. The vanilla Third Age was never finished. MOS addresses some of TATW's issues and makes a ton of improvements and balancing changes.

Divide and Conquer is another great submod, but at this point it's an unpolished beta release with a fair amount of issues. MOS is more of a finished product.

Both submods are relatively easy to install and work well with the Steam version of Med 2 and Win 7.

[AAntarcticaFan]

Playing this mod right now i love it!!!!!

[The Norseman]

3.2 version is the newest one, but if you go and search for www.twcenter.net and find your way to the Third Age Total War forum, you can go and post your problems in the Bugs & Questions thread there and they will help you :)

[Lasting]

I have a question, I have 3rd age 3.2 but I can't do custom battles and isengard just doesn't seem right... is there a newer version or did I fuck it up?

[sysqrw]

Thanks:)

[The Norseman]

search for Third Age Total War 3.2 on google! :)

[Darth Bane]

where can i download this?!?!?!?!?