Massed Rohan horse archers are probably the most powerful force of the game.
2 things you have to know:
- activate the horse-archer-AI. (Camp menu > combat tweaks). For some reason, this option is no longer activated by default as it used to be. Horse archer AI is an absolute must for Rohan.
- The horse-archer AI only kicks in on medium-level horse archers. Skirmishers don't have it yet.

For better handling, I suggest to put all horse archers (except skirmishers) into a separate group and put them on the right flank at the beginning of the battle. Galmyne also belongs into that group. Time their attack well.

All melee cav is bad and should be used carefully. Their function is to run down archers groups and fleeing armies or counter wargs. I usually have them on the left flank.

I mostly use hammer and anvil tactics, with the good Rohan infantry as anvil, while I send the horse-archers around the flank as hammer. Get the enemy to focus on your infantry, then tell the horse-archers to attack, they know what to do. Important: pull your horse-archers out when they run out of arrows, or you lose them all! (Since only evil factions are allowed to have mounted archers with armoured mounts for some reason since the last update. Good-bye Tengel Guard, it was nice to have known you.)

In general, I would advice to always keep a tight control over all units as Rohan, but if you do it right, you can pull off some amazing victories.



Unfortunately Theoden is absolutely the worst general of all. Why he can't organize his army before he charges is beyond me, considering that evil faction generals have no problem to do it. Maddening. Dunland utterly destroys Theoden. Something you have to live with.

Basically git gud.

Originally posted by Merlkir:

Basically git gud.

Basically last passage of previous person's answers whole question about Rohan. Not yours, your answer sucked.

Spent all day trying to get the army to work, but is a waste since no matter how string the tactic is. 44 troops in a 300 vs 300 fight is still 44 troops and a Rohan leader that doesn't use formations.

It just will never work so long as Theoden death charges half his army at the start of every fight. Giving up that playthrough as Elohmir and the other Rohan genral that started with a E and some other random rohan general died shortly after war started and then Rohan just kept going downhill in the war after that. Brought over elf archers, then was attacked by a single unit passing by that pulled in 3 armies and murdered all the elves. Did that a few more times to basically the same thing happening each time over and over. War didn't feel like it was going anywhere and ai couldn't win fights across the board.

Hey developer, could you git gud and fix that Theoden cavalry tactic. I spent all day git gud at using horse archers. I did it dev, I can even link you a vid of the 'gitting gud' Now could you make the stuff out of my control gud. Rohan still sucks.


EDIT:

@boiling pie "- activate the horse-archer-AI. (Camp menu > combat tweaks). For some reason, this option is no longer activated by default as it used to be. Horse archer AI is an absolute must for Rohan. "

Thank you for that advice, it was not on. The combat behaviour is a nice addition. Maybe it would be best to just take a company of rohan cavalry and fight somewhere else completely until I can field a force where I don't need to count on a ai for numbers.

There should be plenty of targets for an army of 44 in Rohan. Don't forget you are also in charge of all parties without a named leader such as foragers, scouts or Caravans. Try to get them involved. Prisoner trains are especially worthy targets, they look big, but their troops are weak.

The trick about big battles is to not allow them to happen. Should it still come to a big battle, stay out of it until numbers are so low that your 44 men make a difference. Rohan usually does better with autocalc then in real battle (sadly). And there is also tab-out as last resort if things go really bad.

Don't hesitate to be cheap and lame, the game is it too sometimes.

Rohan cavalry is quite similar to the gondor cavalry classic line - they have tough horses in the end but need to get all the way to lvl 40 to get them. Unlike Gondor they don't get beastly armour or weapons though so they will always be a bit worse.

This is what I recommend - always upgrade your rohirrim cavalry into lancers as opposed to riders. In my game I only upgraded them into riders when I was giving them to a town to act as infantrymen. Lancers get warhorses faster than riders and those are very important. Furthermore, the long lances they use are very powerful and especially in formation where the enemy is constantly smacked around by horse heads.

In this game heavy cavalry pretty much beats everything. Boost up your trainer and surgery skill to retain your elite cavalrymen as the low level weak-horsed riders tend to be much weaker. Some factions actually have a round-about solution to this. Rivendel and Lamedon soldiers can only upgrade into cavalry at level 26 and start riding warhorses instantly so you never have to worry about the recruits charging alone on very fast horses and dying as the elites slowly gallop behind and mourn for them.

I suggest refraining from using cavalry too much in the early game because it's a pain to upgrade them and they really do die quickly without good armour or good horses especially against tough enemy elites. A good infantry line or archers work much better in the early game especially against Dunland and Isengard who have lots of spikes and deadly ranged weapons. The new Dunland Javelins are really frightening especially when thrown by their elites as they have a crazy power throw skill!

Anyway I suggest you try using some cavalry tactics later on when you can get at least about 50 lvl 30 or lvl 26 cavalrymen. You'll be amazed how quick and easy it is to run down enemies! The easiest heavy cavalry to get are in Gondor in Celembel - the Lamedon Knights. They train very quickly (sadly Rohan troops train slowly) and their lvl 26 Knights come equipped with fine armour, excellent stats, and not-bad warhorses.

A newer video of Burza Kraul's infantry getting annihilated in a head-long charge: https://youtu.be/EFqlf5WpT98?t=324
Old video of massive elven host being defeated single handedly by a cavalry charge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tPddu38gIc
Also check out my TLD guide for more tips and tricks!

Wow, amazing detailed answers from both Makoodzaka and boiling pie.
It seems steam discussion removed the answered thread option but it would have that now if it was still there.

Here was my experiences over the course of the day

Attempt 1: I'm going to be a hero! *dumps all stats into strength and agility* get teeth kicked in quickly.

Attempt 2: I'm going to be... kind of a hero! *dumps most stats in agility and some in int, does not get trainer and goes instead for 1 skill point in everything* get teeth kicked in semi quickly.

Attempt 3: Ok... maybe I'll just play it safe *dumps everything into int, maxes out trainer and surgery, gets a modest amount in horses and archery* army survives long enough to do a few skirmishes before the unstoppable army of one unit chases me down with his giant buddies in tow.

====EDIT: Actually gave up that save when I visited one of the grave sites of a fallen general, inadvertently picked up some random kill quest. Did not expect random kill quest to have a timer, got oathbreaker trait out of nowhere for not keeping my oath to.... the gravestone? It was kind of the final straw, I kind of wanted to stick out and see a doomed campaign, but not with negative influence per week.

By attempt 3, I was using anything to get me an edge in Rohan. "You need me to escort this caravan from hornburg to east emnet? You bet i'm going that way!" *goes straight to isengaard with new 100 unit army for those supply caravans*

Just, does destroying the supply caravans even do anything? Was killing them for awhile, but it didn't bump up Rohans war score. This was also the attempt where 3 rohan lords got unlucky in there roles and were beheaded shortly after war started. East Emnet was burned to the ground before I even made it back to Rohan from Gondor. Ai did all that to Rohan while Rohan was at strong faction power. Things just kept getting worse for there and they slipped all the way down to fair power before giving up as theoden lead yet another fight going 1:3 kill ratio when he outnumbered and out troop classed isengaard. But still proceeded to lose his whole host.

@Makoodzaka Interesting you mention that Rohan troops take more xp than others. Do they need that handicap on top of everything. And of course the lancers are the really good units. Were basically the one unit I kept never thinking had a good place in the army with veteran riders of rohan. But if they act better on horses than v.riders of rohan, then that would be great.

But I think I am just going to do what you suggest, forget cavalry all together for a long while and just go with a standard infantry army. The elf archers so far just seem the best tool for killing isengaard. And while the cavalry could probably work too eventually. It takes sooooo much extra effort and cavalry are made of paper. Is such a high risk low/medium reward.

I always deactivate the "Lords and companions can die"-option. I hate that feature.
It would be okay if dead lords would get replaced by new ones, but it doesn't make much sense to me that a dead general would result in the loss of his army.

You may also consider putting some points into character/leadership, because it's quite hard to increase party size with rank points alone (there is no "renown" like in the base game).

I'm glad we have dedicated fans who will write these detailed guides. Thanks guys! ;)

(that said, generals dying is a pretty essential feature of the gameplay. We do allow you to turn it off, but I'd really advise against it. It has a purpose.)

Originally posted by Merlkir:

that said, generals dying is a pretty essential feature of the gameplay. We do allow you to turn it off, but I'd really advise against it. It has a purpose.)

could you explain this "purpose?"

I just started playing this mod recently and I'm still pretty early in my games (one as Gondor, one as Rivendell) so I've only laid waste to a handful of enemy settlements so far. I've captured a couple of Lords for specific quests, but haven't permanently killed any yet. what exactly is supposed to happen as Lords begin to die off?

please spoil it for me lol. I just want to plan my approach to the endgame.

It's not a system reason, there's no special functionality that triggers when lords die. (except for the revenge quest)
It does remove an army and make the player feel a certain way, especially if they're roleplaying.
It amplifies the experience of being in a war with stakes, you can lose allies for good, just as you can lose cities. OR, you can defeat enemies for good, that's actual progress you can see and feel in the war.

Let me add that due to the way lord deaths are implemented and the way our war system works, lord deaths a) usually don't directly weaken the affected faction, and b) play a vital role for late game balance (which admittedly still needs to be worked on).

Since a couple of devs took notice now, after playing for awhile. Your mod is way better than the base game. Really enjoy a lot of the design choices in removing inventory fluff for a simplified salvage system. The wargs are amazing, having the mount become its own enemy after, awesome. Armored trolls are a little frustrating, trying to find a good way to deal with them. Especially the mordor leader one, that one murdered a little less than 30 itself we couldnt pierce its thaco.

Still playing rohan, I go with rohan everytime in lotr total war, have to go rohan in this too.

For Rohan either get an elven piercing bow (there is only on that's usable on horse, iirc. Might be a reward, so probably less available..), or try a lance. Even on foot they should do at least some damage, since they're piercing as well. (or maybe a good spear, that might work)
A strong blunt weapon could also work, though you'd have to go to the Beornings for one on the good side, probably.
For tactics...an army of skirmishers should do ok with minimal losses.

Originally posted by Merlkir:

For tactics...an army of skirmishers should do ok with minimal losses.

I have to disagree. Both Isengard and Dunland are factions with armies designed to murder horse archers. Isengard has a strong archer line where Fell Uruk Trackers are commonplace making their bowmen extremely deadly to shield-less inferior Rohirrim archers that don't get good armour until level 40 (which is insane hard to get). Their fast horses are also always feeble and die very quickly. Isengard Uruks that lack shields are easy pickings but their masses of orcs counter arrows by having smaller stature causing many arrows to miss.

Dunland is even worse as lots of them have shields and javelins. The new Raven Riders are a hard counter to skirmishers as their javelins often take out weak Rohan horses from 1 hit and they carry broad shields effectively countering weak Rohirrim arrows.

My advice would be the complete opposite and you really are better of dismounting all your horse archers in the early game and shooting from the ground in tight formation with plenty of shields.

But he asked about trolls...