I would not even bother finishing the war in the North before I help Gondor. My usual approach is to arrange to be near Gondor when the war commences, and assist their marshal in the first campaign. The last time I played, we destroyed two of the three Mordor allies literally in the first week of the war.

The developers may have changed things since, so maybe the Corsair, Harad, etc. capitals are no longer available for burning as soon as the respective campaign is trampled under, but I think that the old approach of helping the marshal defeat the enemy in detail is still the best one.

DON'T let him be defeated by auto-calc!

DO cache a bunch of quests so that you can shoot up to level 10-11 after the war starts, and maybe try to rake in a few more levels in the training arena. To be honest, I have been mostly playing the other side lately, but I am sure Gondor also has a way to fight waves of enemies for perks and experience.

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Or you can just help in the North until you can assemble a host of elite elven archers, and then descend South with 150 elves, and show Mordor who's boss.

Originally posted by Tuidjy:

Or you can just help in the North until you can assemble a host of elite elven archers, and then descend South with 150 elves, and show Mordor who's boss.

Haha, elven archer are tough guys. No idea how i can reach that leadership to hire 150 guys though. oh, btw, which archers are better? mirkwood?

The reason i want to finish war at north - to play dwarfs. As i heard when you eliminate all enemies at north, allies open outposts on south, So i wont have to run to Erebor to hire guys

Originally posted by Kawaii Butterfly:

Originally posted by Tuidjy:

Or you can just help in the North until you can assemble a host of elite elven archers, and then descend South with 150 elves, and show Mordor who's boss.

Haha, elven archer are tough guys. No idea how i can reach that leadership to hire 150 guys though.

Keep winning lopsided battles, and your maximum party size can get really high. I've come close to 200 with the Free People, and way over 400 with orcs.

oh, btw, which archers are better? mirkwood?

My favorite are the Noldorin horse archers. Mounted, which makes them fast on the strategy map, able to avoid contact on the tactical map, and when they dismount, they create an barrier for charging wargs. They may not be the very best archers, but they are well armored, and if I remember correctly, they have good swords and shields.

The reason i want to finish war at north - to play dwarfs. As i heard when you eliminate all enemies at north, allies open outposts on south, So i wont have to run to Erebor to hire guys

Yes, if you clear the North from the Towers factions, the Northern Free People will create outposts down South.

But nothing prevents you from gaining the trust of Gondor or Rohan, and recruiting their forces to replenish losses. Here[i.imgur.com] is a snapshot of my best Good character's titles. He's in everyone's good graces.

Tbh i can't even imagine how you got all of these ranks. Did you solo kill all war parties and hosts?)
Ok, so basically i should just follow marshal, engage in big battles, and sometimes do quests, right? I just can't get which part of my time should be spent on quests. And i have read somewhere, that killing supply trains and war parties diminish power of a faction, but after a couple of hours i spent to destroy supply trains of isengard i didn't see any messages about diminshing their power. Is it even worth it. And What about towns with very high garrison? Just try to siege them with bots (losing a couple of times) till the end?

And why i shouldnt use auto-calc?

Originally posted by Tuidjy:

But nothing prevents you from gaining the trust of Gondor or Rohan, and recruiting their forces to replenish losses.

Well right now i spend a lot of time to make new armor for dwarfes, and it would be pity if after all efforts i wont play them)

Tuidjy plays in a league of his own. His gameplay is so optimized it may seem unfun and immersion-breaking to others. I'm sure it is possible to win this even without being able to kill 500 orcs all by yourself in one battle.

In the end, it's all about faction strength and bring the numbers of defenders down. Do lord-quests, wipe out enemy bands, help win big battles and join in every siege assault of your side, also of other good factions.

In your game I would have checked faction strength to see if there is another northern faction near a threshold, and then would have done quests for that faction. With higher faction strength, it would have started its own siege attempts.

Winning big battles with minimal losses is important. There are some nifty manoeuvres you can do when big armies with several generals collide. I don't know how well you know all this.

I know this is all very general and trivial, but it's difficult to help without knowing how you play.

Good luck on your next attempt!


Edit: One thing about hunting down enemy bands: Think about opportunity costs. It may seem benefical for your side when you hunt down supply trains. But your factions profits more, if you spent your time doing a quest like destroy a scout camp or kill a rampaging troll. I'm never without a quest.

Originally posted by boiling pie:

Edit: One thing about hunting down enemy bands: Think about opportunity costs. It may seem benefical for your side when you hunt down supply trains. But your factions profits more, if you spent your time doing a quest like destroy a scout camp or kill a rampaging troll. I'm never without a quest.

This looks like a great advice!
Well, i dont like this "solo kill all on your own" thing, and prefer to play it as intended (i believe). Lately i started to raise charisma and intelegent for leadership and trainer, also i make all of my companions trainers. So in my last campaign i tried to reinforce ally hosts, maybe this is why it was somehow succesful (though it was mostly t2 soldiers, but alot). I did a lot of quests before the war started, but later almost stopped, and run only with dwarf marshall, almost all battles with Rhun where autocalculated (hate horse archers), participated in every siege, and so on, nothing special.
"nifty manoeuvres" what did you mean?

The player has the unique ability to decide who takes part in a battle, and to decide which of several battles ends first.

Say there are two armies near each other with several generals, and one of the enemy generals comes close, it may be an opportunity to attack him and all your generals join, while the rest of the enemy generals are too far away. This gives you a numerical advantage.

Another example: one friendly general is waiting (f.ex. Theoden is siegeing), and enemy host with five generals approaches. The moment the first one enters battle, you quickly join, and it's 2 vs 1. Your side wins, and you can now repeat it when the next general attacks.

Or this: Your side has 3 generals, enemy 5. Enemy attacks one of yours, you wait until 2 more enemies join. In this moment you attack Nr. 4, and the 2 other generals of your side and enemy Nr. 5 join in. It's 3 vs. 2, you win. Then you wait what your friendly generals do. With luck, the go and help your other general. You join, it's 4 vs. 3. You win.

If you come across several battles going on, always join the one first which your side is going to win anyway, because then you will create something like a avalanche effect.

Originally posted by boiling pie:

The player has the unique ability to decide who takes part in a battle, and to decide which of several battles ends first.

Say there are two armies near each other with several generals, and one of the enemy generals comes close, it may be an opportunity to attack him and all your generals join, while the rest of the enemy generals are too far away. This gives you a numerical advantage.

Another example: one friendly general is waiting (f.ex. Theoden is siegeing), and enemy host with five generals approaches. The moment the first one enters battle, you quickly join, and it's 2 vs 1. Your side wins, and you can now repeat it when the next general attacks.

Or this: Your side has 3 generals, enemy 5. Enemy attacks one of yours, you wait until 2 more enemies join. In this moment you attack Nr. 4, and the 2 other generals of your side and enemy Nr. 5 join in. It's 3 vs. 2, you win. Then you wait what your friendly generals do. With luck, the go and help your other general. You join, it's 4 vs. 3. You win.

If you come across several battles going on, always join the one first which your side is going to win anyway, because then you will create something like a avalanche effect.

This is extremely good advice. This is exactly how you insure Gondor's first, powerful campaign devastates the enemy in the first week of the War of the Ring.

Take the time to read everything and understand it. If you do not, ask questions.

Yep, i was doing some of this stuff, but to do it effectively, you should follow the marshal non stop. Thats why i asked which part of time should be spent on quests)

Originally posted by Kawaii Butterfly:

Yep, i was doing some of this stuff, but to do it effectively, you should follow the marshal non stop. Thats why i asked which part of time should be spent on quests)

This is where your judgement comes in. You quest when helping the marshal is not particularly effective, because he is not on campaign, or he is strong enough to deal with trouble himself, or because he is so weak that he's not worth aiding. Or because there are no real targets for him anyway, so he will be just wasting his time anyway.

When that happens, either go help some other allied marshal, or quest to your heart's content.

To be honest, after the game where Gondor smashed Mordor's allies, Rohan did quite well by himself, and the North Free People cleaned house by themselves, I have been only playing evil... so I am not quite sure which Free People needs your help the most, nowadays.

Originally posted by Kawaii Butterfly:

Tbh i can't even imagine how you got all of these ranks. Did you solo kill all war parties and hosts?)

Solo? No. Tackle 200+ parties with just my companions[i.imgur.com]? Sometimes.

But yes, my character is in the thick of the fighting, and often ends up with 100+ kills[i.imgur.com].

Originally posted by Tuidjy:

This is where your judgement comes in. You quest when helping the marshal is not particularly effective, because he is not on campaign, or he is strong enough to deal with trouble himself, or because he is so weak that he's not worth aiding. Or because there are no real targets for him anyway, so he will be just wasting his time anyway.

When that happens, either go help some other allied marshal, or quest to your heart's content.

Got it, thanks.

Originally posted by Tuidjy:

Originally posted by Kawaii Butterfly:

Tbh i can't even imagine how you got all of these ranks. Did you solo kill all war parties and hosts?)

Solo? No. Tackle 200+ parties with just my companions[i.imgur.com]? Sometimes.

But yes, my character is in the thick of the fighting, and often ends up with 100+ kills[i.imgur.com].

So you hired all 9? What about their realations? I mean if somebody doesnt like another. Noone try to leave group? And how to level up them properly (i mean skills and attributes)? Usualy i picked only smart ones, and just increased their intelegence to train party skills, but they were unable to kill anyone in battle, and couldn't get much exp to gain new levels. Now i'm make sure they have at least 3 power draw, and only then starting to raise the intellegent to make them trainers and so on. Maybe i should make them stronger (like 18 str) at first?
Also i usually make my char like 18 str and improving charisma and intelegent only after that. Now i tried 27 str, and wow, i can oneshot almost anyone, and have lots of exp (100+ kills included)

Sorry for that grammar -_-

Originally posted by Kawaii Butterfly:

Originally posted by Tuidjy:

Solo? No. Tackle 200+ parties with just my companions[i.imgur.com]? Sometimes.

But yes, my character is in the thick of the fighting, and often ends up with 100+ kills[i.imgur.com].

So you hired all 9?

Yes.

What about their realations? I mean if somebody doesnt like another. Noone try to leave group?

They do complain, but no companion has ever left me, good or evil. The mod may not allow it, and it makes sense, after all: in a War that will decide the fate of the world, you may want to hold your nose, and soldier on.

And how to level up them properly (i mean skills and attributes)? Usualy i picked only smart ones, and just increased their intelegence to train party skills, but they were unable to kill anyone in battle, and couldn't get much exp to gain new levels. Now i'm make sure they have at least 3 power draw, and only then starting to raise the intellegent to make them trainers and so on.

That's basically what I did. Once they can use an elven bow, good guys are good to go. With evil guys, it's a bit trickier, but then, I do not fight outnumbered so much when I support the Towers.

Maybe i should make them stronger (like 18 str) at first?

Not if you want high Intelligence and Training.

Also i usually make my char like 18 str and improving charisma and intelegent only after that. Now i tried 27 str, and wow, i can oneshot almost anyone, and have lots of exp (100+ kills included)

In The Last Days, my character are always masters of most trades, jacks of the rest.

As a good guy, I go to Strength 27, for 10s in combat skills, then raise Intelligence as far as it will go. I usually get a 10 in at least Path-Finding.

As a bad guy, I go to Intelligence 27, for 10s in medic and outrider skills, and then start pumping Strength. With the poison arrows, they become plenty deadly themselves.

Ok, so i tried fullarcher-party and well, they are crazy. You can wreck anyone - just wait till they are get close, kill as much as you can, retreat, repeat. Though it looks like abusing a bit, and actually boring.
So in this campaign i started as Lothlorien, Troll cave and Moria was destroyed in a like 4-5 days, then was fooling around with Dol guldur, but decided to move to south to buy Gondor some time. Eliminated Umbar and Khand, returned to Dol-Guldur and smashed it (elfes are crazy in sieges). Moved to Rhun, destroed their main camp ( two camps remained untouched) And moved to Isengard. it was a funny part. I'm not sure how strong it was, But they were pressing Rohan whole game, and Rohan hosts were just sitting in their towns. I spent about 15-20 days killing raid parties and hosts, and Saruman spawned his legion. I didn't see any messages about Isengard losing power, but it hapened. After that Rohan moved to South and Elfes to North, and war is basicaly won.

On the next playthrough i'm planing to destroy Moria, Dol-Guldur and Isengard, So Rohan would help Gondor, while i enjoy playing dwarves on North.

Thanks for all advices i got here, it was really helpfull.

I remember playing dwarf at my very first game (way over year ago, not sure what everything changed since that)

Soon I realized Gondor is losing and had to come to help - I had to personaly participate on siege defenses/hunting enemy parties (had no force for single handed wipe whole faction, jsut systematically lowered their strength while gondor went up), so long situation stabilized and Gondor strength had time rose up. Only than I went back to north where wasr was finished shortly and followed roll to south where we advanced to Rohan and finally Gondor too.

I just read in notes that Gondor should not be so quickly ganged now so maybe this process can be done with much less intensity those days.

PS. One cheaty way is to turn perma death of lords and if AI battle is to occur save/load until some of mordor or other evil lords there dont die (and prevent same to Gondor) - it make things quickyl toward your faction favor this way in the long run.