3 months ago
@rsnorunt I'm playing humans. I would definitely not have thought that Northmen decision-making would be affected by Saruman since they are so far away. Thanks for the insight.
Middle Earth: Battle For Arda - Official Thread
-
@rsnorunt I'm playing humans. I would definitely not have thought that Northmen decision-making would be affected by Saruman since they are so far away. Thanks for the insight.
- about a month later
-
Hi all. I've played this map probably a dozen times or so with my friends, usually 1v1 but we have done ffas as well. Interested in knowing if, in this current version, there are some universally accepted "optimal" early plays, especially from good. I was intrigued by the Northmen / Rhun naval discussion earlier. My group has never paid much attention to the Naval situation on the Celduin, assuming any investment was a suboptimal investment of PUs, but now I am rethinking everything. Any thoughts welcome.
-
@Ancalagon Well most of what I'd say about the Celduin sea would be disagreeing with rsnorunt and CamelotKid and retreading old ground, so I'll instead go over other stuff to be a bit fresh (though I wouldn't mind reopening that discussion if people want to). Though to be clear I am only on my second game so I'd say I have less experience than you have.
Not a good faction opening, but I have to mention this, both Mordor flying Nazguls attack the Gondor Dromund at sz lower Anduin 2. A sea controlling Harad is a strong Harad, especially one that could capture a Gondor city and start spawning units there.
Speaking of Gondor, while I can't say for certain how much it should invest at sea, and how much it should invest into land. I'd suggest a lot of its land investing should go into rangers for two primary reasons. The first reason is anti-air, not only does some rangers mean the flying Nazguls have less hp (and by extension, more units are lost), but if you have a high enough number of rangers that Nazguls have a decent change to die to anti-air alone, the opponent might elect to not have them in the battle at all, but that means they'd lose out on the leadership and terror flying Nazguls bring to the fight.
The second reason is mountain pressure, even with the fortresses on Mordor mountains, having enough rangers could complicate Mordor's defensive considerations to more than just putting big stacks in their cities. This is of course only relevant if Mordor is not pushing into or haven't taken Cair Andros and Osgiliath.
On that same note, if Angmar goes heavy into dragons, its neighbors can go heavier into anti-air units, except dwarves, if it looks like Angmar is preparing to melt Dwarven fortifications with dragon fire, Northmen might need to build and send its own anti-air unit to defend those.
I don't know a ton about it but there's argument for High Elves to invest into ocean ships so Gondor doesn't have to.
Dwarves and/or Northmen could consider having or making their catapults/trebuchets in their cities on the Rhun front to deter Rhun from parking their war wagons next to there. Even against an untouchable army stack, a single trebuchet doing a suicide attack is an average +7.5 TUV swing if said Rhun army stack has three or more war wagons. (+5.6 if two wagons, -2 if one wagon) and a single catapult suiciding is +4 if two wagons, +0.25 if one wagon. This does not apply if said army stack and war wagons are inside a city with fortifications
The more I say the more subjective it gets so I'll end it here for now. On an unrelated note, could I ask if you could invite me to your group? I know I am a complete stranger to you but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.
-
Hey guys! When I play with AI, it seems to get pretty bogged down. (runs slowly) I've got a decent gaming laptop so it kind of surprised me. Is there anyway around this?
Thanks
- 8 days later
-
@hero1000 Thanks so much for this, I found this very helpful!
After some playtesting, I tend to agree that the overall it's not worth investing in the Celduin sea at any point as Northmen, especially if Rhun does not do so turn one. Assuming an active and agressive Angmar, the Northmen will be in dire need of every land unit they can get their hands on.
One thing that I have noticed in my current 1v1 game is that if the Orcs commit completely turn one to taking Rivendell, there is almost no viable strategy for the elves to keep it by turn two (though they can do a strategic retreat to both threaten Rivendell later on and/or cause Angmar issues).
Anyhow, love this thread and appreciate your response.
The next time my group does a free for all, I'll be sure to send you a dm! It might not be for a bit but I suspect we will do so later in the year.
-
@quack_89 Are you using "fast AI"? I also have a decent laptop and encounted the same issue when playing any other type of AI.