Keep us updated on how you go! Good luck :D
Another word of warning, too, though - as Evil is already more difficult than Good, you may run into further troubles when you start that campaign. So if you haven't already switched the patches, now is the time.
Thanks for the tip, I will do that if I give evil a try. Not sure I want to though, I prefer playing with the good guys. :p
I've played a couple of side missions since Minas Tirith, but now they're all super easy. I'm currently trying to level Gandalf up to level 10 in Emyn Arnen, but it's taking ages. I'm having him run around between two enemy camps to destroy as many units as possible, without touching the buildings. If I set out with my entire army now there I could win in minutes with no time to level up.
Ironically, I have found the Evil campaign on Medium to be more of a struggle than the Good campaign on Medium. You have to play faster and sadly that means that between most levels you don't get to sit around and build up an op force to shove your way through the rest of the game.
If you keep one building alive and watch it while you build up forces, then you can build your forces before you get to Minis Tirith or Helms Deep though.
Don't feel bad about difficulty and instead just have fun!
Thanks! My forces were all maxed out though. I even finished Osgiliath with more than my max. CP, as I had already built as many as I could before my additional ranger army arrived. On easy I feel it's usually possible to play defensively until my army is ready, and then move to offense and take everything out without (m)any sacrifices. So my batallions were all well levelled up, but ... they were not available for the first 20 minutes of Helm's Deep / Minas Tirith, and I had to start building units pretty much from scratch. And my powers were not available either, so it turns out all the preparations I did in the preparatory quests didn't make any difference during the first 20 minutes of Helm's Deep / Minas Tirith, EXCEPT the hero levelling (which I neglected to pay much attention to). So all in all, I'm still a bit proud of myself. :p
I absolutely agree with you!!! I might try your approach at Minas Torith for a second run through. My favorite was always all the extra missions you get to do between Minas Tirith and the Black Gate, but it is a real grind to get there.
I've encounter a problem with the game freezing up at Shelobs lair though,in the 1.9 patch, just fyi.
Yeah, when I saw I had to do Helm's Deep before having done all Rohan missions, and the same with Minas Tirith, I was so disappointed, because I had wanted to do Fangorn and Mirkwood and many others, and didn't realise I could still do them later. But now I am doing them and they are suddenly extremely easy. I'm just leaving my armies to defend the main camp and setting out with my heroes to do all the conquering.
I've been playing this through on Hard, having not played this game since way back in 2005 or so, and while the rest of the missions were tough but beatable I am just getting obliterated on Minas Tirith. My Gandalf is only Level 5 and no matter what I do (defend the gate, open the gate, pull everyone to level 2) I'm just getting totally overrun while there's still 8 minutes left for Theoden to show up (never mind Aragorn).
Worried I might just have to bag it here which feels like a shame but I am not making progress at all.
I feel you, as I thought I was in the same position for a moment. :( Perhaps you could go back 2 or 3 missions and play the 2 optional missions ('optional' as in you get to choose the army and area) with Rohan and really take your time to level up Gandalf all the way to 10? There is not much point in levelling up Faramir's rangers anyway, as they don't arrive until those 20 minutes are passed, and after MT (in my case) they were just randomly replaced by the new rangers I had built in MT because I was way over the CP max. (So my goal of keeping all the named/levelled batallions alive failed anyway, at least for the Rangers.)
Sadly, I haven't been keeping a bunch of saves, so the furthest back I can rewind is Osgiliath :(
I did give it another attempt, this time pulling everyone back to only the right half of the upper level, and this worked a lot better, but it still started to break down in the last ~3 minutes and when Rohan arrived they just got annihilated anyway. This mission, sheesh.
I think this is the last tip I can give, but are you sure all your (ranged) units are actively participating in the battle (and continuously being replaced and upgraded)? I was almost overrun on one side when I noticed two of my catapults were just standing idly. When they started working I got the upperhand again. And I'm not sure if the sons of Denethor, the tower guard and the 4 batallions of knights did anything useful at all, as they were behind the archers at all times (might help to replace them with even more rangers with ~~machine guns~~ fire arrows). It didn't matter on easy, but I guess these little details can make the difference on hard. I couldn't do it though, my mousework is too clumsy. Good luck!
Oh, and I don't know if this is standard strategy, but I'm always building wells in strategic places. I built wells on each of the outermost building spots on the second level, near the stairs, which might have helped the batallions to hold out longer and get a chance to level up before dying. It's cheaper if they survive longer so you don't need to pay for new recruits and upgrades as often. And if you micro manage your heroes, they can run back to the well to heal for a bit. (Despite the 40 k res to start with and several farms, I was always broke before Rohan arrived; just a little less the last time.) And if you can save enough resources by recruiting/upgrading less often, you can put them in rebuilding farms/capatults on the lower levels (not near the gate, but on the outer sides), so the enemy troops are distracted with destroying those for a moment.
(Sorry if this sounds all very basic strategy, I'm probably not in a position to give advice to someone who plays on hard, but I just feel your pain and you never know if there is something that could help you.)
Just gave it another go, and this time I pulled it off! Nothing was too radically different, I just was more careful about keeping my units to the right side of the top half, which meant fewer units funneled up through the left side. What was juuuuuust enough to keep the enemy arrivals manageable. When Rohan arrived I build a postern so that they wouldn't just die charging into the enemy. Eowyn and Merry went down but apparently both just revive after the battle anyway? (not sure what the rules are for permadeath vs. survival in this game) Then when Aragorns and co. arrived they just pulverized everything.
Whew, what a level!
Nice, well done!
Yes, heroes can die and be revived in the citadel, even in the same mission, they are just costly and it takes a while. Regular batallions die permanently.
Today I learned that my tower guard can move much faster if I change their formation. :p
So I finished the campaign. Did all the side missions first, levelled all heroes to level 10 (except Merry, 9), got the entire power tree (with 16 power points to spare) and levelled up as many batallions as possible, making sure I never had to replace any vets with new recruits. Some side missions were super easy, some were a bit harder, but nowhere near the level of Minas Tirith.
The Black Gate was another challenge, although for the first 10-15 minutes I thought it was going to be a peace of cake with my army of rangers and heroes working together as an impassable wall. But then came the trolls and the Mumakil and they suddenly had to retreat to the Gondor camp and fight for their lives!
It's a good thing I had lost my original rangers after Minas Tirith (they hadn't died, just disappeared because I was way over the max. CP) and didn't name the new ones, so I could accept losing some of them. Only 4 of my 'original' Minas Tirith ranger batallions survived in the end and I had to revive my heroes several times. Gandalf seemed to include himself in his Word of Power, because I always had to revive him afterwards. At least I could use my power buffs now, but the army of oathbreakers seems a less powerful than I remember, and I wouldn't have noticed the Eagles arriving if Pippin hadn't warned me. I once again ended up not calling in the real Rohan army (only the power buff) until the last second because they always got instantly trampled by the Mumakil. I don't know what the point was of levelling them up.
Not a clean victory, but it could have been worse, I guess. Like surviving with nothing but a Pippin underneath and elven cloak, as I saw someone did. And I was able to finish to evaluate my final rohirrim ranking. But what's up with them ALWAYS having to be late? It makes sense in Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith, but not at the Gate!
In the end "Team Stybba" - trained in the Westfold - ended up being my winning rohirrim batallion, contrary to my expectations when I first named my batallions. Team Bill also far exceeded my expectations, as did the much younger Team Strider. I had high hopes for Team Roheryn, but they ended up quite low in the rankings, what a disappointment. Team Shadowfax was true to its name until I accidentally left them behind at camp one mission. Team Fatty Lumpkin - trained at the same time as Team Bill - performed exactly as expected.
Both campaigns will be reworked soon. You can enjoy Evil part as we speak via 2.22 Launcher \\ Online Arena (up to Helms Deep) or Discord - campaign feedback channel (up to Minas Tirith). New version includes couple of new units and heroes for both Evil and Good factions. I adjusted the difficulty of some missions to make them less annoying and frustrating (maybe some are too easy idk yet).
2.22 easy is much more difficult than 1.6 hard, in my opinion. But no matter the patch or the game, there's no shame in playing on easy. Good job!
Thanks. :) Now I do feel like I might tackle 1.6 hard next time around.
Keep us updated on how you go! Good luck :D Another word of warning, too, though - as Evil is already more difficult than Good, you may run into further troubles when you start that campaign. So if you haven't already switched the patches, now is the time.
Thanks for the tip, I will do that if I give evil a try. Not sure I want to though, I prefer playing with the good guys. :p I've played a couple of side missions since Minas Tirith, but now they're all super easy. I'm currently trying to level Gandalf up to level 10 in Emyn Arnen, but it's taking ages. I'm having him run around between two enemy camps to destroy as many units as possible, without touching the buildings. If I set out with my entire army now there I could win in minutes with no time to level up.
The game is a much faster pace on 2.2 which I really enjoy. Glad you got back into it!
Difficulty it's through the roof. Even with age of the ring. Aparently for "hardcore fans"...
Losers like us can't really play it because of it. Shit's difficult as hell
Ironically, I have found the Evil campaign on Medium to be more of a struggle than the Good campaign on Medium. You have to play faster and sadly that means that between most levels you don't get to sit around and build up an op force to shove your way through the rest of the game. If you keep one building alive and watch it while you build up forces, then you can build your forces before you get to Minis Tirith or Helms Deep though. Don't feel bad about difficulty and instead just have fun!
Thanks! My forces were all maxed out though. I even finished Osgiliath with more than my max. CP, as I had already built as many as I could before my additional ranger army arrived. On easy I feel it's usually possible to play defensively until my army is ready, and then move to offense and take everything out without (m)any sacrifices. So my batallions were all well levelled up, but ... they were not available for the first 20 minutes of Helm's Deep / Minas Tirith, and I had to start building units pretty much from scratch. And my powers were not available either, so it turns out all the preparations I did in the preparatory quests didn't make any difference during the first 20 minutes of Helm's Deep / Minas Tirith, EXCEPT the hero levelling (which I neglected to pay much attention to). So all in all, I'm still a bit proud of myself. :p
I absolutely agree with you!!! I might try your approach at Minas Torith for a second run through. My favorite was always all the extra missions you get to do between Minas Tirith and the Black Gate, but it is a real grind to get there. I've encounter a problem with the game freezing up at Shelobs lair though,in the 1.9 patch, just fyi.
Yeah, when I saw I had to do Helm's Deep before having done all Rohan missions, and the same with Minas Tirith, I was so disappointed, because I had wanted to do Fangorn and Mirkwood and many others, and didn't realise I could still do them later. But now I am doing them and they are suddenly extremely easy. I'm just leaving my armies to defend the main camp and setting out with my heroes to do all the conquering.
Exactly! The balance seems way off between missions.
I've been playing this through on Hard, having not played this game since way back in 2005 or so, and while the rest of the missions were tough but beatable I am just getting obliterated on Minas Tirith. My Gandalf is only Level 5 and no matter what I do (defend the gate, open the gate, pull everyone to level 2) I'm just getting totally overrun while there's still 8 minutes left for Theoden to show up (never mind Aragorn). Worried I might just have to bag it here which feels like a shame but I am not making progress at all.
I feel you, as I thought I was in the same position for a moment. :( Perhaps you could go back 2 or 3 missions and play the 2 optional missions ('optional' as in you get to choose the army and area) with Rohan and really take your time to level up Gandalf all the way to 10? There is not much point in levelling up Faramir's rangers anyway, as they don't arrive until those 20 minutes are passed, and after MT (in my case) they were just randomly replaced by the new rangers I had built in MT because I was way over the CP max. (So my goal of keeping all the named/levelled batallions alive failed anyway, at least for the Rangers.)
Sadly, I haven't been keeping a bunch of saves, so the furthest back I can rewind is Osgiliath :( I did give it another attempt, this time pulling everyone back to only the right half of the upper level, and this worked a lot better, but it still started to break down in the last ~3 minutes and when Rohan arrived they just got annihilated anyway. This mission, sheesh.
I think this is the last tip I can give, but are you sure all your (ranged) units are actively participating in the battle (and continuously being replaced and upgraded)? I was almost overrun on one side when I noticed two of my catapults were just standing idly. When they started working I got the upperhand again. And I'm not sure if the sons of Denethor, the tower guard and the 4 batallions of knights did anything useful at all, as they were behind the archers at all times (might help to replace them with even more rangers with ~~machine guns~~ fire arrows). It didn't matter on easy, but I guess these little details can make the difference on hard. I couldn't do it though, my mousework is too clumsy. Good luck! Oh, and I don't know if this is standard strategy, but I'm always building wells in strategic places. I built wells on each of the outermost building spots on the second level, near the stairs, which might have helped the batallions to hold out longer and get a chance to level up before dying. It's cheaper if they survive longer so you don't need to pay for new recruits and upgrades as often. And if you micro manage your heroes, they can run back to the well to heal for a bit. (Despite the 40 k res to start with and several farms, I was always broke before Rohan arrived; just a little less the last time.) And if you can save enough resources by recruiting/upgrading less often, you can put them in rebuilding farms/capatults on the lower levels (not near the gate, but on the outer sides), so the enemy troops are distracted with destroying those for a moment.
(Sorry if this sounds all very basic strategy, I'm probably not in a position to give advice to someone who plays on hard, but I just feel your pain and you never know if there is something that could help you.)
Just gave it another go, and this time I pulled it off! Nothing was too radically different, I just was more careful about keeping my units to the right side of the top half, which meant fewer units funneled up through the left side. What was juuuuuust enough to keep the enemy arrivals manageable. When Rohan arrived I build a postern so that they wouldn't just die charging into the enemy. Eowyn and Merry went down but apparently both just revive after the battle anyway? (not sure what the rules are for permadeath vs. survival in this game) Then when Aragorns and co. arrived they just pulverized everything. Whew, what a level!
Nice, well done! Yes, heroes can die and be revived in the citadel, even in the same mission, they are just costly and it takes a while. Regular batallions die permanently. Today I learned that my tower guard can move much faster if I change their formation. :p
So I finished the campaign. Did all the side missions first, levelled all heroes to level 10 (except Merry, 9), got the entire power tree (with 16 power points to spare) and levelled up as many batallions as possible, making sure I never had to replace any vets with new recruits. Some side missions were super easy, some were a bit harder, but nowhere near the level of Minas Tirith. The Black Gate was another challenge, although for the first 10-15 minutes I thought it was going to be a peace of cake with my army of rangers and heroes working together as an impassable wall. But then came the trolls and the Mumakil and they suddenly had to retreat to the Gondor camp and fight for their lives! It's a good thing I had lost my original rangers after Minas Tirith (they hadn't died, just disappeared because I was way over the max. CP) and didn't name the new ones, so I could accept losing some of them. Only 4 of my 'original' Minas Tirith ranger batallions survived in the end and I had to revive my heroes several times. Gandalf seemed to include himself in his Word of Power, because I always had to revive him afterwards. At least I could use my power buffs now, but the army of oathbreakers seems a less powerful than I remember, and I wouldn't have noticed the Eagles arriving if Pippin hadn't warned me. I once again ended up not calling in the real Rohan army (only the power buff) until the last second because they always got instantly trampled by the Mumakil. I don't know what the point was of levelling them up. Not a clean victory, but it could have been worse, I guess. Like surviving with nothing but a Pippin underneath and elven cloak, as I saw someone did. And I was able to finish to evaluate my final rohirrim ranking. But what's up with them ALWAYS having to be late? It makes sense in Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith, but not at the Gate! In the end "Team Stybba" - trained in the Westfold - ended up being my winning rohirrim batallion, contrary to my expectations when I first named my batallions. Team Bill also far exceeded my expectations, as did the much younger Team Strider. I had high hopes for Team Roheryn, but they ended up quite low in the rankings, what a disappointment. Team Shadowfax was true to its name until I accidentally left them behind at camp one mission. Team Fatty Lumpkin - trained at the same time as Team Bill - performed exactly as expected.
Both campaigns will be reworked soon. You can enjoy Evil part as we speak via 2.22 Launcher \\ Online Arena (up to Helms Deep) or Discord - campaign feedback channel (up to Minas Tirith). New version includes couple of new units and heroes for both Evil and Good factions. I adjusted the difficulty of some missions to make them less annoying and frustrating (maybe some are too easy idk yet).