=============================================================================== _ _ _ __ _ _ ___ o ))`)`) ___ __ __ )L` )L ))_ __ ))_) _ _ _ ___ ((,(,' ((_( (| ((_)(( (( ((`( ((' ((`\ (( ((\( ((_( _)) THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE RING --------------------- FAQ/Walkthrough ----------------- Author: Barry Willemsen =============================================================================== << 1. TABLE OF CONTENTS >> ---------------------- <1> Table of Contents <2> Legal Stuff & Contact Info <3> Version History <4> General Information <5> The Interface 5.1) The Menus 5.2) The Game Interface <6> Gameplay 6.1) Good... or Evil? 6.2) General Controls 6.3) Resource Management 6.4) General Hints'n Tips 6.5) Fate 6.6) Places of Power <7> Playing the Free Peoples 7.1) Gameplay differences 7.2) Good Buildings 7.3) Good Technologies 7.4) Good Units 7.5) Good Heroes 7.6) Good Fate Powers 7.7) Good-Only Strategies 7.8) Good Campaign <8> Playing the Minions of Sauron 8.1) Gameplay differences 8.2) Evil Buildings 8.3) Evil Technologies 8.4) Evil Units 8.5) Evil Heroes 8.6) Evil Fate Powers 8.7) Evil-Only Strategies 8.8) Evil Campaign <9> Credits =============================================================================== << 2. LEGAL STUFF & CONTACT INFO >> ------------------------------- Copyright 2004 Barry Willemsen - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Before you're reading anything of the FAQ, please read this and make sure you agree with the terms and conditions included in the text below: All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. This may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. In other words, just mail me for permission before placing this FAQ or pieces of it on your site. You can find my e-mail adress in the Contact Info section below. Contact Info - - - - - - - If you discover a major error in this FAQ, would like to submit a strategy that isn't included in here, or have a question about the game that isn't answered in this FAQ, you can e-mail me at the following adress: kryptondragon@hotmail.com Of course, there are some restrictions on e-mailing me: - Don't send me SPAM - Make sure the subject line is recognizable. Weird topics will not be read and deleted immediately. - E-mails with questions that are answered (or soon will be) in the FAQ will not be replied to. - Don't ask for cheats or any other strategies: all tactics I know are in this FAQ - If you have negative things to say about this FAQ you can always send them to me, as long as the mails remain polite and have a normal topic. I'll rewrite some parts of the FAQ if I have to, and credit the one who has located the error in the Credits section. If you have some original strategies to submit or you can tell me easier ways to beat the campaign-scenarios, e-mails will be gladly accepted. I will put it in a highlighted spot with your name above it in the following update. Just remember that e-mails probably won't be replied to the first day afterwards. I still have lots of things to do for myself and I won't be able to read my mail every day. By the way, my FAQ is authorized to be on the following sites: - GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) - Cheat Code Central (www.cheatcc.com) - Cheat Channel (www.cheatchannel.com) - Cheatbook (www.cheatbook.de) - Neoseeker (www.neoseeker.com) - IGN Faqs (www.faqs.ign.com) - DLH (www.dlh.net) - Cheat Happens (www.cheathappens.com) =============================================================================== << 3. VERSION HISTORY >> -------------------- Version 0.6 - Posted on March 5th, 2004 Got the main part of this FAQ up. The aspects of playing the good side are entirely up. Version 0.8 - Posted on March 6th, 2004 The first part of the Evil section is completed. I'm still having some trouble thinking of strategies for the final levels of the Evil campaign. Enhanced unit section a bit by typing up population costs. Also corrected some minor errors. Version 0.9 - Posted on March 23rd, 2004 This FAQ is just about completed. I only need to add walkthroughs for the last four levels of the Evil Campaign. Might take a while, though, my life's been pretty busy. Version 1.0 - Posted on April 4th, 2004 Complete FAQ! I also got the first strategy contribution up, you can find it in the Evil-Only Strategies section. Credit goes to SThomas1317 for that. Version 1.1 - Posted on April 13th, 2004 I got new contributions from Gene Y. AKA grenka. Also expanded the Places of Power section by request of Manuel Vega 182002. Added the ASCII art on top of this FAQ. Version 1.2 - Posted on June 30th, 2004 New contributions by SThomas1317 and Aragorn1913 for the evil side. Also corrected a mistake in the evil section which was spotted by Aragorn1913. Version 1.3 - Posted on August 13th, 2004 A small but good change. I forgot to mention that you can review all dialogue from the same menu where you can access the hints and objectives from. Thankz to Tyler AKA Morgawr2 for pointing this out. Had a new strategy added thanks to seaspray_68. Also found some small typos and corrected them. IMPORTANT: I HAVE A NEW E-MAIL ADRESS. DO NOT SEND ANYTHING TO THE OLD ONE ANYMORE COZ' THEY WON'T BE READ. PLEASE, HELP ME WITH THIS. Version 1.4 - Posted on August 20th, 2004 Got new contributions from Ryan, and Christo Acheson also known as seaspray_68. The first contributed a strategy for the good side, the second had a useful tip for those struggling to defend the catapult in "The Siege of the Iron Hills". Thanks, guys. =============================================================================== << 4. GENERAL INFORMATION >> ------------------------ First off, this is my very first FAQ, so don't think it will be wonderful. I'm just trying to get gamers through the game with simple strategies, consisting mostly of guerilla-attacks and Hit & Run tactics. It's supposed to get people through the scenarios step-by-step. The game can be hard at some points, even in Easy Mode. And since there were no FAQs contributed yet when I started this, it seemed that I had nothing to lose... "The War of the Ring" was developed by Liquid Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment, Inc. (Vivendi Universal Games). It is a game based on the popular "The Lord of the Rings" series, waging war in Middle-Earth on either side of the field. It is very entertaining, though a bit hard on some points. =============================================================================== << 5. THE INTERFACE >> ------------------ 5.1) THE MENUS - - - - - - - - Once you start the game, you have several things to choose from in the main menu. These things are: Single Player; Multiplayer; Load; Options; and Quit. Single Player - - - - - - - Starts a new, single-player game. When you select this option a new screen appears with again several options to choose from: GOOD CAMPAIGN: Command the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth and help them destroying the One Ring in a series of scenarios. EVIL CAMPAIGN: Command the Minions of Sauron and lead them to victory, so Middle-Earth will forever be under Sauron's rule. SKIRMISH: Start a quick single-player skirmish game against one or more computer-controlled opponents. TUTORIAL: Play through four tutorials teaching you the basics of this game; three for the Free Peoples and one for the Minions. BACK: Return to the Main Menu. Multiplayer - - - - - - Starts a new multiplayer game. This will give you an opportunity to compete with up to 8 other players in a LAN game over the Internet through GameSpy or at a specific IP address. The following game types are available (this goes for Single-Player skirmish games as well): RAZING: Here you have to destroy all your enemy buildings (including Towers and War Posts) to win. It doesn't matter how many units your enemy has alive; razing the buildings will gain you victory. SURVIVAL: This mode forces you to totally destroy your enemy: all of his buildings AND units must be crushed in order to be victorious. If all buildings of a player are destroyed in this mode, a timer appears. The player without buildings has to construct a Stronghold (for the Free Peoples) or a Goblin Hovel (for the Minions of Sauron) before this timer runs out or his units will be revealed on the map. If he succeeds, his units become shrouded in the Fog of War once again. FAMINE: Each player in this mode starts of with a set amount of resources, and resource collecting is turned off. In order to win you have to destroy ALL enemy buildings and units. This is a Deathmatch-kind of game. CONTROL: This is the only mode that is limited by time. Now, players have to control Places of Power to be the winner. Each Place of Power in possession gains the controlling player an amount of points. When the timer ends, the player with the most points wins. If all other players are eliminated, you'll get an immediate win. This also applies to situations where one player has more than 50% of the points that can be collected. CATAPULT: An Ancient Catapult is placed somewhere on the map. Players must seek it out and try to control it by defending it against enemies. The Catapult is a Place of Power in this mode. In order for control to shift, all of a controlling players units near the Ancient Catapult must be crushed. The real objective remains to destroy all enemy buildings and units, however. With the Ancient Catapult, this is very easy, as long as YOU are in control... Load - - - Using this, you can load a previously saved game. Pretty self-explanatory, isn't it? Options - - - - On these pages you can shift the game's options to your likings. You can set audio, video, and game options here. It also gives you an ability to adjust the game's playlist to your liking, as well turning the violence in the game ON or OFF by checking the "Mature" box. Quit - - - Quits the game :( 5.2) THE GAME INTERFACE - - - - - - - - - - - - Once you're in the game itself for the first time, the interface might seem a bit overwhelming, but you'll get the hang of it soon enough. I'll take you through available options here. - The screen itself has been splitted into roughly 2 sections: the field of battle and a lower part where you can select and order things to happen. - In the lower left corner of the screen, you see a miniaturization of the map. Most of it is probably shrouded by the Fog of War, which takes away your sight on enemy units and buildings when there's nobody of your team there to see them. If you left-click on the Mini-Map, your sight will immediately focus on that spot. - Above the Mini-Map, there are three buttons: Menu, Chat, and Objectives. Menu will return you to the Main Menu. Chat enables you to speak with other players while in multiplayer mode. Finally, Objectives will show you the things you have to do to complete a scenario, and also keeps track of the hints you have gotten throughout the level. - On the right side of the Mini-Map there are six small buttons. From top to bottom they resemble: Look Here; Fight Here; Walk/Run Toggle; Combat Alert; Fire Alert; and Idle Worker. Look Here tells your ally to look to the spot you fired the event in. Fight Here does about the same, only it tells your ally to send military forces in to fight. With Walk/Run Toggle you can decide what is the default for your units: walk (slow but units can heal while walking) or run (faster, but you can't heal): Run is the default setting. Combat Alert will take you the spot where your units are battling enemies. Fire Alert will take you to a building that is set ablaze. The last one, Idle Worker, automatically selects a Worker who has nothing to do. - The big box that comes next to the Mini-Map is called the Selection Panel: when you select a Worker, the buildings he can construct are viewed here. If you hold your mouse over certain buildings to get an overview of it. - Above the Selection Panel, you might see small round circles with white stars in it. These are further explained in the Fate paragraph in the Gameplay section (6.5). The little orb above these Fate circles will be explained in the Fate paragraph as well. - To the right of the Selection Panel, you'll see the Action Panel. When you select a certain unit, all abilities and upgrades that have been made on this unit will be shown here. In training buildings, you can select the units you want to create in the Action Panel. Note that some orders in the action panel (like the hero Aragorn's Kingsfoil ability) have to be activated by clicking on it. This is indicated by a gold line around the ability's image. - The last thing you should know is about the three little icons on top of the Action Panel. From left to right, these are: Population; Food; and Ore. All of these are explained in the Resource Management & Population paragraph of the Gameplay section (6.3). =============================================================================== << 6. GAMEPLAY >> ------------- People who are familiar with the gameplay of Battle Realms (also developed by Liquid Entertainment) will have little trouble adjusting to gameplay. Other RTS-players should follow some of the later tutorials that handle the more advanced aspects of the game. For gamers who are totally new to this genre, there is also a tutorial which handles the very basic of just about any RTS game. The following section will roughly cover most of the game's aspects. - - - - - - - - - - - 6.1) Good... or Evil? - - - - - - - - - - - In this game, you can help destroying the One Ring. Stride valiantly against the ranks of Sauron and aid in the quest to destroy the One Ring. You will command the brave armies of Gondor, seek out the help of Elves and Dwarves, and command the greatest heroes of the Third Aera of the Sun on Middle-Earth to finally free the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth of the dark threat from the east. Of course, you can also choose for the darker side of Middle-Earth. You shall then command great hordes of Orcs and other evil beings and lead them to victory in the thick of battle. If you fail, Sauron's wrath will be terrible, so even the most sneakiest backstabbing attacks are allowed in this great war game. - - - - - - - - - - - 6.2) General Controls - - - - - - - - - - - I recommend people who don't know much about the RTS-genre yet to play all of the tutorials. There, a Dwarf and an Elf will teach you all the basics you need to know to play the game. The general controls of the game are listed here. If you are familiar with this genre, I suggest you skip this section and move on with the FAQ. - You can select units by LEFT-CLICKING on them. If you hold the LEFT MOUSE BUTTON, you can also drag a lasso around multiple units to select them. All units and buildings in the game are selected this way. - You can make a unit move to a certain spot by selecting it and RIGHT CLICKING on the location on the map where you want him to go. If you do this while a building is selected, you will set up a Rally Point, which means that all troops trained in that building will immediately go there. - To train a unit or make use of a special ability, you can left click the corresponding button in the lower right corner of the screen (this will be referred to as the Action Panel in the rest of the FAQ). If you click on a unit multiple times, it will be queued up and will start to train as soon as the one before it is completed. Note that you pay the unit once you click the unit button, NOT when it actually starts its training. - When the cursor changes into something different (a sword, for example) you can RIGHT CLICK to make the selected unit make the action that the cursor is viewing. A sword, for example, means an attack move. For more on basic controls, play the first tutorial. You can access them from the Single Player menu. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6.3) Resource Management & Population - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Like every civilization, you'll need resources to thrive, as well as new Population slots to expand your settlement. In Battle Realms, those resources were Rice and Water. But here, you'll have to collect Food and Ore. This section will show you how to collect resources (you could also learn it from the tutorials, by the way): Food - - - Everybody needs to eat, and the units in this game are no exception (only the Slavemaster of the Minions requires just Ore). You'll need massive amounts of food to keep a steady stream of soldiers going, as well as to upgrade them and increase their abilities. Food is always obtained from a Well. The Free Peoples have to build a Mill over the well first to get food from it. The Minions of Sauron like flesh better, and that's why their Workers have to build a Slaughterhouse on top of a well to extract food from it. Food is dropped off at the Stronghold (for the Free Peoples) or the Goblin Hovel (for the Minions). Ore - - Ore is the other important resource. It is essential for weapons, armor, and the construction of buildings. Unlike Food, Ore can be extracted from an Ore Pile immediately, without a building on top of it. Assign Workers on an ore pile to extract the valuable resource from it. Ore is, just like Food, deposited in the Stronghold or the Goblin Hovel. Ore gathering will speed up a little once you buld a special extraction building on top of it. For the Free Peoples, this is the Forge. For the Minions, this is the Smelter. These buildings work in the same way as the Mill or the Slaughterhouse does. Population - - - - - - Population isn't really a resource. But, since it is needed to train new units as well, it's very important and deserves to be listed here. It's as simple as this: if you've maxed out your population slots, you cannot train any more units until you have population again. To build a big invasion army, you'll have to keep an eye on your population all the time, so you can create new population slots for the new soldiers to be trained. Good players can expand the population of their settlements by building new Camps (or upgrading them into War Camps later). Each Camp adds 11 new slots to your current population, while each War Camp upgrade gives you another four slots. Evil players, on the other hand, use a special unit to expand their population. The Goblin Slavemasters know how to keep the Minions in line, thus creating 12 new population slots per trained Slavemaster. - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6.4) General Hints'n Tips - - - - - - - - - - - - - A few tips are listed here on single-player skirmish games. There aren't a lot of them, however, and additional tips would be very welcome. You'll be credited for it. - One golden rule of the skirmish games is that you should never stay put in your base. This game is absolutely war-based, and that's why you should always keep training a steady stream of soldiers. - Circling around enemy bases to see there weaknesses is a great tactic to inflict maximum damage with just a small raiding party. It will give you the element of suprise, and you might be able to destroy a key production building, giving yourself a big advantage. - Keep a constant attack on. Think of it like this: as long as you are attacking your enemy, he's not attacking you. Of course, you should watch out for other players, who will find your base undefended during your big invasion. Always keep a few units back to protect your base. - One of the biggest threats for you are the "cloaked" units (like Elves or Haradrim). They can't be seen on screen without a detector unit (Ranger or a Wraith) and can inflict significant damage without you killing them off. Make sure you have detector units, on the offensive as well as in your defensive ranks. Detector units placed in Towers do well. - You can do the same to your opponent. Little guerilla attacks with your invisible units can actually destroy a whole invasion army. And as long as you keep killing enemy detectors, you won't have any losses at all! - Small things like Heroes or Fate Powers can decide the outcome of any battle. Blinding your opponent at the right time will almost certainly defeat him. - That's why Fate is so important. It's another reason to keep attacking, as you can only get it through battle. Fate is used to summon heroes and to invoke Fate Powers. - There are four types of weaponry in the game: crush, hack, and pierce weapons. Crush is represented by a hammer icon, hack by a sword icon, and pierce by a spear icon. The other type is hero, which can be seen by the aura of light that hangs around a sword icon. Heroes have advantage against all other types. Remember, mail me if you know other good hints. - - - - - 6.5) Fate - - - - - You can get Fate through three different activities: exploring, expanding your camp, and through battle. The last one is the fastest at generating Fate, but perhaps the most perilous as well. Fate is represented by the blue circles with white stars in them on the top of the selection panel. The more circles you get, the harder it is to get additional Fate. The Fate has numerous purposes: Heroes - - - - All heroes except for Frodo (Good Side) and Gollum (Evil Side) can only be summoned by offering a certain amount of Fate. They don't cost any Food or Ore, but the Fate itself is going to be hard to acquire if you don't keep the battle going. The Free Peoples and the Minions both have their own heroes. They can turn the tide of a battle with their special abilities and are usually a lot stronger than normal militia. Fate Powers - - - - - - The other things you can use Fate for are called Fate Powers. These can give you an edge over your opponent and can be great when you're about to lose an important battle. The good and the evil side both have their own Fate Powers. The powers differ in costs from two to seven Fate Points. I hope that I've made myself clear enough and you all agree that Fate is one of the most important things in this game. - - - - - - - - - - - 6.6) Places of Power - - - - - - - - - - - On almost any map you can find a Place of Power. You'll immediately recognize one when you see it, because it often looks like a majestic statue and light will be glowing around it. To take control of one of these, you'll have to move one of your units near it. The benefits of the monument will then shift to you. If an enemy is controlling a Place of Power, you'll have to destroy all enemy units around it to gain control for yourself. The Places of Power for the SP skirmishes are in alphabetical order: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - Ancient Fountain =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ==> Looks like a little water pit with a lion-like animal hanging above it. Take it if you can, it'll reduce the time your survivors have to heal before mounting a new attack. ==> "Built to quench the thirst of warriors and travelers long ago, the waters of this fountain revive the weary soul. Adds a regeneration bonus." =-=-=-=-=-=-= - Dragon Skull =-=-=-=-=-=-= ==> You can't miss it. It looks like a... well, a skull of a dragon. It is one of the best PoP's in the game, this will make upgrades even more cheap than a basic melee unit! ==> "The skull of what must have been a powerful ally of Morgoth, this object radiates with an energy of innovation that makes purchased upgrades less costly." =-=-=-=-=-=-= - Elven Shrine =-=-=-=-=-=-= ==> It's a white pedestal with some plants around it. This one comes in very handy: extra health is always nice. ==> "An abandoned shrine of Elven design, this relic still resonates with the power to increase the maximum health of all units." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - Enchanting Willow =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ==> A big, green willow tree. Nothing more, nothing less. ==> "A peculiar sort of tree, this willow sings a soft song that can lull units into a drowsy state. Grants the controller a spell that slows the movement speed and attack rate of enemy units." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - Globe of Mastery =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ==> It's just the same as the Orb of Hasty Summoning: a pedestal with a black claw that his holding up a green orb on it. It's only good if you use a lot of heroes. Otherwise, leave it be. ==> "This magical globe grants the power for Heroes to master their skills, allowing them to gain experience faster." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - Monument of Narsil =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ==> You all know Narsil, right, the Broken Sword? This PoP is just a big pedestal with a big, broken sword on it. Its effect can mostly be seen in big battles, because of more of your units will survive those. ==> "This is a monument for the famed sword wielded by Isildur that severed the One Ring from Sauron's hand, giving victory for The Last Alliance. Grants a defensive Armor Class bonus to all units." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - Orb of Hasty Summoning =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ==> It's just like the Globe of Mastery: a pedestal with a black claw that is holding up a green orb on it. Again, this one's only good if you use a lot of heroes. It might make it more worthwhile to purchase heroes because the Fate cost is decreased by 1. ==> "A powerful device of unknown origins, this Orb allows heroes to be summoned for less Fate cost." =-=-=-=-= - Orc Mask =-=-=-=-= ==> It look's like block of clay at first sight, but from closer range you can actually see an ugly Orc face there. The effect is very good, so try to get it on early and defend it pretty good. ==> "An ancient Orc totem that grants its controller an attack bonus." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - Radagast's Aviary =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ==> It's like a witch-doctor's hut on three wooden legs. It has a roof of straw and is entirely brown. Useful for scouting out enemy bases to see their defense's weakness. ==> "A device used by The Brown Wizard to watch over far away lands, the Aviary grants the controller a usable spell to reveal Line of Sight on an area." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - Radiant Monolith =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ==> Looks like a big, grey pillar with some patterns on it. It's quite unique, so you'll know it when you see it. Its effect will be very welcome in most games: more Fate Powers/Heroes! ==> "A magical and mysterious relic of ages past, the Radiant Monolith increases the rate at which fate is earned." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - Silent Watcher =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ==> Another unique Place of Power. It looks most like a giant doll with big, dark claws. The LOS upgrade is only useful for scouting, IMO, so you only need it a lot early on. ==> "The likeness of some hideous spy under Sauron's control, this statue is infused with magic to grant all units an LOS bonus." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - Spires of Siege =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ==> Looks a lot like the Claws of Gorgoroth from the campaign: a red statue with four pins stretching up to the air. Very useful when you're about to attack a base where you have to take out the Towers quickly. ==> "This strange Spire allows greater damage to buildings." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - Statue of Eorl =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ==> A normal statue of a fierce man with a beard. He has the outfit the Rohirrim wear. Only worth holding if you have a lot of heroes. ==> "Founder and first King of Rohan, Eorl mounted his steed Felarof and started the first band of Riders of Rohan. This statue grants a hit point bonus to all units." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - Steed of Rohan =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ==> An other Rohan statue which has the same colour as the Statue of Eorl. It depicts a rearing horse. If you use a lot of hit'n run tactics, this is the best PoP you can get. ==> "This statue of Felarof, whom the Rohirrim call 'Father of Horses', grants a movement speed increase to all mounted units." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - Wretched Sentinel =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ==> I don't know exactly what it is, but it very much resembles a wolf cut out from brown stone. Like the Monument of Narsil, its effect can mostly be seen in big battles. ==> "A deformed and grotesque statue of a once-prominent defender of Gondor who was corrupted by Sauron, its magic provides an armor class bonus." =============================================================================== << 7. PLAYING THE FREE PEOPLES >> ----------------------------- Playing as the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth, you will take command over all who withstand Sauron's rule. Your forces, ranging from Men, Elves and Dwarves to the mighty Huorns, will stride with their hearts fulfilled of only one purpose: the destruction of the One Ring and Sauron and his creations. The military units of the Free Peoples aren't very numerous, but they are the absolute elite and will fight without conceding an inch. IMO, the good campaign is a little easier than the evil campaign (though you might think differently about that). - - - - - - - - - - - - - 7.1) Gameplay Differences - - - - - - - - - - - - - The Free Peoples have several unique characteristics in this game. All of them are listed below: - The Free Peoples use a Mill to collect Food and a Forge to obtain Ore. - The Workers of the Free Peoples drop their resources at the Stronghold. - Workers and Heroes are trained in the Stronghold. - Because the numbers of the good guys are small, your buildings have to be built close to each other. The area in which can be built is marked by a green decal on the surface. - Different technologies, units, and heroes than the Evil Side. - They use Camps and War Camps to expand their Population - Their Towers can be equipped with a powerful Ballista, adding one powerful shot per round. - They have different Fate Powers. - - - - - - - - - - 7.2) Good Buildings - - - - - - - - - - Stronghold Level 1 ------------------- HIT POINTS: 750 BUILDING COST: 250 Food, 250 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: - Worker - Frodo - Gimli - Legolas - Aragorn - Gandalf RESEARCH HERE: - Stronghold Level 2 - Stronghold Level 3 - Stronghold Level 4 - Stronghold Level 5 The Stronghold is the place where the Workers and Heroes of the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth are trained. It is also a drop-off point for Workers that have collected resources. The Stronghold is the base of any settlement, and one of the most important buildings to protect. The Stronghold is Level 1 when you start with the game, but you can upgrade it up to Level 5. Some buildings and units require a certain Stronghold level before they can be purchased. Camp ----- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 1 HIT POINTS: 400 BUILDING COST: 80 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: None RESEARCH HERE: None The Camp is a valuable building because it increases your maximum Population by eleven. To set up a good army, you'll need lots of Camps, so plan your placement of them carefully: they have to be well defended from the enemy, or the foe's raiding parties will leave you crippled. The Camp can be further upgraded to a War Camp. War Camp --------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 HIT POINTS: 500 UPGRADE COST: 55 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 2 UNITS TRAINED: None RESEARCH HERE: None When a Camp is upgraded to a War Camp, your Population will be increased by four. Other than that it functions just like a camp. Perfect when you run out of space to put new Camps in. Mill ----- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 1 HIT POINTS: 570 BUILDING COST: 50 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 3 UNITS TRAINED: None RESEARCH HERE: None A Mill must always be built on top of a well to function. This building is used by your Workers to obtain Food and bring it back to a Stronghold. It is one of the first structures to be built in any game. Food cannot be obtained without use of a Mill. Foundry -------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 1 HIT POINTS: 750 BUILDING COST: 80 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 3 UNITS TRAINED: None RESEARCH HERE: None Ore can be obtained from its deposit without any building on top of it, but the use of a Foundry definitely speeds up its income rate. Workers make use of it in the same way as the Mill: you'll want to build this building immediately at the start of the game to ensure you have enough ore to train your army. Watchtower ----------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 HIT POINTS: 400 BUILDING COST: 105 Food, 105 Ore ATTACK POWER: 14 ARMOR CLASS: 2 UNITS TRAINED: None, but four can be garrisoned inside for more shots. RESEARCH HERE: - Ballista Tower The Watchtower is a basic defensive structure to ensure the safety of your camp. It is advised to build a lot of them, especially around buildings that are vital to win the game (Stronghold, Camps). At the borders of your settlement, they can be used to spot incoming enemies so you won't be surprised. To increase the shot rate of the Watchtower, garrison more units inside. Note that these units have to be unmounted. Ballista Tower --------------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 4 HIT POINTS: 500 UPGRADE COST: 150 Food, 150 Ore ATTACK POWER: Ballista=35; Normal=14 ARMOR CLASS: 2 UNITS TRAINED: None, but four can be garrisoned inside for more shots. RESEARCH HERE: None When the player researches this upgrade for the Watchtower, a powerful ballista is placed on top of the tower, giving one additional shot per round. The speed of the ballista is NOT measured by the number of units that are inside the Ballista Tower. Barracks --------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 1 HIT POINTS: 700 BUILDING COST: 60 Food, 105 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: - Gondor Swordsman - Rider of Rohan RESEARCH HERE: None In this hall, newly recruited warriors of Gondor and Rohan train endlessly to perfect their weapon skills. At the Barracks, players can train the basic fighting units of the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth. Dwarf Hall ----------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 1 HIT POINTS: 750 BUILDING COST: 80 Food, 100 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 2 UNITS TRAINED: - Dwarf Axethrower - Dwarf Shieldbreaker RESEARCH HERE: None This rough fighting area was designed specially for the Dwarves, sturdy fighters that are enthousiastic when it comes to battle. Here, a ranged unit, the Dwarf Axethrower, is trained, as well as the Dwarf Shieldbreaker, which is a powerful melee unit. Forge ------ REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 HIT POINTS: 590 BUILDING COST: 75 Food, 100 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: None RESEARCH HERE: - Iron Blades; Steel Blades; Dwarf Forged Blades - Iron Plating; Steel Plating; Dwarf Forged Plating - Razor Edge - Flaming Axe - Shield Break - Dwarf Engineering - Lookout Tower In this forge, the best metallurgy experts are assembled to aid the Free Peoples in their battle against Sauron. With the experience of the Dwarven forges, these will prove to be the best of the best. They make wondrous inventions for the Barracks units, the Dwarf Hall units, and for buildings. Ranger Post ------------ REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 HIT POINTS: 675 BUILDING COST: 95 Food, 110 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: - Ranger RESEARCH HERE: None The northern wanderers known as Rangers prefer to live at these small posts to scout out the area around them. In the wilderness, they test their superb detection skills before using them on the battlefield. Wilderness Outpost ------------------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 HIT POINTS: 600 BUILDING COST: 85 Food, 110 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: None RESEARCH HERE: - Etched Blades; Mystic Blades; Runic Blades - Improved Leather; Hard Leather; Studded Leather - Camouflage - Eagle Eye - Elven Cloaks - Eagle Fletching In this building, ingenious Rangers and Elves gather to exchange tactics and new weapon plans. Sometimes, this results in a great improvement for the Rangers and Elven Archers. With some of the Wilderniss Outpost's upgrades, they truly become fearsome opponents. Elven Sanctuary ---------------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 3 HIT POINTS: 650 BUILDING COST: 135 Food, 135 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 2 UNITS TRAINED: - Elven Archer - Elven Lightbearer RESEARCH HERE: None This place was created as a resting point for the Elves. Here, they could enjoy the silence of nature and practice their arts with the bow or aim their projectiles at fast-moving targets. It is the place where all the Elven warriors are recruited. Nature's Haven --------------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 3 HIT POINTS: 680 BUILDING COST: 130 Food, 135 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: - Beorning - Huorn RESEARCH HERE: None The mysterious home of the Beorning, the Nature's Havens can also call forth the deadly Huorns from deep in the forests. They are fearsome to behold, and most deadly on the battlefield. House of Lore -------------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 3 HIT POINTS: 625 BUILDING COST: 95 Food, 100 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: None RESEARCH HERE: - Strength of Nature; Strength of the Claw; Strength of the Wild - Natures Protection; Natures Defense; Natures Shield - Bear Form - Savage Blow - Dispel - Light of Lothlorien - Tree Form The House of Lore is a building where those who practice magic can further increase their abilities. The old scrolls lying in the library of this building hold secrets beyond imagination, and using them will give great powers to Elven Lightbearers, Beornings, and Huorns. - - - - - - - - - - 7.3) Good Upgrades - - - - - - - - - - First, I shall list the Forge technologies here. After that, there are the Wilderness Outpost and the House of Lore technologies. Iron Blades ------------ UPGRADE AT: Forge REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Gondor Swordsmen, Riders of Rohan, Dwarf Axethrowers, and Dwarf Shieldbreakers. RATING: 2/5 - This doesn't make a lot of difference... yet. It needed for the later upgrades (which DO matter), so buy it. Offense over defense! Steel Blades ------------- UPGRADE AT: Forge REQUIRED: Iron Blades, Stronghold Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Gondor Swordsmen, Riders of Rohan, Dwarf Axethrowers, and Dwarf Shieldbreakers. RATING: 3/5 - You might notice that battles go a little faster once you've researched this upgrade. And believe me, it gets better. Dwarf Forged Blades -------------------- UPGRADE AT: Forge REQUIRED: Steel Blades, Stronghold Level 5 UPGRADE COST: 175 Food, 175 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Gondor Swordsmen, Riders of Rohan, Dwarf Axethrowers, and Dwarf Shieldbreakers. RATING: 5/5 - Now we're talking. Build up a nice force of Men and Dwarves and go crush the enemy! You should have bought at least one armor upgrade, however, or you won't be able to enjoy of your overwhelming attack for a long time. Iron Plating ------------- UPGRADE AT: Forge REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Gondor Swordsmen, Riders of Rohan, Dwarf Axethrowers, and Dwarf Shieldbreakers. RATING: 1/5 - Buy an attack upgrade before this. This, again, is one of the things you'll have to buy to get the better upgrades. Steel Plating -------------- UPGRADE AT: Forge REQUIRED: Iron Plating, Stronghold Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Gondor Swordsmen, Riders of Rohan, Dwarf Axethrowers, and Dwarf Shieldbreakers. RATING: 3/5 - This is much better than the last one, since you might have noticed your units last longer in battle. Dwarf Forged Plating --------------------- UPGRADE AT: Forge REQUIRED: Steel Plating, Stronghold Level 5 UPGRADE COST: 175 Food, 175 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Gondor Swordsmen, Riders of Rohan, Dwarf Axethrowers, and Dwarf Shieldbreakers. RATING: 4/5 - Mix this up with Dwarf Forged Blades and some missile units for back-up and there you have one unstoppable force! Razor Edge ----------- UPGRADE AT: Forge REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 100 Food, 100 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Makes the Dwarf Axethrower's axes pass through the initial target, hitting any enemies beyond. RATING: 3/5 - If you're fond of the Dwarves and use them a lot, this is a must-buy. Throw your axes and watch an enemy army getting killed within a minute. Flaming Axe ------------ UPGRADE AT: Forge REQUIRED: Razor Edge, Stronghold Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Makes the Dwarf Axethrower's axes burn, giving them the ability to destroy and ignite buildings fast. RATING: 3/5 - Again, it's a matter of using them or not. If you do, buy this upgrade and send some raiding parties consisting of Axethrowers to set a whole enemy war camp ablaze. Shield Break ------------- UPGRADE AT: Forge REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 100 Food, 100 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Gives the Dwarf Shieldbreaker an ability to smash foes with such strength that it permanently decreases their armor class. RATING: 3/5 - With a lot of Shieldbreakers, mixed up with missile units and some melees, you can crush just about any force, unless you're hopelessly outnumbered. This rocks! Dwarf Masonry -------------- UPGRADE AT: Forge REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 175 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Gives buildings more hit points. RATING: 1/5 - Isn't really needed, in my opinion. Is useful only if you're under siege, but since you should be attacking and not defending, you don't really need it. Save your resources for better upgrades. Lookout Tower -------------- UPGRADE AT: Forge REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 100 Food, 100 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Gives towers a greater lign of sight. RATING: 2/5 - Not something you should get immediately, but still useful for spotting those enemy raiding parties early. Ballista Tower --------------- UPGRADE AT: Watchtower REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 150 Food, 150 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Equips the researching Watchtower with a powerful ballista. RATING 3/5 - Can help you withstand a big attack when you place it at key positions. Don't buy this for all Towers, though. War Camp --------- UPGRADE AT: Camp REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 55 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Creates a bigger camp, adding 4 Population slots. RATING 4/5 - Use this to get additional population when you run out of space to build your camps in. Gets an armor class bonus as well. Etched Blades -------------- UPGRADE AT: Wilderness Outpost REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Rangers and Elven Archers. RATING: 3/5 - If you like to do raiding with invisible Elves, you need to buy this as soon as possible. Even if you don't, this upgrade pays off by giving your prominent missile users an extra power boost. Mystic Blades -------------- UPGRADE AT: Wilderness Outpost REQUIRED: Etched Blades, Stronghold Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Rangers and Elven Archers. RATING 4/5 - You should be noticing the attack power by now: a great upgrade. One more attack bonus to go. Runic Blades ------------- UPGRADE AT: Wilderness Outpost REQUIRED: Mystic Blades, Stronghold Level 5 UPGRADE COST: 175 Food, 175 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Rangers and Elven Archers. RATING: 5/5 - Expensive, but well worth it. With an armor upgrade, several Elven Archers can now wipe out an entire base, as long as they keep killing detector units. Improved Leather ----------------- UPGRADE AT: Wilderness Outpost REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Rangers and Elven Archers. RATING: 2/5 - Buy the offensive upgrades before purchasing this. It is offensive over defense, especially with archers. Hard Leather ------------- UPGRADE AT: Wilderness Outpost REQUIRED: Improved Leather, Stronghold Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Rangers and Elven Archers. RATING: 3/5 - They last longer, look at Improved Leather for additional comment. Studded Leather ---------------- UPGRADE AT: Wilderness Outpost REQUIRED: Hard Leather, Stronghold Level 5 UPGRADE COST: 175 Food, 175 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Rangers and Elven Archers RATING: 4/5 - Mix it up with Runic Blades: now they last long and do a lot of damage. Combine it with their Elven Cloaks to get the ultimate raiding unit! Concealment ------------ UPGRADE AT: Wilderness Outpost REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Rangers can remain unseen as long as they do not move. RATING: 2/5 - Not really needed, scouts will eventually be killed anyway. I don't use Rangers a lot anyway. Eagle Eye ---------- UPGRADE AT: Wilderness Outpost REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Gives Rangers an LOS upgrade, increasing detection ability. RATING: 3/5 - Actually, it's pretty nice. Will help spotting that annoying invisible enemies earlier. Weapon and armor go first, however. Elven Cloaks ------------- UPGRADE AT: Wilderness Outpost REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 165 Food, 165 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Makes Elven Archers invisible, so they can only be spotted by detector units. RATING: 5/5 - THE raiding weapon. Keep killing those detectors and you might find yourself wiping out a base with only some Elven Archers! Eagle Fletching ---------------- UPGRADE AT: Wilderness Outpost REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 150 Food, 150 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Elven Archers have a greater range. RATING: 4/5 - Very good upgrade. Can keep them out of Tower range while they shoot it to the ground. Very annoying for the enemy as well because they cannot see you through the Fog of War. Combine with Elven Cloaks. Strength of Nature ------------------- UPGRADE AT: House of Lore REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Beornings and Huorns. RATING: 2/5 - If you like those Huorns (I don't) then you should buy this. Expensive, but needed for weak Beornings anyway. Strength of the Claw --------------------- UPGRADE AT: House of Lore REQUIRED: Strength of Nature, Stronghold Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Beornings and Huorns. RATING: 3/5 - Another attack upgrade to aid the Beornings and the Huorns. If you use them a lot, buy it, or else leave it. Strength of the Wild --------------------- UPGRADE AT: House of Lore REQUIRED: Strength of the Claw, Stronghold Level 5 UPGRADE COST: 175 Food, 175 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Beornings and Huorns. RATING: 3/5 - See Strength of the Claw for comments. Natures Protection ------------------- UPGRADE AT: House of Lore REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Beornings and Huorns. RATING: 2/5 - The same as attack, only this is slightly more needed to keep the Beornings alive to mend wounds. Natures Defense ---------------- UPGRADE AT: House of Lore REQUIRED: Natures Protection, Stronghold Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Beornings and Huorns. RATING: 3/5 - Again, this is needed to keep Beornings alive. Natures Shield --------------- UPGRADE AT: House of Lore REQUIRED: Natures Defense, Stronghold Level 5 UPGRADE COST: 175 Food, 175 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Beornings and Huorns. RATING: 3/5 - See Natures Defense for comments. Bear Form ---------- UPGRADE AT: House of Lore REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Gives the Beorning the ability to change into a Bear. RATING: 3/5 - Bears are much better at fighting than Beornings, but they lose their healing ability in this form. Savage Blow ------------ UPGRADE AT: House of Lore REQUIRED: Bear Form, Stronghold Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: While in Bear Form, the Beorning can give a devastating blow that knocks back all enemies in front of him. RATING: 3/5 - Useful to fight your way out of crowds, and does damage all units in front of him. Nice if you have lots of Beornings with Bear Form. Dispel ------- UPGRADE AT: House of Lore REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: The Elven Lightbearer gains the ability to heal units from enemy spells. RATING: 3/5 - Units do not get hit by special magic a lot, but this comes in handy once they do. Reasonable buy. Light of Lothlorien -------------------- UPGRADE AT: House of Lore REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: This spell can be cast by the Elven Lightbearer to sear the flesh of all enemies in the selected area with a blinding light. RATING: 4/5 - Can damage large invasion armies in its tracks, weakening it so you can defend your settlement without too much losses. Good at the offensive as well. Tree Form ---------- UPGRADE AT: House of Lore REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 100 Food, 100 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: The Huorn gains the ability to plant itself into the ground so he can entangle foes with its roots. In this form, its regeneration rate is also substantially increased. RATING: 3/5 - Very good for defending small passes and such places. While the planted Huorn stops its enemies in its tracks, so some missile units behind him can finish off the foes. Stronghold Level 2 ------------------- UPGRADE AT: Stronghold REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 1 UPGRADE COST: 115 Food, 105 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor and +250 HP for Stronghold. Is needed for some buildings to be built. RATING: 5/5 - All Stronghold upgrades have high priority, because without them you cannot use the better units and upgrades. Stronghold Level 3 ------------------- UPGRADE AT: Stronghold REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 120 Food, 120 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor and +250 HP for Stronghold. Is needed for some buildings to be built. RATING: 5/5 - All Stronghold upgrades have high priority, because without them you cannot use the better units and upgrades. Stronghold Level 4 ------------------- UPGRADE AT: Stronghold REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 135 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor and +250 HP for Stronghold. Is needed for some buildings to be built. RATING: 5/5 - All Stronghold upgrades have high priority, because without them you cannot use the better units and upgrades. Stronghold Level 5 ------------------- UPGRADE AT: Stronghold REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 130 Food, 150 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor and +250 HP for Stronghold. Is needed for some upgrades to be researched. RATING: 5/5 - All Stronghold upgrades have high priority, because without them you cannot use the better units and upgrades. - - - - - - - - 7.4) Good Units - - - - - - - - Here, all units of the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth are listed. They all have their own little history and comments with them. There are no heroes, however. They can be found in the next paragraph. Worker ------- HIT POINTS: None given ATTACK POWER: None given ARMOR CLASS: None given ATTACK TYPE: None given TRAINED AT: Stronghold COST: 35 Food; 1 Pop UPGRADE AT: None SPECIAL ABILITIES: Workers don't have any special abilities. UNIT HISTORY: All honour is given to the soldiers on the battlefield, but who are the real heroes in war? The Workers, because they are keeping the soldiers fed and they make sure that new recruits can be trained. They are naturally overlooked, but they don't care about that and work with pleasure for their lord. UNIT COMMENTS: Workers are naturally the backbone of any settlement. Without them, no resources. Without resources, no army. Without an army, you lose. So make sure you keep them safe from the enemy and they'll collect Food and Ore from you from the Mill and the Foundry. Gondor Swordsman ----------------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 1 HIT POINTS: 155 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=10; Maximum=13 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=0; Maximum=3 ATTACK TYPE: Hack TRAINED AT: Barracks COST: 50 Food; 2 Pop UPGRADE AT: Forge SPECIAL ABILITIES: Gondor Swordsmen don't have any special abilities. UNIT HISTORY: The people of Gondor were counted among the most heroic of all existing races of Men on Middle-Earth. The soldiers of Gondor, born in the green hills of Lossarnach or Dol Amroth, were the absolute elite when it came to warfare. In the war of the ring, however, they were so heavily outnumbered that they could not stop the armies of Mordor from conquering their capital, Osgiliath. UNIT COMMENTS: The very basic melee unit for the Free Peoples. It's cheap and has the same stats as an Evil Orc Slasher. They can be disposed of quickly if there are no other support units around them, though. Send in these guys to back-up your armies with their numbers. Dwarf Axethrower ----------------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 1 HIT POINTS: 140 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=9; Maximum=12 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=0; Maximum=3 ATTACK TYPE: Hack TRAINED AT: Dwarf Hall COST: 60 Food; 10 Ore; 2 Pop UPGRADE AT: Forge SPECIAL ABILITIES: Razor Edge - Makes the Axethrowers axes go through the first target, making it a very effective units against groups of enemies. (Always on) Flaming Axe - Axethrowers get flaming axes to throw with, doing significant damage to buildings and setting them on fire. (Always on) UNIT HISTORY: The axe has been the traditional weapon of the Dwarves for ages. They even prefer it as a missile weapon; resulting in the special troop called a Dwarf Axethrower. Although they don't have the range of archers, they are very effective at close range. With razor-edges on their axes, they become an important army-destroyer, especially when the foes are close to each other. UNIT COMMENTS: The Axethrower is probably your main missile unit until you can train those Elven Archers. Even then, Dwarf Axethrowers can be valuable. With upgrades to their axes, they can easily wipe out an invasion army. On the offensive, you can go around an enemy city and ignite buildings to cause trouble. Dwarf Shieldbreaker -------------------- REQUIRED: Forge, Stronghold Level 2 HIT POINTS: 305 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=10; Maximum=13 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=1; Maximum=4 ATTACK TYPE: Crush TRAINED AT: Dwarf Hall COST: 95 Food; 60 Ore; 3 Pop UPGRADE AT: Forge SPECIAL ABILITIES: Shield Break - With this upgrade, Shieldbreakers learn to strike with such force and accuracy that it will permanently damage a foe's armor, decreasing its Armor Class. (Always on) UNIT HISTORY: Occasionally having their underground empires invaded by heavily armored Orcs and beasts from the Misty Mountains, the dwarves decided to develop a new kind of soldier: one that could use its weapon to severely damage an opponent's armor, but was protected against attacks as well. Finally, they decided that the weapon they sought was a great hammer of special, harder- than-rock metal. Having the purpose of this soldier in mind, they called it a Shieldbreaker. UNIT COMMENTS: Very good for decreasing the armor of heavy enemies with Shield Break, then use other units to finish the job. Has a standard 1 Armor Class to, so it will last longer than most units, since it has enormous hit points as well. This might not be a good unit for raiding parties, since it's to slow to cause enormous damage (except to foe's armor, of course). Rider of Rohan --------------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 HIT POINTS: 235 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=13; Maximum=16 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=1; Maximum=4 ATTACK TYPE: Crush TRAINED AT: Barracks COST: 85 Food; 30 Ore; 3 Pop UPGRADE AT: Forge SPECIAL ABILITIES: Immune to Knockback - Riders of Rohan cannot be knocked back. (Always on; not really an ability) UNIT HISTORY: With the arriving of Eorl the Young at the great river Anduin, the real history of the Rohirrim - the "Horse-Lords" - began. It was Eorl who first tamed one of the Mearas, the fastest and most royal of all horses. They have mastered the supreme art of mounted warfare, giving them the advantage of speed over their enemies. Rohan has always been allied to Gondor. UNIT COMMENTS: The fastest-moving units for the Free Peoples, the Riders of Rohan make nice raiding units. They are cheaper than Dwarf Shieldbreakers, but they do have lower HP and no special abilities (I don't count Immune to Knockback). Upgrade them to give them some extra durability during raiding attempts. Ranger ------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 2 HIT POINTS: 200 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=8; Maximum=11 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=0; Maximum=3 ATTACK TYPE: Hack TRAINED AT: Ranger Post COST: 50 Food; 40 Ore; 2 Pop UPGRADE AT: Wilderness Outpost SPECIAL ABILITIES: Detection - The Ranger is able to see hidden units, otherwise invisible. (Always on) Concealment - Allows a Ranger to hide as long as he doesn't move, only being visible for Detector units. (Recharge Time=3s) Eagle Eye - Gives the Ranger an LOS upgrade, increasing detection range. (Always on) UNIT HISTORY: Lots of ages in the Third Aera of the Sun, harsh and battle-hardened Men walked over Middle-Earth. They were called Rangers by the people in Eriador whenever they were in a town, and most people thought of them as unfriendly warriors and thieves. But these Men were actually the last knights of the Northern Kingdom of Arnor, that was destroyed long ago. Through living in the woods and being able to survive under any condition, the Rangers have developed uncanny skills at tracking and detecting enemies. UNIT COMMENTS: A Ranger is a must for every offensive or defensive force. Because they are the only detection unit available for the Free People, there must be one in every army you send out. Otherwise, you won't be able to see those hiding soldiers that will slaughter your armies without you seeing them. Elven Archer ------------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 3 HIT POINTS: 180 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=14; Maximum=17 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=0; Maximum=3 ATTACK TYPE: Pierce TRAINED AT: Elven Sanctuary COST: 80 Food; 75 Ore; 3 Pop UPGRADE AT: Wilderness Outpost SPECIAL ABILITIES: Elven Cloak - Elven Archers become invisible by wearing these cloaks, so only Detectors can see them. (Always on) Eagle Fletching - Gives Elven Archers a greater range. (Always on) UNIT HISTORY: The elves have always viewed heavy metal weapons like swords and axes with scepticism, prefering the serene grace of the bow. As a result, every Elf is gifted with exceptional archery skills. Combined with their race's attributes of hearing and eyesight, they become a most deadly missile unit, especially when used in ambushes with their Elven Cloaks. UNIT COMMENTS: Probably the best unit for the Free Peoples. It has a huge attack power, can become invisible to normal foes and can upgrade their range. In groups, they can slaughter whole armies when they get rid of those pesky detector units first. Pretty expensive, especially when buying all upgrades for them, but well worth your resources. Elven Lightbearer ------------------ REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 4 HIT POINTS: 160 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=11; Maximum=11 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=0; Maximum=0 ATTACK TYPE: Pierce TRAINED AT: Elven Sanctuary COST: 100 Food; 85 Ore; 3 Pop UPGRADE AT: House of Lore SPECIAL ABILITIES: Protection - Creates a shield around a selected unit which absorbs damage. (Recharge Time=35s) Dispel - Heals units of negative enemy spell effects. (Recharge Time=10s) Light of Lothlorien - Grants the Lightbearer the ability to sear the flesh of enemies with the holy light of the Golden Forest. (Recharge Time=45s) UNIT HISTORY: When the Elves of ancient times fought against the hordes of Orcs coming from Mordor, they had one great weapon. As they originated from the Noldor, who had seen the Light of Earendil, their eyes glowed with a magical light that pierced the dark creatures. Even now, some Elves with magical powers have achieved that state of living, bringing death to all creatures of the dark lord with spells beyond imagination. UNIT COMMENTS: I don't like Elven Lightbearers very much. They are killed way too fast for such a cost. But, I have to admit that their spells are very nice: Light of Lothlorien helps weakening an enemy army before it gets to your own ranks. Protection is best cast on the Lightbearer itself, as it won't last long in battle without it. Beorning --------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 3 HIT POINTS: 235 HIT POINTS BF: 420 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=7; Maximum=10 ATTACK POWER BF: Minimum=17; Maximum=20 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=0; Maximum=3 ARMOR CLASS BF: Minimum=2; Maximum=5 ATTACK TYPE: Hack ATTACK TYPE BF: Hack TRAINED AT: Nature's Haven COST: 100 Food; 70 Ore; 3 Pop UPGRADE AT: House of Lore SPECIAL ABILITIES: Healing Herbs - Only available in human form, the Beorning can heal allied units close to him with this ability. (Recharge Time=7s) Bear Form - Allows the Beorning to change himself into a Bear, increasing his stats and his fighting ability. (Recharge Time=20s) Maul - Only available in bear form, the Beorning deals knock-back damage with every swipe of a claw. (Always on; not really an ability) Savage Blow - The Beorning can, in bear form, give a blow with such force that it knocks back all enemies in front of him. (Recharge Time=15s) UNIT HISTORY: The Beornings originally were a race of the Northern Men. They changed their name to Beornings after Beorn had become their leader. Beorn was a shape-shifter: through a spell he could change his physical form into that of a bear. Some warriors of this race seemed to have this ability as well in later times. This was the only thing that kept the Orcs and Wargs from the Misty Mountains from invading their homelands. UNIT COMMENTS: In human form, the Beorning isn't exactly a good fighting unit, but they are able to mend the wounds of nearby allies. The best strategy to use with these guys is to heal as much as you can when no enemies are around, then quickly change into bear form when the battle starts. Huorn ------ REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 4 HIT POINTS: 235 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=14; Maximum=17 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=4; Maximum=7 ATTACK TYPE: Crush TRAINED AT: Nature's Haven COST: 235 Food; 200 Ore; 5 Pop UPGRADE AT: House of Lore SPECIAL ABILITIES: Tree Form - Allows a Huorn to plant itself into the ground, entangling enemy units and increasing their regeneration rate. (Recharge Time= UNIT HISTORY: From the depths of Fangorn Forest, Treebeard has at last summoned the ancient Huorn to aid in the battle against Sauron. The Huorns are Ents that have become almost like trees, but they still move in the shadows of deep forests. They crush and entangle with their roots, making them invaluable, though a bit slow allies. UNIT COMMENTS: I think these Huorns are too expensive. It is always good to have some of them with you. On the attack for quickly taking care of buildings, and on the defense to block key positions with Tree Form. They have a good amount of Hit Points and a decent starting Armor Class, but that still doesn't completely erase the huge cost. - - - - - - - - - 7.5) Good Heroes - - - - - - - - - The Heroes are the special units with unique abilities that can lead your troops into battle. Whenever you train a hero, a picture of him appears in the right edge of the screen. Clicking on it will select that hero, while double-clicking immediately focuses on it. All heroes are immune to knockback. Frodo Baggins -------------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 1 HIT POINTS: 305 (Increases as Frodo levels up ATTACK POWER: Minimum=15 (Increases as Frodo levels up) ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=1 (Increases as Frodo levels up) ATTACK TYPE: Heroic TRAINED AT: Stronghold COST: 150 Food; 100 Ore SPECIAL ABILITIES: Heroic Aura - Will give allied heroes near Frodo a reduction in their respective ability recharge times. (Always on) Mighty Sting - Gives Frodo the ability to do extra damage against all Orc units with his Elven sword Sting. (Always on; Cost=1 Fate) The One Ring - Makes Frodo completely invisible to all units except for the Lord of the Nazgul and the Black Riders, but slowly eats his health away. (Recharge Time=0s ;Cost= 1 Fate) HERO COMMENTS: Frodo is the only hero for the Free Peoples that doesn't cost any Fate. He is a great scout with his The One Ring ability, but make sure he doesn't die by using it. Mighty Sting will give him some fighting ability as well, but only against Orcs. Since Frodo is a scout and shouldn't be fighting with the other heroes in the battlefield, it would be better to save the Heroic Aura ability for later on (maybe camp defense). Gimli, son of Gloin -------------------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 1 HIT POINTS: 460 (Increases as Gimli levels up) ATTACK POWER: Minimum=20 (Increases as Gimli levels up) ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=3 (Increases as Gimli levels up) ATTACK TYPE: Heroic TRAINED AT: Stronghold COST: 3 Fate Points SPECIAL ABILITIES: Capture - Allows Gimli to capture an enemy Tower, ejecting any units who were inside. Gimli himself mans the tower afterwards. (Recharge Time=30s ;Cost= 3 Fate) Sunder - Inspires the mighty warrior to slam the ground with his axe, creating a shockwave that stuns all enemies nearby him. (Recharge Time=15s ;Cost=2 Fate) Siege Aura - Makes all units close to Gimli more effective at destroying buildings and towers. (Always on) HERO COMMENTS: Gimli has pretty good abilities, plus he is a great melee warrior. The Capture ability is very good because it can use the enemy's Tower against him. When Gimli is surrounded, Sunder can help killing his foes more easily. Finally, Siege Aura (which is standard for him) is good when invading enemy camps where you have to burn down everything quickly. Legolas -------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 1 HIT POINTS: 450 (Increases as Legolas levels up) ATTACK POWER: Minimum=20 (Increases as Legolas levels up) ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=2 (Increases as Legolas levels up) ATTACK TYPE: Heroic TRAINED AT: Stronghold COST: 3 Fate Points SPECIAL ABILITIES: Trueshot - Gives Legolas the ability to fire an arrow with such force that it causes knock-back damage, disabling foes for a short time. (Recharge Time=12s ;Cost=2 Fate) Guardian Wind - When used by Legolas, this gives all allied units close to him a temporary defensive bonus against all missiles. (Recharge Time=30s) Elven Speed - Allows Legolas to drastically speed up any units near him, including himself. (Recharge Time=35s ;Cost=2 Fate) HERO COMMENTS: Legolas is the ultimate ranged weapon for the Free Peoples. Trueshot looks cool and allows Legolas to drive attacking enemies away from each other. The Guardian Wind ability is nice when facing someone who loves missile units, but otherwise completely useless. Elven Speed is great because it also increases the attack rate of all units near him, dealing more damage in a shorter time. Aragorn -------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 1 HIT POINTS: 485 (Increases as Aragorn levels up) ATTACK POWER: Minimum=20 (Increases as Aragorn levels up) ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=3 (Increases as Aragorn levels up) ATTACK TYPE: Heroic TRAINED AT: Stronghold COST: 3 Fate Points SPECIAL ABILITIES: Kingsfoil - Aragorn can mend serious wounds of a selected unit. (Recharge Time=8s) Anduril's Fury - Greatly increases Aragorn's attack, and wields even more damage against Heroes, Black Riders, and Wraiths. (Always on; Cost= 2 Fate) Immunity - Aragorn cannot be blinded, stunned, poisoned, or slowed with this ability. (Always on; Cost=1 Fate) HERO COMMENTS: Aragorn is arguably the best hero after Gandalf. His Kingsfoil ability heals about half of the maximum HP of the target. Anduril's Fury will make is attack rise to that of a Giant Ent or a Balrog, let alone those poor Black Riders. Finally, Aragorn cannot be harmed by any status changes with Immunity. Great! Gandalf the Grey ----------------- REQUIRED: Stronghold Level 5 HIT POINTS: 450 (Increases as Gandalf levels up) ATTACK POWER: Minimum=20 (Increases as Gandalf levels up) ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=3 (Increases as Gandalf levels up) ATTACK TYPE: Heroic TRAINED AT: Stronghold COST: 4 Fate Points SPECIAL ABILITIES: Flash - Blinds all enemies near Gandalf, making them easier to kill. (Recharge Time=20s ;Cost=2 Fate) Rain of Fire - Powerful ability that will invoke a rain of fire from the skies on the location that is selected. (Recharge Time=60s ;Cost=3 Fate) Fire Shield - Gives an allied unit a shield of fire that will deflect some damage back on an attacking unit. (Recharge Time=15s ;Cost=1 Fate) Negate Ability - Temporarily prevents enemies from using Special Abilities. (Recharge Time=30s) HERO COMMENTS: Gandalf is the strongest hero for the Free Peoples because of his neat abilities. Rain of Fire is absolutely devastating when used on a group of enemies. Flash is very good for ending a battle without many losses, thus earning yourself more Fate. Fire Shield is best used on other heroes since they are the most likely to be surrounded by foes. Negate Ability is nice and absolutely annoying for the enemy when it affects one of his heroes with good abilities. - - - - - - - - - - - 7.6) Good Fate Powers - - - - - - - - - - - The Fate Powers of the good side are different than those of the evil side, and they are all listed here: Blind ------ COST: 2 Fate Points EFFECT: A flash of light on the battlefield that blinds enemy units, making them unable to see anything at a distance. The Blind power is best used on large groups of enemies close to each other, so you can slaughter them without losing a lot of valuable troops. Can also buy you some time to train extra units when your camp is being invaded. Brambles --------- COST: 3 Fate Points EFFECT: A remnant Elven spell of ancient times that allows the player to rapidly grow a thorny patch of dangerous brambles on a chosen spot. The magical brambles will tear the flesh of any enemy moving through the patch. This power can be very annoying for you enemy when placed on a spot he needs to pass to get to your camp. It isn't very cheap, however, and you should place it with care. If there are no good spots, you'd better save your Fate for something better. Heroic Legacy -------------- COST: 3 Fate Points EFFECT: Transforms a player's Hero into a legend for all time by sacrificing his ability to reform at the Stronghold. This adds incredible battle power that is worthy of song and tale throughout the lands. There is only one level where this is very good, and that's the Helm's Deep scenario of the Good Campaign. In skirmishes, this isn't a very good idea, because your Hero will still die eventually and you won't be able to recruit him at the Stronghold again. Only useful for desperate end- game attacks where you need all the power you can get. Blessed Wind ------------- COST: 2 Fate Points EFFECT: In rare moments of seemingly Fate-inspired intervention, even an element as simple as wind can grant the champions of a just cause a devastating force behind their missile attacks. Adds Knockback to the attack of ranged units. Can be handy at times, but isn't at all necessary to beat back an enemy army. If you have too much Fate Points (?) you can use this power in an ambush to slow down an advancing enemy army. Summon Giant Ent ----------------- COST: 7 Fate Points EFFECT: Summons a Giant Ent, protector of Fangorn forest to fight for the player. Ancient and wise, yet powerful and battle-hardened, this severed creature reluctantly uses his natural gift of great strength against any would-be foes. The Giant Ent has the following stats: HIT POINTS: ATTACK POWER: ARMOR CLASS: Although this creature is very strong and can take care of whole armies by itself, the price of this power is very high and amassing an amount of 7 Fate Points at one time is hard. When you are invading the last enemy on the map, and have accumulated enough points, you can use the power to add the "finishing touch" to your campaign. Note that the Giant Ent only lasts a set amount of time before being withdrewn again. - - - - - - - - - - - - - 7.7) Good-Only Strategies - - - - - - - - - - - - - A list of common strategies that are used by the Free Peoples. Credits to all of you who mail me other working strategies: Start-Game Rohirrim Rush ------------------------- Works best on another Free Peoples player. You need to be very quick for this. The point is to upgrade your Stronghold and building two Barracks as quickly as possible. Then train some Riders of Rohan and rush to an enemy camp. Circle around the camp until you find their resource spot, then attack the workers around there. When fighting evil side, you can go for Slavemasters to decrease their population capacity. Cloaked Elves Infiltration --------------------------- This is the most used strategy for me. Groups of five upgraded, cloaked elves go around a camp, first killing any detector units they can see, afterwards destroying the enemy units and finally the buildings. It's hard to do when the enemy has detector units in his Towers. Nature's Defense ----------------- This defensive strategy requires some Huorns with Tree Form and several missile units. As soon as an enemy army approaches, spread your Huorns and use Tree Form to entangle foes and stop them in their tracks. Use the missile units to do significant damage while the opponents can't move. Tactical Offense ----------------- You need some standing melee units like Swordsmen or Shieldbreakers and the Riders of Rohan for this. Armor upgrades are needed here, as the infantry has to last long for this tactic to work. Whenever you encounter an enemy army, wait for the foe's infantry to attack your own infantry. Keep your cavalry out of sight, though. Now ride around the battle with your Rohirrim and attack the archers from the flank, increasing your infantry's chance of winning, especially when you have some missile units yourself. Doesn't work when facing Elven Archers who are cloaked. Elven-Rohirrim Rush (contributed by Ryan) ------------------------------------------- Say you have about nine Riders of Rohan and some 10 Elven Archers, and you are outnumbered quite a bit. First, you send a volley of all your archers so the enemy foot soldiers come to shield it, becoming huddled in the process. Then, send your unseen cavalry and take out some enemies. Retreat with your cavalry to an area out of the opponent's LOS. Send a new volley of arrows with your archers, repeating all steps. The enemy will be in chaos, and eventually your cavalry will be able to pick them off. AUTHOR: Works best if you group the Elves and Rohirrim first, of course. More strategies to come... (I hope) =============================================================================== - - - - - - - - - - 7.8) Good Campaign - - - - - - - - - - This is a walkthrough for the Free Peoples' campaign in the War of the Ring. It contains story and gameplay spoilers, so if you want to figure everything out yourself, skip this section. --------------- The Grey Ledge --------------- INTRO: Third Age 3018 "The Iron Hills echo with the sounds of clashing steel, as the Dwarves defend their homeland against a wicked Orc onslaught. With the help of Gimli, son of Gloin, they prepare to rid the cliffs of the savage infestation. Gimli and his warriors must gather their forces, climb the nearby peaks, and crush their enemies under the weight of the mountain." HEROES: - Gimli ==> Abilities: - Sunder => 2 Fate - Siege Aura => Available BUILDINGS: - Stronghold - Mill - Foundry - Camp - Watchtower - Dwarf Hall - Forge UNITS: - Dwarf Worker => Stronghold - Dwarf Axethrower => Dwarf Hall - Dwarf Shieldbreaker => Dwarf Hall UPGRADES: - Stronghold Level 2 => Stronghold - War Camp => Camp - Iron Blades => Forge - Iron Plating => Forge The first level of this Good Side Campaign isn't hard at all. When you start off you see a little cinematic on how some Orcs demolish a Tower. Gimli will hold a small speech, and after that it's your turn. The screen will view your objectives as soon as you get control. The main objectives are: - Construct an encampment for reinforcements => Construct a Mill => Construct a Foundry => Construct a Dwarf Hall => Construct a Watchtower => Upgrade the Stronghold => Construct a Forge - Destroy the main Orc encampment - Kill the Orc Captain - (OPTIONAL) Use the boulders on the cliffs to crush the enemy Click away the objectives screen and view your camp. You start with three Dwarf Workers, three Dwarf Axethrowers, two Dwarf Shieldbreakers, and the hero Gimli. Note that your encampment will not be attacked in this scenario, unlike the other levels. So just take it easy and try to get familiar with these Dwarves a bit. To start off, assign two Dwarf Workers to build a Foundry on top of the nearby Ore deposit and use the other one to construct a Mill at the well. In the meanwhile, train another four Dwarf Workers. In the end, make sure you have three Workers on each resource. We will use the other one to build your structures. I suggest you start building a Dwarf Hall, and after that an additional camp, bringing the total amount of camps to three and your population to 43. Start training additional Dwarf Axethrowers, and upgrade the Stronghold to the next level. Use your Worker to construct a Forge now. As soon as the Forge is completed, you should research the two upgrades available there (Iron Blades and Iron Plating). With the Forge, you can start training Dwarf Shieldbreakers as well. While you build your army, use the Worker to construct the Watchtower to complete the first objective. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Construct an encampment for reinforcements. Although you could probably finish the scenario with less than the amount of troops I describe here, it is still advised that you train an army of about seven Axethrowers and seven Shieldbreakers. Together with Gimli, you can now start your campaign to drive the Orcs from these hills. With your troops, head down the hill to the west. Keep going west and you should meet an enemy patrol consisting of a couple of goblins and an orc archer. No threats here. Head futher west until you can't continue, then north up the cliff path. There are some enemies here, but you can dispose of them quite easily. Continue to follow the cliff path, killing Orcs as you go. At the end of the path, you should see some boulders on the edge of the cliff where the Orc camp lies. Select a unit and right-click a boulder to push it off the cliff, destroying everything beneath it. Do the same with the other boulder here. Now head back to your camp and train reinforcements as you see fit. Run down the hill again. This time, go directly north. You should pass some water here, with an enemy patrol somewhere. Kill them and head up north. You'll arrive at a little Orc camp. Try to focus your army on destroying the Tower. It should come down quickly because of Gimli's Siege Aura ability. Crush the remaining foes and buildings. The Place of Power is yours now: it is a fountain that provides your army with a regeneration bonus. By now, you should have two Fate Points. You should use them to purchase Gimli's Sunder ability, which will stun all enemies around him when used. As soon as you destroy the Orc encampment go back south towards the pond, as there are Orc archers on the top of the cliff. Get out of their range and wait for your forces to heal. When your forces are healthy again, you can run through the pass, negating the archers. Kill any enemies you encounter, then move up the hill to the left. Enemies here as well, but their numbers are small. Explore this cliff entirely to find the Orc Archers that were firing arrows at you while you ran through the pass. Defeat them. Now, you need to shove the boulders of the cliff again. Use all three of them to weaken the Orc camp beneath. When you're ready and healed, head back to the pond again. Train any reinforcements if you need to do so. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Use the boulders on the cliffs to crush the enemy. Use the small strip of land on the northern side of the water to get to the second Orc encampment. There shouldn't be a lot of resistance here, just crush them all with preferably no losses on your side. Cross the water and head immediately south. Destroy any resistance here. Make sure your units are healed before going on: the main Orc encampment is west of this point. It would be wise to cast the Blind Fate Power on the enemy army before engaging in battle, so you won't have to suffer many losses. After a majority of the army is killed, go for the Tower. Destroy any remaining buildings and fight your way to the middle of the camp. There, the Orc Captain is waiting for you. The Orc Captain is as strong as a normal hero, so just focus all your forces on him and you'll be fine. You can use Gimli's Sunder to make it easier for yourself. He should be dead quickly. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Kill the Orc Captain. The only thing you have to do now is raze the enemy camp. Destroy remaining buildings and victory will be yours. Note that you don't have to destroy the War Posts if you don't want to. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Destroy the main Orc encampment. MISSION COMPLETED ---------------------------- The Siege of the Iron Hills ---------------------------- INTRO: Third Age 3018 "The Dwarves have spilled Orc blood for hundreds of years in many major wars, and now another such battle is about to begin. The Orcs have come from the west to besiege Thorin's Gate, the common entrance to the Iron Hills. The King under the Mountain has sent his kindred from the mines to defend his realm. Under the leadership of Gimli, son of Gloin, the Dwarf forces intend to complete the construction of an ancient weapon to rid their home of the Orcs." HEROES: - Gimli ==> Abilities: - Sunder => Available - Capture => 3 Fate - Siege Aura => Available BUILDINGS: - Stronghold - Mill - Foundry - Camp - Watchtower - Dwarf Hall - Forge UNITS: - Dwarf Worker => Stronghold - Dwarf Axethrower => Dwarf Hall - Dwarf Shieldbreaker => Dwarf Hall UPGRADES: - Stronghold Level 2 => Stronghold - War Camp => Camp - Iron Blades => Forge - Iron Plating => Forge - Shield Break => Forge This level starts with a cinematic wherein Gimli explains what kind of situation you're in. The Orcs seem to have taken over Thorin's Gate, and the King under the Mountain has assigned you to drive the Orcs away. To this end, Gimli seeks to complete the construction of an ancient weapon, a relic from the Battle of the Five Armies. Your starting objectives are: ! Gimli must survive - Establish an encampment => Destroy the Goblin Expansion => Construct a Stronghold => Construct a Dwarf Hall You start off with Gimli and six Dwarf Axethrowers. Take them all to the northeast and start demolishing the camp. Gimli's Sunder can prevent you from losing a lot of units. After most of the enemy army is dead, go for their Towers and destroy them. Now you just have to destroy the remaining enemy buildings to conquer the area. As soon as all enemy presence is eliminated, four Dwarf Workers run into your new camp area. Use them to build a Stronghold close to the well and the ore deposit. Then put three on building a Foundry and one on a well, while you train another three Workers from your Stronghold. You probably had to fend off a Warg attack by now. Raiding parties will be common in this scenario, so be on your guard and use Sunder to its best. Let none escape. As soon as you have three Workers on ore and three on food, use the one that is still idle to construct another Camp. Construct two Watchtowers in the same spot as the enemy Towers were. In the meanwhile, upgrade your Stronghold. After that, build a Dwarf Hall to complete an objective. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Establish an encampment. NEW OBJECTIVE: Ancient Catapult => Find the Ancient Catapult => Complete its Construction Don't go exploring yet. You will need a big army to defend the Catapult while you build it up. Build a Forge right away when your Stronghold reaches the next level, so you can build Dwarf Shieldbreakers. Just keep collecting resources and research all upgrades in the Forge (Iron Blades, Iron Plating, Shield Break). While you do all this research, it's time to gather your forces. Notice that the raiding parties have changed: they consist of three Orc Slashers now. It is necessary to kill them all before they get a chance to flee. Sunder can help a lot here. To get the needed population for your army, build another Camp and upgrade both Camps in your settlement to War Camps. Population should be 62 by then. You will need two armies in this level: one to explore the map with to find the Catapult and defend it, and one to defend your main camp while you do this. The exploring army should consist of Gimli, six Axethrowers, and seven Shieldbreakers. The defending party doesn't have to be very big, three Axethrowers and three Shieldbreakers will do (together with Watchtowers). Once you have done all this, you need to take the exploring group to the southwest portion of the map. It's very easy to find the Ancient Catapult, just head up the hill in the west and there it is. While you explore, use a Dwarf Worker to construct one additional Camp. Start pumping out Workers and send them to the Ancient Catapult in groups. Make sure they don't run into any Orcs or they'll be dead. Put as much Workers to work on the Catapult as you can. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Christo Acheson (seaspray_68) has a useful tip for the catapult defense: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= In the Iron Hills if you go to the catapult, then north till you hit the river you should find a Beorning but he doesn't have Bear Form. AUTHOR: This is something I hadn't figured out and I thank the contributor for this. As we all know, Beornings can heal other units, something very useful for defending the catapults. You should do this quickly with an exploration party before the raids on the catapult begin. Notice that this might not be the case on all difficulty levels, and not tested by author. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Now, for defending the Catapult. It won't be much of a problem if you have assembled the force I have told you to. The Ancient Catapult is on a plateau which has only one entrance: the hill. So, send your exploring party down the hill and await any Orc raids from the north. These raids will consist of more units than the ones on your camp, but with your units and Sunder it shouldn't be too hard. Once you have collected three Fate Points, you should purchase the Capture ability for Gimli, for use in later levels. The raids will get heavier each time. Keep defending and using Sunder. When the Catapult is completed, a cinematic should begin, one that shows the incredible power of the Ancient Catapult. An objective is completed. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Ancient Catapult NEW OBJECTIVE: Destroy the Orc encampment's buildings. This is as easy as it can get. You just have to endure one more raiding party while you use the Catapult. Two well-aimed projectiles will destroy the Orc camp in whole. When all buildings are destroyed, you will be victorious. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Destroy the Orc encampment's buildings. MISSION COMPLETED ---------------------- The Pursuit of Gollum ---------------------- INTRO: Third Age 3018 "Gollum, the wretched slave to The One Ring, has managed to slither through the grasp of the Elven-king Thranduil and retreat deep into the forest of Mirkwood. Thranduil has sent Legolas to recapture the pitiful, corrupted creature." HEROES: - Legolas ==> Abilities: - Trueshot => 2 Fate BUILDINGS: - No buildings to be built UNITS: - No units to be trained UPGRADES: - No upgrades to be researched In this level, you get to control an other hero than Gimli. Legolas, the Elf who is a wonderful archer. This forest is a bit like a maze: in certain situations you don't know whether you can pass somewhere or not. Once you start you will see a cutscene about Gollum and Legolas, along with the following objectives: - Find and capture Gollum ! Legolas must survive Before you do anything here, I must warn you that your starting units are the only ones you have. Although it is possible to get a few reinforcements by completing a side-quest, it is strongly recommended that you preserve your units. You'll probably have to heal at several points in the level. Direct your starting units, Legolas and four Elven Archers, to the north: there are two paths here. Take the left one. Soon, you'll get another scene with Gollum in it. Afterwards, you'll be attacked by some Giant Spiders. These are very common throughout the level so you'd better get used to them falling from trees and stuff. Go west where you can and more spiders appear. Kill them quickly. Continue going westward and you should eventually reach an area where you have to make a choice again: will you go northwest, or southwest? The way to go is the northern one, but I advise you to take the soutwest one first. This will give you a side-quest, which will provide you with extra units if you succesfully complete it. Southwest it is, then, and when you've walked for a while you will be interrupted by a cutscene again. Some Rangers seem to be in trouble. NEW OBJECTIVE: (OPTIONAL) Rescue the spiders' captives! Now, don't you go running to those Rangers at once. They'll survive for a while. First, go west and look at all those things that look like eggs. Those things ARE eggs. So, destroy them all before helping the Rangers, plus any Giant Spiders that hang out in the egg area. You don't want an enemy army on your tail when you rescue the Rangers, do you? You should have gotten 2 Fate Points by now. You can use these to purchase the Trueshot ability for Legolas, an ability that will prove its worth in the later levels. Once all eggs are dead, run to the Rangers and kill all spiders first. Then, select a unit and right click a captured Ranger. The unit will then free the poor guy. A little cutscene is viewed and when this is over the Rangers seem to have joined you. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Rescue the spiders' captives! Now, track all the way back to the big tree where you had to choose between the northwest and southwest. Let your units heal. Afterwards, take the northwest path. After a while you'll be ambushed by a group of spiders. It shouldn't be too much of a problem with your extra forces. Head north until you run into an enemy Wraith. Kill it, then go to the west. There, a little spider ambush is waiting for you again. Continue your way west. You'll get to an open area with some spiders and a Wraith. Kill them, then attack the cave where the spiders are coming from. Once it is destroyed, kill any remaining enemies and follow the path to the southwest. You will be slowly lead south, but you should keep going west whenever you can. At some point, there will be another cutscene about Gollum's tracks. You should reach a Place of Power after going south a little more. There are some spider eggs around this place again, so kill them before they hatch. Crush any remaining opposition to take control of the Place of Power. This is an Elven Shrine, a magical place that increases the maximum amount of HP your units can have. Heal if your units need it, then continue your way west. More spiders here... dispose of them. This time, the forest leads you to the north. Keep going west just like the last time to get to get to Gollum. Once again, a cutscene takes place. There are Orcs in Mirkwood! Some of them see you and attack. You'll get control again. NEW OBJECTIVE: Kill the Orcs Just kill the three Orc Slashers, that's all, really. Once they're gone Legolas decides that Gollum will have to wait: Orcs in this part of Mirkwood is bad news! OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Kill the Orcs OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Find and capture Gollum MISSION COMPLETED ------------------------ The Bridge of Osgiliath ------------------------ INTRO: Third Age 3018 "The army of Mordor has slowly pushed its way west to the ancient, abandoned city of Osgiliath. Near the western bank of the river Anduin, the men of Gondor and Rohan have gathered to prevent Sauron's forces from gaining a foothold. Boromir, heir to the Steward of Gondor, leads the attack." HEROES: - Boromir ==> Abilities: - Horn of Gondor => Available - Faramir ==> Abilities: - Trueshot => Available BUILDINGS: - Stronghold - Barracks - Mill - Forge - Foundry - Ranger Post - Watchtower - Wilderness Outpost - Camp UNITS: - Worker - Gondor Swordsman - Rider of Rohan - Ranger UPGRADES: - Stronghold Level 2/3 => Stronghold - War Camp => Camp - Iron Blades/Steel Blades => Forge - Iron Plating/Steel Plating => Forge - Lookout Tower => Forge - Etched Blades/Mystic Blades => Wilderness Outpost - Improved Leather => Wilderness Outpost - Concealment => Wilderness Outpost - Eagle Eye => Wilderness Outpost This level is a little harder than the last ones. In the cutscene, Boromir will give a nice speech after hearing that there are enemy forces in the city of Osgiliath. Your first objectives are: - Prevent Sauron's forces from taking over Osgiliath ! Boromir must survive ! Destroy any barricades in your way You start out with a decent army (3 Riders of Rohan, 4 Gondor Swordsmen, 4 Rangers, and 4 Rohan Archers), two heroes (Boromir and Faramir), and three Workers. Assign two of these Workers to build a Foundry, and the other one to build a Mill. Train four more Workers from your Stronghold. Make sure there are three on ore, three on food, and one to build your structures. While you do all this, you are attacked by a group of Goblin Spearmen. It doesn't pose any threat, just don't lose any men. Boromir's Horn of Gondor can blast enemies around him away. Now upgrade your Stronghold. Use your Worker to construct a Wilderness Outpost and research Concealment there. You can now use your Rangers to scout without enemies seeing them. Once your Stronghold is upgraded you should build a Forge and a Barracks, then start training a lot of Riders of Rohan. Build an additional Camp and upgrade it to a War Camp to get the needed population. Keep training those Riders of Rohan: you'll need at least sixteen to have any chance at recapturing Osgiliath. In the meanwhile, research each and every upgrade. First those at the Forge, then those at the Wilderness Outpost. There should be no trouble with resources in this level. Once you have amassed an army of at least sixteen fully upgraded Riders of Rohan, move this force south to destroy the first barricade. Leave your heroes and all units on foot at your base: they aren't mobile enough for your strategy. Direct your cavalry further south once the first barricade is destroyed, to a big open area. To the east, there is another barricade with enemies behind it. First, kill the enemies in front of the construction, quickly crush the barricade and crush the enemies behind it. Heal if you need to, then head over the bridge. Boromir says there is another bridge, at the other end of the city. You can run all the way there, but I recommend killing each and every enemy in the city: this will make the last part of the mission a lot easier. Track down each enemy and heal when you can. When you get to the eastern part of Osgiliath, you'll find an Orc camp. It's defended pretty good, so be on your guard. Destroy the camp, but don't let a unit step on the bridge yet. You can send in reinforcements from your camp now, if you lost too much units in the chaotic battle. Note that you might have activated a side- quest about Rohan Archers in the city, but I don't know exactly how to trigger it. It is optional, so it doesn't matter a lot anyway. Make sure there are some Workers among your reinforcements. Direct your army to the eastern bridge, and make your units walk on it: there will be a cutscene with Troll Stonehurlers decimating your forces from somewhere you can't reach them. Boromir decides to destroy the bridge, so the army of Mordor can't cross it. This is where you need those Workers for. NEW OBJECTIVE: Use Workers to destroy the supports of the bridge. Select a Worker, and right-click one of the bridge supports. It'll be easier when you use several Workers at once. When the last support is destroyed, you'll be rewarded with victory. There will be a funny cutscene with enemy forces falling in the water. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Use Workers to destroy the supports of the bridge. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Prevent Sauron's forces from taking over Osgiliath. MISSION COMPLETED ----------------- Orcs in Mirkwood ----------------- INTRO: Third Age 3018 "The effort to recapture Gollum was thwarted by the invasion of Orcs. Alarmed by this evil presence so close to his father's kingdom, Legolas pushes into the deeper, darker parts of Mirkwood to prevent the Orcs from mounting an attack on his people." HEROES: - Legolas ==> Abilities: - Trueshot => Available - Guardian Wind => Available BUILDINGS: - Stronghold - Camp - Mill - Ranger Post - Foundry - Wilderness Outpost - Watchtower - Elven Sanctuary UNITS: - Ranger => Ranger Post - Elven Archer => Elven Sanctuary UPGRADES: - War Camp => Camp - Etched Blades/Mystic Blades => Wilderness Outpost - Improved Leather/Hard Leather => Wilderness Outpost - Concealment => Wilderness Outpost - Eagle Eye => Wilderness Outpost - Elven Cloaks => Wilderness Outpost - Eagle Fletching => Wilderness Outpost Now you're Legolas again. In the starting cutscene we see that the Orcs have gained a stable foothold in Mirkwood. Legolas hastens towards his camp and commands his workers to start expanding. Then you get control. The main objectives for this level are: - Construct an encampment => Build a Mill => Build a Foundry => Build a Ranger Post => Elven Sanctuary - Destroy the Orc encampment This isn't as easy as it looks. You start with 4 Elven Archers, 2 Elf Workers, 3 Elf Wardens, and Legolas. Train five more Elf Workers and command the two that are already there to construct a Foundry. Use the first one that comes out of the Stronghold to start building a Mill. Like in the previous levels, make sure you have three on ore, three on food, and one to build. Note that you cannot upgrade your Stronghold during this scenario. In this level, your encampment will be attacked from two sides: most common is via the plains north of your settlement. From there, raiding parties consisting of mainly Warg Riders are organised. You will also be attacked by Orc Archers from the southern cliffs. In order to defend your camp, place all your units except for Legolas on the northern side. Leave Legolas south to deal with the archers: Trueshot works well, here. Now that you have your economy and defense set up, it's time to build an army. The first thing you should build is a Ranger Post and a new Camp, bringing your population level to 43. Afterwards, construct an Elven Sanctuary and fill up your population with only Elven Archers. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Construct an encampment. While training those archers, use your Worker to build a Wilderness Outpost. When it's completed, immediately start researching the Elven Cloaks upgrade. This will allow your Elven Archers to turn completely invisible, except when detector units like Wraiths are around. After the cloaks, you should go for Eagle Fletching, upgrading range. Research everything at the Wilderness Outpost that could help out your Elven Archers; they will be your main attacking force during this level. When ready, take six cloaked Elven Archers to the north until you run into enemies. This is the little camp: the big one is located in the far northeast. Make sure you kill all the Wraiths first, there are four of them in this area. Once you've killed the Wraiths, there's nothing to worry about. Since the other enemies can't see you they are easily defeated. Destroy this outpost in whole. You can train additional Elven Archers to replace those that died in the battle. When it is destroyed you should wait for your units to heal, and prepare to continue the path northeast. If your elves run into an enemy patrol, just kill the Wraiths first. As soon as all Wraiths in the vicinity are destroyed, you will turn invisible to the others again. Heal whenever you want. Definitely heal before you enter the main enemy encampment, or you'll be crushed in seconds. Entering this camp from the west side, there are two towers: one in the north, which doesn't pose any trouble as long as you're invisible. The one in the south can be hazardous, however, as it contains a Wraith. Since you can't kill this detector without destroying the Tower first, you'll have a hard time deflecting the entire camp defense. Focus all of your missiles on the Tower, destroy it, and kill the Wraith that comes out. There are several other Wraiths in the area. Always kill them first, of course. To get rid of them quickly search the northern part of the camp for a Shadow Lair and destroy it: they will not be able to train any more Wraiths that way. With all the detectors gone, this scenario is basically over. Just destroy all remaining buildings in the base to start the ending cutscene. Legolas says something about Dol Guldur, the Dark Lord's stronghold. You're gonna learn to hate that name, believe me. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Destroy the Orc encampment. MISSION COMPLETED ---------------------- Assault on Dol Guldur ---------------------- INTRO: Third Age 3018 "Suspecting that Gollums escape and the Orc infestation of Mirkwood are no coincedence, Legolas searches for the root of this evil. His search leads him to Dol Guldur, the nearby stronghold of Sauron." HEROES: - Legolas ==> Abilities: - Trueshot => Available - Elven Speed => 2 Fate - Guardian Wind => Available BUILDINGS: - Stronghold - Camp - Mill - Ranger Post - Foundry - Wilderness Outpost - Watchtower - Elven Sanctuary UNITS: - Elf Worker => Stronghold - Ranger => Ranger Post - Elven Archer => Elven Sanctuary UPGRADES: - Stronghold Level 4 => Stronghold - War Camp => Camp - Etched Blades/Mystic Blades => Wilderness Outpost - Improved Leather/Hard Leather => Wilderness Outpost - Eagle Eye => Wilderness Outpost - Elven Cloaks => Wilderness Outpost - Eagle Fletching => Wilderness Outpost First of all, I HATE this level. I hate it, hate it, hate it... It's very annoying, because you'll be under attack non-stop from two sides with only a few units at your disposal. Then, you also have to invade a giant fortress with an ambush around every corner, and finally drive a Nazgul away. Hard... very hard. In the opening cutscene you can see an army passing some Rangers. As you can see, you'll have to handle Trolls and Haradrim in this scenario as well as normal Orcs. As if that weren't enough, you see how Legolas scouts out the area and views how the Nazgul releases his army from Dol Guldur. Your objectives are: - Banish the Nazgul atop Dol Guldur ! Defend your encampment The last of these will prove to be the hardest. Be quick and assign Workers to build the resource structures. Put three Workers on each resource and use one or two to build structures. Build every structure you can as fast as possible and start pumping out units for defense. Make sure you research Concealment for your Rangers, so they can detect those cloaked Haradrim Slayers while they stay hidden. Build Watchtowers to assist in defense. Soon, the first wave of enemies will come, just as a signal of what's to come. They should be disposed of rather easily by now. The real attacks are about to start. From the southwest, dozens of Haradrim Slayers invade your camp, while Trolls and Orcs terrorize the southeastern part. Use abilities like Trueshot and defend your camp, while you build Elven Archers for your counter-attack. Make sure they are cloaked and preferably upgraded to the max. Let them sneak through the enemy ranks and head southeast. After a while you should see the camp that was viewed in the cutscene at the start of the mission. There are several Wraiths here so be sure to take them out first. When all the Wraiths are gone, destroy the main Orc encampment. This isn't hard if you've got all your Elves together. If not, train more from your base. The attacks will come to a halt once you have crushed the entire enemy camp. If you've gotten this far enjoy, because the hardest part of this mission is over. Heal your cloaked Elven Archers by letting them stand still. Train any reinforcements as you see fit. When you think you're ready, advance to the north, to Dol Guldur, where the Nazgul awaits your arrival. As you can see, the massive structure is very well-defended: there are Orc Archers on each ledge. Fortunately, they can't see you as long as there are no Wraiths. That's the big problem you're dealing with here: the Wraiths seem to have the Greater Perception upgrade, enabling them to see your elves while you can't see them. All those walls and ledges don't help in spotting them either. I hope you now know that you should be on your guard when you get to these cursed walls. As you get to the main gate, shoot the Wraith that is lurking inside the walls. Deal with the archers on top of the main gate later. Walk to the right, staying outside of the walls. Kill any Wraiths as soon as you see them. There are a lot of Giant Spider ambushes here, so watch it! This section still shouldn't be too hard. Direct your Elven Archers up the outer wall. From this wall, you can shoot the units in the courtyard as well as those on the wall itself. You should know what to do with Wraiths by now. Follow this wall to the west, while shooting any units you encounter. Heal if you need it (or train reinforcements) and get down from the wall at the far west end of it, into the courtyard. There should be no more enemies here, since you've shot them all from the wall. Head up the ledge that leads to the top of the dungeon. On these ledges, it gets very dangerous. There are Wraiths inside that dungeon, so you can't see them until you've walked into an ambush of those irritating spiders. Make sure to have five Elven Archers or more all the time to ensure you get any higher. When you're about to get to the top of the dungeon, stand still. Don't go on the platform itself, stay on the ledge right under it. From here, shoot the Nazgul. You should be able to see him from there, but he isn't able to see your archers. Once he's dead, you're finally done with this level. Congratulations! OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Banish the Nazgul atop Dol Guldur. MISSION COMPLETED ----------- Lothlorien ----------- INTRO: Third Age 3019 "After unintentionally stirring the Orcs of Moria, the Fellowship seeks refuge in the Elven forest of Lothlorien. With the aid of the Elves, the Fellowship must protect the sanctity of Lothlorien and drive the Orcs back from these sacred lands." HEROES: - Aragorn ==> Abilities: - Kingsfoil => Available - Anduril's Fury => 2 Fate - Immunity => 1 Fate - Legolas ==> Abilities: - Trueshot => Available - Elven Speed => Available - Guardian Wind => Available - Gimli ==> Abilities: - Sunder => Available - Capture => Available - Siege Aura => Available - Boromir ==> Abilities: - Horn of Gondor => Available - Frodo ==> Abilities: - The One Ring => 1 Fate - Mighty Sting => 1 Fate - Heroic Aura => Available BUILDINGS: - Stronghold - Forge - Mill - Ranger Post - Foundry - Wilderness Outpost - Watchtower - Nature's Haven - Camp - Elven Sanctuary - Barracks - House of Lore - Dwarf Hall UNITS: - Elf Worker => Stronghold - Gondor Swordsman => Barracks - Rider of Rohan => Barracks - Dwarf Axethrower => Dwarf Hall - Dwarf Shieldbreaker => Dwarf Hall - Ranger => Ranger Post - Elven Archer => Elven Sanctuary - Elven Lightbearer => Elven Sanctuary - Beorning => Nature's Haven UPGRADES: - War Camp => Camp - Iron Blades/Steel Blades => Forge - Iron Plating/Steel Plating => Forge - Razor Edge/Flaming Axe => Forge - Shield Break => Forge - Dwarf Masonry => Forge - Lookout Tower => Forge - Etched Blades/Mystic Blades => Wilderness Outpost - Improved Leather/Hard Leather => Wilderness Outpost - Concealment => Wilderness Outpost - Eagle Eye => Wilderness Outpost - Elven Cloaks => Wilderness Outpost - Eagle Fletching => Wilderness Outpost - Strength of Nature/Strength of the Claw => House of Lore - Natures Protection/Natures Defense => House of Lore - Bear Form/Savage Blow => House of Lore - Tree Form => House of Lore - Dispel => House of Lore - Light of Lothlorien => House of Lore Once this level starts you see our beloved Fellowship running through the trees of Lothlorien. They are then suddenly surrounded by Orcs, but saved by the Elves. The Elf Warden explains that you should recapture two great Mallorn-trees. Legolas points out that there is a Huorn who needs you help in the north. So, your starting objectives are: - Mallorn-trees of Galadriel => Find the first Mallorn-tree of Galadriel => Find the second Mallorn-tree of Galadriel => Hold both Mallorn-trees of Galadriel for three minutes - (OPTIONAL) Find and aid the Huorn Something they didn't mention in the cutscene is that there is a whole army of Orcs on your tail. So, start setting up everything quickly. You should train some more Workers and put them to work harvesting resources. You'll have to assign more Workers to ore than to food. Use one Worker to build a Wilderness Outpost and a House of Lore. Now, for the defense. The Orcs will attack from two directions: the north and the east. I recommend putting Legolas, Boromir, and two Hobbits in the east, together with a few Elf Wardens. Put the rest in the north. The first attacks should be blocked easily. You'll be informed when the Orc Horde is about to come. Obviously, you'll need more units to withstand the Orcs. Start training lots of Elven Archers, make sure you have at least five on both sides of your camp. Train a Beorning for both sides as well: they can heal your units. And finally, train some Gondor Swordsmen from the Barracks and research for them Iron Blades at the Forge. In order to spot enemy attacks early, purchase the Lookout Tower upgrade from the Forge as well. Time for upgrades! You needn't buy things from the Forge anymore, but the Wilderness Outpost and House of Lore both have a lot of upgrades to buy. Of course, start out with Elven Cloaks for your archers and upgrade their range thereafter. After that upgrade their attack power and then armor class. You have tons of resources at your disposal so cost shouldn't be much of a problem. In the House of Lore, go for Bear Form immediately. You don't need Dispel and Light of Lothlorien because you shouldn't use Elven Lightbearers: they die far to fast. After Bear Form, go for attack power. Finally, upgrade the armor class of your Beornings to the max. While researching all this stuff, you can go and help the Huorn. To help out the Huorn, take your entire northern defense and make sure the eastern defense takes over their task for a while. The Huorn is battling close to your encampment, on the northeast side. Hasten your units to that spot. Kill the Orcs without letting the Huorn die to complete this task. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Find and aid the Huorn. Now you can train Huorns. They are expensive, though excellent fighters. I trained two for each defense. You'll need to build some extra Camps and upgrade them to War Camps for this again. Note that once you have helped the Huorn out it automatically learns Tree Form: this ability will be very effective in repelling the Orc Horde. That Orc Horde should come soon now. It might look a bit overwhelming at first sight, but if you use your heroes' abilities well, you will repel them without too much losses. A good thing to use here is Tree Form: this will entangle all units in the Huorn's radius, making them easy to kill. In the northern part of your camp, use Gimli's Sunder and Aragorn's heal ability (Kingsfoil) to prevent too much losses. In the east, Elven Speed can help killing everyone faster, while Horn of Gondor will take multiple foes out of battle for some time. Once you've repelled the Horde, heal. It's time to find those Mallorns now. Train reinforcements and take your northern defense to the north. they will encounter an enemy camp with a big army around it, but with help of your heroes they shouldn't take a lot of losses. Destroy the camp in whole, heal, and head over the bridge (you should train more troops if you lost a lot of men in the last battle). Proceed to the north to find the first Mallorn Tree. Take your eastern defense to the northeast, after you've healed them and trained reinforcements, of course. They will encounter an enemy camp like the last one as well. Elven Speed works well, here. Apply the same tactics as in the last battle and heal your units. Continue to go to the northeast to find the second Mallorn-tree. You'll have to hold both Mallorn-trees for three minutes now. Losing one of them means resetting the clock to three minutes. The first two and a half minutes should be no problem at all: some Orcs Slashers and Goblin Spearmen, which are easily killed. The last thirty seconds can get hard if you aren't used to commanding two armies at once. In that case, it would be wise to assign numbers to both armies. The last army will consist of Troll Bonecleavers as well as those normal Orcs and Goblins. Make good use of your heroes and keep those Mallorns under your control until the timer reaches zero. Once the time disappears, you'll be rewarded with victory. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Mallorn-trees of Galadriel MISSION COMPLETED -------------------------- The Liberation of Upbourn -------------------------- INTRO: Third Age 3019 "On his journey back to Edoras, Erkenbrand, master of Westfold, is horrified to discover the town of Upbourn has been overtaken by Orcs. The foul creatures run loose about the town, defiling barrows, slaughtering horses, and setting the town ablaze. Erkenbrand calls his men together and prepares to ride against the loathsome invaders." HEROES: - Gandalf ==> Abilities: - Flash => 2 Fate - Fire Shield => 1 Fate - Negate Ability => Available - Rain of Fire => 3 Fate - Erkenbrand ==> Abilities: - Might of the Rohirrim => Available BUILDINGS: - All buildings are available. UNITS: - All units are available. UPGRADES: - All upgrades are available. This level is pretty tricky, but not as annoying as Assault on Dol Guldur. In the opening cutscene, Erkenbrand points out what you have to do. This would make your starting objectives look like this: - Purge the Orcs from Upbourn => Reclaim the Great Hall => Destroy the Orc war camp => Restore sanctity to the defiled barrows - (OPTIONAL) Save the horses This is one of those levels wherein your camp gets attacked from two sides, from the northwestern exit and the northeastern exit. The heaviest attacks will come through the northeastern one, though. First thing you should do is set up your resource structures. Use enough Workers to ensure a steady income of food and ore. Space is limited in this camp, so I recommend only building a Ranger Post, an Elven Sanctuary, and a Wilderness Outpost. Upgrade your Stronghold to the final level as well. After that, it's time to set up defense. To make sure your encampment survives the first attacks, build a Watchtower near each exit. Put Rangers in them to detect those annoying (yes, they're here again) cloaked Haradrim. Put Erkenbrand and some Riders of Rohan at the northwestern entrance, while positioning Gandalf and his cavalry in the northeast. This should repel attacks for a while. Remember to train more Riders of Rohan at the Barracks when you lose units in battle. Try to keep Erkenbrand and Gandalf alive, they're going to play a big part in your last attack. With that done, start training five Elven Archers and give them the Elven Cloaks upgrade. Upgrade their attack and range as well. Send this little army through the eastern exit, to the north. Soon, you should see corrupted ground. There are a lot of guards here, but since the enemy has forgotten to place a Wraith at these barrows, they can't see you. Time for some Orc slaughtering! Destroy the three War Posts in this area to restore sanctity to the barrows. Further north is the main gate of Upbourn. There is a Wraith here, so be sure to take it out fast. It's easy to kill the other guards afterwards. Take the eastern path and go north whenever you can. Kill any Orcs you encounter: no detectors here, so it's easy. Proceed up north to find the stables. You have to be quick now, make sure that the Orcs don't kill any of the horses. You should be able to kill those two before they can do a lot of damage. For each horse you have freed, you gain a Fate Point. These can be used to buy each of Gandalf's abilities. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Save the horses. From the stables, head south and take the first path to the west. Cross the little stream and kill the Orc Slashers that guard the path to the north. It is time to reclaim the Great Hall. There are some Orc Archers here, and there is an Orc Captain. You only have to kill the Captain to get the Hall. Since it can't see you, this should be done in no time, even though he has a lot of hit points. Kill the archers behind him as well. Now head back to the main gate. Take your entire army to the main gate as well, including Erkenbrand, the two Rangers inside the Watchtowers, and Gandalf. From there, take your army west and then up north, until you find the Orc war camp. It doesn't matter if your camp gets attacked during this time, as long as you destroy the Orc camp you won't be in trouble. This Orc camp is very well defended: it has fully manned towers with Wraiths in them and some tank-like Trolls to clear out your troops. Use Might of the Rohirrim while your cavalry is still together to get maximum effect. To clear out the defense, make use of Gandalf's Flash ability. Cast Fire Shield on Gandalf himself. When the defense is gone, use Rain of Fire in an area with a lot of buildings in it to set it all ablaze. Continue to do this until the last bit of Orc presence is gone. You beat the scenario! OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Purge the Orcs from Upbourn. MISSION COMPLETED ------------ Helm's Deep ------------ INTRO: Third Age 3019 "Saruman has unleashed all of his forces from Isengard to assault the Hornburg within Helm's Deep. His forces have crushed all resistance on their march toward the stronghold. As the foul army draws near, Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas prepare the defense." HEROES: - Aragorn ==> Abilities: - Kingsfoil => Available - Anduril's Fury => Available - Immunity => Available - Gimli ==> Abilities: - Sunder => Available - Capture => Available - Siege Aura => Available - Legolas ==> Abilities: - Trueshot => Available - Elven Speed => Available - Guardian Wind => Available BUILDINGS: - No buildings to be built UNITS: - No units to be trained UPGRADES: - No upgrades to be researched Ah, that famous battle ;) It actually isn't so hard here: you only need to position your troops in the right spot and make sure no units die because of them engaging an enemy army all by themselves. You can see your priorities in the objectives screen: ! Gimli must survive ! Legolas must survive ! Aragorn must survive - Protect the Culvert Your first task is to protect the Culvert (the place where the stream meets the Deeping Wall) for five minutes. To do this, position all your archers on the wall above the stream. Place Gimli behind the Culvert and give him some of the troops that arrive as reinforcements. Put the rest of the troops on the wall to protect your archers. Note that the screen has changed view. I usually play on the normal view, which can be accessed by pressing 5 on the Num Pad. Your choice. Start killing Orcs that attack the Culvert. Use Elven Speed if there are a lot of them. Make sure your archers are defended by reinforcements; use them to kill enemies that gain a foothold on the Deeping Wall. Split your newly acquired reinforcements into a group to defend the wall, and a group to defend the Culvert together with Gimli. Once you have collected three Fate Points, use the Heroic Legacy fate power on one of your heroes. This will make them very effective in the end of this scenario. When you've survived this for five minutes, a cutscene triggers wherein an Orc blows up the Culvert. Your troops will also gain an armor upgrade. Now you get a new objective. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Protect the Culvert. NEW OBJECTIVE: Kill 80 Orcs. A second timer triggers, counting down from three minutes. You need to kill 80 Orcs before the timer runs out. It shouldn't be to hard if you've got Gimli and reinforcements to protect the Culvert. Your archers and Legolas will kill a lot of enemies as well, especially when equipped with Elven Speed. Make sure your archers are defended by the melee troops on the wall, though. After killing 80 Orcs, your men receive an attack upgrade. The cutscene shows a giant ram trying to crush the main gate. When you get control, direct every archer in the Stronghold and Legolas to the main gate and attack that ram, before it can crush the gate! Get the rest of your melee fighters together and position them next to King Théoden, who also stands at the main gate. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Kill 80 Orcs. NEW OBJECTIVE: Defend the Hornburg until dawn. Your melee fighters should stay behind the protective walls and only attack sometimes, mostly when the enemy army is so big that your archers can't handle it. As long as you destroy the ram, you should be allright. Hold out for 10 minutes to start Théodens heroic attack. Unfortunately, he will be killed together with Aragorn if you don't send more troops to help him. So, direct your entire army out of the gate and kill all enemies you encounter. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Defend the Hornburg until dawn. Soon, another cutscene starts. Gandalf comes runnig from a hill with Riders of Rohan and Erkenbrand right behind him. The Huorns of Fangorn Forest have joined the counter-attack as well. NEW OBJECTIVE: The Return of Gandalf => Defeat the Orcs besieging the Hornburg This mission is basically over. To make it even more certain that you're going to win summon a Giant Ent to aid you in battle. Use all the troops at your disposal to clear the battlefield of any Orc presence. On the other side, the Huorns should be able to deal with the Orcs easily. When you have killed every single enemy, the ending sequence triggers. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: The Return of Gandalf. MISSION COMPLETED ------------- Minas Morgul ------------- INTRO: Third Age 3019 "Minas Morgul, the Tower of Sorcery, has terrorized Gondor for over a thousand years. Aragorn seeks to cleanse the city of the remaining Nazgul that haunt its walls, and return the tower to its former glory as Minas Ithil, the Tower of the Moon." HEROES: - Gandalf ==> Abilities: - Flash => Available - Fire Shield => Available - Negate Ability => Available - Rain of Fire => Available - Aragorn ==> Abilities: - Kingsfoil => Available - Anduril's Fury => Available - Immunity => Available - Legolas ==> Abilities: - Trueshot => Available - Elven Speed => Available - Guardian Wind => Available - Gimli ==> Abilities: - Sunder => Available - Capture => Available - Siege Aura => Available BUILDINGS: - All buildings are available UNITS: - All units are available UPGRADES: - All upgrades are available This level is very hard. And very annoying as well. It requires you are able to do several things at once: create a good defense, and finally decisive offensive tactics. The best way to play this level is to just take the units you think are best. After a opening cutscene you'll see a lot of objectives. - Sanctify the Tower of Sorcery => Destroy the War Posts around the Tower => Control the Orb of Energy => Control the Orb of Reforming - Sanctify the Graveyards => Western Graves => Eastern Graves - (OPTIONAL) Remove the Orc presence - (OPTIONAL) Destroy the Troll Reinforcements When you get control, your heroes are running towards your camp. Send them to the middle of your camp. Start setting up a good economy, you should know how to do that after all those levels. Build structures with your Workers as you see fit. It is very important that you use units for defense that you have developed special strategies for, not just pick them at random. For example, my defense heavily relied on cloaked archers together with my heroes. Now, things can get very tricky. Your camp will be attacked from every possible side. Place your troops in the middle of your camp. That way, they won't take much time taking on enemies. Make sure you always have Rangers at defensive spots and in Watchtowers. These can spot invisible units, making your defense somewhat easier. Use the abilities of your heroes to the max as well. Upgrade your Stronghold and start training Elven Archers, cloaked and upgraded, of course. Then start heading north. You will see a main road. You can destroy the Troll Reinforcements here, but I don't recommend it. It might cost you valuable archers. Instead, head further north, to the bridge that leads into Minas Morgul. The Orc encampment where the attacks are coming from is here. Although destroying Orc presence is an optional objective, completing it will make the attacks on your encampment cease. Thus, it would be wise to destroy this enemy camp. It may take several tries, because this war camp is the best defended of those you've encountered so far. Whenever you see a Wraith, kill it, even when it's in a tower. Do everything step by step. To increase your chance at destroying this camp, summon a Giant Ent when you have acquired the needed Fate. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Remove the Orc presence You could head further into the city now, but I advise to return your archers to your camp and heal. Minas Morgul is full of Wraiths, which are summoned from the cursed graveyards. Elven Archers aren't very effective because of that. Take your entire force, including heroes, and head into the city. Search the blackened terrain and buildings to find one War Post in the east and one in the west. The Wraiths attacking you here shouldn't pose any real danger for your forces. Destroy each red War Post to sanctify both of the graves. It will stop the stream of Wraiths coming out to attack you. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Sanctify the Graveyards Heal, then head further north. Do not enter the corrupted terrain around the Tower of Sorcery yet. Instead, have your units go west to see the first Place of Power you need to control. Slay the enemies here, there aren't a lot around here as you have already sanctified the graveyards. Once you control the first Orb, take your force to the eastern one. Crush all resistance around this PoP too. Once you enter the terrain around the Tower, you will receive a message saying that the dark spell cast around this place is draining your units' health. To put an end to this, destroy the four purple War Posts around this area. You can go for minimum losses by quickly destroying one of the War Posts and returning to normal grounds. Use Kingsfoil if one of your units is about to die. Note that sometimes, the Lord of the Nazgul will use his Shadow Walk ability to instantly travel to your forces. In that case, quickly run back to healthy grounds and kill them there. Anduril's Fury will do a lot of damage against those Black Riders, by the way. Keep your heroes alive. When all War Posts around the Tower of Sorcery are destroyed and you control both Orbs, you will be rewarded with victory. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Sanctify the Tower of Sorcery MISSION COMPLETED -------------------------- The Pass of Cirith Gorgor -------------------------- INTRO: Third Age 3019 "Sauron has amassed a legion of minions to push forth from the Black Gates. Aragorn leads the soldiers of the Free Peoples of Middle-Earth against the evil forces. However, he does not know the peril that awaits." HEROES: - Gandalf ==> Abilities: - Flash => Available - Fire Shield => Available - Negate Ability => Available - Rain of Fire => Available - Aragorn ==> Abilities: - Kingsfoil => Available - Anduril's Fury => Available - Immunity => Available - Legolas ==> Abilities: - Trueshot => Available - Elven Speed => Available - Guardian Wind => Available - Gimli ==> Abilities: - Sunder => Available - Capture => Available - Siege Aura => Available BUILDINGS: - All buildings are available UNITS: - All units are available UPGRADES: - All upgrades are available As it is the final level of the Good Campaign, I doubt I need to tell you that this level is difficult. But, unlike Minas Morgul, it's fairly exciting and enjoyable. In the opening cutscene, Gandalf tells Aragorn that the enemy is completing three Claws of Gorgoroth. Why?.. you'll know soon enough. Let's just start with your objectives: - Eliminate the final enemy encampment Sound simple? It isn't. You start off with a camp and a good amount of fresh soldiers. Put your units, including your heroes, a little bit to the south of your camp. All the attacks on your encampment in this level will come from the south, the southwest, or the southeast. Note that you won't be attacked in the first minutes. Make use of this time to put up a good economy. The only buildings you have to build are an Elven Sanctuary and Ranger Post. Start training Rangers and Elven Archers as they are completed. Upgrade your Stronghold to the last level and research all upgrades for your archers. You might also want to train some more Barracks units to increase your numbers. Upgrade your camps as you see fit. Soon, there will be another cutscene. It appears that Sauron has succeeded in summoning a Balrog, an incredibly big demon. As if that weren't enough, the Claws of Gorgoroth mentioned in the opening cutscene lend it terrible offensive and defensive powers. Now, you need to kill this Balrog. NEW OBJECTIVE: Kill the Balrog => Capture the Claw of Power to weaken attack => Capture the Claw of Protection to weaken defense => Capture the Claw of Renewal to weaken regeneration Now, waves of attackers start coming out of the enemy's camp, sometimes several at once. They should be dealt with quite easily with your upgraded troops and heroes. Remember that Kingsfoil can heal units that would die otherwise. The only problem to deal with right now is the Balrog. You can't possibly expect to capture all three Claws... just take all your forces and move west. Head north when you can. You will then see a little Orc encampment. Destroy it, this will make the last part of this mission easier to complete. Head back south and train reinforcements. You should be able to intercept any attackers that come for your camp. Note that these attackers look like they'll eat you up, but they're actually not to hard as long as you use your heroes' abilities. Head further west until you arrive at the next encampment. There are some Stonehurlers on the ledge above this camp so beware. Totally raze this camp and capture the Claw of Protection. By now, the Balrog should be well on his way reaching your forces. Retreat back to your camp and get ready for a serious battle. Heal, train, and wait for the demon to arrive. Once it arrives, cast Fire Shield on Aragorn. Don't use any Fate Powers, rely on your heroes and troops. Elven Speed can ease the pain a bit. Use Kingsfoil on your heroes only. Rain of Fire and especially Flash can help a lot in this battle. The Balrog should fall rather quickly as you have decreased its armor by capturing the Claw of Protection. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Gene Y. AKA grenka has an alternate strategy to deal with the Balrog which may be more to your likings: =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= At the beginning of the scenario quickly build two to four Rangers and a few Gondor Swordsmen. Then take all of your army (except some Swordsmen and a couple of Rangers to defend your base) to the first Claw of Gorgoroth. The Rangers are needed for the enemy Haradrim Slayers. If you use Gandalf's Flame Shield and Aragorn's Kingsfoil abilities it would prove a lot easier to conquer at least two Claws of Gorgoroth. Then, the Balrog will come... Defend the road. Position Aragorn, Gimli, and Gandalf on the road along with any other melee units, and let the Balrog come closer. When the Balrog comes cast the Brambles Fate Power on his path and retreat your units a little further backwards. When the Balrog passes the Brambles hit him with all of your forces, and make sure to use your heroes' abilities. Gandalf's Blind can be of particularly good use here. The Balrog should be easy to kill this way. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Kill the Balrog With that completed, it's time to move on to the Black Gates. The normal attack waves start coming again. Train reinforcements and buy any upgrades you haven't purchased yet. Repel the attacks on your camp as normal. Your forces should be made up of cloaked and upgraded Elven Archers and some heroes, including some Rangers and Riders of Rohan to get sufficient numbers. With your offensive force ready, move to the spot where the little orc camp was you destroyed before. Head north from here, onto a small ledge that will take you directly to the south of the Claw of Renewal. It is protected by lots of troops, together with Black Riders, so watch out not to lose too many troops. If you do, retreat to the ledge and train additional reinforcements. It's time for the final part of this mission. Trust me, this isn't going to be a walk in the park because that final encampment is very, very well defended. To get there, simply move west from the Claw of Renewal. You should know when you arrive because Stonehurlers start throwing boulders at you once you get there. Move into the camp after casting Fire Shield on one of your heroes. Make sure you destroy the Towers and the Wraiths in them first. The Wraiths in this scenario are very annoying, they keep casting Perpetual Darkness as soon as they pop out of a Tower. Kill normal resistance here too. It is vital to use your heroes' abilities here, especially Gandalf's. It shouldn't be too hard when the first line of defense has been cleared. Remember that Rain of Fire sets buildings on fire, which can be helpful when trying for a quick win. Otherwise, summon a Giant Ent (you should have gained enough Fate by now) to complete the job. Raze all buildings of this enemy war camp to gain victory. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Eliminate the final enemy encampment MISSION COMPLETED Congratulations, you beat the Good Campaign! =============================================================================== << 8. PLAYING THE MINIONS OF SAURON >> ---------------------------------- Playing as the Minions of Sauron, you stand for everything that is evil in the world of Middle-Earth. Under your command, dozens of bloodthirsty Orcs and other riff-raff. You may even enlist the aid of the mighty Nazgul or the Wizard of Many Colors Saruman to stain the fields with the blood of the Free Peoples. The military of the Minions of Saurons consists of hordes of Orcs, dozens of Uruk-Hai and legions of powerful Trolls. They play a lot different from the normal RTS games, and their campaign can give you some trouble. But, once you have mastered the art of destruction, you won't play the good side anymore. - - - - - - - - - - - - - 8.1) Gameplay Differences - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sauron's Minions have several unique characteristics in this game. All of them are listed below: - The Minions use a Slaughterhouse to collect Food and a Smelter to obtain Ore. - The Workers of the Minions drop their resources at the Goblin Hovel. - Workers are trained at the Goblin Hovel, Heroes at the Fortress of Mordor. - You can only build your structures on corrupted land. Corrupted land looks like it's been burned and can only be created by ordering a Slavemaster to place a War Post on the normal terrain. - Different technologies, units, and heroes than the Good Side. - They use Slavemasters to expand their Population - Their Towers can be equipped with Poison Arrows, doing damage to each hit enemy over time. - They have different Fate Powers. - - - - - - - - - - 8.2) Evil Buildings - - - - - - - - - - Goblin Hovel ------------- HIT POINTS: 700 BUILDING COST: 225 Food, 225 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 3 UNITS TRAINED: - Goblin Worker - Goblin Spearman - Goblin Slavemaster RESEARCH HERE: None Inside this horrible residence, Goblins are kept safe from the dangers of the outside world. It is where the Goblin Workers, corrupted slaves under control of the Dark Lord, drop off the resources needed to keep the evil armies under the banner of the Lidless Eye running. In case of emergency, there are all kinds of self-made spears for self defense. Special treated Slavemasters learn to keep the whole bunch of horrors in line, thus creating additional population slots. It is an important building that has to be protected. War Post --------- HIT POINTS: 500 BUILDING COST: 65 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 0 UNITS TRAINED: None RESEARCH HERE: None The War Post's sole purpose is to corrupt beautiful green soil into the blackened grounds Sauron's minions can build upon. They can only be built by Slavemasters and are needed for expanding your settlement. If you don't have any War Posts, you cannot build structures. They are weak and need protection. Fortress of Mordor ------------------- REQUIRED: Goblin Hovel HIT POINTS: 700 BUILDING COST: 75 Food, 90 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 3 UNITS TRAINED: - Gollum - Grishnakh - Saleme - Lord of the Nazgul - Saruman RESEARCH HERE: - Fortress of Mordor Level 2 - Fortress of Mordor Level 3 - Fortress of Mordor Level 4 - Fortress of Mordor Level 5 Fortresses of Mordor are vital for war camps. Without them, no advanced upgrades can be researched, nor can some powerful units be accessed. In here, the Heroes of the Minions are given everything they desire. In order for your settlement to have any chance of surviving, this massive structure has to be built as soon as possible. It can be upgraded up to level 5, adding new HP and armor class with each improvement. Slaughterhouse --------------- REQUIRED: Goblin Hovel HIT POINTS: 530 BUILDING COST: 50 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 3 UNITS TRAINED: None RESEARCH HERE: None All those evil creatures like Orcs and Trolls do not eat grain. All they want is meat... preferably fresh, of course. The Slaughterhouse is a structure that domesticates animals, only to slaughter them later for food. To keep the beasts inside alive, the Slaughterhouse needs a constant flow of fresh water. Therefor, it can only be built on top of a well. Smelter -------- REQUIRED: Goblin Hovel HIT POINTS: 725 BUILDING COST: 80 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 3 UNITS TRAINED: None RESEARCH HERE: None The Minions soon found themselves without ore, which was used in huge amounts to create the weaponry for the hordes of Mordor. Thinking of new methods to strip Ore from the ground, the Goblins designed the Smelter. Its purpose was to smelt the Ore and change it into better transportable packs, increasing the amount of ore the Goblin Workers can carry. The Smelter has to be built on top of an ore deposit to function. Tower ------ REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 1 HIT POINTS: 350 BUILDING COST: 100 Food, 100 Ore ATTACK POWER: 14 ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: None, but four can be garrisoned inside for more shots. RESEARCH HERE: None This defensive structure was built to ensure the survival of important new war camps. Black towers, carrying the emblem of Sauron, able to garrison units inside, far from danger. You'll need a lot of them to protect the vital areas in your war camp (Goblin Hovel, War Posts). At the borders of your settlement, they can help by spotting incoming raiding parties from afar. Orc Mound ---------- REQUIRED: Goblin Hovel HIT POINTS: 675 BUILDING COST: 55 Food, 110 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: - Orc Bowman - Orc Slasher - Uruk-Hai RESEARCH HERE: None The ancient tales of the Elves told how Morgoth, the Enemy, of whom Sauron was only a general, bred the twisted race of Orcs. He took them into the dark dungeons of his stronghold Utumno and tortured them until they were the opposite of the Elves: ugly, bloodthirsty, and without mercy. Inside the Orc Mound, Orcs are taught how to handle their weapons in brutal training sessions. With more advanced technology, the Uruk-Hai can also be trained in this structure. Dark Arsenal ------------- REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 1 HIT POINTS: 575 BUILDING COST: 70 Food, 105 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: None RESEARCH HERE: - Curved Blades; Serrated Blades; Wicked Blades - Iron Fittings; Forged Fittings; Steel Fittings - Savage Influence - Goblin Frenzy - Raven Fletching - Flame Arrows - Poison Arrows Orcs aren't exactly competent smiths, but they tend to use anything they can get to defeat their enemies. Most of the time, the researchers inside this dark laboratory design wicked upgrades for the Orcs to use in battle, causing more pain to enemies or intoxicating them. The Goblins can be upgraded here as well, giving them better speed. It is a much needed structure to turn normal Orc soldiers into ravaging killing machines. Beast Lair ----------- REQUIRED: Goblin Hovel HIT POINTS: 675 BUILDING COST: 95 Food, 100 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 2 UNITS TRAINED: - Warg Rider - Giant Spider RESEARCH HERE: None Often finding themselves slaughtered by the Free Peoples because of their enemies' control over animals, the leaders of the Orc ranks decided to take a shot at raising their own animals. As the Orcs of the Misty Mountains did for ages, they started to raise the ferocious, wolf-like Wargs in massive numbers. In greater settlements, the mistress spider of Cirith Ungol Shelob sometimes decided to send her kin to aid the Dark Lord's armies. Breeding Pit ------------- REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 2 HIT POINTS: 550 BUILDING COST: 90 Food, 100 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: None RESEARCH HERE: - Fearsome Strength; Overwhelming Strength; Monstrous Strength - Ritual Tattooing; Ritual Scarring; Ritual Branding - Paralyze - Spray Venom - Target Practice - Unstoppable Force - Sweeping Axe To increase their effectiveness in battle, Sauron's minions often tortured beasts, making them truly evil. Menacing around the battlefield, these monsters decided many wars. Inside the Breeding Pit, both the Warg Rider and the Giant Spider can be upgraded. In more advanced settlements, the huge Troll warriors can be made more effective there as well. Shadow Lair ------------ REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 2 HIT POINTS: 725 BUILDING COST: 110 Food, 105 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: - Wraith - Haradrim Slayer RESEARCH HERE: None A special structure was needed for minions of Sauron that preferred or needed places dark of shadow for their training. Created mostly from the darkness itself, the Wraiths have gained great abilities at detecting hidden enemies. The Haradrim needed dark places to master the art of hiding, making them truly fearsome assassins. Nobody but these two creatures know how to get out of the Shadow Lair again after entering it. Black Vault ------------ REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 HIT POINTS: 575 BUILDING COST: 85 Food, 75 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: None RESEARCH HERE: - Jagged Point; Hooked Point; Barbed Point - Alloy Mail; Shadow Mail; Dark Mail - Greater Perception - Darkness - Perpetual Darkness - Poison Dart - Assassin's Cloak - Morgul Blade This structure houses the elite of Sauron's alchemists and metal workers. All upgrades made inside this building are to increase pain, not chance at death. Special techniques from far lands such as Harad are acquired in here as well, though they are very expensive. Finding the weapons created at the Dark Arsenal not fit for them, the savage Uruk-Hai will only receive upgrades from the Black Vault. Troll Den ---------- REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 HIT POINTS: 950 BUILDING COST: 125 Food, 135 Ore ARMOR CLASS: 1 UNITS TRAINED: - Troll Bonecleaver - Troll Stonehurler RESEARCH HERE: None Though 'persuading' them wasn't without problems, the Trolls have proven their worthiness to the Dark Lord without fail. The massive warriors have been known to destroy entire armies while only in a small group. Now, these tanks have been made even more useful as they can now withstand the daylight. The Troll Den is the only structure large enough to house these huge creatures. - - - - - - - - - - 8.3) Evil Upgrades - - - - - - - - - - First, I shall list the Dark Arsenal technologies here. After that, there are the Breeding Pit and the Black Vault technologies. Curved Blades -------------- UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 1 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Goblin Spearmen, Orc Bowmen and Orc Slashers. RATING: 2/5 - This doesn't make a lot of difference... yet. It needed for the later upgrades (which DO matter), so buy it. Offense over defense! Serrated Blades ---------------- UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal REQUIRED: Curved Blades, Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Goblin Spearmen, Orc Bowmen and Orc Slashers. RATING: 3/5 - You might notice that battles go a little faster once you've researched this upgrade. And believe me, it gets better. Wicked Blades -------------- UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal REQUIRED: Serrated Blades, Fortress of Mordor Level 5 UPGRADE COST: 175 Food, 175 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Goblin Spearmen, Orc Bowmen and Orc Slashers. RATING: 5/5 - Now we're talking. Build up a nice force of fresh Orc Bowmen and Slashers and go destroy an enemy camp. Absolutely devastating when attacking in hordes! Iron Fittings -------------- UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 1 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Goblin Spearmen, Orc Bowmen and Orc Slashers. RATING: 1/5 - Buy an attack upgrade before this. This, again, is one of the things you'll have to buy to get the better upgrades. Forged Fittings ---------------- UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal REQUIRED: Iron Fittings, Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Goblin Spearmen, Orc Bowmen and Orc Slashers. RATING: 3/5 - This is much better than the last one, since you might have noticed your units last longer in battle. Steel Fittings --------------- UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal REQUIRED: Forged Fittings, Fortress of Mordor Level 5 UPGRADE COST: 175 Food, 175 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Goblin Spearmen, Orc Bowmen and Orc Slashers. RATING: 4/5 - Mix this up with Wicked Blades and some units from the other training structures and nobody will have the strength to stand against your armies! Savage Influence ----------------- UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 1 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Slavemasters can crack their whips to speed up nearby allies. RATING: 1/5 - Not needed at all in my opinion. The only thing I can think of to use this is to speed up your resource production. Otherwise, useless. Goblin Frenzy -------------- UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 100 Food, 100 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Upgrades the speed of Goblin Workers, Goblin Spearmen, and Goblin Slavemasters. RATING: 2/5 - Better than Savage Influence, since it speeds up your resource production for all time. But I suggest you buy the military upgrades first. Raven Fletching ---------------- UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 100 Food, 100 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Upgrades the range of Orc Bowmen. RATING: 3/5 - I don't use Orc Bowmen a lot, but increased range means you might get in an extra shot per archer, thinning out enemy forces more quickly. Flame Arrows ------------- UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 150 Food, 150 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Makes the Orc Bowmen shoot flaming arrows, causing fire damage to all things they hit. RATING: 4/5 - Expensive upgrade, but ideal for raiding. Go round a camp with several of Bowmen with these arrows and soon all buildings will be on fire, rendering your enemy helpless. Poison Arrows -------------- UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 100 Food, 100 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Makes your Towers shoot poisonous arrows, intoxicating all foes that are hit. RATING: 3/5 - This upgrade is quite needed. Since you can't get that powerful Ballista of the Free Peoples, this'll have to do. Can be infiuriating to opponents when all their forces die due to poisoning. Fearsome Strength ------------------ UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 85 Food, 85 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Warg Riders, Giant Spiders, Troll Bonecleavers, and Troll Stonehurlers. RATING: 1/5 - One of those upgrades you'll have to get to access the better, later upgrades. I don't use these units that much, but if you do, don't hesitate and buy this upgrade quickly. Overwhelming Strength ---------------------- UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 135 Food, 135 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Warg Riders, Giant Spiders, Troll Bonecleavers, and Troll Stonehurlers. RATING: 3/5 - You might notice the difference in battles now. Can get even better... Monstrous Strength ------------------- UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 5 UPGRADE COST: 185 Food, 185 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Warg Riders, Giant Spiders, Troll Bonecleavers, and Troll Stonehurlers. RATING: 5/5 - This'll make your Trolls behemoths that cannot be stopped. Very expensive, but very worth it if your forces are made up mainly of these sorts of forces. Ritual Tattooing ----------------- UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 85 Food, 85 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Warg Riders, Giant Spiders, Troll Bonecleavers, and Troll Stonehurlers. RATING: 1/5 - The armor upgrade for your beasts. Same story, needed for later upgrades. Ritual Scarring ---------------- UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 135 Food, 135 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Warg Riders, Giant Spiders, Troll Bonecleavers, and Troll Stonehurlers. RATING: 3/5 - This'll make them last longer again. If you like raiding with Warg Riders, this will ensure lots of damage. Also helps defensive Giant Spiders. Ritual Branding ---------------- UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 5 UPGRADE COST: 185 Food, 185 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Warg Riders, Giant Spiders, Troll Bonecleavers, and Troll Stonehurlers. RATING: 4/5 - If you've ever wanted tanks which obviously just won't die on the battlefield, give this upgrade to your Troll warriors. They are monstrous indeed, immortal if you play the game right... Paralyze --------- UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 100 Food, 100 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Giant Spiders' attacks paralyze foes, making them unable to move. RATING: 4/5 - The only thing that makes those spiders worth buying, I think. Put lots of these in your defense and make them all attack different enemies. They won't even have a chance to retaliate before they die! Spray Venom ------------ UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit REQUIRED: Paralyze, Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 150 Food, 150 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Makes the Giant Spider spray venom, paralyzing all units in front of it. RATING: 1/5 - Bad upgrade. You need a constant flow of venom, and this move will deplete it. It's better to just focus on a single strong unit and keep paralyzing it. Target Practice ---------------- UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 150 Food, 150 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Increases the range of the Troll Stonehurlers. RATING: 3/5 - Great when combined with Unstoppable Force. I prefer Uruk-Hai as my main ranged unit, but if you like Trolls, purchase this. Unstoppable Force ------------------ UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 160 Food, 160 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Makes Troll Stonehurlers' attacks do area damage. RATING: 4/5 - The best upgrade for your Stonehurlers, giving them an area-of-effect attack. This will, together with attack upgrades, decimate an incoming enemy army. Sweeping Axe ------------- UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 150 Food, 150 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Gives the Troll Bonecleaver a special attack that knocks back all units in front of it. RATING: 4/5 - If you have lots of Bonecleavers, get it now! Will make them slice through forces as a hot knife through butter! Very, very nice. Jagged Point ------------- UPGRADE AT: Black Vault REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Haradrim Slayers and Uruk-Hai. RATING: 1/5 - Get it now. I don't know about you, but I myself rely heavily on both of these troops. They become really destructive once all these upgrades are bought. Hooked Point ------------- UPGRADE AT: Black Vault REQUIRED: Jagged Point, Fortress of Mordor Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Haradrim Slayers and Uruk-Hai. RATING: 3/5 - Just like Jagged Point. Makes your Haradrim do some real damage with their assassinating cloaks. Barbed Point ------------- UPGRADE AT: Black Vault REQUIRED: Hooked Point, Fortress of Mordor Level 5 UPGRADE COST: 175 Food, 175 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Attack for Haradrim Slayers and Uruk-Hai. RATING: 5/5 - Makes your Haradrim and Uruk-Hai almost invincible because they kill detectors so fast. Uruk-Hai will be able to kill enemies before they reach them because of their Knockback Arrow ability. Alloy Mail ----------- UPGRADE AT: Black Vault REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Haradrim Slayers and Uruk-Hai. RATING: 1/5 - Attack upgrades have higher priority, but this is quite needed as well. Just so they won't die because of one simple enemy detector. Shadow Mail ------------ UPGRADE AT: Black Vault REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Haradrim Slayers and Uruk-Hai. RATING: 3/5 - Will make them last even longer. Very useful, but you still need to buy attack upgrades first. Dark Mail ---------- UPGRADE AT: Black Vault REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 5 UPGRADE COST: 175 Food, 175 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: +1 Armor for Haradrim Slayers and Uruk-Hai. RATING: 4/5 - Makes Haradrim Slayers the best units for the army of the Minions, even better than Trolls, because they can't be seen except by detectors. Combine with Barbed Point to get maximum effectiveness. Greater Perception ------------------- UPGRADE AT: Black Vault REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Gives the Wraith an LOS upgrade, improving detection range. RATING: 3/5 - Good for the Wraiths in your Towers. Will take care of annoying Elven Archers faster. Darkness --------- UPGRADE AT: Black Vault REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 75 Food, 75 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Gives the Wraith an ability to slow enemy units. RATING: 2/5 - Not really needed, but is required to get the next upgrade, Perpetual Darkness, which IS useful sometimes. Perpetual Darkness ------------------- UPGRADE AT: Black Vault REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Makes the Wraith able to slow and blind enemies. RATING: 3/5 - The best weapon against raiding parties. Cast it on the right moment and they will just stand there while your Towers finish them off. Poison Dart ------------ UPGRADE AT: Black Vault REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 50 Food, 50 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Gives the Haradrim Slayer the ability to fire a poisonous dart, doing damage to an enemy over time. RATING: 2/5 - Might seem pretty good, but is actually very hard to aim in the thick of battle. Also costs 25 Food and 25 Ore each time, so it's pretty resource-draining. Assassin's Cloak ----------------- UPGRADE AT: Black Vault REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 150 Food, 150 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Cloaks from the far land of Harad make the Haradrim Slayer invisible to enemies, except for detector units. RATING: 5/5 - Same as Elven Cloaks for the Free Peoples, plain and simple. Five to ten Haradrim Slayers can, when combined with attack and armor upgrades, wipe out an entire base using this. Morgul Blade ------------- UPGRADE AT: Black Vault REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 125 Food, 125 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: The weapons of the Black Riders become poisonous, doing damage to an enemy over time. RATING: 2/5 - If you have a lot of Black Riders, buy this as soon as you can. If you don't use them, don't buy this. Very effective in large numbers. Fortress of Mordor Level 2 --------------------------- UPGRADE AT: Fortress of Mordor REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 1 UPGRADE COST: 100 Food, 105 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Increases HP and armor class of the Fortress. Is needed for certain upgrades to be purchased as well. RATING: 5/5 - All Fortress of Mordor upgrades have high priority, because without them you cannot use the better units and upgrades. Fortress of Mordor Level 3 --------------------------- UPGRADE AT: Fortress of Mordor REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 2 UPGRADE COST: 105 Food, 120 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Increases HP and armor class of the Fortress. Is needed for certain upgrades to be purchased as well. RATING: 5/5 - All Fortress of Mordor upgrades have high priority, because without them you cannot use the better units and upgrades. Fortress of Mordor Level 4 --------------------------- UPGRADE AT: Fortress of Mordor REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 UPGRADE COST: 110 Food, 135 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Increases HP and armor class of the Fortress. Is needed for certain upgrades to be purchased as well. RATING: 5/5 - All Fortress of Mordor upgrades have high priority, because without them you cannot use the better units and upgrades. Fortress of Mordor Level 5 --------------------------- UPGRADE AT: Fortress of Mordor REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 4 UPGRADE COST: 115 Food, 150 Ore UPGRADE EFFECT: Increases HP and armor class of the Fortress. Is needed for certain upgrades to be purchased as well. RATING: 5/5 - All Fortress of Mordor upgrades have high priority, because without them you cannot use the better units and upgrades. - - - - - - - - 8.4) Evil Units - - - - - - - - Here, all units of the Minions of Sauron are listed. They all have their own little history and comments with them. There are no heroes, however. They can be found in the next paragraph. Goblin Worker -------------- REQUIRED: Goblin Hovel HIT POINTS: None given ATTACK POWER: None given ARMOR CLASS: None given ATTACK TYPE: None given TRAINED AT: Goblin Hovel COST: 35 Food; 1 Pop UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal SPECIAL ABILITIES: Goblin Workers don't have any special abilities. UNIT HISTORY: The Goblin Workers' lives are mainly made up of miserable slavework in service of their Dark Lord Sauron. Most soldiers think of them as personal workers and command them around, threatening to cut them up and eat them if they don't obey. And so they live their miserable lives, day after day. UNIT COMMENTS: Goblin Workers are naturally the backbone of any war camp. Without them, no resources. Without resources, no army. Without an army, you lose. So make sure you keep them safe from the enemy and they'll collect Food and Ore for you from the Slaughterhouse and the Smelter. Goblin Spearman ---------------- REQUIRED: Goblin Hovel HIT POINTS: 85 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=7; Maximum=10 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=1; Maximum=4 ATTACK TYPE: Pierce TRAINED AT: Goblin Hovel COST: 35 Food; 1 Pop UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal SPECIAL ABILITIES: Goblin Spearmen don't have any special abilities. UNIT HISTORY: In times of emergency when the Goblins needed to defend themselves, they just grabbed a spear of the wall and attacked with it. The Dark Lord soon saw the abilities of these soldiers in great numbers and started recruiting them for simple tasks. They obey without question, and are therefor reliable guardians of food stores as long as they are well-fed. UNIT COMMENTS: What the Goblin Spearmen lacks in strength, it makes up for in speed and cost. They are very quick on their feet and can be quite overwhelming in large numbers. Always train some of these at the start of any game to help counter early raiding parties. Later in the game, they become useless. Goblin Slavemaster -------------------- REQUIRED: Goblin Hovel HIT POINTS: 300 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=3; Maximum=3 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=1; Maximum=1 ATTACK TYPE: Crush TRAINED AT: Goblin Hovel COST: 95 Ore; 0 Pop UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal SPECIAL ABILITIES: Savage Influence - Allows the Slavemaster to crack his whip, speeding up all allies nearby him. (Recharge Time=36s) UNIT HISTORY: Slavemasters are specially trained Goblins that excel at commanding others around. They get luxuries the other Goblins can only dream of. They make sure the Goblin Workers don't riot, and also has to keep an eye on the soldiers so they won't eat the poor slaves. They are very important, for they are the only ones with the knowledge of how to corrupt land with their War Posts. UNIT COMMENTS: You'll need a lot of these. Each Slavemaster adds 12 Population Slots to your total population. The Savage Influence ability can be helpful in times but don't rely on it. Slavemasters are best placed in Towers as long as they aren't needed for placing War Posts on the terrain. Orc Bowman ----------- REQUIRED: Goblin Hovel HIT POINTS: 125 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=8; Maximum=11 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=0; Maximum=3 ATTACK TYPE: Pierce TRAINED AT: Orc Mound COST: 50 Food; 10 Ore; 2 Pop UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal SPECIAL ABILITIES: Flame Arrows - Gives the Orc Bowman fiery arrows, enabling them to set enemy buildings ablaze. (Always on) UNIT HISTORY: Roughly, the Orcs came in two sizes: the bulky, slow Orc that was suited for melee combat; and the skinny, nimble Orcs that learned to use primitive bows made of wood or bones. Though by far not as advanced as Elven archers, they are hazardous in great numbers: they'll shoot anything they can hit. UNIT COMMENTS: These are the basic ranged units for the Minions. They aren't at all strong, but still deal moderate damage and are needed as missile support early in the game before you can access the later, more advanced ranged units such as the Uruk-Hai and Troll Stonehurler. Orc Slasher ------------ REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 1 HIT POINTS: 180 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=10; Maximum=13 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=0; Maximum=3 ATTACK TYPE: Hack TRAINED AT: Orc Mouth COST: 65 Food; 2 Pop UPGRADE AT: Dark Arsenal SPECIAL ABILITIES: Orc Slashers don't have any special abilities. UNIT HISTORY: The Orc melee fighters have always made up the staple of Sauron's army. They are not masters at the sword, nor are they very technical. Nonetheless, Orc Slashers are without fear of death and will obey their masters. Maybe death is better than life for these tortured creatures, created in the dungeons of Morgoth's stronghold Utumno. UNIT COMMENTS: The Orc Slashers will be the main unit in your army throughout the game. They are as strong as Gondor Swordsmen, and can be upgraded to exactly the same attack and armor level. These will serve as a shield for your best units, used as bait for enemy scouts and other normal things. Warg Rider ----------- REQUIRED: Goblin Hovel HIT POINTS: 205 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=10; Maximum=13 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=0; Maximum=3 ATTACK TYPE: Crush TRAINED AT: Beast Lair COST: 65 Food; 35 Ore; 3 Pop UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit SPECIAL ABILITIES: Immune to Knockback - Warg Riders cannot be knocked back. (Always on; not really an ability) UNIT HISTORY: The Orcs of the Misty Mountains seem to have forged a strange alliance with the wolf-like terrors known has Wargs. In exchange for food, the Wargs carry these Orcs into battle, savagely destroying all in its path. Sauron soon saw the potential of these riders in his campaign to destroy Rohan and enlisted them in his ranks. UNIT COMMENTS: The natural quickness of this unit makes it perfect for hit'n run tactics, wherein their Immunity to Knockback has its uses as well. It's just as strong as a normal Orc Slasher, but it deals crush damage and it just looks cooler. Giant Spider ------------- REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 2 HIT POINTS: 210 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=6; Maximum=9 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=1; Maximum=4 ATTACK TYPE: Pierce TRAINED AT: Beast Lair COST: 75 Food; 70 Ore; 3 Pop UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit SPECIAL ABILTIES: Paralyze - Giant Spiders can use their venom to render enemies paralyzed, making them unable to move. (Always on) Spray Venom - The Giant Spider sprays venom to paralyze all units in front of it. Note that the spider loses its ability to paralyze units for a while until its venom has been replenished. (Recharge Time=30s) UNIT HISTORY: Distant kin of the monstrous Shelob, the mistress of spiders who roams in the pass of Cirith Ungol, these Giant Spiders are horrific in every possible way. They are not very capable fighters, but they may utilise special venom that can paralyze and in some cases kill. They have mostly acted as a support unit for the armies of the Dark Lord. UNIT COMMENTS: Giant Spiders aren't worth recruiting until you have purchased the Paralyze ability, which will make them valuable support units in base defense. Let each of your spiders attack different units: they won't be able to make a move, while your other units slaughter them. Wraith ------- REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 2 HIT POINTS: 140 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=7; Maximum=7 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=2; Maximum=2 ATTACK TYPE: Pierce TRAINED AT: Shadow Lair COST: 60 Food; 50 Ore; 2 Pop UPGRADE AT: Black Vault SPECIAL ABILITIES: Detection - The Wraith is able to see hidden units, otherwise invisible. (Always on) Darkness - Enshrouds enemies in darkness, slowing their movement. (Recharge Time=30s) Perpetual Darkness - Enshrouds enemies in an even greater darkness, blinding them and slowing their movement. (Recharge Time=30s) Greater Perception - Gives the Wraith an LOS upgrade, increasing detection range. (Always on) UNIT HISTORY: Wraiths are the lonely souls that wander this earth, those who haven't found peace in death. A good example would be the Barrow Wights haunting the barrow downs near the Old Forest. Often wounded by a Morgul blade, these ghouls have the ability to see each and every form of life by their aura, thus creating a very good detection unit for Sauron. UNIT COMMENTS: You need one of these in every one of your Towers to ensure the visibility of cloaked enemies. Their Darkness abilities make them useful on the battlefield itself as well, though they won't last long without defense. Perpetual Darkness can be very irritating for your opponent. Haradrim Slayer ---------------- REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 HIT POINTS: 250 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=14; Maximum=17 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=1; Maximum=4 ATTACK TYPE: Hack TRAINED AT: Shadow Lair COST: 85 Food, 60 Ore UPGRADE AT: Black Vault SPECIAL ABILITIES: Poison Dart - An attack that intoxicates the selected enemy, doing damage over time. Note that this costs 25 Food and Ore each time. (Recharge Time=6s) Assassin's Cloak - Makes the Haradrim Slayer invisible for all enemies except for detector units. (Always on) UNIT HISTORY: The men of Harad once paid tribute to the Men of ancient Númenór, living in some kind of an alliance. But those times have long passed. Now, the Haradrim only serve their Lord Sauron, and their uncanny skills at assassinating and fighting with their blades have stroke fear into the hearts of those who've faced them. Their special war beast is called the Mumakil, an elephant-like horror with dozens of archers on top of it. UNIT COMMENTS: These guys seriously rock. Their attack is the same as that of Elven Archers and they can become invisible as well. Combine that with the ability to poison enemies at a cost and there you have the main late-game unit for the Minions of Sauron. Troll Bonecleaver ------------------ REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 4 HIT POINTS: 640 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=19; Maximum=22 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=2; Maximum=5 ATTACK TYPE: Hack TRAINED AT: Troll Den COST: 200 Food; 175 Ore; 5 Pop UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit SPECIAL ABILITIES: Sweeping Axe - Allows the Bonecleaver to swing his weapon with great power, knocking back and damaging all units near him. (Recharge Time=12s) UNIT COMMENTS: Trolls come in many forms on Middle-Earth. At first, they were neutral, dull creatures which only sought a place to live. But when the Black Riders came to their homes in Eriador, they were soon enlisted in Sauron's ranks. Through some kind of sorcery, Sauron has managed to create a more intelligent strain of Troll called the Olog-Hai. He uses them to ruinous effect because they can withstand the daylight. UNIT COMMENTS: These guys are extremely expensive, but well worth the pay when correctly used on the battlefield. The "tanks" of Sauron's army, they have been known to clear out small armies themselves. The Bonecleaver is brutal in every possible way. Troll Stonehurler ------------------ REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 3 HIT POINTS: 250 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=15; Maximum=18 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=0; Maximum=3 ATTACK TYPE: Crush TRAINED AT: Troll Den COST: 150 Food; 150 Ore; 4 Pop UPGRADE AT: Breeding Pit SPECIAL ABILITIES: Unstoppable Force - Makes the Troll Stonehurler's boulders do area-of-effect damage, increasing their effectiveness. (Always on) UNIT HISTORY: In Eriador, the Trolls sometimes had to defend their dens from creatures trying to invade their territory. Most Trolls, who were unskilled at fighting with weapons, just grabbed boulders or ripped trees from the ground and threw those at their enemies. Sauron and his generals have only promoted this kind of attacks and now most Stonehurlers can throw their boulders over a distance of over 1500 feet! UNIT COMMENTS: The Bonecleavers cousin, the Troll Stonehurler is able to damage multiple units once properly upgraded. At defense, they decimate incoming enemy armies in a matter of seconds. However, they are very expensive for a ranged unit. Uruk-Hai --------- REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 4 HIT POINTS: 240 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=14; Maximum=17 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=1; Maximum=4 ATTACK TYPE: Pierce TRAINED AT: Orc Mound COST: 80 Food; 65 Ore; 3 Pop UPGRADE AT: Black Vault SPECIAL ABILITIES: Knockback Arrow - Every arrow the Uruk-Hai fires causes Knockback. (Always on) UNIT HISTORY: Born by the combination of the strength of Men and the savagery of an Orc, the Uruk-Hai were created by Saruman for one single purpose: to destroy the world of Men. The Uruk-Hai have proven themselves worthy in each battle they participated in, giving them the abilities to become leaders themselves. Even more than normal Orcs, Uruk-Hai know no mercy and will not hesitate to kill their own followers because of disobedience. UNIT COMMENTS: These are my personal favourite archers: their ability to cause knockback with each arrows is very helpful, especially when facing detectors. Thereby, their strength is the same as the Elven Archer. Mix them up with Haradrim for maximum effectiveness. Black Rider ------------ REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor HIT POINTS: 450 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=18; Maximum=18 ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=1; Maximum=1 ATTACK TYPE: Heroic TRAINED AT: By using Bind Shadow on a Wraith with Lord of the Nazgul. COST: 1 Fate UPGRADE AT: Black Vault SPECIAL ABILITIES: Morgul Blade - The Black Riders' blades become poisonous, doing damage to an enemy over time. (Always on) UNIT HISTORY: One of the first signs that the power of Sauron was rising again in the Third Age was the resurrection of the Black Riders, also called the Nazgul. These were the nine kings that Sauron had given the Rings of Power to. They now obey him in death, being nothing more than a shadow. Weapons that have not been empowered with remnant Elven spells cannot harm them, and will melt away upon contact. The Lord of the Nazgul himself can call the Ringwraiths forth. UNIT COMMENTS: It's not a unit I like to use, I sometimes create them for fun because I have too much Fate, but not for serious tactics. Their attack power is nice, however, and Morgul Blade can be infiuriating for enemies. You can create one by casting Bind Shadow with the Lord of the Nazgul on a Wraith at the cost of one Fate Point. - - - - - - - - - 8.5) Evil Heroes - - - - - - - - - The Heroes are the special units with unique abilities that can lead your troops into battle. Whenever you train a hero, a picture of him appears in the right edge of the screen. Clicking on it will select that hero, while double- clicking immediately focuses on it. All heroes are immune to knockback. Gollum ------- REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 1 HIT POINTS: 350 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=15 (Increases as Gollum levels up) ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=1 (Increases as Gollum levels up) ATTACK TYPE: Heroic TRAINED AT: Fortress of Mordor COST: 150 Food; 100 Ore SPECIAL ABILITIES: Sneak - Allows Gollum to travel while hidden, though his movement becomes much slower using this ability. He can only be seen by detectors. (Recharge Time=7s ;Cost=1 Fate) Gollum's Mark - An ability that allows Gollum to mark an enemy unit, so he can sense it at great distances. (Recharge Time=10s) Surprise Attack - Triples Gollum's attack power if he makes a succesful attack while sneaking. (Always on; Cost=1 Fate) HERO COMMENTS: Gollum is the only one of the Evil Heroes who doesn't cost any Fate. He is a bit like Frodo for the Free Peoples: an expensive, though excellent scouting unit. The Sneak ability is very useful while scouting, but be careful not to run into detector units. Gollum's Mark is great because you can track an enemy unit up to great distances. When Surprise Attack is purchased, you can easily kill enemies who aren't protected by detectors. It nearly triples his attack while sneaking! Grishnakh ---------- REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 1 HIT POINTS: 470 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=20 (Increases as Grishnakh levels up) ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=3 (Increases as Grishnakh levels up) ATTACK TYPE: Heroic TRAINED AT: Fortress of Mordor COST: 3 Fate Points SPECIAL ABILITIES: Explosive Trap - Lets Grishnakh hide an explosive on the terrain. The player can activate it at will, but it will automatically explode if too much time elapses. (Recharge Time=20s ;Cost=2 Fate) Torch - Allows Grishnakh to throw a torch at the selected building, setting it aflame. (Recharge Time=8s ;Cost=1 Fate) Speed of the Wolf - Gives Grishnakh a speed boost for a short amount of time. (Recharge Time=18s) HERO COMMENTS: Grishnakh is a nice hero with abilities that concentrate on pillaging. He can best be used against structures, seeing that he has the ability to set buildings ablaze with Torch. Explosive Trap has to be timed carefully but is very useful in ambushes. Speed of the Wolf can give Grishnakh more attack power by boosting his attack speed. Saleme ------- REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 1 HIT POINTS: 445 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=20 (Increases as Saleme levels up) ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=2 (Increases as Saleme levels up) ATTACK TYPE: Heroic TRAINED AT: Fortress of Mordor COST: 3 Fate Points SPECIAL ABILITIES: Poison Trap - Lets Saleme place a trap on the terrain that spawns poison when triggered by a nearby enemy. (Recharge Time=15s ;Cost=2 Fate) Blood Mark - Allows Saleme to mend a unit's wounds over time. She can also bind this to a War Post to mend units around it for a short duration of time. (Recharge Time=35s ;Cost=3 Fate) Serpent Blades - These blades ricochet and seek their own targets. She can hit multiple targets with one blade. (Always on) HERO COMMENTS: I don't use Saleme that much, but her abilities and ranged power make her a good addition to your army. The ability to bind Blood Mark to a War Post is great: it heals multiple units at once. Poison Trap is actually slightly better than Explosive Trap because it isn't dependant on time. Serpent Blades is standard for her and just let her do more damage to an enemy army. Overall she is a good support unit. Lord of the Nazgul ------------------- REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 1 HIT POINTS: 450 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=20 (Increases as Lord of the Nazgul levels up) ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=3 (Increases as Lord of the Nazgul levels up) ATTACK TYPE: Heroic TRAINED AT: Fortress of Mordor COST: 3 Fate Points SPECIAL ABILITIES: Bind Shadow - At the cost of 1 Fate Point, the Lord of the Nazgul can create a Black Rider by using this power on a Wraith. There can only be a maximum of eight Black Riders present at one time. (Recharge Time=50s ;Cost=2 Fate) Shadow Walk - Allows the Lord of the Nazgul to instantly travel to grounds that are corrupted by a War Post, taking any Wraiths and Black Riders with him. (Recharge Time=40s ;Cost=2 Fate) Aura of Weakness - This ability decreases the armor class of enemies near the Lord of the Nazgul. (Always on) Ringsight - Allows the Lord of the Nazgul to see and attack Frodo when he wears The One Ring. (Always on) HERO COMMENTS: The Lord of the Nazgul is a very strong hero with his Aura of Weakness, and can turn those weak Wraiths into worthy fighting machines with Bind Shadow. Shadow Walk can be used when your camp is under attack and he and his Black Riders are at the other end of the map. Ringsight is only useful for killing Frodo. Saruman -------- REQUIRED: Fortress of Mordor Level 5 HIT POINTS: 435 ATTACK POWER: Minimum=20 (Increases as Saruman levels up) ARMOR CLASS: Minimum=3 (Increases as Saruman levels up) ATTACK TYPE: Heroic TRAINED AT: Fortress of Mordor COST: 4 Fate Points SPECIAL ABILITIES: Prison of Ice - Enables Saruman to encage a single enemy in an icy prison, taking that unit out of battle for a while as well as doing damage to it. (Recharge Time=25s) Invisible Force - Allows Saruman to fire an invisible projectile in a certain area, knocking back and damaging all units hit by it. (Recharge Time=45s ;Cost=2 Fate) Pestilence - Lets Saruman invoke a disease on a group of enemies that drains their health, but does not kill them. (Recharge Time=50s ;Cost=3 Fate) Twisting Influence - With his seductive voice, Saruman can bend the will of any non-hero enemy unit, forcing it to join his army. (Recharge Time=90s ;Cost=3 Fate) HERO COMMENTS: Saruman is by far the best hero for the Minions of Sauron (and the most expensive...). He starts out with the Prison of Ice ability, which can turn the tides in a battle by freezing a powerful foe. Invisible Force can do damage to a lot of units when aimed properly. Pestilence can really slow an enemy army down by draining all health. Finally, Twisting Influence is the best ability in the game, since it can force a powerful unit like a Huorn or a Troll Bonecleaver to join your army. Recruit him when you have the chance. - - - - - - - - - - - 8.6) Evil Fate Powers - - - - - - - - - - - The Fate Powers of the evil side are different than those of the good side, and they are all listed here: Summon Bog ----------- COST: 2 Fate Points EFFECT: This dark incanctation can turn any type of land into a festering bog, slowing the attack and movement speeds of any enemy units in the bog. This power can best be used for defensive purposes. Put your missile units behind it, and slaughter the enemy while they try to wade through your bog. If you have Uruk-Hai, you can keep knocking your enemies back, so they won't get out of there alive at all! Murder of Crows ---------------- COST: 3 Fate Points EFFECT: The will of Sauron can command a flock of crows to sacrifice their bodies in the ranged fire of enemies, protecting the units they surround from ranged attacks for a period of time. If your enemy likes a lot of missile units, use this power to refrain them from doing damage to you. It is very irritating for your opponents because they don't kill any of your units while you slaughter all of his missile users, leaving him crippled. Vile Surge ----------- COST: 3 Fate Points EFFECT: Surges a vile energy that rehabilitates the soldiers of Sauron, raising their health substantially. One of the best Fate Powers for the evil side because it heals an entire army when aimed properly. This can really help turning the battle in your favor. It heals at once and without fail, making this a versatile ability. Not very costly, either. Summon Obelisk --------------- COST: 4 Fate Points EFFECT: This power lets the player summon an Obelisk onto the battlefield that protects the player's nearby forces, soaking up damage done to these units until the Obelisk runs out of power or is destroyed. This ability is one that protects your units from damage until the Obelisk is destroyed or its power runs out. This can be used offensively as well as defensively, but it requires proper aiming for maximum effectiveness. Summon Balrog -------------- COST: 7 Fate Points EFFECT: Calls forth a Balrog - a terrible demon of Morgoth summoned from the deepest shadows. With a sword of flame and a powerful slam attack, the Balrog's presence strikes fear in the hearts of enemies on any battlefield. Just like the Free Peoples, the Minions of Sauron have their enormous monster as well. If you've already finished the Good Campaign, you know what this thing is. It's very expensive, and should only be used for the "final push", sealing your opponent's fate of losing. It lasts for a set amount of time and then falls apart again. Costly, but effective. - - - - - - - - - - - - - 8.7) Evil-Only Strategies - - - - - - - - - - - - - A list of common strategies that are used by the Minions.. Credits to all of you who mail me other working strategies: Slavemaster Defense --------------------- You always seem to have to many Slavemasters just lazing around, susceptible to enemy raids. Since you need a lot of population slots, you'll have a lot of Slavemasters. To make them useful, place them in Towers to increase the shot rate. You should also add a Wraith to make it impossible for the enemy to infiltrate your camp with cloaked units. Catapults ---------- On maps with cliffs, you can use this strategy: place several Stonehurlers on the edges of those cliffs when you know an enemy army is coming through. As they cannot reach you without running a very long way, their melee units will just stand there, leaving you to deal with their missile units only. This becomes even more fun when combined with the Unstoppable Force upgrade. Saruman's Trick ---------------- You need Saruman to do this, preferably at a high level and with both the Invisible Force and the Pestilence upgrades. Make him walk into an enemy army alone, they will all attack you. Now spread Pestilence around Saruman, so all enemies get diseased. Now use Invisible Force around yourself to create space to flee to your own ranks. Very effective when trying to stop big invading armies. Haradrim and Uruk-Hai Offense ------------------------------ You need cloaked Haradrim and Uruk-Hai for this, upgraded in their attacking power and armor class. When encountering enemies, make the Haradrim attack those units that cannot be knocked back by your Uruk-Hai. The Uruk-Hai should then first kill all detector units. This is a very effective way to take out enemies with smaller numbers, and I have used it a lot in skirmishes. Gene Y AKA grenka: "In the Haradrim and Uruk-Hai Offense strategy, it would =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- be wise to take some additional Orc Slashers to defend your Uruk-Hai with, especially when your Haradrim can't handle all of the opponent's troops." Super Offense (contributed by SThomas1317) ------------------------------------------- Build an army of Troll Bonecleavers, Haradrim Slayers, and Uruk-Hai. When approaching an enemy base, keep your trolls away from your Haradrim Slayers and Uruk-Hai. Before the battle starts make your trolls circle around the enemy base. While your Haradrim and Uruk-Hai are distracting the enemy army, direct your troops through the enemy base and use the Bonecleavers to attack from behind. After slaughtering them, destroy the base. You need all upgrades to do this, although Assassin's Cloak is optional. Stonehurler Death Trap (contributed by SThomas1317) ---------------------------------------------------- When you spot an incoming army with a scout, prepare your defenses. Use a fixed force to attract the enemy forces to you. Then use Troll Stonehurlers (preferably with "Unstoppable Force") to surround the enemy. Since the enemies are all close to each other damage should be enormous. This requires you to keep your Stonehurlers out of sight from the enemy or he might attack them instead, messing the strategy up. Hordes of Mordor (contributed by Aragorn1913) ---------------------------------------------- create a huge army of fully upgraded Orc Bowmen,Orc Slashers,and Goblin Spearmen and surround an enemy base in three rings of units. first line is Orc Slashers, second line consists of Orc bowmen, and third line are Goblin Spearmen. Now send one unit from each side of the ring to attract enemy. The chances are strong that he will bring a whole mess of units that you can slaughter with your great numbers and advanced upgrades. after dispatching his army move into the camp killing workers and destroying his buildings. Warped Retreat (contributed by seaspray_68) -------------------------------------------- Get Saleme (must have Blood mark) and Lord of the Nazgul (must have Shadow Walk). Get Slavemasters to place War Posts around the map, then send the Lord of the Nazgul on the offense with an army of Wraiths and Black Riders, and Saleme on the defensive with Haradrim Slayers. If the Lord of the Nazgul's army is suffering serious damage, have Saleme cast Blood Mark on the camp's War Post and then Shadow Walk the Lord of the Nazgul's army back to the base. When the army's recovered Shadow Walk them to the nearest War Post where they retreated from. More strategies to come... (I hope, again) - - - - - - - - - - 8.8) Evil Campaign - - - - - - - - - - This is a walkthrough for Sauron's Minions' campaign in the War of the Ring. It contains story and gameplay spoilers, so if you want to figure everything out yourself, skip this section. ---------------------- The Mouths of Entwash ---------------------- INTRO: Third Age 3018 "The Dark Lord's forces are pressing into Rohan. With their supplies steadily dwindling, Grishnakh is ordered to send more slaves to work their camps. Between these slaves and the mighty army lies the maze-like Wetwang, which is heavily guarded by enemy outposts. To ensure the safe passage of the slaves through the marshes, Grishnakh assigns a troop of soldiers as escort." HEROES: - No heroes are available BUILDINGS: - Goblin Hovel - War Post - Slaughterhouse - Fortress of Mordor - Smelter - Orc Mound UNITS: - Goblin Worker => Goblin Hovel - Goblin Spearman => Goblin Hovel - Goblin Slavemaster => Goblin Hovel - Orc Bowman => Orc Mound - Orc Slasher => Orc Mound UPGRADES: - No upgrades to be researched The first scenario of the Evil Campaign. It isn't hard at all, you should be fine. Watch an opening cutscene featuring Grishnakh ordering a group of Orcs to ensure the safe passage of the Goblin Workers through this swamp. Your objectives are viewed as soon as you get control: - Build an encampment => Use the Slavemaster to place a War Post => Construct a Goblin Hovel => Construct a Slaughterhouse => Construct an Orc Mound => Construct a Fortress of Mordor - Get five Goblin Workers across the Wetwang maze You start off with three Orc Slashers, five Goblin Workers and one Goblin Slavemaster. Begin building your war camp by ordering the Slavemaster to place a War Post right in front of him. Once the terrain around it is all corrupted, let your Goblin Workers build a Goblin Hovel as close to the resources as you can. Next, assign three Goblin workers to build a Smelter on the ore deposit, and order the other two to build a Slaughterhouse on the well. In the meanwhile, train another Slavemaster and two Goblin Workers from your Goblin Hovel. Now make sure that you have three workers on each resource. Use the other one to build a Fortress of Mordor, and after that an Orc Mound. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Build an encampment When the Orc Mound is completed, start training an additional twelve Orc Slashers and five Orc Bowmen. Note that you need two extra Slavemaster to get the needed population slots. Once they are all completed, its time to make your way through the Wetwang maze. Well, it isn't exactly a maze. Just wade through the water and go up north, where you will meet four enemy Rangers, who should be disposed of without any losses on your side. Heal if you need to, then head further northwest. You'll encounter three Gondor Swordsmen. Easy meat for your Orcs! You now get a message saying to protect your Bowmen, indicating that you can expect enemy ambushes from now on. Head northwest and then west to find the first one, which consists of six Rangers. Three attack from the north, and three from the south. Keep your Slashers around your Bowmen and they should be killed easily. Now wait until your units are healed and head further west. Go south at the ruins. After a while, you should see three of those nasty Gondor Swordsmen again. But once you attack them, four others try to stab your archers in the back. Same strategy as with the Rangers earlier, just keep your Bowmen safe and you should be fine. You can heal after this too if you need to. Time to head further south. Follow the path and you should see two Beornings at the stream, and they are in Bear Form. You might lose some units in this battle, just try to focus all of your troops on one Beorning at a time and you should be fine. Remember that Beornings can cause Knockback to the units they hit. Heal again, then wade through the stream. Go to the west and there will be a campfire with some Swordsmen around it, they shouldn't be much of a problem since there aren't any ambushes here. But remember to heal as much as you need after this little battle, because after this you'll get to a better defended area. Head northwest, then just go north until you see the first enemies. This is an outpost with a Tower in it. Don't charge in because that will lead to needless losses on your side. Instead, try to lure groups of enemies to your force with a single unit, slaughtering them one by one. Do this two or three times and all enemies should be dead. You can now go on and attack the Tower. You will probably have earned three Fate Points by now. And since you haven't got any heroes in this level, you can use them on Fate Powers. So when that Tower is about to kill one of your troops, cast Vile Surge on them to keep them all alive. After destroying the Tower, head further north and wade through the stream there. Proceed up north to find the ending point of this mission. All you have to do now is send five or more Goblin Workers to that point. As you have cleared out the entire swamps, you can just order them to go to that spot directly. Once they get there, the first mission of the Evil Campaign will be completed. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Get five Goblin Workers across the Wetwang maze MISSION COMPLETED ---------------------- The Beacons of Gondor ---------------------- INTRO: Third Age 3018 "The Lord of the Nazgul has plans for an attack on Rohan, and Grishnakh's soldiers have traveled to the Anorien Valley to support the efforts. Grishnakh will lead his Orcs against a human outpost that feeds supplies to the enemy army. Normally a boisterous lot, his warriors must practice restraint, for the great Beacons of Gondor will signal for reinforcements if their presence is discovered." HEROES: - Grishnakh ==> Abilities: - Speed of the Wolf => Available - Torch => 1 Fate BUILDINGS: - Goblin Hovel - Beast Lair - Slaughterhouse - Fortress of Mordor - Smelter - Dark Arsenal - Orc Mound - Tower UNITS: - Goblin Worker => Goblin Hovel - Goblin Spearman => Goblin Hovel - Goblin Slavemaster => Goblin Hovel - Orc Bowman => Orc Mound - Orc Slasher => Orc Mound - Warg Rider => Beast Lair UPGRADES: - Curved Blades => Dark Arsenal - Forged Fittings => Dark Arsenal - Savage Influence => Dark Arsenal The second scenario in this campaign is somewhat harder. It still shouldn't be a problem, though. In the opening cinematic, you can see how Grishnakh gives a nice speech to his Goblins. To complete this missions, you must complete the following objectives: ! Keep Grishnakh alive - Build an encampment => Construct an Orc Mound => Construct a Beast Lair - Destroy the encampment of Men to the east Set your resource structures up first. Train Goblin Workers until you have three on each resource and one left to build. Then build a new Slavemaster to increase your population capacity. With one of your Slavemasters, expand your camp to the south by placing a War Post there. On the newly corrupted terrain, construct a Fortress of Mordor. The next thing you should build is a Tower in the east of your settlement, which will help greatly in the last part of this scenario. When you have the resource, train another two Slavemaster, bringing your pop cap to 48. Place all four of them in the newly built Tower, increasing its shot rate to the max. Now build an Orc Mound and a Beast Lair to train your soldiers in. Finally, construct a Dark Arsenal to purchase much-needed upgrades. Once the first two are completed, you will have completed an objective. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Build an encampment Start training Orc Slashers at your Orc Mound, and Warg Riders at the Beast Lair. Also train some archers, but make sure that you have lots of Slashers as your main attacking force. Upgrade your Orcs by researching Curved Blades and Forged Fittings at the Dark Arsenal. Don't even think about upgrading the Savage Influence ability, you won't need it at all. Once that is all done, you can move to the east and attack the settlement of Men. It doesn't matter from which side, they have Towers all over the place. Kill the enemies first, after that the Towers, and finally other buildings. You will have acquired one Fate Point at least after that battle. Spend it on Grishnakhs Torch ability as soon as you have it, this will tear down the Towers in this camp (and the other buildings as well) much more quickly. When it is all gone, a cutscene starts. Seems like one of the horse-boys got away... Bad thing about that is that he will warn other soldiers to light the Beacons of Gondor, bestowing upon you eight armies! Grishnakh tells that you will have to destroy some beacons to slow them, giving you time to build up your forces. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Destroy the encampment of Men to the east NEW OBJECTIVE: Defend your encampment against the Armies of Gondor Send your troops, including Grishnakh, to the Beacon in the southeast of the map first. There will be two Beornings in Bear Form on the way, so watch out and use Speed of the Wolf to kill them quickly. Next comes the Beacon. It isn't to heavily defended, but be careful not to lose too many troops. Pity you can't torch those Beacons... anyway, just destroy this one. In the meanwhile, train another Slavemaster at your camp and start pumping out Orc Slashers and Warg Riders for defense until your population is full. You can also add another Slavemaster to be certain, it's your choice. Just remember to keep training units as soon as you lose one. Back to Grishnakh now. Direct Grishnakh and his forces to the middle one of the southern Beacons. It must be destroyed as quickly as possible. Just kill any troops around it with Speed of the Wolf, and demolish that Beacon. Heal for a short time, then head further west to get to the final Beacon you will destroy. Do the same here as with the last ones. Now order Grishnakh and his remaining forces to go back to your camp, and position all your troops in the south. You should see the first wave of the Armies of Gondor approaching from the south once they've investigated the last Beacon. This isn't hard at all, you can just kill them without any losses. Now position all of your troops in the east of your settlement and await the other waves of attackers. The first four or five waves aren't anything to brag about. They are small, consisting only of Riders of Rohan and Gondor Swordsmen. Keep training units as soon as you lose them, and let your units remain around your Tower for some extra firepower. Note that whenever you have three Fate Points, you should use them on casting the Vile Surge power, which will heal your units. Make sure you have three points for casting it once the last one of the waves arrives. The last three waves aren't so easy, their numbers are much larger now. You still should be able to handle it with Speed of the Wolf. Keep Grishnakh alive, however, or you will lose. You will get a message when the last of the armies is about to arrive. It says this one is much larger. Train units until your pop cap is maxed out again. Let the final wave come to your Tower, then attack them. Immediately activate Speed of the Wolf and let all your units attack them. They should be killed in a matter of minutes. Just keep your units together around your Tower and you should be fine. Once all units that attacked you in the last wave are killed, you have completed this mission. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Defend your encampment against the Armies of Gondor MISSION COMPLETED ----------------- Clearing the Way ----------------- INTRO: Third Age 1050 "The Dark Lord Sauron is intent upon reclaiming his throne at Dol Guldur. The Lord of the Nazgul travels to the tower in preparation of his master's return, clearing the path of any who oppose him." HEROES: - Lord of the Nazgul ==> Abilities: - Shadow Walk => 2 Fate - Aura of Weakness => Available - Ringsight => Available BUILDINGS: - Goblin Hovel - Beast Lair - Slaughterhouse - Dark Arsenal - Smelter - Tower - War Post - Breeding Pit - Fortress of Mordor - Shadow Lair - Orc Mound UNITS: - Goblin Worker => Goblin Hovel - Goblin Spearman => Goblin Hovel - Goblin Slavemaster => Goblin Hovel - Orc Bowman => Orc Mound - Orc Slasher => Orc Mound - Warg Rider => Beast Lair - Wraith => Shadow Lair UPGRADES: - Fortress of Mordor Level 2 => Fortress of Mordor - Curved Blades => Dark Arsenal - Forged Fittings => Dark Arsenal - Savage Influence => Dark Arsenal - Fearsome Strength => Breeding Pit - Ritual Tattooiing => Breeding Pit You're in Mirkwood again... only this time playing the bad guys. You have to clear the path for Lord Sauron's return, as the Lord of the Nazgul says in the opening cutscene. That would make your objectives look like this: ! The Lord of the Nazgul must survive - Destroy the Elven Camp - Bring the Lord of the Nazgul through Mirkwood You start off with a small force of Orc Slashers, Wraiths and the Lord of the Nazgul himself. No Workers or Slavemasters yet. For now, just head to the south to discover the Elven Camp. The defense here is pathetic, you should be able to deal with the Elf Warden and the archer. Afterwards, kill Workers and destroy the camps to make some room for your own. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Destroy the Elven Camp Now you get several Goblin Workers and a few Slavemasters. Let one of those Slavemasters place a War Post near the resources, then let your Goblins construct a Goblin Hovel on the new corrupted terrain. Use three to build a Slaughterhouse, and three to build a Smelter. In the meanwhile train one more Goblin Worker from the Hovel for building. Train another Slavemaster as well to increase population. Start expanding your camp by ordering a Slavemaster to place a War Post to the east of your current settlement. Build a Fortress of Mordor near your Goblin Hovel, then a Tower on the edge of the corrupted ground in the east. You should also build an Orc Mound and a Beast Lair where the Tower is. Finally, construct a Dark Arsenal and research the two upgrades for your Orcs there. Note that you will probably have been attacked by you. These attacks really are nothing to worry about, most of the time they only consist of two Elf Wardens or a single Beorning in Bear Form. Nonetheless, train some extra units. Put three Slavemasters and a Wraith in the Tower to maximize its shot rate. Upgrade your Fortress of Mordor and build the remaining structures, which are the Breeding Pit and the Shadow Lair. Train one additional Wraith from your Shadow Lair and research the upgrades for your Warg Riders at the Breeding Pit. In the meanwhile, you can start building an army. Make sure that it mostly consists of upgraded Orc Slashers, and put in only small amounts of Bowmen and Warg Riders. Train another Slavemaster to increase your population to 60 slots. Fill it up entirely with military units, so you have a nice, stable force to attack with. You will probably have earned two Fate Points or more by now. These can be spended on the Lord of the Nazgul's Shadow Walk ability, an ability that can be very helpful in some levels. It allows him to teleport himself to any terrain corrupted by a War Posts, taking any nearby Black Riders and Wraiths with him. With your army at full health, march down the hill to the east. You'll come to a place with some ruins, and it is guarded. Resistance here is minimal, kill the Beorning here first so it can't cast Healing Herbs on an ally or itself. Heal if you need to (probably not ;)... It might be wise to give a number hotkey to your army now. Just select all units, hold Control and press a number. Pressing that number will immediately select all of these units at once. Proceed to the west until you can't go any further. A cutscene should air in which you can see how Giant Spiders are attacked by Elves and Rangers. It is up to you to save them. Be quick here and try to rescue all of the spiders, their Paralyze ability makes them valuable support units for your army. Heal, then head north until you come to a body of water. Head northwest from here. There are three enemy Towers ahead. With your force, it still shouldn't be much of a problem, nor the units that defend them. Just storm in, spread your units so all of the Towers are attacked, and use your new Giant Spiders to stun the units that try to defend them. They should be teared down in a matter of seconds, but be careful not to lose to many units. Now you will probably have to heal. Further northwest lies the final enemy encampment. It isn't protected very well. The only danger here is that your Wraiths die before you have a chance to kill the cloaked enemy Elven Archers, which will then turn invisible. It is very annoying, so be sure to use Vile Surge in case a lot of your units, especially your Wraiths, are about to die. Destroying all enemy structures in this camp will earn you victory. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Bring the Lord of the Nazgul through Mirkwood MISSION COMPLETED ----------------- Darkness Returns ----------------- INTRO: Third Age 1050 "Arriving at Dol Guldur, the Lord of the Nazgul makes plans to wipe the tower clean of the Elven intruders. Ancient temples protect the tower, but the Nazgul will claim them in his Master's name. Great suffering will befall those who oppose him." HEROES: - Lord of the Nazgul ==> Abilities: - Bind Shadow => 2 Fate - Shadow Walk => Available - Aura of Weakness => Available - Ringsight => Available BUILDINGS: - Goblin Hovel - Beast Lair - Slaughterhouse - Dark Arsenal - Smelter - Tower - War Post - Breeding Pit - Fortress of Mordor - Shadow Lair - Orc Mound - Black Vault UNITS: - Goblin Worker => Goblin Hovel - Goblin Spearman => Goblin Hovel - Goblin Slavemaster => Goblin Hovel - Orc Bowman => Orc Mound - Orc Slasher => Orc Mound - Warg Rider => Beast Lair - Giant Spider => Beast Lair - Wraith => Shadow Lair UPGRADES: - Fortress of Mordor Level 2/3 => Fortress of Mordor - Curved Blades/Serrated Blades => Dark Arsenal - Forged Fittings/Iron Fittings => Dark Arsenal - Savage Influence => Dark Arsenal - Raven Fletching => Dark Arsenal - Poison Arrows => Dark Arsenal - Fearsome Strength/Overwhelming Strength => Breeding Pit - Ritual Tattooiing/Ritual Scarring => Breeding Pit - Paralyze/Spray Venom => Breeding Pit - Greater Perception => Black Vault - Darkness => Black Vault - Morgul Blade => Black Vault This is the first level that can really pose you some problems. As you can see at the beginning of the level, your task is to capture five places of power in preparation of Sauron's return to Dol Guldur. It also shows that the Elves know of your plan. You have only one objective in this level: - Take over the five Ancient Temples Before putting anything down about this level, I want you all to know that this level is all about hit'n run tactics. That means that you must preserve your units by letting them heal after each great battle. I'm not going to say when you need to heal, you will have to find that out by yourself. As always, start off with resource structures and make sure there are enough Goblin Workers on them to ensure a flowing income of food and ore. Then use one or two to build structures. The first thing you should do is expand your camp to the north with a Slavesmaster, then construct a Fortress of Mordor. Upgrade it as soon as it is completed. Now construct a Tower in the far west end of your settlement. You'll soon see why. Next thing you should construct is a Breeding Pit and, after upgrading your Fortress of Mordor to level three, a Black Vault. Finally, build a Shadow Lair. That's right, you don't need an Orc Mound on this level, nor a Dark Arsenal. For hit'n runs, Orcs are far too slow. I prefer upgraded Warg Riders instead. By now, you should have been attacked at least once by an enemy hero scout called Draelor. This guy is really annoying: he cripples your forces, then flees once his health reaches half of his maximum. DO NOT pursue him, he will lead you right into an enemy army. That's what you need the Tower for, it will, when occupied with three Slavemasters and a Wraith, decrease the time it takes to get him to half health. If you really want to get rid of him, I suggest going up north until you meet some Giant Spiders, which will join you. In the meanwhile research Paralyze at the Breeding Pit. Once Draelor attacks again, make sure to stun him with one of your spiders, then kill him, so he won't bother you again. If you've got two Fate Points from these encounters, spend them on the Bind Shadow ability of the Lord of the Nazgul. Now train a Wraith and turn him into a Black Rider each time you have a Fate Point to spend. Try to summon the Nine this time, it will help greatly in the latter part of this scenario. Take some of your forces up north and you will see the first one of the Ancient Temples. Kill any units around it, be sure to take a Wraith with your because some Elven Archers will otherwise give you needless losses. Once all enemies are dead, a War Post automatically springs up from the ground near the PoP. It is yours, now. Train lots and lots of Slavemasters until your population reaches 60 or above. This has to be done in order to get the needed troops for conquering all of the temples. Next, take some Warg Riders, some Black Riders, and the Lord of the Nazgul through the western exit of your settlement. Go to where the spiders were and head west from there: you should come to a familiar spot. The place where you had to choose between two paths in the "Pursuit of Gollum" scenario, from the Good Side campaign. Take the southern path first, which will lead you to the second Ancient Temple. There are some enemies here, including cloaked Elves, so track back to your camp whenever you see fit. The enemies around the second temple should be easily defeated as well. Now track back to the two roads and this time choose the northern path. It will get you to another Place of Power, though it isn't a temple. Still, destroy the Elven camp around here and you will get an armor upgrade because you own the Wretched Sentinel. The third temple is up north from here. This time you'll have to track back to your camp a long way because of those Elven Archers, but it's worth it. The other defenders aren't very numerous nor strong, so just crush them in the name of the Dark Lord to control the third Ancient Temple. Remember to heal here, from now on resistance won't be so soft anymore. Before advancing to the next temple, get a Goblin Worker to build a Tower near the newly acquired Ancient Temple and put a Wraith in that. You won't have to flee such a long way before being able to deal with those archers. You should have the Nine completed by now, otherwise you can forget about conquering the northern temples. Take your Nazgul northwest and you see another enemy encampment, only this time it is defended very well by Elven Archers, Beornings, Wardens, and a Ballista Tower. For now, keep away from the Tower and lure all enemies out of the settlement before engaging it. Your Nazgul should tear it down quite quickly because they're immune to knockback. Destroy the remaining buildings in this camp as well and heal. Head northwest some more to find more enemies, including... cloaked archers, what a suprise! They are easily disposed of. Go east to the fourth Ancient Temple and defeat the units near it to get control over it. Remember to lure out several enemies to safer grounds if you find yourself overwhelmed. Next comes the big enemy encampment, so be sure to heal and train reinforcements if you need to. Before engaging the final camp, train some more Wraiths from your camp and send them to the forth temple: so you don't have to track back a lot to deal with those annoying cloaked foes. Carefully approach the enemy camp and lure out the first enemies you see, leave the Ballista Tower for now. Kill them on the corrupted ground around the fourth Ancient Temple. Heal if you need to, then engage the camp and let your Black Riders and the Lord of the Nazgul destroy the Ballista Tower. Destroy the remaining buildings here as well and proceed northwest afterwards. Take a Wraith with you here, because there are cloaked Elves. If you have enough Fate it can also be fun to summon a Balrog to the battlefield, which will automatically reveal any hidden units. Kill the enemies around the last temple to claim victory for your side. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Take over the five Ancient Temples MISSION COMPLETED ------------------------ Sweep of the Trollshaws ------------------------ INTRO: Third Age 1999 "Sauron has sent Ringwraiths to the Trollshaws of Eriador. The might of the Stone Trolls that reside in these highland moors will make a powerful addition to the Dark Lord's army. The Ringwraiths must 'convince' these Trolls to join the Master's army." HEROES: - No heroes are available, unless you count the Black Riders as heroes BUILDINGS: - Goblin Hovel - Beast Lair - Slaughterhouse - Dark Arsenal - Smelter - Tower - War Post - Breeding Pit - Fortress of Mordor - Shadow Lair - Orc Mound - Black Vault * In the second part of the mission you can also construct a Troll Den UNITS: - Goblin Worker => Goblin Hovel - Goblin Spearman => Goblin Hovel - Goblin Slavemaster => Goblin Hovel - Orc Bowman => Orc Mound - Orc Slasher => Orc Mound - Warg Rider => Beast Lair - Giant Spider => Beast Lair - Wraith => Shadow Lair * In the second part of the mission you can also recruit Troll Bonecleavers and Troll Stonehurlers from the Troll Den UPGRADES: - Fortress of Mordor Level 2/3/4 => Fortress of Mordor - Curved Blades/Serrated Blades => Dark Arsenal - Forged Fittings/Iron Fittings => Dark Arsenal - Savage Influence => Dark Arsenal - Goblin Frenzy => Dark Arsenal - Raven Fletching => Dark Arsenal - Fire Arrows => Dark Arsenal - Poison Arrows => Dark Arsenal - Fearsome Strength/Overwhelming Strength => Breeding Pit - Ritual Tattooiing/Ritual Scarring => Breeding Pit - Paralyze/Spray Venom => Breeding Pit - Greater Perception => Black Vault - Darkness/Perpetual Darkness => Black Vault - Morgul Blade => Black Vault * In the second part of the mission you can also research the Sweeping Axe, Target Practice, and Unstoppable Force upgrades for your Trolls This level is pretty easy if you have some patience. It starts off with a cutscene wherein the Trolls refuse to join with Sauron's armies. But the Dark Lord demands obedience, and it's up to you to gain it from them. The starting objectives: - Subjugate the Trolls => Destroy the Western Troll Den => Destroy the Northern Troll Den => Destroy the Eastern Troll Den => Retain at least one Troll Bonecleaver => Retain at least one Troll Stonehurler When you first start, don't hasten yourself to train units. You won't be attacked at all in the first part of this level, a part that does not stop until you have forced all of the Trolls into submission. So, just take it easy and train more Goblin Workers and a Goblin Slavemaster from your Goblin Hovel. You don't even have to build the resource structures, they are already built for you. Put three Workers on food and three on ore, preserve one to construct buildings for you. Expand your settlement to the west by placing a War Post there. Train more Slavemasters from your Hovel, and start the construction of a Fortress of Mordor. Once it's finished, upgrade it to the next level. The only thing you have to build now is a Dark Arsenal. That's right, no Beast Lair or other structures yet. Upgrade your Fortress of Mordor two more times, so that it is level 4. At the Dark Arsenal, research everything except for Savage Influence, Goblin Frenzy, and Poison Arrows. Fire Arrows are particularly important, and so is Raven Fletching. While these things are being researched, train five Orc Bowmen from your Orc Mound, and put them in the north of your camp. Also train some Orc Slashers, but keep them separated from the archers. You'll probably have resources left after that. Build a Black Vault and go purchase the Morgul Blade upgrade for your Black Riders there. Also build a Breeding Pit and research all attack and armor upgrades. Though you don't need those now, they become very helpful in the second part of the mission. Train Slavemasters whenever you can: your population should have reached 100 by the end of the first part of the mission. Take your fully upgraded Orc Bowmen to the northeast, and head up the cliff, which has only one way up. Keep to the northern side of this platform and you will see a Troll Stonehurler. Kill it. Trust me, just kill it. Then sneak to the Troll Den while you keep walking on the northern edge of the cliff. Attack the Troll Den, it should come down quickly with your Fire Arrows... unless it's raining, of course. Just be sure not to let the Bonecleaver see you. As soon as the Den is destroyed, another Stonehurler pops out and the eastern Trolls pledge allegiance to Lord Sauron. Wait for your bowmen to heal; if you lost one by fighting the Stonehurler you can just train a new one from the Orc Mound. Now head to the middle cliff on the map. These are the northern Trolls. This time, you'll have to keep to the west part of the cliff to avoid the Bonecleaver. You have to kill another Stonehurler here, then set ablaze the Troll Den. Just like the last one, the Trolls will give up once it is destroyed and you will receive another Troll Stonehurler. Now it's time to build your army. But first, order your Slavemasters (there should be nine of them right now) to place a War Post near the resources of the Northern Troll Den. Then order Goblin Workers to build a Goblin Hovel there, and resource structures to start harvesting food and ore again. This ensures a big amount of resources, enough to build your army to a population of 100. Your army should be placed on the cliff of the eastern Trolls. Put the rally point from your Orc Mound to that platform. Leave your camp undefended, each single military unit should be on the eastern cliff. Start pumping out Orc Bowmen and Orc Slashers from your Orc Mound and send them to your army. It should consist mostly of Orc Slashers, with a pack of Orc Bowmen, and of course the Trolls you have subjugated. The Black Riders should be the ones to lead your units into battle with their Morgul Blades. Once it is all set up, your army covering a 100 population slots, take two or three Orc Bowmen to the Western Troll Den. You should know it when you get there, the path is littered with human and bestial skeletons. Now make sure both the Bonecleaver and the Stonehurler are attacking you, then run for the big army on the eastern hill. The Trolls should follow you and run right into your army. Slay them without any losses. Then send one Bowman, preferably the most damaged one, to the Western Troll Den again to destroy the Trolls' residence. Other units should remain on the eastern hill and heal for the big battle. Once the last Troll Den is destroyed, a Bonecleaver comes out and you get a new objective. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Subjugate the Trolls NEW OBJECTIVE: Test the Trolls => Destroy the encampment of Men => Destroy the encampment of Dwarves Immediately select your giant army and head for the far northeast part of the map to find the Dwarven encampment. They have a nice defense, consisting of lots of Dwarf Shieldbreaker, but they still aren't a match for your fully upgraded troops. Kill them first, then destroy the two Dwarf Halls over here to make sure they don't train any others. Then go for the Stronghold: all buildings here should go down quick with the Fire Arrows your archers have. You camp should have been attacked by the Men now, but you can just let them be. Hasten yourself to the far northwestern part of the map, it's just a short trip west from the Dwarven camp. Here is the camp of Men; it doesn't have many defenders but they do have Towers. Go for the few defenders first, then the Tower, and after that the training buildings (which are a Barracks and a Ranger Post in the northwest). Next comes the Stronghold: you can summon a Balrog if you've got enough Fate right now, just for fun. Destroy this entire encampment to complete the mission. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Test the Trolls MISSION COMPLETED ------------------- Saruman's Uruk-Hai ------------------- INTRO: Third Age "Saruman is determined to create a new breed of warrior. The strain of Orc will march undeterred by the daylight, and lead Saruman's minions into battle. He calls upon the Haradrim to clear the path through the forest home of the Wild Men." HEROES: - Saruman ==> Abilities: - Prison of Ice => Available - Invisible Force => 2 Fate - Pestilence => 3 Fate - Twisting Influence => 3 Fate (late game) BUILDINGS: - Goblin Hovel - Beast Lair - Slaughterhouse - Dark Arsenal - Smelter - Tower - War Post - Breeding Pit - Fortress of Mordor - Shadow Lair - Orc Mound - Black vault UNITS: - Goblin Worker => Goblin Hovel - Goblin Spearman => Goblin Hovel - Goblin Slavemaster => Goblin Hovel - Orc Bowman => Orc Mound - Orc Slasher => Orc Mound - Uruk-Hai => Orc Mound - Warg Rider => Beast Lair - Giant Spider => Beast Lair - Wraith => Shadow Lair - Haradrim Slayer => Shadow Lair UPGRADES: - All upgrades are available except for Morgul Blade A new hero is introduced in this level, and a pretty strong one too: Saruman the Wise, the Ring-Maker, Wizard of Many Colors. As you can see in an opening sequence the Orcs are to cowardly to cross the Druadan Forest because of the Wild Men that roam within. Therefor, Saruman has called upon the Haradrim, invisible assassins, to clear the path of these barbarians. So that are your starting objectives. ! Saruman must survive - Kill the Wild Men of the Druadan Forest Note that you can't train any units until you have completed this quest. You start of with a substantial amount of resources, which you should use on purchasing an upgrade for your Fortress of Mordor as well as the Jagged Point for your Haradrim Slayers. Once those are researched, it's time to hunt some Men. You will be attacked while doing all this, but the two Rangers who do are easily disposed of. Direct your Slayers southeast and head south where you can. You should meet a Ranger soon, just kill it. Once you get to the forest, search it to find a big cross-like piece of terrain. These are the barrows, which will be referred to later in this walkthrough. West of here are all of the Wild Men you have to kill (6). The only problem is that there are two Rangers as well, and those barbarians are ridiciously strong. So be sure to take the Rangers out first or you will be in a lot of pain. Once they are defeated, Saruman will call forth his Orcs again. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Kill the Wild Men of the Druadan Forest NEW OBJECTIVE: Corrupt the barrows of the Wild Men Don't go hurrying your Slavemasters to those barrows, just get all of your units inside your base. Use your Goblin Workers to set up resource structures as usual, and train more Slavemasters when you have the chance. The next thing you should build is an Orc Mound to the south of the Fortress of Mordor to train Orc Slashers, which are needed to create Uruk-Hai. All of your forces should be made up of Haradrim Slayers, fully upgraded and invisible. You need two forces in this scenario: one that will defend your main camp, and one that defends the developing Uruk-Hai. The first one of these should consist of eight to ten Haradrim Slayers. The second force should be much larger, with ten to fifteen Slayers and Saruman. Note that you'll need a lot of population for this, so train enough Slavemasters (my pop cap was 96 when I finished the level). Build two Towers in the southern part of your war camp and put Slavemasters in each one. Now send the group of Slayers and Saruman to the Pit: this is the area which is marked by the White Hand. Keep the other units at your main camp, then send one Slavemaster to place a War Post at the Barrows. You should be able to cover all of the Barrows with one War Post. If you've done it right, Saruman will congratulate you and reveals his plans to create a new warrior from Men and Orc. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Corrupt the barrows of the Wild Men NEW OBJECTIVE: Make at least one Uruk-Hai => Move at least one Barrow-wight to the Pit => Move at least one Orc Slasher to the Pit => Protect at least one developing Uruk-Hai until it emerges You could go and send each and every Barrow-wight that emerges from the barrows directly to the pit, but I suggest to wait until you have five, then send them to the Pit all at once. The Orc Slashers you can train from your main camp, but be careful because lots of enemies are loafing around on the map right now. Send them to the Pit as well. As soon as there is an Orc Slasher and a Barrow-wight in the Pit, they'll melt into one. You now get five cocoon-like Uruk-Hai on very low health. The task here is simple: keep as many Uruk-Hai alive as you can. You don't need to protect all five, just make sure at least three are going through the developing process unharmed. It shouldn't be much of a problem with your Haradrim Slayers and Saruman. Saruman should learn Invisible Force as soon as he can by now, this can be helpful when trying to knock the enemies away from your poorly armored Uruk-Hai. Do not neglect your camp during this period, it will be under attack as well, though not as heavily as the cocoons will. Train more reinforcements as your units die on the battlefield, and you should be fine. Wait until the Uruk-Hai emerge, and you will get a new command from Saruman. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Make at least one Uruk-Hai NEW OBJECTIVE: Use the Uruk-Hai => Destroy the encampment of Elves => Destroy the encampment of Men Immediately direct all of your forces at the Pit to your main camp. If you haven't purchased Twisting Influence yet, now's the best time to do. Take all of your forces, including camp defense and Saruman, to the east. You might meet an Elven patrol here, but they are disposed of easily. You should reach the Elf camp eventually. This camp isn't very well defended. Kill all the units first, then head for the training buildings, and after that the Stronghold. Be sure to kill those Workers before they start building new Elven Sanctuaries or Ranger Posts, or you can start the whole thing over again. Overall, this shouldn't be much of a hard battle. Once the camp is destroyed, a cutscene triggers, showing that the Huorns of the forest have awakened. Your encampment should be or have been attacked by now. Ignore them, your Towers will be able to deal with the first wave of Men. Instead, direct your forces southwest from the Elven camp and you should meet the Huorns. Here is where Saruman comes in: cast Twisting Influence on one of them to convert it to your side, then use Prison of Ice to get another one out of battle. That way, you should be able to deal with them with very few losses. Direct your force south, along the paved road. In the far south lies the encampment of Men, which is hardly defended at all. There are a few Towers, however, that you should destroy first or they might kill Saruman, making you lose. After the Towers are undone, it's very easy. Destroy any remaining buildings to win this level. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Use the Uruk-Hai MISSION COMPLETED ------------------------- The Pass of Cirith Ungol ------------------------- INTRO: Third Age 2000 "The Tower of Cirith Ungol - too long has it barred passage into the lands of Men. Lord Sauron will be contained within Mordor no longer. The Nazgul are sent forth to capture the Tower and open the pass for the Dark Master's legions." HEROES: - Lord of the Nazgul ==> Abilities: - Bind Shadow => Available - Shadow Walk => Available - Aura of Weakness => Available - Ringsight => Available - Grishnakh* ==> Abilities: - Explosive Trap => 2 Fate - Speed of the Wolf => Available - Torch => Available - Gollum* ==> Abilities: - Sneak => 1 Fate - Surprise Attack => 1 Fate - Gollum's Mark => Available * = Hire from Fortress of Mordor BUILDINGS: - All buildings are available UNITS: - All units are available UPGRADES: - All upgrades are available Now you're the Lord of the Nazgul again. You need to clear the pass of Cirith Ungol to make way for Sauron's armies. Name sounds familiar? Yes, it's where the big, black, mean spider named Shelob lives. You can free her if you want to, but you mainly have to focus on capturing the Tower that has confined Sauron into Mordor for too long. Here are your objectives: - Capture Cirith Ungol => Capture the Tower of Cirith Ungol => Destroy the Army of Gondor's encampment - (OPTIONAL) Release the terror of Shelob You start off with an encampment to the northeast of the map, commanding a little Orc army, the Lord of the Nazgul, and some Workers. First set up your resource gathering, you should know how to do it by now. Ensure a good income and upgrade your Fortress of Mordor to level three. Build two Towers as quickly as you can, one in the southwest and one in the southeast of your settlement. Train more Slavemasters and put them in the Towers, but make sure you keep at least one spot empty in each of them. You only need to build two more buildings now: a Shadow Lair and a Black Vault. Once the Shadow Lair is completed, train a Wraith for each Tower in your camp. Fill up the rest of your population with only Haradrim Slayers, and give them the Assassin's Cloak upgrade from the Black Vault. Upgrade your Fortress of Mordor to the final level, then get every attack and armor upgrade for your Haradrim. Attacks on your camp in this level will come from three directions: the southwest, south, and southeast. It is best to keep your force fixed in the south of your settlement, then prepare as your Towers spot the incoming enemies. These will range from Huorns to cloaked Elven Archers, they're giving you everything they've got. It shouldn't be too much of a problem with your force though. You only need to make sure that if there are any Huorns around, you send the Lord of the Nazgul to them. Huorns have a high armor rating, but will go down a lot more quickly if the Lord attacks them with Aura of Weakness. When you have a force of ten or more Haradrim Slayers with all upgrades except for Poison Dart researched for them, move south with them. You might want to evade the road, as you can run into enemy armies and take needless losses. At this point, building a Breeding Pit is pretty useful. Research Paralyze in it once it's completed. You'll soon see why. Back to your Haradrim. If you've already explored the area, you might have noticed green-looking eggs. Those are spider-eggs, and you can make them burst open by right-clicking on them with any unit. The Giant Spider within will then join you, which will prove very useful in base defense when you have Paralyze researched. Free as many spiders as you can, they're all for free. Now head back to the road and follow it southwest and then west. You'll see an enemy outpost consisting of two Towers. This is basically free Fate: they seemingly have forgotten to place Rangers inside ;P So, raze them and head over the bridge. At the end of the bridge, it's the same story, even though there are two Huorns here as well (and they can't see you either). Now follow the road further west and take the north road when you can. You'll see a webbed up Ranger. Kill him. A cutscene will take place in which Shelob comes out of her cave, and she looks pissed! OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Release the terror of Shelob Be careful here, Shelob will attack your units as well as your enemies, though she prefers good guys more than Orcs or Haradrim. Lure her to the next Tower and if she survives that, to the human camp in the south. This camp ain't no fun, it's hard to destroy, but not impossible. March into the camp from any direction you like: there are a lot of Towers on each side. If you're unlucky, you might encounter a Ballista Tower with a Ranger in it. Summon a Balrog if you have seven Fate Points, it will help straighten things even a bit. The first thing you should go for are the Rangers, then the Towers (which might have Rangers inside them). After that, destroy the Ranger Post. If you did this all quickly enough you might be able to take the camp on first try. Don't be disappointed when you don't succeed in that. Just build a new force of Haradrim and attack again very soon. After the Ranger Post is down, just raze all of the training buildings, and finally the Stronghold. Your forces have presumably already killed all of the Workers. If not, do it now and destroy all camps as well. Now the first and hardest part of the main quest is completed. Now you can go back to your base to train reinforcements, do anything you like, because you won't be attacked anymore once the enemy encampment is destroyed. I suggest training a very large force of Haradrim again. When you need more resources, there is another Well and Ore Deposit directly south of your settlement. When you think your force of invisible assassins is large enough, head west again, over the bridge. Take the second road you encounter that leads to the north. Follow it and you should see the Tower. Step back once the troops have seen you: there is a Ranger in the Ballista Tower. Now, the second Ranger will probably pursue your force, and with him a lot of enemies. Focus on killing the Ranger first and then slaughter the rest of them, this isn't that hard. Next, heal if you want to, then attack the Tower. There are some Huorns here but if you kill the Ranger that pops out quickly they can't really pose much of a threat. One thing you should beware of is Tree Form though: they will bind your units to the ground while the Tower shoulds them. But if you move quickly, they won't stand a chance. Victory is now just about certain. Direct your Haradrim into the tower and lead them to the top-right corner of the courtyard. There are some Elven Lightbearers on the Tower itself, but they can't see you since there are no Rangers around anymore. Kill the Swordsmen near the Place of Power to finish the good guys of, capturing the Tower for the Dark Lord's own uses... OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Capture Cirith Ungol MISSION COMPLETED -------------- A Hidden Plan -------------- INTRO: Third Age 3018 "The nation of Rohan will soon fall to the might of the Dark Lord. Sauron's armies sweep across the landscape, laying waste to any settlements they encounter. One such settlement, Upbourn, is of particular interest. The leader of the Upbourn garrison, Wulfhelm, plans a strong retaliation against the attackers. A Haradrim warrios has been charged with killing Wulfhelm, and conquering the town." HEROES: - Saleme ==> Abilities: - Poison Trap => 2 Fate - Blood Mark => 3 Fate - Serpent Blades => Available - Gollum* ==> Abilities: - Sneak => Available - Surprise Attack => Available - Gollum's Mark => Available - Lord of the Nazgul*==> Abilities: - Bind Shadow => Available - Shadow Walk => Available - Aura of Weakness => Available - Ringsight => Available - Grishnakh* ==> Abilities: - Explosive Trap => Available - Torch => Available - Speed of the Wolf => Available * = Hire from Fortress of Mordor BUILDINGS: - All buildings are available UNITS: - All units are available UPGRADES: - All upgrades are available With this level comes a new hero: the famous Haradrim huntress best known as Saleme. She's a quite powerful long-range unit with abilities to support an army. In the opening cutscene, you can see how cowardly Orcs are about to run from Upbourn, and then they are attacked. Fortunately, Saleme and her warriors come to the rescue. She gives the Orcs a nice speech and tells you what to do, making your objectives clear: - Capture Upbourn by assassinating Wulfhelm, or through brute force - Destroy the enemy encampment that is guarding Upbourn You start out with a fairly large encampment and an army, led by Saleme. The first thing you should do, of course, is set up your resource structures and put enough Workers on each one to ensure a steady income of food and ore. Afterwards, use Workers to put two or three Towers near your borders so that the western, northwestern, and southwestern exits are all protected. Believe me, you will need them a lot. Spread your Slavemasters over the Towers, and make sure to put a Wraith in each one. Next use a Worker to build a Black Vault, and after that set him to work on harvesting resources again. Upgrade your Fortress of Mordor and create more Haradrim Slayers from your Shadow Lair to assist in defense for now. In the Black Vault, research the Assassin's Cloak upgrade first, then attack and armor upgrades for your Haradrim. In order to get them all, you'll have to upgrade your Fortress of Mordor again to level 5, remember that. All attacks in this level will come from the west, so position your army there. The only problem is that your camp is far to big to keep an eye on all places at once. Fortunately, you've placed Towers there that will spot incoming enemy forces from afar. Watch out when you are attacked from multiple sides, this might seem a bit overwhelming, but keep your force fixed and you should be able to slay them quickly. Start training more Haradrim Slayers, and more Slavemasters to get the needed population capacity. Put those in the Towers as much as you can, leave others in the middle of your camp, defended from enemies. Having a 100 population on this level is very possible. Pump up your defenses some more, but make sure you have at least 12 fully upgraded Haradrim Slayers (preferably more) to mount an attack on the Upbourn settlement. You can also hire Gollum from your Fortress of Mordor for some scouting around the camp. Direct your Haradrim offense to the west, wading through the river. Now head to the far west of the map, until you can't go any further. Be careful not to be spotted by too many enemies. Heal if you need to once you get to the previously mentioned spot. Now, you can use Gollum again to scout out the environment, and you might even find yourself a Place of Power. It's time to raze the enemy encampment. This is by far the best defended camp you have encountered so far. It has only one weak spot, if you could call it one: the northwestern side of the camp is defended by only one, fully-manned tower (with a Ranger), but this can be evaded. Take your Haradrim Slayers through the pass north of their current position and follow the western cliff, until you get to the Camps of the enemy. Raze them, so you get more Fate Points. Attack the Tower once it sees you and kill the Ranger within to stop enemies from hurting you. Once you have seven Fate Points collected, this is a good time to summon a Balrog to aid you. Make sure the giant goes for the Towers with Rangers within first, then let it dispatch of other buildings and units. Do as much damage as you can before it sinks into the ground again. If the Ranger Post is destroyed and there are no more Rangers around, the camp is pretty much dead meat, as they cannot see your Slayers anymore. So, raze it to the ground. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Destroy the enemy encampment that is guarding Upbourn The hardest part of this mission is over. Now that the enemy camp is razed, there won't be attacks on your settlement anymore. Take all of the Haradrim that were defending your camp to the rest of your Haradrim force in the west as reinforcements. Make sure every Haradrim is healed, then move to the city gate. There is a Ranger here, so focus all your power on him before you kill the others. When they're dead, enter Upbourn. You have two choices here: go west or go east. Go west, and you will encounter some Riders of Rohan and Elven Archers on a ledge. They are easily disposed of because they don't have any Rangers to help them out. Proceed up north and you will encounter more forces, kill them all (no Rangers either). Now make your force stand still, and separate one or two Haradrim Slayers from the rest, preferably fresh. Watch at Wulfhelm's area. He is guarded by two Rangers with the Eagle Eye upgrade, so you need to be very careful. Once the last Ranger goes away on his patrol round start moving towards Wulfhelm with your assassin(s) and attack him. DO NOT attack any other enemies along the way, they can't see you anyway and you don't have any time to spare. Don't hesitate either, you have plenty of time to kill Wulfhelm. Once this is done, this mission will be ended with a victory for you. Note: if you didn't manage to kill Wulfhelm, you could either kill every enemy in the city, or reload the game. I suggest doing the last: this city is packed with Rangers and it will take very long to take them all out. It will take less time to take Wulfhelm out three or four times, trust me. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Capture Upbourn by assassinating Wulfhelm, or through brute force MISSION COMPLETED ---------------- The Morgul-Road ---------------- INTRO: Third Age 2000 "After capturing the Tower of Cirith Ungol, the Dark Lord's army presses west along the Morgul-Road toward Minas Ithil. Scouts have reported a large force of Gondor fighters fleeing along the road. The cowards have been cut off by a troop of Orcs that had marched ahead. The army of Mordor will show no mercy to these weak Men of Gondor." HEROES: - Lord of the Nazgul ==> Abilities: - Bind Shadow => Available - Shadow Walk => Available - Aura of Weakness => Available - Ringsight => Available - Grishnakh* ==> Abilities: - Explosive Trap => Available - Torch => Available - Speed of the Wolf => Available * = Hire from Fortress of Mordor BUILDINGS: - All buildings are available UNITS: - All units are available UPGRADES: - All upgrades are available Ah, this level can be so much fun if you know how to play it. It involves an attack with two armies, your own and a computer-lead force, which has an allied general named Grosh. The Uruk-Hai in the opening cutscene tells you what to do, and after disposing of a little resistance among the Orcs, the army and the Lord of the Nazgul head over to their camp. So your objectives would be: - Help Grosh's army destroy the enemy encampment to the west - (OPTIONAL) Find the archer's perch behind the enemy encampment You start off with a large army and a little camp. First, position all of your melee fighters, including the Lord of the Nazgul, to the southwestern border of your camp. Put all of your archers in the north. Now set up your resource buildings and get a sufficient amount of Workers on each. You can also train another Slavemaster and upgrade your Fortress of Mordor. Next, build a Tower in the far northwestern edge of your camp, and man it with your Slavemasters. Also construct an Orc Mound, a Shadow Lair, and a Black Vault. When you have enough resources, upgrade your Fortress again and train additional Uruk-Hai from your Orc Mound. Set the Orc Mound's rally point near the other archers. This map is very straightforward: there is only one big road, leading to the west, with a cliff on each side. When you exit your camp to the west you will encounter a barricade. Don't destroy it yet. Instead, wait until you have a very large force (100 full population slots). This way, you won't be attacked by melee units from the enemy encampment. There will be, however, Elves which shoot arrows at your camp from the northern cliff. Fortunately, you have a Tower and a lot of archers there, so they won't be much of a problem. Now, for building up a force. Make sure you have your pop cap maxed out by recruiting more Slavemasters, then start training equal amounts of Uruk-Hai and Haradrim Slayers. Of all the different strategies for this level, I find this one the least costly: both units receive attack and armor increases from the same upgrades, at the Black Vault. Put the Haradrim near the rest of your melee forces in the southwestern part of the camp, and Uruk-Hai should be moved to the other archers. At the Black Vault, purchase all upgrades for your Haradrim and Uruk-Hai except for Poison Dart. This will make defending against the Elves a lot easier as well. Note that you need to upgrade your Fortress of Mordor again, to level five, to be able to purchase all upgrades (Barbed Point and Dark Mail). You can buy more upgrades if you want, but make sure you have the ones stated above before researching any other. Once you have your pop cap maxed out, it's time to get your forces together and move west. Destroy any enemies and the barricade you encounter, you can use your Uruk-Hai to take out the archers on the cliff. Make sure you keep your forced fixed at all times and you can hardly lose this level. Don't use any Fate Points yet, you'll get to use them plenty of times once you reach the enemy encampment. Notice that you will encounter Grosh's companions several times along the Morgul-Road, fighting the enemy. If you save them all before they die, they will join you, no matter your current population. This way, I've been able to get a population of 126! I won't put down all of the places you encounter them, you can hardly miss them since there is only one road to the west. When encountering enemies while on the road, always take the Rangers out first, then the archers, then the rest. This will make things a lot quicker since your big army of Haradrim can't be seen anymore. You can also make use of the "Haradrim and Uruk-Hai Offense" strategy (8.7 E-O Strategies) to decimate foes quickly. This needs a lot of micromanagement, however, and should not be done unless you have used it before. Eventually you should reach a point where you have to choose between two roads. Choose the northern one, gather all your archers, and walk through it to complete an objective. This is the archer's perch, you see, and finding it means you get five Fate Points! OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Find the archer's perch behind the enemy encampment From here, this camp might look a little tough. However, since you have a nice LOS into this camp and a huge amount of Fate Points, summon a Balrog. Have it attack all of the Towers first, then the Ranger Post and preferably the Stronghold. The Towers still have the highest priority, though. You can use your archers on the perch to destroy any nearby buildings. Once you have done as much damage as you can, assemble all of your forces and this time take the southern road. There will be a barricade again, and pretty well defended. But, since you simply have a giant army by now, it shouldn't be much of a problem. Destroy the barricade, then head further west and kill any enemies you encounter. There are a lot of them around but your numbers are just too overwhelming for them. Now attack the camp, and you will receive help from Grosh's "army". A couple of Warg Riders and Orc Slashers... Well, it's better than nothing. Raze the camp completely, this isn't hard at all. There is no resistance left since your Balrog and archers killed all of them earlier. Just finish their job by destroying each and every enemy building over here. I summoned my second Balrog, just for fun. Once it's down, you'll be rewarded with victory. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Help Grosh's army destroy the enemy encampment to the west MISSION COMPLETED --------------------------- The Sacking of Minas Ithil --------------------------- INTRO: Third Age 2002 "Built by Isildur, Minas Ithil is the sister city of Minas Anor, a fortress of Men, and home to one of the palantiri. The people of Minas Ithil have managed to survive a siege by the Nazgul for two long years. Now, however, the time has come for Minas Ithil and the palantir to fall into the hands of the Dark Lord." HEROES: - Lord of the Nazgul ==> Abilities: - Bind Shadow => Available - Shadow Walk => Available - Aura of Weakness => Available - Ringsight => Available - Gollum* ==> Abilities: - Sneak => Available - Surprise Attack => Available - Gollum's Mark => Available - Saleme* ==> Abilities: - Poison Trap => Available - Blood Mark => Available - Serpent Blades => Available - Grishnakh* ==> Abilities: - Explosive Trap => Available - Torch => Available - Speed of the Wolf => Available - Saruman* ==> Abilities: - Prison of Ice => Available - Invisible Force => Available - Pestilence => Available - Twisting Influence => Available BUILDINGS: - All buildings are available UNITS: - All units are available UPGRADES: - All upgrades are available Before I start anything here, I have to say that I find it EXTREMELY hard to write a good walkthrough for this level. It's just so annoying at times, and there are a lot of different strategies to use. You could use any combo you wish, from my Evil-Only Strategies section or your own. I will, however, list a few useful tips that can help a lot in defense and offense. Sorry for all of you looking for a step-by-step walkthrough... In the opening cutscene, you can see the Lord of the Nazgul talk to his Black Riders about ripping the hearts of their enemies and things like that... pretty much the usual speech when playing the Minions of Sauron. All he says is viewed in your objectives: - Capture Minas Ithil => Destroy the three enemy encampments => Corrupt the Tower of the Moon with War Posts It's actually a simple order, though by no means easy. Start off by expanding your camp to the west with one of your Slavemasters and set up your resource management in the meanwhile. Build a Fortress of Mordor in the south, and then one or two Towers in the north to assist in defense. Your Nazgul will be able to take on the first few attackers, but once the more heavy troops come in, you'd better have an army ready. First of all, take the Lord of the Nazgul to the far east of the map, here is a great position for another camp, remember that for later, but more important: there is the Dragon Skull. This great Place of Power will greatly lower the costs of the upgrades you purchase. Very important in this level. Upgrade your Fortress of Mordor to gain access to all of the buildings, and build the buildings you need for your strategy. In my case, that would be a Shadow Lair and a Black Vault (for Haradrim, Wraiths for my Towers, and to upgrade the Black Riders). Man your Towers like usual: three Slavemasters and one Wraith each. Start training an army to assist in defense, and make sure to research the Morgul Blade ability for your Black Riders. This will really aid in defending. Attacks in this level will come from two directions, the northeast and the west. Position your army in the north, near your Towers. Notice that there will be far more attacks from the northeast than from the west. However, the assaults coming from the west incorporate a lot more units than the normal attacks. Keep your force fixed to beat them back, and keep training more of your champion-units. Upgrade them to the max, then start creating an army for offense. Train more Slavemasters as you will need a lot of population to create all these units. Take your offensive force (mine consisted of 15-20 Haradrim Slayers, fully upgraded and thus invisible) west until you get to a road that leads to the north. Follow it up, wade through the water and you will see some trees with a Tower. It would be unwise to attack right away, instead circle around the camp until you find a place without many Rangers and attack there. This will probably be the northwestern side of the camp. I'm not saying this will work on first try, but if you keep cool and kill all of the Rangers first, you should be able to deal a lot of damage. Note that Rangers will often flee into Towers once you arrive, which gives you a big disadvantage. Try to kill them before they reach one. Once the first camp is down, you can rest a bit, but you'll have to keep training reinforcements. As you might have already seen, there is a heavily guarded enemy outpost southeast from the camp you just destroyed. Leave it for now, instead train more of your offensive units (Haradrim for me) and send them to the rest of your army. Head into Minas Ithil. The next camp is slightly more easy than the last one: less Towers and less defenders, though there are some annoying Rangers around again. Nonetheless, this is a breeze compared to what you're going to face in the third camp. Use the same strategies as the last camp, although you can't circle around it. Raze it to the ground and you can wait and heal again. Train reinforcements as you see fit. Don't use the Fate Points you've gathered yet, instead train so much offensive units that you have about 20-25. Make your way through the ruins of Minas Ithil. In the middle, you will find a Place of Power that will certainly help you in the next assault. Continue further east and there it is: the last camp. You'll have a difficult time here, they have a lot of Towers with Rangers in them. However, if you attack from the south, you might be able to take down the Stronghold without a Ranger seeing you. Once you have enough Fate Points, summon a Balrog. The Balrog's power is very useful here, just make sure you take out all Towers and Rangers before he dissappears again. In the meanwhile, send your offensive force to destroy the enemy training buildings. This is a big camp, maybe it is better to have the Balrog attack each building ONE time, so they are set ablaze, then move it on to the next. Once the Towers are gone, you will have a fairly easy time razing the rest of the camp. Once it's gone, be glad. You've made it through the hardest part of the level. You can take it easy from now on, there will be no attacks on your camp anymore, so explore everything you want. If you ran out of resources, this is the best moment to set up an additional camp near the Dragon Skull mentioned earlier. Prepare a very large force for an attack on the Tower, consisting of your favourite combos. I used the "Haradrim and Uruk-Hai Offense" strategy when I attacked the Tower. When you think you have enough men, direct your entire force towards Minas Ithil. Head towards the Tower, there is only one way to get there, and it is guarded by a pair of Ballista Towers and a lot of units. Attack them, and go for the Beornings first. That way, the enemy units cannot be healed. Focus on crushing all resistance as quickly as possible, so make good use of your units' abilities (like the Uruk-Hai's Knockback Arrows). The Towers should be destroyed too, of course. Now position your entire army near the entrance of the Tower of the Moon, and take five Slavemasters from your Towers. Send them to the Tower. Position one near each of the Flags of Gondor that surround the Tower. Try to place all War Posts as quickly as possible, because once you place one, Swordsmen will storm out of the Tower, aiming directly at your War Posts. Teaming your Slavemasters by number helps. Try to kill all Swordsmen with your army before they do a lot of damage. Once the Tower is corrupted, you will gain a new objective. NEW OBJECTIVE: Bring the Lord of the Nazgul to the Tower If he's already there, just position him in front of the entrance to the new Tower of Sorcery, Minas Morgul. Otherwise, just Shadow Walk him over there, then bring him to the Tower. He will claim the palantir for Lord Sauron. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Bring the Lord of the Nazgul to the Tower Now, if you have already destroyed the outpost near the first encampment you will be victorious. If not, raze that outpost now, it's pretty well defended but with your army it shouldn't be much of a problem. There are some Huorns as well as Ballista Towers. Once this is done, you will have won this last, hard Evil campaign scenario. OBJECTIVE COMPLETED: Capture Minas Ithil MISSION COMPLETED Congratulations, you beat the Evil Campaign! That's it for the guide :( I hope it helped all of you. BWillemsen "Doubt is our mind's labyrinth" =============================================================================== << 9. CREDITS >> ------------ For their help creating this FAQ, I'd like to thank: - CJayC, for taking care of GameFAQs for every hunry gamer on earth. I didn't put him in earlier, but I've heard that he does a very, very good job. - J.R.R. Tolkien, for creating the epic story "The Lord of the Rings" - Liquid Entertainment, for developing this game - Rick R., for giving me some hints on the Minas Morgul level (though he didn't actually know he did...) - SThomas1317, for submitting the "Super Offense" strategy in the "Evil-Only Strategies" section. Also for the "Stonehurler Death Trap" strategy which can also be found there. - Gene Y. AKA grenka, for contributing an alternate strategy for "The Pass of Cirith Gorgor" level and for enhancing the "Haradrim & Uruk-Hai Offense" strategy - Manuel Vega 182002, for inspiring me to expand the "Places of Power" section. - Aragorn1913, for contributing the "Hordes of Mordor" strategy, which can be found in the "Evil-Only Strategies" section. Also pointed out a mistake to me in the evil section. - Tyler AKA Morgawr2, for pointing out that you can also show previously spoken dialogue via the objectives menu. - Christo Acheson AKA seaspray_68, for contributing the "Warped Retreat" strategy, which can be found in the "Evil-Only Strategies" section. He also had a useful tip for defending the catapult in the good campaign, "The Siege of the Iron Hills" scenario. - Ryan, for contributing the "Elven-Rohirrim Crush" strategy, which can be found in the "Good-Only Strategies" section. Finally, someone who contributes for the good side... thanx Ryan. - Myself, for taking the time to write this FAQ