That happened to me as well. But being the dumbass that I am thought Saruman needed eight or more ancillaries to acquire the Ring. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Next time around I had to conquer Imladris.
It's dissapointing how the best Lotr game comes from a few modders. Well done lads, great game, it's just a shame that gaming companies always screw it up when it comes to Lotr
Then again, being a passion project rather than a business plan is much more in fitting with Tolkien's original work. Art for its own sake by people who love what they do, that's the best.
29:26 I think only giving Isengard trolls if they make to a troll-producing region is fair, and makes a lot of sense. But considering Saruman's background as a smith, and Isengard's focus on industry and heavy armor, I do really like the idea of them being able to upgrade their trolls to be extra-armored.
@@opipoo119 Hey man, make 2 stacks and fill them to the brim with whatever units you can field and make it so that they support each other in battle. When on the offensive - merge those armies, send archers first and after a few volleys charge all the rest into the meat grinder. When on the defensive, deploy your army on the other side of the map of the reinforcing army and try a pincer movement. I just mostly ordered my troops to charge mindlessly and didn't look too hard at the casualties, it seemed to do the trick if you have numbers on your side (and you always have to have numbers). Such gameplay is kinda liberating and pleasant after playing for example Gondor or N. Dunedain. Just don't feel too hard on yourself if you lose, make another army and kick some asses. When I got to the heavily armoured goblin battalions I felt a bit touched and proud of myself.
the visual upgrade makes sense for Isengard just limit trolls to the appropriate areas but let Isengard work their magic and arm them as one would expect an armor focussed faction would
If the unit size of the nazg-hai is increased, it might not be necessary to increase the fire bomb damage. Either way, a sligth upgrade would be welcome
What if you gave enedwaith like an advancement type script? Like Gondor could come to them with an alliance offer, and if enedwaith takes it they get economy style buildings that were previously locked to them and the ability to train some of gondor's militia tier, showing that Gondor is sharing their knowledge with the clans. The flip side could be you deny the alliance, go to war with Gondor, and after a certain number of Gondorian settlements are captured you unlock a higher level of armor and then a new heavily armored unit, indicating that the clans are taking the knowledge contained within the settlements of Gondor.
Swan Knight yeah and I think it would add a level of realism to the faction as well, since you start the campaign as just a group of lowly clans. It could add the sense that as you conquer and grow you’re actually becoming more like a unified kingdom that’s growing in power.
@@seanb.9252 i mean you do get actually armored and uniform units by the late game. You're not just stuck with barbarians with loincloths for the rest of the game.
5:40 "It's very difficult to actually grow castles" Well I should bloody well think so considering they're usually man made! Where can I pick up a castle growing seed?! (I jest) Edit: The reason why camels die so easily, is because they're ships in the game files!... Oh wait, wrong game. (That was Age of Empires 2, true story. It wasn't fixed for ages, Camels were for some silly reason classified as ships in the game files!)
If I could suggest one possibility for a change to Moria, perhaps giving them better archer options? When I think of Moria I think of scenes in the Fellowship movie like Legolas picking black arrows from the bodies of fallen dwarves and realizing instantly that it was goblins, or the group being harried by arrow fire all the way across the bridge of Khazad-dum. Plus, I dont think there really is an orc archer nation (maybe Dol Guldur??) so that could be a change of pace. I'm purely spitballing of course, there's probably nothing in the lore or the books to suggest that they were any good as archers.
The problem with Moria is that it's thematically supposed to be a "horde" faction - high numbers of cheap units. This simply doesn't work in a TW game, horde factions are just not fun to play as, and frustrating to fight against. The strength of the mod is in interesting faction armies, but if you're facing Moria then you're stuck fighting the same stack over and over again. Players also want units that are strong and can hold their own, fairly. Which thematically goes against the "horde" faction type. The MW2 engine and systems are also just not set up for horde faction asymmetry. I think Moria, and the rest of the "horde" type factions need a redesign. You could repurpose the horde theme into economic benefits and give them competitive units.
@@Rabhadh They should work on Moria's late game. The early and mid game should remain the same in order to provide contrast between the factions. What's the point of having x units be elite tier, when all other trash become buffed, making the former just good, nothing special. I position myself differently on this than the majority who just want good units everywhere. I think we need more trash, not less, in order to make good units shine more. But I agree that even the horde factions like Moria need some flavour, a couple of rare almost elite units that your build your strategy around.
I loved them, 3 Berserkers as the central part of the double infantry line (all ap) of my Germanic Army that took out every Roman one. Who needs hammer and anvil tactics when you can swing 2 hammers?
Yeah don't know how one could miss it, literally the most iconic (and bs and mythical of course, but being at the extreme means that it was fully fleshed out, hence why it stuck so much) iteration. Either that in bridges or spartans in bridges.
Been watching you faction overviews for years now and I still keep finding them entertaining. The mod also looks soooo good these days. Thank you for your work! Now get out there and mow that lawn!
Great review of my favourite evil faction Galu and i thank you for all these reviews. On a side note I always wonder how many cups of coffee you drink before you do these videos. keep up the great work buddy and thanks to all the DAC team for keeping me from getting bored during lockdown
Isengard is clearly not an easy campaign i'm afraid, every time i've played them i found them difficult to manage, it's not a matter of units as you can destroy Rohan every time they come at you but the sheer number of enemies that you have to manage is INSANE. Most of the times i end up at war with Gondor, Rohan and Enedwaith at the same time simply because i share borders with them and they hate me and mind you Gondor doesn't give a damn about protecting itself agaisnt Mordor, they will send stacks at you and try to take Gynd and while it is easy to beat each of these factions on the field they will basically make it a war of attrition You'll be swarmed by armies upon armies on both sides and barely be able to push forward on either of them simply because Isengard's economy is quite low frankly, the woodcutting building doesn't seem to exist on 4.5 as i was sitting there with 36k population on Isengard with every single buildings built and no access to it, on that note Isengard fully built gives a whopping 3/3.5k income considering your uruk infantry and spearmen are 365 and 370 in upkeep respectively you simply cannot keep up with 3 factions of AI that can't go bankrupt. Now you might wonder where Dunland stands in all that? Well, most of my games i played Isengard they are having troubles with Dunedain, Bree... And Moria, yep they declare war on Moria, i don't know if I simply have bad luck but they are always at war with Moria and do not give a damn about Enedwaith at all which means your alliance with them is less than useless because you start allied with them, therefore you can't even hope to be in alliance with Rohan long enough to let you kill Enedwaith and finally have only one side to worry about. The only thing i found to be on okay terms with Rohan is weirdly enough to let them take Derwath and have a reasonably good stack in Isenrun and that's it, they simply won't attack you before you attack them, that way you can take out Enedwaith which will probably receive an alliance with Gondor while you half way through them and have one less enemy to worry about, and a lot more settlements to receive income and units from. If you don't plan on doing this you'll end up with three wars at the same time and the only way out of this would be to get the ring, honestly if you want to fight three factions united together against you just get the ring, you won't receive any penalty from it anyway since everyone around you want you dead and you can only benefit from it, the nazguls receive nazg-hai bodyguard and these units are the real deal, the bombs they throw before a fight can kill half of a unit of bodyguards from Gondor and then proceed to wipe the floor with them and receive like 3 casualties maybe? Sure they won't hold the line against arrows but you've got your uruk hai infantry for that. But yeah while the units of Isengard are super strong compared to your crappy Mordor units you've got your starting position and your income to make your campaign a lot more difficult, if the woodcutting building was out then that would be fair because if I recall that building was the real deal in terms of money maker but right now you don't have access to it. PS: Also the reason why Berserkers are 1300 in recruitment cost is because of their 150 in upkeep, which is the lowest upkeep you have in your entire roster even your dunland units and your fighter's pit units aren't that low.
You can ally enedwaith early game, you’ll wipe out rohan within 50 turns, and gondor gets massacred by late mordor. Idk how it’s difficult. Hold the rohan frontier against gondor and whoop gondor from the back.
@@Ancantar If you can be at peace with Gondor long enough to wipe Rohan then props to you but i've never had the chance to go past 30 turns without having them on my back, adding to that is most of the times Enedwaith will ally with Gondor and they tend to prefer being allied to them rather than Isengard, or at least that's what happens with me. I don't think Isengard is a difficult faction battle wise overall i'd say it's the easiest or at least one of the easiest of the "evil" factions because of the sheer stats your top tier units have but it's position coupled with it's economy make it hard campaign wise.
@@xenaro4761 So is this an unexpected (or not, maybe just for Isengard casuals I guess) turn for the - biggest too - better? A challenging and Gondor-like faction and campaign but for evil? Great then!.... ....Unless if someone, even with all of that, still couldn't feel less bad and too easy to wield Isengard, and of course Mordor.
@@xenaro4761 yes you are correct the sawmill is not in 4.5 for some reason but you can simply add it yourself in the files, should give you that edge you need to hold your own on all fronts without having to use console commands, if you cant figure out how to add the sawmill pre built at max level just ask (:
@@xenaro4761 ill give it to you anyway copy this into your descr strat folder in isengards buildings " building { type castle_woodcutting_isengard c_lumber_yard }"
In the books there is a second bridge on the river north of the one in the game. Saruman makes it to flank the armies of rohan during a battle. Do you think on adding it?
I would imagine keeping the single crossing is for game balance reasons. It makes it much easier for the Rohan player to hold Isengard at bay, without being massively overwhelmed, while also giving the Isengard player the perfect spot to hold back the tides of cavalry.
Thanks for your dedication Galu and Hummingbird. I'm playing TA and DAC now for like seven years (also some MOS). Since then I have moved 2 times, got married, got 2 sons and changed jobs. So yeah, a lot has happened. Though I played M2TW and later Stainless Steel from the original release dates ;)
Perhaps with the situation with Moria you can allow players a choice similar to that of Dorwinion. The Hobbit novels had the Orcs of Moria forge an alliance with the Wolves of the Misty Mountains. They were treated as equals to one another. The inclusion of some more Wolves/Wargs in Moria's roster (maybe a breed specifically meant to kill Monsters, armor piercing, so forth) would help diversify their Horde gameplay, but then you face a script choice that allows you to decide who leads the 'Alliance' of Moria; the Goblins or the Wolves. Perhaps you need to control Goblin-Town and Khazadum needs to be destroyed before it fires for the player. If you choose the Goblins you could relight the forges of Khazadum and give them major armor/weapon bonuses (if that's possible I'm not sure if it is) whereas if you choose Wolves the mightiest and most ferocious descend from the Misty Mountains to lead. Moria/the Misty Mountains is one of my favorite factions in the Mod and Moria was my favorite sequence of scenes in the books and movies. Any time spent in the Misty Mountains was wonderful and I cannot express my excitement for what the future may hold for them.
In gaelic a "BH" makes a "v" sound. Which is why "Eibha" is pronounced "Ava" Not that I care about the pronunciation of a made up town, I'm just aware you like languages
@@galvatron0810 well there are three gaelic languages in the isles alone , scottish , welsh and of course my beloved irish, the languages are quite diffrent though they were gaelic
Also, I agree that rather than having fire bombs it'd be more fun gameplay wise to just remove the bombs and get a larger unit size. Unless the fire bombs become something amazing in their own right, it's just not that appealing. And also I got the ring very early, because it happened to be found in Edoras and I simply went and took it.
It's funny listening to his comments about rise of mordor with its current progress now. I've heard they have the means to do the campaign map now. And Apollo, Jackie fish and others covering it it looks to be giving it that notoriety. A possible successor to dac one day maybe. If some of the team that has worked on dac could lend a hand imagine what they could come up with. Of course dac will always have its place
21:27 i thought it was un purpose because yes they cost 1300 but their upkeep is 150. I think this is the lowest upkeep unit for this nation. Yes they have higher cost to recruit but the cheapest for upkeep.
Do you know of the Middle Earth mod being worked on for Shogun 2, The Last Alliance? It seems to have endless potential with the mod tools still allowing the campaign map to be edited, as well as a much newer engine and graphical fidelity.
@@joevenespineli6389 The lead moder spent much of the early development doing animation and mocap for the shield animations, their variations, and their interactions with the others (Sword/Shield vs Spear/Shield, etc.) The results are impressively good.
@@ryanprice-gavlas9037 Oh thats certainly impressive, much so because I never really see any overhaul mods for Shogun 2, its always the old games or Rome 2 and Attila.
@@joevenespineli6389 It definitely is, considering how small the team seems to be so far. But there's still a very long way to go of course, before it can get to the same state and popularity as something like Third Age or Rise of Mordor.
8:30 Thank you for changing that. It's infuriating when I start the game as High Elves and I still can't recruit any Amanyar units even though the Noldor building's already built in Imladris and therefore should give me Amanyar straight away, meaning I then have to wait 15 turns until I can recruit them.
i think this is the best lotr mod for total war (campaign wise... attila`s rise of mordor would be nice, but this here is polished :D thanks for the great work
just thinking out loud, but what if you make castle upgrades based on cost only. they could be quite expensive, but you could invest in key locations if you wanna put in the time and gold. not sure how that might effect the AI, just a thought
The AI doesn't plan its use of money at all, so they will build up armies only to spend a lot of gold coins and bankrupt itself... So you probably won't see many upgrades
I never realized bhaille was actually based on gaelic like scottish,, welsh and my very own irish. ( prenounced " valle" and means home or town in gaelic) I thought it was just a coincidence
I just tried playing Gondor, and Isengard is insane after the barracks script kicks in. I had 6 Gondor archers firing almost point blank into a single Uruk Pike unit, and it still didn't die completely. In another match, I managed to surround Uruk crossbow with 2 gondor swordsmen, and they still took forever to die. Another instance had me surrounding a Uruk pikeman unit with 4 gondor swordsmen and the pikemen still somehow managed to kill more of my soldiers than I killed of theirs.
I really hope the isengard trolls don't get removed, they're an awesome looking unit and it's exactly what isengard would do with trolls if they had access to them. I seem to remember them being added to isengard just so the player would actually get to play with them before the game was over.
I wish CA followed that style of special unit. Getting the most broken units at the end of the campaign since you already won and the game is easy from there you could also make them a campaign only unit so they can’t be used in multiplayer.
Somehow I've seen those firebomb-toting mad lads up against me in my Northern Dunédain campaign, even though the Ring was sitting safely with me the whole game. A bug I guess? Anyhow, much love for the mod, can't wait for v5!
i would prefer to have the isengard trolls only be unlocked when saruman gets the one ring, just kind of a role-play sense where saruman can craft trolls from his pits using the wood from the ents of fangorn. You can make them uber expensive but make them similarly OP to the Nazg-hai.
I have a idea that's more for nostalgia sake but you have mentioned it before Galu You have mentioned that yall like the idea of many more custom generals and have very much started the trend of cinematic generals with a meaning and purpose, i.e. saruman, Elrond, boromir. My idea is for Lurtz, could you make a unit similar to the gurvaleg (spelling) from lothlorian to relate to how he commanded a scout company and he used a bow? No where near as OP but lore relatable and thematic. Kind like of how Haldir used to have marchwardens
Couldn't disagree with you more on the Trolls, its honestly one of my most memorable units for Isenguard having trolls with their unique armour adding that flavour as for the lore reason its a troll, why wouldn't Saruman use trolls if he had them available? i don't get the point of making these units and then pulling them out of the mod every few versions put the time into something better like changing the stat problems you bring up in these videos it becomes concerning when fun units start getting axed that it starts to detract from the mod still love the mod as always and have for many years now great job.
i don't think neither castle or city growth is a problem. It takes some time but with the right general you always managed to upragde at least one castle to stronghold by turn 100, and as soon as 60 if you are lucky, which seems quite reasonable to me. In several campaigns my castle even upgragde before large towns and end-up with huge populations (more than 20k) which is completely useless for a castle.
Concering wildmen, i, and i assume some other people too, just dont enjoy limited building in cities. even if they have advantage in having fewer recruitment buildings, it just makes non-battle part of the game too simplified. Playing as khand i found myself just spamming whatever unit is available and sending them out, while gondor required alot more planning and careful resource management. Also, when you realise that its turn 80 and your core regions are basically "done" and wont upgrade anymore it makes me lose interest in playing.
i had a gondor campaign where rohan and enedwaith almost overran isengard and had so many stacks but the last stand stacks comeplely turned the tide and enedwaith got crushed and i had to send in armies to save rohan so i was stuck fighting a 3 front war with mordor the AA and Isengard. Not to mention saruman got the ring so i started fighting the nazghai but once i killed saruman mordor got the ring so i had to kill sauron after that like ,,
If I'm correct, the AI can't activate the ring script for Isengard, they just get to train Nazg-hai. Like how Enedwaith and Dunland can train their Guardians without unifying the region
I had the same thing happen in my Gondor campaign. Rohan had them down to 3 settlements, but before I knew it, Isengard was all the way down to Calenhad.
Galu "Rohan will attack you around turn 10". lol me going as isengard and rohan sending half a stack by turn 2.... Also yes wargs go down so fast especially to arrow fire
Not that kind of miar? I think the hobbit did a great job of showing the fighting prowess of the miar even without swords, think that alone was a great show of how powerful they are besides Gandalf
I'm playing Isengard, late game with the One Ring, and I don't actually have access to the the woodcutting building at all. I thought it might have been a bug but maybe i need to double check.
@@swanknight8134 I'm looking at Rochburg now and there's no foresting building despite the fact I've built everything. It's currently at a village level.
Just out of curiosity what units are the nazgul if they join you? Are they the same units as they already are or do they get a different one like for Angmar and the witch king?
“Just conquer a few places and it’ll become available to you (talking about the brawlers pit)” is this why the AI always has a leg up in the player in regards to getting guilds? The turn 1 auto expansion?
Galu, are you thinking of doing another Warhammer II campaign at any point in the future? I loved you Eltharion playthrough and would love to see more if you have the time.
Why was Isengard given Uruk-hai to start? Considering Saruman is already set up as Evil in this Mod as early as 2980 TA (I know, gameplay reasons) when in the books there weren't even Orcs in Isengard until late 3018 TA. To be a bit more accurate to the Books, and make the Isengard start more difficult: really seems like Isengard should only start with Saruman, Lurtz, Ugluk and maybe a couple Orcs Units, and that's it. There should be no Industry in Isengard at all to start, you'd have to build pretty much all of it.
What are you talking about about getting Nazg-hai late, i got the ring on turn 35 from Edoras, Rohan was still alive, and went to war with Mordor then, it's quite challenging and nazg-hai themselves aren't that campaign changing, but the nazgul are with the nazgul scream.
So I’m currently playing as the high elves(about turn 100) and Ive finally unlocked catapults but when I fight battles with them my game keeps crashing. I tried to play a bridge battle with the catapults about 3 or 4 times until I finally decided to just disband the units and I was able to play the battle with no crash. Does anyone known what causes this issue or know of what fixes it? Google came up with nothing so I feel like I’m the only one experiencing it😕
Berserkers: have no defence against arrow
Legolas: Can't kill a single berserker
Does it mean Legolas is worse archer than snaga?
The berserker just had too many hit points
Could've been a unique Isengard general who had too many hit points to be killed off by 2 arrows.
yes ,yes it does
Legolas is just a snaga with high cheek bones
Plot-armour tends to be undefeatable...
*laughs in ring spawning at Hornburg at turn 15*
That happened to me as well. But being the dumbass that I am thought Saruman needed eight or more ancillaries to acquire the Ring. Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Next time around I had to conquer Imladris.
I had it show up in edoras and a random orc general get it, then willingly give it to sauroman, great guy 10/10 bro
It's dissapointing how the best Lotr game comes from a few modders. Well done lads, great game, it's just a shame that gaming companies always screw it up when it comes to Lotr
@@OathofthePeachGarden I distinctly remember having a ton of fun with The Two Towers for the Ps2 as a kid as well.
@@Shenaldrac It was great. Lego LOTR is great too
Then again, being a passion project rather than a business plan is much more in fitting with Tolkien's original work. Art for its own sake by people who love what they do, that's the best.
*Was about to fall asleep.*
*Sees the Isengard video I have longed for.*
"Sleep is for the weak and guilty. I am neither."
29:26 I think only giving Isengard trolls if they make to a troll-producing region is fair, and makes a lot of sense. But considering Saruman's background as a smith, and Isengard's focus on industry and heavy armor, I do really like the idea of them being able to upgrade their trolls to be extra-armored.
Revamps for Moria and Wildmen is great to hear - they are my favourite factions to play and Moria desperately needs it.
I recently tried to play moria and really struggled, can you give me any helpers
@@opipoo119 Hey man, make 2 stacks and fill them to the brim with whatever units you can field and make it so that they support each other in battle. When on the offensive - merge those armies, send archers first and after a few volleys charge all the rest into the meat grinder. When on the defensive, deploy your army on the other side of the map of the reinforcing army and try a pincer movement.
I just mostly ordered my troops to charge mindlessly and didn't look too hard at the casualties, it seemed to do the trick if you have numbers on your side (and you always have to have numbers). Such gameplay is kinda liberating and pleasant after playing for example Gondor or N. Dunedain. Just don't feel too hard on yourself if you lose, make another army and kick some asses. When I got to the heavily armoured goblin battalions I felt a bit touched and proud of myself.
@@Gniew2 thing is I cant usually make more than 1 army cause my economy goes down the shitter
@@opipoo119 get goblin town as soon as you can and your economy will blow up
"The mob if I May be rude to you" - Ah you May Galu, I humbly accept my snaga status And thank you for all the work on the wonderfull mode!
_"YEEEEEEEE... why can't we 'ave sum meats?!"_
Lord Saruman The White age '19' but has the hair and beard of a GOD!
the visual upgrade makes sense for Isengard
just limit trolls to the appropriate areas but let Isengard work their magic and arm them as one would expect an armor focussed faction would
If the unit size of the nazg-hai is increased, it might not be necessary to increase the fire bomb damage. Either way, a sligth upgrade would be welcome
The visual upgrade looks so cool though.
Also, berserker visual upgrades look sick.
I enjoyed that little rant about modding at the end there. xD It was actually very interesting.
What if you gave enedwaith like an advancement type script? Like Gondor could come to them with an alliance offer, and if enedwaith takes it they get economy style buildings that were previously locked to them and the ability to train some of gondor's militia tier, showing that Gondor is sharing their knowledge with the clans. The flip side could be you deny the alliance, go to war with Gondor, and after a certain number of Gondorian settlements are captured you unlock a higher level of armor and then a new heavily armored unit, indicating that the clans are taking the knowledge contained within the settlements of Gondor.
Sounds like a cool idea because it is nearly a clone of the Isengard and Dunland script and Enedwaith is ment to be the anti dunland
Swan Knight yeah and I think it would add a level of realism to the faction as well, since you start the campaign as just a group of lowly clans. It could add the sense that as you conquer and grow you’re actually becoming more like a unified kingdom that’s growing in power.
@@seanb.9252 i mean you do get actually armored and uniform units by the late game. You're not just stuck with barbarians with loincloths for the rest of the game.
5:40 "It's very difficult to actually grow castles" Well I should bloody well think so considering they're usually man made! Where can I pick up a castle growing seed?! (I jest)
Edit: The reason why camels die so easily, is because they're ships in the game files!... Oh wait, wrong game. (That was Age of Empires 2, true story. It wasn't fixed for ages, Camels were for some silly reason classified as ships in the game files!)
If I could suggest one possibility for a change to Moria, perhaps giving them better archer options? When I think of Moria I think of scenes in the Fellowship movie like Legolas picking black arrows from the bodies of fallen dwarves and realizing instantly that it was goblins, or the group being harried by arrow fire all the way across the bridge of Khazad-dum. Plus, I dont think there really is an orc archer nation (maybe Dol Guldur??) so that could be a change of pace. I'm purely spitballing of course, there's probably nothing in the lore or the books to suggest that they were any good as archers.
Cool idea.
Gundabad is the best orc archer faction with 6 damage that will knock the socks off most hobbits and humans alike.
Wille k they have insane range for orcs too.
The problem with Moria is that it's thematically supposed to be a "horde" faction - high numbers of cheap units. This simply doesn't work in a TW game, horde factions are just not fun to play as, and frustrating to fight against. The strength of the mod is in interesting faction armies, but if you're facing Moria then you're stuck fighting the same stack over and over again. Players also want units that are strong and can hold their own, fairly. Which thematically goes against the "horde" faction type. The MW2 engine and systems are also just not set up for horde faction asymmetry.
I think Moria, and the rest of the "horde" type factions need a redesign. You could repurpose the horde theme into economic benefits and give them competitive units.
@@Rabhadh They should work on Moria's late game. The early and mid game should remain the same in order to provide contrast between the factions. What's the point of having x units be elite tier, when all other trash become buffed, making the former just good, nothing special.
I position myself differently on this than the majority who just want good units everywhere. I think we need more trash, not less, in order to make good units shine more. But I agree that even the horde factions like Moria need some flavour, a couple of rare almost elite units that your build your strategy around.
Rampage feature was introduced in Rome total war (first one), berserkers were monsters on a bridge battles :)
I loved them, 3 Berserkers as the central part of the double infantry line (all ap) of my Germanic Army that took out every Roman one. Who needs hammer and anvil tactics when you can swing 2 hammers?
Yeah don't know how one could miss it, literally the most iconic (and bs and mythical of course, but being at the extreme means that it was fully fleshed out, hence why it stuck so much) iteration.
Either that in bridges or spartans in bridges.
I mean you could give berserkers a little armour stat as they wear a helmet (so a 1 or 2 max), but I understand the point of course.
Been watching you faction overviews for years now and I still keep finding them entertaining. The mod also looks soooo good these days. Thank you for your work! Now get out there and mow that lawn!
Great review of my favourite evil faction Galu and i thank you for all these reviews. On a side note I always wonder how many cups of coffee you drink before you do these videos. keep up the great work buddy and thanks to all the DAC team for keeping me from getting bored during lockdown
I don't drink coffee, never have done. :)
the English only swear by tea
"15:35 You are already infinitely better than every Orc nation" Even Gundabad who's all about having unusually elite Orcs?
The greatest mod to any game ever . Sins of the prophets is close.
Isengard is clearly not an easy campaign i'm afraid, every time i've played them i found them difficult to manage, it's not a matter of units as you can destroy Rohan every time they come at you but the sheer number of enemies that you have to manage is INSANE.
Most of the times i end up at war with Gondor, Rohan and Enedwaith at the same time simply because i share borders with them and they hate me and mind you Gondor doesn't give a damn about protecting itself agaisnt Mordor, they will send stacks at you and try to take Gynd and while it is easy to beat each of these factions on the field they will basically make it a war of attrition
You'll be swarmed by armies upon armies on both sides and barely be able to push forward on either of them simply because Isengard's economy is quite low frankly, the woodcutting building doesn't seem to exist on 4.5 as i was sitting there with 36k population on Isengard with every single buildings built and no access to it, on that note Isengard fully built gives a whopping 3/3.5k income considering your uruk infantry and spearmen are 365 and 370 in upkeep respectively you simply cannot keep up with 3 factions of AI that can't go bankrupt.
Now you might wonder where Dunland stands in all that? Well, most of my games i played Isengard they are having troubles with Dunedain, Bree... And Moria, yep they declare war on Moria, i don't know if I simply have bad luck but they are always at war with Moria and do not give a damn about Enedwaith at all which means your alliance with them is less than useless because you start allied with them, therefore you can't even hope to be in alliance with Rohan long enough to let you kill Enedwaith and finally have only one side to worry about.
The only thing i found to be on okay terms with Rohan is weirdly enough to let them take Derwath and have a reasonably good stack in Isenrun and that's it, they simply won't attack you before you attack them, that way you can take out Enedwaith which will probably receive an alliance with Gondor while you half way through them and have one less enemy to worry about, and a lot more settlements to receive income and units from.
If you don't plan on doing this you'll end up with three wars at the same time and the only way out of this would be to get the ring, honestly if you want to fight three factions united together against you just get the ring, you won't receive any penalty from it anyway since everyone around you want you dead and you can only benefit from it, the nazguls receive nazg-hai bodyguard and these units are the real deal, the bombs they throw before a fight can kill half of a unit of bodyguards from Gondor and then proceed to wipe the floor with them and receive like 3 casualties maybe? Sure they won't hold the line against arrows but you've got your uruk hai infantry for that.
But yeah while the units of Isengard are super strong compared to your crappy Mordor units you've got your starting position and your income to make your campaign a lot more difficult, if the woodcutting building was out then that would be fair because if I recall that building was the real deal in terms of money maker but right now you don't have access to it.
PS: Also the reason why Berserkers are 1300 in recruitment cost is because of their 150 in upkeep, which is the lowest upkeep you have in your entire roster even your dunland units and your fighter's pit units aren't that low.
You can ally enedwaith early game, you’ll wipe out rohan within 50 turns, and gondor gets massacred by late mordor. Idk how it’s difficult. Hold the rohan frontier against gondor and whoop gondor from the back.
@@Ancantar If you can be at peace with Gondor long enough to wipe Rohan then props to you but i've never had the chance to go past 30 turns without having them on my back, adding to that is most of the times Enedwaith will ally with Gondor and they tend to prefer being allied to them rather than Isengard, or at least that's what happens with me.
I don't think Isengard is a difficult faction battle wise overall i'd say it's the easiest or at least one of the easiest of the "evil" factions because of the sheer stats your top tier units have but it's position coupled with it's economy make it hard campaign wise.
@@xenaro4761 So is this an unexpected (or not, maybe just for Isengard casuals I guess) turn for the - biggest too - better? A challenging and Gondor-like faction and campaign but for evil?
Great then!....
....Unless if someone, even with all of that, still couldn't feel less bad and too easy to wield Isengard, and of course Mordor.
@@xenaro4761 yes you are correct the sawmill is not in 4.5 for some reason but you can simply add it yourself in the files, should give you that edge you need to hold your own on all fronts without having to use console commands, if you cant figure out how to add the sawmill pre built at max level just ask (:
@@xenaro4761 ill give it to you anyway copy this into your descr strat folder in isengards buildings " building
{
type castle_woodcutting_isengard c_lumber_yard
}"
In the books there is a second bridge on the river north of the one in the game. Saruman makes it to flank the armies of rohan during a battle. Do you think on adding it?
I would imagine keeping the single crossing is for game balance reasons. It makes it much easier for the Rohan player to hold Isengard at bay, without being massively overwhelmed, while also giving the Isengard player the perfect spot to hold back the tides of cavalry.
Thanks for your dedication Galu and Hummingbird. I'm playing TA and DAC now for like seven years (also some MOS). Since then I have moved 2 times, got married, got 2 sons and changed jobs. So yeah, a lot has happened. Though I played M2TW and later Stainless Steel from the original release dates ;)
That mask was clearly seared directly onto his face! :-)
love the dedication of this modding team
March to helms deep!!!
38:20 is quite ironic right now as Rise of Mordor lucky got their popularity right now. I am quite happy for both of those mod and I love them both!
Perhaps with the situation with Moria you can allow players a choice similar to that of Dorwinion. The Hobbit novels had the Orcs of Moria forge an alliance with the Wolves of the Misty Mountains. They were treated as equals to one another. The inclusion of some more Wolves/Wargs in Moria's roster (maybe a breed specifically meant to kill Monsters, armor piercing, so forth) would help diversify their Horde gameplay, but then you face a script choice that allows you to decide who leads the 'Alliance' of Moria; the Goblins or the Wolves.
Perhaps you need to control Goblin-Town and Khazadum needs to be destroyed before it fires for the player. If you choose the Goblins you could relight the forges of Khazadum and give them major armor/weapon bonuses (if that's possible I'm not sure if it is) whereas if you choose Wolves the mightiest and most ferocious descend from the Misty Mountains to lead. Moria/the Misty Mountains is one of my favorite factions in the Mod and Moria was my favorite sequence of scenes in the books and movies. Any time spent in the Misty Mountains was wonderful and I cannot express my excitement for what the future may hold for them.
Just got home from nightshift and i see new upload. Sleep can wait!
now when you finish overview you can give us version 5 and you start again with overview... :)
Obviously and as always, when it'll be released (so months from now on I guess).
Best for last i see...
You know, I think you’re right Isengard is the best faction.
Indeed
Yep. I always fantasize how a middle earth would look like under the care of the white hand.
The Orc men are without a doubt one of the best units in the game.
Starts to conquer Rohan.
Gondor: it´s conquer time!!
Lol! Gondor will be getting eaten alive by mordor and still send its last armies up north to isengaurd to attack out of pure spite!
I enjoy this a lot, dear Arachír, and i look forward to the next DevDiary! :)
Really enjoyed the ramble at the end about the success of DaC and other mods. Interesting stuff!
Oh no i love the isengard trolls, it highlight the technologically advanced orc faction isengard is most known and its part of what makes it popular
Thank you for doing all this for free you absolute madmen. You've accidentally made the best TW game and the best LOTR game just because. I love you.
In gaelic a "BH" makes a "v" sound. Which is why "Eibha" is pronounced "Ava"
Not that I care about the pronunciation of a made up town, I'm just aware you like languages
And bhaille means home or town in irish/ gaelic
@@ruairiodonohoe2533 i never knew that, i guess when pronounced it would sound like ville which is like village
@@galvatron0810 no vallya is how it sounds. Trust me im irish and fluent
@@ruairiodonohoe2533 oh i see now ive always been interested in gaelic
@@galvatron0810 well there are three gaelic languages in the isles alone , scottish , welsh and of course my beloved irish, the languages are quite diffrent though they were gaelic
But Isengard's trolls are Cool
Always enjoy a Sunday morning Galu upload. Great info, and great faction, they're next on my list to play. Cheers!
Also, I agree that rather than having fire bombs it'd be more fun gameplay wise to just remove the bombs and get a larger unit size. Unless the fire bombs become something amazing in their own right, it's just not that appealing. And also I got the ring very early, because it happened to be found in Edoras and I simply went and took it.
Cheers Galu. Love your roundabout commentary. DAC is a grand game
I can't believe they are over
It's funny listening to his comments about rise of mordor with its current progress now. I've heard they have the means to do the campaign map now. And Apollo, Jackie fish and others covering it it looks to be giving it that notoriety. A possible successor to dac one day maybe. If some of the team that has worked on dac could lend a hand imagine what they could come up with. Of course dac will always have its place
Also there are console commands for Ancillaires if you still cant get rid of em @viewers
21:27 i thought it was un purpose because yes they cost 1300 but their upkeep is 150. I think this is the lowest upkeep unit for this nation. Yes they have higher cost to recruit but the cheapest for upkeep.
Do you know of the Middle Earth mod being worked on for Shogun 2, The Last Alliance? It seems to have endless potential with the mod tools still allowing the campaign map to be edited, as well as a much newer engine and graphical fidelity.
First thought that came to mind is: how do they work in sword and shield animations?
@@joevenespineli6389 The lead moder spent much of the early development doing animation and mocap for the shield animations, their variations, and their interactions with the others (Sword/Shield vs Spear/Shield, etc.) The results are impressively good.
@@ryanprice-gavlas9037 Oh thats certainly impressive, much so because I never really see any overhaul mods for Shogun 2, its always the old games or Rome 2 and Attila.
@@joevenespineli6389 It definitely is, considering how small the team seems to be so far. But there's still a very long way to go of course, before it can get to the same state and popularity as something like Third Age or Rise of Mordor.
8:30 Thank you for changing that. It's infuriating when I start the game as High Elves and I still can't recruit any Amanyar units even though the Noldor building's already built in Imladris and therefore should give me Amanyar straight away, meaning I then have to wait 15 turns until I can recruit them.
i think this is the best lotr mod for total war (campaign wise... attila`s rise of mordor would be nice, but this here is polished :D thanks for the great work
Rohan is like a card house: you kick in the door, ie the hornburg, and they collaps
just thinking out loud, but what if you make castle upgrades based on cost only. they could be quite expensive, but you could invest in key locations if you wanna put in the time and gold. not sure how that might effect the AI, just a thought
The AI doesn't plan its use of money at all, so they will build up armies only to spend a lot of gold coins and bankrupt itself... So you probably won't see many upgrades
Hell no, and not only because it would also cripple the AI.
I never realized bhaille was actually based on gaelic like scottish,, welsh and my very own irish. ( prenounced " valle" and means home or town in gaelic) I thought it was just a coincidence
The complaints about camels are just praises for how well the wargs are developed. love it
one time a village was rioting and I put saruman to put it down....they murdered him.
I just tried playing Gondor, and Isengard is insane after the barracks script kicks in. I had 6 Gondor archers firing almost point blank into a single Uruk Pike unit, and it still didn't die completely. In another match, I managed to surround Uruk crossbow with 2 gondor swordsmen, and they still took forever to die. Another instance had me surrounding a Uruk pikeman unit with 4 gondor swordsmen and the pikemen still somehow managed to kill more of my soldiers than I killed of theirs.
I really hope the isengard trolls don't get removed, they're an awesome looking unit and it's exactly what isengard would do with trolls if they had access to them. I seem to remember them being added to isengard just so the player would actually get to play with them before the game was over.
I thought Third Age Total War was dead, and that DaC took its place as THE Lord of the Rings mod for MeD2
I wish CA followed that style of special unit. Getting the most broken units at the end of the campaign since you already won and the game is easy from there you could also make them a campaign only unit so they can’t be used in multiplayer.
Isengard Troll are alive !!! Forever ! Snif
Somehow I've seen those firebomb-toting mad lads up against me in my Northern Dunédain campaign, even though the Ring was sitting safely with me the whole game. A bug I guess?
Anyhow, much love for the mod, can't wait for v5!
I think the stats on the orc-men are too good (particularly defense), for the price and coming in before the barracks event
Great video! Can’t wait for the Amazon series, who knows how it will affect DaC?
Probably very little, given that it was set 3000 years before this and (presumably) takes place in a completely different part of the world (Numenor)
Maybe there's a good reason why the Barracks Event is important, at least for some factions.
Wait, the Uruk Raiders have less than average speed!? I thought they were supposed to be the scouts of Isengard?
Finally :) I’ve been waiting so long for this masterpiece!
Great video as always.
i would prefer to have the isengard trolls only be unlocked when saruman gets the one ring, just kind of a role-play sense where saruman can craft trolls from his pits using the wood from the ents of fangorn. You can make them uber expensive but make them similarly OP to the Nazg-hai.
I have a idea that's more for nostalgia sake but you have mentioned it before Galu
You have mentioned that yall like the idea of many more custom generals and have very much started the trend of cinematic generals with a meaning and purpose, i.e. saruman, Elrond, boromir.
My idea is for Lurtz, could you make a unit similar to the gurvaleg (spelling) from lothlorian to relate to how he commanded a scout company and he used a bow? No where near as OP but lore relatable and thematic. Kind like of how Haldir used to have marchwardens
Wuuu Rohan BG getting upgrade!!! Nice :D
Couldn't disagree with you more on the Trolls, its honestly one of my most memorable units for Isenguard having trolls with their unique armour adding that flavour as for the lore reason its a troll, why wouldn't Saruman use trolls if he had them available? i don't get the point of making these units and then pulling them out of the mod every few versions put the time into something better like changing the stat problems you bring up in these videos it becomes concerning when fun units start getting axed that it starts to detract from the mod still love the mod as always and have for many years now great job.
Considering berserkers have a helmet I think them having 1 armor would make sense though I don't think it will make much of a difference anyways.
In Irish, Bhaille would be pronounced 'Vailya'. It seems to be very similar to the world 'baile' which means town.
i don't think neither castle or city growth is a problem. It takes some time but with the right general you always managed to upragde at least one castle to stronghold by turn 100, and as soon as 60 if you are lucky, which seems quite reasonable to me. In several campaigns my castle even upgragde before large towns and end-up with huge populations (more than 20k) which is completely useless for a castle.
Aren't the Broadbeam marksmen the best crossbow unit?
Concering wildmen, i, and i assume some other people too, just dont enjoy limited building in cities. even if they have advantage in having fewer recruitment buildings, it just makes non-battle part of the game too simplified. Playing as khand i found myself just spamming whatever unit is available and sending them out, while gondor required alot more planning and careful resource management. Also, when you realise that its turn 80 and your core regions are basically "done" and wont upgrade anymore it makes me lose interest in playing.
Really weird that thats what turned you off in a Total War game.
i had a gondor campaign where rohan and enedwaith almost overran isengard and had so many stacks but the last stand stacks comeplely turned the tide and enedwaith got crushed and i had to send in armies to save rohan so i was stuck fighting a 3 front war with mordor the AA and Isengard. Not to mention saruman got the ring so i started fighting the nazghai but once i killed saruman mordor got the ring so i had to kill sauron after that like ,,
If I'm correct, the AI can't activate the ring script for Isengard, they just get to train Nazg-hai. Like how Enedwaith and Dunland can train their Guardians without unifying the region
Ar-Pharazôn the Golden oh i see i see thank you
@@GruntGusherFilms You're welcome. Do have a good day now
I had the same thing happen in my Gondor campaign. Rohan had them down to 3 settlements, but before I knew it, Isengard was all the way down to Calenhad.
Galu "Rohan will attack you around turn 10". lol me going as isengard and rohan sending half a stack by turn 2.... Also yes wargs go down so fast especially to arrow fire
Don't worry Galu, lockdown will be back one way or another. Here in Holland, they are already preaching it again :S
Not that kind of miar? I think the hobbit did a great job of showing the fighting prowess of the miar even without swords, think that alone was a great show of how powerful they are besides Gandalf
I know it a year too late, but berserkers do seem to be wearing helmets, so maybe 1 or 2 points of armor are justified?
I'm playing Isengard, late game with the One Ring, and I don't actually have access to the the woodcutting building at all. I thought it might have been a bug but maybe i need to double check.
I think I remember him mentioning that it was in rockburg, the little settlement on the edge of Fangorn forest
@@swanknight8134 I'm looking at Rochburg now and there's no foresting building despite the fact I've built everything. It's currently at a village level.
Ah I figured it out turns out it needs to be a town but it's so small despite the fact I didn't even sack it that I doubt I'll ever see it rip
Just out of curiosity what units are the nazgul if they join you? Are they the same units as they already are or do they get a different one like for Angmar and the witch king?
Nazghai
Eric Meyer question, do the Nazgul return to Isengard if they die? That is, saying Saruman has the ring?
@@lukebrockman8025 They should after I think 15 turns or so.
Eric Meyer Ight thanks
is there an ENT-script or it is long gone that i don't remember being removed?
“Just conquer a few places and it’ll become available to you (talking about the brawlers pit)” is this why the AI always has a leg up in the player in regards to getting guilds? The turn 1 auto expansion?
Perhaps if you give the ring to Sauron you get a huge amount of money in return? Maybe one of the Nazgul?
Galu, are you thinking of doing another Warhammer II campaign at any point in the future? I loved you Eltharion playthrough and would love to see more if you have the time.
Isenguard is pretty easy. the whole army is pretty strong.
Why was Isengard given Uruk-hai to start? Considering Saruman is already set up as Evil in this Mod as early as 2980 TA (I know, gameplay reasons) when in the books there weren't even Orcs in Isengard until late 3018 TA.
To be a bit more accurate to the Books, and make the Isengard start more difficult: really seems like Isengard should only start with Saruman, Lurtz, Ugluk and maybe a couple Orcs Units, and that's it. There should be no Industry in Isengard at all to start, you'd have to build pretty much all of it.
What are you talking about about getting Nazg-hai late, i got the ring on turn 35 from Edoras, Rohan was still alive, and went to war with Mordor then, it's quite challenging and nazg-hai themselves aren't that campaign changing, but the nazgul are with the nazgul scream.
Did you ever get around to asking about the logging building? Is it not in 4.6 either? Appreciate your work
What are peoples thoughts on giving normal berserkers "relentless"
So I’m currently playing as the high elves(about turn 100) and Ive finally unlocked catapults but when I fight battles with them my game keeps crashing. I tried to play a bridge battle with the catapults about 3 or 4 times until I finally decided to just disband the units and I was able to play the battle with no crash. Does anyone known what causes this issue or know of what fixes it? Google came up with nothing so I feel like I’m the only one experiencing it😕
Q - What are the timescales are on the roadmap to v5? Looking forward to having no barracks event.
Wait? No Berserk mechanics? Don't the Oliphaunts run amok if enough missile projects hit them?
Have you guys considered changing the way the AI behaves in battle? It gets annoying when they constantly retreat on the field.
when it comes to their elite crossbowmen are they considered to be effective against armor in mele?
Are the anticavalry stakes deleted? Never played this game but love the vids!
No they’re still in the game but only few elite units can use them
The new TW engine that modern games use suck big pp
The game crashes every 4 turns or so. Can anyone tell me why. My pc is good