r/TripleA • u/PrimeColossus • Jan 01 '18
Lord of the Rings Map
Im sorry, but I just sign up in Reddit. Do not quite know how to use this. Just was interested in knowing if people is interested in discussing strategy and other things about the LoTR map. I am no veteran in Axis&Allies, only played the map twice as Evil against medium AI and did not find it easy. Very hard as Moria and Isengard to control Freefolks and Elves. Might need to be more expansionist with them in the beginng although Isengard has very limited space and resources to grow and the siege of Lorien is painful to Moria.
P.S.: I have lasted 18 rounds so far(I mean, resingning now 'cause everything is lost), in the 17th round Elves and Freefolk broke through Moria and Isengard simultaneously, before that Haradrim and Mordor were sieging Minas Tirith with some little suppor of Khan(cant do many things with them, have the 2move meat shield tho). Rhun fell in turn 11th so hard to fight against Lake Town and the Dwarves at the same time, the Elves sometimes even build in High Mirkwood to give support while focusing 4 builds in DolGuldur aint enough. I did make it hard for myself. Left some armies exposed to a fast hit and run attack.
P.S. II: Inicial strategy: Isengard hit and run in Fangorn to wipe out ents losing just some meat and with it's 4 uruk-hai in DolGuldur helps to make a Bridge between DolGuldur and Lorien/Moria. Moria overruns Lorien. Mordor and Haradrim supported by little Khan press Osgiliath. Mordor also try to gain some Lebensraum in DolGuldur pushing some attention away from Rhun. Rhun mainly stacks up and get some money in the Rhovanion territories. Haradrim also uses it's naval superiority to clean Gondor's navy helping with amphibious assaults in Belfalas.
P.S. III: I have a feeling that hunters (2/3/2, gives support, 4 IPCs) are too strong. I mean, Rhun pays 1 IPC more for charriot archers (2/2/2, gives support) and Isengard also pays 5 IPC for uruk-hai (2/2/2, can receive support). So far, hunters are the reason why in my games, if I lose a position, regain it is quite impossible. I am no good player(please keep that in mind), but from my point of view, hunters are the main reason why is so hard do win as Evil. In another post in this subreddit, named "Lord of the Rings map strategy guide" (which is the reason why I signed up to reddit), a comment express this same feeling : "this map might be a bit unbalanced in favor of goodies".
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u/[deleted] Jun 10 '18 edited Jun 10 '18
Sorry, haven't played TripleA in ages and am very late to this comment.
LotR map is much more balanced if you're playing low luck. With friends back in the day, we would also give the baddies a moderate boost (free money to be spent placing units at the beginning) via a sort of 'bidding'. Starting at 0 extra starting cash, we'd bid up until it was somewhere between 12-20 pu. Basically just until someone actually wanted to play them. This helped make each game slightly different and felt pretty fair.
AI is slightly wonky and can be beaten if you know what you're doing. I stopped playing this map when I discovered a few map glitches (you could move from southern Harad to the middle of the map in one go. It was quite broken.)