Divide & Conquer: Top 5 Popular Factions 

"Everybody loves the Numenoreans" *Clans of Enedwaith disliked that*

The team should take a lot of credit that two made up factions come 6th and 4th. A testament to the teams ability to craft factions that stand tall even in a lore as well crafted as Tolkeins !

For me, I find an important element of a faction to be its narrative role. The Dúnedain are loved because the reforming of Arnor is such a massive narrative objective and it makes every slogging battle feel significant because it’s enjoyable to create this kingdom. I disliked Enedwaith specifically because it lacks strong roleplay and narrative direction. I think something that might help Dunland is to add scripts related to reclaiming their ancient homeland, where for example by taking control of Rohan they unlock more advanced units and the ability to build cities and the option to build special buildings in Edoras and Hornburg, and some options for Isengard related to the Dunlendings.

Angmar did not even become an honorable mention? This smells like some Istari-treachery... Send an Inquisitor, would you?

I guess people mostly like historically anf culturally "Imperial/High civilization" factions. They like elite troops with heavy armour, good stats and standardized appearance. Meanwhile I sit here, kinda liking the idea of ragtag mishmashs. Hence why I loved old Angmar with the orcish/rhudaurim mix.

I think your right on the nose with the Dunedain being loved for lore. I am not the best player and I really struggle with them but I love to play with them and I think the modding team did a really good job making them feel like a very small band of survivors just struggling to remake their kingdom, and maybe that what does it because I can make up head canon for how important every little skirmish is for taking back Arnor.

Im sharpening 662 javelins right now...

I love North of Dunedain and i so excited for the reforged of Arnor script!

Few reasons I can think of.. 1. Most of the disliked factions are weak mid/late game 2. For a similar reason, you will almost always lose auto-resolve so all battles have to be fought manually or you need additional stacks 3. Weak economy -> less elements of city management 4. Obvious factors such as coolness or good vs. evil, variability 5. Range units are significantly weaker. For me at least, I love fielding archer heavy armies For similar reasons, Rohan is relatively low despite having some of the coolest units - they're weak in auto-resolve and not a lot of variety (and siege battles suck). Very surprised to see Harad so low though.

The Anduin campaign is fun. I bet their downvotes are because they can't upgrade past large towns, but the towns are cool and good for defense

The reason I dislike Moria is just like you said. They are very, very bland. There should be more unique units rewarded for defeating Khazad Dum and maybe special units that would excel at fighting in the narrow choke points of tunnels. At the end of the day, winning battles in Med 2 through sheer numbers every time gets boring very fast. The problem with Enedwaith is that their late game roster is no match at all for other factions. It would be interesting if they could equip new units by conquering Dunedainic settlements, which would reflect their past enmity with Numenor.

It seems people just don't like evil nations.

we can all agree that the reason we downvoted enedwaith is because they are painful to fight in the campaign

Very interesting :) I personally think the absolute upvotes/downvotes are much more telling then the percentage. When a faction has less votes, that just means that less people care enough for them to actually vote.

for me dale is my fav nation. then Dorwinion . I really like playing small obscure nations haven't played much Gondor and stuff they're very vanilla

It occurs to me that many of the negative votes might be from people who have never played those factions, and simply dislike the idea of them. If the question was changed to "which are your least favourite factions of the ones you have played?", I wonder if the poll would look different. For example, I have about 500 hours in the mod over the past three years, and I have only played campaigns with just over half of the factions. Many factions I thought would be quite boring until I actually played them, such as Harad. At the same time, I thought I would absolutely love Dorwinion, and it was fine when I played very casually and didn't have much to compare it to, but at this point I find the experience a little bit lacking compared to factions such as Isengard, which I have done a handful of playthroughs with. The script for Dorwinion is very promising though, and I look forward to playing Dorwinion in the next version to see what has been changed. I also avoid playing as wildmen simply for the fact that they can't upgrade their settlements very far. You're still going to end up with tens of thousands of people in the settlement, you just have to deal with a lot of squalor and disease, which I don't particularly care for. I think if I were to play as a wildmen faction I could find the challenge very nice, but Enedwaith in particular seems like a bit of an aimless faction. Dunland and Anduin at least have reasonable goals in the lore. Dunland has beef with Rohan and the Beornings have an intense dislike for orcs. Enedwaith are just disparate villages loosely located in the same region. While I think the lack of an organised nation-state needs to be acknowledged, perhaps restricting town growth isn't the best option? After all, you can't really play Total War as anything other than a nation-state (or a horde, I suppose). Perhaps a uniting the tribes script at the end of which a moot-lord is selected and a proper state organised, after which town upgrades are unlocked? The only faction I think I would categorically refuse to play is Moria. Other trash-heavy factions, such as Mordor, have many cool mechanics and unique units. Moria just doesn't seem that unique, especially as you can do almost the same campaign by capturing Goblintown as Gundabad (with the added bonus of Gundabad's cooler units that give you more options in battles and add variance to the faction's roster). As a concluding remark I'd like to say that most of the campaigns really are fun, some of them are just more fun than others. I think it says a lot that, even with dozens of mods in the newer Total Wars with their fancy animations and quality of life upgrades, I spend a lot more time playing this project.

I also think, the High Elves are loved just because of how powerful they are.

I prefer playing as mordor because I have no talent or finesse. "If brute force doesn't solve the problem, you didn't use enough of it." - SFIA

I love fighting Moria. What's more satisfying than mowing down thousands of goblins with your arrows? I just dislike playing them and being on the other end of those arrows.

I love Angmar. They are a bad guy underdog and look badass !!😁😁

I love the building aspects of DAC as much as the combat. I want to spread my civilisation in the form of great cities and monuments but this basicaly forces me to play 'good' nations with some exceptions. I would love to try nations like Anduin or Dunland but couldn't face filling the world with wood hovels and dirt roads.

My first play through was with Harad and that was what made me fall in love with the mod. Working together with AA to take down Mordor was the most entertaining play through I’ve ever had on a total war game. Because of this, Harad will always have a special place in my heart

Listening to you talk about the lore gives me a greater appreciation for the attention to detail that must have been put into this project.

Just want to say this: Beatiful background scenes, well done!!

For me, Dunedain and High Elves are my favorite because of the characters as the lore. The Silmarillion is my main focus within the legendarium works, so I have a deep love for the Noldor and their bitter, tragic, glorious tale. Same goes for the Faithful of Numenoreans. Great units helps too, but it’s predominantly the lore and backstories, plus beloved characters, which is why I’m also a fan of Gondor, though less so.

Glad to see the Adunaim as contenders. They've got so much going for them, from the auxiliary system to the neat lore and aesthetic to the Seanchan vibe. Kinda surprised isengard and dol amroth didnt make the top 5

I have played probably 10-12 full length campaigns.. 6 of which have been Northern Dunedain. I love the lore, I love the roster, the area of the map. But I will say.. honestly, as you mentioned in the video, they are very difficult to play as. Constantly dealing with stacks and stacks of armies attacking multiple different cities in your lands, because it’s hard to block all chokeholds. I do admit I often cheat with them early game.. giving myself money and process_cq for buildings because their economy is utter trash. And early game is a slog because you really don’t have much army to work with due to such slow replenishment of forces. You need to micro each battle perfectly to minimize losses every damn battle or you are toast at the start. It honestly just makes you not want to play for long.. so that’s why I cheat to make it more tolerable at times in the start. Mid-Late game is soooo fun with the roster.

If the High Elves hadnt lost their golden armor on the Noldorin units, they would have gotten a 99% upvote ratio guaranteed. Also the assumption that Moria was down voted because the Dunedain was loved isnt entirely accurate, as it's not really that annoying to fight against Moria. It's much more stressful to fight against Dunland when they stab your back while ur fighting Angmar in the north. Same goes for Ered Luin who apparently always accepts the rings for some reason. The reason why Moria is so hated in my opinion, is because their elite units are about as good as the tier 1 dunedain units. The strategy to Moria is literally to recruit a bunch and auto resolve, slowly wearing down your enemies elite armies and eventually overwhelming them. And that just isnt fun. Although it's really difficult to decide what to do with Moria to make it interesting.

From my perspective in how I play, I'm not a fan of playing evil nations and enjoy the element of choice, I recently did an Ar-Adunaim campaign where I took Tharbad and sided with the free peoples as Mordor had wiped out Gondor in 60 turns. I'd say from me choosing an evil nation is just far too easy as Mordor seems to steamroll if you're not actively combating them early on. Also in the area generally west of the Misty Mountains, there are so much more exciting nations to play compared to Dunland or Enedwaith, which you'll likely wipe out if you play a different nation in the same area. For me their rosters just seem a bit tame compared to the likes of AA, Dunedain, High elves etc, plus the AA/Dunedain recruitment systems being able to get units from other factions elevates them even further over the others. Overall though for me I'd like to see exciting scripts introduced to give me something to work towards instead of just wipe out faction A to win, the reforging of Arnor, Elven Unions, re-establishment of Numenor as AA as just general ideas gives a playthrough an incentive to work towards.

I think the dúnedain are so love not only for lore but also because the campaing never ends to be a challenge, it takes a while to defeat Angmar, you have to deal with the goblins, Dunland, some have to deal with Ered Luin, a very powerfull Isengard, and Mordor. The simple fact that you can deside how to defeat each factions is amazing, combine all of that with a really cool roster and being able to recrute the most usefull Angmar units, and many of the units of Gondor and Dol-Amroth, it's just so cool, everyone is waiting to being able to restore Arnor

Great cinematography for this video. Proof you can great action shots when not stuck micromanaging cavalry on times 6. :P

Very cool idea with this video. Awesome to see where everyone ranks factions.

I love playing Harad (my personal favorite), thank you for the fix in 4.5! Playing the free for all campaign and it's so interesting (AA and Khan teaming up on me, maybe Dol Amroth can be a friend?). Thanks to you and the rest of the modding team, even for the less popular factions there's still love and thought put into the roster/campaign.

I honestly love how this Mod and its comunity have grown over the years. Cheers to you Galu and the team for giving people a vent from real life and its problems even though you are not paid for it. So thank you Conscripted moders. Ps: If anyone knows how i can import units from another faction lets say i want the Tharbad Royal guard to be recruitable by the Ar-Adunaim how do i get rid of the silver surfers?

Love these kind of videos

I think the fun factions are ones where you can build big cities and recruit awesome units. Then also some cool lore helps a ton. Enedwaith, anduin, dunlendings fail badly in each of these three things. Moria is worst because it fails in execution in all three but expectations are that it should be pretty good at them. The Moria bit was my favorite part of the movies and I would love to make an evil Moria civilization; there should be loads of horrific monsters available to me and my overwhelming numbers shouldnt be as underwhelming as they often end up. Very much feels like theyre designed to be something to fight against and not intended to be something to be played as which is a bit sad.

I don't understand the Khand downvotes. I love that faction due to you being able to align yourself with the west and Alatar and Pallando!

Great video, very... eye opening, I guess one could say? Really interested about the reason people hated Enedwaith as well, they are my favourite faction!

I've played a few on the dislike list here are some of my thoughts: -No city advancement. There's a real lack of the feeling of building up your nation. -Unique buildings are too limited to make up for it. E.g. Dunland's 3 starting regions are the only places you can build tanneries. Anduin need a specific resource for the bee building. -No incentive to play a longer game. Anduin, Dunland and Enedwaith stop being fun as soon as the barracks event hits. In addition, elites are often highly restricted in where they can be built, which lets you have a single elite unit after 50 turns, wow! -Khand's starting position is just not fun. They are great in a Shattered alliances campaign though. -Javelins are a terrible weapon in Med 2. Horse Skirmishers are good if they have Cantabrian circle, but foot Javelins can never fire quick enough to target anyone for more than 1 volley.

I find that one of the reasons for the 5 top spots could definetly be aestethics. Gondor, Dorwinion, Erebor, the High Elves and the Dunedain have some if not the best looks in the entire mod, also with the fact that almost all of their units get armor upgrades throughout the campaign makes them very enjoyable. They truly give you a feeling of your empire progressing and getting better, something that doesn't happen at all when you play as factions like moria and Enedwaith, which get the same looks from start to finish.

They did Khand dirty. Look how they massacred my boy!

Wonderful video!!

Would love to see a making of vjdeo to many of these mods, botet too. Amazing work !

Anduin Vale I really don't like simply because they fight next to, and against, so many cooler factions that they completely pale in comparison. This and their jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none gameplay isn't really for me, I like a dedicated roster much more (which is why wildmen factions in general aren't my cup of tea). Also they're simply that hard, it's always an uphill battle against Moria's numbers and Gundabad or DG's upper tiers. And there's no real incentive to this campaign. There's no unique script, no special event if you take this settlement of hold that number of regions, they're very bland in terms of storytelling. I wish there was some sort of messages or a chain of events relating to the Beornings and their animal legacy, maybe something involving the Eagles or the rivalry with the Spiders of Mirkwood.

Thank you all for your hard work

my favorite unit of the whole mod is the dorwinion infantry, because I find it really cute to see both men and elves in the same regiment

The more scripts the more I love the faction. Pretty simple. But the work that all the people put into this game mod is admirable and thank you so much for It.

I was more amazed by the battle maps shown in the video and id like to see more of them

I'm excited for the arnor script and I hope I could see aragorn wearing numenorian armor when you upgrade the grey company's armor

My favorite factions were Gondor, for their well rounded roster, strong economy, and defensive position, Rohan for their strong Calvary and necessarity for tactics, and Mordor for their defensive position, immense economic power, and USSR idea of "Throw bodies at it till it goes away" solutions.

I think you need to run a new poll to distinguish between which factions are most enjoyed to play, vs which are more fun to fight against, given that none of these factions exist separately from each other. For instance - I recently did my first ND campaign and Enedwaith presented a really interesting challenge compared to the scores of light infantry in OotMM and the heavier foot soldiers of Angmar - facing off against a skirmisher-heavy Celtic-style nation meant I had to adapt my tactics - because, to be honest, there's not a whole lot of tactical difference between fighting orcs vs fighting High-Elves. The latter are obviously much tankier, but aside from that, their troop rosters and battle tactics are very similar and didn't require any adaptation to my play style. I really enjoy the fact that Enedwaith exists as a challenge to overcome, but playing as them is, frankly, boring imo, and I reckon you should introduce a new poll with more specific voting guidlines to reflect that disparity. I didn't cast a vote, but I would probably have chose Northern Dunedain simply because of the sense of progress as you level up your settlements and upgrade your soldiers' armour. There's something so satisfying about the transition from a gritty, hand-me-down looking army to a polished, uniform, professional-looking army. Personally, visual changes from blacksmith upgrades are among my favourite things about this game and I'd love to see more of it!

Northern Dunedain are hands down my favorite as well. The lore aspect, the fact that you start in tiny hovels without even a picket fence, and the Beacon of Hope recruitment system are all awesome features. Restoring the kingdom and getting access to almost everyone else’s roster (at least a portion of) are very cool. I think the Beacon of Hope makes the late game much more interesting as it truly feels like a great melting pot nation, as opposed to most other nations who keep training the same units everywhere as they grow. This really spiced up the late game. And it’s fun to look at Eriador on turn 175+ and see how you’re kingdom has transformed the landscape while beating back Mordor (who inevitably steam rolls the southern half of the map). The Aragorn script, Army of the Dead, and Gandalf the White scripts are awesomely done as well.

Honestly shocked that Anduin are so disliked. They're campaign is a fun juggle and the roster has such a neat aesthetic and charm! Anduin and Bree-Land are my favourites because their rosters have so much character. Really feels like you're slapping an army together based on the varied peoples/cultures you have available.

1. Northern Dunedain - Well, it's as you said. I was initially drawn to them because of the lore behind them, and I remain enamoured with the idea of reuniting Arnor, rebuilding its great cities and leading the resurgence of the descendants of Numenor. Also, they've got an interesting roster, and once you get them armoured in Numenorean mail, they look fantastic. 2. High Elves - Again, I love the lore, and it's just an amazing feeling, pulling the Eldar back from their decline and making sure Elf-banners fly over Middle Earth once more. My only issue is that I do still think Imladris and Lindon should be separate, with different rosters; other than that, it really just feels good, commanding the best warriors in the game. 3. Erebor - Can't really say anything here, I haven't played as them. 4. Dorwinion - It is mainly the mystery that draws me in, the allure of playing in the East as this enigmatic faction that exists only in rumour. Whether as Northmen or Avari, the Dorwinion roster has a remarkable amount of flavour, with the Avari feeling distinct from other Elven factions and the Vintner Court troops combining Dwarven and Elven influences with the natural skill and ferocity of the Men of that race. Also, the Avarin Plate upgrade looks amazing, and I just kind of have a soft spot for them, as a fellow lover of wine. 5. Gondor - I'd have thought it was obvious; the campaign is always similar, but it's always interesting and intense. Gondor has arguably the most fleshed-out roster in the game, its troops have unique and beautiful looks, you face a variety of enemies across Ithilien and Harondor, and it is just the centrepiece. It's *the* faction to play. If you haven't played Gondor, have you really played Divide and Conquer?

Im gonna be honest, just recently started with DaC and came from Reforged and so far im totally in love, with everything, trying out some factions but still havent found my favo yet, although many seem awsome ( could be im pretty bad at the game too) but just an idea, in the misty mountains, couldnt it be an idea that the goblins of the misty mountains or every faction gets pathways within the mountains from moria and goblin-town, also that town in the middle, zag cala or something, cause would be much easier and its abit frustrating to have to take a big off tour when one of your citys are under attack, with that said, love Dac and ty for the game really

Interesting results galu, gutted I missed the vote. Disappointed that gundabad wasn't higher and that dunland are in the bottom 5. Guessing people like strong factions with high stat units compared to more horde unit type factions, which is fairly understandable (which is why I loved gundabad as its a great half way house).

Definitely surprised by Harad. I thought people would love them, almost solely for the Oliphaunts. I do wonder if, as you suggested, people downvoted them because they're somewhat annoying to play against. That said, I really enjoyed playing against Moria as the N. Dunedain. Tons and tons of kills for my archers and horse archers.

Few surprises there. Wasn't expecting dorwinion in top 5, thought isengard would be there. Was hoping to see bree, rhun and angmar to be better liked but oh well

Khand campaign is pretty fun, you can backstab or help your allies. great beasts are fun. Harad is my absolute favorite faction. Fighting to retake their homeland from the Gondorians.

I am late to this vid, but this is my perspective. AA is my fave. Much for the reason mentioned above. I can play them a different way every time and find something interesting. Plus, I love their ability to conscript other factions units. Something that I wish other "weaker" factions could obtain the ability to do. It would make them more playable into the late game VS early on. Rohan is my second fave. Partly because I am overall in love with this faction both in films and lore. I highly admire it, but my second is the fun I can have with calvery. I almost never fight battles in a city with this faction. If I need to lay siege, I will camp my hoard outside until the settlement surrenders. I just about never keep a strong reserve of troops inside a city. Maybe 1 or 2 militia just to keep it from being auto-lost, but instead, use roaming armies to defend the country. This does provide its financial problems though. I can easily go broke if I put too much effort into recruiting and as such, Isengard is almost always the first to be eliminated. I also bone rush to getting some sort of link to Moria so I can trade with whoever owns it. Gondor is a suitable ally, but with Shattered Alliances, I tend to go for them any time they start losing. They have a lot of mine heavy settlements and it provides a massive financial buff to keep my roaming armies around. If I am playing a normal campaign, I tend to bone rush Morder after Isengard. Much for the same reason as Gondor in Shattered Alliances. My third nation to upvote would be Rune. This is another faction I am overall just in love with. Evil, I know, but I love their appearance and I really love the culture/origin. I often wish there was more to gain from Rune in terms of uniting the clans or the clans trying harder to resist my conquest. I would not be opposed to a sub-mod for DaC that focuses on their region and the war of the clans. There is just so much playroom with the idea and I love having that freedom. For Downvotes: Well, here we go. Dunland - I think they have some good-looking late-game units, but they are not very flexible in their ability to contend with greater powers like Gondor, The Elves (both factions), or Isengard. Typically, my attempts to play them come to a halt when a nation with better Heavy Infantry decides I am an easy snack, and they aren't wrong. I don't struggle against Rohan or Bree or the Endwith (I hope I spelled that right), but when it comes to the more developed factions, I hit a solid brick wall I can not break. I have made the effort to outright ignore and befriend these nations, but no matter where I go, I am expanding towards someone with a simply better-armed roster. Same with Endwith. I wanted to get a feel for them and in the early game, they are fun. But if I don't shut down Isengard and aid Rohan, Isengard makes me look like a chopping block. I also have to keep Rohan in check too. It's not too bad as I get better spear infantry to counter their cavalry. Late game, however, I am always butting heads with either the elves, Gondor, or for shattered Alliances, Dol Amroth who almost always bullies Gondor. So I gave up on both of them. For Harad and Khand, I am just not interested. They rely a lot on light to med infantry or beasts and it's just meh. They feel more like gorilla warfare civs to me than open warfare civs. I played them both maybe twice at most and i just lost interest with them early on. Shattered alliances is also my personal favorite game mode and it does not offer much in favor for either faction. Mordor or AA typically use me as a punching back with Dol being a close third in most cases. And to be honest, you don't get much room to expand before you have to fight someone. My least favorite would be Moria and yea, it's just because I find playing them to be rather boring. I don't have much of a reason to fight anyone unless they poke me first. I don't get much out of expanding. Hord factions are fun to a degree, but with Mordor, there are motivations to expand. Gondor's defeat is very satisfying 9/10 times. The recovery of the ring is always a pressing goal. Their late-game unit roster is way better equipped and flexible. The list goes on. And the best part, they have the economy to finance a war engine. The Goblins don't. Not nearly as much. Plus, I can't contend with most nearby powers. Isengard is significantly superior late game if Rohan is dumb enough to let them live. The Elves use me as pin cushions. The dunidine are no better, but they take longer to do it. Heck, Isengards Early Game Uruk-hi are STILL better than most of mine. I had a rather easy time playing an Isengard game with my goal set on Moria. The balrog was literally the only challenge. Past that, it was just sad. I like that it is technically lore-friendly, but from a gameplay perspective, they just don't cut it against the competition.

My favourite is Rhun so it's a shame they didn't make the list. At least they didn't make the bad list either. :)

I'm so happy that Dorwinion is in the top 5. This mod made me love Dorwinion.

Keep in mind this is a cross-section of the Discord and much of the community is not on there! I reckon being unable to build evem basic stone walls and relative lack of progression hold the wildmen back. If there was a way to increase their tech level, perhaps after unification or in steps on the way to unification. I think people may like them more then.

The Dunedain and Gondor are the Western and Eastern Roman Empires of the mod, its def why I enjoy them so much.

So sad to see Enedwaith and Dunland so near the bottom 😭 I can understand people hating on Moria though. That being said, I still love Moria - there are few things more glorious in Middle Earth than a great horde of classic goblins charging into battle.

Gondor is cool because 1 lore 2 strong and diverse unit options 3 units look stunning 4 cool and diverse enemies 5 but also good defensive positions (anduin crossings, white mountans or what they are called....) they are a fortress faction. I love Dorwinion because 1 there are elves 2 they are the least western, least elvier-than-thou-magic elves (which I also love, but everyone prefers an "underdog" or whatever term might fit better) 3 elves and men fighting and living together as one people, as friends :3 4 its cool fanart enhancing the lore 5 Dorwinion is kinda the tradey-we-make-wine-(and juice)-not-war region/faction even rivaling bree/hobbits (though those make beer and weed so maybe no rivalry) 6 the units look fantastic and it enhances number 5 because everything is about their peaceful passion of making wine and being (friends with) elves 7 bonus points for having a pretty landscape (with the sea of Rhûn and the Island and that mountain and river.... (all of which have names I keep forgetting) they are a good peaceful, damnit now we have to fight -faction I think thats it for me ... I dont care much about replayability, because with every version I start again and prefering to take my time I have never finished a playthrough yet. thx for making the Dorwinion faction :o Erebor never played, but they seem like a "casual" faction with loads of allies around them, will play to relax. also very pretty roster and some lore and locations points due to Erebor mainly. High Elves are bae because 1 lore 2 STUNNINGly beautiful 3 really stronk and diverse unit options 4 they are elves :3 5 good ships, can send fleet to reconquer Gondor in late game which is loads of fun (starting with Gobel Tolfalas normally) 5.1 will cut a bit... an orc. (not really a new point, but they are elves :3) Northern Dunedain is woop woop because 1 LORE, no one not loves Aragorn, and their history is epic and sad and uwu, yes: uwu 2 good looking 3 again no unit seems useless, good variety --- never played moria yet, but heres why 1 the least interesting orc faction I guess as evil-orc factions go they just seem more boring to me than Gundabad Mordor Isengard or Dol Guldor, because Gundabad have the snow theme going which IS cool, and the others are more epic lore-wise, whereas Moria only has Khazad-Dûm as a more epic element. (at least those thoughts made me put them way behind on factions yet to play) 2 units look okay but other orc nations look better 0:-) 2.1 wargs should be stronger they are intelligent monster wolves :O Dunland and Enedwaidh similar problem: 1 they just seem like the least interesting human factions. so no matter if I want to play good men, evil men, neutral men, there are always more interesting options. 2 Also I just dont like propper wildmen. they have beards everywhere but arent even elite fighters, its weird :( Same with Anduin (in terms of 2 ) I just dont like those types of factions as much as I like all the other ones. Khand honestly I really like Khand :'D but possible reasons for dislike: 1 very difficult start when playing "good", takes long time (or cheesyness) when playing "bad" until it becomes interesting honestly I think 1 is the main issue, the units are cool and look good, alot of diversity too. (1.2 needs more general portraits though hrhrhrhr :P ) ------------ an additional point, for some reason general portraits are somewhat important to me. factions with helmets/masks that cover most or all of the face will always make me like the entire faction more, because then its up to ones own imagination what those people look like. or just elven portraits because elves are elves and everyone loves elves :3

I like the high elves because they are super cool and powerful. And they have Elrond. I also like Lothlorien a lot, I read the description several times because it looked so beautiful in my mind. The Dunedain and Gondor and Rohan are my go to human factions. Amd the king's men. I like the pike and crossbow theme of the Blue Mountains, they're my favourite dwarves. As for Evil nations, I find really cool the Easterlings and Isengard. I haven't played as Dorwinion yet, but I find it more and more interesting by the day

I know this is outdated but still enjoyed it a lot. I was surprised by Dol Amroth not scoring top 5. their knights look so nice

I still play this. Its been forever.

I'm saying it here: if the Balrog were added in some form to Moria (with a custom Bodyguard to go with them, not just Armored Trolls), I think they'd become A LOT more popular.

I think something that would be fun for the OOMM is to add in a script adding the Balrog as either a custom general or unit after wiping out the dwarves of Khazad Dum, while also adding some stronger elites late game. Maybe like a scourge of Khazad Dum halberd unit to add in a bit of organization and strength instead of their usual stack spam.

I love Dorwinion because of its general semblance to the Byzantines(if you choose northmen) and their unique take on the elves(if you choose elves) - additionally, while the threat of Rhûn may be looming and challenging for the majority of the game, if you play your cards right Rhun would fall very quickly to your forces, in which the rest of the campaign simply involves you making use of the Rhunnic powerhouse settlements and your own settlements which will give you such economic superiority you will overwhelm even Mordor. Additionally, they are after all a "civilised" faction, sometimes considered even the most civilised if not in Middle-Earth at least in the region - as the inheritors of civilisation we value it and cherish it over the seeming barbarism that comes with underdog factions like Enedwaith and especially Dunland.

Hi Galu, do you think you could do a short video detailing which units now have stakes, I find myself forgetting Or even better a short video about special abilities, which are useful and which aren't

I’m shocked about Morder...I can only pin it on the annoying ring script, hopefully you can make the ring at one set location earlier in the game? Not surprised about Moria, I would love to see a goblin king unique leader, and a balrog script with the Unit the size of trolls to prevent the game crashing, a unique goblin horde recruitment script also please. Ty for the vid I’ve been following you since version 1. Something, great job you guys are some of if not the best mod team I’ve ever seen.

Enedwaith is a challenging campaign, but, as Dunland, they don't really have something in their rosters that makes them so unique. In my opinion, they are bland, just as Moria. I know that this wont happen,but It would be intresting to see if they are merged as one faction (Wildmen) and you get to choose to side with Saruman (and become the heavy infantry wildmen faction, with the posibility of betraying Isengard either way),or the ultimate neutral wildmen faction (Enedwaith and Minhiriath) ,more adept to ambush and javs. But maybe is not THAT of a great idea.

I quite liked the Enedwaith campaign. Once you realise you have to fight differently. Focussing armour piercing javelins at your enemy’s best troops etc. You can easily unify the clans.

I’m a bit surprised by Khazadhum though. Their opening script is really cool and rebuilding was fun. Given their position in the dead center of the map you can go wherever you want once the two Kazhadums are taken. Id have thought they’d have been more well liked.

I liked Dunedain, Lothlorien and dwarves of Khazad Dum. I like to play nations with elite units. Lorien has a lot of very good archers and infrantry, dwarves are heavily armored and Moria gives so much money that it can alone give upkeep for all the troops. And Dunedain is very round roster nation with very good units plus Aragorn and Gandalf as generals. Also all those nations starts with small territory what I like at early game.

I didn’t expect harad to get that much hate

Oh Galu you should have told us about this vote so that we could head to the discord

Enedwaith is a treat to play. You can play pretty much any way you want. It is wonderful to roleplay a non-lore playthrough.

Isengard has always been my favorite faction. Start small sure, but great infantry, good anti calv (gonna need it), a palentier, and your capital can get really bad ass

In a Dorwinian Camp the Evil factions seem to win almost every where else. It kinda makes my experience fun. It's fun to imagine that sauron and all the other evil factions are trouncing all of middle-earth. And then dorwinion is like "Hold my wine."

Just got into this mod, so I'm super late to the party. But I'm shocked, confused, and slightly triggered by the lack of love for my absolute number 1: The Rohirrim. Where were the upvotes when the westfold fell?

As for Moria, makes sense with what you said, constantly having half a stack turn after turn after turn after turn and then boom full stack and constantly the same slog feels annoying, especially since I often use toggle_fow to see how the rest are going and they are besieged by khazad-dum at their capital yet they find in their AI brain to send their full stack to tirdhuin to (re)take it... I mean it gets annoying very fast and forces you to keep at least 6 units in an area you can't do anything with meanwhile (as the ND) angmar does the same thing. And the elves are happy to sit by imladris sometimes trading bruinost with them. Also if you happen to capture Metraith at start with Halbarad eventually dunland finds it in their hearts to go all the way to you and ignore rohan/enedwaith and its basically slog+slog every turn in a manner that doesn't make much sense. I get the AI targeting the player more, but with the insane bonuses they get everytime you defeat them it feels like they didn't even feel it, and in reality they didn't but I would think that after a few defeats there should be some coding in there to "DUUUHHHH maybe defend homeland instead of sucididing stacks to annoy"

I must be weird because I love playing as Moria, but I generally only play as Evil factions anyway. Moria is just fun because its a scrap and thematically it makes sense for them to just roll over Middle-Earth in a wave of goblins once you finally build up your troop production. I would agree with others in the comments that more unique buildings could go a long way to giving Moria and the other orc factions more flavor and a greater since of city/empire management. Considering all the steps to align DaC more with BFME 2, I think it would be awesome if Moria could somehow become host to some kind of beast unit. If anyone has made a dragon/spider/wild warg submod incorporate that and tie them to some unique building. Also, giving Moria the Balrog as a unit will go along way to giving Moria players something to build towards.

hi Galu I really want to watch the old Gondor play through you did but there is no playlist for it when I search for it is there any chance it's not in a playlist I really enjoy your content thank you.

The made up ones are all my favorite. Angmar, Gundabad, Ar Ardunaim, Dorwinion. All so much more fun to play as than like, Mordor and Gondor

playing as Isengard Enedwaith was a constant headache, as soon as our two borders met they declared war and sent their low tier stacks against my settlements and pretty much bankrupted me by the desolation mechanic, not helping the situation was rohan attacking the foldburg every turn but they where easily wiped out by stacking pikemen in chokepoints, sieges with enedwaith takes much longer. the only way to cripple them is to take their eastern settlements and then they start funneling their troops into dunland instead. so to summarize i hate enedwaith with the fury of a thousand suns.

I played my 3rd campaign with Rohan and it was really epic

Do you use an explicit graphics patch? The units here are looking far better than in my gameplay. Or maybe it's just too early in the morning and i need to look twice, in a few moments :D

My favourite is Isengard cos I liked forging my own alliances and coming up against Sauron in a big war after defeating Rohan and getting the ring. Also the Uruk-hai units are very cool.

Really hope you open up a pass on the campaign map between the misty mountains. :)

I like playing as the Dunlendings and save Rohan despite the discrimination that they faced from the horsemen.

well met indeed

The mountain in the background at 15:33 is... interesting.

Looking at the pattern, it seems that the most hated (generally) didn't have many elites compared to the Elves, Dwarves, Dunedain, Isengard ect. Compared to Enedwaith, Dunland ect.

I like a lot of these factions, and am very surprised by the negative results.

Im surprised bree isn't that liked because I played a bree campaign recently and I can hands down say that it is the most fun ive had in a total war game ever.

U should add an option that u can expand the lothlorien forest to neighbor forests, would be pretty cool tho