This time, I gave my strategy some thought. If I capture and expand my perimeter first, I can worry about having a massive army later on. The important thing is to build those resource gathering structures. Capture 3-5 of the nodes and make them farms. Then dedicate 3 fortress slots to houses, or at least two on smaller citadels. Economy is everything in this game. So in this skirmish, I tried to ensure that I had a rapidly expanding income, and always stayed at the cusp of available technology so that my troops could be more effective in smaller quantities. I was the first to go forged blades, and I was the first with fire arrows. I had knight shields for my cavalry and took both outposts towards the end. I stayed aggressive, and protected my base with archers. I made sure to regularly level my farms and houses, having most of them to level three by the end. I had 4 houses in the fortress and 5 farms and an additional house at the enemy side outpost, maybe one of them still a level 2.

The game progressed from my initially defensive response, to a swift move to capture my side of the map. Once I had that fully claimed and constructed upon, I started harassing the nearest enemy stronghold, what was the map’s northern outpost. But I found it unclaimed, still with the creep hill troll guarding it. So I built another stronghold and a fifth house. I placed a stables out there to give me a new place to crank on cavalry units. I made sure they all got their three upgrades once they were deployed. I dispatched with the enemy’s army and stuffed them down into their base, and at that time it was over. I had a screen full of Arnor Knights and they were crushing everything in their path. Though the summary said I built more Dunedain Soldiers than anything else. Here’s how the game broke down:

Players (Gametime 30 minutes 51 seconds)

Arnor – Egregious

Rohan – Medium

Units Created

Arnor: 587

Rohan: 1077

Units Killed

Arnor: 1191

Rohan: 517

Units Lost

Arnor: 539

Rohan: 1175

Kill To Death Ratio

Arnor: 2.21

Rohan: 0.44

Income Rate Per Minute

Arnor: 2122.29

Rohan: 1365.39

Resources Gathered

Arnor: 65791

Rohan: 42327

So the game turned right about the time I had my outpost built. I managed to train Glorfindel and got him up to level 8 before the enemy base was destroyed. But it was at that point that things began to change. I had consistent control of my side of the river. I was so busy going on about my income rate that I never bought any Rangers. I just used the Dunedain Archers. They had very view hit points, and trampling them is usually their doom. But once a few of them got fire arrows things really hit the fan. They had no answer for those upgraded Knights. 

All in all, a gratifying win. I hadn’t had a single victory since beating an Easy the day before. Now I will test my luck on other maps and see if I can repeat my success.