Sunday, February 20, 2011

Battle for Middle Earth - Evil Campaign - Isengard




Battle for Middle Earth - Evil Campaign Map - Isengard (+25 Command, +2 Power)
This is a hint/walkthrough post for Battle for Middle Earth. You can find an index of all our Battle for Middle Earth posts here.

The Evil Campaign starts here with the hero Saruman. Don't worry about unit veterancy as you really don't have access to any upgrades, and you can later buy your units level 2 instead of earning it the hard way.
You start with two hordes of Uruk-Hai Crossbowmen with the Fire Arrow upgrade. You will want to hold on to these against the Ents on this map as well as the Fangorn, Eaves of Fangorn, and the Gap of Rohan maps.
You also have several Pikemen on the walls. Gather them up and keep them safe as you will need those against a Rohirrim charge later. You will not be able to carry them over to the next mission.

On this map, we will want to end up with some Crossbowmen to upgrade and keep. Eventually it will be nice to merge them with Pikemen so they aren't so vulnerable against being trampled by cavalry, but for Saruman this is a long way off in Mission 5. Try not to merge them yet.

On this map, you will be attacked by Ents and Elves from the east -- you can know this beforehand if you hovered your mouse over Isengard on the world map and look at the tooltip that comes up, indicating the enemy forces. Put your archers on the walls against the Ents and harrass them with expendable Labourers from Lumber Mills while your crossbows keep shooting.
Against the Elves, who have superior range with their arrows, move your crossbows to ground behind the walls and wait for them to come to the gap made by the Ents. Rush them with infantry or outshoot them with superior numbers.

Except for the fire arrow upgraded Crossbowmen, there aren't much in the way of troops worth keeping here, so instead focus on what you do want to keep and on levelling up Saruman. If you keep the fire arrow Crossbowmen, you can get one or maybe both improved to level 3.

For the final battle against the Rohirrim, put your crossbowmen on the walls and the pikemen at the gate. Charge the Rohirrim with your expendable labourers to draw the Rohirrim out. They will trigger the Cloudbreak and will probably get trampled to death by the Rohirrim. The reason you want this is because you don't want to fight them out in the open where they can trample all your troops. Instead, let them come to the choke point (gate) where they have to get past the Pikemen. The pikemen will stop the charge and any that get through can be picked off by your horde of crossbowmen waiting on and behind the walls.
Have Saruman on the ground flank the Rohirrim and take out their mounted archers. Especially since all your troops are massed at the gate for this battle, remember to use the War Chant if you've got it.

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