Battle for Middle Earth - Evil Campaign - Edoras

Battle for Middle Earth - Evil Campaign Map - Edoras (+50 Command, +1 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.

Warg Riders become available starting with Edoras. This is the last of the Isengard units that can earn veterancy, so finalize the composition of the veteran units you wish to keep with each of your Isengard armies. Wargs aren't as versatile or armored as Rohan or Gondor cavalry, but still useful for being able to mow down lots of units. Veteran wargs can handle even enemy Pikemen (e.g., Gondor Tower Guards) without getting slaughtered.

The early part of the map is remarkably easy as you face mostly peasants and Rohirrim with no defense against your Pikemen. Take the southern village and reinforce it with a lot of defenses. You are then safe to put your troops behind it and take a force north to clear the other town which is generally too far to interest the AI. Build some perimeter towers but concentrate on resource buildings there.
Now comes the tiresome siege, unless you want to simply keep throwing units at the town, which you can. Wargs can rush the gates and enter to make suicide runs and destroy critical buildings. None of the buildings will be replaced even if they sit on a build site.
The wall towers must be taken out as they have enough range to shoot into the city.

Only when you are ready for Edoras should you build Ballistae. The map is scripted to detect this. When this happens, the city becomes far more active and starts sending an endless stream of peasants, archers, elven warriors, and Rohirrim -- all of which you can quite safely handle with 3-6 Hordes of merged Pikemen-Crossbowmen.
You want to do this instead of turtling behind the southern town's defenses because they charge through your ranks to where they last saw your Ballistae. This is good, as running troops are not stopping to fight. Your Pikemen should quickly kill most charges, and those that run past should be killed by crossbows. Infantry and even archers trying to beeline past you should also be quickly handled by your crossbows without having to move your units much.

If you are not able to manage the AI rushes, recruit Wargs and charge into the city in teams of about 3-6. There is no fog of war on this map, so you can locate the Archery Ranges (first) and Stables (second) and destroy them. Wargs can trample infantry and run through squads of cavalry, and thereby keep going. Shift them to Line Formation for more armor (and therefore more longevity), and when you reach the target buildings, use their Howl to take down the building as fast as possible. Then keep moving as you will otherwise be picked apart by archers.
Once you destroy the Archery Ranges and Stables, the AI will continue sending peasants from farms; these should be manageable and quickly cut down. Between waves, advance your crossbows inside the city. Use your ballistae to take out the defensive towers inside the city and continue your advance.

If you can manage the enemy rushes and didn't need the suicide run wargs; or after you have destroyed their ability to produce more rushes, move your ballistae around until you clear all perimeter towers since they can fire into the city as well.
When you advance, move your ballistae close behind to quickly take out the smaller towers inside the city as soon as possible so your troops are not under constant fire from them. There is at least one tower, around the middle of the city, which cannot be attacked with melee.

Eowen is supposed to be in this map but you will probably inadvertently kill her at some point, either with a Warg Rider rush into the city, or when she eventually comes down into your Pikeman-Crossbowmen blockade. Even when she reappears at Minas Tirith in the final Evil Campaign mission, she doesn't last more than a few seconds against a veteran fire crossbow horde.