How to Increase Military Power in The Lord of the Rings: War
A strong army is essential to becoming a player that aims to win in The Lord of the Rings: War. Developing military power is one of the primary goals that a player needs to achieve but might be one of the more difficult tasks that you can ask a player. Most of the time, beginners ignore training soldiers because it costs too many resources or they don’t find any use for it in the game but if you’re looking to improve, it’s time to keep your barracks busy 24/7 with training.
Players who read our LotR Economy Guide know that the army plays a big part in developing every aspect of your kingdom. The biggest problem that players might face is creating enough soldiers to consistently perform tasks. Every battle inflicts heavy losses on our army despite being able to recover half of the casualties. This is why players must have a strong army to prevent losing too many soldiers every battle and continue gaining resources to train new ones via conquest.
Leveling Commanders
Commanders are the heart and soul of every army. The stronger the commander, the more soldiers they can command in battle which increases the overall power that their unit has over the battlefield. The most basic way to strengthen your army is to level up your commander which can be done by letting them do tasks on the map such as occupation, war, and mock battles. Higher rarity commanders are also more powerful but are extremely difficult to acquire in the game.
Players can recruit new commanders through the Tavern by giving specific gifts to LoTR characters until the respect gauge is filled. For Exquisite quality and above commanders, players will need to give unique gifts that can be acquired at the Mathom using Mathom Medals. Players can also acquire invitation letters, which instantly fill up a commander’s respect gauge and allows their recruitment at the tavern. Try to save up for powerful commanders to lead your army to victory.
Army Diversity
After getting a commander to lead your troops, it’s time to determine which type of units you want to fill your army. At the early stages of the game, there’s really no need to overthink which units to place in your squad because the enemies aren’t that overwhelmingly strong. However, once you reach the later stages of the season, you’ll want to get every advantage you can squeeze out which includes diversifying your army with troops that benefit from the abilities of their commander.
Commanders have specific skills and abilities that buff specific unit types. Some equipment also does the same. For example, Eowyn’s Shieldmaiden ability gives a passive bonus to melee units so having ranged units in her army is pointless. Reading up on your commander’s abilities and matching the right items to complement those abilities while outfitting their army with only units that benefit from the bonuses will increase your military prowess dramatically in the war.
Upgrading Troops
The number of soldiers in an army doesn’t equate to its strength for you can fill an army with weak soldiers and it can still be overrun by an army filled with stronger soldiers that is half its size. Each soldier has individual stats that add up when outfitted in an army. Needless to say, higher tier soldiers have higher stats per command which gives them a significant advantage over lower-tiered soldiers from the same line. It’s always a good idea to update your army with the highest-tier soldiers that you can currently train.
To unlock higher-tier soldiers, players will need to upgrade their training buildings to a certain level. Hired soldiers can’t be promoted and have innate tiers. Once they are able to train higher-tier soldiers, it’s a good idea to fill their barracks with only those soldiers and disband lower-tiered troops if you no longer have any space for new ones. Players can also upgrade troop abilities by spending gold and raising them up individually to make those soldiers stronger.
Hired Troops
Hired troops are an advanced type of unit that aren’t exactly trained in your settlement but can be hired once you’ve occupied their settlements. During the introductory stages of the game, players will receive hired troops from Gandalf after completing missions. These troops can’t be trained in any faction so you’ll have to look around the map to occupy a tile that belongs to them. However, that’s easier said than done as they have really strong defenses and will take a lot from you to overcome.
Usually, players will be able to occupy these tiles when they are in the middle stages of the game. Players will also notice that mercenary tiles are far away from most settlements so it’s difficult to even reach them for occupation. Although, it’s still a good idea to research what type of mercenary you want to have in the future and try to occupy them since they have a separate queue timer in the barracks which can help you raise an army faster.
Building Forts
Forts are special structures that can be built outside your settlement, on tiles that you have occupied. The purpose of a fort is to extend the range at which your army can march beyond the normal range from your current settlement. Players can also store their armies inside forts so that they won’t have to go back to your settlement just to rest up and replenish their strength. This is especially useful if you’re trying to occupy special resource tiles that are far away from your location.
Keep in mind that forts cease all production that a tile produces once it is built. This means that the best place to build a fort is on a plains tile since it doesn’t offer anything significant to benefit your city. When building a fort, keep it as farm away from your settlement as possible so that you can maximize the range as you can only build a limited number of forts. If you made a mistake in the early game, you can always dismantle a fort you’ve built to make space for new ones.
