Battle for Middle Earth

I am sure all will agree this was a fun and entertaining game, With base rushing more heavily from one side whilst the other side was reliant on a army led by hero's.

GG Enjoy

Downloading so I can see how noob Robbie plays

Wow, that was surprisingly a really good game, lots of times it seemed like one team was going to win, but with good micro and a bit of luck they pulled through. Good gandy micro by Myth, and good playing overall from both sides.

I've got a few nooby questions though, if any1 could answer would be great.

1. What determines whether you should go double furn as Isen, or 1 furn, 1 pit? I always assumed if it is Fol/Fod (isen) vsing Fol/Fod you start with pit/furn, but I see lot of pros go double furn, so was I wrong this whole time?

2. In this mirror matchup with I/G vs I/G, does the Gondor go clouds or eagles? And should Isen go for land after industry or try to get rain faster?

1. Usual start is dbl furn. I personally think dbl furn is always good, except when your mate is also Isen, then 1 of you should go furn pit. Some pros do furn furn pit, then wallcheck and decide if they need the pit or not. Vs 2 fols the pit can be very useful and you can own at start. Still, I prefer the economy boost and I think a pit after 2 furns is fine aswell if needed.

2. a) eagles, cause you want to kill Lurtz/Saru/Gandy fast.
b) rain, except the other Isen went land for some reason, then you might want to cover it

Lol it was a good game entertainment wise

In answer to your questions, I would consider in this match up that 2 furn start is better because any good 2 solider and urck chant rush can take all 3 mills down and also a tower or a furn. In our rush this game we took 2 towers, the Cita and then 2 isen mills.

It seems illogical to make more urcks vrs chanted Units, but if Isen goes pit and 3 mills or pit 2 mills 1 furn, they are able to either rush the enemies economy a little more with the extra urck set or use those units to take back any farms built their side by the enemy before knights are present.

From Fol's point of view, eagles are a great hero killer, 1 or 2 trebs firing at combos with eagles swooping down to attack Saruman, Lurtz and GTW can be very effective.

Also if any fight is out of GTW vrs GTW directly with no combos around only knights, he is more likely to die to eagles as cloud break doesn't slow him down at all, all cloud break does is give a slight leadership advantage and slows enemy knights and xbox,s.

Lands and rain are more effectively in this MU in my opinion. In the case of this game when cloud break was used, it had no real effect as the battle was containing combos, trebs, summons, knights and hero's, there was to much going on for it to be any real use at that point in the game. However vrs combos with no banners and timed right or can be used to devastating effect with a leadership boost like war chanted knights running towards Isen combos, Rohan with GC can be more effective with cloud break than Gondor skipping eagles as a aerial and heavy damage infliction summon.

Pit furn is better if you can pull it off versus any MU other than some double FoDs, but its way more risky. You have to be able to slow the other FoL enough to take pressure off your mills and then use the extra uruks to a big enough effect to get ahead since your probably behind after the initial rush. If done correctly it sets you up for a far better mid game since your isen will be ahead in PPs, will have crept better and already have pikes on the map. Then your FoL has to play amazing with his horses to keep the advantage since he will have palantir and the enemy probably won't. This is from experience when I used to play with butta, butta basically never lost as isen in 2vs2 and made the pit/furn start popular again. There were also a couple of others comfortable enough to play like this. Nowadays no one does pit furn start except vs 2 FoLs or opponents who are a lot worse since it usually leads to a quicker finish. This game I chose not to do it as I already lost sammy the first game and when I saw I was matched against FoD I thought I would give him more of a chance. Most people go eagles, but CB can also be effective. Its usually better if they have a real mass LD combo army you need some way to beat though. Also they did take land but I went straight for rain. It was probably the only good thing I did in this game, I think I had it before their isen so we won that fight at my base because of that. I played really awful, we basically won because of Sams GtW micro which was insane, he got rank 10 incredibly quick baring in mind no mordor LD. Wp Sam lets do some more so I can shake off the rust .

Edit: Also buttas start was what I usually do, 2 furn pit, wallcheck then delete pit if 2 FoD, delete furn otherwise

Thanks mate

Butta used to be able to pull off any strats, he was such a good player.
I played poor in general this game but my GTW was aloud to much time and space.
Lol they focused on rushing your main a lot which made it a fun match.

Wow, didn't expect all of you to answer, but thanks- great to get 3 perspectives.

I guess my Isen start was always "2 furn pit, wall check then delete pit if 2 FoD, delete furn otherwise" because I used to watch Robbies strats when we used to play together. I guess I should start and try 2 furns now, since with 1 pit/1 furn you need to be pretty good.

pit furn far mill ftw

If your opponents are Isen-Roh/Isen-Gon your in big trouble cause they will kill both mills and you stand there with 1 furn 1 pit and you have to delete pit anyway to survive. So ye versus Mordor it is not bad, but you don't know if they have Mordor or Isen. Pit furn versus fol/fod is too risky imo.

Also if you are Isen-Mordor and opponents go on your mills it's the same. You need some eco to spam Uruks to have anything on the map if your mate is Mordor. So here it's better to go 2 furn - pit..

I recommend pit furn only versus 2 fols (if at all), or if you know opponent is Mordor/fol.