Open War Gameplay

In this style of gameplay, you take advantage of many of the new mechanics in the mod, especially those of alignment  and unit hiring. There are several subtly different ways to play this style, but the objective is the same:  Kill as many enemies as you can while looting structures and maintaining an army of soldiers ! There might not be all that much building or mining in this style of gameplay but there will surely be a lot of fighting, so you might want to try counting the number of enemies you kill in each battle. Open War Gameplay was invented by Yorick Hamletson.

Cheats should be enabled while playing this type of game because you'll need to set a few gamerules for the best experience. The first thing you want to do when you start the game is type "/gamerule keepInventory true". This will make it so you don't lose all your stuff if you fall to an arrow or a spear. Some players have said that losing your inventory upon death makes it so you try harder to stay alive, but in this style of gameplay you will want to take risks on the battlefield. Allowing you to die without any major consequences means you won't be afraid to make such an end as to be worthy of remembrance.

Switch to creative mode and create a portal (an Elven  or Morgul portal works well for this because it can be destroyed once you're in Middle-Earth). Depending on which portal you built, you will need to type "/alignment set GALADHRIM +1" or "/alignment set MORDOR +1" to be able to go through to Middle-Earth. Go through the portal and destroy it once you're in Middle-Earth. If you spawned in a cave or underground, you might want to use the "/kill" command. You will respawn at the spawn point in Middle-Earth and you can now begin playing an Open War style game. Below are some different variations of Open War gameplay.

War of The Ring
In this variation of Open War gameplay, you begin by deciding how many stacks of silver coins you will have at the start of the game (if you are playing with friends, then each player will get the same amount). Two or three stacks should work nicely. These coins are so you can get a sort of "starter army" with which you will begin your conquest of Middle-Earth. If you prefer something a bit more challenging, you can omit the starting funds altogether.

The next step is to choose which side you will join: good or evil. Then choose a faction that fights for your side (see a list of factions on the alignment page here). You will then teleport to the corresponding biome and settle in it. This can be done individually or in groups of allied players. You would do well to settle near a structure where you'll find a captain, such as a Mordor Tower or a Rohan Fort. If you wish, you could even use a structure spawner to spawn one wherever you want your base to be. It's good practice to build your base in a defensible area where it's hard for your enemies to find. To make things advance quicker, it works well to use "/alignment set [faction] +200" on all players, bringing them to a high level in their respective alignments. This allows each player to start building an army very quickly.

Now you must begin gathering resources. Some good ones for both sides to gather are: Here's a list of resources very useful if you're fighting for the free peoples (good side): The forces of evil also have some things they should try to collect: Once you've gathered a substantial amount of resources, you should begin searching for your enemy's base. In a multiplayer game, It might be a good idea to do this without your army due to the fact that you don't want your enemies finding your base. Putting your army in guard mode while doing this is a good option. In a single-player game, you might even want to just spawn a bunch of enemy structures at a location suitably far from your base.
 * Tin  and Copper (for making Bronze, the ingot needed to craft a Horn of Command)
 * Iron (for weapons, alloys and lots of other things)
 * Coal (for making Dwarf Steel or Uruk Steel)
 * Charcoal (you don't want to waste your coal for things like torches or smelting, do you?)
 * Silver (for making Silver Coins)
 * Diamonds (a diamond pickaxe is required if you want to mine Mithril)
 * Mithril (Mithril is the most powerful ore in the game)
 * Remains from the Dead Marshes (some enchanted weapons and armor will go a long way)
 * Athelas (for making Athelas Brew)
 * Building Materials, such as Wood or Stone (for some makeshift fortifications)
 * Crafting Tables, which will depend on your alignment and faction
 * Saddles (for taming mounts)
 * Quendite (for making Galvorn)
 * Orc, Troll  and Warg bones (they can be sold to most good traders for silver coins)
 * Warg Fur (makes good armor for early on in the game)
 * Mallorn Wood (for making Galadhrim Equipment)
 * Orc Steel (For making tools and weapons, including bombs)
 * Naurite (used to make bombs, Orc torches and it can be sold to Orc Traders for silver coins)
 * Elf, Dwarf, Human and Hobbit Bones (can be sold to evil traders for silver coins)