Board Thread:General Mod Discussion/@comment-34241117-20181008184828/@comment-33763020-20181129101339

Word of support for Ents: who has crossed Fangorn lately with negative alignment? ;) Seeing how they kick about any Uruk, not even Olog-hai can cause as much damage as Ents, plus the occasional huorn sneak-attack. No wonder it's the only faction where you cannot hire the "big" units, since having Ents hired would mean victory, always. Draughts cover all types of protection and discovery, are easy to obtain and are in endless supply. The only drawback: no armour or weapons. Perhaps an idea for Mevans to create Thorin Oakenshield type of weaponry?..

Anyway, seeing how many "Best" factions there are, Mevans clearly created a very balanced game :).

If you mean getting alignment and joining (since you mentioned woodelves being difficult), my experience is that (after the Shire) on standalone Lothlorien and the Woodland Realm are in fact the easiest due to simple quests (poppies, elanor, niphredil, string, kill spiders, you can hire units within an hour) and relative safe environment. The toughest opponents however are the Uruk, whether Mordor or Isengard. Tough armour, crossbows and their bloody bombs, plus the Olog-hai that you really better run from. Having said that, not mentioned by anyone, but tactically the best faction if Minecraft netcode would allow and not disable their speed through stutter: Rohan. In an open field, by far the best tactic to defeat any enemy is if you can attack with power and withdraw to heal. Rohirric horses are amazingly fast, no warg rider will catch you, combine that with bows to keep your distance and you are basically undefeatable. That's why Attila the Hun conquered every nation, until they had to unite to stop him.

I think there is no best faction in general terms. If you want to get the best of all worlds, it starts with a fast Rohirric horse to flee when you have no chance against that poisonous and fast Mirkwood troll, Olog-hai or warg bombardier, full (blue) dwarven armour for best protection or galvorn armour when you are in dense areas and get shot at (especially Utumno), with Elven blades for durability and looks ;). Mithril is too expensive to maintain and does not offer that much more, but is a pain to loose, especially since on servers you just serve your enemy with something you worked very hard for. Troops have no "best" option but if Rohirrim horse archers are lagging you out or you're in woods, then second best are probably any archers, I prefer a combo of Rangers and Galadhrim wardens for invisibility, while wood-elf scouts seem to survive longest in groups and axe-thrower dwarves keep tougher armour at bay. For Evil alignment it's probably Uruk from Isengard and Mordor, combined with biggies like Olog-hai or Mirkwood trolls and of course bombardiers for massive damage and confusion. When I'm scouting alone or just with some escort for alignment growth, I easily grind invasions alone after parking my escort out of range, as the fast horse is a guarantee they will not pick me off. A single invasion is usually enough to get you aligned with the local faction to do trade with them, so if you have difficulty with woodelves, just wait at the border in an open field and grind spiders until they trade with you.