Gondor
This will probably be the easiest army to write a guide for as you will generally do the same thing. For every game, send your 2 starting soldiers to your front farm, and your hobbit to your back farm. If your ally is Mordor/isen, send the hobbit to buy your back farm then go to his front mill and help with killing infantry and cloak at his mill so the enemy does not buy it.
Hobbits: Bfme is all about early game so you will need to master hobbit micro and macro. This means knowing how to hit and run with rocks, cloaking in the middle or enemy farms, killing laborers, cloaking to defend your own/ally farms, etc. There are little things like running closer in between throws, and waiting just enough time in between each throw so he does not do the bug where he throws and no rock comes out. I can’t write every trick, just learn from your opponents and copy them. Even in mid/late game he can be cloaked to scout, or cloaked at your own farm so you can always rebuy it and block opponents from buying them.
Gondor Mordor
This is one of my favorite mus to play as it requires a lot of horse micro and tons of options which Gondor doesn’t normally have. You need to play to your strengths which is double land spam, mobility (if you do horse + wk strat), and LD (combos + drummer strat).
Early game
Your start will depend on who is your closest opponent. You will always give 3 mills to Mordor until he has middle and/or WK. Lets say you are against fol + isen, but you are on the same side as fol. You can go for the fol farm with your soldiers, and your Mordor ally goes for the fod mills. The enemy hobbit will usually go to the isen mill, so you can surprise him and kill the farm fast. If the hobbit defends, ask for eye and kill the hobbit when he cloaks so you can buy the farm and keep pushing. If you are against fol+mor, you can go for the back mills instead of the front farm.
If you are against 2 fol, an old strat (credits Orange) is to rush the warg with your soldiers (before you even buy your farms, hobbit can buy them) and creep it with eye. Then you defend your ally with your highly ranked soldiers and go fast stable or faramir with the warg money. This is a risky strat as the enemy can ‘hear’ the eye being used if their camera is on the warg area even in fog of war, then can land you if they hear it. If you don’t want to do this, just send your 2 soldiers and try to catch/kill as many peasants and soldiers as possible. Don’t push at all, just defend Mordor mills and your 1 farm.
That’s it for early game. When in doubt, keep your soldiers together and push the fod mills and ask for eye. (Ask for eye fast so your 2nd eye is in time for your first horse! This rule follows most powers like heal, warchant, etc.)
Mid Game
Hopefully you remembered to make 4 eco buildings in your castle since you gave 1 mill to Mordor and your horse is on the way. We will assume Mordor has already creeped the warg on your side so that means eye and land are ready.
Your first and second horse will just focus on protecting mordor and chasing the enemy horses until mordor has trolls/rhuns to defend himself. If you do find you have tempo to push, prioritize the troll lairs or enemy wargs.
Don’t be shy to take land early as Gandalf is not a priority as Gondor Mordor, abuse your early double land advantage.
Cloak hobbit in the middle.
Sometimes as Gon Mor you can go for faramir before stable. This is done vs double fol to defend the mills (sometimes horses vs double fol can be hard, eomer chasing you around with RA etc.) or vs Roh Mor/Gon Mor to secure the middle for your Mordor ally. Try it, it requires some patience and smart decision making but it can be a nice offhost mixup strategy. You will then pivot to combos.
Regular build order will be 4 eco buildings (I like farm farm BS BS but most people do 3x farm BS) stable>2 horse>fill up base with BS and well>upgrades>3rd horse>shields>combos or gandy
You will generally go for upgrades (blades armor) for your horses and then transition to combos with drummer. If the game went well, you can skip combos and go for shields and gandy and rush bases with WK and your horses.
Late Game
So your Mordor has a bunch of trolls and drummer and you have upgraded horses hopefully high ranked.
If the game is going well vs fol + fod, tell Mordor to break the wall and go in with your horses. You don’t have to commit, but now they have to worry about the base rush with wall open so now you can go the other side and outmaneuver them. If vs mor isen, Mordor needs middle and lots of catas and you need combos or very nice horse micro with WK. You CANNOT let Mordor isen push you, so you must go to each base with wk and make their army chase you around and buy time for your combos and catas to build up.
If the game is going bad/average then you will be the side that gets pushed by Mordor isen or isen fol. What you do is once they reach your side, go in with your horses at the same time as your ally with his trolls and use double land to trample. With a nice heal for your allies trolls, you can clean it up and maybe even push to end game. If they have middle, try to go around to their castle or just keep camping until you have combos.
I wrote a lot for this mu but it kinda plays itself. Either you have a good start and your Mordor will pop off, or It will be hard. Just do your best to protect your Mordor and kill enemy farms. Like I said you can carry with a good heal for trolls/wk and a land trample. GL
Gondor Rohan
There are 2 main strategies for this mu. You can go horses, upgrades, then catas/gandy (catas better vs mor isen), or you can go boro, fara, combos, and middle/cata.
The first strategy is the one most players use. Push with your soldiers and try to kill as much as you can from fod, it will be hard without eye or chant but sometimes your Rohan ally can make some magic happen. Only use land if you’re sure you will kill a mill and they wont cover (roh isen for example). Use the regular BO (2 outside farms, Farm Farm BS>Stable 2-3 horses>shields/upgrades (whether you go 3 horses or 2 horses into upgrades depends on state of the game, your economy, their economy and your play style) and rush mills/base with your ally supporting you with theo eomer and RA. Also try to cloak in middle because fod likes to buy middle vs 2 fol.
The second strategy is to make 3-4 eco buildings and then Boromir. Your rohan ally will go 2 horse middle/theo and then make heroes to support your combos. Creep the trolls with boro and try to horn horses going to your side. Go for fara or fast combos with fire and armor and push the enemy or camp in mid until you are strong. This strat can be risky because if the enemy is able to kill you and your allies farms, your eco will be so behind and theirs will be much higher since 2 unupgraded rohirim cannot kill mills after the first 5 minutes.
This mu is all about using your mobility with horses and RA and never letting the enemy push to your side. Against Mordor+isen, Gondor will go for catapults after upgrades instead of Gandalf. Send your first few to Rohan ASAP, this will stop them from pushing as soon as drummer is out and they will need to wait for WK/naz to kill the catas.
Not much else to say about Gondor rohan since it mostly depends on your start, micro, and how much you pressure your opponent. You can get very strong in late game with GC, gandy, RA and catas but its hard to get there.
Gondor Isen
This mu use to be the greatest, but now its limitations are more exposed. You both have the strongest infantry in the game but are unable to spam them like Rohan Mordor, so you must use them wisely to try to snowball. A bad start and you will be forced to camp and rush both wizards to play for late game. If you survive until late game, rain with 2 wizards can be deadly.
Early Game
Vs 2 fol you do a unique start where you send 1 soldier straight to your Isen allies front farm and buy it, and the other soldier to your front farm to buy it. Isen buys both back mills and you focus on defending all the infantry that comes to your side (prioritize the isen mills). Isen will decide when to chant when he finds the most infantry to chase. Cover the land if they use it.
Vs everything else group your 2 soldiers, buy your front farm, and push towards the closest fod enemy and chant with your isen. Your hobbit buys your back farm and then goes to isens front mill to defend/cloak. I see a lot of players chant at the mill and isen runs to the back mill, but this isn’t as optimal as you think. Isen chant may wear off by the time he reaches the back mill and your soldiers will be standing there doing nothing after they kill one mill. Try this red circle spot to chant instead of the green circle, and have the soldiers go to the back mills and the uruk kill the front one.
You can also chant everything and go inside the fod base. Some say killing mills are better but if you see them not making towers it’s a good way to cheese the game and put them very behind. They will panic and maybe feed a tower which gives rank 2 (GG) or mess up their build order (too many towers).
Vs mordor a good strat is to kill the pit. You can do this with your uruk or uruk+1 soldier, just make sure 1 of the soldiers kills the front mill.
Mid Game
Your first horse is out and chant is ready. If you are in a fol isen mirror, just chant and kill the warg on your side fast since they will do the same. Don’t be greedy and go to their warg as you may end up losing both your wargs this way (just trust me on this one).
Vs fol mor go straight to the Mordor mills and chant if the horses try to chase you. They will probably land so be ready to move off the land and fight the horse/kill the mill. If there’s no horses on you, you can try to cheese and see how many towers are up with chant+heal and go inside fod base.
Vs fol isen your second horse will go to annoy the enemy lurtz who is creeping the troll lair. Either lure the troll to him or just try to steal the lair/money.
Vs fol mor or dbl mor your second horse will continue to kill mills.
A big part of this mu will be buying isen time. This means trampling orcs off his mills, giving him a 3rd mill after you have upgrades, and giving him brothers. Isen will be the one who carries you late game so focus on supporting him.
Your second/third chants will be the most important. If your eco is good, you should have blades and maybe even armor coming soon and your second heal is ready. With Isen as your ally, you do not need shields and can rush bases with blades+armor+warchant+heal to do lots of damage. Your goal is to kill crossbows (hunt for them in the corner behind Isen base), the Mordor cage, any eco building with industry on it, etc. Don’t lose your horses !
Late Game
It’s late game, maybe you were able to do some damage with your rushes, but now pikes and trolls are out and you are falling off. That’s fine, because by now your Isen ally is strong and your job is to support him. Give him 3 mills and you have tons of options to assist him depending on your playstyle. Catas, mid, brothers, or gandy are all good but some are better depending how poor you/they are. In the big fight, you can carry by clutching a heal on Saruman or your gandy and using land in a smart way. Chant all the horses and combos and you can either rush the base while everyone fights, or fight the combos (whether you trample or melee them depends on enemy LD)
If you are behind and your isen isn’t ready, you can carry by catching the isen combos as they march to your side. They pretty much have to chant if you trample which will buy you guys time. If its Mordor, just keep rushing but not committing anything to make sure his trolls stay on this side instead of breaking the wall. (ask for an xbow or two from ally to camp ur wall).
Final note: Don’t always rush gandy after horses and ups. Sometimes you have to be lame and buy catas vs Mor Isen, Dbl Isen, due to their LD and Lurtz threat. On the other hand, if your ally has Saruman Gandy is good because 2 wizard threat is strong since they only have 1 pin to use. Remember to ask for xbows and make a statue in your base as Mordor can try to kill you fast after a good start.
Double Gondor
As usual doubles are hard to play but this one has a nice matchup spread, especially ones that do not have Land at the start. You can either both go horses (1 horse guy focuses creeps so he gets fast gtw, other focuses on MC/enemy cav and makes upgrades/shields), or one goes horse the other brothers and combos. I’ll focus on the combo strat as it is popular, boro is strong in 222, and the first strat is for more experienced players.
Early Game
You have 2 lands or 1 land 1 heal, use them at the fod and make sure you put the land in a good spot as this will be your attack position for your combos later on.
Mid Game
As the horse guy, pretty self-explanatory. Refer to the build orders in the guide and simply go for horses, upgrades, and Gandalf.
As the Boro guy, it’s better to be the one that is close to the FoD (shorter distance for your combos to march, but its not necessary). Go for Boro after 3 eco buildings (you can do farm farm BS or Farm BS BS, personal preference as you do not need 2 farms inside castle with this strat, it just saves you some time/money for boro to come out). Boro goes to creep the trolls and horn horses when he can. After Boro you can either go for Fara or straight for combos. Make sure your farms do not die as this strat is very expensive, your ally will need to protect your farms or help reclaim your farms as you have no horses. You will need some TGs if the enemy has FOD+FOL because a land trample can be devastating and possibly lose you the game if they do it correctly. If you are onhost and trust yourself to recover land quickly, you can counter this with horn and kill all the horses instantly.
Late Game
If your first combo attack was not successful and you lost most of them, the game will be hard. You will need to replace the combos which means no Gandy or catas/mid is coming. If you lost every combo and both heroes, probably GG but maybe just pivot into Gandy and catas lol. If the attack went well but you backed off for whatever reason, keep making some rangers but save for Gandy or catas depending on the enemy mu.
Here comes the FOD section. Expect even more yapping because I love to nerd out and talk about all the way to min-max Mordor/Isen.
In one or two sentences: what does this guide teach, and who is it for?
