13. NORTH ITHILIEN (FARAMIR, SAM AND FRODO)

This mission introduces us with Faramir, and reunites us with Frodo and Sam.
You start the mission by the forbidden pool and a few ranger units. Group the
rangers together, have Faramir at #1, and group the hobbits together and arm
their rock throwing abilities. Faramir can pick units from far away with his
bow, so abuse this skill royally. He can typically take an entire batallion of
Haradrim Lancers without taking damage because he kills all of them as they
approach him. If you let Faramir do some soloing, he might gain 2 ranks in this
mission, which is good because he is handicapped for showing up so late in the
game but with only rank 1 experience.

Proceed the mission by killing any units and buildings you see. You might want
to build 2 more ranger units, and 4 gondor soldiers to upgrade the pool so you
can buy fire arrows. Any mumakils you see, waste it with the rangers' fire
arrows, but once it reaches critical (red) health, stop attacking and let it
go rampage on the enemy lines. It's pretty fun watching this, actually. But
while you are having fun, don't let Frodo or Sam die, because then the mission
is over. Doesn't hurt to keep Faramir alive and well until the end, too. He's
too important to lose to some careless unit management.

You can also group the gondor soldiers with your rangers, they will become good
meat shields for the rangers, but that eliminates the cloaking ability of the
rangers. Later on it might be more useful to group the soldiers with the archers
because they can get the armor upgrade, but I think the rangers have a slightly
better range and rate of fire (Not too sure, so don't quote me on this one).

After cleaning up the top part, you then move the lower part, where there will
be more ranger reinforcement and a trebuchet. Before this, take out the Mumakil
and make it panic so it tramples the haradrim lancers. Kill anything that moves,
and take out the Mumakil Pen before it spawns another mumakil to worry about.

Build some knights if your money allows you, and purchase fire arrows for all
your ranger units. Lure the patrols to your rangers with faramir, this minimizes
casualties. To retake the camp, bombard it with the trebuchet while your other
units take on the other buildings. Aim the trebuchet at the defensive towers,
but make sure it stops firing at buildings your friendly units are working on.
The trebuchet deals massive damage to your units, and can take out whole
batallions with one volley.

Set up a camp from the destroyed mordor camp, and build 2 blacksmiths, a farm,
a barracks, a stables and one well for recharging units. Prepare for the ambush
by putting rangers at the designated locations, and once you cover all the spots
reinforce the spots at the bottom with your spare rangers. Put the trebuchet
in one of the spots and it'll do decent damage. Have your knights ready at the
top of the incline so it can charge in and clean up the rest of the convoy after
the rangers take out the mumakils, but be careful with the rhun warriors because
they are pike units.

After the ambush, take your time and hold the enemy attacks at the front of your
base to upgrade all your units with the blacksmith upgrades and fire arrows.
Build some soldiers and sacrifice them so you can build tower guards. If you can
build 4 of them and upgrade them with everything, they can take all the arrow
damages and hold the front line from incoming infantries with their tower shield
formation wihtout taking any casualties. The idea is that have all the tower
defenses aiming at them while your other units take out the important buildings.
Also build some knights at your stable (not at the pool) to get the shield
upgrade for the knights, also very important. Leave the hobbits at your base
camp when you're attacking the enemy camp, and everything should be good from
there.