The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War Faction Guide and Unit List

The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War is a fantasy strategy game based on J.R.R Tolkien’s books-turned-movie franchise, published by NetEase. This faction guide and unit list is meant for new players to make a choice and figure out what to expect once they pick a faction, as there is more to a faction than their unique units and faction bonuses.

Now, if you have just started playing the The Lord of The Rings: Rise to War and looking for some tips and tricks that you can utilize early on, then we suggest reading our comprehensive beginner’s guide as well! With that out of the way, let’s delve into The Lord of The Rings: Rise to War faction guide and unit list!

The terrain factions start with is very important, and so is taking note of their neighbors. For one thing, being a Lothlorien Elf is suffering for both you and the enemies around you, as not only are you likely to be stronger than your foes, you’re also completely surrounded by them! Your positioning on the map determines your whole faction’s (You and other players who picked the same nation as you) goals and how everyone goes about them. Lindon is forced to fight through Arnor and Angmar just to get anywhere east. Mordor is utterly surrounded by mountains making defense very easy.

Lothlorien has to be aggressive to gain the exp and land needed to stave off the eventual death sandwich coming after them, among other things. This guide is most applicable early in the season, as joining later on means you might end up in an unexpected starting position thanks to your faction capturing more control points. It’d be pretty weird if you spawn in Rhun’s deserts as a Dwarf, though if Erebor took the local control point, it’s entirely possible.

GOOD FACTIONS

Having access to Numenorians, Rohirrim, Elves and Dwarves, the Good factions have the advantage of having tanky Numenorian and Dwarven troops mixed with good DPS units in Elven Heralds and rather generalist archery units. Unfortunately, they are sorely lacking in siege options and need to find Neutral structures, in particular Beorning camps if they want to tear forts down with any decent speed.

Fighting them in open combat is dangerous, though they have a much more difficult time destroying fortifications. Just remember though, just because you’re all Good guys doesn’t mean you’re allies: In fact, you’re more likely to fight the Lothlorien Elves early on than any of the Evil factions, due to their positioning.

Erebor

Dwarves

5% faster conscription

Position-wise, the Dwarven mountain dwellers of Erebor have loads of ore and stone, a workable yet unimpressive amount of grain, and a shortage of trees for wood. While Rhun looks like their most likely opponent, the far-away Lothlorien Elves and their commander EXP bonus means they can reach out and touch Dwarven expansion zones with alarming speed, as they will typically get high level commanders with large armies very quickly.

Especially since said elves are more likely to expand north early in the season to avoid fighting with their neighbors until they’re ready to start a world war. Erebor’s 5% faster conscription speed can help with mustering emergency defenses, and quickly sending replacements to the front, though you’re only likely to notice this if you play for extended periods of time.

Lothlorien

Elves

+5% Commander EXP

Lothlorien’s areas are lush with forest tiles and grain tiles, but have very few stone and ore tiles. Position-wise, while it seems they’re likely to be invaded from absolutely every direction, their 5% Commander EXP mixed with loads of grain means they can conscript and field larger, more powerful armies really fast.

This typically means messing with them is incredibly difficult, though if they start annoying everyone then not even they can handle being crushed by their own poor starting position. In fact, they tend to do the invading!

As Elves, they start with access to Elven units, with a heavy emphasis on ranged combat. Even their cavalry carry bows, and their higher tier units often have a specialty vs large units. They love bows so much, they lack t1 melee infantry, but their tier 2 and 3 melee troops also pack a punch thanks to their counterattack ability.

If you want action and you want it now, whether it be attacking everyone with your early army size advantage, or valiantly fighting off every nation you and your ilk antagonized later on using said powerful armies, pick these smug knife-ears.

Lindon

Elves

+10% Wood and Grain Collection Yield

A balanced starting point with lots of resource tiles, with the ocean to its back and Arnor and Angmar directly in its way. They’ll need these resource tiles since they don’t have much in the way of options other than to encroach on either Angmar or Arnor after they finish expanding a bit north and south. Ironically, Arnor’s presence means Lindon players don’t have to worry too much about the Lothlorien elves pressing their early advantage on their face.

Their unique unit is the Noldor Longshot, a tier 4 upgrade to Elven archer units, much like Marchwardens for Lothlorien. Their extra Wood and Grain yield means they can replace their armies pretty quickly, especially when paired with their good resource density. If they get too strong, prepare for a slow steamroll.

Arnor

Men

5% Cheaper Construction Cost

A lush spot filled with loads of grain tiles and a fairly balanced amount of everything else, Arnor is in a good spot to grow strong quickly. Unfortunately, they’re surrounded by multiple nations, namely Lindon, Angmar, Isengard, and worst of all, Lothlorien, though they’ve got a single layer of territories to expand to to act as  a buffer for their capital. Arnor being rich in grain makes them very hard to attack because Arnor players are likely to have easily replaceable armies.

If worst comes to worst, Arnor’s capital is extremely well-defended by the terrain itself: On one side is a huge, impassable lake, and on the other side is a huge, impassable mountain range, with tight chokepoints directly east and west. Arnor players will have to take advantage of this if everything falls apart and they’re forced on the defensive. Too bad their unique unit is an upgraded Dunedain!

Gondor

Men

5% Faster Construction

Gondor is rather unlikely to get into a fight it doesn’t start. The same mountain range that prevents Gondor from immediately invading Rohan protects Gondor from them too, and they’ll need to expand to the north to attack Rohan. They’re a bit more open to attack from Mordor, though Mordor also has to send their troops through the chokepoint at their own Black Gate, making attacks from there a bit predictable. Gondor’s terrain is fairly balanced in terms of resources.

Rohan

Men

+3% Army March Speed

Kind of weird that the horse-and-plains loving Rohirrim of all people end up with loads of impassable mountain range tiles and rivers. This means they have very defensible terrain and aren’t likely to get invaded from the south. On the other hand, that means expanding south is difficult too, not to mention resource tiles are on the scarce side there. Instead, they have to worry about invasions from the east, west and north, since they’re pretty much surrounded by other nations’ starting points.

They’ve got Lothlorien up north, Isengard to the west, and Gondor to the southeast. Directly east of them is the empty space Mordor, Rhun and Erebor are likely to strangle each other over. Pick this faction and pray everyone else kills each other (or the Elves!) instead of focusing on you.

EVIL FACTIONS

Evil Factions have access to Orcs, Uruk-Hai, Evil Men, and meanest of all, Trolls. They tend to be more offensively oriented than Good armies, having rather few tanks. The tanks they do have though are utterly dangerous: Trolls are Large Units that at tier 3 have an ability similar to a taunt, dragging attention toward them.

Trolls also have powerful stats to make up for their small numbers, though certain Good ranged units counter them. On top of this, Evil factions have access to Siege units, able to destroy Forts and other structure tiles much faster than Good armies.

Mordor

Orcs/Uruk-Hai

+5% Resource Production

It’s a good thing Mordor players have a bonus to resource production, because it’s an awful place to live. There is a comparatively low density of resource tiles in general, though thankfully not enough to be totally crippling even if it was assigned to another nation. This means the best spot for a Mordor player to spawn is in the southern border or near the Black Gate, since it seems the devs want to see Mordor players with an aggressive, expansionist playstyle for that evil villainous feel. You’ll need that resource production to march to more fertile land.

Luckily for them, Mordor is the most difficult to invade of all the starting points. Mordor is absolutely surrounded by impassable mountains, with the one chokepoint leading inside blocked by the Black Gate, a 1000 power per hour monstrosity of a door.

Given enough time, players may end up surrounding this in Forts just to make it that much harder to get through, especially since Mordor players need to get through there to get anywhere. Early on Mordor players may want to take the unprotected land directly south of them to prepare for the grim march and eventual free-for-all north.

Angmar

Orcs/Evil Men

+5% Siege Damage

A cold, dark nation founded by the Ringwraiths, Angmar lies in the Misty Mountains. Their terrain is very similar to the Erebor starting area, with loads and loads of ore and stone. Grain supply looks workable, but just like in Erebor, trees are a rare sight along with flat plains. Your likely first opponents will either be Arnor, Lindon or Lothlorien.

With a Siege damage bonus of 5%, you’re not likely to get much out of them unless you haul butt to the frontline, in which case your lack of logistics bonuses might give the enemy an edge in terms of numbers.

On the other hand, being smart with Ruins captures and fort placement means your troops might be able to move long distances faster thanks to your siege units capping Ruins more effectively. Might be time to use that Long March!

Rhun

Evil Men

+5% Stamina Recovery Rate

The mannish hordes from the East, corrupted by Sauron’s promise of power. Sitting right next to Erebor and rather close to the Elves, their starting terrain has lots of wood and stone, is a bit short on ore unless you go south, and has random large patches of grain tiles.

Their resources are also distributed strangely, with thick clumps of resource tiles separated by patches of flat terrain. Rhun’s armies recently got an update, changing their faster stamina regen to a more noticeable 10% added damage to non-player owned armies, allowing them to take neutral tiles more safely.

Take note of the tiny space across the Sea of Rhun [around coordinates 1659,1759, and a tiny island at 1630,1766], near the edge of the map though: There is an insane pile of high power, hard-to-reach grain and forest tiles there waiting for you or your friends. You’ll need to capture some of the Crossing tiles though.

Isengard

Uruk-Hai/Orcs

-10% Conscription Cost

You’d think these guys start in some horrible, dark, desolate area, but the Uruk-Hai of Isengard got a bit lucky. While they have a fairly low density of resource tiles in general with a lot of flat plains, a lot of what tiles they DO have are filled with grain. This paired with their 10% cheaper conscription cost enables them to maintain larger armies, though ring power will be a bit slow in your first couple of days. There’s also quite a bit of wood, and less ore and stone.

Very similar to the Lothlorien starting position (understandable, they’re only one control point away from the Elven capital, though the mountains prevent them from invading directly), but more orange than green and less densely forested. The biggest threat to you are Lothlorien, Rohan, and Arnor, with Lindon being a problem too if they’re aggressively expanding southward.

UNIT LIST

We separated the units list from the faction overview, since all Evil factions have access to all Evil units, and all Good factions have access to all Good units, barring faction-unique elite tier 4 troops. Yes, that means you can build an Elven army if you play Dwarves for long enough!

The way combat works, it is autoresolved within 5 seconds, then you are sent a battle report detailing the battle, complete with a video (usually longer than the 5 second battle) to watch. While it looks like real time combat, everything is actually determined by turn: High speed usually means units get their turn in first, though stuff like units getting stuck in infantry tarpits and shredded is still possible. Unless it’s a Herald or Warden company, their counterattacks mean they attack on the enemy’s turn too!

As for a unit’s Siege stat, that’s usually used to subtract from a Fort, Ruins, or Settlement tile’s durability. Since you need to bring durability down to zero even if all the defenders in a fort are killed, it may be useful to have a commander with siege units only for demolition work, after your combat units have cleared the defenders.

Dwarves

GOOD, Tanks, Anti-Giant, Anti-Melee

Typically tanky, slow and powerful, Dwarves are very tough with a focus on being able to kill other melee fighters, which is such a wide net it might as well count as a generalist tactic. Their Axe Throwers help rip apart melee enemies, so their shield-toting troops can march in to slowly roll over the enemy. Their infantry is typically considered the best of the Good factions, simply because they do the job of protecting the ranged fighters very well.

Dwarven Infantry

Dwarven troops are typically generalist meatshields with literal shields, bulky and lacking any real target specialization. Slow, they rarely ever get the first hit in but they’ll last longer than the other guy. Useful in most situations.

Footman: Tier 1 infantry, they can inflict bleed with their axes. They don’t have shields, so they rely on their stats to tank.

Shieldbearer: Tier 2 heavy infantry, equipped with shields, which give them a chance to negate some physical damage. Tanky and slow, these are pretty much the Dwarven stereotype. They don’t have the Footman’s Laceration skill though, so they rely on the Axe Throwers behind them rather heavily for damage.

Guardian: Tier 3 heavy infantry, turns out giving Laceration to Shieldbearers was a wonderful idea. Now they hit harder AND tank well, though you’re still not bringing them for DPS.

Iron Warriors: T4 Erebor unique elite infantry. Heavily armored melee fighters that counters other melee infantry with Battler’s Bane.

Dwarven Axe Throwers

Dwarven axe throwers are pretty dangerous, since they deal heavier damage vs melee units. Which is pretty much half the units in the entire game. Just watch out for Uruk-Hai archers, who will focus them down. High maximum damage, but extremely inconsistent.

Axe Thrower: Tier 1 ranged infantry equipped with throwing axes. They’re slow, but they counter melee units with Battler’s Bane.

Heavy Axe Thrower: Tier 2 ranged infantry equipped with bigger throwing axes. Again, they counter melee fighters, which is most of what you’ll likely fight anyway.

Master Axe Thrower: Tier 3 ranged infantry with experience under their belt, along with even bigger throwing axes. Not only do they have the Battler’s Bane skill, they also have Giant Slayer. Most Large units do melee damage, so it’s a double whammy!

Dwarven Cavalry

Dwarven cavalry are generally tanky, and their tier 3 Ram Riders can reduce the enemy’s Defense. Pretty useful. They lack a tier 1 Cavalry option though, so if you want fast scout units you’ll need to get some Rohirrim Light Cavalry.

Goat Riders: Tier 2 Dwarves on angry goats. Slow, heavy cavalry tanks.

Ram Riders: Tier 3 Dwarves on even angrier rams. Rams are certainly better than goats, as they have the ability to reduce enemy defense with their Trample skill.

Elves

GOOD, Range Focus, High DPS Infantry, Anti-Giant Ranged Cavalry

Their fairly misleading unit descriptors do them a disservice. Elves are all about hitting hard, with their melee infantry having some of the highest DPS in The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War in spite what the game tells you(Being able to do counterattacks is that good), and their high speed and many evasion skills give them surprising (though still not Dwarven) survivability.

Elven Archers

Elven archers often avoid the first strike against them, making them last that much longer. Even that small amount of time lets them fling enough arrows to win a fight. Higher maximum damage than Rohirrim bowmen, and more consistent damage than Dwarven axe throwers.

Hunters: Tier 1 Elven bow infantry who have a chance to avoid the first enemy strike toward them entirely.

Marksmen: Tier 2 Elven bow infantry. Pretty much the same as Hunters, but better and more expensive.

Sentinels: Tier 3 Elven bow infantry. It’s like you threw money at Marksmen to make them better. They still have only the Swiftness skill, which allows them to evade the first blow against them.

Marchwardens: Tier 4 unique Lothlorien elite archers. Very unlike the other Elven archer units, Keen Eye lets them ignore the enemy’s Avoidance stat entirely when maxed out, and Indomitable makes them immune to stuns, keeping the arrows flying.

Noldor Longshot: Tier 4 Lindon unique elite Elven archers. Between them and the stun-ignoring Marchwardens, these guys are more offensively focused.

Elven Bow Cavalry

Lothlorien cavalry prefer shooting people to running them down, and get access to Giant Slayer early. Big trouble for Trolls.

Horseback Archer: Tier 1 cavalry with bows. They’d be pretty standard if they had swords instead.

Cavalry Archer: Tier 2 cavalry with bows. Comes with Giant Slayer for fighting against Large Units, a funny earlygame surprise if any stupid, overeager newbie tries to attack you with the Beorning section players get early in the game for free. Remember, don’t wage war unless you have friends!

Bow Knight: Tier 3 heavy bow cavalry, pretty much Cavalry Archers but better. They have the same Giant Slayer bonus as Cavalry Archers.

Elven Infantry

Elven melee troops are described as having weak attacks, though this is misleading. Ironically, their ability to counterattack gives them some of the highest DPS in The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War, rendering the game’s description moot. There is no t1 Elven melee infantry meat shield for your earlygame Hunters, so that might cause a few problems early on. By the time you have to worry about that, you probably already have these guys anyway, or access to Numenorian mannish troops.

Warden: Tier 2 infantry that rely on counterattacks. High DPS in spite of misleading description.

Herald: Tier 3 infantry that also rely on counterattacks. Very high DPS, goes well mixed with Dwarves.

Men (Numenorian)

GOOD, Melee Focus, Heavy Cavalry, Anti-Cavalry

The Mannish units are split between Numenorians and Rohirrim. Numenorians are defensively focused, with heavy armored cavalry and shield-toting spearmen.

Numenorian Infantry

Very similar to Ruhn infantry, Numenorian infantrymen typically specialize in killing horsemen. Unlike their Eastern counterparts, they also carry shields, making them defensively focused. Other than their long spears though, their damage per attack is typically low.

Militia: Tier 1 civilian levies. They carry swords and shields, and act much like a tier 1 version of Dwarven Shieldbearers, with the same Shielding skill.

Spearmen: Tier 2 infantry. Carrying long spears, they have a bonus against cavalry units.

Guards of the Tower: Tier 3 elite infantry. Highly defensive spearmen carrying shields, they have both the Shielding ability and the damage bonus against mounted troops.

Rangers

Generally considered the weakest units in The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War, except for their tier 4 Arnor cousins. Rangers and Dunedain are supposedly high-speed anti-archer melee combatants. So what’s the problem? They’re so squishy that once they inevitably run into the enemy infantry formation between them and the archers, they get ripped to pieces. Like Orc Stalkers, but without the help of Mountain Trolls to drag attention away from them.

Ranger: Tier 2 archer harassment units, available to both Numenorians and Rohirrim. Generally considered pretty weak since they’re squishy melee units with a bonus against ranged fighters. Sounds cool, except they tend to get killed trying to wade through infantry soup to get to the archers.

Dunedain: Tier 3 archer harassment units, available to both Numenorians and Rohirrim. Better than Rangers, but that isn’t saying much. They still drown in infantry soup. If you want to kill an archer line, get a unit that actually makes it to stabbing range! That being said, they DO have one use: Countering extreme tier 4 archer spam. They’re still likely to get massacred, but they’ll take enough archers down to make it an economically viable option, since t3 Dunedains are cheaper than tier 4 knife-ear arrow clouds. Ironically, using them on tier 3 archer spam might make it less worth the trouble.

Rangers of the North: Tier 4 shock infantry, unique to Arnor. Unlike their Dunedain buddies, they’re actually pretty tough while still being fast. Ironically, they can protect archers. They have a command stat of 50, meaning you get only 50 Northmen compared to 100 of any other infantry per command point.

Numenorian Heavy Cavalry

Extremely straightforward heavily armored cavalry. Tough, and still pretty fast.

Horsemen: Tier 1 heavy cavalry. Exactly what it says on the tin, it’s a guy on a horse. Between Evil Cavalry and Rohirrim cavalry, these guys swerve towards tankiness.

Knights: Tier 2 armored cavalry. A rarity among tier 2 units with two skills rather than one. They get both the damage resistance bonus of Mounted, and the melee resistance of Full Protection, thanks to their heavy plate armor.

Cataphracts: Tier 3 armored cavalry. Clad from head to horse in armor, these guys are very hard to kill.

Swan Knight: Tier 4 Gondor unique armored cavalry. Extremely tough elite horsemen.

Men (Rohirrim)

GOOD, Ranged Focus, Assault Cavalry

The more offensively focused half of Mannish armies, to the point that they get a separate quarters building. They lack melee infantry entirely (Rangers and Dunedains stink, so we don’t count them), and get bowmen and cavalry instead. Typically fast and hard-hitting.

Rohirrim Light Cavalry

Light cavalry with an emphasis on killing power, unlike their heavily armored Numenorian cousins.

Light Cavalry: Tier 1 high speed cavalry. They tend to attack first, but as starter units they’re not very good.

Outriders: Tier 2 assault cavalry. Unlike Light Cavalry, they use their speed to deal a harsh first strike, having bonus damage for their first attack in a battle.

Cavalier: Tier 3 assault cavalry. Rather squishy compared to other tier 3 mounted troops, but with the same hard first blow of Outriders. They might work well protected by their Numenorian buddies.

Rohirrim Bow Infantry

Fairly standard bowmen, all three tiers of them have the same ability to hit harder early in the match.

Bowmen: Tier 1 mannish bowmen. About as average as they get, their bows hit harder for the first few rounds.

Longbowmen: Tier 2 mannish bowmen. Basically the same as bowmen but with higher stats.

Sharpshooter: Tier 3 mannish bowmen. Again, rather average. You may eventually replace them with more specialized units like Master Throwers or Bow Knights once you get Elven and Dwarven quarters, though never underestimate that first early strike.

Evil Men (Rhun)

OBVIOUSLY EVIL, Anti-Cavalry Infantry, High Speed Raiding Cavalry, Light Siege Infantry

Men from the East whose leaders fell to Sauron’s promises of power, Evil Mannish units are typically more aggressive than their Good Men counterparts. They have a heavier focus on attack power and a lack of ranged units. For far-away firepower, they have to rely on their Orcish or Uruk-Hai allies.

Rhun Infantry

Evil infantrymen all specialize in poking horses full of holes with their spears, and not much else. You absolutely do not want to send an infantry-heavy Rhun army a cavalry charge.

Skirmishers: Tier 1 cannon fodder with spears and an anti-cavalry bonus.

Pikemen: Tier 2 infantry, with even bigger spears and an anti-cavalry bonus. Pretty much Spearmen but evil.

Halberdiers: Tier 3 infantry who use halberds, which are basically just really nasty spears with axe blades. Again, they have an anti-cavalry bonus, and this time they can also counterattack, giving them higher DPS! They must really hate the Rohirrim.

Rhun Siege Units

Possessing physical defense-ignoring flame attacks, the pirates of Rhun excel in torching structures down. Use them as demolition crews.

Pirates: Siege infantry that rely on fire to fight. Generally rather weak unless fighting Ents or torching Forts.

Corsairs: Tier 3 siege infantry that set things on fire, much like Pirates. Nothing says fun like boiling a Dwarf alive in their own suit of armor.

Evil Mannish Cavalry

Evil mannish cavalry eventually get Gracefulness, which lets them avoid ranged attacks. They also have rather high damage dealing ability.

Mercenary: Tier 1 Evil cavalry unit, able to do decent damage.

Marauder: Tier 2 Evil cavalry unit, pretty much better Mercenaries. They have the Looting ability, which allows them to take more resources after destroying structures.

Dragoons: Tier 3 Evil cavalry unit, able to dodge ranged attacks using the Gracefulness ability.

War Chariot: Tier 4 Rhun unique cavalry vehicles, deadly war machines powered by pairs of horses. Lower unit count than typical cavalry, at 20 units per command point instead of 50.

Fallen: Tier 4 Angmar elite cavalry, and the reason this section is called Evil Mannish Cavalry rather than Rhun Cavalry. Numenorian men with armor as black as their hearts, atop terrifying war steeds. Their damage power increases as they take damage.

Orcs

EVIL, Generalist, Access to Trolls

Broken Elves, twisted and beaten into their new forms. They’re the bread and butter of most Evil armies no matter how far they are down the tech tree, since they often have some form of unit that covers the gaps in certain Evil factions’ starter unit set. That or they’re the starter.

Orc Infantry

Anti-tank infantry that have the ability to lessen defense, go after low-attack power units first, or both.

Grunts: Tier 1 cannon fodder who focuses on enemies with the lowest attack stat. Why would you want to kill the thing that is least likely to kill you first? Because the one with the lowest attack stat tends to be annoying tanks blocking the way to the archers.

Brutes: Tier 2 infantry. Much better than Grunts, since they can break armor and weaken enemy defense, and don’t waste time trying to kill the least deadly enemy in the field.

Crushers: Tier 3 infantry. The bullying tendencies of Grunts mixed with the armor killing ability of the Brute, this usually means they’ll go after enemy tanks first.

Orc Stalkers

Stalkers and Reapers are tough to use, as they’re squishy units that get stronger the longer they survive. They go for the enemy’s high DPS units, and have rather high DPS themselves, especially after the 5^th round. This makes them sound almost as bad as Dunedin, but the existence of Mountain Trolls and their taunt makes them more useful.

Stalkers: Tier 2 high damage infantry. If you can get them to last long enough, they do extra damage with their Execution skill.

Reapers: Tier 3 high damage infantry. Prioritizing enemies with the lowest defense rather than attack, they will likely do their best to murder your squishy damage dealers. More reason not to bring Dunedain. They also get stronger after 5 rounds of battle with their Execution skill. That being said, they’re still squishy, and they might not even last those 5 rounds.0

Orc Warg Cavalry

Fairly standard cavalry except for the fact they ride wargs to combat. Raiders are special in that they do extra damage to other cavalry.

Scouts: Tier 1 orcs on wargs. Not particularly special in any way.

Trackers: Tier 2 orcs on helmet-wearing wargs, they focus down targets with lower attack power.

Raiders: Tier 3 orc cavalry on heavily armored wargs. Rather than going after people with blunted blades, they prefer fighting other cavalry, with an anti-cavalry bonus.

Orc Archers

Orc archers typically use poison and double attacks to deal with their problems. This means they’re fairly generalist, though they have to watch out when engaging enemy armies led by Support commanders who clean debuffs. That being said, shooting twice as many arrows on certain turns is always funny.

Orc Archer: Tier 1 archers who use poisoned arrows to deal extra damage.

Orc Crossbow: Tier 2 archers armed with crossbows. They shoot faster than Orc Archers with their Follow-Up skill, which lets them shoot double shots occasionally.

Morgul Arbalest: Tier 3 archers, a mix of the Orc Archer’s poison and the Orc Crossbow’s spamminess. They have an actual explanation for the double shots compared to Orc Crossbows, as Morgul Arbalests are specially designed to have a high fire rate. In real life, crossbows are rather slow to load.

Trolls

Technically not being Orcs, Trolls are typically under the same quarters structure as them. They are Large Units available only to Evil armies, with extremely high stats (Of note is their Siege stat, after all a giant with a mace is a great way to build walls in reverse) but very small unit counts. They also have vulnerabilities to certain ranged units, like Master Axe Throwers and Bow Knights, since those guys are good enough to aim for the eyes. After all, what are melee units gonna do to them? Stab their toes?

Cave Troll: Tier 2 Large unit. Your bog standard giant, they have stats that dwarf other units, but only have 4 Trolls per command point. Great for both combat and tearing walls down.

Mountain Troll: Tier 3 Large Unit. Basically a Cave Troll but better. They can use their Massive Presence skill to attract attention towards them, and away from your squishy ranged units and Stalkers.

Ravager: Tier 4 Mordor unique elite Large units. Some really angry Trolls native to Mordor, they wear heavy armor and have a chance to strike the entire enemy army with one of their blows. You don’t want these big guys knocking on your fortress gates!

Uruk-Hai

EVIL, Infantry Focus, Siege Focus

Uruk-Hai are basically incredibly angry Orcs on illegal magic-steroids created by Saruman and Sauron. Bigger and stronger, they prefer fighting up close and personal rather than bothering with frivolities like making friends with wargs.

Uruk-Hai Infantry

Uruk infantry typically start out much stronger than normal thanks to Fanaticism, though this effect wears off over time.

Bruisers: Tier 1 Uruk-Hai cannon fodder. They can break enemy armor and lessen defense, allowing more expensive troops to finish the job.

Brawlers: Tier 2 Uruk-Hai troops. Barely disciplined nutjobs, they start out strong but normalize after a while due to their Fanaticism skill.

Berserkers: Tier 3 Uruk-Hai troops. They have the same Fanaticism early battle ability like Brawlers, but now they’re so angry they’re also immune to stuns and have a defense boost, thanks to their Indomitable skill.

Snaga Thrak: Tier 4 Isengard unique infantry. Cruel slave drivers, they come in cavalry numbers (50 per command point rather than 100) and have an extremely wide damage stat range (they can do next to nothing, or a whopping 60 damage per unit and everything in between, depending on your luck), and generally high stats to make up for their smaller numbers.

Uruk-Hai Siege Infantry

Similar to pirates, these guys have fire attacks that ignore physical defense. They’re best used for torching forts. In particular, if you just want a cheap demolition crew rather than a true combat unit, it might be worth having an army with nothing but t1 Breakers just for wrecking already-cleared forts. Though by that time, you might not want to waste the barracks space and go for the tier 3s  instead if you can afford them.

Breakers: Tier 1 Uruk-Hai demolition troops. Siege units you may pass up since you’re not likely to need siege units until you already have access to Sappers anyway.

Sappers: Tier 2 Uruk-Hai demolition troops. Their normal attacks deal Fire damage, and they are typically used for assaulting Forts and anything with walls, with their high Siege stat.

Alchemists: Tier 3 Uruk-Hai demolition troops. They carry a very high Siege stat, and just like the others, are best used setting forts on fire.

Uruk-Hai Ranged Infantry

Unlike the typically useless Dunedain anti-ranger buff, Uruk-Hai archers are actually good at killing other archers, since they don’t have to wade through infantry soup to shoot them.

Uruk Archer: Tier 2 Uruk-Hai bowmen. They use flaming arrows to burn things down. And no, they don’t count as siege units as they have a pretty weak siege stat.

Sniper: Tier 3 Uruk-Hai bowmen. Their Bullseye skill allows them to prioritize enemy rangers, and their unusually heavy armor gives them the Full Protection skill, letting them survive attacks from melee units in case the front line collapses. As if to make Dunedains’ lives more miserable.

Neutral Units

UNALIGNED, Varied, Needs Special Tiles To Unlock

There are a number of large 2×2 tiles that enable the hiring of certain unaligned units to your cause. These guys are typically unique, but they won’t be forming the backbone of your army. A lot of them are on the weak side, though their heavier units are utterly insane, especially Mumakils.

Neutral Heavies

Beornings: Tier 3 Large Beast. Large shapeshifting bear-men with the same troop count as trolls. They have an unusually high Siege stat even for Large tier 3 units, at 600, nearly on par with Ravagers when it comes to tearing fortresses down. You get a few of them early on for free, but you need a Beorning Camp tile to train them. Most of these camps are found in areas near Good nations, making them an indirect way to give Good factions siege capability.

Young Ent: Young is a relative term, since trees tend to be pretty old. These guys are pretty strong, though not strong enough to justify their command count of 2. If you use these guys, watch out for any unit that has Arson: Trees hate fire.

Mumakil: Tier 4 super unit. Fortress deletion incarnate. Mumakil war elephants are so huge, they’re worth 1 whole command point each. With a siege stat of 4000 and everything else they have generally being hilariously powerful, these things are guaranteed to cause laughter for the user, and significant emotional strain for the victim.

Bats: Normal, average bats. Not even superpowered fantasy bats, just boring old bats. They’re so weak they get 200 per command point, and they don’t even get the Flying skill in spite of being bats. They just exist to be annoying.

Hobbit Slinger: Why would you send these little guys to war? All they want to do is get stone drunk, sing, and be happy with their friends. Either way, they’re high speed ranged units with low stats and low cost. Another choice for scouting with if you want to sacrifice a ton of troops to take the tile they’re available from.

Neutral Combat

Spiderlings: Generally better than bats in combat, but that’s not saying much. Again, they just exist to be annoying.

Wargs: These things are only any good if they’ve got an Orc riding on top of them. They have a tendency to commit friendly fire, good thing you can’t actually recruit them!

Oathbreakers: Spirits of warriors from Dunharrow, cursed to wander the earth for betraying Isildur when he needed them the most. Laughably poor stats, we’re not entirely sure if their abilities make up for it. They have a high speed stat and low cost though, making them useful as scouts.

Barrow-Wights: Evil spirits who possess corpses to keep the Dunedain away from the barrow-downs. They have overall better stats than Oathbreakers, though move more slowly.

Great Eagles: Gigantic warbirds that thankfully don’t have the Large Unit skill. They have a command count of 5, and they have a very high defensive bonus against melee attacks and a penalty against ranged attacks.

Their stats aren’t particularly high considering their unit count and the fact they’re tier 4 (Other units with a command count of 5 are typically stronger than them even at tier 3), except for their absolutely bonkers speed of 300. This pretty much ensures they get the first strike, and make them extremely fast yet expensive scouts. Might be a hit-or-miss choice. To hire them, you need to capture an Eyrie tile.

Felbeasts: Flying monsters that smell so bad, it counts as their skill. Very similar to Great Eagles in role, though they generally have a poorer statline.

And that’s it! This ends our faction guide and unit list for The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War. If you have anything to add, know some things we don’t, or just want to chat with your fellow players, don’t hesitate to leave a message in the comment box below!