MBX

It still plays just fine. Had a go again today and no issues noted. 

Well thanks for the replies but I want more!

That can be arranged 

The only "real combat" I've ever been in has been the kind with pads and gloves, so I honestly have no idea what "real combat" is like. I'm approaching RCM as simply another way of playing a game, and am asking from the gamer's point-of-view what the game-differences will be.

You've answered that somewhat: poorly-armored troops are cannon fodder. Got it.

And even cannon fodder has its effectiveness. You need something to empty the quivers of those nasty Elves before engaging them with your better troops.

Is horse archery still a counter to Dunlanders and Isengard?
Yes.

Is cavalry still devastating against archer-heavy companies of Corsairs?
Yes, as long as they are armoured.

Will a few top-tier units still wipe the floor against a large mob of yard trash?
Generally speaking, no. Getting swarmed will get you killed by a thousand little cuts. Fighting anything largely outnumbered is very difficult.

How different is an RCM game versus a normal game?
Combat is generally speaking more deadly. You will be able to take less hits and deal a lot more damage to opponents. Good use of terrain and tactics are very important. Armour and weapon choice matters a lot. Armor piercing weapons are reduced to what historically should have been armour piercing.

How differently would I need to play my own character in order to succeed? (Like can I ride out solo to harass the enemy with horse archery before the two sides clash, or will I or my horse inevitably get one-shotted?)
You should expect heroic solo charges to be a quick ticket to a grave. You can't expect to do horse archery by yourself against heavy archer armies or you will probably die. Unless you're riding a very heavily armored horse. I have used Rohan horse archers quite effectively against Dunlanders and Isengard, but when I send out too little they will all be slaughtered by archers and throwing weapons.

Perhaps you arent playing with full damage to player and allies on? It's the only way to be unkillable I've found with RCM. Doing that will utterly mess up the balance.

Back to tactics:

Best tactic against Rhun I've found (with RCM) is luring them into Mirkwood. Trees are awesome like that. They will completely break up any charge they try to throw at you, making them stop in their tracks and become very vulnerable to archer fire.

Playing as the Elves is really fun now. Elves feel strong where they should be and are somehow a lot more challenging then before.

I did notice however it's much much easier to survive against multiple opponents. I used to get stunlocked a lot more with previous RCM versions. This is an indirect nerf to the orcs as they are pretty much required to swarm stronger troops to kill them. 5- 6 orcs still bring me down, but 3 - 4 are having a very hard time doing so.

Cavalry charges are harder to stop with grouped up infantry then before. A horse can charge through multiple guys standing behind each other. I'm not sure this is an intended change, since horses should be scared of charging into anything looking remotely solid.

I also noticed Rohan and Gondor really getting their asses handed to them in my play through. Did RCM change something about the autocalc battles? Eomer died just a few days in the war which has never happened to me before.

The reason I won that 77 vs 50 battle was that riderless Wargs kept messing up the aim of the elves so my troops could cut them down in the back. Had that not happened they would have still killed me with little loss on their side. But I understand what Yogi is getting at.

Yet it seems to me that Elves shouldn't be all that secure in being able to withstand Sauron. Why would the war in the North even be a problem if they can easily take anything Sauron can throw at them? There should be a certain tension within the limits of this game engine so it isn't a complete cakewalk for an Elven player.

Perhaps this issue can be handled by giving an orc player a huge bonus to leadership, so you're actually able to field 200 orcs against an elven patrol? As I said, logistics is the biggest problem for Moria. If I can get 200 or 300 orcs, pay them and feed them then I won't have a problem with elves being a lot stronger than me.

First win against a Lothlorien patrol!

77 top tier (!)  Moria orcs versus 50 Lothlorien scouts
Troop mix: 24 Bolg Clan Warg Riders, 28 Fell Goblins 25 Fell Goblin archers.

Results: 42 died. 19 Warg Riders, 16 archers and 7 melee goblins died.

Notes: Every single Elf troop is deadly. The archers weren't the biggest problem this time, because as soon they were out of arrows they started dying. The swords-elves however were a different story. They cut down Warg Riders as they charge through them, allowing their archers to live a lot longer and become a real pain. Their infantry doesn't seem to die to my archers and only started dying after they engaged my own infantry. They got charged in the back by 19 riderless wargs which messed up their focus so they got chopped up pretty quickly. That was only after they walked up to and killed every archer that was present at the battle.

The main problem after this battle isn't that I lost a lot of troops, it's mostly that after every fight I'm in no shape to continue campaigning and need to wait until I can replenish everything. Also, with lower tier troops this battle was not winnable at all. Surgery is really important to balance this out.

After surgery I got 51 troops remaining out of 77. This is pretty acceptable.

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Elves are definitely on the OP side of things, but at high levels they are pretty much supposed to be superhuman. I hope this can be balanced correctly without ruining the Elf player experience.

Somehow I experience Mirkwood as pretty balanced Elves. I really needed to get shock infantry from another race, because my own infantry and archers weren't quite enough to stop a horde of goblins charging at me without losses. The armor of the Mirkwood elves seems to be just a bit weaker then that of Lorien and you really notice the difference in their melee infantry line.

I've been following everything in the background so far. All changes look very well thought out and make sense. High tier bare chested troops are a huge problem for several factions and it's good to see you address it. PS for troops look good so far too. Good job!

I hope to get some playtime in this weekend, but real life keeps getting in the way.