Must... Resist... Bumping... Thread...
Oh well, too late.
Ruuddevil stopped posting vs videos as often as he used to, so I lost a bit of the energy that I had for the game. But, after playing it some more, it not only was an epic experience as always, it also really got me thinking.
First, the fun stuff: Rushing. I generally like to build up large, powerful armies and wipe the map without having to rebuild any units, but rushing is also extremely fun. When it comes to that type of tactic, Isengard is by far the best. 2 Warg pits that spam cavalry is arguably overpowered because of the Howl ability that only those cavalry get.
I played one of the 4-player maps with one team of the 2 heavy factions, Isengard (me) and the Dwarves (Medium A.I.) against the 2 spammiest factions, Gondor (Hard A.I.) and the Goblins (Medium A.I.). Using only Wargs, I demolished both enemy fortresses without my ally's succour. The Dwarves held off the Goblins decently, but they got into a stalemate against each other because they both kept spamming melee troops that took forever to kill each other. I eventually built a forgeworks and rushed Forged Blades, upgrading 11 Warg Riders all at once before sending them right into the enemy base. Watching the cavalry ride as their galloping resonated throughout the map was pretty majestic, then funny when they ran past a small horde of swordsmen, straight between 2 barracks, and surrounded the fortress. I activated Howl, then Aggressive Stance, and ordered them to attack the fortress, which when from 3,000 HP to 0 in less than 3 seconds. The rest was history.
Though less extreme, Gondor is also fun for rushing Rohirrim. The Elves don't have anything to send in early, which is a shame, because they seem to be the only undisputed UP race in the game. Dwarves have Gloin to rush, or Dain in the unpatched version, who is even more OP, but easily countered. Mordor and the Goblins are both able to rush Trolls, and Mordor can also use Battering Rams early, but both are prone to failing when I try it.
I started thinking about the balance of the game, with one thought leading to another, and eventually I came up with this theory that I constantly go back and forth regarding its validity. I hypothesise that if players are given enough variety and options as any faction (or in fighting games, character) in a game, then the sheer variety of the game will balance itself out, as players keep finding new combinations of tactics to use. Of course, there still needs to be some rationality to it all, so that every choice is somewhat similar in balance and not extreme on one end or the other, but in general, if there is enough variety, creative, strategic players will find a way out of any situation. Let me know what you think.