The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age Walkthrough [Guide]

The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age allows players to rule armies and make their race the dominant faction in Middle Earth. Gather your resources and train your troops as you conquer lands and battle vast armies in this very challenging and invigorating game that simulation fans, as well as Hobbit admirers, will surely love to play.

Gameplay
The game requires players to create structures that will help generate resources, as these are required for almost all aspects of the game. Players can also build their armies and train them as well as hire heroes that will be able to lead them into battle.

The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age revolves around conquering areas by battling armies, and other players will also be attacking you, so creating defensive structures is also a must. Forming alliances is also a necessity as players will most likely get wiped out by stronger armies unless they have allies helping them out.

Getting Started
Upon starting the game, players can choose between one of three factions, namely elves, dwarves, or orcs. Don’t worry, as these player classes play out essentially the same, so simply choose which one you like the most. You will then be introduced to a brief tutorial where you will know the basics of the game.

As all players are susceptible to attack from other players, newbies are given a brief period where they cannot be attacked by others, unless they are the ones that attack first. Players must be able to use this time wisely so that they can build their resource buildings and towers, as well as recruit heroes and create a formidable army.

Resources
Resources are the lifeblood of your land. Resources come in many shapes and sizes, and all of these are used to build on land and train your army in differing degrees and capacities. Resources include gold, food, wood, and stone, and players must be able to build resource buildings that can generate these for them.

Multiple resource buildings can be constructed as well as upgraded, improving production rate, capacity, and yield time. Thus, it would be wise to have very productive resource buildings as you would eventually be requiring a lot of these, especially food which your army will consume whether they are out in the field or not. Some actions, however, may take some time, so it would be wise to have some mithril at hand and spend it when necessary. Otherwise, players would just have to wait.

Training Armies
Players can increase their troop population by building and upgrading homes, just like resource buildings. Players can then train armies so that their statistics would increase, making them more formidable in combat. The more numerous and powerful your army is, the higher your chances of winning are against enemies, so make sure that you focus your resources on building your forces once you’ve gotten a hang of the game.

Players can also recruit heroes in the Great Hall. These heroes will act as generals which will lead your forces into battle. It is interesting to note that some heroes will offer buffs that will provide your army with offensive or defensive advantages whenever they do raids.

Raiding
Players can either raid unincorporated lands, called wilds, as well as other players’ camps. Conquering wilds will increase your resource production by a certain percentage, and the higher the level of the area you control, the better your resource output would be. However, it is important to note that there are certain limits to the number of wilds that players can control, and they must abandon some areas in order to control another in some cases in order to keep within the allowed cap.

Players can also attack other camps, and the combat system is pretty simple. Simply click on an open area to move an army there, and click on enemies to attack them. Players can dispatch multiple armies at once, and success relies upon good strategy on when to attack, who to attack, when to retreat, as well as the strength of your armies and heroes.

Building Defense
Of course, if you can attack other players, other players can also attack you. That is why defense structures must be built on your camp. Players will be able to see their area of effectiveness before they place them, and payers must be able to make sure that all structures are properly protected so that they will not be conquered easily.

Social Function
The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age also employs a social function where players can form allegiances with other players so that they can help each other defend their camps and be more powerful factions in Middle Earth. Players can also join in global chatrooms available within the game so that they can discuss any topic under the sun, specifically with regards to their campaigns and calls for help in attacking or defending camps and wilds.

Gollum’s Riddle
Players can also benefit from Gollum’s Riddle, where players can get to spin a wheel for a chance at great prizes. If players want to spin again, then they would have to spend Mithril to do so.