Recruiting at this point will cause nothing but a loss of money because of the upkeep. I do not recruit any men at Rivendell yet because I know that the enemy will not be attacking for a while. In the east, at the house of Elrond, I construct a practice range because I know I will need a lot of men if I am to withstand the frequent invasions from OOTMM. I move all the men from Forlond to Harlond by ships and recruit units in all cities available. Because Harlond is such a large region you will need roads or else moving troops will take ages. This also means that you will rely on trade agreements which is why you need to recruit a diplomat in Mithlond. Well enough about that! Because of this you MUST capture more regions if your economy is to survive. It is something that I find strange as 4 of the regions you start with are bordering mountains, but still they can not construct mines. You will probably have to fend of quite a lot of attacks as well so prepare yourself for a seemingly endless war! To be brutally honest all of your cities are really poor, generating a low amount of money. Not only do you start with just 3 units, OOTMM borders you and all of their cities have garisson armies which will appear when sieged, forcing you to create a large army before you can actually take the city. You will definitely have some difficulties there. It is the house of Elrond, your finest general, and is where you will have the most trouble. HE also has a city in the far east at the feet of the Misty Mountains and you all know it as Rivendell. With four cities in the west and allies close, it makes HE isolated, allowing it to focus entirely on economy if that is what you prefer, which gives it something in common with Harad. The High Elves faction has a strange starting position, but is actually similar to other factions such Mordor which also has a region in Mirkwood.

Units third age total war 3.2