u/Gustaf_V

So I struggle a lot with social interactions in this game, it feels intimidating approaching someone as I am not the most sociable person to begin with. But I realise that its in part due to my fear of messing up when it comes to selling who my character is.

To put it simply, I see my character as something I need to showcase to other people. I don't mean that I have an urge to give tons of exposition on who they are, but that their profile, personality and most importantly; lore, should all be ready for someone to digest if they wanted to.

But, even though I am someone who enjoys lore videos, reading wiki articles and have played the game in a very casual manner since WoTLK (I.e: Playing from time to time, never doing endgame content), I still feel like there is lore I mess up on.

When it comes to the broad strokes it isn't too bad but I always feel like I mess up on the finer details, and that terrifies me when it comes to talking to people.
As a warlock I may forget how one demon sustains itself.
As a soldier, I may forget the exact date of one war they were supposedly a part of.
As a dwarf, I forget the former clan head of where I am from.

I figure that just consuming endless knowledge is not going to fix the issue as I don't think I could ever satiate my fears, so I wanted to come and check if you people had any advice?
I really wish I could just let go of my fears but, everytime I try and I end up talking to someone, it comes up and I feel like a bumbling fool when I don't know what to say.

So I am not unashamed to admit that when this game came out, I was still too young to have my own money to spend it on. But Shadow of Mordor and subsequently Shadow of War have both earned their place in my heart as my two favourite games.

So looking back, it sucks to know that I can't have some commemoration to them. Something to put on a shelf or decorate my room with that reminds me of that game series which I've poured endless hours into both in my childhood and now my adulthood.

I've looked around a bit and while I know Ebay sports several listings, I still wanted to check if anyone has any good sites for where to find it? My dad, who also happens to be a nerd, had found his collectors edition of another game on some danish site so it makes me want to hope that there might be something more local around.
I am located in Northern Europe/Sweden and I don't mind paying international shipping prices.

So my favourite playstyle is to pick minor nations within Europe that are in Germany's path just to see if I can somehow create a stalwart defence that puts a stop to their expansion, if even for a moment.

I've tried it with the Dutch, Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium and, of course, Luxembourg.

The issue that I keep running into though, is that no matter how happy I am with my defences at the moment of invasion, Germany just pushes through as if I had nothing at all.

I've tried to find guides online but I am either more dense than I thought, or everyone else seems to understand simple concepts that are foreign to me.

So far my usual start/checklist looks something like this:

- Have a decent standing while still having manpower in reserve.
- 20 Combat Width infanty with support Anti-air, engineers and recon.
- High level forts along the entire border.
- Surplus supplies.
- If possible, anti-air constructed as well.

I've also dabbled with including artillery, anti-tanks or even my own tanks, but I seem to be missing the mark each time.

So I come here to ask if anyone has any tips on how to achieve my goal? How do I build a bastion that while maybe incapable of taking over Germany, at least won't be curbstomped witin 1 year?