I'm playing as Gondor and I conquered 2 of what I assume are 3 Mordor provinces, killed Sauron, made peace with Mordor to consolidate and recover from attrition thinking they can't possibly threaten me anymore, but about 5-10 turns later they came with 5 full stacks of mid-high tier units which I don't think they could recruit nor sustain off of a single province. So here's the question. Did they somehow spawn the army as the game progressed? Let's say with each level of my dominance or something similar?

I might be dumb and they might have a vast empire to the east of Mordor, but it's still strange that they are stronger after losing half of their initial territory than what they were before.

Secondary question, is there any global bonus or anything giving them extra stats? I'm having much harder time than I should to kill their T2/T3 archers, my general on horse will barely beat them 1v1 and it takes ages....but this one might be due to the expanded roster submod

Update 1.1.0 - Status

New content

• Gundabad (playable campaign faction) - Design finished. Implementation WIP
• Lothlorien (playable campaign faction) - Design finished. Implementation WIP

New Mechanics

• Dale "Kingship" - Fully implemented
• Gundabad "Plunder" - Designed. Implementation pending
• Lothlorien "Fading of the Elves" - Designed. Implementation pending
• Lothlorien "Nenya, the Ring of Water" - Designed. Implementation pending
• Dead factions revival - TBD

Eventpics

• 11 new eventpics made
• Pending addition to events

Maps

• Generic Orc Town B - WIP
• Generic Dwarven Town B - WIP
• Generic Wildmen Town A - WIP
• Cair Andros placeholder - WIP
• Osgiliath placeholder - WIP

Campaign settlement models

• TBD

Units

• Dale Kingship units - Completed
• Upgradable tier 1 units for all factions - considered, may be dropped
• Ents - Fully modelled; texturing is WIP. Implemented in-game.
• Orocarni units - WIP

Events

• Work in progress
• Some new events were made for Kingship and Cleansing of Mirkwood mechanic
• Many events designed for Gundabad and Lothlorien

Tweaks

Economy

• Economy rebalance to make the campaign finances easier - Done
• More leeway for players to spend money - Done
• Special-case economy changes (like more eco tools for Dale) - WIP

Balance

• Supply Wagons - Buffed
• Rhurim campaign challenge increase - Done
• Dale early game tweaks - TBD
• Rivalling factions tweaks - TBD
• Gondor and Mordor early-game not recruiting issue - WIP
• Review regional Landmark effects - TBD

Technologies rework

• Rhurim, Mordor, WR - Done
• Harad, Dale, Rohan, Isengard - WIP
• Lothlorien, Gondor, Gundabad - Designed
• Erebor - TBD

Mechanics

• Cleansing of Mirkwood fixes - Nearly done
• The One Ring (Isengard) fixes - TBD
• The One Ring (Mordor) tweaks - TBD

Battles

• Cavalry tweaks - WIP, tests and opinion gathering ongoing
• Polearm tweaks - Postponed
• Mumakil fixes - WIP

Maps

• Generic Orc Town A tweaks - WIP
• Generic Dwarven Town A (small and medium) - Done
• Generic Middle-men Town A (small and medium) - Done
• Generic Dunedain Town A (small and medium) - TBD
• Lothlorien land maps crash - Fixed
• Reworked Dunharrow - Done
• Dol Amroth fixes - WIP

Units

• Rohan low tier unit visuals overhaul - Done
• Uruk-hai body and head skin overhaul - Done
• Mordor asset tweaks - WIP

Startpos

• Starting Control review - TBD

Campaign AI

• AI engagement in the south is low-intensity - WIP
• AI is not upgrading buildings past tier 1 - Fixed
• AI of “good” factions does not construct barracks - Fixed
• Friendly AI “babysitting" issues - TBD

Buildings

• Separate building chain for unique buildings - Done
• Building conversion cost/time reduction - TBD
• Buildings construction/maintenance cost - Done

I've started my first Dawnless Days campaign recently. I was playing Mordor and doing alright against Gondor. But I don't really understand the hunt for the ring mechanics. The first mission I got was asking me to pillage, loot, or raze a ton of settlements hoping that the ring was there, but there's no way of realistically getting an army up there without abandoning crucial areas like arnor.

So I'm wondering how the mechanic actually works. Do I, as Mordor, have to personally pillage my way through basically all of the north, or does it also work if Isengard, Dol Guldur, etc. take those settlements? Having to do it all by myself feels like a rather weird mechanic.

Hopefully someone can explain how it is actually supposed to work.

I have never played Total War in my life before but a mate got me hooked on Dawnless Days. Buuuut I think I'm not playing optimally right now, far from it.

So what tips can you give me on how to play the game? I've tried the Mirkwood campaign on easy but stopped around turn 180 as all of my allies, literally everyone, was dead. Gondor, Rohan, anyone in the north, you name it. It was quite crushing because I've been only playing defense for the most part against Dol Guldur, the Goblins and Gundabad. Then Mordor and some Easterlings showed up and I knew it was pointless.

So I started a new campaign with Lothlorien and am acting faster and more aggressive now. I wanted to get rid of the stinky Goblins quickly but the towns right next to my starting location were heavily guarded with lots of T2 and T3 units. How the hell am I supposed to clear those?! Their main capital is even more guarded. Same for Dol Guldur. When I siege, they instantly start a real time battle so I cannot starve them.

In general the campaign feels more like a defense simulator when playing a good faction and it seems to me the bad ones do not have unit costs on how much they spam their trash units and keep on throwing them away. I've got a decent income early on but then got cut off from the other northern factions and lost around 1500 income from trade, at least I think it must have been trade because I didn't lose a town.

A few more questions: Do I rush T2 units as T1 seem to be rather bad? Are supply wagons worth it? How am I supposed to stock up an army, keep them float and also develop my economy? Oh and what the fuck is up with crossing rivers?

Edit: Reddit is glitching right now, didn't mean to post it 4 times...

I just finished my semester of college and I am getting more free time. Now that I have more time for total war, I came back to see how Dawneless was doing and see if it’s still a challenge like how it was when the campaign launched. However during the first battle between me as Gondor and Mordor my frames just randomly dropped on the newest 1.0.3 patch which is weird since I reverted to 1.0 and it didn’t and I went to other total war Attila mods and did huge army stacks and it wasn’t really a problem. Is there some types of units that lower frames than others or should I check my pc drivers?