
In the meantime, you can still influence the fight by firing your bow at grog barrels, landing the occasional stealth attack, and, most importantly, dominating “broken” war chiefs on the battlefield. Trust in your orcs’ ability to handle most of these situations on their own. When several war chiefs are storming through the gate, it may be tempting to leap down immediately and fight them all at once. Most failed fortress defense missions don’t end in the enemy capturing all objectives, but rather Talion’s death. If multiple war chiefs are immune to poison, for instance, a poison-spewing Siege Beast isn’t going to help much, but a fire-breathing drake will keep them at bay. In addition to directly nullifying certain abilities, make sure your anti-siege weapons correspond to the weaknesses of the enemy war chiefs. Many different beasts can also make fights more complicated, but a group of hunters can thin the herd before they reach the fortress. Caragors, for instance, are capable of climbing up your fortress’ walls, entering without having to break down the gate, but you can purchase spikes to keep them out. You can purchase and equip defenses to counter these attacks, but your fortress will still go down in a hurry if you don’t fine-tune those defenses to react to the army you’re fighting.įor each siege ability you see listed for the enemy, choose one of your own that can nullify it. Others will command a drake, or fire-launching siege beasts. Some war chiefs will bring special troops, like Caragor riders or defenders. Along with their level, strengths, and weaknesses, each war chief also has a special siege ability indicating what kind of forces they bring to the fight. Counter your enemies’ offenseīefore you begin a fortress-defense mission, you have a chance to see the list of war chiefs you have to face.

Purchase as many chests as you need to bulk up your defenses to include six high-level war chiefs, and you shouldn’t have a problem dealing with enemies. At 1,500 apiece, a few chests won’t hurt too much if you’ve been saving over the course of the campaign. To compensate for this, don’t be afraid to spend some Mirian in the market to purchase silver war chests. If any of your orcs happen to die, you will be even worse off. This isn’t terrible for the first few stages, as enemies will be around the same level, but the hordes will level up much faster than your own army. When Shadow Wars begins, most of your forts will, at best, have a group of war chiefs somewhere around level 40. Your own skill in combat isn’t completely irrelevant in Shadow Wars, but it plays second fiddle to that of your orc followers. With a little preparation, though, you can endure and emerge victoriously.

At this stage in the game, defending a fortress is much more challenging than taking one, as you’ll be facing many high-level war chiefs and captains looking to lop off your head.

Instead, you will be putting all your energy and time into defending four regions - Cirith Ungol, Gorgoroth, Nurnen, and Seregost - from invading armies.

If you’re an elite Shadow of War player, you never have to worry about attacking a fortress during Shadow Wars at all. The task is daunting, so we have some tips and tricks to help you excel in the never-ending wars of Mordor. It’s lengthy and features the strongest enemies you face in the entire game, and just a few mistakes can lead to hours of work as you build the force you need to retake your fortress back and defeat the new overlord. Shadow Wars is, without question, the hardest part of Shadow of War.
