LotR Rise to War Siege Guide: Best Commanders, Units, and Strategies

In this LotR Rise to War Siege Guide, we will be discussing strategies, units, and Commanders for sieging tiles, structures, and enemy player fortifications in the game. This is a big part of the game but unfortunately something a lot of players find confusing or difficult.

To be successful at sieging in LotR Rise to War, you must first understand the tile types you can actually siege before taking on the more complex aspects like specific strategies or Commanders to use. Therefore, we will get started with the basics of tiles before moving on to the more complex parts in this LotR Rise to War Siege Guide.

the game’s tile types and what sieging actually does before you partake in any of it. There are two categories of tiles in Lord of the Rings: Rise to War, with wildly different functionalities. Technically there are more, but let’s keep this simple for now, shall we?

Sieging Tiles in LotR Rise to War

In LotR Rise to War, not all tiles are made equal when it comes to sieging. Indeed, some are stronger than others and most can not actually be sieged at all! To understand the difference it is best to start with the absolute basics of tiles in Rise to War. At its simplest, tiles can therefore be split into 2 categories: Lands Tiles and Structure Tile. Keep reading this LotR Rise to War Siege Guide for what this means for us when sieging.

LotR Rise to War Land Tiles

The tiles that have no constructions or structures present on them at all are known as “land tiles”. These are the standard stone, grain, wood, and iron resource tiles you need to capture to expand your kingdom. They have no defenses at all. You can click on them on the world map to learn all the details.

Upon doing this, you will quickly learn that they have 1 point of “fortification” health. This means the army standing there gets no buffs to defense at all. If you have a powerful enough army to out damage the defender of said tile then you can obtain the land tiles without having to engage in a siege. Therefore do not bring your siege units to land tiles, it’s a waste of their talent.

LotR Rise to War Structure Tiles

There are several tiles in the game that aren’t empty but include unique features like crossings, ruins, control points, and landmark buildings. Or alternatively, they feature player-built forts or fortresses. The color and specific models placed on these tiles set them apart from the Land tiles.

These tiles are frequently used to hide armies behind them because if you check the information (by clicking on the tile), you will learn that the tiles do have defensive health. As you play the game more, you’ll learn to recognize constructions meant to protect the enemy soldiers. To help you out further with this, this Rise to War Siege Guide will give you some ideas on how to deal with this.

While the majority of the siege process is centered on these tiles, there are some fundamental considerations you need to make when sieging in the game. Now it’s time to discuss how to conquer a Structure Tile once you have some understanding of them.

What is Sieging in Rise to War and How it Works

When you eliminate the armies defending any given tiles, you enter the sieging phase. The main goal of a sieging phase is to destroy fortifications of the tile during a brief window of time. Usually, for Control Points and larger structures, this is an hour. If you fail to destroy the fortification in that time, the structure will reset, and the armies defending it will respawn.

At that point, you are inflicting siege damage on the tiles, and it is important to keep in mind that if you inflict some siege damage and leave, those structures will eventually begin to regenerate. Therefore, it is essential to finish what you have started!

The damage dealt is influenced by your Commander, their skills, items, and troops with them. Every troop has a “siege” statistic on their info card, this is per unit, per one attack. So if you send in an army of 500 knights, and they do 2 siege damage each, you will do 1000 siege damage per one attack.

Basic Tips For Sieging in LotR Rise to War

• It is crucial to keep in mind that the place you want to siege should be either close to your settlement, or that the Commander you are using for a siege is garrisoned in a nearby fort. You want to hit that structure again, and again. This means you need to be close to make the marching time minimal and also make sure your Commander has plenty of stamina.
• You, and your fellowship, must build a fortress to gather troops if a siege is far away from your settlement.
• Your troops receive no damage in the sieging phase. Meaning that once you destroy the defending army, you may send out even weaker Commanders to siege it. Since they won’t sustain any harm or get your units needlessly killed. This is different when attacking a Player’s Settlement (their home base) since many high-level players will have an archer tower installed, which hurts your army when sieging.

Best Comanders And Units For Sieging

As mentioned in the above sections, Commanders will play a big role in how much siege damage your army does. It is therefore a good idea to make sure you have developed at least one Commander specifically for this purpose. Below we outline some of the best Siege Commanders currently available in LotR Rise to War.

Evil Side Commanders and Units

By far the best sieging unit you can have Evil Side Faction in Rise to War are the Alchemists. Followed by Sappers, which is just a Tier 2 version of Alchemists, but don’t let that discourage you from using them, they are still excellent at their job. They are a reliable and cheap way to get a siege army going.

However, if you feel that your pockets are deep and your resources are plentiful, you can always build an army of Mumakils. These war elephant-looking killing machines get 4,000 siege damage per one unit, which is outrageously high. But alas, they are not a basic unit you can produce in your barracks. They are a neutral camp you need to find, capture, and invest LARGE amounts of resources to create even a single unit.

Here’s how their stats compare across the board:

Unit Name	Unit Size	Damage	HP	Defense	Speed	Siege Power
Sappers	100	1-16	26	14	79	20
Alchemists	100	1~17	30	16	66	30
Mumakil	1	1k-1.5k	8k	100	83	4k

As you can see, a stack of Alchemists deals 3,000 siege damage, while 1 mumakil deals 4,000, clearly outranking them in damage. But if you consider that some Commanders can increase that damage by +7 per unit in the army, this brings Alchemists up to 3,700, while Mumakils stay around that 4,000 ballpark.

Furthermore, if you play as Arnor or Isengard you can forget all about Mumakils, as they spawn on the other side of the map. And then there’s still the issue of resources. Towards the end of the game when your Commander is level 40 or 50, filling their army with 90 Mumakils would literally bankrupt you!

The best Commander you can have leading all those alchemists to battle is Gothmog. His respect level 5 silver skill gives you +28 siege damage per unit at its max level. Giving those 3,000 Alchemists an INSANE 5,800 siege damage per instance of attack. This can be upped still if you equip him with “Shield of the White Hand” which increases this bonus by 12 per unit (note that this buff is only for Uruk-hai, so you want those Alchemists for it!)

Good Side Commanders and Units

Now here’s when things get a little complicated. The Good Side Factions don’t have designated sieging units! So you have to take one that specializes in something else and essentially repurpose it. My recommendation is either the Guardian or Ram Rider Dwarven units. The neutral sieging unit of choice is the Ent, which is like the good side version of the Mumakil.

Unit Name	Unit Size	Damage	HP	Defense	Speed	Siege Power
Guardian	100	7-20	40	101	52	20
Ram Rider	50	28-32	90	40	102	27
Ent	2	600-700	2400	204	15	900

Pair these units with Hirgon, a tier 1 Commander, who gives +7 siege per unit in his army. Even better, as a Tier 1 Commander, this is a super friendly army for F2P players. Indeed, paired up with some Guardians and you have some serious siege power at a not too bad resource cost!

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