This game for Android is making the waiting for the second “The Hobbit” movie, a bit sweeter.
The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth is a city-building game. You can basically build a medieval city, build different buildings that can be upgraded. Each building has a “waiting time”, from 30 seconds to even hours. You can buy “mithril bars” with real money and get rid of waiting, or, you can just put away the phone/tablet and just wait after giving the commands.
Overall the game is fun and this “waiting” won’t annoy you too much. It helps for the feeling of “building a city”, progression and expansion.
Besides building the city, you should also focus on expanding your army by building barracks and other facilities that will allow you to train different type of military troops. The main goal of the game is to have the highest possible “Might”.
“Might” means = your army’s power. If you go into the “world view” (the third view, bottom left corner of the UI), you should see locations near your city. These locations can be conquered. If you click on any of it, you can see that you can scout or attack the place. If your army wins, you will get different bonuses, either gold/lumber or other useful resources, or, you can get buffs like increased ore production.
The results from scouting or attacking are sent to you by the in-game mail system, in the “Report” tab.
How to conquer a territory and not lose your army? After you scout a territory, you will see its “might”. If you dispatch an army that has a higher “might” value, you will most likely win. Your victory also depends on the type of units that you send. There are troops that are weak vs. some other type of troops, or they have an advantage. You can see all this by clicking on your barracks when you want to train units.
If you have just started playing this game, you should always check the “Quests” tab and follow Gandalf’s recommendations. He will tell you to build different things, adjust the tax rate etc.
The other tabs from the bottom of the UI:
Items. If you don’t want to shop with real money, click on “My items” and from there, click on any tab. You should have some resources and buff stones there. Use them when you need them most.
Quests. You will get notices when you upgrade/build something. Those are considered finished quests and you can claim your reward for finishing them. Gandalf’s recommendations for what “to do next” are very important if you just started the game.
Alliance. As in MMO games, you can join a guild. They are called “alliances” in The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth. Some require an amount of might as a joining condition but it should be easy to find one that doesn’t require an extremely high amount. These alliances are for either helping or get help from other players with military units and resources. You will also have a “guild chat” available once you join an alliance. You should join one, there is nothing to lose.
Mail. You will receive messages from other players and game notices.
Chance. This is a mini-game that you can play from time to time. You can get valuable resources from it.
Train. Just a tab that will show you the UI from where you can train military units.
Research. Doing researches will help you to expand your kingdom, have access to more advanced facilities that will help you in battles or expanding.
Rank. It displays who has the highest “might” from your “realm”.
Settings and Share. You can change the sound for notices and share your progress on Facebook.
Other things from the User Interface (UI): the chat, you will see a “realm chat” and an “alliance chat” if you have joined an alliance. There is no way to disable the chat window.
“March” will display information if you have dispatched an army to a territory. “Train” stands for training units. “Building” for building and research.
On the top side of the UI, you will see your name, level and might value. If you click it, you will get a few tabs. The most important is “cities” where you can see your population number, food supply and the percent of happiness.
You can change your “player name” from the “Details” tab and your city’s name from the “Cities” tab.
You should click on every building to see what options you have for them.
Click on your “keep” (main building) > overview > hide all troops, set this option to off or your troops will not defend your city if you get attacked.
Other questions and tips
How to abandon a conquered land? A: Click on your keep and from there, click on the third tab called “conquest”.
How to ask your allies for resources? A: You can either send e-mails or go into your alliance’s chat and use the “plus” button. You can select what resources you need. Your allies will see your request.
Can you conquer other cities or can yours be conquered? A: No, you can attack/get attacked though and win/lose resources and troops.
How can I get a second city without using mithril bars? A: By finding relics in goblin camps. Finding relics require to build a “Sage’s tower” in your city.
What is the ultimate goal of the game? A: To join an alliance, your alliance to become strong enough to start war on other alliances, your alliance to grow and reach number one.
Can I get attacked when I’m not online? A: Yes, you will receive notices in your mail section. You should check for the coordinates of the fight to understand what land of yours was attacked. If it was your city or a land that you have conquered and own. For example, I was attacked by a player but there is a notice saying that the “attackers did not breach the walls” and I didn’t lost troops or resources. There was no fight basically.
To breach the walls, a higher amount of might is required.
How much happiness is recommended? A: Around 80% or your population could go lower than normal.
What to do when you have to wait for a building or research to finish? A: You can read and participate to the “global chat”. Or just play other games.
What “TK” means? A: It means troop kills.
What is with all the discussion about the wall being a noob strategy? A: You can build and upgrade your wall. Being a noob is considered when you build traps and other defensive structures that are related to the wall.
Feel free to add any tips that I didn’t mentioned. If you have questions, leave in the comments.