This post will deal with all of the evil factions in turn, giving specifics where warranted. Note that with all evil factions, family members are an issue and so you need to accept general and adoption proposals every time.
First Harad. Harad plays much like a good faction, but you have zero economy. your troops tend to be slightly worse than Gondor's, but you make up for this with several extremely powerful units (troll men, mumakil...) and your massive bodyguard size. The bodyguard is about as powerful as a Gondorian bodyguard soldier to soldier, but contains more than twice the men, usually. Your only hope is to rush and take South Gondor, the area south of the Anduin. This makes your strategy different from most factions - build as many soldiers as you can in the first turn, as you cannot build enough economy with your starting funds to have a positive budget. Let me repeat that, as it is your defining characteristic: You cannot acquire a positive budget using your starting funds. Thus you cannot turtle or wait to build your economy. Rush South Gondor, bottle up Gondor at Fannuland, and then start up into Ithilian. Do not take Henneth Annune or the settlement closest south of Osgiliath, or you risk making Mordor stop attacking Gondor. Now, disband those soldiers you can spare and build up your economy. Go from there. You will need a navy. Raiding Dol Amroth and Pelargir to demolish all the buildings can be helpful, as, although the AI uses stack spam, many of their soldiers come from being trained, and although they get free money, they don't get instant building. You'll get some money from the demolishing and they will get a delay in troop production. You can exterminate the population when you invade, but keep in mind that you might actually be able to hold on to the city for a little while, and exterminating will only reduce your monetary gain over this period. If you're playing with the garrison script, don't bother. You'll lose more men in the raid than the buildings are worth, though perhaps destroying the buildings and then exterminating the population, and then evacuating or going on a suicide rampage through the weak interior of Gondor could make it worth it.
Gundabad can be tricky. You want peace and trade for as long as possible with Eriador and the High Elves. That being said, you need territory. Build a few units, but mostly use your starters to conquer Eriador's traditional caps as fast as possible, before they do, while putting most of your money into your economy. *** Your faction leader is an excellent general, and is far more effective than the "lieutenant" general you are given to lead your armies. Maneuver these two characters so that you can give the governor-type retinues to the "lieutenant" general and the remaining retinues to the faction leader, and then have the "lieutenant" govern Carn Dum. Note that you only really need generals in Carn Dum and Gundabad. The guy who starts in Gundabad should be left there - as a mountain settlement, if he stays there for a sufficiently long uninterrupted number of turns he will gain a retinue called Vivarium that provides +1 to farming output, which directly boosts trade income, tax income, and population growth. The population growth obviously also eventually helps income. Cameth Brin is a must have, in the trollshaws northwest of Rivendell. The trollshaws provide vast armies of mercinaries - keep a general here to get them as often as possible, as you will need them. I think that the mercenaries might only be available if you enable the Rhudaur submod - you should enable this. The monetary increases do not actually come into play when playing as Gundabad in single player mode, so your kings purse will be static ( I don't know if it affects the OOTMM when you are on single player and playing as Gundabad - I expect it still does), and you will not get the bonus stacks. All it will do for you is provide the ability to recruit the mercenaries. There is a rectangular province over by the Dwarves that has a wooden castle in its center and four watchtowers around it. Nearly the entire province is already under line of sight - you will see most enemies two turns before they reach you there. This province is essential for a forward military base in the west, as you will find no other. It also lets you hold off Eriador and the Dwarves with one large army, rather than needing two small ones for the same job. Once you have taken all the rebel settlements, create a diplomat and get trade rights with Eriador, try to get their map information (giving them yours in exchange for theirs helps with this), and then gift them something around 25 gold a turn for around ten turns. You need Eriador complacent. The trade with Eriador will make you rich - build up population buildings and money buildings (the temples in Gundabad increase population growth!) to become even richer. You don't have any natural enemies but the Dwarves - an army in Gundabad and an army in that rectangular province will negate them, and then put a handful of units in each border town with Eriador (NOT more than 4, or you will frighten them) to avoid looking like easy pickings. Once you're filthy rich and have built all the money buildings, build military buildings. The ballista maker leads to the catapult maker, and you NEED catapults. Don't neglect the snaga stalkers - build the armorer buildings. Snaga are cheap to build but cost more than goblin band in upkeep, but they have very decent defense. they aren't going to kill much, but a quarter stack of snaga with armor upgrades is going to take most armies from "fresh" to tired and/or exhausted. That is how to play with most evil factions - trash units to wear down the enemy, follow with the deadly units. Do not use heavy goblin halberd as shock infantry - your orc marauders are your real shock infantry, and your heavy goblin infantry come in a close second, being slower but with more mass, but the halberds are very slow even when not in spear wall, and are very expensive. save them for countering enemy shock infantry, and for destroying cavalry units - Dunedain bodyguard dissolves under the might of two or three units of HGH in offensive mode (not in spear wall).
OOTMM is much the same as Gundabad, with one difference - you are surrounded by hostile factions. Your primary move should be to build mines everywhere you can as often as you can. Your troops need to take all the open spaces to the east of the mountains, between you and the river. You can sometimes trade one of these early on to get peace with the high elves and then buy it back (or bribe it back) from them in a few turns, as they will not be able to get troops to it and it will lack culture (and the ability to build culture buildings), resulting in cultural disorder and no troop buildings. Dain's Halls is a controversial settlement - I reccomend keeping it. Build a good half stack of troops there and play it as an autonomous settlement - turtle it. The Dwarves and Elves will try to take it but with a solid army you will succeed on the defensive. The Elves of Lorien will be a massive problem if you let them. Build your military building right after you build the mines in Moria and grab the HGH and HGI (Heavy goblin halberd/infantry, abbreviated from now on). Also make sure you are building troops here. Snaga are used the same way as Gundabad, but keep in mind you have the skirmishers now. Skirmishers have worse defense than the stalkers but each unit can throw several volleys of 250 javelins. When units get bloodied but only have one hit point, it means they were wounded and their effectiveness goes down, as does their stamina. Use stalkers to wedge the foe in place, hit them hard with skirmishers, pull the skirmishers back and charge in with everything else. Lorien has only three generals at the start, all family members. their non-governor general likes to mill around by Moria - build a few units and swarm him. Do NOT attack with your starting units, as he is very very tough. Each of his unit will get three or four kills as an archer and then four or five more kills as a swordsman. he himself will get over a dozen kills even after his bodyguard is all down, meaning he will probably kill 50 or 60 units total. Lorien will rush to expand South into what used to be the Limlight Fort and across the river to some town south of Dol Guldur. I believe they can build troops in the town to the West, but they cannot in the Limlight Fort, so leave the fort for last. When you take the settlement closest to Moria, they get a free quarter-stack of their top-tier units, so be ready with hordes of snaga for the taking of their next starter settlement. You won't be able to take it early on if their quarter stack is in there, however, as they will be boosting up their defenses. Beware the paths in Lothlorien, as the routes are only one unit wide and the Elves LOVE to ambush you after they've lost a settlement. Clear the paths with a waste unit of snaga before you go down them - scout, essentially. By the time you've deal with both of these settlements, your troops from your other cities should have taken all the rebel territories, you should have gained peace with the High Elves by trading them one of them (you cannot spare enough troops if you must fight the HE), and you should own the corner settlements up by Dain's Halls and Gundabad. Elves are epic on the defensive, and because the majority of their units should be bottled up in their two remaining cities, siege the western town out until they are forced to come out. Snaga stalkers in the front to soak up arrows and tire their units, snaga skirmishers right behind them, HGH flanking the skirmishers and HGI behind the skirmishers. Mix the rest of your varied units into the very rear of the snaga stalkers, so that when the enemy crunches through and breaks the stalkers you have time to pull out the skirmishers. Use your halberds (NOT in spear wall, you need them able to run) to catch any cavalry flanking attempts. Your assorted units will further weaken your enemy. If they appear to be holding just fine, flank with your HGI. If they seem to be having some trouble, tell the HGI to go through them, so that they will shove through your troops to the front line, and then have them engage the Elves. The HGI have better stats, so their being on the front line will help decrease the foe's moral while the other units' presence will add size to your army in decrease enemy moral further. Flank with the HGH and they should start breaking. You know where to go from there. As with Gundabad, you have the potential to become an economic powerhouse. Do so early - the earlier you start growing the economy and populations, the bigger they will eventually get.
This brings me to another point - your armies have "weight" based on how many troops are pressing up to the front line, and this affects enemy moral. as orcs, you have massive numbers - press your troops up against the front line even if they can't all reach the foe and even if some of them are weakling archers. This will help break the enemy.
Isengard, starting with only one city, and thus VERY few family members, is a unique challenge. It can be very tempting to rush Rohan - do not do this. Take Gineard and that little fort settlement in order to form a choke point, blockade it, and then just sit there. Build roads and economic buildings as early as possible, build troops as often as possible as priority over buildings, and swarm to the West, taking everything possible, but do not cross the river into Eriador/Dwarves/Elvish range. The ability to build advanced roads is something that few evil factions have, and is one you should take advantage of. Isengard can also build a special building called a furnace, or factory, or something like that, in a few settlements. Build it when you can, it helps. When you reach the ocean, carve south into traditional Gondorian territory, taking as many rebel settlements as possible. You may want to trade them one of these settlements in a generous deal to save yourself trouble, as a war with Gondor at the same time as a war with Rohan in the early game is a disaster. You're gonna need wargs, so make sure you build the prerequisite buildings for them even though they provide no returns until turn 40.The Uruk-Hai infantry will be your main units, but the crossbowmen will be crucial assets later. Do not neglect your archery ranges. Also, try to let Dunland handle the north. It might be tempting to push northwest, but don't do it. Your family will be a big problem. You can use Saruman as a general rather than as the governor of Isengard, but this is very risky - if you lose him, you're going to start having a lot of trouble. Keep him as governor or give him a cushy detail taking rebel settlements in the west.
Rhun - I've never played them, but when I do I'll give you an update here.
Dunland - same as Rhun.
Mordor has the ultimate turtle situation. The Black Gate (Now known as Morranon) and Minas Morgul are the only ways in. Behind Morranon, there is another line of mountains, only passable by another of Mordor's castles. Minas Morgul, when defended by a player, is nearly uncrackable, especially when the player has archers. Behind Minas Morgul lies a town whose name I cannot remember, but it is nothing special - not the easiest to either attack or defend. Strengthening this position, however, is the castle Durthang up by the castle behind Morranon, and its one-unit wide passage that leads to the space between Minas Morgul and its sister city. Any foe that manages to breach Morgul will have to deal with armies coming from the north and the east, and an army besieging Morgul's sister will be vulnerable to an attack. Even if they break through both cities, one can send troops through Durthang to retake Morgul, which will undoubtedly be lightly defended at that point, trapping the remaining enemy invaders. They will then be easy meat. Although Morranon does not have this system of overlapping reinforcement passages, it is still very tough. The Black Gate itself is very hard to attack, especially if the defender puts a good deal of archers on the Gate and then makes a solid wall of Morranon Guard behind the doors, with Orc Raiders on the flanks/on the wall to prevent enemy troops from getting up and destroying your very weak archers. Due to better archer setups, if one has a vast arsenal of archers Morranon can be defended at least as well as Morgul, although depending on the units being used Morgul can become harder to crack than Morranon ever can. If the enemy breaches Morranon, they only have one place to go (unlike at Morgul where they might attack Durthang), and this second layer is tougher than either Durthang or Morgul's sister alone. The main issue here is that you've lost a significant source of Morranon Guard (these two locations surrounding the Planes of Morranon are the only places you can build them) which are your only potent defensive force until you acquire the Uruk Halberds.
Noting that I play on Very Hard / Very Hard, and only turn on the scrolls that make the game more difficult for me, I recommend a turtle strategy. Taking Gondor's settlements results in massive top-tier stack spam, regardless of what turn you do it on. You might be able to quickly eliminate Faramir with the troops around Ithilian, but if you cannot do it in the first 5 turns, pull back. Set up most of your troops at Morranon and Morgul. Keep a unit of raiders and two units of band in each of their backup cities. Put that in Durthang, too, along with a unit of Morranon Guard. Cavalry are useless in Morgul, so don't bother having more than one Nazgul in Morgul. Morranon doesn't get hit very much, but two Nazgul there can be swung around out of the gate to do some serious damage to an attacker. Keep the Witch King in Barad Dur and distribute the Orc generals around as governors. The rest of the Nazgul should break into two groups. The two with the worst command should go north to defend Dol Guldur. The rest should form a roving band that destroys Gondorian and Rohan armies as they approach you. If needed this band can just go defend Dol Guldur.
Your starter troops are plenty for the early turns, and you should be focusing on your economy, NOT on the Black Numenorian Barracks. You shouldn't need any of them early on and the barracks costs too much that could have been spend on the economy. So, build population buildings first, then roads, then trade buildings, then armorers and military buildings. The only exception to this rule is that sometimes an early archery upgrade OR a barracks upgrade can help in Morranon and/or Morgul. You shouldn't need to train new units until after you've beaten back several attacks, because your starting units are numerous enough to overcome enemy attacks and absorb the losses. Once you hit turn 40, grab the troll buildings everywhere you can - your now powerful economy will help. Build a large number of trolls, form an army consisting largely of uruks and trolls with 3 Nazgul, and ramage through Rohan. They will likely be a much softer target than Gondor. During this time, minor military upgrades should have been being constructed in Dol Guldur and perhaps the settlement to the Northeast of Dol Guldur, tucked up in the forest and nearly inaccessible without passing Dol Guldur, should be taken. Once you've got your army attacking Rohan you can use your slowly built-up Dol Guldur army and your northern Nazgul to seriously hammer the Lorien elves.
You can take it from there.
-Sapoman
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