What's the fastest way to gain influence in the Last Days mod? It seems to go really slowly?

Playing as an Uruk-hai for Isengard. Currently level 17 or so, and am Rank 8 (Commander of Legions) with Isengard. I can only get my party size up to around 70-90 (12 Charisma, 4 Leadership), which means obviously I can't try to take out settlements on my own but can usefully contribute to battles and other engagements. However, I will say it is incredibly frustrating (even in native, but especially in this mod) that you cannot control allied troops in the battlefield. I would very much like to suggest that be tweaked, currently battles have barely any strategic element to them because whatever I do with the few troops of mine that join the battle is rendered null and void because my AI allies will just charge all the time.

Another thing that I'm concerned about is that Influence seems to take an exorbitantly long time to gain, particularly considering that the costs of making suggestions to other Captains (e.g. follow me, go there, patrol here, etc.) are so high (I accidentally made a suggestion to Mog the Seven-fingered to besiege a settlement and lost 35 influence)! It's difficult to take an active role in the campaign when I can't effectively manage some of the other captains (even after rising in the ranks). I'm hoping it's maybe the case that when I reach rank 9 (Right Hand to Saruman) I can order the other Captains around for free but I suspect that is not the case? In any event, I think the influence cost to make suggestions to Captains within your own faction should be drastically lowered, or maybe it should get lower incrementally as you rise in the ranks until it is finally free at rank 9.

Submitted April 15, 2018 at 06:21AM by -Caesar https://ift.tt/2qxjvnw