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[Elvenlord]

Yep, finally doing this. Others are welcome to add to it.

So, we're going to start off with a look at each unit. Easy enough, right?

-Sentinels from the Woody End-

Basicly, these guys are your scouts. Don't go overboard with them, but a few in the right places can reveal to you a majority of the map. Ergo, enemy movement. Try to put them out of the way near places where troop movement is likely. For example, put them on the edge of mountains or impassable terrian so troops won't go near them. The center of the map is a good place to place them, not to mention enemy bases, if you can manage it.

-Mirkwood Scouts-

Your basic archers, they make up the early game.. Although they have almost no defense, their attack power is amazing, courtesy of their high attack speed. They should almost always be in ambush formation, with three exceptions off the top of my head. First being combat with other archers. Otherwise, the scouts will be killed in 2-3 hits. Not fun. Second, when being trampled. They can survive most trampling at full health in line formation. Then switch them back to ambush. If you out-numbered the (unupgraded) cav, you win. Finally, when retreating. Duh.
Never allow these guys to engage in melee combat. If enemy infantry come near, retreat and spread out.

-Spearmen of the Havens-

These guys are THE infantry. Fully capable of taking on FU cav (as long as they aren't too high a level above the spears), never hesitate to send them into the fray, in shield-wall formation of course. They can take quite a beating then. Add in elven woods, or something to the like, and HA, and they will endure punishment such as you could only dream of.
Now, the only thing about them is that they're slow. Pay attention to not let your archers get too far ahead of them, otherwise you could lose them.

-Riders of Rivendell-

The raiders. Really, you should never have more than a couple of these guys, as Amroth's are better in combat. However, they are much faster and do more melee damage. They really shine destroying enemy building or chasing down fleeing heros. If you can distract an enemy, two batts of these could decimate their economy.

-Amroth's Knights-

The heavy cav. The toughest in the game. Basicly, just charge straight through just about anything, except massed pikes. Not much else to say. An army of these guys are to be feared. Especially if led Glorf, then they can trample for much longer, which means more enemy dead.

-Galadhrim-

Elite bow and sword infantry. Once you can afford these, forget Mirkwoods. Once FU, there's not much that can stand in their way. Remember, they can't be trampled with swords out. These with Spearmen make the ultimate infantry combo.


Heros

-Arwen-

Personally, I don't use her often. However, she is extremely useful, especially agaisnt mordor orcs. Her level 2 power, Noro Lim, allows her to trample until the power ends.

-Haldir-

A good early hero. As an archer and swordsmen, he can help your archers then protect them. Once he starts leveling up, he has a leadership to scouts and Galadhrim, which proves to be very useful.

-Elrond-

One of the "seige" heros. At level 8 he becomes an absolute power house, with better armor, a gate-smashing power, and a experiance granting power. Couple that with his natural leadership, troops near him will climb up the ranks so fast the enemy won't know what happened. Plus he can heal nearby troops and heros. Bam.

-Celeborn-

A decent melee hero with a couple nice moves. At the get-go he descreases the amount of time it takes for hero's abilites to recharge. Useful for the likes of Galadriel and Elrond. Later(7) he gets a power that summons a tree to knockback enemies. At 8 he can summon Galadhrim and Celeglin, basicly a stronger haldir.

-Galadriel-

THE hero. Can heal troops and heros, has leadership, and can let you see the whole map just for buying her. Even her normal attack has AoE, and can damage, and break down, gates. Later she gets even more destructive power, including Power of the Lady (Word of Power). If she comes walking by, be afraid. Be very afraid.

-Glorfindel-

Ah, my personal fav. Best melee fighter in the game. Even had him kill Galadriel once. Remember that, Hunter?
Anyways, his sword can hit multiple enemies at once, and does insane damage. Can mount, and has leadership to cav, which allows them to trample for much longer. His other moves really aren't that useful, as he can kill them all anyways. With the exception of Light of the Noldor. I'm fairly sure it can take down gates as well.

-Thranduil-

Can stealth, has a leadership for scouts, couple damage-boosting abilites, but nothing to make you buy him unless you have money to spare. Celeborn and Elrond are much better choices and at the same price.

-Legolas-

Legolas. Need I say more? Now he has an armor upgrade and can summone scouts at level 8. If you have the money, get him.

-Cirdan-
Fairly strong, but restricted to the base purchased at. Only get if cash floating or really need that defensive boost. And I mean really need it.

-Gil-Galad-

If you use him. Basicly, Glorf with leadership. To everyone. Unstoppable.


Now that that's over with, let's go over some basic things for each game phase

-Early game-
Scouts. I cannot tell you this enough. Build enough to get creeps and hold off th enemy until you can get either better infantry or cav on the field. Or both. I find 4 is good number. It's very important that you grab as many settlements and creeps as possible to offset the elves' high cost. Watch out for fast cav.
This is probably the hardest part of the game for the elves.

-Mid game-
By now you should have several settlements and orchards inside your base. Now, you can go down one of three paths.

Infantry- Build a barracks and pump out spearmen and Galadhrim. Easy enough. No real cons, but no real strengths either. Just stronger than everyone else, but at less numbers. If you manage to get a FU army with heros, it's basicly GG

Cav- Build a stables, pump out knights. With the exception of spearmen and high-level FU cav, massed FU knights can tear through anything.

Both- More expensive to do, as you have to buy both buildings, but you will be more flexible.

With any of these you have to make a choice: Get heros or upgrades. If you go cav, upgrades is more helpful. Infantry is whichever you perfer. Same if you get both.

-Late game-
If you haven't won by now, get heros or upgrades, which ever you didn't earlier. If they're Mordor or Isen, just go tear down everything they have. If they're Gondor or Rohan, you will need either ents, Galadriel, Elrond at level 8, or Glorf at level 9 to take down the gate, or any combo of the above. More is better. Charge on through. You pretty much win.

-Against certain factions-

Mordor- Fairly easy, archers destory mordor. Continue to push with your scouts until you get something that can destory their base.

Isen- The hard one. If you can surive the first 5 minutes, though, and go down one of the mentioned paths, you stand a strong chance of winning

Rohan- Watch out for early cav. Either match them with spearmen or your own cav. Don't let Theoden get Glorious charge.

Gondor- This is the one you really need to watch for fast knights. Depends how how good he is though. If it's Fene, say goodnight
Your best bet is to build spearmen or try to out-build him and have more knights than he does.

Elves- If you can get knights out fast, do it. Knights will murder his early scouts. Watch out for spearmen though. If you can't, infantry would be a good idea, as most elven players I know go for cav. And spearmen eat cav for breakfast, then ask for seconds.


There you go. I'll probably update it later, as I got tired half way through

[Elvenlord]

Do note some of this is rather out-of-date, as the CE version fixed many issues and balanced some things. The general gist of it remains the same, however.