Okay I’ve got some extra bits for you. The Freep decided early on to beat the daylights out of the DS everywhere other than Mordor. We just couldn’t attack them everywhere in strength at once with any real hope of widespread victory. So Mordor in this game was about containment (which we achieved quite nicely! 
In the NW we saw a Rhu icon on EVERY pop including the village and camp at the end of T1. It looked like it was going to be a very hard nut to crack, with the DS able to reinforce faster than we could get armies into the area. We managed to maneuver armies into their rear area so they lost defensive cohesion. Though they had a fair counter in troop numbers, it became a game of guessing where we’d be hitting them hard, and where small forces were aiming for disruption. The DS guessed the MT’s were the target - we hit the towns. The NW was basically overrun by turn 10.
Mirkwood took a little longer, but we were focussed and the result the same.
We really took it to them in Harondor and wiped out all except 2732 in the north in short order, and a MT and T in the south for the Harad. Haruth wandered alone in the North while we focussed on south and eventually threatened the T/F at 2730 back into the fold (after numerous failures). He sits there to turn 17 with a MT, T and a couple camps.
In the south our success became a hindrance as the coastal pops were wiped out leaving no landing point. 2535 remains in the Harad hands as does the adjacent town at 2635. All else was burned. The problem now is landing troops, however they do come and give an accounting of themselves when they do
The Harad pushed a massive army and captured the Corsair capital (2438 as a castle), whilst a super DS emmy squad took out 2137. In return the SG threatened Vamag away. Since that time we’ve played a nut and cups game with the enemy emissaries whilst they try to tip the odds further, and battle after great battle has been fought at 2336 where a huge bloc of Harad and QA forces have sought to overrun Umbar. We’ve thrown swarms of Corsairs, Sinda, some NG and now SG troops into the grinder there and slowly whittled those forces.
Early on it looked difficult with the main enemy reinforcements and assassins present here. However the efforts to wipe out Mordor have now kicked off in earnest and much of that support is now needed in Mordor.
The effect then was for a totally unmolested Mordor, but a wipe out pretty much across the rest of the map. The hint that all is not well for the DS trying to float disenfranchised allies comes in several forms - character presence is low. There don’t seem to be many enemy agents. In the far south they keep refusing challenge which I suspect points at low comm numbers, and we managed to influence two Mordor MT’s away with small groups of emmies. And as the great read says “Winter is coming!”
I think it’s a problematical strategy to just try to contain Mordor while you deal with the rest, usually an enemy won’t surrender if Mordor is sound, and at Turn 17 if you haven’t knocked out force pools, they can be quite strong. However if you go hard at Mordor and lose in the far south in particular, you still won’t win even if you do take Mordor. There’s a base of around 10MT’s available in the far south with limited ability to get at them.
We haven’t been well coordinated, in fact we haven’t been coordinated, but each of our theatres seems to have done its job. Mordor is a different nut to crack and will take a wake up for our team to resolve.
It’s been an excellent game. The DS have taken an absolute beating and their economics must be a very well run ship to get this far. They’ve shown a lot of discipline and persistence to keep trying, and have given me some headaches in the far south. I can’t help but think though that the tides are turning in the remaining areas of the fight. Morannon is host to huge forces, the DS in the far south are stretched and possibly vulnerable in their big push. We’ll see what the coming turns bring.
Cheerio!
