Report from Sinda and Cardolan:
My overall strategy was to recruit troops as fast as possible for both Sinda and Cardolan, this seems to have been a common theme among the FP players judging by the number of huge & large armies in Mordor, Mirkwood and Angmar.
Early game in the north west I sent all Cardolan starting forces against Rhudaur and met the bulk of their starting armies at 1712, I was creamed and as Ian indicated Rhudaur moved to Dunland and captured their capital with the remains of his victorious army. Witch King took my town at 1510 and I liberated the Dunland capital and 1510 shortly afterwards.
Tharudan picked up the ROC and sabotaged the fort at 1910, this allowed Cardy’s second wave of troops to capture Rhudaur’s southern major town, while Dunland, Arthedain and Noldo mopped up the towns. Reinforcements were added for a push against Rhudaur’s capital and I managed a lucky threat against the capital with a ~65 ish commander and ~1200 troops, though I guessed he was eliminated and had minimal loyalty.
The Witch King wiped out several thousand Arthedain and Cardolan troops with Khuzadrepa, but recruits were on hand to push onto Murazor’s cities and these were taken by combinations of FP forces, though they all fell to Cardolan’s superior numbers. Dunland, Woodmen, Arthedain were all involved here.
The Sinda chose to concentrate on Mirkwood and moved the Rhun army west to Mirkwood, the northern army south to help the Woodmen if necessary and the Gondor army north while recruiting as many troops in Lorien as possible.
The Dragon Lord moved to the North Gondor town while the Dwarves, Woodmen and Northmen all tackled Dol Guldur and cleared it out for the Sinda to take around turn 7. All Sinda troops then moved to the Black Gate and cleared out the Dog Lord armies. Morannon was liberated immediately by huge armies from North Gondor, Dwarves and Northmen. My follow-up Sinda army destroyed Osgilaith which was held by the Fire King, but a wyrm on Minas Ithil stopped further progress.
At this time I was also recruiting heavy cavalry at Rhubar and these were sitting on the Blind Sorceror major town at game end. Tharudan and co. were picking off DS characters who were carrying nice artefacts and reduced fortifications on the Fire King capital, other Sinda mages tracked and scryed.
Sinda and Cardy economies were buzzing due to the large gains in Angmar and Mirkwood, so 20k gold was sent to North Gondor t19 and 20k to Arthedain t20. The Noldo seemed to hold every artefact I located, so i was quite happy that the FP trinket hunting was going very well.
I could see from the start that my FP neighbours were experienced and making good progress. Rhudaur had a tough time and I thought his coup against Dunland was well carried out and worth a shot. Overall it was an enjoyable game, thanks to my allies and the DS for a good learning experience.
Paul
