Campaign Reports

[CountMRVHS]

In my last Dwarven campaign, I think I started the war with Adunabar... I may have been too slow, and let them take Sarnford before I could. At any rate, a field battle vs an army that contained trolls was a catastrophic loss for me, setting back production in the west by years if not decades. I lost my catapults, as well as several higher-tier Dwarven units, pretty much entirely due to the trolls (and the swarming Orcs didn't help either).

I am curious to see whether it's possible to get protectorates as the Dwarves. I guess it should be, since you had success as the Elves. I think the difficulty would be that you can't really quickly assemble large stacks to overwhelm the enemy, like you can with Dale or Harad. Instead, you assemble small - but super-effective - stacks that then tend to get bogged down in enemy territory trying to prevent settlements from rioting. And then you get besieged, over & over.

Well, that could be because in my last campaign, my early moves in the east were to severely damage North Rhun and then take Raichost. Rhun kept on sending their armies against me, and I was pretty isolated. Also, I didn't quite know the diplomatic tricks I know now, such as gifting provinces to allies, forestalling wars, etc.

Also, I recall having a hard time with finances once I started going to war. I think a lot of that income is trade-based, so once Narag-zigil gets surrounded by Rhun and you're no longer trading... that's a lot of income loss. And then you have to maintain ever-larger armies against your enemies, which is expensive of course. It's doable - and again, I probably made lots of mistakes in my last campaign.

[webba84]

In the dwarves campaign Dale should definitely be your preferred trading partner and strategic settlement recipient - remember that we switched things round so that Dale is the passive faction (in permanent alliance with you).

[Wambat]

My hope is that extensive use of catapults, ballista, and forts, will allow me to hold my own in Eriador. I am banking quite a bit on Adunabar not attacking me until both RK and Tharbad are no longer a threat in that area, but that may be wishful thinking.

In the dwarves campaign Dale should definitely be your preferred trading partner and strategic settlement recipient - remember that we switched things round so that Dale is the passive faction (in permanent alliance with you).

As for gifting settlements, I really much prefer using protectorates for that since it is often necessary to gift substantial amounts of mirian when giving settlements, and I want to make sure I get most of that money back. Moreover, I may want to buy back settlements as my ability to expand increases. I am liking how things are progressing with Rhovanion, with Dorwinion doing all the work of wearing down their troop reserves, while I wear down their cash reserves; I think there is a good chance I will be able to make Rhovanion a protectorate. Rhovanion is in an excellent position to provide buffers against Adunabar, Rhun and the Beornings. Being WotW, they can also be relied upon to hold the northern forts once I have them converted.


Of course, now that it is in writing I have, no doubt, jinxed it.


So far I have only fought two real battles (not just throwing Dorwinion's sieges): both small Rhovanion forces (3 or 4 units) pounced upon by my full stack of Dwarves and mercenaries hanging out near Narag-zigil. I have not been happy with the number of casualties I have taken in these one-sided engagements; mostly because the Elves would have had zero.


I have noticed an interesting detail that I will have to add to the diplomacy guide at some point: AI factions seem willing to give a lot more money in exchange for a promise to attack a faction you are not yet at war with. At least twice as much, it seems, and often much more. Another incentive to accept ceasefires and use your alliances to get you into battles.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

I dunno how to do the fancypants "originally posted" thing, but I find it interesting that elven units seem to be more powerful than those of the dwarves- from the books I always had the impression that the dwarves were considered to be better warriors, notably from the decision reached before the falls of Rauros that Gimli would continue with the Fellowship while Legolas would not. I specifically remember that Tolkien would later deride those who dismissed Legolas as a "girly" archer, explaining that he was a stalwart warrior and his wounding of the fellbeast was no mean feat- so why would Legolas, whose stealthiness would have been invaluable for the journey into Mordor, have been considered less worthy than Gimli unless Gimli was, as a dwarf, naturally more warlike? Obviously, the Noldor of the first age would be far more powerful- yet I would imagine that doughty warriors from Erebor clad in mithril would be more than a match for the scattered rangers of Thranduil, at least when fighting outside their woodland home.

[CountMRVHS]

I couldn't find the reference about Legolas not going with Frodo; what I did find was that Legolas wanted to go to Minas Tirith, and Gimli - though he preferred heading for MT - was willing to follow Frodo straight to Mordor. And then Aragorn said some stuff, and something about how Sam, Gimli, and he should accompany Frodo, and the rest should head for MT "if Legolas is not willing to leave us".

But your larger point is a good one. I haven't done any Dwarf vs Elf battles, myself. The trick would seem to be that many Elven units have quite deadly bows, and the Dwarves have difficulty closing with them. I'd be curious how Dwarves would do against the more melee-oriented Elven troops: Threshold Troops, Elven Swords.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Ah, so that's what it was. Oh well, I thought that the decision was Aragorn's when it was in fact Legolas'. But that brings up an interesting point, namely the balance of ranged units. I know that, for example, in Age of Empires II ranged units are generally the go-to units because, in the infantry>cavalry>archers>infantry world, archers have the advantage because they're able to inflict damage without necessarily taking any themselves. I feel like vanilla RTW reacted to this by making archers comparatively weak- even medium-tier Roman infantry can take on most archers from other factions with ease. But I was thinking more with regard to how they fare against other factions besides each other- as Wambat noted above, Dwarves will take damage where elves would not. Or something. Mithril armor isn't quite as powerful as it should be, methinks, but then I can't see how to rebalance it without making it terribly overpowered.

[CountMRVHS]

I just fought some Dwarves in my Dorwinion campaign. They started moving onto my territory after I attacked Dale - it's rather terrifying to see the 'passive' Dwarves suddenly moving towards you!

I sent a full stack against around 5 Dwarven units. I had a good mix: 4 Dorwinion Watch and 4 Halberdiers (both armor piercing), 2 Scouts (for cav charges), a couple Axemen, 2 Foresters (for AP javs), and some archers & slingers (which may have gotten a handful of kills).

The Dwarves had a FM general, a full Dwarves of the Iron Hills unit, another DotIH unit that was under-strength (around 10 Dwarves), a unit of Dwarven Axethrowers, a unit of under-strength Warhammers... and that was it.

The Dwarves hung around in the woods, which I'm sure made things tougher. But still, even though I won that fight, it felt really tense. They absolutely wrecked my Dorwinion Watch, and chewed up my Halberdiers pretty badly. I was able to kill the FM by surrounding him with 2-3 units of Halbs, then repeat charges from the Scouts until he routed. (And I mean *repeat* charges - I cycled them through, one at a time, until both units were down from their original 48 men to under 10 each.)

Meanwhile in Narag-zigil the Dwarves have started making Wain Bows...

I haven't fought the Elves in campaign very much. But I think the difference, from the perspective of a Mannish faction, is probably not going to be too large - both factions are extremely tough!

[Wambat]

A deciding factor in how tough the Elves are when compared with Dwarves is that the Elves all have at least two hit points. This means, with the Elves, not only does a hit have to land successfully twice, but on the same soldier. This advantage is even more pronounced against ranged attacks where hits are spread out throughout the entire unit rather than concentrated on a front line. To simulate that kind of resilience using only armor, and not hit points, would require a truly ridiculous armor rating. Also, while the Dwarves do have some excellent "armor/toughness" this attribute is cut in half by armor piercing weapons, which are surprisingly common in this mod. Then, of course, tactically the slow Dwarves find it very hard to press an advantage.

Lore wise, it is absolutely true that the Dwarves are capable to kicking some Elven ass. Though, as I recall, they did so in caverns that they (the Dwarves) had helped build. I think the current balance is just about right, where the Dwarves are very well suited to specific kinds of engagement, but can suffer large casualties against things like the huge Orc stacks.

In the example CountMRVHS gave, he might have had better success by first hiding all his units save one cavalry and led the Dwarves around the battle-map until they were exhausted.

I dunno how to do the fancypants "originally posted" thing.

I am not positive this is what you are referring to, but there is a "Reply With Quote" button at the bottom right of each post. That might help.

In my campaign news: I have taken Lune, but the damn Elves bribed Sarnford just a turn before my troops could get there. I have never had so much ill-luck with "passive" factions taking provinces I had my eye on. Still, this probably ensures I will have a peaceful Lindon for most of the campaign.

I am still working on wearing down Rhovanion. They have allied with Rhun, and this is probably causing them to hold out longer than they otherwise would. Rhovanion is also allied with North Rhun, so I am hoping Rhun and North Rhun will attack each other and cause Rhovanion to drop it's alliance with Rhun. I have enough units of mercenary horsemen in Downion to block both fords and completely block the path to Iar Helcar, so none of the provinces of Dowinion need fear attack. I am hoping this will encourage the two Rhuns to attack each other. I don't know what is stopping them. They are not allied with each other, and Rhun has a big-ass stack in North Rhun's territory.

Elsewhere, most factions are doing a decent job holding their own. Tharbad attacked Adunabar; nice display of balls; but Adunabar seems to have dusted them off their shoulder with little trouble. RK still holds Annuminas, but, I think, only because Adunabar is still preoccupied consolidating it's hold on the rest of Eriador.

Dunland, RK and Rohan seem pretty balanced at the Isen, but I expect Dunland will lose there eventually.

RK is doing well against Adunabar in the south, though not steamrolling, and RK has just taken Emyn Arnen.

More updates to come.

[CountMRVHS]

Well, I just started a Dwarf campaign today. If we can't do a multiplayer campaign, we can at least compare notes

My goals are:

1. Expand into some Mannish territory and get going on Hirelings
2. Consolidate the northern regions to grab the 2 VCs and make it easier to reinforce my lands
3. Ultimately, expand into Rhun, Khand, Far Harad, and Harad to acquire high-value trade goods and exotic Hirelings

I played around 20 turns I think.

Diplomatically, I got trade rights from neighbors and made a couple of alliances. No swapping of map info. I sold trade rights for a few thousand a pop in most cases. With the Elves, I got an Alliance and Military Access by turn 2 or 3. Going on Wambat's advice about Military Access being easier to acquire earlier on, I did this procedure: In the first negotiation, offered Alliance, Trade Rights, and 1,000 mirian. When that was accepted, I immediately offered to exchange Military Access - and to my surprise, the Elves agreed. I tried a similar process with the RK several turns later, but while they went for the Alliance they didn't agree to Military Access.

I quickly used my new agreement with the Elves to send some troops from Moria through Lorien toward Andlang. In a past campaign, the Elves stubbornly blocked the path, and I wasn't able to get Military Access from them (if that would have helped). This time, though, the path was clear.

I took Andlang, Sarnford, and Lune pretty quickly with minimal troops. In the northeast, I spent some turns assembling a 15-unit army to send to Orodengrin to take it from the Orcs. Currently I'm sitting at 11 provinces.

I did a bit of building, and my finances are coming along fairly well. My policy as always in DoM was to put all taxes to Low, and to remove bad governors (defined by me as Poor or lower and Unintelligent). Recently I was making around 9k per turn. I have been prioritizing the settlements with governors (which include Gunduthorin, the Iron Hills, and Narag-zigil, as well as the Mannish settlements I took), so haven't done a ton of building in Moria, Erebor, or the Ered Luin.

In this campaign, Dorwinion seems likely to be an instigator. They took Garth and Gaurgaul from North Rhun, and then signed a peace agreement. Now their armies are marching in Narag-zigil territory. I've kept my units (just the FM and 2 Hirelings) inside the city, so it must be a fairly tempting target for the AI. Well, if they attack, that's fine - I'll be in a decent position to take Belegant and Rathwin, and possibly see about making them a protectorate.

On the other hand, I'd prefer to use my Orodengrin army to take Gundabad, so I don't have to worry about another faction getting there first.

Further west, Adunabar seems to be crumpling. Tharbad just took Threeways, and the RK took Fornost and has been exploring near Lastbridge. Very interesting that our campaigns are turning out different that way! Adunabar is losing in the South, too - being pushed back by the RK and attacked by Rhun.

[Wambat]

Given my tendency to ignore VCs, I expect you will get your victory video before I do; even if I could pull off 20 turns in one day (I expect to do between 2 and 5 today). I am interested to see an expansion route through the east side of the map for a faction as slow on the move as the Dwarves. I found, in my Elven campaign, that I got too bogged down fighting all the WotW factions. I seem to be doing much better making friends with my neighbors in my Dwarven campaign.

P.S.: It would probably be a good idea to place one of your units on the ford(s) of Nimrodel (those otherwise useless Woodmen Axes would be a good choice) to prevent the Elves blocking that path.

[Tulkasthevaliant]

I think the biggest lesson that my Dwarven campaign taught me is that it's best to prioritize one area of the map and stick with it. By my campaign's end, I had something like seven different regions that didn't share a border, so I had like six cities being constantly besieged by every single faction besides the elves. And that's something that's different between the FATW map and the vanilla RTW map- Middle-Earth just feels more open. While on the vanilla map it was really only the area around Egypt that was truly borderless, FATW is structured around regions that, despite a few extreme chokepoints such as Minas Anor, feel much more open and devoid of natural defenses.

[CountMRVHS]

That's true - in the RTW map you had the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Black Sea; there were a few mountain ranges and rivers. In FATW, while there are some really defining choke points and rivers/mountains, there are also a fair amount of open spaces, especially in the East.


Well, my campaign is currently around FO 390 I think. The Beornings attacked me in Andlang, but I saw them off, and then diverted my main army (which was north of the Grey Mountains, heading for Gundabad) south into the Anduin Vale. Fought a battle at the ford south of Framsburg and beat the Beornings again, then brought that army straight down to Moria for retraining.

My plan at that point was to take Oldford, Grimhold, and Holt from the Beornings - to achieve another goal: the capture of the Old Dwarf Road! - but the Beornings wanted a ceasefire, so I got 5k from them and trade rights, and we're at peace again. I think war will break out again soonish; the Beornings are currently besieging the High Pass Stronghold, so maybe when that falls they'll attack me.

I took Gundabad and am currently building the restored Assembly there.

No other settlement gains, apart from an Orc-hold north of the Grey Mountains (capture of which allows me to march from the Anduin to Erebor without losing supplies, since it's my territory). I made moves toward Tirn-fervain (N of Annuminas, held by Adunabar), but there was a large army there that contained Trolls and Uruks, and the RK refused to assist me in any of the battles.

Adunabar has lost all of Mordor and continues to lose in the North. But Tharbad and the RK are now at war too, so that will at least buy Adun. some time. I'm a little concerned that the RK will turn on me if they destroy Tharbad - which seems likely, since Rohan has almost destroyed Dunland and will assist in attacking Tharbad, I'd guess.

Still building up settlements, including the initial Dwarven ones. I'm now able to train Hirelings in 3 towns (Lune, Sarnford, Andlang). No Wain Bows yet, but soon.

Elsewhere, Rhovanion made a good showing (with no aggressive Dale to deal with); they took Lith morchant, Braig Estolad and even Erebost from Rhun - but Rhun is beating them back. Dorwinion has got North Rhun down to 2 settlements: Fornhud and Gwaithring. I'm curious how the NR horde will behave.

In the South, Khand has destroyed Far Harad and took a settlement from Harad (Caras Agar), but now Khand & Harad are at peace. Harad is destroying Harondor and fighting the RK, sending armies into Ithilien.

Seeing that, I figured it's time to get moving if I want to take land in the South. My main army is now moving back toward Erebor. I think I'll take a couple of stacks, with 3 FMs if I can get them - I'll want to pick up mercs along the way, and I'll need a field army if I don't want my new possessions to just be under siege all the time. These won't be *full* stacks, but maybe 2 1/2 or 2/3 stacks will be sufficient. Get a Wain Bow or 2 to make things easier. A couple units of catapults too.

So in the South, my targets could be Harad (Ivory) or Khand (Incense). Of the 2, Harad is probably more dangerous, what with all their javelins and archers. But for that reason, it might be better to attack them - prevent them from getting too huge. I'll see if I can get military access from Rhun & Khand, and march down east of Mordor, then west to take Ur - the river crossing nearby might be helpful in defending my new possession. Take Caranbad too - it's a Chief City, stone-walled; should be lots of plunder.

[Wambat]

In the event, I got through 3 turns. Now on turn 30.


Aagh, my aching neck! I can't stand it, I just can't stand it! I try so hard to play a "perfect" game and I overlook something so stupid. I just reported that the Elves had bribed Sarnford just before I could reach it. Well, I imagined they had bribed it since I could not see how else they could have acquired it; yet, they did not get a stack of garrison units along with their bribe; as I always do; so who knows what really happened there?


Regardless, I saw that Sarnford was un-garrisoned, but thought "Hey; nobody messes with the Elves. Right?". Wrong. I stupidly send my whole stack back toward Lune, when all I needed to do was send one of my units to block the Sarn-ford, and now Adunabar has claimed Sarnford. Crap!


Hollowbold is highly vulnerable now. Without military access to the Shire I cannot even sneak up on Sarnford; it would take three turns for my troops to get across the province. And, I DON"T want to be at war with Adunabar yet!


The only saving grace is that, currently, Adunbar seems preoccupied with Tharbad, but the only way that will turn to my advantage is if Tharbad takes Threeways, and right now it seems more likely that Adunabar will take Tharbad. Just bad, all the way around, and all I needed to do was put one unit on the ford. Farc me!


Well, in other news: Rhovanion is being a stubborn SOB. Refusing to become my protectorate no matter how much I want them to. Iâth-in-Rhaw is under siege with only about 10 soldiers defending. Rhovanost is under siege with 6 units defending, but a full stack just outside the city. I have to be careful since Rhovanion is down to one FM, the king, and he is stationed at Rhovanost. If Rhovanion is ever going to accept protectorate status, I need to destroy that stack in the field without getting their King killed.


I can do this by besieging Rhovanost from one angle (only need one unit to do the siege) and attacking the stack in the field with the rest of my troops, being careful to ensure my besieging stack is not pulled into the battle along with the garrison.


It is a frustrating battle; close to half the enemy force escaping and losing over 50 Dwarves. A large proportion of my losses being suffered chasing down units in rout. It was not my archers, who were themselves running and had "fire at will" turned off in any case. The fleeing soldiers seemed to be taking down my soldiers as they were killed, rather like mini-Trolls. I don't understand it, and am not at all happy with it. Still, I should be able to finish them off next turn. Then, maybe, Rhovanion will give up and accept the inevitable.


Elsewhere: Adunabar is really sucking at not getting gobbled up by RK in the south. The only thing keeping RK from doing the same in Dunland seems to be their inability to expand in that direction due to revolts. Dunland is putting up a fight, but with Rohan's attention no longer split between multiple fronts I doubt they will last much longer.


South of the Poros everybody seems to be holding their own. This might change if Harondor decides to attack Emyn Arnen. The way RK is going, I don't think they will have any trouble plowing through Harondor, releasing the pressure on Harad and unleashing the Southron hordes upon Gondor.


Dorwinion, Rhun and North Rhun are all static around the Sea of Rhun. I am not sure how good or bad that is for me. I don't want Rhun sending stacks at Narag-zigil. Ideally, Rhun and North Rhun would come to blows and Rhovanion would side with North Rhun. More likely, Rhun and Dwowinion will go to war and that, I think, will be all bad for me.


Here's hoping my next report includes a protectorate. :-)

[Highland Laddie]

Here a quick rundown of my Dwarven Campaign (recommended settings):

After doing several campaigns as Elves, I was amazed how much easier it is to accumulate wealth as the Dwarves. My first moves were to disband most of my forces in Erebor and Dwarrowdelf - less upkeep and more or less secure borders anyways.

I'm currently about 30 turns in. I immediately gained Alliance with Dorwinion, which effectively helped guarantee their friendly relations with Dale, and sent them off to attack North Rhun. I managed a few turns later to ally with Rhun, which also helped keep them also from attacking Dorwinion and focused on North Rhun as well.

West of the mountains, I grabbed Lune fairly early and have slowly been developing it. Otherwise, I had wanted to make Hollowbold my primary military recruitment center there, and started making stacks of Dwarven Shieldbreakers with a Catapault and some Eriador Archer mercs in support. I planned to use this force to help the RK beat back Adunabar, who was slowly beating back both RK and Tharbad, but was unable to get any Military Access from the Elves, Shire, or RK, so I planned to take Sarnford and go that route instead. However, just as I took Sarnford, Adunabar and RK signed a Ceasefire.

So, now I'm just sitting around developing my provinces and making fat stacks of mirian in the process waiting for my big breakout moment.

As for Narag-Zigil - how do I start making Wain Bows? Does it have to be turned to a mannish province first, or does it just need to go to highest tier development?

[CountMRVHS]

You'll get the Wain Bows at the highest tier Military Development building, which I believe requires a Chamber of Lore first. (Check the building browser to be sure) Definitely don't convert it to Mannish if you want the Wain Bows!


Living the dream:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I managed to get military access from both Rhun and Khand, and assembled a stack with 2 FMs, which I later split to recruit mercenaries. This stack got most of the cav mercs and Wain Bows; the other got more Dwarven units and Catapults.

I would have had a third FM, but he was literally stuck in Erebor by 3 Dale stacks who were all crowded around, blocking the roads and ford. Very frustrating - I had to disband around 8 units of Dwarves there. I guess good policy to prevent that might be to just sit a few of your own units on those choke points.

Harad continued to do very well, storming Ithilien and taking Minas Anor and Ost-in-Agorlad before Rohan and the RK could mount a counteroffensive. On the eastern flank of the Empire, I brought my stacks down to Khand's capital just in time to see off a Haradrian siege army there, and managed to press southwest, take Caras Agar, and gift it to Khand. Harad has meanwhile lost several other settlements in the area to rebellion. Unfortunately, Khand was recently attacked by Rhun, who has destroyed Rhovanion and is in the process of doing the same to Dorwinion. (I dropped my alliance with Rhun as I want to keep gifting settlements to Khand in the Harad region... hopefully I can keep them alive.)

One of my armies is now marching on Caranbad. I'll try to take that, hold it, and develop it as my base for taking the ivory and incense provinces that border it.

Meanwhile, I have a third army marching south through Rhun and Khand. Some more Dwarven units, Wain Bows, and mercs, with 2 more FMs leading.

I'm undecided currently what to do about Rhun. Rhun is allied with most of my allies (RK, Rohan, North Rhun, etc), so if they attack me first, I'll probably lose all of those, and my FL's Authority will drop. On the other hand, if I attack Rhun preemptively, I'll lose the trade income that much sooner. Either way, losing trade with Rhun would probably be a disaster. I'm currently making around 8k per turn, but I'm sure a lot of that is due to trade from Narag-zigil, which is at this point almost entirely surrounded by Rhun.

Best case scenario would be for the RK to war with Rhun and thus give Rhun something else to do rather than get huge conquering Khand, but with Harad driving a wedge up the Anduin I don't see that happening.

And as for the South, my hope is to quickly take cities, and then see about coming to terms with Harad (ceasefire... they *might* go for it) and/or settling Khand at my back as a safe trade partner. Harad is rather dangerous with all their jav-equipped swordsmen. I'm not entirely sure what Hirelings I'll be able to train down here either.... But man, Dwarven catapults are incredibly effective!

[webba84]

I'd say try to pay the RK into going to war with Rhun.

[Wambat]

Just 2 turns. Now on turn 32. (I think Tulkas can appreciate how bad an LPer I would be.)


Tharbad is now besieging Threeways again, and RK has taken Fornost. Adunabar may have shot it's wad, and if so I will definitely be grabbing Sarnford from them before Tharbad.


I can tell that Rhovanion is going to be a pain in the butt, and I am sure it is all because of their alliance Rhun. I was able to eliminate what remained of Rhovanion's field army, but they continue to reject protectorate status. I may have to attack Rhovanost several times to wear down their numbers and convince them they have no hope.


Then again, failing to take the city might do more damage to my negotiations than good. Maybe I just need to stop being so impatient. It took me ten game years after getting Dale down to two provinces to get them to become a protectorate in my Elven campaign. I just want to go grab Gundabad, and I cannot do that while I have all my troops trying to put pressure on Rhovanion.


I just watched Tulkas's Dwarven campaign #62 and it made me realize I could probably take Gundabad with as few as three infantry and a Catapult, so maybe I should stop whining and just take it.


I am going to wait until I can gab Sarnford and it is well pacified before trying to take the other northern forts.


@Highland Laddie: Don't forget that every province bordering Narag-zigil is part of a different mercenary recruitment zone. It is a good idea to check them frequently for mercs to fill out your armies while your recruitment centers concentrate on your game changers; like Wain-Bows and Catapults.

[CountMRVHS]

I'd say try to pay the RK into going to war with Rhun.

Hmm, I've never done that before. Will have to try!

As it is now, though, Rhun has already gone to war with me, as soon as Dorwinion was dead.

But, things are progressing very well in the south! I took Caranbad, and when Harad approached with a ceasefire offer I counter-demanded Ur, which they just gave me. I was rather shocked.

The problem was unrest, so now Ur is my capital. (Caranbad was perfectly happy, even with my capital as far away as Gundabad, but I had exterminated Caranbad.)

I had to go to war with Harad again, since they kept attacking Khand, and so now I've added Rad Harnen to my territories there.

The nice thing about attacking Harad as the Dwarves is that there's some synergy between the trade buildings both factions can make. Harad makes caravan stops, etc; those correspond to the Waypost line of buildings that Dwarves can build. So that means, if Harad has built enough of the caravan-line buildings, I can train all my Hirelings as soon as I build Outland Dominion.

The other nice thing is, Caranbad, Ur, and Rad Harnen all offer different Hireling types: In Caranbad, it's Swerting Skirmishers; in Ur it's Southron Spears, and eventually in Rad Harnen I'll get Harondor Riders - my first trainable cavalry!

So far Harad has been very shy about attacking my towns. They seem *really* to not want to fight me, despite having lots of troops that could seriously damage me. I think my next step needs to be to address that - probably by sacking my way to Umbar.

Not sure if I can save Khand. I've given them Parchereb and Caras Agar, and I'll get them Anorlith if I have to, but Rhun is occupying all of their homelands and could just keep pushing. Maybe if I settle Khand further west, or in Harondor, I can keep them alive. I expect Rhun will have difficulty holding territories in Harad, so I'm not *too* worried about them attacking me here...

15 settlements - 10 more to go. I have my eye on 3 in particular, all in Harad; it'd also be nice to own Umbar, for kicks (and a bit of sea trade for once).

I am going to wait until I can gab Sarnford and it is well pacified before trying to take the other northern forts.

That's a good plan - I just lost the fort between Gundabad & Orodengrin. I was in the process of cleansing it when I took Ur and decided it was more important to keep peace in the south than worry about one distant orc-hold.

@Highland Laddie: Don't forget that every province bordering Narag-zigil is part of a different mercenary recruitment zone. It is a good idea to check them frequently for mercs to fill out your armies while your recruitment centers concentrate on your game changers; like Wain-Bows and Catapults.

Also good advice. I always forget this!

[Wambat]

Okay. A real marathon session this time: a full 10 turns, so be ready for big changes.


I bit of advice; taking a Dwarven mountain hold with a catapult: not a good idea. I discovered, to my dismay, that mountains cannot be broken by thrown rocks. I should have known. I also feared that the gate might foil attempts to break through with rocks, and I think I would have been right, but near the last of my ammo a shot "missed" the gate towers and hit the actual gate, busting it open.


I had four units of fully upgraded Axethrowers to throw at the single unit of Orc Champions defending the settlement and they still managed to take out 14 of my Dwarves. So, yeah, Dwarves just do not come close to Elves in hand-to-hand anymore.


My impatience won out and I spent several turns assaulting Rhovanost to wear down their garrison until just their King and one other unit remained. I expect I will have to keep these two Rhovanion settlements besieged indefinitely now. While I have utterly denuded them of military strength, I have also been seriously draining my cash reserves due to diminished diplomatic income (nothing to attack at the moment) and the mobilization of the entire population of Erebor. Even if I do concentrate enough troops on Rhovanion's territory, I no longer have enough cash to seal the deal. I also do not think there is any chance of pulling off the protectorate deal so long as Rhovanion is still allied with Rhun.


So long as Rhovanion exists, I think it will deter the other factions in the area from taking any actions, but it also prevents me from expanding in that area. Currently it just isn't feasible for me to send my troops to assist in operations in Eriador. What I may have to do is leave minimal stacks to continue the siege of Rhovanion while the bulk of my units go ahead and clear out the Orc holds in the north. It seems like the only positive action left to me.


If anyone wants to know what I will certainly be doing come my next report, just take note of the things I state I certainly do not want to do in the previous report. If anyone here remembers Martin Short's "Pure Luck (1991)"; it seems this sort of thing really exists.


Adunabar has folded up precipitously, getting unceremoniously kicked out of Mordor by RK, Rhun and Khand simultaneously. I keep thinking the writing is on the wall for Adunabar in Eriador, yet Adunabar keeps coming back. Still, I don't think it can last forever. RK has taken Fornost, and both Threeways and Bree are besieged frequently by Tharbad and RK respectively. Curiously, Adunabar seems to be keeping the bulk of their troops at Sarnford; probably because they know I want it. I decided to pay the Shire 10k to get military access (the first time I have gotten military access from the Shire in a campaign), so that I can get my troops in striking distance of Sarnford safely, but I am stuck waiting for Threeways to fall, and I am afraid the Shire is going to get tired of my loitering troops before long.


The Elves have been doing some interesting things. At one point they had an army headed to Sarnford through Adunabar's land, and I got excited, but they headed back after a turn. The Elves seemed to have bribed Mid-deeping from Adunabar; if that is what is happening; but it was reoccupied by Adunabar the next turn due to the Elves having no garrison (I wonder if this is not settlements "defecting" to the Elves; maybe the loyalty mechanic? That they get converted with no garrison is weird.)


I would like to be able to grab Lathron from Adunabar to get that wonder under my belt. If, once Adunabar loses Threeways, I can send a force through to Lathron quickly enough; then I would have only one border with Adunabar at Tirn-fervain (assuming I can take Sarnford). I could probably then get a ceasefire from them; though I may not want to do that since it might spoil my relations with the other WotW factions. I am not interested in taking coastal provinces in Eriador until their ports have been developed by another faction. I am also not keen on RK getting too many provinces in Eriador given how powerful they have already become in the south. Once I am at war with Adunabar I might just use that to start sabotaging RK's progress in Eriador.


Speaking of the south: Harad has lost the eastern half of its empire, and has made zero progress expanding, despite having plenty of troops and a large stack next to Harlorn; currently an un-walled RK settlement. Harondor, Far Harad and Khand are all quite healthy, having taken their own chunks of Harad (and Adunabar in the case of Khand).


Dunland is doing surprisingly well pumping out enough units to hold back Rohan at the Isen.


One of the things I have noticed is that a Dwarven settlement with sufficient construction discounts can get it's construction costs down to 1 mirian, which makes me think this might be a way to make some extra money by repeatedly destroying and constructing projects. This would also help to generate more construction oriented ancillaries.

[CountMRVHS]

1 mirian!? I've never seen that, and I thought I went a little crazy with construction upgrades in my last campaign. The lowest cost I ever saw was 1,000-2,000, I think.

As for the zero-garrison settlements, I think that's normal for the Elves/Dwarves when they bribe a settlement.