Recovering from catastrophic defeats

[Makus]

So anyone have one of those turns (or series of turns) that just seem to crush their campaign? Lose a massive stack, great general dies needlessly, best city taken without a fight?

I just had a series of unfortunate turns in my gondor (vh/vh) campaign. All was going swell. Good economy, building a strong military, moving my best generals around in a plan to blitz minas ithil, the black gate, and some ithilien lands.

The boom. HUGE stack seizes Cair Andros (2 full mordor stacks, one led by witch-king), home of 1/2 my army and my military center. I lose boromir (NOOOO!!!) but kill the witch-king. Barely hold west osgiliath with faramir, destroying much of my army's remnant. Then, an invasion on Bree completely screws me over, when a stack from Harad washed up near dol amroth (my back-up capital), abandons the invasion and besieges it, and mordor does the same with a stack...on minas tirith.

In about 3-4 turns, I went from planning an invasion that would cripple mordor, to being left with some small towns and militia with the daunting task or reconquering much of Gondor. It is kinda cool. I plan on sailing Faramir alongside my "elite-corps) from osgiliath (theres no hope in holding it) to retake dol amroth, and hope to find Gondor's former glory.

So thats my (slightly long) story, anyone else have a tale to share?

[jinjo]

that's really nice story, i love tough campaigns

[Minardil]

In one of my really first campaigns as gondor, i was a foolish beginner and i built bothels, leather tanners, blacksmiths and so on in every city, nonstop. I lost a lot of money due to this and couldnt field a good army i only defended east osgiliath and cair andros, the reason was that i thought that the haradrim would be unable to cross the delta of the anduin with their armies. and I concentrated my expansionism to the eats but was unsuccessful. So I built up a strong navy in dol amroth and pelargir and blockaded the haradrim ports, the threat of naval invasions from the south was limited i thought..... . unfortunately the haradrim crossed the delta of the anduin and took linhir with almost no fight (only 1 general was left) and then 1 full stack and 1 half stack marched towards pelargir and Tarnost. Meanwhile Isengard had nearly whiped out rohan but i had no spies there because no money was left for them...... 2 turns later Isengard besieged Erech and then an army reached Pinnath Gelin
I quit the campaign..

[The Holy Pilgrim]

I lost a Dwarven general to a hobbit before... I know, I know. It almost too ridiculous to sound believable, but hobbits are twisted little creatures.

It was a sad day. Especially since that general was my King.

Word of advice for any player, be they n00b or veteran: Don't mess with a hobbit. He will shank you and take your food. So not only are you dead, but starving as well.

[Russian Gondor]

My story: Save -> Defeat -> Load -> Win!

[Maiden_Ante]

I played the Silvan Elves last time, the only serious threat being Harad. As we all know, those crazy squashbucklers have their mûmakils and so, when that earlier mentioned mega-stack appeared, I started building armies consisting of only ballistas, catapults and close combat soldiers, just trying to bring down as many Death Elephants of Doom as possible. Then, when having taken away their biggest advantage for plain-field battles - I attacked with the typical type of armies. Most of the time I just end those campaigns though.