your most epic campaign/battle?

[eugenioso]

my most epic campaign definitely has to be as the silvan elves: it was turn 100ish and the gundabad orcs, OOTMM and isengard had been wiped out, as well as me securing all their lands, including dol guldur. seeing the scale of things, i decided against an attack on Rhun and even had to truce the dwarves after a random war declaration for Durin's halls (which right after it was sieged i gave right back to them along with an alliance treaty), so i gathered my forces. all my generals were intact, so after 10 turns of retraining, building and nearly going bankrupt, 3 full elven hosts set south, with the purpose of destroying mordor. first fell the black gate, then the attrition war began, having to wipe out several spawning stacks and the constant garrison scripts. Barad dur fell easily enough, despite suffering large losses to olog hai trolls, and by the time Nurnen fell in the south i was down to half a stack, and half those numbers were from my 6 generals. Mordor didnt fall, unfortunately, since they still had a settlement far to the right, but they were well dead and done.

thats my most epic campaign so far. any epic ones or battles?

[Salah-ad-deen]

One of my best battles recently was with Mordor. Gondor attacked with a full stack of troops ranging from militia to normal Gondor soldiers. (Tier two I think) they had around 2700 men, while I had about 2100 orcs. My troops where scouts, Orc raiders and orc bands. I was defending Cair Andros and I had never fought here before, I never knew really where to position my troops. I placed my archers on the hill and my infantry in front of them. I didn't realize how easy it would be, the archers annihilated a lot of their soldiers before my infantry went in. Also the Witch King's power helped in causing a rout. By the time the battle was over the whole Gondorian army was either dead or captured and I only lost about 200-300 men.

[Coldfire88]

One of my best battles recently was with Mordor. Gondor attacked with a full stack of troops ranging from militia to normal Gondor soldiers. (Tier two I think) they had around 2700 men, while I had about 2100 orcs. My troops where scouts, Orc raiders and orc bands. I was defending Cair Andros and I had never fought here before, I never knew really where to position my troops. I placed my archers on the hill and my infantry in front of them. I didn't realize how easy it would be, the archers annihilated a lot of their soldiers before my infantry went in. Also the Witch King's power helped in causing a rout. By the time the battle was over the whole Gondorian army was either dead or captured and I only lost about 200-300 men.

My first battle in cair andros, I was Gondor with an army of 2000, mostly militia, attacked by a full stack of 3500-4000, dont remember exactly. I was ofcourse losing slowly but then in the craziness their general died and they routed, but since this was an island they couldnt run, so I went out and finished them, and I enjoyed killing every one of them.

[Mhaedros]

Cair Andros is one of the most fun settlements to play

Once I was Gondor and had Faramir with some 400 men garrisoned there, when the Witch King, another Nazgul and some 3000 men attacked me. I deployed Faramir and my other Ranger unit outside the walls to kill some orcs before they came close. My only Cavalry Militia unit I sent out the back gate, to flank the enemy and take out archer units. I had one Pelargir Marine unit, one Lossarnach Axemen and some Gondor Militias. These I placed just behind Faramir, so they'd be ready if the orcs went offensive. This didn't happen though, so I sent the AoR's and one GM forth, while the two remaining GM's outflanked the enemy. At the same time I brought the cavalry in and they took the enemy from behind. At this point most of the orcs started routing, but the WK and the other Nazgul were still killing my men. I withdrew everyone except the missile units until all arrows were gone, and they I charged out again and killed them both. At this point the battle was won. 156 losses versus 3000ish

[Arǭmēz]

One Campaign I played was with Gondor...
I had conquered all the lands of Harad , Ithilien, Mordor (leaving only DolGuldur and the surround land to them), and had started attacking Rhun...
The OotMM and OoG were destroyed by Eriador, High Elves and Dwarves, Lorien had expanded south over Fangorn while Dale was also attacking Rhun... Dunland was attacked by Eriador and HE, while Isengard was crumbling by Rohan Lorien and two armies I had sent... somewhere there i stopped as it had become boring... (evil factions had about 20 region in total)

[kostas84]

1 Black Numenorian Bodyguard Unit, controlled by me, fighting half a stack of rebels for the settlement below Emyn Arnen, i took 20 out of 36 losses and i killed like 1300 on MoS and huge unit size.

[Ngugi]

My still best campaign ever was as Eriador.
Mordor and Isengard ended up in war after Rohan had been destroyed so created a tripple alliance between me, Gondor and Isengard against the hordes of the Dark Lord.

Denethor liberating the conquered Gondor, Saruman (the istari doing what he's supposed to done from the beginning) using his Uruk-hai to fight fire with fire and me with Gandalf as my prime commander supporting each on a grand push eastward that became epic beyond any other campaigns I've played.


Single greatest battle were actually three and I concur with Mhaedros on Cair Andros here.
Playing Gondor I had a great army that was besiged three times in a row, each by massive multiple Mordor armies which led to two heroic victories and a last, but expensivly given, defeat. At that time each unit was so beloved to me that their struggle and last stand feelt worty of a bards epic tale

[DrDragun]

My best campaign was the one time I won on OotMM on VH/VH, although the dwarves helped me by being belligerent against other good factions.

My best battle, well... what full stack do you fear the most? For me it's either Dwarves or Elves, and I roasted a full stack of each one at Imladris playing as Mordor. Thankfully I had Sauron, 3 Nazgul, 4-5 Olog-Hai, 4 catapults and a bunch of Uruks in my group.

[Maiar93]

It'll have to be this one campaign I had as Rhun on vanilla.

Mordor was utterly in ruins, chunks of its territory conquered by Gondor and the Silvan Elves. I was very astonished and terrified to see that even Harad had turned against Mordor, although it kept fighting another war against Gondor for the control of Osgiliath.

At that point, probably on turn 200, I had crushed Dale and secured the northern border except for Erebor. You probably think I'm slow - well, I am slow. I prefer to boost my economy instead of military.

I had hundreds of thousands of gold, but little armies. Once I heard that Minas Morgul had fallen to Gondor - as per my spies reported - I decided that I needed to do something lest Mordor fall. This began the hugest recruitment process you could imagine. Every town was pumping out swordsmen, halberdiers, cavalry, Flag-rim and archers. I waited twenty turns for these armies to finish - that meant two full rows of units from each city - and gathered all of them to see what I had.

I smiled victoriously. Seven full-stacks.

So then, sending those forces down south, I gathered all I had up north for a final push against the dwarves. This resulted in another stack, close to full, being sent against Erebor. Surely enough, the mighty dwarven mountain fortress fell to my forces. I was left smiling, gazing at my victorious troops cheering on the town center.

Down south, things at first went very well. I destroyed several Gondorian stacks on the field with minimal losses. I moved on and took Cair Andros, both Osgiliaths and Henneth annun. Afterwards I gifted the latter two to mordor, but before that I wheeled on the lightly-garrisoned fortress of Minas Morgul, taking it on the next turn, and gifting it to Mordor alongside the other settlements. I moved against Gondor's heartlands via Cair Andros, where I was surprised to meet no resistance at all. Taking Minas Tirith was very easy, but that I also gifted to Mordor as I had no ambitions on that front. I turned on my next and final enemy.

Harad stood strong in the south. Their cities were nearly as well-developed as mine, their armies fielded the fearsome Mumakil and they even had units of the Serpent Guard, both mounted and dismounted, at their disposal.

Me being me, I didn't much care for strategy, however. I marched each of the seven armies, one of them now reduced into a half-stack after the Gondorian campaign, and directed two armies for each city I encountered.

After roughly a dozen turns, I had taken the northern half of their whole territory. Forces marched from south and were met with blood and steel. Armies clashed along the frontline, but I had more. I simply had more.

Fourty turns was the time it took for me to capture even the last of their settlements. My great army had been reduced into seven badly battered armies, which could barely even be called 'armies' any longer. There wasn't much to do - I merged those with hope of survival, and disbanded the rest. The stacks I had left were moved into the frontal settlements Harad had lost to me, and the building of a great fleet begun in Umbar.

And that's how I became the master of the universe.

[Incomitatus]

I tend to set up a hotseat for myself and play one whole 'side' at a time. Every campaign is suitably epic. In my current campaign, Boromir killed Sauron. Not Boromir's bodyguard unit, though they were there, but Boromir. And Sauron. Mano-a-Corrupt Maiar.

The most epic battle I've fought though was back in the last version. I was playing FRoME and had my large and experienced Ered Luin army on its way to Carn Dum when it was attacked by two Gundabad full stacks from opposite sides. The field had me deployed on a hillside, one orcish army below me and one above. I lost, but it was a massive and long battle, if the army deployed above my position had just been a little bit smaller I could have pulled it off, but alas. Cost them 80+% losses. I was quite... distraught. I still, a year later, wonder if I could have won if I'd done something different. (I really don't like to lose battles!)

[Chulain519]

Aragorn did not find Gollum and once again set out from the wild lands to meet Gandalf in Bree. As Lord of Eriador with aspirations to reunite Arnor he could not afford to leave the lands undefended but knew this was an important mission of the wizard's so had taken only his own bodyguard dressed in grey for company on the road.

It was not long after leaving the fair lands around Rivendell that his luck turned against him and his scouts reported the tell-tale signs of a large goblin war band near at hand. Indeed having marched all day it was clear that he could not avoid them and the only hope was they passed by and leave him to return quickly to his lands and order the re-burgeoning kingdom. Alas luck was not with him and despite trying to avoid combat he found his path was now set for battle.

As the enemy marched towards him his herald reported from the scouts 'bad news my lord; there are hundreds of foul goblins armed with spears and not the usual weakling snaga; these shall prove difficult to engage in the charge. Also their general is descended from Bolg himself and has a bodyguard heavily armed and well able to withstand us. Worst of all they are accompanied by a full troop of trolls and they bay for blood!' Aragorn looked to his small yet doughty company. Perhaps against the 600 goblins they might stand a chance even though they were well armed, but how could they also fight a dozen fast and lethal trolls and hope to survive!? If he quit the battle how would that be perceived by his men and what stories would circulate among his followers; but yet to fight and die what would that prove?

He was Aragorn son of Arathorn and heir of Isuldur; he would not slink away from such a fight; was now the time for a rousing speech about Men of the West; no, perhaps not yet.

He quickly ordered his company forward to engage the trolls as they started to distance themselves from the goblin hordes. As some of the best archers in the kingdom he hoped they would manage to do some damage before having to fight hand-to-hand with the deadly beasts! Keeping their distance and peppering the trolls with arrows, eventually the onslaught started to have an impact. But as Aragorn concentrated on the trolls the goblin hordes moved into a flanking position to cut off any chance of escape.

The trolls came closer and looked set to charge. By this time a few had fallen and Aragorn's company were fast running out of arrows; how would they deal with the goblin spear and heavy troops without anything to soften them before a charge?! Now was the time so Aragorn ordered bows down and lances out and his herald blew the horn for a desperate charge against beasts that could pull a horse in two with their bare paws!

The Grey Company thundered into the trolls and a pitched battle ensued. Aragorn knew he could not afford to let the goblins engage his rear and fought desperately against the weakening trolls. Some of his men lay dead or wounded and still 3 of the trolls were standing and causing devastation but he could see the goblins preparing to charge. He gave the order to break combat and lost more men as the trolls ripped men and horses to pieces as they covered the hasty retreat. In return Aragorn ordered a renewed hail of arrows and the trolls were reduced to 2. The company was winded now and Aragorn ordered a swift ride to a low hill to reform the ranks.

He knew he had to finish off the last of the trolls and then find a way to out-manoeuvre the 3 goblin regiments. Once again he sounded the charge against the trolls and because of his commanding presence his troops obeyed immediately. This time the trolls were quickly dispatched with no further casualties and Aragorn turned his attention to the goblins. How could he avoid his men being skewered like boars on the goblin spears? Their arrows were mostly depleted and he knew they would struggle to survive long against the armor piercing weapons of the goblins in a head on assault.

Next followed a game of cat and mouse as Aragorn led his company around the battle field, into woods and up hills and at the critical point the goblins changed their facing ordering a hail of arrows and a swift charge. A few times he managed to overwhelm one of the goblin units with a thunderous charge but could not pursue to finish the job because of a pending threat from the flank or rear. And on each occasion the wily enemy general disciplined his troops and brought them back to the fray. For each engagement Aragorn might lose only 1 or 2 men to 15 or 20 of the goblins but his men were now tiring fast and were still enormously outnumbered.

In desperation he turned his attention to the enemy general and saw his heavily armored looking troops were just now a distance from the 2 spear bands. Bolstering his men's courage he called a charge into the flank of the general's unit. The fighting was fierce and messy and who can tell when the killing blow came but finally the goblin general and the heir of their king was felled with a mighty blow. With the general dead his troop still took time to finally lose heart and flee and now only the 2 spear bands remained. Aragorn gazed around and saw his men were down to only 15 and these looked ragged and near exhaustion; he could bolster their courage and resolve but their was little he could do to renew their strength and energy during battle.

Luck was with him still and he saw the goblin spear bands were separated and one was at half strength and disordered. He roused his men and sounded the charge hoping to luck and the impact of losing their general on the retched creatures morale. The horses hoofs drummed in the hard packed earth and his horns blew as they thundered into the milling throng of goblins. Two more of his men went down but the goblins could not stand against his wroth and the grim faces of his remaining men and threw down their weapons as they ran away. 'Shall we pursue my lord to finish them?' one of his men said tiredly. As much as he wanted to repay his losses he knew there was still a full band of goblins bearing down on them and the day of death was yet to be done.

Aragorn himself was now near the end of his strength. Eyeing a nearby steep hill he slowly led his men and horses up the slope with the goblin spear band bearing down on them from close by; still looking fresh as they had yet to be engaged in any real action. At the top of the hill he looked once more upon his faithful men; now only 13 exhausted men and horses remained to face 250 fresh goblin troops and his hope nearly fled him and he saw doubt in the eyes of his men for the first time that day.

He stood up in his stirrups and addressed his bedraggled companions 'Beyond hope my friends we have triumphed today no matter the final outcome. Whether we beat these evil misbegotten spawn of Melkor or are ourselves trampled under foot and live not to see the new dawn; know this, we are Men of The West and we bow to none in triumph or defeat! For Arnor!' and his few men remaining took up the shout 'For Arnor! For Arnor!' The horns sounded for the last time, clearer than ever and this small defiant group of companions and friends spurred their exhausted horses to one last effort and charged down the hill into the waiting ranks of 250 goblin spears. Never has such a brave and defiant act of courage been seen before or since by any man.

There was no Gandalf to cast spells, no Eagles to swoop down and save the day and no Dead men to steal the glory of the living, only the true hearts of Men of the West and the belief in their Captain the Lord Aragorn! The initial charge was devastating but still hundreds of goblins faced a few stout but exhausted men. The fighting was fierce and every second passed like an age of the World. Men fell left and right of Aragorn until only 8 remained and he knew that now he would never see the North Kingdom reborn. Perhaps Araphor his heir would succeed where he had clearly failed. But oft hope is born in the most desperate time and just as he thought his horse would finally falter the goblins lost heart and turned tale and fled the battle.

This time none asked to pursue and all gave prayer to the Valar and more so to the strength of their hearts and their swords. Now they knew that Aragorn, their Lord Captain, nay their King, would lead them to victory and new glory as together they reforged Arnor and banished the servants of Sauron for ever!

[Galain_Ironhide]

A nice tale Chulain519 and welcome to the forum

Thus far in my Gondor campaign I've had to face one of those "Super" Mordor stacks from the MOS submod where they have a unit of Mumakil amongst other things. Lost many good men including a full unit of Fountain guard who were a soul reinforcement unit that came in too far seperated from the main force - the mumakil and a unit of Olog-Hai singled them out, FG's put up a solid fight though, taking out 8 of the Ologs and 1 of the Mumakils.

Managed to scrape through with the win eventually thanks to my Pelagir marines finishing off the Mumakil.

I was supposed to be on the receiving end of another one of those stacks around turn 34 however Mordor sent it up to the elves. Now that it is turn 50ish, I am due for another..... oh happy joy.

Still I wouldn't have elected to play with that if I didn't want a challenge.

[Fallen Angel Ezekiel]

Just had 5600 orcs attack me as I lay siege to hoarwell with my 1700 high elves, took up a defensive formation with swordsman behind stakes, spears to the flanks and archers in front running behind my infantry when the enemy armies get near.



Result 4000 orcs dead with another 1000 prisoner. Had the faction heir as well and ransomed for over 9000 gold. Shame the orcs rejected it so I had to execute them all

[LuckyPistol]

Three words:
Balrog versus Elrond

Tried OotMM again and managed to get the Balrog. For some reason, Elrond left Rivendell early in the game before I conqured it. At the time I got the Balrog, and sent him to reinforce my invasion army marching to the new high elf capital. he was intercepted by Elrond and his body guard. I panicked; you don't **** with High Elven cavalry!
I decided to challenge fate, and surprisingly I started upslope O.o Not complaining, I sent the fiery demon charging at the elves who were moving to get on a hill. They didn't turn around in time and after a while it was down to the Balrog and Elrond himself on a beautiful sunny day in Eriador xD I finally killed him, but I could swear that battle could have gone either way.

[Lord Alrik]

Yeah Elrond is one tough sucker, I besieged Rivendell with OoG and managed to hit him twice with flaming ballista projectiles. The first time he bent down undid his shoe and shook the pebble out that he thought was in it. The second time he looked about and said that he thought that he was under attack. It took some serious javelin rain by the mercenary axemen to finally pin his corpse to the ground.

As for epic battles, I've had a few, but the first time I entered Moria (and only time I've done so from the east so far) was pretty massive, I hadn't looked at what I'd be facing, so when the trolls started coming down the ramp I went "Oh..crap...trolls..." Only thing was that they kept on coming, I think it was five or six units of trolls...

[Alaeron]

Most epic campaign? Mordor, definitely. I took half of Rohan and Gondor is gone-dor. I am disgustingly rich and can breed orcs by the millions. VH/VH, all legit. Taking out Gondor was a nightmare for how "long" it is, but near the end I bypassed all the scripted armies by blitzing all the remaining settlements left at once. Bam. How does it feel being a rebel, Boromir? Don't think you're going to live long still.

Epic battle, I don't know. I love sieges, while in field battles I just encircle armies and massacre them when they inevitably rout thanks to my Nazgul. They are Mordor's greatest asset in battle. Haven't used any trolls yet and I don't think I will. Or maybe I will, just for fun. Finishing off Rohan is the next priority. Middle Earth is doomed. Haven't got the ring, I don't want all the good factions (especially those blasted Elves, I want to have a heart-to-heart with them later on) declaring war on me. Yet.

I've also started as Isengard and wow does it have a bright future. I took half of Rohan with blitzing and diplomacy. Next step I take the other half and then the world is mine.

[LuckyPistol]

I've also started as Isengard and wow does it have a bright future. I took half of Rohan with blitzing and diplomacy. Next step I take the other half and then the world is mine.

Ho ho ho, first time as Isengard eh? Yea, the High Elves will make sure none of your dreams come true


My new epic battle:

Witch King vs Denethor and Pelagrir Marines. It was an ambush, but they still ran to a hill for better ground. Charged my BN into their rear, used the special and over 100 Marines routed! xD "Sorry Steward, we're outta here!"
Then both cavalries charged head on into each other, though somehow the WK and Denethor ended up in the middle of it all and had some one on one before the leader of Gondor fell. I finished off the bodyguard in time to "collect" the routed Marines too

Yup, gotten a lot of Heroic Victories by just traveling the WK unit around. He has so many traits and ancillaries he's basically immortal

[Arǭmēz]

Just played a very nice battle with Gondor...
My army had Faramir, two generals 9 Ithilien Rangers 5 MAster Ithilien Rangers, and two guards of the foundain and a ballista...
I besieged Henneth Annun where the garisson included a stack of Orcs and three Nazgul units...
Well Mordor did not come out so I just shot them... they lost about half of their starting number until I was out of Arrows... then the Ballista broke the doors down and killed a few more. Then I started charging with me generals and the bloodied orcs fled back... then the Guards of the foundain came in and attacker the NAzgul... as the Wraiths were busy my generals passed behind them and i started charging them from the rear... ok many of th eguards fell and one of the general had only one bodyguard remaining, but the Nazgul fell then the remnant of the orcs was quite easy to destroy

[Paladin94610]

Nasty OOMM besieged Rivendell. They have two units of trolls, numerous Goblin heavy infantry, and wargs. As I put stakes at the bridge, wargs count for zero. Only melee units I have are Elrond and his son-in-law and Noldor Guardian pikemen. I have 3 bow quendi and 3 Nórëtirno Warriors.

They come in waves, first trolls, then light infantry, then heavy infantry. Most exciting moment is when killing trolls. 24 trolls took many men from Noldur Guardians (only 60 left after battle) I also lost son-in-law. Archers and wargs stick in their position and I didn't keep a time limit for battle. So I had to drive them out myself.

It was a victory. Odds calculated are 1:7

[C.Maximus]

Most Epic campaign would have to be the very first version of this mod as the Dwarves. Now, I have quite the affinity for dwarves... I dont know why, I am a 6'4" tall skinnier white guy but ever since I read the hobbit in 1st grade I was a dwarf guy. Something about their attitudes, obsession with gold and mining, the fact that they live underground, I dont know but I love Dwarves. With that aside I had to play them when they came out in TATW. Now, starting out I had little to know Idea what i was getting myself into. Luckily my favorite faction in Rome was Greece so I had experience using a faction who didnt deploy much cav. Even though I love cavalry, I always seem to choose the faction that lacks in cavalry.. odd right? The thing that got me was the ineffecency of archery. Nothing beats Creten archers backed by spartans.. you dont know how many online matches I won with those Creten liars and the Spartans... Without archery I was stumped. Now I started with a low march to Dain's Haills from the east and a slow western march with Gimli to take Car Dum ( now there were no OOG only OOTMM in these times.) The first few battles went OK... I won them with huge losses... the taking of Dain's halls was quite depressing, desperate even and I remember ol Dain himself (with no special abilites mind you) was the last unit there, him and his bodyguard with about half the numbers in men. As I continued to lose large amounts of men my campaign became depressing, I was going into the negatives trying to recruit more men, my borders were being raided by orcs and I had no effective way of killing anything. I took the northern mountains and the area that OOG normally own but could hardly hold them. My cities were unhappy, the locals rebelling, my dwarves tired and beaten, King Dane was dead, Gimli seemed to be broken and battered... this, to me, was the perfect dwarven campaign, a desperate crawl to retaking their old mountain kingdoms. The Dwarves, in my perception, have always had a sort of a bleak existence, being attacked and consumed by whathave you. As my tactics got kind of better (using Axe throwers and such to fend off snaga) I could hear Bard shake his head and say "Dwarves, Bah, they know nothing of surface warfare" with his grim style. IT was true, they did not (I also remember version 1.00 dwarves being much weaker then they are now) I could not take anything for the life of me deep in OOTMM territory, you know, along the spine (Golbin town and what have you) My economy went to defending my borders and my men simply died fending off orc attacks before i could conjure up any real army to make a push. It seemed hopeless, Gimli will never get to see the great halls of Khazad Dum. But then it clicked to me, what was I missing. IF I could not use arrows or horses to support my stubbern line of dense bearded warriors then what could I use? What could I fling at my enemy while marching my slow line into theirs. ARTILLERY!!!!... I then went on an artillery buff (something I always thought, Dwarves should have some unique looking and stat filled artillery... they were the kings of artillery) "TWO! catapult units in every army and if you can afford it throw a ballista or two in there for good measure!!" Was the new tactic of the day. This with the supported Dale cav mercs... I was ready to go.

Finially I organised enough of an army to march southwards... BOOM BOOM BOOM I watched giant grouping of packed golbins turn into flame crisp and melt away.... The Snagas would get to my lines and before they could even start to throw those annoying spears BOOM BOOM BOOM half of them would fall to ash only to be crushed by the slow march of the Dwarven front line. My victories started looking better, I started throwing down stack after stack, Trolls would even crumble at my armies.

When I got to Khazad Dum I was on a rampage, everything was falling under my feet and the garrison script of the giant citidel didnt stop me. (also before custom settlements so Khazad-Dum was a large medieval citidel at the time...) the battle was still epic and when gimli conquored it, I felt I completed my first TATW campaign... The Dwarves can now focus on helping with mordor now that their lands are secured and united.

Dont get me wrong, I've had some sick campaigns in my day, Ive followed this mod since the beginning... but nothing can contend with that first Dwarvish one for some reason.... was so bleak, desperate, back and forth fighting... was like a real war, most TW games I get a good army going and just storm in and thats that.. but this first one I could never gather myself to that point till much later in the game... was classic.