Your lowest point during a campaign?

[eugenioso]

you know that moment, when your armies are barely able to hold back the enemy swarms, when your economy is on the verge of breaking, when riots and poorly defended settlements barely scratch a living...

... and then suddenly the former neutral faction attacks your rear flank. your economy is in ruins, your armies are broken and there is not much to do but fight on.

i love these moments during games, especially when im fighting a fair battle/war against the AI (fair being relative of course to just how much money the AI gets as well as those thrice cursed spawn armies). i love that sensation, the feeling that i might just get overwhelmed, that i might lose.

ive had a couple during my TATW games, as well as practically all other TW games (except as the romans in RTW, because they are OP).

one i can recall vividly is during an Isengard campaign. it wasnt going well. i had just conquered all of rohan's settlements west of helms deep, but the fortress itself stood firm. it was a fast campaign so far so it was about turn 30ish i believe. eventually i siege, assault and capture helms deep, and a sense of ease takes over my body, as in "oof thank god, finally i can chill for a bit while i -" only for my breath to be cut short by a full rohan stack appearing next turn and sieging the Hornburg. i had Saruman, Ugluk, the dunlending bodyguard guy and about 1/3 of my original force there facing against an entire rohan stack. at the same time Gondor thought it was a good time to attack me and so attacked the far western rohan settlement, now under my control, only defended by 4 snaga units. and to add insult to injury, the High Elves came and attacked dunland, guarded by 2 dunlending clansmen units. at that point i felt both despair and an unrivalled sense of rush. attacked from all sides, can i win? a challenge at last!

i did beat back the enemy host's attack on the Hornburg, but the rohan settlement and dunland fell. fortunately my tattered armies freed up some valuable money resources and allowed me to retake both settlements about 5 turns later.


another time was playing as the silvans. usually, my silvan strategy is always the same: mirkwood goes south to dol guldur to capture it right away, while lothlorien goes to capture moria as soon as possible. after a few turns of army fiddling and structuring, my army attacks moria, which of course lures out the balrog. even after a full 20 minute battle (no time limit of course, thats gay) of peppering the balrog's unit with arrows, and even with the haldir/celeborn melee skills, no balrogs fell and devastated my army. too weak to even properly lick my wounds i pull the army back to retrain and refit, only to catch a glimpse of something way too insane: a mordor host marching for caras galadhon. i immediately begin building archers in the city and reinforce it with spearmen from cerin amroth, but it is very clear that mordor will arrive too early, and my remaining army from the failed siege of moria was going to be too late. mordor sieges caras, and i painfully realize that the small army in the city wont hold, and that my beaten moria army simply wont get there on time, and that losing caras might mean a forfeit from my part. a desperate gamble is laid: a small force of 2 spearmen attack the rear of the mordor host. despite losing practically all of them, the ploy worked; mordor pulled back their force and attacked and destroyed the surviving spearmen. with the extra turn gained from the failed mordor siege, i reinforce the settlement with more archers just in time for another siege by mordor. this time they assault, but thanks to the stronger garrison i beat back their attack, although with heavy losses thanks to their nazgul leader inspiring his orcs so well. with caras safe and the reinforcements arriving, i deploy defenses on my 2 cities while my army joins in with the mirkwood army and capture dol guldur.

a few turns later a small attack on cerin amroth was beaten back, and with the reinforced army of the silvans, i attack and finally capture moria.


anyone have any similar stories to share?

[ThaDoews]

In a Gondor campaign where i somewhat ended up being attacked by Rohan and with Mordor and Harad on my eastern borders i had a hard time able to defend my cities Only having the most eastern settlements back it changed as Harad got the One Ring and failed to deliver it and then became enemy of Mordor. Then Mordors spawn stacks went soutwards and Harads at Mordor. Then i could take all my settlements back and made expensive cease fire with Rohan. Then i pushed on Harad from north which armies was in the east, so it was somewhat a cakewalk With Harad on their knees (they became vassal) i was the strongest faction in game

Rohan did wage war on me again, but i gave them fresh and hard steel

[Flinn]

that's why I love TATW

in one of my first campaigns (H/H as OOG) I was doing well against FPoE (both Fornost and Amon Sul were mine, and all the northern settlements except blue mountains) and I was able to keep western dwarves at bay, while around turn 90 or 100 I suddenly realized that the dwarves have overrun OoMM and were pushing towards Gundabad; I was completely unprepared, I resisted them for some turns, but in the end I lost the town. Meanwhile, as I preferred to keep my holds in FPoE territories, I retreated my 3/4 stack of orcs from the blue mountains to stop their invasion and preventing them from taking my capital and (worst) Carn Dum, while suddenly the HE elves start to attack me on the west and the W dwarves also sent out a small stack ...

Honestly I was quite close to quit it, than my Took part grew stronger and I decided to fight over for the simple surviving of my people.. it was simply amazing, it took me something like 50 turns more only to repel my enemies and than to recover what I lost during the first 4-5 turns.

It was the first time with a TW game I had this feeling (of beeing beaten down ), simply epic.

F

[Cyricist]

Gondor campaign, been waging a bloody war against the vile predations of Mordor for as long as I can remember. Relentless bastards just pour out of the Morgul Vale like an endless Orcish tide. Forlong, called "the Fat" by his friends, Lord of Arnach, gave his life in defense of Eastern Osgiliath, buying enough time for the army to regroup on the western bank, and formulate a counter attack. Boromir avenged Forlong by taking down Ji-Indur Dawndeath, one of the Nine, in open combat, in front of hundreds of eyes, both human and orcish. The forces of Mordor knew fear that day, but it was not to last.

The dark spreads. It has been many months since the battle for Osgiliath, and the entire city, both sides, have fallen to the armies of Mordor now. Boromir defended as he could, but no man alone can withstand the power of Sauron forever. His brother, Faramir, holds the secret base of the Ithilien Rangers, Henneth Annun, with the aid of the Blackroot Vale Archers, led by Duinhir the Tall, and his son Duilin. There has been no contact with them for over three years, but Gondor has faith in her sons. Henneth Annun stands.

Would that Mordor were Gondor's only problem, but unfortunately for her people, that is not the case. Harad has come calling, by land and by sea, and they call for blood. So far no Mumakil have been sighted, so we thank the gods for small blessings, but still, the men of the east are nearly as dogged and relentless as the orcs of Mordor. They've taken Pelargir, Minas Arnach and other cities as well. They would have pressed further into Gondor, were it not for the Prince. If Gondor stands after this war, they will sing songs of the Prince of the Swan City for generations to come. The first time the men of Dol Amroth took the field against Harad, the Grand Serpent himself, leader of all the Haradrim, died at the hands of Imrahil, spitted on his lance like the dog he was.

The beacons of Minas Tirith have been lit for months now, and no aid has come. Nor will it. Early in the war, we received from Rohan was that the Hornbug had been sacked by soldiers of the White Hand. They had already razed the Westfold, and no Rohirrim patrolled the Gap of Rohan any longer. The last word we heard out of Rohan.. Fangorn forest was burning, and armies marched on Edoras. No aid will come from the Rohirrim. Gondor stands alone.

And she will continue to stand. The White City of Minas Tirith will never fall while men live to defend it. Boromir, Faramir, Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth all have fought many battles against the enemy, and they have thrown them back each time. Harad and Mordor both have taken cities, but they have bled dearly for them, every step of the way. If Gondor should fall, then we will take as many of these bastards with us on the way out.



VH/VH campaign as Gondor. Currently at easily the "lowest point" in any campaign I've played thus far.Rohan lost the Hornbug within the first 10 turns, their capital shrortly thereafter. They're clinging to life with like two provinces, not sure exactly how that happened, but I expect Isengard to come calling shortly. Lorien turned traitor and allied with Rhun, briefly, then broke that alliance and I guess went to war with the whole world. Those scumbags got theirs, though. Sent a spy up to check them out, and found that the Orcs of the Misty Mts owned Caras Galadhon. Not sure what Lorien still has, but it can't be much. Basically, I'm on turn 61, and it has been hell to get here. Hardest campaign I've fought so far. Corsair ships from Umbar sail up and down the coast every turn, constantly threatening to unload armies on my shores. Those douchebags can bring it, though. Imrahil will stomp any pirate into the ground without even breaking a sweat. Harad lost their faction leader and more generals than I can keep track of. Ji-Indur Dawndeath isn't the only Nazgul to go down, either. Uvatha the Horseman tried to take Henneth Annun from Faramir. Too bad horses can't hold rams, and aren't immune to arrows.

So yeah. This has been rough, but I'm having a blast. I may have overdone it with my retelling of the campaign so far, but it was fun. Felt like sharing the story thus far. Within the next ten turns, I plan on sending Boromir with a full stack to retake both Osgiliaths, and then punch straight through into Minas Morgul. I'll take it, and hold it, and Sauron can blow me.

[Feanaro Curufinwe]

Gondor campaign, been waging a bloody war against the vile predations of Mordor for as long as I can remember. Relentless bastards just pour out of the Morgul Vale like an endless Orcish tide. Forlong, called "the Fat" by his friends, Lord of Arnach, gave his life in defense of Eastern Osgiliath, buying enough time for the army to regroup on the western bank, and formulate a counter attack. Boromir avenged Forlong by taking down Ji-Indur Dawndeath, one of the Nine, in open combat, in front of hundreds of eyes, both human and orcish. The forces of Mordor knew fear that day, but it was not to last.

The dark spreads. It has been many months since the battle for Osgiliath, and the entire city, both sides, have fallen to the armies of Mordor now. Boromir defended as he could, but no man alone can withstand the power of Sauron forever. His brother, Faramir, holds the secret base of the Ithilien Rangers, Henneth Annun, with the aid of the Blackroot Vale Archers, led by Duinhir the Tall, and his son Duilin. There has been no contact with them for over three years, but Gondor has faith in her sons. Henneth Annun stands.

Would that Mordor were Gondor's only problem, but unfortunately for her people, that is not the case. Harad has come calling, by land and by sea, and they call for blood. So far no Mumakil have been sighted, so we thank the gods for small blessings, but still, the men of the east are nearly as dogged and relentless as the orcs of Mordor. They've taken Pelargir, Minas Arnach and other cities as well. They would have pressed further into Gondor, were it not for the Prince. If Gondor stands after this war, they will sing songs of the Prince of the Swan City for generations to come. The first time the men of Dol Amroth took the field against Harad, the Grand Serpent himself, leader of all the Haradrim, died at the hands of Imrahil, spitted on his lance like the dog he was.

The beacons of Minas Tirith have been lit for months now, and no aid has come. Nor will it. Early in the war, we received from Rohan was that the Hornbug had been sacked by soldiers of the White Hand. They had already razed the Westfold, and no Rohirrim patrolled the Gap of Rohan any longer. The last word we heard out of Rohan.. Fangorn forest was burning, and armies marched on Edoras. No aid will come from the Rohirrim. Gondor stands alone.

And she will continue to stand. The White City of Minas Tirith will never fall while men live to defend it. Boromir, Faramir, Prince Imrahil of Dol Amroth all have fought many battles against the enemy, and they have thrown them back each time. Harad and Mordor both have taken cities, but they have bled dearly for them, every step of the way. If Gondor should fall, then we will take as many of these bastards with us on the way out.



VH/VH campaign as Gondor. Currently at easily the "lowest point" in any campaign I've played thus far.Rohan lost the Hornbug within the first 10 turns, their capital shrortly thereafter. They're clinging to life with like two provinces, not sure exactly how that happened, but I expect Isengard to come calling shortly. Lorien turned traitor and allied with Rhun, briefly, then broke that alliance and I guess went to war with the whole world. Those scumbags got theirs, though. Sent a spy up to check them out, and found that the Orcs of the Misty Mts owned Caras Galadhon. Not sure what Lorien still has, but it can't be much. Basically, I'm on turn 61, and it has been hell to get here. Hardest campaign I've fought so far. Corsair ships from Umbar sail up and down the coast every turn, constantly threatening to unload armies on my shores. Those douchebags can bring it, though. Imrahil will stomp any pirate into the ground without even breaking a sweat. Harad lost their faction leader and more generals than I can keep track of. Ji-Indur Dawndeath isn't the only Nazgul to go down, either. Uvatha the Horseman tried to take Henneth Annun from Faramir. Too bad horses can't hold rams, and aren't immune to arrows.

So yeah. This has been rough, but I'm having a blast. I may have overdone it with my retelling of the campaign so far, but it was fun. Felt like sharing the story thus far. Within the next ten turns, I plan on sending Boromir with a full stack to retake both Osgiliaths, and then punch straight through into Minas Morgul. I'll take it, and hold it, and Sauron can blow me.

Gods?

[RuleBritannia]

In my very first ever TATW campaign, version 2.0 vanilla, I was Gondor. For whatever reason, I thought it'd be cool to blow all my money on troops and guard Osgiliath. Within 10 turns, I was near-bankrupt, Corsairs rampaged my coast, I lost Minas Tirith, and West Osgiliath became my holding point. I defeated 5 full stacks of Orc Armies, then finally lost. That's when I learned vanilla VH/VH is just a tad bit unfair.

[Castiel]

well, u guys should use more spies, diplomats and watch towers:
lit your border with watchtowers to anticipate dormant enemies and hordes of destroyed factions! levies are weak in hundreds, but thousands of levies coming from every of your provinces is good for holding big towns until reinforcement come
send spies around your targeted settlements to anticipate enemy reinforcements, loot and retreat if nessecery, by the turn of 50-60, I always have 5-6 spies ready
in early turns if you don't have money for spies (especially in TATW where building is expensive), place your diplomats in choke points (rivers, mountain path, forrest trail ...) or nearest enemy settlement to be aware of enemy reinforcement.
most of the time, it's unforseenable threats which stressed you out since those moments forced you to change your plan accordingly, so be aware of them and make the first move then you are fine

[DrDragun]

Stupid Gandalf trolling me, he kept sieging Moria and popping the garrison script then leaving. I was Silvans and Haldir got killed by all these stupid OotMM stacks walking around at free random. So mad.

[ElvenKind]

even after a full 20 minute battle (no time limit of course, thats gay)

What is wrong with time limit?
If you attack an enemy army in mountains, and your enemies sometimes get stuck on the battlefield due to AI pathfinding... how would you end that battle? You would exit it or... what? Spend next two hours of your RL trying to make them come to you?

[Macilrille]

What is wrong with time limit?
If you attack an enemy army in mountains, and your enemies sometimes get stuck on the battlefield due to AI pathfinding... how would you end that battle? You would exit it or... what? Spend next two hours of your RL trying to make them come to you?

In war troops do not go home at a certain date. And if the stupid AI gets stuck, I go and attack it.

[Wizad]

I like the time limit because it forces armies to fight each other. You HAVE to go fight the AI as Elves for example, instead of very slowly whittling them down with archers while kiting.

[Wolfeson]

Funny how so many of these stories are from Gondor campaigns; mine is too.

The lowest point probably came about 200 turns in, when Minas Tirith got invaded yet AGAIN (every time I built up an offensive stack, seriously this was about the 6th invasion on MT by that point). This time I tried actually defending it, and ended up losing the city, a full stack of my troops, Denethor, AND Boromir in a futile siege defense against a Mordor stack and a Rhun stack at the same time. Meanwhile, my southern army under Aragorn (I cannot tell you how many worthless Stewards I went through after this, thanks to him) was finally starting to succumb to the attrition of having to kill off a new full Harad stack every 3-4 turns. Luckily, after I took Minas Tirith back, the evil factions FINALLY invaded something other than MT, and a couple more of my cities completed their higher-level barracks. I pulled Aragorn back a bit and started getting reinforcements to him faster, and the respite from invasions finally gave me a chance to build up an offensive stack, clear Mordor out of Ithilien, and take Minas Morghul. From there, it was just a slow but steady march eastward (Faramir CAN simply walk into Mordor, but they don't tell you it takes 20 years) until Mordor was dead, and then I crushed Harad with about 4 stacks.

[Salah-ad-deen]

Lowest point in a campaign for me would be my first ever campaign as FPoE. It was around turn 70-90. I had no money, OOG where sending stacks and I had no money to retrain my troops. Also my armies where stretched thin. Thank god I was only at war on two fronts and not 3.

[Macilrille]

Bump. Let us get some non-closed and none-moved threads on the front page.

[LuckyPistol]

Any Dale Campaign

[Ngugi]

I can understand to remove time limit when defending, but in any attack situation it's just cheating against the AI in my eyes to not restrict the time given to accomplish victory.

Further I do not see the time as proper real-time but a pseudo-time where I deem the time limit represent a limited time such as a day, or in TATW's case even the compressed struggles of 3 months

[lordcommander gorgoroth]

my lowest point is my gondor playthrough right now, i had a massive army and an even bigger economy and i had peace and trade occuring with every faction, till suddeny the dwarves and dalish got attacked, but a big( later on it though it would be BIGGGGGGGG) rhunnic and gundabad offensive nnearly wiping out the dalish and besieging erebor. I had no idea what the hell happened since i had spies and map info and towers all over the place that i should have seen this before.....but i wasn't paying any attention or heed to the diplomatic situation pop ups at the beginning of each turn so i started moving and training more spies and move diplomats and a few of my best assassins to handle it since it seemed like only, at the time, they were getting attacked by 2 fully stacked and 3 half stacked and 3/4 stacked armies.

2 turns later: at the ending of my second turn things with south so quick i hit tolkein mexico. during the 3rd turn since the start of this whole thing i had 2 armies of fully stacked but freshly recruited armies, one of which was my militia units i had before the military modernization. and when i moved them to erebor and moved the spies attached to them......my jaw busted through the floor. I saw armies of JUST rhunnic forces stacked to the brim with elite upgraded and deadly units and for gundabad it was worse, both added to about......5 full stacked and a bunch of 2/3-3/ filled armies. Then the next few turn were worse and worse, rohan were overrun and is now bogged down in a stalling open field one sided, losing war of attrition with isengard, the silvan elves are pretty much gone with them fighting an envitable genocide against the gundabad and OoMM, the high elves have lost everything and the few large, but severly weak and pathetic, armies left hold the gray havens which are about to fall, the newly formed arnor is doing the best out of everyone but its only a matter of time. All this time im sending out fully 3/4 of my total millitary, around 10-15 3/4-fully stacked armies, to help them out and then mordor and harad finally made its move with sauron leading the charge. As of now i have dol amroth being attacked one after another and it about to fall, the entire west and southern gondor territorys are gone, Osgiliath is gone ithilien is hold strong with 9 of the best rangers i have, but im going to abandon it soon since i need them at my main focus. Minas Tirith is where all of my attention and focus is at. Mordor Harad and isengard are using my the my conquered huge cities and fortress/citadels to make more and more armies. And im forced now to pull back to try and save myself, theirs nothing more i can do for most of the others. Sauron and all of the wraith are inside the pelinnor fields area of walled minas tirith where im barely hold the nazgul, witch king and harad/mordor standard armies. But when sauron arrived he pushed past boromir, faramirs and imrahils armies, imrahils army being completely wiped out along with my most veteran units, and he an 3 other armies have sieged MT. I won by victory of timer but all thats left of the MT defenses is the citadel guard of 38 men out of 3986. And thats my situation, it is literally death on every front for all of my allies and me. And honestly i dont think id have it any other way since this is the best VG experience ive ever had. sorry if it was too long or incomprehensible, but if u read t thank you........and plz lead some advice for me T-T

[Elven Warrior]

playing as the high elves. had taken ost in edhil and most of the misty mountains. then the dwarves attacked and i was completely unpreparded. i lost the havens to them. i regained them back latter but not for 30 or so turn because i was facing the last of the dread stacks of oomm

[Mikail Mengsk]

Every time i faced AI's stackspam in my first campaigns. Really killed any interest in the game.

[Galain_Ironhide]

Just recently whilst having another invasion called on Minas Tirith, a stack of mordor led by one of the 9 nazgul (can't remember the name) moved into the Pelennor fields and right next to Minas Tirith however did not attack me. There were more stacks from the other evil factions on the way, so I decided to go on the offence and attack this Mordor stack. The battle went horribly wrong, largely due to the 3 units of Troll Catapaults that I couldn't subdue in time and also the Nazgul's leadership meant the orcs would not insta-rout, and I just could not get him to stay still for long enough for my very small cavalry and whatever else I had to pin him and kill him. In the end it was a close defeat and about 90% losses of possibly the best troops I could field. I managed to withdraw Denethor just in time. That part was kind a cool watching the defeated men of Gondor run back towards Minas Tirith with Orcs hot on their trail. I lost 3 Generals in that battle who were acting as my cavalry.
Thank god for the Beacons of Gondor submod, as Theoden was able to despatch the nazgul and his remnant army along with another enemy stack that had laid siege. I didn't lose the city or Denethor himself but I was really sweating there for a moment.