Reinforcing the front

[sixwings]

I'm playing Rohan right now, (H/H) around turn 150. I destroyed Isengard pretty quickly and spent then next 100 turns or so helping Gondor holding off Mordor and building my economy. I have finally launched an assault into Mordor itself by way of the Black Gate. I've taken the Black Gate, Durthang, and the orc encampment. But my forces have become extremely depleted and it takes so long to send reinforcements over from Rohan. I started with around 2 fulls stacks, I'm down to one, I have another stack on the way but they have several stacks that my spies have spoted. My goal was to take Barad Dur. What's the best way with reinforcements? I'm thinking about starting a new army once the last army is about halfway to Mordor but my economy can't really support that. What do you guys do?

I don't play with any mods.

[jrmher]

a way that i do is i
1.click city
2.figure out what i want to train
3.hold the "alt" key with the city that is training the units(city must be selected)
4.while doing "point 3 above" click on farthest city or next place (dont really matter cuz it will be a rally point) and they will train and automatically move on to that place.
blue routes will show up that shows that they have a route to go there. you can only have one route per city. you dont need to move them/touch them anymore cuz they are on a automatically route. but do check on them cuz they might get blocked sometimes by rebels or something.

risky but as long as you have 2-3 units being train at a time to get to the destination they shouldnt have too much trouble unless they are attacked by a large stack of rebels or enemy. if you have watch towers all over your lands you can see any enemy and avoid them with your renforcements

note: when you set the rally points they will continue to move to that rally point until the very end of the END!!! to undo it you just have to hold "alt" and click on the city itself and the blue route will disappear. this also works for your navy as well. this is the quicks way that i can get troops to the front lines for defence. i just wish that you can replenish your troops in friendly territory like the newer TW games

[Finkeren]

Honestly, if you haven't got the strength to blitz Mordor, just stay put and starve them out. Don't try to conquer the rest of Mordor from the Morannon, just hold the Black gate and instead send you remaining stack around the mountains to capture Minas Morgul. Voilá, now you've pretty much locked Mordor inside its own mountains and hold two very easily defendable choke points for Mordor to break its newly spawned armies against. Spend the next dozens of turns training reinforcements (defensive troops - archers and strong wall fighters) in the nearest recruitment centers and send them to The Black Gate/Minas Morgul, while you build up culture in those two places. If you're at turn 150 both places should be highly developed troop factories, so only train the defenders needed, and wait for the two to develop enough culture, and you'll have two strong recruitment centers from where to take on, not only the rest of Mordor but also Harad and Rhún.

[Finkeren]

Also: Once you capture Minas Morgul (or preferably before), disband any non-general cavalry in your armies. They're expensive and you won't need them, neither for the defense of the choke points nor for the conquest. The distances inside Mordor are so short, that you'll be running from one siege battle to the next, fighting few, if any, field battles.

Your play style may be different, and some people can use cavalry effectively in sieges, but this will be my advice.

[Wolfeson]

Pretty much what Finkeren said. There's really only two ways to overwhelm an enemy faction: blitz them with enough armies to overwhelm them in the first assault, or a slower more grinding advance. The first way requires overwhelming force from the beginning, and the second requires a constant stream of reinforcements to keep your smaller initial forces up to strength. If you can't support either of those, you're going to have a very hard time keeping dread stacks from overwhelming you and forcing you back, so your best bet is to lock down the chokepoints until you can push in with more strength.

[Finkeren]

In TATW, I find it extremely difficult to blitz factions with more than 2 or 3 settlements due to the spawning of extra armies and the garrisson script (which I usually play without). The only times I've ever seen factions collapse over a couple of turns are in cases like Isengard and OotMM, who are often under attack from several factions at the same time.

Otherwise I find it best to do my conquests one step at a time, bypassing the smaller settlements and go directly for the enemys financial centers and developed castles. In case of Mordor that involves capturing Morannon and Minas Morgul/Cirith Ungol first, go on the defensive, 'till they've used up their dread stacks and then go straight for Barad-dûr and the settlement in the northeastern corner that has mines (Orc Camp or whatever it's called). After this it's just a question of cleaning up, though that's by no means an easy task if you play with immortal Nazgûl (or even if you keep them mortal).

[Wolfeson]

I actually had success in my recent Arnor (MOS) campaign using a fast-blitz strategy, although admittedly I had some advantages. I'd already cleared out both orc factions, and Rohan was getting their butts handed to them, so I ultimately took back all of Dunland, Isengard, and most of Rohan as I pushed southeast. That was a ton of extra grassland towns to recruit from, plus MOS' North-South and East-West roads gave me a perfect recruiting highway. With those towns and the resulting money, I was able to push into Mordor with 3-4 full stacks, plus the equivalent of about another stack of assorted reinforcements. Gondor was also pushing in through Cirith Ungol, though I didn't really need their help (the bastards beat me to Barad-Dur after I did all the work ).

So that kind of strat can work, hitting everywhere and just killing the dreadstacks as they appear, but it takes a strong initial position.

[orclover5]

I found mos was way too easy when playing arnor, dunland is too passive, they build up huge armies but don't attack for a long time, and when they do it is with weak units... Isengard is therefore blocked and weakened so they are a pretty simple victory, the 3 elf factions wack the OTMM, I only had to swoop in and take moria, I had to fight two battles against isengard and they were dead and I got isengard.... this made rohan very strong. Gondor was getting pasted but all I had to do was send two stacks to sack and destroy two thirds of Harads cities, and then fight off their advance through Gondor. Eventually all good factions were left but Dale and only Mordor and rhun were left and mordor was very weak without me do much against them. The only thing that made the game challenging was the good factions fight each other which left Rhun with 30 stacks but they aren't likely to attack with them being the only evil faction left. Trying the realism 2.98 with a couple of supply ration mods to make it more realistic and I am having a much tougher time blitzing but can't turtle either... it is beautiful.

[Pyres Δt Varanasi]

Hold the Black Gate don't continue to Barad-Dur. Build your economy and if you can sue for Peace meanwhile until you can launch another assault. or Give some of the conquered territories to Gondor to act as a buffer.