Orcs of the Misty Mountains AAR - 25 Chapters - COMPLETED

[Uriyaca]

This AAR is amazing. Well written and not so too much detailed which I love, and also it contains a LOT of pics which I love too. And the jokes are also funny as hell
Can't wait till episode 9!

[Antonidas]

Chapter 9

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Our generals immediately begin planning our revenge, setting their sights on Rivendell, but first we have other matters to attend to. Chieftan Lagrat and the smaller army of Lord Shagdush assault the walls of Caras Galadhon.



This time it is only orcs, like us, guarding the city, not nasty elves.


Siege of Caras Galadhon

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

We wanted to take the city fast, so our reinforcements don't have any siege equipment. They instead will have to walk around and follow us into the breach. It turns out however, that their walk won't be very far.



Nice walls... guess we won't be needing those ladders and siege towers after all.


There isn't even a gate, we can just walk through the front entrance. But we first try something more subtle. We try and march our archers to the front, to pepper the enemy with arrows and maybe even force them to charge out, but once again they prove utterly incompetent. Their bows don't even have the range to shoot the enemy without entering the city walls! So instead we resort to the usual brutality of the orc.



What idiots. They can't even shoot that far.




Eat em! Eat em!



The enemy are politely standing back while we rush their town center.



High Chieftan Lagrat commands the battle from inside the town.



The battle turns into an ugly brawl for the town center.


And that's as far as I got when Medieval 2 crashed. I will auto-resolve because I don't want to fight all over again.



Wow, that's... much fewer casaulties than I was taking.

The land that was once called Lothlorien is now well and truly ours. The Elves are gone, and we have come to take their place. High Chieftan Lagrat, ever the cunning one, renames the city Ratlag. Nobody can figure out how he thought of it.



Move north! To Goblin Town!


The larger High Elven army moves down South to harass some of our forces, so we besiege Goblin Town with the Gundabad reinforcements. It doesn't work.




So close!


But what's this?



HA! TAKE THAT YOU STINKY ELVES! THAT'S WHAT YOU GET, FOR TRYING TO PLACE YOUR SILLY RULES ON GOBLINS!


A few thousand Snaga slaves throw off the chains of the Elves and declare loyalty to us. Funny, maybe we should treat those snaga better...


nah.


Meanwhile, the One Ring is discovered once again in Hobbiton.



Well, pillaging all those little hobbit holes sounds tempting... No, we have Elves to kill!


We try and call a ceasefire with the Silvan Elves, but they don't bite. We'll get them later! The other elves, those ones from Rivendell, probably guessed that their doom was approaching, so they retreated from our mountains back to their silly valley.



Yeah, you better run. Just wait till I find you.


Later, Sauron calls on all of us to fight the wars he apparently can't win.



They took it again? You need to shape up your forces, you stupid eyeball.


We send a diplomat to our Gundabad allies for map information and discover they have been hard at work dismantling the Silvan Elves and Arnorians. It turns out however, that some drunk Bree-men got pretty pissed off about this, and created something called a Tol-Acharn. Whatever that is.



Huh?


While investigating the Western side of the mountains, we spot our chance to strike at the High Elves! Rivendell is filled to the rim with troops, but half of them are depleted to half strength or less. This means that no garrison can spawn, and their troops can only get weaker over 10 turns of siege! We quickly move our 2 armies to besiege the city. The Dunedain will be distracted by that Tol-Acharn thingy, and the Elven settlements near the sea are too far away to send any help. Now is the time!



These Rhudaur mercenaries will come in handy, especially the cavalry.


The Elves will die!

thanks for all the replies everyone! I am now beta testing The Veiled Stars, a LOTR mod for Mount & Blade Warband, a fantastic game and a fantastic mod. It may take away time from this, it may not, I'm not sure. Just thought I'd warn you! Btw, I recommend Warband to everyone. Ever. Do it.

[Antonidas]

Chapter 10

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Everything is quiet. Thousands of troops are laying siege to the greatest of Elven houses in Middle-Earth. The Elves themselves are no doubt cowering in fear, as they haven't sallied out to attack us. The narrow path to Rivendell only allows one army to besiege it at once, so we redistribute our forces so that the best soldiers are on the front lines. Lord Shagdush will remain near, to fend off any reinforcing armies that may appear from nowhere. In our newly Goblinified settlement of Stump, we are now able to train Goblin Infantry and Warg Riders, the first sign of it becoming a powerful source of troops to us.



This is only the beginning. Once both Stump and Ratlag are fully assimilated into our control, we will be able to train armies at triple the speed on the Southern Front.


The only threat to us is the Silvan Elves, who could attack from the East while our army is laying siege. However, our settlements are well defended, and our scouts report that they are focusing their attention on the Orcs of Gundabad, who have taken 2 settlements in the North, near Fror's Grave. Still, we send a scout to the western edge of the region of Trollshaws, just in case the High Elves actually do send help from the shore.


We send some extra forces down to Moria to reinforce the garrison when they come across the 2nd greatest opportunity of the reign of Chieftan Lagrat.



I don't know what Elrond is doing there, but he'll be in the ground soon enough.


Lord Shagdush immediately sends 4000 men to kill 60. He's certainly not the last family member, but he is probably their greatest general, and with him gone the Elves will have no chance of restoring their ancient kingdom.


The Brutal Slaying of Elrond

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

We line our infantry and archers up into one big blob and send our warg riders off to the side. This will be over quickly.



Good luck, you 66 Elven spearmen!



Hehehehehehee... oh sorry. Right. They charge, and stuff.



This is the best part!



It ends up being only Elrond left.



And there he goes. An inglorious end for Elrond Half-Elven.

Well that was fun. We send Shagdush back up to Rivendell. Next turn, come at me!



What! No way!



Oh dear, the drunkards succeeded. I'm at war with them, although they never did anything before because the Orcs of Gundabad acted as a nice buffer. The situation has changed now...


Stay the course.


The rest of the siege progresses with few important events. Sauron's invasion on Minas Morgul is completed by the armies of Mordor, but it seems rather pointless to me, seeing as Gondor still controls Cirith Ungol. We try and get a ceasefire with the Arnorians, but they refuse. They even move a small army near Uglag, down south, but our diplomat bribes them away. Our assassin dies attempting to kill some random rebel captain.



It's really no use, they can't survive long enough to become good at their jobs.


Eventually the time comes. The moment where we get revenge for Goblin Town, where we show the Elves never to mess with – Oh.



Well that was rather anti-climactic. They surrendered. Alright then.



Orcs? Scholars?


The Rhudaur mercenaries are strong soldiers, and may prove useful in the future. We re-name Imladris to Rhud, short for Rhudaur, seeing as the Rhudaur Hillmen already live in the foothills around it. We control the city, allowing them to settle there, and they will of course offer their services as mercenaries should we ever need them.



Ta Da!


The capture of Rhud brings our region number up to 10. We are 1/3rd of the way to victory conditions, and we are becoming a powerful force in our own right. For once, our next steps are not clear. The Orcs of Gundabad have taken Wrakyaburg and Framsburg to the north, cutting off our path to the Dwarves, for now. We don't want to break our alliance with them, they are very useful. To the east lies the land of the Beornings, and then the great forest of Mirkwood. The Silvan Elves are our most dangerous foes, and are distracted by Gundabad, but they are not to be trifled with, and taking over a forest 10 times the size of Lothlorien is daunting. To the west, the land of men, Arnor, is celebrating their successful Tol-Acharn. We know little of their military power or land, but we can guess that they would be an easier target than the Silvan Elves. To the Southeast lies Dunland. They may swear allegiance to Sauron, but Barad-dur is very far away, and we would have no qualms about killing men. South and Southeast is Rohan, the spread out plains of the Horsemen. They are no doubt the weakest target, suffering from invasions and encroachments by Isengard and Dunland. It might be prudent to annex some of their land before it is all taken. These are some hard decisions to make, which is why I'm leaving it up to you.


The Elves/Men will die!

Note: I also have polls on the other 2 places I am posting this AAR, so the result may be different than you expect from this page.

[Flinn]

here I am again, my apologyzes for not having commented before but I've been out on business trip last week

good news, very well done with Elrond, I always hated that snobbish elf!

regarding your next target, supposing you have not choosen yet, I must say that neither Rohan nor Dunlad looks good targets for me (for different reasons); the logic step would be to go for Silvan, because soon or later you have to drive them away from Anduin shores and the more you'll wait the more powerful they will become; Eriador won't prove a harder challenge than elves, so you should be able to keep them at bay (as they shouldn't focus on you on any case, being OOG and Dunland much more interesting for their purposes, especially as you don't hold settlements needed for their victory conditions while both OOG and DUN own some).
Furthermore, pushing back SE will prove wise for the future in general, as on Mirkwood you should aim to connect with Mordor (and ally them if not done yet); once you have got rid of SE with the help of Mordor your east front should be secured (Ruhn usually ends up in crushing Dale and keeping Dwarves at bay), so this will be your main task to definitely turn the tide on your favour. After that there will be still planty of enemies to get rid of and conquer their territories to reach the required number for victory (if it really matters for you): Eriador/Arnor and west HE should be your next goal, but if Rohan is still on you can also go for them or even for Gondor (possibly using the "support" of an invasion); or you can mop up the Dwarves (good luck ); at any rate always remember to try to use at your advantage the support of OOG in the north.

anyway, some more rep for you

[Uriyaca]

Silvans of course! killing somore nasty elves!

[Antonidas]

sorry I haven't updated recently! I've just returned home from a 6-month sabbatical (i think that's the right spelling) in Spain, so I've been spending a lot of time with friends or doing stuff I couldn't do in Spain. I'm halfway through the next chapter, it'll probably be up tomorrow!

[Uriyaca]

sorry I haven't updated recently! I've just returned home from a 6-month sabbatical (i think that's the right spelling) in Spain, so I've been spending a lot of time with friends or doing stuff I couldn't do in Spain. I'm halfway through the next chapter, it'll probably be up tomorrow!

Can't wait for the next chapter, this is definetly my favorite AAR so far

[Antonidas]

Chapter11

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

To decide on our next target. High Chieftan Lagrat assembled some of the strongest Orcish chiefs and warlords for a simple vote. 3 voted to attack the Elves of Mirkwood, 3 voted to attack the Human land of Arnor, 2 voted to attack the lands of the horsemen to the south, but 4 voted to conquer Dunland. Our warriors are happy to fight an enemy who won't shoot arrows at us like rain. We begin assembling the army. We have 3 standing armies available, so thankfully we won't need to spend any time recruiting. Our forces will meet near Uglag, on our side of the river.


While our forces march, High Chieftan Lagrat posts watchtowers throughout the region of Trollshaws. Our scouts throughout the world send us information on the military status of Dunland's forces compared to ours.



It appears we are almost even.


We begin the construction of temples to Melkor in Rhud, and send a diplomat to the Dunlanders for map information. While their holdings in Dunland remain unchanged, they have new territories in Eriador and they have held the lands of Edoras in Rohan.


After all this preparing, Chieftan Lagrat grows impatient and marches all the troops across the river. War is declared.



Here we come!


The next turn, no message appears from Sauron. In fact, he likes us better than the men of Dunland. Carry on! So, the army under Zagbug besieges Byrig.



They don't have much in the way of defense.


Our scout also reports that Duneard, the Dunlander capital, is filled to the brim with troops. The Dunlander army to the west keeps retreating from our 2 armies. We spot some more of their forces, and disturbingly, we see some Elven forces too. Could it be that they're trying to take back Rivendell? Our soldiers hope not. We thought we'd seen the last of those High Elves when we pushed them back from Rhud!


Zagbug takes Byrig with few casualties, and we finally engage some Dunlander forces in battle.



I could auto-resolve, but that would probably involve a lot of casualties. I also want to see my Rhudaur mercenaries and the Dunlander forces in action.


Battle near South Tharbad

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

High Chieftan Lagrat gives a rousing speech, mostly centered on him imploring his men to deliver him from the boredom of peacetime, and let him kill the enemy. Soon, we form up.



As expected, the Dunlanders deploy on the hill directly across from us. We use our expendable troops, such as Goblin Infantry and Hillmen into the valley as bait. Our stronger and more vast soldiers are sent to the left of the enemy, in order to negate the heigh advantage.



Everything goes quietly for a while, until they spontaneously burst into action, sending most of their forces down the hill.



They leave some isolated units on the hill, which we at first charge with our trolls, later to be aided by our huge infantry force.



They send most of their troops down the hill on a long trip towards my infantry. Our strategists aren't sure why they couldn't charge directly from their hill, but we're not complaining. They send a paltry force of clansmen to face our bait troops.



Meanwhile, the first wave of our reinforcements crest a hill overlooking the battle.



Some ballistas are shooting at our bait troops, so we send our trolls to run them off.



On this slope, you can see the enemy general surrouned after charging uphill to fight OUR general. Chieftan Lagrat is in the thick of the fighting, of course.



The Dunlander reinforcements are slower than ours, but eventually they arrive. We send the bulk of our armored troops down the hill to meet them.



Our reinforcements arrive in full force now.



The enemy general is captured.



Most of the Dunlander reinforcements are running away, but some of them still fight.



We send our Rhudaur cavalry to chase down the fleeing enemy.


After a while the entire enemy force is fleeing. Seeing as we have wargs and horses now available in our forces, we continue the chase. Once all the enemies are captured or eradicated, victory is declared.



Our first field battle with the Dunlanders goes far better than expected. We take hardly any casaulties, a far cry from our wars with the elves. The troops feel liberated. Our forces have not felt this triumphant since the capture of Stump.

We took prisoners. Those poor souls.


With a rather large amount of the enemy gone, we can move around Dunland with much more security. Our 2 victorious armies march north and besiege the village of South Tharbad. Zagbug sets up a watchtower near Byrig and marches north for a bit to clear away some Arnorians lurking near Uglag.



FU- ehh, it's okay, it's okay. We send the full garrison of Goblin Town, a general and 9 snaga skirmisher units, to rescue Rhud.



South Tharbad is besieged. Their elite military defense force includes.... entirely clansmen.



The ultimatum arrives from Sauron. Chieftan Lagrat takes the papers from the messenger, sends him back to Sauron, and then orders said papers thrown into the deepest pits of Moria. We're carving out our own chunk of Middle-Earth, and we don't need any glowing eye telling us what to do.



boo-hoo waa waaa get somebody else to do it. I hear the Dunlanders are good at that- oh wait.



Bad Arnorians! Get out of my lands!



Our foes have a habit of giving little resistance.





WHAT DID I JUST TELL YOU.


We take a step back and look at our situation. 2 Dunlander settlements have been taken, with minimal casualties. The Arnorians are trying to take North Tharbad, but they can have that. We'll cross the river into their lands when the time is right. Duneard is heavily defended, but the might of 2 Goblin armies should be good enough. Our 3rd army, led by Zagbug, will defend our newly conquered lands from any surprise attacks. To prevent more attacks on Rhud, we bolster its forces with the former garrison of Goblin Town. Goblin Town will be weak for the moment, but new troops are already being trained there. To the east, the Elves have remained completely quiet, apparently content on their side of the Anduin. Or maybe the Orcs of Gundabad are just completely occupying them. Hopefully the latter. The question remains, who do we target after we take over Dunland? The original plan was to then invade our ancient enemies, the Elves, but the Arnorians are proving a far greater nuisance. We will decide when Duneard is taken.


The Dunlanders will die!

[AgeMaker]

Nice keep it up!

[Uriyaca]

What happened to killing nasty elves? . Oh well, nice chapter tho

[Antonidas]

Chapter 12

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

While planning for future conquests, High Chieftan Lagrat hears about a creature called a Balrog, deep in the caverns of Moria. Apparently it is a terrible creature from the First Age, a creature of shadow, fire, and darkness, a creature so wrathful and powerful that it can take on whole armies singlehandedly. He then reasons that it would be good to find this creature and see if it can fight for us. He orders the construction of Mithril Mines, and tells our miners to dig as deep as possible. Back down in the rugged hills of Dunland, attempting to attack a Dunlander army proves to us that Sauron isn't messing around.



Hmm... that's discouraging.


While we certainly don't feel much loyalty to Sauron, we're not as strong as we'd like to be before leaving his protection. It would be a dangerous thing to be considered an enemy by both man AND orc. But a request for a ceasefire is denied by the stupid Dunlanders! Cunningly, Chieftan Lagrat realizes that the Dunladers are likely under the same command by Sauron, and marches his army alone into enemy territory, hoping to provoke the Dunlanders into attacking HIM, eventually leading to them revoking Sauron's protection. Or we can just wait for 6 or so turns. Either way, we won't stop until Duneard is ours!


Turns out the Dunlanders are content to stand their army... right next to mine. Doing nothing. The mission lasts for 4 more turns, so we kill time by sending our diplomat recieves yet another rejected offer, this time from Isengard, and a half-stack army of Arnor appears near Uglag. Zagbug is sent to stop them. They run away. The Arnorians besiege North Tharbad, but run away yet again.

Then, we're free!



Peace lasting? Oh...uh..yeah.... It'll last. For like 10 seconds.



Because there is no kill like overkill.


Battle North of Duneard

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The plan is simple, really, we intend to charge the enemy down our nice hill and fatally wound them.



phase 1: the hill - check!



some cavalry got too close to our archers.



phase 2: the charging - check!



Our wargs get in on phase 2



They rout so easily compared to elves!



Phase 3: the fatally wounding - check!

aww... 4,000 gold... how cute!


Our spy travels farther north into Arnor. Our 2 main armies besiege Dunland, when suddenly!



Oh yes.



Oooohhhhh yesss.


The balrog is immediately dispatched to Chieftan Lagrat's army.



Again Sauron?


It's okay, he doesn't notice if I continue a siege, as long as I don't attack, right? that's what happened last time...








Great. Just great. Okay, new plan: take Duneard, then do whatever it takes to get Sauron to like us again. That stupid, rotten, flaming eyeball. We send our diplomat up north to bury the Orcs of Gundabad in cash. Isengard and Dunland are the only other evil factions next to me, and them, I can handle. But we DON'T want our more powerful allies attacking our weakest border.

[Antonidas]

I must churn out the chapters! This one is small but important.


Thanks for all the replies! It makes me proud to be somebody's favorite AAR!


Chapter 13

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Previously, the Balrog was resurrected, Sauron renounced his protection of us, and the men of Dale invaded our eastern front. It is now time to finish the conquest of Dunland, beat back the Dalish invaders, and press onward to even more victories!


First, the Balrog is sent to merge with the army of Zagbug, rather than Chieftan Lagrat, and rescue Ratlag.



Too late.


Several turns go by as the siege progresses. The Balrog and Zagbug both have traits slowing the army down, but the lake-men aren't moving, so we should be good for now. Meanwhile, some info from our scouts say that the Dunlendings have lost their terriories in Eriador. The only Family Member we can see is in Duneard. There might be some in Edoras, though. If we're lucky, North Tharbad will become a rebel settlement and become extremely easy to capture.
The Balrog gets closer to the forest, and Goblin Town reaches the population necessary to upgrade to a large town. We try and offer 1,000 gold to Gundabad for 100 turns, but they turn us down, for some reason.



... Is there someone else I can talk to?


I offer 10 turns instead of 100 and they accept. Weirdos. Anyway, on the last turn of the siege, the Dunlanders perform an attack so desperate it is deemed a 10:1 ratio in our favor.





Battle of Duneard

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The first army is pitifully small, so we form our wargs up in front, to rush them as soon as battle begins. The more sizable reinforcing army will be taken by our infantry. We also have 4,000 troops reinforcing US, so that should help.



The wargs are hungry!



That was fast


The first army is taken out with ease, and the reinforcing army is on a hill far away.



Left: enemy reinforcements, Right: our reinforcements



And there's me trying to climb up the hill.


And that's as far as I got before Arda exploded into oblivion (medieval 2 crashed).



Hey! A stunning victory! A brilliant tactical maneuver by the commander auto-resolve!

Well, as long as we're not under his protection, we don't have to pretend to be loyal to him.


At the end of the invasion, we gain a town, a village, and a Large City, sure to be useful for recruiting on our western front. Chieftan Lagrat will stay in the city for a while, and retrain his troops. Lord Shagdush is sent to besiege North Tharbad, while our scout is sent to check on Edoras, ironically now Dunland's capital. The Balrog inches ever onward.
North Tharbad is besieged, but after that no decisive military events occur. They have a pretty large garrison so we plan to siege them out (as always). For a while, nothing much happens. We gain map information with the Orcs of Gundabad, and find out that they haven't expanded much lately. We pay the Arnorians a large amount of money to gain a ceasefire. It's no problem, we can gain it right back soon enough. The Balrog reaches the edge of the forest.


Everything is going well until







. . .


We can handle this. We can handle this. We can handle this.


We quickly check our relations with the other nations of followers of Sauron. Harad, Mordor, and Rhun are amiable enough to us, the Orcs of Gundabad like us quite a bit, and are our age-old allies. Dunland, of course, doesn't like us, and Isengard, their ally, has only so-so relations with us. Hopefully not too many will join the invasion.
Chieftan Lagrat takes all his armored infantry and starts marching back to Moria. The mercenaries and light infantry are left at Duneard. Lord Shagdush will continue with the siege, and the Balrog will continue his offensive against Dale.


We can handle this.





. . .


Those traitorous Gundabad bastards. When this invasion is over, they will pay, and pay dearly. The days where we need them to protect Goblin Town are long past. Forget making up with Sauron, this means war! from now on, it's us versus the rest of the world. We will not spare man, dwarf, elf, orc, or warg in our vengeance. We strike out on our own now. Middle-Earth will soon know life under the shadow of the Misty Mountains.


Everyone will die.

[Antonidas]

Chapter 14

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Previously, We completed our conquest of Dunland and Sauron called an invasion upon Moria. Chieftan Lagrat is returning to Moria, and the Invading armies are getting closer. However, a Gundabad force steps too close to the Balrog. The Morian Wars have begun.



Now we will finally see the spirit of shadow and fire in action!


1st Battle for Moria

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The battle is on some gently sloping hills. We plan to advance upon the enemy hill from the left, with our huge amount of archers right behind our infantry. They are mediocre shots, but they have enough arrows to darken the sky. Meanwhile, our more elite units, the Balrog, trolls, and Wargs will attack on the flanks.



Oh, the balrog brought some friends!



Here are our forces, compared to the enemy's



This is where we want to be



The only unit of enemy wargs became isolated, so the balrog strike team went to take them out.



Our forces reach their destination and the archers open fire.



Our infantry engage.



The B.S.T proves effective, and begins taking on a unit of snaga stalkers.



Just to be sure, our armored halberdiers come and help.



Their infantry line buckles and devolves into pockets of resistance.



Their general is captured, a full rout soon follows.



The first of Sauron's pathetic Invasion armies is utterly crushed, with insignificant casaulties to my force.

And so the Morian Wars have a good start. Unfortunately, Isengard begins its offensive actions against us.



Duneard is besieged, so Lord Shagdush pulls away from North Tharbad and marches south to liberate it.



Isengard armies are nearing Moria, but the Balrog is close by.


Lord Shagdush hurries but he is too late



The men and goblins of the foothills of Rhudaur prepare to defend the stone walls of Duneard.


Siege of Duneard

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The enemy smashes down one section of the wall with their catapult, as well as a tower. Then all their forces rush the breach, except for one crossbowman unit who brings ladders to the left of the gate.



The snagas won't be happy about having to rebuild that.



There's the first wave. We have 2 units of Goblin Infantry plugging the breach, and Rhudaur Axemen on the sides, throwing javelins in.



Our Rhudaur Cavalry sally out and charge a lone unit of crossbowmen.



Once they rout, we send them into the back of the enemy forces.



It's a long struggle, but we eventually kill their captain, sending them into a rout. After that, we kill their artillery crew, and the day is ours.

Back on the eastern front, the Armies of Saruman retreat south for some unkown reason, and an invasion army of Mordor appears, inside Fangorn Fore st.





Isengard's reasoning soon becomes clear, and more and more invading armies appear.







None of them have yet dared to lay siege, the cowards.



Thankfully the Balrog is finally laying siege to Ratlag. After that, he'll retake Limlight Fort, which has recently been besieged by Isengard.



The Orcs of Gundabad finally lay siege, and attrition already makes a large dent in the size of our forces. We sally out.


2nd Battle For Moria

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

We gather all our troops near the tiny door, and rush out the gate. The enemy foolishly retreats his troops, giving us ample time to set up our troops.



We're almost completely set up when they finally make a move. The trolls are sent to delay them.




It is mostly an infantry brawl, a mess of a fight raging outside the mountain.



Chieftan Lagrat commanding from the thick of it. He is undaunted by the armies of Sauron's puppets.



They have several generals. One is slain, although it is not the 1st-in-command.



Neither is this one.



There we go.



The enemy army is rendered incapable, while we lose about a tenth of our forces. Fortunately, they can be retrained quickly in Moria.

The first army to reach the walls of Moria is repelled, with 3 more in sight, and probably more not in sight. Under the command of Chieftan Lagrat himself, however, our troops know they will not fail. All our enemies will be crushed.



Starting with... them.


The Invaders Will Die!

[Flinn]

very very nice addings, some more rep to you, you really deserve it, best AAR I read so far

you should have headed for the elves anyway ... but your right, OotMM are far too easy, so having some invasions on you was definitely a must ...

[Uriyaca]

very very nice addings, some more rep to you, you really deserve it, best AAR I read so far

you should have headed for the elves anyway ... but your right, OotMM are far too easy, so having some invasions on you was definitely a must ...

My thoughts exactly

[Flinn]

hey hey quoting me has cost, it is too easy if you simply second someone else.. infact this is MY strategy usually ..

[Antonidas]

Mostly battles this update. the Morian Wars are getting intense!


Chapter 15

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Previously, The Balrog destroyed an invading Gundabad army, Another one was destroyed when it besieged Moria, and we saw many more invading armies on the way. We left off with the Balrog about to attack a Dale Army in battle near Ratlag.



This is where we were.


Battle near Ratlag

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Once again, the Wargs and elite units are on the flanks



The enemy rudely forms up on a hill, making us walk to get to them.



The Balrogs reach the destination faster than the others, so the enemy sends... one unit of Hearth Watchmen to stop them.




The infantry charge in the middle, while our wargs and elite units destroy the enemy sides.



Once the enemy horsemen are dead, our wargs charge one of the Dale generals.



And so do the balrogs.



One of the three is down.



Soon we relieve our infantry by massacring the enemy line from behind.



One of the balrogs actually fell, from lots and lots of javelins. He'll be fine later though (I hope)



This general must be having a bad day. Lost all of his bodyguard, and is being picked on by 2 balrogs and 7 trolls.




The 2 remaining generals fall in short order.



And now they regret taking Ratlag.

But we have little time to rest. A new Dale army appears and attacks us while we besiege Ratlag.


Dale's Last Ditch Attempt at Ratlag.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

We have to take out the first army before the second one arrives. Thankfully, the enemy decides to form up right across from us, for once. We charge immediately.



They're making this easy.



Go Go Go!



The only enemy cavalry is attacked by our troll-balrog wrecking ball.



Once the warg riders deal with some axemen charging them, they rout the enemy infantry from behind as quick as possible.



The wrecking ball finds a new target.



The first army is finished just as the second arrives over the crest of the hill. We move our troops to a slight hill advantage, although Zagbug and his bodyguard are a bit behind.



Run!



The infantry fight...



the balrog destroys...



and the enemy runs away! hooray!



Then we just kill the catapult crew and chase everyone down.



Damn, we're below 3,000 men!

The battle leaves so few defenders in Ratlag, and so it instantly surrenders to the balrog. As a reward, Chieftan Lagrat sees fit to adopt the Balrog into his family. Meanwhile, another drunkard's crusade is called on Tir Ethraid, some insignificant town down in Near Harad.The enemy are still far too cowardly to actually lay siege. Mordor armies are standing around in front of Moria. Isengard armies are milling around by the mountains.



Our chieftain is a strange one...



There are 3 armies outside Moria, and none dare besiege it. So, Chieftain Lagrat takes the matter into his own hands, and sallies out.



High Chieftain Lagrat 'the Merciless' versus the Nazgul, Ren the Unclean... the Conqueror. Lagrat is unafraid.



For the nazgul is about the only strong soldier in their army.


3rd Battle for Moria.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The battle takes place in a thin mountain pass. Good thing our army is entirely infantry. Cavalry or archers would be far less useful in this rough terrain.



We form up as a horde, but then march to the enemy, slowly branching out as we go.



Our trolls are sent to delay the enemy while our troops form up. When they do, Chieftain Lagrat Sounds the call to charge.



And so it begins.



Here you see our trolls methodically killing entire units of orc raiders.



An up-close shot of the brawl. You can see the difference between our armored troops and their pathetic orc bands.



They send more troops after our trolls. You can see a few of their soldiers routing.



Their horde is finally starting to noticably thin. The nazgul and his bodyguard charge in.



The trolls are sent after him.



Here you can see that some of their routing troops have returned, but the nazgul is completely surrounded.



He finally goes down. After that everyone routs.



We lose a tenth of our force again. The enemy army still has 1300 troops standing, but they've lost their general, and Sauron has lost a nazgul. If chance is willing, he won't be the last to fall to our blades.

Oh dear.


A Master Asassin's Guild is built in Moria. Once the invasion is over and we finally stop retraining troops, we'll hopefully train a good assassin. Isengard finally besieges Moria, but they make a foolish mistake.



Now: can't sally out.



Now: CAN sally out.


The fools sent Lurtz, Saruman's second-in-command and his entire army away to besiege the fort guarding the western entrance to the mountains. Now we can pick off the first army easily.



Bah, they hardly have any worthy troops.


4th Battle for Moria

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Once again the enemy retreats a bit, letting us move out of the gate. However, they do regroup and attack faster this time, before we're fully formed up. A fierce battle ensues, where their infantry routs rather soon, but their huge amount of archers and skirmishers draw out the battle.



We're still moving troops out of the gate when they start pushing forward.



We're forced to charge in a horde manner, rather than let them throw themselves upon our halberds.




Most of their forces are on the hill, a smart move. But it's not enough.



Their infantry are broken soon.



`And their line collapses.




We send our trolls after the enemy general, and he is captured.


After that, it is mostly archers and skirmishers withdrawing from the battle.



The enemy army is still at half strength, while this is our most costly victory in the Morian Wars yet. Fortunately, we did capture their general, and he is soon executed.

Sauron will have to do better.

thanks flinn and Uri, my 2 top commenters

thanks to everybody else too!

[Flinn]

I can see now that with the adding of some trolls and of course of the Balrog things are going much better on the battlefield, very well done!

[T&D]

Very nice chapter Antonidas!!!

[LuckyPistol]

Glad I accidentally found this (I thought it was a OotMM guide from google) really awesome campaign and story telling haha