Are fleet able to deny fords? (protecting Gondor's flank)

[seth4LoTR]

I've played tons of MW2 both vanilla and modded and just recently decided to give Third Age a chance. Played a short campaign as Dale were I got destroyed, whole different ball game than MW2. I've decided for my 2nd playthrough to take some lessons learned from the 1st try and try out Gondor. I know that this will be fun and interesting. And by that I mean Gondor's supposed to be tough and I could lose once more. But hey, no pain no gain.

As a strategy to protect my southern flank, I've decided to try posting small 1 ship fleets directly on the two fords (south of Lindir and the other east of Pelargir). Has anyone tried this before? Does it work or will I just see 300/turn down the drain in upkeep costs for those 2 ships? It'd be great if I could get away with light(er) garrisons down south and concentrate the bulk of my forces in E/W Osg & Cair Andros.

Also, somewhat related how good is the AI about launching sea-borne invasions with Harad? I'm playing on M/M to get my feet wet. How should I garrison those cities? Enough to keep order or should I expect half or even full stacks landing on the coast? Does Gondor need a navy for protecting it's ports or will Harad kind of leave me alone.

Wish me luck . . .

[manekemaan]

You should have some navy but try not to stay on the defensive. You see harad starts with quite a few rebel setllements between you and him. If you conquer some of them you can create a buffer zone while cutting of some of their income.

They wil start blocking your port when you have nothing to counter their navy.

My strategy is to try and go as far as dol guldur to force the enemy to either siege this or go all the way around trough black gate. This give extra defensive options, making life against mordors huge armies of rabble with some trolls more viable.

Harad starts "weak" but becomes a real powerhouse when given the chance to grow strong. They start throwing mumakils at you. They are like nothing you have ever seen.

On terms of income: make sure in all settlements that you aren't using for direct defending you only keep the free garisson.

[LuckyPistol]

I think the fords by Pelargrir have been recently fixed so that you can't. Then again, I haven't played Vanilla 3.2 for a while. All I know is that leo.civil.uef's map and other submods made sure that you can't block it.

Manekemaan is right though, its sort of a red herring to block the fords from enemy armies unless you're focusing on Mordor, and if you are, you want to take the rebel settlements of Southern Gondor anyway. Harad will always focus their efforts on one of those settlements, so its better to have at least near a full stack with some archers (Harad has light armored units) as a garrison. When you get enough cash, build a strong navy to counter the Corsairs that will show up later in the game