My campaign went crazy

[Imphee]

I wanted to find out if I can manipulate the good factions to my evil will just like my lord Sauron and the results were absolutely fantastic.

For most of the time as Mordor, I just focused on defending Minas Morgul and the Black Gate for hundreds of turns. It was when I started to worry and felt that I was about to lose since Dale and the Dwarves are coming to the north and they are about to obliterate Rhun. I decided to betray Rhun for being so incompetent and took Ammu Khand and Oibamari from them and I now share a border with Dale.

This is where it starts to get crazy when Dale destroyed Rhun and had all of the settlements eastwards giving them a super powerful economy especially when Mistrand is under their control. This is where I deceived and corrupted them because now their population is heavily diluted with worshippers of Morgoth. They had a hard time converting their settlements to their ways and ended up losing Dale in a massive civil war and I took advantage of this situation by allying myself with them and their Dwarven friends to settle down their population.

It was time for the dark lord to begin the next stage of the plan...

I gave 20,000 gold to Harad and they had a burst of troops now marching towards Gondor. In response, the Gondorians sent most of their troops south which allowed me to launch a surprise attack on Henneth Annun and Cair Andros. I slaughtered the defenders and gave Henneth Annun to Dale and Cair Andros to the Dwarves but Gondor did not like that at all. They sent their troops and took back the settlements which put them at war with Dale and the Dwarves. Feeling cheated, Dale crossed the Anduin and caught the Rohirrim off guard and took Woldberg.

Isengard was given some breathing room and started to expand while the Rohirrim try to hold back Dale. The lands of Rohan were in absolute chaos so I cleverly sneaked a full stack of orcs accompanied by Dale's troops traveling through orc infected Isengard lands and hit Gondor at the back taking Annulond and Lond Galen close to Dol Amroth.

I was laughing in my dark throne while the humans slaughtered each other but I was not done yet. I spotted an army of Silvan Elves near Dol Guldur and gave the settlement to the Dwarves. A war started between the two when the elves attacked Dol Guldur. The Dwarves lost Moria and most of their settlements while me and Harad finished off Gondor.

All that was left to do was manipulate Dale into destroying the good factions and buy off the settlements from them and at the end I betrayed the dwarves and won the game with my economic and diplomatic power.

I really enjoyed this playthrough and I want to try something crazy again. Did you guys do something crazy too?

[Ngugi]

'Such deeds he loves; friend at war with friend; loyalty divided in confusion of hearts.'
- Gandalf about Sauron, RotK

[Joseignacio]

Amazing game! Congrats! I don't usually do anything this style. Once I gave one of my allies, who didn't care at all about my problems, a couple of contested settlements, one of which was going to be sieges by the enemy, and finally he not only joined that war but also sent a few stacks that helped me at that moment.

But nothing like that Machiavellic diplomacy.

[julianj99]

I agree with Ngugi - you must be really channeling Sauron the Deceiver. Did you do all this while stroking a white cat?

[Flinn]

I agree with Ngugi - you must be really channeling Sauron the Deceiver. Did you do all this while stroking a white cat?

most probably he was stroking a white warg

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I would only be very carefull when feeding the lad (hopefully there will be enough Dorfs to spare )

@Imphee: awesome campaign mate, definitely you did a great job as Sauron; in my campaigns I always try to stick to lore and sometimes it gets boring, so next time I'll try another messy approach, thanks for inspiring me dude

[Joseignacio]

Now I took advantage of what I learnt from you, Imphee. I am playing with the Misty Mountains' orcs, one of the few factions that I have not been able to win with, although I tried several times, earlier...

I made gifts of some villages in Eriador to Gundabad orcs and Isengard, making them join and mobilize against Eriador and eventually Cirdan's elves, ..., and Gundabad as well some villages usually contested by the silvan elves and the dwarves, the ones between Gundabad and Dain's halls.

This let me make some expedition and get ¿Nan-i Naugrim?, which I barely hold, plus expand to Cerin Amroth and Caras galadhon and Thranduil's halls with most of the settlements among them, as well as a difficult expansion to the Rohirrim's lands taking advantage of Mordor's presence there as well. However, this is being really hard.

It seems maybe I can do it this time, especially for the break this border-covering gave to me has let me upgrade to quality trolls and other higher tier units and improve my economy. Thanks for the tip.

[Imphee]

I use this trick to make two factions who are at peace to go to war with each other but be careful. Sometimes the AI does something stupid which could completely screw you up. I played as Eriador once and gave Ost-In-Edhil to the High Elves to defend my south east border. Unexpectedly, the High Elves took all of their garrison out and left it to rebel wasting my efforts.

[Joseignacio]

[Vifarc]

Bring chaos is easy, for it is the legacy Total War. What is hard to simulate are the alliances, so "High Elves don't go raping Hobbits" as I use to say.