What a great scenario to play!
I started the fight as Gondor. Aragorn quickly encountered the two dark riders (the Witchking had decided to pick on Gandalf the previous turn
) and defeated one. The other one attacked Boromir but was defeated as well. After these very early successes, Aragorn and Boromir were not seen on the fields of battle anymore as they had to recover first and then chose to go the long way (i.e. West of the Mountains avoiding Isengard) into Rohan. They were involved in some skirmishes near Helm’s Deep in the end.
The battle on the Pelennor was very fierce. Mordor sent whatever it could muster in a broad array of army combinations. However, Nazgul four and five quickly found there end in these encounters. A very strong support were the fix Trebuchets of Minas Tirith with their fierce fire power. I can only recommend to invest more in Trebuchets in the beginning. Though relatively expensive, the mobile ones can kill an attacker (especially if softened by the fix ones) and are very good on the defense as well. In the final stages, I had around twenty Trebuchets in Osgiliath alone. Osgiliath was never lost to the dark side and well defended by Faramir and his men. Alas, in a strange countertwist to the movies, he (and not Boromir) died defending his mark in a fierce attack of four Uruk-Hai, after having defeated three of them. Gondor’s survival also depended on the undead. The stats (10/10/2) are breathtaking, especially when combining them in an army (26/26/3). Nothing stands in the way of two or three “armies of the undead”, very similar to the story. Luckily, I did not disband them after their victory on the Pelennor but used them to free Minas Morgul, renaming it Minas Ithil.
Gondor won the game when one of my invincible armies defeated a lonely Uruk-Hai army from Isengard on the Plains of Gorgoroth and brought the ring to its final doom.
I really enjoy the game play. IMHO the armies are well balanced; adding one more unit would give them too much power (40/40/3 with undead warriors). However, I think the Nazgul are too weak against their opponents. Maybe 8/5/3 is ok (though 8/6/3 might save them from being defeated by a Ranger), but add some more experience points as an Elite with 7 is no match to Aragorn or the Undead.
It is a curious twist that I was able to recruit Uruk-hai in the captured cities, due to the fact that the breeding grounds are wonders.
Also, Galadriel is not (yet?) part of the game. Would it be possible to give her, together with Elrond, some more power to reflect the fact that they are ring-bearers as well and make them immobile like Saruman?
Once again, great work. I am looking forward to the update.
or maybe a hint is good enough for me...
