LoTR Dark Side AAR - brief

[jjdenver]

I recently completed a test playthrough of the LoTR with Lunaticus. He played free peoples/fellowship and I played the bad guys. This AAR will be very brief and is mainly a summary of how I spent my PP without a lot of flavor as I don't have a lot of time to write it up. However it might serve as an aid to someone who is playing darkside about what can happen and I'll probably look back to see how my card plays went if I play again.

I played a few test turns to get an idea how the cards worked, etc but other than that it was my first go at the game which was a lot of fun.

My main goal as Sauron was to activate as many countries as possible for the experience bonus, to take out Rohan once the war started and to shut down Caradhas and sea transport of the ring, forcing the ring to go through a Rohan over-run by orcs or Moria patrolled by the Balrog. As a sideshow I'd try to use the Fornost orcs to march through the Shire and get some early hits on the ring parties while trying to track where they were headed.

I also wanted to open up a transport corridor from Mordor northward so I could send staff (generals) to the various armies of evil deployed across Middle Earth. This seemed important because many of those armies started with little leadership and some couldn't even build staff at all while I could build plenty of staff in Mordor. In the end I over-produced staff by a lot btw.

Turn 1:
Mouth of Sauron (3pp)
Activate Isengard (5pp)
Deploy Uruk Hai (1pp) - creates 40 inf, 40 archer unit

Dwarves and Eriador activate

[jjdenver]

On turn 2 I was delighted to see Wormtongue appear in my card selection. The choice was obvious - Gondor is by far the most powerful of the Free Peoples - Wormtongue was dispatched there.

Turn 2:
Wormtongue (2pp)
Harad (5pp)
Uruk Hai experiments (2pp)
Ring Search (1pp) - result in roll of 1 so ring knowledge at 1% +1%/round

Rohan activates

[jjdenver]

Turns 3-8 went quickly with an increase in ring searching and many nations activated by Sauron as well as a lot of reinforcements placed at Fornost and Isengard. The southern armies of Harad were concentrated along their northern border and in other areas like Mordor, armies mustered to the exit gates. Finally on turn 8 the ring was found - the next turn would be war. During all of the buildup- production was focused on building staff for the evil armies since most started with poor leadership.

Turn 3:
Khand (2pp)
Easterlings (2pp)
Dunlendings (1pp)
Gear up (2pp)
Deploy trolls (1pp)
Ring Search (1pp) - result in roll of 5 so ring knowledge at 7 +2/round
Ring Seach (1pp) - result in roll of 10 so ring knowledge at 17 +3/round

Turn 4:
Activate Corsairs (3pp)
Gear up (2pp)
Deploy Trolls (1pp) (at Dunmor N of Isengard - Easterlings) (1x111 PP unit with 5 trolls)
Deploy Orc Legion (2pp) (at Dunmor N of Isengard - Easterlings) (1x62 PP wargrider with 10 warg, 10 orc mil; 4x90 PP orc units with 20 inf, 10 pike, 10 arch each)
Deploy Crebain (1pp) (at Dunmor N of Isengard - Easterlings) (2x55 PP units with 50 crebain each))
Ring Search (1pp) - result in roll of 3 so ring knowledge at 23 +4/round

Turn 5:
Gear up (2pp)
Block Caradhras (3pp)
Deploy Uruk Hai (1pp)
Deploy Wargriders (2pp) at Fornost (4x136PP units with 20 warg, 10 inf, 10 arch each)
Ring Search (1pp) - result in roll of 7 so ring knowledge at 34 +5/round
Ring Search (1pp) - result in roll of 8 so ring knowledge at 42 +6/round

Turn 6:
Block Sea Movement of Ring (5pp)
Gear up (2pp)
Ring Search (1pp) - result in roll of 9 so ring knowledge at 57 +7/round
Ring Search (1pp) - result in roll of 6 so ring knowledge at 63 +8/round
Ring Search (1pp) - result in roll of 9 so ring knowledge at 57 +7/round

Turn 7:
Gear up (2pp)
Activate Moria (3pp)
Deploy Orc Legion (2pp) at Fornost
Deploy Troll Shock Force (1pp) at Fornost
Ring Search (1pp) - result in roll of 4 so ring knowledge at 84 +10/round
Ring Search (1pp) - result in roll of 6 so ring knowledge at 90 +11/round

Turn 8:
[RING FOUND]
Breed Uruk-Hai (2pp)
Deploy Dragons (2pp) at Isengard
Deploy Orc Legion (2pp) at Isengard
Deploy Troll Shock Force (1pp) at Isengard

[jjdenver]

Turn 9 saw the armies of evil advance on the shire and the fall of Osgiliath (eastern Gondor).

Turn 9:
Osgiliath seized
Harad ford seized
Play supply on Fornost Orc HQ (1pp)
Attack fellowship - (-70 readiness)

[jjdenver]

Turn 10 saw a massive assault on the shire, more Nazgul attacks on the ringbearer parties, and armies coming into contact in Rohan and Gondor where the southern men easily drove the outer defenses of Gondor inward.

Turn 10:
Declare war on Shire - Bree and Hobbiton fall
1 Nazgul withdrawn - can give more PP and come back on winged beast later for more mobility.

[jjdenver]

On the what turned out to be the final turn of the game I (by sheer luck) made a 3rd attack - each time apparently against the exact party actually containing Frodo - and killed him - gaining the ring for Sauron. Evil wins. Hurrah!!!

The scenario was quite a bit of fun. One thing I noticed is that the armies of the Free Peoples were unexpectedly tough to crack. Some orcs got smashed up against the Dwarves south of Galadriel's fortress. Sauron's winged birds were battered by archers repeatedly. Rohan turned out to be a bit of a stalemate despite Saruman's huge army. Even though the forces of Sauron are numerous they aren't great quality as the wargs are not very good on offense and the archers of the free peoples cause heavy casualties to the orcs. So be a bit careful w/ your Sauron armies.