The Free Peoples: Initial Army Strategies

The Shadow has three big areas that are often targeted and these are Gondor, Rohan and the DEW-line (Dale, Erebor and the Woodland Realm). These areas must be defended if Frodo is to succeed in his quest to destroy the One Ring. How then, do you ask, do I do this with the few armies I begin the game with?

Let me answer that question by focusing on one area at a time. Let us begin up in the northeast portion of the game board, the DEW-line:

DEW-line
Remember that even if your nations are not yet at war you can still move the armies as long as you don't cross the borders of another nation. In the northeast this allows you to move the Dwarven regular unit from the Iron Hills to the Vale of the Carnen to block a possible approach from the Southrons and Easterling armies from Rhûn. If the Shadow tries to strike at Dale they will activate the Dwarven nation when they attack through the Vale of the Carnen. The risk with this early move is that it will allow the Easterlings to head straight into the Iron Hills and capturing the Dwarven town there and then the road will be open for an assault on Erebor. This will however also activate the Dwarves as soon as the iron Hills are captured. The second, and more viable, strategy around the DEW-line is sending the North regular army from Carrock to the Old Forest Road from where it can reinforce Dale or retreat into both Dale and the Woodland Realm if it survives an attack from the Shadow army from Dol Guldur. If you are lucky enough to be able to play the card "Grimbeorn the Old, son of Beorn" to reinforce the army in Carrock before this move the DEW-line's defences are bolstered substantially.

Rohan
Let us turn our attention towards the plains of the horse lords and focus on the defences of Rohan. Saruman and the forces of Isengard are positioned to strike at the Fords of Isen right from the start. All they need are two muster dice; one to bring Isengard to war and one to muster Saruman and with him the superior leadership of the Uruks of the White Hand. By the time this is done you should have decided how to best defend your borders against the forces of the White Hand. If you have enough army movements to move the units from Edoras to Helm's Deep this might be worth the investment since Edoras is worth one victory point less than Helm's Deep and the latter is much easier to defend since it is a Stronghold. The other possible defensive precaution you can take is to send the lone regular unit that begins the game in Helm's Deep to reinforce the Fords of Isen. Since the Fords of Isen is a fortification the Shadow will only hit you on sixes on the first round of combat and the extra attack provided by your unit from Helm's Deep might prove important. After the first round of combat all your surviving forces (if any) should retreat to Helm's Deep.

Another way to play it is to abandon the Fords of Isen and retreat all your forces into Helm's Deep before Isengard attacks. This gives you an army that can survive for some time inside the walls of Helm's Deep and it also leaves you the force at Edoras to do with as you see fit. This is a bit risky though since the activation of Rohan will take longer unless you use muster dice to bring them to war.

Gondor
Finally we have to consider how to defend the nation of Gondor from the hosts of Mordor and Harad. This is especially important if you plan to turn Strider into Aragorn since this only can be done if you remain in control of the Gondor victory points locations.

Between Gondor and Mordor lies the now ruined city of Osgiliath, a mere shadow of its former self. This fortification should not be abandoned since it lies outside the borders of Gondor and the Shadow will not activate Gondor unless they are forced to attack an army there. Since Osgiliath provides the same protection as a Stronghold in the first round of combat you might as well move army units to reinforce the garrison. As the Shadow armies attack from Mordor you then fight one round of combat before retreating to Minas Tirith.

This strategy has its drawbacks; the Shadow player might us the Harad armies to attack Pelargir and then head to Minas Tirith from the west. If he does your attempt to reinforce Osgiliath has now forced you to use another action die to move the units back to cover Minas Tirith unless you manage to muster there through other means.

These different strategies to defend your settlements with your initial combat units all depend on your ability to move armies. This is dependent on the precious action dice and it is therefore impossible to cover all options I have discussed. Often you are forced to abandon one area to move in another. When deciding which theatre to concentrate on you must carefully consider the options for the Shadow, what actions can he take this turn? Has he committed to any area by playing muster cards or moving troops? The one move that you always should try to do is the move from Carrock to the Old Forest Road. This move helps set up a perimeter defence of both Dale and the Woodland Realm as well as help the Fellowship if they should opt for the Old Forest Road route after passing through the Goblin Gate.

Written by Kristofer Bengtsson