Battle For Middle-Earth Evil Campaign Map 16, Act 16 - Cirith Ungol (Shelob's Lair)

The map starts with Frodo & Sam chasing Gollum over the bridge but then turning back when they see the Orcs coming out of Cirith Ungol. Not much point in chasing them as you won't catch them. You need to spawn some basic Uruks & feed a few Orcs to Shelob to gain her control. I treated this map as if I was going through a maze & kept to the right all the time. Free every trapped Uruk & group them with the others. Very good idea to have the Scavenger power at this point as resources are very scarce & very much needed here. Every kill will gain points with this power & although it is slow can certainly make a difference to being able to purchase a fire crossbow upgrade for example.

Send the remaining Orcs back to the castle, build a troll cage, Orc pit & armoury. Send Gollum around the cave where Shelob was found, collect all treasure & release any Berserkers from the webs.

Have Shelob guard the entrance the the cave to fend off attacks. Once all the Berserkers have been freed, send them into action.

Start working through the tunnels to get the treasure. If you're lucky you may catch up with Frodo.

The first time I tried this I managed to kill Frodo & Sam, therefore ending the game. I was rather disappointed after having so much trouble with Medium level on this map. Unfortunately I didn't save the game after this & the PC crashed. When I went back to the last save I could still have sent Shelob to kill Frodo & Sam but decided to go for the other objective of freeing all Berserkers trapped in the webs.

I only managed a limited fund to build an upgraded Uruk - Crossbow combo. Sent all foot troops & Shelob to start making inroads to the rest of the map & more treasure.

I managed to sneak around the corner without the 3 battalions of Gondor Archers to the left noticing by distracting them with Shelob.

Plenty of treasure to collect here. Send upgraded troops to help Shelob fight the soldiers. If you have enough cash, buy another battalion of Crossbows & upgrade with Armour, fire bolts & banner carrier if possible. These will help back up the Uruk - Crossbow combo you already have. Also send Gollum to rescue ant other trapped Berserkers in the vicinity. Don't use Berserkers to free their kind as they take large amounts of life with their less than delicate use of their sword.

At this point I sent all my Uruks on a strategic retreat back towards the fortress to regenerate & use Shelob to kill & distract the soldiers from Gollum who was concentrating on freeing more Berserkers & collecting treasure. When I had spawned & upgraded 2 Uruk - Crossbow combos I went on the offensive again to give Shelob a rest & gain more points from the Scavenger power.

Started working my way back through the tunnels keeping to the right again. met up with Gollum & a few more Berserkers that he had freed.

Instead of going south at the western end of this chamber I headed back to the previous left turn & killed the other soldiers waiting there. Sent Gollum to free another berserker. Also spawned another set of crossbows guarding the south side of the bridge in case Frodo & Sam try to sneak past. This happened to me once before & once they get out the caves you won't catch them unless you have someone guarding the bridge to stop them passing Cirith Ungol to Mount Doom.

Sent Shelob south to collect a few treasures & sent Gollum & the Uruk - Crossbow combos up the northern tunnel to regenerate.

I had to beat a hasty retreat to the fortress after a major attack of Soldiers & Archers. Managed to hold them off at the cave entrance with Shelob whilst the 4 Uruk - Crossbow combos regenerated.

Slowly but surely I got back to the last furthest point.

This was a tough part to get through. I was getting close to Frodo & Same now so had to keep any eye on any shortcuts they could make & give me the slip.

I was edging ever closed to Frodo & Sam

I managed to kill Frodo but not before he killed Shelob. I decided to rush Sam with all that I had left as it transpired there was a relentless & bottomless supply of Soldiers & Archers against me.

At last the fight was over & I had gained 10 power points.