Battle For Middle-Earth Evil Campaign Map 37, Final Battle - Minas Tirith

It's been a long haul but worth it. 36 gruelling maps that have literally taken months to get right with all but 1 Total Victories at The Old Brown Lands. Some excellent experience learned for trying out the Evil side online. I've only played Gondor up until now but might try my hand with Mordor. My online name is Baaa if anyone comes across me, I won't claim to be very good but I have my moments when I've had some sort of rest & enough time for a battle. I've had some battles go on for 2-3 hours & into the small hours. Not so good when you have to get up at 6 for a 12 hour day. It's been fun though & if only the maximum Hard level was available as mentioned at the foot of page 15 in the DVD booklet. I was hoping that if I had Total Victory on hard then perhaps it would be unlocked. We'll see after the battle I suppose.

Below is the map of Middle Earth with all lands but the White City conquered by Sauron's Minions. At this point I have a choice of 4 armies to make the final attack. These are the Mordor Armies of 255 Evil Men & 3 Mumakil in Central Ithilien, 70 Orcs, 12 Trolls & 70 Evil men at Osgiliath. Saruman, 200 Uruks & 25 Warg Riders are at Cair Andros with Lurtz lurking in Mirkwood with his 220 Uruks & 10 Warg Riders. Behind the Black Gates there are also 300 Orcs, 20 Trolls & 100 Evil Men & another 300 orcs & 20 Trolls at the foot of Barad-Dur. From what I recall all these armies eventually come onto the Pelennor at scripted intervals.

So I may be mad but I think I'll try all for armies with the same approaches & see how each faction compares. It will be interesting to see how the script changes, if at all. If I was to be a purist I would have to start with the Orcs at Osgiliath but I think I'll start with Lurtz first from the north & work south. Should be interesting but I don't know how long it's going to take me.

The battle starts with a preview movie showing the Evil forces massing towards Minas Tirith.

22:05 - The map starts with everyone to the far south east where the road from Osgiliath enters the map. This where all the reinforcements will come from. The Rohirrim will come from the north as in the story, as do Aragorn, Gimli & Legolas from the west although the Army Of The Dead were of course the men freed by Aragorn & the Army Of The Dead from the Black Ships. There are 3 camps on the map that need to be populated immediately. Spread the troops around & start building resources & a few Uruk Pits. Build one in each camp is probably best as the Army Of The Dead will do some serious damage when they arrive.

22:08 - Just as I establish my northern camp some Cavalry turn up & take out some of my Orcs. They're not much use anyway & I need to free up some command points for more useful troops. I send the Nazgul to sort the horses out though.

The 2 medium camps to the south east & the small one to the north have now been fully built. There is still a small camp to the far west so I send everyone there to clear them away. There's no other action on the field right now & I have a while to wait. They soon get wiped out by the Nazgul but the rest of my troops heading this way attract the attention of the Trebuchets on the Walls. I send the Nazgul to pick them off quickly & get out. Lots of Fire Arrows on the walls.

22:25 - I manage to take out all the Trebuchets to the west of the gate but almost a Nazgul in the progress. Have to be more careful.

At this point I decided to start building Grond. I didn't build any Siege Towers as O could probably blow the gate with the Balrog if I wanted. I though I'd try Grond at least & see how I fare.

22:38 - With the Balrog now ready I decided to summon it. To give it extra strength I used the Spoiled Land, Eye of Sauron, Freezing Rain & Darkness Powers combined. if I'm going to blow the gate then I may as well have the best chance possible with the least effort.

One breath is all it takes.

Didn't take long to track down Gandalf & kill him. Sorry Gandalf, you'll get your own back at the Black Gate soon.

22:48 - With the Rohirrim arriving in 1 minute I assemble all the Pikes to the north well spread & all other troops at the northern medium camp.

Some Archers have a go but don't last long.

22:54 - The Rohirrim arrive.

With the tainted land, Eye, darkness & freezing rain they don't last long. By 23:00 they were history along with Eowyn. The Archer Rohirrim hang around to the north but again didn't last long against the crossbows & Nazgul.

22:02 - The last of the Trebuchets on the first level are destroyed.

22:03 - The Eagles arrive.

23:06 - Suddenly I lost a Nazgul to the Eagles but manage to get one of them in return.

After another attack by Tower Guards I think it's time to grasp the nettle & head for the gate. The Balrog has recharged & no sign of Aragorn yet.

23:12 - I send all troops towards the gates & send the Nazgul ahead to take out any Trebuchets still left on higher levels. I was a bit careless here I suddenly found myself without any Nazgul. No more Trebuchets at least though so I save & start sending everyone else in on attack mode & see what happens.

23:20 - Suddenly I get a message to secure the village to the west which I did an hour ago. I guess this in preparation for the imminent arrival of Aragorn.

I now have 2 minutes to advance as far into the second level as possible. I still have plenty of command points with sufficient spares to keep spawning Trolls auto sent to the second level Citadel.

23:23 - Grond finally makes an appearance. I send it through the broken gate to help clear away the lower level buildings to the north east.

23:29 - Aragorn, Legolas & Gimli arrive with The Army of the Dead. I'm sure this army is larger than the one on medium difficulty. Fortunately all my troops are on the second level & the camps on the plain will keep them busy until their time runs out.

I send my troops further north along the second level & as expected the Army Of The Dead are heading for one of my camps. I was hoping the game AI would have been a bit cleverer than this.

23:34 - The Army Of The Dead have gone & very little remains behind the walls.

23:39 - With virtually all buildings inside the walls destroyed I decide to send everyone outside again to sort out Aragorn, Legolas & Gimli. I may as well build on the empty plots again whilst I'm there. Legolas is the first to go.

23:41 - Aragorn is next.

23:42 - Gimli soon follows.

With all the time spent on rebuilding the camps on the plain a few more buildings have sprung up inside the city.

The last few troops & building that have rebuilt to the north second level are soon reached & overcome.

12:59 - It's all over at last.

The battle ends with a short series of movies showing the city destroyed & burning. I'm looking forward to the Good campaign now to even the score. I have to do this battle again for the other 3 armies first though. At least I know I need a good 2 hours for each battle which will limit to the weekends I suspect. I'll certainly do them though & carry out the same strategies to see if any strength's & weaknesses each faction has. I still have to complete the pages of the other factual details such as write-ups of characters, powers, regions, factions etc. strategy guides. I'll do it when I have the time though. I'll probably start on cleaning up the Evil faction details now that I've completed the highest level possible (Please make the game more difficult) then complete the Good version to the same pattern.