Total War: The Third Age – The salvation of the Silvan Elves

Last week I finished of my campaign story after the victorious conquest and suppression of Rhun’s Northern provinces. With my enemies in full retreat, I consolidated my newly conquered territories and began to rebuild my armies. Across the rest of Middle Earth Rohan and Isengard were still locked in an epic war of attrition. To the west, Eriador and the High Elves were on holiday and doing absolutely squat to aid the war effort. In the south, Gondor was being bullied by Harad and in the North Mordor was brutally crushing the Silvan Elf resistance in Mirkwood.

Sensing that my Silvan allies couldn’t survive much longer, I began preparations to take the fight to the Dark Lord. With complete extinction on the cards for the Wood Elves, I quickly built up two armies and marched south into the forests of Mirkwood. By the time I managed to get my armies into the field of battle, the Silvan Elves had been reduced to the 2 settlements of Thranduil’s Halls and Cerin Amroth. In a two-pronged attack I captured the settlements of Emyn-nu-Fuin and Eryn Dolen, and returned them both to Elven control. Beorn’s Halls to the west had previously been under Elven control, but an Orc army had savaged the province several turns ago. Instead of defending their homelands, the remnants of the Silvan army marched on the territory and retook the settlement. Mordor was clearly incensed by these developments and a steady progression of stacks made their way through the Black Gate and towards Dol Guldur.

While the war in Mirkwood was heating, I continued to ravage Rhun’s armies and took the settlement of Mattaram. I decided that drawing Dale back into the fight against Rhun was a sensible move, so I handed the settlement over and created a small buffer zone between my provinces and the evil Easterlings. My conquest in Mirkwood provided me with a large war-chest, so I decided to try and incite a war between Eriador and Isengard. Eriador continued to worry me due to their inactivity and their tendency to amass large armies near my border. With this in mind I sent a relatively big army across the Misty Mountains into Eriador and sent my troops south to take on the might of Isengard. The whole idea was to commit Eriador and the High Elves to war against Isengard, while at the same time helping Rohan out with their bloody war of attrition.

Things in Mirkwood were once again looking bleak, Mordor was massing troops to the south and I was losing troops every turn. My supply lines were hideously long and the poor quality of Elven roads meant that my reinforcements took ages to march through the forests. After a few victorious skirmishes, I marched south and besieged Ost-in-Gil. Unbeknownst to me, Mordor had managed to move a serious stack into northern Mirkwood, and during the AI turn my besieging army was caught in a surprise attack of over 2,500 Orcs. The battle was bloody, but I managed to rout the two armies and exterminate them. As the besieged army had sallied forth, my army fresh from the fight walked into the citadel victorious and unopposed. Once again in the spirit of peace and Middle Earth, I returned the captured settlement over to my Silvan allies.

In next weeks instalment of Total War: The Third Age – The siege of Dol Guldur, Rhun returns and the Uruk-hai of Isengard eat Dwarvern steel.

Ulmo, Lord of the Waters by John Howe