Strategy and Tactics: Blind Sorcerer

    by John T. Seals


    As the Dark Servants go, this is one of the better protected positions to play (In my opinion anyway.) Why, you might ask? With his capital (Major Town/Castle) at 3929, and his backup at 3627 (albeit unfortified,) Akhôrahil has a few turns to play around inside Mordor, building his nation in preparation for the onslaught of the Free People as they try to sneak in the back door.

    First, let's look at the strengths and weaknesses of the position.

    I. Strengths.

    The Blind Sorcerer fields one of the biggest starting armies for the DS. This combined with no immediate enemies like Northern Gondor or Eothraim/Northmen gives them a good flexible tool from which to strike out the back, or plow through Northern Gondor's front lines. The army has average morale, good training, good equipment, and enough supplies to move for four turns with food. The Blind Sorcerer ranks the best mages, equal to or better than Noldo, in Middle-earth. Your population center production is good due to location, and plenty of free rough/mountain hexes to post camps in near the capital. So good, so far.

    II. Weaknesses.

    Well, you only have one army and it will take 4 turns for you to reach someone. You have no agents or emissaries, and only commanders capable of performing simple tasks. Plus, like the Arthedain, Cardolan, and some of the other heavy army nations, you only start with three low power artifacts.

    Second, now we have to eliminate the weaknesses and play on the strengths. So how do you put a nasty hurting on the Free?

    We'll divide our tasks into three parts: Military/Economic, Diplomatic, and Character.

    Military/ Economic

    Your huge army consists of all infantry, so it will take it awhile to join the fray. Meanwhile, you have to pay for its upkeep every turn. I would suggest moving the navy to 4025 Burch Nurn (V/T) on the opening move and prepare it to march towards the Northmen. Along the way you may catch a Sinda or Eothraim army moving south trying to sneak into the east side of Mordor. You can pretty much count on it. I would also split 100 troops to one of your commander/mages to use as a seed army wherever it is needed or to sit in the capital. As for the transports, I would suggest using a command order to abandon most of them, but keep a couple because not only does a navy move faster and more nimble than an army and the lake is a good place to dump good aligned artifacts and make them irretrievable to the free peoples. Only if they capture your harbor and ships or build a port can they get them.

    Once your army enters the fray, capture the enemy population centers you encounter so you may be able to recruit more troops to cover your losses. I would definitely use (or more) of my mages to cast defensive spells so I would not loose many troops when taking those Northern Gondor Town/ Towers. With a loyalty of 55, the pop centers would have an offensive value of 4650. Given four average mages and an average defensive spell, such as Blessings, your troops will be covered with no damage taken in combat. Your army can even increase in size when few wizards you can prevent most damage to your army and even increase its size considerably, giving you a chance to over-run those nasty free people armies that do appear. Another use for those conjured hordes is for 100 troops at a camp placed behind enemy lines and with a few mages in two turns there can be over 1000 troops. Which is enough troops needed to threaten those 'safe' pop centers from your enemies.

    Your economy is pretty lousy. Then again, most Dark Servants are in the same position. Particularly in the winter. Your tax base is two Major towns and a village. Starting at a 40% tax rate, that gives you a revenue of 7000 with a low production due to population size. I would lower my tax rate to 39%. Yes, lower! Raising it will only destroy the morale of the pop centers and at a 39 your loyalties should go up 1-2 or stay the same. That gives you a revenue of 6825 for a difference of 175. Thencreate camps quickly and often. The camps will have the benefits of loyalty and hopefully gold production due to their location. Besides, its easier to place camps when your tax rate is low compared to when it is high. Raising your tax rate for revenue purposes is inadvisable because at 175 gold per one percentage point the benefits of keeping it low outweigh the revenue gain and the loyalty losses.

    Diplomatic

    Diplomatic relations can be just as important as military actions. Your nearest neighbors are the Cloud Lord and the Easterlings. Just because the Easterlings are practically surrounded by the Dark Servants does not mean that they have to go your way. My experience has shown me that if you open your lines of communication to include the neutrals they will most likely join your case. Make sure you send notes to the neutrals on turn zero, it is especially important that you include a phone number or e-mail address so they can contact you in return. Many times I have been frustrated when playing a neutral and received notes with no way to call them or talk to them other than a 3x5 note card. You do not have to tell them your secrets, you just need to show them that your side has better communications than the other.

    Bribery does have its uses too. If it takes your only mage artifact to get a neutral to declare, do it. Isn't it much better to get someone else's troops to do your work for you so that you can do other things with yours (effectively doubling your army's efficiency?) Besides, there are many more artifacts out there waiting to be located and picked up.

    Open relations with your allies and keep them open. Coordination is vital, if you expect to win. Many a game has been lost because of lack of communication between 'allies'. Let your allies build camps in the mountains near your capital don't reserve them just for yourself. Even if you think you aren't doing anything important let them know, they just might be able to help.

    Character

    As the Blind Sorcerer, Akhôrahil has the most mages of any Dark Servant. Because of a lack of emissaries and agents I would spend the ten thousand gold required twice to name a 30 point emissary and an agent. This way I can name any more I need for five thousand gold. Name at least two emissaries and one agent as quickly as you can.

    As for the other character you can make at game start it can of any class you prefer. Use you two emissaries to place camps in those mountain and hills-and-rough hexes located near and around your capital. Use your agent to guard until he is in the 40's then use him to steal gold from the enemy. Plus there are times when there are no Cloud Lord agents available for your use and it is nice to have one of your own. Lastly, put those beautiful mages to work.

    You can put them to work by having two of them learn locate artifact true. This can be done a lot more quickly than you might think. It is possible to research two spells off the same list in one turn. It is random, but depending on the order the research orders go into the computer you may learn the easy and the average level or average and hard spells in sequence or you just may learn only the lowest difficulty spell. The nice point is that if the orders are done out-of- sequence then you only have to pay the one thousand gold once and not twice. The odds are 50-50 but the reward is worth it.

    Once locate true is learned find all the mage artifacts you can, starting with #15 Tinculin. Tinculin is a 40 (+ or -5) point neutral mage artifact with access to Spirit Mastery. Other artifacts that have Spirit Mastery access should be located first. The mage artifacts should be used along with the Spirit Mastery artifacts so that you can assemble a curses team. My experience has shown that this can be started as early as turn 5. After that locate as many combat artifacts as you can. A few mages should learn conjure hordes so they can join your army and improve its size and cast defensive spells. The combat artifacts should be put on characters in the army. Even if only 500 point combat artifacts are used they make a big difference in combat if there are a number of them (remember only one combat artifact per character is counted). With some creative quarter mastering, artifacts and defensive spells can empower an army of 400 men-at-arms to capture a major town!


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