Strategy and Tactics: The Woodmen (1650)

    By Brian Mason


    Introduction

    In a past article in Whispers of the Wood ("Winners and Losers in Middle-earth, by Tom Walton) a study was done of 31 completed ME-PBM games, with 93 possible winning positions , and the Woodmen have yet to place in any game. (editor's note--see the article Reflections on the Hall of Heroes, printed this issue, for updated information) Coming up with a winning strategy for this nation is a challenge.

    How do the Woodmen compare to other nations? At the start of the game they rank as follows: 

    

Table 1. How the Woodmen Rank

Descriptor			Among All Players	Among Free Peoples
Total Tax Base			tied for 18th		10th
Resource Base			tied for 7th		tied for 5th
Combat Strength			18th			7th
Character Points		16th			5th
Artifacts			tied for last		tied for last

    So, in all possible areas, the Woodmen are weak, and are arguably the weakest nation. Their resource base is rather high because they start with so many camps, and this contributes to their low tax base. Few of their population centers are in places that might produce metals.

    Another big problem for the Woodmen is that they have a large deficit, and just to get the nation in the black requires increasing taxes to 70%. If this is done, only two of the Woodmen population centers have fortifications, so if loyalty drops much more, losing pop centers is a very real danger. Unfortunately, there are very few ways to cut costs. There are no navies to give away, and the very real threat of attack from both the Dragon Lord and the Witch-king makes retiring troops a dangerous technique to attempt.

    In a team game, the Woodmen can greatly benefit from cash grants from some of their wealthier allies. This can greatly strengthen the position. However, even in a team game this is uncertain at best, so the following set of strategic plans is intended to be suggested moves for the Woodmen with little or no support from allies. Briefly, the strategy is as follows:


    General Strategy

    Raise taxes to 70% to get the 'Woodmen close to breaking even. They will need their gold reserve to create characters and camps.


    Character Strategy

    Create a couple of emissaries which will create camps in mountain hexes (hexes 2306, 2407, 2408 in the north and/or 2215, 2116, 2217, 2118, 2219 in the south) to, hopefully, generate gold, and once they reach about 50 in emissary rank, move them to camps and begin improving pop centers. High on the list of pop centers to improve should be the two Woodmen hidden pop centers.

    One of the best special advantages of the Woodmen is their ability to have characters with better challenge ranks and the added bonus of possibly having stealth. After the initial group of emissaries are created and the economy is put on a firm footing, many agents should be created. This is potentially the area where the Woodmen can effect the endgame the most.


    Army Strategy

    The Woodmen armies are weak. Despite this, unless the Witch-king commits troops from the west to attack in the east, Mt. Gundabad is a winnable Woodman target. Consider the following set of moves. One of the armies at the backup capital force marches to Maethelburg. These two weaker armies will be there to defend these two Major Towns from the Dragon Lord should he choose an early strike against the Woodmen. The other army at Maethelburg recruits 400 heavy infantry and moves to Buhr Fram. If the Witch-king has also recruited 400 heavy infantry and moved to Buhr Fram, the Witch-king will lose and the Woodmen will have about 64% of their troops left, more than adequate to move on and take an undefended (or barely defended) Mt. Gundabad. If the Witch-king has decided to stay put at Mt. Gundabad and recruit an additional 400 troops, then the Woodmen also recruit 300 heavy infantry and move onto Mt. Gundabad. Even with the fortifications at Mt. Gundabad, the Woodmen will win having about 51% of their troops left.

    Once this task is accomplished, further advanced planning is not advisable as what should be done may depend a great deal on the moves of the Dragon Lord as well as the Dwarves and Sinda.


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