Strategy and Tactics: The Woodmen

So, I know what you're thinking - ANOTHER ARTICLE ABOUT THE STUPID WOODMEN? Can't they publish anything more interesting? Answer: no; so go and read someone's poetry or the insults in barbs and brags. Please by no means let me detain your interest further - we Woodmen have private matters to discuss.

This is just my two bits worth; I had the "educational" experience of playing my very first ME-PBM game as the Woodmen - and there is a certain lingering suspicion that I was suckered. For anyone who thinks otherwise, this is the VERY LEAST desired position. (Being clueless, I made no position requests except to be a Free People.) And voila! (By the way, GSI, you might want to adopt a "default newbie position request list" consisting of four to eight positions of intermediate level challenge to be given to the ignorant beginner, perhaps ones which in your experience are neither excessively difficult nor tactically critical during the initial turns of the game . . . .)

Anyone who plays the Woodmen position intelligently knows the two cardinal rules of the position, one for the initial turns, and one for the middle-to-endgame. These are:

• Be aggressive.

  and for the middle-to-endgame:

• Be subtle.

Let's deal with them in order. Against an experienced collection of opponents, especially say a Dragon Lord and Witch-king with good communication, the first ten turns of the game can be a living nightmare for the Woodmen. There are a few things that you can do, however, which will turn things to your advantage. First, strike immediately! Those armies are impressive and unfortunately expensive, and you don't start with a balanced economy. In this game I sent my most powerful armies immediately against Goblin's gate, and caught the Dragon Lord completely unprepared. By striking down that army there and eliminating two of his starting characters, I seriously weakened his position in northern Greenwood and cost him a lot of money and time; this also had the effect of removing a direct threat to my under-fortified capital city.

So be aggressive. It also has the effect of impressing your allies with the possibility that you have the potential to be a major asset to them. Arthedain is far more likely to loan you his silver rod if he thinks you'll use it against Dol Guldur than as a toothpick.

Also by striking quickly, (losing a few expensive troops and saving some money) you take the pressure off your allies, and they may be disposed to assist you in return. My eliminating a powerful army two hexes away from Imladris freed Elrond from pressure in that direction; he reciprocated. Barely had the Witch-king army under Lord Cyka descended into the vale of Maethelburg when Elrond spread his mantle of invisibility over my capital city, leaving Cyka to howl in rage.

Wheedle! South Gondor, if it's being run by a competent character, will recognize that if you stay afloat then there's an agent power to someday match the Cloud Lord who owes him a favor. The Noldo probably won't give you artifacts, but they might point out one or two to you that are too far for them to seek out conveniently. Make all the promises you care to - an assassination here or there, or the commitment of a Woodman agent to the Noldo or Arthedain curse squads - those are within your power and difficult for your allies to do without you.

Be opportunistic! When the Witch-king (who was an utter incompetent) collapsed, my ONE decent mage immediately located the Pectoral and fetched it out from under the noses of my more experienced and powerful allies. Possession is nine-tenths, they say.

Now there's the matter of the character imbalance to worry about. You have NO decent agents, mages, or emissaries, nor hope of obtaining them soon unless an ally goes under and you can recruit some. So work with what you've got! During the early portion of the game create pure commanders. They're cheap and useful, and let me explain.

One aspect of the game that is overlooked by many is that commanders are high challenge rank characters and that THEY TRAIN FASTER THAN ANY OTHER SKILL RANK. When that's combined with the probable challenge or stealth bonus, you either have super-challenge characters (outmatched only by the artifact-rich powers) or DECENT challenge characters who are nearly invisible. If you're the Woodmen and you don't have seven Warlords by turn ten you're playing the position wrong.

(OK, I exaggerate, but not by much.) But there was one Lord Marshal in the game when it ended, and his name was Beoraborn.

Don't go for mages. There's no hope. You need ONE decent mage and she should stay in some forest villa casting locate spells for you. Find Galadriel, find Gandalf, locate Sting or Orcruin for you, but don't try to compete with the mage powers until later in the game. There's no way you're EVER going to have Tinculin or the Ring of Wind, so forget it - for now. You can also use all the pure emissaries you can spare the cash for, so balance that with your high-challenge commanders. When you can afford it, train commander/agents. That way the special ability bonus is useful either way . . . .

If some brilliant tactics and deft cooperation help you through the initial crunch, then some real subtlety is in order. Military actions outside of the Greenwood are inadvisable. But there's a greater inequality to be remedied; which is that all the best artifacts have already been taken. With your ONE decent mage tracking various persons and artifacts for you, you can form a "challenge squad" of high-level commanders accompanied by one of your matchless agent scouts to do a Scout for Characters order. While the Noldo are still putting together their curse squad nine generals may descend upon Morannon and destroy every available character - indeed, Dendra Dwar may be laughing so hard at having Bornbeneor appear in his capital that he may not bother to refuse personal challenges at all . . . .

There's another aspect of challenging that often goes overlooked also. Order of challenge is determined by native, not modified rank. So General Odagus gets to challenge before Warlord Gothmog, no matter how many trinkets Gothmog may have picked up from Bain I in a recent assassination. And if Din Ohtar is also present with his lovely Ring of Wind, then Din Ohtar will die by challenge and Gothmog will receive a polite refusal. Remember that the best assassin is no match for a great commander in a challenge, and with your powers of scouting someone with the Cloak of the Abyss may consider himself safely positioned to off Beoraborn or Elrond only to die in a duel long before the agent actions portion of the turn.

One final consideration for high native rank characters is that the success of agent actions against a character is determined by his native, not modified rank. (Officially, GSI refuses to confirm or deny this, but that doesn't change the fact that it's true.) So your high commanders will be difficult to assassinate, kidnap, or steal from. Even Ji Indur may be surprised when he assigns two of his best agents to off the aforementioned General Odagus and Lord Bain (with all his artifacts), and General Odagus, the Woodman patsy, casually annihilates the upstart agent where Bain dies. Lord Marshals are harder to assassinate than anything except perhaps a dragon or Tom Bombadil . . . .

Be aware that your enemies want you dead and your allies want you as a tame lackey. So repay your debts during the middle game and be mercenary in the endgame. Both ally and enemy must come to respect you once there's been a chance to even things up. When an ally leaned on me in the endgame of my first game, I had four Warlords, two Generals, eleven emissaries (nine above 50 rank, one above 90), and the highest challenge rank character in the game ready to launch an offensive a single turn later. Pity that the last remaining Dark Servant folded shortly thereafter, before the scores could become more even.

And while you may not place, then again you may, and in future years you can tell little Beorning children - "We may not rule over Dol Guldur or Morannon, but if ever an elf asks, remind him who brought the dragon!"