The Fire King is a good position for a new player. If you follow the instructions below you can't go wrong. You will need to get help for your Mordor allies, but this shouldn't be too difficult, they have a vested interest in supporting you. Make sure that you capture Minas Ithil on turn 2. It's important that you move all your troops (-100AR) right from the start. Failure to capture Minas Ithil is a big mistake. Whatever you do you MUST capture it on turn 2!!!
Aside from that, you can't go wrong. If you follow the precepts of recruit and die, you should be OK as long as the other DS team support each other.
Strategy Guide by Brian Mason
Strategy Guide by Tom Walton
The Fire King Starting Information
Strategy & Tactics: The Fire King
From Brian Mason
Basic Data
Go to your bathroom, pick up a bottle of shampoo, and bring it back to this article. I'll wait... If you take a look at the back of the shampoo bottle they give you directions (I've always wondered if the people who need directions for shampoo can even read, but I digress). The directions typically say: lather, rinse, repeat (I've also wondered if programmers, always aware of infinite loops, die in the shower, but I digress once more).
Now, allow me to present what I call the 'shampoo strategy' for the Fire King: recruit, die, repeat.
If you remember these precepts, you'll play the Fire King to about its fullest potential. The unity of purpose in this position is quite refreshing. All you do is guard the Ithil Pass and pound Northern Gondor. You may have a chance later on to actually get creative, but unless you do these two things, all other strategies are pointless.
Given the simplicity of the strategy, continuing might seem vain, however, there are a few ways to optimise the strategy, and these will be discussed below. However, as in past offerings, we'll start with an analysis of basic data.
First, consider how the Fire King compares to other positions (Allegiance Comparison Tables, Tom Walton, "The Mouth," #3):
among all
among Dark Servants
Total Tax Base
tied for 22nd
tied for 7th
Resource Base
tied for 15th
tied for 3rd
Combat Strength
tied for 17th
tied for 7th
Character points
17th
10th
Artefacts
15th
9th
The Fire King has fair production in some areas, very poor in others. Expected production (Population Centre Development, Brian Mason, "The Mouth," #2) which has not been adjusted for climate for the nation of the Fire King would be as follows:
le
br
st
mi
fo
ti
mo
go
production
588
678
344
31
152
3948
The Character Situation
Of all the Nazgul, Ren is one of the weakest. When going into battle with Northern Gondor, it will be necessary for Fire King characters to refuse personal challenge, for if there is a Northern Gondor commander at the location with the command artefacts you will probably lose. Early creations for the Fire King should include emissaries, possibly up to all four slots, if not this, then three emissaries and an additional agent.
The Economic Situation
As most of the Fire King population centres are unfortified, it would be unwise (especially with the new, more randomised, loyalty changes) to raise taxes very high, 55% is about as high as you can afford to go. This can leave you with a substantial shortfall, however, much is uncertain here because of the gold production uncertainty. Essentially, the plan would be to keep hiring troops until you cannot afford anymore, and then march them off to die in Ithilien. The economy will be substantially improved when you take Minas Ithil (and this you should certainly be able to do on turn two). The emissaries have the opportunity to improve the economy, both through creating camps which produce gold and by improving population centres. Get these beasties in action early to improv their skill ranks where they can be a potent offensive force later in the game.
The Military Situation
You start with three armies at Barad Ungol. These are the suggested moves:
Turn One
Have Nazog guard something or someone and move steel or bronze to Barad-wath or Barad Ungol. Have Ren transfer the Helm of Sen Jey and a combat artefact to Uklurg and then join Uklurg's army. Have Rozilan prentice magery and join Shagrat's army. Have Shagrat transfer all but 100 troops to Uklurg and raise taxes. Have Shogmog transfer command to Uklurg and move to Barad-wath. Have Skargnakh name a character with 30 emissary skill and join Shagrat's army. Have Uklurg recruits 400 heavy infantry (use steel or bronze at the hex for armour rather than weapons) and moves onto Minas Ithil. Uthmag can prentice magery and join Uklurg's army.
For prentice magery above you may want to substitute research spell.
Other actions:
Find out if the Cloud Lord and Blind Sorcerer are sending their troops to fight the Gondors or around the east side of Mordor North to the Eothraim and Northmen. Possibly arrange with the Cloud Lord or someone else a strategy where your agents can steal gold from each other. This will allow Nazog and the other agents to improve into offensive forces considerably earlier than if you simply guarded.
The way to keep the Gondors off the Ice King's sole big population centre is to attack and keep them busy at Osgiliath. Point this out to him. Determine if the direction of attack for the Dark Lieutenants and Dog Lord will be West or North. If North, make sure they protect Northern Ithilien at the least.
Capture, Destroy, or Threaten? Once you reach Minas Ithil you will be faced with this question. As Ithil will form a buffer to protect your capital, destroying it is probably not the best idea. Getting it in your hands early is of paramount importance, so if Northern Gondor has foolishly committed troops here you may to capture. If there are no armies there to defend it, threatening is possible. Uklurg will have a good command rank (50) and will have many (5100) troops. Having the recruiting and tax base of a third major town is also worthwhile.
Conjure Hordes, Combat Spells or Fearful Hearts? When going into and preparing for combat, you will need to consider which of these spells you should be using. At the start of the game, Rozilan adds about 150 troops per turn, each increasing the offensive/defensive combat value by 105/300 points (by comparison, recruiting 400 heavy infantry adds 1391/4000 points). However, these troops cost only 150 gold per turn, and the number conjured should go up. As this increase, while small, is non-zero, it is probably a good idea for the army at Barad Ungol. After Rozilan has researched both Fearful Hearts and a good combat spell Conjuring Hordes will be a good idea.
When in combat, your mages should have the option of casting Fearful Hearts or a combat spell. Which one you do is strictly a matter of the numbers. Calculate the combat strength of your army and determine which produces the greatest increase, then do that one.
Turn Two
You are now in a position to capture or threaten Minas Ithil, you have mages in your armies, have a recruiting army at Barad Ungol and a commander ready to hire one at no extra cost at Barad-wath. You're sending steel to one recruiting centre and bronze to the other to use as armour for your troops. You've begun training Ren, so he is no longer the whipping boy of the other Nazgul, and soon, will be feared by all. Hopefully, you've made contact with your Mordor allies and are fiendishly plotting the fall of the Gondors. What's next?
Send your emissaries out to create camps. When they get good enough, have them act offensively. Have them influence away a Gondorian town. Have a commander there to hire an army right away. This will upset them to no ends, as they must deal with troops on their side of Anduin. Repeat.
Strategy & Tactics: The Fire King
From Tom Walton
When Brian suggested doing the Fire King I said "okay, that'll be easy: raise troops, march to Osgiliath, and die. Repeat as necessary." Brian apparently felt the same way about the position, as you can see from his article. I don't have a whole lot to add. There really isn't anything tricky you can try with the Fire King in the opening game. Unless you've got some real thick-witted opponents playing the Gondors, the first ten or fifteen turns are usually devoted to soaking the Ithilien with blood, trying to see how high you can stack the bodies (sometimes I think the Fire King should really be called 'The Buzzard King' or 'The Maggot King', or something in a similar vein).
Just a couple of notes:
(1) Whether you live or die entirely depends upon your Mordor allies. Despite the constant combat this position is involved in, there's little (if any) room to exercise any military genius you might harbour. Strange as it may sound, the Fire King is a great position for a diplomatic player and a lousy one for a military player. Get on the horn as soon as the game begins, and stay there until both Gondors are bittersweet memories.
(2) Don't forget about your ability to raise armies at no cost and call up hordes. I've seen players take a town behind the lines via emissary action, build an army of a thousand men at arms in record time, then go on a 'threat' rampage back and forth across the enemy nation. I've even seen one player do this using camps in the mountains against Southern Gondor (to great effect, I might add; it's a real bitch trying to root out all those little pop centres).
(3) Finally, you can use the abilities in (2) above to support a distant ally. In one game, I saw the Fire King transfer part of his recruitment efforts to Angmar. While the Witch-King ground Arthedain and Cardolan down in mutual destruction, ol' Ren would avoid the fighting and jump into the rear, swiping pop centres from the enemy with threats. Of course, the more pop centres he had the more men-at-arms he raised, and the more armies there were running about causing the enemy to pull his hair out in frustration.
That's all I have to say on this position.