The Witch-King position is NOT recommended for new players. The position has the best economy of all the DS. Some fantastic characters and artefacts and some good starting armies. Unfortunately, you are surrounded by enemies and will be defeated without help. This role calls for a diplomatic player. You must be prepared to discuss with your team mates and convince them to send you aid. You have to convince Rhudaur and Dunland to come over to your side. Without their assistance you will probably be knocked out of the game. If they join the FP you will certainly be knocked out!!
This is a challenging and stretching nation to play. If you like the easy ride, or will be unable to spend time to communicate with other players you shouldn't take this position.
Strategy Guide by Wei Wang
Response to Wei from Tom Walton
Strategy Guide by Brian Mason
Strategy Guide by Tom Walton
Discussion of Strategy Guide by Paul Comber
Witch-King Starting Information
Strategy and Tactics: The Witch-King
From Wei Wang
Some Witch-King Strategy I thought of. I've only played the Witch King once, but with Rhudaur's help I conquered Arthedain and Cardolan on turn 10. (game 93)
Raise your taxes to about 79% or so. All of your pop centres are fortified and you'll need the cash.
Murazor locates the Ring of Wind, Curifin, etc. And names an emissary.
Send the cav east into Mirkwood! This is the plan. Send all your cav to Mt. Gram. Split all the cav together and move onto Zarak-dum (this must be taken or the dwarves can kill you). Threaten it and land on Buhr Fram on the next turn, along with the Gundabad army. Mirkwood is your hope for a better future.
Improve all your villages to towns. Improve Zarak-dum to a major town. Use Angulion to do this until it is convenient to meet up with your new emissary.
Raise troops like crazy and try to use the blind spots in the FP maps. If you can survive for more than 10 turns consider raising light infantry for cheap threatening power.
Name that one emissary, a commander/agent, and two more commanders. I was fielding 9 armies at one point.
Bribe or beg Rhudaur for help.
Try to trade the Fire King or Blind Sorcerer for a major town. The Fire King is good since he doesn't have that many concerns down there and he can put up instant high morale armies.
You'll still need a lot of luck!
Observations on the Previous Article
From Tom Walton
I also have played the Witch-King once, and I find some of Wei's tactics to be a bit dangerous in the face of competent opposition. However, in light of the sheer fact that he conquered Arthedain and Cardolan by turn 10 (even with Rhudaur's help), it's a good guess that Wei's opponents weren't exactly skilled. My comments:
I wouldn't use Murazor to locate artefacts. Agent artefacts best belong with the Cloud Lord and Ice King, and the Witch-King has more than enough artefacts in other areas. Murazor is more useful as a challenge god and information gatherer (plus he's rather good at summoning hordes, a move that has great potential).
the Witch-King cav is quite powerful. Sending it into Mirkwood seriously weakens the western front. Had I done that in game 62, Brian, your co-editor and the Cardolan player in that game, would've rolled right over me. Only the timely appearance of my cav kept him from trashing most of Angmar (it also helped me defeat Arthedain's entire army, which arrived outside of Angmar on turn 6).
I wouldn't raise light infantry under any circumstances; it isn't cost-effective. If you want threatening power, raise MA or summon hordes with the Witch-King mages.
of the beginning characters, I'd name one emissary (for the pectoral), two commanders, and one mage (for combat duty and summoning hordes). Wouldn't bother with the double-class characters, as they cost too much and probably won't see a lot skill improvement until Eriador is firmly under control.
fielding armies under single commanders is always dangerous. Even if you're relatively safe from assassination (which the Witch-King is not, considering that the Noldo are so close and are quite capable of picking up agent artefacts early in the game), accidents happen. Example: in game 62, Rogrog was killed in battle while fighting Cardolan. Just an unlucky roll. Rogrog was the cav leader and carrying all of my command artefacts at the time (since Murazor died in personal challenge with Argeleb). If a secondary commander hadn't been in the army, I would've lost my commander, my cav, and virtually all of my best artefacts through one unlucky event.
Considering Cardolan's skill, that would've been the end of Angmar.
Strategy & Tactics: The Witch-King
From Brian Mason
I've delayed writing this article for some time for a couple of reasons. One, my worth co-editor waxed my Cardolan in game 62 playing the Witch-King, so he undoubtedly has better advice than I, and two, while Brian Lowery has not taken out my Rhudaur in game 97 he has certainly demonstrated that he also is "smarter than the average bear." Also, this article is going to be read by many other "pundits" in the game (hello out there Jeremy, David, Glen, etc...) who will be able to shoot numerous holes in my plans contained herein.
Well, if I didn't think I could take a few shots, Rhudaur would have joined the Dark Servants in 97, so drop back, reload, and get ready, here is my effort...
I'm first going to look at the usual set of basic data about the position, discuss important developments in the region which may or may not determine early exactly how the position is played. I'll discuss how these affected play in the specific cases of games 62 and 97. I'm then going to make some specific observations regarding the position. The unknowns in the region make such a big difference in how the position is played that it would be foolish to attempt to come up with a specific turn-by-turn strategy.
Basic Data
First, consider how the Witch-King compares to other positions (Allegiance Comparison Tables, Tom Walton, "The Mouth," #3):
among all
among Dark Servants
Total Tax Base
12th
1st
Resource Base
10th
1st
Combat Strength
8th
2nd
Character points
3rd
2nd
Artefacts
2nd
1st
The Witch-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 Witch-King would be as follows:
le
br
st
mi
fo
ti
mo
go
production
1359
342
151
13
4326
103
306
2491
Regional Development
So many of the early actions of the Witch-King will be determined by how play develops in the region. The important developments which will affect play substantially are listed below as well as how they will pan out. I'll selfishly mention how these activities panned out in the two games I've played where the Witch-King has been my primary adversary. In game 62 I played Cardolan while the Witch-King was played by Tom. In game 97 I played Rhudaur with the part of Murazor portrayed by Brian Lowery.
In game 62 Tom convinced Rhudaur to join him. While Rhudaur did not last long, his attack on Metriath prevented the Cardolani invasion of Angmar.
In game 97 Brian Lowery was unable to convince me to join the Dark Servants. We've been slugging it out ever since.
In game 62 Tom also convinced Rhudaur to join him (Tom will tell you that diplomacy is not his strong suit - Ha!). It was the Dunlendings who eventually delivered the death blow to Cardolan. In game 97 the Dunlendings dropped.
However, with the drops of the Woodmen and the Sinda, Dragon Lord competence was hardly necessary.
In game 97 the Dragon Lord play has been less than stellar (discretion prevents me from telling the truth here, but those in the game know what I mean).
In game 62 Cardolan was a tiger (okay, a tabby). Arthedain was humbled into near submission after an early combat with the Witch-King. He became despondent and dropped following an agent assault by the Cloud Lord (courtesy of Jeremy Richman).
In game 97 Cardolan was initially aggressive but his later play has been... well it has offset that of the Dragon Lord. Arthedain, despite being a new player, has been very aggressive and has continued to press the attack.
In game 62 the Dwarves started off with possibly some of the worst play I have ever seen (except, possibly, the 1988 Atlanta Braves). This position was later taken over by a competent player who was able to take out a virtually undefended Rhudaur.
In game 97 the play of the Dwarves has been workmanlike. Heck, he killed Ji Indur, who am I to complain?
In game 62 the Noldo made big plans. I never saw any of them pan out. They are, however, still in the game (anybody out there (Dave Holt? Jeremy?) who knows how this goes?
In game 97 the Noldo have been played by three different people. First very conservative, then very aggressive (and foolhardy), and now playing in a more thoughtful manner.
Possible Development
What to do with Murazor? The only weakness of the Witch-King is that he does not have agent skill. However, he is a formidable emissary, a powerful mage, and an adequate commander. The best place to put this wraith is having him as a backup commander move with your primary attacking army which allows him to: one, train troops to improve his command rank, conjure hordes to improve the army strength, provide artillery support for armies in combat with combat spells or fearful hearts, and provide an effective protector against some of the better challenging characters of Arthedain, the Dwarves, or the Noldo should the army come into contact with those.
Emissary Development: While Murazor is your most formidable emissary, he is far more important as a mage, and as a subcommander in your armies. Anguilion is an adequate emissary, and with the pectoral an excellent one. Given his starting emissary rank he can name emissaries early in the game (perhaps three of the first four slots).
Where to place camps: Many decisions for where to place camps depend a great deal on whether or not Rhudaur joins the Dark Servants.
If Rhudaur remains neutral or joins the Free Peoples the following locations are good spots: 1502-1702 (at these locations you get both the good and varied production of hills and rough (albeit at poor climactic production rates) as well as ideal locations from which to strike at Arthedain (Fornost is one regular march from 1502 by calvary, one forced march from 1602 by cavalry).
With Rhudaur in the fold of the Dark Folk, many other spots pop up, namely: 1803 as another hills & rough hex and the jumping off spots where the Cardolan and Dwarf maps do not overlap: 1808, 1810 and 1812. If you do not care whether or not you can be seen, 2105 and 2106 are almost inaccessible as well as many other hill & rough and mountain hexes. Also, 1905, 2005, and 1906 (the three village/towers) can be improved to town/towers. There are many other places all over the map where you can develop, however, most of these are done without having adequate military protection.
Bringing an ally North: I've seen this in every game, in various levels of involvement from agent actions of the Cloud Lord and Long Rider to direct military action with the some of the Mordor nations receiving recruiting bases from the Witch-King. Of all the Mordor nations the Fire King might be the best choice because of his free hiring of armies. However, if the South is secure either the Cloud Lord or the Blind Sorcerer (or, as in game 97, both of them) can also free up some resources to fight for Eriador.
Army actions: Only Northern Gondor starts the game with a better crop of commanders than the Witch-King. Of those, two (Dancu and Durkarian) have agent abilities and make excellent subcommanders. Also, with a better collection of combat artefacts than any other position, and better command artefacts than all except Arthedain they have an additional combat bonus.
At first, the plan should be to recruit until some determination can be made for who to attack. It is possible to make a balls-of-fire attack on any one target, however, doing this on enemy territory might be unwise.
Attacking Cardolan exposes your right flank to Arthedain.
Attacking either one makes you vulnerable to Rhudaur while attacking Rhudaur leaves you open to subsequent attacks from Arthedain and Cardolan.
Without regular recruiting and co-operation with the Dragon Lord, Mt Gunabad also becomes a very difficult position to hold.
A strategy I have seen used with success is to place many of the cavalry forces under a good commander which then moves across and into Free People population centres in northern Mirkwood and Rhovanion threatening them away.
Mage actions: Both Fearful Hearts and Conjure Hordes are very effective spells for the Witch-King. However, unlike the Dragon Lord and Blind Sorcerer the realm of Angmar does not have an overabundance of mages to put into specific tasks. While Murazor can learn difficult spells, and can find artefacts, using him in this capacity does not allow him to provide army support.
The Dwarf population centres: 2004 is a thorn. Threaten it away soon.
Dragons: You have several population centres in the mountains and with a good encounter response list for dragons you can get these nukes in your army. These can drastically affect the balance of play. However, even with a good encounter list be prepared to lose characters: you will (so don't send in your good starting characters!).
In many ways this position is most similar to Northern Gondor. Your position, while strong, is not as strong as those that surround and oppose you. You spend more time reacting than acting. Good Luck with it!
Strategy And Tactics: The Witch-King
From Tom Walton
Until Arthedain turned his tail between his legs and dropped, game 62 was by far and away the most challenging I've ever played. As the Witch-King, I was hit by combined Arthedain/Cardolan forces fairly early, as well as threatened to 'submit or die' by a very militant Rhudaur. Things did not look at all good until I managed to convince the Duns and Rhudaur to sell their souls to ol' Sauron; and even then, Cardolan still managed to wreck my armies and even get a force inside of Angmar.
That was also one of my early games, so my dragon database had yet to be built. Because of that, I never had a dragon in any of my armies, nor, due of the incessant fighting, did I have characters to spare to comb the mountains. Much of my success was due to luck: three times I managed to guess where and when huge enemy armies would strike, catching them before they could hit Angmar; I also had some good fortune in my 'diplomatic' efforts regarding neutrals (despite what Brian says about my diplomacy, I convinced Rhudaur to join me by threatening to take him down with me if he attacked; I won the staring contest).
In discussions with other players, I've found that many of my ideas for this position run contrary to what they'd do if they were running it. Ah, well. As with all of our S&T's, please take everything with a grain of salt.
The Military
This is a military position if there ever was one. You're essentially doomed unless the cards all fall your way, so you might as well give it everything you've got right from the beginning.
This means recruiting, and to hell with the treasury or forced tax increases.
In essence, you have to recruit 1400-1800 heavy infantry a turn to have any chance of stopping a combined Arthedain/Cardolan team which plays competently. Don't rely on having both Rhudaur and the Duns going your way, because even if they do (not bloody likely) they'll probably commit after the decisive opening battles. In addition, they'll no doubt be tied up with the irate Dwarves and others, limiting their effectiveness (in 62, Rhudaur wasn't terribly competent and was conquered by the Dwarves after doing much of nothing).
If Arthedain and Rhudaur are working together, they'll probably make a combined push around turn 6. Good thing, too, because if you recruit at the above rates you'll be running a deficit in excess of 20,000 gold by this time. You'll essentially be on the verge of bankruptcy, so battle is a blessing.
This is the first critical juncture of the position. If you guess where the enemy is going to march, you can catch them in a mega-battle which will result in the utter destruction of most of the armed forces for hundreds of miles around. If not, they'll fly right past you into Angmar and wreak such destruction that you might as well kiss your nation goodbye. Even if you later destroy the nasty invaders, your economy will be so trashed you won't be able to stop the them in the next round.
In game 62, I correctly guessed Arthedain's line of approach and managed to bring more troops to battle than he did. Though I lost Murazor that turn (Argeleb challenged my army commander, but Murazor challenged Argeleb first - and was cut down), I destroyed about 90% of Arthedain's armies and opened the approach for an invasion. My remaining forces were enough to capture/threaten the enemy towns. I've seen the above repeated so many times that my general tactics follow an 'after the holocaust' type of battle, wherein much of the armies that start the game are toast by turn 6 or so:
divide your infantry into one force and your cav into another. Have the infantry march directly into Arthedain and start threatening away his towns left and right. Try to draw the enemy to your main army, both to occupy his attentions and to keep him from counter-striking into Angmar.
with the cav force, make attacks to the rear of Arthedain. Don't capture; the Noldo can easily threaten away anything you take here. Instead, destroy all those little towns and villages in the backwaters. This will also lower loyalty, in turn making threats by the big infantry force easier to accomplish.
continue to recruit like crazy in Angmar. You'll need it to stop Cardolan, the Dwarves, and possibly one of the neutrals if they decide that you look too good to pass up.
The above tactics provide for three things:
(1) Home defence.
(2) A second wave of armies if home defence isn't required.
(3) The ruin of Arthedain.
I don't recommend fighting more than one opponent at a time, especially for this position. You can't possibly out-recruit Arthedain and Cardolan, much less Arthedain, Cardolan, and the Noldo; your best hope here is to cripple or destroy one nation using your initial forces plus massive numbers of new troops, to even out the odds when the inevitable second wave of troops come pouring forth from the Free nations. If you can put Arthedain down, or hit it so bad that it becomes a minor power, the odds of you surviving to the mid-game are much improved. If you fail in doing this, you'll almost certainly be destroyed soon after.
The Economy
On turn 1 or sooner, raise taxes to 80%; you'll be needing the gold. Don't worry about loyalties, because all of your pop centres are fortified (and thus won't degrade). If you're concerned about Noldo emissaries, just remember that once they're good enough to steal your towns they'll do it regardless of what the loyalties are.
Also on turn 1 dump all of your excess goods on the market, including any food in armies that you won't be using (leave your cav with food, though!). Try to build up your treasury to give you a cushion against a large deficit. In game 62, I was at one point running a deficit of better than -30,000, and the only thing that saved my bacon and allowed me to stop my Cardolani foe was a rather enormous treasury.
Try to supplement your economy with captures close to home, ones that you can could for some length of time. The Dwarven town at 2004 is a good choice, as is the Woodmen town at 2405. Once inside Arthedain, the towns near Fornost Erain can be taken for a few turns if your main army is in the area and available to engage the enemy.
There's some rather heated debate on whether or not this position should develop emissaries. Given the high tax rate and the automatic loyalty degradation, camps will be in peril of being lost if you don't spend several turns raising the morale. Even so, you'll have to come back and give the pop centres a boost every few turns.
On the brighter side, the Misty Mountains are overrun by dragons, and this means that you've got some excellent free emissaries already doing the job for you. My approach is somewhat middle ground; I believe you should put down about a half-dozen camps in the mountains of Angmar and in the Grey Mountains, out of reach of enemy armies. Using the Pectoral, you can quickly raise these camps to villages to boost your tax base, then to towns (the only position that can really do this right from the start of the game). These camps will supplement the tax and resource base of Angmar, but their primary use is with....Emissaries and Dragons
Angmar is a military position, not an emissary one. With the Pectoral, however, you can develop a small but very competent emissary team capable of hitting an enemy town - and stealing it - in a single turn. They'll also be able to counter Noldo efforts along this same line.
My suggestion would be to create an emissary early on, then have Angulion transfer the Pectoral to him. Create a second emissary to follow the first. Number one creates a camp, number two improves loyalty. Pass the artefact back and forth to let each get the big skill boost.
One turn 6 or 11, have the two emissaries run back and create two more emissaries. Give the Pectoral to these two new emissaries and have them improve the camps to villages, while the original two improve loyalty. By turn 15 or so, you should have four very good emissaries AND the pectoral. You'll be ready to go on the offensive, or to work defensively by building new major towns off- map (in case you're in danger of losing Angmar).
I recommend against naming more than four emissaries for the Witch-king. You'll need the rest of your character slots for army commanders.
One other effect that both the camps and the emissaries will have is improving the chances (dramatically) of running into a recruitable dragon. There's nothing like a dragon to even things out a bit, and putting down camps in the Misty and Grey Mountains attracts them like flies to, well, you get the picture. If anything, this is much more important than adding a few villages to your nation. By using emissaries, you kill several birds with one stone.
Characters
Aside from the emissaries, build straight 40-point commanders. Your agents are relatively useless except for scouts against Arthedain and Cardolan (the Noldo will kick their butts), yet your characters are good enough to resist Free kidnap/assassination attempts during the opening game. Try to get agent support from other Dark Servants better equipped to be effective. The same goes for mages. Early mages just aren't going to be very useful, taking turns to train up - turns which you don't have. You can't afford to be wasting your character slots on characters you can't use.
As for commanders...well, play the Witch-king and you'll see just how many commanders you're actually going to need. If anything, I was almost always short a commander or two even when I was maxed out on characters.
Diplomacy and the Switch
The entirety of your good fortunate is in the hands of Rhudaur and to a lesser extend, Dunland. If you want to survive against competent opponents, you'll need Rhudaur's help. Be prepared to offer a lot for his early entry into the war (artefacts are a small price to pay for 8,000 troops in aid just at the game start). Dunland usually goes good, so all you can really hope for here is to keep him neutral for as long as possible. Even neutral, Dunland will tie down some of Cardolan's troops, and he probably won't be able to restrain himself from stealing some Free gold. If you can keep him out of the war until one of the enemy is destroyed, you've done better than most Witch-king players.
One very useful tactic I've seen and that Brian describes above is to have a Mordor player recommit part of his resources to Angmar after trading major towns. This improves Angmar's chances quite a bit, and provides a nasty surprise for unsuspecting enemies. If a Mordor power is otherwise uncommitted, getting him to come north will be a blessing.
On the Witch-King S&T Article
From Paul Comber
Liked the piece on WK strategy. Here is my tuppence worth.
I am playing the WK in Game # 31 UK. Its turn 15 or so and we recently knocked out the FP. (4 were eliminated, the rest gave up) To be fair to them, although they were a team they were a new one and so didn't have access to encounter lists etc. Anyway, the strategy I used as the WK was as follows.
Recruit HI
RECRUIT HI
RECRUIT HI !!!
Use Murazor as an Emissary/Mage. By using him with the Pectoral I built up pop centres from towns to major towns and major towns to cities. This I feel gives several distinct benefits.
a) MUCH more difficult to Threaten for the FP esp. the Cities.
b) Higher defensive bonus, with good loyalty from Dragons the difference between a cities defence and a MT can be quite marked.
c) Since you have high taxes you can get the money back for the building pretty quickly.
Send Angulion south to Mordor ready to collect a backup capital if needed and meanwhile build safe pop centres in Mordor.
a) MONEY
Mordor should be constantly badgered for cash, point out that you are facing at least 4 FP's while they deal with 6 between them. I regard a minimum of 10,000 a turn as acceptable.
b) AGENTS.
The only way to deal with the recruiting power of all those FP's is to knock some of them out without using troops. The Cloud Lord must send at least 1 agent to help you, others should be encouraged to help.
c) Swap of MT's . Never thought of this ourselves but it appears to be a very sound idea, I wish I had heard of it earlier.
Rhudaur is crucial . If he doesn't help then you are finished. Staying neutral is not good enough, he must be encouraged to actively aid you. Try to convince him that he is as dependant on you as you on him. (I believe this to be true) A scenario to paint is what happens to you when I am dead ? Rhudaur is small fry when compared to FP's . If they win he has no chance and must join them, then he will be one of many with no chance for individual victory.
Offer virtually anything to get him, several combat artefacts is CHEAP !
In summation I believe this is NOT a military position. It , like the QA is a DIPLOMATIC one. You must get the neutrals on your side, you must get support out of your own team no amount of military skill will save you from competent opponents unless you achieve these things.