Strengths:

Only one DS and Neutral within early striking distance
Good tax base
Good and varied resources
Argeleb II with artifacts is one of the better characters in the game
Easily defended position

Weaknesses:

No back-up capitol
No emissaries, agents or mages capable of naming another 
Weak starting army with little cavalry


Overall Arthedain is a strong nation. It has a strong military ally to the south in
Cardolan, and the best character nation nearby in the Noldo Elves. It's only near
enemy, the Witch King, is strong, but not nearly strong enough to survive competent
play from Arthedain, Cardolan and the Noldo. The Dwarves too, are in easy striking
distance, and in fact have a well fortified town in the Witch-King's backyard.

Rhudaur is the nearby neutral, and he starts with the most powerful army in the area,
and his economy can't support it. Rhudaur usually chooses sides quickly, so
immediately start diplomacy with him to gain his allegiance. Don't give away much
though, frankly you don't really need him. If he goes good that's the final nail in
the Witch King's coffin, but if he doesn't, well, it just means he'll last a little
bit longer if you know what you're doing, and you and Cardolan will eventually gain
his pop centers too. 

 

Characters:

You have a number of fine commanders to start, and some awesome command artifacts.
You might want to build one more, as you'll need them all. However, one of the first
things you'll want to do is name a 30 pt emissary for 10,000 gold and have him in
turn create another one the following turn. You really don't need an agent to start
with, as the Witch-King has few agents and can't really afford to fool around with
naming one off the bat, and the Dragon Lord usually has his agents busy trying to
save his nation. You can put off mages for now too, they're not going to do you a
whole lot of good in the opening turns. You can afford to build a multi-classed
10-10-10-0 Command-Agent-Emissary if you wish, to go with Morwen, the one you already
have. Once the Witch-King is defeated you'll have plenty of time to build up those
characters on the long march to the east or south, and they always come in handy as
back-up commanders, guards and camp placers on the march. By the time you reach
Mordor they will be about 50-50-50-0 or better.

 

Economy:

One concern is the lack of a back-up capitol. If the Noldo are willing, you can trade
a town and a camp for one of their major towns west of you. However, it's not your
first priority, as chances are slim that with competent play from you and your allies
neither the Witch King nor an evil Rhudaur will be capable of taking a City-castle
like Fornost Erain. However, you'll want to do something within the first ten turns,
if only to be cautious, particularly if your allies are unresponsive or you see
superior play out of the Witch King and Rhudaur and Dunland goes Dark quickly as
well. Use your newly created emissaries to place as many camps as you can the first
few turns, starting with some of the deserted fortifications nearby on the road. You
may wish to send a character with a higher challenge rank in there first, because
those towers will be haunted by spirits that can wound most new emissaries. If you
defeat them, however, you get a bonus gold of about 5-10,000. Keep creating camps
until the pop center limit is reached, either in southwest Arthedain in the hills, or
farther west off your map by the Dwarves and Elves. Then send them to one of your
towns in the west that's protected, and make a major-town out of it.

 

Military:

You starting military is weak, but the Witch King is not much better off, plus one of
his armies is on the other side of the Misty Mountains. Your most important early
objective is to man Amon Sul (the deserted castle on the road at 1609) as soon as
possible. Like the first turn. If you don't, any Witch King player worth his salt
will put a camp there. He will be more than willing to pay the 1500 gold per turn for
a castle right on your doorstep that impedes your easiest access to both him and
Rhudaur. It's also a wonderful place for him to rest an army, as it's within striking
distance of both Cardolan's and Arthedain's capital, and a number of smaller pop
centers, and will provide an additional 10-12,000 or so defense. 

So, on the first turn, have both your capitol army and your army at Bree recruit
Heavy Infantry and move to 1609. That will give you the equivalent of about 3200 HI,
so post a camp (better than taking the chance of the WK having an emissary there) and
move on him immediately, starting with 1907 as it's least likely to have an decent
army on it turn two. Capture it, don't destroy it, as you want to muck up his
interior lines as much as possible. Also Rhudaur's if he decides to come to the
Witch-King's aid. If he retakes it, he'll get a camp out of it, unless he rolls the
dice and tries to threaten, which may mean he gets nothing. In the meantime that
tower will force him to stop if moving in that hex, and take out some of his army as
well. On the next turn go for 1905, as he will least expect it, and it puts you right
in the middle of all his remaining pop centers. Try to keep this force intact, but
don't cry overmuch if they're caught, you'll have more coming.

Meanwhile, you had both your other armies force march to replace the ones at Bree and
Fornost Erain. Split the one at the capitol and move it to 1106 to recruit. With
three armies recruiting, you'll be adding 1100 HI a turn, which is plenty, as the
Witch King can only dare recruit 800 on the west side of the mountains, as your army
is running amuck in the middle of Angmar. Three turns later send out that force, and
if possible, reinforce your original army. You'll have enough to take Mt Gram (2006)
if it's still alive, and the Mt. Gram force moved out to try to chase you down and
only has a recruiting shadow army left. If not, finish off his pop centers on the
plains while waiting for the next 3300 to come. 

 

Final Thoughts:

With any help from your allies you should be able to finish off or cripple the WK by
turn ten or so. Even if Cardolan drops, and Rhudaur goes evil you should be able to
hold your own even if the Noldo are unresponsive. You have a very good defensive
position, and as long as you remember to keep the pressure on he won't have much
opportunity to strike back, and if he does, his best targets will have armies
recruiting on them at all times. If Rhudaur goes dark, you may wish to keep a force
of 2000 HI or so at Amon Sul (1609) to ensure he can't get past there with enough
left to do much damage. Once the WK (and perhaps Rhudaur) is eliminated, you can
switch over to HC production because it's a long way to the front then, and you'll
want to get there as soon as possible. If North or South Gondor can spare the
emissary, you may wish trading some of your pop centers with them, so you can
eventually recruit closer to the front. Go ahead and build some of those forty point
mages when one of your mages gets up that high, so you can fulfill you victory
conditions (Arthedain seems to get the 10 artifact VC a lot) and get some decent
combat artifacts (that's all that should be left by then) and some mage artillery to
maximize the potential of your 3500 or so HC with steel/steel you'll be sending to
the front every few turns.