Strengths:

Some of the best nation advantages
Awesome military potential
Only one Dark Servant in immediate striking distance
Able to project power into any theater of the game

Weaknesses:

Economy not large enough to support ideal military
Vulnerable to attack from four neutrals.
Weak starting characters with no artifacts


Cardolan is a very interesting nation to play. It is one of the supreme military
nations, one of the most important diplomatic ones, and with a little foresight, a
decent character nation as well. You shouldn't get bored playing Cardolan! Your first
concern is the Witch King, and just as important, your relations with your nearby
neutral neighbors, Rhudaur and Dunland. Unlike Arthedain and the Noldo, Cardolan is
especially vulnerable to attack from these quarters as it's best defenses are merely
rivers, not the hills and towers of Arthedain.

So start negotiating with them both right away, and also Harad and the Corsairs to
the south who are both capable of landing enough troops on your coast to ruin your
day. They won't be able to ask for much, as frankly you don't have much to offer.
However, you can impress them with your play, and later both Harad and the Corsairs
might be interested in pop centers in the safe backyard of Eriador in exchange for
your immediate help on their front.

Rhudaur and Dunland can be critical to your immediate success, so start impressing
them early by wasting the Witch King as soon as possible. Both these nations are just
as vulnerable to you as you are to them, even more so in fact. Consistent military
victories are the best way of convincing them, as neither of them want to see
Cardolan's military might arrayed against their easier to conquer countries. There's
nothing quite as convincing to Rhudaur as seeing 'large' or 'huge' armies marched
past his front door every few turns.

 

Characters:

Although Cardolan's initial characters are weak, they are well suited for the
nation's objectives, even more so than Arthedain's. Your first priority is to name
two more 40 pt Commanders, you're going to need them.  Your next slot is dicey,
you're going to want some agents, as it is unlikely Arthedain is going to build any,
and you're going to want a decent agent core as later you're likely to be on the
front fairly quickly, and if Dunland goes dark one of the better agent nations is
sitting right on your doorstep. You'll also want to take advantage of your plus 20
bonus to scouting which may very well lead to some nasty surprises for the Dark
Servant agents if you prepare correctly.

My recommendation is you park Aethelan in your capitol recruiting army and have him
guard every turn as by turn four he should be able to name another thirty point
agent. The last spot, you can name another commander, or a thirty point emissary,
however the last is not as critical for Cardolan, as your tax rate is likely to be
high enough that you won't have much success improving pop centers immediately, you
can wait 'till later for that.

Later, you might want to build a mage to hunt down the artifacts Finduilas III will
be able to locate by turn five or so. One of Cardolan's most embarrassing attributes
is it must refuse challenge from even lowly Rhudaur as it's highest challenge rank is
forty one to start. Have Finduilas III Prentice Magery each turn until she's in her
forties and then learn Locate Artifact, that works well enough most of the time. All
the popular goodies will be gone by then but there's almost certainly going to be a
few 2000+ pt combat artifacts around, especially the ones with good alignments. Pick
up a few of those, as you can build a new commander, park him in a training army for
a few turns, give him a sword and he'll have a 100+ challenge rank. They also are
handy for battle, as if you stack three together that's like having an extra 1500 HI
on the first round you're not paying maintenance on.

However, keep naming agents when you get extra slots on turns 6 and 11. Or
command-agents if you can afford them. This will be a nasty surprise for the Dark
Servants when they get around to giving you the inevitable agent wedgie that all
Free Peoples must endure. Dark Servants are likely to dismiss your potential, and in
their conceit may give you an opportunity to get some of your own back. By turn ten
they'll find your best armies are guarded by fifty point agents, with another one
scouting for characters at near expert level. They might also find that your back up
commander has a challenge rank over one hundred, enough to take out even the best
Nazgul agents....an unexpected and unpleasant development for them, but it will make
your day to have Ji Indur's head on a pike...

 

Economy:

The tax base is respectable, seven towns and two major towns give you an income of
20,000 per turn at 40%, but it's not enough. Also, unfortunately you have few pop
centers producing gold or the other more valuable commodities, and you have no camps
or villages that supply the most of any given item. You also have ports, harbors,
navies and two castles, a fort and four towers to support. You'll also be recruiting
at least 1400 HI a turn, so your economy is going to be under a great deal of strain.

For that reason, I recommend you increase your tax rate to 69% to 79% as soon as you
can. Park a character like Finduilas III in one of your unfortified pop centers, and
perhaps an agent in another one. See if you can get the Noldo to have his agents
destroy your harbors in those hexes. (don't have the agent Guard Location on that
turn, have him Guard the Character) You might want to consider giving your navy to
the Noldo, but try to get something for it, if possible. It's not completely useless,
I'll go into greater detail below.

One strategy may be to build as many camps as you can, but that would immediately
require the building of a ten thousand gold emissary, and you're not going to have a
whole lot of luck keeping camps anywhere that's not fortified if you use your
military potential to the fullest. You're lucky in one regard, as there are numerous
abandoned fortifications in the area that give a decent amount of gold to the first
character to defeat the spirits, which any character with a challenge rank of 30
should be able to manage. However, you then have to pay maintenance on the
fortifications which only the ones in the hills are likely to make a profitable
endeavor, You'll want to make sure you, the Noldo or Arthedain gets camps in those
abandoned fortifications on the road, as you don't want the Witch King screwing up
your interior lines and preventing you and Arthedain from aiding one another in
desperate straits.

 

Military:

Here is the true strength of Cardolan, able amass huge forces in very short periods
of time. With it's ability to hire armies of HI at no cost in one turn, Cardolan can
collect 2000 HI at it's capitol in one turn. Cardolan can easily bankrupt itself if
it doesn't pay attention to projected maintenance costs. One of the most important
things to remember, is how long it takes to march to the enemy, and lose those troops
while gaining additional tax base and resources to sell. In fact, you might just
breathe a sigh of relief if Rhudaur goes dark, as it will give you juicy targets only
two turns march away.

Your first move will be to recruit 300 HI at 1510 and force march to his town tower
at 1907 that will give you the equivalent of about 2000 HI. That's enough to take a
town/tower even if he moved a recruiting army there, a extra bonus for you if you
destroy it. He'll probably get your army then, as you'll have to refuse personal
challenge, unless you want to add an extra commander to this army and allow the
commander to get burned, which I wouldn't recommend. If there's no army there, move
onto one of his village/towers, and take that. Don't destroy, capture, you may get
stockpiled resources as well, and it screws up his interior lines making it more
difficult for him to combine forces.

Coordinate with Arthedain, the both of you can take his capital in six turns or so
with a little luck and no dragons. If you both have armies in Angmar turn 2, have
them meet at 1806 and take that. If he tries to chase you down, pick unusual routes
that give you an opportunity to take out his recruiting armies at Carn Dun or
Mt Gram. (1804&2006)

In the meantime, on the first turn have your army at 1113 recruit 300HI and move to
the capitol. Have your navy at 1219 recruit 100 HI and move to Tharbad.(1614) Have
your Navy at Tharbad recruit 400 HI and move to the capitol. Have any commanders that
start in any city besides the capitol recruit HI and move towards the capitol. If you
start with a commander in the capitol hire an army and move to 1510. Your objective
is to take care of all your capitol orders, consolidate your forces, and get
recruiting armies on 1614, 1513, 1510 and 1514. That's 1400 HI a turn, and should be
enough barring emergencies,like the first turn Rhudaur goes dark. You should be able
to send another 3-4000 Heavy Infantry equivalent to Angmar (or perhaps Rhudaur)by
turn 4.

Remember, you can just move any commander to a recruiting hex to set him up for next
turn's recruiting, this is why you'll want to build at least two new commanders and
use all five decent starting commanders in that capacity the first ten turns or so.
The first couple, use anyone with command value, you want to hurt the Witch King as
badly as possible the quickest you can the first few turns. It will give Rhudaur
something to think about, and in an emergency you can send any spare or back up
commanders to 1113 and 1317 and collect an additional 600 HI that can join the 1400
you're capable of getting there in one turn from your eastern recruiting sites.

Don't bother blowing the bridge at Tharbad, that helps the Duns more than it does
you. Tharbad is protected by a castle, as is your capitol, his only major town is
protected by a tower. Due to the mechanics of movement, it takes two turns for him to
march from his capitol to yours with infantry around the river, and three turns for
you to do the same. Also, if the Dun player blows it, it's likely an advance
indication he's contemplating going Dark.

You may want to consolidate the northern navies under the Noldo banner, that will
help your treasury and instantly makes those ships more valuable. However, try and
see if you can get one of those extra combat artifacts the Noldo carries around and
seldom uses, even if only until you can find some better ones of your own. Whine and
snivel about how humiliating it is to have to Refuse Personal Challenge from Rhudaur
if he goes dark, and how you'll actually be using them in combat, unlike most Noldo
armies. Point out Rhudaur probably got a few from the Witch-King, maybe you can
finagle one of the better ones, but don't be horribly disappointed if he refuses.
Even though he'll have better ones shortly, that's just the way the Noldo are.

Make sure he plans to use it though, as your navy is of some worth. If the Tharbad
bridge gets blown it allows you to land 2000 HI in Dunland if you have to. It also
allows you to ferry troops to Gondor when that becomes necessary. You can also use it
to recruit from the farther reaches of Cardolan and move them more quickly in the
event of an emergency.

Later on, you may wish to exchange pop centers with players on the front lines to
give them better protected ones, and to allow you to use your advantages to the
fullest. Remember to have back up commanders and agents in those armies though. If
you had any luck getting a good Noldo/Arthedain ally and Rhudaur dropped or went
Good, you probably finished off the Witch King before Mordor could send him any
appreciable agent help. When you get down south or east, you'll find out why North
and South Gondor are afraid to go in their capitals!