Campaign of LoTRs

Campaign of LoTRs was an online campaign for The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game hosted by the Dark Council and Cheeseweb. It was intended for the "veterans" of The War of the Ring Online Campaign, and was effectively a smaller, but more in depth, version of that campaign.

The Campaign
The eight week long campaign was similar to the previous The War of the Ring Online Campaign. It worked whereby registered participants chose where to move armies, and then submitted the results of games played using special "regional rules", each representing a game played in one of the regions of Middle-earth. There were also two Forums on the site (one for Good and one for Evil), where each side could enter victories and plan out tactics for swinging the regions in their favour. However, unlike the previous Campaign, it was not possible to view the other side's tactics. At the end of each week, the wins would be tallied by "Althamus", and "Victory Points" would be awarded to each side to determine who was winning over all.

There were 56 registered players, but some of them decided to remain neutral and take no part in the campaign. The campaign would not have been possible without the aid and support of the many members.

Week One was rather uneventful. Most armies evaded the enemy, taking neutral land instead. Rivendell, however, was attacked by a horde of Goblins from the Misty Mountains. As with the previous War of the Ring Campaign, it appeared that Good had the advantage of numbers, as they were easily able to repel the Goblin horde. The difference wasn't as great as in the previous campaigns, however, making for a more balanced campaign.

Nonetheless, this apparent advantage led Evil to decide upon a new strategy; instead of confronting Good armies directly, they used distractions to keep their enemy fighting in rather unimportant regions, while Evil was easily able to take its own target regions. This strategy proved to be extremely effective during the campaign, and despite Good's best attempts, they found themselves losing their advantage each week after the first week. This continued right up until the final weeks of the campaign, when Good were finally able to combat Evil's strategy, mustering all their players in a final attack that would help them achieve an honourable last stand.

Final Week
In the final week, the forces of Rohan pushed back the Mordor orcs to the Emyn Muil. Isengard was captured by the surrounding forces of Rohan, while the Wold was taken by one of the armies of Dwarves. The Gondorian army at the Black Gate narrowly routed the Evil holding it. South Moria too saw hard fighting, as the Mirkwood Elves drove out the Uruk-hai.

Nonetheless, the Lonely Mountain lay undefended and was lost to the Goblins, while North Khand was claimed by the Haradrim, cutting off the dwarfs escape route back to their lands. The Gondorian army trying to reclaim Eriador was finally destroyed in battles on the banks of the River Swanfleet.

Though Good managed to win the final week, it was ultimately an Evil victory in the Campaign, with only central Middle-earth standing defiant. The final Good victory was a Gondorian naval battle reclaiming North Ithilien from the army of Rhûn. This allowed a Good retreat by ship from all their lands along the River Anduin and the River Isen out into the Bay of Belfalas.

Importance
Although the Campaign itself was relatively small compared to most online miniature wargaming campaigns, it was nonetheless important in that it was organised entirely by an unofficial online Lord of the Rings wargaming forum (unlike the War of the Ring Campaign, which had direct Games Workshop support and sponsorship). Despite some belief, it was not the first Evil victory in a Lord of the Rings online campaign, as The Last Alliance campaign of 2004-2005 resulted in an Evil victory.