Gondor Campiagn: Turns 3 & 4

Turn 3

Having being defeated in South Ithilien, Faramir decided to hold the crossings of the River Anduin at Osgiliath in order to buy some more time and allow reinforcements to arrive at Minas Tirith.  With Evil having priority this turn, the army of Minas Morgul led by Gothmog could try and take Osgiliath now or wait to link up with the army of Barad Dur the following turn.  Evil decided to wait and the Army of Barad Dur moved into North Ithilien while the Witch King led another host our of Minas Morgul into South Ithilien.  Meanwhile, the Southrons heard their master's call and started to gather an army in Far Harad led by The Betrayer.  The Knight of Umbar also called upon the Corsairs to man their ships and started sailing for the Gondor coast.  All the forces of Good could do was wait and hope for reinforcements.

Turn 4

Evil once again won priority and sent a raiding party of two formations of orc archers with two companies each from Druadan Forest to Minas Tirith top scout out the fortifications.  Meanwhile, the combined armies of Barad Dur and Minas Morgul descended upon Osgiliath.  In the south, the Southrons mustered in Near Harad with Suladan The Serpent Lord and were joined by the Corsairs of Umbar in West Harondor. 

Forlong the Fat raised two companies of Axemen of Lossarnach and now joined with a formation of warriors of Pelagir and another of archers, decided to go Osgiliath and hope to prevent the Evil force from crossing.  But would he be too late?

Faramir was defending and knew the best he could do was hold out as long as he could before being overrun.  He sent his Archers of Minas Tirith to cover one crossing from a stone building and kept the Rangers of Ithilien waiting on ambush in another.  But with no one protecting the bridge, the forces of Evil were able to use At the Double moves to quickly move to the other side.  The Rangers of Ithilien were pounding by boulders being hurled by Mordor War catapults.  A few shots hit one of the Winged Nazgul forcing them to retreat to the other side of the river.  But the Rangers were overrun by a formation of Mordor Orcs.  The Archers of Minas Tirith also were able to pick off some of the enemy, but these were Morranon Orcs of a tougher breed.  The Morranon Orcs quickly swarming the building they were in killing wevery last one.

But where was Forlong?  Faramir had to do something and led a formation of Warriors of Minas Tirith against a Troll charge.  The warriors took out of few orcs and one of the trolls, but numbers were too much for them.

Forlong and his small force finally arrived but it was too late.  he sent a formation of archer up into a towers to try and get a few lucky shots, but none landed.  Finally Forlong led his Axemen in a charge against an orc formation but was soon flanked by a troll charge.  Forlong fell alone with all of his axemen.  All was lost, Faramir was able to flee Osgiliath with a formation of archers and a few warriors from Pelargir.

Meanwhile, Denethor, Steward of Gondor, was not going to let a few pesky orcs seal him off.  He sent all of his available archers outside of the fortresss to skirmish with the orcs.  The orcs were outmatched in a shootout against the superior Blackroot Vale archers and fled back across the Anduin to Cair Andros.  A small victory for Gondor in what was soon to become a much larger war.