BACKGROUND INFORMATION

These are, in order of danger;

Korinel The Fey
Fawkrin The Skulkrin
The Lord Lothoril
Farflame The Dragonlord
The Lord of Dreams
The Lord of Ithrorn
The Lord of Gloom
Lorgrim The Wise

    There are also a few Lords in the eastern edge of the map, just north of the Plains of Targ who are also in a precarious situation;

These are, in order of danger;

Lord Herath
The Lord of Marakith
The Lord of Whispers
The Lord of Kumar

And there are two lords in the southern area that are also in danger;

Lord Blood
The Lord of Shadows

There are regiments of Doomdarks armies already posted at The Citadel of Gorgrath, and the four keeps surrounding it. These hordes will spew forth almost immediately and they will attack Lord Blood by day four, he will usually be the first casualty of the free in the war of the Solstice.

Korinel stands at the Village of Kor in the Forest or Kor. His Citadel has already fallen and is the starting place for a large number of the enemy. He will be attacked by day five, he has about 1,000 soldiers but will be dead by day nine or ten. Korinel is the hardest Lord to recruit, because by day two the plains of Kor and the plains of Korkith will be teaming with enemy soldiers, as will the plains of Valethor. And unfortunately you have to pass through these places and into the jaws of the enemy to recruit him.

Morkin already needs to go north on his quest for the Ice Crown, but because he can’t hide he would gain far too much attention for this mission.
Corleth the Fey can hide, but is needed to recruit the fey in the south.
Luxor the Moonprince can hide, but is far too important for such a task.
Rorthron the Wise is ideal, he can hide, can never have an army and won’t play too much a part later in the game. So send him north to the village of Kor. Make sure you hide him every night. He should reach Korinel by day four.

As Morkin needs to go north to find the Ice-Crown, after he has recruited Shadows he can be used to recruit Farflame, Lothoril and Fawkrin. However choosing to use him for this can prove perilous. A number of Doomdarks armies sole objective in the war is to kill Morkin. They will purposely seek him out. Also Doomdarks armies have a four location radius when marching. If they find anything interesting in this circle while they aimlessly go about their business they will check it out. Taking Morkin into Dodrak to recruit Farflame can take him too close to the armies on the plains of Korkith. They will then start to attack him and he will find it very hard to escape their circle of terror. Farflame however can be a good travelling companion for Morkin, he is very good in a fight. How daring do you feel?
    You therefore have the indecision of should Morkin recruit Farflame or should you hope that Rorthron can get to him in time?

The Choices;
1. Send Morkin Northwest to the edge of the map, then directly north to the top of the map and then east onto the Citadel of Gloom. You can’t recruit Gloom but just being with him will help in the few battles which will follow, when some of Doomdarks armies finally track him down. During the journey keep him on the plains and try not to stop on any other terrain feature. Doomdarks armies tend to overlook the plains! On the journey up you may be tempted to nip over and recruit Lothoril. You can achieve this, but just remember the warning for Farflame; the same applies.
2. Travel north through the Ashimar mountains using the Ogrim plains and up to Lake Ogrim. This will keep you away from Doomdark’s armies. From lake Ogrim you can travel directly east to the Tower of Dodrak where you will be able to see and recruit Farflame, travel west back to the frozen wastes and then north to Moonhenge where you can recruit Fawkrin. Then directly east to recruit Lothoril, then up to Gloom.

There are already armies at the Lith of Ashimar, you should deal with this problem as soon as possible.

Keep 52 will usually fall on day five. There are two hundred recruitable warriors there but you are unlikely to be able to get Luxor or Blood there quick enough to avoid getting caught up in a battle either along the way or way back. This is a necessary sacrfice.

The first attack on Xajorkith usually occurs around the night of day 12 onwards.

By about day 50 the last of the attacks on Xajorkith will have taken place. Apart from the multitude of Doomdark's armies still waiting in the north around the Plains of Despair and the Citadel of Ushgarak there are only a few roaming armies still in the game. These have lost their way a little and probably not make it down to Xajorkith.
When you start to push north you could easily leave Xajorkith a few days earlier - it just means you will have to deal with a few of Doomdark's armies on the march.

As you take back the citadels and keeps you want to try to maximise the number of men you recruit from these.

You can use pretty much anyone to take back the keeps, but by about this time a number of lords will not fight due to tiredness or the Ice Fear. As the days pass by and the Ice Fear reduces due to the number of keeps and citadels you take back, these lords will be able to fight again.
A tip for any lords you won't fight; use them and place them infront of any wandering armies that are left. When Doomdarks armies attack them, they'll soon fight back!

You should be able to take back all the Keeps and Citadels except for the ones on the Plains of Despair; ie: 3, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 14 by Day 80. You can also have wiped out all of doomdarks wandering armies.
Do not attempt the final push up Usgarak before you have rested and regrouped all your characters - as there is still an awful lot of armies on the Plains of Despair.