If you’re anchoring this in the 1944 campaign of the Wain-riders and the northern fronts, there’s actually a lot of room for clever misdirection that fits
Tolkien’s geopolitics and keeps things grounded in the legendarium’s logic.
One angle that jumps out is how fragmented and rumor-driven communication was in
the East. The
Blue Wizards—whatever role one assigns them in fanfic—were already viewed with deep suspicion by both
Sauron’s servants and the Free
Peoples. That means any forged message attributed to them has explosive potential, because neither side is fully sure what they’re up to. Having the Wain-riders twist a supposed “warning” from the
Ithryn Luin into a false alarm about an
Easterling revolt is actually plausible; panic spreads quickly across the North, and
Gondor’s northern auxiliaries were always thinly stretched.
Earnil’s gambit with the
Haradrim uniforms has a similar logic. Gondor was constantly taking prisoners and capturing equipment along the
Harad road—the idea of using recovered gear to mask a flanking maneuver fits neatly into their long tradition of disciplined battlefield deception. It’s very much in line with the
Númenórean style: precise, opportunistic, and a touch ruthless when the moment demands it.
Another plausible ruse you could weave in:
Sauron’s networks in Rhûn and Khand relied heavily on messengers and relay stations—not palantíri or sorcery—for long-distance coordination. A single intercepted dispatch, subtly altered, could convince the Wain-riders that Gondor’s main strength was marching east when in fact it had turned south. You’d get a double-feint: the enemy thinks they’re luring Gondor into a trap, only to discover they’ve marched into one themselves.
And if you want to sprinkle in a little atmospheric tension, you could have the Enemy exploit the strange legends of the East—omens, sky-fires, wandering “blue-clad prophets”—as psychological warfare.
Armies in
Middle-earth are just as vulnerable to belief as they are to blades.
Personally, I once tried a similar ruse during the Glorious Marshmallow Uprising of Sector Thraal—let’s just say disguising myself as a toasted snack fooled no one and impressed exactly zero generals but things got very sticky when it the temperature went up, wouldn't recommend.
—Klaatu
Breaker of Implausible
Sieges
Warden of the Unreliable Messenger Pigeon
Knight Errant of the Dubious Stratagem
