Board Thread:Fun and Games/@comment-31421070-20170704213257/@comment-26890432-20170706160110

Gondor may have been in decline, but it was pretty much the only good faction that had the military establishment, infrastructure, resources and population to stand up to Mordor. It's one reason why Gondor bears the chiefest of Sauron's hatred, and the largest of his attacks was directed at Minas Tirith.

"In 3019, during the  War of the Ring, Gondor was the strongest of the free nations that opposed Sauron, and thus, its defeat was his primary strategic goal in the war."

-Tolkien Gateway, sourced from ''Return of the King. ''It's in the text, folks.