Building LDC on windows, woe is me!

[claptrap]

Ok been banging my head against this for a few hours and getting 
nowhere. Following the windows build instructions up to the point 
of generating NINJA build files...

cmake -G Ninja ..\ldc -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX="C:\LDCDEV\LDC-x64" 
-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RelWithDebInfo 
-DLLVM_ROOT_DIR="C:/LDCDEV/LLVM-x64"

gives me this...

=================
     kind: "try_compile-v1"
     backtrace:
       - "C:/Program 
Files/CMake/share/cmake-3.27/Modules/CMakeDetermineCompilerABI.cmake:57 (try_compile)"
       - "C:/Program 
Files/CMake/share/cmake-3.27/Modules/CMakeTestCCompiler.cmake:26 
(CMAKE_DETERMINE_COMPILER_ABI)"
       - "CMakeLists.txt:15 (project)"
     checks:
       - "Detecting C compiler ABI info"
     directories:
       source: 
"C:/LDCDEV/build-ldc-x64/CMakeFiles/CMakeScratch/TryCompile-bp4cti"
       binary: 
"C:/LDCDEV/build-ldc-x64/CMakeFiles/CMakeScratch/TryCompile-bp4cti"
     cmakeVariables:
       CMAKE_C_FLAGS: ""
       CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS: ""
     buildResult:
       variable: "CMAKE_C_ABI_COMPILED"
       cached: true
       stdout: |
         Change Dir: 
'C:/LDCDEV/build-ldc-x64/CMakeFiles/CMakeScratch/TryCompile-bp4cti'

         Run Build Command(s): C:/NINJA/ninja.exe -v cmTC_90234
         [1/2] 
C:\\PROGRA~2\\MICROS~2\\2019\\COMMUN~1\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\1429~1.301\\bin\\Hostx64\\x64\\cl.exe  /nologo   /MDd /Zi /Ob0 /Od /RTC1 /showIncludes /FoCMakeFiles\\cmTC_90234.dir\\CMakeCCompilerABI.c.obj /FdCMakeFiles\\cmTC_90234.dir\\ /FS -c "C:\\Program Files\\CMake\\share\\cmake-3.27\\Modules\\CMakeCCompilerABI.c"
         [2/2] cmd.exe /C "cd . && "C:\\Program 
Files\\CMake\\bin\\cmake.exe" -E vs_link_exe 
--intdir=CMakeFiles\\cmTC_90234.dir --rc=rc 
--mt=CMAKE_MT-NOTFOUND --manifests  -- 
C:\\PROGRA~2\\MICROS~2\\2019\\COMMUN~1\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\1429~1.301\\bin\\Hostx64\\x64\\link.exe /nologo CMakeFiles\\cmTC_90234.dir\\CMakeCCompilerABI.c.obj  /out:cmTC_90234.exe /implib:cmTC_90234.lib /pdb:cmTC_90234.pdb /version:0.0 /debug /INCREMENTAL /subsystem:console  kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib uuid.lib comdlg32.lib advapi32.lib && cd ."
         FAILED: cmTC_90234.exe
         cmd.exe /C "cd . && "C:\\Program 
Files\\CMake\\bin\\cmake.exe" -E vs_link_exe 
--intdir=CMakeFiles\\cmTC_90234.dir --rc=rc 
--mt=CMAKE_MT-NOTFOUND --manifests  -- 
C:\\PROGRA~2\\MICROS~2\\2019\\COMMUN~1\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\1429~1.301\\bin\\Hostx64\\x64\\link.exe /nologo CMakeFiles\\cmTC_90234.dir\\CMakeCCompilerABI.c.obj  /out:cmTC_90234.exe /implib:cmTC_90234.lib /pdb:cmTC_90234.pdb /version:0.0 /debug /INCREMENTAL /subsystem:console  kernel32.lib user32.lib gdi32.lib winspool.lib shell32.lib ole32.lib oleaut32.lib uuid.lib comdlg32.lib advapi32.lib && cd ."
         RC Pass 1: command "rc /fo 
CMakeFiles\\cmTC_90234.dir/manifest.res 
CMakeFiles\\cmTC_90234.dir/manifest.rc" failed (exit code 0) with 
the following output:
         The system cannot find the file specified
         ninja: build stopped: subcommand failed.

       exitCode: 1
============

It works with the MVSC 2019 generator, but I have no idea why it 
wont generate the NINJA build files. I tried running it from the 
VS Developer Command prompt, and that doesnt work either, 
different error messages, and looks like it might be trying to 
link to x86 libs instead of x64, but cant seem to figure out how 
to change that.

disclaimer: total newbie on CMAKE, build scripts, etc...