Why do experienced ppl like to play DS and win ? - another reason to
add
to your list.
Artistic license....
Well we've all seen US versions of how history 'really' happened -
(braveheart is a fine example) and as the rest of the western world
like us in the UK and the land of OZ follow suit - we all like to
have an ending we prefer. As it happens the DS we're stupid in
tolkiens books and led by a bunch of power hungry short sighted mad
fools (no i'm not talking about the stock exchange :),
I mean any of us after making an indestructable ring (well near...)
would of destroyed Mt Doom and removed any question of it ever going
'plop'.
Hence as well minded evil rulers we aren't so short sighted,
We suck up to dragons persuading them to join our armies, we'd
actually be bothered to spend time to recover and search for ancient
artifacts other than the ONE ring. When Aragorn leads humpteen
thousands of men into battle hire an assassin to do our dirty work...
and when a really powerful commander say 'oi you nasty agent lets
have a fight' we refuse and when he shrugs and turns away we stab him
in the back 
Of course no american action film would be complete without
spectacular special affects and computer graphics, the few tricks
gandalf does with the help of Narya in the book mean we can expand a
little on the lack of imagination tolkien obviously had. In our
version we have as many wizards as we want casting words of death and
slinging fireballs, while others walk around turning peoples stomachs
inside out.... it all adds flavour to a great concept - history is
really so boring after all and occasionally needs a revamp
Its all done with such great artistic license Tolkien would probably
weep, but heh it's better than the origional right and at least
we don't have to worry about the boring bit at Rivendell....
All in All MEPBM bares little reflection on the books, its a PBM game
on the middle earth map with the same names, and at that point the
resembalence pretty much ends....
Very little at all bares true to the books - there are no hobbit
characters (the most 'important' race - in the age the game is set
in...),
i've yet to play in a game where the one ring decides the outcome of
the game and the so called characters employ powers and skills that
are not even mentioned in Tolkiens books.
The game instead is decided around economics, assassinations and
armies with a few curse squads;
which while fine in most PBM kinda strays away from the entire
imagine of what tolkien wrote about, admittidly some of the above
factors were in his books - particularly the battle of pelanor
fields, but the idea and motto behind his story is forgotten and
sidelined.
That not even a gardener is insignificant, and if he has a strong
heart and the courage to match, can rise up to any challenge and
shake the entire foundations of the world..... (well it kinda
went something like that)
anyway enough of that,
I personally enjoy MEPBM, i don't expect it to be like the books cause
it would be impossible - i'd like to see the one ring play a bigger
role in the game, a series of quests that players had to do over a
whole bunch of turns to eventually get there hands on the little
thing while the war goes on in the background would be nice. I find
it hard to believe that there aren't hobbit characters to play with
even if it was just a couple as part of a nation in the 2950 game.
A personal view,
Matt