Turn 0
After finding out about CME and reading the module notes, I stopped reading after seeing the freep setup and I fully intended to play them (I had been greedily eying the hobbits and Tom not to mention picking up an elf or 4!). So it was with a little disappointment that Clint told me the only game going was as a DS. As I had been waiting to start a game for some time, I agreed to swap. So, I pulled up the module notes and had a read of the ds!
Picks 1-2
Straight away my thoughts went to the nine, they would be high on my list of recruits. I was disappointed Murazor had no Emmy skill and straight away I was concerned about falling behind in the camp race. Then Clint told me 2 of my starting 5 camps were being removed to even out economies! Still, my hands were tied and for role playing purposes alone, he would be first picked. Plus he came with Minas Morgul but funny enough, no troops.
The 2nd pick was therefore going to be army based. I’m love armies and it felt weird having none. I thought about Mordor and getting Shagrat or Gothmog. If the freep tried an early military push, I would need troops and commanders. But I also like having something show up on my opponent’s map so they have something to think about and hopefully get distracted. Lots of choices here too - the goblin, the balrog. I decided funny enough on Ugluk, a bit of a compromise. One, I thought the Mirkwood freep pops were a bit vulnerable. He’d show up at 2619 and then disappear. I counted 4 freep towns and a Major town in the area. Two, he came with a couple of sidekicks! And three, who can knock back 20k gold lol.
Picks 3-5
I figured Sauron and Murazor casting research artys spells was going to be enough so I didn’t look at more mages for now. Hindsight is 20/20. Anyway, first to address the economy - the MoS and Adunaphel (and all their lovely artifacts) would get the call. And to help plug any Mordor threat, so would Ji.
Turn 1
Highlights
- New Emmy named
- New Agent named
Lows
- 0/6 useful artys researched
Turn 2
Highlights
- Murazor recruited
- Ugluk recruited
Lows
- 0/6 useful artys researched
Turn 3
Highlights
- Adunaphel recruited
- Mouth of Sauron recruited
- Sauron in company
Lows
- Freep army at Minas Tirith
- 1/12 useful artys - pectoral
- 0/1 camps
Turn 4
Highlights
- Freep army at Minas Tirith stays put
- The Gate now a major town
- 3/3 camping
- No freep at gimli-dum
- Ji recruited
- Tax to 39%
Lows
- 0/12 useful artys researched
Thoughts
- Almost 1/3 of the artys uncovered and still no spirit artifact and besides the pectoral (which I don’t need right now), nothing good anyway. With mages now starting locate spells, I need more mages! Aduphanel will have to put her budding agent career on hold and lend a hand with the spells. Even Ji might have to suit up!
- Speaking of suiting up, Grishnakh all decked out in black scale armour has arrived at gimli-dum to find it unoccupied, hopefully next turn will be a glorious start to his reign of terror in Mirkwood! He better not lose the suit! I think
- The freep army at Minas Tirith is either Denethor with a turns recruit so say 3.4k hi or Eowyn and Denethor with 2k hc and 3k hi. No sign of the army of the dead but then again I haven’t been looking. I’ll stick to my strategy of improving the pops and figure out where to send Ji to plug the leak, probably Minas Morgul.
- Market is absolutely crazy rich, I can’t see bankrupting early being a problem in this module.