After a short wait the Fourth Age GB game 140 kicked off. Having had a quick look at the setup there seems to be a good spread of nations across the map (thanks to Mike Mulka).
I look forward to a good struggle with my enemies who shall be vanquished from Middle Earth with huge armies, powerful characters and economic trickery over the coming months.
Paul 
Hurray for GB FA 140!!!
Paul, should we be on the same side, I completely agree with you about your plansā¦ if not, though, nothing you said is worth a dime and you will of course face utter defeat in due time 
Before I return to plotting the downfall of all my enemies, I must ask a question: Is it wise to announce the unihabited regions? Thus we lose quite a lot of the āfog of warā- aspect of the game and the players who know that they got a region for their own can feel quite secure and plan a lot more than those who only see what is on their map. Just my two cents that might be considered when setting up the next FA GB game - nevertheless I am sure I will enjoy this greatlyā¦
I thought about it a fair bit and decided that the Fog of War might be too great so put up some information about where things werenāt - also as a slight advantage for anyone who actually reads their Front Sheetā¦ 
Clint (GM)
As a player I realise that thereās a lot of interesting information out there and Iāve done and sent my turns in already - couldnāt waitā¦ can we do 2 day turnaround? (Mon/Wed/Fri)
Clint (Player)
Reading this post made me re-read my Front Sheet hehe. I had only glanced at it earlier.
I am also VERY glad I did re-read it as I found out someone was in the game that I didnāt realize. Now that I know I can avoid talking to them
Releasing the information about regions I think helps speed up a bit of the information gathering. Should be an interesting game for sure.
I couldnāt be more stoked for this gameā¦
I was happy enough to see the regional habitation information, though some nations are a little less secure because of it. I also donāt believe it will have a detrimental effect since everyone should have taken into consideration the possibility of being in close proximity to an enemy or two in their setups.
Paul
PS: Lets hope I donāt have to kick your a** then Bernd 'cos it will be merciless and prolongued.
Well I now have drawn myself a nice little map (reminds me of the days when you could order a map from harly and not everything was digital) on which I will note down the locations of my enemies as soon as I get a clear pictureā¦ those notes will soon bear the mark R.I.P. , of courseā¦
Paul, merciless AND prolongued? Does that mean you will keep me at one MT and one character for some time???
Iād rather do it swift, since there are 5 other enemies who ask for a good beating - better hope that I am not among themā¦
My advice - use Palantir. You can add in PCs, Notes and the like on it.
Clint (GM)
sure I use palantir - but for a quick overview about distribution of regions a small sheet of paper is quite useful - and because it is always such a mess with the textmarker on my monitor:D
Without divulging too much, my minions shall run away at the first sight of an enemy, this is what their forefathers did and the fear of change is great. They will be caught with minimal effort due to a general lack of fitness, and a hiding ability embarrassing to ostriches.
At the slightest mention of torture all information will be coughed up, between the whingeing and begging naturally. Though these ramblings shall be insignificant as my disciples are afflicted with an immeasurable stupidity.
Then my woes will be blamed upon my allies, who have been unhelpful and incompetent.
Thus have the Lords of ___ and ___ spoken!
Paul
Turn 2 is running today, I can feel my enemies closing in and their grubby hands tightening around my leaders scrawny necks, but beware they have deadly countermoves prepared ā¦ I expect!
Paul ā the Dithering
Eeek,
Surrounded on all sides! Oh well this game was fun while it lastedā¦ Its only turn 3 <sob!>
Thomas
Gunboat 6, 229 and 140
Cripes I know the feeling Thomas, how can my enemies have so many armies so early in the game? Where are all the camps coming from when I fail so often?
Camps? I wish!
Turning out alright so far I guess. Limited knowledgeā¦limited view heh
Oh I have loads of armiesā¦ They just have more <grin>.
Not sure why I keep failing with camps though.
Thomas
My economy is rocking. Are you using 40+ rank Ems? I do love some of the tactics you get to use in the game that normally have no use. Great fun. Spring is coming so that should help a lot.
Not really seen any action yet although I can see myself coming to āblowsā with some alliesā¦ (without actually coming to blows as thatās not allowed) Itās interesting the way game develops and if you enjoy 1000 Iād definitely advise you play this variant - great fun but Iād suggest that you design both nations working out how they will interact.
Wish we could chat though. I can see some nations playing strongly and I am avoiding them like the plague - and some strange camp placements as well.
Thatās as much as I can say without breaking any diploming rulesā¦ sooooooooo temptedā¦
Clint (player)
Strangely enough I pretty much only use 40+ emis in all games I play to place camps. Not helping much here though or for that matter in my other Gunboat Gamesā¦ Which is really quite strange.
Its not a huge problem just slightly annoying.
I wonder how much the other GMās would want to help me out a bitā¦
Thomas
Gunboat 6, 140 and 229
It is prob just luck for you Thomas, Iāve got one nation that hasnāt failed a camp yet, and the other canāt seem to make a camp.
My biggest annoyance is landing on allied camps with emissaries.
That and my production blows.
I agree that this is a very interesting and exciting way to play mepbm, there is a huge fog of war in GB further exacerbated by the FA setting. I hope everyone keeps a record of what happens so we can compare notes at the end.
GMs can help but Iām the only one whoās posting here and reading. What sort of help? If you want them to investigate Iād guess that their answer that unless you feel thereās something weird going on that itās nothing outside the normal range of randomness camp creation.
As a GM Iāve had a handful of players complain that theyāve not created as many camps as they reckon they should and that something unfair was going on. Iāve never yet had an email saying that a player has created a lot more camps than they should have and that something unfair was going onā¦
Ditto downgrading. So for example if you have 4 Ems each with a 50/50 chance then 1 in 16 turns youāll have no camp creations. 1/2x1/2x1/2x1/2. 50% of the time only 2 will create camps.
If you get behind the curve (ie if thereās a relationship between rank of the Em and chance to create a camp) then the odds become worse.
As an aside but related in a 1650 game we tried to Bribe Murazor - it took 5 attempts and finally we sent in a 105 Em and 19k goldā¦ Rough justice or what?
Clint (GM)