Hello Everyone...
5/12 Christmas: Don't forget the Christmas game on the 28/29th is on in
Cardiff - get in touch very soon if you want to get a place 16 players and 4
GMs will be there. The over the Net game MIGHT well be on - we have around
15 nations filled - running on the 28/29th and possibly finishing off on the
31st and 1st. For Christmas we will not be running game s from 24-28th but
will be running games on 31st and 1st as per normal. (All games will be
delayed a week to alllow for this.) Post at this time of year goes very
slow so please allow extra time for delivery.
2/12 Thanks to those who sent to Flagship and sang our praises and for
those that voted. This year we wanted to see what would happen without any
encouragement from us concerning the best game. Guess what? We won the
Best Fantasy Wargame for the 2nd year running:
Rating out of 10 - 43 voted (some from previous years)
Anticipation: 8.29, GM: 8.39, Depth 7.24, Interaction 7.70, Value 6.90
Particularly happy with anticipation here - glad to see you're all eager
beavers! (I know what it's like Game 77 is particularly bad that way we
have to leave it print off our Office turns until all the work has been done
as as soon as one of us reads his turn it's work stop!) GM is my 2nd fav -
considering that I feel for the good of the game we have to be very strict
in some parts [against out 'better' nature I might add - we're more lenient
in other games we run] the fact that you think we run a good GMed game is
excellent - makes us very proud! Check out the newbie article - we'll get
it into Bree sometime soon.
For interest other game we or Harlequin run:
Legends: Anticipation: 7.08, GM: 8.56, Depth: 8.45, Interaction: 7.50,
Value: 6.88 Votes:31
Serim Ral: Anticipation: 7.57, GM: 8.00, Depth: 7.00, Interaction: 5.86,
Value: 8.14 Votes:4
Crack of Doom II: Anticipation: 7.14, GM: 8.22, Depth: 6.97, Interaction:
5.44, Value: 6.78 Votes:6
(ME and Leg came in 2nd and 3rd most voted for games as well)
28/11 New version of the attaching program is being used as you can see.
You will no longer be getting email Front sheets as separate emails but they
will be in the main body of the Resultsheet email (which will be attached to
the message). Input welcome.
29/11 Player report: ME29 ended in victory for the Dark Servants! ME29 was
a 2950 variant entitled War of the Ring. The chief difference was that the
number of pops was boosted to the same level as a 1650 game so that we had
the best of both worlds: 1650-sized armies and economies along with all the
wonderful characters from the LoR trilogy: Galadriel, Saruman, Aragorn etc.
I ended up playing Ice King and Long Rider so my report will reflect this.
North Gondor started aggressively, pouring armies acrosss the Anduin to
attack the Witch-king capital. Unfortunately for him, when repulsed, the FP
failed to take down the bridge, and a determined DS counter-attack stormed
Minas Tirith and shortly afterwards his backup capitals, putting him out of
the game.
As DS armies poured across the Anduin and fought their way across South
Gondor, the Freeps, ably marshalled by Mark Seward, tightened the economic
screw and quite suddenly the tide turned. The supply of reinforcements to
the DS armies dried up, and in a single turn both Dog Lord and Fire King
went bankrupt. The Dragon lord player quit for reasons unknown, and the
Long Rider player quit following a personality clash with a team-mate. I
picked up the Long Rider position and the ex-Fire king player picked up the
Dragon Lord so we continued with minimal disruption but one nation down.
We persuaded Khand and Corsairs to join DS but Rhun and Duns went FP. The
White Wizard rebuffed our advances; I don't know if he ever joined the FP
but at some point he quit (maybe something to do with the way we hammered
his position!). For a long time the pendulum of war swung back and forth,
but at last we killed off South Gondor and the FP lost their inspirational
captain Mark Seward.
I believe that was the turning-point in the game. Although the FP "fought
like tigers" to quote one of my team-mates, our agent, emissary and curses
superiority gradually told. Slowly we gained economic superiority and were
able to put more and better armies into the field to back up our characters.
Although the FP too had powerful companies hitting our centres every turn,
they were not enough to deflect us from our purpose. Eventually our good
intelligence work paid off: we caught the company containing Elrond with a
curse squad and slew him. Well, the guy shouldn't walk around Middle-earth
with a target on his back!
With Elrond's death the FP lost their last chance of finding the One Ring
and ending the game that way. They surrendered with good grace after a long
and hard-fought game. All credit to all of them for putting up such a good
fight. All credit to my team-mates for working as a team (most of the
time!) but special kudos to Laurence Tilley who devised our Winning Plan and
kept pulling all the threads together despite occaisonal mistakes and/or
deviations by individuals!
All the players in this game who expressed an opinion said how much they
enjoyed it, so a few kudos to me(!) for a successful design, and lots of
kudos to all at Harle who did the boring work of changing so many stats.
Most of the victorious DS team are looking for a rematch, with us playing FP
this time, so if you are interested (on either side or as a neutral), please
let Harle know you want to play the next game of War of the Ring!
Richard Devereux
29/11 Player report Game 119 Ends in Dark Servant Victory!
Congratulations to Paul Roberts, Dog Lord starter who picked up the Quiet
Avenger after our original player left under ... odd ... circumstances.
Dealing with a Free Corsairs (who bankrupted himself with a huge army about
to break into Mordor) and then our 3rd Harad who tried to go Free, Paul
managed the QA like a shrewd pro and brought them up to end with 2000 well
earned victory points! Most of the time, the VP Leaders on my pdf drive me
to fits of frustration that selfish, uncommunicative builders get some sort
of reward or recognition, but there's no disputing the results for this
game!
Duns and Easterlings joined the DS also, combatting a free Rhudaur. Ulrik
Bisgaard's Easterlings rolled up much of the Rhun, Rhovanion, and even
Mirkwood, extending Ovatha's domain up to Goblin Gate.... My Duns were
dismembered in a most unneighbourly way, surviving only due to the largesse
of Paul Robert's Dog Lord. Mordor DS held the fort where Mike Bateman's Ice
King played a key leadership role, while Brian Medus' Witch King never left
the North and his Long Rider spent the game killing all comers!
Excellent game all! Thanks to Scott Nolan and Scott Strickland for their
inspired Gondor opposition!
I have drop-outs available - don't forget you get a free turn for taking
these up...
E [Early] = 0-10 turn, M (Midgame]= 11-20, L [Late game] = 21+
1000: Two
2950: None
1650: NoMen (m,l), Cardolan (m), NorGo (l), SouGo (l), Quiet (m), Dun (m)
and the following new games filling up:
Bofa: Game 9 2wk turnaround game: 10 turn game: 2 nations taken.
War of the Ring Variant game [Game 97] (ask for module details): 20 players
so far. Pre-aligned game
1650 2wk [Game 96]: Available - 1, 3, 5-8, 11-12, 15, 17,18,20,21,22,24,25
1650 1wk [Game 132] Send me a LIST of nations - when I get to 25 players I
will allocate the positions - 14 positions taken so far (Note 95% of players
get their 1st choice) This is a 2 nation game (ie you can choose 2 nations
to play of the same alignment [not for Neutrals]. You are still able to
play one nation if you want to.)
2950 2wk [Game 227]: Email only game (postal players can play if they have
email) 2 positions in so far - I'll use the same system for taking set-ups
as with Variant games - ie send me a list and when I get to 25 I'll allocate
nations. Preference in clashes for the 1st player to ask for a nation - the
more nations you choose the better nation you get as well.)
1000 2wk [Game 142]: Fourth Age game - LAS (Limited Assassination game)
game. 2 Nations allowed. 4 nations available. (SNAs not allowed: +20%
K/A, 2xScout, Stealth) Clint will be playing if there are no objections.
Grudge Games we need opposition for:
2950: 1 team 10/12 Any alignment 1 wk Ben Shushan, 1 team 10 Perry,
1000: 1 team of 9-12 player team (any alignment - most formats accepted)
David Ruzic, 1 team Brian
1650: 1 World Championship team, 12 player DS team
Thanks
Clint
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