Steer, you rascal, I’m of a mind to defriend you on facebook now! 
Happy New Year to you too Drew!!
Dun support was fantastic all through the game - the double scout was invaluable both when I had decent agents thanks to RoI and RoC and then later on when emmys were doubling any nasties that came their way - Edith and Gontran to name but two high powered agents…
Duns also supplied the artifacts required for a curse squad which worked very well alongside a small but powerful emmy squad.
Jon
I thought we where supposed to give you a couple turn to find and get the one ring, so don’t know why the others couldn’t wait two more turns !!
It might have been me (LR) who muttered about the One Ring…
Mike, I hate to break it to you and I hope it doesn’t impact Game 30 all that significantly, but the DS were on the verge of losing this game. Once the Dark Loo died, and the FP were communicating to that effect, it would have ended automatically… Don’t know what would have happened re: the 2:1 rule if the Easterlings got the 175 order off…???
I’m glad many had fun. I was one of the majority who was playing the entire time expecting Turn 52 to end it. It was over by then and would have been sweet mercy, but there was no real game beyond that…
Kudo’s to you, though, Mr Dog Lord. You seemed to be in trouble in the early game, but rebounded well enough to diplo with more confidence towards the end.
Myself as the Long Rider, I determined with the set up that I was going to play far from home. I did the off-map thing and got stomped out of every location (someone figured out who I was and said: Oh guys, by the way, please check X, Y, Z…I’ll get him back later…). Hopefully that wasn’t Drew telling the FP where to find me…
Ended up with the Noldo capital amongst a slew of MT’s, Towns, and villages in the Northwest. I had more pops up there at game end than any FP at game start. But between Dun and Cardolan we were chasing each other in circles…I’d steal a pop with my 3 or more 100 point emissaries and hire an army, they’d appear on X, Y or Z to burn it, I’d do the same. I chased some of them around with agents and did a lot of damage, but it was 2:1 in their home turf and the tide was turning. Then the Duns whacked my agents who were on their way back to fight in Mordor, finally… Another DS went down, the FP were obviously working better together and my mages failed and failed and failed. I threw up my arms and called for a vote. I was tired of going nowhere and seeing the writing on the wall.
LR Brad
Mike, I have personally spent 10+ turns with a M235 doing two 900/14 orders before fishing up the One Ring (yes, it was in water that game, and my mage was on a boat). In another game after recovery, it was mysteriously lost when a character tried to TrArt. I had no faith TOR would be pulled up in time to save us, much less successfully delivered to Barad-dur.
Hi all,
Cardolan finally checking in. I’ve enjoyed reading the posts on here just as much as I enjoyed playing the game.
The game started off with some high points and some low points. The high points were the easy destruction of the Witch King. He never really put up much of a fight and the Arthedain and cardolan just walked right over him. One of the low points were that the damn Noldo emissaries seemed to pick camp locations where my emissaries wanted to go so I ended up wasting some of my early emissary orders (which meant a slow start for them and I didn’t get down as many camps as I wanted). The other low point was the stupid actions of the rhudaur. He made promises to both the free and DS if his conditions were met and even though we met his conditions (taking out 2006 by a certain turn) and had a superior military advantage in the north he decided to go with the DS. I was very suprised at this given the WK was dead, he didn’t have any offensive actions planned and his defence wasn’t great so we just walked right over him too.
The middle of the game was a bit disjointed for me. My move south was delayed by a superbly timed DS agent squad arriving at 1614, it caused havoc with my newly forming cavalry armies and blew the bridge between my nation and Dunland (congratulations on that, from memory I think it was the Dark Lts). I then spread myself a little thin trying to take on the Corsairs and help south Gondor out a bit with my navy whilst also trying to recruit at 2421 after it had been given to me by North Gondor. After the Harad said he would declare for the free and then promptly dropped I wanted to lend a hand. I had some success in that I captured some corsair pcs west of south Gondor, influenced away a couple of pcs in the far south and my navy sank a Corsair fleet composed entirely of transports (he got me back after bringing in his warships a couple of turns later). The gains that I made in the far south were soon taken back by the DS and I decided to leave that area.
2421 was great fun for me. For a few turns I tried to hold onto the PC despite it having low loyalty. The Dark Lts took out quite a few of my commanders in the hex and his agents easily outmatched my own (even though I had a couple in the 80’s by then, I just couldn’t get past his guards and they kept capturing me). The highlight was assassinating Gothmog, my only big character assassination in the game.
I also enjoyed the last few turns playing with the LR in the far north. Most of my commanders headed back north to recruit to take the pcs he was claiming from the arthedain (I also got a lucky steal artefact order and took one of his agent artefacts off him when he hit my capital). The arthedain player was the biggest disappointment on our team from my point of view. It certainly seemed like he was happy to keep playing while he was doing well but as soon as the Long rider started to hit his pc’s with emissaries he just gave up (I’m guessing most of his characters were on the other side of the map). There was no reason for him to give up other than that things weren’t going his way, it seemed like very bad play to me as with his help the long rider wouldn’t have had as much fun as he did in the north.
All in all it was a good game and it was good to play in a game that lasted for so long.
Cheers,
Chris Guise (Cardolan)
I was wondering what happened to him… Quit did he? If my call for a vote resulted in the game continuing, I would have done so. Quitting like this, especially in a veteran “no replace” game isn’t classy. Unfortunately for him, I’m sure we all know who he was, yes…?
It may be the Arthedain player had to quit for other reasons but it struck me as too much of a coincidence that as soon as some of his home pc’s were hit he just stopped putting in turns (it was very noticable from my turn map that the two things were related). He was a good strong player before that and even with his homeland being hit he had a strong position so there was no excuse.
Chris (cardolan)
If the CL could have gotten it as he told me he was doing – we had curses squads plus some good agents ready and think we had a fair chance to pull it off as I have done in the past,
I don’t know if the CL wrote everyone else but he asked me not to tell the Easterling, so I didn’t tell anyone and beleive he was going for it this turn if look at old messages, so this was main reason why wanted a couple more turns and thus thought we where going for the one ring.
Nope, Talked to Arthedain and he quit just before the LR was taking his pops due to monetary reasons alone. I even told him would pay for a turn or two but he declined. Not to mention – if it wasn’t for the Arthedain – Your side would never have taken Morrannan.
It’s good to hear that. He was doing so well at the time and it seemed strange. It’s a pity that he couldn’t get a message to us to let us know. My apologies to the arthedain player for my rash conclusion to his departure from the game.
Chris
ditto. Arthedain was an important FP and quite powerful. It sucks when stupid Real World BS pokes into our game, alas, it does happen…
Back from holidays, time for a detailed recap.
Setup:
Oh my, NG! That happens when you tell Clint that you are OK with every nation. At least this game would not be boring…
Turns 0-5:
I got a pretty decent start. Withdrew from 3124 to come back in force and with the support of SG. Fought off IK main forces and FK, DKL and Dog forces in the pass and threatened 3123.
6-10:
3224 fell to SG and me on t7, a little later than I had expected, I feared for the first worms to come up any time. The Gondors pushed about 5K HIE into Mordor, but the FK had fortified his camps to stop us. Nevertheless, we made it to Barad-Dur, which we took on t 9.
And then I made my biggest mistake. Underestimating the forces the DS could still muster, I decided to go for the central Mordor CL and BS pops. Among my troops I had 1200 hc and food to move up to the FK backup MT , but I missed that chance – and regretted it bitterly later on. My cav was eliminated before achieving anything in central Mordor. The remains of my foot troops fought their way out of the Morannon pass, threatened 3222 and in a pincer movement, joined forces with 3000 fresh recruits coming from 3121 at Durthang.
11-15:
Durthang fell with no significant defence on t11, and since I did not see any IK activity later, I hoped that had sealed his fate. After that I lost 4000 hi to FK and Lamthanc in the first dragon battle.
16-20:
On t 16 I mustered 6000 hi to take Morannon. It must have been a very, very close battle. Dog had six characters either casting combat spells or using magic weapons. It paid out because I did not manage to destroy the place. After that I decided to help SG and moved out all my warships to fight the Corsairs. I met two of his navies and in mutual destruction eliminated 32 of his warships with my 28. That seems to have ended the threat of naval assaults from the corsairs. Gave 2421 to Cardolan to get him closer to the front.
21-25:
Now I began to regret that I did not finish off FK when I had the chance. He took the Ithil Pass and everything east of the Anduin. I used my remaining transports to ship over some ten thousand troops, but basically I was just feeding dragons from now on. I managed to slip 2500 hc and 43 warmachines into Morannon on t 23. I hoped for some FP support but none came. Knowing I had not enough to take it, I managed to knock the fortifications down to a fort at least: This should have made it easier for my allies to take the place later.
26-30:
I made another attempt at Morannon with 1200 hc and 31 WM, but never got that far. I left FK alone and sent my navy with 3000 hi to North Harad to fight QA. At the same time, FK rebuild the Osgiliath brigde and came over with nearly 10000 hi. That should have sealed my fate. Cardolan had given me 1614 as a backup meanwhile, but I expected to be rendered helpless, losing all pops on the western Anduin bank.
31-35:
Somehow, FK did not manage to carry through to 2927, even though 2926 was taken by emmies. At this point, I was down to 7 pop centres and a combined effort of the DS would probably have taken me out. But Cardolan helped me out with some pops in the NW which increased my income again. At the same time I slowly captured Northern Harad with a small force that had remained from my original 3000 hi.
36-40:
I clung to it stubbornly and regained ground. I recaptured 2926, but now the QA attacked SG. I sent my newly hired armies and opposed him best as I could. I received 2514 from Sinda, which became my capital when QA took Pelargir with emmies. I had hired 1500 hc at 1614 but lost them to agents. Allied support allowed me to lower my taxes to 39% which proved very helpful against some emmy attacks.
41-45:
Sinda had cleared and taken over Minas Anor and transferred it back to me. My hc from 2514 destroyed Dol Guldur together with Sinda forces, the remaining hc made it to 3222 to be eliminated by the FK. Recaptured Pelargir and sent out cav to help SG against QA.
46-52:
So far I had suffered from kidnappings and assassinations no more than I would have expected in that position, but now DKL seemed inclined to concentrate his remaining character resources on me – I had no means to defend against this and my character activity was very limited. 1000 hc at 2514 fell to the blades as well as 1000 hc/2000 hi at 2924 which I prepared to march over a newly built bridge to Osgiliath. The bridge was down one turn later again. At the same time I cleared out the last resistance of QA in the heartland of SG with a small cav force.
DKL emmies took 2514 off me - I had already prepared 2730 as my new capital, but that was not necessary any more. My economy was stable with 3 camps, 5 villages, 9 towns and 4 MTs at game end. As a funny side note, the only starting pop centre that I did not lose at least temporally was 3716, the one that I almost expected to lose first. 
From the diplos I had gathered that some players expected the game to automatically end at t 52, so I asked Rob to clarify this- but it seemed that the DS have been worn out anyway. And I correctly had assumed that we needed to kick out just one more DS to end the game.
Summary:
As I said, this was a great game, there was not a single turn of boredom, but this was mainly due to the position, I guess.
Contrary to what Ed might say, this was still a team game. The side with the better coordination has won, despite the fact that long-drawn games usually favour the DS side because of character superiority (AND Noldo had dropped…).
I survived because of the support of my allies, which gave me pops and sent me enormous amounts of gold and resources, among those at least 60000 units of timber for the WM and the bridge. I’d like to thank Cardolan, Sinda and Duns for being the most supportive and communicative. I worked very well with SG in the first turns, but after we got wiped from Mordor, his communication became scarce. When QA attacked him, I really would have needed more info, I feared he might be out. I tried to inform my side every turn (missed out one or two diplos the whole game), I do not quite understand why some people failed to do that.
Dwarves communicated sometimes, Arthedain very little. Those nations that dropped without sending a single diplo – can’t see why they where labelled veteran players.
Eothraim is a special case. While I can understand that he attacked Easterlings in the first place, it made no sense when Easterlings offered a truce. Still, EO stubbornly clung to fighting them. Those resources directed to Mordor might have ended the game some turns earlier. EO even accused me of being a traitor just because I asked him to make peace with Easterlings, and finally seems to have annoyed Sinda so much that he threatened to drop. A handicap rather than an ally, it seems. But all in all, it seems that we worked together much better than the DS did. So I’d like to say thanks to everyone who made that game enjoyable for me!
Setup:
What a surprise I got to play the Easterlings again.
Turns 0 – 5:
I made the choice to build up my economy before taking any military action and decided to place camps in the off map hexes near the capital.
Turns 6 – 10:
Started to recruit into the armies as the economy was now running along nicely, even managed to pickup arties #18 and #133, an RA on #133 gave it no secondary powers. A FP army was taking out the LR camps and I was still undecided on whom to attack.
Turns 11 – 15:
I decided that I would attack the Rhun Sea area as I believe I had not heard from the WM at all and only once from the LR. The first plan would be an assault upon the WM and once they were dealt with then I would look at dealing with the LR’s capital.
On turn 11 Easterling armies moved on 4013 & 4015 and a mixed cavalry army was intercepted by an Eoth army at 4423. Turn 12 saw 4015 being captured and 4013 cleared of defending armies. The Eoth attacked at 4423 whilst my army comm. refused challenge and moved the remains of the army up to 4318. The Eoth moved to attack 3713. Turn 13 saw the NM’s capital fall, armies moved to 3713 & 4217 and a HC army move up to 4421. On turns 14 & 15 4217 was captured and emmies took 3712, I think that the NM were out at this point. The Eoth kept moving armies onto 3713 every turn.
Turns 16 – 20:
These turns should of seen the construction of an Easterling navy to take out the LR’s capital but the constant attacks from the Eoth at 3713 each turn was eating away resources (the army) that I had planned to load into the transports. The Eothraim would not see reason so I captured 3612. On turn 19 Arthedain moved in emmies on the old NM pop centres and an army of 2500 mixed cavalry which swung the fight back on the Eoth’s way.
The QA & Corsairs were looking for help against north Harad and so I decided to send a HC army that way. Also I challenge and kill Eoder (a victory condition).
Turns 21 – 25:
A complete reversal of fortunes around the Rhun Sea which saw Arth & Eoth capture all but 4014 (city) & 4318 (mt), it even saw Eoth destroy 3605 the turn after I moved 2400HI from it to 3308 an Arth town.
The only pop centre in north Harad available when my army got there was 2632.
Turns 26 – 30:
The Eoth captured 4014 and this saw my economy take a big slide, I found it difficult to maintain troops to defend 4318 but at least my emmies had started to retake some pop centres.
Turns 31 – 35:
I managed to stop the Eoth taking 4318 with timely reinforcements from 4228 every 3 turns. I rebuild 3605 to a town and my emmies swap 4415 a few times. The economy is still hurting but now a little more manageable. If the Eoth had sent an army to 4228 then he may have been able to finish me off.
Turns 36 – 40:
My agents start to become very effective and Eoth army commanders start to be assassinated or kidnapped, he even starts to lose some of his better emmies to challenges. On turn 38 the HC army that was in north Harad makes it to 3516 to link up with a small HC army, this will play a big part later on but for the next few turns it keeps running into a small FK army. Turn 40 sees 4217 upgraded to a major town and a tower is put on 4318.
Turns 41 – 45:
On turn 41 saw the last major effort from the Eoth to take 4318, now upgraded to a city with battles at 4118, 4218 & 4318. I was still sending 1200HC from 4228 and was recruiting at 4217 as well as 4318. The Eoth won at 4118 put was effectively pinned in that hex by my better commanders and an army from 4217. Also on turn 41 the Eoth lost 4013 to emmies & 4014 to that HC army. I also had a HI army arrive at 3111, this army was effectively there to stop the Eoth sending armies out from the Eoplex.
On turn 43 3612 is threatened from the Eoth and the HC army makes it to 3112 where the HI army had been sitting. The Eoth still has his army at 4118, that commander does not want to be kidnapped. The Eoth pop centres around the Rhun Sea are now all retaken apart from a camp or two. I notice that he has had his capital hidden. I offer the Eoth a full truce, I move away from the Eoplex if he agrees not to attack me again.
No response from the Eoth on turn 44 so on turn 45 3112 is threatened away, his capital is now revealed and is a city. I send the Dwarves & Sinda a diplo telling them that once the Eoplex is taken they can each have two of the pop centres.
Turns 45 – 50:
3113 is threatened, 3012 is captured, 2912 and 3316 are taken by emmies, 3316 was an Eoth major town. The Dwarves threaten 3112 on their second try which was per agreement. The Eoth are now reduced to small armies that go after the Easterling unfortified pop centres near the Iron Hills and the old LR camps.
What to do now? I was recruiting HC at 4133 & 4228, HI at 4318 and had a HC army at 3316 with a HI army running down an Eoth army near the Iron Hills. I decide that the mages should look for artefacts as I need an extra 10 for a victory condition.
Turns 51 & 52:
I emmy away 2615 from the Sinda as per an agreement (it was an Easterling victory condition) and after interrogating an Eoth hostage the emmy/agent squad moves to 2711, his new capital.
I also decide to attack Mordor and the CL’s capital. On turn 52 the Easterlings have 1276HC at 3316, 2690HI at 4222, 2048HC at 4324 and 3700HC at 4133. Agents were to take out fortifications in the backdoor whilst the capital armies were to add warmachines & food into them before moving out on turn 53.
I finish up with the following characters:
1 Adeyn (adeyn) 2711 E100
2 Aldhelm Demuret (aldhe) 3316 C51, A47
3 Cinard (cinar) 2711 C10, A80
4 Del Imat (del i) 4335 E100, M36
5 Gorovod (gorov) 4212 A58, M80
6 Hos Harf (hos h) 0912 M90
7 Kalatar (kalat) 3316 C65
8 Kav Makow (kav m) 3410 C87, A81
9 Klú Relortin (klu r) 4228 C63, A53
10 Llewi (llewi) 4133 C16, A10, E13
11 Lumban (lumba) 2711 E100
12 Moraiza (morai) 4415 A79
13 Nazrog (nazro) 4133 C72, A68
14 Padrey (padre) 4133 C20, A24
15 Riadeegha (riade) 4232 E92
16 Rulart (rular) 4017 C77
17 Samaub (samau) 2711 A91
18 Tabaya Kas (tabay) 4228 C65, A49
19 Tartas Izain (tarta) 2711 E100
20 Tros Hesnef (tros ) 4324 C83
21 Urdrath (urdra) 4318 C53, M70
Overall I thought that this was a very good game and I played it to come top (well second was ok) and to achieve as many victory conditions as I could, something that I never bother with in a normal 1650 game.
The use of diplo’s every turn was good though there were times when I did not send any out for a few turns. Certainly the fact that I never received any from the Northmen made me attack him to start with shows how powerful diplo’s could be. There were a few false diplo’s being sent out which added spice to the game.
I would play this format again!!!
Cheers,
Ian
First of all, I expected Cs landings at any point in this campaign, and was hoping he would land in that area so I could push NW towards the Rohan gap and the 2121/2421 holdings to exploit my 2520 toehold. He also claimed to have a large cav army moving up from the south which I wanted him to cross at 3024 and head SW. When it finally looked like none of that was going to happen, as I recall I sent through an icon north of 2927 towards SG who was supposed to soak up SG reinforcements, but I lost a critical character to either assass or curse so that my main forces didn’t move out of 2924 toward 2927. Then that same turn I received a diplo that the QA held 2926 and would be taking 2927 so I didn’t send anything else that direction. When the Sinda company arrived, I could tell it was the end of my Big Push so I just tried to expend all my troops against the enemy before my cmdrs died.
Funny in a game that lasted nearly 2 years someone would take pot shots assuming it had something to do doing well or not… I played arthedian… I haven’t even made one post in forum in over 3 months… So Chris Assume what you will… I have had real life problems that has made me SS turns in everygame… Dropping alot of games I was clearly on top… At least in the top 3…
As for My nation Impact on this game was trivial in in some players small minds… My greatiest dissapointment was the length of this game… My suggestion is to set a predetermined turn limit…
Hi guys if you want another game like this we’re game. Get back to us all or start a new thread. I don’t take players saying they want another game on this list to mean they’ve signed up though hence get in touch with the me@middleearthgames.com I’m quite tempted myself.
Clint
Any interest?
Clint
Hi guys
For those not familiar with G75 it is far more like the original days when computers were not used. You still get the speed and convenience of internet, but you feel some of the harsh realities of working together with limited communication when messengers takes a few weeks to arrive.
Highlights of G75 set up were
-You communicate by sending a 50 word report with every turn. You can send to allies, neutrals and the enemy individually or as a group. This allows you to coordinate, but not directly; you are effectively on a one turn delay. Getting your allies emails is almost as interesting as getting your own turns. Your not flooded with 20+ game emails a turn though…
-You don’t get team pressure. For me as an captain it means I only worry about myself. I’m not being an ogre to 1/2 the team saying do this that and the other. For a newer player you don’t get some experienced players telling you to do it their way or the team will die. Your nation, your destiny.
-With hidden player to nation links the five neutrals don’t know the other players for any nation so no pre created alliances are formed. If Rhu goes DS turn 1 it is because the player thinks that is best for his nation, not because his friend from G?? is playing the WK.
-A list of special serviced active and inactive players in your alliance. You see how strong your team is and can make game decisions based on this data.
-No restriction on what action your character can perform. There are some GB rules preventing speculative actions or stopping you acting without solid information. Under this format you have that additional freedom to steal from allies, inf their camps or do other action as you see fit. If you do these to your allies you may annoy them and you may possibly create civil war in your alliance. Sometime training guys is worth the small hit to your allies like when your all madly camping to get emmies or agents up and running.
-The no replacement if you drop format encourages people to stay in the game. We had some drops early in the game, but those that wanted to actually play stayed from turn 15 to turn 50 with few exceptions. Special circumstances may/should allow a replacement player perhaps. One of my friends got taken to hospital for several weeks after some serious health issue. He never rejoined the game which is sad, even though he was my enemy.
Additional ideas
I thought on what little things I would change to improve this format. Some ideas I’ve come up with include
-Bonus for set up (if possible)
There is generally a group of nations that are popular with most/all players and a group not so popular. The moderators normally ask for 4 nation choices, but this can still create a log jam for the mightier nations. My suggestion here is to offer a bonus in a similar manner to what FA does. In FA it is gold though, in this I’m suggesting some character changes. If you choose more broad parameters for your set up you get a bonus.
Selection Bonus
4 nations your choice -no bonus
choosing any Dark Servant -add 10 skill to a character (not to achieve over 40 skill)
choosing any Free Nation -add 10 skill to a character (not to achieve over 40 skill)
choosing any Nation -add 10 skill to 2 characters (not to achieve over 40 skill)
The powerful character nations like CL with 2xA30s, DkLts with Carrog, Noldo & Sinda with stealth A20s are not likely to get these bonuses. Those races will be most likely selected as a choice of 5. It will add some variability to the set ups, it will allow some of those with M30 nations to get M40 and select a spell. They can then have some magic power. It will make the weaker nations more palatable.
Nations that can name characters at 40 could be limited and prevented from raising those types above 30. This would stop QA starting with a C40 or E40, prevent the CL from having 1-2 extra A40s or the FP nations from upping there C40 stocks. This limits DS more than FP as they have the better character creation SNAs.
With incentive to broaden your choice above 5 the moderators have more ability to ensure player balance to each allegiance.
-Restricted allegiance (if possible)
A maximum of 3 neutrals can join one alliance. This stops a landslide of neutrals all joining one side. You can stay neutrals, but cannot to declare for an allegiance if 3 have already. If multiple declare on the same turn to enforce this rule than one will automatically fail.
End Game
Probably the only thing that caused issue in G75. We all had stereo type ideals on the game end when they were written in plain English and many of us just ignored them.
The one ring rule I think has to stay. I play the military side, but the destruction of the ring is never easy and is an integral part of Tolkiens world. To take it out of the game is akin to stop playing in Middle Earth. The whole story revolves around the one ring rule.
The 2:1 rule is sensible end to the game also. It might not impress the neutrals as they don’t get considered, but there has to be some point at which one game ends and a new game begins. Neutrals can move alliance to balance losses to one allegiance. Some may say the one ring victory is still achievable, but keeping many in game for a remote chance of victory is something I find unpalatable.
A vote to concede once every 5 turns I also agree with, but the vote structure should change imo. In our game this is what ended it. I think you should be counting active nations only and at least 50% have to vote to continue. I don’t know the result of the DS vote, but it could ave been that 4 of 6 wanted to continue, while only 2 wanted to end it. In this case the majority of active players wanting to continue should ensure the game does. The 2 who voted against can of course drop from the game knowing they made their intention clear with a call to end it.
52 turn mercy rule. I’m not one who wishes to go on with one game forever. New challenges new experiences I say.
I’m interested with or without changes.
Mike
I would be interested in another game like this.
Ian