A short rundown on the rundown nations of the Dark Alliance.
Witch King: special service this turn?, will loose 2 MT´s, 2 left.
Dragon Lord: Havent seen any action this turn or the former, one MT left.
Dog Lord: The same thing, seen nothing done by this nation, one MT left.
Cloud Lord: Collapsed, one of his agents kidnapped by a former ally, expect to see some of his chars in action soon.
Blind Sorcerer: Reverting to the army game with success, captured one Wm MT inside Mordor and one Village south of Greenwood, Dol Guldur is the next on his wishlist. Will loose one MT, one left(his starter capitol).
Ice King: MRP, a small free army at his capitol, which possibly is his last PC, has plenty of agents, but seems to be a bit short on commanders. Estimated deficit: 15-20k.
Quiet Avenger: Running an emi team with some success, may take Minas Arnor (MT) with it this turn, I wish him best of luck, he will need it, may loose his backup MT to an emi team, ironic, isnt it?
Fire King: Still running armies, which he did well throughout the game, lost two armies to agents this turn and this before they could do any damage. One backup MT, shortlived as it is a former Arthedain PC, expect some of his PC´s to degrade next turn and some camps to drop.
Long Rider: His attempt to take over the NE with cav-armies has been foiled by well placed free armies. Not much character activity which can be attributed to his nation over the last few turns.
Dark Lieutenants: Two MT´s, running armies(one at or near Thuringwathost, ready to roam the plains with Gothmog in command?), has some good emies and has a curious fixation on Maethelburg. Seems to be easily provocked by big mouthed, shapeshifting Woodmen.
Haradwaith: Two MT´s, some armies with roughly 4000 troops, will win one battle and loose another, cant be long before he is defeated by Corsair and South Gondor armies.
Rhudaur: Collapsed in the early teens, if I remember rightly.
The MT count is too low or so I suspect, my estimate is that there are 2-3 more somewhere at the most.
The overall picture: Plenty of gold and recourses, gold theft now virtually nonexistent, only some 19k, compared to the last turns where it occasionally almost excieded 100k. Many agent and emi orders in the next turns will be used to retrieve CL artefacts and recruit CL characters, giving us breathing space. Emies employed in taking back our PC´s in Mordor (2 MT´s, some towns, villages and camps) benefits us in the long run, much better using armies and inflict a fierce loyalty drop. The relative low success with defensively placed curse teams and agents might just crack Saurons spine. As pointed out by Fupstein, our 12 nations are doing well on the average, none of them are so battered that they wont survive a concentrated attempt to push them out. You got 80 orders less pr. turn and two natsells as well (amounting to some 54k gold). Dont kid yourself, if you fail to uphold some pressure, we will make good use of it. WK´s well played comeback in Angmar will soon enough be something of the past, with or without ss, it wont do any difference. As for the two army icons at Thuringwarthost, I dont think they will do any difference or last out more than two turns.
I will now cast the Runes and what do they tell me. It looks like you will loose at least another nation in the next two turns. By t35 you will be lucky to have 6 nations left and they will be in disaray, clinging to their last MT. The first free army is inside Mordor, some more will follow soon.
It looks like defeat, it smells like defeat and feels like defeat. Dont count on us dropping out and winning that way, we will continue the game as if you still had a chance of victory.
Loke:D
