Lol - generally a great plan. Just a shame that dragons dont start to appear before turn 4…
Ed, Ed, Ed, Ed, Ed…
Quit trying to confuse the poor Orcses, Men-at-arms, you know that Sauron has very little men. He’d have to recruit Orc-at-arms.
Scott
i agree it’s a real bugger. 500MA moving out to block is a cheap way to buy time till the drags arrive. The other thing is that though not cheap, disposable armies. Recruit-split-move-encounter, next turn die. You can afford to recruit masses so long as the losses are gauranteed. You can keep your economy stable as long as troop losses keep meeting recruitment.
You’ve then just gotta watch your opponent doesn’t fall back slowly, winnowing your troops as you start straining under the troop burden.
Adrian
Oops, sorry Scott. Lost my head and displayed poor judgement.
Yo Quiet Dude. Yes you, there in the back of the room. Its all a trick. run away! Run away!
Orcses too stupid to ru… <cthunk>
Well, a bold turn two by the free - major assaults on Carn Dum, Dol Guldur (I found the horsies!), Mt Gundabad and Barad Ungol. Not to mention the sneak-some Duns preparing to jump into the fray in Rhudaur. Attacks on all fronts! Gratz on Elrohir’s challenge at Rhudaur capital - I spend 10k on that emmy! Not to mention you made me miss two very important sells… I’m not sure but at this rate I might bankrupt Rhudaur earlier than Clint!
How are Vagaig and Vinyaran? Must have been a pest to lose Vinyaran’s army like that… And what’s Elrond doing in the middle of nowhere? He needs to come back to re-hide the ashes of Imladris!
And, can I just say for the record, that the Drg Ld turn sucked! I’ve never seen a comm 60 with double the number of necessary troops fail to threaten a town before 
Still second time lucky, I hope! Perhaps he’ll be reassured by the Dog Lord cavalry that snuck past the horsies on their way to Dol Guldur?
And finally, down south - very interesting, but we’ll have to wait and see. You have no idea how many troops Harad will be fielding in just two turns! And bless the QA! She’ll pitch in one day! Although probably not till her economy recovers from the loss of Vamag…
I have to say, I’m loving this game so far. Team mates are (can be…) great! But there’s nothing quite like having an overall plan and watching it unfold beautifully. Not that I haven’t already had to make adjustments, but it’s ironic yet predicatable that the areas in which I’ve made the most adjustments are the areas that are going less and less to plan. A lesson perhaps? Make a plan and stick to it!
Chicken?
I must say, my fine Orcish friend, that it was a very interesting turn for the DS also. Vinyarin’s kidnapping by Kadida at 3120 wasn’t the one that hurt, it was Vagaig’s by Ji Indur at 3124, and his loss of 2000 high quality troops. Well, now I have to compromize, what to do about Hukor and his 3000 troops at Barad Perras? I know I have to fight Shogmog and his 5200 troops at Barad Ungol, I’m just happy that they aren’t that good of troops. These things and the troops building up in south Harad (playing the old Libyan game of drawing the line in the sand, are you?) are things that I’m planning for. It’s the surprises that make me nervous, surprises like–where are the CL and BS armies going? Is the CL cav going to aid the QA and Harad? Or will the head to the gates? Gurthlug and Duran, a bit of a pain in the *%#^, but will take care of it. The biggest pains are, in this order: 1. Lhachglin getting the Ring of Wind encounter at 3510 2. Murazor revealing Imlandris with Marendil and his 4200 merry troops there 3. Sneaky army at 3414, durn, how did it get there? 4. Seammu and his 2100 crappy troops at Minas Malloth 5. Durkarian and his 4100 troops at Zarak-dum (durn, is this overkill? Or his he being a tricksy, moving into Woodman Land?). These five things are going to cost me a lot of thinking time.
If the Dragon Lord is having a bit of a tough time, I’d say, “It’s about time some of the bad breaks go to the DS.” Sauron before turn 1, not to mention the pitiful spell list I got along with character placement; I’d say you still have about 10 bad things due to you.
Overall, great time to be had by all us players. I don’t know about Frank, but I delve into a different one of my many personalities for each nation. That way I can have a brainstorming meeting and change the course of action for any nation. But, there can be problems with this also, take Elrond at Sam Goriwing, he thought that the Sinda would be there, but the Sinda thought that Elrond was going further east to Tol Buruth. Go figure, Elves, who really knows what they’re going to do?
Scott
[observer butting in]
It’s early, the Loyalties are still likely good. Add loyalty+20/level of fortification and it gives you the Com rank you need, whether 2x the number of troops gives you ComRankx2 is unknown…
[observer butting out]
It appears in your opinion that the world of PBM should bow to you… the one’s with no backbone that is 
How many allies died or scarificed their all to get you there?
I doubt any allies have died are sacrificed for Vandal’s sake.
But if you continue to want to believe that, I guess that is your right.
Tim
Lol - I’m glad your having to think then! In terms of the RoW I just have to hope for a riddle and not the spirits! Still, I should get RoC and Tinculin, so I can afford to have a little slack Just trying to decide what to locate next!
Imladris will be mine, as will Zarak Dum - both feature large in my plans. But I have to admit it took me a while to figure out that the army next to Fennas Drunnin (like the new castle?) was the Duns. Don’t mind Seammu, he’ll just have a play for a while 
As for Duran and Guthlurg, well they can play too!
Although I have to admit that it sucks you got the reports of which agents did the kidnapping. Mind, I’m pleased they both worked! And you leave poor Hukor alone! He ain’t done nufink t’ya guvna! Yet! lol
BS and CL armies… Disbanded one of them - just takes too long to get anywhere for the pay off given most of them are crap troops. The CL cav on the other hand… well that would be telling!
To be fair, I can’t really argue with that! And I got so-so lucky with my spells - my research gambles largely paid off giving me a slight jump, but bear in mind that DS do have better mages than the Freeps so I had that one coming…
Getting close to going onto the second page, can’t allow that, can we?
:rolleyes: 
:o 
:eek:
Well we follow the maxim of leave nobody behind and throw yourself in harms way before you throw your allies to the wolves
But like all things its a game and you cannot protect everyone all the time, but sacrifice them, ouch would you really think that.
What does that say about what you would do
Vandal
Actually, I don’t understand a word of what Vandal said.
Well I have you just where I want you then.
Vandal
Receive turn 3 on Friday, can’t wait, will the cowardly DS quit? Will the valorous Free Peoples tromp on the slimey toad eating Orcs? Will the over cautious Harad finally cross their line of death in the sand? What will happen, will happen and that’s the beauty of the game, the anticipation. Three weeks between turns this time, man, it seems like three months.
Eager Beaver,
Scott
Master of the Free
and soon to be
Master of Middle Earth:D
Frank,
Right off the bat, I gotta say, “Gees, this guy can’t threaten worth a damn!”
All kidding aside, I’ve never seen such bad luck on the threaten as your two armies are having–but it’s good for me. Bad for me was the miscalculation in the combat calculator that got Cirdan’s head bashed against the wall–“We will recover his body, We will climb the stairs of Mount Solaran and hope for “Pong Fo Ma, the Rejoining.”” Damn, wrong movie, Cirdan isn’t Spock and I haven’t got a Captain Kirk–but I do have a LOT of other captains. Will they do?
Scott
Po Fong M’ass! The elf is dead!
NW: you certainly ain’t yella! But then, mutual annihilation suits my sense of humour… I can’t help but think perhaps I should actually defend Carn Dum…? What about Seammu? Where is he going? lol
Mirkwood: darn horsies stole my castle! And that pointy-ear revealing Sarn Goriwing - just plain rude! Blatant tit-for-tat after I unveiled his home!
Harad: tensions are mounting. I’m just glad the QA fleet (or is that ‘fleet’…) blocked SG for a turn. Still, things are shaping up nicely for the forseeable future.
Ithil: as predicted, just a shame that Camlin escaped the knives last turn. Still, I have time! And possibly enough troops left afterwards to take Ithil?
Rhovanion: will hopefully burn a horsey MT - been a bit quiet up until the northmen (!!) turned up at Thuringwathost!
Arties: I’ve got the encounter for RoW, RoC and Tinculin. Are you even trying…?
And as for Duran’s inability to threaten? I think he needs a scar, or something. Put down the feather wings and growl? I need to get hold of Sauron’s public affairs team!
As far as losses go, at the end of this turn it will rest at:
// FP // DS
MT // 2 // 1
T // 5 // 2
V // 3 // 0
C // 1 // 0
Will the DS be able to withstand the onslaught?!?
(But dammit! I should have threatened another 3 towns and a village!!)
Who pray tell is the Frank you are talking to?
Vandal