I’ve just recieved word that our stalwart oppositoin, those misguided Free peoples, have decided to lay down their swords and submit to the rule of Sauron… on turn 13?
I find this dissapointing, as the game was still very much balanced, though we were exerting increasing pressure.
Dunland and the Corsairs went Free.
Witch King bankrupted turn 4.
Rhudaur went dark and was flattened…
On the plus side for us…
Easterlings went Dark and flattened the Northmen (who were not eliminated…)
Dragon Lord was still hanging on to Dol Guldur due to a timely dragon.
Harad and I (as the QA) had thumped Southern Gondor’s economy somewhat and driven back the Corsairs (well, the Harad drove back the Corsairs).
No Dark Servant captials ever burned except the Witch King’s.
Thus, the game was 10+2 for the free versus 10-1+3 for the Dark. i.e. 12 vs. 12. (With Rhudaur and the Northmen being crippled, and the Eothraim in the same defensive stance as the Dragon Lord.
I’m disappointed that the Free are giving up so easily. SIGH. Anyway, my compliments to my allies, especially Forbes Jaffray (Rhudaur- for having the will to fight to the death and surviving!), Joseph Williams (Harad), and Kevan Mull (Easterlings). Great players all, anyone to have them would be lucky.
Bradford Fisher, Quiet Avenger game 13
It seems such a shame that the Free have decided to quit so early in the game. It looked as though the game could of gone on for 10-20 more turns as the teams looked evenly balanced.
The Free had done a number on the WK & Rhudaur and it seemed that they were going to storm through Mordor at one point but the decision of the Eothraim player to not attack any significant pop centres let us all breath a sigh of relief. This army was finally brought to heel through nice agent work by the Cloud Lord.
Furthermore starting the game in the middle of winter meant that for the first 6 or 7 turns all the Dark Servants were scrapping the bottom of the barrel looking for cash. If the Free had manipulated the markets more they may have seen more than 1 DS bankrupt themselves. As it was we managed to find that extra funds through the intervention of the Bank of Harad and later the Bank of the East.
I must congratulate the 3 neutrals who saw the light and let their forces join the dark side. The intervention of the Easterlings around Rhun was brilliant and they nearly put paid to the Northmen all by themselves.
As it was this enabled the Dog Lord, Ice King and Dark Lieutenants to do a number on the Eothraim who would of lost all but 1 MT this turn. Shame it hasn’t happened!
It would be nice to hear from the Free as to why they decided to throw away their weapons so early and retire to the West.
Ian Etchells, Dark Lieutenants Game 13
This game was in no way evenly matched…
Half the Good players quit and most SS’d many of their turns. The Cloud Lord was devastating any attempt to fight or have any economy. (Corsairs had 20000 gold stolen in one turn!) Harad was devastating Corsair towns, Eothraim was plain dead, Northmen were out as a real player, Woodies left turn 2. NG was facing massive armies and the knowledge that any leader was dead as soon as CL got around to killing them. With all the quits, we were left with only 2 players still with a viable position and the will to play. DS had all the artifacts, everytime we identified and moved for an artifact, DS already had someone there.
Congrats to DS for a game well played. I learned a lot, thanks to the original Elvish players (both of whom quit). I take away the fact that I helped to devastate the WK and Rhudaur. I never did understand why Rhudaur refused to talk even when he knew the alternative to talking was devastation. We welcomed him, but he never responded to any of our messages. I would have ignored Rhudaur to try to get to Mirkwood faster. Of course, that would have had me fighting the assassination squads that much earlier, but maybe we could have knocked out Dragon Lord before going down…
This was my first game, and I would have continued just for the sake of learning a few more lessons, but noone else wanted to continue. I have requested to join two more games, one 1650., one 2950.
Rick Dorsey, Kokomo, IN, USA
Rick, I thought you had a good game, especially if that was your first. Shame you had so much trouble with drops, definitely a huge factor going against you, and very frustrating for those who want to carry on.
I’m not sure if you realize how close you came to breaching Mordor early on. The Eothraim probably could have taken Morannon and Durthang if he’d issued any kind of attacking orders. Would have been a very different game…
Good gaming,
Paul
IK
I must apologize for my inept play in this one. It has been awhile and I vastly miscalculated how much recruiting I should have been doing. I just hoarded tons of gold and built a few camps.
In fairness to myself I was grooming my kingdom to be a financier of the DS.
When Harad attacked I was stunned at the number of troops that were plowing through my MTs. My own offensive was deflated by some bad moves and then DS agents started hitting my vast treasury.
I made a lot of mistakes. This on top of the disorganized Free painted a clear picture of the future: a world under the shadow.
Congratulations on a swift and apparently unbeknownst to you decisive victory.
I look forward to trying my hand at this again. I will not make those same mistakes.
Angamaite,
Corsairs ME 13
