Heh, nice… Now I just gotta figure out how to pay my troops. You think they work for free?
- Ben
Rhun Easterlings
If you boys cant play together nicely well take away your toys!
On the other hand…we may be willing to work as mercenaries in this tribal war between the mighty empires of Rhun and Dunland. How much do you pay?
Gulthuin Prozac-Popper
I can set sail for Dunland if Ben coughs up some serious dough. 
No offense, Brendan. I’d offer to work for you, too, excepting I haven’t found a water route to Rhun (yet!). Argh, git your shovels, men! We got’s a river ta dig!!
Russ / Cors21
Well, I think this is a first… All the neuts have declared war on each other! 
Don’t worry Ben, you will not be attacked out of the blue. This grudge team has yet to atack a neutral first. We are trying to figure out how we are going to tackle your proposal as we speak…
Believe me, I wont let them forget about you, my next door neighbor.
NM-21
Well, it’s a simple yes or no proposition. The DS have agreed, all you guys have to do is agree…
Then both sides can e-mail as to which hex they would like to build, and I’ll post it up once I have a location from each side. The locations will be made public AFTER both sides pick, not before. I don’t want either side influenced by the other teams location.
- Ben
Rhun Easterlings
Hi to the Neutrals! Hi to the Dark Servants! Hi to anyone browsing this thread!
I’m playing the woodmen in this game and am already having a hoot. I personally think the idea of a camp to city race sounds intriguing. I’ll update you on my persuasive status regarding this.
There’s only one problem though: Don’t the DS still have to have a nation in the game at turn 5 in order to participate? Just curious…
ANYWAYS… I look forward to chatting it up with one and all…
Your friendly neighborhood wood chopper,
Jeffery A. Dobberpuhl
(Email me at MJDobberpuhl@MSN.com - Get rid of the spaces for the email to work! Grin)
Ben, thanks for the smiles! I enjoyed the rules and the challenge. Being able to see the progress turn-by-turn at an agreed upon hex should be interesting to see. I’ll let the team captain speak as to our acceptance / understanding of the rules. I’m just surprised you let us name the camps ourselves!
It is true. The DS have acted in agression. Where we have been a peace loving communitiy, they move armies into our pop centers. What nerve! The retribution shall be long and relentless. I just have one question - why pick on a nation with such a poor economy? Can’t you give an elf a break?? I’m just glad I didn’t leave a starting army there for you guys to swallow up. I think two armies is overkill. But hey, no problem being thorough.
I’ll have to check the message boards more often. It’s been a few games since I have seen some good banter.
MrDarwan
Silvan - 21
"Your friendly neighborhood wood chopper,
Jeffery A. Dobberpuhl "
–Don`t you mean in-bred, mutant wood-worrier?
“I just have one question - why pick on a nation with such a poor economy? Can’t you give an elf a break??”
–Your lies are so hollow, we know that you are sitting on a hill of gold and are just waiting for us to knock out the Northmen so that you can fight over the spoils with those lovely Rhun fellows!
Shoglic the Demented
Dear Shoglic the Demented:
Thank you for your kind words. Apparently there is a SMALL translation problem between the goodly words of the hard-working men and women of Mirkwood and the scuzzy nail-biting dentist’s-nightmare fruits that grew on your family tree.
You see, you took “Your friendly neighborhood wood chopper,” and came up with “in-bred, mutant wood-worrier”. This is a common error so no offense is taken. You see, our men are SOOOO manly that many times you will see them proudly walking about and only THINK the only logical answer is that they have been -ahem- worrying wood -ahem-.
Nothing could be further from the truth! Here is ACTUALLY what happened. A short time ago, some merchants came through town and CONTINUALLY delivered over and over again messages saying: “Say, is YOUR log too small?” “Would YOU like more Timber for her furnace?” and other similar things. We figured this was a ploy to increase our much needed production of fire wood and so, in a moment of weakness, PURCHASED the merchant’s products (come to think of it, though, those merchants WERE heavily cloaked and DID appear a bit, well goblinoid in nature…)
Anyways, within a week we received arm patches, odd blue pills (Marked with the “V” for Valor, we presume, a rune of great power), strange bits of (apparently) elvish art and a scroll of certain -er- exercises one could perform with the Missus on a cold winter’s night.
To make a short story long, our women now walk a bit more crooked than they did before, and our ability to be camoflauged in a wood pile was dramatically increased. So we see where your confusion comes into play. No wood worrying going on, just nature’s bounty proudly displayed!!!
Good to talk to you, send more beer.
Beorn the Mighty:)
Ah! the real reason for free agression has become apparent! You guys dig crooked women and lets face it gobbo women have crooked down to a fine art.
Of course the “wood” we sold you was of the “warped” variety, so I guess we have something to do with your bowlegged women…better hope the same thing does not happen your other appendages
Hoarmurath
Message from the FP:
As you have heard probably heard, the FP are off to a great start. I am
VERY pleased so far.
The only conflict will be at 2915, where the DS jumped in with multiple
armies on a sleepy Silvan logging camp.
In the hornet’s nest (Osgiliath), the DS forgot to show up. Things
should get interesting soon.
Artys/Ruins - We again received some good luck and nailed multiple arty
locations. One of them is in WW-lands and we already informed him of
our intention to send characters there on retrieve-duty. The ruin hop
went reasonably well. No deaths, average gold. I think just about all
of them were accounted for.
No interesting rumors detected.
In the Rhun area, Ben Cook and I are VERY happy. No DS icons in sight.
We are trying a new strategy and, with the extra turns provided by LR
inactivity, we are very optimistic. The city-building project is very
interesting. The DS have multiple emmy artys, thus an advantage.but we
never back away from a challenge.
End of Message.
I said I would post all messages I receive regarding this game. Everything involving me will be made public.
- Ben
Rhun Easterlings
Well well well…
After reading the posts we can now tell some of the differences between the free peoples and the dark servants. Hey Neutrals! Print and Save for future reference!
Free Peoples Dark Servants
Manly and Virile Not so Manly OR Virile
Willing to drink beer Willing to drink YOUR beer
Cool Team Names Lame Team Names
(Like “The Woodcutters”) (Like “Shoglic” - Dark speech
for “The Quilting Guild”)
Cool, edgy attitude! Mean, bully-like attitude
Well, that’s it for today! Take care,
Beorn
(via Jeffery A.)
Quilts are, like, cool dude…ive been sitting under mine for 200 years now, trying to take the edge off all the valium and prozac speedballs with a little "longbottom leaf" [gee, that saruman guy scores some wicked weed!]. How come im so depressed? It makes me wanna go up to nearest butch woodman with a pointed stick and challenge him to “a square go” in some muddy town square…however i predict my death will be more noble than that…
Shoglic the Stone-Killer
ps; cya in ther afterlife Beorn Bear-baiter!
Another FP message
Hi to the Noble Rhun!
I thought your game of Cities is an interesting way to generate some excitement! I’d PERSONALLY like to take you up on that challenge, but when your best emissary starts at a 20, well, cities are something to dream of (How -DID- we ever build major towns, I wonder…)
Things are pretty quiet on the woodmen front and we are currently expecting to just hang out and make little woodmen until the war arrives (if it ever does).
Strategy wise, I know I’m staying off of your maps. I have enough things to worry about. You may see some random woodmen encounters over there as I am currently going running a Courier Service for team artifacts! UPS (Uniform Postal Shapeshifters)…
We also have some plans for a very First Age "Girdle of Melian’ idea that will require coordination with an eastern nation…
End of message
I’m going assume that both sides are accepting my proposal. Please tell e-mail which hexes you want to camp before turn 5 so I make sure that neither side picks the same hex.
- Ben
Rhun Easterlings
Apparently we Woodmen are good at war and not Espionage!
LOL!
*carves memo to self in tree trunk “No emails to Rhun. Post Only.”
You know that a week from now I will wonder what that all means!
Jeffery “Beorn the bright as a snuffed-out candle” A.
The DS have chosen their hex and it is acceptable. FP, please let me know where you’ll start your project as soon as possible, then I’ll make the announcement and both sides can begin making plans.
Also, I DO NOT expect to have to use this new city as a future capital whichever side I end up joining. I expect to manage on my own. I wouldn’t be much of a teammate if I wasn’t self-sufficient, eh?
- Ben
Rhun Easterlings
Will begin on t4
Shoggy…pity i won`t be around to see it…
No, please begin on turn FIVE. A camp should be in place with our turn 5 results, not turn 4.
- Ben
Rhun Easterlings
Ah! Here is a query for you…
Now Mr. Rhun, say a crafty/clever person was able to somehow DISCERN the location of the other sides campable hex, and, on the turn prior, CAMPED that hex?
Now, I am confused, are you going to send EACH side the otherside’s hex number or will such random deviousness be left to chance in your little game of cities?
(I’m thinking too hard. Time to get back to chopping down trees and building brewhouses…
JAD “Beorn”