What, no official declaration of surrender from the freeps yet? They must be in deep discussion…or perhaps the apathy of the defeated? It would be nice to know one way or the other soon so we can organise Real Life stuff lads!
dendra the dubious
Maybe Nick is frustratingly trying to explain to his obstinate allies what exactly all those “eye thingy” symbols all over their gondor maps and the loss of their curse companies MEAN exactly. Nick would like being on TeamLush. We usually agree to surrender by turn 12!! 
Just because a couple of your elven nations and Rangers and Dwarves have tons of pop centers doesn’t actually mean you can still win and should continue. Major Towns can’t attack.
Hmm, this could be my first bug hunt. Kind of exciting.
Russ with a Big Magnifying Glass
I’m all for squashing bugs.
- Ben
Dark Lts.
“Bugs Suck!” [Courtesy of Ben Min PLC]
dendra the dutiful
Nick,
What’s the status? Do we fight on or are you calling it a day?
- Ben
Dark Lts.
I’m a little more pessimistic about our chances for survival and prolonging the game than my teammates, though that is not due to their play. I see two things as being critical: the initial Corsairs player was either new to the game or just starting off, and his real-life obligations kept him from communicating fully with the rest of the team. As you may recall, the Corsairs spent the first 6 turns admiring the QA’s growing nation from their sea-stranded fleet. Without food, it took them turns and turns to reach any targets.
Big mistake. The Corsairs should be creating/posting camps on turn 1 and staying land-based with their military. Hell, they got a road looking eastward right from their capital, which should be improved to a City ASAP and stacked with leather and mounts for recruiting HC. Later, his navy could sail up the Anduin and be useful assaulting Minas Morgul or Barad Perras.
Losing the Northmen hurt, but Roberto did a brilliant job fending off multiple enemies and drawing fire off the rest of us. When we tried to transfer Linhir to them, they had gone bankrupt, an event we obviously did not anticipate. Anyway, I’d sacrifice the Northmen if the Corsairs could get a good start hacking into QA and Khand territory.
The other big mistake-- due more to bad luck than anything-- was the loss of Galadriel and her artifacts. Not much we could do to catch up on SM after that happened.
However, on the military matters, I think we suprised the DS with a few stunning victories. Morannon should have fallen turns before, but Angurth interveened time after time. As it turns we, we did burn Dol Guldur, Minas Morgul, Morannon, and more recently the City/Fort Dilgul. Durthang would have followed quickly, since the Sinda have enough warmachines to do the job. Contrast that offensive with the DS-- your militaries are turns and turns away from being able to burn any significant FP pop. centers. Your SM groups and emissaries could give us headaches, but we’ve never worried too much about your armies.
All told, the last two turns have made the picture clear for me. The loss of our big guns (Saruman, Elrond, Erestor, Helkama, Tharudan) has sealed the deal. We MIGHT be able to find the One Ring (240pt mage rank), but returning it to Mount Doom and dropping it is another matter.
I’m playing the Noldor and Sinda now and the cost of running the turns to find out just doesn’t seem worth it.
my two cents…
Nick ME 225
Our armies aren’t any threat? We do own both sides of the Anduin you realize. And yes, you did burn quite a bit of Mordor’s exterior, but you never managed to make your way inside and keep anything. The hidden major town was a nice trick, seen it done before, and it’s a huge pain, but that was it.
You can always quit and let your team play on, Nick. Both Gondors and Rohan will soon be crippled or eliminated, it’s only a matter of time before we work our way into Mirkwood and the Gap of Rohan.
- Ben
Dark Lts.
Oh, and this wasn’t bad luck. It was good planning on our part. Once the game ends and you see our PDF’s and read our messages you’ll understand.
- Ben
Dark Lts.
In a way, Nick, I envy you for having a team that has this kind of morale to keep on. Guys I play with usually want to throw in the towel after losing a capital or two and one nation (not speaking of TeamLush, of course.) I only hope your allies actually have some kind of plan for victory other than drawing the game out.
As for the ring, we can EASILY outrank your team on the search and, while I probably shouldn’t be speaking of this, we have in fact been slowly working toward this goal in the background for about 6 turns (maybe more?). We are obviously going to pick up our pace on this now that we have crippled your curse capabilities. If this Ring is your team’s only hope, I sincerely think it’s a waste of money for all of us to keep dumping 8 bucks a turn into this for this last desperate roll of the dice when we could be thinking about a rematch. Just my opinion.
If your guys have a valid plan . . . great, let’s play. I’m still enjoying this. If no plan exists other than bughunts and ringhunts . . . c’mon, let’s move on. It’s not the end of the world.
You’ve been great opponents. Ready for a rematch whenever you are. If your boys can’t handle us again, c’mon over to our team and we’ll find someone to take us on. You do like to drink, right? 
-Russ, TeamLush
You should have had me as your Corsair. This thing would have been over turn 14.
Russ the Braggart
<<Oh, and this wasn’t bad luck. It was good planning on our part. Once the game ends and you see our PDF’s and read our messages you’ll understand.>>
- Ben is right, if a little overly arrogant about it.
Russ
Hey there Russ,
I’s really interesting how long such a 2950 game can last.
I’ve played several 1650’s in the meantime.
( Okay, only short games. Two times they’ve given-up and we only played 10 turns !)
Baaaah! Bad enemies !
Have Fun further on with this 100-turn-game !
Gixxxer
Gave up in 10 turns? Need to get you on my side!
Russ
Nick,
I take it you’re still fighting on, eh?
- Ben
Dark Lts.
The buoyant nations of the freeps [dwarves, rangers etc] may have a change of mind about playing on when they get slapped down [again] this turn. All those pretty WW emmies…as if we didn`t know where they were going!
Dendra the Devious
I’ll agree that the FP military-machine was pretty impressive throughout the game so far. And it has dealt out plenty of damage.
But it is certainly not overwhelming as it has failed to eliminate any DS nation, defend its own possessions in the East or in Gondor, or establish any kind of working beachhead near Mordor.
Currently, Mordor and New Mordor (Gondor) are both safe from any immediate and serious FP military assault.
So I would say the FP military has been tactically impressive, but not strategically. You have won plenty of battles, but not the war.
Kinda like invading Russia in the winter…
- Ben
Dark Lts.
Well, lads the plans are in place…just the nine assassinations and 4 curses this turn…let`s see how many we can score…
DENDRA THE DEADLY
Ah, Dendra. You spoiled the secret. As far as they knew, we only had 3 curse companies. Quick, tell them it was a typo. Ah well.
-Ovatharuss
Lover of Secrets
We are done. I tip my proverbial cap to the forces of darkness. It really makes for a good game when you have worthy opponents (even if they beat you) who can take taunts as well as give them out.
Thanks to my team for putting up with my multitude of emails, suggestions, indecisiveness, and guesses that went wrong.
The ships, the ships, they are departing…
Good gaming all!
N.