See this!!! Those Elves are promoting other nations wares. Thats almost as bad as declaring war 
Not even poor wargs/orcs should be punished that bad by eating āfish on a stickā 
Hehehe
Ian
Now, now, that friendly food sales guy told us time and again that two month old āfish on a stickā is still good food for wargs/orcs, the casualty rate should be well below 100%, they told us.
And wargs/orcs do not eat Lembas (elven bread), so we add false beards to our faces and march to Morannon to sell āfish on a stickā. And maybe invade with 10.000 warriors disguised as food porters.
Cheers,
Pfendi / Sinda / āFish on a stick traderā
Come, now. March? Surely you meant mince? :rolleyes: False beards and pointy ears? Not a pleasing combination. :rolleyes: Somehow, the image of 10,000 āgarden gnomesā spring to mind. 
Mike,
āLess thanā Quiet Avenger
Let me guess that friendly food sales guy was called CMOT Dibblerā¦Iām just surprised that you Elves fell for it. 10,000 two month old āfish on a stickā has gotta smell, no wonder the DrL is vacating Mirkwood
poke poke Mr Fire King you dead yet or did someone sacrifice a MT for you?
smile Guess taking down the bridge didnāt work next trick guys?
So how many more capitals do we have to destroy before yaāall quit?
Nice work Vanya, oh I forgot Dol Guldur have also fallen 
Cheers,
Ben
Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tocā¦
Time is nearly up :eek:
Who wants to be my friend? Or who wants me for an enemy?
The Easterlings will make their mind up this turnā¦will let you all know next turn who is to be the sacrifical lamb though.
No hard feelings but iāve got a few mounted exotic food sellers on their way to the market
I was out of communication for a while, but nowā¦
I am back!
And Hah!-less. Free at last!
The transfer of Dol Guldur to the Free went much as expected. I am flattered that you
thought war machines needful. That will help when the counterstroke comes.
Nice exchange of challenges. I would say the Free got the better of the exchange, but I am
not wholly disappointed with the result.
The rendezvous at Ceber Fanuin was intended. Has Urwen a dragon? Is Celedhring with
the army? Do you feel lucky?
Of course, you do.
Old fish-on-a-stick and a vast stockpile of over-age hahās! I got out of Dol Guldur just in
time.
Now, the Dragon Lord has not quite vacated Mirkwood. Revealed though it is, Sarn
Goriwing is still mine.
Phase 2 begins.
The Free want someone to quit ā they are welcome to do so.
Steve
Dragon Lord.
I think Iām going to quit if you lot keep mentioning fish-sticksā¦itās beginning to make my stomach turnā¦
Cheers
Brendan - SG
Well the turns are back in and I had a good one.
3 new camps down bringing the total to lots but somehow it never seems enough. Let see what can my emmies do this turn 
Oh yes place more camps
I am unhappy to see fish-on-a-stick being used as a weaponā¦but its a better use for it rather than eating it So that means my exotic food wares must be a least used for their intended reasonā¦makeing me rich
Well my armies were given their marching orders last turn and they all marchedā¦northā¦against Rhun. I have decided to go Dark against my better judgement. A full email will be sent later to the Free telling them why I made this decision. But please give my commiserations to the Northmen/Eothraim as they will soon need them
I hope that this now means the Free will insult me on this here board :eek: as I will certainly reply
Ian
King of Rhun/Mirkwood/and everywhere else
Dont worry Ian, I am fully prepared to make you suffer the same fate as the IK
-Eothraim
Also, I wonder if Din O knows what he just got himself into this turn???
I canāt believe the neutrals have fallen for the oldest DS trick in the book.
āOh please join us now or the game will be over in 2 turnsāā¦
Iāve seen this so many times and I canāt believe how many times neutrals fall for it and it seems in this one that all 5 neutrals have fallen for it.
Iāve been saying to the neutrals for the past 3 turns donāt fall for this trick and well it obviously fell on deaf ears.
The result is all 5 neutrals join the DS āto balance the gameā OR āto have a challenging gameā and Of course this happens just as the freep offensive has stopped and the DS agents are getting stuck inā¦result is game is totally in DS favour as freep are hopelessly out-numbered.
So way to go 5 neutrals, youāve failed to balance the game and I hope you enjoy destroying an overwhelmingly out-numbered teamā¦not what Iād consider a balanced or challenging game at all but each to their own.
At least there is one good thing, I wonāt have to waste my time writing mails to the neutrals as it seems that the most communicative team gets punishedā¦go figure.
Cheers
Brendan
Well it is not as bad as that, we donĀ“t know if all five fell for that trick
One is not answering our mails, maybe we can get him, well at least it is not hopeless it is just 10 against 13 not 10 against 15.
May you live in interresting times.
Pfendi
Ian, as for you going DS all I can say is prepare to die. My silly team all doomsaying and stuff. Not me. I will win this game if I have to do all by myself. So Ian I am glad you joined the DS, now at least I have a living breathing opponent. As all the rest seem to roll over and die the minute I show up at their capital. yuck have some guts boys.
Mr. Cloud Lord what this blocking armiesā¦haha so is Ji Indur going to take another stab at my guysā¦this should be fun.
Okay what the heck happened at 2321ā¦my boys were already for a fight and the army disapears? I donāt understand. Whatever you came up with Mr. Hand of Sauronā¦could you please explain? Did the spirits get you or perhaps you challenged an NPC?
As for the other neutrals. Well adding three more dead nations to the DS side isnāt going to help or extend the game any longerā¦so have fun.
Noooo better than that, the DS got lucky they challenged Elrond with a lowly commander and Elrond was actually there.
But bad luck for the DS that Elrond is just a little bit better than a C40 army commander, strange way to commit suicide, but Elrond says thank you for the 5 points of mage rank at no loss of health, next time please also bring along an artefact .
Pfendi / Sinda
Hi Vanya,
I am prepared to die but whether it will be by your hand or by Fletchās or someone elses that I donāt know. I hope it will be by yours cause its a long way for you to come but then the view is wonderful and the smell from the food market will make your mouth water.
I promise you that I have some āgutsā also a splene, heart and lungs. I am like the Knights of Nee, cut away as much as you can but I will always come out fighting.
I hope that we all have a good game, so far my armies have only been practicing and I want to see what they can actually now do
Ian
King of Rhun/Miekwood and everywhere else.
Great flaming deep fried Twinkies! ā on a stick. (Catering by CMOT Dibbler).
No making wine with those sour grapes. Straight to vinegar.
Could the current events be the result of silver tongued diplomacy by the Servants of the Lord of Gifts? You bet they could! Whether they are, is, of course, another question.
But, clearly, the Sinda did not feel lucky at Ceber Fanuin.
I said the Free were welcome to quit. Did you Free think I was just blowing wind up your skirts?
Of course you did.
Steve
Dragon Lord.
Sorry Caradoc I donāt think so, itās more because your have been beaten real
hard and the neutrals want a long game and they thought going to the one eye would even the match a bit, but we will see in the next couple of turns
how well yours new allies will play against the migthy force of the FP.
Iāll never quit just because your side have a few more nations, that leaves my armies to get some more action as your small army on sarn Goriwing are no threat to us even if you have got a dragon wonder what you are doing in the far North then as you will run out of armies next turn!!!.
Regards,
Beoraborn of the proud Woodmen
Beoraborn/Benny and your allegiance,
Do I really expect you folks to quit? No.
With Orillion and Masher on your team, I should expect it to have at least four active positions, no matter what. And I expect better of anyone with whom they might team.
You need not worry about my plans. I started expecting to lose Dol Guldur and Sarn Goriwing. I had thought I had made that clear. That my plans were not based on keeping Dol Guldur and Sarn Goriwing. Well ā¦ maybe I have been remiss, so here goes: my plans are based on losing Dol Guldur and Sarn Goriwing early on. Honest. I really mean that. I tell you three times.
I did not say that the neutrals made their choices based on the silver tongued diplomacy by the Servants of the Lord of Gifts. I said they could have. And admitted that whether they did was another matter.
Disagreeing with that implies that the neutrals are fools, who fell āfor the oldest DS trick in the book. āOh please join us now or the game will be over in 2 turnsāāā¦āto balance the gameā OR āto have a challenging gameā .
Now, I know that there are widespread beliefs that:
-
The neutrals are fools who will join the losing side en masse āto balance the game" OR āto have a challenging gameā ā or,
-
The neutrals are selfish opportunists who will join the winning side en masse to bolster their standing (PRS) and gain a disproportionate share of the loot, or,
-
The neutrals besmirch the game, which really ought to be played 12:12, without any neutrals, or,
-
The neutrals are independent players who act for their own reasons, in their own interests.
Why do I care? My side got a bunch of neutrals, I ought to yell āyee haw!ā and plunge back into the game.
I care because the neutrals were insulted, and I do not like that.
I will now repeat myself from another thread. Both Benny and Vanya have heard me on that thread, so I ask their indulgence.
The neutrals exist to make the game unpredictable. To provide variety. To make the allegiances work for dominance. To make it HARD.
Without the neutrals, the game might as well be a disguised/variant chess.
I admit, as an allegiance player, I find it hard to deal with neutrals. And this is after several years of employer-employee negotiation experience (both sides), so one might think I ought to be good at negotiations. I hope I am not, because of how difficult I find such negotiations.
Learning how to negotiate is hard. I do not pretend to have learned well.
The neutrals are more than a necessary evil. They are a necessary component if the spirit of Middle Earth is to be retained ā the ultimate need for making a choice, hard though it may be. The allegiance positions do not face this choice ā it is made for them. Theoden cannot choose between Sauron, or holding to the alliance with Gondor. How, but not between. The neutrals, such as the Dunlendings, have this choice.
Of course, for reasons well discussed, the choice is made for reasons other than the defined āgoodā or āevilā, because the allegiances create their own āgoodā and āevilā, from the perspectives of the neutrals.
I should like to credit the neutrals of game 63 who have chosen to side with the Dark Servants as being independent players who acted for their own reasons, in their own interests.
And, yes, I have held to the same standard even when all neutrals have chosen the other side.
When things are not going well for my team, I may redouble my efforts to recruit neutrals. But that will be through extra efforts to be persuasive, NOT through whining ājoin us now or the game will be over in 2 turnsā.
Masher, you might not want to, and that is fine by me, but should you like, you can attest to how I deal with neutrals. And how, in our last game together, my side got four out of five. You can probably do that better than I can, because I am still not certain about how we achieved that. If you want to keep that explanation to your side, I have no problem. I can give my perspective to my side.
And the Sinda are correct ā the known odds are 10:12:1. Not exactly heavily unbalanced.
Great flaming deep fried Twinkies!āon a stick. Get a grip.
The neutrals can be a pain, and hard to deal with. But the way both allegiances usually treat the neutrals is disgraceful.
Well, my soap box is sagging under my weight, so I will give it a rest.
Those who game neutral are usually not fools. It annoys me when they are treated as such.
Steve
Dragon Lord