Well it seems the Free have decided to be bold? Im loving an explanation as to what that icon is doing in Harad territory. Im sure there is a reasonable explanation out there and Im all ears, better respond quick before I become all oars 
Mike
Cors
I am at a complete loss as to why this has come to pass. SGon was special serviced last turn and we hadnāt heard from him till I got a quick blurb about having no funds and not getting his turn for a week, then he pulls this stunt. We had shadow orders in for him and the guy that ran the shadow orders was freaking out that he had made the mistake, but his moves had the navy up the river and clear of Harad territory. This is the lone act of either a moron or a suicidal lunatic. Either way the Freeps loose as a team, due to the acts of one selfish or stupid player.
Regards Herman (Woodmen)
Still no word of explanation from SG. We are completely shocked by this move. For my part, I would shed no tears if the offended parties were to repay SG as neutrals, still keeping the FP/DS decalration an option for later. The free have been coordinating without him anyway these past 7 turns. His move is exactly opposite to the teamās goals and interests and I denounce it.
Matt
Sinda Elves
I also have no idea what he was thinking. He has from the beginning been playing his own game and not really communicating or cooperating with the rest of us, but this really takes the cake. I fear that the SG player bears a grudge against one or more of the FP players and that his attack on Harad was a deliberate act of sabatoge at a time when he knew we were desperate to get the remaining neutrals on our team.
The Rhudaurian government as well as the Rhudarian people are shocked by this mean aggression and break of international laws that the imperialistic South Gondor demonstrates against a peacefull symapatic neutral nation.
Our sympathy goes to the brave people of harad(?) who have to bear the full weight of this brutal agression.
Under the curcumstances it is obvious that the southwestern neutrals must be allowed to defend themself. Maybe eliminate the hole SG-nation. (Thats probabbly the best. Very preventive to eliminate the wrongdoer.) The other freeps should accept and tolerate that the Corsars and the Harad do what they have to do. If they try to stop them in any way then that would be another act of agression.
On behalf of the Rudaurian Government
His Excellence Spokesman Sverre II, Lord of Rusten, Prinsgemal to the Dukess of Cameth Brim
Donāt worry. Pending some kind of sensible explanation from Southern Gondor for why he did what he did, the other Free Peoples are more likely to help the southern neutrals defeat him than they are to help defend him.
Maybe SG is just paranoid, but for my part, I feel like SGās attack on Harad was as much an attack against the rest of the FPs as it was against Harad. His actions, taken not only without consultaion but without even the barest of notice to the rest of the FPs, have dealt a crushing blow against our coalition. Whether that was done deliberately or in error is all that remains to be seen.
Northmen
Its very simple and Harad wont be alone, if by some reason the Free are able to persuade their brethren to pull out there should be no immediate consequences, otherwise he (and for now he. alone) will be subject to the full might of the Southern Confederacy. We will not punish the remaining free for the act of one rogue nation.
Who is Playing S Gondor just out of curiosity?
Chris Wiome. Do you know anything about him? We are trying to get any history about him.
Regards Herman
Fellas,
If I were a FP- Iād certainly hate to lose this way. In fact, as a current DS, Iām fairly sheepish about it if we win this way.
My condolences (sp?) to the FP for this recent turn of events; and my salute to those FP willing to continue the fight. However, if things continue down this vein, the competitive part of the game will soon be past us. I for one, would vote for a universal quit at that point - and lets start up another- more fun and challenging game.
Good luck to all. And ā to the FP, may you die well- or at least in a fashion that is entertaining 
ā but not like this.
Bob
Drklts
The SG player did attack and destroy the LR V/t at 3026 this turn.
I would prefer to see the HA/CO take out SG and remain neutral. The game seems to have remained balanced so far. The DW and WM have moved into the NW, and there are no DS icons movig into MIrkwood (yet).
Pearly :eek:
Yes I do. I had the misfortune of playing with him in the only game I have ever dropped out of. He rarely communicated with most of the team had his two friends from Minnesota and they played a team within a team the entire game. Chris complained that he was sent too much email. When we brought this up with his friends they said he worked from home and it took up too much of his memory. We settled on one of them acting as a go between who could talk with him over friday night beers. He played a hide out Long Rider who threw his army away immediately while his friend disbanded the army of the Blind Sorcerer on turn one lowered his taxes to 30% and convinced the QA to do the same. The third part of this trio played the Cloud Lord and to his credit came to the aid of his hard pressed allies when both Gondors assaulted the Ithil Pass with 12,000 troops. We eventually stopped the Gondor assault using all the armies of NW Mordor and the Cloud Lord and the agents of the Cloud Lord but then found Chris had been camping on the ruins of our population centers while we were away fighting. He is indeed a piece of ā¦ work.
Brad,
thanks for the heads up. A couple of guys have gotten back to me with the same sort of references. I think it would be best if this guy is convinced he should play gunboat and nothing else. He has contributed little that is constructive to the team and caused us a huge amount of grief. I think the Sinda and myself have been doing 70% of the neutral wooing for this team and it doesenāt help when one of the two big front line nations who need the Southern neutrals the most, do next to nothing to communicate with them and then move to assault Harad, the most important neutral IMO. I have done all I can to reconcile the situation and have tried to convince Chris not to attack Harad, I still donāt know if I have succeeded or not. If Chris does continue his attack I would request the remaining neutrals declare DS and I think you find the Freeps would conceed as a group (Minus SGon) I think it sucks that such an interesting game can be ruined by the stupid and self centered actions of one player. We can only hope he comes to his senses and pulls back.
Regards Herman (Woodmen)
Dont owerreact, Herman. If SG continue his attack then Harad and the Corsars will fight him, but remaining neutrals. They will beat him and kick him out of the game. We can live with that. Dont you think?
Sverre
Nope, there is no way NGon can hold the South on his own unless the Southern neutral two big guns then go free, which is forcing their hand, which I know they donāt like. If Harad is attacked by SGon I think you will find this game is over.
Regards Herman
After the turmoil of recent games, 35 being an example, with actions such as this, I for one will not continue in a game where the actions of one player wastes all your time and money.
For those who played in game 30 its the BS all over again and whats the point when he just screws you over at some point and you can do little about it
What a waste!
Vandal
Vandal,
this has got to be the Quietest you have ever been on the forum! 
Your computer must have been broken!!!
Regards Herman 
Now, donāt get me wrong. I would be as disconcerted as anyone by this āloose cannonā behavior. In fact it has happened to me in the past and I did not enjoy it. Still, most ME games donāt follow the predicted script and it is up to the players to try and turn things around. If you donāt like challenges, stick to checkers. A great English king once said āA king must see the good in all situationsā. With that sort of attitude and mental flexibility perhaps that is why he was great.
[Warning: Portions of this post may contain rants.]
Part of the problem in this game I think is that everyone on the FP team had high expectations of cooperation and coordination among the team from the get go. Even SG made a post on turn 0 that he was looking forward to working together on our team goals.
I also think many of us (me included) felt that ppl signing up for a 1 week game were doing so, at least in part, because they wanted a more intense experience than the 2 week game offers, and that included more intense communication, if only b/c of the short turn around.
So having those high expectations dashed is leading to a feeling of disappointment among many of the FP players, and it is that disappointment more than anything that is causing them to think about droping. Weāve already lost 2 players (both nations have been picked up by other team members). One dropped even before the SG attack on Harad because he was disappointed in the team, the other just recently dropped becuase he feels the game has become unwinnable and he isnāt interested in continuing to play in an unwinnable game.
In retrospect, we should have given up on SG early on. After his turn 0 email it was unlikely that he would make a single post on our group between turns. He would generally only post his turn results (if he did so at all) after being goaded to at length. We should have understood these signals earlier. If we had done so and just counted him out from the beginning, we wouldnāt have been counting on his troops being at Osgiliath this turn, and we wouldnāt have counted on him to start talking to the southern neutrals. Our expectations would have been lower, and we could have communicated our trouble with him to the southern neutrals. Although, we thought he was talking to the neutrals becuase he told us (indignantly, I might add) that he was. Only now do we find out that those emails were a figment of his imagination.
Essentially, to partially address Edās and Sverreās points, the problem is not that SG is a flake, itās that we didnāt realize he was a flake and were counting on him participating in a way that we only now realize he never had any intention of doing. Thereās a difference between only having 9 players on our team and knowing it (and playing the game accordingly), and having only 9 players when we thought we had 10. If we had figured out on turn 1 that we were a 9 player team, things would have been very different.
To make matters worse, after the Duns and Rhudaur went Dark, the southern neutrals started demanding evidence that we were āplaying as a teamā and demanding communication from SG before they would consider joining us. Well, how on earth are we supposed to deliver that? We canāt control Chrisā actions. So becuase he refuses to participate as a member of our team, that disqualifies us from having any of the neutrals join us? I just donāt get it. There are pros and cons to playing a neutral nation. One of the cons is that if some of your fellow neutrals jump the gun with an early declaration for one side, and if you donāt want to see an early end to the game, you may have to join a team that, all things being equal, you would have not chosen to join.
Now of course its too late. What can they do, declare for the side that just attacked them? Of course not. But because they are not going to this game is essentially over. Iāll play it out until the end, but many of my teammates will not. If they drop out because they feel the game is now unwinnable, Iāll disagree with their decision, but Iāll understand it. They are probably right, and they donāt want to waste any more time and money on an unwinnable game that is leaving them with a bitter taste that theyād rather just forget about. Of course, that will just bring the end even sooner for those of us who stay. Look, I may be wrong. I hope I am. Realizing that I may be wrong is why I keep playing in situations like this, but this one looks pretty bleak.
But it is sad, sad, sad that one bad apple can bring down a game like this. It really was just starting to get competitive. All of the other FPs seemed to be getting more excited about the game and more invested in the planning and discussion of each successive turn, and then . . . Whammo! I donāt know how to avoid this problem, but it is something I am going to be paying very close attention to in my future games.
Jim, ME64 Northmen
I believe it is possible to request to never be placed in any future games with another player.