Game 70 ended

General
#21

Here’s my report. Bit of a whipping boy for the DS mostly throughout the game but managed to aggress. My nicest 2 moments were Cavalry army @4015 defeating Uvatha’s navy and Uvatha dying and giving me an Agent item, and down south finding a QA MT around 4326 and recruiting 100 troops a turn from a camp there to finally beat destroy it. Kim your play was “Kim” play as well lol. Never did get enough troops to take out 3306.

Thanks to Noldo for economic support in the game, kept the NM and dwarves active throughout. By the end game I had a big Emi Squad for the NM that was doing great, threatened off a lot of southern PCs and just about to re-take LR’s holdings in Rhun, as well as up North playing dosey-doe with the DkL/Wk Curse/Emi Squad there.

Northmen/Dwarf duo

Turn 0: Got LA on a dwarf so I’m hoping to use that. Other than that nothing special.

Turn 1: Moved the NM force to take 3506 and both Dwarven armies south to protect the NM/Eothraim area. LR has moved his navy out to take 4015 – I almost went to move my navy there so I guess he got lucky. Move Jirfelin to get the Dwarven artefacts from 2212.

Dwaves held back the armies @2212 – checking out what happens before moving to block.

Turn 2: All the dwarves from 3916/3612 end up @3316 ready to combine. They run into the DogLord start Cavalry – ah well should do some serious damage there. Looks like the NG challenged him last turn. Shame he didn’t attack to blunt the armies as the DogLord threat would be neutralised now…. Blocked the LR moving West from 4015 and blocked the LR moving to 4415 – seemed pretty basic moves from the LR so planned accordingly. Hit the NM….

Beawyn started with 419 – awesome, so there’s no more LR forces in the area (as suspected). As long as the BS doesn’t come then I should be safe in this area now I think. (Famous last words it appears!)

Turn 3: NM intercepts the start LR army @3185, but looks like the cavalry has come to 4017 so I’ll lose that this turn. That should be the last of it I hope. Moving to block as normal, protect 3916 and 3616, 4217 and 4415 and getting troops ready to hit PCs in the south.

Dwarves beat up the starting capital Doggie forces @3316, killing Bulrakur in the process. Mirkwood: Chased the DragonLord forces north but looking at the map the Woodmen is in trouble, big trouble. Maybe too late to save him, looks like no blocking move to the capital from the South. Nasty. Moved down from 2004 to start taking WK PCs.

Turn 4: Bad, bad news. Duran has come East and looks to threaten a bunch of my Northern NM pcs away. Woodmen out so there’s no defence there, although at least the Sindar appear to be helping out @ 3110. Worst news, the BS army has turned up @4017, very bad that…. Ah well….Not looking good for the NM at present, tight for finances, recruitment and everything really.

First Village of the WK destroyed @2005 and hope to do 1906 this turn as well. Looks like the FPs are now moving to attack the Rh/WK so that’s good news, although 2209 is now revealed with a DS icon on it. My start armies are still intact, which is bad, hopefully I can pick up the remnants of the Dragon Lord’s war and stop those attacks in the region.

My lone crusade to attack DkL @ 3621 and the Dog camps looks fine.

Turn 5: Dwarves get to 3621, 3321 and will destroy 3621 and try to threaten 3321 this turn. Up North the dwarves in WK land ran into the WK, and also an Arthedain @1906, down 2 villages though and next wave to come next turn. 2608 appears to be Sindar but 2709 is Cardolan with WK threatening army there!

NM territory, Pochak decided to be invalourous and refuse, shame, but destroying the M town was annoying, I should be able to send enough forces to beat him up now and re-take the LR holdings. No icon @4215 is good news and with no navy he should be able to be a threat from now on. Lots of camps in the Misties so will work on destroying all of them. Rhudaur looks like it’s over-run now, although 2209 could end up DS, so I’ve send the dwarf over there to help out.

Turn 6: Good news indeed, ALL my allies sent diplos – looks good. Dun/NG seem to be strong as well as SG/Eo. BS army @4013 defeated and the LR has turned up in the east but I’ve defended that successfully I suspect which is good news (cavalry yum!) Up north the Dragon Lord continues to be annoying 3105 (I guessed he’d go to 3109 but he’s gone for the easier gain). Blocked him @2309 so he can’t defend 2409 so that’s good. Sending troops around the back to be annoying there now. Moving commanders to destroy camps in the mountains next turn and troops around the back door to annoy Mordor as well.

Turn 7: Okay so still under pressure, the Doggie appears to keep sending armies – maybe from 3624? Now sending armies down to annoy the DS in the back-door of Mordor and work from there. Working on camp burning in the North. No money yet, despite a request. Ah well NM will probably go pop shortly!

Defeated Uvatha and killed him @4415 – yea! Keep turning up at PCs to find them having disappeared. Lots of DS action @2709/2608 – thought they would have fallen by now but hopefully the 1k HC there will help out. Trying to defend the NM against all comers so that’s cute….

Turn 8: Not only Uvatha but a bunch of his items, picked up the 10 Agent item this turn – cute uh. Okay no gold from the team and NM and Dwarves about to go pop so now running lean. Retiring troops all over the place and seeing if I can survive the next few turns. Chasing the Dog Lord army (not sure where it came from as Morannan has fallen) across the plains (NG PCs). IK army @3121 – good I hope that I’ve drawn him away from defending against a bigger army overall.

Obviously Sauron decided to eat one of my armies as well… doom and gloom…

Dwarves moving to take 2004 and some of the camp locations. Run out of gold for more camp burning though. Retaking the Sindar @2709 and 3105 from the Dragon Lord. Sacrifice attack on 2409 this turn – see if that impacts on the Dragon Lord any.

Aim to get the NM troops in the back door and take out the LR triangle camps in the south this and next turn.

Turn 9: Okay two dragons met in combat this turn. Nasty – ah well bounced on two pc walls. Good to see the Rhudaur is out… Hurrah! Lots of PCs still there (1910 and 2008 are still MT/F). Got upto two camps and 2305 so that’s decent. Will send off the next wave as well. Ik failed to attack my Dwarf @3121 so I burnt the Doggie camp… LOL. Economy still nasty but at least I can keep the NM alive now.

NM: Decent enough turn – managed to get a few camps down and should penalise the Dog @3716 – hopefully can capture there. Selling 5 products a turn to keep alive at present but the 1500 HI in the backdoor of Mordor should help out any attack (if any) there. Looks like the Eothraim is getting a pounding from the CL though (rumours of 3 kills nasty). Triangle of LR camps to fall this turn and off to visit the BS next.

Turn 10: Took 2305 and a few other DS pcs and the economy has gone to the dogs. Talking about Dogs captured a Doggie whilst re-taking 3716 which was cool. Down to 3 natsells and no gold uses for the NM this turn – nearly able to do something soon. Carrog looks like he’s a killer or something similar @2305 but I’ll aim to take the WK 2703 and also continue to send troops into WK land, but with the Rh out then we should advance quickly there. With that in mind I’ll try to steal gold from the DK as that should crimp the WK enormously.

Turn 11: 2305 – Got Dk/WK turn up to retake. 3716 now mine but looks like he’s come back for more –not sure where the troops are coming from. 2703 will move to this turn, hope to have some cash from the FPs this turn so that I can get the NM up and running. Taking the last of the pcs in the East. Looks like my attack on the BS paid dividends he’s out…  Moving to destroy 3 camps and 1906 with 1k troops from the Dwarves. That’s about it. Keeping the pressure on the WK with stealing @3622 – hope that injures him.

Turn 12: Dwarves: Lost 2305 to DkL Emissary squad, but will take 2703 this turn and move to hit two more camps in the mountains. Lost a couple of characters to the enemy squad but better they’re up North than defending the south. Finally got gold from TWO FPs – so the NM is now able to provide a LOT of Emissary support. Managed to grab a few more camps down south so that’s good news there. Losing 3716 to another Doggie threaten (lol). Stole nearly 6k gold from the DkL as well. The most interesting news is that 3627 has fallen. Very unexpected that one! No more DogLord troops to block @3825 so that’s decent as well should be able to move into the Southern PCs around 3626 etc. 4417 there’s a DkL village so I’ll take that this turn and hopefully up North the Cardolan player will go for the capture (but it looks more like a threatener player but we’ll see). Still don’t understand the DS @1910 and 2409.

Turn 13: Dwarves getting a bit of a pounding up North with WK/Dk but at least the 2006 triple army was taken out so that was good. Now hoping the Arthedain can take the pc. Will probably lose 3002 to Inf this turn, but took 2703 so that’s okay. With any luck I’ll get a challenge on Carrog this turn as well with a big commander…  NM are doing nicely now, sending out cavalry and also getting upto full characters this turn so that’s good and I can get the Ems out doing nasty things. Good to see Rh and BS out…

Turn 14: Dwarves managed to keep Celeb-ost so that’s good news. Will move to re-take 2305 and preparing a force for Goblin Gate. Not sure how there are so many DS forces in the heartland of Rhudaur with him out but it’s good to see that the noble sacrifice against the WK’s dragons has paid dividends. Forced a DK block in the middle of Mordor… and will continue to harass camp burns! NM’s Ems are now starting to kick-off somewhat so that’s cool.

Bad news is that I lost the items to Carrog and an un-named killer @3109. Ah well…

Turn 15: NM doing well camping and nicking enemy camps all over the place. The Dwarves have taken a bit of a hit though and doing not so good at present. I’m retaking many of the pcs lost but with 9 active characters it’s a bit nasty. Good to see Rhudaur out at last – still looks like fighting in Mirkwood – what is the Sindar upto!?

Turn 16: Diplos from some of the team but not all. Ah well, the Dunlendings are doing good and it looks like the SG are moving on Corsairs. Dwarves will recapture 2305/3002 this turn from the WK so that should put him in a whole world of pain this turn. Murazor et al are trying to 2004 this turn but with tax @26 I should be okay (crossed fingers). NM are doing good will take a few more camps/villages in the south so that should hurt the DS. And the news that the CL is out – wow! That is bad news for the D Bad news big time. Moving to re-take 3506 (now town) and 3607.

Turn 17: Overall good turn for the NM – took another couple of PCs, but it looks like the LR has come to say hello again. Not sure if he’s got a navy of a pc off map. I’ll chase him down and hope. Dwarves are having a mixed bag – gold is okay now and going for naming some characters even though it means being stolen from somewhat by the DS this turn. Took out Bolvag at the DkLieu capital but lost a Dwarf to Rogrog – bit of a ding-dong battle there but kept Zarak-dum – probably fall this turn though. Captured 2305 and 3002 back against the Wk/Dk combo so hopefully keeping his two nations busy there. Noldo and NG sent me stuff so that’s great.

Turn 18: NM got hit a bit and lost a few camps but also gained a few camps. 3622 now WK but it’s got an army icon which is annoying. I’ll see if we can get my Ag/Em squad together on that. Dwarves are regaining characters so that will help long term. Failed to destroy 3506 (town) and with the LR now becoming more active that’s going to be difficult. Failied to assassinate with Dudannis as well but other than that a decent turn overall.

Turn 19: NM – well despite losing a bunch of gold to the DkL I stole more back so that’s cool. Unfortunately we have the beauty of Tormog and Carrog at my capital this turn which is going to be a tad annoying I suspect. Dwarves are re-gaining characters at a fast rate so that’s cool. Down south there’s a lovely MT waiting for me to get enough troops to take out but for now I’ll have to wait a turn or two to get the troops for… most annoying and yet enticing. Not much else to report. Sindar seem to be still fighting in Mirkwood so not sure what’s going on there.

Turn 20: NM – Lost only the one character to the DkL Agents at my capital so that was good news. Down south ready to move and take out the MT I can see there – should just about to destroy it so that should be good. LR has some armies in my area now so need to look at finding where he’s recruiting from and hitting him there. Moving Agen/Em squad to 3622 to see if I can take out the WK capital. Dwarves will name to full so that’s good and then should be able to upgrade recruitment ready for another onslaught on the Mordor regions.

Turn 21: NM once again managed to foil the LR’s attempt to threaten my camps away… Cute. Down south moved on the QA MT @4326 and hope to destroy it this turn. WK Capital @3622 – there’s two characters which is a shame but I should be able to take out Cykur and return at a later date. Off to try and take 3329 now from the LR. Up North Dwarves have Murazor taking PCs from me, that leaves me to take 2004 back next turn now that I have the logistics in order – so that’s good news. Will be able to start getting cavalry going shortly and into Mordor region. I should be able to take out 3316 (Dog).

Turn 22: NM under some reasonably heavy attack with Curse squad, 3 armies and the odd dragon etc now so that’s a bit dangerous. Hoping to take out 3306 in the near future with any lucky.Destroyed the QA MT in the south and took 3316 from the DogLord so that’s good. Up North lost Mt Gundabad but will retake the PCs there this coming turn so that’s going well. Glad to see my allies read the diplo – that would be GOLD to 4013 PRODUCT to the Dwarves!  Ah well hopefully keep the NM alive through this and get up in charcters. Of course failed to kill Cykur – darn.

Failed to camp in Mordor so can’t help out taking out PCs there at present but will continue to do so in the East and mountains. See that the Corsairs is now out… Nasty for the DS.

Turn 23: Finally got a camp in Mordor to take out some DS pcs there. IK capital confirmed @3122 so that’s useful. Taking DS pcs in the far south of Mordor with the NM. Should start to remove the LR’s armies in the area shortly. We’ll see how that goes.

Up North the WK squad has come for 2904 as suspected. Will have to remove the fortifications and go from there. Got Bain assassinated @3316. Probably the LR but can’t be sure. WK is creating PCs down south so hope to take them out with the Emis.

Turn 24: Upto full characters with the Northmen now, so that’s good news. Took a town from the WK @ 3330 and will attempt to take 3331 from the QA (seems unlikely). Got gold from the Noldo so that’s good news and only lost 3 camps this turn to the LR but hope to retake all of those shortly. Will lose 2904 to the WK this coming turn but got the counter-attack sorted this turn. 2 threatens @2004 have failed so will go with the capture this turn. Wish I had more Intel about the Mordor region as that’s difficult to judge where to go. Sorting my squads out now so that I can use my Agents/Ems more effectively over the coming turns with the spare Commanders from the Dwarves providing very useful scouts!

Turn 25: Rinse, repeat…  Slowly taking more of the DkLieu PCs than he his off of me each turn so that’s good. Over-run the LR taking my PCs in the East so will mop up and take back on the way into Mordor. Noldo continues to send gold so that’s good, keeping up the recruitment with the NM that way and the Ems are doing very well now.

#22

NM/Dw Turn 25 map

#23

Kim,

Where was your defense of the front gates of Mordor. You literally let my entire Eothraim army waltz into the front gates of Mordor. Not one blocking army came from 3120 so all I had to do was avoid the Dog lord. Be careful about throwing stones as I was able to do what I wanted as you chose to take your entire starting army (including your starting troops from 3120) to Osgiliath, where it did minimal damage as it met the combined force of Northern and Southern Gondor.

Secondly, your donation of the Cloak of the Abyss ulitmately led to the destruction of the Corsairs.

In every game mistakes are made on both sides. I too was shocked that the Blind Sorceror was eliminated. But the Woodmen should never have been elminated either. Had he not been eliminated this game would have ended much earlier. But alas, your strategy was to throw everything at the Woodmen, and you got lucky that the dragon lord did it as well and it worked for you.

Part of gunboat is trying new idea’s and startegies. But some of the game comes down as luck. As southern Gondor I could do as I pleased with my huge economy. Going over the overall strategy of each duo with my brother prior to getting turns, he convinced me that southern gondor should name an agent on turn one. I cursed myself for using this strategy as I needed more commanders to recruit more troops. But when my agent added the ring of impersonation with the cloak of the abyss, I took out a Corsair character every turn and flipped his pop centers with emmys. I was preying he would come after me with his agents as I felt I could double them and win the agent war.

I made many mistakes with the Eothraim, an extremely tough position to play in my opinion. I hope I made up for it with my southern gondor play. I know the Noldo was not happy with my support of Harad, but I had serious issues with him removing his southern ports.

Last game your side the free won easily. I felt this game was never in doubt once the Cloud lord was eliminated. Again, mistakes are made on both sides. Call it frustrating, but I took advantage of the Corsairs and the Dark Lieutenants opening moves.

Tim
Southern Gondor/Eothraim

#24

Actually, it was Bernd’s play last game in central Mordor as EO that gave me the inspiration to do what I did with the Dun cav this game. Last game I was FK and it was really hard to eliminate his forces once he was in there and recruiting. So my entire strategy was to do the same thing this time, but with more emphasis.

#25

Kim - kudos to your play as DkL. You were the biggest pain in NG/Duns side for sure.
Though Tim has a point that it’s hard to second guess other players. I know that I was purposefully playing a mind-game with BS on whether or not I’d go for 3627 when Dun cav was incoming, or again after taking Rhu capital. Lucky for me, my guesses worked out and unlucky for Bernd, his didn’t. I agree that I was very surprised that 3627 bankrupted BS. That was a totally unexpected bonus. But Rhu & CL capitals causing them to bankrupt/die was much less of a surprise as both were intended to do that. CA & Duns had troops on Rhu northern MT same turn that Duns captured Rhu capital (3629), so I had good cause for hope that it would finish Rhu. That was the first DS domino to fall.

Kudos to HA/Noldo (&SG?) for your play against Corsairs and to whoever took out DragonLord!

Dave

#26

Dear Tim,

Well I was frustrated but I’m not trying to blaim anyone. I know that mistakes are always made on each side, and I all I wanted was just an insight on how BlS could collapse that early and what was done to protect back Mordor. Bernd Luehrsen gave me that insight and although mistakes was made, this was just how things developed mainly because of a very bad DS economy I can hear.

And to answer your own accusations :slight_smile:

  1. I recruited HC for the first could of turns and sent everything I had to 3124 turn three, thats some 3-4000 troops. Unfortuately only a medium FK army arrived as well, so we got a severe beaten by Duns, NG and SG. Part of my strategy was to unite all cavalry at capital, so I did not have commanders to also act as blocks. i though that DoL was perfectly capable of doing this himself with all that cavalry and commanders starting at capital, dont you think ? I upgraded capital to city and recruited 500 HI or HC a turn of which most were sent to deal with the Eot invading army. But soon I had to devote my cavalry towards inner Mordor because it was swarming with FP armies. So to say that it was my fault that DoL capital was destroyed is a big over the edge, dont you think ?

  2. Well, congratulations with the theft of Bracers of the Mist, but to call it a donation is a big over the edge dont you think ? I could have guarded it, but honostly I did not expect a FP agent at 3012 turn 5 being able to steal an artifact which they would needed to have located on, and as I can see you were quite lucky as well. But to say that stealing this artifact was the main reason why Corsairs was destroyed is a TAT over the edge, and I KNOW you know that as well. Drl/Corsairs has every opertunity to counter a single agent themselves, with good access to emis, curzes and his own double agents.

  3. Eot took advantage on the fact that DoL had moved everything out and left nothing to defend his own capital, it has noting to do with DaL staying put at 3120 or not (which meant that I could stay and recruit more troops). There are three ways into 3120, so a DaL blocking one way does not guarantee anything at all. Its mainly the job of DoL to protect his own capital, not the responsibility of anyone else. If DoL had joined me at 3120, we would have wiped the Eot army. And remember that I gave your Eot army a nice kick in the ass and wiped you clean, when you progressed to 3222. That was the last time I saw Eot in Mordor !!!

BR
Kim Andersen

#27

I am not trying to get into a tit for tat discussion on strategy although my post really looks like it implied that. My apologies. I have the utmost respect for you as a player having played now exclusively against you in three gunboat games.

I think everyone gets frustrated with their allies in gunboat games many times over. Unfortunately, most the time we don’t know why or what their thought process is.

I got lucky on the cloak of the abyss. I did not locate it, I simply had my 35 agent try for a blind steal when Carrog showed up in my capital. And you are 100% correct, it was not the sole cause of the Corsair demise. Unfortunately for Tony, I had four capable agents attacking him. I only wish he had tried to come up against me in an agent war as I kept him from naming characters from ten turn on. He should have had a curse squad that was capable of stopping my but apparently he did not.

Anyway, I am not trying to debate tactics. I was very frustrated with some of my teamates moved, and on the other hand extremely excited but some of their moves. That is the ebb and flow of the game, and probably what makes the game so much fun and intriguing.

The lack of Eothraim armies entering mordor was a combination of good play by the dark servants and poor play by me as the Eothraim. As in all games, I learned many lessons once again.

Was your DaL strategy correct or incorrect? I think in this game I benefited from it. In future games it might cost me dearly.

Lastly.

No I don’t think the Dog Lord can stop the eothraim by himself. But that is my opinion.

Tim

#28

Here’s NG/Duns map T25

#29

Clint,

Who played each position?

tim

#30

Guys,

Sorry for the late login. As you can see I played the CL/Rhu. If you read my turn 4 report you will see how I was really confused on how (Dave you dog) was able to get an good icon through at least 3 armies, one was mine. Did not know it would work like that. I had some real life stuff to do on turns 6-10 (did not hurt my play just notes) so no notes. In summary, my biggest issue was really the lack of my early success with agent RIPs but you have to have some rank to RIP and I had no agent or stealth artifacts! EO army lasted as long as it did due to agents not tracking his army char and RIPS not getting through. But it is hard to leave the Gates of Mordor when you see large armies incoming and track down an army inside Mordor. I send some agents into Mordor but left my others to take out Goods army commanders.

Also, I did supply gold a bunch of time to allies as I could. Not sure how else I could have played CL but Rhu I have some other ideas on .

Any chance this group doing another GB game?

John

CL / Rhu Thoughts Log:

Turn 0:

–Pick CL/Rhu as it seemed not a lot of players like this position so I thought I would give it a try.
–CL, no extra stealth in starting agents.
–CL: Will hire 2 40A and 1 30E. Retiring 1 char. Using 30As to scout North Gate and Mordor’s backdoor. Will send entire army to BS MT and from there most likely to North
Gate or Ithil Pass. This will also let DogL/BS know what commander I left at capital.
– Ji will pass his command arty to 40C so downgrades and tax being raised will go off no problems. Hope I get agent/stealth arties fast from allies.
–Rhu: Hiring emmy and 10c/20e. Will need the emmy rank when I send char south next turn to get CL MT. This will hurt my recruiting up here by one char but will use this char to recruit in Mordor to help there. Two 30E I want to leave in the Mts for camps and Dragons. Raising taxes this turn to 73%. Next turn will start downgrades. Throwing out 2 blocking armies to hopefully cutoff Cards army if it goes to WK area. My overall goal here is to try to make sure WK does not lose any pops until after turn 6. That will allow him to get dragons into place. Than Rhu will be used for Company Commander and recons and maybe some behind the lines recruiting to keep goods in line.

Turn 1:

–Rhu taxes only to 64% using 50 commander :frowning:
–Rhu blocked w/ 1000 AR/MA Cards army from 1510 at 1710. Will challenge and stand.
–Rhu area, no other armies in the plains. NE moved army off of map, most likely to DrgL MT or 2210.
–Rhu will throw out more blocking armies.
–CL – New hires got 1 agent with 23 stl
–CL army moved to BS MT ok.
–30A scout at North gate (3120) sees dark and good army facing off at 3120. DogL cap has 900 troops (from 3624) and 500 I assume to make an extra blocking army. Wonder if 3120 is EO cav against DogL cav? Will stay to see what happens.
–30A scout at 4221 did not pickup anything outside dark Icon at 4321 (LR). Will check to see if EO is going over MT 3921 or 4021 this turn.
–BS moved navy to 4025, good.
–no chars show up at capital so unlikely getting agent arty this turn. Did not really expect them until turn 3 as you really need capital orders the first 2 turns.
–CL will raise taxes to 60% , decided to also transfer back command arty to ji as that helps his challenge rank by 15 pts.
–CL did downgrade EO this turn.
–Ji moving to steal gold and stay in range of Mordor.
–new 23 stl agent moving to take a crack at the NG’s south bridge. Not sure chances on this but have to take one crack at it.

Turn 2:

–Rhu lost battle at 1710 as expected but army stayed at 1710
–Rhu intercepted 2 more card armies at 1809 (1600 troops-I think I will win) and 1811 (close battle I think, he should have 1200HI and 1500MA? And I have 1100HI 600LI 200AR).
–Both armies have 50/50 to win challenge (+15 challenge bonus in my 1811 commander). Not sure if I should challenge or not.
–Duns moved up to 1913 (900HC, 900LC, 2900HI, 600LI, 300AR, 800MA) ouch.
–I have one blocking army at 1910. How to deal with Duns army?
–NE back at 2209, so 2208 is exposed.
–Rhu moved 900HI and 600LI to 2309 through 2209 so must be his starting army coming back down from the Mts….boooooo. Should my 2309 army move towards goblin gate to slow the DW who most likely are coming this way or what?
–CL scouts found nothing at 4021 scout. The 3120 scout found no good icons (so must have just been NG’s starting army?) and IK w/ 2100 troops and DrkL w/ 1000. So based on my scouts I will send CL army into Ithil Pass!
–will now retire at least one of my 30As maybe both?
–evil icon at 3427 (FK went wrong way?) and 3324 (lets hope FK did not go wrong way if blocking for his capital!).
–no known char at capital, need artys but really did not expect them to show up until T3.

Turn 3:
–1 of 2 on Rhu/CL camps.
–Rhu sent 600HC/600LC to 2208 as I expected NE to make a play for it. I was right so it is a close battle but I think I win depending on artifacts. 2208 makes 2900 extra gold and some ST.
–Rhu army at 2309 moved to Goblin Gate and back to 2309 for recon, I was not stopped at Goblin Gate as expected so DW/DrgL battle must have been at 2410 with a DW refuse challenge? Also, recon shows no army at Goblin Gate. This army I have to force march back to 1910 as Duns are one hex away.
—Rhu blocked 3 Cards armies at 1809. Will lose so what to do?
–WK sent 2 armies to 1909 (2100 troops) and 1808 (?). What is Arth up to. No armies do I see of his unless Icon at 1609 is his main force, which means Rhu is in for some hurt unless they get blocked by WK.
–Rhu all force to 1910. Maybe I can get lucky and block Duns?
–CL took down NG’s south bridge. Will try NG’s north bridge next turn.
–Stole gold in 4 places.
–CL army on FK cap. No good Icons do I see. Ithil is a town. Will move west as far as they let me.
–agent recons at back of Mordor did not pickup anything. So maybe EO cav went to DrgL capital?
–Hiring last 40A until T6.

Turn 4:
–How an area can change fast…2208 lost to NE (he beat my 600/600 cav group), Duns now on 2010 with ~3800 troops, Huge army of Arth and large army of Card at 1908 at 1908 (so WK was not able to block Arth but seems WK ran into army at 1809). WK area now not looking good either. Goods at 1905, 1806 and 2004. No evil Icons with them. WK moved on 2005 (ruin tower) and has army at 1804. Hope he has some dragons as my plan was to make sure he stayed intact as long as possible and with Arth, Cards and Duns focus on me with their main armies that should help.
–Noted that WM are our of game! This is huge!
–CL sending 13k gold to Rhu so he can stay in game. This is making CL not hire an agent this turn but I do not what Rhu out of game as he is going to be my eyes and company commanders. Will transfer Rhu CL’s backup capital this turn.
–No major battles this turn so that hurts as I am not really losing any troops.
–2 of 4 on camps, no dragons spotted
–CL army made it to Ithil (3124) but was stopped by enemy forces??? No enemies here and there was 2 FK armies here plus one at capital last turn so not sure how an evasive army could have gotten through as now there is a good Icon at 3324? Maybe FK overran army but I still get stuck???
–will try to take out NG’s north bridge this turn and move my army on 3024. Bringing in Ji to take out army commanders as I think we should be able to win the battle at 3024 next turn and thus they will not be in the army.
–Still no agent artys?
–See good army at 3120 but do not know name so I can be of little help right now until I get my agents up and some recons going.

Turn 5.

–Rhu: 2010 (Duns 2900) & 1908 (Arth 4800 / Cards 2900) lost
–Will lose 2009 (cards 3900) and 2109 (Duns 2800)
–Arth huge army moved up to WK. He could have taken my capital if he moved first.
–2209 Revealed but to late as it is a city with tower and I am to tied down now to even try to take it.
–1809 Good army.
–Dragon Scatha encounter, not recruitable but will try meek, to bad as a Dragon would have gone to my capital army and that would have been huge.
–Received MT in Mordor from CL, Will hire army this turn and start to influ it up. I want Rhu to live as my eye and company commanders.
–CL army made it to 3024 with a FK army but 3 NG armies here so will just attack armies.
–CL was not able to take out bridge with my agent. Will try again this turn with Ji and have other agent either take down fort to tower so maybe we can take next turn or kidnap NG commander?
–Took bridge out at 3612 to limit DW army support but could not move to 3712 to take out second bridge as needed agent to move to MT to steal gold. CL/Rhu very tight on gold.
–3023 see IK (4300) fighting SG (2800).
– 3324 good Icon moved to 3424 and stopped by evil icon. Not much I can do as I have no way of knowing who army commander is.
–Will plead for agent arties and gold in my diplo.

Turn 6: Took out 3024 bridge and took pop. Stole lots of gold.
Turn 7: 0 for 2 on RIPS. Have dragon in army at 3024
Turn 8: 0 for 2 on RIPS,
Turn 9: 0 for 3 on RIPS, Rhu out. CL dragon army faces SG 5300 and NG 1500
Turn 10: Lost dragon battle but they took Severe/huge losses. 0 for 1. Goods have to be loving this.

Turn 11:

–Finally RIP Vagaig-NG was backup to Vinyaran-NG?
–Failled kidnap of Sagitus-NG with 53(73)A.
–Vinyaran-NG Ji tried to kidnap but he was not alive (challenge?). Ji will try another
target this turn.
–stole 18k gold, looks like I will be giving this all away based on the diplo’s
–moved two agents to 3124 thinking that NG/SG would move some of their
forces here, wrong! Looks like these agents will be trailing armies inside Mordor
this turn.
–Erennis (A64(84)) finally landed on same spot as a Dun army at 3626, Enion. Small
army so hope there are no guards.
–1 for 3 on agent RIPs this turn. Need to do better.
–Will trail 3 armies inside Mordor, leave Ji at 3024 and move injured agent to 3222 this turn to heal up by my DcWF Mage who has not been successful yet on casting this spell  (rank is only 54%, M50).

Turn 12: 1 of 2 RIPS
Turn 13: 5 of 6 RIPS
Turn 14: 3 of 4 RIPS

#31

Oh I forgot, great game everyone while it lasted for me :-). These games can go any direction and you neaver really know what is going to happen. I had a lot of fun, just really wish I could have done more as the CL but such is the game.

John aka Rhu/CL

#32

Hi John,
gosh, didn’t know it was you as Rhu/CL that I was targetting… so much for being old GB partners/friends… LOL It wasn’t personal, ok?

Yeah, I’ve played CL in GB before (when it was paired with FK - a better pairing IMO than Rhu; The Huiatts cleaned the DS clock late in that game, using the move through Ithil evasively idea as Sinda), and lack of Recon/intel early on is tough. That was one reason I felt it worth the risk of sending the Dun Cav into Mordor. CL just wouldn’t know who it was and would have to devote a bunch of resources to finding out with ScoAreas as it wouldn’t be clear where the army was going.

Interesting to hear that the Dun Cav moving through Ithil evasively caused CL to stop at 3124. I wondered why you didn’t arrive at 3024. That was double bonus win for NG/Duns as it allowed the FP to win the 3024 battle when you didn’t arrive. I saw you on FK capital and expected your arrival…

The good news is that my agents actually stopped a bunch of your K/A attempts against the Dun cav. I seem to remember one very important turn where Erennis was not on my cav army because he was where I used to be (he did whack my guarding agent I think).

ALso of interest is that Duns managed to retain the NG command artifact stack the entire game. I shuffled them around a bit. I was surprised with DkL commander beat UlfD’s 210 with ease! I thought Ulf had the upper hand with those command arties… Kim, what was Gothmog’s challenge rank when he beat Ulf D?

#33

Dear Dave,

Are you telling me that Ulf Dilan moved evasively through both 3124 and 3224 along with a load of hostile armies in one single turn ? Holy crap, what was his command rank ? I thought it was extremely hard to move easily past fortified centers, especially high level capitals.

Gothmog only had around 120 challenge at that time. But you missed one very important detail in your turn :slight_smile:
In the army combat the turn before before you challenged me, Ulf Dilan was injured down to “Grievously wounded”, that was the only reason why Gothmog was not refusing, but annoying that I didn’t get all those lovely com artifact :smiley:

/Kim

#34

Yep, I had the area reconned and actually call ME to make sure the data was corrrect and I think that was the only time I have ever asked them to check. He got through at lease the FK capital and 3 armies that I know for a fact based on my recons and scouts.

Dave, nothing personal ever in ME for me…it was fun deciding how to try to take down your army ect. You are a fun GB partner!

John aka CL/Rhu

#35

Dave,

Nice moving evasively through all the armies and Pop centers. Very nasty move indeed. Glad to see someone else apply the move. Had not thought to do it early but I think the free won the game on your play, and maybe that move in particular.

Tony and I are up for another game, but we don’t want to be paired against each other and want to play the same pair. This of course would require getting another player along with anyone else that can not continue to play. The game is more enjoyable when we can talk and strategize together.

And Kim, you are correct. Looking through my old turns once you eliminated my Eothraim armies at 3222, the dark servants agents and few remaining armies totally eliminated any Eothraim threat for the rest of the game.

Nice job.

I have a write up of the first dozen turns on an old computer. I will try and boot it up and upload my thoughts.

tim

#36

1/4 Alan Gowler/Mark Lyons
2/8 Clint Oldridge
3/7 Tim Huiatt
5/9 Drew Carson
6/23 Dave Holt
10/22 Mick Johncock

11/20 Kim Andersen
12/21 Tony Huiatt
13/15 Martin Cinke/Bernd Luehrsen
14/24 John Folz
16/19 Alain Deurwaerder
17/18 John Stagoll

Clint (GM)

#37

Hi,

I have just looked into my turns.
It was Lord Enion who moved from 3024 to 3324 on turn four with 1300 HC and 900 LC. Even if Enion had recieved all NG com artifacts, he should still only have around 110 in command skill. So to sum up:

Its possible to move 2200 troops with “only” 110 command skill past two fortified hostile centers (including a castle capital) and 3-4 hostile armies of various sizes ??? This is ****ing far out…Maybe I could accept it if it was 500 troops and 200 command rank, but this is really insain. The rules states that the smaller the army the larger the chance of moving evasively. And 2200 troops is nearly a large army, really really…not fair…we need a new “rule” against such a gamewinning move for FP :slight_smile:

I dont know if there are any rolls in this evasive move, but this was clearly a brilliant game winning move, when it succeeded. Had he been blocked at 3124, CL would just have finished or greatly minimized his army.

KA

#38

Attached is Enion’s turn report on Turn 4 when he marched right past all of those DS armies in the Ithil pass and the FK capital. Note that there is no clue that he caused the CL army to slow down. Note also that it’s exactly 14 movement points to get from 3024 to 3324 moving fed cav evasively.

if the Osgiliath bridge had been blown on turn 2 or turn 3, this wouldn’t have worked… (though maybe Tarondor would have tried something similar, but he didn’t have nearly as much cav, and he’d have been a more logical choice to ScoArmy on if you were a DS agent who didn’t have army ID)

One imperative for the DS in GB (in my opinion) is to blow the three bridges asap: Osgiliath (first), Pelargir (second), 3333/3334 (third). Those have to come down as soon as possible. They’re higher priority than most anything else the high level DS agents might be doing. Of course, they’re not easy to get down… I’ve had Erennis and Ji both fail those in other games, and I see that John did try to do it in this game, though not quickly enough.

I’ve also included Enion’s turn report from Turn 19 (he’s who Gothmog killed in challenge, not Ulf D), and the Challenge description. Note that Enion had a challenge rank of 158 and a health of 55 at the time of the challenge. You’re right Kim that I didn’t notice that he was reduced in health, but even then, he should have won by odds. So that was one spot that Gothmog got lucky!

I’m not complaining though. The fact that Enion led that cav army inside Mordor from turn 4 through his death on turn 20 is simply astounding.

Dave

#39

Command rank rules, see 498 also…

#40

I presume that there were definitely risks in the move and that it was in no way automatic. That said, the advantages of it being successful are very high indeed as the NW Mordor DS simply aren’t thinking about or prepared to deal with the army once it’s inside Mordor, and the southern Mordor DS are gearing up for the character war, not a military one. That’s why I tried it (and I had seen how Bernd’s much smaller force had worked so effectively in the Mordor interior the last GB, so I thought that this big force would be much more than a thorn in the DS’ side)

Once inside Mordor, it was a matter of patience (which I’m usually not very good at - ask John Folz). I had to move evasively every turn and I ran out of food and thus it was slow slogging. But it all paid off thankfully.