New game. There was mention of a new game here with the same/similar players. If you want that’s doable. Who wants to do that? My suggestion is that I make sure that players are mixed up somewhat if that’s okay.
Clint (GM)
Clint the player, not sure at present, I’m working out how much spare time I’ve got.
Clint (player)
I think everyone should send you email with what we all want to do and what our nations preferences are. Then you can say how many additional players are needed.
Thanks Clint,
Dave
It will be hard to get dark servants as Winter is Coming. George RR Martin would be proud.
It will be hard to get dark servants as Winter is Coming.
Reckon not… almost always the most picked.
Clint (GM)
This a Gunboat game – would get into it – dying to do a gunboat game game 75 has been the most exciting game for me in a long time 
and I can picture that being like a gunboat !!
Blue Knight - you’ll love GB if you love Alliance 75. You get two nations that you can coordinate & work together on. You get to try new things (some work, some don’t). No one can criticize you until the game is all the way over… LOL
I was Card/Sinda. Also, I can confirm 99.9% that I did not get the above NG/Dun diplo either – not complaining though: if that’s the only diplo Rob missed then he did a good job.
I’ll post up my turn by turn log when I get back home; just now back to civilization after two weeks in the Alaska bush (if you can call Anchorage civilization, jk). If Kevin had submitted the last turn for me (as I think I noticed Clint’s dwarves submitted) I could’ve scored higher in VPs as I could’ve added a lot of gold to end of game treasury and some more troops. Oh well.
Drew
PS And I had already surmised that Kim was Noldo when he flipped the Rhu capital out from under me – I took it from Rhu then he from me on the same turn. He has a knack for those sorts of things. <g>
Here was my first ten turn write up. I stopped my turn by turn comment after the first ten. I put my opinion in where I wanted and apologize to anyone I offend but at the time it was what I was thinking.
Turn Zero.
Harad can not survive without Southern Gondor help, so waive one and two will go to Harad. Having played Southern Gondor, the most important thing is to not lose the navy. My fear is a good Corsair player will go after my navy with his. Mutual destruction and the Corsairs wins. As much as I want to go into 2535, I am moving into 2534 instead of 2535. This will slow me down a little, but worth the chance I can get my navy in and out. Eothraim, against all the advice I have seen and heard, I am going to combine my cav into one unit and go for either 3221 or 3122. Hire armies at 2912 and 3113.
Turn One.
Harad is in trouble. Long rider jumped on 2731, A navy moved to 2634 and harad intercepted a navy at 2733. I will combine all troops at 2527 and send next wave to 2534. Eothraim intercepted Dog Lord at 3316 with four armies. However, I am taking a calculated risk and not attacking. I am going for the front gates. Dwarves have three armies at 3612, I am hoping his plan is to move to 3316 on turn two.
Turn Two
Dwarves came to 3316, the dog lord starting cav is toast. I made a tactical error and the dog lord intercepted me at 3318, so I did not get to 3120 like I should have. I will attack and move to 3120 as the Dark Lieutenants are being real passive. The South is a total mess. Harad removed the port at 2534, why in the world would he do this. We did intercept the Corsairs at 2436, we should easily win the battle. Harad did not attack navy at 2733, instead he moved to 2632? With the QA navy intact, and the possibility of the Corsair navy only needing to defend 2535, I can no longer risk supporting Harad. He is on his own unless I can get the Sinda or Noldo ships. I don’t think the risk/reward factor is worth moving my navy to 2535. I am heading into Mordor instead. Saerol sent 13,475 gold (all the Southern Gondor surplus) to woodmen.
Turn Three
Did not get challended by Dog lord, got the entire army to 3120 where I am only facing the Dark Lieutenants. I can get 3500HI from 3113 to 3221 in two turns. I am going for the Dog Lord capital. Camp placement is horrible for the Eothraim. Big battle at 3024 with Northern Gondor which we will easily win. The South is getting worse. Free people and Dark servants navies at 2434. Had I moved into 2535 I would have been intercepted. Not sure how big the navies are. North Harad is getting thrashed. We won the battle at 2436 and picked up a lot of food from the Corsair army. He did not drop food, with the market where it is, this should backfire on him.
Turn four
Woodmen eliminated, I really need that gold back as the Eothraim is not losing troops at all and the 31k deficit is draining my reserves rapidly. I am only facing a small dog lord army at 3120. Everything is headed for 3221 as I have 3500HI that can reach this turn as well. Long Rider and Dog Lord are on my starting camps. Still no eothraim camps. Harad lost the navy battle at 2434, unfortunately he is on his own. Dark servants are on 2535 2630 and 2632. Wow, ran into three ice king armies at 3023 under Hoarmy. I have celdrahil with a 74 challenge so probably will risk challenge. Army only has one more turn of food. Navy commander assassinated at 3024 and I picked up ships with the backup. If he knows who my navy commander is, I will lose my entire Navy. I still have a decent army at 2436 although the next big Corsair army will destroy it.
Turn five
Everything made it to 3221, unless he has a dragon it is toast. Will capture and remove fortifications. Northmen moved onto 3621 and 3321. I finally got an eothraim camp down but I can not sustain 32k in troop costs. Hoarmy had a 2 to 1 advantage on Celdrahil and killed him in challenge. Ice king did not attack however. Backup will refuse and attack. Rumor shows din ohtar went for tarondor at 3024 instead of my navy. Chalk up one for the good guys even if Din succeeded. Not enough commanders for southern gondor so will not have the next wave ready until turn seven to send out.
Turn Six-Eight
Everyone communicated on our side, looks like we are doing pretty well overall. All the fortifications are gone at 3221 so even when I lose it we will still be in good shape. Big Eothraim army pushing into mordor with three characters. It got stopped at 3222 where the Ice King took out the backups on turn seven and the commander on turn eight, but it wiped a lot of troops on turn eight so it did the job. Tormog showed up in the eothraim capital on turn 8, wonder what he is planning to do. Harad said he has 7500 troops going for the Corsair capital. I can move onto 2437 to stop and Corsair reinforcements from reaching 2438. We should have the corsairs on the ropes. Unfortunately I told my allies southern gondor was going into mordor and I really want to send them south instead. Oh well, will follow up on my promise.
Turn Nine-Ten
Dark Lieutenants donated the cloak of the abyss to the Eothraim. I only had a 36 trying to steal the artifact but I guess it shows the value of naming agents early. Eothraim economy is in good shape and have 2300HI and 500HC(still starting troops from the 600/600army) at 3120. Will push them into Mordor to die on the blades of the Cloud Lord and Ice King. Cloud Lord won move initiative at 3025 so if he has his agents there I will lose the army and do nothing again. Lack of commanders with S Gondor is slowing the recruiting. I will improve pop centers to be able to recruit more and hope the Arthedain received aid from my allies. Corsairs only sent out a small navy to meet my small navy. I was hoping he was thinking it was the entire force and would send out more ships. I received more than the Sinda Navy, I might have enough to overrun the Corsairs but will probably only send another small navy after him again then follow with my entire navy/army. Rhudaur eliminated, nice job by the Duns as I have a rumor of the battle at 3629. Back to eleven on eleven so the game is even again.
Tim Huiatt
Southern Gondor/Eothraim
I agree with Kim’s assessment. I think with decent players on both sides playing to the end, the free will win two out of three games.
tim
Would changing the game start and allowing each nation to add 20 points to characters help the Dark servants in Gunboat. I think the plus 20 rule favours the dark servants and might help them get off to a better start. Would make the game more enjoyable anyway.
Any thoughts?
Further to some discussion points that have been raised on this thread
I believe the FP are slightly more powerful in GB variant, but I also believe the variation in DS characters/SNAs and arties make them more enjoyable to play. In 4 GB 1650 games I’m 1 win one loss with each alliance, you can’t get more even than that.
Yes I was a little disappointed with the support I got from the Gondors early, but I try not to rely only my allies in GB. With LR clearing all my northern towns, the QA navy assaulting 2430 and Cors navy landing at 2634 on T1 harbours were seen as a danger. I did keep 2535 harbour up until I lost the pop around turn 7 while my Noldo and Harad fleets blocked to give you access and stop the enemy. It is the only hex I can sit in from day 2-13 and ensuring the enemy couldn’t bypass me (unless going evasive). My allies were not to know that until T6 messages went out, too late by then. Reflecting on what NG did, we were far better served with him ignoring N Harad. SG came and helped me a fair bit too, even if it was later than expected.
I did indeed flip 2008 on the turn Cardilan and I both had armies on it (around T7). I thought that was the safest way to keep the morale of the place high and was unsure of troop quality we had in attack. From memory the Cardi commander was low rank too. The WK came and threatened the place about 5 turns later and I had to recapture it. My loyally of 45 didn’t help save the MT.
I would certainly consider playing another GB with this or a similar team set. The players all seem competent and for the most part players seemed happy with the quality of the 2 games.
Using a 20 point bonus would add flavour and individualism to the game. I believe it is a bonus to the DS as it allows cost savings in character naming, reduces the need to retire useless characters and allows SNA’s to come on line quicker.
I also have had some contact with the QA/FK player as I know him quite well. I doubt he will post as he feels he appears to have copped a fair bit of the blame for Duns getting into Mordor. I’m not sure who made these comments in the reports, but I know he did not appreciate it.
That’s it for now, thankyou all
Mike
How would the extra 20 points work? Add to any character of your choice? Divide amongst your characters as you wish?
I don’t think it would unbalance the game really and I have no objection to it, but I would be ready to play DS again regardless. Quite possibly the FP have an edge but it’s not a huge one that cannot be overcome. I for one just as easily enjoy a tough position and I don’t think it is impossible to win as DS.
As for passing blame, I would surely not blame anyone on the DS side for losing, I think we all did our best and sometimes we made a bad choice or the opposition made a good one where we didn’t. I think the Duns played well and got lucky at the same time, no fault of the FK/QA player. Mike, just tell your friend not take those comments too seriously.
If anything I blame myself while playing IK/LR for being a little unfocused on my finances in the early stages which limited my possibilities later on.
I certainly am up for another GB 1650 game with this set of players.
Cheers,
Alain
Usually in games I played where we where aloud to add 20 points – you wheren’t allowed to take a character over 40 on skill rank – don’t know if that would apply if you guys agreed to it , but if you guys are gonna do another game and someone doesn’t want to play – I will gladly take there spot !!
Mike
Now you can play more games…??? So you’ve signed up for the 1 weeker then, eh?
No , I just want in a gunboat so bad – if anything Like game 75 , it should be great , and not to mention with no communications until turn 6 , you pretty much on your own and thus the normal rountines won’t be used as in normal 1650’s – kind of reminds me of my first couple of games when wwas done by snail mail !! Besides won’t tell the wife
Mike
??? IMO, there is absolutely nothing that the FK/QA player could have done to prevent the DU cav army from getting into Mordor.
First, who would have predicted it?
Second, the DU army went through several DS blocking armies
Third, it is high level agents that were needed to blow the bridges (with hindsight), EARLY, and FK/QA doesn’t have those at game-in.
I don’t think anyone is blaming the FK/QA player for the DU incursion. Kim expressed frustration that the DU army lasted as long as it did. But that was part of the whole idea of sending it in. I had played FK in the last GB and had a devil of a time trying to exterminate some pesky EO cav that had come in the back door. It took many turns. And the BS & CL are all geared up to do other stuff, not fight a real war inside Mordor.
I personally wouldn’t blame FK.
Of course, now that this strategy has been used, it’ll be easy to defeat in the future. . Take down those bridges early and play FK / IK the “traditional” way, and NG won’t have enough on the east side of the river to make a difference, even if they do get through the pass.
I’ve played NG as much as any position in the game and have a lot of neat openings. Sadly, most of them are defeated by the DS taking down the bridges as fast as possible. Navies are way too order-inefficient in MEPBM.
I thought FK/QA did relatively well and as I said in my initial post, he was a pain in my side with Adunaphel’s emmie company taking NG pops.
Dave
Mike - if you want to play in the sequel to GB 70, send in your request to Clint! He’s taking submissions now. John Folz and I would like to team up as a GB team (one nation each), so that opens up at least one more duo for an experienced player who wasn’t in GB 70
Dave
Dear Mike,
The only one we can really blaim the DS defeat is Dave Holt
I thought this Duns cav army came from behind, why I couldnt understand why it was not blocked and minimized. But instead he made an incredible (and also lucky) evasive move past the entire Ithril fortress into inner Mordor. So FP or any other DS are certainly not to blaim for not stopping Duns, we can only blaim Dave for not stopping himself
As for blowing the bridges I agree that this is extremely important for DS early on. Basically Only Ji Indur, Tormog with BoM and IK/LR agents can do this initially. I remember that I considered this initially, but this conflicted with my plans as this was to go 100% for RoW, RoW and Tinculin, where I would need agent backup. I managed to secure RoW, but I wish now that I had prioritized differently. Getting that Duns army into Mordor just had too great an impact.
But all in all I think that IK/LR should be the main responsible for getting the bridges down in any GB game. He has the agents and the artifacts to do this quickly.
BR
Kim Andersen
Thanks will send him and e-mail asking to get in the rematch of Gunboat 70 if any slots are open !!
All Dun starters can reach on turn 4, I believe. Every time I propose such a venture in a standard 12v12 too many get cold feet and chicken out. Glad to see Dave pulled them through in the GB - shame my grudge mates are reading for the next time…