Nine months ago, the Cloud Lord couldn’t see the pendulum swinging back our way. Any of you Dark Servants been reading the portents lately? Because “No-name Random Dwarf kills Lomelinde in a personal challenge” doesn’t seem like a great sign to me. Also RIP for Celedhring who it seems caught the corona. Sorry buddy. I hear that’s going around.
Don’t worry about that Ring, we’ll take good care of it.
– Arvegil, King of Arthedain
Holy Moley Batman! I’m not in the game but enjoying reading this thread. Wow, what a game!
Kudos to Raven for slamming right back into the game early after losing Elrond and the other guy. Totally agree with the comment about guards, it’s nearly pointless to guard against a high-ranking agent no matter how high your rank is. Needs to be changed but oh well.
Look forward to future posts!
Jeremy
Hoofbeats are heard on the road to Dol Amroth. A silent messenger clad in black, having ridden through the smoking ruins of Gondor, approaches the gates. She places a scroll, made from flayed elfskin, inscribed with dwarf blood, into the hands of the gatekeeper. With a sibilant whisper she rasps “Elrond and Bain send their regards” before heading back east.
A mage is summoned to translate the accursed Black Speech:
“To the Lords of the Free,
We congratulate you on your victory. With heads unbowed we graciously concede the war to you, and salute your well co-ordinated tenacity across a long, hard fought campaign. Each one of you has been found to be a worthy opponent, and your teamwork was formidable. We had hoped to escort the One Ring from the frozen wastes of Forodwaith to our Lord and Master Sauron, but alas it was not to be. However, you have chosen to keep the Ring and not destroy it. Enjoy your freedom walking the sunlit uplands breathing the free air for now, but you have sealed your own doom. While the Ring lives the Shadow remains, and one among you will rise as a new Dark Lord. The Shadow will return, and the Nazgul with it.
The Servants of the Dark.”
Beautifully written, and a long, hard-fought game of defeats and victories alike for both sides.
Once we get the official notice from ME Games, we’d love to turn share, if you’re willing.
Raven Zachary
Noldo Elves / Easterlings
I commend all of the remaining DS teams. I am humbled to say I was ready to throw in the towel several months ago due to the relentless agent action of the entire DS team. I have stuck it out because of Raven and a couple of other players who have impacted my thinking about not giving in. Where I saw darkness, they saw light!
We were really looking forward to this next turn. If the CL thought losing Gontran was disappointing, we were prepared to bless him with more disappointment. So many great characters in this game, but the DS were slowly giving way to the superior numbers of all 12 Free nations.
I would like to share with everyone my respect and gratitude for our Harad player who took a tremendous beating early on and could easily have quit, but he is here with all of us; Thanks Cristiano!
And I would like to thank my team for putting up with each other for 47 turns! It is not easy and I think we all learned a bit more about teamwork. We all shared different approaches and we somehow managed to overcome the trivialities and stay the course.
All said, I’m not a fan of such long games. I do look forward to playing with each and everyone from game 73 in future games. I’m an devoting a bit more time to KS and will return to 1650 soon.
Dan Cosby,
Eo/NM
It’s been a great game. This was first one back after something like 20 years without playing and while I was hoping we’d win, it was still an amazing experience.
I’d like to commend the Sinda player who was a major thorn in my side the whole game. I learned quite a bit in this game and I appreciate all the players on both sides.
There are still some tricks I’m trying to learn. I’m looking forward to future games and a chance to play with and against others here again.
Ken
Long Rider 73
Hi - Mike / CL here. I was Dragonlord for most of the game too. Its been a blast. Really impressed with the FP staying power - i really thought we’d weathered the storm by about t25 and our superiority in agents, curses, artefacts would see us storm the late game. Congrats to you all, and thanks again to my great team mates 
Thank you everyone, FP and DS alike.
The DS team was great. I was quite depressed after the South Gondor death star arrived to roll back my rightful and fully justified gains from Haradwaith, plus some choice bits of Corsair proper.
We did get close with the Ring and it would have been great if the FP had headed to Barad Dur with it instead of taking the safe route and running the other way when you got it in turn, but I cannot fault you as I would probably have done the same.
Esko, Corsairs
This was an amazing game! One of the best I’ve played, to be honest. There were plenty of ups and down for both sides. I was Noldo Elves (as mentioned earlier in the thread), and ended up taking over the Easterlings position on Turn 16, as well. My poor Noldo Elves nation ended up entirely devoid of Mages. What an odd way to play this nation. I took big risks early on in the artifact hunt and paid the price for that.
The FP team almost resigned after Turn 36. That’s how close this game was.
Arthedain/Dwarves here. This was my first game back in almost two decades. Very enjoyable. Learned and re-learned a lot. Never again will I think the Dog Lord can’t recruit heavy cav in steel/steel at Morannon in the early game. No way, I thought. Surely the Eothraim will sweep him away, allowing Bain to threaten the place. Wah-waaah.
For what it’s worth, I wanted us to go to Barad-dur and drop it into the fire. Oh well, guess Middle-earth will see this all again in 2950…