Game 78 ends

General
#1

I just wanted to say thanks to the other players in game 78 (3 nation gunboat that has just ended). I was playing the Arthedain, Cardolan and Noldo and the game went very well for me, a large part of that was due to very early support from allies and some very solid play from the team.

Right from the first turn Dunland poured troops into 1910 and in the starting diplo the Dwarves promised to send troops to Rhudaur after taking goblin gate. That was enough to convince me that taking out the WK and Rhudaur would be easy so I started some long term planning for the mid- to late-game. I also had a great start to the game collecting artifacts - I got the ring of wind and ring of curufin as well as Tinculin and some mage artifacts.

By the time we had taken out the WK and Rhudaur, Cardolan had a hidden town in Mordor (thanks to the Noldo artifact) and two towns just off the QA map. I started pumping out 300HC st st a turn in Mordor, I took out a Cloud lord town and some camps but never made a huge dent against larger enemy PCs due to the fact there always seemed to be enemy armies around. I did cause quite a distraction though and blocked enemy armies from heading to Morannon or Ithil and I hope that helped a lot. My agents also took out a couple of big dragon lord mages at the Dog Lord capital around this time and I picked up some evil mage artifacts from the corpses - I think he may have been forming a curse squad as there was a top Dog Lord mage there too.

As I was gearing up to hit Mordor with agents and curse squad my Palantir results were showing SG/Harad wasn’t doing well against the Corsairs and QA (who had agent support from the LR). I decided to shift my attention away from Mordor and hit the Corsairs. Cardolan had built up a lot of HC just off the QA map so I arranged to get some war machines into it. I moved my agents into the Corsair capital to soften it up a bit. I wasn’t too successful at first but things got better. I had used arthedain and Noldo mages to get good intel on the LR agents - I knew where they were and was tracking the LR agent artifacts. They turned up to defend the Corsair capital - my Curse squad took out Din Ohtar and my Noldo agents (with ROW and ROC) helped finish the job. My agent squad walked away with the best two LR agent artifacts (of which the +20 agent was a neutral artifact so I could use it). After that showdown the LR agent squad stayed away from defending the Corsair homeland and gave me a free run. I moved 3000HC with 75 war machines onto the Corsair capital and a Cardolan navy into north Harad. My agents and curse squad took out any Corsair armies in the area while my armies and emissaries cut through the enemy PCs. In less than 10 turns I owned all the starting QA pops and most of the old Harad PCs.

The Corsairs/QA/LR player did very well and deserves praise for his gameplay and determination - he took out harad, most of SG and knocked out the Dunlendings (Congratulations to SG for holding on until the end) - I had to mop up the old Dunlending PCs with arthedain/Noldo cavalry that was supposed to be heading to Mordor. I never did put enough troops into Mordor so I was very glad to see the remaining free nations kicking butt in Mordor. Both the Sinda/woodmen/dwarves and NG/Northmen/Eothraim combos were played excellently and I felt confident they would get the job done in Mordor while I was playing in the beach resorts of Umbar and Harad. I did move my agents and curse squad into Mordor near the end of the game. I was sitting on the BS capital for three turns at game end - I took out three good mages there and a commander or two and was just going to stay there until my emissaries took the place.

Although I took the top spot in terms of victory points this isn’t a reflection of how well I played compared to the other players on the team - there was excellent play all round. It really just highlights how the victory point system is a flawed way of judging gameplay - the high score I had is more of a reflection of the fact that the DS never really bothered me. I had the occassional agent come and steal gold up north but I never once had an enemy agent squad hit my capitals or emissaries try to make a move on my home positions (other than the Corsairs taking Mt Gram around turn 22). The closest I had was when the LR sent agents to my Noldo M.town adjacent to 2121. I felt amazingly safe up north and that allowed me to focus on the south. The LR still had some great agents - even after I took his top two agent artifacts. I was expecting them to pay a visit to the Cardolan capital but they never arrived.

Thanks to the other free players for making this a great game!

Chris Guise

#2

Chris, your “long term planning” is what made the difference. Thanks for doing that…

3 of us shared the front line humani nations - NG/Eo/Northmen. The sheer volume of DS troops was quite amazing - 2-3,000 man armies from Cloud, BS especially, etc, every bloody turn. We figured pretty early on that we had to hold the line and pray our allies were going to come and crack into Mordor - knowing all the while if our allies screwed up, we’d start getting pressure from behind as well and collapse.

Well, our allies played most excellently, thank you very much. Dwarf/Sinda/Woodmen cleared their theatre and then most of Mordor. Poor Eo and Northmen thousands upon thousands of dead and battle weary, barely the energy to lift their last stick, look up to drums and chanting and presto-festo, a few thousand sparkling Stumps wander by, wave a cheery hello, and conquer the whole damn place… Quite the feat. Once the first domino fell, the DS were blowing away in the wind, with the exception of the Southern duo + LR.

Do NOT congratulate SG. The Starting Player lost the Harad then Quit. Dun sat with huge armies on their way to the front and went bankrupt. SG sat around with a qualified capital the entire game - if it wasn’t for NG moving in full time to fight the Corsairs/QA front, it would have fallen also (MEGames wouldn’t give us the nation…). Starting SG/Dun/Harad Player - find a new game and leave us alone~! (or play on my enemy’s teams forever more…).

All in all, between the Dwarf and Cardolan pops all across the breadth of Middle Earth, this was an excellent game all around. Kudo’s to those players~!

Brad (with Wade and John) for 2/3/6

#3

I did wonder what had happened to the SG/Dunland/Harad combo - partly due to the fact he never sent any of the 50 word diplo’s which was really annoying. I was really suprised when Dunland got knocked out - I didn’t expect that. He really was totally outplayed by the Corsair/QA/LR combo and they decimated his nations.

Unlike our SG/Dunland/Harad player the Corsair player clearly had a lot of fight in him. Even though Cardolan took every single starting Corsair pop centre over a span of about 7 or 8 turns the Corsair player was clearly a fighter and refused to give in. As he kept on losing PCs I was expecting to see the Corsairs appear in the list of eliminated nations but he always kept on fighting and always seemed to have a spare M.town stashed away somewhere on the map (I took Mt Gram and Aglarond - I think the old SG capital was his last remaining M.town but I woudn’t be suprised if there was one or two others somewhere out there). Good play from the Corsairs.

Chris

#4

Early on we were getting diplo’s listing pops taken, artifacts retrieved, Nazgul slain, etc… And then another 6,000 DS troops would come out of various pores across Mordor and slug-slug-slug. DS agents were largely ineffective - the odd one would pass through here or there. Cloud ran off to help WK, LR went to Umbar, etc. Died in more encounters than to the Dark this game.

Yes, between QA in the North and Corsairs fighting in SG, we took your diplo’s listing all the pops you took, and had small armies and characters out exploring the whole region - there were no Corsairs in the South~!

Brad

#5

Hi all,

Darrel S (Another Darrel) and I split the Dwa (me), Sinda (50/50), Woody (Darrel) trio. We had a blast. We’re now 4 for 4 on these trio games and are signed up for the next one too. Darrel has done a much better write up but hasn’t posted it yet.

We had quite a few Sinda agents named with high stealth. We got into an early duel at 2715 with agents. We used every tracking spell and WM double scout imaginable. We can away the victor with the Drag/Dog/Dark trio’s agent artifacts. Dwa had 8 kills, and Sinda about 20.

With Bain kidnapped on t5 or 6 after a comm stack pass to the WM army leader for the Mt. Gundabad threat, Falin stepped-up to replace him. Falin lead the immortals. (turn 12 until game end). Between his guard and skill level, all assassination attempts on him bounced. Sure glad we killed some high level mages early in the game or else there might have been cursers. As it was his original army (joined by various reinforcements) lived the ravage most of Mordor for about 14 turns.

The coordination of timber to Falin’s army led the Dwaves to roaming Mordor with tons of HC and over 100 War Machines. Thank you allies for going with our planning. We com stacked Falin too. He took out Morannon, ran through all the DS armies onto the floor, ran back through them evasively to the IK capital. We challenged the dragon, killed him, and took the IK capital via a clearing sweep and a threat (all in the same turn). We then took the FK capital, the Dark Lts. capital. Then quite a few back-ups.

We had the total count as 6 DS starting caps. (A few of them were with emi strikes). We almost flipped the CL capital with emi strikes. Failed to do it in one turn, and then he had an army there again.

We out our success to the team’s willing to communicate through diplos and coordinate resources with us. Thanks to EO/NM and NG for holding the line, which allowed us to punch through.

It almost seemed like the WK/Rhu/Cl player SS’ed for a few turns. (Ji Indur on WM cap for three turns with no gold stolen and no one killed). Then came back to life with a fury, and stabbed at least 6 of our armies out of existence. FK had some nice assassins working us too.

Mike Bel…

#6

Nice write up. Sounds like a great game for the Freeps.

BTW, what was Falin’s challenge rank when he challenged the dragon, and which one was it?

Just curious,

Adam

#7

Adam-

Sorry for the delay. Here is the info re: the Falin v. Aivnec dragon challenge.

We think it was a 50/50 and we got lucky. I don’t know that I’d risk this one in any given situation, but the risk/reward ratio was priceless with two DWA armies present, and the chance to knock IK out of the game (which it did).

Falin was C76, A10, Challenge 197

"Challenge from Falin at 3122

In the Mountains of 3122 a ritual duel began. A large circle was drawn on the dueling grounds of the city. As Falin’s army stood by, Falin, a healthy warrior stepped forth and called challenge. In his hands was borne the glowing Horn called Horn of Fear. In answer, Aivnec, a healthy and immense Dragon appeared! The odds could not be calculated by those watching. The fight began in earnest. Onlookers gasped as the warriors cut and slashed at each other. Driving blows and skillful thrusts followed each other in a flurry of activity. Finally, Aivnec fell to a savage barrage of blows by Falin. Falin was noted to have suffered bloody wounds in the fight."

We assumed that with a dragon, IK would attack us in the hopes of disbanding the DWA armies (which it would have if the dragon was there at the time the combat started). It’s the right move that I see from that side of the equation.

Falin was at the head of the 498 army of 613HC 38WM (1832enHI);
Regent Thrar was the sweeper with 1600HC 13WM (3249enHI).

The challenge worked, and then so did the 498; and IK was pushed out of the game.

The IK/FK/BS trio was giving us hell the whole game, and want to congratulate them on the fight they put-up. I think FK assassinated more of our army commanders than even the CL. Also, IK had more camps in the Misties than any other player. Luckily we also had 6 camp raiding armies from 1/8/9 working the Misties. But every one we dug-up, the IK put-down a new one.

Again, thanks to our teamates - 4/5/10 for taking care of the south; and 2/3/7 for holding the front lines static so that we could punch through, and for trusting our diplo and sending ~50 WM worth of timber to the staging point on time.

Mike

#8

Hi here corsairs/LR/QA First of all congratulations to my enemies above all to noldo/cardo/art . in about 20 games it was my first Lost game…and despite of results it was one of my best games at least at start…
I made a huge start , SG tried to rush QA and failed and my fleets took out all Sg fleet in first phase… i took out Harad and SG and QA emi went to dunland back centers… northern gondor was becoming next target…but by turn 19 the wind began to changes for me :slight_smile:

LR made a start rush on rhun… I was completely alone… BS didn’t come… Din othar failed to assassinate eoder s fleet twice on T2 and T3 despite of agent 84 stealth 30… at T4 I was at 4013 against Northmen with all my army infantry+cavalry. IF BS had come i think northmen was ripped… But BS annonced to go to osgiliath(not the best choice in my opinion BS can be at T4 at 4013 on 860 arriving at 4018 at T3 ) i think i took out all nortmen army and northmen had recover to eothraim to rip me out … Failing on rhun i decided to go to the south with agents… at T5 Age 99 fail to kidnapping tarondor on osgiliath… then din othar went to sabotate Osgi and pelargir bridge because my allies seemed do not bother about that… Tooking SG concentrate to south I really don’t undestand how is possible Eothraim and Northmen didn’t lose any Major pop centers at game start…

My nations were very rich and contribuite heavily to grimp up the market I sent a lot of gold to WK Dragon lord / drk LT and maybe even to the Fire king i sent something i think…
I was optimist along all the first half of the game even when DS begin to fell and even without any diplo of my allyes except from FK who sent message 50% of the time… the others never sent a **** diplo. noldo fleet come to south but i intercepted it… one key moment were Humbar agent fight at 2438 at T19 … i killed one good noldo agent (gildor) but Lugronk (my best agnet with+30 evil)was killed before his assassiantion attempt… and local militia of humbar was not enouhg efficace with 100 Loyalty a capitol with a castle Militia sucked… a lot… another noldo agent stole my +20… Din othar cursed at some time… noldo characters are too much powerfull in Gunboat games and noldo used them very well… i remained only with a +10 and with Ring of impersonification i took at Sg at game start… it was the beginning of the end… i waited for cardolan to 2438… but not with 75 war machine… :)))) really i understimated that risk and above all i didn t consider rhudar-wk-cloud lourd so a poor player. harad player was really better than him and probably of Drk-dog–dragon lord too… If i put some defense on the road or strenghten my capitol army defense don’t think results would have changed… i don’t like to say that but i had impression my allies sucked too much… :slight_smile: . Cloud lord was took by Fk-BS duo when IK fall down. Fk-Bs play enough well but i think he could have done better making some curse team and sending diplo message et some intelligence news and sending some Emi to northern gondor center or making some pop center on misty mountains… really…i have impression was the only one to take by emi northern pop centers…at the end of the game my corsairs was almost dead but LR and QA were enough wealthy to making some disturbing war in the west but game was lost and BS didn’t say anything about one ring (is it possible to end with one ring victory on gunboat games??) i called for a vote for giving to my ennemies the victory and the congratulations.

Renato.

#9

Hi Guys, FK/IK/BS here,

Like Renato, I had a blast the first 15 turns. I poured troops from all nations westwards which was fortunate since ALL STARTING EOTHRAIM cavalry plus most starting Dwarven infantry came through 3024/3124 in the first 8 turns, and I repulsed them all !! :slight_smile:

Very frustrating for me was that it appears the other DS mage powers passed up the agent artifacts and went after the small stuff, which was all I could go for because I couldn’t cast LAT until turn 4 or so, which means I got no artifacts at all!! If I had just gotten a Conjuring Ways artifact and been able to pump out mounts, it would have made a big difference for my economies and my military. And of course a curses arty would have been nice.

HUGE CONGRATS TO DWARVES for brilliant play at IK capital!! Shocked the heck out of me that a T17 Dwarf could kill a dragon, very gutsy!

It’s a shame the CL fell into the trap of sending his agents north, it’s an easy newbie error – they really are needed for the defense of Mordor. And it never seemed to me that the DogLord accomplished much, given that there was never a letup of pressure of troops. So starting turn 15 things starting going south for me – I kept waiting for that letup due to allied military pressure and it never came.

Still, a very fun game, look forward to the next tri-nation, I think they are the best gunboat combination!

Jeremy

#10

“The IK/FK/BS trio was giving us hell the whole game, and want to congratulate them on the fight they put-up. I think FK assassinated more of our army commanders than even the CL. Also, IK had more camps in the Misties than any other player. Luckily we also had 6 camp raiding armies from 1/8/9 working the Misties. But every one we dug-up, the IK put-down a new one.”

Thanks for the kudo Mike! BTW, the way to avoid letting me replace destroyed camps is if you have an emissary travel with your camp-raiding armies, and create the camp yourselves! The loyalty will be too high for me to easiliy 525 for some time, and often the dragons make the camp go away and then someone else replaces it with a camp elsewhere, and then it can never be recamped.

Jeremy