Don’t worry about the FK not being sure what they’re doing…remember the Dwarf? “This way!”…“No, THAT way!”… I suspect you’ll be seeing more of that as we get our results back and initiate whole new 5 Year Plans every turn…this is a fun game…
Turn 3 certainly shows some interesting items. Dog Lord is trying to save Dol Guldor from the Eothraim, who are also on 2703. Seammu and Marendil of Rhudaur are wandering lost in Mirkwood whilst Greater Angmar shows 23 DS icons at last count…guarding/blocking, I suppose. Played up there a lot, didn’t know the women were worth such desperate measures…although I suppose that’s why Seammu is in Lorien!
Southern Gondor has taken most of the North Bank, South Bank is solid for DS but Umbar untouched. The last wave of the starting armies should be appearing now (Cloud? BS? Long Rider?) now, where or where did they go??
Here’s our turn piece. Hope you enjoy it!
ps - editing post, checked attachment, works on my system fine! If you’d like a copy but can’t get it here, just ask bbrunec296@rogers.com. Cheers.
This game is hard! But fun… 
Diary: Went to bed thinking about Rhudaur/ Witch King blocking moves… woke up thinking about WK/Rh blocking moves… (never played WK before). Bit tired today.
FK is still doing my head in though. If you’d be kind enough to blow the bridge that would be a big help taxing my brain.
Clint
We considered it, but decided that the more options we leave you, the better odds you’ll get a headache and do something stupid just to have it over with. I was going to build another bridge in the Rhovanion, what do you think?
Brad the Freep
Not sure - isn’t that like 6 combinations then…
If there’s anything I can do to confuse you guys then feel free to contact me though.
Clint (player)
Enjoy the rewards offered to my enemies due to my “what the hell” style of play. Every turn like this I beat my head and say “gotta play more conservative, gotta play more conservative…”. Elladan shall be missed.
Lots of icons in the south, lots of icons in the North. What the heck is the plan in Mirkwood? I mean for both of us…ah well…
Freep
Phone call with my ally. 2 hours of cell time during working hours…gotta love government jobs! After all the analysis, bitching, cheering, [phew]ing, etc, I sit back and realize: “I bet he thinks he’s doing as well as we think we are.”
Notes: More Freeps on the North Bank, Corsairs met by Cardolan, while the last DS navy has moved up also to make a fight for their last 2 MT’s (seiged last turn by suicidal Celdrahil and Camlin…SG’s rich, go figure…). South Bank shows a DS icon on every pop…but no attacks on FP holdings yet.
Angmar is conspicuously devoid of icons, it would seem. Managed to get one army through his 24 icon maze of blocks. Oh look, undefended…
Mirkwood is an absolute mess. Rhudaur is wandering around, GG forces finally landed on Woodie capital, Gundabad has been naked but unconquered, Eothraim landed on Dol G, but an extra DS army made it, so they left this turn and met up with yet more Large armies from Mordor… Armies armies everywhere, armies armies in your hair…
Gondor is mysteriously untouched. Minas Ithil abandoned with the forts ripped down turn 1, he’s been skipping over it. Some IceK dude just died on some walls, he hasn’t even moved on 3020 yet. The man is having a serious Mirkwood moment. Do the DS win here or do the FP lose? Or was that Angmar?
BS and LR forces have disappeared, the only DS in Rhun/Rhovanion has been starting IceK Light Cav (3612 burned). Something has popped off 3621 now, on an Eo camp…oh, the Horror! the Horror!
DS down, like, 5 Harad towns, 1 Ice town, 2 Ice camps, 1 WK town (Eo on 2703), 1 QA town, the Dragon small pops Iron Hills way. FP down 3612 and the village 3712 and one NG town in the backfield (starting DolG army making an ass of himself…). North Bank to lose an MT this turn, Rhangmar to lose a couple in the next couple turns. We’re liking our slow-burn early game strategy. Let the character game come…who needs Gildor and Elladan and all those Free Agent artifacts anyway!
Regards,
Freep
No word from my noble opposition…? Tsk Tsk. Here’s our Turn 4 submission for your voyeur pleasure!
Busy…
Clint
Hey Clint! We’re on the South Bank! Gee, you have an army on a village, but nothing on your Major Town? Shame, that…
As for the North, I take it the WK lost the coin toss? Ah, those damn guessing games 
Hey! Your cronies have kept 2 of my turns! What’s this “funding problem” and “House Rules” stuff? Eh? Bloody imperial snobbery, wot?
Turn 5 Report:
Mirkwood Inroads finally! Clint’s Mirkwood Mission is bearing fruit! He finally revealed a Sinda city and those largely expensive Rhudaur armies will finally nail it. Mind you, we’re about to burn Angmar to a smithereens (as he stocks up Rhudaur!) and Harad is likely begging Mordor for cash! A Snooty DS might advise that it’s odd that the Dragon Lord can help fund other nations…go ahead, it won’t last long. We’ve left you alone in your only theatre of interest, and we’ve had mostly (besides losing a couple Noldo) rampaging success elsewhere we’ve bothered to turn our attention! WK and Harad twitching, QA and Ice heavily damaged. Rhudaur next. The missing LR forces are have been ineffectively “defending” Harad while now attacking the only Corsairs pop (town…) without a Corsairs icon. Cloud and BS starting forces all accounted for and not going too much farther.
DS DAmage to date: 3612, 3716, 2617 and 2619 and finally Osgiliath. 3124 has been without fortifications since turn 1 and he keeps walking by it…um, okay, NG is subsidizing the Eothraim…whatever you like! Sinda city going down as is a Woodie town. Other armies just sitting and fighting and waiting for us to kill them off…interesting. Bore us to death? That’s what we’re doing to YOU in the NW!!!
FP damage to date: 5 Harad towns, 1 MT and a second this turn. 1 Rhu town and all the WK towns will be gone this turn coming. 3123, 3533 and the small Dragon and QA outlying pops. Oh look, there’s the Improved MT at 3621 sitting undefended…! Um, okay, 3716 is an even trade. Memo to Clint: FP have lots of these little towns and such…you don’t…
In other theatres of competition, Clint must have decided that taking RoI and the Bracers off the twitching Gildor must be arty success enough, as he hasn’t seemed to have bothered with anything else… Okay, RoI and the Bracers for RoW and RoC, fair enough. Is this a curse artifact I see before me? Is this another one? Um, okay, I’ll take them…er…thanks! Meanwhile, Murazor is practicing Sickness all alone as he and his Dragon buddies bar-hop in Mirkwood.
General synopsis? FP making the most military headway, arty slant to the FP. DS doing some market manip to mitigate our destroying his tax base. All in all, we’re looking at a likely pretty interesting and even match for quite a while yet. Stay tuned, snooty newsletter coming soon!
Bad enough I don’t want to give an arty to my ally, I can’t even find it in me to ship money to myself…
I think this may go down as my favorite quote on the forums for quite a long while.
Turn 6 has run. Another Harad MT down, 3 more. Oh look, 1 Harad town has degraded to a camp, another to a village this turn. Witch lost 2 more towns and a village, another village and Gundabad this turn. Seems nobody is refusing challenge this time, Lanthir, Pochak, and some newbie from Mordor all dying to their betters.
Sinda lost a town and a city, but Sarn G is looking pretty naked, no? 3716 is the Dark Lieutenants for 1 turn as the Eothraim takes it back…oh look, the Major Town 3621 they moved off of is about to burn also. Tsk tsk.
Ethacali running the BS down the NG backfield (BS down the NG backfield? Rhudaur taking Sinda cities while Angmar burns?) and the Long Rider finally moved off their little rock all the way to 3110. Too bad none of these Eastern moves were coordinated… Hoarmurath has been leading an army since the beginning, a couple hundred LC tops ambling about the Rhovanion to little effect.
All in all, with Osgiliath finally going and armies moving about the East Bank, it looks like the DS have finally had some impact on NG and the Sinda. Mind you, don’t the Corsairs usually get steamrolled in a 12v12? We have a bankrupt Harad and a mangled WK. Find any artifacts lately? With the Ring of Wind, Ring of Curufin, Tinculin, Collar of Might, etc, I think you’ve been living the glory of killing a lazy Gildor and the RoI a little long…maybe if your mages weren’t running armies around in circles…
All told, a most interesting game all around. I’m enjoying it quite much, thanks, so no Clint, we’d appreciate it if you didn’t concede just yet… 
12v12 - usually the Corsair win… :o It depends on many other factors though…
I think I’ve held off the hordes - not that there were that many and I think the Woodmen and Sindar (how many characters do you want to lose!) are stuffed - Angmar well that’s a tad awkward but we’ll see. I did the same with the Eothraim move and it’s an interesting play up North - we’ll see if the expenditure is worth it. Where has your Noldo start army gone? I expect I’ll find out this turn uh?! :rolleyes:
Can’t believe I lost the challenge - that was in my favour @ Thuringwost!
I’m happy to swop 2514 and 2608 for a mythical attack on 2809 anytime you want. Actually please feel free to send lots of troops there to attack whilst I mop up the Woodmen’s MTs. Too many choices… FK Start army neutralising the entirety of the NG forces is fine with me as well btw.
It’s been a learning experience - probably my own errors will cost me the most- I’ll tell you guys after the game! 
We’re playing such different styles that I’m actually confused and that’s to your advantage! 
Economics: Economy is fine now - shame you’re running a few zeros but that’s okay with me.
Basket case nations - covered
Near Basket - just about covered
Safe nations - OMG I’ve nearly killed them! :eek:
- 12 nations is hard to play but most fun. Recommended to anyone with a bottomless pocket!
If you want to concede though that’s with me.
Clint
Woodmen and Sindar are fine. How’s Harad and WK doing? This turn coming you’ll almost be close to us in pops taken. If you kept up all game the FP would still consider themselves ahead…keep drinking…
Where has your Noldo start army gone? I expect I’ll find out this turn uh?! :rolleyes:
Noldo?
Can’t believe I lost the challenge - that was in my favour @ Thuringwost!
Somethings have to go our way.
I’m happy to swop 2514 and 2608 for a mythical attack on 2809 anytime you want.
It’s been a learning experience - probably my own errors will cost me the most- I’ll tell you guys after the game!
You just keep working in Mirkwood… We’ve got the Whole Map to play, a Whole Game to play also. How many Nazgul are leading armies again?
Playing style? Our playing style is more like “How did that happen? What did you do that for? NOW what the hell are we going to do???” than any grand plan.
And it wasn’t the FK that neutralized the starting NG forces, it was that assassination on Elatar on turn -1 or whatever that put us 2 turns behind. Good think Ji has done diddly since then…
Economics: Economy is fine now - shame you’re running a few zeros but that’s okay with me.
Basket case nations - covered
Near Basket - just about covered
Safe nations - OMG I’ve nearly killed them! :eek:
I’m impressed I got to those zeros. At least 1 turn too late mind you, but hey, if Harad put up a fight, SG wouldn’t have a 39% tax base of 55,000 to try to zero out now would they?
If you want to concede though that’s with me.
Clint
Um, yeah, okay. We quit. You da mastah. Yeah… :rolleyes:
Most careless with the Sindar… -
Looks like the onslaught in the North is held off - not quite sure why you’re attacking down south but it’s confusing me! :rolleyes:
Clint (player)
You think you know that we don’t know what you don’t know we know. Take a closer look, it’s right there for you…
Oh, and my partner is expecting his first any day now, so there goes his account, 1/2 an allegiance held back again, and who knows what he did this turn and Lordie only knows what I’ll likely have to manage on my own next…
Oh and Oh…don’t confuse the issue. We’ve taken as much in Harad as you’ve taken on the entire map. There is no more Harad, in fact, as it would seem…
Da Freep
Woa, I feel dizzy after reading that line.
I think that one was about Harad dying…but the last part confuses me too… It’s a problem in a 3 week game, one that it’s overwhelmingly obvious that Clint is experiencing also…
For an update, if Harad isn’t out, he isn’t playing, which is just as good. Unless that was an all cavalry army, but considering his last homeland pops have been identified as Fire King and Quiet Avenger, along with other items, I think we’ve eliminated Harad in 7 or less turns. Tell me Clint, was it SG suiciding against 2 MT’s on turn 4 or so that did it? Camlin and Celdrahil’s families would like to know it was worth it…
Clint finally got a dragon into combat on turn 8. Mind you, he hasn’t killed anyone via assassination in a couple turns, it seems. Ji Indur hasn’t done a dang thing here (not counting Elatar’s 2000+ on turn 3 or something…). Harad is gone, last MT (QA) about to be toast. Gotta love War Machines… Angmar is 2 MT’s and a village, likely to stay that way thanks to 2 dragons in a teeny army in the middle of nowhere, as Rhudaur goes backwards. Gotta love it.
Hoarmurath, running the starting IKing cav around the Rhovanion to little effect after burning 3612 early has finally been caught. Uvatha who finally sailed off 4215 turn 7 missed a threat and sat. Whatever for? Trying to ship/buy food? 7 turns, you didn’t plan on feeding the guys until the last minute? This is how my wife plans a weekend away…uuuugggggglee.
Mordor has extended some destruction. NG’s extended pops have been hit, 4 towns towards the back road, took the BS army to do it (mind you, I used Mahrcared to defeat it…go figure), the Rhov Road is getting slim, 3116 will be the last pop there, while Ithil, Osgiliath and 3026 went, we got Osgiliath back and about to retake 3026 also. Murazor and friends decided not to finish off some Elf they sicked down to 3 health, or something silly. Why now? 1 guy casting and he failed while the other did more “important” stuff. Sinda are actually in a pretty good position now…
All in all, I believe Clint went for a Mirkwood opening and has had some success, 2514 with Rhudaur (we’ll get that back this turn) and 2609. We’ve burned 2703 and taken Gundabad, about to land on Sarn Goriwing and have forces to keep him bottled up until we get a dragon of our own.
We wasted 2 towns and 2 villages of WK, only 1 Rhu town, but he’s got nothing as our nations steadily build. Attrition in both these theatres. We’ve knocked out Harad to his weakening NG (who was shipping gold around until last turn…). No cursers yet and miserable kidnap/assassination numbers. We’re nigh on a World vs Mordor struggle, and since we’ve gotten every artifact of note (RoW, RoC and all the mage toys, and I mean all of them…) while losing RoI and the Bracers, I like our mid-late game strategy hopes.
Lip and sass aside, Clint’s a good player. I suspect he’s a little distracted, running 12 nations and potentially losing attention with a 3 week turnaround can do that. More “stuff” has happened in this game than most 8 turn starts I’ve seen in a long time, and it looks to be a good fight for a long time yet!
Brad da Freep
My turns are in so whenever you guys want I’m ready.
Hopefully will get a few kills this turn in the North. Not sure if I can hold my gains from the Corsair (you guys seem to have forgotten to report on that - you have noticed right?) If NM can stop recruiting that would be okay with me. Sarn G for 2711 - seems a fair trade to me but if you can bring Marhcared back as he seems to have wandered past, that would be good as I’ve got some troops to kill off.
Note 2514 is still mine - any time you guys want to re-take it please get in touch. 2136 should be an interesting battle. Corsairs down to 2337, 2438, 2339, 2039 this turn.
NW - now this should be very interesting - probably a game defining turn this time around. Nice move on the WK capital. Lost track of the army! Wonder when the Woodies will turn up (this turn seems likely).
Finding out a lot about the market in this game - so thanks for that.
Bad points so far; Saruman decided he wanted to eat some of my troops - very kind, similar for Leucarath - a pain and a spider… Good points well I’ve only lost Harad so far (gulp).
Eothraim should start to feel some pain soon. Usual race to see who can lose the most the quickest…
Nice to finally see some NG troops.
Clint (player)