Fup,
You are absolutely right under normal circumstances. I’m not sure we are under normal circumstances. Wouldn’t you agree? I wonder if we switched sides if you would feel the same about the Woodie’s tactic? At this stage the challenge is at least entertaining. 
Dave
Dwarf
Hi Dave
Thx for the willingness to let Thelòr die, however the error is mine. Got a kind reply from ME today and they pointed out what I had overlooked, I quote " Character id’s never include accents, this is covered both in the main ME
rules (page 18 under characters)and in the instructions for automagic.
Any use of accents in a targets name will cause the action to miss."
Zeus
BTW. once upon a time you had an commander with some agent skill taken captive by Ash. You asked me then if I has used any orders on executing him, giving him to CL or similar. The answer is that I didnt use any orders on him. Ash was in a hurry to stop some cardolan or arthidain armies and didnt have time to use on a meashly prisoner.
Zeus,
No problem on Thelor, if ME made an error then re-runs happen, although I’m happy I get to use my big warlord another turn or two.
On Falin, I was just curious. I’ve played the WK three times now, and understand the frantic nature of your position.
Dave
Dwarf
Hi there guys,
Dark Lieutenants checking in… Had otherwise sworn not to join the forum, but hey, what do you know, here I am!
Anyways, I was out drinking a pint or fifteen the other night with the Lords (Cloud Lord, Dragon Lord and Dog Lord), and somewhere past midnight found myself praising the tenacity of the FP in this game (I get friendly when I’ve had enough!). Suddenly it struck me that there’s no point in telling the lords that (not shure they could understand me either…), I should really tell you instead, so here goes: Dave, I admire your teams grit. Keep up the morale, and promise me not to die before we’re finished killing you 
I’ve been in games where my teammates (not the present ones!) wanted to quit as soon as our opponents had found tinculin, but didnt think that the loss of Minas Anor as any major setback. In my humble opinion way to many games end far to soon, before all the fun starts, and you’re left with the feeling of wondering how it could have developed, after paying for 10-15 turns. Bit of an anticlimax really…
Anyway, I hope this game can continue untill the hopefully not-so-bitter end.
Thomas
Dr. Evil,
Thanks for the kind words. Admittedly, we know things look bleak but we are learning a lot from you guys by sticking it out. We are taking it one turn at a time and trying some new things.
If the Rhu happen to have his 3rd Dragon at 2008, 3 turns in a row, I think that might be the last straw (i.e. last ME game) for me at least as that is just plain ridiculous. Not blaming you guys on that issue as you should attempt to exploit the game system at its maximum (within the rules of course), but the Dragon recruiting system is way out of control. I guess I’m one of those Middle-Earth traditionalists that believe recruiting Dragons s/b a rare thing.
Anyway, glad you decided to drop a note.
Dave
Dwarves
Greetings Dave the Short
You may dream of times gone by, to me this is a strategy-game of the beloved Tolkien flavour. It is to me the challenge of a team subjugating another with the adverseties of functioning as a team. The guys from Wales have done theirs to to bring in competition by PRS. It has left its marks on our team - to my regret ofcourse. Like my friend, the Dork Lord - wait the Dork Lieutenant said, your team fights not only for expirience.
Loke:D:D:D
I can see your point Loke but I still value a little imagination in my games vs. the purity of efficiency, which this has become. It just comes down to style and choice.
Tomorrow we’ll see if this is my last ME game
Dave
Hi Dave
There is a dragon.
Loke:D:D:D
Doesn’t surprise me really.
Dave
Dwarfies
I guess now we will see if I was bluffing.
The only real power we have to effect change to this great game is to leave for better substitutes. Something needs to be done to nerf this dragon recruiting, it is exploit that unbalances the game. If you disagree, ask yourself this question. “Is it wise for a DS team in a grudge game to ignore the dragon recruiting system?” If the answer is “No, a grudge team (DS) must set camps throughout the mountains and churn the emmys around them; as dragons are too powerful to ignore.”, then it has caused the game to become even more one dimensional. I’ve never seen dragons recruited like you all do it, however we have never played a team with your experience.
The Dwarves will be my last kingdom to play; at least until their new game is finished, I might try that one. Might try some MORPGs.
Dave
Aw, shucks, David. It ain’t all that bleak. We assassinated another nasty-smelling orc (Urgubal) and we’ll get two more this turn.
Plus we did pop an army up in the middle of Mordor – bet that surprised the Dork Servants.
Elrond
What a truely rotten turn, the single assass failed and the shorties where out of gold. There was a funny incident though, a guard was killed but the intended target survived.
Sorry to hear that this is your last game Dave. Maybe you should know that Itangast keeps creeping up on my agents, I never willfully recruited this annoying lizzard.
Loke:D:D:D
We’ve had some luck with the dragons, yes and your side has done very little to counter it, despite having some experienced players on your side. The thing is that if you want to win in a grudge game, you have to take dragons as DS to just survive AND you have take counter measures as freeps (who can use them aswell). What about huorns, ents and eagles and the most annoying woses and hobbits?
Dave, you can ask the same question about artefacts and agents aswell as you do with dragons.
Still its possible to win as Freeps and they have a better chance of doing so than DS IMO, because of the big number of starting troops and larger recruitment base etc. This is a military game first and foremost, and the main thing is to fight where you win and dont fight where and when you lose. 
I agree with everything written. My arguement is that dragons, artifacts, and all mentioned are a MUST, not an option. I’m talking about game balance. When a game, any game becomes a game of “must do this to survive, or counter this to survive”, it has become one-dimensional.
Back before the dragon recruiting/artifact tables were known, the DS teams still won their fair share. Heck I won the game as the WK w/o recruiting one damn dragon back in the old days. I think this game has been played so much that now the exploits in the game actually control the game. Dragons are so powerful that it would be foolish not to send all your assets into the mountains to recruit them. The ROW and Spirit Mastery artys are located in the first 3 turns. The Sinda city(s) is revealed on turn 1 or 2. I’m not saying the game is a bad one, matter of fact I really enjoyed this game. I’m saying that for my tastes, I enjoy more game balance and discovering new things.
My teammates might persuade me into another game, but right now I feel like there is nothing really new in this gaming experience. Not a bad game, just think it has run its course and needs a face lift. I brought some of my opinions to the forum asking for some change. Maybe Kin Strife is the answer? I’ve been playing PBM for nearly 15 years and have played the majority of the highly rated ones. ME was one of the best in its day. I’m going to try some Guild Wars I think, I have not played a MORPG yet.
Dave
Grumbling Dwarves
Dwarves gave all their gold away. We are a giving people…
Dave
We are still missing 2 turns, actually those 2 kingdoms were serviced so I concerned about our missing player. More to come once I see the whole battlefield.
Dave
Dwarves
We have debated alot this turn about whether to concede or not and we agreed to concede to your team. You guys played a marvelous game, especially in the market manipulation early on. There was not much we could do to stop your metal sales as we didn’t have much metal production early on. The early blows to the EO and Cardolan stalled our attacks and then your mastery of the Dragon recruiting just put our military conquests at a stand still.
This last turn we had 4 characters at the One Ring site and all failed to get the encounter. We were tempted to try again but with NG and Duns being serviced and your character superiority, it really wasn’t worth the energy or money to continue.
Congratulations to your team!
David Thomas
Capt of the Freeps
Hi Dave,
I´m sorry to hear your team have decided to conceed. As a newbie I had hoped for a lon lasting game to see the potential of a nation in the later stages of the game. sadly it has come to an early ending. I wish your team the best and hope to meet some of you in future games.
Dog lord
jens
Thank you for a great game.
I had fun playing it, and it was a pleasure to see the mass invaders at the Minas Ithil pass.
A few points about dragons:
Make small armies to destroy the camps in the misty mountains. Most of the dragons are found that way.
Remove fortifications in FP pops in mountains so they wont become a problem when DS later infs them over.
Watch rumors for dragon encounters, predict the location of the dragon, send in armies that can clear the dragon army in one blow, then follow up with an army to do the job that is really aimed at.
Brian
Fire King
Sorry it didn’t last longer too, but you guys schooled us too badly.
On the dragon advice, we did work on the points you gave, but we just didn’t execute. We built emmy teams to go up there and take the camps out as well, but they kept failing at the assignment and we were disorganized. On building small armies, many of our kingdoms didn’t have enough commanders due to someone RIPing them all the time. Finally, we wanted to get the Rhu relocated but his dragon recruiting was legendary.
We would like to share pdfs with your team if you are willing. I think we have them from about turn 7 forward. We had to purge the early ones for space limits. Let me know if your team is interested and I’ll zip our up for you guys.
I don’t like losing, but if I’m going to lose I’d like to learn something from it.
Dave
Dwarven prisoners of Sauron