Gixxx and I have been completely disillusioned with the Untold war scenario. The setup and complete lack of balances is boggling to say the least. But before I explain the poor nature of the game, I want to point out that the bad game setup casts no reflection on David and his team. They played their hand exceptionally, and were relentless in their advancement of their initiative. The advance was seamless and highly coordinated. Well done David and team and congratulations on – not so much a win because I don’t believe we’ve had a real challenge yet – but rather congratulations on very good play…
Firstly I’ll give a brief background of the ‘Untold War’. My advice is that the scenario was written as a research item. It is clear that it has not benefited from the extensive play testing that went into the other mainstream scenarios. The map is bounded by the 19 vertical line (basically a small zone west of the Misty mountains, and the 32 vertical (a hex beyond the extent of Mirkwood). In the north the map borders on the 02 horizontal so basically everything there, and in the south the 21 horizontal which takes in Morannon/Durthang and the Gap of Rohan.
The game will have either a 10,13 or 15 turn limit, accordingly the pops have been beefed up and the fortifications reduced. Victory is based on fixed VP conditions. 2715 is worth 500VP’s to the Freep, and 2514 500 to the DS. The major pops of each nation constitute a 250 VP bonus to the enemy, and an eliminated nation foregoes 500VP’s for the losing side. Lastly there are 5 x 100VP conditions for each nation. However due to the limited turn setup, the 100 VP conditions will not likely come into account unless there’s a stalemate (which is unlikely).
The strategic setup of the map sees 4 DS nations with exceptional defensive setups.
WK substantially enjoys an enemy choke point at 2405/2505.
FK enjoys a defensive choke point at 2409
White Wizard enjoys a defensive choke point at 2020.
All three then force the Freep to slog through single hex passes for multiple other hex advances. Effectively with the turn limits the freep can be shut out simply by blocking each successive hex advance.
Further – the Dog lord in his mountain holds has his core position a long way from the freep in N.Mordor so he also enjoys a very strong position.
For the Freep part, the dwarves enjoys a good defensive position in the NE pocket, not due to the inaccessibility of single hex advances, but by virtue of being so far from the fight no one is going to bother. If the dwarf sees attackers – the game’s over. That’s more of a curse because it halves the nation’s effectiveness in putting troops in the combat zones.
So the DS enjoy a VERY simple defensive position, whereas the Freep have many poorly fortified major populations right under the DS’ noses. In effect the Freep are forced to defend widespread and weak pops whereas the DS have comparatively very little risk.
In other scenarios the relative security imbalance of the two factions is offset by a strong advantage to the freep in bulk of pops and ability to send out armies. Not so in Untold war, it’s all too even.
With most nations right in the fight, reinforcements come from the Dog Lord and Dwarves primarily. The Dog lord enjoys wide open plains and roads on his advance to the front, the dwarves have to negotiate the full length of Mirkwood if they want to make it to the main fight for dominance in the centre of the board. Even with fed movement all the way Dwarves will take 4 turns march to reach Noldo lands whereas the Dog as was revealed to us can get armies there in 2 turns. In effect the scenario gives the equivalent of a 1650 result where the DS have wiped out the Sea of Rhun area. We’d all be familiar with the DS ability then to hurl armies right up the east side of Mirkwood in a move or two whereas the defenders plod along two hexes of forest at a go to try to respond. Always ends extremely badly for the Freep. This is a GAME SETUP condition, a benefit automatically provided, no different strategically to starting the game with Rhun already destroyed.
The Noldo represent a total of 1850 potential VP points, basically a game winner if you can take them out. Here’s a look at how the entire centre, and control of initiative packs down…
Noldo starts with 1200Archers at 2514. The city starts with a fort. Directly across the way the Dog starts with a city and a castle – a far greater advantage. So with two newly hired $5k armies the Noldo faced the DS onslaught on T3. The Dog Lord sent all his start-ups up the road which took 2 turns to arrive (the Noldo intercepted with the main force (which did little damage) and blocked him out for two turns which was ummm something 
The FK also sent a couple of ‘huge’ armies which in the end left him a little weak at home. He lost 2409 a MT/T to the dwarves, but that was basically the extent of the dwarven strength as well.
With the only startup freep recruit in the area of Carrock (3MT’s, 3T’s for the freep), the Northmen and Sylvan elves were never going to be able to send reinforcements to the Noldo, and with Rohan having to worry about a war on two fronts with White Wizard and a possible move by the Dog, he was never going to make the fight across the forest and hills and rough hexes in time by the time the Dog’s intentions were known. The Noldo was alone… It ran like this
Noldo Hired armies at 2413 and 2513 on Turn 1
2209
T2 – WW – 1300HI, 400LI arrived and ended Noldo recruiting, 2209 neutralised.
T3 – 2514 (and 500VP’s) revealed by Murazor
2615 Cirdan intercepted the Dog lord start-ups with the main Noldo force 1000HI, 600Ar
The dog had 1100HC, 600LC, 800HI, 400LI, 900Ar, 800MA.
Goblin King arrived at 2513 FK – 1129HI, 781LI, 781Ar, 781MA
T4 – 2514 Grashukh of the Drag arrived with 200LC, 3300HI, 900LI and faced 500HI, 500AR
2413 Uklurg of the FK brought 1100HI, 900LI, 900Ar, 900MA and attacked 600HI, 100Ar
Murazor revealed the hidden town at 2314 and was promptly cursed before he could reveal 2413. (This turned out to be a huge mistake and prevented the DS finishing the Noldo off)
The Noldo home area now with all pops apart from a city/- were revealed. That’s a city/F and 3 T/-‘s. Not much defensive capability there. So how did the balance of forces fall?
In the key VP’s area of the entire game, the DS enjoyed 1100HC, 800LC, 6329HI, 2981LI, 2581Ar, 2481MA or approximately 12100HI equivalent
The Noldo defence consisted of 2700HI, 1200Ar or 3300HI equivalent. The Noldo was outnumbered nearly 4 to 1 in terms of troops, and 2-3 to 1 in terms of recruit potential (and that doesn’t count for the overrun of pops).
With the Northmen engaged and losing pops they couldn’t even provide defensive armies for themselves let alone NOldo from gamestart, the Noldo received its first and only reinforcements from the dwarves 1700HI equivalent on turn 5. The 500VP capital of the Noldo had fallen, the unfortified towns at 2513 and 2314 had fallen, and 2314 had a huge FK army on it. All the other freep were fighting for their lives. The fight was done…
Elsewhere in our centre map…
The Sylvan MT at 2911 does not start with a defensive army, and nothing can make it there T1. A new army of 400HI was hired and immediately hosted a Dog lord startup force from 3014. Nothing we could do – 2911 fell. With the happenings at Noldo central, 2711 became exposed. We had to make an ugly choice – if another city fell in Noldo they would be eliminated, we simply couldn’t afford 16k/turn maintenance, so the dwarves moved from 2711 into Noldo lands. 2711 was taken.
Now with the Noldo wiped out, Rohan had become surrounded, and so too had the unfortified pop block around Carrock (2508). A stalemate had been fought out for the period of the Noldo demise, but with enormous enemy formations on the border, and dwarven and Silvan reinforcements a long march away beyond NE Mirkwood, there was nothing effectively to be done here either.
We played a gamble to stop the completely one sided initiative debacle of this game and the Rohan did just enough to fend off the White Wizard while schooling a blow for the Dog. The timing was perfect, the Dog had his eyes (and his armies) on the north. We cursed the Durthang army out of existence, and destroyed the defenders at Morannon sieging the pop (which was upgraded to a city during the siege – grrr). However it was not enough, and the Rohan was set to take out the Dog central lands. The Dwarves and Northmen of the east were ready (with Rohirric cav if necessary to take out the last Dog MT at 3014 and at last set us with a safe area to gather our strength from, but alas the momentum in the centre was too great by this point, with the MT’s around Carrock falling, and a whole mob of under employed DS launching into Rohan. I don’t think they would have taken Rohan, but with our entire centre surrendered to the enemy courtesy of a warped persons idea of a challenge, there was little we could do.
Untold war to us was not a challenge, and not a fight. It was a very poorly conceived and poorly balanced game that set the Freep with insurmountable odds from the outset. Adding the clear character advantages and dragons to the DS was just insult to injury particularly when our last offensive forces in the north 4000HI of the dwarves were roasted by a dragon leaving the WK free to attack into the NE.
Untold war in my estimation is not so much a ‘game with bugs’, it’s just a bug. The DS are handed far too many advantages. So long as the DS turn up – they’ll win. Any degree of competence tells the tale. This is not a game for a contest and the recognition of the better player. If you don’t want to spend your currency on play testing something that doesn’t work, better stick with main stream scenarios. 1650 scenario is an elegant and artistic piece of game balances in my opinion. I’ve looked at it from every point of view, and it’s a masterpiece. 1650 is everything that Untold War is not. I think given the game winning position in simple VP calcs that is represented by the demise of the Noldo, and the inability we had to support it (given the stalemates we were fighting elsewhere), it should be clear to most that the 12000 to 3000 combat ratio on unfortified population centres is a patently ridiculous waste of time and money. I can only say I’m deeply miffed to have played it.
All of that is to take nothing away from David’s team. They played their hand exceptionally, and were relentless in their pressure. I was very impressed with their play and hope that they will give us a new game in a REAL scenario. The difference is that they will have to fight for the initiative and I’m keen to see their mettle in the real struggle
