Game 86

Specific Games
#21

In the hills of Arnor at the Castle Fornost Erain, a battle formed. In the castle’s map room, the commanders of Cardolan and the Arthedain were forming their final plans. There was a doom hanging over the Hall as everyone knew that our armies would not be enough.
Eldacann examined a message just delivered from the field. The Royal Seal was broken and Eldacann read aloud,

“My cavalry fought hard, but the forces of the Witch King were too many. Murazor is here. The main blow of Angmar is coming to the capital. There will be 3 armies. Protect the people, and hold the castle. Help will come, but not today. King Argeleb”

Suddenly, the doors to the chamber swung open as a procession strode in. Shock fell across the face of all at the map table as Gaerdae of the Noldo strode forward with his lieutenants.
He stated, “My lords, the army of the Gray Havens has come. Let us throw down the shadow of Angmar together and send it back to whence it came.”
The morning light was reaching the walls when the horns blew to signal the attack. The small Arthedain force roared to life as it charged through the middle of the Free People line. Arthedain would be the bait in the trap. The forces of Ashdurbuk Zalg, Cykur, and Drurkarian seemed to retreat until it became obvious that they were falling back in order to ambush the Eldacann’s army from all sides. All seemed doomed until the cavalries of the Cardolan suddenly appeared to have surrounded the armies of the Eye.
When the Noldo army advanced in perfect unison, a most unusual thing began to happen. The largest of the Witch King’s army broke from formation with its two smaller armies. Wherever the Noldo army went, the Drurkarian’s army only attacked it. That left the small cavalries of Ashdurbuk and Cykur with no support. Left alone, the combined armies of the Arthedain and Cardolan were able to cut them down. Then, all remaining FP armies were able to hit the main body of the invading army from all sides.
During the search for the wounded, a whistle was heard from the battlefield. There was a small fracas for a brief time; then all went quiet. Soon after, Ashdurbuk Zalg of the Witchking was presented in bonds to the commanders of the Free Armies by soldiers of the field. Cheers and jeers were heard as he was led into the gates of the great city.
During the night of revelry, a messenger was led to the Great Hall. He presented the celebrating lords with a sealed scroll case. As Eldacann read the case, all eyes turned to him.
He looked up from the papyrus and stated, “The combined armies of Arthedain, Cardolan, and our new allies Rhudaur have reached the ancient crypt city of Carn Dum. It is now our turn.”

#22

…further East…the good burghers of Ilanin surveyed the hostelry bill after the last of the visiting armies assembled outside of the town before moving off to who knows where.

'‘tis an extensive list … hogsheads by the dozen, a multitude of casks of ale, mead and wines from the hot lands of the south, chairs, tables, drinking horns, a feather boa, sundry plates, bowls, bedsheets and all manner of paraphernalia…’

The landlords and ladies looked at the burger, palms outstetched, the burger looked at the town council, who inconveniently looked at the floor, or gazed whistfully, as if deep in serious thought, out through the windows of the council chamber; a fine glaze of perspiration developed on the burghers forehead…his mind raced…99 gold pieces he reckoned to the tally…but how would he find such a Kingly sum!?

As the landlords and ladies leaned in towards the quailing gent, hands more firmly outstretched, faces hardened towards their prey, his erstwhile colleagues gazed with even greater intent at anything that wasn’t him, perspiration now visibly showing upon his pallid skin…at this moment a sound and confident rap was heard upon the door of the chamber…the tension broke, breath exhaled…the door swung open and a stout iron shod, fellow with extensive braided beard, tanned and weathered skin with a lively demeanour strode into the chamber and advanced towards the burgher…

‘Sir!’ said he ’ I bring a wee gift from my Lord to cover the costs of your hospitality’. He extended his muscled arm and deposited a large, heavy bag into the burghers clammy hands.

The burgher, accustomed to such transactions and with cat like swiftness opened the bag and gazed upon the golden contents, their light reflecting off of his somewhat shiny skin…with practiced skill he quickly appraised that 100 gold coins had been handed to him ( a cool 1 gold profit, and Dwarven gold to boot…) ‘My dear fellow, thank you and please pass on our thanks to your Lord, you are welcome anytime in peace!’
The Stout gentleman bowed low and a left the chamber.
Turning to the group the Burgher, raised himself confidently and handed out the gold to the now happy and convivial townsfolk.

Keeping one coin for himself he confidently flipped it high in the chamber, sun glinting off the spinning golden object, with thoughts of sun filled holidays, and easy days ahead he extends his hand in expectation of the heavy coins impact…a grey shadow flashes across his gaze and a wiry hand snatches into the air, the golden jewel vanished into a grey cloth ’ thank you Burgher, the Chief will be pleased you have paid your taxes’ a grimace of satisfaction crossed the face of the tax collector, lost within the folds of his robes he turns and leaves the chamber with the townsfolk…

Bereft, the burgher turns and sees his colleagues arrayed along the table, busily reading the various sheets of parchment, the chairman calls the meeting to order and the burgher sits at his place, ah the joy of meetings; all thoughts of the sunny uplands slowly drift from his mind as the members debate the need for a focus group to be formed to determine if an action plan needs to be written, in preparation for a comprehensive review of the previous action plans, because really now is the time for action, and should we bring in those consultants from Procrastinate and partners…

…just when he thinks his life has come to an end a breathless messenger arrives with news from far afield…

#24

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#25

Ok, not gonna lie. That was good.

#26

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#27

Well, g86 ends with a FP victory. I guess the concert caravan was too much to overcome.

Thanks to my teammates for a game well played. Thanks to the DS for a fun fight. WK was really quite close to winning at the Arthedain capital. I thought the Threat might work.

See ya next time!

#28

Wait, what? This was a really short game! How many turns, eight?

#29

Yes. A schoolbook example of what happens when Rhudaur is predetermined to go freep from the start and not a real neutral. Rhudaur selfishly pretty much ruined the game for everyone else.

#30

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1 Like
#31

Ahh…the sour grapes of failure… I think if you listen hard enough you can hear the worlds smallest violin playing the classic “My Heart Bleeds for You!”

When we started game 86 only eight turns ago, I started this game not knowing anyone in the game. I had requested a position from Clint saying I didn’t care which side as I was joining this game in the blind and not with friends. Upon receiving turn 0, I was surprised to discover that I was the Rhudaur, a very challenging and and demanding position. We were starting at the beginning of Winter to top things off. I was also surprised to discover that I saw friends on both sides of this Middle Earth Struggle that I knew and have played with in the past.

I have played the Rhudaur on several occasions so I knew my strengths and weaknesses. Both sides reached out to me in earnest trying to secure my loyalties. For those of you familiar with the Rhudaur, they are surrounded by FP and the WK just to the north. Rhudaur have mighty armies but cannot survive for long as the coffers of gold will quickly vanish so you must decide quickly which side to ally with so that you can engage your armies. By choosing quickly you can hopefully balance your budget by capturing population centers and losing troops in battle. No other neutral has such a budget crisis and just raising taxes and retiring troops when you are surrounded by enemies is NOT an option.

As I stated, both sides entered negotiations to try and sway me to a side. The WK/DrL was arrogant in his approach with the assumption that I must go DS. I also spoke with the Dog Lord who was pleasant with his diplomatic endeavours. I informed the Dog Lord that I would inform each side before they turn was run of my decision. The FP were cautious but offered me security in terms of population holdings, gold for my coffers, and were very entertaining in their missives to woo me diplomatically. Did I mention we started this game just before Winter started…

I made my decision on turn 1 and honoured my word to the Dog Lord and announced to him my intentions to declare for the Free People. Doing so obviously weakened my opening for my Turn 2 declaration orders but there was no surprises. I even alerted the Duns to my intentions to which he was disappointed I didn’t play the neutral “fence riding” game. Being Rhudaur and wanting to be able to make a difference for either side you must declare early. Other neutrals can play the “fence riding” game much longer as they did in this game…It was turn 7 before other neutrals actually declared.

After hearing from them of their diplomatic banter with both the DS and the FP, it became clear why the DS failed to recruit even one neutral to their side. Belittling and threatening neutrals will rarely if ever sway them to your banner. In Game 86, this proved to be true yet again. All five neutrals either joined or wanted to join the FP in this game. The FP were very inviting and negotiated in a very engaging, fun way to recruit nations. The DS did not…

So Rhudaur did NOT ruin this game by being the only neutral to declare at turn 2 and not having another neutral join the FP until turn 7. The DS were simply outplayed militarily and more importantly, diplomatically.

Morale of the story for Game 86…Don’t be a wanker to the neutrals and you might recruit some to your side!

#32

I was the Duns as apparent from early posts in this thread, my sour grapes are from Rhudaur basicly locking me into a forced neutrality.

#33

Well. I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this , but given the unusual after action note we got from Clint suggesting that unfair play by the Neutrals had marred the game, (apparently complaints were lodged with the admins even before we heard the game was over), as one of those Neutrals (Corsairs) let me shed some light.
Here is a Diplo we received from Adunaphel on Jan 28-From The Quiet Avenger Jan 28
Well, we’ve done a number on South Gondor. With two kills this this turn, that’s 6 SG personnel sent to Mandos to be judged. (Also took out Elladan of the other Gondor off the board this turn along with other killings/kidnappings.) Also took a town and a village from them and stole gold. We also believe we’ve stranded their navy, maybe the navies of both Gondors. We picked up and/or located some important artifacts. In spite of the expected military activity of the Free, we’re giving as good as we get. And we had another successful buyout.
On balance, with the early Witch King is being hard pressed, following from the early declaration of Rhudaur for the Free. With great teamwork, WK won’t be leaving us any time soon, and in the north, WK is doing damage in the homeland of Arthedain.
Mordor is holding nicely. Woodmen and Sinda are massed at Dol Guldur, but we don’t expect it to fall.

Here is a Diplo (abridged) received from the Cloud Lord on March 5 - that is just 5 weeks later-
Without all of you, I do not believe we can win this war. Hell, without ALL OF YOU (emphasis added) very soon, I don’t believe we can even last much longer.
In no particular order, we have lost the following population centers:
3123,3120,1804,1806,1905,2005,1906,2006,1907,2409,2715,4325
We are also at threat of losing: 2305,2617*

Now clearly something went very wrong in those 2 turns, but it had absolutely nothing to do with some sort of Neutral conspiracy. In fact it was made clear that the Servants required a 4-1 split in their favor to keep them in the game. Had we done that to bail them out then I think the Freeps would have truly had a legitimate gripe. Sure we had discussions amongst ourselves- Dunland was stuck as going Free was unfair and going Dark was suicide, and Harad and I were trying to figure out how to balance the game, without realizing the Servants had been crushed in 2 turns. Just sayin’.

#34

Captain Q is leaving out one very seriously bad missive from a DS player. It was at the same time condescending, accusing, begging and offensive and what not all can you even imagine. It was so terrible we were honestly totally shocked.

I wanted to go Freep. Arthedain was very good to me from the beginning. He even gave me a Palantir. But then game mechanics got in the way. I was scared that if I went freep, I would screw up everything with all the southern neutrals going dark. That’s why I kept neutral. I was ready tho in the end to go dark for the game if Corsairs and Harad would have done same. But at that point it was already just thinking about game balance and not what I would have wanted.
In the end Captain Q sort of betrayed me too, by going freep without telling me. We have serious trust issues in the future honey. :stuck_out_tongue: I also declared my intentions to the darkies to go white to deny you any fun you might have had. I wanted to end the game there. Petty revenge is revenge still. Don’t screw with me again Q.
Argeleb, King in the North! is my choice for player of the game.
E&E

#35

It also doesn’t help that Dol Guldur fell on turn 6 and Carn Dum fell on turn 7. Having 1 neutral swing early, no matter which one, does not ruin the game.

#36

It kinda does for Dunlendings if the Neutral is Rhudaur.
Dunland has one MT protected by a lousy tower, in the middle of the road from Cardolan recruitment base to NG. At that point your future isn’t really anymore in your control. I tried to minimize that, even while I was preferring the freeps.

#37

I wasn’t in the game, but what Duns are saying seems weird to me. True, the Duns have an almost impossible time going DS if Rhudaur joins the Free, but Rhudaur doesn’t have any obligation to the Duns. Hey, it’s built into the game. It may have been a disappointment but that’s 1650.

I’m sorry to hear about the player named Captain Q. I understand that in a recent FA game 46, there was a player who also spoiled things for the opposing side to my own by being cranky and cantankerous.

In the early 1990’s such players were much more common, and I’ve had much pleasure in that sort of thing disappearing, along with even worse things such as double-dealing neutral players. But I guess there are still some people still playing who come into the game already with an attitude.

Jeremy

#38

P.S. In the FA game I mentioned, which was 48 not 46, sorry! The game ended on turn 6!

#39

Sorry everyone. Didn’t mean to win. I had promised/threatened the darkies to turn white to end the game, which I felt compelled to follow. So I submitted a turn as I would’ve normally played.
ps. My beef with capQ is between him and me, I’m not aware he caused any trouble.
pps, Jeremy’s post arrived when I was writing this.

#40

I want to make it clear that my beef with Captain Q was my own assumption, that he would inform me if he was going to turn. He didn’t in any way break any written or unwritten rules, except those that I had made in my own head in this game. I just trusted him and thought we had co-op desires more than he trusted me, that’s all.

#42

Sorry, I misunderstood the criticism, thought it was of the DS who was said to be quite unfriendly in his attempts to woo the neutrals.

I have no problem with Rhudaur making any decision he wants, whenever he wants.

Jeremy