I confess I’m disappointed that the game ended so quickly, since things were just starting to get interesting. But it looks like QA, WK, and IK had bankrupted, and two more might have been eliminated or having problems (Dark Lts. and Fire King).
I’m curious who was playing what; I was running Northern Gondor, with Mike Welsh playing Dunland.
HARAD-
I saw your diplo turn 6; I already had some troops attacking the QA on turn 2 but as I’d already set up an invasion of Mordor, I didn’t feel that I could spare the resources I’d need to help until after I’d done my best to flatten the Fire King and the Dark Lts. I was going to send a naval force south, but it would have been five or six more turns for me to reassemble my fleet and get a large force down there.
Southern Gondor showed up at 2924 on turn 2 with his navy, not knowing that the bridge was already down. This meant that he was sending his forces east into Mordor (rather than south) but I didn’t have the resources to spare to fill in; I really couldn’t get the kind of troops into southern Harad that you’d need because my navy was anchored and it simply isn’t as large of the SG fleet.
I used my 3028 army to run interference on the LR starting army, but he avoided me. Rather than hunt for him (I figured even stalling one turn put him out-of-position to hit anything vulnerable and gave you time to raise troops) I went south and started pounding on the Quiet Avenger’s economy.
SINDA-
Did your army make it into Mordor from 3533? I was breaking into Mordor from the west about one turn behind you with a major force, so I was curious. You probably drew off some of their attention and made my life easier coming in from that direction. Nice move.
WM Arthy here… I would Like to say DrL… great job had I not had HC porduction early would you would have taken 2711… Sorry WK but Just had to shock you at 2405… I sure you wasn’t expecting that…
Oh dragonlord you only had 2 turns left @ 2715 anyways 1000 WM HC plus 2000 HI with warmachines would have likely knocked you out anyway… Shame was gunboat you couldn’t tell WK I sent my capitol army on GG turn 1…
Was alot fun not having to worry about teamplay just doing what was best in NW…
One comment didn’t noticed from my end any market runaway but only got to plus 60k reserves…
needless to say I enjoying being silent on forum in these games… Much to the surprise of many who know me.
Well , I must say – for my first gunboat – am a little disappointed that the game ended so soon – is this a record for Gunboat – turn 9 , Heck maybe the team on the freep should become a grudge team – if we weren’t working together like to see what we would accomplish if we were !!
Well anyways , I was running the Duns with my ally – Bradford Fisher as the NG as he stated above , and Harad , yes we got your diplo and I was getting ready to make Heavy Calvary in a pop center I had put down south and was bumping up off the QA map to help you out – must say I did like the production I had with the Duns – was naturally making almost 500 mounts a turn with pop center production !!
I must say – looking at NG turns , I can not believe that not one Dark servant sent an army towards the FK to slow us down !! I am curious as to what happened to the Cloud Lord army and the Dark Lts capital army that could have helped at the pass !!
I tried my best to keep Rhudaur busy by jumping around all over his pops, while my allies Card and Arthedain I hope were going for the big stuff , even seen a dwarf army on his pop one turn – managed to burn two of his towns and make it to 2208 , but didn’t have enough to take it – if he didn’t have the CL kidnap my character leading the rest of those HC – I would have burned 2208 as they were heading there !!
Few comments:
The Corsairs/Dragon player was excellent
Dol Gulder on turn 8:
Found: Commander Thrár III - the Dwarves. Enchanter Maben - the Dragon Lord. Enchanter Orduclax - the Dragon Lord. Commander Urgubal - the Dragon Lord. Lord Marshal Smaug - the Dark Servants. Lord Marshal Aivnec - the Dark Servants. Captain Ulwath - the Dragon Lord. Commander Valandil - the Dwarves. Commander Duinhir - the Woodmen. One or more
reports may be incorrect. Nothing else was reported at this time.
Artifacts: Noldo ended up with the agent artifacts (1, 9, 44 and 175) and DS got the SM arties (although that was in the process of changing… nabbed 15)
Harad’s south was painful - I understand that the Pass is more important but without any Gondorian ships, I was being abused. Failing to block 3 straight turns (with Mumakil) made it much worse. Props to the CO, though - blocking would have slowed the bleeding but not stopped it
SG did show up in force on turn 8 - FYI, sending a comm to let me know would have helped as I diverted my assault on the QA cap to defend mine
From what I could see, though, the Free team did a great job
All the ClLo and LR cav hitting Rhun was a PITA, though NM was turning the tide with his own cav output and finally getting that ClLo army.
I hope that both DW and NM were supportive enough in sending gold to Eothraim and Sinda and others. Also Woodie - that army at your capital moving south was 2500 well trained, angry, and stinky dwarves under Bain, I was going to head to 2405 with them but saw you took it so headed south.
Have to say, that it was my first GB and first time as WK, so that didn’t help.
Overall strategy was to ditch agent arts, and go straight for spirit arts, and thereby deny FP curses.
But alas… WK got bankrupt, and NG broke through Ithil pass
Start:
No artifact spells what so ever…
Only good thing was Murazor with Path Mastery
Mistakes (there’s plenty):
Not improving 1804/2006 to cities
Not raising taxes enough
Not blocking Arth/Card forces better
Not moving DarkLt army to Ithil pass
Not naming enough commanders
Highpoints:
Getting all spirit arts, including Blue Ring
Saving Rhudaur, a few turns more
Thoughts:
Looking at the map again, and looking at Rhudaur, I have to say that Rhudaur is to weak in GB’s.
Rhudaur had Card/Arth/Dun/Dwarves on him, it’s a miracle he survived beyond turn 5.
Seems weird that Rhu gets upgraded a tower to a fort, while NM gets a whole new fort.
Especially seeing as NM is in no danger of being eliminated, while Rhudaur is certain to be doomed.
Question for you: if you did not start with any artifact spells, how did you answer the Tinculin riddle on turn 5?
I only started with one artifact spell (412), so I cast LAT on it turn 2, moved to it turn 3, investigated turn 4, answered turn 5 but Murazor beat me to it on 5.
I assumed you located it turn 1, went there 2, investigated and left 3 and returned 5… did you do something sneaky?
I did up with it, which was nice, as the Blue Ring really vexed me…
I am pretty sure the DrL did not start with LA or LAT, either.
This is my second gunboat game, this time as Dog Lord and Blind Sorcerer.
As BS, my intention was to use the original army in the pass. However, when turn 2 tax raise eliminated two mass producing camps, I was quickly down to 4 pop centers and couldn’t afford to advance them. I eliminated all but 600 MAA and split them into two forces, each to rest at the major towns. Simply researching spells was a tight situation turn by turn.
Because Akhorahil began with Reveal Population Center (but no artifact spell), my DogL strategy altered immediately. I brought the Nazgul to Morannon on turn 1 and stacked mage artifacts upon him on turn 2 as he moved to 2514 to 100% successfully it. As the reveal took place, the DogL cav showed up and captured the city. The Sinda challenged both Akhorahil and Bulraker, each DS loaded with appropriate command, mage and weapon artifacts. It was especially sweet to get the +30 Orb from the Sinda without having to do any work at all.
The DogL had moved to 2514 due to Akhorahil having the Reveal pop spell and consequently to assist the DragonLord with hopes that the other Mordor nations would move into the Ithil gap. Since there was no visible activity out of the IKing after turn 2, no CLord army in Mordor after turn 3, and my own BS economic collapse on turn 2, I had to return the major portion of the DogL cav towards Thuringwathost to deal with Eothraim and NGondor forces in rapid succession in a vain attempt to plug the hole, but it was already too late.
From my vantage point, it appeared no one assisted the FK at Ithil. This is my second gunboat game where the CloudLord completely abandoned Mordor of all 4500 troops, both making survival inside Mordor a real challenge against the larger FP armies.
Running the Duns of the Duns/NG team and seeing the NG turn each turn – I can confirm that we didn’t see any dark Servant armies till we got onto the FK capital and then think the Dark Lts overran one of our NG armies only to be overrun by the 6k plus SG army , but between SG and NG there where over 12000 troops in Mordor on just two armies with numerous back-up commanders just in case agents showed up !!
Was a fun game for my first Gunboat and do enjoy this style more then the others (can’t wait for next one to start am signing up) , but for some reason I thought Gunboats would last longer as nations aren’t working together like normal !! This was actually one of the shortest games I have ever been in Turn 9 and its done (I don’t count turn 10 as this is just a turn for one side to be run)
Mike, I saw tons of dark servant armies, but they were all Fire King. I was fighting the Fire King continuously at Minis Ithil and Osgiliath.
In defense of the Ice King, I took 3123 off of him turn 2 and 3125 turn 4, so I probably threw a wrench in his economy early. As for the Cloud Lord, before he’s completely crucified, he sent Ji Indur to Osgiliath turn 1 and Peligir turn 2 and blew the bridges each of the following turns, which DEFINITELY helped the Fire King. I had another stack of troops with the Woses I would have thrown across early (but for the bridge going down turn 2) and Southern Gondor would have come across en masse on turn 3 (but for the bridge coming down… which is why I think SG should have landed at Osgiliath with his navy since the bridge going down is predictable, but hey, it happens…) Anyway, the CL did help mordor directly with agents before he shifted to Rhudaur.
I don’t agree that Rhudaur should be strengthened further beyond the Major Town /fort at 2910; Rhudaur’s problem in this game is that both the Dwarves and the Duns hit him full-tilt; sometimes the Dwarves go after the Dragon Lord first while the Duns assist in Mordor.
Spivo–
You don’t necessarily want to boost 1804/2006 to cities, it’s great for the troops but is 20,000 gold that you can’t necessarily afford; that means that it may not be the best use of the gold (especially in a gunboat) so I’m not convinced that deciding not to do so is a mistake; it’s great if you can do it. Your shifting troops to help Rhudaur definitely saved a couple Rhudaur towns from the Duns, so you made a couple really good moves as the WK that I know about.
As for the Dark Lts., it’s a toss-up to me whether the initial troops (early) are better spent at Minis Ithil (NG) or at Morannon (Eothraim). If you can stall the Eothraim, that’s a more immediate threat, whereas the Ithil pass (where I’d probably send all subsequent troops) may or may not need help, depending upon how aggressive NG is and what the IK chooses to do. Neither the Blind Sorc. nor the CL thew their forces at the two passes at all; and that’s not something that happens often.
I know the title of the thread is wondering how the game could end on turn 10, but I was reasonably confident the game was effectively over on turn 4. Mordor couldn’t survive. IK was out, CLord was nowhere to be seen, I know my BS economy couldn’t support an advance to the pass, and I chose to direct my dog troops out of the Mordor arena where they were desperately needed. With Akhorahil’s spell of Reveal Pop Center, I had made the incorrect decision to go help DragonLord and draw Sinda, Dwarven, and possibly Woodmen attention to the revealed pops at 2514 and 2609 and away from him.
Understandably, I could not see all events, but Mordor absolutely has to have the Ithil pass in gunboat. So, if I had to do it all over again in #92, I’d send the DogL cav to Osgiliath and hope to fend off the Eothraim at Morannon. Blowing the bridge is nice (only if it stays blown long enough to be effective), but taking Ithil and Osgiliath have to be the priorities for all Mordor nations, not just the FK. If not, then you see a quick end to a merciless game, played out in #92.
In essence, I contributed to the downfall by choosing Akhorahil’s spell over the necessary tactic of freeing the pass.
I can confirm that the IK was alive and active - he had agents and was out after artifacts. His problem, it would appear, was the early loss of pop centers shattering him as a military threat.
As for going after the Sinda - IMO, not necessarily a bad move, but it was a poor mix with everything else that happened (no CL and BS armies, SG going all in at the Pass, IK economically crippled, etc).
Actually I kind of like that move you pulled with the BS mage and the Dog Lord Calvary , thats the great thing I like about gunboat – you can try different moves as ntions aren’t working together each and every turn – just think if the pass would have been held what you would have accomplished !! Also with no or very little communication what you did in my opinion was ingenius and right on the money !!
I played Corsair and DragonLord.
Have to say my Corsair play was much better than my DragonLord
For DragonLord I started with no artifact spells, but still managed to locate RoW and get encounter.
Sad thing is though that it got stolen
So Noldo ended up with all agent artifacts.
Keeped track on all Noldo mages (2 LA’s a turn, allways on Elrond, and switching between Cirdan/Erestor), thus I could challenge Erestor with Celedhring at #175, and won, but got assasinated by one of the sons afterwards
Military as DragonLord was downhill from start. Couldn’t get to 2711, and NM turned up to help WM.
Also anoying that Sinda/WM moved to my cap on same turn, and WM attacked walls.
Corsair went much better.
I aimed to blow all my habors, and to attack Harad from the sea early on, to hold the initiative.
Went well, but when I finally landed on his capital, Noldo/SG were there.
Atleast I managed to take all of southern Harad (apart from Capital), while not loosing any of my own pop’s.
Can see now, though, that it was due to SG going for Ithil, otherwise he’d likely have beaten me.
Still fun game, but sounds like the DS were loosing on most fronts.
Well I know the ClLo cav was in Rhun romping around, I thought they would turn to Eoplex but thankfully returned and I ffinally quashed em (as NM) this past turn). Between them and the LR cav it was irritating, but the tide had turned back.
"SINDA-
Did your army make it into Mordor from 3533? I was breaking into Mordor from the west about one turn behind you with a major force, so I was curious. You probably drew off some of their attention and made my life easier coming in from that direction. Nice move. "
Yes, I went over the South wall of Mordor with the starting army in the South. The CL almost caught me with an assassin. But, I got to the floor and took CL property, and then the Eoth had a force of 1500 show up too.
I used my agent arties to take down the forts at Gundabad. I then sent him to Dol Guldor to help the allied armies, when the game was called.
Dog/BS did a great run on my Sinda with a reveal and show up on 2514 at the same time. If I didn’t catch the Eagles with my other army and have some Dwa help, I’d have been dead in the water. I made a few mistakes with them on my first go as Sinda.
Cardy wenty predictably, other than CL kidnapping one of my commanders. Ji Indur wound up at Tharbad.
