yo,
i played the woodies/arthedain. My first Gunboat game in a while and I SUCKED> i apologize to my team, I played a huge risk and lost my capital early, it was a very close defeat.
Whit
BS/Dog signing in.
Was good news to see Arthedain die early 
I started of hitting EO MT with my cav, destroyed one, but failed to get any further.
Located #15 first turn, used LA, and then send chars to all seven hexes.
But the riddle killed two of my chars, despite being correct, so was a FP ONLY encounter.
Got #135 instead, and build curse team.
Was anoying the message mess-up. Will say to dwarves though, that I had backup armies to block any breakthrough at 3825.
I had scouted the army the turn before, so was directing ressources to 3825 to prevent breakthrough.
I also had my cursers practicing in the area, so unless the army had had more than 3 backups, it would have been blocked at 3825.
Gave #44 and Dog starting agent to CL, hope you made use of it, and didn’t loose them.
My own agents never did much damage to anyone, only kidnapped one.
My entire game was basically to defend 3825, and apart from that I did very little. The assault on 3221 broke DogLords strength, to needing constant aid to sustain himself.
Assault on 3221 was a big surprise.
I spotted Dain there, so the turn after I had send my cursers (only had two with sickness at this stage) to 3221, and had Dendra PC Dain, while my sickness team took down the NM commanders health, and then my agents were able to kidnap him. I think this did much to stop further progress.
Was a good attack, but could have used help from Sinda agents/armies.
Game seems to be won in NW and Harad, and lesser degree Mordor.
WK signing in
Wow; what a ride is all I can say.
Below is a merged report from Martin and myself regarding G96.
My friend Martin got the DkLt/WK combo. I was telling him about this idea I’d come up with in the hope I could see if it worked under his guidance. He kindly offered to allow me to play as he liked the plan and thought I should have the opportunity to play our the strategy. Note that our initial scope, was to make NW hell for FP till turn 11 or so, making them waste resources there, that didn’t hit Mordor. After this we hoped WK would have rebuild in Mordor, and other areas so we could continue doing character war. Angulion camped in Mordor early for just that reason. Here is how it went.
I recruited into every army, split some capital forces to 1905 and moved my 2305 army west. Cardolan moved on 1907. Sticking with the plan 8600 troops arrive at 1504 on turn 2. Lacking the military intel I planned (Murazor was to busy casting LaT) I split 600MA off as a screen force and moved the 8000 combat troops forward under my C60(+65)
The Dark Lt had moved on the RoW with Carrog, Tormog and Urzi. The Noldo got away with the Art, but we concentrated on the Sinda, killed Tharadun and took the Bracers of Mist. This meant our agents got incredably boosted (2x stealth arts rocks) We also took the Orb of Seeing off Ringlin to boot. This meant we had the necesary amount of mage arts to form a curse company, without needing to search for an extra. It aslo meant Sinda got crippled in his artifact hunt, and that he got set back a LOT regarding agents (this would help us later against Cardolan) .The DkLt starting armies plunged into Mirkood hitting 2915 and heading to 2711. His plan was to siege it as I took 1407 to avoid a capital relocation. DkLt did not have enough troop and the WdMn defended himself. That may have taken some military pressure off the DrLd.
My capital advance caused an overrun, I suspect 1000-1100HC. The battle for 1407 left me with 2000HI equivalent. I had to capture because the Duns had burned 1906 and 1806 with there cavalry while the Woodmen took 2305 which really outraged me. Yes it was a close thing by my calulator too. My economy was really hurting. Fortunately CL/Rhudaur sent me some gold which helped, that combined with the massive troop loss and Fornost having a gold mine kept me going
Fresh from the assault on the Sinda the DkLt moved to the Woodmen. The hex was 2305 where loyalty was low (from a mid rank commander capture). With an army moving at the WK from the Woodmen, Carrog and Tormog cleared all defenders. Urzi and two new DkLt emmies, one with the pectoral and one with the voice of the dark tower retake the pop for the Dark Lt. Gothmog arrives to receive an army that was instantly raised as the pop was captured. Smaug greets the next wave of attackers with golden fire, but the Woodmen retaliate with great eagles and the battle is a stalemate. A win for DkKt, his new upgraded MT is safe.
I assumed that Athedain would get 2711 but that never happenned. Crucially as my team mate advised I moved straight at Cardolan. I recruited Khutzapedra into my army, then swapped the arts to Cyker from Ash. This means 2 turn later I recruit Scorba to a second army. The CL kills the defending Cardolan army and is really defending well, We sent him the name in our message if it helped. 2 Worm armies commence the Cardolan assault, one supressing his capital and battering morale while the second clears the armies defending and blocking. I don’k think Cardolan did much wrong, he was just swamped. Cardolan usually focusses on hitting Rhudaur, he did not expect having to defend himself.
Urzi and his band of merry men continue to gain skill. Firstly at 2004 where they support threats and take the pop, then on to 1106 to secure some economy. From here they move to Cardolan town 1013 checked clear by agents then to 1219. The taking of pop centres is going so well with these emmies that Urzi and feagwath can contiue to train to curses. Tormog and Carrog even get a moment to vist the Duns, but we quickly switch our attention back to Cardolan and his MTs.
Our initial idea had Rhudaur planned as an “airbag” for WK, to sustain that would knock out Arthedain. Amazing Rhudaur ended the game with his capital intact. Up until turn 10 no armies have actually moved to Rhuadar in its defence. With my 1st reserves heading to Rhu a pc with a Dwarf goes my way, but I stand and don’t engage in one battle which hurt. My 800 cavalry get introduced to Gildor and the RoW, but I content myself with the fact it saved Rhu copping it instead. Not a great defence of my ally, but at least he knows I tried. Cavalry arrive into Mithlond East as the Glorfindel pushes through 1106. I far prefer him taking that than defending Cardolan
Murazor returns to join the emmy squad which now has sickness/curse potential. Urzi and co take 1614 and 1513 while giving 1513 to the WK. Both are poor, but WK more so and with taxes being at 73 for 15 turns some respite is needed. Tormog and Carrog move to the Dwarven city at 0812. The emmy artefacts get redistibuted at some time and now 7 powerful emmies are in our company. Sickness spells now support the emmy assault and the city falls after 2 rounds of InfOthr. The Dwarven town at 0605 suffers a similar fate, just more quickly.
DarkLt moves down from 2305 with cavalry army, and takes an undefended WM capital Thanks to CL agents for clearing the forts. For most of the game, DarkLt’s military involvement was at 2305, defending it (also against a large amount of WM troops, who face wyrm and steel clad HI), and finally launching attacks on WM.
Another army to defend Rhu, this time with 2 worms in tow. Another assassination in the capital of Rhu. Sorry, I tried to cover, but agents got me every time. I should have had a subcom the second time. Meanwhile my general, warlords and regents are threatening anything and everthying they see. My economy is growing very quickly indeed.
In hindsight, I think our plan was good. If we had been stopped at 1407, WK would have had lowered his costs and still hurt Arthedain. We did discuss if we were taking too big of a risk, could we loose the game if it failed? NW is generally doomed anyway. For us it was a matter of doing damage before going out. The RoW hex fight involved both fortune and misfortune. We didn’t get RoW, but hurt Sinda instead.
Cardolan was a little of worn luck for us. Our plan was for armies to preasure Cardolan in the frontlines, while we hit his towns with characters. This we believe bankrupted him. We feel for Cardolan for not receiving much help, but also believe Sinda agents would have helped shift this fight, as we killed strategic important chars, that cleared the way for our emmis squad (which at this point could clear 40+ loyalty each turn).
After Cardolan died, we knew we had won the NW. But must say that Dwarves still gave us a trouble, seeing a city at 0812 was quite a shock. We suspected Dwarves of being Special Serviced or something strange happened. The 2004 army was smaller than maximum recruiting allowed
Thanks to Rhudaur for the help, him staying alive that long, enabled WK to have his focus on Cardolan, and not at homedefence. Also your early gold to WK helped him greatly.
That is the game as we saw it. The story is a bit disjointed and long winded as I’ve merge to stories into one. Thanks all for the great game.
Mike and Martin
Hi everyone,
I picked up the Dwarves/NM on turn 4 after they had been ss’ed on turns 2 & 3 and played both nations until turn 20. The reason why I then packed up was because firstly I was really really annoyed by the diplo mess up and the fact by then it was a DS game.
On turn 4 I was amazed to see the the NM’s pop centres were still intact and also were his characters, i expected the Dwarves to be ok. I got around to naming new characters right away for both nations but knew i was well behind in the camping and character formation game. It also saw the Dwarves move up to Goblin Gate.
Turn 5 saw the destruction of GG and NM armies moving start to arrive from his backup to the Rhun Sea area.
Turn 6 saw new characters being named, the Dwarves were even getting stealthy agents and emmies from both nations were starting to move out to start camping. Confirmation of Arthedain being dead as the first FP nation.
On turns 7 & 8 a NM cavalry army moved upto 3822 whilst a Dwaf infantry army moved against the LR’s camps. A huge NM & huge Dwarf army moves through the Eoplex to 3116. 2010 is threatened away and more Dwarf armies are heading to Rhu pop centres.
Turns 9 & 10 saw the NM capture 3822 and 4025 to be met at 3825 by the BS. A small NM was moving around mopping up DS camps near and around the Iron Hills. The NM/Dw armies from 3116 make it to 3121 along with Eothraim armies. Things were looking better around Rhu pop centres as though he could outrecruit the Dwarves & Noldo we managed to get armies onto 2007 & 2208.
Turns 11 & 12 saw 3121 captured by the Eoth & 3222 destroyed. Unfortunetly the NM army had no backup and the Dwarf army had just the 1 and that was as far as those armies got. The Dwarves were getting tight for money as they had no luck camping though luckily the NM were starting to get to be an economic powerhouse at this point. I think I sent gold and goods out to various nations.
Turns 13 to 16 saw the NM raising a 3000HI army and a 2000HC+dragon army which was moving towards 3825 along with the Dwarf army that was still around. The Dwarf army was to act as a scout whilst the NM armies were to push through. NM & Dwarf agents were starting to become effective at around this point. The WK had moved an army to 0812 now a Dwaf city, though the Dwarves moved an army to 2703 and had more armies moving towards Rhu pop centres along with a fresh Dun army. It has to be said that the Noldo always kept a presense at 2209. Around the old Arth pop centres my Dwarf agents had found a new training ground as these were mostly WK or DkL pop centres.
With the complete mess that were the dilpo’s on this turn i feel that this ruined the NM’s attack though the backdoor that was about to take place and it gave away a new Dwarf recruitment pop centres in old Arth lands. A lot of work had gone in to all this.
Turns 17 to 20 were half hearted affairs with not the full attack going in from the NM though some progess was made against Rhu as he was starting to lose a couple of pop centres.
At no point in this game was I able to get into any arty hunt.
Well done especially to the WK and Rhu for their NW defense and to the BS for making the backdoor fun.
Cheers,
Ian
Mike said most of what needed to be said on our part.
Would though like complement WM for not giving up after loosing Arthedain, we had hoped we would drive your spirit out
We did suspect Dwarves to have had SS’d 1-2 turns, had he not, things would have been harder in many ways.
Great game on my part, Mike is a super GB partner for me, as I think long term strategy, but he was very good at optimizing what we did with our orders each turn.
Cloud Lord and Rhudaur.
One thing I learned, was that Rhudaur is likely the hardest/most frustrating position to play! One mistake, and you loose 1 or more population-centers.
If you loose to many, you die.
IK can be hard to, but IK is one of many targets in Mordor, Rhudaur is public enemy nr. 1 (or close) for Noldo, Cardolan, Dunland, Arthedain, Dwarves!
The recruitment Rhudaur can do seems like a lot, but if you compare it to what your enemies can do, you know you will loose.
I don’t think I played very well, but I was lucky in my first several turns.
Turn 1-5:
Rhudaur focusses on commanders, CL on agents/emmis.
CL sends Erennis (10 stealth) and Ji to NW, hoping IK/LR will take care of bridges, as he has the highest stakes in this.
CL sends army towards Ithil pass.
Ji Indur scouts my Rhudaur blocker army, and catches Dunland army, killing army and commander next turn.
This was the turning point for Rhudaur, as this removed a HUGE load of his shoulders.
Next turns Cardolan breaks on a Town/Twr and on my MT/Fort, which kills both his commanders, and his armies.
This was to be the last assault from Cardolan, thanks to WK push from Arth to Card.
Seeing 1407 fall, meant a boost to morale.
Turn 6-10:
CL blows up 3024 bridge turn 6, very very surprised to still find this up.
Sends CL army south to North Harad, after fighting at 3024.
Now dwarves arrive in Rhudaur, causing much more trouble than Dunland.
It proves the problem for Rhudaur. I spend many many hours thinking which way he would go, and every single time he surprised me!!! And every time Rhudaur makes a wrong turn, he looses something, and every time he looses a Pop, he looses recruitment.
11+:
From here it gets hazy. My agents didn’t work very well in NW (their initial attacks did the most damage).
An attack on Dunland capital, with 2!!! stealth chars doing scouts, failed to find a single Dunland agent, which cost me 2-3 agents the turn after.
My agents helped stop Dwarves in North Mordor.
I’m no saint, and used the info from the messup diplo, to send agents to East Mordor, but they never killed any.
Noldo kept trying to get me, and I kept failing to kill his commanders at 2209.
In general my agents failed a lot!
Thanks to WK for the “duo”, I was happy to soak up damage, while you took NW.
Thanks to Dwarves for inspirational attack on Rhudaur.
Thanks to DogLord for agent arts.
Thanks to LR for sending gold/timber, to build bridge at 3024.
LR/IK checking in.
I decided in the early game to forgo attack on the Northman, moving all the LR HC into North Harad after fighting Harad a few turns using Din Ohtar and other agents Harad left it to me. NG pushed on 3123 in the first few turns and I hurt him bad with Din Ohtar, wipping his army and geting his command toys and never losing the town as i’m guessing he was trying to threaten it. LR then used the MT’s in north Harad to build cav armies. Besides fighting the FP attack on the Black Gate I shipped the FK timber and using dipos we timed a very effective attack on North Gondor. We took both NG cities with cav armies that was a lot of fun. At the end of the game the LR was also able to land on just about every Northman PC sweeping the Sea of Rhun quickly with his navy and off map PC’s built armies. I sent a fair amount of my agent power in the NG and EO capitals to slow down attack’s on mordor. The LR was also pushing to South Gondors capital the turn the game ended. Was shocked to see so many EO well trained agents, it was a good game. Thanks to my silent teammates.
I’ve been asked to post this on behalf of the FK/QA player:
Fire King and Quiet Avenger Game Report:
I’ll be glad to share files with anyone who wants to, or if someone wants to put the whole game map together and publish on the web site…
Fire King Military:
I started out with the standard combining armies and pushing Westward through the Western pass. I took Minas Ithil, Cloud Lord took Osgiliath.
After discovering both bridges down, and all FP armies stuck in Gondor, I decided to send troops to the North Gate and the back door.
The first armies towards that North Gate stop the infiltration into Mordor (with the help of Dk Lt and Dog). After that first wave, I had a threat army take down each of the Eoth starting camps (3217, 3416, 3715), then burned them off on an Eoth HI army.
Towards the end stage, I sent a large equipped army out the North Gate and took 2912 from Eoth.
At the back door, the FP were relentless. I sent a few armies to the back door to assist. Bls/Dog did a great job of holding.
Some well coordinated messages on the diplo turns lead to a bridge rebuild and a flow into NGondor to take its cap. LoR sent gold and timber to me for a bridge build. (thinking I had Osgiliath). I forwarded the same to Cloud Lord next turn. I passed my artifacts to the Cloud army as it I was suspecting it was all cav and could get further than me.
I also had a hidden pc North of Noldo. I sent 1500 HI br/br onto the Noldo backfield.
Quiet Avenger Military:
I used my starting navy to take out Harad starting capital navy. I used my starting cav as a separate force to run into unfortified tows of Harad.
I marched a large army from my capital at the Harad, hoping the Corsairs were coming too. I obtained a dragon, into that army but never really got to use him.
I said a navy all of way to 2720 to experiment with unloading, etc. This one never got into action.
In the last 2 turns Ngo attempt a run at my capital, but at 100 percent loyalty I had only slight fear of losing it. After at least one and maybe two failed 498’s, he suicided on my walls.
Agents:
Both nations built about agents, and started stealing early. I moved them to S. Go. to Dun to Cardy. At Diplo request, I sent them to Cardy to steal, they took down a level of forts on 1614 too. All assassination attempts with these failed, (except I killed an Arthedain Char after they were already eliminated).
I then moved them to Noldo for recon and stealing.
2 agent companies:
QA Thergor 83
FK Gozan 70 + died in assassination attempt 2 turns ago
QA Malumute 70
FK Nazog 70
QA Maluruk 51
QA Malmog 47
QA Ashturg 37
FK Nozag 37
FK Zonga 36
QA Gargal 30
Emissaries:
I played these nations primarily as Emi nations. I took Halrond and Forlond. I took various Dwa pc’s in the NW, and reduced 1614 a few points, which also flipped into the hands of WK/DkLt on the same turn.
3 emi companies consisting of:
QA Agincia 83
FK Methalurg 83
QA Agancia 71
FK Meturuk 70
QA Agoncia 65
QA Agen II cia 60
QA Agyncia 59
QA Adunaphel 59
QA Agoencia E58
FK Rozilan 58
FK Matsui 47
FK Ren the Unclean 42
Finances:
I saw Morannon fall and attempted to send product to Dog to assist. (in addition to the military to the North Gate).
I tried to keep my balances as high as possible. I had 4 MT/Cities per nation at the end of the game. I attempted to send gold and product when and where appropriate. (Rhu kept asking for gold but not giving a safe locus (until the last diplo) – so I just sent it to Cl instead).
I was running 39% tax rates most of the game until the last 10 turns. I increased to 50% and was running large surpluses. I used the same for multiple buyouts. I did bronze and steel at least twice each. I ended the game with over 20K in bronze and 20 K steel stores. Only one steal buy-out went off without someone selling into it (70K got me all the steel)(t22). I sent half the buy to Rhu at Osgiliath on the same turn.
QA PCs (17 total):
3437 city/tower
0611 mt/fort (flipped from Noldo)
3034 mt/castle/capital
3533 mt/none
2211 town
2803 town
0811 village (flipped from Dwa)
2635 village
2835 village
3234 village
3335 village
2407, 2522, 2704, 2721, 2838, 4435 camps
FK PC’s (17 total):
3224 city/castle/capital
0408 MT/fort (flipped from Noldo)
2135 MT/castle (transferred early from QA for finances)
3327 MT
3426 MT
0502 Town (built off Noldo map)
2912 Town (captured from Eoth)
3124 Town
3324 Town
3222 Village
1102, 2220, 2634, 2928, 3026, 3225, 3325 camps.
Mike Bel…