GB 63 (Vereran) - over in 11 turns

General
#1

Greetings from Noldo/Harad,

I’m very disappointed to learn that this power GB game just ended after 11 turns. I had expected that when playing a veteran game with some of the greatest ME players, the game would at least exceed turn 20. I don’t know what went wrong for the DS, but they certainly made some very bad decisions very early on. From what I was told in the nation messages, they got a severe beaten in EVERY area of the game.

For my own part I can say that Corsairs/DrL played extremely aggressively early on captured nearly entire north Harad together with LR and CL HC. I had to hide 2732 to keep one MT intact up there. This strategy however quickly backfired right into the face of Corsairs, as he then didn’t have enough commanders and armies to counter the SG invasion and the Harad invasion, which resulted in all his pops captured/destroyed (except 2339 and 2039) within the first 9 turns. Harad took the Corsairs capital turn 7 and the QA capital turn 11, in a surprise attack. I don’t know if that killed him, but his treasures was certainly empty :slight_smile:

As for the CL decision to use his cavalry to capture pops in North Harad, I think this was also a very bad idea, as they were SEVERELY needed in inner Mordor. By the diplo I got turn 11, it seemed like the entire inner Mordor had been burned clean by Eot cav armies. Its the job of CL and BlS to protect the Mordor backdoor, if they cant handle that job inner Mordor and thereby the DS side will soon be in flames.

Anyway it seemed like the FP outmatched the DS side greatly in skill and I must thank all FP for an excellent (can I say perfect?) played military game. It was a real pleasure to read the Diploes turn 6 and 11.

I like to hear especially from the DS how they experienced this game.

Regards
Kim Andersen

#2

Guys,

DW/NM reporting in.

First a quick comment on what was just said by Kim. I was surprise to find the LR starting cav from 4324 all the way over by the North Gate as I also think that has to be used to support the backdoor, even more so than the CL. However, Gunboat allows for teams to try different stuff and my guess that is what happened here.

Below is my detail summary that I kept through out the game. A little to much detail I think :slight_smile:

Is anyone going to setup a site so we can share xml’s? I would love to see the entier game played out via the map. If someone does, I will add my xmls to the mix. My email is johnmfolz@aol.com.

Good game everyone - John

NM and DW Game Summary:

A. Turn 0

–DW will assault Goblin Gate so that WM will know that the can focus on DrgL Capital and WK MT at 2305 after T2.
–DW will move all 3 armies in the east to combine at 3612. This will allow me to combine and move to NG t/t at 3316 T2 for an assault on 3120 on T3 or move back to support EOPLEX or Rhun Areas. DW leader Bain I is with this group and will lead the attacks.
–DW will use one of his Iron Hill commanders to move to 2813 to recon to see if DrgL moves to 2712 as that would allow him to hit EO MT at 2912 and EO could do nothing about it.
–DW will hire 10C/20A first and than 3 emmys. Need back up commander in main army that is headed to goblin gate.
–NM will move all his Mirkwood armies to 3012 to protect EO against DrgL assault. I just hope EO goes on the attack with his cav after combining near Mordor on T2.
-NM will use mage that got scry area at 56% to scry 2916 to see if DrgL moves army to 2915 and what else might be coming up road. Also, learn Arty spells to get combat arty with conjuring.
–NM will send cav from capital after hiring 10C/20A next to 3621 (DrkL town) to take that threat out.
–NM will than move all other characters to capital so as to hire chars and recruit and move out. This will expose my pops in the South Rhun but need to get emmys hired and armies split up.

B. Turn 1 Results and thoughts:

–DW – all worked as planned. My army is next to Goblin Gate and DrgL stayed home. So hope I move first. Also, setup to have commander join army at both Goblin Gate and current hex if DrgL goes first. I can not have this army taken out by agents ect…
–DW armies at 3612 will combine (nice to see small EO army here) and move to 3316 via 3512 just incase evils are at 3316 they could reach 3612.
–DW Moving small recruiting army (200HI 300AR) back to 3707 to recruit next turn and move onto DrgL V/T at 3506.
–DW will raise taxes and hire 30E this turn at capital. After this turn we will recruit every turn.
–DW recon at 2813 picked up only small WM army at 2712?
–NM scry from 40M at 2916 picked up evil army at 2915 (I am assuming DrgL) and a evil and good army at 3017. Can only guess who.
–NM based on the scry will move from EO capital SW to protect his capital, hold a few and than move out to 3213 to protect that side of EOPLEX if I do not run into DrgL at 3013.
–WK sent cav (300HC/300LC I assume) to 2405 and sent his army out from 2305 to block WM army at 2406. So 2405 is toast and now that might expose via threat my NM Town at 3105, don’t like this but I don’t think this is a good move for WK as that takes out a recruiting commander back at home for I would guess little damage from this extra cav but we shall see.
–NM cav next to DrkL Town at 3621. Will move up to take and hope I do not get blocked.
–NM no LR cav or Navy on my map and my NM navy moved back to capital to recruit and split off army to new 10C/20A which will move to town at 4017.
–SE moved his navy to my village in Mirkwood so I know NM is on his own now as DW is headed towards Black Gate….hehehe…hope I can last.
–NM will hire 30E and 10C/20A to beef up recruiting as DW and SE will not be around.

C. Turn 2 Results and thoughts

–NM army at 3012 moved to 3213 without running into DrgL army at 3013 so that means EO capital area ok for now? Will move this army along road to stop advancing evil armies if any.
–Ran into starting DogL cav at 3316 based on my recon. This must mean EO went to back I would guess. Good news is I can waste this cav army and will move to 3120 to see what is there and make North Gate kingdoms see a good army icon. Should only have 1000 HI left.
–DW’s capital army made it up to Goblin Gate and I now have a backup. Will capture and wait to recruit and leave recruiting army to help WM or Rhu are when needed.

–WK moved up 2 armies to 2004 so that means he will remove me with one army and threat with the other. This will give him a nice recruiting base. WK using a lot of commanders for 2004 and 2305. Hope this helps us take some of his pops.
–LR navy moved to 4017 but I have army there so he can not take. Not sure how I can trap the navy or not?
–moved NM cav up to DrkL town at 3621.Will move back to 4017 so as to max recruit next turn.

D. Turn 3 Results and Thoughts

–DW army moved to 3120 and ran into DrkL starting army and recruits (2400). Will lose but really hope Bain does not get captured and lose all his command artys. I wanted to leave them on Bain so I have threat ability, oh well, fingers crossed. Also spotted LR 1800 cav army at 3020? Must be why I have not ran into
it in Rhun area. That is good news for EO attacking back there.
–Will send backup commander to 3013 to recon and see if EO area ok on way to 2212.
–NM army ran into DogL army at 3017. (2100). Will destroy and sit as blocker to LR and DrkL.
–Captured Goblin Gate as expected. Will head to 2109.
–Lost 2004 to threat as expected.
–Locating 188 near 2139, will send mage that way. Hope I can get this and pass it to SE/NE/Duns
–Moved on 3506
–SE or WM not moved on 2715 to take out DrgL’s recruiting army. Don’t like that as that will allow
dragon in area in a few turns.
–No news in Rhun area, again this helps confirm EO went to back door.
–Will send my small NM cav to LR camp area around 4324 to burn.
–Will send 20k to EO and 25k to SE, will allow for nice recruiting

E. Turn 4 Results and Thoughts

–Bain got captured at 3120 and lost command artys!!! Oh well.
–NM won battle against DogL at 3017 and did not encounter anyone. Will move to 3020 after blocking road.
–EOPLEX per recon is up and running
–NM commander has encounter at 3109….will die!!! Wanted to hire army…will take a few turns to get another commander here.
–DW army at Goblin Gate moved to 2109 and will take as no one here. No Rhu armies at 1910 and see goods army at 1911 (Duns?) and see good and evil army at 2009 and evil army at 2008. NE has taken 2208 and is still alive at 2110. Now what to do. Move on Rhu capital or move to 1910 to help take or move to 1908 to take while cutting off Rhu from sending troops to 1910. Will move to 1908 via 2009 to block Rhu from getting help to 1910.
–WM having some trouble with WK near 2305. Nothing I can do but recruit at goblin gate.
–no action in Rhun area!
–Moved small cav onto first LR camp at 4324.
–Confirmed 188 at 2239 but still 2 turns away.
–Rhun area no activity. Should I move my armies off of 4017 to combine now with 4217 or wait? Will wait one more turn and try to place a camp at 4021 with emmy than go over Mt there.
–Emmy at 4021 has an encounter. I do not want to do the encounter as I do not like to lose emmys but will give it a go. I normally would never risk a emmy on an unknown arty.

F. Turn 5 Results and Thoughts.

–NM army made it to 3020 and picked up DrkL army of 1300 at 3120. Will try to move and take 3022 camp. This should help keep IK and DogL at home for a turn.
–NM emmy at 4021 and commander at 3109 both died to their encounters….that is a drag.
–DW took 2109 and made it to 1908 against a small Rhu army. Will capture and move to Rhu capital in hopes of taking out recruiting army so he can not get dragons. WK has 1600 troops at 2007 so guess he might support Rhu capital this turn?
–Burned 3104 and moved to 3003 to start a recruiting army here to help take down WK pop and guard this north road.
–LR moved on 4415 with army so docked navy somewhere off map.
–Burned LR camp at 4324 and moved to 4425 to burn next.
–Will go for 188 this turn, fingers crossed.
–Will combine my Rhun area armies, hope no agents in area.
–Will send 25k to WM (under attack) and 25k to SE (allow large recruiting at cities)

G. Turn 6 Results and Thoughts

–Took 3020 but ran into 2 IK armies at 3022. Well will refuse and move commander.
–Captured 1908 and moved to Rhu capital to find WK army (~1500) and Rhu Large army with Large Duns army. I have 1200 HI. Will be close battle and depends on if Duns army includes his cav or not. Will attack enemy and have backup commander move back to capital.
–Harad has asked for gold so will send him 25k.
–WM needs help it looks like so will move out Goblin gate army a turn before I am ready but 900 HI might save his capital.
–Hired 3 more recruiting characters for Goblin Gate and 2904.
–Kingdom reports looks like we are doing ok on artys outside of having #1 stolen. DrgL backup is gone so that is good and Corsairs have to pass on backup to him ASAP. Rhu only has his capital left . WK lost most of his non-Mt pops. So will be hard to root him out of the Mts. Need to take out his camps so he can not see Dragons.
–Army now at 2904 to recruit 300HC to start taking out all the camps around this area. Will attach a emmy to army so I can place camp right after burning it so evils can not just recamp.
–moving out 2500 HI from capital headed to DrgL capital.
–Rhun area…looks like I waited 1 turn to much and lost 1000 HI to agent. Will now move out my 2900 HI at 4217. Lets hope he makes it. I have a 47A guard. Not much I can do about it so we shall see.
–Looks like we have a good game except we are getting killed on Market. I have been trying to sell BR and MI to lower those prices and sending excess gold to the kingdoms I think are in need. Will keep trying.
–25k to Harad per request

 H. Turn 7 Results and Thoughts

–Got NM 2900HI/200LI army out of MT at 4217 and moved to 4321 to meet up with 600 cav. Will move this to 4022 as it is off everyones map but LR/IK.
–Ran into LR navy with my army at 4016. Will move army out and get my navy freed up to track LR navy down. It has been moving around a lot.
–Camping this game for me has been very bad. I have 5 emmys running around and only 3 camps to show for them.
–Moved onto Rhu capital at 2008 and see Duns, Huge Cards and NG there also. It is toast so this is last Rhu pop in area. Will attack and move back to my village at 1908 and decide what to do next.
–Moved 900 DW HI to 2406 and it seems WM was able to handle WK. Will be a guard for WM as I have no food. Will try to post camp here and take out 2 camps in Mts later.
–Moving my 2500 HI towards 2715, will be there next turn. Hope SE and WM show up.
–Setup at 2904 now to recruit HC and start to work on camps in the Mts around here.
–Been trying to get army up at 3109 but my char keeps dying to encounter but should be able to hire this turn
–Market hurting us but I am selling MI and BR with a few others every turn and give excess gold to allies. Maybe I am making their banks to big?

I. Turn 8 Results and Thoughts

–Rhu capital is taken, my 600HI at my village at 1908 now. Will head to 1806 to take out any recruiting army that might get dragon so the large armies do not run into them.
–Mirkwood, see army next to my 3109 MT. Luckly I hired army this turn. Will block going NW as that has the most options for him and I do not know his size. Will send down 400HC from DW Town at 2904 to help protect.
–Found LR camp at 2802 with 200 cav. Will destroy and place camp and move to unknown camp at 2803.
–See good army at 2303? Must be Arth heading to WK pop at 2703. So will not have to hire army up here to take that most likely. Will keep small cav army up here to take out camps and influ up my towns.
–WM meet my 900 HI at 2405 (next to Mt. Gundabad). Will sit to be guard for WM and move back to my camp the following turn. He should be placing camp.
–12,100 troops (SE/WM/DW) of goods at DrgL capital, it is toast! Looks like my financing has helped SE
–Nothing new in Rhun area. LR navy in water at 4116. Will send out navy this turn from capital.
–NM’s 3,700 HI sitting at 4022. No food now so will post camp and buy food. Get to where I am going in same amount of time and no one but LR/IK know I am here (I have 51A for guard and backup).
–Will move out 1500HI to go take back my pop at 4415
–Will go for 185 at 1919 with my 44M
–20k to NE for Harad and 3000TI to EO

J. Turn 9 Results and Thoughts

–Camping is bad for me, I think worst ever.
–Got 185 arty at 1919
–WK area – DW army of 850 troops moved onto Camp/Fort of WK at 1806, will threat with 56C and than move towards 2006 to take out with team hopefully.
–WM placed camp at 2405 with 2100 troops. Will move back to camp at 2406 to be extra block or move up to take 2 camps in Mt’s.
–Moved onto camp in Mt at 2310 (CL) and 2803 (FK)
–Mirkwood, blocked DrgL’s army at 3008 with 800HI and have 400HC of DW at NM’s backup. Will attack and figure out how to protect my Towns on Road as I doubt DrgL can take my MT now.
–DrgL capital feel to SE. Will move my army towards Mordor to 2918
–Rhun – finally guessed wrong on where LR will go. He moved to 4017 so will lose town. No big deal as his navy is now grounded.
–found BS camp at 4418 on way to 4415. Will destroy
–NM’s 3,700 HI at 4022 will buy food (now that I posted camp) and move/recon to 3925. Wonder if I can make it to CL/BS pops?
–Scry EO capital area and all looks good.
–NM going to be tight on gold going forward (deficit 18k)
–20k to SE to help support his large armies.

K. Turn 10 Results and Thoughts
–WK area – Took with threat 1806 and moved to 1906. Found huge Card army, NG army, small Arth army so we will have good chance to make it up to 2006 this turn.
–2305 Mt. Bundabad feel to WM and good army on 2703 so WK should be out of area very soon.
–Scry 2809 and goods have taken. That means my entire focus has to be to get to Mordor.
–Did not fight DrgL at 3008 so that means he is out.
–DW of 1300 moved to 2918 and see at 3018 IK (3600) vs EO (4100). So will move this army onto road
at 3119 and try to get to 3120 to help block evil armies.
–Lost 4017 as expected and LR not there (it was a weak army so most likely disband).
–On my old town 4415 (LR V now) and will take back
–NM army 3700 moved to 3925 and evil army at 3825 and good army at 4025, recon got no info!
–NM now 20k deficit so DW will have to start supporting. Will send gold and 7k food.

L. Turn 11 Results and Thoughts

–WK area – everyone made it up to 2006. DrkL MT now. It is toast.
–only 2004 left in area outside of Mt camps.
–Mirkwood – Sauron did not like my NM army of 800HI so he destroyed them…haha!
–DW 1300 army made it to 3120. faces 2100 DrkL and DogL has 100 at his capital. Will attack to weaken for other incoming armies. Most likely CL/DrkL agent in hex?
–NM at 3825 facing LR army. I think I will win. Did overrun a FK army!
–See evil army at 3716…DogL cav from his capital?

#3

Hey gang,

I was the Arthedain/Woodmen. Will post summary a little later.

I didn’t even feel like I had a chance to get going in this game…darn! I was able to take advantage of the WK doing the Buhr Flambe and going for 2004…there was surprisingly little resistance. He must have been helping Rhuduar out. As Woodmen I was never really threatened, even though the WK managed to hire some HC from Gundabad (what a waste of resources for him).

I was bantering with my brother on the DS team the whole game, trying to figure out who he was…never did really! But from what hints he dropped he said things were going bad for the DS.

I too enjoyed all the reports on T6 and T11…looks like the DS fell apart in every theater…

later

Tony Huiatt
Arth/Woodmen

P.S. My brother Tim just told me a few minutes ago that he was playing the Dog Lord/Blind Sorcerer…dang, I had him pegged as IK/LR

#4

Hi guys

I played Witch King/Dark Lieutenants.

It was my first game back after many years away. I thought I’d done enough homework by reading everything that I possibly could, Bobbins, MoS, stuff on here and the Yahoo group etc to be able to compete. Boy was I wrong.

I’ll start off with the Witch King…

I made some bad starting assumptions for a start. I assumed that Rhudaur would be able to look after himself with the help of the Cloud Lord by loading the area with every agent he had. The main thing that I didn’t take into account was the Dunlending/NG position…

I decided early on to transfer Mt Gram to the Dk Lts to give me extra recruiting power in the NW. A failed TrComm order because of a miss-spelt name caused me all sorts of grief. I learned to use orderchecker after that…

I recruited everywhere I possibly could, started camping everywhere possible. Had awful luck in running into other DS camps in the misties and even more unbelievable poor fortune with Dragons.

Lost Zalg during battle in the Buhr Flambe move which didn’t help matters at all.

The main crux of my problem was my economy. I’d recruited like stink but couldn’t afford it. I got no gold from the other DS until the Blind Sorcerer?? sent me 30K on turn 6. This meant that I had to cripple the Dark Lieutenants to support the WK (see below). The FP also did a very good job in stealing me blind.

I attempted to move to help Rhudaur/go for Imladris on about turn 6/7 and knew we were in trouble when I ran into Dwarf armies. I later found out that even NG joined the fray in the NW.

On the turn I lost Carn Dum my taxes jumped to 97%, I knew that bankruptcy was going to be close but I didn’t calculate it that closely!

The cavalry move from Gundabad was one of panic. I got a lightbulb on my recon showing a lightbulb at Buhr Fram and moved the army east instead of west as I had intended. The later challenge that I lost at the Woodmen capital was one born out of pure desperation as I knew that I needed to lose troops to get my economy sorted.

To top all of my confounded luck (bad play) during the game I managed to SS the WK on turn 8. I’d had a couple of busy weeks and only sent my orders out the night before on MEOW that obviously didn’t arrive… (Dark Lieutenants orders went ok)…

On the final couple of turns I had more lightbulbs on my map than on the Blackpool tower during the illuminations.

I used Murazor as an artifact locator after I’d learned curses and passed off the artifact to Urzahil. Kept arriving at least 2nd to most major artifacts (see below).

In hindsight I made many mistakes as the WK but then again with the presence of NG, Dwarf, Cardolan, Arthedain, Woodmen and Dunlendings armies in Rhudaur/Angmar I don’t suppose whatever I had done would have really changed things that much.

On to the Dark Lieutenants.

I had just about as awful a setup as I could imagine. Carrog started at Carvarad meaning that I couldn’t hire an army there first turn. Poor luck with spells. I hoped that Eothraim would decide to give Carvarad a miss which he did… The Northmen didn’t though…

Attempted to move out from 3120 on turn 1 and got intercepted by Eothraim. I think I made 3 attempts to move forces out of the NW gate and got intercepted every damn time.

By turn 5 I was having to do about 4 NatSells a turn in order to give me enough gold to keep the WK afloat. This totally hindered me being able to recruit in Mordor and stunted my attempts to name characters etc. The characters that I had named were doing the 325 orders…

I chucked 1200HI in to Barad Ungol when things looked messy in the pass. Losing the troops helped my economy but didn’t help my intentions of getting armies out into the field.

Capturing Bain was just about my high point of the game. By the last turn, Gothmog had a very healthy challenge rank of 197 and was just about to chuck a surprise in at the Dwarf capital…

I was about 2 turns away from completing a curse squad (albeit not 100% success chance). Tormog and Carrog were just about both ready to become assassins, Carrog drawing blood for the first time at 2006 last turn.

I painfully watched as the FP army/s romped through the back of Mordor and was totally helpless to help out. Although I managed to hold 3120 for the whole game (with a little help from Wyrms) I never got the opportunity to use the position to any military effect.

To some my game up, on the last turn I lost my best emissary with the Voice of the Dark Tower to a Dragon that I had met on the very turn before (Leucaruth I think). I’d managed to squeeze away with 1HP on the first go but not the second. I’d also moved Ulrac in to try to pick the artifact up but even failed to do that.

As far as the whole game went, I knew that we as the DS were on a complete loser when the first diplos were sent. Or as the case maybe weren’t sent. Only myself and the Blind Sorcerer/Dog Lord player sent diplos first time round. It was nice to see a few more last turn but it was too late. It was obvious that the FP were sending more given the activity on the message board here.

I’ve also got to question the BS/Dog Lord tactic of hoarding gold. All very well in keeping the prices high which helped but what sacrifices were made to do that? (I’m not overly criticising here, at least you got a diplo out on turn 5).

Overall, very well played by the FP. I’ll admit that I’m slightly embarrassed about my own performance. At the same time, especially as the WK, I didn’t receive the support that I expected from other members of the team until far too late. Given what I’ve read, it’s probably down to them all being under pressure from a brilliant FP assault.

As a disclaimer, all of the above is from memory as I didn’t keep a “detailed” diary of the game. I do have all of my xmls. If anybody wants them then drop me an e-mail at agowler@aol.com

Alan Gowler

#5

BS/Dog Lord checking in.

Well played by the free people, horribly played by the dark servants, probably in all aspects of the game. I will post my turn summaries as I have most of the information at work, but I wanted to post a few comments. I will hold back some of my thoughts until I have had time to digest what everyone has said, but did want to defend some of the actions.

First off, I can’t believe we are playing with a bunch of veterans in a DIPLO game and the first turn only diplo’s were sent by two nations. The Witch King/Dark Lieutenants and myself. If you are not going to use the diplos, then my suggestion is not to play the game and get into a gunboat with no diplos. If we had communicated, the outcome would not have changed but at least we can say we tried. As Kim Anderson said, this was a pathetic effort by the Dark Servants.

Kim, as the blind Sorceror I did defend the back gates of Mordor. I was not as aggressive as I should have been with the recruiting, expecially after the Long Rider send his starting Cav through Mordor (which I thought would be enough to hold on to the front gates), but I was only 800 Heavy infantry off from what I could have recruited, unless I had recruited from my capital as well. I should have done cav, but I elected to keep the market up instead which probably is not a good move. Read my summary for more detail but I tried to defend 3822 with my entire starting troops plus 200 recruits from my village. I ran into two of the Eothraim starting cav units. I gave my agent artifact to the Cloud lord on turn four I think. I was recruiting from 3627, moved out to defend and made the choice to try a challenge on the eothraim, which I lost. That cost the cloud lord a town. I then had a small army on 3627 along with 900HI/900Li from the cloud lord facing the eothraim. The Cloud lord did not participate in the battle, which allowed the eothraim to destroy my major town and move into the interior. It looked like the Cloud Lord got special serviced on that turn which really hurt.

Anyway, a more detailed post will follow in a couple of days. I tend to play the game for the long haul, and I could have dragged the game on for a long time as my nations were in good shape despite some unfortunate events for my nations, a couple of poorly executed orders on my part, and the lack of an early aggressive military play with my nations.

Alan, the gold hoarding was intentional, to drive the market up and thus benefit all the nations with excess gold. If I had sent you 50K the market would have crashed and then I would have had no gold to send and would have been fighting to keep my own nations afloat.

Again, turn by turn details to follow in the next couple of days.

Tim Huiatt
Dog Lord/Blind Sorceror

#6

well played freep, commiserations DS.

It was a fun game whilst it lasted but a frustrating one and the victory is soley due to the efforts of the rest of the team because my nations did precious little! I will try and post some form of turn summary later and I hope others do as well as I really enjoy reading them.

I want to say it was a mighty effort by the harad to take down the corsairs and the QA capitals, I’m shaking my head. And SG’s effort down south was timing to perfection, with the drag lord out early and then the corsairs going on the ropes and then the QA. I knew we were doing well in the NW but victory in the south was going to be decisive. At least it would have been then the CL went under and the rest is now history.

I was NG/duns. It seems whenever I pull on a jumper with gondor on it, things never go to plan. Basic strategy was to block the IK and hit the FK. It was never going to work but I had fun anyway, including Taronder killing Nazog and Thergor who were trying to pinch his toys!

The duns had a bit more success but it was slow. I delayed moving north 1 turn to get another turn’s recruit in. The horde eventually made it into rhu territory and after killing quite a few rhu, kept going to the end and even got to Mt Gram. A second wave of duns/ng helped out along the way, the NG guys btw was the 2119 army plus a few turns recruit at 2121, I kept it back in case 1817 needed any help.

The market was amazing and I was very worried early on about what the DS would get up to with prices so good. I did see a bit of that action, NG losing at 3224 was due to some steel/steel HC recruiting by the DS.

The IK was my major pain, 3024 mt/castle falling to a threat early (still cursing that one, bloody nazgul) and 3026/3028 cleaned up quickly. IK was recruiting big, 3123 was a MT.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for an entertaining game!

cheers,
Stags.

#7

Hi everyone,

I was EO while Marty played SG. Though I thought the game was running OK for us I dodn’t expect the DS to fold up so quickly. No offense meant but I think skill and gaming experience was not fairly distributed in this GB, and that hurts since we all expected just that to be the case.
Will post my detailed journal soon. Never thought that I could take out every single DS plains pop in central Mordor, but I did…

#8

So, nobody on the DS received QA/FK’s diplo on turn 5? that seems a bit of a problem. It was sent. Not game changing for sure. But a problem none-the-less. Kudos to the FP. My detailed game report follows.

Dave

#9

Log File, ME Game 67, GunBoat, Nations 17 & 18

Turn 0:
FK will dump food and concentrate all forces on 3124 under Uklurg (who hires HI in steel) with Comm & combat artie and moves to 3124. I sure hope DkL comes too… Setting up 3426 -> 3224 -> 3124(hopefully) recruiting pipeline
Will Name an E30 & A30, Tax to 60
QA will dump food from 2135 armies; All comms try to remove Harbor (2135x2, 3034x2, 3335x1); Ashturg retires MA at 3034 to make room in navy for HI
Will Name an A30. Tax to 76

Turn 1:
Great economics. Food at 2 and tons to sell. Both nations ok economically.
FK: Ugh. No DkL at 3124. Thankfully NG didn’t push on T1 into 3124 with tons of troops so I can easily take it. Hope I beat NG to punch and get to Osgiliath instead of him moving into 3124. NG is going to be pushing hard next turn I fear. I hope IK comes south & DkL wakes up & helps… FK can’t do Ithil alone vs. NG. jeez look at the recruiting NG can do vs. FK… ugh. Sending agents out to steal gold in SG/HA
Will Name an E30 & C30
QA: send agent to 3024 to ScoArea; will build Cav navy to go across ocean to western SG & surpise attack & destroy his undefended towns; Remainder of 2135 going east to help CO vs. HA; 3034 troops staying home. UGH Only removed 2135 harbor. Will try again on 3034 & 3335. pumping up Adunaphel’s E rank to name emmies. Was going to send navy to 2833 to take it out, but it looks like LR is going to do that as he came down to 3134 and will likely move to 2833 next turn. So I’ll alter plans with my 3034 navy. Taxes only went to 63. Maybe I should lower them back to 60

Turn 2:
Economies still both very healthy. Food still at 2. woohoo!
FK: Aieeeee! Where are my allies??? FK can’t hold Ithil all alone… Did make it into Osgiliath but I’m facing a HUGE NG army with 5200 troops (likely lots of starting cav) vs. my meager 2700. And Tarondor’s leading the NG force to boot (likely with comm arties). I hope Uklurg doesn’t get killed in combat and lose the FK’s comm/combat arties.
Recruiting at 3124 (hi wo/st), 3224(hc st/st) and 3426 (hi). I think 3124 needs to withdraw to 3224 to combine troops as 300 troops can’t block the incoming NG force in 3024 and won’t do any good sitting there to defend, and IK/DkL aren’t here to help. Not good…
Did get +7E bonus on new emmie. Emmies moving to create camps. Stealing gold with agents & moving them back to 3124 for desperation StlArts off Tarondor next turn.
QA: Agent at Osgiliath will attempt desperation theft of Tarondor comm artie. Might as well… Troops continue to move E toward HA from 2135. slog slog… FAILED AGAIN on all three harbor removal attempts. Ugh. I have bad luck this game. Will steal gold in SG & send agent to 3124 to join with FK agents in wild & reckless attempt to steal Taron’s arties… SE navy showed up on 3234… odd. I’ll send capital navy to intercept. Suicide mission…
Will name one E36

Turn 3:
Food down to one, but I’ve sold it all anyway and economies are in good shape.
FK: I worry that my allies have decided that FK can hold Ithil pass all unassisted. I thought everyone in this game was experienced??? Good news is that Uklurg didn’t die in 3024 battle. Classic. We both tried to surround each other. LOL. Now I face conundrum. I will have 800hc st/st + 700hi in br/st in the 3224 army and 1200 naked hi coming down from 3426. I can have both those armies at 3224 together to face NG and hope that DkL comes (finally) to help, or I can try to block NG at 3124 & do minimal damage (and risk that Tarondor moves evasively into 3224 bypassing my block) or I can have all of my troops together at 3224 where we should do a heck of a lot more damage to NG’s army (now a “large army” (say 1000hc500lc2500hi300li). So far, DkL player seems to be completely ignoring Ithil pass. I hope that he wakes up and sends troops. If he doesn’t, then we’re toast. Oh… and where is CL??? Help… There are no good decisions available to me. I have to stay at 3224 and hope that DkL shows up. It’s even worse if I move west with my armored cav & HI and Taron moves east evasively (what I’d do if I was him). He has all his comm arties and he’ll just pass my army by and I’ll have only 1200 naked hi defending 3224… ugh. So I sit on 3224 and curse the DkL player as being a total northwest Mordor novice. Ok. I’ll withdraw my curses if he sends in a whomping big army this turn… please God… Oh, and I’ll try desperation attempt to steal Tarondor’s comm artie.
QA: Sometimes desperate measures work. This game nothing works. Agent killed in Osgiliath by Tarondor as he tried to get Tarondor’s comm artie. All three attempts to drop harbors failed AGAIN. So 3533 now has SE navy sitting on it facing my small navy. I will lose that naval battle unless the SE navy already fought a naval battle (one can hope) and I’ll likely lose 3533 as well. At least he didn’t succeed in threatening 3234. Fuinur arrived at 2535 with 2800 troops where he’ll easily defeat the 800 HA troops led by a veteran. Hopefully CO will come in with a bunch more. Good news is that CO & LR seem to be whomping it up on north Harad and Harad is ceding the whole thing. But HA does have armies on all of his southern pops. Will hire the 400hc in st/st & attempt the sail across the gulf to west of SG this turn. Hope my luck is better on that trip than it has been so far this game in all the other areas. Will name 2 E36 & 1 C30. Once more I’ll sacrifice an agent with desperation attempt to steal Tarondor’s comm artie.

Turn 4:
FK: I have 800hc in st/st, and almost 1900hi. IK came in with 1900 troops and DkL came in with 1200. By my calcs, we will win unless Veantur’s troops are all HC in steel.
Happiness! My allies in NW Mordor are clue-full! We are well prepared to defeat NG’s major army at the FK capital. My decision to stay there seems to have paid off. FK got both camps down. Woohoo! But failed again on the artie theft attempt and died.
QA: Well, as expected I lost the naval battle at 3335. Amazingly he didn’t take the pop center. He’s playing it very safe. I’ll lose it this turn, but in case he does a threat, I’ll raise an army there and movchar back to the capital. DOH! I just learned something about a navy that is “offshore” in a forest hex with no port. It can’t recruit troops. Surely they could paddle out in rowboats or something??? Aieee. So my navy went across the seas and landed west of SG, but with only 300LC instead of 400HC+300LC… sigh. I won’t be nearly as much of a pain in SG’s backside as I had hoped… Located #170 at 3304 with 3 LAs. Sending Uthmag

Turn 5:
FK: WOOHOO. We nuked NG at 3024. Veantur is dead. #95 is on the ground (I think). Tarondor is stranded there all alone. I’m going to try again to steal a comm artie. DkL and IK kept going west. I have way more troops left than predicted because IK had 400HC in his 1900 troops. Excellent. FK will send 731 HC in steel and 1250 HI west to Osgiliath this turn if DkL and IK can take out 3124. Sadly failed on both camp attempts. Named another agent. Located #180 at either 3710 or 3811 with 2 LAs.
QA: 3533 gone as predicted. 2535 army made it evasively to 2534 unopposed. Main capital army moved west to 2834. No troops on either 2734 or 2835. Will hire 400hc to send to meet Sinda. Will hire at 2135 also. 2534 will move EV to 2634 after 498 (hah!) at 2534. 2834 moves onto 2835 unless blocked. In fact, a block might result in an overrun as I have 2400 troops. That vs. 300 might get me an overrun. We’ll see. Failed on one camp, got the other. My DS allies are doing well in North Harad and have it all taken except 2732 which is a question as it disappeared. Guess the mantle came south…

Turn 6:
DIPLO: SG, HA attacking CO; Taurnil captured 3533; QA destroying 2225, arriving 2634, 2835 T6; DkL,FK,IK defeated starting NG 3224; counterattack underway; Arties: FK: 170 3304, 180 3710/3811?
DIPLO: Artifacts 188 at 2239 18 at 2429 getting 36 21 185 7 187 9 39 135 Dog has 100k in bank trying to build reserves will send money from blind
DIPLO: Witch King NEEDS gold, send to 2004. Still hold 1804, 2305. Attacking Woodmen capital, moving towards Imladris (uncovered). Transferred 2006 DkLt. Captured Bain 3120. Moving 3120 army west.

Let’s see: we got 3/6 of the DS players to send Diplos. NOOODLES to the other 3!

FK: Well I wish I had figured out a way to get a recon at 3024. All dressed up and nowhere to go. I’ll try going west, but if I were NG, I’d have that bridge DOWN. DkL and IK have moved on. Got #95 off the ground at 3224. no luck last turn with camps. At max chars. Economy getting tight. Will send 3426 800 hi in steel armor to meet incoming EO (suspected) at 3626 or where-ever he ends up.

QA: sending mage to 2239 to get 188. lots of camping. SE army disappeared. Curious. Maybe CL got him? I’m on top of 2734 & 2835. 2835 will be destroyed no question. 2734 is iffy. So I’ll take a risk and IssPers the HA Acomm and then destroy the pop center. Let’s see if he’s sleeping? Will move 800hc in steel to 2736 to rendezvous with the 2835 force to provide significant firepower. HA capital now hidden. 2732 revealed. Those elves are busy running around with their mantle. QA should be well positioned to get some dragons with all the camps… here’s hoping…

Turn 7:
FK: ugh. Lack of recon on T5 strands FK forces at 3024 this turn as expected. EO has a lot of troops at 3626. This is definitely NOT good. Intercepted them there with 800hi in steel armor. Did get artie 170, and positively ID’d location of 180. Will move there this turn. Agents now positioned to steal gold with abandon from the FP.

QA: well, HA refused at 2634 and defeated my army. Got my other two attacking armies in position this turn. At least I’m distracting HA from attacking CO (hopefully). Succeeded in downgrading SG, and destroyed 2425. Moved that army to 2524 and low & behold there’s an SE camp waiting to be destroyed. Also located Taurnil’s SE army at 3538. I have no clue why he’s sitting there. He must be trying to post a camp there and keeps failing. Well that’s some karmic payback for all my failed RmvHarbor orders…Apparently Noldo got to 188 first. There’s a NE camp at 2239 and my attempt to FindArt came up with no “continued efforts” message…

Turn 8:
I am very very very unhappy. The QA SS’d because MEOW told me it sent in the turn, but ME Games claims to never have received it. I had my IT guys check our mail server records only to find out that MEOW doesn’t use our SMTP server. It goes directly to an SMTP server at ME Games. ME Games says that their IT guys can’t check their SMTP logs, so there’s nothing I can do and it’s ME Game’s policy to not change things unless it can be proven they messed up. Well, they won’t do their part of the investigation to prove it one way or another, so QA is hosed now. Recoverable? Unlikely. Much work lies ahead. HA reaps big benefits. Ugh. And yes, it is definitely true that if my life permitted me the time to wait a couple of hours each turn and check to see if I got emails back from ME games on turns successfully being submitted that I’d have noticed QA email not coming back. But my life is too busy much of the time. That excuse aside, I apologize profusely to my teammates as QA being hosed sucks for the whole team. Sorry guys!

Turn 9:
Still ticked and didn’t write anything up.

Turn 10:
Ditto.

Turn 11:
woops. I forgot to send diplos. My bad this time.

QA eliminated by HA army with war machines. Kudos to HA for taking great advantage of QA situation. Given QA SS on T8, there is little that I could have done to prevent this. QA lost significant economy, camps, and army recruiting due to the SS. My sincere apologies to my team mates. At least we now have web-turn-submission with immediate acknowledgment. On a go-forward basis all of my nations’ misteps and mistakes will be my own.

FK arrived with armies in QA land, but too little, too late. Given the writeups by other DS nations, I’d say this game is hosed and the FP have won. I will request a vote to concede.

DS Commentary:
IK - you seem to have the best played DS nation from what I can tell. Excellent job with that position. Thanks for your timely support of FK capital defense!
DkL - You had me worried early by not supporting Ithil pass at get-go. But you came through when it mattered and I appreciate it a lot!
CL - If you did send CL agents north to help Rhu, I think it’s a huge mistake. DS win/lose based upon holding Mordor. Your agent assets have to take out the EOcav if they get around LR/BS. We needed those agents K/Aing FP armies.
LR/BS - I didn’t see what you guys did to try to stop EOcav, but whoooaaa nelly… he sure got through and romped all over central Mordor. FK played a holding/blocking action to keep him out of 3624/3426 and finally took back 3626 but was then overrun on the last turn (that must be some big force you have in there Bernd!)
Dog - nice job keeping market high. brilliant.
WK/RHu - I didn’t see anything that happened in NW, but I think you have to assume that you hunker down and slug it out. In GB, you can’t depend on ally action, so you have to keep positions economically viable as long as possible. Buhr Flambe is tough in a grudge game. It’s gotta be super tough to pull off in a grudge.

FP Commentary -
NG - you gave me a scare. Thankfully, IK & DkL came to the rescue at the perfect time. yes, I gave up to 30something agents in attempts at Tarondor’s arties. It was desperation and little was lost if they failed and a lot gained if they succeeded. Still was working to pickup all the arties you lost at 3224…
HA - damn Kim. I actually was trying to put some hurt on you when I SS’d. That totally screwed things up for me. Given your success against CO, I was probably hosed in that theatre in the long run (and SE was a pain in the backside), but it wouldn’t have been early death for QA if the SS didn’t happen. ah well. could-a/would-a/should-a. Nice play brining the war machines into QA capital. I had a FK Cav st/st army w/dragon en-route. he arrived one turn too late.
SG - Marty, ha! Should have guessed you were playing SG. Well, I’d have been a lot more of a pain in your backside if I only knew the rules better… LOL. 400HC+300LC would have been a mighty force romping through the unprotected backside of SG. ah well. doh!
SE - Don’t know who played SE, but man you’re lucky that QA 30Cs can’t remove a harbor if their lives depended on it. Man I tried repeatedly to remove harbors. Ugh.

All in all, the FP kicked the DS’ butts. I’m so very glad this game is over. Well played FP!

#10

Here is the EO…

…Journal of game 63

So here we are again…the second GB game with this bunch of elite players and Marty as my teammate. The first was a blast though we where hardly hanging in there at times as Cor/Drgl. We had no preferences for this one except for not playing the same positions again. I thought to myself that I really wouldn’t want to play EO because I played them two times recently and didn’t enjoy those games that much…but then how low would be the probability that out of 11 pairings we would just end up with them? Well I have read enough Pratchett so I should have known better…
Oh I could have taken SG, but I have seen what Marty can do with this nation…and at least I knew the EO basics and had some ideas left.
EO…the glass cannon. The most powerful starting armies but quite difficult to defend. The other FP would depend on that I do something useful if not decisive with those assets. So options included a full attack with all my cav on either 3221 or 2715. Yet I chose another way. Somehow I had to defend against the dog cav and see to it that DS armies did not swarm over the plains. Still I had to unfold some offensive potential. So I split up my forces. Two of the starting armies were directed eastward to assault 3822, two were held back to react to DS movements and the smallest was sent towards 3120 to act as a speedbump for DS approach.
As for characters, I intended to go for the usual mix of comms, 4 emmies and some multiclassers, maybe there would be a free slot for a conjuring mage but I expected to be short on comms most of the time.
T 1-5
Thanks to my teammates the initial defence of eoplex turned out to be no problem. NM and DW moved onto my pops and caught up with the Dogl starting armies as it seemed (and was confirmed in the diplo later).now I regretted not having been more aggressive. But nothing was lost. My small army met the DKL cav and was destroyed but the defence army in turn eliminated the DKL remains. My eastern expeditionary force under Gisulf met the BS starting army en route to 3822 . Good anticipation from BS and an effective way to get rid of the expensive troops. OTOH this took some pressure off 4217 and Rhun. I calculated that IF I managed to downgrade BS I could beat his ragtag hordes and still have enough left to take 3822. IF…my 30p comm at the capital was not able to convince my people that the BS scum was not only dislikeable but hateable scum. So the losses were too great to take risks and I rather decided to move the rest of the force towards the mordor plains to cause some trouble. But 3822 had to fall. So I redirected the remains of Mahrcared which still had enough food via the blind spot of 4422 towards 3822.
T 6-10
Gisulf met a BS force under Leardinoth. I calculated the challenge ranks and decided that this was a risk worth taking so I didn’t rfspers. He challenged and lost, so I got to 3626. Meanwhile I threw all my Eoplex HI recruits towards 3120 to suck in what might come from there. Since NG reported the bridges to be down, I expected a lot, but it was never enough to beat me.
While Marc took 3822, Gisulf defeated 1100 BS HI and took 3626, this was closer than I had expected. Aluric was the first to fall prey to agents and his 800 newly hired hc disbanded on their way to the backdoor.
T 7 was lucky because Gisulf caught Ji Indur and Balkmogh (also CL?) on their assass attempt and gave them a bloody nose. Not so much because Gisulf and his 160 hc survived but because the wounds would give the agents a setback and buy me valuable time. I then moved Mahrc’s army to 3627 while Gisulf hired 200 HI and stayed at 3626 to block what might come from north mordor. Gisulf defeated 400 FK recruits at 3626 and Mahrcy faced 400 BS recruits and the 1800 starting CL infantry at 3627. The CL obviously did not fight and marched off, so I took 3627 with minor losses and moved on to 3528. Mahrcy had a decent CR of 82 by now and I had little to fear WRT challenges. At 3528 he faced 900 AR/900 MA of the CL which he of course blew away along with the town, moving on to the last remaining village in the plains. He also spanked a CL agent trying to kill him. Gisulf was less lucky and kidnapped and 3626 fell back to another FK wave. But I had 900 fresh hc recruits coming in from the east which burned 4325 and 4025 and was hiring hc at 3822.
At 3120 1800 of my HI ran into quite a massive array of DS armies which also had a dragon. But I had another 4100 coming down the road again.
My financial situation was tight but never critical. My rich SG brother only had to send gold once but transferred 2424 and 2322 to me which did a lot to reduce my deficit. Food at selling price 2 also helped a lot.

T 11
My 4100 HI defeated 3500 IK troops at 3018.
CL had obviously transferred his backup MT to Rhu because Mahrc faced a 700 HI Rhu army which defended 3428. It was eliminated by the meanwhile battle-crazed HC and the village captured. Of his proud army, 170 HC and 64 LC were still standing.
So I have taken 3822, 3627 and all CL pops in central mordor with a total force of 2200 HC and 700 LC, eliminating more than 4000 DS troops on the process . I am afraid that this reflects rather the suboptimal play of the DS than my tactical genius. True I had some luck WRT to failed assassinations, but not too much given the difficulty of killing a 50+ and 60+ armycomm.
The T 11 diplos seemed to indicate that the FP were winning, but OTOH I lost another comm and 700 hc to assassination and DS armies showed up at 3316 and 3916. I ecpected the wind to blow a little harder, but then the game ended…

I really think MEgames made a mistake distributing the players and filling the game up too quickly at the cost of quality. No offense meant but this was strictly labeled as veteran game. Half of the DS not sending diplos is simply NOT tolerable. The only starting pop I lost was a camp on T11, no need to say more I guess… This FP victory definitely has a bitter taste…:frowning:

#11

Man, I’m really glad now that I didn’t jump into this one! I had all the fun I could stand last GB with you guys, but this would have been a miserable ending!

#12

I really think MEgames made a mistake distributing the players and filling the game up too quickly at the cost of quality.

Nothing to do with us. The players are all very good quality (probably one of the strongest games I’d say) on the DS & FP side and the game very balanced. Nothing to do with speed of set-up. I split the Aussies up, I split the Huiatts up for reference. I can list the teams if you want?

Looks like the tactics the FP employed were stronger than the DS overall and the DS made mistakes so games go that way sometimes. DS are more fragile than FP this way.

The fact that the DS mostly didn’t use the diplos is somewhat disappointing but I can’t force players to do that. Like not using 940 428… :wink:

Clint

#13

Very interesting that as I didn’t receive your diplo, only the one from the DogL/BS. Not that it would have made a huge amount of difference to me personally.

Interesting again as I had the WK SS on Turn 8 as well despite that I knew that I’d sent the orders through MEOW. Luckily it was on the one turn that I’d finally sorted my economy out on or else it would have been curtains for me as well. Not that I’d got any major military presence left in the NW by that time.

Can’t argue with your assessment. Apologies for not coming to help out in the pass straight away, I decided to take the gamble and try to move out a hefty force into the field which failed by running into Eothraim.

As far as the WK is concerned, I got many things wrong that I’ve already commented on. My thoughts about Buhr Flambe were that as Rhudaur was pre-declared then I didn’t have to worry about attack from the south and could defend Gundabad and also sort out Zarak Dum into the mix. My main problem though was not having enough gold to support my armies and the Dk Lts economy was never really strong enough to give enough support on it’s own, especially as I lost Carvarad on T2. T6 onwards was sheer desperation tactics in the NW.

Alan

#14

ok. if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and looks like a duck… It’s a DUCK.

So Alan also had one of two nations SS’d on Turn 8? Also using MEOW? Quack Quack Quack!!!

The good news is that we now have the web-based turn submission (and immediate acknowledgment) mechanism so never again will MEOW missing emails cause a problem.

Alan, I have asked Clint why my Turn 5 Diplo didn’t go out. I have their return email proving that they got it in time. I suspect it was human error on their part. Frankly I’m not all that put-out by that in comparison to the SS’d turn (and now I learn of you having the same problem the same turn…).

Clint had to know that he had more than one “meow failure” at the same turn. To me, that says looking at the SMTP log was indeed required. He told me that if there was a bug in MEOW that they’d do everything in their power to right the turn. Well, 2 SS’d turns, both of which were 1/2 of the turns submitted by 2 different players both at the same approximate time causes me to now think even more strongly that MEOW has a bug. Did anyone else have a SS that turn?

Dave

#15

Probably to much information early, and not enough late. Real interested in Kim Anderson’s opinion if he is willing to share with me. Thuiatt@hotmail.com.

Dog Lord/BS report

Turn 0. Horrible spells, not one single locate spell or research spell. I decided to play the gamble of doing a double learn with all four Blind Sorceror mages, move Krusnak into the Blind sorceror capital and transfer the 30 mage artifact to one of the mages that has Locate artifact. Mararthdur starts with Divine Nation Forces and I thought about looking for the Eothraim just in case my brother is playing them as I know what strategy he would try. Decided it wasn’t worth it however as I would figure out if he was the Eothraim quickly anyway, as I decided to shoot the 3216 gap and go for the Eothraim Major town on turn 1. Dog Lord mages were to learn conjure mounts and I would start to recruit heavy cav as I have seen how well Clint did with this strategy. Blind Sorceror to head out the back gates and probably go and try to protect 3822 as it does not slow down the walk into the Northmen. Four emmy’s with the Blind Sorceror and four with the Dog Lord. Sent 3624 to my capital and hoped Dark Lieutenants support 3124.

Turn 1.

Aaargh. Dropped the food with the Dog Lord and forgot that you have to feed the transferred troops. It looks like the Eothraim would have let me through 3216 and onto 3112, but instead I am unopposed at 3216. Horrible mistake on my part. Not sure I would have made it but I think I would have. Change tactics now as he will move and intercept. I hate trying double learn. Only one mage managed to get locate artifact, two did not know the requisite spell and the fourth failed to learn locate. Decided to ignore the agent artifacts and go for spirit mastery artifacts instead. This game should last a long time and the dark servants win with characters. No bonus to any of my emissaries (stealth on one). Decided to buy up tax rate on Blind Sorceror, sent all my gold 16k to Dragon Lord. Hope the Dragon Lord hired army at 3822 to protect it, but he might not have a commander here. Fire King unopposed at 3124. Interesting move as Long Rider sent starting Cav through Mordor towards the front gates.

Turn 2
All three Dwarven armies showed up at 3316, I will lose the battle and have accomplished nothing with my Dog Cav. Oh well, with the loss of troops I should be able to drive the market up with creating dog lord reserves. Now I wish I had kept my food as it stayed at 2 and I could sell food and keep the rest of my supplies. Oh well, I know the Dragon Lord needs the money. This should help the dark servants more than sending gold in the long run. Fire King should finally be doing battle with Northern Gondor at 3024, I hope Southern Gondor isn’t there as well. Battle at 3023 probably with the Ice king. 3621 is probably going to fall to the eothraim but overall the front gates look secure. Sent food to Dragon Lord to sell. Back gates in more trouble. Two Eothraim armies at 3922. If I downgrade, I might be able to do enough damage to protect 3822. Failed to learn summon storms so now get to try and guess tactics, but I have a mage to issue challenge. E mere vardo at or near 2139, hopefully in the waters. Elenruth at 4329 I can grab that. Going for conjure mounts mage artifacts #36 up near 4409.

Turn 3
Downgrade with Eothraim failed but he charged into the ambush. Hopefully enough damage done to minimize the armies. Moved navy from 4025 to 3627 to start recruiting at major town. Eothraim refused challenge. Getting more locations for mage artifacts, have encounter for Elenruth, should get a curse squad up and running by turn 15. Food finally dropped to one. Market coming down. I can’t recruit cav with Dog Lord and keep my reserves up. Fired out rest of troops and recruits and ran into large Northmen army at 3017. Will have minimal Dog Lord costs and can get reserves over 100k in two turns. Failed on both camp attempts with Dog Lord, Blind Sorceror bought up taxes and did not try to put down any camps. Free armies unopposed at 3024 and 3124. I have no troop reserves to help the Fire King as I only have 100 troops on Dog Lord capital. Moved Krusnak to Cloud Lord capital to give away 10 agent artifact cloak of heavens (another bad roll for the starting position).

Turn 4
Northern Gondor on Fire King Capital. This game could be over in a hurry. Evil Icon on 3024 however. Two for three on camps for Dog Lord. No army costs with Dog Lord. Guessed right that Grasty was at Cloud Lord capital. Dog Lord Economy positive with 80K in bank, but need to sell mounts to drive up reserves. Three for four on Blind Sorceror camps. Got riddle for Elenruth. Blind Sorceror running out of supplies to sell but at least food back to 2 even though I sold all my food last turn (darn it). Free Icon at 3824 need to figure out how to stop the army but only have 600 HI 200MA at 3627.

Turn 5
Lost first emmy to Vampire, I thought flee was the right response. Another mistake. Fire King won at his capital, we have evil icons on 3124 and another fight at 3024. Northern Gondor has only lost 3020 and the free are taking it back this turn. He still has not lost 3113 and 3316. Up to 100k with Dog Lord. Got two camps down with Dog Lord. Two for three on Blind Sorceror camps. Caught Eothraim at 3726, will try and issue a challenge as I only have 300HI and 200MA. E mere vardo at 2239 and not in the water.

Turn 6
Got my first stealth agent, got a 36 agent as well. Lost an emmy trying to pick up an artifact dang it. West gates of Mordor look good even though we are not doing any damage. Not liking the nation messages as to where battles are taking place. One for one on camps as I have now lost two Dog Lord Emmys. This will hurt in the long run. Bad turn for the Blind Sorceror. Lost challenge to Eothraim have 1100 HI opposing Eothraim at 3626. Not sure if I have enough to protect the town. No camps placed by the Blind Sorceror, lost another emmy to a vampire and gave the right response this time. Aaargh, my economy does not look good. Only one teammate communicated other than me. Collohwesta still not picked up by anyone yet. Now I wish I had gone for agent artifacts. Need a lot of characters for the Blind Sorceror with loss of two characters this turn

Turn 7
One for two on camps for the Dog Lord. No stealth on new characters. Fired army out to intercept incoming troops and ran into 2200 Eothraim at 3018 but he should have to refuse challenge. Will get first Dragon with Dog Lord next turn. Front gates look real secure. Back gates not as good. Failed downgrade on Eothraim again. If I had not challenged and lost with my 300 troops I might have had enough to protect 3626 sigh. One for three on camps with Blind Sorceror, we have to be getting close to camp limit.
Duns have Elenya, Collohwesta has been picked up as well as no artifact is there. Sent 30k to Witch King.

Turn 8
First break for the Dog Lord, as Kaldumeir survived fight with Eothraim with one health point. Placed one camp for Dog Lord. Will get second Dragon with Dog Lord but planned on it by transferring command. Starting to learn spirit mastery. Should have a full squad on turn 15 with mage artifacts. Hired army at 3627, thankfully Cloud Lord showed up as another army under Marhcared just showed up. Still have an ICON on 3626 as well but a dark servant icon showed up as well. Not sure who will win the battle at 3627. Dark Lieutenants grabbed number 7 although I told him I would pick it up. He was probably already in line to get it when I sent the diplo. Sent 10k to Corsairs.

Turn 9
Things are starting to go real bad. Lost 3627 as the Cloud Lord did not fight, he might have been special serviced. Eothraim army moved to 3528. The battle would have been close and I am not sure he would have had enough to take the major town. 3528 is probably history as well. Northmen getting ready to send troops in as well as he has an army at 4418. 3120 has two ice king armies, dark lieutenants and my dragon army facing only the Eothraim. I was hoping more free armies would try to make it to 3120. Rest of front gates of Mordor look good. Dragon Lord is out, that does not bode well for the dark servants. Duran is in Dog Lord Capital.

Turn 10 and 11
Not much to report in these turns. We still only received four total communications from the Dark servants on turn 11. No diplo ever from Corsairs or Fire King. A lot of light bulbs on the Dog Lord map, but I should be able to hold off the first two or three waves. Finally taking a North Gondor pop center on turn 11 (pathetic). Set up Blind Sorceror to recruit cav in steel armor out of 3624, but way to little way to late. If I had recruited cav from 3627 early, I could have saved all the back gates. Many mistakes and lost characters, even with the high market felt the cav was to costly.

Tim Huiatt

#16

Oh, and I don’t think ME Games “distributed” players wrong. Rather, we had a bunch of different DS players all try some stuff that was new/different in GB. Each taken separately was not enough to catastrophically damage the DS chances. In total, they were, when combined with the SSs: an early DS death.

People experimenting is NOT Clint’s fault. There’s no way he can predict which players will try an experiment.

The only possible fault is not finding out root cause of the multiple-MEOW failure. And if his IT folks reallY won’t investigate SMTP logs for a given date/time (I supplied the time stamp of the file being written to my filesystem which should have made it fairly trivial to look at the SMTP log), then even then Clint can’t do anything other than find a different IT outfit to use in the future. And I suspect it’s not a big enough deal for him to do that. Thankfully he quickly took action & put in place the web turn submission mechanism which eliminates MEOW email problems on a go-forward basis for those that use it.

#17

Interesting that we have no response from Corsairs/Dragon Lord or Rhuduar/Cloud Lord.

I guess who played which nation doesn’t matter but I would like to here all takes on the game.

tim

#18

Clint, Please can you post list of who was who?
thanks,
Dave

#19

Hi Guys,

Alain here, I played the Card/SE combination. Not too much time at the moment, will try to post a turn by turn comment as some others did later and will answer to some of the above at that time too, too much to read all at once right now.

Quite disappointed about the early finish of this game too, but then everything was looking so well in this game it is perhaps not surprising.

My tactics were simple, recruit like hell with Cardolan and Sinda both, raise taxes to be able to afford it. Hit Rhudaur hard with Cardolan before he can get any dragons and concentrate on a quick elimination of the Dragon Lord.
Dragon Lord/Corsairs is probably the thoughest position in a gunboat game and when hitting the DrL hard at start he needs to cripple the Corsairs financially if he wishes to keep the DrL alive, unless some of his allies would be visionairy enough to send him gold, which seldom is the case. Well, I have to say if it had been the same team as the FP in this game then gold probably would have been send: Sinda got gold from the Dwarves twice which was quickly send to Cardolan to help cover the huge deficit. I also have the feeling that the high market prices helped the FP just as much, definitely allowed me to continue recruiting continuously.

I send the Sinda fleet towards Corsairs turn 1 and then on towards the QA hoping to distract some armies that way, any troops send in defense would not be helping the corsairs. Not sure if it worked.

Seems like excellent team work from us FP in this game, good use of the diplo’s and just generally sound strategies, though I thought NG moving up to Rhudaur was a bit off overkill. Probably a bit of bad luck on the DS side too if they had some guys getting SS turns.

Unless the DS side thinks there was an unbalance in player skills, how about FP and DS in this game switching sides for a re-match with or without diplo’s?

Cheers,
Alain

#20

probably was a bit of overkill but I was holding that army back anyway and combined with the Dun 2nd wave, it gave me enough to do some damage on my own. I have to admit, my experience of gunboats is you can’t rely on your allies. This game was the complete opposite! In fact it was me letting the team down, we certainly could have taken Mt Gram turn 11 if I hadn’t of chickened out!

Here’s a report from Mike Johncock he asked me to post here:

Greetings all, Mike Johncock of team Australia signing in. I was LR/IK

First of all congratulations to the Free People. You were obviously a far better team and such a loss comes as a huge disappointment for me. I felt strong in my position, but obviously the team was in a far worse state and than I was. To my team mates I mourn your loss, commiserations and we’ll get them next time.

I’ll summarise by starting with the poor things that happened s I like to get the unsightly stuff out the way first.

BAD
-I was really annoyed at my turn 6 diplo message not being sent out as the moderators said it was not received. I too feel the messages are a key to success and enjoyable to construct/read (how much info can be crammed into 30 words). I sent it when I sent my turns, but as I send on the last day all too often I didn’t check for a reply. Strangely my turn was received, but the diplo was not, but it’s my fault for not sending earlier.
-It was poor strategy to send the LR cav inwards to defend the face of mordor, but with BS heading east and my agents working out their too I thought we would cope. I was wrong obviously and that cost us several pops.
I was however expecting more defence in this area from others also -I should have sent more resources to allies. I generally only send to those who ask or when I’m really rich. I sent 30000 gold to WK on T6 and 30000 to DkLt on T11 as well as 2000 le to 3221, but could have sent more. Was intending on sending 40000 to CL, but a mute point now.

GOOD
-Captured 3020 t/t (captured back by NM), 3026 t/t, 3028 t/t, 3124 t/ft 3833 (Harad on it now) and 4415 t/- (later burned by NM) -Threatened 3024 mt/c and 3020 c/t -Burned 3819, 4017 -kidnapped 2 Eoth, assassinated 1 Eoth, 1 NM -had collowesta -Good characters. LR had two E60+ and Din/Lom both A80+ with arties. IK 1
E60+, ! E57/st30, Gaurhir A54/st40 Gasus A63 with collowesta. Most ended
E60+at
3825 to double and kill/kidnap incoming, all to no avail…
-Army battles around Mordor were generally good for me. Much success against NG as evidence by his pop losses. Lost with 3000IK vs the Eoth 4000, but had 1300HC with nimanuar heading out this go.
-Recruitment was up to 400HI at 3024 and 400HI at 3123 while 800HC with a 500HC recruit and Nimanaur were about to move out of 3122. LR had 300HC at
3921 and was recruiting more, The pop is a town, soon to be a MT/ft Emmies were to move and take 3822 (all too late) -I was strong economically with IK having 70K in the bank and a 8K deficit while LR had 90K and just achieved a surplus. Both had strong supply base good for 25K a turn sales on average. I had planted roughly 20 camps and was looking at a fast tracked upgrade program as both had 39% tax. As I said very strong, had sent 6000 gold to allies and some 2000 leather, but should have sent more.

In summary, I felt in a strong position, but didn’t support my team enough.
Thanks to all for making it a quick scorching, I far prefer that to dragged out death.

regards

Mike\e