Greetings,
After 43 long turns GB game 71 has finally ended, with a victory for the DS side.
It has been a real enjoyable game, where it was not until the last ten turns I first became convinced of a DS victory.
As CL/Rhd I knew that Rhudaur could not survive in Angmar area for long, so I planned his replacement to Mordor early and focused on the economy aspect to support his survival. For CL I planned an attack on south Harad with my agents and cavalry. I managed to take out several of his towns and characters and I knocked out the fortification of his southern MT’s, but the initial campaign ended very frustrating with zero support from Corsairs. So eventually my Cav was defeated by a strong playing Harad/Noldo and I did not see or recon one single Corsairs army in southern Harad from turn 5-10. From then on I knew that if not I focused ALL AGENT and military power on Harad, he would easily take out Corsairs and soon after QA and be in control of the entire South West which would lead to a FP victory. So from turn 8 to 23 I battled a great playing Noldo/Harad, where CL hunted his characters and stole all his gold each turn, so he was unable to ever regain stability, while a new CL HC army were taken out his northern pops. This culminated by an agent showdown at Harad capital turn 23, where it was captured with emis while CL agents wiped out two Noldo agents gaining RoW and RoC 
As my allied had taken care of the last Harad MT’s, I could then conclude that the Harad campaign was completed and I could finally move on and aid my allied against some large FP hordes minutes from crashing the the gates of front Mordor. When I regrouped and sent my HC north to aid my hard fighting Mordor allied, I was happy to learn that my 2000 St/St HC with Scorba attached, arrived in the twelfth hour as I was blocked at 3119 by 7 FP forces from six FP nations including a Duns General with HC. I was happy that IK had joined the battle as well, with a minor army and Itangast attached, so we managed to take out all seven FP armies which otherwise probably would penetrated Mordor and inflicted heavy damage.
I did not have much hope for this game earlier in the game when one DS nations after the other was added to the “dead nations list” ; DoL was eliminated turn 12, WiK turn 13, DaL turn 23 and DrL turn 26, before Woodmen as the FP nation was removed the turn after.
From here I knew that only very hard and skilful play for the 6 remaining active DS player would save the day for DS. Luckily I was in control of the most important and needed DS nation for this task and who luckily was still alive…of course the CL nation. Focussing on the weakest FP nation at a time with all military, agent and emis power at my disposal, I thereafter took out Eot, NM, Dwarves, Duns and NG while my allied managed to take out Sinda. The last 5 turns must have been very unpleasant for the Cardolan, Arthedain and SG players as FK/QA, IK/LR and CL/Rhd unleashed all their might and burned their heavy fortified positions to the ground. To their credit the Cardolan, Arthedain and SG players put up an incredible heroic fight for the FP cause and dealt some mighty blows on the DS machine, but they were outmatched at this point and Middle Earth was finally united under the justifying banner of Sauron !!!
Here is some “bragging” final statistics for the game, for those interested
Final standings (w/o VC):
CL: 1950
Rhudaur: 1700
FK: 1542 (How on earth did you beat my 7000 HC and 6000 HI ?)
CL Kills: 66+20 kidnaps
Major CL artifacts: RoW, RoC, Elenya, Vilya, Tinculin and Cloak of the Abyss.
I wish to thank all my allied and enemies for a well played game. I very much like to hear the stories from all other players of this game. Especially I like to hear which “infidel” took out both Sispar (86 army com) and his 2000 HC and Uvatha 70+ LR armycom at Goblin-gate turn 36 ? This was most unpleasant and very surprising as I did not think FP could mount such powerful assassins at this stage. And it delayed my attack plans for many turns.
Let me hear how you experienced the game…
BR
Kim Andersen