Just got word that the FP in game 91 have resigned on turn 32.
It has been a most interesting game and I look forward to know who the players were on either side and some exchange of information.
I myself played the CL/Rhudaur combo and took up the FK on turn 25 only.
I was really annoyed at the early stages of the game when one of the FP dropped and the Arthedain/Woodmen player was handed the Dunland nation also. This really turned the tide against the Rhudaur as at the time all 3 nations had armies on Rhudaur and he was able to coordinate better and hit me more strongly. I could have probably kept the capital at 2008 for another 5 turns longer if it had not happened.
Not throwing stones at ME games here though, I think they did the best they could redistributing the two nations over the remaining players to ensure the game continued.
This game is also the first one that showed a good use of the 50 word diplo from the DS players. It meant getting the financial support just at the right time and we managed to coordinate at least some Squads which also meant better info on how the game was proceeding.
It has been a most interesting game and I look forward to know who the players were on either side and some exchange of information.
I myself played the CL/Rhudaur combo and took up the FK on turn 25 only.
I started off with the WM/AR and picked up the Duns around turn 10 or so I believe. As you stated it sped up the loss of 2008 greatly although you have my utmost respect for being a royal PITA in the NW for most of the remainder of the game. With that free hiring ability you kept popping up right after I thought I had gotten rid of you for good. lol In any case, it tied up a fair chunk of Arthedain resources that were needed elsewhere.
Gaining the Duns was good initially for the military aspect but the naming of A40s was the real joy of getting that nation. Of course I also remember the joy of having Ji and crew camp in the Dun capital for 3 or 4 straight turns not long after I got the nation. Having Rhudaur and CL combined seemed to work pretty good especially since I couldn’t leave any of my NW army commanders unguarded.
This game is also the first one that showed a good use of the 50 word diplo from the DS players. It meant getting the financial support just at the right time and we managed to coordinate at least some Squads which also meant better info on how the game was proceeding.
The use of diplos was pretty dismal on the FP side, especially for the last 10-15 turns where I didn’t hear from anyone.
Kudos to the players on our team who cleaned up the south so quickly. I’m not sure what happened there but the QA and Corsairs didn’t seem to last long. I’m really curious to know what happened with the Dwarves and Eothraim on our team…I suspect that at least for the Dwarves the player dropping played a big role. Likely the same with NG.
My favorite part of this game was getting a dragon not only once, but twice. Not to mention having Ents with me for a good chunk of it. I think my characters were just inherently lazy and don’t like to walk.
Yep that free hiring ability meant that I could still be active even though the treasury was nearly empty every turn. And when I finally got the nation out of the red, I think it was the Sinda that came to empty my coffers at regular basis.
Though I remember being frustrated by missing 4 or 5 assassination attempts at the time, did you have any of my characters doubled at that time or was it the “capital” effect?
I had 3 good assassins actively following your commanders but again failed more times then I liked despite it being 70+ CL assassins (so they should have had 90 skill rank for assassinations) and knowing they were not doubled as I had them doubled by Rhudaur emis.
I also had 2 agents in a Dog Lord squad (very good coordination efforts from the Dog Lord player there!) and a squad with Ji-Indur and 3 assassins operating in the South
I think the Woodmen was hit pretty hard in the end from what I could see.
I was Harad / Noldo and from about t14 (?) SG too. Corsairs burned my capital on t3 or t4 - so kudos to him - but t4 also saw the arrival of the Noldo fleet and from then the Harad warmachine was just… unstoppable. I felt pretty bad playing SG too - is a huge advantage to be playing 3 nations - and infact that took away alot of my enjoyment from the game.
Got myself into quite a nice battle with the CL / RHu / FK at the end, and Noldo had a hidden city in Mordor (3724) from which I launched a few raids but probably didnt do as much as I could with it. Noldo had a sickness squad and good agents, but my lousy scocha (always with at least 70 ranked characters) seemed to keep on missing reams of CL assassins who topped a few of my boys.
Well done to the DS. I didnt get the feeling we could knock you out… I guess it is difficult all round when u get to 3 nations each
I’m playing in another gunboat and have to agree a player picking up 3
nations unbalancing the game way too much. A CL-FK player picking up the
QA has totally changed the game. I can’t say any more as the game is still
ongoing but I would like ME to realise such 3 player teams completely
unbalances gunboats. The creation of the 3 player ‘block’ was on T4 or T5,
I can understand a mid or late 3 nation player group but by turn 5??
I was the SE/Card and I picked up NG on T4. That was the real challenge, and I’m chuffed that I was able to hold on to Osgiliath until the T20s and even recapture Minas Ithil at one point - suffice to say that I disagreed with the previous player’s approach to NG - 1st 4 characters were 2 C10/A10/E10 and 2 E30s!
Things up north went ok with Card but apart from a few serious attacks (including 1910 iirc?) I kept on turning up only to find Arth or Dw had already taken the place :s
I developed Card and SE around agents to support NG and was routinely stealing >70k per turn between them. I should have developed SE armies more, but by the end I’d over developed the agents and my pops were starting to be revealed.
Oh - WK and DkLts is brutal - their curse squad really hurt! And Kril Negor (Dog?) was a pain in the a$$ - I should have executed him when I had the chance but I needed to rfsprs with the agent
My first GB - I know I didn’t make good use of the diplos, but that was partly due to IRL issues (and forgetting…). I really enjoyed it and would definitely consider playing GB again - it was only overshadowed by playing in 1v1s (the ultimate GB lol). But I think the drops are what really hurt the Free: different approaches midgame sucks. I think that even a “bad plan” is better than “changing plans”. That said the DS did exceptionally well and (if it’s the right way of saying it) I’m proud to have lost to them.
Well in this game despite the fact that it gave an advantage to the FP the DS still managed to win in the end.
Mike, at one stage the DogL player send a diplo 3 or 4 turns in advance he would land with his company on the CL capital with the name of the company commander asking me to join with some agents. Splendid idea of him, I just managed to get 2 good agents and an emis back to the capital in time and when his squad showed up on the turn I just issued the join orders (had upgraded already). My emis doubled any DS character that showed up in my ScoChar or his ScoChar so in the end I had information from quite a lot of doubled characters.
I also think they should have given you the Dunland nation and the WM/Arth player the SG nation, that would have meant less unbalance as there would have been less coordination possibilities.
BTW different GB games have had different pairings of nations too, I quite liked the Rhu/CL combination as the CL could give some effective agent assistance to Rhudaur. Much better then a Rhu/DaL combination I played earlier.
Though having to support financially and give a back-up at some stage to Rhudaur cost the CL in terms of army development in the mid game compared to other games.
To be honest I have some objection to diplos in GB - I just kinda think it should be all or nothing in terms of communication <shrugs> That’s just a personal preference, not a dictat, but the diplos change the feel imho
Probably a bit of both. I remember I eventually moved a couple of high ranked emmies to the capital when it became apparent you weren’t good house guests and would leave. I think the only character I doubled was Ji and he remained that way for the rest of the game so I knew you were up to something in the south.
I had 3 good assassins actively following your commanders but again failed more times then I liked despite it being 70+ CL assassins (so they should have had 90 skill rank for assassinations) and knowing they were not doubled as I had them doubled by Rhudaur emis.
Hmm…perhaps my guards made a difference then although I would have expected more notifications that an attempt had been made.
I also had 2 agents in a Dog Lord squad (very good coordination efforts from the Dog Lord player there!) and a squad with Ji-Indur and 3 assassins operating in the South
I think the Woodmen was hit pretty hard in the end from what I could see.
lol You can say that again. Last turn I lost the 90 loyalty WM capital to emmies along with all 5 characters that were there. The DS had 21 characters present. The only relief I had in the 5 or so turns prior to that was what appeared to be a company movement error where the agents ended up in an empty hex next to my revealed MT at 2605.
Your joint company worked ok although I wonder how effective it is when you can’t share scouting information. With all the attention the WM received, I had my best emmies on full defense and had about 4 or 5 agents doubled. Most of those were doing scouting related orders.
All in all I enjoyed this game a lot and still had a lot of fight left at the end. However, with the vote to end the game being called and thus the potential for at least 1 player to drop, it didn’t seem worth going on. All those plans to retake Mirkwood now wasted.
I won’t ever play a gunboat game with diplos again. I think this format of game naturally draws players who don’t want a lot of coordination to start with and enjoy the fog of war aspect of the game. If I’m going to be oblivious to what’s going on, I’d rather it be because of no diplos than having a team that isn’t communicating very well.
Now having said that I did greatly enjoy this game although I continue to be miffed at players who drop so early. At least it wasn’t as bad as my last G70 GB game where a player dropped I believe on turn 3. You pretty much have to go in expecting to eventually run 3 nations.
Whilst I remember if anyone wants to see the Sinda or Cardolan turns (I know another will be run but it’s game over and I won’t be submitting orders) then just send me a PM on the forum with your email address and I’ll email them to you.
There are some “No-drop” gunboat games which also have the no-diplo conditions. Though in at least one of those games a player DID drop. I guess it can never be 100% guaranteed but it is at least better to start with committed players.
Though this is the first game where I was on the side where the diplo’s were being used to get some advantage, I too actually prefer no diplo’s.
Alain
PS Are there any of my fellow DS in this game out there?
Alain has it right. In both GB 94 & GB 96 which are “no-drop” GB games with no diplos, there has been at least one drop in each game… Fortunately, the rules of those GB games stipulate that the name of the player that dropped will be published at game-end, so we will learn who the culprit(s) is(are).
Just say “no” to diplos in GB.
GB91 sounds like it was a lot of fun. Congrats to both sides!