Drew,
I have my suspicions… 
Dave
In GB G19 no dilpo no drop game 2 players have dropped, one on turn 4-5
and one turn 17(ish)… So much for no drop games, Lol
Guy
It was me! Er, what game was it anyway and who is the suspect?
C’mon, lay it on the line Dave!
No Guy… I won’t say anything because I don’t know for sure and I don’t want to besmirch anyone’s name on the offhand chance that I am wrong.
The besmirching of names will be self-inflicted based on facts and the rules of the games & will occur after the game ends.
Dave
Lol, fovever the diplomat. 
Was’nt you was it? My guess it was the
donkey from Shrek 
Guy,
well if we could get Eddie Murphy to play MEPBM and post to this forum, man would we have some funny posts to read!
The way I see things Guy, as long as I’m seeing you post things on this BBS on a regular basis, then you’re not, em, er, in a “no-communication” mode. To me, that is good for all kinds of reasons, one of the least of which is you make me laugh every now and then (in a good way). Stay safe Guy!
Dave
Why do people sign up for no drop and then drop. I guess real life problems can occur but it is not like it takes that much time. The cost is less than $40 a month for two turns, which I guess can be a problem if you lose your job or something similar. Heck, even if you are dropping out of middle earth forever I would think you could continue your turn for a couple of months until Harlequin could find a replacement.
If someone can explain it to me please do. I won’t drag someones name through the mud for dropping, but I do think they should not be allowed to play in the future no drop games.
Oh well, it is just a game after all.
tim
OK it goes like this. I live my life by a single motto - that I will achieve the most records in every endeavor I pursue. It’s not as hard as it sounds. Take “no drop” games for instance - I plan to achieve the MEPBM record for most “no drop” games dropped. A dubious distinction - but a record none the less. I figure if I can prime the pump with enough no drop games before any of them finishes, I will be secure in my record and can move on to my next personal challenge.
There is just one flaw in your plan CJ, because once you dropped a no-drop GB game, you will never play one again, so the record could be beaten by anyone anytime who manages to join as many or more no-drop games as you did …
so much for the theoretical part. the practical part is that we, the no-drop GB players, are a very elitist group. we are the toughest, coolest and cleverest ME players out there. we take ice-cold showers every morning and shave with bowie-knives. he who dares to break our code of honour will find himself tarred and feathered and spend the rest of his life with concrete shoes on the bottom of a harbor basin 
Thanks Dave! U2 mate!
Or we just can be ars*d to communicate anymore with team mates and like
not knowing what is going on outside in the fog of war.
So you shower and shave? Girlie-man! <g>
Drew
you don’t? well that would explain why your social contacts are limited to e-mail games
I’ll second Alain’s question here. Is there no other DS from the game around? Would love to hear other perspectives on the game…
Bernout
Don’t you love games that end and over half the players don’t even have anything to say about the game. Half the fun is bragging about the good you did and laughing at the mistakes you made.
tim
Sorry I’m a bit late to the party. Haven’t been to the forums for quite some time 
I was DkL/WK, then picked up the LR on turn 28. This was my first GB game and I really enjoyed it.
Early on I really struggled to stay afloat financially for the first 10 turns so many thanks for the gold shipments early on. Dark Lieutenants almost got into a mess as I couldn’t find anyone to fight with my armies! One lot went towards Ithil and got wiped out, but the other lot went north expecting to find the Eothraim, and there was nothing! I kept holding back expecting the cavalry to crash into 3120 as soon as I moved out, but no one came so I had to send them off exploring.
It wasn’t until about turn 10 or 12 that I finally lost the last of my starting troops and that really took it’s toll on the finances (expecially the first 5 turns where I took almost no losses).
I got pretty lucky in the artifact hunt and just managed to grab Tinculin before Elrond arrived Appologies to my team mates for clinging onto that all game. Just as it looked like I might be willing to give it away I always seemed to have another use for it…
By about turn 15 or 20 WK was financially stable and relocated in Mordor and DkL economy was just getting ridiculous.
LR was in a very nice state when I picked it up and I was close to having a second curse squad up and running.
Last turns hit on the WM capital was probably my high point. My scout failed to pick up any names of the FP characters, so I had 2 100+ agents and 2 or 3 90+ ones doing GrdChar and hoping that my allies had a better scout and could take out any targets (which obviously they did). It took about 5 or 6 of my emmisaries (possibly with some other help?) to flip the city.
WM would have had a few turns respite from my cursers and agents as I was sending them south to try to deal with Elrond and co. I was tracking him for most of the last 15 turns or so and was surprised at how well the FK/Rhud/CL seemed to be coping, considering that monster emm/agent/sickness company was camped on a different one of his MT’s every turn.
All in all I thought it was a very good game. Shame about the early drops, but I suppose that’s all part of the game.
If anyone wants to have a look at any of my turns let me know and I’ll send them over.
Well I can tell you I had a pretty hard time with that! Not only the Noldo party but also the Sinda party kept targetting capitals and MT’s, that combined with a few sneak attacks with HC in ST/ST from that hidden PC the Noldo had (I only figured it out after the second attack because first I thought they came from another MT/city taken over by emis without me knowing). The Rhudaur only barely hung in there at times. Combined emis attacks with high taxes and my Rhudaur capital was at loyalty 12 and my back-up MT at 14 loyalty at game end! It was the Free hire ability that saved the Rhudaur time and time again (though I managed to secure another MT at a higher loyalty about 5 turns before the end). Still I never took my emis back in defense (too risky with all those agents from the Sinda) and it paid off in the end.
When I took over the FK the nation only had 8 characters left and only one of them had command rank (C13/A30 or something like that). Fortunately he had two cities at loyalty 99 and some good emissaries left and with some financial help from the allies I got the nation back up in a relatively short time. FK and CL were just posed for some major strikes on the Harad at the end.
I would be interested in swapping turns with people too even if only the final ones, how do we go about it?
Cheers,
Alain
Hi Guys
I’m Mike Johncock, captain of the Australian grudge team and I played the Dog Lord/Blind Sorcerer. I picked up the Dragon Lord on about T24 and played them to the end also.
I just gained access to this forum for a 1st time so hello to all. This will likely be the first of many emails from me, I’m a loud mouthed Aussie and always have something to say.
I’ll generate a reply to all the discussion points shortly. for now here is a quick overview of the game from my nations perspective.
Game 91 was great, thanks to all concerned. Not being part of my usual cohesive team gave me an opportunity to concentrate on my own nations and not worry about my allies (too much). Congratulations to those allies on sticking with it, especially CL player who copped it bad for a while as CL/Rhu and later FK. To the enemy who fought on so valiantly, thankyou for your persistence in fighting it out and drawing an end without making the game a bug hunt
Overview
Mages -I planned to LaT agent arties early and I also moved to summon hoards for block/threat armies. DkLt/WK who beat me to Tinc (only curse arty I tried for) generously handed over 2 curse arties (Elenruth, Nallagurth) and after summoning some grunts I moved to learning sickness and ended with 3x100+% sickness 4x80% sickness and two more soon on line. Each of these squads could also reveal pop with 1 guy so I revealed all Woodie pops and all Sinda pops except 4413. 2212 appeared to be revealed by DkLt on
same turn as me as he flipped it the turn after my reveal and 2209 was revealed once I arrived. I sicknessed about 10 guys by T31. I also used Divine nation forces and Divine characters with forces on many occasions to stay informed on enemy movements, particularly Woodie armies.
Arties -I had a good start and could LaT T1, but was still beaten to Tinc by DkLt. From here I moved to agent items obtaining RoW (later stolen), RoC and Mirimanth. I also stole the Helm of shadow off the Sinda. From here I went to cbt arties to avoid having to refuse. Late game arty hunting gave way to spell casting needs for sickness/reveal and to track enemy assets.
Agents -I named 4 early and got 2 with stealth. That was extremely lucky, Borhan had 10 stealth too Equipped the RoW and RoC onto them and by T7I was killing Northmen and likely an inactive Eoth. Someone picked him up again (I think) while I hit his capital though… NthMn copped it bad with 2 wyrms and agents both harassing him early, I’ve had 3 Northies locked at Ostiguth for the last 20+ turns. I also had a great time around T20 when I kidnapped/killed 5 Harad (4 still in a sack) and killed several Cardy agents while defending the FK capital. I really worried over loosing sickness dudes here, but the enemy targeted not a single one of my guys. Gaining the double scout nation was also crucial. My A80/115 couldn’t see a single enemy agent, but those double scout A65+ shore helped. DrLd had 6 agents rank 55+ which were crucial to hunting. I killed 6 woody characters on T31 (sickness and 4 kills were in his capital) and was on his new capital for a few more this go. Moving to 2605 and not seeing that typo really annoyed me too, thanks for reminding me of that one!
Armies -Very happy here too. Initially I covered enemy assault and spent Dog starting force defending first outside 3120 then killing 3024 defenders. I guess NG didn’t like seeing Dog on his door too. I ended owning some of the Eoplex, the Withered Heath (enemy just arrived) Iron hills, Rhun, both sides of the Anduin (2924, 3024), the xx16 town/towers (retaking 2 with armies) and most Mirkood pops (3108, 3109, 2809, 2709 on 2608/2609). I had 2500HC in Mirkwood with 1000MA block threat option, 1000HC defending Minis
Anor and 1300HC more about to enter the field. Kaldurmir ended as a general and trained maybe twice, the rest were threat/capture skill increases. DrLd had a seed at 3822, but couldn’t afford anything else with his deficit of around 13000,
Economies -The Dog was doing it tough the whole game, but never really in fear of economic death… Only at 86% tax did I get any spare cash and I didn’t stay at that for long (6 turns). That was long enough for camps to drop loyalty and then the BS stole them. The BS disbanded their starting armies to support Dog armies which were more mobile and closer to the front. He was my cash cow nation who even gave a MT to Rhu. I also sent 5000 steel to 3 poor allies while driving the prices up. The Blind Sorceror was at +15000 a go for the last 5 turns even after giving off MTs to DrLd and Rhu. When I picked up the DrLd his tax was 94% and I needed to sell or he would have bankrupted. With thefts, transfers and supplies from allies Dragon Lord had 100,000 in the bank and a large food cache so I can say economics were sorted by game end.
Emmies -Blind Sorceror was my primary emmy nation and was companying up on this go. They did get me 2119 (later lost), 3028 (later lost) and 3024, but in general were improving my tax base and building hidden recruiting bases (3319/3510). The Dog and DrLd who both had better agent support each made a company earlier. Dog supported by 2 agents, Drld by 2 and a sickness squad also. Mixed results with these guys but they stole more pops than I had stolen off me and got me some character kills also.
Diplo reports -They were crucial to gaining an advantage IMO. I used every report I could and tried to squeeze every bit of info I could into 50 words. I was surprised some allies never used them as much can be gained from a few short words. The DkLt asking for a joint strike on 2508 worked too, well organised ally. I liked to here something from allies, but didn’t really want another game generating 100+ emails a turn. This seemed a good compromise. Things my reports included
-Arties I’m hunting to avoid conflict
-Camp location to avoid conflict. i.e. camping 39xx and 41xx plus 2618, 4427
-Pops/Theatre I’m attacking so allies don’t target similar.
-My company movement and friendly relations so CL could join with a couple of killers (checked with GM first)
-Options for allies like steal from SG to stop his learning curses
On a personal note I’ve never dropped a nation and hopefully never will. It seems like bad sportsmanship to me to say I had a couple of bad turns so I’m out not playing. Still paying $40 a month to be pounded on couldn’t be much fun either. Looking forward to another challenge, hope to ally you soon. Death to the infidels…
Mike Johncock
My only regret with the game ending when it did was the fact my Dun army with 100 warmachines and 3300 HC was finally going to get Minas Anor back from you. I was hoping my allies would have gotten it back long before given the huge Cardolan army that rolled through previously and the fact we seemed to have army dominance on it for some time. If I would have known it was dragging on for so long I would have sent my own emmy companies in.
The biggest problem for me from the AR/WM perspective was I could never make effective use of my military since I kept being forced on the defensive. Rhudaur kept popping back up in the NW like a plague and then just when it looked like I had east Mirkwood under control and could push out, you came in with your Dog Lord/BS attacks and set me back on my heals. Definitely well played there. That joint DS attack on the WM capital just showed it was a losing battle at that point. While I had plans underway to make Mirkwood a good fight I think the Curse companies and agents would have made it impossible to keep an army going there. And it was just a matter of time till my emmy companies got themselves into hot water. I was so looking forward to seeing if I was flipping 2212 back on that last turn though. I didn’t realize orders don’t get processed for the losing team on that last turn.
I think losing the Eothraim so early was definitely key in the FP loss since the armies streaming out of Morannon was a problem throughout all of the late game. Oh ya, I was also about to pounce on 3707 since the BS was also a pain with armies from there. 
Bernout
The Australian grudge team, you mean there is only one?
Thanks for a great game Mike, it was fun. The diplo’s certainly helped us, even if only you, the DarkL and myself ever seemed to use them.
This is actually the first game with diplo’s where my fellow players really make good use of them, even though I always try. I don’t really think that diplo’s give an advantage to either side, but they surely are an advantage to the side that uses them if the other side does not.
I actually used to be against diplo’s but having played a game where they were effectively used, I am now neither for nor against. Both options can be good, but if you have diplo’s then you beter hope to have a team that uses them.
Actually you saved the Rhudaur economically with your transfers and thereby allowed me to continue harassing the Arthedain. My camp creation for Rhudaur in the first 10 turns s***** big time in comparison with most other games and I really had a hard time keeping the Rhudaur alive between turn 10 and 20 (especially since Arth/WM got to play Dunland too) so I had to sacrifice as the Cloud Lord by keeping less armies, but it was worth it in the long run.
I know it was the first Dunland player that decided to send his troops to attack the Rhudaur not Bernout, but I think that was a mistake, because by doing that you guys probably had the chance to pound on NG.
In the beginning of the game, by turn 8, I was attacked by Cardolan, Woodmen, Dunland and dwarves all together BTW. The WK did try to help but was mostly not in the right place, the pleasures of gunboat!
And I had extremely bad luck with dragons: I did not find a single recruitable dragon before turn 13. I lost my capital on turn 13, 1000HC+3400HI against I don’t know how many enemy troops and of course immediately AFTER the battle two dragons joined the 600 troops that moved in to help! Turn 14 I had three (!)dragons in an army 143 HI but it was all too late, it was to pull your hair out.
Regardless, I managed to keep Rhudaur alive with only a MT transfered by the CL, a town and 4 camps and had major fun afterwards hounding the Arthedain.
Cheers,
Alain