I am a bit late but here is my lengthy account (thx Kim you kept a journal too, so I don’t feel like the only fool – mind you that most of the players agreed to keep one…):rolleyes:
Journal of GB Game 94, Dragon Lord
Introduction
Oh deary me… Dragon Lord…and I had been the one promoting the DrgL/Cor-combo as one of the most powerful in the game. Furthermore I had argued that the DS would not be disadvantaged in the GB scenario. Now I had the chance to prove both or to fail miserably. It became clear very quickly, that some FP thought about DrgL/Cor the same way I did, because they pursued me relentlessly. So this was a game of survival right from the word go.
Strategy
Looking at the Dragon Lord’s assets, my tasks were clear. The first one was survival, the second was building up a sickness/curse squad ASAP. The third option was agents. Khamul would serve as my Nr one agent so his mage artefact went to Lhachglin.
I started with just one research artefact on Lhachglin, so I decided not to take part in the race for Tinculin and opted for the two other DS curse arties. I picked up the Blue Ring on T5 and Gurthang on T6, Teleport came in handy here. The big agent toys had been taken by then, but I managed to get Mirarmarth, which was better than nothing.
Turns 0-5
The main events were the pop center losses. That happened even faster and more thorough than I expected. 3506 fell on T2, 3104 on T3. First enemy armies on 2715 appeared on T2 to destroy my recruiting army. The Dwarves (lucky bastards) threatened 2409 with Bain and merely 2500 troops on T4. The Sinda must have felt less lucky, because they lost Othar the same turn when he was trying to capture the place, obviously expecting the Dwarves to attack with them. I had a little laugh when I imagined the Dwarves watching while the Elves were suiciding against the walls and marching into the town afterwards…
On T5 I lost 3822 to combined EO and NG forces.
My own military options were limited. I wanted to do some damage so instead of playing hide and seek with the Woodmen, I decided to hurt the NG tax base and captured 2520 and 2617. The joy was short-lived, though, because Dun armies caught up with my forces, eliminated them and had recaptured both places by T4.
It is obvious that I could not have survived without the help of my big southern friend. I received 2339 on T5 and that gold income together with natsells (prices were exceptionally good at that time) kept me afloat financially. Character costs were also cut down because I lost both Duran and Wodurishak in battle (just after I decided to retire Urgubal – what joke!)
Turns 5-10
How long could I hold on to Mirkwood? It was just a question of time. On T6, four armies showed up at Dol Guldur, worth about 5000 hi. It could have fallen, but just NG and Duns attacked while WM and Sinda watched the suicide attempt. Meanwhile Corsairs had transferred 2039 as well so financially I was stable. On T8 a large SG army that came over the eastern road paid an unexpected visit to 2339 (don’t know if it was an attack motivated by the knowledge that it had been transferred to me). 2339 fell but was recaptured by Corsairs soon. On T9 Khamul was assassinated while stealing gold in Harad, must have been a lucky shot from Noldo agents. By T10 I had named merely three agents, one of them with stealth.
Turns 11-15
My time in the north was over. Dol Guldur fell on T11 to a combined attack of 5500 WM and Sinda infantry. 2809 fell on T12 (had been revealed on T8 already). I was down to 3 pop centres (1 MT, 2 camps) on t 13, but I managed to get along financially by stealing from SG and Harad and selling my meagre resources. I even managed to send several small shipments of gold to my ever-recruiting Corsair friend. As my curse casting ranks were far from being reliable even with artefacts, I decided to stick to sickness and get my company into action. Meanwhile it was obvious that at least a Noldo agent company with RoC and RoW was operating in Harad. My first target was the Harad capital at 2734.
Turns 16-20
Time of economic struggle. Steals turned out to become less profitable and taxes went up to 89%, the most critical moment for my nation. Corsairs helped out with a gold shipment and the transfer of 2339 again, and I recovered as I began to use my emis aggressively.
Sickness squad began to work and I won two challenges. I managed to kill some harad characters and eliminated the commander of a large SG navy before he could land. Also the last harad navy was removed by sickness. Meanwhile, also a Noldo curse squad was operating in Harad. It seems Noldo wanted to save his Harad brother at all costs. On T19, it came to a showdown, I had my agents and my mage squad on the same hex with the Noldo agents and probably the curse squad. He had the bigger guns so it was clear that I would lose the shootout, the question was how much damage I could do to him. I decided to take out Gildor who carried the RoW, rather than casting into the blue on Elrond, who also could have been on an adjacent hex (I was just tracking the RoW by then). I paid the death of Gildor with Celedhring and Maben –so my squad was damaged beyond repair. It could have been worse though, since all other characters got out alive.
Turns 21-25
The tide was turning. We got support in our struggle in the SW, as some DS agent companies began their work. I managed to double a QA character so I got a glimpse at their actions. In addition to that, I continued to track the major agent arties and by T 25 they all were in DS hands so I was certain that the Noldo company was eliminated, probably also the curse squad. Harad was completely eliminated by turn 23, so it was time to rearrange and look out for new targets. With my two 70+ rank emmies, I had gained control of 2809 again and some other pops around mirkwood. I was financially stable now and able to support the Corsairs who prepared an assault on SG. From what characters I had left I formed a company with two mages and two agents and visited SG, which must have been the target of heavy DS agent activity in the turns before. I tried a mixture of challenges, sickness and assassinations and eliminated the last army and three characters in the capital. The fruit seemed ripe for plucking.
Turns 26-30
Progress was slower than expected. SG had no real chance against the character onslaught of the DS, but fought back with tooth and nail. 2223 was EO capital. I visited 2223 and 2227 repeatedly with my squad and got down some kills. The double scout was helping a lot. Lacking better options, I took to casting sickness on the enemy agents I expected to guard my assassination targets. Thus wounded, those guards were killed by my >80 agent blewing through them. My emmies started working in the misties, recruiting several dragons in the process, which where sitting quite uselessly (apart from raising the loyalty) at 2039. I hope they have not been missed elsewhere…
Turns 31-35
On a lucky shot, a Dun agent ranked 60-70 took out Orduclax at 1922 just before my agent whacked him, so I was down to just one mage, Lhachglin. I had lost both SM artefacts so a curse squad did not seem viable any more. Nevertheless, I decided to name some mages for intelligence. In SG more than once my squad met up with a big IK/QA emmy/agent squad. We were running low on targets. Prices were absolutely flat for turns now.
Turns 36-40
Took over a town in SG and helped Corsairs to take 2325 as a new base for recruiting and building ships (as he had ripped out all harbors/ports and lost all of his ships by then). Met the IK/QA squad again and they transferred Gurthang back to me, thanks. They must have acquired it from NE who took it from me when killing Maben.
SG was under control. Corsair had taken some smaller pops while IK/QA seemed to have taken over most of the rest. We were looking for new tasks and turned our attention to the gap of Rohan. Dun capital turned out to be ruins.
Improved 2904 to a town with the intention of hiring later. Lost newly hired mage with 30 p mage arty to assassination… sigh. Did I say that progress was slow?
Turns 41-42
Improved 2904 to MT and hired just to be visited by a small WM hc force. My bronze armor made the day though and the WM commander died against the walls (what walls?). Stole 25 k from the Cardolan. Some nice friendly DS transferred 55 points of mage artefacts to me! Sickness squad, here I come! Finally I will have some impact again, yeah! Oops… game over…sigh!
This was an excellent game all over, I never played a nation that was so constantly on the edge of termination before and was lucky that the FP did not consequently follow through their initial process of elimination. Turns 25-35 where a bit boring, though, because I felt I did not contribute much to the outcome of the game. I stood down from hiring a full character roster to be able to send Corsairs gold because he could use his assets more effectively, and I guess this was the right decision. Thanks to Marty for being an excellent partner, I enjoyed playing with you!
Kudos to my fellow DS, especially Kim who saved our ***** in the SW. Kudos also to the FP who held out this long. I always looked for SG, EO and Harad to show up on the list of eliminated nations but they never did.
I would be glad if we all could stick to this pool of excellent players and form a new no-drop GB out of it.
