Gunboat Game Devotees

General
#161

Rommel88-- GB 2950 will be very different from 1650. Of course, it will have some aspects similar to the 2950 scenerio, like the necessity to get camps down and build up your nation. But I like the leaner/meaner approach where characters/spells and artifacts actually affect the outcome of battles, instead of 1650’s efficacy of hordes.

And well-fortified pop. centers, like Dol Guldur, present a REAL challenge to the opposition, rather than being little more than a speed-bump to the Dwarves in 1650.

You may guess I’m a favorite of 2950. But the really cool aspect is the “fog of war” element where you need to gather information in order for your mission to be successful.

Scout Pop. Center, Scry Area, palantir, recons, and reveal characters-- all these spells and actions gain an added importance since you have only yourself to rely on for information.

Cheers! I’m ready to receive those new set-ups. Hopefully I get mine when I get home from seeing Return of the King at my local matinee.

Nick

#162

Brian Mason wrote:
"I couldn’t find the info, it’s probably out there somewhere and I missed it.

What are the 1650 Gunboat pairings?

… and why is it called gunboat anyway? "

Brian, I’m delighted you have some interest in the Gunboat variant. I think as a veteran player you will truly enjoy GB if you decide to go ahead and give it a try. I feel the same applies to Tom Walton.

You can read more about GB at the following links:
(1) http://www.halo5.net/mepbm/bree/bree12.pdf This edition contains the original GB proposal by Chris Courtier.
(2) http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/tow...down/bree23.pdf This edition contains two first-hand accounts of GB game experience. These articles are by Mike Sankey and Bryn Lloyd.

The 1650 GB pairings are as follws:
4/22 Arthedain/Harad
6/23 N Gondor/Dunland
7/1 S Gondor/Woodmen
8/2 Dwarves/Northmen
9/5 Sindar/Cardolan
10/3 Noldor/Eothraim

18/14 Fire King/Cloud Lord
20/24 Dark Lieutenants/Rhudaur
16/19 Ice King/Long Rider
11/15 Blind Sorcerer/Witch King
17/13 Quiet Avenger/Dog Lord
12/21 Dragon Lord/Corsairs

I hope you decide to give GB a try. I’m confident you’ll enjoy it.

#163

Thanks for the information. I have no doubt I’ll play gunboat at some point in the future when I can afford to slip one game under the radar of the watchful eye of my chief economist. :slight_smile: For now, I’ll have to just be a lurker.

The 1650 pairings are interesting to me. The 4/22 pairing seems especially vulnerable to the FP — Harad isolated and an obvious target of the QA, Co, and CL training and Arthedain without a backup (and given Harad’s position, I wouldn’t think one there is too stable either). I don’t see an obvious weak DS pairing.

The 9/5 and 11/15 pairings looks quite good. The combination of good characters and hiring armies is really nice. If the WK and BS swap a MTown then the DS have a fighting chance in Eriador. The agents of 16/19 look pretty lethal, too.

It’s interesting that in 12 vs 12 1650 the Corsairs (Harad) are FP (DS) and in GB 1650 they are DS (FP).

Unfortunately, I don’t think Tom will be joining me in playing me-pbm. It’s probably the best thing for him, but I will miss him.

Glad to be remembered, thanks!

Brian

#164

Gunboat 1650 Game 36 has just ended - t’was all but up for the Dark Servants for a few turns. Congrats to John Welty (SG/Wo) for beating me to 1st… cheese… :slight_smile:

Lots of fun - bad luck to the Dragon Lord player who attempted to assassinate my army at 2715 and lost his agent and all the items, including the Ring of Wind and his big starting mage item… Amroth for godhood…

Great fun with big armies - ended up with 8k hc with the one nation and had to reduce the other nation to 6k hc due to the restraints on my economy. Heh,heh, heh. Lost my 91 Agent with 30 Stealth on the penultimate turn (scouting not showing up any enemy agents when there were 2 tasty) hurt a fair bit but I’ve learnt a lot from the game - what to do and what not to do. Reckon it was Din Ohtar!

Interaction: Finally on turn 37 got a Curse item having hounded the Dog Lord for a while trying to hunt it down. Earlier on I had transferred Mothras and sat at the Dun capital for a few turns with Hallas and Ringling (hint, hint as I knew he had E Mere Vardo) but didn’t get the Curse Item I was looking for.

Sent the Woodmen some gold early in the game but nothing returned. Tried upgrading and transferring food from friendly pcs but never got any. Actually lost 2 pcs (both MTs) to Friendly 525s - I had captured that turn and they had 525ed - cheese. At least the Noldo didn’t decide to hit my characters (I was at his pc with my agent squad) which was good news for both of us.

Battlewise - Dun and Cardolan turned up at Rhudaur capital - I went for destroy he went for capture (or vice-versa) - bad news for us. I didn’t see a single Arthedain coming south all game or in the East. Woodmen, Duns and myself (and on turn 35ish the Eothraim with a small army) at Morannon but that was about all militarily and combined attacks. Duns and myself hunted down CL towns in the game and took out Ithil Pass (he got the glory!)

End of the game I own 3221, 3122, 3222 (town), 3421 (mt), 3622, 3624, 3630, 3929 so that was fun and hard logisitically to organise. Rhudaur is mostly Dun (some Card) and WK mine. Eothraim had got hit in the game and I could see a lot of pcs destroyed by mid-game but only send over a couple thousand HI to see what was up. NM who got kicked early in the game but by the end belonged to the Dwarf again.

Good strong play by the QA/Dog combo (Kevin Ingram), tenacious play by the DkL (Fletcher Brown).

Information gathering - never did get a palantir… :frowning: Generally just went for it with the armies and 925s & 940 428/430s with the occasional doubled enemy character. The market was pretyt much very rich which must suite the DS - well the number of st/st HC armies I met implied that as well.

Must play again… let’s see if I can convince the GM that another 1650 GB game can be sorted… :slight_smile:

Clint (Sin/Card) (player)

#165

Originally posted by Clint
[b]Gunboat 1650 Game 36 has just ended - t’was all but up for the Dark Servants for a few turns. Congrats to John Welty (SG/Wo) for beating me to 1st… cheese… :slight_smile:

Earlier on I had transferred Mothras and sat at the Dun capital for a few turns with Hallas and Ringling (hint, hint as I knew he had E Mere Vardo) but didn’t get the Curse Item I was looking for.

Battlewise - Dun and Cardolan turned up at Rhudaur capital - I went for destroy he went for capture (or vice-versa) - bad news for us. I didn’t see a single Arthedain coming south all game or in the East. Woodmen, Duns and myself (and on turn 35ish the Eothraim with a small army) at Morannon but that was about all militarily and combined attacks. Duns and myself hunted down CL towns in the game and took out Ithil Pass (he got the glory!)

End of the game I own 3221, 3122, 3222 (town), 3421 (mt), 3622, 3624, 3630, 3929 so that was fun and hard logisitically to organise. Rhudaur is mostly Dun (some Card) and WK mine. Eothraim had got hit in the game and I could see a lot of pcs destroyed by mid-game but only send over a couple thousand HI to see what was up. NM who got kicked early in the game but by the end belonged to the Dwarf again.

Good strong play by the QA/Dog combo (Kevin Ingram), tenacious play by the DkL (Fletcher Brown).

Clint (Sin/Card) (player) [/b]

Yeah, I noticed you there, and figured you were fishing for Vardo, but I still had 3 mages to teach Curses to. Sorry :slight_smile:

North Gondor managed to keep alive to the very end, despite the DS getting me down to four characters, and on the second to last turn they infed Minas Tirith away. Also killed most of the highlevel Dun agents who turned up there to save it.

Duns ended up with half of Rhudaur, 2619 (City), 3223, 3224, 3426, 3923, 3922. Burnt most of the soft cities in inner mordor.

The Dragon Lord foiled my attempt to get onto 3822 to burn his final MT. Dragon got my army, but I had a good run with those HC. Had another 3300HI + 2000HC (w/steel) at 3525 going for the remaining MT in the Mordor area.

All in all a fun game. Thought for a while that NGondor would bite it, but managed to keep it alive with continued gold shipments.

Also got all my PDFS around still if someone wants a copy :slight_smile:

Other highpoints: Watching a Dog Lord army splat against 3224 killing a General ranked character on turn 33. Capturing Bulrakur and suddenly gaining 65 Command ranks from the artifacts he carried.

Øystein
Cardolan + N-Gondor

#166

Game 36 GB “Just Ended”

Picked up Arthedain & Harad on turn 14, think they had ss’d since turn 10 and Harad was in a pretty bad way. Hung on in the south until turn26 when Dragon Lord took 2734. Only left with 3 pc’s in the North and half a dozen characters Harad spent most of his time rebuilding.

Having ss’d Arthedain was too late to the party in the NW with all the goodies and Rhu/WK pc’s going elsewhere. Argeleb did manage to crack his head on the walls of 1804 whilst the Cardolan army watched! Ended with 2 strong agent squads and a bunch of kills hunting down the DkLts.

Poor DrL agent with RoC tried to assasinate useless Harad character got himself on the wrong side of his knife. The Gods were against you!

Arthedain did manage to rustle up the cash to send 2000hc to Mordors backdoor but everywhere I went it seemed the FP had already got there.

Ian Wood

Arthedain & Harad

#167

Any new GB games (1650 or 2950) taking setups?

Paul

#168

1650 2wk:[Game 12]: 8 duo of nations available.[17/12/03]

The 1650 GB pairings are as follws:
4/22 Arthedain/Harad
6/23 N Gondor/Dunland
7/1 S Gondor/Woodmen
8/2 Dwarves/Northmen
9/5 Sindar/Cardolan
10/3 Noldor/Eothraim

18/14 Fire King/Cloud Lord
20/24 Dark Lieutenants/Rhudaur
16/19 Ice King/Long Rider
11/15 Blind Sorcerer/Witch King
17/13 Quiet Avenger/Dog Lord
12/21 Dragon Lord/Corsairs

4 signed up so far.

Clint

#169

Having ss’d Arthedain was too late to the party in the NW with all the goodies and Rhu/WK pc’s going elsewhere. Argeleb did manage to crack his head on the walls of 1804 whilst the Cardolan army watched! Ended with 2 strong agent squads and a bunch of kills hunting down the DkLts.

Yeh - after being stung at the Rhudaur capital I didn’t want to risk it - but your suicide got my Threaten off nicely… :slight_smile: (Thanks). What happened to Harad - I was moving down there to see what was up - landed on the QA capital with some agents and got nicely stomped there? Cor (DS) and SG seemed both to do well so I wondered what the situation in that part of the world was like?

Clint (player)

#170

Check your starting relations for any new GB games that are starting up. There are not always correct though in my experience they are fixed promptly

#171

How am I supposed to taunt my Gunboat opponents if turns don’t run next week??? AUGH!!!

  • Ben
    Gunboat 229
#172

I have a question ,

            Which side wins more in a gunboat game -- the freeps or evils !! I ask this as i have taken over a friends gunboat postion for two turns as he had a death in the family and after playing just two turn i have the opinion that the freeps are better off or get the advantage with a no communication between players rule !!

              Also would like to know the statistics on which side get more artifacts in a game -- with no communication between players am wondering if the Noldo or noldo combination of two nation played winds up with most of the choice arties !! 

              Somehow after just playing a couple turns i get the feeling that the freeps probably win in a gunboat version with those rules 75% or better of the games !!

                 Mike
#173

There haven’t been enough Gunboats run in either scenario to really tell. I know that there has only been one completer 2950 GB and the DS won that. Two are ongoing, one just started and the other, 229, is going into turn 11.

It really depends on style of play. With no communication between teammates and the DS having the more defendable positions, the advantages does seem to swing towards the DS since it takes quite a bit of coordination between the FP to KO the fortified DS positions. Gram, Gundabad, Dol Goldur, and Angrenost are not easy nuts to crack with teamwork by the FP.

  • Ben
    Gunboat 229
#174

This is a reply to a post by loraelin…

Yes, I agree that the QA/FK combo worked really well in a GB and anybody interested can read my article in Bree 23.

I was somewhat surprised when I read quite a few posts and this forum and the yahoo one which cast doubt on the strength of the combination and subsequently changed the DS combos for all other GB games. …:confused:

EVEN more irritating was that as I was currently playing the 2 nations in GB95 to argue the case could well have given away my identity…

Lets have a SWAP IT BACK campaign!

#175

Anybody know of a good link with updated 2950 artifact info? Bobbins and this site do not appear to have all the secondary powers listed…

#176

More on the FreeP or DS advantage in GB scenerios, I would agree that the FP might have a better chance of winning this type of scenerio. Since information comes at a premium, the burden shifts to the Cloud Lord and other assassins to spend precious orders gathering information before setting up the kill.

In other scenerios all they have to do is plant an agent in Osgiliath and email their teammates, say the FK or IK, to get the name of the Gondorian army commander there. Not any more.

I realize that the Wk can now apply that info to the Cloud Lord, but he’ll still have to spend resources getting information about other areas and 1 nation does not equal 8 others in regular 2950 scenerios.

Just my two cents…

N.

#177

Originally posted by Rommel88
Anybody know of a good link with updated 2950 artifact info? Bobbins and this site do not appear to have all the secondary powers listed…

I found this page recently:

http://www.sci.fi/~jon1/KM/Lucinda/Artifacts.html

I’ll be incorporating this info inthe this forum as soon as I get some spare time.

#178

Originally posted by Blue Knight
[b]I have a question ,

            Which side wins more in a gunboat game -- the freeps or evils !!                     Mike [/b]

Skill being equal, I would think the DS will win the 2950 scenario more often. 2950 is more of a character war and the DS should have better agents. The DS also share more map area so they should be able to react to any potential threats. The DS should also “coordinate” better from the map data that is avialable.

#179

Not sure of the win/loss ration. I think it’s 1 DS in 2950 and 1650: 1 FP 1 DS win so far. I’ve had quite a few differing opinions on who are stronger but I personally think it’s down to how good the players are. Invariably there are drop outs and that does have an impact on the game so committed players on your side will have a bigger than normal impact.

Other than that I think either side is more than capable of winning.

Clint (player)

#180

Gildring wrote:

I would agree that the FP might have a better chance of winning this type of scenerio. Since information comes at a premium, the burden shifts to the Cloud Lord and other assassins to spend precious orders gathering information before setting up the kill.

In other scenerios all they have to do is plant an agent in Osgiliath and email their teammates, say the FK or IK, to get the name of the Gondorian army commander there. Not any more.

The CL & FK pairing in GB allow the CL assassins to be effective in the Osgiliath - Minas Ithil area as you describe above, though actions further a field are certainly impaired by the lack of double scouting agents and other intelligence.
I enjoy the fact that super-agents of both alignments seem to appear a little later in GB games and guards are more likely to succeed in their missions against them.

Paul