Firstly, well played my allies, especially Eo and NG and good support from the Woodmen in Mirkwood. This was my first game as the Dwarves - unbelievable after over 10 years of ME.
In the East, my opening gambit vs the LR was to screw up his ability to put an agent company together and do command capital orders. I managed this on turn 1 by moving a Dwarf character to the LR capital to do a 930 A50 scout plus the two expendable NM mages for challenges. The result: I killed Goldwine Frec with a MN 30M who then gained 9 points and became (slightly) useful. I repeated this act again later in the game taking out Viosiol.
With the MN cav I burnt all LR camps plus the BS camp/village in the back door. I figured that this would hurt the LR economy - especially as I had hoped that the player had not noticed the incorrect economy figures at game start. I did, and planned accordingly.
I had a few problems with the DkL forces but then they were mainly interested in the Eoplex. They cleverly pulled down both bridges at 3612 which meant that the Dwarves had to set up shop from Warfinger. This made it difficult for me to support the Eo defence.
I planned a dilpo-supported attack at 2715 on T5 and anticipated great success: the Woodmen took out the seed army as requested on T4 leaving the Dwarves + Sinda to 250 the pop. When the Sinda bottled it that screwed that up! My Dwarves bounced off the walls leaving a mere few hundred left who trundled off into Rovanion to lick their wounds. I decided that a renewed attack would have to involve the NM. I recruited like mad, avoided a large DkL army on route to the Eo homeworld (sorry Clint!) and then destroyed 2715. I had an unbelievable number of troops – is must have been close to 10K (80% NM). The following turn the DS dropped. A shame these two armies didn’t get the chance to prove themselves at Morannon…
FYI - I did keep an eye on the frontsheet and noticed the Cor/DrL/CL pairing - which looked ominous. I also noticed a mistake which showed nation 18/QA as dropped. Was this QA or FK? This confusion in my mind continued when I picked up the Harad a few turns ago - and I made the mistake of attacking the QA capital and the expense of the Corsairs. Doh!
All in all I have no idea what the LR were up to…I caught up with their navy/army early on, destroyed it and then threatened all the camps they posted. (LOL). The NM still had intact all starting pops. The Dwarves lost two to the Wik: a smart cav move west by him to secure my two mountain settlements in the Blue Mts. The Harad position that I took over was all intact north of the river. Frank, why did you drop this?
Not sure who played long rider, QA, Dog Lord or original Cloud lord positions.
I dropped after I saw the Blind Sorceror eliminated. Dark servants were down Rhudaur, Dark Lt., QA and Blind Sorceror. Our side was not using the communication with any affect as two combo’s never once posted any message. Their choice, but if you don’t want to play a communication game, then sign up for the no communcition game in my opinion. Our three nations were in decent to good shape, but not strong enough to be able to support our allies. We could have held on for probably another 10 turns or so but I just saw the writing on the wall. Plus, I felt that starting the no quit gunboat game would be more competitive.
Tony on the other hand wanted to keep playing. He knew we would lose in the long run, but he just liked finally being on the offensive after fighting a defensive game for the first ten turns.
Well I think the WK was next on the list of the about to die having lost all his pop centres up north and as you say whats the point of dragging out defeat if its certain.
FK was next to die as NG had a cav army on his backup and with QA gone, I don’t think he had a backup or dragon (but don’t know for sure). WK was down to 2006 as a MT (to the best of my knowledge) and would have lost that in one-two turns.
For the record, WK was not about to die, I had taken back 3622 which provided back-up and I was still harrassing Arthedain and with my small Cavalry army (+ Dragon). ( I bet the Dwarves were surprised to loose those two towns in the mountains) I had a good gold reserve too which would have let me build up some new PC’s.
Nevertheless seeing 4 nations out, WK on the defensive and probably relocating to Mordor, I don’t think we could have turned the tables in the long run, so I found it better to start a new game.
Really like this new “no dropping” principle, because I still think game 71 was ****ed up from the start by the Rhu/CL combo dropping. Giving CL to the DrL/Cor made that a VERY good combo but Rhudaur was a dead duck without a back-up.
It is good to here the Witch King was still alive. We were going to try and transfer him a Corsair pop center and a harad pop center to relocate him in the South. But like Alain says, with four nations (possibly five) dead, it did not really matter.
Well WK old boy the question I simple ask is how long did you hold those pop centres in the mountain?
Or with the CL down south and the noldo agents only on you to kill steal or harrasss you and the enture nations of the north on one nation if you think you where going to last long up north I bed to differ.
Now with one pop centre in down south and Mordor a bit of a wasteland and the vaste resources of a North Gondor combo with the Noldo under his control, well I dont think you woud have lasted long.
If the question is how long can you drag it out its a long time but if the question is how long I can be an effetive player agianst 2 to one odds well feel free t oanswer it.
I have not looked at the turns of others only my own and my money is on the fact in the context of this game the WK was a spent force.
400 men with a dragon are a pest, but no more and as you could not hold anything you took no more than that.
Yes its annoying but that a game does not it win.
Hey if you could have got a pop centre down south again the question comes to mind how long could you live there against all those other nations.
I think you where toast and thats my view and will take an ememy in your state who thinks he is not any day of the week.
But why argue if you thought you could win would you have not played on.
There is no lost honour in voting and accepting defeat if that is the way the game has gone
