Greg, Matt, and I wish to express our gratitude to Brynn and his group for saying yes to this match. If any of you are so inclined, I invite you to join us in some friendly banter using this thread.
Good luck to all of you and we look forward to the game. I will endeavor to present whatever news is fit to report to the forum public as each turn runs.
Also we want to thank Rob for putting in extra work on a Friday to get turn 0 out to us, it was very much appreciated.
David House
Just checking in; banter to follow 
Ah Harr me hearties. Rhovannion reporting from the crownest here. Beware our ships !
Are you also bringing in the animals two by two there Noah? You will need a bigger ark to fit all the refugees this war is going to create. Plus it “won’t be water, but fire this time”!
Who are the players on your team?
Grrr… methinks there be a spy in my ranks. Counterintelligence - find the source of the leak ! That battleship is supposed to be top secret !
It was to be Greg’s turn to post but he is having difficulty remembering his password, so this turns round of banter will have to come from me.
I admit to being disappointed that Lady Galadriel did not show up to her appointment with Ji Indur, we spent a lot of thought on how best to counter that move and I wanted to see if it would work. But it appears that the Lady has pressing business back in Rivendell, we will have to have Ji look her up later. I am glad though to see that Amroth was sailing north, I learned my lesson from 622 and sent more ships this time for the trap- I hope that Amroth has learned to swim. 
In the Mirkwood I went looking for the Rhovanion naval forces at Maethelburg and found Granhelm twiddling his thumbs after having sent Vidurafin south to be hosted by Durin, next turn we will see who has been roasted and who is still looking for desert. Never did find that big boat though there were plenty of animals, elves, and human fleeing our advance. It was quite a dance in the south with icons on 2421 and 2720 for us and 2520, 2619, and 2720 for the bad guys. Could that cav army at 2619 be Harith with the Eldacar lc? And the Rhovanion hi capitol army has yet to make an appearance.
There are two cav armies for the bad guys out trying to defend Dilgul from our liberators, yes I know the second wave is coming east but Dilgul will enjoy at least a moments freedom from your oppressive yoke. Farther north the bad guys have moved to take a camp and a village, but that is a bit like breaking into the strongroom of the castle so you can steal the toilet paper. The Ithil valley was probably the one area where everybody stayed pretty much in place. Up in Arnor the bad guys tried to intercept us at 1508 while we moved to 1506 instead, it is just that there is a lot better stuff in Arnor than just that town- so many places we can move to and no way you can cover them all. Before I forget I did note that the garrison at Tharbad moved south to 1918 in a valiant attempt to safeguard the Arnor camps there, I have to admit I was not expecting that.
Other than the usual moves in Tirkhor that is the sum of the early action in game 624 as seen from the guys in the white hats. We are looking forward to our next turn.
Amroth sleeps with the fishes.