I have yet to see the changes to see if this is possible and viable but
player interest at this point would be useful.
Thanks
Clint
Greetings to all Middle-earth players past, present and future.
The purpose of this message is to tell you about a new Middle-earth
scenario
entitled War of the Ring (WotR). This is a variant of GSI's 2950
scenario.
Why introduce a variant? Because, when I played 2950, I was disappointed
to
find a much smaller economic base than in the original 1650 game. This
not
only makes 2950 a smaller game, but also makes it impossible for players
to
field the numbers of troops mentioned in Tolkien's writings. For example,
Rohan brought 6000 cavalry to the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and
Sauron's various armies were certainly numbered in thousands rather than
hundreds.
The nice people at Harlequin Games have kindly allowed me to play around
with the 2950 scenario to bring the overall population centre base up to
1650 levels, thus creating a stronger economic base, and making it
possible
to field armies closer to the size which Tolkien described.
In 1650 there are 221 starting population centres; in 2950 only 136 and
those generally smaller than 1650. WotR restores most of the 2950 pops to
their 1650 level. WotR adds 85 pops to the 2950 base to bring the total
number of pops back to 221. Sometimes this is simply a case of restoring
1650 pops, but many are totally new.
In all the changes I have made for WotR, I have been guided by my reading
of
Tolkien's works, and also by the need to maintain some kind of balance.
Therefore, whilst there are some nations with as many as 17 pops and
others
with as few as 6, the latter usually have at least one super-powerful
character and/or a rare special ability as compensation.
Because making all the necessary pop changes and additions is a hell of a
lot of work for Harlequin, I haven't asked them to change the size of the
starting armies for WotR. I have assumed that the various commanders have
only their personal warbands with them at game start, but can muster much
larger numbers of levies at short notice.
I have made a very few changes to character strengths and skills, but only
where GSI have obviously gone against Tolkien's writings, and it actually
improves the game to go with Tolkien.
OK, now here's the crunch: Harlequin will only do the work necessary to
launch WotR IF there are enough players to support it. So, if you want to
play a Middle-earth game that closer to Tolkien than GSI's 2950, or you
want
to play 2950 but with bigger armies, or you just want to try a new
scenario
for any other reason, please email Harlequin and tell them you want to
play
···
WAR OF THE RING (copy me as well please).
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.
Please circulate this to any other gamers who might be interested.
Many thanks, and I hope to hear from you soon,
Richard Devereux.
