In a message dated 5/6/00 10:06:56 AM Central Daylight Time,
pbm@harlequingames.com writes:
<< 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
I would also definitely play this one. Sounds Great.
Jonathan Shushan
> 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.
>>