Free People’s Perspective.
By Tony Huiatt
Overall Goal – Turn 0
Let the DS keep their troops for the first few turns to burn through economies and bring market levels down, then beat up armies and attempt to beat the DS via economics.
Theater Specific general goals
NG going south with initial cavalry to help Harad/SG – principal target QA. NG will blow bridge on T2 and give up 3124/3024.
Eothraim sending 3 cav units East to come through back court. General target Dragon Lord MT at 3822.
Dwarves capital army headed towards 2715, will work with Woodmen/Sinda to try and take 2715, protect 2514 should DS try for that early.
Cardolan/Arthedain/Duns infantry should be able to take down WK/Rhudaur – Goal T10 to have that arena under control (not all pop centers, but greatly reduced).
All others EO/Northmen/Dwarves and Dun Cavalry block Mordor armies from doing major damage and getting to Eoplex. Again, the goal is to NOT kill Mordor troops early, but let them keep and pay for troops for a few turns and to try and win economically.
Artifacts….stressing trying to get as many curse artifacts as possible. See where Ring of Wind and Ring of Curifin reside to see if we can make a play for those also.
Game status after Turn 4 (Quarter Point – End of Gaming Friday evening)
Artifacts – OK – we have Tinculin, encounter for Elenruth, and LAT on E Mere Vardo. We gave up on RoC and RoW, and RoC is at 3822 on Akhorahil where Eothraim is trying to take 3822….uh oh.
Northwest. – We seriously underestimated what can be done with Rewards. Lost/losing all fights just short of Rhudaur territory and Rhudaur has improved 1910, 2009 and 1908. Not only are we losing the fights we are losing in the recruiting arena also. Crap. Kudos to Jeff Young on initial DS strategy here
Mirkwood – Another miscalculation on impacts of Rewards. Bounced off walls at 2409 (note, will bounce T5 off 3822 on what we thought was a sure win also). Starting DS armies wiped at 2715 and 2305 but didn’t attempt to take pop centers. Only threat is Hired army at 2809 (unknown size / strength).
Mordor/Eoplex – Dog/IK/DrkLtnt/Long Rider starting cav armies eliminated by T4. 3120 captured by Duns T4. 3316 now Dwarves village/tower. Long Rider navy destroyed 4015 and on 4017 unopposed T4. Eothraim on 3822 T4 (editor’s note, will bounce and fail to destroy pop center T5 – City/tower). Mahcared fighting Cloud Lord infantry at 3825 T5.
Harad – NG / FK big fight at 3028 T5 (should eliminate most of FK starting troops). 2635 lost 2835 will fall to QA T5. 3533 should fall to NG cavalry T5. Harad cavalry bounced off 2236 walls, another underestimate of Rewards impact. Long Rider and Cloud Lord Cavalries beat up with no damage taken in North Harad.
Quarter Pole summary – Grim – DS looking strong and initial FP goals not looking good militarily
Economically food is down to 1, and most DS armies kept alive depleting funds until T4….so overall goal still intact.
Military – NW and Mirkwood not good. No DS pop centers taken yet and DS have more troops than Cardolan/Arthedain on the board…potentially disastrous. But does support economic agenda. Mordor/Harad theaters in decent shape (not being threatened).
Turn 8 – Halfway Point
NW – Finally a break. Hallas with 2100 HC and dragon Throckmaw in tow took undefended 1910 (City/fort) T7 (defenders had moved off to block other armies that turn) and is on 2009 facing some 4800 defenders along with 2800 Dwarves T8 (expecting to eliminate some 6K defenders with Dragon). Noldo/Dun cavalry on 1806 will take T9. Big concern WK has 5000+ troops at 1612 with minimal defenders in Cardolan territory – uh oh.
Mirkwood – 2409 finally threatened away on T8, Failed to reveal 2809, but eliminating Dragon Lord troops after letting him pay for them for 7 turns. 2715 should fall T9 to Sinda/Woodmen troops. It should be noted Woodmen is running a 42K deficit at this juncture, but being funded by SG/Harad, not at economic risk yet. Stepping up to 2305 for threat attempt on T9.
Eoplex/Mordor – Lost 3113 to Dog Lord and is only remaining threat in area (860 HC), big fight on 3112 T9 should eliminate starting BS armies and new hire IK armies.
Harad – With RoW, Ji Indur and other agents working this theater…..Dave Holt the SG/Harad player for the FP continues to amaze in the southern theater. At T8, 2635 recaptured, 2835 will be taken back T9. 2437, 3533 destroyed, big SG army at 2336 threatening Corsairs.
Overall Summary Outlook at half way point – Neutral
Economic strategy still intact. DS had a successful Mithril buyout on T3, but since then I put my brother Tim in charge of spiking any further market manipulations by the DS and to the FP view point didn’t see any further successful manipulations through T8, however bronze/steel sell prices are still a 3 and 4 respectively. But it looks like our overall strategy of suppressing market is starting to show signs of success.
Military, got first break T7 in NW, and a plan developed to deal with WK 5K troops in Cardolan territory, however if WK guesses right and goes for Cardolan capital he will get to the pop center and perhaps may have enough to beat up defenders and take the pop center. If instead he goes for 1614 we should block, and allow more troops recruitments to rally and beat him on T10. South is worrisome with agents being in theater. Eoplex/Mordor looks able to recover.
Turn 12 – 3rd quarter of game status
NW theater well in hand. Rhudaur down to MTs at 1908, 2008, and 2007 at T12 endt. WK down to just 2006 (City) and 2703 (town). Will attempt to threaten 2008 with 742 remaining Dwarves (and artifacts) after big battle against dragons on T12. Noldo and Dun cavalry providing most of the heavy lifting in the area to turn this around from the T4 pending disaster to now. WK did try to get to 1614 on T9, and was blocked, we let him get there T10 and beat him up T11. WK paid for those 4800+ HI for multiple turns though….definitely a part of FP economic plan.
Mirkwood – Dragon Lord capital taken T9, Dragon lord 2809 forces beat up T10. 3113 recaptured T10, but Dog Lord nice move to move on 3612 and capture that pop center T10. Multiple armies (Eothraim, Woodmen, Dwarves, Northmen) fighting and losing at 3120 on T10 to IK and Dog defenders. FP to start sending multiple small / medium armies towards 3120 from this point forward. Lots of agent activity by DS and dragons involved in defending. To whit, on T11, 3 characters assassinated, one cursed by DS at 3120.
Harad – T10 2236 destroyed, T11 QA capital 3034 taken, 3437 to fall T13. SG/Harad forces at 2235 pushing to get into 2135 after a fight T13. Negatives though, QA emissaries massed at formed capital (now a town/fort) to retake emissarily and 4900 FK troops spotted at 3029 while nearly 1500 HI at 2831 is beating up 800 Harad HI with NO other defenders in North Harad….not good. We are redirecting cursers to North Harad to help against this force as we have no defense at this juncture. Corsairs also gets large army to 2535, fight T13 TBD. NG fails to build bridge at Minas Anor due to lack of money on T12, part of the consequences of running zero balance economies and not having enough time to check all orders/economies in the short duration to run turns.
Summary at third quarter – Cautiously Optimistic
Economically game is playing exactly as we want at this juncture. DS do manage to get a partial market manipulation success on Mithril T10 (doubles from 33 purchase to 70 sell price) but otherwise FP have been able to suppress bronze/steel and market is down to 3/2 for le, br, st and timber. The large army FK is running we hope leads to disaster before it takes all of North Harad (we can’t stop it at this juncture). Negative consequences is NG fails to build a bridge T12 (and T13) due to economics, and then when he builds it T14, the DS sabotage the same turn….good play by them!
Military – NW under control, Eoplex/Mordor stalemated, North Harad at risk, but hopeful progress being made in South Harad. Overall outlook is positive.
End Game Turn 16
NW – 2006 last NW DS pop center will fall T16. 2703 threatened T15, however no food on market (market rollover from 1M only 155 units in market) so can’t step up to take IK village at 2803 and/or move to take 2904 which was infothr’d away from Dwarves on T14.
Mirkwood/Eoplex/Mordor – Northmen sent cavalry next to 3621 on T13, stepped up T14, and took T15. We didn’t know this then, but this eliminated the Drk Ltnts due to taxes/economy. Multiple cavalry armies blocked at 3119 (Just 2800 HC in three different nations)….not enough to take any Mordor outlying pop center, but enough to keep pressure on them militarily. Woodmen and Cardolan emissaries all mass at 3624 to attempt to flip from Dog Lord. Arthedain emmy’s take 3123 (IK town).
Harad – Huge break, FK went back to 3028 on T13 (worried about NG building bridge and coming across at 2924). Still, remainder of FK troops destroyed 2731 MT T14 and 2632 town T15 before being met with SG troops at 2631 T15. Elsewhere, QA flipped 3034 town/fort on T13 and raised it to a MT on same turn (good move). T14 harad destroyed new QA capital at 2135 and moved Cav to retake 3034 on T15. Surprisingly Corsairs did NOT destroy 2535 with Dragon (he was unopposed T13) but instead moved to 2634 (town) and again remains unopposed. T15 QA capital at 3034 falls AGAIN (this time destroyed) QA flips 2926 and improves it to a MT, but all the NG troops that couldn’t manage to build a bridge at 2924 move down and will retake T16.
End game FP summary – Positive
Economics – Market is 2/1 across the board except for mounts. All FP economies under control and able to run zero economies to prevent gold thefts from helping DS.
Military – Not threatened seriously in any theater.
Looking at final T16s of both teams (not known until DS conceded at conclusion of T16)
Looking at final T16s, we did NOT know of Drk Ltnts getting eliminated economically on T15 from the taking of 3621 and giving QA a backup capital at 3622 a couple of turns earlier. It looks like Dog Lord, FK and possibly QA all at risk for succumbing to financial collapse T17. Overall the economic strategy worked this game. If the DS had had more time to plan and coordinate costs….it could have been greatly different outcome.
Kudos to Jeff Young for his initial NW strategy involving WK and Rhudaur. Tim and I debated if he should have stayed behind with the 5K WK troops to defend and wait for dragons to show up T8 time frame….maybe would have slowed his demise up North even slower than it already took….although I just don’t know how he sustained that level of troop maintenance, truly remarkable IMO. Nobody can withstand five nations recruiting and competing (Duns, Noldo, Dwarves along with Cardolan / Arthedain) but that is what it took just to turn things around by T10. I can’t say enough about how much of a challenge it was for me to coordinate to overcome his two nations. I literally woke up after just 4 hours of sleep Saturday morning distressed about the entire NW situation and studied the turns for about 2 hours before I figured out a plan to address the NW. Didn’t help that the night before my brother Tim said “you’re getting your ass kicked in the NW Tony…what are you going to do about it?”. Truly it was a stroke of luck that Cardolan was able to recruit a Dragon before WK/Rhudaur could get one. So call it lucky break!
I also must call out my team mates Drew and Dave for coordinating the Harad theater, with Eothraim sending loads of mounts to Harad so he was recruiting HC to win the fight down south. And Drew holding the hordes of Mordor back with just the NG/Eothraim and support from Iron Hills Dwarves and Northmen….just fantastic play by those two individuals….on top of their support economically for the Cardolan/Woodmen black holes and other team initiative for thwarting market manipulations by the DS (I think I did mention Woodman was carrying a 42K deficit on T8, thanks to support from both Dave and Drew!!!). And Dave saying “agent at such and such hex” over and over…I don’t know how he survived the agents and still thrived down south. I truly expected a different outcome down there from the amount of character resources the DS were deploying down there.
Ed was outstanding at artifact procurement the first few turns, the best artifact hunt/procurement I recall ever from the FP perspective…and then his Noldo/Dun cavalry really sealed the deal in winning the NW from the midpoint forward part of the game.
Nate…I still can’t believe this is just his 2nd game played, and in fact he hasn’t even finished the 1st game yet. I still remember when Tim and I who have played for 30+ years were debating whether to destroy or capture 2409 T8 time frame when we asked Nate what he wanted to do and he said let’s threaten…and it fricking worked! And then he just pushed forward into Rhudaur and continued to threaten pop center after pop center….just outstanding play and overall team support from Nate.
And lastly….thanks Clint for giving up your weekend to come run/play GM for this FTF. Tim and I both enjoyed this experience immensely, especially getting to meet long time team mates in Drew and Dave for the first time in the 20+ years we’ve been gaming with them.
Thanks to all who played….it was well fought, and intense. The game was in doubt until late in the process…making it very exciting. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience.
Regards
Tony Huiatt
Woodmen / Cardolan – FTF – Game 990