Game 77

[El Gringo]

Time for a new thread :)

How's that new castle wokring out for you? Do you approve of our high quality workmanship? :rolleyes:

Between that and Angamaite running amok in the south... well our turn was most definitely less than ideal... heh though the game is definitely more fun with all the roller coaster ups and downs!

El Gringo
Executive Producer
Nastrytroll Films

(Coming soon to a theatre near you: "Erestor & Tharudan: The Lost S&M Tapes")

[sibroc]

Well, my personal favourite still is the huge Eothraim walking intact from Gothmog and two dragons. Gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "flee and live to fight another day"

That's Trendorn the King of Cool for you.

Interested to see what happens now.

Symeon
Leader of the HorseLords

PS1:You really shouldn't make fun of the Elves. Tharudan had apprentices you know...

PS2: Harut is a lucky SOB!

PS3: FK was even Luckier...

[Nintelten]

Heh...

Nice to hear from the Eothraim :) Mahcared is doing fine btw...

The NW is ugly...really ugly (for us haha). Damn you guys for that re-snag of the RoI. I thought I was in very much happy land. That wasn't nice to ruin my good fortune.

Tharudan's apprentices are just lucky I think :P They possess no real skill. We'll see how 'good' they really are soon enough I think.

Haruth Ramam lucky SoB? HAH! I get the feeling you don't have all the facts :P Maybe it was anticipation on our side? Try again...we don't mind!!!

FK didn't have luck...FK had dragons that you didn't see. Sorry about your Commander though. Seems that one fell off the Walls.

We'll check the tallies after this turn! I just wish the Ritual Character Terminations also kept track of Executed Hostages :) My numbers would be much higher heh.

If you want lucky...The Cardolan got lucky! Hallas and Imlach will be mine again :P (Maybe a few others too)

[Elendar]

<<Tharudan's apprentices are just lucky I think :P They possess no real skill. We'll see how 'good' they really are soon enough I think. >>

I thought that Lhachglin already saw that.

[Nintelten]

1 assassination doesn't prove anything :)

How about the dead agent that tried. How about the injured others that failed?

[sibroc]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Nintelten

> snip...We'll see how 'good' they really are soon enough I think.

Well, you said it...

> ...Haruth Ramam lucky SoB? HAH! I get the feeling you don't have all the facts :P Maybe it was anticipation on our side? Try again...we don't mind!!!

Well Adumir is dead allright so no harm sharing a little secret. Adumir had almost 90 challenge (+25 in his challenge rank). I didn't see a damage artie on Harout so that's damn lucky if you ask me.

Wait a second, you don't have him pamped up with a nice artie now, do you?... Yamie!

> ...FK didn't have luck...FK had dragons that you didn't see. Sorry about your Commander though. Seems that one fell off the Walls.

you are pushing the envelope with the dragons a bit. But you managed to anger NG, I'll give you that.

good game everyone

Symeon

[El Gringo]

I'm a wanker!

[El Gringo]

Oi! I get the feeling I left the room while still logged in last week and one of my steadfast allies took advantage of the situation :O

Heh... oh well ;p

Buhr Waldmarh obviously had a higher loyalty than we expected... Gothmog has no more chaff to bully around :( ...And more interesting moves by your side in the northwest... I'm _REALLY_ looking forward to exchanging mid-game information after this sucker is over, your army commanders move like drunken teenagers looking for a bush party... too many of our assassins keep ending up guarding location hah!

It almost feels like a new game has started this turn... a lot of fronts suddenly stabilized for both sides (or at least appear to, heh maybe they're not as stable as they look).

I'll let you in on our side's secret weapon: we tell all our troops that if they don't win every fight, we're going to make them all watch re-runs of "Who's the Boss" until they crap themselves in terror.

Good turn!

El Gringo,
Executive Producer
Nastrytroll Films

(Coming soon to a theatre near you: "Highlander 4: Duns in Drag")

[Elendar]

Good point about various fronts stabilising this turn. Let's see who's going to throw the next stone in the pond.

Also good point about the manner in which our commanders move. Very insightful, considering that the accuracy of your metaphor extends to what happens once they REACH the party.

I think we've faced more dragons in this game than we've seen in the last three put together.

I'm intrigued to see how your plans work out. I can tell you we have some decent ones to throw at you ;)
Game on!
Elendar of the Sinda,
Tharudan's apprentice

[Nintelten]

It definitely is a very interesting game. I'll fully admit you baffle me half the time with those army icons in the NW heh. That area seems to be the biggest area of contention at the moment.

Hoarmurath had a lucky guard it appears too heh.

As for our dragons...yeah. We've had a bunch. We've pulled a few lucky rabits feet with surviving a few of them as well. One of my poor Rhudaur emissaries I swear ran around for the longest time under 10 health.

So...what happened to Eodor? We seem to have found Eodor II somewhere I believe.

I will also say that this game its VERY hard to judge if you have had a good turn or a bad turn.

We burned the Eothraim capital as well as killed 7 characters yet it doesn't feel like we got that far ahead atm :)

Keep up the good work. The unknown is definitely making this interesting.

[ulma rava]

Eoder, the king of the Northmen...Slaughtered by the Dark Lord Sauron at turn 1, during his army's march from Esgaroth to the capital :(((

You shouldn't have bothered sabotaging the bridge anyway;)

Ulma Rava,

The Lady of the Lake

[Zalendar]

Laugh so that is what that encounter was. The turn we blew the bridge we got the message that Eoder had an encounter and we were like woo stopped him with the bridge!

That makes 2 characters the goods have lost to Sauron this game? Man wish we could run into him... not that I mind you guys running into him hehe.

[Elendar]

The Sinda have also lost a stealthy agent to Carach Caran and I can remember a few other heroes dying to beasts right and left... I'm telling you, we're sticking with the military game this time round ;)

Elendar of the Sinda

[Nintelten]

Eww :) Gotta love the surprises in the game though.

I personally haven't lost a character to encounters (yet). I know we've lost a mage and an agent to encounters.

Last game we were in we lost Murazor to Leucarath :/

We also have a directionally challenge Hoarmurath. Nothing like revealing that CAMP!!! Yes...that CAMP!!! hehe

How will the party shape up after next turn? Or 5-10 turns down the road? Oh...we shall see...we shall see :D

More shall die before this is over!

P.S. I got a burning question that I need to ask... Why the PC on Erennis?

[Elendar]

So how's life treating you Sauronlings lately? We are losing characters right and left and I admit it is a bit unnerving, but you have still to shake us militarily. Looks like a stalemate at the moment but we do happily eat away at your camps and villages to keep us busy until the next tidal waves meet :)

Elendar of the Sinda,
Tharudan's apprentice

[El Gringo]

Apparently, this week was 'Middle Earth Nerf Dagger Week'... I wish someone had told us ahead of time though ;)

...It will certainly be interesting to see how your latest strategy will work out; will the costs of hiring and maintaining small camp-killing armies cost more than our camp losses? I guess it will depend on your success rate heheh :)

Just out of curiosity (if you don't mind me asking... feel free to tell me to bugger off heh), how many research/locate/locate trues did your side start with on Turn 0?

El Gringo,
Executive Producer
Nastrytroll Films

(Coming soon to a theatre near you: "Dead Elves in Heat II: Elladan's Beorning Sex Diaries")

[sibroc]

Well, 5000 to name a commander and 5000 to hire.
...pff, even you can afford that.

Nice work with your agents at 1710 the previous turn. Pitty they didn't kill the real armies though :D Still, it was a good try.

Feelling lonely at the Cardolan MTs now? A well we'll send you some company soon. Stick around.

Since you asked:

Meriot: None
Elharian: None
Eribhen: RA
Cirdan: None
Elrond:None
Erestor:None
Glorfindel:None
Nimrodel:None
Ringlin:RA
Tharudan:None
Saerol:None

See a pattern there?

Our luck has been phenomenal in this game. I mean, the situation with Sauron is getting redicullus. He has killed more armies and characters than your agents.

Symeon
Leader of the HorseLords

[Nintelten]

We shall see how things go in the next couple turns :)

Seems we had a nice bad luck turn...but nothing we can't recover from. Sorry to hear about all the deaths on your side. I'll fully admit I like to see the death of Emissaries and Agents. Must have took the Dwarves a while to raise a 70+ one too :D

How are the Cardolan fairing over all? I get the feeling they are pretty character shy at the moment. What...say maybe 9ish characters left?

Its never lonely in the NW area :)

Tarondor was lucky to escape. He'll have his day with the dagger soon enough.

As always...watch your back cause odds are pretty good eventually I'll stick a dagger in it.

Wanna hear the best part of last turn? The Cloud Lord didn't even score most of the kills. Basically I just took a suck pill and missed hehe We spread the wealth you might say.

Taking bets on the next victims :) I'll be looking forward to the company in Cardolan area. Is it my birthday?

[Dathom]

Heh, I just found this thread after returning to civilization, was commanding the dark armies from a really remote location for the past few months.

Sauron showed himself in Turn 1 at the bridge ? Hehe...I'll have to give Din O extra credit for that bridge busting move.

FK lucky? yes perhaps, but sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. I'm still competing for the title of dragon lord! :)

Still learning.....baffled and confused as always.

[Elendar]

And so after a short lull in the action, everything is happening all over the place again. We did mourn for the loss of Cirdan and Bain, but it appears that you have also started losing men here and there. Hukor's accident was satisfying after all the armies we have had disbanded...

Is it getting personal between me and the Ice King then? After I kidnapped Hukor there was this impressive triple challenge against my unarmed populace, sitting quietly and selling food to the caravans. Well, that's what you get when your capital is hidden - no enemy characters show up on your pop centre reports. Nothing to be done about it :( But then, look what happened to Gaurhir and Gorthog... Should I brace for the retributions? Is it just the begining of a long vendetta?

Not that we miss any excitement here in Lorien. We expected a welcoming comittee at 3120 last turn but you let us down. Let's see what you have in store for us in Morannon.

Rhovanion, Rhun, the Ithil Pass, the northwest and the south are all in flames again. Even the Iron hills get to see some action. I wonder what will be the body-count when the dust settles :)

Elendar

[loraelin]

Not much to say, except that as an advert for the game as a whole, game 77 is pretty good. It's close fought, there haven't been mnay (indeed any?) nations knocked out by turn 17, and importantly the fact that there are two TEAMS competing is preventing the curse of the drop out.

While there may be some advantage in the DS each playing 2 positions, I remain unconvinced that this makes a sigificant difference - lets see where this game takes us! I'm pretty certain there's a hell of a lot still to play for.

Colin (Dunland)

[Nintelten]

Welcoming comittee at 3120 eh? Well...we decided differently :) Apparently there was an agent there too hehe. Poor Emissary :( Dog Lord wasn't too happy to lose him.

Southwest is interesting. Not even really sure who's winning that fight yet. Its a mess down there hehe. I don't think Corsairs are happy with an army on his capital though. And losing that MT. He can't be cheery pirate.

The Sinda must have been pretty sad opening their turns to see someone visited his capital. That was a pretty good turn for us.

Last turn wasn't the best turn. Taking out Cirdan was a nice bonus. Seems we got back (for now) the Mage artifact you guys stole from Murazor at the begining of the game heh.

Morannon is definitely interesting. It will be one area that I will be looking at closely after all the dust settles.

The Northwest is still unstable but we have staved off the Cardolan pretty well I think. Are the Dunn's finally going to come help out the Arthedain? :) I don't think Cardolan is able to field the armies he used to.

[loraelin]

Well that was an interesting turn all round wasn't it? :-)It seems to be boiling down to a good old battle of agents vs armies ...

Colin

[Nintelten]

Definitely interesting. Lots of activitely at least that's for sure.

Somehow I think you guys lost a bunch of Agents this turn :) Poor Elrond's sons. Soon Elrond will have the same fate.

4k troops on Rhudaur capital as well...hrm. That and what's with those 3 (THREE!>?!!?) agents all stealing off of my camp. You killed my Agent you bastages heh. I thought...ah...I can guard against 1 stealer. But 3? :(

Dudannis, Elrohir and Elendar all dead agents on your side. Something I don't mind seeing as I don't like competition in the Character killing side of things :)

3 things I like to dispose of: Agents, Emissaries and the Cardolan hehe

[Elendar]

Actually it was 4 agents that you killed. Poor little Elenque had probably not made a name for herself in the big world yet, but she was a 50 agent plus the +15 stealth arty - not too shabby.

Oh, and does Taurnil's kidnap count?

I'm curious to know Maben's challenge rank - mental note for after this is finished.

So yes, you do well character-wise but what else is new? ;) For the moment the Rhudaur capital has some guests that were probably uninvited, the Corsairs are regaining the upper hand and Mordor is full of Free armies. I am sure that all those armies of yours that rushed to plug the Morannon gap must have left a few holes somewhere else. How well can you juggle?

We are not too happy with the Rhovanion. But we still win everywhere else. I have to say, this game is a dramatic one...

Keep it coming,
Elendar (II ;)

[Nintelten]

Maben is going to need some healing that's for sure hehe. I don't think it could have gotten much closer ending then that.

Corsairs regaining the upper hand? They only took back Isigir heh. We'll see how that whole area pans out though as that's an area of high action and turn over.

We'll let you keep thinking that we 'rushed' to plug the Morannon gap. Makes us look a bit more frantic hehe :D

I also look forward to your new signature in a few turns!!

[El Gringo]

Another fun turn with a number of interesting surprises... I didn't expect you to still have emissaries on Isigir and I'm _really_ glad I didn't change Carrog's 215 to an 810 at the last moment like I wanted...

so have you guys seen Sauron recently? I've been hoping to run into him for some free rank, but he's AWOL :\ ...of course, Gandalf has taken up shop inside Mordor; I guess he's selling fireworks to the goblins :(

El Gringo,
Executive Producer
Nastrytroll Films

(Coming soon to a theatre near you: "Sindar Housewives II - When Hubby's off to war, Wifey's off to whore")

[sibroc]

Originally posted by El Gringo
Another fun turn with a number of interesting surprises... I didn't expect you to still have emissaries on Isigir and I'm _really_ glad I didn't change Carrog's 215 to an 810 at the last moment like I wanted...

You sure are lucky. Elrohir won the initiative and tried to kill Carrog and the Eothraim militia stopped him!!!

Stupid game mechanics?

So, you finally managed to hurt the Eothraim a bit at turn 18. Well, it aint over yet, us riders are pretty tough too kill (ask Ji, Athaulf showed him a good lesson some turns back; speaking of which where is Ji, still liking his wounds?)

Symeon

[Nintelten]

Originally posted by sibroc
You sure are lucky. Elrohir won the initiative and tried to kill Carrog and the Eothraim militia stopped him!!!

Ouch...that's definitely gotta suck. We new Carrog was lucky but we didn't realize he was using the Eothraim to aid himself hehe

Ji shouldn't have failed on Athaulf back then hehe. One of those bad rolls as well. As for what Ji is doing now? Yeah...he's licking a few wounds but he'll be back even better and more improved than previously have no worries. Nothing like licking wounds and naming new characters while doing so :) So...watch the backs because more knives are entering the fray.

Also for how tough the Eothraim are...we are giving Mahcared a nice set of thick skin while we keep him tied up and beaten mercilessly.

[Elendar]

Pah, frustration! You realise that the FK blocking the pass like he did has a one-in-three chance of success, eh? (he needs to win the initiative against both our armies). And this is the second time he does it in this game... Oh well!

Anyway, your agents are running rampant again this turn, but perhaps our second generation of agents is ready to enter the frey and mess a bit with your plans? Let's see what happens over the next couple turns.

Gothmog popping up in the north was a good one, hats off.

On the other hand we were not equally impressed with you having six dragons in your armies this turn. Either you are extremely lucky or you use artifacts to track them down. Half of our team think this is cool, the other half thinks it's a bit lame ;) But all our team thinks it will not be enough to win you the game :p

The emissary-wars promise to be exciting. Let's see who has more of them...

Great game guys,

[Dathom]

You underestimate the power of a whip to get a bunch of trolls moving in the Ithil Pass. That's a very nice collection of armies you have dogpiled at Osgiliath.

Din O has been having a bit of fun this game, however he's much better a blowing up bridges than people, the CL seems to have a lock on that though, something like 35 Ritual Terminations and counting.

Dilgul is ours...whee, after about the 4th try...heh, as for emissaries we are equipping the populace with very large earmuffs so they cannot listen to you about honour and duty and how we possess "weapons of mass destruction", consort with members of the axis of evil etc etc...

Loving this game, only my 2nd one played, but already I'm about 10 turns past how far we got in the first game.

[Nintelten]

Can't use artifacts to track dragons :)

Have I mentioned I hate emissaries? You'll pay for taking my town heh.

That is all for now!

[El Gringo]

Well, when I told Gothmog to build an army to handle the fighting north of Mordor he apparently got a tad confused (probably the troll half of him was in the driver's seat), but what the heck!

Getting dragons isn't really an issue for the Darks; at least not if you're willing to lose a few characters to the hungry ones sometimes or fork out the gold in others (my in-hindsight-ominously-named character Bacon is a good example of the former)...

El Gringo,
Executive Producer
Nastytroll Films

(Coming soon to a theatre near you: "Elrohir in Moria: Dwarven College Girls do it ALL")

[Elendar]

So the artifact trick does not work after all? (we've never tried it in the team, just have heard the rumours). In that case, you are doing a trully impressive job with recruiting these beasts... We estimate that you had as many as six dragons in armies this turn, and that is after we burned half of your camps in the Misties. Impressive :)

On another note, the Cloud Lord was probably not hating emissaries so much when he used them to take 3026 from N Gondor, eh? ;)

Elendar

[Nintelten]

6 would be bit high I would have to say. Unless I missed something as well hehe.

Just because I use something (like emisarries sometimes) doesn't mean I like them!

[Elendar]

Hmmm, let's see,

Lamthanc in Harad
Khuzadrepa near Morannon
Culgor in Rhudaur
Angurth in Arnor
Aivnec in Rhun

That's five that we faced in battle this turn, plus we have reason to believe that you also have Bairanax with one of your armies.

[Zalendar]

Well, I recruited Aivnec off the Dorf capitol!

The artifact thing used to work back when GSI was running the game. But they changed it so either you couldn't give dragons artifacts or they dropped them (not sure which, was a long time ago) for the specific purpose of preventing dragons from being tracked via artifacts.

[Nintelten]

I stand corrected on our Dragons heh.

I honestly wasn't paying attention to how many we had. I liked Culgor and Khuzadrepa though. They helped preserve my Nations ways of life a bit more/longer. Granted I wasn't in control of Khuzadrepa this time. Last time I had that dragon I bounced it off of 1614 walls :(