Circle of Wraiths v's Will pt de II

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Hiya Will Gixxx, and our special guest audience (mainly Brad :-) Here's the new game thread (at Brad's request - are you playing this game yet? :))

Turn 0's have been received, and the difference to our past startups is astounding to put it mildly. We know this game is going to be hard fought on both sides, no expense or effort was spared in the last startup to get armies into the field by both sides. Vagaries of chance aside (we're already seeing a more positive tilt in that area), we're expecting it to be a long conflict. Good luck Will and Gixxx!

Cheers

Rob

[Gixxer]

Hiya Will Gixxx, and our special guest audience (mainly Brad :-) Here's the new game thread (at Brad's request - are you playing this game yet? :))

Turn 0's have been received, and the difference to our past startups is astounding to put it mildly. We know this game is going to be hard fought on both sides, no expense or effort was spared in the last startup to get armies into the field by both sides. Vagaries of chance aside (we're already seeing a more positive tilt in that area), we're expecting it to be a long conflict. Good luck Will and Gixxx!

Cheers

Rob

Hey man,
you've chosen the wrong name.
Brad assigned a different name for the threat.-

Anyway, we could name it "The kick in the eggs part two".-
... sounds better, right?

Have Fun!

Gixxx

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Gahahaha :-) Well the good news is that I'm only putting one egg up this time and you're putting the other :-D Still we'll let Will act like a ball buster for a day or two and then we'll ho slap him around turn 10 :-)

[Winsten Wun Toof]

well we're down to the last 24 hours before turn 1 goes in again. Looking forward to a good run of luck with T1 running (as opposed to that whatever it was last game :-). Good luck Will. You've got the floor for the next 10 turns, after which ...... it's my turn :-)

Winsten Wun Toof

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Well turn 1 has run and everyone has played it cagey changing their opening strategies from our last startup :-) Mordor has been attacked this time from both Thuringwathost ad also Ithil. That means considerably less troops for Harondor definitely, and possibly Mirkwood.

SG, Sinda and Corsairs have pushed on S.Harad rather than N.Harad this time and been blocked in two great heaps (QA's naval aspirations are rather glum at this point :-) Without the NG armies moving south and blocking out the LR his cav has hit 2730, and a new army has moved in so we're looking much better this time in N.Harad, but massed fleets get to move out T2 and make their presence felt.....

At Thuringwathost we've seen the NG cav and 3 Eo cav armies arrive with the IK mincing around at 3020.

Minas Ithil sees 3 armies, one a newly hired 400HI no doubt, against the FK startups.

So the DS will scramble to try and prevent the Freep from pushing in to Mordor.

In Mirkwood the Gob Gate army remained at home to greet the arriving Noldo and Woodmen. 2 icons remain in Eo.

Deceptively quiet around Angmar but I expect the new turn's consolidations and moves will see an influx of day trippers....

Other than that - Will reports that his luck with spells remains dismal, and Rob replies that he has the quietest emmisaries on the planet ... and the clunkiest agents :-) The new turn will be where the interest really starts, with the opening moves either being blocked or allowed through :-)

[Gixxer]

Well done Will!

Gixxx

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Turn 2 has run and the freep armies changing direction. Firstly the expected second turn advance in Angmar materialised with the dwarves from Moria the Duns cav, a large Arth army and a couple Cardy armies making it to 1910. Things livening up for Gixxx :-)

Meanwhile in Goblin Gate we have a Sinda, Northman and a Woodman army, as well as Noldo small army.

In the far south the SG, Sinda and Corsair fleets sunk my two QA flotillas, and then passed off our screens, presumably to Ithil. A small action will be fought at 2733 between a Harad fleet and two Corsair fleets, and the Sinda navy is at 2430 unopposed. Other than that - all quiet in the south on Turn 2.

3 Eo armies and the NG cav were at 3120 last turn, but bugged out with the DS cav closing on the Sea of Rhun. This turn the IK survivors from the capture of 3020 are sitting on the remains of two Eo armies so that should more or less be that.....

In the Ithil the FK armies fought the NG armies with heavy losses but a victory to the Freep.

From memory I think the LAT game is still working badly for Will, and I named an agent AND an emmy from a nation with stealth SNA and got +10 combat bonus - of course!!! :-D Anyway, some harsh dealings for the DS as you would expect at this point. We'll scramble and see what we see.

[Gixxer]

Turn 2 has run and the freep armies changing direction. Firstly the expected second turn advance in Angmar materialised with the dwarves from Moria the Duns cav, a large Arth army and a couple Cardy armies making it to 1910. Things livening up for Gixxx :-)

Meanwhile in Goblin Gate we have a Sinda, Northman and a Woodman army, as well as Noldo small army.

In the far south the SG, Sinda and Corsair fleets sunk my two QA flotillas, and then passed off our screens, presumably to Ithil. A small action will be fought at 2733 between a Harad fleet and two Corsair fleets, and the Sinda navy is at 2430 unopposed. Other than that - all quiet in the south on Turn 2.

3 Eo armies and the NG cav were at 3120 last turn, but bugged out with the DS cav closing on the Sea of Rhun. This turn the IK survivors from the capture of 3020 are sitting on the remains of two Eo armies so that should more or less be that.....

In the Ithil the FK armies fought the NG armies with heavy losses but a victory to the Freep.

From memory I think the LAT game is still working badly for Will, and I named an agent AND an emmy from a nation with stealth SNA and got +10 combat bonus - of course!!! :-D Anyway, some harsh dealings for the DS as you would expect at this point. We'll scramble and see what we see.

... and should I cry now?

Some things in the NW went unlucky, but WK is still in a pretty good shape.

... and a dragon may change a lot.-

One thing why 53 shouldn't have been cancelled:

We had so many dragons on turn 3!

Ha, ha, ha!

Have Fun!

Gixxx

[fax]

(mainly Brad :-) (at Brad's request - are you playing this game yet? :))



I just like my name in electrons.... I'd appreciate it if you guys let Will win, so he won't be so compelled to try to kick our asses... Turn 3 is running next week, eh? You'll run t4 before our t1. Good, the timing is perfect. The Nomads will exact retribution for you sorry bastards......you're welcome....

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Meh! There's one important thing to remember, win or lose - I will always be far prettier than you Brad :) ...... but winning on top of that is just like the fairy at the top of the christmas tree! :-)

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Turn 3 has run and darkness covers the north.... well actually it's the freep that are winning so rather than darkness it's rainbows and sparkles and mardi gras for the north which we dark servants find a bit scary :-)

Fennas Druinin has fallen to a combined ummm everyone - freep attack. The survivors now stand on 2009 and 1908 has a horde on it as well so looking grim for the Rhu.

WK is as yet fairly unmolested with forces at 2405 to take out the WK startups, and WK forces on 2004.

For the drag 2409 has 4 separate freep nations on it this turn, but Dol Guldur is untenanted. Gixxx has revealed the Sinda city at 2514 which has a Sinda army and a Drag one there - interesting! :-) That's it for the north, all in all fairly grim for us.

MORDOR
After a narrow victory of NG startups over the FK startups in the Ithil pass, the massive fleets pushing on Harad backtracked and dropped their cargo at Osgiliath. In a brave push into the teeth of the enemy Skargnakh and 800 FK moochers rushed Minas Ithil and pinned the NG advance, but were overrun by the SG arriving alas. He was given a medal posthumously for his efforts :-) Holding the freep up a turn was a momentous event - have at you Will! :-)

At the back door Pochak met the combined forces of 3 Freep nations so trouble brewing back here as well...... But the DS are quietly confident of keeping this part of the world in darkness and ignorance :-)

The DS also gathered RoW to ourselves this turn - yippee! :-)

In the far south Harad Command has breathed a collective sigh of relief with the Freep fleets retreating north in disarray from our QA torpedo boats. Ossim Rallah had run into two Corsair fleets following the sinking of the QA fleets, and in typical DS fashion said "What the hell - I'm going to attack them anyway!" :-) Both fleets were wounded from previous conflicts and in a very close run battle, both Corsair fleets sank and two lords glub glubbed into the briny :-) Ossim Rallah limped home with a dirty big grin on his face.....

2430 fell to the Sinda. THe only dark spot was - harad command fearing a landing by freep forces in N.Harad pushed the armies onto any vulnerable hex only to see the Corsair push an army onto 2535. We'll have to hope he doesn't have enough to destroy it.

That aside, the Harad are gaining more security every turn with ports going down, and armies building.

All in all trouble for the DS in the NW, growing problems for the freep in the far south, and mayhem around Mordor - how could it be better? :-) Well maybe if the freep were in trouble in the north it would be better :-)

Cheers

Rob

[Gixxer]

Greetings gents,
Rob isn't able to download his files, but looking on mine ... it wasn't so bad.

Got some toys, destroyed a Sinda-city, killed two WM-comms in combat.
... and most of the nations in a pretty good shape.
BR-buyout was really successful.

More when I've seen Rob's results.

Have Fun!

Gixxx

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Still got no idea what happened to my turns :-( got the tech people ringing up somewhere today to sort it out. Not seeing a SG huge army at Barad Ungol is a definite bonus though - hoping my boys sorted that little problem out in the best DS traditions :-)

From what we can see of the maps without having the actual turns, it looks to be a very good turn 4 for the DS - here's hoping :-)

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Well on the whole a very good turn 4 for the DS. Ji Indur converted Celdrahil into a lovely dash mat and matching set off fluffy dice :-) Due to an oversight by SG quartermasters inc it seems his backup went to the wrong hex so the 'huge' SG army without a leader packed up and went home leaving the NG army under Tarondor swinging :-) Tarondor's 'huge' army is now at Barad Ungol facing off with armies from LR, DkLt's and Dog lord. Looks very much like Ji's knife has poked holes in the Freep push on Mordor. Ungol should remain standing :-)

No Freep armies presently at the north gate.

Large battle fought out back between BS and a hotch potch of others including the Eo. Two freep armies including the Eo took severe casualties and the BS force was wiped out. A long hungry march now ahead of the freep.....

Well Celdrahil has joined Teldumeir in the after life, good opportunities for career progression in the freep ranks. Who's next? I got my eye on you Tarondor :-)

SG looks to have the second wave going in against the Harad. My last remaining fleets intercepted a huge SG navy at 2531 and the Sinda at 2532. Well at least after 5 naval intercepts I can't bugger up your movement any more Will :-) Precious few landing points now though, and more to disappear this turn, but which? ..... :-)

All in all the south is turning into a furball for the freep, we'll see whether will can hack it up or whether he chokes on it :-)

The Drag got away with RoC from deep in Freep country, injuring a Noldo agent in the process, so that's another goody! :-)

In Mirkwood the freep multitudes burned Goblin Gate, but in an act of pure spite Urgubal's forces burned 2514 Caras Galadhon to the ground - ouch! that was a city :-) Good one Gixxx :-)

In the NW the Freep have overwhelmed the Rhu. All remaining pops presumably have enough to splatter them. So we're hard pressed early up there.

The sum total, looking progressively more ugly as time goes by for the freep in the south, but a good solid position in the north. Mixed bag in the centre with Gixxx pulling off a brilliant coup as Will went too cute in his push on Gob Gate. An oversight I'm sure he's feeling at the moment :-)

Well I think player of the game for turn 4 went to the impressive Ji who blew through and wounded a guard on the way to eliminating a regent and national leader, and wiping out a huge SG army. Ouch!

Cheers
Winsten Wun Toof (but it's certainly on show with the none too familiar cheesy grin :-)

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Hi there. I thought it handy to post the player's nations for Will's benefit as much as any.
Rob - Harad, QA, CL, BS, FK, IK
Gixxx - WK, Rhu, Drag, Dog, DkLt's, LR
Will - everything with a target painted on it :-)

[Gixxer]

[QUOTE=

Well I think player of the game for turn 4 went to the impressive Ji who blew through and wounded a guard on the way to eliminating a regent and national leader, and wiping out a huge SG army. Ouch!

Cheers
Winsten Wun Toof (but it's certainly on show with the none too familiar cheesy grin :-)[/QUOTE]

Hooo,
Ji did a good job.
... but who've thought that Urgubal would have been able to burn this city?

You always told me ... that won't happen .. the spell etc.
He did it!

Have Fun!

Gixxx

Mission impossible is always possible!

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Yeah I thought the chances on both actions were pretty awful. I'd have given Ji 1 in 3 but double sixes came up I suppose :-) I think Urgubal had probably worse odds, but sometimes fortune favours the brave :-)

[Gixxer]

Yeah I thought the chances on both actions were pretty awful. I'd have given Ji 1 in 3 but double sixes came up I suppose :-) I think Urgubal had probably worse odds, but sometimes fortune favours the brave :-)

... the good one was the reveal-spell!
The rest was more or less routine for the brave Urgubal.

Have Fun!

Gixxx

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Tarondor hated Mordor. It was cold, it was grimy, and the locals were smelly and ugly. Still it came as a complete surprise when he leaned forward on his horse to sound the charge, and his head fell off......

Well an interesting turn 5. Good for the CL - Tarondor joined Celdrahil and Teldumeir in the great flush-a-matic in the sky. He gave up a command arty and what we thought was an odd prosthetic until someone worked out it was a palantir :-)

Elatar remains with the surviving NG forces at Barad Ungol looking rather nervous.

At Minas Ithil yet another charge of Duinhir was splattered from under her nose. Tharudan has moved on to better pastures. Vinyaran is looking distinctly nervous as well :-)

An IK army cut the lines knocking out the recruit at Osgiliath leaving what started as an impressive combined Gondors attack distinctly small and sad. Over two turns now the CL agents have removed two regents and a M50, not too shabby so far.

Nothing at the north gate so for now the Freep look like they've been dealt with.

In the far south the Harad advanced on 2436 drawing the interceptor while Araudagul and the CL cav zipped in unopposed to 2437. Another moment of joy for the CL :-)

The SG super fleet failed to land in the north (no harbours remain in S.Harad, but did pick 3533 to land at which happens to still have a harbour - doh! (You'll pay for that Mr Frankenhoff :-) All in all the far south is turning into a freep nightmare, only 2430 has fallen to date, the harbours are pretty much gone, and the Harad has icons in number. They're also on the move in the south......

The back door has largely bogged down. The remaining dog and dklt's cav marginally won another conflict. There's a few icons out there but not a lot going on for now, and nothing in Eoplex (it all chuffed off to Dol Guldur which this turn entertains 8 Freep armies :-)

The last of Rhu will disappear this turn and 1806 and 1907 will disappear for the WK. Will's gone hard in the NW and left Gixxx with few options. However the WK took out 2405 this turn and looks set to start something beautiful in Mirkwood :-)

The theme continued then this turn with the CL agents successful against solid targets early in the game, stripping the Gondors major push up the Ithil pass. 3 assassination attempts successful, and 3 times guards were wounded. In the far south the DS continue to consolidate fast and are now on the attack, in the north the freep have gone heavy and are overwhelming the defences. May turn into a classic north versus south yet.....

[Gixxer]

Hi there Rob and Will,
a really good report.-

WK will do his part.
Fortunately the first dragons are there.

Have Fun!

Gixxx

[fax]

Bah~! You're all ninnys and wimps. MY Cloud Lord is out sabotaging bridges in SG...and we're gonna kick his smelly ass anyway (note to the Free - WIPE and dammit...shower at LEAST weekly, this Victorian bath-on-your-death-bed BS has Ren feeling downright sanitary...)

b

[Gixxer]

Bah~! You're all ninnys and wimps. MY Cloud Lord is out sabotaging bridges in SG...and we're gonna kick his smelly ass anyway (note to the Free - WIPE and dammit...shower at LEAST weekly, this Victorian bath-on-your-death-bed BS has Ren feeling downright sanitary...)

b

... so, so ninnys and wimps ...

Brad, if you're not able to use your CL-agents the right way, you better post at facebook or something similar, but not here.

Take a cold shower before posting again.

Have Fun!

Gixxx

[Winsten Wun Toof]

He's just pulling your leg Gixxx. He came, he grumbled, he went back under his bridge :-) Almost a julius Caesar moment :-)

[Gixxer]

He's just pulling your leg Gixxx. He came, he grumbled, he went back under his bridge :-) Almost a julius Caesar moment :-)

.. let's brush him with maple-syrup and wait for the ants!

[fax]

.. let's brush him with maple-syrup and wait for the ants!

Did that kind of thing in college a lot...not the ants, mind you....

[Gixxer]

Did that kind of thing in college a lot...not the ants, mind you....

... so I should better tell it to you wife?
might be spicy for an important part of your life!

Have Fun!

Gixxx

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Well if that's the case Gixxx, why don't we make it crabs instead of ants?....... those big suckers at the bottom of the ocean that measure about a metre across :-)

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Turn 6 has run and a fairly non descript turn at that...... The DS will claim victory :-D

In the NW the freep continue to make numbers tell with armies lobbing in at 2005 and 1906 unopposed. 1804 and 2006 now have a wedge between them (and Rhu is gone of course).

In Mirkwood the WK should win a fight at 2406 and is into slow expansion :-)

2715 however has another turn's buildup of freep icons - will they attack this turn? We're all cheering for them wondering when they'll just get it over and done with :-) Icons are finally appearing around the black gate - well on the north road anyway. No doubt we'll see some activity on the north side of Mordor shortly.

To the south - the Ithil pass saw Elatar's army at 3024 fried by a dragon. Elatar survived alas...... for now :-) Vinyaran ran back to Osg and joined two other NG forces to finish off the IK army there. Pretty much a stalemate in Ithil for the time being.

Nothing at the back door for the time being either.

In the far south SG forces burned 3533 and pushed an army down to 3334. In a tit for tat CL cav forces captured 2437 from the Corsairs and was met by two armies. A battle was fought at 2436 where the Harad were wiped out, the QA badly hurt and the Corsairs badly hurt. Never saw the QA army wiped out which is a strange result?????

A QA army pushed onto 2136 where it was met by a Corsair army. Battles being fought on Umbar territory instead of Harondor - that's a nice change :-)

On the character front Duinhir finally threw himself in front of a CL knife rather than see a third charge assassinated. A CL knife killed the guard but not the target in Vinyaran. Another odd result?

Freep bought and sold the Timber market last turn. DS bought the bronze market and will make a nice penny this turn.

All in all - strong freep in the north, trouble looming in the south. Winsten Wun Toof feels very pretty! :-)

[Gixxer]

Winsten Wun Toof feels very pretty! :-)

After all that's something we like to hear.

Have Fun!

Gixxx

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Turn 7 has run more or less uneventfully.
Dirhael of the freep loaded up with all sorts of vibrating, whirring and beeping toys got his first assassination right in a dreadful pedicure accident. Tried to trim some nose hairs and took Durkarian's head off......

The CL assassins for their part threw a house warming for the CL, and no one turned up so they got some other much needed actions completed and return to the fray. Look for surprises, lucky door prizes and twists galore this turn.....

Taking stock.....

In the far south Harad has lost 2430, and both QA and Harad ports/harbours are now down. Battles continue on and around Umbar pops. To date it's been a battle of attrition, and Umbar has a little more, but we'll see how long they can keep the pace up.

In Ithil yet another IK comm was captured in combat brrrr :-S NG has an advantage in troop numbers against the FK for the time being, but has to negotiate the head tax being collected by messers Indur and co.

There has been no action as yet through the north gate, however several freep icons appear around 3216. A very large group destroyed Dol Guldur last turn so no doubt it will warm up on the north side......

The back door has been quiet all game with DS ready to play, but no other kids willing to come over....

For the time being the WK continues to be active in N.Mirkwood, while the freep have overrun the south

Rhudaur has been completely cleared while WK retains the stronger half of his nation for the time being.

A good spring board for the freep north, but the south is fraying. Stealing and agent actions are starting to really pick up now. A single freep steal netted $17k from the NG cap last turn, never seen that before :-D They're going to find it increasingly hard to remain a viable force especially post t10 which I've historically found to be a huge watershed in the difficulty to complete agent actions. We should be seeing the lesser agents capable of making average and hard orders with more frequency, all dread for the freep.

Economically the DS are very strong and have bought and sold the market quite a few times.

Well T8 runs next, time's a passin'.....

Cheers
winsten wun toof

[Gixxer]

Yeah, really uneventful!

We will change this now!
The next turn-results will be a little bit more interesting.

Have Fun!

Gixxx

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Turn 8 has run and all in all I think the DS had the win though it did come with some eye crossing from Gixxx :-) Two WK comms were PC'd and killed by dwarves, and Ashdurbuk Zalg assassinated. Oooh that hurts! :-) But as the WK is half destroyed anyway - meh! not as damaging as NG's turn.
The agents returned to the fray. Elatar PC'd Ji and hurt him good - but died - so sad! :-) Ji then installed a new knife and fork drawer in Veantur's head and removed his valuables along the way (Ring of Axardil, palantir and +500 combat arty :-). Another two comms were kidnapped. So the NG lost slightly more characters, but did it from a fully functioning nation.....
Ithil pass - with the demise of so many Gondorians it's changed somewhat. The closest Freep icon to Ithil is now 3026 (in combat) and 2926. MI and Osg still in freep hands but may not be for long?......
At the north gate enemy forces have reached 3621 but have to face up to defenders.
3 armies are at the v/t at 3020 - the freep might just have the numbers there :-) Icons at 3119, 3219 and 3017. DS are not too worried just yet :-)
Far south - Harad and Corsairs continue to throw themselves at each other. Mostly just mutual annihilation on armies so far but the freep have icons at 2536 and 2636 so will possibly cause a nuisance of themselves (which I'm sure the DS will repay in due course :-)
As far as you can see in Mirkwood is dead bodies :-D grief!
In Angmar lots of armies on 2006 so WK nearly out of Angmar.
We're continuing on the theme of strong freep in the north, and weak in the south....
Economically DS are strong.
DS lead the way in artifact recovery. All the curse arties are in DS hands, as are the agent arties. Only collowhesta of the hidden game start arties has fallen to the freep.
It's an interesting game, the freep have to crack Mordor to win this one, and the DS are ready....

[Gixxer]

...anyway WK is still alive.-

The NW haven't got any character-support, while the Freps-killer is acting there...

Have Fun!

Gixxx

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Turn 9 has run and the DS are still here which is fairly convenient for me :)

CL finished off a couple, and kidnapped one. Ji limped off the field badly wounded from his PC last turn. We're looking forward to his come back :)

Well turn 10 is the magic number and coming up next turn. Hoping for more successes in our agentry.....

From the top Not much cheer for the DS in Angmar with 2006 about to fall and 1804 surrounded.

In Mirkwood the WK is doing somewhat better though I dare say he will be receiving numerous unwashed visitors shortly :)

It's been pretty quiet at the backdoor. A couple icons sneaking in. 3621 has been fortified, but not much going on.....

At the black gates a couple Eo armies have been stopped at 3120.
Another at 3121 and a NG and Eo army blocked at 3022.

The FK is finally marching forward and is at MI unopposed.

Further south the SG will burn 2835 this turn. And a couple more blocks on the Corsairs - nothing hugely concerning to anyone down there.

2135 is playing host to quite a bit of Corsairs action so we'll see what we see there.

The Harad run over a Corsair army with mumakhil and put the commander in a bag - that was pretty funny :D

All in all - pretty uneventful turn all around, which as Will predicts I will say - We'll take that as a win for the DS :D

Artifact and economic games going well for the DS - can't comment on Freep, other than to say he's got no artifacts :-)

Well as said with turn 10 about to happen, most of the character intense preparations for war are coming to conclusion for the DS at which time they historically unleash their character assets on the freep. Let's hope it's all it's cracked up to be :)

Cheers

Winsten Wun Toof

[Gixxer]

Turn 9 has run and the DS are still here which is fairly convenient for me :)

CL finished off a couple, and kidnapped one. Ji limped off the field badly wounded from his PC last turn. We're looking forward to his come back :)

Well turn 10 is the magic number and coming up next turn. Hoping for more successes in our agentry.....

From the top Not much cheer for the DS in Angmar with 2006 about to fall and 1804 surrounded.

In Mirkwood the WK is doing somewhat better though I dare say he will be receiving numerous unwashed visitors shortly :)

It's been pretty quiet at the backdoor. A couple icons sneaking in. 3621 has been fortified, but not much going on.....

At the black gates a couple Eo armies have been stopped at 3120.
Another at 3121 and a NG and Eo army blocked at 3022.

The FK is finally marching forward and is at MI unopposed.

Further south the SG will burn 2835 this turn. And a couple more blocks on the Corsairs - nothing hugely concerning to anyone down there.

2135 is playing host to quite a bit of Corsairs action so we'll see what we see there.

The Harad run over a Corsair army with mumakhil and put the commander in a bag - that was pretty funny :D

All in all - pretty uneventful turn all around, which as Will predicts I will say - We'll take that as a win for the DS :D

Artifact and economic games going well for the DS - can't comment on Freep, other than to say he's got no artifacts :-)

Well as said with turn 10 about to happen, most of the character intense preparations for war are coming to conclusion for the DS at which time they historically unleash their character assets on the freep. Let's hope it's all it's cracked up to be :)

Cheers

Winsten Wun Toof

I'll have to take the losses in the NW.
Let's say they're foreseen.

... but WK won't die so soon.

Have Fun!

Gixxx

[fax]

I suspect Will is having more fun playing the Nomads than you guys... That's okay, we're lulling him into a false sense of security...

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Yes but when he's with us he's standing amongst the beautiful people :-)

[Gixxer]

I suspect Will is having more fun playing the Nomads than you guys... That's okay, we're lulling him into a false sense of security...

Maybe that's the truth, Brad.
Unfortunately we can't read much about your game.-

Will isn't doing bad, but his "overkill-attacks" costs him a lot of time.
.... and we're not sleeping!

We could have done much better, me thinks ... but the real life costs a lot of time at the moment.

Have Fun!

Gixxx

[fax]

We could have done much better, me thinks ... but the real life costs a lot of time at the moment.

Yes, much the same over here, the Nomads are almost playing a team Gunboat against Will, it's been so quiet. As you can expect, without a hyper manager checking everything going on, we've missed out on a lot of little things here and there.

Will appears to be playing much the same kind of game - all power in the North West, next would be Harad, no real threatening stance against Mordor. He's doing much better with artifacts against us also. Time will tell how it goes, we're all happy enough so far~!

Cheers,

Brad

[wfrankenhoff]

Hi Brad, Gixxx, Rob

Just like you folks feel like you've missed opportunities, I should say that I feel the same way--in both games. Don't have the excuse of having to coordinate multiple people, so it's nobody's fault but my own.

That said: Rest assured, both Nomads and Circle of Wrath (though we have along way to go in both games), if we ever play again, it won't be nearly as pleasant for you:)

W

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Oh that's a shame Will. I was thinking about being nice to you on the next outing :-)

[Gixxer]

Hi Brad, Gixxx, Rob


Don't have the excuse of having to coordinate multiple people, so it's nobody's fault but my own.


W

Hi there Will,
the lack of time shouldn't be an excuse ... but be sure we would have been able to do some things much better.

.... and it really looks good for the DS!

Have Fun!

Gixxx

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Hi all Turn 10 has just rolled by. 1804 is hosting a convention of odd freep types - will this be the turn they kick Murazor out of his ancestral home? Two successful assassinations for Will at 1804 and 2305 which is just plain bad sportsmanship :-) Might as well round out the rest of the freep character wins - Ashdurbuk Zalg PC'd and killed at 1804 and Grasty of the CL PC'd and killed at 3026.

On the DS side Telumehtar PC'd Hargrog of the LR at 3026 and died :-)

Argirion and his large army burned 2835 to the ground in the far south and then had his head turned into a bowling ball.

A Corsair character was kidnapped and his guard injured.

An Eo comm kidnapped.

And a couple Woody characters whacked at the capital - one of which yielded up Vilya and Helkaluin :-)

The freep should also have heaps enough troops to take out 2135.

There are 5 freep icons around NW Mordor and a few at the back door.

By and large Harad remains intact minus 2430 and 2835. QA has lost 3533 and will likely lose 2135. Other than that, the Harad saw off all 3 enemy attacking armies for the loss of an unfortified town. So little damage to the DS so far in the south, and lots of damage in the north. Agent game starting to pick up now.

Cheers

Winsten Wun Toof

[Gixxer]

Hi all Turn 10 has just rolled by. 1804 is hosting a convention of odd freep types - will this be the turn they kick Murazor out of his ancestral home? Two successful assassinations for Will at 1804 and 2305 which is just plain bad sportsmanship :-) Might as well round out the rest of the freep character wins - Ashdurbuk Zalg PC'd and killed at 1804 and Grasty of the CL PC'd and killed at 3026.

Cheers

Winsten Wun Toof


... Ash was killed two or three turns ago, not last turn!
This turn they killed Lomelinde and Ulrac.

Doesn't really matters as long as we're able to take out much more of the Freps.

... and we did it and will do it further on!

Have Fun!

Gixxx

[Gixxer]

Game over!

Will laid down his arms.
Thanks for the interesting game Will!

All the Best and have Fun of course!

Gixxx

[Winsten Wun Toof]

Hiya all - yes Will has surrendered and well done Will. The DS weathered the game pretty well......

Angmar has fallen, but Gixxx's WK is alive and well in N.Mirkwood for the time being. With the DS pumping their character game, we bought time with Gixxx's sacrifices schooling our assets for a big blow rather than frittering any resources. With 6 artifact augmented CL agents, and 3 of them about to hand off the arties as they had reached levels where they could be consistently successful without them - the counterattack was about to begin in earnest. S.Mirkwood was taken out by the freep with all but 2809 in Freep hands.

Apart from that - pretty dread for the Freep - Mordor in it's entirety is still in DS hands with Osgiliath due to be threatened away this turn. The bridges are down and on top of the agents, the DS gathered EVERY curse arty leaving not even the freep ones for Will. Our first curse squad would have come available next turn, and we had the arties to field two more.

Harad remained pretty much unmolested with 2430 captured by the Sinda (and getting flogged as a training ground for our agents to steal on what we were guessing as around 15 loyalty :-) and 2835 was burned. The rest of Harad was still in force with the T11 character namings allowing me to pump both north and south full of recruits. We were about to visit the Corsair capital with two super agents and begin dismantling them for the approach of our armies.

N.Harad had 9000HI and was about to march 8000 of them to Ithil to join around 6000 FK HI put the bridge back up and stream over with dragons, agents and cursers. Not pretty given that we could muster what I would guess as an 80% chance of success at threatening MA away without worrying about our emmy assets. Incidentally N.Harad had a castle at 2730 and was about to raise one at 2632 (the shore hex)

S.Harad was now fully recruiting its whole pop base as well and with the agents and the support of QA they were ready to roll.

SG was about to come under it's own pressure as well which it would have struggled to deal with - but as there may be another game on day - I'll keep that one up my sleeve :)

So between our agents and cursers we could have prevented the bridge being knocked out, and belted two Freep nations out of the game per turn targets willing.

Financially we bought the markets EVERY turn and by games end were shocked that we could sell $40k per nation when our experience is of limits in the low $20's. The team treasury was on $980k - one more turn would have cracked the magic million :-)

Despite fortifying all over the shop we had 26k timber, 198k food (we never got to sell it because of metals sales) 100k bronze and 56k steel. We also had 57k leather and 13k mounts whilst Gixxx was pumping cav, and we hadn't really concentrated on cav production to that point (but were about to step it up :-). So pop base - extremely strong, character base very strong, economically as I've never seen it before, arties (we got all the majors bar collowhesta so very good there), and resources to build the strongest armies in small mountains.

Oh and we managed a couple hits on Freep characters and netted all their fun stuff like Vilya :-)

We all agree that if Will had pursued a different course at the start, not concentrated so much, and hit vital targets like Harad it would be a very different feeling game. Hitting Ithil so hard held the FK up until now, but failed to do enough damage. That and my CL had a knack of hitting him where it hurt most taking out critical armies with critical assassin hits at regular junctures breaking attacks down.

A good try to Will. Deciding to play it differently after we had a restart on the game counted against him. He should have just done the same thing or gone for a more rounded cross the board attack IMO, but not to be.

The DS - Gixxx and I thank Will for a great game. That's the first time I've every run team economics and it was phenomenal!!! :-) We just couldn't spend our gold :-)

Not sure what our near future looks like - will leave that to Gixxx as always, but wish Will well in his other ventures

Winsten Wun Toof signing off and boring old Rob back on deck...