The Blind Sorcerer position is a good one for a new player. You have an enormous starting army which you should get rid of as soon as possible. March it straight to the Ithil Pass and die in glorious battle. I've seen players use this army to push north and take on the Northmen and Dwarves. This is in my opinion a bad idea. You want to lose troops as quickly as possible not capture pop centres. With your army the pop centres of Minas Ithil and Osgiliath can be captured for the Fire King. What's more most of your troops will die in the attempt and this is what you want! You should not try to be a military nation until your economy is on an even keel. You primary role is to find artefacts for your DS allies and make use of the starting ability of 40 mages and build up curse squads for later in the game. The 'Mordor Switch' ploy (where you swap a Major Town with the Witch King) is a good idea if you want to be involved in army combat.
Strategy Guide by Brian Mason
Strategy Guide by Micheal Thomas
Response to Micheal by Tom Walton
Anatomy of a Game Turns 1-25 by Steve Lathom
Blind Sorcerer Starting Information
Strategy & Tactics: The Blind Sorcerer
By Brian Mason
This is an interesting position to play. Unlike many of your Dark Servant allies, you are relatively safe from early Free People attack. This allows you the luxury of developing the position more carefully. There are many possible options for this position. This presents just one of them.Because Free Peoples must either come through Mordor, through the Cloud Lord or around the east side of Mordor and the Sea of Rhun to get to you, you have the opportunity to send all of your troops out to engage the enemy. The question that remains is where?Consider the time to reach the following three objectives, using a variety of movement techniques: one, towards Osgiliath (through Mordor) with 1 navy movement and 3 regular marches, two, towards Pelargir (through mountains to south) with 6 regular marches, or three, towards Dilgul {4217} (around east side of Mordor) with 1 navy movement and 3 regular marches.
So, by turn four or six depending on your objective you could have your army engaged.
Consider economics, 12250 (taxes at 70 %) + 4072 (expected gold production) - 12150 (army costs) - 2250 (pop centre costs) - 7800 (character costs) = - 5878 gold
Like the Dragon Lord plan, I would recommend developing the nation with emissaries first. Use the at start gold surplus and that from sales to create emissaries and population centres in gold producing hexes (i.e. mountains and hills/rough). Then improve those population centres so that they generate revenue.
A strategy which I saw employed in game 97, and I would advocate when possible, involves trading a major town with the Witch-King. It gives the Witch-King a backup capital in a more secure location and a nearby ally (both of which he desperately needs), and gives the Blind Sorcerer a way to get in the "thick" of things without a four turn march.
You have the ability to name 40 mages, but who cares about that? You start the game with seven characters who have a mage rank of 30 or better. How do you use them?
Always have them prentice magery. This is the only way to get them to the levels necessary to learn hard spells, which they are, for the most part, too low to learn at game start. Have them within range of your army. Just before you anticipate moving into a hex with combat, move a bunch of your mages there. The extra offensive or defensive punch they can provide can turn the tide in a close battle.
Strategy and Tactics: The Blind Sorcerer
by Michael Thomas
The following are my suggestions on how to play the opening moves for the Blind sorcerer position and while it is not the strategy I employed, it is the one I now wish I had. I welcome anyone's critiques.
WEAKNESSES
Armies(Navies): You start with a large (and expensive) army made up of primarily worthless troops. You have weak commanders and are four turns of movement (with food) away from your nearest target.
Characters: You have no emissaries or agents to speak of as well as crummy commanders, but you do have an abundance of the weakest class in the game, namely mages.
Economy: You start with a large deficit, no enemy population centres within easy reach, no agents (to steal gold) nor any emissaries (to create camps) and expensive characters incapable of producing revenue for your nation. Also most of your population centres are unfortified making raising your taxes a bad idea.
Special abilities: These range from mediocre to completely useless. With all this in mind should you now be demanding your money back from GSI? Not necessarily, you do have one thing going for you.
STRENGTH
Location: Your position inside Mordor is an excellent one from a defensive standpoint. Your capitol is unlikely to be menaced militarily at all, barring a near total collapse of your Dark servant team-mates. And you have wonderful defensive and productive locations in the mountains in which to place your camps.
These are my suggested moves for the first two turns...
Turn 0: CHARACTER ORDERS
Akhorahil
520
785
Ethacali
725
785
Gastmorgath
705
710
Leardinoth
725
740
Mardrash
325
740
Morarthdur
325
740
Naldurgarth
705
710
Pochak
345
425
Turn 1: CHARACTER ORDERS
Akhorahil
300
520
Ethacali
430
705
Gastmorgath
705
710
Naldurgarth
705
710
Pochak
325
435
New Agent
325
605
New Emis.
325
734
Overall strategy-
Get rid of expensive and useless characters and armies and create emissaries fast as you can. Also natsell off everything right away (prices are at their highest for most items on the first turn) and dump your armies food to natsell when food reaches 2. This will quickly turn around your economy allowing you, later on in the game, to become an effective economic and military power.
CHARACTERS:
Akhorahil- Use him, at least early on in the game as an emissary. As soon as he reaches 30+ emissary create camps. With the order #300 you should lower your tax rate to 39%, this will cause a 0-2 point increase in loyalty in each of you population centres every turn. This is very important for a nation of camps.
Ethacali- Name a new 30 point emissary, then join the army and improve as a commander, also research some useful spells.
Gastmorgath- Research locate artefact true as fast as you can and get out there and retrieve them.
Leardinoth- Have him name a new 30 point agent then retire this useless character whose slot is much better filled by another emissary.
Mardrash- Same as Leardinoth, retire immediately. Morarthdur- While not useless you just have too many mages, retire him.
Naldurgarth- Same as Gastmorgath, find artefacts.
Pochak- Dump all your armies food for natselling, then retire all of the troops except 100 H inf. Retiring these troops saves you 10,700 gold a turn plus allows you to natsell off the armies food. Then train the remaining army to increase command ranking of himself as well as all commanders with the army.
New Agent- Guard your capitol and increase your rank.
New Emissaries- Name these guys as fast as you can until you reach your 12 character max. (6 total new 30 point emissaries). Get out there and fill up those mountains with camps. This will give you gold as well as tons of metals to natsell.
Q: Throw away a 60 point mage are you crazy?
A: Simply put mages are the weakest class in Middle earth. All other classes can make money for you while improving their skills, agents steal gold, emissaries create and improve population centres, commanders capture enemy population centres. The only way mages can make money is to get hold of the lost conjure mounts or food spells and cast them for natselling. But alas while doing this they don't improve their ranking. In fact their ranking barely ever improves, 1-2 points from a 710 order big deal. Any new emissaries you create will undoubtedly have their "natural" ranks end up passing by any of the straight 60 point mages you keep.
Q: Dump my army!?! Won't I be defenceless?
A: Yes, but you're practically defenceless against most free people nations with your army intact anyway and it's bankrupting you. If you try to use it offensively you must march four turns (spending 10,000+ gold plus food costs each turn) to reach the nearest enemy population centre. Assuming you don't run into the Eothraim cavalry on the way you might be able to take one or two population centres before losing your army. But since your recruiting base is so far away you can't possibly expect to hold them for long. So all you have gained is the income from a couple of population centres for a few turns while you've spent around 80,000 to 100,000 gold in army wages and food costs. If you wish to use the army defensively what are you protecting? You might have one village, one camp and maybe your backup capitol attacked early in the game. (I think a threat to your backup capitol is unlikely unless your Dark servant brothers are folding around you). And if you kept your army intact you might be able to resist one ill though-out attack by a free nation.
However the income from these population centres, at a 40% tax rate, is roughly 5000 gold a turn with natsells. Is it worth spending 10,000 gold a turn to guard them? And yes I realise the negative effects the loss of these population centres would have on the loyalty of the others, but I fee it is worth the gamble.
SUMMATION: With a little luck you should escape the first few turns relatively unscathed. Remember your enemies won't know you have no army and it's no sin to ask your allies for help. You'll also have some gold to spread around your allies which will create good feelings in them towards you and then in turn they'll probably be willing to help defend you if you need it. In a relatively short time you'll have quite a nice little army of emissaries who can take away enemy population centres in more strategic locations. Then you may recruit armies from more accessible locations and begin your military campaigns.
P.S. Thank you to all the players whose ideas I may have incorporated into this article, especially you Ji Indur!
Hope you enjoyed it!
Reply to Akhorahil
From Tom Walton
It seems to me that Mike's plans for the Blind Sorcerer are more appropriate for a neutral nation than for one that belongs to an allegiance. Though Mike talks about asking for help from allies, I ask: why should they give you any? If you get rid of your mages and your army, what do you have to offer in return?
I have trouble with two points. First, the ability to create 40-point mages is enormously useful if done correctly. These mages can learn scrying spells and scout out areas your allies can't see, locate characters/artefacts, and so forth. In return for these services, it's only appropriate that said allies supply you with sufficient gold to keep your nation operational. You obtain the information and artefacts, they supply the gold and pop centres. Not a bad trade really.
For this reason, I see little value in retiring Blind Sorcerer mages. Quite the opposite; I'd take every opportunity I could to train them up, making them more efficient (and more valuable). Note that they can both train and cast spells at the same time, as outlined in the rulebook, so you give up nothing by doing both each turn.
The mages can also be turned into offensive weapons once they get a hold of an artefact they can learn curses off of. In fact, the Blind Sorcerer is the only nation that can regularly count on creating two complete curses teams, possibly three with luck. In combination with locates/scries and teleportation, these teams can jump around the map causing incredible havoc to all.
The second point I disagree with concerns the army. While Mike is quite correct that the most appropriate thing to do for the Blind Sorcerer is disband it, it's just about the worst thing to do for Mordor. Mordor as a whole needs those five thousand troops in battle to give them the edge over their opponents. Without these troops the Dark Servants start just about even with their foes in the area, a terrible position to be in for an offensive. Disbanding the troops will almost undoubtedly put an early end to Mordor's ability to mount a strike against the enemy. Lose the troops fast, yes; but don't disband them.
Game 97: From the Point of View of the Blind Sorcerer
By Steve Latham
As the readers of the Mouth have been given quite a biased opinion (for obvious reasons) of game 97 for the past year (and because the editors asked me to) I am writing this summary of game 97 from the Dark Servant perspective. First off let me set the stage and summarise the players involved. I play the Blind Sorcerer and my friend and co-worker Brian Lowrey is playing the Mighty Witch King. Most of my knowledge of game 97 stems from these two positions. The Ice King, The Cloud Lord, and The Long Rider all live in Ontario Canada. The Dragon Lord lives in Florida and the original Dog Lord lives in Ohio (I say original because this position recently changed hands due to financial concerns on the first player's part). To be honest, I forget where the Easterling resides.
These are the positions remaining active for the Dark Servants.
TURNS 1-6:
The BS's strategy at game start was to establish an economy and find artefacts. Most of the army was retired on the first turn and work was begun. The WK's strategy was a mixed bag.
The cavalry was combined and Cykur was sent out to threaten towns in northern Mirkwood and the plains. This tax-base would subsidise the war-effort in the West. Meanwhile Ashdurbuk was sent into Arnor on a suicide run to keep Arthedain from striking right away.
The Eothraim did not come in the back door so the retiring of the BS army did not turn into a disaster. Mt Gram was given to the BS by the WK and an army was begun in Angmar. The Ring of Wind was retrieved on turn 6 and the career of the infamous (I like to think so) Sharpkathoz was born. Ashdurbuk's head was handed to him (on a card sent by the Arthedain player) and he returned to Carn Dum (which had been made into a city) to plot revenge. Zarak Dum was threatened away from the Dwarves and also made into a city. During these early turns no attacks were made on Angmar. Camps were laid down in the Misty Mountains for Dragon spotting. In Mordor the the war faired well in the early going. The NG did not use the refuse challenge order and lost many a commander to the Dark Lts. and the Fire King. The Ice King and the Long Rider's southern army cover Osgiliath early but lacked the resources to take it at this point after a battle with NG. The Fire King stepped in and finished the job. At this point the QA had never been heard from (it turns out that this position was dropped right away and not picked up by somebody until around turn 5). Also, communication with the Dark Lts was difficult as he would only communicate through the mail or with cards. The Cloud Lord attacked the towns along the south-western edge of Mordor and also appropriated the first Dragon for the DS. SG found out about this the hard way.
In Mirkwood, the Woodmen never materialised (I like to tell the WK that it is because Akhorahil stopped in Buhr Widefiras on his way to receiving Mt Gram and intimidated him into dropping). The Dragon Lord and the Sinda were very timid players and did basically nothing but stare at each other. The
Dwarves caught the Dragon Lord just west of Mirkwood and destroyed his Goblin Gate army. On the plains the Dog Lord and the Eothraim duked it out. Not much is known about the goings-on in this theatre.
In the East the Long Rider pummelled the Northmen by killing every character in site. He did not move his capital and lost every starting character by turn 8 or so. He dropped somewhere in there.
The Neutrals: The Corsairs said they would not turn until the end of the game in order to keep options open in case of back-stabbing. Some of us were offended by this attitude so it was decided to just leave the Corsairs to their own devices. (Some mildly nasty mud-slinging went on in here but we won't get into that.)
Rhudaur was courted in a big way by the WK but could not be swayed. This should have been a big signal to the WK as to Rhudaur intentions, but it was played straight (by both sides) until icon change. Then, naturally, the gloves were off.
The Easterlings were persuaded to turn DS with gifts of metals and artefacts. He changed his icon on turn 8 and did....nothing.
The Harad and Dunlendings dropped.
TURNS 7-12
Angmar: On around turn 8 Cardolan finally attacked Angmar. They were met by Ashdurbuk Zalg and crushed, losing a few characters in the process. Cardolan has not been seen in Angmar since.
On turn 11 The Battle of 1805 took place between the forces of Arthedain and the Witch King/Blind Sorcerer. 4200 Arthedain troops under Marl Tarma vs. 2800 under Rogrog, 1400 under Ashdurbuk, and 2100 under Leardinoth. After the battle the WK was greatly depleted but victorious. In the after-math of this battle Arthedain lost 4 characters to kidnapping and personal challenge. Also on this turn the Noldo lost Elrond in personal combat to Murazor. Arthedain was hurting after this but would be back... The Noldo influenced away a WK town and hired an army under Glorfindel.
Mordor: Southern Gondor raged into the Ice King capital and captured it. Olbermarl was handed over by the Long Rider as a temporary capital. Also on the same turn the Ice King turned his town just north of Osgiliath into a MT. The Dark Lts helped the Ice King repel SG from Mordor. Meanwhile the FK was building a HUGE army to march on the SG capital after having captured Minas Anor. The BS took Pelergir with Emissaries (with help) and handed it over to the IK.
The East: Pochak of the BS marched north to help the LR with mop-up duty and continued on to the Iron Hills. Eventually removing the Dwarven presence from there and continuing on to Mirkwood. Smaug was added to his army while in the Iron Hills.
Mirkwood: The Sinda and the Dragon Lord finally met in battle. Celedring was killed by Thranduil in PC but the 4000 strong Sinda army was wiped out by a dragon. The Noldo attacked Goblin Gate and moved toward Dol Goldur. Cykur of the WK continued to threaten pop-centres and be chased around by the dwarves. The WK handed Mt Gundabad off to the Cloud Lord so that another DS could have a presence in the North. The Dk Lts and Dog Lord continued a mystery war with the Eothraim.
The South: The Corsairs annexed the Harad territory. The QA position was picked up and this player attempted to annex part of Harondor also.
TURNS 13-20 (or THIS GAME REALLY HEATS UP)
Angmar: On turn 13 Rhudaur moves to Mt Gram and turns good. However, the BS sensing this may be coming has vacated and met up with the Witch King at Morkai (2005). Here they have caught Glorfindel's army of 900 HI. Morkai became known to the DS as the Blood Hex (probably something worse by the FP). On turn 14 many things happened. Rogrog is killed by Glorfindel in personal Challenge (a misunderstanding of the challenge rules caused this as Ashdurbuk challenged Glofindel with a larger challenge rank, but who goes first is actually determined by natural challenge rank, no artefacts). Rogrog had no back-up commander and the WK lost a 1500 HI. Glorfindel was defeated at Morkai by the remaining 3600 DS troops. Pelendur of Cardolan was in the hex and was killed by Akhorahil in PC (I believe he was leading a company of emissaries). Rhudaur captured Mt Gram and moved into Morkai.
The WK moved all his remaining Angmar forces (less recruiting 100 troop armies) into Morkai. Meanwhile in Arthedain's capital, Argeleb II personal challenges Sharpkathoz (who was not refusing because Murazor was in the hex and challenging Argeleb. GSI says the name was mis-spelled).
Sharpkathoz pulls off the miracle upset and only takes 9 points of damage. Scratch one Dunedain King. Sharpkathoz moves and joins Akhorahil's army at Morkai. The stage is set for turn 15.
Game 97 turn 15 was the turn from hell for the Blind Sorcerer and the Witch King. The BS had already down-graded Rhudaur to Hated. The WK, suffering from delusions of persuasion, had not downgraded. His easy order given by a 40 commander failed (can you imagine the Witch King's populace not supporting something he told them to do?). The BS was left to attack the Rhudaur forces on their own while their ally WK's three armies stood there and watched. Needless to say, it was ugly. Sharpkathoz was captured by Arfanhil, turning over the Mantel of Doraith (stolen from Elrond earlier), a palintir (taken from a kidnap victim, the Ring of Wind, and freeing three hostages (2 Arthedain and one Cardolan). It was a major mistake having him in the army but it was assumed that the battle would be won and he would move with the army to the next battle. The bright spot was that he escaped to Mt Gram (where he could not attempt to steal the ring back the next turn!). This second battle of Morkai set the DS back in Angmar for at least 10 turns as the BS presence was wiped out and Arfanhil's army still present. Fortunately there were Cloud Lord and WK agents present in the hex to kidnap/assassinate/steal the next turn as we know that Arfanhil had to refuse challenge along with everybody else in the hex. This hex was a HOT bed. Ji Indur, Khamul, Murazor, Akhorahil, and other assorted evil luminaries were present.
Also there was Aivnec the Dragon in a WK army, who sat by with an amused smile as Akhorahil's forces were beaten by Arfanhil and his Thoronrim Eagles. It is hard to describe how badly the one failed downgrade order hurt the DS cause in Angmar.
Most of the WK forces had moved away assuming victory to face an on-coming Noldo force some 2500 strong. Dancu remained to defeat Arfanhil the next turn, who was killed in the battle. His backup Valadan was killed by Ji Indur. The Rhudaur agent present was killed by another CL agent. The ring was stolen back by a WK agent. The Mantle was stolen back (or recovered) by a CL agent. As this army was defeated, Regent Marendil showed up in Morkai with the next wave of Rhudaur troops. The last of the WK troops returned. The BS hired a 200 HI army (Morkai had been turned over by the WK) and battle number four at Morkai loomed on the horizon.
The WK and the BS had a mere 2100 troops left at Morkai. Due to poor planning and a lack of orders the exact troop count of Marendil's army was unknown. The DS thought they might win. An emissary was on hand to make Morkai a town. Khamul, Ji Indur, Murazor, and Akhorahil were all still there. Marendil attacked with 1400 HC and 600 LC which were well armoured and well trained and proceeded cut through the rag-tag DS army and destroy Morkai. However, neither he nor Arfanhil's successor Broggha left the hex alive. The next turn the emissary resurrected Morkai as a camp, but alas Elladan showed up a few turns later fresh from Rivendell to destroy it once again. All in all at least five Rhudaur, one Cardolan, and one Witch King minion lost their lives in Morkai.
Where was Ashdurbuk with Aivnec you ask? Well, he had to move to Cargash to stop Gaerdae of the Noldo who was arriving from the West. Aivnec wiped out the proud Noldo but Ashdurbuk's army was destroyed in the process. Sharpkathoz showed up on the scene to relieve Gaerdae of his life and his artefacts. He also received the Ring of Wind back from the WK.
While the WK was on the defensive all of the pop-centres in Angmer were gobbled up by Rhudaur and the Noldo. Only Carn Dum (Capital), Zarak Dum, and Cargash remained to the WK in this theatre. Constant dragon recruitment would prove the only defence against the coming onslaught of the Noldo, Rhudaur, Arthedain, and the Dwarves (I believe the Cardolan player was pronounced brain-dead somewhere in here, he decided to turn his attention to Mirkwood).
Around turn 16 or 17 Din Ohtar of the Long Rider and company left the feeding grounds of Lothlorien for Angar. The agents struck and Fornost once again, in one turn attempting to kill 9 characters through personal challenge and assassination (I believe 6 were successful). The Cloud Lord was also very active in the region.
On turn 20 the disaster at Morkai was balanced. An army of 1600 HC under Baydor the Blank of the BS landed on Fennas Drunin (1910), the Rhudaur back-up capital. On the same turn Harnalda (2010) and Thuin Boid (2009) were influenced away from Rhudaur by emissaries. This prevented any armies from attempting to re-enforce Fennas Drunin. Indeed Herubrand of the Noldo was stopped in Harnalda by the tower as he rushed from Rivendell. Fennas Drunin was destroyed the next turn and Mt Gram was avenged.
Meanwhile Seammu of Rhudaur captured Cargash and 1500 Arthedain HC caught a poorly outfitted WK army of the same size and destroyed it.
Mirkwood: The Noldo, with an army most likely built at Rivendell and Goblin Gate captured Dol Goldur from the Dragon Lord effectively ending his military presence in the game. The Dog Lord continued to attempt to take the Eothraim major towns in eastern Mirkwood. The Long Rider and Pochak of the BS headed for Aradhrynd (2908) of the Sinda. There 700 BS troops with Smaug and 1900 Long Rider troops with Aivnec (fresh from eating Noldo at Cargash) defeated 4100 Sinda and captured the city (doesn't seem fair does it?). Amroth was captured by the Long Rider. The Sinda made a major tactical error in this battle. He had two armies (1000 and 3100). He intentionally split his attack, attacking Pochak with the smaller army and attack Uvatha with the larger army. This prevented him from killing enough of the LR army to prevent him from taking the city/fort. He must have known that there were two dragons present from his pop-centre report (unless he mistook them for player characters, Smaug? nah..) This gave the Long Rider a descent recruiting base in Mirkwood. Cyker continued continued his threatening ways, still having an army consisting of all the starting WK cavalry. He threatened both Sinda towns in Northern Mirkwood, Buhr Fram, and the northern Northmen pop-centres. During the game he ranged from Carn Dum to the Iron Hills. He was assassinated by Arantar, a Sinda (we believe) agent on turn 22 while recruiting troops for an offensive across the Misty Mountains. His army was destined to retake Goblin Gate and capture Rivendell.
The Dwarves Marched out of Moria (well, it is now) under Thelor II and threatened Buhr Fram and captured Mt Gundabad from the Cloud Lord. Also during this time-frame all of the hidden pop centres in the Mirkwood area were revealed by the Ice King.
Mordor and the South:
The Ice King with the help of the Dark Lts. removed SG from Mordor, the Ice King having recruited Lamthanc. The Fire King raised a HUGE army and began the long, hard march to the SG capital. He was running his nation on the edge of bankruptcy.
Unfortunately he was defeated by the US Postal Service and special serviced despite having mailed his turn a week before its due date. His economy blew and he was out. On the very next turn the Dark Lts did the same thing, although it was more from a lack of planning. This all happened on or around turns 15 and 16. About this time the Corsairs must have decided to turn FP to make it more of a game in the south as SG was basically having to stand alone against the IK, the FK, the CL, and the DL. The QA was attempting to annex some Harad territory and the Corsairs used it as an excuse to remove him from the game, which was accomplished in 2 or 3 turns. Of course he could not have know yet that the Fire King and the Dark Lts were out of the game. When these three events happened the DS thought the end was near.
(Tom's note: being a co-editor and this the last issue, I can make comments with impunity. How much of an "excuse" did I need to attack the Quiet Avenger? He marched into the heart of Umbar and threatened to conquer me! Jeez, and I thought I'd been patient with that guy....)
Angmar was hanging on by a thread, the Noldo looked strong in Mirkwood (and the Sinda still had two cities to recruit with), and the Ice King was suddenly alone at the front door. The Easterlings, the Dragon Lord, and the Dog Lord were all fairly ineffective at this point in the game.
Turns 21-25:
Angmar: The Dwarves swept over Mt Gundabad and to the north of Zarak Dum. He moved onto it with a huge army commanded by Thelor II. With him were two agents (Grais being in the 70s) and one or two back-up commanders. Spike of the WK was there with a paltry 500 troops. Murazor was there to add challenge power. Ji Indur was there along with the Long Rider Company. Thelor II was known to have a challenge rank of at least 160, probably around 190. Murazor challenged the agent Grais (who refused but was killed by assassination). Ji Indur was warned to refuse challenge but neglected to do-so (though an order change was called in, but was not processed for some reason).
Thelor II killed Ji Indur in personal combat. The Dwarves, bolstered by there General's personal victory captured Zarak Dum, freeing the dwarven slaves and capturing Murazor. The celebration was short-lived. Thelor II was killed by Din Ohtar the next turn, freeing Murazor, and only one of the Dwarves left the city alive (Bombor I believe). Zarak Dum was retaken by emissaries a few turns later and then finally destroyed by Arthedain/Noldo.
While this was taking place the Ashdurbuk was busy at the Carn Dum defending it from Sarkar of Arthedain. Sarkar was defeated (basically by a dragon) and killed by Sharpkathoz, who wounded both Argeleb II (an new impostor who is a woman) and Meneldir on the mission. The first assault on Carn Dum was turned away. Sarkar had come very close to capturing the capital. He had shown-up with a large enough army to defeat a dragon, and war machines. His attack on the city reduced the castle to a fort but was not enough to take it. His army did survive and retreated out of the city back towards Arnor.
The second assault came a few turns later. Seammu of Rhudaur attacked Ashdurbuk's army. Each had a dragon. It was a devastating battle for both sides. Seammu was killed in the city. The WK army was once again destroyed. However, the fortifications have since been raised up to a Keep and Carn Dum has not been attacked again (yet).
Mirkwood: The Sinda met the Long Rider at 2410, just south-east of Goblin Gate, and the Sinda were defeated. The door to Lothlorien was now open. The Noldo swung around to Eastern Mirkwood and Elrohir reclaimed the Eothraim pop-centres (who it seems gave up at some unknown time).
Mordor and the South:
The Corsairs, having destroyed the QA, made a feint at Mordor and raised Khand to the ground. The Easterlings put up a futile struggle and were beaten. Help did not arrive from other DS who were engaged too far way to be of service.
However, the Easterlings still carry on the fight from their new capital at ****** (yah, like I would reveal it).
Epilogue:
This brings me to the end of my scattered narration of the first 25 turns of game 97. There may be a few in-accuracy's as to exact turns, but the highlights of the game from the Angmar point-of-view are all covered. My hat is off to the Free People, especially Rhudaur and Arthedain who have lost many characters each so far. The Dwarves have recently joined them in that department as well as losing Khazad Dum (I wonder where his capital is now?). I hope that all players can experience a game like this one with basically equal teams. I have been involved in 5 of these games and none approaches this one as far as enjoyment and challenge (which is not to say that the others were bad, except 150 were I was the Duns). I was also the Sinda in game 104 which spurred the debate in the bytes of this magazine about the neutrals (I was not one of the players who irritated the Harad). I am the Dark Lts in game 152 (still hanging onto Osgiliath by a thread) and the Long Rider in game 156 (just put the Northmen out but we are getting our butts kicked otherwise).
It look like 97 is going to be a long and bloody campaign. I can't wait...