From the Mouth of Sauron Issue: E-2 Date: 12-23-93 From the Editor It's been a few days since I put out the first issue of the electronic newsletter. In that time, the response has been tremendous. You'll note that the material sent to me over this period of time has amounted to more than 20 pages (on my system) of fun stuff for this second issue. And more is on the way. In case you potential authors are interested, there are currently 17 people on the mailing list. So far as I can tell, the newsletter circulates to at least 40 people after it's first week of production, many of whom don't own a computer but get it from someone who does. So, your potential audience is large and growing. Remember, you can use a pseudonym is you don't care for people to know who you are, or you want to express some view that may seem unpopular. The only person that'll ever know is me, and I won't remember who the heck wrote the article by the time I send out the next issue. Anonymity is a sacred state which I'll do my best to protect. What you send in doesn't have to be serious. As per the first issue, you can do or say just about anything and I'll tack it on. Humor of any sort is very much appreciated. I hope this adds something to your play, or day, or both. And to all: Happy Holidays! Artifacts Here's various interesting changes to the artifact files: - Mothras (16) has now been listed as having three different powers in different games. I suggest you remove it from your list; it doesn't appear to be stable in any sense of the word. - Tablets of Dark Knowledge (18): one player says this actually has access to Dark Summons. As yet this hasn't been confirmed. - Cuiviegurth (165): this weapon has no stable secondary power. - Gersebroc (139): this was incorrectly listed as having a bonus versus dragons. It actually has a bonus vs dragons AND fell beasts (just as the ring of Barahir does). Another player gave me a list with a few minor changes to the combat bonuses of some weapons. None of these have been confirmed, but I'm listing them here in case any of you can settle the matter: 108 Craig-olf-ti + 750 129 Bow of Thunder and Bone +1000 131 Caranlhach +1250 142 Kirrauko +1250 176 Spear of Bladorthin +1000 In another minor snafu, Thrakurghash was inadvertantly left off the evil combat weapon list. Stats follow: 58 Thrakurghash +500 E Witch-King It should be noted that Daeron doesn't carry either Tinculin (his harp) or Daeron's Rapier, as some seem to think. Others have suggested that certain characters are carrying the following items, but I can't confirm this. Galadriel: Tintelpe (along with Nenya and Galadriel's Mirror) Balrog of Moria: Cuiviegurth and Calris. It'd be easy to confirm or deny whether or not these artifacts are actually being lugged around by the listed characters. A 'Locate Artifact True' for Tintelpe, Cuiviegurth, and Calris would put the matter to rest right away (I might located Cuiviegurth just to get a shot at recruiting the Balrog into my army). Encounters Some more encounter info to add to your files: Generic Dragon-in-Lair Description: encounter a dragon laying atop a huge mound of gold, apparently sleeping. Location: Anywhere dragons are found. Options Result ATTACK the dragon All: combat State ALLEGIANCE OFFER an artifact CLAIM the treasure for your nation Steal some GOLD All: combat* Steal an ITEM All: combat* Say (one word) FLEE All: escape unharmed Note: It's rumored that those results marked with an asterisk allow a character to steal some gold or an artifact if his agent score is high enough, but I can't confirm this. This particular encounter doesn't seem to be attached to any 'name' dragon. I've been told that it's been found in the Blue Mountains (no name dragons there), and that the challenge rank of the generic dragon is only about 100. I can't confirm the challenge rank against any secondary source at the moment, but I have seen this encounter and know for a fact that the results as they stand are good. Lossoth: only encountered in the Northern Wastes (hexrows xx01 to xx03), the Lossoth are a Free-aligned army encounter. If they run into Neutral or Dark Servant armies, they'll attack, killing several hundred troops. It isn't known if they'll join a Free army, nor what benefit they'll provide if they do. Olbamarl: this is a RUMOR ONLY! It's said that in a random adjacent hex to Olbamarl, an army commander can get an encounter with an old man who'll show the army a way to march into and out of Olbamarl. I've never encountered this, nor has anyone that I know; it could be a load dished out by some obnoxious player. Open Seas: inadvertently left off the original list. The Corsairs and those who have certain 'safe travel' artifacts aren't affected by storms and won't get lost. However,they're still subject to attack by sea monsters and pirates. Shelob: an unconfirmed rumor states that BURN the web and woman results in combat, but that Shelob starts out injured by the fire (giving you a better chance of cutting her down). I can't confirm it, but it certainly makes sense. Also, change Shelob's estimated challenge rank from 100-120 to 100. Jeremy Richman reported that he's used the "Elbereth" response twice and had no change in the scene (but no attack). I've never encountered Shelob, so I don't know if this is the 'escape' (when encountering Daeron and saying 'Luthien', there's also no change in the scene, but afterwards you can walk away without being attacked). Giant Spiders: change the estimate challenge rank from 50-75 to 50- 60. Slyardach: State ALLEGIANCE = combat for all allegiances. Slyardach's estimated challenge rank seems to be somewhere between 50 and 75. If Slyardach is defeated, the character will get 20,000 - 30,000 gold and a bonus to his highest skill score (like a normal challenge). Demon of Aglarond: Much new info on this creature. Apparently there's been a bit of confusion regarding this beast. The demon appears in the encounter to look much like a balrog, and both creatures often track around Aglarond (as my Dunnish armies found out to their dismay). Because of this, a number of players have run in to the Demon in the same place, and assumed it was the nasty that slew 1,000 of their troops just a few turns ago. Turns out this isn't the case. The Demon is just a demon, with a challenge rank of between 50-75. It isn't a Balrog. There are still two balrogs (Durin's bane and one other), but they're no relation to the Demon. This one had quite a few people going. Dragons Yet more info on everyone's favorite reptiles: Ando-Anca: if any of you have this dragon listed as being recruitable by DS for 100,000 gold, please erase that. Ando-Anca can't be recruited this way. It isn't listed as such in my master file, but apparently it somehow appeared in the Dragon Encounters I sent Keith Peterson. Please check your files to make sure the results didn't get turned around on the encounters (you can message me for confirmation if you like). Aivnec: For Dark Servants, Act MEEK = injured/killed. Bairanax: change Offer one HUNDRED thousand gold from 'All: recruit*' to 'DS: recruit*'. It's been confirmed that Bairanax can't be recruited by Free Peoples or Neutrals using this response; it hasn't been confirmed that the Dark Servants can do so. Culgor: change FLEE from 'combat' to 'injured/killed' for all allegiances. Khuzadrepa: DEMAND obedience for all allegiances = injured/killed. Change Act MEEK for Free Peoples and Neutrals from 'combat' to 'injured/killed'. Leucaruth: ALLEGIANCE = injured/killed for all allegiances. DEMAND = injured/killed for the Dark Servants. Lomaw: MEEK = injured/killed for all allegiances. Uruial: MEEK = escape unharmed for DS. This has been stated by two separate players, but I'm still unsure of it's accuracy (they might be working off the same list). Changes to Encounter Listings In almost all cases, encounters work on a sliding scale of numbers (a random roll, if you will), with particularly bad things happening on a low roll, and good things happening on a high roll. Thus, it's possible to 'critically' fail and get eaten by Throkmaw while DEMANDING his obedience, or for a dwarf to survive kicking Leucaruth in the shins and calling her a wuss. I've never particularly cared to distinguish my results (a chance of escape is good enough for me), and about six months simply combined the various listings for my own benefit. I'm now in the process of separating things back out again so that the encounters more accurately reflect what's likely to happen (not what WILL happen). Please note that very few encounter options always end up with exactly the same result every time; there's almost always a chance that something utterly horrible or unexpectedly good will happen to your character. For those of you who like definitive answers, I offer my deepest condolences. In light of this, you should be aware that the listings for encounters give the most probable result to your response, not the absolute result. This is especially true of dragons, many of whom are extremely fickle. Also, any responses marked with an asterisk ('*') are probably true but can't be vouched for 100%. I still need more data in these cases. The results are now divided into 'combat', 'injured/killed', and 'escape unharmed'. Combat will most likely result in the death of the character (or monster), except where otherwise indicated (giant spider attacks). Injured/Killed sometimes results in death as well, but there seems to be a fair chance of getting out of the encounter alive (usually with one health point). Escape unharmed will, except on days when the dragon is particularly grumpy, usually get the character out without a scratch. P.S. Thanks to Keith Peterson, both for his rather massive additions to the encounter and riddle lists, and for his pointing out that I should explain the 'sliding scale' concept to allow others to better interpret the results. Thanks also to Brian Mason, David Foreman, and all the others who contributed but who's files I erased before thinking to write their names down. NPC Skill Ratings This information is available on compuserve. All dragons are listed as Marshals/Archmages, but their skill ranks are obviously beyond 100. Celeborn: Command 60-69, Agent 10-19, Mage 20-29 Daeron: Command 20-29, Agent 10-19, Emissary 70-79, Mage 100+ Galadriel: Command 20-29, Agent 20-29, Emissary 70-79, Mage 100+ Gandalf: Command 30-39, Agent 30-39, Emissary 60-69, Mage 80-89 Saruman: Command 30-39, Agent 10-19, Emissary 70-79, Mage 100+ Sauron: Command 100+, Agent 80-89, Emissary 100+, Mage 100+ Shelob: Command 40-49, Agent 10-19, Mage 70-79 Tom Bombadil: Command 100+, Agent 100+, Emissary 100+, Mage 100+ Estimated Challenge Ranks based on skills alone: Celeborn: 79 Daeron: 121+ Galadriel: 122+ (212+) Gandalf: 115 (165) Saruman: 123+ Sauron: 143+ Shelob: 95 Tom B: 156+ Note that it's possible for an NPC to have a skill rank greater than 100. It's also been speculated that some NPC's have challenge ranks higher than their skill ranks would indicate (the Wizards), and that a number of NPC's have health ranks greater than 100 (dragons, Sauron, Tom Bombadil). The challenge ranks seem to be close to what seems to be correct for Celeborn, Gandalf, and Shelob. Daeron's challenge rank is probably somewhat higher than this, as his mage rank is almost certainly above 100. Same goes for Saruman and Galadriel (Saruman doesn't carry any artifacts, but seems to be stronger than Gandalf anyway). Concerning Sauron and Tom Bombadil, the figures are obviously low. Tom is far more powerful than any other creature except Sauron, and perhaps even Sauron would lose that battle. Sauron's challenge rank without artifacts has been estimated to be greater than 300; he's never been defeated in challenge, to my knowledge (although it'd be interesting to see what would happen if a character carrying the One Ring personally challenged Sauron, or transferred it to him if Dark Servant). Riddles There were so many additions to the riddle list this last week I'm going to be sending the complete file separate from the newsletter. The amount of information literally doubled. Miscellaneous Changes The Northmen town at 3105 is named Buhr Thurasig. The original file didn't give a name for this town. Rumors This actually isn't a rumor but a confirmed account. Some players have noticed that agents THREE hexes away from a target army have been able to SCOUT ARMY and track it, despite the fact that the order says the army must be within two hexes. It could be that the army during some point in the turn marched within two hexes of the agent, but it neither began nor ended it's movement within two hexes of where the agent was when he issued the order. As you'll note, this is in direct contradiction to the description given under order 905, and probably a glitch of some sort in the program (it may now be fixed). Requests A group of players is trying to figure out a baseline for threat attempts, given the command rank of the commander, the size of his army, the size and fortifications of the population center, and the loyalty of the population center. If you'd like to pass along this info to me, I'll print up all the results as they come in. Also, Brian Mason made a rather neat suggestion: interested parties could send in their opening moves for a nation, while others could critique their strategy in the next Mouth. If this seems of interest, I suggest we start with the Woodmen (nation #1) in the next issue. Anyone who has some ideas on what the Woodmen should do during the start of the game, send them along! I have a personal request: I'm interested in some little-known encounters which people rarely seem to get. This includes the Lossoth, Ents, Hobbits (all tribes), Woses (all tribes), and especially good ol' Tom Bombadil. Has anyone out there (other than those I've already talked to) ever run into these? Has anyone ever heard of a player actually finding Tom Bombadil? Try as I might, I can't track down a single person who's met the guy, and have only the vaguest rumors on him (other than the fact that he exists, and all of his skill ranks are above 100). Holidays Like most of you, I won't be available for the holidays. Please don't sent email from the time you receive this letter to January 1st. Because the mainframe will be down, all mail will be accepted, then trashed when the system can't find my account. You won't get an error message, your mail will just fall into Limbo, and neither of us will ever know about it. I'll be back in business by January 1st, but won't respond until I come in on January 3rd. You can start sending mail again on the 1st or 2nd and it'll get to my account okay. The next Mouth will also go out around Friday, January 7th. Devil's Advocate I love forum sections; people get in such interesting, and sometimes heated, debates. If anyone wants to put something up for review by others, or start an argument about a particular topic, feel free to fire off a letter! So come on and rile up your fellow gamers; remember, you can use a pseudonym, so no one has to know who said what (except me, and I'll forget soon after anyway). Population Center Development by Brian D. Mason Abstract One of the most important aspects of the early game is deciding where to create or post camps. While many nations lack the emissaries with the necessary skill level to create camps, despite it being an easy skill, almost all possess one or more commanders with the skill level necessary to post camps, an average difficulty order. One of the most difficult decisions in the early game is deciding where camps should be located. This article will discuss some of the reasons behind the placement of camps: which type of character should do it, resource production, financial considerations, and security. Then the strengths and weaknesses of various nations will be discussed, as well as some possible camp locations. Who Should Place the Camps? Many of the nations have commanders who, when travelling with an army, have the command skill which would allow order 552 (Post Camp) to be executed with a very good chance of success. Also, very few nations have emissaries with even the modest skill level needed to execute order 555 (Create Camp) with a good chance of success. Despite this, those nations without good ( > 30) emissaries would be advised to create one using order 725 (Name New Character), and then subsequently have that emissary execute order 734 (Name New Character as Emissary) as many times as necessary. Having a character in an army posting camps is not advisable for several reasons: one, it does not improve the command skill of the commander, two, when posting camps rather than training troops or training the army the commander does not improve his command rank and the training rank of the army or troops is not improved, and three it costs twice as much. For the additional cost of posting three camps you could name an additional character and have gold to spare. A stable of about three good emissaries can be used at all stages of the game, in creating camps when their skill levels are low, in improving population centers and bribing/recruiting characters or double agents when their skill levels are moderate or high. As it becomes more difficult to place camps at later stages of the game, it is important that you create emissaries fast and get your camps created quickly, especially if you start the game with few good emissaries. Resource Production The most important factor in camp placement is determining what types of which resources you need production, and where in nearby hexes these can be located. The spell reveal production is relatively easy to research (if you do not already have a character who can cast it) and this can determine locations which can supply the most needed commodity. Another option is having an agent Scout Hex (915), however, that has the detrimental effect of only determining production value of one hex (although with much greater precision). Another disadvantage of the Scout Hex option is that it takes an agent into a hex with no objectives where he may be unable to cast a skill order on the following turn. It is usually better in the early game to have agents improving their ranks or out performing more specialized agent tasks. Below is a list of the mean production of each hex type taken from several games, and setups of many different nations, as well as additional contributions from other players. The production has been modified such that this is the production value of a camp in warm weather (that is, 100 percent production values). Keep in mind that the climate in your area will effect these mean production values and that mountainous terrain also will typically have one or two grades cooler climate than surrounding plains. The first column gives the resource type, the second column describes the rows, the first row being the terrain type, the second row the number of sites in the sample. Within each production type the first row is the number of sites in which that product is present, the next row the average of those sites and the final row the average of all sites. Some of these (especially desert terrain) may suffer from small number statistics, so the results may skewed. Also, note that no information is given for swamp hexes. Table 1. Statistical Treatment of Resource Development Commodity Terrain Plains Desert Forest Rough Mountains No. Sites 138 8 62 108 87 Leather No. With 138 8 5 31 0 avg. per 363 294 408 302 0 total avg. 363 294 33 87 0 Bronze No. with 0 0 8 32 86 avg. per 0 0 366 295 304 total avg. 0 0 47 87 242 Steel No. with 0 1 4 33 48 avg. per 0 290 144 189 219 total avg. 0 36 9 58 97 Mithril No. with 0 0 0 0 45 avg. per 0 0 0 0 26 total avg. 0 0 0 0 11 Food No. with 138 0 62 43 0 avg. per 1138 0 1223 956 0 total avg. 1138 0 1223 381 0 Timber No. with 0 0 59 51 0 avg. per 0 0 426 365 0 total avg. 0 0 405 172 0 Mounts No. with 135 8 4 61 0 avg. per 80 76 108 74 0 total avg. 78 76 7 42 0 Gold No. with 0 0 3 82 82 avg. per 0 0 1733 1753 1857 total avg. 0 0 84 1331 1410 Clearly, from inspection of the list, the type terrain with the most varied production type is hills/rough, which can produce all types of materials except mithril. For nations which are relatively weak in metal production for armor (primarily the Free Peoples) the most profitable terrain type are mountain hexes. However, mountain hexes often contain dragons, which rarely have good effects on the loyalty of Free People population centers, or the health of the Emissary posting the camp. Sometimes a safer strategy is to place them in hill/rough hexes which have been already determined to produce the desired resource. Another advantage to the hill/rough option is that those hexes typically have better climate which has the effect of increasing production. Looking over your production and estimating needs for your nation and then placing camps to produce what you need is often a good plan. If you start with few mounted troops and few sources of the supplies that are needed to build them (mounts, leather, bronze or steel if desired for armor and weapons) it is unlikely that you can get that all cavalry army you want on the field anytime soon. However, if you are fighting someone who is aware of your nation strengths and weaknesses then planning to build them in later turns might be an good plan. Financial Considerations Sometimes camps can be placed to make resources to sell. For many nations, selling supplies is a vital (and sometimes necessary) means to float your economy. Despite the initial outlay, almost all hexes can produce in just a couple of turns the supplies which could be sold to pay for themselves, even if they do not produce gold directly. Some nations can choose one or two resources which they can use to buy and sell on succeeding turns to drive up and down the price of that commodity. This "playing of the market" can be most effective when several nations cooperate to buy all of a commodity and then sell all the following turn when prices or high. Increasing production in this commodity will allow you to generate larger profits, or give you the production you need to develop on the one hand, and execute buy/sell orders with, one the other. Gold production does not decrease with increasing population center size however other resources do. Each increase in the size of a population center will require a few turns to recoup the losses for development. Listed below are the turns needed to "break even" on population center improvement at several various tax rates. In considering a break even cost, it is necessary to not only consider how long it takes you to recover the cost of investment, but also how long to catch up to the amount that the population center would produce. Table 2. Turns to Recoup Cost of Inprovement Pop Center Type Cost 40 % Tax 60 % Tax 80 % Tax 100 % Tax Village 4000 4.00 2.67 2.00 1.60 Town 6000 6.00 4.00 3.00 2.40 Major Town 8000 8.00 5.33 4.00 3.20 City 10000 10.00 6.67 5.00 4.00 In addition to the time needed to "break even" on the cost is the lost production over the interval. Depending on the commodity the production loss may or may not be trivial. It is generally a good idea to improve population centers whose production type you do not need. Security Another important consideration in improving population centers is the safety of the population center. Don't improve population centers you cannot hold. There is no need to improve population centers for your enemies to take. Also, in developing population centers try to put them in locations which are hard to get to or not on the maps of other players (expecially neutrals and enemies). If you have a surplus of secure areas then allowing your allies to develop in some of them is often a good idea for team play. Also, population centers without fortifications, characters, or armies present will begin to disintegrate if the loyalty drops too low. Nation Strengths, Weaknesses, and Camp Placement Now, a short rating for each nation is listed below. Ranked as good, average or poor are emissary strength and possible camp placement as well as a short listing for where might be good locations to place camps for that nation. Locations can be rated as good, average, or poor based on their relative security from enemy nations. If this region is not on your map (where you can keep an eye on it) the location rating is downgraded. Also, if you are competing with many other nations over a small area to develop (e.g. many of the Dark Servants in Mordor) the location rating is downgraded. Table 3. Rating Population Center Development Potential Population Emissary Center Nation Strength Development Suggested Locations Woodmen Average Poor West of Anduin and South of Lothlorien Northmen Average Good North of River Running Eothraim Poor Average Same as Northmen Arthedain Average Average West Downs Cardolan Average Average Southwest of map and West Downs Northern Gondor Average Good Future Rohan, North of White Mountains Southern Gondor Good Good South of White Mountains Dwarves Poor Average Far West in and around Blue Mountains Sinda Elves Good Poor same as Woodmen Noldo Elves Good Good same as Dwarves Witch-King Good Average North of and in Northern Misty Mountains Dragon Lord Good Poor Somewhere in Mordor or isolated area Dog Lord Average Average Somewhere in Mordor Cloud Lord Poor Average Somewhere in and slightly South of Mordor Blind Sorcerer Poor Average Somewhere in and slightly East of Mordor Ice King Poor Poor Somewhere in Mordor Quiet Avenger Good Average Far South Fire King Poor Poor Somewhere in Mordor Long Rider Average Poor East of Mordor Dark Lieutenants Good Poor Somewhere in Mordor Corsairs Good Good Southwest of Map Haradwaith Average Poor Near Current Locations Dunlendings Poor Good Sothern two-thirds of Map Rhudaur Poor Average Between pop centers and Misty Mountains Easterlings Poor Average Far East An alternative strategy to selecting secure locations would be to select locations far from you and not appearing on any other nation map. These locations, if developed, could serve as jumping off points for campaigns. Obviously, cooperation is needed among the Dark Servant players in deciding what parts of Mordor to develop. Care must also be taken that the very good emissaries of the Witch-King and the Dragon Lord have somewhere to develop. Also, the Free People pairs of the Woodmen and Sinda, Noldo and Dwarves, Arthedain and Cardolan, Eothraim and Northmen also need to cooperate in developing population centers. Most of the Neutrals can work independent of others with the possible exception of the Haradwaith and Corsairs. Conclusion Population centers can have noticeable effects on your nations place in the game and effective placement of these population centers can dramatically effect your outcome. The author gratefully acknowledges the contributions to Table 1 and the comments of Tom Walton, Glen Mayfield and Jeff Holzhauer. Train Your Characters! by David Foreman I have been playing MEPBM for something like 2 1/4 years. In that time, I have come across several 'truths' about the game that I hold self evident. The most important of those truths is this: THE LACK OF A PROGRAM FOR TRAINING YOUR CHARACTERS CAN MAKE YOU LOSE A GAME THAT YOU SHOULD WIN! What do I mean by this? Simple (no my middle name is NOT Ross!) You should have a default set of orders for your characters at all times. These orders are issued whenever you have a character with a 'free' order, and the character should ALLWAYS be at a location or in a situation that allows that default order unless you have a good reason for the character not to be. Obviously, you will sometimes have objectives for your nation that preclude the issuing of the default orders. That's fine. Simply be mindful of the default set ALL THE TIME so that you can maximize your character stats in the long run. Why do I care about stat improvement? Several reasons: 1) First, characters become more useful as they increase in rank. As it says on 18 of the rule book, to do average orders, you need a character with 30 - 70 rank for a reasonable chance of success. My definition of reasonable is '80% of the time the order succeeds', and that range is closer to 50-100 rank. For hard orders, a rank of 60-100 is specified. 2) Defense. For most agent and emissary orders, the higher rank the target character is, the harder the order is to accomplish. Higher stat characters are better able to resist the enemy. 3) Victory Points! One of the things you are ranked on is characters. It takes a LONG time to get a nation up to the top of the character pile (unless you are the Noldo!). What are my default orders? I will list them in groups, and for various 'levels' of characters. These groupings are laid out in a table, and should be relatively easy to follow. Please email me with questions! <30 30-50 50-70 70< Command 430 430 430 430 Agent 605 Ally Ally/ Foe 610 Foe Emissary 520 520 525A 525F 500 550 500F 555 500F Mage 710 710 710 710 Comments: 'Ally' (or 'A') means find a team mate who is willing to let you attack his pop centers. Preferably, he will have friendly relations with you, as this increases your chances at success. 'Foe' (or 'F') means the enemy. As most of these orders get easier based on the target nation not hating you, the lower level character should hit a neutral (if you can get away with it) prior to going after the real enemy. These facts actually give purpose to the much ignored 'Perceive Relations' spell, which gives you a better idea of who is easier to attack! All Characters should start looking for challenge opportunities when they hit a challenge rank of 50. My analysis indicates an 80% challenge success when you have a 20 point advantage. A 30 point advantage yields a 90-95% win rate. 40 or more yields a 99+% win rate (HOWEVER... you can expect to lose once in a while. My model (3 million combats, 20,000 for each for 0 to 150 points challenge advantage) yields 12 losses in 20,000 for a character with a 150 point challenge advantage! Command Commanders uniformly get 1-5 (actually 3 or two for the vast majority of 'average' commanders) points for nearly all orders that result in a gain of rank. The three that don't result in 1- 10 for threaten pop center, 1-7 for train troop type, and an 1-15 for personal challenge. Obviously, it is great to get the 1-10 for threatening or 1-15 for challenge. These orders, however, greatly depend on the opponent. The only orders that can be reliably done are 430 and 435. These orders are 'free' and automatic. They also result in an increase in troop quality. Ideally (and when does THAT happen!) The best setup is to have several commanders in an army, and have the army commander train army every turn. That lets the ancillary commanders train troop type or issue a different command order. If the sub- commander gets to train troops, he gets 1-7 + 1-5 or 3+4=7 points of command during the turn. In addition, the training of the troops has gone up by 1- 10 + 1-5 or 5+3=8 points. even when the sub- commander can't issue a training order, he/she goes up 1-5 (3) due to the army commander training. If you have timber available, and especially if you are a nation with a cheap fortifications ability, don't forget that fortifying a pop center gets the commander 1-5 points! Agent Under the new rules, agents aren't what they used to be. It used to be that almost any 40 point agent could steal gold from an enemy that hated you and you'd get 1-10 (5 or 6) points of agent rank and some gold. At worst, you got no gold or points. Now, however, you get hurt, killed, or captured when you fail, even against allied pop centers. So what's an agent to do? Guard things! Under most circumstances, a simple guard will yield 3 points. In addition, if the enemy attacks you, you get 1-5 for every attacker you thwart. In a recent game, I made the mistake of attacking a pop center with 5 agents (a capital). The lowly 30 point guard injured two of my agents and took 3 hostage (he also injured two agents belonging to one of my allies!). He got 1-5 for the guard and 7 times 1-5 for the guys he hurt. When I called the player, he was overjoyed! His agent went from a 30 to a 58 in one turn. Last turn (several turns later) this character ASSASSINATED one of my characters! Once you've hit 40-50, steal or destroy stores on your friends. That will give you 1-10 points, and again, if they like you, your chances are much enhanced. At the higher levels, attack the foe or a neutral. Interestingly enough, it seems that no matter what level your guard is, an agent over 100 succeeds over the guard. I'd be interested in hearing about news to the contrary. Emissary Emissaries don't die or get captured, they just fail a lot. The biggest problem with emissaries is that they have a critical mass. When an emissary is below 50, he is nearly useless offensively. Attempting to issue average orders with a 40 or below emissary is, in my experience, a great way to waste time. Emissaries can be very useful, even at low levels, when working as a team. As with agents, it is good to have friends you can abuse (with permission) to train your low level characters. It takes, on average, 5 to 7 turns to make an emissary viable if all they do is influence own pop center. However, if an emissary at rank 35 manages to improve a pop center, they get about 7.5 points of rank. The key here is to get the emissary to a rank of 50 as soon as possible. After they reach fifty, they advance to 60 and above quickly because almost all the orders they issue result in a gain of 1-10 points of rank. One way to accelerate emissary rank growth is to land three on a small pop center (village or camp). The next turn, have the two lowest rank emissaries issue influence own. The other issues improve pop center. The loyalty increase caused by the two emissaries makes the improve order a lot easier, and the third emissary gets 1-10 for improving the pop center. I used this technique in game 88 to good effect with only TWO emissaries (I got lucky). Mage Mages have few options. They have one skill order that increases rank (prentice), and that gives you 1-5. Unless you want to take a lot of chances, slow growth of mage ranks, with an occasional challenge or encounter, is all you will get. A ROGUE THOUGHT One way to get points on mages that might work, would be for a pair of nations to 'trade' sacrificial lamb characters for the cause of raising stats. Here is how it works: 1) Nation A makes an emissary for 5,000 gold (preferably the naming emissary is a multi-classed character with less than 30 rank. (A 10 rank is the best.). 2) The next turn, nation A uses the 10 emissary to name another, and moves to nation B's capital (or other neutral site owned by B). 3) On turn 3, nation A CHALLENGES nation B's mage, and loses (I assume nation B's mage is a minimum 40, so the advantage is 35 points (40 - 10/2) or 98% win. On the same turn, nation A repeats #2. Nation B meanwhile has also prenticed magery and issued a learn/forget/cast on a spell. Nation B's character will get 1-5 (about 3) + 1-15 (about 8) points of mage rank. After three of these challenge/ prentices, Nation B's mage is at about 30 + 33 or 58 - 65 in mage rank. If the mage had just prenticed, a similar rank could be reached in about 33/2.5 or 13 turns! Of course, both parties would have to create the lambs to be fair. It probably isn't practical until after turn 5 when you go to 15 characters. General Comments: I analyzed about 40 turns of orders to come up with the data for this article. The following general rules may be helpful: 1) A 1-5 order never yields more than 3 points of rank to a character over 30. The order yields an average of 2.5 points for characters of rank 31-45. The order yields an average of 2.25 for characters of rank 46-60, and an average of 2 points up to a rank of 75. I don't have good data over a rank of 75. 2) The 1-7 orders yield a similar trend to the 1-5 trend, but seem to be higher than the +2 at the top would indicate. Assuming 4.5 points for characters of ranks below 40 is not far off. Even at a rank of 65, the 1-7 order sometimes yields 4 points of rank improvement. 3) Not surprisingly, 1-10 orders have a larger distribution. Because of the nature of the orders (They are average or hard as opposed to easy or automatic) the points yielded below a rank of 30 are very good, but rare, as most of the time the order fails. I had a 39 point emissary raise a pop center and got 6 points. I had another emissary (rank 38) get 3 points from the same order. The trend is as follows: 35-50:5 points, 51-60: 5 points, 61-75: 3 points, 76+:2 or 1 points. 4) 1-15 orders vary a great deal. I got 13 points when I killed a Nazgul in game 22. I have gotten 11 points when challenging a poor character with a good one. I have also gotten 3 points when my poor character killed their good character. I don't have enough data points to say. Later gang! Economics in Middle-Earth Compiled by Tom Walton Much of what's given here was obtained through Q&A sessions with Bill Field at GSI, and from the combined experiences of many players. Thanks to one and all for making this possible. I first became interesting in pinning down the economic situation when I started collecting rumors on how the market worked. Most conflicted with each other, some were downright ludicrous; many were started by people who had little other than their own game to base their conclusions on. I knew that they couldn't all be true, so went to Bill to see what I could get. Bill was, of course, his usual evasive self, but on a couple of occasions he 'spilled his guts'. Some of the stuff he had to say was very interesting, and I doubt he'd repeat it if he knew what use I'd put it to. It simply gives players too much power in Middle- Earth. Have fun with it! - market pricing is based upon two factors. Gold available and total production. Gold available includes treasuries, native production, and tax base; total production is essentially a bit more complicated, but is a measure of how much 'stuff' all nations are pumping out every turn. Added to this is the production currently on the market. The actual amount of gold available isn't as important as the relationship between the amount of gold and the amount of production. Example: if all nations have 500,000 gold between them, and total production is 50,000 units, the ratio is 10:1. If total production is 100,000 units, the ratio is 5:1. Prices will be higher in the first case than the second case, because the ratio is higher. - the basic precept above explains many market events that you all have probably experienced at one time or another. For example, in many games prices tend to fall drastically in the first ten turns. This is because pop centers are getting destroyed/reduced (reducing tax base) and the gold from treasuries is being spent on a variety of items. Even though players are selling right and left to increase their treasuries, the market is getting glutted and the gold that's being made is almost immediately lost again on fixed costs: character creation, maintenance, etc. Add to this the fact that players are probably putting down camps right and left, and the relationship between gold available and production drops to an even lower ratio, resulting in a decrease of prices. Nations also get dropped within the first ten turns, further removing tax base, treasuries, and gold production from the game. In many games, this results in a spiral of deflation, where players have to sell more product to make up a deficit, which in turn lowers prices, which means everyone has to sell more, etc. If this spiral of deflation continues, you'll see prices drop to absurdly low levels: 3/1, 2/1, and so forth. Once you hit rock- bottom here, it's very difficult to climb back up to something more reasonable. - Prices among all commodities are interrelated. This is pretty obvious. If prices are low for one item, they tend to be low for all items. If high for one item, they tend to be high for all items. There's a factor in the code which prevents any one product from moving too far away from the current market prices. You won't see steel at 30/20 and food at 2/1, even if the entire market stock of steel is bought out. This means that if prices are low, buying out an entire product will result in only a modest gain in prices and a small profit when you re-sell to the market. If prices are high, the gain tends to be correspondingly higher. Here again, there's a relationship at work which keeps a lid on the pricing of any one market item (in relation to all others). - Selling to or buying from the market is totally random. There's no structure in the code which keeps any one nation from completely buying out an item. It's difficult, to be sure, but any powerful neutral with a large amount of cash will find that it can buy out the entire stock of one market item during the turn, so long as it has alot of cash in relation to the total amount of cash in the game. If EVERYONE has alot of cash, then it won't matter; it only works if YOU have alot of cash and most other people don't. Note: the rumor that a single nation can't buy out an item is still floating around. This is incorrect. I've done it on a number of occasions. - Because buying and selling is random, this means that some nations may be able to clean up while others can't sell if their lives depended on it. It happens. Again, there's no section in the code that 'allocates' a certain amount of selling/buying power to any one nation. It's based purely on luck. However, one good thing is that while buys and sells are randomly ordered, so are the amounts that the caravans will accept from you. It could be you'll sell all of your food, some of your food, or none of your food; but this factor generally keeps lucky nations from dumping everything and keeping the rest from doing the same. Still, be aware: it's possible to have none of your sell orders go through, while other nations make gold hand over fist. This too has happened to me on several occasions. It may not be fair, but then few things in ME-PBM are. - The maximum amount of gold you can make on the market is set upon a factor which represents the total sell amount for the market that turn. Essentially, you can make more gold when prices are high, and less gold when prices are low. The more production there is, the more production you can sell (but of course, prices will be lower and you'll make less). There is no 'maximum amount' set within the code. Most games start so the relationship between all factors limits initial sells to somewhere around 30,000 gold, but this changes rapidly. As prices rise, so will the amount you can make (though inflation will make this gold worth less to you). If you're in a game where both prices and production are rising (very rare), then you can both sell more and make more. This combination is hard to get, though; it means that you either have to have a market 'spiral' taking place, or that both camp creation and pop center upgrades are outstripping war-time destruction at a relatively even pace. Note: the rumor that 30,000 is 'it' is not true. It just happens that the market relationships tend to set it around this level at game start. - Another fairly obvious point: pricing within the item itself varies with the product. Food prices change only small amounts no matter how out of control the market gets. Mithril prices tend to jump around even when the market is at rock-bottom. If you want to make alot of gold by buying the market out and then reselling to it the next turn, pick a high-priced item; the potential change is much greater. It's also good to pick an item that people probably won't sell during the turn (timber and mithril are your best bets, with perhaps mounts thrown in as well). If you buy out food, you might see a price change of one or two gold; buy out mithril, and the sell price can double in a single turn. - Buying out a market item won't always result in a large increase in prices. If too much gold is dumped during the turn, either through buys or maintenance or what have you, the drop in the ratio between gold and production may counteract the effect of the buy, disappointing the players involved. It's even possible to have prices fall after you buy out the market stock, because so much gold has been lost during the turn. This, of course, is potentially disastrous if you were relying on making a profit the following turn. - The market will always buy a minimal amount of each commodity every turn, regardless of current market stores. The minimal mount tends to vary based upon the product; the lower the price, the more it'll buy. This tells you why you can have relatively small amounts of each product in market stores, yet see 120,000 food racked up at the same time. The market will buy more of low-priced items than high- priced items, and will always buy at least some minimal amount of each commodity each turn. It also shows why market stores alone are a small factor in determining overall price ranges (i.e., high stores don't result in extremely low prices). These are simply the basics. The market algorith is extremely complicated and I could detail interesting specifics for pages. But the precepts above will allow you to manipulate the market in a number of fascinating ways. Here are some examples: - You want to raise overall market prices. Start by buying out a single product, then reselling the product the next turn. Do this several turns in a row AND KEEP THE PROFITS. This won't work unless you do. By keeping the profits, you increase the total amount of gold in the game. If you spend what you making, prices will remain steady. Should you do this over the course of several rounds, gold in the treasuries of the involved players will increase the available amount in the game a significant fraction, raising the ratio of gold to production. This, in turn, will force market prices to rise. This is what I call an upward market 'spiral'. Once you start it, prices tend to take off because other players also sell and increase their treasuries. The ratio gets bigger, prices rise more, players have more gold in their treasuries, and so on. It's much like a catalytic effect. Be aware: this is much more beneficial to the Dark Servants than the Free Peoples. If the Dark Servants can get prices to rise enough, then they can sell a small amount of production every turn to make up huge deficits, while keeping a hefty amount of gold in their bank accounts. After a certain point, the Free economic base no longer factors in to the equation, only the amount of orders each player can issue. In essence, the Dark Servants become just as strong economically as their opponents, cancelling the biggest advantage the Free have. Starting an upward market spiral can spell doom for the Free. - You want to stop an upward market spiral. Buy the product that's being used to manipulate the market. Buy alot of it. Wait one round while your opponents sell. Then, on the turn they buy again, sell everything you've got. This'll restore market stocks of the product and cancel any price increase, leaving the enemy with alot of whatever they just bought and no way to sell it back for a profit. This is more effective if you also dump your bank account at the same time. If the Free wanted to kill a market spiral before it gets out of hand, they could sell everything they have of the chosen product to the market at the same time the Dark Servants buy, then reduce their treasuries through character creation, buying small amounts of other items, and so forth. Not only will the target product fail to increase in price, but all prices will drop because of the drastic reduction in total gold. I did this in one game - as a single nation - royally screwing the Dark Servants. I set them up by starting a market spiral - again as a single nation - waited until they got hooked, then killed the spiral and dumped a huge amount of gold. They ended up with a bunch of timber that wasn't worth nearly as much as they bought it for, and empty treasuries. This is where the sheer power of the idea comes in; that any one nation could do this is remarkable. - prices in the game are rock-bottom, and you want them to come up (or vice versa). Destroy enemy camps and raise your own camps up to villages, then towns, etc. In other words, raise the gold available by increasing your tax base, and reduce production by eliminating camps. You can do the opposite by destroying enemy towns and cities and putting down camps as fast as possible. Because of the complicated machinations of the market, much of what you do has to be based on 'gut' feeling. You can't know the exact economic status and orders of all the nations in the game. It's possible to try out a trick and get clobbered for it, because others inadvertently countered it. A notes: the wild price increases of the earlier games seems to have been fixed. There's evidence of a cap, a maximum buy/sell price, on all products. This article details only the basics. I'll be happy to answer specific questions if I can, or address situations which aren't covered in the above. Also, anyone who'd like to add something I missed or left out for space considerations is more than welcome to do so.