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.