From the Mouth of Sauron Issue: E-21 Date: 06-05-94 Note: all authors retain exclusive rights to their material. Reprinting is allowed for non-commercial game use only. The Mouth is edited by Brian Mason and Tom Walton. All correspondence can be sent to them at: Brian Mason - mason@chara.gsu.edu Tom Walton - kazandar@aol.com First Word Those of you wanting to hear how good the Free Peoples are doing in game 97 are kindly directed to Last Word. Those of you who remained, let me report on the continued siege of Rhudaur. It was an interesting event at my capital this past turn, with three of my characters going into the netherworld three different ways: challenge, curses, and assassination. Quite a balanced attack wouldn't you say? Rhudaur continues to stand, and with any luck, I might have some good news to report after next turn. But then, I've said that before. Finally, I had someone pose an interesting question to me last week. Do we have mosaic or World Wide Web servers for "From the Mouth of Sauron?" We do not at the moment, however, one could be added if there is sufficient interest. Those of you who have mosaic capability and might be interested in this type of service, email me, and if there is a sufficient number, I'll see what I can do. I don't want to get into the "What is mosaic?" answering business from all our list subscribers, however, I offer the following: If you have problems or comments concerning NCSA Mosaic, please send email to one of the following addresses: mosaic-x@ncsa.uiuc.edu: For X-specific help. mosaic-mac@ncsa.uiuc.edu: For Mac-specific help. mosaic-win@ncsa.uiuc.edu: For Windows-specific help. mosaic@ncsa.uiuc.edu: For problems or comments unrelated to any particular version of Mosaic. Thanks, and keep those submissions flowing! Brian Dragons Corlagon: state ALLEGIANCE = injured/killed for Dark Servants. Thanks to Brian Lowery and friends for this info. Encounters This note was received from Ed Grimm. I decided to reprint it in full for you: Was reading the Mouth "201" and I saw the reference to Saruman attacking a good army...I had an encounter in game 132 as the Noldor and I will type it below... Essentially, what it did was to give Elladan, Elrond, Erestor each 16 points ofmage skill and the spell weakness...This occurred in a spring turn @Goblin Gate(2409) "Yesterday, a Mage dressed all in white stood across our path and demanded that we make way for him. He declined to give his name and merely ordered our troops off the road so that he could get by. 'I am on important business and can not be detained by petty soldiers, so move aside!' He then attempted to just walk through our midst as if we would merely move aside. My guards, of course, immediately moved to detain him. As the guards converged, he looked up and a smile crossed his face. 'Well , at least, you don't scare too easily. Now take me to your Commander.' He was led to me quickly and he approached me easily. I approve of your troops, Commander, and, if you have any mages[was he blind, elrond was there], I may be able to aid your cause this day. He searched for Mages among my companions, and for each that he found , he increased their knowledge of the magical arts. 'Remember this day,' he said, ' and give thanks to Saruman the White!' And with that he was gone, although I still don't know how he left or in which direction he went." Maybe there is a difference in the level of character that reacts with the NPC... anyway, hope this helps...ed grimm...CSERVE:74022,3102 [Tom's note: could be that Saruman reacts differently to different nations. Maybe the Elves and Dunedain are good enough to hobnob with, but the Eothraim are just another bunch of barbarians.] Other Notes From Keith Petersen In game #31, we have twice had three dragons in the same army. (g) Needless to say, there wasn't much left of the opponent. (bg) Bill F. once told me that the hard orders are assuming there is a guard. Otherwise they are only avg or so. (Consider how easy stealing gold is). I would say that kidnapping is easier than assassination, and sabot. fort (esp. castles or higher) is tougher yet. Not all orders take place in exact order sequence. Consider the army cbt orders: they all take place simul (you'll get to use your tactics, even if the other guy's orders is earlier). I have talked with Bill about their sending us turns via email. He has always said, "Not now; maybe later." Compuserve people can request a receipt (put /r behind your address). there is a small charge involved. otherwise post it (privately) in the forum, and it will get marked when GSI views it. Some people in the forum report that having a character as hostage BEFORE that nation has collapsed apparently will extend the time you have to recruit them. (Apparently hostages don't get toggled at the same time). There is a limit to how long you can do this, however. Kidnapping them after the nation has collapsed would have no effect. I have a question for people though: Is it possible for two nations to share the same character as a victory condition? (eg, can both the WK and CL need to kill Elrond?) And has anyone ever needed to kill more than 2 or 3 characters? (most I've seen, I think, is 3). >From Ed Bailey > From Sauron's Bakery > > Tom's note: Brian received the note below from someone at his > university. I saw it about six months ago in paper form, and we > decided to print it in the Mouth simply to annoy people > small-minded enough to charge $250.00 for a cookie recipe. > We urge you to cut this out of the Mouth and send it to as many > people as you can, so that the author can have the satisfaction > of knowing that her revenge has, at least in part, been achieved. > > By the way, if you can't guess this has nothing to do with ME-PBM > (unless you eat cookies while filling out your orders, like I do). > > > SUBJECT: "Expensive Lesson" - $250.00 Cookie Recipe > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- This is an urban legend. It did not happen!! Contact with the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban will confirm this. This is is one of the most persistent rumors circulating the Internet (only the Craig Shergold and the Eddie Murphy/Las Vegas stories top it). Please print a correction in the next Mouth. Ideally, I would like for you to send out a brief correction now, before people start cutting & pasting. All that said, it's a good cookie recipe. Reply to Ed Bailey >From Tom Walton Despite Ed Bayless' claim that this is simply a legend, I recently talked to a woman who claimed to have written the original text (she also offered to send me a copy of her Visa bill, which she apparently framed after the absurd incident). This was in response to a search on my part to track her down; strangely enough, it turns out that she knew my mother some years ago when they were both at college (the path which I embarked upon to find her was so full of oddly twisted coincidence I won't bother to recount it here). She thanked us for reprinting the article in the Mouth. Yesterday, I got the copy of the Visa bill in the mail. It does, indeed, list a charge for $250.00. I promised not to reprint her name nor to give this information out, as there seems to be some question as to the legality of her actions. I think she'd be highly amused to know that her cookie email (which was actually done in paper first, then transferred by an unknown party to the net) has reached the status of 'legend'. Still, they are VERY good cookies.... >From Mike Barber Yesterday I received and read all 19 issues of The Mouth, and the background info - all of which is really excellent. I had it all printed out too (not at my cost) which took about 6 cm thickness of paper. I reckon there must be about 100-150 000 words there already - which is about the length of a doctorate - cool huh ? The reading took all day, to the obvious (though hopefully not fatal) detriment of my finals preparation. And now start the dreaded questions. Some of the answers to these may already lie within the Mouth, but I couldn't spot them. Army / Navy Questions. What size makes an army "small","large" or "huge" ? [From Tom: the size varies upon the average troop strength of all armies in the game at the time. If everyone has smaller forces, then a lesser number of troops will make up a 'large' army. However, if most nations are running around with 5,000 troops packed into a single army, then achieving 'large' status will take quite a bit more in the way of soldiers. In the first case, you might be a 'large' army if you only have 2,000 troops; in the second case, it might take up to 3000 or more troops to get the same designation (in which case the 2,000 troops would be just 'an army' and not a 'large army'). From my experience, there also seems to be an absolute limit in numbers both ways. For example, regardless of how small the average army is, 900 or less troops always seems to be a 'small' army. No matter how large the average army is, it appears that 3500+ troops is always 'large'. Below I give you a very rough table that I used to estimate combat strength (varying for what I believe to be the average number of troops in all armies at the time): 100 - 900: small 901+ - 2,000: medium (listed as 'an army') 2,000+ - 4,000: large 4,000+: huge Again, this is just a guesstimate and I don't give much credence to it. Anyone out there have a better idea on the ranges?] Does the size of a navy depend on the number of ships it has with it, or on the troops it is carrying? [From Tom: navy size is determined by the number of ships present, not the troops the navy is carrying.] Can a navy THREATEN a town that doesn't have a port or harbour ? [From Tom: nope. A navy can't affect a town that it can't land at. Note that it COULD threaten a town without a port/harbor, IF that town was in a shore/plains hex.] Is there a bonus to having more than the minimum no. of troops needed to threaten? That is, if I have a 5000 troop army to threaten a major town, are my chances any better than when I have a 2500 troop? This seems intuitively likely: the formula you give did not reflect this. Also do people ever successfully threaten towns/major towns/ cities - or is this just useful for camps and villages? [From Tom: I'm still confused on the numbers thing. Excessive numbers don't seem to help much, at least when I'm doing the threatening. Anyone out there want to give this a shot? As for threatening towns/major towns/cities, this can and has been done by yours truly. It's generally much harder, though, because the loyalties for these pop centers tend to be considerably higher than those for camps and villages. It's been my experience that if you have the minimum numbers required for a threat, the rank of the character and the loyalty of the target are the primary determinants of success or failure.] If I am sitting outside another enemy nation's capital - say a city/citadel - which I can't hope to capture, BUT I can confidently beat any armies that are likely to arrive, is there anything stopping me splitting off 100 troops per turn (or 200 - whatever) and issuing 255 with these, knowing that they will die but will effectively siege the population centre ? Is my commander likely to be captured / killed as my enemy garrison sallies forth to take advantage of my seeming folly ? [From Tom: this tactic has been suggested by several people, and I believe it was printed in the Mouth just a few issues ago. It works quite well when you can't otherwise capture/threaten/destroy the target. The only danger here is that commanders who lead failed pop center assaults stand a much better chance of getting injured or killed than they do in normal army combat. In other words, don't have your Nazgul lead the assault.] It was mentioned in one of the issues that Destroying a population centre is easier than Capturing it. I have not found anything in the rulebook to confirm or deny this - any clues as to how the mechanics of this work? The rulebook only states how a capture would work! [From Tom: this is in the rulebook, I just can't remember where at the moment. My experience tells me that destroying a pop center reduces the defensive strength by about 10% prior to combat. That is, if the pop center has a defense of 10,000 if you try to capture it, it'll act as if it only had a defense of 9,000 should you attempt to destroy it. This is simply for the purposes of determining if the assault is successful or not; the casualties inflicted upon your troops seem to be the same (10,000 points in the above example) regardless of the order chosen.] What governs the chance of me taking hostages in combat ? It seems that I need an agent in the army, and that I have to win convincingly, but I know no more than that. On the one occasion I have so far taken a hostage, the Commander of the army, who did NOT have agent skill, was listed as being in possession of the hostage. [From Tom: I can't answer the first part of the question, other than to paraphrase GSI. In response to my asking this question, they said that whether or not a character is captured depends on a comparison of the total challenge ranks of all characters on both sides. They wouldn't be any more specific than this. I can tell you that you don't need an agent in the army to capture enemy commanders. I can also tell you that in my experience, the victorious army commander always ends up with the hostages.] Character Questions Wrt emissaries - how easy is recruit double agent for a level 30 emissary, on a friendly nation's character? Is there any reason why a friendly nation might be disadvantaged by me having one of their nation's characters reporting to me? One idea I am specifically thinking of trying is having a character that regularly uses a scrying artefact as a double agent, so that his reports get shared with my VERY good ally. [From Tom: if you want to see how relations affects your skill levels, take a look at the relations chart in the book for combat; the bonus/penalty seems to be the same for skills. That means your 30-point emissary would get a +25 for trying to double the character of a friendly nation, making him an effective 55- point emissary. People double allies all the time to share scouting/scrying info and to increase emissary skill. The factors involved are the skill of the doubling emissary and the highest skill rank of the target character. I have no idea how these are related (I just make a guess), and hope one of the readers of the Mouth has some firm data on this. One thing: the order was recently changed and it looks like its actually harder now than it was before (either that or I'm just having some really bad luck).] Throughout the Mouth, influencing other's loyalty seems to be thought of as being hard, yet my level 28 emissary managed to do this on a nation whose attitude towards me was only neutral. Was I really lucky, or can my lvl 30 emissaries go to 'train' at an ally's town and expect to succeed (especially if he is 'friendly' towards me)? [From Tom: see above note for relations. You were lucky against a neutral pop center.] What governs a character's chance of escaping when held hostage ? If I have a character with, say 30 agent as a hostage, and the holding character is also of 30 rank, how likely am I likely to hang on to my prize? Is this improved if I imprison him in a population centre? I assume that cities make better prisions than villages? [From Tom: your chance of escaping is based upon the agent rank of the holding character, the highest skill rank of the hostage, and any stealth the hostage might have. I can't give you a relation because I generally execute my prisoners immediately after I take them. GSI says that it's almost always better to imprison a character than to hold him hostage, if you want to make sure he doesn't escape. They never mentioned whether or not the size of the pop center had anything to do with it - frankly, I didn't think to ask.] ON recruiting dragons: Do I have to recruit a dragon with a character that is in an army, or can I recruit and then move that character to an army ? If I offer the dragon artefacts, then do I have to have those on me at the time, or can they be with another character / at the capital ? [From Tom: you can recruit a dragon with any character, not just one in the army. In fact, you can't react to a dragon if your character is in an army; the computer will give you an error message if you try. The dragon will then join one of your armies, though exactly which one is a point of contention (no really good data exists to support any one assertion). If you offer artifacts, they need to be on the recruiting character.] News from the Net ---------------------------------------------------------------- Post #1 ---------------------------------------------------------------- From: freeman@cae.wisc.edu Subject: MEPBM Game 163 Date: 24 May 1994 15:40:39 GMT I just got my set-up for game 163 and am looking for any other players in this game. Samuel Freeman ---------------------------------------------------------------- Post #2 ---------------------------------------------------------------- From: jurin@aol.com Subject: ME-PBM Game 164 Date: 26 May 1994 22:53:06 I have just received the first turn for game 164, and I am looking for other players in this game. Jerry ----------------------------------------------------------------- reply from TomTG (tomtg@aol.com) ----------------------------------------------------------------- I am the Dragon Lord in game 164. Who are you ?? TomTG ----------------------------------------------------------------- Post #3 ---------------------------------------------------------------- From: panamon@netcom.com Subject: ME PBM - Question Date: Tue, 31 May 1994 17:57:18 GMT I am looking for VERY good experienced MEPBM grudge game teams to play against. My team has been beating our opponants so badly that we are starting to get bored. If you feel you are very good and want a challenge in playing. Please let me know. Ian Cerhaegen. ----------------------------------------------------------------- reply from Patrick McGehearty (patrick@convex.com) ----------------------------------------------------------------- I would be interested to know more about this grudge team that is too good for your average opponent. How many matches have you played as a team? I might be interested in signing up as a neutral. I have some MEPBM experience, and lots of strategic, economic game experience. I would think that high skill grudge matches need experienced neutrals to keep things interesting. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Post #4 ---------------------------------------------------------------- From: tomtg@aol.com Subject: ME PBM - 165 Date: 1 Jun 1994 00:48:03 Anybody out there in game 165 ? TomTG -- Cardolan ----------------------------------------------------------------- GSI and Customer Service Last issue I asked for reader comments and criticisms to see if we could get some kind of feel for the general nature of the problems being experienced. Below are a few of the notes that were emailed to me, which are somewhat representative of the overall batch so far (a more comprehensive breakdown will be done sometime over the next couple of issues). I've used names where the author allowed, and quoted anonymously where the person in question didn't want to be identified. I'm still looking for more comments; rest assured, I WON'T identify you if that's what you want. Let me clear on the fact that the editors of the Mouth aren't taking sides here and simply wish to determine if there are problems with GSI's customer service and what they might be. Let me also say that we asked for people to relate their difficulties, not their good experiences, so this article will seem uniformly negative. One more point: I've been in 12 games now (!) and completed over 200 turns. During that time, I've seen GSI make about a half-dozen mistakes with my turns, most of which were relatively unimportant (relations with a nation changed for no apparent reason, etc.). That comes out to one error per 35+ turns, or one per game. This is significantly better than any other PBM game I've been in to date. On the other hand, I've also witnessed a couple of snafus of truly major proportions happen to other people (one army marching right through a blocking force at a critical point in the war comes to mind). The question here doesn't seem to be about GSI's error rate, which is pretty small, but what they do about the errors once they occur. >From Brian Lowery GSI Customer Service: It seems lately that turns are being special serviced or not arriving more than ever. In the last two weeks I have had to request two faxed turn results myself and know two people who were "special serviced". The first of these players mailed his turn nine days prior to the turn running. The second mailed a check with his orders. This turn was run on a Thursday and his bank statment showed the check cleared the very next day. I believe GSI is running more games than their staff can handle and the players are suffering. Also heard recently that all the FP players in game #150 just dropped game 150 and seven of the players dropped all of their games. I heard it was because of consecutive special service turns for two players and the resulting conversations with GSI. This info is all second hand if any of those in 150 are still reading I'm interested. Most of the players I communicate do not bother calling GSI anymore as it has invariably resulted in more frustration than already existed. Good Service: I know only one case were GSI actually changed a turn for a player. This change was done over a year ago. A friend of mine was playing the Witch King and had Murazor encounter one of the nastier dragons. Reading the rulebook he decided he could react to the dragon with another character in the hex. What he did not know was he could not do this if the other character was in command of an army. Anyway Murazor was killed by dragon. Needless to say friend was a bit upset. He phoned GSI and they resurected Murazor and put 10 or 20 thousand gold in his reserves. They also said they would review the rule book. This is the only case I have ever heard of where GSI actually hung up the receiver with a happy customer on the other end. Any other examples? Done rambling! Brian L (Dragon Lord-87, Witch King-97, Easterling-143, North Gondor-151, Cloud Lord-152) So many games, so little time. [Brian's note: I have only had to call GSI three times vis a vis a customer service issue. All three occured early in my first game of me-pbm. In the first case I was special serviced (around turn three) and called to see if there was anything that could be done. No surprise as to the response here. In the second case I did not have an army move to where I expected it to, and called GSI. The person I talked to went, hex by hex, explaining movement points in every hex and was quite polite in pointing out my error. In the third case I had issued an upgrade armor the turn after a make armor order. The armor was in stores, the army was on the move and there was only one kind of armor possible to make. Nevertheless, I had failed to specify the armor type. On talking with GSI and explaining the impossiblity of upgrading to any other armor they changed the armor of my troops (but gave me a warning to follow prerequisites to the letter in the future). All in all, I have been rather pleased with their service. Since that first special service I've always mailed my turns in a week ahead of time (estimated mail delivery two days) and checked and re-checked my orders. This has limited my contact with GSI recently, however, all my experience in the past has been positive (and fair).] [Tom's note: the number of special service complaints has risen over the last few months, along with complaints of another nature. I don't know if this is an actual increase in special service turns or that people are simply more willing to vent a little anger over them. I also can't say who's responsible: GSI, the postal service, or both. However, I've seen several stories wherein a player called and was told that his or her turn wasn't in, but upon insisting that GSI look around for it, the turn was discovered to be misplaced. Now, if the turn is misplaced and found AFTER the game is run that week, does this count as a special service? If so, is the player compensated in any way? Is the player even informed? I assumed that that the blame squarely rested with the postal service in all cases until I heard of these incidents.] >From Darren Beyer >Also at that time I suggested an automated confirmation of turns >being received. BIll seemed to feel this was not a good idea. I >also tried to explain that I hated to bother them by phone about a >turn being received or not and this could eliminate that work for >them.... I made the same suggestion to GSI and received the same answer. I would even accept a charge for a return mail message. When you figure that my phone call to GSI to check my turn status (which I do every turn) takes about 4 minutes during prime time AT&T hours and that GSI is taking time to answer the phones, check turns, etc., an e-mail reply really makes sense for both parties. I also would like to relay an e-mail story that happened the other day. I had just mailed my turn off to GSI early on the day before it was to be run. Shortly after doing so I got a "Failed Mail" message. Concerned that my turn did not get to GSI I sent it again and something very strange began to happen... I found out that the mail system here looks at all messages and determines if they are in-house or headed for the internet. All those that go to the internet are routed to a door which checks to make sure the other end can receive the messages then sends them on their merry way. If a message can't be delivered it is sent to a "smart" host which will re-send the message after 3 minutes. Evidently, something was porked with the message I sent and upon reaching the gateway it was rejected and sent to the smart host. The weird thing is that the message also actually DID go through to GSI and not only did it go back to the host to wait to be re-sent, but a duplicate containing an error message went back as well. Three minutes later TWO messages were sent to the gateway, both went to GSI and each returned TWO to the "smart" host. Three minutes later FOUR messages were sent and so on, and so on... After about 120 of my turns were sent to GSI the problem was found and fixed, needless to say, GSI was not amused. Other Comments As someone who has about 175 turns or so in ME, I have grown increasing frustrated at GSI's lack of honesty. I know of at least 3 times they have recently outright lied about certain things. (Though I'm sure they'd say they were "misunderstandings.") I was particularly outraged about the letter in the last Mouth from GSI. They said that cost wasn't a factor in fixing problems. A good friend just had a conversation with GSI (ie, Bill F) about what would GSI would do if they realized they had a turn but *they* forgot to process it. Would they do what they could? At first, they said they would. Then Bill said it would be expensive (in terms of their time) and he'd have to charge the player $20. Then he said they couldn't do it at all, because they'd have to fix everyone's mistakes. In a letter sent to the FP, Bill denied *ever* calling anyone a liar over the telephone or using the phrase "I don't want to call anyone a liar, BUT ..." I had earlier discussed this with Bill on the phone. And he *admitted* that he and his staff (because they had heard him use it so many times!) using that very phrase. For him to tell me that he did this and then write a letter to us and say he never said it is unbelievable! In another case, GSI invented a bug to cover up a mistake. Further phone calls about this "bug" uncovered that there was not a bug of that nature, nor had there ever been such a thing. Bill recently told someone over the phone they couldn't fix their own mistakes (ie, GSI's) because "they'd never be able to do anything else." What does this say about how many mistakes they are making and KNOW they are making? What do I think of GSI's customer service/relations? I give them an "F" If they lie to me about some things, how do I know they don't tamper with turns, not run key turns, foul up my orders to keep the game going, etc? I can't. [Tom's note: an unexpected number of players wrote in a similar vein as the above letter. Some were suspicious that their turns were special serviced or had mistakes made in them simply to screw up key orders and give the enemy team a break (thus prolonging the game, which in turn results in more money for GSI - or so the suspicion goes). A few of the examples given (and not presented here, to preserve anonymity) do show a highly odd pattern of bad breaks for a winning side, but aren't conclusive evidence of tampering.] >From Tom Walton As players, we must admit that we also makes mistakes. Or perhaps not. Here's a story I'd like to relate which happened to me in game 68, where I play Harad: In that game, the Free Peoples had a large army with many siege engines moving on Morannon. In response to the threat, I dispatched over 3,000 heavy cav north along the road, timing both movement and food reserves to arrive at the Gates on the same turn the Freeps did. At that time, the Dark Servant that held Osgiliath had yet to upgrade relations with me from 'Neutral' to 'Tolerant'. Given the critical timing of my maneuvers, it was imperative that he upgrade relations so I could bypass the town without being stopped by the fort. I went to great lengths to secure his assurance that he would issue the upgrade order with a commander skilled enough to get a near-automatic success. On the following turn, I received the message that my army's progress had been halted by the fort as Osgiliath. Calls to the player went unanswered, but he talked with another Dark Servant and said that he had indeed upgraded his relations, so the mistake must be on GSI's side. I then called GSI and asked them to fix the mistake with respect to the relations change, but didn't request that they move the army (a previous request in a different game was refused, so I didn't bother to try). Needless to say, Morannon was burned to the ground and the Dog Lord nearly driven out of the game. GSI investigated the incident and found that the Dark Servant who owned Osgiliath never bothered to issue an upgrade order, so there was no mistake to correct. They suggested that I take it up with the player in question. It turns out that the Dark Servant forgot to give the order, despite numerous requests from myself and another player to do so, and was so embarrassed over his error that he shifted the blame to the company. He also didn't want to take the flak for seeing Morannon gutted, which wouldn't have happened had he done what he was supposed to do. A simple lesson, really: sometimes a player will screw up and lie about it. Who better to blame than GSI? Strategy & Tactics: The Fire King >From Brian Mason Basic Data Go to your bathroom, pick up a bottle of shampoo, and bring it back to this article. I'll wait... If you take a look at the back of the shampoo bottle they give you directions (I've always wondered if the people who need directions for shampoo can even read, but I digress). The directions typically say: lather, rinse, repeat (I've also wondered if programmers, always aware of infinite loops, die in the shower, but I digress once more). Now, allow me to present what I call the 'shampoo strategy' for the Fire King: recruit, die, repeat. If you remember these precepts, you'll play the Fire King to about its fullest potential. The unity of purpose in this position is quite refreshing. All you do is guard the Ithil Pass and pound Northern Gondor. You may have a chance later on to actually get creative, but unless you do these two things, all other strategies are pointless. Given the simplicity of the strategy, continuing might seem vain, however, there are a few ways to optimize the strategy, and these will be discussed below. However, as in past offerings, we'll start with an analysis of basic data. First, consider how the Fire King compares to other positions (Allegiance Comparison Tables, Tom Walton, "The Mouth," #3): item for comparison among all among Dark Servants =================== ============== ========================= Total Tax Base tied for 22nd tied for 7th Resource Base tied for 15th tied for 3rd Combat Strength tied for 17th tied for 7th Character points 17th 10th Artifacts 15th 9th The Fire King has fair production in some areas, very poor in others. Expected production (Population Center Development, Brian Mason, "The Mouth," #2) which has not been adjusted for climate for the nation of the Fire King would be as follows: material le br st mi fo ti mo go =========== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== ===== production 588 678 344 31 152 3948 This is a list of below of Fire King characters, their starting abilities, and their assignments. Name co ag em ma st assignment ================ ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ================== Nazog 30 agent Ren the Unclean 20 10 50 30 army #1 backup Rozilan 10 30 army #2 mage Shagrat 30 army #2 commander Shogmog 30 army #3 commander Skargnakh 30 10 10 army #2 backup Uklurg 40 army #1 commander Uthmag 40 army #1 mage The Character Situation Of all the Nazgul, Ren is one of the weakest. When going into battle with Northern Gondor, it will be necessary for Fire King characters to refuse personal challenge, for if there is a Northern Gondor commander at the location with the command artifacts you will probably lose. As you can see, all characters (with the exception of Nazog) are assigned to armies, there to supplement and improve army abilities. Early creations for the Fire King should include emissaries, possibly up to all four slots, if not this, then three emissaries and an additional agent. The Economic Situation As most of the Fire King population centers are unfortified, it would be unwise (especially with the new, more randomized, loyalty changes) to raise taxes very high, 55% is about as high as you can afford to go. This can leave you with a substantial shortfall, however, much is uncertain here because of the gold production uncertainty. Essentially, the plan would be to keep hiring troops until you cannot afford anymore, and then march them off to die in Ithilien. The economy will be substantially improved when you take Minas Ithil (and this you should certainly be able to do on turn two). The emissaries have the opportunity to improve the economy, both through creating camps which produce gold and by improving population centers. Get these beasties in action early to improve their skill ranks where they can be a potent offensive force later in the game. The Military Situation You start with three armies at Barad Ungol. These are the suggested moves: Turn One Have Nazog guard something or someone and move steel or bronze to Barad-wath or Barad Ungol. Have Ren tranfer the Helm of Sen Jey and a combat artifact to Uklurg and then join Uklurg's army. Have Rozilan prentice magery and join Shagrat's army. Have Shagrat transfer all but 100 troops to Uklurg and raise taxes. Have Shogmog transfer command to Uklurg and move to Barad-wath. Have Skargnakh name a character with 30 emissary skill and join Shagrat's army. Have Uklurg recruits 400 heavy infantry (use steel or bronze at the hex for armor rather than weapons) and moves onto Minas Ithil. Uthmag can prentice magery and join Uklurg's army. For prentice magery above you may want to substitute research spell. Other actions: 1. Make contact with all your Dark Servant allies, especially those in Mordor. To make a successful early strike on Northern Gondor requires the concentrated troop strength of two or more Dark Servants. Find out if the Cloud Lord and Blind Sorcerer are sending their troops to fight the Gondors or around the east side of Mordor North to the Eothraim and Northmen. Possibly arrange with the Cloud Lord or someone else a strategy where your agents can steal gold from each other. This will allow Nazog and the other agents to improve into offensive forces considerably earlier than if you simply guarded. The way to keep the Gondors off the Ice King's sole big population center is to attack and keep them busy at Osgiliath. Point this out to him. Determine if the direction of attack for the Dark Lieutenants and Dog Lord will be West or North. If North, make sure they protect Northern Ithilien at the least. 2. Capture, Destroy, or Threaten? Once you reach Minas Ithil you will be faced with this question. As Ithil will form a buffer to protect your capital, destroying it is probably not the best idea. Getting it in your hands early is of paramount importance, so if Northern Gondor has foolishly committed troops here you may to capture. If there are no armies there to defend it, threatening is possible. Uklurg will have a good command rank (50) and will have many (5100) troops. Having the recruiting and tax base of a third major town is also worthwhile. 3. Conjure Hordes, Combat Spells or Fearful Hearts? When going into and preparing for combat, you will need to consider which of these spells you should be using. At the start of the game, Rozilan adds about 150 troops per turn, each increasing the offensive/defensive combat value by 105/300 points (by comparison, recruiting 400 heavy infantry adds 1391/4000 points). However, these troops cost only 150 gold per turn, and the number conjured should go up. As this increase, while small, is non-zero, it is probably a good idea for the army at Barad Ungol. After Rozilan has researched both Fearful Hearts and a good combat spell Conjuring Hordes will be a good idea. When in combat, your mages should have the option of casting Fearful Hearts or a combat spell. Which one you do is strictly a matter of the numbers. Calculate the combat strength of your army and determine which produces the greatest increase, then do that one. Turn Two You are now in a position to capture or threaten Minas Ithil, you have mages in your armies, have a recruiting army at Barad Ungol and a commander ready to hire one at no extra cost at Barad-wath. You're sending steel to one recruiting center and bronze to the other to use as armor for your troops. You've begun training Ren, so he is no longer the whipping boy of the other Nazgul, and soon, will be feared by all. Hopefully, you've made contact with your Mordor allies and are fiendishly plotting the fall of the Gondors. What's next? Send your emissaries out to create camps. When they get good enough, have them act offensively. Have them influence away a Gondorian town. Have a commander there to hire an army right away. This will upset them to no ends, as they must deal with troops on their side of Anduin. Repeat. >From Tom Walton When Brian suggested doing the Fire King I said "okay, that'll be easy: raise troops, march to Osgiliath, and die. Repeat as necessary." Brian apparently felt the same way about the position, as you can see from his article. I don't have a whole lot to add. There really isn't anything tricky you can try with the Fire King in the opening game. Unless you've got some real thick-witted opponents playing the Gondors, the first ten or fifteen turns are usually devoted to soaking the Ithilien with blood, trying to see how high you can stack the bodies (sometimes I think the Fire King should really be called 'The Buzzard King' or 'The Maggot King', or something in a similar vein). Just a couple of notes: (1) Whether you live or die entirely depends upon your Mordor allies. Despite the constant combat this position is involved in, there's little (if any) room to exercise any military genius you might harbor. Strange as it may sound, the Fire King is a great position for a diplomatic player and a lousy one for a military player. Get on the horn as soon as the game begins, and stay there until both Gondors are bittersweet memories. (2) Don't forget about your ability to raise armies at no cost and call up hordes. I've seen players take a town behind the lines via emissary action, build an army of a thousand men at arms in record time, then go on a 'threat' rampage back and forth across the enemy nation. I've even seen one player do this using camps in the mountains against Southern Gondor (to great effect, I might add; it's a real bitch trying to root out all those little pop centers). (3) Finally, you can use the abilities in (2) above to support a distant ally. In one game, I saw the Fire King transfer part of his recruitment efforts to Angmar. While the Witch-King ground Arthedain and Cardolan down in mutual destruction, ol' Ren would avoid the fighting and jump into the rear, swiping pop centers from the enemy with threats. Of course, the more pop centers he had the more men-at-arms he raised, and the more armies there were running about causing the enemy to pull his hair out in frustration. That's all I have to say on this position. Strategy & Tactics: The Easterlings By William "Rock" Chasko The Easterlings are the only neutral to share the perpexling problems faced by the Dwarves and Sindar: highly dispersed pop centers. This makes the development of a reasonable opening strategy difficult until the first few turns have been played, when the stance of the FP and DS toward the Easterlings becomes a little more clear. BASIC DATA The Easterlings stack up like this versus the other nations, according to Tom Walton's Allegiance Comparison Tables, published in "Mouth" #3. CHARACTERISTIC AMONG ALL AMONG NEUTRALS Total Tax Base 5th (tie) 3rd Resource Base 7th 2nd Combat Strength 5th 1st Character points 20th (tie) 3rd Artifacts 19th 3rd The Easterling production levels are quite reasonable; the only potential problem will be trying to generate 6,000 units of food per turn to keep the 3,000 cavalry mobile, but that will only be necessary if the Eastelings pursue an aggressive military strategy. POSITION ADVANTAGES - - Commanders can begin with rank 40. - - E'ling troops without food still gain 1-2 morale point per turn when stationary, will only lose 1-2 morale points when moving. - - E'ling troops lose only 1-2 morale points for force march (2-5 if without food). - - E'ling characters have a chance of possessing greater challenge ranks. EASTERLING STARTING CHARACTERS: Name co ag em ma mission Gorovod 10 40 lore mage Hos Harf 30 Combat/lore mage Huz of Amov 30 10 Backup CO #1 Kav Makow 20 20 Company CO Nazrog 30 10 Backup CO #2 Ovatha II 40 10 Army commander #1 Tros Hesnef 40 Army commander #2 Urdrath 10 30 Capital orders/ combat mage CHARACTER PLAY The Easterlings are equipped with two good commanders and two good backup commanders. Unfortunately, all four of these commanders are in command of separate armies at the beginning of the game. Cautious players should consider having Kav Makow and Urdrath move/join the two cav armies to insure they are not eliminated by a sudden DS agent assault early in the game. The Easterlings have 60 points of agent rank scattered over five characters; this should be adequate for defensive purposes, particularly if the E'lings go DS. Emissary rank is ZERO - a deficiency which must be rapidly remedied. Mage strength is adequate for combat use and limited lore use. Gorovod is a medium strength mage with agent rank. I have often considered how interesting it would be to develop such a character to, say, 0/40/0/65, get him the "curses" spell, and then have him scout army and cast "curses" on the enemy army commander turn after turn...but I've never found the time to make the investment in character development - and "Spirit Mastery" artifacts are not exactly common... Assuming that the E'ling is not attacked in a coordinated fashion by either (or both) allegiances early in the game (often turn 1 in grudge games), I would recommend that the first four new E'ling characters all be emissaries. Spend 10k on turn one to build a pure emissary. Have him build another on turn 2, and have both of them build two more on turn 3. Get all four of these guys working putting in camps in the rough hexes south of hex row 36 (exclusive) where the Blind Sorceror can't see them. Also put camps in the rough and mountain hexes along the east map edge. The Blind Sorceror can't see the even numbered hexes in hex column 43 or any hexes in column 44. You might consider spending 10k to build *ONE* pure agent, if you want to play the offensive agent game, but I don't recommend it. With the new agent rules, it takes too long to develop an agent into an effective, survivable thief. The extra emissary should provide a much better return on your investment. Only Gorovod has a reasonable chance to play the artifact game, but why bother? Artifact hunting is an order- eating, time-consuming, character-killing endeavor. Consider: a 20 point command artifact might take 8 to 10 orders to secure; placing a CO as a subordinate commander in an army and having him issue three or four 430 orders, while the commander issues 435's generates the same effect, with fewer orders and no risk to the characters involved. If your individual victory conditions include terminations or acquisition of several artifacts - as is common for the E'lings - you may decide that acquiring some artifacts is still a good idea. In that case, I'd suggest wheedling some aid from your allegiance-mates. Have them locate the artifacts you need in exchange for something you provide for them. This is still better than developing your own artifact- hunting capabilities. ECONOMICS The Easterlings have a reasonable tax base and resource base. Unfortunately, retaining their widely scattered pop centers may prove a problem. The rule of thumb is if E'lings go FP they lose the south, and if they go DS they lose the north. These effects can be reduced by appropriate timing of the allegiance change. Regardless, serious loss of pop centers is likely when (and often *BEFORE*) you make a declaration. To compensate, the E'lings should institute an aggressive camp creation program. Start with the invisible hexes listed above. If you turn DS, you can expand throughout the rough hexes around your capital. If you go FP, you should negotiate territory in Gondor, Enedwaith, and/or the far northwest for camp placement, and be *SURE* to have the FP's give you a secure backup capital (2223 in South Gondor would be primo). Because the climate will remain HOT throughout the game year in your southern regions, you should experience little effect from the change of seasons. There are some modest exceptions. Any camps you place in the mountains will drop from 100% to 60% production in winter. This could have a serious impact on your gold and metals production. If you are dependent upon the sale of non- metal resources to keep your economy afloat, a crisis could arise during the transition from fall to winter. Your LE-FO-MO production in your northern pop centers drops, in some cases, from 80 to 30%, while your GO-BR- ST-MI production in your southern mountain pop centers goes from 100% to 60%. Watch out for this; it will not be a problem if you are prepared. You have two reasonable options regarding tax rates. You can change to 39% (getting 0-2 increase in morale at each pop center each turn, mean of 1). Or you can change to 59% (getting -1 to +1 each turn, mean of 0). [Tom's note: these are pre-change figures, the range is wider now. Also note that 59% and 60% are in the same bracket.] If you are pursuing an aggressive strategy, building armies and making an early declaration of allegiance, consider increasing to 59%. If you are going to increase taxes, do it on or before turn 4; that way, you will not lose any of your new camps due to the loyalty changes from the 19% tax increase. If you are pursuing a more conservative strategy, you won't need as much gold, and the 39% tax rate will insure that you won't need to guard against loss of the first camps you place due to random loyalty changes. Another dramatic economic option that bears consideration - - especially if you are pursuing a conservative strategy - - is dumping some or all of the food in your armies into your pop centers and selling it. The E'ling armies start with 37,000 food - that can be converted directly to gold, and, if you are very lucky, you might get two gold apiece for some of it. MILITARY SITUATION The E'ling military situation...words like "complex", "difficult" and "impossible" come to mind. There is little that I can say that would be very helpful because so much depends upon the actions of the other players. I have seen or heard of anti-Easterling military blitzes being launched on the first turn by both the FP and the DS. In game 56, a grudge game, this was done by *BOTH* allegiances on the first turn! While this kind of action is more common in grudge or team games, with the advent of e-mail, it is not uncommon for players to be in contact before turn 1 is played even in non-team/non- grudge games. ...and the Easterling is so spread out, the temptation to hit him, especially in the north is hard for the FP to resist. Unless you know which allegiance you want to join at the beginning of the game, there is little concrete advice I can give about military options until you have seen the results of a turn or two and can guage the wind. Assuming you don't have a definite idea about which side to join, mull over these ideas. You have two strong cav armies and two pitiful leg armies. One of each is located north of Mordor, and one of each start the game in your capital. In the north, on turn 1, consider moving the army at Ilanin to Riavod (4014) with the intent of concentrating your forces at your most defensible northern pop center. Stay off the roads as you do this; follow the route 3714, 3814, etc. An unexpected collision with either allegiance on turn 1 can cause a lot of frustration and resentment, and may get you into a battle you don't want. If either side is trying an anti-E'ling blitz in the north, combining your armies on your only northern fortification gives you the best chance of holding something and/or doing your enemies some damage. In the south, consider moving the cav army to Khand Amu (4228). This defends your MT should the DS be trying an anti-E'ling first turn blitz (that evil eye symbol on your map at 4324 is a Long Rider cav army) and also prepares for further northward movement and the combination of your two cav armies should you decide to join the DS. There is no way you can defend everything in the north, especially if the FP attack you early in the game. If neither side shows aggressive intent early on, and you decide to ride the fence for a while, consider posting your northern cav army at Mistrand (4318). This puts your two cav armies just one turn away from each other with both able to react to aggression from either allegiance in both the north and the south. Also, if you are going to stay neutral for awhile, consider retiring the leg armies - especially the one in the south. As you anticipate the beginning of military operations, recruit more cavalry. You are initially a formidable military power. Make yourself *MORE* formidable. Discreetly leak that fact to the other players. Deter aggression. If you turn FP, a tower or fort at Khand Amu is also a very good idea. DIPLOMACY Diplomacy is the heart of the game for me. If there are no blitzes forcing your hand early on, how well you do diplomatically will strongly affect your success in the game. The biggest difficulty you will have diplomatically is convincing the FP that you are seriously considering turning FP. One way to make this option seem realistic to the FP players is to start negotiations for a backup capital in a safe part of FP territory. This should be a place where there is also potential to put in some lucrative camps. I recommend sending out 3x5's on turn 1, stating that your price for turning FP is an MT in a safe location. See if anybody comes up with a concrete offer. If they do, give it serious consideration. You can turn FP successfully around turn 6 - 10 provided that the Cloud Lord, Blind Sorcerer and other Mordorion DS armies have moved off to war and have been attrited in combat. Be sure and have agent guards prepared for your army commanders and capital if you make this choice. The DS can really work on your isolated capital with character actions, and you are several turns removed from any quality FP character assistance. Your problem negotiating with the DS is their *PRESUMPTION* that you will turn DS. You have to be coy enough with them to make them work for your allegiance, but not so coy as to make them believe you will turn good and are just toying with them. Usually, it is sufficient to say something like: "I'm seriously considering several offers from players of both sides" (almost always the truth!) to make them take you seriously. The Easterlings is a difficult position which should be played by someone who is flexible and who likes coping with the unexpected. Almost anything can happen with this position; even early in the game, your armies may be fighting anywhere: Mirkwood, Rhun, Rhovaion, the Ithil Pass, Khand, Harad, Umbar... If you are jumped by one of the allegiances early on, you may face a long fight back to the top. Some players thrive on that kind of challenge - if you're one of them, try the Easterlings! Tabs, Spaces, and Screwed Up Tables by David Foreman The following is a reply to a writer's complaints in the formatting of tables for this and other publications. Formatting is a nearly global irritant while riding the info superhighway. There are a number of issues that contribute to problems with document formatting, most of which involve the standards used to display and/or print text. Many systems (generic internet nodes included) use a display system that uses fixed width fonts (typefaces), and standard, 4 character wide tabs. A fixed font uses a little box of pixels to display all characters regardless of their width (an 'i' is the same width as a 'w', it just has some white space around it). These systems display tables on the screen in nice, blocky, easy to manage columns. On these systems, you can freely mix 4 spaces with a tab in alternating lines of the table, and to the eye, everything works nicely. If you look at a straight ASCII dump of the data, you will see 4 ASCII spaces on some lines, one ASCII tab on others. Another type of system (Macs and windows based PC's frequently) uses a proportionally spaced font and tabs to display to the screen. In this case, characters each have their own specific width. An 'i' is narrow, a 'w' is wide. A ' ' (space) is frequently VERY narrow. On these systems, you HAVE to use tab characters to line columns up, because tabs are defined as points on the page (1", 1.5", 2", 2.5", etc) rather than as a number of spaces counted from the left margin. Fortunately for us, most proportionably spaced fonts use fixed width NUMBERS (0-9) so that numeric tables can be created. Un-fortunately, tables with numbers are hard to right justify (making all the one's digits line up), so tables can still be ragged. Then there are the hybrid systems that do or don't use tabs, do or don't use the same tab WIDTH (3,4,5 characters wide) or fail to translate odd characters like the vertical bar or double quote. There are something like 22,000+ nodes on the internet. Go figure. [Tom's note: Dave, I recently saw a figure of 30,000+ nodes, I think in "Computer" magazine or one of the clones.] American On Line is notorious for being a pain with this issue. When you display a message on your terminal, it is displayed in a proportionally spaced font, and all tabs are translated into spaces. In addition, it word wraps based on the size of font you are using and the size of the currently opened display window. GADS! Printing then adds another wrinkle. The print font size and/or typeface isn't always the same as the display font on the screen. Again using AFL as an example, when you PRINT a document it uses a straight fixed width font that allows tabs (I think this can be changed through the windows printer setup process). As a result, a nicely formatted memo on the screen looks awful, and a horrible mess on the screen can look great when printed in 12 cpi courier! I guess we should all be glad email exists. HOWEVER... Let the user beware! Unless you and your mail destination use the same fonts, formatters, and page sizes, expect the data and tables to be trash. Hope that clears it up for some of you... THE ALL EMAIL GAME by David Foreman In the last issue of the Mouth, one writer suggested an all email game, with turns submitted & received via internet. I will tell you from personal experience that Bill says no. I went so far as to propose some ideas for a piece of software that would 'catch' the data from a turn on the PC end, and turn it into a turn report on your home printer. It would also send your turn in to GSI via email in a format that they could read directly, rather than having to type it all in. I am a software developer, and am part of a three person partnership that writes Foxpro applications. We currently write DOS and Windows apps, and are working on porting to MAC as well. When I proposed the idea of a system as described above, the response was less than favorable. These were the reasons given: 1) Costs too much (I offered to fund the development work...) 2) 'Customer Service' would be lessened for things that are misspelled like answers to riddles (so check those manually...) 3) Not technically feasible (I work with 180,000 rec databases all the time. No sweat...) 4) The quality graphics would be compromised. (True. But his program is written in turbo pascal. If I could get the map engine code from him and adapt the bitmaps for the pictures...) As you can see, this is another aspect of the sometimes odd customer service credo at GSI. I'd like to see the interface (dare I say client/server???) even if I have no part of the action! BTW: In fairness, Dan Loveland and others on compuserve have a nifty paradox program that does much of what I had pictured. The only problem with theirs is that you have to do the data entry each turn. I highly recommend it for those of you (me too) who write 434 instead of 435 when writing orders. It does some nice error checking and formatting for you. Talk to Keith Peterson or Dan on compuserve if you are interested. It was free last time I checked. I can be reached at ELDACARR@AFL.COM. [Dave later sent this note just before the Mouth was sent out: I have been told by Dan Loveland that the appropriate person to talk to (and credit) for the software that was written to process turn reports is Kevin Erskine. Please mention this/add it to my article. Speculations on player positions in the 2940 game: Ranger of the North By Brian Mason Tom has discussed in a couple of different Mouth offerings (see "The New Game" in issue 16 and "More Comments on the New Game" in issue 17 as well as comments by Darin Fitzpatrick see On the new information about ME-PBM 2950 [sic] in issue 19) the problems associated with this position. Those being numbers (there are not enough of them) and population centers (they aren't even a nation). GSI is clearly going to be altering "history" here, so the guesses below are simply guesses of how they are going to alter it. Speculations on population centers: There is actually no shortage of population centers in Eriador. The problem, of course, is that most of them are controlled by Hobbits. Here is a possible listing: Dwellings of Hobbits 1109 Hobbiton Town 1209 Frogmorton Village 1309 Bucklebury Town Tower 1010 Michel Delving Major Town? Tower 1110 Tuckburrow Town Tower 1210 Stock Village 1111 Hardbottle Village 1211 Sackville Village Most of these would be villages, a few possibly towns. There are actually a few population centers per hex, so the ones I have chosen to name are somewhat arbitrary. While Hobbits do not have fortifications in the traditional sense, their smials (for example, Brandy Hall in Bucklebury, the Great Smials of the Tooks in Tuckborough, or the the Lockholes in Michael Delving) would certainly provide the fortification-like defenses. Dwellings of Men 1409 Bree Town Tower 1509 Archet Village 1407 Fornost Village? Fort 1307 Rood Village The problems then are two-fold. One, most of the possible population centers in the area are of Hobbits, not of men. It is difficult to imagine the Rangers reruiting armies from a Hobbit population center and ending up with men. Two, there are no true large population centers to serve as a capital. The best choices for a capital are the following three possibilities: 1. Michel Delving Pros: Probably has a large enough population in this and the surrounding towns for it to qualify as a Major Town. Cons: It's controlled by Hobbits. How can the Rangers recruit 400 men per turn in a population center controlled by Hobbits? There is not even a report of Rangers going to Michel Delving. 2. Fornost Erain Pros: The old capital of Arthedain and Arnor. It is known that Rangers went here. Cons: It's ruins. Why do you think it was renamed "Deadmen's Dike?" 3. Imladris Pros: This is the only place the Rangers of the North ever really rested. The Chieftan was raised here. Cons: It is the home of Elrond, and many other of the characters of another nation. These are probably the most likely choices, however, none of them are really good locations. I don't know how GSI is going to pull this off. It is likely, however, that the position will start off very weak but may have the best opportunity for population center development in its immediate area with little or no threat of immediate attack. The characters will be difficult to determine. It 2940 the Chieftan of the Rangers was Aragorn II from "The Lord of the Rings," but he is only nine years old. It is possible that GSI may choose to liberally use the "circa" descriptor and keep Aragorn's father, Arathorn II (who died in 2933) as a character, or they may choose to prematurely age Aragorn. Other possibilities for characters include Halbarad, Aragorn's standard bearer. Also, the sons of Elrond, Elladan and Elrohir, often traveled in the company of the Rangers. It is not inconcievable that they will be characters of the Rangers. The Rangers are likely to start off with characters well skilled in command and agent skill (but few mages and emissaries) and a very poor military. Depending on the number and importance of the population centers of Hobbits, there may or may not be Hobbit characters. For example, in 2940, Bilbo is 50 years old, Fortinbras II is Thain of the Shire, and Gorbadoc Brandybuck was Master of Buckland. Name co ag em ma st ========= ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== Chieftan 50 20 30 10 Halbarad 30 20 Ranger 30 Ranger 30 10 Ranger 30 10 Ranger 40 Ranger 20 10 Ranger 30 Bilbo 30 Fortinbras 30 Gorbadoc 30 The command artifacts of Arthedain (the Sceptre of Annuminas and the Ring of Barahir) are possessed by the Chieftan as well as the shards of Narsil and the Elendilmir, a silver circlet. Narsil is probably a +1000 or better combat artifact while the Elendilmir may be a +20 or better mage artifact. The palantir's possessed by Arthedain in me-pbm 1650 were lost in the Ice Bay of Forochel in 1975. Their starting army is probably extremely small, possibly only 100 light cavalry at Bree. In several places within I.C.E. products, the Rangers are specifically described as never numbering "more than several hundred." It is possible that only cavalry will be given descriptions as "Dunadan" while heavy and light infantry and men-at-arms will be "mixed eriadorian." It is possible that archers who are recruited, especially if there are many population centers in the Shire, may be Hobbits. There is some historical evidence to support this (there is a reference in "The Lord of the Rings" to bowmen being sent to the aid of Arvedui, the last King of Arnor in his final battle with the Witch-King). [Tom's note: hobbits, in conjunction with the Rangers, some Eriadorian levies, and the elves of Imladris, managed to defeat an invasion of orcs from Mount Gram late in the third age.] Going any further would go far beyond speculation and enter the realm of pure fantasy. However, let me point out that to support 100 light cavalry and the first eight characters listed above (with the additional expense of 2500 gold for fortifications) would only require one major town and three towns at a 40% tax rate. Dark Servant Pop Centers in the New Game By Tom Walton It'd be impossible to speculate on the composition of Dark Servant nations in 2940. While we've ample information on some of the major population centers, artifacts, and characters, there's nothing at all on how these were divided up into specific kingdoms. Indeed, the sources on the subject conflict. Tolkien states that only two Nazgul semi-permanently resided in specific places (the Witch-King at Minas Morgul and Khamul at Dol Guldur), with the others being assigned from place to place where needed. I.C.E., on the other hand, gives the Nazgul kingdoms to the east and South off- map, with Sauron in direct control of Mirkwood and Mordor through other, less qualified servants. In consideration of just how silly it'd be to try to come up with a list of kingdoms (though I attempt this at the end of this article), I've decided to instead give you a run-down on new pop centers and changes to old pop centers. Hopefully this will give you some idea of where the balance of power lays for the Dark Servants, allowing you to more accurately guess where individual nations are located. Eriador Sauron had little power in Eriador in 2940. This wasn't due to the influence of the Rangers or Noldo Elves, or the loss of Angmar; fact is, he simply didn't care about the region. With most of the land empty of people, the Dark Lord couldn't see the point in diverting resources to the area when they could be better used elsewhere. There are only a few sites which could qualify as Dark Servant pop centers: - Mount Gram (2006): Mount Gram is still occupied by a hefty population of orcs, which infrequently raid into Eriador. They're primarily opposed by the Rangers. Mount Gram would certainly qualify as a town/fort, perhaps a major town/fort. - Carn Dum (1804): Carn Dum was sacked by Gondor and the Elves about a thousand years before the beginning of the new game, but orcs soon returned to the city. Carn Dum is most likely a town/fort, but may be a major town/fort (the fortifications were never fully repaired). When Angmar fell, food supplies were no longer transported to the region from the East. Since Angmar was a barren land that couldn't support a large population, the numbers of orcs never returned to the levels they stood at under the reign of the Witch-King. The plains on the shelf of Angmar were abandoned, with the remaining orcs concentrating at Carn Dum and Gundabad. There shouldn't be any pop centers at all on the plains or in the rough around Angmar. Rhudaur is described as being nothing more than the haunt of wolves and trolls in 2940 (as Bilbo and crew found to their dismay). During the destruction of Angmar the Allies also swept through Rhudaur, killing the remaining hillmen (whose numbers had been declining steadily for centuries). When the Allies were done, the few remaining hillmen that hadn't been slaughtered fled to other parts of Eriador. Neither orcs nor men remained, so Rhudaur should be barren of pop centers in the new game. If the Dark Servants hold any more population centers in Eriador, they'll be minor at best and most likely concentrated in Angmar, former Rhudaur, or the west side of the Misty Mountains. Most likely these will non-historical 'game balancers'. Gundabad and the Mountains The Misty and Grey Mountains are grouped as a single region because of the influence and power of Gundabad during 2940. Prior to the Battle of the Five Armies outside Erebor, Gundabad was mightier than it had ever been during its long history. Indeed, the orcs of the mountain and their allies nearly defeated the combined forces of the Sinda Elves, the Northmen, the Dwarves, and a Woodmen contingent at the Lonely Mountain (victory only being snatched from them by the timely arrival of the Eagles). Led by Bolg, Gundabad managed to force the submission of the orcs of the Grey and Misty Mountains from the far north all the way to Moria (where the Balrog held sway). United into a single kingdom, Gundabad represented the greatest threat to the Free Peoples of the region since the rise of Angmar. Population centers are discussed separately below: - Gundabad (2305): definitely a major town. Probably a fort, though it should be a castle or better. The defenses of Gundabad were so daunting that only the Dwarves proved capable of sieging the place. Even after they broke through its defenses, so many died in the final assault that the Dwarves had to beat a hasty retreat to avoid being destroyed by reinforcements marching to Gundabad's relief. Though Gundabad has existed since the beginning of the Second Age, it was only sacked once. - Goblin-Gate (2409): a major town, again probably a fort. Goblin- Gate's defenses were almost as good as those of Gundabad, and it was only sacked once (by the Dwarves). Again, the Dwarves proved incapable of holding the place, and had to retreat because of the losses suffered in breaching the gates. - Grey Mountains: three specific tribes of orcs are mentioned in the Grey Mountains, all owing fealty to Gundabad. These orcs settled in after the Dwarves were driven out by the dragons. They didn't occupy the former dwarvish holdings, as these were then the homes of said dragons. I'd guess that each tribe is represented by a town/tower or town/fort, and that they'll be spaced relatively evenly along the southern face of the range (2604, 2804, 3004). Kala Durlakarth (2703) is still around and going strong as well. Another town/tower or town/fort. - Northern Misty Mountains: one tribe is mentioned to the south of Goblin-Gate, and is subject to the Great Goblin. Another town/tower or town/fort, probably a couple of hexes south of Goblin-Gate on the east side of the Misty Mountains (2310 or 2311). There's also a tribe 'to the west' of Gundabad, which answered Azog's call to arms for the battle at the Lonely Mountain. This isn't Mount Gram, which was independent, or Carn Dum, which wasn't actually ruled by any single tribe. In the new game, this might be represented by another town/tower a couple of hexes to the northwest of Gundabad (2104 or 2205). No other major tribes are mentioned in the mountains north of Moria, but this alone accounts for three or four major towns and six or seven minor towns (if Mt. Gram and Carn Dum are included). Moria Moria is a major population center in the Misty Mountains, the home of several different orc and troll tribes all ruled by the Balrog. Though the Balrog wasn't subject to Sauron, it did serve him indirectly by causing death and mayhem to the Free Peoples. The population of Moria rivals, and perhaps exceeds, that of Gundabad. It's most definitely a major town and might even be a city (but I doubt this). The fortifications are as impressive as they ever were, but I expect them to be reduced to a keep or castle in the new game (many traps are in disrepair and the orcs aren't as organized as the Dwarves were). There's some indication that the Balrog also held sway over some tribes outside of Moria, but the information is so slim that I won't conjecture over yet more pop centers in the Misty Mountains. The Southern Misty Mountains After Saruman turned rotten, he started recruiting orcs from the Southern Misty Mountains. Apparently there were quite a few in the area, because in combination with the Duns they nearly destroyed Rohan in 3018. These same orcs were also used in Saruman's breeding program which produced the Uruk-hai. I would assume that even though Saruman is neutral, he must have a pop center or two in the Misty Mountains north of Orthanc. Because these are based upon orcish tribes, I'd be inclined to set up two more town/towers in the area (both on the east slope, 2116 and 2118). Note that these aren't yet Dark Servant population centers, but they do deserve mention. Mirkwood Mirkwood is the haunt of orcs in 2940. Aside from the small area under Thranduil's control in the north, most of the forest is ruled from Dol Guldur. As far as pop centers are concerned, we can expect Dol Guldur (major town/keep) and at least two town/towers to represent resident orcs. I'd be inclined to have two in southern Mirkwood (2813, 2914), along with Sarn Goriwing (town/fort, location 2809). More would crowd the area too much (and make Bilbo's journey as recounted darn near impossible). Mirkwood was strong, but not strong enough to challenge the powers in the region. It was clearly incapable of conquering Lorien, and though the orcs managed to force the gradual withdrawal of the Sinda they could never penetrate Thranduil's core area in the northeast. It certainly wasn't as powerful as Gundabad and its tributaries. West of Mordor Aside from the pop centers listed here, there are no other bases to speak of west of Mordor and environs. Eriador was empty, while Gondor and Rohan kept the White Mountains clear of orcs. The Northmen in the northern Rhovanion and the Woodmen in the Anduin did the same. Treebeard and company also kept orcs from venturing too far into Fangorn Forest. Mordor Virtually all of the pop centers listed in 1650 still exist in 2940. There have been a few changes and some build-up. - unfortified pop centers should be given at least a tower. Much of the work of the orc tribes leading up to the War of the Ring involved rebuilding the defenses of Mordor, destroyed by retreating Gondorian engineers. This work was complete by 2940. Barad-dur, for example, was one of the greatest fortresses around, bolstered by Sauron's magical might; it should at least be a castle, and more likely a keep (actually, it's a citadel, but I don't think GSI will go this far). - in the 1300 years since 1650, the orcs have established and built up much of Mordor. Consider the sheer numbers sent forth for the invasion of Gondor, as well as those stationed at Morannon alone during the final battle. I'd guess that many of the camps of 1650 are now towns, and that a half-dozen or so new towns can be found scattered about Mordor (exact hex locations unknown). Dark Servants, rejoice! You're no longer in danger of going bankrupt starting turn 1. - Minas Ithil was captured by the Witch-King and renamed Minas Morgul. It's a major town/fort and the capitol of the Witch-King's nation. From here, the First of the Nazgul ruled Mordor under Sauron's direction. - orcs raided into the Ithilien regularly from Mordor, which implies that several holds were established in the mountains on the Gondorian side. Expect a few villages or towns along the west flank of Mordor. Further speculation on the composition of pop centers in Mordor is pointless. There just isn't any real information other than what's already given for 1650, except that Mordor was much tougher and had a far larger population than before. The South In 1650, the Quiet Avenger has pop centers in the South. In 2940, there's no mention in the trilogy of a Nazgul being stationed here. I.C.E. has two Nazgul in the region, both holding sway over areas off-map. Given that Harad is gone and the Easterlings are split into two tribes, I'd assume that there's still a Dark Servant nation in the area. Without this nation, the entire area is held by neutrals and that runs contrary to GSI's placement logic. My guess is that we can look forward (hah!) to another position like the Quiet Avenger, only with more substantial holdings. Final Appraisal That's a run-down of the pop centers I could find info on, minus those already detailed in 1650. Now delving into sheer fantasy, I'll make a guess on how the Dark Servants are divided up: Misty Mountains/Grey Mountains: two nations: - Fire King: capitol is Gundabad at 2305. - Ice King: capitol is Moria at 2212. Mirkwood: One nation under the Dragon Lord. Capitol is Dol Guldur at 2715. The South: One nation under the Quiet Avenger. Capitol is Lugarlur at 3034. Rhun: One nation under the Long Rider. Capitol is Tol Buruth at 4215. Mordor: five nations, mixed up and confused like before: - Witch-King: capitol is Minas Morgul at 3124. - Dog Lord: capitol is Morannon at 3221. - Cloud Lord: capitol is Kal Nargil at 3630. - Blind Sorcerer: capitol is Luglurak at 3929. - Dark Lieutenants: capitol is Barad-dur at 3423. Notice that the Ice King and Fire King have been relocated to the Misty Mountains. Together, they'll have to fend off the Noldo and Rangers to the west, as well as the Sinda Elves, Lorien Elves, and Woodmen to the East. The Dragon Lord has a stronger nation than before, though he labors under the same exposure to multiple FP attacks. However, he now has the opportunity to be supported by two strong Dark Servants who're both nearby. Should the division fall this way, I'm willing to bet that individual Dark Servants will have a more equal chance of placing than they did in the 1650 game. It will also concentrate almost all of the action east of the Misty Mountains, which was true in the War of the Ring as well. Last Word Another enormous Mouth off to our loyal readers. Thanks one and all for your many contributions! It's become a regular feature for Brian and I to razz our opponents in game 97; the gods forbid that I should break a budding tradition! This turn saw the capture of Methir (2730) from the Dark Lieutenants, the destruction of Khand Amu (Easterling major town at 4228) and Laorki (Easterling town at 4330), and the positioning of my mighty Corsair armies to destroy both Ovatharac (Easterling town at 4335) and Sturlutsu Khand (Easterling capitol at 4133). To think I was worried that the enemy would mount an invasion from Khand! Now the question is, will the Easterlings still be in the game after all this? Will they be in any shape to do the Free damage if they are? And look! Scouts report that there STILL aren't any forces guarding Mordor's back door....(yum yum, says Eadur). There's a high demand for articles which detail how a game went from a player's point of view, but no one seems to be writing them. We'd like to do 97, but it's nowhere close to the end and our opponents (well, two in particular) are giving us one hell of a fight. We couldn't divulge much of what we know or did, because it would wreck some of the operations currently under way. If anyone out there has finished or almost finished a game, and would like to tell the tale of it, we'd be ecstatic to see it in print. Of all the requests I get, this is the most common one. Such an effort would no doubt make you one of Sauron's favorites! That's all this time around. Tom