There are several ways of determining how well both you and your team are doing, and several ways of achieving victory. However, it is often helpful to bear in mind the aim of a game when reading the rules, and so for now, it should suffice to say that the aim of ME-PBM is to conquer the lands of Middle-earth by destroying those nations who oppose you. How you do this – be it through routing their armies, capturing their population centres, or killing their leaders – depends on your own style of play and the abilities of your nation.
A game is won by a team, not an individual player. A game can end in one of two ways:
Note that these are the basic victory conditions. Other modules and variants may have additional ways of achieving victory. See individual modules for any changes or differences in victory conditions.
Victory points do not affect or contribute to victory of the game itself. Instead, they are calculated for each nation each turn, to give you an idea of how well your nation is doing compared to other nations. (But not cumulative – they are recalculated each turn, not calculated and added to last turn’s points.) Then, when the game has ended, the victory points of each nation are checked in order to establish individual placings for the nations. You will receive a list detailing the victory points and ratings of all nations, with the top three nations on the winning side considered to have won first, second and third places.
Victory points are gained in two ways: from achieving specific victory conditions, and from being highly placed in various areas of play. Only those gained from the various areas of play are calculated and given each turn – those gained from achieving specific victory conditions are not included in a nation’s total until the game finishes.
For each area of play, nations will earn victory points based on their ranking as follows:
Ranking | Victory Points |
---|---|
1st Place | 500 |
2nd Place | 450 |
3rd Place | 400 |
4th Place | 367 |
5th Place | 333 |
6th Place | 300 |
7th Place | 275 |
8th Place | 250 |
9th Place | 225 |
10th Place | 200 |
11th-25th Place | 100 |
Note that eliminated nations are still ranked amongst active nations, though they cannot win the game, and are not included amongst the first, second or third places overall.
The areas are as follows:
Each nation starts the game with five individual victory conditions, which vary from game to game. For each one achieved, the nation gains 100 victory points. Note that these points are only calculated when a game ends, meaning that firstly your victory points total during the turn does not include points gained for individual victory conditions, and that secondly you must not only achieve an individual victory condition but still be fulfilling its criteria at the end of the game to gain the victory points.
The various types of individual victory condition are as follows:
This victory condition requires that your nation be responsible for the killing of at least ten characters belonging to nations other than your own, either through personal challenge or through assassination. No other kills will count. A victory condition more commonly found amongst Dark Servant nations.
This victory condition requires that your nation hold ten artifacts in addition to the number of artifacts held at the start of the game. They do not have to be useable by your nation, they just have to be artifacts. If the game is completed by the One Ring being taken to Mount Doom by your nation, the One Ring will not count as one of the ten artifacts.
This victory condition requires that your nation own a particular population centre. The particular population centre in question being specified in the victory condition. If the population centre is destroyed, holding a new population centre on the hex will fulfil the victory condition.
This victory condition requires that your nation have more mithril in population stores than any other nation.
This victory condition requires that your nation possess more artifacts than any other nation. If the game is completed by the One Ring being taken to Mount Doom by your nation, the One Ring will not count as one of your artifacts.
This victory condition requires that your nation own a particular artifact. The particular artifact in question being specified in the victory condition.
This victory condition requires that a particular character be dead at the end of the game. It does not matter how they die, or by whose hand or knife. The particular character in question being specified in the victory condition, and usually someone your nation has a reason for disliking. If another character is subsequently created with the same name, you do not have to kill them too.