What's the FP's move here?

[mrweasely]

Sauron has captured Rivendell, Pelargir, and Shire. (4vp)
Lorien's probably going to fall.
Gray Havens have been saved by Cirdan.
Dol Amroth looks like it'll soldier through, thanks to Aragorn's timely Paths of the Dead play last turn.
Minas Tirith will probably drown in a sea of Orcs.
Everyone's at war but the Dwarves.

So what's the FP's play here?

They've got 3 non-expansion ent cards but Gandalf's stuck guiding the Fellowship.

There's only one eye, so it could be a FSP-push turn.

The big, angry Rohan army could go to Osgiliath with Run for the Woses, but that gives up Helm's Deep and Edoras. Playing for Military victory with that army seems attractive, but Many Kings, King is Revealed, Pits of Mordor and Musterings of a Long Planned War are all outstanding. Another option is to hurl that army towards Parth Celebrant and see what happens - Shadows on the Misty Mountains has been played, and Lorien could be saved, maybe.

[mrweasely]

Sending Boromir + Pippen to Minas Tirith with We Prove the Swifter then blufffing House of the Stewards is another option. Its still in the character deck, somewhere, so it might even be drawn. Unfortunately, Guards of the Citadel was already played as a Charge.

[Veldrin]

Where is the Fellowship? I can't find Frodo and Sam (now I know how Sauron felt).

[glow=green,2,300]Veldrin[/glow]

[SevenSpirits]

Veldrin, they are in Parth Celebrant.

Without having played much with these rules, my first inclination is to move the FSP twice. This puts them in range of Mordor next turn, which I think is important.

Doing that first is good because I don't think there is anywhere you need to defend more right away. You want to get one of your two moves done at the start of the turn so the Shadow can't benefit as much by moving the Nazgul. Also, if the Shadow manages to take MT really quickly, for example with Grond, then they can happily move the Nazgul as their next action. You want to be done moving before that.

I can't see how many cards the Shadow player has in hand, but my guess is that they are going to want to beat with the WK and then play some cards. I would want to delay my military action until after the Witch King attacks use up their character dice.

That Will of the West die seems worth using to get either Gandalf the White or Aragorn (assuming he's still Strider -- I only see four FP dice right now). Once you enter Mordor, I would think those extra dice are critical for Fellowship pushing. Also, getting GtW quickly so you can free up some hand space of Ent cards seems really nice. I think the ideal play is to get Gandalf in Fangorn this turn after he dies during Fellowship movement, use the ents at some point after this turn, and then WPTS Gandalf from Fangorn into Dol Amroth at a critical moment.

Long term, I think you want to leave the Rohan army where it is to defend Rohan. Of course if something happens to take advantage of, do that. It might be good to consolidate at Fords of Isen, and it might further be good to attack Orthanc with Sudden Strike(s) (before using your Ent cards).

DEW looks pretty safe, and I wouldn't worry about it. I would probably give up on MT and Pelargir. This means they only need one of Helm's Deep, Dol Amroth, or Grey Havens or a DEW stronghold to win. Dol Amroth and Helm's Deep are the best of those targets from their perspective, but luckily you have plans to defend those!

After Lorien falls, I would consider trying to mount a counterassault at the Grey Havens. Multiples of Advantageous Position and/or Charge are important there. Also it would be nice if they move that Nazgul away. However, I'm not sure how many elves are left. Maybe that's a bad idea.

[mrweasely]

The elven muster bag is exhausted. That's because Rivendell got to four elites, used Charge, and failed to scratch the orcs. Still, it was a pretty daunting defense for the first Stronghold of the game!

Aragorn is king already. I'll forgive you for not being able to tell by the fact that he wears a slightly pointier hat than Strider.

[Veldrin]

Here are my thoughts:

I find it very tempting to combine the use of the Ents and the Rohirrim army to threaten Dol Guldur/retake Lorien and if that works also threaten Moria.

The probleam as I see it is that it will leave the Fellowship with precious little dice to move with.

Probably a gamble that will backfire but it would not be what the Shadow excpects and could therefor work, and it would be FUN.

[glow=green,2,300]Veldrin[/glow]

[SevenSpirits]

mrweasely said:

Aragorn is king already. I'll forgive you for not being able to tell by the fact that he wears a slightly pointier hat than Strider.

Wait -- when in the turn is this? It looks like the Shadow has used two dice, and the FP have used one (Aragorn). But they haven't used any action tokens... how did that happen? Did the WK just appear this turn?

[mrweasely]

Heh, here was a 2-turn lag between bringing out the WK and remembering to give the extra die to the shadow.

Between activating everyone, getting two leadership, getting lots of action tokens into play, and the exciting ability to play Grond & BCCommands, there's a lot of bookkeeping to keep track of when he comes out.