Magic Geek loses as shadow, Ring Down, shadow on 10VP.
Tried a traditional game of sacking Gondor, well. Sort of.
Balrog +Wizard vs first turn Aragorn, 3rd turn Galadriel.
Hillmen charged Dol Amroth, but Cirdans ships turned up.
Mordor Alpha, Mordor Beta, and Long Planned Mordor, and Southrons, and the Hillmen, fully 50 figures, lined up BEFORE attacking Gondor.
Minas T still held at the end of the game.
The Ents were mustered before the voice, so the Pathetic starting Orthanc took Helms deep early, and held it.
The King sat in Edoras before dead men, path of woses.
Moria + Nth Dunland wolves took Grey Shire.
Easterlings took Dale and sat.
Smeagol led the FSP into Mordor and they won while the shadow was on 10VP.
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Magic Geek loses as shadow. Ring down, shadow could get to 10. Turn 8 -9
Strider + Smeagol go the ring.
Wolves charge Rohan. Rohan rolled the special dice.
Whitch King plus Mordor alpha swerved and died at Edoras, along with 3 compnions.
Close.
X X
Magic Geek loses as shadow. Ring down, shadow could get to 11. Turn 9
Strider + 2x Smeagol go the ring.
Mr Hunty arrives and does little.
Wolves take Rohan.
Alpha+Dol Guldur+ East take DEW
Shire falls to 4 lumpys, and is retaken by Bree.
Pelagir is taken, Dol Amroth's last defender denies the existence of the last 3 shadow dice, and the 10 stack outside.
He should not have made it, double smeagol and no bad tiles. D'oh.
Gandalf died at WR.
No shadow reinforcement cards were played, 3 total drawn.
1. WK return played early in combat while MR Hunty on the Fsp.
2. The King was never revealed
3. The Eastern Horde was WAY too late
Only 3x Voice, 1 x Nazgul & 1xHillmen musters total, hillmen on 2nd last turn and did not move.
One blue piece total was in a hole, and Dol Amroth was going down to the ten stack outside it.
I think this particular game is very close to how it should go in a focussed attack against a good defence.
Using a formulaic attack into good defence, I think Shadow should win on turn 7-8.
This game went longer because of lots of eyes and hunting.
I lost because of Smeagol.
Actually, this is the 3rd time in a row I have lost as shadow on 10 points as the ring goes down.
All 3 games were won by smeagol.
Magic geek loses as shadow. Turn 8, shadow on 10 Ring down
First turn Galadriel caused a traditional DEW rush.
WR got 3 extra elites, then 3 companions, still went down eventually.
Magic geek wins as shadow. Turn 11, FSP next to Mt doom.
Hounded FSP for rerolls.
Orthanc + Dol G took Lorien. Works, might do it again.
Finally drew a bad tile in Mordor.
Turn stalling just doesn't happen any more.
Nothing particularly special happened in either game.
Galadriel means the FSP never get poisoned any more.
Maybe taking her out really is important.
Much prefer Siege engines when they only happen on the first round, like they are meant to.
Magic Geek wins as shadow. Turn 8, FSP on first Mordor circle Shadow on 10 VP
Easterlings alone took DEW.
Easterling Lockdown so no Power Rangers.
Cruel weather used early in combat, he ran, revealed and hid at MM anyway. Turn stalling just doesn't happen any more
Saruman & King turn 3. Galadriel turn 4. Balrog turn 5 & WK turn 6
No Balrog coz it would help the Dwarves, and Galadriel.
Shadow had SO few dice, rolled more eyes and less musters.
When the Musters appeared, the Easterlings demanded siege enginees.
No muster dice were spent recruiting troops. NONE. No trolls, No voice, No Nazgul. No troops moved in Mordor, or Umbar.
Total shadow reinforcements for the game were Many Kings, Shadow on Mt Gram, Orcs Multiplied Again, A new power and Witch King took 2 Nazgul.
Far Harad to Near Harad, Many Kings (4 in the Sth), palantir to get a Wolf, move to West Harandor all happened by turn 2.
This mean Gondor got The King & Boromir moved to Oz-G, Dol Amroth was reinforced, and Cirdan went to Pelagir.
One turn he rolled palantirs and a muster, I rolled armies.
Grey Havens got charged from Mt Gundabad, and Moria charged Shire.
Next turn Orthanc grabbed Helms deep, and Dol Guldur rattled Lorien hard enough that Helms Deep held.
I do not recommend this strategy.
But, it worked this time.
Q) is Smeagol a companion?
If you take a random companion, can Smeagol die?
If foul thing attacks, can he die?
Can I place an extra Eye because Smeagol is in the party / FSP?
Can Smeagol 'separate' by 'going alone'?
I would ask if he counts as a companion for the playing of combat cards, but I know he cant appear on the map. . . But, if he COULD separate, somehow, can he play daring defiance? ;D
Magic Geek loese as free. Turn 9, FSP on fourth Mordor circle
I had a plan, rolled 4 musters and decided to abandon the plan and get Galadriel instead.
Wolves and Shadows on Moria meant Lorien Fell on turn 3.
How come he only gets the good side of the bell curve?
Reinforced Woodland Realm popped.
Erebor Popped.
Dale died.
Rohan got menaced.
Companions invaded Edoras, drew a line in the sand, and died to the third army. Well, actually, he took Pelagir because the reinforce was used instead of moving Oz-G to Pelagir, allowing the Southrons to walk in, but you get my drift.
I used 1 Move/Muster die as a move, the last die, and it was stoopid.
In truth, I lost this one.
I forgot to get Gandalf with the only Will I rolled in the middle section of the game. Just forgot. To be fair to me, he did roll quite well, but what a STOOPID mistake. The extra couple of die might just have been enough too. D'Oh.
And, as always, Gandalf dies, the companions run, and Strider dies to Foul thing. Random casualty does not mean random, it means 'random strider', as always.
Magic Geek loses as Free, Corruption on Turn 15
King + Saruman turn 1
Ents turn 2
Galadriel + Mr Hunty turn 3
Saruman regulars and a wolf attacked Rivendell on turn 3.
Rivendell fought a field battle, and retreated to the Fords of Bruin. This was Very Odd, but worked because the elves went down 2 boxes and the last 2 dice got Galadriel. But it also meant Mr Hunty on the FSP at Rivendell.
Rivendell took an elite casualty instead of reducing twice. The elven muster pool just cant take that sort of abuse. The regulars did get built in Lorien and WR, WR also got an elite before it got hit by Mordor Alpha. 5 or 6 turns later they moved next to Moria, and then took Nth Dunland before the Hillmen.
Turn 4 Book of Mazrabul meant DEW got HARD.
Erebor got to 4 elites /1 regular /2 leaders + Gimli + 2 Siege engines. Still died eventually, Woodland realm too.
Even Dale got 2 Dwarves retreating from the Iron hills, and surrendered Dale as the retreated south.
Legolas went to Helms deep and moved forward to protect the fords of Isen from a New Power.
Gandalf rezzed in Lorien, and moved the Elves next to Moria
Gondor was almost out of forces, before Gondor declared War, and moved some troops in North Ithillian, onto a Hobbit.
He had 1 die to do something, (reinforce Morranon), or the Free Military Victory was gunna happen. Then he reinforced Morranon and Moria, and then Dol Guldur, while Orthanc stayed home and Mt Gundabad sat with 4 orcs.
The Hobbit looked at my through a day and a night card, and felt sad.
I think I should have just gone for it anyway.
I had 3 different armies able to probably take their 3 stronghold, but the ring just looked a better option.
The FSP had been chased and hammered.
Gandalf had sucked corruption and drawn lots of cards, 2 turns were played without Blue character cards to draw.
Smeagol appeared twice, like he should when you almost empty the Pool.
The FSP had lots of time, and lots of corruption. Two turns in Mordor involve hiding the FSP, and thats it, an eye would have been lethal. Galadriel had already removed 2 eyes.
2 circles left. . .
Isuldur's Bane deals 3.
The King walked back into Gondor and had the Challenge.
King drew ' -1, 0 ,1'
Remaining tiles were 'Eye, BAD EYE, 1R'
My King sucked.
FSP move, draw the Bad EYE and die, next to Mt Doom.
x x x
Magic geek wins as Free, ring down turn 16, shadow on 10VP
Rohan besieged Orthanc twice, without attacking, Saruman survived the game.
Magic geek losed as Free, Shadow Military turn 7, Strider in middle of mordor. <Sigh>
Very Very different games.
Magic geek loses as Free. Shadow Military turn 14 Frodo looking up as the shadow conquer. The set we were playing with was the star of the show.
it had been attacked and mangled, it was missing the Ents and other cards, and the whole expansion. Oddly enough none of this mattered. We still played the full game.
I wrote out the cards and reshuffled them into the deck as I used an apropriate card. The hillmen were happily represented by 3 dice, and we had miniatures to sub for all the stars as needed. The 2 by Elf Cloaks sub as Smeagol. Siege engines were represented by a single pen lid. All four of them at Lorien
It did have some very silly effects though. He worked out what cards were missing and then started writing them out and drawing them as needed when he ran out of cards. This was mostly because he fought a bloody and protracted war at Lorien with the Angry WK. And because I stupidly let him have the palantir for too long. I made mistakes. But then again he made a couple and the game went long. Galadriel was the 5th die for a moment on turn 4. I just couldn't roll wills. I rolled another on turn 6 for the King, and Gandalf just sat there wanting to come play. I stuffed up Smeagol into Mordor by not hiding on the first die of the turn, he broke the FSP, drew a 2 and separated Smeagol and Legless making 3 Hobbits very sad they weren't half way through Mordor.
I got an early book, which scared him off DEW, but then he blew over Rohan, took Rivendell, Grey Havens from a New Power, Pelagir and Dol Amorth. The King liberated Edoras for another turn, and then had a go at Helms Deep, and killed 1 guy out of three full rounds , with 2 cards. It really felt like that sort of game.
Variant setup.The fastest way to set up is to :
1 Lay out Board
2 Shuffle the cards.
3 Deal the cards
4 Roll the dice
5 Free player decides what to do.
At this point the shadow player is allowed to set up any other parts they think could be useful in the very near future. The only rule is that once you have opened a box, you must try to finish setup out of that box.
Once the Free player has decided to get the Ents, or pass like normal, the majority of the set up should then be completed by the Free player as the shadow moves things and rolls dice.
This type of set up may require a certain level of flexibility, but with friendly players it seems to work.
Magic Geek dunks as Free on turn 10, shadow on 10. One army movement, one won battle, one extra turn, one lucky, lucky set of final tile draws.
x x x
PS, what is the official ruling on
Q "Can I see your cardbacks?"
A "NO!" and hide my cards? (Welcome to primary school)
Q "Which card did you draw with the witch king?"
A "Dont remember, werent you watching?" (No you cant see my cardbacks or number of cards.)
X X X X
Magic geek wins a Shadow Military, turn 8, Ring in Estenmet
5 more easy VP in reach, everything but the north-west.
Massive army build up, then crunch.
Magic geek wins a Shadow Military, turn 8, Ring next to the Cracks
No army build up.
Two unlikely victory attempts (turn 6 + 7)
Stolen game on turn 8. He used a sword to hide on the last turn. I drew the Day without dawn and nailed his 2 Wills. His remaining dice were Muster, Muster, Army/Muster and no elven rings, so no winning move. He lost because he used the wrong dice, and it was 4:30 AM.
Wolves ran from south of Lorien to The shire in turn 8 for the win.
Dew + Helms Deep + Lorien + The Shire.
t end of game, Helms deep may have been conquered, but there were no red units in Rohan and 7 blue Hits points in Edoras.