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Post by mrweasely on Mar 20, 2007 5:08:49 GMT 1
Wow, nice.
I lost a game last month by over-seperating early, then by having Nazgul Chief get all up in my face. Now I won't seperate >1 companion until there's a Black Cap. Next time I get revealed early, Nazgul Chief will try his luck stopping a 17-corruption Fellowship. Lets see how well he fares against Gandalf the Grey and Strider both, eh?
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Post by magicgeek on Apr 3, 2007 4:32:51 GMT 1
Magic geek wins a Ring Victory, turn 7, Shadow got to 8 VP Very simple sprint. First will turn 4 somehow just made it. Magic geek loses to Shadow Military, turn 7, Ring was 1 die short of trying for the win. Just couldn't hold on. Grey Shire, Rohan, Erebor + Dale, Pelagir. Last die, 7 HP of Elves with Gandalf couldn't kill 6 HP of Orcs in Dale. Sad when Gandalf want to just be a captain, not immortal, because then he would roll more instead of scaring off Leadership that isn't there. X X X Mr W, let me get this right, If I dont send Mordor to war for 4 turns, you wont get the Ents?
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 4, 2007 19:56:47 GMT 1
Ents < Gandalf the Grey.
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Post by magicgeek on Apr 11, 2007 8:39:00 GMT 1
Yes.
Ents < Gandalf the Grey.
That is why you must get the Ents.
Look, just say Gandalf the Grey has a whale of a time, cycles through 14 event cards. Now that Gandalf is looking at 2 cards and they both say Ent, wouldn't you feel dumb that you didn't get the Ents?
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 11, 2007 18:32:38 GMT 1
Not really.
If both ents are turned directly into damage, they kill 3.33 orcs. As combat cards, the ent cards can give 1.5-2.0 casualties on average, or for Huron Dark cost the Shadow a half die worth of attack.
Add to that it takes a companion out of circulation, and takes a muster die to get them in, and I may not have a spare Character or Event die when the Wargs are in optimum weapons range, and I'm just not excited about Ents. I'd rather use the Ent cards as combat cards in many cases.
However, If I had all 3 Ent cards, then yes I would be excited about Ents.
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Post by magicgeek on Apr 12, 2007 3:14:28 GMT 1
I think I understand what the problem is. You massively overestimate the effect of the Ent combat cards. If Shadow does not attack Rohan, how many casualties does the Ent combat cards inflict? (the assumed answer you will never give is ZERO) If you got the third Ent card, so what? Dew + Rivendell + Grey Shire means Free lose. And yes, this does happen. It has happened to me, check this thread. Now, just imagine Shadow goes for the aforementioned 10 points, what effect does cycling through ALL of the character cards have? Put all 4 blue tiles in the pool, it doesn't matter, the FSP will never get to Mordor. What army goes through a day? Where would any of the Separate Cards have any effect? In fact, (looks at all 26 character cards), what cards make any difference what so ever if those 10 points are attacked? Looks. . . there are 7 of 26 character events that counld have any effect whatsoever. Dead Men helps crown the King and defend and area not attacked. Mirror is ordinary at best. Eagles is cool, but hardly devastating. Elven Rings is hardly overpowered, and sometimes just doesn't do a whole lot. Wind From the West is strong, well, a bit. Which leaves Grey Company and House of Boromir, both of which flood the hand with cards that want to use event dice. If the best that Gandalf can do is get some free strategy cards, WOO HOO! If Grey Co and House of Boro are the best cards to play, Free just lost because they didn't get the Ents. I mean, seriously, tell me what Free does against a Shadow going for those 10 VP, if they dont get the Ents turn 1 and do keep the Grey as guide? Free wont even get Galadriel before turn 4. Free cant separate anyone to anywhere useful. Wow, 3 Ent cards, and White Gandalf in Fangorn, what now? Are you going to attack the army besieging Rivendell with them? Losing the Leadership of the Wolves just aint that spectacular if a 14 HP army is headed to Grey Havens. Mr W, Dew will fall. How do you stop Saruman taking the North West? I do it by getting the Ents. I do it by Sprinting. Sometimes I do it by conquering Nth Dunland. Once I landed Cirdans Ships onto the retreated army from the Fords of Isen and separated Strider and Co onto them. I am very interested in any other answers. Ents on the 5th dice of the game is the best obvious option, after turn 1 king.
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 12, 2007 7:31:19 GMT 1
I admit, you've got me puzzled.
How many times have you lifted the siege of Rivendell with Ents?
Ents don't win military victories. Ents don't even threaten military victories without helpers. Ents don't defend Eriador. Ents don't defend DEW. Ents are passive. I'm lost.
My best defense of Eriador and DEW is to get lots of hit points and combat dice there, post haste! That means getting Galadriel, getting a northern nation to war, and muster their brains out. Pack strongholds with 7 hit points. Use (or bluff) with Help Unlooked For. That's what cows orc armies. Not Ents. Such is my current thinking.
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Post by magicgeek on Apr 12, 2007 9:57:53 GMT 1
Actually you protect Eriador by stopping the army from existing in the first place.
The Rivendell statement was rhetorical. I doubt anyone has ever lifted the seige by Ents.
"Get lots of hit points and combat dice there, post haste!" Is a reasonable idea, but it has nothing to do with Gandalf, with the obvious exception of the Separate cards, and all that does is give you more character cards that wont do much.
Either way, dont get Ents and you should lose if Shadow goes for the North half.
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 12, 2007 15:56:28 GMT 1
And everything to do with the cost of the ents. Squandering an early muster on ents can mean that Galadriel comes out a turn later. It also can mean the difference between Dale being isolated and Dale reinforcing Woodland Realm with [1/2/1].
It doesn't always happen like this, but it happens as often as the Ents matter, and the reward is greater: They probably only get 3 in DEW, or have to waste time getting the Easterlings. To get Havens, Saruman has to plow both a beligerant Shire, and a bunch of grumpy Dwarves with no homeland and a muster bag. Meanwhile the Elves have their full muster bag for defending just Rivendell and Lorien.
Yeah, Voice of Saruman. Hey, Orthanc gets 3 more regulars. They're pesky, but not nearly as pesky as being politically hogtied when the balloon goes up. Also, they don't get the extra regulars if either (a) they roll poor musters or (b) A New Power is Rising.
In summary, the ent-summoning die is too expensive.
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Post by magicgeek on Apr 13, 2007 1:28:41 GMT 1
But. . . Getting the Ents gets Galadriel!!
After getting the Ents, Where do the shadow spend Muster Dice? Answer, Sauron + Angry WK Angry WK = Galadreil
So What if Ents appear 1 turn later. Grey Shire doesn't get attacked. Rivendell gets attaked by Hillmen.
The only exception is when a New Power randomly plucks the game.
The Dale argument just doesn't work. Musters dont get spent on the North. The Balrog + Dale / Shire are the common ways they go to war.
And the Dwarven Muster bag is pretty well the only thing to worry about in this scenario, and that can be dodged too.
Attack Grey Havens First Attack Erebor Attack Erid Luin.
Simple enough. Elves want to Spend THREE Muster dice to go to war and get G, go ahead. Rivendell gets pushed in immediately Dale is conquered. Woodland realm gets pushed in, probably reinforced. Woodland / HD for the win (no Ents)
And, you are yet to say anything about my original statements that cycling lots of events through Gandalf is a death sentence for the Free if the Shadow take the North and Ents are ignored.
Spending Events on Muster cards and Musters on Mustering Elves leaves Grey Gandalf Very cold, and wondering why he is still in the FSP.
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 13, 2007 5:26:15 GMT 1
I generally don't muster elven ponies until I see the horde marching right at my elvenhome. If there are no musters that turn ... well, I write that elvenhome off, there'll be others that need the them later too. The exceptions are Lorien, which occassionally gets a pony, and Rivendell, which occassionally gets a regular.
That leaves more musters for The North. I do muster them. I rarely hold WR with [1/2/1] from Dale, but that's the game. Threatening it is worth something too.
A agree that Ered Luin's throat can be slit from behind with lots of early Shadow musters. I don't have a solution to that. Lock the door ... and hope they don't roll musters.
Well, actually, in the practice game tonight, the Free opening on CCCE was: C: Move Frodo C: Seperate Legolas to Buckland. C: Move Frodo (revealed Hollin) E: The Good Book: Legolas to Ered Luin. Dwarves at war.
That worked out pretty well. (Though it was NAT not Twilight... they're very different)
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Post by magicgeek on Apr 25, 2007 1:53:31 GMT 1
Drew F!F!F!F! as first card. WOOOOO HOOOOOOO !
Looked at dice, YOU SUCK.
Sigh.
I had spent all this time thinking about what to do if I drew F's and then rolled crap. Muster, Muster, Event, Character
I had this elegant plan where legolas goes to North Downs, the Hobbit goes to Bree and Gandalf goes to Carrock. Just doesn't work with those dice. Well, it can but it means the Shadow gets a Ring, this is plain awful if you want a FPMV.
The default plan for a FPMV for first turn F!'s is Mt Gundabad & Moria.
So, Separate all but Boromir and a hobbit to Moria (still has a chance at the Ring) F!F!F! Gandalf to Bree, Strider + hobbit to Fangorn, Gimli + legolas toward DEW. Muster Ents Muster Elite in Carrock.
Carrock & Dale got killed on turn 2 by the Angry WK. Gandalf got an Army of Elites
Once again I got rooted by not rolling WoW's. (3 by turn 10!, first WoW turn 3!)
Gandalf took Nth Dunland, besieged Moria, and crushed the first uprising from Sth Dunland.
Dew Fell.
Lorien's Elves Reinforce outside Moria.
Turn 8. Shadow rolls 4 Eyes, 4 Palantirs, 1 army. Conquer Moria. (6 HP inside, no Balrog, FSP declared in Moria that turn so I could use a Blue Tile card in Combat!) He Gets a Troll in Liberated Nth Dunland's Big Stack. He has Event, Event, Army. He uses the Army to move WK out of Conquered M-T (king died there absorbing shadow combat cards the turn before). I look at my 3 combat action dice, he has only Events and no Ring.
AWESOME!
Gandalf moves through a day and a night from Moria to next to Dol Guldur leaving a pitiful garrison. Moria is safe. The WK triple moves into Dol Guldur.
d**n you Red Baron.
Gandalf runs north, away from the WK. 2nd lot of Lorien Elves get inside Moria, and Gandalf charges Mt Gundabad, and has a crack, but cant do it the next turn.
Oh, yeah, then he wins. Dammit. His triple move trumped my double move.
Whoever says there are no feints or bluffs in this game, doesn't know how to play.
This is just another example of why the Ents are SO strong. It just wouldn't be possible to try this without them.
X X X
Wow, this really is censorship when perfectly reasonable words like d a m n becomes d**n.
We are all d**ned, is not exactly like calling someone a nerf herder.
A male chicken is a thingy.
Japanese people like nutsaki mushrooms.
Thethingymightierthanthesword!
An Australian birds is a thingyatoo.
A brothel worker is called a sleeper. (Wow, it censors words from the Bible! Deut 31:16 "a-whoring")
nuts comes out of every human not a very nice person. {actually this makes no sense at all from the original, lets try that again.} Haemoroids are a medical condition of the not a very nice person.
I wonder what a wanker uses?
A Private Investigator is also known as a thingy.
thingyens was an amazing English writer.
A weatherthingy shows wind direction.
The sniper thingyed his rifle.
As the US TV version of Robocop once said. . . "Flip you Mothercrusher!"
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 25, 2007 3:25:27 GMT 1
Nice game. Isn't it canonically "Curse you, Red Baron" anyway?
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Post by mrweasely on Apr 25, 2007 3:51:23 GMT 1
With F!F!F! and MMCE as my initial roll, I'd send Boromir to Bree, Strider to N. Dunland, muster two elites in Dale, then hunker down for a nice, long ring game.
When DEW comes under the gun, King Brand breaks to Thranduil, not Dain. That's so the Dwarves get to war to help defend the Havens.
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Post by magicgeek on Apr 25, 2007 6:06:56 GMT 1
So you get the only chance of outright aggression in the game for the Free, and you STILL dont take it?
As response to your opening, I go nuts on the Voice, crush Lorien and win the long game. (4 Dice?)
Also, my wiley opponent would crush that opening with his turn 2 sacking of Dale and Carrock.
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