Post by magicgeek on Apr 15, 2008 8:35:33 GMT 1
I like FPMV.
I think of it as the last frontier of the game.
It is so much more fun than the standard game.
If I really go for it, from the start, I think I can do it maybe 40-50% of the time. (depending on opponent)
But you REALLY need to go for it from the start.
Knowing how really is a thing of practise.
Like the normal game it requires a knowledge of how it works.
And there are SO many tricks. Some cards are critical.
EG.
Through a day and a night
Fear Fire Foes
Book of Dwarf
Cirdans Ships
Andruil
Mighty blow
Scouts
Daring defiance
There is really 3 ways to grab a stronghold
1 Overwhelming force with companions in the North
2 Orthanc
3 Mordor Invasion
Everywhere else really does not work.
Angmar + Far Harad + Umbar only ever seems to work once against any opponent.
The Mordor Invasion Strategy displays a very unfortunate hole in the game.
Red troops hide behind the Black Gate, so the beseiging Gondor army goes into Gorgoroth (leaving a single guy to seige), and walk straight into Barad Dur. Barad Dur is the easy stronghold in Mordor. This is silly, but just the way it is.
Similarly Thru a day and a night is really the cheats way of taking a Shadow stronghold.
Once it is done once, all Shadow players become far more watchful.
Thru a day with legolas into Fangorn from Lorien is good.
Collect a Hobbit, conquer Orthanc.
Knowing about Flip flops Helps.
If the shadow rolls eyes, and you have 6 dice, you can get the last action of a turn and the first action of the next turn. If they choose badly and leave the wrong dice, the charge can be on.
The easy way to FPMV is Aragorn to conquer Mordor outright just as DEW North hits Woodland realm. Then the Elves charge.
Gandalf MUST leave and be promoted asap.
This is critcial in any number of ways.
The extra die quickly is wonderful.
Letting Sauron go to war is wonderful.
(maybe that needs explanation, Galadriel will be irrelevent, no Balrog means Moria might fall, and hopefully Sauron will attack somewhere, anywhere, and get a nation to war)
And Gandalf is really good in combat.
The grey is great to heroically die.
The trick is to move the fellowship once.
Getting the Shadow to spend Eyes is GREAT!
If you wish to Take Moria, get Lorien to attack Moria, then get Rivendell to come in, and THEN attack.
Taking out Nth Dunland is a Good Idea, because The Shadow WILL counter attack from there.
Mt Gundabad is great to leap on in a single turn from either Erebor/Woodland realm/Carrock or Rivendell or Erid Luin if desperate.
Siege engines are SO bad for FPMV.
If Free conquer a shadow stronghold, Shadow can build seige engines outside but the free cant build them inside. Yuk.
Once you have a Shadow stronghold bottled up, if it looks nervous, spend a couple of dice getting companions there, it will be worth it.
Scouting next to an empty stronghold and then taking it is good.
At the start, Free outnumber Shadow in the north.
Remember Free only need 4 points.
Maybe I should organise and rewrite this sometime.
The thing about FPMV is you have to be happy to abandon strongholds so the troops get to fight.
A really good trick is to fight a field battle at Rivendell if it is the first place attacked.
Then retreat (hopefully) and the Elves go down another 1 and the army is still active, in the field and next to companions and the Fellowship. Hopefully even on top of the fellowship.
Abandoning Woodland Realm works quite well like that as well.
Doing it at Lorien can be a very brave move in a sea of angry pieces. But, if 2-3 companions are there, rolling 5 dice plus 3 can be quite a lot.
Hitting that magical 5 dice + 3 is what I call an army.
But, technically the game is not over even if 1 elf charges Mt Gundabad. With Companions I have won the day.
4 companions and you have 5 dice + 4.
And 3 heroic deaths of course.
I think of it as the last frontier of the game.
It is so much more fun than the standard game.
If I really go for it, from the start, I think I can do it maybe 40-50% of the time. (depending on opponent)
But you REALLY need to go for it from the start.
Knowing how really is a thing of practise.
Like the normal game it requires a knowledge of how it works.
And there are SO many tricks. Some cards are critical.
EG.
Through a day and a night
Fear Fire Foes
Book of Dwarf
Cirdans Ships
Andruil
Mighty blow
Scouts
Daring defiance
There is really 3 ways to grab a stronghold
1 Overwhelming force with companions in the North
2 Orthanc
3 Mordor Invasion
Everywhere else really does not work.
Angmar + Far Harad + Umbar only ever seems to work once against any opponent.
The Mordor Invasion Strategy displays a very unfortunate hole in the game.
Red troops hide behind the Black Gate, so the beseiging Gondor army goes into Gorgoroth (leaving a single guy to seige), and walk straight into Barad Dur. Barad Dur is the easy stronghold in Mordor. This is silly, but just the way it is.
Similarly Thru a day and a night is really the cheats way of taking a Shadow stronghold.
Once it is done once, all Shadow players become far more watchful.
Thru a day with legolas into Fangorn from Lorien is good.
Collect a Hobbit, conquer Orthanc.
Knowing about Flip flops Helps.
If the shadow rolls eyes, and you have 6 dice, you can get the last action of a turn and the first action of the next turn. If they choose badly and leave the wrong dice, the charge can be on.
The easy way to FPMV is Aragorn to conquer Mordor outright just as DEW North hits Woodland realm. Then the Elves charge.
Gandalf MUST leave and be promoted asap.
This is critcial in any number of ways.
The extra die quickly is wonderful.
Letting Sauron go to war is wonderful.
(maybe that needs explanation, Galadriel will be irrelevent, no Balrog means Moria might fall, and hopefully Sauron will attack somewhere, anywhere, and get a nation to war)
And Gandalf is really good in combat.
The grey is great to heroically die.
The trick is to move the fellowship once.
Getting the Shadow to spend Eyes is GREAT!
If you wish to Take Moria, get Lorien to attack Moria, then get Rivendell to come in, and THEN attack.
Taking out Nth Dunland is a Good Idea, because The Shadow WILL counter attack from there.
Mt Gundabad is great to leap on in a single turn from either Erebor/Woodland realm/Carrock or Rivendell or Erid Luin if desperate.
Siege engines are SO bad for FPMV.
If Free conquer a shadow stronghold, Shadow can build seige engines outside but the free cant build them inside. Yuk.
Once you have a Shadow stronghold bottled up, if it looks nervous, spend a couple of dice getting companions there, it will be worth it.
Scouting next to an empty stronghold and then taking it is good.
At the start, Free outnumber Shadow in the north.
Remember Free only need 4 points.
Maybe I should organise and rewrite this sometime.
The thing about FPMV is you have to be happy to abandon strongholds so the troops get to fight.
A really good trick is to fight a field battle at Rivendell if it is the first place attacked.
Then retreat (hopefully) and the Elves go down another 1 and the army is still active, in the field and next to companions and the Fellowship. Hopefully even on top of the fellowship.
Abandoning Woodland Realm works quite well like that as well.
Doing it at Lorien can be a very brave move in a sea of angry pieces. But, if 2-3 companions are there, rolling 5 dice plus 3 can be quite a lot.
Hitting that magical 5 dice + 3 is what I call an army.
But, technically the game is not over even if 1 elf charges Mt Gundabad. With Companions I have won the day.
4 companions and you have 5 dice + 4.
And 3 heroic deaths of course.