The Ring AAR Lunaticus vs Vic - Free People

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Starting another Ringwar AAR this time from the Free People side. So far testgames have shown the Free People to be the underdogs in this scenario and Vic being ATGs developer is a great gamer who knows the engine inside out so I am looking forward to a challenge.

In this scenario the Dark Side has the task to formulate a strategy: How to get enough victory points quickly enough to force the Free People to surrender - or capture the ring which is however an uncertain gamble.
For the Free People however the task is more to find out the strategy of the dark side and to prevent it in maybe one or two crucial areas. As the Dark Side is much stronger militarily (with enough preparation) defending all parts of Middle-Earth is valiant but likely doomed. I am at least striving to defend key areas en force while forsaking others for the time being.

Sauron in his turn activated the Haradrim which basically makes the battle for South Gondor an uphill battle for us. This is the initial Free People draw:



So I am activating Rohan which will be my Southern Stronghold in an attempt to stop the Uruk-Hai. Also we bring in some Dunedain to Helms Deep which will give us an elite force defending that fortress. If the Uruk-Hai march towards Edoras the Dunedain will be a nasty surprise at their flanks. Unfortunately we do not get a storyline card so we have to wait till next turn (storyline cards help to advance the story and make the Fellowship stronger. The Free People player has to balance his political points between the military struggle and the Fellowship).

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Sauron manages to bring both Isengard and Moria to his side.
We are estimating that this means that there will be a strong Uruk-Hai attack versus Rohan and maybe an attack from Moria against Rivendell. On the other hand as these are very costly activations Sauron has likely not had much power to search for the ring or recruit his special troops and that the ringwar is still a long time off.

This is our draw in turn 2:



In Rohan we continue to prepare a layered defense. We would of course have loved to also activate Gondor but we lack political points (you need to save some points from a turn to be able to afford Gondor). We think a long time if it is worth to activate the Dwarves or if we should wait for better options next turn. In the end we do activate the Dwarves: They are sturdy fighters which are good to reinforce the area west of the Shire and around Lake-Town but they are ... a bit off from the focal areas.
Throwing a farewell party for Bilbo to have the Ring given to the much younger Frodo is a no-brainer (it brings us 10 movement points per round per fellowship counter and a 5% resistance to hits). We save two points just in case Gondor is up for activation again next turn...

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Turn 3: No new activations on the Sauron side this turn. Might mean Sauron is heading for the war now. Here is our draw this turn:


Again we have to make an important choice. We would love to activate the Elves. They have the strongest troops, good recruiting options, sit on the most victory points and control strategic areas. Also the Elves from Rivendell or the Grey Havens can get to the support of the Shire early on. However they are a steep 7 political points which would exclude nearly all options. As we have seen from the games so far that the most critical line of defense for the Light side ist the Fellowship early on we think we MUST play another storyline card "The Precious" now (gives another 10 movement points and another 5% chance to deflect hits). Then we activate the Men of Eriador giving us some strength in Tharbad and LakeTown. Also we put some more troops into Tharbad to defend that chokepoint and Rivendell.

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This is how we want to denfend Rohan against invasion:
Have a strong force in Helms Deep which will be difficult to take out. Then have the Uruks march on Edoras. If they come too close we intend to charge them with all cavalry available. Lets see if the plan survives the contact with the enemy....

[springer]

This looks like an very nicely designed game, Lunaticus.    As you mentioned, the AARs look like things are heavily weighted toward Sauron's side. Hopefully, the free people have just had a spell of bad luck that may change in this game.  (However, this may be wishful thinking as Sauron intimately knows how the physical laws of middle earth operate [X(]). 

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ORIGINAL: springer

This looks like an very nicely designed game, Lunaticus.    As you mentioned, the AARs look like things are heavily weighted toward Sauron's side. Hopefully, the free people have just had a spell of bad luck that may change in this game.  (However, this may be wishful thinking as Sauron intimately knows how the physical laws of middle earth operate [X(]). 

Thanks Springer.
You make a good point. The testgames have been a bit frustrating so far as in these unexpectedly Sauron has been able to take out the Ringbearer. However the design intention was for Sauron to be able to hurt and slow down the Fellowship but not easily killing Frodo without any faulty play on the Fellowship side. I hope this time the Fellowship survives past turn 12 or so and the game progresses into the further stages. These are the joys of playtesting...

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Turn 4:
Sauron in his turn sent Wormtongue out to block Gondor from activation. I think this is unfortunately a good move on Saurons side as it weakens the country most likely to see battle early on. Also Sauron has Saruman block Caradhras which is a two-edged-sword: It influences the Fellowship to take a more Southern and dangerous route. But on the other hand it prevents an attack on Rivendell from the East freeing some Elven troops for duty elsewhere.
Here is our draw for turn 4:


As we have vowed to do whatever we can to let the game continue past the initial ringwar stage and at least bring the ring close to Mordor this time we base our choice not so much on military matters but more on the Fellowship's safety. We again would have loved to deploy Dunedain somewhere in the North and bring in Rohirrim we choose otherwise. We let Gandalf find out the true nature of the ring (again providing benefits to the Fellowship), set up some Eagles as an aerial defense in Edoras and gear up Dwarven production. With three cards down for the Fellowship this is our minimum goal with which we hope to survive the initial Nazgul onslaught...

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Turn 5:
No further news from Sauron. However that guy is up to something.
Here is our draw for turn 5:


We discard the idea of investing into a fleet. Actually controlling the sea and threatening an amphibious invasion in the South might be an interesting optin to try out sometime.
Instead we bring in some city guards to Tharbad and some Dwarven warriors to the Lonely Mountain. We set up another group of Eagles at Emyn Mithrin (just a bit East of Rivendell in the Misty Mountains). This strong Dwarven Fortress in an otherwise enemy occupied area together with some remote strike force hopefully proves interesting.
It cannot be long now before Sauron will start the war...

We contemplate that it might be much quicker to have the ring transported to Mount Doom with a green armoured car from the Golden Horde? Maybe we can exchange one for some Ents?[;)]

[springer]

Sounds like a fair trade, Lunaticus!

I hope you made a card for an ally exchange!

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Turn 6:
Still no sign that Sauron has found the ring. Sauron has been ... eerily quite the last few turns. Guess this will change soon enough. Dont know if I said this previously: Of course Sauron becomes stronger. However we also become much stronger in the areas we are focussing on so we are happy with the buildup continuing. Of course poor Gondor will be even more at the mercy of Sauron but we are gathering real strength in Rohan, Tharbad and in the area around Lake Town. If we manage to take out Sauron's army in one area we will gain a lot of valuable time.
Here is the draw for turn 6:


The Elves are tempting us. Again. However that would require nearly all our political capital this turn. Since we assume ringwar will be soon we decide against activating them. Instead we increase our production for the Dwarves and the Men of Eriador (finally!). Also we bring in more Dunadain to Tharbad in the hope they might move North to the Shire and kick some Nazgul butt (if such a thing exists?). Also we advance the storyline and have the Dunedain protect the Shire bringing some more benefits to the Fellowship.
War Machines would be interesting only we wanted to make a real stand at Minas Tirith which we do not.

Last turn we made a vow to at least bring the ring close to Mordor. Lets see if we can make true on this promise. We are still taking bets how far the Fellowship will reach this time. If you want to place an official bet please let all of us know!

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Turn 7:
Sauron has found out where the Ring has been hidden from him so now the real action starts. For our final preparation turn we analyze the military situation: Even though we have much looked for it a large part of Saruman's army seems to have gone missing it seems. They are not close to the Isen nor close to Tharbad. And since Lond Daer seems an unlikely target we must assume they are massing for an assault on Rivendell. Razing Rivendell to deny it as a safe haven to the ringbearer would be ... not nice ... but exactly what we could be expecting from Sauron. Therefore our main recruitment this turn goes to Rivendell (Elves, Dunedain).
Apart from that we feel pretty confident in Rohan and around Lake Town with its multi-national defense force. We know Gondor will likely be a goner but if we can draw away troops and attention from the enemy it might be a worthwhile sacrifice.

Fate seems to smile on the Fellowship this time. No Nazgul gets close to Hobbiton this time. We bring in Frodo and Merry and another decoy and send everybody on their way. One group will try for the Grey Havens, one for Tharbad and one for Rivendell. (In the very south you can already see the Dunedain rescue team for the Fellowship).



Now we need to brace for impact as Sauron unleashes war on Middle-Earth.
Lye nuquernuva sen e dagor!

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Turn 8:
Sauron is attacking the Free People but so far our military worries are not too big. Osgiliath has fallen as expected, strong armies are invading South Gondor, some Uruks have crossed the Isen, Orcs from Moria are moving towards Rivendell and strong forces from Fornost have entered the Shire. But no reason to panick yet.
No injuries to the Fellowship yet. All Fellowship units are continuing their flight and spreading out...

[springer]

It'll be interesting to see if the ring bearer survives this one.

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Turn 9:
Sauron is advancing everywhere taking some territory but not capturing many towns. A firs assault on Rohan is repulsed. Also Saruman tries to take Tharbad but is repulsed with heavy losses.
We are slowly reinforcing the areas under threat but think we can survive for the time being. The biggest threat we have seen so far might be around Rivendell where an army commanded by a Nazgul is slowly advancing. In the West we have sent some scout to occupy Weathertop to help the Fellowship...

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The Fellowship is in nice shape. Unhurt and unspoiled...

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Sauron sent his Nazgul to take out the Fellowship unit in Bree. That was only a decoy however (poor Fred).
One Fellowship counter reaches the Grey Havens, the other nearly meets the dunedain from Tharbad and two more (including a brand new decoy) make for Rivendell. We hope to reach Rivendell before the Nazgul army...

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Turn 10:
Battles are occuring throughout Middle-Earth but so far we have been holding our own. Tharbad still stands, as does Rivendell and we managed to inflict some losses on the enemy. In South Gondor we slowly retreat in front of the Mumakil army. Assault on Minas Tirith has not started for real yet.

Here is the Fellowship situation: Sauron took out another decoy in the marked hex. This however means most of his Nazgul are occupied elsewhere while the real Frodo is running towards Rivendell. Persuading more nameless hobbits to serve as decoy is getting to be a drain on our ressoureces however. Another decoy is safely in the Grey Havens and is waiting for a ship to transport him to Mordor to provide a distraction to our enemy.

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Turn 11:
Gondor is under heavy pressure. Sauron has seized part of the fortifications of Minas Tirith. There is not much that can be done there.
Gondors main army has retreated behind the Gilrain and has drawn a line in the sand there. Not sure it will be of much more than symbolic weight though.

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The Fellowship is still pretty safe. We still lack political clout to set up a boat at the Grey Havens. The main groups of hobits are however closing on Rivendell and the Nazgul will have to fight our Elven scouts before being able to attack the hobbits. They might be able to attack us but likely not with much strength. Rivendell is under siege but still stands.

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Turn 12:
Sauron takes Minas Tirith and razes the city. That is bad news indeed but was not avoidable. The main Gondor army is defending behind the Gilrain still. Saurons has brought a large army of wargriders to attack Rohan from the rear. Heavy battles ensue but so far we have been doing more damage to the enemy then vice versa. In the North Sauron is marching against the Wood Elf realm but we have a strong force there.