News from BreeNews from BreeNews from BreeNews from BreeNews from BreeMEPBM Newsletter: Issue 27, February '05MEPBM Newsletter: Issue 27, February '05MEPBM Newsletter: Issue 27, February '05MEPBM Newsletter: Issue 27, February '05MEPBM Newsletter: Issue 27, February '05

Updating the Gameby Greg Shaffer

"Strange as Newsfrom Bree..."

The Lord of the Rings, chapter 9

Talk at theTalk at theTalk at theTalk at theTalk at the'Prancing'Prancing'Prancing'Prancing'PrancingPony.. .Pony.. .Pony.. .Pony.. .Pony.. .

Updating the Game

Tweak Your Nation

An A-Z of Tolkien ...Aragorn

Bilbo Baggins

The Creation of MiddleEarth PBM

JRR Tolkien: A Biography

Hall of Fame

Rhunning of Empty

Strategy & Tactics:Eothraim

Bree OnlineBree OnlineBree OnlineBree OnlineBree OnlineNews from Bree is now alsoavailable as Bree Online!

Visit ...http://bree.flagshipmagazine.com

for a regularly updated sitefeaturing all the articles youwill see here, and more!

News from Bree & BreeOnline will both continue assister publications.

News from Bree #27© Colin Forbes & ME Games 2005

nfbree@yahoo.co.uk

MEPBM is a great game (credit to its originalinventors!) and has become a bit out of focus withits original intent, original game balance, and theflavor of Tolkien’s world given growth in playerknowledge and playing style. The buyout ofMEPBM will allow the game moderators to makechanges to update the game and allow the GSI folksto continue doing what they enjoy most – inventinggreat new games. Here are the top 10 reasons weshould be glad our game moderators to have theability to update the game:

Welcome to my capital, here’s the keys.Currently it is a piece of cake for dark servants

to waltz into Lothlorien or granite-enclosed Moriaor hidden Rivendell and get away with doingwhatever they want, slaughtering characters at willand disbanding entire armies. Same thing for freepeoples walking into the Black Gate or MinasMorgul or Barad-Dur. Any free or dark capital is aseasy as pie to walk into and affords virtually noprotection to its inhabitants, resulting in greatfrustration to players who can’t even manage theirown nation. Unheard of! J.R.R. is rolling in hisgrave. These places were inaccessible and assassinsweren’t even a major focus of Tolkien’s work. Evenstealthy allied characters were routinely caught andbrought before the king when in foreign lands. Onepossible solution: increase protection of local militiain all population centers by 50%, and by 500% inthe capital. Even a super-agent should rarely beable to succeed in an enemy capital, and no enemyshould be allowed to issue a surprise challenge insidethe gates of an enemy capital. Leave agent actionsmostly to the wilds and to smaller populace. Eventhe Nazgul favored working in isolated locationswhere no help was available.

Artifact Garage Sale.In 1650 and 2950, artifacts are a dime a dozen

and everyone knows what they are, and within acouple of turns, where they are (for the mostpowerful items in the artifact race). When you getto the location at this arbitrary point in the MiddleEarth timeline, you find numerous other charactersthere trying to suddenly retrieve the same artifactswith riddle answers known by everyone. This isn’tadventure, it’s trying to go through the motionsfaster than your opponents. In the original versionnoone knew the artifact descriptions. Solution:scramble the artifact numbers and abilities in 1650and 2950 just like in FA, and rehash the artifactencounter process with a new wave of creativity,all in the spirit of adventure. Even Elrond wasimpressed when the Bilbo and the Dwarvencompany recovered elf-blades from a troll’s lair!

Dragon Flea Market. Also in 1650, we have the mostrare and intelligent and powerful and selfish,idiosyncratic, temperamental creatures in Middle Earthcalled DRAGONS. Yet any character can waltz up toone of these mythic creatures (and the locations arepredictable) and sign them up at will to destroynumerous enemy armies simply by giving a stockresponse that everyone knows and doesn’t change fromturn to turn or game to game. Again, in the originalversion noone knew the “one correct response perdragon” but now everyone knows. This makes Bilbo’sfated encounter with Smaug look like a couple of Hobbitmaidens getting together for afternoon tea.

Ineffectual Nations. There are nations in 1650 withabysmal command ranks that can’t even successfullychange relations, allegiance or taxes or remove harborsand as a result get squashed by opponents they can’tattack who have no trouble downgrading relations withthem (e.g., Haradwaith, Quiet Avenger). That’s notrouble the way the game USED to be – when militarycampaigns unfolded more slowly, noone knew the mapor the objectives, and neutrals generally stayed neutrallonger. Let’s let everyone participate in the blitzkrieg!

Infinite Intelligence. Similarly, in the original versionnoone really knew what was in the world other than ontheir own map. Now every nation in 1650 or 2950knows exactly the size and composition of enemycharacters, armies, population centers, locations,artifacts and everything else of every opponent’sstarting setup. In Tolkien’s Middle Earth, nations didn’teven know those things about their nearest allies! Notonly unrealistic and unbalancing, but a bit boring andpredictable as well. You can project exactly yourenemys’ capabilities and therefore your “correct move”,and the opening moves of the war are so very important.What if these factors were varied a bit from game togame (perhaps within certain parameters to preservegame balance)? What if the game maps varied in 1650and 2950 just like in FA, and maps could be moved?Currently a lot of player planning goes around knowingexactly where the edge of your enemy’s maps andborders are – unrealistic in Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

The Middle-Earth information age. With the modernprevalence of internet communications, Middle-Earthhas been transformed from a world of estranged peoplesto a linked network where anyone can communicatewith anyone instantly. Winning the war is mostly afunction of which teams have the most time to dedicateto continual joint communication and planning. Fun forsome, but others who are busy might prefer to be ableto participate (and maybe even win!) with less timecommitment, or to have game success depend on solostrategies rather than instant networking skills in Middle-

Earth. Solution: more players (or ex-players who no longer have the time)might consider signing up for gunboatgames, and I’d like to see gunboatextended to Fourth Age. This mightrequire certain game modifications tobring the game back into balance, forexample pre-aligning nations andaltering or eliminating the kingdoms.This game might be called “cutthroat”because I imagine some nations wouldbe eliminated quickly if poorlypositioned or surrounded and unableto be supported by teammates.Sounds like fun!

Agent anarchy. Much has been saidon this, and modifications to the agentgame have been attempted in the pastwith limited results. In the end, FAplayers still favor agent SNAs andother agent powers, expensive as theyare. The prevalence of variouslimited-agent scenarios should be ahint to the game company about whatplayers desire and where the game isunbalanced. Currently, entire MiddleEarth nations can be debilitated merelybecause a few individuals areassassinated or worse, hostage. Oneof many solutions: drastically changethe hostage rules to where hostagescan be retired, replaced, or escapemuch more easily. Further, entire national economiescan be debilitated merely by a handful of thieves inthe outlying populace. One of many solutions: makeit harder and make gold takes much less, and movethe gold theft phase to the end of the turn phase(after hiring characters and researching spells, forexample). Further, entire armies can be disbandedmerely because one person is assassinated. Unheardof in Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Perhaps allow anycommander to move to the location to replace thecommand function by the end of the turn (afterassassination and character movements). Otheradjustments to the turn sequence might make senseas well. Or allow the army to sit idle (and defenditself if need be with a negative modification andstandard tactics) but not be able to move or attemptother functions until the commander is replaced. Orhave the lost troops rally again at the nation’s otherarmies or population centers (or subsequent recruittroop orders get a few extra troops over the next fiveturns or so). This wouldn’t totally remove theeffectiveness of agents! Another bizarre agentfunction is part of interrogating a hostage. Imaginethat your character is kidnapped on turn 5. On turn10 you move your capital. On turn 11 the enemyinterrogates your hostage and he reveals your nation’scapital location – how did the captive character knowthe new location? He’s been in captivity for months.That undermines the immense investment in movinga capital to deflect enemy attacks. Given the relativelack of mention of assassins in Tolkien’s work,perhaps nations should be limited to one agent each,or one assassination attempt per nation per turn giventhe amount of investment and planning and risk sucha mission should realistically involve.

Boring allegiances. Perhaps partly because of theabove reasons, “Free People aren’t fun”! Thesewonderful and flavorful peoples of Middle Earth have

weak and unimaginative nation designs in 1650 and2950. They are mostly a collection of 30-pointcommanders who can do nothing but recruit troopsand get assassinated. Because of this, the ability ranksof FP character casts and armies generally don’t go upbecause they don’t last and you can’t become attachedto any of your favorite characters or strategic efforts.Free people have few artifacts and powerful charactersunless you are playing the elves. All the work andplanning and strategy is very frustrating because it justgets blown away by agents and dragons and DS winmost of the time in these scenarios. It probably wasn’tthe same in the early days of the game before everyoneknew exactly what the targets and strategies were.

Spice and variety. Many of us have been playing thegame for a long time because we love it. However, itwouldn’t take too much effort or unbalance the gameto simply, periodically inject new spice into the gameand keep us all as interested customers for a long timeto come. Everyone knows the encounter lists and NPCnames and effects; let’s try some new ones or vary theeffects of current ones from time to time. Individualvictory conditions could be varied and perhaps tied tosome interim game outcome for your nation that actuallymatters (e.g., a sudden small influx of wealth orpopulace or troops or loyalty or character slots orranks or artifacts or map information to your nationdue to accomplishing various individual victoryconditions). Also, let’s get some new character portraitsand just keep bringing new variety to all aspects thegame on a regular basis – we are here for adventureafter all!

Improved game mechanics and variants. Middle EarthGames has done a great job with creating and allowingnew game variants and keeping us interested – let’sgive them the power to keep doing that and to improvethe game mechanics as well!

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We are always looking forarticles, preferably around the900 word mark (this avoidseditorial cutting). If you feelinspired, please write to ...

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Aragorn first appears in Fellow-ship of the Rings when he beginstravelling with Frodo, Sam, Merry& Pippin. Originally they knewhim only as a ranger named Striderand didn't trust him until they re-alised he was a friend of Gandalf.Even then it was a long time be-fore Sam truly trusted him.Aragorn became one of the cen-tral figures in The Lord of the Ringsand became the king referred to inthe title of the third book. He wasalso later known as Elessar (ElfStone).

Aragorn's father Arathornwas chieftain of the Dúnadainfrom the northen regions ofEriador. Arathorn died in an orcraid when Aragorn was only twoyears old. Aragorn and his motherGilraen went to Rivendell whereElrond raised Aragorn as a son.Aragorn wasn't told of his truename and lineage until he was anadult and until then he was knownby the name Estel. When he wastwenty years old Elrond gave himthe shards of Narsil - sword of hisancestor Elendil. He also gave himthe ring which was given to one ofAragorn's more distant ancestorsBarahir in the First Age. The ringof Barahir was a token of friend-ship between his people and elvesand was later kept by the kings ofNumenor. Aragorn later gave thisring to Arwen and she kept it un-til they were married. Elrond alsohad the scepter of Annúminas,though he didn't give that toAragorn until he later became therightful king of Gondor. Thisscepter was the chief symbol ofroyalty in Numenor and later inArnor.

Tolkien A-Z:Aragorn

cont p3

Stand-byPoSitionS

While many of us are quite good players, and candevelop strategies to suit individual conditions ornations as the need arises, these tried and true“tweaks” to your national tactics can improve yournation with very little adjustment to your game play.

1. The 90% rule : If you’re doing a NatTran alwaysdo 90% rather than 100%. At 100% you pay a 10%penalty and get 90%. At 90% you pay a 9% penaltyand still get 90%. The extra 1% isn’t a lot, but theseafter all are “tweaks.”2. 947 & 948 to the #1 source : If you’re doing the a947 followed by a 948 to get commodities to an ally,send them to the #1 source of the commodity. The10% penalties willbe less significantthere.3. The 60% rule :Raise taxes to 60%early and leavethem there. Thistax rate is themaximum for“break even”loyalty returns.Raising taxes upand down wastesorders and you endup worse off thanwith one singleraise. If you’re going to do it eventually, you mightas well do it on turn 1. The extra revenue will startright away even if you don’t need it immediately,and represents extra income. Also, you will get thetax raise loyalty at pop centers before you startplacing low loyalty camps. I don’t want to hear anymore from wealthy nations on my team that theylike the loyalty improvements at 39%. There issomebody on the alliance who can use the cash.4. The rule of 1 : For armies that are sitting and doingnothing, make sure they have at least 1 food in thestores. Just having 1 food in the baggage train willincrease your offensive strength by 0.25-0.75%every turn due to morale improvements.5. The zero-zero plan : Get your per turn deficitnear zero and your surplus near zero. If your perturn deficit is near zero you won’t have to worryabout begging or selling for gold. The failure of anorder can spell doom for your nation. If your surplusis near zero you won’t be a victim of thieves. Keepingit slightly more than zero insures that you’ll get thetheft message, so will know if somebody is trying tosteal from you. Want to do some development? Noproblem. Emmissary orders come before agent orders.Don’t rely on sells or loans (gifts) from your allies.You are responsible for your own economy. Yourplaying a soverign nation. Treat it as such.6. Good pop center placement : Pay attention to theclimate zones when developing pop centers. Payattention to the map for hexes you see and hexes theenemy doesn’t. If you’re DS develop in mountains,FP avoid them. This is for the emmissary benefits(detriments) of dragons. This can also have a greatimpact or whether you destroy or capture a popcenter.

7. Get rid of excess development : Why pay for harboursand ports when you’re not using them? Get your alliesto sabotage them with their agents. It will save youmoney and improve their agents faster.8. Steal and Double from each other : Allies shouldsteal from each other early on to improve low tomoderate rank agents and double as many alliedcharacters as possible. Knowing when they’re NOTdoubled is a great way to find out when they are by theenemy.9. No “pure” armies : Try not to have armies with pureweapons or armour (wood, leather, bronze, steel,mithril). If the enemy sees that in a army combat reportthey know exactly what your rank is in weapons or

armour and canplan accordingly.10. Armies arebetter in attackthan defense : Ifyou’re paying fortroops you mightas well use them.2000 heavyinfantry notfighting cost thesame as the samebatch fighting, butthey won’t cost asmuch next turn.11. Go after pop

centers first : If you attack enemy pop centers you’remaking your economy better (through troop losses)and the enemies worse (due to pop center losses). It’sa win-win combat. If there are no enemy armies there,so much the better as you won’t have to worry aboutrefusing and can move on to the next target.12. Fight at enemy pop centers : Fighting an enemyarmy at their pop center gives you the chance to captureor destroy it (if you have the force) and can make itdifficult for them to recruit.13. Assign each character a task : Decide what youneed characters to do, command armies, guard locations,place camps, etc., and move them to the task at handand get them working in that area. Don’t improvecharacteristics just for the priveledge of paying morefor your characters.14. Plan and plan again : Write out orders several turnsin advance. Yes, you’ll probably change them, but itcan help you see things that aren’t immediatelyapparent. For example, you can’t recruit cavalry onturn 15 if you don’t transfer leather or turn 13, becauseeverybody will be busy on turn 14.15. Share, share, share : Share you pdf with players ofyour alliance. Send out your plans or moves and asksomebody to check them or comment on them. We allmake mistakes, and having the humility to asksomebody to check your moves can improve your playand your relationships with fellow players.16. Distribute your artifacts wisely : Your charactersoften don’t start with the distribution of artifacts youwant. Get them properly distributed, and share them!There is, for example, no reason the Noldo should haveall those combat artifacts. Give them to someone whowill use them.

Tweak your Nationby Brian D. Mason

For the next thirty years, Aragorntravelled far on his own and withthe sons of Elrond, Elladan andElrohir. He travelled under differ-ent names in different lands andalways helped the people in thoselands to oppose Sauron's forces.He became a close friend of Gandalfand learned a lot from him. For atime he went in disguise under thename of Thorongil (meaning eagleof the star) aided King Thengel ofRohan (father of Theoden). Fromthere he went to Gondor andserved Ecthelion II the steward ofGondor (father of Denethor II). AsThorongil he was seen as a rivalby Ecthelion's son Denethor.

While Aragorn was atRivendell, he met Arwen, Elrond'sdaughter who had come to visit.Arwen had been living with hermother's people in Loth Lóriensince her mother Celebrían was thedaughter of Galadriel. Aragorn andArwen later married after he wascrowned. However, her choice tomarry a mortal man meant that shealso had to live as a mortal andforsake her family.

Aragorn was a descendant ofthe kings of Numenor throughElendil and his son Isildur. He car-ried the sword of Elendil duringmuch of the story and was oftenreferred to as the heir of Isildur.He was the only rightful heir tothe throne of Gondor and at theend of the story he was crownedas King Elessar of Gondor. AfterAragorn was crowned, he marriedArwen. They had a son namedEldarion who later inherited thethrone of Gondor from Aragorn.

The Peter Jackson film por-trayed Aragorn as being initiallyreluctant to take on the role of kingfor fear of falling in to darkness asIsildur did. In the book there wasno such reluctance. It was widelyaccepted by him and his peoplefrom the north that he was thechieftain of the northern Dúnadainand was the rightful heir to thethrone of Gondor.

The film also portrayed himas being of a similar age to Boromirand Faramir. He was in fact only ayear younger than their fatherDenethor II, who was portrayedas being a much older man in thefilm. Because Aragorn was of theblood of Numenor, he was longerlived than most men and wouldhave appeared younger than hewas (He was 88 years old when hewas crowned King of Gondor andlived to the age of 210).

Aragorn was played in the filmby Viggo Mortenson.

Remembering back to the first time we read 'TheTrilogy', we each vividly, joyfully, and tearfully re-call many scenes that were unfolded before our mind'seye by Professor Tolkien. Throughout the design ofMiddle-earth Play-By-Mail (ME-PBM•) we re-minded ourselves of these elements of Tolkien's worldand legends, and the characters of The Lord of theRings in particular, and tried to allow the players toexperience the enjoyment of reliving, or experiencingfor the first time, the same such joy and emotion.This became the one unbending rule that we appliedover and over again in molding the game into what itis.

Starting with this rule, and the vision of J.R.R.Tolkien, GSI added its own flavor of what we wantedfor the game and combined it with the thoughts andencouragement of the folks at Iron Crown Enterprises(I.C.E.). The chemistry was interesting and fascinat-ing because of the extremely high standards that eachbrought to the project. One of the most difficult fac-tors to overcome was that each group that contrib-uted to the design had a different vision of what theysaw in Middle-earth. Combining these vision intoone proved an incredible challenge. The result is moregrand than we could have anticipated.

GSI wanted the game to be 'state of the art': EachME-PBM turn includes roughly a dozen pages oflaser-generated output - incorporating well-organizedtext; descriptive prose detailing the results of eachturn; graphics: which include a hex map presentationof each player's home region including icons repre-senting armies, cities, harbors, terrain, roads, bridges,etc.; and individual reports on the actions of the he-roes, including a portrait and statistics for each char-acter. Additionally, each registration includes a 2'x3'four-color map of northwestern Middle-earth with ahexagonal grid overlay that will facilitate the playersplotting out their actions and plans.

We wanted a game broad in scope - one that wouldallow the players to operate in the strategic arena aswell as to role-play at the individual character level.We wanted to encourage the players to explore therewards of the economic activities via the market.We also wanted the players to deal with the diplo-matic theater, and ultimately, to challenge their loreof Middle-earth as well. To this end, we focused thegame mechanics on the heroes of Middle-earth - thegoals and direction are provided by the player, butthe actions are carried out by each hero under theircommand. These characters can lead armies, kidnapdiplomats, manipulate the market, steal artifacts, solveriddles, or sack citadels. Although these actions in-fluence different levels of the game, the heroes arestill the focus of these actions.

The Lord of the Rings focused on the neverendingstruggle between Good and Evil. This served as thestarting point for our design. We elected a novel for-mat for the game - the idea of 'team play' - and di-vided the players into 2 distinct sides - The FreePeoples and The Dark Servants. Then we added athird element that would challenge both sides - TheNeutrals. Each player would control one 'nation' - 10nations representing the side of Good (Gondor, Elves,Dwarves, Men, etc..), 10 nations representing the

side of Evil (Nine Dark Riders and the Lieutenants ofSauron), and 5 representing nations that could chooseeither side - but must choose one side in order to endthe game and win.

We hoped in this way that the players would expe-rience the overall view of their nation and yet operatethrough the actions of their minions. Each nation hasits own set of strengths and weaknesses, following the'historical' records of their nation. This means that notwo positions would play the same, but would ensurethat the positions would start off with equal chancesof victory. The forces of the Witch-king may choose tostrike fear in the hearts of the Free Peoples with theuse of their black mages, while the forces of the DarkLieutenants may rely on secret emissaries. The forcesof South Gondor may launch preemptive naval strikesagainst their neutral neighbors, yet the quiet Woodmenmay strive for subtle success and steady growth withthe use of their silent agents.

To allow the players the greatest freedom of play,and yet allow them a wealth of reference material, asetting was chosen that is some 1500 years BEFOREthe War of the Ring! This era is vaguely discussed inthe works of Tolkien, but is well explored by the folksat I.C.E.. This setting permits the players to exploreand ask 'what if', and also allows them to rewrite theirown version of the Third Age of Middle-earth.

The setting was then exhaustively researched tofind as many characters/heroes, cities, artifacts, etc.that could be drawn from the actual and available lit-erature. These findings were then presented to theknowledgeable folks at I.C.E. for careful comparisonwith their own research. Careful work then went to-wards assigning nations and characteristics to each andevery item found to ensure that they remained 'histori-cally accurate' and yet balanced within the game me-chanics.

Because of the available references and resources,many players can enhance their chances of enjoymentor victory by availing themselves of either the litera-ture of Tolkien or the products of I.C.E.. Details aboutalmost every hero, and certainly every nation can befound in either of the resources mentioned.

Of course, the One Ring must enter into the scenesomewhere. The setting historically dictates that theOne Ring is still lost and, although the Wise were todiscover much about it later on, the exact whereaboutsof the One Ring are unknown. Since the setting allowsthe players to assume 'what if', then naturally the OneRing may not currently reside where it did 1500 yearslater. Discovery and possession of the One Ring arealso elements of the game. Important ones too, sinceregardless of how fortunes fare for either side in termsof diplomatic, economic, or military successes, the gamewill end if the One Ring can be properly dealt with andwill result in victory for the side that does it.

There were other powerful artifacts in Middle-earthas well and they deserved a place in the game(Glamdring, Sting, The 3 Elven Rings, etc.). To thisend, more than 150 artifacts were considered signifi-cant enough to include - some belonging to heroes inthe game and some that were historically 'lost'. Andalthough these artifacts were fated to end up at certainlocations and in certain hands, there location and fatein 1650 Third Age in unknown.

The Creation of Middle-earth PBMT.A. c 1650 by William B Feild Jr. & Peter Stassun

First published in White Wolf

Tolkien A-Z:Bilbo Baggins'In a hole in the ground there liveda hobbit'. Bilbo was of course thehobbit referred to in these openingwords of The Hobbit and was alsothe main character of the book.Bilbo was a respectable hobbit fromThe Shire. Like most hobbits, hecertainly didn't have any plans ofgoing on great adventures or be-coming a hero. All that changedwhen 13 dwarves and the wizardGandalf turned up on his doorstep.What followed was an adventureinvolving encounters with dangerssuch as trolls, goblins, wolves, gi-ant spiders and last of all a greatdragon named Smaug.

One event in his journey thatperhaps seemed less important atthe time, proved to be one of themost significant events in Tolkien'sstories. This was the meeting ofBilbo and Gollum, deep in the darkdepths of the Misty Mountains. Justbefore they met, Bilbo had foundGollum's ring in the darkness,though Gollum didn't know he hadlost it. Bilbo made a deal withGollum over a game of riddles. IfGollum asked a riddle that Bilbocouldn't answer, he would eat Bilbo.If Bilbo asked one that Gollumcouldn't answer, then Gollum wouldshow him the way out. After sev-eral riddles from both, Bilbo askedGollum what was in his pocket (re-ferring to the ring Bilbo had found).When Gollum failed to answer, heslipped off, pretending to get some-thing before helping Bilbo. In fact,he intended to get his ring to makehim invisible, so he could attackBilbo. The ring of course was withBilbo all the time. When Gollumdiscovered his ring (his precious)was gone, he chased Bilbo, accus-ing him of being a thief (despitethe fact that Gollum himself hadonly gotten the ring after killing afriend for it). As Bilbo fled fromGollum, he put the ring on and dis-covered that it made him invisible.He then followed Gollum to an exitfrom the mountain and continuedon his way.

This ring that Bilbo got fromGollum was none other thanSauron's ruling ring that had beenlost. The power of that ring pro-longed his life so that he livedlonger than any other hobbit in TheShire had done. At the beginning ofLord of the Rings, Bilbo left hishome of Bag End and all his pos-sessions (including the ring) to hisnephew Frodo. He then went tolive at the elven sanctuary ofRivendell where he had visited onhis earlier journey. He spent muchof that time writing about his ad-ventures. Eventually, he departedin to the west with Frodo and thebearers of the three elven rings.

Bilbo in the film was played bySir Ian Holm

The tales of Tolkien dealt withmore than just Good vs. Evil andso too, ME-PBM explores theseother areas as well. Besides theprimary issue of Good vs. Evil, thenations must deal with the treach-ery and conflict all too commoneven on their own side. The con-stant conflict between the Dwarvesand Elves, the Civil War of Gondor,and the bickering between the vari-ous armies and leaders of darknessto name just a few. These aspectsof Middle-earth were included byallowing for one side to end thegame, but only the most powerfulnation(s) on the winning side toclaim victory. Furthermore, eachnation has individual goals that helpthem toward becoming the mostpowerful nation on their respec-tive side, and many of these indi-vidual goals must only be achievedat the expense of nations on theirown side.

Of course, the mechanics of thevarious aspects of ME-PBM hadto be meticulously researched in or-der to ensure historical and inter-nal consistency. For example,much research went into historicalpopulation levels and army sizelimits in determining the rate atwhich players could develop theirarmies and how large armies could get. Also, sinceME-PBM is designed to follow the same seasons asthose of the northern hemisphere, turn by turn, theterrain and climate of Middle-earth were closely stud-ied in order to ensure that the climate in each loca-tion on the map was as close as possible to the realclimate as described in Tolkien's works. Even themovement rates for characters, navies and armieswas exhaustively researched to restrict/allow onlysuch movement as was possible for the period. Forexample, the famous 'Ride of the Rohirrim' was con-sidered the benchmark for cavalry movement thatall were measured by. We wanted to be sure that iswas just possible to duplicate (under the right cir-cumstances) that glorious ride.

Another important element added to the designis the idea of the market. Each nation is permitted tobuy and sell its resource production with the freemarket - caravans that trade with the nations. Thekey element is that prices are not fixed, but ratherare controlled by the simple factors of supply anddemand. This allows the players to attempt to floodthe market in order to lower prices, or to corner themarket in order to drive prices up. This affords somenations with real economic clout. This element ofthe game proved difficult to properly design sincethe whole mathematics involved in the study of suchdynamic systems is still very much guess work.

One extremely important aspect of The Lord ofthe Rings that we wanted to include was the idea ofthe 'Personal Challenge'. The fate of many a battle orendeavor rested upon the results of such challenges.Remembering the infamous battle between Gandalfand the Balrog in Khazad-dum, the face to face en-counter between Gandalf and the Witch-king andthen between Eomer and the Witch-king on the fieldsoutside of Minas Tirith come to mind. Indeed thefate of the High Kings of Gondor rested and failed

because of the challenges issued to those kings by theRingwraiths of Mordor. Thus, ME-PBM allows forsuch hero-to-hero challenges and these challenges of-ten dictate the results of mighty battles and wholecampaigns.

There were many such elements of The Lord of theRings that we felt deserved inclusion in the game. Onefinal idea that deserves mention is the whole idea of the'company' which runs throughout the books - the Fel-lowship of the Ring, the Company of the Nine Riders,the companies of Elves that wandered Eriador, to namea few. Thus ME-PBM allows groups of characters(even those of different nations) to travel together to-wards common goals. These and other elements werecarefully considered to ensure that as many significantaspects of Middle-earth as could be were included inthe game design.

When all was said and done, we wanted a game thatwas rich in elements and theaters of operation. Wewanted to allow players to explore the tactical androle-playing aspects of Middle-earth without havingto concern too much of their time with the overallstrategic picture, yet reward those players who wantedto explore and utilize these elements. And most of all,we wanted a format that made it easy to fill out theturnsheet each time and yet made it difficult to masterall the various aspects of play. The expert wargamerwill find many challenges to their analytical side, whilethe Middle-earth enthusiasts and creative role-playerswill find a world rich and challenging to explore.

Middle-earth Play-By-Mail is a project that tookthree years to design and was all together five and ahalf years in the making. We hope that we have donejustice to the ideals and dreams of all the various con-tributors. Each of us had a different idea of what weexpected to see in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien. Wehope you find many of yours here as well.

Tolkien was born on January 3,1892 in Bloemfontein in theOrange Free State (today a part ofSouth Africa), to Arthur Tolkien,an English bank manager, and hiswife Mabel Tolkien (maiden nameSuffield). As far as is known, mostof Tolkien's paternal ancestorswere craftsmen. The Tolkienfamily had its roots in Saxony(Germany), but had been living inEngland since the 18th century.The surname Tolkien is anglicizedfrom Tollkiehn (i.e. Germantollkühn, "foolhardy"). Thecharacter of Professor Rashbold inThe Notion Club Papers is a punon the name. Tolkien only had onesibling, his brother Hilary ArthurReuel Tolkien, who was born onFebruary 17, 1894.

When he was three, Tolkienwent to England with his motherand brother on what was intendedto be a lengthy family visit. Hisfather, however, died in SouthAfrica of a severe brainhaemorrhage before he could jointhem. This left the family withoutan income, so Tolkien's mothertook him to live with her parentsin Birmingham for a short time.Soon after, in 1896, they movedto Sarehole, then a Warwickshirevillage, later annexed toBirmingham. He enjoyed exploringSarehole Mill and Moseley Bog,which would later inspire scenesin his books.

Mabel tutored her two sons,and Ronald, as he was known inthe family, was a keen pupil. Shetaught him a great deal of botany,and she awoke in her son theenjoyment of the look and feel ofplants. Young Tolkien liked to drawlandscapes and trees. But hisfavourite lessons were thoseconcerning languages, and hismother taught him the rudimentsof Latin very early. He could read

JRR Tolkien:a Biography

cont p6

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6

Hall of FameGuboat game 18 (1650), and General GunboatCommentary

by Greg Shaffer

1st Colin Forbes (QA/FK)2nd Tony Ackroyd (WK/BS)3rd Greg Shaffer (SE/CA)

In the first gunboat game to complete the full 50turns, at the end the Sinda/Cardolan player alonefaced a world of evil. Only the Dragon Lord/Corsaircombo and the Dark Lts/Rhudaur combo wereeliminated from the DS side. Early drops/eliminationsof North Gondor, Harad, & Woodmen, followed byNorthmen and Dwarfs, set a very difficult tone forthe FP from the start. General military control wasfirmly in DS hands for most of the war.

They may not have known it at the time, butthe Dark Servants came very close to losing this war.One of the major Dark Servant weaknesses was themage game. The Sinda/Cardolan alliance went toextensive efforts (especially once the military warbegan to look hopeless but this weakness wasidentified) to protect and build mage assets whilesystematically eliminating many DS mage assets. Inthe end, the Sinda/Cardolan alliance owned all of thespirit mastery artifacts (even those that were heldby DS for a time) and the only two curses squads inthe game.

The One Ring was located at 2523 (within12 hexes of Barad-Dur) with many turns remainingin the game, and its location was confirmed on severaloccasions. With plenty of backup major towns, afew military counterstrikes (read: diversions), astrong cast of Cardolan/Sinda/recruited Noldo killers(mages and agents alike), and more agent & stealthartifacts than all other nations in Middle-Earthcombined, the Sinda/Cardolan alliance actually stooda very solid chance of accomplishing five extremelydifficult things…first, locating the One Ring, second,retrieving it, third, holding on to it long enough to getit to Barad-Dur (owned by Sinda after defeating DkLts by design; a definite advantage in gunboat gamesfor character battles at popcenters you own), fourth,actually winning a One Ring character battle therevs. eight dark servant nations (esp. with many DSkillers busy fighting in extreme northwestern middle-earth), and fifth, successfully dumping the One Ringinto the fire.

Those who regard a One Ring victory as nota “real” victory obviously don’t realize the largeamount of resources and planning and strategy andmobilization and foresight and victory in battle andthe string of successful events that isrequired…military victories are perhaps fairly simplein comparison. One Ring pickup was attempted onnumerous turns with a large cast of extremely well-qualified and well-equipped Sinda & Noldo mages,to no avail. Had it worked, the resulting sudden shiftin the tides of war might have looked much like it didin the “real” history of Middle Earth: evil dominatesbeyond hope, good creates a diversionary battle takingthe Nazgul out of range, Ring is dumped in the fire,Sauron dies “unfairly” while barely having enoughtime to realize how or why he has just been destroyed.

The Cardolan/Sinda alliance had the pleasureand distinction of winning every single character war

that they were engaged in. Whenever DS charactershad the courage or misfortune to face the Cardolan/Sinda agents or mages in battle, they lost:

Six confirmed dead Nazgul: Ji Indur, Akhorahil,Dendra Dwar, Murazor, Khamul, Adunaphel.Hoarmurath and Uvatha were both in range of a Sindacurses squad one turn, but Ji Indur was chosen as thetarget instead. A few others among the notable dead:Urzahil, Tormog, Carrog, Angulion, Din Ohtar, Gaurhir,Gothmog, Feagwath, numerous DrL and BS mages.Of the starting eight Sinda characters, only Ohtar waskilled. Of the starting eight Noldo characters (mostabsorbed by the Cardolan/Sinda alliance), harm cameonly to Cirdan via sickness (after joining Cardolan, in a2-turn character battle with the Cloud Lord that securedthe last of the curses artifacts from the DS andeliminated “forever” the chance of the DS having acurses squad), Gildor (dead before Noldo collapse),and Elrond who was captured prior to Noldo collapse(assumed still hostage, or perhaps executed by gameend).

Admittedly, DS agents did plenty of damage oftheir own, but mainly against easy and predictable(though productive) FP command targets in FP capitalsor recruiting bases, adding to the long list of hostagecharacters and further removing hope of any seriousFP military action.

Note to self: rather than sending gold to allieswho may drop anyways, in my next FP gunboat gameI’ll spend the gold to move my capitals and create newrecruiting bases. The DS agent nations can’t sharetargeting information with other players, so their agentstend to target obvious areas like starting capitals andrecruiting bases and wouldn’t be able to tell all theirallies if they discovered that (or where) you movedyour capital. Note to MEGames: Once you buy outGSI, please bring Middle-Earth back to reality - noentire nation of peoples should ever be completely andpermanently debilitated just because a number ofindividuals are held captive somewhere. Further, noeconomy of an entire nation should have 50% of itsentire national budget allocated each turn to a handfulof enemy thieves and therefore not even be able toemploy new characters to lead its nation (i.e., move690 to the end of the turn and/or decrease theft amountsby 75%).

At game end, the Cardolan/Sinda alliance ownedseveral starting DS capitals in Mordor and was in nodanger of elimination, but military victory (and 50 turnvictory) clearly went to the DS. I would’ve enjoyedthe large character battle at Barad-Dur with the OneRing, given more luck or more than 50 turns. Youprolific DS finally would have been forced to face mylarge list of Nazgul-slayers in heated and extendedcombat with the best of your characters, instead ofavoiding or running away from the wrath of theElves…that is, if the Ring didn’t make it to the firebefore you could catch up!

Well played to friend and foe alike. For thosewho haven’t played gunboat, I believe it is more trueto Tolkien’s Middle Earth. Instead of a Middle Earthwith perfect and instant email communication to distantlands, you can’t even get the most basic informationfrom your allies. I believe this simulates the isolationand mistrust in Middle-Earth where the Elves andDwarfs wouldn’t even talk to each other, different racesof men were estranged even if on the same side, and

by the age of four, and could writefluently soon afterwards. Heattended King Edward's School,Birmingham, St Phillip's School,and Exeter College, Oxford.

His mother converted toRoman Catholicism in 1900,despite vehement protests by herBaptist family. She died ofdiabetes in 1904, when Tolkienwas 12, and he felt for the rest ofhis life that she had become amartyr for her faith; this had aprofound effect on his ownCatholic beliefs. Tolkien's devoutfaith was significant in theconversion of C. S. Lewis toChristianity, and his writingsexpress Christian values andcontain much Christiansymbolism.

During his subsequentorphanhood he was brought upby Father Francis Xavier Morganof the Birmingham Oratory, in theEdgbaston area of Birmingham.He lived there in the shadow ofPerrott's Folly and the Victoriantower of Edgbaston waterworks,which may have influenced theimages of the dark towers withinhis works.

He met and fell in love withEdith Bratt (later to serve as hismodel for Lúthien), and despitemany obstacles he succeeded inmarrying her, on March 22, 1916.

cont p9

With his childhood love oflandscape, he visited Cornwall in1914 and he was said to be deeplyimpressed by the singular Cornishcoastline and sea. After graduatingfrom the University of Oxfordwith a first-class degree in Englishlanguage in 1915, Tolkien joinedthe British Army effort in WorldWar I and served as a secondlieutenant in the 11th batallion ofthe Lancashire Fusiliers. Hisbatallion was moved to France in1916, where Tolkien served as acommunications officer during theBattle of the Somme, until hecame down with trench fever on27 October, and was moved backto England on 8 November. Manyof his fellow servicemen, as wellas several of his closest friends,were killed in the war. During his

even the well-traveled company of the nine walkers didn’t know if theywould find friend or foe when they entered the lands of those who hadoccasionally been allies in the past. Similarly, dark servants squabbledamongst themselves or competed for glory or the affections of theirmasters, or fought their own wars without constant and perfect knowledgeof what other dark servants were doing.

Also, gunboat serves well those of us who don’t have time tomassively coordinate with allies in every game (but don’t want to losemerely because our opponents make better use of the Middle Earthinformation age than we do). Turn planning goes fairly quickly when allyou have is your own information and your own two nations’ orders towrite. The lack of information and control over what’s going on in therest of the world is compensated for with the mystery and realism ofwhat is transpiring in a somewhat unknown bigger picture…and howyour strategies will fit into that based on limited information. Thenthere is the rush of information and conversation from allies and enemiesalike once the game ends and you are allowed to talk to each other! Ididn’t even know if some of my friends & enemies from other games(specified as “do not talk to about this game”) were my enemies or myallies in the gunboat scenario! The suspense was dreadful and it wasgreat to finally talk to them about the game once it was finally over.

Flagship Challenge Cup: the story of Game 33 by Laurence G. Tilley

To start the Flagship Challenge Cup, the team I play with regularly, TheSarumen, were awarded the Flagship Cup (by virtue only of ourreputation for charm and good looks) and invited to defend it and thuslegitimise our claim. We have now done so. Here are some of the highlightsof game 33, a Third Age circa 1650 game, told from the perspective ofthe three nations which I played.

The pre-gameI'd expressed a preference to the team to play The Witch King longbefore this specific game was planned. I'd played it in a recent game, andfelt I'd made a pig's ear of the job. I was keen to do better, and applysome lessons which I had noted from my mistakes. Playing WiK as partof an experienced team, is totally different to playing WiK in an opengame. Against any reasonable opposition team, the position has a builtin obsolescence and does not stand a chance unless it gets a totalcommitment to continued funding from the other allied nations. Thisteam fully understood that, most having had experience of playing WiKthemselves.

Expressing no preference for another nation, I agreed to havingthe Dog Lord as my second nation. DoL is sound and often interesting.All happy, my satisfaction turned to horror when, as this was to be apre-aligned neutrals game, the opposition team chose Rhudaur to bealigned from turn 0 as a Free People. Rhudaur is by far the weakest andleast loved of the 25 nations in a standard 1650 game, but that's becauseit starts as a neutral power, in an exposed location, with big armieswhich it can't afford to support. Pre-aligned as FP, with the Dunlendingsselected as the nation to be removed from play from turn 0, Rhudaur,has nothing to do but slam its starting armies into WiK, while his alliesArthedain, Cardolan, Woodmen, Dwarves and Noldo Elves rush upbehind him, and pour gold into his coffers. So our first loss was at thepre-game negotiation table. I protested, and asked (hopefully) if theteam really still wanted me to play WiK. I got little sympathy!

The teamRichard Devereux, Mike Sankey and I have played Middle Earth Play-by-Mail together now for several years, and we seem to complementeach other fairly well. Kenneth "The Crazy American" Weed, has beenwith us now for over a year. Between us, the organisation was good, andthe debate always healthy. To me this is the key to success in pre-arranged team games - it never fails to surprise me how often a creativesolution comes out of an extended disagreement about how to proceed.The more you talk, the more likely it is that someone suddenly sees abright opportunity. Mark Stuckey had played with us a number oftimes before, but went quiet, then left us early in the game. No disharmonyhere, both our exiting players left due to "real world" issues. David

Clemmensen, with whom we'd played for years, also went on turn 10.This was a severe loss, as David's passion for, and technical knowledgeof the game are equalled only by his maths brain.

The heavy administrative burden of a die hard ME game, wasshared out well, Mike co-ordinating mage actions, Ken producing detailedagent plans and Richard giving the Chancellor of the Exchequer a run forhis money, with his economic marvel plans.

The opening turnsWhat a gimmie! Just before the game started, one of our oppositionplayers had his strategy article published in "News from Bree" withanother just a few turns in. What could be more useful than a manifestoof his ideas on how to win? I was delighted. Actually, with the exceptionof one brightly argued aspect, I disagreed with virtually everything hehad to say - Newbies out there should always treat "strategy articles"with caution, because the people who really know how to win, are oftenthose who know how to keep their mouths shut about the best "tricksof the trade".

So I was more than self-satisfied in my initial delight... A fewturns later, I was definitely feeling as if I had blown my trumpet toosoon. The enemy armies were all over the place. They attackedeverywhere, except Mordor itself, a strategy which should I thought,prove disastrous... but knock me down with a feather, it seemed to beworking. And the pressure on all our outlying holdings was heavy andcontinuous even later in the game, when they finally began their assaultson the homeland. Our enemy had torn up the rulebook, and it seemed tobe working. Worst of all, one of them had actually told us what he wasgoing to do in advance, and we'd still not been able to turn that to ouradvantage.

The Witch KingAs I thought was inevitable with the pre-aligned Rhudaur, the WitchKing's Angmar holdings were quickly and systematically burned in thefirst few turns. In deep depression, I sent my starting armies on agambler's flanking move towards the Rhudaur capital, as the team agreedthere was no better option than this bad one. It failed, not unexpectedly.I fought to defend the major population centres, but was hugelyoutnumbered and the enemy made no mistakes in their organisation andtiming.

Massive influxes of gold, particularly from Haradwaith, meantthat I could drop taxation right down, recruit maximum troop numbersand name characters. While there was nothing that could be done forAngmar, this did mean I could develop strong characters to contribute tothe team's character war, run a major town in Mordor, and still manageto keep a capital in the Grey Mountains. The Free People came in forceto it three times, but by then I had dragons in place, so they were toaston each occasion.

The Dog LordAs usual there was huge debate about what the Dog Lord should do withhis starting cavalry. There are those who have made positive starts inother games, by galloping out into the plains and burning enemypopulation centres - it's always, they'll let you know, a credit to theirown tactical genius rather than poor play by the opposition, or a dollopof luck. Nonetheless, I was persuaded to try, carrying big "emotionalbaggage" from my previous game, where I'd upset sensitive personalitieson another team, by holding back the Dog Lord cavalry - a tactic whichhad worked excellently in military terms, but put a considerable drain onthe economy. To my surprise, the move out from Mordor wentunchecked.

Full of optimism, I managed to meet up with Richard's DragonLord cavalry in the plains. The enemy had moved nothing towardsMordor, in fact we had no evidence to suggest what they had done. Werethey hiding under their beds? We decided to avoid the next of four majorEothraim towns near Mirkwood, usually referred to as the Eoplex, andrace for their major town near the sea of Rhun.

We reached the Rhun road, and were there engaged by an Eothraimarmy - but we had numbers on our side, and with luck, thought we mighthave enough after the battle to still burn a pop... And then, imagine ourshock... not only did we not survive with a good number, we did notsurvive the battle at all. Our estimate of the enemy numbers had been

completely incorrect, and our starting cavalry was gone having achievednothing. If they'd have gone for Mordor at that point, we'd have been inreal trouble. But no doubt they were mind locked into their masterstrategy by then. Rome Total War players will know '"Hannibal knewhow to gain a victory, but not how to use it" - Marhabal'.

Quiet AvengerI inherited this position when David Clemmensen left us on turn 10. Iwas immediately impressed by what a great shape it was in. He had heldoff all the initial efforts of the pre-aligned Corsair, and still managed toget down a number of camps. The only problem was that he had done soat the expense of capital command orders - turn 10, and no enemynations had been downgraded in relations. That made the nation vulnerableto enemy character actions, but fortunately they did not ever seem toguess that. There was one surprising moment in the QAv game, when aCardolan army appeared unexpectedly out of the desert, and trashedmy scratch built major town - he had of course made his own scratchbuilt major town in the desert just off my map. It was aworry, then a nuisance, but not muchmore. If he'd have shown just a littlemore patience, and come with abigger army, he would havecaused me much more of aproblem.

The Turning PointWe reached turn 11 at the startof July 2004, and things werestarting to look very grimindeed. It's often said in 1650that the FP have to have madea significant impact before turn10 in order to win. They hadnot broken into Mordor, whichis what the "significant impact"usually means, but everything else wasablaze, our economy was spiralling down and down, the camp limit hadbeen met, and we knew huge FP forces were Mordor bound - they hadnowhere left to burn.

At this point I conceived "Operation Barnacle" a plan whichcalled for almost all of our character resources to be sent South West toto Umbar Peninsua. I argued that by so doing, we could aspire to wipeout the Corsair's roster of commanders, which, if it did not put him outof the game, would allow us access to the one set of population centreswhich we might take, and aspire to hold on to - we were at the point ofeconomic ruin, with no hope of pop centre gains anywhere else. InUmbar we could hope to use our garrotes to forge a local militarysuperiority zone, even though we were becoming overwhelmedeverywhere else on the map. The cost was that it would take 2 turns forour characters to get down there, and 2 turns to get back - just at the timewhen the full FP hammerhead was expected to descend on Mordor.

The team took a lot of persuading, but eventually realised that ifwe did not try something creative, we were going to lose. Barnacleworked like a dream, with some highly detailed planning, in which almostevery character move was debated and refined. The boost to our moralewas as significant as anything else - having struggled to persuade theteam in to the scheme, I had even more of a struggle to persuade themthat it was time to start pulling characters out once we had achievedmilitary superiority. Mordor took heavy damage in the meantime, butwe got our agents back just in time, and our curse squads (eventuallythree of them) were starting to form up. Barnacle had proved that wehad the capacity to remove (almost) all the commanders of a givenenemy nation, and we would move on to do it to North Gondor andSouth Gondor, as and when we could bear to take resources from thedefence of Mordor.

The Enemy's Worst MistakeIn the early part of the game, our worst fear was what we knew as "TheGildor Company". The opposition had evidently decided not to botherseriously contending for the main curse and agent artefacts, but Gildor,and at least one other agent, began touring early, and made some reallydamaging kills. They went to some of our capitals, and made some

unforeseen kills there, just at a time when the economy was on the vergeof collapse, and it was our important commodity selling orders whichwere being disrupted by the unseen assassins. And then... just as wewere starting to wet ourselves about the problem... it stopped.

There were three turns in which this company had limitedsuccess, so it may have been that the opposition made the very commonME error, of basing a theory of success or failure probability on a smalldata set - I just failed three times in a row, therefore I will fail again nextturn. It could have been that the Noldo player lost his bottle - after all,we were having to debate each turn whether or not to pull our agentsback to lay "traps for Gildor". But for whatever reason, the Gildorcompany pulled out of Mordor, just at the moment when it was reallyhurting. He then spent several turns chasing Richard's Haradwaithcommanders - Richard was dismissive, and rightly so, they

were a matter of very much peripheralsignificance.

The Lowest PointAnother one from my broad

knowledge of the classics (er that'sRome Total War actually) '"I am

more afraid of our own mistakesthan of our enemies' designs."- Pericles.' At the end ofSeptember, with the race backfrom Operation Barnacle amatter of some debate, we hitturn 17. Morannon hadburned, and all resourceswithin range were applied toreinforce the breach at theNorth West gate of Mordor.The West gate however, wassafe. Huge Free armies were

pressing it, but we had Duran ofthe Dragon Lord present, and his army had

Dragon Itangast signed up ready to roast. And then... Duran waschallenged out by the enemy commander Elatar. The army disbanded,the dragon flew away, and the Fire King capital lay undefended.

I was sick as a parrot, all Duran needed to have done was issuethe Refuse Challenge order and we'd have avoided losing another capital.But I wasn't angry with Richard, playing the Dragon Lord, but ratherwith the whole team, especially myself. He'd actually commented thathe considered it very unlikely that Elatar, who did not have a sub-commander, and who we doubted knew about the dragon, would risk hishuge army on a 50/50 challenge. And he’d asked for comments on thesituation. In the debating of other matters, none of us had picked up thefact that Duran did not have a sub-commander either, nor had our alarmbells rung by the over-confident assessment, and the severity of riskwhich hung upon the consequent order.

The end gameThe fact that we survived the loss of yet another capital, and still did notlose any of our 12 nations was remarkable. The Free People played ablinder of a game, and in particular their economic play was nothingshort of brilliant. I almost lost the Witch King right near the end, whenthe tax rate was forced up to 75% through what normally would havebeen a very minor error. We were flying that close to the wire - all 12nations were flirting with bankruptcy to an extent which was almostobscene.

We were however organised enough to hold Mordor, even if wewere defending the very last rampart, and meanwhile our agents, cursers,scouts and intelligence mages had become a ruthlessly efficient machine.Any icon thought to be potentially Gondorian was covered by cursersor high level assassins, and the detailed plan for the gutting of all theEothraim commanders had been cross checked and approved, when thenews of the enemy surrender came in on turn 22, December 2004. It wasa little unexpected, since they had fought so ferociously up until theirpoint, but it is probably a credit to their intelligence, and good grasp ofthe game, that they correctly assessed that Christmas had come, andthey were the turkey. Thanks to a fine opposition, and an excellent setof team mates, for a thoroughly enjoyable game. Roll on the next one.

Recently, I played my first grudge match, also myfirst time as 2950 Rhun. My nation was Free-alignedat start-up, with no KE nation. I now understandwhy players do not want to play this nation. Rhunis a victim waiting for a perpetrator.

Rhun has very little to offer, either neutral or allied.The pop centers are poorly placed, none have gold,most are in winter-susceptible climates, and all areunder-defended. The map is nearly identical to theNorthmen’s, and while there are many plains hexesto camp, the climate is cold and offers little newgold. The characters are poor, and the most usefulstarting character, Huz, rarely starts at the capitol.Unlike other neutrals, this nation doesn’t have astrong point.

Nor does the current set-up allow any time or roomfor Rhun to develop, to influence the balance ofpower in its region. Other neutrals can impact theirregion through solid pop development or byadvantageous location. Currently, Rhun has neitherof these options. The Free don’t desire a weak allywith a duplicate map. The DS don’t desire a weakally who will drain their limited gold, regardless ofthe map. The only reason to recruit Rhun is to keepit out of enemy hands. Worse, stories circulate ofboth sides attacking Rhun on turn one, to remove itas a nuisance. Further, aggressive play will not winallies or impress neighbors. The DS are likely happyto watch Rhun exhaust itself weakening theNorthmen. And except for a few stray pops, theMordor nations are too far away to be good targets.Unfortunately, Rhun has little to offer, no time todevelop, and everyone to fear. This nation really isa perpetrator’s dream victim.

Suggested ImprovementsWhile a perfect set-up is unrealistic, improvementscould make for a more playable neutral withsomething to offer either allegiance. What followsare suggestions that hopefully improve theplayability without unbalancing play. Current start-up information for 2950 Rhun can be found on theMePbm Forum at http://www.pbmforum.com/.Other background is available on the Bobbinswebsite (http://www.middleearthpbm.co.uk/) andfrom “Building a Healthy Economy” by MarkPinsonneault (Issue 20, News From Bree).

Map: The current Rhun map shows mostly plainsnorth of Mordor, leaving the eastern map edgeunrevealed. This makes defending new popsanywhere on this map difficult. If the map wereshifted southeast, to a range from 3610 to 4410 andfrom 3622 to 4422, then it would reveal the boardedge to Rhun. This change would also have value toboth allegiances; to the Free if they plan a backdoorattack, and to the DS if they try to outflank inlandSea. This also gives the Rhun some map area to callits own, similar to Dunland, the Corsairs or theEasterlings.

Population Centers: Similar to the proposed map, thenation’s pops are consolidated around the inland Sea.This is intended to better reflect Rhun as an Easternbuffer zone nation. The following alternative popcenter placement is suggested:

3712 Burh Marhling, Village w/Tower4015 Dol Calenmir, Camp4112 Wintirion Iaur, Town w/Tower and startingNavy4221 Tir Lithui, Village and starting Army4318 Mistrand, Major Town w/Fort and starting

Army CAPITOL4411 Romenovod, Village (upgraded)4420 Surubekon, Camp (added)4014 Ruins w/Tower

Regarding these changes, others have stated that theybelieve the Northmen would never allow a neutral tohave a capitol next-door to their own. I agree; this is aplay balance issue that handicaps two already weaknations. Therefore, 4318 becomes the new capitol and4014 is now a ruins. Shifting a village north of the riverto 3712 places it in a more defensible location, andallows Rhun influence over the local bridge crossings.Placing a town at 4112 gives a base for the fleet, butchanges the circumstances. Villages placed at 4411 and4221 provide some development options once anallegiance is chosen. A camp at 4015 adds gold andmetals. Notably, pops are shifted away fromMorannon and out of the far north to improve defense,production and character movement.

Characters: Rhun’s characters are weak, but changesare not necessary if this nation is to be a developingneutral. There are plenty of commanders, agent skill ispresent, and two starting mages are a welcome sight.Focused emissary skill, however, is lacking. Therefore,Huz should start as an independent character at thecapitol, to provide the ability to name new emissarieson turn one, at the less expensive rate.

Starting Nation Abilities: ‘Hire New Commanders at40’ is ok, if Rhun replaces its two 30-Commandersturn one, which ties well with ‘Bonus to ChallengeRank’ ability. However, the gold spent doing so isneeded for new emissaries, not marginally improvedcommanders. And the ‘Better Morale w/out Food’ability does little to improve combat. Basically, Rhun’sspecial nation abilities are of limited value. Comparingthe neutrals using the values set forth in MePBM ForthAge rules, Rhun gets 7,000 points of SNAs, equalingKhand and the Corsairs (both which have better set-ups). Dunland gets 15,000 points for two useful agentabilities, and The White Wizard gets 13,000 points forthe ability to hire armies at no cost. Rhun is again thepoor cousin at the family picnic.

Better choices for Rhun might be ‘Conjure Mounts’,which seems obvious given the nation’s background,and ‘Scout/Recon +20’ since Rhun needs informationmore than it needs challenge ranks. Also, ‘No MoraleLoss on Forced March’ should be added for theguaranteed long marches, and ‘Uncover Secrets at 40’

Rhunning on Emptyby James Amberson

recovery in a cottage in GreatHaywood, Staffordshire he beganto work on what he called TheBook of Lost Tales, beginning withThe Fall of Gondolin.

Tolkien's first civilian job afterWorld War I was at the OxfordEnglish Dictionary (among others,the entries for wasp and walrusare his). In 1920 he took up a postas Reader in English language atthe University of Leeds, but in1925 he returned to Oxford as aProfessor of Anglo-Saxon. In 1945he moved to Merton College,Oxford, becoming the MertonProfessor of English Language andLiterature, in which post heremained until his retirement in1959.

It may be significant thatTolkien disliked intensely thedevouring of the Englishcountryside by the suburbs, eventhough, given his profession, hegenerally found it convenient tolive in them. But for most of hisadult life he eschewed automobiles,preferring to ride a bicycle. Tolkienand Edith had four children: JohnFrancis Reuel (November 17,1917), Michael Hilary Reuel(October, 1920), ChristopherReuel (1924) and Priscilla AnneReuel (1929). During the 1950s,Tolkien spent many of his longacademic holidays at the home ofhis son John Francis in Stoke-on-Trent.

Engraved on the stone atWolvercote Cemetery, Oxford,where he and his wife are buried,are the names Beren and Lúthien,paying homage to one of the greatlove stories of his fictional Middle-earth.

Merton College, Oxford

['Bree' has traditionally been rather short on strat-egy articles -- which is a shame, since the thing peo-ple most often ask for is just that! In the hope ofinspiring some articles along these lines, here's apiece that was first published in Whispers of the Wood- Ed.].

The task facing the Eothraim is a daunting one. Re-siding at the northern reaches of Rovanian Plains,you are responsible for containing, an defeating theforces exiting from northern mordor. Deterring theEasterling from overwhelming the unpreparedNorthmen also falls to your nation. While difficult inthe best of circumstances, the eothraim can succeedat this assignment.

Three advantages that the Eothraim possessin every game are their map, tax base, and the mostpowerful starting army. Every turn, the Eothraimcan spy the northern face of Mordor, and when com-bined with the Northmen and Woodmen, have a totalview of region. The Eothraim have 5 major towns, torecruit, and offset the considerable strain place onthere economy by there pure cavalry army.

Due to the certain combat that faces theEothraim, constant recruiting must begin, and con-tinue at all major population centers. Troop losseswill be dramatic, and difficult to replace. There arethree, and possibly a fourth opponent that theEothraim must battle. The easiest to deal with is thelong rider. With the army in the south-east region,the Eothraim must engage the starting long rider armyemerging from western Mordor. If defeated, then theNorthmen and Sinda should have little difficulty deal-ing with the remaining Long Rider military.

The remaining opposition, Dendra Dwar andUrzahil require a different approach. A limited offense,and a defense in depth can limit the damage causedby these rampaging forces. Any offensive actionshould be limited to two basic objectives. The first isretaining control of all town/towers in the region.These include the north gondor possessions, and thetown at the entrance to Morannon. These sites rep-resent static defense points, to block enemy move-ment. Three of the five sites in question site astridecrossroads that see traffic every turn. The secondobjective is to destroy any current, and future evil

population centers on the outer ring of mordor. If suc-cessful, the elimination of these sites will restrict heeconomies of both Dendra Dwar and Urzahil.

In defense of your nation, you will need morethen a report from the Woodmen, and Northmen maps.You will need the Northmenís northern force to pro-tect your homeland, until replacement armies are gen-erated for defense. Using the mobility of your armies,establish a defense line along the road at the 16 row,with the fortified towns as anchors. Your objectivehere is to keep the enemy between your forces andMordor. Then next turn, run these armies down, andengage them in combat.

Once in army combat , the Eothraim playerwill meet his nations greatest strength and weakness.Your superior armies are lead by commanders inferiorto those leading the hosts of Mordor. Your best actionis to refuse personal challenge, and attack. Rememberyour objective. The destruction of these starting en-emy armies achieves the removal of the enemies mo-bile forces, and the destruction the food in these ar-mies. Mordor, while possessing a wealth of metal, isnot conducive to providing food, mounts or leather.Once eliminated, the evils will have a difficult timereplacing mounted units. The destruction of theseforces, as well as your own being reduced, your fi-nances will improve, and the evil nations will be forcedto march out of supply heavy infantry up towardsyour nation. Given that only one major town resideson the outer ring of Mordor, many of the advancingenemy forces will be recruited from inside Mordor, alonger march.

If you can eliminate the mobile threat fromMordor, and replace your starting forces with freshrecruits, you can face the Easterlings with confidence.Your goal is to eliminate his forward towns. Use smallarmies to burn his undefended population centers, onis to place camps in the northern reaches of the plains.Out of reach, and beyond the sight of Mordor, provid-ing you with abundant amounts of food, leather, andmounts. Establish a production goal, of 10,000 unitsof food per turn. That should enable you to financeyour war effort indefinitely.

Killing off the mobility of the Mordor nations,and eliminating the Long Rider army near Mordorshould be your primary defensive objectives. Keepingthe northern slope of Mordor clear of evil populationcenter your primary offensive goal. Accomplish this,and you have taken two giant steps in defeating evil,and ensuring victory for your side.

Strategy & Tactics: The Eothraimby Steve Muller

newS from breeMy thanks to everyone who hassent articles. I am still looking formore though! Please try to keepyour articles to about 900 words(or shorter), otherwise I may haveto edit you severely!

Editor: Colin Forbes,2A Guinea Street, Exeter, Devonnfbree@yahoo.co.uk

face toface

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Hello there - we're looking to get aFTF game in the US (where weget around 20-24 players turn upat one location and play a game ofMiddle Earth from start tocompletion.)

This takes a w/end of gaming- great fun and an excellentopportunity to meet some alliesfrom years past. Excellent forpicking up some tips on play aswell.

We're specifically looking toset up games in;

UK (Cardiff) around Late March- early June

Copenhagen Sometime in August

US - dates to be arranged.

For US players we'd need alocation and player numbers. Ifyou are interested then get intouch with your details, andlocations that you are happy totravel to. -- Clint