War of the Ring Session Report (with Devon)

Sorry... got no photos. :)

Interesting game last night with Devon & I. Devon played wonderfully under duress.

I pinned Helm's Deep & Minas Tirith under siege early. Didn't take them, just pinned them. Got the Balrog out, the Black Captain version of the Witch King, Saruman and all the nazgul.

I had two big armies pushing north. One with some Dunlendings toward the Grey Havens, one of Southrons & Easterlings (or are they just Easterlings if they come from the places north of Mordor?). Soon I woulda cleaned out the Shire & the Grey Havens, and pinned at least Erebor under seige. Dol Amoroth was also about to be pinned by big siege.

In addition, I was making sure to leave a regular in every town and city I passed (including all Gondor settlements), to ensure possession & no mustering.

Devon had both Gandalf the White and Aragorn out for dice... but they were pinned in Minas Tirith, which was where I had the Witch King. Swoop in a few nazgul and a few elites, and he's down to four dice.

All that woulda been perhaps standard, if Devon was marching madly with the Fellowship... but he wasn't. The fellowship marker was one region south of Rivendell, and the fellowship track was at step one. I think that's about 15 steps from the Crack of Doom. At that point, I didn't even need to bother to commit any dice to the hunt, so corralled was he. :)

Anyway, I had it in the palm of my hand.

You see where I'm going with this? :)

:(

So... I was crushing him like a bug... as comfy as Bryan's cat whilst licking itself... but I'd entirely emptied Mordor. At any point, a palantir or muster die could've accessed my event card letting me play two Sauron regulars in any three Sauron strongholds. Not a big deal. I had lots of dice. A few musters, or a small retreat with the 10-regular army two regions north of Morannon... I'm golden.

But on the last turn... I roll two armies and five characters... no musters or army/musters. Sigh.

Still, I coulda been ok.

Using the character dice (I had nazgul in most of my important armies) push south with the army just north of Morannon, and leave a few in Morannon on my way to pinning his army in a siege of Minas Morgul, breaking it soon after by swooping in the Witch king and a few more nazgul.

But I ignore the one leader and one regular he's sending south toward Morannon, and neglect to leave anyone in Morannon as I pass through. So his tiny army pushes south to Morannon, using an elven ring... and I forget that I can use it to make a muster die. Kiss of death!

So I have to leave the siege of Minas Morgul & move twice back to Morannon, but forget that an attack ends when the defending army retreats into a siege.

Anyway, that was the game, leaving me genuinely unnerved by my capacity for lapses in concentration. :) I was drunk on power, intoxicated by the smell of victory! :)

Kudos to Devon though, for finding the loopholes in my gameplay. Probably good we stopped. Almost 10 at that point. In fact... I meant to do it! Got everyone a good night's sleep. I'm so considerate... :)