2024 LoME Tourney R1G1 vs Vanali

[@RIP_Sinners]

In retrospect, it might have been better to forgo the DA muster and get Galadriel for her eye-sniping ring ability as you make those moves through Moria. You didn't fail to take a second casualty at Drudan Forest 23:00, Vanali was just correcting the record by taking two casualties from your 6 instead of one. Fear of Their Masters turns all 6s FP rolls into double hits. You took the correct number of casualties. Looking at the result, I think the one move I would change is to to move against those 5 eyes on turn 3. As a shadow player, the one thing that I hope for when I roll 5 eyes is that the FSP decides not to move. The big loss comes when the FSP moves and shadow whiffs on 5-7 dice @6, which is about 50% likely! If you dodge the hit, you can declare in Lorien to heal and have a wonderful siege next turn. If you get caught, well, you're out from under the WK, and closer to MT.

[@GenericPieWOTR]

Thing is it can go both ways. In a game where corruption is tight (certainly more than military) moving against 5 eyes can very much come back to bite you - in fact I can think of specific instances where making that 1 extra move early in the game against a ton of eyes has lost me tight corruption games in the past. The way I see it, on a turn when the shadow rolls 5 eyes they typically aren't getting a whole lot done militarily anyway so you're not necessarily even falling behind very much, if at all. I feel like it's one of those complete coin-tosses, really and there's not necessarily a right/wrong play. If you move and don't get hit vs 5 eyes you're a genius, whereas if you move and get hit by a big tile and/or revealed, maybe even opening yourself up to additional nasty C cards, you're a fool.

[@Ace_xD999]

32:48 The chief cannot follow the fsp into an unconquered FP stronghold. Maybe doesn't effect the game hugely, but SP does get some cycling in MT and does activate a bunch of cards for attacking and sacrificing leadership etc.

[@Mittens1776]

Great game, well played by both sides, very tough to not draw any of those healing cards at the end. 8:30 As you said, I think the moria plan actually worked out pretty well, but the draw into nazgul strike, then the eye draw after 3 hunt successes, that really hurt things. Only 1/7th of the shadow c deck had been drawn, and of those only 5 tiles could reveal you here, and if the tile drawing cards had been played instead they had a much lower chance of revealing. Having said all that, I think the play was probably to just take the 3 damage (or a random maybe?), and then you can kill gandalf with one of the two following tiles, and heal up in Lorien. 20:20 Don't really get why the osgiliath regulars were not moved directly to minas tirith here, I guess to slow down the shadow by a half movement, but the 2 extra hits in the MT field battle seem better to me. 29:30 With the Galadriel die gone, mustering Elrond for his extra die right away seems best. 32:40 The chief does not get to move to MT for free here, as it is an unconquered FP stronghold, even though you can move minions/nazgul to get him there anyways. 44:10 Pretty sure you counted the chief as FP leadership for all the battles in pelargir, though I don't think he actually scored a hit for you at any point, funnily enough.

[@GenericPieWOTR]

1. Yeah I think it very nearly came off. Perhaps I was greedy to gamble on not hitting an Eye, especially as it was a tournament game, but I think 80% was a reasonable gamble. 2. Good point - since I was always intending to fight the field battle your suggestion would've made more sense. 3. I think this was just me being a bit of a LoME noob and forgetting Elrond. One of my big issues in LoME is effectively managing the keeper dice and I often slip back into base-habits and forget to muster them. 4. Interesting - that might've actually had a reasonable impact on the game (Ace also pointed it out) given the card cycling, card activation, etc. Oh well. 5. Ha! My bad. Not used to having Shadow leadership in a FP army I guess... Thanks for the comment!

[@Ace_xD999]

I agree, the chief is broken! As FP, if you get an early reveal, its so tough to get back into the game.

[@CaptainOfTheRing]

Keep an EYE out for my LoME game 2. Witch king shows up there and... yeah

[@bhilly812]

By your own math, if an eye is 1/5 to get an eye for strider, it's correct to take a random on the 3r because it's only 1/7 to lose strider to that:-D

[@GenericPieWOTR]

yeah guess I got greedy and wanted to have my cake and eat it. given what was at risk maybe the wrong call but 20% is still pretty darn unfortunate.

[@joshdavis3743]

Sheob 4, Shelob 4, Shelob 4!!

[@mcintma2]

Close game despite the start! yeah maybe those 2 Smeagie tiles could be a factor ...

[@GenericPieWOTR]

@@mcintma2 I love that little ratman. Alas crushed by the late run of red tiles.

[@mcintma2]

@@GenericPieWOTR You get full creative rights as the author of the moniker 'Smeagie', which I now can't stop saying ;)

[@GenericPieWOTR]

@@mcintma2 Hahaha - if this channel has any legacy let it be that.

[@NigelIncubatorJones]

What do you mean by not getting double card cycling from Palantir and the Chief?

[@mcintma2]

Palantir and WKC both allow redraws, but you cannot combine them to use a P, play a C card, and draw 2 cards. Only 1.

[@NigelIncubatorJones]

@@mcintma2 What's the reasoning behind that ruling, though? It seems like from a plain reading of the cards, the double redraw should be allowed.

[@mcintma2]

@@NigelIncubatorJones Correct I think it may be in the rulebook itself. The only reasoning per se, is WKC is overpowered already and drawing 2 C cards would be nuts ;)