Shadow Openings and Efficiency

Looking at three opening ideas for the Shadow player in terms of where to move armies in the first few turns

[@ryantay9642]

This just appeared on my recommendations. The algorithm brought me here, and soon others will come.

[@rompsteelwarofthering6490]

Thanks for sharing that, most of the views I get are people from the war of the ring discord server where I post them, that's really cool for me to hear that KZbin recommended it to you!

[@nicholas7525]

Amazing video! I really struggle with SP compared to FP, but was thinking a downside to moving Isengard unit from north dunland to Moria is the FP card that hits mixed SP armies.

[@jasonphillips1822]

10:30 or so. I would advise taking Lorien first to avoid power too great

[@rompsteelwarofthering6490]

Definitely a valid choice!

[@britishpastry1294]

Thanks so much for your videos - really insightful. I notice that you suggest to move those initial armies asap to DEW / Gondor without mustering any elites prior to moving. The armies are largely regular with maybe 1 elite each - will the time you save moving those initial armies be lost by taking longer to siege a stronghold due to having fewer elites ?

[@mcintma2]

Great video! Another interesting one which you don't see often is combining the early Orthanc rush to Rohan with Dol Guldur moving south to clean Edoras up. Everything then pivots to kill Gondor (including from Mordor and S & E). You get your last 2 from wherever (Dale & Shire? WLR?)

[@rompsteelwarofthering6490]

That's a cool idea, bringing DG down would certainly help clean up Rohan faster. I might have to try it out sometime!

[@mcintma2]

Another idea for a vid is "what do you do with this opening roll as SP?" -> I often find myself perplexed with weird stuff like PPPCCCM against say, Free roll of MMHC where you can't get much done but also don't want to tip your hand. Also a dream roll of MMHHCCA, you could get Saruman, atk Rohan 3x, and get the WK turn1! But is that the best use? Etc.

[@rompsteelwarofthering6490]

Yeah, that's an interesting situation, it hadn't occurred to me that you could do that before. Rohan might turn into a mess, attacking three times with the starting army might leave it in not-so-great shape, but it would feel really good to be on 9 dice on turn 2

[@mcintma2]

@@rompsteelwarofthering6490 Yeah I've never done it - just spitballing - it would be a high leverage play indeed, high risk high reward!

[@petermenkveld4162]

Very helpful for me getting into the game. [ at least 3 umms tho ;) ]

[@rompsteelwarofthering6490]

I call that progress! I could feel my brain slipping into autopilot lol

[@doppelganger2012]

Great vids! If I could add one suggestion to your videos, it'd be trying to present/talk without using "uhmmms" and "ahhhs". Just a classic radio elocution technique. Cheers!

[@rompsteelwarofthering6490]

Yeah, getting rid of vocal tics is starting to become a quest for me. Hopefully I get there one of these days :)

[@Killtrobal]

alsoo need to consider LOME

[@st0ox]

does this PC version enforce the rule or is it more like a vassal module?

[@rompsteelwarofthering6490]

I haven't played the vassal module, but I think it's similar, it tries to simulate a real board in that you can pick up anything and put it anywhere, I think the programmers felt it was more workable to leave it up to the players to know the rules more or less, or perhaps even left it open to allow people to play with variants if they wished