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Empire Main >> History >> History of Games >> Lord of the Rings Empire II

Lord of the Rings Empire II

Deity: Geoff Cashman, Roman Parparov and Eric James
Start Date: September 8th, 2003
End Date: December 19th, 2003 (102 days)
Code used: Wolfpack 4.2.12
Winner(s): Iron_Hills
Mirkwood
Rhun
Rohan

Original Game Announcement

August 27, 2003

----------------- GAME ANNOUNCEMENT ----------------

Lord of the Rings Empire

----------------------------------------------------

"Three Rings for the Elven-Kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie."

----------------------------------------------------

Coming soon to an Empire server near you, LOTR Empire II!
No matinee prices, no long lines for tickets, no
crunching popcorn underfoot and pealing gum off your
shoe after you leave...this is the real thing! You
will be transported to Middle Earth to run your land,
challenging your wits against bands of Orcs, hordes
of Goblins, Oliphants trampling your villages, waging
war with such kingdoms as Gondor, Rivendell, Mordor,
and yes even Mirkwood!

Can The Shire rise up and control the world? Can
Khazad-dum be born again and brought back to its pinnacle
of power? Will the Dark Lord spread his power over
all the lands and dominate the Third Age? Come one,
come all and see for yourself!

Main details:
There is a website for this game at:
http://empire.tau.ac.il/~empire/

WHEN:

WHAT:

WHO:

WHERE:

WHY:

To sign up, please visit the online registration form located at: http://empire.tau.ac.il/~romm/empireme.html

Registration is open now.

Questions regarding the game may be mailed to me. Offerings of rings of power in the form of six packs of beer will be gladly received and may influence your placement in the game (well, you're welcome to believe that if you want...doesn't make it true :)).

-Geoff Cashman
Istari Deity of Middle Earth Empire
aka Mithrilien

Empire 4.2.12
(KSU distribution 1.04, Chainsaw version 4.00, Wolfpack version 2.12)
The following parameters have been set for this game:
World size is 184 by 88.
There can be up to 99 countries.
By default, countries use their own coordinate system.
An Empire time unit is 1440 seconds long.
Use the 'update' command to find out the time of the next update.
The current time is Tue Sep  9 18:49:46.
An update consists of 60 empire time units.
Each country is allowed to be logged in 1440 minutes a day.
It takes 8.33 civilians to produce a BTU in one time unit.
A non-aggi, 100 fertility sector can grow 0.12 food per etu.
1000 civilians will harvest 1.3 food per etu.
1000 civilians will give birth to 5.0 babies per etu.
1000 uncompensated workers will give birth to 2.5 babies.
In one time unit, 1000 people eat 0.5 units of food.
1000 babies eat 6.0 units of food becoming adults.
Banks pay $250.00 in interest per 1000 gold bars per etu.
1000 civilians generate $8.33, uncompensated workers $1.78 each time unit.
1000 active military cost $83.33, reserves cost $8.33.
Happiness p.e. requires 1 happy stroller per 10000 civ.
Education p.e. requires 1 class of graduates per 10000 civ.
Happiness is averaged over 48 time units.
Education is averaged over 96 time units.
The technology/research boost you get from your allies is 25.00%.
Nation levels (tech etc.) decline 1% every 0 time units.
Tech Buildup is not limited
                                Sectors Ships   Planes  Units
Maximum mobility                127     127     120     96
Max mob gain per update         60      90      60      48
Max eff gain per update         --      100     100     100
Ships on autonavigation may use 6 cargo holds per ship.
Fire ranges are scaled by 1.00
Options enabled in this game:
        BIG_CITY, DEMANDUPDATE, GODNEWS, HIDDEN, LANDSPIES, NEW_STARVE,
        NEW_WORK, NEWPOWER, NO_FORT_FIRE, NOMOBCOST, PINPOINTMISSILE,
        PLANENAMES, RES_POP, SAIL, SHIPNAMES, SHOWPLANE, TREATIES,
        UPDATESCHED
Options disabled in this game:
        ALL_BLEED, BLITZ, BRIDGETOWERS, DEFENSE_INFRA, DRNUKE, EASY_BRIDGES,
        FALLOUT, FUEL, GO_RENEW, GRAB_THINGS, INTERDICT_ATT, LOANS,
        LOSE_CONTACT, MARKET, MOB_ACCESS, NEUTRON, NO_HCMS, NO_LCMS, NO_OIL,
        NO_PLAGUE, NOFOOD, NONUKES, NUKEFAILDETONATE, ORBIT, SHIP_DECAY,
        SLOW_WAR, SNEAK_ATTACK, SUPER_BARS, TECH_POP, TRADESHIPS,
"info Options" for a detailed list of options and descriptions
The person to annoy if something goes wrong is:
        Geoff Cashman, Eric James and Roman Parparov
        (empire@empire.tau.ac.il).
You can get your own copy of the source using:
    ftp://ftp.wolfpackempire.com/pub/empire/server or
    http://www.wolfpackempire.com/

back to top

Mid-game Updates

Blue coloring on countries in the power charts indicates the eventual winners of the game.

One week after start, September 18th, 2003

Update for Lord of the Rings Empire
-----------------------------------

[editor's note: Since this game is hidden, the deities are reluctant to divulge any significant information. Thus, this post is vague by necessity.]

Lord of the Rings Empire has now had five updates, and the number of free sectors is rapidly diminishing. All countries broke, though one needed to be replaced.

At least one major war has broken out, with the death toll rapidly rising. The war initially went the way of one country, and now the balance has swung in favor of the initial victim. The initial aggressor has learned the hard way that his victim
was not so fodderish after all!

One nation managed to capture a traveller (deity flavoring in the game) who divulged some information regarding the wilds of the world. There's rumors of rangers, merchants, and other travellers making their way through various countries.

Smaug has been reported over a handful of countries, most notably Dale. Will Smaug bring ruin to Dale or will the Men of Dale bring about his ruin? Also, black smoke once again belches forth from Orodruin, and the forces of Mordor are afoot.

Some early alliances are being made, while players feel out which countries are likely to be strong kingdoms and which are doomed to be fiefdoms of other realms. At least one alliance of the world has an unclean taste about it.

The leader of The Shire is apparently a drunken dotard, prone to fits of epithets hurled at his guards. Any mention of Tourette's Syndrome has been met with hurled breakable objects, and various slurred epithets. Apparently, it's been a bad crop of weed in the South Farthing this year.

The Palace of the Elven King is abuzz with all sorts of chatter coming from the Elven Insecurity Service. They are apparently thinking about demanding the Misty Mountains be leveled in the customary 42 seconds.

Lastly, all the fish in the River Anduin have been killed off in an ecological disaster caused by Lord Celeron of Lorien washing his feet in Galadriel's mirror (which was promptly emptied). Galadriel says she'll kill him if he does it again. Some details
regarding this event and its consequences can be found in an announcement from Gondor:

  > Announcement from Gondor, (#29)  dated Thu Sep 18 02:00:26 2003
     From the very secret diary of Denethor:
  Day 9:
        Hazmat teams investigating the mysterious death of the Anduin have
     determined the cause - Elves washing their scaly 2000 year old feet in
     the headwaters.  Team is fearful the entire ocean could be sterilized,
     coastlines and rivers already dead.
        Have received anonymous "Modest Proposal" detailing a simple solution to
     the Elf problem.  Forward units are to confiscate all chemical and
     biological weapons (Elf Feet) for incineration by blast furnace.  Legions
     enthusiastic about this solution (suspect they were the source of the
     original proposal).

There is a visitor account available for this game.
EMPIREHOST: empire.tau.ac.il (132.66.152.50)
EMPIREPORT: 1617
visitor/visitor

People interested in registering to co-rule or substitute in the game
may do so at this page: http://empire.tau.ac.il/~romm/empireme.html

[Deity perspective: At this point in the game, there was an alliance between Gondor and Mordor, and also Gondor and Rohan. There was another alliance between Forochel and Arnor. Arnor's domination of Angmar means the Kingdom of Arnor has been restored! The following power chart was of course not posted to rec.games.empire when this update was posted there.]

     - = [   Empire Power Report   ] = -
      as of Thu Sep 18 17:57:34 2003

         sects  eff civ  mil  shell gun pet  iron dust oil  pln ship unit money
    Arnor  95   27% 5.8K 150    4    0    0  650   50   50    0    0    4   10K
   233.82
Minhiriat  65   45% 3.9K 300    0    0    0  250  250    0    4    0    3   15K
   209.42
     Rhun  80   20% 3.8K 500    0    0    0  150   50    0    0    3    8   20K
   195.81
   Lorien 105   15% 3.9K 350    0    0    0  400   25  150    0    1    4   20K
   193.63
     Bree  95   15% 4.0K 250    0    0    0  350  100  200    0    0   10   15K
   189.74
    Rohan 185   12% 4.0K 250    0    0    0  600  150   26    1    1    3   10K
   187.48
Rivendell 115   18% 4.0K 200    0    0    0  150  300    0    0    0    7   10K
   184.55
  Dunland  75   20% 3.9K 250    0    0    0  300  150  100    0    1    0   20K
   184.36
    Harad 145   13% 4.3K 100    0    0    0  500   38  100    0    0   10   15K
   184.09
 Cardolan  65   24% 4.1K 100    0    0    0  400   50  100    2    2    0   15K
   181.88
  Eregion  90   26% 3.5K 500    0    0    0  200   50  100    0    0   10   20K
   181.78
Dol_Goldu 120   14% 4.2K 150    9    0    0  400   50   35    2    0    9   15K
   181.49
     Nurn 115   15% 4.0K 200    0    0    0  200  100  100    3    2    0   10K
   180.39
Iron_Hill 130   16% 4.2K 150    5    0    0  250  100   24    2    0    3  5.0K
   179.49
Wainrider 105   14% 3.7K 400   50    0    0  550   31    0    2    0    5   15K
   178.53
   Mordor 170   14% 4.2K 150    0    0    0  100  150    0    2    1    6  5.0K
   177.50
Dorwinion  75   21% 3.9K 200    0    0    0  350   50    0    0    3    0   20K
   176.55
Dol_Amrot 100   17% 3.9K 250    0    0    0  400   50    0    0    2    7   15K
   176.36
Easterlin 105   16% 3.9K 250    0    0    0  600   50  100    0    0    5   15K
   176.28
 Harondor 100   18% 3.7K 200    3    0    0  150  100   17    3    0    4   15K
   174.72
 Mirkwood 180    9% 4.0K 250   10    0    0  300  150   50    5    0   10  5.0K
   173.89
     Dale 105   14% 4.2K 250    4    0    0  500    3    0    2    0    3   10K
   172.91
 Forochel  95   19% 4.0K 200    0    0    0  500  100   38    1    2    4  5.0K
   172.16
    Umbar  85   14% 3.8K 350    0    0    0  350  200    0    0    0    5   10K
   172.14
  Anfalas  65   22% 3.9K 200    0    0    0  350   15    0    1    0    3   20K
   171.05
The_Shire  95   20% 4.1K 100   25    0    0  400  100   46    2    1    6  2.5K
   164.00
Harlindon 100   18% 4.1K 150    0    0    0  450  100    0    3    3    6  494
   163.41
   Erebor  80   17% 3.1K 300    0    0    0  150  100    0    1    0    3   20K
   161.54
   Gondor 135   12% 3.6K 250    0    0    0  300  150   22    0    2    8  5.0K
   157.47
 Balchoth 160   10% 3.8K 250   25    0    0  200  100   32    4    2    4  4.8K
   155.17
    Khand  25   53% 2.5K 100    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0   25K
   130.10
Gladden_F  55   20% 2.5K  21    0    0    0  250   33    0    2    0    0   15K
   125.13
   Angmar  35    3% 350   15    0    0    0    1    0    0    0    0    0   25K
    62.07
          ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 3.3K  17% 127K 7.4K 150    0    0   11K 3.0K 1.4K  40   30  150  460K

back to top

Two weeks after start, September 25th, 2003

=====================================
Update #2 for Lord of the Rings Empire
=====================================

[editor's note: Since this game is hidden, the deities are
reluctant to divulge any significant information. Thus, this
post is vague by necessity.]

Lord of the Rings Empire has now had eight updates. There
are still free sectors to be had out there, but nations are
now going to war against each other with abandon.

Several major wars have broken out, and we've seen the demise
of six nations, and others are under assault as I type. One
nation in particular seems to have made a catastrophic mistake,
and is now under severe onslaught. Bodies of Elves, Dwarves,
and Humans lie everywhere. The stench of rotting flesh is making
Orcs hungry.

Several nations have now captured travellers in the world,
and discovered just what profits they yield. Additionally,
three nations have managed to capture Gollum, only to have
him escape shortly thereafter. There is rumor that some
wizards might have made it to Middle Earth as well, to
counteract the rising power of Sauron.

Smaug continues to fly. Despite the entreaties of Erebor, who
was under attack from two other nations, Smaug would not come
to his aid:

  > Telegram from Erebor, (#17)  dated Sat Sep 20 23:36:13 2003
  Hey mighty Smaug, I heard some disturbing news, my scouts have heard 
  some things at a nearby Dale / Iron Hills campsite meeting... They were
  saying and I quote, "That Smaug is a coward, he just flies around..".
  Thought you might like to know.

Meanwhile, the peasants are beginning to get restless. Several nations
have found peasants stealing food from their stocks. The responses
have been rather funny:

  > Telegram from Mirkwood, (#15)  dated Thu Sep 25 00:36:22 2003
  Not only do I have 5 countries stealing sectors,
  now the worthless peasants, who have been kept
  well fed in the realm of Mirkwood, are stealing 
  food from the warehouse!
  Head Accountant 
  > Telegram from The_Shire (#1)  dated Thu Sep 25 01:43:09 2003
  Bastards!  I'll shag you to death!

Several strong alliances have formed, and all of them are on
the move, getting involved in wars that are determining the
outcome of the game.

There appears to be a beer brewing contest happening between
the realms of Bree and Harondor. While the Bree brews are well
known through the world, the Harondor ales are certainly nothing
to sneeze at. Both breweries have insisted they are not using
Elf-feet contaminated waters.

Rohan seems to have gotten into the horse selling business, and
complaints have arisen from Lorien. Lorien apparently unwittingly
purchased three legged horses from Rohan.

All is quiet along the lines of the Ephel Duath and Ered Lithui.
What horrors are brewing where the shadows lie, few know. At
least one nation seems have borne the brunt of the Dark Lord's
wrath.

This week's funniest announcement:

  > Announcement from Harondor, (#31)  dated Fri Sep 19 22:22:40 2003
  Remember, Every Wednesday is Hobbit Bowling Night down
  here in Harondor. Enjoy the Hobbits squeals of delight as
  they get hurled down our beautifully polished Entwood floors.
  Bring Friends. Bring Hobbits. Hell, bring Dwarves or Elves if
  you must. We're not picky(1). So come down, Enjoy a Pint(2),
  and watch the excitement!
  Harandor Board of Tourism.
  (1) Orcs, Undead, and other vile evil creatures must be
         properly bathed to be admitted.
  (2) Elves must be over the age of 2100 and possess a valid ID
         to drink.

There is a visitor account available for this game.
EMPIREHOST: empire.tau.ac.il (132.66.152.50)
EMPIREPORT: 1617
visitor/visitor

People interested in registering to co-rule or substitute in the game
may do so at this page: http://empire.tau.ac.il/~romm/empireme.html

The next posted update to r.g.e. will not happen for another two
weeks, as the game will be experiencing a break during that time.

[Deity perspective: Mirkwood made a catastrophic diplomacy error
which has resulted in the attack of 6 nations against the
wooded realm. Lorien, Dale, Iron Hills, Dol Goldur, Rivendell
and Arnor have all joined the attack against Mirkwood. This is
by far the most significant war in the game to this point.

Mirkwood was, at one point, far larger than any other nation
nearly reaching the 300 sector level. He was stretch thin
though, and their diplomatic faux pas seems to have sealed
their fate.

Other wars are happening, with Harlindon, Rhun and Mordor
becoming significantly strong. Harlindon is doing an
excellent job of keeping potential enemies at bay while
advancing on his enemies. Rhun is becoming the quiet,
menacing force in the east, that none seem to realize yet.

More war is about to break as Rohan and Balchoth are soon to
join the war-like. The Shire must soon make a move if he is
to remain powerful, and Dol Amroth can not remain on his own
soil for long if he intends on having an impact on the end
game.]

     - = [   Empire Power Report   ] = -
         as of Thu Sep 25 22:07:18 2003
         sects  eff civ  mil  shell gun pet  iron dust oil  pln ship unit money
     Rhun 180   31%  16K 650   22    0    0  1.5K 600  150    2    3   20   10K
   602.95
   Mordor 260   23%  12K 850   25    5    0  750  350  250    1    1    8  1.9K
   499.35
Harlindon 155   26%  12K 400   50    0    0  1.2K 300  150    2    5   10  477
   460.81
Dol_Amrot 155   25%  12K 150   75    5    0  750  300  100    1    2   10   10K
   428.68
Iron_Hill 210   22%  10K 300   50    1    0  650  300   50    4    0    9  699
   406.25
The_Shire 115   29%  10K 400  125   10    0  650  450  350    1    1    4  130
   399.84
     Dale 150   28%  11K 450   13    0    0  1.1K 100   48    2    0    5  519
   393.56
    Arnor 130   30%  11K 400   25    0    0  900  450  150    0    0    7  210
   386.43
    Rohan 235   17% 9.6K 300   50    2    0  650  350   50    1    2   20  462
   377.42
 Mirkwood 225   15% 9.4K 350   10    0    0  1.0K 300  100    5    0   10  530
   374.42
  Dunland  95   36% 9.1K 350    0    0    0  100  550  100    0    2    6  5.0K
   347.44
 Balchoth 210   15% 9.2K 250   25    0    0  200  400   25    4    2    7  483
   347.08
 Forochel 130   27% 8.6K 300   50   10    0  500  200   50    1    2    8  130
   331.96
Dol_Goldu 140   19% 9.3K 300   25   10    0  750  250   47    2    0   10  4.7K
   331.89
 Harondor 125   29% 7.8K 300   50    0    0   50  550   17    6    0    5  1.3K
   322.36
     Bree 105   27% 8.4K 550   50   10    0  850  100  300    0    0   20  3.9K
   321.59
    Harad 250   13% 8.9K 400   12    0    0  800  200  100    4    0   10  1.3K
   319.15
Rivendell 155   16% 8.5K 350    0    0    0  450  200  200    1    0    9  2.3K
   319.03
   Lorien 105   26% 8.6K 250    0    0    0  750  300  200    1    1    2  4.6K
   318.16
Minhiriat  70   64% 7.5K 350    0    0    0  800  200    0    0    0   10  2.0K
   316.28
Wainrider 105   25% 8.0K 550  175    0    0  850   50   28    3    0    6   10K
   305.29
    Umbar 125   19% 8.2K 450   50   15    0  700  300   50    0    0    7  1.8K
   301.20
   Gondor 125   23% 7.2K 250   25    0    0  100  450   37    0    2    8  981
   295.50
  Eregion  70   44% 5.2K 550    1    0    0  350  100  250    1    2   20  5.0K
   227.25
    Khand  30   85% 5.3K 250    0    0    0  100   50  150    0    0    0   25K
   225.64
Easterlin  60   30% 4.2K 300    0    0    0    0   35   50    0    0    1  1.7K
   157.46
  Anfalas   5   59% 1.4K 400    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1    1  5.0K
    60.25
   Angmar   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0   25K
    51.99
     Nurn  70    7% 1.2K 150   14    0    0    0    0   14    2    0    0  818
    43.66
Dorwinion   1    3%  12   11    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    3    0  5.0K
    16.70
Gladden_F   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  5.0K
    15.36
   Erebor   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  979
     2.07
 Cardolan   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  586
     1.24
          ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 3.8K  24% 245K  11K 925   70    0   17K 7.4K 3.0K  40   30  220  170K

back to top

Seven weeks after start, October 31st, 2003

Lord of the Rings Empire II has now had 15 updates. Which, given
the recent spat of problems the game has had, is a miracle. There
are still some plains sectors out there that remain untouched,
but the world is essentially occupied now.

Multiple wars have broken out since the last update, with a
number of nations falling by the wayside, some of them in
very quick fashion.

One nation that was expected to die has made a miraculous
recover and has managed to turn the situation around in
a stunning diplomatic victory.

The winner of the First Country to Zero Sectors award goes
out to Cardolan, who managed to fold like a house of cards
in a gale. Gladden Fields and Angmar raced him for the award
though, making it a near contest for 2nd place. Gladden Fields
got the nod by a nose for 2nd.

One nation found out the value of a ranger unit, but did so
the...uh...wrong way :) His telegram...
---
> Telegram from <x>, (#x) dated Fri Oct 24 09:42:25 2003
Repeat after me, kids:
"Always trust a Ranger. Always trust a Ranger. Always trust
a Ranger. Before you throw a snowball at him, always trust
a Ranger."
---

The beer continues to flow freely from the breweries of
Bree and Harondor. The threat of Elf feet contamination
has subsided. Meanwhile, there are rumors of a beer shortage
in Mordor...
---
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Fri Oct 31 15:31:30 2003
Sauron is down to his last case of beer (sniff)
---

Rhun put out a rather funny and topical announcement...
---
> Announcement from Rhun, (#20) dated Fri Oct 31 07:24:21 2003
"Bring out your beer!! <clank>

"Bring out your beeeeer!! <Clank>

"I'm not drunk yet!!"

Gulp!
---

Certain major alliances have formed, with rather unusual
diplomatic twists to them, not the least of which is one
nation that has become nomadic.

Pirates have been observed on the high seas. So far, there
have been no reports of victims, but sailors everywhere are
concerned.

Darkness grows in the east, and a threat in the hearts of
Elves and Men has been growing for some time now. Few have
come out of the East to report on the goings on beyond the
Ephel Duath, but at least two nations were abruptly silenced
over the last few weeks.

There is a visitor account available for this game.
EMPIREHOST: empire.tau.ac.il (132.66.152.50)
EMPIREPORT: 1617
visitor/visitor

People interested in registering to co-rule or substitute in the game
may do so at this page: http://empire.tau.ac.il/~romm/empireme.html

[Deity perspective: Mirkwood managed to work their way out
of the diplomatic disaster they found themselves in, and
have gotten some of their former enemies to be their allies.
They have not returned to the power they were, but they are
having a significant effect on the game.

Mordor has vaulted into first place, and has a 10% gap on
the #2 country. The Shire's sacked Forochel, and immediately
following the replacement of the Arnor ruler, sacked them
as well. Arnor's still alive, but the attack was unexpected
and resulted in Arnor's capital falling.

Balchoth, under diplomatic pressure, peacefully caved into
Rhun, granting Rhun a large swath of territory. A war almost
erupted between Mordor and Rhun, but it was not to be.

The war in the south, between Gondor and Harondar (now with
Harad's help) is stalemated. Dol Armoth is supposed to be
entering the war shortly on Gondor's side, but no entry into
the fray just yet.

The world is getting pretty tight now, with just 18 nations
of 33 starters remaining. 15 dead.]

     - = [   Empire Power Report   ] = -
      as of Fri Oct 31 15:26:41 2003


         sects  eff civ  mil  shell gun pet  iron dust oil  pln ship unit money
   Mordor 410   55%  83K 3.1K 450   50    0  3.0K 2.2K 1.4K   5    1   40  4.6K
  3010.34
     Rhun 375   60%  75K 1.1K 175   35    0  3.0K 2.5K 500    5    7   20   10K
  2743.42
The_Shire 250   78%  70K 2.5K  50   25    0  4.2K 2.5K 700    1    0   30  4.2K
  2669.90
    Rohan 325   58%  70K 1.9K  75   45    0  4.8K 2.5K 500    1    7   40  5.0K
  2556.21
    Harad 385   38%  70K 2.8K 300    4    0  7.5K 2.4K 2.3K   4    0   20  3.7K
  2362.75
Harlindon 205   71%  57K 2.2K  50   30    0  2.8K 2.5K 200    2   10   40  1.7K
  2044.37
Iron_Hill 345   35%  59K 750   75   35    0  3.0K 2.5K 150    4    1   20   10K
  2008.21
     Dale 155   69%  61K 1.2K 125   30    0  4.2K 1.4K 1.3K   6    0   20  5.0K
  1991.13
 Balchoth 160   65%  51K 1.8K 175   30    0  2.4K 1.6K 550    4    0   20  2.6K
  1766.48
     Bree 170   55%  55K 1.2K 200   40    0  3.8K 1.8K 900    3    0   20  1.4K
  1751.45
    Umbar 140   62%  51K 800  175   75    0  2.5K 3.4K 500    1    1   20   10K
  1744.75
Dol_Amrot 170   60%  48K 550  350   55    0  3.8K 1.4K 550    8    2   30  4.0K
  1615.67
 Mirkwood 235   43%  47K 1.6K 400   50    0  5.5K 900  300    2    0   20  1.7K
  1594.43
 Harondor 125   91%  40K 1.9K  24   10    0  1.4K 1.6K 150    4    0   10  1.9K
  1531.24
Rivendell 140   77%  43K 2.0K  50   10    0  1.7K 1.9K 700    5    0   20  1.9K
  1477.67
   Lorien 120   73%  42K 1.9K  11    5    0  2.4K 1.4K 2.0K   3    0   10  1.1K
  1420.61
   Gondor 115   66%  36K 2.0K  50   20    0  2.9K 1.5K 100    8    2   20  5.0K
  1331.26
    Arnor 130   70%  40K 900  100   15    0  1.6K 500  450    0    0   20  5.0K
  1256.27
  Dunland  45   56%  14K 1.3K  75    0    0  1.8K 150  100    9    1   10  5.0K
   635.57
Minhiriat  35   97%  13K 1.5K   5    3    0  700  300  250    0    1    5  4.3K
   443.78
   Girion   2   89% 6.7K 150   10   15    0    0    0    0    0    0    0   40K
   236.95
 Forochel  25   88% 5.8K 750   19    0    0  250  150    0    0    2    1 -247
   195.34
Wainrider  10   88% 3.3K 300    1    0    0  400    2    0    0    0    3  5.0K
   116.31
     test   5   83% 1.2K 100    0    0    0    0    0    0    3    2    3   20K
   100.25
   Angmar   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0   25K
    52.14
    Khand   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  5.0K
    14.42
Gladden_F   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  5.0K
    14.40
Dorwinion   0    0%  12    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    2    0  5.0K
    13.00
Dol_Goldu   3   99% 350   36    0    0    0    0  250    0    0    0    0  -11K
     3.45
   Erebor   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  979
     2.07
 Cardolan   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  586
     1.24
  Eregion   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  415
     0.88
          ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 4.1K  59% 1.0M  34K 3.0K 585    0   64K  35K  14K  80   40  430  180K

back to top

Ten weeks after start, November 18th, 2003

Lord of the Rings Empire II has now had 22 updates.

Major wars have been fought in the last several updates, with
some seriously powerful nations going toe to toe, seeing who is
the first to succumb. Fully half of the starting nations have
now been knocked out of the game.

There have been several unexpected twists in the game, with
one nation suffering due to the inability of its lawyers to
ratify an NA agreement that actually made sense for them. The ink
wasn't even dry on the NA when their nation came under heavy
attack from the very nation they signed the NA with, and they
had nothing but their lawyers to blame. Word is all the lawyers
in that nation have been executed.

A shocking piece of news came out of Rivendell, where Saruman
was discovered by Elrond's elves. As Saruman was getting into
quite a rage and destroying some property of Elrond, Wormtongue
sprang out of the bushes...
sar saruman #236 was shot and killed.

Gandalf has also been out and about. He cast a good spell on an
Ent of one nation. Then, travelling east of there, he encountered
a nation that was claiming to serve against Mordor, yet housed
Nazgul, Orcs, Wolfriders and Cave Trolls, with nary a 'good'
unit to be seen. Gandalf saw the lie for what it was, and
promptly blew up the sector he was in.

Over the last week, one nation built a truly massive set of
ships, and now owns more than half of the ships in the game.
When asked about this new development, the Admiral of the Fleet
shrugged his gold encrusted shoulders and said, "Oh, just
tinkering you know, doing this and that". Rumors are this
nation intends to make an assault on the Undying Lands.

The winner of the Artistic Cartographer award goes to Rohan,
who managed to make the map of his country look like a horse.
(I kid you not!)

The end game approaches now, as the armies of light gain
momentum. Meanwhile, the Dark Lord has been musing about
his beer...
---
> Announcement from Mordor, (#25) dated Sun Nov 16 23:46:03 2003
Sauron's bleary eye begins to focus ...

the map seems greener than before ...

must have had too much bree last night, or was that beer ...

Spelling was never Sauron's strong point ...

Oh my aching head, time for more coffee ...

Its understandable losing count of how much beer you've had,
but you know you had too much when you can't count how many
cups of coffee the next morning
---


Other news on the hops front, the breweries in Beer were nearly
shut down over the last week, as a nasty Elf party ran amok and
nearly destroyed the breweries...
---
> Announcement from Bree, (#4) dated Sat Nov 15 02:13:16 2003
Please bear with us as Elves and Hobbits block our beer delivery
routes. We hope to keep the beer flowing everywhere, but wherever
you get low on stock, don't hesitate to come and get some for
(your)(s)elves...

Just keep the Elves on a leash...

Barliman.
---


Probably the funniest announcement over the last week came from a
player disguising himself as visitor (not wanting to show the world
he was travelling)...
---
> Announcement from visitor, (#43) dated Thu Nov 13 04:51:02 2003
Must playsss itss. We mussst! Stuppiddsss hotelssses, nasty little
dataportsss, trickess us they doesss. No internetesss theresss. Hates
them, we hatesss them! Musst playssss!
---

There is a visitor account available for this game.
EMPIREHOST: empire.tau.ac.il (132.66.152.50)
EMPIREPORT: 1617
visitor/visitor

     - = [   Empire Power Report   ] = -
      as of Tue Nov 18 20:46:46 2003


         sects  eff civ  mil  shell gun pet  iron dust oil  pln ship unit money
   Mordor 445   97% 274K 7.4K 675  175    0   21K 3.0K 2.6K 110    3  160   30K
  9659.75
    Harad 475   66% 272K 9.0K 1.1K 120    0   25K  10K 2.5K  60    0  110  3.4K
  8801.48
     Rhun 365   81% 262K 6.0K 1.4K 215    0   17K 1.9K 3.7K  40    9  210   95K
  8761.62
    Rohan 425   86% 234K  13K 1.8K 150    0   18K 1.4K 800   20   20  190   75K
  8403.79
 Mirkwood 380   77% 199K 6.5K 775  195    0   22K 3.2K 350   20    3  170  5.0K
  6747.81
Iron_Hill 345   66% 190K 2.6K 575  135    0   16K 7.2K 450    4    3  150   65K
  6333.47
Harlindon 210   84% 158K 6.8K 725   80    0   14K 1.1K 900   30   70   60   85K
  5636.77
The_Shire 265   88% 162K 3.2K 425   25    0   17K 700  1.4K  10    0   50   10K
  5333.84
     Dale 175   95% 171K 2.6K 800   90    0   10K 2.6K 1.8K  20    1  100   75K
  5248.75
Dol_Amrot 200   95% 144K 6.0K 325   65    0  9.7K 700  1.1K  20   40   70   20K
  4486.24
Rivendell 185   96% 116K 7.0K 475   60    0   10K 3.3K 1.4K   5    0   70  5.0K
  3823.43
 Balchoth 180   73% 103K 7.0K 1.8K 145    0  9.1K 150  300   30    0  100   15K
  3577.35
    Umbar 130   75%  97K 1.6K 150   80    0  9.2K 750  250    7    0   20  285
  3310.18
   Gondor 110   97%  85K 1.4K 700   30    0   12K 850  250   40  220   60   10K
  2962.11
   Lorien 110   99%  84K 2.1K 975  120    0  6.8K 4.0K 2.5K   2    0   40   10K
  2800.25
 Harondor 110   88%  60K 2.8K  50    1    0  5.3K   1  100    2    0   40  4.2K
  2239.73
     Bree  65   95%  34K 1.3K  50   10    0  3.4K  23    2    0    0   10   25K
  1013.10
   Angmar   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0   25K
    52.24
Wainrider   3   92% 1.6K   0    0    0    0    3    0    0    0    0    0  346
    41.16
    Khand   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  5.0K
    14.43
Gladden_F   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  5.0K
    14.23
Dorwinion   0    0%   2    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1    0  5.0K
    11.76
   Erebor   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  979
     2.08
 Cardolan   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  586
     1.24
  Eregion   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  415
     0.88
     Nurn   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0   48
     0.10
  Anfalas   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
          ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 4.2K  83% 2.6M  90K  13K 1.7K   0  227K  41K  20K 400  370  1.6K 635K

[Deity perspective: A giant alliance, consisting of eight nations, has formed.
The alliances members include Rhun, Rohan, Mirkwood, Dale, Iron Hills, Lorien,
Balchoth and Mirkwood. At least one nation (The Shire) has complained about
the size of this alliance, but no winning conditions were placed upon the
players at the outset of the game. This alliance has destroyed the West,
recently forcing Harlindon to the sidelines and shortly thereafter, The
Shire.

Harlindon's exit was hastened by his attack on Bree, which left him
ill prepared to deal with an onslaught from another direction. Worse,
Harlindon signed an NA agreement with Rohan that allowed Rohan to exit
the NA if Bree attacked Rohan. Harlindon attacked Bree, Bree then
attacked Rohan, and Rohan's hands were untied to attack Harlindon.

The game is all but over at this point. The big alliance controls 50%
of the world's land now. Mordor stands in their way, but is speaking
tones of resignation now.

The war in the south has continued to be a quagmire despite Dol Amroth's
entry into it. Gondor/Dol Amroth vs. Umbar/Harondor/Harad has proven to
be an equal match.

The big alliance expects to make a turn south now, and if successful
while maintaining the integrity of their alliance, they will win
the game. ]

back to top

Three months after start, December 8th, 2003

=====================================================================
Update #5 for Lord of the Rings Empire II
=====================================================================

Lord of the Rings Empire II has now had 29 updates.

Since the last posting, a large number of major wars ended,
with the west of Middle Earth being overtaken by a large
alliance. Peace has return to the region, and farmers everywhere
have return to their pastoral lives, chasing hobbits that steal
their crops.

Shortly after peace broke out in the West, a win declaration
was made by the nations of Iron Hills, Mirkwood, Rhun and Rohan.
Several nations stepped forward to acknowledge the win.

Then, the world stood in shock as Harad proclaimed:
> Announcement from Harad, (#33) dated Tue Dec 2 12:54:49 2003
Us stupid south-eastern barbarians do not accept
the victory declaration. Come and beat us to pulp!

Harad, and his allies Umbar, Harondor and Mordor have now come under heavy
assault from the four declarees plus several other nations acting
as henchmen to the winning coalition. The war has not gone well for
Mordor and the South realms, though Dol Amroth and Gondor were
finally thrown off of their holdings on the east side of the River
Anduin. Little other good news has come to the South in the last
several days.

Umbar fell to a lightning invasion conducted by Rohan with ships that
sailed quite some distance over the open ocean to reach their shores.
The remnants of Umbar are now a cratered battleground, where children
fear to tread.

Meanwhile in the North, the sound of trebuchets has risen to a 24/7
cacophony. Few trees have been left standing, and what few there are
show little hope of leaves. Recent rains in the region have resulted
in a muddy quagmire east and west of the lands of Mordor.

The fate of the South realms seems to be sealed, but there is much
war yet to be faught before all will be decided.


The most humorous recent anno came from the illustrious nation of Visitor:

---
> Announcement from visitor, (#43)  dated Thu Dec  4 02:03:15 2003
Supply Check Time!
40 ounces of home grown, dried and rolled.
A pound and a half of uncut peruvian cocaine, in individual
  serving sizes.
Three prescription refills of oxycontin, finely ground.
Two fiths of Jack Daniels.  And a straw.
25 grams of high quality heroine, complete with an IV drip.
12 of the little red pills.  I don't know what they are but
  they sure do work.
A small zip-lock bag filled with methanphetimines.
Five hits of LSD and a box of sugar cubes.  (Note to self:  Have
  plenty of sugar left for next purchase.)
Two hookers from Chicago (I prefer the red-head over the blonde.
  But sometimes I like to be over the blonde too.)
One large, deep dish pizza with extra cheese, black olives, and
  thick sliced pepperoni.
A case of Sam Adams.  Chilled.
Okay, I'm ready for the update.
---
 
     - = [   Empire Power Report   ] = -
      as of Mon Dec  8 18:53:45 2003

         sects  eff civ  mil  shell gun pet  iron dust oil  pln ship unit money
 Mirkwood 645   86% 467K  18K  12K 635    0   50K 1.4K 1.6K  30  370  440   35K
 17331.17
    Harad 570   69% 317K 7.3K 3.4K 470    0   69K 2.1K 5.9K 140    0  300  265K
 13304.37
    Rohan 545   85% 384K  18K 1.6K 420    0   49K 800  500   50   40  310   20K
 13244.73
     Rhun 485   84% 365K  13K 7.4K 620    0   39K 1.1K 2.4K  90   10  330   25K
 12514.83
Iron_Hill 450   71% 244K 7.2K 4.3K 475    0   25K 2.0K 1.9K  60    7  320   25K
  8812.12
Harlindon 210   87% 168K  12K 3.4K 375    0   23K 1.6K 1.8K  90  290  180  145K
  6987.44
     Dale 205   94% 224K 6.1K 2.3K 195  1.9K  14K 1.8K 900    8    2  190  5.0K
  6933.68
Rivendell 210   97% 163K  10K 3.2K 165    0   21K 4.3K 2.4K   6    6  160  4.2K
  5590.27
Dol_Amrot 175   99% 154K 4.7K 3.8K 105    0   17K 650  2.2K  50  190  130   10K
  5243.79
 Balchoth 240   78% 142K 7.6K 3.8K 565    0   15K 600  400   30    0  130   25K
  4938.15
   Gondor  80  100% 140K 2.2K 925  190    0  7.5K 150  300   50  220   60   20K
  4319.27
 Harondor 175   89% 104K  10K 425  205    0  9.3K 200  150   20    0  110   10K
  3827.45
   Lorien 110   99%  98K 2.5K 3.1K 255    0  8.4K 1.6K 4.9K   2    0   60  115K
  3677.47
     Bree  70   99%  61K 2.1K 275   55    0   10K 150  1.1K   0    1   30   15K
  1837.11
The_Shire   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  125K
   271.35
   Mordor  10   96% 5.2K 200    1    0    0  2.5K  10    0    3    1    2  4.2K
   157.46
    Umbar  15   93% 3.5K 450   12    0    0  1.0K  12    2    0    0    0 -2.9K
   148.99
   Angmar   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0   25K
    52.32
    Khand   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  5.0K
    14.47
Gladden_F   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  5.0K
    14.06
Dorwinion   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  5.0K
    10.85
Wainrider   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  4.1K
     8.69
   Erebor   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  979
     2.08
 Cardolan   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  586
     1.25
  Eregion   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  415
     0.88
Dol_Goldu   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
  Dunland   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
     Nurn   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
 Forochel   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
Easterlin   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
  Anfalas   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
          ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 4.2K  84% 3.0M 126K  50K 4.7K 1.9K 360K  19K  26K 610  1.1K 2.8K 845K


[Deity perspective: <gandalf>"The end is come"</gandalf>. Harad hopes to put up some resistance to the win declaration by the ACME (Alliance to Conquer Middle Earth) alliance but it's a futile effort. He knows this, but resists anyways because he thinks the alliance should have to work harder for the win since they are large. There's very little hope that he can win the war. It's just a matter of time now.]

back to top

Game Summary

[Editor's Note: There is no 'game summary' for this game, but rather a deity's diary. This is long, but gives far more detail than a typical game summary]

September 5th, 2003
Today, I started working on country placements. The original
from LOTR:I works, but we have 31 registrants instead of 39. So,
we have to pick out which countries we are going to drop and which
we are going to retain. The ones that we're dropping we'll turn
into mostly plains.

We're also working on final determinations of units/ships/
planes/sectors statistics. There are some changes from the first
game, but nothing seriously dramatic.

September 7th, 2003
Lots of work today on the world. Screwed up a couple of times
while re-designating some sectors into plains. I was designating
plains to respond to the missing six countries from last go
around on this world.

Ran into a some boggling problems with setsector until I
remembered that you have to use setresource. Ahg!

I sent individual e-mails out to every registered country
with their country info, connection info, historical info,
and etc.

I used the resource list from LOTR:I to create a list of
sea sectors that needed to have fertility. That made setting
up the ocean fertility very easy, thankfully.

I also discovered significant differences in plains designations
from the first game to the second. I once again used the first
game as a baseline to create a designation set to redo the
world a bit to make it like the first go around.

Very tired. Spent 8 hours today working on stuff.


September 8th/9th, 2003
More work.

I redid the .pdf and .jpg maps of the world to reflect the
countries that are in the game this time around.

I'm a bit concerned about the impact of the missing countries
on people's perception of the world. If a person would think it
all the way through, they should realize that we wouldn't just
remove the nations and not compensate the world in some way
so that the nations that got to the empty areas got a big bonus.
But, at least one person seems to have missed on that and he's
one of if not the most analytical player in the game right now.
This may influence what nations do, until they discover all the
plains.

I also redid the units/ships/planes/sectors lists on the
website. Markus found two typos, one listing the dragons and
another with differences in mil between elven infantry and
orc band (should have been the same). I corrected the former
and sent on the latter to Roman, who immediately corrected it.

Game opens. Gondor's the first to get in and the first to break.
I awarded him $25 for the achievement.

Not everybody shows up. In particular, four countries don't
show their heads. I e-mailed all four of them, and two of them
showed up relatively shortly thereafter. A third showed up some
time later, and the fourth never showed. By a stroke of luck,
a player who hadn't signed up for the game e-mailed Wolfpack
looking for help with his country in another game. I asked him
to join LOTR, and after a touch of cajoling, he did. Everyone's
broken now, though Anfalas is a rank newbie and needs tremendous
help. He'll die early, very early. Dol_Amroth, Dunland, or
Rohan stand to gain. Though, I think Dol_Amroth will get to
him first.

September 10th, 2003.
Our first update, and everything goes well. Only Anfalas did
not expand to the maximum possible 10 sectors. Anfalas and
Minhiriath were going to starve at the update. With Anfalas
being so new, I decided to help him out just this once. I also
helped Minhiriath, (who needed 1 food) because he had agreed
to join the game and help save it to a degree. No more help
will be given though.


September 11th, 2003.
Khand has royally screwed up. He pushed all of his food
into a warehouse that has no mobility. He'll starve a bunch
of his sectors at the update. I sent him an e-mail suggesting
ways out of it, but I won't directly aid him. It's unfortunate.
That could potentially destabilize the south of the world.

Second update happens, and Anfalas hasn't shown at all.
Can't do anything about it now. Anfalas will die.

One of the players points out a bug where you can build
a unit/ship/plane if the number of lcms and hcms the thing
needs to get to 100% is less than 10 for each. A unit is
built with 10% of the materials required. Bug is logged into
SourceForge, and at player's suggestion we look for sectors
where it would be possible to do this. But, nobody yet has
a headquarters or airbase >59%. Only two countries have
harbors >59% and they don't build any ships before the
second update, thus no abuse of the bug early on when it
could have been crucial.

Eric (Dristonia) discovers that sector 0,0 has 50 land
mines in it for some reason. I suspect this happened when
I was attempting to set resources for the world, but I
really don't know where it happened. I removed them, after
futzing around with the fecking deity commands that need
a major workover.

Players come in contact with each other for the first
time.

Came up with a new idea for adding flavor to the game.
Have units like gollums and ringbearers that will travel
the world...merchants, travellers, and rangers. These
units will be at tech 102, so players can 'see' that they
can be built but can never build them themselves. This
might prompt them to look around their nation for them
via spy. If one is caught, depending on whether the
capturing nation tortures them, bribes them, or invites
them to dinner to gain trust, there is a variable d10
chance % that the traveller will reveal truthful information
regarding the world. Otherwise, they 'reveal' lies.


September 12th, 2003
Angmar draws first blood, taking two sectors from Arnor.
Fri Sep 12 10:39 Angmar shock troops overrun one of Arnor's
sectors two times
He should win some kind of award for that :)

Approximately 18:30 server time, everybody loses connectivity
to the server. I scrambled to try to regain contact with the
server, with an update pending in six hours. No dice. I tried to
raise Roman to no avail early on at least. Later, he sent an e-mail
from a Yahoo account of his, and we regained contact. As we later
find out, the building the server is in suffered a power loss. The
hub the server is connected to took it on the chin, and didn't come
back up. Update's cancelled, and as we later find out we do not
have to do a rollback, as the server boot sequence does not include
starting up the Empire job. Several e-mails are sent to players to
keep them informed of what is going on. The server is restored to
connectivity on Saturday. We plan the next update for Monday at
17:00 server time.


September 15th, 2003.
Update goes off as planned. I'm a bit concerned that Khand seems
to have vanished, but not sure. He's definitely been gone since
before the Thursday update. This is troubling. Anfalas has fallen
off the face of the planet. Of that there's no question really.
Brand new player, and I think he became less than enthralled with
the game. Not a peep out of him for four plus days. Losing these
players can cause balance problems for the game.

Rohan expands massively after the update, and picks up some
key sectors both east and west of his central area. His
expansion plans worked very well. He even captured Cair Andros.

Roman rebooted the server today, adding in the "merchant"
"traveller" and "ranger" units I asked for. I intend on using
these for flavoring in the game. The players can capture them,
then bribe them, torture them, or invite them to feast with
them. They get variable chances of success with each, and
if success happens they will get 1d3 pieces of true information.
For example, "A great starvation happened somewhere to the south
of Mordor some days ago". That would be true...Khand starved a
bunch of people. Another true.."Smaug overflew Dale last week,
but there are no reports of injury". False; ships from Cirdan
were reported along the central coasts of Middle Earth recently".

There's a brewing discontent between Iron_Hills and Erebor.

Arnor and Angmar are actively in war. Nurn took a sector from
Mordor. Gondor, using a script, accidentally attacked Dol_Amroth.


September 16th, 2003.
Yesterday, I contacted the two countries that have gone
missing of late, Khand and Anfalas. Khand is now back and
playing. Anfalas, a newbie, calls the game boring and doesn't
want to play anymore. Sigh. Oh well. I called for a replacement
player on rec.games.empire. We're five hours out from the update.
I'll give it until just before the update, but after that I have
got to turn his area into plains, else Dol_Amroth could gain
an unfair advantage. I certainly can not let Anfalas' cap sectors
be taken intact. It's disappointing to have a player drop. But,
considering this is the only player that's dropped in this game
and in the last LOTR game, the record is pretty good.

The game's first alliance has been officially declared:
Tue Sep 16 09:39 Arnor announces an alliance with Forochel
Tue Sep 16 02:25 Forochel / Arnor alliance declared

Arnor's under seige from Angmar. Arnor's lost six sectors
to Angmar so far. Only one of them has more than 1 civ
though. It's an airbase, so it could be devestating to
Arnor if Arnor doesn't respond. Forochel doesn't have much of
an avenue to aid Arnor. I suspect Arnor will be the first
country to fall in the game. Time will tell.

Nurn took one sector from Mordor. I don't know if it was
intentional, allowed, or what yet. Mordor's reaction should
be...interesting.

Lots of negotiations going on between The_Shire, Cardolan,
Bree, Forochel, and Arnor. Nothing terribly clear yet. Arnor
understands the threat he is under, but nobody besides Angmar
is being overtly aggressive near as I can tell.

The rulers of Mirkwood are doing a pretty good job of
fooling people into thinking they are the real Mirkwood.
At least one of the rulers of Rohan thinks they may be
legit:
> Telegram from Rohan, (#12) dated Tue Sep 16 21:13:00 2003
If it's not Mirky himself, then it's a damn good impostor!

I played around with ship #666 (Valinor Earrame). No reaction
yet from players.

As expected, I've been forced to wipe Anfalas. Otherwise,
Dol_Amroth or possible Rohan would have captured his capital
sectors and shifted the balance of the game. I turned 40
sectors into plains. Still gives a geographic advantage to
Rohan/Dol_Amroth, but it can't be helped. I really wish he
hadn't bowed out of the game. Mutter mutter mutter.

Arnor fights back!
Arnor seized fourteen sectors from Angmar
Looks like there might be a real war going on here :)

The_Shire also started taking bites out of Forochel.

Rohan's expansion has been nothing short of stellar.
Enedwaith's absense has caused a hole in the map. Anfalas
falling away just makes it worse. This is bad. It's up
to other countries to go after Rohan hard, and take what
they have...but few countries may figure out just how
much they have.

Good news! Someone competent has stepped forward to
be Anfalas! I re-initiated Anfalas, and gave it a bit
of a boost. It's equivalent to most countries in civs,
but behind in sectors. It can make up for lost ground
somewhat, but will be behind in total. It's enough to
fill the geographic vacuum I think. I hope!

Easterlings is inquiring of Iron_Hills about the
possibility of an alliance against Rhun. Rhun didn't
expand as I hoped he would...hasn't taken advantage of
the water or the air much. This could be a problem
for Rhun.

Looks like Gondor and Mordor might get along. Gondor
thought the black gate was empty but found out otherwise :)
They are apparently both concerned about Balchoth. I suspect
Mordor's doing the "nice doggy" trick until he has a big
enough stick to whack him with. Gondor and Mordor both
know who the other is now. Ahg!!! Look now..
=== Foreign Affairs ===
Wed Sep 17 00:21 Gondor announces an alliance with Mordor
Wed Sep 17 00:21 Mordor announces an alliance with Gondor


Wed Sep 17 00:27:09 2003
Gondor does not yet know who Rohan is.


September 17th, 2003
Arnor's made a harsh attack for an early game against Angmar.
Angmar lost his warehouse. Arnor's really sticking his nose out
far though, and has put most of his mil into that warehouse. It
is vulnerable to counterattack by what mil Angmar has if Angmar
figures out that capitals have offensive ability too. Angmar
could be against a wall if he doesn't win out on the next update.

Woohoo! One of the players finally lboarded one of the tra/mer/
ran units! Mirkwood captured a traveller. I sent this to him:
> Telegram from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 20:09:16 2003
You have encountered a traveller. You might be able to
gain some useful information from him. Do you
a) Torture him
b) Bribe him (cost $100)
c) Gain trust via inviting to your halls for dinner

He decided on dinner, and by the random generator he got truthful
information:
> Telegram from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Wed Sep 17 20:23:09 2003
The traveller partakes of the proffered meal. During dinner,
he tells you some tales from the wilds of the world:

"There was a great starvation somewhere in the Southlands
some days ago. I wanted to go there to sell some dried stores
I had, but the way was blocked. I've heard there's an
alliance forming in the south that may be strong. I
also saw a very strange ship bearing the banners of the
West on the river Anduin."

After some more chit-chat, the traveller takes
his leave of you and departs from your realm.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in the halls of Mirkwood
right now :)


September 18th, 2003
Angmar's finished. It's just a matter of time. Arnor has
totally whacked him, captured both his cap sectors (no
cap sack though). Angmar's only hope is rebellion. He's
down to ~370 civs, and virtually no mil. It's still possible
to fight back. It's been done before. But, he'll have to
be very, very tenacious. BTUs is a serious problem too,
since he won't be able to build a real cap. He'll have to
recapture his own. It's looking like the Kingdom of Arnor
is restored. With the boost in civvies from the take over
of Angmar, Arnor is now on top of the power chart.

Rohan still in first place on sector count at 185, though
Mirkwood is hard on his heals at 180. Mordor third with 170,
and Balchoth 4th with 160.

Still nobody but Mirkwood has found one of the tra/mer/ran
units.

Gondor's managed to capture half of the Ephel Duath. Gondor
and Mordor have made an alliance. I told them it was unclean :)
They don't care. A war between Gondor and Mordor erupted early
in the first game. So, this game will play out differently.

Rivendell became the second nation to figure out the riddle
of the merchant/traveller/ranger units. It's about friggin time
someone else got it :) He invited the traveller to dinner, and
the randomizer said to give him truthful information. Here's
what he got:

---
> Telegram from Mithrilien, (#41) dated Thu Sep 18 21:46:57 2003
The traveller partakes of the proffered meal. During dinner,
he tells you some tales from the wilds of the world:

There was a great starvation somewhere in the Southlands some
days ago. I wanted to go there to sell some dried stores I had,
but the way was blocked. I've heard here's an alliance forming
in the south that may be strong. There's a big war going on
a ways north of here. An old kingdom is about to be restored.

After some more chit-chat, the traveller takes
his leave of you and departs from your realm.
---

Second victim of the game. Erebor appears to be falling to
Iron_Hills and Dale, with dale getting 9 of 17 sectors taken
so far, but Iron_Hills capturing both capital sectors of
Erebor's. Iron_Hills and Dale have popped up to #2 and #3 on
the power chart.

Looks like some vultures may be gathering to pummel Arnor.
Rivendell, Bree, and even Mirkwood around the north of the
Misty Mountains might be coming to avenge Angmar's defeat.
Arnor's position on the top of the power chart may be very,
very short lived.

One of the players at least is affected by Hurricane Isabel.
One of the co-rulers of Mirkwood apparently has to bug out
because of the storm.

Gondor launched an ill-fated attack against Harondor. It
would have worked if Harondor had been totally clueless, but
he wasn't. He's lost 4 eored in the process, and about 100
mil. But, he's safe behind the Anduin, so there's not much
Harondor can do in response.


September 19th, 2003
Lots of action in the last 24 hours. Angmar's toast. It's
all over for the Witch King. Cardolan fell to a vicious attack
from Harlindon, with some assistance from The Shire and a
vulture pick from Minhiriath. Rhun launched an attacking against
Easterlings. It's not a devastating attack yet, but it's not
looking good for Easterlings. Erebor continues to be picked
apart by Iron_Hills and Dale. Surprisingly, Mirkwood hasn't
jumped into the fray. Anfalas was attacked primarily by
Dol_Amroth, though Rohan came into the fray as well. It's
looking very grim for Anfalas. It appears Harlindon has the
first cap sack of the game, sacking Cardolan's cap at 11:22
game time today.

Mirkwood has passed Rohan on the sector count race. 245
to 205 now. My original projection that the game would be
won by either Mirkwood or Rohan or both seems to so far
be coming true.

It's official. Cardolan is the first nation wiped out.
No sectors left.


September 20th, 2003
Pretty calm today, with the next update still three days
away. Dol Amroth discovered my deity error, that the
restoration of Anfalas was not done properly. Anfalas' 0,0
and 2,0 sectors had 100 level resources. Oops. Couldn't
reward Dol Amroth for coming forward as it would give the
appearance of deity impropriety.

Flew Smaug all the way around the world, west-east. It
was only detected over Balchoth and Dunland.

Created a Gollum unit, and placed it in Forochel, who was
next up on the random generator. Moved the other three
currently alive units around. They've still only been
detected by Mirkwood and Rivendell. Strongly suspected
Dol Amroth was going to detect one, as he saw it inside
Anfalas territory, but then didn't spy again once he
took the sector it was in. Oh well.


September 22nd, 2003
Gollum was detected by Forochel and captured. I awarded
him $500 for the capture. Got a rather funny telegram from
Forochel after doing so and taking Gollum back from him:

---
> Telegram from Forochel, (#2) dated Mon Sep 22 12:44:43 2003
Come on, give Gollum back NOW! I'll give you 500 back. Heck,
I'll give you my job and my kids. Just let me search his pockets
for the FLINKING RING !!!
---

Mirkwood and Iron_Hills are in negotiations. There might be
a north-west alliance forming. Mirkwood has plans to push down
through Gladden Fields and into Lorien. He's going to have a
battle on his hands with Lorien/Rohan if he makes it that far.

Eregion captured the traveller unit. The traveller's the
most captured unit. All captures (other than Gollum) have been
of that unit!

Some players are confused by the 'update' command not
reporting the correct update time. I've explained it twice
now in announcements. Hopefully the confusion will go away.

Eregion answered up on the (a), (b), and (c) choices.
Everyone's chosen "Invite to dinner" so far. Hrm. Anyways,
here's what he got (truthful):

---
The traveller partakes of the proffered meal. During dinner,
he tells you some tales from the wilds of the world:

"That writhing, stinking figure Gollum was captured in
Forochel yesterday. I've heard he managed to escape though.
There's a great power rising north-east of here, across the
Misty Mountains. Over the Southlands, there's an unusual
quiet as the Lidless Eye is making some unusual alliances."

After some more chit-chat, the traveller takes
his leave of you and departs from your realm.
---

Mirkwood continues to grow at a fast pace. 260+ sectors
now and growing. In ~12 updates when they are fully
populated, they will be a very serious power to contend
with. If they are not challenged within the next 5-6 updates,
the game's outcome will be determined by what they do. Rohan
is in this category too, but I think they are playing a bit
conservatively right now.

At this point in the game, Anfalas, Gladden Fields,
Erebor, Angmar, and Cardolan are dead or dying. Khand
should die, but is not currently under attack. Harad
knows Khand is a newbie.

Bree seems to be negotiating things for his survival
well. he's really pinned between some strong nations.
So far, he's managed to swing it, but I fear Bree will
fall eventually.

Dunland and Minhiriath are apparently forming a secret
alliance. Their first target appears to be Eregion.

Dol Amroth and Rohan area cooperating peacefully in the
digestion of Anfalas.

Gladden Fields is trying to get Dale to sack his cap,
rather than let Lorien or Dol Goldur sack it.

Erebor is doing a good job of trying to convince
Mirkwood that his best option is to come to his aid
in defense against Dale and Iron_Hills. He's playing
it out well. Needs some sort of "best dying" award or
some such, including his efforts to get Smaug to come
to his aid :) Erebor's managed to convince Mirkwood
to provide an enclave for him of some small number of
sectors. This could potentially anger Dale and Iron Hills.

In fact, Iron Hills is already demanding he vacate:
---
> Telegram from Iron_Hills, (#18) dated Mon Sep 22 00:21:25 2003
You are on former Erebor territory that is mine.
Leave it at the update because I'll be seizing it.

Dain II Ironfoot, King under the Mountain.
---
Mirkwood is attempting to pacify him. It's probably
another "nice doggie" until he gets a bigger stick. Though,
in a later telegram Mirkwood offers the possibility of
alliance with Iron Hills and Dale.

Mirkwood is aware of the Dol Amroth/Rohan/Gondor/Mordor
alliance that has formed. Of course, at this point it is
not a strong alliance and Rohan suspects Gondor of
potential wrongdoings. Mirkwood is concerned though.
He's communicated as much to Rivendell.

Arnor is not pleased with Mirkwood's rapid advance
to claim a good portion of Angmar. This could be the
spark that starts a war.

Rivendell is concerned about the strength of Eregion,
and wondering whether Eregion will fall to forces
from the south. He's also concerned about Lorien's
state of mind! :)

Ah ha! Mirkwood's capturing of the traveller is starting
to breed some interesting results! He's apparently informed
Dale to some degree of the traveller's tales of a power
forming in the south. Dale's curious...
---
> Telegram from Dale, (#16) dated Mon Sep 22 00:55:03 2003
Dear Thranduil,

Do you have more information on that alliance from the south ?
Do you have some name to put on this uprising So we could eventually
prepare ourselves ?

Girion,
Lord of Dale
---

Dorwinion's sharing bmaps with Dol Goldur apparently. He's
allied with him now.

There's a coming war between Dol Goldur and Lorien I think.
Rohan may chip into that war too.

Balchoth is testing the waters for the possibility of an
alliance with Rohan.

At least two clueless players not understanding when the
next update is, or reading anything that is getting posted
about the update schedule, or reading the MOTD, or reading
the e-mails that have been sent to them. Sigh. Posted several
announcements in the game lambasting players for not reading.
Probably won't help.


September 23rd, 2003
Mordor 3rd country to cross 200 sectors. Mirkwood's got
295 now, and will be the first across 300. Only 8.2k civs
though. Very empty countries for everyone. Harlindon/Rhun
in 1st/2nd place, opening up a gap on Dol Amroth and Mirkwood,
in 3rd/4th respectively.

7th update today. 23 players on for it. Respectable showing.

Arnor is happier than a drunk in a bar. Happiness level is
currently at 50, twice second place (Dale at 25). Harad is
stunningly educated. I think they're all professors down there.
Education at 60! Dunland leading the research race at 11.65.

Balchoth found Gollum last night. Rather funny:
---
> BULLETIN from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Sep 23 03:35:04 2003
Balchoth planes spotted over land units in 53,-1

> BULLETIN from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Sep 23 03:35:44 2003
Balchoth planes spotted over land units in 53,-1

> BULLETIN from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Sep 23 03:37:10 2003
Balchoth planes spotted over land units in 53,-1

> BULLETIN from Manwe, (#0) dated Tue Sep 23 03:54:02 2003
Diplomatic relations with Balchoth downgraded to "Hostile".
Balchoth (#23) lost 0 troops boarding glm gollum #107
We lost 0 troops defending

> Telegram from Balchoth, (#23) dated Tue Sep 23 03:57:58 2003
Gotcha!
---
Tue Sep 23 17:31:07 2003

Mirkwood wreaks havoc on Gladden_Fields!
Mordor wreaks havoc on Nurn!
Rhun wreaks havoc on Dorwinion!
VIOLENCE ERUPTS! -- Rohan wages war on Anfalas
VIOLENCE ERUPTS! -- Gondor wages war on Harondor

The details of Empire news since Sat Sep 20 22:34:56 2003

Tue Sep 23 17:17 Rhun sacks Dorwinion capital
Tue Sep 23 17:25 Mordor sacks Nurn capital
Tue Sep 23 13:08 Mirkwood sacks Gladden_Fields capital
Tue Sep 23 16:50 Mirkwood captures and pillages Erebor's capital


=== The Bottom Line ==
Mirkwood seized thirty-one sectors from Gladden_Fields
Rhun seized twenty-four sectors from Dorwinion
Mordor seized seventeen sectors from Nurn
Dol_Amroth seized sixteen sectors from Anfalas
Mirkwood seized eight sectors from Erebor
Rohan captured seven sectors from Anfalas
Harondor captured seven sectors from Gondor
Arnor captured six sectors from Angmar
Rhun captured six sectors from Easterlings
Rivendell captured five sectors from Gladden_Fields
Iron_Hills captured five sectors from Erebor
Rivendell captured four sectors from Angmar
Mirkwood captured four sectors from Angmar
Forochel took three sectors from Harlindon
Harlindon took two sectors from Cardolan
Minhiriath took two sectors from Harlindon
Lorien took two sectors from Gladden_Fields
Lorien took two sectors from Mirkwood
The_Shire stole one sector from Cardolan
Arnor stole one sector from Mirkwood
Dale stole one sector from Gladden_Fields
Dale stole one sector from Erebor
Dol_Goldur stole one sector from Gladden_Fields
---

Forochel seems to be getting some grief from Harlindon and
perhaps even The Shire, though relations with The Shire seem
to have not soured entirely yet. So far, he's made some headway
against Harlindon. It's in the plains area where Forlindon was
in the first game.

Arnor is aware that Mirkwood has sacked at least two
capitals, and possibly three. He's considering attacking
Mirkwood for fear of Mirkwood becoming too strong. He's
asking Bree for assistance.

Looks like Harlindon and Minhiriath are going to come
to blows. Harlindon will win if that happens.

Lorien tipped his hand to Rivendell, that he wants to
perhaps attack Mirkwood. Rivendell promptly communicated
this to Mirkwood. Oops. Still, Rivendell does not fully
trust Mirkwood. Lorien's at war with Mirkwood now. Lorien's
also asked for help from Dol Goldur against Mirkwood.
Yet, I know Lorien also intends to potentially attack
Dol Goldur.

Mirkwood is not granting Erebor an enclave after all.
It's all over for Erebor.

Rhun's launched an assault on Dorwinion. Dorwinion's
toast. Loast his cap, and Rhun got all the money (100%
cap). Rhun's now in control of all of the northern part
of the sea of Rhun, and the entirely in control of the
River Celduin. He's now in 1st place with 20% more civs
than second place (Mordor, with 10k).

Harad continues to attempt to assist Khand. It's
probably to no avail. I suspect that if he doesn't
defend Khand, Mordor will wipe him out. Mordor's
chewing on Nurn right now.

Four countries now with 200 sectors. Harad crossed
the threshold today. I think we're seeing the major
powers formed, with some others possible but not clear
yet. Mirkwood, Rohan, Mordor, and Harad. There's a bit
of a power vacuum west of the Misty Mountains. Someone's
going to have to die before a power arises there. My
money's on Harlindon, and I expect Minhiriath, Dunland,
Forochel, and Eregion to all fall. The victors will be
The Shire, Harlindon, Rivendell, and Rohan.

Undeclared alliance between Balchoth and Rohan is
firmed up.


September 24th, 2003
Dorwinion's toast. It's all over there. Rhun's done
a masterful job.

Iron Hills joined the 200 sector club. That makes 5
nations controlling about 25% of the world. If the
countries with less sectors understand their peril,
things can (and should) shift rapidly.

Bree and The Shire might be forming a loose alliance.
They're working on a non-aggression pact now.

Rivendell has put out the suggestion to Bree that he
might be willing to attack Mirkwood. Could be a lie.
But, Rivendell is concerned, as is Bree, regarding Mirkwood's
fast expansion.

Minhiriath is hoping to patch up relations with Harlindon,
which recently went south.

Mordor continues his conquest of Nurn. Another 25
sectors have fallen. Nurn's designating everything
significant into enlistment centers. It'll probably only
slow Mordor down.

Iron Hills and Rhun have allied.

The war between Lorien and Mirkwood is afoot. This could
decide the fate of the game, as Lorien is attempting to
bring together a coalition against Mirkwood. Mirkwood's
*really* stretched thin. Fighting one country at a time,
he's doing well. More than one, or even several, he's
in trouble.

The game's afoot! With update #8, an assault has been
launched on Mirkwood:
---
=== The Bottom Line ==
Arnor seized twelve sectors from Mirkwood
Dale seized eleven sectors from Mirkwood
Iron_Hills captured six sectors from Mirkwood
---
Lorien and Dol Goldur are in on the fun too. Five nations
on one! Woot!
---
> Announcement from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Wed Sep 24 23:31:13 2003
How yellow can you be?
Does it really take 5 countries
to stop the Elven King?
You will all pay!
Bwhahahaahahhaha!
---
The lost sector count is now up to 50 sectors, and Rivendell
has told Mirkwood he might need to attack:
---
> Telegram from Rivendell, (#6) dated Thu Sep 25 00:21:13 2003
Greetings,

How are things holding up?
I am under pressure from
multiple sources to join
in attacking you. I would
rather not, but there were
implied threats in their
requests. I do not see
how you can prevail over 5
attackers, though I only
know of 3 so far with things
hidden the way they are.

Elrond
---

Looks like Minhiriath and Dunland just launched an
attack on Eregion. Not much ground lost yet, but it's
been launched.

Peasants began stealing food from large stockpiles
of food around the world. The only country to respond
so far has been Mirkwood...and rather hysterical at that :)
---
> Telegram from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Thu Sep 25 00:36:22 2003
Not only do I have 5 countries stealing sectors,
now the worthless peasants, who have been kept
well fed in the realm of Mirkwood, are stealing
food from the warehouse!
Head Accountant
---

Oo! Nasty stuff coming out of Mirkwood..
---
> Telegram from Mirkwood, (#15) dated Thu Sep 25 00:54:39 2003
<coruler>,
I thought you would be back by now. We are screwed!
My attack against Lorien was a success. However, we were
simultaneously attacked by Dale, IH and Arnor. I was afraid
this might happen. I have not been part of a diplomatic
disaster this bad since HeatWave II when you got the whole
world to attack the country I was running with Doug.
I have to leave early today. Not that there is much
we can do other than make life hard on them as they
chew us to pieces.
<other coruler>

> Telegram from Rivendell, (#6) dated Thu Sep 25 00:58:07 2003
Well just to let you know that I
do not feel bound by a proposed
agreement. Your somewhat arrogant
attitude and what's in it for me
attitude have not done much to
ease the feeling that I will be next
in a long line of conquests.

I always try to be a good neighbor and
ally first and a deadly enemy if I must.

Even if I stood by and did not attack
you, would you allow me to live long
after you won?

Elrond
---
So, Rivendell's looking like he's going attack Mirkwood, and
Mirkwood's internally thinking they're dying. Wow. What a
change in the world!


September 25th, 2003.
Yep, Rivendell's commenced their attack on Mirkwood. Mirkwood
has dropped 1/4th of his sectors in the last 24 hours. It's looking
grim for the Elves of the wood.

Meanwhile, Rohan and Balchoth seem to be planning an attack
on Dol Goldur, which might take some heat off of Mirkwood,
but probably to no relief for Mirkwood. Dol Goldur will
probably fall rapidly, as he's significantly engaged with
Mirkwood. He'll have to flip around and defend attacks
against him from two different vectors. He'll probably fall.

Bree has joined the attack on Eregion. That's three
versus Eregion. Bree's managed to make it to Eregion's
0,0, but it's not Eregion's cap. Looks like the beginning
of the end for Eregion. Eregion's fighting back, and
not doing bad, but Bree's salient into his heart might
cause fatal cardiac bleeding. Bree's pumped 60 mil into
that sector, which will be very hard to take since it's
at 100%. Eregion currently lacks the military power to
retake his own 0,0. It's not all over for Eregion though.
Harlindon is concertedly attacking Minhiriath, one of
the nations attacking Eregion. Min can not long ignore
that threat. That leaves Dunland and Bree on Eregion.
If Rohan changes their mind and attacks Dunland, Eregion
might find themselves on equal footing, vs. Bree. Dunland's
attack on Eregion is pretty much spent for this update.
Same for Minhiriath.

Rhun meanwhile has sacked Dorwinion's cap. It was already
all over for Dorwinion, this is just cake dressing.
Thu Sep 25 14:49 Rhun sacks Dorwinion capital
Dorwinion has 1 sector left now.

The war between Gondor and Harondar has stalled. Harondar
has a slight edge in materials, and is producing more bars.
Umbar is allied with Harondar, and Gondor's allies will
not likely come to his aid. Gondor can pull this out, but
he's going to need to fight hard to do it.

September 26th, 2003
Mirkwood discovered Saruman wandering about his lands.
I have to admit this deity role playing is rather fun :)
Mirkwood chose to serve the light, and was thus punished
by Saruman, losing 12 soldiers to Saruman's spells.

Mirkwood feels they are not long for this world. They
could very well be right. However, Lorien is about to be
distracted by a war with Dunland, and Dol Goldur is about
to be distracted by a war with Balchoth and Rohan. Mirkwood's
chances are better than they know right now.

Dol Amroth finally finished off Anfalas, sacking his capital
after the last update.

Big news! Rohan just sacked Dol Goldur's capital!
> BULLETIN from Manwe, (#0) dated Fri Sep 26 16:50:10 2003
Rohan just took Dol_Goldur's capital and gained $1969

Rohan and Balchoth have seized about 30 sectors from Dol
Goldur. Thinks could get very bad, very quickly for Dol Goldur.


Bree's assault against Eregion continues. He's nabbed ~25
sectors now. Dunland continues to attack as well, but not
as successfully. Harlindon's joined the fray now too. It's
looking grim for Eregion.

Nurn's demise is upon him, as Mordor continues his relentless
assault. 30 more sectors have fallen. Nurn has less than 1k civs
left. It's basically all over. Just mop up left.

Relations between The Shire and Harlindon may have soured.
The Shire captured a merchant last night, and tortured him for
information. He was given false information that the Elves
were coming for him. I don't think one thing had to do with
the other though.

Gondor's situation may be getting worse, as Harad has now
gone hostile against him. Harad and Gondor are both allied
with Mordor. This could be a problem again.

The Elves of Harlindon are the masters of the seas so far,
building five ships total. Second place to Rhun, with 4.
No one else has more than 2.


October 16th, 2003
After a long break, we're finally back. Very frustrating
problems with the server not allowing logins. We finally got
it solved, but ended up being delayed a week...only to have
the update script *not* force an update for some unexplained
reason. We've also have two instances of the server going nuts
with plane UIDs. The last one caused the server log to balloon
169 megabytes overnight. Ouch! It appears that we've got a lid
on it for now.

Rohan and Balchoth are finishing off Dol Goldur. At least
one other (Dale) is taking some of the remains. Dol Goldur is
trying to negotiate a settlement, but it's basically over
for him.

Rhun continues to grow strong, with a stranglehold on first
place. He's out distancing second plance (Rohan) by 10k civs
with just 29k civs of his own. Very powerful possibilities there.
He's sacked Easterlings pretty hard. I think it's all over for
Easterlings now.

Rumors are that Mordor may attack Wainriders next. He's grown
to be the largest country in land area, and the first to break
300 sectors. Nurn has fallen to him.

Eregion is dying. Not much chance of recovery.

The war Gondor faces seems to have at least temporarily
stalemated.

Mirkwood appears to be attempting to negotiate his way out
of his fix in fighting seven nations at once. He may have
convinced Iron Hills and Dale to agree to stop their attacks.

Lorien is attempting to put together some forces against
Dunland. A smart move most likely. Rivendell also suggested
the same to Bree (whom Lorien contacted about it). Of course,
Bree might be considering attacking Lorien. Whoops :)

The Shire might be trying to organize something against
Harlindon.

[post update]
Dol Goldur's gone way broke thanks to a triple cap sack
by Rohan and Lorien. It's all over in Dol Goldur.

October 21st

After yet another gremlin, yesterday's update was cancelled.
Good thing too, as there was a power outage on campus at
Tel Aviv University.

Today's update rolled, thanks to Roman showing up just in
time to do a manual force. I was just about to do one
myself.

Harad took out Khand, vaulting himself easily into first
place. Rhun doesn't seem to be doing too good a job of
maximizing his potential pop growth. Rohan's closing
the gap on him. Three nations (Mordor, Iron_Hills, and
Harad) are all over 300 sectors now.


October 22nd

Dol Goldur is the first nation to drop off the power chart
entirely, going broke ($-10507) and having nothing left
to counteract the negative, as all his sectors are gone.


October 23rd

The server has hiccoughed at least twice in the last 24 hours.
The machine it is on has rebooted for unknown reasons. I've
restarted the game server shortly after it came back up, but
the stability of the machine is a bit in question now. This
game seems cursed.

Balchoth's role in the world has been greatly diminished by
diplomacy. In a grand diplomatic scheme, Balchoth, rather
than dying at the hands of Rhun, will make a massive land
grant to Rhun. This action was assisted very significantly
by one of the co-rulers of Rohan.


October 24th

War in Forochel as The Shire mounts heavy attacks, vaulting
The Shire to 4th on the power chart. The Shire's seized 44
sectors of Forochel already, including his main capitol sectors.

Minhiriath is still suffering under the onslaught of Harlindon.
It does not go well for Minhiriath. The war is a slugfest, but
Minhiriath is on the losing end of it.

Most other wars have simmered into border skirmishes, including
the major war against Mirkwood. Mirkwood's stablized at a little
over 200 sectors, and has managed to talk his way out of the fix
he was in. Yet, he needs a major kill in order to get back among
the top powers in the game.

Dol Amroth wins the Bad Parenting Award for waking his son up
earlier than normal so he'd take his nap to coincide with the
update.

Rhun's launched an attack against Wainriders. It's a piercing
attack, and has resulted in a cap sack just ten minutes after
the update. Wainriders has no efficient cap sectors left. He's
got lots of BTUs left yet though.

In the battle of the bars, Rohan is leading the world with 1018
bars at this point. The Shire is second, and they are the only
two nations with more than 8% of the world's bars. Here's the
entire list:

    Owner          # of Bars
    Rohan            1018
    The Shire         939
    Mordor            816
    Harondor          790
    Balchoth          784
    Gondor            693
    Dunland           616
    Iron Hills        606
    Arnor             584
    Umbar             561
    Dale              532
    Rhun              532
    Harad             503
    Harlindon         496
    Rivendell         439
    Mirkwood          385
    Lorien            339
    Dol Amroth        327
    Bree              314
    Minhiriath        302
    Wainriders        181
    Forochel           41
    Grand Total     11798

In other financial news...Bree's managed to send himself broke.
Oops! This deity cringes on his behalf...but there's nothing I
can do for him.

A super alliance maybe forming with Rhun, Dale, Iron Hills,
Mirkwood, and Arnor as the major players. Rivendell has become
a target for Arnor. Things are afoot in the east. The Shire
does not appear to be strongly diplomatically tied either way.


October 29th, 2003

Arnor has quit. This is very frustrating. It's an important
nation too. In related news, Lorien had an emergency come up
and needed a co-ruler. I managed to get him covered, but I
have no cover for Arnor yet. Argh!!!

Wainriders is dying. 20 sectors left, and cap was lost once.
Down to 7k civs. Rhun and Mordor are picking over the carcass.
Rhun and Mordor might come to blows in that region. Mordor's
taken 9 sectors off of Rhun there.

Dunland is under assault from Rohan, who launched a successful
attack. Dunland knew the attack was coming, but apparently was
not on at the crucial update. Oops.

Forochel is dying as well, with The Shire getting the lion's
share of the nation.

Minhiriath has put up a valiant fight, but is falling to
Harlindon.

Bree and The Shire are recognizing the menace that Mirkwood
poses, as Mirkwood has managed to completely turn the tables
around and placed themselves back in the thick of things after
coming under assault from seven nations.

The Shire notes Rohan's assault on Dunland and suspects they
are getting very big, very quickly.

Definite cooperation between Iron Hills and Mirkwood now, as
Iron Hills is supplying land units to Mirkwood.

The war in the south between Gondor and Harondar/allies
is getting interesting. Gondor's built a bridge over to
Ithilien, and Dol Amroth expects to be joining the fight
soon. Dol Amroth may build a bridge over to Harondor shortly.

Bree managed to run himself broke a bit back. Thankfully for
his sake, nobody figured it out and attacked him. The joys of
a hidden game...


October 31st, 2003

Two updates in a row without a problem. Must be a subspace
vortex distracting the Curse of LOTR:II.

Got Arnor covered with a substitute. The Shire promptly attacked
and sacked his capital. Oops. Really disappointing.

Dunland is putting up a brave, but hopeless fight against Rohan
and Bree. Bree's cutoff Lorien in Dunland. Could be bad juju,
but Lorien needs to be concentrating on Mirkwood anyways.

Mordor continues to digest Wainriders, and has now vaulted to
#1 in the power charts, with 10% more points than #2 Rhun.

Dol Amroth built a bridge over to the island in the mouth of
the River Anduin, but Harondar promptly splashed it.

Minhiriath continues to fall to Harlindon.

At this point, there's generally four groups of nations. There
are the superpowers Rohan, Iron Hills, Rhun, Harad and Mordor.
There's a secondary power group of three nations, comprising
Mirkwood, The Shire, and Harlindon. The third group is all the
current surviving smaller nations, Bree, Umbar, Balchoth, Dale,
Dol Amroth, Harondor, Gondor, Rivendell, Lorien, Arnor. Lastly,
there's the dead and dying that is everyone else. So, we're down
to roughly 18 nations.

Mordor became the first power to break 400 sectors. He currently
has 410 sectors. #2, #3 and #4 have 385, 375, and 345 respectively.
(Harad, Rhun, Iron Hills).

November 4th, 2003

Mirkwood has wiggled out of the 7 vs. 1 scenario he was in.
Rohan has convinced Lorien and Mirkwood to bury the hatchet
and move on to bigger wars. This could be the beginning of
an alliance that could win the game.

November 5th, 2003

A master alliance has formed among Mirkwood, Rohan, Rhun,
Iron Hills, Dale, Balchoth and Lorien with possibly Rivendell
in the mix too. It's a large alliance. If this juggernaut can
wage war effectively, this could be the final alliance to win
the game. The East stands little chance against it, with only
Bree, Harlindon and The Shire to oppose them. The south, with
Mordor, Harad, Harondor, and Umbar could oppose them but I
doubt they have the capability/willpower to do so.

Arnor's rapidly disappearing, under assault from The Shire and
Mirkwood. Rivendell's picking at the edges, and The Shire's getting
the bulk of the sectors. Strike one more nation from the list of
viable nations.

Dol Amroth is supposed to be joining the war against Harondor, but
it hasn't happened yet. It's rather disappointing too. Dol Amroth
could have really surprised Harondor, but it hasn't happened. Harondor
knows all about the possible attack across the Anduin using bridges,
and is prepared. About the only good thing in this for Gondor is that
it's tying down some of Harondor's units. Before Harondor suspected
the attack, the area had no units in it.

With the fall of Arnor, The Shire and Mirkwood are both making
strong bids to being a super power, with The Shire clearly doing
so (being 4th on the power chart now). Mirkwood's re-entered the
top ten. Mirkwood has now returned to the size he made it to 10 updates
ago. Harlindon is also making a run at it, in 6th place.

Nine countries in the middle of the power chart are still struggling
to have an impact on the game. Dol Amroth, Bree (small, but #9 on
power), Balchoth (who is little more than a feeder nation now), Dale
(also a feeder), Rivendell, Umbar, Lorien, and Harondor & Gondor who
have waged war against each other into mediocrity.

November 6th, 2003

Surprise is a major force multiplier. Dol Amroth has lost strategic
surprise in the south. In a stunning move today, Umbar has now established
a corridor along the coast to take up defensive positions against the
possible Dol Amroth invasion so Harondor can concentrate on Gondor.
Very bad news for Gondor, though he may not know it yet.

The Alliance to Conquer Middle Earth (ACME) which comprises several
powerful nations has yet to address the real problems that await it
in the south. Gondor and Dol Amroth may not be able to hold back
Harondor/Harad/Umbar anymore. Mordor is a lynch pin in this. He's
allied with all of them except Dol Amroth with whom he is friendly
and Umbar whom he hasn't made contact with yet. So, it's likely
that Mordor would remain on the sidelines in this war. The next most
likely country to come to Gondor/Dol's aid is Rohan, and their
attention has not yet turned south. Instead, they are focusing on
the East.

The Shire and Harlindon apparently plan to take over Bree and
Rivendell. They do not suspect the ACME alliance yet. The Shire
sees three alliances east of them, each centered on one of Rhun,
Rohan, and Mirkwood. Their plans after Bree/Riv are not yet set,
but could be directed at Rohan, then Dol Amroth/Gondor.


November 7th, 2003

Awfully quiet today. All remaining countries have been essentially
quiet, with just some mop-up operations going on. The most movement
was Mirkwood taking 13 sectors from the remains of Arnor. The quiet
before the storm? Much is afoot, me thinks.


November 10th, 2003

The weekend saw another power outage, lasting five hours.

Mirkwood and Rivendell are at war with The Shire. Things
are moving a bit faster than I expected up there. This might
throw The Shire back on his heals a bit, as he and Harlindon
planned on attacking Rivendell.

Dol Amroth finally launched his attack on Harondor, having to
go through Umbar holdings to do it. Nevertheless, it's a great
move even if it was expected by Umbar and Harondor. It's just
not as strong as it could have been with strategic surprise.
Harondor is depressed about the future of his nation, but
vows to struggle on.


November 13th, 2003

In the first big news in a while, Harlindon and The Shire
have launched a massive attack against Bree. Bree is all
but dead, with his lands split into three zones. This vaults
Harlindon into 3rd place, with The Shire now in 8th.

Rhun is bringing a MASSIVE (81 unit strong) army through Rohan.
This is a balance shifter.

Big, big potential news as Mordor apparently violates an NA
with Balchoth. Mordor must have a reason for doing it, other
than his claimed "wanting to take a few mountains and that
is all". He gained in-game contact with Harlindon yesterday.
If Harlindon has an idea of what's in store for him, Mordor's
move may be an effort to tip the alliance's hand or cause them
pause while Harlindon mops up Bree. Very, very interesting.

Rhun may turn his army around and head for Mordor because of
Mordor's attach on Balchoth. Same for Balchoth's efforts. This
will leave Rohan attacking Harlindon more or less alone.


November 14th, 2003

The situation down south is getting a bit tenuous for Gondor.
Harad has taken over the entire front in Ithilien, relieving
Harondor to fight Dol Amroth. It's a good move. Harondor
meanwhile lost his cap to Dol Amroth. He has no efficient
caps left. He does have hundreds of BTUs still, but if Dol
Amroth can really take the fight to him, this could be the
death knell for Harondor. This war is still being fought
on the south realm's turf, and Dol Amroth and Gondor's
homelands remain secure, though Harad is perilously close
to the bridge at Osgiliath.

Meanwhile Umbar, a nation who should be very prone to naval
action, still has not a single ship. I judge Umbar to be
incapable of dealing with Dol Amroth if Harondor falls.

In the east, the situation between Balchoth and Mordor is
troubled. Mordor may be planning additional mischief. It's
not clear what will happen there yet. Balchoth can not hope
to withstand a concerted attack from Mordor. Yet, Mordor can
not yet hope to launch a truly successful attack against
Balchoth while he does not have the ability to control
the mountains. He has no non-mountain path to Balchoth. It's
likely he wants the mountains to increase their road infrastructure
so he has a path into Balchoth.

In the West, Harlindon and The Shire have had a devil of a time
with che over the last update, with dozens of sectors rebelling.
Harlindon and The Shire had to do a lot of work to retake Bree.
Rivendell has been helping out Bree by helping him increase che
values in sectors where he can. Rivendell is hopelessly out
manned in a war of him vs. Harlindon and The Shire alone.

44% of Harlindon's 9200 mil is tied down in (mostly) former Bree
sectors holding down che. Ouch. There are some Minhiriath sectors
he is holding che down in as well, but it's mainly in Bree.

Up north, Mirkwood and Dale are slogging on against The Shire.
The Shire's doing admirably well right now, and it's a bit of a
stalemate. Still, Mirkwood's managed to level the former Arnor
caps and at least one of the Angmar caps. This helps make the
front there more fluid.

At long last, a few nations have some >50% efficient forts.
Balchoth (1@70%), Harad (1@80%), and The Shire (1@100%).
Shire's fort has a defensive value of ~10,000.

Meanwhile, Rohan is about to launch an attack against Harlindon.
It's a bit of trickery, and there will be cries of 'foul!'.
Rohan and Harlindon had an NA. But, there was a clause in it
that if Bree attacked Rohan, Rohan could terminate the NA
at any time. There was no notice clause. Harlindon attacked
Bree before the ink was dry on the NA. Rohan asked Bree to
attack him, informing him of the situation, and Bree obliged
him. Rohan's hands are untied now and Rohan can attack at
any time. Rhun may help out with the attack. He has a massive
army ready to jump, but may swing the army back east to help
in the defense of Balchoth. That would probably be a mistake,
but we'll have to see. Rhun's got another 76 units at home,
compared to Mordor's 118 units, and Rhun has no enemy on his
borders with the possible exception of Mordor.


November 18th, 2003

The game is in its end stages. Big news in the West is that
Harlindon collapsed under the assault of Rohan. Rohan negotiated
a settlement with them that leaves Harlindon alive, but castrated
and neutral for the remainder of the game. This left The Shire
swinging in the breeze, with little hope of resisting the big
alliance.

Meanwhile, Mordor has made his intentions clear. He's attacking
Rhun now, and seized 30+ sectors from him. Balchoth managed to
swing a cease-fire out of him, but I'd bet it's only temporary.

In the South, Harondor/Harad/Umbar are still in a quagmire with
Gondor and Dol Amroth. No side is really making gains on the
other.

With the big alliance no longer busy in the west, Mordor's fate
is probably sealed. It will just take a matter of updates now
for it to wrap up. I fully expect the game to be over before
Christmas now.


November 19th, 2003

In the news today; Harad has finally launched a major assault
on Gondor, and Ithilien is in flames. Gondor no longer controls
any lands on the east bank of the Anduin, save some mountain
sectors in the Ephel Duath. With the conquest of Ithilien, Harad
is the first nation to cross 500 sectors in size.

But, this latest turn of events may not matter. The big alliance
will soon turns its attention south-east, and when they do Harad
and Mordor will most likely crumble under their onslaught.

Gondor now needs to secure itself against invasion over the Anduin,
to delay Harad from taking any lands on the west bank until help
comes from the north. Dol Amroth now stands alone on the east
bank, against Harondor and Umbar.

Rohan launched an initial attack against the Morannon, which
succeeded in breaching the black gate. However, the attack was
repulsed at the foot of Mt. Doom and Sauron rolled up the
aggressors. Still, this leaves Sauron fighting three aggressors
on his northern side at once. Harad may come to his rescue, but
it may come too late.

Balchoth has re-engaged Mordor, and captured a small handful of
sectors over the last 24 hours. This attack was combined with
Rohan's. Balchoth ended up netting the mountains on either side
of Udun, and controls the black gate. If Balchoth can control
those sectors, then Mordor faces a breach in his flank that he
will not easily be able to plug. The Morannon should have been
more heavily defended, perhaps with a fort or city.

Rhun has begun to retake some of the lands he lost to Mordor as well.

Mordor's best hope now lies in forging an alliance amongst the
southern realms and Mordor. Such an alliance would control more
than 1/4th of the world. Yet, it is still probably not enough.

Rohan and Harad's actions in this are key. Rhun and Balchoth are
both indecisively engaged with Mordor. The balance between them
and Mordor is pretty stable. What Rohan and Harad do will determine
the outcome of this battle over the next two updates.

Harlindon has managed to surround The Shire with a single row of
sectors. This was done of course in agreement with The Shire. Since
The Shire is throwing in the towel, or appears to be, this leaves
The Shire as a protectorate of Harlindon. I think we'll still see
some more noise out of The Shire yet. The big alliance must maintain
neutrality with Harlindon. Harlindon may have done a 'turn about is
fair play' against the lawyers of the big alliance.


November 20th, 2003

Rohan's the first to cross 300k civilians. They've also launched an
attack against Harad, who rolled up Ithilien yesterday. The attack
appears limited to occupying North Ithilien to gain a lower mob
path to the Morannon.

Harad is also moving against Dol Amroth now too. The pressure is really
coming off of Harondor. Umbar remains a non-factor in this war, and has
yet to build a single ship...this for a nation that should be heavily naval.

Mt. Doom is still secure, but it's unlikely Mordor can resist Rhun,
Balchoth, and Rohan indefinitely.

Harlindon still has his protective single-sector curtain around
The Shire. The situation is getting hotter though, and it's likely
it will devolve into war again shortly.

There's some clamour for making a winning declaration, but none has
been forthcoming yet. There's still quite a bit of game to be played
yet I think.


11/23/2003

Rohan and Balchoth have managed to force the Morannon, and have
now captured Mt. Doom. Mordor is still quite healthy though.


11/26/2003

Rohan's launched an offensive against Umbar. It's too late to save
Dol Amroth's position on the east of the Anduin though, as that
position has been eliminated. Umbar's lost his capitol sectors
though. I doubt Rohan can maintain their position in Umbar unless
they concentrate a huge amount of forces there, as Dol Amroth
and Gondor are no longer engaged. Using such a force would
detract from Rohan's assault upon Mordor however.


December 1, 2003

Lots of pissing and moaning by Mordor and The Shire, as the game begins
to come to a close. The only powerful opponent left is Harad, who was
also the first to cross 600 sectors (something not achieved in LOTR I).
Mordor's got 150 sectors left, but he's des * e'd. Pathetic ending for
what was a powerful, powerful nation. Harad's gaining a bunch of sectors
off of Mordor now as well, apparently at Mordor's behest. Rhun, Iron Hills,
Rohan, Balchoth, Mirkwood, and even Dale have taken sectors off of Mordor.

Mirkwood finished swallowing up The Shire over the last week, after
significant diplomatic pressure was brought to bear on Harlindon to
get out of the encirclement border he'd put up around The Shire to
protect him.

A victory declaration should be forthcoming shortly.

Later: A victory declaration was made by Rohan, Rhun, Mirkwood and
Iron Hills.


December 2, 2003

The victory declaration was opposed by Harad, and it appears Harondor
stands with him as well. I think they realize they have no hope of
opposing the major alliance, but want to oppose the win anyway, making
them work harder for the win.

Harad/Harondor have no real hope. Had they taken the opportunity earlier
on in the game, things might have been different.


December 5, 2003

The major alliance is gaining slowly, albeit slower than they should.
I think some apathy is setting in yet they have to finish Harad off
the make the win complete now.

Mordor is completely on the ropes now, being reduced to 69 sectors
currently. He's got but three units, two ships, and one plane now.
He's also been carrying just 1 shell around for an update now. It's
all over for the Dark Lord, outside of annoyance tactics. Dale,
Mirkwood, Rohan, Balchoth, Iron Hills and Rhun have all taken sectors
off of Mordor. Even Rivendell got it on the action a bit.

Rohan's invasion of Umbar is being repulsed, but Umbar is dead.
Harondor and Harad are taking over the remains. Rohan seems to have
no interest in maintaining the beachhead. Dol Amroth and Gondor
have both remained curiously quiet, with neither attempting another
crossing of the Anduin in the last several days. Perhaps they will
take to the sidelines now until the end.


December 10, 2003

The inevitable is happening, as Harad is now dying under the pressure
of the combined ACME (Alliance to Conquer Middle Earth) forces. Harad
has lost 172 sectors to the alliance recently, or fully 28% of his
country. It's just a matter of time. Rhun and Mirkwood have seized the
lion's share of the lands.

At the beginning of the major phase of this combat, the ACME alliance
had no less than 1300 units in theatre standing in opposition to Harad,
vs. Harad/Harondor's roughly 400 units. This might be the largest
conflict ever fought in a major game of Empire in terms of number of
units deployed.

About the only bright spot for the South realms is Harondor's continued
ability to keep Dol Amroth on the far side of the Anduin, by shelling
down any bridgeheads Dol Amroth attempts to build. Gondor's taken a
back seat apparently, and seems content to remain within his holdings
on the West side of the Anduin.

The defense in Harad is beginning to collapse, as the core of the
country is now laid bare to attacks. Harad is now down to 245 non-plains
sectors, and about 50-60 of those are buried inside heavy plains regions
in the far south. The real core of Harad is now 114 sectors in a group
north of the far south plains sectors. He still has 103 100% units, but
that's nothing compared to what's bearing down on him. One more update,
and this will be nothing more than a mopping up operation, which it
almost is now. Harondor is actually healthier now than Harad, though
Harad is still in 5th place on the power chart, and Harondor is 12th.
All of Harondor's sectors are grouped together, and he's not under
heavy attack just yet.

(later, 19:53 server time) NEWSFLASH: Harondor throws in the white flag
and calls it quits. From deity perspective, a bit sad since Dol Amroth
just figured out a way to get a bridge across the Anduin without Harondor
being able to stop it when he's not logged in, and had a bunch of units
ready to go on the offensive. I would have liked to see that offensive.
Ah well.

Game might be over in one update now, depending on how badly Harad is
pounded by ACME.


December 11, 2003

Harondor is hanging in there for now, and continuing to offer resistance.
A member of the ACME alliance prevailed on him to give his ally Harad
a chance to explain his recent absence in the game, which upset Harondor.
So, Dol Amroth's offensive may happen anyways.

In other news, Mirkwood crossed 700 sectors in size as the death of Harad
continues. Harad is now down to 401 total sectors, 217 non-plain/mountain
sectors. 99 units of his are left at 100%, and of those only 29 have more
than 1 mil on them. <elrond voice>The end has come</elrond voice>.


December 12, 2003

Rhun has sacked Mordor's cap. Mordor now has a single aggie left. Almost
zero'd. Harad is down to 97 non-plain/non-mountain sectors. 80% of those
are scattered throughout the southern plains, and are thus a fairly non-
viable economic base. None of his plains have road infrastructure>0.

Dol Amroth launched his long planned for attack on Harondor, and Rohan
attack Harondor at the same time. Harondor had been shelling the crossing
point that Dol Amroth wanted to use right after every update, but this
update did not. Aggravating for Dol Amroth has he had hatched a plan to
use engineers to finally force the crossing, only to find he didn't need
them after all at the moment when he was planning on using them, since
Harondor didn't shell the crossing. Harondor's down to 125 sectors. Also
during this attack, Rohan sacked Harondor's capital.

Effective resistance is virtually over in the south realms. One more update
should clinch the win, though I think the ACME alliance will continue
raping and pillaging until their enemies are zero'd, and only then
re-declare victory. Style points.


December 13, 2003

Not much exciting to report. The disintegration of Harondor and Harad continues
as expected. The only other news of note is Rohan became the second nation
to cross 600 sectors, Mirkwood being the first (who also broke 700 first, and
is just about to cross 800 sectors). Rhun didn't stand in that shadow long,
and quickly became the third nation to break 600 sectors. The winning four
countries now control 59% of the world's available sectors.

The next update won't happen for another three days, so it's not likely we'll
see a bunch more action until then. In the northern half of the world, there
are only 56 sectors where oldown#own, of 2,518 total sectors in that half,
or just 2.2%. Peace has broken out. Only one slot of the top ten nations is
held by a nation not directly supporting the coalition win, and that is
Harlindon who was brought to heel some weeks ago. Harad hasn't logged in for
more than 24 hours now.


December 16, 2003

As expected, Harondor and Harad have collapsed. Both lost their caps over
the last 24 hours. Harad's down to 80 sectors and Harondor to 25. One more
update should do the trick.


December 18/19, 2003
The big alliance re-declares, and the declaration goes unopposed.
No surprise. Game over.

back to top

Final Power

Blue coloring on countries in the power chart indicates the winners of the game.

     - = [   Empire Power Report   ] = -
      as of Fri Dec 19 20:27:14 2003


         sects  eff civ  mil  shell gun pet  iron dust oil  pln ship unit money
 Mirkwood 865   86% 645K  26K  36K 1.3K   0   74K 800  2.7K  70  720  650   50K
 24790.48
    Rohan 740   83% 526K  17K 4.4K 645    0   67K 850  3.0K  50   50  370  190K
 18824.52
     Rhun 665   83% 496K  19K  17K 855    0   72K 450  2.4K 100   10  350  100K
 17332.34
Iron_Hill 475   79% 286K  12K  11K 815    0   42K 2.5K 4.3K  60   10  460  250K
 12353.01
Harlindon 220   95% 197K  16K 6.9K 690    0   28K 1.6K 2.0K 100  380  250   50K
  8512.65
     Dale 220   99% 250K 7.7K 5.9K 280  1.9K  23K 1.4K 1.0K   9    2  210   75K
  8199.08
Dol_Amrot 255   89% 203K 8.2K 6.2K 205    0   26K 650  1.8K  50  320  260   45K
  8101.21
Rivendell 245   94% 184K 9.3K 7.0K 260    0   28K 2.6K 1.9K  10   10  200  4.3K
  6718.93
 Balchoth 270   85% 176K 8.4K 7.0K 885    0   17K 1.0K 350   60    0  160   30K
  6307.39
   Gondor  85  100% 179K 4.2K 2.1K 320    0  8.3K 200  400   60  220   80  160K
  5737.39
   Lorien 110   98% 109K 1.2K 3.9K 325    0   10K 250  5.0K   2    0   60  225K
  4212.39
     Bree  70  100%  68K 2.5K 775  260    0   12K  10  1.1K   2    1   30   35K
  2291.62
    Harad   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1  135K
   296.80
The_Shire   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  125K
   270.67
   Angmar   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0   25K
    52.32
 Harondor   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0   20K
    40.20
    Khand   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  5.0K
    14.47
Gladden_F   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  5.0K
    13.96
Dorwinion   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  5.0K
    10.87
Wainrider   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  4.0K
     8.48
   Erebor   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  979
     2.09
 Cardolan   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  586
     1.25
  Eregion   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0  415
     0.88
    Umbar   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
   Mordor   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
Dol_Goldu   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
 Forochel   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
  Dunland   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
Easterlin   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
  Anfalas   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
     Nurn   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
    Arnor   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
Minhiriat   0    0%   0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    0    1
     0.00
          ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
worldwide 4.2K  87% 3.3M 133K 108K 6.9K 1.9K 408K  12K  26K 570  1.7K 3.1K 1.4M

back to top

Final Report

Blue coloring on countries in the report indicates the winners of the game.

Fri Dec 19 20:36:14 2003
 #    name                tech      research   education   happiness capital
 0     Manwe              0.00       0.00         0.00        0.00     0,0
 1     The_Shire        100.00      30.17         0.16        0.02   -56,-30
 2     Forochel         100.00      13.68         0.00        0.00   -47,-33
 3     Arnor            100.00      11.21         0.00        0.00    -6,-32
 4     Bree             100.00      42.60         0.04       56.65    -5,-15
 5     Angmar           100.00       7.74         0.00        0.00    -7,-35
 6     Rivendell        100.00      69.26        15.76       27.64    -2,-20
 7     Harlindon        100.00      68.43        30.40       19.71   -52,-10
 8     Cardolan         100.00       8.49         0.00        0.00   -27,-13
 9     Eregion          100.00       5.04         0.00        0.00     0,-14
 10    Minhiriath       100.00       8.44         0.00        0.00   -35,-1
 11    Dunland          100.00      12.39         0.00        0.00   -24,-4
 12    Rohan            100.00      68.28        11.13       21.52    -6,4
 13    Lorien           100.00      77.67        20.96       33.66     3,-7
 14    Gladden_Fields   100.00      10.67         0.00        0.00    19,-17
 15    Mirkwood         100.00      73.04        11.71       22.81    20,-24
 16    Dale             100.00     105.31        19.43       34.77    37,-27
 17    Erebor           100.00      14.63         0.00        0.00    32,-34
 18    Iron_Hills       100.00      85.39        13.69       30.32    63,-37
 19    Easterlings      100.00      12.03         0.00        0.00    73,-19