Hi,

last game was very frustrationg for me. (WE played the Basegame)

i played with a friend. He was the SP (he played it first time!!!) and he totally refused to put Dice in the HuntBox in the first turns. i told him that this wouldnt be wise since the fellowship could move to easy to destroy the on ring.

He said : i see no need to put 1 or 2 dice in the HuntBox the Chance of drawing a tile is to small. so he rolled with all dice and didnt got more then 1 in the Huntbox.

SO in the 5. Turn i declared the Fellowship in Minas Morgul with no Corrution!!!

Minas Tirith was captured by Saurons forces and already moving towards Dol Amroth. Saruman crossed the Forts of Isen after facing THREE Entattacks.

The North was quite.

Only one Hunttile was Drawn. A "3" killed Gandalf the Grey and put my 5. Actiondie in play. I had Mithril&Sting and Axe & Bow on the Table.

ALL seemd to work perfect but then.... it all ended as my worst Game until now.

After i declared the Fellowship he put ALL Dice in the HuntBox for the remaining turns.

I tell you what i done and i was completly wrong.

I tried to move as quickly as possible the Mordortrack, it ends up in a disaster. Since all Eye-Tiles where in and he managed to put another 2 SpecialTiles (me too) in the pile, i knew i would be hard but not impossible.

i was wrong: in turn 7 i had drawn the 5. Tile and Frodo got corrupted.

1. Tile : was canceled by Mithril.

2. Tile: an Eye ofcourse. Axe&Bow plus Strider leaving 5 corruption on Frodo.

3. Tile: 3 Corruption plus Stop plus revealed. Since then i knew i would fall. i sacrificed Legolas. so Frodo had now 6 Corruption.

4. Tile another **** Eye-Tile. Gimli left Middle earth. Frodo had only 11 corruption because the SP took one AD to Play a Card.

5. Tile: 2 Corruption. Merry leaving. Frodo was lost.

So what would you have done now?????

Well, to start with, the Shadow player can't put more dice in the Hunt Box than there are Companions remaining in the Fellowship. It sounds to me from your Corruption numbers that you weren't following this rule.

I probably would have separated a few, if not all, of the Companions just before declaring in Mordor, limiting the number of dice that could be placed in the Hunt Box. Gollum can be a very effective Guide.

Of course, pursuing a Military Victory is also a possibility if the Shadow player concentrates too much on the Ring.

Yeah, if he puts ALL dice in the hunt pool (which isn't possible, see above) a Free People military victory should be pretty easy.

Ohhhh ,

that little passage i had forgotten.

**** i knew i was not so easy.

thanks alot for helping.

If you still had all your companions with the fellowship, aside from "eye" tiles, they would absorb most of the corruption from any of the drawn tiles.

If a "3" was drawn, Strider could take it all. If a "1" or "2" is drawn, then let the SP randomly a companion.

Lastly, you only need to move or hide the Fellowship while they are on the Mordor track once per turn. If the SP has no actions because all his dice are in the hunt pool, there's no need to rush to the top, since they won't be doing anything else.

Personally, I try to enter Mordor with only Gollum. That way the fellowship is only revealed on an "Eye" tiles, so they're still hidden when those "1" and zero tiles are drawn.

Tsugo said:

this is very intresting. i might try it next time.

chrassos said:

Do! Gollum is a very powerful guide when there once the fellowship is in or near mordor. If you're healthy on the corruption track (i.e. you've been taking casualties, been playing the cards that reduce corruption), Gollum makes a very good guide. Ducking reveals, being able to reduce damage and limiting the dice pool to one (which isn't so much gollum's ability as it is the circumstance in which you find him your guide) are extremely powerful abilities; you'll save action dice on concealment, the eye tiles wont be quite so devastating, and Gollum's reveal ability will lessen the harder blows of corruption (those 3s leftover, and maybe 2s).

Of course, the huge disadvantage is that you wont be able to ride out any corruption through casualties. Whatever you draw, you own for the rest of the game. Gollum can mitigate it, but that will slow you down. If you've been careful with taking casualties, this wont be such a big deal.