Super Dungeon Explore

This new game is much more tactical and challenging than the Manga style character models would suggest.  Needless to say the Evil Overlord won with the Dragon making short work of the adventurers.

War of the Ring

Darryl played as the Free Peoples, Phil as Shadow.

This time the Fellowship made rapid progress towards Lorien and rested there until full strength.  Meanwhile Sauron explored a strategy of conquest in the North East:  Dale, Erebor and the Woodland Realm.   He mustered rapidly and sent forces from the Easterlings and Mordor whilst keeping a holding force at Minas Morgul and one at Dol Guldur to keep Lorien and the Lady Galadril under threat.  It was a difficult war but with the influence of the Witch King and the support of the two armies from Mordor it was just possible for Sauron to eventually take the 5 Victory Points.  Activating the North meant that he had to Muster Monsters in the North West and keep Isengard forces in the area too.

Sauron chose not to do much with Saruman, keeping Rohan at peace and instead chose to muster forces at Umbar and then march north towards Pelargir.

The Witch King marched his forces towards the Misty Mountains, threatening the Elves at Rivendell and Lorien.  The Free Peoples strenthened both as well as sending Cirdan’s ships to Dol Amroth.  Soon every single elven warrior was mustered.  Gandalf the White moved to aid Lorien, leaving a Hobbit with the Ents in Fangorn if necessary.

The Witch King turned his Army South, supported by a large force from Dol Guldur and the Siege began.  This Siege turned out to be a turning point in the game.  Gandalf negated the Witch King and his Nazgul but casualties began to mount on either side.  Many combat cards were played and reinforcements were necessary for the besiegers.  However with the gradual attrition of the Elves and no forces left to Muster, Lorien began to weaken.  Finally the Balrog arrived from Moria (combat card) and Durin’s Bane slew Galadriel and Gandalf as the final elven defenders were overrun by the Orcs.   This all took time and amidst the chaos the Fellowship escaped and headed South towards Minas Tirith with Boromir and Strider in the group.  At the falls the Fellowship was broken.  Boromir went on to raise a mighty Army at Minas Tirith with the aid of Faramir and his Rangers.

The Witch King then ordered his forces South towards either Helm’s Deep or Minas Tirith whilst he and his Nazgul flew towards Dol Amroth in order to complete the Siege.  However that battle did not go as planned.  Possibly as many useful combat cards had already been used up at Lorien.  The siege almost failed and it was only by raising another force at Umbar and employing the ships of the Corsairs that Sauron was eventually able to capture the Citadel.  Boromir briefly threatened a move against Minas Morgul and did recapture Pelargir as well as destroying a small force of Orcs.  Overwhelming forces coming from Mordor however forced him again into a defensive position.

Finally Helm’s Deep and Edoras fell before the Rohirrim could be mustered to war in adequate numbers.  Without Gandalf the White the power of the Nazgul was proving too great.  The Fellowship led by Strider did make it to Minas Morgul but was unable to make much progress as the Free People’s were consitently distracted by war and they were now down to just 4 dice.

Sauron was thus able to achieve a military victory before they could reach Mount Doom!

War of the Ring

Darryl played as the Free Peoples and Phil as Shadow.

Phil focused on Saruman early on and managed to take hold of Helm’s Deep.  He also set aside 3 or more dice each turn for the Hunt but consistently failed to reveal the fellowship.  Whenever he did successfully Hunt he seemed to find Smeagol or deal corruption.  This left him very few dice left and so it took a long time for the Easterlings and Sauron to join the fight.  Meanwhile the Fellowship travelled a very long way and did not stop at Lorien to rest and heal.  Legolas raised the North and the Elves posing a credible threat to Angmar which forced Saruman to send some troops North.

Strider led a fight back in Rohan and briefly threatened to recapture Helms Deep.  Eventually the Witch King arrived and took command of the Siege of Minas Tirith.  He lost a siege tower and was nearly destroyed himself.  He could only manage to reduce the defenders to their last man, a trebuchet and two leaders.  This meant Phil had to move the Southrons to War and bring them up to support the Witch King, using up more precious dice.

At this time the Fellowship led by Merry finally was revealed to be in Morannon!  However they were heavily corrupted by their lengthy journey, especially because of a harrowing trip through Moria which led to the loss of several companions including Smeagol.  Too late now to heal they pressed on regardless despite being heavily corrupted.  Sauron sneakily put back in all the beige tiles rather than just the eye tiles, a fateful error perhaps.   Minas Tirith fell and the Witch King moved rapidly towards Dol Amroth.  Saruman’s forces headed towards the Shire and the Easterlings towards Dale, though not in great numbers.  Under pressure the Free Peoples pushed on towards Mount Doom and a round of draw, reject, draw, reject and repeat took place with Lady Galadriel using Elven Rings to Discard eye tiles and multiple Play on the Table Event Cards coming into play.  Eventually however the Corruption points were just too high with so many dice rolled as Eyes ending up in the Hunt.

So a Victory for Shadow due to Fellowship Corruption (but with an asterix due to adding too many tiles back into the draw pool).

High Noon and Castle Ravenloft

Andy, Phil, Bruce, Mike, Jack and James played.  First High Noon in which 1 player got thrown out of the window and the barmaid was the last person standing.  Then Castle Ravenloft in which the party were successful in curing young Kevan of his Vampirism.

Various Sports themed games courtesy of Mike.

Demarrage (Andy)
800 metres (Bruce)
Raise the Bar (Mike – the famous roll of 18 required on 3d6 to clear the bar)
Aiming for Gold (Bruce)

Phil won the wooden spoon!