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I played a quick game of WOTR against myself using the online java client (yeah, I do it quite a bit), here's what happened. (I should probably note that: when I play against myself, I play both sides as realistically as possible. So I don't reinforce shadow strongholds because I know the FP is going to attack them soon... unless it's obvious from the board that that's the plan.
Turn 1:
Shadow gets 4 eyes. Ugh. Anyways, the SP sends Isenguard to war and brings out Saruman this turn, whilst the FP sends the elves to war and plays Phial of Galadrial (not that it would ever be needed) The fellowship is still resting in Rivendell.
Turn 2:
Shadow gets much better dice this time (only 2 eyes). After sending Mordor to war and grabbing the Witch King, he starts mustering with the Voice of Saruman like crazy, getting plenty of units to descend on Rohan. The Free peoples, meanwhile, send the fellowship forwards successfully twice, and muster Lorien to full strength (1/4/1).
Turn 3:
Not much in the way of musters for the shadow this time, but plenty of army/character dice. So, the shadow sends the witch king and a mordor army towards Gondor, sacking Osgilath without a casualty, and besieging Minas Tirith. Meanwhile, North dunland meets up with south dunland, and heads to the gap of rohan. Meanwhile, the FP, retreats the fords army into helm's deep in anticipation of an attack, and sends Lorien towards Moria, besieging it, and capturing it on the last die of the turn! (Shadow saw it coming, but didn't have the necessary dice to do anything about it.) To comfort himself, the shadow sends his massive Minas Morgul army down on Minas Tirith, and the Dol guldor army towards an empty Lorien (doesn't quite make it this turn) but much to his frustration, MT barely holds out, with just one regular left, but the shadow is out of action dice! Fellowship did nothing this turn.
Turn 4:
FP draws "A day and a night", two army dice, a palantir, and a character die. Plus, Minas Morgul is empty. Hm....
Shadow starts by finishing of Minas Tirth, claiming his first two VP's. The FP starts by sending Rivendell down towards Moria, and Dol Amroth down towards Pelargir. Shadow starts mustering the S&E's to war to finish off Gondor.
Free peoples use an elven ring to move the Rivendell army into Moria (completely stacking that into a 2/3/2 stronghold), whilst pushing the 4/0/0 Pelargir + Dol amroth army down into West Harondir.
Shadow responds by sending the S&E's to war.
So, the Pelargir army marched through a day and a night, to sack the empty Minas morgul, and leaving the shadow with two army dice, three palantirs, and an elven ring, but no elites in the area! So, after mustering what forces were there (a 10/0/1 army... not really enough), the shadow goes into a desperate siege with the elven ring, and plays deadly strife. He needs 4 hits to continue the game (which would allow him to mop up the severely undefended Gondor, Rohan, and Lorien with ease... the 10 VP's needed), but less than that would send him crashing down.
FP rolls 3 hits.
Shadow rolls.... 1 hit.
So, a Turn 4 Free peoples Military Victory, without a single companion coming into play, and the Free peoples having twice as many VP's as the shadow did! The places the shadow was busy mustering (S&E's some, but mainly Isenguard) never came into play, whilst the Free peoples mustered to maximum effect, and snuck right past the shadow's defenses.
Note:
I think winning this type of solo victory isn't nearly as satisfying as doing it against a real opponent, mainly because you always have to ask the question... "would a real opponent have made that mistake? Or would he have guessed what I was up to?". When you're playing against yourself, the absolute "best" play is obvious, but the best play given what knowledge that the other side has available? Not so much. Still though, it's definitely better than nothing.
Most valuable Player(s):
It's a toss-up between the elves and Gondor. Both were equally crucial to the victory, but I'll give the edge to Gondor, because it tied up a bunch of the shadow's action dice in addition to capturing that second stronghold.
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magic gecko
Australia
Melbin Oz
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So. . .have you read thru a day and a night?
There is no companion with the Dol Amroth Army.
You can not do that.
Also, if you could, Mustering the South and East to war is much less effective than marching them into Os Giliath, since it is neutral, and stopping it entirely.
Using the Musters on Minas Morgul is obvious.
Also, moving Nth Dunland into Sth is a noob move.
Dont do it.
Move them into Moria and you would be fine.
Or Hollin.
Elves are massing so you want to invade Rohan instead of protecting Moria?
Also, Since the Elves are at War, why not get the Balrog and just Stop the Elves attacking Moria?
Also, Why attack Gondor at all?
Attack Minas T on turn 3 is plain dumb.
There are 8VP at war on turn 1, why bother allowing Gondor to enter for free?
Trying to fight FPMV by yourself just dont work.
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Ack, I'd forgotten the companion rule of through a day and a night. That's what happens when you play cards by memory.
 (Yes, I know the new version keeps card texts. I have no excuse there...)
I believe what the Shadow had that one turn was mainly Muster/Army dice, and he only had time to use one of them after sacking MT. So although they could have blocked Osgilath from MT, or West Harondir from the S&E's, not both.
This was a base game, as I don't have the expansion, so no Balrog there. Besides, I don't think the shadow had a muster that turn. Up until 2 moves before, it looked like Lorien was just mustering up for defense.
I know attacking Gondor first technically isn't the best move, but it's quite tempting... and thematic for that matter to march in with a 10 orc army and the witch king to crush that stronghold... Besides, in my personal experience, if you get it before the FP has reinforced it, it's not too tough, it was felled with only average casualties this game, and then Gondor is basically crippled.
I've completed 2 games against real competition, and around 10 against myself. I just don't have anyone to play against in RL.
(Someone needs to write an AI to play this game against... that would be pretty awesome actually.)
By the way, a quick question about the java simulator.
I tried playing it with an off-site friend some months back, but it kept giving out errors or just taking forever when we tried to connect. (I think it was something about nobody waiting at the IP address, but we double-checked the instructions, and we were doing it correctly.) Is there some sort of technical FAQ around for the program?
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Kristofer Bengtsson
Sweden
Kävlinge
War of the Ring: Official FAQ Master!
- This is My Hour!
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Dowload Hamachi from my site for easy connection when playing online.
www.warofthering.eu
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magic gecko
Australia
Melbin Oz
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A standard Ring sprint can be simulated by playing Free on auto.
A standard FPMV does not exist.
Part of the reason You cannot "simulate" an FPMV is that the game is UTTERLY interactive. The skill level of the Shadow player is critical. And the timing of the attacks is based on "feel".
An arificial intelligence that can play a FPMV in a skilled manner, is very hopeful.
Maybe a single standard attack sequecnce would work, but when you attack into size 10 armies red armies in Forts, can be tricky.
When you play feints into West Harandor for Psychological Pressure on the Shadow, and then going for Dol Guldur, is tricky.
When Dol Amroth pressures Orthanc, Besieges Moria and sacks Mt Gundabad, is very hard to preprogram. You need an opponent to make the noob mistakes, that they dont know are noob mistakes because they do not know what they are doing.
"This was a base game, as I don't have the expansion, so no Balrog there."
Fair enough.
Expansion is better because it has Galadriel and The Balrog, both of which dramatically lessen Lorien assaulting Moria.
" Besides, I don't think the shadow had a muster that turn. Up until 2 moves before, it looked like Lorien was just mustering up for defense."
See, that there is not something an experienced Shadow player claims.
Lorien getting muscles on turn 2 means Moria gets Trolls. (Hillmen and Balrog).
This stops the Rivendell army linking with Lorien.
If Lorien has to fight in the field with 1 leadership. . . Good times.
Maybe even Dol Guldur pushing Lorien into seige just to stop the army from being Mobile. Not attacking or anything.
Crushing just the Elves gets you to 8VP, and noone else cares.
Have you seen the Elven force pool lately?
Without Companions, they are not going anywhere.
That is also why attacking Gondor is just dumb.
Gondor is not noticeable going to change.
Getting bad luck on Gondor means you lose.
Getting average luck like you did means you lost Minas Morgul.
Getting Good luck means you get 2-3 VP, that is just not enough to win.
Recently I had two Blue Dice left and a flattened Gondor.
The King went thru the path of Woeses to Os Giliath.
* Joe Fling buys a regular in Minas Morgul with his second last die
The King looked at Thru a Day and sighed quietly into his beer as Gandalf defended a red hole that turn.
. . . FPMV is interactive, and all about timing.
I have been kept out of Modor by a line of Neutral Sothrons standing in Every Province from West Harandor to Dagorlad.
Saying you have noone to play with no longer cuts it. You have the online game.
Wanna try an FPMV against someone that knows what they are doing? . . . . 
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Is there a version of that program for macs?
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Thomas Hudson
United Kingdom
Oxford
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The program works on a Mac, but you need to have Java installed. I'm not well enough versed in MacOs to tell you how to install it, but I'd guess a quick google should tell you all you need to know.
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Not the WOTR java client, that's what I played this game on, actually. I mean the hamachi thing. My mac had no idea which program to open it with.
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Thomas Hudson
United Kingdom
Oxford
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Apologies! However, a quick google revealed this:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5254451_install-hamachi-macintosh.ht...
Looks like there is a version for mac, but it's a bit trickier to set up.
Google is your friend.
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