i have joined, thanks for setting it up

good to have you bilbo, I was rotting for you last night, I'm glad you survived

Puddle? You were rotting? I hope nothing fell off...

Would everyone in the game please respond to Puddle and I's proposal to make this a small bit of a variant, with some prearraigned nation (not player) alliances that will make it more middle-earth end of the third age-ish?

thanks puddle - hope your health has recovered!

with the alliances, is it A+G vs I+F+E with T+R to choose sides? i am ok with that.

And T+R can switch sides at will. They are, in effect, the only pure diplomacy nations on the board. This should be fun. MePBM in much the same way in that it is 10 nations on 10 nations with 5 neutrals, but the neutrals have to declare at some point, where as a neutral can solo here.

The bad thing will be if one side or the other has a nation hit 18. then that nation wins, but not the alliance, so I guess the preset alliances will want to try and maintain a balance. At least the free will, Saruman and Sauron may opt to go for the win as long as they don't stab directly the other.

Agreed. I'm looking forward to this.

Hmm, I would have put Saruman starting as neutral, with the corsairs on the evil side.

Except that by the time Saruman had an army, he was already aligned with the Dark Lord Sauron and had become Saruman of Many Colors - no longer Saruman the White.

I don't know what time you are talking about exactly.

Draugnar is a nerd is what he is saying

If I'm not mistaken, you frequent the forums, Acosmist. ;-)

:casts magic missile at you:

I would play, but my screen name comes from a different fantasy series (in my opinion a better one :P). But if it's alright with you chaps, I'll play anyway.

This looks interesting, I might check it out.