by bamonson
birchbeer wins by corruption against sixtoedcat.Me and Steva finally had a chance to finish our adjourned epic battle (16 turns). It was very hard fought. The first three turns had me inundated with palantirs, so while my war machine was VERY slow to get moving, I was fortunate to get a good head start on the corruption front, spying the FSP several times and encouraging him to take the long route through WR rather than Moria. I was also able to get all four red tiles in the bag for when Frodo finally did make it to Mordor.
On the military front I was able to take MT, Lorien, Helms Deep and Pelargir (7 VP), but some good defensive rolls and card selection by Steva left my armies depleted, so some rebuilding was still needed to collect the last three. With the corruption battle not going well, Steva ultimately separated most of the FSP to start building for a FPMV, and seemed to be making good progress. He landed a huge blow with Dead Men of Dunharrow, rolling a 6 to kill off a large band of S&E (GULP). But luckily I had reinforcements nearby and was able to kill the newly crowned king in Pelargir. This proved to be the turning point. Had Aragorn managed to survive and meet up with Gandalf the course of events might have been much different.
GtW led a sizable army and was carousing around Gondor, but just when I had him surrounded (and all but offering him the opportunity to liberate a weakly defended Minas Tirith) he scoffed at the trap and crashed through my defenses in Osgiliath instead (eyeing Mordor). He was able to move into Morannon with Through a Day and Night, collecting two VP, but with heavy shadow forces on his heels Gandalf had to cut-and-run, lest he be pinned-down and likely killed just inside the Black Gate. Gandalf eventually met up with a fierce band of dwarves out of Erebor and looked to be heading to either Dol Guldur or Morannon, but new threats from the Southrons in the East forced their return, thus ending any ideas about a military coup. It would be decided by Frodo.
The trail in Mordor was fraught with despair. Frodo entered Mordor already with 6 or 7 corruption and never got beyond step three due to pulling two red tiles. Bilbo's Song held off the end for one more turn, but sitting at 11 corruption he drew a 2 and gollum, seizing his chance, bit off Frodo's finger and took the ring for himself, only to be caught by Sauron's gaze as he left Mt. Doom.
Birchbeer
shadow 514>528
free 380
games 17>18
average 447>454
Sixtoedcat
shadow 416
free 471>457
games 31>32
average 443.5>436.5
diff. 43(+,-14)