Interest in Lord of the Rings Campaign?

[LukeR]

Hi Chris/All,

I had some issues/queries with the map etc, but as you are trying to keep it simple Chris I decided to say nothing and see what happened. However, what you and Will are discussing is the main issue for me too.

Maybe the question to ask, like in all games perhaps, is, 'What are the Victory Conditions?'

e.g. First to take 2 enemy cities/capitals, etc.

the flip side is - If Gondor loses Minas Tirith is that game over for Gondor?

If you only have one army you cant attack and cover your backside unless you live in a culdesac.

In a 'board-game' style of campaign then you normally go grabbing territory, but you have to hold on to your capital and surrounding/in between territory. At the end of a turn you may need to be able to trace a supply line to a city or back to home territory or your army starts getting isolated and gets depleted, cannot reinforce so easily, etc. and forced to retreat (if it can, if not major losses).

What you could do is leave a small garrison force behind in each space. Thinking out loud maybe that's the bonus you get for winning a battle, choose to keep it in the army, or leave as a garrison? Say 100 pnts, they could then retreat and collect into a bigger garrison (max 500). this also provides the route for reenforcements?

Anyway you can't normally just walk into every space and take it 'for free'. Cities and Key locations will always have a garrison/militia. The more significant the space (like a capital) the more significant the garrison. and/or in addition some locations, particularly cities, or Moria type places, for example, should always have garrisons. More important city nodes have bigger garrisons.

As you know... there are also some locations on the map that are at greater risk (harder to defend) than others. Fine if territory doesn't matter, but tough to defend and a disadvantage(?) if it does.

The challenge though is how to handle it. And I am not full of answers.

And there is usually a bonus for defences, city walls for example, defender gets to set up in defensive position, etc. and has some special defences up his sleeve, e.g. Moria balrog, Gondor summons un-dead army... etc.

Just thinking out loud (not arguing!) Simple is good... and this is not so simple stuff!

I second the query on Victory conditions, although my guess is that it would continue until people get completely eliminated?

The idea of capitals is interesting, although if this is used then there would definitely need to be a defence system. Otherwise it would be too easy to take capitals early on.