Reflections on the Hall of Heroes as of December 1994

These reflections are based on two tables that I created on the results of all of the Hall of Heroes up to December 1994. Table 1 was sorted by weighted results where 3 points were given per 1st place finish, 2 points per 2nd place finish, and 1 pt per 3rd place finish, then by number of times placed, and then by 1st place finishes/ Table 2 broke down the number of Free Peoples and Dark Servant wins by whether they were won by a starting Free People or Dark Servant player versus a Neutral player that declared for one side or the other.

Of the 91 games listed, 28 were won by Free Peoples (8 of those by former Neutrals) and 63 were won by Dark Servants (26 of those by former Neutrals). 3 of the top 8 nations based on the weighted total started as Neutrals (Corsairs (1st: 12x 1st/ 15x 2nd/ 5x 3rd for a total of 71), Haradwaith (2nd: 12x 1st/ 6x 2nd/ 6x 3rd for a total of 54), and Easterlings (7th: 7x 1st/ 4x 2nd/ 3x 3rd for a total of 32)); 4 of the top 8 were Dark Servants (Dark Lieutenants (3rd: 10x 1st/ 5x 2nd/ 5x 3rd for a total of 45), Cloud Lord (5th: 4x 1st/ 7x 2nd/ 12x 3rd for a total of 38), Long Rider (6th: 5x 1st/ 9x 2nd/ 6x 3rd for a total of 37), and Witch-king (8th: 5x 1st/ 6x 2nd/ 3x 3rd for a total of 30); 1 of the top 8 nations was a Free People (Noldo Elves (4th: 6x 1st/ 8x 2nd/ 6x 3rd for a total of 40)). Every nation placed at least once.

The first point that can be drawn from this is that it pays to start out with some degree of isolation or as a Neutral. Of the top 8 only the Dark Lieutenants and Witch-king are front line nations, the rest have some dgree of isolation. In the case of the Corsairs, they have placed in a third of the games so far and former Neutrals have won over a third of the games so far. It is not surprising that the Eothraim finished 23rd and the Dragon Lord 24th due to the Eothraim's front line position and huge deficit and the Dragon Lord's unenviable position of being surrounded and intermixed with so many of the Free Peoples. The second point is that the Dark Servants have won over two thirds of the completed games and over the last 3 months have won 18 of 23. In talking to other players this surprised them as well since most thought that the Free Peoples were doing better overall.

					      #Times  Weighted
Nation			1st	2nd	3rd   Placed   Total 
Corsairs (Total)	12	15	5	32	71
Corsairs (DS)		11	11	3	25	58
Haradwaith (Total)	12	6	6	24	54
Dark Lieutenants	10	5	5	20	45
Noldo Elves		6	8	6	20	40
Cloud Lord		4	7	12	23	38
Long Rider		5	9	6	20	37
Haradwaith (DS)		8	3	4	15	34
Easterlings (Total)	7	4	3	14	32
Witch-king		5	6	3	14	30
Easterlings (DS)	6	3	3	12	27
Dunlendings (Total)	2	4	6	12	20	
Haradwaith (FP)		4	3	2	9	20
Blind Sorcerer		5	0	4	9	19
South Gondor		4	1	3	8	17
Dog Lord		2	2	6	10	16
Ice King		2	3	4	9	16
Quiet Avenger		1	5	3	9	16
Fire King		3	2	3	8	16
North Gondor		3	2	1	6	14
Dunlendings (FP)	2	2	3	7	13	
Arthedain		0	4	4	8	12
Sinda Elves		2	2	2	6	12
Dwarves			1	4	1	6	12
Corsairs (FP)		1	2	2	5	9
Woodmen			2	1	0	3	8
Dunlendings (DS)	0	2	3	5	7
Rhudaur (Total)		1	0	2	3	5
Northmen		1	1	0	2	5
Easterlings (FP)	1	1	0	2	5
Cardolan		1	0	1	2	4
Rhudaur (DS)		1	0	1	2	4
Corsairs (Neutral)	0	2	0	2	4
Eothraim		0	0	2	2	2
Dragon Lord		0	1	0	1	2	
Rhudaur (FP)		0	0	1	1	1

Notes: Sorted by
Weighted Results:	3 pts	2 pts	1 pt

			Free People/
Won by starting:	Dark Servant	Neutral		Total
Free People Wins	20		8		28
Dark Servant Wins	37		26		63
Total Games Ended	57		34		91