ME-PBM - A Few Suggested Strategic Tips

ME-PBM is a game for sharp minds and patient dispositions. I now consider myself very experienced in most aspects of the game. I have experienced all three points of view available in the game having played the Witch-king, Dwarves and Rhudaur in three different games. I wish to pass on some of the more practical strategies of the game for novice players and hopefully give some ideas to some of the more experienced players.

The first thing you need to determine before you begin writing your character's orders is what type of player position do you have, for instance a military strong nation, or a character strong nation. In my research I've developed a generalized formula which can be used to determine if your nation is strong militarily.

Most (not all) military nations have"

• 5000 or more total troops.
• Troop training levels of 30 or more.
• A large number of starting characters with decent (30) to excellent (60+) command skill (this doesn't include artifacts).
• The ability for some nations to recruit new troop types at training ranks above 10.

A fairly easy determination system for you to tell if yours is a character strong nation:

• Most nations characters start with their primary skill ranks in the 30 to 40 range with 1 or 2 characters having considerably more skill.
• Most nations also begin with challenge ranks below 40 for most of their characters..

So if lots of your characters have high skill and challenge ranks you are probably a character oriented nation. There are a few nations that are strong in both categories, but those nations are usually in close proximity to multiple hostile nations.

Early in the game military oriented nations are usually more exciting to play. Most military nations have economic deficits in excess of 10,000 gold to start with, which means that military expansion is usually the best way to solve your deficit problems. First things first, you must get back-up commanders in each of your armies. The most practical way of doing this is by transferring command to one character, while keeping former army commanders attached to the new army. Remember, you can never have too many army commanders attached to an army. Back-up commanders can train individual troop types much more quickly than an army commander can train the entire army. Multiple commanders can quickly whip even training level 10 troops into shape if you continuously train them every turn. The main purpose of your military is to expand your economic base by taking enemy population centers while preventing enemy forces from taking your population centers. Threatening undefended population centers is the most desirable way to gain them. Study the population size factors on page 113 of the rulebook. The total number of troops required is usually low enough so that you can make a decent attempt if you have a skilled commander. Be forewarned though, you either need the appropriate number of troops listed on the chart and an excellent commander (60+), or you need considerably more troops than listed, and a decent commander (40+).

If your deficit becomes dangerously high, you may want to capture rather than threaten any undefended population centers. This serves two purposes, your troops take casualties thereby reducing your army costs, and this method is a more certain means of gaining a population center (i.e. If you threaten a population center and fail you don't reduce your deficit, don't gain a population center and you won't have an affect on the center in anyway!)

One rule to keep in mind - Never take on more than one enemy at a time if you can help it. However, if an opportunity presents itself and you decide to break this rule, make sure you can eliminate one of your other enemies occupied, Just remember a two front war against both Russians on one front and the rest of the Allied nations on the other is generally regarded as Hitler's biggest mistake of World War II (luckily for us). You may not have the economy or the resources to maintain a two front war and be able to exploit an enemy's weaknesses fully. A good military leader in ME-PBM will also constantly work with allies against a common enemy (thus putting him/her into a two or more frontal war situation) until that enemy is eliminated by bankruptcy, losing their last available capital, or by dropping out of the game due to player frustration.

Character oriented nations usually have other priorities , and usually have to be run by a player who is willing to be patient, and make slow but steady gains by having Emissaries improve existing pop. centers, create new pop. centers, and coordinate military strikes with allies. However, if your nation starts surrounded by enemies you may have to quickly move your armies against one enemy, personal challenge their army commander (and backup commandeers) and try to frustrate that player into dropping out of the game, or at least intimidate him/her into a purely defensive mode. You should also attempt to combine your armies. Go with your strengths. If your nation starts with excellent Mages send them out early to disrupt enemy movements by casting appropriate spells to locate and reveal hidden enemy pop. centers, etc. Good agents are especially valuable for disrupting enemy plans. You can steal gold, sabotage bridges or fortifications, kidnap or assassinate army commanders, and generally make life miserable for someone. Take risks with your agents. If you start with good agents (40+) and you take no risks you'll find that the players with lousy to mediocre agents (most players) will be taking risks early and surpassing your characters' skills quickly. Never trade or give away agent or stealth artifacts. They are worth their weight in mithril for starting up new agents and creating a few "super agents" with ratings in excess of 100 eventually. Emissaries are valuable for expanding your resources for sale and improving your population centers. They can also recruit double agents and influence enemy population centers to gain skill quickly.

Other more specific items I feel players should know in relation to character types:

Emissaries:

Mages:

• Combat: learn defensive and/or offensive spells for Army or character combat.
• Artifact: dedicated to researching and locating artifacts.
• Info: dedicated to scrying, locating armies or characters to gain any additional intelligence information.
• Healing: usually a character with mage as a secondary skill dedicated to healing army commanders or characters injured by army combat, personal challenges or encounters.

Agents:

Commander:

As for the various listed supplemental material available out there, if you are planning on sticking with the game long-term, in my opinion some of the required texts are: I.C.E.'s Lords of Middle Earth volumes 1,2 and 3 and the Creatures of Middle Earth. These will let you research 90% of the characters and/or monsters you will run into in the game. The other I.C.E. material is enjoyable reading (especially if you are a Tolkien fan) But isn't as useful (unless you are going to invade a nation and want to see what characters you may have to face or where possible fixed encounters may be located if used in ME- PBM). Creatures of Middle Earth has been especially useful in identifying the many "foreign characters reported in hex-" reports. Contrary to most players initial reactions, those characters at your population center are not of enemy nations performing acts of sabotage and/or theft from you, however, they are more likely to be NPC's who randomly drift around the map influencing the loyalty of the population centers and in some cases being a nuisance to the players. If you have Creatures of Middle Earth you'll be able to determine that the character in your population center named Leucaruth is really a dragon, not an enemy agent and if your are an evil nation then you should leave her alone because she can be somewhat beneficial to you. For those of you who play the Dwarves you will learn that she particularly hates Dwarves, so you should flee if you encounter her (and pray for the best), or go for broke and attack her (good luck! you'll need it.) because she probably won't be in the mood to talk to you anyway.

You should also adopt both long and short term goals immediately after determining the locations of your nearest enemies and allies. Long term goals can be something like balance your economy or to eliminate the Witch-king army at hex 2713, locate artifact #124, etc.

If you're a neutral you should cooperate with one side or the other early in the game, this will eliminate half of your potential enemies while giving you valuable time to grow. So, if things are going well then you can declare your allegiance for the side in which the relations are good, and if not, then you can always assist the other side. If I'm playing a non-neutral nation that is a potential threat and they don't want to cooperate, I would prefer to attack them sooner rather than later. If three armies were to show up at three of their population centers they may declare allegiance to your side , if you promise to give back at least two of the population centers immediately. (Always follow through on your threats because you can always transfer population centers back if they begin to see the light.) Economically neutrals usually start with better potential than most of the other player positions. If they are allowed to grow and they attack you then it's your own fault.

Communication and coordination are the keys to victory in this game. Even the Ultra powerful nation of Northern Gondor is reasonably easy to defeat if 3 or 4 Mordor based nations begin attacking them with coordinated strikes. (Assuming Northern Gondor doesn't coordinate with other good nations to help them out.) In general when beginning a military campaign, first pick an enemy then contact allies in the area to coordinate attacks until that nation is either eliminated or drops from the game, before proceeding on to the next target. Attack population centers in the mountain hexes sooner rather than later. If your food become low on food mountain hexes become more impossible to move onto even if you force march your troops. And lastly, check your map each turn to see if someone may have dropped from the game (in the three games I've played in there's been a 20 to 40% drop rate per side by turn 10). A player who may have dropped will be a nation that hasn't moved its armies in 2 or 3 turns. After a while armies of an inactive nation will disappear if they are not located at one of their own population centers. Uncover Secrets with emissaries from time to time can also tell you if a nation has collapsed while also informing you of any nation which have to eliminate any of your characters as part of their victory conditions.

Good Luck,
Melkor, Lord of Sauron

(Editor's Note: GSI neither confirms nor denies the accuracy of these figures, or the efficiency of the strategy.)