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Hello everyone, it's me, GenericPie, here with something a little bit different for you today. So, I've been playing War of the Ring online on the Discord server for about two years now, or coming up to two years. I have played not a huge number of games compared to a lot of players on the server. I've played about coming up to 150 games. I'm not one of the very best players. I'm okay. My peak is probably in the top 40-ish, and generally somewhere between there and 120, depending on how well I'm playing and how kind the Java gods have been to me.
But I've been around the block a few times, and when I play War of the Ring, I tend to, when I lose a game, I consider what did I do wrong in that game, and then I add it to a little notepad on my phone. And over time, by losing a lot of games, I've built up quite a long list. And I thought it would be fun to share that and just kind of talk through some of the things that I've learnt playing War of the Ring, some of the mistakes that I've made. So some better players may disagree with some of the things that I come out with.
But I think this might be useful for some new players, maybe if you've only just started getting into War of the Ring, or you've only just started playing online. I think some of this stuff will prove useful, and hopefully will benefit some new players. So it's helped me. And yeah, let's get into it. So I made a list of 32. This video is going to be about the free people, a guide to sucking less of the free people. And I'm going to go through these points. It's going to be quite a long, rambly video.
I was considering making a really well structured video with lots of graphics and stuff, but I can't be bothered because only like a few hundred people are really in this community. So I just thought I'd just keep it into just a nice unstructured ramble. And it'd be great to hear people's thoughts below. So number one, pretty much every single one of these will directly tie to a game that I lost. Needless removal of fellowship members when corruption is a concern.
So this was a game where I was doing pretty good with the fellowship, you know, cruising up through the high pass somewhere around here, somewhere around Old Ford or Rostegabel or whatever this one's called. And I decided to send Gimli on a little adventure. I can't remember if it was something to relate to Book of Mazarbul, or I just sent him to defend. Just I sent Gimli out. I then lost that game due to one point of corruption, you know, two points of corruption, something like that. And I directly tied that loss to sending Gimli out.
Now, I'm guessing in this game, corruption was a concern, you know, maybe the corruption was already an issue for the fellowship, because sometimes sending Gimli out to Erebor, especially if you've got Book of Mazarbul, can win you games. So this one's quite debatable. But it's something to consider. If you've already been ravaged by nasty corruption cards, character cards from the Shadow, they've been throwing it's sort of bane at you for a three, and Gandalf's died for a one, and, you know, Strider's got sniped by Lord of the Ring. Maybe don't send Gimli on a little adventure. Maybe don't send Boromir, you know, scampering off down south to Minas Tirith.
Number two, overly defensive in one region, ignoring others. So this, this is something that I've done many times, especially when I was starting out, is typical example would be The Shadow is attacking the Jew line. So you use all of your mustard ice to get the elves to war. But you only maybe muster one elf to do that. You know, you get one elf in Woodland Realm. And maybe you put lots of effort into getting the north to war. And then again, maybe you only get like one elite mustard in Dale or in in Carrick or something like that. Meanwhile, Dolamroth is just completely undefended.
And all it takes is one sneaky, you know, sometimes you can forget, you know, Corsairs of Umber can creep up on you. Next thing you know, either they've drawn that dastardly card, Dolamroth is under siege, and you've lost the game, you know, or at least given The Shadow a very cheap stronghold, because these three guys can easily be beaten even without Shadow leadership attacking them. Or maybe even they just roll a ton of attack dice and you don't have any musters and then they can just do a big charge through Pelagier, through Lammod and into Dolamroth and just get another basically get a cheap stronghold.
This can also be true of, for example, Rohan, you know, sometimes if you, you know, needlessly using mustard dice elsewhere, sometimes it can be good to get Rohan to war or, you know, just make sure you don't forget your weak spots. Another example is Woodland Realm. I've had that before, where I get the elves to war early and Woodland Realm looks fine. It's just fine. No one's anywhere near it. You know, they've attacked Lorien, the South Runs and Easterlings are nowhere. And you think, I don't want to waste an elven elite in Woodland Realm.
And then lo and behold, you know, they have a massive turn, Shadow gets a massive turn, you get no musters, and they get hordes from the east and five attacks and before you know it, Woodland Realm is under siege. You've already used Thranduil's Arches as for a valor in some other fight, because you didn't think you needed it. And they get another cheap stronghold. So yeah, just avoiding giving up really cheap strongholds, basically. Number three, forgetting to move Gandalf into stronghold when desperate.
So yeah, kind of a classic Hail Mary move in War of the Ring is to send the Gandhi man into battle to wave his big staff around, bop some orcs on the head and importantly, take away that cheeky Nazgul leadership. So yeah, so I think when I was a newer player, I didn't do this as much perhaps. So don't forget about that option, you know, whether you have you might often it's used through We Prove the Swifter or Gwaii here.
You know, getting Gandalf from Fangorn, you can get him into all sorts of places with We Prove the Swifter, you can get him into Dlamroth, you can get him to Minas Tirith, you can get him into Lorien. You can even get him into Dale. Yeah, and if you move once, then use one of those cards, you can get him into Grey Havens into Rivendell, all sorts of places. So yeah, that is a very, very important play for one of the tools you need in your arsenal as the free free people's player.
I'm not going to be talking about the more kind of I suppose dice economy and the way you actually think about the game. I think there's a whole other topic to go into. This is more just about very specific instances of where I sucked. Anyway, not moving first in Mordor, unless you have a very good reason, always move first in Mordor. Yeah, so this has cost me many times and I've seen newer players make this mistake as well. So your fellowship has gone into Mordor and you see your dice roll and you think, oh, I really want to play this card or oh, I really want to muster in something, you know, something non-essential.
You do that, maybe absentmindedly, maybe you're rushing and then the shadow puts in a red tile with their first eye of the turn. And then you move and then you hit that exact stupid red tile because Java does that. It loves to do that. And that is costs. That's a really painful loss. You can lose games to that so easily. There are instances when it is important to to do something else. You know, there might be a really vital defensive move you need to play. You might need to play a power to great to defend Lorient, to defend lose, prevent it getting destroyed in one go.
You might need to, you know, play a really essential defensive card. You know, there are definitely instances where it's better to not move first. Maybe if the pool is horrendous, you really want to get a blue tile in there just to give you a chance because if you put in a blue tile, they put in a red tile. You know, at least you've you've got its tit for tat. But but yeah, definitely something to consider. Definitely consider like if you don't have any other really, really strong reason, just move the fellowship. Number five, giving away a ring at a critical moment.
Weigh up the odds before you do this and think about what your opponent will do with the ring. Yeah. So this is a game I played a long time ago. I can't remember who I was against, but I was doing pretty well as a fellowship. I think I was close to winning the game against the odds. I used a ring and that ring meant that the shadow, I believe that the shadow could play, play courses, vumba, something like that. Or allow them to attack, do an attack they wouldn't have otherwise been able to do. And if I'd just taken a moment, I think I could have probably survived that turn.
I think it was giving them that die one, the shadow, the game. It allowed them to do that extra attack, whereas I probably could have maybe not moved that turn and and survived one more turn. Yeah, it was something like that. I can't remember the exact specifics. But yeah, just when you use a ring, don't just get tunnel vision. Remember what your opponent could be doing with that specific ring. OK, this one ties into number four, not hiding in Mordor. Unless you have very good reason, always hide in Mordor.
So pretty much everything I just said in this instance, it will be you don't hide in Mordor and then your opponent plays breaking of the fellowship. Or they play Morgul Wound or they play one of those cards that can only hurt you when you're when you are not hidden. So yeah, that can also be. Yeah, just just hide unless you have a very good reason not to. Not killing Strider for three when time is a non-issue. Just let the man die. You never know what horrible cards JGB has waiting for you. Yes, it's always JGB. Or take a random at the very least.
OK, so I got quite specific with this one. So I think for some reason in earlier games, I think when I first started playing the game, I used to go for lots and lots of randoms. You know, whenever you hit a big tile, I would just do a random almost every time. And or I would just eat the three. But there are definitely times when if corruption is a bit of an issue or has the chance of becoming an issue. I think first things first, if you get a three early game, I think just take a random unless you're in killing Gandhi, take a random. That's that's the best play.
But mid game when Striders, you know, you're kind of around here. You're doing OK. Time isn't essential. Yeah, this is the crucial part when time is a non-issue. If you're up against it, you've got to do whatever you can to keep the Strider man alive because he can get you over the line. But there are definitely instances where you just got to let him die. You just got to let him die. Yeah, I think in this game against JGB, I just add a three for I think I just stupidly add a three, which took me up to like six corruption.
When I should have done a random or kill Strider and then JGB just had a ton of like all the you know, it's just Bane for a three candles of corpses for two. And then I just got just, you know, destroyed by corruption. And yes, that's nothing personal. JGB. Awesome player. Love that guy. But yeah, I think I had a couple of rough corruption games against you if you watch this video. Number eight, being careless with combat cards. If you're going to discard a card next next turn, use it.
So yeah, I think Card Economy is something that if you ever watch Galahad B's excellent channel, he's one of the best players of this game. He often talks in his commentaries a lot about like thinking about what am I going to do with these cards and not over you don't overdraw, you know, needlessly and then have to discard cards. So if you do have a full hand, just, you know, play them in combat, you know, because you're going to draw unless you have a really specific reason again. Yeah, so I think I was I was probably overdrawing using the Witch King's ability, maybe. Maybe not playing cards in combat when I should.
Oopsie, giving away all my tricks. Yeah, so I can't remember that one too well. All right. Number nine, don't muster a nation. You had loads of muster cards for this. So this was a bit obvious, but I'm guessing there was a game when I probably started off the game and I had maybe Gods of the Citadel and Emerald of the Lameroth or Kedon ships. And I was still mustering these like, well, you don't need to muster them, man. You've got like you can fill up the struggles using two cards and save yourself all that. Just let the opponent attack you equally for the elves.
If they're attacking Woodland Realm and Lorian early game, you don't need to get that. If you're already holding Killa Borns, Galadrim and and Thranta Reel's archers or, you know, kindred or whatever, because you're going to use up three muster dice to get them to war potentially. And then you've got you're going to have to use them to dice to use those cards. And it's just what are you getting? You're using like three dice to get one extra muster or something like that. Maybe. And those dice could then be in, you know, used elsewhere. They could be used to get Gondor to war. They could be used to even get Rohan to war.
You could be used to get the North to war and do something that will give you more net value basically. Yeah. So that was a bit silly of me trying to be too clever with mustering. Muster the most vulnerable, stronghold, hard. This is again like Captain Obvious stuff. But there have been games when I think this is a classic me thing to do is just overthinking mustering, trying to be like, oh, maybe I can get a little little bit of luck. And then I muster a single up here. And in reality, it's like, no, mate, there's a giant army of Oliphants coming to the Lamaroth. Get elites in the Lamaroth.
Don't try to do stupid, clever stuff. Just defend the Lamaroth. Same thing. I've done similar things with like Grey Havens. Someone's coming from Grey Havens. I'm like, I will move this dwarf and I will move this Shire man to town. He's like, no, man, just defend. Get the fucking. Oh, same. Grey Havens. So, yeah, don't be too clever. Sometimes in the game, you know, you're going to have to be a little bit clever. But when there's a giant army coming towards a specific stronghold, don't be too clever. Just muster. That was a game I played against Cratchit. And for some reason, I didn't defend the Lamaroth properly.
I was like mustering in Lossanac or something when he was coming. It's like, mate, just who cares about Lossanac when the Lamaroth is going to, you know, he just as I did it so badly that he just assumed I had kid and ships and I didn't have kids and ships just lost the game because he just got a little bit of luck. So that was just me being done. Number 11, rushing Gandhi into the wrong stronghold. I've done this before. I'm going to kind of wait a second. Give me a second. OK, I'm just making it so it doesn't take up the whole screen. So, yeah, rushing Gandhi into the wrong stronghold.
So this ties into what I said earlier about sending Gandhi to the wrong stronghold. So this ties into what I said earlier about sending Gandhi to defend late game. You know, you draw, we prove the swifter and then you get excited and you're like, yes, I can save Minas Tirith, Gandhi, go.
And then you do it and then you realize, oh, Minas Tirith has only got three one one and the enemy has got two bigger stacks coming from Minas Tirith and Gandhi is probably going to die in there if they get even like halfway decent, you know, if they have a lucky, like a deadly strike that goes well, you know, you can get, you know, five hits on the combat roll. Even Gandhi can't stop that. Or they have other good cards, good anti-Gandhi cards, whatever, where in reality there was another big stack that was going for, I don't know, let's say, Lorian or somewhere else on the board.
And, you know, maybe that army wasn't as big and there was less of a guaranteed chance of the shadow taking that stronghold. Maybe you had potentially not drawn mustard cards with that stronghold yet. So there was a chance you could not only bring Gandhi in, but you could also draw a card like Kelleborn's Galadrim and defend it further. So, so, yeah, I think I lost the game once or potentially lost the game because I did exactly that. I just got excited, sent Gandhi in, he died and it wasn't the best strategic move. This one's quite broad. Imprecise mustering and dice usage need to be on point about priorities, etc.
I feel like if I start talking about that, I'll just go on for days. But yeah, just broadly speaking, this kind of goes into like the way that you actually think about the game. Again, how do you, when you're at the start of the turn, how do you, what's your thought process? You know, do you look at your dice? Do you go, what, do you plan out your turn? Do you think about what the opponent could be doing? Things like that. Again, that's a whole other topic, probably needs a whole video.
And there are people who are much smarter than me who will, who can have, you know, talk about what, how they, they, they, they think about the game and process their, their turns. But yeah, something to think about. Moves the fellowship too far away from Minas Tirith and couldn't get crucial companions in to defend it. Yeah, so I think this was a game where I was, I brought the fellowship through Moria and we were like skulking about through, you know, heading towards Mordor as you do as the free people.
And when you're in this kind of, you know, no man's land or no man lands area between Druid and Dreadmarshes, western Niminmul, eastern Niminmul, you've got choices, you know, which way do you want to go? Maybe you want to go to Druid and if there's no big enemy forces, it makes sense to go to Minas Tirith. But sometimes you maybe you don't want to go to close Minas Tirith because there's enemy armies there that might get free rerolls on you if you get too close.
You know, if you go, if you go to Dredmarshes and with the fellowship you get revealed in Dredmarshes and there's a big army in Osgiliath and North Athelion, they can just send a little Nazgul and a single goblin man to come and sit on you and then they get two free rerolls, right? So in those kind of games, maybe I was like, oh, I'll go up here to eastern Niminmul and then or Dagalad. And then I think I guess I was in a position where I desperately needed to defend Minas Tirith. Maybe I was doing fine for corruption and I couldn't I didn't have the guys would I couldn't get them into Minas Tirith to save the day.
And so maybe, you know, I had to take the guys into Mordor and, you know, this can be an issue. This is something that is I think I didn't quite appreciate when I started the game is it's possible in some games to have too big of a fellowship in Mordor. Sometimes you want to evacuate or kill some schmucks, you know, you want Legolas to get beheaded. You want Gimli to fall on his own ax. Like you want you want these guys, the hobbits to get, you know, assassinated so that you can get to Smeagol quicker, not Smeagol, Gollum. Because Gollum, he might be a slimy little fool, but he is he gets you through Mordor quick.
He gets you up that track quick. You know him and Strider are the ticket in Mordor him and or Strider. So yeah, but in that particular game, I couldn't if I'd gone to slightly closer if I'd gone to Deadmarsh's maybe got some rerolls potentially. I could have then got my dudes into defend. But for some reason I went the northern route went through Essentem and Mule to Dagilad and I couldn't defend Minas Tirith or I couldn't get them to Dol Amroth using whatever it was. I couldn't do it. And that lost me the game. So yeah, if you are to choosing a path, something to think about.
Forgetting about Gollum hide ability when it becomes a guide after a companion dies. Yeah, so this is a bit more of a technical rule issue that is very easy to miss when you're a new player is when say you get hit by a three, three tile in Mordor or anywhere. It's your last last companion. Maybe it's the two hobbits. Maybe it's Gimli or whatever. He dies. He died. And you have Gollum and corruption is really tight. You're up around eight or nine. You really, really, really want to protect yourself. But you forget that the second Gollum's guide doesn't matter if you're halfway through the eating the corruption for that that particular tile.
You can immediately use his guide ability to to reveal. So actually it should be reveal not hide. You can reveal using Gollum and then it eats up that one corruption. So yes, the two corruption would be eaten by killing your final companion. But Gollum can eat up that final one. I lost a game by a single corruption. Thanks to that. So thanks to forgetting. And that was very, very annoying. Very annoying. So, yeah. Right. OK. Next one. Number 15. Not killing Saruman with end cards to lower chances of a poll rolling eyes the following turn. This is quite a specific one. This is a game where corruption again was very tight.
And I had the option of killing Saruman using end cards. I think maybe all thank was empty. And I had a very, very good if not a guaranteed chance of killing Saruman. But instead I use my die for something else. He used it to defend something on something else. But I hadn't considered the fact that like it was so late in the game. I was like, why do you want to kill Saruman? You know, there's I don't care about his leadership anymore. He's not doing anything. There's going to be one more turn in the game. Regardless, I'm either going to win or I'm going to lose.
But what I didn't take into account is the fact that like that one single die removing it means there's a slightly lower chance of them rolling another eye and that extra eye can be what kills you in Mordor. And that's what happened in this game. I lost by like again, like a single corruption on step four and or maybe even on step five. You know, you die making the final leap and potentially that single, you know, maybe they wouldn't have rolled an extra eye because they wouldn't have had Saruman's die. And I might have won the game. 16 rushing to move fellowship at start of turn outside of Mordor when I need to make vital army moves. Yes.
Yes, yes, yes. Wait a second. Rushing to kill Fasher Starlust and outside of Mordor. Most of these are very violent moves. Oh, yes. So generally like broadly speaking, you do tend to want to move the fellowship at the start of the turn. Actually, well, no, actually, that's not true at all. There are loads of turns, but you don't want to move the fellowship. If you do want often the reason to move the fellowship is to a stop them getting the shadow getting rerolls on you because they can use character dice to put Nazgul on you. Use army dice to put Nazgul and or, you know, well, all armies. So, you know, they get extra rerolls.
So or they might even play a card to slow you down. If you haven't declared, they might be a play cruel weather. They might be able to play, you know, any of those kind of nasty cards that hit you and reveal you. So maybe if Aragorn, especially if Stride is dead and then they you pass and then they play Orc Troll and reveal you for like a to reveal you then you've got to use your precious character die to like hide the fellowship. You don't even get to move that turn. So you're playing catch up and you're wasting your time, not making any progress.
However, if you do that too much, then it goes the other way because if you feel like I must always move the fellowship at the start of every turn, I must always move the fellowship. And sometimes you can forget vital army moves. So I think I got too much into my head around like I must always move the fellowship. And then I forgot to do a really important army move to like block block something and gone door or defend something in wouldn't in due line. So, yeah, that can that can hurt you. Which if you need to overdo it or underdo it needlessly losing cards to war. But I've been really losing cards to warm with.
So until when I could have played them first. Yeah, this is a classic one. This is something you tend to pick up with time as well. Is let's say you've got a hand. You've got a hand of nice defensive cards that will help you to heal the fellowship. You're sitting on a Bilbo song of Mithra, Kote and Sting. Maybe you've got there is another way. Any of the above. Those cards and the end warm a soren toil is on the table. So you might think like I want to, you know, make the most of those cards in Mordor, you know.
But if you're not going to get to Gollum anytime soon, those cards are just going to get killed by warm a soren toil. And you especially if Strider is alive and you're having to or if you've got a big no actually doesn't make any difference. If you just got a big fellowship, they're going to get killed by warm a soren toil. So you've got to use them. You've got to use them. Or if you've got just generally like good cards, if you want to get some end cards that you you might want to play, you might want to play them to the attack or thank.
Don't just don't just needlessly rush to move the fellowship and then go, oh crap. And then next thing you know, Athelas is a classic one. Athelas is the real classic one. I've done that before. You get a rush of blood to the head. It's quite a common thing for me. I've got to rush of blood to the head. You get a rush of blood to the head. You move the fellowship straight away. Start of the turn. Yeah. And you're like, oh, man, I just drew Athelas. And then lo and behold, they, you know, they get you for a three tile.
You're like, oh, man, I'm going to have to do a random because I can't eat three corruption. And then you do the random and it kills Strider or like. And then you lose the power of Athelas or warm a soren toil kills Athelas. Because you take a random companion and that hurts. That really hurts losing either Strider or Athelas. You know, when you could have potentially played it first. But you know, that can that can be a game loser. Number 18 moving the turn to versus five eyes when Gandhi is already dead. Not worth the risk. So, yeah, this is another this is a game where I think I've been hit early on.
I was again like around high past Goblin's Gate fellow. The shadow rolled five eyes and I'm like, I must move the fellowship. You must move them once per turn. You must always move them once per turn. You don't have to always move the fellowship once per turn. I mean, as a rule of thumb, yes, it's smart. You do at least if there are minimal eyes, you want to move them multiple times. But when Gandhi's died inefficiently early on or he's done. Yeah. Whatever. Gandhi's dead early on. And maybe corruption is already not looking too sweet. You can hit a few times in the very early game. This is turn two.
If the shadows rolling five eyes on turn two, they probably only got three dice. You know, they might be doing like one army movement. They might like I don't feel like you're falling behind by by not moving that turn. You know, it's a tricky one because there are games when not moving will lose you the game. So everything that's the problem with war of the ring man, sometimes like in what one game, what will be the right move will be a terrible move in another game. So you've got to kind of weigh it up.
You know, if the shadows had a lightning start and, you know, turn one militarily and they've already got armies all over the shop, there's a bit like, OK, maybe I do need to speed up a little bit more. But if they've had a slow start and Gandhi's already died and you're just at the beginning of the game. Yeah, because I think in this game I moved against the five eyes, got hit. You know, they were like two sixes. Then they hit me for an eye. And then I were like, you know, it just ends up really hurting. They might have even got like three sixes on an eye or something like that.
And I just ended up needlessly eating a lot of a lot of damage, taking on a lot of damage, maybe getting revealed again, which then allowed them to play more nasty cards when it's like maybe that turn. You know, they just had a Palantir they couldn't have used unless I was revealed and I gave them the opportunity, gave the shadow something to do with a bad turn when they otherwise would have had, you know, nothing to do with those three dice or not much to do. So, yeah, in my mind, in that situation, I used to be like, yes, you must always move.
But I think there are definitely times when it's better to just, you know, keep your powder dry. Don't don't rush those those hobbits every time. Right. Number 19, using a mustard, I'd get leadership when I was planning to get Gandhi in a stronghold with Guaya here anyway. Right. OK. OK, this is quite a specific one using a mustard, I'd get leadership. OK, so I guess I use the mustard to muster. I think it was Minister. Right. OK. So I'm guessing the thinking there is I should have maximized getting. Because if I could muster, I should have muster an elite rather than a leader. I don't know. Let's skip that one.
I don't really know what that happened there. Number 20, feeling forced to kill Gandhi to a low tile when you have a will when the shadow is slow and you already have Aragorn. Slow down. Right. Right. Yeah. OK. So sometimes if you're in a game and you've got an early Aragorn, you have to change the way that you think about killing Gandhi. You know, if Gandhi is still alive in your early game, like it's quite normal to kill Gandhi for a one tile. You know, ultimately you do need to dunk.
And there are definitely games when if you don't kill Gandhi for a one, when you've got a will showing, you're just going to be too slow. You know, your corruption might stay low, but you need that fifth die. If you're already on five dice, you don't necessarily going up to six dice is great. But killing Gandhi for a one when you already have like willingly lost three of your meat shield by getting by removing Strider and then getting letting Gandhi also die for only a one. That's essentially like that could be what's effectively six HP, six corruption defense. You're giving up for one corruption. That's bad.
And in a game that can lose you the game that can use the game. So in this game, I obviously was just acting like I can't miss this chance to get the will. I need to get up to six dice. I know getting from four to five dice is really important. Getting from five to six dice like you can afford to wait a bit longer there usually. So yeah, you can change the way you think about getting getting getting getting Gandhi when you already have Aragon. Giving the shallow shadow the opportunity to move leadership into an army when I could have attacked. Ah, yes, I remember this this game was annoying.
Yeah, so I think this game I was defending. I guess I had to I think I needed to take back Pelagia had a big army in Osgiliath that I'd moved from a serious to attack into Pelagia. And there was a bunch of all of fonts and nonsense, but they didn't have any Nazgul leadership in there. And I presume the shadow didn't have any either. I didn't I wasn't thinking straight.
I might have played like a mustering card to or mustard or I did something that just like gave the shadow a little bit of tempo, gave them that one extra die and it allowed them to play like Black Captain commands or play ring racer abroad or just use a character to get the guys to defend in Pelagia. And suddenly they went from like zero to five. And that just meant made all the difference in that battle. All the difference. So just me being a little bit slow to attack lost me that game.
And that was just a really silly little mistake, you know, trying to be maybe a little bit too clever, a little bit too open. Sometimes you have a card that you just really want to play, but it's not actually right to play it. And you have to just, you know, do the obvious thing and just attack into the place when it has no leadership. Number 22. Yeah. Losing track of victory points at the end of the game. So that's just a really silly one, but it can happen. You know, it can happen.
You I mean, I've had that one one game where I literally I thought I'd taken Woodland Realm and I hadn't because I missed one of the attacks have been blocked by a shield wall or something like that. So it's possible to actually like lose lose track of victory points just by not paying attention. Sometimes you might miscalculate and think, oh, if they take back Edoras, then if I take back that, that'll be enough. But in fact, you need to take bad and there's that in that, you know, the shadow can also take another city and you're actually think, you know, you're not looking at the full picture.
So, yeah, so it's good to take take stock, take a deep breath and really think clearly at the end of the game and not just take for granted that you you know you're able to defend or the shadow. You can't win that turn. Yeah, this is another classic one. 23 not declaring the fellowship an extra step away from an army when given the chance. This is another thing when you often like, I've started to realize just going through this half and many of these mistakes I mean rushing at the start of the turn. Just doing like a muscle memory move, rather than taking just that little bit of time to think.
So this would be one where often it's around here, Deemreville, Path, Celebrant, South, Under and Vale or somewhere around here. The shadows put like some rerolls on you. And you just forget to declare away. Or actually no it's not usually that it's usually when the shadow is next to you with an army. Maybe you're in Carthelagher and, or maybe you've made this put this I'll start again. You're in Deemreville. You move once the shadow has two rerolls on you. You don't get hit, or you, and, and then you go to the next turn. You move to Path, Celebrant.
And then, at the start of that turn, you declared in Path, Celebrant, there's no longer any rerolls on you. You do something else with the first move of the turn. You do something else. You're distracted. You muster. You do something that's unrelated. And with the first move the shadow gets the two rerolls back on you. And that, that can be a game loser, you know, they hit a six on the second reroll and the Nazgul reveals you for, you know, into Eastern Met and then they play, break another fellowship or they play, you know, Morgul Wound, whatever. And you get a couple of extra corruption.
They've not only, you know, hit you for an extra move, and that wouldn't have otherwise happened, but they've also played a card and then you know you maybe been up five corruption more than you would have otherwise done, all simply because you just didn't do one little half move. You just didn't move the fellowship first thing. You didn't, sorry, you didn't declare away when you could have declared one step away. Or moved. Yeah, I think it goes both ways either moving or not declaring. When you have the opportunity in the first, first, the start of the turn. Number 24. Assuming opposition will press when they may not sparing an escape die.
Yeah. So yeah, not sparing an escape die. So this can be. Yeah, just assuming say for example you've got a, I'm trying to think of where this one would have happened. Maybe it was around Helms Deep, and I had an army in Forza Visen or something like that. And Yeah, I'm not sure what exactly the instance was but I just assumed the enemy was definitely going to press, and it would allow me to move my army to defend into Helms Deep. And in fact they didn't press, and they waited. And because I didn't have a hybrid I couldn't get them into defense something like that.
Basically, I didn't leave myself a hybrid or a character die or whatever to move that do the move that I knew that I needed to make, because I was under the assumption the shadow would 100% press. Yeah, so don't assume the shadow will always press. It could also happen up in the Woodland Realm in somewhere like Dale, you know you might think are they definitely going to press, which will allow Dale to, you know, yeah that's more likely actually was probably in Dale.
I was really thinking, oh yeah they'll attack again and then I can move Dale back into Woodland Realm and then defend Erebor and that will mean that Woodland Realm isn't weak and undefended. No, they just attack you once and stop and they attack you once and then they stop and then Dale just gets stuck here and never gets it and then just gets wiped out. So yeah, don't just take that for granted. Not using Mirror of Galadriel when you have the chance. Yeah, that might have been one where I lost it due to warm with Sauron toil. Or I didn't calculate the dice quite correct correctly.
I'm not sure what happened there but yeah, pretty straightforward. If you need to use Mirror of Galadriel to get the will of the West, maybe it's because day without dawn suddenly became a possibility and then you know Mirror of Galadriel, even though that's a terrible situation you play Mirror of Galadriel get your will and then they play day without dawn. So maybe if the Saurons aren't at war yet, you play Mirror of Galadriel ASAP. 26 not moving the first ship when they're in open territory and the shadow player still has a oops. The shadow player still has a character card in hand. Yeah, again, I think I've covered that one.
Just just move the first ship if there's if there's any chance that the shadow can hit you with cards before you move. If you pass, you want to just get a move in, you know, especially if the stride is dead. Number 27 not mustering Rivendell when it's the last week stronghold. You have the chance and other strongholds already covered. Yeah, this is a classic one where it kind of ties into what I said about Woodland Realm earlier. There's no enemies anywhere near Rivendell. Rivendell looks safe. You're like, I don't need to.
You got spare musters but you use them to like, I don't know, get do some other like needless thing elsewhere on the board. And then shadow has one of those monster turns where they suddenly play shadows in the Misty Mountains and they play Rage of the Dunlandings. And then they play, you know, they move one army up here and then they also then play, I don't know, like a shadow's lengthens, whatever. Next thing you know, there's a giant army in Rivendell and you still stuck there with two measly little Elven elites and it just gets wiped out.
Never underestimate how fast the shadow can just descend on you with a couple of choice mustering cards and a turn where you just don't roll any mustering dice yourself. So yeah, as a rule of thumb, when in doubt muster your weakest stronghold because at some point the shadow is going to target it. 28. Using dice too early on final turn and losing chance to dunk. So I think this would be a game where again I've probably tried to be a bit too cute and thinking that I could survive through defending. And in doing so, underestimating the shadow's power and losing my kind of chance to actually dunk.
So yeah, on the final turn, unless you really need to, don't rush your moves if you have a chance of dunking because you want to see if the shadow can win that turn. If the shadow can win that turn, you know, unless you feel like, you know, sometimes it's a coin toss and you've got to just weigh it up. Is it better to defend, you know, if I move Gandhi using this character die into, you know, by playing Gwaii here, the Wind Lord. Maybe that will improve you. That's give you better odds of getting a dunk the next turn.
But if you're really sure the shadow is going to have a great chance to dunk, you don't just rush your moves and do a half. You don't do half and half. You either want to go for the dunk or you want to defend. If you really, really think that they can, it can determine the outcome. Twenty nine, not getting rid of Palantir of all, thank when sprinting. This is a game I played against Polajuna, a game where I got an incredibly lucky start. I was just stormed the fellowship. I think I might have got into like Mordor on turn four, someone stupid like that.
But as you know, played Pantir and I thought that I could just just bludgeon my way through the pounds of all. Thank not get rid of it, not use a ring or a will and just by sheer force of of of just running, just eating, taking all of that corruption to the face. I could get over the line. But as it was, obviously, you know, Polajuna is a very good player and was just absolutely spamming card cycling every opportunity through the Witch King and through Palantir. And as a result, was able to get enough red tiles and enough nastiness thrown at me that I ended up losing on the final step.
I think it was to to a corruption. So at the time I was just like, I'm going to be fine. I'm going to get through it. But you had a couple of red tiles. You hit a couple of nasty cards when all it would have taken is one ring, one will, and you would have taken away, you know, a huge chance, huge chunk of that cycling ability.
So, yeah, generally speaking, getting rid of Palantir, especially in a game where, you know, everything like I don't think from what I recall, Polajuna had any chance of winning that game militarily because he was committing so hard to corruption that I should have just been taking it a little bit slower, killed Palantir. And yeah, that was just me being again, just trying. I think that game only lasted about 25 minutes because it was just a complete race. It was just ridiculous. It's probably died of corruption on turn six. Something stupid. OK, 30 using a ring instead of fear five foes or Mazarble to move companions. This is one that happened very recently.
Very, very silly. I used to ring instead of fear five foes. Sometimes I just think I relate fear five foes and Mazarble so much to getting getting the dwarves or the north to war respectively that I actually sometimes almost forget that. Regardless, whether you're getting them to war or not doesn't matter. That's just a great remove dudes from the fellowship or move. No, sorry, not move, move guys around the map card. You know, that's the card that you just want to use to move your hobbits around if they're outside of the of the fellowship. Move Gandhi around, move Strider around in this case. And I just forgot that I had it.
And I'm not sure if it lost me that game, but it was it was certainly a very silly thing to do. I think it might have actually because I gave the opponent a ring and that ring. I was one move away from winning the game. So, yeah, that probably did lose me that game needlessly giving my opponent a ring. So, yeah, don't be dumb like me. Thirty one wasting very powerful cards in combat when there's still an outside shot at dunking. Right. I think this is a game where I thought that I.
Had very little chance of dunking, so I started throwing away things like really awesome cards in combat, you know, something like I think I use in this space. I can use kid and ships because I was like, I need to just go for the military victory or just try and defend. And as it was by going really slowly, I did have a very good chance of dunking. But because I'd used kid and ships in some random throwaway combat for one hit, I, I ended up not being able to defend Dolan Roth and then very, very narrowly losing the game because I didn't roll enough.
Character dice when I was on step four to to win the game. So that might have even been the same game as the one that I mentioned before. This is very recent. But but yeah. Put it this way, a chart, you know, kid and ships is a game. Changing card often, you know, it can be a game defining card, put it that way. Same can be for things like dead men of Dunharrow. You know, key mustering cards. They can be huge, huge game defining cards. A charge. How often is a charge a game defining card? A charge will get you one hit if you're lucky.
And it's very unlikely that a single hit will win or lose you the game. Whereas for HP in the line Roth can win you the game, even if the line with it's not a threat at that point. It's a huge weapon to have up your sleeve if you've got some elves in your force pool. So, yeah, sometimes just even if you don't think it's going to make a difference, you're never going to use that this game. What is still worth keeping up your sleeve instead of using it for a charge, I would say. All right. We're almost done.
The next ones are ones that didn't actually specifically lose me a game, but almost lost me a game or contributed to me. Like, you know, yeah, it just didn't help me. OK, this is just a really dumb one. It's obviously didn't lose me this game. But going early Aragorn, you get Aragorn early and then you forget you forget to get Gandalf. You forget to use a will to get Gandalf. That's just really absent minded and silly. But I've done that before because you're up to five dice and you're kind of, you know, you've already you just kind of it because I'm so used to playing. I don't go for Aragorn that much.
So when I do, you need to just change the way you think about it. That might just be a me one rather than a useful tip. Needlessly moving the fellowship early game when you still have a Palantir in hand. Get the free card draw. Yeah, this is something I see new players do quite a lot. If you have a Palantir in hand, unless you've got another reason to hold on to it, because maybe you want to use it to hide if Gandalf dies. And that's your priority. Generally speaking, just like play the cards and get the free card cycle. And that's like free cards.
You know, an early card cycle can again hugely turn the tide of a game. Don't forget to do that. That card cycling ability of Gandalf can be very, very powerful. Tunnel vision over only sending Gandalf into sieges with Weeper the Swifter slash Gwaihir. Remember, you can also send other companions to save the day. Yeah, that's true. I think for a while I kind of saw that card as like a move Gandhi to save the day card. Gwaihir doesn't have to just be for Gandalf. It can be for getting other companions around the map and can be just as powerful.
So, yeah, I'm guessing this is a game where I probably, you know, should have got Boromir out of the fellowship or should have got, yes, some some other captors of the West into play. And that's it. That's my long and rambling list of tips. So hopefully that will be useful for some players. If you managed to get through all 50 minutes of it. But yeah, some things that I have learnt through playing and losing at War of the Ring. Ciao ciao, bye bye. .