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Hello everyone, my name is Ira Fay and I'm feeling a little sick today but I wanted to do a video. So this is going to be a short one and I'm going to do an opening video. So what we're going to do is we're just going to roll the dice for shadow and draw cards and see what shadow would do and then do the same thing for free people. Just turn one just to think about the opening. So for this example I'm going to do, I'm going to allocate one eye for shadow. I think that's a reasonable opening choice and we'll see what they roll.
Okay, that's interesting and we'll see what free people rolls. Okay, so this is a pretty standard roll. Let's see what shadow drew. We'll start with shadow. Okay, so with shadow what am I thinking about here? This is probably going to be pretty straightforward. I can theoretically play Rage of the Dunlendings if I really wanted to turn one. That is an interesting choice. I could play both of these cards, turn one and make use of these Palantirs because generally I want to be playing cards instead of drawing cards with my Palantirs. But I wonder if it's worth playing Rage of the Dunlendings that early. It could be pretty interesting.
I could have, if I, so I definitely want to muster once for Isengard and then muster to get Saruman. And then I basically have four dice remaining. I have an army muster, two Palantirs and an army movement. So if I played on, on they went and I played Rage of the Dunlendings, I could possibly use this muster first to use Saruman's ability. And then I could get regulars in South Dunlend and North Dunlend. And then when I used Rage of the Dunlendings, I could get two extra Dunlendings and put them in Holland. I could put them in Moria and I could go after Rivendell pretty early on with a sizable force.
That's an eight, that's an eight unit force. If I use this muster and they could be in Holland merged up from, from Moria. I mean from Moria and I could have eight units there. I could also, instead of getting two regulars and using Saruman's ability, I could just muster a Northern, just a regular elite in North Dunlend with this extra muster. And then it would be the same number of hit points, but I would have a leader there, which could be interesting. It would let me flush out the fellowship from Rivendell pretty early on. I would be interested to know what this army in Dol Guldur is doing.
I'd be interested to know what's happening to the other elven strongholds. It would be nice if I could get two elven strongholds under siege before they get to war. The other thing that I'm thinking about is shadow here is, can I, how am I doing on musters? I guess if I use this one muster for an actual elite unit in North Dunlend, then I don't have Sauron at war and I need to get Sauron to war to be able to make these actions. That's interesting. I don't know if it's worth it. I often like to save Rage of the Dunlendings for a while.
Oh, the other thing I need to be careful of is I can't get Sauron too early in the turn because if they move the fellowship and kill off Gandalf, then they could get Gandalf turn one, which I absolutely do not want to allow as shadow. So I just have to wait to get Sauron and therefore this idea of mustering in all three locations probably doesn't make sense. I'll just get the elite in North Dunlend if I'm going with this Rage of Dunlendings plan. It's certainly an interesting idea. I have not seen that opening very often.
The other thing you can do with Rage of the Dunlendings is you can get towards the Grey Havens pretty early on. And I don't know, that might be kind of fun. Then do I have enough if I have an elite in if I muster an elite in North Dunlend and then I get two regulars that's a size of six to go take out Grey Havens? That would be pretty cool. They can't, the only reinforcement card they have for that is Cirdan's Ships and I could potentially take out Grey Havens before that. That would be a really kind of surprising and fun start because I could get to Cardelon.
I could use Rage of the Dunlendings to Cardelon and then use this army movement to get them to South Aired Luene. And I'd be only two steps away from Grey Havens and then I could still use these armies, the Doldgolder army and the Moria army to come after Lorian. Or I could even if I really want to be crazy, I could send up this Doldgolder army just up to Old Forest Road. So I don't know. It's interesting how many choices there are just turn one. Like I did not I did not know what this role was going to be, what the cards were going to be. Maybe I just draw a card first.
Maybe I wait to save up Rage of the Dunlendings. The thing that I the thing that makes me feel interested in the possibility is they only have one army muster and they're inclined to use this as an army movement potentially. And. And they also, you know, they're more likely to move the fellowship with these with these dice. So. Yeah, I think that's what I'm going to do. So here's what I so free people get to go first. They pass because I think they would. Then I muster Isengard to war. They pass again. Now, I think just to delay myself because I'm going to use these Palantir to play cards.
I'm going to play on on they went and I'm just going to you know, why not? I want to get that in there at some point. Maybe next turn I'm going to have to draw. You know, if I roll more Palantir next turn and I don't have playable cards, maybe I'm going to have to draw cards with my Palantir. But at least while I have the chance to not draw cards in my Palantir, I'm going to I'm going to play them productively. All right. So that's how I do it for Shadow. Let's go ahead and pause for a second.
My plan for the rest of these is muster an elite in North Dunland, then play Rage of the Dunlandings, then use an army movement and and then get Saruman. So if free people use their will of the West to move, they use up their will of the West, then I may get Saruman sooner. All right. Let's see what people get. I'm going to draw cards for them. All right. So they got one playable card, Axe and Bow. All right. So they pass pass. And now at this point, what do they do? I think because I have a playable card, I normally would not prioritize playing Axe and Bow.
But I have a Palantir here. You know, why not? It lets me play a card and draw a card. So I will use the Palantir. I will play Axe and Bow and then I'll draw a card. And I got there and back again. So there and back again is certainly an interesting card for separating companions. I'm inclined to do that to like get Strider down to Minas Tirith or Dolamroth faster. OK. In any case, now I think I think Shadow is just going to continue with their plan. It's a weird it's a weird plan. I'd be curious to know what other people do. And now free people move.
Let's see if they get hit. Whoa, they get hit. Turn one. OK, so let's see what happens. A three. Wow. OK, so this is why you do not muster Saruman too early. Like just don't do that. All right. So now Gandalf goes. Obviously, that's a nice tile for Gandalf to die to. And and now I definitely don't get Saruman. So now I play Rage of the Dunlinnings, a shadow, and I get two units in Cardalaan. And then these units teleport from north and south Dunland to Cardalaan. And I believe that this army in Cardalaan is going to be enough to take out Graeavans.
We'll see what happens. All right. And now free people reacting to that. I don't know what they do. They could do an army movement to the Shire from the Shire to south Airdelween. I don't know. Let me pause for a second. So I don't know exactly what I do here is free people. I think. I mean, I don't want to lose Graeavans too early. I don't know. Maybe I. Move an army from the Shire to south Airdelween. I mean, that is a weird move. But it does slow down this army from Cardalaan one, two, three from Cardalaan to Graeavans.
But if the army goes from the Shire to south Airdelween, then it's one, two, three, four. There's no shorter path. It probably doesn't matter. I don't think I would bother doing that as free people. I could. One idea is muster muster elves twice. I think I want to move the fellowship again. So I think I just let that go by. Maybe this army in Cardalaan is enough to take out Graeavans. It's nerve wracking. I mean, that's pretty fast pressure on Graeavans. I don't know what I do here as free people. It would be sad if Cardalaan, if this army in Cardalaan, the Six Hit Point army could take out Graeavans.
Shadow, I know, does not currently in their hand have half orcs and goblins or Ulog-hai to reinforce this army, but eventually they'll draw those cards. I mean, eventually I'll get Cirdan ships and I can reinforce Graeavans myself. Yeah, I don't know. Would you use an army movement right now to go Shire to South Aird of the Ween? Possibly getting one hit against this army, which would be awesome. And slowing down Shadow at the beginning of the game. The other thing that I'm considering using it for is an army movement like Edoras to Westomnet. The problem with the plan of moving to South Aird of the Ween is that the army can go around.
They can move to Buckland and then next turn they can just walk into the Shire and get a victory point without even attacking. But it does cost them an extra movement and just slows them down. Yeah. Yeah, that's a really tough call. All right. So I think as three people, what I would do is move the fellowship. And then if I get hit, I'll use this army movement to hide. And otherwise, maybe I muster the elves towards war once so that at least it's relatively unlikely for Shadow to get two elven strongholds under siege without any mustering.
And then if I draw Cirdan ships, then I get to reinforce Graeavans and then they're completely stopped. All right, so I'm going to move. OK, I move. Let's see what Shadow does. Misses. All right, that's fair. And now Shadow could at this point get Saruman, but I think at this point they're like, I don't want to run into the problem with them moving into South Aird of the Ween. So I think they move now. Cardalan, South Aird of the Ween.
And now do we move out of Dol Guldur or do we move out of Moria? I think we have about the same number of cards that we could draw that reinforce Dol Guldur and about the same number they can reinforce Moria. I'm a little more inclined to go this way. I don't know. Or do you go this way hoping to draw at some point? I think Moria is a little more vulnerable because that you can get from Rivendell. Yeah, OK, let's go this way. North Aird. North Anduin Vale. I guess I can pivot if something crazy happens in Lorien, I can pivot to Woodland Realm maybe, I guess.
I don't really know if it matters to go north or south Anduin Vale. All right, that's Shadow's move. And now, free people, what do you do? I guess we muster Elves One towards war. It may accelerate the Witch King, but if I get two musters next round, which there's some chance of that, then I can muster the Elves once and then when they get attacked, I can muster an elite again. And that'll give Lorien a chance to hold up and it'll turn on Cirdan ships. All right, and then the last action by Shadow is to get Saruman. What an interesting opening. This is not what normally happens. It's pretty cool.
So we would see what happens moving forward. Obviously, free people would be very excited to roll a Will of the West next round and get Gandalf turn two very fast. And I think Shadow would be happy to be able to besiege Greyhavens without any mustering in there and then take out Lorien also, besiege Lorien. They can muster the hard way in Moria and reinforce Lorien. They definitely need at least one muster to get Sauron to war. So note that moving this Dwarven regular from Arid Luin to Towered Hills does not help defend Greyhavens because south Arid Luin is connected to Harlandon and you can attack from Harlandon into Greyhavens.
So the point to block them was south Arid Luin and free people did not opt to do that. Maybe they should have. All right, that was the opening. Curious to hear your thoughts. What you would have done differently with those cards. Would you have drawn strategy cards and saved them instead of now Shadow has no cards in hand? Curious to know what you would have done. All right. Have a good rest of the day. Thanks for watching. .