This has to be my favorite team simulgear board on the site! It's excellently well balanced, has so many ways to play and to win, and is generally a very fun time.
Love the theme, the graphics are easy on the eyes, the layout and bonuses have all been thought about, the modifiers are easy to understand and to grasp. Which just leaves the strategy... oh what course to choose?!
Such a tough design, but pulled off very well. To balance this style board is a very difficult task. Love the team play and bonus structure. similar to A&A but on Middle-Earth (which always makes things better. awesome board!
This rating may be premature as I am only finishing up my second game on this map, and it seems a little unbalanced. First time I played, i drew a northwestern start location and dominated. 2nd time I played, I drew the southern most location (pink) and felt like I didn't stand a chance before I even took a turn. Blue, Red, and Pink are very close together, and its only natural that red and blue would both attack south to grab the bottom right corner and then work their way Northwest. Keeping this in mind, Pink is well under matched to defend with both Blue and Red starting out with more unit income, not to mention that in most cases, Pink will be fighting a 2 fronted war. It seems that a few tweaks, including giving Pink additional income could improve the balance of this map. Excellent Graphics.
I've really only played the team version (3 versus 3) and think the game plays out very well with the "good guys" (especially blue) having to hold on for dear life and withstand the initial rush of the "bad guys" (red/grey/orange). I believe that if the bad guys stay aggressive that they should win more often than not, but the good guys can pull some tricks to keep them in the game. You really need to know and play Simulgear well to have a shot on this board.
The attack/defense modifiers in certain key areas only add to the variables that you need to consider - they help you here and hut you there - so take note of them!
Since you can only move one space per turn, try to avoid keeping units in territories that are not threatened on the coming turn... if there is a more costly mistake in Simulgear, I'm not sure what it is.
I think this board is (overall) unbalanced for the free-for-all scenarios, but that wasn't the main intent of this board anyway.
This map takes its plays straight from the A&A book, and the results are spectacular. Visually pleasing graphics, interesting conflict regions, and a carefully balanced board design make this map a pleasure to play. Anyone who would disparage this map as being too much like A&A has clearly not played it much: although the mechanics are the same, and the general theory of forcing aggression by having one team start with the armies and the other with a resource advantage is familiar, this map quickly establishes itself as a whole new experience as befits such a powerful mythology.
Nicely done Kjeld.