Marc
I went out with the intention of knocking back a few Cold Ones last night, but I ended up nearly conquering Middle Earth. Oh yeah. I said it.
The day started out innocently enough. The gal pal dropped me off at a friend's apartment as she began the trek home for the week. We watched football (Go Panthers!) and ate chili dogs, chili nachos, and chili donuts*. We also drank beer. Next we went to a bar where I used a dollar I had won - I picked the Panthers over the Eagles (Go Panthers!) - to play four songs on the jukebox: "Crocodile Rock" by Elton John; "The Thrill is Gone" by BB King; "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye; and, "Try a Little Tenderness" by Otis Redding. We played one game of darts - Cricket. My team lost. We played five games of foosball. My team lost. Then we decided - at about 11:45pm - that it was time to play the Middle Earth version of Risk.
A few very odd things happened during the game. First, the game comes with the One Ring. It's got the engravings on it and everything. It even feels like it's maybe made of some kind of cheap metal. My friend, Rob, wore it from the first roll onwards. Ultimately, Rob became the Dark Lord of Middle Earth. He had chosen to be the Orcs/Nazgul/Troll figurines (along with our friend Jonny) while my other chum, Jeff, and I opted for the Elvish/Rohirrim/Eagle figurines. We were good. They were evil. The next thing we all know, I'm covering the entire southern portion of the map, including the Haradwaith, Gondor, and most of Rohan. Rob has Mordor and all the northern kingdoms - which, if you didn't know, were also fortresses of evil in the actual books. The book was playing itself out in our game of Risk. Jeff and Jonny were pretty much knocked out of the game completely, so they became non-factors as Rob and I duked it out for domination over Middle Earth. The power of Elves and Men began to fail. Next thing I know I'm looking down at the map and I realize I have a whole shitload of territory, but the only viable places to place all my armies are on Minas Tirith and Osgiliath, thereby countering Rob's masses of troops on Minas Morgul and throughout Mordor.** In the end, Osgiliath fell (ala Faramir losing it for good in LOTR: RotK) and it was up to a strong defense of Minas Tirith to save any hope for Men and Elves. Minas Tirith held (also ala LOTR: RotK) and I sent a sortie out to the Black Gates. This time, though, there was a big difference. I wasn't biding time for the Ring Bearer. I was just trying to kill off all my troops as it was going on 3:30am and I was extremely tired. Hence a few bad dice rolls and the solidification of Rob as the Dark Lord Sauron with the One Ring of Power.
So. That was my night.
* Okay. They weren't chili donuts. But, for aesthetics purposes, I had to say they were. I'm sure you understand the bind I was in on that one. I had to go there.
** Now, I know this sounds terribly nerdy to those of you without any inate LOTR knowledge, and you probably have already stopped reading by this point. My apologies. I was simply amazed by the way our game turned out to be exactly the same as the books.
I went out with the intention of knocking back a few Cold Ones last night, but I ended up nearly conquering Middle Earth. Oh yeah. I said it.
The day started out innocently enough. The gal pal dropped me off at a friend's apartment as she began the trek home for the week. We watched football (Go Panthers!) and ate chili dogs, chili nachos, and chili donuts*. We also drank beer. Next we went to a bar where I used a dollar I had won - I picked the Panthers over the Eagles (Go Panthers!) - to play four songs on the jukebox: "Crocodile Rock" by Elton John; "The Thrill is Gone" by BB King; "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye; and, "Try a Little Tenderness" by Otis Redding. We played one game of darts - Cricket. My team lost. We played five games of foosball. My team lost. Then we decided - at about 11:45pm - that it was time to play the Middle Earth version of Risk.
A few very odd things happened during the game. First, the game comes with the One Ring. It's got the engravings on it and everything. It even feels like it's maybe made of some kind of cheap metal. My friend, Rob, wore it from the first roll onwards. Ultimately, Rob became the Dark Lord of Middle Earth. He had chosen to be the Orcs/Nazgul/Troll figurines (along with our friend Jonny) while my other chum, Jeff, and I opted for the Elvish/Rohirrim/Eagle figurines. We were good. They were evil. The next thing we all know, I'm covering the entire southern portion of the map, including the Haradwaith, Gondor, and most of Rohan. Rob has Mordor and all the northern kingdoms - which, if you didn't know, were also fortresses of evil in the actual books. The book was playing itself out in our game of Risk. Jeff and Jonny were pretty much knocked out of the game completely, so they became non-factors as Rob and I duked it out for domination over Middle Earth. The power of Elves and Men began to fail. Next thing I know I'm looking down at the map and I realize I have a whole shitload of territory, but the only viable places to place all my armies are on Minas Tirith and Osgiliath, thereby countering Rob's masses of troops on Minas Morgul and throughout Mordor.** In the end, Osgiliath fell (ala Faramir losing it for good in LOTR: RotK) and it was up to a strong defense of Minas Tirith to save any hope for Men and Elves. Minas Tirith held (also ala LOTR: RotK) and I sent a sortie out to the Black Gates. This time, though, there was a big difference. I wasn't biding time for the Ring Bearer. I was just trying to kill off all my troops as it was going on 3:30am and I was extremely tired. Hence a few bad dice rolls and the solidification of Rob as the Dark Lord Sauron with the One Ring of Power.
So. That was my night.
* Okay. They weren't chili donuts. But, for aesthetics purposes, I had to say they were. I'm sure you understand the bind I was in on that one. I had to go there.
** Now, I know this sounds terribly nerdy to those of you without any inate LOTR knowledge, and you probably have already stopped reading by this point. My apologies. I was simply amazed by the way our game turned out to be exactly the same as the books.
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