Possible LotR Successor Game discussion thread

[TinCow]

Regarding mercenaries and financing rebellions, I see this problem as a broader failure to plan properly. As has been noted, the Megas position is extremely powerful, and controlling it can bring massive advantages. A proper rebellion should take this into account and plan accordingly. Spontaneous rebellions should be highly likely to fail, while well-planned long-term rebellions have a much better chance of success. A good rebellion plan can take decades in game-time to organize. You play nice and buddy up with whoever you need to in order to either become Megas or get a Megas who is sympathetic to your devious goals. Then, once you have the power, you exploit it heavily to get what you want. You immediately use the time you have to build up your forces and conquer your enemies. If you do it properly, you can make sure that your armies are so strong that even if you lose the Megas position to other people, you will be too powerful to be defeated.

This was how LotR was designed, but in reality only two people actually did this. The first was Ignoramus, who intentionally exploited his first Megas term to his own advantages. No one was seriously prepared to block him in his moves though and his moves also involved some unfortunate difficulties with following the rules which resulted in a period of time in LotR that is best dumped in the East River and never spoken of again. The second was Zim, who did exactly what I imagined a person should do when I designed the game. Zim intentionally buffed the forces of the side he backed very heavily, giving them immense military power. At the same time, he intentionally bankrupted the Empire, thus preventing his successor from fixing the situation quickly. This was perfectly designed and executed to gain long-term power for a specific faction.

The lesson to be learned from this is that rebellions should be planned slowly and carefully. If you just randomly declare war one day and have no allies prepared to support you, the rules make it exceptionally difficult for you to be successful. You'd essentially have to be a military genius. IMO, this is proper, and the failing is not in the system's inability to accommodate player rebellions properly, but in the inability of players to plan a proper rebellion in the first place.

Heed the advice of Sun Tzu. "Every battle is won before it is ever fought." "Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win."