I am not going to launch into a story of how I decided to be Gandalf, and what my plan was and all that fun stuff. Most already know what happened, and if you don’t, well just ask at the next party. I just wanted to say "thank you" to a lot of people not only my team, but the evil team also, for one of the best played games I have ever had the honor to be a player in.
The first thank you goes to Hayes, who came up with the great idea of some of us going to the good team to give Scott some headaches in his bid for the triple crown. Of course, the bastard choose to then be on the evil team and left me stuck with the Gandalf role and most of friends and running mates on the evil team. There simply are not the words for the costume Shannon created for me in two weeks. Lady, you are incredible and if I do say so, that is the best-looking Gandalf costume ever. Whenever something can make my ugly mug look good, you must be a true artist and I thank you for your time.
Now for the good team. First to my friend Otto (Eomer), who was not going to play, but quickly jumped on to watch my back when he heard I was Gandalf. Your counsel and knowledge of the game was invaluable and it is always good to run with you. Katie (Aragorn)—you rock lady. Thank you for taking the time to march around and scout out the park with Otto and I. You were there to the very end and we just missed getting your kingdom back.
The armies of Gondor and Rohan will always be in my memory as some of the best people I have ever marched with. You marched where I asked you to go and you did so with speed. Saruman told me he was amazed that we caught up with the White Hand at the crossroads by Rivendell and Stacey (Barrow-wight) was equally impressed by our arrival at Bree. Even Aragorn did not think we could get there in time and we did so with seven minutes to spare after defeating the White Hand on the way. The best praise for an army should be the surprise of its foes, and we did so twice in the first thirty minutes of the game. High praise goes to Imrahil, Colin (Rider of Rohan) and a host of others who scouted for our army the entire day. Thank you for making sure we did not travel blind across the park and finally thank you to the two citadel guards that held Gondor and even made it to Mount Doom in the end. I heard the judges really liked the munchies in the ballista after the battle of Gondor.
To the Rivendell and Lothlorien groups, another thank you. Those of you who were able to join us were amazing, and to the rest, thanks for causing confusion to the evil army. High praise to Elrond, who moved farther and faster then the Energizer Bunny. I got tired just watching you sometimes. It seemed like you were everywhere and your sweep of the perimeter was masterful from what I heard from some of the evil team. My apologies to Goldberry. I am sorry that you were lost and we could not find you. Next time you pick a part where you start with others and we will show you the park. I cannot say enough about the rangers, Bard, and Radagast. All of you were there in the end, as was everyone, and you still had enough energy to f*%! with evil on Doom. Another high praise goes to the NY Rangers. When I told them my plans for Doom they just smiled and knew they wanted to be the ones to mess with the evil team. Gotta love such mischief in people.
If there is a Gandalf in this game who thinks that they had better hobbits then I did, I will be glad to argue the point. You five were fast, sneaky and down right hard to find. You knew when to disappear and when to catch up to the army and in the end you guys were great on Doom. I would run with any of you five again at any time.
My final words to the good army are that I have never been more honored to run with a group of people on that field. A large number of our team were new players and they all reacted with a great determination. I will single out my nephew Colin and niece Anya as new players, because they are my blood and they did me proud by marching by my side the whole day. Congrats to Liz who played her first Ring War and ran evil all over the side of Doom for a duration. At the end of the day, I had several evil players come up and tell me that they had not seen any good players until Doom. Damn straight. We out marched the evil team and I will argue that point also and in the end we missed by just a few feet or a few seconds. We did our best and we rolled the dice and that is all I can ask of any of our good team.
A little praise to the evil team, and I do mean a little, you stinkin bastards. Not that I am sore about losing you to f*%!ing evil little brats, but I am sure the therapy will help me let it go in time. Hey Bob, I did allow you to tag me in the end. I just knew that would make your day. Stacey, you are a little pain in the butt and I am going to bounce you one day all over that field. Jack, I wanted you to slide down that hill dead sooo bad. Oh well, next game maybe. To the rest of the evil team and even Saruman, damn traitor, you folks were amazing for having the legs and grit to run all over the field and up and down Doom. Come on, wasn’t that fun?
Finally, the highest praise goes to Scott and his triple crown. Thank you for talking to me those two weeks before the game, not only the smack talk, but discussing the rules and the manner how we conduct ourselves and our teams during the game. Once again, how are your red eye orcs worth more than my elf warriors? It just does not seem right. It was a pleasure to try to think of ways to confuse and defeat you, and in the end, I am not sure how well I confused you, as you knew my mind too well from previous conversations. It was as close as I could have hoped and I was glad to see you have your victory. You are one of the greatest players I have watched on the field and it also a very cool thing to call you my friend. Congratulations again.
Enough of this thanking stuff. It is onto next spring and further plans and chaos. I said it before when I was giving the pep talk to the good team: I have but one purpose on that field and that is finding ways to f*%! with people. See you on the field in the spring folks.
—Gandalf— Todd
©2002 Todd Pannier. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission.