[cfarrell]

It is a shame about the Military Victory thing; it's so completely unlike Knizia to get that wrong. I don't know what went awry there, if his playtesters were just such fans of the books that they never really tried for the military victory, or what (we didn't take it seriously either until it became clear that it was the way to go).

Anyway, definitely get the Black Gate card through BoardGameGeek, I wouldn't play without it.

Playing with Friends & Foes is definitely tougher than the base game, so I recommend going back to starting Sauron on 15, and working your way down again. It seems that starting him on 12 with F&F seems about right once you've got a few games under your belt.