Council of Elrond

Greetings All,

Am pleased to announce that there will be MECCG at the Gamex 2016 over the Memorial Day weekend, 27-29 May! This is the schedule for MECCG events, though we can be flexible depending on attendance and the players' wishes:

- Friday, 27 May: 3:00-9:00 PM - Open/Casual Games.
- Saturday, 28 May: 1:00 PM - Multi-Player Hero Arda.
- Saturday, 28 May: 7:00 PM - Open Constructed (Hero/Minion/Fallen Wizard).
- Sunday, 29 May: 1:00 PM - Multi-Player Hero Arda.

Please message back to let us know if you'll be attending, so we can prepare accordingly. It will be an awesome weekend--looking forward to seeing everyone!

TradewindRider

P.S.

(1) The location of Gateway 2016 is: Hilton Los Angeles Airport, 5711 W Century Blvd., Los Angeles, California 90045.
(2) Here is the link for the convention: http://www.strategicon.net/index.php

I'll be there. Can the tourney be a time other than Saturday night?

Sure thing, we can have the tourney during the Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon time slot, if we have enough folks attending.

I'll be there as well and am up for whatever we decide to play. Ready to get back into action after missing the last one. I'm not sure I'll be able to show on Friday, all depends on work.

Looking forward to seeing you--no Valentine's Day nonsense to deal with this time, lol! On Friday I'll probably be in the CCG room by 2:00 or so and will stay until 9:00, so please feel free to drop by if you can.

Well good news, work is shutting down for the weekend early so I can't be held up too late. I should be there no later than 6 Friday and maybe as early as 3. Also my nephew who played a year ago is planning to be there on Sat.

Sounds great, see you there this afternoon!

I wasn't sure until today whether I'd be making it or not, but it looks like I will be there, as will both my kids. The Girl will be heading off to do Minecraft-related things. The boy, however, is looking forward to playing Middle Earth against somebody other than me.

I've been teaching him to play, and handing off (somewhat reluctantly) some of my cards to him. He's very eager, though, being 7, he can be a bit scattered. I'm hoping somebody will be willing to take him on in a game. I will probably act as his coach, just to keep him focused and make sure he actually follows the turn sequence properly. The nice thing is he's really keen on following the rules, so if I tell him "no you can't do that" he just says "okay".

Greetings curiousgene,

Great to see you and your son this past Friday, and hoping to see you again this afternoon--we're slated to play another round of Hero Arda today (Sunday) starting at 1:00 PM, so you're more than welcome to join us!

TradewindRider

Sounds like I'm missing a good time!

I live in Las Vegas. I'd love to run out to one of your events in L.A. sometime.

I had to work and had family obligations this weekend so I couldn't make it.

Thanks for organizing TradewindRider.


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Greetings All,

Thanks to everyone who attended Gamex 2016 this weekend! Our core group came in from as far as the San Francisco Bay Area to put together two Arda games and a full-fledged Open Constructed tournament! The Arda games were on Friday night and this Sunday afternoon, and as usual, there were all kinds of plays that you normally don't see in a constructed environment. Gene B. dominated the Friday night game with an excellent starting company and by taking calculated risks, while I was able to eke out a narrow win in the second game courtesy of two Great Ships. Sailing the coastal seas was never more peaceful as I went from the Stones to Tolfalas to Haudh-in-Gwanur (say that 3 times quickly) and then to Variag camp en route to an early call.

The Open Tournament (3-round Swiss) on Saturday afternoon/evening was one of the most interesting our group has had. We had a Balrog deck, a One Ring deck, two different flavors of minion decks, three hero decks, and my Fallen Alatar deck. The group's level of play as a whole has certainly improved since we started convening at the gaming convention, and this showed in the back-and-forth, punch-counterpunch nature of the games. The One Ring deck fulfilled its mission twice, good enough to tie in tournament points for first place, though the tie-breaker went to Gene B. with his tightly focused Underdeeps deck. The minion/Sauron deck played Gene's deck quite well, taking advantage of the Eye of Sauron to minimize hazard limits, while Red Arrow also gave Gene B. some trouble by sniping his treasure items again and again. The Balrog powered up to his usual awesomeness but couldn't quite execute due to time constraints, but he certainly looked threatening and intimidating enough!

My last-place finish was not all that exciting, but part of it was my fault--lesson learned, if you're planning to hunt with Alatar, make sure to remember all the creatures you see go into the discard pile, even if it's just one! I wasn't paying attention when my opponent forgot about his "don't show any creatures to Alatar" strategy and actually attacked with one, so now I will forever remember the name--GOTHMOG! My other loss was to the One Ring deck, and owing to a lack of Secret Entrances or Crack in the Walls, my move to the Iron Deeps was met with--not one--not two--not three--but four Nazgul! An otherwise unarmed Eowyn gamely killed Akorahil and the rest of the part survived (wounded), but my game was crippled and I could do little but watch Frodo march with padded feet to Mount Doom.

Last but not least, thanks to the Jabberwock for your kind words--we will certainly have MECCG events at the next gaming convention at the LAX Hilton over the Labor Day weekend, so everyone please mark your calendar for Friday-Monday, 2-5 September!

TradewindRider