Tournament Reports of EM 2010

All events or gatherings other than GCCG, Lure, & Worlds.
Smaug
Posts: 279
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2007 10:30 am
Location: Germany

Hi guys,

following my tourament report from the EC 2010 in Rom.

Semifinal on Saturday:

Because we where not enough players for 5 rounds semifinal was for the first time ever a 4 round tournament (i guess).
I played a balrog deck with bolg and buthrakaur Gathering information, allies and items in the lands around rohan.
Due to power enhancers deck likes to burn borderholds if possible. Meanwhile Balrog and friends do what the do in most balrog decks
(orks of moria, stinker, great shadow and than the final trip to the underleas for aiglos and black ancient axe).
Doeths only task is use voices of malice while make elevator traveling between moria and undergates.

1 Round:

I had some pairing luck, I faced Lucio from Italy who restarted playing Middle Earth again just some weeks ago.
He played a hero deck with cirdan, the elrond brothers and analena. Not really sure what his deck idea was, never saw it, I killed annalena and cirdan quickly, the final results was 45 to 12 or something like that, easy 6-0 start.

2 Round:

Next round the tournament got serious, I played against my buddy Antonio from spain, a good player, who played a Mordor squatter deck with hormurath (may be because of the extra card and the canceling unleashed cards, I would prefer Ren probably).
The game started better for me so he had always to catch up with my points. Futhermore he did a mistake with his agent cards (playing them not at hormuraths side, because he was not already in play at that turn I guess?!) and I played aiglos before him. SO without the faithless stewards and
the missing aiglos he fighted the whole game for a 2-4 defeats. I the end he was successful, I won only 37-25, 4:2, 1 point missing for a 5-1.

3 Round:

Wow, my german buddy and upcoming middle earth champion (we will see?!) Dominic (he just started 2,5 years ago playing middle earth) managed to
get 11(or 10?!) Points after 2 rounds. He played a very save but therefor quite slow freehold based Fallen Gandalf deck. In turn one I managed to
kill Dror but that was more or less the only hazard that really hurted him. At least I was able to slow him down and his draw wasn´t to strong.
My deck was running really good, little problems I had with getting a faction, but i managed it. In the end it was a 5-1 for me, did not remember
the concrete points, but it was nearer to a 4:2 than to a 6:0. Dominic wasn´t too disappointed and showed great fighting spirit in the last round
(which gave him a seat in the final 4!!!)

4 Round:

Last round started with following ranking: 1. Jordi 16 p. 2. Me 15 P. 3. Wolfgang (?) with 12 P. 4. Dominic and some other players with 11 points.
So a 4-2 or 2-4 would be enough for jordi and most probabbly for me as well. World Champion Jordi played his well know Fallen Alatar deck. Our last three
tourament games ended with a tie so we where both very confident to reach the finals. But during the game it became obvious that this time it would be no tie again.
I got a good start and Jordi had some problems with his drawing (no short rests) and my hazards ( I killed 2 characters at the beginning) as well. So I was clearly in the lead for the entire game (about 5:1, near to a 6:0). But in champion style he managed his problems and finally was able to reduce the result to a 2:4 defeat, what was good enough as said before.

Final Result semi final:

1. Heiner 19 P.
2. Jordi 18 P.
3. Wolfgang 17 P.
4. Dominic 17 P. or 16 P. do not know


Final on Sunday:

For the final on Sunday I adjusted my deck.
First I guessed that Jordi and Dominic would play Fallen again, so I throw out some nice hazards (Uvatha, Daelomin, Adunaphel Saruman, Pallando and two unexpected outposts) to put 2 eire, 2 blinds, 1 mask torn and 2 more foolish words directly in the deck. I thought that would give me 2 more or less sure wins over them.
So I expected Wolfgang to be my strongest opponent for the title, because he 1. is meanwhlie a very good player 2. has a very good hero deck (he beat me at german nationals with 4:2 it 3. would play hero, what means I had 5 completly useless hazards against him directlly in the deck.
On the ressource side I changed my deck to a Arthedain burner deck with 3 bold trusts, tempest of fire, rick burn..., a greater item for the stones
and people diminshed in the side board. This would gave me extra options for the games against jordi and dominic (espacially attacking and burning sides, where they played factions).

Unfortunately my meta game proved to be complet nonsense, all my opponents played hero deck, so I started with 5 useless hazards in each of my final games. At least Jordi did not changed his playing area Eriador, which got him into trouble as you later can read.

1 Round against Wolfgang:

At dinner the day before I oraceled to Wolfgang that our would be the deciding game of the final (if the other 2 will play FW)
and it proved that it was nearly right?!
Wolgang played a aragorn hobbot deck with To Fealty Sworn and return of the King. The game started good for me, in turn 1 I was able to kill Fatty with an Assasin.
Pitty that that was more or less the only thing that work good. My 2 Great Shadows in the deck did not want to show up so I had influnece problems for more or less the entire game and some nice hazards hit me quite hard (e.g. Landroval). So in few words both of us had our problems, what finally gave me a 25 - 21 (?!) lead before our both last turn.
The turn before Wolgang stopped me with 2 rivers at Amon Hen, where I could now play only 3 mp (makers map and regiment of crows). Balrog and company could move up to mount gundabad and play a mayor item (that i had to draw before)
My third company/doeth could primarly backup the playing of makers map and reginment at dimril dale what seams to risky in my eyes (because doth getting killed meaned also loosing stinker).
At Isengard I could play the warg king for an other 3 points (map, warg king, regiment and few recruits and additionally draw 2 more cards (to get a whctc and/or a major item).
It was more or less sure Wolgang would at least play an item (sam was nearly unstoppable) and Return of the king (no beorings in hand), probably a faction and may be some chance meatings I was afraid 28 points would not be enough for victory.
Futhermore I saw 2 rivers teh turn before so I thought that it was not to risky to move to isengard (big mistake as it proved later!).
So first I moved my amon hen company (Buthrakaur/Bolg and a hill troll). Hazard limit potentially 6 because of daelomin and power build !.
first Saruman (possible at amon hen as well), bolg and hill troll got tapped, buthratkaur untapped, than one Veils Flung away
(not possible when i did not moved!!!), a 10 against bolg dicarded :-( and again an other Viles (lucky no serious damage happened).
Did not now where I played 2 points (either with the balrog or with buthrakaur, I ended up with 25 because I did not draw a whctc which would
have given me 4 extra points (Azog and warg king at Isengard). However 25:21 still after my turn.
On Wolfgangs turn nothing too spectacular happens, things developped as i guessed. My assasin stopped Aragorn by the costs of 2 kill points (forwarned was on the table) sam played his 2 point item and finally aragorn played return of the king. This made a 28:25 for Wolfgang, an earned victory for sure, may be he would have still won if I did not move (saruman was than still playable.
A whctc would have been the key for victory but i had still 8 cards in the deck and only 1 whctc in it, so chances where not too good.
In the other game Jordi and Dominic tied. I was not sure what me worried more, the news that they both play hero or my 2-4 defeat against Wolfgang .... :-)

2 Round against Dominic:

I needed a win against Dominic in order to stay in the race for the title that was for sure, the higher the better! Dominic played a Thranduil/Gimli/Galdor deck that I played against WC 2009. Nearly 2 years ago it wasa n more or less easy 6:0 but this time it was different.
Dominic got a much more experienced player and this time I was not so lucky like 2 years before to kill thranduil in turn 1 !
I draw a great starting hand (balrog, moria orks and great shadow) but had a bad 1 turn. I missed the orks because foolish was in dominics starting hand and he put it of course on guard and my company was only was able to play a makers map at weathertop with whctc and weak ill fav. fellow (what gets lost during the game if he gets killed). Like the game before i face hard hazards (Cave worm and landroval if I remember right)
and it became clear my opponents did better meta game than me the night before ;-). Next turn I got warg king but i missed few recruits needing a 4 :-( and i was in trouble for that (lady was lying and no foolish in hand :-(. Even worse was I had no ressources in hand to play in turn 3 so i decided to attack gimli at eagles ire what was complet rubish and very bad play because he was untapped and could choose attacking character!!! I was very lucky not to loose the warg king he was only wounded. oh man I played that turn really like an idiot.
The only good thing was that i was able to stop dominic quite good from playing mps and in my last turn I managed to play orks of moria, few recruits, aiglos and black ancient axe for 11 points. Dominic made a mistake allowing me playing both items, he could hindered me playing the black ancient axe. So finally it was 30 - 20 for me exactlly a 5-1. To be honest, Dominic deserved at least a 2-4 defeat and if could have stopped playing me a faction
(he did until last turn!)he would have won! So a bit lucky i won 5-1.
In the other game Wolfgang won 4 - 2 against Jordi (both sides where leading during that game as I heard). so before the last round every body had still chances to win the title
1. Wolfgang 8 P. 2. Me 7 P. 3. Jordi 5 P. 4. Dominic 4 P.

3 Round against Jordi:

In that game everything went against jordi from the beginning. I colleczted very quicklly mp and was able to wound his radagast and his main character train and kill gloin.
Except turn 1 where he was able to play the arkenstone with train and turn 2 where he played Tom he played more or less no mps.
Meanwhile I burned here and there attacked him with Hill Trolls and mountaiun Maggots (funny but not too sucsessfull, I lost 2 Killing mp and wounded only lobelia.
But as I said I was in a very comfortable lead during entire game (about 5-1 to 6-0). In the last turn radagast went alone for the elves of lindon, needing a 9 or higher to survive a rain drake (he made it!!!) but
than missed the influence check (needing a 4 or more). If he would have made it would have been only a 4-2 for me, because train survived the cc with the arkenstone at the council.
But even a 4-2 victory would have been enough for the title because, wolfgang lost against dominic 4-2 (there was a mistake last turn by wolfgang, but he or dominic should write about that??!!!).

So in the end I got EC, it was as tough as I thought to win the title, against to possible upcoming champoins like wolfgang and dominic and the actaul WC Jordi
(I think his hero deck was not good enough to win the title, but that may be only my impression because of our game).

Thanks to Bruno for the organisation of the event, Rome was great but as well a little bit (too) hot ;-)

Final result:

1. Heiner 12 Points
2. Wolfgang 10 Points
3. Dominic 8 Points
4. Jordi 6 Points


Hope to see a lot of players at the next important event the Worlds in Argentina!!!!

Sorry for the lots of mistakes that might be in the report, I just wrote the report top down and be too tired to check it before submiting (fear it would cost me an other hour :-), it is still too hot in germany for correction work ;-).

Cheers

Heiner
marcos
Council Member
Posts: 2032
Joined: Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:41 pm
Location: Córdoba, Argentina

congrats on winning the EC2010, i'm waiting to meet you here in october, and make you have a hard time to win the World championship ;)
thorondor
Ex Council Chairman
Posts: 727
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:53 pm
Location: salzburg, austria
Contact:

the #1 has submitted his report, so #2 may follow ...

Tourney Report MECCG Euro 2010 in Rome

The number of players might not have been as big as expected, but those that have been there, enjoyed the days in Rome a lot!
The gaming location was perfect! Nice staff, enough space, air conditioned room and a very friendly atmosphere among the players. There have been some local players that just got back into the game or are still new, so their learning curve was quite steep. I hope they still had some fun, though the veterans didn’t give away anything easily, knowing that in the end every single MP could be decisive.
I decided to play 2 different hero decks: aragorn with 2 hobbits going to free holds and a final MP rush at minas tirith (against hero/FW) and short rested dwarves in eriador (minion).
I played my first game against the second guy from austria, thomas (great pairing ;-). He was playing hero, going to shadowholds mostly for as many points as possible at a single site (with lcuky search and rescue prisoners). Though my hazards didn’t hurt him too much, I was able to slow him down a lot with the usual stuff (river, adunaphel, sellswords) and some surprising hazards like Arthedain Rangers. His hand was clogged by resources he couldn’t play fast enough, so there was not much to fear from his hazards. I was able to play VERY fast (2 short rests in first turn), so the game was finished soon (6:0).

In the second round I met Jordi and his well know Fallen Alatar deck. Hmm, my memory fails when thinking of this game. Maybe jordi can help out ;-) i remember, that jordi had some good dice rolls, so at some point i asked to borrow his dice when making a bodycheck on one of his chracters. the result: killed! it must have been a quite close game, cause in the end jordi won by 2 MPs. (2:4)

Third round against antonio (playing mordor shuffle with some faithless stewards). I was playing undead against minion, which are perfect against this sort of deck. Also I got out golodhros first and managed to influence the Uruk-hai faction of a squatting leader at Barad-dur (though I couldnt stop the faithless stewards). While antonio slowly gathered MPs, I was always a little bit faster. Also it looked like he had no hazards at all against my deck. In the end I won 4:2.

So I still had good chances to reach finals. Just needed a win, a 5:1 would make it sure.
Last round I played the third spanish player Miguel (also hero). There is not much to tell about this game. It was one of those, where at some point you feel sympathy for your opponent. He was also trying to gather stuff in eriador. My draw was very good, so I got everything out just before him. In addition, I had radagast first, and his second wizards nevery showed up. Finally my hazards caused a lot of damage, so at some point it didn’t make any sense to Miguel to continue (6:0).

Finals, wow! That was a new situation for me, and immediatedly after the tourney, the psycho war started – heiner being a master here ;-)

Now I didn’t expect to come this far. So I didn’t bring any other decks with me (except a not so serious minion deck). I didn’t want to play the same decks again in the finals, but I simply had no choice. At least I wanted to change my hazard decks a lot, resulting in borrowing lots of cards and even using proxies for common cards (quite funny, while having thousands of cards at home ;-)

Anyway: I agreed with heiner, assuming that both dominic and jordi will be playing FW again. So I also put some antiFW hazards directly into the deck. What a mistake this was – as heiner has already pointed out.
Then, I had the advantage that I didn’t play heiner and dominik in semifinals, so the didn’t know much about my deck. I was sure heiner would play balrog again. I was hoping, that he would assume me to play the dwarves deck also against minion. Just as I did at last years german nationals, where I was able to beat heiner with this deck. My assumption here was correct, cause heiner changed his balrog deck a little bit, going to eriador, giving him the option to attack hero companies there.
He started, going to Bree. I was able to stop him there with some chilled dwarves, so he only played a Makers Map. In my first turn I was heading to the east (Thranduils Halls), which is 5 regions from bree. On the way to this site Fatty was assassinated.
In his second turn, heiner left a mountain maggot at tapped bree. So I knew the plan was to burn it down, probably with WHCTK. I also hired an assassin, who did a perfect job.
Then I was lucky to draw the Riders of Rohan. I had 2 Noble Steeds from the beginning, keeping them, cause I knew they could be very important to stop heiner attacking me. This proved to be correct. There was not once a situation in the game, when it would have made any sense to heiner to attack. On the contrary, I was hoping for it, cause this would cost him a turn, and even for my second company with the wizard (who also got a noble steed), I had a vanishment on my hand.
The mid-game was rather unspectacular, me gathering some factions at free holds, heiner doing the usual balrog stuff.
When sideboarding hazards, I had to decide to either use 2x Veils Flung Away or 2x Waiting Shadow. I picked Veils, and this was another good decision in this game, cause in the last turn I had both on my hand and a hazard limit of 6, while his big company was moving. Alas I couldn’t use Mouth of Sauron to play it a third time, cause the bane was out. But I was able to discard Bolg (with some minor MP stuff) and tap the mall guy. Saruman made sure all of them were tapped. He didn’t draw WHCTK, so not many points in his last round.
I had to make at least 3 points in my last turn. I still had no item, but I had the sapling and Tourque of Hues in my hand.
Aragorn and Sam were at isengart. I sent off Aragorn to have him Return as a King (and maybe play a faction) and left behind the hobbit with his steed. Alatar (with elladan and another character) was directed to the glittering caves.
I had 2 concealment, haflings strength and vanishment in my hand. I felt quite safe, cause Heiner wasn’t able to play much last turn, also he didn’t exhaust yet, so I didn’t expect a full load of hazards. In the end there was only an assassin for aragorn, that could have prevented me from winning this game. Aragorn prevailed and I got both items.
4:2 against heiner, who was considered the strongest player in the field. Very good start!!

At the end of our game antonio told us, that dominik and jordi were playing hero. Both of us thought he is joking, alas, he did not. So I knew that there would be some tough games waiting for me.
In the second round I was paired with Jordi. He knew my deck from semi finals, while I had no idea what to expect. But then, he was playing a deck very similar to his Fallen Alatar, just with a good beard.
In the beginning of this game a lot of things have been in my favour. I got out radagast first (it was the ninth card in jordis deck, who won the starting dice roll). Jordi was going for Tom, but I could tap all his cahracters. Next round I played Tom myself. In the midgame he recovered a little bit, playing some greater items. I then decided to take a little bit of risk, seeing the chance to win higher than just 4:2. I couldn’t have been more wrong!!
I split up companies, so that I had Balin (with Tom) and Kili (under DI) going to Bree. Radagast (with Thorin under DI) stayed at the Grey Havens, Faramir and Beretar (with Glamdring) were leaving from there going to Himring to search for another major item.
I was thinking of keeping together a big company at the Grey Havens, to make sure the influencing of the faction (I had Muster and A Friend or Three) and keep the unused GI high. But as I already mentioned: I got greedy! That’s how the desaster came upon me:
Balin felt alone and unadvised, but Tom was able to help. Alas, a moment later he heeded the Call of Home. Then, Beretar wielding Glamdring met a Raindrake, but even a Rsiky Blow was not enough and worse, he got killed. At least he handed over the weapon to Faramir, who then tried to enter Himring, and got wounded as well. On top of all of this, radagast (with Foolish Words needing a 5) missed the roll on the Elven faction. I had 4 dice rolls below 5 in a row. At this moment the game has completely turned. Had I not sent off Bererat/Faramir, all of this would not have happened.
In the late game I got some more MPs and in the last turn Dror managed to kill Jordis only ally (a noble hound). Itlooked like a 4:2 for Jordi, but there were still some CCs at the Free Council. And indeed Jordi missed the most important one. I think it was Thrain with some greater item (and Alone and Unadvised). So some bad luck on his side concluded a very thrilling game and brought me another 4:2 win.

So after 2 rounds I was in the lead with 8 points. I was playing dominik now (4 points). Heiner was at 7, and Jordi at 5. so nobody was out yet, though Domink needed a big victory in order to have a chance to win.

In this last game things didn’t look good from the beginning. Dominik played Radagast in the first round. Luckily I drew into my deputy Pallando for round 2.
His first move was sending his lonely wizard to Thranduils Halls. I had 2 assassins in my hand, but one Flatter a Foe was enough to arrive there save. The second company was hindered by some Arthadan Rangers, after finding out that they were no Men but Dunadan (so Dominiks second Flatter a Foe was useless) and the second assassin wounded Galdor.
Thanks to 2x Short Rest and 3 companies I drew lots of cards, but after turn 2 I still have not seen a single MP card on my hand.
Domink was gaining points very fast and in the mid game he was quite in the lead. He risked a lot, sending Thranduil all alone to the dead marshes for a greater item. He arrived there alone and unadvised, bearing Cram, but he didn’t fail. He even played the item! Thranduil never got rid of the corruption card till the very end, but luck was with him.
Having used up 17 of the GI (gimli with galdor, and thranduil), I sideboarded muster disperses very soon. I played it 3 times in the game, but never managed to succeed.
Finally I also started to gather some MP cards, and I managed to slow him down a lot: Thranduil didn’t dare to move any longer, dominik wanted to play Sun Unveiled (very nice card, btw!!) on a tapped radagast (at the iron hill dwarf-hold), but I was able to twilight the gates. Next turn adunaphel did her job on him. Gimli/galdor were rivered several times.
That brought me back into the game. Dominik called the council with 26 points, I think I had 20 then. I was in my second cycle already and had 2x short rest on my hand. So I was sure I would draw masses of cards having 3 companies moving and the wizard staying at the Grey Haven waiting for the Elves. Eventually I got everything I needed: Blue Mountain Dwarves (with Friend or Three and Muster), Elves of Lindon, Noble Hound, Palantir of Elostirion. Also 2x Many Turns, 2x Cock Crows, Chance Meeting with Oin, Twilight.
I felt completely safe, starting with Gloin (+Tom) and Kili (wounded) sending them to the White Towers. A raindrake was killed by Tom, but the were prevented by a river. Well, playing the palantir was a rsik anyway, so not much harm done here. More important: Thrain (bearing Durins Axe) on his own on the way to Bree for a Noble Hound. He got Alone and Unadvised, so I answered with Cock Crows. BUT: I didn’t see that tehre are no Gates of Morning in play!! Since both of us used GoM, I just relied on it without making sure. Stupid. I missed the first roll – loss of 6 MPs.
Then, I was sending Balin to the Blue Mountain Dwarf-hold (for 4 MPs cause Allienace was out). And here I made the second bad mistake: I forgot to play Oin before moving. So I couldn’t use Many Turns, which would have made the journey completely safe. Balin got rivered – loss of 4 MPs. At least Pallando influenced the Elves.
At this point Dominik would have won 5:1, but in the end Thranduil failed the final CC, so it was only a 4:2.
The ending of this game was completely crazy. Its okay to loose thanks due unlucky rolls, bad card draw, taking to much risk or simply cause the opponent is better. But making stupid mistakes and thus forfeiting victory is nothing but annoying. I have to admit, I really felt exhausted and it was very hard to keep up concentration in the end (lack of sleep was evident!). still, heaven was so near …
It took a few minutes to realize, that a second place is more than a great result, and it was indeed only a few minute, and I felt happy about it. Heiner showed a great gesture when giving me the artwork of Alliance of the Free Peoples, which was the first prize, saying I would deserve this. Or maybe it was the Wizards Ring (prize for second place), that allured him? Anyway, that a good example why MECCG is such a special game, cause even on a highly competitive level its still a gaterhing of friends. Rome 2010 was another proof of this.

Thanks a lot to Bruno and Enrico, who managed all things to our best satisfaction. “Unfortunately” Bruno got a new job, so he couldnt even participate. Hosting an Event like this may not always seem rewarding, but all of us who have been there experienced a wonderful time.
Last edited by thorondor on Thu Jul 22, 2010 12:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Smaug
Posts: 279
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2007 10:30 am
Location: Germany

Hi marcos,

thanks for congrats. I am 100 % sure you will make it more than hard for me, I would be glad to reach the 7th time in a row the finals (including EC) ;-), if more comes out even better :-), as well I am 100 % sure we will have a lot fun ;-).

Cheers

Heiner
Alter Tuk
Ex Council Member
Posts: 453
Joined: Sun Aug 27, 2006 6:20 pm
Location: Germany

Thanks for those nice reports. Now im even more sad that I couldn`t make it....

But my mates from the national team were representing Germany in an impressive way! Congratulations Heiner! Again a brilliant performance. I hope you`ll keep your shape for Worlds. And also great job, domse, one of the best apprentice boys ever showed up in the world of MECCG. :D

I had a quick look in the Palantir and my prediction for Worlds:

Football: Argentina - Germany 0 : 4
MECCG: Argentina - Germany 0: 6 !!

8)
[url=http://gccg.sourceforge.net/]Come to GCCG or die a lonely death.[/url]
marcos
Council Member
Posts: 2032
Joined: Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:41 pm
Location: Córdoba, Argentina

who are you??? that psychic octopus predicting results???

;)
Jose-san
Ex Council Member
Posts: 234
Joined: Sun Jul 20, 2008 2:22 pm
Location: Valencia, Spain

Very nice reports. Congratulations.
domse
Ex Council Member
Posts: 171
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 11:55 am

Due to the fact that i slept 25 hours from Monday evening to Wednesday morning I wasnt able to finish my report yet (but i started!). Just 2 remarks on the (very nice and detailed!) reports by Heiner and Wolfgang:

@Heiner: I dont see why you have the anti-fw hazards in deck in all 3 games. IMO you should have said before the tournament that you play 1 deck against fallen wizard and minion (which has the 5 WH hazards) and 1 deck against heroes. This way you wouldnt have had them in deck at all, but you would be forced to play with the hazard you metagamed agianst wolfgangs deck... Am I missing something?

@Wolfgang: I only use 15 GI... 17 would indeed be mad.

I promise to post my report ASAP!
domse
Ex Council Member
Posts: 171
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 11:55 am

I put myself at work immediately so here is my report:

Hello community!

Here is my report from euros in Rome which ended in sensational third place for me!

I had booked a flight from Frankfurt Hahn to Rome Ciampino at 6.05 AM in the morning. This was a mistake I will never do again, I couldnt sleep all night and was already destroyed when the event started... On Friday was the usual meeting, sealed deck tournament, chatting, trading, challenge deck play and so on... I went to bed at 4 - leaving me 4 hours of so much needed sleep. I started to realize that this could become a serious problem...

For the main event on saturday I had prepared 2 fallen-wizard decks.
Against hero I was playing my own interpretation of the Radagast Wellinghall-squat. Main differences to the "normal" version are:
- I move Adrazar alone to Eagles Eyrie (relatively safe as he moves last of 3 companies with the same site path). He there plays the Great Eagles with help of a Lordly Presence. By doing so the fallen-radagast-faction-problem is significantly reduced, you dont need a stage card as the eagles are 2 MP by Radagast card text, Adrazar can afterwards play Gwaihir (from the sb) as friend of secret things is in play AND the Eagles count as a faction towards the Girdle of Radagast! All these advantages make this a good change for me! In facts: 3 mind used, 3 cards in deck, 1 cards in sb => possible 5 MP, 2 cards for girdle and a faction that is MUCH harder to influence away than the usual animal factions!
- As Heart Grown Cold is the most obvious hazard against the deck I try something rather weird: I dont play any stage cards until I have a reasonable amount of allies played. This way I dont cross the 5-SP-line and am not affected by heart grown cold. Playing the stage cards to play girdle works this way: On some turn you do the Wellinghall and Eagles Eyrie site phases and play your stuff. Then you do the Rhosgobel and Minas Tirith site phase (Ghan-buri-GHan and Tros Hesnef moved there via Haven-Isengard) and play Radagasts Black Bird and Keys of Orthanc. These are the only stage cards straight in deck. Next Orga phase you play Great Patron and an Untimely brood. This way you have 13 SP and can play girdle. This is even immune to Echoes of the Song, as you can throw away Shifter on an early one, afterwards it is unplayable.

Against minion and fallen-wizards I played a Fallen-Gandalf Await the onset deck:
- Factions are Blue Mountain dwarves (Balin+Dror make a first turn move there), Misty Mountain Wargs (Halbarad + Lordly Presence in starting hidden haven), Tower Guard of Minas Tirith + Men of Anorien (Gandalf, Surion, Elwen, Arwen, Denethor, Boromir form the growing company there)
- Timing on the Minas Tirith company is extremely difficult: you need to have played 1 Faction and a fireworks before you play chamber. For Arwen (which is 3 MP with CHoice of Luthien) you need it to be chambered and so on... this is definitely the biggest weakness of the deck)
- For items and allies i have galdor+annalena in chambered bagend playing the minion red book of westmarch and bill the pony.

After last lure i have seen Franck (from France) formulating low-level and high-level goals for his tournaments and adapted this for myself. I think this is a good thing to do before a tournament. So my low-level goal was: Not to do mistakes I will regret for months and years to come (like i did in Barcelona!). And the high-level goal (esp. with the small amount of player being present): Reach finals!

Forgive me if the reports on the games are not as detailed as Heiners and Wolfgangs. Many details got drowned in the terrible (maybe the most terrible ever) lack of sleep!

First game i played Karsten who also played his own interpretation of the wellinghall squat (also his one was not as strict as mine). I had a very good draw (esp. for the MT company!!!) and was able to play Await the Onset while seriously delaying him. On his last turn I even had the possibility to win 6-0 by pulling the Inner Rot+Balance of Things+Echoes of the Song combo on Radagast. But he did not fail the cc@8... In the end it was 5-1 for me. A very good result with the deck I consider the weaker of the 2 I brought.

Next I played Ugo from Italy. He played a Rivendell-based Old Road+Hour of Need deck. 2 hours later I realized how far away from the game I had been the last 6 months, when Karsten (Ugos next opponent) told me that he did never tap Rivendell for the 2 cards. So obviously his deck would have been destroyed from the very start. We played normally and I was still able to delay him seriously (he did not draw very much cards and recycled A LOT). My ressource portion went very well, as Ugo wasnt very familiar with Anti-FW-strategies and had a Spider+Animal hazard deck. The only effect was that nobody leaving Rhosgobel for the Easterling Camp Express survived. Which didnt bother me at all! In the end it was a 5-1. Okay for me in this situation, still I was later a bit mad at me to not see the obvious illegality. On the other hand it was a much fairer and much more pleasant game this way, as Ugo is a nice guy (although I was unable to decode his sarcasm on Sunday due to my poor state of health. Sorry for that, I normally LOVE sarcasm!)

10 points out of 2 games - it was time to play Heiner. As I knew that you would have to play him at some point if you want to go to the finals I thought of a way to play him. My main problem playing against him in the past was that he constantly broke my concentration forcing me to small errors which summed in a devastating loss. So I put myself into some form of meditation - 90 minutes of non-stop game analysis even when not necessary and just not listening to him. This might sound silly, but it worked for me. Furthermore I had prepared my deck for games against Heiner. I put in some hazards that can hurt his decks (maindeck): The Way is shut, Nameless Thing, Saruman... And I prepared some very special trick: As I know Heiner loves CVCC and that this could be a serious problem for my Minas Tirith company, I packed Lost in freedomains straight into the deck and kept a chamber in hand. So my hope was to lure him into coming to Minas Tirith, play Lost in free domains, play chamber on my turn and play another lost in free domains on his way out. This way he would have lost 2 turns with his main company because of being too greedy. In the game I had that complete combo in hand, but Heiner decided not to attack!
The game started well for me with Heiner failing the Orcs of Moria, Lady on the table and him being short of Voices of Malice - this gives room to other permanent events! On the ressource side i did not have a good draw and the mentioned weakness of the Minas Tirith company timing hindered me a lot. I was constantly playing hazards that kept Heiner away from scoring very high until at one point I had an 8-ressource-hand and had to watch him scoring MP after MP. THe problem with Heiners decks is that they are so flexible - good comparison is the Scylla from greek mythology: If you cut off one head, there grow 2 others. In the end it was a 5-1 for Heiner. I had hoped in the early- and midgame to score higher but i just didnt find the right means and my ressource play was too weak.

As Wolfgang already mentioned there were him, Heiner and Jordi already half-way through into the finals after the third round. They were followed by me, Miguel (spanish guy, Mados on gccg) and Emiliano (an italian guy). I played Emiliano who played a hero deck. It was a similar situation as in the second game, I did not see a single WH hazard and it soon was obvious that I would win the game. I felt a bit of pity for him as I did not stop to tear apart his companies with my (sometimes very effective) mixed hazards against heroes. But each tournament point could be the important, so I needed to make sure. Sorry Emiliano, I guess you didnt have very much fun this game. I did it and won 6-0, after a few minutes of looking around on the other tournament sheets I was sure: I AM IN THE FINALS! YEAH!

As already mentioned - this was the starting point for the psycho war! The german speakers (Karsten, Mario, Heiner, Wolfgang, Thomas and me) went for dinner together. Heiner and Wolfgang speculated about the decks being played the next day and for some reason - unknown to me - they both assumed that I did not bring another deck. I already had decided to play my old hero deck again, so I played my "what can i do about it - i did not expect me to reach finals"-role. Lots of secret amusement, as you can imagine. We sat there a very long time and had a few beers - the only problem was that my own hazardmetagaming wasnt done yet and I felt sleepy as hell. We split at 1.30 I think and I went to Karsten and Marios hotel room (which was very close to mine) to prepare hazards. Thanks a lot you 2 for tips, card borrowing, discussion etc.!!! At some point I had to stop further deckbuilding and go to bed - leaving me 4 hours of sleep - AGAIN!

Sunday morning, on our way to Termini Station I smoked my usual early morning-cigarette. And from then on, things went bad: I felt sick so much, that I spent the next hours - including the first round of the finals with a handy plastic bag... My "doctor" (a friend of mine) confirmed me that this is a common thing to happen when not sleeping. I nevertheless managed to slip into concentration and play finals without greater handicap.

My first game was against Jordi and - surprise! - he played hero too! I would have bet a lot of money, that he doesnt participate in our metagame - wrong! But I think that in his effort of avoiding our metagame he did the mistake of only changing alignment - and still hanging around in the same region. We were all prepared with tons of raindrakes, corsairs, arthadan rangers and so on. So a raindrake ate Thrain II on the first turn and many others went down the drain in the course of the match. Dror turned out to be especially useful playing Twisted Tales AND Pilfer Anything Unwatched before Jordi drew his Withdrawn to Mordor. While my hazards went very well, the ressources sucked. Jordi did slow me down a lot and by my last turn I hadnt influenced a faction (in an Alliance of the free Peoples deck!) but I managed to do it with help of the GREAT card "The sun unveiled" and some serious discussion on the legality of foolish words onguard on a 1-character-company that in M/H-phase already had Foolish Words. I had in the past argued for both sides, but wasnt aware of the latest rulings. Heiner helped on this stating that Mark had ruled it illegal in Barcelona, which was enough for both Jordi and me. SO I got my faction and we did the counting... and it was a TIE! 19-19! We looked at each other a bit puzzled, shook hand and started sorting our decks for the next game. It took about 5 minutes, then a thought stroke my brain: I HAD ORCRIST IN HAND! I should have won this game by one point but had already sorted away all evidence. So my low-level goal not to do mistakes I'd regret for months and years was gone... I rarely have been angrier with myself! Jordi and I rolled for our next opponent and I got Heiner.

So it was Heiner again and I put myself into meditation again. I had a very good starting hand with Landroval, Caveworm, Foolish Words and Lady! He managed to survive the creatures without any harm (damn dice!) but his early Orcs of Moria were gone. He did have a very poor draw and I was able to seriously slow him down. It was the first time during a game that I saw some sort of fear on Heiner. He had lost the first game to Wolfgang and it looked early- and mid-game like he was losing again. But it definitely was not the day for my ressources. I was never able to keep up some flow (besides very few turns). I wasnt able to score enough to actually win this game. In the end there was some bad luck added: at the end of my last turn I had 3 cards left in deck - 2 of them being Beornings and Men of Dorwinion! I had an untapped character with good odds at both sites and had drawn 7 cards that turn. Alliance was already on the table and waited for a man faction to be completed...
For his final turn I had a very good hand including 2 The Way is shut AND the Witch-king was lying on the table. It was very likely that he had only 1 Voices of Malice in hand. He moved the Balrog first with a HL of 2. Now here comes the tricky situation, that made me think about a lot after. I will describe it hear and later post it in the rules section too: I played the way is shut, he responded with 2 HL-reducers. Now the question: Could I have responded with another the way is shut? It cannot be duplicated and the CRF states: A card that cannot be duplicated and that is in play can be played if and only if it is targetted for removal in the same chain of effects! But is my first The Way is shut actually targetted for removal??? Anyway, I did not even think of the possibility to respond. This was the one situation where it got quite obvious that I hadnt played MECCG since LURE. If I had played online a lot last time I would have had the feeling for such situations. So, Heiner saved his Voices for The Witchking and was able to play both the Black Ancient Axe and Aiglos.
I was in a good mood until we counted MP - it was 30-20! I had so much bad luck on my last turn and I did this "mistake" (which I actually now think of different) and a 1-5 did not reflect the game at all. A 2-4 if not a win for me would have much better.

We did the calculations and although I was in last place I had the chance to win the tournament. But I had to beat WOlfgang 6-0. When we sat down he tried to lure me into playing risky as hell, as it would have definitely increased his odds of winning the tournament. It came different. I played Radagast first turn and had both Beornings and Woodelves. I played them both on turn 1. A very good start. Wolfgang on the other hand - although drawing tons of cards - did not draw any MP cards for a couple of turns and the hazards I put in against Eriador decks worked quite well.
Another disturbing point was, that we both played Gates of Morning but I never had my Gates/Twilight handy. Wolfgang twilighted away his gates when i wanted to use them and replayed them on his turn. This was important in quite a lot of situations! Thranduil stayed at the Deadmarshes 3 turns because the Cock Crows didnt work and Radagast was unable to untap for the Ironhilldwarves with the sun unveiled! I still was in the lead - not because of my good ressource play but because wolfgangs was worse! I called with 26 MP and hoped to make it! Wolfgang had to risk everything and split up his company. The result was that mighty Thrain felt Alone and Unadvised... I also had a bodycheck on Pallando after 2 raindrakes which I missed (or was that earlier?). As he already mentioned he forgot to chance-meet his ranger in orga phase and got rivered on his way to blue mountain dwarfhold... So it looked quite well, although I had scored too few points to make it the 6-0 it looked like during midgame!!! I had one cc5 with Thranduil on the council and - dough! - I missed it, which made it a 4-2 for me!

I got third and I was already on place as I am now very fond of it. It was a very good experience to play finals as they have their very own dynamics and I hope this experience will help me in future tournaments. The strangest thing about it is that you CAN measure your errors in TPs there. Normally its useless to say "If i had scored that 1 TP more..." because you would have played a stronger opponent then. In finals each game would have been played anyway.

So in the end, Heiner and me turned out to be perfect team mates and I was able to crown him! I told him he owed me a case of beer and we really went downtown (we were the only germans staying another night). Unfortunately my stomach didnt feel like drinking beer at all, so I watched Heiner drinking beer and we talked til 22.30 or so. The other morning I had to catch another early flight and I was so relieved when I finally arrived home and could sleep.

Thanks to everybody who participated in the event and especially to Bruno for organizing (a PITY that you couldnt play yourself!) and to the other german-speakers who made the trip another wonderful holiday for me! And of course congratulations to Heiner (and thanks for the nice words in your report about me :D)

See you all at the next events!
Dominic "domse"
Last edited by domse on Thu Jul 22, 2010 6:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Smaug
Posts: 279
Joined: Wed Jul 04, 2007 10:30 am
Location: Germany

Hi Dominic,

what would have been indeed a great idea, but of course had the not to underestimated risk that I had to play hero-FW hazard deck against minion if someone changes to minion :-). This time it would have been indeed perfect! Good idea!

Cheers

Heiner
domse
Ex Council Member
Posts: 171
Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2007 11:55 am

Well you knew that I dont play Minion in general, that Wolfgang had no other deck and you expected Jordi 100% to play his Fallen-Alatar...
marcos
Council Member
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Joined: Sun Feb 18, 2007 5:41 pm
Location: Córdoba, Argentina

A card that cannot be duplicated and that is in play can be played if and only if it is targetted for removal in the same chain of effects! But is my first The Way is shut actually targetted for removal??
your first the way is shut wasn't targetted for removal :)

and congrats for the results!
Beornd
Posts: 168
Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 5:15 pm

Really nice and detailed reports but is there no offical result, pariticipants and infos about sideevents :(
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i gwanunig
Posts: 100
Joined: Sat Feb 03, 2007 9:16 am
Location: Graz, Austria
Contact:

Dear guys

Here my tournament/vacation report on the EM2010 in Rome.

Day1
It was the first time for me in Rom, and I arrived with Wolfgang early Thursday morning. Our room was not ready til 1200 we started a small trip to the usual places (Colosseum, Forum Romanum) [-me_rl-] .
In the afternoon I scouted around the old city visiting all the must seen as Fontana di Trevi, Pantheon, St Angelis, St.Peter. I stayed rather long in St.Peter because it was so cool - the tempearture and the stuff, the myth,... [-me_sp-]

In the evening we met Mario and Karsten and went out for some serious drinks :wink:

Day2
Wolfgang was already preparing decks (he must have anticipated something) while I take another journey in the eternal city.
In the afternoon we finally met the other players/traders/spouse had some talking and the hero sealed. I think I managed 4th or so.
Unfortunatly the playing gound closed at 2100 - so we went out for a local gaming pub where some of us played 2rounds challenge decks.

Day3

The main event. I manged to play my worst tournament on ECs/WCs ever so I will not talk about that :cry: . I was really happy to see Wolfgang entering the finals - til I realized what that means for me. A whole night deck-building Wolfgang in my room - no joking I slept very well :P .
After the event we went to a really nice restaurant where the locals romans go out for saturday dinner. At first it looked little bit expensive - but it wasn´t. We had a really nice time there :oops: . The mental game btw. Heiner, Wolfgang and Domink was fully engaged - and funny to watch. You could see that Heiner has seen some finals during his years.


Day4
The finals. As we saw that Jordi, Wolfgang and Dominik were all playing hero - I anticipated a little disadvantage for Heiner adue to his full anti-FW strategy and put Wolfgang an my winner list. But finals are finals, they have their own dynamic. So it the end it was Heiner. For us other more important - In parallel he managed also to bring the beer prize down by 50cent.
The rest of us were playing MinionSealed. Unfortunatly there were a lot of dropping out due to different raesons and so in the end I was the lucky one :lol: .



[-me_rl-] It was great trip for me (historical as well) and I hope to see all the italian guys which relaunched playing the game on the next events [-me_rl-]


Thanks to Bruno for organizing that nice event.

Thomas
What business does an Elf, a Man and a Dwarf have in the Steiermark? Speak quickly!
thorondor
Ex Council Chairman
Posts: 727
Joined: Tue Apr 18, 2006 6:53 pm
Location: salzburg, austria
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i have posted my decks that i have used in the final:
against Hero/FW:
http://www.councilofelrond.org/forum/vi ... =54&t=1477
against Min:
http://www.councilofelrond.org/forum/vi ... =54&t=1476
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