014-Insights

[dirhaval]

The FATE of MIDDLE-EARTH

Insights

CONTENTS

Introduction

Deck Sizes

Deck Requirements

Marshalling Points

Cannot be duplicated and Deck exhaustion




Introduction

There are some things to keep in mind when reviewing FATE. It is foreseeable for a person to misinterpret the dynamics of FATE if the person uses the customary MECCG style of play. Below are insights to understand how and why FATE is the way it is.

FATE attempts and succeeds in showcasing the strengths and weaknesses of the major theme decks. This will be a long game played over two days in 24 hours of game time.


*Most of the 40players will not play in the second (final) round of FATE

*You want your deck to take 8-10 turns to exhaust

*You may want to have 7-10 characters in your starting playdeck.

*You can only have up to two copies of Doors of Night/Gates of Morning in your entire deck.

*Put four copies of your avatar into your playdeck

*You may not want to play uniques that a Friend wants to play too.

*You will be prepared to be in CvCC several times in your first 20 turns

*You expect that 50% of your characters will be eliminated in the first 20 turns

*Each player has an opponent which to focus hazards and attacks on you and vice-versa


I chose to use ‘Fate’ in the title to show complexity and completeness. No way do I believe Fate to be the ‘best’ sub-creation or use of MECCG. Playing a starter-only game will be pleasing and involve game mechanics not associated with FATE, but are associated with MECCG.

I am the author of the decks that illustrate FATE. Playing and preparing FATE will take hours and involve organization of CCG that I have never witnessed or heard. I do not expect FATE to be played with these decks. The decks show how and why factions can attack the way they do and why you may want to destroy havens.

I expect players to make their own decks. It is true that ‘one mind’ made the decks and this was easy in deciding which player uses which unique. In a real FATE game, Friends will discuss who will play a particular unique.

I have seen multi-player game rules that allow duplicates of uniques. FATE avoids this duplication by allowing the richness of the risk of playing uniques (i.e. influencing, card drawing). There is no duplication of uniques in MECCG. Some players may argue that it is folly to design a game so every player can have several uniques from a slim unique pool and have fun. I agree. Who would like to play with only 6 unique characters? I expect not many. All but one Hero player has at least 8 unique characters in his pool But, I have made decks which show 40 players designing decks that are challenging with common cards and be quite enjoyable to play, in my humble opinion. FATE is not going to be easy, and will not be fun without some sort of risk and loss. Remember, this is for 40 players. A game with 16 players will be more than twice the simplicity than with 40.


Deck Sizes

I will now discuss the deck sizes. FATE has a 40/40 resource/hazard mix. A maximum of 10 characters can be included in the starting playdeck. The sideboard includes 40 cards. A minimum of 18 creatures is required for the playdeck. I chose the playdeck to have a specific number of cards to make the creation of the decks easier to handle. If there were no size criteria, I will be endlessly tweaking the decks. From my viewing of this forum, I have included some Dream cards into FATE, but there must some point which I must stop and finish FATE. Though, in a few years the expansion sets of others will have been critiqued and play tested for this length of time, and FATE will then use these sets with much fewer changes, if not any changes. I estimate I have spent 80% of my time with FATE tweaking the decks (There are 80+ decks associated with Fate!). I feel like Tolkien tying those loose knots and seeing new links branch out from the main path that must be mapped.

If FATE is ever played, it will be in a few years and by this time the expansion sets will be fleshed out and ready to be played. There are many Dream cards from the expansions I specifically chose not to include in favor of the original cards. If someone is going to spend the time and money in traveling to the location of the FATE game, this person can use any card they like, which is accepted by those in the actual game.


It is possible to have any playdeck size (30 minimum of course) without changing FATE significantly. I will be in favor of a no-specific-deck-size rule if others are in favor of it.

People will argue to not impose a specific deck size. Some benefits occur if there is a specific deck size. Players will exhaust roughly around the same time, and this gives a good picture how the game will progress at key junctions. A 33/33 deck will not be hindered if cards are slowly drawn if played against many 40/40 decks. A 40/40 deck will be a pain if the deck is slow to exhaust. So, if you manage to play expertly and luckily against a fast deck, you will not be rewarded. If most of the players have 40/40 decks, it will not be a good thing to have a very fast deck, you will have many turns to do nothing until the council is called; you might be ready for the council, but your allies will not. Why not do something useful? Put more cards in your deck. You will have the time to do more, while others are doing more. Moving will be dangerous with two maybe four opponents a few regions away at all times, so why not put in stealth and combat cards to fill the space. These extra 14 cards do allow a greater depth to the game by increasing the time of play. But if you going to play at this complexity already, why not add a little more flavor?


Deck Requirements

Most of the playdecks begin with 7-10 characters. This is a lot. Expect a lot of combat and dead characters. If you do not have at least 5 dead characters after 20 turns, then I would suspect that you played safe and are likely not in a good position to win. You can try and play with fewer characters, but do you really want too after spending all this time preparing?

There might be qualms about not enough characters. There are 73 original MECCG unique hero characters. I have included many new characters including those from the Dream Card folks on this forum. I use a spreadsheet to attempt to spread the stats and skills
of the races and alignments.

I have already played one-one games myself using customized electronic spreadsheets. It takes about 9-11 turns to exhaust a deck of 93 cards. This includes playing cycle cards (Smoke Rings, Vilya) and tapping your avatar to bring in cards from the sideboard. The number of cards cycled into the playdeck on the first go-around can be up to 15-20. The average number of cards drawn per turn per player is from 8.5-10. With multi-hazard players, you will be playing more cards and so expect these numbers to not fall below the minimum given above. The number of cards in the second playdeck is slightly less than the first playdeck minus 8 (first hand drawing). So the second playdeck should not exhaust much quicker than the first deck. So the decks that are well constructed can be played successfully in such a long two-deck game.

Almost every card has a good chance of being played when in the hand.


Marshalling Points

The game can only be won in the 40-player format by the way of the Ring. But the action to initiate the 16-player format is the race to 32 MP.

Some players will reach 32 MP by 15 turns; some will need 20 turns to reach 32 MP. So, there is a MP race happening in the game. The MP race is naturally tilted in favor of the minions, more so towards the Dragons and Balrogs. That is why, in my opinion, the One Ring must be cast into Mount Doom for the heroes to have a chance of winning. That means the Ring-player needs time (no less than 16 turns) to prepare for the final leg from Rivendell to Mordor. But many minions will have 32 MP by then to call the Black Council. After this council, Mordor will be unleashed with many factions, and the havens will be besieged. That is why the other hero players must get more than 32 MP and directly attack minion companies.

Some will say, “I have a great Dunk Deck. Let me play that and we will win in a few turns.” Good plan, but bad idea. If you look at my example decks, you will see that there will be at least two Nazgûl and the Mouth in and near Mordor at all times. Some minion companies are designed to do nothing but kill heroes. If you somehow get the One Ring into play in a short amount of time, then every minion will hunt you down, because Mordor is somewhat deserted in the beginning.

Mordor will be guarded and populated as the game continues. You are right to think the beginning is the best time to dunk the Ring. But you will need every resource and character necessary to do this. If you fail, then you may well have eliminated Frodo or Bilbo. If your Wizard is eliminated, then you have lost a great ally AND hope another hero has the resources to dunk the Ring; but if this attempt was the best attempt, then you are doomed. If your Wizard falls, then you have a fallen-wizard in great position to play the One Ring. Why not use 24turns to set up your final trek to Mount Doom? You will have 19 Allies to counter the enemy, buying you time AND to get you the resources you need. Besides, like Frodo, you have fate on your side.

In my opinion, for the the Heroes to win the councils should be called by the heroes when the One Ring is brought into play by them. The council’s length is four turns. The first half of the game will be about 24 turns. The heroes will have a limited time to destroy the Ring after the councils, because it will be hard to get into Mordor and the havens will not last under sieges of several factions.

After the councils, Balrogs and Dragons will be racing towards 50 MP to win the game. A post-council Balrog player will quickly gather MP (maybe as little as 12) to call the game (calling the game is like calling the council for official MECCG). That will not take the Balrog too long to get enough MP. That is why I made a post-council Wizard deck (Alatar) to specifically hunt the Balrog at this point. I expect the post-council game to be 7-12 turns - about one deck length. That sounds good. And if a game lasts 32 turns, then that will be great. Because, if you look at the Elves of Evermist deck, it is estimated to take 30 turns to find all four Tears of Yavanna. If all four Tears are found, then the hand size of Sauron is reduced by two! The last two turns of the game will have Sauron with a small hand size while our heroes move into Mordor with the Ring. Fate comes together smoothly in the end.

It will be a long time (~5 turns) to get out the avatar in a 93 card pre-8 draw playdeck. Yes, for only using three copies of the avatar. This will be a problem if you want to have you avatar out soon. Fate allows up to four copies of your avatar. In a 33/33 deck, with three copies, you have ~25 cards per avatar card. Fate has ~23 cards per avatar card. The ratio is slightly better in a game that will involve your avatar tapping a great deal. Players can decide if an avatar card can be used to untap the same avatar in play or maybe exchange it for a sideboard card? I’ll let the players decide how to handle this situation.

[In reality, a game played on tables around mugs of beer will really be about MP].



Cannot be duplicated and Deck exhaustion

Cards which are discarded when any playdeck is exhausted will be a problem in Fate when decks will exhaust almost every turn after 7 turns and cards like Doors of Night may flood the gaming table.

It is unreasonable to have Doors of Night decks to have three copies of Doors of Night. In the first 10 turns, there could be 30 such cards drawn. The same can be said of Gates of Morning, but environment permanent and long-events will not last long. So, Fate imposes a two card limit to (Doors and Gates in each play deck) and four total in a Division to allow the environment events a few turns of use.

The cannot be duplicated cards will only have that condition imposed in their Division and for special cards. For example, a Doors of Night played by Mouth, will only affect the players during his Division turns.

[As an example: Khamual, Azog, Felagrog-will always be in Mouth's Division] Doors will affect Mouth, Felagrog, Azog, Khamual and then the hero Division opposite of Mouth at the time.

When two Divisions meet for the first time, there may be duplicated permanent events. For example, Dwar may have The Moon is Dead and so does Cirdan. The player with the most MPs will choose which card stays and the other is discarded. If a tie of MP, then roll. The same is said for a Doors/Gates situation, unless a player wants to twilight or play another copy of their card.


News of Doom, Favor of Valor and similar cards will remain global cards.

Heroes cannot play News of Doom.

Creature, Spawn, and Dragon Roused permanent events are global and cannot be duplicated. Grond is global.

These methods are not perfect, but keeps the game good enough to play. Please keep these insights in mind while reviewing the FATE rules and decks for better understanding. If you do not like an aspect I have mention, that is ok. Those that play in a game such as FATE can have any aspect they like if his co-players like the aspect too. If I happen to be touring Europe one day walking through a castle and notice that a 16-player MECCG game is occurring, I would be happy to just watch and see how the game evolves, even if its players know of FATE and decided to not adopt many or none of its mechanics.



I hoped these insights will help in your understanding of FATE while minimizing confusion. Thank you for viewing FATE.

[Thorsten the Traveller]

Thanks for these insights, that's already a big help.

Perhaps you can shed some more light on these issues below as well?

- how does a multiplayer on such a large scale actually work? What is the format (1x1, 2x2, other), and which precedural rules must be observed? Are there technological aids required?

- what are the key mechanisms of FATE? (destroying Havens, destroying One Ring, the councils/culling mechanism, deck reconstructing). I remember reading about them at the website long ago, perhaps that site is still around, but more useful would be to have a PDF with all such info on this board. (see for example Arda rules file, though infinitely more simple in scale of course).

- are there special FATE rules to observe when actually playing? Do you use standard meccg rules, or perhaps (some) dreamcard rules, i.e. a selection of deviating rules?

btw. I think people can look up the dreamcards on gccg, I wouldn't waste time on getting all of them into a text file, but rather focus on the new cards you actually made for FATE alone, I'd be interested to check out those ideas (even if they're mostly characters/creatures?).

[dirhaval]

Thank you for the questions.

how does a multiplayer on such a large scale actually work? What is the format (1x1, 2x2, other), and which precedural rules must be observed?

I posted note 380 for the turn sequence. It appears complex and in-depth. Some may just want one hazard player per turn, but I feel that will leave not many hazards played on some turns. If you keep the same four or five hazard players, then this will be devastating on the players. Multiple hazards is a compromise on playing hazards but not too many or too few and keeping your main hazard player near you.
*
Are there technological aids required?
Recent inventions will allow each player a quick guide on the turn sequence like iPads. Flat-screen televisions will be common in the gaming room to denote which sites are in use and MP totals. I like for each player to bring a buddy to get him snacks and water - a buddy who is ignorant on the game. That is the buddy will be walking around the gaming table and may be seeing "hands." An ignorant buddy will not know what is happening in the game to inform his buddy.
*
what are the key mechanisms of FATE? (destroying Havens, destroying One Ring, the councils/culling mechanism, deck reconstructing). I remember reading about them at the website long ago, perhaps that site is still around, but more useful would be to have a PDF with all such info on this board. (see for example Arda rules file, though infinitely more simple in scale of course).
These key mechanisms, I feel, are natural by default with my style of this game. The destroying of havens is a sure method of the minions to trouble any Ringbearer. Haven destruction is an option in the game.

I rather like the One Ring be the final mechanism of the game. However, that may be difficult by playing and keeping the item in play. One might induce a +1 to the ring tests every few turns if the game is getting too long. This is why I like to add the Evermist and Court of Ardor elves for other methods to end the game.

The councils are a mechanism to have those "master" companies with all the items and permanent-events to determine the winner. With such a large game I like to have Ringwraith companies. That is the point of the Warlord phase. My past use of the Warlord phase were only a few turns. I like to extend this phase. May be the start the Warlord phase will begin when the first player exhaust twice. Then the council will start when a player has exhausted twice and has reached 32 MP.


are there special FATE rules to observe when actually playing? Do you use standard meccg rules, or perhaps (some) dreamcard rules, i.e. a selection of deviating rules?
I will be posting any FATE rules. I like to use as much of the standard MECCG rules as possible except for starter movement = too safe for my tastes. I will be using the dreamcard rules.

When I get a file with my card ideas I will post them up.