Well, here's my report.
Friday:
In contrast to previous years, my familiy didn't accompany me this time. I arrived at the castle quite early, so there was plenty of time to check-in and say hello to several people.
After Wolfgang's introduction, I took part in the German Hero-Sealed tournament. The first game was against Domse. Unfortunately we had got identical fixed packs, so neither of us got any of the good characters (Beorn or Gimli). I managed to get ahead, mostly because I found my wizard earlier. But Domse skillfully recovered, and I lost 2:4 in the end. Perfectly fair. The second game vs Jürgen was extremely close. In my last turn, we had the same number of MPs, but I had a company at the Wind-Throne an Dreams of Lore in hand. So the decision was: Do I risk entering the site (with an enhanced auto-attack) for the chance of victory, or do I just play safely, doing nothing, for a 3:3. I chose the second option, was totally happy, until I lost a character and an item to the final corruption check at the council. 2:4
. The last match vs Roberto was a 4:2. A nice and normal game in which I just accomplished a bit more than him.
By the evening, Jobsti and his girls had already arrived, and we gathered for some relaxed rounds of Arda together with our Dutch friend Gert-Jan.
Saturday:
This was LotR-LCG-day for me. Wolfang was so kind to provide some promo-stuff (nightmare decks etc). But not too many people seemed interested. Still, Jobsti and David were eager to play a tutorial with the preconstructed decks and an easy adventure. In the afternoon Jürgen and I got together and tried some more advanced scenarios in Moria. Once we succeeded, once we failed when we could already see the light from outside. Still, lots of fun!
In the evening there was another highlight: Cool Play! I had brought (again!) my Alatar/Boromir/Faramir deck and was desperate to make it work at least once. The first match vs David (Esp) went extremely well. I fullfilled one scenario (Boromir) and gathered so many MPs and Cool Play turns that I ended up with a massive 9 tournament points. The second match vs Beornd was extremely hard. I had to deal with some annoying agents and fell behind on MPs. But the Cool Plays were enough so that the final result was a 7:7. The last game vs Thomas, who won the tournament in the end, started in the worst possible way. Even before my first turn ended, I had 2 wounded characters (including the wizard, I think) and he had 3 Cool Play points from multiple trolls and Dunlendings. What a god-draw! From that point on, there was no way to catch up again, but still the 3 TPs I gathered were enough for the 3rd place
. Hooray!
Sunday:
Originally, I had planned to take part in the Pool Sealed, but spontaneously decided to skip that and just play some more casual rounds of Arda instead. After all, that's what the weekend was supposed to be about: fun, not stress.
And that was it. Lots of fun, lots of meetings with nice people and friends. Thanks to all players who were there, and especially to Wolfgang for organizing the event and for being such a generous host. Hope to see you all next year.