MECCG at StrategiCon, LAX/Hilton, 15-16 Feb 2020

TradewindRider
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Greetings All,

It’s my pleasure to announce that there will be MECCG at StrategiCon at the Los Angeles Airport (LAX) Hilton the weekend of 15-16 Feb 2020. There will be a slight change to the agenda starting this Con as I’m planning to be there only on Saturday and Sunday, but am hoping to stay on site at the hotel Saturday night.

There will be open windows for MECCG on Saturday 15 Feb, 10:00 AM - 10:00 PM, and Sunday 16 Feb 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM, for any and all decks that you wish to bring for open gaming. There will likely be MECCG players there by Friday afternoon as well. And as usual, we will have Hero Arda, modified challenge decks, and our own preconstructed decks available.

Please mark your calendars, and hope to see you there!

TradewindRider
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CDavis7M
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I'll be there on Saturday. I'm thinking about staying Friday night if people will be there on Friday. I think I'll have family plans on Sunday.
TradewindRider
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Greetings,

There are always folks there on Friday afternoon, as early as 1:00 PM, no later than 3:00...come on up before the 5 gets slammed by weekend traffic! :D

TradewindRider
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CDavis7M
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Yeah, Friday is not the easiest to manage. I'm thinking to staying Saturday night instead.

Update: I'll be there Saturday and Sunday.
TradewindRider
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Greetings,

I've submitted MECCG events for Saturday and Sunday, and I might be there Friday as well...though I'm not sure Friday will be all that well-attended, seeing as it's Valentine's Day, lol.

TradewindRider
Goblin King
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Looks like I can join the party! Should I bring Dark ARDA? Or just some constructed decks?
TradewindRider
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Greetings Goblin King,

Awesome to hear from you, your Great Malevolence! :)

Please feel free to bring Dark Arda if you have room in your baggage, and any Dream Card decks you may have available! I've been working on DC-fying some of my existing decks and skinnying my DC decks down to 30/30 (so they're easier to shuffle, lol).

Updated time windows are Saturday 11:00-2:00, 3:00-6:00, and 7:00-10:00; and Sunday 11:00-2:00 and 3:00-6:00. See you there!

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CDavis7M
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I'll be there Saturday and Sunday. Count me in for DARK ARDA!

Also, I'll try to pack at least one Dream Card deck.
TradewindRider
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Greetings Chris,

Great to hear, looking forward to seeing you!

I will have the following DC decks--I realized I wasn't playing Dream Cards as much as I was hoping because of my frustrations with the statistics and the shuffling of an 80-card deck, so all are back to my usual 30/30, and are DC legal (minimum 8 per side):

Dain Dwarf-Lord (roaming around in dragon country)
Balin Dwarf-Lord (sneaking around in Eriador)
Galadriel Elf-Lord (taking ring matters into her own hands)
Necromancer (variant of dragon faction decks you've seen me play before)
Fallen Radagast (amazingly thematic nature-based hazard side)

TradewindRider
Goblin King
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I'm bringing Dark Arda, 2 dream card decks, one fallen wizard deck.
TradewindRider
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Roger that, your Great Malevolence--looking forward to seeing you there!

TradewindRider
TradewindRider
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This past weekend was personally one of the most fun MECCG weekends I’ve experienced for a long time. This was mostly because of the many opportunities to playtest my Dream Card (DC) decks, which I’ll cover in a separate write-up. But I had also decided to simplify the scheduling and divested myself of the other scheduled events that I’d been running. Due to Valentine’s Day and the coronavirus situation, there was some early concern that turnout would be a bit lighter than usual, and this was true on Friday, as Gandalf Gene and I were the first ones in the CCG venue, but things picked up nicely on Saturday and again on Sunday afternoon, so overall attendance was what it should have been.

I picked up Gandalf Gene as usual from the LAX airport around noon, before traffic really got heavy with the holiday weekend vacationers (it was Presidents Day weekend here in the US). We played a couple of games before Dan showed up later in the afternoon. The Goblin King arrived later that night, going down down to Goblin Town (good alternate moniker for Los Angeles, lol), evading all the last-minute Valentine’s Day commitments, and bringing his Dark Arda set to boot. I defer to the Goblin King to detail their Saturday afternoon Dark Arda contest, as I was indisposed playing the LotR TCG game with one of the CCG venue coordinators.

Chris also drove in from San Diego and graced us with his presence for not one but two full days, as he anticipates family commitments will prevent him from participating during Memorial Day weekend. He brought in an ample supply of multi-hued D6s with Saruman runes, quite appropriate for the Wizard of the Many-Coloured Robes. Bruce arrived, packing his Balrog deck and blueberry muffins from the cafe as usual, as did Kaonee from up in NorCal—he endeavored to introduce his friend, who actually defeated me soundly in the LotR TCG and Star Wars Destiny in conventions past, to MECCG by playing hero challenge decks. Kaonee also played a hero challenge deck against Dan’s Dwarves and Wolves deck, and it turned out to be an entertaining match that ended up with over 30 MPs on either side.

Again, most of my games were active playtests of my skinnied-down DC decks, but I did take time to play a basic-game Fallen Pallando deck a couple of times on Sunday. I’d actually played a Fallen Alatar deck against Tom’s Fallen Pallando deck up in Las Vegas for MECCG@Vegas (IV) last month, and I reminded him that a Fallen Pallando deck had actually won Worlds here in Oakland back in October 2014. That conversation inspired me to dust off my own Fallen Pallando deck and tweak it a bit with Gollum and Short Rests, but it’s still an uphill climb trying to get enough MPs to be viable. Indeed, the resources took a back seat when I played against the Goblin King, who brought in a Fallen Gandalf deck very similar to mine, and the plethora of Assassins and Slayers I use to defend myself in the Eriador faction sites proved very effective.

My second game using the resurrected Fallen Pallando deck was against none other than Gandalf Gene during the last game of the weekend for me on Sunday night. What we hoped to be a cool-down game turned out not to be so, as he was continuing to fine-tune his new Lidless Eye spellcasters deck. I started with my favorite Fallen Wizard character pairings (Faramir with an Elf Stone controlling Annalena, and Wormtongue controlling Theoden, both with Thrall) supported by maximum Stealths/Sneakings and Secret Entrances/Cracks in the Wall, plus Ioreth at the Wizardhaven to hold the fort. The first turn went well as I cashed in the Key to the White Tower at Barrow Downs and added a faction, but things slowly went downhill when Gene’s parties crossed the Misty Mountains from Dol Guldur intent on spreading maladies and seeking CvCCs. Both Wormtongue and Theoden went down returning to the haven, but Taladhan was stopped when he attempted to infect Faramir at Bag End, slowed down by the Hobbit/Dunadan autos and finally succumbing to the Assassin I’d placed on guard. Both of us cycled our decks far short of our mission and MP goals, so we shook hands and called it a night. Seemed like old times when I lived up in NorCal, when Gene and I played at least twice a month on Saturdays.

Again, it was the most fun I’ve had at an MECCG weekend in a while, and we hope to come close to matching that fun level at StrategiCon during Memorial Day weekend, 22-24 May. Many thanks to everyone who attended, see you all then!
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CDavis7M
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It was a fun weekend! Thanks for the games everyone.

I did take notes on our first hero Arda match on Saturday - the one where all but one of the wizards were lost. I took decent notes in the beginning but started to lose track quickly. I had "too much good stuff" and was planning it all out, and then things got crazy at the end, so I missed a lot of things happening.

Starting Companies:
  • Chris with Alatar, Strider, Boromir, and Gimli.
    Image
  • Gene with Saruman, Thrain, Balin, and Bilbo.
    Image
  • Bruce with Radagast, Beorn, Thranduil, and Eowyn.
    Image
  • Ralph with Gandalf, Dain, Cirdan, Hama and Gamling.
    Image
Turn 1:
  • C: moves everyone from Edhellond to Dol Amroth and marshal the Knights of Dol Amroth.
  • B: Radagast, Faramir, and Eowyn move to the Gray Havens and marshal the Elves of Lindon.
Turn 2:
  • C: Moves everyone to The Stones, Strider becomes Aragorn, and obtains The Iron Crown.
  • R: Angmar has Arisen, the Olog Hai Trolls kill Peath and Dain.
Turn 3:
  • C: move to Dunharrow and meet its Master, then off to Moria to obtain the Book of Mazarbul.
  • G: The Dwarves obtain a leaf brooch.
  • B: Got lost on the way to The Barrowdowns and went to Ettenmoors instead.
  • R: Gandalf creates a Wizard's Ring.
Turn 4:
  • C: Moves to Hermit's Hill and finds a Sapling of the White Tree.
  • G: Finds a 2nd gold ring at Isengard (had one from a previous turn).
  • B: Radagast uses Wizard's Flame against an attack and gets corrupted instead, turning into a Traitor and killing Faramir.
  • Ren the Unclean appears twice, triggering 2 checks at 4 or 5 for several characters but everyone stays true to their mission.
Turn 5:
  • C: Aragorn and Alatar move to Minas Tirith (plays The White Tree?). Gimli separates and loses the Book of Mazarbul to Were Worms.
  • G remembers The Nazgul Are Upon You and plays Ren again. Alatar rolls Lidless Eyes and is corrupted. (2nd Wizard down).
  • The Council is Called
Council:
  • C: Gandalf gets corrupted at the Council, Aragorn with the Iron Crown stays true. (3rd Wizard Down). Maybe because of Palantir of Minas Tirith and Bane of the Ithil Stone? (I forget).
  • G: Saruman is the only wizard left and he has marshaled the greatest force.
Last edited by CDavis7M on Thu Feb 20, 2020 5:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
TradewindRider
Posts: 130
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2015 3:07 pm

...thanks for the update, Chris! Would like to post some of the pictures from the Con last weekend, but need a little help, please... :D
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CDavis7M
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Location: California

I added some pictures of the Arda setup. I'll add some pictures to your other post.
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