MECCG at Gateway 2018/LAX on Labor Day Weekend!

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TradewindRider
Posts: 130
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2015 3:07 pm

Greetings All,

Am pleased to announce that there will be MECCG at the Strategicon/Gateway 2018 over the Labor Day weekend, 1-2 Sept 2018, at the Hilton Hotel beside the Los Angeles International Airport! This is the schedule for MECCG events, though we can be flexible depending on attendance and the players' wishes:

- Saturday, 1 Sept: 11:00 AM-3:00 PM - Open/Casual Games.
- Saturday, 1 Sept: 3:00-7:00 PM - Multi-Player Hero Arda.
- Sunday, 2 Sept: 10:00 AM-2:00 PM - Open/Casual Games.
- Sunday, 2 Sept: 2:00-6:00 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 2018 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?goto=cp
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CDavis7M
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Location: California

Hi Tradewind. Thanks for pointing me in this direction. I'm within a 2 hour drive of Hilton LAX so I'm thinking to go to one of the days. Saturday would be better than Sunday, right?

FYI, I haven't ever played a "real" game of MECCG. Currently working on putting together a couple METW only decks to practice with.
Goblin King
Posts: 237
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2012 4:49 am

I'm sure there will also be a set of the pre-constructed decks around so don't feel pressure to build your own deck CDavis7M. Also ARDA is a great way to learn the basic rules of the game. We have many new players sit down and play ARDA on the first day and then on the second day they are able to pilot a reconstructed deck on their own.
TradewindRider
Posts: 130
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2015 3:07 pm

Greetings All,

Yes, indeed--Gandalf Gene always has a set of (slightly) pumped up hero challenge decks available to play. Saturday and Sunday are equally good, and a few of us will be there on Friday as well. And I live east of LA with almost a 2-hour drive one way, and am planning to drive in all 3 days--suggest just getting there early to avoid all the traffic going to the beaches.

Also, for anyone driving in, suggest planning ahead and perhaps making reservations for parking ("The Parking Spot" next door is usually where I park, but last Memorial Day it was full and I had to find an alternate).

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

TradewindRider
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CDavis7M
Posts: 2816
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2018 3:10 am
Location: California

Thanks for the tip Tradewind. I looked up the reservations and it looks like the cheaper uncovered parking option is already sold out at "The Parking Spot Century" on 5701 W. Century Blvd. The slightly more expensive covered option is still available. I'm going to go ahead and make reservations. It seems like reservations can be conveniently canceled, which is nice.

The FAQ says:
How do I change or cancel a reservation?
First, click here to search for your reservation using your confirmation number or by signing in to your Spot account. You will then be able to change or cancel your reservation... Reservations may be changed or canceled up to 1 hour before check-in.
Goblin King
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Looks like three of us will be coming from Northern California! I'm bringing my Dark Arda set for possible play testing.
CCG Collector
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Goblin King wrote: Tue Aug 28, 2018 12:48 pm Looks like three of us will be coming from Northern California! I'm bringing my Dark Arda set for possible play testing.
Definitely post an update if you revise it after testing. I've begun to build the cube based on your decklist, but I don't want to get too far into it if there's a chance it will change.
Middle Earth and other CCG unboxings, booster openings, and guides: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCCGCollector
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CDavis7M
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I'll be there on Saturday. I don't think I can pre register for the event since I'm just going 1 day. But I'm planning to attend the MECCG 101 event at 11am and the Arda event at 3pm. I'll be at the convention earlier though.
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rezwits
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Man, I want to be there :(

Have fun guys!!
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TradewindRider
Posts: 130
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2015 3:07 pm

Greetings All,

The Gateway 2018 convention at LAX is still ongoing this Labor Day holiday, but we’ve adjourned our MECCG events for the weekend. Would like to thank everyone who was able to attend, including (as always) Gandalf Gene from Cupertino and especially Goblin King from Sacramento. Welcome as well to CDavis7M for participating and bringing your constructed Hero decks—you are certainly more than up to speed on how to play the game and are a very welcome addition to our playing group! And to rezwits, we certainly missed you, hope to see you at the next convention in February!

We had the normal teaching/101 and Hero Arda sessions on the schedule, but we were very flexible to accommodate several players eager to learn or continue learning the game. We held a 3-player Arda game on Sunday afternoon to accommodate one of our new arrivals, and we also had several 1-1 games using Gandalf Gene’s modified Hero challenge decks. The highlight of our Hero games was a 4-way Hero challenge deck game that was very competitive and full of combat, as the missions appeared to mesh very well with the modified hazard sides!

Most importantly, though, was the fact that Goblin King brought a MINION ARDA deck for extensive playtest! Many of us have been quite eager to see this environment—I will defer to Goblin King for the detailed notes, but my initial impressions are quite favorable:

- We played two games, one Friday night and an even longer one on Saturday night. Our group is generally less familiar with minions and the hazards that can be played against them, let alone the “flip side” of the sites that now include Darkhavens and Freeholds that are very dangerous to minion companies, so some time was spent in familiarizing ourselves in this new environment.

- The initial choice of Ringwraiths and the draft are, obviously, critical to one’s chances in the game. Especially in a game with fewer players, choosing the Ringwraiths that can have Ringwraith followers is a no-brainer. I do favor Adunaphel’s canceling abilities combined with a covert company, and did okay in the first game with some favorable draws for the MP cards, but not so well in the second game as the covert company proved underpowered. By contrast, the second game was won by a newer player who chose Dwar the Ringwraith and was able to draft two Lieutenants—that company was beefy right from the get-go and, due to Prone to Violence being in effect from the beginning, was a threat to the other companies as well.

- Having the mode cards available to each Ringwraith (instead of waiting to draw them from the 600+ cards of the event deck) was a very useful option to have—some players still preferred to have their Ringwraiths squat or merely travel between Darkhavens, but certainly they add a lot of value by bringing to power to bear to their own missions.

- We still need to think about how to best handle minion characters who are also agents. I believe the ability to choose an Open to the Summons in lieu of a starting minor item is very nice option, but a fair number of the emerging roving characters are agents as well, which makes them difficult to recruit during the game.

- Finally, I really enjoyed the fact that rings are at the forefront of the possible missions in this environment. The Ringwraith’s auto-test and the separate ring draw pile certainly facilitate this aspect, and it certainly makes rings quite a bit more noticeable that in our Hero Arda games.

Overall, this weekend was a very enjoyable extensive playtest of Goblin King’s Minion Arda deck. The mechanics were very smooth and we encountered some unusual circumstances (e.g. Enchanted Stream on a roaming Ringwraith!) that elicited a lot of discussion. We will certainly continue to look at the rules and slim down the event deck a bit to get to the most substantial and fun aspects of the environment, but I am eager to continue to play Minion Arda and look forward to the next opportunity! Indeed, a few of us are planning to gather at the Goblin King’s holdfast up in Sacramento, called Great Escape Games, on Thursday, 20 September, if anyone is interested in joining us! :)

TradewindRider
Goblin King
Posts: 237
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Great summary Tradewindrider. I'm going to carry it over to the Arda section for further discussion. Overall, it is always great to see people who still have passion for the game. If we could make everyone who came over during the weekend and said, "I had that game" or "I still have some of those cards somewhere," and make them all play with us, we would easily have a dozen players!
But really, I'm grateful for those that we were able to gather. We saw some amazing, epic performances. In Sunday's ARDA game, Gandalf Gene was playing Saruman who helped crown Aragorn the returned King and was very close to getting a new King Under the Mountain as well. Meanwhile, I was playing Gandalf who managed to find the One Ring but I'd apparently never discovered hobbits even after getting every two-bit dwarf and Dunadain to join his cause. It was either four or five games of Arda or Dark Arda over the course of the weekend so a lot of it is a blur now. But I did manage to avoid any Sieges this year and for that I'm thankful (but there were a few Plagues that were not much fun either.
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CDavis7M
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I had a great time playing with you all on Saturday. And I appreciate everyone's kindness and patience as I learned more about this game. And a big thanks to Gene for the one on one lesson. I hope to make it out again next time, at least for 1 day. This is an amazing game with an even better community.
TradewindRider
Posts: 130
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2015 3:07 pm

Greetings CDavis7M,

It was our pleasure! Please let us know if you foresee some Saturday when you're going to be free for cards, we occasionally get together in between conventions.

TradewindRider
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