California Players

[Red Arrow]

Which california gaming conventions/meets do people still go to and might be willing to play some "pick up" or casual games, maybe a game using arda rules? or maybe just interested to learn it. would love to play, learn or relearn this game again using decks from the starter set. Or even try some hero challenge decks given randomly if there are enough people who wanna try it. no need to buy anything.

There's Pacificcon or conquest sac up north? Strategicon in socal, There are are smaller gaming meets like Polycon on the central coast, the "socal gamesday" or the Socal smackdown in anaheim. anyone ? any suggestions?.

I'm not from socal but i've attended strategicon before and have organized and helped organize some events there in the past. The last one i did was in 2006 but not enough time for information and it was only me and my 2 companions that made it.

Any players like Dior (in 2009 at pacificon, I was away from meccg and didn't know about it except through the archives of this forum.) still willing to get events running? even just demo games will be fun i think. Could there still be players like the "goblin king" from sacramento area whom i've met in strategicon years ago, might still be interested to meet?

if all else fails i guess can just play "catan", right?

[Goblin King]

ConQuest Sacramento April 5-7, 2013 would work best for me.

[Red Arrow]

Sounds good to me. Glad to see you post Goblin king! would be nice to meet again. we can do challenge decks with boosters. Cmon ppl no one needs to buy cards. all cards go back and become part of a playset i will be bringing with me for events like these. We did the same in orccon one time but we used regular starters back then. and in one event i let asked players to return all cards except the rares they got.

maybe some of you from oregon and washington would be interested to come down and ppl from socal to drive up as well. wishful thinking maybe but who knows?

i would like to show up for strategicon in socal too. but i haven't heard from anyone yet. So for now conquestsac is something i can look forward to and work on. and it doesnt conflict with strategicon conventions. sweet!

Please post if you're interested or even thinking about it. we need the support.

(been cross posting this at BGG forums and meccg.net too)

[Kjeld]

I would be interested in the Sacramento con!

[Goblin King]

Red Arrow and all,
I'm going to go ahead and see what I can do to make this a registered event at the ConQuest Sacramento. I'm going to shoot for a time slot on Saturday. We will also be able to play at other times, but it would be good to get on the program as well.

[Red Arrow]

Goblin King and others,

If you can get us on the program for ConQuestSac then that will be awesome! All I need to worry about now is show up. I'll help you anyway I can. And yes it will be nice to play more than one event.

To everyone especially those near the Socal Area , I will be running an Meccg event at OrcCon on Saturday February 16 starting at 1pm. It will be random Challenge decks. No need to pay for the cards, they just get returned back to me after the game to be used as a playset. Yup it will be a challenge deck playset that I will be lugging with me to meccg events if needed like in conquest Sac. I expect 4 people at the very least and 10 at the most. If by some miracle there are more than 10 players I will still be able to run it, and that will be really something.

So there you have it folks 2 upcoming MECCG events in California. PM me or post here and add your voice to our cause.

See you at OrcCon and ConQuestSac!

[Goblin King]

We are officially on the program for ConQuest Sac on April 6, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. That might give us enough time for a round or two. We can then take it to the open gaming area if we have enough people and interest in continued play.
I will bring my set of the challenge decks. I might also bring along a copy of the Middle Earth CCG boardgame created from boardgamegeek instructions.
I have a ton of spare cards that I'm interested in trading or perhaps giving away. But I don't want to lug them if nobody is interested.
Anything else
http://conquestsac.gamecon.us/reg/Events.asp

[Red Arrow]

Hello to all! Just got back from OrcCon 2013 in Los Angeles. We had a total of six players that attended the meccg event. Four were long time players and two new ones ( my 2 sons, woot!). It was nice to see old faces like Anthony Barrett and his son Thomas, as well as Flane, and Mike Urban at the convention. I haven't seen them in years.

Me, Flane and my two boys started playing at 1pm. After about 3 hours and a short break, Anthony and Thomas joined us for more MECCG. We just used challenge decks for the most part. It was not a tournament but just a gathering of meccg enthusiasts that just missed playing the game. We stopped playing around 8pm. We were rusty with the rules. Our games lasted around 2-3 but it was fun. Now getting Thorin killed during the first turn wasn't fun at all (ouch!) but by and large everyone had a good time.

There were other people who asked about the game, having never seen or heard of meccg (gasp!). There were former players that cheered us on, glad to see meccg being played again, they felt rusty with the rules and declined to play but eagerly observed how the game was going. I couldn't book a room at the hotel where the con was otherwise I may have been able to stay longer and maybe encourage some former players to try the game again. Maybe next time. And we need to fly a banner or flag to make it known that MECCCG is being played.

I was glad we used the challenge decks for the most part. We didn't have to worry about deck building. It levels the playing field for old and new players as far as deck building is concerned, as well as not having a lot of cards. It also teaches players the mechanics of certain strategies which a player can improve on later.

Looking forward to see you guys at ConquestSac soon!

[Goblin King]

I'm glad we are playing Challenge Decks because I've spent the last few years playing them and trying to fill in the blanks on a massive round robin tournament between all 10 challenge decks. I'm trying to get a record of how each deck did against every other deck. I'll bring my log along and perhaps we can agree to help fill in the blanks. If we have an odd number of players, I feel confident enough with the Challenge decks that I could play two different decks against two people at the same time (I've done it before.) so there won't be anyone sitting out.

[Thorsten the Traveller]

nice to see activity on the west coast, why not get some competition going with the east coast?
if you like challenge decks a lot and still would like some more variety, check the section on this board for the "lost" challenge decks
http://www.councilofelrond.org/forum/vi ... 583#p18583

[Red Arrow]

I will be at ConquestSac to play meccg on April 6, 2013 (Saturday) from 11am to 3pm. I'll be arriving in Sacramento on Friday evening. I too will be bringing several extra decks for people who want to play but have no decks.

Please join us for some fun in middle earth. See you there!

[Kjeld]

I sadly have a seminar for work that came up scheduled for this Saturday, so I unfortunately have to miss the festivities.

Would have loved to join you all, but hopefully I'll be able to make it out for the next event.

[Goblin King]

Kjeld,
Sorry you are missing out on this one. Maybe another time.
So here is an example of the matrix fill in during this event. As I've stated before I'm trying to play every challenge deck against the other nine decks to determine who is the best in tournament play.
I've completed the matrix for only one Hero deck, which is Deck A, Stewards of Gondor (Saruman). Hopefully we can complete some more.
Here is how Sauruman fared against each opponent.
vs. Deck B, Release the Prisoners, a WIN (30 points to 25. Highlight: stole Balin with 2 items near the end of the game. Tournament points 4.
vs. Deck C, Dwarven Quest, a loss (27 points to 29). Highlight: The difference was the high kill points of the C Deck. Tournament points 2.
vs. Deck D, Bargain Between Friends, a loss (17 points to 26). Highlight: What highlight?!? Both the deck and the dice betrayed me! Tournament point 1.
vs. Deck E, Return of the King, a WIN (30 to 9). Highlight: Aragorn is lost early on a corruption roll of snake eyes.Tournament points 6!

vs. Deck F, Spies and Traitors, a WIN (30 to 19). Highlight: Deck just flowed out while his got stuck with clumping resources. Tournament points 5.
vs. Deck G, Marauding Brood of Uglies, a WIN (34 to 23). Highlight: Game was too close to call and in extra innings when he lost his only faction to Muster. Tournament points 4.
vs. Deck H, Stealthy Tribe, a loss (27 to 30). Highlight: Close game all the way. Even match. Tournament points 2.
vs. Deck I, Morgul Rallying Cry, a loss (24 to 31). Highlight: His deck flows out and drops every faction available. Tournament points 2.
vs. Deck J, Seducing the Nations of Men, a loss (23 to 24). Highlight: We both blow it during the final corruption checks. I blow it worse. Tournament point 2.
Tournament record vs. Hero Decks 2-2 with 13 points.
Tournament record vs. Minion Decks 2-3 with 15 points.
Total points 28.

[Goblin King]

Here's a quick summary of our little event. Four people showed up, Me, Ben, Gene and Larry. We each took a hero challenge deck and proceeded to play round-robin style.
I had Alatar (Release the Prisoners). My first game was against Larry and (Bargain Between Friends). We both drew the worst possible opening hand and agreed that we would both Mulligan. I then played the awesome Winglord combo. I thought I was cruising to an easy victory. I got Orcrist and the next turn played three Rescue Prisoners. Two turns later, I read the fine print on Rescue Prisoners (only one per site, when did that become a rule?) and discarded two of them. It was a very tight game after that. We called council and we both lost a character to final corruption checks. I lost a little more in mine and ended up losing the game 24 to 23.
Second game was against Gene and Return of the King. Despite lots of shuffling, all of my resources clumped at the bottom of my deck. My hazards were flowing nicely, which gave Gene a lot of problems and required a lot of thought to manage. I tried to steal Beretar from him, but failed the dice roll. But he slowly and steadily climbed. He called council and cruised to a victory with a score of 34 to 19. Ouch!
Last game was Ben and his Dwarven Quest. Poor Ben, Pallando decided to only show up after final council was called, but the dwarves didn't really need him. The key play was getting the dwarven book one turn before I could in Moria. On the last turn Balin managed to store it in the Iron Hills (thanks to MY Safe From The Shadows!) and passed a couple of high corruption checks. The game ended in a 28 to 28 tie. I would have lost eventually to corruption checks because both of Elrond's sons were up around a seven thanks to several items.
It was a great time by all. You would be surprised at the number of people at the con that came up and told us, hey I still have some of those cards, but I've never played the game. It was kind of shocking to me considering this game is no more complicated than the boardgames and wargames that most of these people were playing themselves. Also, one guy that I told about event showed up with his cards and just gave them to us. He refused any payment. His collection included about four starter's worth of black-boarder cards and about 12 packs of Dragons and Dark Minion expansions plus some promos and signed cards! We shared it between the four of us.
I hope Gene or Larry will post here because their final game was an epic struggle. In it both Gandalf and Radagast were slain along with almost ten other characters. It went close to two full deck cycles and ended with Aragorn returning after a tie with a corruption check earlier in the game. I wish I had a blow by blow of that game.
It was great to reconnect with Gene and to know he has kept the flame alive and recruited another player (Larry). I hope to meet up with Gene and Larry in the San Jose area on occasion.
Keep the Game Alive!

[Vastor Peredhil]

Nice post,

again be sure to try GCCG just for reasiong of seaing all cards it their offical errata on the cards