California Players

traderider
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jun 12, 2013 3:46 am
Location: Mountain View, CA

Red Arrow wrote:
traderider wrote:
Red Arrow wrote:The fires of Amon Din are lit! The Red Arrow has been sent... Let's get ready to Muster!!!
And the Bay Area will answer!! :D
Does that mean we'll be seeing you guys in LA? That will really be awesome!
We will be arriving separately via horseback (i.e. car) and eagle (i.e. Southwest Airlines) in time for the Saturday tourneys, and we will be around Sunday for open gaming as well. I will probably be around Monday since I won't be driving back until Tuesday, so I will likely pre-register.
Red Arrow
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 6:41 am

Its less than two weeks before Gateway 2013 just a reminder and update

There will be two events for Saturday August 31, 2013:

A. Challenge deck event 12nn-4pm

B. Constructed deck event 5pm-9pm

Just want to let people know that proxies are welcome for both events. There are card lists available for all challenge decks from the dutch council site and the council of elrond.. So if you want to make a certain challenge deck but are missing a certain card/s feel free to make a proxy/ies. No need for actual grey bordered cards decks. We will also lend challenge decks for people who want to participate during the constructed event who may not have cards anymore.
Dior
Posts: 7
Joined: Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:04 am
Location: Los Gatos, CA

Wish I could be there, but as I'm going to Chicago the weekend after for a tournament (for a totally different game) there's no way I could convince the wife to let me out on back-to-back weekends. :shock:

Have fun and give us a full report. I'll make sure to show up for an event in 2014! 8)
Red Arrow
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 6:41 am

Dior wrote:Wish I could be there, but as I'm going to Chicago the weekend after for a tournament (for a totally different game) there's no way I could convince the wife to let me out on back-to-back weekends. :shock:

Have fun and give us a full report. I'll make sure to show up for an event in 2014! 8)
Nice. I am planning events again for President's day weekend in February at OrcCon 2014. After that I'm torn between continuing those events for Gamex or drive up again to the Bay Area for Kublacon 2014 the latter is the option I prefer or leaning towards making. Decisions, decisions...
Goblin King
Posts: 237
Joined: Sun Feb 19, 2012 4:49 am

Bravo Red Arrow! I hope you have great events. I will be with you in spirit anyhow :roll:
I want to put it out there that another convention will be in Sacramento the first weekend of November. I'm hoping we can get a handful of players together for that. I can again ensure we are on the program.
curiousgene
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2011 5:18 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Contact:

I'll be there! I thought I wasn't going to make it, but it turns out I fail at reading comprehension and everything on my calendar for the weekend was on the wrong date.

My only problem now is that I have to build some actual legal decks. I haven't played a non-solitaire game in well over 10 years, and both my playing skills and my deck-building skills a very rusty. I'm probably not the only person in that boat, though.
Red Arrow
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 6:41 am

Goblin King wrote:Bravo Red Arrow! I hope you have great events. I will be with you in spirit anyhow :roll:
I want to put it out there that another convention will be in Sacramento the first weekend of November. I'm hoping we can get a handful of players together for that. I can again ensure we are on the program.
TY GK. Not 100% sure I can make it but I will try to drive up north again for Conquest Avalon on November for that event. We'll see how my sched goes. I'm excited for Saturday.
Red Arrow
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 6:41 am

curiousgene wrote:I'll be there! I thought I wasn't going to make it, but it turns out I fail at reading comprehension and everything on my calendar for the weekend was on the wrong date.

My only problem now is that I have to build some actual legal decks. I haven't played a non-solitaire game in well over 10 years, and both my playing skills and my deck-building skills a very rusty. I'm probably not the only person in that boat, though.
Glad to know you can make it Curiousgene! I hope you can make it to both events. I'm expecting at least 8 players which includes 2 players from the bay area. I'm really hoping there would be 10-12 players. That will really be sweet. We will find out soon enough.
Don't worry much about being rusty... everyone helps with rules questions as best they can. As for deck building for constructed events, my suggestion is pick a challenge deck for the challenge deck event then tweak that same deck for the constructed event. then again there are lots of suggested decks here on this forum to choose. And to everyone attending, remember you can use proxies. Hope to see you all this weekend.

Let's Get Ready to Muster!
JeekElem
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Aug 02, 2013 8:03 pm

I have had a bit of a family emergency come up and can't be sure I'll be there tomorrow. I'm going to try, I was looking forward to playing again, but I may not make it. [-me_cp-]
Red Arrow
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 6:41 am

JeekElem wrote:I have had a bit of a family emergency come up and can't be sure I'll be there tomorrow. I'm going to try, I was looking forward to playing again, but I may not make it. [-me_cp-]
Sorry to hear that Bruce, but family comes first. Hopefully you can still come to at least one event. If we don't get to meet this con hopefully the next.
Red Arrow
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Nov 25, 2012 6:41 am

Hello all,

Its been about 2hours since i left Gateway con place. More than happy to report that both challenge decks and constructed events pushed thru. We had eleven players for challenge deck event and nine for the constucted. Glad to see familiar faces and new ones i have not met before but have played meccg in the past. We had three rounds of the challenge decks which should be four if we follow true council of lorien standard but we had to end it. Our four hour event became five. We knew we needed the brake for the constructed event.
The constructed event was just as long, close to five hours, also with three rounds. If it wasn't so late or if we werent exhausted i felt we would've wanted to stay and hang a bit more.
Avatars fell, hobbits and minons as too. Heroes got corrupted. And factions got mustered and dispersed or never rallied at all. You folks know how it feels... "Where is my avatar, where is that item? Noooo i need one more turn., I shoulda played that card earlier..."
The winner of the challenge deck event was Flane, and the winner of the contructed was dan johnson. Was glad to put a face on names and call signs we use.
We're also discussing if we can atleast have a meetup outside of a convention. Btw we had a special rule that i first asked if people are agreeable. Our base hand size was nine (nine walkers, nine riders) not eight. Not sure if that sped up the game or not. We did it for both events.
We will plan for OrcCon in February next year. I know it seems early but it will be here before you know it. I hope the others report their experiences as well. Happy gaming!

Red Arrow
traderider
Posts: 18
Joined: Wed Jun 12, 2013 3:46 am
Location: Mountain View, CA

Stayed in SoCal a couple extra days to avoid driving back to the Bay Area on Labor Day. The events were a blast, thanks so much to Ben for running the events! It was great to see a dozen folks show up on Saturday it was worth arriving in SoCal late and getting only 4 hours of sleep!

Wanted to offer up some highlights and lowlights of my day, hopefully others can chime in as well.

Ran challenge deck d (radagast) for the first event, and played quite casually against a fallen wizard player with a new deck. I wasn't familiar with the deck constructs, so we just talked things through and ended up tied. Radagast came out early in the second game and just rolled, and I was comfortably ahead in the third game...

Until...

Radagast (controlling thranduil) picked up a torque of hues and I mistakenly put it on thranduil. Next org phase, I attempted to correct my error and rolled the dreaded snake eyes, which left radagast alone against 2 drake attacks with no more flatters. This meant both our wizards were done for, but losing 5 points with thranduil's corruption was decisive.

I ran a minion dragon factions deck in constructed, and it rolled in the first game against a hero deck. Second game, however, was against one of ben's kids whom we regard as the local minions expert, and I had to play the ring wraith version of my deck. He got out to a significant lead until my spiders came out in force and ambushed his orcs in the midst of mirkwood, but before that i was getting beat down by drakes right and left. the highlight was getting hit not once, but twice, by a 2 strikes at 15 prowess drake in the same hazard movement phase (hazard limit 4 is just bad), and i had already run out of cancellers. Time was called and I got my last turn,during which I played one of the troll trio (can't remember which one) and eked out a very narrow win.

Third game was against ben's older "minion" :-) who was running a hoard item/spiders deck. My supposedly fast deck was getting boat-raced early and I didn't get my first dragon faction until late, but I had a threat and a gifts given, and caught his 2 parties in withered Heath and iron hills needing to get home and needing to run through the gauntlet. Thrain got home with 6 or 7 points of corruption but I had nothing to trigger it, so I needed to score points in my last turn. Luckily I was able to discard a card to lidless eye and saw that there weren't many creatures waiting to bushwhack me, so I split up my party of orcs and trolls and went after 2 factions in the last turn.

A few of us came back on Sunday for deck design and pick-up games, and most of my Monday was spent watching baseball on TV and doing more deck design. I play-tested a one ring deck and had everything in place except i only had 1 wizards test, and i failed to roll at least an 8 in 2 tries! last time I saw the wizard, bilbo, and elrond's twin sons, they were at mount doom with a crowd of orcs ready to attack!

Again, the tourneys were a blast, and am looking forward to future events!
stedanko
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Jul 26, 2013 6:54 pm

The tournament was awesome! That was the first time I actually played MECCG with so many people. Would definitely make time to head back in February to play again or plan to meet up outside the convention setting. And yes, major thanks to Ben for putting it all together. Had a great time and wish I could've been back to play a little Sunday.

Playwise, I brought Challenge Deck E, Gandalf, to the table. It got demolished. There was a lot of rust with my playing, but the deck never really had any flow. It was extremely difficult to get to a site untapped without Stealth, which didn't appear in hand often enough. The first match was against the Pallando deck. It was a little short on time because I was late, but it was solidly outpaced and lost by several MPs after we each played a few resources. Next match was against the Radagast deck above, tough rolling and no defenses against hazards saw my companies get hammered. Any attempt to go anywhere wound up with either a wounded and tapped company or worse and it was no contest.

3rd match was an even worse annihilation to one of Ben's sons, who played the Alatar deck. Corruption, death, I did play Stealth to get to a faction, but otherwise, I finished the game with 2 characters, 1 of which was wounded. I remember several times Alone and Unadvised keeping a lone survivor with my only item pinned to a border hold, unable to move and waiting for an Assassin to be played.

To the constructed deck tournament, I took an Eriador/general deck that is shamelessly inspired from meccg.net (see Mark Alfano/Kris Van Beurden's decks). It would be a hybrid of Mark and Kris' decks, with less Smoke Rings, more resources, and a combo of both decks' hazard defenses, Many Turns and Doublings and Dragon's Hunger. Had very good luck with drawing early and the deck played very well, lots of flow. Played against heroes all 3 games. Had a couple very close games up front, including one where we both scored over 30 points. I was caught with Strider holding Durin's Axe with Thorin drooling in the same company as time expired and still somehow narrowly won a match I was sure I was behind in. I had a couple turns to make the exchange too. Doh!

Looking forward to the next event, would be great to see it grow.
JeekElem
Posts: 23
Joined: Fri Aug 02, 2013 8:03 pm

Red Arrow wrote:Hello all,

Its been about 2hours since i left Gateway con place. More than happy to report that both challenge decks and constructed events pushed thru. We had eleven players for challenge deck event and nine for the constucted. Glad to see familiar faces and new ones i have not met before but have played meccg in the past. We had three rounds of the challenge decks which should be four if we follow true council of lorien standard but we had to end it. Our four hour event became five. We knew we needed the brake for the constructed event.
The constructed event was just as long, close to five hours, also with three rounds. If it wasn't so late or if we werent exhausted i felt we would've wanted to stay and hang a bit more.
Avatars fell, hobbits and minons as too. Heroes got corrupted. And factions got mustered and dispersed or never rallied at all. You folks know how it feels... "Where is my avatar, where is that item? Noooo i need one more turn., I shoulda played that card earlier..."
The winner of the challenge deck event was Flane, and the winner of the contructed was dan johnson. Was glad to put a face on names and call signs we use.
We're also discussing if we can atleast have a meetup outside of a convention. Btw we had a special rule that i first asked if people are agreeable. Our base hand size was nine (nine walkers, nine riders) not eight. Not sure if that sped up the game or not. We did it for both events.
We will plan for OrcCon in February next year. I know it seems early but it will be here before you know it. I hope the others report their experiences as well. Happy gaming!

Red Arrow
Sounds like a great turnout. I will plan on attending OrcCon in Feb next year. If you do a meetup to play I would be willing, I live in Mission Viejo.
curiousgene
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Sep 19, 2011 5:18 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Contact:

I showed up a bit late, but since I wasn't the only one to do so, I did get to play in the first round. I had compiled a Gandalf challenge deck, but had accidentally missed a few proxies, so I borrowed Ben's Pallando deck.
The first match was against the Pallando deck. It was a little short on time because I was late, but it was solidly outpaced and lost by several MPs after we each played a few resources.
The dice were kind to me in that first round. After that I lost my wizard in two subsequent rounds (once when I rolled a snake eyes on a corruption check). For the constructed deck I built an "Aragorn does cool things" deck. The first two games were a bit rough, but I tweaked it a bit between rounds and won with 20 MP on the last round. Never did manage to play the White Tree, despite twice having it in my hand with a Sapling having arrived at Minas Tirith on the final turn. If I could have stored the Sapling in the Site Phase (instead of waiting for an Organization Phase that would never arrive) I'd have been able to pull it off. Oh well. Now that I think about it, I never pulled off playing the Return of the King or Paths of the Dead, either.

I was feeling a bit rusty as well, but I was surprised how quickly it came back to me. The mistake I kept making was moving onto the site phase for one company before completing the M/H phase for the other one(s). I had a great time, and I'm very much looking forward to coming back in February for OrcCon. I might even have the kids with me for that one.
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