Council of Elrond

Hi all,

I have been a long time Tolkien. I sadly never got any cards when I was a teenarger at the card shop but I was able few years ago to buy a LE deck at the store near me who had tons of the stuff gathering dust, in hind sight I wished I had bought all of it. Anyway, I was recently digging through my old gaming stuff and stumbled onto my LE deck. Its the only deck I have but I did pick up a wizards one online on ebay and will probably get a couple more. So I figure I am going to try to learn this game, which is something I have been avoiding for years as it seems very hard. So I have some questions.

1) Are the wizards decks random ?
2) Is it easier to learn the wizards or the ringwraiths ?
3) Are the companion/players guides worth the insane amt of money they sell for online ?
4) Has anyone bothered to scan the companions/players guides so that everyone has access to them ? It seems a good idea to me.
5) Would getting one or any or a particular one of these help me learn to play ?
6) What is the easiest way to learn to play ? Is there any videos on youtube maybe that might help ?

Thanks.

Toqtamish wrote:1) Are the wizards decks random ?

The normal wizard decks have a portion of fixed cards and a portion of random cards.
There are wizard challenge decks available, that have only fixed cards.

Toqtamish wrote:2) Is it easier to learn the wizards or the ringwraiths ?

Most people start with normal hero (METW, wizards) decks to learn the game.
Minion (MELE, ringwraiths) decks use altered basic rules and are more difficult to play for beginners.

Toqtamish wrote:3) Are the companion/players guides worth the insane amt of money they sell for online ?

You will find enough people in here willing to tell you everything about the game for free (including guide, errata, rule-summeries etc.)

Toqtamish wrote:4) Has anyone bothered to scan the companions/players guides so that everyone has access to them ? It seems a good idea to me.

I guess you should ask 'Vastor', he has collected all stuff about MECCG flying around the web.

Toqtamish wrote:5) Would getting one or any or a particular one of these help me learn to play ?

Either you have a playing group in your neibourhood or you install 'GCCG' (a virtual card table) with the 'MECCG' plugin and ask 'Dam or Vastor in there to get you started.

Toqtamish wrote:6) What is the easiest way to learn to play ? Is there any videos on youtube maybe that might help ?

Install 'GCCG' and just join some running games as spectator or ask someone for a tutorial game with challenge decks.

So how do I know which Wizard I am getting when I buy a deck or is it random as well ? I want to get two or three decks but would hate to get the exact same ones.

There are 5 different Wizard decks with the following fixed Wizards:
Deck 1: Saruman, Pallando
Deck 2: Radagast, Alatar
Deck 3: Radagast, Gandalf
Deck 4: Alatar, Saruman
Deck 5: Gandalf, Pallando

Sadly you cannot examine what fixed deck you have got until you open it and see one of the fixed key cards.
Helpful link: Fixed Pack Specs

Is the Council of Elrond, the organization still running ? Seems the page is not up to date so was just wondering if its still operating.

Actually there is curently the election running of the CoE.
Link: CoE Election 2010

Toqtamish wrote:Is the Council of Elrond, the organization still running ? Seems the page is not up to date so was just wondering if its still operating.

that was actually one of the agenda items i suggested, to update the webpage, but we can't contact the webmaster... Nowadays you can keep tuned with all the news in this forum, the webpage is rather illustrative.