Lure IX report

[Fangorn]

A few days ago I realized I totally forgot to write my report of Lure.
It's a bit late now but ...

Lure IX was the first time I attended Lure.
This event was a wonderful week-end.

First, thank to Wolfgang (and all people who helped him) for organizing such a great event.
Thank to Nicolai too for his huge work on Dreamcards.



Arrival

I came by train with Dominique Bergeret, and the last part of the trip was very nice between Koblenz and Bacharach.
The Rhine valley (Anduin Vale ?) is very beautiful with nice villages and lots of castles perched on top of high hills.
These beautiful surroundings suit well with atmosphere of the event.

After more than 6 hours of travel, we finally arrived at Bacharach.
Castle Staleck is very impressive where we're down in the village.
I spent some time to enjoy the beauty of the village.

Then we clinmbed the stairs to the castle.
They are not as dangerous as the ones of Cirith Ungol, but quite steep, given the fact the castle stands right above the village.
The castle itself is very nice outside and inside.

As the conclusion the context of the arrival gave me already a wonderful feeling.



Friday afternoon

I attended Hero 1-deck tournament.
I played with "End of Elves' Age" deck (see http://www.meccg.net/dforum/viewtopic.php?t=2940).
My goal was to win one game in this tournament.

First round
I played against Hans-Werner Milpetz, who played in Eriador with Elves too.
So Elrohir and Gildor Inglorion were bounced during character draft.
This game was always very tight, and after corruption checks at end of game result was 24-24 !
But I had in hand Elladan, which gave him a penalty and reduced his MP total to 23, giving me a 4-2 win.
I think it was the first time I won a game in this manner.

Second round
I played against Birk Pfeiffer, who played in Eriador with 4 5-mind characters as starting company (so max 8 character MPs).
During his first turn, he began and scored some MPs.
During my first turn his hazards worked well, preventing me to play anything.
During his second turn, he scored some MPs, having already a total of 18 MPs.
So with only one ineffectual turn the situation was already critical for me, because 6-0 loss was very close.
During the following turns, I scored some MPs and my hazards were very efficient by killing characters.
The end of the game was very tight and I won 15-14, thanks to my only ally MP which doubled !
This was quite weird to win a game in this manner with this deck ...
It was thus again a very short 4-2 win.

Third round
I played against Thomas Schrei, who played in Eriador with Dwarves.
His deck worked better as mine and he had always more MPs than me throughout the game.
He particularly played both Dwarves factions and unfortunately I didn't played any.
He thus doubled his factions MPs and I lost 17-24, giving me a 4-2 loss.


My goal was reached with two (short) 4-2 win and one (clear) 4-2 loss.
Finally, with I ended tournament with 10 TPs with 6th place among 12 players.
I was very happy with this result.



Friday evening

I attended Dreamcard Challenge Deck tournament.
It was the first time I played with Dreamcards.
My goal was to become familiar with new cards, in order to prepare the Dreamcard General Opponent tournament.

I drawed Akhorahil deck which I found fun with the Black Numenorean theme and cool cards.

First round
I played against Jose-san Miguel, who played with Balin deck.
I think Balin deck is not very competitive.
I won this game 22-17, giving me a 4-2 win.

Second round
I played against Eric Dane, who played with Elrond deck.
I think Elrond deck is very competitive.
I enjoyed a lot this game, because I had the experience of the deck from the previous round, and it was very fun to play against the thematic Elrond deck.
I had a very fun company (3 characters with Oliphaunt and Black Numenoreans roused with the help of Magic Ring of Lies).
I lost this game 15-24, giving me a 5-1 loss.

Third round
I played against Wanja Hargens (the "rotation" expert), who played with Imrahil deck.
On my first turn, I moved to Dead Marshes where his company was too, and I declared CvCC.
Our companies were of same strength (with 4 characters each), but I rolled better and I wounded all his characters, although without killing anyone.
On his second turn, he revealed Imrahil at Dol Amroth, and I killed him with an Assassin !
With such an handicap, it was too difficult for him to race for MPs.
I won this game 19-8, giving me a 6-0 win.


Finally with the last game I jumped with 11 TPs to the 3rd place among 14 players.
I was naturally very happy with this unexpected result.
So I won a prize of standard promos : this is a very nice prize although I was surprised prize was not Dreamcards.



Saturday morning/afternoon

I attended Hamburger tournament.
I played Heirs of Yavanna scenario (and Rohirrim scenario as back-up) with modified "Entmoot under Arien's Glance" deck (see http://www.meccg.net/dforum/viewtopic.php?t=2941).
It was the first time I played Hamburger scenario, but I'm very familiar with my favorite deck.
My low-level goal was to pass once the scenario.
With 6 attendees, my high-level goal was to finish on the podium.

First round
I played against Thomas Schrei, who played Aragorn scenario.
My hazards worked very well, with particularly an early successful Call of Home on Aragorn.
My resources worked very well too, so this game was unbalanced.
So I pass the scenario, and for icing on the cake I was very close to pass Rohirrim scenario too (only 2 characters with home site Edoras missing, and during the last turn Saruman and Co. with the Red Arrow were prevented to rouse Riders of Rohan due to a Snowstorm).
On his side, he didn't pass the scenario.
I won this game 36-14, giving me a 12-1 win.

Second round
I played against Birk Pfeiffer, who played ... Aragorn scenario too.
This game was balanced, but no one passed the scenario.
The only thing to mention is that his Alatar was killed on his way to Druadan Forest by Old Man Willow.
I won this game 23-19, giving me a 3-1 win.

Third round
I played against Bernd Brunner, who played ... you guess what ? ... Aragorn scenario too.
This game was very balanced.
We had the same hazard theme (Call of Home), and each turn was very closed.
I was a bit lucky with most critical rolls (the ones from Call of Home).
During his last turn, his Gandalf killed my Om-buri-om at Dunharrow and he played his only ally.
I passed the scenario (with the 4 Ents !) and he passed the scenario (with Army of the Dead !).
At the end I won this game 32-28, giving me a 12-2 win.


Finally with the last game I finished with 27 TPs to the 1st place among 6 players.
I was naturally very proud with this result, because it's only the 2nd time I won a tournament (OK, we were unfortunately only 6 guys), and moreover with my favorite deck.
So I won a big prize : the Audio-book of The Lord of the Rings ... in german !
Perhaps organizer never thought a non-german / non-austrian player may ever win this tournament !
Fortunately, I understand german ; it was besides very pleasant for me to speak and to play in german during the whole week-end.
Unfortunately, I'm very far to have the level to understand The Lord of the Rings in german : so I have to improve seriously my german to enjoy this prize ...



Saturday evening

I attended Dreamcard General Opponent tournament.
I played Cirdan Elf-lord with "The Straight Way" deck (see http://www.meccg.net/dforum/viewtopic.php?t=2945).

My low-level goal was to at least once :
- reconstruct the White Towers,
- visit Lond Daer,
- reforge Anglachel.

My high-level goal was to at least once :
- focus the Palantir of Elostirion in The Grey Havens,
- makes Cirdan the new Elf-king.


First round
I played against Holger Fischer, who played Minion with Orcs.
This game was very hard because we had the same hazard theme, Spiders  !
Attacks were deadly ; for example, while Spider of the Morlat, Protecting their Domain, Full of Froth and Rage and Wake of War were in play, I throwed Lesser Spiders keyed to Angmar with 6 strikes at 12 prowess !
But Odoacer, which was wounded from first to last turn, survived after no more than 7 body checks !!!
My resource part was totally unbalanced, because I didn't play any faction and I didn't play Legacy of Smiths.
I had to much character MPs, with 4 characters under Sail to the West !
Holger had a good last turn, and his 2 factions doubled.
We ended this game 18-18, giving us a 3-3 tie.

Second round
I played against Nicolai Willimek, who played Elves of Evermist with Radagast.
I killed quickly Voteli and then Radagast.
My deck worked well and it was very fun for me to play Crisfuin on Cirdan in Lond Daer !
I won this game 27-11, giving me a 6-0 win.

Third round
I played against Mario Nau-Theissen, who played Itangast Dragon-lord.
He played with an Orc company searching for Wolf-allies.
His hazard part was Undead, which was the worst against my deck with lots of Undead sites !
The race for MPs was very close during the entire game.
He played The Warg-king just before me ... it would have been fun if I had played it first !
I was very happy to play Reconstructed Towers and A Long-hoarded Treasure (though not Palantir of Elostirion).
Before our last turns, score was 20-20 !
During his last turn, Itangast burned Lake-town and his Orc company played some allies ; and now score was 28-20 for him.
During my last turn, I played Legacy of Smiths (+3 MPs, 28-23 for him) and then placed Erestor under Sail to the West (+4 MPs, 28-27 for him).
Additionally, Glorfindel II (which was wounded) and Elladan found Anglachel at Tol Morwen, which was immediately reforged (+5 MPs).
By the way, Cirdan would have become the new Elf-king on the following turn, because all conditions were met (with Reunion already in play) !
So I won this game 32-28, giving me a 4-2 win.


Finally with the last game I ended with 13 TPs to the 2nd place among 10 players.
I was naturally very happy with this result.
So I won a prize of a boardgame : this is a very nice prize although I was again surprised prize was not Dreamcards.



Sunday

I played an Arda game, the first time for me.
I love the concept : this is very friendly, all players have the same luck, cards never seen in tournament are played.
And it remembered me my very first games, when Middle-earth was very scary, and each movement was very deadly, with at least one character killed per turn ...
We didn't finish the game, and although I was 1st during most of the game, I finished 4th among 5 players.



Overall, this week-end was even better as I had imagined.
I played fun tournaments, with fun scenarios, against fun players.
If only I haven't stopped playing during more than 5 years, I could have attended previous Lure !
Now I cannot consider missing Lure anymore ...

See you next Lure.