Rules for the Middle-earth CCG

If you're new to MeCCG (or the Dutch translation In de Ban van de Ring), please don't let this page scare you!

If you're looking for a comprehensive overview of all rules for the Middle-earth Collectible Card Game, you've come to the right place. On this page hosted by the Dutch Council the most up to date rules are kept available in a joint effort with the Council of Elrond.

The Council of Elrond (CoE) is the present world wide coordinating body for MeCCG. It was founded by players after manufacturer Iron Crown Enterprice's (ICE) was forced to drop MeCCG. Members of the CoE are elected on a yearly basis. For more information, check out the Council of Elrond home page.

Rules Inserts

These are the rules booklets found in the starters and expansion boosters: the actual rules of the game.

An effort to assemble these into a single comprehensive rulebook is currently spearheaded by Charles Bouldin.

If you're new to the game you are probably better of playing your first few games using the simplified version of the rules booklet made by Ichabod. You'll find it at our download page where you can pick up card lists and a practical map of Middle-earth as well.

Collected Rulings and errata (CRF)

The official answers to the many rules questions asked over the years as well as all errata, are collected into a single archive, the Collected Rulings File (CRF). This is a dynamic document: the latest clarifications will soon be added on a regular basis. Out of respect for ICE's legacy no new errata will be issued, nor will any rules from ICE's last CRF (CRF 15) be overturned.

Tournament Policy

The Council of Lórien Tournament policy details how official tournaments are to be run. The current version is number 3, with two exceptions:

A tie is a tie nowadays; the weakest link method (entry 6) is no longer used
Due to time constraints the number of rounds is often lowered, generally to the lower requirements of policy version number 2 (which we'll make available here someday)

The tournament policy makes a few changes and additions to the game rules, for tournament play. Most players however use these rules at all times: most games are played under standard tournament rules. The additions made to the standard rules can be found in entry 5, entries 7-12 and entries 32-35.

Common deviations

Some tournaments deviate (slightly) from the normal tournament rules. Such house rules should in all cases be clearly announced; so read your tournament's announcement to find out. Some of the most common deviations are listed here for easy reference. These are not official rules: each of these rules is only in effect if the tournament announcement clearly states so.

Sealed

Constructed

Balrog character trickses are limited to one and two minders

These are just the most commonly used ones we're aware of. Many more are waiting for you to try them, comment on them and contribute to them on the optional rules forum. Some especially recommended ones are bundled in the UEP, as this introduction explains.

Rules questions & Rules Digests

You can ask your rules questions and other MeCCG related questions on the MeCCG mailing list. You will find many helpful fellow players there, as well as the NetRep, the official rules guru appointed by the Council of Elrond.

Subscribing is easy. Just press this subscribe link and send the e-mail (there need not be anything in it). You can then send your messages to metw@silent-tower.org and will receive them from that address as well. Should you ever get fed up with the list, unsubscribing is just as easy: press this unsubscribe link and send the e-mail. If you wish to browse the archives, whether you're subscribed or not, you can find them here. These archives start Dec 1 2003. An older archive up to June 18 2003 can be found here (mails sent in between these two dates are archived in a less accessible way only).

The NetRep, currently Chad Martin, answers the questions he receives in batches, mostly one batch a week. Such a batch is called a rules digest. They are published on the mailing list and here. Originally the NetRep was supervised by ICE. after ICE was forced to drop MeCCG a NetRep supervised by the Council of Elrond took over. All rules digests (ICE and CoE) will soon be integrated into the CRF on a regular basis.

ICE digests

Not yet updated in the CRF are:

Nr. 579, Nr. 580, Nr. 581, Nr. 582, Nr. 583, Nr. 584, Nr. 585, Nr. 586, Nr. 587 and Nr. 588.

Council of Elrond digests

Note: Most of the content of these digests isn't yet updated into the CRF. Some (older) digests may contain answers that are not entirely correct. In such case it’s very likely the Netrep corrected or clarified himself in the following digest(s). Please keep this in mind when quoting or referring to certain digests.

CoE 1, CoE 2, CoE 3, CoE 4, CoE 5, CoE 6, CoE 7, CoE 8, CoE 9, CoE 10, CoE 11, CoE 12, CoE 13, CoE 14, CoE 15, CoE 16, CoE 17, CoE 18, CoE 19, (CoE 20 does not exist), CoE 21, CoE 22, CoE 23, CoE 24, CoE 25, CoE 26, CoE 27a, CoE 27b, CoE 28, CoE 29, CoE 30, CoE 31, CoE 32, CoE 33, CoE 34, CoE 35, CoE 36, CoE 37, CoE 38, CoE 39, CoE 40, CoE 41, CoE 42, CoE 43, CoE 44, CoE 45, CoE 46, CoE 47, CoE 48, CoE 49, CoE 50, CoE 51, CoE 52, CoE 53, CoE 54, CoE 55, CoE 56, CoE 57, CoE 58, CoE 59, CoE 60, CoE 61, CoE 62, CoE 63, CoE 64, CoE 65, CoE 66, CoE 67, CoE 68, CoE 69, CoE 70, CoE 71, CoE 72, CoE 73, CoE 74, CoE 75, CoE 76, CoE 77, CoE 78, CoE 79, CoE 80, CoE 81, CoE 82, CoE 83, CoE 84, CoE 85, CoE 86, CoE 87, CoE 88, CoE 89, CoE 90, CoE 91, CoE 92, CoE 93, CoE 94, CoE 95, CoE 96, CoE 97, CoE 98, CoE 99, CoE 100, CoE 101, CoE 102, CoE 103, CoE 104, CoE 105, CoE 106, CoE 107, CoE 108, CoE 109, CoE 110, CoE 111, CoE 112, and CoE 113.

Current contributors to this page and its sub-pages are Mark Alfano, Mikko Vihtemäki, Nigel Buckle, Chad Martin, Wim Heemskerk and Brian Min. Past contributors are Charles Bouldin, Brian Wong, Timco Visser, Rob Rutten and Travis Took.

We welcome the webmasters of all MeCCG sites to link to this page. Please use (only) this URL to do so.