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GM Chirs Yaure does the Hobbit thing. |
David Metzger, he of many plaques,
is turned aside by Chris Trimmer. |
Alternating Champs
It was another good turnout for the Middle Earth Pre-Con.
A bunch of old faces and a few new ones competed in games on
Sunday and Monday of the pre-con. A total of 27 games were played,
with 11 in Round 1, eight in Round 2 and five in Round 3. The
breakdown of winning sides had two FP military victories, eight
FP ring dunks, seven SP military victories and ten SP corruption
victories. Dwarven rings bidding ranged from 1-4 given to the
FP for the person to play the SP and a few bids of 1 or 2 given
to the SP to play the FP. There were also a number of 0 bids
as the players did not have side preferences worthy enough to
bid for. Some notable plays had a timely Power to Great stall
attacks on both Rivendell and Lorien by Seth Gunar. Martin Sample
brought along his collectors edition version of the game which
was an impressive sight to see, though it didn't prove lucky
for him, falling on corruption on the final move to dunk the
ring with a 3 hunt tile draw. Jacob Hebner had luck of the hobbits
with a Turn 1 smeagol, then Turn 7 Isildur's bane smeagol tile,
followed by shelob's lair getting discarded via breaking of the
fellowship and one more smeagol tile draw from foul thing from
the deep in his Round 1 game! Lastly, 2008 champ Chris Trimmer
managed to kill off Strider/Aragorn or Gandalf in all three of
his preliminary games while going 3-0!
The semi-finals featured Chris Trimmer vs Denmark's Hans Kirketerp
and defending champ Kevin Wojtaszczyk vs Scott Marcotte. Chris's
SP military slowly tied the noose around the FP. Hans managed
to almost turn the tide in Gondor as Strider appeared via the
Dead men event, killing six SP units on the die roll. Chris regrouped
his remaining forces, and counterattacked Strider's new found
army before they could crown him king, once again preventing
a sixth FP die in his games. A power too great and cirdan ships
slowed down the SP military might, but the FSP could not gain
enough movement to be a threat and the SP methodically squeezed
the life out of them for a military victory. In the other semi-final,
Scott gave Kevin two Dwarven rings to have him play the SP. Scott
ran the table in the preliminary rounds with the FP and hoped
to continue his streak of FP wins. Early C's pushed the FSP out
to a quick seven spaces out from Rivendell, but that left minimal
defensive dice for the FP military. Kevin rolled a number of
army movement dice early and combined with the lack of FP military
dice, he launched a Turn 2 assault on Lorien, managing to kill
off Galadriel just as she arrived on the scene. This left the
FP with four action dice, which limited their future action rolls
and stalled the FSP movement as the C's/W's failed to show up
for a couple straight turns. Kevin quickly moved to crush Helm's
Deep and then blitzed through the Dale, Erebor and Woodland,
adding Peligar for a SP military victory.
The Final was a repeat of last year's with Kevin vs Chris
as the last two champions paired off once again. Since Chris
played the Shadow all four games to date, the Dwarven ring bidding
went high for the Shadow. Chris started it off with three rings
for the FP to play the Shadow and Kevin raised to four rings
for the FP to play the Shadow, which Chris accepted. Four initial
army/musters for the FP had Chris use a ring immediately to roll
into a C. While Kevin began with a couple musters to get Saruman
into play and began mobilizing his armies. The Elves were rushed
down toward War and Kevin blitzed Dol Guldur toward Woodland
and a misty mountains reinforced Moria plus some Isengard regulars
up to Rivendell. Chris managed to recruit an elite into both
strongholds before they were sieged and had musters to plant
a trebuchet into each too. The FSP wasn't getting much traction
and was found two spaces out of Rivendell, with Chris choosing
the mountain pass and Gandalf being taken as a casualty with
the 1r tile. At the start of Turn 3, both Rivendell and Woodland
realm were under siege with SP forces from Mordor massing in
the Old Forest Road and the S&E troops mobilizing. The FP
got a Will and promoted Gandalf the White in Fangorn and proceeded
to muster in the Ents as the SP got one last Voice usage out
of Saruman. Then the wheels fell off the SP war machine. Chris
flipped two Ent cards, launching 15 dice into Orthanc and almost
managed to take out Saruaman. ( only one Isengard regular survived
the assault ) A daylight minimizing deadly strife combat card
play kept Rivendell under FP control and set the table for a
SP muster requiring 4th turn. After allocating one eye, Kevin
ended up rolling four more, and no muster dice! Orthanc had one
regular, Moria and Dol Guldur were empty and the bleak outlook
for the FP was dramatically changed. The FP had five action dice
to the SP's four as Kevin moved troops to reinforce Orthanc and
strengthen the Woodland seige as he over extended his lines.
Chris noticed the opportunity and went for a FPMV with the Elves
from Lorien heading toward unoccupied Moria and Dol Guldur! With
just a Palantir and Army die left and armies at least two spaces
from either stronghold, Chris returned the favor of last year's
final, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, as the Lorien
Elves marched uncontested into Moria and Dol Guldur for a FP
MV!
A big thanks for everyone who attended the tournament and
I hope to see you all back again next year. Just remember the
event will remain an Advanced event, so make sure you learn the
rules and play a few games before next year or you'll have to
skip the tournament and learn the game in open gaming.
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Hans Kirketerp's first trip from Denmark
netted a 4th place finish. |
The last two champs meet in the Final
under Craig Melton's view. |
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