finitesquarewell said:

I ran down to ask the parking attendant at the garage roughly across the Street from the cafe (45th St is one way, as you proceed down it and get to the cafe on your right, the garage entrance is on your left perhaps another 100' or so further). It costs $48 to park there for the day on Saturday (opens 7am, closes 2am).

LetsGoRed said:

Wow, that's expensive! (Considering gas and about $20 in tolls, one really doesn't save a lot of money driving unless the car is full.) Taking the bus may actually be only slightly more expensive, and it would be much less stressful than driving through Manhattan or worrying about other car issues.

I guess I'm just not used to Manhattan prices...grrr.

have you guys looked into boltbus.com or someother equivlant? they are usually fairly cheap.

Yeha - parking in the city is defintiely an expense. My compnay builds in a 15% surcharge on all our NYC proposals to cover this. Also - can they drive through Times Square? Isn't that closed to traffic now? I don't drive in the city often, but i know we are not far from 42nd Street and coming form the west may be an issue/

Jason? Andy? Is that going to eb a problem for them. ?

Stag Lord said:

Unless they extend the "pedestrian walk way" zone on the weekends, the amount of road blocked off in Times Sq is modest. That said, if you're coming into the city from the west you probably should try to get over to Six Ave somewhere in the high 30's and go up it to 45th St. This will have you at the correct end of 45th (a one way street, as is Six Ave) for getting to Cranberry Cafe (it'll be on your right and pretty easy to spot --it has a light up scrolling sign on its awning) and the parking garage. There may be cheaper garages around, but I don't know for sure and if you park in one make sure to ask when they close as some may close too early for your liking (when we use to play at Neutral Ground the closest garage to it closed at 7pm on weekends).

I did a little garage scouting on my way into work today.

On 43rd St b/w 7th and 8th Ave (north side, closer to 8th Ave end) the garage there is $32 for Saturday or $18 if you get in before 10am (some sort of early bird special I guess). It's a 24hr garage.

On 45th St b/w 7th and 8th Ave (south side, approx in the middle of the block, perhaps closer to 7th Ave end) the garage there charges $35 for Saturday. It's a 24hr garage.

I think there's a garage on 46th --I'll try to walk by it today when I'm out grabbing lunch to find out if it's open on Saturday and if so what the scoop is.

Another garage option: 46th b/w 6th and 5th Ave, southside, close to 6th Ave end (and thus pretty close to Cranberry Cafe): Early Bird special of $24 for Saturday if in by 10am, otherwise it jumps up about the same cost as the garage across from Cranberry.

LetsGoRed said:

Thanks for doing all the legwork! I am almost 100% certain there is no way we can make it to NYC by 10am, so none of those early-bird specials will apply. That said, it's really nice to know the options and it sounds like there is some variation in price. (Also good to know that some of the garages are open 24 hours.)

Man, I'm getting excited for this tournament. The anticipation to see how many of what house will be there is killing me!

So is everyone planning on showing up at 1 or will some people be getting there earlier? I sorted my chapter packs today and actually added enough cards to one of the decks to get it up to a legal 60 (at least I hope it's legal), so I should be ready for Saturday : ) I also got a couple games in though I wouldn't say I'm advanced enough for it to be called "practice" yet -- more just learning how to not take six minutes for every plot phase : )

Anyone who is planning on attending, could you please send me the following info --it'll help me pre-populate the player database for the Swiss pairing tournament software:

- First Name

- Last Name (or initial if you're wanted by the law. )

- Forum nickname

- Home state

You can email it to the NightsWatchNYC email in my signature block. Thanks. Less than a week to go. I can't wait.

schrecklich said:

I'm hoping on being there around 11am so I can set up everything. So, I may not be able to get in a quick game before things kick off in earnest at 1pm.

we have tourney scoring software then? Good - I was a little worried about thsi and was going to reach out to LUke regarding the subject. Thsi event looks too big to handle with the pen and paper bracket scoring method.

Stag Lord said:

i've run and seen run tourneys much, much larger than what we're expecting all using paper command cards, won't be a problem if we're efficient about it. i find tourney software sometimes confuses a process that can be a lot more simplistic. we just have to have 3 individuals keeping on top of command cards as the games are reported, take 5 minutes to sort them after the close of a round, and go down our tables shouting out matchups and assigning seats to our relatively smaller crowd to begin the rounds

I'll have software with me as well, if anyone feel's Eric's not impartial enough.

And that way we can pick Chris some opponents he might actually win against... like the other NYC players.

Oops, did I just talking smack? I'd better mention that I've only played two games of LCG only, so you can start lowering expectations.

Never underestimate Luke.

~ But you can underestimate me... :-P

Maester_LUke said:

~don't worry, going to school for two straight days with the DC meta will be more than enough to get you up to speed -- probably at the cost of some ego, though :-P

I'd prefer to go with the software.

My experience has always been that anything more than twelve players gest to be a real headache without pairing software. Looks like LGR nad LUke are on top of this.

And you're on the list for that crack, LUke.

Stag Lord said:

The good thing about that is that in two days stag can't read what names are on the list. its hard to tell who 'Nayd', 'Zuntniam', and 'UkeL' are.

~ It's Zunt'Naim and since it's obviously french its pronounced Cinnamon.

finitesquarewell said:

Haha, good stuff. Luke--bring a couple standard decks too, just so we can try a game or two of that... ~and so that you can take your revenge if need be.

By the way, how many of the NYC crowd check the forums? It's really annoying that these forums don't say where people are located. I liked that the other forums reported where people were from--it was nice to see that so many people across the world play.

Stag Lord said:

Between LUke and me, we'll have someone there to run some form of Swiss pairings software. And whoever that magic box spits out as in top place when the last round is completed will be the champion. If the DC guys are here in time, I'll defer to LUke to take care of the pairings as I'll probably have other odds and ends to worry about and LUke has practice doing it. If the DC guys are going to be getting here will little/no time to spare before the start, then I'll just do it. Either way, people should go ahead and send me the info I requested as it should help speed things up regardless. And I will have paper scorecards for each player that I will request be completed --in the event there's a software meltdown we won't be completely in the dark (plus I plan to keep the scorecards so I can pass the results onto Sithlord for updating the player rankings table on the NYC meta website).

So, I'm figuring that if we have less than 16 people, that 5 rounds of Swiss (no cut/no final round) should be a good amount. If 16 or more, 6 rounds of Swiss (ditto). Or do folks want 6 rounds regardless of turnout?

Yeah - under 16 and I say we do five rounds. Little point in extending it if we have less. Na di do liek the idea that there is no cut - everyone gets plenty of games in.

Stag Lord said:

Do wah diddy diddy dum diddy do

sorry

I assume I can apply this filter to change it to english?

s/^.(w)sw(i).*?(dowli)(w)(w)/1ow 2 3 5 4/

... it took put the backslahes... so I guess it's more of a challenge for folks to figure them out.

~ Stag people can understand you now, its old hat. You need to take it to the next level, start inserting mispelt chinese, japanese and gaelic words into the mix and use german grammar :-P

So we're about 24hrs away, I can't wait.

Some reminders and last minute info:

We'll be making every effort to start at 1pm, so please try to be at the cafe and ready to go before that (I realize that a lot of folks are at the mercy of public transportation; we'll try to work around any hold ups the best we can).

Remember that we'll be playing LCG joust. Please remember that some cards are banned (Jaquen H'ghar (Sacred Bonds F43) and Pyromancer's Cache (The War of Five Kings F13)). If you also have a standard deck, bring it along for some games of standard after the "main event" concludes.

Cards from "A Time of Trials" chapter pack are valid. (If you somehow landed a Spanish edition of the Tower of the Hand chapter pack, sorry, you can't use them. )

Please do try to avoid using pre-LCG editions of cards that were reprinted in LCG unless the LCG reprint is *exactly* equal in all game-play aspects --there'll be some new players (not to mention me, who is terrible at remembering what cards say and so is always reading the ones in play) for who inexact proxies could be a headache.

Thanks to those folks who sent me there info to "pre-register"; in return I should have emailed at least one person in your group my cellphone number in case you need to reach me tomorrow (I won't be checking email tomorrow once I'm on my way into the city).

Prizes should be something like this:

• 1st place: etched crystal trophy and choice of one FFG provided premium item.
• 2nd place: choice of one remaining FFG provided premium item.
• 3rd place: remaining FFG provided premium item.
• (The FFG items are: laser engraved "crystal" Targ house card, Greyjoy logo embossed leather deck case, and Lannister logo embossed leather deck case)
• Door prizes (see, Stag, there is a chance you'll win something ): Black Friday IV t-shirts, complete (15 count) set of poker chip style power counters, standard playing card deck with AGoT art, and some House pins).
• Everyone who participates will receive a Storylines voting ballot.

LetsGoRed said:

~So much for my trip to kinkos