Zjb12 said:

@Zjb12:

This is a very valid point. I too have done lots of learning, and I'm sure I would continue to learn lots if I continue to play at this pace. However, today (Jan 8) is the last real day of Christmas break for me. Tomorrow I have to go back to school. Balancing graduate school with a wife and two kids leaves little time for playing games. I have to fit games in somewhere because otherwise my brain would explode and I would burn out from never having any kind of fun But still, it will be impossible for me to keep up with everyone if I have to continue to play at this pace.

If I'm the odd one out and everyone likes the tourneys like this, then that is fine. I'll just deal with it as best I can and still have fun. I just think it is a bit extreme though, and the tourneys could do a little more to help the gameplay be more fun and a little less serious. Of course, this is just my opinion and I understand if people disagree. I certainly have nothing against serious competitiveness...except that I can't always participate in it

~Vase

Great discussion you guys... I'd love to hear more thoughts, perspectives, feedback around this aspect of the tournaments.

For the moment, to answer one point of your concern Vase, the remaining tournaments for this particular run through of the SoM cycle will remain the same - for continuity. However, there will be more tournaments after January, and there will inevitably be more runnings of the SoM cycle in the future, and I think there could be lots of room for a variety of approaches to a specific stand alone tournament or to a particular series of tournaments.

So, everyone... please chime in. Your thoughts and ideas matter to me.

It is honestly hard to judge and the decision lies in your hands juicebox. I personally am biased toward allowing only a limited number of plays, because I am only getting in roughly 1-4 games per tournament.

But as I said, I am pretty biased, so I will actually "vote" for people having unlimited games, it is just more open, less restrictive and it is interesting to see those stellar scores and learn from that.

That being said, I am totally fine with making the Top 10 regularly on a single digit number of games, the scores mean jack in the end and I am having a good time, that is all there is to it.

So i was thinking about this today. Would people like someone like this: 1 week intermediate/expert level tournament. Limited to 10 games. (note: you must use either your opening hand or the mulligan replacement. Reshuffling after a mulligan hand constitutes the start of a new game.). Submit your lowest score from up to 10 attempts.

Scenario: into the pit.

Deck requirements: limited to dwarf Heros. The following cards are not allowed: any silvan or noldor cards; Protector of Lorien; galadrim's greetings; favor of the lady; horn of gondor; steward of gondor. 50 card deck, no more than 3 of any card.

Reward: those in the top ten get double points to be added in on Juicebox's current overall listing. (so 1st would get 20pts, 2nd 18, etc.)

Thoughts? Just an idea.

Zjb12 said:

I love that idea. But there are only two darven heroes, so I guess you mean only the restricted cards may not be used?

And couldn't we just pretend that Gandalf is out of town, too?

@leptokurt: hey! I meant we could only use for our heroes those who are listed as dwarf, so Dain, Thalin, Gloin, Gimli, dwalin, and bifur. I did consider nixing gandalf from play, but after getting my expansion pack yesterday and trying the first scenario: ouch! Course this is all an idea, but if Juicebox approved, I'd be willing to run something like this sometime for him, as long as he'd include the points at the end. Granted, you might try 10 attempts and get no score if you don't win! Maybe we'd need to up it to like 15-20 attempts.

Wednesday Announcement: January 11, 2011

The next planned Solo Player Tournament will even further our present venture through the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle. Beginning on January 15th, this weeklong tournament will feature:

Quest: The Dead Marshes
Deck Parameters: 1-3 Core Sets + HfG, CotC, JtR, HoEM, & DM Adventure Packs
Number of Players: Solo Play – 1 Player/1 Deck

Get Ready!

Also, don’t forget about the current active 2 Player Tournament (Return to Mirkwood).

But wait… there’s more:

As a brief 7 point forecast, I want to share how I’m envisioning the next few weeks or so to go…

1) January 22nd-28th will feature a weeklong Solo Player Tournament for The Return to Mirkwood. (Yes, this will run concurrent with the 2 Player Tournament for the same adventure. We’re going to cap this cycle right!)
2) The week of January 29 – February 4, there will be a break from Solo Player Tournaments.
3) The current 2 Player Tournament will finish on January 31st.
4) Another month long multiplayer tournament will begin on February 1st.
5) I am going to wait a while to offer any tournaments that are Khazad-dûm related. (This is for 2 primary reasons. One - I want as many people to have access to those cards as possible before hosting a tournament with them. Two – I want to give us as a community time to work out any major questions that come up with the new cards before offering a tournament with them.)
6) During the month of February, I am planning to run a few Solo Player Tournaments that incorporate various ideas some of you have suggested in this thread, so keep the ideas coming…
7) There isn’t really a seven. I just felt like having seven things on my list.

As always, thanks for playing,

juicebox.

In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.
Friedrich Nietzsche
German philosopher
1844–1900

@Zjb12

I like your idea a lot. I want to try it.

@Juicebox

Great idea to wait a bit for everyone to get access to the new cards. I'm still not sure when I'll get mine (my daughter likes this icon).

juicebox said:

juicebox said:

Yeah, I like this. As I was just told that the german version will be in store in mid February. ( which is kinda odd given that all the other expansions released just days after the english on did)

So for me personally it means no Dwarves since end of Feb or even early March.

And by the way: I HATE THE SOFTWARE THEY USE FOT THIS FORUM.

I don´t know how often posts get ****** up like my previous one did.

I would like to give my 2 pennies regarding the discussion initiated by Vase last week.

First I have to say that I love these tournaments since they are such a great incentive to really play and explore the different scenarios. What really struck me during the Rhosgobel tournament last week though was that this kind of tournament tends to reward decks that are very scenario specific and/or inconsistent (decks that fail or get high scores most of the time but once in a while get very low scores). I don't say I am all against this, but in the extreme case this could reduce the game to just trying over and over again to draw the right cards instead of actually PLAYING the game.

One way to reward more consistent decks (and also mitigate the luck of draw) would be to have to play two or three games in a row and then either add up the scores or calculate the average. In this regard a fail could either equal a certain number of (high) points (which could be tricky since the average scores for each scenario are very different) or simply mean a fail (ie you would have to succeed in all games to get a valid entry).

In order to reward decks that are not overly scenario specific you could do as above but play DIFFERENT scenarios. You could even use some kind of "Nightmare rules" linking the games together, as long as it doesn't become too complicated (else it becomes easier to make mistakes and it might also scare people away if nightmare rules are too complex).

One drawback with both these suggestions is of course that it would take more playings to get a valid tournament entry, and I know that time is precious for many of us (I have three kids myself and do most of my gaming late in the evening/past midnight), but I really like the idea of linking different scenarios together somehow. I don't know what other people think though.

Fatty said:

This is a fantastic idea. I suggest combining this idea with something Juicebox said a while ago about limiting the number of attempts per set of heroes. So if each player was allowed, say, 5 attempts (playing each hand they drew [one mulligan allowed] like Zjb12 suggested) per set of heroes, and then they had to average out the 5 scores they got, I think you could get a clearer idea of not only who is building better decks, but also who is a better player.

With regards to time being precious, and believe me it is, I think I can sneak in 5 games a week. I'm sure others would be getting in tons more, but I would still feel like I had chances to be competitive in the scoring if it was done this way. And, most importantly, I think everyone could still have tons of fun.

I have a question....as long as we stick to the tournament rules, is there anything keeping us from participating using programs like LackeyCCG or OCTAGON in lieu of the cards?

I have 3 kids under 6 and a small house. This means two things, one, time is short. I spend time at lunch at work starting new games on LackeyCCG that I finish at home after the kids go to bed. The small house means, I don't have too much table space to just leave cards laying around while I am not playing. 3 Kids under 6 means, If i do leave the cards out, the usually do not remain where i left them.

Can we participate using LackeyCCG?

I had another tournament idea. Just an idea, so feel free to kick it around. Shadows of Mirkwood Nightmare Variant Part 1: HfG, CatC, JtR. Deck build: Only Dwarf Heroes. Deck size: limited to 50 cards. Game: To play through all 3 scenarios and come out victorious. You are allowed to shuffle your discard pile back into your deck after each of the first two scenarios. When starting a new scenario all cards other than heros return to the deck. You are allowed to heal 1 damage per hero for free in between scenarios. You are allowed to reduce your threat in between scenarios, (also free) by 5 per hero still remaining, (up to a total reduction of 15 max). You are allowed 1 mulligan per initial hand draw for each scenario. Finally, you may attempt to complete this scenario no more than 7 times, submitting the lowest score of the 7 attempts. An attempt counts as soon as you draw your first hand for the first scenario. Any forfeit counts as a game. If you draw a hand and then take a mulligan and do not desire to continue on after that, it still counts as an attempt.

Too hard? Thoughts?

hendersondayton said:

Nothing keeping you. Go for it!

Thanks! Unfortunately, my personal library is only 1 Core and Adventure Packs HFG, CaTC, and TJtR...LackeyCCG only goes up thru CaTC (for now). I am going back to your previous posts and playing the original tournaments on my own. Will post my results on each of those threads even though they are all completed.

hendersondayton said:

Well, I look forward to reading your posts!

Also, hang in there... February bodes well for upcoming tournaments in which you'll be able to play with LackeyCCG and/or the cards you own.

Wednesday Announcement: January 18, 2012

Hello fine people around the world who enjoy this most excellent game.

The next planned Solo Player Tournament will FINISH our present venture through the Shadows of Mirkwood cycle. Beginning on January 22nd, this weeklong tournament will feature:

Scenario: Return to Mirkwood
Deck Parameters: 1-3 Core Sets + All SoM Adventure Packs
Number of Players: Solo Play – 1 Player/1 Deck

Of course, the current 2 Player Tournament (to be completed on 1/31) features the same Scenario, both the Solo and 2 Player tournaments having featured a fairly standard Restricted format for deck building. I hope you enjoy the close of this run through of the SoM cycle.

The week after, 1/29-2/4, will feature a weeklong break from Solo Tournament play, and then February promises some fairly experimental tournaments, incorporating many various ideas from several of you. So, stay tuned!

As always, thanks for playing,

juicebox.

Now in myth and ritual the great instinctive forces of civilized life have their origin: law and order, commerce and profit, craft and art, poetry, wisdom and science. All are rooted in the primeval soil of play.
Johan Huizing
Dutch historian
1872–1945

Time for a dumb question .... I've always assumed that there is a minimum 50 card deck size for your tournaments. Is this correct?

Maybe the deck size limits could be made clear at the start of the tournament in the future, we could even try different sizes.

Since the majority of players will have access to just the 1 core set, can we please have a few more events that only allow access to 1 set of cards?

Memetix said:

I think the assumption is minimum 50, but not sure if there is a maximum, though most people know, the more you add over 50, the less likely to get the ones you want. I think for this weekend I might say minimum 50 maximum 60; 1 core set plus certain aps.

Memetix said:

Yes, minimum 50 card deck. Basically, my approach is that all the standard rules are to be applied unless a specific tournament rule is stated that trumps the standard rule. Personally, my bias is to have as few tournament rules conflict with standard game rules as possible. (ps - not a dumb question.)

Oh, also... I'll have a new announcement/update posted to this thread a little later today about my upcoming juicebox Tournaments.

Wednesday Announcement: January 25, 2012

Very exciting discussions and planning in the works to increase the level of our future homebrewed tournament scene here on the FFG LOTR LCG forums.

In the mean time, here is my announcement in preparation for next week:

1) For the week of January 29th – February 4th, I will take a break from hosting a Solo Player Tournament. Breaks are good, and I’ll be fine tuning a few ideas for some of the upcoming Solo Player Tournaments I’m planning to host in February.

2) January 31st will mark the end of the current 2 Player Tournament. So, keep watch for an updated Top Ten Hall of Fame at that time.

3) February 1st will mark the beginning of 2 different multiplayer tournaments! Both tournaments will last for the month of February. There will be another 2 Player Tournament, and I will host my first ever 4 Player Tournament.

2 Player Tournament (#3)

Scenario: Massing at Osgiliath
Deck Parameters: 1-3 Core Sets + All Shadows of Mirkwood Adventure Packs
Number of Players: Two Players

4 Player Tournament (#1)

Scenario: Passage Through Mirkwood*
Deck Parameters: 1-3 Core Sets + All Shadows of Mirkwood Adventure Packs**
Number of Players: Four Players

*My main idea here… if you haven’t already, it’s time to teach some friends the wonder of this game. And what better way that to start with the very first quest?

**In deck building for this 4 Player Tournament, each player may use cards from 1-3 copies of the Core Set + any Shadows of Mirkwood Adventure Packs per deck. (No need to record exactly what was used… I’ve decided to embrace the possible tie.)

As always, thanks for playing,

juicebox.

It is a happy talent to know how to play.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
American writer
1803–1882

Okay Juicebox---so I finally just ordered Osgiliath, we will see how it goes---my hobbits might not like this one!

Zjb12 said:

Zjb12, I think your little hobbits are pretty lucky to have an old Gaffer like you.

Hee hee! Thanks! I certainly have enough of them---5!