On February 20th, 2012, FFG instigated subforums for our LOTR LCG community. At that time I began a new thread in the Player Community subforum for juicebox Tournament activity: The juicebox LOTR LCG Tournaments ~ Top Ten Hall of Fame & Ideas Thread. What you find below is now just a snapshot of what one might call "old news"...

Complete Directory of Tournament Threads:

Completed Tournaments: 

Solo Player: #1
Solo Player: #2
Solo Player: #3
Solo Player: #4
Solo Player: #5
Solo Player: #6
Solo Player: #7
Solo Player: #8
Solo Player: #9
Solo Player: #10

2 Player: #1
2 Player: #2

Active Tournaments:

2 Player: #3

4 Player: #1

Last Updated:

February 19, 2012 (11:05am) [FFG Time]

Top Ten Hall of Fame Thread:

The juicebox LOTR LCG Top Ten Hall of Fame

Original Post:

I’m considering starting a series of week long tournaments highlighting a specific quest with specific deck building requirements. In the next post, I’ll provide a sample of what I’m planning to launch first. Between now and then, I would welcome thoughtful input around how I am setting this up. Also feel free to use this thread to make suggestions for future Tournament of the Week ideas (quests and deck building parameters).

I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts, and if you could keep them focused to this particular topic here that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all!

The juicebox LOTR LCG Tournament of the Week (#1)

[SAMPLE POST - NOT FOR OFFICIAL USE]

Welcome to my first (of what could become a regular thing) LOTR LCG Tournament of the Week. The idea behind this is that for one week (Sunday – Saturday), everyone is invited to participate in playing a particular quest with particular deck building requirements as outlined in this first post. You are then invited to record and post your final score, the heroes you used, and any narrative you’d like to add.

Note: this is not a place to post results from the past. The tournament has a one-week lifespan, and only games played and recorded throughout this week are valid. Throughout the week, I will keep this first post updated with the Top Ten results.

Will you place in the Top Ten for the week? I hope you’ll participate and find out.

After the end of this week’s tournament, you are welcome to continue to post results to this thread if you continue to play this particular quest under these particular parameters. However, the Top Ten on this first post will not continue to be updated after the week is over, thus preserving (like a time capsule) the results from this week’s tournament. Further, and in general, please refrain from using this thread for extensive theorizing and/or conversation that is not directly related to this particular tournament. Nothing against other conversations – it’s just, that’s what other threads are for. And now… on to this week’s Tournament of the Week!

Tournament #1: Journey Down the Anduin [1 Core Set Only] [Solo Play]

This week’s tournament is inspired by Marlow’s recent desire to absolutely conquer the Anduin. While playing Solo, using only one deck made from one core set may not be everyone’s cup of tea, defined parameters are what will make each Tournament of the Week a unique and specific challenge. I hope you enjoy it, and Quest Well!!

Top Ten (11/20/11 – 11/26/11) [SAMPLE POST - NOT FOR OFFICIAL USE]

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Does the requirement "one core set only" absolute, i.e. no cards from adventure packs?

Angus Lee said:

Good question. That was my intention. That way, for future tournaments, the same quest could be run again with different deck building parameters, like [One Core Set + all Shadows of Mirkwood adventure packs] for example or [1-3 Core Sets only] or [Open Build - i.e. use any cards you like according to standard deck building rules].

That said, it sounds like I'll need to word that piece with more clarity.  Would [One Core Set Only - no adventure packs] suffice?

Thanks!

juicebox said:

Sounds Well formularen to me :) but of it's one core set only with no AP then you only have 4 quests to go at ;)

mr.thomasschmidt said:

I'm not sure I understand. The particular quest for this week's tournament would be Journey Down the Anduine (just the one quest), and the deck building restriction would be that you'd be limited to tackling that quest using a deck with cards built just from one core set. What do you mean by "only have 4 quests to go at?"

Every time there is a different weekly tournament, there would be a specific quest chosen for the tournament - just one (unless for that week the tournament happened to be a "nightmare" variant or some such). Can you let me know if I need to make a certain part of the instructions more clear? I will make a couple small fixes to the sample posted above, and hopefully that will help (Specifically, I will strike "as outlined in this first post." from the second sentence.)

Thanks for the feedback. My hope is to have the instructions for participating as clearly laid out as possible before launching the first one. So, all questions are helpful. Sharing your understanding of how this would work based on what I've written would be helpful too. Again, thanks!

 Sounds fun i'd give it a go.

Avalanche said:

Great!

I'd participate as well.

Good idea! And what about 2,3,4-players games? I don't play solo. Only 2 players games with my wife.

LEGA said:

Good question. I've been toying around with a few options...

1) Different weekly tournament formats could specifically be for either solo, 2, 3, or 4 player games. By making each tournament very specific it would either give people a natural out from participating that week (i.e. "well, I don't play solo, so I'm out") or it could encourage people to try something new (i.e. "okay, I'll give this solo thing a go" or "I'm gonna need to find a buddy to play with this week if I want in on this weeks tournament").

2) I could make a separate Top Ten list for each Solo, 2 player, 3 player, and 4 player each week. (That has me spinning a bit just thinking about it though.)

3) Each week could offer Top Tens for both Solo and 2 player formats (maybe the most popular formats at this point?) (also, maybe a little more manageable for me).

4) Some other possibility I'm not thinking of...

Honestly, I'm leaning toward option one at this point, making each tournament very specific around 3 main variables:

1) The Quest for that Week

2) The Deck Building Parameters

3) The Number of Players

BUT, I'm really open to feedback about all of this. What do you think about these options? My desire is to brainstorm, problem-solve on the front end, launch the first tournament this Sunday, see out that goes, evaluate, and continue from there based on how things go.

[Also, Kiwina - I saw your post too... glad you're game!]

I decided to give this a go tonight. I threw together a Spirit/Leadership deck with Eowyn, Dunhere and Theodred as the heroes. The first game had Unexpected Courage, Sneak Attack and Gandalf in the opening hand - how can it get any better? However, due to Necromancer's Reach, Eowyn eventually bit the dust in the second phase, and I couldn't muster enough quest power after that. I conceded the game shortly after.
So, on to a second game. I had Gandalf in my opening hand, but no Sneak Attack this time. I eventually drew it and decided to use it on Faramir so I didn't lose the quest somewhere in phase 2. The next draw, of course, was Gandalf... In phase 2, I revealed a lot of locations and eventually had to return Northern Tracker tue to a Shadow card as it was my only exhausted ally. I couldn't replay it, had 3 locations in the staging area, was at 45 threat and facing the Marsh Adder. I conceded.
So, I was off to the third game. Weirdly, everything went super-smooth in spite of me not drawing Gandalf, Northern Tracker, Sneak Attack or Unexpected Courage. However, I got two quick Guide to Loriens and an early Banks of Anduin. I managed to "recycle" the Banks 3 times, staying clear of any more dangerous cards. I dealt with the Troll by chumping with a Snowbourne Scout and using For Gondor! for enough damage. When I finished phase 2 in turn 8, I didn't reveal any more enemies and only had to deal with a Dol Guldur Beastmaster which I could exactly kill. I still had the opportunity to recycle a Greeting of the Galadhrim with my Dwarven Tomb to lower my threat again.
Final score: 103 - 8 turns, 25 threat, 1 damage on Eowyn and Theodred each (Necromancer's Reach), 4 victory points from the initial Hill Troll.
I was pretty lucky as I didn't draw anything really dangerous - no second Troll, no Marsh Adder, no Gladden Fields, no Ufthak. So, I'm not really sure I can do better, at least not without an insane amount of luck.

I really like this idea.  Could do all sorts of fun concepts.  Three heroes of different spheres for instance.  s  I think you can do solo weeks and non solo weeks.  Two player isn't that hard to play solo if you wanted to.  aAfter that though you need another person or two. 

wRAITH428

p.s. - iF THE FORMATTING LOOKS ODD i APPOLOGIZE.  sOMETHING WRONG WITH MY BROWSER AND HAD TO TYPE THIS BLIND.

Trantor and wraith428... THANKS for the great feedback!

Trantor - WOW! I'll be amazed if someone can top that third game experience of yours next week when this goes live. Can't wait to see if it's possible.

And wraith428 - That's a great idea about adding hero parameters to some of the tournaments. I hadn't considered that. I like it.

Also, i appreciate your thoughts about specifying number of players per tournament. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of setting up each tournament to be very particular. There's so much exciting about this game (especially with the new expansion coming out soon and a new series of adventure packs to look forward to). I think these tournaments can be a way to keep some of the "old stuff" fresh and worth revisiting in a fun, challenging, and focused way.

Looking forward to Sunday...

Another idea for the future pile… Journey Down the Anduin w/ a starting party of heroes who’s base threat is 30+ (i.e. have to deal with the Troll on turn 1.) Not sure it’s even possible.

Wraith428

P.S. - Really like the Tournament of the Week idea.

wraith428 said:

Thanks Wraith428! That could be a fun idea to try for 2 player games. I imagine solo play starting with 30+ threat would result in an mulligan epidemic of outrageous proportion.

Also, I'm foreseeing a potential problem with my idea...

Up until tonight I've been able to go back and Edit the orriginal post for this thread. Now, tonight, that feature is gone! Does that ability lock after 24 hours or something? That could put a serious damper on my plans to keep the Top Ten updated throughout the week.

Does anyone have experience with this kind of thing on FFG Forums? Suggestions?