Red Arrow's Mark Presents:

I traveled far and wide...
When I returned to this game in the latter part of 2000, I was thirsty for information about the game. So I tried to scour the net for anything meccg as best as I can. One site lead me to another and another, it was like traveling through middle-earth itself. Oh yeah I was thrilled to see Chris Cable's site, imagine finally finding someone to trade with... if only I had gone online sooner and found these earlier I said to myself. And then of course there was the mailing list. 

There are others of course like the councils and personal webpages. If I found a site I will go explore it like the way you probably would in MECCG. There were times I was thrilled to learn of a link to a site only to find it dead. Makes me think of how Frodo and the other members of the fellowship felt whenever they found ancient ruins that tell you of something special that was once there but is no more. 

But it is not all ruins and lairs. In fact there are new sites that are found now and again. During these travels through the net I found some playgroup sites. 

The Lair of the Morgul Rats.
The site is for a playgroup in Leiden the netherlands. Owned and maintained by Jean Paul Keulen this site is easily one of the best sites on the net about MECCG.  Their sheer number will make north americans envious of how MECCG still flourishes in Europe. 

Not only will you find information about its members but you will get tons and I mean tons of information and knowledge and tools and ... whew lots of stuff. If you like to find out something about MECCG this is one of the sites you might want to go to first. More often than not this site will have what you're looking for. This is like a dragon hoard of items and library of information about MECCG.

Aside from being very informative the lair of the morgul rats page is easily one of the frequently updated MECCG sites. Frequently updated and always current. This site never fails to amaze me and I have to salute its owner JP Keulen for such a marvelous job on the site. Way to go Jean Paul!

The Ruins of Tolenmar
This site is the webpage for a playgroup in Montreal, Quebec Canada. Tolenmar... jumble up the letters and you'll get Montreal, neat!  Owned and maintained by Stephen Wark this is one of the sites that steadfastly keeps MECCG alive especially here in North America. I only wish they were nearer the pacific west coast.

If you have been a part of the MECCG mailing list you may have read a comment from about this page before... " now there is some dedication" (Oh yeah I told you I scoured the net. I scoured the mailing list archive too...I told you I was thirsty for info). 

Of the three "sites" featured here, well this group site actually has a site. What I mean is they have made a "site card" just like the MECCG site cards for the group. I find that a very nice touch. Kudos Stephen for a nice site. MECCG is actually a part of other games that the group plays. But they have regular events and tournaments. Why is this important... it shows to people that MECCG lives on. 

Another special thing about this playgroup's site, well if you don't know yet then you have been gone a while from the MECCG scene or just joined it. This group will be hosting the MECCG World Championship event for 2001 in their backyard! Woooohooooooo!!! I wish you guys the best for the great event!

The Easterling Camp
The name of this group aptly defines its location, based in Japan the Easterling Camp is a welcome refuge for those players in the eastern part of the world. The site is owned and maintained by Takao Suzuki. 

Like most playgroups and players here in north america, this group struggles to survive amidst a sea of other ccgs that are flooding the market. If it was tough for North American and European players to survive without Iron Crown Enterprise (ICE) imagine what they have to go through. 

There are areas in the site that are only in Japanese that prevent me from exploring the whole site. There are links to well known MECCG sites as well as links to other Japanese MECCG sites. You can also find some images of MECCG Cards. Cool. 

They once had someone organizing the tournaments for them but that's no longer true. The group has since decided to do player run tournaments which has proven to be a good move for the group. They have regular monthly tournaments. Its quite nice to know that halfway around the globe is a group of people who like us have decided to stick it out through the drought of Tolkien based ccgs. 

Minas Tirith
A Pacific Northwest group centered in Seattle, Washington. They have a mailing list found on yahoo.groups called, well, "Minas Tirith" ofcourse. Aside from their mailing list they also have a webpage named "Court of the Fountain" that is currently undergoing reconstuction. Both their mailing list and webpage are maintained by Paul Choquette. For now its the mailing list that is the main webpresence for this group.

What I like about the group is the focus on a more casual or leisurely gaming of MECCG. I'm not saying they're not competitive, I believe they are. But you just get this welcome feel, something like, "Hey I'm free this Saturday would you like to play MECCG. I'd like to test this deck I built the other week..." thing. I don't know if this is conscious or deliberate but it sure is nice. 

Let no one think that they might lack the logistics to hold sanctioned tournaments. On the contrary they do have the resource and logistics to do so. Mind you they have several members who have been Crown's guards. They even have the Council of Elrond NetRep among their ranks. So do we expect tournament to be held by this group? Maybe. But I like the friendly feel that this group has. Its like spending time with elves that you have happened to meet on your way to Rivendell...

The Guild of Forochel
A site for  a playgroup in Bozeman, Montana. It's a nice site too. It has a nice introduction about the group and how they started out. It has a record of their activities and of their future plans. Alas all stopped as it is I do not know how or why. Could the loss of the license  by ICE, to produce the game, helpd end this promising group. Or maybe its the responsibilities of work, school and home that the did it. I tried to contact some members of the group but I got no response. I don't know if the e-mail accounts are still active or not. But this is definitely a group and a site that I wish was still around and active.

The site is beautiful with its black background and flaming graphics it gives a slight eerie athmosphere... looks very cool. Visit this site and get a slight taste of how the fellowship of the ring may have felt as they traveled through the mines of Moria... beautiful and eerie and mysterious at once. And like the mines there is no activity... sigh... Hmmmmm.... makes me think that the balrog caught up with them? 

Wherever they are I would like to give my complements to the guild of forochel for the nice site that they have. I still find it worthwhile to visit once in a while. Maybe I somehow hope that it will be updated again. So I keep coming back once in a while.

And that's it for now. 

Red Arrow