[MECCG] Middle Earth: The Wizards, What is it?

MMP Mithril in Middle-Earth The Playgrounds of Erebor [MECCG] Middle Earth: The Wizards, What is it?

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  • #381
    Gildor
    MMP Elder

      this thread is only to explain with some more details what this game was.

      It was the collecting card games released by ICE in addition to the MERP roleplaying games.

      ICE ceased to produce it (and any further addons) in 1999 when they lost their Tolkien Licence with Tolkien Enterprise… too bad

      The Original Game is the set called “Middle Earth: The Wizards” with more than 350play cards, among which one of the rarest was , indeed, “The One Ringe” card.
      In this game you were to play one of the five Istari and gather fellowships (a big one or several smaller ones) and travel through Middle-Earth to gather points (earned with famous items retrieved from hoards, or by having factions join your cause) or to try to use a strategy to destry the One Ring (which was by far the hardest way to win the game because it supposed you had quite a bunch of the rarest cards of the game to play the good combination of cards.
      It was turned based. Your opponent was another Istar trying to do exactly the same thing as you. But during your opponent’s turn you were playing “hazards” or bad events… on him to try to stop him, kill him or ruin his missions or attempts at gathering treasures/factions… in some way, during your opponent’s turn you were playing Sauron’s forces or simply the “Bad Fate” sometimes with Natural, unaligned evil forces…

      There were two addons for this first set :
      Middle-Earth: The Dragons (based mainly on many named dragons and drakes, mostly invented by ICE but there was also Scatha for example … You could find dragon hoards items or you could have access to “dragon” hazards…
      Middle-Earth: Dark Minions (this set introduced a new notion : the one of having characters under cover for the bad side, minions, Sauron infiltrated agents… it was a first attempt at playing both Good… and Evil characters during your opponent’s turn to add some very tricky strategies inside the game

      Then came the new stand-alone set: “Middle-Earth: The Lidless Eye” which did not necessarily had to use any of the first ME:TW, ME:TD or ME:DM cards (but you could use them if you wanted). In this set you did not play one of the istari and you did not play the good guys… you were playing one of the Nine Nazgul… and your goal was to serve the Dark lord… to gather enough points to rule supreme over your fellow Nazgul….
      With those two sets in existence you could now have access to new game rules sets if you want : You could play a ME:TW deck against a ME:LE set…. playing an Istari againt a Nazgul! that was grand!

      Another addon was released after ME:LE, it was Middle-Earth : Against the Shadow and it was , if I remember well, fit for both ME:TW or ME:LE sets with items, ressources or hazards for both types of decks.

      One last addon “Middle-Earth : The White Hand” introduced a new type of cards (and thus, of rules) allowing you to play a FALLEN istar… so you were playing a corrupted Istari, like Saruman with special instances of those istari (even Gandalf) but evil… and you had access to special types of cards as ressources for them, along with the ability to use both good ressource cards or evil ressources cards… Quite Original

      The Final One : Middle-Earth: The Balrog…. it consisted of Two fixed decks instead of blisters…. the content of each of the two sets (one green-blue, one red) did not change from one package to the others. It included a bunch of former released cards from former sets or addon, with gray borders… and a lot of cards specific to the Balrog release… Including the Balrog Character card (actually the rule of this set was that you neither played an Istar, or a Nazgul… you were playing “Durin’s Bane” Balrog and you were looking for power over Middle-Earth without serving the good cause or Sauron’s cause.
      Those two sets are very rare and it was the last release of ICE… so they are well sought after…. mainly one of the cards of these set which, though fixed in the set is very rare and reaches sometime the price of 45€. the card “Sauron” which allows you to over-rule the other cards and let you play Sauron Himself…

      After this release, ICE released one last thing : 10 challenge decks (5 for istari, 5 for Nazgul) these were competition decks with fixed contents. They were the winning sets of former competitors during worldwide tournament which were proven to be quite “winning” so they were released the way their original creator had arranged them…

      Along the year, ICE released in several magazines, events, tournaments, promotional campaigns… several promotional cards unfindable anywhere else than in the given support… Most of these are English, but quite a bunch of them are also German ONLY… they do not exist in english and are very rare… Some have also been released in japanese, french, finnish, Italian or spannish but the differences mainly consisted on alternate image on the card, but the effects were the same…

      Among those promotional Cards, you can find “The Black Arrow” (of Bard Bowman), the “Iron Crown” (of Melkor) and the “Fury of the Iron Crown”, “the Arkenstone (evil version for ME:LE”) , the “Neeker Breekers”, Fatty Bolger…
      or in german you can also find one of my favorites : Ringil (the word of Fingolfin that hurt Melkor’s foot) , Horn der Herausforderung (horn of defiance), Schwertmeister (swordmaster) and…Taschendieb (Pick-Pockets, Promotional version german only which was ONLY given as the reward for the FIRST place in the worldwide tournament back in 2000 or so…) I am the lucky possessor of one of these “prize reward” card…

      Among the artists who illustrated the cards you have the most famous Tolkien artists ever : John Howe, Ted Nasmith, Alan Lee, Angus McBride…. This is by far the most beautifully illustrated card game I have ever seen (Magic or other lesser games do not match this quality)

      #5361
      Gildor
      MMP Elder

        a little link for a card database with pictures for all cards :
        http://www.tradecardsonline.com/im/selectCard/game20/goal

        (If you check every Nazgul cards, you’ll notice that the LR Nazgul series from Mithril are directly inspired from the art of those cards)

        #5482
        Gavin
        Participant

          It’s interesting to see the visual “cross-over” between Mithril and the Wizards game – I was struck recently by the illustration of a Woodman on a card. The entire outfit is inspired by the Mithril figures.

          Of course the MX Fram figure is directly inspired by the card illustration.

          I was pretty amused to realise your “profession” convention for MMP was inspired by the Wizards game. I fully approve!

          #5487
          Gildor
          MMP Elder

            not only Fram, as I said, all the named Nazgul are… actually Mithril is mainly inspired by Angus McBride art… and McBride art was a source of inspiration for many ME:TW cards (either drawn by himself or by others who used his concepts)

            #5497
            Gavin
            Participant

              Oh, I know. It’s just interesting.

              As an aside: do you have a scan of the “Annalena” character card? Sounds like someone I’d want to create via conversion and painting. :D

              #5501
              protozeus
              Participant

                Annalena :)

                (Edited:) Sorry for the 403. Search at the site of the link posted by Master Gildor above.

                [imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/160_annalena.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/160_annalena.jpg[/imgz]

                #5511
                Turambar
                Participant

                  . . ” bad link” , Ben. Would you try to post this link again please.

                  #5512
                  protozeus
                  Participant

                    Hope the picture is visible now? Master Gildor posted the link to a card search engine, above.

                    #5513
                    hsf62
                    Participant

                      That’s better! Thanks

                      #5514
                      protozeus
                      Participant

                        Elusive, those elven minstrels …

                        One should also adore this impression of Arwen.

                        [imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/160_arwen.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/160_arwen.jpg[/imgz]

                        #5515
                        hsf62
                        Participant

                          Nice cards. I think i’m going to have a closer look.

                          #5529
                          Gavin
                          Participant

                            Thank you kindly – I found the image after taking the card number and searching around the site.

                            #7468
                            Maenas
                            Participant
                              Gildor Inglorion wrote:
                              (If you check every Nazgul cards, you’ll notice that the LR Nazgul series from Mithril are directly inspired from the art of those cards)

                              The artist who draw the nazgul’s cards should be known for those who played MERP, because she was one of the illustrators of the MERP books!! so here is the link in between them.
                              Liz Danford was also an illustrator for some cards of the METW card game, on wich I spend lots of summer nights with some friends. It was a really nice game. Still have the card collection complete!!

                              [imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/27_p1000834.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/27_p1000834.jpg[/imgz] signed by Liz Danford’s hand…

                              #7471
                              protozeus
                              Participant
                                Maenas wrote:
                                … signed by Liz Danford’s hand…

                                Very nice! (Keep me informed once you cannot stand them or want to get rid of them or like to exchange them for anything – I know, just kidding … ;))

                                Liz Danforth’s gallery: http://www.lizdanforth.com/?page_id=21

                                #7482
                                Maenas
                                Participant

                                  :cool:hehehe
                                  Oh, thanks! didn’t know she has a website! hehehe

                                  #23823
                                  Gildor
                                  MMP Elder

                                    I’m not usually versed into necroposting… but I’ve been contacted by members of the ‘Council of Elrond’ and informed me about lots of news concerning MECG card games which is still virtually alive through online gaming mostly and creation of dozens of dreamcards made by fans after the demise of the original/official MECCG by ICE

                                    Many new sets do exist allowing you to play in the Far East or Far South or Far North regions of Arda according to all MERP material, we see Junast, we see Razarak and Many representations that exist in mithril exist in those cards too

                                    also, there is a project to release 2 sets of cards in january 2013 (this is done on a fan edition basis and will only be done 50 preorders at least are reached : it would cost 125€ approximatly for 760 cards and two softcover printed player guides)
                                    if there are any people interested I could provide more info :) Maybe Gavin would like it?

                                    #23826
                                    Mornedhel
                                    Participant

                                      Ho Gildor

                                      Very good news, I have been MECG players for years.
                                      May you provide me more info on this.

                                      Thanks

                                      thijl

                                      #23827
                                      imisel
                                      Participant
                                        Gildor Inglorion wrote:
                                        I’m not usually versed into necroposting… but I’ve been contacted by members of the ‘Council of Elrond’ and informed me about lots of news concerning MECG card games which is still virtually alive through online gaming mostly and creation of dozens of dreamcards made by fans after the demise of the original/official MECCG by ICE

                                        Many new sets do exist allowing you to play in the Far East or Far South or Far North regions of Arda according to all MERP material, we see Junast, we see Razarak and Many representations that exist in mithril exist in those cards too

                                        also, there is a project to release 2 sets of cards in january 2013 (this is done on a fan edition basis and will only be done 50 preorders at least are reached : it would cost 125€ approximatly for 760 cards and two softcover printed player guides)
                                        if there are any people interested I could provide more info :) Maybe Gavin would like it?

                                        I would be very interested on it… When this game was working well in Spain (distributed by Joc International , at already disapeared entreprise) I was Istari (tournament organizer) in my country… It will be nice to get news of this so please tell what to do to put my hands on this two sets.

                                        #23890
                                        Gildor
                                        MMP Elder

                                          Glad to see you are interested Imisel! :) Well I have quite a lot of info if you want

                                          the Council of Elrond (the community who handles everything related to MECCG including rules, tournaments, errata etc) has posted info regarding the release of those two “dreamcard sets” You can find more info here :
                                          http://www.councilofelrond.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=1864

                                          Also, the Gccg game software allows you to play this game virtually and save tabletops online to have parties run on your computer between two people, and the channels and community is actually quite alive! Many parties everyday that’s amazing

                                          I suggest you subscribe to the forum linked above if you want more info :)

                                          About Dreamcards (sets produced by fans after the demise of ICE and the end of the MECCG as official releases) MANY cards and full sets have been made, actually more than the existing cards… but there is no official release, these are JPG files… the release I am talking about is the first attempt to make “real” cards which so far have remained jpg files for years! some artists are great actually

                                          about the rules, there are many sets… and now yu can play in Far North (northern wastes above Forochel) or Far East (beyond and around the sea of Rhun and extreme North East bay, or Far Harad and even the jungles around Ardor… The court of Ardor and its members exist in cards, as all the MERP background about those places … indeed not canon in the Tolkien litterature but it is inspired by ICE background combined with OtherMinds background

                                          actually a lot of the recent Dreamcard work about MECCG is inspired by :
                                          – ICE MERP
                                          – OtherMinds Magazine
                                          – History of Middle Earth books (4 and above)

                                          Don’t hesitate to ask me any questions :)

                                          #23891
                                          Gildor
                                          MMP Elder

                                            this is just a preview of just one card that will be released in the new set… :) I find it totally beautiful :

                                            [imgz url=http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/2_aranruth.jpg]http://mmp.faerylands.eu/uploads/thumbs/2_aranruth.jpg[/imgz]

                                            So Thingol, what do you think about your own sword? ;)

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                                          MMP Mithril in Middle-Earth The Playgrounds of Erebor [MECCG] Middle Earth: The Wizards, What is it?