Hello friends!

A small report from my point of view on the past weekend - Marco, I am so sorry that your flu did not allow you to join with us this year :-(

On Friday 26th, I was meeting Akira at the airport. He arrived there the previous day and we took the train to the castle. I was very happy to welcome Akira to his third visit to Germany and guide him through the 'German wilderness of non-english speaking Deutsche Bahn'. Nicolai picked us up at the train station, so we did not have to take the 'Ancient Stairs', which I believe especially Akira appreciated with his suitcase full of Japanase sealed packs ;-)

After saying 'Hello' to all the familiar faces I prepared for my first 'tournament', the Dragon Hunt. Always pleasure to play a 'hack'n slay' scenario! I was satisfied with my deck, killed Smaug in every game and enjoyed playing. Thanks to Christian for the excellent preparation of this tournament! I ended up on third place, pretty good for a noob player like me :-P

For the record- 4 hours sleep (DAY 1)

On Saturday 27th, I persuaded Akira play a casual game of White Mithril with me. In the first place, he said he came all the way from Tokyo to Bacharach, just to 'say hello to the people'. No way, hehe - let's have a game! After a quick explanation on the scenario rules, we played till noon and Akira did win our first match (of course, he played dwarves - hehe).

Going to grap some 'non-youth-hostel-food' always seems to be a good idea, so we decided to find some restaurant down in the village. Unfortunately, the inn where we normally went for lunch was closed. We refused to döner and pizza and decided to go for 'Strammer Max' and some local wine instead, which turned out to be the right choice. I really enjoyed that. Well, but evil was approaching, the way back to the castle included the muddy path up the hill, hehe.

After some more playtesting, I had Akira prepared to join the evening White Mithril Tournament. Six more players signed up and we had a fun evening exploring the Under-deeps and killing nasty creatures. Akira especially enjoyed playing (and facing) The Nameless Thing :-P Christian did win the tourney and exhausted from hard battle, we went to sleep,

For the record- 4 hours sleep (DAY 2)

Tired and exhausted by the previous two days, I decided to refuse to play another tournament. Why not to have an Arda Game! Together with Thorsten, Roberto and two French players, I started a multiplayer game. Boy, that was fun! 4 hazard players against 1 active player turned out to be really funny - at least for the hazard players, hrhr. Be carefull with the choice of your target destination, one could say.

10 years of Lure of MeCCG certainly required a special award to the man who made that possible, so on Sunday 28th, we gave to Wolfgang a large binder with photos of the past Lure's, signed cards by players and special dedications. Wolfgang, you are doing an incredible job - I hope you never loose the strength to continue your efforts - long live the slave of the Lure!

At 2 p.m., it was time for me and Akira to say farewell. Christian and Alex from Switzerland took us down to the train station. If I would have known that Shadow of Mordor 'Xynthia' was approaching, probably I would have stayed behind fortress walls...

Train came with a 10 minutes delay, nothing unusual if you are used to the Deutsche Bahn. Well, actually there was some wind but even that could not explain why the train personal informed us that 'the train might occasionally not travel faster than 5km/h' - great. Once we reached Bingen Stadt, the trap was perfectly set, the train stopped again and passengers were informed that the connection to Mainz is no longer available due to intense storm and ahead trains roadblocking our way. Deutsche Bahn info desk was closed (of course), local busses were not running and the few taxis of Bingen vanished without us. Roadblock really sucks. BUT, there was 'A Friend or Three'! After I called Wolfgang, the Rangers of Framsburg appeared and played 'Promting of Wisdom'! Thanks to Peter and Wolli, we were not 'Alone and Unadvised' anymore. However, Xynthia really seemed to love roadblock. Streets and highways were closed, including the A3 heading to Frankfurt airport. Taking a hugh bypass via Darmstadt, we finally reached the Frankfurt vicinity. Sun disappeared behind dark clouds - Twilight! Finally, after FIVE hours of travelling (instead of 1h), we reached the crowded airport. Thrain II tapped to get Akira on his plane to Tokyo in time, but his own flight to Berlin was cancelled. Great!

Always good to have some friends in the region - A Chance Meeting! A friend of mine picked me up at the airport and offered me a refuge for the night before I could go on board of my 2-hours-delayed replacement flight to Berlin. Thank you so much Rob, for giving some shelter to a tired dwarf!

For the record- 3 hours sleep (DAY 3)

First, I did not even notice that the former German finance minister was sitting to my left when I woke up in the plane. Nice company - but do I have enough direct influence?. Boy, I was so tired that I even forgot to speak German when I was asked by the cabine crew, if I wished something to drink. Was so used to speak English :-D

Bottom line: Hail to Wolfgang and the Lure of MeCCG, great times with friends from distant lands and... roadblocks sucks even more than corruption!

Sincerely yours, Timo 'Thrain II' Lutter