Middle-earth Collectible Card Game (MECCG) for Lackey

Middle-earth Collectible Card Game (MECCG) is a collectible card game released by Iron Crown Enterprises in late 1995. It is the first CCG based on J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional universe of Middle-earth, with added content from ICE's Middle-earth Role Playing Game. The cards used in the game feature original artwork by a multitude of artists, many of them longtime Tolkien illustrators such as John Howe, Ted Nasmith, Angus McBride, et al.

In its basic form, it is a game for two to five players, each choosing one of the five wizards to represent themselves. A turn in the game consists of one player's wandering around Middle-earth with the help of famous characters of Middle-earth, trying to gather influence and power to aid in the battle against Sauron, while another player tries to harass, and ultimately kill his characters with specific hazard cards. Then, for each player's turn, the roles change clockwise around the table (the player who was moving his characters then throws hazards at the player to his or her right). Any player may also win by acquiring and destroying the One Ring after a complicated set of events. Later expansions have added the possibility to take the role of a Ringwraith of Sauron (MELE), a corrupted wizard playing by his own rules (MEWH), the malevolent Balrog (MEBA), or even Sauron himself. The game is somewhat distinguished from most other CCG's with the use of two six-sided dice for a random factor and also by the actual map of Middle-earth, including regions your companies travel through, and site cards they visit. MECCG won two Origins Awards: Best Card Game of 1995 for MECCG: The Wizards and Best Graphic Presentation of a Card Game or Expansion of 1996 for MECCG: The Dragons. The game's production ended in 1999, when ICE lost the license that allowed them to use the content of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. MECCG still has a relatively loyal and active fanbase of players.

From: WikiPedia

Currently only the high quality version of the card images is available. The cards are all sized 312 x 438 px. See the samples above.

Installing the plugin

To download or update use the following link:

http://www.chrisvos.com/meuk/lackey/meccg/updatelist.txt

Additional information

The plugin contains all cards form the officialy released sets:

• The Wizards (METW) (1995): The first basic set, dealing with the good side, including most main characters from the books, like Gandalf, Frodo and Aragorn. Pretty straightforward gameplay with relatively simple marshalling point cards and hazard creatures.
• The Dragons (METD) (1996): The first expansion set for METW. As the name implies, deals mostly with dragons, their treasure and the northern regions.
• Dark Minions (MEDM) (1996): Adds many powerful hazard cards including more undead and introduces the agents - a subtle group of Sauron's servants, concentrating on intrigue and influence. Also adds an underground network of site cards, The Under-Deeps, which later becomes The Balrog's realm.
• The Lidless Eye (MELE) (1997): The second basic set. Adds the possibility to play as a Ringwraith of Sauron.
• Against the Shadow (MEAS) (1997): The only expansion to MELE, although it also contains hero cards. Mostly balances the game by adding resources for and hazards against the minion player as well as some support resources for the hero. Notable are the hazard creature versions of the five wizards.
• The White Hand (MEWH) (1997): Introduces a third faction, the corrupted Fallen-Wizard, whose player can use both hero and minion resources and characters, although with restrictions.
• The Balrog (MEBA) (1998): Adds a new sub-faction to the minions, Balrog, who mainly depends on the brute strength of his orcs and trolls. It is argued by the player base that since the production of MECCG ended after MEBA, the set remains a bit overpowered because it didn't get a "balancing set" published afterwards.

From: WikiPedia

• Promo Cards (1995 - 1998): Included are all 13 promo cards that were released with several sets. Also included are the 15 promo cards that were only available with the German version of the game.

Decks

The plugin comes with .dek files for the official Middle-earth Challenge Decks that were released in 1998. These 10 decks (5 for wizard and 5 for nazgul players) are great to learn how to play this game and experience the different tactics you can use to win.

Rules

The rules to the game are included in the plugin and are installed to your Lackey directory in: plugins/meccg/rules.
This directory also ontains the strategy guides for playing the different Challenge decks and a map of Middle-earth that will aid you in planning your company movement through the regions of Middle-earth.

Goodies

To help plan your region movement you can use the map below as a background image for Lackey.

Legal stuff

Middle-earth CCG content is the property of Iron Crown Enterprises. You may download the plugin only with the owner's permission or if you have purchased the cards and have a legal right to use them by means of "fair use".