Legend of the Five Rings
Well, I know that it's been awhile since I posted, but life's been hectic. Did a new Doctor's Office installation, VPN tunnel setup, software installation, all that good stuff. And somewhere in the midst of all of the chaos and extra hours, the interest in Legend of the Five Rings re-sparked in me.
Legend of the Five Rings is a card game that I used to play from 96-2000-esque. There wasn't a whole lot of interest in the card game around San Antonio, so I rarely did get to play it and I only ever played in one local tournament (At Skye Games years back. Unfortunately, half of my deck was stolen before the end of the tournament, so I quit shortly thereafter.) It takes place in Rokugan, which is roughly based on Feudal Japan and other East Asian cultures. It is a very fun, albeit complex collectible card game (CCG) and one I'm glad to be getting back into.
There's a pretty decent sized playgroup over at Dragon's Lair off of Fredericksburg Road on Friday nights and I've also heard that people play at Cards and Crafts on Wednesday nights, as well, although I've had no luck finding a good contact phone number for Cards and Crafts. So, I showed up a Dragon's Lair last Friday (July 30th) after finishing the installation and watched a few games be played. Wow, these guys were moving fast. Anyways, I went and bought a Crab Clan starter and looked through the cards, noticing the changes in the borders, the new keywords and art styles. All-in-all, I was impressed. I toyed around with the starter deck for awhile before starting up a solitaire game to re-familiarize myself with the rules, looking to the rulebook whenever I had a question.
It was about this time that a gentleman, one of the local playgroup and one I actually recognized him from years earlier playing MtG and such on Friday Nights at the mall, came along and introduced himself and asked if I wanted to play some friendly games to help re-learn the basics. (Unfortunately, I cannot remember the fellow's name, nor any of the others I met that night. I'm terrible with names and it normally takes me a few meetings before they stick.) Anyhoo, we started off slowly with me asking no doubt very stupid questions throughout the first game, which he absolutely demolished me at. (Not for lack of him trying not to.) I wasn't discouraged, however, and we set off on game number two. This game was far less one-sided, although he still could have destroyed me, I'm sure. With Hida Kuon and Co. in play, I began picking away at his provinces, eventually bringing him down to one before he snagged an honor win to save the day. All-in-all, it was fun and I'm glad I stopped in.
With all of the locals off to GenCon this week, I'm having to wait a whole two weeks before I can get in on any more CCG action, but I'm anxiously biding my time. I ordered some cards online which should be arriving over the next few days and I will enjoy picking through them. In the meanwhile, here's my current deck:
Shattered Peaks Castle
Dynasty (42)
Regions (1)
1 Farmlands
Holdings (18)
1 Border Keep
1 Bamboo Harvesters
1 Family Keep
3 Iron Mine
3 Large Farm
2 Barley Farm
2 Imperial Artificer
2 Permanent Encampment
1 Famous Bazaar
1 Akodo's Grave
1 Corrupt Officials
Personalities (23)
2 Hida Kaoru
3 Hiruma Rohitsu
2 Hiruma Aki
3 Hida Eijiko
1 Hida Kuon - exp6
2 Hiruma Gohachiro
3 Hiruma Masato
3 Hiruma Seiko
2 Hida Bachiatari
2 Hida Yumiya
Fate (40)
Strategies (25)
1 Turn the Tide
3 Rout
3 Extended Maneuvers
1 Settling the Homeless
1 Flanked by Nightmares
3 Encircled Terrain
1 Siege Tactics
3 The Height of Courage
2 Spearhead
2 Retribution
3 We Stand Ready
1 Laying in Wait
1 Unexpected Sympathy
Followers (11)
1 Traveling Ronin
1 Tactical Advisors
2 Untested Scouts
1 Berserkers
2 Gunso
1 Imperial Elite Guard
1 War Dogs
2 Spearmen
Items (3)
1 Radiant Steel
1 Heavenly Tetsubo of the Crab
1 Celestial Mempo of the Crab Clan
Rings (1)
1 Ring of Water