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DECIPHER.com > The Lord of
the Rings > Fierce Black Rider Tour
The  Black
Rider Tour – Marcus Sheppard
Tour 2 – Final Report
One afternoon I traded the dull skies above London's Gatwick airport for
the sun of Barcelona. I had been looking forward to this leg of my Black
Rider tour for many reasons, not least of which would be meeting (and hopefully
beating) a truck-load of new players.
Day One: 14th May 2003
5pm – 9pm: Agora Ludica, Barcelona
My first scheduled Black Rider stop was Agora Ludica, a specialist of
alternative games – meaning they choose not to stock many of our competitor's
products. The owners prefer to promote more unique, cool games... such
as The Lord of the Rings TCG!
Around 40 players showed up to claim a Black Rider card, and 24 of them
stayed on for the Tower Draft tournament. I had done a little research in
the International section of our website before my visit, so I knew a few
Spanish game terms but I still knew the rest of the week was going to be
a steep learning curve for me. In contrast, most Spanish players were not
fazed one bit by the English cards in the Draft Packs!
Game night at Agora Ludica.
I lost two of my three games here, which was to be my worst performance
(but not my most embarrassing moment) of the week. Congratulations to Gerard
Muñoz and Vicente Ivorra who shared the bounty on my head. Product
Champion Uri Alvarez took today's Fierce prize for playing the most minions
in one turn.
Joan Garcia Domingo and Adrian Lopez tied for first place in the tournament
(a fourth round would have been ideal but the store had to close). The players
at Agora Ludica seemed to know their game inside out, which is probably
explained by looking at the Race To Mount Doom league kit on the wall. With
that much practice, they'd be a match for anyone!
Day Two: 15th May 2003
10am – 10.45am: Gigamesh, Barcelona
11am – 11.45am: Norma Comics, Barcelona
12pm – 12.45am: Smaug Comix, Barcelona
Today I was joined by Product Champion Angel Amores, who braved the Barcelona
traffic to deliver me to my Black Rider stops on time.
Gigamesh and Norma Comics are within walking distance of each other, so
a fortunate group of players managed to pick up multiple copies of the Black
Rider promo despite the one-per-person-per-visit rule! Then, the aptly-named
Smaug Comix, in a suburb of the city. There wasn't room for a bounty tournament
here, but we didn't run into any dragons either.
 
Left: Cesar Sanchez of SD Distribuciones.
Right: The Black Rider tames a wild steed outside Smaug Comix.
5pm – 9pm: L'Andromina, Terrassa
L'Andromina is a friendly store approximately 25 miles from Barcelona,
and it's here we chose to end the day with another Bounty Tournament.
Cesar Sanchez of our official Spanish distributor, SD Distribuciones,
had accompanied me to every store so far, but this was as far as my travelling
companion could go. Cesar placed an assortment of rare foil cards from the
Spanish edition on his own head – figuratively speaking – so
players here had double the chance of taking home a bounty prize.
Winners and losers at L'Andromina.
Jordi Fons, translator of The Lord of The Rings TCG Spanish Edition, ran
the tournament here. 18 players competed and I was only defeated once,
meaning one lucky player – Oscar Escorihuela – took home 36 packs
of The Two Towers expansion all for himself!
 
Left: Translator Jordi Fons in front of some of his work.
Right: Generacion X in Madrid.
Day Three: 16th May 2003
5pm – 9pm: Generacion X, Madrid
This store is small, but extremely popular. On this occasion it was literally
full to the brim with wall-to-wall gamers and spectators. You literally
could not see the door, which is a tribute to the popularity of Decipher's
game and Generacion X's reputation in the gaming community.
By this point, I still couldn't ask directions in Spanish but I was expanding
my lexicon of Spanish game text. I felt confident, and indeed I won my first
and last games. But in game 2 against Diego Ayuso I made possibly the worst
mistake of my card-playing career. I gambled that my opponent didn't have
a pump card for Gollum and assigned him against the Ring-bearer, and I was
wrong. I was so shaken by this error or judgement that I forgot to put on
the Ring (I was using the Answer To All Riddles version) which would have
prevented Frodo being overwhelmed. All this happened at site 2, and I went
first too!
I'm grateful to the locals for not laughing me all the way to the city
limits, so I was able to keep my second appointment in Madrid the following
day.
Day Four: 17th May 2003
10am – 1.30pm: Metropolis Usera, Madrid
Day Four of one of my Black Rider tours is traditionally the day I have
transport problems (note to self: take a day off on your next tour and stay
in bed all day).
To cut a long story short, I thought there was 39 minutes until my train
to Seville but actually there was only 9 minutes! Thanks to the management
and staff at Metropolis who showed me such wonderful hospitality that I
didn't want to leave – they almost had to carry me to (tournament director)
Antonio Alvarado's car so I didn't miss my train!
In all the bustle, I remember winning two of my three games and giving
out more Black Rider cards here than anywhere else in Spain. Apologies for
not name-checking any of my opponents in this report but unfortunately I
didn't have time to take notes or photographs here.
5pm – 9pm: Nostromo, Seville
On the outside, this store looks pretty normal. But step inside and you
find yourself in the officer's mess of the ship Nostromo from Ridley Scott's
Alien. Even the stools in the gaming area look authentic. I was quite
impressed, though I'd travelled south and the sweltering heat of Seville
made us sweat like the ship's maintenance crew!
Inside Nostromo in Seville.
This bounty tournament was Seville's first booster draft event and, once
everyone had learned to pass their cards in the same direction at the same
time, there was no looking back.
Honourable mention must go to Bentejui Gomez and Mario Alves, both of
whom bested me in our games and took home 18 booster packs each.
Twelve people played in total, including Danny of the shop's staff who
eventually won the tournament and the first prize Fierce. t-shirt.
Thanks to and to Francisco Javier and everyone at Nostromo for their assistance
during my brief stay in Seville.
Day Five: 18th May 2003
1pm – 5pm: Devir Arena, Lisbon
A new country means new food to sample, new faces to meet and a chance
to leave the mistakes of Madrid behind in Spain. Unfortunately my luggage
also got left behind, but that's a long story for another day involving
borrowed clothes and police officers in the middle of the night. Suffice
it to say that without the help of Joaquim Pedro, the organised play manager
from Devir (our Portuguese distributor), I'd probably still be wearing the
clothes I landed in.
Joaquim Pedro of Devir (on the left in grey shirt).
Joaquim and Product Champion Miguel Durao were my constant guides and
companions for this trip. Miguel ran the 24-player Tower Draft tournament,
while Joaquim added his own bounty and played in it alongside me.
I managed to have 7 companions in my Fellowship at the end of my first
turn against Pedro Neves, but he beat me by overwhelming Frodo using Vengeance.
I won the rest of my four games here (desperately trying to atone for my
earlier performance) but I faced some tough opposition, which meant there
were several contenders for the bonus Fierce. prizes.
Inspired by "Fierce Story Time" (© Dan Bojanowski's Fierce Tours
2003) I opened up the floor after the main prize giving, to debate who most
deserved the hat and pin. Marco Figueiredo took one for inflicting ten shots
of archery upon me at site 7 (of which Frodo absorbed five) and I believe
Rui Machado took the other for giving my Ring-bearer 5 wounds and 9 burdens
but not quite killing him!
Joaquim fared less well in the tournament, but I know he is a generous
person and I suspect that was merely a ploy to give out more prizes to the
players of Lisbon.
It's tempting for me to blame the Iberian heat or the chaos of six flights
in six days for my lack of concentration at some crucial moments of gameplay
during this tour, but that would be unsporting of me! My track record for
Tour 2 is only 8 losses in 19 games, which is just on the right side of
respectability. It might be worth noting I've not yet gone undefeated in
a Bounty Tournament, meaning a full display of The Two Towers has been given
away at each of my Black Rider stops so far.
Details of the upcoming double-Rider mini-tour of the Netherlands are
now online, and keep your eyes peeled for more information about my final
outing in September. Where I'm going, I definitely won't be able to blame
the heat for my mistakes!
Marcus Sheppard
European Sales & Marketing Co-ordinator
July 8, 2003
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