Hi everyone - thought it time for a quick update on what we have been up to
and new information about the way we will be running the games. A new
House Rules will be sent to everyone that we can think of! Stu's settling
in nicely and says, "hi" (not a big fan of the weather though!)
1) All the DGE funds and games have now been transferred to our accounting
system - so the details for your new balances should now be up to date in
UK Pounds on your Front Sheets. If you think there has been an error then
please contact us with details as to what you think the problem might be.
We have yet to get the full payment details from DGE as to payments made to
them from Dec 20th onwards.
Note that recent payments to DGE have been cashed by them, but they will
soon be stopping this service.
Future payments should be made to MEPBM Games in the UK, either:
* By Credit Card on our secure wesbite - www.MiddleEarthGames.com
* By Credit Card contacting us directly (phone or email)
* Europe: Cheques to us as normal.
* North America: Cheques via Ray Tech. Cheques are to be made payable to
MEPBM Games - please put your account number, your Game and nation on the
back of the cheque.
Our Contact details:
Middle Earth Games
Office A, 340 North Road
Cardiff
CF14 3BP
UK
ExDGE players phone: 011 44 29 2091 3359
UK players phone: 029 2091 3359
International players please contact your local operator for dialing
instructions.
Phone times: 10am-6:30pm UK time (GMT)
5am-1:30pm EST
Email: me@MiddleEarthGames.com
Website: www.MiddleEarthGames.com
(most of the interesting articles are on the www.HarlequinGames.com website
though - this will be slowly shifted to the ME site as time allows).
MEPBMlist: via www.MiddleEarthGames.com - if you need help please contact
us directly.
Deftgaming Message Board: www.DeftGaming.com
For Postal players in North America:
Ray Technologies, PO Box 280 Medford, OR 97501-0019
Phone & Fax: 541-772-7872 (10-5pm weekdays) (fax24hrs)
(Turns will be sent on to us as soon as Ray Tech receives them, and he will
forward postal results [sent from us by email] to the players in North
America. Note you will need to fax your turns one day early.)
I would advise players who are in a rush to fax direct to us for speed.
Better still email us...
ExDGE players fax: 011 44 29 2062 5532
UK players fax: 029 2062 5532
We advise players to use email to send turns in if they can. We send a
standard automated reply to each email we receive each time we log on. We
log on around ten times a day.
2) With the MEPBM Games accounting system you should be aware that the
balances shown on your Resultsheet are no longer accurate -
You should ONLY use the balance shown on your Front Sheet.
Whenever a game processes we charge your account £3.90. If you don't have
enough money in your account to pay for your turn (going Low Funds) then
please be aware that we will contact you with that information and that
your Balance on your Front Sheet will no longer be accurate. For your
first low funds turn your account will be £4.90 lower than it appears on
your Front Sheet, for future turns it will be £4.40 lower again - ie we
penalise players £1.00/£0.50 administration costs for running Low Funds.
3) Due to the extra workload we need to start processing games at an
earlier hour - so we will be starting to process games at 10am GMT each day
now. With an average of 7 games a day this will enable us to get games out
in time for everyone's evening entertainment. So from February onwards we
will be very strict about this (ie turns that process in February will be
subject to this).
NEW DEADLINE: 10am UK time (called GMT)
5am EST
4) DGE players - your Fourth Age (FA) games now have a 4 prefix. Players
from DGE game 45 should now refer to it as game 445. It will still appear
as game 45 in some places, but to avoid confusion, please try to remember.
The UK FA game numbers will remain the same.
5) New start-ups and position take overs will hopefully be dealt with next
week.
6) DGE's Game Winners Certificates will be honoured at $25 and a choice of
nations, or to support your capital placement - this will last for a period
of 6 months - after this we will only honour the $25 payment. I feel this
a fair compromise between the DGE GWC and the impact this has on the UK
game where you don't get a GWC. You'll still need to get them to us - we
don't accept faxed/emailed versions of them.
7) 'News from Bree', the free in-house ME newsletter is looking for
contributions - please help if you can.
8) If you wish to join a new game, please get in touch, telling us Game
number (if known), scenario (1650, 2950, 1000 or variant of the above - one
week, two week and three week), your name and Account number - whether you
need the rules/map, choosen nation (and some back-up nations), any players
that you are joining with as a team, funds that you want to add (and
payment details). Payment received BEFORE the game is set-up of £5.00
gives you the position and 2 free turns. After that you are charged at the
normal rate.
We take set-ups for each scenario 1650, 2950, 1000. However, we only fill
one game from each scenario at a time. Teams (ie up to four aligned
players) are allowed in these.
Grudge games (ie a full team of 10 or 12) are exceptions to this in that we
will try to get opposition for you in addition to the normal games we are
attempting to fill. We will occasionally advertise variant games as well.
When players drop from a game - PLEASE inform us if you are going to do
this. We will first contact your team-mates for substitute players then put
the position, scenario and approximate turn number (eg 1650:Witch King
(mid)) on the Front Sheet.
9) The secure credit card system on the websites is the easiest and safest
way to get funds to us. It is organised by Worldpay Plc, in association
with Natwest (one of the big four UK banks). Please visit www.worldpay.com
if you wish to learn more about their security.
We handle credit card payments slightly differently to DGE. You can either
pay us whenever you require - if we have your Credit Card details (you'll
need to forward them if you haven't done so) just ask us to credit your
account with whatever amount you decide is appropriate.
OR you can set up a FIXED monthly payment (taken out at the start of each
month from your Credit Card) which is credited to your account.
OR you can use WorldPay to send us funds.
10) What have I missed?
Clint