Ketchup post

I've played a lot of games of late, but I haven't been writing about it.

I went to a war machine "random list" tournament and went 2-2, though one of those games was in-hand when I lost it to a Hail Mary. It was okay.

Ray came out and my nemo3 murdered his testament of menoth. It was a good game. On my last turn I was about to NOT win when ray suggested I just kill his caster and I did. My dice tried to fuck me but in the end they got it done.

I then played a game of Space Hulk with Ray, and my gene stealers managed to get sergeant Gideon in the end, though it was close. He would have done better if brother Leon had not rolled trip-6s to self destruct on overwatch.



At Robb's wedding we played a game of VTES and I lost quite badly, as my predator had little pressure early and made me play a 1-minion game. It was rough. My deck seems good on paper but rarely performs well.



Then we played even more VTES, with Robb, devin, and the eskimatt meeting me at Robb's for two more games. I won the first with a ventrue breed/boon deck, mainly through being a bully and back ousting Matt.

Then Robb handily stomped us with a silly imbued deck, as he cannot help himself and continues to build imbued decks from a set of 60 cards on spite of the enormity of this game.

His deck seemed fine, but his victory rested some in the play of the rest of us, who all played bad combat decks and blew each other up around him. The mortals calmly stepped over the carcasses of the fallen, and Robb got his last two VP on the back of Devin (his PREDATOR) playing a dragonbound that would NEVER HURT HIS PREY, only himself (ha!) and me, his predator.

Ah well.

I'm not bitter about that or anything. That game was in the tank already.

Then we roped Alayna into playing 5-player Arkham Horror, and in spite of drawing the dread Cthulhu (who is a complete asshole) we kicked that game in the nuts over the next 3 hours, placing a 6th seal on the board with only 6 doom counters on Cthulhu and a terror level of 1. The town didn't even care. "Dread Cthulhu, you say? Ah well, life goes on."

Charlie is coming out tonight for more warm achine, and then he's having a games night at his place Saturday as a housewarming. What an awesome few weeks its been for games!

-Merlin out


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

VTES is Still a Thing

I "played" in a VTES "tournament" run by our local "prince" a few weeks ago. It was supposed to be sweet but wound up being 6 guys playing casual games of VTES with multiple decks.

I brought a Kyasid Ravager Bloat and lunge deck, which I never quite got to work. It does super well at the Bloat part, with Vessels and Goblinism to seek out the Hungry Coyote, and a couple Ravagers later I can reliably get 4 pool per turn by hunting. Of course, going forward at that point can be difficult. It depends on whether I got an extra guy out with my Governs to still press forward or stay up to bounce.

Ahmed (Lasombra PRE vote) > Neil (Ravnos with aus) > Matt (Nahkthorheb gets a big bleed and then bleeds) > Me > Robb (Ferox and Tupdogs)

Ahmed and Matt had little predator most of the game. Neil bled Matt for a bit, but Ahmed was hammering Neil, so it wasn't going well overall. Matt bled me hard, which I often bounced. Robb often blocked with Ferox and didn't hurt Nahkthorheb or Ankh-Sen Sutekh. I got the Arcadian and Rod March, and proceeded to wade my way through Robb's substantial pool (7 for Ferox, 1 to merge him, the rest for Tupdogs, but Robb was waiting for the Clan Impersonation). I mauled him pretty badly, and Fae Contortion saved me from several rushes, but it wasn't for much. Ahmed ousted Neil. Matt ousted me and Robb, and then managed to get Ahmed as well.

Decks which rely on Clan Impersonating almost never work (unless you're Qadir).

Game two we decided to tap Ray in and play different decks. I'd only brought the one so I borrowed one of Matt's.

Neil (!Ventrue midcap block with guns) > Ray (Hooge Baali from G5+) > Matt (Tzimisce block and kung fu) > Ahmed (Harbingers don't really do much) > Me (ambrogino zombies)

My deck turned out to be like 25 Shambling Hordes and 10 Graverobbing, so it was super thematic. It was totally lame against intercept on the left from Neighbor John and to the right on Matthias. There were three blocky decks at the table. I did manage to get like 4 Hordes in play, but all Neil's vampires got guns. Neil ousted Ray quickly, Matt more slowly, and I backousted Ahmed because he was making me discard like 4-6 cards per turn needlessly. Neil won the table.

Game three we switched decks, and since Neil ousted Ray all the way back to his house Robb tagged back in.

Neil (Malkavians...?) > Ahmed (Long Range Black Hand Assamites) > Robb (I want to say Saulot? He wasn't there long) > Me (Matt's Taco Bell with Beef POT rushathon) > Matt (Lucita Assault Rifle Rush)

The game was silly. I bullied everyone with my rushes and managed to backoust Robb (as I do). Then I got Matt by a hair, and Neil by more. Then Ahmed and I slogged it out and I ran out of Immortal Grapple and Maneuvers before he ran out of Flash and Taste of Death. Ahmed won that table.

Overall it was fun to get some VTES in. It's the first I've played in about 9 months.

-Merlin out


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Great Lakes Qualifier Report

I played a version of the deck I played at this tournament last Origins.

Round 1: Paul (ishatarri ven Tap/bleed)-->> John K(? Muaziz does something)-->> Sean K( g6 Salubri Marionette)--> Me (Shadow Out of Time v5)

Things went pretty badly for John and myself early. The tourney was 16 players, so that meant 4 player tables. I find that this sort of thing makes for odd tourneys. Alas.

I had a slow start. John got up 4 Tremere (3 little ones and Muaziz). I got Nehemiah and Tyler. Tyler got Mind Numbed early, which hurt. Nehemiah still brought a Reckless into the house, but Sean was a consistent bleeder and I hadn't draw a Villein yet.

Paul was the winner for all this. His Mustafa and Ubende were hurting my votes a lot, and Shasa was bleeding hard with Legal Manip and Uncontrollable Impulse. Usually after some Mind Numb/Freak Drive action.

John stayed alive for awhile, but eventually succumbed. The table leveled a bit. I was gaining pool each turn at least, and Paul was hurting now as he'd gotten up Victor P and made him Prince of Paris. Worse for him, Sean had Serena the black, who is Greta Kirscher with a third eye bonus.

The game turned on a single play. Sean got a Pulse on Serena, and then bled with the Marionette. I had an Archon Investigation. I knew that burning her would help Paul immensely, but he was low on pool and I had the cards in hand I needed to oust him.

I played the Archon. Tyler bled for two at stealth, but Paul had the Scalpel Tongue he needed (and I didn't have the Hall of Hades Court) to cancel Nehemiah's votes during the KRC ousting referendum.

Paul then ousted us both in quick succession.

Paul: 4VP and GW

Game MVP: Mind Numb. Slow down your predator, oust your prey.

Round 2: Me--> Dave S (Alan Sovereign wall street wall)--> Devin (The Reg Driscoll show)--> Matt (!Sal bleedbox)

Matt was an effective predator. His deck actually had a lot of blood denial elements with burning touch, hide the heart, and Greg winter all making an appearance. He got out Langa, Nketchi, two Bros in Arms, and Greg early. That was a lot of minions coming my way.

I got Nehemiah and Giangaleazzo, but Gian got mugged early by Langa after an aggressive Villein. He never quite recovered. Nehemiah stole Greg, but Dave blocked pretty much everything for a while.

Dave got General Perfido, Alan merged, and Piotr. Alan got a gun and the general anima gathered him. Piotr got a lawyer for plus bleed.

Devin got a Soul Gem and a Presence skill on Reg. Then he played Little Mountain every turn and forgot to draw a Freak Drive for a bit.

I did not do well with a single minion and Alan blocking everything. Worse, Matt got Uriel with Bashee Ironwail. He bleed for 5 using all his guys.

I made a crazy deal to refill Nehemiah by voting for something that wouldn't hit Dave. I called a neonate breach and hit Devin for 1 and Matt for 4. Devin saw his chance and became a sudden predator, bleeding for 5 unblockable with Reg, burning him with Daring the Dawn, and then bleeding again with new Reg.

With Matt gone I managed to hit Dave for 3-4 pool per turn, but his portfolio was too deep for me to do lasting damage. I begged Devin not to oust me, but he did. Dave got him in the two player. No GW and no MVP.

Round 3: Ryan (HoS bleedbox)--> Me--> Kevin (Weenie vote with TEN Kaymakli Nightmares)--> Alayna (DoC vote)

I knew what Kevin was playing because he'd wrecked Robb earlier in the day. I'd also played against his deck on another occasion so it was known to me. So. . .when I had the opportunity to bring up Shawda Dorrit by turn two I took it. Her three votes turned his deck from a table nightmare at a four player to a weenie bleed nightmare for Alayna.

She got two DoC, but the weenie pressure was high and she could not afford more. Ryan got Byzar and Viuda Blanca.

I also got Nehemiah and Mylan up, but it took a long time. I actually didn't do much until Nehemiah showed up, though I did make Kevin put some damage on himself with KRCs, while he was bleeding the hell out of Alayna.

I didn't get any Dominate, so my Deflections were dead cards. Ryan did bleed me a bit with Trochomancy, and got a Pulse on Byzar later. His main contribution to predatorhood was milling two cards per turn with a Slaughterhouse.

The game fell into my lap from there. I waited until Kevin was going to oust Alayna on his next turn and ousted him before he had the chance. Alayna was on 3 pool by then. She lunged unsuccessfully at Ryan, passing a big nasty Reckeless that was unblockable, but her three bleed got blocked.

Ryan failed to oust me, but I actually did not draw another pool damaging vote with my 8 cards + Nehemiah goodness. Still, with Mylan I was able to bleed for three with my three guys. Ryan bled ms a couple times, but now Giangaleazzo had joined my ready region and I did draw some KRCs.

Me 4VP and GW.

Game MVP: Shawda Dorrit, for being cheap and votey and just what I needed to win this game.

I did not make the finals by a half VP ( I was actually 7th of 16 players with a single game sweep, behind Alayna's 4VP and GW on tournament points. David Wilson, who organized the event, posted a redaction of the finals on the Michigan VTES Facebook page.

I'm having trouble generating a link to a Facebook page for linkiness here. Perhaps David will mosey by and leave some info in the comments here. I'd quote him out of context but. . .

I played my Al Muntaquim Chainsaw deck in a pickup game during the finals, but the Lambach on my left wouldn't let me get a Magic Chainsaw, and the game devolved into mutual bullying. It broke when my predator decided to oust me, and then the Lambach player, in quick succession. My Caitiff had just finished munching on the last Tzimisce, too.

Ah well. It does what combat decks often do: it wrecks it's predator and then loses spectacularly.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

Location:Ypsilanti MI

Battle Report and VTES

Managed to play a game of WarMachine and one of VTES this weekend. I have been itching to play my Caine list again (well, one of them; I've got a few) and I just modified my African deck for the Qualifier next weekend.

Battle Report: Cygnar v Blindwater

I played a pretty basic PCaine list, with a few modules that I wanted to try out. For instance, I wanted to use the much-maligned Gun Mage Captain Adept to shore up Caine's terrible Command check. I also wanted to try The Dude Marshaling a Charger, with Arlan backing them up for bonus focus.

All that went fine. I still played pretty badly and my dice weren't helping out. I gave the Gatormen a run for their money, but on the turn that counted I tried to do something cute instead of winning outright, and it cost me the game. Matt played well, for sure, keeping his anti-range stuff up to stop me from mugging his caster.

Issues I had:

Occultation is a cool spell that prevents my ranged attacks from hitting a model/unit. Matt kept it on key units all game, and his warlock at the end.

Thunder Strike is cool and all, but not very reliable as a striking engine. Go with 4 pistol blasts where possible.

Terrain is a bitch.

Then we played a quick game of VTES.

Devin(Huitzi Baali Tend)--> Ray (John Woo Garou) --> Matt (g2 Gio Zombies)--> Me (Are you an African or an African't?)

This was an odd game. Devin brought out Huitzi and that's it for a while. Ray got Ramona and Guiliano, and merged Ramona fast.

Matt got out Gloria and Lia Milliner.

I got out Kenyatta and Urenna early, with Fish right behind them. I computer hacked and predator's mastery'd Devin for a three bleed early. I also managed a KRC to get my Ishtarri a Kholo title within the first few turns.

Ray did some weirdness. He got out TWO Renegade Garou (Ramona had two vessel on her) and gave one a .44. He then assumed he could bully the table at his leisure. He did NOT rush matt early, and when he did he deliberately did not knock Gloria into torpor.

I was a little bent about this. All while be was doing so he kept looking over at my ready region. I told him that he really shouldn't worry about me this early, but he wanted Matt to keep the pressure on me.

I ran out of forward steam with Matt rushing and bleed with all his guys each turn. I had to leave a healthy guy up to block the inevitable Zombie rush. All the while I was complaining to Ray.

Devin was lower on pool, but he got an Unleash Hell's Fury in play, which slowed me down considerably. He also began to bleed Ray for 5-6 with Huitzi every turn. Ray, who'd spent down to 10 to get his setup going, began to go full backwards. Devin had two Majesty for the two werewolves.

Ray pool cycled into 7 pool again so he had at least one more turn. Matt mugged me some more and summoned a fresh Horde after I killed the first finally (I was deliberately not killing it for a while).

I sacrificed my Kholo to Daring the Dawn bleed Devin down to 3 pool, but I did not draw the two stealth I needed (or the Strange Day) to oust him.

Devin bled Ray for 6 again.

Ray pool cycled back to 5 pool and rushed backward twice again. Again Devin had two Majesty. Ray was exasperated.

Matt mugged me some more. He Graverobbed my Kholo as well. Go Matt.

I bled Devin and lost another minion to Unleash Hell's Fury. Still no result. Devin bled Ray for 5 to oust him.

All the while I was telling Ray that if he'd kept on Matt early the table might have broken the other way. It was, after all, a four-player game.

Matt got Devin in the two-player after the table broke, the wrong way. ;)

Matt: 3VP and GW, Devin 1VP

MVP: Graverobbing. That hurt my game a lot and helped Matt's all at once.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

Location:Flint MI

Daft Duffin Draft

Sometimes the wife and I like to play two-player games, and as I'm a CCG type of dude I've roped her into playing those. We occasionally play starter-deck VTES (relatively level playing field) two-player, and I even got her to draft Magic: The Gathering a few times with me. That's a lot fo fun.

I managed to get a box of 3rd edition boosters for $30 around these parts, and it's been sitting around for a few months gathering dust. The little lady asked if we could draft them somehow and I jumped at the chance to play some VTES with her. I suggested the Duffin Draft format, though we didn't follow it exactly. She hadn't played that way before, which took some explaining, but we got going eventually.

The variations we used were twofold: 1. Players have unlimited transfers to influence out vampires, and 2. We didn't actually draft. We just opened a pack and played it. Drafting with only two players is lame anyways, as both people know what everyone's playing after the first pass, so it removes some of the surprise inherent to draft.

We played three games, but the first was friggin' epic in scale, lasting the better part of an hour, which is insane for two-player Duffin Draft.

The packs:

Me: Paolo De Castille (4-cap Las pot ani dom), Luca Italicus (10-cap Las POT OBT NEC FOR DOM tha) Archbishop kung fu special, Klaus Konrecht (8-cap !Tor AUS CEL PRE pot for Cardinal), Chiropteran Maurader (draft = Fake Out), Decapitate, Pushing the Limit, Rafastio Ghoul, Instability, Leather Jacket, Corrupt Construction (useless in this context), Sibyl's Tongue (useless).

I thought that this was actually pretty hot. Not only did I have a Master Card, but as long as i didn't have the edge in a two-player game, I could play Instability to gain two pool and recycle it every turn. I also had two permanents in the Leather Jacket and Rafastio Ghoul. Having an extra bleeder might be nice, and protection while I'm trying to use the FIST cards I drew would be welcome.

My wife, unfortunately, got an amazing pack:

Jonathan Gursel (3-cap !Tor aus pre), Ulrike Rothbart (3-cap !Ven for dom), Mugur Sabau (9-cap !Gan PRO OBF NEC CEL vic Archbishop diablerie special), Stealth Ritus (strong in draft!), Stunt Cycle (useless), Templar (Relatively useless), Helicopter (amazing), Direct Intervention (christ), Restoration (draft: dom as for), Guard Dogs (draft: basic wake!), Art Scam (draft: burn the edge to gain 2 pool as a +1 stealth action)!

My master plan of pulling up Luca for his giant diamond FISTing skills and then getting a Leather Jacket as insurance and defending my pool while gaining via Instability was awesome. But the wife pulled up her two three caps, bled every turn with stealth so that she didn't have to fight Luca, and got a Helicopter on Ulrike. Every turn thereafter she'd take the extra Helicopter action to gain two pool with Art Scam.

So in a format known for the lack of pool gain, I was gaining a net of one per turn even with her bleeding (only one could sneak past Luca safely, and she correctly didn't take any chances), and since I couldn't bleed if I wanted to force her to play Stealth Ritus she was gaining a net of three pool per turn. I was losing the long game, and in Duffin Draft normally the guy with the long game (if he's lucky enough to have it) does pretty well. Worse, when I tried to even the odds by recruiting my Rafastio Ghoul, she'd DI it!

I made a play by getting Paolo out once I thought I had enough pool to outlast her. Then I was actually bleeding every turn as well, and he could play my fist cards at basic to bully her guys. Funny thing was, she thought that she needed animalism to play the draft version of Guard Dogs, so she never tried to block me. At this point I thought I'd have her, but then she also realized she could influence out another minion, and she had12 friggin' pool (three per turn is a lot since I was giving her the edge with Instability and then she'd burn it for Art Scam). So she got up Mugur with only 3 pool on the side.

I managed to get her down to one, but she was bouncing back every turn since she could outbleed me. I did finally punch someone for 3 with Luca (she DI'd the Pushing the Limit so I had to Decapitate him), but it was fresh Mugur so he didn't hit the bin.

I still was doing well until I told her she should check her down cards (she'd set her useless cards aside so they wouldn't distract her) now that she had another minion. She told me she couldn't play any of them. I reminded her to check the draft text. She asked if she needed animalism to play the drafty version of Guard Dogs. When I said she could my fate was sealed. Now she essentially had a two-minion advantage AND a Helicopter to keep her poolgain moving.

I didn't last much longer after that.

Hilarious game of Duffin Draft, though.

Quick VTES rundown

We played three VTES games yesterday. Things went south from the start rather quickly.

Game 1:

Matt (G2 Gios w Zombies)>>> Me (are you an African or an African't?)>>> Ray (Lucretia Trophy)>>> Robb (Nergal is a pretty good minion)>>> Sean (G4-5 Malks)

My deck has three weenies from each of the Laibon clans and 10 Abombwe skills. I use the stealth and bleed from Abombwe to weenie bleed a bit, and eventually I get a couple Kholo titles and call votes.

My crypt draw was not so good. It often isn't, and i'm considering modifying the deck to remove one of the four clans now that KotEK has increased my small-cap selections. I got two each of the Osebo and Guruhi.

This was a pain because it meant the Akunanse Kholo in my hand was dead and needed to go. I guess having a confident discard is good?

Anyway. Ray got Dimple early, Robb got a bad crypt draw and had to influence up Eurayle and use an Anarch Convert to dig for Nergal, Sean got Keller Thiel and Bloody Mary, and Matt got Ambrogino.

I got Ismita and Urenna Bunu, and eventually Lumumba and Kamaria. I beat up Dimple and bled Ray for quite a few with my weenie bleed tech.

I had an early Consevative Agitation, but without Kholos to go with it the table conspired to fail it.

Ray was on the ropes, but he managed to get up Lucretia and Tusk. Robb got Nergal. Sean got Morel, and Matt got Andrea Gio.

I did what I usually do when playing against Shambling Hordes decks with my Laibon, which is luckily draw one of the two Legend of the Leopard early and then use it to steal my foe's first zombie minion. Matt was pissed. He summoned another Horde the next turn, but as usual I find that hordes decks don't do well with their first horde heisted.

Ray got some crosstable con boon love from Sean unnecessarily, which I felt was not in Sean's best interest, as Ray was not predating efficiently upon Robb. In fact, Ray Red Listed my stolen Zombie, but then I got it killed by rushing Matt's second horde with it.

Then Ray Red Listed Urenna and did the Red List mark, Carrion Crows and diablerie. The table again voted for Lucretia's life. He got a lot of crosstable help for being a shitty speed bump. All the while, Robb was bleeding for 3-6 with Nergal each turn, and he eventually got an Enkil Cog to go with his Rutor's Hand.

So i thought it was weird that Ray was getting all that love when I could be bleeding the hell outta Robb, but alas, my voice of reason involved me getting a VP, so my opinion was discarded as biassed.

Which isn't a terrible assessment, really.

Matt had trouble doing anything. He did bleed me for 5 with Ambrogino once. Then Sean Kindred Spirits'd the hell out of him. Every turn.

Matt was first out, and then I got Ray. Sean went next, bled for 9 by Nergal in a single go-round, 6 on Robb's turn and 3 on Sean's.

By the time the game had got this far Robb had 15 pool and I had 10, and I lost the attrition war, though I did put a hurt on him in the end.

Robb 3VP and GW, me 1VP Sean 1VP

Game MVP: probably Enkil Cog. Which is insane on a +2 bleeder.

Game 2:

Robba had to leave, because he had to go make porn.

Ray(Big Gay Al's Aggravated Fisting Assault)>>> Me (She Smote on the lyfte honde and on the rigght hande)>>> Matt(!Brujah badass voters)>>> Sean(Nahkthorheb villainy)

My deck is a silly White Lily multirush monstrosity. Ray's deck is an Al Muntaquim Domain-for-Aggs and then punch for LOTs deck. Matt's deck seemed to be a modified !Brujah starter. Sean's seemed to be a modified FoS starter.

Ray didn't pay much for doodz, Al and a few Caitiff don't cost shit. I was worried he'd come wreck White Lily despite her Ak-47. I also got Banjoko, so I paid 18 pool to get started.

Matt got Hektor and Armin Brenner. Sean got Nahkthorheb and Abdelaobek.

Ray basically rushed right every turn in an attempt to stay alive. Nahkthorheb got a Heart of the City early, and with that and a few Enticement he was a 6-pool bleeding machine most turns.

My deck has some card flow issues, and I did not get any of the 4x Freak Drive, 4x Forced March, or 4x Tattoo Signal in the deck. This severely limited my capacity to wage war. The fact that I didn't want to hurt Ray or Matt because they were both going at Sean also limited my actions.

Sean eventually got Ray, at which point Matt and I tried to conspire against Sean. I only backrushed and I managed to enable a Vendetta via Deflection so that Matt could crush Nahkthorheb. I would then contest Fame with Matt and bleed him for the oust, and rush Matt into oblivion.

But it turns out Nahkthorheb is a resilient bastard. Despite our two-front assault Sean's last minion rescued Famous Nahkthorheb from torpor, who then hunted with a Perfectionist and bled me for 5 with a Legal Manipulations. I had 5 pool. My blocker didn't have the intercept to stop him.
Sean managed to oust Matt shortly thereafter, as Nahkthorheb drew a couple Majesty and Matt didn't have a lot of Grapples in his deck.

Sean 4VP and GW.

Game MVP: Nahkthorheb easily.

I will never speak of what happened in Game 3, and any comments pertaining to the details of said game may be censored from the record.

It was a stupid game.

-Merlin out

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone y'allz

Saturday Night Games

Ray asked to demo Devin and Robb at WarMachine and get in a game of VTES as well. I said that sounded good. Problem is, Ray spends most of his game store time chatting instead of actually playing games. I must just be too focussed on getting the games in.

Eventually we started a 5 player game of VTES, though Robb had to leave.

Me(new school nos royalty)>> Adam(Thucimia swarm bleed)>> Devin(Mission Impossible Anarchs)>> Ray (Petaniqua wall) >> Matt (Nergal wall).

Two blocky Baali decks at the table. Both of them were built by Ray as well. My Nos Royalty deck ignores 2nd tradition in favor of breeding and booning. I got Ben rose and petrodon, and both of them made a third trad early.

Adam, who never has good card luck, didn't get Thucimia in his draw. He got Bertrand, Alu, Sukainah, and Mike Dicarlo instead. He bled without stealth many times per turn.

Devin got Maris Streck, Maldavis, and an Anarch Convert in play. Maldavis was an anarch. She also Pulsed early for +2 bleed.

Ray got Petaniqua and Yvette, who is Hopeless. Yvette proved herself useful by getting a Heart of Cheating on turn two. Ray merged Petie early with an Epiphany.

Matt got Nergal. Then he contested Alu, but yielded the next turn (Adam was on the other side of the table and Matt didn't realize he was already in play). Then he got Lubomira.

The game played strangely. After I Parity Shifted Adam for 5 and got out my 5th minion I was identified as "the table threat", at least by Ray. To be fair, I'd stolen his Rack cross table to keep him honest. When I got up my 5th Nos (Slag), Petaniqua blocked his bleed cross table and made him Infernal and dead (Diabolical Lure and Petaniqua).

Matt then bled me for 5 every turn with Nergal. Nerg got a Bowl of Converging awesome early, but I Concealed it. Then Devin blocked Petaniqua getting the Bowl with Maldavis, which cost Devin his Maldavis. Devin got Maldavis out again, because Ray diablerized with a Rebirth. The Anarch convert had been knocked into torpor as well.

It was a confusing whirlwind of blocking and hitting.
While all of this was going on Adam was busy bleeding for one with all his guys and keeping enough pool to keep me honest. Devin was brought down to like 2 pool, but he Failsafe'd himself back into a reasonable amount.

Ray got Harzomatuili and put himself down to 2.

Nergal kept on me.

I realized that my Nos deck needs more oust. It tends to be Swarm-y, but it lacks lunge power. I drew an Anarchist Uprising and the Minion Tap I needed to survive calling an anarchist uprising, but when I went for it the newly-minted Kamaria hanging out with Nergal played Delaying Tactics.

I bled a bunch and Adam's new Sadjid al Musbah played a lot of Nest of Eagles to make me feel sad about things.

Devin had gotten Thaumatergy on his second Maldavis and now he was reducing bleeds as well with Detect Authority and Telepathic Counter. He actually had quite a racket going with his single anarch. He used the Anarch Museum to pull an Undue Influence or Power of One each turn, play them, and then pull the pool from Undue back to pay for next turn's Museum fish. Then he'd use PB:LA to untap Maldavis and reduce bleeds. It was not bad at all.

But Ray had the Ruins of Evil and PB:M in play, as well as a Vessel to go with his reacquired Rack. Devin bled a bit and Ray staved him off. It was a bit of a stalemate. Ray never bled Nergal at all. Probably because he built both decks.

I called my Anarchist Uprising the next turn without much resistance, and managed to oust Adam and piss off the table some more. Devin lunged at Ray for like the fifth turn running and didn't get the oust. Ray finally bled, and Nergal predictably misdirected the bleed at me, but I played Two Wrongs to cancel the bounce.

Nerg bled for 3. I tried to oust Devin but he Detected Authority and Telepathic Countered my chipping assault. He then left himself untapped after bleeding Ray for a couple. With Two Wrongs and bleed reduction flying, we decided that Robb was here in spirit. Represent.

Ray sat there, but played Smiling Jack. Nergal bled for 3. I ousted Devin with a bleed from Petrodon. Then, not having a lot of stealth, I discarded and ended my turn.

Ray played wall and did nothing. Matt bled for 3.

I decided that if I was gonna do anything, I should just start taking actions with action cards to move them so I could maybe draw stealth. I did have a couple +1 stealth cards, buy Ray was sitting on KRCG and Harzomatuili at this point. I decided to essentially sacrifice my third traditions (named after former drummers of Pearl Jam by Devin's request) by taking actions.

I tapped "Dave Krusen" and declared a Parity Shift. Ray tapped KRCG and announced a block with Harzo, i played a Faceless Night, but Ray backed down after he realized he had less pool than I did. Harzomatuili was now tapped at least. I stole 3 pool from Matt. I had actually drawn a Cloak and an Elder Impersonation now. I tapped Ben Rose and announced another third Tradition ("Jack Irons"). There was no resistance. I tapped "Dave Abburzezze" and announced a Con Boon. Ray tried to block but I cloaked it. I gained six pool. I then had Petrodon call another Con Boon. I used some of my 15 pool to influence Zelios (I'd started last turn) into play.

Matt looked frustrated. Ray said we should play on and that he "had this", but I had a KRC at this point and Ray was down to only a few pool. I probably would have ousted him in the next turn or two.

I say probably because Ray called the game after his untap phase. Devin wanted to see some WarMachine and it was pushing 11 pm at this point, and the store closes at 12.

Ray showed me the 2 Forced Awakening and 2 Eyes of Argus in his hand, so he would have stopped D actions, but my votes were all getting to referendum, and they were all passing as well.

Called due to time, me 2.5 VP, Ray .5 VP, Matt .5 VP. MVP: Benjamin Rose. When I ran out of vote actions he called votes to get my hand size larger. That's some good shit there.

I demoed WarMachine using the Cygnar Battlebox for Devin's battlegroup and an identical 'jack lineup with a different 'caster for me.

He was playing Stryker and I was a dude named Alister Caine. Good name at least. Caine will get a more in-depth entry later, but suffice to say he's a two-gun wieldin', flapping trenchcoat wearin', hard drinkin' warcaster straight out of a John Woo movie.









I explained the basic rules and Devin and I went back and forth a bit. Caine managed to completely mangle Devin's Charger with only a couple shots from his pistols. I was impressed.

Devin went for a spell assassination with Stryker, and as Stryker has weak spells he fell a bit short. Caine finished him off with a couple gunshots to the face, but Devin was playing well. He used Stryker's Blur upkeep spell on the Douche himself, making him defense 19 against ranged attacks. Caine's a damn good shot at RAT 8, but he still needed 11s to hit! I had to boost all Caine's attacks to hit, but I did every time (lucky; average roll on 3d6 is 10.5) and managed to kill Stryker. Devin was looking at a different faction (Protectorate of Menoth) but as he's an artist he might paint some good looking' models.


-Merlin out

Edit: my decklist per Brandonsantacruz' request.

Crypt 12 doodz:

4 x Petrodon (+1 bleed is good w Warsaw Station in play)
2 x Baron Dieudonne (more untap, Prince)
2 x Ben Rose (Prince, good votey special for hand jam)
1 x Zelios
1 x Slag
1 x Jeremy Wyx (+1 bleed is still good)
1 x Ruxandra

The crypt is good; I nearly always get a Prince, Alonso, and a support weasel (or Zelios). If the game is going well I might want to dig for more guys.

Regarding the library, there are a lot of ways to make a good Nos Royalty deck. I decided to go breed and boon and didn't add any Second Traditions, because then I could try to avoid combat cards altogether. Cock Robin an his punchiness are better for the second trads IMO.

Master cards (21 but I probably won't play the skills):
4 Obf skills (third trads are better with basic black)
3 minion tap
1 blood doll
2 Two Wrongs
1 Direct Intervention (it's never bad, I don't play competitively without them anymore, and I've been testing this one for tourneys)
Parity Shift enablers:
Slum hunting ground
2 Warsaw Station
Monastery of Shadows
Labyrinth
Papillon
Bleeding the Vine
Accelerators:
2 Zillah's Valley
Info Highway

Votes:
I told the guys during the game that I "wasn't playing a Parity Shift deck". Clearly this was a lie, but since I hadn't looked at the deck in 6 months I'd forgotten what a filthy bastard I am. Helpful.

3 random praxis seizure
1 Nos justicar (for Alonso to use to enable cryptic rider or for a title if I don't get him
2 cryptic rider
6 con boon (should be more)
1 can't take it with you (I'm playing around w this and shift)
1 kindred segregation (prayer tech)
1 ancient influence
1 anarchist uprising
3 Krc
4 Parity Shift (all my jyhad-backed copies)

Prolly needs another 2 Ps and another 2 con boon. Could use a Reins of Power.

27 Stealth cards (whichever you like?)

1 Conceal
2 Old Friends

6 Third Tradition (may be all that I own)
3 Fourth trad (in case I have extra actions or need speed, might be able to drop)
1 Shreknet

That's it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Flint, MI

Torpid Blood Report

I played in a 17 player tourney hosted by David Wilson yesterday. It was a decent turnout and there were good games to be had. The Flint crew that I came with did exceptionally well for us, and Devin and Robb made the finals. Even more shocking, Robb won. He gives me some credit for his victory. Apparently by not making the finals I had no opportunity to backoust him during the same.

That's fair.

I played a silly War Ghoul deck I've been kicking around lately. Originally it was a Terrifisto superstar deck. Since Mr. T is the Archbishop of Detroit I titled it "Represent!" However, since the printing of Agent of Power T is obsolete in the deck. Horatio can do the whole trick on turn 2 most of the time.

Represent!

Crypt: 12 dudes
2 x Horatio 2-cap Sabbat Tzimisce vic
2 x Terrence (and Phillip) 4-cap Sabbat Tzimisce vic aus ani
2 x Lolita Houston 4-cap Sabbat Tzimisce aus VIC
2 x Devin Bisley (D-Biz) 5-cap Sabbat Tzimisce AUS ANI vic
The Rose 5-cap Sabbat Tzimisce PRE VIC aus
Elizabeth Westcott 5-cap Sabbat Tzimisce AUS vic ani cel
Piotr Andreikov 2-cap Sabbat Tzimisce Black Hand aus
Wendy Wade 3-cap Sabbat Tzimisce aus ani

Library (71 cards):

Master Cards (18, 10 trifle):

6 x Agent of Power
1 x Dreams of the Sphinx
1 x Giant's Blood
2 x Fame
2 x Obtenebration
2 x Vessel
2 x Wash
2 x Charisma

Action cards (24):
8 x War Ghoul
8 x Nocturn
1 x Carlton Van Wyk
1 x Vagabond Mystic
1 x Gregory Winter
4 x Asanbonsam (Cosby) Ghoul
1 x Unlicensed Taxicab

Action Mods (7):
2 x Lobotomy
2 x Shroud of Night
3 x Changeling

Combat (9):
2 x Chiropteran Marauder
2 x Meld w the Land
5 x Trap

Combo (3):
3 x Plasmic Form

Event (3):
1 x Dragonbound
2 x The Unmaskening

Reaction (7):
3 x On the Qui Vive
3 x Telepathic Misdirection
1 x WWEF

It's a cute little deck, but with a bad draw it can be painful. Absolutely no one has Obtenebration, and if I don't get AoP or the skills early, my game is hosed.

Round one:






Matt (kyasid toolbox) -> Me (Represent!) -> Kevin (Petaniqua Garou Storm) -> Sam (Maris and Presence Malks)

I got everything I needed early. On turn two Piotr had no resistance when he summoned a Nocturn, Nocturn bled for the Edge, and the Piotr made the shadow demon into a flesh beast. Good stuff. Kevin got a wild look in his eye at this point. On turn 3 Lolita did the same thing while Piotr bled. Marconius popped up behind me and Quentin King III was in Sam's ready region.

I got up my entire uncontrolled region out: Lolita, Piotr, Horatio, and Wendy. Also got 3 WGs, Greg, and 2 Cosby Ghouls in play.

Kevin still brought out Petaniqua ADV. I considered NOT crushing her into oblivion, but when I realized she had AUS and the potential to kill a WG without red cards when merged I scrapped the idea of a normal game. I knocked her into torpor.

Matt bled me a bit with Dominate, but I had the Unmasking and two Cosby Ghouls in play, and his deck was more bruise and bleed than S + B. He killed my two blocky Ghouls and Julia Prima bled me for 4 with a Govern, but after that I murdered his ready region.

Kevin brought up Eurayle to support his werewolf engine, but I beat her up in short order as well. He did manage to Resurrect a Cosby Ghoul from my ash heap and recruit Carlton, but it was futility at this point. All the crosstable rescues in the world didn't stop me ousting him. Dragonbound sealed his fate and Matt's as well.

In the one on one Sam's Malks couldn't bleed and vote my pool away before my 3 War Ghouls killed his minions. He conceded shortly afterward.

Me 3 VP and GW, Sam 1 VP

Game MVP: asanbonsam ghoul. Thang kept me alive through the Kyasid lunges so that I could win.

Game 2:

Me (Represent!)-> Jimmy (malk wall)-> Eric (Akunanse toolbox)-> Phil (toreador grand ball)-> Ryan (Toreador. . .?)






This game had such potential. My opening crypt draw was Piotr, Lolita, Horatio, and Terrence. Nice. My opening hand was Agent, Fame, Obtenebration skill, Nocturn, War Ghoul, Chiropteran Marauder, and Trap. Fuck yes.

But I went first.

I put a blood on Lolita and proceeded. Jimmy put two on Dolphin Black. Everyone else went for big caps, but when I got Lolita up Jimmy got Dolphin. He blocked every action I took for the first 4 or 5 turns.

When the dust settled, Jimmy had Dolphin and Anatole. I had my whole crypt draw. Eric had Kamiri Wa Itherero and Amavi, Phil had Alexandra and Tatiana Romanova, and Ryan had Eugene and Katherine (c? 7-cap tor g5?).

Eventually everyone but me and Ryan got another minion. Jimmy got Kite, Eric got Sanjo (maybe. Don't recall), and Phil got Vicky Ash.

I told Jimmy that if he was gonna block all my actions I'd just bleed him with my 4 guys every turn until Ryan ousted me. Anatole got a .44 and put Horatio and Piotr into torpor. Then Jimmy said "you can play your game."

I felt this was odd. I got a War Ghoul and crushed Anatole. Jimmy wasn't expecting my Trap. He played like 4 Aura Reading for cards, never looking at my hand. Oh well. Anatole never escaped torpor either.

And there we sat for like an hour and a quarter. Jimmy couldn't draw the stealth to get past Eric's animalism intercept with KS. Phil couldn't draw votes to oust. Ryan bled me every turn but wasn't drawing bleed cards.

Jimmy brought himself low with an Assault Rifle on Kite (which killed my Dub-G). Eric got another minion, dropping to two pool. Phil started bleeding like crazy. Ryan kept up the pressure.

I tried to sucker Jimmy into blocking Lolita with Dolphin Black (who I'd made famous) most of the end game. I still had a Chiropteran Marauder, and I still could have gotten a vp at least. He never took the bait.

Ryan got me as the first oust of the game, and Jimmy got Eric, and then Phil got Ryan. This all happened with like 10 minutes to go. The table then timed out.

Jimmy 1.5 vp, Phil 1.5 vp, Ryan 1 vp.

No MVP.

Somebody let Dudock win the finals. I blame David Wilson. We'll see what Robb has to say.

-Merlin out

Location:Ypsilanti MI

Not Dead Yet

It’s been nearly two weeks since the tourney, so I guess I should really get this down. I’ve got a bad WarMachine habit these days. Maybe I should blog about that too. But, on with the VTES. . .

Not Dead Yet

26 Players

I decided to bring a “fun” (well, “annoying”) deck to the tourney, as I can’t make Origins and the NAC this year anyways due to the due date of my daughter. While I didn’t want to be super-competitive, I did want to try out a weird deck to see if it could hang. I also wanted to bring a deck that had Toy in it, because my friend Tom did the artwork, and he was going to be playing in the tournament as well. Represent.

My deck is called “MacBeth was a Bitch”, and it’s a Lorrie Dunsirn superstar deck, with !Malks on the side to help poolgain/Lorrie cost with Kindred Spirits. Lorrie clears a bleed lane and then the Malks step into the breach and regain some of the pool lost by taking actions with Lorrie. To me, it’s strictly inferior to a straight weenie kindred spirits bleeder, and it also has the bonus complication of falling prey to a lot of the common foibles of superstar decks: actually beating up the superstar, well-defended Pentex Subversion, super-aggressive predation, poor initial crypt draw, etc.

Strangely, it did pretty well, and much better than I expected. I really don’t expect to get GWs with this thing. It leans a little too far left, and I tend to wreck and/or oust my first prey and then fizzle out. At least, it does this in most games I play. The tournament was a little different.

Crypt: 12 dudes

4 Lorrie Dunsirn 4 cap POT for nec Abomination Indy can’t play reaction cards, have equipment or retainers, maneuver to long, press to end. Has an additional strike once per round and a press every combat (not optional). Non-hunt actions cost her a _pool_. +1 strength. Scarce & Sterile.

1 Toy 2-cap Samedi POT DEM THN obf for Sabbat Malk Anti Slave. Can’t act or block.

1 Bela 3-cap Malk DEM obf ani pro Indy Can’t attempt poliactions. -1 stealth.

1 Cassandra Langely, the Waif 2-cap Malk dem Camarilla.

1 Keller Thiel 4-cap Malk dem aus Camarilla while ready and untapped, any minion who successfully bleeds me burns 1 blood or life.

1 Sean Rycek 4-cap Malk dem aus Camarilla once each referendum he may tap or burn a blood for 2 votes. He can burn a boon in play as a +1 stealth D action.

1 Apache Jones 5-cap !Malk DEM obf aus for Sabbat.

1 Marta 3-cap !Malk dem aus Sabbat when she diablerizes an older vampire she gains a blood before receiving a skill.

1 Jackie 3-cap !Malk DEM Sabbat.

Looking at the crypt again Toy seems less awesome (I modified it by adding G5 Malks when KoT came out; used to have 2X Jackie and more !malks), but he can still assist Lorrie in getting intercept, and I really dig for the minions with DEM (2 of which are !Malks) because they add a lot to the deck.

Library (89 cards)

Masters (16)

1 Coroner’s Contract (can go; not really that useful)

1 Centralized Background Check (I feared guns, and rightly so)

1 Sudden Reversal (counters always seem useful to me)

1 Dementation skill

2 Agent of Power

2 Blood Doll (mainly to push back to Lorrie when necessary)

2 Special Report (she _can_ block!)

2 Fame

2 Perfectionist (blood management on the Tasmanian devil is a bitch, too)

2 Wider View

Actions (19)

2 Blessing of Chaos (not sure it’s worth it; earned me style points in the finals; it’s prayer tech)

8 Kindred Spirits (my only real bloat to pay for Lorrie’s expensive habits)

2 Big Game

3 Bum’s Rush

2 Harass

2 Ambush

Action Mods (13)

5 Freak Drive (if rushing is good, multirushing is better)

1 Eyes of Chaos

5 Confusion

2 Mind Tricks

Action Mods/Combat (2 cards)

2 Deny (love this one)

Combat (24)

4 Taste of Vitae

4 Thrown Sewer Lid

4 Skin of Steel

12 Immortal Grapple

Reactions (15)

2 WWEF

4 On the Qui Vive

2 Delaying Tactics (I fear the vote)

7 Babble (untap Lorrie or give her intercept; with Special Report I’ve gotten her to +4 intercept against a bleed deck. That’s not going to happen often, but the bleeder certainly didn’t make it after I caught them)

Round 1: Woody (EuroBrujah+Beast)>>>John (Flurry of Activity)>>>Me(MacBeth was a Bitch)>>>Sean M(Kiasyd bleedbox)>>>Sean S(Tremere Blockbox)

Things were looking punchy at the outset. I got out Jackie (who is superimporantawesome for my deck) and Lorrie, while Jimmy Dunn popped up on my right, and Volker showed up behind him. On my left Isanwayan was the first blueskin to show its face, and across the way Sean S got Carmen. That first turn little of note happened, but then Volker rushed and beat the hell out of Jimmy Dunn. When I see Jimmy I always wonder just how much Kung Fu he’s packing. He’s got the potential to be an absolute animal with FIST BOLT rock. Volker’s signpost/grapple/slam beat all the blood off of Jimmy before John could Blur with him, but he’s a new player and tried to Blur anyway. We explained that he couldn’t do that, but it was a significant misplay.

It was significant because John’s next minion was Parnassus, and Parnassus + Blur is a serious slap however it goes down. Woody didn’t take many forward actions after Parnassus hit the table, and he started influencing another vampire to go with Volker and newly minted Donal O’Conner.

I got a couple more Malks (Sean Rycek and Marta), and I bled a little every turn. Sean M took most of those bleeds and didn’t do much to stop me. I had a rush but I decided to not nuke Sean’s minions immediately. I wanted there to be some left-ish dynamic. Sean M summoned a Nocturn and bled with it like every turn, and got Ermengildo and Omme Enberbenight, reducing his pool to dangerous amounts with me bleeding a little each turn. He was playing enough Deflection, Covencraft, and Faerie Wards to slow me down though.

Sean S got Ash Harrison to go with Carmen, and he tried to tool up a lot, and got blocked by Brujah Princes a lot. Volker had run out of signposts (or was saving them), so the violence wasn’t nearly as extreme as it had been against Jimmy Dunn, but the !Tremere were having a tough time setting up.

And there we sat for a number of turns. John got up Taco Bell ADV, which seemed to perturb Woody a bit, as he then moved a lot of blood off of the next minion he wanted to influence out and started looking for someone else. Taco Bell and Parnassus did a lot of tooling up, getting Leather Jackets, Deer Rifles, etc.

I didn’t have a predator, so despite Sean M’s willingness to play mean reaction cards like Faerie Wards I just kept leaning into him. He never Warded Lorrie, however, and that might have been his undoing. Eventually I got him on a push, and then Sean S was really concerned about my kung fu and got up Gerald Windham.

So with some oust pool, the table then looked like this: Me with 10ish pool, Lorrie, Marta, Sean, and Jackie. Sean S had Gerald, Ash, and Carmen, with 3 or 4 pool left. Carmen had two intercept with a Bike and Winthrop, so she had to go if I wanted to sneak past his warlocks. Volker and Donal eventually found a Leatherface of Detroit. Parnassus had a Leather Jacket, Theo had a Deer Rifle and a Sport Bike. Parnassus was also Famous, which was a thorn in my side, as Fame is a significant component of my offensive capacity.

Parnassus and Taco Bell had been bleeding for one here and there, and from this point onward they each bled with Flurry of Action every turn. I let them. I basically was working on a clock to get the next oust, and I had 4-5 turns to do it. Sean S turtled up (he hadn’t been able to do much to the Brujah all game anyway) and played defensively. Beast decided that Famous Parnassus needed to get punched hard. Unfortunately Parnassus had a jacket for that punch and a Blur to hit back. Beast hit the bin instead and the Flurries continued.

I essentially lunged at Sean every turn for three turns. I made a huge mistake in allowing a 2 blood Lorrie to get in a fight with a 2 blood Carmen when I didn’t have a Grapple, and since Sean had played like 5 Theft of Vitae I should have been thinking about that. Carmen stole two blood from Lorrie to survive the first round, and when Lorrie was forced to press empty we both hit the bin. That really slowed me down. Still, I tried to oust Sean with just my Malks several times as well, and he always had one more Wake than I needed him to have to win.

When I was down to two pool I knew I might get ousted, but I did try to save myself by pushing a wee Malk in front of Parnassus. Then Parnassus played Crocodile’s Tongue on my empty, On the Qui Vive’d blocker! Snap! Flurry gets the oust.

I’m not sure who took that table, actually. I don’t think the Flurry deck did, and I’m pretty certain Sean S was in bad shape when I got ousted. It might have timed out, or perhaps Volker and Donal managed to call some 3-player Parity Shifts? Woody had discarded several during the course of the game. I’m pretty sure nobody got 3VP and a GW out of the deal, because then they probably would have been in the finals. . .?

Me: 1 VP John: 1 VP

Round 2:

Mindy (Stanslavia has DOM!)>>>Linc(Harbingers + Matthias)>>>Robb(Imbued Don’t Need Travis; Travis is for Pussies)>>>Me(MacBeth was a Bitch)

This game collapsed quickly. Mindy got up Stani, Linc got Agaitas and Matthias, Robb got 4 Imbued, including Shophet, Nurse, and Potter, as well as Moise and the Vagabond Mystic. I got Lorrie, Jackie, Keller Thiel (ha!), and Marta.

Mindy got up Illiana and bled like crazy with Stanislava. Linc did what usually is done and bounced it, but Robb DI’d the bounce. Snap! Linc put himself into ousting range of huge Gangrel by getting Gisela. Robb tooled up like the tool he is with bleed retainers and powers. I put Fame on Stanislava, and since Linc was on the ropes I rushed and beat the tar out of her. She hit the bin easy. I bled for 4 with my other minions to add insult to injury.

Mindy was in a tough spot. She put a Blood Doll on Stani, rescued, and bled for 3 again, but Linc again had bounce. Imbued don’t have much to say about Stanislava bleeding from two to the left. Determine isn’t going to work, and allies can’t block her. Linc bled at Robb with a Pulsed up Agaitas, but Robb had the untappy that he needed to survive. I ousted Mindy next turn, and Linc bled at Robb a bit, Robb bled at me.

Mindy started talking about how I’m going to get a sweep, and I told her that I didn’t think I could handle Robb in a one-on-one confrontation. Then I realized that I’m playing a rush+Kindred Spirits deck and that most of my D actions can go anywhere. Robb began to bleed me in earnest for 4-6 per turn with Second Sight and bleed retainers on his guys. After he completed his turn I decided to Rush Potter, even though he’s just going to tap her and Forsee or Abjure combat. It still forced him to overextend as she was his only untapped imbued. Then I bled him for 3 with Jackie using Kindred Spirits and Confusion.

Robb gave me that look that says having two predators sucks. I realized that I talk about backousting Robb a lot on this blog, and that it can be a totally valid path to victory. I might rename this blog “Backoust Robb Dudock if you want to win” and give some helpful statistics on how often that it has worked for me.

Robb had an Angel of Berlin, but combined efforts of bounced Stanislava, Harbinger bleeds, and my bleeds had hurt him enough that he was low on pool and by forcing him to defend against me as well his fate was sealed. Linc ate the morsel I’d handed to him (and gladly), ousting Robb. In the head’s-up I drew enough rush+grapple to outlast Linc’s Spiritual Intervention and prevent cards. After I beat up his last minion he conceded. Robb glared at me for a bit. He’s totally justified in doing that, but man backousting that dude is a blast.

Me: 3VP and 1 GW, Linc 1 VP

Game MVP: Probably Lorrie, but Kindred Spirits is also a key component of the deck’s ability to work a table, and that bleed of three put a serious hurt on Robb. Might have to say KS.

Finals:

Somehow I’d managed to get third seed with a Game Win and four Victory Points. I was a little pissed that the 25 other players had allowed me into the finals, but I decided that if I was gonna be there I was gonna try to win it. Sean M had also made it, as well as three other decks I hadn’t seen yet. Sean was a lower seed than me, so I got to side after him, and I chose to bleed him. This might have been a mistake, but it had worked for me alright earlier, and I thought it was worth the chance.

Finals Matt(FoS bleeds w/ DOM for bounce)>>>Eddie (HoS Slaughterhouse Brinksmanship)>>>Me (MacBeth was a Bitch)>>>Sean (Kiasyd don’t get into fights at all)>>>Brad (Toreador Princes w/ guns)

Things started out nicely enough, and I had again decided to slow play a bit in an attempt to keep things going smoothly. Everyone knew I had a tactical nuclear device when Lorrie hit the table on turn 2 to join Jackie, and I thought that we could all look past it. This was not the case.

Sean got up The Arcadian and Roderick Phillips March. Brad got Marcellus and Dorian Strack. Matt pulled Black Lotus and Amenophobis, and Eddit influenced Zoe and Agaitas, with Eggotha joining them soon thereafter. After turn two I got Toy and Sean Rycsek.

Sean was defensive from the start because I’d ousted him earlier, and it turned out I was the table bleed sink. I had to deal with two bleeds from Marcellus “Does he look like a bitch?!” that had been bounced from Matt to Eddie to me fairly early on, and after playing nice once Brad told me he intended to shoot my minions if I blocked. I did get some style points from Brad by playing Agent of Power on Lorrie to give her Dementation and then having her get a Blessing of Chaos. It was, as it often is, a pointless move. Might drop that little module.

Matt also bled irresponsibly, and Eddie was packing enough Telepathic Misdirections to keep firing them down the lane at me. I was feeling like I had three or four predators early. When the table decides you’re the threat, and you don’t feel like just wrecking everyone’s game (because that doesn’t earn many VPs), you oust your prey. I finally rushed at Sean and murdered most of his guys with Lorrie, bleeding with the backup dancers a bit.

Sean had gotten Isanwayan up by this point, and was summoning Nocturns with the blessing of the blocky Toreador in front of him to chump block my rushes. Francois Villon joined the poseurs in Brad’s controlled region, and Marcellus had a .44 and knew how to fire it.

Matt bled every turn, and eventually got up Anhk-Sen Sutehk to go with his other midcaps.

Eddie milled my deck. He played a couple Slaughterhouse. He burned stuff with Eggotha. He drew from my deck with Agaitas. He didn’t bleed me much himself. I largely ignored him. He did burn a Sewer Lid that would have met a Toreador face later from the top of my library, so that wasn’t cool. The table wouldn’t pass his Brinksmanship, however. So that plan went down the toilet.

I eventually ousted Sean with bleeds after the Nocturns blocked Lorrie.

Things got pretty ugly then. Brad had whittled Matt’s pool down with consistent bleeds, and he ousted him soon after. In the three-way Brad basically told Eddie they should mug me and then sort things out. I started to argue, but it’s tough when the main components of the counter argument are “hey, I’m just asking the guy to osut his prey”. Being a fan of standard left-facing VTES, I just poured full bore into the Toreador. Brad was low on pool due to getting guns on all of his 22 pool worth of Toreador, so I dropped Fame on Dorian Strack and influenced out Apache Jones.

Then when Francois came to get blood from Jackie I blocked with Lorrie, but I ran out of prevent and Taste while throwing multiple Sewer Lids at Francois. My non-optional press on Lorrie sealed her fate, and she hit the bin while Francois got away pretty easy. Marcellus bled, leaving just Dorian up. Eddie didn’t do much but mill my library.

I did what I often do with this deck when Lorrie hits the bin: I rush Famous minions with my Malkavians. I had a Deny and a Skin of Steel, and several Maneuvers or Presses attached to Bum’s Rush and Harass, so maybe Apache and Sean could seal the deal. Knocking Dorian into torpor wouldn’t have ousted Brad outright, but it

might have bought me an extra turn to lunge later.

Turns out Brad’s deck has a lot of untap, intercept, and combat cards to go with his guns. He told me he didn’t want to wreck my game, but of course I was relentless and so he gunned down my dudes. If he’d left anyone ready I’d have rushed or bled the next turn.

That’s just how I roll.

Eddie ousted me soon thereafter with Trochomancy bleeds. Brad made easy work of Eddie after that, as Eddie didn’t seem to do much other than mill cards. Alas.

Robb asked me why other people’s Toreador gun decks are so much better than mine, and I told him it’s because they have room for lots of combat cards. Brad dropped a lot of Blur, Pursuit, Sideslip, Side Strike, and so forth. Those cards would be great in my Masika deck, but I’m so busy paying for my ridiculously large crypt I don’t seem to have the cards. James Messer’s Masika/Cog gun deck is better than mine as well, because he’s not using Villon and Anneke as backup minions. But hey, I like to live on the edge with 3 ten-caps in my ready region.

-Merlin out

Death Angel Multiplayer and VTES

I wrote some of this over the weekend after the games, but I'm currently swamped at my two jobs and decided to publish it. I apologize for any errors in the text.

I played several more solo games of Death Angel. I died a lot and lost. Gideon failed me both times. Goddamn Thunder Hammer isn’t reliable. I did win one game, with Lorenzo, Calistarius, and Caludio. I think that the "sweet spot" for single-player involves Lorenzo, Calistarius, and any other team except Gideon. I can say with certainty that activating the Door terrain often (when switching locations, kill a genestealer for each counter on the door, placed by activating) is actually a good idea all the time.

I then went out to play with friends. Eskimatt (Matt the Inuit) and Ray joined me for a three player game of Death Angel, and it went pretty well. Three player games move very quickly, because 6-10 genestealers spawn every turn on average. We had to keep our shit together to slap them down. We had all twelve marines, four to a player, in play.

Ray took to it as he always does to new games, with a lazy competence that slaughtered genestealers while still barely understanding the overall strategy of the game. Go brute force.

Eskimatt spent a lot of time each turn talking to me about what actions we should take as an overall team. We did pretty well, but every once and a while we had to just shut up and pick action cards.

We lost a few guys, but in the end we still had nine of twelve marines, and we got the “kill all genestealers in blip piles or in play” victory-condition card, which is middle of the road as far as difficulty goes. We were certainly going to lose some guys killing all the bugs, but then we figured out a way to pit them all against Sergeant Lorenzo, who I controlled, and then I played the Lorenzo-team Support card, which says every time you roll a skull on the die on defense (50/50 chance, 3 of the sides have skulls) you kill a Genestealer and the swarm rolls again to attack.

We piled like 5 support tokens on Lorenzo for rerolls and I used 3 of them to kill a stack of 7 with Lorenzo’s Support ability. It was fucking hardcore: Lorenzo stabbed over a half-dozen marine-killing Genestealers to death with his sword.

Good victory, though it actually felt a little easy.

Then we played some VTES, as Devin had arrived.

Game 1:

Ray (Cailean Wall)--->EskiMatt(Full Steam Ahead)-->Me(Bored of Directors)-->Devin(Melisande Soul Gem)

Ray got Mouse, Clarissa Steinbergen and Cailean. EskiMatt popped Vardar the Vardarian and Olugbenga. I got Lana Butcher, Joao Bile, and Elena Guitierrez. Devin got Melisande.

EskiMatt’s deck, which is actually my deck, is my (almost certainly worse) version of a David Cherryholmes deck concept I read about on the google group. It’s never quite run right for me, but every once and a while it scores. It tries to ignore its predator by ousting the hell out of its prey with Loss bleeds at stealth. It’s important to save the Khabar:Glory for the oust turn, but there are 6 or so in the deck, so the hope is that you can always play one every turn if you have two. There’s 14 or 15 Loss in there.

So I knew what I was in for. My Ventrue weenie breed/bloat/vote had a chance to handle it, but I drew into nothing but master cards after getting the ball rolling nicely. Lana was the Prince of Miami, I had the Sunset Strip and Headquarters in play, and Elena was the Justicar. I even called some early pool damage votes to hit Devin for 6 or 7 pool. Then I had three change of target and a bunch of master cards in hand. It kind of sucked.

Ray’s Cailean wall does as many wall decks do: it got a pile of cards on the main guy. Cailean got a Guardian Angel, a Flak Jacket, and a Raven Spy quick, and then a Laptop and an Eternal Vigilance as well. Mouse didn’t do much. Clarissa ran into Melisande.

Devin’s deck was interesting. He got out Melisande, Villein’d to get some pool back, gave her THA with a skill, and had her magic up a Soul Gem the first turn she could. Then he put a Palla Grande in play and bled with her. Clarissa got in front of it and Devin showed his hand. He’d gotten Melisande close to empty, and with her add-strike she was empty and played Burst of Sunlight. This gave Devin a fresh Melisande to act with. But now she didn’t have superior thaumaturgy, so the train would have to wait until next turn to roll again.

Eskimatt hammered me with Loss for two turns, getting me for 10 or 12 pool. It sucked. I drew into one Con Boon, but I was running out of pool and time. He jammed for a turn on stealth but I was on the ropes.

Devin and Ray mixed it up a bit. Cailean got another Bird. Mouse found an Army of Rats.

Matt bled me down to 4. I played a Hostile takeover, thinking that Devin might buy Vardar off of my predator and thereby get me another turn. I then bled with all my guys, hoping Devin would try and block each one with Vardar so that I could Change of Target. It worked. I drew 3 Master cards. Goddammit.

Then to top it all off, I left Joao untapped (he could have hunted after the bleed/CoT. . .), despite the fact that I knew Matt had a From a Sinking Ship in his hand, as he’d misplayed it earlier. Devin did some Melisande nonsense. Cailean’s team got Smiling Jack, the Anarch into play. Cailean got another bird.

Ray bled the table a bit with Smiling Jack, but Matt stole Joao from me (an Eye for an Eye apparently) and then bled me for one with each of his guys to oust me. Goddamnit again.

Matt then plowed into Devin with a Gambit Accepted as poolgain/bleed, and D actions to avoid the threat of Cailean.

Ray blocked everything he could for a few turns, but this left Cailean at one blood and despite Ray’s Hunting Ground/Blood Doll combo on Cailean, Smiling Jack was starting to really hurt him. He was down to four pool when Matt ousted Devin, and then to three with Smiling Jack pulling counters from him.

Ray and Matt did the stealth/intercept dance for a bit, but Matt had a Dreams in play by now and his Lost in Crowds was doing double duty on Cailean’s animalism intercept cards. Matt drew into an Elder Impersonation, and with the Loss he bled with, it sealed the deal.

EskiMatt 4 VP, GW

Game MVP: Loss, or maybe Khabar:Glory, which is sick.

Game 2:

Ray (G5=6 Baali vote/bleed)-->Me(Victim---G2-3 Internal Maleficia toolbox)-->Devin (!Salubri swarm)--> EskiMatt (Kyasid Ravager bloat/bleed)

The game broke badly, as four-player games often do. Matt and I, crosstable buddies, found ourselves in trouble early. Devin was swarming on Matt like crazy before his bloat could set up, and it turns out while Ravager + Hungry Coyote + a couple Vessel is strong, Hide the Heart still fucks it all up if the dude is empty when he does it.

I got out Dylan and a couple Caitiff, and then I spent most of the game going backwards. Ray got Annnazir and Arishat, the G6 voting Baali, and they proceeded to bleed for 3 per action, or call Reckless Agitation. I had a bunch of Evil Eye and super-Maleficia on Dylan, so I defended alright, but being infernal and being on the ropes really sucks. I got Sargon out, as I needed him to play Ruins of Charizel, but Ray had already beaten me down pretty hard. On top of that, Matt hadn’t been able to do much to Ray because Devin had gotten out every group 2 !Salubri and they’d also summoned a few Brothers in Arms, so he could bleed for 6 with his weasels.

Devin pushed at Matt relentlessly, and Ray pushed at me relentlessly. I got ousted first. Then Devin threw everything he had into ousting Matt, though I was telling him (kibitzing at this point, really) that destroying Ray’s fourth Path of Evil Revelations (I’d destroyed several already) was necessary. Devin ignored me; it’s usually a good idea. Turns out it wouldn’t have mattered much. Ray had enough pool to untap his guys anyway, and with two Reckless Agitation he ousted Devin quite handily. He also had two Horde in play by now.

EskiMatt only had a few pool by now, so Ray was able to oust him with relative ease.

Ray: 4 VP and 1 GW

Game MVP: Annazir. Guy is a beast.

Then it was late. Devin was interested in playing a game of Death Angel, and EskiMatt was hanging out still, so we played 3-player again. Things went so much worse for the marines this game. We lost a couple of red-shirt vanilla marines early, and then we got the Teleportarium for the middle location card.

The Teleportarium location has a control panel, and activating the control panel does this: All space marines must spend a Support token or roll a die, and on a 0 they die. Then all the blips in both piles are removed and the marines move to the next location.

We were having trouble, with extra blips being added to the stacks (event cards!), and we decided to activate the Teleportarium. This was a mistake, because we were probably gonna lose two marines on average. We lost Zael, the Flamer marine, and Leon, the autocannon marine. This was very very very bad.

Without heavy weapons we really only had Claudio and Calistarius to get multiple attacks, and we’d allowed a lot of bugs to accumulate on the board by this point. We lost another two marines in the 3^rd location, and more and more bugs started flanking our guys. We only had 6 marines, and we’d lost all the green (Gideon) team and purple (Zael) team by the last location.

The final location was the Launch Control Room. The win condition here is to activate the control panel and either put a support token on it or roll a die, and if the die is equal to or less than the number of tokens on the card the marines win.

By now there were bugs fucking everywhere. We lost another vanilla marine while putting a token on the control panel, and we were lucky not to lose more. Without the heavy weapons marines we had little chance of surviving the next turn or two: There was a stack of 10 genestealers marauding the Hulk by this point, and several smaller 3-5 bug swarms.

I looked at Devin and EskiMatt, and said, “let’s go for the control panel victory and hope we get lucky”.

We spent all our action cards on Move/Interact actions, and we managed to put two more tokens on the Control Panel. Then Sergeant Lorenzo, under Matt’s control, activated the panel and Matt had a 66% chance of winning the game for us: 0-3 on the die. EskiMatt was pissed about the pressure. There was some wailing and gnashing of teeth. The roll was properly dramatic.

And it was a 3! Victory with 20-odd Genestealers spawned around 5 marines! Hot.

We decided that the marines magnetized the Hulk and then opened the hatch to the great void, and watched the Genestealers get sucked out into space while they worked their life support systems. Lorenzo isn’t wearing a helmet, tho. No matter. Victory was ours, and it was properly dramatic. Nice.

Good times.

-Merlin out

Hulk IV and VTES

Robb and I managed to plan a game night recently. It started off with more Hulk and then evolved into VTES. Robb wanted to play the 6th Hulk mission again, with me as the marines. He thought he'd made some serious mistakes that cost the marines the game, and that it was a totally winable scenario. We'll see.

Mission VI: Alarm Call (again)

I placed Zael first, instead of Lorenzo. This was because I thought I'd need the Flamer to clear the halls of bugs early on. I also used some of my placements to block entire sections of the Hulk, as sleeping marines block movement. I neglected to mention this to Robb again, and I actually had assumed he didn't know that, so that was a total dick move on my part. It was a night of many dick moves on my part, really.

Robb put Lorenzo far far away. Then we placed the rest of the marines, and I used my last two to put guys in front of doorways to keep too many bugs from slipping in behind me. I ran Claudio o' the lighntning claws and Calistarius the Librarian to rescue Zael ASAP. The bugs filled the halls around us. Then the marines dashed across the final hallway to rescue random marine 1 and then Lorenzo, who was in the farthest room. One of the marine win conditions is that they rescue 3 guys before bailing. All that went down. I used Claudio as a stop-gap marine in the end hallway. I was hoping that he'd be able to maul a few bugs while the rest of the rescue went on. Alas. He took the third close assault on the chin and went down in a heap. Lame.

After waking the final marines, I had to make sure Calistarius and at least two other doods got off the boat. This looked difficult. The hallway near the exit was teeming with Genestealers, just as it was during our other play of Mission VI. I used Zael and my vanilla marine to slowly push down toward that hallway while waiting for Lorenzo and the Librarian to catch up. Eventually those guys caught up, but they brought a world of Genestealers right behind them, and I managed to really suck at rolling kills with Calistarius' psychic storm power, so I was burning psi points to little gain.

Robb and I had independently come to the conclusion that the force barrier power was where it was at by this point. I used barriers to cover my ass and Lorenzo managed to kill the last bugs crawling at him as he caught up to Zael and Calistarius. However, I'd lost the vanilla marine by this point.

So, at this point I looked at the board. Robb had like 6 bugs behind my guys but several squares away, and there were something like 10 in the two branches of the final hallway just "off-screen". Zael blasted a flamer burst down the hall to keep them busy, and then ducked down a hall to let Calistarius run closer for the final push. It was Calistarius, then Zael, then Lorenzo in the final rush. I made some poor rolls and Robb got a bug up in Calistarius' face, but i dropped a force barrier to block that hallway and had left a smoking ruin behind me with Zael to gather the troops.

If the librarian died in close assault the game would be over. Robb had one roll. We tied. I spent one of my final two psi points to kill the Genestealer, and then prepared for the final push. Calistarius rushed across the deadly hallway, and Zael cooked the intersection behind him to block the bugs. Then Zael and Lorenzo moved up, just out of Genestealer reach.

I counted my guys, and then I counted how much movement I needed to win. IF I drew six command points AND I used my last psi point to regain a command point, I would win. Otherwise, Lorenzo would probably be left with his back to a hallway full of close assaults.

I drew the six.

Marines win! But damn, just barely. Brutal mission.

Mission VII: The Artefact, or Get Some Shit and Leave

Robb and Devin took the marines on this one, and I filled the hulk with bugs. The mission was pretty straightforward: move across the hulk, get the mcguffin, and then return the mcguffin to the marine entry squares. It looked rough, but the marines did have Calistarius and Claudio to back up Lorenzo's squad. Robb and Devin decided that Lorenzo, Zael, and Calistarius should go get the artefact, while Claudio and the three basic marines tried to stem the tide in the entrance of the ship.

The plan went pretty well at first. The advance team made a lot of progress. Their progress was slightly hampered by the fact that I drew 18 Genestealers in the first two turns, and revealed them so as to spread them all over the hulk. Claudio once again proved a victim early, as my bugs killed him in his very first close assault. Unfortunately, Claudio's backup, Brother Goriel, was an absolute crack shot, and on Overwatch he managed to kill something like 8 Genestealers before I got him. That was huge.

I got one more marine in the front of the boat in the late game, but Robb and Devin had managed to get the artefact and move it far closer to victory than I would have liked. I managed to flank the librarian twice, but the bastard was lucky in close assault and he didn't waste too many psi points fending off the bugs. That was a damn shame, and it proved my undoing.

In the final throes of the game Lorenzo, who was carrying the mcguffin, passed it off to Calistarius, who made a mad dash for the entry and then placed a force barrier in the way of my Genestealers to keep them off of him. I conceded victory, as there was no way I'd get to him before he stepped into a victory square.

The marines win again, although to be clear, Lorenzo and Deino probably weren't going to survive the pile of bugs I had accumulated in the hulk by that point.

Marines rating: 3.5. Genestealers rating: 3.5. Lots of fun and villainy.

Alayna arrived soon after the second Hulk mission so we decided to play some VTES, having four players.

I'm really starting to hate four player vtes. It feels like the games are decided by turn 5.

Game 1:

Devin (Hermanas Menor)--->Me(Eyes on Africa)--->Alayna (Jaroslav bruise/bleed)--->Robb(Saulot is a Fakir)

Things went pretty well, since Devin went first and therefore his little sister machine wasn’t a whole turn ahead of me. I had Homa down and managed to get a ready minion by the time Devin had two sistahs to fire at me. Better yet I got a Blood Shield on Homa, so they did a little less damage to me.

While this was afoot, Alayna and Robb got out Jaroslav and Saulot the hard way. Then Robb started the slow train to getting Fakir al-Sidi up with Saulot and transfers, and Alayna got Tyler.

Devin and I locked into a two-player struggle, with him getting all four of his opening hermanas up and getting them some blood via hunting. I got up Kisha Bhimji in addition to Homa, and managed to call a Neonate Breach past Jaroslav to plink Alayna for 1 and Devin for 4. Devin was miffed. But then, his deck has little answer to pool attacks, and lots of minion threatening. He dropped Fame on Kisha and then tried to rush with Oppugnant Night, but I had a ridiculous amount of wakes in my hand and Homa stepped in front of the rushes. He finally decided to bleed instead, which I bounced at Alayna.

Alayna’s gameplan seemed to be bruise/bleed, which is always dubious. In this case she had combat cards she couldn’t play because no one would fight her, and no bleed boost. Robb did as many would when Jaroslav is bleeding them for one: he took the bleeds. Tyler’s arrival complicated things, but by then Robb had Fakir up and anarched out (because his deck doesn’t have enough moving parts without anarchy) to defend.

Saulot and Fakir actually discarded a lot of Sense Death, instead Saulot got a Phone and proceeded to bleed for 3 each turn. Devin took these faithfully, tapping out to try and hurt me and then taking pool damage on the chin. I never quite understood the “full left even if I get ousted” mentality, but his deck looked like a cannonball that never really fired. He’s trying to go Lilith’s Blessing on his empty sisters, but he never actually has Blessing in play early enough for it to make a difference, and there’s enough other masters in the deck he’s always doing something else. One turn he dropped Agent of Power on one of his girls, then they did a Sanguine Instruction chain to hook up with superior wo-Man-love all around.

It was hot.

The game broke in Robb’s favor, as Devin didn’t have much answer to Saulot’s bleeds at zero stealth, and I wasn’t drawing any of my damaging votes, instead relying on toolboxy bleed such as Kduva’s Mask, Ancestor Spirit, and Ancestor’s Insight. Still, I wasn’t making much of a dent in Alayna’s pool before Robb rounded the corner. He’d played Minion Tap on Fakir and then gotten up Lord Ephraim Wainwright to round out his crew. I played Sudden Reversal on his next Minion Tap, and Jaroslav played a Burning Wrath on Saulot to cook him (no anarch, no prevent?).

But Alayna was still only bleeding for two per turn with Tyler, and Lord Ephraim was reducing that with Detect Authority quite easily. Without much pressure Robb recouped his lost pool, bought another Saulot, and started grinding on my already-beat-up-by-sisters minions. Kisha was Famous for the second time, and she took a dirt nap from whence she would never return. My game was sealed, and Robb beat Alayna in the head’s up.

Robb 4 VP, GW

Game MVP: Saulot is pretty strong.

Game 2:

Robb(Nergal+Unnamed Baali)--->Me(Huge G2-3 FoS Eternals)--->Alayna(DoC)--->Devin(G2 Salubri Marionette bleed)

Devin seemed upset that I drew an early Eternals of Sirius. He was more upset when I played the second in as many turns, and downright scowling when I played my third. BY turn three Sutekh, the Dark God and Nefertiti graced my ready region. That was awesome. Now what to do with them? That’s the rub.

Meanwhile, Robb got out Nergal, Alayna got up Sashiya and Aimee Leroux, and Devin got up Matthias. Soon after Devin got Miriam Benyona as well, and Alayna used her Wider View to pick up Yseult.

I bled with Sutehk every turn, and that seemed pretty good. Nergal bled me for 4 with his first action, and that actually stung a bit. I’d accelerated my ready region, but my pool was still aching for a Villein, which I hadn’t drawn in all my Eternals-playing. I did have a Pentex Subversion, however.

Very early on, after that first bleed and before Alayna had dug out Yseult but after Devin had gotten Miriam, I decided to Pentex Subvert poor Nergal. Robb scowled and pissed about me backousting him, but hey, he’s playing Nergal, right? I was hoping Devin would bleed him for a few and keep him honest while I dug for more poolgain.

Robb did what most good players do: he begged for crosstable assistance. This was good play on his part. Alayna eventually decided (after Robb had suggested it several times) to use her 2-cap, who couldn’t call Lily Prelude anyway, to try and remove Pentex. This took me by surprise. I knew Robb had been sort of jokingly mentioning that she should help, but I’d never considered that she might take him seriously. I was pissed. I became an asshole. I asked her why she was actually listening to Robb? I ranted. I may have frothed a bit. I certainly recall calling her action retarded.

I felt bad later. It was an overreaction. She’s a newer player. Though Robb does assure me that she is beyond suggestion and actually plays better than he does, she is not and does not. She sometimes does things without weighing the consequences, and therein lies my frustration. For you see, Alayna couldn’t give me a cost/benefits analysis of having me backousted instead of me backousting Robb (that’s what my Pentex play boiled down to in the end). I’m convinced she was better off with me as a predator instead of Nergal, while Robb is convinced that allowing Devin (her prey) a victory point is a worse play.

We only got one side of the story, as I had a wake to block her attempt at destroying Pentex (which Robb felt should make me stop my bitching immediately, but that isn’t the case. . .) and my vitriol (and logic, to be fair: I explained that removing the Pentex the first turn it sits actually bleeds me for 2+whatever Nergal bleeds for next turn) either convinced or cowed her into not taking any more actions to remove it.

So, probably good on me, then, despite the douchebaggery? Still not sure. My venom wasn’t the result of calculated social engineering, so. . .

Anyway, the game devolved quickly. Robb later told me he had a Horde down, but was reluctant to pull it up, instead going for the unnamed, which is a whopping 20 pool of infernal vampires. His allegations that I backousted him were starting to ring a little more hollow.

I bled for two with Sutekh and Nefertiti, but it seemed wrong that I had a fistful of stealth and wasn’t moving cards fast enough. Alayna drew her Conductor and good stuff and mugged Devin but good. Devin stole the unnamed and gained two pool via Spirit Marionette. Then Miriam bled with her Pulse of the Canaille.

Robb looked at me and gave the “hope you’re happy, because you’ve backousted me” speech. I nodded and said that I was aware, but that I’d allow him to remove the Pentex now (he said he didn’t have stealth. . .?), as I’d drawn a Villein. He did, and I regained some pool, bleeding for a bit with Sutekh as well.

Alayna was keeping up with my meager bleeds quite handily. She called a Benefit Performance every turn, and sometimes with a Voter Captivation. So she could ignore me at her leisure. She ran out of forward moves on Devin, though, and he slipped in to oust Robb with a Spirit Marionette bleed from Nergal.

Robb gone, I managed to draw a Mokole’ Blood, which is an important card for my deck, as it allows a giant snake to get four Snake Drive from my deck and put it on himself. Sutekh promptly did so, then untapped and bled. Then he untapped and called a vote of KRC. Passing the vote was a bear, as I wasn’t cycling well enough to draw push, but I did manage to hit my prey for seven that turn with Nefertiti’s bleed.

Alayna was actually a little low on pool. She regained a few with a Cap, and went full bore into Devin. He tried to block some with Matthias but the Lure of Sirens was too much for his third eye, and all those actions went through. Lily Prelude is incredibly strong.

I had a chance to oust Alayna, and I almost danced for Joy when Devin bled me for four with Matthias using a Pulse and Spirit Marionette, as I was going to have Nefertiti Lost in Translation the bleed to my prey for an oust, but alas, I’d forgotten that Alayna put Narrow Minds into play early, and Nefertiti couldn’t afford the bounce.

Ousted. Damn. I had a chance at least.

In the head’s up Devin steadily lost ground to Alayna’s bloat and brutal vote damage, and they tied in the end.

Alayna: 2 VP, Devin: 2 VP, no GW.

Getting Sutekh, the Dark God into my ready region for any game is a secondary win condition for me, so I was a happy guy, but I still feel like an asshole.

;)

-Merlin out