Erol's Birthday Tournament Report
On February 26th twelve Methuselahs came together in Karlsruhe
to celebrate the birthday of the city's Prince with a constructed
V:tES tournament. There were players present from several different
playgroups: Frankfurt, Heidelberg/Mannheim, Darmstadt, Bochum? (Ralf),
and of course, Karlsruhe. Due to the number of players, we played
at three tables with four players each.
Round 1:
Johannes (Ahrimanes Intercept/Toolbox) ->
Frank (Lasombra Creation Rites) ->
myself (Classic Ventrue) ->
Erol (Goulet/Satyr/Earth Meld with Dom)
After a not very fast start, Johannes got under pressure
from Erol and Frank. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that much,
because Erol and Frank always had a couple of votes more
than me (even though I had a perfect crypt draw with
Emerson, Walter, and Timothy). Alas, Ambrosio Luis Moncada,
Gratiano, Greger Anderssen, and Caitlin have a total of nine votes.
So I just sat there and bloated a little: Blood Dolls, Minion
Tap, Giant's Blood, Govern... I also held a Sudden Reversal
in my hand and wasn't quite sure when to use it. When Frank
tried to play a Power Structure, I had found a perfect target.
This, however, delayed the playing of my Ventrue HQ I had drawn.
Finally, I got the HQ on the table and then we entered the
critical part of the game. Johannes was low on pool and Erol
was about to oust him. Erol was also low on pool, though (he
was up to four again, after going down to two). I had to do
something now. In my hand was a Daring the Dawn, a KRC, and
a Seduction, on the table I had my three princes. Timothy
went in with a bleed for one, which was blocked by a Satyr
who melded into the earth (so, no more problems for my Daring
the Dawn). Next, Emerson went in with a bleed (I still had to
get the edge from Frank to push through my vote) seducing Erol's
only blocker: Caitlin with a Sport Bike. At this point
the game was down to a kind of coin flip. Erol still had a
Deflection in hand and wasn't sure what was going to happen
next. He expected a Daring the Dawn by now, but wasn't sure if
I would bleed him out or vote him out. He decided not to deflect,
so I bled him for one and then had the Edge to push through
the KRC. After the oust all kinds of deals and counterdeals
were proposed and after a discussion of about five minutes
Johannes accepted my deal to hand me the Game Win in return
for 1VP. Frank didn't really have a chance against both of
us and went down after a couple of turns.
Myself: 1GW (3VP), Johannes: 1VP
Round 2:
myself (Classic Ventrue) ->
Olaf (Setites) ->
Denis (Malk Intercept) ->
Andreas (Setites/Temptation)
We had quite a funny dialog at the start of the game, as
Olaf and Andreas tried to tell each other which vampires
to transfer out without mentioning any particular
names. After they agreed somehow, Denis played
a Smiling Jack. The Setites had some real problems with this
card. They distributed some Temptations among the vampires
on the table, but couldn't remove the Smiling Jack. Andreas
offered to help me in return for 1VP. Denis offered me 1VP,
if I cooperated with him. He wouldn't up his offer, even as
I told him that Andreas had just offered me at least 1VP (Denis
still needed a game win). I was able to support Andreas for
a while (with the help of a Parity Shift, Life in the City, and
a Coven) and ousted Olaf (well, he was more or less ousted
by the Smiling Jack). However, we were not able to remove the
Smiling Jack and Andreas was ousted. When Denis played a
Millicent Smith my fate was sealed and I also succumbed to the
Smiling Jack.
Denis: 1GW (3VP), myself: 1VP
Round 2:
Denis (Malk Intercept) ->
myself (Classic Ventrue) ->
Frank (Lasombra Creation Rites) ->
Marcel (!Nosferatu combat)
I did not like sitting down next to an Intercept deck and a deck
containing votes, but the game did not develop as bad as I
expected. Frank got out an early Baltimore Purge on Antonio
Delgado and Denis played a Madness Network. Next round, Marcel's
Beast and one of my princes went into torpor. I don't quite
remember the details, but either Beast or my prince was in
grave danger of being diablerized. We were lucky and Marcel
rescued both Beast and my prince out of torpor. Marcel held
down Frank's and Denis' vampires by beating them into torpor
and I reduced their pool with votes (Marcel agreed to first
oust Frank and then Denis). After Frank was ousted, Denis tried
to tempt me to break my deal by offering me the table win (I
had agreed with Marcel that after the two ousts, we would
fight it out). I kept my word, but played really stupidly.
When Denis' vampires were all put into torpor, I should have
diablerized them to get one or two of the flamethrowers.
Somehow, I always seem to forget that there is an option to
diablerize vampires (Denis joked around afterwards, telling me
that I had too much Humanitas left
)As Marcel was busyousting Denis, I bloated a little bit and tried to prepare
myself for the onslaught of Marcel's combat monsters (expecting
to lose the fight). After Denis was ousted, I was able to fend off
the first wave of attacks with Majesties, a Skin of Rocks, or just
eating the damage. Luckily, I drew into my Governs and Marcel
transferred out Julio Martinez (who was his lone blocker at the end
of the round). Two Govern-bleeds later (both with Seductions) and after
a bleed by Queen Anne at dawn his pool was down to zero. I think
in his next turn he would have ripped some of my vampires apart.
Myself: 1GW (3VP), Marcel: 1VP
Final:
Denis (Malk Intercept) ->
Marcel (!Nosferatu combat) ->
Ralf (Malk/!Malk Intercept) ->
myself (Classic Ventrue) ->
Andreas (Setites/Temptation)
I did not want to sit next to Denis or Marcel, so I picked my seat
between Ralf and Andreas (not knowing the contents of Ralf's deck).
Well, the final was not very interesting. One could describe it as
sitting around for two hours and running into the time out. Nobody
wanted to take great risks and a Millicent Smith played by Denis
didn't accelerate things either. One of the highlights was Marcel
getting his combat vampires dumped into torpor again and again
After two hours everybody got 0.5VPs and because I held first place
going into the finals I won the tournament. I was kind of shocked
("Whaddaya mean, I won this thing?"), because I wasn't playing at my
best and have to admit that I made a couple of silly mistakes. But
a player of "that other game" summarized it quite nicely: Better lucky
than good.
Deck Name: Classic Ventrue Law Firm
Created By: Sven Helmer
Description: Deck Name says it all...
Of course, this decks has some troubles getting actions
through. Against dedicated intercept decks I have severe problems.
The only things that help here are Seductions, Daring the Dawn,
Kiss of Ra (to dump blockers into torpor), and untapping with
Majesty (to do some other action).
Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 17, Max: 33, Avg: 6.42)
----------------------------------------------
2 Emerson Bridges DOM FOR pot PRE 8, Ventrue, Prince
1 Gideon Fontaine PRE 3, Ventrue
1 Heather Florent, The Opportunist dom FOR PRE 6, Ventrue
1 Jazz Wentworth dom for PRE 5, Ventrue
1 Queen Anne aus DOM FOR obf PRE 10, Ventrue, Prince
1 Ranjan Rishi, Camarilla Scholar DOM for PRE 5, Ventrue
2 Sir Walter Nash DOM FOR PRE 7, Ventrue, Prince
2 Timothy Crowley ani dom FOR PRE 7, Ventrue, Prince
1 Violette Prentiss dom PRE 4, Ventrue
Library: (70 cards)
------------------
Master: (17 cards)
3 Blood Doll
1 Creepshow Casino
1 Giant's Blood
1 Hostile Takeover
3 Life in the City
3 Minion Tap
1 Secure Haven
1 Sudden Reversal
1 The Coven
2 Ventrue Headquarters
Minion: (53 cards)
2 Bewitching Oration
2 Bonding
1 Consanguineous Boon
2 Daring the Dawn
6 Deflection
3 Freak Drive
5 Govern the Unaligned
7 Kine Resources Contested
7 Majesty
2 Parity Shift
1 Rolling with the Punches
2 Second Tradition: Domain
4 Seduction
2 Skin of Steel
2 The Kiss of Ra
5 Voter Captivation
