GenCon UK 1998
James Coupe
out.
Tournament started at twelve midnight Saturday night in the DCI tent.
Except that they decided to move out of the DCI tent into a building
that you actually had to walk too. *sigh* How inconsiderate of
them..... But still, the tournament started at midnight which wasn't the
best of times for anyone really..... Bloody well clashed with the Rocky
Horror Picture Show too, damnit.... If this happens next year, heads
will roll.
The tournament started with 17 people. After the first round, two
people dropped out (so I don't have their names since I was working with
the third round score sheets) and Chris Llewellyn (whose name I have
probably completely mis-spelled and for which I apologise) was roped in
to play, or was it Andy Thorn? It may well have been, thinking about
it. This gives us more than the number of people for the Battletech
Nationals which is a moral victory, even if they get bloody loads better
prizes. *sigh*
Okay, so three rounds of play followed by the final. The unlucky
players who didn't qualify for the final were:
Paul Louch, 0VP, 0VP, 0VP (1st round, second round third round)
Playing a deck which mixed the Malkavians and Tremere to dubious effect
(note the victory points total) but which looked like it could have done
well if it had got a better table position. Muddles was often brought
out to pling at other vampires and torporise them. Heh.
Barny Baker, 0VP, 2VP, 1VP
A weird little deck. Seemed to love Vanessa with Obfuscate, Didi Meyers
and people like that. Played about with Sneak and Bleed but included
Fortitude for damage prevention and a little Auspex too. Very unlucky
table position in the first round (prey of Peter Raphial) meant that he
got bled a lot, and I still had to attack his vampires to stop them
coming through onto me. A nice deck, and a good evolution of the S&B
style to allow for combat defence though.
Matt Siejka, 1VP, 0VP, 0VP
Suicide Day-Op deck. Lots of big bleeds with Conditioning etc. using
Day Ops to force them through, but it suffered because it hadn't planned
for blood gain to get the vampires back out of torpor, leaving it
vulnerable to, well, anything.
Niki Sehmi, 0VP, 3VP, 0VP
Potence Fortitude type vampires. Played about with Big Nosferatu and
Suhailah. Suffered in the first round due to a mis-application of the
No Repeat Actions rule by the two players involved, which could have
netted it the last two victory points. Unfortunately, the game was
packed up by the time either of them realised and Matt was forced to
rule that the game had to stand since they couldn't set it back up.
Chris Llewellyn, 0VP, 0VP, 0.5VP
Matt Green's Temptation deck. Steal your vampires and RAH! A very nice
deck which has cropped up at tourneys invigilated by Matt Green before
in the side games, and which goes through constant evolution I believe
but a lot of fun to watch. Classic play of the game had to be when
Chris stole a copy of Emerson Bridges with Temptation and then called a
Disputed Territory to steal Emerson's real owner's Elder Library. Super
humour. Chris also has credit for most amusing quote of the tourney
"Can I have a rules book?"
"Why do you need one?"
"Well, I've got to learn to play some time."
Baz, 3VP, 0VP, 0.5VP
A deck which I didn't see but which I am assured was a fairly standard
Malkavian Madness Network bleed type deck. It obviously did well in the
first game, but the last game (as with all the other players with 0.5 VP
in that game) was very nip and tuck and a little drawn out, time wise.
Alan Gates, 0VP, 1VP, 0.5VP
A fairly standard Ventrue vote deck. In at least two of his games,
though, he completely failed to establish any real voting presence and
seemed to not call votes because of that when a more sensible option may
have been to call the votes to cycle them. He was also singularly
unable to secure the help of other people on the table which screwed him
over.
Stephen Wright - 1VP, 1VP, 0VP
A standard big Ventrue deck. Large voting vampires (which gave Alan
hassle) and big bleeds, Fifth Tradition, Day Ops and things like that.
Andy Thorn, 0VP, 0VP, 0VP
Assamite "Annoy thy neighbour" Contracts and the like which allow the
killing of vampires etc. Screwed in one game, though, when he
tenderised his predator who then didn't have opportunity to rescue it
before *his* predator wiped the floor with him. Oops.
James Coupe, 0VP, 1VP, 0VP
A Brujah, Brujah Antitribu combat deck. Badly constructed (I don't have
the Torn Signposts etc. I need for it) and badly played, because I'm
crap at combat. It was just what I felt like playing though. I only
got a victory point by Life Booning my predator. *sigh* I really must
try and be good at Jyhad one day. As Matt Green said, "James could be
good if he spent more time building decks instead of memorising the
errata." *sigh*
Andy Schipelbaum, 1VP, 0VP, 0VP
A big Assamite backed up by weenies. The Assamite helps to get through
any real opposition you have, and then the weenies just bleed you out.
It never really got off the ground, though.
And the finalists were (in this seating order):
Peter Raphiel, 4VP, 1VP, 4VP
A bloody bastardisation of a deck I had on me and everything. Kept the
bleed from the Ventrue I had and made it more weenie. Weenie Presence
and Dominate really, mainly based around bleed. Vampires like Gloria,
Igo and Gideon were essential to the deck.
Jon Cooper, 3VP, 0VP, 1VP
Make no mistakes. This *wasn't* a Malkavian Antitribu stealth and bleed
deck. It was a Malkavian Antitribu deck with some stealth in it. And
it also had some bleed in it. And Enchanted Marionette. And a couple
of comas as well. Hannibal, Virgil (we couldn't decide if was John
Wayne, from Thunderbirds or wrote poetry but still) and Korah, I think -
the 7 capacity Priscus with inferior Animalism. All three tended to
turn up, with little-uns like Boy Toy and Yorik who were put up to be
cannon fodder for Paul Louch's Muddles and so forth. Okay, so it was a
dirty stealth and bleed deck.
Will "Kung Fu" Lee, 0VP, 3VP, 3VP
A *really* weird deck. Madness Networked actions with Malks for stealth
and bleed, backed up by equipment such as a .44 Magnum and Leather
Jacket. At least it meant that he got to upgrade the green water pistol
to a *proper* gun. And then it brought out a little Tremere Antitribu
and a Succubus. Weird. Obviously a very effective deck, though, just
not one which seemed like it *should* have worked, just from describing
it. Again, this was S&B going for the combat defence angle. Obedience
was around as well as the Succubus having fun with you and the equipment
too.
Rob Treasure, 2VP, 2VP, 3VP
The Lazverinus "All Skills, All Stars" Deck. A hell of a lot of
different things going on in the deck. Perhaps a little luck from time
to time with the draws but played astoundingly well so that he always
had what he needed against you at the right time. I have to say that it
confused me when I first saw it. Bloody weird deck, it looked. I
thought it was weenie Gangrel but still. But it has bruise and bleed,
and intercept and bounce and everything.
Chris Booth, 2VP, 3VP, 0.5VP
A Brujah deck which screwed me up in one of the earlier rounds. Brujah
so it had enough combat to hit out when it needed to, using the little
princes especially to create Third Traditions as more cannon fodder. A
few of the fun bleed actions too - Legal Manipulations etc. I know a
few people *did* comment that the deck and the player may have been more
than a little responsible for the 0.5VP third round. A little too much
pedantry, even in the face of the Judge, Matt Green, backed up by the
7/7 rulings about cards (a copy of which I'd made sure to bring along
with me), and it wasn't like we'd just thrown them on him - he was aware
that they existed when he arrived at GenCon. Nothing that could really
qualify as deliberate time wasting, but that's how it felt in some
people's point of view.
First ousting was Chris Booth by Rob Treasure. His vampires were
destroyed and then he was bled out quite quickly. Second ousting
occurred around the table with Peter Raphial ousting Jon Cooper with his
weenie presence-dominate deck. There, it was very much of a race to see
who could oust their prey first simply because Jon's deck couldn't
easily deal with being bled itself. Peter Raphial then fell to Rob
Treasure, having his vampires lightly tenderised followed up by a pretty
good bleed to oust him. Rob was himself ousted by Will using a NEW
Return to Innocence. All of 7/7 and new 23/6 was in force. With Rob
and Will tied for 1st place on two victory points each, the final
tiebreaker is the number of victory points they had already accumulated.
Rob had seven, compared to Will's six, earning him a couple of Sabbat
boosters more than the rest and an, apparently, very nice Clint Langley
piece of artwork from Vampire: The Masquerade (I don't know - as I write
this, it shouldn't have been presented to him yet).
Highlight of the tournament for me was getting to explode at an American
who dropped out after the first round. I just got very exasperated with
him telling me (not even in a game) that he could steal the blood of his
Powerbase: Mexico City and that the new ruling had screwed it up (which,
of course, it hasn't, it's just been made to preserve the intent of the
card). "No, you can't, it would have been a directed action at yourself
which would have been prohibited." "No, it was at the card, not me."
"Yes, a card you control therefore an action at you <starting to rant at
this point>." I believe Andy Schipelbaum noted that I was one of the
only Jyhad players in England who understood this. What was quite good
was then hearing this American in his first round asking very basic
rules questions and then coming out with something like "So who's making
up these rulings then?"
But Rob's winning deck. He wants a cool name for it, but at 7 o' clock
in the morning, the best we could come up with was the Lazverinus All
Skills All Stars deck. Better name suggestions on a postcard please.
The deck doesn't look much but what has to be taken into account is the
calibre of the player, who knows exactly when to play and when not to,
and ensures a good cycle of his cards to get exactly what he needs, when
he needs it. Apologies if any cards are mentioned more than once, total
the number of them if it happens. There are 86 cards in the deck, and
12 vampires.
1 Foreshadowing Destruction
2 Resilience
2 Spirit's Touch
1 Homunculus
3 Disarm
2 Minion Tap
2 Undead Strength
2 Immortal Grapple
2 Taste of Vitae
1 Dominate
3 Restoration
3 Forced Awakening
2 My Enemy's Enemy
2 Rapid Change
2 Freak Drive
3 Rolling with the Punches
1 Demonstration
1 KRCG News Radio
2 Bum's Rush
3 Bone Spur
1 Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
1 Barrens
1 Masochism
1 Thrown Sewer Lid
3 Wake With Evening's Freshness
1 Mr. Winthrop
2 Flesh of Marble
1 Rack
1 Signet of King Saul
3 Skin of Steel
4 Govern the Unaligned
1 Golconda: Inner Peace
4 Deflection
1 Fists of Death
1 Giant's Blood
1 Direct Intervention
2 Conditioning
2 Earth Control
1 Information Highway
2 Indomitability
1 Enhanced Senses
1 Kindred Co-ercion
1 Dreams of the Sphinx
1 Major Boon
1 Blood Doll
1 Sudden Reversal
2 Skin of Rock
1 Threats
1 Ivory Bow
1 Hand of Conrad
1 Fortitude
Vampires:
2 Badger
1 Jimmy Dunn
1 Dylan
2 Lazverinus, Thrall of Lambach
1 Iliana
1 Juan Cali
1 Cameron
1 Lisette Vizquel
1 Ricki van Demsi
1 Ian Forestal
A beautiful deck to watch in operation.
What was surprising was the willingness to accept the 7/7 Rulings. The
Southampton crowd (with no net access) had had copies from Matt Green, I
brought copies along, and other people seemed to be aware that they
existed, even if they didn't know the specifics.
Most people understood that the cards that were being fixed were being
fixed for a very good reason - that they were overpowered. The previous
year's GenCon UK (or EuroGenCon as it was then) had seen Tomb of Rameses
III flying around with Return to Innocence's being used like they were
going out of fashion. The new No Vote Pushing rules were embraced by
most, though it was unfortunate that it rendered Rob Treasure's variant
of a Legacy of Pander deck all but useless (it needed to guarantee that
first vote with a push, and then never again). It would be doable
differently, but it's always awkward. Again, I think people saw that
even if it did slim down a few other deck strategies, it was necessary
to balance out the Weenie Vote Push which was so prevalent. Other vote
decks may be less powerful now, but they never stood a chance against
Weenie Vote Push anyway.
A few alternatives to the fixes were mentioned. WWEF could have been
altered to requiring you to attempt a block (you could still ditch them
if the action was naturally at stealth though) or force you to play
another reaction card or something like that. Also, a possible fix for
Tomb of Rameses III was to make it clan specific. It only works on,
principally because of their Middle Eastern and North African links,
Assamites and Setites. Would have to be altered slightly to allow for
that (well, restrict for that) but the arguments are there. 1) You keep
the original card text to a great degree. 2) You make Setites and
Assamites more attractive as a playing style, since you can get them
cheaper and faster than other clans. 3) The card would still be
powerful so many players who didn't want it weakened to wallpaper might
be more happy. This is a view which I can see the good points of, and
one which is supported by, two years running, UK V:TES champion Rob
Treasure and the Southampton possy, and Matt Green has been known to
advocate it also.
Well, that's all I can think of to babble about now. Can I go to sleep
now?
--
James Coupe (Prince of Mercia) Change nospam to obeah to reply
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