Munich's First Blood preliminary report
skaffen_amtiskaw
Still an official tournament report has to wait as I don't have all
the names and results available and our princely couple Monica and Rui
are away to Sicily to absorb some serious aggravated damage. These are
just my subjective impressions, sadly I didn't play against some of
the players as the tourney was just 2 rounds and I didn't make it to
the finals. I did what you shouldn't do: Being a bit nervous about
judging for the first time (we had playing judges) and all that in the
last minute I choose to bring an Obfuscate weenie deck which is easy
to play and pretty effective, but only fun if you win - which I
didn't. But more on that later.
We had 15 players for Munich's first tournament, a great success. Many
players from outside showed up, among them the V:EKN "boss" Carl
Pilhatsch and two players (Alex and Martin) from Vienna. My friend
Hardy Range made the trip down from Essen, then we had Pedro, a
Portuguese living in Brussels, coming all the way, bringing with him
Steven, a native Belgian. Another portuguese guy arrived from Zurich,
the rest of the players were local.
The decks, or what I saw of them, and the VP totals of the preliminary
rounds, as I remember them:
Rui Videira - Tzimisce intercept: 1 VP
Monica Martins - !Nos Courier fleet: 8 VP
Falco Hampel - Mal S&B (if I remember correctly...) 0 VP
Hardy Range - Weenie Presence politics 2VP
Florian Wegler - Mal/Tre something 3 VP
Pedro from Brussels - Nos/!Nos politics and more 1 VP
Steven - Nos combat (at least it looked like that) 0 VP
Alex - Bru/!Bru toolbox 2,5 VP
Martin - Muaziz equipment with Gangrel assisting 3,5 VP
Carl Pilhatsch- Ven politics 4 VP
Markus (I think...) - Toreador toolbox 0 VP
Portuguese guy from Zurich (name escapes me, sorry!) - Weenie Dominate
bleed 4 VP
Peter - Lasombra 0 VP
Yours Truly Skaffen - Weenie Obfuscate bleed 1 VP
Another guy from Munich, I forgot his name (sorry!) and I never saw
his deck (sorry!!!!) 0 VP
(This is from memory and after visiting the Graspop festival in
Belgium this weekend, the local brew being extraordinary both in taste
and oomph - 8 percent alcohol someone? -, so it might be, err, flawed)
My first table had Hardy as my predator and Markus' Toreador as my
prey. His prey was Florian, who tried to do his worst on Martin. I
simply went forward and ignored everything Hardy did, as he took some
time to set up his vote lock. Unfortunately Florian, who had Gilbert
Duane and later on Etrius out supported his Praxis Seizures, so
eventually Hardy's KRCs started to hit where it hurt most. By that
time I had Markus and Florian on the edge of destruction and still not
drawn a single Delaying Tactics. Martin meanwhile just built up,
getting out Muaziz and a hell lot of equipment via Magic Of The Smith.
Palatial Estate, Ankara Citadel, Sport Bikes, Ivory Bow, added with
some Blood Dolls guaranteed his survival, later on Inverary on Muaziz
and a Garou formed an offensive angle. I was ready to grab 2 VPs in my
next turn when Hardy Dramatic Upheaveled me away and took both Martin
and Florian out. My revenge came some 4 or 5 rounds later after I ate
through Hardy's 30-something pool, while Martin's Renegade Garou had
started killing his weenie princes. With 1 VP, no cards left in my
Library and the Garou ready to eat each and every one of my minions I
conceded to Martin. So it was Hardy 2, Skaffen 1, Martin 2.
In the second round it took me about 30 seconds to know that I would
die. Martin and Markus from round 1 were my prey and grandprey, my
predator was Alex, who was preyed on by Pedro. When Alex brought out
Jacob Bragg things started to look really grim. I went into Martin
like crazy, who just brought out two smallish minions, put Blood Dolls
on them and weathered the storm. My vampires bit the dust quickly, and
the fact that Yuri, The Tallon came over with the occasional Legal
Manipulation didn't help much either. In a desperate attempt to save
my arse I tried to go backward with Night Moves, just to be ousted
shortly afterwards. Martin ousted Markus by sheer numbers (he had
something like 6 Minions out after my pressure on his back eased off)
a few rounds later, but the whole game went very slowly until the last
minutes came. Knowing that he couldn't oust Alex (who had a good
amount of untap, some intercept and a HG/Blood Doll combo going) Pedro
decided to risk everything. He called and passed Ancilla Empowerment,
which brought him down to 1 pool. Alex had, well, enough, Martin 2.
Next Sheldon called Kindred Restructure, but with one minion left
untapped and no suitable action in hand Pedro didn't manage to oust
Martin. Alex bled him out the next turn, then time was called. This
round was Alex 2,5 and Martin 1,5 VPs.
Martin and surprisingly after a 3 VP semi-sweep on his second round
Florian (congratulations, as he just rediscovered V:tES) were those of
my opponents that made it to the finals. The table was rounded up by
Carl, Monica and the portuguese guy with the Dominate weenies. I
didn't follow the match too closely as I was playing a pick-up with
some other players, but from what I gathered it was a very drawn-out
affair. Table order was Carl (Ventrue pol.) preying on the Dominate
weenies preying on Martin's Muaziz deck preying on Florian's
don't-ask-me-Malk/Tre deck preying on Monica's !Nos. Apparently the
Dominate weenies suffered the same fate as my deck by running out of
steam under pressure as Martin got his pool-gain going quick enough.
Later Carl had him down to very low pool levels but refused to oust (I
guess out of fear because Martin had +1 intercept available and the
means to kill, his Renegade Garou again was spreading mayhem). The
decisive move was a Hostile Takeover by Carl against Monica's Ox,
followed (after she payed to keep him) by a Dramatic Upheaval to
switch places with her and a Conservative Agitation for the oust. The
portuguese player fell shortly afterwards, giving Carl 2 VPs. He then
ousted himself and Florian with a KRC, thus winning the tourney as he
was seated higher than Martin, who took second place. Florian came in
third with 1 VP. Congratulations, Carl!
All in all a splendid day of V:TES, all games were unaffected by the
evil virus called collusion and unsportsmanlike conduct that, judging
by many recent posts on this newsgroup, is spreading elsewhere. The
Card of the Day was Dramatic Upheaval and it's cousin Kindred
Restructure, and the weenie hordes took a serious beating.
Regards
Skaffen
Chantry Elder Of Munich
"Death followed my way
Whereever I lay my weary feet.
Like a wolf, too weak to win a hunt
am I, alone, with one thought in my head..."
Halcyan 2
>portuguese player fell shortly afterwards, giving Carl 2 VPs. He then
>ousted himself and Florian with a KRC, thus winning the tourney as he
>was seated higher than Martin, who took second place. Florian came in
>third with 1 VP. Congratulations, Carl!
Sorry to bring up this topic since it has been discussed so thoroughly but:
When Carl played the KRC that ousted himself and Florian (I assume Florian was
his predator from the information), was his situation hopeless? I mean, did he
have a 0 chance of surviving? Because the KRC did not help him get any VP and
the whole part of him "winning the tourney as he was seated higher than Martin"
would be an out-of-game consideration, right?
Thanks!
Halcyan 2
Carl Pilhatsch
I would like to clear things up on this one. :)
Martin had about 7 or 8 minions out, I had 4, and Martin had
successfully intercepted almost all my actions, putting Sir Walter
Nash in Torpor, who stayed there until the end. Martin had a lot of
pool left, and massive Blood-support (I believe 3-4 pool each turn).
My deck had (almost) no stealth, relying on Majesties, Deflections,
and the inherent vote-stealth. I was desperately trying to get a +3
stealth combo off, but didn't get any cards, which wouldn't have
helped me anyway, I could have taken 3 pool. Any damaging vote
wouldn't have made a difference either.
So I called a KRC. I was lucky, Martin didn't intercept with his Sport
Bike and Ivory-bow minion, he thought it wasn't a threat to him. After
*a lot* of thinking, and suddenly remembering that in case of a VP tie
in the final the preliminary rounds would count, I made sure that
Martin couldn't get more VPs than I by ousting myself, giving my
Predetor 1 VP, so Martin could only gain 2 VP max, making me winner of
the tournament.
Honestly, I knew Martins style of play, and I knew that he would have
made the table... After all, Martin was 1999 EC Champion, with a
similar deck.
If I hadn't remembered the VP-tie rule for the final, I would have
been second. So I was first. :)
And it was a *tense* game, totally thrilling.
Carl
PS: btw Skaffen, I'm not the VEKN "boss", I'm just the humble VEKN
membership director; "Boss" is Robert Goudie, so to speak. ;)
skaffen_amtiskaw
Just to plug in here from a judge's point of view: I would have
considered his play "chosing how to leave the game as it pleases him",
he honestly had no chance to oust Martin and was very low on pool (as
was his Predator). Of course it was a nice "side effect" that he won
the tournament by calling this KRC, but to come back to the "only
in-game considerations": There were none left for him, he couldn't get
any more VPs - barring another Dramatic Upheaval, which he didn't have
IIRC.
>PS: btw Skaffen, I'm not the VEKN "boss", I'm just the humble VEKN
>membership director; "Boss" is Robert Goudie, so to speak. ;)
Ah, well, then my apologies to the real boss. Still, you did the V:EKN
Directorate Assembly honour with your deck and playing, which was all
I wanted to get at when calling you "boss".
Frederick Scott
> I would like to clear things up on this one. :)
> Martin had about 7 or 8 minions out, I had 4, and Martin had
> successfully intercepted almost all my actions, putting Sir Walter
> Nash in Torpor, who stayed there until the end. Martin had a lot of
> pool left, and massive Blood-support (I believe 3-4 pool each turn).
> My deck had (almost) no stealth, relying on Majesties, Deflections,
> and the inherent vote-stealth. I was desperately trying to get a +3
> stealth combo off, but didn't get any cards, which wouldn't have
> helped me anyway, I could have taken 3 pool. Any damaging vote
> wouldn't have made a difference either.
> So I called a KRC. I was lucky, Martin didn't intercept with his Sport
> Bike and Ivory-bow minion, he thought it wasn't a threat to him. After
> *a lot* of thinking, and suddenly remembering that in case of a VP tie
> in the final the preliminary rounds would count, I made sure that
> Martin couldn't get more VPs than I by ousting myself, giving my
> Predetor 1 VP, so Martin could only gain 2 VP max, making me winner of
> the tournament.
This makes for a very interesting philosophical question. If I understand the
situation correctly, you wound up in a *better* position to win the whole
tournament because you had - for purposes of persuading the judge - *zero*
chance of gaining another victory point. By the "out-of-game" consideration
rule, this put you in a better position since if you could conceive of gaining
a VP at this point, you are not allowed to make such a metagame-oriented move
as self-ousting to prevent Martin from gaining your victory point.
Does this strike anyone as ironic? A player being in a great position to win
a tournament because he's in such a dismal position to gain another VP.
Not that Carl doesn't deserve the win. He did have 2 VPs at this point with
the tie-breaker in hand. I'm just contrasting how much better off he was than
if someone could have made a compelling argument that he had a small but distinct
chance to gain his 3rd VP, in which case he must try - by rules - and risk (possibly
conceding a very great risk) that he might both fail to gain the VP and allow
Martin to oust both his predator and himself and win the tournament instead.
Ah, metagame questions. Never boring.
Fred