A Lesson for My Newly Embraced Son
Robert Goudie
Game Arena on Friday, we did squeeze in a single 2-player game at
home. We each took a random starter deck in an attempt to expose him
to a wider variety of game concepts. I yanked the plastic wrapper off
of an Anathema starter deck and Cameron used a Cam edition Brujah
deck.
My first two vamps influenced were Mata Hari and some 8 cap Brujah
that had superiors of all of the skills I needed. Cameron had Donal
O'Conner and Theo Bell going for him. We both influenced a third
small vamp. I got off to a great start with Blood Dolls for my big
vamps and spent time hunting and restoring and using Fortitude and
Potence and using Forced March for some stealth and untaps. Cameron's
Brujah were somehow almost completely devoid of combat cards and
unable to capitalize on Theo's special or Mata Hari's Red List
drawback. With no fear of getting beaten up when I was blocked, I
very quickly had Cameron down to 1 pool, had the Edge myself, and a
great blood machine going. And so we moved onto our lesson.
Young Cameron started to moan and groan and then he transfered out—a
disgusting act of surrender that made me question whether or not we
were really related. I lectured, "What are you doing? Never
surrender! You're still alive!"
Cameron outlined his predicament to me, "But I can't tap any of my
vampires. I can only block and you have the Edge and you have
stealth. I can't win."
I couldn't disagree. He was, afterall, at one pool and his hand
contained only master cards and a single Stunt Cycle with no Wakes.
So my telling him that yes, he was probably dead but that he still has
a chance, fell upon deaf ears. Still, I was bothered by the attitude.
So I offered to switch sides with him. If he was convinced that his
Brujah couldn't win, I was convinced that I could at least show him
how to squeeze blood out of a turnip and make the most of his
situation. (I've been doing that with my same ol' crappy decks for 15
years so I'm sure I've learned something about it by now) He accepted
the challenge and we changed seats.
Picking up his new hand of cards, Cameron was even more thrilled when
he saw that he had a handful of combat. Theoretically, if he played
it right he could have take out my lowly Raziya or any other vamp (he
had a hidden lurker in hand) and then, with a one-vamp advantage, bled
me for 1 and ousted me. He might also cycle for a Forced March which
would immediately do me in. I, on the other hand, desperately needed
to cycle cards into a Wake and some significant combat so that I could
put Cameron one-minion down and allow myself to start taking actions
again on my turn.
So Cameron bled and I blocked his bleeds. I cycled my one combat card
which flowed into another and another and I survived his turn. I also
acquired a Life In The City along the way. On my turn I played my
trife and a Haven Uncovered on his Mata Hari. I played a Bum's Rush
to cycle more and combat started flowing. I used the Mob Connections
to go to another round and I sent Mata Hari to torpor. It was all
down hill from there for him. With a minion advantage I was able to
start using Theo's special and even marked Mata Hari the following
turn. My hand was now full of good stuff. So, as I was about to
take my last action to oust him, I pointed out that he wasn't taking
full advantage of the Edge and therefore was robbed of bringing up
another minion. He didn't use his Threestar Cab Company, and so on and
so on. I showed him how he could have played better from that side
too.
Cameron was properly embarrassed and said, "Okay, I get it. You're
playing against the person and not the deck!"
Doing my best LSJ impression I gave him a, "Correct!" and we started
picking up cards.
Robyn Tatu
Robyn Tatu
Dental Conversion Specialist
PracticeWorks Systems, LLC
Exclusive Maker of Kodak Dental Systems
Office: 770-226-3534
Fax: 678-742-9481
Email: Robyn...@PracticeWorks.com
http://www.kodak.com/go/dental
-----Original Message-----
From: vtes...@googlegroups.com [mailto:vtes...@googlegroups.com] On
Behalf Of Robert Goudie
Sent: Saturday, June 27, 2009 3:38 PM
To: V:TES in Los Angeles
Subject: [vtesinla] A Lesson for My Newly Embraced Son
While Cameron and I didn't have enough time available to get out to
Game Arena on Friday, we did squeeze in a single 2-player game at
home. We each took a random starter deck in an attempt to expose him
to a wider variety of game concepts. I yanked the plastic wrapper off
of an Anathema starter deck and Cameron used a Cam edition Brujah
deck.
My first two vamps influenced were Mata Hari and some 8 cap Brujah
that had superiors of all of the skills I needed. Cameron had Donal
O'Conner and Theo Bell going for him. We both influenced a third
small vamp. I got off to a great start with Blood Dolls for my big
vamps and spent time hunting and restoring and using Fortitude and
Potence and using Forced March for some stealth and untaps. Cameron's
Brujah were somehow almost completely devoid of combat cards and
unable to capitalize on Theo's special or Mata Hari's Red List
drawback. With no fear of getting beaten up when I was blocked, I
very quickly had Cameron down to 1 pool, had the Edge myself, and a
great blood machine going. And so we moved onto our lesson.
Young Cameron started to moan and groan and then he transfered out-a