Finally, after much indulgence into the Race for the Galaxy game, our conclave are able to meet again in good numbers to play Vtes. Yesternight we see a very good turnup in PI, numbering up to 11 players (though not all brought their decks, and not all got to play in the end). We managed to get in quite a few games (I got 3!), mostly in tables of 4 players. I'm detailing 2 of those games here.
This is the second game that I got to play yesternight, on a table of 4. The previous game my Akunanse got owned pretty much by YY's Akunanse and Damien's Kiasyds (this deck is consistently doing rather badly, which is quite annoying, the reason it is still in existence is because it is generally the last deck to die, it secures non to very little VPs but is rather resilience due to people taking pity on it...), so I brought out my Army of Shadows Lasombra deck, seeing that the table is low on vote decks, and that no Lasombras have hit the table for quite a while.
After randomly determining the positions (the Voice behind the Counter is no longer working here, but now joined our games as Dhzaki proper!), I am player 4, bleeding Damien's True Brujah and being bled by YY's formidable Kiasyd bleeder; my ally across the table is Bann's many enhancement Gangrel/!Gangrel deck.
The game started off with me influencing Gratiano, followed by Ignatio and Aaron Dungan, giving me a reasonably good body count against my prey, the True Brujah, whom is headed by Al-Muntaquim, leading some small Caitiffs. My predator, however, is putting a lot of bleed pressure on me with Omme Enberbenight and Pherydima. I planted a KRC's 3 points to YY to discourage his aggressive stance but that didn't do a lot to help me. A Consanguinous Boon did helped a little in recovering my early losses, and I managed a Deflection or 2 which slowed down YY's bleed enhancement, probably in fear of me bouncing the bleeds to Damien. Meanwhile, Damien has difficulties doing much to Bann's many intercept/untap Gangrels and Bann managed to (as usual), stack many cards on his Vampires - stuff like Homonculus, Carrion Coffin, Raven Spies, Sheepdogs bla bla bla, but he did not put a lot of pressure on YY, giving him quite a bit of time in harassing my pool.
I was lucky to be able to continously stealth through to bleed Damien, and due to Gratiano's good bleeds, a timely Govern plus Conditioning ousted Damien, and I proceed to reduce Bann's pool to only 2 before I faced imminent destruction from YY. A bleed for 2 at +1 Stealth was redirected to Bann, and he chose not to block (he has an untapped Vampire with Bowl of Convergence and an untapped Anarch Free Press, he could have blocked it) and wanted to help me sweep instead, so that only I will have VPs. However, the 6 pool that I got from ousting him didn't help me in surviving YY's relentless stealth bleed, and I wasn't able to draw the necessary bleed or vote cards to press forward.
The game ended with YY being the last player standing.
Final VP-
YY - 2 VP
Me - 2 VP
*******
The night was still reasonably young and so we decided to try another game. Bann retired to go play his Race for the Galaxy but we were joined by Dhzaki with his !Ventrue investment deck.
This time I am to be player 2, bleeding Dhzaki, being bled by YY's Assamite deck, and my ally is Damien. The game started off fine. I influenced Antonio Delgado. However, misfortune fell on Antonio as he was slapped by Nizzam al-Latiff's Hand Contract, and then immediately become Famous, undoubtedly staged by the Assamites. Antonio's Blood Doll was then burnt by my prey's Vessel, leaving him with a fat blood of about 7 (he managed to Govern the Unaligned at superior once, which helped me to quickly secure the service of Gratiano). Antonio survived the first assault from Nizzam with an Oubliette, and successfully called a Creation Rites to bolster the manpower I have, transferring some blood to the Created Vampires since I'm not confident of surviving Nizzam's repeated assaults. Indeed, he went torpor the round after I ran out of combat defense.
I was lucky then as Damien started to bleed and deflect Dhzaki's attack into YY, there was even an occasion where my bleed towards Dhazki was deflected to YY, making his pool dangerously low, and therefore unable to influence a second Vampire to his defense. He did managed to rescue Antonio once and then immediately sent him into torpor again, costing me a total of 6 Fame damage. 2 timely Consanguinous Boons, plus the service of Guido Lucciano was able to keep my pool reasonably healthy, despite the continuous Fame damage that is going around. In fact, it was this Fame damage that eventually killed YY, making him the first casualty of the game.
Dhzaki's Investment deck is well known for bloating, and he has a very good pool and faced very little pressure from me in the early game. He did, however, also faced formidable defense as Damien's True Brujah is completely set up, with Al-Muntaquim holding an Assault Rifle and untap left right center every round. The power of Dhazki's FORTITUDE eventually tells as he continuously damage Damien's smaller Vampires while bleeding for 1 or 2 per Vampire per round, and he's had 4 Vampires on the table by the time YY is gone. The good thing is that he didn't manage to draw many investment cards, and so his pool is manageable.
By then I've got another Creation Rites out, and had been slow but surely bleeding Dhzaki, forcing him to use up his Telepathic Counters and Deflections to Damien, which was reducing my predator's ability to pester me. Most of Damien's bleeds was redirected to Dhzaki anyway, so most of the time the bleed will end up with either Damien, or Dhzaki, as I seem to be the one making more bleeds, and packed more Deflection cards. My sole Entombment attack against Dhzaki was twarted by his Majesty, darn, this Entombment card had never managed to torpor anyone in its entire existence in my deck!
At one point, Antonio and Gratiano were both sent to torpor when they blocked Al-Muntaquim's bleed and was hit by Kiss of Ra. My intention was to use Obedience to skip combat, or Oubliette to end, but alas, it was not meant to be. I was lucky to have a Creepshow Casino, and Guido there to rescue his elders. The blood level of my Vampires become dangerously low due to the Deflections and Governs, and my Hunting Ground and Giant Blood was either Reversed or Rewinded. An opening was finally given to me when Dhzaki ran out of Intercepts and I finally drew one KRC. That ended Dhzaki's stay in the game, and I proceeded to oust Damien quickly with stealth and bleed enhancement.
Final VP
Me - 3 VP
Damien - 1 VP
(o.o)y
No comments:
Post a Comment