Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Skirmishes in the Dark : 20-01-2009

The Night of 20th January 2009, Paradigm Infinitum.
I arrived late at PI yesternight, and the community is again playing Race for the Galaxy, so I have to wait till they're done before getting any Vtes games. Since I had not yet got my dinner I went down to Burger King with Damien for a quick bite before coming back. By then the fellas have started a new Vtes game after completing their previous Race. The game has 5 players with 3 vote decks bloating each other with stuff like Ancient Influence and Political Stranglehold, and even after 2 of the 5 players were ousted, the game continued for a very long time. It finally ended with Ben being the winner with his tuned starter deck!
We wandered off to the other side of the table and started another game. It was a 4-player game. I was player 1, bleeding GeeHuan's new little Anarch deck, and being bled by Bann's Gangrel never tap deck. My cross table ally was Damien's True Brujah. I was playing my new Art of Pain deck. (I seldom play any deck more than 2 weeks unless it was not working at all (like my Akunanse deck) and is undergoing massive re-tuning, making it somewhat a new deck every week)
Know Bann's deck is seldom bleed heavy, but having no idea what GeeHuan's deck is capable of, I took the catious way and influenced Cristos Mantigo as my first Vampire at turn 2. By then Bann had Danielle Diron and across the table I see that GeeHuan had his first Anarch Converted Vampire of about 5 cap too (I didn't really catch that Vampire's name, but he's had FORTITUDE, which is a problem). I slap a Depravity on Cristos and got him to start bleeding for 1, gaining me the Edge, and surprisingly, 1 pool after a whole round. Cristos was to bleed successfully twice before being blocked, and the resulting battle reduced him to 3 blood.
At turn 5 I have Miller Delmardigan, one of my more effective Vampire in play. After playing a Guardian Angel on him, he focused on Enchant Kindred and eventually brought out Greta Kircher who joined in the Enchant Kindred excercise and influenced my last Vampire for the night - Sabrina. Due to the 3 Enchant Kindreds, I was to have the most minions on table for a while, and consistently bled GeeHuan, though usually no more than a total of 2-3 a turn, due to me not drawing any bleed cards.
Meanwhile, I could see that GeeHuan's bleed was eroding my ally's ability quite quickly, with 3 minions, Anarch Manifestos and Undue Influence, plus a myriad of Anarch techs, he was wearing down Damien's defenses. As usual, Damien's Al-Muntaquim had a ridiculous number of attachment - Assault Rifle, Clotho's Kiss, Aaron's Feeding Razors, several bleed enhancing retainers... and he was doing a good job reducing my predator's effectiveness. But Bann eventually recovered from the attacks and pressed down on me once his deck was set up. I made a mistake of not using Acrobatics when Greta was in combat with Danielle and lose her to a aggravated attack and then she was diablerized. With her I lost the Bowl of Convergence as well as her incredible ability to reduce bleeds. I was left with 4 pool and struggled greatly just to keep myself in the game.
A timely Vessel on Cristos, and a Quicken Sight plus a Telepathic Misdirection used at inferior allowed Miller to send one of my predator's Vampires into torpor, giving me some breathing space. But GeeHuan's Smear Campaign destroyed my Guardian Angel, and Bann's double Tier of Souls forced Cristos to go hunting.
Again luck was on my side. 2 Fleetness came into my hand and I attacked my predator's Vampires aggressively, torpored Beckett, and reduced the other 2 Vampires' blood to zero. Coupled with the fact that the same turn saw GeeHuan ousting Damien and breathing down Bann's neck, given me another round to take a break. My Palla Grande came into play, and I was full of wake cards, so I bled GeeHuan for 6 every round which he didn't block.
Bann was ousted quickly by GeeHuan's bleeds, but that cost GeeHuan most of his stealth cards in hand, and I was able to wake and blocked all of his subsequent attacks, sending his Vampires into torpor with Miller or Cristos' +1 Strength and CELERITY attacks. Miller was almost sent into torpored by a Claws of the Dead but was saved by his Leather Jacket.
Before my Palla Grande disappeared I bled GeeHuan to death. The game ended in a draw. Final VPs GeeHuan - 2 VPs Me - 2 VPs (o.o)y

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