Skirmishes in the Dark : 22-12-2009

22nd December, of the year 2009, Paradigm Infinitum.

I got into the store late today as I was having a meeting at Orchard Central. By the time I reached I saw 10 players already engaged in the weekly Jyhad. Prior to that I received a message from Danz telling me that he would be coming for a game, and indeed he was there! Yay, long time no see, Danz.

Anyway, most of the old players were back now, G1, Bann, Ben Chia etc. but the new players were there too - making a good mix of old and new players.

I was grateful that they entertained me by starting another new game once the old one was gone. It was already pretty late in the night (about 10-ish) afterall. In the end, I actually managed to participate in 2 games before going home.

Game 1 was with most of the older players. It was a 4-player table I think. Somehow I can't recall the order of game, but here's the predator-prey relationship -

My Misery Tour deck bleeding

G1's Lasombra Black Hands bleeding

BK's G1 Saulot deck bleeding

Danz's Sense Dep Francois.

My Misery Tour deck is a fun deck that requires much effort to work, using Pariah as my key Vampire. In the context with strong players it didn't really perform very well. I influenced Pariah and Zachary onto the table and started bleeding G1 aggressively. However, G1's Banjoko and Ermenegildo bounced pretty much every single one of my bleed to BK. BK was playing with G1's deck and hence he wasn't very familiar with it - leading to several minor mistakes. Most of the time his Vampires were spent blocking my Social Charms and weren't able to do much against G1's DOM bleeds. Meanwhile, Danz was having fun using his vampires to bleed me, and I realized that I actually don't have a single wake in my deck...that lead to many painful bleeds (one of them was a 4 bleed by a 3-cap Toreador)

Pariah, when he was useable, went into battles upwind and downwind several times, but apparently I forgot to pack Immortal Grapple in the deck and he wasn't able to penetrate either G1's Oubliette, or Danz's Majesty. At the end of the day I didn't manage to torpor anyone at all...in fact, I don't think any Vampire was torpored in this game.

G1 soon got rid of BK and I practically given up on killing him. Just then Danz slapped a Sense Deprivation on Banjoko, and started stealing blood from the other Lasombras. I sped up my bleeds and attacks and did manage to do a little damage. Just then Danz did a most interesting thing - he depleted his pool down to 1 bringing out Alexandria.

G1 told me to keep Zachary untapped as he expected Danz to misdirect his bleeds to me, and I did. But Danz's single Enhance Senses weren't able to block G1's bleed and was ousted instead, opening up the Sense Deprivation's lock on G1.

After a round of bleeding by the Lasombra, who reduced my pool to about 2, I gave up.

Final VP count -

G1 - 4 VP plus GW

Second Game

The other table had finally decided that bloating and making sure nobody dies is not exactly the Vampires' idea of Christmas, got rid of the false pretense of the Christmas Spirit and ended the suffering of the minions.

We started another game, this time with mostly new players. Here's the randomized seating -

Player 1 was Alvin's Harbinger Slaughterhouse deck, bleeding

Patrick's !Brujah rush, bleeding

My Misery Tour, bleeding

New Ben's Assamite Assassins

Ben has first blood since he brought out a 3-cap Vampire with superior QUI. Now the problem with written proxy is that I have no idea who he is and what he can do, and therefore cannot properly remember him. Afterall, there are no 3-cap Assamite with superior QUI in the newer groups and I have no idea who is the other 10-cap Vampire that Ben brought out later. If you're reading this Ben, please at least photocopy something resembling the Vampires as proxy while waiting for your cards to arrive. It makes life easier for me~ Thank you~

Alvin brought out Gisela I think, and Patrick influenced Urraca. I brought out Zachary for defense and slapped him with a PRE master discipline. He was to be my most effective minion throughout this game.

A Slaughterhouse hit the table and Patrick was truly pre-occupied, which in hindsight I think he was being too annoyed by discarding cards. With 3 Intercept Master Cards on table I think he shouldn't be too worried and should at least focus on getting 1 VP by killing me, but he spent quite a bit of time trying to rush Alvin, and didn't bother with me till later, and was primarily bleeding me for 2-3 per turn.

Meanwhile, I was doing ok with stealth-bleeding Ben to death with my Social Charms and True Love's Face, with Pariah and Zachary leading the way and Harry Reese Vessel-ing blood back to me by hunting (after he took a signpost from Patrick's Count Germaine) Alvin proved to be a great player by sitting still with his Vampire and practically do nothing except throwing down Slaughterhouse and milling Patrick - annoying Patrick to no end. Soon, there were 3 Slaughterhouse on table, and Gisela was protected by a Secure Haven.

At this point Patrick can do absolutely nothing except come my way, while hunting for his own Secure Haven. He put a Fame on Zachary and started bleeding me continuously every round. I was lucky to have 1 Blood Doll and 2 Vessels in recovering my pool against this loss, while Social Charming with Pariah and Zachary (who both had Superior PRE now), stealthing through Ben's almost non-existent Intercepts. Soon I got my first VP and 6 pool, and I brought out Amisa to add to my staff strength.

It was a race to kill Alvin before Patrick did too much damage to me. Patrick finally managed to torpor Zachary and I started taking Fame damage. But his deck was severely depleted by the Slaughterhouse and Patrick didn't have anymore Immortal Grapple to deal with my combat ends. He tried again to torpor my Zachary after he rescued him for me, but even though Zachary no longer had any blood, he couldn't go past my Form of Mists to torpor him again. (I Form of Mist 3 times against his attacks, looks like I have more Mist than he has Psyche)

I soon bled Alvin to death with my stealth, and by this time Patrick has no deck left.

A combat deck with no cards against my PRO-abled +1 STR Pariah with claws~ it was a good day to kill !Brujah.

Final VP count-

Me - 4VP plus GW

(o.o)y