Skirmishes in the Dark : 12-01-2010

12th January, in the year 2010, Paradigm Infinitum.

Took some effort to drag myself to the store to play Vtes tonight, telling myself that spending anymore time on the iPhone is a bad idea, I do need to get out more often~ I reached the store a little late and a table of 4 had already started. I sat around observing the game for quite a while before enough players gathered to start another table.

Here's the randomized seating for game 1:

Player 1 is YeiQi's Malkavian Prank, bleeding

Jeff's Malkavian Guns, bleeding

QX's Black Hand Assamite guns, bleeding

My Cryptic Mission, bleeding

Damien's Cryptic Mission.

Gee, 2 Cryptic Mission deck on 1 table, and in a predator-prey relationship...

The game started off fast and furious with me calling Sarah Cobbler to my side as the first Vampire, slapped a Vessel on her, summon a Rafastio Ghoul, and started Cryptic Mission Damien's 2 2-cap Vampires whom he influenced in turn 1. YeiQi influenced a couple mid-cap Malkavian, and was bolstered with an excellent round of Malkavian Prank, putting her pool at a very good position. Meanwhile, Jeff bought a Submachine Gun for Dancing Dana (I think) and has Jackie Thermen driving for her, making her a deadly combatant. QX brought out Djuhah (and Reza plus Yazid, eventually) but didn't manage to get any guns till way later, he did slapped a Tatoo Signal on Djuhah and was having great fun untapping Reza (usually for nothing much except hunting) An early Tension in the Ranks was added to the table by the Assamites.

Meanwhile, I quickly had about 6 minions on table after a Blood Doll and a Vessel supplemented my pool recovery. A timely Society of Leopold and a Charnas pretty much shut down Damien's low cap vampire, but by then he has Mariel under his service, and Mariel soon got herself a Rutor's Hand for extra services.

The first combat was between Reza and Dana, whom had Reza at zero blood after eating the Blurred Submachine Gun fire from her. QX was too afraid of my Cryptic Mission to provoke me and hence I was doing all I can to Damien without much pressure from my predator. Jeff, however, was suffering from the Malkavian's Kindred Spirits since YeiQi in turn wasn't very bothered by her predator as Damien was busy trying to keep his vampires working.

Jeff was soon ousted by YeiQi's stealth bleeds, but not before YeiQi made the blunder of attacking a Submachine Gun mounted on Jackie's car with a Celerity Gunner... I was successful in bleeding Damien to death by stealing away all his Vampires' blood and bleeding him when he had only 1 pool left, there was no way of surviving that since having a single vampire in torpor will result in Damien's death via the Tension in the Ranks.

The battle got very much more intense with a Fame slapped on one of the Malkavians, and both Yazid and the Vampire went torpor when Yazid managed to block him. YeiQi proceeded to diablerized Yazid with General Perfidio, and got his gun and bike instead. After a fierce combat, all but the General was torpored by the Assamites, and only a single Assamite remained standing defending QX's 3 pool.

By then I already had 8 minions on the table, every single one with superior THA. We decided to call it a day and let me win.

Final VP Count -

Me - 4 VPs plus GW

YeiQi - 1 VP

We started another game with only 4 players, here's the randomized seating-

Player 1 is BK's !Malkavian stealth bleed, bleeding

My Cryptic Mission, bleeding

Dzaki's Gangrel Wall, bleeding

YeiQi's Malkavian Stealth Bleed

Again, I am the one to bring out the first vampire on the table Roreca, and actually get to keep the Edge for 1 round to benefit from the pool gain before losing it to the table. Dzaki's first Vampire was Ryder and he was to be my bane for the entire game due to his in-built +1 Intercept. BK quickly started bleeding me with his Kindred Spirits and stealth, but I was able to bounce almost all of it to my prey, and I target my Cryptic Mission on his vampires since I have no way of getting across Ryder.

Meanwhile, YeiQi did a lot of bleed damage to BK, facing absolutely no opposition from the !Malkavians, and wasn't too pressured by the predator as Dzaki's deck usually takes a while to "warm up". I had to intervene and send some of my Cryptic Mission to disable YeiQi's vampire, forcing her to hunt and therefore be blocked and torpored by Dzaki's Raven Spy-ed Ryder.

Once Dzaki had Randall in his service he started to put more pressure on YeiQi, but even with a Tier of Soul-ed Randall he wasn't able to damage YeiQi enough for her not to be able to replace her losses with Kindred Spirit bleeds that are pretty much 100% successful. BK give in to destiny and after fighting for a while, fell prey to YeiQi's bleeds.

By this time I had about 6 minions on the table, including Talaq, the Immortal. A crucial turn when Ryder was tapped and unable to react I reduced his blood to 1 and bled Dzaki for 3. I was given another great turn by bouncing YeiQi's 4 bleeds to Dzaki successfully, giving me the chance to oust Dzaki with weenie bleeds.

But I wasn't able to face off YeiQi's consistent stealth bleed and was soon bleed to death.

It was a rather fast game...

Final VP Count -

Me - 1 VP

YeiQi - 3 VP plus GW

(o.o)