Skirmishes in the Dark : 26-02-2010

26th February, in the year 2010, Paradigm Infinitum.

Last week I got more free time and was lucky enough to have several VTES games on non-Tuesday. Here was what happened on a Friday night in PI.

I got into a 4-player game when I arrived at PI, here was the randomized table seating-

Yeqi's Malkvian bleed, bleeding

My Air Rock, bleeding

Jeff's Slave Gargoyles, bleeding

Ben Sum's !Gangrel Aggra.

Sitting below YeQi made me a little concerned since I know the Malkavians could easily penetrate my defense before I had the chance to set up. I was lucky enough that Ben was playing a combat deck that could handle YeQi's vampires pretty quickly. I was also lucky to bring out a Dreams, and several Wider Views early, putting Ferox on the table quickly.

Jeff had a reasonable bad draw, with all Gargoyles in the crypt, no master clan vampires, and 2 of each Gargoyle, including Rocia. Bringing out Rocia, he attempted to block my Razor Bat, and was promptly sent to torpor after my Ferox was done with her. After that Jeff fought a hard and difficult battle to remain alive against my many Hatchlings and young Independent Vampires.

Meanwhile YeQi's vampires was repeatedly pounded by both Ben's !Gangrels and my Gargoyles, and she never had the chance to recover. By putting a Fame on one of her vampire I managed to keep her pool lower than optimal, and her bleeds were repeatedly reduced by my Voices.

However, after bringing out a Tremere, Jeff was starting to get aggressive. Seeing than Ben had tapped all his vampires and only had 7 pool left, he went in hard with a Governed and a Conditioning, ending up with Ben dying to YeQi's torpored Famed vampire...

Jeff then made short work of YeQi, and I conceded the game even though I might have a chance to still compete with Jeff for the final VP, but that would take too long between Gargoyles~

Final VP Count

Jeff's, all Jeff's.

The second game was still among us 4 players, here's the randomized table seating-

YeQi's Prank deck, bleeding

My Misery Tour, bleeding

Ben Sum's !Gangrel, bleeding

Jeff's Slave Gargoyles.

YeQi was again suffering from Jeff's Diving Gargoyles, and this time, Jeff didn't have much issue with Master clan vampires, so very soon, Created Gargoyles were wrecking havoc within YeQi's ranks while my Pariah always kept a close eye on what her Malkavians were up to. Fame again kept YeQi's pool in check, and I was able to concentrate on Ben pretty much most of the time.

With Pariah, Zachary and Tock I was able to stealth bleed Ben pretty effectively, while Form of Mist away his retaliatory attacks. I was careful not to damage him too badly in order to prompt Ben to go after Jeff, knowing his Gargoyles can easily defeat my Pariah. A round or 2 without master cards to power up Pariah wasn't that fantastic either, but somehow YeQi had been misreading her Malkavian Pranks quite a bit and gave me quite some pool while hurting Jeff a lot.

Eventually I managed to Legal Manipulate Ben Sum and Aired him to death. But before I geared up to prepare to oust Jeff he managed to kill off YeQi too. With quite a good number of Gargoyles going after my vampires, I soon only had Pariah and Zachary standing and was actually bled to death by the little Gargoyles...

Final VP Count

Jeff - 3 VPs plus GW

Me - 1 VP

(o.o)