Skirmishes in the Dark : 24-07-2010

The night of 24th July, in the year 2010, Games Garage.

A busy day for me as I was positioned in Takashimaya for quite a bit of work before I could get to Games Garage in the evening. Quite a few Methuselahs were already there and we had enough players to start.

Randomized Seating for Game 1

Bann's TupDog, bleeding

Gerrent's Daughters, bleeding

Faiz playing G1's Malk'94, bleeding

G1's Saulot, bleeding

My Beautiful Eyes.

Bann's TupDog scared the hell out of everybody. This game is an example of everyone being very afraid of the TupDogs, and everybody was busy giving Bann what he needed. G1's defense against his predator was pretty alright, with many Glares and some Peacemakers protecting his pool aggressively, I was cursed with a whole lot of weenies instead of my needed vampires, and was forced to rely on Redbone Cary for the longest time before Ondine finally hit the table (not that it was going to do much for me). Meanwhile, Gerrent delayed bringing out vampires until he was ready to put forth a couple at one time.

Bann's TupDogs attack crippled Gerrent's votes repeatedly, although Gerrent did get close to killing off Faiz's Malk'94, leaving him with only 1 pool. Despite that, Bann was able to oust Gerrent with his multiple bleeding Nephandus and !Tremeres. I did try to help Gerrent as much as possible, blocking several of Bann's Hand of Conrad actions, but paid with my younger vampires in torpor. G1's bleeding attacks were easily thwarted since I can bounce the attacks to Bann. The Narrow Minds played by Bann was quite hurting though.

Eventually Bann managed to pretty much killed everybody, TupDogs dive first, and after that the pool was all his to slowly grind.

Final VP Count

All Bann's, ALL.

Randomized Seating for Game 2

Derek's THA bruise bleed, bleeding

My Bones & Tongues, bleeding

Patrick's Brujah Combat, bleeding

Ben Sum's Assamite votes

Derek was again in a pretty sad position. His Tremeres and !Tremeres didn't have the intercepts to tackle the Assamite, and didn't have the stealth or combat capabilities to go through my Tzimisces. Carna was his first vampire, and that should've given him some intercepts to deal with Ben Sum, but Derek wasted Carna against me as I quickly used Meshenka to send Carna (as well as Selena) into torpor to prevent his heavy DOM bleeds.

Meanwhile, the Brujahs, lead by Count Germaine, were having a great time sending Ben's vampires to torpor, which is why Derek was actually still putting pressure on me. A hit for 6 damage exhibited by the Brujah deterred my decisions to go forward, and I slowly wait for the combat cards to settle into my hands before I took my chances.

Meshenka was supported by Lambach, mainly due to an early Powerbase : Barranquilla and Powerbase : Montreal; plus 2 Vessels. Increasing my body counts with Horatio and Lolita, I didn't have much problem preventing Derek from threatening my pool, especially after the 2 older Tzimisces were fully set up and the Path of Metamorphosis was safely in place. Then come my mistake.

Patrick had slapped a Fame on an Assamite, and a Tension in the Ranks were in play. I accidentally sent one of Derek's vampire into torpor when he had only 1 pool left. The Tension killed him, giving Ben a windfall of 6 pool and a VP. I had no choice but to increase my speed in attacking Patrick's remaining 3 pool.

Since Patrick had no intercepts against my stealth, and the vast majority of Ben's vampires were in torpor, and I had 4 ready vampires with good intercepts, they decided to yield the game to me.

I should have gotten all 4 VPs, sigh.

Final VP Count

Ben Sum - 1 VP

Me - 3 VP plus GW

Randomized seating for game 3

Derek's !Nosferatu, bleeding

My Air Rock, bleeding

G1's Saulot, bleeding

Gerrent's DoC

Another sad game that Air Rock proved itself to be the deck to give me the highest number of "being ousted". I had an early Ferox (as usual), fully set up with Stone Dog, Preternatural Strength and Perfectionist. As when I though I would be ok, a block action against Derek turned out into a nightmare. Double Terror Frenzy, Carrion Crow and Aid from Bats did short work on Ferox, quickly sending him into torpor. I was lucky that Fidus was already out and managed to rescue Ferox immediately before he was eaten up by some sewer rats.

After that I pretty much reserved my actions to slowly build up my strength again. Lilith's Blessing helped my 2 Hatchlings to get Flight plus Potence, while Ferox went ahead to get his Armor of Terra. Derek by then was having a difficult time against the Daughter's votes, and was too busy to bother me. A lucky double Shattering Crescendoes ended the game for Derek, sending both his vampires into torpor, and the Daughters then had a great time munching on the !Nosferatu's pool.

I had no on-board intercept for the longest time, and had to rely on Stone Dog's attacks and Dive Bombs to handle the Daughters. I kind of over did it and send almost every Daughter into torpor until I realised that G1 was going to have his VP soon. By the time I stopped it was a little late, and G1 managed to cruise through the Daughters' almost non-existing Intercepts to get his VP. My resistance against the might Saulot was aggressive but inadequate. Eventually I was ousted due to a lack of Intercepts. (Not that it was going to do much help against Neutral Guards)

Final VP Count

Gerrent - 1 VP

G1 - 3 VPs plus GW

(o.o)

ps. Time to retire the Air Rock, it has proven what it can do, and it does it very well - torpor enemy vampires and send it's own player (that's me) out of the game. It shall go back to my deck box and await another day to face the world again, hopefully enhanced with new VIS or Gargoyle cards.