Before the game, there is the game. 20+ assembled at the hotel for the pretourney metagame setup. This gathering was given a name, and the 'rules' Were duly posted on the conference room whiteboard:
I needed to live up to the reputation, even though I think weenie decks are dead as an archetype. So between leaving work Friday night and arriving at the hotel, I went to the corner store and picked up a disciplineless combat anarch revolt deck. :)
The idea was to bleed, get blocked, then throw Fake Out/Dodge, and the occasional Open Grate. So I top-decked all 5 Open Grates, handjammed on them, and spent most of my short game in failed combat. Bleh.
I'd been hearing lots about Baltimore Purge, and how it's totally broken with the Lasombra. I think the full potential of the card has yet to be realized. So my task for the weekend was to test out different BP decks. This one involved Renewed Vigor, BP, Sacrificial Lamb, glued together with Freak Drive, with several stealth locations and Forgotten Labyrinth.
The First Rollout would have stalled out if Mike hadn't back-bled X. for 8 or 9. Apparently Mike had seen the same deck from X. earlier in the night, and wasn't tolerating its presence as a predator. David brought out some princes, started tooling them up. Gavin looked like he got stuck on Deflections, and just sat there waiting for Mike to bleed him.
Basically, the table didn't do much, and I had time enough to bring out Sheldon, Lucretia, Ankla, and Agrippina. Sheldon purged Baltimore once while I was bringing out minions, and got low enough to be an idle title for the remainder of the game. Eventually, I got into a rhythm where Ankla and/or Lucretia would purge Baltimore, and Agrippina would Sac. Lamb a torped minion(s), predator first. So I munched three of David's vamps, and received a torping of Sheldon in return. I bailed out one of Mike's minions, to maintain order on that side of the table.
Sheldon left torpor at some point, Mike bled my prey down enough where I could oust him, Gavin drew into some bleed, and ousted David. I scored another BP, bled Mike out, and munched Gavin's Julia Prima. Then I got bled for 12 or so, and called two more BP to knock Gavin's two vamps (Marconius and Beatrice?) into torpor and secure the win.
So David and I pick up where we left off the night before: I get Lucretia and Agrippina, David gets Volker and a nossie of some sort. Andy, stuck with first transfer, doesn't have a minion, and Norm only has Omaya and Sadie when I'm ready to purge, so I wait for a real target. Andy brings out Nu, which is a problem. Norm pulses Omaya and brings out Caitlin, which is a bigger problem.
Lucretia and Agrippina both purge Baltimore. Note: Lucretia, Cess Queen, took a constructive action in a tournament. David tells Lackey to send Nu after Lucretia, Andy puts Lucretia in torpor, handing David the round. David sends Volker to diablerize Lucretia and Eric votes against the bloodhunt, starting a recurring theme of non-support/damage from my grandpredator. I'm left with one minon in torpor, eleven pool, and two 10-caps. Hooray, I'm screwed.
So while I'm trying to figure out the quickest way off the table, Eric presented the exit sign, in the form of a Hostile Takeover on Caitlin. I pay nine pool for Caitlin, yielding a great salvage of a crap round. I (a) deprive my predator of a minion, (b) give him 15 pool (including the 6 for ousting), and (c) break up the sweep. I'm not sure why Norm cycled a claws/amaranth on Caitlin when I used her to block an ousting bleed of 3. It should have been relatively clear I intended to oust myself.
After self-ousting, I went to lunch. While I was gone, I heard David had swapped with Andy, and scored the other four VP. Postings to rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad would more accurately describe the remainder of the round.
The tone for this round was set on first transfers. Stephanie ditched a Domain Challenge on turn 1, and Stefan followed by bringing out six 2-caps over his first three turns. Moral Victory: I got bled once or twice, brought out Bajazet al-Nasir and Tansu Bekir, and didn't get bled or rushed for 6 turns. It wasn't until I brought out Ankla, that the table realized I was not playing Assamite combat.
Erin had influenced Gabrin, Joaquina, and another Ravnos or two. Christian had an assortment of Tremere/!Tremere, including Carna. Stephanie got stuck with large-crypt disease, and had a few 10-caps. She'd managed to call a Domain Challenge and a Conservative Agitation, but was looking rather weak after soaking a few 4-bleeds.
My attempts to purge Baltimore largely failed; Erin's Drabas eliminated any stealth I would have mustered. I was relegated to using Tansu to purge Baltimore, sending only himself and one of Stephan's weenies to torpor each time. In that regard, Baltimore Purge makes for a partially effective drag on a weenie deck. I also received some extra vote damage from Stephanie, continuing the trend of grandpredators' prey assistance.
Several rounds followed, of Christian getting blocked and beaten/torpored, Stephanie calling damage votes, and Stephan taking Tributes, hunting, and bailing his vamps out of torpor. Even after the fake was up, Stefan had to Tribute/hunt every turn to stay ahead of the Domain Challenges, KRC and Con Ag.
Then the whole thing just fell apart. With Grand-Predator at three pool, Prey lobs a 1-bleed to Grand-Prey, which is promptly bounced to tapped-out Grand-Predator. Discussion followed, but this bleed pretty much sealed the table's fate, with a VP for Grand-Prey and a Table Win for Predator, instead a "Prey 3:2 Grand-Predator" split. On the following turn, Grand Predator had my 8-vamp, 11 pool Predator in her sights, with a KRC/Anarchist Uprising in hand. The Anarchist uprising hit the table first, resulting in an 8-pool loss for Predator, and a self-oust for Grand Predator. SNAFU. Predator, given a window, immediately Tributed back the eight pool lost to the vote, and ousted me. Predator struck a wall/withdraw deal with Grand-Prey, and ousted my Prey shortly thereafter.
This game started to set up much like the previous night's pickup games. My prey brought out some weenies, my grandpredator didn't go left, and my predator brought out some 7-8 caps. Difference being, my predator was actually bleeding for three with presence-added Gargoyles(!). So instead of getting Ankla, Tariq, and Lucretia, and being able to sink two vamps a turn, I only brought out Tariq and one of the big guys. The lack of actions meant I couldn't Sac. Lamb backwards and diablerize forwards on the same turn. Tariq could chain-diablerize, courtesy of freak drive, however. That was cool. So I played this round in the same fashion as the pickup game, giving diablerie priority to Predator's vamps, then Prey's. I managed to eat three Predator's vamps and one Prey's vamp, while holding one steath card. Neat!
I also didn't have Sheldon this game, and Prey kept vote lock with two votes. This allowed him to eat Grand-Prey's vamps at will. I was hoping that Grand-Predator would take this as a sign to Go Left(tm), but that really didn't happen until after Predator ousted me with another Presence bleed. Predator and Grand-Prey didn't have enough minions to maintain the game, and they were ousted shortly afterwards. I didn't see what happened in the endgame, but apparently Prey ended up ousting Grand-Predator in a very tight game.
For once, the deck worked as planned. I managed to keep Jordan under thumb, and keep Joe at arm's length. Eventually Jordan ran out of minions (thanks to Joe's Ahrimanes), and Jack started eating into everyone's pool. I blocked Joe once too often and he ousted himself to break up the sweep. I then bled Jordan out for the GW.
Game 2:Immortal Grapple > Guns. Rack > Smiling Jack. Ethan had both (stole the Rack), and swept, but not before Jack accumulated seven counters. I really never got much going here, due to Ethan's Immortal Grapple.
Game 3:This was a wacky game. Prey got rolling with the Masochisms, had eight or nine of them spread between three vamps. So Predator just increased the number of free actions the few times he was able to block. At some point, Raven took seven consecutive actions (Masochism, (day op), Movement of Slow Body, Rapid Healing, equip, (freak), Restore, (freak), Force of Will, (freak), Leave Torpor) in one turn. Wheeeeee! Prey eventually ousted Predator, who didn't have allies to block the Daring bleeds. I was ousted shortly thereafter, for the same reasons.
Game 4:This was an ugly game. I knew better than to sit in front of what had just ousted me in the last round, but I wanted to see if I could trip up the deck. And I did, to some extent. But there was no getting through Prey's Tzimisce multi-wall, and my vamps were torped enough to let Predator get the VP.
Proof that reputation trumps game realities: I bring out the nutpunchiest 12-Aabbt Kindred/Final Nights/Awe/VoterCap/Smiling Jack/Blood Doll deck that can't take a D action, and get ousted cross table by 6-pool worth of vote push from Grand-Predator.
(? VP) Jordan Beale: Ravnos InterceptI figured to try the Purges in my !Malk dem/for deck. It _should_ work, and at some point, I'll replace the Lunatic Eruptions with Purges. The idea here was to Purge anything younger than 8, and Erupt anything 8-cap or older. I really didn't construct the deck properly, as I kept jamming on bleed and bleed mods. My prey's assault rifles and superior Auspex didn't make life any easier, either. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to contest any vamps with Prey, and I ended up being ousted by Predator in short order.
(? VP) Oscar Garza: Dementation/PresenceI'd never played the Lasombra starter, so I threw in a few purges, and gave it a go. Oscar got out some minions, Derek got Mattias and Adonai, I pulled Gratiano and lackeys. I got a bleed or two in, and was shut down trying to purge Baltimore.
If you take a Gangs deck that's shaky to begin with, and clutter it with cool cards from the draft, you end up with a nonworking pile of junk. That's what I did. At least I got to use Border Skirmishes to fish out a Blood Doll, some stealth, a Bum's Rush, and a Voter Cap. I ended up with all four minions as anarchs, and was ousted by power-voting. The other two decks were tied up in some combat, and my Prey ended up squeaking out a VP before I was ousted by my Predator.
Round 2:Two Gangs decks, two Barons decks. Everybody was contesting at least one card for most of the game. I ended up having to fish four vamps to get a usable skillset vamp that wouldn't contest with Prey, and that was SmallPox. So around turn 8, I get a minion I can use, take a few small actions, and am ousted by Prey who's had time to run around the table. This round was a complete waste of time, and if it wasn't a prerelease, I'd have ousted myself to break up the sweep.