V:TES by Sten

FOR/POT/nec/dom

2011-12-05T02:31:00.001+01:00

I wanted to try out a theory. While that attempt failed I learned that FOR/POT/dom packs a lot of punch.

I only grabbed one GW during the turnament, but as a POT combat package is prone to Disarm and Taste, you really don't want to sit with an ally-based deck close to you. I ran into that problem during two of the rounds.

The deck is basically based around group 3/4 Gio and one Lasombra with FOR/POT/DOM/nec, and I really could have dropped the necromancy part, but that was the theory I wanted to try out.

I'm looking at a reliable way to handle the absurd amount of recursion based decks, and Trochomancy seemed like a good idea. It still does, but I'll test that out with my good old Nagaraja bleeder with half of my Conditioning replaced by Trochomancy instead. Relying on my prey sitting on a full thirteen cards in the ash heap turned out being a very bad idea.

Had my seven copies of Trochomancy been Conditioning I'd have left the tournament with at least one more VP. As it was I discarded at total of ten bleed modifiers over the three rounds due to a lack of a sufficiently large ash heap belonging to my target.

So, apart from that? Well, a combination of Slam and Unflinching Persistence got me to the range I wanted for every fight apart from one. The rather minor damage prevention turned out to be sufficient for placing Disarm even when I didn't have the punch needed to down an opponent.

Fiddling around with Heroic Might and Preternatural Strength rather than Torn Signpost worked perfectly. Eight copies of Freak Drive allowed me to keep the pressure up. Five IG was just enough to remove all but one unacceptable counter-attack for the duration of the tournament.

I packed only eight Govern, and obviously the forementioned seven Trochomancy. Conditioning, or even Foreshadowing Destruction would have been a far better choice for the latter. My reaction package was very small. Five wakes and five bounce. Just enough to get me out of a pinch.

While the deck should be very vulnerable to Pentex lockdown, in reality players wisely decided not to block me when I removed them.

The last brainfart from my side turned out to be vital. I packed eight Vessel in a deck based around cap nine and ten combatants. Obviously those should have been Villain. Not so. I used Vessel more often for filling up my fattie than to reclaim pool. Between half empty targets, combat ends, hit back and Freak Drive, I quite often found myself needing to fill up my big bad before going to shop.

The deck was rounded out by a dozen rush cards, a couple of Graverobbing, and turned out to be an overall fun deck to play, Trochomancy mistake notwithstanding.

Gunning madness

2011-11-16T11:04:00.003+01:00

I've tried out a cap two (that means twelve different Sabbat cap two vampires) -deck with a perverted number of CW and Desert Eagle. Scattershot is there to convince my opponent to turn the Desert Eagles into .44 magnums, unless they prefer taking four points of damage.

The result this far is varying. A cross table voter spells death for this deck as I can't afford a reliable number of DT to handle being punished per minion I control. A bleeding predator is bad but not a total loss. Twelve rush cards allow me to cut one of those down to size.

For forward pressure I'm running with a mix of perma-bleeds and CH. Add a few Frontal Assault and my prey isn't likely to participate all too much in the game. I included the few Magazines and Target Vitals we own for good measure.

Utter disaster occured when I ran into my wife's aggro poke !Gang -deck with prevent non-aggro for four. Well, you can't beat them all.

The master package is mainly bloat in the form of Vessels, a PB Montreal and Hungry Coyote. Although I'm not entirely happy about the Vessels, this deck simply cuts through my library at a speed which prohibits me from running with one MP only, and I don't expect to lose a lot of pool before the decks kicks into speed.

All in all a surprisingly fun deck to play, bashing minions and doing decent pool-damage in one package.

Scotsman pubgame

2011-10-25T23:46:00.000+02:00

We joined our weekly pub game at the Flying Scotsman pub, something that we've done for ten years straight now. Sure, during periods it's been more beer and talking than playing games, but people from the play group has shown up on such a regular basis that I think we've missed out on less than fifty Mondays in total during the past decade.

Anyway, the last half a year or so has seen more competitive games than usual. Obviously a lot of decks aren't really tournament viable. I tend to try out some rather bloody awful ideas, and quite often we sit with a lot more combat compared to our tournaments. Still, there are a lot more decks which actually show up at the tournaments these days.

We got to play three games, with me trying out one bad deck, one outright stupid, and one which needs tweaking to work during a tournament. The last was a cap two, all Sabbat, rush with Desert Eagle, Concealed Weapon and Scattershot. It works, especially in a non-combat environment. Probably needs even more rush than it has today. Hence the tweaking. The main problem with it is that it makes a Malk 1/2 dom/obf bleeder look exciting to play.

The outright stupid deck was one of my self ousting ones. From time to time I come up with an idea so bad that it's a sign of success if my predator manages to kill me before I've ousted myself without actively trying to die. This time it was me trying to build the ousting loop deck described earlier in this blog. Needless to say it doesn't work.

The most interesting of the decks is probably the bad one. It's a take on Una where the goal isn't to empty my deck in one turn to become a juggernaut. Even though I have loaded it with an unholy crapton of Freak Drive I still plan to see rounds running, so it has its own Master package (way too large, so half of it has to go).

It's basically a Baltimore Purge deck with the added twist of adding Carver's Meat Package and a fair amount of Embrace and Creation Rites. Needless to say I don't fear bleeding and blocking with those weenies.

Renewed Vigor at outferior is there to get Una up from Torpor immediately, a bunch of small cap Lasombra should see me decide what goes down, and they also provide me with bounce. A small bleed package backed by too few Mind Numb helps me maintaining forward pressure. I need wakes and a few Graverobbing though. The package with Golconda and Villain stays. I couldn't make good use of it as my predator lead out each turn by having Le Dinh Tho remove a card from my hand, but that's not an occurence I should build a deck around.

The main weakness would be an inability to remove cap ten and eleven from the table. As the number of masters need to be low, Dominate masters really aren't an option neither. Still, I believe this deck merits some major tweaking, because I can see it working decently well.

And as for Scotsman, it helps having a weekly game session. It's not even anything we announce any longer. People pop by in the hopes there are people there with decks. Sometimes we even get to play at two tables instead of one. What is more important, it keeps the game alive here.

Interesting theory, horrible practice

2011-10-23T11:03:00.000+02:00

So, I joined a local tournment Saturday. 15 players, which is a pretty good turnout.

Now I'm pretty familiar with the current meta in Gothenburg. Absurd crypt-acc, more Villain than is decent no matter how you count, bleed for insanity and an unholy crapton of table votes. With this in mind I've started to build sabotage decks.

I revisited my old Budapest LCQ deck, but I knew I had to reconfigure it quite a bit. The old version held no Sudden and very few DT, if any. The very minor bleed package consisted of six copies of Bonding. At the other hand 17 wakes and Redirection made its bounce package more or less infinite.

This time I packed half a dozen Sudden and just as many DT. I threw in a few GTU and Foreshadowing for good measure. The gun package went from nine each of CW and .44 each to eight of each. I also cut my taste package rather heavily.

My troubles started at once. With zero intercept I couldn't block anything, and hence not get rid of my CW/.44, and when I went full ahead people refused to block. The result was a rather unflattering zero VP in total due to my inability to bounce bleeds. This was a result of sitting on combat cards I could never get out from my hand, barring discarding them one per trun.

Back to the drawing board.

Self necro

2011-10-23T01:45:00.000+02:00

Ok, I'm starting this up again.

Posts won't be frequent initially, but they'll be there.

I've taken a three years hiatus from the game for all practical purposes, but it seems I'm getting back into it again.

Stay tuned.

Kitchen-sink decks

2008-06-24T16:51:00.005+02:00

After the midsummer-partying (a big thing here in Sweden) a few of us stayed on for a couple of days. We managed to squeeze in a total of four games in the rain, sitting in the party-tent we used for the main occasion.

Now, what is a kitchen-sink deck? Well, Max, cause it was his cards we used, showed us a box with partially complete starters and three boxes with unsorted cards. Out of this we managed to build decks which we used for bashing each other up. Rest assured that optimizing didn't really play a major role in deck-building.

The big thing is that it was fun, maybe more fun than building something from a pool of well over thirty thousand cards where we can name the cards we don't have access too -- all three or so of them.

Basically we're talking a merge between a limited format deck and a constructed one, and I wonder if some kind of kitchen-sink tournament wouldn't be a fun event to run. Instead of true drafting you "table draft" from a box with, let's say, 1000 cards, but apart from that you pretty much follow the structure for a table draft. Play two rounds plus a final round and get it over with. Add drinks and food and you're set up for a great barbecue-afternoon for eight to ten players.

Hmm, we have the barbecue, and we have the lazy weekend summer afternoons. We even have half of the players needed. What am I waiting for?

Fun little expansion

2008-06-10T18:08:00.004+02:00

Twilight Rebellion seems to be a fun addition to the game. This might very well be the final addition needed to see the indies go toe to toe with their Camarilla and Sabbat brethren. Together with Lords of the Night we're waiting for indies to go rampaging through the tournaments the coming months.

Personally I think this was a better touch of that little extra than the Sword of Caine was to the Third Edition expansion, but then I guess it's easier to cram out the most when you make a follow-up to four clans compared to the wide range of Sabbat clans available.

Now I just have to get my head around these last two expansions before the next main expansion hits the shelves in six to nine months if the release schedule the last three years is anything to go by.

Twilight Rebellion Preview up

2008-05-23T15:08:00.000+02:00

Have a look at the preview page.

Blood Shadowed Court, News

2008-05-07T13:19:00.000+02:00

Courtesy of TheLasombra, from the newsgroup:

http://download.white-wolf.com/download/download.php?file_id=988
page 29

News from the Blood- Shadowed Court
By L. Scott Johnson, developer for Vampire: The Eternal Struggle

The Eternal Struggle revisits the rowdier district of the World of
Darkness with the upcoming release of the Twilight Rebellion expansion
in May. It’s an Anarch-themed set, and, not coincidentally, it serves
as a springboard to this summer’s storyline tournaments as well. We’ve
included more three-way cards for the Anarchs. These are a little
beefier than the original Anarch expansion’s three-way cards. The
reason? Well, the original idea was that versatility would be the
foundation of the Anarchs in general and of the three-ways in
particular. But it turned out that the versatility alone didn’t
usually give enough of a boost to offset the set-up required for most
Anarch decks to work. The three-ways printed in subsequent sets have
had more inherent power to help compensate, and that tradition
continues in Twilight Rebellion. New ways to make a vampire go Anarch
are included in the set as well. One of those is a crypt card bearing
a novel mechanism that lets it play more like a library card.
Shifting it to the crypt means the problem of getting it early in the
game while avoiding jamming your hand late in the game also shifts to
the crypt, where it is easier to manage. Another such card follows a
more traditional approach, but it also includes an effect usable late
in the game. Those two things, increasing the power of the threeways
(and other Anarch-requiring cards in general) and making it more
efficient to get your vampires to become Anarchs, were key design
goals of this set. The Anarch trait isn’t designed to be a
crypt-construction choice like the black hand trait, and we didn’t
want to lose the unique feel of the Anarch movement by introducing a
bunch of vampires who have that trait inherently. Instead, the focus
is on improving the value of going Anarch, both by reducing the cost
(including deck space and hand jamming as costs) and increasing the
payoff for being Anarch. Naturally, the set also includes cards that
non-Anarchs can use (as well as a bunch of crypt cards that are usable
in non-Anarch decks). Some of them are Anarch-themed general-purpose
cards, like Baseball Bat, some are designed for the independent sect
as a whole and some are simply utility cards, like Failsafe. The
majority of the library cards are specifically for the Anarchs,
though. That shouldn’t be too surprising, given the size of the set.
One more thought before I sign off: The last expansion, Lords of the
Night, sold out already, making it only the second expansion to sell
out before its successor goes to press (the first being the Sabbat War
expansion). So, to all the players that snapped that one up, enjoy!

Anouncement

2008-04-24T04:32:00.000+02:00

Below copied directly from the USENET News group, courtesy of TheLasombra:

http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/index.php?line=news&articleid=925

White Wolf Announces Twilight Rebellion Launch Event
Official Release Date: May 28, 2008

Now in its 14th year of play, White Wolf celebrates the latest
expansion of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle (VTES). White Wolf and the
Princes of the Elder Kindred Network (VEKN) are promoting a weekend
long series of tournaments and special events across the globe. Below
is the basic information needed to plan your own tournament.

On the weekend of May 31, VEKN players and Princes will team up with
retailers around the world to organize a launch event for White Wolf's
award winning CCG, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. Coinciding with the
launch of Twilight Rebellion, this event will celebrate the latest
expansion of one of the longest-running CCGs in the market.

Retailers
VTES Twilight Rebellion Launch Kit
Stock #: WWP2790
ISBN: 1588464989
MSRP: $299.99 USD
Contents:

* 2 booster displays of VTES: Twilight Rebellion
* 2 booster displays of VTES 3rd Edition
* 12 Nergal Advanced promo cards
* 1 laser-etched Edge Marker from Dragonfire Lasercrafts

http://www.dragonfirelaser.com/index.html

Princes/Organizers
There is enough material to run a Booster Draft event for 12-36
players. The following excerpt from the V:EKN Tournament rules are the
suggested guidelines for your event. As with every other V:TES launch
event, the organizer may choose to hold a different tournament format.

7.5. General Draft Tournament Rules
7.5.1. Player Distribution
Players assemble randomly into drafting circles (called pods) of
roughly equal size at the discretion of the tournament organizer or
head judge. Pods may correspond to the Players' first round table
assignments. A tournament official then distributes the booster packs
to be drafted to each player in the pod. As players draft the cards,
they must place their cards in two orderly piles in front of them, one
for library cards and one for crypt cards. Drafted cards may only be
reviewed between the drafting of packs.

7.6. Booster Draft Procedure
At a signal from a tournament official, each player opens the booster
pack specified by the official and counts the cards. If a player does
not have the appropriate number of cards in his or her booster pack,
he or she must notify the judge immediately, who will replace the
pack. The player chooses one card from the booster pack, then passes
the remaining cards facedown to the player on his or her left. The
opened packs are passed around the drafting pod - with each player
taking one card each before passing - until all cards are drafted.
Once a player has removed a card from the pack, it is considered
selected and may not be returned to the pack.

After each player's first pack is drafted, a tournament official will
instruct players to open the next specified pack and draft in the same
fashion, except that the direction of drafting is reversed. This
process is repeated until all cards in all booster packs are drafted.
For example, if five booster packs were being drafted, the first,
third, and fifth pack would be drafted clockwise and the second and
fourth pack would be drafted counterclockwise.

After the Event
Let us know how things went! The White Wolf website will be posting a
news story on the launch events, and we want your pictures. Tell us
how many people showed up. How many players did you meet? We'll draw a
name from the post-event reports submitted and send one person a
display of Lords of the Night, just to say thanks for keeping us in
the loop.

Prices may vary for individual retailers. Princes, organizers, or
retailers with concerns may contact Oscar Garza, the Organized Play
Coordinator at orgplay@white-wolf.com

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle celebrates its fouteenth anniversary
this year. Designed by Richard Garfield, designer of Magic: The
Gathering®, VTES allows players to pit clans of vampires against one
another in a mix of intrigue and action.

About White Wolf
Since its entry into the role-playing game market in 1991, White Wolf
has maintained an impressive market share. With collective book sales
in excess of 5.5 million copies, White Wolf is one of the undisputed
leaders worldwide for publishing pen-and-paper role-playing games.
Company properties have been licensed for television series, comic
books, action figures, console and computer video games, coin-operated
arcade games, professional wrestlers, replica props and weapons,
interactive media events and myriad merchandise. In November 2006,
White Wolf merged with CCP hf to form CCP North America | White Wolf.

Play VTES Online at http://www.vtesonline.com

More fun than good

2008-04-09T12:30:00.000+02:00

But at least it WAS fun. Weekly pubgame. Moving to a new place, all our cards are stuffed away, so I played will a less than optimal deck. A few rounds into that game hilarious events occur.

Boss Callihan enters play.

Prey: (Playing Setites), Bah, damn bleeder!
Me: Nopes.

Nothing much happens.

Sayshila enters play.

Prey: Ah, great, as if an Anarch voter was better!
Me: Nopes.

My turn again.

Me: Sayshila Ambushes (big fat Setite).
Prey: Your Daughter does what?
Me: Ambush (points at target)
Prey: No block.
Me: Go long with Ambush.
Prey: Ok?
Me: Death of the Drum. 2 agg.
Prey: Give me that card! Oh. Fuck!
Me: Freak Drive.
Me: Callihan Bum's Rush (somewhat smaller Setite)
Prey: He has inferior fortitude?
Me: Yes.
Prey. Ok, not taking any chances. Wake and block.
Me: Sayshila plays Siren's Lure, superior.
Prey. WTF. Gimme that card! Fuck! Wake and block with weenie here. At least you can't go long with Unflinching. Now what?
Me: Concealed .44 Magnum. Go long.
Prey: Fuck! Oh well, next action?
Me: Wait, Sayshila still has a combat. She can go long with Unflinching.
Prey: Eh!!!!
Me: Death of the Drum. 2 agg.
Prey: Fuck!
Me: Sayshila bleeds you for three.
Prey: No block. Do you think I'm stupid?
Me: Aire of Elation, superior.
Prey: I hate you.

Later he did tempt my vamps for good result, but this early session was well worth it, and eventually I bled him out.

Funny, funny.

Swedish ECQ

2008-04-04T01:11:00.000+02:00

Ripping below directly from the USENET News group where Alex posted it:

Howdy!

So, here’s my report from the Swedish ECQ at the GothCon convention in Gothenburg. GothCon is rather famous for its strange climate. Lots of vtes players that only play one tournament event in a year usually shows leading to the quality of decks and play varying from really good to horribly bad (depending on how many experienced players you get at your tables). With this in mind (and also being unsure if I would be able to play or not) I decided to run with a “fun” deck and see what happens. The treaty of Laibach deck (looking rather similar to this deck list):

http://www.chestud.chalmers.se/~aek/Laibach.html

Round 1:
Me -> ??? (for/obf/pre voter) -> Tore (ani Danielle Diron wall) -> Baron Larvo von Totensson (Erik) (weenie aus) ->

Erik got a quick start (as you would expect by a weenie aus deck). I and Tore got a decent start. My prey however got a really slow start. I focused my energy on Erik and managed to block a few actions with cross table Rumor Mill help. I also got Erik to block some rather annoying actions I played backwards (young bloods, temptation, charnas IIRC). Still I got bled for a few pools (2-4) each turn. My prey got Pascek and Mukthar but got caught by Tore and suffered some serious damage (lucky for me, or my prey would have ran rather free). Tore, with his pred under control, started to move forwards and it got rather clear that Erik had no chance against ani combat. I also realized that I wouldn’t have a chance against Tore and wished him his demise.
Tore did however make some rather bold moves (probably he didn’t realize the nature of his predators’ deck) and got low on pool. This led to my prey being able to oust him. There was much rejoice… Sadly though my prey went through Erik too and the GW was gone. A combination of attrition permanents and temptations crushed my prey at this point. And even though he had lots of pool he never was a real threat. About 15 minutes later he was dead.

Me - 2 vp, ??? - 2 vp.

Round 2:
Me -> Robert (weenie !brujah voter) -> Mats ? (some kind of voter) -> Erik C (diversion weenies) -> Mike (weenie pot) ->

Yey, weenie pot predator. I’m dead. Well, at least this will be quick. Or so I thought. But a situation unfolded where Mats had the Sargon fragment and a DT. He used this to DT Roberts KRCs but let his Con Boons go. Mike didn’t have the rush to kill my vampires (or choose not to do it at that time). I did mention that mats should DT the Con Boons instead and thus I would be able to oust Robert. But he didn’t want to take the risk of getting multiple KRCs on him during the same turn. Thus the table got horribly unbalanced with no one except Mike being able to oust. Sadly for him he couldn’t do it quickly enough and Robert managed to get a horde into play.
After about 1 h, 20 min, of this annoying game I finally died. Apparently it played out in the following way.

Robert - 2 vp (gw), Mats - 1 vp, Erik C - 1 vp, Mike - 1 vp.

Round 3:
Me -> Karl (una twist) -> Henrik E (bima weenie) -> Marko (wallish pro !tor) -> Martin (IC vote) ->

This is probably one of the most hilarious vtes games I’ve ever played. Lots of insanity going on at this table. The first focus was Karl who got out Una and started the twist. A while into this round Henrik played a DI on a freak drive and Una stalled. The next round several Bima with the unmasking had him rather locked. In the mean time I had the pleasure of seeing both Arika and Leandro influenced by my predator. I felt doomed, but played on and got temptations on both.
At this point Henrik rushed Una with Nephren-Ka and got her into torpor by using a target vitals and I turned Frederick the Weak into a snake by use of Sets curse. My prey was dead, only problem was that he had ~12 pool and I had to focus on my friendly pred.
with the help of a temptation steal and a powerbase Montreal controlled by Marko I managed to get him to beat Arika into torpor and thus the pressure from my pred decreased a lot. He still had Leandro though and I feared an Anarchist uprising. I really had to oust quickly, preferably this round. But I could only bleed for 9, and Karl had 10 pools. I got an idea! I rescued Arika from Torpor, stole her, and she hunted. I played a second temptation on her and untapped her. Bleeding with a conditioning I managed to bleed Karl for exactly 10 and he died.
Marko finally managed to kill Martin but it was only about 5 minutes left. I desperately tried to cycle for a form of the serpent so I would be able to sneak a govern / conditioning bleed through the unmasking, using both mirror walk and form of the serpent for stealth. Sadly I never got one and the game went to time.

Me - 1,5 vp, Marko - 1,5 vp, Henrik - 0,5 vp.

So, no qualification for me. But I was happy. I had 2/3 fun games and managed to take 3,5 vp with The Treaty of Laibach deck. Not a completely bad day :D

The standings from the event can be found here: http://www.chestud.chalmers.se/~aek/ecq-standings.txt

Which means that the following players qualify:

1 Johannes Walch
2 Erik Torstensson
3 Anders Löf
4 Mathias Olsson
5 Robert Doktorow
6 Per Stening
7 Samuel Ericson
8 Hugh Angseesing
9 Henrik Klippström
10 Eric Cardell
11 Marko Lindroos

and

Head organizer: Sten Düring

That’s all for now!

Regards
Alex Ek
VEKN Prince of Gothenburg

Set phases to stun

2008-04-02T00:47:00.003+02:00

Or something...

From a heated conversation on the USENET News group for V:TES I got this idea of checking if I have my phases right, or if I need to get them set right.

Untap part of the untap phase
Untap phase
Master phase
Minion phase
After my actions are done during the Minion phase
Influence phase
Crypt minions with sufficient counters enters Ready region during Influence phase
End of Influence phase
Discard phase

The segments:

As card is played segment
Playing cards playable as card is played segment
Playing Reflex cards segment

Playing an action card segment
Waltzing through the succession of whose turn it is to react segment
Declaring the action segment
Playing action modifiers segment
Resolving blocks
Successful block segment
About to enter combat segment
Let's not look at the combat and its segments
Paying costs for successful action segment and resolve action segment
At the end of an action segment

Internal segments for political actions

Phases set to stun
ZZZZAT!
Segmentation fault
Core dumped

A kind of event report

2008-03-25T15:04:00.002+01:00

Our ECQ Easter weekend proceeded according to plan. As usual we ran a Friday draft tournament. This year we settled for a seven booster internal recursion draft. All boosters coming from Third Edition helped players creating decks resembling something consistent.
Two rounds plus a final round with ample room for a dinner break had players finishing early evening after which some casual games took place.
23 players was more than a decent turnout. We'll break thirty any decade now.

Saturday saw the main event. 41 players turned up to compete for eleven qualifying spots. A new high score for a Swedish tournament apart from the EC event. This forced us to place three tables in the corridor, but play didn't seem to get too disturbed by noise nonetheless. In fact, the classroom was the noisiest place despite lacking the horrible acoustics associated with a stone corridor.

I spent the day as main organiser and judge, something that gave me a good opportunity to watch what was played and how it was played. All in all the quality of the decks had sky rocketed, something that couldn't always be said for the handling of the cards. I saw opportunity after opportunity to grab a VP going out the window as too many players were more afraid of getting ousted than interested in getting a win. Despite this a mere seven out of 27 tables went to time, something that may have made this one of the hardest qualifiers ever. Highest scoring player failing to qualify got a respectable 1 GW 4.5 VP. Place eleven squeezed in due to better tournament points, and the top ten players all had 1 GW 5 VP, or better.

Still lacking the Archon I'm unable to provide you with a seating and list of names for the final table, but Johannes Walch from Germany won the event by getting the only oust that table generated before going to time.

Swedish ECQ captured

2008-03-25T14:36:00.009+01:00

Time for some visuals from the ECQ.

First a couple of shots from the Friday draft

Pre draft

The draft in progress

And then we proceed to the Saturday main event. A 41 player tournament requires its personnel, so of course I came prepared.

My assistant

The ECQ has started

With 41 players we had to locate three tables in the corridor

The final table

Another shot of the final table

And they say spring had come early this year...

Swedish ECQ Easter weekend finished

2008-03-23T18:47:00.002+01:00

As usual we ran the Swedish ECQ during the Easter weekend. The holiday has seen Gothenburg hosting the gaming convention Gothcon for over 30 years straight now. The convention as such has some 1500 unique visitors, but the V:TES tournaments we run have a more modest attendance.

23 players joined the Friday seven boster internal recursion draft.

41 joined the fray to compete for eleven qualifying spots.

All in all we had great fun, and when I receive more ordered information I'll give a more detailed account of what happened.

Swedish ECQ around the corner

2008-03-19T12:35:00.003+01:00

Come Easter we'll fight it over to see who'll join that quarter-club where members travel to Prague in September.

Friday is our annual pre-qualifier draft and Saturday is the big day. As usual we run the event on Gothcon, the oldest annual gaming-convention in the world.

I'm hoping for some forty players, but we'll see how many show up in the end.

Message to self

2008-03-11T23:29:00.003+01:00

Do not play first Sensory Deprivation forward. Repeat, do not...

It's funny how easy it is to forget some basic rules in the heat of a game. Unless under a distracting backwards pressure from your prey a big vampire, chimestry-based deck simply can't afford hulking forward from day go. Of course I forgot that, and of course my predator ousted me according to plan. Stupid.

Check library after changing crypt. Repeat, check...

This is another peculiar thing not to do. You realise that the average capacity of your non-trick deck is way, way to high and decide to rectify the problem. New problem being that a fair amount of the cards in your library depended on secondary disciplines and titles only available to the high capacity vampires that made up your previous crypt. Then you spend the game cycling in new vampire after new trying to fish for the non-existing ones that are able to play the cards in your hand. Stupid 2.

Daughters of Cacophony do not block. Repeat, Daughters...

Twelve wakes in a Daughter Anarch voting deck is overkill. Chances are that one wake is overkill. Cannot block vampires above capacity, has minus one intercept, etc, etc. What was I thinking? Stupid 3.

Father of the RPG passes away

2008-03-04T20:03:00.001+01:00

Below copied directly from the USENET News group:

Ernest Gary Gygax ( July 27, 1938 - March 4, 2008)
is best known as the author of the well known fantasy role-playing
game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), co-created with Dave Arneson and co-
published with Don Kaye in 1974 under the company Tactical Studies
Rules. Gygax is generally acknowledged as the father of the role-
playing game

He was diagnosed with an inoperable abdominal aortic aneurysm.
Gygax died on March 4th, 2008.

He passed away at 1am in his bed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gygax

While not technically about V:TES, the world of gaming and game
conventions owe a tremendous amount to him. I've had a ton of fun and
made a lot of friends playing D&D, and by extension all of the other
games I've played and the other people I've met as a result. Many,
many thanks, Mr. Gygax.

- Ben Peal

And so we ran a tournament

2008-02-17T13:14:00.002+01:00

Last Saturday, in fact.

Fourteen players, which is more than a decent turnaround for us, but then the hunt for new players really ought to pay off eventually.
Talking about hunting. I tried doing just that, something that turned out only partially effective. Small cap Sabbat obfuscate vampires, a crap load of Vessels and Minion Taps plus a healthy amount of Helicopters and hunting enchancers. The idea looked better than it was. My deck became horribly passive in the first half of the game -- not even a large chunk of Camera Phones made a major difference, apart from the one game when my navel gazing paid off and I ousted the two remaining players in rapid succession.

I guess it's time to return to the drawing board and see where I can combine efficiency with my hunt for hunts.

Tournament promo cards 2008

2008-02-05T09:32:00.000+01:00

Below copied from the USENET News, courtesy of TheLasombra:

http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/index.php?line=checklist_Promos

2008 Promo cards

Cloak of the Abalone (2008 Tournament promo)
Convergence (2008 Tournament promo)
Nergal (ADV) (2008 Tournament promo)
Path of the Void (2008 Tournament promo)
Reliquary: Shango Remains (2008 Tournament promo)
Sound of a Breaking Oath (2008 Tournament promo)
Treaty of Laibach (2008 Tournament promo)
Walks-with-Might (2008 Tournament promo)

Cloak of the Abalone [Promo-20080203]
Cardtype: Equipment
Unique equipment.
Toreador and Toreador antitribu cannot block this minion.
Artist: Brian LeBlanc

Convergence [LotN:Promo]
Cardtype: Master
Clan: Pander
Master.
Move 1 blood from each ready Pander you control to a Pander in your
uncontrolled region.
Artist: Brian LeBlanc

Nergal [Promo-20080203]
Cardtype: Vampire
Clan: Baali
Level: Advanced
Group: 5
Capacity: 10
Discipline: AUS DAI FOR OBF PRE THA
Independent: Reaction cards cost an additional blood when Nergal is
acting. Once each action, Nergal may burn 1 blood to get +1 stealth.
Infernal.
Artist: Ron Lemon

Path of the Void [Promo-20080203]
Cardtype: Master
Cost: 1 pool
Unique master. Path.
Put this card on a vampire you control. This vampire gets +1 stealth,
-1 bleed, and can inflict 1 damage on any minion as a (D) action.
During this vampire's untap phase, his or her controller must discard
a master card or tap this vampire. Burn this card if this vampire
commits diablerie. A vampire can have only one path.
Artist: Brian LeBlanc

Reliquary: Shango Remains [Promo-20080203]
Cardtype: Equipment
Clan: Assamite
Equipment.
Choose an Assamite in your ash heap or burn 1 pool to choose an
Assamite in your uncontrolled region. Remove that Assamite from the
game or burn this reliquary. Once per turn, if this Assamite is ready,
he or she may burn 1 blood to give you +2 hand size for the remainder
of the turn; this ability cannot be used during combat.
Artist: Andrew Trabbold

Sound of a Breaking Oath [Promo-20080203]
Cardtype: Action/Reaction
Discipline: Auspex & Dominate
[aus][dom] [ACTION] +1 stealth action. Put this card on a minion you
control. If an action to steal the minion with this card is
successful, this minion is burned instead and the acting minion takes
1 unpreventable damage.
[AUS][DOM] [REACTION] As above, but play when an action to steal a
minion you control is successful.
Artist: Jeff Laubenstein

Treaty of Laibach [Promo-20080203]
Cardtype: Master
Clan: Follower of Set/Tremere
Unique master. Requires both Follower of Set and Tremere.
Put this card in play. Each Follower of Set is considered to have a
level of Thaumaturgy [tha] equal to his or her level of Serpentis
[ser]. Each Tremere is considered to have a level of Serpentis equal
to his or her level of Thaumaturgy.
Artist: Torstein Nordstrand

Walks-With-Might [Promo-20080203]
Cardtype: Ally
Cost: 2 pool
Unique werewolf with 4 life. 0 bleed, 3 strength.
Master cards cost you an additional pool. Walks-With-Might gets +1
intercept against Followers of Set. Each strike or damaging effect
made against him inflicts 1 less damage on him.
Artist: Brian LeBlanc

An update on 2008 qualifier rules

2008-02-03T03:41:00.000+01:00

The all players tied for a qualifying spot has one caveat.

If a qualifier yields less than five qualifying spots according to the base rules, then that qualifier will yield exactly five qualifying spots.

Let me elaborate:

A sixteen player qualifier qualifier should yield four spots, but with the new rules it will yield five. This is true even if two or more players tie for the last place in the final round, so the coin-toss prior to the final round will determine who qualifies and who doesn't.

It should be noted, however, that I haven't dug up the information for what happens in the unlikely event that said sixteen player qualifier has three or more players tied for fourth place prior to the final round. My guess, but it is only a guess, is that all players so tied qualify. Ie, if there are ties for the last spot according to the base rules (25%, rounded up, qualify) then all thus tied qualify.

Organizers, start asking questions before you find yourself in the unenviable place of running this unlikely qualifier.

Championship qualifications 2008

2008-01-30T20:03:00.000+01:00

Below copied from the USENET News:

The 2008 qualifier system works the same as the 2007 system except for
one point:

All qualifier tournaments are handled equally regardless of order.
Players who qualify in one qualifier are not handled any differently
in other qualifiers.
They can continue to qualify in each qualifier in which they play.

So the business of figuring out who has already qualified (even if the
earlier qualifier's results haven't been reported) is eliminated.

The 5 finalists of each Continental Championship automatically qualify
for the next years Continental Championship for that region, as
usual.

Also note that, as in years past, if multiple players tie for a
qualifier spot, then all the tied players qualify. This is true for
the new 2008 rule for finals (tie for 2nd).

So if a qualifier has 12 players (3 qualifying spots), then all
finalists qualify (everyone who finishes in 1st or 2nd place).

An example:

Adam - 1st place => qualify.
Bruce - 2nd place (tie) => qualify
Bonnie - 2nd place (tie) => qualify
Bob - 2nd place (tie) => qualify
Brian - 2nd place (tie) => qualify
Fred - 6th place => doesn't qualify

Robyn Tatu
vtesratings@white-wolf.com

New mini expansion

2008-01-29T18:57:00.001+01:00

Below copied directly from the USENET News:

http://white-wolf.com/vtes/index.php?line=news&articleid=880

VTES: Twilight Rebellion Booster Pack and Display(tm)
Tentative release date on May 31st.

Nothing is safe!

The Anarchs seek to disrupt the resurgence of the Sabbat and
Independents. It's all on the line and the Anarchs have nothing to
lose. This is a booster-only VTES expansion with 60 brand new cards,
supporting the Anarchs game mechanic.

VTES Twilight Rebellion Booster Display:
Stock #: WWP02788
ISBN: X978-158846-496-5
Retail Price: $107.64 US
Contents: Contents: 36 booster packs.

VTES Twilight Rebellion Booster Pack:
Stock #: WWP02789
ISBN#: 978-158846-497-2
Retail Price: $2.99 US
Contents: Contents: 11 all-new cards.

Details about the VTES: Twilight Rebellion Launch Kit will be
available soon.

Two Mondays later

2008-01-23T22:58:00.000+01:00

Seven players and then seven and a half. A half? Well, it seems we are about to drag a friend of ours into the vice of painted cards. Bea and I spent a game with him going through the basics. Untap, master, minion, influence and discard. After a few rounds he got the gist of it at which time I got caught bleeding him. Prerange, maneouver, prestrike, strikedeclaration, strikeresolution, additionals, press, end-of-combat.
After Bea ousted me they dunked it out, and by that time he had started to grasp the resource-angle of the game. At the time he ousted her clans, sects, cardtypes and the concept of superior and inferior disciplines were clear.

Learning the three and a half thousand cards by heart is a lesson we'll leave for another day.

My lesson? Regular play at a regular place. Mondays -- Scotsman is a mantra know to our group. Tournaments the second Saturday every month is another, even though maybe not as firmly established, but well known enough to have people ask when the next tournament is at the end of each month.

Regularity keeps a player-region healthy, wealthy and undead.

Fun tournament and new faces

2008-01-14T00:24:00.000+01:00

Last Saturday saw two new (or rather renewed) players join us for our monthly sanctioned battles. That nets us three new players in less than six months. Add one player who vanished from our playgroup a couple of years ago and it would seem we're doing well here.
A collective groan echoed from eight experienced players, something we had to explain to the remaining three, and thus did we start our eleven player tournament.

I played a DEM/OBF/Black Hand deck, that needs minor tweaking, only to find out that of eleven players no less than four played Black Hand decks.

A measly 2.5 VP was enough to get me to the finals where I was quickly bled to death, but crap happens, and I had no less a good time for that mishap.

Now, what is the important part of this article? My reflecting on a rather lacklustre performance? Of course not!

New players! Our stubborn refusal to give up our weekly pub games are paying off. People have jobs and interests that conflict with gaming, but sometimes the need for cards in your hands return. The existence of a weekly event is vital at that moment. We got a question if we were still playing Mondays and could respond in the affirmative. A few weeks later a couple of new players were becoming part of the regular set.

Are those Mondays fabulous? Not really. The last year we struggled with four players occasionally becoming three and as often five. Now we seem to be a solid six with hopes of getting a weekly group of eight. Still nothing major, but it keeps the game alive.

The demographics of this game are peculiar. We're an old lot for being gamers. An adult environment may be a problem for attracting young players, but are those really the most likely ones? I doubt that. The complexity combined with the need to raise a fair stock of cards to really begin playing makes for a hefty beginner's threshold. Tough for both your brain and wallet in the beginning, but after the initial stock at least pricing is not really a major concern.

Another fun thing with the returnees from 1994 -1995. They don't seem to be religiously attached to anything special. Changes in card design, errata and new rules -- they don't care much. They have no illusions about changes in a game they dropped twelve years ago.

White Wolf confirms the expansion

2008-01-11T13:55:00.000+01:00

Walking away to White Wolf's announcement you should find the info you want.

In short:
Late April, and the expansion is the 100 Cam Ed vampires only.
Each box holds those 100 vampires, so buying a display box seems excessive unless you didn't have any copies at all to begin with.
The physical boxes containing the cards seems to be something extra as well. Speculations are that it could be tin-boxes like with the Tenth Anniversary Expansion, but these are speculations only.
Marcus Vitel with new art.

On a new expansion

2008-01-10T01:58:00.000+01:00

I picked this up on the Newsgroup, courtesy of TheLasombra. His post below:

More details about Blood Shadowed Court have surfaced, this time on
Potomac's site.

http://www.potomacdist.com/detail.asp?ItemId=vampesbsccsb&a=

Vampire: The Eternal Struggle CCG Blood Shadowed Court Collector Set
Box [6 sets]
This is a pre-order item. Our expected ship date is April 30.
Our Price: $38
Cards/Deck: 100
Decks/Box: 6
Boxes/Case: -
Manufacturer: White Wolf Publishing
Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price Per Pack: $9.99
Weight: 4.49 lbs.
Description: Each display box contains six 100-card decks/sets. The
Blood Shadowed Court Collector Set includes 100 reprints of Camarilla
Edition vampires.

Site mishap

2008-01-07T16:41:00.000+01:00

It would seem we've forgotten to renew the domain for another year. We'll fix it as soon as possible.

Checking precons

2007-12-26T16:17:00.000+01:00

Bea and I haven't laid our hands on very many of the cards from Lords of the Night. Thus it was with a certain glee I broke open one starter each of Followers of Set and Giovanni my sister and her boyfriend handed me as Christmas presents.

I am happy to see that they were as well composed as the Assamite and Ravnos starter I knew from earlier, even though it came as a bit of a surprise to notice that the scary Setite engine lay hidden in the Giovanni starter. Three copies of Reckless Agitation means that two Gio starters and a healthy amount of cards from the Third Edition base expansion should be enough to create a truly dangerous Setite voter.

All in all I wasn't much surprised by the contents of the Giovanni starter. Bruise bleed plus a number of token cards a player should normally remove from the starter if he or she wants to build a deck around it but lacks cards from previous independent expansions. The very same token cards make a welcome addition to those of us with a healthy, albeit not absurd, stack of cards from Final Nights, Ancient Hearts and Dark Sovereigns.

It is all too easy for us to forget that the increase in numbers of players come at the expense of those players having little or no access to cards printed during the last millennium.

As for the Setite deck, Wash was an especially welcome inclusion. The few new library cards in each base expansion always pose a problem for old players. Not that we in reality are any worse off than new ones, but we tend to notice what we lack and forget what we have. A number of boxes later of each base expansion makes us forget that staples like media locations, unique weapons and retainers are really cards in the rare slot. We only see the disturbing lack of, especially, uncommon cards only releases in a base expansion, as we compare the few copies we receive with the dozens we have of other uncommon cards.
All in all the focus on stealing vampires and bleeding at stealth was a good choice. Yet another presence voter would have been one too many. It matters little that that was exactly what I had expected.

More bashing

2007-12-18T21:33:00.000+01:00

Tried a Black Hand obf/dem deck. Managed to get all of one VP, but I'm not entirely positive that your average prey can soak 35 pool of successful bleeds before oust. The next stunt were daughters on a tour of reckless agitation. Works so-so. Ousted before I could oust, but I believe the deck merits a reconfiguration to be tried once more. I really need to do something about bleed defence.

Scotsman

2007-12-12T23:53:00.000+01:00

Our weekly pubgames saw me utterly destroyed, well, one entire VP, but you know the feeling. Still, I had good beer, good whisky and, above all, a couple of good games.
Best news of all: three new (returnees from ye olde days) faces of which one participated. Are we adding new players to our local playgroup? Something must be new under the sun after all.

I have just one recommendation: Enkidu dislikes a predatory Lazverinus on a multirushing spree. Avoid playing Enkidu in such company -- I didn't.

Bloody wonderful

2007-12-10T11:56:00.000+01:00

The new tournament rules are published.

Gotta love these ones:

Changes from the January 1, 2007 rules

* 3.7.5 All non-winning finalists tie for 2nd place.
* 4.1 Added three cards to the banned list: Edge Explosion, Memories of Mortality, and Protect Thine Own.
* 161 Splitting prizes is prohibited.
* Ratings Each tied-for-second finalist receives the same number of Ratings Points: 30. (The winner still receives 90).

Let's take them one by one and see how they impact the game.

The last one follows logically from the first, and, honestly, in what alternate universe did ratings the game?

To the first change then: Coin toss winners of tournaments -- bye bye. Table splitting deals -- bye bye. Finalists grabbing for VP could -- GASP -- become the normative behavior.

Prohibiting prize splitting. Well, this one was about a decade overdue. It's the principle of it rather than the vast amount of splits I have really witnessed, by which I mean I have only seen it happen once or twice.

Now to the changes that have garnered the most attention on the USENET news group. Three more cards added to the list of banned cards.

PTO was always a problematic card, and I'm not entirely positive an errata would have been enough unless you wanted to make the card utterly useless.

MoM was a surprise. Banning it certainly hoses allied based decks. MoM is, however, a card I believe could have seen successful errata, but I really can't say that the banning of this card is something I'll take note of in a negative way.

EE needed to be removed. It had to go to enable future diversity with the Imbued. By taking that card away the road is opened for more Imbued crypt cards and library cards based on virtues and creeds, and this is something I believe is a good thing.

Bloody awful

2007-11-29T22:10:00.000+01:00

Tried an Assamite toolbox. That was a disaster. Not enough stealth to get through, not enough intercept to catch anything, not enough combat to survive and not enough bleed to make any perceptible damage. It was, all in all, one of the worst decks I have ever built.

Stasis

2007-11-22T13:39:00.000+01:00

New cards, new ideas, and yet but a couple of decks made.

The so called real world has taken its toll and I do not know when I will have the time to concentrate fully on exploring the opportunities given by the latest expansion. Truth to be told neither Bea nor I have gained access to most of the new cards, and with only the backbone for building a few Ravnos and Assamite decks things simply have not been as fun as they ought to be.

Yes, yes, I'm whining. I know.

And stay down!

2007-10-31T12:42:00.000+01:00

I rather recently had a pretty interesting experience with Hazimel and a few followers of his. In the end my reluctance to kill an almost dead predator robbed me of the game, but still.

There's no end to the fun you can have with Nightmare Curse, Sensory Deprivation, Faatus Mastery and an obscene amount of Freak Drives. Considering that I nailed six vampires to the table, all belonging to my Setite predator, it can safely be assumed that I spend most of the game going upstream. That still didn't prevent me from succesfully bleeding my prey for eighteen pool before I was eventually ousted.

Clan Ravnos has surely learned how to bleed.

Bleed you to death

2007-10-19T11:11:00.000+02:00

That was fun.

I crammed together what kind of looks like a group 1/2 Malk bleeder. You know the kind which relies fully on Govern and has very little extra in the way of action modifiers to boost the bleeds. Then I brought said deck to our weekly pubgames, infamous for combat as they are.

Now, did I temporarily go insane?

The slight deviation from the archetypal Malkavian deck was, of course, that I built mine with the new Assamites and the few new cards we have obtained. Bleeding for three, and occasionally four, is punishing enough, but the Assamites can allow themselves to get caught, set the range to long and burn down the offending opposition. So I did and there was much rejoicing.

Another detail I saw, after completing the game successfully, was how the Assamites lend themselves to a blocking deck. I, on the other hand, had only crammed in eight copies of Telepathic Misdirection and reveled in Masassi finally getting much needed company. I stared at the basic Obfuscate and little else. Still, built in rush with an optional maneuver is good to have when you plan to aggravate the target from long range.

Now, an all blocking assamite, with several vampires to pick from. Deranged is the world.

Interesting expansion

2007-10-01T09:33:00.000+02:00

Having played at the release event here in Gothenburg I can only say that this seems to be a very interesting expansion.

Th ally hatred is prevalent, and I personally think that this is good for the game. Now I only hope for at least twice as many Imbued as the twenty we have now and the accompanying 80 library cards. Knowing beforehand that an ally deck is likely to hit my table during a tournament makes me bring the needed tech.

I've only seen clan Ravnos and Assamites close up. More stealth and block deny for the ravnos -- not much to say about that. The Assamites, though, wow! Intercept and bleed and general mayhem.

I'll lay my hands on the Giovanni and Setites to get a look for myself. They little I saw of them was mostly a pathetic whimpering, even though the Giovanni tried their tired bleeding as usual.

On not timing out

2007-09-26T09:46:00.000+02:00

From what little I have read three hour final table time limits were used during the NAC. Even though games went on until the very last moment apparently no final round timed out. That is a huge difference from the EC.

So, went on until the very last moment. Where's the difference in that? There is, trust me. The difference between almost timed out and timed out is all the difference there needs to be. No more borderline unsportsmanlike conduct pushing time towards the two hour time limit using the weak excuse that it is good strategy.

Now, if the standard tournament rules were changed in order to reflect this I would be very, very satisfied.

Good call, NAC-organisers!

North American Championships finished

2007-09-24T16:32:00.001+02:00

It would seem that Ben Peal won with a Daughters of Cacophony deck. This is as of yet unverified information. I guess we'll know more within the next few days.

WW open letter

2007-09-21T18:20:00.000+02:00

Open letter from White Wolf in response to a long conversation in the USENET News group. I'm giving it in full below:

Dear Fans,

I've been reading the forums and receiving notes from Johannes and Ben
and you are right to call us out on our shortcomings. The North
American Championship and Lords of the Night edition have not received
the level of support from us that they should have. Even though we've
raced to address the obvious oversights, I still feel as though we're
under servicing these events. Further, I agree that we have not, as a
company overall, given this product and it's fans the level of support
it deserves. As the president of the company, I take responsibility
for this.

VTES' story is an incredible one. This product has survived a name
change, a discontinuation, and intermittent support from us here at
White Wolf. I would not concede that White Wolf has consistently
performed poorly in regards to VTES. We took a financial risk when we
reinvigorated the game, and we've invested well in excess of the
recent EVE marketing budget in the care and feeding of VTES over the
years. I would agree though that we've not really stepped up to the
plate and matched your, VTES fans', efforts. Hiring a member of the
VTES community to support the organized play was a good first step,
but it should not be our last.

I want to also touch briefly of VTES' place in our newly merged
company. CCP, CCP North America and White Wolf have two flagship
brands: EVE and World of Darkness. Within the World of Darkness, the
Vampire brand is our leading brand. Vampire the Requiem, Vampire the
Masquerade and Vampire the Eternal Struggle all have their place as
part of our leading Vampire brand. Currently both Vampire the Requiem
and Vampire the Eternal Struggle are active brands with active
products. Products associated with these two active sub brands receive
marketing dollars, and personnel attention and support. In short, VTES
is a part of our award winning Vampire property and still of great
importance to us. It has not been diminished as part of the merger.

In the weeks following the North American Championship we will be re-
evaluating our approach regarding VTES. Many of the challenges facing
VTES are complicated by the emerging dynamic between online and brick
and mortar retailers. We also need to examine how we develop and
support this product in house along with how we bring it to market. We
need to reach an internal like mindedness on our goals for/
expectations of this product. VTES has a lot of rare qualities that
will make some of these discussions and decisions quite difficult.
These are however the same qualities that we feel make VTES an
exceptional game, and one deserving of our support and attention.

To those that have recognized the improvements we have made in
supporting VTES, I thank you. We will however be looking closely at
VTES and looking at ways we can continue to improve our service to you
guys. In the meantime for those of you at the North American
Championship, share your thoughts and feedback with Oscar. Try to make
your comments constructive, and comprehensive (tell us about the
things you think we're doing right too). I'd very much like for this
next step in the process to be a 2 way street.

Best Regards,
Mike Tinney
President
CCP North America
President
White Wolf Publishing

Latest preview and a smile

2007-09-19T17:23:00.000+02:00

Ambulance
Vehicle
1 pool
After a combat between this acting minion and a blocking minion, you may tap
the Ambulance to continue the action as if unblocked. If the action is
blocked again, burn this card. This minion may tap the Ambulance to attempt
to burn an incapacitated imbued as a +1 stealth action. A minion may have
only one vehicle.

I have to admit that this card put a great smile on my face. Not only is it a decently good card, especially for the type of decks specializing in block-denial. A nice extra stealth and no damage for eating Imbued was a nice touch as well.

Kind of like a nice Twilight Zone scenario. Lying incapacitated in the back of the ambulance with the monster at the wheel. Heh.

Star vampires

2007-09-17T16:32:00.000+02:00

It would seem we're about to see a number of star vampires in this new expansion.

What I personally think is more important is the possibility of seeing old star vampires hitting the tables in the future. By old i mean those fatties which looked good in theory but eventually had to be abandoned due to lack of bounce and/or intercept.

I am waiting for reactions on tables world wide. "Can you do that?" And the answer really is that you always could, provided your predator didn't bleed you.

As a side note it is fun to see how people have only thought about Assamites with the new Quietus combat card. Kerrie requires Laibon. It has to be good to be able to circumvent maneuvers with an, effectively, unpreventable melee weapon strike.

Follow-up on Power Cards

2007-09-12T20:01:00.000+02:00

It has to be more than a coincidence.

Today's preview falls solidly into one category of cards I forgot to mention, namely the so called bounce cards.

Superior Auspex or dominate in any form. Does that sound familiar?

Lost in Translation.

Discipline less bounce at two blood. Younger vamps or allies only, and if it's DI:ed you're screwed as only one may be played per action. Important limitation, as you can't send forward that bleed for six that just got sent your way.

Still. Discipline less bounce!

There are all kinds of decks that looked good in theory but had to be abandoned because they get bled to death before they start working. Time to revisit them again, I guess.

High cap without AUS, dom or a shitload of intercept. Yummy!

On power cards

2007-09-11T19:36:00.000+02:00

I just read through an article in Extrala's blog.

I can see the reasoning behind the choice. I also disagree.

The most powerful cards in the game are rule breakers. They're so powerful that most players don't even think of them as powerful cards.

My list would be:

The three "wake" cards, possibly adding the replacements (Second Tradition, etc) not everyone can use.

Any card that moves counters into your pool. I represent them with Minion Tap and Blood Doll, as they are the archetypes. Alternatives, unavailable to everyone, would be Con Boon -type of cards or cards pushing blood-counters to your uncontrolled region.

Sure, I know, the standard counter argument is that: 'These are staple cards.' Yes they are -- because they break the rules and by doing so are indeed more powerful than any other cards in the game.

The rules? Yes. A minion who has acted is not available for reaction, and pool moves from you to the table. Play some draft tournaments without base set boosters (Camarilla Edition, Third Edition, etc) and this should immediately become clear.

Nailing them to the floor

2007-09-11T19:07:00.000+02:00

I had some fun nailing minions to the floor with a deck featuring three Hazimel and three Sha-Ennu. It's simply incredible how cheap it is to do this with a Path and double copies of Faatus Mastery.

Being able to Freak Drive between Nightmare Curse and Sensory Deprivation made it possible to shut down a weenie obfuscate deck to my right. I've never paid too much attention to Sensory Deprivation as the card usually only manages to screw one player's game up without moving the acting player any closer to a VP. Now, with two vampires able to play both NC and SD at superior (preferably Hazimel) totally shutting a deck down becomes a viable option.

Why would you want to shut a deck down, and why would that be good? Well, usually I doubt that this is is a good idea to begin with, unless of course, the deck in question is something that must be removed from the table.

However, in this case the sheer time it takes to bring a capacity eleven vampire into play makes it likely that you've already brought a smaller one up first for some defence. This also translates into your prey, most probably, being rather low on pool before you even had a chance to tamper with it.

What difference does this make? Well, disabling your prey from round three or so creates a monster grand prey, and you'll most likely end up getting one VP while defending yourself against a predator who in turn lacks a predator. Comes the knee-jerk reaction I've seen too often -- disabling the predator as well. Needless to say this scenario usually ends with your grand prey getting four VP and you one.

Now, decapitating your prey after he/she has been kind enough to go down to, let's say, 13 pool, is a different animal altogether. You're two, maybe three turns, from ousting. This is not enough for your grand prey to turn into a monster.

A pity I all too seldom follow this advice myself...

Contest fest

2007-09-08T20:36:00.000+02:00

We had a small tournament today -- only seven players showing up as a hefty part of our playgroup were out of town.

Two BP decks, both featuring Arika with more than one copy of her. Another two decks featuring Arika. Ok, she's a popular vamp, but really, what are the chances?

Pubgames and tournaments

2007-09-04T22:18:00.000+02:00

I used to play chess as a kid and a teenager.

Closely related to chess are variants you play for fun, and we all knew that those variants tended to give you bad habits which were difficult to get rid off. They stuck to you like a bad smell and most likely cost you at least one game during a tournament.

Sometimes I wonder if the same can be said for pubgames in V:TES. Not that I plan to stop attending to our weekly pubgames any time soon, but still I wonder. You see, with a beer handy combat is simply so much more fun to play that most decks. By combat I mean decks that really can dunk opposing minions. That kind of makes it mandatory to think dunk or be dunked whenever you show up to a pubgame.

Now dunking isn't the same as ousting. Of course dunking as a method for ousting is one archetypical deck, but during a pubgame cards like Fame and her ilk just take up valuable space which could be used for more reliable dunking. I am the first to agree that minions burn and get binned with the most satisfying ZZzzzt or Thud during our pubgames, and it feels so good listening to that sound. Still, well sounding or not, it doesn't oust.

So I wonder. Pub decks and tournament decks. Maybe there should be a difference between the two. Maybe, but there is that sound -- even during a tournament.

Like or not like

2007-09-01T23:12:00.001+02:00

I'm referring to the upcoming expansion. Well, the answer is probably: like. We are card starved fanatics after all.

I'm looking forward to the new expansion for more than one reason, though. A full set of indies means a full set of the last type of vampires still mostly seen with the old layout during any one game. That is one problem less, for me at least. You see, I still have problems seeing what clan and sect a vampire from the four independent clans belongs to if it is printed with the new layout.

As for playing the game I'm looking forward to the theoretical opportunity of playing non-bleeding Giovanni, non-breeding Ravnos and, well, Assamites. Setites have been playable for some time, and by playable I mean that the other players don't know exactly what deck you're playing the moment Setite number one hits the table.

So, all in all, I'm looking forward to the new expansion.

Weirdness that didn't work

2007-08-28T09:12:00.000+02:00

Thought I should try a Baltimore Purge deck. Thought I'd try it out with Enkidu, loads of Gangrel Conspiracy, Rebirth and Vulnerability. Splash in some Forced March, stealth and combat.

Two games when I got absolutely nowhere. To add insult to the pain, I never saw a copy of BP. Gah!
There is bad and outright awful, and getting everything torporised by my Setite predator belongs to the latter. Who plays rushing Setites beefed up with Inspire Greatness and Trap? Oh, my wife, who else?

So I guess I have to reconstruct the deck. There's still something appealing about an Enkidu BP deck.

The idiot's guide to ousting

2007-08-24T14:09:00.000+02:00

An idiot's guide requires an idiotic setup.

After the EC I stumbled into a conversation about how to automatically oust a player. The topic was based on Condemnation: Doomed and Meld with the Land.

Cardname: Condemnation: Doomed
Cardtype: Action
Set: BL
Discipline: Daimoinon/Obfuscate
Cardtext: +1 stealth action. Condemnation.
[obf] (D) Tap a younger vampire.
[dai] Requires an Infernal vampire. (D) Put this card on a ready minion. The minion with this card has -1 stealth. Burn all other Condemnations on this minion.
[DAI] As [dai] above, and the minion's controller burns 1 pool each time the minion is successfully blocked.

So, we want an empty vampire belonging to our prey that needs to hunt, a way of blocking said vampire, end combat and untap the opposing minion. It would need to hunt again, and, well, there you go.

Meld with the Land was an interesting card as it had no cost to play, but, alas, you would need a seemingly endless supply of wakes and Meld with the Land.

Now, the vampire Henry Taylor neatly removes one half of that problem.

Cardname: Henry Taylor
Cardtype: Vampire
Set: BH
Sect: Sabbat
Group: 3
Clan: Brujah antitribu
Capacity: 6
Discipline: cel POT pre pro
Cardtext: Sabbat: After an action, you may move a combat card Henry played during that action from your ash heap to the top of your library.

Still, the sheer amount of wakes needed killed the idea.

Another card was mentioned, namely Bond with the Mountain.

Cardname: Bond with the Mountain
Cardtype: Combat
Set: BL
Cost: 1 blood
Discipline: Thaumaturgy/Visceratika
Cardtext: [tha] Strike: dodge, with an optional press.
[vis] Strike: combat ends. Untap both combatants.
[VIS] Strike: combat ends. Untap this vampire.

A pity that it costs a blood to play.

At this time two cards came to the resque. Ankara Citadel and Eye of Hazimel both neatly sidesteps this problem.

Cardname: The Ankara Citadel, Turkey
Cardtype: Equipment
Set: AH, CE
Clan: Tremere
Cost: 2 blood
Cardtext: This equipment card represents a unique location and does not count as equipment while in play.
The vampire with this location pays only half of the blood cost for any cards he or she plays (round down).

Cardname: Eye of Hazimel
Cardtype: Equipment
Set: Promo
Cost: 3 pool
Cardtext: Unique equipment.
The minion with this equipment gets +1 bleed and +1 strength. This minion may enter combat with any minion controlled by another Methuselah as a (D) action. If this minion is a vampire, he or she has superior Potence [POT] and superior Chimerstry [CHI], and combat cards cost this vampire 1 less blood to play. While the bearer is ready, this equipment cannot be transferred, moved or stolen. If this equipment is burned, this minion takes 5 unpreventable damage. During your untap phase, burn 1 pool or burn this equipment.

Ankara Citadel requires you to Clan Impersonation into clan Tremere.

Cardname: Clan Impersonation
Cardtype: Action
Set: AH, CE
Cost: 2 blood
Cardtext: +1 stealth action.
Choose a clan and put this card on the acting vampire. This vampire is considered to be of the chosen clan instead of his or her original clan (if any). This vampire can burn this card as an action.

Being a standard action card this seemed to be an overly shaky route to the promised land of idiotic tricks, so we agreed upon Eye of Hazimel.

Still, we're far from done yet. The Textbook Damnation is needed for Henry to be allowed to play Condemnation: Doomed.

Cardname: The Textbook Damnation
Cardtype: Equipment
Set: KMW
Cost: 1 pool
Cardtext: Unique equipment.
The vampire with this equipment has superior Daimoinon [DAI] and is infernal. Cards that require Daimoinon [dai] cost this vampire 2 less blood to play. During your master phase, if this vampire is tapped, burn this equipment.

It comes with the added benefit that Henry, once equipped, is both infernal and has Daimonion at superior.

Remains to be able to play a card that requires Visceraktika at inferior. There are a few ways to handle this problem. Spontaneous Power solves it once and for all.

Cardname: Spontaneous Power
Cardtype: Master
Set: Promo
Cost: 2 pool
Cardtext: Unique master.
Put this card on a vampire and choose a Discipline. This vampire gains 1 level of the chosen Discipline. While in play, this card counts as a master: Discipline card.

Still, it is a master card, which adds to the dilemma of setting up the insanity quickly enough. I would recommend Vial of Elder Vitae instead as we obviously decided that a lot of equipment is the way to go.

Cardname: Vial of Elder Vitae
Cardtype: Equipment
Set: CE, DS
Cost: 1 pool
Cardtext: Equipment.
The vampire with this equipment may burn this card to gain 1 level of any one Discipline until your next untap phase. The vampire cannot choose a Discipline he or she already has at the superior level.

So, off you go to the land of madness. If you use Vast Wealth

Cardname: Vast Wealth
Cardtype: Master
Set: Third, CE, Jyhad, VTES
Cardtext: Master.
Put this card on a ready minion you control. While you control this minion, this minion can equip with the first piece of equipment you find in your library (working down from the top) as a +1 stealth action. Pay cost as normal. Shuffle afterward.

or Inconnu Tutelage,

Cardname: Inconnu Tutelage
Cardtype: Event
Set: Third
Cardtext: Inconnu.
A Methuselah may spend four transfers and remove a vampire in his or her uncontrolled region from the game to search for any card in his or her library and put it in his or her hand (discarding and shuffling afterward).

or both, to speed up Henry's equipping with the needed locations is up to you. I would recommend both as poor Henry could do the needed equipping by means of Vast Wealth while you dig up the required two copies of Bond with the Mountain for the ousting loop to work.

Good luck and may your next prey not be an Imbued deck.

Crunching data

2007-08-23T16:28:00.001+02:00

I have just finished a first iteration of collecting the data from the questionnaire we distributed during the EC. I won't go into any details as it needs to be analysed and presented in a more readable format.

Still, 84 out of some 130 possible players (we distributed them during round three Sunday) answered. Thank you all! The information is invaluable. All in all responses were on average positive.

We will make the data (minus any names) available when we're done crunching it. You will have access to the good as well as the bad.

Once again, thank you all for taking the time to fill it out.

Random memories from an event

2007-08-21T14:50:00.001+02:00

Last night Bea and I headed down to Scotsman for our weekly pub game. As it turned out we were the only ones doing so, and as this game is poorly suited for duels we brought out my laptop and started working on the post event documentation of this year's EC.

I won't go into the results -- those will be made public when we are done. I will, however, take a short trip through memory lane, now that I have two weeks' worth of distance from the EC.

Running a week of side events was a good idea. I firmly believe in it. Running said week after the EC was not such a good idea, though. With the current format players need to take Thursday, Friday and Monday off to participate in the EC, and I assume that is the case for the NAC as well. By placing the attached week prior to the main event we ask players to take an extra three days off rather than an extra four.
Having the championship as the grand finale to a week is another reason for placing side events prior to the main attraction. The pub games during Monday would probably have gathered more or less the same amount of players anyway as flights tend to be cheaper Tuesday through Thursday.

As it was we had players dropping in one by one or in groups to the gathering during Thursday, and I believe having had the staff warmed up by handling stupid mistakes happening during side events before the EC would have been helpful. Now most of you coming to the place, kudos for finding it at all, were in a good mood, including those who arrived too late to take part of the Duffin Draft.

So I remember people shouting: 'Hi! I haven't seen you since...' and 'Do you remember when...' all the time. There was the usual bragging and drinking, and of course casual games.

I also recall arriving to the main venue loaded with network equipment, a printer, a laptop and a number of cables and printouts. We made good use of the fact that the public cafeteria was open during Friday, maybe too good use. Saturday and Sunday would have no such luxuries, and we had to supply you players with cans of soft drinks, coffee and tea. Light food was, unfortunately, out of the question. Maybe if we had charged higher prices to allow for snacks to be bought and thrown away after the event, but that is hypothetical.

I remember Alex' face when he announced that the city was to dig up all the tram tracks running just outside the venue. From being one of the easiest accessible places in Gothenburg it went to a maze of mysterious extra buses taking strange routes before finally arriving at the venue.

I can't help but smiling at the thought of Bea's adamant statement on how many cans we needed for sales during the EC. I believe we started replacing the stock as early as Saturday. Coffee and tea were in surplus though.

I recall taking a breath of relief when my sister, Keiko, decided to run our impromptu cafeteria and adjacent sales. That took care of a huge logistic problem. So did Erca's and Stoffe's ad-hoc daycare centre. It'll take a few years still before Simone can join this type of event without being part of the infrastructure that needs solving. If I recall correctly our little daughter tried crawling all over Archie and Hultin as well.

My main impression of the event was the deathly silence. Sure, bedlam for the last fifteen minutes of each round until we decided to boot out players after they finished, but for an hour and a half each round the venue was silent. One other impression comes from after the EC proper. Chatting with Pierre we ventured into the area of meta game. I'm pretty certain that meta game is going to be a hot topic for a while. Prague is rumoured to host bloody games.

We had some long walks to get lunch, but an hour and a half proved to be enough. Still, I wonder how prepared the players really were for all that walking. Walking is something we take for granted here in Gothenburg, but maybe that is not the case everywhere. We also had our local opening hours for restaurants. An invisible problem for one living here. Do people really want to eat after midnight? Apparently so.

We had the noise of a normal EC during the pub games come Monday. Beer and cards proved to be ample debriefing for several of our visitors, and they got some proper food to go with their drinks this time.

Playing outdoors, as we did Tuesday and Thursday, was a great experience. At least for someone who actually likes being outdoors. Not everyone does, but hey, we did flag it as V:TES in the Sun.

Doing non-vtes stuff was a good break as well. It's fun playing, but just idling away time while comparing experiences is as good a way to spend time, if not better.

Would I do all this again? Well, not any time soon, not on this scale at least, but a decade from now? Who knows?

Colours, colours

2007-08-20T13:29:00.000+02:00

Red? No, already have that. Green? Hmm, must check. Yes, dark green is ok. Only have light green. So, yellow there and blue there.

Am I gone mad? No, not really, at least not any more insane than most of you reading this blog.

I am migrating our V:TES cards from plastic collectable cards (you know, the Ultra Pro stuff) binders to old style office binders. Of course I never bother to write down what kind of binders I have already bought when I enter the book store. Hence my confusion when I make my pick of another six binders.

The office style binders are plain, boring and absolutely perfect. With backs in clear colours seeing what cards are where has become so much easier. Red -- Camarilla vampires, green -- independents, and so on. I am almost done with action cards, only two more dark green binders, and I know I need two grey ones for equipment cards so I guess I'll either have two blue ones for masters or two yellow ones for combat dependent on what they have in store.

Keeping the cards in binders is both a blessing and a curse. Some cards are easy to divide, and it'll take a long time before one binder isn't enough for keeping vampires from one clan in it.

Master cards, on the other hand, is pure hell. I already have one non-clan-dependent-master-location binder. A few days ago I split the bulging master-generic binder into two, so now I have one non-clan-dependent-transient binder and one non-location-non-unique-non-sect-non-clan-dependent-persistent binder. Trifles are in one, clan-dep locations in one and other clan-dep masters in another. Bea doesn't have many nice things to say about my ad-hoc system for subdividing the cards.

As of now there only remain twenty one plastic binders to be replaced. With some luck thirty of the thinner office type ones will do the trick -- only to leave me swearing when Lords of the Night arrives only to make one or two binders overflow, forcing me to subdivide the cards yet one more time.

More actions win

2007-08-16T12:42:00.000+02:00

It's an old strategy. On average it's true as well. So we either go with weenies or with multiple actions. By weenie I'll accept anything where you count on bringing a new minion to the table for each of the four first turns with four transfers.

Let's have a look at the last twenty tournament winning decks displayed on the TWDA at The Lasombra.

Three Imbued decks, which qualifies as weenies. Five vampire based decks with an average capacity just above four.

What about the other twelve decks?

Ten could untap and take another action by means of either Freak Drive or Majesty, or created new vampires, which in itself moves it closer to the weenie archetype.

Two decks left. One of smallish capacity with 19 out of 90 cards being reaction cards and another mid cap deck with 24 out of 90 cards being reaction cards.

I can't say that I am surprised. The problem here begins with disciplines fortitude and presence being overrepresented. Fortitude definitely has a tendency to go hand in hand with presence and/or dominate. Presence likes to team up with auspex or dominate.
For low capacity decks this is not as obvious as they both rely on speed and usually lack the ability to utilise two disciplines well.

So, for higher capacity decks we tend to end up with Ventrue, Toreador and !Toreador if we're moving forward. You could arguably run with dominate based Gangrel/!Gangrel, but their problem tend to be that there is no powerful secondary action to take. Clans Ventrue, Toreador and !Toreador can easily shift between bleed and vote while still retaining the option of multiple actions. This is simply not the case for other clans, even though you could pick two or three disciplines and go with them regardless of clan.

This disparity between clans isn't shown by quickly reading the list of tournament winning decks because, once again, crypt capacity is an issue. A number of clans are perfectly suitable to hack away at their prey as long as you only pick the smallish to mid cap vampires from that clan, and they show up as representatives of their clans hiding the fact that most of the vampires printed for the clan are more or less useless for a tournament environment.

End of rant.

Time

2007-08-14T13:21:00.000+02:00

Time is an issue for this game. Even though the rules only state that a round has to be at least two hours long this minimum time has become the de facto standard. At least for qualifying rounds.

A few locations (as in places where tournaments were held) used a 2.5 hour time limit for qualifying rounds. It showed when players from that scene tried to play in two hour games.
I'm not talking always timing out here. They played as quickly as anyone else, but they really needed those last thirty minutes to get their decks rolling. Time in this case translated into number of table turns.

Time for final tables used to be unlimited in most places. I have to assume that players got tired of endless finals. I have won one tournament myself at turn 53 or 55 or something equally stupid. It took us five hours to finish that final round. All in all a harrowing experience. Still, unlimited time in reality saw the final round finished within the scope of two hours as often as not.

Then we noticed how large tournaments started implementing time limits for their final rounds, and we followed suit. First by limiting ourselves to 2.5 hours, and lately to two hours. Very seldom did the 2.5 hours turn out insufficient, but two hours see finals time out over and over again.

I personally believe that this tendency has become contagious. The best way to play a final if you're ranked among the two first into it is to refuse anyone else to get a VP. If this has become normative play then I think it spreads into the qualifying rounds as well. VP denial is a strong strategy in a final -- it therefore has to be a strong strategy in any game. I don't agree at all, but this is what I think has happened.

The number of timed out games during this year's EC was simply idiotic. That all three main finals timed out as well just goes to prove something already in place. The finals were not the amazing exception. They were only rather average games.

I don't think ye olde limitless final rounds are something to strive for, but 2.5 hours to explicitly mark them as games that are not an average game. To make all players feel that somewhat different rules apply when picking a playing style. The impact on qualifying rounds should be less, and half an hour isn't really all that much extra time.

What about 2.5 hours long qualifying rounds? My opinion: no way! That's possibly a full two hours extra before a tournament is finished, and it wouldn't solve the problem with final rounds being just another game.
In the difference lies the solution.

For those of you interested in reading more rants on this topic, then an intense debate is going on in the newsgroup.

Metagame

2007-08-14T11:09:00.000+02:00

Metagame is also part of the game. I think this year's EC showed that clearly.

I have never seen table talk being as useless during an EC before. A simpler, more primitive some would say, play style was the norm this year. Kill your prey, avoid being killed by your predator and, if possible, don't let anyone but your prey to die.

People may have their opinions about bad play, poor players and stupid strategies, but the fact remains that this style of play severely hampered table splitting players and were hugely successful at getting competitively placed in the tournaments.

The list of the final forty to the EC day II was in ways less interesting than the list of players who didn't make it there. Considering that a GW was enough to make it to day two a good player really had to have bad seating in all three games to get stumped.

I got to chat with quite a few of the players after the EC. Given some time to let the steam blow off players had started to reconsider. After all it couldn't all have been shitty play. Non talking players did indeed place well, and game wins were awarded, even though much too few for my personal taste. So something else must have happened.

We decided to blame it on the metagame, or rather the blind faith in that whatever works in a location with a strong championship record automatically works everywhere. This was obviously not the case.

So, just as we northern players may have to learn to adapt to a more political central and south European metagame those players need to adapt to the more straight forward style of the northern and eastern players.

I believe this would be a good thing to keep in mind for the 2008 EC in Prague. There are horrible rumours of how the traditional vampiric ways of upholding power are still held in high regard there. Torpor and the ash heap are said to be common destinations for the weak and disobedient.

Placeholder

2007-08-13T00:56:00.000+02:00

This is just a place-holder post for my V:TES blog.