End of a season

"Finally Summer" - what name for a dark, gothic vampire game tournament, and the weather was accordingly -- it was raining all day. And the last of five tournaments I attended this summer.

Last weekend's VtES tournament in Gelsenkirchen, Germany was kind of successful, although I made it into the finals (but only barely), the final itself proved to be fruitless struggle against the inevitable.

1st round: Debbie (Dom/Obf/Tha) -> Ralf (Akunanse Bleed&Block) -> Sebastian K. (Anarch Bleed&Bloat) -> Markus (Old School Malk Bleed&Vote)

Debbie was underpressure from the start as Markus' Malk started to bleed merciless. Soon after Debbie was ousted, not after giving me some hefty bleed by herself, I offered Sebastian he could oust Markus, and then we would fight it out. Markus was the ousted quickly by the Anarch horde, but in between I could buildup my wall and after that the Anarchs weren't able to get through with more than +2 stealth (seldom +3 stealth), So I beat down Anarch after Anarch, and so Sebastian gave in, and I had a GW with 2 VPs.

2nd round: Tobias (Tzimisce Old School Wall) -> Thomas (Harbinger of Skulls) -> Sascha (!Brujah Bruise&Vote) -> Ralf (Akunanse Bleed&Block)

So I sat there between hammer (rush/vote) and the anvil (Tzimisce Wall), and I couldn't neither buildup nor block, since both preys and predators main vamps had built-in aggravated hand damage (Lambach & Hector). I tried to balance table by making Sascha burn Sascha Vykos in the blood hunt after a careless diablerie, but to no avail ... The weird end: Sascha's last vampire calls a KRC and kills everyone but Tobias, giving him the table.

3rd round: Ralf (Akunanse Bleed&Block) -> Barbara (Ahrimanes Wall) -> Matthias (Kyasid Toolbox) -> Markus (Old School Malk Bleed&Vote)

I knew I couldnt oust Barbara easily, since her deck is very robust. So I let her go, trying to built-up myself. Matthias largely dominated the game, since he was able to put down one of Barbara's Ahrimanes and also put after a short built-up considerable pressure on Markus. Markus was ousted easily without having a chance, since both Matthias and I had more than votes on the table than him. So Markus was ousted during the midgame, and Barbara followed (to my surprise!) quickly, since I was able to block her several times when she was trying to rescue one of her vampires the Kyasid had dunked, and I could outfight the Ahrimanes due to two Sniper Rifles my two Magaji had equipped. The rest was kind of boring, cause I couldn't go forward due to fighting capabilities of the Kyasid (one the Magji got dunked by Black Metamorphosis and two Earth Swords in a single round). But I could easily outbloat the Kyasid, since they weren't packing the bleed modifiers I had initially suspected. So 1.5 VPs and barely the finals with 1 GW and 3.5 VPs

Final: Martin (Nephandi Mage Mafia) -> Sebastian Z. (Giovanni Powerbleed) -> Ralf (Akunanse Bleed&Block) -> Rene (Ventrue Old School Law Firm) -> Tobias (Tzimisce Old School Wall)

My seating wasn't too bad considering I was 4th seed. But here comes the "inevitable" part of the story. Sebastian's Giovanni goes forward like hell, I can built-up due to miracle start hand including a "No Secrects from the Magij", "Sniper Rifle" and a "Guardian Angel". I beat up the Giovanni, Martin is mopping up the remains, and starts bleeding into me. In the mean time Rene's Ventrue, especially due to Arika's late appearance and their persistent actions, are able to put the Tzimisce Wall down, but oust them just barely. Martin plays in quick succession a "Memories of Mortality", "Pentex Subversion" and another "Memories of Mortality" on my three of my four minions, and I am dead as a Dodo. Rene follows a few minutes after. Since Rene, the only player other than Martin with a VP, was 5th seed before the final, I loose a place and am finally in the 5th place.

Anyhow, congrats to Martin, who had clearly the best deck this day (and is one of the top 3 players in Germany IMHO). All in all a good result for me with this deck. I played it only once before, and had packed no bleed bounce despite an otherwise bleedy environment I knew I would encounter.