League
Here are the decks of the Bochum VTES League 2016 from the meeting on February 19th, 2016 (the next prey is from top to bottom).
- Sascha — Brujah G4/5 Vote & Combat
- Didi — Guillaume Giovanni & Friends Bleed — 3 VP GW
- Jörg — Weenie G3/4 Dementation Bleed
- Michael H. — Lasombra G2/3 Bruise & Bleed — 2 VP
- Ralf — Anarch G3/4 Dem/Obf/Pre Bleed
 Brujah G4/5 Vote & Combat |
 Guillaume Giovanni & Friends Bleed |
 Weenie G3/4 Dementation Bleed |
 Anarch G3/4 Dem/Obf/Pre Bleed |
Missing Picture: Lasombra G2/3 Bruise & Bleed
Here are the decks of the Bochum VTES League 2016 from the meeting on February 12th, 2016 (the next prey is from top to bottom).
- Martin S. — 0.5 VP — Tremere Wall feat. Ardan Lane who sucks
- Michael H. — 1.5 VP — Lasombra Stealth Bleed
- Jörg — 0 VP — Lasombra Stealth Vote & Bleed
- Ralf — 1.5 VP — Aus/Cel/Dom/For Anarch Bruise & Block & Bleed feat. new Anarch Tech
- Hardy — 0 VP — Followers of Set Kemintiri/Sarrasine Epiphany Vote
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 Aus/Cel/Dom/For Anarch Bruise & Block & Bleed feat. new Anarch Tech |
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Here are the final standings of the VtES League 2013 in Bochum, Germany. This year’s winner after more than 25 games is Ralf. Congratulations to him. The final standings were:
Ralf — 10,19 RtP/Game — 21 Games — 7 GW 39,5 VP
Martin S. — 5,09 RtP/Game — 11 Games — 2 GW 10,0 VP
Didi — 4,95 RtP/Game — 19 Games — 3 GW 17,5 VP
Hardy — 4,94 RtP/Game — 17 Games — 2 GW 17,0 VP
Jörg — 4,22 RtP/Game — 9 Games — 1 GW 7,5 VP
Sascha — 3,26 RtP/Game — 27 Games — 3 GW 16,0 VP
Micha — 2,60 RtP/Game — 20 Games — 2 GW 9,0 VP
Participants without a sufficient number of games (8):
Martin E. — 5,50 RtP/Game — 4 Games — 1 GW 3,5 VP
Michael — 2,00 RtP/Game — 2 Games — 0 GW 1,0 VP
Markus — 1,20 RtP/Game — 5 Games — 0 GW 1,5 VP
Nico — 0,00 RtP/Game — 4 Games — 0 GW 0,0 VP
The results can also be found in the German VEKN forum (incl. the individual match day results & decks). It’s good to see that the number of games have gone up compared to last year, and there considerable more games with game wins as well.
P.S.: On a related the note, the Gelsenkirchen VtES League, for which I reported the end results at this time of year as well, has ceased to exist. All most all of the players choose to switch to the Game of Thrones LCG instead. I blame mostly the lack of new cards for about 3 years which resulted in less motivation to build new decks.
Here are the final standings of the VtES League 2012 in Bochum, Germany. This year’s winner after 19 games is Didi. Congratulations to him. The final standings were:
Didi R. — 6,33 RtP/game — 12 games — 2 GW 15,0 VP
Ralf L. — 5,05 RtP/game — 19 games — 2 GW 20,0 VP
Hardy R. — 2,53 RtP/game — 15 games — 0 GW 9,5 VP
Sascha M. — 2,25 RtP/game — 16 games — 0 GW 9,0 VP
Michael H. — 1,76 RtP/game — 17 games — 0 GW 7,5 VP
Participants without a sufficient number of games (8):
Martin S. — 4,67 RtP/Spiel, 6 games — 1 GW 5,0 VP
Jörg E. — 3,33 RtP/Spiel, 3 games — 0 GW 2,5 VP
Markus H. — 1,00 RtP/Spiel, 4 games — 0 GW 1,0 VP
The results can also be found in the German VEKN forum (incl. the individual matchday results & decks).
Here are the final standings of the VtES League 2012 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
1. Thomas K. — 20 Games — 4 GW 31.0 VP — 7.80 Rating Points (RtP)
2. Sebastian Z. — 25 Games — 5 GW 29.0 VP — 6.08 RtP
3. Didi R. — 18 Games — 4 GW 16.5 VP — 5.44 RtP
4. Ralf L. — 16 Games — 3 GW 14.5 VP — 5.13 RtP
6. Sebastian R. — 18 Games — 1 GW 18 13.5 VP — 3.44 RtP
8. Martin E. — 14 Games — 0 GW 4.0 VP — 1.14 RtP
Participants without a sufficient number of games (12):
7. Martin V. — 3 Games — 0 GW 3.5 VP — 4.67 RtP
8. Michael H. — 7 Games — 0 GW 4.0 VP — 2.29 RtP
9. Sascha M. — 8 Games — 0 GW 1.5 VP — 0.75 RtP
This year’s winner after 27 league games is Thomas. Congratulations!
Here are the decks of the Bochum VtES League 2012 from the meeting on August 3rd, 2012 (the next prey is from top to bottom), with some quick remarks about the decks being played that evening.
Hardy — Cesawayo & Friends Aye Wall — with one transfer Neighbour John was the obvious first vampire to show up. And right from the beginning he began to harass his prey and predator by continually blocking. And with Martin occupied with Ralf’s numerous minions Hardy could build up his resources (like putting multiple Ayes and a gun on Cesawayo), but lacked enough punch to reduce Sascha’s pool significantly. Ceswayo’s greatest coupe was taking control of Sascha’s Escaped Mental Patient and torporizing the recruiting Malkavian antitribu.
Sascha — Malkavian G2/3 antritribu Bleed /w Escaped Mental Patient — feared Didi’s back rush capabilities (w/Deep Song) and with a lack of stealth performed a number of undirected actions, which allowed in turn Hardy to block with either Cesawayo or Neighbour John. He got under great pressure (and never really recovered) after Hardy stealing his Escaped Mental Patient and Vasantasena got torporized from that same Patient. In the end he was lucky to stay in the game.
Didi — Cailean & Friends Ani/Gun Rush/Wall — had a very slow start especially after being bled for 5 in a turn and couldn’t manage to grab enough intercept for blocking the Malkavians antitribu behind him. But threatening to rush backwards kept his predator at bay during the midgame. Eventually Didi had all the necessary resources (Mark V, Nosferatu Kingdom, Tier of Souls, ..) on his minions at his disposal, but at that point the game was almost over.
Ralf — Giovanni G2/3 Shambling Hordes — very reasonable start with a lot of minions (and no pressure from his predator for most of the game), but then having a bit of trouble to deal with the weaponary popping up left and right in the mid-/late game. But then he managed to finally oust Martin with around 10 minutes on the clock.
Martin — Assamite Black Hand Toolbox — initially had to suffer from repeated blocks of his Reunion Kamut by Hardy. Only in the mid-endgame the Assamites could get a Gun and Sport Bike, but a Tattoo Signal (or two) were sorely missed. But with a wall to the left and a rush deck to his right, the deck had trouble showing his potential. In the end, the one gun and one intercept didn’t turn out to be enough to hold the Shambling Hordes and their Giovanni master at bay.
Result: Ralf 1.5 VP, Hardy 1.5 VP, Sascha 0.5 VP, Didi 0.5 VP
Here are the decks of the Bochum VtES League 2012 from the meeting on March 16th, 2012 (the next prey is from top to bottom), with some quick remarks about the decks being played that evening.
Ralf — Nosferatu/Nosferatu antitribu G3/4 Obf/For Bleed — reasonable start and setup, but a single Muddled Vampire Hunter in turn two by his prey was the deck’s ultimate downfall. Also getting a master card hand jam doesn’t help either.
Markus — Old School Malkavian Toolboxy Vote — defended quite well, but lacked forward motion for a long time due to pressure by Ralf. Got back into the game with Minion Tap and Parity Shift, but then lacked enough follow-up votes to oust Michael.
Michael — Obf/Pre Midcap Bleed — initially had no predator and very good forward pressure, until Cesewayo got his second or third Aye. This cost Michael 2 or 3 rounds, which eventually prevented him from getting more than 1.5 VPs. But then had enough True Love’s Face to oust the wall before him.
Hardy — Cesawayo & Friends Aye Wall — also had a very slow start. When Cesawayo (after Andrew Stuart) hit the table he was already very low on pool. But with Bowl of Convergence and multiple Aye was able to stabilize for a reasonable couple of turns, even being able to block political actions by his prey, but then run out of gas (read: untaps & pool).
Sascha — Lasombra G2 Bleed/Vote — had a very, very slow start, but landed some heavy bleeds and top-decked a Govern the Unaligned when trying to oust Ralf before he in turn would have ousted Markus.
Result: Michael 1.5 VP, Sascha 1.5 VP, Markus 0.5 VP
Here are the decks of the Bochum VtES League 2012 from the meeting on March 2nd, 2012 (the next prey is from top to bottom), with some quick remarks about the decks being played that evening.
Ralf — Obf/For Bleed — was able to setup quite nice, after buying two rounds time with Pentex Subversion on Lutz, bloating and bleeding consistently was able to oust Michael and then Markus in two turns. Then deck run out of gas (i.e. cards) ..
Michael — Obf/Pre Bleed — damaged Markus’ pool significantly from the start with Raphael Catarari; but then lost him later on to an Archon Investigation. When he brought Raphael out again he was in ousting range of Ralf; lack of wake and bounce cards eventually killed him.
Markus — Tremere antitribu/Tremere G2/3 Toolbox — Markus was under pressure immediately and decided to influence only two Tremere antitribu weenies; couldn’t stop all of Michael’s bleed actions, and was down to 6 pool when Michael was ousted.
Sascha — Malkavian G4/5 Bleed — immediately got Lutz pentexed, and nobody was willing to remove it. So he took some heavy Dominate bleeds from Markus early on. After he influenced a second minion & playing Villein on Lutz for 5 or 6, he was back into business; did 4-6 pool damage each turn later on and ousted Ralf rather easily for the tie.
Result: Ralf 2 VP, Sascha 2 VP
Here I wanted to show you the decks of the Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2012 from the meeting on February 29th, 2012 with some quick remarks about the decks being played that evening.
- Ralf — Obf/For Bleed — was ousted rather quickly, after he overextended and was then backrushed by Enkidu.
Thomas — Enkidu Earth Meld/Psyche — rocky start with Pentex Subversion on Enkidu, but then first get rid of his predator and managed to torporize most his prey’s vampires. But then Enkidu’s little buddies got rushed, and with Tension in the Ranks in play from turn 1, Zille had little problems ousting him.
Kinner — Nana Buruki & Friends Ani — decent starts with 4 vampires out, but couldn’t apply enough pressure on his prey. Lost 3 of his vampires when Enkidu rushed, but with Golconda on Nana and more vampires influenced out, he recovered nicely.
Zille — Nakhthorheb Bleed/Temptation — Nakhthorheb did his stuff (bleeding/tempting) and with some help of his respective grandpreys managed to oust his first to preys without too much effort. In the heads up, he lost one his vampires, but managed to oust Kinner by a hair’s breadth.
Result: After 1 hour 9 minutes, Zille 1 GW 4 VP.
Here I wanted to show you the decks of the Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2012 from the meeting on February 15th, 2012 with some quick remarks about the decks being played that evening.
Ralf— Giovanni Shambling Hordes — reasonable start, cautious to go forward against the Salubri antitribu, manages to get a VP with less than 3 minutes on the clock.
Martin — Salubri Antitribu Toolbox — reasonable start, can control his prey, but fails to oust his prey on 4 pool due to lack of one bleed card. Bad luck!
Thomas — Euro-Brujah w/ Parity Shift — bad start after his vampires go to torpor early on, with only 2 vampires ready (Donal and Anvil) barely manages to oust his prey (after surviving the onslaught of the Salubri antitribu).
Zille — Classic Toreador Grandball — very good start with Information Highway and Zillah’s Valley, and later some votes, but then makes a significant mistake when blocking Volker with a famous Anson, which eventually cost him the game.
Michael — Malkavian/Malkavian antitribu 3/4 Stealth Bleed — not a straight bleed deck, has some extras with Sleep of Reason or Escaped Mental Patient; trouble initially with a strong Predator, nearly ousts his prey in his last turn, but fails to remove ~10 pool with his two vampires due to lack of bleed actions & action modifiers for all of them.
Result: Ralf 1.5 VP, Thomas 1.5 VP, Michael 0.5 VP
Here are the final standings of the VtES League 2011 in Bochum, Germany. This year’s winner after more than 20 matchdays is Ralf. Congratulations to him. The final standings were:
1. Ralf L. — 7,40 RtP/game — 20 games — 6 GW 25,0 VP
2. Sascha M. — 5,63 RtP/game — 16 games — 3 GW 16,5 VP
3. Michael B. — 3,60 RtP/game — 20 games — 2 GW 14,0 VP
4. Hardy R. — 1,65 RtP/game — 17 games — 0 GW 7,0 VP
Participants without a sufficient number of games (8):
5. Robert M. — 24,00 RtP/game — 1 game — 1 GW 4,0 VP
6. Rudolf G. — 22,00 RtP/game — 2 games — 2 GW 7,0 VP
7. Didi R. — 6,00 RtP/game — 6 games — 1 GW 7,0 VP
8. Sebastian R. — 4,00 RtP/game — 1 game — 0 GW 1,0 VP
8. Thomas K. — 4,00 RtP/game — 1 game — 0 GW 1,0 VP
10. Martin S. — 3,00 RtP/game — 2 games — 0 GW 1,5 VP
11. Markus H. — 0,00 RtP/game — 2 games — 0 GW 0,0 VP
11. Martin E. — 0,00 RtP/game — 2 games — 0 GW 0,0 VP
11. Martin V. — 0,00 RtP/game — 2 games — 0 GW 0,0 VP
11. Alexander T. — 0,00 RtP/game — 1 game — 0 GW 0,0 VP
11. Kai K. — 0,00 RtP/game — 1 game — 0 GW 0,0 VP
11. Ralf W. — 0,00 RtP/game — 1 game — 0 GW 0,0 VP
11. Manuel D. — 0,00 RtP/game — 1 game — 0 GW 0,0 VP
The results can also be found in the German VEKN forum (incl. the individual matchday results & decks). The group has shrunken to the bare minimum for making some sort of VtES league possible, but at least we had less match days canceled than last year and quite a number of “visitors” from other playgroups (or even countries).
Here are the final standings of the VtES League 2011 in Gelsenkirchen, Germany. This year’s winner after 39 league games is Zille, who snatched the victory from Kinner with the last league game (in which victory points were doubled).
1. Sebastian Z. — 9 GW 47 VP — 37 Games — 1,90 CP — 8,92 RtP
2. Sebastian R. — 7 GW 28,5 VP — 24 games — 1,23 CP — 8,31 RtP
3. Ralf L. — 4 GW 28 VP — 28 games — 1,44 CP — 6,58 RtP
4. Martin E. — 3 GW 21,5 VP — 39 games — 2,00 CP — 4,82 RtP
5. Thomas K. — 0 GW 13 VP — 36 games — 1,85 CP — 3,29 RtP
Participants without a sufficient number of games (12):
6. Dietmar R. — 2 GW 9,5 VP — 4 games — 0,21 CP — 13,71 RtP
7. Martin V. — 2 GW 8,5 VP — 5 games — 0,26 CP — 10,26 RtP
8. Michael B. — 2 GW 8,5 VP — 6 games — 0,31 CP — 8,64 RtP
9. Frank S. — 2 GW 13 VP — 9 games — 0,46 CP — 8,02 RtP
(RtP = rating points; CP = correction points (for game attendance)).
Here are the decks of the Bochum VtES League 2011 from the meeting on November 18th, 2011 (the next prey is from top to bottom
Right: Initially it looked not too bad for Hardy. His New Brujah Vote/Combat deck had three princes out, but he had issues with both his predator and prey playing combat(ish) decks as well. More importantly he hadn’t a suitable target for his Parity Shift, not wanting to kill his predator too early (the only target at a point) in fear of Sascha’s Malkavian bleed deck. After Ralf died early on in the game, he tried to rush and block the Malkavians, but either Sascha had (almost) always had the right answer or Hardy lacked the cards to hurt the Malkavians in combat significantly. In the end, Second Tradition: Domain wasn’t enough intercept to match the Malkavians’ stealth, and Sascha ousted Hardy within three turns after becoming his predator.
Right: A new deck, a Gangrel Bloat’n’Tools, was played by Michael. The deck featured Zayyat, The Sandstorm & Beckett (ADV), which allowed him to get recruit Raven Spies and fetch equipment (like Ivory Bow and Helicopter) with Magic of the Smith. This setup was quite slow, but he was able to hold off the Brujah more or less easily, preventing most of the damage with Fortitude while hitting back with Carrion Crows. In the end, he had a decent pool gain with Eco Terrorists, Powerbase Montreal and by hunting in a Helicopter, but he lacked decent forward motion to put significant pressure on Sascha, especially in the early and mid-game.
Right: Sascha had a slow start with his Malkavian G4/5 Bleed deck since he first vampire was Lutz von Hohenzollern. Sascha then choose to play The Call and a second Malkavian came up the next turn. And this when he started bleeding in earnest. If I remember correctly, Lutz was always bleeding for 4 to 6, with his fellow Malkavians not too far behind. He then protected Lutz first with a Secret Passage, and then even with Secure Haven in addition. Although a couple of times one of the midcap Malkavians was sent to torpor, he was always able to rescue them from torpor and with the help of the Coven (unfortunately played by Michael) they went on with business (bleeding, of course) as usual.
Right: Initially it didn’t look too bad, when Ralf, playing a Magaji w/ Animalism Wall deck, had Olugbenga up with both a No Secrets from the Magaji and a Raven Spy, but Sascha always had enough stealth to overcome these obstacles. Ralf struggled to keep up with another No Secrets from the Magaji, another Raven Spy (on Olugbenga) and Channel 10, Sascha always had more than enough stealth, especially thanks to Into Thin Air. So even when Ralf only moved Olugbenga (+1 intercept against bleed actions) and Uchenna to the ready region and sitting on 16 pool when Sascha started bleeding, he was ousted in two turns.
In the endgame (after Hardy and Ralf had been ousted), Michael was having significant poolgain each turn, but lacked the ousting power to oust Sascha, who was cleverly playing the clock down. Sascha was greatly helped by the facts that he had Momentum’s Edge out (giving him one pool each turn) and that Michael’s next vampire in the crypt was Fakir al Sidi (an 11 capacity Gangrel), so effectively he had only to sustain a bleed of two each turn (at maximum). So when Sascha was finally down to two pool, the timeout came.
Result: Sascha 1 GW 2.5 VP, Michael 0.5 VP.
This time here’s just the overview what happened during the weekly Gelsenkirchen VtES League meeting on October 26th, 2011.
- Thomas — Obt/Cel Anarch Rush Gun Combat — 0.5 VP
- Zille — EuroBrujah Pot Combat — 0.5 VP
- Martin V. — Ishtarri Wallish/Combatish — 0.5 VP
- Ralf — Mata Hari Summon History Ally — 0.5 VP
- Martin E. — Neo-Brujah Vote — 0.5 VP
Overall the table had not enough forward motion (in terms of pool damage), so eventually the table timed out.
Here I wanted to show you the decks of the Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2011 from the meeting on September 7th, 2011.
- Thomas continued his bad seating luck seamlessly from the last league sessions. He played a Weenie Vicissitude Corrupt Construction deck, and guess who showed up as his predator? Sebastian Goulet with his special ability to steal allies! So Thomas resorted to playing a Weenie Computer Hacking deck with the occasional rush (using Breath of the Dragon), but he was simply slower in ousting his prey than his predator and got ousted rather quickly (in round 8).
- A new deck was played Martin, a Midcap Obf/Cel/Pre(?) deck with equipment (fetched with Baltimore Pier, 13), but since he lacked both the equipment (guns for what I have (not) seen) and a decent defense, he was under pressure during the midgame, and so his pool was reduced significantly by Thomas. So weakened, Martin was an easy (next) prey for Zille (also in round 8).
Right: Ralf played a Weenie/Midcap Tzimisce Bleed deck and although he had to take some bleed initially, he was never really in danger of being ousted by Martin. So he could build up nicely, while bleeding Zille steadily for 2-3 using Camera Phones/Fiendish Tongue and Changelings, although occasionally his bleeds were redirected to Thomas, which also helped in Thomas’ downfall.
Right: After a about year Zille finally played his Dom/Pro/Obf deck again. The deck features multiple copies of Sebastian Goulet, which single-handily shutdown the offensive capability of his prey’s deck. Although he was steadily bled by Ralf, his situation was quite stable for most the game, and after he had moved both Sebastian Goulet and Soldat to the ready region, he had little trouble ousting first Thomas, then Martin using the usual Dominate Bleed cards.
The heads-up (as shown in the photos) was really a close match. Ralf was initially hampered by Zille’s Carlton van Wyk and a Shadow Court Satyr, but eventually was able to profit from his higher pool when the heads-up started. Zille was only able to put Ralf on one pool, while Ralf then only needed to bleed for one himself when it was his turn (in round 10).
Result: Zille 2 VP, Ralf 2 VP (after about 65 minutes)
Here I wanted to show you the decks of the Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2011 from the meeting on August 24th, 2011.
Left: Thomas played a classic Ventrue Lawfirm (G4/5). As during the whole year, he suffered from bad seating. Both his predator and prey had more votes than the rest of the table. Although when Kinner (his grand-predator) put his predator’s Korah (a priscus) into torpor, it was looking temporarily better, but then Kinner ousted Zille (Thomas predator) quickly, and Thomas’ two Ventrue (and his already very low pool) were easy prey for the rushing Animalism weenies/midcaps.
Right: Martin had a somewhat bad start with his Brujah Obf/Pre Vote deck. He put Dimitra in play, and pulled off most of her blood with a Villein. Dimitra then spend some blood and was forced to hunt, which was in turn blocked by Ralf’s Magaji (his prey) and put to torpor. This was repeated for a couple of turns, but in the end Martin put more titled Brujah in play and he was able to oust Ralf, especially since he finally drew his stealth cards and Sudden’ed two Villeins Ralf tried to play.
Left: Ralf played a Magaji Animalism Wall deck, who started quite well, since both his predator and prey didn’t intercept any of the equip/employ actions. But his prey, Kinner, was a though nut to crack since both were playing Animalism combat, and Kinner had a slight advantage, since all of his vampires had superior Animalism. In the end Ralf weren’t able to put enough pressure on his prey and was ousted by Martin as described above.
Right: Kinner played a copy of the Nana Buruki Animalism Rush deck (a.k.a. 12-card-library-deck). After an initial backrush which proved that both combatants have an (almost) equal access to combat mojo, he turned his eyes on his prey. Round after round he hammered down his prey Malkavian antitribu vampires (using Deep Song – Carrion Crows – Aid from Bats) which had no resistance to offer. So eventually Kinner had torporized all of his preys vampires and ousted Zille with ease.
Left: In the first place, Zille and his deck, a Malkavian antitribu Stealth Bleed deck, looked like the first one to gain a VP. But when his minions got torporized again and again (Ralf rescuing a few inbetween), he was only able to put down his prey, Thomas, on one pool.
After both Zille and Ralf had been ousted, Thomas was ousted within two (or three) turns by Kinner by putting the two Ventrue vampires to torpor. So the table timed out, giving Kinner the game win.
Result: Kinner 2.5 VP GW, Martin 1.5 VP
Here are the decks of the Bochum VtES League 2011 from the meeting on July 1st, 2011 (the next prey is from top to bottom).
Didi (without picture of his play area) played a variant of the Order 66 (I think) deck. As a start player he was stuck to one transfer, and therefore decided to bring up Dmitra first, and quite some time later Mistress Fanchon as well. But without any means of retrieving the blood (read: Villein), he was ousted more (or less) easily by Michael. His final downfall was a Deflection that was canceled by Veil of Darkness. If he had managed to stay in the game (that round 6), he would have had quite a good chance of ousting his prey himself.
Left: Sascha played his Assamite Black Hand Contract deck. Sascha’s first impact on the game was a DeflectionTension in the Ranks, which affected the whole table for a long time, but mostly his prey and grandprey. Like Didi, he also had a slow start, and initially couldn’t decided to give the first Hand Contract to either his prey or predator. The Hand Contract landed on Dmitra, which still was allowed to bleed to for one with Flurry of Action, and she even helped Sascha when she used a Neonate Breach on his prey (Hardy). Slow, but constant pressure pressure (and also a little help from Ralf by killing some of Hardy’s minions), gave Sascha eventually his first VP. Most interestingly Hardy was also ousted by bleed that failed to be bounced due Veil of Darkness‘s effect. But then he was stopped by the Unmasking and the Asanbonsam Ghouls even though Ralf (his next prey) was quite low on pool, since Sascha’s deck is not running that much stealth.
Left: Hardy resorted to play his Giovanni Khazars Diary again, which is well known in our playgroup and much feared as well. Initially it didn’t look too bad for Hardy, he brought out three Giovanni in quick succession and recruited a few allies, but when he was near of completing the Diary, he ran out of stealth to bypass Ralf’s allies. Thinks become worse when one of Ralf’s War Ghoul trapped Carlton van Wyk and Ralf himself recruited the traitorous Carlton. In addition he was constantly losing pool due the Tension in the Ranks and by some random bleeds from Sascha. So in turn 9, he was ousted by Sascha, and wasn’t able to put single wraith into play during the whole game, even though he’d finally managed to put the seventh counter on Khazar’s Diary two or three rounds before.
Left: Ralf played the same Anarch Piper War Ghoul deck he played a week ago in Gelsenkirchen as well. Ralf had a reasonable start and could put an Asanbonsam Ghoul and a War Ghoul in play very soon, but applied almost no pressure on his prey for a good part of the game, because he wanted to keep the necromancers behind him in check. So only very late in the game, when had his predator under control and when a second War Ghoul came into play he was able to hit his prey hard (torporizing Francois Villon and depriving one of the Daughters of her blood), but it was too late a score a full VP.
Left: For another time a non-standard was used by Michael. He used one of Lasombra’s deck (intented for use during Origins) as template for his own variation. The deck is rather toolboxy deck with some votes, some block (via 2nd Tradition) and some forward momentum using the votes and Shattering Crescendo. Initially Michael could make Yseult pass a Kine Resource Contested (or something like that) before Dimitra showed up (for which Yseult was promptly banished). Even though that slowed Michael somewhat ,he was slowly nibbling at Didi’s pool with Francois Villon and a newly influenced Yseult and since didn’t draw any Villein, he was ousted very soon (turn 6). Even though he still felt not pressure from his predator, he couldn’t apply the pressure in his prey to oust him, and after Sascha ousted Hardy the window of opportunity had closed forever.
Result: Michael 1.5 VP, Sascha 1.5 VP and Ralf 0.5 VP.
Most Valuable Cards: Tension in the Ranks and Veil of Darkness.
Before (hopefully) a large number of tournament reports of the NAC 2011 will flood the VEKN forum, I wanted to show you the decks of the Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2011 from the meeting on June 22nd, 2011.
Left: Ralf played a new deck, based on Nergal & the Great Beast (and some other Baali from G4/5). But since he was the starting player and no Nergal showed up in his starting crypt, he decided to move Anazir to the ready region. But without being able to fully utilize the potential of the library cards (i.e. Anazir had the wrong disciplines), a Great Beast only showed up very slowly. And since he could only play one Villein successfully, he was ousted quite quickly by the Martin’s Malkavians/Malkavian antitribus. Therefore no VP (and no picture!)..
Left: Kinner played a Celerity Gun deck based on the weenie/mid-cap vampires from group 2 (and 3?). Initially it looked got, he got his guns and had enough combat mojo, but then two of his three vampires (those with guns of course) were “gifted” with a Sensory Deprivation. But eventually he drew a Fame, and managed to torporize the famed vampire, this allowed him to oust his prey, and suddenly he had all the forward motion he had lacked a good part of the game.
Left: The deck Zille played was his well-known Gabrin & Friends Bleed deck. In the beginning he really had to struggle against the Celerity Gun deck behind him, but things looked better when he used his defensive part of his deck (i.e. the Sensory Deprivation) against his predator. He tried to lunge against his prey, but when his Week of Nightmares was canceled by Sudden Reversal he simply lacked the ousting power to oust the Brujah before him quickly. One or two turns he was so weakened by the pool loss of the Fame, that he was ousted by Kinner, even though his predator had only minion (Jimmy Dunn) who could act.
Left: Another well-known deck was the New Brujah Vote deck played by Thomas. While not being serious pressure, he was building up quite nicely, having three titled vampires in play (Dmitra, Karen Sudela and Tara) eventually. But he lacked some forward momentum initially, and so he could oust his prey only after he had put a New Carthage in play and only after his prey already had scored a VP.
Left: Martin finally played his Malkavian/Malkavian antitribu Dementation Bleed deck. An early Jackie allowed him to bleed hard in the first few rounds (using Kindred Spirits and/or Eyes of Chaos, but then his bleed modifiers didn’t show up in sufficient quantities and it took him some turns to finish off Ralf’s Baali. Weakened by a back rush of the Great Beast and careless block of a Brujah by Gem Ghastly didn’t leave him enough vampires (and time) to oust his second prey.
The heads-up was witness to an interesting stand-off between Thomas’ Brujah and Kinner’s gun-wielding vampires. While Thomas had the superior bleed and vote potential, Kinner managed to send all of Brujah to torpor quite quickly, and Thomas yielded the game with no ready minions available about ten minutes before the time limit.
Result: Kinner 3 VP GW, Thomas 1 VP, Martin 1 VP
Here I wanted to show you the decks of the Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2011 from the meeting on June 8th, 2011. For another time we had a visitor (Martin V.) from Slovakia, who’s currently staying in Germany because of his job ..
This time we had a 6 player table, so the time-limit was set to 2.5 hours.
Thomas (as last week) tried to win the game with an Aabbt Kindred Anarch Vote deck. Despite having a Protected Resources in play, his situation was hopeless most of the time, especially when an Inner Circle member (Arika) and a Priscus (Omme Enberbenight) showed up in his predators and respectively prey’s ready region. Unable to pass any damaging vote, he refrained to bloat with Mesu Bedshet and Consanguineous Boon (passed with the help of everybody but his predator). But despite his efforts he ousted himself, when the table (in fact, Didi) denied him another Consanguineous Boon. I don’t think it would have made such a big difference, because there were already four big vampires (Ventrue) sitting in his back, threatening to oust at any subsequent turn.
After quite some time Zille decided to play his Kiasyd G5/6 Stealth Bleed deck again. Since he was quite save from the Aabt Kindred beside him, he was able to focus his actions on his prey quite quickly, and soon put Didi under pressure, but held back his bleeds, since he was afraid of bleeds being redirected to his grandprey (Ralf). When Zille eventually contested Isanwayen with Didi, he began putting Didi under real pressure, and after very few turns he managed to oust Didi.
Didi (back to Gelsenkirchen a quite some time) played a Kiasyd Toolbox deck with strong wallish angle, unfortunately build on the same group(s) as his predator. In the beginning, he tried to build up but was hindered by Ralf’s Garou blocking equip actions and attacking Pherydima. After his third vampire, Isanwayen, was contested he was really close to being ousted for some turns, but with the help of Pherydima’s special he held out courageously. But eventually he was ousted not at least because he didn’t draw a single untap/wake-type card in the whole game.
A classic Renegade Garou rush combat deck (based on the group4/5 Gangrel was Ralf’s choice for the game. Initially with two Renegade Garous and with the help of a Mr. Wintrop and The Unmasking he was able to hold off Didi. He then turned to prey, put a famed Gloria Giovanni into torpor twice, but wasn’t able to go forward full throttle, since a lone Shambling Horde was protecting his prey effectively. After Didi got ousted, things started to look very grim. Zille managed to steal a Renegade Garou with Far Mastery, and ousted him within two turns. because he had no more reason to hold back and with the necessary stealth at his hand The Unmasking was no longer a problem.
A Samedi/Giovanni Reanimated Corpse/Shambling Hordes deck was played by Martin E. Although it looked good initially for Martin, when recruited a Shambling Horde and a Reanimated Corpse, Martin was never able to put significant pressure on his prey. This was mostly because his prey had put an Island of Yaros in play, which allowed Arika and her friends to easily kill the Reanimated Corpse (of which Martin didn’t have enough in play at the same time), but more importantly Arika was able to Banish an almost empty Baron. So Martin tried (and succeeded most of the time) to get the Edge, and bloated a bit with the help of Off-Kilter.
Martin V.’s choice of deck was a very solid Ventrue Obf Vote deck based on Arika (naturally). He was really sitting in a sweet spot, with very little pressure from behind, and prey that almost incapable of defending himself (at least if the action had at least +1 stealth). The only real problem Martin was having was time. It took him quite some time to move two vampires into the ready region, and his prey was (almost) as fast bloating as he was putting damage to him via bleeds or Parity Shift. Finally Martin managed to oust Thomas’ Followers of Set deck.
About 30 minutes before the timeout, the table was down to a four player table (Thomas and Didi being ousted first). Ralf was ousted very soon after, which allowed Zille just the necessary pool cushion to save his 2 VPs into the timeout. When timeout finally came, Martin V.s turn had just started and he would have ousted Zille in the very same turn.
Result: Zille 2.5 VP & GW, Martin V. 1.5 VP, Martin E. 0.5 VP.
Here I wanted to show you the decks of the Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2011 from the meeting on June 1st, 2011, this time with photos again. This time we had a visitor (Martin V.) from Slovakia, who’s currently staying in Germany because of his job ..
Currently popular are vote decks (for whatever reasons), so three vote decks (and the other two decks had titled vampires as well) were present during that session.
Thomas played a quite interesting Aabbt Kindred vote deck based on Anarch Barons to make the voting work. The deck is usually incapable of taking any directed actions (actually I don’t know anymore if Nefertiti is present in the deck). The deck did fine most of the time bringing up new Aabbt Kindred by using Mesu Bedshet and building up in general (see the picture). But since there were a lot of votes around of tables, he was most of the time only able to push votes through when he had a vote push card (like Bewitching Oration ) in his hands. He put some damage to Martin, but with both Ancient Influence and Reins of Power being passed during the game, he was not able to oust Martin.
Martin (E) played Brujah G2/3 Bruise/Bleed deck. Most of the game Martin’s biggest problem was that his prey’s Akunanse could not only deliver damage (almost) as good as the Brujah, but since they prevented most of the damage he was having problems keeping his own vampires out of torpor. Eventually he managed to put his prey’s Nestor Kaba (with Fame) to torpor but that was clearly not enough to oust (the other) Martin.
The other Martin (the one from Slovakia) was playing an Akunanse toolbox deck, which was able to bleed, rush and fight (mostly using Animalism). In the beginning he was able to put some pressure on Zille by bleeding (sometimes using Deep Song). But he was not able to effectively attack the Toreador by rushing them, since they often used Majesty to escape combat. In the end his prey out-bloated him, and he was also unable to secure a full victory point.
A classic Toreador Grandball (feat. the famous triple-A vampires) deck was used by Zille this time. In the beginning things looked grim for him, since Martin as his predator was bleeding him hard, and by bringing up Anson and Alexandra first his pool was down to about 5. But after Ancient Influence was played by him, plus several Voter Captivations and a Villein on Alexandra he was doing nicely. But like the other players he couldn’t pass his votes easily. Also, instead of bleeding Ralf (who didn’t play any bounce), he traded the Powerbase: Montreal with his predator each and every turn in the mid- and endgame.
Ralf played an Istarri Vote deck, who also competed for the political Dominance. While he was doing well, when it came down bloating (via Villein) and to passing votes (using Perfect Paragon), Thomas (as his prey) was actually spending little on his vampires, and kept bloating via Con Boon, and so he was not really in ousting range for most of the game.
In the end, the game didn’t really move forward, and so nobody was really in ousting range. And all the bloating and in comparison to that not enough forward motion made the table finally go to the timeout. About 10 minutes before the timeout and after a Reins of Power had been passed, all players agreed on stop playing. Funny fact was, that each of the votes decks was using different vote push cards. Ralf used Perfect Paragon, Zille used Awe and Thomas was using Bewitching Oration.
Result: Thomas 0.5 VP, Martin E. 0.5 VP, Martin V. 0.5 VP, Zille 0.5 VP, Ralf 0.5 VP.
Here are the decks of the Bochum VtES League 2011 from the meeting on May 6th, 2011 (the next prey is from top to bottom). This time we had some visitors from Gelsenkirchen, Thomas and Martin, and Martin was even so gracious to skip the first round, so we could play a five player table (and a second round).
Right: As one of the guest players, Thomas played a Speed Shamblers deck, but after he played his first Shambling Horde, it was immediately stolen by Ralf. This stopped Thomas cold since he suffered greatly from not getting another Shambling Hordes in his hand for a long time, but since he sat on large sack of pool, he was nowhere near being ousted. In mid-game he managed to land a sucker punch when his prey overextended and ousted Michael.
Right: Michael played a Huitzilopochtli Shatter the Gates deck with a very wallish approach. His game looked great, when he had equipped Aisling with a Bowl of Convergence and Martin Franckel with a Sniper Rifle, while Huitzilopochtli already had played two Shatter the Gates. But then he overextended a bit too much and tapped out (not counting Martin Franckel), when blocking the Malkavians (the only vampires at the table being able to do so) trying to remove one of the Shatter the Gates. In hindsight he should have let go that one Shatter the Gates and wait for the next ones to come into his hand.
Right: Sascha switched from playing his Malkavian G4/5 Dementation S&B deck to his Malkavian G1/2 Dominate S&B deck. What a difference .. while he sometimes struggles with the first deck, his Dominate deck went through the table like a hot knife through butter. Even though Ralf managed to put down effectively two of the vampires with a Spirit Marionette and an attacking Shambling Hordes, he managed to oust first Hardy and then Ralf and finally Thomas quite quickly.
Right: For the deck Hardy played you usually need a wide angle lens for the camera to capture all of his minions on a picture. He used a Toreador antitribu Black Hand Bleed/Vote deck, but suffered tremendously from the vote lock his predator (Sascha) had. He came somewhat back into the game, when first a Watchtower: Wolves Feed and a Palla Grande showed up, and later when he was able to pass a few votes when a Foundation Exhibit entered play. But he was not fast enough to oust his prey, or compensate the pool loss inflicted by the Dominate bleeds.
Right: Ralf played Spirit Marionette deck feat. Eurayle with some Anarch tech, but he simply forgot about the importance of that angle for his deck, and therefore didn’t have an Anarch for most of the game. Ralf managed to steal a Shambling Horde very early in the game and to drain off blood both his prey and predator’s minions via Spirit Marionette, but couldn’t put enough pressure on his prey for most of the game in order to oust him.
Result: Sascha 1 GW 4 VP, Thomas 1 VP
Here I wanted to show you the decks of the Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2011 from the meeting on April 27th, 2011, but unfortunately the camera batteries were empty, so I just can give just the deck descriptions.
In contrast to many, many of the previous league games all of a sudden we had four (out of five) combat(ish) decks at the table. The individual decks played were the following:
- Thomas played Brujah G4/5 Vote/Combat deck. Most of the game he had to cope with only two Brujah (Dmitra Ilyanova & Karen Sudela) in play and the fact he gave up the title of the Brujah Justicar to Jaroslav Pascek (controlled by Martin) didn’t help either. He ended the contest voluntarily since he knew Martin (his grandprey) heavily relied on Second Tradition: Domain, and was wary that Martin was ousted to quickly when Pascek lost his title. Without the Justicar title for Dmitra title he had some problems passing votes during the game, but that was easily compensated by an early Tension in Ranks and a Fame on Gloria Giovanni.
- The now-classic Giovanni Speed Shambling was utilized by Zille this time. He had a good start with some two early Shambling Hordes and put Martin under great pressure by torporizing (Elihu) or (almost) emptying (Jaroslav Pascek) Martin’s vampires. But when he missed the oust, his lack of defense and a Tension in the Ranks in play took its toll, and he was ousted himself by Thomas.
- Martin had a new deck at his disposal, a Pot/Pre/Dom deck which relied heavily on Second Tradition: Domain and striking with melee weapons in combat. For this he tried to use both Jaroslav Pascek and Elihu initially. He lost Elihu almost immediately when he lacked a proper melee weapons (with numerous Concealed Weapon in his hand of course) ran into a Trap by a Shambling Horde. This stopped almost all of this forward momentum, but when Virginie, Prodigy showed up later, he was able to bounce a bleed to Kinner. This together with a Fame in play allowed Martin then to oust Kinner relatively easy. The rest of the game Martin tried to stay alive, since with only two minions (low on blood) and about 6-8 pool he was always in the range to be ousted in one or two turns.
- The only non-combat deck at the table was the well-known Toreador antitribu Anarch Stealth Bleed deck so often before played by Kinner. He had a good start having no initial pressure from his predator and put a significant dent in Ralf’s pool by bleeding several times for 2 to 3 (using Undue Influence and Power of One). But then he was stopped cold when Ralf had built up his wall with a No Secret on the Magaij. With only limited access to stealth (3 at most) he was also denied pool gain, and a well timed Deflection from Martin as well as a famed vampire in torpor sealed his oust by Martin.
- Ralf played an Animalism No Secrets Wall deck based on mixture of weenies with Animalism and midcap Magaji (also with Animalism). At first his blocks (if any) and attacks with Powerbase Luanda on the Toreador antitribu behind him were foiled by a number of Strike: Combat Ends, but when Ralf put a Channel 10, a Raven Spy and a No Secrets from the Magaji (on Umdava) in play, he was (rather) safe from Kinner’s Undue Influence bleeds. In the end Ralf needed too much time building up, and the game timed out when he finally managed to put some pressure on his prey (torporizing Karen Sudela and putting a Army of Rats in play).
The endgame saw three combat decks, and Thomas was very close to making the game win by ousting Martin. Dimitra was in combat with a famous Jaroslav Pascek, and just need to play a Pursuit to torporize Jaroslav, when game timed out. He was 10 seconds shy of the oust and the game win.
Result: Thomas 1.5 VP, Martin 1.5 VP, Ralf 0.5 VP. This was also the first timeout in a long time in league game in Gelsenkirchen.
Here are the decks of the Gelsenkirchen VtES League 2011 from the meeting on April 13th, 2011 (the next prey is from top to bottom):
Left: Zille played his rather pesky Kiasyd Stealth Bleed deck. Pesky for its prey because of the heavy Dominate bleed flavoured with some Song of Pans. Pesky for its predator (at least when performing directed actions) because of a number of Faerie Wards. Initially the Kiasyd had little pressure, so they could go full forward, and we all know what that means . The Arcadian and his friends (more or less) easily ousted Martin and then in the heads-up Thomas as well.
Left: A modified version of his Ventrue Obf Vote deck was the choice of Martin to play. But even with Marcus Vitel and another Prince (iirc), Martin had problems passing his votes initially against the Kiasyd Priscus and the Brujah Princes, only Scout Youngwood on the other side of the table is supporting his votes. In the mid-game he ended up with a bunch of action modifiers, but no votes to call. So the Ventrue were squashed between the blocking Brujah and the bleeding Kiasyd.
Left: Thomas had a very good start with his New Brujah Vote/Combat deck (although he later regretted somewhat not bringing up Dmitra instead of Count Germaine), and not only put a Fame on his prey’s Janet Langer, but put her to torpor immediately. Afterwards he was a building up quite nicely, even moving a third Brujah to the ready region after ousting Ralf, but the lack of decent intercept against his new predator was eventually his downfall.
Left: Ralf played a Daughters of Cacophony Shattering Crescendo deck, but because of the immense pressure early on never got into the game. He managed to successfully perform a Shattering Crescendo on The Arcadian and an Anarch Convert, but otherwise was busy defending against the New Brujah. But unable to bloat nor to perform undirected actions without being blocked by the Brujah, these attempts were futile, and he was ousted by Thomas.
Result: Zille 3 VP, Thomas 1 VP
