Ian, Andy, Gerentt and I got together for some casual games this last Sunday and were joined by Sean, Joe and Joel Efferson from the East bay.
Game 1:
Me (!Gangrel "Black hand")> Ian (Fat anarchs)> Sean (Gangrel force of will)> Joe (Toreador intercept combat)
I had a significant minion advantage this entire game. What did I do with it? Embrace, hunt, tribute, and discard black hand cards. There was some light bleeding, but I quickly saw that I should avoid combat with my predator or prey if at all possible. Joe brought out Anson and Tatiana Romanov, who each got .44s and learned superior in-clan disciplines. Sean brought out Ricki Van Demsi. He pulled blood off of him/her and then mistakenly blew her up with Force of Will. Ian brought out Silvia Giovanni and made her anarch.
Joe and Sean fought while I tooled up and Ian took zero actions (the entire game) and pulled blood off of his minions. Sean was eventually crippled and I accidentally bled him (Ian did play cards to bounce me). Fortunately, I was able to use my now actual black hand dudes to bleed Ian for 1, 2, or even 3 at stealth as often as 7 or 8 times/turn. It took some effort to find the stealth (veil), so I had to time it right. Ian went down and Sean did shortly afterwards. One of my !Gangrel punked Ramona with Claws of the Dead just in time to take the rest of his pool.
At this point, Joe was bleeding me for 4-5 per turn with a stolen laptop (he diablarized Basilia with Amaranth if you can believe that). Getting the two VPs helped, but I still had to not overspend and had to dig for Truth in Inks to reduce the bleeds. Anson and Tatiana often got the best of combat, but Leathery Hides did go a long way this game towards keeping my minions, including my embraces, ready. When I saw that Joe was out of wakes, I bled full force for two turns. He amaranthed one of my minions, leaving me with only 10 ;)
Me GW 4 vps
Game 2:
Me (Ventrue First Tradition)> Joel (Trem/!Trem burst of sunlight)> Sean (My ANI rush)> Gerentt (Ian's Blessed Resilience)
I made a version of Tiago Brum's Ventrue LOL Firm TWD with a few tweaks since I didn't have a lot of time to make decks and I thought I'd like to try it.
Gerentt brought out Mordechai Ben-Nun and asked me what the deck did. I explained that it is all about a FOR NEC card and burning your guys with Force of Will. I was mostly right and with some practice with the deck I think that Gerentt might have either won or tied me in VPs.
I started out the game with some Governs at DOM, a couple votes, and a first turn Info Highway. One action was blocked, so I Majestied and did another one or two. I quickly had out 2-3 princes and a primogen, easily securing vote lock against Kij and a Sean's Yuri. When I was doing my Parity Shift/First Tradition set-up, Joel did a Burst of Sunlight/Roschreck combo and put a prince in torpor. I pulled him out and had enough actions to put out two First Traditions in one turn.
One key difference between my version of the deck and Tiago's was that I dropped all Second Traditions for Deflections. As I see it, these Ventrue don't want to fight and they don't need to. I should get vote lock (or I'm screwed anyway) and have the DOM to bounce and then bleed for a lot. I bounced 1 or 2 bleeds that game, but it was enough to keep me out of Gerentt's reach (and out of reach of my First Traditions).
I pushed my luck and played a third First Tradition, making everyone pay six pool to take their turn. It was a close call, but Sean backrushed me and I didn't want him to have another turn to do that. He torporized two of my four minions and I had enough to oust him (two governs, one conditioning, two daring the dawn, he was at four pool). I risked an AI by Conditioning at DOM so that I could have an extra action to rescue. It paid off and I got enough pool to take another turn (barely).
Gerentt had a lot of pool from Villeining a lot of blood from his guys and then bringing them back with Blessed Resilience and Possession. In the end, he was about one card away from ousting me after doing some serious card cycling We both realized later that he had a two-bleeder that could have put me at exactly six pool, denying me a turn and giving him an extra one eventually. That was an exciting ending.
Me GW 4vps
We had a great time and I was glad to see the East bay guys come down. It was a bit of a trek for them, but it was good to see them. One thing to note is that we had seven players. Rather than face the usual no-win scenerio of either having to play a seven player game or a three and a four, Sean played two games at once. It worked fairly well, and no games timed out. Great idea, Sean!
