(Tournament report and TWD) Welsh ECQ, 23/9

Dear all,

Here follows a brief report of the Welsh ECQ held in
Swansea on 23/9. 15 Methuselahs chose to bravely
cross the border of Wales to particpate in the first ever
Welsh tournament. Not an amazing turnout, but not bad
for a first timer!

And the scene is very "multinational", with 1 player from
Italy, 1 from France, 2 from the Netherlands (these two don't
even live in the UK - they came from Holland to visit me and
play!), 1 from Denmark and 1 from New Zealand... am I
forgetting anyone?

We all climbed to the private room on the first floor of the
Rhyddings pub (while the weather was teasing us with the
best sunny day in ages), ready to start the fight for three
precious qualifier spots (since, out of 15 players, Hugh,
Mat Cook and Mike were already qualified).

A very short report of preliminary rounds and final follows,
I encourage the players who were sitting at tables I don't
remember well to reply adding their impressions!

The decklist of the winning deck and few parting words
follow at the end of the post.


** Round 1 ***

Game 1:
Aaron Gunstone (Ventrue obf) 4 VP + GW
Peter Sitch (Tremere toolbox)
Matt Green (Malkavian Anarch Revolt & Derange)
Sam Marsh (Ahrimanes)
Lidewij van Dijck (!Toreador Walking Sticks) 1 VP

I haven't seen much of this game, apart from the final moments,
when Aaron's very tooled up Ventrue obf deck was not
able to oust its sturdy last prey, Lidewij's Miller & co. The
game ended with mutual withdrawal.

Game 2:
Paul Reid-Bowen (Toreador Grand Ball vote) 4 VP + GW
Christian Nislev (Giovanni powerbleed)
Simon Reed (Baltimore Purge)
Emiliano Imeroni (Kyasid stealth & bleed) 1 VP
Mat Cook (turbo Baron)

Christian's Giovanni start hammering Simon very hard, so
that the Purge technique doesn't even start to work. Mat's
turbo Baron is all but a turbo (this will be a constant of the day),
giving me an easy VP that unfortunately I get too late, not
being able to draw into bleed modifiers. When I get Mat,
unpressured Paul has already ousted Christian (who had
transferred out one vampire too much), and the game soon
resolves in favor of Paul's voting Toreador princes.

Game 3:
Jeremie Pichereau (Laibon pre/obf vote) 1 VP
Hugh Angseesing (War Ghoul) 1 VP
Mike Nudd (Imbued) 1 VP
Jeroen van Oort (Assamite breed & Alamut vote) 1 VP
Graham Smith (Imbued) 1 VP

What do you expect from a table with two Imbued decks if
not a time-out? We can hear much laughter coming from
this table, and Hugh's War Ghoul have the only combat
problems of the day, but nobody is able to shift the equilibrium
and all players withdraw when the time limit approaches.

*** Round 2 ***

Game 1:
Matt Green (Malkavian Anarch Revolt & Derange) 1 VP
Aaron Gunstone (Ventrue obf)
Hugh Angseesing (War Ghoul) 4 VP + GW
Mat Cook (turbo Baron)
Jeroen van Oort (Assamite breed & Alamut vote)

Matt's Anarch Revolt + Derange deck manages to oust
the prey but apparently stumbles into Hugh's Warghoul
nasty combat. Hugh starts his winning ride.

Game 2:
Simon Reed (Baltimore Purge) 2,5 VP + GW
Paul Reid-Bowen (Toreador Grand Ball vote)
Peter Sitch (Tremere toolbox)
Graham Smith (Imbued) 0,5 VP
Sam Marsh (Ahrimanes) 0,5 VP

I don't remember much of this table. Simon's purges are
able to weaken Paul and Peter until the oust, but Graham's
Imbued and Sam's Ahrimanes manage to resist until timeout.

Game 3:
Mike Nudd (Imbued)
Jeremie Pichereau (Laibon pre/obf vote) 3 VP + GW
Christian Nislev (Giovanni powerbleed) 1 VP
Lidewij van Dijck (!Toreador Walking Sticks)
Emiliano Imeroni (Kyasid stealth & bleed) 1 VP

Despite being constantly bled by Mike's mortals and disturbed
continuously by Christian's Le Dinh Tho ability, Jeremie's
african vampires have all the votes and manage to damage the
prey and produce a lot of pool gain. After a lot of effort, I'm able
to oust Mike by playing a Pentex Subversion on his uber-intercept
Imbued (putting myself on 1 pool) and launching a final desperate
assault. Christian in extremis ousts Lidewij, but we are both too
weak to withstand the African politics that kills us both.

*** Round 3 ***

Game 1:
Jeroen van Oort (Assamite breed & Alamut vote) 2 VP
Mat Cook (turbo Baron)
Simon Reed (Baltimore Purge) 2 VP
Peter Sitch (Tremere toolbox) 1 VP
Jeremie Pichereau (Laibon pre/obf vote)

Mat's Baron is soon out of the way, and Peter manages to get the
first VP in his V:TES career (in his first tournament) by ousting
Jeremie. The final part of the game is very much in equilibrium, but
when all of Pete's vampires end up in torpor because of the Purges
his doom is set. Jeroen has too many small minions to follow the
same fate, and he and Simon withdraw two minutes before the time
limit.

Game 2:
Sam Marsh (Ahrimanes)
Graham Smith (Imbued) 1 VP
Mike Nudd (Imbued) 2 VP
Christian Nislev (Giovanni powerbleed) 2 VP
Aaron Gunstone (Ventrue obf)

Ironically, the two Imbued decks are again at the same table, and
this time they are predator and prey! Need I say that they both do
not get ousted until the three surviving players withdraw?

Game 3:
Emiliano Imeroni (Kyasid stealth & bleed)
Lidewij van Dijck (!Toreador Walking Sticks)
Matt Green (Malkavian Anarch Revolt & Derange)
Hugh Angseesing (War Ghoul) 5 VP + GW
Paul Reid-Bowen (Toreador Grand Ball vote)

This is one of the weirdest game I've ever played. Matt's deck
produces a string of Anarch Revolts that mainly benefit Hugh,
since his War Ghouls can go and kill all Anarchs around (not to
mention that Paul has only titled Vampires and dies at once). I try a
desperate assault on Lidewij's !Toreador, but I fail because Miller
manages to generate an incredible amount of intercept with his
minor aus. Then I sort of oust myself by putting a Secure Haven
on my Anarch Dame Hollerton in torpor: good defense against
War Ghouls, but then nobody can rescue me!!! A funny moment...
The game ends as obvious, with Hugh easily collecting all the loot.

*** Final ***

The results of the preliminary rounds imply that all the
players with a Game Win (and only those) reach the final.
After choosing seating order and starting player, the table
looked as follows:

Hugh Angseesing (War Ghoul)
Jeremie Pichereau (Laibon pre/obf vote)
Simon Reed (Baltimore Purge)
Aaron Gunstone (Ventrue obf)
Paul Reid-Bowen (Toreador Grand Ball vote)

I invite finalists to post their own impression of the game.
All the politicians at the table don't manage to get some sort of
agreement to counter the War Ghoul's menace (for instance
Jeremie does not find support for a Secret Must Be Kept which
would burn two!), and Hugh is therefore able to oust all players
one by one, becoming the first ever winner of a Welsh tournament!


*** Full results and qualified players ***

1 Hugh Angseesing 2 10 5 156
2 Simon Reed 1 4,5 0 138
3 Jeremie Pichereau 1 4 0 114
4 Paul Reid-Bowen 1 4 0 108
5 Aaron Gunstone 1 4 0 102
6 Christian Nislev 0 3 120
7 Jeroen van Oort 0 3 114
8 Mike Nudd 0 3 108
9 Graham Smith 0 2,5 114
10 Emiliano Imeroni 0 2 120
11 Matt Green 0 1 102
12 Lidewij van Dijck 0 1 96
13 Peter Sitch 0 1 78
14 Sam Marsh 0 0,5 84
15 Mat Cook (Q) 0 0 66

The three qualifier spots were taken by:
- Simon Reed
- Jeremie Pichereau
- Paul Reid-Bowen

Congratulations to all three!! In particular, my personal
congratulations to Jeremie who chose to play with my
"Banana Republic" deck after trying it only once the night
before and managed to rank third!

*** Tournament Winning Deck ***

Here is the list of the tournament winning deck (with an
ultrashort comment by the winner Hugh):

Welsh ECQ 23/09/2006 [TWD]
15 Players
3 rounds and a final
The Rhyddings Pub
Brynmill Avenue
Brynmill, Swansea SA2 0BT
Wales
United Kingdom

Deck Wild thing War Ghoul
By Hugh Angseesing

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 6 average: 3.92
------------------------------------------------------------
3x Lolita Houston 4 VIC aus Tzimisce:2
3x Horatio 2 vic Tzimisce:2
1x Caliban 6 ANI AUS VIC Tzimisce:2
1x Corine Marcón 6 AUS VIC ani Tzimisce:2
1x Devin Bisley 5 ANI AUS vic Tzimisce:2
1x Elizabeth Westcott 5 AUS ani cel vic Tzimisce:3
1x Rose, The 5 PRE VIC aus Tzimisce:3
1x Piotr Andreikov 2 aus Tzimisce:3

Library [76 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action Modifier [7]
7x Changeling
Action Modifier/Combat [8]
8x Plasmic Form
Ally [15]
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Gregory Winter
1x Mylan Horseed (Goblin)
1x Repo Man
2x Vagabond Mystic
9x War Ghoul
Combat [8]
1x Dead-End Alley
2x Fake Out
5x Trap
Equipment [5]
2x Hawg
3x Unlicensed Taxicab
Event [2]
1x Dragonbound
1x Unmasking, The
Master [13]
3x Blood Doll
1x Charisma
1x Direct Intervention
1x Fame
5x Jake Washington (Hunter)
2x Memories of Mortality
Reaction [13]
2x Delaying Tactics
6x Telepathic Misdirection
5x Wake with Evening's Freshness
Retainer [5]
1x Ghoul Escort
1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
2x Mr. Winthrop
1x Tasha Morgan

apart from one tricky game with two imbued decks it didn't
really have any combat issues. It perhaps needs
a break the code or frontals (frontals better as multipurpose
but break the code much much better if come across imbued
- oh the choices!)

*** Parting words ***

Ok, I guess that's all for now. Thanks everybody for coming
and looking forward to seeing you at the next tournament in
Wales!!

Cheers,
Emiliano

Emiliano Imeroni wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> Game 2:
> Simon Reed (Baltimore Purge) 2,5 VP + GW
> Paul Reid-Bowen (Toreador Grand Ball vote)
> Peter Sitch (Tremere toolbox)
> Graham Smith (Imbued) 0,5 VP
> Sam Marsh (Ahrimanes) 0,5 VP
>
> I don't remember much of this table. Simon's purges are
> able to weaken Paul and Peter until the oust, but Graham's
> Imbued and Sam's Ahrimanes manage to resist until timeout.

This was a great example of maximizing your VPs. Simon rescued Sam's
Ahrimanes every time I knocked them into to torpor. This allowed Simon
to bleed forward into me with NO pressure on him. Sam was just happy
to hold in there to get his .5 VP, curse him. Good game and
highlighted some problems with my Imbued deck.

Graham.