ACC 2015!

Just got back home from Taiwan and I’ve only had 4 hours of sleep so I’ll just post the new ACC champ: Todd Idashkin using Euro Brujah! Yes, another ACC win with Euro Brujah!

More details to follow!

ACC 2014 Finals report (2 of 2)

These were the players going into the finals: (in order of ranking)

Me playing Gerald Windham freaky toolbox
Faust playing nasty Enkidu combat
Ace playing !Ventrue grinder
Richard Barnett (carding) playing Euro Brujah
Charlene (Charlie) playing Weenie presence vote with first traditions

Since I was the only player with 3GWs so I was top seed going into the finals. This was good for obvious reasons, you can really pick where you want to sit down and avoid whatever deck is your weakness.

At this point I didn’t even know what deck Charlie (Charlene) was playing but I already saw the threats on the table: Enkidu and the Euro Brujah. While my deck had a nice mix of combat, most of it relied on equipment and a single Drawing out the Beast or Immortal Grapple can shut them down. Ace would be no problem since it was basically a standard !Ventrue grinder, minimal combat damage, easily survivable as long as I don’t leave myself tapped out for his big bleeds. In fact I was counting on those big bleeds as I could just bounce them all to Charlie.

After everyone else chose their spot on the table, I placed myself as far away as possible from the 2 combat decks, right in between the weenie presence and the !Ventrue grinder.

My deck is primarily a set up deck so I spent the first few rounds bringing out vampires. I kinda figured Ace would bring out a mid cap vampire so I brought out Muhsin Samir first as a deflector for his bleeds instead of Gerald which would have left me defenceless against DOM bleed. True enough he got out a mid cap vampire with DOM so I was able to stop a potential big loos of pool!

Charlie quickly got out 2 minions which promptly called for some Praxis Seizures, Faust of course took 3-4 turns bringing out Enkidu and Carding got out Donal and Theo Bell.

Crucial thing that happened early game: Charlie managed to call a First Tradition via Charming Lobby (and a Kine Resources Contested targeting Faust and Ace). This forced everyone on the table to pay 2 pool just to start a turn and no one wanted to skip a turn.

I was able to deter Ace from bleeding me with Muhsin Samir and once Gerald was out, He quickly tooled up via Magic of the Smith.

I was setup enough that I didn’t fear Ace or Charlie at all, so I used Heart of Nizchetus to grab all the combat defense in preparation for Enkidu and Theo Bell/Donal. I was able to oust Charlie after a couple of deflected bleeds, Gerald went in for the kill with a stealthed Govern/Conditioning bleed since weenie presence can’t block stealth.

My biggest mistake was overconfidence as I declared a bleed with Gerald on the succeeding turn. I didn’t pay much attention to Faust but apparently he had 1 or 2 raven spies on Enkidu so my planned bleed with stealth failed. I was pretty sure I could survive a turn of combat with him as long as he didn’t have a trap. I think he didn’t have a trap and he used the expected card: drawing out the beast, removing most of my combat offence and defence. I still had some minor fortitude prevent but the thing that sent Gerald to torpor was Enkidu playing Blur.

At this point I still had a couple of vampires to rescue Gerald without drawing into my Chantry but I think both rescue attempts were blocked by either Enkidu or Donal

In the succeeding turns, a Famed Donal sent Enkidu to torpor via Disarm taking both vampires into the torpor region and leaving Theo Bell the sole vampire on the table. At this point everyone was down to 3-4 pool (I had 7-8 thanks to Arcane library)

At this point in the game I was literally a sitting duck with 3-4 vampires in torpor but no blood to rescue them. I had a pentex in hand for Enkidu but since Donal took Enkidu with him to torpor, Theo Bell was quickly targeted for Pentex Subversion the next turn.

I was in the kingmaker position and if a combat deck was going to win the ACC, I wanted Enkidu to win it as he was the purer combat deck with no need for DOM tricks.

Alas, Carding had a Wash which he just drew during the last discard phase! If the Pentex play pushed through, Faust would’ve won the game via Fame!

Congratulations and kudos to Richard Barnett, ACC2014 Champ!

here’s my Gerald Windham deck:

Deck Name : The Mask of Red Cheese
Author : Johann Ong
Description :
Asian Continental Championship 2014 finalist deck

Pretty reliable toolbox. Gerald Windham is just screaming to be broken. Bring out silver bullet equipment via Magic of the Smith, whatever you need for the current table situation.
Heart of Cheating can get you near perfect hands too for that final lunge.

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 9 average: 6.16667
————————————————————

4x Gerald Windham 9 AUS DOM FOR THA Tremere:5
2x Lord Ephraim Wainw 6 AUS THA for pre Tremere:5
2x Claus Wegener 5 DOM aus for tha Tremere:5
1x Muhsin Samir 6 DOM THA aus pot Tremere:4
1x Frank Weisshadel 4 dom pot tha Tremere:4
1x Tarrence Moore 4 aus dom tha Tremere:5
1x Ezra Hawthorne 2 tha Tremere:4

Library [75 cards]
————————————————————

Action [11]
5x Govern the Unaligned
1x Graverobbing
4x Magic of the Smith
1x Restoration

Action Modifier [18]
2x Conditioning
12x Freak Drive
4x Mirror Walk

Combat [9]
2x Indomitability
1x Rego Motus
1x Rolling with the Punches
3x Skin of Steel
2x Unflinching Persistence

Equipment [7]
1x .44 Magnum
1x Ankara Citadel, Turkey, The
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Improvised Flamethrower
1x Ivory Bow
1x Kevlar Vest
1x Sport Bike

Master [12]
1x Arcane Library
1x Chantry
1x Giant’s Blood
1x Guardian Angel
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Perfectionist
1x Rack, The
2x Vessel
2x Villein
1x Wash

Reaction [16]
6x Deflection
4x Eyes of Argus
1x My Enemy’s Enemy
3x On the Qui Vive
2x Telepathic Misdirection

Retainer [2]
1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1x Tasha Morgan

ACC 2014 TWD and report!

http://vekn.net/event-calendar/event/7756

Still exhausted but wow what an event! A total of 22 players arrived in Iloilo despite a tropical typhoon (Mario) hitting Manila a day before the event! This probably would’ve been the biggest ACC yet but we missed the ENTIRE Singapore contingent due to a wedding scheduled on the same day! >.<

I decided to play a deck I've been working on since the early part of this year. Something I was very comfortable with and it's proven to give me at least a couple of VPs per game if not a Game Win. Gerald Windham is just broken. Superior fortitude with +1 stealth was bad enough on a Tremere vampire but his other vote gaining ability puts him over the top! I don't even mind going first since he's a 9 cap vampire! Flexibility was the key of the deck with the ability to fish for silver bullets via a 4 stealth Magic of the Smith.

First round:

Mike playing Harbingers of Skulls intercept
Felbert playing Assamite combat
Karl playing anarch Giovanni Khazar diary featuring Cry Wolf
Me playing Gerald Windham freaky toolbox

I was a bit worried with Karl's weenie vampires with DOM but luckily he focused on recruiting allies for Khazar's Diary during the first few rounds, allowing me to bring out Gerald and set up a good hand (via a few discard phases) getting a handful of useful equipment. Mike brought out Neighbor John and while I was a bit worried about that, I baited him early by equipping an ivory bow which he promptly blocked. A couple of Freak Drives later, I had successfully equipped Ankara Citadel and the rest was pretty smooth from there. Game Win table sweep 4 VPs

Second round:

Eric Tomas playing weenie auspex smiling jack
Raf playing Malk 94 sneak bleed
Dondon playing Imbued
Me playing Gerald Windham freaky toolbox

This was a pretty fast table, Dondon's imbued was ousted pretty fast by Raf's Zebulon, Gilbert Duane and Mariel, Lady Thunder playing the usual Govern plus Conditioning and Lost in Crowds. I was setting up as much as Eric would allow me too by tooling up Gerald Windham with an Ankara via Magic of the Smith and readying my hand with at least 3 versions of bounce. Eric had no forward motion due to the nature of his deck except for a first turn Anarch Revolt much to the Imbued's dismay but he did tool up with a few guns and coolers and eventually playing Smiling Jack. A couple of bounced bleeds later, Eric was ousted with not a single bleed from me! Raf quickly followed when Gerald bled with Govern and Conditioning with his inherent +1 stealth. Game win with 3 VPs.

Third round:

Mike playing Harbingers intercept
John playing !Tremere toolbox featuring Carna, Malgorzata and Paul Cordwood
Me playing Gerald Windham freaky toolbox
Aurelio playing Lasombra politics with Moncada and company

At this point I think my place at the finals table was assured so I pretty much played the deck on autopilot. I knew both John would never be able to block Gerald using Magic of the Smith and Aurelio's combat was more focused on ending combat rather than Entombment. I picked up votes on the table due to the high number of titled vampires on the table, allowing Gerald to get 4-6 votes during the course of the game. Arcane library arrived early, allowing me to bring out a few vampires to deflect John's bleeds and this eventually led to Aurelio's downfall. Meanwhile Mike had about 3 slaughterhouses in play and was happily milling away at John's library. By the time Aurelio ousted Mike with votes, John's library was halfway gone. Somehow during the game, Gerald managed to tool up with an ivory bow and two retainers (JS Simmons and Tasha Morgan) and was happily bleeding John for 3 at 2 stealth thanks to Mirror Walk. Aurelio was already ousted then by deflecting John's bleeds of 3 to 6 since Moncada can't block. Game Win 3 VPs

Finals table report tomorrow!

VTES Asian Continental Championship 2014

We’ll be hosting it here in Iloilo! Save the date: September 20, 2014!

Tourney details are in the Manila Vtes FB group page

Here’s the FaceBook event page

Quick update and some VTES Storyline Tournament 2014 news

First post of the year! Bit delayed but despite the lack of posts on this blog, our Iloilo vtes playgroup is still very much active! We even managed to recruit at least 5 new players! That’s an entire table for a tournament lol!

We’ve tried holding monthly constructed (sanctioned) tournaments and so far we’ve been successful enough in getting at least 10 players to join in (except for the last two months since it was finals month for some players still studying)

Holy Week will soon finish and we can get things started again in the tournament scene but we’re also thinking of playing a storyline tournament using the new rules on VEKN.net (75% same clan crypt) just to use the new Mythic vampires!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2013 in review (didn’t really post much but still kinda active!)

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,000 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 33 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

VTES ACC 2013 pics

Much delayed VTES ACC 2013 report

It’s been a little over two weeks since the event but I finally managed to find the time to make a report. I’m actually proud to say that the Philippines came out in full force, sending six methuselahs (from two different cities/regions!) to compete for the ACC title. Japan sent out three methuselahs and two of them made it to the final table!

As usual, my memory is now a bit hazy but I’ll try to remember who was bleeding who and sorry in advance for the wrong spelling on names!

We had a total of 18 players so the tourney had two tables of four and two tables of five for seating.

Round one found me in a four player table bleeding John from Iloilo (!tremere toolbox) who was bleeding G1 (nosferatu cock robin superstar) who was bleeding my predator Nomura san (!Brujah bruise bleed)

I was playing Gangrel royalty just because I think Angus the Unruled is pretty metal.

The first few rounds, everyone was very cautious is playing, testing the waters with a bleed for 1, not blocking and generally playing defensively. G1 had some early trouble with John’s DOM bleeds and Nomura san’s long range rush combat. I just quietly brought out Ingrid Rosler and Angus, villein both of them for “safe” amounts (four or five I think) and bringing out a Judgement: Camarilla Segregation hitting both my prey and predator since both were sabbat clans. I think it was at this point that Nomura san decided to make a deal with John to help each other just me (G1 was pretty much down to less than 6 pool due to the massive DOM bleeds) John at this point unwisely agreed to not bleed Nomura for two turns. I played Temptation of Greater Power on Malgorzata and this was where I made an error that cost me the game win. Everyone bid high for the !tremere priscus but the only one with enough pool to take her was me (bid 14pool, 5 on credit) what I should’ve done was let Nomura take Malgorzata at 13 pool and let John or me finish him off. I further compounded this error by playing First Tradition: Masquerade. The added two pool to take a turn cost me everything as I didn’t expect to be bled by the Brujah for more than 1-2. As it turns out, he had Iron Glare for a +2 bleed. John could’ve won a few VPs but he rather unwisely followed through in his part of the deal. Doing absolutely nothing to the !Brujah for two turns. Allowing the !Brujah time to build up and get the GW.

After a quick lunch break, round two saw me in another four player table. This time I was bleeding Bart (!tremere) who was bleeding Fadzhuli (!Malkavian vote/bleed) who was bleeding another Iloilo player, Raf (Toreador AAA) who was bleeding me.

Bart apparently switched from her usual wall deck to a more bleed focused tremere using Muaziz so she wasn’t able to intercept any of my votes. Fad kept Raf busy with a combination of bleeds and votes to damage his pool while I took advantage of Raf’s lack of forward motion to bring out: Ingrid Rossler, Angus and Stanislava. With the amount of titled Gangrel on the table, I pretty much had vote lock. Fad managed to oust Raf but I took the rest of the table with bleed bounce and votes.

Round three finally had me at a five player table, this time bleeding Ayukata san (Trujah multi rush) bleeding John (!Tremere toolbox) bleeding Fay (Toreador triple A) bleeding John Worrol (completely forgot his deck but it had Obf so possibly !malk or !nos black hand)

I had time to set up since the worse Jihn bled me was for about 1-2. I did make another error which cost me everything once again. I blocked the Trujah when he was equipping something nasty, an ivory bow or something. I actually didn’t know what his deck was and I found out the hard way. Angus blocked the equip action with 2nd Tradition, feeling pretty cocky since I was holding on to an earth meld and skin of steel just in case he had immortal grapple. A horrible combo soon followed: Outside the Hourglass took me for two, I used earthmeld since he didn’t play any grapples. He followed up with a disarm. Initially I thought it was an illegal move since the damage was before range was determined and disarm states that it happens when damage is inflicted at close range. YY ruled (correctly) that the default range is always close even before range is determined…@_@. And thus Angus went to torpor after just being influenced during my turn. And promptly diablerized by a stupid 1 cap caitiff. That sealed my doom as I could only bring out Ingrid Rossler. Fay had vote lock with Alexandra and Anneke. She pretty much swept the table after that. Poor John’s !tremere couldn’t bleed her enough since she always had a minion tap ready whenever she brought out a new vampire.

Found out after that my single game win was about two VPs short to qualify for the final table. Philippine team may have scrubbed out but we still had fun at the event! Bann eventually won the finals with a spell of life deck….yes, spell of life. I don’t know how since he was never in any of my tables but kudos to him for winning with Followers of Seth!

My deck list will follow shortly.

We’re going to Singapore for VTES! Asian Continental Championships are on!

VTES ACC 2013 will be hosted by our fellow players in Singapore! Sorry for the lack of updates, mainly because when we finished the VTES league, it was time for a major tournament for Legend of the Five Rings.

We’ll be trying to get a few practice games in over the following weeks just so we won’t be too rusty. I’ll be trying out a new deck concept for me and hopefully it works hehe.

VTES ACC is at the end of the month. Aaaahhh!

Iloilo Vtes League week 1 results

Got some vtes league rules from: The VTES Wall

LEAGUE RULES
The rules are simple.

OVERALL RULES
1) First person to Five Game Wins (GW) wins the league.
2) If someone gets a GW, THAT PERSON Victory Points (VP) in that game are NOT counted.
3) If someone gets VPs but does not get a GW, those points ARE COUNTED.
4) Half points (.5) are not counted.
5) If the is NO game win, then Victory Points (VP) are counted.
6) FIVE Victory Points equal one Game Win
7) In 6 player game (see below), X effects (ex: Conservative Agitation, Parity Shift, Slave Auction) are capped at 5.
8) When a deck has won a Game win (not due to 5VP = 1GW), that deck cannot be played again BY THAT PERSON for the rest of the League.

RULES IN TEST
1) No 3-player league games
2) 4 player – time limit: 1 hour 30 minutes
3) 5 player – time limit: 2 hours
4) 6 player – time limit: 2 hour 30 minutes
5) 1 League game per day

We modified it a little but it’s 99% the same as above. We just took out rule #8 since most of the Iloilo players only have a couple of decks at most.

less than 10 players showed up for the scheduled tournament so we decided to make it into a league game

Results from the first VTES League in iloilo