Ending of an Era

At the end of the financial year just passed...

Unlimited Hobbies (Blacktown) has closed its doors permanently.  I'm not privvy to all of the details but general rumour suggests it was a combination of business being poached by GameTraders and rental increases.

So for many in Sydney, that spells an end to one of the places we'd all played a lot of VTES.

Sydney Qualifier Wrap

8 players, (a disappointing number*), attended the Sydney Qualifier run on the 14th July at Good Games in the city.  Of the players, only 2 were local.  The rest came from Brisbane (2) and Newcastle (4).

The players were:

1. Steve Wedd (Sydney) - Settite Stealth Bleed with weenie dominate minions
2. Claudio Gomes (Sydney) - Aus/Dom/Tha wall with a splash of fortitude
3. Stephen Harris (Brisbane) - Tremere Wall
4. Tony Wedd (Brisbane) - Harbinger + Weenie Fortitude Wall with Sticks
5. Julian Gatt (Newcastle) - Juggler Twister feat Pochtli
6. Stephen Cowie (Newcastle) - Ian Forestal is an Anarch Wall
7. Justin Evans (Newcastle) - Malkavian Vote with Madness Network feat. Lutz
8. Craig Johnston (Newcastle) - Ravnos with Thaumaturgy Wall

The Event was 2R + F

Round 1.

Game 1

Julian -> Stephen Harris -> Justin Evans -> Tony Wedd

Result: Julian 4VP & GW

Game 2

Craig -> Claudio -> Steve -> Stephen Cowie

Result: Steve 4VP & GW

Round 2

Game 3

Steve -> Julian -> Claudio -> Stephen Harris

Result: Claudio 3VP & GW, Steve 1VP

Game 4

Justin -> Craig -> Tony Wedd -> Stephen Cowie

Result: Justin 3VP & GW, Tony 1VP

Ranking after Prelim Rounds

1. Steve Wedd : 1GW & 5 VP
2. Julian Gatt : 1GW & 4VP
3. Claudio Gomes : 1GW & 3VP
4. Justin Evans : 1GW & 3VP
5. Tony Wedd : 1VP

The Final seating was:
Tony -> Steve -> Justin -> Claudio -> Julian

The Final started off with Julian placing a Fame onto Tony's Andy (1cap Caitiff with for), and using Dodd to rush and bin him after a protracted combat.  The Fame would stay in torpor for a considerable time after this, causing plenty of pool damage to everyone.  Steve hit Justin hard who was trying to hit Claudio but getting blocked.  Claudio was building up and trying to defend whilst Julian got out Juggler to go with Dodd and equipped Juggler with a .44 and began trying to rescue Andy.  Tony kept blocking the rescue and would invariably lose a weenie to torpor.

Justin then realized he had made a terrible mistake, only influencing out Lutz he couldn't play the Parity Shifts that he began to draw into.  This realization soon heralded the demise of Justin.  Tony fell soon after (thanks to a stealth bleed from Claudio being flicked to him by Julian), never being able to draw a Harbinger.  He kept paying 1 to see 1 but was denied by his Crypt.  Julian too had a Crypt draw issue, digging repeatedly for Pochtli and unable to find him, but Tony's failure was more severe.

Claudio tried to defend against the heavy bleed of Steve, but couldn't last long.  When he died, Julian conceded.  He didn't have much pool left (7), and only 2 minions, Dodd and Juggler.  The Waste Management Operation was his only recursion with Pochtli not controlled.  Julian's library was down to 5 cards, and he had no combat or rush in hand.  Steve conversely had 4 minions in play, most with considerable blood and close to 15 pool.

Final Rank	Name	Prelim GWs	Prelim VPs	Final VPs
1	Steve Wedd	1	5	4
2	Julian Gatt	1	4	1
2	Claudio Gomes	1	3	0
2	Justin Evans	1	3	0
2	Tony Wedd	0	1	0
6	Steve Cowie	0	0	n/a
6	Craig Johnston	0	0	n/a
6	Steve Harris	0	0	n/a

It was a good win to Steve and a good, fun day even if the turnout was poor*.

Thanks to Nick for organizing and running the event.  Even with the small number, it was a good, fun time of playing V:TES.  Everyone played in the right spirit, and there were quite a few laughs all round.

And no deals were broken from what I can tell.  So the fuddy duddy's can be happy that everyone played honest.  :)

*Sydney players.... where were you?

Do you consciously Metagame your decks?

I am wondering if you (the players) metagame your decks. 

If you see people starting to play more block, do you then play low-stealth, block-punishers (Aching Beauty/Change of Target/etc) or block-fails decks deliberately so the others will hand-jam?

If you see more and more combat, do you try to arms-race them into more violent combat or go for the Strike: Combat Ends route or for damage prevention?

I have to admit after my trip to Melbourne I did decide to build a few block-punishing and at least one anti-weenie deck.  But do you do the same?

Also, is there a deck-type or combat-type you are seeing in your local group and do you plan to metagame it?

Sydney Qualifier

Just a reminder, that this Sunday 14/7/13 will see the Sydney Qualifier run.

Location ~ Good Games in the City
Time ~ 11:00am
Format ~ 2 Rounds + Final
Cost ~ Free

Contacts ~ Nick Miller or Stephen Harris

Comments

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And remember:

The Horizon

So this is the best tip I ever got on strategy:

"Learn to recognise someone heading who is heading over the horizon and make sure you don't waste resources either helping them or helping someone else push them over"

By horizon they obviously mean when someone else is about to be ousted that isn't you or your prey.

This is really about not worrying about table balance and realising that sometimes when someone is down you need to kick them.  Previously I would worry about anyone that wasn't my prey being ousted and waste resources stopping that happen.  Which sometimes is required and sometimes is not and this little tip, given to me by my mate Sven in London, is really about picking which case it is and making the most of that.

Pretty much once I got to the heart of what that meant and understood it I went from someone who could get a few VPs and maybe the odd game win to someone that got game wins.  I reckon this is the most common limitation people place on themselves when they first start playing tournaments so there it is.

S

Upcoming Brisbane Events

So I'm looking at running a couple of events in Brisbane later this year.
In early August I'll be running a VTES storyline event, probably the Cultist storyline.

Also something in November.  Maybe a limited event (Jyhad starter + boosters).
Each event/weekend will be the usual full-tilt gaming, drinking and lack-of-sleep weekend that I offer. Some crashing space is available at my place for out of towners.
If anyone is interested, let me know.