Six players gathered at Grahams this week, to fight for position on the League Table. It also marked my return to Vtes after the birth of Wes, and the appearance of Kieran, down from Cheltenham.

Game 1

Stevan Ravnos Toolbox > Geoff Brujah Experiment > Graham Brujah Assault > Paul Anarch Beast Revolt > Sam New Ventrue > Kieran FoS Temptation

Almost a game of two halves, with Geoff, Graham and Paul all having their own little fight at their end of the table. While Kieran, Stevan and myself built up slowly keeping our heads down. Geoff started strongly with Legal Manipulations, but then slowed as he found Bang Nahk and other cards cluttering his hand. Graham pushed hard on Paul putting three of his weenie vampires into torpor, but at some cost as both of his vampires were left low on blood which lead to trips to torpor for them. Paul tried to build up some offence but with the battering from Graham he was left with Beast and occassional Anarch Revolts. I bought out a selection of Ventrue, and slowly picked away at Kieran however with some transferable intercept on the table a couple of my key attacks were defeated and thus Kieran survived longer than he should. Kieran put out a couple of Temptations, and was building a defence line based on Shemti and Crocodile Temple, however with the pressure from me he could do little else. Stevan got a selection of vampires, and a number of intercept options. He also had a Legion of Rats, which put pressure on Geoff who had to stabilise his position.
This allowed Graham to rebuild, even without my crosstable rescue, and he managed to get the oust on Paul. This meant I needed to crack Kieran, who did fall, but by that time Stevan had quite the defence up and I couldn’t get anywhere against him. Indeed the game then went to time with everyone walling up well.

Draw
Graham 1.5vps, Sam 1.5vps, Geoff 0.5vps, Stevan 0.5vps, Kieran 0vps, Paul 0vps.

Game 2

As written by Geoff, with comments by me. I left before this game, so it was down to the usual five players.

Kieran: Salubri Valeran; Stevan:Tzimisce; Graham: Assamite loss; Geoff: Malkav; Paul: Salubri Obeah

A quick game this time. Kieran started popping out minions and tooling up with various weapons, Stevan pulled out some big Tzimi and started pushing forward, Graham’s hoard of little Ass began a sustained campaign of little bleeds interspersed with big losses. I only managed to pull out a couple of relatively large Malks and was frustrated by Paul’s permicept hippy / Jesus looking fellow (sorry, don’t know his name).

Kieran and Stevan decided to kick the shit out of each other for a while with big fun fights, much torporing and slapping ensued. Kieran was also obliging enough for back rush the hippy / Jesus lad and Police-style crack him with an aggravated night stick attack, burning him. However, my repeated attempts to bleed Paul were unfortunately bounced on to Kieran by traitorous Tremere, leaving him weak enough for Paul to secure the first oust.

Stevan then turned his attention to Graham in earnest and many unblocked bleeds left him weak, but still with far too many little minions bleeding me each turn (thank god for Dummy Corp., Telepathic Counter and Wrong & Crosswise).

Paul’s wall of bounce eventually gave way and it was particularly satisfying to bleed him with his own conditioning (thank you fragments), before getting the oust.

Graham hurled his minions forward, using Cappuccino to give him a hand of around 15 as he pushed hard for the oust, only to meet the Malkav bounce on the big bleed – leaving Stevan on 7 pool. This was well in range of my madness delved pair and a lack of intercept from Stevan gave me a second oust.

Having thrown everyone forward Graham had no defence and I ousted again to secure the win.

Geoff; 4 VP 1 GW, Paul; 1 VP, Kieran; 0 VP, Stevan; 0 VP, Graham; 0VP

Another good result for Geoff there, with his second win in two weeks.

Current Standings
Paul 4 GWs 3 Draws 18.0 vps 14 Total Games 0.29
Graham 4 GWs 3 Draws 17.5 vps 15 Total Games 0.27
Geoff 3 GWs 3 Draws 14.5 vps 12 Total Games 0.25
Sam 1 GWs 2 Draws 10.0 vps 12 Total Games 0.08
Stevan 1 GWs 4 Draws 9.5 vps 14 Total Games 0.07
Andy 0 GWs 1 Draws 1.5 vps 4 Total Games 0.00
Nick 0 GWs 0 Draws 1.0 vps 1 Total Games 0.00
Steve 0 GWs 0 Draws 0.5 vps 4 Total Games 0.00
Kieran 0 GWs 0 Draws 0.0 vps 5 Total Games 0.00
Mark 0 GWs 0 Draws 0.0 vps 2 Total Games 0.00
Richard 0 GWs 0 Draws 0.0 vps 1 Total Games 0.00

Total: 17 Games (13 GW, 4 Draws 80%)

So Geoff is pushing hard for the top of the table – one good result could put him right at the top. I secure a few more vps, but nothing more than that.

Next week should see the return of Steve from Iraq, however we need to work out a location to play as Graham has a parents evening to go to. There are a number of options, so will need to work out which is the best for the majority.
1. Play one game at mine, then maybe swap to Grahams for the second (around 9pm).
2. Play at The Huntsman, no good for me or Graham but might be for the rest of you.
3. Play at Pauls/Stevans for both games.

Sam