Florence After Dark

Florence After Dark Imperator Storyline Tournament

Florence, South Carolina

May 9, 2009

5 Players

2R+F

Winning Clan - Malkavian

Winning Player - Jeff Brandon

Key Minion - Greger Andersen

Imperator Nomimae - Roxanne, Rectrix of the 13th Floor

Players:

Jason Joy - Ventrue Bleed/Vote (Group 1/2)

Featuring Emerson Bridges, Sir Walter Nash, Timothy Crowley, Quentin, Gustav Mallenhous

VPs- 5

Brenda Joy - Brujah Rush (Group 1/2)

Featuring Dre, Bianca, Black Cat, Rake, Volker, Jalal Sayad, Julian Sanders

VPs - 1.5

Jeff Brandon - Malkavian Toolbox (Group 1/2)

Featuring Greger Anderssen, Zoe, Watenda, Gilbert Duane

VPs - 4.5, 1 GW

Billy Young - Tremere Bleed (Group 1/2)

Featuring Ignatius, Sarah Cobbler, Thomas Thourne, Rebekka, Cassandra

VPs- 0

Benton Little - Nosferatu Block (Group 4/5)

Featuring Beetleman, Josef von Bauren, Petra, Benjamin Rose, Sergi Voshkov

VPs - 3, 1GW

Seating:

First Round

Jason - 2, Brenda - 0, Jeff - 0, Benton - 3, GW, Billy - 0

Second Round

Benda - 1.5, Billy - 0, Jeff - 1.5, Jason - 1, Benton - 0

Final Round

Brenda - 0, Jeff - 3 GW,Benton - 0, Jason - 2, Billy - 0

First Round Synopsis

I got out Sir Walter Nash, my prey had out a couple Brujahs and my predator Rebekka. My prey was rushing down and beating Jeff's Malks up preventing Jeff from putting much pressure on Benton's Nos. Rebekka was getting annoying with her +1 stealth actions so I instituted a Hostile Takeover. The bid got up to 12 pool which my predator won and ended up paying 6 pool to keep her. I bided my time bringing out Emerson Bridges and Timothy Crowley. I played a Conservative Agitation hitting my prey for 3 and my grandprey for two. I followed with a Cryptic Rider and called another Conservative Agitation eliminating my prey and puting Jeff within easy reach. Benton put Billy out with a few bleeds and blocking everything with Sergi. After 2 Golconda attempts by me, Sergi felt the inner peace. However, Benton had such a large pool it was going to be extremely difficult to put him out. I bleed Jeff and put him out leaving Benton and myself. Benton bleed me out with some stealthy bleeds getting the game win.

Second Round Synopis

Starting off I was going to Parity Shift Benton as I got out an early prince (Sir Walter Nash), but Jeff sudden reversal my vessel preventing me from having less pool than my prey, so I bled Benton instead. Brenda was rushing and bleeding Billy with those willy brujahs. Brenda turned out to be the diaberle queen this night with three successful diaberles. Jeff was bidding his time building. I kept pressure on Benton, but got frustrated as he used Josef's ability to make me discard several good cards. However, that worked to my advantage as I drew a Hostile Takeover and initiated it on Josef. The bid got up to 10 pool with Benton winning and paying five pool to keep him. I kept the pressure up on Benton and bled him out. Jeff in the meantime had got a Pulse of the Cannile and a flamethrower... oh joy! Benda put Billy out after beating his vamps down and bleeding him out. Time was running out with only a few minutes left. I flipped a big bleed to Brenda upsetting her.She rushed Sir walter Nash and put him in torpor. Jeff bleed me out before the time ended. Brenda and Jeff tie the second round with 1.5 vps.

Final Round Synopsis

Final round I drew two of my Ventrue Antitribu in my initial grypt and put them out (Gustav and Questin). Billy got agressive and was bleeding/fighting Brenda's Brujah. Jeff got out Greger and Watenda. Jeff called an Alastor and with my votes, he equiped Greger with a flamethrower. A mistake on my part even though he was able to keep control on Benton's nasty block and torporize you Nosies. Jeff sent Sergi for a dirt nap and diaberlized him. His vamp got burned in the blood hunt. I kept slight presure on Billy just bleeding for one or two. Brenda continued to bleed Jeff for one or two a turn as he didnt block. I tried to bleed Billy for one but he sent the bleed to Brenda and her Brujah sent Sir Walter Nash for a dirt nap. I tried to bleed him again and he blocked. Gustav hit him next for a 4 bleed taking him out with a major boon in the Imperator hand. No one wanted to take the four bleed and I tossed the major boon during my discard pahse. Sergi reappeared and became Famous. Jeff sent him for dirt nap and the Fame took out Benton. I made a big mistake as this junction. I took Brenda out with an unbloackable 3 bleed. What I should have done was let her beat Jeff down some more and kill the flamethrower. Jeff proceeded to dirt nap and diablerize my minions until he was able to bleed me out and win the tournament.

Comments

Dre was the diablie king - did it twice during the tournament. Hostile Takeover proved very useful. The bids were quite high for the two vamps with inherit +1 stealth on all their actions. Greger Andersen should NEVER be allowed to play with a flamethrower!. Sergi was quite ugly with the multiple Murder of Crows and Raven Spies. Bianca beat several vampires to torpor with her inherit 2 strngth - fear her with multiple strikes and psyches. Rebeka was very strong with her inherit +1 stealth. Sarah Cobbler seemed to have a bullseye on her head as she spent as much time in dirt naps as she did ready!

A very fun tournament. Thanks to Brenda, Benton and Billy for playing. Thanks to Jeff for making the trip from Charleston to play with us and a big congrats to Jeff on winning.

Saturday night in Florence and we gather to play a few games of VTES. The focus this week - testing Imperator storyline decks for the upcoming Florence After Dark Imperator Storyline Tournament on 5/9/09. Billy and I have an advantage there as we played recently in the Charleston Imperator tournament. We saw some good decks there and it showed us some weaknesses and strengths in our decks we took to play there.

We played 5 games or so trying Toreador, Brujah, Malk, Ventrue - no Nos or Tremere decks made an appearence. We also played some of our old staples just to try them against Imperator decks. Brujah and Toreador did the best - with heavy bleeds and combat packages. The environment was diffently vote heavy - parity shifts, KRCs making several appearences.

Next week will be fine tuning of the decks with it being the final Saturday before the tournament. Should be fun!

The group met Saturday and the Dark Heresy campaign continued.

Cast of Characters

Jhanagra D'Aragon - Former Arbitrator

Quinton  - Sanctioned Psycher

Sergeant Mack - Former Imperial Guardsmen

Adel - Tech Priest

Zoe - Assasin

Xanthus - Adpet

Kahhla - Tech Priest

Having established a route to contact each other in case they were seperated, Zoe followed rejoined the group in the new hideout with some vital information. Xanthis and Zoe had infiltrated the Ministratum and spent several days researching the Governer's Palace and managed to perhaps find a secret way into the Palace. However the route would take them deep into the Underhive. During the journey, Zoe was reaquanted with her brother, the Redling Gang leader. After a near confrontation, Zoe was able to purchase some information from her brother and the acoytles had a good idea on the entrance to the secret way. Several batles later with some of the Underhives local "wildlife", the located the entrance and proceeded in and began the long ardious climb. They found a hidden room midclimb and scored majorly with a suit of light power armor and some master crafted weapons. Now they prepare for the rest of the climb to the Governer's Palace.

Another Saturday night here in hopping Florence SC as our local players gather to play a game of Dark Heresy. However, several players could not make the game so we switched gears and broke out the VTES decks. Most of what we were playing was test runs for the new Imperator storyline event, but there was some old true tested decks like Benton's Gargoyle deck from hell. Ferox(Adv)...a pain in my side as he completely made tremere comabt ineffectual. Why did I remove those Reindoctinations from my deck?

Lets see... we saw Ventrue lawfirm, Aching Toreadors, Howler from Hell, Saulot the bloater who hits for 20, Malk S&B, Corrupting Settites, Kiaysd powerbleed, War ghouls, werewolves, and few others. Somehow, we managed to play six games in about five and half hours - a new record for us.

Deck of the night - my youngest sons Brujah/Gangrel deck that consits of at least 130 cards. It somehow manged to hold of a Kiaysd powerbleed and get a game win. The crypt consists of at least 20 vamps so you never know what you are going to draw in either in the crypt or the deck. Walks with Might saved me several times. Never considered it a good card until Saturday - even though I had to pay a pool to play a discipline card!

Fun times as always!

VTES night in Florence.... only three players this eve, but still some good games. We managed to do four games in about 5 hours.

First Game

Jason - Aching Beauty Toreador

Benton - Saulot Experiemnt

Billy - Brujah Comabt/Vote

Toreadors managed to take the game thanks to 9 votes on the table and Toreadors Grand Ball. Ironically, I never saw an Aching Beauty the whole game. Key minions... Alexandria and Anson. The Brujah had an IC and a prince out, but Anneke sealed the vote lock. Saulot became quite unweildly with a depravity and 5 Biothaumaturgic Experiemtns on him. OUCH! Fortunately for Billy and I, we had a few ways to avoid Saulots strike... S:CE and dodges!

Second Game

Jason - Valerius Intercepty Deck

Benton - Anarch True Brujah

Billy - Brujah Combat/Vote

Neither Billy nor Benton got off to a good start once Valerius started blocking everything. Benton lost a key minion due to Valerius using a conflagration followed by a Grave Robbing. From there on, I controlled the flow of the game. Benton went out first followed by Billy. Key minion - Valerius and Carnia.

Third Game

Jason - Gangrel Vote

Benton - Ahrmines Toolbox

Billy - Ventrue Lawfirm

Billy jumped out quickly with vote lock denying me several votes. Billy maintained the voting advantage until Howler sent Victor Pelletier (Justicar) to torpor. Gather was a key card for me this game - allowing me to get out Beckett and Danielle Diron for three pool each! Danielle became a Legendary Vampire. Veles Hunt burned Howler, followed by a few banishments letting me bleed and vote Benton out. Bentons Ahrimines deck has an amazing ability to bloat. Everytime I thought I had him close to being out, he would quickly build up his pool. Key minion - Beckett and his ability for me to cycle cards! 

Fourth Game

Jason - Tzimsce Bruise

Benton - FOS Temptation

Billy - Gangrel Ally

Pretty even game to start with initially. Benton got out a couple FoS and proceeded to tempt our minion, Billy got out Badger and a werewolf, and I got several low cap Tzimsces. I begin to bleed,  I managed to get a few retainers to give me intercept and proceeded to block and do some agg damage. Benton took one of my minions and one of Billy's minions and bleed him, then followed with a couple bleeds and ending with an Enticement to put Billy out. Benton managed to get me down to one pool, before I swarmed him and bled him out. A very close game.

Dark Heresy night in Florence as our group meets to purge the heretics and other malcreatents. Cast of characters....

Jhanagra D'Aragon - Former Arbitrator

Quinton  - Sanctioned Psycher

Sergeant Mack - Former Imperial Guardsmen

Adel - Tech Priest

Zoe - Assasin

Xanthus - Adpet

Kahhla - Tech Priest - New Player yet introduced to the group

Prior Events - After defeating the Dark Elder raiding party on Mining Station MS-112, the acoyltes returned to Hive Sibellus with the xenos artifacts. Upon debeifing by Interragator Chen, the xenos artifacts were handed over to the Interragator and the acoyltes got some much needed time off. For the next four weeks, the group rested and relaxed until one afternoon Zoe left the safe house the group where the group was residing. Approxiamately two hours later she returned. During that two hour time span, the Planetary Governer Libellus Fontaine was assasinated. Five minutes prior to Zoe returning to the safe house, the rest of the group watched on the holograph projector video of the Planetary Governer being assasinated along with video of Zoe being the one who did the assasination. Zoe claimed ignorance and innocence when confronted by the group. While debating the assasination and Zoe's part in it, the safe house was assaulted by an Abrites Criminal Recovery team. A fierce battle ensued leaving the Abrites Retrieval Team dead and the acoyltes on the run. Over the next few days, the acoyltes fought a couple more battles barely escaping each time, but managed to also do some investigation into the assasination and their questionable beleif of Zoe's innocence.

Session - Zoe and Xanthus have left to investigate a posible lead (players absent this session). The rest of the group hole up in their current hiding place - an abandoned building in the middle hive - and discuss what they have learned and possible new plans. During this discussion,  the holograph in the abandoned shop turns on and a mesage plays "Meet with me..from a friend" and cuts out. Adell manages to trace the message and sends a reply for the mysterious "friend" to meet them at a burned out factory down in the lower hive. Arriving a few hours early to the meeting time, the acoyltes set up an ambush in case it is a trap. A while after the meeting time and no show from the "friend", the group spots a "man" standing in the middle of the street. D'Aragon sneaks up on the man and attempts to place a pistol to his head when he spots her. Making no overt hostile moves, the man begins to speak with D'Aragon. The conversation was quite circular with both being very vague. Meanwhile, the rest of the group arrives minus Mack who is still in the factory. Quinton using his psychic powers to dominate the man, however he surpasses the warp energy needed and opened a portal from the Warp and a lesser demon slips out attacking the group immediately. A battle ensues and the demon defeated. The man introduces himself as Kahhli, Tech Priest. D'Aragon, still suspicious of Kahhli, asks Quinton to do a mind scan. Quinton succeeds and informs D'Aragon that Kahhli is telling the truth. Somewhat trusting of Kahhli, the group retreats to a safe house known to Kahhli. Joining teams, the two tech priests Kahhli and Adell merge with the Machine Spirit and hack into the Governmental Coginator system to hunt for more clues. They were succesful, but almost get tagged with a security mind virus that would have fried their collective minds. The group now considers their next move with the information they acquired.

It was supposed to be a Dark Heresy Night, but several players were unable to make it, so we made it a VTES night. We had several interesting games, though the first one lasted almost 3 hours.

First round we were all playing vote decks. Benton was playing !Brujah vote, Billy was playing the KoT Ventrue starter, and I was playing a Gangrel vote deck. Benton got out Armin Brenner, Billy got a out a 6 cap venture, and I got out Stanislavia and Chandler. I was able to call a Gangrel Justicar on Chandler as well as dropping a legendary vampire on Stanislavia to get an early vote lock with 9 votes. However, Billy played a Esgrima which helped to level the vote field once he got out Hardestadt. Benton then brought out Hecktor and another weenie. Only votes that were passing at that point were beneficial to all. I brought out Danielle Dion giving me another vote, Billy Brought out Gustav giving him 2 more votes and Benton brought out Antonio Veradas giving him one more vote. Votes currently: Jason 10, Billy 6, Benton 6. Benton with Billy's help plus the Esgrima famed my Danille and called a successful Dog of War. I was able to S:CE end his attempts to put Danielle into torpor. At this point I managed a successful Gather and brought out Ingrid Rossler for 2 pool! Next master phase, I giant blooded her. I was able to get rid of the Dogs of Wars because Billy was worried about Hecktor rushing his vamps and doing 5 agg damage. I gathered again successfully and brought out Katarina giving me a total of 14 votes! Additionally, I played a Elysium: The Palace of Versailles so I could get a total of 18 votes if needed. I was able to banish Armin and Hecktor giving me vote lock and proceeded to parity shift and bleed Benton out. Billy fell shortly after.

Next game I played a Tremere/!Tremere wall deck, Benton played a Arhmines combat, and Billy played !Toreador gun deck.  I brought out Valerius, Benton brought out Howler, and Billy brought  7 cap. Intitially nothing was getting out because Billy and I were blocking everything. But my deck staled and Benton and Billy proceeded to trade blows. The Ahrimines hitting for 3-4 damage and the !Toreador using 4 mags while I twiddled my thumbs. Benton was able to oust Billy and proceeded to do the same to me shortly.

Next game I played my Club Set(corruption bleed), Benton a !Malk gun deck, and Billy I forgot what deck he played. I was able to get a midcap FoS out and got a quick 3 bleed on Benton. I proceeded to corrupt and bleed Benton out pretty quickly. Billy was ousted a couple turns later.

Final game was Benton playing the same deck, Billy playing a Blood Brothers wall deck, and me playing Brenda's weenie Brujah bruise deck. Benton got out White Lilly and equipped her with a flame thrower torporizing a couple of my weenies. Billy had out 3 BBs and blocked a couple of Bentons actions getting his vamps torporized also. I Haven Uncovered White Lilly, but Benton made all my weenies Totally Insane, limiting my rush actions to White Lilly only. After a few turns, I was able to rush normally and use computer hackings to oust Benton. Billy conceded at that point due to the lateness of the hour.

All in all, a good night for VTES!

It was a good night in Florence VTES as we found a new player! Gary was introduced to VTES a couple nights earlier and joined us Saturday for some mayhem.The first game sat five players and lasted almost three hours with me taking 2 VPs and GW. Game seating went like: 

Gary: True Brujah anarch vote  1 VP

Billy: Toreador Vote  1 VP

Brenda:  Kaiysd Bleed

Jason:  Master of Fate  2 VP+ GW

Benton: Nos! Malk! Bleed

I was able to lock Benton down with two brainwash while I developed, flicking the nasty 3 bleeds from the Kaiysd deck to my prey. A major boon on my grand prey also absorbed some of the Kaiysd 3 bleed. Benton was the first to be put out earning me one VP. A Dominion Challenge called by Gary set up Brenda to be taken out by a Conservative Agitation called by Billy earning Billy a VP. Gary finally weakened Billy enough to bleed Billy out.  Four turns later I was able to finish bleeding Gary for the game win.

 Next game was not as successful for me. That game lasted 3 plus hours until Billy conceded to Benton as the end. Game seating:

Benton: Lasombra Combat   3 VPs and GW

Brenda:Followers of Set Temptation

Gary: New World Order

Billy: Gangrel Combat wall  1 VP

Jason: Tzimisce Bruise

 My deck started out good and I was bleeding heavily upon Benton, till he slammed dunked my war ghoul. I sacrificed another ghoul to destroy his Parthenon to keep him from bloating from the two secret hordes he out . I actually had Benton down to one pool when Gary called a Reins of Power and set me up for the kill to Billy the same turn for 1 VP. Brenda dropped out of the game earning Benton six pool and 1 VP. Benton managed to put one of Garys Justicars in torpor. The game was pretty much even till Benton managed to put Gary out. Benton at this point had almost 20 pool and Billys minions were looking pretty sad, so he conceded to game to Benton.