Archipelago Jones - Tournament Report

For the first time in my career as a Vampire player I am organizing the event. Not organizing as in being a prince and managing the Archon and such but organizing as in being the host of the venue. With the new regular tournament place in Göteborg not allowing alcohol I was worried for our traditional Glögg-tournament. I got permission from my parents in law to use their summer house on the beautiful island Brännö in Göteborg’s southern archipelago.

Our prince, Sten, couldn’t participate but our NC Isak took his place handling the paperwork. 15 player showed up and Kortedala Enskilda Hinkbryggeri even brewed us a special Glögg for the event.

At the tournament I was far too busy with practical stuff and all my games lasted long for me so I didn’t take any proper notes. The reports of the games might be a bit short and lacking but its the best my memory can reporoduce.
I choose to play one of my favourite decks for the moment and it hasn’t changed much since I played it at the First Chance Qualifier in Budapest.

 

Deck Name : Mar Ghouls
Author : Stefan Karlsson

Crypt [13 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 9 average: 5.53846

5	Maris Streck	9	AUS OBF ani dem dom	justicar	Malkavian	3
2	Horatio	2	vic		Tzimisce	2
2	Piotr Andreikov	2	aus		Tzimisce	3
1	Corine Marcon	6	AUS VIC ani		Tzimisce	2
1	Devin Bisley	5	ANI AUS vic		Tzimisce	2
1	Elizabeth Westcott	5	AUS ani cel vic		Tzimisce	3
1	Wendy Wade	3	ani aus		Tzimisce	2

Library [63 cards]

Action Modifier [5]
3x Cloak the Gathering
2x Veil the Legions

Ally [10]
1x Muddled Vampire Hunter
2x Ossian
7x War Ghoul

Combat [8]
3x Fake Out
5x Trap

Equipment [1]
1x Heart of Nizchetus

Event [4]
2x Dragonbound
2x Unmasking, The

Master [13]
1x Erciyes Fragments, The
1x Fame
6x Jake Washington (Hunter)
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Rack, The
2x Smiling Jack, The Anarch

Political Action [4]
1x Anathema
3x Parity Shift

Reaction [15]
2x Delaying Tactics
2x Eyes of Argus
6x On the Qui Vive
5x Telepathic Misdirection

Retainer [3]
1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1x Mr. Winthrop
1x Tasha Morgan

Round 1

1	2	3	4	5
Daniel Wiberg	Alex Båskman	Stefan Karlsson	Ida Olsson Bjärmark	Ivan Marin-Rivas
!Toreador breed and bleed	Kiasyd + Lasombra stealth bleed	Mar Ghouls	Kite and Anatole toolbox	Ventrue Lawfirm

As soon as I know which deck Ida is playing I know it will be hard for me to get my setup. With either Kite or Anatole as her first minion she won’t easily let me get any allies to play. Fortunately Alex plays mostly low- to mid-caps and Ida knows he will make a quick victory point if I am not allowed to defend myself so she agrees to let me recruit one War Ghoul. I also have an early Pentex Subversion on his Isanwayen and I manage to defend myself pretty good.
Ivan is having a slow start and Daniel is free to build up as he like. I reason I have to help Ivan with some intercept from Maris for Ida not to oust him too quick. In return he agrees to vote in favour of my Parity Shifts. I probably shouldn’t have done that, not because I needed every drop of Maris’ blood but because Daniel would have had much more pressure coming his way with Ida as predator.
Daniel bleeds Alex down low and my defence is enough to not take much damage but Daniel stops his momentum and lets Alex survive for a while trying to lunge at me. At this stage I have to take some damage but I survive. I try to call a Parity shift, stealthing with Cloak the Gathering but forgets that I can tap Erciyes Fragments to steal a stealth card from Ida and I am blocked.
Alex have barely any ready minions and is of no use to Daniel anymore so he is bled out. Ida also bleeds Ivan out and we are at the three player game. At this stage the game win is out of my hand and I am not going to survive if I try and oust Ida before she gets Daniel with only one War Ghoul so I am aiming for a 2-2 table split. Ida agrees after some talking to let me call Anathema on Anatole and rush him with my War Ghoul playing a Trap for 8 more pool. Not a happy decision for Ida but she is toast in a duel against Daniel. It doesn’t help that long though and I am ousted.
The duel is surprisingly long but Daniel wins in the end.
Daniel GW 4VP
Ida 1VP 

Round 2

1	2	3	4	5
Stefan Karlsson	Daniel Wiberg	Randal Rudstam	Peter Kärrberg	Isak Esbjörnsson Bjärmark
Mar Ghouls	!Toreador breed and bleed	Baali Malefecia denial bleed	Asguresh block and rush	Girls will find Apache Jones

Since my first game was the last to end the first round I didn’t scout anything so no clues on what the others are playing besides Daniel. Having him as prey feels a little better as I can let him expand and hopefully kill him with Dragonbound. Isak knows what Peter is playing and is not deploying Aksinya as defence. Randal bleeds hard into Peter who manages to bounce some but Psalm of the Damned, I am Legion and Hide the Mind deals enough damage for Peter to be in a bad spot. Isak is also very low on pool, partially because of Peter’s bounces and partially from influencing out Cybele and an Inner Circle without playing Villein on any of them.
I get my first War Ghoul at my second attempt since Daniel plays some slight intercept and blocks the first. In the best of worlds Daniel would grab two victory points and I the last three since Asguresh’s combat should beat my War Ghouls and I don’t like to be near it. This is not going to happen and its up to Maris Streck if Peter or Isak should be the first one to be ousted. I can’t let Peter get ousted since Randal’s deck (especially after 12 new pool) has the potential to deny it’s way trough my defence. I present a deal with Peter that I am helping him if he let me have another War Ghoul and let me oust Daniel before he goes for me. He can’t do anything but accept. It cost Maris 5 blood for Peter to survive Randal’s lunge but instead he manages to bleed Isak out and sits a little better.
Randal is trying his best to talk Daniel into letting him survive to be able to kill Peter but I argue that he would get two quick victory points if he is allowed. Daniel decides to oust Randal and we are at my beloved three player game.
Peter is not kind to my pool bouncing bleeds and bleeding himself but I get my second War Ghoul and start to pound all of Daniel’s vampires to torpor. I don’t have Dragonbound yet and it is taking too long to oust Daniel. Peter is going to win this if I don’t do anything. When I get the feeling Peter is not having enough combat cards on his hand I decide its time to trust my gut feeling and I play Pentex Subversion on Asguresh who is his only vampire with a .44 Magnum. I then defend it with my War Ghouls and apart from a couple of additional strikes and presses to end combat when I have played Trap he is not able to do anything. I manage to lock him down as well and take the win. Thank you gut feeling (or maybe - thank you glögg)!
Stefan GW 3VP
Daniel 1VP
Peter 1VP

Time for a lunch break and a 20 minutes walk in the winter landscape that has started to melt during the day. It is a jolly and glöggfryntlig bunch who enter the island’s tavern for some pre-ordered and very good food. We even manage to time the short opening hours of the grocery store and make some additions to the evening’s dinner.

Round 3

1	2	3	4	5
Hanna Båskman	Ivan Marin-Rivas	Stefan Karlsson	Randal Rudstam	Archibald Zimonyi
Dementation stealth bleed	Ventrue Lawfirm	Mar Ghouls	Baali Maleficia denial bleed	Tzimisce wall

I don’t draw any War Ghouls early and Randal contests Jake Washington which will give me a rough start. Archibald builds his defence and Hanna bleeds Ivan hard. Randal plays Villein followed by Giant’s Blood and I know this will be a one hell of a game to gain anything from. I decide to try and stay high on pool surviving and waiting for an opportunity to do something.
Maris gives Ivan’s vampires quite some intercept to be able to survive Hanna and in return I am allowed to Parity Shift first Randal and then Hanna. Archibald is a little overconfident in defending against Randal’s deck which is designed just for cracking Auspex decks and is the first to go.
From Parity Shift, some bounces and heavy influencing Randal is very low on pool and I start one of my turns on three pool where I only have two vampires that can bleed for one each. Thing is he is tapped out and his two vampires, Nergal and Cybele, are both Infernal so if I bleed him for two he can’t untap and oust Hanna. Hanna has enough table presence to potentially oust both Ivan and me quickly if she survives so I have a problem whatever I chose to do. I propose the following deal to Hanna: If I bleed Randal for two she bleeds him out with Kindred Spirits before trying to oust Ivan. I also offer to let her be until she ousts Ivan if she fails in her first attempt. She is giving it a serious thought but decides that she have to hope for Randal not having enough bleed to oust her and go for the Game win instead of what would probably only be one victory point in a duel against me.
I let Randal be and he has enough bleed cards to oust Hanna and after that me and Ivan are easy preys and we have a sweep.
Randal GW 5VP

It was a fun tournament and I am still very much in love with my deck. I just need to learn to not make any mistakes at all with it since its setup is very unforgiving. I talked to my parents in law today and they asked us if we would like the venue next year as well and I told them that would be great so I hope to repeat this and maybe even make it a tradition. I want to thank Isak, Lars and Michael for cooking our dinner and Henrik, Ivan, Lars, Michael and Randal for keeping me company almost all weekend. Hell I want to thank all that showed up - we had a great time!

No to the most important announcement. Who became Archipelago Jones? Fasten your seatbelts and read this - Isak Esbjörnsson Bjärmark, our reigning European Champion secured this important title with his 0 vicory points and lowest tournament points ever seen on Brännö. As that isn’t enough he did it with the same deck that he won the EC with. I leave you thinking about that for now with this beautiful picture: