The champion in the middle.

This event was played in Osiijek on January 24 with 40 Methuselahs. Reported by Denes Kocis, VEKN National Coordinator of Croatia:

First, a few words from the champion himself, Nikica Novakovic:

Playgroup from Osijek is the first one we, from Belgrade, made contact with back in 2003 when we started playing VTES and realized that we’re not alone in this world. Although they have diminished in size over the years, as life happens, there are always 2 or 3 players from Osijek at our Belgrade tournaments. Visiting them is always a joyous occasion, and it’s even more festive when the tournament attracts a large crowd alongside impeccable organization. So many people sharing a meal and reconnecting on things VTES and otherwise is something I look forward to every year for Croatian Nationals. This time I met the brand-new crew of players from Rijeka, Croatia, who came back to the scene after almost 20 years' hiatus, old friends from Austria, and old enemies from Hungary. :) What I was not looking forward to was a car ride with 4 other, not-so-small people in a small SUV and waiting at the border with the new Schengen entry system. 35 people were waiting for us, and the tournament started later than planned, but the grilled meat was still hot when the lunch time came!

Round 1
g2 Lasombra vote (me) -> g2 Tzimisce wall -> Camarilla Lasombra combat -> The Unnamed -> Black hand S&B

I’m playing first but have Dreams and 3 (out of 6) Deflections in my starting hand. Upon my first Cold War, for 3 dmg, my prey negotiates with the inferior Lasombras vote support in return for no aggression till the end of the game :/ Knowing that I have 2 stealth bleed decks behind me and a wall in front, I hunker down for a few turns, drawing into my 4th Deflection while discarding an odd thing here and there. My predator finally stabilizes after contesting The Unnamed’s Enkil Cog, which kept him bled for 4 and 5 each round, and finally goes forward. Prey with 5 pool and 2 cardinals (9 votes vs my 8 on the table, and I can’t get the Edge) can’t keep up with deflected bleeds at stealth from Karif al Numair and Izhim abd Azrael. Velya, the Flayer torporizes Izhim on a whim, and I manage to get off Cold War under Private Audience, and Gratiano finishes Tzimisce off as they have exhausted wakes and bounces. Vote lock is secured, but now Yewon Ong, Rinaldo Albizzi, and Azucena look back after terrorizing Unnamed’s cohort for a while. Moncada is torporized, and Azucena has no stealth to Graverob him or to punch down blocking Antonio Delgado, who already made Rinaldo Obedient once. Next turn, I banish Yewon and leave the prey at 1 pool with bleeds (no one left to play 2nd tradition), where his own Fame on unfortunate Horde, which was ticking for a round, kills him. I draw into my 6th and last deflection in less than 40% of the cards played. Unleash can’t block bounced bleed from Karim with Dominion, but reduces it with Visions of Zapathasura. Ancilla Empowerment removes 4 from prey, 5 from predator, and 3 from me. KRC kills the prey. I finally take some bleeds, but way too late, and Anarchist Uprising explodes my last prey for a table sweep. 1GW 5VP

As is established, a barbeque for lunch break, sitting all together.

Some Hardestadt’s shenanigans.

Round 2
Lutz & Co-> g2 Lasombra vote (me) -> Salubri grinder -> Path of Power and Inner Voice -> !Malk S&B

Unimpressive start, but my predator has it worse with S&B on his neck and no Zillahs’. I know I can’t bleed the grinder (well, I can, but it’s gonna fly everywhere), but votes are easy… except when Lutz finally gets out, and my grand prey’s Aaradhya and Üresség are also damaging me when calling Black Forest base :/ When I call Black Forest Base, it’s to break even, and the occasional post-vote modifier makes up for the difference, and Antonio Delgado stays unlocked, so yay! I annoy my prey, and I wait for Lutz to die, and then I’ll bounce some bleeds, I guess :shrug: Worked the last time. Lutz dies an undignified death after Wash on Minion Tap and Delaying Tactic on KRC under Awe. Now Rodolfo, Kite, and Dolphin Black are bleeding me. I guess votes were easy for my grand prey is now afraid of me, as 3 Salubris with DOM are behind her while she’s on ~10 pool. They agree twice to actively vote against me in exchange for Salubri's no-aggression pledge. Malachi gets Saulot's Guiding Wisdom, and there are 12 hostile votes (and a cancellation threat) vs my 8 from Antonio, Gratiano, and God Emperor of Dune, (11 with Power Structure), on the table. Again, I can’t hope to get the Edge over Ilonka with Sight Beyond Sight and all of the Argus’ Eyes. I’m proposing to my cross-table buddy that we kill our prey and have a head-on fight, but she is reluctant and likes the no-aggression pact a bit more. I take some bleeds when my minions are locked by Anarch Troublemaker and subsequently bounce a few. Still no votes for me. The agreement between Salubris and the Path of Power gang does not get renewed, and now she’s in trouble, although her own prey played Spying Mission on 2 bleeds that made it to her. Head-on with me comes with a disadvantage for her, but still better to end with one VP than none, so she accepts the previous deal proposal. Anarch Troublemaker comes back to Salubris, where it started, and Salubris are ousted. 1st VP this game and 15 min to go. !Malks die in the same turn, and the remaining matchup is not difficult due to vote lock. 1GW 3VP

Round 3
Matasuntha -> g2 Tzim, Path of Caine -> Ministry S&B -> Garou Gangrel Anarchs -> g2 Lasombra vote (me)

My predator’s 2 little Gangrels bring out 2 little Renegade Garous and a few turns later, Moncada is Famous in torpor, and my game ends in (purple) smoke. 0 VP

I use this opportunity to act as a waiter and bring drinks to people still playing and catch breath before the finals that I enter with 2GW 8VP total.

Standings before final:
1. Hrvoje Silic 2 GW 9 VP
2. Nikica Novakovic 2 GW 8 VP 132 TP
3. Milos Krstic 2 GW 8 VP 132 TP
4. Paul Direktor 2 GW 7,5 VP
5. Nena Nikolic 2 GW 6 VP



As the 2nd seed, I chose seating so that I prey on Ministry with 2 Gangrels (2 players from Belgrade playgroup playing 90% same deck) behind me and contesting, hopefully. The top seed, Gangrel 1, sits in front of me. Not great; not terrible.

Yeah… :)

No accelerators in my first 8 cards (57% chance to get one, eh?). The three Gangrel players agree on one of the barons each, which is amazing, as it makes the amount of intercept on my undirected actions quite predictable.

Prey has Casey and André the Manipulator; the predator has contested Massimiliano, contested Nathan Turner, and contested Kuyen, all contested by my grand predator. I have the vote lock, no predator, and 4 of my Cold Wars in the first 15 cards.

The game is smooth, and I’m careful to balance so that my 2 predators do not die too fast, although, ideally, my predator should die before the grand predator so that Ministry gets only 6 pool instead of 12 for our inevitable clash.

Timely Villein on Massimiliano (before he got contested too) and blocked Banishment gets my predator out of my backoust range so I focus on the prey knowing Ministry with Anazir, Nonu Dis and Veneficti will get 12 fresh pool soon. Our agreement is that he lets one more round of contest pass instead of killing his prey outright, and in the turn I kill my prey I’m not touching him. Might seem paranoid, but if my pred (Miloš, who won the Slovakian nationals) gets 2 barons back, my stealth might not be enough, and his deck has 3xDelaying and 2xDI to boot. It’s better if he has no vampires at all by contest or death. Cold War on predator’s Garibaldi and 3 dmg to prey + 1 from Privileged Position and KRC latter my prey is gone.

Ministry kills the remaining 2 Gangrels, and we enter the final lap with 23 and 20-something pool in the war chests. I’m getting clogged with my Obediences, and soon the masters start coming in. I play Monastery to cycle cards. He bleeds without me blocking, and I vote without him interfering. His bleeds are for 2-5 at stealth, and mine are smaller as I’m slow to cycle cards, but politics chip away at his pool with Privileged Position. Banishment on a full Nonu Dis, who got the Villein + Giant’s Blood treatment, saves me from one bleed for a turn. Gratiano crashes into Unleash and gets rescued. The Ancient Influence gives us both 5 pool, but Privileged Position subtracts one from him, and I have some 13 pool once I returned the 3 from the uncontrolled region that Unholy Sacrament “gave” me, via Info Highway. He has a sporting chance to kill me with Sergio Bueno as his 4th minion. I survive the onslaught with 2 pool remaining and play Dreams to draw into 2nd Govern. GG with 3VPs. I was so focused on cycling cards that I completely ignored that I have KRC, besides the Govern in hand, which was enough anyway, and I can’t play it once I’m down to 1 pool.

The deck served me well, and I would not make any changes. In 4 games, I always had the same 3 vampires out (Moncada, Antonio, Gratiano). Regent showed up once, but with Tzimisce around the corner, it was discarded. Power Structure served for one crucial vote, and so did one Private Audience. I played 1 Obedience in 4 games, but blocking with confidence is important with no wakes to be found. Freak Drive is the latest edition (shoutout to Dušan Kosanović), as it’s easy to cycle, and Moncada can make up for the cost with a Voter Cap, with the benefits of multi-action.

Result: Nikica 3 VP, Paul 2 VP. Congratulations Nikica!

Tournament winning deck: “Purple haze” by Nikica Novaković
Description: "It is a pity, that most of the pieces had to be swept from the board." - Ambrosio Luis Monçada

Expect to have 3 vampires to work with. Depending on the draw, getting 9 cap and having 2 vamps to Govern down on Gratiano might be the way to go.

Path of Power gives me a better Seduction in Dominant Personality and a better Tenebrous Form in Unthinkable Humiliation.

All 3 of the post-vote cards can be played at the same time, so there is a much lower chance of getting clogged than with the Voter Cap alone. If you play all three on the single action, you get style points (and 6 pool)!

Unholy Sacrament is much easier to cycle than Zillah's.

Cold war is good, even for "just" 3 dmg, since there is no haggling over where the remaining one goes, unlike with KRC.

Obedience gives you confidence that your one unlocked vampire will not be locked when blocking.

Crypt (12 cards)
4x Ambrosio Luis Monçada, Plenipotentiary 10   DOM OBT POT PRE aus for   cardinal   Lasombra:2
2x Antonio Delgado   9   DOM OBT POT tha    archbishop   Lasombra:2
2x Francisco Domingo de Polonia   9   DOM OBT POT PRE pro   archbishop Lasombra:2
1x Alvaro, The Scion of Angelica   9   OBT POT dom pre   archbishop Lasombra:2
3x Gratiano   8   DOM OBT obf pot   priscusLasombra:2

Library (73 cards)
Master (17; 5 trifle)
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Elysian Fields
1x Information Highway
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x Power Structure
1x Privileged Position
1x Regent
5x Unholy Sacrament
5x Villein

Action (6)
6x Govern the Unaligned

Political Action (15)
1x Anarchist Uprising
1x Ancient Influence
1x Ancilla Empowerment
3x Banishment
5x Cold War
4x Kine Resources Contested

Action Modifier (23)
2x Amici Noctis
4x Dominant Personality
2x Freak Drive
2x Magnetic Authority
2x Private Audience
5x Shadow Play
4x Unthinkable Humiliation
2x Voter Captivation

Action Modifier/Reaction (1)
1x Ominous Chorus

Reaction (11)
6x Deflection
5x Obedience

Friday night, warm-up party.

A few closing words from Denes:

We, a small community of VTES players from Osijek, welcomed the not so small gathering of 40 players for the Croatian Nationals 2026. Grateful to see the guests from Vienna (Austria), Budapest, Hatvan and Kecskemet (Hungary), Brežice (Slovenia), Belgrade and Novi Sad (Serbia), Pazin, Rijeka, Zagreb and Osijek (Croatia).

Knowing that some people would have to travel the day before, we organized a get together party at the nearby restaurant where we enjoyed some local meals and drinks to get to know each better.

Grateful enough, all the players preregistered with me, so I was somewhat less worried about the organization of the Saturday tournament knowing that our venue hosts are preparing a fine barbeque.

Albeit the tournament started half an hour late, due to border crossing of our friends from Belgrade we managed to smoothly finish the tournament in allocated time.

After the tournament, we who had some strength left, went for a nice evening sightseeing of local bars with our newfound friends.

I would like to thank the players for being all together nice and polite, and to having allocated their time to bring this event to an even bigger scale than I hoped for. Also, big thanks for my friends who helped a lot with the organization - Goran, Sinisa and Hrvoje. And thank the sponsors!

Thanks for this Denes, excellent report of what seems to have been an excellent event!