March of the War Ghouls: NAC Storyline (May 31, 2012)

The NAC Storyline during this past Origins was a resounding success! It was far beyond what I had anticipated or even hoped for.

Here is an initial report of some of the basic results. More details (including detailed game reports and deck lists) will follow.

Special thanks to all of the participants for helping to make this event so successful. And also thanks to Kevin Mergen and David Tatu for providing some prize support.

We had a total of 20 participants, which is only 3 shy of the 23 players that the Late Night Last Chance Qualifier that was run at the same time.

After several grueling and bloody rounds, Matt Morgan emerged victorious with the Brujah Antitribu.

His key minion choice was Hektor, who he brought out every turn. Backup choice is Miguel Santo Domingo for the extra bleed provided and for taking the Crusader Sword.



The field was very diverse, with 17 different clans represented by the 20 players (the duplicate clans were Brujah, Ravnos, and Ventrue):

Baali - Jesper Boje
Blood Brothers - Jared Strait
Brujah - Aaron Clark
Brujah - Bill Troxel
Brujah Antitribu - Matt Morgan
Daughters of Cacophony - Mikkel Petersen
Gargoyles - Brian Moritz
Imbued - Hugh Angseesing
Nosferatu - Bob Joseph
Nosferatu Antitribu - Micah Ceithaml
Osebo - Jen Goldberg
Ravnos - Jeff Lake
Ravnos - Cory Seigel
Salubri - Kevin Butcher
Salubri Antitribu - Ankur Gupta
Toreador Antitribu - Martin Randers
Tremere Antitribu - Eric Chiang
True Brujah - David Litwin
Ventrue - Connor Bell
Ventrue - Kelly Schultz



- Since the Last Chance Qualifier ran long (didn't end until shortly before 7 P.M.), we opted to just go with 2 rounds and a final (instead of 3R + final).

- Many of the participants weren't aware of the storyline rules (having not seen the VEKN announcements or posts). To allow players to adapt their already existing decks to meet the crypt construction rules, I did allow the proxying of crypt (but not library) cards. I did not see anyone take advantage of this in my games, however.

- Bob Joseph had to leave after the first round, but this worked out well since Connor Bell missed the first round (he was in the Last Chance Qualifier Finals) and took over the seating spot, allowing us to maintain the same Optimal Seating chart.


[ROUND 1]

Table 1: Jeff Lake (Ravnos) -> Jen Goldberg (Osebo) -> Kevin Butcher (Salubri) -> David Litwin (True Brujah) -> Eric Chiang (Tremere Antitribu)

Eric Chiang: 1 GW + 5 VP's

Table 2: Jesper Boje (Baali) -> Aaron Clark (Brujah) -> Bill Troxel (Brujah) -> Jared Strait (Blood Brothers) -> Mikkel Peterson (Daughters of Cacophony)

Jared Strait: 1 GW + 3 VP's
Mikkel Peterson: 2 VP's

Table 3: Matt Morgan (Brujah Antitribu) -> Brian Moritz (Gargoyles) -> Micah Ceithaml (Nosferatu Antitribu) -> Cory Seigel (Ravnos) -> Ankur Gupta (Salubri Antitribu)

Ankur Gupta: 1.5 VP's
Brian Moritz: 0.5 VP's
Micah Ceithmal: 0.5 VP's
Cory Seigel: 0.5 VP's

Table 4: Bob Joseph (Nosferatu) -> Hugh Angseesing (Imbued) -> Kelly Schultz (Ventrue) -> Martin Randers (Toreador Antitribu)

Kelly Schultz: 1 GW + 2 VP's
Martin Randers: 1 VP
Bob Joseph: 1 VP


[ROUND 2]

Table 1: Cory Seigel (Ravnos) -> Jeff Lake (Ravnos) -> Kevin Butcher (Salubri) -> Mikkel Petersen (Daughters of Cacophony) -> Hugh Angseesing (Imbued)

Hugh Angseesing: 1 GW + 3 VP's
Jeff Lake: 2 VP's

Table 2: Martin Randers (Toreador Antitribu) -> Ankur Gupta (Salubri Antitribu) -> Jen Goldberg (Osebo) -> Bill Troxel (Brujah) -> Jesper Boje (Baali)

Jesper Boje: 1 GW + 4 VP's
Jen Goldberg: 1 VP

Table 3: Jared Strait (Blood Brothers) -> Eric Chiang (Tremere Antitribu) -> Brian Moritz (Gargoyles) -> Kelly Schultz (Ventrue) -> Connor Bell (Ventrue)

Kelly Schultz: 1 GW + 5 VP's

Table 4: David Litwin (True Brujah) -> Matt Morgan (Brujah Antitribu) -> Micah Ceithaml (Nosferatu Antitribu) -> Aaron Clark (Brujah)

Matt Morgan: 1 GW + 4 VP's



Standings going into the finals:

Name GW VP
01. Kelly Schultz 2 7
02. Eric Chiang 1 5
03. Jesper Boje 1 4
04. Matt Morgan 1 4
05. Jared Strait 1 3
06. Hugh Angseesing 1 3
07. Jeff Lake 0 2
08. Mikkel Petersen 0 2
09. Ankur Gupta 0 1.5
10. Jen Goldberg 0 1
11. Bob Joseph (Bell) 0 1
12. Martin Randers 0 1
13. Brian Moritz 0 0.5
14. Micah Ceithaml 0 0.5
15. Cory Seigel 0 0.5
16. David Litwin 0 0
17. Kevin Butcher 0 0
18. Aaron Clark 0 0
19. Bill Troxel 0 0
20. Connor Bell 0 0



Jared had to drop, so Hugh made it into the finals.

Final table:

Eric Chiang (Tremere Antitribu) -> Kelly Schultz (Ventrue) -> Matt Morgan (Brujah Antitribu) -> Jesper Boje (Baali) -> Hugh Angseesing (Imbued)

Matt Morgan: 1 GW + 4 VP's
Jesper Boje: 1 VP



Congratulations to Matt Morgan and the underdog clan Brujah Antitribu!

Placeholder for Deck Lists

Some players built decks especially for this event, but a large proportion simply adapted existing decks they already had that met the crypt rules (75% clan requirement). Common approaches were to choose a deck that had good combat (and could kill War Ghouls) or a deck with a large amount of combat defense (Majesties, etc.)


Here is Matt Morgan's winning !Brujah deck list:

Deck Name : Brujah antitribu storyline
Author : Matt Morgan
Description : (*Not* made especially for the storyline)

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 4 max: 10 average: 7.16667

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3x Hektor 9 CEL POT PRE QUI for priscus !Brujah:4
2x Armin Brenner 10 CEL FOR POT PRE ani obf archbishop !Brujah:4
2x Miguel Santo Domin 7 POT PRE cel for !Brujah:3
1x Henry Taylor 6 POT cel pre pro !Brujah:3
1x Sela 6 POT PRE cel obt bishop !Brujah:2
1x Wah Chun-Yuen 5 POT cel dom pre !Brujah:3
1x Jimmy Dunn 4 CEL POT for Pander:2
1x Patrick 4 POT pre !Brujah:4


Library [81 cards]

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Action [11]
4x Fleetness
1x Heroic Might
3x Preternatural Strength
3x Rumble

Action Modifier [10]
3x Forced March
3x Freak Drive
4x Iron Glare

Action Modifier/Combat [4]
4x Resist Earth's Grasp

Combat [40]
2x Flash
11x Immortal Grapple
1x Pulled Fangs
7x Pursuit
5x Skin of Steel
3x Target Vitals
6x Taste of Vitae
5x Torn Signpost

Master [14]
2x Blood Doll
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
2x Fame
1x Gang Territory
1x Giant's Blood
5x Grooming the Protege
1x Monster
1x Tension in the Ranks

Political Action [2]
2x Dogs of War



Here is also my finalist Tremere Antitribu deck which I designed for this event. I spent a lot of time brainstorming it, but only a couple of days building it and zero time testing it:


Deck Name : Goratrix Ain't Afraid of No War Ghouls! (Tremere Antitribu)
Author : Eric Chiang (finalist)
Description : Designed for the storyline.

!Tremere intercept deck with Goratrix and Animalism.

Innate blood steal + Carrion Crows (and maybe Trap) should be enough to kill War Ghouls.

The 25% non-clan, any grouping included Gabrielle di Righetti and Dr. John Dee (in a normal tournament it would probably be Anastasz di Zagreb and maybe Sascha Vykos).

Library cards included especially for the storyline included: Autonomic Mastery (killed a War Ghoul with it first game), Traps (intended for War Ghouls but Goratrix ended up playing them instead), and Gran Madre di Dio (limits usefulness of War Ghouls for predator/prey but never played it).


Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 5 max: 10 average: 8.91667

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5x Goratrix 10 ANI AUS DOM THA vic !Tremere:2
2x Gabrielle di Righe 10 ANI AUS DOM THA obf pot justicar Tremere:5
1x Dr. John Dee 9 ANI AUS DOM THA chi prince Tremere:4
1x Marino Reymundo Va 9 AUS DOM NEC THA ani archbishop !Tremere:3
1x Ian Forestal 8 AUS DOM THA !Tremere:2
1x Selena 6 AUS DOM THA !Tremere:3
1x Alejandro Aguirre 5 ani aus dom tha !Tremere:3


Library [90 cards]

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Action [6]
2x Biothaumaturgic Experiment
2x Deep Song
2x Rutor's Hand

Action Modifier [5]
3x Mind of the Wilds
2x Mirror Walk

Action Modifier/Reaction [2]
2x Murmur of the False Will

Ally [5]
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Impundulu
1x Ponticulus
2x Underbridge Stray

Combat [30]
6x Apportation
4x Aura Reading
2x Autonomic Mastery
6x Carrion Crows
4x Rego Motus
6x Trap
2x Weather Control

Equipment [6]
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Deer Rifle
1x Gran Madre di Dio, Italy
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Leather Jacket
1x Ruins of Ceoris

Master [18]
1x Carver's Meat Packing and Storage
1x Erciyes Fragments, The
1x Giant's Blood
1x Jake Washington (Hunter)
1x Mob Connections
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Rack, The
1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
1x Society of Leopold
4x Villein
4x Wider View

Reaction [18]
6x Eyes of Argus
3x My Enemy's Enemy
6x Read the Winds
3x Telepathic Misdirection



Here's Hugh's finalist deck:

Deck Name : Imbued Talbot's Chainsaw
Author : Hugh Angseesing
Description : (*Not* made especially for the storyline)

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 5 average: 4.08333

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3x Jennie "Cassie247" 5 inn jud vis Imbued:4
3x Travis "Traveler72 5 mar def Imbued:4
1x Erick "Shophet125" 4 inn jud Imbued:4
1x Jack "Hannibal137" 4 def jud Imbued:4
1x Xian "DziDzat155" 4 def inn Imbued:4
1x Francois "Warden" 3 def jud Imbued:4
1x Inez "Nurse216" Vi 3 inn Imbued:4
1x Sandra White 1 Caitiff:3


Library [77 cards]

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Ally [4]
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Gregory Winter
2x Vagabond Mystic

Combat [7]
3x Boxed In
4x Fake Out

Conviction [27]
9x React with Conviction
9x Second Sight
9x Strike with Conviction

Equipment [10]
1x Crusader Sword, The
1x IR Goggles
4x Leather Jacket
4x Talbot's Chainsaw

Event [4]
1x Dragonbound
1x NRA PAC
2x Unmasking, The

Master [13]
4x Angel of Berlin
1x Barrens, The
1x Church of Vindicated Faith, The
1x Failsafe
2x Fame
1x Fortschritt Library
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
1x Specialization

Power [6]
1x Inspire
3x Rejuvenate
2x Vigilance

Reaction [6]
4x On the Qui Vive
2x Poison Pill


Here is Jared Strait's Chicago Blood Brothers deck. It would have placed 5th in the finals, but Jared had to leave early:

Deck Name : Chicago Blood Brothers (Storyline)
Author : Jared Strait
Description : (*Not* made especially for the storyline)

Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 3 max: 7 average: 5

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2x Angelo 7 CEL FOR SAN pot vic Blood Bro:3
2x Barry 5 ani for pot san vic Blood Bro:2
2x Jerry 5 SAN cel for pot Blood Bro:2
2x Larry 5 SAN dem for pot Blood Bro:2
2x Terry 5 POT aus dom san Blood Bro:2
2x Tom 3 for pot san Blood Bro:2


Library [90 cards]

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Action [18]
4x Coagulated Entity
10x Unwholesome Bond
4x Zillah's Tears

Action Modifier [9]
3x Freak Drive
6x Walk of Caine

Combat [34]
2x Coordinate Attacks
5x Disarm
5x Immortal Grapple
3x Octopod
3x Pulled Fangs
3x Pushing the Limit
2x Rolling with the Punches
4x Soak
2x Stunt Cycle
2x Superior Mettle
3x Weighted Walking Stick

Master [19]
4x Blood Doll
4x Effective Management
1x Frontal Assault
1x Jake Washington (Hunter)
1x KRCG News Radio
3x Major Boon
4x Perfectionist
1x WMRH Talk Radio

Reaction [10]
4x Gestalt
6x On the Qui Vive

Placeholder for Game Reports

More details to follow.

My Round 1:

Table 1: Jeff Lake (Ravnos) -> Jen Goldberg (Osebo) -> Kevin Butcher (Salubri) -> David Litwin (True Brujah) -> Eric Chiang (Tremere Antitribu)

Notable Events:

- Goratrix and Saulot were both in play. They must have had some sort of kharmic connection because shortly after Goratrix got a Rutor's Hand, Saulot got one too.

- After I discarded an Autonomic Mastery, my prey (Ravnos) rushed me with a War Ghoul, which I promptly burned with my other copy of Autonomic Mastery. That was essentially a 4 pool swing, which put him in ousting range.

- The Salubri were bleeding the Trujah heavily (Repulsed Saulot and Repulsed Eurayle with a Pulse). Saulot had enough Anesthetic Touches to be safe from the War Ghouls, but I got him trapped in a hunting loop by rushing him with a War Ghoul and tapping Alejandro Aguirre to remove his only blood.


Meanwhile:

Table 3: Matt (!Brujah) ran into the Chaundice wall as his prey. After Chaundice tooled up with 2 Razor Bats and a Preternatural Strength, there was not much the !Brujah could do, so they got ousted by Ankur (!Salubri). The Gargoyles were down to 1 pool when time was called.

Table 4: I heard that there was some frustration with the Imbued, since War Ghouls can only rush vampires. In hindsight, I probably should have changed the DeMenTed War Ghouls to allow any minion rush. I really didn't expect to see Imbued though (Hugh chose it because it was his only deck that met the "clan" requirement).


My Round 2:

Table 3: Jared Strait (Blood Brothers) -> Eric Chiang (Tremere Antitribu) -> Brian Moritz (Gargoyles) -> Kelly Schultz (Ventrue) -> Connor Bell (Ventrue)

- The Tremere Antitribu as the predator to a Gargoyle deck (featuring Chaundice and Fustuk).

- Connor got off to a rough start. He brought out Mary Anne Blaire but after using her special, Freak Driving, and playing a superior Govern, his prey (Jared, Chicago Blood Brothers) thought that was too greedy. The Blood Brothers blocked with Gestalt. Torn Signpost + 2 additionals with Octopod removed Mary of all 9 of her blood, and she was finished with a Disarm and a diablerie action.

- Kelly (the other Ventrue) quickly became the table threat. This led to the "War Ghoul Alliance," whereby all of the remaining players agreed to spend one pool a turn to use a War Ghoul to rush the Ventrue. It started out with all 4 other players but we started the alliance a turn too late and Connor died soon after. Even against 3 War Ghoul rushes a turn, the Ventrue managed to survive through an obscene number of Majesties and a minion advantage (rescue/hunt). In the end, the Ventrue managed a table sweep despite us throwing about 20+ pool worth of War Ghouls at him.


Meanwhile:

Table 1: Lots of War Ghouls flying around, which hit Jeff Lake (Ravnos) really hard once he got out a Week of Nightmares. Not sure how that worked when his predator (Cory Seigel) was also playing Ravnos, though of the Anarch variety.

Table 2: I heard that Table 2 was fun with everyone playing equally bad decks. The Baali had 3 Anarch Revolts in play and his predator (Bill playing Brujah) was the only deck unable to get an anarch since Bill's predator (Jen playing Osebo) kept blocking his attempts. Needless to say, Jen got her 1 VP. Meanwhile, the !Salubri and the !Toreador (Miller/Greta combat) massacred each other, leaving an easy path to the game win for the Baali.

Table 4: Had the interesting dynamic of Brujah preying on True Brujah preying on Brujah Antitribu. In early Tension in the Ranks caused problems for the Brujah (Arms Dealer) deck. David Litwin's game description below covers more details.





FINALS:

I have fairly detailed notes which I will type up and post shortly. They cover most of what transpired in the middle and end of the game, but I wasn't quite as detailed early on (the challenges of playing & running the event at the same time).

Eric Chiang (Tremere Antitribu) -> Kelly Schultz (Ventrue) -> Matt Morgan (Brujah Antitribu) -> Jesper Boje (Baali) -> Hugh Angseesing (Imbued)

- Hugh wanted to get to a Battlestar game that was starting shortly, so he played without abandon going full forward. Unfortunately for him, Imbued don't do too well against Goratrix + Trap or Goratrix + Carrion Crows, so his ended up being a short game. He did spend 4 pool to burn Selena's Rack via a War Ghoul though.

- Jack "Hannibal137" Harmon had a Crusader Sword, IR Goggles, and Leather Jacket (along with Rejuvenate and Vigilance) when he blocked Goratrix's attempt to adopt a puppy (Underbridge Stray) and was incapacitated by Carrion Crows + innate steal, with Rego Motus to prevent the Crusader Sword.

- Afterwards, the Unnamed was determined to pillowface the Imbued. On his first try he was blocked by an untapped Imbued and so he Earth Melded. On his second try, he was blocked with an On the Qui Vive and he Earth Melded. On his third try, he was blocked with Angel of Berlin and he Earth Melded. On his fourth try, he was finally successful and so the Baali Methuselah gained possession of the Crusader Sword.

- Later on, the Unnamed was torporized by Hektor and the Brujah Antitribu (who have a thing for melee weapons) diablerized him, with Miguel Santo Domingo ending up with the sword. It was also interesting that the first two !Brujah that Matt Morgan brought up were Hektor and Sela, both of whom have had prior experiences with the Baali (Hektor associated with Maureen, Dark Priestess back in the Dark Ages and Sela had the whole Nergal affair). Looks like the !Brujah finally got their revenge on the Baali!

- There was some consternation among the Brujah Antitribu when the traitorous Armin Brenner showed up being influenced by the Ventrue. Of course they later reminded their clanmate of his sect loyalties when they visited a little street justice on him.

- When it was down to 3 players, both the Ventrue and the Tremere Antitribu were trying to help out the Brujah Antitribu.

echiang wrote:

(Hugh chose it because it was his only deck that met the "clan" requirement).

Did you count "Imbued" as a single clan or split into creeds?

Non-existant user wrote:

echiang wrote:

(Hugh chose it because it was his only deck that met the "clan" requirement).

Did yu count "Imbued" as a single clan or split into creeds?

Hello.

As per the rules that were initially announced:

Imbued count as a "clan" (75% of your crypt must be Imbued and your primary grouping is either 3/4 or 4/5);

Imbued are counted as a single clan. They are not split into creeds (otherwise they would be worse off than even the Abominations). Thanks for asking.

I didn't have much chance to work on deck ideas as I was still moving in and waiting for my household goods so I only modified a deck to take.

I wanted to get the True Brujah some representation and figured no one else would play them, but the crypt rules made it rather hard to make a decent deck. I wasn't sure how much folks would even try to use the War Ghouls. This deck wasn't much good in local play but I figured storyline decks would be slower and give me time to actually do something.

I added the the extra Al-Muntaquims to make the crypt legal and removed the Setite support for bounce weenies. Other than that the deck intended to get guns cheap and/or free and surprise a War Ghoul rush with an Autonomic Mastery.

I didn't really take any notes of the storyline event as it was really just a fun tournament.

At the start of round 1 I remember telling people my deck will be much like the Trujah of V:TM. They'll show up, influence a few things, rant and rave about past transgressions, and ultimately have little impact on the overall events.

Al-Muntathir shows up early and a couple dom support minions, only to see Goratrix as my prey and Saulot as my predator. Sadly they couldn't start the game next to each other.

Saulot quickly gets a friend Euralye and Goratrix found the Ruins of Ceoris. Al was looking for some non-unique equipment to go get but I wasn't finding any in my hand and no one else had discarded anything.

Saulot and Euralye became unblockable by me with Repulsions on them so now I'm just trying to gain pool and hoping some War Ghoul rushes can take down Saulot. A few attempts were made and failed to do any damage.

My game still wasn't too bad as the !Tremere had failed to gain much pool so my small bleeds were keeping them in range. The Ravnos and Osebo were hurting each other too much to be any help to me.

After that point I don't remember what happened but the table fell apart rather quickly to a steamrolling Goratrix.

Round 2 ended up being more interesting and storyline related as the War Ghouls showed up a bit more and combat was much more prevalent.

My predator brings up Brujah weenies who got guns and used DBRs to make it agg, while my prey was using Hektor and his fearsome agg stealth and a few others.

My first turn Anarch Convert for the edge failed as he got rushed by my predator's War Ghoul. Al comes out on turn 3 and spends 2 turns getting rushed before he can Kiss of Lachesis away one of the Brujah's guns and then take it next turn. That gets me a gun with 1 blood left and forced to play wary in combat as my support team of Keith Moody and another dom minion won't be enough to have a significant impact.

Brujah beat on Trujah who beat on !Brujah who beat on Brujah with the quick exit of my crossable ally who I can;t even remember what clan he was.

The Trujah team up with the Brujah with a deal to rush the !Brujah. A bit of table wrangling back and forth as the Brujah were in no position to get a win as the Trujah could destroy any of their guns and the !Brujah combat was strong enough to win most fights they had.

I was looking at a chance for an oust and such but don't believe I ever got it as the !Brujah likely got the game win in round 2.

Deck Name : True Brujah March of War Ghouls 2012
Author : Pagan
Description :



Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 8 average: 6.41667

5x	Al-Muntathir, God's Witness	(8)			True Brujah	(group 5)
3x	Al-Muntaquim, The Avenger	(8)			True Brujah	(group 4)
1x	Ibn Khaldun, Scholar	(7)			True Brujah	(group 4)
1x	Keith Moody	(3)			Tremere antitribu	(group 4)
1x	Jackson Asher	(2)			Ventrue	(group 4)
1x	Anarch Convert	(1)			Caitiff	(group 0)

Library [64 cards]

Action [20]
4x Bum's Rush
2x Clotho's Gift
3x Conceal
2x Entrancement
7x Kiss of Lachesis
1x Masochism
1x Path of the Scorched Heart, The

Action Modifier [14]
3x Domain of Evernight
3x Forgotten Labyrinth
3x Freak Drive
3x Lost in Crowds
2x Pocket Out of Time

Combat [11]
2x Autonomic Mastery
6x Outside the Hourglass
3x Taste of Vitae

Equipment [6]
4x AK-47
1x Aaron's Feeding Razor
1x Helicopter

Master [9]
3x Blood Doll
1x Giant's Blood
1x Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1x Monster
1x Tabriz Assembly
2x Villein

Reaction [4]
4x Deflection