TWD & Report "German Nationals 2024", Darmstadt, Germany, 07.09.2024

@vrumfondel: Congrats from me again as well And again sorry for the cross-table sudden...

Since already much was said, I just wanted to add some of the struggle I had - playing Malk S&B. My first challenge was to choose proper seating, going in as second seed. Since I didn't want to run into Gangrel wall right away and feared the !Salubri's combat, I chose to sit between Malk vote and Lasombra. Not a very convenient place, but it seemed the least problematic.

In my opening hand, I had a lot of master cards and stealth. In an attempt to get rid of some green cards and fear of too much early pressure, I suddened the first turn Smiling Jack of my grand-pred - a mistake, as it turned out soon enough. As my prey didn't block any actions, my hand remained clogged. At the same time, my pred didn't get any pressure and went (understandably) full force after me, ousting me after ~ 30min.

Regarding my assesment of the finals:

Aside from my unneccessary Sudden on Smiling Jack, I think the early diablerie had a game-deciding impact on the table. Iirc Hector, Michael and Joscha all voted against a Blood Hunt. It might have been more favorable to either Michael and / or Hector to either advise against or vote in favor of a burn.
Also, I think my early oust wasn't really in the interest of my pred Joscha - even though Lasombra didn't take the table, it seemed like Joscha struggled to take my prey Michael out, and ran ultimately out of steam against the !Salubri.

And what did I learn from it?

For one don't sudden a card which you can potentially remove by a D-action (and cycle some stealth cards) and don't be afraid of too early pressure from your grand-pred. Also, I did not talk enough: An avoidable mistake I made was not asking Hector if I could burn any locations, redrawing Conceal and maybe one or two stealth cards - which could've helped to draw into Govern / bleed cards.

Secondly, a platitude proves itself right again: Not every game can go well and I ended up at a table unfortunate for me. I did expect a game where I'd get ousted early at some point. Unlucky it happened in the finals, though