Le CR par contre c'est en Anglais, parce j'ai la flemme de le faire en français après le avoir fait en anglais.
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Bedford Fangs at Geek Retreat
Bedford, UK
July 13th, 2024
3R+F
23 players
Winner: Antonio Cobo Cuenca (GW2 + 0.5 + GW2,5 with GW3 in the final)
https://www.vekn.net/event-calendar/event/11389
Deck Name: SIF tribute
Author: Antonio Cobo Cuenca aka Acbishop
Description: This deck is a merge of two deck lists from two legendary players from Sabbat in France. “Sur les traces d’Olivier” of Christophe Crepain and “Carna Life Boon” from Philippe Lang.
Sniper Rifle helped me a lot against potence decks and I managed to get twice the Talbot’s Chainsaw + Ponticulus combo, one of them in the final.
Cards that I’m considering adding:
+ 1 Sniper Rifle
+ 1 Ponticulus
+ 1 Hunting Ground (my vampires ended up low on blood on nearly every game)
+ 1 Smiling as there are games you cannot win by bouncing bleeds and bleeding yourself
Crypt (12 cards, min=16 max=34 avg=6.33)
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3x Oliver Thrace 9 AUS DOM THA nec obf pot Tremere:3
3x Carna, The Princess Witch 7 AUS DOM THA primogen Tremere:3
1x Eugenio Estevez 6 AUS THA dom for Tremere:3
1x Selena 6 AUS DOM THA Tremere antitribu:3
1x Aisling Sturbridge 5 AUS THA dom Tremere:2
1x Hannigan 5 AUS THA dom Tremere antitribu:2
1x Brooke 3 dom tha Tremere antitribu:2
1x Ehrich Weiss 3 dom tha Tremere:3
Library (83 cards)
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Master (11; 4 trifle)
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1x Arcane Library
2x Blood Doll
1x Chantry
1x Direct Intervention
1x Life Boon
1x Powerbase: Montreal
4x Vessel
Action (13)
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10x Govern the Unaligned
3x Magic of the Smith
Ally (2)
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1x Carlton Van Wyk
1x Ponticulus
Equipment (5)
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1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Ivory Bow
1x Sniper Rifle
1x Talbot's Chainsaw
Action Modifier (8)
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2x Bonding
3x Conditioning
3x Mirror Walk
Reaction (27)
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8x Deflection
2x Delaying Tactics
3x Eagle's Sight
8x Eyes of Argus
2x My Enemy's Enemy
2x On the Qui Vive
2x Telepathic Misdirection
Combat (17)
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5x Apportation
2x Blood Fury
3x Rego Motum
7x Theft of Vitae
After 10 years without playing VTES I wanted to try again, so I started doing some demos in Bedford to try to get a local playground, this is still work in progress but looking promising. Of course the best way to get people to the game is start having tournaments in your local city.
Luckily for us, Geek Retreat Bedford is helping us hosting casual games once per month and organising the first ever VTES tournament in Bedford! Bedford’s location made possible for lots of players to come from lots of different places in UK: London, Coventry, Liverpool, Nottingham, Norwich, Northampton, Milton Keynes, Hitchin…
The vibes in all my games were great, I did miss that!
Hugh was also here and he has an amazing app (iPhone) that makes life easier for the tournament results, it is only in iPhone though, so if there is any Android developers that could work in a version please contact Emiliano Imeroni to check how he managed to do the iPhone App and Hugh from BCP.
I lent my Unmada/Lutz deck (heavily influenced by Otso’s deck list and he managed to get into the final 2nd seed playing a tournament for the first time on his life! That is an amazing achievement!
I also lent my Ministry bleed to Pascal. Here are my rounds, I don’t remember who started on all of them, of course this report is just from my point of view, and we all know that we tend to be very biased when we talk about our games
I was expecting lot of bleed, so I took my Oliver-Carna with bounce, intercept and a module talbot’s chainsaw + Ponticulus to end the game.
I was told there were 4 Ravnos bleed decks in the tournament, of course none of them were any of my predators.
Round 1
Mike B (Big Cap Tremere vote) —> Me (Oliver-Carna) —> Matthew S (Malgorzata/Antonio Nephandi) —> Helena (Ravnos V5)
Good initial pressure from Helena to Mike, I managed to get Oliver out and I think I got a bowl early in the game and Heart of Nizchetus, so I was blocking every dangerous play from Mike. Matthew got Malgorzata and Antonio and started putting some Nephandi in play. Helena lost her only vampire with PRE with flames of the Netherworld from Malgorzata and a diablerie from Mike B, who managed to block me when I tried to play Carlton straight after! Helena was very low on pool, so it was pretty clear Matthew S would get his VP first, Mike B couldn’t kill me for two turns and then I managed to get up in pool and better positioned even though Mike B was contesting both Bowl and Heart with me. Matthew got his VP, I sent Malgorzata in torpor with the Talbot and he was at 5 with 5 minions ( Antonio + 3 nephandi) + Malgorzata in torpor, Mike B was at 4 pool as well, one vampire in torpor and the others very low on blood (so they could go to torpor easily with Talbot’s chainsaw), he was at that point thinking that his 0.5vp was not sure to be achieved as the Nephandi army was looking ready to get him.
I told him that if he wanted his 0.5vp we could kill Matthew while I sent his vampires to torpor so in duel I could let him withdraw as that will give me the GW anyway and he would be maximising his VPs and I would get a GW. He agreed, diablerie one of his vampires burning the diabolist vampire, so he has 2 minions and 4 pool and he can call an anarchist uprising that kills Matthew and put him at 2, I sent his vampires to torpor and we called Pascal to validate that Mike could withdraw so he could get his 0.5vp as I would get the GW.
Me GW2
Matthew 1vp
Mike B 0.5vp
Round 2
Cristina (Brujah V5) —> David (Ventrue obf) —> Me —> Mike N (Brujah V5) —> Matthew B (Kyasid Temporis Faeries Ward)
I managed to equip with Sniper Rifle with Carna on my first action
Cristina and Mike managed to get out 3 vampires from their initial crypt without contesting any! David got out Queen Anne, what? +1 bleed against Tremere? That’s not nice… unfortunately for him that resumes David’s game, Cristina destroyed a famed Queen Anne and Graham Potsdam pretty easily.
Matthew B was not in a better position as his deck needs some time to install but Mike N destroyed him pretty quickly. So we were only 3 players and both Brujah decided to play together against me to then have a duel. My Sniper Rifle on Carna was controlling the situation, I was hoping that sooner than later both Brujah will start hitting each other, specially when I managed to get Ponticulus, so with him and Sniper Rifle Cristina couldn’t really do anything against me, but they started fighting each other when there were only 10 minutes left for the time limit. Not enough for Mike to kill Cristina or for me to get Mike.
Cristina 1.5vp
Mike B 1.5vp
Me 0.5vp
Round 3
Hugh (Tzimisce V5 ani pro combat) —> Me —> Mikey F (Tzimisce V5 British Museum) —> James F (Line Brawl) —> Mike B (M
Great, my prey was the Tzimisce bleeder and my predator the Tzimisce combat
I tried to convince for just 30 seconds the whole table to kill first the current UK champion and then we could talk, but it didn’t work 
Mikey and Hugh needed to agree on which vampire each of them will get as they shared crypts… and anarch cards.
Mikey got 3 vampires out and with British Museum managed to equip quite a lot of things, I always tried to block with Carna as I wanted him to use stealth cards.I got Carna and Aisling and later in the game Erich Weiss and Selena.
Mike B got one vampire burnt in combat by Hugh (Conquer The beast + Flesh of Marble + 2 aggravated damage when the vampire is empty), then he would have Mistress Fanchon and The Tremere Prince who can discard blood sorcery cards to get +2 votes. Mikey manage to oust James but he couldn’t oust Mike B as he was earning pool like crazy (Parity Shift, Political Stranglehold, Ancient, Influence, Villein…) Hugh started bleeding and I managed to oust Mikey. Hugh burnt in combat Selena as I had to put her to block a rush to Carna, then Hugh continued the bleeding and I continued bouncing them to Mike B who finally is ousted with two minutes left which were not enough for Hugh to kill me in duel.
Me GW2.5
Mikey 1vp
Hugh 0.5vp
I know I’m on the final but I don’t know the position.
I got a call from my wife, she just tested positive for covid
she told me I can stay for the final, and as I was already 7 hours in the shop with everyone else, there is no point for me to drop as I didn’t have any symptom then (THIS HAS CHANGED NOW, I HAVE HEADACHE, THROAT PAIN AND I’M SNEEZING A BIT, I WILL TEST MYSELF AS SOON AS THE AMAZON DELIVERY GUY BRING THEM HOME TODAY, PLEASE TEST YOURSELF)
When I’m back from my call with my wife I could see already the players and the placement for the final.Charl (2nd Seed playing my Unmada / Lutz deck) —> Mikey F (3rd Seed playing new Tzimisce British Museum) —> Nikki (5th seed playing POT with some Giovanni) —> Me (4th seed playing Oliver-Carna) —> Andrew (1st seed playing Break the Bonds)
Again the bleed stealth as my prey and not my predator, so I internally cried a bit. From my perspective, Andrew is very well placed and he knows that being 1st seed and having the blocker deck as predator he can just run as a high speed train to get 3vp. For Charl the final will be very complicated, if he manages to survive more than 30 minutes he will have his chances, but surviving 30 minutes Andrew’s deck is a very hard thing to do. For Mikey, I think the way he can win the final is hoping the Ravnos to kill Charl and then manage to kill the POT player and myself with deflecting Ravnos bleed, or getting one point, hoping I kill the Ravnos and then in duel to stay alive so he wins due to higher seed before final. For Nikki, very complicated table as he needs to get GW 3 and the most likely scenario would be with the Ravnos getting 2 Vps, and then Nikki managing Ravnos vampires and mine in a 3 player table killing us in the right order. My winning strategy is to assume the Ravnos will get 1 vp Maybe 2 quickly forcing Nikki to stop Ravnos vampires and then getting myself 1vp and trying to get Nikki in duel, or Ravnos getting only 1vp, then me killing him with Mikey killing the POT hopefully being very low on pool and hoping for the best in the duel.
Charl played Information Highway t1 (good for him as being the first player to play with his deck it was nearly a death sentence), then Andrew contest Information highway on first turn as well. I got on my first action the Sniper Rifle, so life looks a bit better as I don’t want a POT predator to come with me not having defence.
Mikey had a low start (I will be aware after the game he had 2-3 deflection in hand that he kept expecting the Ravnos, but that also meant he couldn’t develop quickly, he didn’t draw any British museum till after Charl was ousted).
Nikki got out lots of vampires during the game, but he couldn’t really come towards me due to Carna having Sniper Rifle and I got some turns later Ponticulus.
Andrew kills Charl very quickly with Week of Nightmares played within the first 30 minutes and 4 or 5 Ravnos out, and then also Mikey as the 3 deflections Mikey had weren’t enough.
Nikki sent two Ravnos to torpor and Andrew tried to oust Nikki with 2 vampires but missed for 4-5 pool I think. I managed to oust Andrew, so at that point there can only be two possible winners, myself if I oust Nikki before time limit or Andrew if I don’t manage to oust Nikki before time limit,
In the duel I have Heart off Nizchetus on Aisling, sniper rifle + Talbot’s chainsaw on Carna and Ponticulus. I destroyed Nikki’s Carlton and two small vampires. Then thanks to Heart of Nizchetus I’am keeping a hand with all the bleed and Mirror Walk I can cumulate, Eye of Argus and one Lego Mouth in case there is an Increased Strength + Thrown gate from Nikki, my plan is to try to send all or nearly all of Nikki’s vampire to torpor blocking with Carna and then bleed him out, but he doesn’t do actions with his vampires after sending two of them to torpor, so I had a couple of turns with bonding and then a final one playing Govern + Mirror Walk and then Mirror walk plus conditioning, Nikki was at one with all his vampires having already played On The Qui Vive and I have a last vampire ready, bleed for 1… successful when there was just less than 2 minutes for the time limit!
Andrew 2vp
Me GW3
Every player got several promos from promo pack 4 plus other promos that Hugh brought to the tournament.
I got a 30th anniversary deck as winner, the other finalists got one V5 deck each (Tzimisce, Ministry, Ravnos and I don’t remember the other one… maybe Brujah?
It was an amazing tournament, I loved meeting lot of players in person and the vibes of the tournament reminded why I love this game.
I’m always interested in reading other player’s reports, so please don’t be afraid to share them, even if it wasn’t your day we can all learn a lot.
