I returned to Philadelphia for a week in mid-January. This time I was
better prepared and arranged to meet Robert Bain and Dennis Heffernan at
their regular clash on Tuesday evenings at Time Warp Games & Comics
up in Cedar Grove, NJ. They start early but I was tied up in a meeting
until 17:15 and then had to drive north into unknown territory for 100
miles. Still, my car was equipped with Satellite Intelligence - Rockwell's
excellent GPS navigation system - and this got me to within 50 feet of
555, Pompton Avenue before announcing "Destination Ahead" at about 19:15.
I wasn't sure what to expect but Time Warp proved to be a pleasant
store - well laid out with lots of interesting stock and plenty of gaming
tables. I headed for these and immediately spotted the guys that I had
travelled thousands of miles to meet - Dennis and Robert playing a game
of Shadowfist. I had some trepidation about this meeting for Dennis had
assumed mythic proportions in my imagination. Surely he must be a fire-breathing
ogre - the offspring of Gargantua or Apollyon? In the event, while he certainly
has a commanding presence, he proved to be a very civil opponent - a pleasure
to play with. He is large and powerful and looked pretty snappy in his
black duds and string tie. Robert is more average in appearance but, while
Dennis is the strong, silent type, Robert is very ebullient - a typically
American chatterbox.
After introducing myself, I opened up some B5 boosters while they finished
their 2-player game. It then seemed that we would play a 3-player game
and Dennis seemed content with this while Robert was ecstatic at having
a fresh opponent. I had brought a bag full of decks with me and surveyed
the possibilities. Tickertape would be too slow for a 3-player game, many
of the other decks would be too chancy and my most recent deck, "What has
it got in its pockets?" would be too nasty. I decided that Lobster Thermidor
would be a good choice - tight and effective but a little unusual.
Robert's deck soon proved to be what he called a chi-abuse deck - all
Hand with Shih Ho Kuai and lots of Monks. Dennis's deck was, of course,
a cheese-abuse deck - his second-string siteless deck, Brie.
This uses Four Monarchs and Guiding Hand to provide the magic and chi
for a full set of Pocket Demons and Violet Meditations to complement the
only sites - 5 Proving Grounds. My own deck is built around Spawn of the
New Flesh and, being heavily site-based, made an interesting contrast with
Dennis's deck.
I didn't have a feng shui site in my initial hand. It's important not
to stall in a 3-player game but I took a slight chance, discarding just
4 cards and keeping a Plasma Trooper and an Abominable Laboratory - important
foundation resources. Happily, I pulled a Cave Network and was able to
get started. Better yet, I was able to play Golden Candle Society and a
Shield of Pure Soul. I killed off the Golden Candle Society to leave me
with an ideal start position.
I would have welcomed an attack now but, either the others spotted
the trap of my Cave Network or were more concerned about each other - I
was left alone for a few turns and developed my site structure with 2 Inner
Sanctums and an Abominable Lab - all played in the front row. I played
a Reinvigoration Process too and all these sites and edges made Dennis's
Violet Meditations pay out well. He used these surges of power to play
large thugs - the first being the White Ninja. I was really surprised to
see Dennis using such expensive nerve gas fodder - Queen of Darkness, King
of Thunder and even Lord Shi - a character that I've always thought to
be a borderline coaster.
Robert took out the White Ninja with a berserk assault and this started
a pattern in which one of us would threaten with a large character like
the Spawn or Shih Ho Kuai - and the others would take them down. Dennis
and Robert made most of the running during this middle game and they both
burnt sites for victory to bring them in range of the win. I lost some
sites myself but my site structure continued to expand to the advantage
of my recycled Spawn.
Dennis's main stopper was a Blanket of Darkness which he got out early
- very annoying for an ambusher like the Spawn. Mine was the Neutron Bomb
which I dropped once or twice to tilt the balance of the game my way. Robert
used Robust Feng Shui to good effect to stop a critical attack by Dennis's
Virtuous Hood. When Dennis tried to cancel this with a Confucian Stability
- I responded in kind - I felt this was important enough to justify the
use of my only Confucian too.
The game went for some time - about 90 minutes - and Dennis and I started
to run low on cards. Eventually, after the others flagged, I was able to
make the winning attack on a weak site of Robert's with a Plasma Trooper,
7-strength Spawn and a Golden Candle Society emboldened with a Godhammer
and an Arcanoseed boost. The table had no answer to this multi-pronged
assault and so I won.
This was a very hard-fought game - really gripping stuff - and the
conclusion was naturally most satisfying. Dennis's "siteless" deck was
certainly quite effective in the hands of its creator though I didn't find
it remarkably different from the one-location decks that I've seen used
back in London. Robert's Chi deck was a powerful design that I have seen
before in London too - Nithiyan's similar Invincible Shih was a recent
tournament winner.
What I did find disconcerting were the little details - the way in
which burnt-for-victory sites were recorded, for example. They actually
follow the rule book but tolerated my alien deviance with good grace. Likewise,
when my vivisection was cancelled by a Mark of Fire, I did not demur even
though I have ruled against this when umpiring in the past. It was good
to find that, despite our differences, we could still have a enjoyable
game without any bickering.
I was ready to give Dennis a rematch in his own favourite mode of play
- 2-player - but Time Warp was closing now and we had to pack up. Dennis
vouchsafed me a look through his current Jarlsberg deck to see how it differed
from my reverse-engineered version. It was now certainly different and
the changes seemed for the better - Ghengix X, Neutron Bomb, Xiaoyang Yun
and Year of the Rat - much as Julian reported.
It would have been nice to schmooze with the others over a meal but
Robert had to rush off and I didn't dare eat before a long drive back to
Philly - a full stomach on top of jet lag would have been literally fatal.
I took some quick snapshots and then bade farewell to Dennis as he set
off home in his sports-ute. I then started back down towards the New Jersey
Turnpike - more goddamn tolls.
Back in Valley Forge just before midnight, I found the only local restaurant
still open - TGIF - and selected a cheese steak. This dish was entitled
"Mushrooms, Cheese and Mushrooms". As tonight's game had pitted my mushrooms
(neutron bombs) against Dennis and Robert's cheese, this seemed a fitting
victory feast.
So, thanks for the game, guys - it was a real pleasure. I look forward
to a rematch some time - on whichever side of the ocean finds us next together.
Last modified: March 11, 1998.
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