Torrance - August 1998 Report
by Stefan Vincent
August 24, 1998
A crew of eight showed up on Saturday, including three folks all the
way from San Diego (and there was much rejoicing!). A few regulars were
too busy to make it, and Frank unfortunately was delayed so he missed the
start but waited around to play in the Doomtown tournament afterward...
Now at this point you'd normally get the tournament report, but the
sign-in cards have disappeared somewhere in the mess that is my home after
I typed in the new folks' email addresses yesterday. You'd think that would
mean they'd be somewhere near the computer now that I have time to type
the report. You'd think, anyway. Here's what I can remember of what folks
were playing, and who won which rounds. If I find the cards I'll send the
details later (not that you really care, but it's that consistency thing...).
The odd thing was that I actually got to play everyone this time, so I
saw at least a bit of everyone's deck. And on top of that Mike N. sent
me a few play-by-plays from his games so I'll add those too in the appropriate
places…
Ray - Architects? or Ascended?/Dragons
Dave K. - Arch/Drag/Ascended Cops
Evan - Architects busily Dark Traveling
Tim M. - Architects/Ascended Sucker Rounds/Bull Market
Mike N. - Architects Dangerous Experiment
Victor - Peacock, mostly Hand seemed like
Stefan - "Borg" Peacock Shadowy Mentor/Shaolin Surprise
(this is the only one I know for sure :)
Greg J. - Dragons Guns
with the Dragons being unusually under-represented, and quite the heavy
weigh-in from the Architects. We played three preliminary rounds in games
of four.
Round 1
At table 1 Mike's Dangerous Experiments paid off and he stomped me for
the win in about 15 minutes. In Mike's words, "Was pretty lame. I got off
2 DE's in consecutive turns, Neutron Bombed, and laid down CHAR's to take
the sites I needed." We had time for two more games before Evan managed
to claw his way to a win at table 2, still way under time limit. Shaped
up to be a fast paced day, with Mike and Evan leading the charge.
Round 2
In round 2, Table 2 (was it me or something?) continued the speedy win
trend, where Ray came out with the win, I think. Table 1 dragged out; Mike's
Year of the Rat near the buzzer didn't quite do it for him; here's his
more detailed description of those last turns:
"After Tim Bull Marketed 3 Times in the game, we all were stabilizing
and ready to fight for the win. I wanted to win on my turn, so I laid down
a Genghis X and went for the win. He was imprisoned as a stopper. I threw
out the 2 weenies in my hand, Genghis returned, and said go. I still had
8 power remaining, plus a Year of the Rat. Evan was next, and didn't do
anything. Time was short, so I stopped Tim from going (he was next) and
he switched places with me, by playing Year of the Rat. I asked Stefan
how much time was left, and he told me, not enough. So, he said, "Mike,
you got 30 sec!" I rushed around the table and almost threw Tim's cards
to him :>, getting into place. Hastily drew my cards, threw down 2 more
weenies and, threw them all into an attack for the win. <someone, I
think Tim> Imprisoned Genghis X again, and Victor Final Brawled. Nothing
left. Oh well. (We timed out shortly afterwards)." and "Our Art of War
got around the table twice during the game!" (this since the Art of War
at the other table wasn't nearly moving as fast)
Round 3
Round 3 left the kiddie table in the odd position that Victor, if he won,
most likely screwed the rest of us (a fact which I emphasized, in the traditional
pre-game Jedi Mind Trick). So, with that in mind, the game at Table 2 went
fairly fast again (although not as fast as before) and saw the interesting
Final Brawl by Greg to stop his own attack just to get the Art of War to
move back to him at last (go Greg!). As you've guessed by now, Victor came
out on top, which we thought spelled doom for the rest of us. Table 1 dragged
out to the bitter end, and left the very odd situation of a three way tie
for first, and Ray playing the role of whupping boy. This put us in an
unlikely situation - a three way tie for 3rd. Tim and Mike N. were in the
finals for sure (Tim by only 0.5 point) but Evan, Ray, and I were all tied.
That meant we did a semifinal with those and the next lowest score, who
turned out to be Victor.
Semi-final
The semi-final was a bit odd. Ray started reasonably well, but everyone
else started slowly; Evan particularly so, and his site-destruction never
kicked in (only 1 Killing Rain during the entire game). I gradually worked
my way into a shot at the win as we kept Ray at bay, but my attempt wasn't
enough and Ray opened his turn by trying to steal my power - I responded
with a Year of the Rat to switch places with him, so I'd get another shot
at the win. Ray decided to wait for the intercept, and I was stopped again
on my attempt. Evan didn't have anything, but Victor had been quietly building
and was able to launch an attack; unfortunately he missed out in the math
department and didn't leave enough to pay for his 4th feng shui site, so
he went after Ray's damaged front row site to get his fourth. He ended
his turn, and, sadly, the timer went off just as Ray started to collect
his power. What had been a tie between Ray and me turned into a tie between
Victor and me. I don't know exactly what we'd have done if it had been
a three way tie; we haven't made provision for that so we'll have to think
about it.
Final
So the final ended up being Mike N., Tim, me, and Victor slugging it out.
Tim got in a very early Sucker Rounds/Bull Market to really soften up Mike's
front row site (oops - Inner Sanctum) then followed up with a shiny new
CHAR to finish it, Mike Dangerously Experimented for defense which Victor
countered with his Hacker. He neatly intercepted CHAR, leaving the site
with 2 body left. Tim's only follow-up was a Test Subjects - not enough.
Victor netted the site on his next turn. It looked almost like a run-away
as Victor was sitting one away from the win by turn 4. We all dug in and
defended and managed to hold him off, everyone building a bit along the
way. I finally made the bid for the win with borrowed characters - I Shadowy
Mentored Mike's CHAR, then played Xiaoyang Yun for protection (I had all
the factions I needed to stop the other players), followed by the Vivisector
that I now had the resource for, courtesy of the borrowed CHAR.
I needed two sites for the win, so I sent CHAR back at Mike's now unprotected
site. No one to intercept - he hits another Inner Sanctum. Bummer. The
cheese patrol, weenies accompanying Xiaoyang, go in to finish it, but I
still needed another. I Vivisected CHAR, and in response used Shaolin Surprise
to move the Shadowy Mentor to Tim's CHAR, giving me another shot and 4
power to boot. However, Tim's CHAR wasn't enough either - I hit another
big one, unfortunately setting Tim up nicely. On his turn, he Lodge Politic'ed
the Shadowy Mentor and returned CHAR to his side of town, Bull Marketed,
and Mentored my Golden Candle Society, who just happened to be carrying
a Sucker Rounds that they'd stolen from him several turns earlier. CHAR
went in first, then the GCS and a Portal Jockey to finish the job. Mike
attempted a Memory Reprocessing to use Tim's Lodge Politics to take the
Shadowy Mentor'ed CHAR, which worked until Tim used a Realpolitik to pop
the Mentor and return CHAR to him - unturned now. Mike was unable to stop
both the GCS and the Jockey to prevent the follow-up by CHAR; and Victor
and I were out of options, but Mike thought about it for quite a while
before giving up. Congratulations to Tim!
Last modified: October 2, 1998.
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