Okay, here is a more extensive tournament report from Darmstadt. I will leave it to Carsten Isselhorst, the local prince, to post to the newsgroup (he normally does that after every tournament he holds - an example for some other Princes, I'd like to add). I will only describe the games I played, as between gaining VPs, feeding the beast inside and some nice talking to the local players I saw almost nothing of the action on the other two tables (actually some details about my own games become blurred already, so please excuse all slight errors). When we arrived 9 local players from Darmstadt were ready to pair their skills with ours. As already mentioned Falko had his Presence weenie bleed machine, Rui brought Monica's ornithologic haXors, and I played a newly made (but not so different from my latest creations) Euro-Brujah deck. Which I almost regreted as soon as the first game started. Everybody in this tournament seemed to play some sort of weenie abomination, my combat proved to be complete overkill (record was Theo Bell punching poor Antoinette Duchamp for 8 just to cycle cards). I was going first, preying on Rui, preying on Carsten (the local prince) with a mainly-Malkavian bloat deck, preying on Joachim with a weird weenie politcal thingy. So I had a shit crypt with 3 x Constanza and Volker, an Info HW in hand and made the only major msiatke this day: I put three on Volker. Rui starts bringing out birdmongers, Carsten nothing, then Joachim slaps a Brainwash on Volker and four 1 caps on the table. Next turn: another Brainwash on Constanza with 2 blood on her. Then Conservative Agitations etc. (always with Bribes, so he gained pool no matter what the outcome) started to rain my direction. I felt pretty bad, but thanks to Rui playing Delaying Tactics on Joachims votes and burning one Brainwash I came back - brought out Volker for some votes and a change to intercept some stuff. Then Carsten (who had Gregor Andersen in play) changed placed with Joachim. He knew he could stop all his votes as soon as I was gone, and hoped to gain an easy VP. It should not happen. I supported Joachims votes that were going 3/1 or even 2/2 to Rui and Carsten, gaining a blood on each Bribes. Finally I was able to afford Constanza, which brought me down to one pool. I allowed Joachim to oust Carsten, watched with delight as Rui dug deep into Joachims pool who couldn't do anything against me - I had vote lock and would kill every vampire I blocked. Finally when Joachim had 4 and Rui 6 pool I Kindred Restructered with Volker and bled Joachim out with Constanza and a Conditioning. Next turn Rui was tapped out and had no Wake (he blocked a few bleed atempts earlier but lost a vampire every time), so I bled with Volker and then Govern/Conditioning with Constanza. She got Archon Investigated though.. Tough shit, and game deciding, of course, as poor Volker could not stop the birds. That was one of the most exciting games in a long time. End result: me 1VP, Joachim 1 VP, Rui 2 VPs. The second round was the worst of the whole day. I can't remember who went first, but my prey was another Portugese guy with a !Ven deck preying on Rui preying on my predator, yet another weenie politics deck, this time with Praxis Seizures. That guy brought out vampires like crazy, and before I even had Anvil out, he made a prince. I got rid of that one with a Haven, but another one was crowned. The !Ven guy did next to nothing, as his deck was centered around deflections, and I didn't bleed. Rui did his usual stuff but couldn't make his combats count as the weenie guy (Urs, I think) packed enough Majesty. I brought one of my big princes, but by that time a First Tradition had hit the table, and as I had no Blood Gain going things went downwards. At last Rui ousted the weenie guy, which I had seen coming - with 3 pool left I had payed 2 to untap my two minions, hoping for a good defensive draw. I wouldn't work though, I deflected a bleed to Mr. !Ven that came back of course, blocked and survived, blocked one more with Anvil and then that's it with no untap left. Rui proceeds to sweep the table. I knew by then that to make it into the final I needed to win the next table. The first time this afternoon things looked good from the beginning: Joachim was my prey, and by now I knew how to "use" his deck to further my goals. He preyed on a guy with a Lasombra deck, my predator played Giovanni. Joachim did his usual stuff, put Brainwash on almost every uncontrolled vampire of his prey and started the vote'n'Bribes machine. As soon as Donal O Connor hit the table, he had a problem, and as I didn't need the pool from the Bribes I would have none of his votes. Still he bloated and made serious pool damage to his prey. My predator played very defensive, buliding up for some weird Necromany actions. Than Andrea Giovanni made the mistake to block one of my Archon votes and ended in torpor, which made him even more passive. Now I knew that I could sweep. The Lasombra guy was going fast, and I tried to squeeze into the hot seat with a Kindred Restructure. Unfortunately old friendships held and the Lasombra player gave his KRCG intercept to Joachim's Igo, who blocked an died. Joachim then ousted the Lasombra. I then gained some more blood by calling Anathema on the freshly rescued Andrea and burning her with Theo Bell. The next rounds saw basically only me acting. I killed many weenies and bled the remaining methusalahs out of the game. So that's me 3 VPs, Joachim 1 VP. With 4 VPs I got the last place in the final. Joachim also made it with 4 VPs, the !Ven player came with 5 (I think), Carsten with 6 and Rui with 7. My position proved to be irrelevant, and I was very happy that I had seen all other decks before. When seats were chosen nobody wanted to sit in front of me, as my combat was unparalleled in this tournament, so Joachim ended (again) as my prey, preying on the !Ven preying on Rui preying on Carsten. With no pressure form my back I could bring out Constanza and Theo, whom I made Brujah Justicar before Carsten could get a political foothold on the table. Joachim again was at my mercy, but still gained loads of pool. Rui bled away huge amounts of Carsten's pool who eagerly grabbed every opportunity to cash in on a Bribes. He also Parity Shifted Rui for some, but was going to be ousted anyway. Then Joachim in his frustration went backwards and threw his votes against Rui and me, counting on support by Carsten who readily gave it. Theo rushed Carsten's Gilbert Duane, was blocked and Obedienced by Lucian. But Carsten knew that he would never survive my attacks, and I made it clear that if he continued to support Joachim I would kill his vampires. So he offered me the tournament if he would get second place. A Kindred Restructure played by him made Rui his new and the !Ven my new prey. He ousted Rui and then holed in, while I killed all the !Ven, gained my first VP, and then waded through the corpses of a million Caitiff and Pander and an enormous amount of pool to victory. As a final gesture to honour our deal I allowed Carsten to withdraw. So the final was Skaffen 3 VPs, Carsten 2 VPs, Rui was third due to the VPs from the preliminary rounds. All in all a great tournament, we had much fun, played great games and have to thank Carsten and the Darmstadt crowd for their hospitality and the great atmosphere they offered. That's all Skaffen skaffen_amtiskaw@mail.ru