Here begins the chronicle of the exploit that three
adventurous matusalahs from Munich took into the
distant city of Mannheim.

The tournament counted with around 18 players coming
from areas around Mannheim, but also with people
coming as far as Braunschweig. To my knowledge no
people came from outside Germany to play in the
tournament. The environment was quite relaxed in
comparison to the one We found in Vienna or Lisbon.
Most people declared as bringing "fun" decks to the
tournament and usually the games went in a nice
atmosphere even though some times dotted with the
natural tension of a Jyhad game. 

I took my Tremere/!Tremere deck with some touches on
the masters, Falko took the Infamous Presence Weenie
Bleed and Monica took the Animalism Computer Hacking
Weenie. 

The tournament began very badly for me and Monica as
she was my predator in the first table. I was doubly
worried as I know that her deck is really a pain in
combat and she can afford to lose some weenies while I
can't. In this game my prey had some sort of political
deck with Followers of Set and at least a Ventrue
Prince. my grand prey (Fabian Sosna, the 2000 german
champeon) had a Cailean deck, that relied in
permanents and in thrown lids to make damage. My grand
predator had an Anathema Brujah deck, with Beast as
some sort of seek and destroy weapon.

In this game I was able to score two points quite
fast, thanks to some well placed deflections and one
ot two well ran combats. But as the Cailean player
didn't made too much pressure on my grand predator, he
was able to grow strong and start putting anathemas on
my poor inocent vampires. Monica was trying desperetly
to bleed me to death, but even though I lost quite
some minions, I was able to stay afloat.
Unfortunatelly my grand predator gained a lot of pool
killing my vampires and eventually made the remaning
three points of the game. Falko didn't score on this
round.

My second round was a nightmare. My predator (made 11
points in the 3 preliminary rounds) had a very strong
tzimisce deck, my prey a Lasombra deck and my grand
prey had some sort of nosferatu with fortitude deck.
the game didn't start badly for me, as I burned
gratiano on my first combat and then also some weenie
Pander, but my Tzimisce predator brought a war ghoul
in the worst moment. I had a hand jam, and in two
rounds I found myself with no minions and then bled to
death. My predator cleaned the table in 40 min.

At least I had a lot of time to see Falko making a
point in his table, and fighting almost untill he
could get another. He finally was ousted scoring one
point. The best part was seeing Monica ousting Joshua
Duell himself (yes, the euro champ). He was playing
his Stealth Bleed deck with deranges. Actually Monica
was squeezed between two derange decks, and had really
an hard fight, but finally she ousted him. Then she
was faced with a !tremere deck, which gave a very good
fight, but Goratrix proved not to enjoy birds and
Monica got a second VP. Then her predator was ousted
by A guns deck deck proved to be quite good, using
Telephatic Trackings to beat SCE, Obfuscate to get the
guns and Celerity for the additional damage. At this
point Monica was faced with a long end game, which
ended up with The other player agreeing on letting
Monica withraw. Monica got 3VP and the other guy 2 VP,
well done Monica!

In the third round my prey was... Falko. Oh well,
plays of the destiny...  This game was again fast and
furious. My grand prey was a Ravnos deck that hardly
had time to show what it could do. My grand predator
was again the Lasombra deck and my predator was Joshua
Duell and his !Malkavians. The game started with Falko
doing what he does, bleeding for lots a lot of times.
the fact that the prey decided to bring SpiderKiller
didn't help neither. Conclusion, Falko made a fast VP,
but was not able to hold much longer as I got some
early conditionongs in, and with some redirected
bleeds from Josh and some votes from the Lasombra
directed to Falko to add. So I had a VP, but also had
Josh with a Stealth bleed on my back, which
additionally Misdirected a lot of Gartiano bleed my
way. I was going fast. But then I got lucky, I had
three minions out and just went with all for the bleed
and when I had my prey down to three pool I just got
the necessary conditioning with my last replace, so I
made another VP. Unfortunatelly, woth a lot of
deranged minions I didn't got much farther and Josh
eventually ousted me making also 2 VP. Final result on
the table Me 2VP, Josh 2VP and Falko 1 VP. Monica also
made an additional point on her table.

At this point we were quite happy, I was sixth place
with 4VPs and 120 TPs, Monica seventh with 4 VPs and
110 TPs. I couldn't see the exact placing of Falko but
he should be on the top ten with 2 VPs. I hope we can
found out the exact standings in the future. The top
ranking player was the Tzimisce guy and then there
were 4 players with 5VPs. 

Then we heard that the top ranked player had to leave
and that I got into the final. I know it's lame to
squeeze like that into a final but why not! I haven't
been in one for a long time.

To play the final we moved to a very nice gamers pub
(we should make a disputed territory on that) because
the convention had to close down.

As I was the last ranked player I didn't get to choose
nothing of the sitting, and after the procedure the
playing order was as follows, My predator was Florian
Sosna with his Cailean, my prey was Michael (not the
Eichler) with the guns deck I spoke about before, my
grand prey was Joshua Duell and my grand predator was
a very nice guy (we actually spoke a lot between
rounds but I forgot his name) with a !nosferatu deck
(Beast and friends). The game started very well for
me, getting my prey down to one pool very fast and
getting one of his vampires in torpor, but then he got
a gun and I got an hand jam! Besides the table turned
against me. Joshua was also very aggressive on the
!Nosferatu player, getting him very low on pool. At
this point the game was really interesting. I was
trying desperetly to get the last remaing pool of my
prey but he had a good wall and also !Toreador that
reduces bleeds. My predator made a lot of tactical
deals to keep my prey alive. At the same time the
!Nosferatu was turning upstream to Josh with all he
had. Finally, after some tactical errors, I found
myself with only one ready vampire which only had one
blood on him. I had about 12 pool, but only duplicate
vampires on the uncontrolled region... I was going to
die, and worst, my prey managed to oust Josh, which
was left with no minions after the !Nosferatu rampage,
and had three vampires out, two of them with a Pulse
and one with a magnum. To make everything worst his
prey had only very few pool left. That's when I sold
my soul and turned to Fabian and asked if he wanted to
win the game in exchange for a lousy VP. For me was
the difference between being 5th or 3rd in the
tournament, for Fabian was the chance to win the
tournament, as my prey would sweep almost for sure.
Fabian made the right decision, accepted. He started
to take my vampires out of torpor, we arranged ways of
me to deflect my bleeds to my prey, Fabian moved a
gerange to the armed vampire, I grave robbed a vampire
from him, we did all the dirty tricks we could think
of and more. My prey still tried to deal with me and
promised me second place in the game and tournament,
but it was too late, I regained some humanity and
honoured my deal with Fabian, even though i could gain
more by accepting his proposal. The !Nosferatu still
tried to stop us, but this time I could defend well
from him, and anyway, any vampire I would get in
torpor Fabian would save and I would push one blood
through the blood dolls. Finally it was to much to
Michael, and I finally ousted him getting the sleazy
VP. After that, I ousted myself and gave the point to
Fabian. Michael proved to be a very sportsmanlike
player, agreeing that that deal was the best I could
have done and only regreted not having reacted faster
and making a better offer while I was still
negotiating with Fabian. Some of you might say that it
was a dirty deal, but for me, more than the VP, the
deal represented a lot of fun instead of a long
funless excrutiating death. After I disappeared form
the game Fabian still took some time to oust the other
player, which gave a very good fight but had no chance
against a very well equiped Cailean. Final result of
the final, Fabian Sosna 3VP, Michael 1VP, Me 1VP, Josh
Duell and the other player (I hate my memory) 0VP.

All in all We had a lot of fun, the atmosphere was
great all the time, very nice people up there. I have
to thank Andreas for a very nice day. 

See you soon,
Rui
rsvideira@yahoo.com