We met for the first time at the Tally Ho pub. We were assigned a roped-off
wing of the upper floor and this nicely accommodated our 18 players for
the afternoon. The food, drink and service were all very pleasant and even
our Smoking Man, Tom Kassel, did not grumble at this being smokeless zone.
We shall return.
There were a couple of new faces - Luc, a French Canadian and Jonathan,
a Guild regular.
The full list of players and their decks were:
Alex Wargacki .DF.... Evil Tom Andrew Davidson ..FH... Lobster Thermidor Andy Holt A....L. We even control the Z-axis Anil Das-Gupta .D..... Independence Day II Arthur Howlin ..F...M April Showers Colin Burton ..F.... Hey, Big Spender! Daniel Vandenburg .D.H... Shadowless Glenn Cannon ..F...M Ninja Thunderflyers Hedley Coppock .D...L. Bodycount Jonathan Coates A.....M On the Square Luc Chamberlain ...H.L. Beginner Michael Rogers ...H... Chinese Violets Nithiyan Thiruudaian ...H... Invincible Shi Peter Woodmansee .....L. The Thing Stephen Biggs ..F..L. DNA Thivyan Thiruudaian .D...L. Kick the Kan Tom Kassel .DF.... Return of the Man Yuit Sum Vong .D...L. LapdogFaction Popularity
Round 1
Tom Kassel beat Jonathan, Luc, Nithyan
Arthur Howlin beat Glenn, Peter, Thivyan
Yuit Sum Vong beat Andy, Anil, Stephen
Stephen Biggs beat Andrew, Anil, Daniel (Stephen, Anil were fillers)
Michael Rogers beat Alex, Colin, Hedley
In round 2, I faced newcomer Luc and experienced youngster Michael.
Michael lobbied furiously to get Luc to attack me and, as I made counter-arguments,
poor Luc was pulled this way and that. Happily, I emerged on top of this
tussle.
Round 2
Arthur Howlin beat Andy, Daniel, Nithyan
Glenn Cannon beat Hedley, Tom, Stephen
Yuit Sum Vong beat Colin, Jonathan, Peter
Andrew Davidson beat Luc, Michael
Alex Wargacki beat Anil, Thivyan
Yuit and Arthur were both double winners but as we had 5 single winners
too and it was already 17:00, I decided that it would be best to have two
semi-finals rather than one big qualifier. Arthur and Yuit would certainly
survive for the final and we would have either one or two others to join
them.
My siteful deck faced an interesting challenge as the three other players,
Glenn, Michael and Tom were all playing with fairly parasitic decks and
they each played at least 3 Pocket Demons or Violet Meditations off my
site structure. Diplomacy played a significant part in this game too as
Tom joined Michael in fingering me as the major threat. My position never
collapsed but Tom won the diplomatic war and emerged victorious. This game
bore out Dennis Heffernan's theories but I am not dismayed or ready to
defect yet. Next time, I will play "What has it got in its pockets?" and
we shall see how the parasites like that ...
In the other semi-final, Yuit won her third victory in a row. She had
returned to a tried and tested deck, Lapdog, and this fitted her like a
comfortable old shoe, bringing success after the repeated failures of her
siteless deck, Stick Insects.
Semifinals
Tom Kassel beat Andrew, Glenn, Michael
Yuit Sum Vong beat Alex, Arthur
Consolidations
Peter Woodmansee beat Daniel, Hedley
Andy Holt beat Colin, Jonathan, Stephen
Final
Arthur Howlin beat Tom, Yuit
Tom was playing his classic Architect/Dragon deck, "Return of the Man"
- typically playing Golden Gunman, Vivisector and Golden Comeback. Yuit's
Lotus/Dragon deck, "Lapdog", featured favourites like Claw of Fury, Dirk
Wisely's Gambit and Tortured Memories. Arthur's deck, "April Showers",
was mostly Architect with a splash of Monarch for extra magic and states.
I took a snapshot of the game after the opening moves:
Arthur
4 feng shui sites
1 DNA Mage
1 Ice Healer
1 Test Subjects
1 Darkness Priestess
0 power
Tom
3 feng shui sites (1 damaged Ring of Gates)
1 Chinese Doctor
1 Golden Gunman
2 Friends of the Dragon
Yuit
4 feng shui sites (1 Inner Sanctum)
1 Evil Twin of Golden Gunman
1 Hacker
1 Scrappy Kid
1 Power
This situation led to a flurry of attacks. Tom complained that, by playing
4 indefensible feng shui sites, Yuit and Arthur had forced the game to
a hasty conclusion. Yuit, however, was very threatening as her attacks
were winning attacks and her strategy looked sound to me. My notes from
this point are:
Tom attacks with Golden Gunman - hits an Inner Sanctum
Yuit attacks with Evil Golden Gunman - stopped by Expendable Unit (an
event which does affect the Gunman)
Arthur is unable to attack and plays a Secret HQ
Tom attacks with Golden Gunman - Yuit intercepts with Evil Golden Gunman,
healing it with a Doctor so that both die (Tom overlooked the Doctor).
Yuit attacks with Scrappy Kid + Dirk Wisely's Gambit and follows this
with her favourite thug, the Big Bruiser. He is stopped as Arthur reveals
a Fox Pass.
Arthur makes no attack again and accumulates more power
Tom brings the Golden Gunman back with Golden Comeback but this is
stopped by the combination of Yuit's Chinese Doctor and Arthur's Cellular
Reinvigoration.
Yuit attacks with Scrappy Kid and Arthur drops a Bomb. Arthur, Tom
and Yuit are all unable to follow-up with significant attacks on their
next turn. Not one of them had drawn the right cards - for example, Yuit's
hand was 2 Dirk Wisely's Gambit, 1 Ting Ting's Gambit, 1 Evil Twin and
a Flying Kick.
Arthur must have foregone power generation because he was then able
to lay The Reconstructed, CHAR and Ghengis X who made an unstoppable attack
to win.
So congratulations to Arthur as he joins the elite ranks of our repeat
winners. He, Yuit, Alex Wargacki, Dave Martin and Nithiyan Thiruudaian
have all won two Flashpoint Finchleys each. Tom might to be included too
as, besides FPF4, he won the similar event Flashpoint London. Who will
be our first triple winner, I wonder? I must prepare a special trophy ...
Thanks to all who came and most especially to the staff of the Tally
Ho.
Last modified: March 11, 1998.
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