York Hunting Grounds Eagle Cavalry (1st)

Won the York Hunting Grounds with this, further evolution of the Cavalry deck I took to Manchester in the Abomination series.

Changes were to ditch the nines in favour of the Kings. Both the actions and deeds on 9 didn't feel that strong. Also took teh opportunity to upgrade to 2T2D by slightly altering the starting line up. Alexander is flat better than Marcia and long term leads to smoother GR flow, but at the cost of losing the Grifter and replacing with Moone.

ROund 1 - Sanatorium, Jia Mien legal Sothe opposing deck revolved around using Jia Mien to get out Fiddle Games and Putting the Pieces together around a loose structure. Over time building up a considerable hand/economy advantage. Sadly for them I never let it happen. First noon they got a Fiddle Game off uncontested, but after tha I just dumped all my dudes in town square. Second noon they lay down a Ptting the Pieces Together, I think for a moment but with 3 horses and a Calling would seem rude not to Rune Em Down (though took using Sequioa to find it) Rode down tyx, they boot home leaving them with Jia Mien, Ambrose and a bullet catcher I can't remember. Now camping at there home I drop some deeds and start to look towards control points/anoter RUn them down. Sure enough it turns up on the next turn, I pull my Enapay back into town square in order to use the Run Em Down, they launch a Fiddel game to prempt me. Even with Enapay sitting out it wasn't enough and they go down in a hail of lead.

I was using the home ability, Winning agenda to discard one/draw three and Sequoia's abilty - I cylced through eleven cards a turn. hardly surprising I saw the clutch cards before they did. Versus a deck like that, I figured better to go off early before they really stack upthe bonuses from not cheating.

Round 2 - Gateway to Beyond w. Grimme Lots of Spirit shennanigans. Which as I bemoaned throughout the tournament mostly stops you loding but doesn't make you win. They dropped a ton of spirits, I dropped a large number of horses. Early doors I lost my Moran when I got involved in a tousle without a sidekick. Next engagement saw us fight it out in the General Store, not all their dudes could get in but Lydia was sitting at home with a Bufalo Rifle and Dtrength of the Ancestors. Cavalry occured, Remedy on both sides, still reasonable stud bonuses. End result of the first round saw me with a sizeable margin from Cavalry - but they had Turtle Guard. Which failed, by pulling the other Turtle Guard in the deck. Only card that could that have nixedit, very unlucky. So instead of a completely inconclusive fight that burned my hand of cards, an ancestor and two actual people ended up dead. That was a fairly big swing.

Unfortunately I failed to see control points to clinch the game, so they started to rebuild. Heading towards time, we start the chess moves to try and sneak the INf/COntrol totals. I make a few mistakes, but inthe end manouver into ancestro vs. Sequoia with Pedro fight. Straight 5 each - fortunately I pull a cheating full house with no reses on their side, whilst they pull a pair. End the fight, end the game, and with equal Control + Inf, I norowly win due to having the higher control points. CLose game, I felt I had them on the ropes and if another Run Em Down showedup before their turtle guard I might have had a conclusive fight. But it didn't happen that way...

Round 3 - Law Dogs Gadgets First turn sees two Electrostatic Pump guns, one ending up on Tommy Harden. SO their shootout ability ramped fast, but no Forcefield yet. So I decide to press the issue and with minimal horses but Point Blank I Run Em Down to try and get the Mad Scientists off the table. Shennanigans occur, but I manage to win the fight narrowly. Point Blank gets Slight Modded, they lose their bullet catacher and go home. Draw a ton of cards, go again next turn. Manage to make some damage stick this time and take one of the 2 mad Scientists off the table. Go again next turn, Point Blank is Slight Modded. Take off a chump.

Pretty much the tale of this game is gradually whittling away at their dudes. So I confidently tryit again, and get absolutely hammered when my deck craps out and gives me the choice between two pair or cheating full house. Tommy brings the pain and I lose two, but they're down to 2 Inf so one more control from me and it'd be game... At this point they get a FOrcefield, but they've had to drop Steven Wiles and keep him around just to stayin the game. That restricts how much they can spend on the forcefield, so one final push and even spending all their cash they can't avoid casualties, time is called and I'm ahead on both Inf and Control.

Round 4 - Gateway to beyond Due to a drop out, play each other again (at this point with one normalwin and two timed wins, there's no way any of those remaing can catch me). Dave tries a different tack, and comes out early guns blazing to try and take me down before I horse up. With Turtle's Guard and Spirit Dance, seemed reasonable. First turn first fight is inconclusive, but sees Dave boot home and spirit's tapped out, that leaves Enapay open to a run em down from my booted Deloria at home (only person with a horse). As I had a Pedro, A calling and the tighter draw deck I felt confident - sure enough Enapy was swept off the table. THe aggresive strategy didn't work so well as I just matched it with an ever growing array of horses. But couldn't get the Run Em Down's to force the issue. Dave tried for an all or nothing play to take out my influence in TS, I put everyone in. I'd managed to get Steven Wiles in play just in time, and despite shootout tricks still had a reasonable stud bonus. More importantly, by using Cavalry on the Mixer, I'd chosen a 1 stud - thus even thought the first round was hnours even (discarding Steven), Point Blank took out Lydia and all her spirits as she was the only 0 bullet dude in Dave's posse. That was pretty much it as most of Dave's influence was dead so even though everyone was booted out, his choice to play Whateley Estate meant when I played the Quarantine tent and a replayed Steven - wherever Dave Went I could grab the 3 control needed to win.

Happier with this version, switching to Kings was wise. The GR flow was much better, horses were seldom in my hand for more than a turn before getting played on someone. The card draw is still crazy - very few times did I feel I was missing a piece (though I would in future go to 4 Run Em Downs). The weakspot it does have is what do you do for the second or subsequent turns of a shootout? Cavalry is great for giving you the initial edge - legal full houses and legal 4s being the common native hand ranks you often pump them by two or three so force a casualty or two. but if they have something like Forcefield or Turtle's Guard (or indeed Willa) it often feels like you haven't actually achieved much for all your card play, and in the second round you're more likely to be honours even whilst they might still have tricks. At which point, sure Pedro or the Escort can hit the bin, but you're now stuck in a fight with all your dudes. Booting home, not so good. If they can carry on winning the war of attrition you can be in trouble.

Only really happened the once today, and fortunately still managed to have enough momentum not to flinch - but it is a worry.

Might leave this alone for a while. I'm intrigued as to whether the huge amount of card draw would support a degenerative deck trying to for DMH - we shall see.