Tactics: Winning with Combat - The 3 Player Rule

A while ago, probably about 8 months or so, a few of the guys at my local playgroup were debating the way you should win with a Combat Deck. Out this came the idea that a combat deck should allow and help a table get to 3 players as quickly as possible. The Three Player Rule for Combat. This is intended for PURE Combat decks with a sideline of bleed; i.e. Brujah Combat + Pre bleed or similar.

Why 3 players?
Why is it so important to get to 3 players as quickly as possible?
Getting the table down to 3 players means that you can easily rush your predator AND prey so that they'll not have any ready vampires or minions. Destroying a vampire in any combat is always to your medium-term advantage.

Also, once there are 3 players remaining, if you can demolish all of the other vampires, then you are able to get the remaining 3 VPs (Pred, Prey, You) and getting the GW. In a tournament situation, the GW is worth more than the VPs, so sacrifice the VPs of 2 players to get closer to getting the GW. It's the Play-to-Win in its more Machiavellian form.

How do you do it?
Choose your preferred prey/predator and help them into that position.

So, if your Prey is easy for you to mangle, let them go after their own prey with minimal interference.

If your GPrey would be a good predator, then you probably want to destroy your predator and mangle your original GPred... so that your GPrey can take out your GPred and become your Pred and the players in between get 1VP each.

The majority of it is ensuring that you don't give help when you want that deck off the table, aiding the decks you want to have remain on the table, mangle a vampire here, vampire there, don't go too aggressively cross table, play the players as much as the cards... and above all remember your goals-- Be 1 of 3 players left and the other two are combat weak so you can destroy them easily and bleed out the rest.

It's all in the complicated business of manipulating the table into containing the players you want it to have, and none of the players you don't want to deal with. You have to let VPs go, and preferably let them go so that people don't get 2 VPs if you can help it.

Summary
Pure Combat is, by popular opinion and the TWDA, a hard method to win tournaments and this technique is not really any easier. It's just a way to think about attempting to get your goal of a GW with a Pure Combat deck.