You can also find this newsletter at:
http://www.shout.net/~mbohlman/as081998.html
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A Night on the Town
Where: The Succubus Club, Chicago, Illinois
When: Last night
Abd al-Rashid worked his way through the crowd, pushing the mortals
aside as he went. The punk-metal music pounded loudly on
that night as Kine with every conceivable body part either shaved,
tattooed, or pierced danced wildly, smashing into each other
carelessly.
He scanned the crowd for his contact, a Toreador whip. The Ventrue
ruled Chicago, but at least some of the Toreador weren't quite
happy about that. The recent conflicts with the Kindred of Gary,
Indiana, had made choosing sides a deadly game for those
without friends.
But then, there were the Assamites, who choose no friends in an effort
to gain from them all. Abd didn't know who the Toreador
wanted knocked off, but he was sure it would be a symbolic contract
rather than something meant to sway the Jyhad.
Finally, he spotted the contact climbing the stairs towards his
position on the balcony above the main floor. Ramiel DuPre. He had
two mortal women of magnificent beauty on each arm, probably part of
his herd. Abd could see the eyes of many women, and even
some men, follow Ramiel as he approached.
When he finally spotted Abd, he dismissed the women and immediately
all mortal eyes left their stare upon him. Probably one of
those silly Toreador disciplines, Celerity excepted, of course.
"Abd al-Rashid."
"Ramiel DuPre."
Suddenly, the number of people immediately around the two vampires
seemed to become denser and to thin out at the same time. "I
am prepared to offer you two pints of a 9th generation Kindred." He
paused and looked around to make sure no one was obviously
listening. Just as the music peaked in a crescendo of drums and metal
guitar, Ramiel mouthed the name.
Lucia Paccioli.
Well, you'll have to wait until next month to find out what happens
next.
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Fun Alternative Rules
Want to try out a fun alternative rules game with your Assamite deck?
Well, get your favorite three friends together and setup the
game as usual, except you have only 20 pool. However, the play is a
little different.
You are not the prey of any single player. In your seating
arrangement, the player to your left is the prey of the player to your
right.
Your placement is only for purpose of turn order. No minion can bleed
you, but all other effects can be used on you.
During the game, you are considered to have a Succubus Club in play at
all times. So if you have a Contract in your hand or
perhaps a Haven Uncovered, the other Methuselahs can "purchase" a hit
on another Methuselah's minions. It's up to you to
decide terms and amounts.
Typically, I "charge" about 1/2 the capacity of the target vampire to
burn. To merely hassle, which usually means sending to
torpor, I'll accept 1/3 the capacity.
Let me know what you think, and if you have other variants, send them
to me.
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Deck Building
Building a combat deck that can win games is about half the ability of
actually winning. I've had varying successes with differing
incarnations of my Assamite deck. The key is being able to keep
pressure on ALL of the opposing Methuselahs (in a four player
game). The only time I was able to take 4 VP's in a game with an
Assamite deck was when I systematically took down all but one of
the other vampires in each active region.
Here's the current incarnation of my Assamite deck. With the new
ruling to use the actual wording on Rötschreck, we finally have a
little extra help against S:CE.
Crypt (12 vampires)
Julius, 1, ser, qui - Useful for if you really want to diablerize
2x Kanya Akhtar, 2, cel
2x Harika Guljan, 3, QUI
2x Abd al-Rashid, 5, obf, CEL, QUI - The core of any Assamite deck
2x Parnassus, 7, tha, aus, CEL, QUI, +2 hand damage
Melek, 7, pre, cel, OBF, QUI, pay one blood to dodge per combat
Al-Ashrad, 9, obf, aus, CEL, THA, QUI, +1 bleed, burn Camarilla
locations
Thetmes, 10, dom, pot, OBF, CEL, QUI, 2 votes, aggravated hand
damage
Library (82 cards)
Master (20 cards)
4x Contract
2x Haven Uncovered
2x The Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper
2x Market Square
2x The Rack
3x Rötschreck
3x Blood Doll
2x Celerity
Action (6 cards)
2x Atonement
4x Ambush
Reaction (4 cards)
4x Forced Awakening
Equipment (5 cards)
IR Goggles
Ivory Bow
Sengir Dagger
Kali's Fang
Combat (47 cards)
12x Pursuit
9x Blood Sweat
8x Blur
4x The Khabar: Honor
6x Taste of Death
3x Disuised Weapon
5x Taste of Vitae
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Dealing with...
In this section of the Assamite newsletter, I'll talk about dealing
with various flaws in the typical Assamite deck. If you have
thoughts about holes in the Assamite deck, e-mail them to me.
Drawing Out the Beast: The Bane of Assamites Everywhere
There are more weaknesses to an Assamite deck than your standard
combat deck. Drawing Out the Beast is the absolute worst of
them all. Fortunately, most people don't play with the card, but if
you become successful with Assamites in your group, the
meta-game will dictate that people start using Drawing Out the Beast.
Against damage prevention, we have Blood Sweat. Against S:CE we have
Psyche and Hidden Lurker. Against both, we now have
Rötschreck. But what about Drawing Out the Beast?
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Next Month
Abd al-Rashid is contracted out on Lucia Paccioli.
Deckbuilding: Combining the Assamites with other clans
Dealing with...fast stealth and bleed
If you have comments about this article or want to give thoughts on
future issues, just e-mail them to mbohlman@shout.net.
--
Mike Bohlmann, MAIP mbohlman@shout.net
"Sell crazy somewhere else; we're all stocked up here."