Assamite Clan Newsletter
January, 2006
By Tom Duncan
I hope the New Year finds you all healthy, wealthy, and wise.
I'll start off this month's offering with a look at some of the
fringe (that is, not specifically Assamite or Quietus, but perhaps
relevant) cards for Assamites from Legacies of Blood. Following that
you will find Part 2 of my essay, "Managing Assamite Combat," and a
decklist that hopefully demonstrates some of the points I've
discussed.
Legacies of Blood Honorable Mentions:
Kamiri wa Itherero
Clan: Akunanse (group 4)
Capacity: 10
Disciplines: ABO ANI FOR OBF pot qui
Laibon: Younger vampires must burn 1 blood to attempt to block Kamiri.
If an ally blocks Kamiri and combat occurs, burn the ally at the end of
the action.
Here's another option for that OBF/QUI/ANI crypt, though a pricey
one. Kamiri's FOR also makes him(?) an option for inclusion in a
crypt with Antara, Joe Hill, or Janni. His special combines nicely with
Dawn and Day Operation, which will make blocking very unpleasant for
vampires and a 'last hurrah' for Allies.
Ubende
Clan: Ishtarri (group 4)
Capacity: 7
Disciplines: CEL PRE for obf qui
Laibon magaji.
Ubende joins Jack Dawson and Joaquin Murietta in the non-Assamite
obf/cel/qui club. His PRE and [for] make him an excellent
co-conspirator for Joe Hill, Antara, Janni, and Vardar. He can also
assist Olugbenga in Laibon politics with his title. A quality vampire
at a fair price, I'd pick him over any given 7-cap group 1 Prince.
Aversion
Type: Reaction
Requires: Valeren/Celerity
Cost: 1 blood
[cel] Reduce a bleed against you by 1.
[val] Burn X pool to reduce a bleed against you by 2X+1.
[VAL] Only usable when a minion is bleeding you for 1 or more. Put this
card on the acting minion. You still control this card. This minion
gets -1 bleed when bleeding you. Any minion may burn this card as a +1
stealth (D) action.
This is a very nice card for the !Salubri, and the outferior provides a
large percentage of Assamites with access to bleed reduction. While
not nearly as efficient as having AUS, it might be more useful than
grafting AUS on with skill cards when using group 3 and 4 Assamites
(only Antara has it, and at inferior). Confusion of the Eye [obf] is
free, and, despite its capacity limitation, is probably the better card
for most Assamites in Group 3-4. Still, having a universally applicable
bleed reducer available to the majority of the clan is an improvement
over Banner of Neutrality, balanced nicely with a cost of 1 blood, thus
assuring that neither of them see much play in our decks. Thankfully,
there are no Assamites with [val], so I won't have to re-visit high
school algebra to try to figure out the inferior application of this
card.
Death of the Drum
Combat
1 blood
Only usable at long range.
[cel] strike: 1R damage
[mel] Strike: 2R damage, only preventable by cards that require
Fortitude or Visceratika.
[MEL] As [mel] above, and the damage is aggravated.
While this card gives Daughters of Cacophony a much-needed combat
boost, I don't think it does anything for the Assamites that
Projectile doesn't do better. With access to Quietus and Taste of
Death, this card just isn't for us. Note that the [MEL] application
of this card is actually better than Taste of Death. I may have to
declare shenanigans...*
Healing Touch
Type: Action
Requires: Obeah/Celerity
Cost: 1 blood
+1 stealth action.
[cel] Untap a younger vampire you control.
[obe] Add up to 2 life to an ally, not to exceed his or her starting
amount.
[OBE] Rescue a vampire from torpor, and that vampire gains 1 blood from
the blood bank.
Reminiscent of Precognizant Mobility, and probably just as useful. I
would like to find a way to use this card to improve the usefulness of
Fida'i, but I can't.
Leapfrog
Type: Combat
Requires: Spiritus/Obfuscate
[obf] Maneuver, only usable to go to long range.
[spi] Maneuver.
[SPI] Strike: combat ends.
Assamites commonly fight their battles at long range, and if that is
your plan, here is the card for you! Since Selective Silence and Behind
You! are both only good for the first round of combat, Leapfrog can be
useful with the "new look" Assamites ("Look, mom, no
Celerity!") if you intend to try press combat. Combine with a Trap to
help ensure you get to round two and beyond.
Squirrel Balance
Type: Action Modifier
Requires: Spiritus/Celerity
Cost: 1 blood
[cel] Only usable when the action is announced. If blocked, range in
the first round of the resulting combat is automatically set to long.
[spi] Minions without flight or Spiritus get -1 intercept when
attempting to block this action.
[SPI] As [spi] above, but those minions get -2 intercept.
Squirrel Balance will be very useful in long-range combat builds, or
builds that just want to avoid being Grappled and punched for 18. It
costs blood up front, but the utility of your potential blocker knowing
range will be long could be advantageous if it causes more "no
block" responses than your actions would otherwise warrant. An
excellent card choice for a deck designed with Pool-damaging D actions
and streamlined combat. Keep an eye out for Janni, with a mouthful of
acorns and a Sniper Rifle, running along your telephone wire...
Vulture's Buffet
Action
Requires: Spiritus/Obfuscate
+1 stealth hunt action. If this hunt is successful, the acting vampire
untaps.
[obf] Remove a minion or retainer in any Methuselah's ash heap from the
game to move 1 blood to this vampire from the blood bank.
[spi] As [obf] above, but move 2 blood.
[SPI] As [spi] above, and you gain 1 pool.
The untap clause here is nice, but the qualifier could be troublesome.
Provided you intend to burn at least one minion or retainer early in a
game, including a Vulture's Buffet in your library could be
beneficial. If you are running multiple copies of a unique ally or
retainer, you can definitely plan to use the Buffet for some
multi-action support, confident that those extra copies of your unique
Ally will end up in the ash heap. An excellent card choice for
self-destructive allies and retainers like Ghoul Escort, Zombie, and
Escaped Mental Patient. It's a hunt action, so you can use Succulent
Vitae, too! A nice rare. Don't read the spi/SPI part - it'll only
depress you.
And now, the long-awaited sequel:
Managing Assamite Combat, Part 2
Defense: It wins championships.
It is a commonly heard sports cliché that the best defense is a good
offense. This is not necessarily true in the early stages of a V:TES
game, where your predator and prey are not the same opponent. Putting
extra pressure (in terms of minion removal) on your first prey will not
affect your predator's ability to pressure you. It is important to be
patient, as I discussed last month. Since it might be a few turns
before you push left, you'll have to survive in the meantime.
Consider the following:
1.Your predator is not your target. It is important to defend yourself
against your predator's devious schemes, but always remember that you
need him there. If you destroy his ability to defend against HIS
predator, you will soon face his newly-fortified ouster. It is highly
likely that you will have to run at least one of his minions through
the cheese grater at some point, probably early on (depending on how
many minions he has in play and what they are trying to do to you).
Many players will rush their predator first almost as a rule. I prefer
to see what his intentions are first, unless his vampires have
Dominate, in which case they simply must go.
Your deck should be built to bloat at least a little, and unless you
are fighting to stay in the game, you should concentrate more on posing
a threat to your predator than actually crushing his will. After you
block and atomize one of his vampires, or rush and liquefy one of his
pesky bleed-bouncers, be sure to point out to him the various threats
he faces from HIS predator. You want to keep him at a minion
disadvantage with regard to his predator, but with enough ready minions
to be able to survive. This is where the contract mechanic can shine.
Many decks focus on the abilities of one vampire, and if you can lock
that vampire down with a contract, you put your predator on the ropes
and get him playing defensively. If he steps out of line, that
permanent rush is available for the judicious distribution of what
for.*
Don't feel like you have to block everything your predator does, or
avoid taking pool damage at all costs. Unless he's trying to oust
you, your predator is merely your last prey, and one more victory point
for you. Remember - your actions have the most profound effect on the
game in that they remove minions from the ready region. Managing your
predator properly can be the difference between winning the game and
handing it to another player. You want to SURVIVE your predator, not
OUST your predator.
2. If you can be bought, be sure to advertise your price. You might be
the only combat deck at the table. This likelihood increases
significantly if you are playing in a tournament. Surrounded by
streamlined ousting machines, there may be a player at the table whose
deck is trumped, and whose presence at the table only serves to build
steam for his predator. It might be in your best interest to prevent
this from happening. It will depend upon your assessment of your
ability to deal with the strong deck, to sacrifice an action or two to
do something about it, and your strength relative to your predator and
prey. If you think you can trash a vampire controlled by the dominant
methuselah, be sure you get your money's worth. The player you are
helping might be able to give you a beneficial referendum, allow you
access to his KRCG, offer to rescue your prey's Famed vampire for you
- who knows. You might also get a juicy counter-offer, too.
Some players simply don't make deals. In this case, you do what you
have to do to get your best advantage. You want maximum VPs, but if in
giving one up you don't compromise your ability to oust your prey,
that's okay, too. You don't HAVE to set the table up for a cascade
oust and a table sweep. Often with combat decks, you will be better
served by letting the big bleeders or anti-combat builds leave the
table. If you think you can cause a stalemate with surgical cross-table
minion removal, AND it works to your advantage, consider it.
4. You need to be able to block. Especially true in tournaments, the
ability to stop your predator's key actions is, well... key. In a
casual game, you may have the fortune of sitting next to a player who
is experimenting with a trick bloat build, and is content to just
survive until heads-up play while accumulating minions. You will do
better to not count on this, and instead plan to block some actions,
likely with some stealth on them. Since your combat build has little
room for transient intercept, you will need some permanent sources.
Market Square is our clan specialty, and any of the media locations and
the staple Sport Bike will aid in this endeavor. Whether it come from
master cards or equipment, permanent intercept will afford you the
opportunity to block actions at crucial junctures, notably political
actions and vital non-directed actions taken by your predator or prey,
such as rescues and mandatory hunts. If your opponent is packing
stealth modifiers, you are likely NOT going to catch him anyway, and
might be doing him a favor with a block attempt by allowing him to
cycle stealth. If you played patiently early on, you will know this
already, and can concentrate on removing the offending vampire from the
ready region instead.
4. Don't be the bad guy. While sportsmanship is important to any
friendly game, it's not what I am talking about here. You want to
avoid being perceived as a threat to the whole table. If you jump on
your prey as soon as he has three minions but fail to oust him, or beat
your predator silly on consecutive turns, every player will be looking
at you as a threat to their game. When you block your predator, you
don't have to cycle every available combat card you have. Consider
the game balance, and your position in it - that is, your ability to
survive your predator's strategy while defeating your prey's. While
obliterating minions Tasmanian Devil-style is fun and has its own level
of rewards, you might find yourself with a hand full of the wrong cards
afterward. Often, leaving your predator's vampires low on blood or
forced to hunt is sufficient. Save the good stuff for your prey.
5. You have to be able to untap. Taking minion actions is even more
important with a combat build, as the majority of your cards will only
move on your turn. You probably won't be rushing with every action
until you are ready to oust, but you will likely have hunting or
gearing up to do until you reach that point. Reaction cards will
hopefully flow into your hand while you finish equipping or fighting,
but the high number of combat cards in the deck means reactions are few
and farther between. When your hand dictates it, you might have to
leave a vampire untapped simply because you can't risk combat, and
hope that the threat of being able to block is enough to prevent you
from having to. Most of the time, if things are going well, you will
want to take as many minion actions as you can every turn. It is
important to be able to untap, either during your minion phase or with
reaction cards. Black Sunrise offers Assamites (any vampire with
Quietus, actually) an excellent means by which to untap when an action
is announced. Even if you know you can't block it due to inherent
stealth, your vampire will be left untapped after the block attempt
fails, ready to block those free directed actions your predator thought
he was going to be able to take, or to play reaction cards on
subsequent actions. Untapping a vampire outside of the untap phase is
key to maximizing their effectiveness. Not paying proper attention to
this aspect of your build could have you watching the end of the game
from the sidelines.
Bring it on
You have three or four Assamites in play. You've managed to get some
permanents on the table, and have a pretty good idea what your
opponents are playing. You've convinced your predator of the folly of
incurring your wrath, and your prey has had to push pool back to his
minions with his Blood Dolls instead of using them to bloat, thanks to
you. Time to make your move? Consider the following:
1. Do the math. What is it going to take to knock your prey out of the
game? Can you do it this turn? If you have Tension in the Ranks and a
Fame in play (for example), how much pool damage can you do? One trip
to torpor for the famous vampire would cost your prey five pool by the
time his untap phase comes around. If you can rescue and dunk the same
vampire for a second trip to torpor, you increase the damage to nine
pool. Add Dragonbound, and you can do ten pool damage with three minion
actions. Are there any weenies you can torporize for pool damage? Is he
likely to be able to block? While lunging in this manner is preferred,
it will probably take you two or more turns of concentrated effort to
get your oust, even if your prey has fewer than ten pool. Remember -
he knows it's coming. During this time, your grandprey will likely
enjoy a reprieve from any pressure that your prey was putting on him.
As he is your next prey, it is important to keep the pressure up until
you get the oust. Khabar: Glory can be very useful here, because if
your prey is ousted on his turn due to Tension in the Ranks or
Dragonbound, you will get your bonus Pool.
2. You will have to survive your predator's response. When you go
all-out on your prey, your predator will respond, especially if you
don't get the oust. Be prepared to suffer some pool damage,
regardless. If you get lucky enough to cycle into some reaction cards,
all the better. When you make your move, though, your hand should be
set up for combat. If you are within striking distance of being ousted
yourself, you must decide if it's better to take the plunge, or try
to improve your position. However, giving your prey time to draw into a
Giant's Blood or Minion Tap (or both) could just as easily end your
game.
3. Stay focused. If you absolutely ruin your prey by putting all of his
minions in torpor but don't oust him, you give the rest of the table
a chance to decide your fate. They can agree to burn the famous vampire
and hinder your ability to do pool damage to your prey. They can agree
to steal your locations, sink you with referendums, or choose you as
the target of all bounced bleeds. If your prey has enough pool to
survive a round of your bleed actions, or can pull pool off of
uncontrolled vampires, etc, you might end up sitting at a side table
telling the event host how close you came to getting a VP. You don't
get extra VPs for burning or knocking all of his vampires into torpor,
either. If possible, use one of his vampires as a punching bag and try
to maintain the appearance that the poor sod still has a fighting
chance in the grand scheme of things right up until you can oust him.
This is where a little stealth can go a long way. When you are moving
in for that re-dunk on world-renowned spelunker* Isabel DeLeon, getting
past the desperation blocker could make all the difference. Swallowed
by the Night is one of the most versatile Obfuscate cards for clan
Assamite for this very reason. I also find Cloak the Gathering to be
useful in crypts where not every vampire has Obfuscate.
Ok, now what?
After you get your first prey ousted, you can go to work on your next
prey in much the same manner. Hopefully, you still have about half of
your library and you survived the table response to your push with your
minions mostly intact and your pool somewhere around ten. The
difference now is that you can be less patient. That's not to say you
should throw caution to the wind, but at this point in the game
vampires are generally low on blood, and players will be working to get
their own VP before they are ousted themselves. You should be wary of
your grandpredator getting an oust, as this will give him some
momentum. While you would ideally like to systematically eliminate each
methuselah's star vampire and then proceed to mop them up in sequence
for the sweep, most of the time you will have to look at trying to get
one more oust if you can, and then surviving the heads-up duel. Your
advantage will be that as resources dwindle and keeping vampires in
play becomes more and more important, your ability to survive, and even
thrive, in combat will ultimately give you more freedom to act and
block.
Of course, stories of your deck's combat prowess and how it ruins any
chance anyone else has of getting anything accomplished will have
traveled throughout the room, and your situation in round two will be
that much more difficult. A majority of players, in my experience,
would much rather be ousted with minions in play. Getting burned on an
action or referendum is less humiliating than just sitting there,
unable to play any cards, while some jerk is repeatedly taking
advantage of your lack of combat cards. The player who transfers out of
a game is indeed more frustrated than the player who bemoans his lack
of a Wake With Evening's Freshness as the reason for being ousted.
Players would rather play than sit and watch their game end. If you
make it to the finals, be prepared to experience a significant level of
that wonderfully intangible "table hate."
As you can see, playing a dedicated combat deck is far trickier than it
might seem. I have found that it truly tests a player's overall V:TES
skills, and can be the most rewarding style to play when you are able
to do it well. It will not always go well for you, that I promise.
Arika WILL Kiss of Ra you, Brujah WILL punch you for 8, aggravated
damage WILL send your star Assamite to torpor, and stealth bleed WILL
oust you by turn seven. It is important to remember that you have
chosen what is still the most difficult path to victory, and to
maintain the right attitude toward it. Once you develop the proper
patience to allow you to assess a table, find the right balance between
offense and defense, and learn to recognize when to make your push for
the VPs, all you really need at that point, come to think of it, is
Kali's Fang and a bunch of Blurs.
Deck Name: No-nonsense Assamite Combat
Author : Tom Duncan
Description :
+1 str and weapon Assamite combat with a little defensive help from
Auspex.
Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 2 max: 9 average: 6.17
------------------------------------------------------------
2x Tegyrius, Vizier 9 AUS CEL FOR QUI pre Assamite:2
2x Tegyrius, Vizier Adv 9 AUS CEL FOR PRE QUI Assamite:2
2x Parnassus 7 CEL QUI aus tha Assamite:2
2x Yusuf, Scribe of A 5 CEL aus obf qui Assamite:2
1x Abd al-Rashid 5 CEL QUI obf Assamite:2
1x Parmenides 4 CEL qui Assamite:2
1x Harika Guljan 3 QUI Assamite:2
1x Kanya Akhtar 2 cel Assamite:2
Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Action [11]
2x Ambush
4x Clandestine Contract
1x Harass
2x Nose of the Hound
2x Truth of Blood
Action Modifier/Reaction [3]
3x Provision of the Silsila
Combat [43]
8x Blur
5x Concealed Weapon
5x Psyche!
5x Side Strike
5x Sideslip
8x Taste of Vitae
4x Thin Blood
3x Weighted Walking Stick
Equipment [7]
1x Meat Cleaver
2x Meat Hook
2x Poker
1x Kali's Fang
1x Sport Bike
Master [12]
1x Auspex
2x Contract
2x Fame
1x Market Square
4x Minion Tap
1x Tension in the Ranks
1x Yoruba Shrine
Reaction [14]
4x Black Sunrise
2x Forced Awakening
2x Precognition
5x Quicken Sight
1x Telepathic Misdirection
Find everything you need to know about playing Assamites at
www.thepathofblood.com!
Comments, Suggestions, and Submissions should be sent to:
veknpontiac@yahoo.com
Special thanks to John Eno, Official Assamite Newsletter Editor.
*Appendix:
Shenanigan
Pronunciation: sh&-'na-ni-g&n
Function: noun
1 : a devious trick used especially for an underhand purpose
2 a : tricky or questionable practices or conduct -- usually used in
plural b : high-spirited or mischievous activity -- usually used in
plural
what for - Informal
A scolding or strong reprimand: The teacher gave the tardy student what
for.
Spelunker:
Pronunciation: spi-'l&[ng]-k&r,
Function: noun
: one who makes a hobby of exploring and studying caves