Assamite Clan Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 8 (June 2001) Written by Todd Banister Review of Recent Events: With the release of the expansion Final Nights on June 11th, the seemingly eternal wait for the new Children of Haqim has finally come to an end. Simply put, I cannot tell you how excited and proud I am of this set. I truly believe that the Final Nights is hands down the best expansion for Vampire so far and will elevate each of the independent clans up to a viable tournament level. Many thanks go out to everyone that had a hand in creating such an excellent product. Contained within the Final Nights are 14 new assassins, 5 Assamite clan-specific cards, 11 Quietus cards and a host of other items that we will soon put to good use. With so many new weapons, the hardest part for me is choosing what to start playing with first! My first few decks with the new cards turned out to be completely unfocused as I was adding in way too many of the new cards just to try them out. In order to create a little focus for everyone, I have decided not to spill all of my secrets at once and add a new section of the newsletter dedicated to reviewing a few new cards from Final Nights. This way, you have a chance to discover the new Assamites and their strategies on your own and I have ammo for a lot of newsletters in the future. Final Night's Highlights for June: Some of the new cards introduced in the Assamite Preconstructed deck. Note - Changes to existing Assamite related cards in the Assamite Preconstructed deck: Kali's Fang: The card text on Kali's Fang has been changed from 2 aggravated damage each strike to strength +1 aggravated damage each strike. This allows the assassins with +1 strength (or anyone using a Lucky Blow) to strike for 3 aggravated damage instead of just 2. This should lead to a few more crispy vampires lying in people's ash heaps. Alamut: A slight text change on this card has altered who can gain the support of Alamut. Previously, you could give one of your minions (Terrorists anyone?) the votes from Alamut - now you must chose one of your vampires. This change has minimal impact to the usefulness of the card. Here is a list of some of the new Assamite and Quietus cards that are in the preconstructed deck: Dagon's Call: Combat, Quietus, 1 Blood (Inferior) Strike: make a hand strike (at strength damage) and the opposing minion takes 1 unpreventable damage during the press step each round of combat. A vampire may only play one Dagon's Call each combat. (Superior) As above, and this hand strike does Strength +1 damage. Thin Blood: Combat, Quietus, 1 Blood (Inferior) Only usable at close range before strikes are chosen. The opposing vampire burns 1 blood. A vampire may play only one Thin Blood each round of combat. (Superior) As above, but the opposing vampire burns 2 blood. Parmenides: 4 capacity (CEL qui). Independent. When you move Parmenides form your uncontrolled region to your ready region, your predator takes control of Parmenides until your next untap phase. +1 Strength. (Blood Cursed) Fatima al-Faqadi: 8 capacity (CEL OBF QUI aus for). Independent. Once per combat, before range is determined, Fatima may equip with a weapon card from your hand. Pay the cost to equip as normal. (Blood Cursed) Comments: One of the banes of the Assamites used to be if they were forced to fight at close range since Quietus' strength lies in its powerful long-range strikes. Oh my - how times have changed. Thin Blood resembles Thaumaturgy's Blood to Water in effect but can be played during the first round of combat which is an extremely important distinction. With this card, the Assamites now have a way to burn blood off of a vampire before they have a chance to play any S:CE effect. Not only does Thin Blood cause problems to those vampires that try to avoid combat, but it also can wreak serious havoc against anyone wishing to fight back against the assassins. How so? It can cause havoc by suddenly changing the amount of blood that the opposing vampire thought they could use to play cards against the Assamite. Imagine the surprise on someone's face when they suddenly realize that they no longer have enough blood to play the Pushing the Limit in their hands, or an Entombment, or even a Skin of Steel in order to avoid damage from your Kali's Fang strike. What a pity. Dagon's Call is a nice hand strike that can continue to punish the opposing minion at a rate of 1 unpreventable damage per round of combat. With the use of Dagon's Call, the various Assamites with +1 strength can inflict 4 points of damage - enough to bring down a lot of minions. If you include a Depravity and a Thin Blood with these +1 strength monsters, the opposing vampire could lose as much as 7 blood from just one close range strike. That 's going to bring down most vampires and give you a lot of blood that is just begging to be tasted back. And maybe the best thing about Dagon's Call - you can still play it after you have been Immortally Grappled. One more point that needs to be discussed with Thin Blood and Dagon's Call is their use with Psyche. In my previous newsletter, I mentioned that there is almost no reason to ever play the Psyche at inferior as a press to continue. Dagon's Call has definitely changed this, as the press will continue to deal damage from the earlier strike. Also, Psyche now lets you to play a Thin Blood, allow the opposing vampire to play a S:CE, restart combat and play another Thin Blood thus burning 4 blood without even striking. Not bad at all. Obviously, the use of Psyche has become more important to the success of Assamites in combat. Parmenides is a wonderful new low-capacity monster for the Children of Haqim. With superior Celerity, inferior Quietus and +1 strength, he is capable of delivering some serious damage in combat. While being overpowered for a 4 capacity vampire, Parmenides comes with a pretty stiff drawback - you must give him to your predator until your next untap phase when you influence him out. What nasties will your predator do to Parmenides while he has control of him? The most common action that your predator will perform with Parmenides is to simply bleed you while he has control of him. Lacking any disciplines with bleed modifiers, Parmenides will more than likely be bleeding you for one at zero stealth (unless they surprise you and play an Alacrity). Even if you chose not to block, you have basically paid 5 pool for him and still should be able to get your investment out of him over the course of the game. If you choose to block him and thus save your pool, combat should be fairly harmless as long as you either maneuver to long range or play a dodge to avoid his +1 damage hand strike. If on the off chance that your predator is playing a deck that is packing Celerity as well, take the 1 pool loss and keep both your minions healthy. Another nasty thing that your predator will try to use him for is to commit diablerie (if you have previously played a Tajdid thus lifting the Blood Curse) and get him burned in the ensuing blood hunt. In order to minimize this risk to Parmenides, make sure you influence him quickly in the game before such tasty targets start hanging out in torpor or simply hang onto the Tajdid until you regain control of him. Fatima al-Faqadi, the Assamite signature character from the Clan Novel series, is tied with Husamettin at 8 capacity as the lowest vampire within the clan with all three in-clan disciplines at superior. Besides her three in-clan superior disciplines, Fatima also includes inferior Auspex, Fortitude and a built in special ability which acts like a Disguised Weapon. Fatima's out-of-clan disciplines are very welcome as Parnassus now has a partner to combine his Auspex with and any assassin that can prevent damage is always a good thing (depending upon which side of combat you are on). Fatima's special ability is also very useful in that she will not have to take actions in order to equip with weapons as long as she can get herself into combat. Not only can she save equip actions for herself, she can become the weapons liaison for the entire clan by using multiple Psyches after equipping via her special ability each combat and then performing a Rave action to distribute the goods to your other ready vampires. This will save you either a lot of equip actions that could potentially be blocked or save several card slots in your library which would normally go for Disguised Weapons and Obfuscate skill cards. Either way, this will lead to greater efficiency, something that is critical to the success of the clan. June's Deck Idea Clinic: Playing with the new toys The Crypt: Fatima al-Faqadi (8) CEL OBF QUI aus Fatima al-Faqadi (8) CEL OBF QUI aus Parnassus (7) CEL QUI tha aus Parnassus (7) CEL QUI tha aus Yusuf (5) CEL aus qui obf Abd al-Rashid (5) CEL QUI obf Abd al-Rashid (5) CEL QUI obf Parmenides (4) CEL qui Parmenides (4) CEL qui Dorian Strack (4) AUS cel Colin Flynn (3) aus cel Zoë (3) AUS cel obf Total Capacity of Crypt: 63 Average Vamp Size: 5.25 AUS - 8 (6 at inferior and 2 at superior) CEL - 12 (3 at inferior and 9 at superior) OBF - 5 (3 at inferior and 2 at superior) QUI - 9 (3 at inferior and 6 at superior) The Library: (84) Masters (16) 2x Auspex 5x Blood Doll 2x Fame 1x Guardian Angel 1x Giant's Blood 1x Market Square 2x Path of Blood 1x Powerbase: Montreal 1x Quietus Actions (9) 1x Bum's Rush 2x Ambush 4x Computer Hacks 1x J.S. Simmons 1x Tasha Morgan Action Modifiers (3) 2x Cloak the Gathering 1x Mask of a Thousand Faces Combat (35) 2x Acrobatics 4x Dagon's Call 2x Flash 1x Lucky Blow 6x Psyche 4x Pursuit 2x Side Strike 5x Taste of Death 4x Taste of Vitae 5x Thin Blood Equipment (7) 1x .44 Magnum 1x IR Goggle 1x Ivory Bow 1x Kali's Fang 2x Laptop Computer 1x Sport's Bike Reactions (14) 2x Enhanced Senses 6x Forced Awakening 1x Foul Blood 1x Melange 1x Precognition 2x Telepathic Misdirection 1x Wake with Evening's Freshness Deck Comments: Since so many new players might be playing with the Assamites due to the Final Nights for the first time (or if they haven't played with them in a long time), I wanted to give them a fairly standard Auspex Assamite deck built to play with some of the new toys that were released in the preconstructed deck. This deck has several nice combos in it that just might cause some trouble for the other players. Try to use the Thin Bloods and Dagon's Calls in combination with multiple Psyches in order to quickly reduce your opponent's blood resources. After depleting their vamps precious life force, try and catch them while they are hunting (hopefully when empty) and attempt to burn them with the Kali's Fang or a well-timed Taste of Death. One thing to remember with this deck, you must be moving forward against your prey at all times. It does not bleed for more than a few pool at a time so attempt to whittle away at their supply. Also, try to make sure that you have one vampire out that has superior Auspex in order to pass along the big bleed that would ruin your day. Coming in next newsletter: In just a couple short weeks, I will discuss a few more of the new cards that were introduced in Final Nights as well as talk about ways to manipulate the blood levels of your opponents. Ahh. all of these new cards and ideas. this is a good time indeed for all. as long as you are not on the wrong end of the sword. Pray that you do not learn this first hand. Todd Banister Prince of Atlanta Scribe of the Assamites Please send all comments and stories using the Assamites to: vtesratings@white-wolf.com