Assamite Clan newsletter. Volume 4, Issue 3 (March 2004) Written by Otto Koskinen ========================= Yo, once more. Things have happened. Decks have been played. Blood has been spilled. Needless to say, we move on. ---------------------------------------- SORCERORS OF ALAMUT - Thaumaturgy and Assamites. As wel all know, us Assamites have castes within our hierarchy, of which there are three. Warriors, led by the brave Thetmes. Viziers, of whom Tegyrius was/is the leader of. Sorcerors, whom are ruled by Ur-shulgi, breaker of the Curse. Thaumaturgy, a discipline of the hated Tremere, is mastered by many members of the clan. But as opposed to the Tremere, Assamites as a Clan have a distinct advantage over them. Celerity. We are fast, and we know it. We know how to use it as well, dont we? Theft of Vitae, the trademark of thaumaturgy combat, is a great card, even played alone. But what if you play two of them, or even three in one round, leaving the opposing vampire bereft of their precious vitae, and us bloated like the fat bastard come christmas time? Thaumaturgy has something in common with our deadly blood-magic, Quietus, in another aspect as well.It is very hard to soak - to prevent - the damage done by either discipline. Blood Fury, and it's "inferior" version, Blood Rage, both not only prevent the opposing vampire from striking damage with a weapon, but also from soaking with fortitude, the common bane of many combat decks. Our clan, so far, has a good number of thaumaturgists availabe. Ur-shulgi. Al-Ashrad. Qadir. Parnassus. Zahir, Hand of the Silsila. Kalinda. All of them share the in-clan celerity, and either superior or inferior thaumaturgy. We will come back to the vampires in detail soon. Now, only two of our clan members in the CCG have superior thaumaturgy. Whether this is a good or bad thing, I'll leave it up to you. Here, though, are some facts to consider while making up your mind. Most thaumaturgy cards and strikes do not have distinct difference between their inferior and superior effect. Seeds of Corruption. Does the trick even when played inferior, although to a lesser extent. Theft of Vitae, also works as seeds. To a lesser extent. Blood Rage, Blood Fury, Walk of Flame. The ONLY cards which have some real difference between inferior and superior, are: Rutor's Hand. Weather Control. Perfect Clarity. Movement of the Mind. Apportation. Of these cards, Apporation and Movement of the Mind are better when replaced with Flash. Rutor's hand is perhaps the single best card among these that having superior over inferior would have any *critical* difference. Of course, having superior is, well.. better. But, to return to the Clan issues at hand. We have two "teams", if you want to call them that. The "high caps" and "junior team" High caps have Ur-shulgi, Qadir, and Al-Ashrad. Juniors pack Parnassus, Kalinda, and Zahir. The junior team with their inferior thaumaturgy will certainly get the job done, but might need a few more cards to get there. But at a cheaper prize. The elders pack superior thaumaturgy, except Qadir, and thus are able to play with less combat, and more other things. The main differences on the two teams, in my opinion, is not the superior thaumaturgy, or the lack of it. Junior team is faster, but cant get the bang for their buck with thaumaturgy. And they lack bleed. The whole elder team packs +1 bleed. Each and every one of them. This is huge, when you consider the tightness of decks. That +1 bleed is a Rutor's hand instead of Laptop. Tap+Contract+Provisions over J.S Simmons. I present the "Junior" team here, one that I've been lately playing. ---------------------------------------- DECK OF THE MONTH Deck Name: Assamite Apprentices. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 10, Max: 27, Avg: 5,08) ---------------------------------------------- 2 Kalinda CEL OBF tha 6, Assamite:2 3 Zahir CEL OBF qui tha 6, Assamite:2 3 Parnassus aus CEL QUI tha 7, Assamite:2 1 Marciana Giovanni dom 2, Giovanni:2 1 Brooke dom tha 3, Tremere Antitribu:2 1 Ehrich Weiss dom tha 3, Tremere:3 1 Samson dom 2, Ventrue Antitribu:2 Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (16 cards) 6 Blood Doll 2 Contract 1 Depravity 1 Fame 5 Thaumaturgy 1 Underworld Hunting Ground Action (12 cards) 4 Clandestine Contract 2 Khabar: Loyalty 3 Rutor's Hand 3 Seeds of Corruption Action Modifier (5 cards) 5 Cloak the Gathering Reaction (7 cards) 7 Deflection Combat (41 cards) 7 Blood Fury 3 Blur 4 Flash 4 Infernal Pursuit 7 Psyche! 5 Pursuit 2 Sideslip 1 Taste of Death 3 Taste of Vitae 5 Theft of Vitae Retainer (2 cards) 1 J. S. Simmons, Esq. 1 Tasha Morgan Equipment (4 cards) 4 Laptop Computer Combo (3 cards) 3 Provision of the Silsila It has dom weenies bolted in, with a flash of thaumaturgy on them. Just for the bounce, and the occasional weenie job to be done. This one has worked fairly well, nearly always snatching at least one VP without too much of a hassle, so far. Personally, I like it. I'd **LOVE** to hear from people about their musings on THA CEL. See my contacts at the end of this Newsletter. ---------------------------------------- LONG RANGE COMBAT - The quietus trademark. A dangerous distraction? In the last issue, I scratched the surface of long range combat (abbreviated LrC) with qui, on the brief analysis on "Gemini's Mirror" card. The LrC route is very card intensive, to say the least. To go the "traditional" route, you end up playing from two to four cards, just to set yourself up. Maneuver to long, dodge, additional strike, and the the actual strike. And three of these are played before the opposing minions strike. Sure, you could skip the dodge, and just wave, not many pack R damage aplenty, barring the occasional Tremere. Is it worth it? Well. Three damage, which cannot be prevent by any means is nothing to sneeze at, and neither is 2R aggravated. But is the set-up really worth it? I dont know, and right now, I intend to make a pass at analyzing it. So. LrC has too many moving parts as is, for it to be viable enough. What can be done to remedy this situation, then? First off, I'd remove the dodge part from the equation, with a method which not only doesnt require dodges (or at least not as many), but also works for the bigger plan, ousting your prey and staying alive. Oh yes, I'm talking about blocking. Quicken sight, when combined with the good number of auspex the Clan has at it's disposal, is a great card.Sadly, there are no vampires beyond Tegyrius who can utilize the full potential of this card, but we will let that lie for now. So, instead of packing 8 dodges, we pack 20 reaction cards, in order to block and skip the need for dodges.Now, 8 minus 20 doesnt add up, does it now, but Quicken sight, and Spirit's touch (Superior) both also provide the maneuver. So we can skimp on the number of maneuvers as well, can we not? Meaby so, but some are still needed. Is the trade of dodges for blocking worth it, comes to my mind. I consider " yes" for blocking can be very crucial. That superior govern, a Rutor's hand there.. both are actions usually screaming to get blocked, at one point or another. Well, why not do it, then? I have to admit now, that I'm not well versed in the world of blocking, mostly playing aggressive, fast forward type of decks, instead of the humble wall deck. Or something on those lines. Anyhow, I'm a bit off-track now. So, maneuvers are the lifeline of LrC with Quietus. Therefore, those need to be packed a plenty, dont they? But what ho, can you not use permanent maneuvers instead? They do take an action to equip, but if youre going the wake/block route, does it matter? Let us muse that you dont, for now, though. What options are there? IR Goggles, Jackie Therman, Ruins of Villers Abbey, Belgium, and guns. Guns, guns guns.. So, to skimp on the maneuvers, I'd personally choose the IR goggles route. But the damn equip action can be a pain unless you run the wake/block deck. As we assumed, you do not. So, that would put my mind on Vast Wealth/Pier 13 options. Vast Wealth, not being unique, can be slapped on each and every one of your minions. Vast wealth, when combined with Pier 13 and Infernal Pursuit's can easily deplete the equipment from your library. After that, it is only a matter of plucking the goggles from the happy little dealer.Ray-Ban's for everyone, get yours now. Ahem, hah. This route also takes it's time. Minion, Vast wealth, scoop up the goggles/Pier and then another turn. Lots of setting up, for a combat deck, but alas. The moving parts. Meaby I'm adding too many, while trying to cut down on them. Who can say. I still consider permanent manuevers and intercept to be the "way to go". Prove me wrong. ---------------------------------------- Well, that's it for now. Comments: Oko@city.fi Until next month.. -Oko ----------------------------------------