Assamite Clan newsletter. Volume 4, Issue 5 (May 2004) Written by Otto Koskinen ========================= The sun is setting, and activity from the more daylight sensitive tenants of Alamut are rising. Dust is settling in the last beams of sunlight on the hallways.. From somewhere deep in the bowels of the mighty fortress, a strong "Yo!" is hollered. Yo! ECQ is behind, and Assamites didnt win. Rats. ---------------------------------------- ASSAMITES AS A POLITICAL INFLUENCE Man is by nature a political animal. -Aristotle The Clan has five different vampires with Presence. Six, if you count in Advanced Tegyrius. Two of us have it at superior, Tegyrius Advanced, and Aziz The one is Camarilla, and has an option for the title. The other is just plain mean. This alone, simply isn't enough for reliable voting. But what is reliable, on the other hand, and does it really need to be a heavy politics deck when it comes from the Clan? Doesnt the old fashioned Assamite politics suffice, slice & dice? Why not mix? Free States Rant, when combined with Presence is *quite* easy to make pass, when other people's votes are being nerfed around the table, you have Obfuscate to stealth your bleeds through for the Edge. Make it go through under Charming lobby, so that you dont need to sweat on the next Rant. Aziz with Lobby+Bewitching+Edge is a hefty 10 votes for the vote, and 1 vote less from everyone on the table. Not too shabby, eh? Best part being, while they burn, you gain via Voter Captivation. Once you've ranted, you can send in, say Minion Tapped Bajazet via Clandestine, and have a little fun with the now blood deprived vampire, just waiting for the last Thin-Blood to empty them. After that, it's most times easy enough to slap the poor sod into torpor, and collect your trophee from the Silsila. Next turn, rinse & repeat. All right, but the clan suffers from a lack of permanent votes. What to do about it? Well, if you consider the Presence vampires we currently have on our roster, Melek and Bajazet are both prime candidates for a Cardinal Benediction, which disallows roughly half of the the votes of the game, but leaves room for push, can be done under Lobby, and Aziz helps here with his votes, since a little thing many people overlook is, that the vote only excludes *Camarilla* votes. So, the module would be (in an 80 card deck) 4x Into the Fire (which is a trifle, so somewhat cycleable) and 3 Cardinal Benediction. Basically, in a 5 player table some of the table votes you can count on being on either your prey or predator, both of whom are suspectible to being removed by contracts. If they aint in your triangle, it's time to start talking, and making (and eventually, breaking in some cases) deals. Of course votes can do a lot else besides just burn blood from your opponent. They can also go directly for the pool. And one should not forget the bleed power of pure Presence, either. All options are open with this setup. One of my personal favourites is using Majesty for a multi-rush'ish purposes. Close, Thin-blood, hands, Pursuit, Majesty untap, rush again via Clandestine. Or bleed. Or whatever you feel like doing at the time. Ball is yours. ---------------------------------------- SHORT CHAIN COMBAT - Of permanents and specials Lately I've been toying around with a concept that got labeled as "Short Chain Combat" (abbr. SCC, idea from David Cherryholmes) which is based on doing as much damage as possible by playing 2 or less cards, and still going through at least one of the common combat defense's. a) Dodge b) Strike: Combat ends c) Hitback d) Prevention So, the aim is to do at least 3+ or 1 aggravated which goes through at least one, preferably more of these. So, how to get there? The first and obvious choice for the Clan is - once again - Parnassus, with his +1 STR and Thaumaturgy. Close, hands with Blood Fury for 3 which cannot be soaked via Fortitude. Simple, effective, and took only one card. Add in Thaumaturgy skill card, and the damage is 4, and this is not counting additional strikes. Thetmes with Immortal Grapple, striking hands. 1 aggro which takes care of S:CE and Dodge. Add in Shadow Feint or Silence of Death for First strike, and you've taken care of the hitback as well, unless they can soak the aggravated. 2 cards, and you still havent played your strike card, say Khabar: Honor? So, beyond being concentrated on foiling one of the common combat defenses, what good does SCC bring with it, for the common deck? First off, it eliminates poor combat's from the deck. Since you're playing only 1-3 cards each strike/combat, you dont have to have the best hand possible when you hit combat. What this relates directly to is, that you need not spend 50 card slots in each deck for your combat. With this thinking in mind, you can still be effective, yet play as little as 30 cards of combat, which leaves space for much needed "other things to do". Like, bleeding, for instance. The major point of the SCC is *not* to create the be all end all combat deck, but merely to help in crafting a deck which can reliably enough hit people to torpor/burn and thus leave power to oust. To clarify, anyone can build a deck which is made to do something in specific, say blocking, rushing. But if it aint bleeding, voting, or any other direct pool damage you're concentrating on, like combat happens to not be (directly), you are going to have a hard time ousting your prey. Keep your focus (combat) but also keep your eye on the ball (oust). Now, this is a very broad concept, which can be applied on just about any clan, but I feel that us Assamites have an edge here, with what is *in my opinion* propably the best Quietus combat card, at the moment. Thin Blood. Thin Blood satisfies *all* 4 objectives of SCC. 3 Blur 2 Preternatural Evasion 6 Psyche1 6 Pursuit 2 Side Strike 2 Sideslip 3 Taste of Death 6 Thin Blood This here is for the CEL/+1 STR deck. 9 maneuvers, 11 additionals, 3 aggropokes for the gun decks, Thin Blood+Psyche for the S:CE\par Combat defense as 6 dodge's, 2 which double up as additional, 2 as prevention, and 2 as S:CE as the "panic button". All except the panic buttons easily cycleable. Common combat runs around Thin+2+2 for 6 damage, of which 2 is completely unpreventable. All in 30 cards. Now that the basic has been deal with, on to the more "advanced" part. Creating SCC. How does one "create" SCC, then? First off, special abilities go a long way. Take Fatima al-Faqadi, for the first and obvious example. Her ability allows her to play 0 card combat which ends up doing 4 points of damage, negating hitback in most cases. Grab Assault rifle, maneuver away and gun the sod. Add cards into the equation, say Pursuit and Psyche! and you're most propably trumping dodge, prevention, and S:CE. Permanents help here, and specials can go a long way. Fatima is a prime example of them both. As an out of Clan, there is Jacko. Brujah Antitribu. Now, once Jacko hits the table, you play Depravity on him and equip Sword of Judgement. For 11 pool, you now have a vampire who can in any combat, without playing a single cards strike for 9. Joaquin Murietta with a gun. Pre-range grap a .44 Magnum from your pocket, and zoom! 6 damage, with the same options as Fatima at your disposal.\par Tariq and Rowan ring+Amaranth. Henry Taylor with Eye of Hazimel, striking Pushing the limits made aggro under Immortal Grapple for 5 aggravated, taking one of the 3 cards back. Heck, any Nosferatu with Patagia, High ground and a disguised Flamethrower. 2 agg, from long, no way to prevent it. Look at a special. Pick a vampire who might have synergy either due to her disciplines or specials. Work with them. Go to town. And afterwards, bleed for 6. ---------------------------------------- DECK OF THE MONTH Assamite voters with combat. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 30, Max: 40, Avg: 8,75) ---------------------------------------------- 4 Aziz CEL OBF PRE QUI ser 10, Assamite:2, 2 votes 1 Tegyrius AUS CEL FOR pre QUI 9, Assamite:2 2 Tegyrius AUS CEL FOR PRE QUI 9, Assamite:2, Justicar 2 Melek cel OBF pre QUI 7, Assamite:2 3 Bajazet al-Nasir cel for OBF pre QUI 8, Assamite:2 Library: (80 cards) ------------------- Master (18 cards) 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Information Highway 4 Into the Fire 5 Minion Tap 1 Presence 1 Storage Annex 5 Zillah`s Valley Action (8 cards) 2 Charming Lobby 4 Clandestine Contract 2 Enchant Kindred Action Modifier (15 cards) 4 Bewitching Oration 2 Cloak the Gathering 4 Forgotten Labyrinth 1 Voter Captivation Political Action (18 cards) 3 Cardinal Benediction 4 Conservative Agitation 2 Dramatic Upheaval 4 Free States Rant 5 Kine Resources Contested Combat (17 cards) 4 Infernal Pursuit 7 Majesty 6 Thin Blood Equipment (2 cards) 1 Laptop Computer 1 .44 Magnum Combo (2 cards) 2 Provision of the Silsila This is a loose concept where a small attept to meld the two concepts of this months letter has been done. Combat is Thin Blood+Majesty to bug those who block/rush you. Contracts are to remove some unwanted elements from the table with a surgical strike from either Aziz or Bajazet, via Thin Blood+Hands 2 or Hands for aggravated. Loosely and easily moved to a more combat'ish direction. Combine with Minion Tap for create the Contract/Provision bloat from a weenie nerd. Bajazet and Melek go Into the Fire, and get themselves to be Cardinals with the help from Aziz's votes (which can be used, remember) and vote pushing cards, like Bewitching and Charming Lobby. ---------------------------------------- PATH OF BLOOD Have you heard of it? No, I am not talking about the card anymore. The Path of Blood is the best on-line site dealing with Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. As the name implies, it deals mainly with the Clan, but lots of other topics are hollered in the halls of Alamut. The site is maintained by Todd Banister, a man who is responsible for a lot in the Assamite fetish people have. If you are interested more closely in Assamites, visit the site at: http://www.thepathofblood.com/ ---------------------------------------- Next month, Gehenna for the Clan Oko@city.fi ----------------------------------------