Introduction: Okay, so much for promises... No bizarre all-Justicar deck as promised in the last newsletter, instead I want to discuss yet another variety of Brujah combat. Which should be welcome, I recon, because at the end of the day I want you to talk about cool ideas for Brujah decks and not about a display of delusions of grandeur (translate: obvious craziness) from my side. But still, the next issue will go into less obvious schemes... On a side note: Thanks alot to Wes for his effort to introduce us all to the Bloodlines proposed for the expansion following Final Nights in his March !Bru newsletter. I have to admit to know next to nothing about the World Of Darkness background of V:tES, so I recommend reading his description of the True Brujah, as I am not able to give you any insightful ideas about these guys before I see the actual cards. Damnans developed some possible minions for them, which you can check out at his amazing webpage at http://www.geocities.com/damnans/. Before I start writing about the Brujah, I would like to give you some of my thoughts on the recent discussions in this newsgroup about combat. Two things in particular caught my interest - first: Should combat and particularly rush combat be considered a strategy (as opposed to some auxiliary mechanism); and second: What status should combat have in the game? On the first question I can't offer a definite yes or no, but rather a question: What defines a strategy in V:tES? If you play the game without library, it all boils down to taking inherent actions. The only one that furthers your goal, i.e. ousting your prey, is the bleed action. Combat in this very simplified view is the result of getting blocked. The library itself, the cards that you select for your deck, give you the means to get an advantage in this situation, either as the acting or the reacting player. They introduce new ways of attacking pool (most notably votes, but also stuff like Anarch Revolt etc.), ways to avoid getting blocked (stealth) and ways to dominate or avoid the combats resulting from a block. A strategy in my book is basically trying to decide how you will make your basic actions (bleed for one per minion) good enough to win (and that could also mean that you don't bleed at all) and how to stay on top of the player who wants to oust you by doing the same stuff. In this sense rush combat is a strategy: If I bleed for one at zero stealth, I will get blocked, thus no pool loss for my prey. If I kill all blockers first, he can't block my basic bleed actions any more. Same goes for defence. As stated above this "basic view" on the game is very simplified, but then again a weenie swarm might actually be competitive without ever playing a single library card. Actually rush combat as a strategy in this sense is very close to weenie swarm bleed, and that leads me to the second point I want to make: Why some people don't like to play against a dedicated rush deck. To make rush combat competitive, you need to be extremely focused. You just kill, kill and kill some more. In this sense (but not in its general effectiveness) it is very similar to weenie bleed, and just as annoying. It simply doesn't care about the strategy its prey or predator is playing, so as either its prey or predator you are prepared or dead. On top of this it adds insult to injury: First it kills all your minions, thus depriving you of all means to play an active role in the game, then it ousts you slowly one pool per action. After being steamrolled by a dominate swarm, at least you can forget it and join some other game. After rush mayhem you have to remain at the table and die a painful death, all the while thinking: "Why on earth is this so-called strategy an integral part of the game?" Plus: Combat attacks the stuff you are really attached to - your minions. Pool is a rather abstract matter, whereas watching your beloved Carlotta Giovanni swatted against the wall like a stupid mosquito is positively disturbing. Note the slight hint of irony - with the enormous amount of combat cards in V:tES it is to be expected that these will be exploited to win the game. But outside tournament play I see a psychological argument against abusive deployment of rush decks: At the end of the night everybody should be happy, so if the theme of the evening is "casual play", keep one thing in mind: Although rush is not always a "killer strategy" in terms of effectiveness, it can kill the fun (and I'm not talking about table destabilisation or other tactical things - Peter Bakija and James Hamblin had all the arguments I would repeat here in the "I hope there are no S:CE hosers in Final Nights" thread). Then again it is the rock when scissors come up too often, casual game or not... Fiction: Any alert observer would have noted the most unusual movement of shadows in the staircase of Schillerstraße 17, but as it's the night of Germany playing against Albania in the World Championship qualifier round, nobody takes notice. Not even when the door on the third floor that is guarded by an official police seal is opened and a figure hidden inside a black trenchcoat enters smoothly. The neon signs from the sex shops outside cast an eerie light on the chaotic scene. Most of the furniture bears marks of violent abuse, and the police obviously saw no reason for excessive care while searching the apartment for evidence of murder, thus adding to the derelict state of the room. The air is thick with the smell of rot, dried blood, alcohol and old cigarette smoke. To the casual observer everything looks like the lair of some disturbed gothic and black metal freak: tattered posters on the wall, the stereo by far the most expensive item of furniture and the CD collection impressive, if somewhat eclectic. Nothing unexpected after the evening headlines in the local papers, and the figure stalks through the mayhem full of indifference. He's looking for something the police didn't find because they didn't know what to look for. A gloved hand opens the toilet door. More dirt, blood and posters: satanic rock stars, stills from splatter movies, torn-out articles from newspapers describing acts of senseless violence. The figure is about to back out when suddenly it freezes... "The Omen - Another Symptom Of The Apocalypse?" reads the italian headline over a picture that indeed almost looks like a still from the famous horror movie: A male corpse bent in agony, impaled by an iron gate that apparently dropped out of thin air. It's from the March 2nd issue of the 'L'opinione delle Libertà', and for those that know him the unhealthy looking being on the picture bears a striking resemblance to Vasilis of Clan Brujah. The guy who wrote the story obviously couldn't identify the victim that, as the article points out, actually must have been a dummy used in an underground horror movie. At least that was what his research came to: No victim, thus no murder, claimed the police, and further investigation lead to Mausoleum Productions, Venice, a hardly known production firm for, as the journalist explains in tones of moral outrage, fake snuff movies. The picture was taken by chance by a freelance photographer who stumbled on the macabre scene on his way back from a vernissage in the small town Castelina in Tuscany. The credit gives his name as Maurizio Ferro. "I wonder if he's still alive", murmurs the shadowy intruder and makes his way back out through the door. Italians are talkative people. No wonder that Gianfranco Lenzerini not only ignores the arcane Italian dialect of the man who identified himself as Ayrton Burns, an American scholar (and fervent advocate of the Moral Majority) interested in his piece on the Castelina snuff production, but readily gives away the mysterious details around Maurizio Ferro's snapshot. Of course the photographer is still alive, actually he's just enjoying a 4-week-holiday on the Maledives he won at some competition, and he really needs it too, states Lenzerini . Ferro was very unhappy with his analysis of the nightly events, he explains, and insisted in showing him some other pictures taken at the spot of the outrageous shooting. Grainy black-and-white shots showing missing sewer lids, a wet dark stain on the wall of "Da Giovanni", a nearby pizza joint, and a mysterious long-haired and leather-clad figure speeding away on his Moto Guzzi. Nothing extraordinary considering the lamentable state of the Italian youth and urban scavengers, Gianfranco explains, but Maurizio tormented him with obscure ideas about a "ghoulish conspiracy". Then after two days everything stopped, and now he's taking it easy in the tropical sun. Lucky guy, but without a doubt a well-meaning, honest and really concerned Italian patriot... Strategy: Brujah pitch (Frisbee decks) As I tried to show you in my last newsletter, the best combat skill combination you can get with Brujah is CEL/pot (superior Celerity and normal Potence for those not familiar with the more-or-less common abbreviations). As every skill Potence also offers some cards which are very good at the inferior level and only slightly better at superior. Namely: Thrown Gate and Thrown Sewer Lid (and Immortal Grapple, of course, but please indulge my pedagogic effort). The Gate offers a maneuver and 1R damage at inferior, which goes up to 2R at superior. The Sewer Lid gives 3 damage only at long range and an extra press at superior. "Pitch" or "Frisbee" decks (just imagine a well-timed Sewer Lid to know where the name comes from) try to exploit this by taking your Brujah to long range and loping loads of heavy metal on your opponent. One word of warning: Immortal Grapple, the card I discussed in the last issue, doesn't work here. Neither are you at close range, nor do you use hand strikes. That means that S:CE will be a big problem. As a result I won't recommend pitch as a general strategy for rush decks. Still it shines in Bruise & Bleed, if the metagame is right. Wait until everybody is packing classic rush combat to kill the majestic poseurs, then jump in with a pitch deck! Most focused rush decks, but also most poke decks (Gangrel or Tzimisce) will have a very hard time against dedicated long range combat. Your typical combo is Thrown Gate, Blur and 2 Thrown Sewer Lids for a total of 7 ranged damage. Add some bleed and watch the metagame shift away from generic combat strategies, because you will have the means to dominate them in combat and do some decent pool damage on the way. I guess Rob Treasure (author of the Clan Ventrue Newsletter and as it seems to me the undisputed master of table management and metagame judgements) could write many more insightful things about the metagame trick I'm suggesting here, but let me try to explain: Every deck has it's nemesis. Brujah pitch knows two, and they are quite common: S:CE on the side of non-combat decks, and Drawing Out The Beast for classic close-range combat decks. But I've seen it a few times by now - V:tES never comes to a stalemate, shifting deck strategies try to explore the weaknesses of the most common deck archetypes around at a certain point of time. With Sabbat War dominating (at least) local play lately, everything is pretty much combat-oriented, but hardly anyone thinks about ranged combat. Immortal Grapple rush decks have their second coming right now because against all the Tzimisce stuff that is so popular plain old S:CE wins the day. Pitch decks are by no means an everyday winner, but rightly timed they can guarantee a few sweeps (that's me talking from experience - guess why I postponed the Don Cruez-thingy to bring you this?). And there is also a psychological thing involved: Bruise & Bleed as well as pitch is not deemed a "winning strategy" by common sense, so the surprise is on your side. Trust me: There will be days when you know from the first round that you are screwed, but now and again you will have your moments of glory. Vampire of the month: Anvil 6, dom CEL POT pre tha, Primogen It's about time to put the focus on the original "broken vampire". Introduced in the original Jyhad, with CEL/POT, a title and very useful inferior disciplines, Anvil saw the light (err, darkness) in many decks, and not only Brujah ones. Although at 6 capacity he is a bit too expensive for all out rush decks, he finds his way into almost all other Brujah decks I build. A combat monster with a title and two bleed disciplines that work well at inferior is just too good to ignore. Card of the month: Psyche! Combat, Celerity Press. (S) Only usable at the end of a combat when both combatants are still ready. Combat starts again. This is considered an entirely new combat: weapons can contribute their maneuvers for a second time, and so forth. The second anti-S:CE card available to Brujah, Psyche! is by no means as effective as Immortal Grapple. Still, if you can't prohibit the playing of S:CE , you might as well try and run your opponent out of these cards. Psyche! allows this by initiating a new combat as soon as the first one ends, and it is less restrictive: If your combat is not centered around hand strikes, this card is your only option to make your combats count. An added advantage is that the combat is all new - so if your deck is not ready to fight at all costs, Psyche! helps to level the table after that Tzimisce guy dropped Carrion Crows, Drawing Out The Beast, Horrid Form and Caine knows what else and you just wanted to slap him with a honest Pushing The Limit... Deck: Gravity's Rainbow I originally designed this deck as a mostly-commons affair for new players. Thus it is pretty straightforward: Bleed, if blocked, use Thrown Gate, Blur and Thrown Sewer Lids to flatten your opponent. It has little defence, mostly in the form of the five Haven Uncovered so you can take out key vampires of your predator, coupled with some WWEF and casual intercept. Again it could use two copies of Jimmy Dunn instead of Radeyah and Rake, but in my local metagame the risk of (not) contesting him seemed to be too high. The vampire selection is a bit top heavy, but I always managed to get out four minions without dropping to dangerously low pool levels. Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 13, Max: 24, Avg: 4,67] 1 Anvil (dom CEL POT pre tha, Brujah, 6, Primogen) 1 Bianca (CEL pot pre, Brujah, 6) 1 Black Cat (CEL pot pre, Brujah, 5) 1 Dre (cel pot, Brujah, 3) 1 Evangeline (cel pot pre, Brujah Antitribu, 4) 1 Jacob Bragg (cel pot, Brujah Antitribu, 3) 1 Radeyah (CEL pot pre, Toreador, 6) 1 Rake (aus cel pot PRE, Brujah, 6, Prince) 1 Sela (cel obt POT PRE, Brujah Antitribu, 6, Bishop) 1 Uma Hatch (cel pre, Brujah, 3) 1 Victor Tolliver (CEL pot, Brujah Antitribu, 4) 1 Yuri (cel pot pre, Brujah, 4) Library: (70 cards) Master (12 cards) 4 Blood Doll 5 Haven Uncovered 2 KRCG News Radio 1 Warzone Hunting Ground Minion (58 cards) 7 Blur 5 Computer Hacking 5 Flash 2 Increased Strength 6 Legal Manipulations 4 Psyche! 2 Pursuit 2 Sideslip 4 Taste of Vitae 8 Thrown Gate 9 Thrown Sewer Lid 4 Wake with Evening's Freshness Final Note: Next time I will deliver the promised Don Cruez piece. Please note that I have a new email address, since apparently the old my-deja account doesn't work very reliably. So please direct any praise, comments or abuse to: skaffen_amtiskaw@runbox.com Thanks for reading Skaffen Chantry Elder Of Munich "Des ganzen, langen Lebens kurze Freuden und vergebliche Hoffnungen Kommen in grauen Kleidern, wie Abendnebel nach der Sonne Untergang." (Novalis, 'Hymnen an die Nacht')