Introduction: Strange - a year has passed since I took over the Brujah newsletter, and since then two new expansions have hit the market. I do not have any Bloodlines cards yet, so any comments from the Brujah point of view will have to wait for the next issue. Our game seems to be gathering strength again after years of lying dormant, and I found the last 12 months to be the most enjoyable in my life as a V:tES player. Which can also be attributed to the fact that I do this newsletter. It started with the idea to do some writing, the choice of a clan was more or less determined by what was available. But call it what you like: I grew immensely fond of the Brujah, and playing them greatly improved my playing skills in general. I can make out two factors for this: First, I spend a lot of time thinking about particular vampires and strategies, thus really developing a feel for them and paying attention to minor details. And as this clan is not limited to one major strategy (as S&B in case of the Malkavians), there were many ways for me to adjust to our local meta game without switching to another clan. Fiction: "Have you ever heard about Fantasy Role Playing games?" Lupo asks me. "They would die to wear our attire." Beats me, I think and grab a cigarette. "You got a light?" I ask back. "In my pocket... Somewhere..." He helplessly knocks on the metal skirt that bulges underneath his ornamental breast plate. The plumed full visor helmet seems to grin like a decapitated wraith from the past. Frustrated I want to get out of my chair, just to be firmly reminded about the bulk and heaviness of the costume I wear. I curse the sentimentality of the Old Ones. "It's a ceremonial meeting, and the first in this new millennium, boys", the Don had explained patiently. "Old customs demand respect, or the Camarilla would degenerate into something we all do not want to dream about." The man seriously suffers from "good ole days" syndrome, if you ask me, understandably, sure, after this tasking year. Then again I would have put two of my Cold Dawn honchos on duty as "ceremonial guard". Some earplugs would have done the job of discretion - as if you could hear anything underneath this steel dome anyway, not to mention the leather-and-chainmail hood. Dark Ages stuff... Lupo, the old bastard, seems to enjoy it though. He's new to the Inner Circle around the Don, a mere factotum as me, but still excited - which I am not. I wonder what progress they are making at the moment, sipping old brandy during the "coffee break". The Don, The Old One from Uig, Prince Anson from the Toreador, a shady figure I have no clue where from, but he gives me some haunting flashbacks of Munich, and even a Primogen from Democritus. It's one of those stiffly formal and only occasionally happening Camarilla meetings, and obviously the Don wants to get stuff done politically for a change. "Gentlemen, we will have to remove a few key players from this game", he had announced in the presence of his princely staff, namely Donal and Constanza, an extremely bored Volker and the ever-present Anvil. Who, interestingly, is not here... I ask Lupo if he has seen him lately. "Gone outside with Theo, probably shopping for christmas." Lupo's sense of humor, well, forget it. I hadn't seen Theo though, must be some new filter in my brain, to protect my sanity... Talking about christmas, it alway sets me into a gloomy mode. Munich was fine, with Kallista at my side and drunk home-comers from the "Christkindl Markt" to feast upon, but this year the offensive commercialism and the blinding decoration anywhere you go really gets on my nerves. Or maybe I'm simply unsatisfied with my existence. A coughing noise from the door stops me from transforming into Paul Sartre. Mr. Winthrop ushers us back to the Round Table. I disappear underneath coif and helmet, my fingers in the iron glove fumble for the pole-axe. I curse under my breath, than we creak into what's left of the action... Two days later Anvil tells me that Kallista has been banished from the Camarilla society. "Give and take," was his explanation, another pawn sacrificed, I think and wonder who's next to leave - Banishment or not. Strategy: Last month I began to show you how you can do stealthy non-combat stuff with the Brujah - in this case a medium-capacity vote deck. The logical next step would mean to apply the same ideas to bleed, which would lead me straight to Carthage Remembered. We will leave that to a coming issue though, as my thoughts were somewhat going in circles around the issues of big vampires, different political strategies beyond KRC and the question of Bruise & Something. Lets corner these questions one by one: Big vampires: I already wrote about big vampires and their usability in the May newsletter. I just want to get back to a certain point: Sometimes the crypt you will play is more or less decided from the beginning. Euro-Brujah with Dominate Bruise'n'Bleed for example has a staple crypt of Donal O'Connor, Constanza Vinti, Theo Bell and Anvil, possibly also Don Cruez. Really biggish, but it doesn't help much to include too many auxiliary guys like Dre as in the end they can only help one aspect of your strategy - and bruise without bleed is not working, no one blocks Dre's bleed for one. With a crypt like this you need two things first and foremost: speed and pool-gain, and the later as quick as possible. I was playing crypts like this a lot lately, and it really makes my day to have an Information Highway and a Blood Doll in my starting hand. If these decks can establish a foothold in any game, they are hard to beat, but the first rounds are crucial. Politics for Brujah: Straightforward pool destruction is probably the most efficient way to get your stuff done, but with the Brujah's combat affinity some other cards spring to mind. I already used Archon to good effect in earlier decks as a semi-permanent rush card for my vampires. This political card helps you to attack the "secondary" resources of your prey (i.e. vampires) - typical for any rush deck. Anathema gets an additional benefit out of this strategy as you can gain pool by destroying minions. Banishment follows the same principle as rush - it denies the use of a vampire until more pool is spent. Three cards that fit really well into any Brujah decks that uses the bigger clan members. Bruise problems: With their clan disciplines the Brujah should be the grand masters of bruise'n'bleed/vote, still this strategy is difficult to pull off. The biggest problem I see is that combat is a card intensive business, so if no one blocks you you can jam worse than a stealth bleeder. Of course to put in some rush would help, but with that and the necessity for some defense you quickly approach toolboxiness. Not a bad thing in itself, and I actually consider this month's deck to be fairly toolboxy, but I tried to get a little focus back into this strategy. One vampire really changed many things: Theo Bell has a built in rush and fits very well into a Euro-Brujah environment thanks to his inferior Dominate. By adding a hint of politics along the lines explained earlier and a good dose of the almighty Second Traditions there should be enough fights to cycle all those nasty combat cards. The biggest remaining issue is to fit all those different aspects into 90 cards - you need the best effect from every single card, the most efficient combos and the most versatile minions. Never aim for "Destroy 'Em All" combat combos that need 6 cards or the monster bleeder that needs extensive set up, you want the best bang-to-buck ratio in every field. For a basic bruise and bleed module consider TS, IG and Pursuit/Blur for bruise and Govern/Conditioning for bleeds (the Governs should be used for pool-gain mostly, the Conditionings as trump cards/threats when Anvil comes to bleed or one). Vampire of the month: Lupo 2, pot I have to admit that I am in danger of running out of interesting new vampires to present that fit with the newsletter's topic. Lupo should have been in the weenie rush edition, but at least he is included in this month's deck. 2 pool for a vampire with inferior potence: That's the perfect weenie rusher to you - TS, IG, Disarm, and his opponent goes to torpor (most of the times, that is...) He hangs out with the big guys occasionally as a helping hand. He can call a KRC, bleed for one, maybe even block someone and dish out some carnage, or go and diablerize to gain a skill card... In short: He ups the number of actions per turn your deck has, and if all else fails he is disposable (sorry, Lupo!). And of course he is Peter Bakija's favourite Brujah. Card of the month: Anathema Political action Worth 1 vote. Called by any Prince or Justicar at +1 stealth. Choose a ready vampire. If the referendum is successful, put this card on that vampire. If that vampire is reduced to zero blood in combat, he or she is burned, and the Methuselah controlling the opposing minion gains pool equal to the burned vampire's capacity. A nice little vote for any political deck with rush potential. It makes the target easier to destroy - just reduce the vampire to zero blood, which between Torn Signpost and Blur shouldn't be too hard - and nets you her capacity in pool. It's a sort of defensive rush (well, as defensive as rush gets), as apart from that minion's destruction it doesn't harm the controller (as opposed to Fame for example), so both your prey and predator are suitable targets. Note that if the vampire doesn't have blood (say if you blocked a hunt action) it doesn't burn, there has to be an actual reduction during combat (no matter from what source though). Deck: Close Encounters Of The Violent Kind Most of the ideas behind this deck have been explained earlier. It lives in a currently very bleed-heavy meta game with combat tending to be long-range or S:CE. If the situation will be even more weeniefied than it is now, this will not function any longer, at the moment the bounce and intercept ability keeps it afloat. I usually miss the first victory point as some abomination is just pushing forward too quickly, but once at operational level (with one Euro-Brujah prince, Theo and a third minion) it is very effective. Again this deck has potential to be adjusted to your local meta game. The Celerity stuff can be as maneuver- or additional strike-oriented as you wish, and of course the Depravity could be an Elysium: Palace Of Versailles in any more vote-heavy environment. Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 15, Max: 34, Avg: 6,42] 1 Anvil (dom CEL POT pre tha, Brujah, 6, Primogen) 2 Constanza Vinti (CEL DOM POT, Brujah, 8, Prince) 1 Don Cruez (ani CEL dom pro POT PRE, Brujah, 10, Justicar) 2 Dónal O'Connor (CEL DOM POT, Brujah, 8, Prince) 1 Dre (cel pot, Brujah, 3) 1 Lupo (pot, Brujah, 2) 2 Theo Bell (cel dom POT pre, Brujah, 7) 2 Volker (CEL pot, Brujah, 5, Prince) Library: (90 cards) Master (13 cards) 1 Archon Investigation 5 Blood Doll 1 Depravity 2 Dominate 2 Information Highway 2 Sudden Reversal Minion (77 cards) 3 Anathema 2 Archon 2 Banishment 3 Blur 5 Conditioning 2 Decapitate 7 Deflection 2 Disarm 1 Fists of Death 5 Flash 5 Govern the Unaligned 8 Immortal Grapple 1 Kindred Restructure 4 Pursuit 8 Second Tradition: Domain, The 4 Taste of Vitae 7 Torn Signpost 3 Undead Strength 5 Wake with Evening's Freshness Final note: Prince decks have been dissed quite unnecessarily by the current European champion. That might be because he was a little bored by the opposition he faced, but I strongly disagree with the "elitist" undertone of his comments. These decks are effective, and some (the MinionTap/Fifth Tradition variant) are frustrating to play against. But a Prince deck can be many things (the one I just presented neither has Minion Tap nor Fifth Tradition), and if he had the scissors to their paper in Paris, all praise to him - it just doesn't mean that Prince decks are necessarily boring. They just dominated the meta game, and he exploited this situation. Every rush deck would have slaughtered his Anti-Malks though, and I never heard a rush player complaining about S&B or "soft" combat strategies - he lives to exploit them until the meta game changes towards more combat defense or strike back potential. The rush player is not elite, it's the nature of the game. I don't know about the next issue, it all depends on what I will play in the coming weeks. Some analysis on Bloodlines seems to be appropriate though - I am already toying with a bizarre Don Cruez/Nu, The Pillar 5 discipline concept... All comments, praise etc. is always welcome at skaffen_amtiskaw@mail.ru. All abuse goes to /dev/null Thanks for reading Skaffen Chantry Elder Of Munich, Archon Of The Cold Dawn vr9.colddawn.com (needs updating badly...) "Absence from those we love is self from self - a deadly banishment." William Shakespeare