Introduction:
A full weekend of V:tES lies behind me - I played two storyline
tournaments, one in Munich and one in Vienna. Didn't fare too well
though, went to the Munich final with the deck I will present to you
in this issue, and got 4 VP, no GW in Vienna with a Tzimisce stealth
bleed deck. In my opinion the idea behind this storyline thing was
great. Of course the chances are minimal that any of the deeds anyone
of us players did in one of these tournaments will actually end up in
the story, but I enjoyed the illusion none the less and equally
enjoyed trying some more tricky deck ideas for the event(s). A big
thanks is due here to Monica (Munich) and Carl/Alex (Vienna) plus all
the other organizers for a month that I think we can safely assume to
be one of the most intense in V:tES tournament play ever.
Fiction:
"I am sorry, but I cannot comment on this issue at the moment," the
Don declares moments before he slams the receiver down. Angel, who is
crouched into a voluminous leather couch, tries to be invisible. Alas,
she is not of the Nosferatu kin (and proud of it), so she doesn't
succeed. Normally she would never think about fate, but what else but
fate can it be that makes her the one and only minion available to
face the Don's wrath on a night like this - a night when she was asked
by an unnaturally agitated Mr. Winthrop to "get her sorry ass over
immediately", to put it in the original words of the Don. Everybody
else is away: Rake, Anvil, Crusher and the lot down south, Dre over in
Munich, Theo AWOL as usual, the European princes in their domains...
And here the problem starts. Or the problems, to be more precise. The
task force to handle them consists of the Don (screaming, ready to
evoke the sixth tradition on every one of his subjects) and Angel
(silent, wishing to be somewhere else)...
Apparently Hector (or "this crazy pothead", as the Don chooses to call
him among other, more imaginative but unprintable expressions) has
screwed the masquerade big time, with embracing that girl, leaving his
wallet on site and leading the investigating police forces straight to
his apartment in Hoboken. Which he managed to set on fire before all
hell broke loose, but now the charred remains of his diary ("A diary!
For Caine's sake!" was all the Don managed when he had stumbled upon
the news first) grace almost any local paper - including some rather
cryptic but less than flattering remarks about Cruez himself. Which
has lead to the just finished phone call by an overly eager reporter.
The other bad news comes from the other side of the ocean: The German
press calls it the "Valentine's Day Massacre" and makes Eastern
European mafia groups responsible, only the Don knows better. So far
eight of members of the clan's weapon supply chain have been murdered
in the most brutal way after Volker has finally rediscovered Talbot's
legendary machine. He's now running amok among the local Ventrue
forces - not that the Don is opposed to random acts of violence in
general, but this doesn't fit his political agenda too well at the
moment, it is not coordinated with headquarters and it threatens the
masquerade even more - as the Ventrue will find out as soon as they
recover from the shock.
All in all the "secret" agitations of the Brujah forces have gathered
ten minutes of coverage on the news only this evening, and clearly the
Don is not amused - the still smoking remnants of the TV set are only
one witness to this.
"So, what are we going to do? Apart from smashing furniture...," Angel
inquires with a slightly trembling voice. Surprisingly the Don doesn't
fall into yet another fit of rage. He grabs the miraculously still
intact tumbler and helps himself to a good shot of Laoghaire. "I have
no clue," he admits. "Why not call Dre and send him to Frankfurt? It's
only four hours from Munich, and I guess the Bavarian mystery may
remain unsolved for a couple more days - considering the
circumstances..." Angel sincerely hopes for any sign for her to leave
as soon as possible, even if it would mean that she would have to go
to Germany herself. But there is no such sign. "We all might have to
go into hiding," the Don ponders, not really paying attention. "This
Sosa affair is positively disturbing." Angel gnaws her fangs, not
knowing any way out - that is, for her personally. "Why are we not
trying to arrange some sort of cover for the whole affair? We could
drop a rumor that Hector is in fact, like, err, Thomas Pynchon doing
stuff on a new novel. He might have lost his mind, sure, but the diary
could in fact be, ahem, a rough draft for a piece of pure fiction,
just closely matched to some real old friends of his," she offers. "I
think I have a better idea", the Don murmurs with a smile to Angel.
She sighs inwardly. "What would you think about a slightly disturbed
LARP girl, say, his ex girlfriend... you, shedding some light on this
story. Teenage drama, no happy end for Rose, I'm sorry to add, but in
the end nothing more then the usual tragedy - youth gone wild, that
sort of stuff..." Angel wisely chooses not to relate her thoughts on
this idea, and on Hector more in general. "And, yeah, of course, get a
hold of Dre, will you," the Don adds.
Strategy:
Allied forces
I wrote a good deal about the pros and cons of weapons in the January
2001 newsletter, they as well as allies are a part of the game since
its very beginning but never really had a huge impact on generic
strategies. Of course a War Ghoul or a Renegade Garou is something no
player can ignore, as is a celeritous guy sitting on a Sport Bike,
Flame Thrower ready - but decks specially designed to create these
situations are rarely seen on the list of tournament winners.
I started to think about Brujah ally decks after playing last month's
Procreation Of The Wicked deck, a Progeny/Embrace affair that aims for
exponential growth in minion numbers. Ally decks can go into the same
direction, and there have been some interesting concepts around lately
for pure ally decks (using the clanless allies like the Rafastio Ghoul
- search Google to find out more). Allies tend to be expensive and
fragile. Even with the Vagabond Mystic around they burn when reduced
to zero blood, and most of them don't have a special ability that
offsets the huge disadvantage that they (usually) can't play any
discipline cards. Some good ones are unique, so no exponential growth
thing. The feared ones regenerate, prevent damage or have aggravated
strikes, but also have a significant cost. Our clan doesn't break out
of this scheme, the Brujah allies are all cheap and mostly harmless.
Just for completeness' sake here are all available Brujah allies:
Arms Dealer
Ally, Brujah
Mortal with 1 life, 1 strength, 0 bleed.
Arms dealer may take a +1 stealth action to allow you to go through
your library, find a weapon, and take it into your hand. Reshuffle
afterwards and discard down to your maximum hand size.
Loyal Street Gang
Ally, Brujah, 1 pool
Mortal with 2 life, 1 strength, 0 bleed.
The Knights
Ally, Brujah, 1 pool
Unique Mortal with 2 life, 2 strength, 0 bleed.
The Slashers
Ally, Brujah, 1 pool
Unique Mortal with 3 life, 1R damage, 0 bleed.
Apart from the Arms Dealer they all suck pretty badly - to fragile, no
bleed. The Arms Dealer is a different story though - he costs nothing
but the action to recruit him, can fetch you a weapon, can Arson
locations, block and die (or survive with a Leather Jacket), etc. So
he might even be useful as an auxiliary force in Brujah decks. But
what is he worth as a central part of a strategy? I read about an Arms
Dealer/Wooden Stake/Lucky Blow deck with added Memories Of Mortality
in the report of the Deventer storyline tournament - this sounds
interesting. My idea though was different and is centered around the
Card of the month - a weapon, not surprisingly.
Card of the month:
Talbot's Chainsaw
Equipment, 3 pool
Unique weapon. 3 damage each strike. If bearer is ready during your
untap phase, a ready minion you control takes 3 damage (damage not
preventable). Bearer cannot hunt. Bearer may enter combat with any
minion controlled by another Methuselah as a +1 stealth (D) action.
Bearer get a press, only usable to continue combat at the end of the
first round, and may prevent up to 1 damage each combat.
A nasty, if somewhat double-edged sword. Talbot's Chainsaw offers you
a full combat package in one card: Rush at +1 stealth, significant
damage, a little prevention and a press. The cost though can cause
headaches: 3 unpreventable damage to one of your minions each turn.
You have to find a way to deal with this. The famous
Ambrosius/Talbot's Chainsaw combo does exactly that: Ambrosius is
immune to non-aggravated damage, so you are fine. I will use Arms
Dealers first to get the Chainsaw and then to sacrifice themselves to
her - many Arms Dealers. You should know what you are doing when
playing with this monster - it makes no sense to have it lying around
as your typical deterring .44 Magnum. If you get it, use it - every
turn. It doesn't go away, if you can't pay the price anymore you will
loose the minion that wields it. If he rests in torpor at last the
Chainsaw will be quiet...
Deck:
The Frankfurt Chainsaw Massacre
The idea is simple: Get out a chain of Arms Dealers, let them fetch
Talbot's Chainsaw, put it on someone with superior Celerity
(preferably Volker) and go to town. The chainsaw eats an Arms Dealer
each turn. Heidelberg it around for extra rushes. Get Ivory Bow or
Sengir Dagger for another Brujah, so they can recruit Arms Dealers
more safely. Consistent +1 intercept is a problem with this deck,
although you are normally able to get some stuff done anyway as all
your actions (equip, recruit, rush) are at +1 stealth. You can also
give the chainsaw damage to the bearer, rush someone soft and full of
blood and taste the blood back. Biggest problem is speed - your bleed
potential is next to non-existent, and defense: Blood Dolls for pool
management, Second Traditions to block some stuff and hopefully kill
the offender is about as far as it goes. If you have plenty of Arms
Dealers on the table, they of course can serve as emergency blockers.
Autarkis Persecution is a double-edged sword (as the chainsaw itself),
it can give you much-needed pool, but prolongs the game in general.
The Fast Hands are a last minute inclusion, I smelled weapons in the
local meta game and had huge fun with this card...
I played this deck in the Munich storyline tournament and edged into
the final without a Game Win, but most VPs among the remaining
players. I had huge problems in the first two rounds, contesting
Volker with another Brujah prince deck - you really need that guy as
the Second Traditions are more or less your only defense. I would have
gotten a GW in the third round, but time ran out when my prey was down
to 6 pool with no minions left. The final itself was very interesting,
and although this deck doesn't bleed for more than one I thought I had
a reasonable chance for at least one VP when my predator does a
suicidal block against an Arms Dealer equip by Volker with his Fame'd
Abd Al Rashid. Volker had stolen an Improvised Flamethrower earlier
and had Talbot's Chainsaw. Range eventually is long, he eats a Blood
Sweat and two aggravated from the destroyed Flame Thrower, burning
him, Abd enters torpor and ousts his methuselah... I brought out Black
Cat and a new Chainsaw but fell to a deflected stealthed bleed shortly
afterwards.
It is a fun deck (as in "fun to play"), can be quite effective and
surprisingly is almost always seen as a bigger threat than it really
is. Typical combat deck in that aspect, but with a freaky twist... So
here we go:
Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 10, Max: 20, Avg: 3,92)
1 Angel (Brujah 2, cel)
2 Black Cat (Brujah 5, CEL pot pre)
1 Dre (Brujah 3, cel pot)
1 Lupo (Brujah 2, pot)
1 Sarah Brando (Brujah Antitribu 3, CEL)
1 Uma Hatch (Brujah 3, cel pre)
1 Victor Tolliver (Brujah Antitribu 4, CEL pot)
4 Volker (Brujah 5, CEL pot, Prince)
Library: (89 cards)
Master (15 cards)
5 Blood Doll
2 Celerity
2 Fame
2 Heidelberg Castle, Germany
1 Humanitas
1 KRCG News Radio
1 Rack, The
1 Warzone Hunting Ground
Minion (75 cards)
16 Arms Dealer
1 Arson
4 Autarkis Persecution
2 Blur
1 Brujah Justicar
2 Fast Hands
5 Flash
1 Ivory Bow
1 Leather Jacket
8 Psyche!
1 Praxis Seizure: Rome
7 Pursuit
5 Second Tradition: Domain, The
1 Sengir Dagger
3 Side Strike
5 Sideslip
3 Talbot's Chainsaw
8 Taste of Vitae
Final notes:
Farewell for now! I have to admit that after a few weeks of not being
to eager to play Brujah decks the Frankfurt Chainsaw Massacre renewed
my interest quite a lot - a deck that is only remotely Euro-Brujah,
somewhat effective and loads of fun to play. Let's see if I can come
up with something similar for next month. On a different matter: I am
more or less finished with the redesign of my web page and hope to
have some good news on that next month. All comments welcome at
skaffen.amtiskaw"at"mail"dot"ru, all abuse please direct to /dev/null
Thanks for reading
Skaffen
Chantry Elder Of Munich, Archon Of The Cold Dawn
"The only good Arms Dealer is a dead Arms Dealer!"
(Anonymous peace activist in an interview for the German TV channel
NTV)