Introduction:
In the last newsletter I mused about "attempting the impossible" with
Brujah: Stealth bleed and Intercept. I will start this month with
Stealth bleed and some thoughts on the preconceptions other Players
have about the Brujah: the original combat monster, Bruise and Bleed
masters etc. While this can often be used to your advantage (many
people are per se afraid of fighting against a Brujah, even if your
deck has only marginal combat potential), it is amazing how many
different faces this clan has. You can not simply reduce the Brujah to
one generic strategy (as for example the Malkavians and their S+B).
While Joe Average (aka Yuri The Talon) will have his problems with
stealth bleeding, there is a very well exploitable angle towards this
maybe not overly original, but immensely playable strategy. For this
reason this month's deck is one of the by now almost classic Brujah
archetypes. I made it as "pure" as possible, but you will see the main
elements of it quite often in more toolboxy Brujah decks as well.
Fiction:
The woman adjusts her niqab and slips into a deserted lane in downtown
Tunis. If it weren't for her pale complexion, she would easily pass as
an ordinary, modestly clothed muslim woman. Then again a modest muslim
woman would not be stalking backyards in the business district of the
Tunisian capital, let alone without the company of a male family
member. That's why she avoids even the sparse patches of light cast by
the few and dim lamps lining the streets.
Brachah is out here "trashing", searching through the waste of
Al-Maghreb Consulting for the missing pieces of evidence. With the
information Dre had supplied after his Munich investigation - many
company names and addresses, and more importantly, the name of a
Tunisian business man involved in the UBAE-Mausoleum-sanguis.com
scheme - the clan was close to understanding the flow of money,
influence and returned favors that fueled their enemy's conquest.
Brachah had come to Tunisia in the guise of a tourist, had warded of
the usual marriage proposals her appearance caused in this corner of
the earth ("18 camels", not much more than on her first visit here
back in 1672) and managed to get an intimate interview with Mr.
Khellil. Now all that's missing is the final confirmation of
Al-Maghreb's central role in organizing the North African operations -
and it looks like the good people at the office had just gotten rid of
some waste business papers...
Two days later the same woman could be seen hurrying through the
modern Halfahouine quarter. Police sirens cut through the night,
following the sound of a brief gun fight not two blocks away. Brachah
is heading in the opposite direction, the still warm gun hidden in the
folds of her garment. Things have gone a little wrong after the
unexpected visit of two young Palestinians to her tourist hotel
earlier this evening. She had thought to have escaped after a wild
taxi chase through the city and transforming into a local once again,
but after she saw the two lurking figures again following her,
violence seemed to be the only way out. So violence it was.
Now she is looking for a still open cafe, where she, although not
welcome in this men's haven, could maybe convince the waiter to let
her make a quick call to headquarters before laying low for a while.
She almost passes the derelict phone box, well camouflaged with
graffiti. Her gaze fixed on the road she just came down she fishes for
some coins and starts to dial.
"Mrs. Brachah for you, Sir." Mr. Winthrop holds out the receiver to
the Don, who, freshly risen to another night's work, is just grooming
his hair. "At least I think so, Sir", adds the old factotum. Frowning
the Brujah justicar grabs the handset. "Pronto!" he barks. His
eyebrows start to work as he tries to understand the garbled words
coming to him from the other side of the Atlantic. "There is going to
be a big meeti...", Brachah manages to communicate before the static
takes over again. "Repeat!" "...Khellil has confirmed... many
important persons from the Italian business... here... car sale..."
"What car sale?" "Not cars! It's Car... Investment Forum, like... You
remember, the ancient town here in Tunisia? Cartha..." "Carthage", the
Don murmurs as his eyes narrow and the receiver crumbles between his
trembling fingers.
Strategy:
Stealth bleed - the ultimate cheese?
Bleeding is the most straightforward method to win a game of V:tES.
Adding stealth to the bleed action makes blocking attempts difficult,
so combining bleed and stealth should guarantee a straightforward path
to victory. In theory this is true, many Malkavian SB decks stand
witness to this assertion. Still, stealth bleeding is not the
be-all-end-all of V:tES strategies, as there are numerous ways to
counter it. Extreme intercept seems to be the natural counter, but
really isn't as dedicated intercept decks tend to have next to no
offensive of their own. The Brujah, if confronted with SB, tend to
kill the threatening vampires before they can take actions - not an
easy, but very effective defense. Speed weenie decks just outrace
their SB predator, and bounce decks happily use the massive bleeds to
further their own goals. Bloat decks just shrug off the damage and
move forward. Etc. pp. But still SB is wildly (and rightly feared),
which often leads to what I would like to call "social pressure"
against playing them. Cheesy, monotonous, uncreative are just a few of
the not-so-nice words piled upon this strategy. But should we care? I
don't think so. Stealth bleed exists as one of the obvious strategical
choices in V:tES, and every player should be prepared to deal with it.
Even if these decks are not the most exciting stuff to play, they are
needed to shake the meta game every time it becomes too
"sophisticated".
One observation I make quite often lately is that players, while
trying to do something resembling effectiveness with say Ravnos end up
with stuff that at its core is stealth bleed, just from an unlikely
angle and most of the times far from being as effective as the good
old Malkavian bleedfest. When the Brujah pick stealth bleed on the
other hand, you can have serious bleeding power on almost equal terms
with the best in this arena, but you still come from the "unlikely
angle" so you will probably escape the ridicule and social pressure
from the other players...
So, let's have a look. Okay, you could have Constanza Vinti bleeding
your prey with Dominate Kine, Bonding and Alacrity at +3 stealth for 3
(5 if he controls a Ventrue) which would cost her 4 blood - it
qualifies for stealth bleed, but is far from effective. No, the card
in question for Brujah stealth bleed is Carthage Remembered.
Carthage Remembered
Master, Brujah, 1 pool
Put this card in play. Brujah Princes and Brujah Justicars get +1
stealth when attempting bleed actions. This card may be burned as a
(D) action. Ventrue and Malkavians get -1 stealth when attempting that
action.
Why is it good? Well, getting stealth for bleeds by all your Princes
and the Justicar (always wondered about the plural form, as there can
only be one) is a nice thing to begin with. Note that Carthage
Remembered is not unique, so you can play multiple copies to pump the
stealth higher and higher. If it is not suddened straight away, you
will benefit at least for one turn - and longer, if you keep it for a
few turns, which is basically the idea anyway.
Let's take a look on the problems concerning the usage of the card:
You have to defend it:
Your prey will most likely do everything to get rid of Carthage
Remembered. The burn action is (at best) at zero stealth, but as you
will be playing with quite sizeable vampires (that is if you don't go
the weenie/PS route) you will need untap (read: Second Tradition) and
some way to survive combats. Don't laugh, of course people should be
afraid to be in combat with a Brujah in the first place, but you are a
bleed deck. Legal Manipulations or Govern the Unaligneds don't kill
vampires. The more you focus on bleed, the better it is to utilize
S:CE in combat. The most difficult situation will arise when a weenie
decks sets its mind on destroying Carthage - if it's your prey you
should probably not play it at all and just rely on normal bleeds, or
play it and let it go. Weenie decks are not renowned for their massive
intercepting power and should be tapped out most of the times anyway.
Be prepared to lose a Carthage as soon as you will be seen as the
biggest threat on the table, as people will come cross table to
destroy it. If you are ready to block them all, your deck is not
focused properly - bleeding is your main goal. And one final thing: Do
not play all Carthages, only enough to get the bleeds through. Dónal
and Constanza with +4 stealth on bleed actions will turn the whole
table against you.
Get the folks to utilize it:
Out of the box we have five Brujah that can profit from Carthage
Remembered: Volker, Rake, Dónal, Constanza and the Don. Volker doesn't
have any bleed discipline, Rake has superior Presence, Dónal and
Constanza only superior Dominate, and finally the Don superior
Presence and inferior Dominate. Because of the fabled Euro-Brujah
twins Dominate looks like the best choice, but you will have an
expensive crypt. Praxis Seizures and the Brujah Justicar vote can
bring any of the smaller clan members into the picture, in this case
Presence looks as the better alternative. Anvil, Theo and Tura Vaughn
each come with inferior Dominate as well, so there are many possible
crypts - all depending on how you plan to flesh out the core strategy.
Watch out for other Brujah:
Carthage Remembered effects all Brujah P/J, not only those you
control. Be very careful if someone else has someone like Rake (who
makes it into Toreador affairs quite often) on the table.
Counter the counter strategies:
Intercept/Rush: Well, you are the Brujah. End combat or fight (back) -
it all depends on how your Carthage deck is structured.
Bloat: Sudden their Minion Taps/Blood Dolls etc. Every serious bleed
deck needs to consider bloat, and IMO MT is the most annoying thing
that can happen. Cons. Boon, Voter Captivation etc. should be easier
to handle, as you will have Princes on the table and decent intercept
potential.
Bounce: Bounce sucks. You could kill the bouncers first and bleed
afterwards, but that would a) be bruise and bleed, and b) you wouldn't
really need the Carthage Remembereds. Using out-of-clan disciplines is
sketchy at best (Gwendolyn, Rake and Miranda offer Auspex for
Revelations, Anvil and Gwendolyn Thaumaturgy for Perfect Clarity), so
Contingency Planning is as good as it gets most of the time. I'd
rather try to run them out of bounce cards or try to banish the
bouncers first... Unfortunately with the new ruling if you go the
Presence route, you can't use Psychomachia anymore after being blocked
at stealth.
Decks:
Ceterum censeo carthaginem delendam esse
Most often I see Carthage Remembered in Euro-Brujah toolbox decks that
vote and kill and block and bleed, and hope to do the later at some
stealth. My goal was to build a highly focused stealth bleed deck
based on Dominate - it does not vote (much), it does not fight, and it
only blocks to defend the Carthage and prevent other extremely nasty
stuff. Mostly it bleeds, although the Governs offer pool gain as well
if need be. This is my first deck ever that uses Preternatural Evasion
as a S:CE if you ever get blocked or can't play Obedience when
blocking. Bondings instead of Conditioning because intercept is quite
popular locally at the moment, and with his card you can start
bleeding with modest stealth as soon as your first Euro-Prince hits
the table. Bounce will be the biggest problem for this deck, as with
Carthage Remembered you always bleed at stealth - Contingency Planning
is the only possible solution, but I'm quite dubious about this card.
Because bounce is so good, there are also some Deflections as
additional defense. Some of the additional cards are largely motivated
by our current local meta game: casual intercept and some determined
bouncers led me to choose Bonding over Conditioning, the weapons plus
Army Apparatus make for a certain attrition factor - you block a lot
with this deck, and especially Volker who cannot play Obedience and
bleed very well is a prime candidate for wearing down aggressive
opponents. All in all: If you want to play with Carthage Remembered,
this is hardcore - and probably not very creative, but it cycles very
well and proved to be very successful the two times I fielded it so
far.
Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 22, Max: 36, Avg: 7,50)
----------------------------------------------
3 Dónal O'Connor CEL DOM POT 8, Brujah, Prince
2 Don Cruez ani CEL dom pro POT PRE 10, Brujah, Justicar
3 Constanza Vinti CEL DOM POT 8, Brujah, Prince
2 Anvil dom CEL POT pre tha 6, Brujah, Primogen
2 Volker CEL pot 5, Brujah, Prince
Library: (75 cards)
-------------------
Master (14 cards)
5 Blood Doll
4 Carthage Remembered
2 Dominate
1 Information Highway
2 Zillah's Valley
Action (11 cards)
11 Govern the Unaligned
Action Modifier (9 cards)
9 Bonding
Political Action (6 cards)
3 Banishment
2 Parity Shift
1 Praxis Seizure: Barcelona
Reaction (23 cards)
6 Deflection
8 Obedience
9 Second Tradition: Domain, The
Combat (10 cards)
5 Flash
5 Preternatural Evasion
Equipment (2 cards)
1 .44 Magnum
1 Ivory Bow
In Memoriam
This is a possible Presence variant using mainly Rake and loads of
freshly appointed Princes. It is at the same time more versatile and
more fragile, as you are trying to get the necessary titles the hard
way by taking political actions. I developed this deck out of the old
"Prince Charming" design (see the November 2001 newsletter) that I had
dusted off to play once again for our latest tournament and that has
proven to be quite modularized. I swapped out most of the aggressive
votes in favor of straight Presence bleed, added Carthage, kept the
pool-gain (slightly toned down on Voter Caps of course), vote-gain and
combat (avoidance) stuff and finally enhanced the blocking abilities
slightly to better protect the Carhages.
Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 10, Max: 24, Avg: 4,5]
1 Antoinette DuChamp (cel pre, Caitiff, 1)
1 Anvil (dom CEL POT pre tha, Brujah, 6, Primogen)
2 Brachah (for CEL PRE, Brujah, 5)
3 Rake (aus cel pot PRE, Brujah, 6, Prince)
1 Uma Hatch (cel pre, Brujah, 3)
1 Vasilis (pre, Brujah, 2)
2 Volker (CEL pot, Brujah, 5, Prince)
1 Yuri (cel pot pre, Brujah, 4)
Library: (86 cards)
Master (14 cards)
4 Blood Doll
3 Carthage Remembered
1 Creepshow Casino
3 Presence
2 Sudden Reversal
1 Warzone Hunting Ground
Minion (70 cards)
3 Aire Of Elation
3 Alacrity
5 Bewitching Oration
2 Brujah Justicar
3 Consanguineous Boon
1 Disputed Territory
7 Enchant Kindred
5 Flash
1 Kindred Restructure
7 Legal Manipulations
9 Majesty
2 Marijava Ghoul
1 Mr. Winthrop
2 Parity Shift
1 Praxis Seizure: Berlin
1 Praxis Seizure: Dublin
1 Praxis Seizure: Paris
1 Praxis Seizure: Rome
9 Second Tradition: Domain, The
3 Voter Captivation
3 Wake with Evening's Freshness
Final words:
Well, Newsletter No. 17 from my pen is coming to an end. Next month,
if nothing more intriguing crosses my mind, I will present the
intercept counterpart, thus rounding up the "impossible strategies"
for Brujah. It will not be a Second Tradition Euro-Brujah deck, so
much is promised., and it might contain "more stupid stuff to do with
Arms Dealers"...
Comments etc. are 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
"I came to Carthage, where a caldron of unholy loves was seething and
bubbling all around me. I was not in love as yet, but I was in love
with love; and, from a hidden hunger, I hated myself for not feeling
more intensely a sense of hunger. I was looking for something to love,
for I was in love with loving, and I hated security and a smooth way,
free from snares."
(from the Confessions of St. Augustine)