Introduction: Welcome to the new issue of the Brujah newsletter. At last I had more opportunities to play and thus test decks. An updated version of "The Impalers" from last month's edition will be available on my website soon - it proved to lack aggressiveness which I fixed by "brute force". November's Deck of the month has seen three oustings so far, all victorious, which I see as encouragement to continue the non-combat path with the Brujah. Fiction: The Prince of Atlanta clearly is in a good mood today, even after spending more than half of the extra-strong styling gel to (unsuccessfully) tame his mohawk. "You look like Robert de Niro in 'Taxi Driver'," his fellow Prince Volker chuckles. "I thought you would mention 'Casino'," Rake replies as he picks at a greasy hair sticking to his black tuxedo. They are sharing a couple of beers and a bottle of Absolut in a lofty suite on the top floor of the Aladdin in Las Vegas. November has come, and the year 2002 had calmed down considerably after the bloody events of the past summer. The action has moved away from the streets into the quiet backrooms of exquisite business joints. "Beating the Ventrue at their own game" is the gist of the Don's new strategy, or at least of what has filtered down to the intermediate ranks so far. The Princes of Atlanta and Frankfurt are here for the annual Nerfcon, a computer show that brings together some of the more clandestine operations of the Camarilla clans. "Been out shopping with Mr. Winthrop?," Volker chuckles with a nod to Rake's straight-from-the-fifties attire. "Extreme conditions demand extreme responses, and the Don wants his proposition passed without much fuss." Volker scratches his balls inside the worn-out black combat trousers he's (as always, Rake sighs inwardly) wearing. "Yeah, but why don't we just punch some sense into those morons?" Rake ignores him for the moment and practices his 10000 volt-pure-honesty smile in the mirror. "Wouldn't buy a used toothpick from you," Volker comments from the voluminous pink couch. "Don't be so dumb. We want those guys as allies, not as dead meat. It's all about being charming. We do a little lobbying, you know. It's in our mutual interest, a win-win situation, this sort of crap." He takes out his small Saturday Night Special and leaves it on a table. "Have you ever wondered why the Don chose you for this 'charme offensive', Rake baby? I mean, to go out with this Victoria Ash bitch... Have you seen her face? Talk about Toreador and style... Only vitriol would cure that smile." The phone rings. "I'll be down in a minute," Rake purrs. He grabs his coat. "Do me a favor, Volker. Don't drink all the vodka. I'll just take her to the Creepshow Casino, burn some of the Don's cash, schmooze her a little, and that's it. Ah, yes... One other thing: I want that Adam & The Ants CD out of this room when I'm back, or I will tell her about your taste in blowjobs." Strategy: Let's talk politics If the Brujah start to talk politics, they do so (as everyone else) at +1 stealth. With so-called "casual intercept" seeing a revival lately, that is not alway enough. Luckily the Brujah have few ways to sneak past anyway (in case they just don't want to beat the unliving shit out of the blocker, of course), even without any generic stealth discipline. 1. Creepshow Casino: The Final Nights highlight for all things votey, this location gives one minion an extra +1 stealth on any undirected action. 2. Alacrity: The one stealth card for Celerity, it is extremely expensive, but still good for surprise value. A well-timed Voter Captivation should bring you up to capacity after use. 3. Marijava Ghoul and Charming Lobby: +1 stealth on Presence action, which are mostly bleeds, apart from one beauty. Charming Lobby lets you call a vote, if that passes the next one this turn successfully called passes automatically, and you gain 2 extra votes at superior. Setup takes some time, but a well placed Charming Lobby at +2 stealth is nothing to sneeze at. Renegade princes: With Presence as an in-clan discipline you can use Bewitching Oration and friends to pass your votes. But have a close look: Clan Brujah offers two of the cheapest princes in the game, namely Volker and Rake. Good not only to boost your votes, but also to have a word when someone else tries to talk politics. Plus they give you access to the traditions. Every time you take Potence out of the equation, Brujah and Toreador look very similar. But in a vote deck I would choose even the second-cheapest Brujah prince (Rake) over the cheapest Toreador (Tatjana, 7 capacity and only inferior Presence). I even do so when designing a Toreador vote deck, as Rake's Auspex fits in nicely... Vampire of the month: Rake Brujah, 6 Prince of Atlanta aus cel pot PRE A prince at 6 capacity with superior Presence is all that you want in a fast moving political deck. He's not an ace when it comes to fighting, but will shine in all other fields. He can play traditions, bleed and vote. His inferior Auspex makes him a nice addition to Toreador decks as well, with whom he hangs out quite often. Back in the old days, when Jyhad just had come out and we had few cards (and didn't know the Path Of Destruction (tm) yet...), he was one of the most-sought-after vampires. Card of the month: Charming Lobby Presence, action +1 stealth political action. [pre] Call a referendum listed on a political action card in your hand (play that card) or allowed by an effect in play. If the referendum passes, then the next referendum called by any vampire thereafter passes automatically. [PRE] As above, and this vampire gains 2 votes for the first referendum. Basically Charming Lobby get's you two successful votes for the price of one. Drop the card, call the vote, push it through with the 2 extra votes and Bewitching Oration, Awe etc., and the next one comes free. It's half a Bew. Oration and some sort of Cryptic Rider rolled into one card. Two things should be mentioned: As a Presence action the Marijava Ghoul might help with stealth, and you should make sure that it's one of your vampires that calls the next vote. Deck: Prince Charming A straightforward medium capacity political deck. Cheap princes, some Praxis Seizures, loads of vote push and the usual army of Kine Resources Contested form the main body of your offensive. Combat defense is maneuvers plus Majesty. The goal is to add sufficient stealth to crucial political actions via Creepshow Casino, Charming Lobby/Marijava Ghoul and the occasional Alacrity to get most political actions through. Poolgain is through Blood Dolls, Cons. Boon and Voter Caps, 2nd Traditions give you intercept when needed. The crypt is almost all-Brujah to make the Boons count (and because this is a Brujah Newsletter, stupid). Similar decks can be made with Presence weenies, Toreador or mixed crypts. It dies to dedicated combat, struggles against intercept and a Law Firm next corner, but generally is flowing really well and moving fast. Also it can quite easily be adapted to local metagames, as the ratios of Flash/Majesty and Bewitching Orations/Bribes/Praxis Seizures can be whatever is necessary to survive and establish some sort of vote lock. Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 10, Max: 24, Avg: 4,58] 1 Antoinette DuChamp (cel pre, Caitiff, 1) 1 Anvil (dom CEL POT pre tha, Brujah, 6, Primogen) 1 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) 1 Victoria Ash (aus cel dom PRE, Toreador, 6, Primogen) 2 Volker (CEL pot, Brujah, 5, Prince) 1 Yuri (cel pot pre, Brujah, 4) Library: (87 cards) Master (12 cards) 4 Blood Doll 1 Creepshow Casino 1 Elder Library 1 Elysium: The Palace of Versailles 1 Information Highway 2 Presence 2 Sudden Reversal Minion (75 cards) 3 Alacrity 7 Bewitching Oration 3 Bribes 1 Brujah Justicar 6 Charming Lobby 3 Consanguineous Boon 5 Conservative Agitation 1 Disputed Territory 5 Flash 1 Kindred Restructure 9 Kine Resources Contested 8 Majesty 1 Marijava Ghoul 1 Mr. Winthrop 1 Praxis Seizure: Athens 1 Praxis Seizure: Berlin 1 Praxis Seizure: Dublin 1 Praxis Seizure: Paris 1 Praxis Seizure: Rome 6 Second Tradition: Domain, The 1 Sport Bike 1 The Summoning 5 Voter Captivation 3 Wake with Evening's Freshness Final Note: Next month will see the big capacity counterpart to Prince Charming, with added bloat and probably a bruise component. Still working on it though... As runbox.com have turned into a pay service, I have a new email address. So all comments, contributions and praise are welcome at skaffen_amtiskaw@mail.ru. All abuse still goes to /dev/null Thanks for reading Skaffen Chantry Elder of Munich "Ridicule is nothing to be scared of" (Adam & The Ants, 'Prince Charming')