Introduction: The main, well, selling-point of the new Camarilla Edition is obviously the huge number of new vampires. The new grouping rule means you can't mix them with the old folks, so what it all comes down to is: How do they compare to Anvil & Co.? This newsletter will try to answer the question, with a special emphasis on the topic of Euro-Brujah compatibility, as Constanza, Dónal and Volker are a) group 2, and thus can be mixed with the new minions, and b) so far have been among the strongest vampires our clan could field. One addendum to the last issue: I did test the "All rush" variant of the "Built from 2 starters" deck presented last time (basically an Euro-Brujah crypt without the Euro-Brujah goodies in the form of Second Tradition and Dominate power cards, instead focusing on long-range rush), and hey: It swept the one game I played it. But I was lucky (no S:CE around), and you feel very, like, naked and vulnerable with huge minions, barely any pool-gain, no intercept and no bleed. Fiction: A door behind a door behind a door "...and always remember: Pentex Loves You!" "Welcome back after this break! My name is Loreen Grey, and this is Dr. Hafi Zawah. We are broadcasting live from the Cheops Pyramid in Egypt, and our little robot, the Pyramid Crawler, is about to unravel one of the last secrets of this ancient monument. Dr. Zawah, what's going on at the moment?" "The probe has passed the door..." "...that was found and opened 4 months ago - also live on Vixen TV!" "Indeed, dear Loreen. Well, as I was saying, our robot has passed that door and is now crawling through the long descending corridor we found behind, that ends in another door." "A door we will open today! I'm really excited!" "And rightly so! This is going to be an enormous step for science - we are exploring the subterranean expanses of the Great Pyramid, something we didn't even know existed four months ago. I'm pretty sure that history will have to be rewritten at the end of this evening!" The picture of the manically grinning pair is replaced by the one transmitted by the tiny camera on top of the robot. A narrow shaft, unmarked, it seems, that ends at a block of rough and rather porous stone. "We are beginning to drill the hole now", comments the voice of a technician from the off. After another break: "Describe what's happening now for us!" "The robot is proceeding forward through the hole in the door." "Ooh, marvelous! Those look like hieroglyphics! Writing on the wall!" "Those are cracks." The camera with the tiny light attached to it sweeps through the room behind the door. It catches a shape... The outline of a human being, sitting "Oh my god! Look at that!" "Astonishing! Let me see... A mummy, no doubt. It looks strange though... The bandages... They have a weird, like, shine on them... This is indeed very exciting! " "It seems to be in a very sorry state..." "Wait! Can we get a close up please?" Focus on the head. The picture is blurred and rather dark. Strips of some sort of tissue cover most of what must be the face, but some hair is also discernible. A soft gleam seems to emanate from the bandages, and the camera light is reflected by some darker stains on the corpse. "Dr. Zawah... look! There is... I thought I saw some sort of movement... Oh my GOOOOOD!" Suddenly light fills the, as it now turns out, vast underground space. The robot camera furiously sweeps back and forth, finally catching sight of two approaching men. One looks like a British explorer from the turn of the last century, wearing Khakis, a vest and an old-fashioned reddish shirt. The other closely resembles Arnold Schwarzenegger as in Terminator 1: black leather, sun glasses and even the shotgun. He strides up to the "mummy", which is now clearly recognizable as a man strapped to a white plastic chair. The English one speaks: "Easy, man, we need him, well, alive... As alive as possible, that is." The other guy's fist crashes into the distorted, gaffer-wrapped face. The sound of bone breaking is clearly audible - more so than the muffled groan escaping from the taped mouth. The body fixed to the plastic chair trembles. The man that spoke before turns around and sighs. Then he suddenly stiffens and lifts his left hand. "Wait a minute... This light here... That's not supposed to be here!" His finger points straight at the camera. "O shit", one of the technicians gasps. The Arnold-lookalike lifts his shotgun. "Step aside, Ralph", he commands. There's a loud blast, and the screen goes black. Before the "We apologize for a short technical problem" pic manages to pop up, the technician's voice can be heard amidst the terrified screaming on site: "Now, don't you think this really looked like an abandoned car park..." Discussion of the new vampires: Arnold Simpson Brujah 2, pot The new Lupo, without the looks. Arnie is our man when it comes to people that do a dirty job for little money, err, pool. He's born for fighting, and only fighting it should be for him. If your deck packs a lot of Potence, there are not many ways to ignore him. Gengis Brujah 3, aus cel pot Any Brujah controlled by another Methuselah can take a (D) action to untap Gengis and take control of him until the end of the turn. Gengis cannot block that action. One step closer to a functional aus/pot deck. Don't know if I fancy that (yet), so at the moment I'd rather have good old Dre for cel/pot and no funky disadvantage. Then again I guess it won't be so bad unless some other Brujah is your predator and you stupidly decided to leave Gengis untapped as your only blocker (I mean: Leaving aside cornercase stuff like borrowing a diablerie fiend - which Brujah would you tap to gain him?). Mazz Brujah 3, cel pre Everything that was true for Uma Hatch is true for him: He can't fight, but he's terrific at running away and playing Majesty. And sure, he can bleed or vote fine with that Presence of his. He's the Lil' One for all those decks that don't need Arnie. And the Toreador will borrow him gladly, as Yvette is somewhat... hopeless. Allison Maller Brujah 4, cel pot pre I dissed Yuri, The Talon once for his looks. Sorry, mate, you rule. This must be the most pathetic piece of artwork I've seen for a long time. Apart from that there's nothing much to say. Allison is the generic 4 cap. for a clan that, at least when I play it, almost never focuses equally on all three disciplines. Fair enough though... Tayshawn Kearns Brujah 4, cel obf pot Now this lad is plain weird. If he'd have at least Presence instead of Potence, he could stealth-bleed a little. I'm sure he has a place in some weird Jaroslav Tarnopolski deck, but can't figure what that should actually be good at. In general the inferior Obfuscate is just a waste. Why didn't they give us someone with cel/POT? Marlena Brujah 5, cel POT pre Marlena does not tap when performing a recruit ally action. She can perform only 1 recruit ally action each turn. Superior Potence gets some more focus in the new edition, Marlena is the perfect example. Obviously she's the shady sister of Black Cat, but generally weaker IMNSHO. Why? CEL/pot vs. cel/POT comes out even when you consider the Torn Signpost/Blur combat combo, but superior Celerity means access to many of the extremely good multi-purpose cards (Pursuit etc.), whereas superior Potence usually nets +1 damage (and doesn't make much of a difference at all in "Thrown Junk" decks). Her special is, erm, nice, if there'd only be decent Brujah allies beyond Arms Dealers... Steve Booth Brujah 5, CEL pot pre pro The Boozer is more like it - the tried and tested CEL/pot, and all the options open with his next two disciplines: Presence for bruise'n'something stuff, Protean for evil pokey combat gizmos. Cel/Pot/Pro still isn't the most common discipline combo in the game (only Maxwell - see below - and the Ventrue Hrothulf can hang out with Bozo here), but a scary one no doubt. Pug Jackson Brujah 6, CEL for POT pre, Primogen This guy has some huge footprints to fill out, as he replaces the mighty Anvil from the original set. Pug is not quite as nearly-broken as Anvil, with only for instead of dom tha, but as no one every really used Anvil's thaumaturgy outside of weird Cel/Tha decks (that work much better now with the new Tremere), we simply traded Dominate for Fortitude - which is basically the capability to bleed/deflect and Euro-Brujah compatibility for added combat nastiness. While Pug is quite huge for a pure rush deck, his existence alone makes Cel/For/Pot rush decks that do not use a 12 Jimmy Dunn crypt worth thinking about. His title is the icing on the cake, as it - while not by itself guaranteeing vote dominance - gives you a word in the political arena even if your deck doesn't focus on that. Jeremy MacNeil Brujah 7, AUS cel chi POT PRE Now here's something we didn't see before. Superior Auspex on a Brujah. Maybe I should start fancy an Aus/Cel/Pot deck now? His Chimerstry is rather bizarre, but fits somehow. Maybe some extremely weird crossover with Francois Villon is due? As you see, this pal raises quite a few questions, which at this stage of my involvement with CE translates into: potential. Joshua Tarnopolski Brujah 7, CEL obf pot PRE Allies and retainers cost Joshua 1 less pool or blood to recruit or employ. He gets +2 strength in combat with a Sabbat vampire. Not the hottest 7 cap of all times, I have to admit. He costs the same as Theo Bell, whose special (and everything else) is just plain better. If you don't want to use Potence, Brachah really starts to shine, so what remains? He slaughters Sabbat vampires okay, I guess, Arms Dealers cost him -1 pool (okay, and Marijavas only 1 blood), and he has Obfuscate for a little stealth. Maxwell Brujah 9, CEL FOR POT PRE PRO Once each turn, Maxwell can burn a blood to get +1 stealth on an action that requires Presence. If he doesn't have a title, he can call a referendum to become the Prince of Chicago as a +1 stealth political action. He is bad. Really bad. His skills: the ultimate killing machine. Can he do more? Certainly, Sir. He votes, he bleeds, and he can even do it at stealth. So is he golden? I'd say yeah, even at 9 capacity and without many other minions that can act on an equal level. He deserves a few decks built just for him, and he'll get them (soon). Tyler: Brujah 9, CEL dom for obt POT PRE, Primogen When Tyler diablerizes a vampire, she untaps and gains a blood from the blood bank. Once per turn, she may burn a blood to get +1 bleed or an additional vote. Amaranth loop decks using her have been suggested (make her Archon, rush, Amaranth, untap, repeat ad nauseam), but look sort of unwieldy and hard to set up for me. Still, all in-clans at superior and both secondary skills (dom and for) at inferior make her decent enough, if a tad expensive. I like the versatility her second special offers, but being only a Primogen is going to be a problem when your best defense is still Second Tradition.We might see her roaming with other clans a lot, as her crossover potential is quite huge (as is the potential of her first special - Baltimore Purge comes to mind...). Jaroslav Pacek Brujah 10, CEL for obf POT PRE, Justicar Jaroslav inflicts +2 damage with melee weapons. He can inflict 1 damage on each of your prey's Sabbat vampires as a (D) action. +1 intercept. Expensive, but worth it. Although I do like Don Cruez, this new Justicar convinces me more (apart from the artwork...). Solid discipline set (another fortitudous guy), +1 intercept and two extra specials that each have their utility. The melee weapons angle of course screams to be exploited (if only to finally get to use some of those equipment card collecting dust in my collection), the torture on Sabbat folks will shine in the right game situation.. Menele Brujah 10, aus CEL dom POT PRE THA During your untap phase, you may move 2 blood from Menele to a younger vampire in your uncontrolled region. +1 bleed. Another 10 cap., but actually his first special makes him look much cheaper. When playing decks centered around the Brujah starter, I always brought him out first and gained the speed lost due to this back while influencing out the rest of my people. +1 bleed is also nice, as is his cool discipline spread with much crossover potential. But it really bothers me that he doesn't have a title at all, which limits his use in Brujah archetypes - not useful in a vote or Traditions-based deck, (most of the times) too huge for a combat deck. Overall impression: The new set suffers somewhat from the lack of choice in the low-cap section - no Angel, no superior in-clan for less than 5 pool etc. With no group 3 Caitiff yet it looks even grimmer - at least Antoinette is still legal. The big bad mofos are, well, better than those of old, with Jaroslav and Maxwell pretty high up on the power curve. Some interesting cross-disciplines, but the main voting force by now will be the Euro-Brujah (with only the aforementioned Jaroslav and Maxwell bringing or having access to more than the still bleak Primogen title), and I cannot say that cel/dom/pot got any better. Sorely missing someone like Rake as well. Still, the big dudes and dudettes are all certainly worth a closer look, as their specials and unique discipline combos open up a whole world of new strategical approaches. As you might have noticed: One is missing. He's our: Vampire of the month: Sir Ralph Hamilton: Brujah 6, cel POT PRE ser Camarilla - Ralph gets +1 strength in combat with a younger Camarilla vampire. Followers of Set get +1 bleed when bleeding Ralph's controller. I already commented on him a while ago when he was the first CE preview. Actually I like him a little more these days, mainly for his conditional +1 strength that is quite usable these days when everyone plays Camarilla decks again (I had a whacky !Gan deck the other day, and still relish in the look of horror when I tried to put a Covenant of Blood in play - and got duly blocked). Apart from that another cel/POT geezer (see above), superior Presence is never a bad thing, and the Serpentis warrants some Form Of Corruption/Rush'n'Steal action - and that's where we'll be heading with this month's deck. Card of the month: Form of Corruption Action, Serpentis (ser) Put this card in play. You may not play this card if you have a Form of Corruption card in play. Each time your prey gets the Edge anew, put a form counter on this card. During your master phase, if the number of counters on this card equals or exceeds the amount of blood on a vampire controlled by your prey, you may burn this card to take control of that vampire. (SER) As above, and your prey burns 1 pool when you burn this card. Out of all the Serpentis corruption-type cards, FoC is possibly the scariest. A FoC in play means a constant threat to your prey. Getting the edge changes from a beneficial side effect of bleeding towards a direct danger for his minions. It is versatile (you choose if you want to take a vampire or leave the Form in play for future use, even against your grand-prey) and doesn't take many card-slots (a direct consequence of its downside - no more than one can be in play at any time). All this makes it the best card to "casually" include in a deck that has access to some (even inferior) Serpentis without planning to use this skill as a main strategy. Deck: Another Form of Corruption Not by any means my shot at winning the EC (not that I'm qualified anyway...), but rather a deck toying with two, erm, trends the new vampires show: cel/POT and weird extra disciplines, in this case Sir Ralph's Serpentis. Basically a rush deck, but one that wants to get an extra benefit out of beating up other vampires. The plan (on paper) is: Bring Form Of Corruption in play, let Theo sort out suitable guys and fetch them after some heavy-handed "convincing". In case that fails just kill everyone (Plan B). Adventurous souls might think about adding a Crowbar Towers angle for some pool-gain, but I feel more secure with the hardcore rush backbone it has as it stands. It's somewhat low on maneuvers which has been a problem first time I tested it, especially when the Bum's Rushes get blocked by trigger happy opponents. Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 11, Max: 28, Avg: 5,33) 1 Arnold Simpson (Brujah 2, pot) 1 Beast (Nosferatu Antitribu 7, ani cel OBF POT) 1 Gengis (Brujah 3, aus cel pot) 2 Jimmy Dunn (Pander 4, CEL for POT) 1 Marlena (Brujah 5, cel POT pre) 3 Sir Ralph Hamilton (Brujah 6, cel POT PRE ser) 3 Theo Bell (Brujah 7, cel dom POT pre) Library (90 cards): Master (16 cards) 5 Blood Doll 2 Dreams Of The Sphinx 4 Haven Uncovered 2 Serpentis 2 Sudden Reversal 1 Tension In The Ranks Action (14 cards) 6 Bum's Rush 3 Form of Corruption 2 Rampage 3 Temptation Reaction (3 cards) 3 Delaying Tactics Combat (57 cards) 2 Disarm 5 Blur 2 Fists Of Death 10 Flash 10 Immortal Grapple 3 Pushing the Limit 7 Taste of Vitae 8 Torn Signpost 10 Undead Strength Final Words: With quite some tournaments in the near future my deck testing time slots are occupied with some non-Brujah stuff, so I will take the discovery trip through CE slowly. I guess I'll try my hand on the seemingly so strong Concealed .44 angle in a rush/bruise sort of Brujah environment next. Thanks for reading Skaffen Archon of The Cold Dawn skaffen_amtiskaw"at"mail"dot"ru www.8ung.at/colddawn "It takes a non-poisoned creature to defeat and destroy a monster, that has grown and spawned a darkness, a darkness we can not tolerate" (Satyricon, 'Repined Bastard Nation')