Introduction: I apologize for this newsletter coming so late, but as I spent a good part of September frolicking through the Scottish rain it cannot be helped. For this issue I take a close look at the Brujah pre-constructed deck and try to give some advice for the aspiring new player on his/her way to the first successful deck. Fiction: August 17, 2002 - Kindred Segregation A gentle breeze cools the Court of Rameses III at the south end of the Temple of Luxor. With the last tourist group gone the ancient site is almost deserted. The faint smell of French cigarettes lingers between the columns. Suddenly an impatient cough disrupts the serene atmosphere. "Where's your man?" croaks the familiar voice of Dre as he adds another butt to the pile next to his right foot. "You should stop smoking", advises a soft female voice. "Oh come on, Brachah. Don't be silly. The weeks I spend in Cairo do more damage to your lungs than any of these. Not to mention that I don't inhale." "So why are you doing it?" "It's, like, a habit. What else should I do on an evening like this?" "How about some nice conversation? We've come a long way to meet." "I thought everything between us was said after I tried that move on you at Anvil's party... When was it? Like, '61 or something." "I'm not talking about me. But Sir Ralph..." "Where is he, anyway? We were supposed to meet an hour past sunset." Dre takes a swig from an already half-empty bottle. Brachah looks irritated. "Well...", she starts with a hesitating glance over her shoulder. "Don't tell me to stop drinking! You are not my mother, as I already told you back when... When we last time had this sort of conversation." "I was not going to mention that, but as you seem to be so fixed on your miserable social life, why don't you just enlighten Sir Ralph? He seems..." "...to be better off in some decent pub with good company and a cold beer." "Will you stop interrupting me!" "Only if you quit your bitching! Man, this is really going nowhere." "Precisely! And that's only because of you. I arrange a meeting with one of the best men we have in these areas, and you behave like the spoiled young punk you are." "Arrange a meeting? I don't see any Sir Ralph Hamilton!" "He'll be back in a second, when he finishes his phone call." "Oh, alright, back in a second. When did he leave?... Why are you staring at me like this?" "Never mind, it's nothing..." Silence. "There he is!" "Where?" "If you wouldn't insist on your stupid sun glasses, you'd notice him over there by the statues." "You're seeing ghosts. There is nobody out there." "For Caine's sake, shut up!... There he comes. Everything okay in Alexandria, Ralph?" Dre watches her in amazement. "But... Dre's sitting here right next to me." A slight hysteria creeps into Brachah's voice. "Caine, I really hate it when this happens to me", Dre sighs and lights another cigarette. Strategy: For the first time in the game's history the Camarilla clans were supplied with pre-constructed starter decks. As these naturally form the perfect starting point for a new player, I will quickly discuss the contents of the Brujah starter. Crypt: Akram (Brujah 8, CEL pot pre QUI, Primogen, may burn 1 blood to restart combat once) Allison Maller (Brujah 4, cel pre pot) Brachah (Brujah 5, CEL for PRE) * she's a misprint, card says CEL for POT * Constanza Vinti (Brujah 8, CEL DOM POT, Prince, +2 bleed against Venrue) Donal O'Connor (Brujah 8, CEL DOM POT, Prince, blocking minion burns one blood) Gwendolyn (Brujah 11, aus CEL FOR POT PRE THA, Inner Circle - 4 votes, +2 bleed) Menele (Brujah 10, aus CEL dom POT PRE THA, may move 2 blood to younger vampire during untap, +1 bleed) Pug Jackson (Brujah 6, CEL for POT pre, Primogen) Raziya Samater (Brujah 3, ani pot) Theo Bell (Brujah 7, cel dom POT pre, may attack as d-action, if you have ready Prince or Justicar no bloodhunts may be called against him) Vasilis, The Traitor of Don Cruez (Brujah 2, pre, Giovanni get +1 bleed against you) Volker, The Puppet Prince (Brujah 5, CEL pot, Prince, cannot block Primogen) The deck really suffers from the fact that all the Dark Sovereigns and Ancient Hearts vampires are included. They are great, but they need a library to make them work. Since the pre-constructed doesn't include any Dominate cards or Traditions, the mighty Constanza and Donal are reduced to CEL/POT vampires with 2 votes. Presence, the bleed/vote support discipline of our clan, is hardly represented properly as Raziya, Volker, Donal and Constanza come without. The average capacity of the vampires is also very high. Library: 2 Acrobatics 1 Anathema 1 Blood Doll 1 Blood Hunt 4 Blur 7 Bum's Rush 1 Burning Wrath 1 Cairo Int'l Airport 1 Concealed Weapon 1 Disarm 2 Dread Gaze 5 Enchant Kindred 1 Fame 1 Fast Hands 1 Flak Jacket 6 Flash 1 Fractured Armament 2 Haven Uncovered 1 Illegal Search and Seizure 2 Immortal Grapple 1 Infernal Pursuit 1 IR Goggles 1 Legal Manipulations 1 Meat Cleaver 1 Mighty Grapple 1 Minion Tap 1 Mob Connections 1 Oxford University, England 1 Psyche! 1 Rampage 2 Sacrament of Carnage 1 Sawed-Off Shotgun 1 Speed of Thought 1 Sport Bike 1 Stutter-Step 2 Taste of Vitae 5 Thrown Gate 4 Thrown Sewer Lid 1 Trap 1 Treachery 4 Wake with Evening's Freshness 1 Warzone Hunting Ground 1 Wooden Stake The library comes pretty close to the classic Brujah bruise'n'bleed type with mainly long-range combat. It seems odd that it includes only one Psyche with all those Gates and Lids, but two Immortal Grapple and just a few hand strikes. My guess is that this was made to supply new players with a good stock of necessary cards for the future. Not much pool-gain in here unfortunately, with only one Blood Doll, one Minion Tap and the very conditional Anathema. Good selection of cards overall, with Disarm (formerly extremely rare and sought after) being the jewel. As mentioned above making this work with the supplied crypt is a different story. How to turn this into a successful deck: There is not much you can do if you only have the starter. You can't change the crypt without getting more vampires, and for the library you have only one option: Cut the crap. Luckily there is not too much unusable stuff in there, so the minimum of 60 cards will not be a problem. I would remove Cairo Int'l, 2 Dread Gaze, Speed Of Thought, Treachery, Mob Connections, Blood Hunt, Illegal Search and Seizure, Oxford University, Flak Jacket and the Trap - not because these are all bad cards, but to slim the deck so you will cycle to the essential bits faster. The next step: It's very simple: Buy another Brujah starter. It won't solve all problems (especially crypt construction is still a bitch), but not only will you have many basic cards for good Brujah decks in sufficient quantities, you will also be able to focus the deck. More on this below in the deck section. How to further improve the deck: Buy boosters and start trading like crazy. Or find some established players who might be willing to give you loads of commons (maybe in exchange for a rare that is valuable but that you don't need at the moment). First and foremost you need close-range combat stuff: Torn Signpost, Undead Strength. Due to the strong Euro-Brujah contingent in the crypt you will want to get a few Dominate cards, especially Govern The Unaligned and Deflection. Second Traditions will see you heading in the old-style Euro-Brujah direction, but more blood management is needed for all kinds of Brujah decks. Especially more Blood Dolls would be welcome, but they are hard to get as they are only included in the starters. If you cannot trade for them after buying a few boosters you should maybe get the Toreador starter: It contains 2 Blood Dolls, some useful weapons (.44's), plus this clan shares two disciplines (Celerity and Presence) with the Brujah. Have a look around in my newsletter archive, in the newsgroup or on other sites. There are many successful Brujah decks published. The deck lists will show you which cards you want to be looking for. Deck: Without any decent princely stuff (apart from the Anathemas) in the starters I decided not to use the Euro-Brujah for my "Take two" approach on the Brujah pre-constructed (*). That basically means doubling up on anyone that makes any sense among the remaining vampires. Menele is expensive, but his special is worth it. Try to bring him out first or not at all. Gwendolyn is out - just too expensive. The main focus of the deck is long-range combat with added bleed potential, although the Enchant Kindreds are good for pool-gain if (again) you get out Menele. He and/or Theo are key to make this deck work, with Pug nearly as essential. The combat is good against anything but S:CE, pool-gain and intercept are the weak spots. On its first outing in a combat-heavy environment it did fairly well, winning one table and dying on the other, but not without putting up a good fight. If you are not screwed by the crypt, it works better than it looks on paper. (*) It's worth mentioning that you could try a pure CEL/pot long range rush deck: Donal, Constanza, Theo, Pug and Volker x2 each, Raziya and Allison to round it up (or Akram x2 for his in-built Psyche if you see more S:CE, but that's pretty desperate cost-wise). Basically use the same library, but take out all Enchant Kindreds/Legal Manipulation and put in a 4 more Bum's Rushes and the 2 Anathemas. Try to keep the library as small as possible and kill everyone. I think the other deck is better for a new player for two main reasons: 1.To win a game with a rush deck is more difficult than the "bleed, if blocked, kill" way of doing it. 2.The Euro-Brujah get contested a lot. I might give it a go though and let you know if it plays okay. Take That Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 12, Max: 35, Avg: 5,75) --------------------------------------------- 1 Akram (Brujah 8, CEL pot pre QUI 8, Primogen) 2 Allison Maller ( Brujah 4, cel pot pre) 2 Menele (Brujah 10, aus CEL dom POT PRE THA) 2 Pug Jackson (Brujah 6, CEL for POT pre, Primogen) 2 Theo Bell (Brujah 7, cel dom POT pre) 2 Vasilis (Brujah 2, pre) 1 Volker (Brujah 5, CEL pot, Prince) Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (12 cards) 2 Blood Doll 2 Fame 4 Haven Uncovered 2 Minion Tap 1 Oxford University, England 1 Warzone Hunting Ground Action (14 cards) 4 Bum's Rush 7 Enchant Kindred 2 Legal Manipulations 1 Rampage Reaction (5 cards) 5 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (54 cards) 8 Blur 2 Burning Wrath 1 Concealed Weapon 2 Disarm 1 Fast Hands 9 Flash 1 Infernal Pursuit 2 Psyche! 4 Sacrament of Carnage 2 Stutter-Step 4 Taste of Vitae 8 Thrown Gate 10 Thrown Sewer Lid Equipment (5 cards) 1 Meat Cleaver 2 Sawed-Off Shotgun 2 Sport Bike Final Words: A new set like CE is something you can't digest in just a few weeks. So I'll start to work my way through the new vampires in the next issue, trying to find out how the balance of power has shifted. Thanks for reading Skaffen skaffen_amtiskaw"at"mail"dot"ru www.8ung.at/colddawn "ESTRAGON: He should be here. VLADIMIR: He didn't say for sure he'd come. ESTRAGON: And if he doesn't come? VLADIMIR: We'll come back tomorrow. ESTRAGON: And then the day after tomorrow. VLADIMIR: Possibly. ESTRAGON: And so on. VLADIMIR: The point is... ESTRAGON: Until he comes." (Samuel Beckett, 'Waiting for Godot')