=========================================== DAUGHTER OF CACOPHONY PLAYBILL, JULY 2006 =========================================== Written by Hyllan (caroline_hyll@yahoo.com) Co-edited by Forrest Nielsen Contents: I. Introduction II. Cards of the Month - Melpominee, Presence and Fortitude combat cards III. Vampire of the Month - Rosemarie and Muse IV. Strategy of the Month - Daughter Combat V. Decks of the Month - Two ways to fight with the Daughters VI. Conclusion --------------Introduction------------- Welcome! Some of you might remember that I said that the Strategy of the Month of my next Playbill would continue the discussion about sects. Well, I lied. This Playbill will be about Daughter Combat! -------------Cards of the Month------------ This month we'll take a look at some combat cards that can be found among the Daughter's in-clan disciplines. I've ignored purely defensive combat cards such as Strike: combat ends, and I've assumed that you're already familiar with most Fortitude prevent cards. *Death of the Drum* Rarity: C Type: Combat card Cost: 1 blood Requirement: [cel], [mel], [MEL] Text: Only usable at long range. [cel] strike: 1R damage. [mel] Strike: 2R damage, only preventable by cards that require Fortitude or Visceratika. [MEL] As [mel] above, and the damage is aggravated. Death of the Drum was perhaps the most surprising new Melpominee card in Legacies of Blood. Melpominee making aggravated damage? Daughter combat decks? Pre Legacies of Blood, people would have laughed at the thought. But now the Daughters have it. Two aggravated damage burns a vampire with 0 blood. 2R damage which is difficult to prevent is not bad either. Difficult to prevent, yes.... Death of the Drum introduced a new prevention concept: strikes *only* preventable by certain disciplines. Before Death of the Drum, we were use to damage unpreventable by certain disciplines, such as Blood Fury and other thaumaturgy strikes. The fact that Fortitude is the most common damage prevention discipline makes Death of the Drum a more balanced card that it would have been if Visceratika only could have prevented the damage. It also makes the card more difficult to use, since lots of combat decks will use Fortitude for prevention. But still, Leathery Hide, Sideslip, Flesh of Marble, Guardian Angel, Flak Jacket, Leather Jacket, Apparition and Typhonic Beast, to mention some examples, cannot prevent the damage from Death of the Drum. The Celerity version of Death of the Drum is not very mighty, and will almost never see use. But if one is running Ishtarri or Toreador support and has the opportunity to kill a low-life retainer employed by the opposing minion, it just might be worth 1 blood to do 1R damage. Like all combat cards only usable at long range, Death of the Drum is vulnerable to Drawing out the Beast and Terror Frenzy. Sire's Index Finger is a given addition to a Death of the Drum deck. If one is running Dominate-support together with the Daughters, it might be worth including a Tranquility or two in the deck. Groundfighting is another card which may cancel DotB or TF, and the Daughters are decent Anarchs, but sadly Groundfighting cannot be used to cancel the troublesome cards unless one has a gun. Splashing an Anarch deck with Zip Guns or other guns just to be able use Groundfighting is doubtfully worth the trouble. *Siren's Lure* Rarity: R Type: Action Modifier Cost: None Requirement: [cel], [mel], [MEL] Text: [cel] This vampire burns 2 blood to get +1 stealth. [mel] Only usable by an untapped ready vampire other than the acting minion when a minion attempts to block. That minion cannot block this action. Tap this vampire and that minion. Once the action resolves, this vampire enters combat with that minion. [MEL] As [mel] above, but do not tap this modifying vampire. While not a combat card per se, Siren's Lure is together with Death of the Drum the cornerstone of Daughter of Cacophony combat. Siren's Lure has always been one of the best Melpominee cards - it taps a blocking minion regardless of its capacity and continues the action - but the "once the action resolves, this (modifying) vampire enters combat with that minion" cost of the card has only been annoying rather than anything else. Until now. With Death of the Drum as a way to actually do serious damage in combat, Siren's Lure has turned into an anti-block card and a rush card rolled into one. Bruise'n'bleed at its best. *Undead Persistence* Rarity: U Type: Combat card Cost: None Requirement: [for], [FOR] Text: [for] Only usable when this vampire should go into torpor. This vampire gets an optional press and will not go to torpor until combat ends (although he or she is still considered wounded and can be burned as normal). If three rounds of combat pass with no cards played, combat ends. This vampire is sent into torpor after combat. [FOR] Prevent 1 or 2 damage. Pre-Legacies of Blood, Trap+Undead Persistence was the only frightening offensive combat - aside from weapons - available to the Daughters for a long time. Trap+ UP combat requires some preparation when it comes to other cards in the deck. Humanitas and Catacombs for cheaper rescues by your other vampires are good choices. Another option is Taste of Vitae and Freak Drive for immediate self-rescue. Taste of Vitae is during all circumstances a good card to play to make the Trap continue. If one has included vote-gaining cards such as Conductor and Bastille Opera House in the deck, an Amaranth or two is not a bad surprise either. -------- Vampires of the Month: Muse revisited, and Rosemarie ------- *Rosemarie* Capacity: 3 Group: 4 Disciplines: [FOR], [mel] Text: Camarilla. Combat Cards that do not require Fortitude cost Rosemarie an additional blood to play. Rosemarie is the smallest vampire in the game with superior Fortitude. Watch softer vampires tremble in fear of Kiss of Ra when Rosemarie is full with blood. Actually, Rosemarie is the only vampire below cap 5 with [FOR]. She makes an excellent addition to many star decks; decks which focuses on a large vampire with weenie groupies. Saulot and Karsh come to mind. Rosemarie has all the advantages of being Camarilla. It's also noteworthy that she lacks the Daughters traditional blocking disadvantage. Her disciplines easily lead one's thoughts to combat, and Fortitude combat is something Rosemarie is truly great at. Sadly, Melpominee combat was not included in her training programme. Paying 2 blood for a [mel] Death of the Drum is not a good use of her blood unless the opposing minion has 1 blood and no way to prevent the damage. Paying 2 blood for a [MEL] Death of the Drum - after Sanguine Instruction or Spontaneous Power - is acceptable, if one is sure that the opposing minion will go to torpor. One should also keep in mind that discipline-less combat cards, like Fake Out, Concealed Weapon and Trap, also costs an additional blood for Rosemarie. *Muse* Capacity: 3 Group: 2 Disciplines: [for] [mel] [ani] Text: Sabbat. -1 intercept. In the Doc Playbill from June 2004, Forrest Nielsen stated that Muse was the weakest of the then existing Daughters. At that time, I would have agreed with him. Neglected in many Daughter decks, she mostly saw use in weenie Animalism decks. But with the arrival of Death of the Drum and the opening of the Daughter Combat strategy, Muse deserves a second chance. As stated in the discussion of Rosemarie, Daughter combat is not very impressive at [mel]. It's not very impressive at [for] either. If one intends to use Muse with one of these two disciplines, she should be taught the superior version. Muse is not a good bleeder. Computer Hacking and Force of Will are the heaviest tools in her bleeding arsenal. Lacking Presence, Muse is not a heavy voter, even if she can get +4 votes with Madrigal and Echo of Harmonies. At the first glance, she's not a good blocker either with her unconditional -1 intercept. But her out-of-clan discipline Animalism allows her to recruit several good animal retainers, and Owl Companions, Murder of Crows and Raven Spies can offer quite good help to the Daughters. Raven Spies can easily boost her intercept, and with Pack Alpha she could get them while in combat. The Animalism part of Muse's abilities is explored in one of the Decks of the Month. ---------------- Strategy of the Month: Daughter Combat --------------- While the combination of Trap and Undead Persistance has been discussed, Daughter combat will almost inevitably be based on Death of the Drum. Therefore this strategy discussion will focus on ways to get the most out of Death of the Drum. Strike: Combat Ends is a blessing for the weak and a taunt for the bold. A wide range of deck uses it as their only combat defence. The Daughters have almost no way to counter S:CE. Which is not the same as no way. NSA Trio, and Event card from the Kindred's Most Wanted expansion, introduced a new, discipline-less way to counter S:CE; one that is usable by both acting and blocking minions. NSA Trio is preferably played in mid-game rather than early-game, since an offensive bleed or vote deck would think twice before wasting an entire turn for removing the Trio then. And such decks are the ones most likely to want to remove it. Superior Death of the Drum attempts to inflict aggravated damage. That is the trigger of Rötschreck. Rötschreck works even if the opposing minion tries to S:CE, since the strike resolution won't be reached. But Rötschreck requires you to be a blocking minion since it's a Master out-of-turn. And there comes the problem. Blocking. Not a famous occupation for the Daughters. Still, a closer look at the Daughter's abilities shows that two vampires in group 3-4, namely Sayshila and the previously discussed Rosemarie, has no blocking or intercept restrictions at all. And Aimee Laroux is only restricted from playing reaction cards. There are extremely few Fortitude and Presence reactions, and the only Melpominee reaction that has anything to do with blocking, Tourette's Voice, can be played by another Daughter to give Aimee intercept. The loss is a small one. Antoinette's -1 intercept is easily cured with a Sport Bike. Yseult has the heaviest disability; she cannot block vampires above cap 4 regardless of the amount of intercept she has. But overall, group 3-4 Daughters are better blockers than group 2-3, and not so much worse blockers than all other vampires. The downside of defence is that it takes energy from the offence. Unless one's combat strategy is based on Fame + Tension + Dragonbound + rush - and rush does not seem to be the best strategy for the Daughters of Cacophony - combat rarely leads to the oust of one's prey. The combat deck will need to be splashed with means to do substantial pool damage. Voting and Choiring are usually too card-intensive to be mixed with the already card-intensive combat strategy, so the choice usually falls on mixing the deck with bleed actions and modifiers. The disadvantage of bruise'n'bleed is that if your vampire is blocked, it's you who have to choose strike first. If you manuever and strike with a Death of the Drum and the opponent S:CE, both your manuever and your strike cards were wasted. Or at least your strike card if you have IR Goggles or something similar to give you manuevers. To plan the combat we need to know our opponents hand. Neither is easily accomplished by Daughters, but two options are Owl Companion and Revelations. Muse can employ the Owls for later transfer to the other Daughters via Heidelberg Castle, Germany. Revelations can be played by [AUS] support, which may also do some bouncing. Maldavis, Isabel de Leon, Zoe and Martin Franckel are all good choices. Sometimes the opponent's hand reveal something truly unpleasant - Mayaparitsaya being one of the worse examples for Daughters - and for those scenarios, it's seldom wrong to include a S:CE or two in a combat deck. Cowards may be cowards, but they do survive to tell the tales. -------------- Decks of the Month ------------ In a maneuver-heavy metagame, one might need to add more manuevers to both of the Decks of the Month. Deck Name: Hard Rock Time - A bruise and bleed deck. Created By: Hyllan Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 12, Max: 24, Avg: 4,66) ---------------------------------------------- 2 Gael Pilet chi pre FOR MEL 6 Daughters of Cacophony 2 Angela Preston for MEL PRE 5 Daughters of Cacophony 2 Muse ani for mel 3 Daughters of Cacophony 1 Delilah Monroe for pre MEL 4 Daughters of Cacophony 2 Yseult FOR MEL PRE 6 Daughters of Cacophony 1 Antonino ani pre pro FOR 6 Gangrel 1 Bothwell ani for 3 Gangrel 1 Leon ani for 3 Gangrel Antitribu Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (16 cards) 3 Heidelberg Castle, Germany 1 Barrens, The 6 Blood Doll 1 Fame 1 Paris Opera House 2 Perfectionist 1 Spontaneous Power 1 Dreams of the Sphinx Action (14 cards) 1 Sanguine Instruction 2 Entrancement 2 Intimidation 6 Legal Manipulations 2 Social Charm 1 Persistent Echo Action Modifier (18 cards) 6 Siren`s Lure 4 Freak Drive 6 Aire of Elation 2 Change of Target Combat (27 cards) 8 Death of the Drum 4 Fake Out 8 Unflinching Persistence 4 Hidden Strength 2 Soak Ally (5 cards) 1 Gregory Winter 4 Procurer Retainer (5 cards) 3 Owl Companion 2 Murder of Crows Equipment (5 cards) 2 Sire`s Index Finger 1 Ivory Bow 1 Laptop Computer 1 IR Goggles Event (1 card) 1 NSA Trio Deck Name: They're doing what?! - A block/combat deck. Created By: Hyllan Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 10, Max: 26, Avg: 4,58) ---------------------------------------------- 2 Sayshila dem FOR MEL PRE 7 Daughters of Cacophony 2 Yseult FOR MEL PRE 6 Daughters of Cacophony 1 Rosemarie mel FOR 3 Daughters of Cacophony 2 Aimee Laroux for pre 2 Daughters of Cacophony 1 Antoinette Dubois for mel PRE 4 Daughters of Cacophony 1 Maldavis for pre AUS 4 Caitiff 1 Martin Franckel tha AUS 3 Tremere 1 Solomon Batanea nec AUS FOR 5 Harbingers of Skulls 1 Eurayle Gelasia Mylonas for pre AUS OBE 6 Salubri Library: (90 cards) ------------------- Master (16 cards) 4 Rotschreck 1 Parthenon, The 5 Blood Doll 1 Channel 10 1 KRCG News Radio 1 London Evening Star, Tabloid Newspaper 1 The Barrens 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Fame Action (10 cards) 2 Anima Gathering 2 Entrancement 2 Intimidation 2 Legal Manipulations 2 Revelations Action Modifier (8 cards) 4 Freak Drive 2 Siren`s Lure 2 Aire of Elation Reaction (20 cards) 6 Tourette`s Voice 4 Telepathic Misdirection 10 Wake with Evening`s Freshness Combat (26 cards) 7 Death of the Drum 8 Unflinching Persistence 2 Rolling with the Punches 2 Majesty 4 Fake Out 2 Hidden Strength Ally (4 cards) 1 Gregory Winter 2 Procurer 1 Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter) Equipment (6 cards) 2 Sport Bike 1 Ivory Bow 2 Sire`s Index Finger 1 IR Goggles Event (1 card) 1 NSA Trio --------------- Conclusion --------------- I've written a newsletter about combat without mentioning .44 Magnum once. It feels... wrong. As my playgroups can testify, a high percentage of my decks have guns in them, regardless of deck type. Why risk an endgame without a Magnum when one can fix it so easily? So my final words to you will be: in all its simplicity, it's never wrong with a Magnum. /Hyllan