Contents Section 0.9 - Prelude Section 1.0 - Welcome Section 1.1 - Feral Whispers Section 1.2 - Talking point Section 1.3 - Vampire of the month Section 1.4 - Card of the Month Section 1.5 - Deck of the Month Section 1.6 - Ritual Challenge Section 1.7 - Conclusion -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 0.9 PRELUDE So, this Gangrel and this Nosferatu are sitting next to each other on a flight across the Atlantic (a red eye!). The Nosferatu wants some service, and pushes the little button above his head. The stewardesses ignore him totally, though, so he starts waving. This has no effect either. "That's not gonna get you served," chirps up the Gangrel. "Here, watch this!" And with that, the Gangrel stands up and calls out "OI, BITCH, GET ME A GODDAMNED BLANKET BEFORE I COME UP THERE AND THROW YOU OUT THE GODDAMNED EMERGENCY EXIT!!!" Immediately, a stewardess comes up and gives him a blanket. The Nosferatu tries to attract her attention while she's near, but she ignores him. "Hehehehe, this is fun!" says the Gangrel. "Check this out," and he gets up again "HEY S**T FOR BRAINS, IF I DON’T GET ME A BOX OF DUTY FREE CIGARETTES RIGHT NOW, I'M GONNA RIP YOUR ARMS OFF AND USE THEM AS PILLOWS". Once again, a stewardess quickly arrives with 200 Marlboros. Once again, the Nosferatu tries to attract her attention, but fails. "Oh, baby, I'm Cooking on gas," says the Gangrel, "OK, YOU CHEAP WHORE, GET ME SOMETHING TO READ NOW BEFORE I BREAK YOUR LEGS AND USE YOU FOR A FOOTSTOOL". Once again, a stewardess quickly arrives with a selection of fine magazine. Once again, the Nosferatu tries to attract her attention, but fails. "Ok," says the nervous Nossie "I've had enough of this - HEY, YOU DUMB F*****R, GET ME A HOT TOWEL FOR MY FACE BEFORE I RIP YOUR HEAD OFF AND USE IT AS A BOWLING BALL". At this point, the pilot comes along. "Excuse me, gentlemen", he says "It has come to my attention that you are causing a disturbance and threatening my staff with violence. Under new international air regulations, I have the right to throw you out of the plane for your atrocious behaviour". With that, a scuffle occurs resulting in the two vampires being thrown out of the emergency exit. As they fall unaided to the ground, the Gangrel shouts across to the Nosferatu "I gotta, hand it to you, guy, for a guy who can't fly, you got balls" . With that, he changes into a bat and flies off. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1.0 WELCOME Come, brother, sit by my fire and listen to our tales of old. We are Gangrel and we are the beast. Well, the Final Nights are at hand, apparently. Once again, not an awful lot to declare for us country Gangrel types, but what additions we do have to our card pools are doozies! We'll start having a look at the good stuff this month, plus the results of last months Gangrel Tips competition. Enjoy! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1.1 FERAL WHISPERS The results for last months competition! I had lots of entries - thanks to everyone - but the one that made me giggle the most was this entry from Chris Fairrie in Newcastle, England. Chris, I'll be in touch soon to send you your prize, but nice work! Number One: Bloodletting without the legwork Big problem for many [of my] Gangrel [and Nos] decks is the inability to run your prey out of pool fast enough to keep up with the rest of the table. There's every chance all your prey minions will be dust within a few turns, but if they've got half their original pool left, then thats 15 bleed actions you need to take! One option would be to lose some combat capability to add in some laptops, bleed-retainers and throw in a handful of computer hackings. Here's an alternative; this is the Tip part. Get the millstone grinding your prey down while you're minions are busy breaking heads. Burn their pool without taking bleed actions. Army of Rats is an obvious one for the Gangrel. Does max 1 point every turn, and they're not unique, so you can rack 'em up - should anyone get round to removing the first one. Arcanum Chapterhouse is good, but utterly reliant on Hunting Grounds being used. Fame: make them a star then drop a Gangrel shaped fridge on them. Goes nicely in a rush deck too. Hurts in the region of 4 pool before they can do anything about it (4 bleed actions vs 1 master &1 rush). Another aspect of Fame is that is hurts every player. Useful in bringing pool totals down across the board. Antedeluvian Awakening is another pool burner for everyone. Kind of speeds up the whole game. (sub-tip: avoid Fame on high cap vamps when using AntAwake - otherwise the famous vamp gets sacrificed killing 2 birds with 1 stone) Sabbat Threat, Camarilla Threat are nice additions to this collective, but you gotta get that vote passed. As for taking pool burn yourself, well, if you're frightened of a little pain, you shouldn't be playing Gangrel should you. Number Two: Bait; Its not just bums' & 'bushes that can get you into fights Bait is any resource that somebody either doesn't like or wants from you. If you're gonna use bait then you MUST have intercept, otherwise you'll never catch anyone trying to take it. Another factor is that "bait" is inactive as "bait" until somebody tries to take it. So it's gotta be useful in its own right. Bait cards = Army/Rats, The Rack, various Powerbases; anything that allows another minion to take a Daction against you. Number Three: Its all in the melody A concept more than a working strategy. Some say this was pioneered on Ally McBeal, but I say it came out of the head of a loony Malk I know. Whenever you're playing, you should have a theme song running through your head, to help you get the right attitude for the deck. Rush decks are recommended to use something noisy and fast. Ministry or individual songs like 'After The Flesh' by The Thrill Kill Kult (from the big gun scene in The Crow). New Model Army is nice for a more rounded Gangrel deck - still fairly robust with a dashing of anti-political lyrics and enough aggression to keep you motivated in the fights. (I know I'll get some funny looks about No.3, but it's better than the alternative tip, "Dress2Impress". This involved paying a visit to your local Vampire LARP group the day before a tourney and borrowing a load of furs, a wolf mask and some prosthetic claws. You can guess the rest) Don't forget, mail all comments to at davecrazy@hotmail.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1.2 TALKING POINT Allies and the effect of Final Nights Well, a pure ally deck is now more than ever a feasible strategy. Not that it wasn't before, but now there are so many new cards to help recruit and keep alive you allies. In particular, I'm talking about Left for Dead and Charisma. Left for Dead is particularly useful for the Renegade Garou. Bearing in mind he is the most expensive ally (costing 5 pool), you will want to give him a second chance to avoid him getting burned. Of course, if he survives through to your next turn, he gets life back anyway! Charisma helps with the original cost of recruitment, and is therefore a real winner for lots of decks. Renegade Garous at a 20% discount!!! Werewolf packs at a 33% discount! It really is bargain-tastic. I expect great things of this card. I will only mention briefly Abomination at this point. I think it is a fabulous card, but suffers from one fact - it is unique. You can have a fleet of Garou running over the landscape, but only 1 Abomination. I suspect also that it should really only used with a Werewolf Pack to get value out of it, but I know I for one would not feel comfortable trying to put many of them in a deck. Once I've had a chance to think about it, I will make it card of the month. However, I suspect that this card will not be used too much after the excitement of Final Nights has died down. On the whole, we can see a lot of non-clan, non-discipline cards to make Allies even more viable to play. Abomination helps protect your investment. I have always been very fond of allies, so this can only be a good thing, IMO. Any comments, feel free to post up or mail me at the address below. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1.3 VAMPIRE OF THE MONTH Ramona Clan: Gangrel Capacity: 4 Ability: During your untap phase, you may move 1 blood from any ready Gangrel you control to Ramona Artist(s): John Van Fleet Disciplines : Inferior Fortitude Inferior Protean Well lookie here! The first new Gangrel in nearly 6 years - and ain't she lovely. She is the most underpowered signature character from the clan novels, and yet has a real charm about her. A pro / for combo is always nice to have (even though Roman Alexander has that at the same cost with ani, and Ricki Van Dempsi has the same at 3 cap). The special, although not game changing, is certainly a useful way of passing blood around (and could be quite good with a Blood Doll attached). On the whole, though, I'm a sucker for the artwork. There is something about her that just looks so... Gangrel. I'ts certainly my favourite of all the clan character's artwork. She is nice to have and cheap. Not the greatest vampire in the world, but new and shiny, and you want one. Oh yes you do! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1.4 CARD OF THE MONTH Crimson Fury Type(s): Combat/Reaction Discipline: Animalism Blood Cost: 1 Rarity: Rare Artist(s): Durwin Talon Card Text: Basic This card can be played as a reaction card or a combat card. Only usable when this vampire is being diablerized. Usable by a tapped vampire. Usable by a vampire in torpor The diablerie is cancelled and the diablerist burns 1 blood. Superior Burn both the diablerist and this vampire. (The diablerie is still considered successful.) Not the most obvious card in the world, but this really is great. For the Gangrel who can get in and out of torpor pretty much at will, this is a fine deterrent. The best thing about this card is the fact you can choose which way to leap! If your big boy is being munched by a weenie, you go inferior. If a big vampire tries his luck, you nuke him with the superior. You can be tapped, untapped, in torpor, or just hit with an Ameranth. This card is one of the nicest additions to the Gangrel arsenal since Wolf Claws! It works best with the Gangrel, due to their mastery of torpor via Movement of the Slow Body. The Ravnos have fortitude, but only the Gangrel can get multiple actions in torpor, making them bait or getting to into the land of the living. In all, an awesome card. There could be a great Giovanni / Gangrel deck in there using Wynn (big favourite for taking down), Body of Sun, and Crimson Fury. Then a bit of Demonic Possession using our legitimate business friends, and you're laughing! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1.5 DECK OF THE MONTH This deck was submitted by Kajik, and is pre Final Nights, but it has a lot of Renegade Garou in, and buys me some time to think of a deck to include Abominations, Mythic Forms and other such madness! Crypt 3 Iliana 7 DOM PRO FOR 1 Vanessa 6 DOM FOR 1 Marlene 6 DOM for 1 Camille Devereux 5 PRO FOR 1 Raven 5 PRO FOR 1 Ingrid Russo 4 DOM for 1 Chandler Hungerford 3 PRO 1 Ricki Van Demsy 3 pro for 1 Anastasia Grey 3 pro 1 Guiliano Vincenzi 2 for Deck 1 Eco Terrorist 1 Backways 1 Powerbase Montreal 1 Rack , The 1 Information Higway 4 Blood Doll 1 Demonstration 1 Anarch Troublemaker 1 Direct Intervention 10 Govern the Unaligned 7 Renegade Garou 1 Ivory Bow 1 Gangrel Justicar 3 Restoration 2 Freak Drive 2 Daring the Dawn 4 Form of Mist 3 Earth Control 2 Rapid Change 3 Forced Awakening 7 Deflection 3 Delayed Tactics Nice bit of Gangrel dom bleed, with a lot of Garous thrown in. Once again, it's the crypt raiding power of the Govern the Unalligneds (blood on uncontrolled vamps) that can keep this going. And a herd of Garous is always funny. This could be really fun to play. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1.6 RITUAL CHALLENGE (or COMPETITION CORNER) As I'm feeling particularly lazy at the moment, I'm offering a prize to the deck that can best use Dartmoor, England. Make it something that people would actually WORRY about, as opposed to the "yeah whatever!" people have at the moment. You know where to send it! -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1.7 CONCLUSION Thanks for reading. As before, any comments or ideas, feel free to post, or mail to me at davecrazy@hotmail.com. Any abuse, mail to ghoulsbestfriend@hotmail.com. See y'all David Hammond Uncontested Gangrel Prince Of Watford