Contents - Section 1.0 - Welcome Section 1.1 - Talking point Section 1.2 - Vampire of the month Section 1.3 - Card of the Month Section 1.4 - Deck of the Month Section 1.5 - Conclusion ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 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. In the last month, those of you who have been reading any of my posts may have noticed that I have been looking at employing Allies as a key deck strategy. Allies are quite often underrated as key game-winners (with few a exceptions - Mr War Ghoul, Mr Ambrosius, go straight to the top of the class) and yet they have some clear advantages over vampires. Quite often you get "more for your money" with allies, as they are endowed with special abilities vampires could only dream of! They are often "cheap" compared to getting a vampire out and yet still count towards your "minion" count (good for some votes, bad for others!) Best of all, they can still use most equipment and weapons and recruit retainers as well as any vampire, giving you perfect scope to tool ‘em up to allow bleeds (Laptops, JS Simmons,and Tasha Morgan), and mega damage (weapons). So as part of the newsletter this month, we will be looking at how the Gangrel can get a slice of hot ally action! Also, we have the Card of the Month and Vampire of the Month to look at and a new feature - Talking Point. Here I will be putting a few ideas and game strategies forward, predominantly Gangrel related. Enjoy! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Section 1.1 TALKING POINT Today’s talking point is around torpor: Is torpor such a bad thing for Gangrels? I believe that torpor is a particularly pertinent subject for the Gangrel, because they have such a strong fix of Fortitude and Protean in their blood. These allow cards such as Movement of the Slow Body and Rapid Healing to manipulate to your liking any "visits" to torpor. Furthermore, if one of your minions has a Humanitas and the Catacombs, you can bring a minion back from torpor for free at +3 stealth! There are actually some benefits to being in torpor! You can also play Regeneration (to gain up to 5 blood with superior Fortitude) and a Movement of the Slow Body (gaining another point of blood with superior Protean) from torpor - net effect being 6 blood back on the vampire before he or she attempts to leave. Also, don’t forget Blood Dolls still work whilst in torpor, as do Minion Taps, allowing you to replenish your pool despite the minion being "motively challenged". There are plenty of cards that actively force a vampire into torpor - in fact the best bleed modifier Gangrels can use with their base skill set (for / ani / pro) is Force of Will. This gives a vampire +2 bleed, and can be used by a tapped vampire (allowing 2 actions a turn before Freak Drives come into play). The trade-off is that it all but guarantees the vampire goes to torpor (unless the vampire also has Serpentis!). Also, 2 of the 3 Action Modifiers that make an action unblockable (Daring the Dawn and Day Operation) will also send the vampire to torpor as the trade-off (interestingly enough, they both use fortitude and the third, Horrific Countenance, uses Protean). Whereas several clans can access these Fortitude based cards (Ventrue, ! Ventrue, Ravnos etc) it is only the Gangrel who can really take advantage of them - because they have access to Protean as well to help them get them out of torpor afterwards. Apart from the previously mentioned Movement of the Slow Body, they also have access to Stealth modifiers - Earth Control, and Rapid Change, which can offer up to +4 Stealth on a rescue from torpor action (+5 if used in conjuction with Backways). Of course, individual vampires can have a better mix of disciplines (eg Nikolaus Vermeulen, with for and obf), but as a clan in general, the Gangrel are best suited to this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Section 1.2 VAMPIRE OF THE MONTH Ingrid Rossler Set: Dark Sovereigns Clan: Gangrel Capacity: 9 Title: Prince of Geneva Ability: If Ingrid is ready, you get two extra transfers during your influence phase. Superior Animalism Inferior Dominate Superior Fortitude Superior Protean I have a particular soft spot for Ingrid. She is, to my mind, the single best value Gangrel "package" you can get! Let’s look at the spec: First off, she has all clan disciplines at superior. Second, she also has a smidgen of Dominate (always good to have). Third, she is a Prince. Finally, she has a built in Information Highway. All this for 9 points!!! She is crucial to bring out first if you are planning to play a larger Gangrel deck, as it is far less likely that she will be contested as opposed to the old favourite IH, which seems to appear in every weenie deck! Her presence will allow you to bring out, say, Stanislava in 2 turns, which can really make the difference. Also, she is one of only 2 Gangrel Princes. This allows 5th Traditions, 2nd Traditions, and votes. Needless to say, a Gangrel Vote deck is still unlikely, but I have been in several games where the presence of Ingrid (and her Scottish cousin, Katrina) ensured no votes passed without my "rubber stamp!" On the downside, 9 points is a "tricky" cost - a three turn wait to bring her out. But once you have, all bets are off. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Section 1.3 CARD OF THE MONTH Renegade Garou Set: VTES Rarity: Rare Type: Ally Clan: Gangrel Pool Cost: 5 Card Text: Ally with 3 life, 2 damage, 0 bleed. Renegade Garou gets one additional strike each round and one optional maneuver each combat. He may enter combat with any minion as a +1 stealth (D) action. If Garou has less than 3 life during your untap phase, add 1 life. Again, this is not cheap, but what a package! Under the hood of this beast lies an engine that will cut through anything - especially if used in conjunction with a trap. He slices (2 hand damage), he dices (additional strike), and he blends (optional maneuver). Better still, he regenerates if he takes a licking. Of course the main plus of the Garou is that he can attack any minion at +1 stealth (better that Beasts special, or Wyns!). This means he can seriously whoop ass... and he’s house trained! Note, though, that he is NOT unique. This means you can have a whole fleet of them... at a serious price "Classic" strategies with the Garou involve packing lots of Dodges, and a serious weapon (Ivory Bow, Sengir Dagger, or my favourite, an Assault Rifle). I have been in games where 1 tooled up Garou stopped the whole board dead. On the downside, that 5 pool is a lot to pay - more than many good vampires. He has only 3 life (and so is fragile), no bleed, and can be burned by votes and cards. But he is still one of the most awesome allies in the game! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Section 1.4 DECK OF THE MONTH Deck name: Release the Hounds, Smithers Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 13, Max: 40, Avg: 7.42] 2 Angus the Unruled (Gangrel, 10, AN ce fo po PT, Justicar) 1 Chandler Hungerford (Gangrel, 3, PT) 1 Daliyah (Nosferatu, 4, ob PT) 1 Giuliano Vincenzi (Gangrel, 2, fo) 3 Ingrid Rossler (Gangrel, 9, AN do FO PT, Prince) 2 Katarina (Gangrel, 9, AN FO po pt, Prince) 1 Roman Alexander (Gangrel, 4, an fo pt) 1 Stanislava (Gangrel, 11, AN CE DO FO PT, Inner Circle) Library: (90 cards) Master (14) 1 Backways 1 Giant's Blood 1 Heidelburg Castle, Germany 1 KRCG News Radio 1 London Evening Star, Tabloid Newspaper 8 Minion Tap 1 Protean Minion (75) 1 Ancient Influence 1 Arson 2 Assault Rifle 2 Computer Hacking 1 Conditioning 2 Deflection 6 Dodge 2 Dog Pack 3 Earth Control 3 Earth Meld 6 Fifth Tradition: Hospitality, The 1 Flak Jacket 2 Flesh of Marble 3 Form of Mist 2 Guard Dogs 1 Ivory Bow 1 J. S. Simmons, Esq. 2 Kindred Coercion 2 Laptop Computer 1 Political Stranglehold 4 Rapid Change 2 Rat's Warning 6 Renegade Garou 1 Sawed-Off Shotgun 2 Second Tradition: Domain 1 Sengir Dagger 2 Skin of Night 2 Sport Bike 2 Superior Mettle 1 Tasha Morgan 3 Trap 2 Undead Persistence 2 Wake with Evening's Freshness 1 Wolf Claws Deadly simple - get Ingrid out really quickly, then buy in as many high capacity vampires as you can. Minion tap and 5th Tradition lots to get pool back, and buy in as many Garous as you can. Then tool them up with weapons, anti S;CE (if you can get the dog packs out), bleed boosters, and intercept (via sports bikes) and... release the hounds!!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Section 1.5 CONCLUSION Thanks for reading (if you got this far you must be doing well!). 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 UGPOW