Table of Contents: 1. Whispers from the Dead: Under the Buzzer 2. Possession and Other Fine Italian Cheeses 3. Focus on the Family: Rudolpho Giovanni 4. Deck: Something's Breeding in the Sewers Whispers from the Dead: Under the Buzzer Once again, the Newsletter comes out late this month. Sorry, real life keeps the pressure up on me. I might be late regularly with this newsletter, but it gives you time to think about the other newsletters first. Earlier, I got this letter from Vinícius Almeida, who has this to say about my approaches to Death Pact: >And if I put 02 or 03 Julius in the crypt (Caitiff. Burn him if he goes >to torpor) and, in active region, stick on him many Death Pacts? >Wouldn't it be a sad coincidence if, after, he enters in combat or >blocks anyone? O-) Ah, yes... Julius is a beautiful choice for getting your soul into debt. Next month I'll discuss Death Pact in as much gory detail as I can muster. I'll eventually even show why his disciplines of Serpentis and Quietus can be useful to the Giovanni. Also, here's another piece of fan mail from Gwen Morse: >Good luck on your thesis proposal! I hope you'll still have time to >evaluate the Giovanni each month! > >I really enjoyed the evaluation of Regina and Allies (and how Regina >works well WITH allies). That's the first time (I know of) that >someone pointed out that recruiting allies on the cheap is a way to >buffer her cost. Another bit of information to help my own learning >advancement! > >I'm hoping you'll get a chance to write an issure for May (or June, >should you be delayed) getting back to the card evaluations you >teased us with in past issues (mentions of things that you "would" >write about but haven't yet!) Thank you for your words of encouragement! Don't worry, I'm not gone yet. Just busy. Here's this month's newsletter to prove it! As always, I'm still looking for submissions. I'll take anything from short letters to decks, strategy articles, and stories on how a certain deck fared, and why or why not! Thank you for all your support, everyone! Possession and Other Fine Italian Cheeses One of the important turning points in a player's development of Jyhad strategies is the realization that all resources, with the exception of your last pool, are expendable. (Even your last pool may be expendable in some Life Boon decks.) You should be prepared for the loss of your vampires, from Uriah Winter to Arika. However, the above realization suddenly gives you the freedom to do something new: use the destruction of your own vampires to your benefit. It's not easy, but it is quite useful in the right circumstances. The Giovanni have easy access to a card that turns this sort of masochistic strategy into an easy return on investment: Possession. Possession Action 2 blood Inf: Move any vampire from your ash heap to your inactive region. Sup: Move a vampire from your ash heap to your active region (turn him or her face up) and move one blood from the blood bank to the vampire. There are, at present, three other ways to bring vampires back from the grave. They are Gaspare Giovanni, Pere Lachaise, France, and Hand of Conrad. During your master phase, Gaspare may spend 2 blood to move a vampire from your ash heap to the top of your crypt. Pere Lachaise, France, is a unique burnable location costing 3 pool that lets you return a vampire from the grave in capacity turns. As an action, the vampire with the Hand of Conrad can move a vampire from your ash heap to your inactive region. Gaspare's advantage is that it doesn't cost an action, but the vampire ends up in your crypt instead of anywhere else. Pere Lachaise doesn't cost an action, either, and you get the vampire essentially for free at full capacity once you've waited long enough. However, the pool cost is huge, a simple burning action will destroy your investment of time and money, and many games don't last more than 10 turns anyway, so the game might be over before the vampire reappears. The Hand of Conrad is cheap (it costs a pool and an action, but you also get POT out of the deal) but it also only moves vampires into the inactive region. At superior, Possession has the best advantage of all: instant gratification. Essentially, Possession at superior doesn't even cost an action, because once you've performed it, you've got another untapped vampire with 1 blood ready to act. By itself, it allows for some fun convolutions, such as in "To Hell and Back" (q.v. Feb, 99): Ingrid Russo bleeds for lots unblockably and burns, Rudolpho Possesses Ingrid, Ingrid bleeds for lots again. However, since it costs 2 blood, you might want to save the rescue of 1-cap vampires to the Hand of Conrad, depending on how much pool and how much blood you can afford to spend. The first clear card that a Possession strategy suggests is the Soul Gem of Etrius. When a vampire carrying a Soul Gem burns, then the top vampire of your crypt comes out. If that vampire is younger than the burned vampire, then the new vampire comes out into play at full capacity and with the Soul Gem. It's amazingly useful and abusive, and one reason behind errata to Return to Innocence and Golconda. Of course, however, there's the sticky problem of having to burn one of your vampires for this to work. With Possession, both the old soul and the new soul can be fighting side by side, and even in the same turn! One word of warning with the Soul Gem, however: don't double up on too many vampires, or you could quickly see yourself in a big contest with yourself! The other major important trick to Possession is being able to return vampires from the grave, even if you hadn't paid to bring them out in the first place. There are two ways to do this, but, unfortunately, they're both pretty difficult to pull off. The first is Goodnight, Sweet Prince, a Ravnos card that allows you to send vampires from any crypt to their owner's ash heaps, including yours. However, melding the Ravnos and Necromancy is no simple task. Secondly, there's Might of the Camarilla, a vote callable by a Justicar or Inner Circle member to cause everyone to burn a vampire in his or her inactive region. Unfortunately, no Camarilla vampire starts out with Necromancy and no Giovanni will ever become a member of the Inner Circle or Justicar without a Clan Impersonation. These are very hard to set up. However, once they are set up, the cost per new active vampire goes down quickly. Ideally, you should be able to do something like Might of the Camarilla, Possession and Soul Gem, Possession. In fact, if you're playing with enough Possession, diablerie becomes a viable option. Either by burning your own vampires and pulling back the casualties, or by killing off opponents' vampires and accepting the Blood Hunt yourself. In fact, diablerie, Soul Gem, Possession is a wonderful combination. Kill off an opponent, and get an extra vampire from the deal! Focus on the Family: Rudolpho Giovanni I must admit, Rudolpho is by far my favorite Giovanni. As a 3-cap, he's reasonably inexpensive. With NEC, he can handle lots of interesting actions without too much investment. All of my decks that use Giovanni include at least one, if not more, of him. However, if we look at Rudolpho in terms of the basic strategies, he fails miserably. He's a pitiful bleeder, only able to muster +1 stealth at a cost of 1 blood. Similarly, in blocking, he can only muster +1 intercept at a cost of 1 blood, and then sit and whimper. In combat, he's most likely to die or run away before he gets to the second round for a Torment the Soul. Finally, as a voter, he's a complete joke--he has no political disciplines, and he doesn't even have a sect! Why, of all people, would Rudolpho be useful? The answer is that he's a brilliant vampire for one often-neglected important part of strategy: he's a supporter. When I see Rudolpho doing his thing, he's not an up-front guy influencing the masses or playing hitman. He's the sort of guy who spends his day (or night) at a desk in a back room. When all is running smoothly, you'll never know he's there. But once he's gone, suddenly all the bleeders, fighters, etc. have a big hole in their supply lines. The secret is in his superior Necromancy. Only four other vampires have NEC: Regina, Enzo, Carlotta, and Rafaele, and they're all at least twice the size of Rudolpho. Since he's a 3-cap, you can get him out on the first turn and soon have him setting the stage for his friends. And the stages he can set! Necromancy's greatest strengths are in its actions. With Possession and Compel the Spirit, he can quickly refill your falling ranks. With Jar the Soul and Release of the Shackled Soul, he'll open up your opponents' defenses quickly and cheaply. Also, since NEC is the only thing he has (other than just being Giovanni), you don't have to feel bad that he might be doing something else better, because he won't. Note, however, that although he can come out on the first turn, he can't really support your other minions until they're already there, so you might want him to come out second or third, instead. In fact, his low capacity is practically his biggest problem. Since most of the above actions cost blood, he'll be out of blood very quickly. Luckily, the Giovanni have one of the best support networks for blood supply. After your standard techniques, there's Leonardo and Acquired Ventrue Assets to keep the blood flowing onto him. Also, you'll want to keep a couple Spiritual Interventions or the like handy to help get him out of a sticky situation. Luckily, he's not your typical rush target. Unless the rusher is attacking the weak (and ignoring the strong, usually a bad idea) your other, more weaponlike vampires (bleeding Gloria, punching Gaspare, big nasty Carlotta) will draw your opponents' ire, leaving Rudolpho back at his desk, keeping the infinite stream of Glorias, Gaspares, and Carlottas coming. As a final note, he's also the perfect vampire for the Hand of Conrad. Since he doesn't have POT, he'll get full usage out of that card, and he can cheaply pull weenies like Hasina and Julius back into action without costing an extra card slot or two blood for each weenie. Rudolpho won't win any games by himself, but he'll pave the road to victory for the rest of your vampires. Deck: Something's Breeding in the Sewers Here's my attempt to use and abuse Possession. I can't guarantee it's too effective; one of the problems of Possession is that by itself it can't hurt anyone; you have to use what you get to hurt others. However, you should be able to pull one or two big guys out, essentially for free. Crypt: Harrod Sheldon, Lord of the Clog Selma, the Repugnant Murat Nikolaus Vermeulen Grendel, the Worm Eaten Aggrippina Duck Dimple KoKo Carlotta Giovanni Rafaele Giovanni Gaspare Giovanni Rudolpho Giovanni Mario Giovanni Cristofero Giovanni Best: 10, Worst: 36, Average: 5.4 Ugly crypt, but hopefully, that will be to your advantage. Masters: (14) 2x Recruitment 5x Effective Management 4x Necromancy 2x Minion Tap 1x Secret Library of Alexandria Actions: (18) 7x Possession 3x Kindred Intelligence 4x Bum's Rush 1x Imperial Decree 3x The Fifth Tradition: Hospitality Political Actions: (13) 2x Giovanni Acceptance 3x Nosferatu Justicar 1x Praxis Seizure: Venice 2x other Praxis Seizures 5x Might of the Camarilla Retainers/Equipment: (8) 2x Guiseppe, Gravedigger 1x Hand of Conrad 1x Changeling Skin Mask 4x Soul Gem of Etrius Action Modifiers: (9) 3x Faceless Night 2x Lost in Crowds 3x Cryptic Rider 1x Soul Stealing Combat: (28) 4x Undead Strength 4x Torn Signpost 5x Immortal Grapple 5x Disarm 3x Amaranth 2x Ritual of the Bitter Rose 3x Spiritual Intervention 2x Behind You! Give it a try. It probably needs tweaking, but it will give you a start. I'm thinking about somehow adding a Storm Sewers or maybe a couple Destructive Secrets and a Labyrinth. Next month: How to Declare Bankruptcy on your Soul. John Baker Clan Giovanni Newsletter Editor