Introduction: Early spring, at least at this northern part of the world, and we're still in the middle of continental qualifiers. The first results have arrived and clan Toreador is sadly lacking among the winners. Late april and early may should see a frenzied activity on different forums as the release of the Anarch set draws close. Players from at least seven regions will have a major problem with split vision as the release will be very close in time to seven continental championships. The qualifier at Origins may very well turn out to include some mad gaming as there is a possibility that the new cards will have been tournament legal for an amount of time that could be measured in hours rather than days. On tournaments: We've been having a couple of limited tournaments this year as well as travelling to one in Denmark. I can definitely recommend the format as you could hardly have more fun buying your cards. i'm looking forward to the Anarch expansion to see if it works differently from a limited format aspect. I believe there is a need of more limited tournaments as it's a good way of introducing new players to the tournamentarena. They can play on the same terms as us with huge amounts of cards, and they actually build up their collections in a consistent way. The Camarilla Edition suffers from lack of wake-capacity and reliable bloating apart from voting and Minion Tap - at least if you're booster- drafting. On new players: Having convinced some ten new players that VTES is a good game we do see the problems with decks based on Camarilla Edition only. Fourtenately those of us with large collections are able to help out with staples, but it's painfully clear that the old argument that any player can easily build up a collection of cards to play in a competitive way is far from true. It's simply a matter of money. By now I'm VERY happy that the Camarilla Edition included a lot of reprints, but a few "goes into every deck" are sadly missing unless the new player is to buy several copies of starter decks. Having said all this it would seem very likely that new players need access to experienced players with very large collection of cards in order to stay interested in the game. On a different theme - there is very little complaint from our newbies about different layout - even though they seem to prefer the new one. On old players: Having access to a place to play friendly games is important as well, and someones home is simply not enough. Depending on the profile of your new players, or actually your preferred profile, different types of locations makes different players. A gamingstore will get you younger people who are still studying while a pub/cafe etc will get you a larger portion of older people with jobs. After a while games at home will start up naturally and your weekly games at the public place becomes an event that attracts a smaller portion of the entire playgroup with different faces being there from week to week. Without new players you'll slowly see the old ones disappear, so getting more people into the game is important to keep a healthy playgroup. For long term survival of the local arena several playgroups are needed as they create crossbreeding of playstyles within a limited geographical area. Retrospect newsletter mars 2003: Experimenting with Fortitude and Toreador Grand Ball almost turned out to be a success. Three gamewins into the final but hopelessly outclassed during that final. Well, I've never grabbed three GW during the prelims before. The deck has proven itself to be comparatively effective during our weekly games as well. Name: CE Mastering the unblockable Loop Author: Sten During Description: Camarilla Edition of my old looping Toreador Grand Ball deck. Gun away when blocking and don't get blocked while acting. Slow starting, but the Freak Drives will get you back soon enough. Crypt Cards Total: 12 Min: 11 Max: 40 Avg: 6.5 Name Amount Annabelle Triabell 1 Emerson Wilkershire III 1 Francois Villon 1 Ira Rivers 1 Isabel de Leon 2 Madame Guil 3 Marcellus 1 Yvette, The Hopeless 2 Library Cards Total: 90 Name Amount Master Total: 23 Art Museum 1 Blood Doll 7 Club Zombie 1 Fortitude 4 KRCG News Radio 1 London Evening Star, Tabloid Newspaper 1 Powerbase: Montreal 1 Society Hunting Ground 1 The Rack 1 Toreador Grand Ball 5 Action Total: 4 Bum's Rush 1 Harass 2 Nose of the Hound 1 Political Action Total: 3 Parity Shift 3 Action Modifier Total: 8 Freak Drive 8 Combat Total: 16 Pursuit 5 Sideslip 5 Taste of Vitae 6 Reaction Total: 24 Eagle's Sight 3 Forced Awakening 7 Second Tradition: Domain 9 Telepathic Misdirection 5 Equipment Total: 10 Assault Rifle 5 IR Goggles 2 Palatial Estate 1 Pier 13, Port of Baltimore 1 Sport Bike 1 Retainer Total: 2 Mr. Winthrop 1 Resplendent Protector 1 I did try out the idea of basing a deck on Scorn of Adonis in order to find out if the card only looks like a good idea or actually does function in a real game. Five "friendly" games later I've won three tables and been crushed at another two. Name: Disrespect Author: Sten During Description: Vote, breed and bleed. Most voting damage will probably occur as a result of Scorn of Adonis rather than actually passing the vote. If you're caught behind an intercept wall you'll probably have to do nothing but bleed, bring up more weenies and wait until he/she runs out of wake/untap capacity. If you're caught between two such decks you'll die horribly - and never forget that this deck will make you no friends. I, for one, am one of the first to agree to killing it off first should I ever see it on the table. I have Booned for 14 with this deck. I have also been asked what I could possibly do when totally outvoted, and I responded by bleeding for one - with eleven vampires. If your environment is filled with intercepting combat I'd recommend dropping both daggers and both retainers in favour of three dodges and another Majesty. In any case, if you finish the game with less than a fourth of your vampires in torpor you should be happy. Crypt Cards Total: 12 Min: 10 Max: 26 Avg: 4.42 Name Amount Anson 1 Colin Flynn 1 Delilah Easton 1 Demetrius Slater 1 Dieter Kleist 1 Dorian Strack 1 Felicia Mostrom 1 Isabel de Leon 1 Mariana Gilbert 1 Ramiel DuPre 1 Tatiana Romanov 1 Victoria Ash 1 Library Cards Total: 90 Name Amount Master Total: 15 Archon Investigation 3 Art Museum 1 Effective Management 5 Elysium: The Arboretum 1 Elysium: The Palace of Versailles 1 Information Highway 1 Society Hunting Ground 1 Sudden Reversal 2 Action Total: 12 Arson 2 The Embrace 10 Political Action Total: 25 Consanguineous Boon 6 Conservative Agitation 3 Disputed Territory 1 Kindred Segregation 1 Kine Resources Contested 5 Peace Treaty 1 Praxis Seizure: Athens 1 Praxis Seizure: Atlanta 1 Praxis Seizure: Cairo 1 Praxis Seizure: Cleveland 1 Praxis Seizure: London 1 Praxis Seizure: Monaco 1 Praxis Seizure: Paris 1 Toreador Justicar 1 Action Modifier Total: 25 Change of Target 9 Scorn of Adonis 16 Combat Total: 3 Majesty 3 Reaction Total: 4 Telepathic Counter 4 Equipment Total: 4 Ivory Bow 1 Monocle of Clarity 1 Sengir Dagger 1 The Crimson Sentinel 1 Retainer Total: 2 J. S. Simmons, Esq. 1 Tasha Morgan 1 The two decks are somewhat archetypical of two distinctly different styles of playing the Toreador. Either "block and kill" with high capacity gunning princes or "go for it" with close to no reactive defence at all - something that requires small, expendable, vampires. The perceptive reader will also notice that the vampires from 1994 and 1995 are most definitely still playable. Sten During