V:EKN Official Toreador Newsletter
August 2003

Introduction:

Summer is about to close in Sweden, people are making it back from
their holidays and all in all more players are showing up after a
very slow July. Still there has been enough gaming to see how the
Anarchs are impacting the weekly games.
As expected the first cards to make a repeated presence in the games
have been vampires, and usually comparatively low capacity ones at
that.

A few deckstyles based on the Anarch concept are beginning to form,
but only two distinct versions are seen in the hands of players not
having communicated their strategy between themselves beforehand.
One is based on the card Diversion and the other makes use of the
multi-blood-hunting suddenly available.

Apart from that, and the occasional Anarch/Barons/vote deck, we only
see a few new cards thrown in to strenghthen an older deck.


Cards:

So, let's have a look at the three cards that have caught the interest
of our local playgroups.


Cardname: Diversion
Cardtype: Combat
Set: Anarchs
Discipline: Thaumaturgy/Fortitude/Celerity
Cardtext: Requires a ready anarch.
[cel] Gain one additional strike.
[for] Prevent up to 2 damage.
[tha] Strike: ranged. Steal 1 blood with an optional maneuver.

I mostly see this card used with fortitude. A few of us combine it
with thaumaturgy but it's seldomly used with celerity.


Cardname: Hospital Food
Cardtype: Master
Set: Anarchs
Cardtext: Master: unique location. Requires a ready anarch.
Tap when an anarch announces a hunting action. If that action is
successful, the anarch gains an additional blood.

The only cost for this card is the Masterslot it occupies. It's also
one of the cards that allow for agressive hunting, for example with
Kyoko Shinsegawa.


Cardname: The Anarch Free Press
Cardtype: Master
Set: Anarchs
Cost: 1 pool
Cardtext: Unique master. Requires a ready anarch.
Put this card into play. You may tap this card to give an anarch you
control +1 intercept for the current action. You may tap this card when
an anarch successfully hunts to give that anarch an extra blood from
the blood bank.

This gem of a card actually sees a fair amount of contesting. As a
KRCG News Radio at half cost, but without the problems associated with
being a location and the added opportunity to gain extra blood when
hunting should the need for intercept be absent we really have a winner!


One old card making it back into the decks using the mastercards above
is:

Cardname: Aaron's Feeding Razor
Cardtype: Equipment
Set: CE, Jyhad, VTES
Cost: 1 pool
Cardtext: Unique equipment.
If the vampire with this equipment successfully hunts, he or she gains 1
additional blood.


Toreador and anarchs:

So how are the Toreador affected by the new expansion? Well, from what
I see locally - effectively not at all. There's the Baron/vote angle,
but that actually only lowers the capacity of your crypt by two while
forcing you to create a major setup, but yes, it's still probably the
most efficient way of using as large a number of the new cards as
possible with the Toreador. Still I see Ventrue and especially Daughters
gaining more here.

Michael Luther, though, is definitely a one-vampire-menace more often
than not allowing gunfighting Toreador to only defend against bleeds
and dropping vote-defence altogether.


The Anarch set, a reflection:

The new expansion has made an impact though. If we were combatmad
earlier it's nothing compared to the current average. Visiting the UK
for their EC qualifier I noted that a lot of combat was present there
as well. I find a bit difficult to see exactly how, but my guess is
that the additions to the Gangrel have forced a responce from other
players as well.

		Sten During