Introduction: Autumn is here again with more evenings ready for some casual play. Some players don't show up as often and new ones come instead. I have been playing almost exclusively gundecks for some time now, but the new Concealed Weapon has changed players libraries a bit. Visiting Great Britain was as fun as always even though my gun- wielding Blood Brothers didn't do too well there. The new set: We're seing the new cards coming into play. It's taken over a month for players to get comfortable with the new vampires, mostly as a result of old tactics within the scope of one clan don't work as well as they used to, and it has taken time to change strategies. It still looks very good. The only problem is that you no longer don't know what all the new vampires do. A hundred of them will take a while to get used to. One highly fun sideeffect is that title-contesting has become an issue again. The new players, many who play the role playing game, actually seem to prefer the new cards. I guess it's a result of the vampires better representing names that are known from the backgroundstory. Those who haven't played for years don't seem to care about the new looks as they simply assume that changes had to occur during the eight years the game has been present. Strategy: Several threads have touched the topic of strategy and tactics. For me strategy is the part you should be done with before you arrive at a tournament. When finally there it's all tactics. A player will build a strategy. The player doesn't have to be aware of it, but there are some questions that are answered, incorrectly or not, before the tournament. 1) What kind of deck do I want to play? 2) What kind of decks will I meet? 3) What kind of players will I meet? When actually aware of his or her planning in advance some other questions arise. 1 a) How do I give my preferred deck an ousting edge? 1 b) Which kind of defence do I want to use? 1 b 1) Combat avoidance, combat escape or fight back? 1 b 2) Bleed bounce, bleed soak, bloat or intercept? 1 b 3) Anti votes or gain permanent votes? 1 b 4) Against what do I chose to stand helpless? 2 a) How do I overcome the defence of other decks? 2 a 1) Stealth through, block denial or fight through? 2 a 2) Active ousting, block everything or the waiting game? 3 a) Do people help someone crosstable or do they attack instead? 3 b) Table diplomacy or focused prey-ousting? 4) What's my reputation among the players I belive I'll meet? 4 a) Make that reputation come true or surprise them? Of course implementing a strategy is seldom done this way, so I'll try to describe how I actually did it last time. Planning before a tournament: As players were bound to start packing equipmentdestruction or cards for stealing equipment I thought I'd try a good old Toreador tactics for a change. Answering questions 1) and 2) Concealed Weapon was another card I thought would be prominent, so I decided to risk being vulnerable to Immortal Grapple - gambling on players avoiding close combat Potence. Answering question 1 b 4) One year ago I made an attempt at using Toreador with Obfuscate, and the idea of reworking that deck applealed to me. Still, that one was a gun-deck, and for the upcoming tournament my strategy was to escape combat. Answering question 1 b 1) I want to make a clean Toreador deck. I want to reuse part of an old deck in order to exploit something that worked and should work better with the new vampires available. I'll avoid combat this time as players expect me to come running with blazing guns. Voting and bleeding with Mask of a Thousand Faces and get out of combat if blocked. Answering questions 1), 1 a), 1 b 1), 1 b 3), 2 a 1) and 4 a) We now have six Toreador with inferior Obfuscate, and they are: Antoinette, She Who Watches Sect: Camarilla Group: 3 Clan: Toreador Capacity: 6 Discipline: PRE AUS obf cel Cardtext: Camarilla primogen Francois Villon Sect: Camarilla Group: 2 Clan: Toreador Capacity: 10 Discipline: PRE CEL AUS pot obf chi Cardtext: Camarilla Prince of Paris: Francois may steal up to 2 blood from a younger vampire as a +1 stealth (D) action. +1 bleed. Helena Sect: Camarilla Group: 3 Clan: Toreador Capacity: 10 Discipline: DOM CEL AUS tha pre obf Cardtext: Camarilla: If Helena is tapped and ready, she can burn a blood to be able to attempt to block and/or play reaction cards that require Auspex as if untapped for the remainder of the action. +1 bleed. Joaquin Murietta Sect: Camarilla Group: 3 Clan: Toreador Capacity: 9 Discipline: CEL AUS qui pre obf Cardtext: Camarilla: Joaquin gets an optional additional strike in the first round of combat. At long range, his strikes with guns are at +1 damage. Klaus van der Veken Sect: Camarilla Group: 2 Clan: Toreador Capacity: 9 Discipline: PRE CEL tha obf aus Cardtext: Camarilla Prince of Amsterdam: Klaus may cancel the effects of one of your prey's hunting grounds. Suzanne Kadim Sect: Camarilla Group: 3 Clan: Toreador Capacity: 7 Discipline: PRE CEL obf dom aus Cardtext: Camarilla: +1 bleed Two princes and one Primogen. All the titled with superior Presence and one of the untitled as well. It looks like a good start for a political deck. Answering question 1 a) Still, only two princes. So, how do we get the most out of this? In order to get some more votingpower on the table we'd like some more votes. I had the idea to combine Toreador Grand Ball with Mask of a thousand Faces earlier and decided to add in the seemingly pointless Aching Beauty to the combination. Answering questions 1 a) and 2 a 1) Parity Shift and Kine Resources Contested were easy enough choises and then on a whim I added some Camarilla Exemplary. The votes would go together with the rather obvious Bewitching Oration and Voter Captivation. Answering question 1 a) and 1 b 2) Apart from the built in extra bleed in some of the vampires, a small addition of Pulse of the Canaille and some Enchant Kindred seemed a good idea. The latter turned out to be a very good choise as they, at superior, greatly speeded up some extra voting power. Answering questions 1 a) The combination allows you to create an unblockable voter who doesn't need any Obfuscate. You just call the vote and use Mask of a thousand Faces to complete the already unblockable political action. Of course you can't vote forever, so the occasional + bleed followed by a masked Aching Beauty with Camarilla Exemplary gives you an extra edge. Answering question 1 a) I have tried the core-idea both as a gun-deck and as a Strike: Combat Ends deck. With guns you'll probably want more Parity Shift rather than Kine Resources Contested. No matter which version, the expensive Master Locations as well as Aching Beauty are to be paid for primarily by the Parity Shifts as it gives you an opportunity to get some extra defensive edge and let your prey pay for it. Answering questions 1 a) and 1 b 2) Let's risk Thoughts Betrayed and Immortal Grapple. If we're going to run away from combat we can as well leave room for another action or prepare for additional defence. Majesty it is. Answering questions 1 a), 1 b 2) and 1 b 4) Telepathic Misdirection is a favourite of mine. Bleed bounce or intercept. I will also need to be able to wake as my vampires are rather large. As long as I have Majesty on hand I should probably try to block rather than bounce. Answering questions 1 b 1) and 1 b 2) Crypt Cards Total: 12 Min: 13 Max: 39 Avg: 6.83 Name Amount Antoinette, She Who Watches 1 Primogen Fleurdumal 1 Prince Francois Villon 1 Prince Helena 1 Isabel de Leon 2 Joaquin Murietta 1 Klaus van der Veken 1 Prince Madame Guil 1 Justicar Sir Henry Johnson 1 Suzanne Kadim 1 Yvette, The Hopeless 1 Library Cards Total: 90 Name Amount Master Total: 20 Aching Beauty 5 Art Museum 1 Blood Doll 3 Club Zombie 1 KRCG News Radio 1 London Evening Star, Tabloid Newspaper 1 Minion Tap 4 Toreador Grand Ball 4 Action Total: 6 Enchant Kindred 4 Pulse of the Canaille 2 Political Action Total: 12 Camarilla Exemplary 4 Kine Resources Contested 3 Parity Shift 3 Praxis Seizure: Cleveland 1 Praxis Seizure: Monaco 1 Action Modifier Total: 16 Bewitching Oration 4 Mask of a Thousand Faces 6 Voter Captivation 6 Combat Total: 11 Majesty 11 Reaction Total: 19 Forced Awakening 8 Second Tradition: Domain 3 Telepathic Misdirection 8 Equipment Total: 3 IR Goggles 2 Monocle of Clarity 1 Retainer Total: 3 J. S. Simmons, Esq. 1 Mr. Winthrop 1 Tasha Morgan 1 In reality I didn't structure my thinking this way. I just really wanted to make better this tournament than the last half a year or so. However, in difference from before those tournaments, I did accept that I had to change a preferred deck in order to make a better result. Post-tournament thoughts: What on earth did the IR Goggles do here? I guess that's what happens when you start out with a gun-deck. Those extra two Majesties would have come in handy. As it turned out I had fatally miscalculated the amount of Majesty this deck really needed. Rebuilding the deck I'd throw out all three pieces of equipment to go from 11 to 14 Majesty. Never believe that Immortal Grapple and Thoughts Betrayed are the only means to stop Strike: Combat Ends. Running into one of the scariest gun-decks I have ever seen proved that to me. That deck would have won the tournament but for the simple reason that it got to the finals with 3 Game Wins. Pursuit, Concealed Weapon, .44 magnum, Flash, Psyche, Infernal Pursuit, Computer Hacking and a few Fast Hands to round it off. Master-section, Tribute to the Master and some Master Celerity. Crypt was a demonstration of the cheapest possible way of getting Celerity. That kind of visibility really didn't help at all when it was time to sum it up during the last game of the day, but it was by far the best deck entering the tournament. I lost the S:CE / gunfighting -race during two prelims but got help winning it during the final round. That was the entire difference between an early selfoust and a sweep. Sten During