Fellow clanmates, It is not without a certain tinge of sadness and wounded pride that I write these few lines. As the more observants among you would have certainly noted, there has been a very distinct lack of Tzimisce newsletters during the past year and, in view of my failure to deliver despite public promises, I realise that honour dictates that I hand the mantle of editor of the newsletter over to a more deserving fiend. It is my pleasure to introduce Paul Choquette as the new editor, may he be more reliable than my sorry self. Up to him the daunting task of leading our cohorts further, building on the momentum created by our victory during the struggle for the Eye of Hazimel. All things must come to an end and this one's ending is long overdue. Now free of the shackles of social interactions, I can finally devote the required time to other pursuits. Pushing beyond the prison of cursed flesh, time will soon come for me to abandon this empty shell and rise to reach Azhi Dahaka. The Depths' enticing song echoes in my soul, urging me on my new Path, taunting my psyche with tantalising morsels of things yet to come. Farewell brothers, I will be watching your efforts from afar, always watching... TPOTH Koldun --the Eldest awaits… Pierre Rebstock "Welcome to my house! Enter freely. Go safely, and leave something of the happiness you bring!" D. Greetings all. I was very excited when Pierre presented the opportunity to do homage to my favorite clan in the form of the official clan news letter. The Tzimisce have always inspired me with their terrific depth and limitless potential. It has always amazed me that virtually every card they have in their toy box has at least a two fold purpose allowing them a great deal of flexibility and versatility. When the Sabbat set originally came out one of my very first impressions was seeing a vicious slathering beast with ten arms and a skull for a head, from that moment I was in love. The clan has over many years brought me many table wins and tournament victories. Hopefully I can do them service by imparting to you some of the joy and delight they bring to me. It is my intention to write this news letter with five major sections on a bi-monthly basis. This is of course allowing for availability of material and real-life permitting. These five sections will fall under the following categories: Tech:: :This is the part where I get to tell you about all the hideous things that we can do. Card of the month: This will mostly touch on newer cards and vamps as they are released, or failing that at complete random chosen by a maddening Kholdunic ritual involving my cat, some peanut butter and a picture of Mahatma Ghandi. Deck: I hope to receive a lot of contributions of decks that we can analyze. With the recent sweeping victory we achieved during the story line tournaments materials should be aplenty If not I'll make something up on the fly. Fiction: This portion will be contributed by the Dreaded Night Turtle who has a much greater talent for writing then myself. Perhaps in the future if you wish to contribute, send me a private email. Commentary: This section will vary greatly depending upon what's new and what's happened lately.. I do not intend to keep track of this news letter in the form of an issue / volume number as it is unlikely that it will be produced at a frequency that will warrant such a system. I intend to keep track of the issue based on the month and year only. For example, this is issue Feb 2003. Tech: The advantages of out of turn combat: In the spirit of continuity I wanted to write about a subject that Pierre touched upon in his last news letter, and flush out this concept a little. What is the art of out of turn combat you ask? Simply put it is choosing to react to your opponents actions in order to maximize the combat potential of your minions while limiting the options of your victim. It is the essence of the bag of dirty tricks that is the Tzimisce toy box. One of the clan's primary advantages is that it has the ability to exploit the overwhelming tactical opportunity that is " the art of out of turn combat." Over the years this concept has slowly grown to fruition after so many missed opportunities. There is almost nothing more aggravating than being forced to grin and bear it as your last copy of the Breath of the Dragon is nimbly dodged by the poncy little gun bunny as they proceed to blast away with the formally concealed .44 mag. Out of Turn combat affords you the luxury of making the acting minion play his hand first. This allows you several advantages. The foremost amongst these advantages is intelligence. When you know what your opponent is going to do (or rather what they have already done) you then have the opportunity to counter with something that will trump your opponents move. Rather than wasting that Breath of the Dragon on a minion you already know is going to be dodging, you can save it for a more opportune time. With a Tzimisce, this isn't just detrimental, it can be lethal. Another of the many advantages that out of turn combat provides is that many great support cards such as Direct Intervention Sudden Reversal and Roschrect are all dead cards in your opponents hand. These cards laying unused can afford you a terrific amount of control over what options your opponent is limited to. With out these cards available for them to play they are not afforded the direct assistance of the Methuselah and are forced to play based only on the skills and abilities of your intended victim. Conversely all of these cards are at your disposal allowing you a greater range of options. With the in clan disciplines of Auspex and Animalism, there is virtually nothing The Tzimisce can't block. To an action intensive deck such as a vote deck or a bleed deck this is disastrous. It can be quite disquieting to a Ventrue vote/bloat deck to watch Arika agro-poked into Torpor. Many reaction cards such as Precognition and Spirits Touch enhance the Fiends ability to perform while in combat. I would be hard pressed to count the number of times that having an extra optional maneuver has saved the skin of my minions and allowed them to fight on to another day for the glory of their clan. Disrupting the strategy of your prey is one of the most effective ways of killing them. If they are unable to muster enough forward momentum to kill their prey and you are able to apply enough steady pressure on them, you will eventually kill them. Vtes is a game of patience and careful planning, the art of out of turn combat conforms to this pattern as well. If you can catch your opponent attempting to take an action such as calling a vote, and you are able to block that action and torp that vamp, you are disrupting his strategy. Rather than killing his prey his action was blocked and he is in torpor, now he must waste another action removing that vamp from torpor. This can quickly become a vicious circle. Keep in mind that if they are stuck in this circle of attempting to rescue there minions from a dirt nap, they aren't perusing their strategy to kill their own prey. Perusing this further, if you manage to pin one of his minions in torpor for a full round, it is more likely that it will be diablerized by another player. Extremely advantageous to you. If not, this situation allows you the opportunity to diablerize that minion your self, or to let your prey flounder trying to rescue it again... The corpses will begin to stack up. In this situation, the psychological war you are waging on your prey is virtually won. In my experience most players place a fairly high value on their minions. Pinning them down like a hungry cat poised over a broken and maimed bird is extremely damaging. Most especially if they are made painfully aware any attempts they make to rescue that minion will meet with swift and brutal punishment. Generally if your prey is weak, they will begin to make mistakes and the circle continues. For flavor add in the virtues of one of the most powerful cards in the game; Rotschrect. Roschrect is one of the dirtiest tricks you can pull. Most decks rely on one or two strategies for dealing with combat, s:ce, dodging, prevention or just plain enhanced beatings. Roschrect cripples them all. While you may only use it once per round, it's effect can be extremely profound. This card alone makes the Tzimisce more than tournament viable. The Tzimisce toy box is full of dirty tricks that force your opponent to play very carefully. Mistakes with a Fiend as your predator will prove costly. Be thy fairly warned. The card of the month: This month special props will be given to the WW development team for creating ( in my humble opinion) a completely terrific card. Special report is my pick as the best new development as it pertains to library cards to come out of CamEd. Special Report: Master: out-of-turn Choose a ready vampire you control. That vampire untaps and attempts to block. Once this action you may burn 1 pool to give that vampire +1 intercept. As it relates to other clans it grants an untap and (in some cases ) very badly needed intercept. I have been experimenting with using it as a splash card in a few of the (normally intercept void ) rush decks lately and on sunrise factor alone it has been worth it. As it relates to the Tzimisce, this card lets you untap and gain optional intercept if necessary at the cost of only one pool only if you need the intercept. This card will help to free up card slots regularly reserved for all important intercept and replace them with other interesting toys ( More room for toys like the "Bone? Yes please! ) One of the things that I really enjoy about the Tzimisce is the versatility that their cards provide. Special report will fit nicely into many future projects for exactly this reason. Rather than using two slots for a Wake and a Precog, you can reduce this to one card, freeing up slots for additional combat cards. The downside is of course that you must blow a pool an a master phase. This is costly, but some most necessary. New Vampires: A few notes on the vampires that were developed with the CamEd. With the announcement of the CamEd, I figured "great, another expansion that will further unbalance the hated Camarilla." I really didn't expect much in the way of support for our compatriots. While it is true that the Camarilla has been greatly enhanced by the CamEd, as some of the new Vamps are spectacular. I was happily surprised to see that there are several vampires that will prove to be extremely useful as fillers for some of the clans deficits. For now I will only touch on the vamps that will most directly effect us in that they have Vicissitude. Creamy Jade: Clan: Toreador-Antitribu Capacity: 5 Sabbat Group: 3 Inferior Auspex Inferior Celerity Superior Presence Inferior Vicissitude Inferior Aus and Vis makes her useful but not terrific as far as the clan is concerned. She does fit well into a Pres/ Vic / Aus deck though. At least she is an antitribue, so her heart is in the right place ( for now). Edith Blount: Clan: Toreador Capacity: 5 Camarilla Group: 3 Ability: If you also control Enid Blount and she is ready, Edith gets an optional maneuver and an optional press each combat. Disciplines : Inferior Auspex Inferior Celerity Inferior Potence Inferior Vicissitude As you need to have Enid in play to activate her special, she starts off a little over costed. However while Enid is in play, she is pretty sweet for the cost of five. She is however a whiney poncy lap dog of the Camarilla anachronisms and should make a wonderful tapestry for my manse. Enid Blount Clan: Toreador Capacity: 5 Camarilla Group: 3 Ability: If you also control Edith Blount and she is ready, she may burn a blood to give Enid +1 stealth for the current action. Disciplines : Inferior Auspex Inferior Dominate Inferior Presence Inferior Vicissitude See above commentary on Edith... Wonder if I can make a matching set of book ends out of them? The Rose: Clan: Tzimisce Capacity: 5 Sabbat Group: 3 Disciplines : Inferior Auspex Superior Presence Superior Vicissitude Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? Truly I believe so. Finally a new clan mate ( and she is a really cute little french Canadian girl to boot!) As she has superior Pres she will fit into a lot of !Tor/ Tzi decks that I have wanted to build for a while. She is also currently the second youngest vamp with superior Vicissitude. This in it self is a great improvement for the clan as you need to look to a six cap vamp for the next youngest vamp with Vis at superior. Big thumbs up for the Rose!! Welcome to the clan. Virstania, the Great Mother: Clan: Tremere Capacity: 7 Camarilla Group: 3 Ability: If Virstania is ready, any ready slave Gargoyle may remove his or her slave status and become and Independent vampire as a +1 stealth action, and non-slave Gargoyles can bleed at +1 bleed as a (D) action that costs a blood. Disciplines : Superior Auspex Inferior Dominate Inferior Presence Superior ThaumaturgyInferior Vicissitude Ok, so who is the wise ass who taught the witch Vissitude, and are they dead yet?! I mean geeze, she should be ghouled, minced and turned into garnish for the next blood feast! Why the hell did somebody teach a witch Vissitude? Other than the obvious short comings that come with being anathema, she would make a really good play mate for the most esteemed Sascha Vycos for a Kholdunic sorcery deck... Perhaps I'll make a theme deck some time soon where I'll Bauble her into something really degrading for Sascha to beat people with. Deck: This month the deck I have chosen to feature is one of my own that exploits the concept of out of turn combat on a fairly efficient level.. The concept is simple, use the Telepathic Counters to stunt your predators advance, if he or she chooses to bleed you for more than two, teach them the error of their ways. Vote defense comes in the form of permission, "the delegate from the Tzimisce does not advise that calling a Protect thy Own on Meshenka would be in your best interests at this time." If they are fool enough to go ahead anyways, Eagles's Sight and torp the insolent little prick. Use the Intercept and resulting combat to punish your prey. Most importantly disrupt their advance on their prey, try to make your cross table buddies support you when you want to diablerize your prey's minions.. Protect Smiling Jack no matter what. This deck doesn't bother taking many actions, your ability to bleed is virtually nonexistent. Jack will allow you to oust you prey, and hopefully wreck the table so he must be protected. Simon says:: 84 cards (2) Caliban (6) ANI AUS VIS (2) Corine Marcon (6) ani AUS VIS +1 hand damage (2) Lolita Houston (4) aus VIS (2) Meshenka (8) Priscus ANI AUS VIS -1 blood for vis cards (2) The Rose (5) aus PRE VIS (2) Terrence (4) ani aus vis Max = 24 Min = 16 Avg = 5.5 Master: 19 (4) Blood Doll (2) Fame (1) Power base: Montreal (2) Smiling Jack (1) Special Report (1) Tension in the Ranks (8) Rotschreck Combat: 23 (2) Amaranth (2) blood of acid (5) Breath of the Dragon (14) Chiropteran Marauder Reaction: 42 (3) Cat's Guidance (5) Eagle's Sight (5) Enhanced senses (3) Forced Awakening (2) My Enemy's Enemy (3) Precognition (5) Read the Winds (2) Spirit's Touch (14) Telepathic Counter As you can see the deck lacks a massive amount of untap, generally this is because you will tend to stay untaped and try to place your self in a position to block your prey's minion's action's as often as possible with out leaving your self in a position to be brutalized by your predator. This deck likes table balance and loves four player tables. If your at a four player table, it can be fairly easy to pull off a table win. Give it try, it's a blast to play and a horror to play against. Fiction: I'm sitting here in this hotel room writing this stuff down because I no longer know what is and is not real any more. I can't trust my memory. I can't trust my senses. I'm hoping I'll be able to trust this pen and paper to do it's job and keep a record. Mike's gone strange. I'm afraid of him. My best friend in the world, closer to me than a brother, and I'm afraid of him. Four weeks ago the band got a new gig. Regular shows, good money, better than we were used to. The place was run down and we'd never heard of it, but it was ok, and their money was good and regular and always cash. The first two nights went without a hitch and then there was this chick in the corner. At least, I noticed her on the third or fourth night. She might have been there since the first night we played for all I know. She just sat in the corner and smoked and watched us. Actually, she watched Mike. Now I'm used to that - chicks watching Mike. He's got the gothy lost puppy look. Dark hair just long enough to fall in front of his eyes, underfed, very intense about his music - the perfect pretty bad boy. We've gotten thrown out of a couple of bands due to Mike being too pretty - some lead singers can't take the thought that their guitarist gets adored more than they do. But this chick - she didn't watch Mike like she was infatuated. It was like he was her science project or something. She did everything but take notes. I mentioned her to Mike a few days later between sets. He had the next song dedicated to 'our loyal fan at the corner table.' She was gone by the time we were done, but two rounds of drinks had been bought for the entire band. It was so clinical how she did it. It was a bizarre little game we played. She'd sit there and stare at Mike. And then if he responded to her, she'd reward us all. We loved it really. We started doing things to try to please her. Different songs, different stage antics, giving Mike solo time on stage - we'd always know when we'd hit the mark because she'd be gone and there'd be alcohol purchased for us "anonymously" at the bar. I remember in high school science class, we studied this guy Pavlov. Taught a dog to drool at the sound of a bell. That's how she was training us. So when she met us at the back door one night after a show and didn't say a word, just walked up to Mike, stared at him for a moment, and then walked away, it made perfect sense for him to follow her. And when a couple of us started to follow too and she stopped cold, it made perfect sense to us, the dogs, that we weren't invited. And it's not like it was strange for Mike to be following a slim good-looking brunette off into the shadows anyway. We also didn't think anything of it when Mike stumbled in late into the afternoon the next day looking like shit and not being able to remember anything about the night before. Mike wasn't heavy into drugs but he certainly wasn't Mr. Clean. It happened again, and again. He disappeared over the weekend. Mike and I had this shitty apartment that we'd found 3 blocks from the bar. I started to get worried. He'd never had a drug problem before but that crap kills people and he was like my brother. I asked him about it - he told me to mind my own business as I had expected he would. But that night he did sleep at home. Our apartment was a bachelor suite. The paint was peeling and the kitchen sink dripped. We had bed sheets over the windows but the room still had that red glow blinking on and off all night from the neon sign from across the street. I guess we'd passed out around four am. I woke up again around an hour later - the usual shuffle across the room, pee, shuffle back to bed, climb in glance around, close eyes and go back to sleep. Only I didn't close my eyes - or maybe I did - this is where things start to go really funny. Because I had this dream that I didn't close my eyes. Instead I looked over at Mike, sleeping with his back to me. And his ancient beaten-to-crap quilt had slid down his back while he was sleeping so his bare back was facing me. And in the middle of his back was this big scar. It was a thick line about six inches long. And I stared at it because Mike had never had a scar like that before. And as I stared at it, I could have sworn it actually moved. I kept looking at it and trying to figure out if I'd actually seen it move or not. And then right down the middle of the line there was a crack. And the crack opened. And beneath it, within it, was an eye staring back at me. I couldn't move. I just lay there rigid staring at the eye in the middle of Mike's back as it watched me. And I don't know how long I lay there and stared because the next thing I remember is waking up with the sun bursting through the sheet over the window and realizing that there was no one else in the apartment but me. By the Dreaded Night Turtle. Commentary: When I first got wind of the re-release of the detested Camarilla base set I was a little concerned that many of the Sabbat clans would quickly become obsolete in the presence of far superior numbers and extreme advantages that the tradition weilding fopps have at their disposal.. The Camarilla have had their power bases reinforced with the new set wilh ready availabillity of resources and many very powerful vampires. Only time will tell if this trend continues and the forces of the Cam will slip unchecked and throw out the delicate balance of the game. For the present though, the Tzimisce are stronger than ever with new friends on both sides of the equation. With the advent of the CamEd it is easier than ever to acquire the 20 copies of Aid From Bats that many fiends have been coveting for far too long. Availability of many of the hard to get cards like Terror Frenzy and Rotschrect will make being a fiend far more fun! The clan managed to attain it's rightful place and distinguish it's self as first amongst it's peers during the story line tournaments. Hopefully this will lead to the printing of an extra special little toy like the Lasombra and Ravanos were blessed with in the form of the Baltimore Purge. If it's even half as sick the eldest shall be pleased. That will about cover it for this month. When next we meet hopefully we will be given the first whiff of the Anarch's expansion. I'm really hoping to see a new Catiff or more palatably a proper Pander with superior Animalism around 2-3 capacity. Perhaps even a wee Tzimisce with superior Visisitude? Only time will tell. To any who are in the Winnipeg Manitoba Canada area on May 17, 2003 from Noon to 9:00PM., we are hoping to see you come out for a game or two at Key Con for a North American qualifier. Let us know if we can be of any assistance finding accommodations or directions. KeyCon Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention Radisson Hotel, Winnipeg Downtown 288 Portage Avenue Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R3C OB8 If you have any commentary or suggestions, please feel free to email with Vtes in the subject line to: paul_c126@hotmail.com If you wish to send me hate mail and death threats, please feel free to do so at: dead_girls_dont_say_no@hotmail.com Submissions of articles decks and fiction are always welcome. This news letter will be archived at: www.vteswpg.com Azhi Dahaka Pc.