VENTRUE ANTITRIBU SPECIAL REPORT
Bloodlines Edition
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
Still no new games played, so no 'regular' December Newsletter is likely to
be forthcoming.
However, having opened a box of Bloodlines (and eagerly surveyed the cards I
didn't get through various online sources - thanks again, Ethan, Monger
rules!) I just can't resist putting together an entirely speculative special
edition to try to take a first pass at predicting what the new expansion
will (and won't) do for the !Ventrue...
CONTENTS
- Banner
- Executive Overview
- Contents
- From the Chairman: Fire in the Blood
- Analyst Recommendations: Blood Feast
- The Invisible Hand: Hidden Lurker
- Forward-Looking Statements
- The Fine Print
FROM THE CHAIRMAN: Fire in the Blood
The Ventrue Antitribu had very high expectations for Bloodlines. After all,
White Wolf's pre-release previews listed no fewer than 5 of the 12 new
bloodlines as 'mixing well with the Ventrue Antitribu', more than any other
clan. (They were the Nagaraja, Daughters, Harbingers, Salubri, and
!Salubri. Curiously, the Samedi were listed as compatible with the Ventrue,
but not the !Ventrue - more on that later...)
Having seen, if not played, the new cards, it seems certain that the
Bloodlines _will_ have a large impact on the !Ventrue - though not
necessarily in the ways they were intended, at least if the preview hype is
anything to go by.
First, the big disappointment: I was really hoping the !Salubri would
provide the low capacity vampires needed to really make au/fo decks
reasonable. In particular, I was looking for some 6-cap or lower vampires
with AU/FO or au/FO. What I got was, of course, one 7-cap with AU/fo; Billy
clearly beats out Adonai for this discipline combo.
Of the five !Salubri, only two have any fortitude at all - both at inferior.
Only three have auspex, and only Adonai has both AU/fo, and he's a 7-cap.
Further, the 'ulterior' (which someone clever suggested as the proper term
for the out-of-discipline level of the Bloodlines 'split' discipline cards)
versions of the Valeren cards don't tend to use auspex or fortitude, making
them pretty useless for !Ventrue. Of the seven Valeren cards (not counting
the Obeah card which has a Valeren ulterior), three default down to
_animalism_; there is one each for auspex and fortitude, and then one for
each of potence and thaumaturgy. So, while the Salubri Antitribu do look
_very_ interesting, and very playable, they look to me to be much more
compatible with the Tzimisce than the !Ventrue.
Two other Bloodlines _did_ provide support for au/fo at the low end;
unfortunately, one of them is the Gargoyles. Luma (au/FO 5-cap) and Pugfar
(au/fo 5-cap) are both promising looking until you note that they are both
slaves. I suspect that there may be some interesting decks to be made
involving the Gargoyles and !Ventrue - there are three !Ventrue with
potence, after all, and they all like to vote, which is an undirected action
- but the resulting deck will not likely be au/fo centered. (There's also
the Fidus, Vincent, Marlene, Merrill, Muaziz fo/th obscenity just waiting to
be made...)
Similarly, the Blood Brothers look to supplement a !Ventrue + potence vote
approach. Alternatively, the !Ventrue could provide vote support for a
Blood Brothers centered deck.
The other Bloodline which contributes usefully to the au/fo combination is
the extraordinary Salubri, who, if anything, exceed their hype. Miriam
Benyona, a 5-cap with AU/fo/oh and a beautiful special for the !Ventrue, is
just what the doctor ordered. Blanche Hill, au/FO/OH 6-cap and a decent
special, is nothing to sneeze at either. And Matthias, AU/FO/ne/OH 7-cap
with +1 intercept and nice kicker to the Baali and snakes, rounds things out
nicely. That the Obeah cards rock and have more useable ulterior outs for
the !Ventrue just makes the Salubri that much more attractive. Their
scarcity may make them a little more challenging to play with, but you
probably don't want loads of them in your crypt anyway - just enough to
complement whatever your !Ventrue were planning to do in the first place.
And then there's the Harbingers. More au/fo mid-caps, and a _lot_ of nice
specials, including some titles. It'll be interesting to see who ends up
complementing whom. The Harbingers have their own strategy, and may want to
fill out their crypt with !Ventrue, rather than the other way around. Of
course, a few necromancy masters combined with plenty of Call of the Hungry
Dead might go a long way towards getting things done with the !Ventrue...
The other necromancers with in-clan discipline overlap, the Nagaraja, again
have really nice specials (Le Din Tho has Revelations at inferior built
in!); I'm not sure how useful they are likely to be to the !Ventrue without
any fortitude, though. Auspex/dominate, while often found, is rarely used
as a two-discipline combo. The !Ventrue tend to rely on fortitude to keep
themselves healthy, and the Nagaraja wouldn't have that possibility. With
new dodges for both auspex and dominate, though, maybe they won't need to?
And, again, necromancy might reduce the need to defend ourselves, at least
as a result of having been blocked.
This leaves us with six Bloodlines left to contemplate. Of them, three, the
Ahrimanes, Baali, and Trujah would seem to have little to offer to the
!Ventrue.
The Kiasyd will certainly contribute to the various !Ventrue + obtenebration
concepts, like last month's voter. (Kassiym, with do/fo/OT at 6-cap, seems
particularly well suited.) Beatrice, with au/do/ne at 5-cap, might fit in a
necromancy using !Ventrue hybrid. Interestingly, most of the Kiasyd have
auspex.
The Daughters of Cacophony, while touted as a help to the !Ventrue, seem an
odd fit. Only two !Ventrue have any presence, and only one of them is a
voter. (Only two [different] !Ventrue have any celerity, the other common
ulterior of melpominee cards.) I suspect that the Camarilla Ventrue will
have a lot more to offer the Daughters. As low-caps with fortitude, though,
I would expect to see the Daughters showing up in a lot of the same Undead
Persistence circles as !Ventrue.
Finally, the Samedi. Hyped as a good mix with the Giovanni, Harbingers, and
Ventrue, I predict these are the guys who will make the biggest difference
for the !Ventrue. Our biggest problem (sing along if you know the words):
getting things done. The Samedi's biggest problem: no way around S:CE and
dodge (little auspex, little celerity, and no potence). The solution for
both of us: Hidden Lurker.
Get out George Frederick (FO ne ob TN, Sam, 6) and a !Ventrue or two. Take
an action that _will_ be blocked - think Recruiting Party, nasty vote, or
practically anything using dominate. Prevent out of the resulting combat,
and Hidden Lurker George in. Now George can Trap, strike Withering at
superior without fear or evasion or reprisal (put in some Unflinching
Persistence or Fake Out or IR Goggles for maneuvers), press until the
blocker is empty, and then Compress to burn that mother down. Sweet. Watch
as people rethink the wisdom of blocking you.
All of the Samedi come with at least inferior obfuscate, which is all you
need for the Hidden Lurker, and, really, all you need of obfuscate. (The
superior of Hidden Lurker is handy, of course, but you have to go all the
way up to Jack Dawson at 8-cap to get FO/OB/TN, which is what you need to
press, Wither effectively, and still have UP maneuvers.) And with a
Coroner's Contract, you can even go fish for your enforcer. It's a four
discipline deck - do/fo/ob/tn - but eminently doable when you don't need all
four on any particular minion.
Anyway, that's all of the Bloodlines. A few disappointments, a lot of
strong contenders, and one or two unexpected and very pleasant surprises -
and that's just so far! I feel pretty secure in predicting a strong upsurge
in the number of !Ventrue showing up in decks in the near future - and
probably in the number and variety of !Ventrue decks as well. We always
knew we had potential...
ANALYST RECOMMENDATIONS: Blood Feast
This month's analyst recommendations are a capsule review of chairman
Lazverinus' remarks above:
Bloodline Symbol Rating Comments
Ahrimanes (Ahr) Sell Folks, remember to neuter or spay
your pets...
Baali (Baa) Sell Oh joy - more snakes.
Blood Brothers (BB) Accumulate Pot/for has real potential for
crossover.
Daughters of Cacophony (DoC) Neutral An unlikely match.
Gargoyles (Gar) Hold Pot/for + Tre/!Tre has too many
moving parts? Or just use them to
call votes?
Harbingers of Skulls (HoS) Buy They'll probably be investing in
us...
Kiasyd (Kia) Hold Dom/obt might help with voting?
Nagaraja (Nag) Accumulate Strong specials, but probably more
help to the Giovanni and Malks.
Salubri (Sal) Strong Buy Very powerful.
!Salubri (!Sal) Neutral They might fill out the low end...
Samedi (Sam) Strong Buy Hire your own enforcer now!
True Brujah (Tru) Sell Brujah that think? What'll they
come up with next...
THE INVISIBLE HAND: Hidden Lurker
Evelyn shrugged off the impact of the .44 slug, directing blood to repair
the damage as he simultaneously navigated the maze of corridors leading from
the museum's basement to his waiting limousine. Sliding into the back seat,
secure behind bulletproof glass, he waited.
"KRCG?" It wasn't really a question.
"Yes sir - the code was unmistakable. They made you, as expected," his
driver replied.
"Good, good."
He had never really expected to succeed in his little scouting mission; next
time, though, should be an entirely different matter...
A few minutes later, the loading dock door opened once again, and Mr.
Frederick set a small urn, no doubt borrowed from the museum's collection,
down on the hood of the limo. A small wisp of ash trailed from its rim,
stirred briefly by the breeze of the Samedi picking up the waiting briefcase
and vanishing into the night.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Until next time, whenever that may be...
Submissions and feedback to me: alex.broadhead@clearband.com.
THE FINE PRINT
CORRECTION: In last month's edition, Telepathic Vote Counting was
misrepresented as a potential source of hand jam. TVC is freely cycleable
(subject to the usual restrictions on action modifiers, and assuming you can
succeed in calling a political action). The !Ventrue regret the error.
The information contained herein is based on sources believed to be
reliable, but its accuracy cannot be guaranteed. Decks constructed using
the !Ventrue may lose games. Decks are not insured against loss by the
author, Lazverinus, rec.games.trading-cards.jyhad, LSJ, White Wolf, the
government, or your mother. Please _don't_ email the author requesting a
full disclosure of the !Ventrue's finances. For a full disclosure of the
editor's shortcomings, however, please see past and present Executive
Overviews. Caveat Emptor.