(I wasn't able to get it to format legibly, so I truncated the chart.
I have the newsletter with the charts properly formatted here:
http://presence.vekn.org/viewtopic.php?t=1353 )
OFFICIAL VEKN CLAN VENTRUE NEWSLETTER: APRIL 2007
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
2. Group Analysis
3. Deck of the month
Introduction
Greetings, and welcome to the newest incarnation of the official VKEN
Ventrue newsletter! I hope to pick up and build upon the work of my
predecessors and provide insight on how to best use the Ventrue and
help them ascend to their rightful place as the preeminent among the
clans. This is my first newsletter, so comments and feedback are very
welcome. My contact information is at the bottom of the newsletter.
Group Analysis
The grouping rules introduced with the release of the Camarilla
Edition back in 2003 have made crypt construction more challenging and
thought provoking. Because you can't simply pick the best of all the
printed vampires for your deck and put them into your crypt often you
have to compare the usefulness of one vampire against the overall
usefulness of the grouping of that vampire as a whole. So what does
this mean for building Ventrue decks?
Currently as of this newsletter there are only four group 4 Ventrue,
so the majority of Ventrue crypts will be using vampires from group 2
(especially since the incomparable Arika is in group 2). So
realistically the major decision facing most crypt building is whether
to use the vampires from group 1 or group 3. Let's break down the two
groups and see which one each has to offer, borrowing a chart format
used by Pat Ricochet in his Giovanni newsletter.
Group 1:
pos/SUP
Dominate 12/6
Presence 14/10
Fortitude 13/4
Group 3:
pos/SUP
Dominate 16/9
Presence 14/9
Fortitude 14/6
(Of the fractions, the numerator is the number of vampires in the
group who possess the discipline in question, while the denominator is
the number of vampires who have said discipline at superior.)
So what can we glean from this? For starters, the discipline
concentration is different; group 1 vampires primarily focus on
Presence, with 14 of the 15 vampires possessing it - 10 at superior -
and four vampires of 6 capacity or less with it at superior. Group 3
on the other hand focuses more on Dominate, with all 16 vampires
possessing some level of Dominate and most of the midcap vampires
having it at superior. Hence of you wanted to make a deck focused on
Presence you would probably use group 1 vampires, while if you wanted
to concentrate on Dominate you'd use group 3 vampires instead.
Fortitude, the third clan Discipline, is better represented in the
group 3 vampires but still the least common of the clan disciplines
between the two groups. If you want to incorporate off-clan
disciplines, Group 1 has four vampires with Celerity and three with
Potence, while Group 3 has five vampires with Auspex, three with
Obfuscate, and like Group 1 three with Potence.
Probably the most obvious difference between the two groups is their
princes. Group 1 has three princes, one more than group 3, and the
Group 1 princes are cheaper. If you were going to build a Ventrue
political deck and just use the clan disciplines, Group 1 is probably
a better choice than Group 3. On the other hand, the big voters of
Group 3 share some similar off-clan disciplines, which give them
potential to mix with voters from other clans or adding vote
capability to decks that use offbeat discipline combinations.
Finally, Group 1 has three vampires with inherent +1 bleed, which
gives them some consideration if having vampires with that ability is
important for your deck.
In general, the advantages of each group can be summarized like this:
Group 1:
-More and cheaper Princes
-Access to vampires with inherent +bleed.
-Better small capacity vampires
Group 3:
-Better discipline spread on mid to large capacity vampires
-More and better special abilities
-More and better off-clan disciplines
Deck of the Month
Vote & Bleed:
Crypt:
x1 Melissa Barton
x1 Roland Loussarian
x1 Violette Prentiss
x1 Courtland Leighton
x1 Ranjan Rishi, Camarilla Scholar
x1 Gideon Fontaine
x1 Queen Anne
x1 Emerson Bridges
x1 Timothy Crowley
x2 Sir Walter Nash
x1 Rake
Library (89 cards):
Masters:
x1 The Barrens
x1 Direct Intervention
x1 Hostile Takeover
x2 Sudden Reversal
x1 Ventrue Headquarters
x1 Presence
x1 Dominate
x1 Elder Library
Actions:
x1 Judgment: Camarilla Segregation
x2 Govern the Unaligned
x4 Scouting Mission
x7 Kine Resources Contested
x1 Conservative Agitation
x3 Parity Shift
x1 Ancient Influence
x1 Banishment
x1 Praxis Seizure: Geneva
x1 Praxis Seizure: Berlin
x1 Venture Justicar
x2 Disputed Territory
Action Modifiers:
x3 Bonding
x2 Kiss of Ra
x2 Freak Drive
x3 Voter Captivation
x1 Awe
x2 Bewitching Oration
x4 Closed Session
Reactions:
x4 The Second Tradition: Domain
x4 Obedience
x9 Deflection
Combat:
x7 Majesty
x1 Indomitability
x4 Hidden Strength
This is a deck belonging to a friend of mine, and is a good example of
a deck that does the things that the Ventrue excel at. It's more
focused on vote than bleed, which takes advantage of the midcap
princes of Group 1. It's also more tuned to a tournament environment,
as it has a large amount of Deflections and no large capacity vampires
aside from Queen Anne.
---Luciano Mariucci, maclitron@yahoo.com