OFFICIAL VEKN CLAN VENTRUE NEWSLETTER Vol.II No.4 Dec.2000 In this (uberlate) new year / December issue - INTRODUCTION FOCUS ON THE CLAN - Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaari ka ka ka ka DECK CONSTRUCTION - Peaks and troughs. AGITATION NATION - Intimidation, bullshitting and porky pies. DECK OF THE MONTH - Ven/Gang - Ven/Malk speculation. ________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Apologies for the tardy release of the clan letter this month, the Christmas and new year celebrations have extended well into January, drained my resources and left me a shell. "I am but a vessel for excess, use me as you would a cheap whore" This new year will bring a world of opportunity for all clans. The independent clans are planning an uprising toward the middle of the year, I fear for all our safety if the Setites and Assamites from the Asian continent assert themselves in the great game. The Ravnos and Giovanni concern me less but only Caine can predict what shiny delights they will receive when the Final Nights are upon us. ________________________________________________ FOCUS ON THE CLAN - Arika. There are not many 'truly' intimidating vampires in the game, maybe Lazverinus for his all round block / asskicking / bleed ability. Caliean (a new one for me) because of his special, bad boys Wynn and Beast and Arika. When someone flips her over, the table collectively re-appraises their situation with regard to her eminence. You really don't want to be on the business end of her bleed, votepush, fixed bleed, revelation ability, location poke, Deflect, Kiss of Ra, Hostile, Protect Thyne Own etc etc etc. comin' at ya. She is a nasty bitch to have bearing down on you, coupled with the fact that she can be made super hard to take out. Protect her from being torn asunder with layered 'toolbox' defence: Manoeuvres Secure Haven Obedience Bucketloads of Fortitude Majesty Elysium Pre 7/7 rulings she was capable of a tactical thermonuclear strike on your prey for up to 19 with the hideously broken Return to Innocence, Fame, Day Op etc combo. These days she is more suited as the anchorman to a good Ventrue Obf/bleed/vote/blood gain deck. I have often converted her into the Ventrue Justicar after playing a few Protect Thyne Owns, as we all know it is a much more useful title. I have to add at this point, I have never seen her go down in flames so completely as in the December Portsmouth tourney - round 3. Dave Hammond was being bled by James with a version of his ToGP deck. James influenced out Sheldon in turn 2/3 (can't remember) with a Dreams boost, closely followed by Dave's shiny copy of Arika. I was Dave's prey so next in line for the ToGP hammer, oh goody my worst tourney ever getting steadily shitter. My heart sank when Dave brought out Arika complete with an orange dayglo 'Tempt me now' tee- shirt (possibly the single best vampire for the ToGP crosshairs). Sure enough in turn 3 or 4 she was tempted ... for about 20 if I recall. James swept up the mess. A few things struck me about this horrendous and impressive turn of events. 1.Obviously the SPEED with which the above occurred. It took me back to the bad old days of RtI, Tomb, Fame - rinse, repeat wash. 2.Once the ToGP hit the table, Dave had no 'good' outcome. He stood to either loose Arika or basically kill himself trying to keep hold of her. 3.The table was skull f****d by turn 4. 4.Afterwards I found out Dave's hand consisted of a Justicar Retribution, Minion Tap, Stealth, BO etc etc. (what else did you have Dave??) Note.You may think that Dave's hand would have knackered the game up to the same level as the ToGP, an understandable conclusion. But remember that it would have taken his whole hand and potentially the Vote support of other members of the table to survive and prevent James' ability to use ToGP for a few turns. The single ToGP ran on it's own and existed without the interference of anyone else on the table. I am not going to draw any conclusions at all, most people know what I feel about ToGP - make up your own minds. Ahh... It would appear that I have 'gone off on one' and got slightly sidetracked from the article on lovely Arika. Never mind. __________________________________________________ DECK CONSTRUCTION - or lack thereof.... I don't know about anyone else but my card playing and especially my deck building goes in cycles. I have both inspirational times and times when I don't even pick up a card. I know one or two people who are always on the build and a few others who only build a new deck every now and again. Increasingly I find that I have an addictive personality, I tend to concentrate on one thing in particular to the exclusion of all else (much to the despair of my lovely wife) and then move on for a while, at the moment I am fairly hooked on the fiendishly addictive PC game Diablo II (I see I am not the only one James !). Does anyone else experience these highs and lows of building ? It is a great testament to our game that you can KEEP coming back to invent and re-invent new decks. The new set(s) will take the game to an entirely new level. Sabbat War definitely has a combat slant, both on an obvious and clandestine level. Cards like Powerbase : Montreal starts scraps and encourages people to take a risk to try and take it. ___________________________________________________ AGITATATION NATION - Lying, cheating, stealing, coercion, intimidation and other Pick and Mix filth. To be able to lie / bluff (whatever name you choose to pin on it) convincingly is extremely useful in VTES. Understanding the ability to lie can also give you an insight into the bluffs and machinations of others. The better you become at the underhand tactics yourself, the easier it becomes to tell when someone is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. Being able to intimidate your opposition is also a very useful weapon. I have often watched games where player A has a completely useless hand but talks player B into submitting, helping or allowing him to do whatever he/she wants. I know of only 3 or 4 players that can do this WELL. Everyone tries to do it but very few players are able to 'project' the image of having a great hand 'all of the time'. Not easy to do but very useful if you can pull it off. An excellent trade off if you are not confident in your position or your bluffing skills are out to lunch - is the deal. You really could write a book on the art of the deal (I'm sure someone already has). There is no real textbook way to lay down a deal, experience, judgement etc. are much more important than any theory in deal making. The only thing I will say is that you must have something to work with, even if it is only the threat of violence!! If you able to make an example, demonstrating what you can do (Be it ripping a vampire a new one, bleeding for 10 or taking out Lazverinus with a Protect Thine Own) you are showing that you are capable of great deeds as well as planting a serious seed of doubt in the minds of the other players. The ability to use / combine all of the above skills when required is IMO one of maybe five ESSENTIAL skills in advanced player development. _________________________________________________ DECK OF THE MONTH There is no deck of the month. So there, stick it. Seriously though, I am asking for opinion this month. I was sat here pondering if anyone has made a workable two clan deck with Ventrue ? By this I mean maybe a half Ventrue / Gangrel or Ventrue / Malk creation not just a Ventrue deck including Vanessa etc. I think the Ventrue are strong enough to carry the vote part on their own and possibly add in extras. One in particular I have half built is a Ven / Gangrel Force of Will, vote thing. Seems like it could be great but I just cannot trim it down to below about 110 cards. I usually only have to get rid of 3 or 4 cards but this one is a monster, tries to do too many things I reckon. Following from an ongoing discussion I have had with Matt Green and others, I have been trying to abuse Force of Will and as said the first action should NOT be wasted. Cards like Masochism, J.S. Simmons and Tasha Morgan are essential along with votes. I think the 'optimum' action would be KRC. followed by the Force of Will / Daring the Dawn kicker with either a Movement of the Slow Bowels self rescue or a buddy rescue from another handy minion with Humanitas or Protean stealth. Hmmmmmm any successful attempts to pull this off ? I fear it may be too diverse but got to give it a whirl. __________________________________________________ Anyway, may I take this opportunity to