OFFICIAL VEKN CLAN VENTRUE NEWSLETTER Vol.II No.7 March.2001 INTRODUCTION FOCUS ON THE CLAN - Big fat Democritus >> can he topple Moncada off his living throne of lard or is his blubber too much to handle ??? AGITATION NATION - One, two, three, four, five once I caught a fish alive. OFF CLAN TALK - Just how good is Greta Kirchner ? DECK OF THE MONTH - Old fashioned Ventrue weenie muck. __________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Greetings and welcome to the March instalment of the Ventrue Newsletter. VTES is certainly entering interesting times with an independent clan expansion pending, a lot of new players coming through following Sabbat War and a huge surge in the tournament scene. I heard rumours that GenCon UK is to be held in London this year, which will be great for the UK VTES scene. London is a lot more accessible for internal and international travel so I reckon on a high turnout with a LOT of good players participating. Hesha Ruhadze promo in the latest edition of Scrye and Inquest magazine. Filthy Setites sneaking into magazines and tempting us all :o) John Van Fleet's artwork kicks ass as always. I'm having great fun with all the new Vamps and other assorted nasties from Damnans site. It also made me think a lot about the game's future but that's a whole newsletter right there !! Anyway, back to the purple politicians. ___________________________________________________ FOCUS ON THE CLAN - Democritus. Is there a use for his special ability ? Democritus 10 DOM PRE for aus cel +1 Bleed Ventrue Justicar If Democritus is ready, any Methuselah contesting a card with you burns 1 extra pool to avoid yielding that card. This is a weird one. He is a big fat 10 pointer and IMO not very user friendly. He cannot rely on Fortitude to protect his tubby ass as he only has inferior and his general discipline spread is weak. The +1 Bleed is bluntly useful and his title is great for all sorts of assorted sleaze. Set all this on fire though, have a read of his special ability. It is obviously useful on a generic level as a deterrent to contesting with you but I also reckon there could be a deck hidden in there somewhere. I know, I know i'm reaching like Mr. Tickle grabbing his tickle stick but stay with me... The obvious idea that springs to mind is Lasombra / Ventrue with Democritus, Political Seizure and all those Thanks for the Donations you have been saving for a rainy day. The idea being to contest your preys locations with Political Seizure (and other popular stuff - Rumour Mill, Mr Winthrop etc.) then play Thanks for the Donation on the contested cards and defend them with Obtenebration, Potence and maybe Fortitude ? In theory you would only need Democritus, contesting 1 card with your prey, have Thanks on it to add up to a 3 pool per turn loss. 2 cards contesting with Thanks on adds up to 6 _non bleed_ loss per turn ! When you have had enough of contesting or someone burns your oh so vulnerable Thanks, go for a Praxis Soloman and take all the contested cards for yourself. Nice. I think. ALRIGHT I know it's thin but I'm trying. Sod off. I think the deck would churn through pool like a pigeon eating puke. I also think that if built it would need trimming down from approx. 1000 cards. But hey, it's an idea. Think yourself lucky, I was going to include Recruitment, Betrayer and a copy of all 340 odd vamps in the game (morning Legbiter). _______________________________ AGITATION NATION - The five player dynamic. Disclaimer - If I start hallucinating and / or talking crap (more crap than usual that is) after trying to comprehend the table dynamics of our game feel free to mail me at -doIlooklikesomeonewhocares@whogivesashit.com In this article (which may stretch on a bit) I will refer to each player on the table as the following - A B C D E At the most basic level a 'stock' game of V:TES should conform to the pred / prey relationship (A pressures B equal to C, D etc.etc.), but in reality this never happens. One or two players usually start to emerge more powerful and intentionally or not screw up the balance. WARNING Utterly obvious statement >> From playing many, many games of VTES over the years I can safely say that the five player game is vastly different from any others. The two-player game is OK for honing deck play skills and testing new decks out against their anathema but it ain't the same. Three and four player games suffer from messed up dynamics, briefly and simply : Three. A B C Players A and B beat the stuffing out of each other and player C mops up when the dust settles. Four. A B C D Player A and B push each other's heads in and player C and D do the same. After roughly 30-45 mins. of this carnage the 2 'winners' have it out. I played in a non-sanctioned tournament at Portsmouth on the 3rd March and interestingly we had a 7 player behemoth of a game. We sat down expecting a 3-4 hour marathon but the game concluded after about 2 hours if I recall (possibly due to my 15 minions, 8 of which were War Ghouls :o). Struck me as weird though that it did not take _much_ longer especially as Legbiter was playing his Allies deck with Autarkis Persecutions by the barrowload - three in one turn for a total table gain (5 players left at the time) of approx. 100 pool ! I find that the larger games tend to break down into smaller groups as most of the other players have time to go and have a meal, shave, read a book, move house etc. between turns. Not a lot of cross table shenanigans go on as the players sat 'cross table' from you are so far away they could not give a card with a picture of dog poo on it if you are doing well or not. But we don't give a hoot about those let's look at five player tables. I have always thought of the five player dynamic as a great leveller. It is responsible for a lot of the 'early oust shocks' of tournaments and times when you think 'how the hell did that deck win ?? An average deck that has little or no pressure on it can set up at leisure and pick it's targets, generally have a good time of it and take on 'better' decks / players that are wounded from previous conflict. The 'Newton's cradle' effect. A >> B C >> D E >> I have found from bitter experience that ploughing into your prey like a freight train from the outset comes around to haunt you very quickly. Not only does the pressure come back on you from your Predator (E in the above diagram), but the other players will often see you as a threat to the table and pause their immediate disputes to smack you down a bit. I think the 'better' player will make a table enemy out of their prey and oust them slowly but surely (making allies and examples along the way) thus gaining a VP and the temporary good favour of the table. In my experience the most common table upset is a speedy [weenie?] deck. Either the other players see the speed and efficiency and try to clamp it down or the Newton's cradle effect kicks in. This can be an excellent opening for the observant player, if you see it happening you can slipstream and make a minor undetected powerplay yourself. IMO slow ascensions to power are a lot more successful than speed kill decks that try and set up in three or four rounds and dominate. Also a disgruntled table will overlook previously blocked / voted down actions if you use the cloak of helping out with balance, whilst actually laying dastardly plans of your own. I think the most powerful table archetype in VTES is the strong table good guy, the policeman or paladin if you will. If you can take a VP or two by ousting players that are (or have been made into :o) 'bad guys', build up your resources to an obviously strong (but not superpowered) level, perhaps even giving up a VP to an ally cross table for a later favour etc. you stand a very good chance of winning the game with 3-4 VP's. If you take the good guy road you also give yourself the valuable option of flipping play-style, and mopping up by breaking deals, backstabbing etc. Harsh but realistic. [As a related side note, I have observed that in a lot of games that I have watched and played in, table deals (certainly in this neck of the woods) seem to be both short term and forgettable. By short term I mean usually no more than a turn or two and forgettable as in - It has to be a really horrific backstab or near fisticuffs to permanently scar reputations]. Lot of talk lately about the salmon going upstream technique advocated by and used most recently, I believe by Tom Kassel. I'm trying to get my head around the table dynamic for this one. Ooo my brain hurts. << A B >> C D >> E At the most obvious level, player D is going to be your best buddy whilst you mow against the grain but effectively, you are allowing B (your prey) and D to power up with little or no pressure on them. It strikes me that this two on one arrangement lends itself to Dramatic Upheaval type cards VERY well. Heat your pred. over gas mark 6 until nearly dead and switch places with player D, mopping up the residue with a nice piece of fresh garlic bread. I have a Malk / !Malk deck with lots of table moving votes, Malk rider clause, Life Boons and Kindred Spirits for adaptable bleeds and it seems pretty cool. Needs a bit of tweeking but really capitalises on the 5 player dynamic. Can't really write about the Five player dynamic without talking about votes now can I ? I'm not sure if it just shifting metagames or a real change in the game since SW but vote dominance has IMO become more important than ever before. The balance of power seems to have shifted away from 'weenie' decks and into the mid range vamps of the Sabbat and Camarilla. Players want more for their pool these days, a vamp has to be pretty damn special to invest 7-10 points in and _not_ have a workable voting title [Prince, ArchB, Justicar, IC, Cardinal, Prisci]. Votes in play are one of the most useful tools in establishing a foothold on the table. Votes are by all intents and purposes, permanents. They are assets (and fat red targets:o) you have that can be seen by all and used to bargain with. Vote control is one of the best ways to influence the whole table and (referring back to the last newsletter) the easiest way to get yourself a Gimp. Basically what I am trying to say is that the game mechanic is LARGELY RANDOM and you might as well FORGET ABOUT INFLUENCING ANYONE else around the table and play your own game. >>>>> Dominate. ___________________________________________________ OFF CLAN TALK - Just how good is Greta Kirchner ? Greta Kirchner 7 Toreador Antitribu PRE CEL AUS obf Whenever you are bled by a younger vampire or ally, Greta may burn one blood to reduce the bleed by one. Well well well three holes in the ground, this is something a bit new. What a great vampire, intercept, stealth, vote potential, combat ends, celerity and a cracking special. I am using her in a guns / range / votes deck using a lot of Psyche's reactively as recommended by Todd (cheers Todd). One of the stars of the Sabbat War expansion, Greta has one of those 'stand alone' special abilities. In the right game she gives you a theoretical 7 pool increase from her permanent-mini Telepathic Counter ability. Stick the Rack or consistent Hunting Ground action on her and she becomes invaluable. The way to use her special IMO is to reduce any smaller bleeds and deflect the larger ones. I know that some players like Telepathic Counter but I have always much preferred to make the bleeds work for you and start fights by deflecting. I think that she would be an 'essential' in a votes-only Protected Resources deck. Q. Can you use her special after the Protected Resources has reduced the bleed to 2 ? Hmmmm. Protected Resources, now there's an odd card. Never been a huge fan myself, effectively denying yourself one of the fundamental actions of the game. I can think of a few decks that it would be very good in, but as a general defence I think it blows goats. __________________________________________________ DECK OF THE MONTH Deck name: Ventrue weenie muck. Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 6, Max: 18, Avg: 3.00] > Good low point average for speed. 1 Antoinette DuChamp (Caitiff, 1, ce pr) 1 Courtland Leighton (Ventrue, 4, do fo pr) 1 Delilah Easton (Toreador, 2, pr) 2 Gideon Fontaine (Ventrue, 3, PR) 1 Igo the Hungry (Caitiff, 1, pr pt) 1 Itzahk Levine (Ventrue, 3, ce pr) 1 Jazz Wentworth (Ventrue, 5, do fo PR) 1 Ranjan Rishi, (Ventrue, 5, DO fo PR) 1 Roland Loussarian (Ventrue, 3, fo pr) 1 Vasilis, The Traitor (Brujah, 2, pr) 1 Violette Prentiss (Ventrue, 4, do PR) Library: (73 cards) 15 Masters - Too many I think ? 1 Anarch Troublemaker 1 Archon Investigation 2 Awe 2 Banishment 4 Bewitching Oration 1 Catacombs 2 Change of Target 2 Closed Session 2 Consanguineous Boon 1 Conservative Agitation 2 Cryptic Rider 1 Direct Intervention 2 Dramatic Upheaval 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Elysium: The Arboretum 2 Enchant Kindred 1 Hostile Takeover 1 Humanitas 4 Information Highway 7 Kine Resources Contested 2 Legal Manipulations 8 Majesty 1 Mr Winthrop 1 Rumour Mill, Tabloid Newpaper 2 Parity Shift 8 Pick and mix Praxis Seizures 1 Sudden Reversal 2 Ventrue Headquarters 2 Ventrue Justicar 6 Wake with Evening's Freshness I feel so dirty. An old skool weenie deck for the new players who have come in to the Sabbat War mid point metagame (duck). The problem that I have found with decks like this is that (as mentioned earlier) the speed scares the crap out of the other players who try to stamp on it AND it eats up 2/3 VP's and folds. >> Is the last factor actually a detriment though ? Hmmmm There is a school of thought that leans toward playing a deck that grabs 2 VP's and bails, making good deals and divvying up the table with an ally / gimp. A decent tactic ? I think that this deck packs enough punch and fear factor to allow you to make credible 'I'll take 2 VP's and you take 2 VP's' deals with a potentially lethal rush deck. Obviously, it used to pack Misdirections but the game _is_ better for having it hamstrung so I've no problem with taking them out. Does the deck have too many masters ? A lot are disposable duplicates which means that they are much more likely to appear in your opening cards. Is this probability advantage worth the dead slots later on ? Interestingly, I think the level of deck focus required to take out 'weenie sleaze decks' in general means you virtually have to ignore other MAJOR threat areas of the game. I believe this lies at the heart of the UK/US difference. _________________________________________________ I think that is quite enough for March. If you would be so kind as to send me any Ventrue treats to - Rob.Treasure@btinternet.com I would be much obliged. In the April fool newsletter which will be hitting your screens on April 1st :o) ha ha ha -A smorgasbord of skulduggery, smut and psychosis in Agitation Nation. Specifically, I might cover the endgame. -Card discussion - might investigate Cryptic Rider and Malkavian Rider Clause 'chain voting' possibilities ?? -Ventrue Antitribu. Asshole deserters, I'll may give them a whirl next month. Lucky bastards. -Anti combat survival strategies.