OFFICIAL VEKN CLAN VENTRUE NEWSLETTER Vol.II No.2 Oct. 2000 I have seen the new face of the enemy and it ain't pretty. INTRODUCTION WAR COUNCIL **CLASSIFIED** - Damage limitation in the face of the Sabbat uprising. CARD FOCUS - Business Pressure DECK OF THE MONTH - 'Bing bong ! ....Flight number EK001 to Cairo will be delayed until further notice, we apologise for your lack of minions' _________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Apologies for the tardy newsletter this month. Two semi-valid reasons have conspired to delay it, one of which will become apparent as you read the deck o' the month and the other is the Sabbat War (more on this later in the newsletter) which has dominated metagames and talk for the last couple of weeks. Oh, and also the fact that I have only been back from my honeymoon for a few days. All weak excuses deflecting from the issue though so onward. WAR COUNCIL **CLASSIFIED** Our sources have revealed that the Sabbat have finally declared war on everything and anything. They are taking everything that is not nailed down, have total disregard for the masquerade and must be put down like the dogs they are. The political figurehead behind the renegade Ventrue has been identified and is, as suspected Kyle Strathcona of Canada. Early altercations indicate his particular skills closely match our own and we can confirm that his extensive contacts and holdings also allow him to offer sustenance to any of the Black Hand worldwide. This network is to be monitored closely as it has allowed him to maintain an effective force and limit his minions hunting. We have 'acquired' a CCTV cassette from his security web and have studied images of him rending limbs from a would-be Lasombra assassin and throwing a grand piano at a Canadian Mounted Policeman so he obviously has considerable strength. A partnership with the infamous deviant Lazverinus is inevitable. Peter Blaine has also surfaced and is using the specific knowledge of our structure and assets against us. He is an easy target and must be dealt with to avoid unnecessary losses. It would appear that the Sabbat have been marshalling resources and political power for their 'big push'. Evidence of further intimidation tactics designed to infiltrate the political arena have become apparent and they now are able to hold a Closed Session of their own but require a titled Kindred to be present. Rumours are abound of the Black Hand laying Siege to cities and forcing all kindred to decide on the city control by bidding their own resources. Barbaric. Early studies and opinion predict the biggest threat to the Camarilla not being the bastard Ventrue Antitribu but the Tzimisce. They have been steadily growing in power and have taken hold of many new assets and have developed new skills and powers. They (through the hospitality of elders) are now able to stay awake and travel swiftly between locations potentially blocking all of our movements. In addition to the above, the oft used Elysium has now quite rightly closed it's doors to the Sabbat. Obviously this has disadvantages for our clan but the continued defilement and abuse of the facility has finally resulted in the animals being kicked out. In these chaotic times the Elysium only recognises disputes between Camarilla vampires, any Sabbat involvement is not permitted. We must now consolidate our powers to bolster our defences against the new threat without relying on the Elysium. ______________________________________________ CARD FOCUS - Business Pressure Presence is possibly the most maligned (deservedly) of all disciplines and the Ventrue use it very well. In my opinion the bad rep is based mainly on two facts : - It has the most accessible S:CE cards in the game. As a discipline Presence is relatively widespread compared with the other S:CE disciplines and players 'expect' a deck using Presence to combat ends at every turn. - It is usually associated with weenie votes or bleed and we all know how filthy those deli counter decks are. Ho ho ho. If you look amongst the mud, it does however have a few speciality cards that are still dirty but also warrant further discussion. Business Pressure is one of those. ------------------- Business Pressure Action Modifier Presence Rare Jyhad / V:TES Only useable during a Political Action (now see Referendum). Any Methuselah can burn pool to gain votes. A Methuselah gains 2 votes for each pool he or she burns. (S) As above, but you gain 3 votes for each pool you burn. ------------------- In my experience the only time I see Business Pressure played is as an "I'll put this card in here for a laugh" situation, almost novelty value? I think it has unexplored (or more importantly unexploited!) potential. By the way if anyone has used it effectively or seen it used, please let me know. Mail me if you are too ashamed to admit it !! The card turns a simple vote into a mini metagame involving the whole table. It is an accomplished agitators dream card ! With a bit of clever talk you could shorten a game (Anarch Revolt style), wallop your prey for next to no cost or foster huge and useful rifts around the table. If played at superior I think (and have witnessed) people *still* bid 4,5,6 pool to avoid a 3 point loss through KRC. Odd. No offence but humans are generally a bit simple ! (predictable or proud maybe a bit fairer). Generally if your prey sees a way out they will try and out bid you. You will be surprised how easy it is to entice someone into a poker style betting war, great fun. Other players are usually willing to throw in a casual 1 or 2 but your main opposition and ally! will obviously be the target of your vote. I cannot think of a better partner for Parity Shift, if the two cards are played in succession they would work very effectively together. Business Pressure would allow you spend enough pool to get below your prey's pool level and at the same time encourages them to spend to keep from losing 5 pool. Couple it with Voter Captivation or simply Bewitching Oration / Awe and you begin to see the ugly picture. There you go, Business Pressure. Certainly going in the magazine of my anti-Sabbat cannon. DECK OF THE MONTH 'Bing bong! ...Flight number EK001 to Cairo will be delayed until further notice, we apologise for your lack of minions' Created by: Rob Treasure and to be played in today's (4th Nov) Portsmouth tournament hence the delay on release of the letter. That's my story anyway. Crypt: (12 cards) [Min: 5, Max: 13, Avg: 2.33] (very good low average of 2.33 for speed) 1 Angela Decker (Pander, 1, pr) 1 Antoinette DuChamp (Caitiff, 1, ce pr) 1 Delilah Easton (Toreador, 2, pr) 1 Frederick the Weak (!Brujah, 2, pr) 2 Gideon Fontaine (Ventrue, 3, PR) 1 Igo the Hungry (Caitiff, 1, pr pt) 1 Itzahk Levine (Ventrue, 3, ce pr) 1 Roland Loussarian (Ventrue, 3, fo pr) 1 Uma Hatch (Brujah, 3, ce pr) 1 Vasilis, Traitor etc. (Brujah, 2, pr) 1 Violette Prentiss (Ventrue, 4, do PR) Library: 90 cards (21 masters) 1 Archon Investigation 4 Autarkis Persecution 4 Awe 11+ Banishment ? 5 Bewitching Oration 6 Cairo Int'l Airport 2 Change of Target 1 Conservative Agitation 4 Cryptic Rider 1 Direct Intervention 1 Disputed Territory 2 Dramatic Upheaval 1 Dreams of the Sphinx 1 Elysium 4 Fake Out 1 Hostile Takeover 1 Humanitas 4 Information Highway 2 Intimidation 1 KRCG News Radio 4 Legal Manipulations 10 Majesty 1 Praxis Seizure: Amsterdam 1 Praxis Seizure: Berlin 1 Praxis Seizure: Istanbul 1 Praxis Seizure: Monaco 1 Praxis Seizure: Paris 1 Praxis Seizure: Venice 1 Praxis Seizure: Houston 1 Sudden Reversal 3 Tribute to the Master 1 Ventrue Headquarters 2 Ventrue Justicar 5 Wake with Evening's Freshness Reproduced with the excellent Elder Library Deck Builder. A filthy king of the filthy tribe who live in Filthville idea that I had a while ago whilst trying to emulate a 'Magic' style lockdown with Cairo Int. Airport. Only five Ventrue in the crypt but undoubtedly a Ventrue deck at heart ! I make no excuses or apologies for the deck. It is basically weenie presence sleaze with experimental bolt-ons that I wanted to try in Portsmouth. It uses modules for the combat defence and has a standard 'bleed package'. I have added some cards for staying power and a bit of toolbox but you could essentially get rid of all these and go for purity?? Cannot do that though because i'm English! It still manages to shut down it's prey after 3 - 4 turns most of the time and hopefully allows you to muster resources to tackle your grand prey or move to take out a more inviting prey?? As far as I can see, Cairo is one of only a few cards that allow multiple minions to target a resource, Covenant of Blood and Haven Uncovered are the only others I can think of but they are burnable and do a totally different job. Most importantly IMO Cairo is non-burnable and is also the only (feasible) way in the game you can diminish transferred pool and deny your prey transfers, pool and time. I have played it a few times in different incarnations and it slaughtered the table, but from a tourney point of view it is difficult to get the right balance of Banishments for different settings. I coupled it with the obvious Banishment combo and I may still tweek it up to 14/15 Banishments this morning to handle pred and cross table shit. I am fairly confident of taking out my prey in each round but also have tweeked it to steer away from a 'one-kill special' as so many of these type of decks become. In simplistic theory I should be able to take out my prey by matching transfers with 4 vamps and a Cairo whilst storing up Banishments and stuff for my grand prey. I predict that it will do well 9/10 VP's and maybe 2 or 3rd place, but won't win the day for a couple of reasons - -It hammers into your prey too hard. Simple table dynamics tell you that smashing your prey into jelly in 4/5 rounds is all well and good but will haunt you in later rounds as your pred will logically have less pressure on them (following the table round). I think I'll try to hang back a bit on my prey but it will be difficult if you look at the deck. -It will be vulnerable to a couple of stock decks namely the equally dirty sneak / bleed and also IG beats. -It has HUGE shock and fear value so people gun for it as soon as they know how fast / nasty it is. Mmmmm we'll see, bit of an experiment really, I will post comments, gory details and my results after the tournament in a sort of interactive newsletter type thing. __________________________________________ In the November letter: -The esteemed William Lee's Suhailah deck (finally have it on ELDB) -Agitation Nation, table prediction and control -More Sabbat 'intelligence' -Guest spot from the eminent Barny Baker Right, I am off to kick some ass in Portsmouth. Hope you have enjoyed reading, see you next month. Any decks, comments, ideas, money, praise, adoration, abuse, threats, jokes, prose, memories, plays, obituaries, novella etc. either post on the group or mail me Rob.Treasure@btinternet.com (although BT are taking the piss at the moment and messing with my email which is making my life very difficult).