October Assamite Newsletter 2005
jarkko...@hotmail.com
Author: Jarkko Suvela
Table of Contents:
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Politics: Should We Fool Around With It?
Theme Decks: The Storytelling
Deck of the Month
Signal Off
Politics: Should We Fool Around With It?
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Politics are a very powerful weapon in V:TES. Though not quite as
effective as bleeding, political actions deal the second-most pool
damage in the game. Additionally, the damage dealt by political actions
cannot be bounced or reduced by your opponents. However, going the
political route has the downside of needing enough votes to acquire
"votelock" on the table, which is very hard to achieve sometimes.
Here are a few ways to make sure you get it.
1.) Torporize the opposing voters. This is my favourite method, because
there are no questions asked about whether or not your referendum
passes when other the voters on the table are lying in torpor. Of
course, this requires a lot of other cards (combat cards and
get-into-combat-cards) in your library. So my suggestion is to make
your combats simple and effective; disguised weapons that do aggravated
damage are a good example that won't eat up too many card slots. Or
design your crypt well, with vampires that have the leverage in combat.
Thetmes has 2 votes and aggravated hand damage, for example.
2.) Use Presence as one of your disciplines. Assamites have quite a few
vampires with Presence; Aziz and Tegyrius have it at superior and can
be the cornerstones in this type of build. It can be a very good idea
to add some non-Assamites with titles in the deck too, just to save
some Bewitching Orations (or whichever action modifiers you use to get
your votes to pass succesfully).
3.) Alamut. This is very familiar location for many Assamite players.
For those who aren't familiar with it, Alamut is a location which
gathers the pool damage done by your bleeds and gives you the
opportunity to use those counters as transient votes. It's worth
noting that every titled Assamite has either Presence or Dominate,
which can be used to make those bleeds bigger, thereby giving you more
counters on Alamut. Having many low-capacity vampires to bleed with can
accumulate counters quickly as well. When using Alamut, make sure that
you remember to use the proper number of counters to gain votes, as you
can only burn counters from Alamut once per political action.
4.) Last but not least, you can choose anarchy. Fee Stakes were an
addition to the game which made (almost) every clan suitable for voting
without inherent votes or vote-pushing disciplines. It's relatively
easy to get the Fee Stakes successfully with obfuscate, and Assamites
have good candidates for becoming Barons. This method can also be
complemented by those listed above; Alamut can help defend your Baron
titles if someone attempts to vote them away, for instance.
As I mentioned above, it's good to include non-Assamites in the crypt
too, because Assamites have only few titled vampires. Cheap votes may
be your salvation in many games. Many clans have vote-enhancing cards,
like Ventrue Headquarters, Ferraille and Oxford University, England.
These are good to remember if you put enough of the required clan in
your crypt.
As a side note, playing with votes doesn't necessarily mean that you
should only be calling votes. It's always good to have some defence
against vote decks. You can do this with your titles, Alamut (which
provides good defence while requiring activity on our behalf) and a
rather new card called Confusion of the Eye. Confusion of the Eye is
really powerful for clan Assamite, as with superior obfuscate it can
foil any vote that requires a titled vampire to call it. Confusion of
the Eye and Delaying Tactics give you good defence against voters
alone, but simple titles can also go a long way here.
For the topic, should we fool around this? My opinion is that yes, we
should, even if it presents many difficulties. Every clan has a stigma
in the game - Assamites have their lethal combat, and political actions
are the last thing many players think of when seeing an Assamite deck
at the table. This might give you some leverage, since people are
likely to think twice before entering combat with your Assamites. This
can be a good way to bluff other players. Be sure to make it worth your
while, though. You shouldn't attempt to make semi-political decks
with Assamites, because their lack of titles will make playing such a
deck an uphill battle. But don't entirely neglect combat; keep in
mind that Assamites have the capability to control their combats with
Celerity, and can also Obfuscate to tighten it down. Swallowed by the
Night is a really good card if you want to keep the combat card ratios
down to a minimum. That and Taste of Death should keep your opponents
on their toes.
Theme Decks: The Storytelling
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Ever get bored with the mathematical, serious part of the game? Want to
build your deck with some spirit in it? After all, we play the game for
fun, or at least we should. I can compare the game to all kinds of
activities here, but it seems obsolete to point them out. I once heard
someone saying that it's more fun to play with other players than by
yourself.
By "theme decks" I mean decks where you can spin a yarn while
playing and concentrate on having a good time without worrying about
counting every move. I always enjoy seeing a deck with some flavour in
it. "Okay, now I have +2 bleed and +5 stealth when I bleed you with
my Ozmo," is the bare bones of the game, and what you're most often
going to hear, but I've also heard players accustomed to playing
thematic decks say, "After purchasing this laptop computer on sale,
Ozmo now bleeds you for 3. He's got +5 stealth after crawling in the
sewers and wading through the thickets," or something similar.
You get the picture I'm trying to draw here. If you try to force
yourself to say these phrases, it doesn't sound too good; your deck
has to be built from the core with a theme in it. I've had always a
thing for themes in V:TES and my first was to play Gangrel minxes. That
wasn't too deep or anything, but that's where it all started. After
that I came up with "Pensionates," which was basically Shambling
Hordes with Weightened Walking Sticks waving them at everyone.
A themed deck won a local tournament here in Turku; it was a Bukkake
theme where the crypt had topless men and Creamy Jade. And the library
supported the theme, of course. While this is mainly for fun, you can
also benefit from it strategically. Leaving red herrings on the table
can confuse your opponents and sucker them into taking useless actions.
My message is to remind all of you to have fun while playing casual
games...and why not in tournaments, too?
Deck of the Month
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Here I present the tournament winning deck made by mister Harviainen.
Deck name: Undead Bukkake featuring Miss Creamy Jade
Creator: J. Tuomas Harviainen
Crypt: [13 cards]
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3x Creamy Jade PRE cel aus vic
1x Salinger CEL PRE POT tha, Archbishop
1x Tegyrius, Vizier CEL AUS QUI FOR pre
1x Tegyrius, Vizier Adv CEL PRE AUS QUI FOR
1x Parnassus CEL QUI aus tha
1x Quentin King III AUS DEM obf pre, Prince
1x Quentin King III Adv AUS DEM OBF cel pre
1x Ian Wallingford CEL PRE aus, bishop
1x Matteus, Flesh Scu CEL PRE AUS VIC, Priscus
1x Thetmes, Caliph of CEL OBF QUI dom pot, 2 votes
1x Antoinette DuChamp pre
Library [90 cards]
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Master [11]
1x Art of Pain, The
2x Blood Doll
1x Celerity
2x Contract
1x Depravity
1x Direct Intervention
1x Gift of Experience
1x Obfuscate
1x Presence
Action [17]
2x Art Scam
6x Enchant Kindred
1x Entrancement
4x Flurry of Action
1x Lunatic Eruption
1x Patronage
1x Restructure
1x Seeds of Corruption
Political Action [5]
1x Banishment
1x Justicar Retribution
1x Kindred Segregation
1x Political Stranglehold
1x Screw the Masquerade!
Equipment [5]
1x Changeling Skin Mask
2x Incriminating Videotape
1x Winchester Mansion
1x Writ of Acceptance
Action Modifier [18]
2x Aire of Elation
1x Awe
1x Bewitching Oration
2x Bribes
1x Change of Target
3x Cloak the Gathering
2x Faceless Night
2x Lost in Crowds
1x Mask of a Thousand Faces
3x Voter Captivation
Reaction [11]
1x Delaying Tactics
1x Dread Gaze
1x Enhanced Senses
1x Fast Reaction
2x Pack Tactics
5x Wake with Evening's Freshness
Combat [21]
1x Backstab
1x Behind You!
4x Blur
1x Body Arsenal
2x Flash
1x Inner Essence
2x Lucky Blow
2x Psyche!
3x Sideslip
1x Taste of Death
3x Taste of Vitae
Action Modifier/Combat [2]
2x Swallowed by the Night
Signal Off
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My time as Newsletter writer is finished for now, the next newsletter
will be written by other Assamite fan. Remember to visit
www.thepathofblood.com frequently to read the latest Assamite decks and
strategies.
jarkko...@hotmail.com
Azel
thanks for bringing up Assamite vote. there's potential in there, and
it's not just for Tegyrius. in fact I'd like to remind people how much
cel, and out-of-clan aus, is available in the clan. all it takes is
throwing a presence master and you get to toss under the skin (for all
its flaws it cycles freely) and scalpel tongue. with that, vote
locations, and a bribes and you can most likely get your votes through
on most tables.
you can run a fatima and drop a pre master. take a vote action,
immediately drop an under the skin on a titled vamp 8 or less (there's
lots of those), drop a bribes, and any IC hanky panky follow with a
scalpel tongue (which taps them, mwa ha ha!). finish with a voter cap if
you wish.
for combat i'd probably work some agg weapons to save cards. vote can be
card intensive and combat can be combat intensive. you'd want to keep
the chains a bit small.
great topic for a newsletter! *and beaucoup bonus points for bukkake
themed deck!*
Emmit Svenson
jarkko...@hotmail.com wrote:
> ...going the
> political route has the downside of needing enough votes to acquire
> "votelock" on the table, which is very hard to achieve sometimes.
> Here are a few ways to make sure you get it.
Interesting discussion. Another tactic worth mentioning is "choose the
right vote." Independent Assamites can call Free State Rant, a powerful
vote when called by high-cap vamps. FSR offers the Assamites two big
benefits. First, titles are worth less in the referendum, so the
title-poor Assamites are on a more even footing with other clans.
Second, the edge is worth more, so a stealthy Night Moves from a weenie
or a Flurry of Action from the voter himself can be enough to pass the
vote, especially since the bleed will also add counters on Alamut.
jarkko...@hotmail.com
too. Around here, FSR's usually pass with BO's -that mentioned, I did
point out the PRE route.
-thanks for bringing it out!