Assamite Newsletter July 2005
Jarkko Suvela
Author: Jarkko Suvela
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Table of Contents
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Accept No Substitute
Gun Kata
Tap'n'Taste
Deck of the Month: Blood Suckers
Next Issue
Accept No Substitute
-----------------------------
Guns and melee weapons are tools which are easy for the Assamite clan
to use. Their in-clan disciplines of Obfuscate and Celerity support
weapon-based combat so well that guns and melee weapons have become
the de facto fourth discipline of the clan.
Being a combat-oriented clan, Assamites need permanent combat
enhancers in the long run, because otherwise their decks run the risk
of depletion due to heavy card expenditure in combat. That is, of
course, if you want to do effective damage to your opponents and are
not trying to avoid combat. Guns which give one optional maneuver each
combat can be life savers and also let you save cards. For example,
combine .44 Magnum with Pursuit and Taste of Death, and you only need
to play two cards to do 2R normal and 2R aggravated damage, at cost of
1 blood.
Five Assamites have +1 strength as a special ability, which combines
very well with melee weapons, and since most Assamites cannot perform
diablerie, burning is good way to get rid of opponents. Combine Sengir
Dagger (strike: strength-based aggravated damage) with Parnassus and
he becomes very lethal. If you're wondering how you actually manage to
burn a vampire instead of just sending him to torpor, try Thin Blood
and/or Wave of Lethargy to get rid of the blood on the opposing
vampire before striking for aggravated damage.
Sometimes it can be difficult to equip your vampires with weapons, so
here is a segment which Finbury posted on The Path of Blood
(www.thepathofblood.com) on how to make the equipping easier:
1) Multiple weapons + multiple Concealed Weapon: This is your standard
option; you're probably running about 6 or 7 copies of each card.
Pro:
- Unstoppable and you never lose your gun
- Doesn't cost you an action
- Can be a surprise
- Some variety - if you play multiple weapon types and draw into them,
you can choose which one to play
Con:
- Can generate a lot of handjam as you're using 12-14 deck slots. (The
handjam goes away if you're using cheap or disposable weapons like
Pokers, Garrotes, or Saturday Night Specials with DBR.)
- Relies on drawing into an in-hand combo
2) Multiple weapons + Disguised Weapon: AKA "Ivory Bow as well."
Strictly better than the above if your crypt supports it, can be a lot
worse otherwise.
3) Few Weapons + multiple Vast Wealth: You're probably running 2-3
weapons here and 4-7 Vast Wealth.
Pro:
- Fewer card slots - 6-10
- Additional Vast Wealths can be cycled via MPAs
- You never lose your gun on a failed action
- Can be used for non-gun equipment (i.e. Talbots' Chainsaw, Eye of
Hazimel)
Con:
- Wastes an action, or maybe more than one
- If you've already drawn all your guns, Vast Wealth is useless
- Easy to stop, especially if your prey has permanent intercept
- No surprise
- Can't draw into and play combo on same turn
- Variety is bad - since the weapon you're getting is essentially
random, your choices are to play all the same card or to risk getting
the wrong card for your current situation
4) Multiple Weapons + Fatima al-Faqadi: Use 7 or so weapons and
Fatima's special to play them.
Pro:
- Least card slots - 7 total
- Can be used in combat
- Unstoppable and you never lose your weapon
- Some variety - if you play multiple weapon types and draw into them,
you can choose which one to play
Con:
- Can only work with Fatima's disciplines
- Fatima is a target
- Not really a surprise
- Only Fatima gets the weapon, unless you want to take equipment
exchange actions or play with Heidelburg Castle/Nod/etc.
5) Few Weapons + Multiple Magic of the Smith: Say 1-2 of the former
and 5-6 of the latter.
Pro:
- Can be used with other equipment, such as bleed boosters, permanent
intercept, damage prevention, etc.
- Relatively few card slots
- Most variety, as you can dial-a-weapon if you play with multiple
types
Con:
- Can be blocked, although it is difficult
- Requires an action
- Costs blood
6) Few weapons + Alastor-vote: Say 1-3 of the former and 6+ of the
latter
Pro:
- Relatively few card slots - 7-10.
- Half-price weapon is nice
- Best variety - you can dial-a-weapon
- Doesn't have to go on the acting vampire
- You get permarush as well
Con:
- Can be blocked
- Requires a referendum
- Requires an Inner Circle member or Justicar
- Only works on a Camarilla vampire
- Your vampire can't diablerize (which is a shame because you have a
lot of votes in play...)
Gun Kata
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(Kata means a series of combat maneuvers, used in Budo, a Japanese
martial art.)
Okay, you have the heat in your pocket now. All that's left is for you
to know how to use it. Celerity provides you with maneuvers, presses,
dodges, additional strikes, an anti-S:CE card and even S:CE itself.
But Celerity is not the only discipline the Assamites can use to
supplement weapon-based combat. Obfuscate is an asset you shouldn't
ignore. Obfuscate grants you maneuvers, presses and dodges, just as
Celerity does. However, additionally, you might also need some stealth
to acquire the right target for your rush, so Swallowed by the Night
is very good option. And when playing Disguised Weapon, you should
consider the right timing when playing it, as this card can have great
surprise value. If you play it at inferior, before range is determined
in combat, you get the chance to use the maneuver a gun might grant,
but then again, your opponent is ready for it.
The main question here is the amount of combat cards you should
include in your deck. If your local playgroup uses lots of S:CE, then
put loads of Psyche! If the response is usually hostile (Thrown Sewer
Lids, etc.), then make sure you have many dodges and additional
strikes available.
Here are a few examples of gun-oriented combat packages:
Type I:
Flash x6
Concealed weapon, or Disguised weapon x6
Sidestrike x5
Behind You! x4
Psyche! x6
Projectile x4
Taste of Vitae x5
Taste of Death x3
total: 39 cards
Type II:
Behind You! x8
Projectile or Blur x5
Pursuit x6
Concealed Weapon, or Disguised weapon x6
Taste of Vitae x4
Psyche! x6
total: 35 cards
Cards which provide variety in use are always great when you're not
sure what you're going to be up against, so you should be sure to add
a few Swallowed by the Night to both of these packages. And remember
to add Sire's Index Finger if your offensive combat is based solely on
weapons.
Tap'n'Taste
-----------------------------
Having a hard time keeping your pool healthy? Here's an idea to try
out - since Blood Dolls are sometimes too slow in their effects, try
Minion Tap. This allows you to bring high capacity vampires into play
without the fear that you'll lose too much pool in the early game. It
is also much easier to win combats with all the superior disciplines
and special abilities bigger vampires have. If you choose to use
Minion Taps, be sure that you have enough of them, and make sure to
use the proper amount of Taste of Vitae and/or Provision of Silsila in
your deck to recoup blood.
Deck of the Month
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Deck Name : Kuppaajat, Blood Suckers
Author : Jarkko Suvela
Description : This is an old deck which I used to play a lot. The
basic idea is to use blood denial on opposing vamps and burn them or
send them into torpor with various cards.
Crypt [12 vampires] Capacity min: 1 max: 8 average: 5.25
------------------------------------------------------------
3x Anisa Marianna Lop 8 FOR NEC QUI aus Harbinger:2
3x Tariq, The Silent 7 AUS FOR OBF QUI cel Assamite:2
2x Kyoko Shinsegawa 5 aus cel dom for Tremere:3
2x Harika Guljan 3 QUI Assamite:2
2x Julius 1 qui ser Caitiff:2
Library [90 cards]
------------------------------------------------------------
Master [13]
4x Blood Doll
2x Lazarene Inquisitor
2x Necromancy
1x Path of Blood, The
4x Society of Leopold
Action [6]
1x Bum's Rush
2x Daemonic Possession
3x Nose of the Hound
Action Modifier [10]
5x Freak Drive
1x Kiss of Ra, The
4x Succulent Vitae
Action Modifier/Combat [2]
2x Draught of the Soul
Ally [2]
1x Ghouls of Plaza Morería, The
1x Gregory Winter
Combat [34]
6x Blood of the Cobra
7x Resilience
6x Rolling with the Punches
8x Scorpion's Touch
7x Unflinching Persistence
Equipment [4]
2x Aaron's Feeding Razor
2x Erebus Mask
Reaction [16]
6x Foul Blood
4x Precognition
6x Wake with Evening's Freshness
Retainer [3]
1x J. S. Simmons, Esq.
1x Mr. Winthrop
1x Tasha Morgan
Next Issue
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Vizier, Warrior, and Sorcerer – a look at the three castes of the
Assamite clan.
-Signal off-
David Cherryholmes
I've really been enjoying your newsletters. Just a few comments....
> Five Assamites have +1 strength as a special ability, which combines
> very well with melee weapons
It also is worth noting that it combines well with plain old CEL, and
works when your weapons might not (grapple, DotB, TF). "Hole plugged"
is a nice state of affairs.
> and since most Assamites cannot perform
> diablerie, burning is good way to get rid of opponents.
More options is always good, but the pool damage cards for combat are
always a good idea if you are running significant combat. And if that's
the case, the two best damage generators in the game, Fame and
Dragonbound, don't work when you burn minions. Contracted guys tend to
never, ever come back out of torpor (by their own choice anyway), which
makes playing them nearly as good as burning, and something you were
probably going to do anyway (if you are a combat deck, of course).
Effect-based reasoning is a helpful tool for successful deckbuilding, IMHO.
> But Celerity is not the only discipline the Assamites can use to
> supplement weapon-based combat. Obfuscate is an asset you shouldn't
> ignore. Obfuscate grants you maneuvers, presses and dodges, just as
> Celerity does. However, additionally, you might also need some stealth
> to acquire the right target for your rush, so Swallowed by the Night
> is very good option.
Behind You! does offer a combo package that Celerity doesn't:
maneuver/dodge. The biggest problem is that OBF is not that easy to
come by, short of the really big minions. There are certainly crypts
which can have it, but they fall woefully short of CEL, and it's a big
drop from CEL to cel, one I'm not sure the flexibility of SbtN and BY!
make up for. Unless you are some filthy horde dom/obf Malkamite deck,
in which case both those cards are gold.
> Tap'n'Taste
> -----------------------------
> Having a hard time keeping your pool healthy? Here's an idea to try
> out - since Blood Dolls are sometimes too slow in their effects, try
> Minion Tap. This allows you to bring high capacity vampires into play
> without the fear that you'll lose too much pool in the early game. It
> is also much easier to win combats with all the superior disciplines
> and special abilities bigger vampires have. If you choose to use
> Minion Taps, be sure that you have enough of them, and make sure to
> use the proper amount of Taste of Vitae and/or Provision of Silsila in
> your deck to recoup blood.
Or base your combat around Theft/Blur, which is a pretty viable, mostly
Assamite deck. Then you can MT like mad, and being an 11 cap is looking
pretty good. In fact, I think I'll rework my deck to add a some Behind
You!'s to it, since that's a crypt that actually does have OBF.
> Combat [34]
> 6x Blood of the Cobra
> 8x Scorpion's Touch
Very cool use of the cards, in spite of the limited effect.
--
David Cherryholmes
Jarkko Suvela
> works when your weapons might not (grapple, DotB, TF). "Hole plugged"
> is a nice state of affairs.
I have to admit that my comments (of Assamite combat) could have been
more fulfilling, but hey, I got few Newsletters still time to mention
about them ;)
> More options is always good, but the pool damage cards for combat are
> always a good idea if you are running significant combat. And if that's
> the case, the two best damage generators in the game, Fame and
> Dragonbound, don't work when you burn minions. Contracted guys tend to
> never, ever come back out of torpor (by their own choice anyway), which
> makes playing them nearly as good as burning, and something you were
> probably going to do anyway (if you are a combat deck, of course).
> Effect-based reasoning is a helpful tool for successful deckbuilding, IMHO.
This note was simply for those, who think that Assamites suck in
their inability to perform diablerie, ofcourse you must think is it
good to burn a vampire if you have Fame, Dragonbound etc. combat tech
in the table.
> Behind You! does offer a combo package that Celerity doesn't:
> maneuver/dodge. The biggest problem is that OBF is not that easy to
> come by, short of the really big minions. There are certainly crypts
> which can have it, but they fall woefully short of CEL, and it's a big
> drop from CEL to cel, one I'm not sure the flexibility of SbtN and BY!
> make up for. Unless you are some filthy horde dom/obf Malkamite deck,
> in which case both those cards are gold.
This again is a matter of your deckbuild, I might not go with OBF QUI
if I'd do only combat deck, lack of anti-dodge/S:CE is a bitch. But
however this is very good option for bruise&bleed module, when you hit
your Preys pool or it's minions. ...and in tight situations you can
pull the stealthbleed option (shame on you :D ) and do a possible
oust.
> Or base your combat around Theft/Blur, which is a pretty viable, mostly
> Assamite deck. Then you can MT like mad, and being an 11 cap is looking
> pretty good. In fact, I think I'll rework my deck to add a some Behind
> You!'s to it, since that's a crypt that actually does have OBF.
I think I'll introdude 3 different methods in my next newsletter
(where I introduce different castes) regarding this, I left the
thefting option out, because there's not so many Assamites that can
perform it (w/o dicipline cards that is)
> > Combat [34]
> > 6x Blood of the Cobra
> > 8x Scorpion's Touch
Very cool use of the cards, in spite of the limited effect.
I'm still about to make use of Eruption of Vitae... it's hard :(
Thanks for your comments and intrest!
Jarkko
Daneel
wrote:
> Assamite Newsletter July 2005
> Author: Jarkko Suvela
> -----------------------------
Great newsletter. Keep it up!
--
Bye,
Daneel