VEKN Gangrel Newsletter September 2001
hamdamcwa
September 2001
Contents
Section 1.0 Welcome
Section 1.1 Feral Whispers
Section 1.2 Talking point
Section 1.3 Vampire of the month
Section 1.4 Card of the Month
Section 1.5 Ritual Challenge
Section 1.6 Conclusion
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Section 1.0
WELCOME
Come, brother, sit by my fire and listen to our tales of old. We are
Gangrel
and we are the beast.
Well, just to prove scaremongering DOESN'T work, my fears over King of
the Mountain were completely unfounded. To date that is, at least.
I have had a very busy couple of months, and as such haven’t had
a lot of time to be writing in these hallowed pages. “What I did
in my Summer Holidays” mainly revolved around Gencon UK. This
was a bittersweet experience, where I had a great laugh, but somehow
lost nearly every game I played (scoring 5.5 points over 3
tournaments!). I was a little dissapointed with my performance, but
was secretly glad, since it means the competition has been getting
tougher over the last year. I can personally rate just about EVERY
player in the UK scene at the moment as someone to be reckoned with.
Anyway, with that to deal with and a lot of real life stuff happening,
I haven’t had quite the time I would have liked to look at some
Gangrel stuff I said I would, but I still have a packed issue for you
this time! The results to the Ritual Challenge “pain test”
are below in Feral Whispers (another reason why I had to take my time,
since I received shed-loads of mails entering this competition), as
well as some more thoughts on table dealing in Talking Point. Plus
another competition.
I hope you enjoy it.
DH
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Section 1.1
FERAL WHISPERS
Right, as I said above, I had a HUGE response to this. Just to remind
you what I asked (after a couple of revisions):
“What is the most amount of damage any given vampire can inflict
onto another vampire during strike resolution on the first round of
combat, without additional strikes, and only using one of each card
used in the combo”.
A bit of a mouthful! However, after reviewing all the entries, I think
the best entry was that of Christian “Xian” Herro who
offers the following:
“I'm going to assume a Rack/HG/maybe Restoration/hunt will
provide blood for
the actions, and won't provide any problems as far as that goes...I
will
account for blood used in combat.
Start with Angus the Unruly (I mean, Unruled) - 10 ANI cel for pot
PRO
Justicar, +1 str)
Give him:
chi skill card
dom skill card
for skill card
obt skill card
pot skill card
ser skill card
tha skill card
vic skill card
Angus ends up at 18 ANI cel chi dom FOR obt POT PRO ser tha vic)
Next, Angus gets a Ritual Challenge (+1 str, at 3)
Angus Clan Impersonates to Toreador Antitribu
Depravity (+1 str, at 4)
Art of Pain (+2 Strength, at 6)
Burn the Clan Impersonation
Put Gangrel Revel in play (+1 Strength - at 7)
Angus becomes a Legendary Vampire
Having Timothy Crowley on my side too, Island of Yiaros comes into
play (Strike for Strength +5 once)
Angus gets an Assault Rifle
Angus gets a Ghoul Retainer
Angus gets a Wolf Companion
Angus gets a Murder of Crows
Angus gets a Shade
Angus gets a Bang Nakh (str+2 damage)
Angus puts a Mass Reality in play at inferior (+1 damage for weapons)
Angus puts a Mark of Damnation on a vampire controlled by his prey.
(+1
strength in combat)
Angus gets a Vial of Garou Blood
Angus gets a Vial of Elder Vitae
Angus gets the Blood Tears of Kephran
Angus gets Masochism (at superior) with Daring the Dawn (at inferior,
to put
2 counters on it), and if necessary, Freak Drives, Regenerates,
Movement of
the Slow Body, Rapid Healing.
Finally, Angus Ambushes/Bum's Rushes the vampire that he put the Mark
of
Damnation on, using Uncontrollable Rage (+2 strength, at 10 including
Mark
of Damnation, costs 2 blood, at 16)
pre-range
Weather Control (@ 15 blood, 1 damage to opponent)
Carrion Crows
Drawing out the Beast
Thoughts Betrayed (at inferior, @ 13 blood)
Imposing Phantasm (+1 str, at 11, costs 1 blood @ 12)
Torn Signpost (base str 3, at 13)
Fists of Death (+2 str, at 15, costs 1 blood @ 11)
Increased Strength (+2 str with a Pot strike, at 17)
Fire in the Blood (+1 str, at 18, costs 1 blood @10)
Death of My Conscience (use 4 cards, +8 str, at 26, costs 3 blood @ 7)
use Vial of Garou Blood (+1 str, at 27)
use Vial of Elder Vitae to get VIC
play Inner Essence (+1 blood @ 8)
Horrid Form (+1 str, at 28, 0 cost from Inner Essence)
Body Arsenal (+1 str, at 29, costs 2 blood @ 6)
Mythic Form (+1 str, at 30, costs 3 blood @3
Blood of Acid (pay with the 2 rush counters)
assume range stays close, or he has enough PRO maneuvers.
strike
Tap the Island of Yiaros (+5 strength to strike). Use Bang Nakh (+1
from the Mass Reality, doing 36 +1WC) with Pushing the
Limit (+3 str, costs 1 blood @ 2...doing 41 + 1WC).
Burn Blood Tears (+2 blood @4)
Ghoul Retainer uses the Assault Rifle (for 5 with Mass Reality) and
Dragon
Breath Rounds (5+2=7, total 49)
Wolf Companion (50)
Shade (51)
Murder of Crows (52)
Thoughts Betrayed (53)
Carrion Crows (55)
taking 2 damage from opposing minion's strike (1 + 1 from DotB)
prevent
King of the Mountain (SUP does 2 damage, from DotB, costs 2 blood @ 2,
total
is 57)
Blood of Acid (59)
resolution
takes 2 damage, is at 0
Taste of Vitae
Twisting the Knife (60 - costs 1 blood, is at x-1 where x is amount of
blood
on opposing vampire)
Pulled Fangs (61)
press phase
Drawing out the Beast 1 unpreventable (62)
End total: 62, in theory
Optional note:
- If the opposing vampire is Basil, Angus would get +1 strength.
Anyway, that's it...let me know what you think. There might be
another
vampire that this is more effective with, but I think this is near the
top
end of the original challenge.
Xian”
Good work, my friend! See the Ritual Challenge below for this months
chance to show off to all your friends.
Feel free to comment either to the group or to my email address:
dave...@hotmail.com
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Section 1.2
TALKING POINT
A Bluffer’s Guide to Table Dealing, part two...
Part 2 – The tools for the trade
In the last few weeks, I have been looking at what is hot and what is
not for table dealing. There are lots of cards that can give you, or
someone else, a real advantage in playing. Of course, the trick is to
convince the other player to accept your “help”, since it
comes at a price.
What follows is a selection of cards that can fit almost ANY deck. I
recommend that whatever deck you make, you include just a couple of
these cards. They will serve you well in buying other peoples support
and helping you get to a stronger position.
1) The Rumour Mill / London Evening Star /(KRCG News Radio)
The first two more than the latter, these are a gift to those wanting
to sell their services to the highest bidder! A classic deal is
“I will lend you intercept if you (do x) for me”. The more
important the intercept becomes, the more you can ask in return
(voting in your favour, rushing a specific target, etc). The best case
is always lending it to your grand prey to stop one of your
prey’s vampires – and hope they smash each other up!
KRCG is not so good in this case, since to lend intercept, you have to
pay out of your pool. The Rumour Mill is the choice of the
connoisseur, since it is cheap to buy and will cost the vamp
regardless. In any event, the fact they are permanent locations means
they are the cards that can keep on giving!
2) Starshell Grenade Launchers
In much the same way as the previous locations, these are a godsend
for table dealing. Once again, they screw over someone over the table
and are fairly cheap to equip with. The big bonus with these tools is
that they also have offensive bonuses for the wielder – yes, it
is only useable at long range, but it certainly could be seen as a
deterrent if used by any deck with celerity in it.
The downside is that there is an opportunity cost in using them
– you have to leave the vamp with it untapped. Over than that,
it is a cool new card that has a lot of potential.
3) Delaying Tactics
This is the best non-discipline reaction card for dealing with votes.
It IS the Daddy. Basically, if you have a handful of these in your
deck, you can bring a vote deck to its knees. The threat of playing
one of these will often be enough to freeze up their actions.
Remember, kids, you don’t need to block the vote action, it
doesn’t have to be a vote called by a card, and the voting
vampire still plays all their modifiers. It screws people over at that
critical moment – for example, a vampire playing a Kine
Resources Contested and an Awe (paying 8 blood) would normally expect
it to pass. But if you drop your Delaying Tactics into play,
it’s all in vain and at a heavy cost to the voting vampire!
Often the threat of a Delaying Tactics can mess up a vote deck, since
they don’t want to risk using all their precious stealth / vote
boosting modifiers. Many vote decks are oppertunistic, relying on the
right moment to act. If you can destroy that moment, that leaves them
at risk.
Of course, the downside is that they can call the same vote next turn,
but this will often give you enough time to deal with your defences.
This is a great dealmaker, though. The best kind of deal using this
card is to target the Methuselah calling the vote, especially when
Parity Shifts or Consanguineous Boons are suggested (“Get me
pool or I toast your vote”).
I recommend adding one or two of these babies into ANY deck if you
can. A prayer card maybe, but what a prayer!
4) Succubus Club
This is a bit controversial at the moment, but this is still one of
the best cards in the game. I haven’t quite perfected the best
approach to using this, but it can save your ass, and that of someone
across the table to you, many times over. However, it can easily damn
you if you are not careful. I made a huge mistake at the national cup
event this year – I gave out 4 pool to my grand prey in order to
stop him being ousted (on the assumption that I could easily take my
prey in the state he was in). Of course, he survived, I suddenly got
rushed from all sides, and he ousted me shortly afterwards.
The trick is never overdo it. If you swap a card, make sure YOU
won’t need it later. If you offer pool, make sure you can afford
it. Stupid, but true. I am slowly learning myself not to succumb to
temptation.
My favourite use of this is with a rush deck. Offer the following deal
in your untap phase to your prey or predator (to the person most
likely to go with it):
“I am going to rush you with my hideous, nasty vampire. Look at
his teeth – he is scary, isn’t he? I have a combo in my
hand that will wipe your vampires out. Nasty eh? Give me 1 pool via
the Succubus Club, and YOU can choose which of your vampires I rush.
Give me 2 pool and I won’t rush you at all. Give me 3 pool and I
will rush ANYONE ELSE’S vampires”.
This works quite a lot. Really! You can also boost the amount of pool
you want if it is at a critical time.
5) Cull the Herd
I have been speaking to Leggy quite a lot on the subject of the value
of Information. This gives you the inside track on whether or not they
have bleed bounce, nasty master cards, or anything else. What’s
more you are more than welcome to announce what you find to the table
– and if you have the Succubus Club you can make it at a price.
Cull the Herd is a very good card since it is non-discipline, so ANY
deck can use it. It doesn’t have quite the impact of Revelations
at inferior (ALWAYS play revelations at inferior), but it is much
better that inferior Pulse of the Canaille and gets +1 stealth, unlike
Sleight of Hand. (I have always wanted to have a Nossie deck that uses
this card heavily, but somehow very get around to it.)
I recommend that you think about sticking this into any deck, because
there will always be a time when you need to know what is in store.
You may have noticed that I haven’t included Sudden Reversal or
Direct Intervention in this list. This is because these cards are
quite useful, but 4 times out of 5 will be used to save your butt, not
the butt of someone else. As such, it is not a useful dealmaker, since
it is unpredictable. All the other cards can be directed and packed en
mass without disturbing the balance of your deck too much.
Sudden’s and DI’s mess up you hand if you have more than 2
in your deck, since they are Masters. They cannot help at any other
time except in an emergency, and even then they mostly just help you.
More on table dealing next time.
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Section 1.3
VAMPIRE OF THE MONTH
Genivieve
Clan: Gangrel Antitribu
Capacity: 10
Sabbat Priscus
Ability: Genevieve gets one additional vote during each political
action.
Artist(s): Christopher Shy
Disciplines :
Superior Animalism
Superior Fortitude
Superior Protean
Auspex
Dominate
Awright moi luvver! This is a great example of how a Gangrel Antitribu
can be a tempting proposition for a Country Gangrel deck. She has all
the skills that her Camerilla colleagues aspire to have, and Dominate
to boot! This puts her on a par with Ingrid Rossler. However, her
special is not quite as good as Ingrid’s – an extra vote
is nice to have, but not game-breaking. Also, Ingrid’s 2 votes
are a better bet than Genevieve’s “maybe 3” votes as
a Priscus.
Once again, she looks less appealing when you consider that she is a
Sabbat vampire – no 2nd trads, no 5th trads, not really Archon
material, etc. However, she is not a bad vampire, just a little
pricey. Once again, often forgotten when it comes to the
“Gangrels with Dominate” deck.
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Section 1.4
CARD OF THE MONTH
Adaptability
Type(s): Combat
Discipline: Protean
Blood Cost: 1
Rarity: Rare
Artist(s): Hannibal King
Card Text:
Basic
Change all aggravated damage from the opposing minion's strike to
normal damage.
Superior
Prevent all aggravated damage from the opposing minion's strike.
I had an interesting experience in a game recently, where a long
experienced player rushed me with a nasty Gangrel deck. I was playing
Malks with Protean. He tools up with Wynn, Uncontrollably Raging with
a Torn Signpost in his hand, Drawing out the Beast and Grappling me.
Gulp!
My Gregor (with only basic protean) played Flesh of Marble.
“Haha!” says my assailant, “Basic FoM means you
can’t stop Agg damage!”
“Doh!” I said.
He strikes with Pushing the Limit for more than god intended.
I play Adaptability. Gregor takes 1 damage and pays one for the
Adaptability (then one from the DotB during the press stage).
Wynn takes 2 DotB damage.
Then there was a frantic curiousness about this card. It is the card
that nearly everyone forgets! Most vampires who have Protean
(especially Gangrels) have fortitude too, so prevent damage that way.
Also it is a rare, so people usually can’t be arsed to
accumulate them. However, if used with Flesh of Marble, it means you
will be losing only 2 blood off the vampire (one as damage). Not bad
for a single discipline, 2 card combo that only uses basic skills!
The only downside to the combo is that it doesn’t stop
environmental damage that is aggravated, so the Weather Control / Dawn
Operation deck will beat it hands down. However, I have faced 1 of
these decks in all my time playing VTES. I beat it, too.
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Section 1.5
RITUAL CHALLENGE (or COMPETITION CORNER)
Can someone, ANYONE come up with a decent deck using Lots of Mythic
Forms?
Answers to the usual address, or to the newsgroup.
Best of luck.
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Section 1.6
CONCLUSION
Thanks for reading.
As before, any comments or ideas, feel free to post, or mail to me at
dave...@hotmail.com. Any abuse, mail to
ghoulsbe...@hotmail.com.
See y’all
David Hammond
UGPOW
LSJ
> Ghoul Retainer uses the Assault Rifle (for 5 with Mass Reality) and Dragon
> Breath Rounds (5+2=7, total 49)
Ammo only works for minions, not retainers. (card text) [LSJ 01-JUL-1998]
--
LSJ (vte...@white-wolf.com) V:TES Net.Rep for White Wolf, Inc.
Links to revised rulebook, rulings, errata, and tournament rules:
http://www.white-wolf.com/vtes/
LSJ
> “What is the most amount of damage any given vampire can inflict
> onto another vampire during strike resolution on the first round of
> combat, without additional strikes, and only using one of each card
> used in the combo”.
>
> press phase
>
> Drawing out the Beast 1 unpreventable (62)
>
> End total: 62, in theory
? Press phase isn't strike resolution.
The Lasombra
news:9e10847c.01092...@posting.google.com...
> Section 1.3 Vampire of the month
>
> VAMPIRE OF THE MONTH
>
> Genivieve
No, actually its Genevieve. Only one "i" in her name.
>
> Clan: Gangrel Antitribu
> Capacity: 10
> Sabbat Priscus
> Ability: Genevieve gets one additional vote during each political
> action.
>
> Artist(s): Christopher Shy
Not on my copy of her it isn't.
My copies quite clearly credit Larry Snelly.
You might double check your sources, the Monger Utilities
have her listed correctly.
Carpe noctem.
Lasombra
--
Posted from rr-163-54-80.atl.mediaone.net [24.163.54.80]
via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
Ian Lee
>the Mountain were completely unfounded.
Which were?
The Lasombra
news:20010921201030...@mb-mq.aol.com...
> >my fears over King of
> >the Mountain were completely unfounded.
>
> Which were?
Documented in his July Newsletter, here:
http://www.thelasombra.com/newsletter/gangrel_july_2001.htm
Look at section 1.4, Card of the Month.
Mostly, he was afraid the card would be overpowered even
compared to its high cost.
Halcyan 2
>> >the Mountain were completely unfounded.
>>
>> Which were?
>
>Documented in his July Newsletter, here:
I took a look at the Newsletter but I don't quite understand why the fears are
completely unfounded now. Must have missed a message or something...
(Anyway, Cardano + Ankara Citadel + Masochisms can still have lots of fun with
multiple Kings of the Mountain!)
Halcyan 2
Pat Ricochet
For the casual reader, that's not "Masochism," that's "MasochismS,"
since they stack.
Sprinkle with Hidden Strength and Ecstatic Agony for controlling the #
of Rush counters you get, and hence the bonus strength, with a Press (only
one press, though, poor inferior Auspex Cardano =).
Ooh, that's right! I need to go add Ecstatic Agony to my Communal Haven
trading lists! (only got one out of 2 boxes, durn it. =) But, while I'm
here, anyone got one they want to let go of? Crappy Auspex hand damage
card, who needs it?
--
Pat Ricochet
Soul Jar'rn Fool of Atlanta
James Coupe
<halc...@aol.com> writes
>>> >my fears over King of
>>> >the Mountain were completely unfounded.
>>>
>>> Which were?
>>
>>Documented in his July Newsletter, here:
>
>I took a look at the Newsletter but I don't quite understand why the fears are
>completely unfounded now.
In context, he said: "Well, just to prove scaremongering DOESN'T work,
my fears over King of the Mountain were completely unfounded. To date
that is, at least."
which suggests that Dave is still watching the card but hasn't seen
anyone try and nasty business with it so far.
--
James Coupe PGP Key: 0x5D623D5D
Close your eyes so you don't feel them EBD690ECD7A1F
They don't need to see you cry B457CA213D7E6
I can't promise I will heal you, but if you want to I will try 68C3695D623D5D
Ian Lee
>> >the Mountain were completely unfounded.
>>
>> Which were?
>
>Documented in his July Newsletter, here:
>
>http://www.thelasombra.com/newsletter/gangrel_july_2001.htm
>
>
>Look at section 1.4, Card of the Month.
>
>
>Mostly, he was afraid the card would be overpowered even
>compared to its high cost.
The relevant section:
"Section 1.4
CARD OF THE MONTH
King of the Mountain
Type(s): Combat
Discipline: Fortitude
Blood Cost: 2
Rarity: Common
Artist(s): Brian LeBlanc
Card Text:
Basic
Prevent all damage from the opposing minion's strike. If the strike was made
with a melee weapon, that weapon is destroyed.
Superior
Play after range is determined and before strikes are chosen. If the
opposing minion inflicts damage with a hand strike this round (even if the
damage is prevented), he or she takes an equal amount of damage during
strike resolution as well
Well, this changes everything. Fortitude now has a chance to become an
offensive discipline! The superior of this could revolutionise combat in
that environmental damage and weapons become more important in the game.
What do I mean? Well, this one, single, common card means that all those
with rush decks using potence or protean hand strikes facing a Fortitude
Heavy deck will be screwed unless they are able to pack damage prevention to
cover the hits back! Brujah and !Brujah can’t, Nossies and !Nossies (on the
whole) can’t, !Gangrel can’t, but Gangrel can, so most rush decks could be
railroaded by this card.
It also causes even more trouble for those who use Melee Weapons. Anybody
trying an attack with Kalis Fang, the Sengir Dagger, the Crimson Sentinal,
or the Sword of Judgement has to be very careful with the inferior, or
expensive hardware bites the big one.
Of course, it still depends who you are rushing, but most Ventrue or
!Ventrue (two of the most popular clans at the moment in my area) have
Fortitude in spades, giving the player choosing them a huge advantage -
votes, unblockable (Big) bleeds, and now anti Rush. The Tremere also have
quite a few bigger vamps with Fortitude, as do the Assamites, and of course
the Ravnos have always had plenty of Fortitude. Most interestingly, Aabt
Kindred all have Fortitude at basic - how about weenie Setites with anti
combat!
So what can be done? Well, for the Gangrel, it means that you just pack a
few more Skin of Rocks, just in case (to deal with any damage coming back).
But for the other clans... I can certainly seeing a rise in Euro-Brujah
Frisbee decks using Thought Betrayed to get around vampires using this card
(loose 3 blood from the Sewer Lid, or 2 from the prevention card!). The
Nossies and some !Gangrel can use animalism to use environmental damage such
as Carrion Crows, or retainer damage via Murder of Crows or Wolf companions.
However, all these options upset the card balance in a tightly focussed rush
deck.
The big downside to the card for its user is the cost: 2 blood is not easy
to deal with on a regular basis. However, there is nothing to stop you using
a Taste of Vitae."
I've seen a fairly focused (in other words, it couldn't really do anything
else) KotM deck played a couple of times. The combination of cards pretty much
is rush/block, Masochism, Drawing Out the Beast, KotM, Rolling with the Punches
(or KotM for dam. prevent.).
It caused all sorts of problems for weapon decks due to the DOtB. Got
annihilated by Thaumaturgy (Goratrix could singlehandedly stop the deck).
Rarely affected a deck that could dodge consistently, though it ran some small
number of Scorpion Stings.
Never saw it get out an early Masochism, so that may have been part of its
problem. But, without Immortal Grapple (another discipline, another moving
part) to force hand strikes, too many opposing decks could find a way to avoid
making hand strikes.
Haven't seen KotM v. IG Potence. One assumes it would be a good foil. Though,
if I were playing Potence and thinking, I'd probably avoid playing Torn
Signpost, waiting to see if the Fortitude deck played KotM before punching for
more than one (with Undead Strength, Pushing the Limit, etc.). With Protean,
KotM would be played before I decided to aggravate. And, I'd be more amused
than anything else by KotM hosing melee weapons as that would mean someone was
actually playing them. Even then, could just decide not to strike with the
melee weapon.
OT - Speaking of melee weapons, we were thinking recently of a vampire that had
a special along the lines of "If this vampire is equipped with a melee weapon,
she gets an optional maneuver, press, and additional strike each combat."
Ian Lee
>melee weapon.
In that, if you saw KotM in someone's deck, you could expect that one player to
possibly play it if you did strike with a melee weapon.