OFFICIAL VEKN GANGREL-ANTITRIBU NEWSLETTER Vol 3 Number 8 August 2000 IN THIS ISSUE ..... EDITORIAL: TEMPTATION OF GREATER POWER THE BLACK HAND: ASSAMITE/GANGREL DECK IDEA FICTION: THE KASBAH EDITORIAL: TEMPTATION OF GREATER POWER I've been playing decks with the Temptation of Greater Power in them for about four months now, starting off with a single ToGP as a surprise card in an all-Jyhad Happy Families deck, moving on to a Sheldon/Malky creation which had about 13 of the things and currently settled back at a Nossie deck based around Sheldon and his fortitudinous chums with 7 of them. ToGP's power really wasn't appreciated in the UK until i started to play with it though, interestingly, Lasombra had already had the idea independently in the USA. However, Lasombra's deck was so unpopular with his playgroup that he gave up using it after its second outing, so i think i probably have the most experience of playing with this card of anybody in the VTES community. It's not that easy to get ToGP working well. i wouldn't ever have looked at it twice had it not been for Rob Treasure's very successful use of Hostile Takeover as a Master Phase bleed against his prey. It struck me then that ToGP would be even better, and it turns out in practice to be really REALLY important that you bid for a vampire of your prey - anything else is asking for trouble. Experience also shows that reliable pool-gain, combat and table rearrangement are highly-desirable if not actually necessary adjuncts to a ToGP deck. For these reasons and because they have the cheapest justicar, a Nossie deck seems the best way to implement the ToGP. Rob Treasure and i think it's possible that a weenie deck with malky/nossy justicar votes in might be even better [Rafid Armani also noticed this in an on-line post], but this would be very vulnerable to Fear of Mekhet. Is ToGP broken? i am never sure what broken means so i can't answer the question. i would say that ToGP gives an extraordinary boost to the competitiveness of Camarilla combat decks that have stealth and good pool-regain, which in practice means that the Nosferatu get the biggest boost from the card. THE BLACK HAND: ASSAMITE/GANGREL DECK IDEA i've been liquidating a bunch of old decks that we don't play with any more and have started to build or rebuild a few new decks. Here's one that has a gangrel angle though not, i have to admit, an antitribu one. The idea of this deck is to get the opportunity to deal out ranged unpreventable damage that can't be SCE'd and can only be dodged if the opposing minion has additional strikes. Basically you do this by getting the Dog Pack onto an Assamite, either via Panagos/Heidelberg or else via Clan Impersonation. Pool gain and speed are problems for this deck and hence the Succubus club [so that you can blackmail other methuselahs or hire yourself out to them - an old idea i got from William Lee] and multi-blood dolls. CRYPT [12 vamps] 2 Panagos Levidis 4 Husamettin 4 Abd Al-Rashid 2 Al-Ashrad LIBRARY [88 cards] 18 Masters: 7 Haven Uncovered 5 Blood Doll The Rack Underworld HG Heidelberg Castle, Germany Fame Succubus Club Dreams of the Sphinx 18 Non-Discipline: 3 Dog Pack 5 Forced Awakening 4 Taste of Vitae Atonement Mr Winthrop 3 Clan Impersonation Palatial Estate 17 Obfuscate: 3 Faceless Night 3 Swallowed by the Night 4 SAcrificial Lamb 3 Cloak the Gathering 2 Lost in Crowds 2 Spying Mission 15 Celerity 8 Pursuit 2 Blur 5 Sidestrike 15 Quietus 6 Taste of Death 9 Blood Sweat 6 Presence 6 Legal Manipulations FICTION: THE KASBAH The night is dark and sticky like molasses but the figure making its way through the shadows does not sweat. Taking its bearings, it turns into a side street and a little further on pushes open a dingy door. Behind is a shadowy room with overhead fans that whirr like the wings of stag beetles. A dozen black eyes regard the stranger from cushioned benches. "Salaam, Effendi! You are expected. This way, please." He is ushered past bead curtains into the lamplit sanctum where a number of young women and a familiar figure in a black silk dressing gown are playing a game that involves a lot of shrieking and laughing and not very much in the way of clothing. "Oh-hoh, THERE you are! No my pets, i'm afraid that you'll have to amuse yourselves for half an hour. This gentleman and i have business to attend to. Sir Walter Nash, you say? A Troublesome fellow. It will be my pleasure and honour to arrange for his, um, disappearance. But of course, as you know i am a poor man, and i must cover many expenses ..... " Arrangements for the expenses having been made, a little later Husamettin is vaulting over the boundary wall of Sir Walter Nash's estate. Easily evading the guards, he makes his way to the Prince of Chicago's office. A pack of lean and silent coursing dogs flows around his heels. Before Sir Walter can react the Assamite draws out his enemy's blood. Unable to use his powers of majesty and fortitude, the Prince is driven into torpor. And that's it until September which will be fairly late. In the meantime i will be visiting some of you in various FORN countries which i look forward to and meeting others.