OFFICIAL VEKN GANGREL ANTITRIBU NEWSLETTER VOLUME 3 NUMBER 7 JULY 2000 IN THIS ISSUE …… FICTION: TRIUMPH OF THE LEGBITER [part three of a three-parter about a sealed-starter deck game we played at louisa’s house in May] STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL WEIRDNESSES [mainly for people who want to know what the f**k I was up to in the final of the last Portsmouth tournament]. SCOUT-AND-RUSH DECK IDEA [Political Combat deck which started off as a !gangrel idea, honest it did, but ended up having no !gangrel in it whatsoever]. TOYS FOR WELL-BEHAVED !GANGREL GIRLS AND BOYS: WORLD WIDE WESTLING FEDEWATION WAMPIRE/WHITE WOLF WIP OFF [plug for the Gangrel figure in the Survivors series]. FICTION: TRIUMPH OF THE LEGBITER For those not in the know, the rituals of the English club seem primeval, sexist and bizarre. But there are REASONS why we don't allow ANYBODY except the teams and ourselves past the Long Room of the MCC at Lord's. And here comes the English team, fresh from beating the West Indies in a truly historic match! The first time EVER that portions of all four innings have been played on a single day! Well done, Dominic! Played, Goughie! Gallant in defeat as well as in victory, well played the West Indies! Courtney bagged 10 wickets, you know - I wonder how often that has happened and the Windies still lost? Ah, that was worth staying up for. Did you know that the only other time I have EVER seen so many wickets fall in a day at Lord's was right back at the start of the Masquerade Cricket Club, in the 1890s? Yes indeed, I am in a good mood today. O, sorry, haven't you met? This is the Lady Louisa. Pray lick my respected friend's footwear, sweetheart. Good girl! Louie wanna Blood Bag? Beg, then! Assa girl! And let me show you my fang collection! This fine pair were, erm, donated by the Lady Samantha, and these belonged to the Prince of Southsea. O yes, all their plots came to nothing, though it was a hard fight. The Inquisition got that treacherous little shit Uriah, good riddance to bad rubbish. And young Koko is a Prince now, Chicago I think or someplace equally colonial. Of course, he can't do much with his title being in torpor and all but hey, I showed him ambition, got him out of his workanight rut. Elliott is just fine, he sends his love and these complimentary tickets for his new show. Ramiel is minding the shop while the rest of us watch the cricket, since you ask. O yes, and Zach is just behind you - say hullo, Zach, it's OK this is a friend … hahaha … down, wolfie, down boy! SO sorry about that, but they're understandably a little protective of me, given recent events! No al fresco orthodontism for my little doggie here, o no, just a little ritual humiliation - negotiated surrender sorta thing doncha know ….. actually I think she rather likes this arrangement, as she would probably tell you if our treaty allowed her to speak without my express say-so. Ah, the sun has set. Shall we eat together? I know a terrific little meat-rack on the corner of Gropecunte Lane - STRAPPING great lasses and not a virus in their sweet little veins. We can walk from here! The vampires get their coats [except for the Lady Louisa] but it is a warm evening and she relishes the feel of the night air on her skin as her Master leads her naked through the streets of London - her master for now, at least. The scent of the Dictamnys fills her nostrils and she smiles, privately, for it reminds her of REVENGE. STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL WEIRDNESSES I actually applied the Broken Wing/Q-Ship idea in the July Portsmouth tournament. I didn't win, but I did survive for a long time in an apparently-impossible situation and succeeded in removing the main threat to me [my predator]. For those who haven't read the relevant NG thread, BWQS is about looking weak whilst actually being strong. In VTES there can be many ways to implement this concept but basically the idea is to cause cross-table stuff to go somebody else's way. In the July tournament final I found myself downstream of a VERY strong for/pot/ser deck with lots of takeover options and heavy hitting. I knew from previous rounds that the owner of this deck was a bit of a cross- table fiend so I implemented a simple strategy; I didn't bring out any minions at all until round 5, when I activated 3 at once [Sheldon, Gilbert Duane and Mariel Lady thunder]. In the meantime, my grand- predator and predator beat each other up in a most satisfactory manner, my very strong grand-prey got kicked by my prey and consequently got all protective and motherly towards me and in all that time I only took two points of bleed. GREAT fun, and another section for the Liber Tacticus Legbiterus. SCOUT-AND-RUSH DECK IDEA This is an idea which sprang out of our home play group where on successive nights Michael played with our !Nossie Happy Families deck and lost, and I played with it and won. The difference was that I made good use of Dirty Little Secrets to find out what was in my prey's deck so that I could time my rushes and judge when to go for killer combat, whereas he didn't. I then got thinking about implementing this for the !Nossies as a dedicated deck, got sidetracked into doing it for !Gangrels and finally came up with this. Deck first, comments later. CRYPT Artemis Zoe Ian Forrestal Al-Ashrad Anton Dollface Regilio Dan murdock Victoria Dancin' Dana Lucian Hannibal LIBRARY 17 masters 3 Minion Tap 2 Blood Doll Dreams of the Sphinx Festivo dell' Estinto Hungry Coyote Succubus Club The Rumour Mill 3 Haven Uncovered 2 Guardian Angel Giant's Blood 73 minion 18 Disciplineless 5 Bum's rush 6 Forced Awakening Ivory bow 4 White Phosphorous Grenade 2 Flamethrower 18 Auspex 5 Pulse of the canaille 2 Revelations 3 Telepathic misdirection 5 Fast reaction 3 Enhanced Senses 18 Obfuscate 9 Disguised Weapon 3 Swallowed by the Night 6 Hidden Lurker 14 Celerity 7 Flash 7 Blur 5 Dominate 5 Govern the unaligned What this deck is meant to do is to scout and rush - using INFERIOR pulse and revelations to check out the ground before ambush. Use the Succubus club to blackmail people or to propose deals - i take out that guy/gal's vamp, you give me x pool. i think it would work, though would be VERY difficult to play. TOYS FOR WELL-BEHAVED !GANGREL GIRLS AND BOYS: WORLD WIDE WESTLING FEDEWATION WAMPIRE/WHITE WOLF WIP OFF There is a gangrel-antitribu vampire in the World Wide Wrestling Federation. He is called, ahem, gangrel. Fat bloke with girly hair, and there is a model of him available at 5.99 GBP which stands up quite nicely and has a goblet of blood and a bashed-up filing cabinet. Pity about the pastel blue frilly shirt. And that's it for July - happy 4th to our transatlantic brethren and yes it IS too late to beg for readmittance to the British Empire, cos we sold it to pay for beating the Nazis. See you again in August!