Official VEKN !Gangrel Newsletter Volume 6 Number 7 July 2003. In This Strawberries-and-Cream Issue..... VAMPIRE TOURISM: PARIS IN JUNE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [Two decks with playing notes] ***************************** VAMPIRE TOURISM: PARIS IN JUNE We had a great time at the Sabbat in France tournament which was held at the guilde des jeux on the 28th of june. Four of us went over from Portsmouth [myself, Sarah, Michael aka Anklebiter and Michael's friend Jack Drever: Sarah did not play]. Also wrapped in the union jack were Pierre Rebstock, Barney Baker and Jon Cooper. In terms of actual play none of us did frightfully well, but at least we all got a VP, while Jon got a game win and in his first game Pierre managed to burn Pierre "Stone" Tranh-Vanh's tariq [Stone being the eventual winner of the tournament]. However, i had three really EXCELLENT close games and didn't make any terrible errors so i reckon this tourney as a tremendous personal success. It was also [thanks to the Sabbat team] a huge success tout court - 54 players, immaculate organisation, great show all round! On Sunday morning we decided to visit Pere La Chaise cemetery which is not just a little-used card from Dark Sovereigns but also a real place, located a shortish walk down the Avenue Gambetta from Reyda's flat. Pere la Chaise was a counsellor to one of the Bourbon Louis's [XIV, IIRC] and now there's this vast cemetery named after him and divided up into blocks, in a very orderly and gallic way, which is also highly-functional because otherwise you would be hard-pushed to actually find any particular member of the dear departed. Pere Lachaise is HUGE. i don't mean European huge but American building huge, or Moscow huge: ie staggeringly, unmanningly huge. Si lunga tratta di gente, ch'io non mai creduto che morte tanta n'avesse disfatta huge. And somewhere in its vast expanse [take the first left when you enter on the Avenue Gambetta side, walk along past the first right turn, take the second and look out on your right hand side] sleeps the Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]. Wilde retired to Paris after his disgrace and imprisonment for sodomy, and when he died "a Lady" paid for a tombstone for him, a 9'x9'x4' block of white sandstone out of the top of which Jacob Epstein carved a rather Beardsley-Salome-like Angel. On the front there is his name, and on the back an account of his scholastic achievements, followed by a poem: And Alien Tears shall fill for him Pity's Long-broken Urn For his mourners will be outcast men And outcasts always mourn. Which turns out to be true. As high as a man can reach, and sometimes higher, the monument is decorated on all sides with big, fat, lipstick kisses. *********************** LETTERS TO THE EDITOR [Two decks with playing notes] This month i have two fine decks from the e-post-bag to share with you. Because i always think it is interesting how people think when they build decks i have edited these letters hardly at all, but will just say that Jon's deck i found out about because i was playing against it in the jyhad on-line tournament, and very scary it was. And without further ado, here they are! From: Jonathan Sushinsky Sorry it took me so long to get this to you. I ended up having to recreate a bunch of it from the deckserver and the person who I created it for since I can't seem to find where I put the modifications to it. This deck was created for a relatively new player to use in the Eye of Hazimel storyline event. He wanted to play a rush deck and I had been meaning to use the City Gangrel but just hadn't gotten around to it yet. Anyway the idea is to influence out Ellen and a friend (usually Wren only shows herself when you have extra pool or circumstances dictate; like say when you see Jost staring at you and don't think you can afford the extra 2 pool for Darrell). Ellen should rush almost every turn and the friend should bleed using the stealth and spying missions when necessary. The version you saw had more equipment and +bleed retainers. We took a lot of that out in later versions. Oust your prey using the spying missions and fame and use the threat of rush to keep your predator in check. Major weaknesses are celerity based combat and damage prevention (funny how you had both of those) [Editor's note: Jon is referring to a Tariq-eats-world deck which i played in the online tournament]. Deck: Did I Stutter? Crypt (12) AVG: 6.8 Name # Darrell Boyce Consul 3 Ellen Fence, the Tracker 4 Samantha 1 Wren 2 Zachary 2 12 Library (90) Name # Master: Archon Investigation 1 Blood Doll 3 Campground Hunting Ground 1 Fame 2 Festivo dello Estinto 1 Gangrel Conspiracy 2 Haven Uncovered 2 Legendary Vampire 1 Sudden Reversal 2 The Path of the Feral Heart 2 Twisted Forest 1 18 Action Ambush 3 Bums Rush 4 Carrion Coffin 1 Hidden Pathways 1 Sacrificial Lamb 2 11 Action Modifier: Earth Control 2 Faceless Night 3 Spying Mission 6 11 Combat: Acrobatics 5 Bone Spur 2 Claws of the Dead 5 Disguised Weapon 3 Psyche! 5 Quick Meld 2 Rapid Thought 1 Stutter Step 8 Wolf Claws 4 35 Combo Rapid Change 2 Swallowed By the Night 3 5 Equipment/Retainers Ivory Bow 1 Improvised Flame Thrower 1 White Phosphorus Grenade 2 Homunculus 4 JS Simmons 1 Tasha Morgan 1 10 ******************* !Gangrel Vote deck Date Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2003 10:49 AM From: "Luis Duarte" To: legbiter Subject: !Gangrel Vote deck Hi James! Remember me? I'm Luis Duarte from Lisbon, Portugal! I read your recent [June 2003] !Gangrel newsletter, and it's funny because since i had contact with the anarch mechanism, i realized that the !Gangrel (city Gangrel) are one of the best to explore it. They have the Stealth necessary to guarantee the Fee Stakes actions, the "power" Protean cards like Form of Myst and Flesh of Marble are now easier to get, and there is a good variety of mid-cap !Gangrel vampires. I send you a deck i built in case you want to include it in the next Newsletter... althought it's not the perfect deck, it's very fun to play, and i truly believe that can refresh some people's minds on how to build an interesting Anarch Vote deck _without_ the Presence clans (Setite and Ventrue mostly). Regards, .- Luis Duarte Deck Name: City Gangrel Anarch Connections Strategy: Anarch Vote Groups: 2+3 Author: Luis Duarte Date: 24.June.2003 Brief explanation: this is a vote deck exploring the new Anarch vote mechanism with the little Malkavians giving some support against bleeds. It is _not_ a very aggressive vote deck, but rather a build deck. The minimum setup required to play is having 3 ready anarch vampires (2 !Gangrel and 1 Malkavian). Crypt: 12 2 Zachary 7 !Gangrel PRO+OBF 2 Darryl Boyce 6 !Gangrel PRO+OBF 2 Pieter 6 !Gangrel PRO+OBF 1 Harry Boyce 6 !Gangrel PRO+obf [ed: Harry Reese is meant, i think] 3 Victoria 5 Malkavian obf+AUS1 Zoe 3 Malkavian obf+AUS 1 Dallyah 4 Nosferatu PRO+obf Média= 5,5 Library: 85 Masters 16 4 Blood Doll 2 Madness Network Combo/Victoria 2 Protean 2 Obfuscate 1 City Gangrel Connections +1 vote 1 Twisted Forest +1 stealth 1 Anarch Railroad +1 stealth 1 Campground HG 1 Asylum HG 1 Dreams of the Sphinx Actions 10 4 Go Anarch 6 Fee Stakes (diferentes) Political 14 10 KRC 2 Dramatic Upheavel 2 Firebrand Action Modifiers 21 2 Emissary +3 votes 9 Rant votes 5 Lost in Crowds +2 stealth 3 Earth Control +2 stealth 2 Rapid Change +1 stealth / S:CE Combat 11 5 Form of Myst S:CE / +1 stealth 3 Flesh of Marble 3 Earth Meld S:CE & Untap Reactions 13 5 WWEF 4 Telepathic Counter Reduce 2 bleed 4 Telepathic Misdirection +1 intercept / Deflect bleed ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ************* And that's it for July! i'll see some of you at Watford on July 26th [Sarah's birthday] and others in Lisbon at the end of August - looking forward to both immensely!