OFFICIAL VEKN GANGREL ANTITRIBU NEWSLETTER VOLUME 6 NUMBER 5 MAY 2003 ******************** In this darlingly-budded issue ...... FICTION: Up Pompey! THIS IS THE DECK THAT JACK BUILT: The new boy shows us how it's done. DECK: Genevieve gives you the bird. ********************* FICTION: Up Pompey! A late spring evening on the south coast of England, and the scent of the Lilac, clematis and wisteria sinks with the cooling air, through the cracks in the flagstones and down into the crypt where i sleep. Except that i am not asleep. Something is wrong - the hour is too late, and where is Winthrop? Where, MUCH more importantly, is my cup of Joe? Moving quietly so as not to disturb Lady Legbiter, i slip out of the double-coffin and into my black silk dressing gown. i turn my head, puzzling at the unfamiliar sounds and smells coming from the mansion overhead. An Anarch raid, perhaps? Rumour has it that they are coming, but not till the middle of the month, surely? i draw an iron poker from the rack by the fireplace and creep up the stairs, ready for fight or flight. Up in the hallway everything is in place, but the staff are nowhere to be seen. Even the gigantic dog-basket where Rends-the-Treehuggers is wont to take his rest is empty. My attention is caught by a combination of strange eldritch chanting, inhuman bellowing and thunderous stamping coming from the servants' quarters. This had BETTER not be ANOTHER attempt to summon the Great and Threefold Wyrm, or i'll know the reason why. Stealthily, stealthily i make my way along the corridoor in the direction of the sounds. Just as my hand closes on the door to the lounge there is a terrible yell from within, and i open it to find the staff gyrating in a crazed manner, waving their blue-and-yellow flags and/or arms around, embracing one another and generally being embarassing. "Yes! Yes!" they cry, "We're Going Up!" and other puzzling evocations. i wait for a shocked hush to fall as they become aware of my august and disapproving presence, but to my astonishment Winthrop rushes over and gives me a bony hug and a beery kiss. "We've won, master! We've won!!!" i disengage myself a little so as to get enough leverage to pull his head off and kick it through the skylight, but then just in time remember the EXTREME difficulty of getting good help these nights. "What, pray, is the meaning of this?" "Pompey are going up, master! To the premier league! As champions!" "Excellent news i'm sure, but could i have it in English, please? Or Aramaic or Greek or something, just so's a poor old walking corpse can participate in your obvious delight?" "O sorry master, it's the local football, you know, soccer team. We've won a competition, which means that next year we'll be playing against Manchester United, Southampton, London sides such as Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur, Woolwich Arsenal and so on. Isn't it great?" "Erm .. is it?" "O yes, all the fans of those clubs will be coming down to exchange fraternal greetings with our own fans, smash up shop windows, chuck bricks and petrol bombs at the police, all the delightful rituals of English football." The urge to rip his head off is ALMOST irresistible, but not quite. "Fans, eh? Lots of fans?" "Thousands, master!" "Large, fat, juicy fans?" "Just the way you like them master, except for the stubble." i pat the wrinkled retainer on his wizened shoulder, and smile. "Jolly, jolly good show, that IS excellent news, indeed. Even better news, at least for you, is that you may keep your job, and head, for the present, PROVIDED you bring my cup of Joe through to the evening room RIGHT NOW THIS VERY MINUTE." As i go off for breakfast and Winthrop lurches unsteadily away in search of Joe, a catheter and my cup i can hear the city celebrating, and rightly so. For while they look forward to a Feast of Football, i look forward to a Feast. ****************** THIS IS THE DECK THAT JACK BUILT: The new boy shows us how it's done. Jack Drever is a friend of Michael's, and a great ambassador for the game. At 15 years of age he is, in fact, its future, and although he hasn't yet won any tournaments he has played in several, and counts the great Barney Baker amongst his victims [in the sealed deck at GenCon London, this April]. Jack is now training his family to play so i gave him some free decks for his father and father's girlfriend, the Sabbat War precons in fact. He had brought a new deck when he came round this weekend but alas, it was illegal [broke the grouping rule]. So, at short notice, he whipped together a Tzimisce deck from the ones i gave him and played it against Michael [Lasombra/Kiasyd sneak-bleed and bash], Sarah [near-clone of Ben Peal's The O Line Gargoyle deck] and me [!Brujah bash and bleed]. Although Michael won Jack did extraordinarily well, taking me out and having a good shot at the game-win. Afterwards i asked him how he built his deck, and his answer was: Take all the rush-combat from the !Brujah starter Take all the intercept from the !Ventrue deck Strip out all the crap from the Tzimisce deck, and replace by the above two modules. i thought that showed profound insight, and that it's an approach worth sharing. ******************* DECK: Genevieve gives you the bird. This is a deck which John Keech created, and i think it's rather a neat idea: control the table by stripping EVERYONE of ALL the cards in their hand, using Templar multi-rush and Raptors. Deck Name: Genevieve Created By: John Keech Description: Bring out lots of Raptors on Genevieve, make her a templar and rush like mad!! Crypt: (12 cards, Min: 21, Max: 40, Avg: 7.42) ---------------------------------------------- 4 Genevieve ANI aus dom FOR PRO 10, Gangrel Antitribu, Priscus 3 Caitlin ANI aus dom PRO 6, Gangrel Antitribu, Bishop 2 Haakon Mortensen ANI FOR PRO 8, Gangrel Antitribu 3 Nettie Hale ani cel pre pro spi 5, Ahrimanes Library: (89 cards) ------------------- Master (10 cards) 4 Blood Doll 1 Campground Hunting Ground 3 Heidelberg Castle, Germany 2 Information Highway Action Modifier (4 cards) 4 Freak Drive Political Action (5 cards) 5 Templar Reaction (8 cards) 4 Forced Awakening 4 Wake with Evening's Freshness Combat (50 cards) 35 Earth Meld 3 Form of Mist 8 Rolling with the Punches 4 Wolf Claws Retainer (10 cards) 10 Raptor Combo (2 cards) 2 Rapid Change i feel that Shane Grimald could have a place in this deck, plus maybe a few deflections since otherwise there's a risk of being over-run before it gets its shit together. Our experience [thanks to Rob and Matt Stockton] is that this kind of deck does work quite well tactically in our environment, but does tend to destabilise the table rather than necessarily win games. **************** And that's it for May! See you all in June for what will doubtless be an Anarch-dominated issue. And Up Pompey!