Lasombra Newsletter June 2007 INTRODUCTION Well, my exams are at long last over and I can think of no better way to start celebrating then by resuming my VTES addiction and with it the Lasombra Newsletter. This month I thought I'd take a (rather late) look at a collection of the new library cards from Sword of Caine that I feel offer the Lasombra new options or strategies. I'm actively going to avoid looking at cards directly related to the Black Hand trait however because I want to investigate the Black Hand in a future newsletter. PLAYING VTES Recently on the newsgroup there seems to have been a significant debate regarding deal making, table talk and how this can be disruptive to the game. The difficult issue seems to be decided what is fair and legal with the apparent ruling being that if two players are having a long discussion that they believe in earnest will allow them to win, then that is perfectly legal. This means that theoretically they could spend 2 hours doing just that, preventing anyone else from having a chance to play the game. While the above example is obviously ludicrous and unlikely to ever happen it does bring up an important issue. After all, VTES is the not the fastest of games anyway. Repeated conversations taking up 10 or 15 minutes could well slow the game right down to a crawl and often does. In my own play group I'll admit I rarely experience this, but this is most likely due to our personal playing style and the fact that we rarely ever play with a time limit. Even when people are playing political decks they tend to accept that if they can't convince someone to do something in 60 seconds, they probably can't do it at all. However, cutting down table talk is probably a futile undertaking. A number of people love this deal making aspect of VTES just as a large number hate it and feel that it gets in the way of the game. I can see both sides of the argument. The most important thing is ultimately that people enjoy themselves; if a tiny minority don't enjoy the game as it is, perhaps VTES is simply not the game for them (even if it would be were the game played differently). The fact that this has become an issue however suggests that a number of players are not enjoying themselves, which is worrying. Personally however I find the social aspect of VTES and its nature as a multiplayer card game to be a huge part of its appeal. It's a game I can play with friends; ideally everyone should just try and play in a respectable manner and take into account the feelings of over players, though this would of course be an example of an unattainable perfect world. LIBRARY CARD FOCUS: This month we'll be taking a look at a handful of cards from Sword of Caine that I think are particularly relevant when discussing the set as regards the clan's personal interest. We were even fortunate enough to get a new clan card, which is always nice. Drink the Blood of Ahriman Type: Action Requires: Lasombra +1 stealth action. Put this card on this acting Lasombra. The Lasombra with this card has +1 strength and burns one less blood when playing cards that require Obtenebration [obt]. During your untap phase, this Lasombra burns 1 blood or this card is burned. Burn this card if any ranged aggravated damage is done to this vampire, even if it is prevented. Rarity: SoC:R I think this card is very promising. The card's upkeep is obviously one blood each turn, so any Lasombra who expects to play two or more cards requiring Obtenebration that cost one blood or more each turn will benefit from Drink the Blood of Ahriman. The additional strength is always nice and could be particularly advantageous when combined with multiple presses or (better) multiple strikes. Lasombra who have the capacity to multi-act will probably gain a fair bit of mileage out of this card, assuming they expect to play Obtenebration cards with a blood cost, of which there are a significant number. Since the Lasombra often find themselves low on blood this card should be helpful in a significant number of decks. Empowering the Puppet King Type: Action Modifier Requires: Dominate Cost: 1 blood Only usable by a ready, untapped vampire other than the acting minion you control. After playing this card, you cannot play another action modifier to further increase the bleed for this action. [dom] The acting minion gets +1 bleed. [DOM] As above, but usable by a tapped vampire. Empowering the Puppet King is an interesting card. Obviously it's of little use if all of your vampires have Dominate (as you'd be better off using cards like Conditioning) and at the same time it's pretty clear the card is too expensive (with too little increased bleed) to be used continuously. That aside however it grants a single vampire the ability to augment the bleed of other vampires who lack a means of doing so themselves. This has a strategic advantage as few Methuselahs are likely to be too concerned about blocking a bleed for one from a vampire who does not appear to be able to increase the bleed. Perhaps more interesting is that fact that Empowering the Puppet King allows for the augmenting of bleeds performed by allies. Obviously this is not a card to include in every single deck, but there are probably a few in which it will prove to be useful. Nocturn Type: Ally Requires: Obtenebration Cost: 1 blood Demon with 1 life. 1 strength, 1 bleed. [obt] Move Nocturn to the ready region when recruited. If this is the first recruit action the acting vampire successfully performs this turn, he or she untaps. Nocturn can play non-ally cards that require basic Obtenebration as a vampire. Burn Nocturn during your untap phase. [OBT] As above, and this vampire may perform this action again this turn, with the cost increased by 1 blood. These guys look like great fun. Theoretically a large number of these guys can be recruited in a single turn to act as minions with which to swarm your opponents. Lasombra making use of Charisma, Drink the Blood of Ahriman, The Path of Night (or indeed all three) will be able to recruit Nocturns quite cheaply and the free conditional untap means they could well be free to take other actions as well. Nocturns can act as a swarm of bleeders (and can be augmented by Empowering the Puppet King), a swarm of Shadow Twin playing weenies, or even chump blockers who have the capacity to supply significant intercept if combining media locations with cards like Eyes of the Night. If nothing else a sudden army of Computer Hacking Nocturns is probably something no prey ever wants to see. Touch of Pain Type: Reaction Requires: Potence Cost: 1 blood Only usable when a bleed against you is successful or a referendum passes. Play after resolution. [pot] This vampire inflicts 1 damage on the acting minion. Only one Touch of Pain can be played each action. [POT] As above, but for 2 damage. Rarity: SoC:C Generally I think the Lasombra would be better served by bouncing bleeds rather than using Touch of Pain, but the card still deserves a look. A referendum passed need not concern you to be viable for Touch of Pain, which means this card could be used to throw a spanner in the works of an annoying political deck, especially if you can't simply vote it down. Arguably this card may well be a better choice than bounce when defending against vampires of a very small capacity bleeding for small amounts, as it may well torpor or slow them down. At other times it may even be useful when defending against large bleeds; a bleed using Govern the Unaligned and Conditioning is almost certainly best deflected, given its size, but Touch of Pain at superior will mean that the acting vampire will probably loose 4 blood, which may come as quite a shock to the Methuselah bleeding you. If nothing else this card probably gives pot weenies something to do other than Disarm and Rampage. Tribunal Judgment Type: Political Action Requires: sabbat Requires a Sabbat vampire. Choose a vampire who cast any votes in the most recent referendum (must be since your last turn). Successful referendum means that vampire takes X damage, where X is the number of votes he or she cast in that previous referendum. Rarity: SoC:R I don't think Tribunal Judgment is a particularly good defence against vote decks, primarily because if you're able to pass it you probably have the ability to vote down other voters anyway. I just feel that the card deserves a mention because I imagine it can serve a very metagame specific role, namely the punishment of decks that abuse Awe and Bewitching Oration, particularly when they're combined with Voter Captivation. Against untitled Presence using vampires (Setites spring to mind) you might even have a chance to pass Tribunal Judgement. I don't think I've ever seen anyone play Dread Gaze after all... MINION FOCUS Appius Claudius Corvus Clan: Lasombra (group 5) Capacity: 10 Disciplines: DOM OBT POT cel nec Sabbat. Black Hand. Seraph: +1 stealth. Rarity: SoC:V I'm not too excited about Appius. While his innate Black Hand Seraph trait is nice his lack of a title and the fact that he only has 8 points of disciplines worries me. Yes, celerity and necromancy are interesting, but they don't really justify Appius' cost. Appius' saving grace should be his innate +1 stealth, but unfortunately he doesn't have disciples that give him the capacity for effective multi- acting, which would allow him to make the most of that trait. Helicopters are annoyingly expensive and Appius doesn't seem too able to make the best use of them anyway. Banjoko definitely puts his elder to shame. SIGN OFF That's all for this month. Next month I suspect I'll look at the Black Hand as a whole and what it offers the Lasombra. Over the coming month my playgroup is planning to hold a few draft games as well as a number of regular friendly games. If I draw any interesting observations playing with the Lasombra I will, of course, report them.