90 card limit: never thought it's going to be a problem.

Hi folks!

Since I arrived back home from the EC I constantly keep building new decks. Either in the deck builder or by actually putting those cards into their sleeves. So far I had never found the 90 card limit to be disturbing. Most decks end up around 78, but some decks end up being 80+ so I add some stuff to make it 90. The problem to end up 90+ and then trying to cut it down to 90 was an unknown problem to me so far. 

Since the Brujah clan became one of my favorite clans with the release of KoT I always kept thinking of building a deck around Jann Berger. So I visited Secret Library to throw in the basic stuff I wanted to play in the deck and clicked "update" to go through the list again and see what to add to make it 90. Imagine how shocked I was when I saw that I was already 110+!!! OMG!!! This really never happened to me before and I play v:tes for 7-8 years now. 

I discarded the idea to play with Jann Berger since I found no way to get all the basic stuff I want to play in the 90 card limit. Also, to drift away from the topic, I find it very disturbing that 10 cap vampires tend to have inferior Fortitude while their 9 cap counterparts tend to have superior Fortitude (Jann vs. Dmitra in this case). 

Back to the original idea: I've built a vote/bleed/equip multi-acting deck around Eze, the Demon Prince. A deck that you would expect to easily go above 120 cards when first made in a deck builder. I had no problem at all to build it with 90 cards right away. Stupid Jann Berger, arrrrghhhhhh.........

by: Mephistopheles

Failure: Assamite combat (part2)

Hi folks!

I was really surprised by all the feedback I've got on the previous post. Thank you all for the input! However I don't want to put too much time and effort in criticizing a certain discipline. So I'll keep this one brief and less detailed. In the previous article I tried to reflect the combat effectiveness (or the lack of it) by comparing damage output to overall blood cost. In this article I will mention some other things to consider, but will leave the final conclusions to you.

1. Multi-discipline and cards, cards, cards...

One of my big problems with Quietus is that it is hardly playable on its own (Baal's Bloody Talons might be an exception, but you still might want to play Psyche!). Since it is hard to build an Assamite deck around weenie mono-Quietus in a similarly way than weenie Potence, weenie Animalism or even weenie Thaumaturgy you don't really have enough rush/turns to deal with s:ce by just letting the opposing running out of it. Therfore you need Psyche! Which requires superior Celerity. Which narrows down your crypt choice. This also leads to an example combat like this: play maneuver, play strike card, play Psyche, play maneuver again, play strike card again. Supposing you have to deal with 1 s:ce card played only you still need 5 cards to achieve the poor damage output described in the previous article...

2. Crypt choice 

This is pretty damn obvious. You need a CEL/QUI combination which will make most of your vampires come from the mid caps. With poor access to intercept and bleed bounce in combination with the poor combat effectiveness...

3. Compare!

Just compare all the above with a Black Hand based Assamite rush deck using .44 Magnum and Celerity only. A zillion times more effective? YES! 

Not only true for the Black Hand version. For Assamites .44 Magnum + Celerity is just the better way to go, imo. Since any weenie guy can pay for the .44 Magnum with a Haquim's Law. 

4. Last Word

Can't emphasize this enough: I am not complaining about Quietus being unplayable. Sure you can make funny, or even working deck with Quietus combat. The "Fail" part is nothing else than this: I feel the that the gap between w.o.d. and v:tes is way too big in this case. Quietus (and Assamite) combat might work in certain cases, but it comes nothing close to what you would rightfully expect from a clan based on killing, killing and killing. Just check the the TWDA or even more generally the overall Assamite decks being played! Almost only different subtypes of stealth-bleed or vote decks...

by: Mephistopheles 

Failure: Assamite combat (part 1)

Hi folks!

This is my second post on where I think v:tes could and should have done better. One of the many strengths of v:tes is that it is very close to the role playing game. With few exceptions. Well, unfortunately the Assamite clan belongs to the later. The Assamite really do not excel at combat, however they have very solid bleed and vote options. Read this recent article that was posted on the extrala blog.

Well, I never was a serious vampire: the masquerade player, but still I had some insight into the game, read some novels and it always appeared to me that in W.O.D. the Assamites are feared for their strength in combat. It would have been so cool, if this could have been reflected in the game.

The truth is that Quietus combat cards really do suck and this can be proven with a basic mathematical  knowledge. Let us compare with other combat options (all cards are used at superior level by default):

Example 1: Carrion Crows + Aid from Bats

Fact: 2 cards, no cost, environmental damage (harder to prevent), maneuver, press, total damage output is 6 including a hands for one.

Any weenie can do it, you can swarm with weenies, therefore rush multiple times. This is important because people will run out of s:ce against weenie Animalism very fast.

Example 2: Torn Signpost + Slam + Immortal Grapple

Fact: 3 cards,  1 blood cost, maneuver, press, total damage output is 8, no s:ce in the first turn.

Again, almost any weenie can do it. Also Immortal Grapple prevents you from any strikes that are non-hand strikes.

Example 3: Darkling Trickery + Earth Swords

Fact: 2 cards, no cost, maneuver or press, total damage output is 3 if DT is used for maneuver. 

DT offers additional defense against any weapon based combat deck! Does not deal with s:ce.

Example 4: Arms of the Abyss + Entombment

Fact: 2 cards, 2 blood cost, dodge built in, torpor guaranteed! Does not deal with s:ce.

Option to burn an ally, like a War Ghoul. 

Example 5:  Theft of Vitae + Apportation

Fact: 2 cards, no cost, unpreventable "damage", maneuver or press, total damage output of 2 if Apportation is used for maneuver. Does not deal with s:ce. You gain 2 blood!

Example 6: Selective Silence + Taste of Death

Fact: 2 cards, 1-2 blood cost, maneuver or can set range. Total damage output of 2 aggravated. Does not deal with s:ce

If you set range you need to pay 2 blood, if you just maneuver you risk not being able to play the strike card!

Example 7: Selective Silence + Blood Sweat

Fact: 2 cards, 1-2 blood cost, maneuver or can set range. Total damage output of 3. Cannot be prevented, but only usable at long range.

If you set range you need to pay 2 blood, if you just maneuver you risk not being able to play the strike card!

I think a very important number is the blood cost/damage output ratio. I will give this number by the formula x = damage output - cost for cards -1 for each time range is close (opposing minions default hand damage):

Carrion Crows + Aid from Bats: +5

Torn Signpost + Slam + Immortal Grapple: +5

Darkling Trickery + Earth Swords: +3

Arms of the Abyss + Entombment: *special, but -2 for guaranteed torpor.

Theft of Vitae + Apportation: +4, assuming you can gain all 2 blood stolen.

Selective Silence + Taste of Death: +1 or 0, but causing aggravated damage.

Selective Silence + Blood Sweat: +2 or +1, but damage cannot be prevented.

Well you can easily see that Quietus has the worst ratio with Entombment being the exception. However Entombment offers many other serious advantages over Quietus!

R E M I N D E R

This article is not about Quietus being playable or not. It is not saying that you shouldn't play it nor that it is a bad discipline (though personally I think it is). This article is just trying to say that Quietus is far away from being a tournament (combat) discipline and that it is far far away from what you would rightfully expect from your world of darkness knowledge.  

Basically any random crap 13th generation neonate with Animalism is ridiculously more combat efficient than lets say a 8th generation Assamite.  

This article is becoming too long now, so I'll stop here for now. Before commenting on this article I suggest you wait a day or two until I am finished with the second part, which will include Celerity (being an Assamite discipline, too), deck building and whatever I figure out until then.

by: Mephistopheles

Failure: the Rules

Hi folks!

Before you continue with reading please let me state that I still love this game, will always love it and my biggest wish is that v:tes will find a company again, so that we will see many more expansions and die in twilight home at the age of 80+ from an heart attack when our predator announces a bleed for 6 at 1 stealth.

So, with that said I'll continue with my original thought. There are many points in this game where I feel like there is either a big hole, a major mistake in planing or just a big big FAIL. In these articles I will show you my point of view. All these articles are 100% subjective, feel free to disagree and any comments are welcome (also criticism is very welcome).

The first and imo one of the most obvious flaw is the rule system itself. Before you start yelling at me and auto-defending the game like crazy, just please take a look at the following points:

1. No clear system

Isn't the fact that we need LSJ basically 24 hours a day to get things clarified not an indictment by itself? It doesn't matter if I take a look at the vekn.net, newsgroup or our national forum: the most commonly seen posts are about rules questions and these questions are not just asked by newbies. It quite often happens that 2 players who played this game for 10+ years and have been appointed to be a judge quite often argue about a certain card or effect. To run a tournament peacefully you often need internet access, so you can search for rulings. I mean I've even seen debates with players like Ben Peal involved and we had to stop the time for like 20 minutes until we found a proper answer. I am sure that there are some GEEKS out there who know every single LSJ post by heart, but thats for sure not the average v:tes player.

2. The epic fail of ruling: lack of objective factors

All the above wouldn't be too bad. In our modern society it's almost 100% sure that at least one player has mobile internet access so there is at least an ability to check the ruling. My biggest issue concerns the rules which totally lack any chance of ever being applied the way they should. Here are my favorites:

a) The time factor

So when is a player stealing on time (which is and should be illegal)? There are players who normally play fast and there are players who are just slow. When a fast player starts to play at the speed the slow player played during the game, is he stealing on time? He doesn't play slower than anybody else. Even though it's obvious that his change in behavior is due to the fact that he will have his tournament win with a time out. How do you measure that?

Or another example, which actually did happen to me at an EC on the last day, where every vp did matter: by prey was down to 1 pool with nothing in the ready region. All his vamps where in torpor at 0 blood. He had no master card or whatever that could give him pool. I had 5 ready minions, a Smiling Jack and an Army of Rats in play. He spent a whole minute to decide in which order to untap and what to discard and we timed out. I was denied my game win even though my prey would have died right in my untap phase. The judge was watching all this and didn't say a word.

Another example. At a final table in a Hungarian tournament the Tzimisce wall was about to win due to the time out (he was 1st seat). He checked every single ash heap every turn, read any card, because he claimed he doesn't know it and he has the right to read it (as if somebody who won an EC before and almost always plays wall decks doesn't know how Pentex works...). Our judge didn't do a damn thing. Oddly enough when Gulya made his vp and the Tzimisce wasn't winning anymore he suddenly had the fastest turns and started telling people they should play faster...

I could write a book of such examples. I started to play tournaments in 2004. Since than I have never ever seen a judge punishing somebody for stealing on time. In like 60%-70% of all these games the player who did steal time achieved his goal, leaving the other player who would have deserved the vp/gw (by rules!!!) totaly frustrated.

b) Play to win

This was discussed so often that I am tired of it, therefore I won't go into details. It is enough to quote the following from the vekn.net website: "For tournaments, playing to win means playing to get a Game Win if it is reasonably possible, and when a Game Win is not reasonably possible, then playing to get as many Victory Points as possible." The ruling here includes a totally subjective point. If we agree on the fact that 0,5 > 0 than this is one the most often violated rules in the game...

This article is not about proposing a solution, so don't come up with that please. However I will try to make some proposals in a separate article.

by: Mephistopheles