BRUJAH ANTITRIBU NEWSLETTER
Volume 2, Issue 2
January 2001
Author: Wes
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction and News
General Tactics - Rock/Paper/Scissors
!Brujah Tactics - Bruise and Bleed Basics
Vampire Analysis - Sela
Fiction
Sign Off
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INTRODUCTION AND NEWS
This newsletter was written and posted within a few days of the last
newsletter. I felt that waiting a month for the next installment was too
long considering I had a lot more to write about. Again, I am gearing this
volume of Newsletters towards newer players so many of the concepts will
seem very basic to a veteran. Nevertheless, I think there are many players
that might benefit from instruction and this seems to me to be the perfect
vehicle.
Although I am writing about the Brujah Antitribu, almost all concepts will
of course work with the Camarilla Brujah. With all respect to whoever is
doing the Brujah newsletter (if we currently have one), there is far too
much in common between the two clans to isolate one from the other.
Two announcements have just been made by Steve Wieck of White Wolf:
-The second printing of the Sabbat War is due to be on shelves by late
January 2001
-The next expansion, entitled Final Nights is due on shelves by June 2001.
This expansion is exciting because it will brush up the four independent
clans that were introduced in Dark Sovereigns and Ancient Hearts
-Mr. Wieck also mentioned that due to the popularity of Sabbat War, they
have also 'green-lighted' a third as yet un-named expansion
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GENERAL TACTICS - ROCK/PAPER/SCISSORS
At it's core, Vampire: the Eternal Struggle has three basic strategies:
Bleeding, Voting and Combat. All three strategies are capable of reducing
your prey's pool and thus ousting them from the game.
Bleeding is the most fundamental of the three, given that every vampire has
an inherent ability to bleed without any additional cards. Also, bleeding is
a direct attack against your prey's resources, as opposed to voting or
combat. Although it is possible for they prey to deflect, block or reduce a
bleed, bleeding is a strategy that works because the prey is unlikely to be
able to stop ALL of their predator's bleeds. Stealth can be added, the
predator may have modifiers that increase the bleeds that the prey is unable
to stop or the prey may choose to lose pool rather than face some other,
much nastier consequence (see Bruise and Bleed below).
Voting is a versatile but often fragile way of reducing your prey's pool.
The main weakness of this concept is that any vote can be blocked and even
if it is not blocked, it can be out-voted which often has dire circumstances
in itself. All votes come with an inherent +1 Stealth which makes the first
difficulty less of an issue, however you can be sure that there will always
be someone willing to intercept a hostile vote. Like bleeding, many of the
vote cards can directly affect your prey's pool, but there are also vote
cards that can remove vampires from play, steal powerful resources or create
environments which are helpful to you (and your allies) but hostile to your
prey.
Combat (which we !Brujah excel at) is probably the hardest way to reduce a
prey's pool, since it is only indirectly affecting the prey's pool. By
eliminating his or her minions one by one, we are attacking his pool AFTER
he spends it. One of the key elements of this strategy is finding a way to
enter combat. Many combat decks suffer from the inability to effectively
enter and stay in a combat. Cards such as Bum's Rush and Ambush are useful
for this since even if these actions are blocked, combat will still occur.
Not only does every player need to concentrate on a strategy that includes
at least one of these elements, they also need to learn how to defend
against them. In a future newsletter, I will discuss effective ways for
combat decks to do this.
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!BRUJAH TACTICS - BRUISE AND BLEED BASICS
Completing successful actions without being blocked can be a tricky thing
for any vampire, but the Brujah Antitribu suffer from this more than most
clans. Without the standard disciplines that provide stealth (Obfuscate,
Obtenebration, Protean, etc.), !Brujah need to rely on other methods. The
most effective method for our clan is intimidation. With access to Potence
and Celerity, !Brujah are unlikely to be blocked without some careful
consideration from the blocker.
When given a choice between letting an action pass or blocking and possibly
losing a minion, many times the prey will simply not wish to pay the cost of
stopping the actions of their predator. These actions become a situation of
'damned if you do, damned if you don't'. Consider:
Evangeline attempts to play Legal Manipulation. The cost is 1 blood from
her, but only if it succeeds. The effect is to bleed her prey for three
pool, a good chunk. If blocked, she plays Torn Signpost, Immortal Grapple
and Disarm. The prey's minion is most likely worth more than three pool and
it will take a lot of work to recover from this.
Regardless of the prey's decision to block or not the !Brujah player comes
out ahead. They either reduce their prey's pool by a significant amount, or
they have removed (if only temporary) one vampire that could have caused
aggravation later on.
When a deck is built around this concept, it is called a 'Bruise and Bleed'
deck, and nobody does it better than the Brujah Antitribu and their cousins
in the Camarilla. Aside from the standard Potence/Celerity combat fare,
other cards that work well in this style of deck are:
Legal Manipulations
http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/monger/showcard.html?ID=434
The cost of one blood is an acceptable trade-off for a bleed of 3 and a
possible gain of 1 pool (at superior). It is a strong enough bleed to cause
your prey to want to block you.
Aire of Elation
http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/monger/showcard.html?ID=58
This is great for encouraging your prey to block you. The best part is that
you can play it AFTER your prey declines to block. After falling for this a
few times, your prey will be afraid NOT to block you.
Social Charm
http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/monger/showcard.html?ID=734
Much less useful than Legal Manipulations. The trade off of one of your
vampire's blood for an extra point of bleed is more than acceptable. This
card is less likely to be blocked than LM and therefore less suitable for
our purposes.
Enchant Kindred
http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/monger/showcard.html?ID=266
Useful in that it has two uses. The versatility of this card can sometimes
pay off. Don't forget that you can influence blood OFF of a vampire in your
uncontrolled region making this card useful for blood gain in a pinch.
Though neither inferior or superior will be seen as a serious threat, this
card is still a useful addition to this style of deck.
Media Influence
http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/monger/showcard.html?ID=480
Another versatile card, but the lack of stealth at superior means that it is
a lot less useful than it should be. Still, who needs stealth when you have
Potence and Celerity? However, if your vampires NEED the blood this card
would give, you should be including cards like Taste of Vitae rather than
this one.
Marijava Ghoul
http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/monger/showcard.html?ID=468
Although this card adds stealth and therefore does not exactly fit with the
theme, there are definitely times you will want the actions to go through
regardless of your prey's decision to block or not. When we are already
adding so many Presence cards, we may as well add a few copies of this one.
Also, your prey will often try to block the action to equip this retainer,
allowing you to enter combat which is the secondary goal of this deck.
Obviously, Presence is the key discipline required for the bleeds, but you
should not forego Potence and Celerity, after all it is these disciplines
that are going to strike fear in your prey. Presence by itself is not that
frightening as far as combat is concerned. What are you going to do to me
Mr. Toreador? Majesty me to death? Therefore, someone like Evangeline or the
larger Brujah antitribu who have all the core disciplines actually works
better than some of the weenies. Sela works especially well as she already
has an inherent +1 Bleed.
You could alternatively include non-Presence cards for the bleeds such as
Computer Hacking or permanent bleed such as Laptop Computers and Tasha
Morgan. Note that this is far slower than using transient Presence bleed
cards. Since equipping or hiring retainers requires an action, you are
effectively slowing your deck down by one turn. It might be better to
include Presence skill cards and increase the ability of your other vampires
to play the Presence bleed cards. After all, the only difference between
Jacob Bragg and Evangeline is one Presence card.
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VAMPIRE ANALYSIS
Name: Sela
http://whitestar.ddg.com/vtes/monger/showvamp.html?ID=58
Clan: Brujah Antitribu
Capacity: 6
POT PRE cel obt
Sabbat Bishop
If Sela becomes an Archbishop, each ready Bishop controlled by your prey
burns 1 blood. +1 bleed.
It is rare to see Brujah Antitribu decks that do not include this popular
vampire. Note that she has all three clan disciplines, two of which are at
superior level. She has a vote, which can often make the difference with
whether a vote passes or not. She also has an inherent bleed of 2, easily
modified to much higher amounts. Her discipline spread is perfect for bruise
and bleed decks. Of course, her special ability is practically negligible,
so much so that I almost always forget she has it. If you have the chance to
give a Sabbat vampire the title of Archbishop, how often would you choose
someone who already has a vote? And frankly, causing your prey's Bishops to
lose 1 blood each is really not that much of a pay-off, assuming they even
have any Bishops in play. Obtenebration is not generally a discipline we are
likely to use, however if a deck is built around Sela, a few Obtenebration
stealth cards such as Shroud of Night would be useful. Bronwen and Jacko
also have Obtenebration, if you wanted to make that discipline more useful
in a !Brujah deck.
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FICTION
"He's never participated..." Nigel the Shunned whispered to Sela almost
inaudibly.
"Participated in what???" She was growing frustrated. Paying off the creepy
Sewer Rats for information on Lazvernius was distasteful enough. This one
was making her guess the information rather than just saying it.
Nigel looked cautiously to his left and right, "...the Vaulderie. As far as
we know, he has never partaken in our most sacred rite."
Without thinking, Sela's eyes widened. This was indeed useful information.
It was the most fundamental rite of the Sabbat. How could an Archbishop
avoid participating in it? The Vaulderie broke all blood bonds and provided
a common mystical bond among all Sabbat that shared in it. The loyalty it
assured single-handedly held the sect together.
"Yes..." Nigel continued with a monstrous grin, "You seek to destroy him...
we thought so. Well, perhaps this also would be useful to you..."
"Yes! What???", Sela almost throttled the ugly vampire in anticipation. It
is generally not wise to irritate a Brujah antitribu, especially this one.
"This will cost you... more than what was agreed upon. Do you still wish to
know?", Nigel began picking his protruding teeth with a toothpick
nonchalantly.
"Yes! Anything you want! Tell me now... what do you know???", Sela felt the
vitae burning deep inside her.
"We believe he may be...", he looked around again making certain none were
listening, "...blood-bound to a prominent Tzimisce Cardinal"
Sela's jaw dropped, and her fists unclenched themselves. A grimace slowly
became a smile.
"You and your people have done well Nigel... I'll see to it that you're well
rewarded.", she said as he bowed mockingly and ducked back into the shadows.
As she walked back to her waiting vehicle, she was unaware of the small
blackbird observing her from the roof of a nearby warehouse. The Nosferatu
antitribu were happy to help a rising star... but they also covered their
bets.
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SIGN OFF
I will eventually be posting some relevant !Brujah decks for analysis. I
have avoided designing actual decks for this newsletter. Rather than posting
decks of my own design, I thought it might be helpful if newer players send
me deck-listings. Together we can attempt to tweak these decks until they
are more effective.
Until then, I will continue to analyze specific cards and vampires as well
as discuss general and !Brujah specific strategies.
I hope this newsletter was helpful to you. If you disagree with anything I
say, I welcome any constructive criticism or commentary. Please email me at
ghost@mnsi.net.
Cheers,
WES
NAVIGATION
Jyhad Resource Page -> Brujah Antitribu Newsletter Archive -> Brujah Antitribu Newsletter - Volume 2 Issue 2