You can also find this newsletter at: http://www.shout.net/~mbohlman/as081998.html -------------------------------------------------------------- A Night on the Town Where: The Succubus Club, Chicago, Illinois When: Last night Abd al-Rashid worked his way through the crowd, pushing the mortals aside as he went. The punk-metal music pounded loudly on that night as Kine with every conceivable body part either shaved, tattooed, or pierced danced wildly, smashing into each other carelessly. He scanned the crowd for his contact, a Toreador whip. The Ventrue ruled Chicago, but at least some of the Toreador weren't quite happy about that. The recent conflicts with the Kindred of Gary, Indiana, had made choosing sides a deadly game for those without friends. But then, there were the Assamites, who choose no friends in an effort to gain from them all. Abd didn't know who the Toreador wanted knocked off, but he was sure it would be a symbolic contract rather than something meant to sway the Jyhad. Finally, he spotted the contact climbing the stairs towards his position on the balcony above the main floor. Ramiel DuPre. He had two mortal women of magnificent beauty on each arm, probably part of his herd. Abd could see the eyes of many women, and even some men, follow Ramiel as he approached. When he finally spotted Abd, he dismissed the women and immediately all mortal eyes left their stare upon him. Probably one of those silly Toreador disciplines, Celerity excepted, of course. "Abd al-Rashid." "Ramiel DuPre." Suddenly, the number of people immediately around the two vampires seemed to become denser and to thin out at the same time. "I am prepared to offer you two pints of a 9th generation Kindred." He paused and looked around to make sure no one was obviously listening. Just as the music peaked in a crescendo of drums and metal guitar, Ramiel mouthed the name. Lucia Paccioli. Well, you'll have to wait until next month to find out what happens next. -------------------------------------------------------------- Fun Alternative Rules Want to try out a fun alternative rules game with your Assamite deck? Well, get your favorite three friends together and setup the game as usual, except you have only 20 pool. However, the play is a little different. You are not the prey of any single player. In your seating arrangement, the player to your left is the prey of the player to your right. Your placement is only for purpose of turn order. No minion can bleed you, but all other effects can be used on you. During the game, you are considered to have a Succubus Club in play at all times. So if you have a Contract in your hand or perhaps a Haven Uncovered, the other Methuselahs can "purchase" a hit on another Methuselah's minions. It's up to you to decide terms and amounts. Typically, I "charge" about 1/2 the capacity of the target vampire to burn. To merely hassle, which usually means sending to torpor, I'll accept 1/3 the capacity. Let me know what you think, and if you have other variants, send them to me. -------------------------------------------------------------- Deck Building Building a combat deck that can win games is about half the ability of actually winning. I've had varying successes with differing incarnations of my Assamite deck. The key is being able to keep pressure on ALL of the opposing Methuselahs (in a four player game). The only time I was able to take 4 VP's in a game with an Assamite deck was when I systematically took down all but one of the other vampires in each active region. Here's the current incarnation of my Assamite deck. With the new ruling to use the actual wording on Rötschreck, we finally have a little extra help against S:CE. Crypt (12 vampires) Julius, 1, ser, qui - Useful for if you really want to diablerize 2x Kanya Akhtar, 2, cel 2x Harika Guljan, 3, QUI 2x Abd al-Rashid, 5, obf, CEL, QUI - The core of any Assamite deck 2x Parnassus, 7, tha, aus, CEL, QUI, +2 hand damage Melek, 7, pre, cel, OBF, QUI, pay one blood to dodge per combat Al-Ashrad, 9, obf, aus, CEL, THA, QUI, +1 bleed, burn Camarilla locations Thetmes, 10, dom, pot, OBF, CEL, QUI, 2 votes, aggravated hand damage Library (82 cards) Master (20 cards) 4x Contract 2x Haven Uncovered 2x The Rumor Mill, Tabloid Newspaper 2x Market Square 2x The Rack 3x Rötschreck 3x Blood Doll 2x Celerity Action (6 cards) 2x Atonement 4x Ambush Reaction (4 cards) 4x Forced Awakening Equipment (5 cards) IR Goggles Ivory Bow Sengir Dagger Kali's Fang Combat (47 cards) 12x Pursuit 9x Blood Sweat 8x Blur 4x The Khabar: Honor 6x Taste of Death 3x Disuised Weapon 5x Taste of Vitae -------------------------------------------------------------- Dealing with... In this section of the Assamite newsletter, I'll talk about dealing with various flaws in the typical Assamite deck. If you have thoughts about holes in the Assamite deck, e-mail them to me. Drawing Out the Beast: The Bane of Assamites Everywhere There are more weaknesses to an Assamite deck than your standard combat deck. Drawing Out the Beast is the absolute worst of them all. Fortunately, most people don't play with the card, but if you become successful with Assamites in your group, the meta-game will dictate that people start using Drawing Out the Beast. Against damage prevention, we have Blood Sweat. Against S:CE we have Psyche and Hidden Lurker. Against both, we now have Rötschreck. But what about Drawing Out the Beast? -------------------------------------------------------------- Next Month Abd al-Rashid is contracted out on Lucia Paccioli. Deckbuilding: Combining the Assamites with other clans Dealing with...fast stealth and bleed If you have comments about this article or want to give thoughts on future issues, just e-mail them to mbohlman@shout.net. -- Mike Bohlmann, MAIP mbohlman@shout.net "Sell crazy somewhere else; we're all stocked up here."