Assamite Clan Newsletter Volume 2 Issue 8 (June 2001)

Written by Todd Banister

Review of Recent Events:

With the release of the expansion Final Nights on June 11th, the seemingly
eternal wait for the new Children of Haqim has finally come to an end.
Simply put, I cannot tell you how excited and proud I am of this set. I
truly believe that the Final Nights is hands down the best expansion for
Vampire so far and will elevate each of the independent clans up to a viable
tournament level. Many thanks go out to everyone that had a hand in creating
such an excellent product.

Contained within the Final Nights are 14 new assassins, 5 Assamite

clan-specific cards, 11 Quietus cards and a host of other items that we will
soon put to good use. With so many new weapons, the hardest part for me is
choosing what to start playing with first! My first few decks with the new
cards turned out to be completely unfocused as I was adding in way too many
of the new cards just to try them out. In order to create a little focus for
everyone, I have decided not to spill all of my secrets at once and add a
new section of the newsletter dedicated to reviewing a few new cards from
Final Nights. This way, you have a chance to discover the new Assamites and
their strategies on your own and I have ammo for a lot of newsletters in the
future.

Final Night's Highlights for June: Some of the new cards introduced in the
Assamite Preconstructed deck.

Note - Changes to existing Assamite related cards in the Assamite

Preconstructed deck:
Kali's Fang: The card text on Kali's Fang has been changed from 2 aggravated
damage each strike to strength +1 aggravated damage each strike. This allows
the assassins with +1 strength (or anyone using a Lucky Blow) to strike for
3 aggravated damage instead of just 2. This should lead to a few more crispy
vampires lying in people's ash heaps.

Alamut: A slight text change on this card has altered who can gain the
support of Alamut. Previously, you could give one of your minions
(Terrorists anyone?) the votes from Alamut - now you must chose one of your
vampires. This change has minimal impact to the usefulness of the card.

Here is a list of some of the new Assamite and Quietus cards that are in the
preconstructed deck:
Dagon's Call: Combat, Quietus, 1 Blood
(Inferior) Strike: make a hand strike (at strength damage) and the opposing
minion takes 1 unpreventable damage during the press step each round of
combat. A vampire may only play one Dagon's Call each combat. (Superior) As
above, and this hand strike does Strength +1 damage.

Thin Blood: Combat, Quietus, 1 Blood

(Inferior) Only usable at close range before strikes are chosen. The
opposing vampire burns 1 blood. A vampire may play only one Thin Blood each
round of combat. (Superior) As above, but the opposing vampire burns 2
blood.

Parmenides: 4 capacity (CEL qui). Independent. When you move Parmenides form
your uncontrolled region to your ready region, your predator takes control
of Parmenides until your next untap phase. +1 Strength. (Blood Cursed)
Fatima al-Faqadi: 8 capacity (CEL OBF QUI aus for). Independent. Once per
combat, before range is determined, Fatima may equip with a weapon card from
your hand. Pay the cost to equip as normal. (Blood Cursed)

Comments:
One of the banes of the Assamites used to be if they were forced to fight at
close range since Quietus' strength lies in its powerful long-range strikes.
Oh my - how times have changed.

Thin Blood resembles Thaumaturgy's Blood to Water in effect but can be

played during the first round of combat which is an extremely important
distinction. With this card, the Assamites now have a way to burn blood off
of a vampire before they have a chance to play any S:CE effect. Not only
does Thin Blood cause problems to those vampires that try to avoid combat,
but it also can wreak serious havoc against anyone wishing to fight back
against the assassins. How so? It can cause havoc by suddenly changing the
amount of blood that the opposing vampire thought they could use to play
cards against the Assamite. Imagine the surprise on someone's face when they
suddenly realize that they no longer have enough blood to play the Pushing
the Limit in their hands, or an Entombment, or even a Skin of Steel in order
to avoid damage from your Kali's Fang strike. What a pity.

Dagon's Call is a nice hand strike that can continue to punish the opposing
minion at a rate of 1 unpreventable damage per round of combat. With the use
of Dagon's Call, the various Assamites with +1 strength can inflict 4 points
of damage - enough to bring down a lot of minions. If you include a
Depravity and a Thin Blood with these +1 strength monsters, the opposing
vampire could lose as much as 7 blood from just one close range strike. That
's going to bring down most vampires and give you a lot of blood that is
just begging to be tasted back. And maybe the best thing about Dagon's
Call - you can still play it after you have been Immortally Grappled.

One more point that needs to be discussed with Thin Blood and Dagon's Call
is their use with Psyche. In my previous newsletter, I mentioned that there
is almost no reason to ever play the Psyche at inferior as a press to
continue. Dagon's Call has definitely changed this, as the press will
continue to deal damage from the earlier strike. Also, Psyche now lets you
to play a Thin Blood, allow the opposing vampire to play a S:CE, restart
combat and play another Thin Blood thus burning 4 blood without even
striking. Not bad at all. Obviously, the use of Psyche has become more
important to the success of Assamites in combat.

Parmenides is a wonderful new low-capacity monster for the Children of

Haqim. With superior Celerity, inferior Quietus and +1 strength, he is
capable of delivering some serious damage in combat. While being overpowered
for a 4 capacity vampire, Parmenides comes with a pretty stiff drawback -
you must give him to your predator until your next untap phase when you
influence him out. What nasties will your predator do to Parmenides while he
has control of him? The most common action that your predator will perform
with Parmenides is to simply bleed you while he has control of him. Lacking
any disciplines with bleed modifiers, Parmenides will more than likely be
bleeding you for one at zero stealth (unless they surprise you and play an
Alacrity). Even if you chose not to block, you have basically paid 5 pool
for him and still should be able to get your investment out of him over the
course of the game. If you choose to block him and thus save your pool,
combat should be fairly harmless as long as you either maneuver to long
range or play a dodge to avoid his +1 damage hand strike. If on the off
chance that your predator is playing a deck that is packing Celerity as
well, take the 1 pool loss and keep both your minions healthy. Another nasty
thing that your predator will try to use him for is to commit diablerie (if
you have previously played a Tajdid thus lifting the Blood Curse) and get
him burned in the ensuing blood hunt. In order to minimize this risk to
Parmenides, make sure you influence him quickly in the game before such
tasty targets start hanging out in torpor or simply hang onto the Tajdid
until you regain control of him.

Fatima al-Faqadi, the Assamite signature character from the Clan Novel
series, is tied with Husamettin at 8 capacity as the lowest vampire within
the clan with all three in-clan disciplines at superior. Besides her three
in-clan superior disciplines, Fatima also includes inferior Auspex,
Fortitude and a built in special ability which acts like a Disguised Weapon.
Fatima's out-of-clan disciplines are very welcome as Parnassus now has a
partner to combine his Auspex with and any assassin that can prevent damage
is always a good thing (depending upon which side of combat you are on).
Fatima's special ability is also very useful in that she will not have to
take actions in order to equip with weapons as long as she can get herself
into combat. Not only can she save equip actions for herself, she can become
the weapons liaison for the entire clan by using multiple Psyches after
equipping via her special ability each combat and then performing a Rave
action to distribute the goods to your other ready vampires. This will save
you either a lot of equip actions that could potentially be blocked or save
several card slots in your library which would normally go for Disguised
Weapons and Obfuscate skill cards. Either way, this will lead to greater
efficiency, something that is critical to the success of the clan.

June's Deck Idea Clinic: Playing with the new toys

The Crypt:
Fatima al-Faqadi (8) CEL OBF QUI aus
Fatima al-Faqadi (8) CEL OBF QUI aus
Parnassus (7) CEL QUI tha aus
Parnassus (7) CEL QUI tha aus
Yusuf (5) CEL aus qui obf
Abd al-Rashid (5) CEL QUI obf
Abd al-Rashid (5) CEL QUI obf
Parmenides (4) CEL qui
Parmenides (4) CEL qui
Dorian Strack (4) AUS cel
Colin Flynn (3) aus cel
Zo� (3) AUS cel obf

Total Capacity of Crypt: 63

Average Vamp Size: 5.25

AUS - 8 (6 at inferior and 2 at superior)

CEL - 12 (3 at inferior and 9 at superior)
OBF - 5 (3 at inferior and 2 at superior)
QUI - 9 (3 at inferior and 6 at superior)

The Library: (84)

Masters (16)
2x Auspex
5x Blood Doll
2x Fame
1x Guardian Angel
1x Giant's Blood
1x Market Square
2x Path of Blood
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Quietus

Actions (9)
1x Bum's Rush
2x Ambush
4x Computer Hacks
1x J.S. Simmons
1x Tasha Morgan

Action Modifiers (3)

2x Cloak the Gathering
1x Mask of a Thousand Faces

Combat (35)
2x Acrobatics
4x Dagon's Call
2x Flash
1x Lucky Blow
6x Psyche
4x Pursuit
2x Side Strike
5x Taste of Death
4x Taste of Vitae
5x Thin Blood

Equipment (7)
1x .44 Magnum
1x IR Goggle
1x Ivory Bow
1x Kali's Fang
2x Laptop Computer
1x Sport's Bike

Reactions (14)
2x Enhanced Senses
6x Forced Awakening
1x Foul Blood
1x Melange
1x Precognition
2x Telepathic Misdirection
1x Wake with Evening's Freshness

Deck Comments:
Since so many new players might be playing with the Assamites due to the
Final Nights for the first time (or if they haven't played with them in a
long time), I wanted to give them a fairly standard Auspex Assamite deck
built to play with some of the new toys that were released in the
preconstructed deck. This deck has several nice combos in it that just might
cause some trouble for the other players. Try to use the Thin Bloods and
Dagon's Calls in combination with multiple Psyches in order to quickly
reduce your opponent's blood resources. After depleting their vamps precious
life force, try and catch them while they are hunting (hopefully when empty)
and attempt to burn them with the Kali's Fang or a well-timed Taste of
Death. One thing to remember with this deck, you must be moving forward
against your prey at all times. It does not bleed for more than a few pool
at a time so attempt to whittle away at their supply. Also, try to make sure
that you have one vampire out that has superior Auspex in order to pass
along the big bleed that would ruin your day.

Coming in next newsletter:

In just a couple short weeks, I will discuss a few more of the new cards
that were introduced in Final Nights as well as talk about ways to
manipulate the blood levels of your opponents. Ahh. all of these new cards
and ideas. this is a good time indeed for all. as long as you are not on the
wrong end of the sword. Pray that you do not learn this first hand.

Todd Banister
Prince of Atlanta
Scribe of the Assamites

Please send all comments and stories using the Assamites to:
vtesratings@white-wolf.com