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Greetings fellow Methuselahs
Cold autumn winds chill my old bones, and I huddle in my coffin and order my chief ghoul to microwave yet another cup of cardamom-flavoured type O. What has happened this moon cycle, you wonder? Not much I´d say, as I am getting numb of age. I know some who call themselves “players” would disagree, and insist they live in exciting times, with “more activitity than ever”. No, it is all the same. The Eternal Struggle rages on. All is as it should be …






REMINDER: VEKN NOW HAVE A CODE OF ETHICS
We recommend all members, especially tournament organizers, to read and re-read the new Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Code of Ethics, published on September 9. Created by the VEKN Inner Circle together with VEKN National Coordinators, the document is foremost a guide to help all involved parties to look after each other and be respectful of each other's differences. Keep it in mind!





AUSTRALIAN/NEW ZEALAND CONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIPS COMING UP

This year´s Australian/New Zealand Championships are being played at Brook Hotel in Mitchelton, Queensland, Australia on October 5. Head organizer is Stephen Harris.

Like all other continental events this year, Black Chantry Productions has created a special promo card awarded to all attendants. For this event it is the Brujah Baron of Canberra Leumeah, with artwork by the great Lawrence Snelly. This exact printing is exclusive for the championship, but the card will appear in a future Black Chantry product.

VEKN.net calendar: http://www.vekn.net/event-calendar/event/9371

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/657933911286921/



Happy finalists Henrik, Lauri, Esa-Matti, Erik and Kristofer. Congrats Esa-Matti!


ESA-MATTI SMOLANDER IS THE CHAMPION OF THE WRONG COUNTRY 2019!

The Swedish National Championship 2019 was played at the Dragon´s Lair store in beautiful Stockholm on September 7. 42 players turned up for battle, including world top ranking Martin Weinmayer of Austria and no less then 13 invading, very bloodthirsty Finns!

After the three preliminary rounds, these were the standings:

1. Esa-Matti Smolander (FIN) 2 GW 9,5 VP
2. Kristofer Åkesson (SWE) 2 GW 9 VP
3. Henrik Klippström (SWE) 2 GW 7 VP
4. Lauri Salmi (FIN) 2 GW 7 VP
5. Erik Mossberg (SWE) 2 GW 6 VP

VTES SM 2019 final table layout

Lauri played at least one Anarch Revolt each round the first five rounds, which practically cross-table ousted Kristofer all-titled Lasombras, and also damaging Henrik a lot. A long, wavy struggle followed, were Lauri tried to rush down Erik's anarchs, while the top seeded Esa-Matti tried to balance the table with both helping Erik to survive and preventing him from building enough Legionnaires to be a threat, while at the same time setting up for ousting the crippled Henrik (who made poor attempts to damage Lauri) and preparing for a potential heads up against a very strong and dangerou
s Lauri. The balance act worked out and eventually Esa-Matti won on time with 1.5 victory points. Congratulations!

VTES SM 2019 final table


This is Esa-Matti's tournament winning deck:

Deck name: All Hail Satan v 4.1

Crypt (13):
5x Huitzilopochtli 10 DAI, OBF, PRE, POT, DOM, AUS
1x High Priest Angra Mainyu 8 DAI, OBF, PRE, dem, ser
4x Giotto Verducci 7 DAI, OBF, pre, pot, for
1x New Blood 2 san
2x Anarch Convert 1

Library (72):
Master (34):
9x Ashur Tablets
6x Tend the Flock
3x Villein
2x Metro Underground
2x The Parthenon
1x Jake Washinton (Hunter)
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Direct Intervention
1x Information Highway
1x Agent of Power
1x Giant’s Blood
1x Secure Haven
1x Wider View
1x The Coven
1x Wash

Action (9):
5x Entrancement
2x Unleash Hell’s Fury
1x Mind Rape
1x Contagion

Action Modifier (12):
4x Lost in Crowds
3x Elder Impersonation
3x Faceless Night
2x Enkil Cog
1x I am Legion

Reaction (5):
2x Deflection
1x Eluding the Arms of Morpheus
1x Delaying Tactics
1x On the Qui Vive

Combat (2):
2x Majesty

Ally (2):
1x Carlton Van Wyk (Hunter)
1x Veneficti (Mage)

Combo (7):
5x Sense the Sin
1x Touch of Clarity
1x Hide the Mind

Thanks to organizer Randal Rudstam. artists Noora Hirvonen and Anna Evertsdotter for extra prize support, all others who help out, and our sponsor Ultra Pro!




VTES content Sep 2019
NEW GREAT VTES CONTENT

As the game slowly rises from a kind of torpid situation, we notice more excellent VTES content. It´s actually more than we can keep track of, in various languages, but a couple of real gems deserve extra attention:

Bindusara´s Jyhad Diary baffles – soon the blog will have problems improving! In just the last weeks, we have read excellent interviews with (among others) Ben Peal, Selen Turkay, Steve Wieck, Andrew Greenberg, Richard Garfield and Skaff Elias. Keep up the great work! Check out 
bindusara.home.blog

Struggle, Interrupted is 2019 NAC winner Corwin Brindley´s Twitch show, where he discusses VTES deck building and strategy, giving insights and opinions on decks shown on screen. Entertaining and helpful! Visit
www.twitch.tv/djhedgehog (Also available on Youtube)

If you have created (or found!) any great VTES content that you want the VEKN to promote, please contact the VEKN Community Manager.
 




BCP logo


BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: SEPTEMBER 2019

A special page was created to help players keep track of all Black Chantry-created promo cards

• It was announced that the five First Blood decks will appear in stores around October 1, in Spanish as well as in English. Sadly, there was a printing issue in one of the decks, but replacement products are coming.

 

• On September 16, Black Chantry rules director Vincent Ripoll made a statement regarding updated card texts, discontinued Beta card texts and translations.

• Some exciting art concerning First Blood was announced: New art for Bonding has been created by Black Chantry´s own Ginés Quinonero for both the Tremere and the Ventrue deck, and the original artwork for Aching Beauty (by Dave Roach and Pete Burges) returns in the Toreador deck.

Round 2 of Fifth Edition playtesting has concluded, and reports are collected and a report is compiled by playtest coordinator Darby Keeney. After adjustments, Round 3 will begin.

First Blood Currently 17 Black Chantry products are available through Drivethrucards.com and other stores:
-
Lost Kindred bundle
- Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 1
- Keepers of Tradition Reprint Bundle 2
- Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 1
- Heirs of the Blood Reprint Bundle 2
- Den of Fiends Preconstructed Deck
- Libertine Ball Preconstructed Deck
- Pact with Nephandi
Preconstructed Deck
- Parliament of Shadows
Preconstructed Deck
- Anthology I bundle

- VTES Card Creator
- 25th Anniversary (Not on Drivethrucards.com yet!)
- First Blood: Malkavian
(Not on Drivethrucards.com yet!)
- First Blood: Nosferatu
(Not on Drivethrucards.com yet!)
- First Blood: Toreador
(Not on Drivethrucards.com yet!)
- First Blood: Tremere
(Not on Drivethrucards.com yet!)
- First Blood: Ventrue
(Not on Drivethrucards.com yet!)

Do you have opinions or questions for Black Chantry?
Start a topic on the VEKN forum, or contact the company by e-mail, Facebook or Twitter.



Bloodlines 2 - The Camarilla
RECENT NEWS IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS
This month we want to mention these Vampire: The Masquerade related news:

Licensee Modiphius Entertainment announced that VTM will be made available not only in English, French, Italian and Spanish, but also soon in German, Brazilian Portuguese and Russian. The partner companies responsible for translation of the core books will also participate in the global organized play programme and create their own setting and chronicle material!

So far four of the five factions in Bloodlines 2 have been revealed; The Camarilla, The Baron, The Pioneers and The Newcomers, and the artwork to illustrate these is FANTASTIC. The game will be displayed at PDXCON in Berlin on October 18-20, so if you are curious and happen to be in town that weekend, don´t miss it.



CALENDAR

Upcoming events:
October 5: Australian/New Zealand Continental Championships – Mitchelton, Australia
October 5: New Age V:tes – Ceará, Brazil
October 5: Nightmare Curse – Santiago, Chile
October 5: Elysium Reus V – Reus, Spain
October 5: Command the Legion – La Pobla de Vallbona, Spain
October 5: Bewitching Oration 2 – Paris, France
October 5: Vilnius Open 2019 – Vilnius, Lithuania
October 6: Signet of King Saul – Mitchelton, Australia
October 12: Dutch national championship – Utrecht, Netherlands
October 12: 11th Hiekkaharju Nightmares – Vantaa, Finland
October 12: Round 5 – Vác, Hungary
October 12: Zabrze by Night - cykl Silesia by Night – Zabrze, Śląskie, Poland
October 13: VTES PAULISTÃO 2019 – São Paulo, Brazil
October 13: Alessandro Donati – Barga, Toscana, Italy
October 13: New Blood – Barga, Toscana, Italy
October 19: Torneio de VTES na Estante RJ – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
October 19: Camarilla Conclave 2019 – Palma de Mallorca, Spain
October 26: Beware Of Light – Bochum, Germany
October 27: Hungarian Championship – Budapest, Hungary
October 27: Breath of the Graoully – Metz, France


For more information on upcoming events see the V:EKN Event Calendar.


CONTACT V:EKN
You can contact the V:EKN Inner Circle members using contact forms at V:EKN.net. Also follow the V:EKN Facebook group, the official V:TES Facebook page Vampire: The Eternal Struggle and the official V:EKN Twitter account @VEKN_VTES

"How a person masters his fate is more important than what his fate is."