Riccardo Fabiani VTES 2023
Art by Riccardo Fabiani for an upcoming Vampire: The Eternal Struggle card.

Greetings fellow Methuselahs,


WHAT COUNTRY HAS MOST VTES PLAYERS?

That question is, of course, hard to answer, as most Methuselahs enjoy the game around a kitchen table or at their friendly local game store. But we do have statistics over tournament players! The number below shows unique active players, which means those who have registered for at least one tournament in the last 18 months:

VTES active players 2023-02

Some numbers might appear wrong, because all tournaments haven´t been reported yet. Please report your tournaments!

What conclusions can be drawn from these numbers? Well, the pandemic sure did disrupt this neverending game, but translations into Spanish, French and Brazilian Portuguese have helped some countries vitalize the tournament scene. The VEKN will, together with Black Chantry Productions, use these numbers (and others) to promote the game appropriatelly - both where it´s most popular and where it seems to be in decline. Do you have any ideas on how to help? Contact your VEKN National Coordinator or !


Legacy adds 2023-03 
BAALI AND DAUGHTERS OF CACOPHONY NOW ON DRIVETHRUCARDS

Black Chantry keeps putting up old cards for print-on-demand on Drivethrucards.com. The latest addition to the $0.35 per card offer is 87 different cards for Baali, Daimoinon, Daughters of Cacophony and Melpominee, for example, favorites like Huitzilopochtli, Siren´s Lure, Contagion and Choir. You can pick and mix freely among the singles, but also choose bundle offers. Read the full announcement at Blackchantry.com!

Spain promos 2023-03

150 PLAYERS REGISTERED FOR SPANISH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS!

As you might know, the 2023 European Championship will be played in Barcelona, Spain in October 14-15. But there´s also a big Nationals in Seville on March 25, with the spectacular set of promo cards depicted above. The maximum number of players (150) has been reached, but there´s a waiting list to join if you desperately want to attend!

Great VTES content 2023-02 GREAT VTES CONTENT

• There is a new VTES podcast IN ENGLISH! In the first episode a highly original weenie Banu Haqim tournament winning deck is analysed – check it out at Youtube: Lies from the Tabletop

• Another new podcast (in Spanish) is El Libro de Noob (“The Book of Noob”), created by very dedicated Chilean players. You can find it on Spotify and surely other places.

• This is an interesting article found on Reddit posted a while ago that you might like. We would like to take the opportunity to remind you of the Reddit channel r/VTES, a nice place to discuss the game! - Top 12 Vampires in Tournament Winning Decks

• Toni, a player from Majorca, has created VTES Time Tracker, a nice tool for casual VTES play. It is currently available only for Android mobile devices, and in Spanish, but we explain how it works here so that you can have a try. The app helps to manage both the game time and the individual players' turns, and can help players become aware of the time they actually consume during games, and realise that time is, like pool counters, a precious resource that must be managed properly.
    At the start of each game, you can define the time limit to be tracked and the number of players. The default time limit is 2 hours, and the default number of players is 5.
    To pass the turn to another player, tap the icon of that player, and their remaining time will begin to decrease. You can pass the turn to any other player.
    If a player is ousted from the game, you must tap their icon for about a second and a half and confirm the action in a pop-up window for security, as it cannot be undone. If the ousted player had any time left, it will be equally distributed among the remaining players.
    A player is automatically ousted if they run out of time.
    The timer can be paused during the game with the pause button, and both resumed and started by tapping the main timer. The game can be ended completely with the finish button.

Have you found any great VTES content anywhere recently, that you think deserve a shout out here? Please contact the editor at

 
VTES - Blood Tears of Kephran
 
WORTH A SLOT #1: BLOOD TEARS OF KEPHRAN

Words by Vincent Ripoll.

Welcome to our new column dedicated to underrated cards you may not even know about, or that never make the cut into your deck. Today, I’d like to talk about a mysterious artifact from the past, the Blood Tears of Kephran!

I didn't dig too much into the lore, but it’s probably a reference to the pharaoh Khafre/Kephren, since the card was first published in the Ancient Hearts expansion. Anyway, when I started playing VTES, I found this card as I was looking for clanless, “unique” cards, because uniqueness was a clear indicator of their power level.

So, what does it do? It’s a unique equipment that allows the vampire to gain 2 blood anytime or prevent 2 damage in combat by sacrificing it. It’s plain, simple, and easily overlooked. But is it really worth the slot? Worth the equip action? Don’t your vampires have better things to do? And it’s unique!
 
Blood Tears of Kephran

First of all, the good thing is that you’ll probably never worry about contesting (well, until now, I’m sure everyone is going to include one in their decks after reading this article). I can remember only one game in 20 years where I saw the Blood Tears of Kephran played by someone else. Even if there is already one on the table (including yours!), it’s possible for its controller to instantaneously burn it to allow you to play one (it’s not like that terrible Dreams of the Sphinx).

It costs an action to equip, sure. But you’ll probably spend at least an action in a game hunting anyway. And equipping with the Blood Tears is very similar to hunting, since it’s at +1 stealth action and you can burn the equipment right away to gain 2 blood instead of one. The strength of the card is that you can also keep the equipment for later of course, for instance for that moment the vampire is empty and would have to hunt, making you miss your window of opportunity to oust your prey.

It costs a slot, right. But you’re probably packing defensive combat cards already. You make a risky move and get blocked by that Tzimisce folk? You have a failsafe against agg damage. A Banu Haqim sucks your vampire dry using Hunger of Marduk? It’s not that bad, you can regain 2 blood after combat or prevent that final additional strike intended to torporize or burn your empty vampire. You’re playing combat but couldn’t play Taste of Vitae to get blood back? Why not taste the blood of a pharaoh?

Winning a game is often a question of tempo, having the right card or resources at the right moment. One way to do this is to carefully prepare for your moment of glory, and Blood Tears of Kephran is a very useful card for this. If you want to bleed your prey for 6 with Govern the Unaligned + Conditioning, better do it late in the game when your prey is lower on pool and has less resources to defend themselves, rather than early in the game (which would probably get you dirty looks from your predator and the other players on the table). Use that early action to instead get you an Egyptian drink. It’s an innocuous action, your predator will love it (until you use it to pay that Govern + Conditioning later), and you will have your hands and mind freer for the rest of the game.

Obviously, the card doesn’t fit in all the decks. I tend to play it in decks where I have free actions (Shalmath, Nakhthorheb, or any deck with access to a free unlock such as Instantaneous Transformation, Forced March or a British Museum), but if you’re happy as a clam each time you get The Coven, you should probably consider including it.

So take your time, have a pint of fresh blood handy in your cooler ready, and enjoy!

PS: Of course, someone unknowingly played Blood Years of Kephran in their British Museum deck right after I wrote this article in our Paris' Cup tournament. Check the TWDA for the deck list ;)

Vincent has threated to return with more Worth A Slot articles, but maybe you too feel the urge to write something similar? Or any other kind of VTES article? Please contact the editor at
 
 
Milwaukee VTES demo 2023
 
RECRUITMENT EXERCISE IN MILWAUKEE

The VEKN tries to spotlight not only big tournaments, but also demo games and other heroic activity. Some words from David Robins:

VTES has risen from torpor in the domain of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On February 11, a Demo Day and Casual Play event took place at Game Universe in Brookfield, WI. Assisted by the Baron in Absentia of Madison Josh Whelan, Prince of Milwaukee David Robins presided over the event. Two brand new Fledglings demoed the game using V5 starters decks and enjoyed it. One went so far as to purchase Ministry and Gangrel decks for herself and her wife from Whelan's overstock. Two other Neonate players enjoyed a few casual games, while Josh and David explained the game to onlookers, offering to run them through demos when they seemed interested. Although several patrons were there at the store to play that other card game designed by Richard Garfield, only the two decided to take the opportunity to play a demo that day. Overall, the event went well. The store was pleased, the reception was good, and door was left open for future events.

Are you also interested in demoing VTES but need some help? Have a talk with your local game store or gaming event, and with your local Prince or National Coordinator, or with Black Chantry directly! 

Black Chantry logo

BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: FEBRUARY 2023

• In June, two new 54-card packs arrive from the print shop. “Shadows of Berlin” contains reprints of cards that so far have been exclusive in the Berlin Anthology set from 2017 (André the Manipulator, Anne-Marie Bourgeois, The Line, etc.) The other is called “Echoes of Gehenna” and contains reprints of Gehenna event cards – they are now a part of the “legacy line”, so this pack will only be sold through Black Chantry's own webshop. At the same time in June, another print run of Fall of London reaches stores.

• Ben, Mike and Ginés have prepared the third round of playtesting of the next preconstructed decks (Ravnos, Salubri and Tzimisce), ready to go out to the test groups as this is written. Most of the art is ready (for example Riccardo Fabiani's excellent piece at the top of this newsletter), so after this round is complete and the cards are tweaked a last time, the printing will begin, in English, French and Spanish.

• Additional sleeves stocks are on the way, including ones with Theo Bell and Faceless Night artwork, but these might take some time to arrive as they are being produced by Ultra Pro in China. Distributors will be updated when shipping dates are set.

• More Legacy Card Singles have been added to Drivethrucards (see above in this newsletter).

Black Chantry Products 2022 October

Currently these Black Chantry products are available through Drivethrucards.com and other stores:

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

 

Blood Sigils Vampire The Masquerade Mark Kelly Art by Mark Kelly for Blood Sigils.

RECENT NEWS IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

We mentioned some of these in last month's newsletter, but now there more details about things we look forward to:

• The Vampire: The Masquerade Player's Guide will be available on March 27 in PDF if you have preordered the physical book (which will be in stores in June).

• Blood Sigils will be a sourcebook about Blood Sorcery and Thin-blooded Alchemy, available in stores in early August (that too with a PDF for preorder buyers earlier).

• Renegade Game Studios are producing a new, updated version of the Vampire: The Masquerade Discipline & Blood Magic card deck. 212 cards sometime later this year, surely handy for your gaming table.

• If you missed getting hold of the 2020 version of Chicago by Night, you get a new chance as it gets a new print run from Renegade, available sometime in the third quarter. Like the earlier editions, this is a highly recommended setting book for Vampire: The Masquerade.

• The Hunters and the Hunted is an expansion of Vampire: The Masquerade Rivals expandable card game, also playable as a stand alone game. This time the factions are The Ministry, Caitiff and two different Hunter decks. Preorders are open.

Subscribe to the World of Darkness News show for more news!

 

CALENDAR

Upcoming tournaments for the coming month (registered so far) are in:
Brazil x8
Chile x3
Czech Republic
Denmark
Finland x2
France x2
Hungary
Italy
Mexico
Online
Spain x8
USA x4

For details about these events, see the VEKN Event Calendar.

Remember: Online tournaments are possible - just check the box "Online tournament" when you add the event to the calendar!


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

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”

Mark Kelly VTES Tzimisce 

Art by Mark Kelly for the upcoming Tzimisce preconstructed deck.

Greetings fellow Methuselahs,


Barcelona 2023

EC 2023 IN BARCELONA IS PLAYED ON 14-15 OCTOBER

We are delighted to announce the first rough schedule for the VTES European Championship 2023, played in Barcelona, Spain. This is what we know so far:

• October 9-12: For four days there will be 2 rounds + final tournaments every afternoon/evening.

• Friday, October 13: 3 rounds + final tournament

• Saturday, October 14: EC Day 1

• Sunday, October 15: EC Day 2

There will be an official EC website up soon with more details, which we, of course, will return to in these newsletters and all other channels too. Hope to see you ALL in Spain!

Grand Prix Liverpool 2023

WELCOME TO GRAND PRIX LIVERPOOL ON MAY 20!

The next installment in the current VTES European Grand Prix circuit will be played in Liverpool, England on May 20. For more information about this, keep an eye on:

• The Grand Prix Facebook page

• The VEKN Event announcement forum

• The VEKN European Grand Prix page

OTHER UPCOMING MAJOR TOURNAMENTS

Among the many upcoming events we want to spotlight the following larger ones:

• Spanish National Championship in Seville, March 25

• Belgian National Championship in Mechelen, May 7

• France National Championship in Vitrolles, June 3

• Swiss National Championship in Geneva, July 1-2

• Norwegian National Championship in Moss, August 5

 
VEKN Code of Ethics
 
VEKN ETHICS COMMITTEE NOTICE

The Ethics Committee met on 29th January 2023 to discuss an incident involving two players at an event in Joensuu, Finland, that took place on Wednesday 28th December 2022. As a result of the discussion and submission of statements from attendees, both players are suspended from organised events for 180 days, until the end of Thursday 27th July 2023.

The Ethics Committee wants to remind organisers and players of their individual responsibilities to treat others with respect, and furthermore recommends organisers and players break / timeout games where needed to allow tempers to cool and civility to return.
 
 
 
 
IMPORTANT VEKN DOCUMENTS NOW ALSO IN SPANISH
 
Now you can access these three VEKN documents also in Spanish. A link to the PDF is on the top of each page:
 
 
 
 
Translations by Ginés Quiñonero.
 
 
Praxis Seizure London
 
PRAXIS SEIZURES

A solid sign of that the VTES community is growing is the steady influx of new volunteer organisers. Below is a bunch that has signed up since last time we reported about it, in November. Thanks guys - you make tournament play possible!

• Chile - Prince of Providencia: Pablo Cabrera
 
• Chile - Prince of Santiago: Casio Celedón

• Chile - Prince of Santiago: Cristian Gutiérrez (Yes, there can be multiple Princes without contest!)
 
• Chile - Prince of Villa Alemana: Iván Gómez
 
• Finland - Prince of Jyväskylä: Pasi Karjalainen

• Italy - Prince of Bologna: Alessio Bianchi

• USA - Prince of Dallas: Chris Franklin

• United Kingdom - Prince of Norwich: James Freimuller
 
• France - National Coordinator: Christophe Baltazar

• Italy - National Coordinator: Miro Albertazzi
 
• Spain - Prince of Córdoba: Mariano Carbonero

• Spain - Prince of Móstoles: Miguel Porras Benito

• Brazil - Prince of Itaocara: Paulo José Aragão Picinini
 
• Brazil - Prince of Poços de Caldas: Isabel Carneiro
 

Black Chantry logo

BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: JANUARY 2023

• Black Chantry celebrates the first year of its webshop with a special bundle for anyone that missed the Unleashed Kickstarter. It includes two decks of each of Danse Macabre, The Unaligned 1, The Unaligned 2 and Anarchs Unbound, as well as 8 each of the Kickstarter promo cards Double Deuce, Ashlesha, Len Kanopka and Vivienne Geroux. That is not all! You also get two New Blood: Ventrue decks and promo cards Gilbert Duane, Okulos, Victoria Ash, Karl Schrekt, and Fiorenza Savona. All this with free worldwide shipping. How can anyone resist?

• Not to brag, but according to this summary on www.drivethrucards.com, 42 of the 50 most sold products in the store are VTES cards or bundles. The most selling one is Direct Intervention with that sassy new art by Ginés Quiñonero. YES, a new batch is on its way, its just a matter of physical proofs being printed and (hopefully) approved in the second try.

• Black Chantry are still investigating the possibility of an EU print-on-demand option. Recently there was some print tests done. However, nothing has worked out yet and it may be that it is not feasible due to price and quality. Never stop hoping!

• The second round of playtesting of the next three preconstructed decks (Ravnos, Salubri, Tzimisce) has been concluded and massive reports has been compiled by the test coordinators. Those are now being digested by the design team prior to a third round of playtesting. Thanks to all testers for your work!

Black Chantry Products 2022 October

Currently these Black Chantry products are available through Drivethrucards.com and other stores:

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

 

World of Darkness news Jan 2023

RECENT NEWS IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

As usual the World of Darkness team over at Paradox Interactive has a lot of things going on:

• Vampire: The Masquerade Players Guide is now available for preorder over at Renegade Game Studios. This book will be a collection of all the seven clans not in the Fifth Edition core book, but also with much new stuff, including new predator types, a new system for coteries, new merits and flaws, new alternative Banes for every clan, additional guidelines for many mechanics, clarifications of some rules and no less than 40 new discipline powers! (Imagine what this means for new VTES cards!)

• Hunter: The Reckoning gets several new things, of which we think "Lines Drawn In Blood" is most exciting. It´s a book with four stories that can be played stand alone or connected into a larger game chronicle. This is also available for preorder now.

• Vampire: The Masquerade: Rivals, also known as "That other Vampire card game" gets a new expansion soon, called "Justice and Mercy", adding Banu Haqim and Salubri to the game.

Subscribe to the World of Darkness News show for more news!

 

CALENDAR

Upcoming tournaments for the coming month (registered so far) are in:
Brazil x8
Chile x3
Finland
Great Britain
Hungary x2
Lithuania
Mexico
Online x3
Poland x2
Singapore x2
Spain x7
Sweden
USA x5

For details about these events, see the VEKN Event Calendar.

Remember: Online tournaments are possible - just check the box "Online tournament" when you add the event to the calendar!


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

Don´t be yourself. Be the one that you want to be.

SAC 2022 jogadoresSAC 2022 players honouring the great Fernando "Sydnelson" Cesar.

Greetings fellow Methuselahs,

LEONARDO VILLELA IS THE 2022 SOUTH AMERICAN CHAMPION!

This tournament was played on November 12-13 at Play Easy in São Paulo, Brazil. Day 1 had 16 players.

SAC 2022 floor

 

SAC 2022 prizes
Day 1 standings before the final:
1. Kleber Martins 2 GW 7,5 VP
2. Desso Alastor 1 GW 7 VP
3. Leonardo Villela 1 GW 6 VP
4. Thyelles Yoshitomi 1 GW 5 VP
5. Roxy Cíih 1 GW 4 VP

SAC 2022 Day 1 final table

SAC 2022 Finalists Day 1


Congratulations Leonardo Villela, winning by being top seed at 1,5 victory points. Thyelles got 1,5 and Desso 1.

Leonardo´s tournament winning deck: “Calma e bleed”

Crypt (12)
2x Ayelech 7 AUS DOM THA prince Tremere:6
1x Bituin 6 THA ani cel dom baron Tremere:6
1x Inês Tristão 6 THA aus dom pre prince Tremere:6
1x Lloyd Brooks 6 DOM THA aus pot primogen Tremere:6
1x Trevon Parker 6 AUS DOM THA Tremere:6
1x Chrysanthemum 5 AUS THA dom primogen Tremere:6
1x Zane 5 THA aus dom primogen Tremere:5
1x Lauren 4 aus dom tha Tremere:6
1x Nassir 4 THA aus Tremere:6
1x Tarrence Moore 4 aus dom tha Tremere:5
1x Monica Chang 3 dom tha Tremere:5

Library (73)
Master (12; 4 trifle)
1x Academic Hunting Ground
2x Arcane Library
1x Chantry
1x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
1x Powerbase: Montreal
1x Rack, The
4x Vessel

Action (13)
8x Govern the Unaligned
5x Magic of the Smith

Ally (2)
1x Carlton Van Wyk
1x Ponticulus

Equipment (6)
1x Bowl of Convergence
1x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Ivory Bow
1x Kevlar Vest
1x Sniper Rifle
1x Sport Bike

Action Modifier (14)
6x Conditioning
8x Mirror Walk

Combat (6)
1x Burst of Sunlight
5x Theft of Vitae

Reaction (20)
6x Deflection
2x Eagle's Sight
2x Enhanced Senses
3x Eyes of Argus
1x My Enemy's Enemy
4x On the Qui Vive
2x Telepathic Misdirection


Day 2 had 15 players. Standings after the preliminary rounds:
1. Leonardo Villela 1 GW 6,5 VP
2. Thiago Nespoli 1 GW 5 VP
3. Fernando Grossi 1 GW 4,5 VP
4. Desso Alastor 1 GW 4,5 VP
5. Ed Gonçalves 1 GW 4 VP

SAC 2022 Day 2 final tableSAC 2022 Finalists Day 2
Congratulations AGAIN Leonardo Villela, winning this final with 4 victory points. Fernando got 1.

Leonardo´s tournament winning deck: “Power of Princes 2”

Crypt (12)
1x Alice Chen 7 FOR PRE dom obf prince Ventrue:6
1x Benjamin Rose 7 AUS OBF ani pot prince Nosferatu:5
1x Graham Gottesman 7 DOM FOR obf pre tha prince Ventrue:5
1x Karen Suadela 7 CEL POT obf pre prince Brujah:5
3x Arishat 6 DAI OBF PRE 1 vote Baali:6
1x Andi Liu 6 DOM aus obf pre prince Malkavian:6
1x Belinde 6 OBF ani aus pot prince Nosferatu:6
1x Benedito, a Lanterna 6 POT ani aus obf baron Nosferatu:6
1x Donny Kowalczyk 6 AUS cel dom obf prince Malkavian:6
1x Jacques Rouge 6 OBF ani pot pre baron Nosferatu:6

Library (71)
Master (24; 2 trifle)
9x Ashur Tablets
1x Creepshow Casino
3x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Elysium: The Palace of Versailles
1x Giant's Blood
4x Information Highway
3x Parthenon, The
2x Villein

Action (1)
1x Unleash Hell's Fury

Political Action (19)
1x Ancilla Empowerment
8x Kine Resources Contested
7x Parity Shift
2x Reckless Agitation
1x Rumors of Gehenna

Action Modifier (16)
2x Bewitching Oration
2x Faceless Night
4x Forgotten Labyrinth
2x Lost in Crowds
2x Perfect Paragon
2x Spying Mission
2x Voter Captivation

Action Modifier/Combat (2)
2x Swallowed by the Night

Combat (6)
6x Majesty

Reaction (3)
3x Second Tradition: Domain

SAC 2022 Leonardo with the two prizesLeonardo Villela, winner of both SAC game days!

Thanks to players, sponsors and organisers!

 GP Bologna 2022 champion

DANILO TORRISI WINS GRAND PRIX BOLOGNA 2022!

Words by Simone Zanni:

This year 42 players showed up on December 10 to compete in a great and very friendly tournament.
 
GP Bologna 2022 final table
 
GP Bologna 2022 finalists

Filippo's heavy back rush on Enrique quickly unbalanced the final, leaving two VP´s to Danilo when he felt to take them. At the time out, only Enrico survived to celebrate Danilo´s win.

Congratulations to Danilo Torrisi, and thanks to every player who attended, especially those who came from a long distance. Stats, players and finalists decks are available on bcncrisis.com/tournament/92.

Danilo´s tournament winning deck: “Carnawall”

Crypt (12)
1x Elena Mendoza Vasquez 6 dom obt AUS THA Tremere antitribu:3
1x Eugenio Estevez 6 dom for AUS THA Tremere:3
1x Hannigan 5 dom AUS THA Tremere antitribu:2
1x Martin Franckel 3 tha AUS Tremere:3
1x Selena 6 AUS DOM THA Tremere antitribu:3
1x Valois Sang, The Watcher 6 nec tha AUS DOM Tremere:3
5x Carna, The Princess Witch 7 AUS DOM THA Tremere:3
1x Aisling Sturbridge 5 dom AUS THA Tremere:2

Library: 90
Master (21)
1x Arcane Library
1x Academic Hunting Ground
1x Chantry
1x Dark Influences
1x KRCG News Radio
1x Life Boon
1x Pentex(TM) Subversion
2x Powerbase: Montreal
2x Rack, The
3x Smiling Jack, The Anarch
6x Vessel
1x Wider View

Action (9)
8x Magic of the Smith
1x Atonement

Equipment (11)
1x .44 Magnum
2x Heart of Nizchetus
1x Ivory Bow
1x Kevlar Vest
2x Sawed-Off Shotgun
2x Sniper Rifle
1x Sport Bike
1x Bowl of Convergence

Action Modifier (2)
2x Conditioning

Combat (8)
4x Rego Motum
4x Theft of Vitae

Reaction (39)
4x Enhanced Senses
8x Eyes of Argus
3x Forced Awakening
2x My Enemy's Enemy
3x On the Qui Vive
4x Telepathic Misdirection
8x Deflection
3x Delaying Tactics
4x Eagle's Sight
 
GP Bologna 2022Miro and Simone.
 
A side note: This GP has been the last tournament for Simone Zanni as National Coordinator for Italy and for Luca Lanzarini as Baron of Bologna. Their places will be taken soon respectively by Miro Albertazzi, long time player also from Bologna, and Alessio Bianchi, an enthusiastic young player of our community. Good luck guys!
 
 
Middle European Cup 2022 finalists
 
LUKÁŠ SIMANDL IS THE 2022 MIDDLE EUROPEAN CUP CHAMPION!

Report by Richard Unter:

For the third time players from all over Europe gathered to battle it out for the Middle European Cup in Vienna. And boy, oh boy, a battle it was. With 42 players from Hungary, Czech Republic, Serbia, Croatia, Finland, Spain, Germany and, of course, Austria (including some of the legends of the game), the battle was fierce.
 
Middle European Cup 2022 floor
 
 
Middle Europe 2022 final table
Congratulations to Lukáš Simandl for winning the 3rd Middle European Cup! He played an incredible tournament, dominated the first two rounds with his Unnamed/Protocol deck and took a well-deserved victory. In a tense final, he took the necessary VP twenty seconds before the time was over by ousting Markéta Munduchová, who needs a special shout out. Not only is she an incredible artist that you should check out, but also she started playing only two months ago and showed an astonishing feat of fair play, when she did not stall the last 20 seconds, when otherwise SHE would have won the tournament by having the only other oust so far when she eliminated Martin Weinmayer earlier on.
 
Middle European Cup 2022 winnerLukáš Simandl.
 
Lukáš Simandl´s tournament winning deck: “Unspecified snakes”

Crypt (12)
5x unnamed, The     10 CEL DAI OBF PRE PRO           Baali:6
1x Nonu Dis          8 OBF PRE PRO for               Ministry:6
1x Crystal Lynn      6 OBF PRE PRO                   Ministry:6
1x Elisha Tucker     6 PRE cel obf pro       baron   Ministry:6
1x Marcel            4 obf pre pro                   Ministry:6
3x Anarch Convert    1                               Caitiff:ANY

Library (90)
Master (16; 9 trifle)
1x Anarch Railroad
2x Archon Investigation
3x Dabbler
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Powerbase: Los Angeles
1x Secure Haven
2x Vessel
3x Villein
1x Wash

Action (18)
1x Entrancement
14x Platinum Protocol, The
3x Unleash Hell's Fury

Ally (1)
1x Carlton Van Wyk

Retainer (2)
2x Homunculus

Action Modifier (35)
6x CrimethInc.
6x Enchanting Gaze
4x Enkil Cog
4x Faceless Night
2x I am Legion
3x Instantaneous Transformation
2x Lost in Crowds
8x Revelation of the Serpent

Action Modifier/Reaction (1)
1x Sense the Sin

Combat (10)
1x Donnybrook
5x Earth Meld
4x Form of Mist
 
Reaction (7)
7x Party Out Of Bounds

We hope everyone had a great tournament and we will see all of you the next time again in Vienna!
 
 
EC 2022 floor
 
THE VTES YEAR 2022
 
A retrospect by Henrik Klippström:

This year we finally had a more normal tournament scene again, after a couple of years of pandemic terribleness. 328 events are reported in the VEKN Event Calendar so far this year, compared to 218 in 2021 and 133 in 2020. The last non-pandemic year was 2019, which had 292 events. This means the game is growing!

Lets have a look at the most interesting stuff that happened this year:

April: The five New Blood introductory decks are released, with some new vampires and desirable reprints for clans Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere and Ventrue.

April: Panders, Salubri and Tzimisce are made available for print-on-demand at Drivethrucards, totally 159 cards, including many player-favourites such as War Ghoul, Legacy of Pander and Neutral Guard.
 
NAC 2022
June: Bill Troxel is the new North American champion, wielding a Daughters of Cacophony deck with (of course) Emerald Legionnaires.

June: The Spanish National Championship has 139 players! Ricardo Filipe Marta wins with a rather classic “Girls” MMPA bleed deck.
 
EC 2022
July: Otso Saariluma of Finland wins the European Championship (again!) with a master-heavy Enkidu/Matasuntha deck. Day 1 of this tournament had 99 players, a nice number considering everything.

October: The Fall of London expansion hits the stores, accompanied by a storyline constructed by the set's main designer Mike Nudd.

October: Ke Carlton wins the Australian & New Zealand Continental championship, playing an Arishat & Barons vote deck.

November: This month had the most National championships: Finland, Sweden, Portugal, UK and Germany.

December: Leonardo Villela is the new South American champion (see this newsletter).

December: The Black Chantry webshop (www.blackchantry.shop) celebrates one year, located in Denmark and run by Jesper Bøje. He says this has been “both a blast and at times exhausting work”. Among his accomplishments are sending cards to 40 countries in six different continents, sending over 8 000 promo cards, sending over 1 000 units of the Unleashed packs, and sending prize support to all the 2022 Atlantic Cup participants. Peak week was week 38.
 
Also, we have seen five European Grand Prix tournaments; both for the very long 2019-2022 season and for the 2022-2023 season. Sebastian Fredenberg of Sweden won the final of the 2019-2022 season. Attendance on the Grand Prix has varied, but besides Continental and National Championships these are the largest VTES tournaments. There´s also been a number of large online tournaments, for example the Online World Championship and the Atlantic Cup.
 
Seville demo 2022
We have also reported about a lot of demo games this year – these are really welcome efforts to show the game to new people. The VEKN thanks all these organisers and hope more will come.

Of course, these were just the highlights. If you´re not a frequent reader of the VEKN newsletter, we really encourage you to browse through the newsletter archive for lots of interesting content, primarily event reports (with deck lists) and strategy articles. We would like to thank everyone that has helped out with content for the newsletter this year (sometimes even on deadline!), and hope for your continued aid in 2023.

Happy new VTES year!
 
 
Julie Collins - Third Tradition Progeny
 
THE MAGIC OF VTES – A BEGINNER`S TALE

This is a story of a Magic: The Gathering player for over 25 years to eventually find another worthy game.

I’ve been a Magic player since around 1995. Throughout the years, I became aware that Richard Garfield continued to develop other games after Magic and that VTES was one of them. Unfortunately, I knew nobody who was playing this game in South Moravia, Czech Republic, and I don’t remember seeing any VTES products anywhere either (though some were apparently available nonetheless).

In any case, one aspect of Magic was really rubbing me the wrong way – its mana system. On top of the normal deck randomization, it creates a secondary luck factor so that even if you draw the best combination of cards, you also need to draw the right amount of land cards to be able to play at all. The dreaded “mana screw”, “mana flood”, and “color screw” situations were plaguing me and everybody else playing the game. Not only was it unavoidable by design, it was particularly painful after investing a lot of money and testing into your tournament deck, then losing a couple of games due to mana issues.

I eventually started to research various other trading card games, living card games, and card-based board games, and learned that Magic was for the most part all but alone in having this kind of crucial game resource management. Most notably, at least for this article, I learned that Richard Garfield himself moved away from this mana system right after finishing the design of Magic, when he started to design Jyhad [1]. I ended up creating a couple of Magic variants that circumvented the mana system [2][3] for casual play but despite wanting to try out VTES, my sense of it at the time was that the game was obscure, nearly dead, and not really available or accessible. Though I browsed some VTES card pictures out of curiosity, being a Magic player used to very quick matches, long multiplayer games with possible early player elimination was not exactly appealing to me either.

Then about 10 years ago I got familiar with the World of Darkness by playing and later localizing (because the writing was that good) the Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines video game by Troika Games. Though it was still no VTES for me, I was primed to get into it at an opportune moment.

Fast forward to autumn of 2020 when I randomly noticed a relatively new offer at my local game store [4], featuring First Blood starters and some Anthology sets. I was like “Whaaaa…?!” and started to scour the internet for how that could be. After finding and reading through the Black Chantry website, I eventually found VEKN.net and the list of princes available there [5].

I was glad to find out that the city I live in, Brno, had a prince. Without a lot of expectations, I wrote an e-mail. To my surprise, I got a reply very quickly so I proceeded to gather a couple of friends who were also interested to learn something about VTES and invited everyone for a demo. This was also during the pandemic when game stores and restaurants were closed so it had to be a house party. For me, it was a success and I knew my time had come to start playing.

I learned that there were dozens of players all across the Czech Republic, and though many of them have been in torpor lately, the Czech community had been organizing regular regional tournaments. I even learned that I already knew at least three VTES players in Brno alone, I just didn’t know that about them before!

I was kind of all in since then. I bought all the Black Chantry precons and bundles that I could get. I was also able to get a bunch of spare cheap cards from my local group to get started with deckbuilding. And I have to admit, VTES does have a steep learning curve. For me, learning the basic rules was nothing compared to actually understanding how to navigate a 5-player game, tracking game states, triggers, etc. I also learned that while being generally very supportive, my play group was not really keen on playing with starter decks with me. So right from the beginning, I was exposed to Anarch Converts, contracts, Palla Grande, and all the other advanced stuff I needed to wrap my head around. I concluded that my precons could not really keep up so I started to build my decks. Someone suggested that I should start with something easy to pilot, like the Dementation stealth & bleed deck based on the First Blood starter. I went with the idea though it was not the only archetype I wanted to explore.

I played the deck several times to learn the archetype and a few months later I joined the Czech National tournament, called Pulled Fang, just to get to learn the community a bit more. And what do you know, it wasn't a complete wash. My first table looked as follows: Aksinya as my prey, Stanislava as my predator, with Lasombra powerbleed and Toreador CEL-guns across the table. Long story short, I somehow managed to oust two players while the Lasombra ousted Stanislava. In the heads up and in the last minute of the time limit, I managed to DI a crucial Conditioning, saving enough pool to finish the game the next turn. Talk about beginner’s luck! In the following games, I encountered many decks that I did not recognize and had no idea how to play against, scoring no more points but it was already worth it.

For each subsequent regional tournament, I improved my deck a little bit and tweaked it based on its previous performance and advice I got from others but I realized that it won’t be that simple. I keep encountering decks unfamiliar to me which is a good thing. But combined with weird and unexpected interactions and errors players make randomly, there does not seem to be a silver bullet to learning VTES other than just playing and failing better. This is truly a far cry from how Magic is played competitively, with short and explosive games followed by instant gratification.

On the other hand, I learned that even in VTES, if you are unlucky, you get to play very little or not at all. For example, I was recently on the wrong end of a couple of Brainwashes followed by multiple 419 Operations and was unable to accomplish anything in that game.

And so I’m building various decks, trying various archetypes, learning from TWDA [6], the Information Highway blog [7], and other resources. However, I’ve put several constraints for myself on what (not) to play. As I started my card collection with BCP products, I decided not to play groups 1-3. In fact, my sense of the game is that these old groups include some very efficient if not unbalanced vampires from when the game was very young and which would probably not be designed today. I am also avoiding playing 11-caps, as to me, they appear as too archetype-defining, susceptible to fast decks but otherwise hard to deal with. Case and point, very early on, I did not get why the Stanislava precon was considered to be very strong. I played one game with it in a pub. With a bit of hand-holding, I managed to score a GW without a lot of effort and had to admit it’s not a very fun deck for casual play. On the other hand, the new Mithras appears to be designed specifically to allow a broader range of strategies to build around.

I for one appreciate the changes Vampire: The Masquerade Fifth Edition (“V5”) is bringing to the table as it basically allows VTES to be reimagined from the ground up, with all the experience from the past 20+ years. That enables the Black Chantry team to not only design new cards for new or updated deck archetypes, but also to update existing cards that are compatible with V5 and that previously saw little or no play.

For now, my signature (and also marginal and incidental) “tech” for my Malkavian stealth & bleed is something I did not see anyone play thus far, though I’m sure I was not the first to discover it: multiple Information Highways in the deck, burnable by Osric Vladislav for profit :)

I’m looking forward to playing new cards, new clan decks, and new reprints for post-Fifth-edition VTES (which I also call “Modern”). I’d like to see the format grow until it is big enough to draw in more of the veteran players. If I could make two wishes for the game, one major and one minor, at this stage in my VTES “career”, they would go like this:
• To me, it seems that Dominate bleed & bounce is very often, well, too dominant. I’d appreciate to see a combination of an erratum to address this reality, a few cherry-picked reprints for Modern VTES like Narrow Minds, and/or several newly-designed cards to nerf the archetype a bit, a Touch of Clarity type of thing.
• I’d like to see Victim of Habit tweaked to be playable. In my view, the card has a tremendous potential in many non-bleed deck archetypes but unfortunately, due to its current wording, it has been and continues to be virtually unplayable.

In closing, I’d like to thank the Black Chantry team for their time and effort, and wish them to be able to go full-time soon, and both the Czech VTES and international VTES Discord communities for supporting and cherishing new players like me. VTES is hard but many folks I’ve met personally or virtually really make it fun. I pass my turn.

Tomáš (“charmer” on Discord)
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Black Chantry logo

BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: DECEMBER 2022

• There is to be an alternate art version of Archon Investigation handed out as a promo at the Spanish National Championship in Sevile in March. The art by Ginés Quiñonero shows a historic flashback scene with later Justicar Alonso Petrodon working as an Archon in 15th century Seville. And yes, Archon Investigation will see print again in other ways soon, but not with this special artwork.

Archon Investigation

• Round 2 of playtesting of the upcoming Ravnos, Salubri and Tzimisce preconstructed decks is ongoing. The playtesters now get to try both modified versions of the cards from round 1 and some all new ones. The aim is to do at least three rounds of playtesting in time for a second quarter release of these decks.

• Black Chantry wants to direct a special thanks to all you who created fresh online content for VTES during the past year. We see more and more of this, both tools like Codex of the Damned and VDB.im, and video content like that of Reading Between the Lyons and SuakuOZ, or like the very nice game overview by Jenders Gaming recently. If possible, Black Chantry will gladly help out if you want to create VTES content, for example with artwork and proofing.

• The next batch of print-on-demand Legacy Card Singles is a bit delayed, but hopefully ready soon, possibly even when you read this!

Black Chantry Products 2022 October

Currently these Black Chantry products are available through Drivethrucards.com and other stores:

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

RECENT NEWS IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

Some cool stuff in December:

• The official digital for Vampire: The Masquerade called Vampire Nexus continues to grow, now with three more titles in the online library: “Chicago By Night”, “Cults of the Blood Gods” and “Auld Sanguine”.

• Also growing is the new Vampire: The Masquerade wiki over at Paradox Wikis. If you have a user (or creates on), feel free to add content! For example the Vampire: The Eternal Struggle entries need more words :)

• The World of Darkness News Show had some interesting episodes with an interview with the Milan Uprising developers and showcase of Vampire Jam 2022 (two episodes).

Subscribe to the World of Darkness News show for more news!

 

CALENDAR

Upcoming tournaments for the coming month (registered so far) are in:
Brazil x3
Chile
Denmark
Norway
Online x2
Spain x5
USA x3

For details about these events, see the VEKN Event Calendar.

Remember: Online tournaments are possible - just check the box "Online tournament" when you add the event to the calendar!


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

Everything you can imagine is real.

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