Vampire: Elder Kindred Network Newsletter July 2024
Greetings fellow Methuselahs,
THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF VAMPIRE: THE ETERNAL STRUGGLE CONTINUES
On August 16 1994 the first edition of the game we all love was released - that is 30 years ago. So it´s time to bake your cakes and sabre up the champagne!
The VEKN and Black Chantry Productions continue the celebration after the just released 30th Anniversary set with various activities. Next up among products is the long-awaited Fifth Edition Lasombra preconstructed deck, available in the beginning of October. The art above is from the crypt card Aintzane Arriaga from that deck. We once again welcome back Francisco Tébar as an illustrator - great work again!
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The Lasombra deck features the discipline Oblivion. This is how it is described in the Fifth Edition Vampire: The Masquerade Players Guide:
"Few Kindred outside Clan Lasombra and the Hecata know the Discipline of Oblivion, and as far as the Camarilla is concerned, this is a good thing. While the Lasombra favor the Discipline’s raw power, the more necromantically inclined Hecata explore its ritual uses. With this power, vampires wield the very stuff of shadows and unlife as weapons. Some call the power’s source the Abyss, while other practitioners refer to it as the Labyrinth. The one certainty is Oblivion channels the darkest arts, from where the dead go to die.
The masters of Oblivion call upon it to wreathe themselves in night, enslave spectres, or throttle victims with their own shadow. Each time they use it, wielders run the risk of losing their soul and Humanity to something darker than death and twice as hungry."
More previews are coming - follow Black Chantry Productions in social media.
PRE-REGISTRATION FOR EC 2024 IS OPEN!
If you plan to attend the European Championship in Warsaw, Poland, on September 27-29, please preregister. It helps the organisers a lot to know more about the number of attendees beforehand. This year it is the 30th anniversary of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, so the VEKN and Black Chantry promise to make this event something special!
Register at ec.vtes.club
Info is at tinyurl.com/vtes2024
TEEMU SAINOMAA WINS GRAND PRIX HELSINKI 2024!
The annual Ropecon game fair hosted Grand Prix Helsinki on July 20.
Read the full report: Grand Prix Helsinki 2024
WHO WINS THE EUROPEAN GRAND PRIX?
Of course, Vampire: The Eternal Struggle is all about you having fun playing cards, but some players also like to test their strength against other players in tournaments. Apart from continental championships, national championships and all kinds of local tournaments and leagues, there are also Grand Prix series in Europe, North and South America.
The European Grand Prix circuit 2023-2024 is now coming to a close. It has been a total attendance of 260 in five tournaments in Italy, Portugal, France, Denmark and Finland. Below are the current standings. The top five players are invited to the prestigious final to be played in Warsaw, Poland in late September:
AXEL HUET IS THE 2024 CHAMPION OF BELGIUM!
This tournament, won by a very interesting deck, was played in Mechelen on July 21.
Read the full report: Belgium 2024
CLEMENT LANGENHOVEN IS THE 2024 CHAMPION OF SOUTH AFRICA!
This event was played on July 6 - check out the VERY cool winning deck!
Read the full report: South Africa 2024
IBERIAN ASSOCIATION DEDICATED TO VTES CREATED!
In an exciting move for fans of the card game Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, a group of enthusiastic players led by Arnau Díez, the national coordinator for Spain, have taken a significant step by forming the first association dedicated to fostering and promoting the game in the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic Islands, and the Canary Islands. The association, “Cónclave Ibérico: Association of Friends of Vampire: The Eternal Struggle”; abbreviated as CI, has the primary goal of promoting the game and supporting the community. CI takes over from the former association, Cónclave Hispánico, and expands its scope of activities. It will support the management of promotional materials, provide assistance to tournament organizers, and facilitate relations with local administrations to request spaces for hosting tournaments, among other activities.
The association offers two types of membership. The basic membership includes an exclusive annual gift and discounts on tournaments sponsored by the Cónclave, such as those of the Spanish leagues. The extended membership, in addition to the benefits of the basic membership, offers a copy of each promotional card distributed nationally from the moment of registration.
The news of the creation of CI has been received with great enthusiasm by players and princes in Spain, and it already has 200 members. The association has an Instagram profile (@conclave_iberico_vtes) and a website (www.vtes.es).
The membership card and first gift promo cards:
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RECRUITMENT EXERCISE: GRAN CANARIA
On July 18-20 Guille Mondragón hosted VTES promotional events on Summer Con in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Even though the convertion had less visitors than expected, a number of curious potential Methuselahs where explained the game, some sitting down and actually trying, some shown more concise. Promo cards were handed out, as well as contact information for local play groups and stores.
On July 21, there also was a small tournament, won by Iván Arenas (first grey shirt from the left below). Congratulations Iván!
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Big thanks to Guille for doing this - you are a real VTES hero! Are you who read this also interested in doing demo games? Black Chantry can help, reach out to !
BLACK CHANTRY SUMMARY: JULY 2024
• The 30th Anniversary had its offical release on July 20, and should be available in your favorite store. The new cards in the set will be legal for tournament play on August 19.
• Next up is the Lasombra preconstructed deck, hopefully making a sneak premiere on October 3 at the Spiel game fair in Essen, Germany, and in stores soon after that. There new Lasombra will have the new discipline Oblivion instead of the old Obtenebration. The deck will have a political theme.
• After that, later in Q4, its time for a Hecata preconstructed deck, also with Oblivion. These cards needed a fourth round of playtesting, ongoing right now, until the end of August. Also included in the testing is cards for 56-card New Blood packs for Hecata, Lasombra, Ravnos, Salubri and Tzimisce that also will appear late 2024 or early 2025 dependent on playtest and printing schedule.
• Design of four Sabbat-themed preconstructed decks moves on, hopefully soon ready for a first round of playtesting.
• More old legacy single cards for print-on-demand and the 2-player VTES variant are on hold for now.
Currently these Black Chantry products are available through Gamepod, 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 (Also Spanish, French)
Libertine Ball Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
Pact with Nephandi Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
Parliament of Shadows Preconstructed Deck (Also Spanish, French)
Anthology I bundle
VTES Card Creator (Drivethrucards only)
25th Anniversary
First Blood: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French)
First Blood: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French)
First Blood: Toreador (Also Spanish, French)
First Blood: Tremere (Also Spanish, French)
First Blood: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French)
VTES Legacy Card Singles (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Promo Pack 1 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Promo Pack 2 (Drivethrucards and Gamepod only)
Promo Pack 3 (For promotion only)
Promo Pack 4 (For promotion only)
VTES "Parity Shift" playmat
VTES card sleeves
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition (Stores only)
Vampire: The Eternal Struggle Fifth Edition Latin (Drivethrucards only)
Fifth Edition: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Toreador (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Tremere (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Promo Pack 3 (Event promos only)
Fifth Edition: Banu Haqim (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Brujah (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: Gangrel (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Fifth Edition: The Ministry (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Malkavian (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Nosferatu (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Toreador (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Tremere (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
New Blood: Ventrue (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
The Fall of London (Also Spanish, French, Latin)
Echoes of Gehenna
Shadows of Berlin (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Banu Haqim (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Brujah (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: Gangrel (Also Spanish, French)
New Blood: The Ministry (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Ravnos (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Salubri (Also Spanish, French)
Fifth Edition: Tzimisce (Also Spanish, French)
30th Anniversary (Also Spanish, French)
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
The choice-driven RPG thriller Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Purgatory is available now on Steam, GOG, Epic Store, Switch, Playstation, Xbox, and iOS. If you are curious, have a look at the official trailer or the two-part playthrough with Huddy.
Subscribe to the World of Darkness News show for more news!
CALENDAR
Upcoming tournaments for the coming month (registered so far) are in:
Australia x3
Brazil x19
Chile
Finland
Ireland
Italy x2
Norway
Philippines
Poland x5
South Africa
Spain x4
Sweden
Switzerland
UK
USA x6
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 VEKN
You can contact the VEKN Inner Circle members using contact forms at VEKN.net. Also follow the official VTES Facebook page Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, the official VEKN X (Twitter) account @VEKN_VTES and the official VTES Discord server.
The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
Clement Langenhoven is the 2024 champion of South Africa!
This event was played in Johannesburg on July 6. Report by Nevil Wright, VEKN Prince of Pretoria/Johannesburg:
Although we had only a few players (6), and unfortunately the Cape Town group was not able to send any representatives, we had a lot of fun. New, old and returning players brought their usual wide variety of decks and the prelim rounds were not dominated by any one player. Several coin tosses were required to set the final table.
Result after three preliminary rounds:
1. Joshua Newcombe 1 GW, 5 VP
2. Coenie Pretorius 1 GW, 3 VP
3. Nevil Wright 1 GW, 3 VP
4. Jaco van der Walt 0 GW, 1 VP
5. Clement Langenhoven 0 GW, 0 VP
Josh came out, guns blazing, and quickly subdued both predator and prey. He tore through Nevil`s Setites in less than half an hour, and this earned him much table-hate. But then he hit Clement´s wall. To quote Clement and his use of Obedience. "Sit. Stay."
Things went downhill from there, and, after eating its way through Jaco`s depleted pool and torporised Malkavians, the creeping sabotage eventually got him.
Coenie and Clement then settled into a war of attrition, and like all such wars, it dragged on with neither side securing an advantage. 2 hours later, with only minutes remaining, Clement broke through and finally finished Coenie off.
From front: Coenie (currently untapping); Jaco (ousted); Josh (concentrating); Nevil (ousted); Clement (pensive).
In summary: Clement 2 VP, Coenie 2 VP, Josh 1 VP.
The tournament winning deck: “Elimelech Hears Voices”
Crypt (12 cards)
5x Elimelech the Twice-Damned 11 pro AUS DEM DOM FOR OBF Ventrue antitribu:5
1x Lutz von Hohenzollern 11 pot AUS DEM OBF PRE Malkavian:4
1x Morel 6 AUS DEM OBF Malkavian:4
1x Arthur Denholm 5 obf AUS DEM Malkavian:5
1x Tears, The Dark Pierrot 6 cel AUS DEM PRE Toreador antitribu:4
1x Tryphosa 10 AUS DEM DOM OBF POT Malkavian:4
1x Bloody Mary 8 pre AUS DEM OBF Malkavian:5
1x Alicia Barrows 9 AUS DEM OBF POT PRE Malkavian antitribu:4
Library: 80 cards
Master (15 cards)
1x Giant's Blood
2x Information Highway
1x Monastery of Shadows
1x Asylum Hunting Ground
2x Powerbase: Montreal
2x Vessel
2x Villein
1x Wider View
3x Dreams of the Sphinx
Action (10 cards)
1x Entrenching
1x Haunting, The
1x Restructure
1x Revelations
2x Sleep of Reason
3x Call, The
1x Abbot
Action Modifier (3 cards)
2x Mind Tricks
1x Veil the Legions
Action Modifier/Combat (5 cards)
5x Swallowed by the Night
Combat (15 cards)
3x Forearm Block
2x Gemini's Mirror
4x Weighted Walking Stick
6x Coma
Ally (1 cards)
1x Mylan Horseed
Retainer (1 cards)
1x Mr. Winthrop
Equipment (3 cards)
1x Ivory Bow
1x Sengir Dagger
1x Bowl of Convergence
Reaction (27 cards)
3x Eyes of Argus
2x Mental Maze
6x Obedience
2x On the Qui Vive
3x Redirection
6x Voice of Madness
2x Wrong and Crosswise
3x Deflection
All in all, we had an excellent day of VTES (It's not often you play four rounds of a tournament in a single day).
So, tired but sated, we headed off into the deepening twilight, another day of battle done.
Thanks to the organiser, the players and Pandemonium Games in Cape Town for prize support!
Axel Huet is the 2024 champion of Belgium!
Finalists with organiser Maaike to the right. Champion in yellow - congratulations!
Reported by organiser Maaike Kerschot, VEKN Prince of Mechelen:
Over the weekend of 20 and 21st of July De Spelfanaat in Mechelen was host to both the Belgian Limited Draft Championship on Saturday and the Belgian nationals on Sunday. The local game store who usually hosts the weekly VTES gamenights was now the dueling grounds for almost 40 Methuselah from Belgium, The Netherlands, France and Germany.
Saturday we had an amazing turnout of 25 players ready to try their hand at drafting from the old Jyhad boosters, Lords of the Nights and home-made boosters consisting of V5 cards and cards from the new 30th Anniversary set.
The main event was Sunday the 21st of July, very fittingly the Belgian national holiday where 36 players showed up to best eachother over 3 rounds.
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Results before the final:
1. Axel Huet 2 GW, 8 VP
2. Gerhard Range 2 GW, 6 VP, 156 TP
3. Frédéric Pin 2 GW, 6 VP, 138 TP
4. Alf Behrends 2 GW, 5.5 VP
5. Serge Cirri 1 GW, 6.5 VP
All finalists were left the full 2 hours of the final and scored 0.5 victory points, but Axel Huet was top seed, and thus the 2024 champion – congratulations Axel!
The tournament winning deck:
Crypt (12 cards)
2x Dowager, The 6 ANI OBF aus pot primogen Nosferatu:6
2x Larissa Moreira 6 ANI OBF pot primogen Nosferatu:6
2x Lenny Burkhead 6 ANI obf pot pre primogen Nosferatu:6
1x Belinde 6 OBF ani aus pot prince Nosferatu:6
1x Benedito, a Lanterna 6 POT ani aus obf baron Nosferatu:6
1x Jacques Rouge 6 OBF ani pot pre baron Nosferatu:6
1x Kalinda 6 CEL OBF tha primogen Banu Haqim:6
2x Dominica 3 aus for Salubri:7
Library (79 cards)
Master (20; 8 trifle)
1x Anarch Troublemaker
2x Dreams of the Sphinx
1x Giant's Blood
1x Information Highway
2x Labyrinth, The
1x Saulot's Guiding Wisdom
7x Villein
4x Warsaw Station
1x Wider View
Action (7)
3x Army of Rats
4x Creeping Sabotage
Equipment (1)
1x Heart of Nizchetus
Political Action (8)
1x Conservative Agitation
1x Domain Challenge
5x Kine Resources Contested
1x Neonate Breach
Action Modifier (9)
2x Faceless Night
2x Forgotten Labyrinth
3x Lost in Crowds
2x Veil the Legions
Action Modifier/Combat (2)
2x Swallowed by the Night
Combat (10)
5x Aid from Bats
5x Carrion Crows
Reaction (22)
2x Guard Dogs
5x On the Qui Vive
15x Protected District
De spelfanaat gamestore was so kind as to provide the venue for the two day event of the Belgian limited draft championship and the Belgian National championship, they also provided prize support for all finalists. Also a big thanks to Ultra Pro for providing the prize support for the finalists.
And finally thank you to all the players who traveled far and wide to make it an amazing event!
Both championship finals were streamed on the VTES Belgium Facebook group.
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