Gangrel trouble

Gangrel have been the red-headed stepchildren of VTES for years. !Gangrel are the distant cousins that even close relatives don't want to talk about.

1) They have no real ousting payload beyond burning vampires and bleeding for 1-2 pool per action. In these days of more volatile, generally higher pool totals, this approach isn't very robust.

2) Among combat approaches, aggropoke is the weakest option. When it works, it sends opposing vampires to torpor with enough blood that rescuing is easy, and the combat decks can't generate the blood attrition needs to be successful.

When it doesn't work, you're still spending a lot of resources (cards/blood) in the attempt.

3) To make matters worse for the !Gangrel, the lose the for-based combat resiliency of the Gangrel.

4) With so many Deep Song decks in the competitive environment these days, people might baseline a little more combat defense. Combat as a whole has suffered.

As others have said, you either drive [ANI] more than in the past, or leverage the [CEL] on !Gangrel for a variant a guns deck with some aggro and Flesh of Marble.

Neither is hugely exciting, and both can suffer from disadvantageous discipline match-ups with predator and prey.

So I'm not crazy.
It seemed like even the Akunanse and Ravnos had better luck with combat and they share 2 disciplines.

!Gangrel got Leathery Hide, which is great at keeping your dudes alive. Gangrel and !Gangrel will probably play more of an attrition game than big strikes given the lack of Potence. Keep alive and block/bleed a bunch and you should do alright. Weighted Walking Stick with some presses and prevent can be good. Intercept combat is much better at keeping you alive than rushing.

I could see a combat module of WWS, Flesh of Marble and Taste with some Target: Vitals. If you have ANI, you might want to add Carrion Crows. This way you keep cycling cards, even against S:CE. A couple copies of Trap and Mob Connections can help finish enemies off.

Akunanse are way better equipped than gangrel in all but one regard: combat ends. If akunanse had a dog pack retainer (hyena pack?) They would make gangrel combat completely not worth the time. they have no secrets, wise spider, were-rats, good masters, and good vamps.
abo has the lowest ratio of junk cards (from all cards in the discipline) granting combat perks, untap/intercept, block denial, and +stealth or bleed.
Ravnos get week of nightmares when gangrel only get revel. and draba , sense dep , all sorts of fun stuff.

gangrel are hard to make work, which could be remedied with support cards later, but as of right now their African cousins kinda out combat them. I'm still trying with them, but outlook is grim.

if you are willing to use the inferior auspex found on a lot of good !/gangrel, you can try Mind of the Wilds, Action Modifier, Animalism & Auspex, C , [HttB:C] [ani][aus] If this action is blocked, this vampire gets an optional maneuver in the first round of the resulting combat, and the blocking minion cannot strike to end combat. which is incredibly useful. If you play Nadima, Randall, Caitlin or Doyle, then go wild !

you can also try the potence angle, with Ryder or Soldat, Fergus etc... Which allows you to grapple. Ok, It won't work against the classic grinders, but against torries and other s:ce it's quite nice. Don't forget that lilith's blessing allows you to tool up very quickly your gangrels with the desired discipline right after recouping their cost with villein.

I am going back to the !/gangrels after a long time, and I think the specials are what makes them good. But you have to go big/mid caps, like Nostoket & Talbot to pinpoint weak vampires and destroy them. I have to admit that the games where I was most succesful was when I was willing to sacrifice a small cap like Bill butler of Fergus to amaranth a big vampire. 3 pool to never see a justicar again seems a good bargain.

There are plenty of options if you use their specials and take the time to tool up a bit. I have yet to try the anarch angle, but I think they can be fearful like any other clan.

Reyda wrote:

if you are willing to use the inferior auspex found on a lot of good !/gangrel, you can try Mind of the Wilds

I've had a lot of luck playing Mind of the Wilds in the past. Great card. Anyway, curious about crypt possibilities, I just went and looked for vampires with ani/aus/pro, and noticed this:

Name: Monique
Clan: Gangrel antitribu
Group: 2
Capacity: 5
Discipline: ani aus for pro
Sabbat.

Name: Caitlin
Clan: Gangrel antitribu
Group: 2
Capacity: 6
Discipline: aus dom ANI PRO
Sabbat bishop.

Quite a difference a generation makes.