It’s been a long time since I brought you anything new, but here I am with a series of new articles that hopely will help us think about the game more effectively.

Sometimes we have the conception of if such or what discipline is used to do X thing … potence grants combat, the auspex is for intercept, the obfuscate stealth and chimerstry is totally disgusting.

Here it is a recount of the cards that provide stealth, subtract intercept, deny the block, cause failure after blocking or are strike combat ends and continue the action. There are also some comments about their efficiency.

By disciplines: 

 

In addition to these 82 cards, there are 16 more, each with the following requirements: ANI AUS, ani pro, aus chi, AUS DEM, black hand, CEL FOR, cel pro, dom obt,, flight, istarri, OBF POT, OBF PRE, sabbat, seraph, gun and imbued. You could always get to have one if it suits us.

I hope that this list of the cards that have been evaluated with some important notes we come well to all to have a clear idea of the secrecy we have in this game.

 

Nombre de la carta	Tipo	Coste	Disciplina	Sigilo	Notas
Predator’s Transformation	AM	0	abo	1
Devil Channel Throat	AM	1	abo	block fail	against ally or younger
Mind of the Wilds	AM	0	ANI AUS	1
Beast Meld	AM	2	ani pro	1
Heart’s Desire	AM	1	aus chi	block fail	+bleed and only against youngers and ally
Random Patterns	Combo	0	AUS DEM	-1 int
Circumspect revelation	AM	0	black hand	block fail	only against sabbat vamps
Alacrity	AM	2	cel	1
Resist Earth’s Grasp	AM	1	CEL	1
Siren’s Lure	AM	0	cel	1	burn 2 blood
Torrent	Combat	2	CEL	action continues
Forced March	AM	0	CEL FOR	1
Instantaneous Transformation	AM	0	cel pro	1
False Resonance	AM	1	CHI	1
Fata Morgana	AM	1	chi	1
Mirror’s Visage	AM	1	CHI	2/1	undirected/directed
Occlusion	Combo	0	CHI	1
Smoke and Mirrors	AM	0	chi	1
Mirror Image	AM	1	chi/CHI	1/action continues	/not for bleed
Will-o’-the-whisp	AM	X	chi/CHI	-1int/block fail	X younger or allies
Psychomachia	AM	1	dai	block fail	younger
I am Legion	AM	1	dai	1
Confusion	AM	0	DEM	1	bleed
Deny	Combo	0	DEM	1
Mind Tricks	AM	1	dem	1
Bonding	AM	0	DOM	1	bleed
Seduction	AM	0	dom	block deny
Command	AM	0	dom	block fail	only against ally
Shroud of Absence	AM	0	dom obt	1
Soar	AM	0	flight	1	undirected
Safe passage	AM	0	for	-1int	only against ally
Uncontrolled Impulse	AM	1	Ishtarri	2	first turn action
Phantom Speaker	AM	0	mel	block fail	only against younger
Virtuosa	AM	3	mel	1	+2 bleed
Toreador’s Bane	Combat	0	mel	action continues	only against younger or ally or toreador or !toreador
Missing Voice, The	AM	0	mel/MEL	-1int/1	younger/
Aura Absorption	Combo	0	MYTH	1
Fae Contortion	Combo	0	MYTH	1
Stone Travel	AM	0	myth	1
Breath of Thanatos	Combo	1	nec	2	recruit wraith
Spectral Divination	Combo	1	nec	1
Call of the hungry dead	AM	0	nec/NEC	-1 int/block fail	younger/burn one blood
Gift of Sleep	AM	0	OBE	1
Repulsion	AM	0	obe/OBE	1	/permanent
Cloak the Gathering	AM	0	obf	1
Domain of Evernight	AM	0	obf	1
Faceless Night	AM	0	obf	1
Gift of Sleep	AM	0	obf	1
Hag’s Wrinkles	AM	0	obf	2	equip
Masca	AM	1	obf	1
Mask of a Thousand Faces	AM	0	OBF	1	two minions
Memory Rift	AM	0	obf	1	anarch
Smoke and Mirrors	AM	0	obf	2	no bleed or political
Spying Mission	AM	0	obf	1
Swallowed by the Night	Combo	0	obf	1
Under My Skin	AM	1	obf	1
Veil the Legions	AM	0	obf	1	two minions
Shadow boxing	Combat	0	OBF POT	action continues	too many requisites
True love’s face	AM	0	OBF PRE	block fail	canceled by paying one pool
Elder Impersonation	AM	1	obf/OBF	1/block fail
Forgotten Labyrinth	AM	1	obf/OBF	2/3	no bleed
Into Thin Air	AM	0	obf/OBF	1/2	burn one blood to get extra +1 against younger or ally
Lost in Crowds	AM	0	obf/OBF	1/2
Marked Path	AM	0	obf/OBF	1/2	after a (D) action, usable against same metuselah
Blanket of Night	AM	1	obt	1/ block fail	/2 minions
Pocket Out of Time	AM	0	obt	1	burn one blood
Nightshades	AM	0	obt	-1 int	only against younger or ally
Stone Travel	AM	0	obt	1	burn one blood
Tenebrous Form	AM	1	obt	1
Shadow Body	Combat	1	OBT	action continues	not for bleed or political
Shadow Play	AM	1	obt/OBT	1/2
Shroud of Night	AM	0	obt/OBT	1/1	no bleed/
Perfect Paragon	AM	1	PRE	-1int	only against younger or ally
Power of One	AM	1	pre	1	bleed. Anarch
Virtuosa	AM	3	pre	1
Rapid Change	Combo	1	pro	1
Form of mist	Combat	0	PRO	action continues	+1 stealth,burn one blood, once per action
Earth Control	AM	1	pro/PRO	1 / 2
Blood Awakening	Combo	1	QUI	block fail	younger
Stealth Ritus	AM	1	sabbat	1	burn one blood
Shell Game	AM	0	san	X	tap X blood brothers
Form of the Serpent	AM	1	ser	1
Council of the seraphim	AM	0	seraph	-1int or block fail	block fail only against sabbat
Swiftness of the Stag	Combo	0	SPI	1
Chameleon’s Colors	Combat	1	SPI	action continues	only long range. Not for bleed
Mole’s Tunneling	AM	1	spi/SPI	1/2	/burn one additional blood
Masca	AM	1	STRI	2
Pocket Out of Time	AM	0	tem	1
Hag’s Wrinkles	AM	0	THAN	1	equip
Under My Skin	AM	1	than/THAN	1/2	also +1 stealth later
Mirror Walk	AM	1	THAU	1
Morphean Blow	Combat	1	VAL	action continues	not for bleed
Changeling	AM	0	VIC	1
Plasmic Form	Combo	1	vic	1
Flow within the mountain	Combat	1	VIS	action continues
Skin of the Chameleon	AM	1	vis/VIS	1/2
Suppressing fire	AM	0		-1 int	ready untapped minion with a gun
Foresee	Power	0		action continues	imbued

¡Welcome

Join me into my crypt and enjoy the company and a nice chat.

Today we will talk about a basic concept, but that sometimes is hard to have it clear as water, and that gives troubles for both new embraces as older generations.

Today we will talk about turn phases!

The turns go around among players clockwise, and every turn has the following phases:

• Unlock phase
• Master phase
• Minion phase
• Influence Phase
• Discard phase

Various effects can happen at the same phase, we can separate them between mandatory (as to hunt) and non-mandatory. The mandatory actions, as its name indicates, go first, and then the non-mandatory, but in every sub-phase, the active player (the one who is playing the turn), decides in which order they take place, as for example:

If several vampires must hunt, the player who controls them decides which one hunts first.

This choice may seem random, but many times it’s not.

I will then explain you, in detail, every phase.

Unlock phase:

It’s the first phase, and first of all you must unlock all the cards that can do so, then the rest of the effects take place, as to gain 1 pool if you control the edge, to pay (or not) contested cards, and pay mandatory effects as Smiling Jack or Constant Revolution.

 

Master phase:

This phase represents yours activity as Methuselah in the game. By default you only have one master action, but some cards may give you more, or if you play a trifle card then you get another master action. You can play 2 trifle cards, but the second one will not give you an extra master action.

If you have played an out-of-turn master, then you have spend your master action of that turn, except if the out-of-turn cards was a trifle one, in which case you will get 1 master phase.

 

Minion phase:

In this phase minions take actions. Every unlocked minion can perform actions by locking themselves, and other players can try to block that actions.

As we have commented before, first of all mandatory actions take place, as to hunt. If a minion should do two or more mandatory actions it will get “blocked” and will not perform any action that will not forbid your other minions to act.

When an action targets one or more Methuselah, or cards that they control, that action is considered a direct action, and only can be blocked by those Methuselah going clockwise to decide the order in which they block. There are exceptional cards that will enable you to block a direct action against another Methuselah as Eagle’s Sight or Falcon’s Eye, but the targeted Methuselah decide first and if they decline to block or are unable to do it, then you can try it.

When the action is undirected, the prey of the action player is the first to decide if he/she wants to block, then the predator of the acting player and then the rest of the players clockwise.

If a minion tries to block and fails, other minions can still try to block, for example:

Juan bleeds Marta, that decide to try to block with an unlocked vampire, then Juan plays a +1 Stealth card so Marta is not able to block with the vampire, but she then declares that Carlton Van Wyk will try to block the action, as he is unlock, and this time she succeeds in blocking the bleed.

When a minion is acting he/she can play Stealth that represents its efforts to do the action discreetly. At the same time, Intercept represents the effort of other minions to uncover their plans. If the intercept equals or exceeds the stealth then the action is blocked. Stealth can only be played in case it’s necessary, as goes for intercept, except that the card says otherwise.

If all the blocks fail then the action resolves successfully, and the effects of the action take place.

Political actions only express the terms of the action once the action resolves, in other words when there are no blocks or all the blocks have failed.

In case that the action it’s blocked, then a combat will occur, and will resolve in one or more rounds. We will live the explanation about the combat subject for another post.

 

Influence phase:

In the influence phase you can use a bit of your power to influence other minions in order for them to carry your will.

By defect, a Methuselah gets 4 transfers that can use in various ways:

• Use 1 transfer to move 1 point of blood from its pool to the minion.
• Use 2 transfers to move 1 point of blood from the minion to its pool.
• Use 4 transfers to move a crypt card from the crypt to the uncontrolled zone.

In any moment of the phase, when a minion has as many blood counters as its maximum capacity it can move from the uncontrolled zone to the ready zone face up.

Transfers are calculated at the start of the influence phase, 4 by defect, and if at the start of the phase, you control any card or minion that may give you more transfers, for example Ennoia’s Theatre, we could use them.

In the case of a minion that enters in play during the phase, and that minion will give you additional transfers, as for example Ingrid Rossler, we won’t be able to use them, because we didn’t have them at the beginning of the phase.

 

Discard phase:

We get a discard action by default. We can use that action to discard a card (and replace it with a new one) or to put in play and Event card. We can only put in play one event card for discard phase, even if we have more than one discard action.

Right before we end our discard phase, we should regularize our hand, that means to discards as many cards as needed until we get down to 7. This may occur when we play for example, Dreams of the Sphinx, which can be locked to get 2 additional cards, in that case we will get 9 cards and when we reach the end of the turn should get rid of 2 in order to reduce our hand to 7 cards.

Winning the game:

When your prey dies, you get 1 victory point and 6 points of pool. When the game ends the player with more points wins, even if he/she is dead.

In case you are the remaining player you get 1 extra victory point.

In the exceptional case, that a player dies at the same time as his/her prey, that player will get the victory point but not the 6 points of pool.

There is an exceptional case in which you can withdraw from the game and maintain all your victory points.

At the start of your turn, when you no longer have library cards and your hand is smaller than 7, you can announce your intention to withdraw. In order to successfully withdraw you have to meet the following requirements:

• None of your minions can enter combat until your next unlock phase.
• None of your minions can lose or spend any of its blood or life, until your next unlock phase.
• You can’t lose or spend any of your pool until your next unlock phase.

If you meet all those requirements, you get your victory point along with all the other victory points that you may have. Your predator gets no victory point nor the 6 points of pool for that.