At Your Disposal - Guns

Equipment is a whole category in Vtes deck-building. Some decks are centered on an important equipment - such as the Soul Gem; some decks require certain equipment to make it efficient or even playable; and some decks rely on certain types of equipment to fill or provide a certain aspect of deck functions. Guns of all sorts, provide the Methuselah with the means to fight, even for clans or decks that either couldn't, or didn't include combat capabilities in the form of combat disciplined cards. Guns are investment that the Methuselah must make, providing his minions with the weapons to fight in the event that he needs to, some decks use guns as their primary offense/defense mechanics, and are fearsome combat decks to face. The good thing about guns is that they're on-board resources, able to be used again and again without expending any more card resource, and therefore is deadly in the late game, the bad thing is that they're equipment, and can either be destroyed, or even prevented from ever seeing the table.

There are quite a number of guns available to the buyer in Vtes, and pretty much all cost pool. They can be cheap, or even cost an arm and a leg, and most decks which include a good number of them have means to either recover, reduce or at least minimize the cost of these weapons.

But why guns? Why not swords and daggers, or mighty disciplined-driven combat miracles such as Taste of Death or just throw a car at the adversary? Besides the fact that they are permanent resource once you manage to get them on the table, some of them also provide multiple benefits in combat.

When to use guns, and when not to? To start with, one must decide the degree of necessity for the deck in question to deal with combat. Guns can be included in a deck offensively or defensively. For defensive weapons one usually look for optional manouevers, it not only helps in reducing the chances of getting hit by the opponent, it also intimidates opponents from getting into combat with you, as they'd need to have at least a manouever card if they're unable to dish out long range damage. With such a gun in hand, even a weenie Vampire can be a real headache for decks without combat solutions. One can then go ahead to consider how many guns to include.

One problem about guns with special abilities is that one is committed to use them the moment you utilised their ability - meaning that if you used the optional manouever of a .44, then you're obliged to strike with it, even if the opponent somehow manage to neutralize it, or make your strike expensive. You'd have committed your strike the moment you used the weapon. You also have the cost of the weapon to consider. Can you keep the weapon, and maximize its uses after you spent a couple of pool to get it? There are many ways to get rid of weapons, some of them can be quite expensive to you - Peace Treaty and Can't take it with you are offensive vote cards that really make you pay; Fast Hands will take the weapon away from you, Canine Horde and Shattering Blow are also commonly seen cards that can remove your assets from the hands of your newly-armed Vampire. These are the risks that you have to consider. The following are some common weapons that I've seen around here (or have been using myself): The .44 Magnum and its cousins The .44 Magnum is possibly the most common and famous amongst the guns. For 2 pool, you get a 2R weapon that provides an optional manouever with no range/strike limitations. This is a reasonably priced weapon that makes even a 1-cap Vampire a combat danger to decks without range and/or manouever capabilities. If your Vampire relies solely on Combat Ends or close combat to deter/destroy the opponent, then the .44 is your nightmare. How many times can you combat end, or eat 2R damage without being able to strike back? The .44 Magnum is commonly used with CELERITY-able Vampires, coupling with their additional strikes to easily cause 4-6 points of damage per round of combat. Granted, the .44 only gives ONE manouever in a round of combat, so pressing is not usually a good choice. But CELERITY provides the "restart combat" card Psyche!, which completely eliminate the problem of this weapon. The .44 Magnum has several similar cousins that does the same thing, they differ only in cost and damage - the Saturday Night Special is the poor man's .44, and the Assault Rifle is on the other strata. Among these, the .44 is still the most economically priced, and therefore the most commonly seen. The Assault Rifle, being the most expensive gun with optional manouever, is able to cause the highest damage at a 4R per strike. This weapon can single-handedly decimate lower cap Vampires, and in the hands of a Vampire with CELERITY, easily cause 12R damage. It is commonly used in TEMPORIS or Alastor decks where its cost can be alleviated or reduced. There is another class of .44-like weapons, the Kpist m/45 and the AK-47. These weapons provide the same optional manouever, but strike for less damage per strike, compensating by providing an optional additional strike with the same weapon. These make dodging all the strikes more difficult, but see less use in the hands of CELERITY combat decks as the discipline provides the means for more additional strikes anyway. Guns like these are deadly in the hands of some very specialized Vampires like Janni, whom increases damage of weapons on a per strike basis. Janni with an AK-47 can cause 6 damage without using a single card. The Zip gun deserves a special mention, in every aspect it is simply a gun with an optional manouever and hits for 1R damage. It is used as a combat card and is pretty much a gun with a built-in Concealed Weapon, but it causes 1 point of damage to the user in every combat that it is used. Not a high price if you ask me, and it is used in decks which can either increase the damage of the gun significantly, or just a back-up for CELERITY decks. Defensive Weapons The Deer Rifle is an example of a weapon built with defense in mind. It only strikes for 1 damage, but provides 2 optional manouever, making this the cheapest defensive weapon. But the most deadly defensive weapon is probably the Sniper Rifle. This weapon strikes for 2R, but allows you to set range if you successfully block an action - somewhat reducing its problem of being only useable at long range. Aggravated Weapons Technically these are not guns, but they pretty much serve the same function. Most of these weapons are either expensive, but they have some drawbacks that are potentially deadly to your own users. For example, the Improvised Flamethrower is only useable at long range, and if any damage is inflicted to the bearer at long range, the user also takes 2 aggravated damage and the weapon is burned. On the other hand, these weapons are very intimidating to the opponent, and unless the enemy is ready, they probably wouldn't want to go heads-up with Vampires that are holding one of these babies. The Ivory Bow is the ultimate of these weapons, it is cheap, has no drawbacks, and no restrictions to strikes - it's only problem is that it is unique. These aggravated weapons are commonly seen with OBFUSCATE-able Vampires, utiliseing the surprise element of Disguised Weapon to suddenly pop the weapon into the hands of the seemingly defenseless Vampire and start burning everyone in his way. They are also the key to Rotschreck decks whom had no easy means to deal aggravated damage. Commonly seen in Malkavian decks, Flamethrowers and Improvised Flamethrowers, or even Starshell Launchers are weapons that probably gave the Malkavians their reputation of being completely bonkers. There are 3 main kinds of delivery system for getting those guns into your Vampires' hands.

Despite the in-built +1 Stealth in equip actions, between your prey and predator, it's not really that difficult to throw out that +1 Intercept to block your arms deal, especially if they are either unwilling or unable to deal with guns once they're on table, or they're pretty sure you're screwed if your Vampires are unarmed. The stealth increment for equip actions is therefore one of the most common form of delivery system to help you get the guns to your minions. All generic stealth cards would help, and in a deck that can use them, these cards are useful anyway. But for Vampires or decks without that luxury, there are some other cards to help with these. Generic + Stealth Master cards such as Creepshow Casino, or clan/sect based stealth enhancers such as Anarch Railroad or Fortune Teller Shop can help in giving you that crucial +1 Stealth to bypass light intercepts. The unfortunate thing is that these normally don't come in great numbers in a deck, since most of them are unique master locations and it is inefficient to put too many in the deck, and they can generally only be used once a turn anyway. The availability of Anonymous Freight greatly improved the ability of Vampires now to equip with a gun - it is never easy to top that +3 Stealth, or you can use the lesser Jack of Both Sides to help too.

There are more subtle ways to get the weapon into the hands of the Vampires. Concealed Weapon is the discipline-less card that allows a Vampire to suddenly produce a hand in the beginning of a combat, with no risk of being blocked. This is even more nasty with Disguised Weapon, as is has no restriction to cost or damage of the weapon to be equipped, and it can be used before strikes rather than before range. This is a safer way of getting a gun to a Vampire.

The safest way are the special delivery system that are very specialized. Pier 13 is an equipment card that allows you to equip a gun from your hand that cannot be blocked. The only issue is that you must equip Pier 13 first, and it is unique, therefore not a very tempting option for decks that relies on multiple weapons on different Vampires. There is a Vampire that can come "online" with guns blazing - Jack Dawson. There may be others that I've not seen, but that is one very interesting way of getting yourself a gun.

There is also the issue of how to get those guns into your hand. No matter how many you include in your deck, it is always better to have a way to buy them when you need them. The mighty Magic of the Smith allows you to get the right model when you need them, and at an enhanced +3 stealth, making it almost a guaranteed purchase. Vast Wealth allows you to search your deck every round for a weapon if you like. Of course, the Brujahs are the global leaders in arms sales. The Arms Dealers can search and place any guns you want into your hand, and the Al's Army Apparatus can just tap and gets you one shiny new rifle too.

A gun is a good thing to have. It's always good to be holding one than to be at the receiving end of one. I tend to include just 1 .44 Magnum in my non-combat decks, and in many instances that had saved my deck from being totally devastated by my opponent. Look to the arms dealer when you have some deck space, it's always good to have a gun, they're usually a very convincing asset to wave at your opponent.

(o.o)y