At Your Disposal : Target (many parts of your body, and others)

Well, since the Target cards appeared in Vtes, a new option has been given to combat. Though the environment has not been seeing much besides the Target Vitals (a testament to the fatal inclination of vampiric combat), many of these Target cards are actually worth looking at.

The first thing you need to know about the Target cards is of course "you can only choose one aim card per strike", so you can't target every part with a single strike. Secondly, at the moment every Target card can be cancelled if the opponent discards a certain number of combat cards from his hand, usually 2, except against Target Head. And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the strike which the Target is associated with has to successfully cause some damage, or the Target effects wouldn't kick in at all.

With so many problems one might think the Targets aren't really worth playing, and to a great extent it is true. Except in certain cases, most Target cards aren't going to do much. The one main exception is with strikes that do damage that are either unpreventable at all, or extremely difficult to prevent.

The king of all unpreventable damage in this case is undoubtedly those strikes that cause damage out of combat, making FOR cards and other damage prevention cards stare in utter disbelieve. Fortunately such cards are rare, with only Catatonic Fear and now Loving Agony being the only means of doing so. Cards like these used to be more of an annoyance than a real threat before the Target cards, but now with Target Vitals they become truly dangerous.

But besides this (pretty much) self-explanatory and (used to death) effective method of using Target Vitals, there are other ways to exploit this card. For example, using Target Vitals with Aid from Bats in an Animalism combat can be a lot more deadly than ever - removing the opponent's ability to press to end a battle that the Bats are pressing on, not to mention the extra 2 points of damage that it is causing - even a successful Target Head will spell problem to the otherwise normally unafraid CEL gun deck (a Target Hand will devastate it)

The issue with discarding 2 combat cards to cancel the aim card is a double-edged sword. First, it is not as easy as it sounds, since not all decks have that many combat cards to discard, and the opposing Methuselah may not want to do that if he can afford the loss in blood for the minion or vampire. On the other hand, allowing your opponent to cycle away 2 unnecessary combat cards (especially if he's your power bleed predator waiting to draw into more Conditionings) might not be the best idea. One really needs to think whether or not it is worth it to aim during a battle.

Also, if the strike accompanying the aim can be defeated (meaning no damage is done), then the aim card will be wasted. Again, this is not necessarily a bad thing. A hand strike for 1, accompanied by a Target Vitals, may draw out the opponent's FOR card immediately, opening him up for your additional strikes with aggravated damage (or any other devious attack plans). But even with strike damage that are normally extremely difficult to prevent, such as Catatonic Fear, can be overcome with Dodges, or even Leather Jacket, so the Target cards are not the almighty combat answers to the normally not so combat discipline (actually, only PRE).

Of course, there are ways for Catatonic Fear and Loving Agony to get through the normal obstacles presented in combat, such as Immortal Grapples. The Anarch Daughters have made it quite clear with Groundfighting, and the !Salubri has Deathseeker to handle almost everything that can impede the Loving Agony. Of course, a very maneuverable opponent will be able to run away and not take those damage, but that's not a big deal if you're not using the cards as a combat solution to win the game.

Target cards that adds damage can also be a very devious means of working with other combat disciplines. QUI has lots of unpreventable damages, as with the Salubri's Anesthetic Touch which is also pretty difficult to prevent. Even attacking with a POT weenie packed with Targets will force the opponent to discard cards or face Disarm possibility.

The Target cards, especially Target Vitals, is also a fantastic defense mechanism, making the normally defenseless weenies hit for more than they could, and probably deterring (or even removing) the opponent's combat threat.

All in all these Target Cards are a pretty interesting means of adding to your combat options, and with the new goggles you might even consider using them exclusively as a combat option. (a Light-Intensified Target Vitals Animalism weenie is a problem indeed (or a CEL weenie with a .44 for that matter, or we can dream about a Light-Intensified Target Vitals vampire with Assault Rifle attached with a Manstopper Round Magazine, and her name is Janni with a CEL master discipline card. By the way, there is no such thing as overkill in my Vtes dictionary.) ) They should probably not be your primary answer to combat, but is definitely going to help tremendously.

(o.o)