New vampire: Lord Leopold Valemar, Lasombra Priscus

I think he is too expensive for his stats, clearly designed to be a wall vampire with his ability.

jblacey wrote: I think he is too expensive for his stats, clearly designed to be a wall vampire with his ability.

With what intercept? To me it seems more like he is meant for Dark Steel combat deck, since steal blood effects combo really well with enviromental damage.Unfortunately though, his lack of superior dominate kind of makes him bad, as in your typical Lasombra combat deck, the 8 cap would be your biggest guy who should govern down on the others.

Abbot and Under Siege are pretty trivial to equip. Latch a permacept retainer on him and make some use of the better one of obtenebrations reactions. Seems pretty wallish to me to be honest.

I've had major success with Under Siege. It's a powerhouse of a card.

Klaital wrote:

jblacey wrote: I think he is too expensive for his stats, clearly designed to be a wall vampire with his ability.

With what intercept?

Assuming you need intercept at reaction speed (I don't think he does), then there are options using only , that said you missed the meat of my comment. Stealing blood is more effective on a block than a rush action. On a rush action, you really want damage because the goal is to have your prey's vampires take the dirt nap. On defensive, is more perferable to force your predator to hunt as opposed to making them unable to Wake.

Now the better question might be... would I ever play this vampire and I think the answer is no at this point. The lack of convient access to reusable passive unlock means this vampire is less likely to see play. The damage mitigation is less meaningful than unlock. To put this in perspective, I use both Sense the Savage Way and Eyes of Argus in my Tzimisce Wall along with Eternal Viligance and Under Siege.

Klaital wrote: Seriously... what's up with all this basic dominate?

I'd assume that it's a design decision to emphasise titles over Dominate, given we've got three very solid (i.e. not bishop) titles available to the Sabbat at 8 capacity - Priscus, Archbishop, and Cardinal. 8 caps in practice work out much better than 9 caps (due to 9 cap syndrome), so group 5 is the "cheap good title" group, much like you might design another group to be the !Malks with Animalism group, or the Eurobrujah, or whatever.

jamesatzephyr wrote:

Klaital wrote: Seriously... what's up with all this basic dominate?

I'd assume that it's a design decision to emphasise titles over Dominate, given we've got three very solid (i.e. not bishop) titles available to the Sabbat at 8 capacity - Priscus, Archbishop, and Cardinal. 8 caps in practice work out much better than 9 caps (due to 9 cap syndrome), so group 5 is the "cheap good title" group, much like you might design another group to be the !Malks with Animalism group, or the Eurobrujah, or whatever.

Furthermore, G2 also has issues with levels of dominate. They don't all have superior levels. They are by design a capacity older (most being 10 or 9), but they do boast horrific levels of built-in bleed. As do most G1-2 titled vampires.

The combat abilities of these guys set them apart. This makes for very interesting distinctions between groups and crypts. Very interesting.

It seems like I'm finally getting to use Eternal Vigilance now that Valdemar is out... I'll repeat, it's not like there's a lack of intercept available to him. You'll just have to set up instead of pack in reactions.