Ongoing VTES Kickstarter “Unleashed”

On May 10th, 2021 Black Chantry (as publisher of VTES) launched its first kickstarter campaign, Unleashed. As most of you will know, Kickstarter is a crowd-funding platform, where project initiators can present their upcoming product, and people can pledge their support at various levels. Once the funding goals are met, the project initiator will produce the physical product(s), and deliver it to the customers.

VTES Unleashed Kickstarter campaign

The VTES Kickstarter Unleashed will bring the three expansions that were originally created by the VEKN, but only produced as PDFs, as physical products into existence. The expansions are Danse Macabre (2013), The Unaligned (2014), and Anarchs Unbound (2017).

The cards from these expansions will be published in four 90 card bundles (links to the Black Chantry product pages):

• Danse Macabre
• The Unaligned 1
• The Unaligned 2
• Anarchs Unbound

The exact card list can be found on the project’s kickstarter page.

The amount needed for funding the project has already been reached, and the first of several (so called) stretch goals also has been met. Again the exact details can be found the Unleashed Kickstarter page. The campaign has also been announced on the Black Chantry website.

The Unleashed Kickstarter campaign will end on June 9th, 2021 (9:05 AM CEST). So if you’re interested in supporting the project, and acquiring the expansion packs, don’t wait for too long …

Review of “Anarchs Unbound” Library Cards (Part 2)

With further ado, here’s the second part of the library cards of the latest VTES expansion “Anarchs Unbound” with a brief summary review of the expansion at the end. The first part of the library card review has been posted last week.

Eat the Rich
Political Action
Requires an anarch.
Choose one or more Methuselahs. Successful referendum means each chosen Methuselah burns 1 pool, plus 3 additional pool if he or she controls a ready titled vampire. In this referendum, non-priscus titles are worth 1 fewer vote each, priscus titles are worth 1 less ballot each, and burning the Edge is worth 1 additional vote.

• Comment: Much like Neonate Breach, this card has the potential to selectively deal a lot of damage to the whole table. And the reduction of the titled votes, makes vote pushing via locations, action modifiers much more effective. This really helps an Anarch deck against an established vote deck based on titles. On the other hand, if your prey doesn’t control a titled vampire, the card loses a lot of its value. Therefore the card is a reasonable supplement (in small doses) to KRC to an Anarch vote deck.
• Suitable Decks: Any Anarch vote deck (as a sideshow).
• Rating: *** (Reasonable)

Propaganda of the Deed
Action Modifier
Requires an anarch. Only usable after a successful (D) action.
Put this card in play. You can burn this card during the referendum of a political action to get +2 votes.

• Comment: I don’t really like the card for two reasons. The first is that it requires a successful directed action, which vote decks often try to avoid. The second reason for my dislike is that it only provides two votes for later use, which is often not good enough as vote push. I’d rather spend a blood on the action modifier and get three votes in an upcoming referendum  of a PA. In this the card is comparable to Loki’s Gift, which isn’t really a bad card, but lacks the necessary punch to make the cut. On the good side, you can put multiple copies of the card in play. (As side note: I like that the card says “political action” instead of referendum, as to prevent the cards use in a deck keen on diablerie).
• Suitable Decks: The card may have its uses for example in non-presence vote decks (or any other vote deck with better alternatives for vote push).  I can also see the card in certain decks where the (D)-action is part of the overall vote strategy, e.g. a deck using Condemnation Mute or Barrenness.
• Rating: ** (Not worth the card slot)

Review of “Anarchs Unbound” Library Cards (Part 1)

Two weeks ago, the latest expansion for VTES named “Anarch Unbound” has been published by the VEKN. The expansion consist of 24 crypt and 18 library cards. I’d like to make a quick review for the library cards. although maybe review of the new cards is a not entirely the correct headline for this post, maybe “first impressions” would be more suitable. I haven’t been part of any design team or playtesting group working on this expansion, so (more or less) this is the first time I can read the new cards in detail and form an opinion on each of these.

Some general comments on “Anarch Unbound” in advance:

• I am not quite sure if I like that this expansion is “Anarch-only”. Let me briefly explain why. I have played the Anarchs quite extensively (e.g. bleed or combat decks), but an all-out Anarch expansion means, that then we have no new library cards for non-Anarch decks for about two years (assuming the next expansion will be released in the next 12 months).
• I like the combinations of three-way discipline library cards have more coherent disciplines combinations, in the past a lot of tha/ser, nec/ani  or any similar combinations of disciplines which you don’t find often in a larger number of vampires, especially not very often in small or mid-cap vampires.
• Also more vampires with an inherent Anarch trait are a good thing. in my opinion. One of the issues with Anarch decks was they were often initially slowed down by the need to make its vampires Independent and Anarch, before becoming effective. This has been seriously improved with the advent of Anarch Convert, but still was a disadvantage when compared to other sects/traits/titles like the Camarilla or the Black Hand. Another significant step is the introduction of an action modifier  (“The Red Question”) which can be used to make a vampire an Anarch.
• Even though I don’t discuss any crypt cards in this post, I would like to mention, that I also like the fact, that the merged version of a given vampire (basic plus advanced) usually have a significant boost, e.g. being a small/mid-cap Baron. I am not sure if we’ll see merging of vampires more than in the past, but the designer’s intent has become quite apparent by these new crypt & library cards.

VTES Expansion “Anarchs Unbound” Officially Released

Today the new VTES expansion “Anarchs Unbound” has been officially released by the VEKN. As the new suggests, the new expansion focuses on the Anarch movement. There are 24 crypt cards and 18 library cards; the crypt groupings range from 1 to 5, and there are 11 advanced versions of older vampires.

Full information on the expansion including the ready-to-print PDF files on VEKN.net.

VEKN: Work-In-Progress Preview of the Upcoming Anarch-Themed Set

Today Ben Peal in his capacity as VEKN Design Team Leader has posted some information on the next Anarch-themed PDF expansion for VTES. But read for yourself the beginning of the announcement:

The Design Team’s production schedule puts us at releasing a new set in the fall each year. With the European Championships happening in the summer this year, we weren’t going to have the new set ready in time for it. We’re in the middle of Round Two of playtesting, and we’re targeting a late-November or early-December release, depending on when the artwork is finished. However, at the EC in Warsaw, we did a “work in progress” presentation explaining the design concepts for the set and its scope, and did a sneak preview of the Round Two versions of some crypt cards that have completed artwork. Rather than be jerks, we’ve decided to share with the rest of you.

Read the whole post with previews of some of crypt (12) and library (1) cards on VEKN.net. One of the cards, Salvador Garcia, you can see here on the right side.