¤ Alternate Angles (by Orpheus)

The Giovanni, as the rest of the vampires, are one Clan and use 3 disciplines, but they also have opportunities to use some out-of-clan powers, and to find useful allies in other lineages. Here, we explore these alternate possibilities available to our favorite Clan.

¤ The Obfuscate Angle

   3 Giovanni have Obf (one of whom has no Pot but +1 bleed), so does Raful Al-Zarqa, and the Baron also has everything he needs (you'll have to forget the use of Potence in that case). We also have a new !Nosferatu with Nec and DOM (get Potence back !!), and Krassimir doesn't have Obf but one of the best cards he can use, Domain of Evernight, is also usable with inferior Obfuscate. So whether it's stealth-bleed, some Cloaking for your allies, or just a few Hidden Lurker and Sacrificial Lambs that you want, you'll find that Obfuscate can be particularly useful in your Necromancing decks.

¤ The Auspex Angle

    Why use Auspex ? 3 reasons : Le Din Tho, Bartholomew and the direct benefits of the Auspex discipline. Le Din Tho's special is great for bleeders (especially if you have a Monocle of Clarity in the table), Batholomew's special, well used, is the key to much pool gain, and Auspex can give you the Intercept the clan used to lack, or some reduce bleed -in which case we go back to Bart-. Whatever the reason, you'll want to play in such a deck : either 3 Le Din Tho or 1 or two other Nagarajas ; Bart and, maybe, Beatrice l'Angou if you rely some on Myt ; Valois Sang "le bien-nommé", who'll have to get very fast a Necro Master discipline ; and as for the Giovanni : Gillespi, and if you're into Biggies : Ambrogino and / or Augustus. You can also add the small ones without Auspex : Isabel, Gloria, Marcianna...
    Let's not forget the Pulse of the Canaille (in sup), which can change the life of a bleeding deck.

    Auspex can also be used for voting, with Telepathic Vote Counting, but as it requires superior AUS,  I'd rather play Nagaraja + Kiasyd + Harbingers (all Sabbat, for Private Audience) and forget the Giovanni there. 

   Of course, you could also go for an alliance with the Harbingers and / or Matthias, but let's face it : they don't have Dom ! So I'd rather see a non-Giovanni deck including some of them (Regina, for example), which is out-of-subject here.

¤ The Temporis Angle

    As with the Bart, we'll have to rely on a main vampire : Krassimir of course !! The cards we'll use will be : Domain of Evernight, of course ; maybe one or two Clotho's Gift (I found it too expensive and finally removed it) ; and if you go for the fighting angle rather than the Combat Ends, you'll of course need Lapses. You'll find in the decks section a Bruise'n'Bleed version of this deck which was pretty succesful.

¤ The Presence Angle

    Not the easiest one. Pre for voting, of course. Only 2 Giovanni have it (in inferior) : Augustus (2 Votes, costs 11 !!!) and Stefano (who suddenly becomes very interesting). But let's not forget 2 intruders : Vasilis, The Traitor of Don Cruez, a Brujah with Pre for 2, who gives a bonus to the Giovanni, and of course Krassimir. So we have a total of 4 vampires with inferior Pre, a few votes. We also have 2 very good voting Masters (Powerbase : Rome, and Mausoleum : Venice), and some votes to make the Giovanni Camarilla or Princes. This makes for a very toolboxy and hard-to-install voting deck. So, is it worth it ? I'd say yes : the Giovanni can survive (with Deflections and bloat) until they are installed, and when they are they can overcome the worst problem the voters can meet : the availability of the right cards (votes, modifiers, fight etc.) at the right moment. And that can lead to Victory. I don't recommend a beginner to try this at home, though...

¤ And the other disciplines ?

    Well, some For could have come in handy, but they are to few and too expensive in the Clan, and the Cousin Clans (Harbingers, Samedi) have NO minion whatsoever with Pot, which is a big mistake IMO. Well, too bad, but let's do with what we have : the Giovanni can do enough things as it is...

Orpheus