#10 Action Damage

In Cause and Effect 01, Adam Esbjörnsson mentions "action damage". He narrates how having a vampire at 0 blood, hence needing to spend an action hunting, is an example of "action damage". Other cards that provide "action damage" would be Mind Numb, Flash Grenade and Faerie Wards (at ).

The rationale is that V:tES is a game of finite resources. The most obvious limited resource is pool, followed by, in my opinion, master phase actions then minion actions and lastly, discard phase actions. (An article on discard phase actions will follow in the next few posts.)

Compared to not being able to untap as normal, newer players have a tendency to take hunting for granted since it's cardless, doesn't hurt anyone and is at +1 stealth. With the multitude of non-Fortitude untap options available (Rutor's Hand, Helicopter, Warsaw Station, Alexandra, to name a few), it's very easy to succumb to such thinking.

However, the seasoned player knows that a hunt is one less action doing something to help you oust your prey and/or control the table. Even without the term "action damage", the seasoned player knows that having a predator's vampire at 0 blood, without a Blood Doll or Vessel, is one that cannot, at least for the first action, harm you. In the same vein, a prey's vampire at 0 blood, but with a Blood Doll or Vessel stands a good chance of giving the you a virtual "bleed for 1" just so the vampire can take actions other than hunting.

How have you used "action damage" to win games (or at least oust your prey)?