Shadow War

Rating:
Summary: How to fight the Kuei-jin way.
Review: This is a very well done book about how Asian vampires fight. It explains the political/historical/religious reasons for the different rules used to conduct them. All of the background info on why these fights are handled in they way they are gives a good feel to the politics and mood of the Kuei-jin courts.

The first section is about "twilight wars", which are very ritualized conflict between kuei-jin used to settle a dispute. The book lists several different types to twilight wars and when they are used. The main problem that I had with this section was that there are a lot of different type of twilight wars, and most of them are not given examples of how they work in more detail. The second section is about "midnight wars", which unlike the twilight wars are only completed by the destruction of one of the sides involved. Even with fight ting of this level the rules and rituals must be followed. There is also a discussion of tactics used, though anyone who has read Sun Tzu's Art of War will find it very familiar.

The third section is about the conflicts raging between the older more traditional Kuei-jin and the newer more modern and westernized ones. It gives the rather different tactics used by both sides in this conflict.

The fifth section is the only one that will have much use to a campaign dealing with western vampires. This section is about what the Kuei-jin are doing in the West Coast of America and Australia. It explains their organization, opposition, tactics and what they're motives are. Trust me it's interesting.

There is also a chapter about organizations used in the fighting and notable characters. Over all this is a very good book with a lot of information about how Kuei-jin fight, but it is of very little to no use for campaigns dealing only with the childer of Cain.