Excidium said:
I don't like A, being direct like that just doesn't work. It's too much shit for a mortal mind to handle. If it was simple like that the Masquerade wouldn't exist.
What the hell do you people want, to tie them on chairs and force your blood down their throats if they don't find the idea of serving undead freaks awesome?
We have time, let's do it the right way. First let's indoctrinate them, they're soldiers, it's easy to manipulate their minds, specially for a guy like Anthony. You don't need to ghoulify them right away.
Better to reveal information gradually:
-Show the enemy.
-Show the fate humans have in the hands of the Sabbat vampires.
- Present the Camarilla as the wonderful good vamps tasked with keeping the evil vamps out of London.
-And then you show the ones that didn't go insane how you can enhance their abilities to fight against this enemy...
Some good points about indoctrination, but I honestly don't think Tony needs it. Why present the Camarilla as the "good guys"? After all, this is
our personal unit, their loyalties should be solely to Anthony, not to these assholes in the Camarilla who have been undermining us at every turn. We have to let our troops know that the people on our own side can be snakes too so that they can be prepared for possible betrayal on the Camarilla's end. The war has been going very well for the Camarilla so far, and I don't think that the other Barons are above trying to get our squad killed off somehow if they view them as a threat. If we had opted to cede control of the unit to the Camarilla, B would've been better, but since it's our personal unit, I think we have to be honest.
I am a bit uneasy about hiding the fact that we're also vampires from them, which is what B would presumably entail. It's not the sort of secret you can easily keep. They're going to eventually figure out that we have the exact same habits as the prey they're hunting; as Bob said, special ops guys are pretty goddamn observant. Also, Humphrey is a bro and I don't like tricking his old pal like that.
If they know that we're vampires from the get-go, we'll be able to give them better instruction on killing vampires; we can teach them by using our (and Eddie's) abilities during combat training. It's one thing to be told that vampires can shrug off a hail of gunfire or that they can close in and chop someone up in the blink of an eye, but it's quite another to train for those exact circumstances beforehand so that you're really prepared when the shit hits the fan. Essentially it's the difference between being told what a boxing combination is vs actually sparring and perfecting it against a live opponent.
Sure we might get one guy who decides to want out, but I'm betting that Anthony's persuasiveness will ensure that very few recruits will want to leave. The recruits that remain will be very well-trained - it's a good trade-off, IMO. Do you want 6 guys that aren't sure what to expect from the enemy and haven't faced what they're capable of, or 4-5 guys who know exactly how to deal with the enemy because they've trained for that enemy a million times before?
Finally, since Anthony will very likely be sticking to Humanity, I find that this is the most morally acceptable option for him. There's an element of deception in all the other options, but in A, even though you're persuasive, you never actively omit any important details. Anyways, that's my take on it.