The Finest Swiss Cheese | HC 7.5k Guide correction

The Finest Swiss Cheese

While the HC 7.5k Series is over, I made several flubs with my previous Tony deck that I wanted to correct (nothing major, but enough to bug me into posting this!). Here Tony uses the Gatling Gun to deal up to 36 damage in a turn, allowing you to put more holes in cultists than the swiss cheese...

Overview

• Gatling Gun allows for +6 six damage attacks (killing 6 health enemies in one action), and can deal its damage against groups. With Haste, Leo and Tony's ability this means you can deal up to 36 damage in one turn and so have a chance at killing 9 health bosses single-handedly in 4 player. Finally - a good reason to use something which isn't Switchblade...

• Custom Modifications helps prevent against unlucky bag pulls and so conserve ammo. Meanwhile, Daring gives a big boost when you are faced with a large group or a swarm enemy (I asked and FFG clarified you only target one enemy in the group, and then the test difficulty is modified, so only one enemy gains Retaliate. This makes Daring superior to Crack Shot, which I had in the first version of this deck - mistake #1).

• Contraband, Extra Ammunition and a Swift Reload provide ammo - with your single Swift Reload allowing you to reload mid-combat. Backpack helps you find Contraband and Extra Ammunition - you'll want use Contraband after Extra Ammunition and before taking many (or any) shots.

• Bank Job, Faustian Bargain, "Watch this!", Easy Mark and Bounty Contracts give you resources to play your expensive assets. Excess resources can be spent on Streetwise for investigating, alongside having a good number of icons to commit.

• Prepared for the Worst and the aforementioned Backpack help you find the Gatling Gun, and Lucky Cigarette Case mills your deck generally. Encounter deck management is tidily covered by a copy of Counterespionage and Precious Memento for self-healing horror soak (with Relic Hunter so you can use both this and Cigarette Case).

Campaign starter and planned progression

In the Thick of It makes this a 29 XP deck (taking physical trauma). I originally had Strong-Armed on the deck, but like a total dunce I forgot Strong-Armed applies to Ranged cards and not Firearms (mistake #2). Strong-Armed therefore became Counterespionage, which is always a nice addition to any Rogue deck. 0 XP deck is below (and link here).

A recommended order of purchases/upgrades is (unlike the previous version of the deck I retained Lucky Cigarette Case. Use one or the other of that and Precious Memento as needs dictate until you get Relic Hunter):

• .45 Thompson → Gatling Gun

• Backpack → Backpack ••

• 1 x Liquid Courage → 1 x Precious Memento

• 1 x Perception → 1 x Counterespionage (19 XP here for standalones)

• Streetwise

• 1 x Perception → 1 x Swift Reload

• Relic Hunter

• 1 x Leo De Luca → 1 x Haste

Final thoughts

In terms of other changes to this deck from the original, I cut down this guide a lot in terms of the text - hopefully this is a more manageable.

In summary, Gatling Gun goes shooty shooty bang bang - cultists fall dead. That's about all I need so say, haha!