Custom Ammunition

As I'm currently using Marc Harrigan for the Forgotten Age, this card feels like it might be a highly viable replacement for the Extra Ammo card I currently have stacked under Stick to the Plan. Fast (but only during your turn) is getting overlooked, and it's a big advantage. Especially if you have a shotgun with one less ammo than you need, but you still need all three actions to kill that Immortal Elder God from Beyond the Time. Plus you can reload something without getting attacks of opportunities, which makes it even more useful against suprise monster ambushes from the Encounter Deck.
On Marc this essentially allows you to break the 5 damage hard-cap on Shotgun against the only enemies that are going to need it. All of a sudden, your shotgun goes from being able to do 15 damage max a turn to 18. That's a reasonble jump, and doesn't factor in any Vicious blows, Beat Cops or Home Front nonesense.

At 3 cost and 3xp, I'll personally be holding off getting it until I upgrade at least one of my Emergency Caches to the 3xp version, and only one copy of it for Stick to the Plan, but I can definitely see it being part of a slowly building monstrous combo with Shotgun Marc that enables me to kill Elder Gods in a turn.

Apologised · 4
On that last point: every Ancient One is this game does *not* have the "monster" keyword. They have the "Ancient One" keyword instead. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
That said, I still think this card is an amazing, especially as a one-of with Stick to the Plan in your deck. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
You can attach 2 of these to same weapon? — Django · 5171
@Django Limit 1 per asset, so no. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
I'd prefer to use it on Lightning Gun for the sheer power or on a .32 colt for the number of ammo! — mogwen · 254
Just found the limit, it’s a bit hidden in the text. But why only firearms? Blessed arrows are possible too. Maybe we’ll get some different types of quivers as attachments for the bow? — Django · 5171
@Django not yet lol — MrGoldbee · 1497
Ornate Bow

I'm going to expand on a comment posted earlier.

"The bow gets much better if the user or another player us venturer and e.cache3 to reload it. — Django 1177 2 days ago"

This card is (can be) baller for Skids, Ashcan or Rex (And I suppose Jenny but she has her guns). Now, keep in mind that Skids has a decent Combat as it is at 3, so it makes it slightly more challenging when comparing to +combat weapons for him, though the others are base 2.

If we break down the efficiency of this vs other weapons usable by Skids, it makes it slightly less valuable, but still in the running. Rex has access to Acidic Ichor and Ashcan has all re-usable weapons to choose from, making this harder to justify. The biggest issue is that it requires you to have Venturer out to re-ammo the bow for a instead of an . Let's break it down.

Ornate Bow - To hit: 6 | Damage: 3 | Both Hands | 4 cost | 3 XP -- Can be stacked with Venturer to attack twice using only two actions

Chicago Typewriter - To hit: 5 | Damage: 3 | Both Hands | 5 cost | 4 XP -- Can be stacked with Leo De Luca to deplete ammo in a single round

Lupara - To hit: 4 (5 if new) | Damage: 2 (3 if new) | Single Hand | 3 cost | 3 XP -- Can be stacked with Sleight of Hand to grant bonus to hit and damage without using an action to play it

Let's assume all combos available and all attacks hit. Over 4 attacks, which would deplete all ammo for each weapon:

Ornate Bow: 12 damage using 4 actions, two rounds, 8 total resources, 3 total XP -- Pro: Still offers 1 action per round to do other things -- Cons: Relatively resource costly, requires two rounds

Chicago Typewriter: 12 damage using 4 actions, one round, 10 total resources, 6 total XP -- Pro: Only uses one round opposed to the others' two -- Cons: Very expensive, both in resources and XP

Lupara: 12 damage using 5 actions, two rounds, 4 total resources, 3 total XP -- Pros: Very cheap to play, only uses a single hand slot -- Cons: Requires two rounds, only offers 1 spare action.

Where this starts to break down is the introduction of Emergency Cache to re-supply Venturer. This allows you to keep up the pace of Venturer being your caddy for an additional 4 shots, where it does nothing for Chicago Typewriter or Lupara directly. Those would require Contraband or Extra Ammunition, both of which are resource heavy. The moral of the story is that for Skids (and pretty much only him) this card is right there with the rest of them, so long as you have Venturer.

Vafruvant · 1
What I like about this card is that it opens up new deckbuilding options for various investigators. It should be awsome on Skids with Venturer + EC3, but it's also not bad for Sefina or Wendy (as long as they have Leo de Luca to cover the actions needed to rearm it). Ursula can grab this for some self-defense anf it becomes even better if she can tutor it with Dr. Elli Horrowitz. Also not that, as a Relic, it can deal damage to Poltergeist (a big deal for me). — matt88 · 3235
@matt that‘s also what i like about the more. Skids can also play bandolier for lockpicks. Bow uses speed, so can be boosted by streetwise. — Django · 5171
@Django Yeah, Streetwise should be a must if Skids goes down that road. — matt88 · 3235
Hey Folks :) Quick Question: Is it possible to use stunning Blow or Vicious Blow with Orante Bow or can you only add cards with Agility icons? Thx in advance — Charles Dexter Ward · 574
It replaces the skill used so you can only commit cards to the check thay that have $agility icons — skanedog · 70
Sleight of Hand

Gotta love this card. It's use depends on the exact character you are playing, but the overall utility is the same:

Play a weapon with ammo and use it for one round cheaply.

Obviously the card isn't bad when used to cheat out a less powerful weapon (.45 Automatic for example) cheaply and when you really need it.

The main downside to Sleight of Hand is that, if you have no worthy weapon in hand, or draw it too late and your weapons are already in play, then this card is totally useless. You really need to have a reasonable selection of weapons to choose from or ways to tutor them like Backpack or Prepared for the Worst.

The best case scenario for this card is super rewarding, but the worst case scenario (playing it for just the lone icon) really evens things out.

Tsuruki23 · 2588
This card is also problematic if the required slot is occupied. — Django · 5171
Problematic, or a scavenging/deck cycling opportunity? — Zinjanthropus · 231
Note that you can play Sleight of Hand ON Backpack. There goes your tutor AND your deck cycling opportunity! — AlderSign · 423
Lola Santiago

This quality card double, triple dips into as bunch of different card roles.

  • The typical Hp/Sanity value you can expect from utility allies. Like other high-importance allies (Leo De Luca) though you really don't want to have Lola Santiago die, ever. Lola Santiago extends your hp and sanity bar by 1 each, and then if is a matter of life or death she can take one more of each. Nothing of particular note here.

  • A static +1 for two different stats. This here is tremendous value for a 3-cost card. Buffing two(+) stats insofar has been the realm of conditional allies (Dario El-Amin and sensitive accessories (St. Hubert's Key, Key of Ys), Lola Santiago does occupy an ally slot but she is completely unconditional and always "on". The faction typically has middling and high and rely on one or both for clue gathering, Lola Santiago is already at this point the premier Clue-card for clue-minded characters, even without the extra card text. Note that Lockpicks taps into both of Lola Santiago's stats, that's a cool synergy there.

  • The text ability, exchanging cash for clues, will become expensive ->FAST<-. if you've ever played cards like Scene of the Crime or Working a Hunch you will know that these mechanics can chunk down your resources dramatically. Obviously though Lola Santiago can keep doing her thing "infinitely", an action-less clue every turn! Running this ability with any sort of regularity means that you need a powerful economy engine to pay for repeat payments at 2/3 or 4 resources. One trick with Lola Santiago is that regular "investigate" actions suddenly become somewhat less effective than just triggering her ability, this means that rather then spending the odd-action to investigate you might actually be better served spending those actions to gain resources. If your engine is strong enough then your only actual investigate actions will be the ones you try while she is on cooldown (Barring superpowered Lockpicks triggers. Note that Flashlight can bring her cost down or nullify it completely, with Lola Santiago as a centrepiece (dual wielding Lockpicks and Flashlight) it is now possible to build a very strong clue-sniffing .

The biggest strength of Lola Santiago is not her incredible ability, it is her flexibility. Cards that on one hand help you gather clues and on the other help you deal with enemies are very rare, Lola Santiago's +1 can really help bridge the gap for when you can't quite (or don't want/need to) kill an enemy.

Lola Santiago's biggest weakness however is her high sustained cost, there is no way that you can play a dedicated monster killer, you just wont have the resources to fund weapons and combat utility cards like Machete+Physical Training. You can still deal with a few threats every scenario and if you hold off on using her special ability and lean on the raw +stats instead you can shift strategies to/from clue gathering and monster killing as needed.

Tsuruki23 · 2588
Note that her agi boost also benefits the ornate bow. — Django · 5171
Take Heart

One thing I had failed to notice with this card at first is that "the performing investigator draws 2 cards and gains 2 resources", which makes it a fantastic support card! If your friend Finn is facing rotting remains, a test he will probably fail, you can help him recover a bit. He will draw 2 cards and gain 2 resources which is a good compensation. The fact that you can take it back with true survivor and true survivor with resourceful (another innate card, see a pattern?) just makes the survivor a well oiled machine! Silas and Calvin will like it a lot. Now the survivor can alleviate others failures too, that's fantastic!

P.S: English is not my native language, so sorry if I make mistakes.

mogwen · 254
Additionally you can „try and try again!“ — Django · 5171
Looks like it works! I thought (Why?) you couldn't get its effect and bring it back to your hand but if that's the case that's wonderful news given how many times you can fail in a game! — mogwen · 254
Are we 100% sure that combo works? It's super-intriguing if so, but I'd want confirmation that the returned skill card actually triggers. — CaiusDrewart · 3200
Take Heart triggers "if this test fails". As per rules reference, "if" triggers resolve before "after" triggers, which is what Try and Try Again is, so there's no reason why it wouldn't work. — TheNameWasTaken · 3
Thank you for this clarification, that's just too good! Minh will definitely like it, among others! — mogwen · 254