SKIDS ‘AKIMBO’

– A Multiplayer build for blasting enemies with "Skids" O'Toole.

Introduction:

• This build uses cards from: Revised Core set, Investigator Starter Decks, Dunwich Legacy.
• This build works best when working with a seeker heavy build with 2+ players, this allows you to focus on mopping up bad guys and protecting your fellow investigators while they do their thing.

Like the true ex-con he is, Skids knows where to stash guns and illicit contraband. He also knows how to rake in some extra resources to pay for them, making him an interesting take on the fighter of the group.

Playstyle:

Because of his base stats, this class plays very much like a glass canon, making him high risk and high reward. It’s not uncommon to walk into a room and take out multiple victory point enemies in a turn, before taking a breather away from the action. Skids is looking to mitigate taking damage from enemies by blasting them to smithereens before they get a chance to blink. His ability to take extra actions by spending resources means you can find yourself firing off your weapons 3-5 times in a turn, leading to some huge damage output. Substantially more than many of the other investigators.

The major downside being his low willpower and sanity stats leaving him open to some brutal turns against the chaos bag. To counter this in multiplayer you want somebody with the ability to heal the odd point of horror where possible. Keeping skids alive to protect the rest of the group while they hoover up clues. This is also why cards such as Dodge and First Aid are good considerations in the deck to mitigate some horror.

Strengths:

• Damage output – If you like dealing with enemies and doing the fighting for your team, there’s a good chance you will enjoy this build.

• Agility – Although you are primarily using combat stats, Skids’ high agility means you can evade an enemy in a pinch if required and hold off more difficult agility tests from the encounter deck.

• Economy – Skids is able to pick up resources pretty well through the game, extra actions mean using one to take a resource doesn’t feel quite so punishing. His elder sign bonus can also lead to a nice bump once or twice in a scenario. Being a rogue , he also has access to better economy cards, great for spending on firearms.

Weaknesses:

• Low Willpower – This stat is terrible and will put you in dicey situations. You always want a Guts or Unexpected Courage in hand as a backup to commit to a particularly horrible skill test. On the Lam is also rarely going to be played for its effect. Its skill icons for two willpower are going to be far more useful. Being around fellow investigators not only serves as protection for them, but they will be able to assist on any problematic willpower skill tests.

• Sanity – Skids’ starting sanity is low and due to his low willpower he will take horror eventually. Mitigating this where possible is going to important. Having fellow investigators aware of his shortfall in this area will allow your team to prepare and patch you up where they can. Don’t put yourself at unnecessary risk away from your fellow investigators. Stay nearby, protect them from enemies and let them protect your sanity stat in a pinch.

Aim of the deck:

This Deck has two clear goals.

1. Play out firearms to begin protecting your teammates
2. Gain access to cards that facilitate extra actions.

Getting access to your firearms is easily done. There are 6 one handed weapons in the deck to begin with, making up almost 20% of the deck. Once you add in the 2 copies of ‘Prepared for the worst’ you are looking at 25% of the deck finding you a firearm.

Key cards:

• Any of the guns (Mauser C96, .45 Automatic and .41 Derringer) - to start with all the guns are somewhat equal in power, they are going to average around 2 damage per successful hit. Having as many as you can out early is going to keep you prepared for monster hunting and protecting your team.

• Prepared for the Worst – digs you through a 3rd of your deck for one of your weapons.

• Bandolier is great to get down in the midgame, where having an extra gun with extra ammo can help prep for the end of scenario enemies.

To make sure you can use them effectively you want to play out your extra action cards, the earlier you get them out of your hand and into play, the more total actions you will have as the scenario progresses.

Key cards:

• Leo De Luca – Leo’s your man, very rarely are you going to want another ally taking up his slot. He will give you another action every turn, which is one of the biggest upsides using Skids as a fighter. An extra attack can make all the difference by removing a huge threat for your team before an enemy phase. And if you don’t end up using his extra action for an attack, moving or drawing an extra card will almost always be additional upside.

Paying for them is going to be key, so finding your economy cards is important. While skids can sometimes pluck 2 resources out of thin air with his elder sign ability , that cannot be relied on. You are going to want to find your economy cards early on and get things rolling. Also by having a stash of spare resources, you can take another action using his ability by spending them when needed.

Key cards:

• Emergency Cache – auto include for resource hungry decks, or just most decks that need to boost economy in general.

• Stand Together – taking an action and using this card is rarely a problem as you should be taking 4 actions a turn. It gives you an extra resource in comparison to taking one from the pool, and gives a nice little bump to a teammate. Useful early game when investigators tend to be setting up. Following this up on turn 1 with a Leo De Luca feels brilliant.

Mulligan Advice:

You want to Mulligan aggressively for Leo De Luca and 1 of the cards that will get you some extra resource out of the gate. (Emergency Cache, Stand Together). Once Leo is out you will have more total actions throughout the scenario, helping with resource management and fulfilling the goal of the deck.

If you can pick up a gun (Mauser C96, .45 Automatic or .41 Derringer) in your opening hand or a copy of Prepared for the Worst this is additional upside.

Possible cards out:

After playing around with the contents of the deck, the cards you may want to swap out if not to your taste are:

• Teamwork – This card can be really fun as a 1 of for kitting out your team with weapons or giving a seeker a Leo De Luca for some extra turns. It can also allow the team to generously give you their resources to pay for the big guns if a big fight is about to go down at the end of the scenario. However it is very situational and a reasonable cut if you are looking to optimise the deck.

• Contraband – This cards big upside is that with upgraded weapons later in a campaign you get more total uses of that weapon (For example a Beretta M1918 or Chicago Typewriter). The cost is quite high so you will have needed to pick up upgraded resource cards to make the best use of it. With a fully loaded weapon you can double its uses, saving on hand space. Because it is a slow ‘combo’ to get off, some players may favour a more consistently useful card, as this card can be a dead draw at certain points in the scenario.

• First Aid – This card plays a role in helping keep Skids alive. With Contraband you can double the supplies and the extra actions allow you to heal quickly in a pinch. Again the ‘combo’ isn’t consistent and depending on your group, other investigators may be able to protect Skids a bit more from the encounter deck and chaos bag. In which case you may consider swapping out this card.

Possible cards in:

• Beat Cop – This card is very strong, extra combat power plus 1 damage as a fast action is exactly what skids wants to be doing. However with the base 1 Ally slot it’s hard to want to play this over Leo De Luca. However if you plan on picking up a Charisma later down the line and adding another slot, this is a solid include.

• Lucky Cigarette Case – A big part of the game is keeping a big hand of cards. You should be comfortably winning combat skill tests each turn, so with this asset in play you get to draw another card for doing so. Keeping your hand refuelled ready for when you run out of weapons. It’s a solid alternative option for card draw.

• Double or Nothing – if you really like playing on the edge then this card can make for some absurd turns with a bit of luck. Doubling damage in a fight can be absurd, but a real roll of the dice.

Recommended Upgrades:

There are a host of routes to go down with any build, but these cards are the ones I would focus on first.

Rogue:

• Beretta M1918 – Level 4’ and Chicago Typewriter – Level 4’ – these two cards I would group together. They are your top end weapons to get out as soon as possible. The main differences between them being the kinds of enemies they are good at dispatching. The Typewriter favours high combat stat enemies, you can pump additional actions into it to increase your combat stat with a guaranteed 3 damage. The Beretta offers the ability to deal more damage through the turn, you have a potential to fire it more times with the actions available and convert those actions into more damage to different enemies (or the same enemy) depending on your pulls from the bag.

• Sharpshooter – Level 3’ – Your deck will be full of firearms. Being able to leverage an enemies weak agility stat or use a base stat of 4 by using agility to replace your combat stat is always going to be useful to improving the strategy of the deck.

• .41 Derringer – Level 2’ – by succeeding by 3 with this cards fight action, you can get yourself a free action. Doing everything this deck wants in a single card.

• Leo De Luca – level 1’ – Leo is a key card, being able to play him turn 1 without an economy card is a nice bonus. However I don’t think this is a mandatory upgrade to consider, it just helps get the deck off to a better start each game when aggressively mulliganing.

Guardian:

• Beat Cop – Level 2' – as mentioned before, if you enjoy going down a path with multiple allies, ‘Beat Cop’ is a fantastic addition, buffing your main stat and pinging enemies at your location. The level 2 version can fire off two points of damage as a fast action and can soak a little bit of horror in a pinch.

• Police Badge – level 2’ – this card says take two extra actions on any investigator as a fast action . That should be enough of a reason to consider it. But it also improves our weakest stat in willpower . We don’t have any assets in the accessory slot so this is a good item to grab early on for plenty of uses.

• Extra Ammunition – Level 1’ – For the last guardian card I will mention, being able to put some extra bullets on your guns is always useful. Get more value for playing out your high cost weapons.

Neutral:

• Elder Sign Amulet – Level 3’ – other than Charisma for the reasons mentioned above. Elder Sign Amulet is the one neutral card that jumps out as a pickup. Skids has a very poor sanity stat and it will often be his demise. Adding a temporary buffer to that stat will oftentimes be the difference between making it to the end of a scenario, or sitting on the side-lines.

Overview:

If you like playing a fighter class , but want a slightly different spin on it, this build can be great fun for a group game where Skids weaknesses can be covered. Is it the most optimised? No. Is it good in every situation? No. It’s a very focused role and is really only there to do one thing, but is it satisfying when you take 4+ actions in a turn and obliterate every monster in play? Absolutely.