Say, "Hello," to my little friend: The Gatling Gun!

Drowned City brought us this little gem and I have found that it has resurrected Contraband.

First, here are all of the other cards I could find that can do +3 or more damage per attack:

• M1918 BAR - 1 action to play, 1 action per attack, 5 resources, +1 Combat per ammo spent, 1 damage per ammo spent, asset with 8 ammo, 2 hand slots, 4 XP

• "I've got a plan!" – 1 action, 3 resources, uses intellect to attack, no intellect bonus, event, 0 XP

• "I've got a plan!" (2) – 1 action, 2 resources, uses intellect to attack, +2 intellect, event, 0 hand slots, 2 XP

• Fang of Tyr'thrha - 1 action, 3 resources, add Agility to Combat, attack any enemy at a revealed location, event, 0 hand slots, 4 XP

• Mauser Tankgewehr M1918 - 1 action to play, 1 action per attack, 4 resources, +5 Combat, asset with single ammo, reload 1 ammo for 1 action, 2 hand slots, 5 XP

• Timeworn Brand - 1 action to play, 1 action per attack, 5 resources, add Willpower to Combat, asset where +3 damage attack is allowed once per game, 1 hand slot, 5 XP

• Sledgehammer – 1 action to play, 3 actions per attack, 3 resources, +5 Combat, +5 damage, 2 hand slots, 4 XP

• Shotgun - 1 action to play, 1 action per attack, 5 resources, +3 Combat, +1- +4 damage depending on test result, asset with 2 ammo, 2 hand slots, 4 XP

• Sawed-Off Shotgun - 1 action to play, 1 action per attack, 3 resources, +0 Combat, +1- +5 damage depending on test result, asset with 2 ammo, 2 hand slots, 5 XP

• Flamethrower - 1 action to play, 1 action per attack, 4 resources, +4 Combat, +3 damage, asset with 4 ammo, 2 hand slots, 5 XP

Now compare to Gatling Gun + Contraband :

Variable actions (see below), 9 resources, variable combat bonus (see below), variable damage (see below), 2 hand slots, 5 XP

Gatling Gun starts with 12 ammo on it and can use 6 ammo per attack for +6 combat and a flat 6 damage per use. If you play Contraband on a fresh Gatling Gun, you get 24 ammo. If you then play Scrounge for Supplies or Shrine of the Moirai or a similar ability to pull Contraband back into your hand and play it again (or if you have 2x Contraband in your hand), you end up with 48 ammo on the Gatling Gun. For the purposes of the below analysis, I will stick with the 24 ammo version.

24 ammo is enough to give you 4 attacks at +6 combat for a total of 24 damage with a setup cost of 9 resources and two actions. Put another way, that’s 24 damage for 6 actions and 9 resources which is an average of 4 damage and 2.25 resources per attack that likely never miss except for an auto-fail.

Additionally, you can use Primed for Action to reduce the cost of Gatling Gun by 2 and play an upgrade action on it where the upgrade costs zero actions.

Also, you can use "I'll take that!" to get Gatling Gun into play for cheaper than 5 resources.

And now for the average stats of Gatling Gun + Contraband at different damage/combat bonus levels. These assume you are attacking one enemy at a time. These efficiency stats get better if you are attacking multiple enemies at a time, but the +6 Combat becomes less effective since the difficulty of your fight test is the sum of the fight values of all enemies at your location.

AVGs FOR 4 ATTACKS AT 6 DAMAGE & +6 COMBAT PER ATTACK

1.5 actions per attack

2.25 resources per attack

AVGs FOR 6 ATTACKS AT 4 DAMAGE & +4 COMBAT PER ATTACK

1.3 actions per attack

1.5 resources per attack

AVGs FOR 8 ATTACKS AT 3 DAMAGE & +3 COMBAT PER ATTACK

1.25 actions per attack

1.1 resources per attack

AVGs FOR 12 ATTACKS AT 2 DAMAGE & +2 COMBAT PER ATTACK

1.17 actions per attack

0.75 resources per attack

Looking at the +3 and greater damage cards, above, only M1918 BAR + Contraband comes close to the power of Gatling Gun + Contraband. The M1918 BAR is very similar to the Gatling Gun with the following differences:

1) M1918 BAR starts with 4 fewer ammo. (This means 8 fewer ammo after Contraband.)

2) M1918 BAR can't split its damage across multiple enemies the way the Gatling Gun can.

3) M1918 BAR can only spend 5 ammo per shot while the Gatling Gun can spend 6.

4) M1918 BAR costs 1 XP less than the Gatling Gun. One extra XP for 8 more ammo, split damage ability, and 1 extra ammo per shot seems worth the 1 XP.

Give it a try!

Auto-include for Bob and his best friend Joey. Just sell everything you got right before taking a lethal blow or ending the scenario and you will be able to pay back the loan. Just hope you don't die off testless damage/horror in the Mythos phase, because there is no window to react.

FHV really missed the opportunity to add a level 5 tool for Wilson. Now he just can't take any non-neutral level 5 cards which is weird, because he and Lola are the only investigators that can't. For Lola that makes sense, but for him that's just weird.

I'm surprised nobody has talked about how Sefina can completely circumvent this weakness. Using Friends in Low Places, Clever upgrade or Parallel Fates (2), she can simply rearrange her deck as she likes while drawing a few extra cards. Meanwhile add in Foresight (1) to cancel her weakness. With Double, Double she can even opt to shuffle her deck the first tutor and then arrange it the second time. Very low xp investment needed to make this work and every upgrade also benefits her with card draw.

After playing out a campaign with parallel Rex, I've come to report this card is still really bad. It has so many downsides for the chance of some kind of positive.

• The untranslated version still costs 3 resources to play, still takes up a hand slot, and unless you're parallel Rex with an Analysis in hand, it's one of the more difficult unlocks to get while also having lasting negative effects via curses in the bag.
• You have to spend 4xp on it, or 8xp if you're going for the set, which if you're going to the trouble of doing the side-quest, you're probably going for the set. If you're parallel Rex, you can at least take Shrewd Analysis and cheat the upgrade because it's the only viable upgrade.
• The Grimoire becomes less and less worth drawing the further you get into a scenario because you'll have less and less time to draw curses and therefore the value you get from the Grimoire becomes worse and worse.
• If you play the Grimoire, you're down 3 resources and an action. Another major downside is it's a large drop to do nothing. You see no immediate benefits. So you have to resolve 4 curses and play two insights for the Grimoire to start looking like it's worth it. At that point you'll be down one resource but up one action. 3 insights played is where you can actually say the Grimoire was definitely worth playing, but for that to happen, you have to individually resolve 6 curses, and have drawn into three insights which you held onto this whole time.
• The fact you have to hold onto insights is another major downside. You might have the Grimoire in play with 0 charges, but you're free now to do a big activation which includes some insights in your hand. Is it really worth it to hold onto them and take the chance you'll be free later to do the same big activation?

Finally, you want to take the Grimoire because you want to save resources and actions on insights. At least in the case of parallel Rex who seems to be a major contender for the Grimoire...

• 14.5/45 possible insights are already 0 resources (I counted 1/2 if one upgrade was 0 but another wasn't. There were 3).
• 14/45 possible insights are already fast.

So you get a lot of overlap where you actually aren't getting the full benefit of the Grimoire's +1 resource, +1 action effect, meaning you may have to realistically play 4-5 insights for it to actually be worth it! You might say, "Oh, well I'll just spec my deck so I'm always saving on both," but there are so many 0 cost and/or fast insights that you'd just be kneecapping yourself by limiting your options at that point in order to make the Grimoire feel not terrible.