Learning True Solo #8 Overcoming Deficiencies (TFA Campaign)

This time we're going to talk about how to mitigate deficiencies. With respect to true solo, Finn Edwards has a 'crippling' deficieny of 1 and while TFA is relatively less punishing on -testing treacheries, it will still require deckbuilding with that deficiency in mind.

If you don't play taboo, start with Drawing Thin, maybe instead of Sneak By

This deck was built and playtested for the TFA campaign. Minor Mechanical Spoilers (but no story spoilers) are in the final section.

General Playstyle

Usual Rogue Tricks, do lots with and Streewise (3), Try not to let the Encounter Deck kill you.

Investigating - Scenario 1 you'll use Flashlight and boosts like Fox Mask but Lockpicks (1) is how you'll do it most of the campaign. Pretty much every scenario in TFA has more clues than you need, so Gene Beauregard (5) also helps you clear off VP locations by pushing clues around.

Enemy Management - Evade, Evade again, Evade a third time. You have your Trusty .38 and Backstab if you must kill things, but there are just a handful of enemies in TFA that are both a hunter and not vengeance, so most of the time you'll just be evading. Fox Mask rewards you for walking away from those nasty snakes, so spend liberally.

Mulligan

• Dig For: Lone Wolf, Lockpicks (1),
• Keep: Assets
• Pitch: Events and Skills, although consider keeping "Watch This!" to quickstart your econ.

No Willpower, No Problem

When you are extremely weak to treacheries from having 1 or 1, there's a few ways you can mitigate:

• Try to avoid resolving treacheries that test your bad stat in the first place (e.g. William T. Maleson)
• Change the test to something you can pass. (e.g. Money Talks)
• Accept your failure and use it as an opportunity to gain other resources in exchange (e.g. Take Heart)
• Boost your skill so high that you might pass anyway. (e.g. Tenessee Sour Mash)

We'll take an "all of the above" approach, since tests are just too common, even in TFA.

Enemy Management

As mentioned in the guide for #2 Wendy Adams Evasion is a first-class enemy management solution in true solo. It's even stronger when you get an extra action each round for it. You do not need to take basic evade actions with Finn's , which works extremely well with Blur (1) if you choose to take it, but I generally find that just basic evades are enough, usually.

Hunters can be a problem, So sometimes you'll need to murder a monster anyway, Backstab is a good way to do that. Upgrading to Backstab (3) is always an option for later in the campaign too.

Variations

Charon's Obol is always an option, it'll give you an extra 10XP if you take it after scenario 1 (-2 to buy, +12 for scenarios 2-7), TFA is very generous on XP so it isn't as necessary here as it would be in other campaigns.

Logical Reasoning would be another option for dealing with treacheries that stick around, there's a few of those in TFA that can be extremely annoying, but you'll need to find room to fit it (maybe cut the Sneak By, but then you'll have harder choices when it comes time to pick up Drawing Thin.

Finn is a good investigator for Underworld Support, and this helps stretch your 5 / slots. go for exceptional cards like The Red Clock or The Skeleton Key in that case. (and check out Aredhel's Underworld Support Finn for an example of this style of deck.)

Finn can be made into an effective fighter using Dirty Fighting, which in combination with a firearm asset like .25 Automatic will have you shooting at 7. In campaigns where you need to kill Elites instead of just avoid them (e.g. TCU), I'd think about building in this direction to supplement the backstabs.

Underworld Market was basically made for Finn, and if you played a handful more illict cards than this deck does, that's a great way to up the consistency of the deck. (check out Deadguy's Underworld Market Finn for an example of that playstyle.)

Adaptable

It wouldn't be a jericho Rogue deck without mentioning Adaptable (1). For TFA there's a handful of useful swaps:

• Scenarios 1, 3, 6 and 8 have Parleys that you might want Fine Clothes for
• Scenarios 1, 2, and 5 have resign locations you might want to be able to "I'm outta here!"
• Scenario 4 may have some priority enemies to kill quickly, depending on your route, it'll help you pack some extra firepower with .25 auto

That said, I didn't use Adaptable at all in my playtests, so just think of this as a 'tech' option.

Side Deck / Upgrades

There's no specific "Core" upgrades for this deck, because Finn is one of those investigators who is able to clear scenarios smoothly even at 0XP. My first purchases are usually Streetwise, Easy Mark, and Lockpicks. After that it's more about just spending the XP efficiently after each scenario and not working on specific upgrade orders.

There's about 70XP up for grabs in TFA before the final scenario, it's reasonable to expect a successful attempt to acquire about 50 of them. Assuming you aren't forging your own path you'll probably want at least one Charisma, possibly 2, since the story ally takes up an ally slot and they're usually good to have in play.

Gene Beauregard (5) is pretty much the platonic ideal of a Finn Ally, she's just extremely expensive. Fortunately TFA is one of the most generous campaigns for XP, so she's usually possible to fit in... eventually. I'd delay her until you've purchased better economy cards though.

Streetwise (3) is an extremely useful talent for agility focused decks, and helps ensure we over-succeed when we really need to.

Easy Mark (1), High Roller (2), Pickpocketing (2), Lucky Cigarette Case (2) and Drawing Thin are all ways to generate more income to help afford Streetwise activations and find and play expensive assets like Gene.

Counterespionage (1) and Tenessee Sour Mash (3) provide additional -treachery protection.

Fake Credentials (4) instead of the lockpicks is a cheeky way to investigate very high shroud locations, or locations where you want to avoid standing around; but you should probably adapt into Kicking the Hornet's Nest to help find enemies early on if you choose to take it instead of Lockpicks. Finn is one of the few investigators who can really leverage it true solo since you get an extra action just for evading, but I tend to just stick to the lockpicks.

Campaign-Specific Suggestions (Minor Spoilers)

I didn't mention this in the Father Mateo write-up but I playtested on the original TFA rules (no return to, no modification of the exploration decks.) I think this is a little harder on True solo, since the number of treacheries is not adjusted by player-count, but you can do either. I'd still take the Map, but I think the Torches are a little less mandatory in the return to version of Doom of Etzli.

I'd recommend taking the Medicine, Map, and Torches for the first supply point, which is 8 of 10. final 2 points is up to you, but Compass or Binoculars are both useful. You can skip Medicine if you like something else more, I wouldn't skip the Map unless you're playing the Return to TFA (and even then I probably wouldn't skip it.) Pendant is helpful but with only 10 points of supplies I usually wind up skipping it. At the second checkpoint take Chalk, Compass if you didn't, and then it's up to you but I like Pickaxe and 2 Gasoline. If you already took Compass at checkpoint 1 you could take medicine now, or maybe blankets.

I think Ichtaca is generally the stronger ally, and while the changes to encounter sets from following her path will tend to apply more doom pressure, Finn is more than capable of either fighting the cultists or just out-racing the clock, so I don't think it makes it much more difficult. That said, I would probably give the Relic to Alejandro - This skips a bad Parley in Threads of Fate. For Boundary Beyond I'd initiate exploration at Metropolitan Cathedral to try to shred the treacheries quickly (since it's 1 action and repeatable). Try for 3 cleared locations, but this is a tough scenario in general.

Because we're a high- investigator, playing for low vengeance is probably prudent, under 5 is ideal, but as long as you're under 10 it should be fine in the long run.

Remarks

Despite his alarming deficiency in willpower, I've found Finn to be one of the more fun investigators in True Solo. He's not the strongest Rogue for his playstyle, but he has a lot of flexibility in how he's built and that makes it easy to tailor him to the particular campaign. Sure would be nice if we got more illicit cards that weren't already though.