Card Reviews · ArkhamDB

Bandages

Passively heals 3 damage, so long as the victim can take that damage in the first place. Absolutely great.

The only real comparison here is Leather Coat, which does a similar job, but it takes up a slot, saves one less HP, is free, but it's also self-locked. It's leaning a bit in favor of leather coat, but dont discount that part about helping your friends.

Talk about friends, the ally heal is actually deceptively powerful. In vacuum "heal ally, 1 health," is pretty tame. Now add in allies like Grete Wagner, Beat Cop and Agency Backup. See my point?

9/27/21

Tsuruki23 · 2568

One other point in favor vs Leather Coat: This is slotless. Can run alongside Backpack, Robes, Bandolier, etc — HanoverFist · 746 9/28/21

Can I use 3 supplies in one time attack? — Aslan_IFLY · 1 10/3/21

I'd say no, since 'one or more damage' means the trigger only happens once. If it was just after 'one damage' then maybe. — peewee · 5 10/5/21

From the rules: Each [reaction] ability may be triggered only once each time the specified condition on the ability is met. For example, an ability that is triggered "After X occurs," may be used once each time "X" occurs. — suika · 9499 10/7/21

I think that technically it is possible to use 3 supplies on a single attack. You need to have at least 2 allies and you need to assign a damage token to each plus one on your investigator. So the triggering condition to activate bandages' ability happens 3 times, and each time you can heal a damage. Note that this only works if the Ally\Investigator survives the damage dealt. — Killbray · 12351 12/16/21

No, that doesn't work. It triggers when one card takes damage, and targets that card. It doesn't offer you the option to select multiple targets, nor does it say 'when one or more...' — Lailah · 1 1/21/22

Scout Ahead

Speed!

Three moves in one. Bypass enemies.

Value wise, a resource and a card are still "expensive", theyre "worth" as many actions as the actions saved. Your net math on including this card in a deck essentially boils down to how easily you generate resources, and how useful it'd be to you to move through enemies, is it worth a deckslot? Is it worth two deckslots?

But. Also. Speed!

Speed wins scenarios, if you get ahead of the encounter deck, standing on top of a mountain of clues before you've drawn too many treacheries and enemies, this is especially true in solo, particularly if youre familiar with the scenario.

So this is what you get for using Scout Ahead, speed and agility, to make it shine, either build an engine that gets you through cards quickly (Lucky Cigarette Case, Winifred Habbamock) or plan to be through the scenario before a depleted hand catches up to you.

9/27/21

Tsuruki23 · 2568

This is gonna be crazy good in Chuck Fergus decks, too. — OrionJA · 1 9/27/21

I like this in Rita Young. She already has some decent "speed tech", and this just lets her run even faster! — DrMChristopher · 502 11/25/21

Also, 2 agility icons add to the value of this card imho. — tom1017 · 20 12/24/21

This is basically the same card as Skids O'Drool from the Barkham Horror expansion. — Gries · 22 3/16/22

What happens when after using this card you end up in location with an enemy. Enemy did not engage you thanks to card's effect. Would following action like investigation cause OOP? — bugiel_marek · 24 4/16/23

Let me answer my own question: yes, enemy engages you for next action and makes AOO. — bugiel_marek · 24 4/29/23

If already engaged, does the investigator need to evade first before playing Scout Ahead, or suffer an AoO? — valkray · 1 7/29/23

Responses from elsewere: Yes, the investigator would need to Evade first, otherwise the Enemy will attack due to the Move action and will follow the investigator. — valkray · 1 7/30/23

This card is amazing with Finn Edwards. I ran him through Carcosa and Scout Ahead was the key card in some of the biggest scenarios. — K_oroviev · 222 3/14/24

Agree with the above this is a great card. Like ‘I’m Outta Here!’ It operates as a semi skill card with two agility icons and the action compression combined with quasi-evasion is amazing. Running this with Preston in Carcosa and is perfect for escaping scenarios or evading certain baddies. — EnglishLord · 1 7/10/24

Hiking Boots

Cheap, persistent stat boost, the occational free move, very likable stuff.

You can set up the free move on purpose, with cards like Gené Beauregard and Vantage Point to manage where clues go, or you can rely on good knowledge of how the scenario works to glide around and get out of trouble by your own strength sometimes.

Note the cool feature that the benefit trigger is not personal, a buddy can finish what you start and give you that speed boost. It's not keyed to being unengaged.

9/27/21

Tsuruki23 · 2568

After they tabooed Pathfinder I did not expect Seeker's to get another permanent asset that gives out lots of free moves so soon. — OrionJA · 1 9/27/21

Written in the Stars

There's a couple cards that tell you what's on top of your deck, those are all well and good, but really, the only truly dependable combo for this card, is Norman Withers.

Norman and skill cards go together like water and oil, when the skill cards float to the top of his deck, they blot out his ability.

Written in the Stars solves that issue, removing the skill card while making enhanced use of it. The problem? It's random, when there's a Deduction sitting on top, you might not be in a round where you can grab clues, when there's a Guts, you might not be in a round where you can blast things with your Shrivelling. What this thing needs is mechancis that re-order your cards, like Scrying, and it requires some setup, like looking at your deck to see the skill card, maneuvering into place, entering the round where the skill is on top, and then blasting away. A plan like that has several things that can go wrong.

I dont think Written in the Stars currently warrants a deck slot, even for the apparent, "perfect character", but perhaps there's synergies that I just dont see yet.

9/27/21

Tsuruki23 · 2568

Norman's signature allows you to swap the top card for one in your hand, so if you hold Deduction until the right moment, slap it on top, then play this, you're in great shape. — SGPrometheus · 841 9/27/21

I agree with Tsuruki23. I tried this card with Norman and it seems like a "win-more" card. If everything comes together, you have an amazing turn but in that case you were probably already doing pretty well. Save your deck slots for cards that will make a difference when things are not going well. — GeneralXy · 41 7/25/22

Can this card be used to discard Norman's signature weakness, The Harbinger? — Nyahm · 1 6/12/24

The Harbinger reads: "While The Harbinger is revealed and on top of your deck, cards in your deck cannot be searched, drawn, or manipulated in any way except by the below ability." The Harbinger is in your deck even when it's on top of your deck (I'm pretty sure), and playing Written in the Stars would qualify as" manipulating cards in your deck." So by my reading, no. — zigludo · 3 11/20/24

Sled Dog

EDIT: Due to me failing to notice a key element of one of the cards used in the combo below, this review is effectively irrelevant! Thank you to the commenters who called it out and corrected me. So feel free to ignore, or read on for a brief vignette about the perils of hubris or something.

+++

From Zerogrim's review: "...The last thing to highlight here is you CAN (with some great deal of luck) have 14 doggo's in play at the same time under your control, how you achieve this is left as an exercise for the reader, good luck! (bonus star for anyone who figures out how to get more, no matter how hair brained the method)"

I can getcha 16!

This method works for any 'gator, tho Leo Anderson can skip a step or two via Mitch Brown.

Required: 4P multiplayer.

Each player must have in play:

P1: Rod Of Animalism, Sled Dogs x 4
P2: Rod Of Animalism OR Charisma, Sled Dogs x 4
P3: Rod Of Animalism OR Charisma, Sled Dogs x 4
You: Relic Hunter x 2, Rod Of Animalism, Charisma, Sled Dogs x 4

At least 1 player must have and be able to play Teamwork.

All gators move to the same location.

Play Teamwork.

P1 gives you their Sled Dogs AND their Rod Of Animalism. (Relic Hunter * 2 = 3 Accessory Slots, so you can hold 3 Rod Of Animalism.)

Base Slot + Charisma + 3 Rod Of Animalism = 8 (creature) Ally Slots = 16 Doggo Slots.

P2 & 3 give you their Sled Dogs.

TA-DA! You now have 16 Sled Dogs!

(At this point, if you have an Expensive Sofa in play, you must immediately discard it.)

9/27/21

HanoverFist · 746

I have some very bad news. Route of animalism is unique (has an asterisk next to the title) This means only one copy of the card by title can be in play at any one time. If another copy would be attempting to enter play in the first place it fails to do so. I’m deeply sorry to ruin this beautiful dream — Sycopath · 1 9/27/21

Rod* — Sycopath · 1 9/27/21

I am awarding you A+ for effort anyway, but if rods could be traded 16 would be easy to reach, and the theortical maximum would be 30 sled dogs, if someone ever gets deckbuild "all the sled dogs" — Zerogrim · 295 9/27/21

Wha? Well shucks, nope, didn't see the asterisk. Back to square one then. — HanoverFist · 746 9/27/21

Easy way to get 16: ignore the rule that you can only have 2 copies of Charisma. — Xenas · 7 9/27/21

Devil, Mitch, Rod, Cha x2 gives 14, I don't think there's a way to get more at the moment. — suika · 9499 9/27/21

Miskatonic Archaeology Funding could give you two more ally slots to hold Miskatonic assets. Currently the dogs don't have that, but maybe a future set will give us a Miskatonic Zoology Funding asset that gives all creatures the miskatonic trait. — OrionJA · 1 9/27/21

There's an alternative to Mitch, parallel Roland's directive. — vidinufi · 69 10/9/21

Now that we have Charlie Kane in Scarlet Keys, I think 16 sled dogs is possible now. Charlie comes default with 4 ally slots, you can get 2 more from 2x Charisma and 2 more from the Rod of Animalism. That's 8 slots total for 16 dogs! The only other thing you need is 3 friends willing to pack Charisma & 4 doggos and everyone to somehow manage to get all of their doggos into play. — rockmaninoff · 3 4/12/23

Play Charlie Kane, go Rogue/Survivor, run You Owe me One, A Chance Encounter (2), and Black Market. Commit rest of cards to draw (rabbit's foot, track shoes, drawing thin engine works well with his poor stats). Get Leo out for an extra action. Can consider haste as well since so many of your actions are "play". Eon Chart is also an option for extra action economy. Requires less commitment from your allies (they can freely discard dogs and don't need to put them into play, or you can get them through black market or buying it from their hands.). — siroma · 44 10/24/23