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!