Dr. Milan Christopher

He might seem like he's looking up a recipe for cockroach soup, but Dr. Milan Christopher is by a country mile the best Seeker ally.

Sure, he's fairly expensive. Sure, one icon to commit to a test is weak. But here is an ally who will improve your investigation, and then pay you for investigating. +1 ! Brilliant! He'll soon repay his cost, provided you're investigating enough. And let's not forget, clues are how you win.

He turns Daisy Walker into an intellect 6 clue-hoover - and lets her earn resources for doing it! And Mind over Matter or I've Got a plan become even more awesome.

He turns Rex Murphy into a great investigator, and combos nicely with Burglary and Scavenging. Find a low shroud location to burgle for +4 resources, and retrieve a discarded item! Neat! Or more regularly manage to grab 2 clues at once!

And he can turn a reasonable, normal investigator into a good one. Jenny Barnes, Roland Banks and Jim Culver can all reach 4 intellect and become solid investigators in their own right - though for Roland, I still think battering monsters and collecting clues from them make Beat Cop a better option.

For Seekers though, so far, he's the best available ally.

AndyB · 955
Why you can only add 1 copy of this card to the deck, is there a bug in the deckbuilder? — Toritaka · 14
You can add more than one, but apparently the star by his name indicates that only one Milan can be in play at once, hence why you have to edit the card to get 2 @Toritaka — sarf · 1
@Toritaka Late reply, but if you only have one core set, then you'll only have one copy of Dr. Milan Christopher. — TheDoc37 · 468
Laboratory Assistant

Fundamentally, this card increases your hand size. So far, there's only 2 investigators where I've found the 8 card limit becomes a problem; Daisy Walker when she's using the Old Book of Lore each turn, and Rex Murphy when choosing to fail elder-sign tests, or using Search for the Truth.

For them, this card could be really useful. However, both can also take Dr. Milan Christopher, whose +1 and paying resources for investigating is probably preferable. He's a much stronger card.

However, at the right time, and with those investigators, this could be a useful ally for a part of the game. I think you have to see this as an ally you might want late in a game, similarly to how a Research Librarian is most useful at the start.

So, in short - possibly useful, but highly situational, and I'd only bother for investigators who can draw a lot of cards.

It's worth noting that in the Dunwich campaign you sometimes don't want to get too far through your deck, so getting a third of your deck into your hand is maybe not the best idea.

AndyB · 955
I use this card for a sanity buffer for Roland. Otherwise I would ditch it as soon as I got enough exp. — bullettrang · 13
Silver Twilight Acolyte

This card always seems to appear right when it is extremely inconvenient for me. The fact that doom is placed directly on the agenda is just so devastating to your game tempo. The 2 fight is not much of a challenge but the fact that Silver Twilight Acolyte has 3 health means most investigators will have to use at least 2 actions to take care of this card unless you have some special effect at your disposal like Agnes's special ability or vicious blow. To summarize, a kind of annoying reflecting the itch in the middle of your foot.

bullettrang · 13
One exception: this is the best possible weakness for Roland. Easy to kill, generates a clue. — FarCryFromHuman · 1
I'd say for every investigator except Roland and maybe Zoey, this is the worst weakness. Killing it can easily take more than 2 actions if you're unlucky or unarmed, and it's disastrous if left unchecked. — CaiusDrewart · 3183
As bad as this card may be, in Carcosas "A Phantom of truth" (4-players) it saved us a lot of trouble. We took a lot of attack of opportunity-damage from this guy and luckily the doom tokens went straight to the agenda (instead of to the acolyte, in which case they would have been subtracted from the agendas doom tokens) and thus the 3 nights were much faster over. Dont' know, if the designers had this in mind while creating this guy/the scenario, but we breezed through the scenario. Crisis as opportunity :-) — Darkangel23 · 1
If you cancel the attack, with cards like "Dodge" and "Hypnotic Gaze", then doom is NOT placed on the agenda, is this correct? — Yoritomo · 13
That is correct. — Yenreb · 15
Hello, What about killing him with a Counterpunch before he attacks ? Does this counts as cancelling the attack and therefore the doom ? — Dncan · 7
I know this is old but I don't believe Counterpunch (0) would work, as they both trigger after the enemy attacks, and Forced effects take precedeent. Counterpunch (2) should work though, as long as it dies! — LazilyExtroverted · 7
Magnifying Glass

To consider the humble magnifying glass, in this or its level 0 form, one should keep in mind the way in which most act decks progress: the collection and spending of clues. Clues, barring a few tricks of a persuasion, or some exceptional luck, are found through successful investigation actions, using . And the magnifying glass provides a static +1 for those - and only those - actions. As such, it's a lovely card.

In its level 1 form, it costs 0 (a bargain!), can be played without spending an action because it's fast (double bargain!!) and boosts one of the core actions many investigators will be attempting (...triple bargain?!). While not as showy as some of the alternative clue-gathering techniques, such as those outlined above, or as potent as a Flashlight, which can reduce the shroud of some locations to 0, effectively ensuring success on any chaos token but , the magnifying glass is nonetheless reliable and inexhaustible - no charges, no uses, just steady +1 .

There's more: the upgraded version of this card comes with a which allows for quick pocketing of the glass. Given that it's free in resource- and action-cost to play, and then to return to hand, that's quite the boon. Why might one want to do that though? Perhaps hands are getting full and an investigator wants to bring out a gun, sword or book; perhaps there's a big test ahead, such as a parley action, in which you'd prefer to commit the magnifying glass for its icon; perhaps you're worried about being made to discard assets - there are plenty of such effects - and you'd rather hold on to the glass. More than anything else, it provides options: it may take up a hand slot, but it doesn't do so permanently, and if your investigator finds their role in the scenario shifting from combat to clues or vice versa, bingo, out/in comes the magnifying glass. Tip top.

zozo · 3000
Nice review! I hadn't considered the advantage of re-pocketing the Level 1 Magnifying Glass to use for its skill icon. Especially useful if using Scavenging--say, in a Rex Murphy deck--which can recycle it for either its icon or as a fast, 0-cost asset. — Herumen · 1741
This card will find absolutely new life on Kate, it's gonna be a staple of her decks because it allows her to abuse her signature: she puts a clue on it, gets +2 skill value for one test, if she is in a location with no clues she return it to her hand, dropping the clue, picks it back up, plays the glass again and moves the clue there to get buffed once more by the Flux Stabiliser — HeroesOfTomorrow · 58
Kukri

It certainly looks menacing, but is the Kukri any good? I basically never want to attack without dealing additional damage, but at the cost of an additional action it hardly seems efficient. Compared to the only other Neutral Weapon in the game, Knife only costs 1 resource to play, but it does require an additional skill test to achieve the same effect as Kukri. The real cost of that actual skill test will depend heavily on the difficulty of your scenario. Still, I'd give the edge to Knife for it's one-time ability to throw it at the enemy for extra Combat and Damage.

If Knife is better, Kukri could still be considered to be a third or fourth copy of Knife to make sure your investigator never knocks on a door without a melee weapon in hand. But let's consider who would need extra blades. As we'll see shortly, the combat-oriented classes aren't lacking for other options, and even if the other classes are looking for extra damage, Seekers can use "I've got a plan!" and Mystics can use Shrivelling. Both of these are better options and more thematic.

Looking at the game's list of weapons, the Guardian and Rogue both get firearms, and the Survivor gets a Fire Axe. The Machete and Baseball Bat are also quite good, and depending on the purpose of the deck, these cards could be worth the reach out of faction. Finally, the Switchblade is a very interesting card that I doubt can be adequately compared to any of the other weapons because of how situational it's use is. "Skids" O'Toole and Agnes Baker both have a base combat of 3, so the Switchblade would probably need some help to hit most enemies.

In the end, despite the wicked curve of our Himalayan machete, the Kukri seems outclassed by almost all of our other options.

Quick question: if you Double or Nothing a Kukri attack, do you do double the damage before or after you've spent the extra actions? Ie, can you spend 3 additional actions and deal 8 damage? — clydeiii · 41
The answer from the designers can be found <a href ="https://boardgamegeek.com/article/25401071#25401071">here</a> — CSerpent · 126
Sorry, I have some to learn about editing on this site. Basically, no. Double Or Nothing doesn't double effects per se; it allows to to repeat effects. Using the Kukri has two effects: the standard Fight damage and a bonus point of damage if you spend an action. If you use Double Or Nothing with it, you apply those effects, then you apply them again. So your total damage will be 2 (if you spend no actions), 3 (if you spend one action) or 4 (if you spend two actions). — CSerpent · 126