Arkham Horror Base Set: Rogues

And here's Skids! (Or, officially, "Skids", but man, I'm not going to be arsed to type that).

At 2/3/3/4, Skids is pretty good at almost anything, which is a great way to start a character. Being strongest in Agility means he can do all the weird evade-tank silliness if he's built that way, but a base Combat 3 means he can clean up some bad guys reasonably well also, and he can investigate if needs be. 8/6 for durability is a good well-rounded set of stats.

His ability is great. Resource generation is one of the Rogue's main themes, and as the game goes along you're going to be filling up your character slots anyway, meaning late game you tend towards resource glut. This lets Skids take a late game resource pool and turn it into late game actions, which is what wins games. Or even turn 2 dollars here and there into very important extra actions. His Elder Sign flavor text is cute, and I guess arguably better than Roland's. The best use of the 2 credits is probably to immediately take another action, if its his turn.

On the back we learn he's a Rogue/Guardian, so he can be a reasonably effective backup fighter. Always nice to have one of those. And with his emphasis on Agility, he can actually manage some crowded fights better and in more useful ways than Roland's blunt-force-Dynamite-to-the-feet approach.



Skid's signature card is odd in that it's an Event and a Tactic, not a physical thing. So temporary and fleeting, Skids! But it's a doozie, with four Skill icons (including two wild!), and a powerful ability well worth 1 resource. Note this doesn't stop enemies from engaging with Skids, so he can grab an entire den of ghouls and then still perform 3-4 additional actions to probably seal the deal in some non-combat way, or to buy time for someone else to do something without worrying about fighting. Whether played or committed to a test, this is a great card. Easily the best of the signature cards so far.



His signature Weakness doesn't seem to grab me the way the other ones do. Oh, sure, it's annoying enough, like the rest, and losing 2 potential XP can be very nasty, but that's not as punishing as ongoing Trauma, or just upping the Doom score. It's also the easiest to take care of without too much investment of actions; Skids gets 1 resource a turn like anyone else, so eventually this just pays for itself, and then he's scott-free. Also, like Cover Up, this is a Weakness that does nothing in a one-shot game, increasing Skids usefulness in such settings.

I'll remind y'all that as this lives in Skids Threat Zone, any credits he chose to move to it technically are at his location, but not actually attached to anything, in the off chance future cards care about such silliness.

****

Rogue cards! And they're even in her color, green! Awesome!

There's two Rogues in the game, Skids and Queen Wendy, Ruler of Arkham, who deigns to find them a secondary interest to her. Unlike a lot of the secondaries, Wendy's rather extreme stat line means she gets less use out of some of these compared to the other secondary characters in other factions.



This is probably the best-ish non-sports-related weapon Wendy can lay her hands on, as the +2 Combat bonus actually gives her a chance to wing an average monster (the odds are low that she'll get the bonus damage though). Skids has access to the better weapons from Guardian, so this is a meh sidegrade for him at best. The +2 Combat does help him hit tougher foes, but then he's not getting a damage bonus. It is cheaper than the .45 Automatic, but there's no great reason Skids will take this over a Machete. I guess if you really feel the need for more potential weapon draws for Skids this isn't a bad choice (and that's a perfectly valid concern to have).



Now here's a great card for both Rogues. Great icons, reasonable price for the effect, and it can crush a typical foe with one swing. Solid up and down.



And who doesn't want more money? Everyone wants more money!

A wonderful Talent for both Rogues. Like all Talents, it doesn't use up a slot, so you could potentially have both out. That does use up 2/3rds of your turn (which is nothing you should take lightly), but gaining +3-6 resources should set you up for some crushing turns next time around (Burglaries also help pay medical bills promptly and on time). And, even better, thanks to the "Instead" wording in the Rules Reference, it's totally legit to burgle the hell out of low-Shroud locations that all the clues have been consumed from. Heck, Skids could have one of these out, then use his ability, and still make a net +1 resource for his turn and still have three effective actions.

Remember that to successfully Burgle, you're going to have to pass your investigate test. So try to get to those low-Shroud places, OK?



After the embarrassment of Mind Wipe, it's nice to see a Level 1 card that is worth the investment of XP and resources. The Cat Burglar is expensive (4 is no joke!), but you get so much for your bother. First he boosts both Skids' and Wendy's Agility, their most important skill. He gives 4 points of durability, which is wonderful for both of these shady characters. And he combines a mass disengage with a move, all for one action. Amazing. Even has 1.5 icons for when you feel like pitching him!

Remember that disengaged enemies are not evaded, so they're presumably untapped and ready to eat somebody. But that somebody will not be you, bold Rogue, which is why you're OK with this.



In many ways this is just the Level 0 version of the Cat Burglar. In fact, compared to him, it's arguably over-priced. It's still a useful card (unlimited disengage plus movement is a ton of action compression, and it's a fast action on top of that!), and both Rogues should be interested in it, but I could see the Cat Burglar taking the Elusive slots as XP is earned. However, as has been confirmed by FAQ, Elusive actually lets you move to ANY safe discovered location, regardless of how far away it is. That is a potent board-control possibility, and ups the usefulness of this card considerably.



And here's the Rogue Skill-boost Talent, which might be the best one in the game by a slight margin, because Combat and Agility are possibly the two most used Skills in the game, and the Rogues have access to Burglary and other sources of obscene resource generation to truly crank their skill boosts sky-high.

There's no reason for Skids not to play this (it's awesome for him), but, as disreputable as getting slammed drunk might be for a 10-year old girl, this is usually just what Wendy wants, badly. Her main shtick is Agility, and this also lets her boost her Combat, so she can actually hit stuff (which is pretty rare and special in the Wonderful Land of Wendy).

Otherwise, refer to my comments on the rest of this cycle of cards. They're good, use them, enjoy them. Get Wendy stinking drunk then stab a ghoul priest in the back.



The Skids-only Rogue card is OK. Really, it's fine. It's a huge swing of resources, which are generically useful for anything and this alone will fuel Skids' base ability for an additional 4 turns. And it has an awesome wild icon, which is always welcome.

The trouble is the 4 XP. That is a butt-load of XP for a card that only generates resources. Considering the other options available to spend your precious XP, you have to really, really want access to a lot of resources in a very compact (action-wise) way to want to invest in this, and not, say, in the far more reasonable Burglary.

A big advantage Burglary has over this is once you buy it, it sits in play, unobtrusive, a potential urge to rifle through desks and couch cushions, but it doesn't disrupt your hand any more. If you go the Hot Streak route, you're going to need a deck that requires a huge influx of resources for a small amount of action economy. And you're also saying to yourself, "Self, I'm willing to take the risk that some games when I'm playing this, I'm going to be in a tough situation, and I'm going to need a card that does something to get me past the last location or through the last monster, and I'm going to draw Hot Streak, and I'm going to die a very rich Skids."

In the end, if this fits your Skids build, you'll know you'll want it. My gut feeling is that Skids will usually find other things that require his XP more dearly; if it was lower Level then experimentation with it would be easier.



The premiere Rogue ally is pretty stupid. Stupid high cost, stupid awesome ability to go with it. And reasonable durability and a good icon. I'm just going to presume this bootlegger will be hanging out with an ex-convict and a traumatized orphan girl for many, many months until y'all tell me otherwise.

Make no mistake -- 6 is a crushingly painful price to pay. But you're getting a totally equivalent payout for your troubles. +1 action per turn is pretty much the best boost any card can get you, because that's letting you do anything you need to do each and every turn. And consider an experienced Skids rocking this and a Police Badge and then spending 2 dollars on his own sweet power: 7 actions, 1 turn. And that's hardly an impossible dream to pull off, especially if Skids is Pickpocketing to support his stun-lock style of evasion-fu.



Like, y'know, Skids could invest 2 XP in getting both copies of the Level 1 version of Leo rather than half of a Hot Streak. That looks to be a much better investment of time and effort right there.

Level 1 Leo is just as stupid as his base version, only as he costs less (just an outrageous amount rather than a stupid amount), he becomes even better. That's fair.



The Rogue Skill card is...interesting. It can't help other players, to start with, which reduces the interest I have in playing it. It is a generic wild icon, which is awesome (and is the reason I'd play it in both Skids and Wendy). And that's really all you should consider it as. The nature of the base CHAOS BAG!!! distribution means unexpected +3 wins just don't happen enough to rely on them. I guess if you're dumping a bunch of other cards to help you pass a big test, or you're abusing the Skill-booster Talents (which the Rogues easily can) this becomes a free-ish +1 to any test that then bounces back to your hand...but then I'd probably want a card that does something more proactive and useful than +1 to a test.

Pretty meh, which is too bad considering the card is thematic, cool, and the art is just stone rockin' amazing.



Now this card, right here, this is an engine card. This is the card that is the foundation of the evasion-lock deck of shenanigan tomfoolery. It's probably more important to Wendy than Skids (as Wendy by default cannot win a fight against a wet Muppet), but it's just a great card for either one of them. Talent (and thus slot-less), great ability, reusable, and fits heavily into their evasion-based fighting style. This is sweet, sweet goodness.

EDIT TO ADD: I don't know how I forgot about this. I blame the martinis, Martians, and manhandling. Anyway, while this is still an awesome engine card, it goes from being Very Good, Yes Indeed in Skids to pretty much Vital in Wendy. Wendy cannot win a normal fight without an extravagant investment in Combat; she's already evading almost everything. Wendy also needs card draw probably more than anyone else, not just because she needs her personal Elder Sign to complete her power set, but also because the more cards she has the more she can abuse her CHAOS BAG!!! redraw shenanigans. So, short view on this card: Wendy really wants it.



How this card gets away with costing 1 less than Backstab I have no idea, as it's arguably a better card in every way. True, it requires an exhausted enemy, but you are Skids or Wendy. This is not a major restriction on using the card. If anything, that's a soupcon of fairness towards the monsters to keep the card from being utterly busted. Amazing card. Also has two very great icons. Did I say amazing card yet?



Skids' other card that only he can use seems a lot better than Hot Streak. The ability is stronger, the costs (resources and XP) are more reasonable, and while it doesn't have an icon, it typically won't need it. Naturally, the nastier the CHAOS BAG!!! you are playing with, the better this becomes (turn a -8 to a +8? Don't mind if I do!). Even the opportunity cost of holding this card in your hand, and saving 2 resources to play it, is rather low, because if all your tests aren't needing Sure Gamble to win, that means you're probably winning anyway. Fun card.

While this only matters in an academic sense (as the two characters in question, Skids and Wendy, cannot get each other's cards in this case), it is interesting to compare this to the Survivor version, Lucky!, to see how the game costs two very equivalent effects. Sure Gamble costs 3 XP and 2 resources to reverse the polarity of the neutron flow on a draw pull. Lucky! costs you 1 resource and no XP to give +2 to a failed pull. In the standard CHAOS BAG!!! distribution for the first campaign, +2 to a failed pull actually wins you nearly as many failed pulls as Sure Gamble. Obviously, Lucky! can't give you a win on a -4, or turn a -8 into a +8; Sure Gamble has much more potential upside. But, pull for pull, Lucky! will generate nearly as much value for much less investment, which is interesting to look at.



Fast on a weapon is the main attraction here, but it's too bad the weapon itself is so lackluster. Skids can actually use it to finish off some low-level minions, but Switchblade is useless to Wendy, because she won't be able to hit anything to begin with, let alone get +damage on it. Since it's useless to Wendy and Skids has access to Guardian weapons, I'm not sure exactly who is supposed to be playing this.

But I do want to stress that Fast on a weapon, even a middling one as Switchblade, is excellent. Many times if you're being swarmed by even just two ghouls, taking an action to play a weapon not only exposes you to attacks of opportunity, it *costs you the action*. Switchblade gets around both of those problems. Still useless for Wendy, though.