Tony Morgan - The Aggressive Shareholder

The gunslinging bounty-hunter of Mass has found himself making more green than he knows what to do with it. He could donate the money to help society correct itself, but then he'd be out of a job and Arkham, being Arkham, would still somehow manage to corrupt whether he helps or not; may as well profit of this inevitability. Morgan figured it was high-time he started investing in specific connections. He may not have many friends, but he does know the right people: Mainly Chuck and the shady merchant simply know as The Dealer.

Welcome to my write-up for Tony Morgan. This has had a fun evolution throughout the cycles. His build-flexibility with a secondary role makes replay-value for him enticing, and after having fun sampling Finn with the market a few months back, I figured I'd give Morgan his crack at it. I chose as his secondary for this playthrough in order to add a combination of team-support and a healthy dose of front-line aggression. Look, Mr. Morgan doesn't like wasting time at business meetings.

Let's get this statement out of the way: You are going to put his to work, here. While I've added a fun new breaching tactic to help his team gain easy clues, your primary function is to make the Encounter Deck's enemy-inhabitants quiver at the thought of being drawn by Morgan; this is amplified by the fact that you will be yanking enemies out for easy, profitable pickings via First Watch & Kicking the Hornet's Nest.

As a result, Morgan has one condition for being contracted away from his weekly meetings at the office: There better be at least one hard clue-seeker in this arrangement. I rarely play less than 4 players, so I can't confirm how this will fit in 2p, but you should be fine. I do feel that, with his focus on fast-kills, he will perform better when more enemies are being fished out to give him a focused purpose, and the support cards will feel more impactful, here.

Ready to start blasting? Here's what you'll need to know as you dig into Morgan's coat pockets:

• Morgan's most important card is the Underworld Market, as it allows him the flexibility of storing the majority of his weapons within, thus accomplishing my favorite result of taking such an effective permanent asset: The fact that we never need to feel inclined to hard-mulligan for a weapon. 4 out of 10 of his murder-tools are stationed there, and while this is admittedly a small amount, I've found that even if it took two rounds, he could reliably get himself ready for battle in a short notice. The key word for the market is Consistency, so let me break down the expectation of that consistency for you:
  1. Early Game (Rounds 1-3) gives you the time you need to get your non-market assets, your starting weapon-of-choice out, and perhaps some early kills. Please note, and this mainly is a safety-tip for players unfamiliar with Tony: Only place one bounty per enemy, as it's not the payout that we like so much, but rather, the bonus-action against said enemy; this makes s and kills via his .38's an effective means of giving him more bonus actions.
  2. Mid Game (Rounds 4-8) are when you are focused on ridding the table of enemies, but also keeping the party's morale up via your side-tools, such as wrecking high-shroud locations, controlling the mythos phase, sniping would-be trouble-makers (Especially his quarry), and using your wealth to protect yourself. You will also take the opportunity during mid-game to yank out Morgan's embezzlements in order to foster a clean end-game later.
  3. Late Game (Rounds 9+) will allow Morgan to stay rich enough to shrug off cruddy encounters while still being able to top off the embezzlements. I'm a fan of always including those in an Underworld Market deck because you will consistently hit 14-20 banked resources, so long as you stay on top of it, which will then make subsequent scenarios easy to kick-start your engine when sitting at 12-15 resources on round one.
• While Tony has had fun exchanging contact-information with Joey, he is opting to call out Chuck Fergus for these operations, since we can net some decent gains out of good ol' Chuck: Stronger breaches, faster hornet's nest and marksman-snipes, and cheaper tricks and tactics to make his entry-fee worth it. His level 5 variant is not included in the core build, but you are encouraged to boost him late in the campaign in order to achieve maximum effect of the aforementioned options.
• Morgan likes Friday nights, because that's when he gets paid bonuses: In other words, you're looking at roughly 4-6 resources whenever playing Pay Day (3 actions, 1 bonus if the enemy has bounty, 1 from the .41 Derringer, 1 from Garrote Wire, 1 from Quick Thinking. You are strongly encouraged to put your local Fence to work when the opportunity for a Friday night celebration comes up, so that you aren't wasting an action to get paid, unlike your strong, but disposable bargains. This, combined with all of your other money-making tools, will mean his connections will give him easy solutions and nearly perfect breaches if you're saving those for the highest-shroud spots.

These are my priority picks in no particular order of importance: Tony's .38 Long Colt, Garrote Wire, Stylish Coat, Chuck Fergus, and Well Connected. You won't land all five, so anything else will just become bonus-value to you. Even just having one or two of these with anything else will still perform well, in my opinion. It should be noted that Stylish Coat is very much your most important early-game find. If you do not find it until half-way through a scenario, don't bother equipping it, as its value will be lost if the game is destined to end within the next five rounds.

Here is the link to my level 0 take on this.

Please note: If you are uncomfortable with utilizing Charon's Obol, this is optional. I like it, as I feel that Morgan should not have problems holding his own. That said, it is highly advised that IF you are taking it, check to see if anyone has a back-up heal, just in case. My group usually has one person dragging a contingency plan of sorts. If there is absolutely no planned healing, go without it, and bank your extra 3 xp for your market purchase.

(View at arkham-starter.com)

Initial Underworld Market Arrangement

• Switchblade x 2
• .25 Automatic x 2
• .41 Derringer x 2
• Embezzled Treasure x 2
• Mauser C96 x 2

Complete Underworld Market Arrangement

• Switchblade
• .41 Derringer x 2
• Lupara
• Fence x 2
• Embezzled Treasure x 2
• Pay Day x 2

Once the core is complete, I have three solid recommendations in the side-deck.

1. Well Connected will seem overkill, but let me tell you something: That's the name of the game, here. Smaller resource thresholds and the option to ready-up if we really need to milk its value has proven to be strong in the final scenarios; arguably too strong, since you can reliably end up with 16-20 resources (and that's AFTER you've dumped 20 into your embezzlements).
2. Chuck Fergus, as mentioned earlier, will give you strong mileage across your tactics and tricks. What's better than a stronger Breach? A free, stronger breach. Or a stronger, free marksmanship-snipe, or a free, fast three movements.
3. Another Day, Another Dollar. At this point? You're at the end. You think starting with 15 resources is excessive? Try starting with 19. Actually, what you can do at this point, and your team will feel less irked by this, is something one can often forget about Embezzled Treasure, which is to spread the love around. Keep 10-15 for yourself, donate the rest to the team. They might just reward you with a committed card when you've been caught without your money to rescue you.

I hope you have enjoyed my guide through this profitable business Morgan has been contracted to manage. I found I was able to enjoy his tendency to make enemies disappear while still pulling the occasional unexpected maneuver to surprise the table. Have fun shooting things, and please don't when you say "Watch this!", or your table will be required to point and laugh.

And Tony Morgan is not the type who takes pointing-and-laughing very well.