Sledgehammer

THIS IS A THOUGHT PROVOKING CARD

edit- added some more(thanks Zerogrim), fixed some grammar

tldr: it is a Daniela card with bandolier, if you use with others, give it card support. That's about it.

Okay, we have a lvl zero splash card that both guardians and survivors can take,for a card, 3 resources, two hand slots and an action,we get...

1 Action - -1 Fight +1 damage

2 Actions - +2 Fight +2 damage

the two printed abilities on the card are interesting, but I won't mention the second action ability first, because if you can't use the first ability, I wouldn't take it at all. There are alot of people that could take this card, COULD, but should stay away, the -1 is not very nice unless you have card help. A few people come to mind tho.

Mark Harrigan COULD with his fight, he could use it effectively, but for the same cost, minis a hand slot, he could have a .32 colt, it use ammo of course, but he is the gun specialist and therefore should use guns.

Natcho COULD with his Fight, but he is better off using his boxing gloves, because it helps him get his spirit events back.

Survivors could take this, but I don't know who would really want to, I had a nice Theory with Calvin Wright... if you put enough damage on him, you COULD use it, but we have the meat cleaver, which is obviously the victor. Silas COULD of course with the skill card help,but that goes against his net and harpoon. William COULD use it, but he is better disposed to playing cards that get discarded and playing them back.

Now, I'm saying that people with pretty decent fight should only take this, but that doesn't mean that others couldn't, if you give it some support, it will perform. The interesting thing about multi-class cards like this, is that depending on who or what class you take it in, will change the type of cards you use with it.

If you take it as a guardian, you have cards like beat cop, or grete to negate the Fight loss, or physical training to pay the difference. This class, especially as you lvl up, is pretty good at increasing the fight value and not much else.

On the other side of the spectrum, survivors don't provide much in fight up options,but they are extremely good with changing the outcome for the best. Lucky! helps with the risky -1, live and learn makes sure you have the best chance when you use the second ability. There are some team work options with opps(2), and as you upgrade, more options open up.

The main issue here, is that you are taking a 2 hand slot weapon, and a bunch of cards to help support it,so you can't do much else. You could take cards that support and help you find clues, but it is clearly obvious that if you use this, you are supposed to fight and just fight, this make it a pretty decent card the higher the team count.

All that said, I'm sure this is a solid choice for Daniela. Our newest guardian. Her 5 fight and 1 Intellect tells us that she is good at fighting, and not much else, she also upgrades into a bunch of really good survivor cards. The issue is that she can,at the same lvl,use the .32 colt, which is frustrating. It also competes with her wrench (unless you use bandolier.)

So is there anything good about it? well, let's say this is a 3 health enemy ,which is common. you could...

  • 2 tests with .32 colts 1 bullet and a punch for 3 damage

Or

  • 1 test at +2 Fight for 3 damage.

It's the same amount of action, just less test taking. You can also repeatedly use the sledgehammer, as it doesn't expire. beware using the second ability,you could fail, and that's a waste. but if you take this with survivor access, they have ways of dealing with failure.(including the autofail.)

If you take this card, you will and should, commit to fighting, because that's were this card stands, fighting.

(Any other opinions is welcome, I'm sure I missed a bunch)

For 1 health enemies, just don't use a weapon. Get +0. — MrGoldbee · 1492
I'm just trying to make rats as hard as possible >:) — Therealestize · 74
Lucky, Opps(2), Live and learn and Granny Orne all say hi. — Zerogrim · 295
Yeah, it is *really* good at killing 3-health enemies. In campaigns where there are a lot of those in early scenarios, I think this makes perfect sense as a starting weapon. Include Vicious Blows for in case you hit a 4-health enemy, too. — OrionJA · 1
@Zerogrim I never thought about granny one! Nice! — Therealestize · 74
It's a doable Lily weapon. She can start with 5 fight, can't use guns (so colts are out of the question), and can take up to 5 guardian 0 cards. — jaunt · 20
Wondering if this is a good weapon choice for a Stella fail-forward/damage dealer deck, at least early in a campaign. The first action -- a tentative swing -- brings her fist score down to a 2, closer to a likely fail. If you don't have Drawing Thin in play yet, that fail becomes a lot more reliable. With Rabbit's Foot in play and a Take Heart commit, you're getting cards/resources. Then you take a massive swing (two actions) for a confident 3-damage blow... and you have an action left in the turn thanks to Stella's reaction affect. One turn, a 3-damage enemy dispatched, along with assorted card draws/resource pulls, as well as an extra action. With a Live and Learn in hand, you can even save the Drawing Thin tap for the second blow and still have a fairly reliable 3-damage swing. Workable, at least until you get enough XP for a chainsaw or 4 XP sledgehammer. — tinfoilarkham · 2
@tinfoilarkham: Also thought of that recently - makes sense to pair it with Oops! — AlderSign · 396
Sled Dog

Dogs are an expensive weapon that takes up the ally slot. Having just 2 dogs out compares compares quite favorably to the .45 Thompson, albeit one that can only shoot once per round. The movement effect is mostly icing — situationally useful, but not what you get the dogs for.

Being able to fight only once per round is bad for a primary fighter, but being such a heavy investment, they're too expensive to run as an off-class combat tool if you don't expect to use them often. Usually events like Occult Invocation and Backstab are favored for those purposes because Seekers and Rogues usually have better things to do with their ally slots. Playing down 2-3 dogs just to use them twice or thrice a scenario is an extremely poor use of resources and actions. The same is true for Mystics have their combat spells, and Guardians just have better weapons. That includes you, Leo Anderson.

Which leaves us with Survivors, who can actually use the dogs quite decently. Survivors have good draw and econ now, but notably poor action compression which the dogs help with. Calvin for example likes the soak the dogs give and doesn't have to worry about managing horror from the Meat Cleaver. If they miss, they have Live and Learn and Oops! (2) to compensate for the miss the same way they would use an Old Hunting Rifle. Tommy can also borrow those tools if he wants to be creative, but like other guardians he's got better weapons when he gets XP.

The other candidate is Lily Chen, who lacks good low-level weapon options due to her Firearms restriction. Instead of playing several mediocre spells just to power Dragon Pole, why not bring a couple of dogs along?

suika · 9511
I would like to expand on your mention of lily chen. For her, the dogs: — Leilasaida · 9
1. Provide you with a fight action for your discipline 2. don't cost you a guardian slot lvl 1 — Leilasaida · 9
Gang Up

This card is absolutely wonderful, even on hard, if you’re willing to sit on it a bit. Unless you’re Lola, you already control one class card, your investigator card. And with Edge of the Earth, there are a few of triple class cards that get you to 3. Double class cards are available, even for level zero. Also useful: having teammates who can play things for you (like Bob).

My favorite option is the investigator who can play cards from any class, as long as they heal horror. With Peter Silvestre, illicit alcohol, and the scroll of secrets(0), you’re there. (There’s also Shrewd Analysis, which is vital if you’re doing the ancient Stones trick. Easy!)

With your tableau set up, you can swing a +5/6 damage brutalizer for the extremely reasonable price of three resources. Overpower or promise of power can get you to ridiculous numbers. In duo, this can kill tough enemies. In a larger group, it can supplement your dynamite as a boss killer. And late game is when bosses typically show up!

Fear actresses and therapists, because they have many friends.

MrGoldbee · 1492
I don't think there is any setup on for this card. — david6680 · 66
According to https://arkhamdb.com/rules#Ownership_and_Control you control all the cards in your hand, deck and discard pile. — david6680 · 66
While you do control those cards, card abilities only interact with cards in play unless other areas are specifically referenced. Sothere is abit of setup. — TastyToast · 307
Technically, you can add Shrewd Analysis without any viable card to upgrade, so whether or not you're doing the ancient stones trick, Carolyn can do it. — Lailah · 1
Indeed. And she also always can add Arcane Research, which has several viable targets (Deny Existence, Clarity of Mind, Earthly Serenity, Blood Eclipse), and having a couple of horror to heal on herself from turn 1 isn't necessarily bad on it's own for her. So she can always fight with 5 combat for 4 damage. 5 combat is not enought for most enemies. She would still need cards to commit or a "Keen Eye". But 4 damage minimum is awesome. And like said, she can push the card's use even further with just one rogue and/ or one survivor card in play under her control. — Susumu · 381
Trusty Bullwhip

Monterey Jack wants to go fast. Which means being away from the party tank. This weapon solves a lot of problems in an elegant way:

*You don’t need to play it until an enemy shows up.

*It doesn’t exhaust until want it to. Kill a one HP foe, then exhaust a boss. Or get it enchanted to do a two damage evade.

*You can use it on massive enemies or people engaged with others, with a low risk of damaging them.

It’s also extremely cheap for what it does, and can trigger any number of skill cards, like watch this or manual dexterity, which are harder to get from your seeker cards.

MrGoldbee · 1492
The bullwhip does take up a hand slot. I agree that it's pretty good for Monterey though. — Tay5967 · 20
Foresight

The most powerful encounter-cancel card in AHLCG. If you know the encounter card, you can achieve Ward of Protection (5) with no resource and sanity cost. Moreover, you could play it for another investigator at your location. More important thing is that you can cancel weakness. Unlike other cards, there are NO weakness restriction. Additionally, it works for Peril encounter, I believe (since play timming is before you know the card is peril).

However, it's hard to use this by itself. You should know the encounter/player deck to play it. It means that you need to use Foresight with some supporting cards. However, it's not hard work when you firstly see this card.

  • Scrying/Alyssa Graham: Scrying/Alyssa is the best way to look cards for mystics. If you're Gloria, I think you already use this. One problem is Arcane/Ally slot to handle it. If you have enough slot, this card will be good way.
  • First Watch: Here is the best solution, I think. Play First Watch. Look before dealing cards. Then, naming what you just looked. It seems that the investigator do not draw the encounter card from the deck when resolving the First Watch according to the FAQ 2.0, so that it does not work.
  • Parallel Fates: 0-level is not robust, but 2-level is robust. I don't use those yet, but it will be helpful.
  • Norman Withers: Norman Withers usually reveal the weakness before drawing it. It means he cancel his weakness by Foresight. However, it's not true for The Harbinger. The solution is simple. You may use replacement set :)
  • Mysterious Chanting: Some encounter make you search encounter deck and draw what you want. If you're not first-run, you may know which is in encounter so that naming it.
  • Search Cards: I'm not sure I can play Foresight AFTER search BEFORE draw a card. Currently, my party plays Foresight as a ruling that I should name a card before search deck. Even if this cases, searching can increase the probability. If you're Agnes, you may play Word of Command to search Dark Memory and discard by Foresight without effect.
elkeinkrad · 496
I think the search card thing works with foresight, its no more OP than just using alyssa graham every turn on the top of your deck. guess I haven't used that combo, is it that much of a game break to have a generic weakness counter tech? (given some weaknesses have counter tech anyway) — Zerogrim · 295
Does Foresight work with First Watch? What I'm worried about is that the cards each player is drawing is not "from the encounter deck", but rather from those that were dealt to them? — slyguavas · 49
I think it works with First Watch. This is because First Watch states "look" and "deal" and "draw" the encounter cards. I think that the cards are still in encounter deck before drawn, since the cards are only looked and no physically moved. — elkeinkrad · 496
This is great with Alyssa, wether for weaknesses or encounter cards. Also note that compared to most counters, this also cancels SURGE and ENEMIES. — Django · 5162
Thanks for the comment @Django. I edit the review to state about Alyssa also. — elkeinkrad · 496
Scroll of secrets can set this this up also, either for the next player's encounter deck draw, or somewhat less reliably for any player deck. — SleepyLibrarian · 44
Review suggests that Norman could intercept a weakness card other than Harbinger. Norman's forced effect says that if his revealed top card is a weakness, he must immediately play it. Does this mean there's a window in there between Reveal & Draw where Norman could Foresight away the weakness? — HanoverFist · 748
Answered my own question, it was pointed out that this card is played in response to the draw being triggered per its own text. So, yes it can. — HanoverFist · 748
I'm sorry for late reply, but I check the comment now. For other reader, I simply write the reason. Noman's Forced ability just states "draw" the weakness, so after the top (weakness) card of the deck is revealed, it is drawn. Thus, Foresight can be played; it is Fast card with specific timing, so we can play at that specifi timing. — elkeinkrad · 496
However, The Harbinger is just an exception. After The Harbinger is revealed, due to its constant ability, "card in your deck cannot be drawn", it is not drawn. Thus, The Harbinger is not drawn, so Forsight cannot be played since The Harbinger cannot be drawn. — elkeinkrad · 496
It's noted that the text with "cannot" has priority in this game, so even if Norman's Forced ability, The Harbinger is not drawn until ->-> is triggered. — elkeinkrad · 496