Ronin Directive

Credit: Aleksander Karcz - Note the Katana is hidden on his back...

This is a multiplayer deck about wielding a Katana and the finesse involved in mastering it. You'll need be Steady-Handed and have Strong-Arms to make this sing, it helps to have a Defensive Stance but you'll need some Fighting Lessons first.

There are several investigator options to explore when trying to make the Katana effective. For a blind play of Hemlock Vale I decided Roland Banks (parallel front only) had some really interesting flexibility from his Directives, not least in having fast insight or tactic events from Red Tape that give the double events like Thorough Inquiry and Task Force quite the potency. Having access to regular Roland's deckbuilding was primarily an upgrade choice, wanting to still have access to high level Guardian cards like Michael Leigh and Flurry of Blows that expanded on the combat options and damage. EDIT: This comes at the price of missing out on the 5 bonus exp from the parallel back which was a significant oversight when I built this deck. Thank you to Hirsute_Herb for picking that up. Everything still it works but level zero is going to have some place holders or you could decide to use In the Thick of It to get those key two Steady-Handed and a Strong-Armed to help you on the way

The choice of other directives was initially not so obvious but Leave no Doubt was a game changer in Roland's combat survivability, while Consult Experts is frankly a free 3 exp that can be toggled off when you need to extra soak damage using Roland's once per game Flip a Directive ability.

Most importantly, this deck has been really fun to play. It is not high powered but it is fun. I wouldn't take this in hard or expert, but it performed admirably on standard two-handed supporting a very nerdy Kate Winthrop deck.

• Overview

• Piloting

• Sword Play

• Regulation Firearms only

• Clues

• Cautions

• Other Cards

• Upgrade Path

• Mulligan for a weapon, ideally the Katana but hold onto Prepared for the Worst or Thorough Inquiry if none in the starting hand. Holding onto some resource generators like Charles Ross, Esq. or Stand Together can help too as the card cost can soon mount up, threatening to outstrip even the two card played per turn limit. Other cards are totally droppable.

• The extra actions generated by the Red Tape allow for significant flexibility during a turn; perhaps an extra attack or whatever is needed to help improve the board state

• Don't feel you need to play all of your cards out, be selective depending on the situation. A Samurai is patient, preparing to strike only at the right moment.

• Stick close to others, you want to be there to pick up the enemies or just help out, your Thorough Inquiry and Task Force only increase in opportunity value with others around. Charles Ross, Esq. is also wonderful for this.

• Using the Katana is subtle and takes some experimentation as to when to commit skill pips and how and when to boost with Wolf Mask or just rely on your static boosts from Reliable, Beat Cop or later the mighty Michael Leigh

• If you are expecting to trigger the big 3 damage swing regularly don't, the Katana is death by 1000 cuts, the more you cut the more you're likely you're going to trigger that critical hit. Reading the chaos bag is part of this dance. Lean onto the average negative as your target, add an additional 2 to that absolute value and you have the value you want to succeed by on a test. eg if the average bag pull is -2 you want to be 4 higher than the test difficulty, if the average is -6 then 8 higher etc. You'll be pleasantly surprised more often than not when the blade proves how sharp it is.

• This actually adds another interesting consideration of when to play the static boosts of Reliable or Beat Cop. Early in a campaign you might not want to have Reliable or Beat Cop out for some of the weaker 2 fight enemies but as you see 3 or 4 fight enemies, it is time to see that reliable katana doing some work with the back up of a Beat Cop.

• Your main mitigation for assisting the trigger of the critical 3-damage swing are Steady-Handed and Strong-Armed. Adjusting this is a lot more doable than it seems too. Later as you upgrade, Galvanize can to give you another opportunity to trigger the critical hit, either after the first critical hit or after the bonus attack exhausts the Katana.

• As you are hitting so often for 1 pip of damage, the damage boosts from Vicious Blow, Strong-Armed, Beat Cop and Michael Leigh are also going to do some work for higher health enemies. Generally you want to hold on to the skills and wolf mask charges to either help trigger the critical hit on the meatier enemies, or if just doing a punt with static boosts, the additional damage to either the second attack or the bonus attack. I experimented with adding in Grievous Wound hoping this was the place for that card, but it was never necessary and took up deck space that was better served with Fighting Lessons.

• You can probably tell by now that using the Katana is not reliable so why persist in using it for a whole campaign?

• The answer is in that cheeky attack. Bonus attack swings can end up being used more often and not just because the critical hit doesn't fire. A fast attack can save a lot of time, even more so if it gets rid of an elusive enemy for a turn, or knocks out a weak entirely with Strong-Armed. That versatility is where the Katana gets its literal edge over many other weapons. It is almost as satisfying as landing that critical hit and healing a horror from Steady-Handed as it is doing a quick off-hand snicker-snap! to silence an irritating doom enemy. Because of this, with Roland's pitiful , holding back an offering on the Wolf Mask, or keeping a Strong-Armed, Fighting Lessons or Defensive Stance to hand, can be key to get the most out of the attack.

• A typical two health enemy combat is , if you have boosts, or , if not. Or just with a critical.

• Three health enemies are similar with , , but again it could just be . For both 2 and 3 health enemies, you have the option of missing with one hit. Another reason Safeguard is in the deck.

• Four health and above enemies are going to need a bit more focus on the critical hits or bonus damage from skills. I would often save skills for those situations. Michael Leigh is a frankly wonderful addition to this deck, magnifying both the damage on either attack with a satisfying regularity if he gets out early enough.

• As this deck is about a single sword, it can be tempting to relegate Roland's .38 Special. This is a big mistake. The extra weapon may be your only weapon early game and it is very reliable damage. With the amount of draw in the deck, finding a Bandolier is not that hard either, worse case it gets over ridden by a Katana when out of ammo, best case it is strapped to your bandolier ready to add a more powerful +2 damage after a single Katana hit.

• There is an argument to add another melee weapon in the deck for consistency. As such a cheap melee weapon like Survival Knife is a great back up weapon to replace the Flashlight or even The Hungering Blade with a bit of naughty exp instead of Reliable. I actually did upgrade into The Hungering Blade during the campaign and oh boy was that a bloodbath. Kate looked on in abject horror at that point. It was less like Arkham and more like Anime!

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• Following on from ensuring weapon consistency, at first blush this deck doesn't need clues. However in two player at least, those extra clues are gold. The combination of Task Force and some from Glory helped facilitate clues on the down turns. Once you have Michael Leigh, this becomes a really strong argument for keeping at least one Flashlight around too.

• The elephant in the room I hear you screaming is Cover Up. Well, one amazing realization I made playing this deck was I could pretty much ignore it if it came late. Alternatively I could work on it gradually with the help of a strong cluver. This was all thanks to Leave no Doubt. As long as you don't generate 5 mental trauma over the campaign it is very possible not to worry about it at at. Of course do see the the cautions below, but even considering trauma from other sources Cover Up only generated 1 mental trauma for Roland over 6 scenarios and I only worked on clearing it once.

• Another consideration would be to use the Advanced or replacement Signatures for Roland. I'm not sure the Advanced Roland's .38 Special is worth the advanced Cover Up in this deck. I was almost torn by choosing the Mysteries Remain andThe Dirge of Reason signatures over the .38, but this deck needs at least one back up weapon so it stayed. I also did not want to add both signatures as that would bloat the deck and reduce the chance of seeing the Katana.

• To be short the main concerns are the Directives, their power requires a responsible officer after all.

• The first pit fall of this deck is only playing two cards a turn due to Red Tape, this is not bad actually as you often save an action playing an insight or tactic that can be used on basic or activated actions that are always helpful. Also remember you can always commit cards with abandon. The main drawback for this directive is effectively hobbling Ever Vigilant. This was actually the main reason I went with Charles Ross, Esq. in the end and I didn't regret it!

• As you are also limited to two moves by Leave no Doubt Safeguard (2) is not really necessary. In most cases moving just twice a turn is not a problem, and was never an issue in my entire HV campaign.

• The final directive Consult Experts can put some extra damage pressure on Roland, something Leave No Doubt only goes some way to mitigate. Usually however, once you have your cards out, Charles Ross, Esq. or the Beat Cop can rescind their patronage with the Flip a Directive action. Then you can start putting emergency damage on your allies. Once Michael Leigh is out you have quite the beefcake to help out too.

• The last point here is healing. Do consider someone on your team as a healer. Roland can tank a lot of damage and mitigate some horror with Steady-Handed but if no healer is around you might want to consider Dodge and/or Second Wind as alternatives. In my plays Kate had researched Ravenous Myconid that was an absolute godsend for both of them. Even with that, by the end of the campaign Roland was sitting with 4 Mental Trauma and 7 Physical Trauma. He was quite the bloody and broken man by the end, and it was glorious.

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• Subbing in Riot Whistle was also a strong consideration for saving action economy so I actually had this in my original deck, but it turned out easier just to engage on the off time it was needed rather that the action to play out the whistle. At higher player counts it could be stronger however.

• As mentioned above there are arguments to include cards like Second Wind, Dodge, Survival Knife to tune your experience.

• Survivability from treacheries is going to take a small mention here, for the most part you can tank them and move on, but there is a keen logic in adding a Forewarned in the deck. I added a one of them in for the campaign to try but it was variable how helpful it was.

• As I was writing up I saw the very wonderful deck by Drostt here Strong-armed, Steady -handed There are some interesting considerations that could be included for Roland, not least Hiking Boots and perhaps some Dissection Tools. But very much I think Joe is a better place for a cluver focused Ronin. It is good to see Michael getting some love there too!

• I'm going to close off waxing lyrical about Charles Ross, Esq.. He was an absolute lynch pin of the deck and such a great support for the rest of the team. With him and Stand Together, even with Kate's frankly obscene collection of science equipment we were never really wanting for resources. So good for item rich decks and wonderful in this one!

• EDIT: Further to Hirsute_Herb's valid point about no bonus exp for normal Roland deckbuilding, your first 5 exp should be x2 Steady-Handed, x2 Strong-Armed and x1 Reliable. You can consider In the Thick of It to get you there faster but the extra trauma may necessitate changing a glory for Second Wind.

• Core cards here are Michael Leigh, Enchant Weapon, Galvanize, Vicious Blow.

• I was very happy to find a home here for Galvanize, a card I've always wanted to include but never found the perfect spot. It has the added bonus of readying either the Katana or Michael Leigh to power up for another attack, or even safeguard if that ever came up as helpful. A shame it doesn't work on enchant weapon though.

• Enchant weapon is frankly awesome in this deck, principally for the additional power it gives to the attack of the Katana. Brutally efficient.

• Nice to have are Defensive Stance, Stand Together, Prepared for the Worst, a second Reliable, Bandolier, Flurry of Blows.

• Defensive stance is a joyous enabler of this deck, in a similar breath to Strong-Armed. Bandolier helps add a bit more mythos protection and power up enchant weapon while Flurry of Blows is the one off bomb card and another argument for squeezing in another melee weapon like The Hungering Blade.

• If concerns of boosting you could consider Bruiser or Combat Training, perhaps more reliable alternatives to the Wolf Mask, and a possible addition for hard/expert games, but I'm not convinced.

(View at arkham-starter.com)

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