A Skilled Detective

Ian_MB · 3979

Right off the top, I'll say that this deck did extremely well in a solo campaign.

This build may seem a bit unorthodox at first glance because it focuses so heavily on skills, dedicating a full 11 slots to them. This was my way of doing a little experiment, creating a rather minimalist setup for Roland and letting the skills do the rest, while minimizing the need to spend resources.

In your opening hand, you are basically looking for either the .45 automatic or Machete. Getting the Magnifying Glass would be nice as well. Your basic loadout for the game will simply be 1 weapon, the Magnifying Glass, and Beat Cop. This should allow you to fight like a beast and gather clues quickly. The skills will provide you the pumps you need. Since there are many of them, don't be afraid to throw one of the card drawing skills to an easier test in the early game to try to fish for more cards.

The basic strategy of the deck is simple: get your key assets out early, investigate when there are no enemies around, bash in heads if there is an enemy around. If there are no clues at your location, your last action should be to move where there is a clue in case an enemy shows up the next round. The main way that this deck will struggle is if your weapons are buried in the bottom of your deck. If that is the case, then find way to get into tests that use the card-drawing skills you have in hand or spend actions to draw.

Upgrade Suggestions: Upgraded Beat Cop is first priority, as he can help save actions by finishing off enemies using his free trigger ability. From there, an upgraded Magnifying Glass is nice, but not strictly necessary. The Shotgun should work well given the abundance of skills, but just make sure to save one or two Overpowers in that case. Police Badge is a good option since you don't have too much else to pay for. Enjoy!

MINOR SCENARIO SPOILER This deck managed to grab all 6 cultists solo in Midnight Masks. I'm not saying that it's guaranteed to have the same results for you, but it's at least possible! END OF SPOILER

14 comments

Dec 06, 2016 Jonas_Albrecht · 1

I like it! Given Roland's skills, have you tried swapping 1 Overpower for 1 more Manual Dexterity?

Dec 06, 2016 Heyenzzz · 6428

Nice build, I played something similar. Never managed to grab more than 4 cultists though.

@Jonas_AlbrechtI think it depends on if you plan on putting multiple Shotgun(s) in your deck later on in the campaign. If so, 2 copies of Overpower are nice to have to ramp up Shotgun damage.

Dec 06, 2016 zozo · 2912

Nice write up - thank you. Can you talk me through Working a Hunch vs Deduction? I've had this conversation before on Discord about the relative merits of the two. Obviously WaH boasts rather than just the one, and is fast, but given how often Roland is investigating (hopefully), doesn't Deduction do some of the work?

Dec 06, 2016 Ian_MB · 3979

@Jonas_AlbrechtIt's a tough call and I can see arguments for going either way. I chose Overpower mainly because I will be doing far more combat checks than agility checks, and to help with Shotgun as @Heyenzzzmentioned.

@zozoThis is another tough call. I don't think either card is clearly better, rather it comes down to the deck. I chose Working a Hunch in this case for a couple of reasons: 1) It helps deal with locations that Roland will have a harder time investigating, such as those with a shroud 4 or that have been made more difficult by a treachery. 2) There are several locations that only have one clue, in which case I'd rather just save an action, play Working a Hunch, grab the clue, and move somewhere else without having to do an investigate check at all. 3) This deck doesn't use up resources that much so the extra cost compared to Deduction isn't an issue, as it might be for other decks.

Dec 06, 2016 Heyenzzz · 6428

The effects (gaining 1 (extra) clue) on Working a Hunch and Deduction might be very similar, the mechanics of both cards are very different. Deduction requires you to actually investigate succesfully to get the extra clue, while with Working a Hunch you get the clue as long as you're willing to pay the resource costs. Those different mechanics make that Deduction works best with natural strong investigators like Daisy Walker and Working a Hunch is more suited for less strong investigators who still want to extract clues from high shroud locations.

I agree with Ian_MB that in this Roland Banks deck (that isn't using a pair of Flashlight's to lower shroud values) going with Working a Hunch seems the best choice.

Dec 07, 2016 zozo · 2912

@Heyenzzz @Ian_MB I'm coming around to Working a Hunch - I think particularly if you have the spare bucks (and this deck isn't committing to talents for its excess cash) I can see the facility and flexibility it offers. Thanks for your great comments.

Dec 10, 2016 AegriSomnia · 7913

Love this write-up! Super intuitive to lean more heavily on skills since all the assets are quite expensive for Roland. I play it just a tad off from this list, but I think that's just my preference. Definitely will be recommending this list in the future to others.

Dec 11, 2016 AkaanQ · 1543

Just won the campaign (R1) with this deck !

Dec 14, 2016 bullettrang · 13

What do you dump for police badge and shotgun?

Dec 22, 2016 Ian_MB · 3979

@AkaanQNice, congrats!

@bullettrangFor cuts, I don't think First Aid is essential, so that could go. If you go Shotgun, you might decide that Dynamite Blast is not necessary, although I do like Dynamite as an emergency option. You might feel like 2 copies of Evidence is overkill.

Oct 21, 2019 STL_Lucas · 7

This deck is awesome for someone that is playing true solo. Roland is very strong in Night of the Zealot and I am very happy with my experience playing this deck. I was able to "win" the campaign for my first time ever with this deck. This wasn't a blind play-through and I played the second scenario several times and the third scenario twice.

The Gathering = R2 (7 xp)

Midnight Masks = R1 (5 of 6 + 8 xp)

The Devourer Below = R2 (11 xp)

My upgrade path for this deck was to spend 6 of the 7 xp gained in the first scenario to upgrade the 2x Beat Cops and 2x Magnifying Glasses. I then used the 1 remaining plus the 8 gained on the second scenario to replace the .45 Automatics with Shotguns and a First Aid for another Dynamite.

My win on the final scenario was due to having a Shotgun and Beat cop already equipped with a Dynamite, Dodge, Overpower and 8 resources in hand. I was able to throw the dynamite for 3 damage, dodge the attack that round, then tested 10 to 5 on the first shotgun hit for 5 damage, 5 to 5 on the second shotgun hit for 1 damage and kill off the beat cop to hit the final 1. It was thrilling and extremely lucky but also one of the only ways I could calculate doing enough damage over 2 turns to pull it off. It took a lot of replay and gaming the scenario but after my first blind playthrough ending with R3 and several others ending in defeat, this was a very proud moment.

Sep 14, 2021 +DAGON+ · 1

я понять не могу почему никто не берет тайник? ему ресурсы нужны, как рональд будет юзать желтое событие если у него нет ресурсов, да и событие стремное, ему охота нужна

Apr 21, 2022 Rhamahan · 7

@+DAGON+ : he does include 2 emergency cache cards. I'm not clear what you're asking.

Apr 21, 2022 +DAGON+ · 1

i sad working f yunch is not effective. I'm russian and know your language, strange right?