Leo Anderson for Forgotten Age (some spoilers)

Upgraded version of the deck here

I'm going to spoil a bunch of random stuff in the Forgotten Age campaign

And this deck doesn't make any sense outside of that campaign. So I suggest not reading this unless you've played the campaign once. I'm not going to spoil secrets or plot though, just mechanics, treacheries, supply usages. I'm not going to mention or consider anything from the Return To, except for the player cards. Those I will consider. Them's the rules!

What is this??...

A deck I've made to try and beat the Forgotten Age with Leo Anderson. The campaign is brutal, so I'm trying to heavily adjust the deck to the challenges of this specific campaign. He has 1 foot, which is a big problem. We're gonna have to work around this.

Upgrades path! Again, just in case, upgraded version of the deck is here

1. Charisma
2. Upgrade Beat Cops

3. x2 Think on Your Feet => x2 Extra Ammunition

   In scenario 2, we don't need to deal with snakes. And later on, we don't care about anything, we've got a lot of xp to carry us.

4. Stick to the Plan

5. x2 Elusive => x2 Brand of Cthugha

   Doesn't compete for hand slots with our big guns, can attack enemies that are engaged with your friends (unlike the flamethrower). And we don't need Elusive after the 1st scenario.

6. x2 .45 Automatic => x2 Flamethrower

7. x2 Machete => x1 Ace of Swords, x1 Ever Vigilant

   With 4 big guns and 2 Brands of Cthuga, we don't really need Machete, and it competes for hand slots anyway. We're taking Ever Vigilant to put it in our Stick to the Plan.

8. Another Charisma

9. x2 "You handle this one!" => x2 Backpack (2)

   To increase the odds of finding a Flamethrower. Could also use Black Market, but I'm not sure there's space for it in the deck, and it costs xp.

10. Upgrade Safeguard
11. x2 Overpower => x2 Leo De Luca
12. x2 Guts => x1 Shaving Man, x1 Hallowed Mirror
13. x1 Glory => Girish Kadakia
14. Luxury upgrades. Contraband, Stand Together, Guard Dog, Ever Vigilant, Brand of Cthugha. Order doesn't matter, and arguably upgrades at this point also shouldn't matter.

Supply choices

1. Give this man binoculars. He's old, he can't see very well, and he could use 2 extra xp to get his stick to the plan, and his big guns, and extra ammunition, and upgraded beat cops, and maybe an ace of swords, and... Yeah, Leo wants the xp ASAP. That's why I'm going Thicc Karen
2. Despite all my attempts to avoid getting poisoned, probably fucking everyone is going to get poisoned. Just buy a medicine per investigator
3. I don't like using the map in the first scenario. It's just delaying the inevitable and wasting actions, it doesn't actually achieve anything. On unsuccessful explorations, you're going to shuffle locations back into the deck, ruining the order of cards and getting the treacheries from the bottom of the deck. So either you're going to have to go back and forth and endlessly reorganize the deck, or you're going to give up and just tank the treacheries, and run something more useful
4. Probably blankets. I mean, I don't want my guys to suffer...
5. I don't like getting provisions. Too little impact, so kind of a waste of points.
6. Don't get the pendant. As the description says, it's mostly useless. Only helps with City of Archives, and only if you're struggling with the scenario. But if you're reading this, you probably know what you're dealing with, and at least some of the team members are well prepared. This deck actually isn't great in the scenario, so good fucking luck. Still, I think pendant isn't worth it. Either you can win the scenario and you're totally fine, or you're severely unprepared and are going to crash and burn, and the pendant isn't going to do anything. It's like a niche win-more supply for a single scenario, that has a big chance of not doing anything at all.

Why I'm running weird cards?

1. Think on Your Feet - the best card to deal with a Pit Viper. Just leave it in the Expedition Camp or whatever, it doesn't have hunter.
2. Elusive - another good way to deal with a snake, the taboo actually doesn't matter that much for my purpose.
3. "You handle this one!" - when I don't have a disposable ally for Snake Bite, my friends are going to feel a bit disposable, instead. Nice!

Why I'm only running one of:

1. Safeguard - It's great for actions efficiency. But it doesn't actually solve any problems. The more cards like this I have in the deck, the less likely I am to be able to actually do my job by turns 2-3
2. Contraband. I'm going to put it into my Stick to the Plan with Extra Ammunition. And use with .45 Automatic, .45 Thompson, or later on Flamethrower. So I'm going to have like 14 ammo somewhat reliably. When the deck has gained some xp, we really don't need the 2nd copy. Until then, Contraband has the same problem. It doesn't actually solve enemies or treacheries on its own, it helps when you're set up already.
3. Glory. Ehhh, I'm really not sure I should be running this card at all. I felt like I don't have many good card draw options, but that I did need some card draw. To get Guts before the first agenda advances, to get Overpowers to deal with Overgrowth, to get more disposable allies. And it's a fast card that gives me that. Still, I want to have as many problem solving cards as possible, and Glory only works after you've started to solve problems. It's not going to help me set up, it's going to help me sustain. And the deck is trying to set up as quickly as possible.

Why am I not running?..

1. Options for dealing with snakes that I didn't include: Decoy, First Watch, Warning Shot. I considered these worse than the ones I chose, and I didn't want to allocate more space in the deck to the snakes (Although running a deck that's just 30 ways of running away from the snakes sounds perfect)
2. Lucky Cigarette Case. Later on in the campaign, I'm planning to run Hallowed Mirror, and I don't want to include Relic Hunter, the deck is already xp hungry, even with Charon's Obol. In earlier scenarios, I feel that value isn't as important as tempo. You have to immediately get some allies, a weapon, and be ready to run away from the snakes, tank exploration deck treacheries, kill enemies. Spending actions and resources to play cards that slowly generate value is something we can't afford to do in these brutal scenarios, in my opinion.
3. Enchanted Blade. It's a totally valid option, I could cut Machete and run this one. I wouldn't cut .45 Automatic, because I want to get value from contraband. The problem with Machete is that you can't use it to shoot at other investigators. But you can do that with the pistol and the big gun, and it doesn't require charges or ammo, so I decided to choose that one. But it's close.
4. Bandolier. Too slow. Don't think we need it. Not enough space in the deck. (I wish I could run bandolier and a survival knife though...) (I don't think I can, even if only after some upgrades. We want too much stuff)
5. Leo De Luca. I want disposable allies that can be sacrificed to Snake Bite. Leo costs 6, competes with Mitch Brown, so I don't think I can comfortably include him. I probably want to include him once I have some charisma. I think a great idea is getting Adaptable, and using it to get rid of all my elusives, think on your feets, take the initiatives
6. On the Hunt. It was a big consideration. Draw Eztli Guardian instead of a snake or a bite, and bypass his inconvenient spawn and his aloof. Draw Hand of the Brotherhood and just kill it quickly instead of worrying about it?.. But I don't want to run the risk of actually getting a snake instead of delaying it, and overall I don't think it does enough to warrant a slot in the deck.
7. Prepared for the Worst. Also a big consideration. I decided to run more weapons instead of relying on this cards RNG. Also, I feel like we don't even have time to spend an action playing this before the problems start to pile up. Maybe I can get an upgraded version and put it into Stick to the Plan with upgrades?
8. Vicious Blow. The only enemy with an odd amount of health in the first scenario is Brood of Yig, and they are only added to the encounter deck after the first agenda advances, so they aren't relevant for the first like 5 turns. So, this card isn't actually going to help too much in that scenario! And later on, I'm hoping to survive off my xp.

Upgrades I considered

1. Backpack (2)

   I want it. But we don't actually have that many items, and then there's the City of Archives...

2. Swift Reload

   It sounds fancy, but like, we have Extra Ammunition and Contraband in our Stick to the plan. We have ammo for days. It's the dream I have, but we don't need it...