Mano a cardo: “Eat Lead!”

Mano a cardo is an article series that takes a look at one particular player card in Arkham Horror: The Card Game. Whether it’s a well-known staple, a hidden gem or even a coaster, the article will take a focused look at the many or negligible uses of the card. 

Spoiler Warning: this article pictures the scenario token effects card in Pallid Mask from the Path to Carcosa campaign.

Eat Lead(2) was one of the cards teased by Fantasy Flight Games in their announcement for Dim Carcosa, and since then it’s been a bit of a head scratcher. Indeed, I quickly panned as being amongst the worst cards in the game. Its effect — revealing additional chaos tokens — is powerful, but the problem is not what this card does, but what the card asks. Let’s break down all the costs on this card:

0 resources: it’s free, so far so good…

2XP: competes directly with Beat Cop(2), Vicious Blow(2), or Police Badge(2) but not out of line with similarly costed effects such as Time Warp(2), Grotesque Statue(4), and Lucky Dice(2). Also so far so good…

Spend X additional ammo…: alright you lost me. Ammo is a highly limited resource supplied primarily through the cost of playing the Firearm in the first place. To date, there are only two cards that can resupply your Firearm: Extra Ammunition(1) and Contraband. Ammo is of course also necessary to use the Firearm, including to initiate the action we might use Eat Lead on in the first place.

By spending ammo 1 or more ammo, you are depriving yourself of the opportunity to use that Firearm 1 or more additional times. You know what the difference between taking 2 shots versus 1 shot revealing 2 tokens? Basically nothing [see below charts].

…from that asset: Let’s look at a different card, Torrent of Power. It’s a level 0 Mystic skill that lets you spend charges from any card you control to give Torrent of Power a willpower and wild icon. Eat Lead, on the other hand, doesn’t even give you that; you can’t spend ammo from your sidearm to give your Shotgun(4) a boost, it has to come from your Shotgun. This may have been too good (especially without any limitations placed on the ability) but Eat Lead still feels woefully inadequate.

1 card: By using Eat Lead, you spent a card. Besides the opportunity cost (i.e. that Eat Lead could have been something else), you are also “wasting” the combat and agility pips on this card. Know what that combat pip could have helped out with? Your combat test.

Fight action: compared to every other chaos bag re-roll or additional draw effect in the game, Eat Lead is the only one that limits its effect to a particular type of test.

Yeesh. This is woefully over costed relative to comparative abilities such as on Wendy Adams, Grotesque Statue(4), Time Warp(2), and Lucky Dice(2). Unlike these cards, Eat Lead‘s additional costs immediately ask yourself whether there is even any benefit to using the card. Let’s look at some charts that cover 5 scenarios where this can play out:

1. The investigator uses the Firearm once, looking for exactly one success
2. The investigator uses the Firearm twice, looking for exactly two successes
3. The investigator uses the Firearm twice, looking for at least one success
4. The investigator uses the Firearm once, using Eat Lead to reveal one additional chaos token for one success
5. The investigator uses the Firearm twice, looking for at least one success, and commits Eat Lead to one of the two tests

The below display the odds for the Devourer Below on Hard and your chances of success relative to how much skill you are above the test difficulty. if you are wondering what the odds of committing Eat Lead to one test are, it is the odds of one attack (the first line) at +1 (so 33.33%).

	Probability of success at +/- the test difficulty
Test taken/result	0	1	2	3	4	5	6
One attack	22.22%	33.33%	44.44%	66.67%	77.78%	88.89%	88.89%
Two attacks, two successes	4.94%	11.11%	19.75%	44.45%	60.50%	79.01%	79.01%
Two attacks, at least one success	39.50%	55.55%	69.13%	88.89%	95.06%	98.77%	98.77%
Eat lead, spend 1 ammo, one success	40.52%	56.86%	70.59%	90.20%	96.08%	99.35%	99.35%
Two attacks, commit Eat Lead, one success	48.14%	62.96%	81.48%	92.59%	97.53%	98.77%	99.38%

Let’s digest that math a bit. As far as probabilities are concerned, you are better off committing Eat Lead for its measly 1 combat pip and taking two tests than you are actually using its ability. Seriously? What does this card even do?

Okay, seriously, what DOES this card do?

You really don’t want to see any of these

Eat Lead does have some hidden potential. The power of this card is that it is a member of a very exclusive club of cards that can guarantee a successful result (provided you pay its steep cost). This includes bypassing the auto-fail token, something no other card can do besides Grotesque Statute(4) with heavy boosting and Seal of the Elder Sign(5). Eat Lead‘s cost may be worth it for “put all your eggs in one basket” style skill checks, namely one where you committed 1x Double or Nothing and 2x Vicious Blow(2) into. When there is at least 12 damage on the line, that is one test you don’t want to fail. Notably, it can also dodge the scenario effects of bad stuff tokens and sometimes, such as in Pallid Mask, that can really matter.

It is also a card probably best not used on your Shotgun(4)’s and your Lightning Gun(5)’s (except maybe with Sleight of Hand), but rather as a combo card for your .32 Colt. Having the Tactic trait it is eligible for Stick to the Plan(3) which takes 1 element of jank out of equation. Still though, compared to the raw efficiency of other cards, I can’t see too many Guardians screaming “eat lead!” anytime soon.

From my arm chair designer position, I feel like this card would have been better off if the ability included the cost of initiating the ability (guaranteeing you would reveal at least 1 additional chaos token). Considering how limited the ability is relative to its re-roll and re-draw cousins I don’t feel that would have been out of line. Alas, it is not.