Something that always struck me as odd about Tommy; what exactly is the narrative of his main ability? Why do police officers in Arkham get paid so generously for casualties and property destruction? Why do they get patched up and returned to action so quickly? After a quick read of his background, identifying him as a nepotism hire with relatives in high places and playing a few scenarios, I came to a conclusion.

Tommy's true ability is that he has a police radio. Whenever anything bad happens, Tommy begins screaming into the radio things like "Officer down! I repeat, officer down! We need backup immediately!", "I've been hit!" or "Taking heavy fire!". Afraid of making enemies of his relatives in Boston, the Arkham sheriff department (or perhaps the precinct in Boston itself) has no choice but to send additional backup and support to make sure he makes it out alive. Unless it's so obviously his own damn fault that the sheriff's department is too annoyed to care for the consequences.

The true details of whatever it is he's fighting probably don't ever make it across to the official channels, but it's clear he keeps having run-ins with some sort of highly organized and heavily armed crime syndicate given all the wounded and property damage. His family in Boston make sure he doesn't face any consequences for reckless endangerment of civilian lives. In any case, if you're ever wondering where your Arkham city council rates are going, half of it is probably spent on bailing Tommy out of whatever he's gotten himself into this time.

OOooo golly, get ready for some shenanigans with Kōhaku Narukami paired with Transfiguration, as he transforms into Father Mateo with his Book of Living Myths. This will FINALLY allow us to receive the sweet joy of the automatic success along, all the while allowing us to pull more tokens to give us more wishes.

It's actually relatively easy to have one Science or Tool asset in play, and if you do, this is Unexpected Courage copies 3 and 4.

Do you want 4 copies of unexpected courage? maybe not, but unless you're a very specific kind of deck, you probably will find tests to commit to several times in every scenario.

I think this one of those cards that doesn't seem exciting, but ends up being a consistent include that just quietly helps pass more tests, and passing tests is a good way to win.

The obvious comparison is Ornate Bow.

But the bow has ways to cheat the reload action, can be fired multiple times in a turn, and is of course a tech weapon for foot investigators. The TANKGEWEHR does not have any of those qualities. The TANKGEWEHR has more in common with the Sledgehammer and its big brother as a highly accurate fist weapon that requires multiple actions per attack.

Compared to Sledgehammer (0) you spend 5 XP for +3 fight and +1 dmg, but are still using the same number of actions per attack. You will of course "front" the reload action by reloading the turn before you use it, but you can't capitalize on it since it exhaust after reloading. Which means that your potential damage per turn is just 4.

For a primary fighter, like the majority of those who have access to the TANKGEWEHR, a potential of 4 damage per turn is quite low. And being able to split your damage over at least two foes is very important in multiplayer. Which means that the TANKGEWEHR needs support weapons and the XP, resources, and actions to play them out.

I am not impressed. If you pay 5 XP for a weapon it should be able to stand on its own.

If you instead slap Enchanted Weapon on your Sledgehammer (0) you'd have a potential of 6 damage per turn, can split it over two enemies, will not provoke when you're stuck in a boss fight, and have similar accuracy for the big 4 dmg attack if you exhaust on it.

I think they could have given the TANKGEWEHR a special feature like being able to attack enemies at connecting locations (it's a BIG gun) or whatever, or even just automatic reload at the upkeep phase. The fact that you can only fire once per turn would make it balanced.

Nathaniel Cho (with Bandolier) might like it though. Once per turn is offset by him having events to play, and by using the TANKGEWEHR he can maximize the +1 dmg from his investigator ability.

The Fast keyword saves an action, playable in various player window, and ignores Attacks of Opportunity. For this expansion plus the Revised Core Set, all Survivor weapons can abruptly disappear from hand (Baseball Bat, Pitchfork, and Hatchet.) If the fight hasn't ended you may have to fight barehanded or with events, or have others take the heat while you re-setup. Two of those are 2 handed so you cannot setup an another sub-weapon to use when it disappear. So this seemingly lazy addition actually has some synergy going on. I was quite surprised at its ability to "upgrade" the original Baseball Bat and made me want to continue keeping that in the deck.

Many times I want to attack-pickup-attack with the Pitchfork to deal required damage but can't take any more AoO, if I play Fire Axe (2) in its place and finish the job then Pitchfork can be passed on to your friend. With Hatchet equipped Fire Axe (2) is also good to have ready on hand because you are not sure of enemy's HP and what it'll do with your Hatchet. If Fire Axe (2) is not yet in your hand, if you can get draws mid-fight like Overpower or Rabbit's Foot (or even Upkeep Draw while you still have enemies) it can come into play right away. In any cases where you are hiding Fire Axe (2) on hand, you are also ready to commit to anyone.

There is also a little in-box combo with Hunting Jacket where you may get the axe back after taking hits and you can immediately setup with it to fight back.

The action saved by Fast can be used with Double events in this box like Elaborate Distraction.