Charlie Kane's menagerie of clue eaters

This deck is to be paired with a guardian / monster killer. It relies on Dr. Milan Christopher's ability to gain resources - allies are expensive and you need at least two of them to start functioning and not just hang there while your parter do all the heavy lifting. But you need at least three allies to get the job done and four allies to have some fun.

Opening hand

Try to get at least two allies, one of them Dr. Milan Christopher, the other with the most ? icons. You also need something to supply you with resources and with cards.

Priorities (keep in hand after first draw):

1. Dr. Milan Christopher + Bonnie Walsh or Miss Doyle
2. Mr. "Rook" (helps you find allies)
3. Drawing Thin

Allies and menagerie

Because of Charlie’s special ability and because you’re a clue getter your best allies to get you through tests are those with most ? and/or icons. You also need allies whose abilities will promote you from a provincial politician to a real game changer.

• Summoned Hound and Summoned Servitor both gives you an extra action each round and rise your base skill to 4/5 for that action. Summoned Servitor takes an ally slot but it’s not an ally and can’t be used for Charlie’s special ability. On the other hand you can send it to investigate locations you don’t have time to go.
• Miss Doyle with her ? icon gives a good boost for Charlie’s special ability. Her bonded cats (Augur, Hope and Zeal) are allies but don’t fill an ally slot and can be used for Charlie’s special ability as well. Triggering their ability also rise your base value to five. The best bonded cat is probably Hope as she can help you evade an enemy and can be used to boost your for investigating.
• Bonnie Walsh is an excellent ally – not only she has two ? icons but by exhausting her you ready another ally. You can use one ally twice to boost your skill or in Summoned Hound's case get one more extra action.
• Dr. Milan Christopher and Mr. "Rook" help you get most needed resources and cards. Mr. “Rook” can also help you control when you draw your weaknesses.
• Alice Luxley boosts your intellect and may help your partner kill enemies, Professor William Webb can spare you a trip to a connecting location. But Luxley and Webb are the least useful and as you upgrade your allies they will go (I recommend you keep all the others).

Upgrade

Allies

• The Black Cat, Michael Leigh. They both have three health and sanity and can be used to take damage and horror for you. They also have a lot of icons and some interesting abilities. But they cost a lot of experience – try buy at least one of them the first time you get enough experience to do so.
• The second copy of Summoned Hound.
• Summoned Servitor upgrade. Remember it’s not an ally, you can only upgrade it to level 2. I’d go for Wings of Night or Jaws that Snatch and/or Dominance.
• Lola Santiago. When playing with Lola, you can use her ability in combination with Flashlight, reduce the shroud of a location to zero and take clues for free.
• Charisma, so you can have Summoned Hound, Summoned Servitor and at least three more “regular” allies for Charlie's special ability.

Arcane and Accessory

• Earthly Serenity to replace Idol of Xanatos. It’s cheaper and can heal your partner as well.
• Close the Circle is a great card to give you extra action. Thanks to your allies it enters play with five or six charges.
• Binder's Jar is a bit of a necessity if you want to play with all the cards filling the arcane slots. It can also save your ass. Another option is Sign Magick – it’s more expensive and fills a hand slot but it’s fast and you don’t need to wait for an enemy to be killed for it to give you that extra arcane slot.

Events and skills

• Flare is a great event when you’re in a desperate need of an ally or need to kill an enemy.
• Strength in Numbers thanks to allies of different classes gives you 5 to 7 ? icons.
• Emergency Cache can be used to add supplies to your upgraded arcane cards or place ammo on your partner’s guns.

When upgrading I’d first go for allies, Charisma and Earthly Serenity. Better allies will give you better abilities and more boost for Charlie’s special ability. Then you’ll need less skill cards and may replace them along with Flashlight with more interesting cards.

Mind your weakness

If you’re not careful, Burden of Leadership can kill your most treasured allies. Draw cards and use Mr. "Rook" and Drawing Thin before you exhaust any (other) ally. In fact, you can use Mr. "Rook" to fish for your weaknesses and get rid of them in a controlled way. Once Burden of Leadership is in your discard pile, you don’t have to worry to commit skill cards to tests that makes you draw cards.

Resources and cards

With Dr. Milan Christopher in play you won't get out of resources, in fact in the second half of the game you'll have a heap of them. You may find a way to share them with your partner (Teamwork) or stock them for the next game (Embezzled Treasure). They can also get handy to boost your Fire Axe to fight an enemy. But playing with this deck I often had too few cards in my hand. Use Mr. "Rook" and Drawing Thin for that.

Enemy management

You’re not a fighter and most of the time you will try to evade your enemy or rely on your partner to save you. But you’re not completely toothless. You have Fire Axe that you can boost with resources and deal two damage, you have Summoned Hound and Zeal to fight for you and once upgraded you can use Michael Leigh to deliver extra damage, or when you’re desperate, use Flare.