Very interesting. A Phantom of Truth actually feels like it has a fairly low enemy count (basically just the 7 Byakhee), so this helps pull them out, preventing the encounter deck from turning into just a constant stream of treacheries. At the same time, there's a test to avoid it, so if you need to, you can try to pass the test to avoid dealing with the enemy. I don't like this as much as Hunted by Byakhee (which isn't blocked as easily by ), but it's still a creative way to mitigate the quest's low enemy count.

There are some great campaign allies to get with Charlie. Usually they all have a and an extra incon.

In my opinion, one should consider the campaign allies when building a Charlie deck, so let's review what's available.

Spoilers incoming !

• NoZ : sadly Lita Chantler has no icons. Same for the Wayfarer allies from Edge of the Earth (only Anyu may be considered, but she has already a nice exhausting ability and won't get extra value from Charlie's ).

• Carcosa is the only campaign where you never get an ally. No, The Man in the Pallid Mask doesn't count.

Outside those campaigns, the other present you some nice options :

• In Dunwich, you have a lot of allies, notably Dr. Henry Armitage and his (he also generate ressources, which is great for Charlie who has to pay for all his allies), or Naomi O'Bannion (you like or ?) if you manage to earn her. Even with two Charisma you will not be able to take every available ally (Dr. Francis Morgan, Professor Warren Rice, Earl Sawyer and Zebulon Whateley) !

• Forgotten Age : even if you don't side with Alejandro Vela or Ichtaca, you can take Veda Whitsley, probably one of the best possible ally for Charlie : 1 cost, 3 health/horror, and a fantastic icons !!

• Circle Undone : a few possible allies but late in the cycle. Interesting part is you can focus on Penny, Valentino, Gavriella or Jerome depending of your role. Erynn MacAoidh is probably better for a real mystic.

• Dream Eaters : Randolph Carter (or Randolph Carter) is a solid ally. You will also encounter some allies without icons but they also don't take an ally slot (Virgil Gray and Richard Upton Pickman).

• In Insmouth you can have Elina Harper or Thomas Dawson depending of the scenarios. Elina's ability doesn't require to exhaust so it's full benefit.

• The Scarlet Keys can give you Inspector Flint, Agent Ari Quinn and Dr. Dewi Irawan, but one could prefer keeping the exhausting for their abilities. Siding with the Coterie during the finale can also grant you a ton of slotless (and iconless) allies for free.

• The Feast at Hemlock Vale's Residents are not Allies. You could get Helen Peters and Dr. Rosa Marquez, who bothe have nice icons and a flat bonus.

You can also play independant scenarios, consider playing those :

• The Blob that ate everything : Pet Oozeling doesn't take an ally slot. Pick it and forget Lt. Wilson Stewart.

• Machinations through time : Ezra Graves and Nikola Tesla are both great, especially if you are the cluer.

• The Midwinter Gala looks like perfectly tailored for Charlie. Full of 4-icons allies to talk with, and you can keep the best suited for your deck after.

Abbess Allegria Di Biase (Carneval eof Horrors), John & Jessie Burke (Guardians of the Abyss) ,Lady Esprit (Rougarou), Sergeant Monroe (Excelsior) cost a bit too much imo. Keep your money and your slots for better allies (see the other review)

Reviews here talk about 1 enemy engaged and 2+ enemies engaged a lot, mentioning how easy it is to just kill one before the 2nd one arrives. But also easy to miss for beginners that you can fight with 0 enemy engaged (which won't get +1 damage), often a solution get the tempo back on track. I agree that 2+ engages are rare, even in high player count. But 0 engage situation isn't rare at all. For example :

• Fight enemy that just spawned on the other investigator and you want to go first.
• Fight exhausted enemy when the clue finder wants to go first and start with Evade.
• Wants to Evade first to turn off Retaliate before fighting, now it also turn off the +1 damage.
• Fighting enemy while you are at critical health / sanity. You don't want to have engagement after your 3rd action.
  • Quite often your friends still have usable health / sanity to take the Enemy Phase hit. Guns do let you continue dealing high damage at critical condition longer as long as you have your friends grabbing the enemy, even if they can't fight.
  • If you bet on your final action to kill the enemy but it didn't, your friend lose turn flexibility as they have to go later and Engage the enemy from you to save your life.
  • You want to ensure exhausted enemy to survive 2 dmg/horror hits in Enemy Phase, so normally you start with Evade 1-3 times until it succeeds, use the remaining action if any to Fight. Now, you are incentivised to Fight as much as possible to get the +1 damages then Evade on the last one, which maybe risky if that test fails.

I played only 2P from the start for a whole year and the disadvantage was negligible, Machete was a staple. 3P and above however I realized how useful and exciting the kill-stealing Fight without Engage could be. So many things can occur in just one Mythos Phase on 3P+, and I need more flexibility to resolve it. My group pretty much shoot bullets left and right as soon as Investigation Phase begins without engaging first by default, unless friendly fire would defeat the investigator then we start playing safer. We found something like .45 Automatic to be a better fit for the group's playstyle despite limited ammo.

So, no one bothered to review the level 0 version, probably because it was clearly a trade-off: investigator A spends an action to give an additional action to investigator B so collectively there is no action gain, simply a transfer from the one that probably has the most important role (getting the clues). But you had to include the card in your deck instead of one actually helping you to fullfill your role (or helping the other investigator to fulfill his/hers).

This version gives an additional bonus: all the - 4 - actions get a +1, which is a good thing (comparable to half an Encyclopedia but for all skills) ... but shines if investigator B is a rogue using a few of the events that add to skill values (Cheap Shot, Slip Away and Breaking and Entering).

And in a "big hand" deck you also have the option of using Farsight to play guidance as a fast event to avoid the loss of an action.

Q: When paying 6 to get both effects, does the other investigator get to draw from your deck or their own? The wording makes it sound like they'd get to draw from your deck. I wonder if with friends in low places or other affects which let you search the top of your deck, you could pass cards with this.