Confident Rookie with a zero cost weapon gets willpower and still does not match up to Undercover Security, even with the +1 C and +1 skill. Why, because it’s two card slots versus the one, and one less Investigate at zero.

Military Bike would be the best Agency attachment yet - except, to exhaust after committing it needs the benefit of a won arcane struggle. Even still, commit to two stories looks strong. No one has done that yet, right?

Why are there two Field Researchers? It’s intentional as both are MU 2 cost 1 skill Investigate women.

Changing the Names. Like Scalethorn and others, this card reflects Nate’s ap6 story line. Tactically, it is nice to commit to your lesser story and sneak it into the story with more tokens with this card. Nice move, bland look, passable. Is this swap any less unopposed than Lam-kins? That card was huge. But this is a token swap, not character.

Expendable Muscle – is this not a huge 2 cost syndicate character? Even among that pantheon, it looks super tough. You get a cheap character and parlay it at your most convenient sacrifice and turn any character of your choosing pretty much invulnerable with willpower and toughness +1. If it looked as good as Fugitive Scientist it would be my new favorite card.

False Papers add any subtype. That’s got to be non-specific enough to have tactical potential. M.U. Science Building was reusable at cost 2. This syndicate attachment at cost 1 returns to owner at end of phase for same effect? No LCG day or night cards to seal the deal, but M.U.S.B. had other tricks like the avatars.

Scalethorn could have been. It’s unique and got a good title, a Deep One concept. It’s the only other Mutable besides the FC-7. The illustration compliments Julia’s final chapter story line. It’s a fun, detailed, and apt image. But the image has been around for a long time, which is going to happen, but does deaden the impact some, implying a stock illustration. It seems expensive for little return. But glaringly, it’s the first of the four “Any Phase” misprints. Bonus demerit for substituting “trait” for “subtype.”

Brain Transplant, like Changing the Names, an apt effect - swapping any insane and ready characters. The image is mad science. “Any Phase” number two, with another minor type-o. The result is one step back. 20 steps forward and chipping.

Hideous Guardian, I like a lot. Beefy. Very Yog. 4 skill. A five wound absorber for all. Simple and hideous. I wish the illustration had not been previously spoiled. I guess if one card in this pack were to go “Whiz Bang!” this one would need to have looked a little sweeter.

Amphibious Julia may be the crowning look for not only this pack but all of Summons, not necessarily very best, but the one picture that could tell the story. So far, Expendable Muscle and Hideous Guardian lead this pack with high marks. But whiz bang, with eight more cards to review, I don’t know if any in ap6 have the whole package – top notch looks and playability.

FAQ 2.1 Trait Phase – characters affected by new terminology are immediately Zanned.

johnny shoes said:

You need exhaust the military bike, not the character ! When you commit your character, you exhaust it but not the attached cards. So, you needn't have to win arcane struggles to exhaust the Military bike.

That sounds correct dadajef. I didn't find it in rules or faq except indirectly, "When a character hs been committed to a story, exhaust that character..."

Military Bike then becomes the first instance that one character competes one phase for two stories. Trent Dixon gives skill and icons to all stories.

No agency attachment comes close to this good. Not shotgun. Name a better attachment in the game - Sniper Rifle, Glass of Mortlan, Fetch Stick, The Mother's Seed, Open for Inspection, Ancient Gold, Snow Graves. Military Bike is right up there.

Not clear to me whether "military bike" allows the character to which it is attached to move to a story which has no characters already committed. The wording "unresolved story" could be interpreted to mean "stories which were already in queue to resolve due to characters already committed".

Opinions?

Chick

Just had a vision: The decaying streets of Innsmouth echo to the whine of a large two-stroke engine ! Flashing past leaving only fumes, Ravager from the Deep races to his next appointment !

Don't you think it would read, to which characters are already committed,or somesuch to restrict the bike to committed stories.

Idol of the Abomination is no artifact. It’s a location. You’ll have to take it up with the Idol from R’Lyeh when you arrive. All Gary Simpson’s cards, Nocturnal Scavenger, Tear Gas, and now Idol of the Abomination look as if written in red sand. The recuring burnt umber gives life to the basic and ancient and earthly surreal. Pay 2 and forever more pay 2 for a TTCC3 is fine, Idol-abom brings us our old friend Vaughn back from Beneath the Mire (CC) most recently. “It’s fascinating, May I touch it? Vaughn just smiled.” He traps ‘em all, that dastard.

Binding Worm has classic stats - 3 cost TT 2 skill - Some tough shubs with similar stats to Binding Worm are HDY, Tombherd, a Flying Polyp, a couple Dark Young are similar, among crafty others. She’s got a little Y’golonac, dragging characters off to battle. McLean Kendree also illustrated Snow Graves, Mr Ngambe, Path of Blood, and disposal doggie, but especially Samantha Grace, who is awesome. Worm is a weird shub, but also fits some genre of the shub look. But the girl looks like Samantha, a huge plus.

Unspeakable Transformations – great name, reasonable 2 cost event. Shub 3 cost character gains another’s icons. Not dramatic, but with good event timing could turn a struggle quick. Gary Simpson illustrates a tame one, but clear and respectable and red. Unfortunately, “Any Phase” Zanned the affiliated action trait.

Old Sea Dog. The neutralizer. Others debated the language and the meaning of the faction change. Clearly, that’s the main point at this stage. By illustrative comparison, Trent Dixon is a great card. Thank you Tony Shasteen for such a great illustration. But much else, especially Wilmarth on Sabbatical, does not do it for me. His Confident Rookie is fine. His Brain Transplant is a nice green yellow sickly hastur card. But other sea farers Thorff nor Terrible Old Man, Old Sea Dog is not. A crazier sailor is missed.

Conspiracy Theorist can be dealt with, but must be, seems to be current agreement. You will play conspiracies, seems to be the message. I love Felicia Cano's 28 illustrated cards from AE to Professor of Archeology and beyond. Cano is as much a mainstay as any cthulhu illustrator. And this Cano card looks sweet. Her type of character with more of that midnight blue on neutral that works so well for countless neutral cards. And he's powerful and controversial. But heavy handed.

Strange Delusions – she’s got four great masks at the mirror, a very pretty neutral picture. "Any Phase" and "affiliation" threaten to hurt this card. This one survives. It’s not complex, just misprinted and weird worded. Gain a faction. Nice. Now use it in a sentence.

Foiled. For Free. Handy. Avoid the story result, and for free. That’s a big killer of a game changer like the wrong story effect at the wrong time. Certainly worth zero. Almost a yithian mental contact.

The Y’Conspiracy – cost 1. copy a story in play. Craftier. The timing now matters.

What is "zanned"?

In response to the wave of interesting nomenclature found in not a small amount of the later cards, the three spellings of Erich Zann, Strange Virtuoso (SDF10) as Eric Zann and Zahn has suggested "zanned!" become a representative term. If it is meant as catharsis, it's not working.

Any affiliated phase trait serves I guess.

chicklewis said:

I think it depends if you are the active player or not.

If you are the active player you can re-commit where you want, if you are the defensive player you can re-commit only in stories where the active player has committed characters.

On the Lam should be instructional. I believe that defending player can't use these two cards to defend unopposed.

Technically, all stories resolve every story phase, even those with no characters committed to them- you just don't notice because nothing happens at them.

chicklewis said:

Does Military Bike supersede the rules, as cards taking precedent over rules will do? Can the defending player recommit a character on the Military Bike to an unchallenged story?

Very interesting question, Shoes.

I used Military Bike in a deck this evening for the first time. ALthough I only used it 'offensively' it is EXTREMELY POWERFUL ! In conjunction with the 'Endless Investigation' consipiracy it is perhaps overpowering.

Finally found a conspiracy which is DEFINITELY worth playing.

In the black-bordered milieu, it was only Syndicate which could jump around to other stories. Now in the white bordered world it is Agency. Wonder why the change?

Chick

In the black-bordered milieu, it was only Syndicate which could jump around to other stories.

AFAIK Cthulhu faction had a minor in recommitting (Noises in the hills?)

Now in the white bordered world it is Agency. Wonder why the change?

I dunno, but I remember someone going on about how the new sets the new factions would have less bleedover. Could this be the case?