Q1: so, several cars in the Essex County Express say something to the effect of "discard cards from your hand with at least 2 total _____ icons or take _____"

usually the blanks are filled in with something like Combat/damage or Willpower/Horror. So my question is, if you don't have those specific icons can you use Wild icons instead? Like, can you discard Unexpected Courage to avoid taking damage, even though the icons don't match, but they're Wild.

So... I'm thinking you can not do this, but I'm unsure.




Q2: If you attack an enemy with the shotgun and have some sort of damage modifier going on, can you exceed max shotgun damage? For example, a shotgun attack that exceeds the difficulty of the check by 5 *and* had a Vicious Blow committed to the skill check deals 6 damage? Or does it still only deal 5?

You can find these rulings listed under the appropriate cards at arkhamdb. I think they've been answered directly by the designer.

1. No, wild icons are not matching icons in this case.

2. The shotgun just limits what the shotgun itself can give, Vicious Blow can still add +1 damage even if it raises it to a total of 6.

Do you have a link to the designer regarding number 1? My understanding is that a Wild Icon can be used as any of the other icons by definition.

updated: just went to arkhamdb.com and saw the ruling.

Yeah, I asked Matt that myself and added it to the train cars - can dig out the email if needs be. It's all down to the difference between icons matching for a test and icons being discarded upon entering train cars - for the former, wild icons can match anything. For the latter, nope.

Perhaps another way of looking at it - I think the rules reference sort of implies this in the Skill Test Timing section:

The investigator performing the skill test may commit any number of cards with an appropriate skill icon from his or her hand to this test.

An appropriate skill icon is either one that matches the skill being tested, or a wild icon.

This sounds to me like it is saying a wild icon can be used in any test, but still doesn't "match" the other icons.