Interesting that the only review of this card in arkhamdb is so negative. The Bow seems to be great for any investigator with a high base agility and access to rougue cards though. The main points of criticism of the bow are:

• Its action intensiveness.

With Leo De Luca the load-action drawback is mostly mitigated and even without him the bow is still usable. If you really need to be dealing damage you can use ally searchers like Calling in Favors or Flare to maximise your damage output with Leo, an ally which is always good to have anyways. Finding your self engaged with a 4 or even 5 health enemy doesn't always mean you have to use more than 1 arrow on it because you should also be running some event monster-removal cards (like Sneak Attack, Waylay, Coup de Grâce, etc) to support the bow or in case you don't draw the bow from the beginning of the game. And Hatchet Man is also a thing by the way.

• Its use of 2 hand-slots.

The only true important asset you may not be able to play while using the bow are the Lockpicks. This is only impactful if you are the main or only cluegatherer and there are many clues for you to pick. If these is the case ofcourse you can skip the bow. On the other side, If your team needs you to deal damage or in true solo (where there are fewer clues to pick) investigators like Jenny Barnes, Finn Edwards and even Wendy Adams can easily get away with not using lockpicks because they have many other ways to boost their intellect and get clues like for exmaple Streetwise, Dr. Milan Christopher, St. Hubert's Key (in case of Jenny Barnes), Lola Santiago, "Look what I found!", etc. So in conclusion, the importance of those hand-slots is relativ to the the amount of cluegathring you will be doing and based on that you make the decision to get the bow or not.

The strenghts of the bow on the other hand outweight it's drawbacks.

1. It's very reliable.

The fact that rougues and rougish characters like Wendy come with a base agility of 4 and the ease with which they can boost that agility make the bow super effective. Staple cards like Streetwise, Lola Santiago or Peter Sylvestre boost agility and don't even represent an opportunity cost because you will be gettingt them anyways. The new Track Shoes and The Moon • XVIII can further increase your agility menaing you can consistently loose your arrows like Legolas with 9+ agility. Considering this and taking into account how ineffective it is to boost combat with rougue and/or survivor cards (I am looking at you Hired Muscle) means that the bow is for the moment more efficient than the Chicago Typewriter. I personally prefer to shoot 2 times per round with 9-12 skillvalue than shoot 4 times per round but with only 5-6 skillvalue...

2. It has infinite ammo.

This is also important to consider when comparing the bow to other weapons with ammo. With the bow you just drop it and forget about it for the rest of the game. No last bullet anxiety or need to bring expensive support cards like Contraband.

3. It deals 3 damage.

This is very relevant because the new base health of enemies is 3. Been able to oneshot those pesky swarmy 3 health enemies feels good and because they now usually have hunter it's even more fficient than just evading them. Piercing the hearth of those annoying snake-people and 3 health cultist with an arrow is priceless.

4. It only cost 3 XP.

Besides the bow only the Old Hunting Rifle and under certain conditions Lupara can deal 3 damage with one shot. I won't discuss here why the bow is superior to these two but limit myself to mention that as a rougue you can get the bow relatively early in the campaign supported by other staple cards that you normally get early. This means you will reach your max. damage output way earlier than guardians, which have to expend allot more XP for their big game weapons and support cards.

5. It is flexible.

Because you are so invested in agility you can always decide to evade instead of attack. Using the bow doesn't prevents you to play an evade heavy strategy with the added benefit that when an enemy that must be killed in order to get some juicy Xp or advance the story appears, you alway have the damage to take him down.

That's it from my side. If you agree/disagree leave a comment.

Great card! As a seeker, it rewards you for doing your job! Fast action is cool and it's a card for team players, you can fund your team on a high-shroud location. You could even replay it with Eidetic Memory I could see it very well in a Minh deck, she's always been a team player. But it's cool for a lot of investigators, Roland for exemple would welcome the extra cash. A great card indeed!

An interesting cheap card that would normally be a good comparison to Scrying. Scrying is already a tool that some people deem worth it and others do not. Certainly when interacting with the encounter deck, Scrying will be more flexible in preparing for what the group (or solo) would be encountering. You can keep delaying something with it or setup everyone for optimal draws in groups. Since the scroll of secrets is only dealing with a card you may never get to, or might want to be left there it might do little to nothing. And once you think the card on the bottom is ok and you would rather deal with it instead of something else. Well, then this card will no longer be useful "in the encounter deck". I think that interaction has little useful circumstance.

You could, if you wanted combo a little bit with Alyssa Graham and get rid of a card that you recently put to the bottom of the deck in the encounter deck, but outside a corner case such as that, it doesn't seem that useful against the encounter deck.

In regards to individuals player decks, I think that Daisy Walker should always be considered whenever we are dealing with a new tome that has been released. Would this be good for her? I think the comparison there would logically be Old Book of Lore. The cost of Scroll of Secrets is much cheaper, but has limited charges and only really examines 1 card at a time. But Daisy Walker would put this out to get a free draw for three turns (unless a treachery is seen, in which case you discard it). It's not a bad card, especially since if you are going with a draw mechanic to fuel Higher Education, you usually put more than Old Book of Lore in there for draw potential. But I think once you get the book out, you won't be using this, as you only get that free draw action between them once per turn. In this case, it seems like a decent include but nothing special.

With regards to Norman Withers, he also has the potential to put that card on the top of his deck in order to get a cheap interaction out of it instead of his hand which can reduce costs of cards over time if the card found was something that is currently playable at the time. So, it can act as a cost reduced draw action in some circumstances.

Overlay, I think it is an ok card that won't see all that much use. If there are other important interactions amongst and that I am missing out on that seem fruitful, please point them out in the comments.

Cool and fun card. Whip out a ranged weapon and snipe something, its a cool card in idea and practice. it's just not very good.

This is what the card does:

• A +1 damage effect, these are hard to come by in a manner that stacks, layer on the Vicious blow and the gun and you're dealing 4+ points of damage in one hit. Sometimes the 3-damage attack is good enough too!

• Sniper effect. You counter a couple keywords that might increase the risk or cost you an extra action. Ever so often you save an action moving into the enemy, since the enemy might be located to one side or at a finished spot, this then might double up by not making you haul yourself right back again.

You get quite a bit of cool stuff, so that would make it seem like a good card right? 2 saved moves is EASILY worth 2 spent resources. The extra damage. Sounds good? Not quite.

This is a -card-, you gotta draw it, play it, costs money to play and most importantly, it's 1/15th of your deck! characters do not have much luxury in card draw unless their name is Joe Diamond. also struggle with resources.

What I'm getting at is this: Marksmanship is this real cool effect, a timesaver and circumstantial problem solution, doesn't actually do much that you cannot already, no extra accuracy nor grabbing clues or evading or whatever. If Marksmanship isnt immediately helpful, it's a full blown dud! You might draw the enemy yourself, it's engaged with you, a dud! Dealing +1 damage wont let a 2 damage weapon kill a 4 HP enemy, a dud! Maybe you just don't afford it, even if you got the cash you need to save it to pay for the next weapon or ally and the 2 resources will set you back too much, a dud!

........

So you see how many shades of "dud" the card is? I've toted copies of this cards in my hand in PERFECT scenarios, drawn it even. Rougarou? Miskatonic Museum? Pretty much all of Carcosa? It just isn't helpful enough. In a card game the best decks have as few potential duds as possible.

The literal best-case scenario is to combo Marksmanship with Lightning Gun or M1918 BAR and Stick to the Plan. This way all the combo pieces will be uniquely easy to assemble and play on demand.

I 've been waiting for this moment for quite a long of time. Finally, a Survivor weapon worthy of Fire Axe gets released. Of course, in order to make this weapon worthwhile you have to take horror almost every time you attack, but you can easily negate this disadvantage by running Peter Sylvestre and particularly his upgraded version and maybe some other soak along with him, like Cherished Keepsake. Now this makes it more of a build-around card, just like Fire Axe, but honestly, since (in my opinion) Peter Sylvestre is one of the best allies in the game, I think this is totally fine. The other fact is that this weapon becomes more powerful when you are at low sanity, so you actually want to be taking the horror anyway and by having Peter by your side, this should not be very concerning. You can even heal horror when using this card if you want, by assigning the horror you take on Peter when you attack and healing a horror from your investigator card when you kill the enemy.

This card also opens up interesting deckbuilding options and upgrade paths. Since you want to be at low sanity anyway, it seems like you can benefit from Desperate cards more, Fight or Flight becomes more powerful, and with the ally Yaotl you can focus more on the "Desperate" side of things. Also, some investigators work better with this card than others. It seems like it is a good fit to investigators with low sanity and there are some investigators that will still prefer Fire Axe over this. I will now go through a list of investigators who can use this and outline possible interactions:

• Calvin Wright: This weapon is just awsome on Calvin. He can use it to take horror on demand in order to increase his stats and he can easily get to 3-or-lower sanity in order to get the empowered bonus. Desperate cards were already good for him and now they are even better.

• Silas Marsh: With his low sanity and high combat stat, it seems that Silas can make good use of this card. He is still good with Fire Axe, but now he has a decent alternative, that allows him to kill enemies without having to go into Dark Horse/Fire Axe mode.

• Rita Young: This weapon seems like a natural fit for Rita. Honestly, I can't think of any reason why Rita wouldn't want to include Peter Sylvestre in her deck, other than being On Her Own. It's better both than Fire Axe and Baseball Bat for her.

• Wendy Adams: Her low combat stat and high sanity makes it very difficult for her to use this weapon efficiently. Fire Axe is way better for her and even Baseball Bat can be more effective than it. I guess, you can use it if you really want a one-handed weapon other than Fire Axe to go alongside Lockpicks and, interestingly enough, her weakness, Abandoned and Alone, can help her get to 3-or-lower sanity faster if she really wants it.

• "Ashcan" Pete: His low sanity makes him a good candidate, but I think Fire Axe is still better. The Dark Horse/Fire Axe combo is very valuable for him and I think it won't be easy to drop it in favor of this weapon.

• William Yorick: Weapons from the Guardian class usually do a better job at killing enemies than Survivor ones and this fact doesn't change here either. Additionally, Peter Sylvestre isn't really the best ally for Yorick, so I think the Meat Cleaver + Peter Sylvestre combo is not very valuable for him.

• Agnes Baker: This weapon is interesting for her. If she starts with double Arcane Research, she can easily drop at 3 sanity or below in order to get the empowered bonus and with the self-horror mechanic she can even deal 1 extra damage if she wants to and all of a sudden she can deal with some enemies without using a Shrivelling charge.

• Preston Fairmont: Preston is another interesting candidate. The only other, truly viable option for him has been Fire Axe so far, which denies him from playing the way he was naturally meant to be played and that is no other than stacking resources. It is however more difficult to use than Fire Axe. With Fire Axe, all he wanted was to find the weapon and he was fine. Now, if he wants to use Meat Cleaver, it has to go with Hard Knocks, replacing a previous 1-card combo into a 2-card combo, not to mention that it is less efficient resource-wise. Additionally, he really wants the empowered bonus in order to make it worthwhile and starting at 7 sanity is not helping a lot. That issue can be addressed however by tanking treacheries and enemies, or even ignore Lodge "Debts" in order to take trauma. I'm not sure how good that weapon will be on him, but at least it will allow him to play naturally and offer him more upgrade options.

• Minh Thi Phan: Her primary role is not to fight and the benefit she gets from Peter Sylvestre is insignificant for her, so I think this weapon is just terrible for her. If she wants to fight, I believe Fire Axe does a way better job.

• Finn Edwards: I have no experience playing Finn, but I think this weapon is not a good fit for him for various reasons, one of them being that he doesn't have access to the upgraded Peter Sylvestre. Additionally, Finn is better at investigating and evading rather than fighting so I think that he is better off with situational weapons like .41 Derringer and Lupara.

• Marie Lambeau: Obviously useless for her; She has a Combat of only 1 and she's a Mystic.

[Edit:

• Carolyn Fern: This card heals horror, so interestingly enough, Carolyn can take it (I missed that when I was initially writing this review). I'm not sure it's that good for Carolyn, though. She 's not the ideal investigator to be using weapons. If she wants to fight, she has better options, like Shrivelling, Dynamite Blast or Mind over Matter. This weapon however has some very good interactions with her. To begin with, if she wants to use it she definitely wants the empowered bonus so dropping to 3 or less sanity is a must. This can be easily achievable for her by running double Arcane Research and St. Hubert's Key. With these 2 cards, she starts at 5 sanity, so she can easily drop to 3 or less sanity in order to make Meat Cleaver viable (enter Forbidden Knowledge here). Arcane Research is not the best for her, but she can at least use it in order to upgrade Clarity of Mind into Clarity of Mind (3) with a 4 XP discount. She can also use cards like Ace of Swords or Reliable in order to make Meat Cleaver more worthwhile. When Carolyn uses this weapon and has a Peter Sylvestre in play, she can basically earn 2 resources simply by attacking and killing the enemy; 1 by assigning the horror on Peter when she attacks (Peter heals at end of turn so she gets a resource) and 1 by healing a horror from herself after she kills the enemy. So, considering all these, this is probably the best weapon for Carolyn. She's not the best investigator to be using weapons, but she can pull it off if she wants to.

• Zoey Samaras/Rex Murphy/Jenny Barnes: They don't need this, or have better options.

• Jim Culver: Jim is another interesting candidate. He has a combat stat of 3 and he's a Mystic, which makes it worth consideration. If he starts with double Arcane Research and/or uses St. Hubert's Key (similarly with Carolyn) it will be easier to drop at 3 or less sanity and he can use allies like Alyssa Graham or his Trumpet in order to soak or heal horror so that he avoids the danger zone. I'm not sure it's quite that good for him though, but it's an option. My guess is that Enchanted Blade will probably be better than Meat Cleaver for him.]

A significant disadvantage this weapon has is that it can be painful to attack 3 times in a row when you 're facing a tough enemy, so it's good to have alternatives for when you get swarmed or when you 're up against a boss. So, considering this, this card does not make a good pair with Will to Survive, which annoys me quite a bit, because a Survivor running Fire Axe was facing the same problem, so this weapon doesn't change that a lot. It doesn't make Will to Survive unusable, but taking 3 horror for 6 damage in one turn isn't really the best thing you can do, unless your Peter is fully healed.

In the end, I think this weapon is best for Calvin, Silas and Rita. Calvin gets the most benefit out of it and the other two are good fighters and have alternatives when they are facing a tough situation. Other investigators can also benefit from it, but I think these 3 are the best candidates.