Faction Focus
The 108 Righteous Bandits
What's so special about the 108 Righteous Bandits?
The Righteous Bandits are the first faction to feature the Kung Fu mechanic. Kung Fu is a keyword that improves value and allows a dude with the keyword to set up combos. They have dudes that prefer to move onto opposing deeds to gain benefits. Those dudes get reduced upkeep or more cards in their play hand for not sitting at home. You won't likely run into a 108 deck that wants to sit and wait for the action. They will be looking to start fights often when they have the Kung fu cards to start something.
What to look out for:
- Combos - Kung fu has the option to combo their shootout abilities. They are allowed to play from hand or discard pile a shootout card from the same Tao (but not the same title) before you have a chance to play another shootout action. They have to meet specific requirements to combo, but the Kung fu masters can pick on the right opponents to make sure the combos will work. Raking Dragons and Zhu's Ferocity set up the basic idea of combos. One of the cards can boot a dude and reduce his value. The other gives bullets and takes them away from your opponent. Combo a few of these and even a high value dude can be taken down with a Shotgun easily enough.
- Discard Pile - Watching your opponent's discard pile in Doomtown is already important aspect of the game, but with Kung fu, you'll want to pay attention to the size of their discard pile as well. While they have only a few cards in the discard, they will not be able to set up many combos beyond the cards already in their hand.
- Value Increase - The value increase provided by Kung fu allows more solid dudes at lower values. Some of the best dudes in the 108 have 3 and 4 as their printed values, but their Kung fu skill makes them count as a 7 value. This opens up the window to reliably play Hot Lead Flyin'. Nunchucks will increase your chances of improving the pulls, but they aren't needed to make them work. Kung fu needs lower value cards to work consistently for pulls and so does the Legendary Holster. Expect to see the two working together often. Nunchucks can be used to improve the pull on the Holster as well.
How do I deal with this nonsense?
- Hidin' in the Shadows - If you're protected by Hidin' in the Shadows, you can't be targeted by any of the combos and you can't he hit by the holster or the shotgun. Raking Dragons can quickly reduce an eight value dude to Shotgun fodder.
- Small discard - hit them hard when the discard pile is small. Shifu Speaks can help the Kung fu player build their discard pile, so hit them early before they can set anything up. They are also likely to avoid you in a shootout when they don't have any combo cards, since that's where the magic comes from.
- Low Values - Kung fu favors the low values for their pulls. The only real job they have access to is Ambush and it's not the best thanks to its 4 ghost rock cost and it clashes with Rabbit's Lunar Leap that can bring dudes into a posse.