Cleanup Crew

My take on this set: Yet another source of damage and horror raining down on the investigators while playing this campaign. Both enemies have ways of attacking players from the shadows while the treachery also at least triggers an extra attack.
All of this wouldn’t be particularly bad in most other contexts, but these cards just stack up exceptionally well with the rest of the encounter deck. For example, Dancing Mad can have you face Enforcers in the shadows while having Knives in the Dark from the Shadows of a Doubt set in your threat area. Suddenly, you are hit for 2 damage when exposing decoys and for 1 horror when exposing enemies other than Enforcer. One version of Dancing Mad even starts with several concealed enemies in one location with the players, making the Assassins a huge immediate problem.
What this set does very well is provide yet another layer to the concealment mechanic. Weirdly, it’s the one set that benefits most from having a certain threshold of mini-cards in play, however it is not used in either of the two scenarios most centered on concealment. Maybe that is for the best, both the Assassin and the Enforcer would be absolutely terrifying in Buenos Aires or Istanbul…

What it does: When revealed, Coterie Assassin enters the shadows concealed behind one decoy. While in the shadows, they will attack any investigator at a location with a mini-card at the end of the enemy phase. Their attack deals one damage.
Their stats are fairly low, with just 2 fight and health they will usually go down in one swing once exposed.

My take: Their attack is only a single point of damage, so one Assassin on their own is usually not going to be a huge issue. Of course, they can stack up with other damaging effects. More importantly, they do stack up with other concealed enemies (and their mini-cards) which can potentially allow them to cover a large amount of locations. They are also able to hit multiple investigators at once, so while this enemy is rather tame taken on its own, it certainly does have ways of escalating into a bigger problem.

Threat level: Low to Mid. Fairly weak on its own, but can escalate with help from other cards.

Dealing with it: Most situations that involve concealment can be severely defused by not letting many enemies stack up and cover each other with their decoys. The biggest weakness of the Assassins is that they only spawn with a single decoy, so rooting them out when they are on their own isn’t a big deal.

What it does: Coterie Enforcer hides in the shadows, behind a single decoy. Whenever another is exposed by an investigator, the Enforcer will attack that player, even from the shadows. They deal one point of horror. Unlike the Assassin, the Enforcer has decent combat stats, with 4 fight and 3 health they are reasonably resistant to attacks.

My take: I find this guy usually more annoying than the Assassin, purely because it can take a good amount of time to deal with them. Exposing them takes at least an action, possibly two or more. And then they do require two hits if you don’t have a 3 damage attack at hand. On the other hand, Enforcers are even more dependant on stacking up with other enemies because on their own they do nothing.
Note that if you have two Enforcers in the shadows, one will not trigger their attack when the other is exposed because it keys off the name. And while this isn’t explicitly stated anywhere in the rules as written, we can assume that the intent is that “Coterie Enforcer (A)” is the same as “Coterie Enforcer” because otherwise this whole “not named Coterie Enforcer“ thing wouldn’t really work and an Enforcer would trigger that ability even on being exposed themselves.

Threat level: Mid. Mostly notable for being more resilient than most enemies with Concealed.

Dealing with it: They do have low agility, which allows evading them as a way to deal with them semi-permanently. While doing so does defuse their special attack ability from the shadows, it does in turn leave the Enforcer open for interactions with Swift Retreat. So while defeating them requires a reasonably competent fighter, it is usually going to be worth doing.

What it does: After failing an agility test, the nearest Coterie enemy attacks the player and then hides in the shadows, if able. If no Coterie enemies are in play, Swift Retreat surges.

My take: This is fine… until it isn’t. Usually this will cause an extra attack by some dork in the shadows that hits for a damage, a horror or maybe one each. But this might also trigger an extra attack by one of the Coterie Elites. Getting an extra attack from the Beast in Crimson during Dogs of War hurts a lot. If you are really unlucky, you can even get hit by an enemy that usually wouldn’t be in Havana or Alexandria, but that you “didn’t see the last of” … which might even lead to them shifting a key for all sorts of extra nastiness.
Note that enemies in the shadows can still qualify as “nearest Coterie enemy”, but only if none are currently at a location.

Threat level: Low. Mid in Dogs of War. Situational, but can peak rather hard.

Dealing with it: If you expose something, defeat it right away afterwards to remove the possibility of having that enemy retreat to the shadows with Swift Retreat. A possible exception: During Dogs of War, the chance of the Beast in Crimson being the nearest Coterie member is actually pretty high so unless you purposefully keep an exposed enemy around, Swift Retreat can be pretty nasty.