Sorry you got that impression; that had to really suck! 
But that's one of the reasons they purposefully word cards the way they do. (As you now know 
) there's nothing on Expat's Guns that says anything about Ammo, except to limit how many can be on them - there's nothing saying they're needed. Everything's explicitly written out, so we don't have to make any assumptions.
The >G folks are big on reading comprehension. 
So, with the new release as a video game, with expansions, and Dark Watch Expatriette is soon to be released as an unlock/variant. I'm wondering if anyone has any input on how her variant plays.
(Power - Aim: Increase damage dealt by Expatriette by 1 until the end of your next turn)
I assume that it would give her a much needed buff against damage resistance, but require much more planning and deliberation to play. Save your aim before you use a submachine gun, or your shock rounds, and maybe even considering it when Hairtrigger reflexes is in play. I haven't played with her variant though, so any other good tips, or card combos?
One I would suggest is that if you three or more guns in play ( in particular Pride and Predjudice) and have Unload in hand that you aim that turn. On the following turn play Unload, use Aim, then use all the guns but Pride and Predjudice, and then use Pride. This allows you to use each gun's power and they will all be at +2 damage from Aim.
It makes Expat a much better last hero than Load, because you can use your power to strengthen your next turn if there is nothing pressing to shoot.
Normally she is a strong second, or even a solid first hero, because of her destruction and high damage for getting past DR.
It changes how you use Unload also, since the P&P combo gives you the ability to use your base power, you can play a gun or ammo when you unload with base Expat, but with Aim you boost all your damave by 1.
If you are setting up for an unload next round (or if a card play will be granted later) use Aim to give you a +1 that you can double up on your Unload.
I prefer Load to Aim myself, because I like the less set-up time for unload. Aim has more upside, and my wife always plays DW Expat.
A big thing to remember about Expat with RC, is how well she works with Fixer. Bouncing Assault Rifle shots off Fixer to double up damage or using Salvage yard to fuel your ammo consumption, it is awesome how well they work together, and if Expat incaps her projectile damage ability is insanely good with Fixer.
I'm going to chime in here and say that after playing Expat on the tablet version quite a bit, I have a new found appreciation for what she brings to the table than I did before. My personal opinion is that the "old view" is somewhat reflected in the OP, which is quite good, but may benefit from just a little more about what Expat does do....
First and foremost, Expatriette is a hero who is about dealing with the threats on the board..NOW. She has a great mix of cards that provide damaging powers in the form of her guns, and of course the RPG is an incredibly powerful Ongoing/Environment +4 damage card. Although she relies on equipment, she really only needs one gun out to actually function, so she is both ultra fast to set up, and to recover from equipment/ongoing wipes. When you compare her to another damage focused hero, like Ra, it can pay dividents to track the damage that they actually do through the course of the game. Ra can kick out serious damage, but even he has to build for max effect. A typical first turn for Expat? Play Assault Rifle and do 6 damage. A typical first turn for Ra? Play Staff of Ra, heal 3, then use his base power for 3 damage. Expat was twice as good as dishing out damage on this turn than Ra, and he is benefiting from his self-boost. If Legacy had gone first, it would be even more skewed toward Expat -- 9 damage (say 3 of Voss's minions wiped out), versus 3 points of self-healing and 4 points. Will Ra have "middle turns" where he kicks out double digit damage when Expat is still plinking away for 4 to 6? Yes he will. But that's the key point here--Expat is about steady, reliable damage from the beginning to the end. She specifically excels in a target rich environment--the more targets the better for her. Submachine gun loaded with recycling Hollow points allows Expat to single handedly defeat a Forced Deployment. She RPG's the ongoing, then Hair Trigger Reflexes/SMG's the minions.
And that's not to say that Ex doesn't have self-buffing options. Ammo recycling or building toward and Unload (or two) greatly beefs up Expat's mid and late game damage. I personally look for Hair Trigger reflexes as a priority play, as it can wind out accounting for a LOT of damage. My first tablet victory over the Chairman was largely because a triple boosted Hair Trigger Reflexes utterly trumped the recycle ability of the Underbosses, preventing any thug from ever getting to do anything once that combo was set up. And of course she has the ever-valuable RPG, one of the best single cards in the game. Removing Ongoings simply isn't something that every hero can do, and this card is incredibly flexible for when you are in a jam.
This isn't to say that she is the most powerful hero in the game--far from it. However she generally gets a "meh" rating from the forum, when she in fact does what she does very well. She is a damage dealer who sets up fast, recovers from wipes fast, and has a few exceptionally powerful cards, including ongoing and environment removal capability. She is the hero you want to cover for the "slow build but powerful" hero's like AZ.
Dissolv
I would concur. She may not have the huge single target hits that a Ra might get but she gets out regular damage quickly. Considering that most of her guns are limited you will get another gun out quickly to maintain damage if one is destroyed. Also, I don't know of any other hero that has a power use (from equipment or Ongoings) with a base of four damage.
Indeed, and she deserves it as most of her damage is projectile, one of the most resisted in the game (2 Gene Bound Soldiers, Advanced Gloomy and Shu are all immune to projectile damage, the only other types with the same number of cards are melee and cold.)
For the record this is only counting targets who enter play immune to damage, not cards that render other targets immune.
Love for my Expat!
I love Expat, from the first time I downed a first turn Guard with my shotgun, it has been nothing but love.
On advanced, dealing with reduction she becomes even more valuable. Assault rifle with incendiary rounds bouncing off AZ, Shock rounds in a leaky room, so much fun to be had.
RPG Launcher is awesome. Destroy an ongoing or deal damage? Why not both?
Reload is beastly, speed loading is lots of fun, and just ridiculous with extra card draw or Salvage Yard. She is versatile and stable, few heroes match her damage with 2 cards, she just hurts people.
I love Expat too. Other people may consider her weak, but I don't care. She works for me.
I've alays liked Expat, thematically, but never managed to make her work on the table the way i would lke to.
However, I second the sentiment expressed earlier that since she arrived on my iPad I have a whole new appriciation for her mechanically as well.
A five-gun unload is soooo much fun to pull off, and i don't think i ever managed to achive that with the cards - bad luck I guess. SETBACK!!!
I think the tablet version gives you a chance to play enough games to see what you are looking for. It also helps that you can get a ton of 5 hero games in. I normally play with just my wife in the two hero/three turns between them format. This makes single focus hero's like Expat and Visionary look weak, and works best when we play we all-rounders, like Tempest + The Naturalist.
Expat definitely plays like a super hero who lacks super powers. She contributes, but in order to get the most out of her, she needs her teammate's. Legacy's boosts multiplies the force of her lighter hitting weapons, turning them into beasts, visionary/Wraith take the pressure off of the villian playing "killer cards", many hero's provide card draw or trash fishing that can result in 2-3 Unloads in rapid succession, or just 2-3 RPG's played over and over.
Her best role is to get off to an early start dishing out damage, let Legacy build defensive combo's, AZ module on up, and so on. In the middle game these hero's tend to take over, allowing Expat to look at her own set up. By this time a ton of ammo should be in the trash and she may have a number of guns out as well. Then it really comes down to--look for an Unload, get the Ammo Recycling going, or just be patient and plink while drawing cards. Often it is her role to sacrifice cards from either her hand or the table as well--she can replace them so easily compared to many of the other hero's. It's a tough job to cough up the cards, but it is much better for her to lose a tactical shotgun, than for Legacy to lose his ring, for instance.
Dissolv
Shock rounds are great when you have a bonus to damage, as it is a separate attack and gets the bonuses again. So if it beats their damage reduction it can pack a huge kick.
Combine this with DW Expat and someone like Fanatic, who can give her extra power uses, and Aim's boost becomes really scary, since you can turn it into an effective +2 on every instance of damage (more if you've got, say, Greatest Legacy or AA feeding her more Aims).
Just a bonus ruling that came out of some videogame discussions. Basically, Pride gives you an extra use of Prejudice via it's power, but note that this can break *any* of the usual rules of power use (not just the obvious "you can use one power in the Power Phase" rule) so for example if you play unload, another valid use of your powers is to fire all your guns including Prejudice, saving Pride for last. When you fire Pride, you're allowed to fire Prejudice again, even though you have no power uses and you've fired Prejudice before. This is handy if you don't have anything great to play for Load. This isn't just for unload either, any time you have two power uses on the same turn, if you fire Prejudice before Pride, Pride will let you fire Prejudice again. Cases include when Expatriette has Augmented Ally or Embolden, and doesn't have a better gun out.
Yup, this one has been known about for a while...though possibly not mentioned in this particular thread? It is a common tactic to use Unload and use Pride as the final gun, thereby getting a free extra power use in the form of Prejudice :D.
And it's even better with DW Expatriette -- Unload, then Aim, then go through your guns saving Pride for last to use Prejudice, too.
One of my favorite times with DW Expat.