mac122's Possibly Misguided Foray into Superhero Customs

[mac122]

I've updated the cards in the OP with hit zones, point costs (best guesses), a few tweaked stats and a number for You Lose. For now I chose 12. Elvenwizard makes a good point and that may be lowered after I get a chance to try these guys out.

[hi1hi1hi1hi1]

Originally Posted by mac122

I've updated the cards in the OP with hit zones, point costs (best guesses), a few tweaked stats and a number for You Lose. For now I chose 12. Elvenwizard makes a good point and that may be lowered after I get a chance to try these guys out.

Yeah give them a couple runs, but I'm afraid you won't want to use You Lose because the chance of hurting the other team is so low and you could just attack instead and then live to fight another turn (or even just be there to prevent the opponent's figure from moving away freely.)

[mac122]

Originally Posted by hi1hi1hi1hi1

Yeah give them a couple runs, but I'm afraid you won't want to use You Lose because the chance of hurting the other team is so low and you could just attack instead and then live to fight another turn (or even just be there to prevent the opponent's figure from moving away freely.)

Hmmm... the more I think about it, you're right. Perhaps I should break away a bit from what was seen in the movie and make some assumptions about what Vanko could have done with what he built. I would imagine he had the Doomsday scenario in mind when adding a self-destruct to the drones, but I also imagine he would have had the ability to set them off without killing himself if he could avoid it. What about giving him the ability to have the drones self-destruct at any time that was convenient?

YOU LOSE
After moving and instead of attacking, you may choose to destroy any or all Unique Mindless Drone squad figures you control. Roll the 20-sided die once for all chosen figures. If you roll an X or higher, all figures adjacent to each chosen figure receive 2 unblockable wounds. After using this power, all chosen figures are always destroyed.

Something like this would keep the drones as a threat even down to the last figure in a squad.

[Matt Helm]

You could consider You Lose to be a Special Attack with a range of Special and an Attack of something like 5. Your wording would be similar where you chose any or all drones you control. All figures adjacent to those drones are affected by.... Roll attack dice once for all affected... After attacking with... all chosen drones are destroyed.

[Tornado]

Great customs mac. Interesting suggestion Matt.
If you stick with a d20 roll I would rather it be a roll for each figure instead of one all or nothing roll.

[mac122]

Originally Posted by Matt Helm

You could consider You Lose to be a Special Attack with a range of Special and an Attack of something like 5. Your wording would be similar where you chose any or all drones you control. All figures adjacent to those drones are affected by.... Roll attack dice once for all affected... After attacking with... all chosen drones are destroyed.

Originally Posted by Tornado

Great customs mac. Interesting suggestion Matt.
If you stick with a d20 roll I would rather it be a roll for each figure instead of one all or nothing roll.

Thanks for the suggestions, fellas. I need to finish clearing my table so I can finally build a map and try out the ideas with Whiplash and the drones.

[mac122]

I finally played a game with Whiplash and the Drones. I really like how the Drones played. The are tough enough in numbers to do some damage to heroes, but are fairly fragile. I played Whiplash and the Drones against my son using Iron Man MkV, Iron Man Mark III (using the MkV's Slave Circuit), and War Machine.

Spoiler Alert!

At first, Whiplash stayed back in the start zone and used his Drone Control, sending out the Marine and Air Force Drones first, then the Army and Navy Drones later. Much to my son's dismay, Tony Stark was swarmed and went down early on. Much to my dismay, War Machine's Auto Chain Gun cut down several Drones that tried to swarm him. Before the last drone was destroyed, though, they managed to take out the MkIII and leave War Machine with 3 wounds to face a healthy Whiplash. Sadly for me, my son was able to maneuver forcing me to continually take hits from the Auto Chain Gun as I desperately tried to engage. Whiplash fell and the battle was over.

Couple thoughts from this test. First, as I said before, the Drones played pretty close to what I expected. I may make a few tweaks after some more testing, but I'm pleased with their performance. Whiplash needs some work, though. Admittedly, my tactics were flawed. I allowed all the drones to be destroyed before moving Whiplash. His lack of real range was his undoing. I should have used the Drones to engage and soften up the targets then send Whiplash in earlier to engage and destroy. Outside of my tactics, I think that while "You Lose" is very thematic, there was never a point in this game where I felt like it was the right move. There were never enough Drones engaged to make it worthwhile. As currently written, it's just not that useful. I'm going to look back through the other suggestions and try some out. If they don't work well either, I may come up with another power or just drop "You Lose" altogether and lower the point cost.

[IAmBatman]

Sweet mods! Interesting tid bit - the movie version of Whiplash pretty much stole liberally from Crimson Dynamo's background in the comics, so good figure choice on that level as well.