Re: The Book of Soundwave - Initial PT
Here are two more team tests, both losses and not really all that close either time.
***New Tests Added***
--Some card updates were made, dropping range down to 5 from 6, giving a 2nd Eject option via an XOM reveal and making Eject only require you to give up his attack, added a no LEA caluse to disruption, testing at 330 & 340 now to see how he feels. --
Army Test 4
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes, he’s feeling good with what he can do. I may cut the line from Disruption about ‘before any other Oms are revealed’ as I think it could cause some confusion but otherwise I think he is okay as is (have not tested the double eject option yet). Just need to zero in on a cost.
- What should be the unit's point value? IDK, either Cyclopes II needs to be reevaluated already or Soundwave is overpriced as his armies have now lost to a Cyclopes II led team by a big margin twice in row now. The Mutants did benefit from some solid defense rolls, lucked out by taking down Ms. Marvel in R1, and Archangel hit at higher than 20% with his auto-wounds, but even so N’Astirh’s army won initiative every round but the first and last rounds, and had HG on the ranged mutant attackers the whole game, Ms. Marvel did score W’s on both Domino & Cable before going down, and Cable’s bis SA fizzled out, yet they couldn’t even make it close.
- Give a brief overview. Trying the Ms. Marvel/N’Astirh combo again here but dropped the 10 point spell and increased Soundwave’s points by 10. Then I switched up the army they will face, re-using the Cyclopes II army form before while dropping Polaris to get down to 1000 points.
Map: Island Plane Crash
Units: Soundwave@330, N’Astirh, Ms. Marvel (1000) vs. Cyclopes II, Archangel, Domino, Cable (1000)
Spoiler Alert!
Operation: Disruption Usage: Used at the start of R2 (see details as I have a question about this) to disrupt Cyclopes plans when he has all OM’s on his card, N’Astirh also used this power to disengage from Archangel and att. Cable at range instead of risking a Techno-Virus W while fighting Archangel.
Eject! Usage: Not used.
Relay Orders Usage: 2 of 8 possible OM’s moved.
Damage Dealt: Never attacked anyone.
Damage Received: 3W from Archangels Razor Wing Slash, 2W form Cyclopes normal att. from LG in 1 att. (def. whiff on 7 dice), 2W from Domino from LG in 2 att. (rolled 2 shields on 7 def. dice vs. 3 skulls twice in a row).
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Cyclopes w/1W, Cable w/4Ws, Archangel w/3W’s, & Domino w/2W won.
Details: Ms. Marvel & N’Astirh move up onto the nose of the plane, shooting down at an advancing Cable, they put 4W’s on him by the end of R1. For the Mutants, Cable & Domino advance first, with Domino giving Ms. Marvel 2W, while taking 1 herself, then Cyclopes moves up just outside of Ms. Marvels range and att. to no effect, Archangel flies up adj. to N’Atirh, and Domino takes out Ms. Marvel while taking another W in return (terrible def. dice rolls) to end R1! Soundwave is still in the SZ and Cyclopes suspects N’Atirh will use the X to summon him, so Cyclopes gets all the OM in R2. N’Astirh sees this, opts to use a bit of trickery and instead reveals OM3 to summon Soundwave onto the plane nose adj. to him & Archangel before rolling for initiative, then after initiative is rolled and N’Astirh wins initiative, Soundwave reveals the X OM on his card to disrupt the Mutants’ plans (I had the X on Soundwave’s card already since I wanted to test this situation out, but since they won initiative could they have also used Relay Orders to move the X to Soundwave’s card and pulled off this trick?). N’Astirh disengages from Archangel and att. Cyclopes at range, blocked. Cyclopes uses his SA on N’Astirh & Soundwave from LG, rolls just 1 skull & 1 blank, both block. N’Astirh scores 1W on Cyclopes and Cyclopes att. N’Astirh back twice for 1W to end the round. Cyclopes gets all the OM’s again in R3 now that the Disruption has been used. N’Astirh wins initiative again and att. Cyclopes but get blocked again (another 3 skull att. is blocked). Cyclopes & Domino att. N’Astirh to no effect, but then Archangel flies about and scores a W on both N’Astirh & Soundwave, then lands engaged with both of them. N’Astirh opts to try and heal off Archangel and makes an adj. att., scores 1W (with a 4 skull roll, the mutants are rolling some good def. dice), then rolls a shield and wounds himself. Archangel fails to W either one. Cyclopes & Domino deal a W to N’Astirh, while Archangel scores a W on Soundwave. N’Astirh is desperate for some healing and att. and adj. Archangel again, hits him for 2W and heals! Archangel doesn’t wound anyone. Cyclopes & Domino deal 2W to N’Astirh and put him down, while Archangel gives Soundwave another W. Cyclopes wins initiative and deals 2W to Soundwave.
Recap: Ms. Marvel fell at the end of R1, with her gone N’Astirh was limited to 1 att. per OM while Cyclopes was getting 3 + a couple of d20 rolls for auto-wounds. Soundwave and N’astirh pulled off a bit of trickery at the start of R2 to disrupt Cyclopes leadership for that round, but couldn’t land a devastating blow to even things out. Is was a complete blow out after that.
Army Test 5
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes, I think he just needs to come down in price. Although I’m starting to wonder if he shouldn’t just have full bonding with his tapes. The Decipticons currently don’t have multiple att. per OM reveal, which puts them behind vs. most competitive armies. Tron’ ability to take out an OM can help even things out but it’s inconsistent. As it stands it’s hard to pass up a turn that features a big attack for a smaller attack from a tape. Maybe letting him full bond with one of his tapes would create an attractive alternative to Trons big att. of 7/10? I only worry that it makes Soundwave undraftable without at least one tape, which could get expensive, but then again since Soundwave isn’t playing well at the 330 point range maybe he could drop in points and afford a tape. If that were the case I would drop the double eject idea so that he could be played with just 1 tape as an ally.
- What should be the unit's point value? So much for my hopes of a 1000 point Decipticon team getting released in July, Soundwave is useful to the team and has solid stats, but he just isn’t worth 340 points. Not sure how much to shave off, maybe try him at 300 flat?
- Give a brief overview. Dropped Lobo from the Decipticon team and added in Ravage to test out the double eject option and see how the no-LEA clause added to Disruption helps out Ravage & Laserbeak. Pushed Soundwave up to 340 for this one, even though he just lost a big game at 330. I just want to see how a 1000 point al Decipticon team feels here. Megatron will get all the OM’s and be able to direct the tapes when windows of opportunity open up for them. Since it’s just the 4 of them, Soundwave will use the Double Eject early, at the end of R1 or to start R2, and get more options for attacking into play. Sue will of course be a big target for the tapes, if she gets away Soundwave will disrupt things so the tapes can continue to pursue Sue.
Map: Island Plane Crash
Units: Soundwave@340, Laserbeak, Megatron, Ravage@110 (1000) vs. Fan 4 (1000)
Spoiler Alert!
Operation: Disruption Usage: Never Used.
Eject! Usage: Used on R1T3, ejected Ravage first who pounced on Sue but rolls 4 shields and did no damage, then revealed the X to eject Laserbeak. Since Ravage didn’t wound Sue at all and Laserbeak would only be rolling 3 att. die vs. Sue (she has flying), Laserbeak instead flew over Reed’s head and missed with an unblockable att. die.
Relay Orders Usage: Used on 4 of 8 possible OM reveals, all 4 went to Soundwave himself.
Damage Dealt: 0W to Reed in 1 att. from HG (6 vs. 9), 1W to Reed in 1 att. from even ground (5 vs. 9, Reed only rolls 1 shield on def.),
Damage Received: 2W from Reed in 1 att. from HG, 3W from Reed in 1 att. from even ground (def. whiff by Soundwave), 2W from Ben in 1 att. (6 vs. 6)
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Ben w/4Ws and Johnny w/1W won.
Details: Tron moves up first onto the plane wing, then Soundwave moves over next to the tail. Reed, Sue & Ben all move up. Soundwave moves onto the tail of the plane, then uses Eject twice. Ravage goes after Sue but fails miserably, so Laserbeak tries for an Auto-wound on Reed and fails as well. Reed rolls a 1 and retreats to att. Ravage from HG, this requires him to be unengaged with Ravage, the extra att. die helps his score a W on Ravage. Reed wins initiative, has Sue move away from Ravage, she can’t damage him but Reed engages Ravage to prevent him from using any of his powers and deals 3W! Soundwave moves & att. Ben to no effect. Reed activates the whole team, Johnny flies up and at. Ravage to no effect, but then Sue moves and att. Ravage from HG destroying him, Ben moves up, & Reed moves up to att. Soundwave from HG for 2W. Megatron sees he needs to get involved and moves up, att. Reed from LG and scores 2W (1 shield on 10 dice for Reed)! Ben goes after Megatron and hits him from HG, but gets blocked. Megatron moves up to even ground and att. Reed again, another 1W (1 shield on 9 dice this time for Reed)! Megatron wins initiative and has Soundwave move up to even ground and att. Reed, Reed takes another W (just 1 shield on 9 dice again, 3rd def. roll of 9+ dice to result in 1 shield for Reed). Reed rolls a 1, he’s reeling from all these hits, but punches back at Soundwave for 3W (not it’s Soundwaves turn to whiff on def.)! Megatron turns into a pistol and Soundwave blasts Reed to take him out before Ben can rage out. Ben att. Soundwave and takes him out. Tron att. Johnny from HG but Sue shields him from harm. Johnny takes a LEA W, then fails to burn Megatron, flies over to HG on Laserbeak and deals 1W. Laserbeak wins initiative and takes a LEA (miss) from Johnny, flies over Ben and spots 2 #ed OM’s but rolls 2 shields, lands next to Megatron. Johnny att. Megatron from HG and gets blocked. Megatron turns into a pistol and Laserbeak grabs a hold of him with his beak, Ben takes 2Ws. Ben smashes Laserbeak to pieces, no more gun mode for Tron. Tron takes a LEA W from Ben, terrifies Ben with a scowl to knock out OM3, then tries to take out Sue from HG, 4W! Tron wins initiative and just barely takes down Sue before Ben can Clobber him. Ben moves over and hit Megatron for 3W from HG anyway. Tron moves up to even ground and deals 1W to Ben. Ben hits back for another 3W! Tron scores another 1W on Ben. Johnny engages Tron but can’t finish him off. Johnny wins initiative, takes a LEA (miss) and burns Tron for the win.
Recap: Decipticons get off to a terrible start when the double tape turn results in nothing at all, but then they have some really good luck that allows them to keep this one competitive. They have to focus early in the game on just getting the two double based figures up to HG in the middle of the map so they could maximize their big base stats and Tron’s SA, as a result the tapes didn’t really get that many OM’s. This one could have been a blow out but both times Ben was all set up for a double att. of 10, the Decipticons managed to avoid that blow. In the end though the Fan4 still has a solid win here.
|