C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM
NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Venom (Eddie Brock)
Army Test 1
Map: Bountiful Grove (Glyph of Wannok)
Units: Team 1 (685): Venom (240), Red Skull (250), Rocket Raccoon II (195)
Team 2 (690): Luke Cage (190), Spider-Man (250), Iron Man Mk IV (250)
Pre-game thoughts: Spidey is weak to Venom. We’ll see how that goes.
Summary of the game:
Post-game thoughts: Venom and the Cube is a very good combo. He’s really fast and doesn’t take LEAs, so if you knock it out of his hand you better have someone immediately ready to grab it or he’s getting it again.
Spidey’s weakness to Venom never really came up, which is probably a good thing for balance.
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Army Test 2
Map: Island Plane Crash (Glyph of Wannok)
Units: Team 1 (1,005): Venom (240), Red Skull (250), Super-Skrull (340), Jason Vorhees (175)
Team 2 (1,000): X-Men Classic
Pre-game thoughts:
Summary of the game:
Spoiler Alert!
Round 1: T2 wins initiative
-Jean tosses Venom back then attacks him, inflicting a wound
-Jason lands on the Wannok
-Super-Skrull (SS) stretches to punch Jean, inflicting 3 wounds
-Jean blasts Venom, inflicting a wound
-Jason inflicts a wound on Iceman with the Wannok
Round 2: T2 wins initiative
-Beast leaps down and inflicts 2 wounds on SS
-Skull moves a wound from Venom to Jean, finishing her off
-Skull fires at Angel, inflicting 3 wounds
-Beast removes the 3 OM from Venom
-Beast tries to attack SS, but SS counters him, inflicting a wound and bouncing Beast back
-Cyclops inflicts a wound on Jason with his SA
-Venom lunges at Beast, inflicting 1 wound
-Beast inflicts 3 wounds on SS in a single pounce
-Jason inflicts a wound on Iceman with the Wannok
Round 3: T1 wins initiative
-SS takes out Beast
-Jason pops up right next to Scott
-Scott takes an LEA from Jason
-Skull moves a wound from SS to Angel, killing the Mutant
-Scott lets loose with his SA, giving both Venom and Jason 2 wounds each
-Jason assaults Scott, inflicting a wound
-Bobby inflicts a wound on Skull, causing him to drop the Cube
-Venom kills Scott
-Bobby finishes off SS
Round 4: T1 wins initiative
-Bobby takes out Jason...for now
-Venom kills Bobby
-Venom picks up the Cube
-Jason returns
Round 5: T1 wins initiative
-Jason assaults Xavier, inflicting a wound
-Venom lunges at Xavier, inflicting a wound
-Venom moves a wound from himself to Xavier
-Venom kills Xavier
Special power usages:
Normal attack: 7 wounds inflicted (1 on Beast, 2 on Cyclops, 2 on Iceman, 2 on Xavier)
Lethal Protector: 0 wounds inflicted
Unstoppable Resilience: 9 wounds ignored (7 from attacks, 2 from Cosmic Cube)
Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Venom (2/7 wounds), Red Skull (1/5 wounds), Jason (0/6 wounds)
Post-game thoughts: Another rough one. I’ll be honest, I don’t think Red Skull and 3 stand-alone units should be able to take out the X-Men like that. Jason was certainly useful, as most of the X-Men don’t have SS and he could control the flow of their traffic to a degree. Still, it wasn’t Jason inflicting the majority of the wounds.
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THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: I think he’s a serious bargain for 240, especially with Skull. Venom is really fast, meaning that even if the opponent knocked the Cube really far away, Venom can go retrieve it and be back in the fight in a turn or two, sometimes even the same turn with the combination of Clamber and the Cube’s movement option. He’s honestly just a superior Cube-wielder to Skull in a majority of ways, and once the Cube was knocked out of Skull’s hands I never wanted anyone but Venom to hold it. I think part of the problem is that I feel like he's the first design that can wield the Cube that feels actively better to take a turn with than Skull.
Outside of that, he’s still pretty good. He has a burly attack, the ability to easily gain height, and a defense subtraction option to round it all out. He’s easy enough to wound, but hard to finish off.
GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: All that aside, the design feels very cool. I really like Clamber a lot, especially how it encourages a frenetic sort of playstyle hopping from enemy to enemy. I was a bit worried Lethal Protector would wind up making him just a funky bodyguard, but he really felt much more useful charging around attacking stuff. I don’t think LP will come up all that often, but I honestly enjoy it as a weird side bonus that happens due to circumstance.
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