Heroscapers - View Single Post - 2020 C3V Playtest Tournament

Captain Stupendous · #64 June 27th, 2020, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by capsocrates

Quote:

Originally Posted by capsocrates

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevindola

The capsocrates v. Captain Stupendous pool of armies is:

* : B-11 Resistance Fighters, Brute Gruts, Axentia, Rygarn, Kursus
* : Children of the Dark Star x3, Z'Thoth Mouth of the Abyss, Agga-Zemir, Guilty McCreech
* Ranjit's Rowdy Crew: Ranjit Singh, Krav Maga Agents, Arktos, Varkanaan Swiftfangs, Zettian Guards, Isamu
* A Painful Exspearience: 12th Cacusus Rifles x3, Cathar Spearmen x2, Motley Max, Guilty McCreech

Captain Stupendous chooses which army to play first or may defer. After armies are picked, capsocrates chooses who places first.

This game will go down at 1830MT/2030ET this Thursday

Valledon Fortress
caps
B-11 Resistance Fighters, Brute Gruts, Axentia, Rygarn, Kursus
vs
CaptainStupendous
12th Cacusus Rifles x3, Cathar Spearmen x2, Motley Max, Guilty McCreech

Round-by-round

Spoiler Alert!

Stats

Spoiler Alert!

Which units survived?
CaptainStupendous won with 1xRifle and Guilty McCreech

General Battle Report/Flow of game
I spent my first OM rolling out Brute Gruts, which was probably a mistake. Meanwhile Cathars were rolling out to meet the onslaught of Axentia. She killed a pair of them with her normal attack and then by the time she died she was engaged with just one Rifle. The Cathars did not engage her after Phoenix Rising so she flew over to hammer on Motley Max. She had some dud rolls but after 5 or 6 OMs she managed to kill him right before the Cathars and Rifles finished her off.
The rest of the game was the rest of my army trying to finish off the rest of his. I made some poor decisions with my B-11s and they ultimately had less impact than I would have liked. But with 1 life left Rygarn hit his one and only successful Temporal Jump to move onto the road, which he then used on his turn to get out of the reach of the remaining Cathar while still being able to attack them. He ended up single-handedly finishing off the Cathar, but then whiffed against a Gas Grenade.

CaptainStupendous never held any of the glyphs (when they would have mattered) and never got a Braced Spear roll
I never held Wannok and only held Valda briefly; I also never got Immolation to hit, except once against Axentia

How useful were the playtesting units' powers and how often did they come into play?
Axentia: Only got one Immolation roll and it was against herself, but she drew a lot of attention, killed 2xCathar with her normal attack, 1xRifle with her death, and then killed Motley Max with her normal attack. Despite her bad luck, she managed to "take her points" (~135 Motley Max + 37 2xCathars + 30 1xRifle = 202 points)
Motley Max: Never got an OM, but he drew Axentia's attention. 0 points taken

Any additional comments
I enjoyed the game, and Axentia, although I would have liked her to pull off some Immolation rolls.

I won't repeat the battle report and turn-by-turn summary that Caps provided, but here's my comments on Max and Axentia.

How useful were the playtesting units' powers and how often did they come into play?
Motley Max sadly never even saw an order marker this game. However, he did occupy Axentia after she resurrected, ultimately taking five turns worth of attacks from her before he went down. If he had survived, I think he would have been invaluable to me in the endgame, making it much easier to deal with the B-11s and Rygarn. However, that's all a question of "what would have been?"

Axentia seems very powerful for her points. With an effective 14 life and 3 defense, she's easily the second most-difficult to kill figure in the game, right behind Charos. And when thinking about her survivability, you also need to consider the defensive advantage gained from the fact that she isn't reborn until the end of the turn. When I killed her the first time, I had three Cathars that were in position to attack her. After I killed her with the first Cathar, my attacks with the other two were wasted.

I think its also important to note that even with some terrible attack rolls and abysmal Immolation rolls, Axentia still managed to deal damage to my army in excess of her points (~135 Motley Max + 37 2xCathars + 30 1xRifle = 202 points). Out of what I believe were five Immolation rolls against my figures, she failed to make any of them. The only successful Immolation roll she made was against herself. It also took her five turns to kill Max, which on average should have taken her four turns. Finally, I got very lucky on the timing of when I killed her the first time, successfully leaving engagement with one of my Cathar to kill her and only losing one Caucasus Rifle in the process. Yet despite all this, she still earned more than her points in terms of damage dealt to my army. In terms of value, I think she's somewhat comparable to Braxas. They both have Flying with the same Move, Range, Attack and Defense stats, and they both excel against expensive squad figures. Acid Breath is definitely better overall than Immolation; however Axentia has effectively 6 more life and costs 30 less points. To me, the tradeoff of Acid Breath for Immolation doesn't justify the extra 6 Life for a cheaper point cost.

I'm also curious to see how she'd do in an army with Thorgrim. I know that suicidal Thorgrim plays are typically not worth it, but with one more defense she'd have a multiplied Life and Defense value of 56, which is frankly insane.

Overall this was a very fun game with an insanely tense finish. With a little better luck I think Caps could have easily taken it. Along with Axentia's lackluster Immolation rolls, he also whiffed against three Gas Grenade Special Attacks if I remember correctly, which finished off a B-11, a Brute Grut, and killed Rygarn for the win.