[Knight of Scape]

550 Points
Battlefield 23 (Dagmar, Holdir, Treasure Glyph x2 [Bracers of Teleportation, Scarab of Invulnerability])

Knight of Scape's Army: Janos, C'Rik, Rygarn, Etiana, Wastewalker Gage, Byrikon the Hiveless, Isamu, Otonashi

shiftrex's - Army: Crypt Guardian x4 , Drow Chainfighter x2, Marro Warriors, Kalagrith, Eldgrim, Marcu Eldgrim

Which units survived?
Shiftrex resigned at Janos, C'Rik (1 wound), Etiana, Byrikon (2 wounds), Rygarn, Isamu, and Otonashi vs. 1 crypt guardian, Marcu, and Eldgrim (1 wound).

General Battle Report/Flow of game (be as detailed or general as you like)
This was another dominant win for the mercenary explorers against a dragon army. As usual, I was my OMs as 1 on Janos, 2,X on Byrikon, 3 on Etiana for the whole game. Rygarn stayed at the front of the startzone all game, while Janos was careful to stay within 6 spaces of him.

Shiftrex led out with Kalagrith, and grabbed both treasure glyphs, but my heroes were able to spread out enough to deny any good scorched earth attacks, and they quickly took down half of Kalagrith's life, leading Shiftrex to retreat her back to the startzone with her bracers of teleportation.

The crypt guardians came out next, while the mercenary heroes more or less held their ground and gunned them down. Between Janos's and Gage's special attacks, Tough wasn't too much of an issue. The Marro Warriors were the third round of assault, but C'rik rushed them down while Janos and Etiana continued to shoot, taking down the warriors fairly quickly.

How useful were playtesting units' powers and how often did they come into play?

Janos: Expedition was again the MVP. Tracking Fire was also extremely useful in this game, since it let Janos double attack a crypt guardian while ignoring tough. Between damage to Kalagrith and to the guardians, Janos more than earned his points back just with his own attacks, besides the benefits of Expedition.

C'Rik: Holographic Projector activated 1/3 times, allowing C'Rik to make a useful retreat to high ground. Quaarn assault was very useful for letting the merc army get a ton of attacks in one turn. Phantom walk didn't really come into play this game.

Byrikon: Hive-Mind integration allowed me to win 1 initiative that I otherwise would have lost (and it would have been enough to swing the init even with a +3 boost). As I've observed before, putting 1 OM on Janos and 2 on Byrikon is almost free for this army, so Byrikon's init bonus is a nice plus that you can get with no extra thought.

Etiana: Support fire was useful for taking turns with Gage and Byrikon on the turns when I couldn't Expedition. The restriction to not move and only attack enemies adjacent to my heroes was not a big deal since Shiftrex's army had a bunch of heroes, and I already wanted to engage them with C'Rik and Gage, so unlike in some previous games, I was able to keep Etiana parked on height near my startzone and just snipe at people. Acrobatic did nothing this game. I don't think that Etiana was ever attacked.

Any additional comments (theme, balance, fun factor with and against)?

I continue to enjoy playing the Mercenary Explorers. The flexibility that Janos provides allows for a lot of interesting decisions, and I find myself using different hero combos from turn to turn depending on the board state. I also enjoy the element of planning ahead to ensure useful support fire turns for Etiana (which was easier to do this game than it was in the previous rounds). I have noticed that the large number of interactions can often make the army confusing for other people to play against, but I think that part of that is an inevitable effect of having an army with 5 unreleased units in it.

I do agree with the general sentiment that the power level of the army is probably a bit too high, though. In particular, I feel like Janos himself is too strong offensively. One interesting aspect of Expedition compared to other commander powers, like Ulglinesh, Kato, or Kurrok, is that Janos himself has to be one of the three heroes you take a turn with. As things stand, this is barely a restriction, since the fact that Janos gets a double special attack at range makes him someone you'd almost always want to take a turn with anyway. The amount of firepower that Janos contributes on his own also means that trying to snipe him early feels like the main hope that a lot of opponents have against the mercenaries (something that's not easy to do with Janos's general bulk and C'Rik's holographic projector).

Rather than making Janos easier to kill (which I feel would lead to swingy games whose outcome depends on how effective a few crucial attacks on Janos are), I'd rather nerf his offense so that taking out the other mercs one by one becomes a more effective way to weaken the army (similar to elf wizards, where many of their powers depend on having lots of elf wizards around, so targeting Uglinesh isn't necessary to wear down the army).

My inclination would be to just remove Janos's special attack. Expedition is already a game-changing power that defines the army, and the army is already fairly complicated, so I think Janos would be fine with just one power. He doesn't need to the special to incentivize you to take turns with him, since he's guaranteed a turn every expedition anyway, and he'll still be able to do something useful with his normal ranged attack.

Also, the Mercenaries already have access to other special attackers in Gage and Bambina, so I don't feel like removing Janos's special would kill the army's potential against rats and such.