Finally got around to writing up my thoughts based on my Round 3 Game.
Map: Custom
Army 1: Janos, Bambina, Maekor, Etiana, C'Rik, Matlis
Army 2: Mohicans x5, Nessing, Bol, Kolbjorn
Which units survived? 4 life Nessing, Bol, and 5 Mohicans
Game overview (from Kevin’s perspective)
Spoiler Alert!
Round 1
These Mercenary Order Markers and orders (especially without Rygarn) are so fascinating to predict for the opponent and interesting to know what kind of situation you will be playing into
Captain Stupendous goes Maekor-Etiana (activates Maekor)-Janos (activaties-Bambina-Etiana)
I roll out all Mohicans and thanks to losing initiaitve I am able to take 3 potshots at Maekor (all miss)
2nd OM I go ahead and engage Maekor and the Mohicans/Kobljorn do 2 wounds to the Lizard. But the 4 ranged attacks kill both Mohicans (2 from Janos, 1 from Bambina, 1 from Etiana).
I keep sending out Mohicans but all 3 ranged attacks miss in final turn
Round 2
-Janos wins a nice initiative and claims the Bracers of Teleportation and puts 3 wounds on Kolbjorn. Janos activates Bambina (ranged attack kills Mohican) and Etiana (1 wound onto Kobl, 4 total) and really podding up around the treasure location.
-My 3 ranged attacks from Mohicans all miss again
-Maekor misses an attack and attempt on Plasma, but Bambina is activated and kills Kolbjorn
-another 3 misses from Mohicans (9 blocked attacks in a row)
-Etiana activates Maekor who kills a Mohican
-The gaps in the hero wall and my spreading out of the Mohicans gives me the opportunity to engage Janos with 2 Mohicans (no living Tribesman sadly), but they put 4 wounds on Janos to end the round
Round 3
-Janos wins a huge initiative (otherwise faced an attack of 4/3/2 with 2 life left. He zips out of engagement using the Teleportation Bracers and kills a Mohican. Maekor plasmas the 2 Mohicans who had previously engaged Janos, and Bambina moves into the startzone engaging Van Ness and 2 Mohicans (Hammer blocked)
-In a game turning chain of events though, the Mohicans attacks of 2 put the last 2 wounds on the 4 defense Janos to kill him.
-Maekor moves, but is far away from the action so no attacks. (Part of what really helped is not engaging the Mercenary pod directly. The Mohicans range really helped in splitting up the Mercs and minimizing their defensive boosts and exposing their melee heroes) It was part of what made this match so fun so planning around these powers and weaknesses.
-Tough call on whether to engage Maekor or not and give him that extra defense but I decide to eventually (1 wound, 3 total)
-Super AWESOME COMBO! Van Nessing was 11 spaces away from Etiana, but Bambina activated with Support Fire uses the grav hammer to shift Van Nessing into range for an Etiana attack. Both attacks do 1 wound to Nessing
-Mohicans kill Maekor
Round 4
-Van Nessing gets his first order marker, disengages (miss) from Bambina and puts 1 wound on Bambina and then 2 wounds on Etiana
-Etiana's range shot is missed via concealment
-Mohicans kill Etiana
-NO OM (Etiana)
-Mohicans do 2 wounds to C'Rik
-Bambina kills a Mohican
That's pretty much game. Bambina would kill 2 more Mohicans (1 with Hammer, 1 from Range), but C'Rik (0/7 with new projector d20) and Maltis would never get a turn and eventually Bambina went down as well.
I won with 4 life Nessing, Bol, and 5 Mohicans
How useful were playtesting units' powers and how often did they come into play?
Bambina Normal kills: 2 Mohican
Graviton 1 Kolbjorn I Nessing I Mohican
Janos Normals: No wounds
Tracking Shot I Mohican 4 Kolbjorn
Expedition Used every round
Etiana Normals: I Mohican I Kolbjorn
Support Fire Used three times?
Acrobatic 2 negated
C’Rik Normals
Holographic never successful
Maekor Normals I Mohican
Company Defensive:
Plasma Blade Arc: 2 Mohican
Any additional comments (theme, balance, fun factor with and against)?
I’m warming up to the idea of the mercplorers operating as a random bonding smorgasbord, but I still think many aspects of the individual designs could be further refined.
Bambina feels good, I really like where she’s at right now.
Janos definitely seems a little overtuned, nerfs to Tracking Shot should help put him more around where he needs to be. It wasn’t relevant this game, but I also think the Rygarn synergy should be dropped.
Etiana feels a bit mechanically and thematically messy right now. Acrobatic actually makes her one of the tankier mercplorers for her point value, especially if she can get the defense boost from Maekor. This seems pretty strange to me, and not what I’d typically associate with her sculpt.
Spotter doesn’t make much sense to me as currently worded. The fact that she doesn’t need any LOS to the bonding hero, and then during her turn doesn’t need to attack anything anywhere near the bonded hero leads to very strange situations. In this game, Etiana was surrounded by Mohicans and halfway across the map from Bambina, who she couldn’t even see. However, this didn’t stop her from using her “Spotter” power to activate Bambina, then attack one of the Mohicans engaged with her. Unthematic moments like this will be relatively common, which means I think we need to go back to the drawing board a bit with this power.
C’Rik never got an OM, so I don’t have a lot to say about his performance here. I probably should have developed more slowly which would have let him join and keep up with the rest of his pals, but I got greedy trying to get the early kill on Kolbjorn.
Maekor is a beast. A very scary figure and overall I like where he’s at. However, I’ve got some issues with Company Defensive Formation as it currently stands, mainly because the name implies a mechanical parallel with Tomoe Gozen’s Defensive Formation, but the two powers are currently quite different. I think there's a couple ways we could move forward here. While a power name change would go a long way toward addressing my concerns, I still think the power itself could be a bit more streamlined. Here are my suggestions.
Quote:
MERCENARY DEFENSIVE FORMATION
If Maekor is adjacent to at least one other Mercenary you control, add 1 die to the Defense of Maekor and all Mercenaries you control adjacent to Maekor.
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OR
Quote:
COMPANY DEFENSIVE FORMATION
If Maekor is adjacent to at least one other Mercenary or Explorer you control, add 1 die to the Defense of Maekor and all other Mercenaries and Explorers you control adjacent to Maekor.
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I slightly prefer limiting the ability to only affecting mercenaries in the interests of distinguishing between the two classes a bit more, but I'd also be fine with the more inclusive power. This makes the ability basically irrelevant in Greenscales armies, but more effective in Janos builds.
Alternatively, if we wanted something that stayed a bit closer to the original power, I would recommend simplifying the ability to:
Quote:
MELEE COMBAT POSITIONING [or some other name that doesn't parallel Tomoe's Defensive Formation]
If Maekor is engaged, Maekor and all friendly adjacent Mercenaries [and Explorers] roll 1 additional defense die.
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And for reference, here's the current (overly complicated, IMO) version of the power:
Quote:
COMPANY DEFENSIVE FORMATION
If Maekor or a friendly adjacent Mercenary is engaged, Maekor and all friendly adjacent Explorers and Mercenaries roll 1 additional defense die.
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