The Book of The Top

[Yodaking]

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = THE TOP
SECRET IDENTITY = ROSCOE DILLON
SPECIES = METAHUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = ROGUE
PERSONALITY = OBSESSIVE
SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 4
MOVE = 7
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 5

POINTS = 185

MAKING THE WORLD SPIN
When a Rogue you control attacks a figure that is within 6 clear sight spaces of The Top, the defending figure cannot move this turn and must roll 1 fewer defense die for each blank rolled by the attacking figure. Androids and Destructible Objects are not affected by Obsessive Disorientation.

EXPLOSIVE TOP SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack 3.
Choose a space within 6 clear sight spaces of The Top. All figures on and adjacent to the chosen space are affected by this Special Attack. Roll attack dice once for all affected figures. Defending figures roll defense dice separately.

SPINNING TOP SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 1. Attack 4.
Instead of moving and attacking, you may move The Top up to 3 spaces and then roll 4 attack dice once against all figures adjacent to him. Affected figures roll defense dice separately. If The Top inflicts at least one wound with this special attack, you may move him up to 3 spaces and attack with this special attack one additional time. The Top will not take any leaving engagement attacks when moving with Spinning Top Special Attack.

NAME OF THE TEST UNIT (The Top)
Army Test 1
- Does it pass, Yes or No? yes
- What should be the unit's point value? In the end the swings of momentum balanced out a bit for a fairly close ending to the match so I guess 185 can’t be too far off even though Top didn’t have all that big of an impact.
- Give a brief preview. 4 Rogues try to take down the Flash and brought a few new friends along. Vertigo will double or triple down on the defense subtraction, while Mandarin is going to use his Rings to keep moving around some of the aura figures and dish out some auto-wounds to the Flash. Flash didn’t come alone though, his flying friends will try to swoop down and smash these negative aura units into the ground.
Map: Conflict Chernobyl (no glyphs)
Units: Capt. Cold, The Top @185, Trickster (Jesse), Capt. Boomerang (Digger), Vertigo, Mandarin (800) vs. Barry Allen Flash, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Hawkmen x1 (800)

Spoiler Alert!

Making the World Spin Usage: Helped Trickster reduce a Hawkmen’s defense by 2 total with 1 blank, the 1 skull attack was still blocked though. Repeat of the last sentence. Helped Capt. Cold reduce Hawkgirls defense by 1 with a blank, 1 skull attack was still blocked again.
Explosive Top SA Usage: Used to att. Hawkgirl, blocked.
Spinning Top SA Usage: Never used.
Normal Damage Dealt: Never used.
Damage Taken: Hawkgirl Swooped him for a double att. of 6 but only did 1W. Hawkgirl swooped him for a double att. again, this time rolling 4 skulls on the first att. and watching Top whiff on defense to get KO’ed.
Details: Vertigo ended up being the first one to fall and she didn’t end up doing anything. She rolled for Vertigo Projection once on a Hawkmen and didn’t roll a single shield on 5 dice, then when Capt. Cold att. a Hawkmen he didn’t roll any blanks on 3 dice, then Hawkgirl swooped in from behind a bush where she could see her and took her out with a double attack of 6. Capt. Cold dropped one Hawkman, then Hawkgirl went after him for 1W. Hawkgirl next swoops Top and takes him out. Capt. Cold continues to not deal any damage, while Hawkgirl swoops him for another 1W. Boomerang steps up and deals 1W to Hawkgirl w/his SA & also scores a d20 W on the last Hawkmen. Flash runs up but the snow keeps him from being able to engage anyone. Mandarin tosses Hawkgirl onto the ice and hits her for 2Ws, Flash hits Mandarin back for 2W with some fast fist, then forces Trickster to use his X distraction power with a 3 skull attack. Boomerang’s SA scoes another W on Hawkgilr via the d20. Flash uses his fast fists to take down Trickster and put another 1W on Mandarin (Flash is rolling a lot of skulls). Capt. Cold hits Flash for 2W’s, and Boomerang att. Hawkgirl from HG with the returning Boomerang taking her down and costing her OM1. Mandarin then tosses Flash onto the Ice and takes him out from HG, costing him OM2 & 3. Boomerang takes HG on Hawkman and the returning Boomerang hits him for 3W when he whiffs on 7 def. dice. This game has suddenly taken a huge turn. Hawkman wins initiative and takes out Boomerrang with a Hawk Strike, costing them OM1. Hawkman next takes out both Mandarin & Capt. Cold with a Hawk Strike double attack to win the game.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Hawkman w/3W won.

Recap: Vertigo ended up going down first without having an impact on the game. I also feel as though I put too much stock into trying out the defense reduction powers as I relied on Capt. Cold’s leadership but he wasn’t getting it done. On the two bonding turns he triggered while Top was in play, I then opted to use Trickster in an attempt to make use of the double minus defense per shield set up but he failed to deal any wounds and then Top dropped without really getting a chance to shine himself. I should have just bonded with the Top there as he was the stronger bonding option. Hawkgirl was the star of the early game, then Flash was pretty hot on attack dice himself mid-game but that was balanced by not rolling a single blank on defense and falling hard. The Rogues engineered a crazy comeback attempt, but lost initiative and couldn’t stand up to Hawkman’s double attacks of 8. After this game I’m not too terrible concerned about all the defense reduction stacking, even though technically you could score -3 defense from 1 blank if everything was set up just right. It may have helped that I had Hawkgirl who could stealth fly and swoop whoever I wanted to, but I also think the other tester just had some hot dice.
_____________________________________________________________
Army Test 2
- Does it pass, Yes or No? yes
- What should be the unit's point value? Not much to go on here so I’ll run this game again and see if I can actually get you some useful data.
- Give a brief preview. Waller sends the Suicide Squad on a mission that puts them at odds with the Teen Titans. Gorilla-Man comes along to help Rick Flag keep the criminals in line. King Shark & Gorilla-Man will try to led the attack and keep the Titans distracted while The Top & Capt. Boomerang will try to reduce Nightwing’s defense down enough to take him out.
Map: Conflict Chernobyl (no glyphs)
Units: Amanda Waller, Rick Flag Jr., The Top @185, Capt. Boomerang (Mercer), King Shark, Gorilla-Man (1000) vs. Nightwing, Raven, Final Ruin Spell, Starfire, Changeling, Wonder Girl, Aqualad (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

Making the World Spin Usage: Never used.
Explosive Top SA Usage: Used to att. Raven, Wonder Girl, & Changeling, the two girls were by a Palm Tree, rolled 3 skulls, dealt 3W to Wonder Girl & 2W to Changeling.
Spinning Top SA Usage: Never used.
Normal Damage Dealt: Never used.
Damage Taken: Top first takes 4W in one attack when Starfire rolls all skulls and he whiffs on 5 def. dice, I then rerolled the results and Starfire did 2W with that attack instead, then two attacks later she does another 2W and he’s down. Starfire had 4 attacks of 4 thanks to 3W on Raven’s card (transferred over from Wonder Girl) and those were attack #2 & #4.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? .Game called early when Top goes down on OM1 of R2, Raven w/3W, Changeling w/2W, Aqualad w/1W, Nightwing, Wonder Girl, & Starfire all at full life vs. Rick Flag Jr. w/3W, King Shark, Amanda Waller, & Boomerang all at full life.

Recap: This board does play fast and furious, Waller ends the first round with a double turn that starts to put blood in the water, now who wins initiative in R2 suddenly becomes very important. With the way things are set up a double turn of Top & Kingshark might be pretty devastating to the Titans. The Titans win initiative though 19 vs. 18, Nightwing activates Go! power, Raven pulls 3W off of Wonder Girl before she gets KO’ed, then att. Rick Flag from HG for a quick 3W, Starfire goes right after Top with her 4 attacks and KO’s him on the second one, then KO’s Boomerang with the 3rd att. and deals 2W to King Shark from HG with the 4th attack. This game is essentially over already thanks to Starfire rolling 8 skulls on 8 dice while Top & Boomerang roll 0 shields on 8 dice. I decide to just reroll the last 3 attacks from Starfire and see if I can instead keep the game going instead of calling it and maybe get some useful data from this match. Starfire still takes Top out though, it just takes all 3 attacks this time so I’m calling this game right here with Top already out of play. I’ll take a break and come back and rerun this match-up to see if I can get more useful data from the rematch.

Army Test 3
- Does it pass, Yes or No? yes
- What should be the unit's point value? .This one was a photo finish with either team having a chance to win at the end and the victor’s eking out the smallest possible win so I’d say 185 is looking pretty good. Top really had a pretty good showing here too.
- Give a brief preview. Rematch of the last game since Top didn’t last long in that one. Although I was planning on leading the attack with Gorrilla-Man & Kingshark, I didn’t account for just how much faster Rick Flag makes the SS move out and Gorrilla-Man never left the start zone. So this time I’m not going to use the double turn feature in round 1 at all and just move up the 3 SS members with Rick’s free move while Making sure Gorrilla-Man is out front this time.
Map: Conflict Chernobyl (no glyphs)
Units: Amanda Waller, Rick Flag Jr., The Top @185, Capt. Boomerang (Mercer), King Shark, Gorilla-Man (1000) vs. Nightwing, Raven, Final Ruin Spell, Starfire, Changeling, Wonder Girl, Aqualad (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

Making the World Spin Usage: Top engaged Wonder Girl and att. her with a normal att. rolling 2 blanks, Wonder Girl rolls 2 def. die as a result and rolls 2 shields to block the 1 skull. Boomerang att. Nightwing, on the second attack he rolls 1 blank and 1 skull, this reduced Nightwing’s defense to 3 since he was next to a bush, deals 1W. Boomerang att. Nightwing, rolls 4 skulls & 1 blank, Nightwing rolls 1 fewer defense (still3 due to bush) and whiffs to go down. While using Spinning Top SA on Changeling & Wonder Girl, rolls 3 skulls & 1 blank to reduce both of their def. rolls, Wonder Girl take all 3W while Changeling only takes 1W. On the second use of his Spinning Top SA he rolls a blank & 2 skulls vs. Changeling, who still blocks after the -1 def.
Explosive Top SA Usage: Never used.
Spinning Top SA Usage: Used to att. an already adj. Wonder Girl, hoping for a double attack but first one is blocked. Used to att. Wonder Girl & Changeling, rolls just 2 skulls & 2 shield but deals 2W to Changeling and 1W to Wonder Girl, att. again and rolls 3 skulls & 1 blank, 3W to Wonder Girl & 1W to Changeling. Used to att. Changeling, deals 1W, then att. Changeling again and gets blocked. Uses on Changeling again, 2 skulls & 2 shields on both att. rolls, first one deals 1W and that is it.
Normal Damage Dealt: Only normal att. was blocked.
Damage Taken: Starfire att. Top at range by bush, 2W from a whiff on defense. Changeling att. both Top & Boomerang as a Panther, rolls 2 skulls & deals 1W to Top. Changeling att. Top & King Shark with his Panther form, 2 skulls rolled, Top rolls 1 shield and goes down.
Details: Things rolled out a little slower this time around with no W’s in R1. R2, wonder Girl and Aqualad team up on Gorilla-Man from HG but only deal 1W thanks to some great defense rolls. Top engages Wonder Girl to free Gorilla-Man from the lasso, while Boomerang follows Wallers Special Orders and attacks Nightwing from HG for 1W. Go! see Starfire dealing 2W to Gorilla-Man, then 2W to Top, Aqualad tries to finish off Gorilla-Man and maybe become one but fails, Nightwing engages Top & Boomerang for some SA action, a nice def. roll by Top saves him while Boomerang takes 2W. Boomerang takes a LEA (miss) in an effort to free Top up for some Spinning SA action, his first att. on Nightwing is blocked but the return shot takes him out. This is great news for the SS, but it also means the Top’s SA will now only hit Wonder Girl, who blocks. Raven hits Rick Flag Jr. by palm tree for 1W. Boomerang moves back over by Top & att. Aqualad but gets blocked twice, King Shark engages Raven & Aqualad, att. Aqualad from LG and swallows him whole. Starfire steps up into Aqualad’s spot and smacks King Shark on the nose for 4W (whiff on def.). Starfire is Amanda Waller’s Special Assignment and Boomerang hits her from a quick 3W, then King Shark smells blood and att. from LG, but Starfire blocks. Changeling flies over adj. to Top & Boomerang, pops out his Panther claws, hits them both, taking out Boomerang. Top uses his SA to double att. Changeling for 3W & Wonder Girl for 4W, King Shark takes Starfire’s leg off, then att. Raven but gets blocked. Raven takes HG on King Shark and puts 1W on him. King Shark moves up to even ground and deals 1W back to Raven, while Top hits Changeling with the Spinning SA again for 1W. Raven is the new Special Assignment, Top keeps on trying to take out Changeling though and deals another 1W to him with his SA, while King Shark deals 1W to Raven. Changeling then turns into a ferret, pops up between Top & King Shark as a Panther and takes out Top. King Shark is the last SS member, but he smells the blood on Changeling and attacks, rolling just 1 skull so Changeling turns into a porcupine and takes 1W! Raven puts 1W on King Shark but he’s still hanging on, so Waller lets him try and snack on Changeling again, but again he rolls just 1 skull on 7 dice, Changeling only has 1 life left and can’t risk the Porcupine move again, going Turtle mode and hanging on with a single shield. Raven transfers a W to King Shark and puts him down, then Gorilla-Man takes out Changeling from LG. Raven wins initiative and tries to take out Gorilla-Man from HG but fails, Gorilla-Man moves up to even ground and hits her for 1W. Raven takes out Gorilla-Man and becomes Gorilla-Man! Rick Flag Jr. has two back to back turns now and deals 2W. Gorilla-Man takes out Rick Flag Jr. Waller moves up. Gorilla-Man charges Waller Machine Gun blazing but fails to hit her. Waller steps up to Gorilla-Man and hits him with a 3 skull att. roll for 2W! Waller blocks Gorilla-Man’s awkward punch but can’t put Gorilla-Man down with her own attack. Waller wins initiative and gets another chance but again can’t hit him. Gorilla-Man KO’s Waller with one punch!
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Newly minted Teen Titan Gorilla-Man (formerly Raven) wins w/4Ws!

Recap: So glad I played this one out again, what an epic game! So much fun! This is what C3G is all about. Top & Boomerang were both really effective here with Waller giving them a double turn together or a turn with King Shark, and boosting Boomerang’s normal attack by 1 sometimes too. Once all the criminals were gone, Raven turned into Gorilla-Woman and beat Flag & Waller into the ground. Waller had a couple of chances to pull out the win herself but just couldn’t close the deal.
Final Thoughts: I used the Explosive SA in the first two games and it’s a nice option when you can’t get close, but man the Spinning Top SA is pretty sweet if you can get engaged with 2 or more figures. Even one on one it’s worth using over his normal attack to try and get in a second attack roll. That means you need to keep your own figures clear of him though, which is when the normal attack is still useful if that isn’t possible. On the defense negation power, I though the 6 range aura was pretty good, but in the end you still need to roll a blank to make use of it, and even then a lot of attacks still get blocked so it seem fine to me. Two pretty close games (both losses), one where his impact was limited and he was possibly underutilized, the other he had a pretty good showing and his team had a real shot to win, so I’d say 185 is spot on. I do think he’ll really like the Capt. Cold II design I have in the pipeline, the double Rogue turns with Waller was clearly an upgrade over Capt. Cold I’s occasional Rogue bonding, but Capt. Cold II will need to account for that cost.

[Scapemage]

Wow, fantastic tests! Great work YK!

These tests are incredibly detailed and having three games where the defense reduction combos didn't destroy everything is a great sanity check. I was expecting to need another set of tests, but I no longer think that is the case since these armies were well built and showed off what we didn't see in the other tests from Venoc and myself.

I propose a move to Final Editing at 185 points!


Oops! Have to get CRB approval! @dok @Soundwarp SG-1 @Dysole @weebaer

[IAmBatman]

Works for me! I'll move on to where I'm more needed.

[Yodaking]

Pre-yea at 185

[Scapemage]

Originally Posted by Scapemage

Wow, fantastic tests! Great work YK!

These tests are incredibly detailed and having three games where the defense reduction combos didn't destroy everything is a great sanity check. I was expecting to need another set of tests, but I no longer think that is the case since these armies were well built and showed off what we didn't see in the other tests from Venoc and myself.

I propose a move to Final Editing at 185 points!


Oops! Have to get CRB approval! @dok @Soundwarp SG-1 @Dysole @weebaer

@dok @Soundwarp SG-1 @Dysole @weebaer Hugs and kisses

[IAmBatman]

While we're waiting on the CRB, any chance of a run down of match results for those of us too lazy to read through everything but willing to offer a pre-yea for Final Editing if everything looks good because we've been following just closely enough?

I mean, um, a friend of mine wants to know ....

[japes]

It's a shame that the only test with Vertigo had her go down too early to actually be of use.

[Scapemage]

Game 1: Suicide Squad build, hard loss but Top switched sides onto the winning team early
Game 2: Rogue build. Fairly close loss but Top takes over early game with SAs.
Game 3: Rogue build focused on defense reduction. Close loss where Top's aura does a lot of work.
Game 4: Rogue build with lots of rats. Pretty good win, Top does a fair share of damage.
Game 5: Suicide Squad & Rogue combined build. Very close win utilizing Top's aura a lot more than his attacks.
Game 6: Defense-reduction-stacking build with Vertigo and Mandarin for control. Close loss and Top was reasonably useful.
Game 7: Suicide Squad build. Game called early but Top got a good Explosive Top in during R1.
Game 8: Suicide Squad build. Extremely close loss where Top did quite a good deal of damage and provided useful aura all game.


Lots of losses, but most games were close and The Top did well each time to earn his points. I think the losses are more due to an army power level matchup.

[Yodaking]

Originally Posted by japes

It's a shame that the only test with Vertigo had her go down too early to actually be of use.

It would have been nice if she hung around a bit longer and effected a few rolls, but she's only a 90 point figure after all so staying power isn't really her forte.

[IAmBatman]

Looks good. Pre-yea at the current price.

[Scapemage]

*lights up CRB signal in sky*
@dok @Dysole @Soundwarp SG-1

[Dysole]

He's never going to be bad. Multiple useful specials and defense reduction are all solid. Stats are good too. I'm happy to see he was tested with trickster and vertigo although I'd've liked maybe one more test. I'm also very glad that the defense reduction is rogues only. None of them can really abuse it the way someone like Cable could.

~Dysole, who thinks her only recommendation is maybe one more test with vertigo