Groot

[ALEXAN2507]

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Groot

Version tested:

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = GROOT
IDENTITY = N/A

UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
SPECIES = FLORA COLOSSUS
CLASS = PROTECTOR
PERSONALITY = BENEVOLENT

SIZE/HEIGHT = LARGE 8

LIFE = 7

MOVE = 6
RANGE = 2
ATTACK = 5
DEFENSE = 5

POINTS = 250

ROCKET AND GROOT
Before Groot’s move action, you may choose an unengaged allied Rocket Raccoon that is adjacent to Groot. After the move action, place the chosen figure adjacent to Groot. When determining height advantage between an adjacent allied Rocket Raccoon and a non-flying figure, add 8 levels to Rocket Raccoon’s elevation.

ENTANGLING ROOTS
Once per round, when a Small or Medium enemy in clear sight moves onto or over a space within 5 spaces of Groot, you may stop that figure's movement. It cannot use Flying until the end of your next turn.

RAGTAG PROTECTION
If an ally in the Guardians of the Galaxy faction within 5 clear spaces of Groot would take 1+ wounds, you may inflict 1 wound on Groot to ignore 1 wound inflicted on that figure.

FACTION = GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
PUBLISHER = MARVEL
KEYWORDS = Nature
SYMBOLS = HEAT WEAKNESS, SUPER STRENGTH

Army Test
Map: Cell Games Arena
Units: Groot (250), Rocket Raccoon (Pilot) (200), Star-Lord (250), Mantis (200), Guldo (100)

vs

Fantastic Four

NOTE: During this playtest, I mistakenly ran Groot as requiring adjacency to use Ragtag Protection, however, since this match ended ultimately in a victory for the Guardians anyway, Groot's strengths are still well-demonstrated here.

Spoiler Alert!

R1- General advances from both sides. Low rolls from Daniel (my opponent) on Reed's Fantastic Leader this round.

R2- Rocket moved to drop a bomb near Susan and then back to Groot for the height benefit, dealing her the first wound of the match. Human Torch got two wounds in on Star-Lord. Thing wanted to move in to combat, but Groot's Entangling Roots kept him at bay. Rocket, with the benefit of height advantage, fended off attacks from Mr Fantastic and Invisible Woman, getting 3 shields against 3 skulls at one point.

R3- Groot once again prevented Thing from moving at the start of the round. Once again, Rocket rolls just the right amount of shields against multiple attacks from Reed and Ben. Rocket dealt a wound to Reed, and Star-Lord dealt a wound to Sue. Human Torch attacked Star-Lord, who would have taken 1 wound, but had it transferred to Groot instead.

R4- On turn 1, The Thing attacks Rocket with +2 for Clobbering Time and whiffs the roll with just 1 skull, which Rocket survives by default due to his +1 Block. The Thing wanted to run up to Star-Lord to take him out, but Groot once again rooted him. No wounds are dealt this round as everyone rolls pretty well on defence.

R5- An incredibly lucky attack from Rocket on turn 1 rolling 5 SKULLS (thank you Groot and Star-Lord bonuses) to 3 shields from Reed, dealing two wounds and killing him. All of Daniel's OMs are on Reed, freeing the entire round up for me. Rocket proceeds to use this opportunity to jump out, place two bombs, attack Sue for 1 wound, and then detonates the two bombs at once, dealing Sue 2 wounds and defeating her, and dealing 2 wounds to Ben and 1 wound to Johnny.

R6- The Thing wants to attack Rocket, but gets stopped due to Groot's Strangling Roots, and fails to hurt Groot instead. Rocket retaliates with a 4 SKULL attack to a 0 SHIELD defence from Ben, and defeats him. Johnny uses a last ditch Super Nova, wounding Rocket for 1 (and 1 transferred to Groot), wounding Star-Lord for 2 (and 1 transferred to Groot, which would otherwise have killed Star-Lord), Guldo for 1, and Groot for 1 +1 Heat damage. This is where I noted whether Ragtag Protection should have the damage type of the attack applied to Groot.

R7- Rocket defeats Johnny.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Star-Lord (1/5 life)
Groot (2/7 life)
Rocket (3/4 life)
Guldo (2/3 life)

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Cell Games Arena
Units: Groot (250), Rocket Raccoon (Warden) (170), Star-Lord (250), Mantis (200), Green Arrow (Connor Hawke) (130)

vs

TMNT and Splinter

Spoiler Alert!

R1- Raphael makes an aggressive advance and rolls 3 skulls to 2 shields against Rocket, who gives the wound to Groot.

R2- Rocket fails a Support Fire roll against Raphael, then Michaelangelo engegs him and Groot preventing further Support Fire use. Connor deals a wound to Raphael. Raphael deals a wound to Connor, which is transferred to Groot.

R3- Leonardo moves up, but Groot entangles him before he can move further. Groot's Entanglement in general is much less effective against the Turtles as they inevitably keep jumping around with Combat Flips anyway. Two wounds destined for Connor are transferred to Groot instead. Rocket uses BFG against Leonardo, Michaelangelo and Donatello- and rolls an astounding 1 skull. No wounds are dealt.

R4- Daniel wins initiative, Donatello inflicts a wound on Groot with Brilliant Advantage. Groot stops Leonardo from engaging Rocket, who instead flips to engage Groot, Rocket fails Support Fire, and Leo gets a 3 skull 2 shield Two Swords attack on Groot, giving him two wounds and defeating him. Raphael follows up by hitting Connor with two attacks and defeating him. Michaelangelo then engages Rocket, rolls 4 SKULLS, Rocket rolls 0 SHIELDS, defeating Rocket in a single blow, and this is all just on the Turtle's first turn because I am experiencing cascade failure.

Mantis gets involved in the fight now, dealing a wound to Michaelangelo and wounds to Raphael. Raphael then gets 1 more wound from her, but this is ignored due to Splinter. Mantis takes 2 wounds during this, but heals both of them.

R5- Mantis hits with 1 Skull and +1 Hit against Raphael who gets no shields, defeating him. Leonardo hits a 2 Skulls 3 Shields Two Swords attack, dealing 4 wounds to Mantis at once, who then gets defeated by Michaelangelo. Splinter deals a wound to Star-Lord via Breaking Balance.

R6- Star-Lord defeats Michaelangelo, but is dealt two wounds by an attack from Donatello, and then when attacked by Splinter, rolls no shields and triggers Lucky Defence to avoid the attack- but gets got due to rolling 2 skulls and therefore triggering Breaking Balance from Splinter. Splinter's a nasty match-up for Star-Lord.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Leonardo, Donatello and Splinter, all at full life.

In addition, there was a game between these against the TMNT and Splinter with the same line-up as the other TMNT game. I wrote it off because I'd worked with Rag-Tag Protection on adjacency and spent a lot of game with figures not adjacent to Groot, and therefore not using it (unlike the Fantastic Four game where I kept people next to Groot and did use it.) This game was a loss for the Guardians. The only thing I'd specifically note from that game is that Groot's Entangling Roots were very ineffective agains the Turtles and their combat flips.

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: 250 seems pretty reasonable for Groot. He's not the toughest guy in the game, but having an extra 7 life on the field you can use to keep people like Star-Lord alive with is strong. Fits well into any GotG team but obviously especially wants Rocket there.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: Entangling Roots loves a match-up where the opponent has one main melee heavy hitter (the FF) but doesn't fare so great when you're being rushed by multiple melee units who have additional move abilities (the TMNT). Definitely felt like a consequential figure in both games, but had more impact against the FF. Works better with Pilot Rocket than Warden Rocket in my eyes- Pilot Rocket enjoys having an automatic height advantage spot to run back to for defence after dropping bombs, and Pilot Rocket's free attack actions mean he benefits more consistently from that height advantage offensively too. As raised in the Discord, I do think it's worth considering that Ragtag Protection should transfer Heat damage status from the intended targets- it feels like making a choice between Star-Lord taking a wound or Groot taking 2 wounds due to weakness is worth having, mechanically and thematically.

[MrNobody]

Does this work for you guys?

RAGTAG PROTECTION
If an ally in the Guardians of the Galaxy faction within 5 clear spaces of Groot would take 1+ wounds, you may inflict 1 wound on Groot to ignore 1 wound inflicted on that figure. The wound inflicted on Groot matches the damage type of the ignored wound.

I'll be honest, it's not a particularly exciting tweak to me. But if it can be achieved with a brief little sentence like that, I don't have a problem with adding it in.

[ALEXAN2507]

Originally Posted by MrNobody

Does this work for you guys?

I'll be honest, it's not a particularly exciting tweak to me. But if it can be achieved with a brief little sentence like that, I don't have a problem with adding it in.

I like it. It's absolutely just my personal opinion though.

[Karat]

Originally Posted by MrNobody

Does this work for you guys?

I'll be honest, it's not a particularly exciting tweak to me. But if it can be achieved with a brief little sentence like that, I don't have a problem with adding it in.

I'd restructure slightly and then I think it flows a little better.

[IAmBatman]

Yeah, I was going to suggest something similar

[MrNobody]

Sweet. I propose we go to final editing, and since the text has been pretty thoroughly checked over, I'll probably go straight to art.

[Karat]

Yea

Suggested edits. Feels like it flows a little better like so:

ROCKET AND GROOT
Before Groot's move action, you may choose an unengagedadjacent allied Rocket Raccoon that is adjacent to Groot unengaged . After the move action, place the chosen figure adjacent to Groot. When determining height advantage between an adjacent allied Rocket Raccoon and a non-flying figure, add 8 levels to Rocket Raccoon’s elevation.

ENTANGLING ROOTS
Once per round, when a Small or Medium enemy in clear sight moves onto or over a space within 5 spaces of Groot, you may stop that figure's movement. I and it cannot use Flying until the end of your next turn.

For pasteability.

ROCKET AND GROOT
Before Groot's move action, you may choose an adjacent allied Rocket Raccoon that is unengaged. After the move action, place the chosen figure adjacent to Groot. When determining height advantage between an adjacent allied Rocket Raccoon and a non-flying figure, add 8 levels to Rocket Raccoon’s elevation.

ENTANGLING ROOTS
Once per round, when a Small or Medium enemy in clear sight moves onto or over a space within 5 spaces of Groot, you may stop that figure's movement and it cannot use Flying until the end of your next turn.

[MrNobody]

Updated, thanks!

[Ericth74]

yea Solid design, great job!

[Arch-vile]

yea

Italicize all the Rocket Raccoon references. "damage type" should be lowercase.

[MrNobody]

Thanks Archie! Looks like I lost the italics when I copy/pasted Karat's edits without quoting first. Rookie mistake!

[IAmBatman]

Yea