The Book of Reed Richards (Visionary)

[Arkham]

The way I see it, not a big step down, but I think it's got an extra hoop to it that's not really worth the extra on the fly benefit? It requires taking a turn with Reed. Yes, on a win you could take a turn with Iron Man(if you drafted him) instead, but not on a loss, and not once Iron Man is destroyed(which happens fairly quickly). You then will always be risking your OM1 on Reed, so if you lose initiative or you're lacking Iron Man, he's left quite vulnerable.

Conversely, Contingency Plan just lets you place them wherever is best, and if they drop, you move them to the next best option. In Illuminati builds, generally you want them all on Strange anyway as he's the sturdiest. So a ton of flux really isn't all that important here. A safety net is all that's really needed, and Oracle has always proven her worth there.

All is to say, the Contingency aspect really isn't something that needs fixing. Def. didn't feel in my games it needed adjusting at all. It's the glyph aspect that's been in question, and that's where it either goes to a simpler version and moved to the first power, or stays as-is.

[MrNobody]

Just talking out loud -

I feel like making Reed have a more active role in an Illuminati build isn't exactly a bad thing. Reed, Tony, and later T'Challa always feel like the "main characters" of the team to me. Tony and T'Challa already have very active roles in the faction, so giving Reed one too would be kinda cool.

However, I don't think the Master Tactician theme is perfect here. MT has always given me a Steve Rogers "battlefield tactics" feel, while Contingency Plan has more of a "I planned for this and outsmarted you" feel. I think that second one is what we should be aiming for with Reed.

So overall I feel like it creates more interesting (though not necessarily more competitive) gameplay, but it's maybe a little off in the theme department?

---

If the unblockables aren't feeling perfect, I do think some streamlining, like Ark suggested, would be nice. If I'm being honest, Fantastic Contingency is feeling fairly unwieldy as a power, so simplifying it would be really nice.

[toyhandle]

It's a cool interplay between Iron Man and a Cap power, but it'd mean that if you win initiative, you must reveal the X on Iron Man, or you lose your BP bonding that turn, and Professor X is going to want that X. Contingency has given me the comfort to place OM 1 on Iron Man, which is thematic, and has worked out well.

I also tend to gravitate toward glyphs that don't get lost due to wounds anyway, like the Teleportation Belt and Anti-Kryptonite suit.
And if wounds cause the trigger, that opens the door for some cheese. Say I Dimension Shift your figure into engagement with an Equipped figure to trigger Fending Daggers, then I Dimension Shift my figure away from your figure to risk an LEA on my figure, which, if it takes one, that risks an unblockable on your figure. Or I use Iron Man's AOE attack to risk unblockables on my figures for the same deal.

So I'm fine staying the course.

[toyhandle]

This is the preferred change? Plain Contingency Plan, moving the glyph part to Visionary Theoretician and opening it up to anytime the glyph is lost, but limiting it to only that glyph?

VISIONARY THEORETICIAN
Start the game with 4 Invention Equipment Glyphs of different types in a Glyph Pool, power-side up. After winning initiative, you may choose a glyph from Reed Richard's Glyph Pool and place it onto the card of a Visionary you control, or onto the card of a friendly adjacent Unique Hero. When a figure would lose that glyph, before removing it from a figure's card, you may roll an unblockable attack die against a figure on or within 1 space of that glyph.

ELONGATION
Before moving Reed Richards normally, you may subtract up to 8 from his Move number to add that to his Range number for this turn. If you subtract at least 4, he also gains the Flying special power during that movement. Reed never takes any leaving engagement attacks and may attack non-adjacent figures while engaged.

CONTINGENCY PLAN
While Reed Richards is in play, when an Army Card you control has all of its figures destroyed, you may immediately remove any unrevealed Order Markers from that card and place them on any other card you control.

[MrNobody]

I can support that. Hopefully it reaches a middle ground where both the LD and the general group are happy.

[IAmBatman]

Seems like where a lot of folks were at, yeah. I admittedly have not been following closely.

[Tornado]

Nice

[Yodaking]

I like the clarity of the unblockable happening before the glyph goes flying away. It looks like you can have it hit an opponent who picks up a loose glyph and then looses it. A good way to discourage your opponent from using your tech against you. That extra W might finish them!

[toyhandle]

Updated the SP

[IAmBatman]

Baller.

[Splash]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Reed Richards
VERSION TESTED

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = REED RICHARDS

SPECIES = MUTATE
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = VISIONARY
PERSONALITY = BRILLIANT

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 5

MOVE = 8
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 6

POINTS = 220

VISIONARY THEORETICIAN
Start the game with 4 Invention Equipment Glyphs of different types in a Glyph Pool, power-side up. After winning initiative, you may choose a glyph from Reed Richard's Glyph Pool and place it onto the card of a Visionary you control, or onto the card of a friendly adjacent Unique Hero. When a figure would lose that glyph, before removing it from a figure's card, you may roll an unblockable attack die against a figure on or within 1 space of that glyph.

ELONGATION
Before moving Reed Richards normally, you may subtract up to 8 from his Move number to add that to his Range number for this turn. If you subtract at least 4, he also gains the Flying special power during that movement. Reed never takes any leaving engagement attacks and may attack non-adjacent figures while engaged.

CONTINGENCY PLAN
While Reed Richards is in play, when an Army Card you control has all of its figures destroyed, you may immediately remove any unrevealed Order Markers from that card and place them on any other card you control.

SUPER STRENGTH

Army Test
Map: Elm Street.
Units: Reed, Strange, Xavier, Stark (1,000) vs Skrull Emperor (300), Super Skrull (340), Skrull Warriors (110)x3, Skrull Infiltrators (10)x3 (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

Illuminati moved in with Strange with an E-Ray, the strat was to use it to turn Super-Skrull into a Gorilla. The entire team died trying to accomplish this.

Damage Done (Normal Attack): Inflicted 0 wounds.
VISIONARY THEORETICIAN: Fun glyphs. Killed 1 Skrull Warrior.
ELONGATION: N/A.
CONTINGENCY PLAN: Used well..

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Emperor (no wounds), Super Skrull (no wounds), Infiltrators X3, Warriors (3/6).

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Elm Street.
Units: Reed, T’Challa, McCoy, Strange, Final Ruin, Temporal Inversion, Mesmerize (1,000) vs Professor X (190), Cyclops (II) (240), Angel (90), Psylocke (250), Nightcrawler (AoA) (230) (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

T’Challa went down early, the rest of the team was trying to stop Xavier’s Mind Blasts, but Nightcrawler was engaging and getting blanks. Initiative was not won until the very last round when Reed was pretty much dead anyway. The X-Team was a hard counter.

Damage Done (Normal Attack): Inflicted 0 wounds.
VISIONARY THEORETICIAN: Reed got the Neutralizer in the very last round.
ELONGATION: Was solid. Good for movement.
CONTINGENCY PLAN: Used well.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Cyclops (safe), Nightcrawler (safe), Psylocke (safe), Angel (safe), Xavier (¼ remaining).

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: Reed himself worked fine. I whiffed a metric ton on both games and the luck was not there. The glyphs are fun and a lot of Inventions serve as excellent counters to things, so it really helps Reed feel leadery in that he gets the Illuminati to meet whatever challenge they are facing. Elongation is a really nice power that’s guaranteed some use, especially if you held him back and now he needs to get somewhere. Contingency Plan makes a ton of sense and is useful for the Illuminati. Stats are just okay, but Reed isn’t a powerhouse. The games were abysmally bad, but Reed was probably about the second best performer overall, so I’d say cost is good. Maybe another 210, so he's swappable with T'Challa, but 220 feels fine.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: Good unit that does well for the faction. The toys are fun, but like many Illuminati designs, the payoff stacks with winning initiative and is punishing when you don’t. The main problem is I am apparently crap at playing Illuminati.

[toyhandle]

I played as the opponent in the above games. The Illuminati inflicted 3 total wounds each game.

Game 1 shows that Black Panther would have been a much better draft than Reed at 10 points less. It would have given the team turn efficiency that could better compete against the very efficient Skrulls, and it would allow Prof X to best use his Mental Blast.
Reed mostly just preserved Order Markers of his friends being mowed down.

Game 2 I used a Cyclops (II) and Prof X (Visionary) team I had tested Xavier in. It’s a nasty army normally, but I didn’t think about Cyclops’ initiative boost until the game started.
The X-Men’s +6 beat the Illuminati’s +3 (and potential re-roll) almost every time, so while the Illuminati were knee-capped, Xavier was cloaking the X-Men. Again, Reed mostly just preserved Order Markers of his friends being mowed down.

I’m going to call back to @Ericth74 ’s thoughts about being closer to 200. I think in Reed’s ideal build, he competes with Beast in terms of value, and doesn’t against Black Panther. Would like to see more tests. Could be one at 210 and one at 200? Or just two at 200?