The Book of Sandman (William Baker)

[tcglkn]

Cool. Anyone can get this. I can't see anything else needing tweaking unless testing reveals an issue.

[IAmBatman]

Cool. If no one else claims it before then, I'll probably start on heavy hitters tonight.

[Hahma]

If there's no hurry, I could do the initial for Sandman, but it won't get done 'til next weekend most likely.

[tcglkn]

Either one of y'all can do it. I'm not going to be pushy and rush you guys since I'm not doing my own testing, but I would like it not to drag on too long since I'm only running one LD at a time.

[IAmBatman]

I'm struggling with photobucket to get some pictures uploaded for Laufey and Mongul, but after that I plan to start working on heavy hitters today and finishing up tomorrow with army tests.

[Hahma]

Well I'll leave it up to Bats then. The thing is, I don't have the time to sit down and knock out a whole test in one sitting. I can work on HH's and squads in he evening during the week before going to bed, but army tests aren't good for me until the weekend, if I'm not working. If I have a day off once in a while during the week for some reason I can fit some testing in a little that day, but I'm not going back to giving up everything else in my life for playtesting. No way

[IAmBatman]

Glad to hear it. You've been doing great since you got back, so no complaints from me.

[tcglkn]

Yea that wasn't meant to discourage you from testing Hahma, but I really don't want to burden you with any additional testing either. Thanks for grabbing this Bats.

[IAmBatman]

C3G INITIAL PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE TEST UNIT (SANDMAN)

- THEME TEST/ Check to see if there are any powers or stats on the test unit card that does not accurately reflect the theme or likeness of what the character would and could do. Also consider destructible objects, and whether or not this characters powers should affect them.
PASS

- MIRROR TEST/ Check to see if the unit were played against itself, if there would be any loops that would upset the balance of the Game.
PASS

- BONDING TEST/ Compare the unit card with all possible currently existing Bonding abilities to make sure there are no continual Bonding possibilities that do not stop appropriately or do not stop at all. This is to prevent loops in Bonding.
PASS

- SYNERGIES TEST/ Compare the unit card with all possible currently existing synergies to make sure there are no factors that could break the game by making any unit to powerful or too weak.
PASS

- POWER CHECK/ Consider the test unit and all existing units and all glyphs to compare to and check for any powers that could be over amplified and break the game. Each power must define when it takes place, who or what it affects, and What are the stipulations on the power if there are any.
PASS

- FUN TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play.
PASS

- FUN COMPETITIVE TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play against.
PASS

- DRAFTING TEST/ Consider whether or not this design is worth drafting.
PASS

- USAGE TEST/ Consider whether or not all of the powers on this card were used or at least usable.
PASS

- STRATEGY TEST/ Consider whether or not the design offers any real strategy or interesting tactics to the overall game.
PASS

Heavy Hitter or Mid-Level Hero Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes
- What should be the unit's point value? 210
- Give a brief overview. He dominated Batman (no easy task) though Batman did roll poorly for Evasive Strike both matches, then Croc and Gambit dominated him, but he split with Red Skull and Captain America. The board had a little bit of water (enough for Red Skull to put him there with the Cube) but very little sand for him to exploit.

Spoiler Alert!

TEST 1
Map: Custom
Units: Sandman vs. Batman (200)
Sandman healed 4 wounds. He put 3 wounds on Batman with Sandstorm. Batman couldn’t hit any Evasive Strike rolls.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Sandman with Full Life wins Turn 2 Round 2.

TEST 2
Map: Custom
Units: Sandman vs. Batman (200)
Sandman healed 3 wounds and put all 4 wounds on Batman with Sandstorm. Batman again failed all of his Evasive Strike rolls.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Sandman with Full Life wins Turn 3 Round 2.

TEST 3
Map: Custom
Units: Sandman vs. Killer Croc (200)
Croc had solid attack rolls here. Sandman healed one wound, but didn’t have many chances to attack here.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Killer Croc with Full Life wins Turn 1 Round 2.

TEST 4
Map: Custom
Units: Sandman vs. Killer Croc (200)
More big attack rolls from Croc. Sandman healed 3 wounds and put 2 wounds on Croc with Sandstorm.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Killer Croc with 3 wounds wins Turn 2 Round 2.

TEST 5
Map: Custom
Units: Sandman vs. Gambit (210)
Gambit dominated. Sandman probably relied on Sandstorm too much here. He healed 3 wounds, but Gambit piled wounds onto him with Five Card Draw very quickly.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Gambit with 1 wound wins Turn 2 Round 2.

TEST 6
Map: Custom
Units: Sandman vs. Gambit (210)
Gambit vaulted onto height on turn 2 and rolled all skulls on six dice to put Sandman behind the eight ball (he took 4 quick wounds). Sandman healed 1 wound on his turn and punched Gambit, but Gambit followed up with an onslaught from 5 Card Draw.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Gambit with 2 wounds wins Turn 3 Round 1.

TEST 7
Map: Custom
Units: Sandman vs. Captain America (Hasbro) (220)
Sandman healed 1 wound. All wounds on Cap came from Sandman’s normal attack. He got height to end Round 1 and then got an initiative switch and pummeled Cap. Cap rolled 1 shield on defense two turns in a row.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Sandman with Full Life wins Turn 1 Round 2.

TEST 8
Map: Custom
Units: Sandman vs. Captain America (Hasbro) (220)
Cap rolls 4 skulls on his first shield roll, wounding Sandman, then closes in and does more damage with his fists, before Sandman takes his last wound from Counter Strike. Sandman healed 2 wounds here.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Captain America with 2 wounds wins Turn 2 Round 2.

TEST 9
Map: Custom
Units: Sandman vs. Red Skull (C3G) (220)
Sandman made the mistake of using Sandstorm to position himself in Round 1. Red Skull took advantage of the removal of Immovable to put Sandman into water twice with the Cosmic Cube. The second time, Red Skull gave himself height advantage in the process and punched Sandman out. Thanks to being in water, Sandman didn’t heal at all this match.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Red Skull with Full Life wins Turn 3 Round 1.

TEST 10
Map: Custom
Units: Sandman vs. Red Skull (C3G) (220)
This one went really differently. Sandman hoofed it this time, managing to knock the Cosmic Cube out of Red Skull’s hands at the end of Round 1 when he (having the last turn of the round) finally used Sandstorm. Then, despite losing initiative in Round 2, he was closer to the Cube than Red Skull and managed to claim it, using Sandstorm to disengage. After shrugging off Red Skull’s luger shots, Sandman used Sandstorm to put another wound on Red Skull (taking him to 3 now) then moved him to height disadvantage with the Cosmic Cube, and put a 4th wound on Red Skull with a normal attack. Sandman then lost the Cube when he took a wound for using it, and healed up that wound. Red Skull managed to avoid a swipe from Sandman and reclaimed the Cube, but before he was in range to use it, Sandman chased him down and punched him out.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Sandman with 2 wounds wins Turn 1 Round 3.

_____________________________________________________________

Squad Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes
- What should be the unit's point value? 210
- Give a brief overview. This felt a lot closer than it looked. Healers can do that. A little more dice luck for the Cops and they could have taken this one.
Map: Custom
Units: Sandman vs. Beat Cops x3 (195)

Spoiler Alert!

Cops had Sandman up to 4 wounds at one point, but couldn’t quite finish him off. He killed 6 Cops with Sandstorm and 3 with his normal attack. He used both each turn in an attempt to kill Cops off more quickly.
Who won a1nd how many wounds did they have? Sandman wins with 1 wound Turn 2 Round 4.

_____________________________________________________________

Squad Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes
- What should be the unit's point value? 210
- Give a brief overview. Another really close one!
Map: Custom
Units: Sandman vs. SHIELD Agents x2 (220)

Spoiler Alert!

SHIELD Agents never managed to get a Killbox here and struggled to wound Sandman early, which hurt their positioning. All Agents killed by Sandman fell to Sandstorm. He couldn’t muster strong enough attack rolls with the attack penalty.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? SHIELD Agents with 2 agents left win Turn 1 Round 3.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes
- What should be the unit's point value? 200-210
- Give a brief overview. It’s hard to pinpoint where the Sinister Six went wrong here, but Sandman doesn’t feel overly culpable.
Map: Custom
Units: Sandman (210), Doctor Octopus (215), Electro (135), Mysterio (115), Vulture (90), Body Guard x4 (60), Punisher (180) (1,005) vs. Spider-man (250), Iron Fist (260), Jewel (150), Luke Cage (190), Speedball (150) (1,000)

Spoiler Alert!

The Sinister Six are difficult to work as a synergistic team without Kingpin in the mix. Speedball, however, is just plain sick. Punisher opened things up for the six, taking out Iron Fist from range and height with his assault rifle by Round 2, then falling himself in the same round to Luke Cage on concrete. Luke called up Spidey to fight Doc Ock with him, and Doc Ock took out Luke, but Spidey finished off Doc Ock with Speedball’s help. Then Speedball took over, bouncing around to take out all four Body Guards and Vulture over the next few rounds, as well as tango with Sandman, who slowly started putting wounds on him with Sandstorm (Sandman’s normal attack was ineffective against Kinetic Bounce). In Round 7, Spidey got a few Order Markers in and Web-Slung Electro to height disadvantage on water and tore him apart. Then Speedball finally whiffed on a defense roll and Sandman took him out. Sandman put all of Speedball’s wounds on him (5 with Sandstorm, 1 with a normal attack). Spidey then finished off Sandman in Round 8. Sandman, despite a couple of tries, couldn’t hit Spidey at all here. Had he, this would have been a different game. Doc Ock had managed to put 3 wounds on Spidey before falling, though, and Mysterio put the last two on, before getting beaten up in end game by Jewel. Spidey’s presence in the battle made Sandman carefully avoid using Sandstorm a couple of times, but his normal attacks failed 90% of the time against Speedball and Spidey. He did sneak in a Sandstorm attempt or two at the end of rounds against Spidey, but couldn’t get any wounds on him that way.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Jewel with Full Life wins Turn 3 Round 10.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes
- What should be the unit's point value? 190-200?
- Give a brief overview. Sandman needs Sandstorm offensively, but it makes him very vulnerable to Web-Slinger when he uses it.
Map: Custom
Units: Sandman (200), Kingpin (220), Hired Guns (130), Body Guards x3 (45) (595) vs. Hawkeye (160), Spider-man (250), Luke Cage (190) (600)

Spoiler Alert!

Hawkeye got in some good triple arrow shots early to thin out the Hired Guns and the heroes were in good shape from there. Sandman was forced to rely on his Sandstorm in order to get in wounds against Spidey and Luke Cage, but could only hit his rolls on Luke Cage. He put 2 wounds on Luke Cage and one (the last) on Hawkeye. Spidey responded by Web-Slinging him onto water, though, reducing him to 1 defense die, then Spidey and Luke Cage both pummeled him from height advantage. Sandman went down in Round 3. After he and Kingpin fell, Spidey and Luke Cage chased down the last Body Guards and cruised without further wounds.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Spider-man with Full Life and Luke Cage with 2 lives win Turn 1 Round 5.

Sandman’s weaknesses are exploitable enough that I think 200 makes sense for him going into public playtesting.

[tcglkn]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Sandman (220), Doctor Octopus (215), Electro (135), Mysterio (115), Vulture (90), Body Guard x3 (45), Punisher (180) (1,000)

Love this since [redacted] are looking to [redacted] and I hope to have Kraven cost 180 points we'll have the Sinister 6 be a 1000 point army.

[IAmBatman]

Very cool. That's a spoiler on a certain unit, though, since this wave will come out before them.

[IAmBatman]

He should have Super Strength, right?