The Book of Black Bolt

[dok]

Personally, I'd prefer something more like Thor's power (d20 roll to do multiple points of damage) but at least this version forces you to lose a bunch of figures before killing all the low life units.

[japes]

Originally Posted by dok

Personally, I'd prefer something more like Thor's power (d20 roll to do multiple points of damage) but at least this version forces you to lose a bunch of figures before killing all the low life units.

A D20 roll with +1 per wound marker on black bolt to sell the last hope theme perhaps.

[Yodaking]

I don't like the d20 idea at all. Leaves it open to d20 manipulators and now what is to stop you from using in on R1, T1?

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

I don't like the d20 idea at all. Leaves it open to d20 manipulators and now what is to stop you from using in on R1, T1?

I don't think dok is objecting to the dynamic where you need some Inhumans to go down first before you can use the power, just the part where wounds are being dealt by rolling several unblockable dice instead of a lump sum of 2-3 wounds based on a d20 roll.

The d20 roll does open the door for d20 manipulators, but since the power requires Black Bolt and a few other Inhumans (all fairly high-cost figures, bar Lockjaw), it wouldn't strike me as too concerning. It's not like it'd be easy to throw Batman and a bunch of JL Marker figures into an Inhumans build.

The big difference between piecemeal unblockable damage and the d20 lump sum of damage is that rolling a bunch of unblockable dice is much more punishing for Commons/Squads. 1 Life figures only care about whether they took damage or not, and rolling several unblockables gives them a very small chance to make it through unscathed.

[Viegon]

I like how the unblockables bypasses some defensive powers (particularly anti-D20 powers), since Black Bolt's voice is supposed to be super powerful. And if it's balanceable, Black Bolt being good against squads seem pretty thematic; him getting angry and leveling an entire army has happened before.

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by Viegon

I was at first, but I just haven't had the time or energy for playtesting lately. If someone else wants to take up his Initial, I'd appreciate it.

Picking this up from the wave planning thread - I can get his initial. Where did you want me to start him on cost? Anything specific you're looking for me to test?

[Viegon]

I think I was going to try him in the 360-400 points range to start. He really just needs tested in Inhuman heavy builds, obviously; probably have to go with pretty big armies.

[Ronin]

Alright, cool. I should have some results up for you soon.

[Ronin]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Black Bolt

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Black Bolt @365, Medusa, Karnak, Lockjaw (1075) vs Ms. Marvel, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan), Doctor Doom (C3G) (1075)

Spoiler Alert!

Black Bolt lead out with his team here, and was the first target of the Avengers. He hit Ms. Marvel pretty well and got some good bonding action in with Karnak and Medusa before going down.

Things were looking pretty even, but Medusa's auto-wounding came through in a big way against Green Lantern.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 3 wounds to Ms. Marvel in 1 attack
• King of the Inhumans: used for OM management throughout. Took 2 Inhuman turns 4 times, 1 Inhuman turn 0 times.
• A Whispered Word: not used
• Voice of Destruction: not used
• Damage Taken: 3 wounds from Doctor Doom in 2 attacks, 2 wounds from Ms. Marvel in 2 attacks, 2 wounds from Green Lantern in 1 attack

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Medusa with 1 wound, Lockjaw unwounded

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Black Bolt @370, Medusa, Karnak, Gorgon (1200) vs Nightwing, Raven, Starfire, Superboy (Kon-El), Red Robin, Cyborg (1200)

Spoiler Alert!

The Inhumans got a big upper hand when Karnak punched through Nightwing, but Gorgon flopped and Cyborg managed to assassinate Medusa, giving the Titans some respectability.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 4 wounds to Superboy in 1 attack, 5 wounds to Cyborg in 3 attacks (destroyed)
• King of the Inhumans: used for OM management until his subjects died. Took 2 Inhuman turns 12 times, 1 Inhuman turn 3 times.
• A Whispered Word: used 1 time. 0 wounds to Raven in 1 roll
• Voice of Destruction: used @ 3 dice. 1 wound to Cyborg, 3 wounds to Red Robin (destroyed)
• Damage Taken: 5 wounds from Cyborg in 2 special attacks and 2 normal attacks

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Black Bolt with 5 wounds

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Black Bolt @390, Medusa, Karnak, Lockjaw (1100) vs Mister Fantastic, Human Torch (Johnny), Invisible Woman, The Thing, Ragdoll (1100)

Spoiler Alert!

Reed has a little trouble getting rolling, but the Adventurers' luck turns around when a big Supernova heavily wounds all the Inhumans but Black Bolt. Black Bolt gets the better of Thing, but Ben wears him down enough that Reed is able to edge out Black Bolt in the end.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 2 wounds to Invisible Woman in 1 attack, 1 wound to Mister Fantastic in 1 attack
• King of the Inhumans: used for OM management until his subjects died. Took 2 Inhuman turns 9 times, 1 Inhuman turn 0 times.
• A Whispered Word: used 1 time. 0 wounds to Ragdoll in 1 roll, 0 wounds to Mister Fantastic in 1 roll
• Voice of Destruction: used @ 3 dice. 1 wound to Ragdoll, 1 wound to Mister Fantastic
• Damage Taken: 1 wound in 1 special attack from Human Torch, 2 wounds in 2 attacks from Invisible Woman, 2 wounds in 3 attacks from Thing, 2 wounds in 6 attacks from Mister Fantastic (destroyed)

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Mister Fantastic with 4 wounds, Ragdoll with 2 wounds

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: Floated the points up and down a bit here, and two of these matches turned out very close. I think 380 would probably be a safe place to start, but I could run a couple more games if you want to be on firmer ground before going into public testing.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: Feels very Black Bolt-y. I didn't find myself leaping to A Whispered Word, but some of that was down to match-ups (and it's not unthematic for him to favor a normal attack anyway). He has an interesting dynamic with Medusa - she's a slightly softer target and taking her down is the quickest way to shut down Inhuman bonding, but Black Bolt is such a big gun that he can still draw fire away from her.

[Viegon]

Thanks Ronin!

Looking pretty set to me. I like seeing that his voice powers got used but only minimally, that's pretty themey. I think we could go ahead and send him forward at 380.

[Ronin]

Yeah, I felt like the voice powers are in the right place. Voice of Destruction is very likely to be used if he outlives his team. I ended up thinking of Whispered Word mainly as a way to get some offense out of him, but still keep him adjacent to Medusa, when he didn't want to leave her side for a normal attack.

[Viegon]

That was my hope, so I'm glad it played that way.