The Book of the Glyph of Orbital Laser Control

[Yodaking]

NAME OF THE TESTED UNITS (Mesmerise Spell & Glyph of Orbital Laser Control)
Army Test 1
- Does it pass, Yes or No? yes
- What should be the unit's point value? A narrow win for Strange seems to indicate you are in the right ballpark.
Map: Death Star Throne Room w/Bacta Tank replaced by glyph of Orbital Laser Control
Units: Dr. Strange, Wong, Mesmerize@25, Final Ruin, Lightning Bolt x2, Mystic Flames x1 (440) vs. Azrael, Robin (Tim), Black Knight (440)

Spoiler Alert!

Spell Impact: Wong is dead and Strange has 3W on his card already when Azrael wins initiative, Strange plays this spell right away to reduce his two attacks of 5 down to 2, both of which then miss.
Glyph of Orbital Laser Control Impact: Robin claimed the glyph in R1, attacked Strange & Wong, no damage inflicted. Robin claimed the glyph again late in the game, used it to attack Strange and missed again. Robin managed to survive the round and grabbed the glyph one more time, giving up an attack to do so, this time dealing 1W to Strange when he used it. Robin somehow hung on for another round and used the glyph again to try and win the game but rolled a 13 when he needed a 14+.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Dr. Strange w/5W’s & the Mystic Flames Spell won.

Recap: So when I drafted Black Knight I was thinking he would be a good one to block with the spell, but then after reading his powers and the spell text more closely I discovered that once he declares an adj. attack on the MD figure, their MD power is negated and thus they can’t cast any spells. Not that it mattered at all in this game as Black Knight couldn’t roll and shields and died without ever making an attack. Strange managed to finish off Azrael with some help from the Final Ruin spell. Robin struggled to put another W on Strange with his normal attack so he bat grappled over to the glyph, Strange decided to retreat out of his range and threw a couple of lightning bolts at him to no effect. Strange spend two rounds trying to finish off Robin after that and couldn’t finish him off, I think the most skulls he rolled in those 6 attacks were 2 several times and Robin blocked them each time. Robin couldn’t W Strange either though, even though he rolled 3 skulls on 3 dice twice. Strange finally ends it though.
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Army Test 2
- Does it pass, Yes or No? yes
- What should be the unit's point value? It is certainly a valuable tool when facing 3 attacks of 6, I’d say best case scenario that 25 points doesn’t feel too bad.
Map: Death Star Throne Room w/Bacta Tank replaced by glyph of Orbital Laser Control
Units: Dr. Fate, Atom, Mesmerize@25, Lightning Bolt (370) vs. Bug, Tigra (370)

Spoiler Alert!

Spell Impact: Tigra took a LEA from Atom to move up onto HG above Fate, Fate then casts this spell to reduce her 3 attacks of 6 attack dice down to 3 attack dice, which Fate then blocked.
Glyph of Orbital Laser Control Impact: Fate claims the Glyph in R1 and inflicts 1W on Bug with it. Bug ends up on the glyph in R2 and inflicts 1W to Fate with it. Bug rolls for the glyph at the end of R3, no effect. Atom used the glyph at the end of R4 and deals 1W to Bug.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Bug w/3W & Tigra w/3W won. Lightning Bolt spell never used.

Recap: Fate grabbed the glyph right away but then Bug used some hit and run tactics to draw him out towards the steps where he was hoping to be able to grab some high ground. Fate didn’t fall for this ploy though and ended up teleporting himself onto the Emperors Throne so then Bug attacks from low ground before retreating back to grab the glyph for himself. Fate then starts to attack Tigra from HG, who moves up the steps and fights back, Fate then teleports him and Atom over by Bug and the glyph. Tigra is forced to pursue on foot. Fate manages to drive Bug off the glyph and Atom then claims it, but Tigra rushes in and takes Fate down at the end of the round. Tigra then takes down Atom to end it. I should note that I could have and should have used the Lightning Bolt spell at one point but forgot about having it and then once I remembered I had it the best moves for Fate were normal attacks, either from HG on Tigra or after moving adj. to Bug.
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Army Test 3
- Does it pass, Yes or No? yes
- What should be the unit's point value? Silver Banshee wins this one but I’m not sure how much it had to do with the spell. Even had the spell not been played Banshee would have most likely won. Iron Man just failed to deal any damage with his repeated attacks on her and both Doc Ock & Iron Man’s 6 defense didn’t fare as well as Silver Banshee’s 5 def. did.
Map: Death Star Throne Room w/Bacta Tank replaced by glyph of Orbital Laser Control
Units: Silver Banshee, Mesmerize @25, Final Ruin, Werewolf (455) vs. Doctor Octopus, Ironman (455)

Spoiler Alert!

Spell Impact: Doc Ock, w/2W, engages with Silver Banshee, w/1W, and she decided to use this spell now on his 4 attack rolls rather than wait in case she killed him on the next OM and fearing the 4 attacks scoring a lucky 2+ W’s. Doc Ock rolls just 1 attack die four times and fails to deal any wounds. She does inflict 1W with her attack on the very next OM, plays Final Ruin and takes out Doc Ock.
Glyph of Orbital Laser Control Impact: Iron Man takes the glyph in R1 & deals 1W to Banshee.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Silver Banshee w/2W won.

Recap: The Werewolf heads out on a suicide mission and manages to deal 2W to Doc Ock before going down. Iron Man tries to lure Silver Banshee into a trap but she heads in the other direction instead. She then meets Iron Man in the middle of the board, Doc Ock joins the fray and gets destroyed, Iron Man takes a LEA to move onto the steps and attacks with HG, Banshee flies over onto the steps as well for a HG att., they dance up the steps each getting to attack with HG, the dice gods favor Banshee though and Iron Man falls.



Final Thoughts: I think this glyph is ready to go. It was used in each one of my games without feeling like it swayed the results for one team or the other. On this map it was located on the other side of the map as the throne, so any time someone tried to control or dominate the high ground of the throne the other team would go claim the glyph and threaten them with auto wounds from far out of range. Then the glyph was located in an enclosed room so you couldn't really camp on the glyph and target anyone, which kept figures moving on and off the glyph. The odds are not great for an auto-wound so the effect is manageable and yet I did deal a fair number of wounds with the glyph over the course of the 3 games. I also noticed that you can't really use it on anyone you are engaged with or you might hit yourself so that is a cool balancing mechanic.

[Yodaking]

Anyone else planning on running some tests for this or are we at a place where we can just move forward to Final Editing?

[Tornado]

I think one more would be ideal but if you and quozl are good with it, I trust you.

[TrollBrute]

Another one wouldn't hurt. I'll try to add it to some games sometime soon. Or we could toss it into the Danger Room for some easy tests. We don't have a lot headed there, so we could stand to fill out a round.

[Yodaking]

It is pretty easy to throw on a map when testing something else, and I don't think it needs much more testing since their is no cost associated with it, so lets just wrap it up in house. It is nice to have a few surprises even for the Danger Room crew.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

Originally Posted by Zettian Juggernaut

This one's a little bit of a older write-up of mine, so it could maybe use some fixing up. The thing I really want from this glyph is for it to draw play on maps that are less played on or are the low ground. It's something I've felt C3G could use for map building for a while. Thoughts?

So, you don't know what might have inspired this design?
https://www.heroscapers.com/communit...3&postcount=14

Looks good! Glad to see this is going to see the light of day and the battlefield!

[quozl]

Just wanted to bump this to remind someone to throw this glyph into their next playtest.

[Yodaking]

Another bump here.

[Ronin]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Glyph of Orbital Laser Control

Army Test
Map: Sauron's Eyrie
Units: Citizen V @190, MACH-I, Atlas, Meteorite, Songbird (1050) vs Professor X, Angel (Warren), Jean Grey, Cyclops, Iceman, Storm (1050)

Spoiler Alert!

The Thunderbolts manage to quickly take out Jean, but Storm sticks around and uses her placement power to make things tough for Citizen V. Charlatan Coordination doesn't come up because Storm manages to keep MACH-I from being in position and Atlas never takes more than a wound at a time.

I threw the Glyph of Orbital Control into this one and the X-Men managed to retain control of it, giving them a critical edge.

Glyph Summary:
End of first round: Iceman occupies glyph. 0 wounds to MACH-I, Meteorite, Songbird
End of second round: Iceman again. 1 wound to Citizen V, 0 wounds to Atlas
End of third round: Iceman again. 1 wound to Meteorite, 1 wound to Atlas (destroyed)
End of fourth round: unoccupied

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Angel and Professor X, both unwounded

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Army Test
Map: Sauron's Eyrie
Units: Citizen V @190, MACH-I, Atlas, Meteorite, Songbird (1050) vs Fantastic Four, Wasp I (1050)

Spoiler Alert!

Human Torch's damage is very contained here (fortunate for the various Thunderbolts that are only 4-Lifers) as he goes down very early, and Meteorite shuts down Sue's defense boost for a couple rounds, leading to a fair win for the Thunderbolts.

Glyph Summary:
End of first round: unoccupied
End of second round: Occupied by Atlas. 1 wound to Meteorite, 0 wounds to Mister Fantastic, Wasp, and Thing
End of third round: Occupied by Atlas. 1 wound to Mister Fantastic, 0 wounds to Invisible Woman and Thing
Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Atlas with 1 wound, Songbird with 1 wound, MACH-I with 2 wounds

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: Fun and useful, but not overpowering or anything. Thumbs-up from me.

[Ronin]

Not sure if anyone's taken point on this design with ZJ gone, but it feels good to me and I think we can move it into Final Editing. I linked the playtests in the OP.

[quozl]

It felt good to me and YK too. Just need a Hero to propose.

[Yodaking]

I propose we move the glyph of Orbital Laser into Final Editing.

YK - yea
Arkham - yea
@johnny139 -
@japes -
Ronin - yea