The Book of Doctor Doom (Sorcerer)

[Lazy Orang]

Here's the first test.

Name Of The Playtest Unit: Doctor Doom vII

Army Test 1
Map: Embattled Fen (no glyphs)
Armies:
Doctor Doom vII, 2x Doombots, Vertigo, Angel (Warren Worthington III), Blob, Zombie (1,000 Points)
vs.
Lex Luthor vII, Doctor Octopus, Parasite, 2x LexCorps Security (995 points)

Spoiler Alert!

Overview of Victor von Doom's performance:
Damage inflicted through normal attacks: 2 LexCorps Security killed, 6 wounds on Parasite, 4 wounds on Doctor Octopus.
Damage inflicted through leaving engagement attacks: 1 on Lex Luthor
6 successful Mystic Dominations
Damage inflicted through Mystic Domination - 1 wound on Parasite, 1 LexCorps Security killed.
Unmasked as a Doombot once.
Wounds ignored through Magical Defence: 4
Abandoned by the Demons at the beginning of Round 5

Round One

Victor claims the initiative, and Angel carries Vertigo forwards.
One LexCorp and Luthor himself advance, and Luthor takes a shot at Angel, who blocks and flies back to Blob. Zombie advances
Victor rushes up the central road, taking a pot shot at Luthor which is blocked. Zombie rushes forwards and inflicts a wound on Luthor.
Both the LexCorp and Luthor claim height and both take shots at Doctor Doom, with Luthor inflicting a wound.
Doctor Doom flies to the rocky platform and kills the LexCorps. Zombie moves.
A LexCorp advances and fires a shot at Doom, which does nothing. Luthor takes a leaving engagement attack from Doom to fly closer to Vertigo, but can’t get quite close enough because she’s disorienting him, inflicting three wounds. Zombie moves.
Doctor Doom adds an Invocation Marker.

Round Two

Doom claims the initiative and Angel flies the Blob next to Luthor, before punching the bald mastermind, somehow managing to inflict a wound without even getting any help from Vertigo.
A LexCorps flies forwards and shoots Vertigo dead, causing Angel to fly Zombie forwards in response. Parasite rushes up the road charging Zombie, failing to Life Drain him but striking Zombie for two wounds and knocking him into the water, who is then fished out by Angel. Zombie advances with Walking Dead, engaging Parasite and inflicting a wound.
Doctor Doom fires a shot to inflict a wound on Parasite, before mind controlling Luthor, who strikes a LexCorp ineffectually. Zombie strikes Parasite for a wound, before healing.
A LexCorps flies up, shooting out a battlement to provide an opening to where Doctor Doom is. Parasite drains a wound from Zombie, before ripping his head clean off.
Doom shoots Parasite for two wounds, before Mind Controlling Luthor, who shoots Parasite for an additional wound.
The LexCorps shoots Doom for a wound. Parasite drains two wounds from Angel before disembowelling him - Parasite’s slaughtering the low level heroes in this game!
Doom Invokes the last Demons he can - now he’s on!

Round Three

Doom claims the initiative and shoots Parasite for two wounds.
The LexCorp flies down to shoot the Blob to no effect. Parasite runs up to Doctor Doom and fails to drain him, before smashing him for four wounds! It’s a good thing Victor’s a practitioner of the Mystic Arts, otherwise he’d be screwed right now.
Doom ends Parasite with ease, before Mind Controlling Luthor, who strikes a LexCorp, but his blast pings off harmlessly. Doom’s getting good luck on getting Mind Control, but not on his minion actually doing anything!
A LexCorp flies to the back and annihilates a Doombot with his blaster. Dock Ock rushes up to road and enagaged Doctor Doom, striking him uphill, inflicting a wound with one of his Tentacles.
Doom blasts Octavius, inflicting a wound, knocking him back two spaces, before (again!) managing to mind-control Luthor! Luthor blasts the LexCorp that took out the Doombot, killing him.
Another LexCorp flies forwards and shoots Doctor Doom with a big 4 skull attack, killing him despite the fact he’s shooting uphill, but surprise! It was a Doombot all along! Doc Ock walks up a space away from Blob and barrages him with his tentacles, but inflicts no damage. Damn, Blob is a pain in the arse! He’s kept Luthor tied up all damn game!
The real Doctor Doom flies up and shoots Luthor to no effect, before Mind Controlling Doc Ock. That’s five out the last six mind-control attempts successful! That’s insane luck - it’s only a 30% chance! He uses it to force Doc Ock into engagement with the Blob and level rip at Luthor with his tentacles, but inflicts no damage. For the number of times Doom’s been Mind Controling guys, they haven’t inflicted much damage - then again, imagine how much they’d be dominating if they actually had!

Round Four

The LexCorps claim the initiative, and a LexCorp claims height and shoots Blob ineffectually, before Doc Ock rips at him - it mostly does nothing, but the last tentacle inflicts three wounds, and blood runs from Fred’s gut onto the ground.
Doom flies forwards, shoots Luthor for no damage and (for once!) fails to dominate anyone.
Absorbing Man advances up the eastern hill.
The LexCorp shoots Doom for a wound, before Doc Ock attacks Blob again to absolutely no effect.
Doc Doom flies next to the LexCorp, killing him, but doesn’t control anyone’s mind! I think he’s losing his touch.
Octavius makes another barrage of attacks at Fred Dukes, another of his tentacles inflicting three wounds, leaving nothing but his bloated corpse.
Doom shoots Octavius for two wounds, before Mind Controlling him (he’s on again!). Octavius fails to hurt Lex at all, however.

Round Five

The LexCorp claim the initiative and Doctor Octopus clambers to Victor Von Doom’s outcrop, inflicting two wounds with his tentacles.
Victor ends Octavius without mercy, but the Demons now decide to abandon him, removing almost any hope of victory.
Luthor flies up to Victor, arrogantly smirks at his foe’s helplessness, and kills him with a single blast to his disfigured face.

LexCorps victorious - one LexCorp, Lex Luthor 2 wounds.

Overview: That was a great game! Doom's team really was just about him, with everyone else really just acting as a distraction. Doom was terrifying, great fun to play and really intimidating - like original C3G Doom, he really felt like an epic level villain. It was really tense - I think the LexCorps would probably still have won even if the Demons hadn't decided to abandon Doom right at the end, but it certainly wasn't a sure thing. The Mind Control frequency was weird here, but didn't really swing anything too much as no one really seemed that capable of doing anything while under Doom's control, though it was still really useful - not just for the slight damage Luthor inflicted on two of his turns, but also because Doom was able to force Doc Ock to get tied up with Blob - he'd probably have died much sooner he hadn't frustrated the German scientist that way.

Also, nothing to do with Doom so I'm not saying this in the test, but this my first time playing Parasite and I thought he was great fun.

[Ronin]

German?! Otto Octavius was born in Schenectady, whatever those darn cartoons have been teaching you.

(Glad Doom seems to be working out for you)

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Ronin

German?! Otto Octavius was born in Schenectady, whatever those darn cartoons have been teaching you.

(Glad Doom seems to be working out for you)

Was he? Hmm... always thought the American accent in Spider-Man II was weird. I grew up with him from the 90s Spidey cartoon, where he was pretty cool - I don't think his nationality was mentioned explicitly, but he had a very strong accent. Meh - that's how I'll always see him, anyway.

And yeah, he is.

~ Lazy Orang, who'd never even heard of Schenectady until you mentioned it and I Googled it. My American geography is crap.

[Ronin]

The 90s cartoon is a bit of an outlier. He's not portrayed as German(-ish) except in a couple other things where they got the same voice actor.

Also, I wouldn't expect people from out of state (or even downstate) to know Schenectady, much less people from outside the country, so you're doing okay on that front.

[Yodaking]

I've never heard of Schenectady and I've traveled by car from the Atlantic to the Pacific more than once and from Canada to Mexico.

[japes]

Originally Posted by Ronin

The 90s cartoon is a bit of an outlier. He's not portrayed as German(-ish) except in a couple other things where they got the same voice actor.

Also, I wouldn't expect people from out of state (or even downstate) to know Schenectady, much less people from outside the country, so you're doing okay on that front.

I've never heard of it either.

[dok]

With N'astirh coming down the pipe there's the possibility of using N'astirh and Doom2 along with Batman3 or some other d20 booster, but that's a lot to invest for the bonus, and honestly it seems OK.

No other concerns outside of possible shennanigans with spell cards, but I wouldn't pin that on Doom.

I appreciate the way Mystic Domination was worded to get the OMs on Doom, and to also discourage using Wong with Doom.

[Ronin]

Thanks, dok. The same thing occurred to me with N'Astirh, but N'Astirh's cost seems a lot to pay for the synergy, like you say.

After LO finishes up, I may run a couple more games here just to be thorough, but it seems like we're in good shape. Hopefully he'll be ready to move along by the weekend. Thanks to the testers for the quick-moving public test phase!

[japes]

Ronin, I think the mini photos will work but just a heads up I may need more photos. I'll give it a try later this week and let you know. The clear ones seem dark and the bright ones seem a bit grainy for some reason. More figure less background could help.

I only bring it up so you can plan ahead and if you will be busy coming up but have time now you may want to take a moment.

[Lazy Orang]

- Theme Test - Tentative Pass - I’ve never really seen Doom in anything good, so I don’t know Doom as much as I'd like (he sounds awesome from what I've heard), but I have a passing knowledge of him, and based on that and what you guys have said about the Demon storyline, he’s feeling good.
- Mirror Test - Pass
- Bonding Test - Pass - There isn’t much synergy, really just Wong (who doesn’t let him mind control, but he’s cheap and won’t last long anyway, so he’s worth bringing along as a distraction unit) and Doombots (vital for him to be as useful and awesome as possible, just like the other Doom, but he's probably best off keeping to one considering that the Demons giving him all his strength could just abandon him at any given moment because they're arseholes).
- Synergies Test - Pass - See above.
- Power Check - Pass - He's terrifying, but the Demons’ being able to just say, ‘Ooops, sorry about that, see ya!' whenever the fickle dice gods decide keeps him in check.
- Fun Test - Definite Pass! This guy is a tonne of fun! Admittedly, I can see myself feeling pissed off when the Demons leave, but even then, I'm probably going to remember it and have a good laugh over a drink with my opponent about it later. I probably still slightly prefer the original C3G Doom, but that's only because he's one of the most awesome figures in the game - this guy isn't too far off, it's definitely worthwhile having a specifically sorcerous variation, since that angle's somewhat lacking on the original except for the single word Mystic in the Power Drain, and this guy will probably be even cooler when he's got himself some spells to work with.
- Fun Competitive Test - Pass - He's scary to fight, but it doesn't feel hopeless, and you'll be constantly hoping for that low roll, and when it triggers, bam! He'll make for some memorable games, that's for sure.
- Drafting Test - Pass
- Usage Test - Pass
- Strategy Test - Pass

Name Of The Playtest Unit: Doctor Doom vII

Army Test 1
Map: Embattled Fen (no glyphs)
Armies:
Doctor Doom vII, 2x Doombots, Vertigo, Angel (Warren Worthington III), Blob, Zombie (1,000 Points)
vs.
Lex Luthor vII, Doctor Octopus, Parasite, 2x LexCorps Security (995 points)

Spoiler Alert!

Overview of Victor von Doom's performance:
Damage inflicted through normal attacks: 2 LexCorps Security killed, 6 wounds on Parasite, 4 wounds on Doctor Octopus.
Damage inflicted through leaving engagement attacks: 1 on Lex Luthor
6 successful Mystic Dominations
Damage inflicted through Mystic Domination - 1 wound on Parasite, 1 LexCorps Security killed.
Unmasked as a Doombot once.
Wounds ignored through Magical Defence: 4
Abandoned by the Demons at the beginning of Round 5

Round One

Victor claims the initiative, and Angel carries Vertigo forwards.
One LexCorp and Luthor himself advance, and Luthor takes a shot at Angel, who blocks and flies back to Blob. Zombie advances
Victor rushes up the central road, taking a pot shot at Luthor which is blocked. Zombie rushes forwards and inflicts a wound on Luthor.
Both the LexCorp and Luthor claim height and both take shots at Doctor Doom, with Luthor inflicting a wound.
Doctor Doom flies to the rocky platform and kills the LexCorps. Zombie moves.
A LexCorp advances and fires a shot at Doom, which does nothing. Luthor takes a leaving engagement attack from Doom to fly closer to Vertigo, but can’t get quite close enough because she’s disorienting him, inflicting three wounds. Zombie moves.
Doctor Doom adds an Invocation Marker.

Round Two

Doom claims the initiative and Angel flies the Blob next to Luthor, before punching the bald mastermind, somehow managing to inflict a wound without even getting any help from Vertigo.
A LexCorps flies forwards and shoots Vertigo dead, causing Angel to fly Zombie forwards in response. Parasite rushes up the road charging Zombie, failing to Life Drain him but striking Zombie for two wounds and knocking him into the water, who is then fished out by Angel. Zombie advances with Walking Dead, engaging Parasite and inflicting a wound.
Doctor Doom fires a shot to inflict a wound on Parasite, before mind controlling Luthor, who strikes a LexCorp ineffectually. Zombie strikes Parasite for a wound, before healing.
A LexCorps flies up, shooting out a battlement to provide an opening to where Doctor Doom is. Parasite drains a wound from Zombie, before ripping his head clean off.
Doom shoots Parasite for two wounds, before Mind Controlling Luthor, who shoots Parasite for an additional wound.
The LexCorps shoots Doom for a wound. Parasite drains two wounds from Angel before disembowelling him - Parasite’s slaughtering the low level heroes in this game!
Doom Invokes the last Demons he can - now he’s on!

Round Three

Doom claims the initiative and shoots Parasite for two wounds.
The LexCorp flies down to shoot the Blob to no effect. Parasite runs up to Doctor Doom and fails to drain him, before smashing him for four wounds! It’s a good thing Victor’s a practitioner of the Mystic Arts, otherwise he’d be screwed right now.
Doom ends Parasite with ease, before Mind Controlling Luthor, who strikes a LexCorp, but his blast pings off harmlessly. Doom’s getting good luck on getting Mind Control, but not on his minion actually doing anything!
A LexCorp flies to the back and annihilates a Doombot with his blaster. Dock Ock rushes up to road and enagaged Doctor Doom, striking him uphill, inflicting a wound with one of his Tentacles.
Doom blasts Octavius, inflicting a wound, knocking him back two spaces, before (again!) managing to mind-control Luthor! Luthor blasts the LexCorp that took out the Doombot, killing him.
Another LexCorp flies forwards and shoots Doctor Doom with a big 4 skull attack, killing him despite the fact he’s shooting uphill, but surprise! It was a Doombot all along! Doc Ock walks up a space away from Blob and barrages him with his tentacles, but inflicts no damage. Damn, Blob is a pain in the arse! He’s kept Luthor tied up all damn game!
The real Doctor Doom flies up and shoots Luthor to no effect, before Mind Controlling Doc Ock. That’s five out the last six mind-control attempts successful! That’s insane luck - it’s only a 30% chance! He uses it to force Doc Ock into engagement with the Blob and level rip at Luthor with his tentacles, but inflicts no damage. For the number of times Doom’s been Mind Controling guys, they haven’t inflicted much damage - then again, imagine how much he’d be dominating if they actually had!

Round Four

The LexCorps claim the initiative, and a LexCorp claims height and shoots Blob ineffectually, before Doc Ock rips at him - it mostly does nothing, but the last tentacle inflicts three wounds, and blood runs from Fred’s gut onto the ground.
Doom flies forwards, shoots Luthor for no damage and (for once!) fails to dominate anyone.
Absorbing Man advances up the eastern hill.
The LexCorp shoots Doom for a wound, before Doc Ock attacks Blob again to absolutely no effect.
Doc Doom flies next to the LexCorp, killing him, but doesn’t control anyone’s mind! I think he’s losing his touch.
Octavius makes another barrage of attacks at Fred Dukes, another of his tentacles inflicting three wounds, leaving nothing but his bloated corpse.
Doom shoots Octavius for two wounds, before Mind Controlling him (he’s on again!). Octavius fails to hurt Lex at all, however.

Round Five

The LexCorp claim the initiative and Doctor Octopus clambers to Victor Von Doom’s outcrop, inflicting two wounds with his tentacles.
Victor ends Octavius without mercy, but the Demons now decide to abandon him, removing almost any hope of victory.
Luthor flies up to Victor, arrogantly smirks at his foe’s helplessness, and kills him with a single blast to his disfigured face.

LexCorps victorious - one LexCorp, Lex Luthor 2 wounds.

Overview: That was a great game! Doom's team really was just about him, with everyone else really just acting as a distraction. Doom was terrifying, great fun to play and really intimidating - like original C3G Doom, he really felt like an epic level villain. It was really tense - I think the LexCorps would probably still have won even if the Demons hadn't decided to abandon Doom right at the end, but it certainly wasn't a sure thing. The Mind Control frequency was weird here, but didn't really swing anything too much as no one really seemed that capable of doing anything while under Doom's control, though it was still really useful - not just for the slight damage Luthor inflicted on two of his turns, but also because Doom was able to force Doc Ock to get tied up with Blob - he'd probably have died much sooner he hadn't frustrated the German scientist that way.

Army Test 2
Map: Conflict Chernobyl (no glyphs)
Armies;
Victor von Doom, Black Adam, Wong, 2x Doombot (1,005 points)
vs.
Captain America (C3G), Tony Stark (Hulkbuster), Ms. Marvel, James 'Bucky’ Barnes (1,010 points)

Spoiler Alert!

Overview of Victor von Doom’s performance:
Damage inflicted through normal attacks: 2 wounds on Bucky, 2 wounds on Tony Stark
Damage inflicted through knockback: 1 on Bucky
3 successful Mystic Dominations
Damage inflicted through Mystic Domination - 3 wounds on Ms. Marvel, 1 wound on Bucky
Unmasked as a Doombot once.
Wounds ignored through Magical Defence: 7
Abandoned by Demons at the beginning of Round 5.

Victor von Doom is Wong’s Master, though you knew that already.

Round One

The Avengers claim the initiative, and Bucky scouts ahead, followed by Stevve Rogers.
Black Adam flies forwards, swapping the 2 OM on Victor and the 3 OM on him.
Ms. Marvel flies up, shooting Black Adam with him on height and taking cover from a jungle brush, yet still inflicting two wounds.
Black Adam moves and strikes Ms. Marvel on equal height, inflicting two wounds and knocking her into the water with his punch.
Ms. Marvel gives Cap the order to attack, which he does, running to height and socking Black Adam on the jaw for two wounds. She then shoots him from low ground , which he defends.
Wong runs forward, and Doom stands next to him, firing a blast at Rogers which is easily blocked.
Doom invokes more Demons.

Round Two

Black Adam claims the initiative, switching the Order Marker 3 on his card with the X on Victor’s card, before smashing Captain America with a brutal punch, inflicting two wounds, leaving him staggering back one space before calling lightning down on the Super Soldier, leaving him barely alive.
Bucky advances, opening fire on Wong with his machine gun and inflicting three wounds. Steve charges Black Adam, but fails to harm him.
Wong charges Bucky to no effect, and Doctor Doom flies adjacent to him, before striking Captain America, but Steve blocks the strike with his shield.
Ms. Marvel flies up, and knocks Wong out with her blast.
Doom strikes Steve to no effect.
Ms. Marvel commands Stark to advance before shooting Doctor Doom for a wound.
Doom calls upon the last of the Demonic power available to him.

Round Three

The Avengers claim the initiative, allowing Black Adam to heal. Bucky punches Doctor Doom ineffectually before Captain America strikes Theo Adam, but the punch is simply shrugged off.
Black Adam strikes Steve, but the shield deflects it, and he switches OM X on his card with OM 2 on Doctor Doom’s card.
Ms. Marvel commands Tony forward, and the Hulkbuster suit’s giant fist brings the pain, inflicting three wounds and knocking him back two spaces. Ms. Marvel shoots Doctor Doom for a wound.
Black Adam flies up, crushing Captain America once and for all.
Tony punches Black Adam at Ms. Marvel’s command, sending him flying backwards but failing to actually harm him.
Doctor Doom blasts Bucky, inflicting two wounds and sending him flying into the water, where the impact leaves him close to death, but still standing. He then dominates Iron Man’s mind, causing him to attack Ms. Marvel, inflicting two wounds and sending her careering backwards.

Round Four

The Avengers claims the initiative, Black Adam heals, and Ms. Marvel commands Stark to attack Doctor Doom. He does so, rolling seven skulls to one shield! Magical Defence saves the day for the Dictator!... but the mighty ruler of Latveria still takes a wound from stumbling into brambles. Yeah... kind of embarassing. Ms. Marvel shoots him, but he shrugs it off.
Doom shoots Stark, but the blast is absorbed by the Hulkbuster armour.
Stark, under his own steam, finishes Doom off with one last punch, only to discover he’d been fighting a Doombot all along.
Doom advances and shoots Stark from low ground, but is shrugged off. He does mind control the Avenger, however, forcing Iron Man to fly into the water and murder Carol Danvers.
Stark, horrified by what he was forced to do, flies forwards, but cannot reach Doom.
Doom flies to the central platform where Stark is, but still maintaining his distance, before inflicting a wound on the armoured Avenger. Doom once again takes over Tony Stark’s mind, forcing him to fly into the water again and, this time, to kill Bucky. Stark is... somewhat less horrified by this.

Round Five

Stark claims the initiative, and Black Adam heals a wound. Stark flies up to Doctor Doom, but apparently his horror over Carol’s death has got to him, as he can only muster one skull.
Doom strikes Stark for a wound, but his minor victory is short lived, as the Demons abandon him to his fate.
In vengeance for what he was made to do, Stark strikes Doom, ending his life in his fury. This Doom was real, it seems, and no Doombot. Doom’s remaining turns are lost with his death.
Tony flies up to Black Adam, and smashes him for three wounds.

Round Six

Black Adam claims the initiative, flying in to strike Stark, who counters, taking him out.
Tony flies forwards.
The last Doombot flies northwest, shooting Stark for a wound as he does so.
Stark engages the Doombot and annihilates it.


Avengers victorious, Tony Stark 3 wounds

Overview: Mystic Domination didn't trigger as much this time, but was pretty devastating when it did, accounting for about half the damage Doom inflicted. Looking at how long he survives and how long it takes before the Demons abandon him, I'd say one Doombot as optimal for him, not two, as I've been playing him.

Thoughts On The Tested Unit's Cost, Balance, & Draftibility:

He’s brilliant - I think I said it most at the top and in the battle synopses (damn, I’m saying that alot in these), but he’s great fun to play, terrifying to play against, and probably worth a good after battle laugh with your opponent when he inevitably loses his powers and becomes almost helpless.

[Tornado]

High praise.
Great work on those tests L_O.

[Yodaking]

How did Bucky work out for you in that Avengers win?