The Book of Balder

[Griffin]

I can support all of that.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by Griffin

Yeah, in a Fan 4 army, I wouldn't bother with Sue if I was drafting Balder. I am very excited to run Balder 420, Sif 230, Thor 430, and Warriors 3 920 = 2000

I plan on tweaking Balder to get him there too, if Hahma will let me.

Looks pretty awesome Griff.

And sure, tweak away to get to 420. Make sure to give him only one life though

[Griffin]

OUCH!!!

[A3n]

nothing to add so far.

[Griffin]

C3G INITIAL PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE TEST UNIT Balder

- 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 too 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? 400-430.
- Give a brief overview. Balder is a lot of fun, and is great at forcing figures to fight in engagement, though telepaths and figures that can "attack" from range without the need of line of sight will be good counters. Ragnarok should be a lot of fun as well, as it will be enough of a deterrent at times to keep players from wanting to attack Balder.

Spoiler Alert!

TEST 1
Map: Custom.
Units: Balder VS Graviton.
Balder does well to make this a melee fight, but even in melee, Graviton is more controlling throughout the fight, as his powers work to throw and hold the adjacent Balder. Balder is one wound away when Graviton throws him, and just before Balder dies, Frigga's Blessing prevents him from dying and gives him a wound instead, which of course does kill him. On his way out though, Ragnarok puts a wound on Graviton.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Graviton wins with 4 wounds.

TEST 2
Map: Custom.
Units: Balder VS Graviton.
Graviton is controlling the fight mostly, then when Balder "would" be destroyed, he heals a wound instead then on his next turn, slashes Graviton.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Balder wins with 5 wounds.

TEST 3
Map: Custom.
Units: Balder VS Silver Surfer C3G.
Surfer was blinded and so had to fight in engagements, but he was able to gain height frequently with Cosmic Speed by hitting and running/flying away. Balder killed him though in the end with a six skull attack.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Balder wins with 6 wounds.

TEST 4
Map: Custom.
Units: Balder VS Silver Surfer C3G.
Same as before, SS gets a lot of height, but just when SS is about to kill Balder, Balder heals a wound then crushes SS on his next turn.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Balder wins with 5 wounds.

TEST 5
Map: Custom.
Units: Balder VS Superman.
A slug fest until both were one away. Superman then would have killed Balder, but Balder healed a wound instead, then on his next turn, killed Superman.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Balder wins with 5 wounds.

TEST 6
Map: Custom.
Units: Balder VS Superman.
Once time, Balder and Superman both had 3 wounds, and Superman would have killed Balder with a big attack. Instead though, Balder only took 1 wound. Then Balder hit Superman for 3 wounds and Superman put Balder within 1 of his life. Then Superman would have killed Balder, but Balder took only 1 wound, which killed him anyway. Ragnarok kicked in and killed Superman for a tie.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? A Tie.

TEST 7
Map: Custom.
Units: Balder VS Loki.
Great fight. Loki used his Teleportation to gain height. Balder was able to avoid a few wounds once, and reduce it to just one. Loki also avoided damage with God of Evil, and hurt Balder in return, who again, reduced it to just one wound. Lots of good back and forth magic here, and the theme really came off well. Balder then finally cut Loki through.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Balder wins with 5 wounds.

TEST 8
Map: Custom.
Units: Balder VS Loki.
Loki had height and though their stats were even, Loki dominated the dice rolling for some reason. Balder healed once, but on his last defense, he replaced 2 wounds for 1 which killed him. Ragnarok gave Loki a wound.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Loki wins with 4 wounds.

TEST 9
Map: Custom.
Units: Balder VS Thor.
This was very interesting. Thor hits hard, and it seems that the harder you hit Balder, the more often he may/would be destroyed with several wounds at once, and this allows Frigga's blessing to trigger more often. In this fight, Balder healed, deflected, and took single wounds because of Frigga's Blessing.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Balder wins with 5 wounds.

TEST 10
Map: Custom.
Units: Balder VS Thor.
Once Balder had 4 wounds from a single hit, Thor summoned lightning and would have killed Balder, but Frigga's Blessing deflected the damage and Thor took a hit. Balder also healed a few times this game, but eventually, Thor got within one of his life and Balder took a single wound. Ragnarok didn't hurt Thor with any wounds.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Thor wins with 7 wounds.

_____________________________________________________________

Squad Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes.
- What should be the unit's point value? 410.
- Give a brief overview. Balanced and fun. The Agent had attrition, but they were taken off of their game with God of Light.
Map: Custom.
Units: Balder VS SHIELD Agents x4.

Spoiler Alert!

Balder was able to stop almost all non-adjacent attacks, except for on initiative switches. Agents did get a Kill Box just one time on an initiative switch, and they each had to break away from an engagement to do it and though they somehow survived, they only did 1 wound of damage. Balder autowounded an Agent once, and took a single wound once, all with Frigga's Blessing.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Agents win with 4 men left.

_____________________________________________________________

Squad Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes.
- What should be the unit's point value? 420.
- Give a brief overview. The Kree are strong usually because of their board positioning and ranged attacks. The range gets nerfed with God of Light, and that really hindered them. However, they really should have won towards the end, but for an entire round, they didn't roll any skull on their attacks.
Map: Custom.
Units: Balder VS Kree Scouts x11.

Spoiler Alert!

The scouts were forced to fight hand to hand all game except for one attack on height during an initiative switch. They nicked away at Balder until he was one life away, but they couldn't quite get that last wound on him, for no reason other than just bad attack rolls.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Balder wins with 7 wounds.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes, very close game, and Ragnarok really let Loki feel like a powerhouse against the weakened defenses of Asgard. Loki killing Balder to trigger Ragnarok was just pure thematic icing on this cake.
- What should be the unit's point value? 410.
- Give a brief overview. God of Light was a nice touch to countering Cap's Avenger boost, and Ragnarok was brilliant in creating what GP called Sudden Death Overtime.
Map: Custom.
Units: Balder, Thor, Sif, Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun (2,000 points) - VS - Loki, Heimdall, Asgardian Warrior x5, and Captain America (C3G) (2,000 points).

Spoiler Alert!

Cap chose the A Warriors to be his Avengers. And that team led the way though they were met by Sif and Thor, and Thor started off with a lightning strike that crippled a Warrior. All the while Balder was using his God of Light to prevent Cap from sitting back, and instead, forcing him to get into the fight to give the Warriors their boost. Cap and his Avengers tangled with Thor and just when Cap and the other Warriors were badly wounded by Mjolner's 4 skull attack, the Warriors cut Thor down. Sif then immediately stepped in and Avenged Thor with multiple attacks after taking his lost 2 OMs, and she killed Cap and a Warrior. Sif then teleported onto the Rainbow bridge which took her to her start zone. A warrior was sent out by Heimdall to the Rainbow bridge and met Sif allies and tried killing Hogun. Balder was fighting to kill off the Warriors, but the one left him to get adjacent to the other one and work on Sif. Sif teleported out and took Volstagg with her, and they met up with Balder. Soon the Warriors 3 had killed the Warriors and were advancing on the battlefield. Loki started using his extra X marker, and was hitting and running away from the warriors 3 causing them much vexation of spirit. They had a very difficult time with Loki and so decided to go after Heimdall. As the were quickly killing Heimdall, Loki was hurting they mildly wounded Balder. After Heimdall was killed, Volstagg healed a bit and ran very fast towards Loki, but instead of killing Loki, God of Evil kicked in and the final wounds were sent to Balder which put him one away from death. Loki managed to kill Balder, which triggered Ragnarok and wounded Sif, Loki, and Hogan. Loki killed Hogan and Fandral with his attacks and another God of Evil, then Volstagg who was wounded and out of food worked over on Loki and somehow got him to whiff on his defense.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Volstagg and Sif win with Volstagg only 3 away from death and Sif only 1 away from death.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes.
- What should be the unit's point value? 410.
- Give a brief overview. God of Light is very useful here, as it shut down Surtur and Doc's range and flexibility, but it didn't hamper MrF's leadership in the slightest, because Clear Sight is not needed. His god-like stats were very handy in dealing with Surtur, but he was definitely far out matched and 410 felt just right.
Map: Custom.
Units: Balder, Mister Fantastic, Human Torch I, and The Thing (1,195 points) - VS - Surtur and Doctor Strange (1,200 points).

Spoiler Alert!

A great game and a great introduction to Surtur. At first, Mr. Fan was leery about fighting Surtur, then he realized that to take that demon down, you need to really press the attack or he will "burn" you to death. Surtur consistently went after Balder though, as God of Light was hindering the range on the Twilight Sword. But once engaged, Surtur put two wounds on him, then two more with the Twilight Sword! Halfed the god's life in a single turn!!! Thing tried to move in and CLOBBER TIME but he wasn't fast enough and on Surtur's next turn, he moved the Twilight Marker over to Mister Fantastic (God of Light was not in affect now), and negated MF so as to stop Thing. Frigga's Blessing was a HUGE blessing as Balder healed, reduced damage to one, and also dealt damage to Surtur. Finally though, Balder died, and Surtur and Strange were the only ones wounded thankfully. Thing and MrF rushed in and clobbered the wounded Surtur, but Strange stepped in and finished off the wounded MRF. Human Torch was just around the corner and Flamed On two times in two turns and put 4 wounds on Strange with ease. Strange removed HT's next OM out of fear for his life, but it was just an X and Thing moved in to hit Strange and bring him down to just one life. Strange then severely crippled the already wounded Thing, and on the next turn.... FLAME ON!!!! And Strange goes down in dust.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Thing and Human Torch win with 5 wounds on Thing, and 3 wounds on Human Torch.

[Griffin]

Definitely starting to feel like 420 or 430.

[IAmBatman]

Being right up there with Thor sounds about right to me.

[Griffin]

This is a really neat design. He is gonna be PERFECT for forcing people to fight with honor in engagements.

Then he hurts everyone when dies, so people will be a bit leery about killing him. And when he does die, Asgardians will fall quickly, but become much more dangerous as well. I am very excited about getting into the army tests.

[tcglkn]

Sounds awesome!

[Griffin]

Balder is sitting pretty at 420 after the HH tests. He can counter Thor if he is lucky, but most of the time, Thor is gonna over power Balder in the beginning well enough that Balder's end game won't save him. Though, Balder's end game is an awesome one as he avoids damage, heals, and auto wounds others, then when he does die, he gets that parting shot with Ragnarok.

[Hahma]

Looking good so far Griff!

[Good Pig]

Cool design.