The Book of Loki

[IAmBatman]

Great, I'll grab this guy starting today! Exciting times! We're moving some stuff now. I can't wait until Griff is back in full swing and we're four initial playtesters strong.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by SirGalahad

Am not, am not!

Did you pick up that argument strategy from the kids at your school?

[IAmBatman]

Loki's an important one to get right, so I'm going to be careful and test out as many synergies and match ups as I can. So far so good, though!

C3G PLAY TEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE TEST UNIT (LOKI) PASS AT 410-420 points

- 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 You could potentially use God of Evil to trade wounds back and forth between two Lokis for a bit, but the D20 would keep it from getting too crazy.

- 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 No bonding currently other than Unique Hero specific bonding.

- 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 No synergies

- 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.
Will be checked in army tests with Anti-Monitor, Wolverine, Deadpool, Professor X, Joker, and so forth.

- FUN TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play.
PASS Absolutely. Feels like he's outwitting Thor, but not outmuscling him. Theme feels spot on.

- 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 His teleportation is great for hit-and-run attacks and controlling engagements and height advantage. His X-Marker power does fun stuff in armies and is great even just with him for the two teleportations a round. And God of Evil is a gem.

- STRATEGY TEST/ Consider whether or not the design offers any real strategy or interesting tactics to the overall game.
PASS Lots of fun decision making on this guy and abilities to be clever and take advantage of that extra X-Marker.

- Heavy Hitter or Mid-Level Hero/ Does it pass?

Spoiler Alert!

TEST 1
Map: Ravaged Road
Units: Loki vs. Thor (430) (played three times)
Test One: Thor wins on Turn 1 of Round 3 with 4 wounds in an Epic Finish that could've gone the other way had Loki rolled one higher on the D20 for God of Evil and put the last four wounds on Thor instead of him. As it was, having two X-Markers on Loki's card allowed him to engage to attack Thor but not be stuck in bad positions when Thor attacked back. God of Evil made Thor give up a lot of adjacent attacks to get outside of 3 clear sight spaces and throw his hammer. God of Evil put 2 of the 4 wounds on Thor.

Test Two: Very similar results. Thor won on Turn 3 of Round 3 with 4 wounds, 2 from God of Evil, and barely missed getting 4 more wounds from God of Evil on a roll of 12 from Loki.

Test Three: Thor wins on Turn 1 of Round 2 with 5 wounds. This time Loki failed both God of Evil rolls (so all wounds were with his normal attack on Thor) and the closest he got was a roll of 10 on a 3 wound attack (so if he'd rolled 3 higher, he would've won).

No wins for Loki here, but three close matches, all in which he had a shot. I'm liking him so far!

TEST 2
Map: Ravaged Road
Units: Loki vs. Hulk (370) (played two times)

Test One: On Turn 2 of Round 2, Loki wins with 5 wounds. Hulk's last attack would've killed him (a 3 wound attack) but killed Hulk instead when Loki hit a 20 for God of Evil (his first successful roll of the game). At that point it'd been 6 wounds on Hulk and 5 on Loki. Loki's X-Marker teleportation is a great way of frustrating Hulk and making him waste attack dice on constant Super Leaps. Loki also had height advantage on him the entire game due to Hulk's lack of range.

Test Two: Loki wins on Turn 2 of Round 2 again. Melee heavy hitters are going to HATE this guy (but I love him!). He got hot with the D20 and hit two 20s, turning Hulk's own attacks against him for a tune of 6 wounds on Hulk! Ouch.

TEST 3
Map: Ravaged Road
Units: Loki vs. MODOK (340) (played once)
Loki wins on Turn 3 of Round 3 with 4 Wounds. He rolled well for God of Evil here, and two of MODOK's wounds (both on separate occasions) came from successful GoE rolls. MODOK's use of the X-Marker (another one who'd benefit from Loki, though not too much, as there's a once per round limit on the power) and Designed Only For Killing (which he used to put every wound on Loki) kept him in the match. But he was clearly outclassed here.

TEST 4
Map: Ravaged Road
Units: Loki vs. Annihilus (360) (played twice)

Test One: Loki wins after Two full Rounds with 6 wounds on his card. God of Evil hit Annihilus for two wounds, Loki hit Annihilus for 3 wounds with his normal attack, Loki hit Annihilus for one wound with the Cosmic Control Rod, and the last wound was from Annihilus not having the CCR at the end of Round Two.

Test Two: Loki won this one after One full Round with 4 wounds on his card. He was rolling hot for God of Evil (2 wounds given to Annihilus for that one, which took his CCR away right off the bat) and his X-Marker Teleportation is a great way to grab equipment glyphs that have flown free. Loki is clearly superior here. A minimum of 380 for sure.

TEST 5
Map: Ravaged Road
Units:

Loki vs. Absorbing Man and Pyro (380) (played twice)
Loki rolled, winning on Turn 1 of Round 3 with no wounds. Absorbing Man's lack of mobility and his failure to hit his Absorption roll on his only chance at it spelled his doom. Loki's teleportation let him close in on Pyro fast once he took away all of AM's Order Markers for the round, and then he hit and run Pyro from there, not letting the Mutant have a chance to attack him. Total domination.

Test Two: Again, Loki won on Turn 1 of Round 3 with no wounds. This time, Pyro managed one attack (before Loki slaughtered him) and Absorbing Man managed two attacks of two (should've just gone with his special attack - failing that Absorption roll again was very costly!). Poor defensive rolls expedited this, but Loki's ability to hit and then disappear is brutal to non-mobile melee heroes.

_____________________________________________________________

- Squad / Does it pass?
Map: Ravaged Road
Units: Loki vs. SHIELD Agents x3 (330)

Spoiler Alert!

Loki loves a map with lots of height differential against non-fliers. He wins this one in Round 5, Turn 1, with 5 wounds. Even despite their trouble keeping up with Loki or hurting him, the SHIELD Agents had the room to invalidate God of Evil and they almost had the numbers to get him with attrition. Another squad might have done it.

_____________________________________________________________

- Squad / Does it pass?
Map: Ravaged Road
Units: Loki vs. Beat Cops x6 (390)

Spoiler Alert!

Loki wins on Turn 3 of Round 8, with 4 wounds. Again, the map had a lot to do with this, and his teleportation on it, but he ripped through the Cops, whose powers don't help them any in a match up like this, and whose attack of 2 just wasn't cutting it. I think 390 makes sense for Loki going forward.

_____________________________________________________________

- Army Test/ Does it pass?
Map: Ravaged Road
Units: Loki (390), Joker (190), Harley Quinn (130) and Anti-Monitor (1600) (2400) vs. Thor (430), Darkseid (380), Martian Manhunter (300), John Stewart (340), Flash (250), Red Skull (190), Wolverine (280), and Riddler (140) (2400)

Spoiler Alert!

Anti-Monitor loves Loki. Loki's team wins on Turn 1 of Round 7 with a full life Loki, full life Harley, full life Joker, and 4 life Anti-Monitor left. Anti-Monitor was devastating in this one, auto-destroying Darkseid and Flash early, and Riddler (who'd been a major pain, wiping out two of his rounds) around mid-game. He also took out Wolverine in back-to-back turns with his X-Marker, before Wolvie had a chance to heal, and took out John Stewart on a single attack in which John rolled one shield on seven dice. So dice luck definitely played a role and the heroes did at least have AM almost whittled down. Loki put four wounds on Red Skull, three wounds on Martian Manhunter, and the last two wounds on Thor, with separate God of Evil rolls. His X-Marker helped Joker be more effective and helped his team consistently get 5 turns a round, thanks to X-Markers on Anti-Monitor. Riddler was a good counter, though, and had Anti-Monitor not had such great D20 luck, I think this would've gone down to the wire. Still, I could see Loki at 400 points thanks to some of his potent army combinations.

_____________________________________________________________

- Army Test/ Does it pass?
Map: Ravaged Road
Units: Loki (400), Professor X (220), Wolverine (280), Deadpool (285), Angel (90), and Nightcrawler (140) (1415) vs. Commissioner Gordon (90), Batman (200), Robin (120), Beat Cops x4 (260), Jonah Hex (130), Alfred (60), Batman (150), Green Arrow (130), Green Arrow (150), Black Canary (190), Echo (130) (1410)

Spoiler Alert!

I thought this one was all Vigilante early after Black Canary and Robin tore through Deadpool and Nightcrawler, but Wolverine, Prof X, Angel, and Loki crept up the map, ripped through the Beat Cops, and the multiple X-Markers kept them alive long enough to finish the job. Loki wins with 4 wounds on Turn 1 of Round 13! Over the course of the game, Loki, who was mostly around for extra X-Markers, but got about one turn most rounds, one-shotted Alfred, Green Arrow (Oliver Queen), and Batman (Terry - during end game), and put three wounds on Robin, one wound on Jonah Hex, one wound on Green Arrow (Connor Hawke), and three wounds with God of Evil on Batman (Bruce). His extra X-Markers allowing for Healing Factor X and Psychic Defense X to both occur every round really helped as well. I'd say right now I'm feeling him at 410-420 points going into playtesting.

[A3n]

Originally Posted by Hahma

Did you pick up that argument strategy from the kids at your school?

Are too bat poo!

[SirGalahad]

Originally Posted by Hahma

Did you pick up that argument strategy from the kids at your school?

No, from my own kids when they were much, much younger. High school kids now are like, "I'm not doing it, and you can't make me!"

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by A3n

Are too bat poo!

Thanks mate for that mental image of Bat's poo.

Originally Posted by SirGalahad

No, from my own kids when they were much, much younger. High school kids now are like, "I'm not doing it, and you can't make me!"

Back in my day educators and administrators had a bit more "hands on" say if you will. I remember a elementary principal that used to patrol the lunch room and give the Vulcan Deathgrip to kids that were messing around.

[IAmBatman]

Quiet children, I'm trying to work here.

[SirGalahad]

Corporal punishment can be effective. I got one swat from our 6' 6" principal in 2nd grade for "bowling" lunchboxes ( hey, I figured out that 10 was a triangle number at age 7 ), and I never got in trouble again.

Nowadays, education's hands are mostly tied. And they wonder why America isn't at the top in most categories anymore . . .

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by SirGalahad

Corporal punishment can be effective. I got one swat from our 6' 6" principal in 2nd grade for "bowling" lunchboxes ( hey, I figured out that 10 was a triangle number at age 7 ), and I never got in trouble again.

Nowadays, education's hands are mostly tied. And they wonder why America isn't at the top in most categories anymore . . .

Wow, you must have had the same principal as me. Mr. Aprati was one tall son of a gun.

Yeah, my buddy's wife is an Assistant Principal at a high school and while they can't use corporal punishment, they are very strict and don't put up with a lot of stuff. They don't think twice about taking people off of sports teams, suspending them or expelling them if need be. Because of where they are located, near Gary, IN, they could have a big gang problem, but because of their no tolerance, they don't have the problem.

Now my wife just recently started this year working in the cafeteria as a cashier during lunch for a few hours a day. Those kids are wild, as the new Principal is too busy on his Blackberry to pay attention or do anything about the unruly kids and the Assistant Principal is too busy trying to be best friends with the kids.

Too many parents are babying their precious little Johnnies and Janies these days lead to them not allowing educators to do what they need to do and thus leading to too many spoiled teens that are unprepared for adulthood.

[IAmBatman]

Initial playtest is updated with everything but the army tests (hopefully I'll get to these tomorrow!).
I'm liking him at 390 so far. He's a nasty fellow for sure, and I think he could go 400 before going back down to 380.

[Hahma]

Cool.

[IAmBatman]

One army test in and I could see a bump to 400 for him. Any Anti-Monitor build is huge on points and kind of swingy, but even what he brings to Joker is pretty nice. I don't think his additions to Prof X and the Healing Factor gang will exactly make him any worse either ... !