The Book of Karolina Dean

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by johnny139

For sake of comparison - do you think a pod would rather have Karolina, or two squads of Beat Cops? Both at 130? From my (admittedly limited) experience, I think the Cops are a better investment.

But yeah, testing will hash it out. We're short on Runaways, so pods will get the lion's share, I think.

There's a reason Aaron Cash is in the reevaluation queue and the Beat Cops aren't - condensing the bonus into one figure that can more easily keep up with the pod is more beneficial for pod play (not to mention, a figure that's usually going to require more than one shot to get taken out and thus stop offering its benefit).

But it's not about comparison, really, as that's theoryscape. Like you said, testing will hash it out. I want to see the results of plenty of pod play with her involved to make sure we don't have another broken pod figure.

[Karat]

Yea

[SirGalahad]

yea to testing

[johnny139]

Down to TB or ~12 hours.

[TrollBrute]

Sorry, busy couple a days. Yea

And add me to those not super worried about her balance, unless the CRB is. The extra defense die is a solid power, but I doubt it will break anything. She'll be a nice throw-in for Star-Lord though for sure.

[SirGalahad]

yea to testing

[johnny139]

First test in - which says to me that Karolina + Sue isn't your best use of points, in mid-point games at least.

Originally Posted by Aggressive Sock

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Karolina Dean

Army Test 1
Map: Country Road
Units:
Karolina Dean, Invisible Woman, Star-Lord, Bane, Aquaman I (1005)

vs.
Surtur (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

Attack Damage:
R2: 1 wound on Surtur. (height, SA, and S-L)
R3: 1 wound on Surtur. (height, SA, Bane, and S-L)
R6: 1 wound on Surtur.(botched defense) (height)

Notes:
R2: IW takes 3 wounds from Surtur.
R2: IW takes 2 wounds from Surtur.
R3: Surtur puts 2 wounds on Star-Lord.
R4: Surtur kills Star-Lord.
R4: Surtur kills Bane.(botched defense)
R4: Aquaman puts 5 wounds on Surtur.
R5: Surtur puts 3 wounds on Aquaman.
R5: Surtur kills Aquaman.
R5: Surtur puts 2 wounds on Karolina.
R5: Surtur puts 1 wound on Karolina.
R6: Surtur kills KArolina.(botched defense)



Surtur with 10 wounds.

Surtur made his way over to the bottom of the bridge on Karolina's side. Karolina's team set up a defense, while Surtur started working on Invisible Woman. He killed Invisible Woman, then Star-Lord. Karolina got in a couple weak hits, but then Surtur killed Bane. Aquaman started laying in some heavy hits, dealing some decent damage, but Surtur managed to kill him off, then Karolina to end the game. It was pretty close in the end, but they couldn't manage to overturn the giant.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test 2
Map: Country Road
Units:
Karolina Dean, Invisible Woman, Sersi, Daredevil (965)
vs.
Magneto II, Destiny, Gorgon, Silver Samurai (970)

Spoiler Alert!

Attack Damage:
R2: 1 wound on Magneto. (height, SA)

Notes:
Gorgon is Magneto's Outcast.
R2: Magneto puts 2 wounds on Sersi.
R2: Sersi puts 2 wound son Magneto.
R2: Silver Samurai puts 1 wound on Karolina.
R3: Magneto puts 2 wounds on Sersi.
R3: Gorgon puts 2 wounds on IW.
R3: Silver Samurai puts 2 wounds on Karolina.
R3: Sersi kills Magneto.
R4: Silver Samurai kills Karolina.(botched defense)
R5: Sersi puts 2 wounds on Silver Samurai.
R5: SS kills IW.(botched defense)
R5: Sersi puts 2 wounds on SS.
R6: SS kills Sersi.(botched defense)
R6: Gorgon kills Daredevil.



Gorgon with 3 wounds, Silver Samurai with 2 wounds, and Destiny with 0 wounds.

The fight took place on the bridge, and on the end of the bridge. Magneto pushed Sersi around, making it hard for her to use MM in the beginning. Silver Samurai was on the bridge attacking Karolina with his special attack. Once she was dead, he did the same to Invisible Woman, and then to Sersi, eventually killing her. Magneto was killed by Sersi before she died. Gorgon then went and killed Daredevil in 1 hit with his GKSA.

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: It's nice to have a cheaper Invisible Woman with a slightly less bonus. Them together in bigger point games will be nice, and she'll play a decent left over points pick in many games. I'd say performance wise, maybe lowering her to 110 wouldn't be so bad. She's not a threat on offense, so she's mainly going to be used defensively for pods etc. So I think somewhere between 100-120 is accurate, depending on people's results. As for mine, I'll say 110.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: I look forward to the Runaways synergy, and obviously she's playing the defensive unit in the bunch. She'll be a nice low point draft for any army, and a key component to the Runaways.

[TrollBrute]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Karolina Dean

Army Test
Map: Sacred Shrine
Units: Karolina Dean (120), Valkyrie (350), Star-Lord (250), Mandarin (280) (1000) VS Professor Xavier (220), Jean Grey (180), Omega Red (300), Aurora (200), Angel (90) (990)
Unit Summary:
Damage: none.
Runaway Force Field 3: 9 defense dice added to other figures, semi-useful.
Sensory Assault: 0 additional attack dice.

Spoiler Alert!

The Guardians set up on the height near their startzone, and the Mutants came right at them. Mandarin relied mostly on his glyphs, trying to take down Xavier (and hitting Aurora and Angel at the same time). Valkyrie rolled terrible defense, dying in 4 attacks, three of them coming after Jean pulled her away from the pod. Round Three had Aurora’s Inner Peace kicking in on Mandarin. She and Omega Red knocked him out. Star-Lord took two disengagements to grab the Energy Rings, but failed to kill Xavier. The Mutants got him and then Karolina.

Karolina only took one turn, her defense boost kicked in a fair amount of times, but the Guardians rolled poorly on defense.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): R3T3: Xavier with 3/4 wounds, Aurora with 2/4 wounds, Angel with 1/4 wounds, Omega Red with 1/7 wounds.

Army Test
Map: Sacred Shrine
Units: Karolina Dean (120), Robot (210), Invisible Woman (215), Deadpool (285), Wild Child (160) (990) VS Cosmic Boy (260), Karate Kid (230), Superboy (330), Lightning Lad (180) (1000)
Unit Summary:
Damage: 2 wounds to Karate Kid.
Runaway Force Field 3: 9 defense dice added to other figures, fairly useful.
Sensory Assault: 1 additional attack die.

Spoiler Alert!

The Legionnaires moved quickly to take the highest hill on the opposite side of the road. Army One set up in the 7-hex nearby and got their team into position fairly quickly as well, thanks to Robot. The Legionnaires had the advantage in attacking though, and Robot and Invisible Woman were early casualties to Superboy and Karate Kid’s nasty attacks. Cosmic Boy played aggressively and it payed off at first, but Deadpool got a couple attacks through from a distance (avoiding his Magnetic Defense) and took him down.

‘Pool was separated from Karolina and Wild Child, making things tough for him. He eventually got away from Karate Kid though, and took down Lightning Lad, who rolled poorly on a bunch of attacks. Superboy took his third wound from Deadpool, but knocked him out with a couple big attacks (4 skulls on one, and 5 on the other) plus Heat Vision. He whiffed against Wild Child a couple attacks later and fell. Karate Kid moved in, but couldn’t attack, then failed his first attack against Wild Child. Karolina got one shot against him and 2 skulls against 0 shields ended the game.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): R5T2: Karolina with 2/4 wounds, Wild Child unwounded.

___________________________________________________________

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: She feels a little lackluster right now, but that’s largely due to the near-lack of other Runaways. Outside of the faction, she’s decent but not spectacular. I don’t have any worries about her stacking with other defense-boosters, though there are some interesting combos you can attempt. I would err on the safe side for her factional synergy, but 120 seems fine to me. Bring on the rest of the Runaways!

[IAmBatman]

Hmm, seven army tests from a total of three testers so far and only one includes Molly Hayes? What gives?

[TrollBrute]

Molly's tough to work with and works best (right now) in Mutant armies, where Karolina is a tricky fit. Personally, I wanted to focus on testing her with other defensive figures to make sure there weren't any major issues for pod play.

[IAmBatman]

For sure, it just seems like a lot of her cost is wrapped up with the faction and she's not being tested in the faction (not that there's much of an opportunity to, but we do have that one figure at least). We might want to open her up for continued testing after other members are added.

[johnny139]

Once the Runaways are complete - Nico, Chase, Gert, and Old Lace - I'm definitely planning on running some "Faction Tests." They're going to be one of those groups with a lot of interlocking pieces (Nico and Gert/Old Lace providing a lot of movement flexibility, Chase offering other boosts), so we won't really see how they work until most of them are already out there.

As such, I think we're pretty much good here... I'll push her to 130 based on future potential, but I think we've proven pretty consistently that she's not a concern at all outside of the Runaways. Her armies have only won 2/7 matches, and she was pretty useful in those, but barely worth it otherwise, even at 120.

So, I PROPOSE WE MOVE TO FINAL EDITING AT 130! With the assumption that she'll be receiving more testing in the future - I think any further testing here would just be spinning our wheels.