The Book of Hulkbuster Soldiers

[IAmBatman]

Fair enough. Just trying to bump some things today and get some energy back up around here.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by johnny139

Four days. Five at most. (Though I'll probably start with Groot.)

[johnny139]

Groot last weekend, Hulkbusters next weekend, and I'm planning on loading up on other Initials where needed in mid-March during Spring Break.

[IAmBatman]

Cool. Wish I still got a Spring Break!

[johnny139]

C3G INITIAL PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE TEST UNIT Hulkbuster Soldiers

- 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 (Always fun to play with toy soldiers!)

- 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 (The Tranq Gun can get a bit frustrating, but it didn't come up as often in Army Tests, so I imagine it'll be more niche there.

- 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? NO!
- What should be the unit's point value? 100+ POINTS
- Give a brief overview. These guys are WAY too good as-is. They're probably A-Rank in general and even moreso against creatures... so I'm going to make some changes to them.

Spoiler Alert!

TEST 1
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x2 (160 Points) vs. Spider-Man (160 Points)
Hulkbuster Soldiers wins; 2 destroyed, 2 Rounds. Spider-Man rolls VERY poorly for his Spidey-Sense, bringing him up to three (or four?) wounds in the first round. Some successful tranq-ing is enough to take TWO Order Markers off of Spider-Man, which leaves him open for the rest of the round.

TEST 2
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x2 (160 Points) vs. Comedian (160 Points)
Hulkbuster Soldiers win; 0 destroyed, 2 Rounds. The Hulkbusters are able to get on height, and poor offense rolls and a lost initiative switch is enough to take out Comedian.

TEST 3
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x3 (240 Points) vs. Morbius (250 Points)
Hulkbusters win; 3 destroyed, 4 Rounds. Morbius starts off fairly well, but the Tranqs are enough to really drag him down and out. Eventually the Hulkbusters can swarm him and wipe him out - though I feel like I played him pretty badly, as he never really tried to run.

TEST 4
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x3 (240 Points) vs. Yellow Lantern: Jonathan Crane (240 Points)
Yellow Lantern wins; 3 Wounds, 3 Battery Markers, 3 Rounds. A multi-attack is absolute killer for the Hulkbusters, and they're turned to mincemeat pretty quickly. Even so it's not too bad a match-up.

TEST 5
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x4 (320 Points) vs. Dragon Man (320 Points)
Hulkbuster Soldiers win; 2 destroyed, 2 Rounds. Height + Hulkbusting = one dead dragon.

TEST 6
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x4 (320 Points) vs. Abomination: Hasbro (320 Points)
Hulkbuster Soldiers win; 2 destroyed, 2 Rounds. Abomination has a pretty good start, Leaping in and Stomping his way around, but initiative switch and a hefty amount of dice against him puts him down pretty quickly.

TEST 7
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x4 (320 Points) vs. Supergirl (320 Points)
Hulkbuster Soldiers wins; 2 destroyed, 2 Rounds. Again, the Hulkbusters can get onto height without too much trouble and just tear Supergirl up...

TEST 8
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x4.66 (375 Points) vs. Red Hulk (370 Points)
Hulkbusters win; 3 destroyed, 2 Rounds. Things look better for Red Hulk to begin with as he builds up some heat while tearing through the enemy... but Tranqs combined with some big attacks bring him down to size.

TEST 9
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x4.66 (375 Points) vs. Incredible Hulk: Bruce Banner (380 Points)
Hulkbuster Soldiers win; 5 destroyed, 3 Rounds. Hulk does better than most, with dice on his side, but he's Tranq'd to hell and back and his only shot at going Rage died from lava damaged, leaving him pretty vulnerable.

TEST 10
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x5 (400 Points) vs. Silver Surfer: Norrin Radd (400 Points)
Silver Surfer wins; 2 Wounds, 7 Rounds. A long slow slog where the Hulkbusters can't break his defense and Silver Surfer cuts through them one by one. No real chance for the 'busters to win.

_____________________________________________________________

CHANGE NOTE: Here I'm going to change things a bit. Bumping their points up to a round 100, upping the roll for Tranq Gun up to 13 (because it was hitting way too often), and dropping the defense boost in Hulkbusters.

_____________________________________________________________

Squad Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? YES!
- What should be the unit's point value? 100 POINTS
- Give a brief overview. A surprisingly fair match between soldiers.
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x3 (300 Points) vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents x2.66 (295 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents win; 6 destroyed, 5 Rounds.

A pretty even match, all things considered. The Agents are pretty much better in every aspect and more general to boot, but the Hulkbusters were able to get some good rolls and initiative switches to keep things rolling. In the end, though, superior weapons win the day.

_____________________________________________________________

Squad Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? YES!
- What should be the unit's point value? 100 POINTS
- Give a brief overview. Perfect game - could have gone either way!
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x3 (300 Points) vs. Vampire Minions x3.33 (300 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Vampire Minions win; 8 destroyed, 5 Rounds.

Super fun match. When they got up close the Minions were done for, but they could generally get one good hit in... lots of close rolls but in the end there simply weren't enough Hulkbusters to finish off that last squad.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? NO!
- What should be the unit's point value? ??? POINTS
- Give a brief overview. Again, the Hulkbusters absolutely waste the Hulk... but he wasn't playing very well, so, I'll give this one another shot.
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x2.33, Red Hulk (600 Points) vs. Incredible Hulk: Hasbro, Bruce Banner, Hawkeye (600 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Hulkbusters win; 5 Wounds, 2 Heat Markers on Red Hulk, 1 Hulkbuster Soldier destroyed, all others unharmed, 3 Rounds.

ROUND 1: Hulk starts on the board. He rides with Hawkeye for a bit, then leaps into the fray - a bad call. He kills one Hulkbuster before he's torn to shreds by them, up to 6 Wounds in two turns.

ROUND 2: Hulk takes another wound, then tries to hit Red Hulk... he deals a fair hit of three wounds but it's not worth the loss. He's taken out next turn. Ross leaps into battle and hits Hawkeye for one, but he's able to Sky Shot away and hit another two in return.

ROUND 3: Ross hunts Clint down and finishes him off without much trouble.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? YES!
- What should be the unit's point value? 100 POINTS
- Give a brief overview. They won, but it was thanks to one lucky hit (that lost Team Hulk a whole round!) and it wasn't by too great a margin. They should be a force to be reckoned with against Hulk anyways.
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x2.33, Red Hulk (600 Points) vs. Incredible Hulk: Hasbro, Bruce Banner, Hawkeye (600 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Hulkbusters win; 4 Hulkbuster Soldiers remaining, all others destroyed, 4 Rounds.

ROUND 1: Bruce starts on the board. He and Hawkeye move in, but Hawkeye takes aim at some Huklbusters. They wound him, but he kills two.

ROUND 2: SURPRISE! Red Hulk leaps in from nowhere and kills Hawkeye with a 5 Skull attack! He had all of the Order Markers... Red Hulk then kills Banner. The 'busters then come in to fire on the newly emerged Hulk, dealing three wounds.

ROUND 3: Hulk starts to pound on Ross as the Hulkbusters fire. He's up to 5 Wounds in two turns, but he kills Ross just as quickly. He then leaps in and kills a 'buster.

ROUND 4: The Hulkbusters win initiative, then surround and kill the Hulk.But if they didn't, Hulk would have used Stomp to kill two of them before going down next turn.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? YES!
- What should be the unit's point value? 100 POINTS
- Give a brief overview. Here the Hulkbusters were essentially set up near the start zone as cleanup, and they did their job well - they finished off Frank and put down a Werewolf. No real issue, very fair match!
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Hulkbuster Soldiers x2, Ms. Marvel, Thor, Skrull Infiltrator x2 (1000 Points) vs. Frankenstein's Monster, Solomon Grundy, Werewolf x3 (1000 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Army Avengers win; 3 Hulkbuster Soldiers remaining, all others destroyed, 8 Rounds.

ROUND 1: Thor is an Avenger. Both armies move out pretty slowly - the Hulkbusters perch on height, the Werewolves go to lurk in the Shadow.

ROUND 2: Thor flies in with Carol, but neither can do any damage. Thor does let loose his God of Thunder Strike but does no damage against the four units he "hits." Frankenstein and Thor get a lava wounds.

ROUND 3: Ms. Marvel fries a Werewolf for three as Frankenstein gets and height but can't damage Thor. A Werewolf leaps from the shadows and gets an epic bite on Carol, dealing three wounds and turning her into a werewolf. Thor puts one wound on Frank, Frank puts on one him, the Werewolf and Carol dance. Frank and the Wolf take lava wounds.

ROUND 4: Slowly but surely the tide turns against the monsters. Frank racks up to six wounds, Ms. Marvel blows away one of the werewolves, but Carol goes up to 4 Wounds and Thor is dragged up to 6 by Grundy's appearance on the stage! Thor then gets a lava wound... he's at the end of his rope!

ROUND 5: Carol kills another wolf. Thor SHOULD take a turn... but he's moved out of Carol's bonding range! Frank takes this chance to finish the God of Thunder off (who turns out to be a Skrull, who is killed by Grundy). However, the other markers were on the Wolf and Grundy, and Ms. Marvel blows Grundy away with one hit...

ROUND 6: Ms. Marvel blasts holes in Frank, but he keeps on trucking thanks to his Resilience. He's able to come up and finish her off as the last werewolf comes to back him up. Of course, Ms. Marvel was also a Skrull, so...

ROUND 7: The Hulkbusters spring into action while the Infiltrator is killed by Frank. The Werewolf arrives and kills a Soldier, but takes two wounds, and Frankenstein is finally put down by the Hulkbosters.

ROUND 8: The Werewolf begins to tear through the enemy killing two Soldiers, but eventually he's put down.

_____________________________________________________________

FINAL THOUGHTS: The Hulkbusters are a solid, basic infantry unit that get a big boost against Heavy Hitters, be they Creatures or simply "dump all of your Order Markers and start swinging" guys. I don't think they're overpowered after my nerfing, and feel very balanced at 100 points.

[IAmBatman]

I could see a bump to 110 here, but I'm happy seeing them in playtesting at 100 or 110. Pre-yea!

[Hahma]

These guys look pretty cool. Nice work fellas!

[johnny139]

I'm hoping we can keep these guys under 110, as I feel like, pound-for-pound, they should be weaker than the S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents. Head-to-head they'll lose either way because they're more specialized, but I just feel like they should be lower, so if they seem to be coming out at 110 or over I'll want to tweak things some.

[IAmBatman]

Well if both squads are at 110 and the SHIELD Agents win head-to-head, then the Hulkbusters probably are weaker pound for pound. Not all units at the same cost are created equally. In fact, bumping them up 10 points is probably a way to keep them weaker than the SHIELD Agents if they're borderline 100-110 right now. Better to be a B unit at 110 than an A+ unit at 100 if you don't want them feeling superior to the SHIELD Agents, right?

[johnny139]

That's a fair point - I'm hoping they're B units at 100 either way, though.

[IAmBatman]

Sounds good. If they look too good in army tests, it's pretty easy to bump them to 110.

[johnny139]

Anyways, I PROPOSE WE MOVE TO PLAYTESTING AT 100! Of course they'll be On Hold until Groot is done, but hopefully that's not too long.