The Book of Batman (Outsiders)

[IAmBatman]

Thanks! Biggest problem I'm having with the faction right now is army building, which 220 at least helps with a fair bit. But if he struggles in the next set as well, I'll just have to deal with a drop and figuring out an addition or two to help round things out down the road.

200 at least is an easy plug in if we can otherwise get army totals working (which is dicey with the more thematic grouping). 210 rounds out the 190s and 290 well at least, though I think 220 is most ideal for army building.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Batman (Outsiders @200 and 220 points

NOTE: I tested with Batman only getting one attack with the Bat Shurikens as that's how it works as written.

Set 1
Map: Sewer Labyrinth
Units: Carol goes Outside: Batman (200), Ms. Marvel (350), Katana (190), Black Lighting (160)- 900 total vs Like a Cat of Iron: Luke Cage (190), Iron Fist (260), Nova (210), Wildcat (240)- 900 total

Spoiler Alert!

Results:
Game 1: Bats is unwounded, Black Lightning clings to 1 life.
Game 2: Bats unwounded, Black Lightning 2 life this time.
Game 3: Crisscross! Nova have 2 life, Wildcat unwounded.


So basically Bats is just a way to move up people for Marvel efficiently once or twice, then just an attack booster (or defense in an emergency). If Marvel happens to go down before her buddies, then hey, Bats bonding again maybe.

It worked pretty well, Lightning and Katana are both decent enough Marvel bonders already and they form a pretty nasty group of counter strikers. Bats was mostly just a plus 1 attack button, but that was a fairly good trick to be.

The whole thing felt pretty removed from anything Outsidery though, like I paid a bit of lip service to the idea but I could have probably got as much or more value out of just pairing him with some ranged Deadly Shoot or multi attackers or something. I'm going to try him at 220 so the bonding has more of cost and feels more like something I need to make use of.

Set 2
Map: Island Plane Crash (No E-Glyph)
Units: There are Dinosaurs Outside: Batman (220), Geo Force (280), Katana (190), Black Lighting (160), Bob & Carol & Ted & Ringo (230), Creeper (120)- 1200 total vs Like a Cat of Iron, but more so: Luke Cage (190), Iron Fist (260), Nova (210), Wildcat (240), Casey Jones (130), Shi (170)- 1200 total

Spoiler Alert!

Results:
Game 1: Bats stands alone at 3 life.
Game 2: Bats is unwounded in the start zone, Katana has 2 life remaining, and Creeper is a creep with only 1 wound to his name and on his card.
Game 3: Wildcat hangs unwounded in the gym as Shi and Casey both stand tall with 2 life.


Ok so, the idea here is BCTR are a squad of Heroes basically, which both Bats and Geo like. Bats because he likes having lots of attacks to boost, Geo because it gives him cheap bodies to Rally off of.
Bats can get the Outsiders mobilized reasonably quickly so they're in position to Rally, after that you just blitz with BCTR with Geo providing a weird protection/back-up thing. Then you switch to Bats/Geo.

It worked fairly well (though Creeper is still pretty bad even when all he's there for is a cheap extra bonder, would have been better off with Angel and some skrulls or something), Bats still provides a lot of utility without ever having to leave his start zone and is still a decent last man standing when the chips are down. The point bump (or un-drop really) made it feel like his bonding was something you needed to use to get his points back though, which was nice to feel more rewarded for paring him with Outsiders.

Overall: I really like the design here (outside of the technically not working with his own glyph thing) but I don't think he can be 200 points personally. It's sort of a weird struggle where he's in a not super great faction, so he needs to pull a fair bit of weight, but if he pulls too much weight with non-factional stuff then you're just not going to bother putting him in his actual team in the first place. At 200 he felt draftable just as an attack booster/ decent clean-up unit without really caring about the Interloper stuff, the 20 point bump isn't a whole lot, but it felt more like his bonding power was effecting (or affecting, whatever) his cost enough to push him towards the right peeps.

[IAmBatman]

OK! Sounds like it's best to stick with 220, then. I'm satisfied he's been properly vetted after that group of tests and I can get the whole "too good to keep in the faction at 200" concern. 200 would've been cool to get, but 220 was another viable plan and fits Geo-Force builds well at least for a nice 500 point block, so I can roll with 220 and tweak that Katana (II) I posted down slightly to compensate.

Bat Shuriken hopefully we can iron out in that thread.

I propose we move to Final Editing at 220.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

yea

[MrNobody]

Yea

[Arch-vile]

yea

[Arkham]

Yea

[IAmBatman]

This passes.

[IAmBatman]

Now is the time for wording tweaks so @Karat @Ronin @ anyone else who's willing and able, please have a look over. Much obliged for anyone who does.

[Ronin]

Could shorten "this Army Card" down to "this card" in the last power if you like. It is the kind of card it is, ya know?

Seems fine though, if I'm looking that hard for something to say.

[IAmBatman]

Done. Thanks. SP is updated with that change (saying it this formally to make sure Ark sees it).

I'll wait to hear on Karat and from SW to see if he's still planning to do a mini pic here before asking for cards.

I'm also thinking about going the Royal Flush/Manticore route here and putting this on hold once it's carded rather than calling for release, and then starting on an Outsiders Katana so I can make sure that a thematic army works together and is at even points. Probably no real tweaks I can make here on that front, but better to keep it unreleased just in case, I think.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

I'll have the mini pick in a bit.