The Book of Draugr Thrall

[johnny139]

C3G INITIAL PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Draugr Thrall

Army Test
Map: Ravaged River (Custom Map)
Units: Dragur Thrall@105 x6 (630 Points) vs. Black Canary, Green Arrow (Ollie), Green Arrow (Connor) Red Arrow (620 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Summary

ROUND 1: The Draugr start to make their way forward individually, but the Arrows set up on height and start to pick at them - only one receives a wound, however.

ROUND 2: The Dragur make it across, but Black Canary jumps into the fray, and deals two wounds; Cupid's Arrow finishes off one of the first Draugr. The other Draugr pounces on the Arrow cluster, but can't wound Ollie. The others start to ford the river as well.

ROUND 3: The first Draugr disengages Ollie, taking a wound, and snakes around to bite Roy, dealing three wounds. There's two Thralls crossing, but Connor manages to use his close combat expertise to take down the one attacking them. Two Dragur pounce on Dinah, but deal no wounds; she tries to Cry them away but does no damage, nor does Ollie. They attack again, dealing three wounds, not enough to kill her.

ROUND 4: The Thralls win initiative, which is bad news, as Canary goes down on turn one - and she had two OMs! The Thralls take this opportunity to move in reinforcements, so there's not three on the front lines. Connor manages to wound one, but they deal one to Ollie in turn.

ROUND 5: Team Arrow takes initiative, and Ollie falls back, taking an LEA in the process. However, Red Arrow shoots one Thrall for a wound, and Ollie manages to finish the creature off. But their reprieve is brief - the last two Thralls on the front lines both move in and manage to cut Roy down. Since he had OM2, they get another turn, and tear Ollie apart before his son's eyes. Connor tries valiantly to fight back, but the next attack is five skulls, and he whiffs against it, going down in a single blow.

Who won?: Draugr Thralls win; 3 Draugr Thralls destroyed, 1 Wound each on 2 Draugr Thralls, 1 Draugr Thrall unharmed, 5 Rounds.

Thoughts: It took a minute to really understand the rhythm of the Thralls, knowing how to move them in tandem, how to make sure they're boosted, how to spread out the OMs - in the end I just parked one in the start zone and put them all on him, waiting until the front lines started to weaken before moving him. This map was really stacked against the Thralls, and Team Arrow frankly rolled pretty well - but once they get some momentum the Thralls are tough cookies. I think they may warrant a bump to 115 at least.

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Army Test
Map: Ravaged River (Custom Map)
Units: Dragur Thrall@105 x4, Pluto (840 Points) vs. Citizen V, Songbird, Atlas, MACH-I (840 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Summary

ROUND 1: The Thralls buddy up and move up in a trio, while the Thunderbolts move up in pairs. MACH-I parks on the edge of the river and waits.

ROUND 2: The Thralls strike first, moving in on Songbird and dealing a wound. Unfortunately, they're on the low ground, and justice is like lightning... first Abner manages to kill a Thrall in a single blast when he whiffs on defense, then Zemo gets on height and manages to tear into the other with some Swordplay. They fill up Pluto's card, but it's a catastrophe for Team Hades. Two more Thralls limp forward, but Songbird and MACH-I block the way and blast one for a wound. The make it to the river and attack Songbird for one. Atlas and Songbird team up to bring one Thrall up to 2 Wounds.

ROUND 3: But the Thralls win initiative, and manage to hit Songbird hard, dealing four wounds in a single blow and killing her! And they get a foothold on height, too. The Thunderbolts take a Lightning turn, but only manage to deal one wound to one Thrall. Pluto comes in, having assumed his Thralls would be dead by now, and gets onto height, using both Thralls on his card to roll 9 dice... which only deals one wound to Zemo. MACH-I tries to take out Pluto, and manages to get two wounds on him, knocking away his helm. He takes no damage when Pluto returns the favor, then watches as Atlas squishes one of the Thralls.

ROUND 4: Pluto moves first, and fries Abner with a single attack, five skulls against one shield. Abner has the first two OMs, so that's bad. Pluto burns away two souls (a Thrall and MACH-I), but it's not enough to deal a wound to Zemo. But then, he crosses the river, gives up height... and manages to deal 4 Wounds in one blast. Funny how that works. The Thunderbolts lose a whole round.

ROUND 5: Pluto gets onto height and blasts Atlas good - it's enough to kill him. Except his Ionic Form lets him ignore those wounds and deal one to the Thrall beside him. When he attacks Pluto, the big guy also whiffs on defense, and it would also be enough to kill him, if not for Olympian Fortitude limiting it to 2 Wounds. Atlas takes one from Pluto's attack, then Pluto takes one from Atlas's attack, then Atlas takes one, then Pluto takes one. It's all very poetic, and at the end of the round, Pluto is up to 6 Wounds while Atlas is just as 2.

ROUND 6: Pluto brings Atlas up to 3 Wounds, but Atlas is a mighty mighty man, and with his next attack, the dark god is felled. Atlas keeps up the momentum, climbs onto height, and kills the last Thrall that had been hanging around.

Who won?: Thunderbolts win; 3 Wounds on Atlas, all others destroyed, 6 Rounds.

Thoughts: Very close one, with a lot of back and forth! It looked like the 'bolts had Team Hades on the ropes when they took out two Thralls in one turn, but you should never underestimate two attacks of 6 dice, and Songbird folded surprisingly fast. Their Defense held up, too, long enough for Pluto to get into position. Honestly, they should have had more trouble at the end, but bad rolls for MACH-I and Citizen V evened things out, until Atlas and Pluto just smashed each other until Pluto buckled first. Very interesting game, and I'm thinking 105 might be good.

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Army Test
Map: Ravaged River (Custom Map)
Units: Dragur Thrall@105 x5, Hela (1050 Points) vs. Thor (Jane Foster), Captain Marvel (Carol Danvers), Sif (1030 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Summary

ROUND 1: Not a great round for the Thralls! They make it onto height, but Jane flies over and uses her Mjolnir-Kinesis, attacking three Thralls, dealing two wounds to one and killing another. The Thralls try to approach, but just barely make it to the river; Carol flies in and turns on her offense, blasting one in the river and dealing two wounds to him. Thor takes a Failing Health wound.

ROUND 2: The Thralls move on Jane, but deal no damage; she tries some fancy Mjolnir stuff but fails to do anything. One Thrall moves in from the back, while the other deals a wound to Jane... she just takes a normal turn and turns him to paste. The two Thralls leftover ford the river, and one attacks Carol, dealing two wounds but taking two in return from her defensive blast. Carol goes All Out, killing the Thrall that was harassing her and blasting the one on Jane's tail for two, moving Sif around to sneak up behind him. Jane takes a wound from her Health.

ROUND 3: Jane uses her Mjolnir-Kinesis to swat the last two Thralls, leaving Hela all alone, albeit with five Thralls waiting on her card. Carol flies in and blasts Hela from a distance, not going All-Out, but being tentative... it makes no difference, though. Hela approaches, burns a Thrall to add a skull to her roll, and manages six skulls total - Carol survives with just one Life left, but the Touch of Death finishes her off. Jane tries a Mjolnir Distraction, and does manage to deal two to Hela, though she's no longer on height. Hela attacks and manages to deal two wounds, then tries for Touch of Death, burning three Thralls... but it's not enough, and Jane lives for another day. But she goes up to 6 Wounds due to the cancer! She can feel death creeping in...

ROUND 4: Jane takes the initiative, climbs onto height, and swings mightily at Hela... six skulls! Hela weighs her options, burns a Thrall to add an automatic shield... and ends up blocking three hits. She's up to 6 Wounds now, on death's door herself. Hela goes all out, though, and manages to roll four skulls! Eight hits! It's enough to put Jane to bed... and decides to bring her back from the dead herself! ThrallJaneThor pops in adjacent to Sif, who was waiting in the wings, and received all of the OMs from her mistress. Sif runs over to engage Hela, who is still on height, and burns the soul of Carol away to add a shield to her roll. She just BARELY blocks the first attack from Lady Sif... but the second attack strikes true and kills the goddess of death. She climbs onto height and attacks Jane, dealing one wound in two attacks.

ROUND 5: Jane hits Sif, but does no damage; Sif hits Jane for another one wound. Jane is now down to one Life - if she can't win this round, she's toast! She swings her mighty hammer, and Sif whiffs... she's up to 5 Wounds! Hanging in by a thread! She musters the last of her strength, rolling two skulls... and Jane's has just one shield! Sif finishes off her former mistress, just barely! (And I rolled the next attack, just to see... Jane would have won!)

Who won?: Women of Power win, 5 Wounds on Sif, all others destroyed, 5 Rounds.

Thoughts: Really amazing, perfect, super fun match. It felt so comic book - the Thralls do some damage, but go down easily against the might of Thor and Captain Marvel. But then Hela arrives from the shadows, kills Carol with a single blow! She faces down Jane, who gives her a beating, but on her last legs, Hela kills her and raises her as a Thrall! Sif finishes Hela and engages in a battle to the finish with Jane! I'd watch that movie!

For real though, mechanically, they were great. A little glass-jawed against these heavy hitters, but that's kind of what we wanted here to keep their cost down. The big factor here was just wasting time, making Jane's clock start ticking, and building up a stock of souls for Hela, which is incredibly valuable - adding skulls and shields cannot be underrated when Hela is already such a heavy hitter. Very happy with their performance!

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THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: They're super niche, but honestly play fine as an undead army all their own, as 105 points for an attack of 6 is nothing to sneeze at. I could see their cost going up to 115, or maybe their move dropping to 4, if they continue to perform so solidly - I'll note again that this map was NOT friendly to ground pounders, so the fact they still did so well is testament to their beefiness. That being said, they did have a point advantage (however minor it may be) in the first and third match, and did actually lose the last two. So I don't think it's anything too worrying.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: They're fun! They feel surprisingly "zombie-like" on the battlefield, moving in somewhat irregular swarms and clawing at the enemy until one solid hit blasts them away. And a swarm of front-line units that become fodder for their Hell Lord of choice to burn... it just feels really cool. I'm very happy with them.

[johnny139]

Initial is all set! I like them a lot, and happy with them at 105. And while I usually like to let things sit a bit, I'll be cognizant of the fact we're on a timetable here and PROPOSE WE MOVE TO PLAYTESTING!

[Ronin]

Hel yea

[Yodaking]

yea

[Karat]

Yea

[johnny139]

One more vote needed!

[quozl]

Yea

[johnny139]

This passes! Posting now.

Planning to send them out with a sneak preview of Hela since she's kind of vital to them working right.

[japes]

Was this posted in the discussion thread and I just missed it. I didn't I is this thread existed until now. Looks great though.

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by japes

Was this posted in the discussion thread and I just missed it. I didn't I is this thread existed until now. Looks great though.

It's moving pretty slowly. Probably predates your return by a lot, if you look at the date in the OP.

[johnny139]

Yeah, I planned on having the initial here done "in a couple weeks" at the end of May. I'm not very timely!

[IAmBatman]

Ah, yeah. Might want to tag the Heroes, especially newer ones like @Arkham to make sure they know this exists!