The Book of Cassie Hack

[Lazy Orang]

Here's the first test for Cassie:

Name Of The Playtest Unit: Cassie Hack
Army Test 1
Map: Bad Moon Rising (no glyphs)
Armies:
Cassie Hack, Morbius, Angel (Warren Worthington III) (460 points)
vs.
Gorgon (Tomi Shishido), Armor, Jubilee (460 points)

Spoiler Alert!

Overview of Cassie Hack’s performance:
Damage inflicted through normal attacks: 1 wound on Gorgon
Times one die added with Slasher Slayer: None.
Times two dice added with Slasher Slayer: Once
Times three dice added with Slasher Slayer: None
Wounds inflicted with Hack/Slash: Two on Gorgon

Round One

Angel flies forwards, carrying Cassie.
Gorgon advances and removes his blindfold, but Angel and Cassie averted their eyes. Jubilee advances and flings fireworks at Angel and Cassie, but harms neither.
Morbius flies forwards.
Gorgon charges Cassie and stabs her with Godkiller, inflicting a wound. Jubilee advances.
Cassie moves to hit Gorgon over the head - he anticipates her this and strikes first, but she retaliates, inflicting a wound.
Gorgon strikes Cassie, but his blow is weak, only managing one skull, and Angel flies her away. Jubilee advances and blasts Cassie and Angel with her Fireworks, but to no avail.

Round Two

The Slasher Slayers claim the initiative. Morbius flies in and strikes Jubilee, inflicting three wounds.
Gorgon stabs Morbius with his Godkiller, inflicting two wounds. Jubilee claims height on Morbius and punches him for two wounds.
Cassie charges Gorgon, striking him from high ground, inflicting a wound.
Gorgon and Jubilee strike Morbius, but to no avail.
Morbius drains Jubilee dry of plasma.
Gorgon strikes Cassie, but his blow is pathetic - it still slips through, though, leaving Cassie bleeding out and close to death.

Round Three

The Slasher Slayers claim the initiative (again...) and Morbius moves to strike Gorgon, but Gorgon arrives before him, slashing his abdomen for a wound, even as Cassie smashes a baseball bat into his back.
Gorgon decapitates Cassie.
Morbius runs to height and grabs Gorgon’s arm, draining him of plasma, inflicting a wound and healing one.
Gorgon slashes at Morbius with Godkiller, decapitating him in one blow.
Gorgon charges Angel and stabs him in the abdomen, inflicting two wounds, before Angel flies to high ground.

Round Four

Gorgon claims the initiative and charges Angel, slashing at him and catching him, inflicting a further wound.
Angel moves to punch Gorgon, but he strikes first, disemboweling the winged mutant.

Mutants victorious - Gorgon 4 wounds, Armor unwounded.

Overview: Cassie did okay there... mostly because Gorgon only rolled one skull against her a couple of times. Had he not got unlucky there, she'd probably have died having inflicted only one wound. Even so, Gorgon absolutely cleaned up here, because... he’s kind of a bloody monster. She's fun - Hack/Slash is a really cool power - but she's kind of niche and not even that terrifying then, plus her constitution is lacking. Not seeing any need to bump her, if anything I'd wonder about her being 100.

[Lazy Orang]

Any thoughts, @Ronin ? I know you wanted me to check in after I completed Test One.

[Ronin]

Sorry, got distracted by some of the stuff in the silly release thread.

I think we're looking good so far - willing to stay the course going into game two.

[Lazy Orang]

Excellent. Not 100% sure when I'll be able to get on that, but it'll be Saturday at the very latest - I've already got the match-up set up. We've got:

Cassie Hack, Sub-Zero, Solomon Kane, Angel (Warren Worthington III) (600)
vs
Jason Voorhees, Scorpion (Hanzo Hasashi), Michael Myres, Chucky (600)

I can tweak it if you'd prefer, though.

[Ronin]

Works for me.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Sorry for the delay (again), but here's my first test for Cassie. Second test plus paint-guide will come tonight.

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Cassie Hack @120 points

Army Test 1
Map: Island Planecrash (no E-glyph)
Units: Euthanized: Cassie Hack (120), Green Lantern (Stew) (340), Vertigo (90), Beast Boy (Cheetah) (20), Green Shield Construct (20), Skrull Infiltrator x1 (10)- 600 total vs Girls Gone Dead: Silver Banshee (290), Typhoid Mary (120), Vampire Minions x2 (180), Skrull Infiltrator x1 (10)- 600 total

Spoiler Alert!

Game Summary:

Basically this is just Green Lantern as an attack helicopter with the other bits of the army acting as 'special mission gear' attached to said copter. Cassie did her job of countering Banshee and Mary's auto-wound powers, though by affecting their movement and discouraging power use instead of by inflicting counter-wounds. In the end, Cassie didn't really have to do any more than that as J Stew tore through the other team with slasher-like efficiency.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): Not used.
• Slasher Slayer Not used.
• Hack/Slash: Technically not used, though it stopped Silver Banshee from doing much as her wail was just a convoluted way of committing suicide once Cassie got next to her. The threat of Hack/Slash also made Mary a bit more schizophrenic in her actions than usual.
• Damage Taken: Eventually, Banshee did successfully smush her with a few normal attacks.

Result: A 3 Life 1 Marker J Stew flies away with his pet Cheetah as Ride of the Valkyries plays on.

Army Test 2
Map: Sewer Labyrinth
Units: Hack: Cassie Hack (120), Rover (160), Zombie (120), Skrull Infiltrator x1 (10)- 410 total vs Slash: Sam (95), Jason (175), Mike Myers (135)- 405 total

Spoiler Alert!

Game Summary:

Going for a full on thematic (more or less) match-up here. Fittingly, Cassie's team was able to blitz the Slashers a bit which made it hard for the badguys to make the best use of several of their powers. Jason was the biggest trouble for team Hack though, as ironically he counters her counter power among other things, and unfortunately they never landed a big enough hit on him to take him out before he whittled them away. In retrospect, this army was a bit too fiddly anyway, so Cassie did pretty well to get as far as she did.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 3 wounds to Sam, 5 to Myers, and 2 to Jason over the course of several attacks.
• Slasher Slayer Managed to get her up to 5 attack every time she attacked, but I never managed to get all 3 triggers up at once.
• Hack/Slash: Killed Myers in response to a Shape wound. which in fairness Myers kinda wanted to happen so he could come back to full health.
• Damage Taken: Took 1 wound early on from Myer's normal attack, then a Shape wound. Jason eventually slashed her up along with the rest of the team.

Result: A 2 life Jason remains to stalk Camp Crystal Lake.

Overall: Cassie feels fine to me. She's pretty much a pure counter-draft unit, and even in that role she's hardly oppressive or anything. I think the sheer number of cards she can counter to some degree or another gives her plenty of value though. She's a counter-draft that I'd consider dropping into a pre-built tourney army on occasion, which is a pretty rare bird. I could see a slight cost drop though, unless there are plans for some reasonably juicy Slayer synergy at some point or another.

[Lazy Orang]

- Theme Test - Inconclusive, as I don't know the character.
- Mirror Test - Pass.
- Bonding Test - Pass, no Slayer synergy yet.
- Synergies Test - Pass - Human synergy's weak enough that it mostly just acts to make her hard to justify in Guardians builds.
- Power Check - Pass - She has some interesting powers, but they're not that strong, and even if she is starting to feel dangerous or irritating she's very frail and easy to break.
- Fun Test - Pass - I had a decent amount of fun with her.
- Fun Competitive Test - Pass - Glass cannons like this are always kind of fun to play against.
- Drafting Test - Tentative Pass - I'd only be likely to take her as a counter-draft, either against Slashers (extra attack boost) or figures with passive auto-wounding powers (Hack/Slash), and even then I'd probably be tempted to take something else due to how low her constitution is. I'd be sorely tempted to drop her price a bit to make her more attractive as a counter-draft figure. In pre-built army games? Probably not going to take her, she's just not that kind of figure.
- Usage Test - Pass - Both powers got use. Oddly enough, I found the attack boost much more useful in the first battle while Hack/Slash was her main effect in the first.
- Strategy Test - Pass - Whether it’s timing pulling her back with Angel to charge in for the full effect of Slasher Slayer or its timing when you want get in the face of someone like Gorgon to use Hack/Slash, in both cases trying to time her engagements so that she’s likely to at least do something before going down, she’s quite strategic.

Name Of The Playtest Unit: Cassie Hack
Army Test 1
Map: Bad Moon Rising (no glyphs)
Armies:
Cassie Hack, Morbius, Angel (Warren Worthington III) (460 points)
vs.
Gorgon (Tomi Shishido), Armor, Jubilee (460 points)

Spoiler Alert!

Overview of Cassie Hack’s performance:
Damage inflicted through normal attacks: 1 wound on Gorgon
Times one die added with Slasher Slayer: None.
Times two dice added with Slasher Slayer: Once
Times three dice added with Slasher Slayer: None
Wounds inflicted with Hack/Slash: Two on Gorgon

Round One

Angel flies forwards, carrying Cassie.
Gorgon advances and removes his blindfold, but Angel and Cassie averted their eyes. Jubilee advances and flings fireworks at Angel and Cassie, but harms neither.
Morbius flies forwards.
Gorgon charges Cassie and stabs her with Godkiller, inflicting a wound. Jubilee advances.
Cassie moves to hit Gorgon over the head - he anticipates her this and strikes first, but she retaliates, inflicting a wound.
Gorgon strikes Cassie, but his blow is weak, only managing one skull, and Angel flies her away. Jubilee advances and blasts Cassie and Angel with her Fireworks, but to no avail.

Round Two

The Slasher Slayers claim the initiative. Morbius flies in and strikes Jubilee, inflicting three wounds.
Gorgon stabs Morbius with his Godkiller, inflicting two wounds. Jubilee claims height on Morbius and punches him for two wounds.
Cassie charges Gorgon, striking him from high ground, inflicting a wound.
Gorgon and Jubilee strike Morbius, but to no avail.
Morbius drains Jubilee dry of plasma.
Gorgon strikes Cassie, but his blow is pathetic - it still slips through, though, leaving Cassie bleeding out and close to death.

Round Three

The Slasher Slayers claim the initiative (again...) and Morbius moves to strike Gorgon, but Gorgon arrives before him, slashing his abdomen for a wound, even as Cassie smashes a baseball bat into his back.
Gorgon decapitates Cassie.
Morbius runs to height and grabs Gorgon’s arm, draining him of plasma, inflicting a wound and healing one.
Gorgon slashes at Morbius with Godkiller, decapitating him in one blow.
Gorgon charges Angel and stabs him in the abdomen, inflicting two wounds, before Angel flies to high ground.

Round Four

Gorgon claims the initiative and charges Angel, slashing at him and catching him, inflicting a further wound.
Angel moves to punch Gorgon, but he strikes first, disemboweling the winged mutant.

Mutants victorious - Gorgon 4 wounds, Armor unwounded.

Overview: Cassie did okay there... mostly because Gorgon only rolled one skull against her a couple of times. Had he not got unlucky there, she'd probably have died having inflicted only one wound. Even so, Gorgon absolutely cleaned up here, because... he’s kind of a bloody monster. She's fun - Hack/Slash is a really cool power - but she's kind of niche and not even that terrifying then, plus her constitution is lacking. Not seeing any need to bump her, if anything I'd wonder about her being 100.

Army Test 2
Map: Mayberry by mad_wookie (No Glyphs)
Armies;
Cassie Hack, Sub-Zero, Solomon Kane, Angel (Warren Worthington III) (600 points)
vs.
Jason Voorhees, Scorpion (Hanzo Hasashi), Michael Myres, Chucky (600 points)

Spoiler Alert!

Overview of Cassie Hack’s performance:
Damage inflicted through normal attacks: 3 wounds on Jason Voorhees, 2 wounds on Michael Myres
Times one die added with Slasher Slayer: None.
Times two dice added with Slasher Slayer: Once
Times three dice added with Slasher Slayer: Twice
Wounds inflicted with Hack/Slash: One on Michael Myres

Michael Myres is stalking Sub-Zero

Round One

The Slasher Slayers claim the initiative - Jason appears further forwards, carrying Chucky, and Michael observes Sub-Zero. Sub-Zero runs forwards.
Jason charges a tree, failing to cut it down and carrying Chucky with him.
Angel flies forwards, carrying Cassie.
Jason charges Cassie, carrying Chucky with him before striking her from low ground - he inflicts a wound and Angel repositions himself and Sub-Zero. Solomon Kane swears vengeance on Jason. Chucky is too low to hit Cassie.
Jason shambles along, engaging Sub-Zero and carrying Chucky. Michael advances. Sub-Zero slides under Jason and strikes him in the back, inflicting two wounds. Jason strikes Sub-Zero for a wound.
Jason charges Angel, carrying Chucky before stabbing him for a wound. Angel flies away, repositioning himself and Cassie.

Round Two

The Slashers claim the initiative. Jason charges Angel, carrying Chucky with him and stabbing the mutant from low ground, inflicting a wound. Angel flies away, carrying Cassie.
Jason carries Chucky to high ground. Michael observes Sub-Zero. Cassie charges headlong into Jason, getting all of her bonuses against him and smashing her baseball bat into him, inflicting a colossal three wounds.Jason inflicts a wound on Cassie
Jason disengages before charging back into combat with Cassie, striking her for a wound. Angel flies Cassie away.
Michael observes Sub-Zero. Sub-Zero charges Jason and rips out his spine, eliminating the remainder of the Slasher round. Fatality?
Michael advances and Sub-Zero retreats.
Jason appears behind the ruined wall to the Slasher Slayers’ rear.

Round Three

The Slashers claim the initiative and Jason charges Solomon, slashing his chest and inflicting two wounds.
Michael Myres advances. Solomon Kane flies into a berserker rage and lays into Jason, activating Master Swordplay on his first blow, cutting him down in three strikes.
Michael Myres advances.
Michael Myres continues to advance before Cassie barrels into him, cutting him off from Sub-Zero and smashing his head in with a baseball bat from high ground - her blow is rather weak, only two skulls on seven dice, but he’s taken completely by surprise, failing to block and taking two wounds from her blow.
Michael Myres breaks away from Cassie and moves to height, next to Chucky, taking a blow to his back from her in so doing.
Michael Myres, carrying Chucky, springs at Sub-Zero, stabbing him deep in the stomach and twisting the blade, inflicting a shocking three wounds in one blow and leaving Sub-Zero bleeding out and near death, while Cassie stabs Michael for a wound in retaliation. Solomon swears vengeance against Myres. Cassie then follows through, cracking Myres over the head but failing to put him down.
Jason appears behind the ruined wall again.

Round Four

The Slashers claim the initiative. Michael Myres stabs Cassie through the heart, killing her, eliminating the Slasher Slayers’ last two turns. Angel flies back to Solomon.
Sub-Zero blasts Michael with ice, but misses, before sliding under him and striking him - the blow seems fatal, but within a moment, Michael Myres is gone.
Jason charges Solomon and slashes him for a wound, before Angel flies him away.
Jason charges Angel and takes his head, and Solomon Kane swears vengeance.

Round Five

Michael Myres appears near Sub-Zero.
The Slasher Slayers claim the initiative. Jason shambles up to Solomon while Michael Myres springs at Sub-Zero, slitting his throat, before marking Solomon as his new victim. Solomon flies into a berserker rage and lays into Jason from high ground, cutting him to ribbons.
Michael Myres advances, shambling onto the road.
Myres observes Solomon Kane even as the puritan charges him. Solomon channels his masterful swordplay skills into his first blow and lays into the slasher, inflicting two wounds.
Michael claims height on Solomon and stabs him, murdering the last survivor.

Slashers Victorious, Michael Myres 2 wounds (second incarnation), Chucky unwounded, Scorpion unwounded.

Overview: Well, that was a massacre. Not even close, that one, not remotely - the Slashers just cleaned up. Admittedly, it was thanks to insane luck - they were doing well on their attacks, Jason managed both rolls for resurrection and Michael rolled all skulls for his stalking strikes, all the time. The Slasher Slayers fought valiantly, but that was just... brutal...
Cassie's solid - her ability to juice up her attacks that far can do quite a bit of damage against the fairly squishy frames of Slashers like Michael and Jason - but she's quite squishy, her Hack/Slash ability is hard to make a great deal of use of against Slashers like this (I imagine it'd be decent duelling Chucky in late game, but Jason ignores those wounds completely and Michael dishes out auto-wounds rarely enough and his Life is high enough and dissolves quickly enough to attacks that a single auto-wound is just about nothing. Oddly enough, I'm not sure that power is great against any existing Slasher but Chucky, though it should be good against him and it does give her some other niches to work in (such as making Gorgon pay for successful Precognitive Strikes, or just charging Huntress and ensuring that any damage she inflicts with Ruthless Counter Strike will make her take more damage). In the end, though, she isn't that great, and I could honestly see a points drop far more than tweaking her downwards - she feels more like a 90-110 hero, to me. At best, she's a very low-level glass cannon, at worst, she's a damp squib.

Thoughts On The Tested Unit's Cost, Balance, & Draftibility:

In my opinion, a counter unit or a niche unit should be particularly effective, for its cost, for the specific occasion that it calls for. This is true not just in Heroscape, but in other strategy games as well. I’ve been playing some Age of Kings lately, a game where, while a pike line unit will never beat an equally upgraded knight line unit one on one, will still exchange in a more cost effective way due to doing a somewhat disproportionate amount of damage for its very cheap cost - against the very specific units it is designed to fight (it's a cavalry counter unit, and that's pretty much all). If the pikeman had been priced to adequately reflect the amount of damage it could do to the stronger, more expensive knight, it wouldn’t be worth training - it would only be exchanging vaguely equally in the situation it was built for, and would, the rest of the time, just underperform, meaning that you’d be better off training something else under all circumstances.

An all-rounder unit trading equally is acceptable, because they can turn their hand to multiple situations and work well, but if a counter unit only reaches the level of average for its cost when it’s in its element, it’s not serving its function adequately. It just acts like a regular unit in the place it was meant to excel while feeling disappointing everywhere else. It fails to be a counter, and it fails to be a normal unit, trapped in a no-man’s land where there’s no real purpose to its existence.

I fear Cassie risks entering that territory, rather than actually being a counter unit. I never felt like I had a particular advantage over the units she was meant to be used against. With that stat-line and power set, set against no Slashers and no characters with passive auto-wounds, she’s just a fairly generic unit with low-to-middling stats and a power that can bring her attack up from pretty low to pretty good under certain specific conditions. That is not worth 120 points, and that’s okay - she doesn’t need to be cost effective in the situations she’s not built for. Against those units, though, she’s feeling, at best, adequately priced - not good for her cost, fair. That isn’t a counter. A counter should be good against its target for its cost, not just acceptable. Its reward for fighting the unit its meant to fight needs to be more than just upgrading from overpriced or underpowered to a regular, okay unit - it needs to be worth more than its printed cost. I feel like bringing her down closer to 100 would make Cassie feel more like an effective, cheap counter to Slashers and passive auto-wounders (while still, incidentally, being on the boring, weak and fragile side against generic armies, though admittedly a bit more usable if you really want), rather than a unit who needs to both be used right and against the very specific correct units to manage to be just okay. She didn't feel any more effective against the characters she was designed to fight for her cost than the other, all-rounder characters who I brought along, and that doesn't seem right.

Other than that, I like her. I think her powers are fun, I think the way she plays works well. I just think she fails to be cost effective as a counter unit right now, and that’s specifically as a counter unit.

[Ronin]

Thanks, guys! Looks to me like she's playing pretty well and we just need to figure out the cost.

She's 2-7, but she had a couple solid individual performances, and I am planning on developing Slayer synergy a little bit - they're never gonna be the Titans, but she'll pick up a few potential bonding partners and similar.

I think going all the way down to 90 would be underselling the value of her base stats a little bit, but I could see dipping down as far as 105. Might be neat to go for a 5-value to mirror the Slashers all being 5s.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Yeah I definitely wouldn't go 90. I didn't really have a problem paying 120 for her, so yeah I'd say 105 is her bottom limit.

[Ronin]

Alright, let's give her a soft bump down to 110 and go ahead to final editing.

Made a couple little wording tweaks.

There was a clause I meant to have in there the whole time to clarify that Hack/Slash couldn't counter SAs. Accidentally dropped it at some point, but fortunately no-one tested it as countering SAs, so I just snuck that wording back in.

I know there were some thoughts on the power names and whether Hack/Slash should be named something more reusable.

I've mulled that over and, honestly, I think it's the design centerpiece here and I don't mind giving people some pause before reusing it, or cause to shake up the mechanics a little. Open to other thoughts, though.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

-How to Mod and Repaint Cassie Hack-

Converting Irma and company into Cassie Hack requires a little modding and a fairly simple repaint job. To start, you will need these figures:

Irma from TMNT Heroes in a Half-Shell. This is the primary figure you'll be using.

Surge from X-Men Xavier's School. This figure will only be donating its head to the cause.

The next part needed is simply a female hand holding a gun. I used Colleen Wing and Misty Knight from the Amazing Spider-Man set because Misty's gun hand had a little bracelet like detail on it that matched with Irma's hand, but basically any figure will work here.

To start modding, first remove Irma's right hand. Then her forearm at the elbow.



Next, harvest your chosen gun hand.




Now you may wish to remove Irma's head before doing this next step, but I've ordered it this way so you can follow what becomes of each piece easier. For this step, reattach Irma's forearm at the angle shown then attach the gun hand to it.



Now remove Irma's head at the angle shown:



And harvest Surge's head:



Now attach Surge's head to Irma's body, you should do a test fit before gluing as you may need to do some trimming to get them to fit together smoothly.



...And you're done modding! Now after you're done congratulating yourself you can get to painting. Just follow the paint guide here:



Color A: A light flesh tone for all the bits of Irma's skin except her forearms and hand and for Surge's head. You're trying get an even skin tone here, so it doesn't especially matter on the exact color. Mine was a mix of a Model Master Acryl light skin tone base and a tiny drop of Insignia Red. All you're doing here is painting over the aforementioned bits. It's very easy for the Irma parts, for the head you'll want to be a bit more careful and avoid the eyes and lips (unless you feel comfortable repaint those bits yourself).

Color B: A flat black for anything that isn't either something you just painted or a handgun. I used Model Master Acryl Aircraft Interior Black. This is a simple step, just paint everything not your chosen flesh tone, or gunmetal, black. You may also wish to add a 'choker' to her neck as I did to help hide the joining of the neck and head.

Color C: A flat dark gray for her belt. I just mixed in a touch of white into the black paint I already had out for this, but any gray will do. All you're doing here is painting a line above her skirt.

Color D: A semi-gloss black for her belt buckle. I used Model Master Acryl Semi-Gloss Black. Just paint a wee square in the middle of her belt and you're done.

Color E: A metallic silver for her belt buckle and choker. I used Tamiya Chrome Silver for this. Just add a small dot to her choker and a box of silver inside the semi-gloss black square you just made.

Color F: A flat red for assorted accents and blood splatter. I used Model Master Acryl Insignia Red. To start with here, just paint the raised on her boots and gloves solid red. Then add some red on the back of her hands and the top of her feet. To do the blood splatter, take a large brush and wipe it until only a bit of paint remains on it. Then hold the brush about an inch or so away from the figure and flick the brush with your finger. This will result in a spray of 'blood' randomly hitting the figure. You may wish to test this technique on a spare miniature or other disposable surface to get a feel for it before attempting it on Cassie, as doing it wrong can result in covering the whole figure in red paint.

[Ronin]

Awesome! Linked in the OP