The Book of Ronan

[Xn F M]

Ronan's playtest games are finished. I'll have them typed up and posted tomorrow night.

[Xn F M]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE TEST UNIT Ronan

- 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

- 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 to 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.
Fail.
After playing with the unit, I don't feel that Universal Weapon Clearly states whether or not you must move all adjacent units when you choose to move units. I was pretty sure that you're supposed to be able to choose which units you want to move, but when I was playing, I wasn't sure if "you may place each" meant I could choose whether or not to move all the adjacent units, or if I had a choice for each adjacent unit. Honestly, I even questioned at one point whether not moving a figure was a move of 0 and thus illegal because the figure ended it's move adjacent to Ronan.

Personally, I think changing the language to "you may place some or all of the small or medium figures adjacent to Ronan on any empty space within one space of that figure's origional placement" is the cleanest fix I can come up with. Though I'll admit it doesn't quite sound like heroscape language.

In addition, I don't think it would be inappropriate to change the reselction portion of Honor Bound to trigger at the begining of the round, rather than the begining of his turn. Ronan seems like he's good enough against his best matchups that he could use a smidgeon of a tone-down.

- FUN TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play.
Pass

- FUN COMPETITIVE TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play against.
Pass. I have reservations about playing armies with many 100-200 point heroes and light synergies against this guy, but I think I'm just overreacting because those are my favorite armies to play.

- 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. I think there may be something to an army with Ronan, ~3 Kree Scouts, and some other guys. But I think that might be an army for a better player to find. I just couldn't find anthing that looked better on paper than loading up on the scouts (it may be a point value thing though . . . .)

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or NoYes.
- What should be the unit's point value? 360.
- Give a brief overview. .
Map: Alkalai Lake (normal snow and ice, no glyph).
Units: Ronan, Kree Scouts x6 (600) vs. Red Skull (C3G), Madame Hydra, Hydra Agents x2, and Chronos (595).

Spoiler Alert!

(summary).

Ronan Accuses Red Skull.

Round 1
- Chronos makes a lateral flyover of the Hydra side of the battlefield, he drops a Temporal Displacement Glyph on the Hydra side high ground.
- A Kree Scout advances and takes a shot at Chronos, who blocks. Two more Scouts Tactically Teleport in and one takes a shot at Chronos from high ground inflicting two wounds.
- Madame Hydra advances, she's quickly followed by four Hydra Agents.
- A Kree Scout moves up onto hight and takes a shot at Chronos, who blocks. Two more Scouts teleport in, one takes a shot at the Madame, and inflicts three wounds.
- Red Skull moves forward and attacks a Scout with his Dual Lugers, (I think he blocks, this is missing from my notes). The Hydra Agents move up, one of them takes the Displacement Glyph and they attack the Scouts, all of whom block.
- Ronan and a Scout teleport in. A scout takes a shot a Chronos, who blocks. Ronan can't quite get to Red Skull, so he attacks the agent on the glyph. The agent defends.

Round 2
- A Kree Scout moves up onto high ground and attacks an agent, who blocks. Ronan breaks engagement with the agent, who fails his leaving engagement attack, and engages Red Skull. He attacks with his Universal Weapon inflicting one wound and knocking off the Cosmic Cube.
- Red Skull picks up his cube, and uses it to transfer his wound onto Ronan. He then attacks a Kree Scout, who blocks. The Hydra Agents reposistion themselves, and one attacks Ronan, while the other three attack the Kree Scouts. They're all defended.
- A Kree Scout takes a shot at an agent from height and takes him out. Ronan reengages Red Skull and hits him with his Universal Weapon dealing two wounds and knocking off the Cube again. (In hindsight, I should have not been moving RS with UW, that way he would have had to disengage to pick his cube back up.)
- Madame Hydra grabs the Cube (she has two adjacent agents) and transfers a wound onto a Kree Scout, activating Lead by Example. She then Viper Strikes Ronan and whiffs. The agents reposition. The one one the glyph throws Ronan onto the ice and into engagement. Three of them attack Ronan from height, inflicting one wound. The last agent attacks a scout, who blocks.
- Ronan teleports into a better postion (this was an error that I didn't catch till the next game). A Kree Scout with the Tactitian boost deals two wounds to Red Skull. Ronan attacks RS with his weapon and takes out Red Skull. He accuses Madame Hydra.
- Madame Hydra moves up onto high ground and transfers a wound onto Ronan, then takes out a scout. The Hydra agents form up around their leader, and the agent on the glyph throws a scout onto the ice. They then destroy two scouts.

Round 3
- Chronos charges Ronan, dropping his second glyph. He fails to wound Ronan, and phases out.
- A scout takes a shot at one of the agents near MH, and fails to wound. Ronan attacks MH with UW, he deals two wounds, but she sacs an agent.
- Madame Hydra moves back up onto her high ground and cubes a wound onto Ronan who she attacks. Ronan defends. One agent moves up from the back and the agent on the glyph throws Ronan onto the ice. The agents then deal two wounds to Ronan.
- Ronan moves back up and attacks with his weapon, dealing three wounds to Madame Hydra. (Which she takes to fuel her cube.)
- Madame Hydra moves back onto her perch and cubes a wound onto Ronan who she attacks. Ronan defends. The agent on the glyph throws Ronan towards the Kree start zone. The agents attack Ronan, dealing a wound.
- Ronan attack Madame Hydra with the Universal Weapon and she defends.

Round 4
- Ronan teleports adjacent to his last scout. The scout takes a shot at a hydra agent who defends. Ronan egages Madamy Hydra and inflicts one wound with his weapon.
- Madame Hydra moves back onto her perch and transfers the final wound onto Ronan. She attacks the Kree Scout, who defends. Her agents then gun him down.

Who won and how many wounds did they have? Madame Hydra (2 wounds), Chronos, and a squad of Hydra Agents win round 4. MH is ridiculous with the Cosmic Cube.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? .
- What should be the unit's point value? 360-375.
- Give a brief overview. .
Map: Alkalai Lake, normal snow and ice, no glyph.
Units: Ronan, Kree Scouts x8 (680) vs. Venom, Punisher, Robin, Cmr. Gordon, GCPD x2 (680).

Spoiler Alert!

(summary).
-A d20 roll was used to decide who makes their before the game choices first.
Gordon chooses Punisher for Bat Signal
Ronan accuses Punisher

Round 1
- A Kree Scout advances and two more teleport in.
- Gordon moves up and is followed by a group of cops.
- A Scout advances and takes out a cop. Two more scouts teleport in and one takes out a second cop. (There are now five Kree Scouts spread across the central hill, they're dominating the map.)
- Punisher advances and launches an armor peircing rocket at a Kree Scout (2 skulls) who blocks. Robin charges into the fray and whiffs against a scout.
- Ronan and a Kree Scout teleport in. A scout takes a shot at Robin, who blocks. Ronin moves up and deals a wound to Punisher with his Universal Weapon, knocking Gordin and a cop away from eachother in the process.
- Punisher moves up onto relative high ground and attacks Ronan with his automatic rifle, dealing one wound. Robin engages a couple scouts, he attacks one but fails to wound.

Round 2
Gordon uses his Bat Signal to place the Punisher on the Vigilante-side high ground spot.
- Venom engages Ronan and deals two wounds. Robin atempts to attack a scout again. The scout defends.
- A scout moves forward and and takes a shot at Gordon, who blocks. Ronan moves to reengage Punisher, taking a wound while leaving engagement, deals two wounds with his Universal Weapon and knocks the Punisher onto the ice.
- Punisher moves back up to his perch and fires an armor peircing rocket at Ronan that fails to penetrate. Robin moves into the center of the battlefield, engageing three scouts and taking a wound while leaving engagement. He then attacks a scout and fails to peirce his defense.
- A scout moves up onto high ground and deals two wounds to Robin. Ronan deals out a Punishing four-skull attack with his Universal Weapon, felling Frank, who cannot roll even one shield.
- Dead OM.
- The last two scouts in the start zone teleport in. A scout with height attacks Robin, but rolls all blanks. Ronan accuses Gordon and attacks him with his Univeral Weapon, rolling 4 skulls. Gordon can only muster a single shield, and his officers are too far away to save him.

Round 3
- Venom Swing Lines into engagement with Ronan and deals a wound. Robin fails to wound a scout, again.
- A Kree Scout takes a shot at Venom, Spider sense fails, and he takes three wounds. Ronan accuses Robin. Ronan points his weapon at Robin and he falls down dead.
- Venom Swing Lines into Ronan and attacks. Ronan blocks.
- A scout attacks Venom, whos Spider Sense fails once again. Venom only rolls one shield against three skulls and he's down for the count. Ronan advances and takes out a cop.
- Dead OM.
- Two scouts from the back, teleport next to one in the front. One of them attacks and kills a cop. Ronan attacks a cop, and he defends.

Round 4
- A scout and Ronan each take out a cop.
- The last GCPD takes a shot at Ronan. Ronan defends.
- The cop falls.

Who won and how many wounds did they have? Ronan with five wounds, and 6 Kree Scouts. This game was a blow out. I think I managed to inadvertantly put Ronan & co. against one of their best matchups, and the opposing army rolled terribly.

[johnny139]

Alright, I think moving Honor Bound's re-Accusing to the start of a Round is a fair point, since he seems pretty damn tough at 360.

HONOR BOUND
At the start of a game, choose an opponent's Unique or Event Hero to be Accused. Before placing Order Markers, if the chosen Accused figure is no longer on the battlefield, you may choose another opponent's Unique or Event Hero to be Accused.

However, I can't think of how to phrase Universal Weapon. Realistically, he should have two options - don't move anyone, or move EVERYONE. But how to put that? Here's an idea.

UNIVERSAL WEAPON SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 3. Attack 6.
Before attacking with Universal Weapon Special Attack, you may place each small or medium figure adjacent to Ronan on any empty space within one space of its original placement. A figure moved by Universal Weapon cannot be placed adjacent to Ronan, will not take any leaving engagement attacks, but will receive any falling damage that may apply. (There cannot be any figures adjacent to Ronan after moving figures with Universal Weapon Special Attack.) Ronan can only attack his chosen Accused figure with this special attack.

Which doesn't specify it exactly, but if you do it wrong, the power won't work. You dig?

[IAmBatman]

I like the change to Honor Bound and I totally dig 360 points here.

UNIVERSAL WEAPON SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 3. Attack 6.
Before attacking with Universal Weapon Special Attack, you may place all small or medium figures adjacent to Ronan on empty spaces, each within one space of their original placements. Figures moved by Universal Weapon cannot be placed adjacent to Ronan, will not take any leaving engagement attacks, but will receive any falling damage that may apply. Ronan can only attack his chosen Accused figure with this special attack.

How's that look? It'd seem silly that he couldn't use the power to move medium figures just because a large figure is adjacent to him.

[johnny139]

I suppose that would work. Looks fine to me.

This line still reads off to me: Figures moved by Universal Weapon cannot be placed adjacent to Ronan, will not take any leaving engagement attacks, but will receive any falling damage that may apply. Grammatically speaking, that is; mechanically I'm sure it's fine, but the comma sequence ending in a "but" seems wrong.

[All Your Pie]

UNIVERSAL WEAPON SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 3. Attack 6.
Before attacking with Universal Weapon Special Attack, you may place all small or medium figures adjacent to Ronan on empty spaces, each within one space of their original placements. Figures moved by Universal Weapon cannot be placed adjacent to Ronan and will not take any leaving engagement attacks. (non-flying?)Figures moved lower by Universal Weapon Special Attack will receive any falling damage that may apply. Ronan can only attack his chosen Accused figure with this special attack.

Wording based off Shurrak, suggestion in parenthiseis if you think it's appropriate.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by johnny139

I suppose that would work. Looks fine to me.

This line still reads off to me: Figures moved by Universal Weapon cannot be placed adjacent to Ronan, will not take any leaving engagement attacks, but will receive any falling damage that may apply. Grammatically speaking, that is; mechanically I'm sure it's fine, but the comma sequence ending in a "but" seems wrong.

I think the "but" is what's off there, you're absolutely correct. But is a subtractive conjunction, meaning it's taking away from what's being said before. But that's not really the case here (there's an implied value judgment but I think it's much too open to interpretation to really go with the "but"). On the other hand, "and" is an additive conjunction, and would work just fine, because "will receive any falling damage that may apply" is just another thing on the list here.

Originally Posted by All Your Pie

UNIVERSAL WEAPON SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 3. Attack 6.
Before attacking with Universal Weapon Special Attack, you may place all small or medium figures adjacent to Ronan on empty spaces, each within one space of their original placements. Figures moved by Universal Weapon cannot be placed adjacent to Ronan and will not take any leaving engagement attacks. (non-flying?)Figures moved lower by Universal Weapon Special Attack will receive any falling damage that may apply. Ronan can only attack his chosen Accused figure with this special attack.

Wording based off Shurrak, suggestion in parenthiseis if you think it's appropriate.

That could work too, but I'm not sure I like it over what's above with the change of "but" to "and." And isn't it kind of redundant to say "moved lower"? You don't get falling damage any other way. That said, I've definitely borrowed from that wording for C3G units before.

[johnny139]

I could go either way - both are good - but the shorter one would be better, methinks.

Any thoughts on where the "can only be used on Accused figures" bit should go? Part of me says at the end, because that's the logical order of events (before attacking, and the attack itself). But since you can't have anything before the attack if you don't have the attack itself, so having that clarification at the start might be better.

[IAmBatman]

Yeah, maybe first sentence on that one.

[Xn F M]

Originally Posted by johnny139

Which doesn't specify it exactly, but if you do it wrong, the power won't work. You dig?

I'm not sure if I agree with that. I think that the way it should work is that you move figures in turn unitl you have either moved all of the M/S figures adjacent to Ronan, or you have run of of figures with eligible spaces to move to. Reading Shurrak's card, I really like borrowing Knockbak's wording as a fix to this. You don't get the all or nothing movement (which I really do think is problematical, anything that could easily require re-winding the game should be avoided).

Maybe:

Before attacking with Ronan's Universal Weapon Special Attack you may move any or all small or medium figures adjacent to Ronan by placing them on any empty space within one space of their original placement. A figure moved by Universal Weapon Special Attack cannot be placed adjacent to Ronan and never takes any leaving engagement attacks. A non-flying figure moved lower by Universal Weapon Special Attack can receive any falling damage that may apply. Ronan may only attack an accused figure with his Universal Weapon Special Attack.

Mechanically it's only slightly different, it would never require rewinding the game due to being unable to meet an impossible requirement and it clearly states how the movement should work.

I don't like an all or nothing approach as it requires the player to figure out if it's possible to even try to use the ability before then can use it. It also forces Ronan to break up his tactician bonus. While I'm not sure that's a bad thing, it's a bit of a disincentive to use him.

[Xn F M]

Originally Posted by johnny139

I could go either way - both are good - but the shorter one would be better, methinks.

Any thoughts on where the "can only be used on Accused figures" bit should go? Part of me says at the end, because that's the logical order of events (before attacking, and the attack itself). But since you can't have anything before the attack if you don't have the attack itself, so having that clarification at the start might be better.

Originally Posted by Xn F M

I'm not sure if I agree with that. I think that the way it should work is that you move figures in turn unitl you have either moved all of the M/S figures adjacent to Ronan, or you have run of of figures with eligible spaces to move to. Reading Shurrak's card, I really like borrowing Knockbak's wording as a fix to this. You don't get the all or nothing movement (which I really do think is problematical, anything that could easily require re-winding the game should be avoided).

Maybe:

Before attacking with Ronan's Universal Weapon Special Attack you may move any or all small or medium figures adjacent to Ronan by placing them on any empty space within one space of their original placement. A figure moved by Universal Weapon Special Attack cannot be placed adjacent to Ronan and never takes any leaving engagement attacks. A non-flying figure moved lower by Universal Weapon Special Attack can receive any falling damage that may apply. Ronan may only attack an accused figure with his Universal Weapon Special Attack.

Mechanically it's only slightly different, it would never require rewinding the game due to being unable to meet an impossible requirement and it clearly states how the movement should work.

I don't like an all or nothing approach as it requires the player to figure out if it's possible to even try to use the ability before then can use it. It also forces Ronan to break up his tactician bonus. While I'm not sure that's a bad thing, it's a bit of a disincentive to use him.

edit:

Originally Posted by johnny139

I could go either way - both are good - but the shorter one would be better, methinks.

Any thoughts on where the "can only be used on Accused figures" bit should go? Part of me says at the end, because that's the logical order of events (before attacking, and the attack itself). But since you can't have anything before the attack if you don't have the attack itself, so having that clarification at the start might be better.

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Yeah, maybe first sentence on that one.

What if Ronan needs to use his UW to clear the path to be able to attack? If he's engaged with a non-accused figure and the accused figure is non-adjacent the accused figure is an illegal target for an attack, and the whole thing is cancelled. Selecting the figure to attack has to come after moving the targets out of the way.

[Good Pig]

Hmm interesting points. Can you even trigger a special attack to begin with (including moving figures) if he cannot target an Accused figure for the attack? I think targeting is typically the first thing that occurs. I'm not a rules expert, but if for any reason SA doesn't work you could as a plan B make it an ability.

Some relevant stuff from FAQs/Errata:

Can I use a special power on a ranged figure when I'm engaged with a different figure?
When you are engaged with another figure, Special powers (NOT Special Attacks) can still affect figures you are not engaged with. If you are going to use a normal/Special Attack, it must affect the figure you are engaged with.