The Book of Squirrel Girl

[MrNobody]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Squirrel Girl

Army Test
Map: Mountain Spring
Units: Team 1 (1,000): Squirrel Girl (160), Luke Cage (190), Songbird (180), Iron Man Mk IV (250), Rhino (220)
Team 2 (1,000): Fantastic Four

Spoiler Alert!

Pre-game: Glyph pool is Attack +1, Defense +1, Time Bomb
Songbird and Rhino are Crime Fighters

Round 1: T2 wins initiative
-Johnny flies forward, Ben and Reed move forward
-Tony flies forward and gives Johnny 4 wounds with his Repulsors, Luke moves forward
-Johnny flies forward and gives Tony a wound, Sue and Reed move forward
-Songbird moves forward, Rhino moves forward
-Johnny flies forward, going Supernova, giving Tony and Luke both a wound, Reed steps on the top glyph, revealing it to be a time bomb (nothing happens)
-Time Bomb explodes, giving Reed 3 wounds. Songbird moves forward and attacks Johnny, doing no damage. Doreen moves towards the bottom glyph
-Current Squirrel Markers: 2

Round 2: T2 wins initiative
-Ben moves forward, Johnny gives Tony a wound, Reed retreats
-Tony moves forward and kills Human Torch, Luke moves forward
-The Thing moves forward, Reed moves downward
-Iron Man engages Sue and uses his Uni-Beam, doing no damage, but he gets depowered, Luke Cage moves forward
-Ben engages and attacks Luke, who whiffs his defense roll and dies, Sue moves next to Ben. Reed steps on the bottom glyph, revealing it to be Attack +1
-Doreen moves downwards and kills Reed
-Current Squirrel Markers: 4

Round 3: T1 wins initiative
-Squirrel Girl moves onto the Attack +1 glyph
-Thing engages Rhino and Songbird, attacks Songbird but fails
-Songbird flees and engages IW, giving Sue a wound, Rhino attacks Ben but fails
-Sue attacks Songbird but fails
-Songbird gives Sue 3 wounds, Rhino charges Sue but gives himself a wound
-Ben tries to reach the melee, but he can’t climb up the hill in time
-Current Squirrel Markers: 5

Round 4: T2 wins initiative
-Ben Clobbers Songbird for 1 wound
-Songbird attacks Sue but fails, Rhino kills Sue
-Ben moves onto height, taking a LEA from Rhino, gives Songbird a wound
-Songbird gives Ben 3 wounds
-Rhino charges and kills Ben


Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Squirrel Girl 0/4 (5 Squirrel Markers), Songbird 2/5, Iron Man 0/4 (Depowered), Rhino 1/6

-Fan 4 had bad luck, with Johnny failing to do much damage with Supernova, Reed getting Time Bombed, and Ben not doing well on a perfect 10 dice double attack Clobbering Time
-Was planning to keep Squirrel Girl in the back and having her unleash her SA at the end, but it ended up not being needed.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units: Team 1 (800): Squirrel Girl (160), Captain America (C3G) (240), Bucky (60), Sharon Carter (90), Dum Dum Dugan (90), Donald Ferguson (160)
Team 2 (800): Nightwing (200), Cyborg (200), Starfire (210), Raven (190)

Spoiler Alert!

Pre-game: No glyphs

Round 1: T1 wins initiative
-Bucky moves towards the center of the map, Cap follows
-Titans go! Starfire flies forward and attacks Bucky but fails, Raven moves forward, Nightwing moves forward and attacks Bucky but fails
-Donald flies forward and attacks Nightwing but fails, Nightwing leaps forward
-Starfire engages Bucky and Donald, gives Bucky 2 wounds
-Donald gives Nightwing 3 wounds
-Cyborg moves forward and shoots at Donald but fails
-Squirrel Markers: 1

Round 2: T2 wins initiative
-Titans go! Starfire kills Donald with her 4 attacks, Raven and Nightwing retreat
-Bucky gives Starfire 2 wounds, Cap throws his mighty shield, killing Starfire
-Raven pulls 3 wounds from Nightwing’s card to hers, pulls a wound from her to Cap’s
-T1 loses a turn because they had an OM on Donald
-T2 loses a turn because they had an OM on Starfire
-Sharon Carter moves forward
-Squirrel Markers: 2

Round 3: T1 wins initiative
-Bucky engages Raven and attacks, but deals no damage. Cap throws his shield, giving Raven a wound
-Titans go! Raven retreats, and moves a wound from her to Cap, Cyborg engages Cap and attacks him but fails, Nightwing moves forward and attacks Cap for 1 wound.
-Sharon moves forward and shoots Raven, giving her 1 wound
-Cyborg attacks Cap but fails
-Bucky moves forward and Machine Guns Raven but fails, Cap engages Nightwing and Raven and gives Raven a wound
-Cyborg shoots at Cap but fails
-Squirrel Markers: 3

Round 4: T1 wins initiative
-Bucky attacks Raven and kills her, Cap attacks Nightwing but he dodges
-Titans go! Cyborg engages Sharon and gives her 2 wounds, Nightwing kills Bucky
-Sharon attacks Cyborg and gives him 2 wounds
-Cyborg attacks Sharon but fails
-Cap attacks Nightwing but he dodges
-Nightwing attacks Cap but fails
-Squirrel Markers: 4

Round 5: T1 wins initiative
-Cap kills Nightwing
-Cyborg attacks Sharon but fails
-Dum Dum moves up and kills Cyborg


Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Squirrel Girl 0/4, Captain America 3/5, Sharon Carter 2/4, Dum Dum Dugan 0/4

Both teams had fairly even rolls, but I'd say T1 got a few more lucky shots in.

___________________________________________________________

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: See below

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: Squirrel Girl seems like the ultimate clean-up/closer unit. Let her charge up for most of the game and then let her unleash all at once. Unfortunately, in both of my games, her team had such a lead that she never really needed to come out to play. I just can't say much about her as is. She did take out Mr F in game 1, but that was just a lucky roll using her SA without removing any Squirrel Markers.

Here's my playtests. If it's okay, I might try to play another game tomorrow and write up the results for that, cause I don't feel like I ever really used her. Maybe playing her with Songbird in more of an active role? I'm going to look through the previous playtests too. Sorry these don't offer much actual data!

[Yodaking]

Another game would be great! No one around here is ever going to turn down more testing data for a design they are working on. I was really surprised to see the results of that second game, I would not have thought Bucky/Dum Dum/Sharon would have lasted long vs. Titans Go! so I looked over the play by play results. Seems like Cyborg really let the team down there with several missed attack rolls, which actually isn't all that surprising to me as I feel he is the weak link on the Titans team.

Love the Nightwing, Raven, Starfire combo though and I use that core for a lot of play testing armies. So much so, I feel I run the team like a well oiled machine now, but I do recall when I first started playing the Titans I didn't feel they were anything too special. Boy was I wrong, it's just learning the ropes of what they do. Here are a few tips I've developed for anyone that's interested.

Spoiler Alert!

In R1, I always put OM3 & X on Nightwing, this lets both you and your opponent move some pieces up on OM1 & 2 before you unleash the Titans Go! Triple turn. Which means their are more likely a more targets available to you and if your opponent attacked at all during OM1/2 (3 if you lose initiative) and did a W, this boosts up Starfire for you on that triple turn. Then once the teams have engaged, I'd say about 85% of the time Nightwing gets OM1 & X from that point forward. The goal there is to win initiative and then unleash the triple turn on one figure with 1 or more OM's on their card in an effort to eliminate one of your opponents turns. If someone has a defensive power vs. normal attack but not SA's, then that is usually Nightwings target for engagement, which keeps them from engaging Starfire on me, otherwise I use his ranged attack from range more often then not. Even though he can be really hard to wound, whiffs do happen so I don't needlessly risk him as the Go! power is too valuable to lose early.

For Raven, I never transfer more than 2W at a time, that way you can transfer 1 right away and she only has 1 left on her card. MD combined with the W transfer can keep her going for quite a while, but not if you do your opponents work for them by having Raven pick up and hold more than 1W at once. OM3 often ends up on Raven in my games, by having her go last their is a better chance she has a W already on her card or can heal an ally and transfer that wound. If I feel I need to reposition her as part of the Titans Go! turn, I use her normal attack (or cast a spell) and save the wound transfer for later. I try to keep her adj. to allies (Starfire needs an adj. ally anyway) so repositioning as part of the Go! turn happens fairly often. Also by waiting till OM3 to transfer that wound, I often find an opponent sitting with 1 life left and I can take them out of the game.

That leaves OM2 for Starfire every round until she dies, at least once your team starts taking some wounds. If your team is at full health, protect her by keeping her back out of harms way until your team does start taking wounds. Her ability to fly to high ground and deliver up to 4 ranged attacks is huge for the team so having her activate as part on Titans Go! on OM1 and then take a turn on OM2 generally means she can bring the pain to your opponents with a ton of dice rolling. I've cleared multiple heroes off the board with her, or knocked a heavy hitter down to 1 life for Raven to take out on OM3.

When I do draft Cyborg, he's almost always OM1 in R1, since his SA sucks if he moves you want to move him up early while their are no targets around and use him as bait to draw the opponent in. If he gets wounded, that just boosts Starfire. He doesn't often get OMs from me after that, instead using him as part of the Go! turn when he has a chance to do something. Cyborg can on occasion surprise you with a big SA, and his normal attack of 5 can be nice as well when facing higher defense opponents if you can get him on HG. But he doesn't get a lot of OM's from me, and never the X if Nightwing is still in play.

I've found I often replace Cyborg with Wonder Girl & Aqualad. Aqualad bonds with Wonder Girl, which makes Wonder Girl a good option for OM2 or even OM1 early in the game. She flies up and lassoes someone to low ground, then her and Aqualad can get a couple of HG attacks in vs. -1 defense. The reason why I sometimes give her OM1 and Nightwing OM2, is because I actually want my opponent to kill Aqualad off with their OM1 reveal (or even OM2 if I lost initiative). That way Wondergirl gets that attack boost when taking a turn with the Go! power on OM2. So send Aqualad right into engagement with whoever you think your opponent put OM1 on if you win initiative, or OM2 on if you lost initiative.

[Ronin]

Yeah, I don't usually include Cyborg in my Titan armies. When I go for a 1000 point army, I swap out him and Beast Boy for Red Robin and Superboy. (Or Superboy and Krypto and Speedy (Mia))

[johnny139]

Yeah, unfortunately things were not very squirrel-friendly in those games. But she did have some utility, taking out Reed and grabbing a Glyph (which is a good role for her with free movement). Definitely says to me that she's worth grabbing, at least. Thanks!

[MrNobody]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

Another game would be great! No one around here is ever going to turn down more testing data for a design they are working on. I was really surprised to see the results of that second game, I would not have thought Bucky/Dum Dum/Sharon would have lasted long vs. Titans Go! so I looked over the play by play results. Seems like Cyborg really let the team down there with several missed attack rolls, which actually isn't all that surprising to me as I feel he is the weak link on the Titans team.

Love the Nightwing, Raven, Starfire combo though and I use that core for a lot of play testing armies. So much so, I feel I run the team like a well oiled machine now, but I do recall when I first started playing the Titans I didn't feel they were anything too special. Boy was I wrong, it's just learning the ropes of what they do. Here are a few tips I've developed for anyone that's interested.

Spoiler Alert!

In R1, I always put OM3 & X on Nightwing, this lets both you and your opponent move some pieces up on OM1 & 2 before you unleash the Titans Go! Triple turn. Which means their are more likely a more targets available to you and if your opponent attacked at all during OM1/2 (3 if you lose initiative) and did a W, this boosts up Starfire for you on that triple turn. Then once the teams have engaged, I'd say about 85% of the time Nightwing gets OM1 & X from that point forward. The goal there is to win initiative and then unleash the triple turn on one figure with 1 or more OM's on their card in an effort to eliminate one of your opponents turns. If someone has a defensive power vs. normal attack but not SA's, then that is usually Nightwings target for engagement, which keeps them from engaging Starfire on me, otherwise I use his ranged attack from range more often then not. Even though he can be really hard to wound, whiffs do happen so I don't needlessly risk him as the Go! power is too valuable to lose early.

For Raven, I never transfer more than 2W at a time, that way you can transfer 1 right away and she only has 1 left on her card. MD combined with the W transfer can keep her going for quite a while, but not if you do your opponents work for them by having Raven pick up and hold more than 1W at once. OM3 often ends up on Raven in my games, by having her go last their is a better chance she has a W already on her card or can heal an ally and transfer that wound. If I feel I need to reposition her as part of the Titans Go! turn, I use her normal attack (or cast a spell) and save the wound transfer for later. I try to keep her adj. to allies (Starfire needs an adj. ally anyway) so repositioning as part of the Go! turn happens fairly often. Also by waiting till OM3 to transfer that wound, I often find an opponent sitting with 1 life left and I can take them out of the game.

That leaves OM2 for Starfire every round until she dies, at least once your team starts taking some wounds. If your team is at full health, protect her by keeping her back out of harms way until your team does start taking wounds. Her ability to fly to high ground and deliver up to 4 ranged attacks is huge for the team so having her activate as part on Titans Go! on OM1 and then take a turn on OM2 generally means she can bring the pain to your opponents with a ton of dice rolling. I've cleared multiple heroes off the board with her, or knocked a heavy hitter down to 1 life for Raven to take out on OM3.

When I do draft Cyborg, he's almost always OM1 in R1, since his SA sucks if he moves you want to move him up early while their are no targets around and use him as bait to draw the opponent in. If he gets wounded, that just boosts Starfire. He doesn't often get OMs from me after that, instead using him as part of the Go! turn when he has a chance to do something. Cyborg can on occasion surprise you with a big SA, and his normal attack of 5 can be nice as well when facing higher defense opponents if you can get him on HG. But he doesn't get a lot of OM's from me, and never the X if Nightwing is still in play.

I've found I often replace Cyborg with Wonder Girl & Aqualad. Aqualad bonds with Wonder Girl, which makes Wonder Girl a good option for OM2 or even OM1 early in the game. She flies up and lassoes someone to low ground, then her and Aqualad can get a couple of HG attacks in vs. -1 defense. The reason why I sometimes give her OM1 and Nightwing OM2, is because I actually want my opponent to kill Aqualad off with their OM1 reveal (or even OM2 if I lost initiative). That way Wondergirl gets that attack boost when taking a turn with the Go! power on OM2. So send Aqualad right into engagement with whoever you think your opponent put OM1 on if you win initiative, or OM2 on if you lost initiative.

Thanks for the advice! All of that is really useful stuff. I was so close to replacing Cyborg with Mia Dearden and either Jesse Quick or spells for Raven, but I decided against it at the last moment. Silly me.

Luck was certainly on Team Squirrel's side in both games too.

Originally Posted by johnny139

Yeah, unfortunately things were not very squirrel-friendly in those games. But she did have some utility, taking out Reed and grabbing a Glyph (which is a good role for her with free movement). Definitely says to me that she's worth grabbing, at least. Thanks!

Yeah man, I'll try to at least get in a little 600-pt mini-brawl tomorrow.

Having a glyph squatter is always useful.

[Yodaking]

Originally Posted by Ronin

Yeah, I don't usually include Cyborg in my Titan armies. When I go for a 1000 point army, I swap out him and Beast Boy for Red Robin and Superboy. (Or Superboy and Krypto and Speedy (Mia))

Superboy is certainly a good pick for a Titans build. I haven't used Krypto yet but I know he bonds with Superboy so that seems like a good fit and Mia isn't bad at all for her points.

The OM reveal requirement on Beast Boy is too limiting for my tastes though since he can't change forms when taking a Titans Go! turn. Once that reeval update happens he'll get more love from me in a Titans build.

Red Robin I haven't found to be very effective for me. I do like the Smoke Pellets Utility Glyph for him in a Titans build. Really useful for keeping a wounded ally alive longer to keep boosting Starfire, while also moving them next to Raven so she can start healing them. I just can't give up a #ed OM for his Attack Plan and a single melee attack of 4 or two melee attacks of 3 doesn't do much for me. Is there something I'm missing with his card?

[MrNobody]

Yeah, I’ve never felt like I “get” Attack Plan as a power. Is there a big strategic element I’m missing?

EDIT: Conversation continued in the hangout

[Scapemage]

Interesting to see 2 games without Squirrel Girl doing much, as she was very active in both of my games. A lot of her value is in clean-up, but I found a playstyle of rushing forward in the early rounds with her and using those turns where both armies are just advancing and not attacking as free marker buildup to hopefully take out a key unit in the opponent's army.

[MrNobody]

Sorry this took longer than I said it would

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Squirrel Girl

Army Test
Map: Mountain Spring
Units: Team 1 (800): Squirrel Girl (160), Nick Fury (220), Iron Man (Stealth) (270) Scarlet Spiders (150)
Team 2 (800): TMNT

Spoiler Alert!

Pre-game: No glyphs, Nick and the Scarlet Spiders are the Drop Team

Round 1: T1 wins initiative
-Squirrel Girl runs then leaps forward
-Mikey moves forward
-Tony moves towards Mikey and shoots him for a wound, then flies more forward
-Donnie moves forward
-Squirrel Girl climbs up the hill
-Leo moves forward, Raph moves forward
-Squirrel Markers: 3

Round 2: Nick airdops up the hill, the Scarlet Spiders drop near the Turtles, T2 wins initiative
-Turtle Power! Leo moves forward, Mikey stealth leaps into engagement with 2 Spiders and destroys one of them, then Cowabungas and stealth leaps into engagement with Tony and Doreen and gives Tony 3 wounds, Donnie vaults forward and destroys a Spider by throwing it, Raph leaps into engagement with Tony and kills him.
-SG unleashes her SA with 3 markers, giving Leo 3 wounds, a Spider wings next to Leo and attacks him but fails
-SG leaps forward and kills Leo, a Spider swings next to Donnie and attacks him but fails
-SG and a Spider attack Raph but fail
-Squirrel Markers: 1

Round 3: T2 wins initiative
-Mikey leaps next to Nick and attacks him but fails
-Squirrel Girl leaps next to Mikey and uses her SA with 2 markers to give Mikey 2 wounds
-Donnie vaults next to Doreen and gives her 1 wound
-Doreen leaps next to Raph and gives him 3 wounds
-Raph leaps next to Nick, and gives him 2 wounds
-A Spider swings next to Raph and attacks him but fails, SG uses her SA with one marker to attack Mikey but fails
-Squirrel Markers: 1

Round 4: T1 wins initiative
-SG uses her SA with 1 marker to attack Mikey but fails, a Spider attacks Raph but fails
-Mikey attacks Nick but fails, Cowabungas, and gives Nick 2 wounds
-SG leaps next to Donnie and attacks him but fails
-Raph kills Nick and the last Scarlet Spider
-SG uses her SA with 3 markers and puts 3 wounds on Donnie who drops the gauntlet
-Donnie attacks Doreen but fails
-Squirrel Markers: 1

Round 5: T1 wins initiative
-SG uses her SA with 2 markers to attack Mikey but fails
-Mikey attacks SG but fails, Cowabungas, and fails his attack again
-SG uses her SA with 1 marker to attack Mikey but fails
-Mikey attacks SG but fails and she leaps away
-SG attacks Donnie but fails
-Donatello gives SG a wound
-Squirrel Markers: 2

Round 6: T2 wins initiative
-Donnie attacks SG but fails
-Squirrel Girl uses her SA with 3 markers to kill Donnie and Mike
-T2 loses a turn
-Squirrel Girl kills Raph

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Squirrel Girl 2/4 (1 Squirrel Marker)

Wow, Squirrel Girl did real good here, basically decimating the opposing team. Once Iron Man died fairly early, she was the heavy hitter for her team. Sure there was some luck involved, but I could see her getting a bump of at least 10 points. It was really fun to have her leaping around tossing Squirrels at the enemy.

Let me know if there's anything else I need to do!

[ALEXAN2507]

Originally Posted by MrNobody

Sorry this took longer than I said it would

Wow, Squirrel Girl did real good here, basically decimating the opposing team. Once Iron Man died fairly early, she was the heavy hitter for her team. Sure there was some luck involved, but I could see her getting a bump of at least 10 points. It was really fun to have her leaping around tossing Squirrels at the enemy.

Let me know if there's anything else I need to do!

This feels hilariously accurate to how Squirrel Girl basically functions in the comics


Everyone thinks she's the weakest of the team she's on then she proceeds to be the one doing the most ass kicking

[Lazy Orang]

Just noting that Squirrel Girl's team had a 100 point advantage there - the Turtles are 700 altogether.

[MrNobody]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

Just noting that Squirrel Girl's team had a 100 point advantage there - the Turtles are 700 altogether.

Oh crap! For some reason I’ve always thought they were 800...guess another game is in order.