The Book of Skywarp

[MrNobody]

Yea

[fret_gurglo]

Version tested

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = SKYWARP

SPECIES = CYBERTRONIAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = SEEKER
PERSONALITY = MISCHIEVOUS

SIZE/HEIGHT = HUGE 15 (DOUBLE BASED)

LIFE = 6

MOVE = 7
RANGE = 6
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 6

POINTS = 280

SEEKER ASSAULT
After revealing an Order Marker on this card and making a normal attack with this figure, you may make one normal attack, on a new target, with any Seeker you control.

BOMBING RUN SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack 5.
Instead of moving and attacking normally with Skywarp, you may have Skywarp move up to 10 spaces in a straight line. Choose up to 3 figures on or within 2 spaces of the hexes flown over to be affected by this special attack. Each figure rolls defense dice separately and never gains height advantage.

TELEPORTATION AMBUSH
Once per round, instead of moving Skywarp normally, you may place Skywarp on any empty spaces between 4-5 spaces of his current placement. If you do, figures attacked by Skywarp this turn roll 2 fewer defense dice. When Skywarp moves with Teleportation Ambush, he will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

FLYING
SUPERSTRENGTH

Army Test
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Megatron (410), Skywarp (280), Starscream (310) (1000) vs Black Hand (475), Black Lantern x3 (525) (1000)

Powers Used:
Seeker Assault: 1
Bombing Run: 1
Bombing Run (Damage): 2
Teleportation: 2

Damage from normal attacks: 2

Lanterns struggled to take down Megatron and therefore could not gain markers until it was too late. This allowed Megatron to literally stomp on them quickly. No guarantee that this was the sole reason for their loss, but when Megatron finally fell there were no uncommons left to receive battery markers.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Skywarp 4/6 Life remaining, Starscream 7/7 Life remaining

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: Megatron rolls 6 skulls and destroys a Black Lantern. Next turn Megatron attacks another one for 3 wounds.
Round 2: Loyalty does 1 wound to a Black Lantern. Black Lanterns attack Megatron for 3 wounds. Megatron attacks a Black Lantern for 2 wounds. Black Hand attacks Megatron for 1 wound. Skywarp bombs and destroys a Black Lantern and hits Black Hand for 1 wound. End of round lava field destroys a Black Lantern.
Round 3: Loyalty does 1 wound to Black Hand and then Megatron attacks him for 2 more wounds. Black Hand destroys Megatron and then resurrects him. Loyalty is still active and does 1 wound to Megatron.
Round 4: Skywarp teleports triggering Loyalty which destroys Megatron. Skywarp attacks Black Hand and forces him to lose a battery. Black Hand attacks Skywarp for 2 wounds. Starscream attacks Black Hand and makes him lose another battery.
Round 5: Skywarp teleports and does 1 wound to Black Hand. Starscream does the final damage and destroys Black Hand.

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Army Test
Map: Dark Dimension
Units: Captain America (240), Skywarp (280), Starscream (310), Thundercracker (270) (1100) vs Black Adam (380), Gorilla Grodd (285), Lex Luthor (185), Sinestro (250) (1100)

Powers Used:
Seeker Assault: 3
Bombing Run: 0
Bombing Run (Damage): 0
Teleportation: 4

Damage from normal attacks: 7

The Injustice League focused their early attacks on Captain America who was difficult to take down. These early turns gave the Seekers the chance to get ahead.
Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Skywarp 4/6 Life remaining, Starscream 1/7 Life remaining, Thundercracker 6/6 Life remaining

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: Skywarp teleports and hits Sinestro for 1 wound. End of round Sinestro takes 1 wound from lava field.
Round 2: Black Adam attacks Captain America for 1 wound, then Sinestro hits him for another. Thundercracker attacks Grodd for 3 wounds while Skywap hits him for 1 more. Cap hits Sinestro for 2 wounds. Lava field damage on Captain America for 1 wound.
Round 3: Cap destroys Sinestro. Adam destroys Cap. Starscream attacks Adam for 2 wounds. Adam hits Starscream for 1 wound. Skywarp teleports for 1 wound on Grodd and destroy him. Starscream hits Adam for 2 wounds. Adam hits Starscream for 1 wound.
Round 4: Adam heals 1 wound. Skywarp teleports near Lex Luthor and hits him for 2 wounds. Starscream hits Adam for 2 wounds. Lex punches Skywarp for 1 wound. Lava field does 1 wound to Adam.
Round 5: Adam hits Starscream for 4 wounds. Thundercracker attacks Lex who uses a marker to divert 1 wound to Skywarp. Starscream destroys Adam. Skywarp destroys Lex.

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY:
I think he is coming in a little hot for 280. Double attack on 2 different targets is pretty easy to achieve with a range of 6. Couple that with his defense reducing teleport makes him extremely destructive, perhaps even the best of the Seekers for straight combat strength. Best guess is that this current version should be about 300 points.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: Although he seems undercost, this powerset felt very good for Skywarp.

[Yodaking]

Thanks! Where did the lava field come from? Did you ever use Skywarp's SA?

[fret_gurglo]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

Thanks! Where did the lava field come from? Did you ever use Skywarp's SA?

Sorry, wrong map. I copy and pasted the test results and forgot to update the map. Should be Dark Dimension.

I used the SA once and that was just to advance him quickly. Generally it seemed better to use his limited double attack. With flight and teleport and range 6 it was pretty easy to get into a position with high ground to attack 2 different figures (or use another Seeker).

[Lord Pyre]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: SEEKERS

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Skywarp, Captain America, Nebula, Vance Astro (1000)
Vs.
Fan Four (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

[COLOR=red]

Recap: This army was basically built around juicing Nebula’s turns, and then the last turn of the round would be Skywarp dealing some massive damage (Or Vance boosting Nebula’s turn if Skywarp doesn’t damage one of his targets). It started fairly strong, putting 3 wounds on Johnny pretty quick, but then the FF decided to take out Nebula to ruin the efficiency, and then it fell apart. Even with Vance’s bonding they couldn’t keep up the damage that the FF was dealing, and Johnny had 4 wounds at this point which meant Ben was destroying everything. Skywarp himself felt like a decent offensive force, especially with Cap’s attack boost, but he definitely doesn’t like being engaged, which he had to do to attack Sue. He tried a Bombing Run once, but only rolled 2 skulls, which was easily blocked by everyone because of Sue’s boost.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Reed with 1 wound, Johnny with 4 wounds, Sue with 3 wounds, Ben with 0 wounds.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Skywarp, Thundercracker, Starscream (860)
Vs.
Spider-Verse: UK, Anya, Spider-Hulk, Spider-Thor (860)

Spoiler Alert!

Recap: The Seekers definitely struggled here. While they’re all decently hefty for their points, the only synergy between them as a group is the Seeker Assault. It’s a cool ability, but a double attack each turn wasn’t enough to break through the Spiders’ efficiency and stat boosts. Spider-Hulk took out Starscream in two attacks, taking him out pretty quick in the game. Thundercracker’s Sonic Boom took out only a single OM (3) on the round he used it, which wasn’t a big help at that point. Skywarp’s Bombing Runs never got any wounds out of bad luck. Thundercracker ended up being the last alive, I think his Aerial Advantage stat boost kept him alive slightly longer, and he ended up taking out Anya, but that’s about it.



Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Spider-UK with 3 wounds, Spider-Thor with 1 wound, Spider-Hulk with 0 wounds.

___________________________________________________________

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: I like the concepts of the trio, but I do feel like it needs something else for them to work as a solid army together, which could be some thematic addition I don’t know about, or maybe another ability on one of them. Skywarp is my favorite of the three, he’s fun and I could see him being an addition to any army. Thundercracker might be my least favorite, as Aerial Advantage isn’t a super interesting power even if it works well in-game. Either way I enjoyed them, I just feel like they need a little Oomph somewhere. Also of note, Starscream’s loyalty power is useless in the trio, of course.

[Lord Pyre]

Basically they're a cool and fun group, I like Skywarp by far the best. I'm a little concerned about Thundercrackers potentially removing all of an opponent's OMs (And actually ALL opponents' in a team game), but I'll let others analyze it if it's too much. In my game he only removed one OM.


Would love a little something else for them, maybe a way to fully bond once a round or something? Not sure if Starscream could have some leadership thing (But obviously he has all that Loyalty stuff going on already).



One fun thing for Thundercracker might be to let Sonic Boom move all seekers?

SONIC BOOM 10
After rolling for initiative, you may move all Seekers you control 10 spaces in a straight line. Once per game, if you win Initiative, after moving all Seekers with this special power, one at a time, roll the 20-sided die for every opponent's Order Marker. On a roll of 10 or higher, that opponent must remove the Order Marker.

Not sure it'll give them that much of a boost, but its something. But also I don't know the theme of these guys outside of Starscream so not sure if anything is thematic.

[Yodaking]

Thanks for the tests LP! I had the same feeling after testing regarding Skywarp being the most fun and AA, while good and thematic, is kind of boring. I'm okay with that idea of all Seekers being able to move out and get into position for some Seeker Assault shooting all at once. It fits the theme well that they all strike out together ahead of the rest of the army. Maybe it should just be at the start of the game instead of needing to win initiative first? Also could drop the d20 roll down to 8+, that was Fret's first suggestion but I was worried about it being too much. If you only knocked out 1 of the 4 OM's when you used it (and that 1 could have been the X on an army that doesn't use the X for anything), then yeah that is kind of weak. Feeling better about leaving Skywarp at 280 after seeing the loss when paired up with CA.

[Lord Pyre]

I personally wouldn’t want to lower the d20 roll. At 10+ it already will USUALLY hit two OMs statistically, which is pretty good.

Having them all shoot forward automatically at the start of the game would be a neat effect and really give them a unique, oppressive dynamic.

[Yodaking]

Okay, I'll leave it at 10+ then. I do kind of like how the 10 in the name refers to the move & d20 roll both.

[Yodaking]

Following up Fret's hot runs with a pair of losses here by LP makes me comfortable leaving Skywarp at 280. So, I'm going to call for Final Editing here on Skywarp.

I've also already updated Starscream to 310 everywhere and I'm comfortable leaving him there. Hoping Shiftex can come through with some Thundercracker tests that can wrap him up.

YK - yea
T - yea
Eric - yea
Nobody - yea
LP - yea

[Tornado]

Yea
Should be using him in a Thundercracker test soon.

[Ericth74]

yea good stuff here