The Book of Big Barda

[johnny139]

So, Move is up to 6, no Flying for now. I'm going to try her at 300 and try her and Miracle at 600 in testing - I do want to try and hit that number so we can always tweak things if they're feeling a little underwhelming together at that price point.

I PROPOSE WE MOVE TO INITIAL! Planning on running them this afternoon so hopefully no complaints.

[Karat]

Sounds good. Yea

[Tornado]

Yea

[IAmBatman]

Yea. I think eventually the New Gods should come with someone who can generate Boom Tubes (Orion? Metron?) and that should help her teleport and otherwise move around quickly.

[Karat]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Yea. I think eventually the New Gods should come with someone who can generate Boom Tubes (Orion? Metron?) and that should help her teleport and otherwise move around quickly.

I was totally thinking TVs for a second

That would be pretty cool though.

[Scapemage]

Yea to Initial.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Yea. I think eventually the New Gods should come with someone who can generate Boom Tubes (Orion? Metron?) and that should help her teleport and otherwise move around quickly.

Metron comes with his Möbius chair and can definitely make them with that.

[johnny139]

You could probably do Himon and have him hand out Mother Boxes or something. Definitely options for that sort of thing.

This passes! Should see the testing done shortly...

[johnny139]

C3G INITIAL PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Big Barda

Army Test
Map: Spooky Swamp (Custom Map)
Units: Big Barda@300, Spider-Man (Hasbro), Luke Cage (650 Points) vs. Shredder, Elite League Assassins, Hand Ninja x3 (650 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Summary

ROUND 1: Luke and Peter lead the charge while the Elite Assassins and Ninja spread out. Their luck isn't great though - Spider-Man takes out one and Luke takes out the other. Shredder and Barda close in as the round ends.

ROUND 2: Real rough round for the good guys. Shredder is the centerpiece - first they hit Spider-Man, bringing him up to 3 Wounds. Luke kills a Ninja but not much else. Then Barda swoops in and does nothing to Shredder, despite getting the bonus on Mega-Rod. In return, he attacks her for two, then the Hand puts the remaining 4 Wounds on her, ending the round.

ROUND 3: Luke takes two from Shredder and the Ninja... and he had all the OMs. Not that it matters, because Shredder engages Spidey and takes him out immediately.

Who won?: Ninja United wins; 2 Elite League Assassins destroyed, 1 Hand Ninja destroyed, Shredder unharmed, 3 Rounds.

Thoughts: Wow not great. Barda took two turns, attacked once, Grappled once, did not damage to anyone. The Ninja were hot and Shredder gets pretty brutal with the right support.

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Army Test
Map: Spooky Swamp (Custom Map)
Units: Big Barda@300, Ms. Marvel, Maxima (995 Points) vs. Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), Ronan, Kree Scout x6 (1000 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Summary

ROUND 1: Carol is Accused, Barda is Maxima's Mate. Ms. Marvel and the girls move in, while Ronan sets up a little pod across the way. Mar-Vell parks on height and Ms. Marvel zooms in - he rolls all shields, though, and she takes 3 Wounds from his Awareness. Then he takes a turn and attacks... and, uhh, she whiffs, going down in the first round. Mar-Vell takes a wound in response though.

ROUND 2: Barda is the new Accused. She runs into battle and Grapples Mar-Vell into the mud (only possible if she's Medium 6). She can't wound him, though. Maxima flies onto height alongside her. Mar-Vell and a Scout attack but do no damage, while Barda smashes Mar-Vell for two. Ronan is ported in and that makes for trouble, and the Kree plan their move, but it ends with Mar-Vell flying into battle and dealing one to Barda. But Maxima takes a turn and is lucky enough to blow Mar-Vell away with her next attack.

ROUND 3: Ronan starts smashing, whittling away at Barda bit by bit - one wound, then another, constantly knocking her around. Maxima deals a wound, then Barda smashes for another, and Maxima brings him up to 5 Wounds as the round ends. Lots of pushing with the Universal Weapon along the way.

ROUND 4: Maxima gets the initiative... but whiffs! Which lets Ronan get in perfect position on height, knocking everyone else away... but HE whiffs too! Which lets Barda Grapple him down (taking an LEA on the way to do it), and just barely miss her attack on him. Maxima takes an LEA flying off to join her. Ronan finally gets a good hit in and finishes Barda off. But Maxima gets her revenge and the Scouts can't do anything about it.

ROUND 5: The Scouts swarm, Maxima attacks. Maxima goes up to 3 Wounds, the Scouts go down to 3 remaining.

ROUND 6: One Scout is killed, but then they get a great shot on her - bringing her up to 6 Wounds! Then they turn around and... she misses her attack! The Scouts finish Maxima off next turn.

Who won?: Kree Invasion Force wins; 2 Kree Scouts remaining, all others destroyed, 6 Rounds.

Thoughts: Barda was great here, especially as a tag-team with Maxima - they were able to take out Mar-Vell and Ronan without much trouble. It's a shame she didn't live long enough to clean up the Kree Scouts, since Maxima's single attack wasn't much against them.

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Army Test
Map: Spooky Swamp (Custom Map)
Units: Big Barda@300, Mister Miracle@300 (600 Points) vs. Superman, Batman (600 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Summary

ROUND 1: Superman zooms in and smashes Barda ASAP, but it does no damage. She and Scott surround him and punch, often from height. By the end of the round, Supes is at 6 Wounds and Barda is at 3 Wounds.

ROUND 2: Despite both being on height, the Frees can't crack Superman, and Superman easily cracks back - Barda goes down hard. Batman swoops in and helps, managing to put two wounds on Miracle from afar.

ROUND 3: Scott just can't break through Man of Steel. He goes up to 4 Wounds and is surrounded, but doesn't do any damage at all.

ROUND 4: Superman punches Scott really hard, and he can't Defy Death, so, that's the end.

Who won?: World's Finest win, 6 Wounds on Superman, Batman unharmed, 4 Rounds.

Thoughts: This started off pretty fun, but by the end Superman broke through the tag-team by taking Barda out and Scott is pretty toothless on his own. But having Barda wrestle Supes into the mud while Mister Miracle zooms in and hits him from behind is a cool dynamic.

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Army Test
Map: Spooky Swamp (Custom Map)
Units: Big Barda@300, Mister Miracle@300, Superman (III), Starman (Jack Knight) (1210 Points) vs. Yellow Lantern (Thaal Sinestro), Yellow Lantern (Arkillo), Yellow Lantern (Jonathan Crane), Sinestro Corps Soldier x3 (1210 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Summary

ROUND 1: Sinestro leads with a Soldier close behind, engaging the "loss leader" Superman who takes a wound from his SA. After that, it's Miracle and Barda against Crane and the Soldier. Barda takes one, and Miracle takes two, from their attacks on height. Meanwhile, they engage Sinestro and force him to burn a second marker (after the first for his SA).

ROUND 2: Sinestro tries to dig into Barda, but his SA does nothing, not does his backup Soldier. Miracle and Barda double-team Sinestro, burning his last marker and dealing three wounds. Arkillo comes in and smashes Barda, dealing two wounds there, while the Soldier snipes Miracle and WOULD destroy him... but he Defies Death and moves onto height. Miracle can't hurt Arkillo, but Barda can sure smash Sinestro good - which is bad news for Arkillo, who planned on eating him next turn.

Arkillo tries to Eviscerate Barda, only inflicting one wound, then attacks her - but Superman swaps and takes the hit, blocking it without taking any damage. The Soldier tries and fails to hurt Miracle. Then Barda flies in, switches with Arkillo, attacks with her Mega-Rod... and does no damage. Miracle, though, manages to sneak 3 Wounds past his defenses.

ROUND 3: This time, Eviscerate handily destroys Barda - Starman grabs OM1 - but then, between Arkillo and the Soldier, Miracle goes down the same turn after failing his Defy Death roll. Knight flies in and attacks Scarecrow, dealing one wound. But Scarecrow and the Soldier swarm him and throughout the round, take him down in two turns - Scott has the last two OMs for the round.

ROUND 4: Superman and Scarecrow face off. Scarecrow takes one wound and burns one marker, while Superman goes up to 3 Wounds.

ROUND 5: Arkillo tries to sneak up, but Superman has initiative, takes an LEA, and takes Arkillo out before he can takes a turn. He turns around and starts attacking the nearby Soldier, burning two of his markers. Scarecrow engages and another flies in to help, but neither can wound Supes.

ROUND 6: Superman goes up to 4 Wounds, but manages to leave Scarecrow with 1 Life remaining and no markers in defense.

ROUND 7: Scarecrow is finished off, a Soldier burns one Marker and takes two wounds.

ROUND 8: One Soldier is killed, the last remaining charges in and deals a wound, bringing Supes to 5. Supes knocks a Battery Marker off of him.

ROUND 9: Finally, the last two Soldiers are knocked down.

Who won?: Justice League Legacy wins, 5 Wounds on Superman, all others destroyed, 9 Rounds.

Thoughts: Scott and Barda against some heavy hitters here, and they managed to do a lot of damage to Sinestro and Arkillo - not enough to kill them both, but enough to take out Sinestro and mostly neuter Arkillo. I really liked the idea of Superman's Symbol of Hope working synergistically, letting Miracle take the hits for Barda, but Barda wasn't around for it and Scott didn't last long enough to sub in for anyone else.

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THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: I think 300-320 is still fine for her, even without Flying - at least, on the smaller map I was playing on. She hits hard, she's durable, and she has few tricks for auto-wounds and positioning.

Scott was kind of underwhelming, though - other than some great maneuverability he's not much more than a flying middle-range attacker. Defy Death only comes into play when he's already on the edge, and a 50/50 shot isn't enough to bank on. Even the high-200s felt like a bit much.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: I think I'll stay the course on Barda. Mega-Rod might need a bit of oomph, since with Grappling she'll usually be able to nab height and get 8 dice anyways, but I think I'll wait for further testing to confirm that

Together, she and Miracle make a good team - it's fun swinging around, because there's always a ton of figure movement whenever they're on the battlefield. The set 'em up, knock 'em down feel is definitely evident.

Miracle, though, could use a boost. I think the Defy Death roll needs to come down by a few points... closer to like 6+ to Defy Death. As-is, the odds are way too high of you flubbing that all important roll, and unlike Spider-Man, who gets it from the outset, one missed roll is the end of the round for him.

[IAmBatman]

Hmm, seems like she was solidly getting beaten in games without Mister Miracle too. Though I suppose you're giving up something if you're not using Bonds of Marriage. If you want them to hit 600 as a pair, they might both need a slight boost.

[johnny139]

I'd call those outliers, though - the game against the Ninjas had unusually good dice on their side (lots of 4/5 skull rolls), while the second match was shockingly close despite Ms. Marvel going down almost immediately. She may warrant a tweak up (and I think boosting Mega-Rod would do that) but she felt in the ballpark at least.

[IAmBatman]

Not really sure what you could do to tweak the Mega-Rod up much, though. Range 5?