The Book of Atomic Skull

[FreshFoods]

No worries! I'm guessing we'll be good with your tests then Tornado.

[Tornado]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Atomic Skull

Army Test
Map: City Park.
Units: Atomic Skull(295), Doc Ock(215), Rhino(220) &
LexCorp x2(260) vs Frankenstein(320), Dragon Man(320) & Wendigo(350) [990].

Spoiler Alert!

R1: LexC & Atomic Skull advance. Frank moves. LexC moves, 2wounds Frank, Atomic Skull moves, uses Atomic Blast(2/5skulls), wounds Frank. Frank charges, forces Atomic Skull to remove a marker, DM moves, misses. LexC wounds Frank, Atomic Skull 2wounds Frank with 3/8skulls but he ignores them. Frank forces ASkull to remove two markers, DM moves to low ground to miss ASkull(3/6shields).



R2: Frank wounds ASkull(1/5shields), DM misses ASkull(2/6shields). LexC KOs Frank, ASkull misses DM with 4/8skulls. DM moves, forces a marker off of ASkull. LexC 4wounds DM, ASkull blanks out. DM forces ASkull to give up a marker and a point of life. LexC misses, ASkull moves to high ground, wounds DM with 4/8skulls.


R3: Wendigo Leaps, KOs a LexC. LexC moves, misses, ASkull KOs DM with 4/9skulls. Wendigo moves, misses ASkull(3/6skulls). LexC misses, ASkull 2wounds Wendigo with 6/10skulls. Wendigo misses ASkull(3/6shields). LexC misses, ASkull misses Wendigo with 3/10skulls.


R4: Wendigo removes two markers from ASkull. LexC wounds Wendigo, ASKull 2wounds Wendigo with 4/9skulls. Wendigo knocks off two markers. LexC misses. ASKull KOs Wendigo with 5/8skulls.


Brutal beat down. Standard Creature operating procedure did not fly against Atomic Skull. That was vicious. Will try again and send out Dragon Man first to try to pick off the LexCorp early.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Atomic Skull(2/5wounds, 1 marker), Doc Ock(Full), Rhino(Full) & LexCorp(3 of 4).

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: City Park.
Units: Atomic Skull(295), Doc Ock(215), Rhino(220) &
LexCorp x2(260) vs Frankenstein(320), Dragon Man(320) & Wendigo(350) [990].

Spoiler Alert!

Re-Match
R1: DM moves. LexC moves, misses, AS moves. DM moves, misses. LexC moves, misses, AS moves, misses with his SA(1/5skulls). DM moves, misses. LexC moves, misses, AS moves, misses DM(3/9skulls).


R2: DM takes a swipe, KOs a LexC, 2wounds Doc. LexC misses, AS 3wounds Wendigo(4/10skulls). Frank moves, removes a marker, Wendigo moves, knocks off two markers, inflicts two wounds on AS. LexC moves, wounds Frank, AS misses Wendigo(3/7skulls). Frank removes a marker, Wendigo 3wounds Atomic Skull for the KO. LexC misses, Doc moves, wounds DM.



R3: LexC wounds Frank, Doc misses. Frank moves, Wendigo Leaps, misses. LexC misses, Doc 2wounds DM. Frank moves, Wendigo misses.

LexC wounds Frank, Doc 2wounds DM. Frank avoids a swipe, KOs a LexC.



R4: Frank moves, wounds Rhino, Wendigo Leaps, KOs a LexC. Rhino takes a swipe, KOs Frank and OM2. Rhino wounds Wendigo who wounds Rhino.


R5: Wendigo misses, Rhino takes a swipe, KOs Wendigo. DM KOs Doc. Rhino moves, KOs DM.


Almost revenge. Rhino delivered the pain in the end. Original plan to pick off the LexC fell apart quickly when DM missed on the first attack but still did some damage to the back lines.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Rhino(5/6wounds).

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: City Park.
Units: Atomic Skull(305), Doc Ock(215), Rhino(220) &
LexCorp x2(260) vs Ms. Marvel(350), Captain America(240), Punisher(210) & Kraven(200)[1000].

Spoiler Alert!

R1: Kraven chooses Rhino. Cap moves. LexC and AS move. Punisher moves. LexC moves, misses, AS moves, KOs Punisher with a 5/5 SA. Carol moves, misses. LexC moves, 2wounds Carol but is KO'd, AS moves, 2wounds Carol(5/9skulls). Cap moves, knocks off 2markers, Carol knocks off the last marker plus 4wounds on Atomic Skull(1/5shields). LexC miss, AS misses Carol(3/7skulls).


R2: Cap KOs Atomic Skull with a 6 skull attack. LexC moves, misses, Rhino moves. Cap moves, KOs two LexC. LexC flees, Rhino charges, KOs Carol. Cap moves, KOs last LexC, wounds Doc.


R3: Kraven moves, Rhino charges, 5wounds Kraven. Cap misses. Rhino takes a swipe, KOs Kraven. Cap misses. Rhino moves. Cap misses(3/21skulls that round).


R4: Cap 2wounds Doc. Rhino moves. Cap KOs Doc. Rhino charges, 2wounds Cap who 2wounds Rhino who avoids a swipe and KOs Cap.


Cap went ice cold and the Criminals through some crazy dice. Kraven hated this army as all the OMs went on a squad card which negates his free movement. Rhino once again is a beast in the end game.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Rhino 3/6 wounds.

___________________________________________________________

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: Feels a bit hot. Atomic Skull is tough to bring down and brings the heat in the meantime. He is really solid with the LexC. He demands all the attention which allow the LexC to flit around grabbing high ground and taking shots at whoever is trying to kill Atomic Skull. Between a minimum one marker and LexC bonus he throws at least 7 dice with his normal attack and fear him if you are forced to engage him on high ground.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: He just felt unstoppable at times. The markers just keep coming so you have to take him down fast and hard which may not be possible for some armies. A defense reduction should help.

[FreshFoods]

Thanks Tornado!

8-3 in games, but I think the defense drop is gonna be good enough to bring him in line. I'm gonna do a sanity test after Yondu before I throw up the Final Editing vote.

@IAmBatman and @Tornado , how did the special attack feel? Want to check after Eric mentioned it seemed underwhelming to him.

[Tornado]

That is probably for the best considering how good the rest of the card is.
It is nice to be able to shoot someone while advancing but he wants to engage and smash faces in.

[IAmBatman]

The special meant he could hold height and not worry about being pulled off of it and it was also useful in situations like against Hawkwoman where he might've taken damage attacking with a normal attack or against the Superman/Batman Robot where an extra wound would've been nice. I rolled terribly on the unblockables, but the utility was certainly there.

Defensive drop + sanity test sounds good to me.

[Ericth74]

I could definitely see a defense drop helping.

[Tornado]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

The special meant he could hold height and not worry about being pulled off of it and it was also useful in situations like against Hawkwoman where he might've taken damage attacking with a normal attack or against the Superman/Batman Robot where an extra wound would've been nice. I rolled terribly on the unblockables, but the utility was certainly there.

Defensive drop + sanity test sounds good to me.

Agreed

[Karat]

Are we pulling this from Testing? Could always add it back in later.

[FreshFoods]

Originally Posted by Karat

Are we pulling this from Testing? Could always add it back in later.

Yeah we can pull it! Busy weekend, but gonna try to have my 4 defense tests in sometime tomorrow.

[Karat]

just wondering since you were running sanity tests and everyone signed up had turned in results.

[FreshFoods]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT : ATOMIC SKULL

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = ATOMIC SKULL
SECRET IDENTITY = JOSEPH MARTIN

SPECIES = METAHUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = CRIMINAL
PERSONALITY = OBSESSIVE
SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 5
MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 5
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = 300

ATOMIC POWER
Before taking a turn with Atomic Skull, place a blue Atomic Charge marker on this card up to a maximum of 3. Add 1 to Atomic Skull’s Attack number for each Atomic Charge marker on this card. If Atomic Skull would receive one or more wounds, you must remove any number of Atomic Charge markers from this card to ignore that many wounds.

ATOMIC BLAST SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 6. Attack 3+Special.
Add 1 die to this special attack for each Atomic Charge marker on this card. If Atomic Skull inflicts one or more wounds with this special attack on a figure that does not have the Environmental Suit special power, roll one unblockable attack die against that figure.

SUPER STRENGTH

Army Test
Map : ISLAND PLANE CRASH (No Glyphs)
Units :
Atomic Skull (300), Duploids (100), Conan (200), Grim Reaper (260), Wizard (140)
= 1000

VS.

Fantastic Four
= 1000

GAME 1 : Criminals win, Wizard 1/4 Life, Duploids 1/3 Alive.

GAME 2 : Fantastic Four wins, Mr. Fantastic 4/5 Life, Invisible Woman 2/5 Life, The Thing 3/6 Life

General Thoughts on the Tested Unit :Skull didn’t have a massive impact in either game, but definitely contributed. Both games I wanted to build up to 3 markers and put him in after Conan died, but he kept getting poked by Human Torch from afar and couldn't really hit max markers. An Invisible Woman boosted Mr. Fantastic also shut Skull down fairly early in game 2. Fantastic Four generally feels like a pretty tough matchup for this Criminal army, since they’re mostly ground pounders that really struggled to catch Invisible Woman.

He’s got some rock solid synergies as a Criminal, and he’ll probably be a go to for any Criminal build that wants a heavy hitter.

I want to go with 4 Attack/290. 5 attack feels like its just a bit too much paired with attack boosters, at least at 300. 4 is a pretty decent nerf, but I'm fairly positive he'll still be a great pick for Criminal armies (particularly Lethal Legion and Sinister Six).

300 is a unique price point for Criminals, but the only 290 Criminal is Metallo, who isn't great. This goes with what LV has been saying too, that Skull isn't the most powerful Superman enemy ever.

[Tornado]

Sounds good.