The Book of Thanos (Infinity Quest)

[Lazy Orang]

I'm actually with Arkham here. I'm not too worried about 'best case scenario' (I'm not going to be fussed if we don't see him up against Fire Ants to see the real power of the Reality Stone or anything), but we need to be sure he's at least still fun to play against in some of his better conditions (which he was the two times I played him solo, particularly vs. the X-Men, and Karat's two games were kind of skewed more by bad luck in the first one and the second being against figures who literally couldn't use their powers against him, but Ronin is going to need to confirm here).

[IAmBatman]

Yeah, I think the purest data will come from Thanos versus a couple of standard, reasonably competitive armies that aren't specifically constructed to get around his strengths. Order Marker hubs tend to be part and parcel with that type of thing.

[Ronin]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Thanos @1200 points

Version:

Spoiler Alert!

NAME - THANOS

SPECIES - ETERNAL
UNIQUENESS - EVENT HERO
CLASS - CONQUEROR
PERSONALITY - UNYIELDING
SIZE/HEIGHT - MEDIUM 6

8 LIFE
MOVE 6
RANGE 6
ATTACK 6
DEFENCE 7

1,200 POINTS

INFINITY QUEST
Start the game with the Glyph of Infinity Gauntlet on this card and put one of each of all Glyphs of Infinity not in the game into a Glyph Pool. Each player, starting with the player to your right and going counter-clockwise, places a Glyph from the Glyph Pool on any empty space on the battlefield. Next, you may choose one Glyph from the Glyph Pool and equip it. At the end of each round, if there are any Glyphs in the Glyph Pool, the player who won the initiative that round must place a Glyph from the Glyph Pool on any empty space on the battlefield. Glyphs cannot be placed within 3 spaces of any figure or another Glyph of Infinity. When Thanos rolls to lose the Glyph of Infinity Gauntlet, add 1 for each glyph's powers that have been gained, up to a maximum of +5.

ONE HALF OF ALL LIFE...
Once per game, after revealing an Order Marker on this card and instead of taking a turn with Thanos, if Thanos is equipped with the Glyph of Infinity Gauntlet and it has the powers of all six Glyphs of Infinity, you may roll the 20-sided die one at time for every other figure on the battlefield. On a roll of 11 or higher, that figure is destroyed. After using this power, the Infinity Quest special power is negated for the remainder of the game.

REWRITTEN DEATH
Once per game, if Thanos would be destroyed, you may instead remove all Wound Markers from this card and the round immediately ends.

SUPER STRENGTH

FLYING

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units: Thanos (Infinity Quest) (1200) vs Original X-Men, Polaris (1200)

Spoiler Alert!

At the start of the game, the X-Men place the Reality Gem on the battlefield, and Thanos equips the Time Gem.

The X-Men take the first initiative. They quickly move up and Angel claims the Reality Gem. On the small map, Thanos can take the fight to the X-Men right away, and immediately blitzes with the Time Gem and starts blasting away at Angel. His first couple attacks are, however, pitiful, and Chuck doesn't even need to protect Warren to keep the Gem safe. Jean and Lorna start in on their tie-down shenanigans. Jean throws Thanos to low ground and hits him for a couple wounds, then Lorna bubbles him. Thanos is trapped in place for his next turn, but manages a pot-shot at Angel (who has height and is next to a tree). Angel takes advantage of the Guardian Angel movement to retreat to a safe distance.

On Charlie's turn, Jean and Beast hit Thanos for a grand total of 4 more wounds. Not great for the Mad Titan, but the damage does at least free him from Polaris' bubble trap, and he hangs onto the gauntlet. Thanos closes out his round by attacking Beast, the only figure he can really get at outside of Psychic Defense X range (Professor X has managed to hold onto the X all round, thanks to Thanos' fearsome 2-skull-max attack rolls), and Thanos swats Beast on the nose for a wound.

At the end of the first round, Professor X deposits the Soul Gem at a low point in the water.

The X-Men win the second initiative again and try to beat on Thanos, but Thanos remembers that he shouldn't get his rear end kicked by 175-point characters and no-sells a couple attacks. He then risks an LEA (and gets punished for it) and climbs up to high ground, where he gets a lucky big hit on Beast that takes him out. He then does the Time Gem blitz and blasts Angel with another big roll, but Chuck steps in and shuts him down.

Then, on Charlie's turn, Jean gets an attack in on Thanos that would have finished it, but Rewritten Death kicks in. The round ends and Chuck places the Space Gem all the way back in Thanos' Start Zone.

The X-Folks take the third round initiative. Thanos gets thrown to low ground. He would have gotten bubbled again, but I realized Lorna's not supposed to be able to do that to Event Heroes. Whoops.

Still locked down by Jean, Thanos does get some opportunity: Jean has wandered just out of Psychic Defense X range to keep Thanos tied down. Thanos uses the Time Gem for a double turn and gets 3 wounds in on Jean, then her Telekinesis + Psionic Grip combo forces him to spend time with Iceman instead.

Thanos takes wounds from Iceman and Cyclops' SAs, but then punches through Iceman just as the round ends and the X-Men drop the Power Gem in the back of their own Start Zone.

Thanos finally wins initiative in round four. Psionic Grip forces him to fight Scott, who he kills in a couple hits (Time Gem). Then, he finally catches a bad break: Jean wounds him on her turn and he drops the Gauntlet. He comes up with a 5 for his d20 roll to keep it, and since Jean has totally prevented him from adding a second Gem to his collection, that's 1 shy of enough. Then Polaris hits him for a wound (just to add injury to insult), bringing him down to 2 Life remaining.

Thanos is locked in place by Psionic Grip still. He takes a potshot at Angel, but only comes up with 1 skull. Thanos loves Warren too much to ever hurt him.

Jean runs in and throws Thanos down to low ground, then she and Polaris attack him. They don't do any damage, but Thanos looks to be just about dead anyway. He can't break away to go after the Gauntlet because the LEAs could kill him even if he does get past Psionic Grip, and Chuck still has his X OM in hand. Thanos just has to hope he can tank enough hits to win this on pure beefy A/D alone, while knowing that 2 of his next 4 turns will get burned by Psychic Defense X.

Thanos comes up with all of 1 skull for his next attack roll, but it's his 3, so Chuck Psychically defends anyway. Jean closes out the round by wounding Thanos with TK and then finishing him off with her normal.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 0 wounds to Angel in 5 attacks (1 blocked by Psychic Defense X), 5 wounds to Beast in 2 attacks (destroyed), 3 wounds to Jean in 3 attacks (1 blocked by Psychic Defense X), 4 wounds to Iceman in 2 attacks (destroyed), 4 wounds to Cyclops in 2 attacks (destroyed)
• Infinity Quest: See game summary
• One Half Of All Life...: not used
• Rewritten Death: prevented his destruction by Jean, ended the second round.
• Damage Taken: 8 wounds from Jean in 9 attacks (destroyed), 1 wound from Polaris in 4 attacks, 1 wound from Beast in 2 attacks, 1 wound from a leaving engagement attack, 2 wounds from Iceman in 2 special attacks, 2 wounds from Cyclops in 1 special attack, 1 wound from Telekinesis

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Jean Grey with 3 wounds, Professor X unwounded, Angel unwounded, Polaris unwounded

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units: Thanos (Infinity Quest) (1200) vs Captain America, Bucky, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Iron Man (Mk. IV), Daredevil (II) (1200)

Spoiler Alert!

Avengers place Reality and Thanos equips Time.

Thanos wins initiative and does the Time Gem blitz to sprint across the battlefield and grab the Reality Gem before the Avengers get an OM revealed. (What a turnaround from last opening)

The rest of the round is a pretty straight brawl after that. Thanos uses the Reality Gem to turn a Luke Cage turn into a Bucky turn, but Bucky does still pop him for a wound.

Thanos drops the Power Gem at the end of the round.

Cap takes the second initiative. He and Bucky mob Thanos to try and tie him down, but Thanos doesn't really care. He Reality Gems an OM off Luke and onto Bucky, then takes three LEAs (and two wounds from them) in order to go after the Power Gem. He snags it, then uses the X to take another turn. He bumps another OM from Luke to Bucky, then gets back into the melee, going after Cap.

He chooses to leave Bucky alive as a place to move OMs, but Bucky does prove weirdly able to hit through Thanos' defense. While Thanos puts 4 wounds on Cap, Bucky puts 4 more wounds on Thanos.

(Thank Odin that Bucky isn't the one who decided to kill half the universe)

That's enough to kill him, but Thanos rewrites it and the round ends prematurely (effectively costing Thanos his 3 OM). The Avengers drop the Mind Gem in the back of their own SZ.

The Avengers take the third initiative. Tony and Luke fail to wound Thanos, and then it's Thanos' turn. He does a double-turn with the Time Gem and pulls 2 OMs off Luke and onto Bucky. He goes after Cap twice and fails to kill him both times.

Bucky's offense returns to normal levels this round and he can't put any hurt on Thanos, while Thanos takes down Cap and puts 3 wounds on Tony. The Avengers drop the Soul Gem at the back of Thanos' SZ.

The Avengers take the initiative in round 4 and get a lucky break. Daredevil whiffs his attack on Thanos, but Luke gets a wound and Thanos comes up with a 3 to hang onto the Gauntlet: it goes sailing!

The Avengers are all clustered around Thanos, and he'd have to take 4 leaving engagement attacks to go after the Gauntlet. After taking eight years to weigh that decision, he takes the LEAs. Gotta get that gauntlet.

It turns out to be a good risk. He only takes one wound and reclaims the Gauntlet. He finishes off Iron Man, but losing the Gauntlet temporarily does cost him an opportunity to move an OM off Luke. Daredevil gets 4 wounds on him in his next bonding turn with Luke, bringing Thanos down to 2 Life remaining.

The Avengers drop the Space Gem at the northmost point of the map.

So going into round 5, Thanos has 2 Life remaining. All the Infinity Glyphs have entered the game. Three (Reality, Time, Power) are in the Gauntlet and the remaining three are in the map. The Avengers have a 1-Life Luke Cage, 2-Life Bucky, and full-Life Danny and Matt.

Thanos takes the initiative and kills Luke on his first OM. One OM goes down with Luke, and Thanos puts all the rest on Bucky over his first few turns. Thanos would have annihilated Daredevil, but Go the Distance prevents it, and Thanos spends the rest of the round getting DD down to 1 Life. Meanwhile, Bucky puts another wound on Thanos, bringing him down to 1 Life.

Thanos takes the next initiative. He manages to kill all the OMs by putting them on Matt and Bucky and taking them out. He was forced to finally destroy Bucky and take away his OM dump because the alternatives (trying to disengage from Bucky with 1 Life left, or just staying engaged with Bucky and hoping things would work out) had pretty slim chances of success.

Thanos runs away from Iron Fist, making a break for the Space Gem. He snatches up Space and then Soul, while Iron Fist snags Mind to protect it. Thanos jumps back to the middle of the battlefield and blasts Iron Fist for 2 wounds. The Mind Gem drops near Thanos, a couple spaces away (at height disadvantage). Danny jumps over the Mind Gem and punches Thanos right in the nose (3 skulls), but Thanos no-sells it (4 shields).

Thanos takes another key initiative. He claims the Mind Gem and ineffectually attacks Iron Fist, then uses the Time Gem for a bonus turn. He snaps his fingers, and Iron Fist turns to ash.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 5 wounds to Luke Cage in 6 attacks (destroyed), 6 wounds to Iron Man in 4 attacks (destroyed), 5 wounds to Captain America in 5 attacks (destroyed), 9 wounds to Daredevil in 5 attacks (5 ignored by Go the Distance) (destroyed), 2 wounds to Bucky in 1 attack (destroyed), 2 wounds to Iron Fist in 2 attacks
• Infinity Quest: See game summary? It got used a fair bit.
• One Half Of All Life...: destroyed Iron Fist.
• Rewritten Death: prevented his destruction by Bucky and ended the second round.
• Damage Taken: 6 wounds from Bucky in 8 normal attacks & 1 special attack, 0 wounds from Cap in 1 normal attack & 1 special attack, 1 wound from Iron Man in 1 normal attack & 1 Uni-Beam, 3 wounds from leaving engagement attacks, 0 wounds from Luke Cage in 2 attacks, 3 wounds from Daredevil in 4 attacks, 1 wound from Brutal Double attack

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Thanos with 7 wounds

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: Haven't run a second game yet, but I'm not going to tonight if I hope to sleep, so figured I'd post what I've got so far.

THOUGHTS ON GAME ONE: Kind of a rough game for Thanos - Psionic Grip was really cramping his style, and those crappy attack rolls against Angel to open the game really ruined him. Totally different game if he could have wounded Angel and swatted the Gem away early there.

One small Event Hero misplay in that I let Lorna bubble him once, but I don't think it impacted gameplay too much - only affected him for one turn, and decent odds he might have been Psionic Gripped anyway.

Anyway, the match didn't feel unwinnable for Thanos until the very end, even though there's a decent margin of victory for the X-Men here.

It became pretty clear midway through that 'collect all the Gems' was not a path to victory, but there was a window where it seemed like he might be able to win just through sheer brawn. Might have been able to pull it off if he'd been able to take Jean out when he got his crack at her, but it didn't pan out for him.

THOUGHTS ON GAME TWO: Wow wow wow. Great game. Ran a second Thanos solo since that seems like the biggest point of disagreement/stress here, and dok wasn't too stressed out about his recommendations.

Razor-thin win even though Thanos had the Reality Gem for most of the game.

[IAmBatman]

Between the CRB weigh-in, the drop of one life, and the solid loss there, I’d personally now feel comfortable voting him forward as is.

[Ronin]

Updated with game two. Pre-yea for editing.

[Tornado]

That sounded epic.

Pre-yea

[IAmBatman]

Pre-yea!

[Lazy Orang]

I've been holding off this because I wanted to give space for more comments, plus I've had some other things on my mind. That looked like an awesome game Ronin!
I Propose Moving to Final Editing.
Just two votes needed.

[Karat]

Yea

[Scapemage]

That second game quells some concerns about the Reality Gem's strength here. Yea for FE.

[Ronin]

Probably needs another pass, but here's my first pass at edits:

INCOMPLETE GAUNTLET
Start the game with the Glyph of Infinity Gauntlet on this card. Thanos can equip glyphs as if he were a Unique Hero and when he rolls the 20-sided die for the Glyph of Infinity Gauntlet, add 1 to the roll for each special power it has gained, to a maximum of +5.

INFINITY QUEST
At the start of the game all other players, starting with the player to your left and going clockwise, must place a Glyph of Infinity that is not in the game on an empty space on the battlefield. Then, you may choose a Glyph of Infinity that is not in the game and equip it. At the end of each round, the player who won initiative must place a Glyph of Infinity that is not in the game on an empty space on the battlefield. Glyphs cannot be placed within 3 spaces of any other glyph or any player's figure.

ONE HALF OF ALL LIFE...
Once per game, instead of taking a turn with Thanos, if he is equipped with the Glyph of Infinity Gauntlet and it has the special powers of all six Glyphs of Infinity, you may roll the 20-sided die for all other figures in play, one at a time. If you roll 11 or higher, that figure is destroyed. Thanos cannot use his Incomplete Gauntlet special power for the rest of the game.

REWRITTEN DEATH
Once per game, if Thanos would be destroyed, you may instead remove all Wound Markers from this card and end the round.

Had to add some language (unfortunately) to let him equip glyphs - he needed that because otherwise, if he drops the Gauntlet, he can't pick it back up. Technically he only needs to be able to equip the Gauntlet and not any glyphs - the Gauntlet lets him equip the Gems, but it's shorter to not specify.

[Lazy Orang]

This Passes!

Originally Posted by Ronin

Probably needs another pass, but here's my first pass at edits:

Had to add some language (unfortunately) to let him equip glyphs - he needed that because otherwise, if he drops the Gauntlet, he can't pick it back up. Technically he only needs to be able to equip the Gauntlet and not any glyphs - the Gauntlet lets him equip the Gems, but it's shorter to not specify.

Looking good. Just two changes:


1) Move the 'may pick up Glyphs' thing to Infinity Quest so it isn't negated when he snaps.
2) Should we have some language keeping him from passing the Gauntlet? That was never tested, and I don't want to worry about how strong it could potentially be to give Spider-Man an Infinity Gauntlet.