[Pod 1] Velkhor (Ob Nixilis, Demon of Spite) - Playtesting

[Pumpkin_King]

This reads like a good change to me.

[The Long eared bat]

What name are we going for? Malacoda, Velkhor or other.
I like the sound of Velkhor personally.

[lefton4ya]

I am easy going so hard for me to make a choice. I could go either way but I will try to make a preference if forced to vote.

Originally Posted by Astroking112

Something that came up in recent testing is that the Frailty Aura power text can be misleading. It sounds pretty good to me right now, but considering that this is a Master Set meant to hopefully introduce new players to the game, I figured that it was worth running this suggestion by the pod:

There's no mechanical change, but it reduces the room for misinterpretation and hopefully makes the intent clearer. Given that our intended audience is going to have plenty of other stuff to focus on, I think that it's worth consideration.

Your change is preferred, but again ether way.

Originally Posted by The Long eared bat

What name are we going for? Malacoda, Velkhor or other.
I like the sound of Velkhor personally.

I prefer Malacoda but Velkhor is a good 2nd choice. Also Malacoda seems like a better Utgar name, Velkhor seems more Valkrill - we sure this figure is Utgar, correct?

[Pumpkin_King]

Did we not like Atrixus?

[The Long eared bat]

Too close to Crixus.

[Scytale]

Marcus has never forgiven Marcu for a similar slight.

[Pumpkin_King]

Yeah, it seems far enough away.

[NecroBlade]

Quick question, it's probably been discussed, but was the Spirit ever considered to be a clone of Frailty Aura? That is, instead of subtracting 2 Defense, subtracting a shield when there are 2 or more? Just curious if the difference in the powers feels a little weird to anyone else (Viking spirits do the same thing as their auras).

[All Your Pie]

That hasn’t been discussed. I think it’s a reasonable question, but it’s also true that the viking auras do something very simple. This figure’s aura is a little more complex, so it makes sense to me that we wouldn’t translate it 1 to 1 for the spirit.

I have the figure listed under Valkrill currently, since that’s where all demons have gone so far. Been some discussion of Utgar going around but I’d need a bit more of a pitch for it I think. I prefer Velkhor for the name, I’d rather run with something we came up with than lean too heavily on reference.

[flameslayer93]

Velkhor and Malacoda both sound better than Atrixus to me, with Velkhor winning out on having the better sound to me.

[NecroBlade]

Originally Posted by All Your Pie

That hasn’t been discussed. I think it’s a reasonable question, but it’s also true that the viking auras do something very simple. This figure’s aura is a little more complex, so it makes sense to me that we wouldn’t translate it 1 to 1 for the spirit.

I don't see why. It's already written on the card once, what's the difference?

[Captain Stupendous]

Finally was able to convince my housemate to do a playtest, and had a really fun time trying out Atrixus. We played on a custom map using the AotP base set tiles and a handful of Heroscape hex:


Tested Atrixus with this version:

Spoiler Alert!

VALKRILL
Atrixus
Demon
Unique Hero
Darklord
Tormenting
Medium 5

LIFE 5
MOVE 6
RANGE 1
ATTACK 3
DEFENSE 3

POINTS 145

FRAILTY AURA
When an opponent's figure within 4 clear sight spaces of Atrixus rolls defense dice against a normal or special attack, if two or more shields are rolled, subtract one from the number of shields rolled.

DEMON'S VULNERABILITY SPIRIT 2
When Atrixus is destroyed, place this figure on any unique army card. Atrixus's spirit subtracts 2 from the defense value on that army card.

FLYING

Team 1 (500 pts) Nate: Arktos, Varkaanan Swiftfangs, Rendar Fy, B-11 Resistance Corps, M-43 Resistance Fighters x2

Team 2 (500 pts) Luke (me): Atrixus, Marro Stingers x1, Avernus, Wolves of Badru x2

Detailed game report below:

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1

Turn 1 Luke
Advances Atrixus and 3 Badru.

Turn 1 Nate
Arktos advances to middle and fails to kill a Badru. Advances Swiftfangs to height.

Turn 2 Luke
Atrixus kills 1 Swiftfang. Advances Badru who miss their attacks against Arktos and Swiftfangs.

Turn 2 Nate
B-11 stay back and attack. All miss.

Turn 3 Luke
Atrixus kills 1 Swiftfang. Badru advance and kill last 2 Swiftangs and deal 1 wound on Arktos.

Turn 3 Nate
Rendar Fy kills two Badru!


Round 2

Turn 1 Nate
Advances m43 down east side of map. One takes the isolated hex of height and kills one Badru with height advantage. The other two miss trying to attack another Badru.

Turn 1 Luke
Atrixus attacks Arktos and misses.
Badru attacks Arktos and misses
Badru attacks M43 on aastern elevation and pounces for the kill.

Turn 2 Nate
Arktos kills 1 Badru.

Turn 2 Luke
Atrixus misses Arktos. Badru kills an m43 with normal. Second Badru pounces the M43 next to Atrixus for another kill.

Turn 3 Nate
M43 attack Badru three times and miss every time.

Turn 3 Luke
Avernus advances up east side of map.


Round 3

Turn 1 Nate
Rendar Fy attacks and kills 2 more Badru!

Turn 1 Luke
Avernus advances up east side of map and engages a B11 and M43. Fails both flames. Attacks and kills the M43.

Turn 2 Nate
Arktos disengages with Atrixus, then attacks Avernus with height. Atrixus deals 1 wound on Arktos with the leaving engagement attack. Angered, Arktos rolls 4 skulls to deal 3 wounds to Avernus!

Turn 2 Luke
Now Avernus is angry, as this turn he succeeds 3 out of 5 flame rolls! Kills one b11 and one m43 and puts 1 wound on Rendar Fy. Then attacks Rendar Fy and misses.

Turn 3 Nate
M43 attacks Avernus and deals 1 wound

Turn 3 Luke
Avernus rolls and flames 1 M43 and 1 on Rendar Fy. Attacks Rendar Fy and rolls 3 skulls to deal 2 wounds for the kill.


Round 4

Turn 1 Nate
B11 all attack Avernus. Two miss, but the last one deals 2 wounds.

Turn 1 Luke
Avernus fails to burn B11 engaged with, then kills him with normal attack.

Turn 2 Nate
B11 two attacks on Avernus and misses twice!

Turn 2 Luke
Marro stingers advance and all miss the B11!

Turn 3 Nate
B11 kill Avernus and 1 Stinger

Turn 3 Luke
Stingers kill the last 2 B11!

Round 5

Turn 1 Nate
Arktos whiffs a big attack against Stinger

Turn 1 Luke
Stingers put 2 wounds on Arktos

Turn 2 Nate
Arktos kiills a Stinger

Turn 2 Luke
Stinger misses

Turn 3 Nate
Arktos kills the last stinger

Turn 3 Luke
Atrixus misses his attack on Arktos


Round 6
Turn 1 Nate
Arktos deals 1 wound to Atrixus

Turn 1 Luke
Atrixus deals 1 wound to Arktos for the kill.

Team 2 wins with Atrixus at 4 health remaining


Total Wounds Dealt:
Atrixus: 2 Swiftfang, 2 Arktos (1 LE attack)
Badru: 2 Swiftfangs, 1 Arktos, 3 M43 (2 pounce)
Avernus: 3 M43 (2 flame), 4 Rendar Fy (2 flame), 2 B11 (1 flame)
Stingers: 2 B11, 2 Arktos

Rendar Fy: 4 Badru
M43: 1 Badru, 1 Avernus
Arktos: 1 Badru, 3 Avernus, 2 Stingers, 1 Atrixus
B11: 3 Avernus, 1 Stinger

This was a fairly close game. Arktos and Avernus were the clear MVPs, with the B11 also pulling their weight. Atrixus came out strong killing two Swiftfangs within the first round, and then played more of a passive role for most of the rest of the game as the Badru died and I transitioned to using Avernus. However, even without order markers he played a tactical role as he occupied the center of the northern 7 hex elevation tile. This discouraged Nate from moving his B11 onto the elevation, as they would be forced to attack Atrixus and he really wanted to kill Avernus, and also didn’t want to give me the chance to place the vulnerability spirit on Arktos or his B11. Atrixus’s Frailty Aura never actively made a difference, despite many defense rolls that could have been affected. However, I both times I used the Badru to pounce, the target was within range of the aura so I was more confident taking the risk. The way the dice were rolled the aura didn’t end up affecting the outcome, but it still made the decision to attack easier and easily could have made a big difference if the roll had been different. Overall Atrixus was fun to play and I really like how he opens up some new opportunities to be aggressive with the Badru’s pounce ability without making them overpowered.