The Book of Blackfire

[IAmBatman]

Cool. Good to know!

[TrollBrute]

This one kind of fell of my radar after A3n retired. If you can cover it johnny, great! If not, I can always help out.

[A3n]

Wasn't your fault guys. I have been meaning to do the initial here since I retired & still haven't been able to make the time.

I will be very appreciative if one of you do find the time to carry it out for me.

Cheers

[johnny139]

Finally back on the horse. By the way, @A3n , would you want me to take over as LD here, or are you fine running this one through to the end? Entirely your preference, but I'm more or less at 0 designs right now, so it wouldn't be an issue for me.

C3G INITIAL PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE TEST UNIT Blackfire

- THEME TEST/ Check to see if there are any powers or stats on the test unit card that does not accurately reflect the theme or likeness of what the character would and could do. Also consider destructible objects, and whether or not this characters powers should affect them.
PASS

- MIRROR TEST/ Check to see if the unit were played against itself, if there would be any loops that would upset the balance of the Game.
PASS (She REALLY hates herself, though. )

- BONDING TEST/ Compare the unit card with all possible currently existing Bonding abilities to make sure there are no continual Bonding possibilities that do not stop appropriately or do not stop at all. This is to prevent loops in Bonding.
PASS

- SYNERGIES TEST/ Compare the unit card with all possible currently existing synergies to make sure there are no factors that could break the game by making any unit too powerful or too weak.
PASS

- POWER CHECK/ Consider the test unit and all existing units and all glyphs to compare to and check for any powers that could be over amplified and break the game. Each power must define when it takes place, who or what it affects, and What are the stipulations on the power if there are any.
PASS

- FUN TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play.
PASS (I like how she feels to pilot... not really worth paying attention to at the start, but once she's in the fray she's a massive threat. Feels a bit like Wolverine, y'know?)

- FUN COMPETITIVE TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play against.
PASS

- DRAFTING TEST/ Consider whether or not this design is worth drafting.
PASS (Very matchup-dependent, I think, but she has her niche for sure.)

- USAGE TEST/ Consider whether or not all of the powers on this card were used or at least usable.
PASS

- STRATEGY TEST/ Consider whether or not the design offers any real strategy or interesting tactics to the overall game.
PASS (That second wound is like flicking a switch - it really makes you question whether you want to make that attack at the end of the round, and pushes Blackfire to disengage aggressively early in the game. Lots of choices to make!)

Heavy Hitter or Mid-Level Hero Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? MAYBE?
- What should be the unit's point value? 210-230 POINTS
- Give a brief overview. Tough to say. She lost every matchup (and that's with me forgetting she didn't have flying against the first three opponents! - it's a small enough map that it didn't make much of a difference). She's a crowd controller, though, so I'll keep her at the high end for Squad tests and push her forward at 230.

Spoiler Alert!

TEST 1
Map: Badlands (Custom Map)
Units: Blackfire (??? Points) vs. Wolverine (280 Points)
Wolverine wins; 2 Wounds, 3 Rounds. Blackfire tries to play sniper, but can't do any real damage. Wolverine eventually grabs her and an initiative switch does enough damage to seal the deal. No real hope for Blackfire here, honestly.

TEST 2
Map: Badlands (Custom Map)
Units: Blackfire (??? Points) vs. Spider-Man (250 Points)
Spider-Man wins; 3 Wounds, 4 Rounds. Very close, very fun! Spider-Man was relying heavily on the d20, but Blackfire had lots of multi-attacks, which balanced the scales. Spidey just had a lucky attack roll to finish her off.

TEST 3
Map: Badlands (Custom Map)
Units: Blackfire (??? Points) vs. Iron Man (240 Points)
Iron Man wins; 1 Wound, 2 Rounds. Blackfire backs Tony into a corner pretty quickly, but the dice are not on her side - 4 Attack vs. 6 Defense is worse than 4 vs. 5, even if she did get one extra attack per turn.

TEST 4
Map: Badlands (Custom Map)
Units: Blackfire (??? Points) vs. Yellow Lantern: Jonathan Crane (240 Points)
Yellow Lantern wins; 2 Wounds, 3 Battery Markers, 2 Rounds. 6 Defense is just real tough for her to crack, since it matches her Attack rolls on average. So yeah, it was a rough time for her.

TEST 5
Map: Badlands (Custom Map)
Units: Blackfire (??? Points) vs. Green Goblin (230 Points)
Green Goblin wins; 3 Wounds, 2 Rounds. Goblin can easily run circles around her, and well, as much as her Anguish packs a punch, it's still only attacks of 4.

_____________________________________________________________

Squad Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? YES!
- What should be the unit's point value? 200-220 POINTS
- Give a brief overview. Bad luck brings her down a bit, but she still packs a punch.
Map: Badlands (Custom Map)
Units: Blackfire (230 Points) vs. SHIELD Agents x2 (220 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

SHIELD Agents win; 3 destroyed, 1 Round.

The Agents move in pretty quick from across the board, and Blackfire is a bit too slow to really keep them at bay. That plus some bad rolls puts her on the defensive, but she still has the firepower to take down a full squad in a single turn.

_____________________________________________________________

Squad Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? YES!
- What should be the unit's point value? 240 POINTS
- Give a brief overview. Good luck gives her an advantage here, and finally she has a real use for her Starbolts. I'll keep her at 230 for now.
Map: Badlands (Custom Map)
Units: Blackfire (230 Points) vs. Kree Scout x6 (240 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Blackfire wins; 2 Wounds, 2 Rounds.

The Kree move in very aggressively, cornering Blackfire in her start zone (which is elevated in this map). Their adjacency clause is their undoing, though, as her Dual Starbolt can blow through the pairs. They deal some damage, but that only ups her arsenal.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? YES!
- What should be the unit's point value? 230-270 POINTS
- Give a brief overview. Wow, much better showing this time around. Even without getting close to Starfire, she managed to kill Raven and Nightwing after getting on a nice perch.
Map: Badlands (Custom Map)
Units: Blackfire, Ms. Marvel, X-23 (800 Points) vs. Nightwing, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven (800 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Merciless Misses win; 2 Wounds on Blackfire, 1 Wound on Ms. Marvel, X-23 unharmed, 4 Rounds.

ROUND 1: The teams charge in; Blackfire puts a wound on Raven, but she sends it back with her Soul Self.

ROUND 2: X-23 enters the fray and his Starfire for a hefty three wounds. She gets four in return, though, when Nightwing sends out the Titans. With her next turn she brings Starfire up to 4, and Ms. Marvel seals the deal, but not before they bring X-23 up to 4 Wounds. Raven, meanwhile, has brought Blackfire up to 2 Wounds - in response, she blows through the girl with ease.

ROUND 3: Nightwing lurks in the shadows, blocking Blackfire's Anguished attacks, while Cyborg blasts through the competition. He takes two wounds, but deals one to Ms. Marvel and another to X-23. By this point she's healed down to just 2, though.

ROUND 4: Blackfire finally blows through Nightwing, taking out their first turn and the three of the girls team up to finish Cyborg off.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? YES!
- What should be the unit's point value? ??? POINTS
- Give a brief overview. She drew a lot of fire this game, and blew away Quicksilver pretty much single-handed, but was the subject of so much attention that she died before getting a chance to really spread her wings. I don't think she's too cheap, though, and Star-Lord's stat boosts are a huge help.
Map: Badlands (Custom Map)
Units: Blackfire, Star-Lord, Phoenix, Knockout (1000 Points) vs. Professor X, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Wolverine (1000 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Uncanny X-Men win; 3 Wounds on Scarlet Witch, all others destroyed, 9 Rounds

ROUND 1: The Mutants set up a decent perimeter, while the Guardians are off to a slow start. Wanda Curses everyone but Knockout.

ROUND 2: The Twins storm Star-Lord, but only deal one wound; somehow, he hits Quicksilver for two with Distracting Fire and retreats backwards. They then try and hit Blackfire, dealing one, but failing to do any more. Blackfire blasts Quicksilver for another two, and Phoenix finishes him off shortly after. Wolverine fails to harm Star-Lord.

ROUND 3: They finally manage to take down Star-Lord; Wolverine takes some wounds in the process, but heals them by the end of the Round.

ROUND 4: Phoenix tosses Wanda around for a bit, but ultimately decides to gun for Xavier himself - she brings him up to 3 Wounds by the end of the Round. Wolverine is busy on the other side, though, and by the end of the round he and Wanda turn all of their attention on Blackfire, taking her out.

ROUND 5: Xavier manages to avoid death at first, and Knockout gets Smitten with Wolverine. Her punch deals three whole Wounds! Phoenix then finishes off Professor X.

ROUND 6: It was the perfect storm of Adamantium as Wolverine, in a single turn, turns Knockout to mincemeat. He goes for Phoenix.

ROUND 7: It's a real back and forth, with a lot of fire coming from Phoenix and a lot of slicing from Wolvie. He's brought up to 5 Wounds, deals two to Phoenix, and... Phoenix Fire deals an auto-wound! But Jean is at 4 Wounds. She then goes and deals one Wound to Wanda... two ladies, one Life remaining for each!

ROUND 8: Wanda is too weak to hurt Phoenix, lurking in the shadows. Her Curse prevents Phoenix from dealing any auto-wounds. Her Hex-Sphere Disturbance keeps her alive.

ROUND 9: Finally, though, Wanda wins initiative and gets the upper hand.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? YES!
- What should be the unit's point value? ~230 POINTS
- Give a brief overview. Again, her biggest role was A) dealing a wound or two to begin with and B) draw fire once she's wounded. Taking the focus off of Executioner is what let him get the jump on Jean-Paul, so, points there... it was an odd match, though, so I can't say there's much to draw from.
Map: Badlands (Custom Map)
Units: Blackfire, Executioner (600 Points) vs. Enchantress, Batman: Jean-Paul Valley (600 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Cosmic Cohorts win; 1 Wound on Executioner, Blackfire destroyed, 5 Rounds

ROUND 1: Skurge brings Blackfire onto the front lines, while Enchantress's new pet is slower to start. He manages to hit Komand'r for two, though, which is... not good.

ROUND 2: Skurge warps away with Amora, dealing her a Wound and bringing her, ultimately, up to 4 Wounds after she disengages. She hits Blackfire for one; she gets Jean-Paul for one shortly after, but his pumped up attack manages to finish her off. He goes after Skurge, but deals no damage.

ROUND 3: Skurge warps Jean-Paul across the map and tears him to shreds. He then moves toward Enchantress, who takes height far away.

ROUND 4: He warps into engagement; Amora fights back, but only deals one wound, while he dishes out two.

ROUND 5: He finishes her off - not much of a challenge when she's alone!

_____________________________________________________________

FINAL THOUGHTS: She underperformed in the Solo Tests, got killed quick in the Army Tests, but when you let her stick around, as in Titans test, she can absolutely tear up the opposition. She'll stomp on sub-200 units but get bowled over by stronger enemies, which makes her really match-up dependent, but is appropriate for the "impudent whelp" sort of villain she tends to fit.

Points are still up in the air, though. Low-to-mid-200s is what I'm getting... I feel like 220-250 is possible, but I'd send her out at 230, I guess?

[Viegon]

Great tests johnny! Based on those results, I'd say 230 or 240 would be a good place to send her to Public Playtesting at.

[IAmBatman]

230 looks about right to me from the test results.

Fwiw, the point calculator puts her at about 215 if we say she has a level 3 and level 4 power (double attack is a level 3 power in the calculator). It's possible the special attack is more like a level 5 power, putting her at 240, but a static attack of 3 really holds that power back in Superscape, IMO.

So I'd split the difference a bit and go out at 230 (or even 225).

[Karat]

at 230

[TrollBrute]

230 looks like a solid place for testing.

Originally Posted by johnny139

Entirely your preference, but I'm more or less at 0 designs right now, so it wouldn't be an issue for me.

You better get Karolina running again soon. I'm not above bribing/threatening/blackmailing you to finish the Runaways.

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Fwiw, the point calculator puts her at about 215 if we say she has a level 3 and level 4 power (double attack is a level 3 power in the calculator). It's possible the special attack is more like a level 5 power, putting her at 240, but a static attack of 3 really holds that power back in Superscape, IMO.

I'm not sure that calculator gives us much more than a general range to start from. Hard results are always better once we have them. Plus, it's 3 attacks if she has a couple wounds, or 4 if Starfire is around.

[johnny139]

Not to mention the potential for auto-wounds with her special attack - always a potent ability in C3G.

Originally Posted by TrollBrute

You better get Karolina running again soon. I'm not above bribing/threatening/blackmailing you to finish the Runaways.

All set for tonight, actually - with the long weekend I have no excuses left!

[A3n]

Great tests Johnny.

I will probably not be around that frequently for the rest of the year. I am currently assigned to project work in Brisbane so will be away from home each week returning on the weekends only.

I can probably still LD this design with weekly updates but may need prompting as to what's next in the process as it has been a while & my full attention isn't here. Like now, do I propose for public playtesting?

[johnny139]

Currently, you'd just need to update the second post with a point cost (probably 230) and propose for playtesting, yeah.

If nothing else, I can probably post the playtests for you as they come in, just to help smooth things out.

[A3n]

I propose Blackfire move to public playtesting @ 230 points.

IAmBatman - Yea
johnny139 - Yea
Karat - Yea
SirGalahad - Yea
TrollBrute - Yea
Viegon - Yea