The Book of Brides of Dracula

[quozl]

I like C.

[tcglkn]

A or B.

[johnny139]

Okay...

A - 3
B - 5
C - 4
D - 0

Looks like B has a slight lead, so looks like we're going with Undead Lord. I'll leave this open a few more hours just in case SirG wants to chime in (and has a strong preference for C), but I'll send in to the ERB later tonight.

[IAmBatman]

5 of 7 of us would be good with B, so that's a strong choice for sure, yeah.

[johnny139]

Yeah, I'll go ahead with that - SP updated and sent out to ERB...

...and we already have our first response!

Originally Posted by davidlhsl

Brides of Dracula

Ah, polygamy!

Double Attack
Vetted!

Blood Calling
The effect could trigger up to 6 times, though you'd have to get a lot of strikes to make that happen.

I wonder who that Undead Lord might be. Hmmmm....

Stealth Dodge
Vetted!

Final Thoughts
Clean design.

I do think it'd be pretty crazy to move Dracula 18 spaces in one turn, as unlikely as that might be... might end up dropping it down to 2 spaces, but we'll see how well they perform.

[johnny139]

And from dok...

Originally Posted by dok

No concerns. While they seem fairly strong overall, Blood Calling is not all that strong really; it wouldn't push me to play them with Dracula all that much.

Which says the opposite to me.

[johnny139]

From Margloth...

Originally Posted by Margloth

Won't most Undead Lords have stealth flying? Not sure the last sentence on Blood Calling is needed. For that matter, should Stealth Flying be on this card?

If you wanted to mix it up on class (I would consider his brides a step up from minions... unless there's a synergy reason here) you could go with Harbingers. Or that might be cheesy.

I'll say no on Stealth Flying for these guys; they're not quite on Drac's level, y'know?

[johnny139]

C3G INITIAL PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE TEST UNIT Brides of Dracula

- 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

- 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 (They help Dracula, for sure, but in small point games you'd probably want some stronger units much of the time.)

- 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 (Lots of dice = lots of fun! That's my philosophy, at least. )

- 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

- 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

Heavy Hitter or Mid-Level Hero Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? YES?
- What should be the unit's point value? 120-140 POINTS
- Give a brief overview. They performed above 110 here for sure; six attacks is nothing to sneeze at. In some matchups, against units who were well-prepared to deal with them (with multi-attacks, mostly), they were more even, but I'll keep it in the back of my mind going forward.

Spoiler Alert!

TEST 1
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Brides of Dracula (110 Points) vs. Sinestro Corps Soldier (110 Points)
Brides of Dracula win; 0 destroyed, 1 Round. The Soldier gets the first strike, but whiffs his attack! The Brides manage to swarm him and finish things in a single round.

TEST 2
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Brides of Dracula (110 Points) vs. Sinestro Corps Soldier (110 Points)
Brides of Dracula win; 1 destroyed, 1 Round. This time, the Soldier succeeds on his first strike, but the remaining Brides still manage to tear up his shields, and his 2 Attack can't breach them afterwards.

TEST 3
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Brides of Dracula (110 Points) vs. Heat Wave (110 Points)
Brides of Dracula win; 1 destroyed, 1 Round. Heat Wave gets a good first hit, but positions himself too low, and can't defend against 16 dice in one turn. And he rolls pretty poorly, to boot...

TEST 4
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Brides of Dracula (110 Points) vs. Heat Wave (110 Points)
Brides of Dracula win; 0 destroyed, 1 Round. This time, Heat Wave can't get his first attack in at all, and the Brides manage to tear him apart pretty quickly. They're performing REALLY well.

TEST 5
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Brides of Dracula (110 Points) vs. Pyro (120 Points)
Brides of Dracula win; 0 destroyed, 1 Round. Wow, it only takes two attacks to finish Pyro off this time. I swear, these Brides are getting 3 skull rolls WAY more often than they should be...!

TEST 6
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Brides of Dracula (110 Points) vs. Pyro (120 Points)
Pyro wins; 0 Wounds, 1 Round. This time, the Brides are a lot closer, letting Pyro use his Living Flames to their fullest extent. He gets the drop on them, killing two on one turn and the last on his next.

TEST 7
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Brides of Dracula (110 Points) vs. Silk Spectre (100 Points)
Brides of Dracula win; 2 destroyed, 2 Rounds. Combining Counter Strike and Whirlwind Assault makes Silk Spectre a good counter for the Brides; even so, things peter out near the end and the last Bride gets the last few Wounds in.

TEST 8
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Brides of Dracula (110 Points) vs. Silk Spectre (100 Points)
Silk Spectre wins; 3 Wounds, 2 Rounds. This time, the opposite - despite a rough beginning, Silk Spectre gets two good Counter Strikes and then takes the last Bride down hard.

TEST 9
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Brides of Dracula (110 Points) vs. Armor (100 Points)
Brides of Dracula win; 2 destroyed, 2 Rounds. It's a long fight, with Armor's armor taking a LOT of hits. Finally it's down to one-on-one when she whiffs, going down.

TEST 10
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Brides of Dracula (110 Points) vs. Armor (100 Points)
Brides of Dracula win; 1 destroyed, 2 Rounds. Armor rolls pretty poorly, and this time she only manages to kill one Bride before being killed herself.

_____________________________________________________________

Squad Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? YES!
- What should be the unit's point value? 110 POINTS
- Give a brief overview. Pretty much a perfect game! The two sides are evenly matched.
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Brides of Dracula (110 Points) vs. Bad Cops x2 (110 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Bad Cops win; 3 destroyed, 3 Rounds.

The factions meet pretty quickly, and some lucky rolls keep the Bad Cops afloat. However, their multi-attack potential keeps the Brides on their toes, and at the end, a bad gamble (dropping an Order Marker instead of defending against an extra attack) lets the last Cop approach and finish off the last Bride.

_____________________________________________________________

Squad Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? YES?
- What should be the unit's point value? 110+ POINTS
- Give a brief overview. The Thugs are sliced and diced in short order.
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Brides of Dracula (110 Points) vs. Street Thugs x1.5 (112.5 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Brides of Dracula win; 1 destroyed, 2 Rounds.

The Brides have some real solid defense, and only 2 Attack and Defense - most of it at Range - there's really no chance for the Thugs to break through their defenses.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? MAYBE?
- What should be the unit's point value? <110 POINTS
- Give a brief overview. Of course, when an ACTUAL battle starts up, the Brides severely underperform. They only dealt two wounds overall, and Dracula alone wasn't enough to deal with all three Titans. Not a good day matchup, I guess...
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Dracula, Brides of Dracula (600 Points) vs. Nightwing, Starfire, Raven (600 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Teen Titans win; 1 Wound on Raven, all others unharmed, 2 Rounds.

ROUND 1: The Brides fly in, and the Titans against them; they can't kill any, but when the vampires descend, they can't do much damage - just one Wound on Raven, then another on Turn 2. Starfire uses those Wound to kill two of the three.

ROUND 2: The last Bride is killed, and the Titans surround Dracula. Starfire deals two wounds, Raven deals another, Nightwing a third... he can't do anything to Dick on his turn, and Starfire finishes him off with the next.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? YES!
- What should be the unit's point value? 110 POINTS
- Give a brief overview. Now THIS was a good game! Amazingly close, with some big die rolls turning the entire thing around a few times. The Brides did their job well, dealing slightly less than 100 Points worth of damage and moving Drac into the perfect position to prey on Spider-Girl. This proves they have some practical use.
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Dracula, Brides of Dracula (600 Points) vs. Luke Cage, Jewel, Spider-Girl, Firestar (600 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

Lukie's Angels win; 4 Wounds on Jewel, all others destroyed, 7 Rounds.

ROUND 1: The Brides are FAST, and get to the enemy start zone by OM2. One goes for Spider-Girl, one for Luke, and one for Firestar; Firestar earns two wounds and Luke gets one. The Fighters are able to knock out one, though.

ROUND 2: The other Bride goes down, but not before Spider-Girl takes a wound. Drac flies in an engages with her - however, she knocks him into the water, where he takes a wound, and then another 3 from Luke! He manages to kill (and turn) Spider-Girl before the end of the round, though... Jewel brings him back up to 5 Wounds, though.

ROUND 3: Dracula then turns to kill Firestar, bringing her up to 3 Wounds. But he gives Spider-Girl a turn to try and tie down Luke; it's not the best plan, though, as it gives Firestar the time to take him down herself. Then, with the last Order Marker lost, they finish off the Bride of Dracula.

ROUND 4: ...WOW. In a HUGE turnaround, Spider-Girl roll 3 skulls and Luke Cage whiffs! He goes down, with all three Order Markers on him! Then, on her next turn... DRACULA RETURNS!

ROUND 5: Dracula starts the round by biting, killing, and turning Firestar. He then beads in on Jewel, who ends up with 4 Wounds, but puts three on Drac! He's not happy.

ROUND 6: ...but he can do nothing as Jewel pounds him to dust! She takes NO damage!

ROUND 7: Then, she finishes off Firestar... we've got a real match here! Spider-Girl can't do anything but take away a turn! Jewel winds up... rolls FIVE skulls... and Spider-Girl whiffs! What a turnaround!

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? MAYBE?
- What should be the unit's point value? 150+ POINTS
- Give a brief overview. Wolverine is EASY prey for the Brides - fairly low defense, susceptible to multi-attacks, and with some poor placement as far as Order Markers go he's mincemeat. I'm not entirely sure what that says here... maybe a point bump is in order?
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Dracula, Brides of Dracula, Zombie, Vampire Minions x3 (990 Points) vs. Wolverine, X-23, Colossus, Cyclops, Jubilee (1010 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

[COLOR=red]Dracula's Army wins; 4 Wounds on Zombie, 1 Bride of Dracula & 6 Vampire Minions remaining, all others destroyed, 6 Rounds.

ROUND 1: The Brides move in, opposite the X-Men. A Fastball Special kills a Bride, but Wolverine has only one Order Marker... the Brides swarm him and, by the end of the Round, manage to kill him! Dracula, thankfully/unfortunately, doesn't get to sink his teeth in...

ROUND 2: The Brides move in again, doing big damage to Jubilee and a bit to Cyclops. Colossus tries to get a hit on Drac, but fails; he zooms in to finish off Cyclops, turning him into a Vampire. X-23 tries to take him out, but fails; instead, he just flies away and takes Jubilee!

ROUND 3: Down to just X-23 and Colossus, Laura goes to take out Cyclops (and succeeds). Colossus throws her at Drac, despite slowly being overrun by Zombie himself. Her Frenzy triggers, letting him go up to 5 Wounds!

ROUND 4: X-23 finishes off Drac, but Colossus has trouble with Zombie, who brings him up to 4 Wounds. He does, however, manage to knock the Glyph of Damballah off of him, bringing it into X-23's hands. She kills Jubilee (again).

ROUND 5: The Minions prove troublesome for X-23; she can't deal with them as quickly as she'd like, and starts to take wound. When Zombie gets his hands on the Amulet again, she flies back to grab it off of him, dealing some heavy wounds in the process; the Vamps charge and take her down.

ROUND 6: Colossus stands alone against some VERY good rolls from the Vamps... he dies fairly quickly.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? YES!
- What should be the unit's point value? ~110 POINTS
- Give a brief overview. Brides did good here, putting some wounds on Star-Lord before going down. It wasn't enough to kill him, though, or even get Dracula in close enough to finish the job. Overall they underperformed until Frankenstein came in, Hulk got mad, and the Creatures started to crush the Guardians. Nothing says more than 110 here to me.
Map: Ruins of Pine Tree Marsh
Units: Dracula, Brides of Dracula, Frankenstein, Solomon Grundy, Incredible Hulk (1580 Points) vs. Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Gamora, Drax, Iron Man (1600 Points)

Spoiler Alert!

[COLOR=red]Monster Mash wins; 4 Wounds on Frankenstein 3 Wounds on Solomon Grundy, Dracula unharmed, all others destroyed, 8 Rounds.

ROUND 1: Dracula is Drax's Nemesis. The Brides move in, opposite Groot and Rocket. Star-Lord fires on them with Distracting Fire and, somehow, kills one! They descend, failing to wound Rocket but putting three on Star-Lord. Iron Man kills the other two. Knowing full-well how bad an idea this is, Drac flies in to kill Star-Lord, but deals no wounds...

ROUND 2: Dracula racks up five wounds from Drax, and only puts one on Star-Lord. Frankenstein moves in.

ROUND 3: Dracula is killed, but Frank and Grundy advance. Grundy takes two from Star-Lord, but then kills him! And then, just as well... DRACULA RETURNS!

ROUND 4: Rocket blasts Solomon into paste... but he returns next turn anyways. Frankenstein runs in and engages Rocket, and with a good swing of his sword, kills him. Gamora comes in to engage him, and deals two wounds to Frank while taking two herself. Hulk leaps in and attacks as well, but rolls low against GREAT defense, bringing him up to 4 Wounds and making him very, VERY angry.

ROUND 5: Gamora tries to finish him off, but it's of no consequence; she's smashed next turn. Groot comes up, too, but only deals one wound and is killed just after. They go after Drax.

ROUND 6: Iron Man flies back and kills the Hulk, then puts a wound on Frankenstein. Drax racks up 4 Wounds in total from Frankenstein's assault. Grundy comes in and puts a wound on Tony, but he finishes him off.

ROUND 7: Drax is killed, bringing it down to Iron Man and Frankenstein... for the moment. Frank gets a fourth wound, but Tony is up to three, and Grundy comes back just then...

ROUND 8: GRUNDY SMASH! Iron Man is killed.

_____________________________________________________________

FINAL THOUGHTS: As a standalone squad they're really good - six attacks of 3 is SOLID. I think they compare well to the Hired Guns; sometimes you'll get WAY more than you paid for, but the difficulty in positioning them (being melee and all) and their narrowness as far as draftability pulls them down a bit. I think they're solid at 110, from my tests; good a lot of the time, GREAT in the right matchups, but not a must-have for Dracula armies.

[TrollBrute]

110 looks good for public testing.

[johnny139]

I'll PROPOSE WE MOVE TO PLAYTESTING AT 110, then!

[tcglkn]

Yea.

[A3n]

Yea