The Book of Yakuza Enforcer

[Ronin]

I'm not that worried about stacking with Red Skull and the Hydra Agents. Heck, if it encourages Red Skull to play with Hydra instead of wacky Star-Lord stuff, I'm all for it. You can already do pretty goofy stuff with Red Skull in generalist builds.

[Yodaking]

I started working on the initial this weekend and ended up stopping at one point as they were feeling a little underwhelming. Here is a look at the results thus far:

Spoiler Alert!

TEST 1
Units: Yakuza Enforcer@50, Batroc vs. Harley Quinn II (180)
Mac -10 Usage: Rolls a 17, deals 1W to HQ, stops movement and ends her turn.
Ruthless Counterstrike Damage Inflicted: None.
Normal Attack Damage Inflicted: None.
Damage Received: 3W’s from Pop Gun in 4 attacks.
The Yakuza used his Mac-10 on HQ and set up Batroc nicely for a Leaping Kick, combined they put a quick 3W’s on HQ at the end of R1. Then HQ won initiative and something crazy happened, She nailed Batroc with her Mallet, dealing 3W, plus knocking him over the edge of the bridge where he fell to his death. This took out all the OM’s for the Yakuza for the round and let HQ fire her gun at him in safety. She also won initiative in the next round and had HG on him so he didn’t stand a chance.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? HQ w/3W’s won with some crazy good luck.
TEST 2
Units: Yakuza Enforcer@50, Batroc vs. Giant Man (180)
Mac -10 Usage: Rolls a 15, deals 1W, end of move anyway and not in range to attack either.
Ruthless Counterstrike Damage Inflicted: None.
Normal Attack Damage Inflicted: None.
Damage Received: 1W from Giant Swap. Another 1W from Giant Swat (two times in a row!). 2W (only 1W needed) from Giant Man normal att.
The Yakuza uses the Mac-10 right away but then can’t seem to engage Giant-Man for some Counter Strike action and Giant-Man rolls well for Giant Swap twice in a row vs. the Yakuza. As a result once he finally engages Giant-Man he only has the 1 life left and fall to the first normal attack directed at him. Batroc uses that engagement to leap away and set himself up for a 2nd Leaping Kick attack though, resulting in just the 2nd W to Giant-Man. Giant-Man then crushes Batroc as he can’t muster 2 shields on 5 defense dice for the 2nd time in 3 defense rolls.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Giant-Man w/2W won, Batroc is the bigger disappointment here.
TEST 3
Units: Yakuza Enforcer @60, Diamondback vs. Jean Grey, Jubilee (220)
Mac -10 Usage: Rolls a 7, fails to W Jean Grey but does keep her from attacking from HG.
Ruthless Counterstrike Damage Inflicted: None.
Normal Attack Damage Inflicted: None
Damage Received: 1W from Jubilee’s SA. Jean Grey att. from HG at range and deals 3W (only 2 needed).
Jean Grey managed to lift herself up onto a bridge, where the Yakuza unloaded his Mac-10 at her, that stopped her from attacking but didn’t stop Jubilee from trowing her firecrackers at both the Yakuza and Diamondback. The Yakuze tried moving up the ladder to engage with Jean Grey, since Jubilee has a SA and Jean does not, but was slaughtered by Jean Grey before reaching the top. Diamondback was rather underwhelming with all her attack rolls, never rolling 2 skulls even once, and only managed to deal 1W to Jubliee before turning her attention to Jean Grey, who she never could wound. Jean grey tossed her off the bridge and finished her off for an easy victory.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Jean Grey @full life and Jubliee w/1W won rather easily.
TEST 4
Units: Yakuza Enforcer @60, Diamondback vs. Kingshark (220)
Mac -10 Usage: Rolls a 20 and deals 1W to Kingshark, stops King Shark form continueing to move forward and engage with the Yakuza.
Ruthless Counterstrike Damage Inflicted: Rolls 2 skulls while defending from a King Shark attack, dealing 2W as a result.
Normal Attack Damage Inflicted: None.
Damage Received: 1W from King Shark. 2W from King Shark.
King Shark tried to rush the Yakuza and got stopped by a barrage of bullets. The Yakuza then engaged King Shark while Diamondback stayed safely out of the way and used her ranged SA. The Yakuza deftly sliced King Shark when he attacked, but then King Shark bite his head off on the next attack. Diamond back only managed 1W to King Shark at this point, but after King Shark engaged her and missed she dealt another 1W. King Shark then took a bite out of Diamondback and was smelling the blood in the water, when Daimondback suddenly stepped up to the plate and rolled 2 skulls for her SA on back to back attack rolls and finished King Shark off before he could end her.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Diamondback w/2W’s pulled victory from the jaws of defeat with a fantastic 4 skulls on 4 attack dice performance that saved her from becoming lunch.
TEST 5
Units: Yakuza Enforcer @50 x2, Gorgon vs. Spiderman, Speedball (400)
Mac -10 Usage: Rolls a 7 vs. Speedball, no W and Speedball was at the end of his move with no one to attack anyway. Rolls a 17 vs. Speedball when Speedball moves on defense via Kinetic Bounce and tries to engage with him, deals 1W and stops his defensive movement early.
Ruthless Counterstrike Damage Inflicted: 1W to Speedball while also blocking the 2 skull attack. Another 1W to Speedball while taking 2Ws. 2W to Speedball when he whiffs on attack and the Yakuza rolls 2 skulls for defense. 1W to Speedball (killing him) when he rolls 3 skulls on attack, but the Yakuza rolls 1 shield and 1 skull on defense.
Normal Attack Damage Inflicted: None.
Damage Received: 2W from Speedball, another 2W from Speedball (only 1 was needed). 2W from Speedball.
Spidey is hung over after going to Prom the night before and as a result his spidey-sense just isn’t working here as he fails his first 2 rolls and takes 2W, twice, followed up by another 1W, to fall to Gorgon really quickly without achieving anything. Speedball tries to bounce around and make a comeback and his defense holds up quite well, but since everyone he is facing has a defensive ability that can dish out W’s he eventually succumbs to the Yakuza’s blades.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Gorgon w/full health and 1 Yakuza w/2W’s won after Spidey goes MIA and leaves Speedball hanging.

There was a lot of good in there. I really liked how they could be used to stop a figure cold and set up Batroc for a leaping kick, and they were useful to tie down an opponent while Batroc leaped away to set up another leaping kick. They were similarly good at keeping figures at bay just a few spaces away from Diamondback so she could use her first range 3 SA without risking engagement, the 2nd SA ended up being not so good of an option though as a result. And having them run alongside Gorgon and every figure you faced had a defensive power that could hurt you was pretty sweet in terms of a themed faction. It was just that with so many SA's and ranged attacks in the game their Ruthless Counterstrike wasn't feeling as deadly as I had envisioned, and thus their damage output as a defensive unit wasn't where I thought it could end up.

My first instinct was to raise their defense back up to 4 to try and prolong their time on the board vs. ranged units at least (and give them better staying power vs. SA's that often run in the 3-4 range). Being fairly vocal about the issue of stat creep I did like the idea of putting out a new unit with just a def. of 3 though so I let the idea simmer for a bit before moving forward. Then today I had another thought, what about upping the bonding from move only to full bonding? It is only a single melee attack of 3 so it really isn't a big bump up but I'm only looking for a small increase here to make them feel a little more effective than they were. It would then give them a small chance to damage SA figures and a small chance for some (non-defense based) offensive output in general.

How would you all feel about that? You okay with full bonding here even though it would still work with squads and allow for the triple turn of Yakuza/Merc/Viper? Do you prefer instead a def. bump up? After looking at these early results do you think maybe both changes are warranted?

[Ronin]

My instinct would be to up their defense by 1 and maybe try them in slightly larger games (600-800?). I know that takes some of the focus off them, but that's kind of the point - I think they're a lot less likely to be the target of those ranged attacks and SAs, and more apt to slip under the radar and get into place for Ruthless Counter Strike, when the opponent has a plethora of targets to choose from.

[japes]

If you are going for the 50-60 range my opinion is actually the opposite of Ronin and would like to avoid the increase in defense...that being said bumping defense and tweaking maybe life to be in the 100 ball park wouldn't hurt my feelings either.

[Yodaking]

A bigger army lay out with more targets could certainly help them survive longer as they shouldn't be viewed as that big of a threat. I'm just a bit concerned about how ineffective they are vs. any figure with an adj. SA option, and there are a lot of those cards. Without putting an OM on their card they are limited to 1 chance for an auto-wound and then used to maybe absorb a few attacks. I don't see where putting an OM on their card is going to be a very good option very often.

Which is where the full bonding idea has been growing on me over the more defense option. More defense means more potential counterstrike damage vs normal attackers, but doesn't change the SA match-up much. One of the reasons I kind of favor the 3 def. here is because I worry about those times you roll all skulls on defense and survive, even 3 skulls and 1 shield could be a surviving def. roll that does a lot of damage. Then their is the consideration that Viper has a def. aura power. But again all that damage potential is based on a normal melee attack encounter, vs. a melee SA encounter they are just a speed bump. Balancing the points around being really good only some of the time is a bit tricky.

Maybe I'll run the Mashahiro game I had planned and see how that goes.

[Yodaking]

Alright last night I started thinking about changing the direction a bit here and going with the full bonding, but having it occur after the turn of the figure you revealed the OM on. Add in the no other turns language and limit it to heroes, which would cut out the squad bonding we talked about and end the triple turn for Viper/Merc/Enforcer. However I was also then thinking about revisiting Ronin's idea about letting them bond with Yakuza and thus bond with themselves if you had two or more of them in your army. Turning them into a 2 man squad or bond with a merc/terrorist could be cool if I'm moving away from the all passive defense concept. Only issue with that is Mashiro, who currently bonds with a Yakuza before taking his turn, so this would mean he would become a triple turn figure unless we figure out a way to prevent it.

[Ronin]

We could shut down a triple turn with language like Nebula. "take a turn with only that Hero" kind of thing.

[Yodaking]

So then this is what I'm considering for the rest of the testing I have planned,, all other stats and powers would remain the same.

ENFORCER FOR HIRE
After revealing an Order Marker on the card of a Unique Mercenary, Terrorist, or Yakuza Hero's card you control and only taking a turn with that card, you may take an immediate turn with this Yakuza Enforcer and you may not take any additional turns with other figures you control.


Being able use their normal attack and bond with each other should their main hero go down early should be enough of a boon to get them up to where I would like them to be at the 60 point value. Went with after instead of before bonding after having played them with Diamondback and seeing how she actually wants to use her 2nd SA before they engage to tie up the target. It also means when facing multiple opponents you can wait and use them to engage an opponent after you see how the main hero performs on their turn. If the merc takes down a figure on their turn, no need to engage them and the yakuza and engage someone else who is still in play.

[Tornado]

Looking good.

[Ronin]

[Yodaking]

I know I haven't been getting much done here, but I did get some pics uploaded and I'm going to try to pick back up on the testing soon.

[Lazy Orang]

Is anything happening here?