Hydra Agents

[IAmBatman]

I don't mind their being inspired by an Event Hero Terrorist. I don't think giving turn bonding to an Event Hero Terrorist is a good idea, though.

[Ericth74]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

I don't mind their being inspired by an Event Hero Terrorist. I don't think giving turn bonding to an Event Hero Terrorist is a good idea, though.

I would agree here.

[Ericth74]

Added to public playtesting

[IAmBatman]

Grammatical error here:

IMMORTAL HYDRA
When defending, figures in the Hydra faction have +1 Defense for each Hydra Agent that have been defeated this turn, even if all Hydra Agents are defeated.

Should be "has."

Getting these guys all set up today. Exciting!

[Ericth74]

Originally Posted by IAmBatman

Grammatical error here:

IMMORTAL HYDRA
When defending, figures in the Hydra faction have +1 Defense for each Hydra Agent that have been defeated this turn, even if all Hydra Agents are defeated.

Should be "has."

Getting these guys all set up today. Exciting!

Great I look forward to your results.

[IAmBatman]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM
NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: HYDRA AGENTS
VERSION TESTED

Spoiler Alert!

Hydra Agents



Card PDF

NAME = HYDRA AGENTS

UNIQUENESS = COMMON SQUAD (4)
SPECIES = HUMAN
CLASS = TERRORISTS
PERSONALITY = FANATICAL

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 1

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 6
ATTACK = 2
DEFENSE = 2

POINTS = 80

FANATICAL FOLLOWERS
After an ordered activation with a Unique Hero who is a Terrorist or in the Hydra faction, you may activate the Hydra Agents and then end your turn.

IN NEED OF LEADERSHIP
A HYDRA Agent has +1 Attack if it is within 4 clear spaces of a Unique Hero who is a Terrorist or is in the Hydra faction.

IMMORTAL HYDRA
When defending, figures in the Hydra faction have +1 Defense for each Hydra Agent that has been defeated this turn, even if all Hydra Agents are defeated.

FACTION = Hydra
PUBLISHER = Marvel
KEYWORDS =
SYMBOLS =

Team Test
Map: ISLAND PLANE CRASH
Units: Hydra Agents x3 (240), Red Skull (240), Baron von Strucker (220), Crossbones (160), Sin (140) (1000) vs Justice League Trinity (1000)
Unit Summary: Feeling pretty strong so far. Their Unique Heroes are no chumps and each have tricks to make things a bit easier on them. Hydra Troopers being able to move in mass and build defense as they go make them hard to take out and effective as screens. After this game, I’m wondering if Death Spore Release shouldn’t be once per round. Hydra Agents make it easy to keep him unengaged and it’s not a tough roll to hit.
Game Summary

Spoiler Alert!

Red Skull chooses Crossbones as his servant.
Initiative Trinity. Batman climbs to one plan wing. Red Skull and a squad of Hydra Agents take another wing. Wonder Woman flies up in front of Batman. Sin advances and shoots at Wonder Woman, whose bracelets deflect. Hydra Troopers move up and all four shoot at Wonder Woman. Her bracelets deflect one, she blocks two, and she takes 1 wound from the last attack. Superman advances and uses a Justice Marker. Wonder Woman punches out a Hydra Trooper from height. Batman attacks Red Skull and two Hydra Troopers, all of whom have the defense boost, and fails to hit any. Baron von Strucker hits Wonder Woman with a Death Spore wound and subtracts from her defense. Hydra Troopers move next to Wonder Woman and attack, inflicting 1 wound on her and 1 on Superman (who saves her from a 2 wound attack). A Trooper fails to hit Batman from range and height disadvantage.
Wonder Woman uses a Justice Marker. Initiative Trinity. Superman takes a swipe from a Hydra agent and attacks down on Red Skull but only hits for 1 wound. Batman throws three Batarangs, auto wounding Red Skull with help from a marker burn, auto wounding a Hydra Trooper, and then failing to hit another Hydra Trooper. Wonder Woman takes out a Hydra Trooper from height. Red Skull reveals the “X” and has Crossbones double attack Batman from range and height disadvantage for 4 quick wounds to defeat him (the rerolls scored the fourth wound). Red Skull can’t hit an adjacent Superman from height disadvantage. Superman can only hit Red Skull for one wound from height. Sin engages Superman but neither she nor the Hydra Agents can hit him. Superman finally punches out Red Skull. Strucker releases Death Spores and hits Superman for a wound but can’t hit Wonder Woman. Hydra Agents attack Superman four times (three times from height) but he somehow survives despite defensive subtraction from Sin and Strucker.
Wonder Woman uses a Justice Marker. Initiative Hydra. Strucker finally gets to move up some Hydra Agents from the start zone. Strucker gets a Death Spore on Wonder Woman but misses Superman. Agents attack again in the same position and hit Superman for 1 wound. Superman takes a risk and one-shots Sin from height. Wonder Woman takes out a Hydra Agent. Strucker hits both Superman and Wonder Woman with Death Spores. Hydra Agents hit Superman for 2 wounds and Wonder Woman for 1 wound to end it.

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): Inflicted [7] wounds on [Wonder Woman [3], Superman [4]]
• FANATICAL FOLLOWRS: Used for [7] activations
• IN NEED OF LEADERSHIP: Attack boost was [not hard to get]
• IMMORAL HYDRA: Defense boost was [good at disincentivizing attackers from taking them on first]

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Baron von Strucker with full life, Crossbones with full life, and Hydra Agents x2 win.

___________________________________________________________

Team Test
Map: CITY PARK
Units: Hydra Agents x3 (240), Red Skull (240), Baron von Strucker (220), Crossbones (160), Sin (140) (1000) vs FANTASTIC FOUR (1000)
Unit Summary: Fan Four tried their best. They didn’t have amazing dice, but nothing out of bounds. Had they won initiative the third round this had a chance to go the other way, but the Hydra team definitely felt like the stronger team.
Game Summary

Spoiler Alert!

Red Skull chooses Crossbones as his Servant.

Initiative Fantastic Four. Thing and Mister Fantastic advance. Crossbones and Red Skull advance and take out three trees. Invisible Woman advances. Human Torch advances and blasts the Great Evergreen for 1 wound. Mister Fantastic throws a large Evergreen into the Great Evergreen and destroys both, sending the Great Evergreen into Hydra and KO’ing 2 Agents and putting 1 wound each on Sin and Strucker. Sin advances and snipes Human Torch for 1 wound. Agents advance and can’t hit anything. Human Torch rolls all skulls from height and takes out a whiffing Sin. Mister Fantastic takes height. Strucker tries his Death Spores on Torch and Mister Fantastic and hits Mister Fantastic. Agents advance and attack from disadvantage, scoring 1 hit on Mister Fantastic in four tries.
Initiative Fantastic Four. Great leadership roll activates the full team. Human Torch engages Strucker from height but can’t hit him. Invisible Woman and Thing both take out Hydra Agents from height. Mister Fantastic throws a tree at defensively +2 Strucker and hits for 2 wounds. Strucker avoids a swipe from Human Torch and Death Spores Thing, Torch, and Mister Fantastic. Agents attack four times and hit Invisible Woman and Human Torch for 1 wound each. Human Torch fails a Flame On after taking a swipe, but does punch out a Hydra Agent. Thing fully Clobbers from height and takes out Strucker and a Hydra Agent. Mister Fantastic punches out a third Hydra Agent. Crossbones double attacks with 3 skulls each time and finishes off Human Torch. Red Skull double attacks Mister Fantastic from range and lands a fourth wound. Thing goes solo and double Clobbers Red Skull, but rolls 4 skulls each time and only lands 1 wouind with each hit. Red Skull punches a whiffing Thing for 1 wound. Hydra Agents catch Thing outside of Invisible Woman’s aura and shoot him for 1 wound.
Initiative Hydra. Red Skull has Crossbones go and Crossbones takes out Thing from range. Red Skull moves up and punches out Mister Fantastic. The Fan Four have no more Order Markers for the round. Red Skull engages Invisible Woman and punches her for 2 wounds. Hydra Agents surround Invisible Woman, but fail to hit her. Crossbones can’t get adjacent to Invisible Woman. Four Hydra Agents attack from height disadvantage and 1 lands 1 wound.
Initiative Fantastic Four. Invisible Woman can’t hit a Hydra Agent from height. Crossbones punches Invisible Woman out.

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): Inflicted [5] wounds on [Mister Fantastic [1], Invisible Woman [2], Human Torch [1], Thing [1]]
• FANATICAL FOLLOWRS: Used for [5] activations
• IN NEED OF LEADERSHIP: Attack boost was [easy to get and maintain]
• IMMORAL HYDRA: Defense boost was [useful but not game breaking]

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Full Life Crossbones, Red Skull with 3/5 Life, and 1 Full Squad of Hydra Agents win.

___________________________________________________________

UNIT SUMMARY: Possibly running a tad hot still? Though I think Baron von Strucker going down to once per round on the Death Spores could help.

[Yodaking]

Once per round on Death Spores is cool with me. It looks like these guys are undergoing the same kind of transformation the Hired Henchmen experienced, so the same solution seems like the right move to make. Run them as a 3 figure squad in the next test and see if that leads to a more competitive environment.

[IAmBatman]

My suggestions to Eric (largely because I like them thematically as a 4 figure team and I want to see if it's possible to keep it, just because the endless horde aspect feels right for them and being a bit more powerful than the Henchmen makes sense thematically) were to do that limit to Strucker and then drop the defense on these guys to 1 (you'll get boosted easily enough) and bump their cost up quite a bit.

[Yodaking]

If you have a hero with a single attack, 1 defense or 3, you still only can kill 1 per turn. Meanwhile they still get 4 tries + the bonded hero to try and crack your defense.

[IAmBatman]

For sure. Which part of the points going way up would be pricing out x3 builds

[japes]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

If you have a hero with a single attack, 1 defense or 3, you still only can kill 1 per turn. Meanwhile they still get 4 tries + the bonded hero to try and crack your defense.

If you are down to one single attacking figure with low defense and they still have a Hero and squads...I don't think it matters if they are a squad of 3 or 4 there.

And if you kill all their Heroes they have an attack of 2.

[japes]

If the options are squad of 3 at 80 or a squad of 4 at 120 i'd lean on the squad of 3 though.