The Book of Judge Death

[Tornado]

Thanks dok.

I playtested that army with the Vampire Minions against the F4 and did OK. It was no match for one of the better C3G builds, but it was a lot of fun with many multiple turns on both sides.
I would say it was one of the most fun playtests I have conducted.

The one I have not tried is Kirigi. He has the ability to get 'multi-attacks', which is rare for Undead.
I am a bit uneasy about not knowing how he will run with Crow and Gentleman Ghost. Hopefully that will be resolved in playtesting.

[johnny139]

Death Sentence was looking a bit clunky to me, but wording adjustments are improving that.

I'd like to see his Life come down a bit... maybe to 4, just to keep him from getting TOO annoying, since he can heal AND come back from the dead.

[Tornado]

Both of those powers are restricted.

He only can heal if he has two or fewer wounds and then only at the end of the round. In playtests I have inflicted three wounds on him in the first round negating Teleporting and Healing for the entire game.

He only can come back to life if he is destroyed and there is an Unique Undead Hero to place his figure on. Then that figure must destroy an enemy figure that is not Undead, Android, or DO.

Yes he can heal and come back but both of those powers are more conditional than other powers of those types.

[dok]

Originally Posted by Tornado

I playtested that army with the Vampire Minions against the F4 and did OK. It was no match for one of the better C3G builds, but it was a lot of fun with many multiple turns on both sides.
I would say it was one of the most fun playtests I have conducted.

Cool. Of course, Vampire Minions are really just filler there, and not particularly useful filler (more melee attackers in a powerful melee build, and they can't protect others from ranged attacks).

Originally Posted by Tornado

The one I have not tried is Kirigi. He has the ability to get 'multi-attacks', which is rare for Undead.
I am a bit uneasy about not knowing how he will run with Crow and Gentleman Ghost. Hopefully that will be resolved in playtesting.

Krigi's ability to move figures and autowound are definitely useful in this build, but he's a bit limited, as you would expect for those points.

Really, as I said, while the Frank/JD/Solomon trio makes a lot of sense together, they are very one-note and can get taken apart by opponents that can move figures, counter normal attacks, manipulate opponent's melee figures, etc. At the ~1000 point range, the better move is probably to leave out Frankenstein, and just pick 420 points of support figures that can solve the problems those figures have. Double turns could also be nice for speeding up the return of Solomon Grundy.

At 980 points, I could see playing Judge Death + Solomon Grundy + Magneto (310) + Mastermind. That gives you protection against range, a ranged attack of your own, the ability to inflict autowounds, the ability to move opponent's figures, and a more consistent way to take double turns. That's a much more balanced competitive build.

If I was playing a big 1500 point game, I'd be much more inclined to include Frankenstein as a third undead figure and a 1-2 punch with Grundy, but I'd look for complimentary figures after that rather than adding more undead.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by dok

Test build:

290 JD
290 Solomon Grundy
320 Frankenstein
900

SG doesn't need OMs until Frank is dead, becuase both Frank and JD can activate him. JD can be put on Solomon Grundy so you can never really get him out of the game until everyone is dead.

The obvious weakness of the army is that it's three melee heroes, with no real protection against ranged attacks, only one special attack, no autowounders, and no ability to move opponent's figures. At higher point totals these are the things I would try to address. No need for more undead figures IMO.

Throwing Weather Wizard in there helps with those weaknesses and gives you a nice even 1,000.

[Tornado]

Nice Magneto/Mastermind build. I will have to try that. It might make JD worth 290.

Yeah the Vampire Minions were just to keep the Undead theme.
Something else could have made that a bit stronger.

Grundy with Death can be awesome if they both come back once or more.

[Karat]

This is exactly why I waited on designing Drac. I wanted to test him with Death to make sure they wouldn't be too overpowered together.

[Margloth]

Would it be thematic to keep the defense reduction on the SA to figures without Super Strength? It seems a bit weird to me that this guy has such potential to beat on heavy hitters like Superman and Thor.

Does he regularly face off against actual superheroes? Or more of just Judge Dredd caliber?

[Tornado]

Margloth

He does not face heroes on the epic level.
He can insert his hand, almost phantom like, into his victim's chest.
I do not think SS would be a defense. In fact I think being a brawler would be a negative. Fast and nimble trumps Judge Death. That is why an Unique Hero receive one defense, so one shield defenders have a chance.

He really does not beat up on anyone with only three attack and range one, combined with a single attack.

After playtesting him, you find he is not nearly as bad ass as he seems.

[Margloth]

I don't think he will regularly take down Thor on his own, but if he routinely shaves 5-6 life off of Thor by himself, well... That would drive his cost up quite a bit (especially since he's quite the team player).

[Tornado]

I have to disagree, based off my playtests.
If you can show that to be a fact I will listen.
He is not as strong as a team player as he may seem.
Wolverine owned him.

I addressed the Thor thing before. Thor has range and fly and should absolutely obliterate Judge Death every time. Once he inflicts three wounds on Death he cannot teleport or heal. Move 4, Range 1.

[IAmBatman]

I got a chance to run him in a test or two a few months back and I didn't come away with any balance concerns, fwiw. I'd be reluctant to see major mechanical changes before an initial.