The Book of Joker (Dark Judge)

[fret_gurglo]

RESILIENCE
If Joker would receive one or more wounds from an enemy figure's attack, special power, or leaving engagement attack, ignore one of those wounds.

Just clarifying that the special power must be an enemy's and not all special powers (such as his own Die Laughing or an exploding gas tank from the Motorbike).

[Tornado]

Should be. That is an established power.

[fret_gurglo]

Sorry T, my weekend plans got shot up. I'm still hoping to run tests, but if you don't want to wait, I understand. I did plan out my teams if you want to view/critique.

Test 1:
Joker + Dark Judges VS King Kong

Not really sure if Joker has much to offer against a single foe, but I'm curious to find out

Test 2:
Joker, Evil Ernie, The Crow, 4x Walkers, 6x Roamers, 3x Lurkers, 1x Motorbike vs Nightwing, Tempest, Cyborg, Starfire, Arsenal, Raven.

[Tornado]

No problem. Still time left to finish him up.

[IAmBatman]

Still have 3 weeks to get to Final Editing!

[fret_gurglo]

Version tested

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = JOKER
SECRET IDENTITY = ???

SPECIES = UNDEAD
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = DARK JUDGE
PERSONALITY = INSANE

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 6

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 2

POINTS = 200?

DIE LAUGHING SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack 2.
Once per round, if Joker did not move normally this turn, you may place a Wound Marker on this card to attack with this special attack. All non-Undead figures within 3 spaces of Joker are affected by this special attack. Roll attack dice once for all figures, figures cannot roll any defense dice against this special attack.

JUST LITTLE OLD ME
When another Unique Undead Hero you control is destroyed you may move all Order Markers and any figures from the destroyed Undead figure's card to this card.

RESILIENCE
If Joker would receive one or more wounds from an enemy figure's attack, special power, or leaving engagement attack, ignore one of those wounds.

Army Test
Map: Swamp Lab
Units: Evil Ernie (380), Joker (200), Lurker x3 (75), Motorbike (25), Roamer x6 (120), The Crow (200), Walker x4 (200) (1200) vs Arsenal (190), Cyborg (200), Nightwing (200), Raven (190), Starfire (210), Tempest (210) (1200)

Powers Used:
Die Laughing: 1
Die Laughing damage: 5
Just Little Old Me: 0
Resilience: 2

Damage from normal attacks: 0

Joker did deal 5 wounds (one to each member of the Titans), but only got into position because of the motorbike. Overall he was ok, but the really star of this undead team was The Crow. He was so difficult to attack that Starfire actually destroyed Cyborg just to weaken The Crow.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Arsenal 3/4 Life remaining, Starfire 1/5 Life remaining

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: Teams advance
Round 2: Walkers approach Nightwing for 1 wound. Ravens takes the wound and tosses it onto Ernie. Tempests throws water destroying 2 undead and 1 wound on Ernie. Nightwing destroys an undead. Crow hits Tempest for 2 wounds. Cyborg destroys an undead. Ernie runs up to Tempest and hits for 1 wound.
Round 3: Crow destroys Tempest and becomes a Roamer. Cyborg and Arsenal destroys an undead each. Starfire and Arsenal destroy 3 undead. Undead hit Raven for 1 wound, but on Ravern’s turn she gives that wound to Ernie. Starfire and Nightwing destroy an undead each.
Round 4: Crow hits Cyborg for 2 wounds. Raven destroys an undead.
Round 5: Joker rides in and deals 1 wound to each remaining Titan and Motorbike. Raven syphons 2 wounds from Cyborg and tosses one to Ernie. Starfire destroys the bike and 2 wounds carry over to Joker. Starfire continues attacking Joker and does 2 more wounds. Arsenal destroys Joker. Nightwing hits Ernie for 2 wounds. Crow shoots Cyborg for 2 wounds. Starfire destroys Ernie.
At this point 5 of the 6 Titans remain with minimal wounds (other than Cyborg). Undead have a full Crow and 2 Lurkers remaining.
Round 6: Crow attacks Nightwing and rolls 5 skulls, Nightwing defends with 3 skulls. Nightwing is destroyed and misses out on OM1 but does become a Walker. Crow hits Raven for 1 wound. Arsenal destroys a Walker. Starfire attacks and destroys Cyborg to remove the Crow marker then attacks crow for 3 wounds. Crow destroys Raven (Walker) and then hits Starfire for 3 wounds. Starfire returns the attack for 1 wound while Arsenal destroys the Raven Walker.
Round 7: Arsenal destroys Crow and then shoots a Lurker.
Round 8: Arsenal destroys the last Lurker

___________________________________________________________
Army Test
Map: Swamp Lab
Units: Dark Judges (800), Joker (200) (1000) vs Kong 1.0 (1000) (1000)

Powers Used:
Die Laughing: 1
Die Laughing damage: 1
Just Little Old Me: 0
Resilience: 3

Damage from normal attacks: 0

Judges are able to deal some wounds to Kong, but Kong pretty much just destroyed each one in a single hit. Joker did take the longest to drop because of Resilience. Overall not a good showing for the judges.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): King Kong 5/12 Life remaining

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: Fire hits Kong for 2 wounds. Judges teleport near and surrounding Kong.
Round 2: Kong leaps to Joker and strikes for 2 wounds. Joker Die Laughing for 1 wound. Kong hits Joker for 2 wounds. Kong throws Fear into Death for 1 wound on Fear. Kong destroys Joker. Mortis hits Kong for 1 wound.
Round 3: Fire hits Kong for 1 wound. Kong throws Fear across the map and attacks Fire for 2 wounds. Fire Purges for 1 wound and then attacks for 2 more. Kong throws Mortis into Fear and each take 1 wound. Kong destroys Fire. Kong destroys Death and heals 2. Kong destroys Fear.
Round 4: Kong hits Mortis for 3 wounds and next turn destroys him.

Army Test
Map: Swamp Lab
Units: Dark Judges (800), Joker (200) (1000) vs Kong 2.0 (1000) (1000)

Powers Used:
Die Laughing: 2
Die Laughing damage: 3
Just Little Old Me: 0
Resilience: 0

Damage from normal attacks: 0

Even with 1 less Attack, Kong was able to pretty much destroy each judge in 1 or 2 hits.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): King Kong 6/14 Life remaining

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: Kong destroys Death. Kong attacks and this Fire for 2 wounds. Joker Die Laughing does 2 wounds.
Round 2: Kong destroys Fear. Fire and Mortis deal 1 wound each. Kong destroys Fire. Joker Die Laughing for 1 wound. Kong rolls 7 skulls and destroys Joker.
Round 3: Mortis hits Kong for 1 wound. Kong hits Mortis for 2 wounds. Mortis hits for 1. Kong destroys Mortis.

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY:
Joker doesn’t feel worth 200. His most threatening power of Die Laughing has too many restrictions to make it very effective. Most games he only activated it once or maybe twice. Resilience is not enough to keep Joker alive to get him into position and activate Die Laughing more than once.

[fret_gurglo]

A couple of suggestions for Die Laughing to make it more enticing and/or easier to activate:

DIE LAUGHING SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack 3.
Once per round, if Joker did not move normally this turn he may attack with this special attack. All non-Undead figures within 3 spaces of Joker are affected by this special attack. Roll attack dice once for all figures, figures cannot roll any defense dice against this special attack. Joker takes wounds equal to the number of skulls rolled.

DIE LAUGHING SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack 1.
Once per round, instead of moving and attacking normally with Joker, you may place a Wound Marker on this card to move Joker 2 spaces and attack with this special attack. All non-Undead figures within 3 spaces of Joker are affected by this special attack. Roll attack dice once for all figures, figures cannot roll any defense dice against this special attack. If Joker inflicts at least 1 wound with this special attack, he may use this special attack again, up to a maximum of (3 or 4)? times.

[Tornado]

Thanks for the tests!

[IAmBatman]

Hmm, this one's a tough nut to crack. Came in a bit weak for T in the initial, went 4-0 and lifted up the Dark Judges against solid competition in the first set of public tests, but Karat did mention the SA was difficult to set up. Then went 0-3 for fret and felt way underpowered. (Caveat that a lot of mid-level hero builds are going to feel weak against King Kong, but not eager to open that bottle of worms).

[fret_gurglo]

Agreed that Kong isn't the best to test against for the Judges, but if not for The Crow (and a very luckly roll against Nightwing), the undead would have lost pretty badly against the Titans.

[Tornado]

I am not really looking to tinker here with a ticking clock on 1.0. @Karat what do you think?

[Karat]

Originally Posted by fret_gurglo

A couple of suggestions for Die Laughing to make it more enticing and/or easier to activate:

DIE LAUGHING SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack 3.
Once per round, if Joker did not move normally this turn he may attack with this special attack. All non-Undead figures within 3 spaces of Joker are affected by this special attack. Roll attack dice once for all figures, figures cannot roll any defense dice against this special attack. Joker takes wounds equal to the number of skulls rolled.

DIE LAUGHING SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack 1.
Once per round, instead of moving and attacking normally with Joker, you may place a Wound Marker on this card to move Joker 2 spaces and attack with this special attack. All non-Undead figures within 3 spaces of Joker are affected by this special attack. Roll attack dice once for all figures, figures cannot roll any defense dice against this special attack. If Joker inflicts at least 1 wound with this special attack, he may use this special attack again, up to a maximum of (3 or 4)? times.

I forgot to place the wounds when using Die Laughing in my games so in the first test Joker would've had 1 wound on him and in the second one he would've died at the end of R1 but since I didn't place the wound he died in T2 of the next round so almost no effect except for soaking up an attack from Ronin which could have gone on someone else and may have changed the outcome.

So I guess my results are really using the first modified power here minus the skull wounds at the end.