The Book of Ultron (Drone)

[japes]

Originally Posted by Karat

Point taken. He's one I haven't used yet and wasn't in the synergy listing I looked at.

Yeah, he's ON DECK

Originally Posted by Yodaking

I see a blank PT sheet, so there are no tests to discuss as far as I'm aware. We were discussing what the proposed upcoming tests should look like.

Yep. Fully aware of that. I too read the post. I was merely stating that AFTER he does do that proposed third test, I'm very interested to hear his opinions of the on deck units sometime.

I also mentioned those units to him earlier when discussing possible buddies for an Ultron army. So I was excited to see it listed.

[Yodaking]

Gotcha ya.

[tcglkn]

[Lord Pyre]

Finally done! I did 3 army tests here, and if you'd like more it'll be in the future, I've maxed out my testing time as of now!


As I mention in the notes, I recommend lowering the Ultron Imperative bonus. It encourages a play style that I don't believe is intended.



Another option which would help is to change the Age of Ultron power to moving Ultrons up to 4 spaces. That way they’re not hard to keep up with. You could increase the number of moved Ultrons to 3 then also. "You may instead move up to 2 Ultron figure you control up to 4 spaces each, and attack with up to one Ultron figure you control." That would keep the "swarm" style and make them a more effective screen, while making sure the opposing team can still keep up with them.


But that said, Ultron won 2 out of 3 games, and the one loss was because Nightwing dodged attacks for 3 rounds straight, so it wasn't a true loss, in my opinion. Ultron should have destroyed him.

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: ULTRON DRONES

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Ultron, Ultron Drones x4
Vs.
Fantastic Four.

Spoiler Alert!

R1: Reed, Sue and Ben move up. Ultron and a Drone move, and Ultron misses. Reed engages Ultron to tie him down. Ultron rolls a massive attack and deals 3 wounds to Reed! Ben misses a big 9 die attack on a Drone, and Reed runs away from Ultron. Ultron flies over Sue and hits her for 3 wounds!

R2: Reed puts 2 wounds on a Drone. Ultron slaughters Sue. Johnny tries to Flame On, but takes two wounds and misses his roll. He deals a wound to a Drone though. Ben rolls a big attack but it’s completely blocked by Ultron. Reed kills a drone. Ultron hits Reed for a wound. Reed rolls another bad roll and Ultron kills him.

R3: Johnny uses Flame On, killing a Drone and dealing 2 wounds to Ultron. Ultron hits Ben for 5 wounds. Wow. Johnny uses Flame On again for 2 additional wounds to Ultron, and then goes Supernova, but only rolls 3 skulls. Ultron kills Ben with another totally whiffed roll.

R4: Ultron kills Johnny after a little back and forth.

Spoiler Alert!

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Ultron with 6 wounds, and two Drones with 2 wounds each.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Ultron, Ultron Drones x4 (1000)
Vs.
Nightwing, Starfire, Raven, Cyborg, Changeling (990)

Spoiler Alert!

R1: Raven moves up first, and Nightwing then brings up Cyborg and Starfire, the latter of which blasts a Drone for 2 wounds. Ultron engages Starfire but misses. Starfire hits Ultron for 2, and Ultron retaliates for 1.

R2: Ultron kills Starfire, and Nightwing Activates Titan’s Go! Changeling misses an attack, Cyborg misses, but Nightwing kills a Drone. Changeling takes 4 wounds from an attack from Ultron. Raven absorbs all of Changelings wounds, and moves one to Ultron. Ultron disengages, taking a wound, but shoots Cyborg for 4! Cyborg blasts all the Drones, but only deals a single wound.

R3: A Drone engages Cyborg to prevent his Sonic Cannon from hitting all of them, and Ultron misses Changeling. Raven flies to Cyborg, and moves a wound to Ultron. Cyborg misses an attack, and Nightwing kills a Drone and wound another one. Ultron deals one wound to Changeling, and Nightwing misses.Ultron deals one more to Changeling.

R4: Ultron kills Cyborg. Changeling moves by Raven and attacks a Drone but misses. Raven takes two wounds from Changeling and moves one to Ultron. Nightwing kills another Drone. Ultron hits Raven for a wound, then transfers into the last remaining Drone, healing all 6 wounds he’s taken! Ultron kills Raven.

R5: Nightwing hops on an adjacent Shadow Tile for the defense boost, but also gives Ultron height advantage. Nightwing’s Eskrima bypasses Ultron’s defense, and he takes 4 wounds through the round. Changeling barely does anything and Ultron focuses on Nightwing because of that.

R6: Ultron disengages to get Nightwing off the shadow tile, taking a wound in the process. After taking more wounds, he turns his sights on Changeling to hopefully transfer to him, but can’t get it to work.

R7: Ultron deals two wounds to Changeling, but fails his Transmission roll. Nightwing makes short work of him after that.

Spoiler Alert!

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Nightwing with 0 wounds, and Changeling with 2 wounds.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Ultron, Ultron Drones x3, Gizmo, Mechanical Constructs x3 (1200)
Vs.
Prof. X, Cyclops, Jean, Beast, Angel, Forge, Shadowcat (II) (1190)

Spoiler Alert!

R1: Gizmo moves up some bots, and some X-Men also move. Cyclops and Forge each kill a bot. More bots move up, and Android Assault gives Prof X a wound. Cyclops and Jean manage to kill 3 bots. Ultron and a Drone move up, and blast Cyclops for 2 wounds.

R2: Ultron destroys Cyclops. Jean shoots Gizmo for a wound, and Shadowcat punches him for a wound. Gizmo rebuilds a Bot, and shoots Shadowcat for a wound. Shadowcat runs forward to attack the Drones, and Jean misses all her attacks. Ultron’s attack is blocked by Psychic Shield, and Shadowcat and Forge are both blocked as well.

R3: Angel carries Prof X forward closer to the battle, and Angel misses Gizo, and then Ultron deals a wound to Angel. Shadowcat kills a Drone in one hit! Jean misses everything again. Gizmo moves his Bots and they wound Prof X. Shadowcat wounds a Drone, and Beast finally moves up. Ultron is blocked by Psychic Shield again. Forge deals a wound to a Drone at the end of the round.

R4: Prof X blocks an Ultron attack, and a Drone runs from Shadowcat, taking a wound in the process. Jean misses and Forge deals a wound to the Drone he’s adjacent to. Gizmo rebuilds a Bot next to Prof X, and they deal him a wound. Jean throws Ultron next to her to try to protect Prof X, dealing him a wound. Beast misses Gizmo. Ultron hits Jean for 3 wounds. Sadowcat kills a Drone, and Forge runs to the last Drone, allowing him to kill it at the end of the round!

R5: Gizmo rebuilds a Bot, and the Bots finish off Prof X. Ultron kills Jean. Beast kills 3 Bots.

R6: Ultron deals a wound to Beast. Beast kills a Bot. Ultron hits Beast again, Beast hits Gizmo. Forge moves up and kills Gizmo.

R7: Beast hits Ultron for 2. Ultron hits Beast for 2 more wounds. Ultron finishes Beast. Forge hits Ultron for 2 wounds.

R8: Forge hits Ultron for 3 more wounds! Ultron hits Forge for 3 wounds. Lots of misses happen.

R9: Ultron kills Angel. Lots of back and forth.

R10: After a few misses, Ultron finally hits his 20 to transfer to one of the last remaining Bots in his start zone!! He had 9 wounds at that point!

R11: Ultron then kills Shadowcat. Forge kills a Bot. Ultron kills Forge.

Spoiler Alert!

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Ultron wins with 1 wound, and one Mechanical Construct left.

___________________________________________________________

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY:
Cost, Balance, and Draftability? I would take these guys every time I play Ultron. For what they do they seem pretty solid at 80 points. My concern is what they do with Ultron himself. I originally thought they’d swarm, but what they do in reality is be an extra life for Ultron that’s a pain in the butt for the opposing team. Ultron only transmitted once in these tests, and not even on a Drone, but the THREAT of transmission is devastating. The first two games I used the Drones as a screen for Ultron, but the last game is played more optimally for the unit, and that’s having them run away while Ultron is in the opponent’s face. I didn’t want to touch Ultron himself knowing that he could easily transmit to the Drones, so the game became Forge and Shadowcat running after Drones who were playing keepaway, while Ultron just kept blasting away, whittling down the X-Men’s forces. Is that how they SHOULD be played? Or INTENDED to be played?



GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT:
The Ultron army as is, is definitely fun. The Drones are tough, even with low stats. I never attacked with them once, however. I honestly think they’d be more fun for both teams if the Ultron Imperative power was changed to 1 or 2. That way they’re still the prime target for his Transmission, but then it doesn’t encourage their keepaway tactics quite as much. The Ultron armies dominated here, and that’s largely in part of the opponent trying to kill the Drones first, knowing that attacks on Ultron would be wasted. Dropping the Imperative bonus encourages more of using them as a screen (I would most likely still hide one, but that’s also decently thematic, since he hid one copy in the film, at least).

[MrNobody]

Sounds like the problem that the Doombots have. I’d be worried that modifying the UI roll won’t help that much.

[japes]

Originally Posted by MrNobody

Sounds like the problem that the Doombots have. I’d be worried that modifying the UI roll won’t help that much.

That’s my issue with the Doombots

[tcglkn]

I initially had the Imperative bonus lower because I was scared of this exact situation but multiple people told me that it should be higher than Jocasta’s. It made sense from a flavor perspective but I was still worried about it.

It sounds like the design is close so I would like to lower the roll to +1 and send them to public testing at 80 points and see how they do there. Thoughts?

[IAmBatman]

[Karat]

Pre-yea

[japes]

What if the attack was 1 event hero Ultron or 2 uncommon? That would lead to more opportunities of using the Bots as an army?

[Lord Pyre]

Few more thoughts that I didn't get to yesterday (I did those in a rush, children started getting rowdy)

Gizmo never healed any Drones. Frankly, I didn't care about their well-being at all. The fact that they're resurrection hubs for Ultron Prime is massive psychological warfare. Gizmo focused on using his bots as a screen, and dealing wounds to Prof X. The auto wounds were a very welcome addition to the army though, since Ultron has trouble breaking the psychic shield. Plus all the bots being good targets for Transmission makes Gizmo a good pairing with Ultron anyway.

Now for Transmission, strategy-wise: The way I play Ultron is to focus solely on targets with either lower defense, or vulnerable to Special Attacks. If Ultron deals them wounds he ALWAYS chooses an opponent's figure for Transmission, to try to get the auto kill. The only time I start focusing on the Drones are if Ultron has taken a few wounds. Even then I'll debate whether a small chance at an insta-kill is worth the risk of not choosing a Drone. And even then, especially with all the Gizmo-Bots running around, I still wasn't concerned about the Drones. I flew them around just to simply force the opponent to chase them, spreading his forces thin for Ultron to strike.

Now if we want to try to avoid the running, like I said lowering the bonus could help, but I have one more suggestion:

ULTRON IMPERATIVE 4
Whenever this Ultron is chosen for Ultron’s Program Transmission 20 special power, if this Ultron is within 5 spaces of that Ultron, add 4 to the 20-sided die roll.

Sure we'd have to rename it because of Jocasta, but it would keep them a bit more clumped together. The wording of "this and that Ultron" kinda sucks though.

Any other questions or thoughts?

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by japes

What if the attack was 1 event hero Ultron or 2 uncommon? That would lead to more opportunities of using the Bots as an army?

Fully in favour of this, or something like it.