The Book of Nitro

[Yodaking]

No new comments here of late so I'm going to go ahead and try to knock out the next couple of tests this week using what is now in the SP.

[L0B5T3R]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

No new comments here of late so I'm going to go ahead and try to knock out the next couple of tests this week using what is now in the SP.

Thanks a bunch YK

[Yodaking]

NAME OF THE TEST UNIT (Nitro)
Army Test 1
- Does it pass, Yes or No? No, I feel his one trick needs to be better to justify drafting him just to sacrifice him. With only a melee base attack and the desire to be as close to as many opponents’ figures as possible before SA detonation (which leaves him helpless afterwards), his life expectancy is very short at 4 def. & 4 life. So you can pretty much expect to blow him up once and that will be his primary contribution to your team.
- What should be the unit's point value? Hard to say as none of the Criminal heroes earned their points in this game. Losing initiative in R3 really hurt them as it was followed by a disastrous series of rolls that doomed their team. In hindsight, this might not have been the best match up for the criminals with the CCR being able to so easily dish out W’s to the 1 life Lex Corp and high def. but only 4 life Whirlwind.
- Give a brief preview. His big area attack should be most devastating to squads so I wanted to throw him up against the Invaders right away to see what he can do. Lex Corp gives him the bonding flex to move in and blow up at the right time while bonding with a ranged attacker who can easily stay out of the blast radius.
Map: Secret Sub Base
Units: Lex Corp Security x2, Nitro @190, Absorbing Man, Whirlwind (900) vs. Arthrian Invaders x3, Annihilus (900)

Spoiler Alert!

Mutant Growth Hormone Usage: End of R1 & R2 used to add a marker.
Special Attack Usage: Start of R4, Nitro wins initiative, moves into the middle of 4 bugs, and blows up. He rolls 1 skull on 5 dice, kills nothing (def. rolls of 1 shield, 1 shield, 2 shields, 1 shield).
Reconstitute Usage: Didn’t come into play as he was killed by adj. figures immediately after blowing himself up.
Normal Damage Dealt: none
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Annihilus @full life & Invaders (3 returned to play after being destroyed once) won.

Recap: By the end of the first round Annihilius and his army have taken down 3 of the 4 Lex Corp, thanks in large part to the Cosmic Control Rod. Absorbing Man missed his first absorption roll of the game but hit on the last OM and squished the 3rd bug of the round. With Absorbing Man now rolling 9+ att. dice, Annihilus was understandably worried about losing the CCR so he spends most of the round fleeing out of AB’s range while bringing more bugs into play. Whirlwind chases him around but fails to deal any wounds. Annihilus however does score a W on Whirlwind with the CCR. With the last OM, Whirlwind blows Annihilus & a bug over closer to the other bugs in an attempt to set up Nitro for a big blast should they win initiative. Annihilus wins initiative though (3rd time in a row) and avoids the trap. Things take a turn for the worse with that initiative loss as a bug gains HG on AB and hits him for 3W, another bug his Whirlwind for 1W (whiff on def.), then Annihilus uses the CCR to put another W on AB. AB climbs a ladder but fails to squish the Bug next to him, that bug then finishes off AB with a 4 skull att. roll. With Whirlwind already half dead and AB gone, Annihilus decides to try and finish Whilrwind off but fails to deal a W with the CCR and has his att. blocked. The last Lex Corp comes out to destroy the bug that killed AB and Whirlwind tried to knock the CCR out of Annihilus’ claw but only deals 1W. Annihilus brings another bug into play, then finished off Whirlwind with a big CCR roll. Nitro moves out to end the round. Nirto wins initiative, moves and blows up (see above). First bug that att. Nitro from HG deals 3W, second bug finishes him off from even ground with another 2W (4 skull att. again). Annihilus uses CCR to finish off last Lex Corp. and ends the game after OM1 of R4.

***Nitro card being tested was changed (boosted up to be stronger) at this point in testing**
Army Test 2
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Tentative yes, the dice just didn’t seem to be with the criminals all the often in this game and the Titans are a formidable team to beat, but the change to the SA at least made it seem as though hi big gamble was worth the risk even if it didn’t pan out.
- What should be the unit's point value? Still hard to say as I have yet to see him reach his potential.
- Give a brief preview. Giving him the same OM flex to blow up when needed via Hush this time. Instead of going up against squads though I’m going to try and use him to inflict a bunch of wounds to the Titans all at once and potentially overload Ravens ability to transfer the wounds back fast enough to mitigate all the damage. Starfire is Hush’s vendetta.
Map: Secret Sub Base (Concrete & Asphalt boost Tombstone, water tiles could help Aqualad)
Units: Hush, Nitro @200, Tombstone, Rhino (800) vs. Nightwing, Raven, Starfire, Wonder Girl, Aqualad (800)

Spoiler Alert!

Mutant Growth Hormone Usage: Marker added to card at the ends of R1 & R2, none at the end of R3 due to max number of markers on card, after blowing up in R4 another marker is added at the end of that round. (Just wanted to make sure here that is the intent, that after blowing up he can add another marker at the end of that round).
Special Attack Usage: Nitro has 3W and so decided he better use his SA before he gets taken down. He moves up to even ground with Starfire, and by doing so moves out of range of Nightwing for the SA. 1 skull on 4 dice is rolled, but the 2 auto skulls makes it a 3 skull att., not enough to kill Raven or Starfire who are both unwounded, both roll 2 shields on def. for 1W each.
Reconstitute Usage: Raven used Soul Self to transfer a W to him while he was a gas, not sure if that was intended to be allowed but I didn’t see anything that said it could not. They were adj. to each other at the time and Soul Self doesn’t say anything about clear sight.
Normal Damage Dealt: None, only normal att. resulted in 4 skulls but was blocked by Raven’s 4 shield defensive roll (Raven had HG).
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Raven w/2W and Starfire w/0W won the day.

Recap: Wonder Girl lasso’s Tombstone and deals 1W to him, Rhino charges Wonder Girl to free Tombstone from the lasso and deals 2W to her, then Starfire moves to HG adj. to Tombstone and att. 3 times (thanks to the 2W on Wonder Girl) and on the 3rd att. rolls all skulls which KO’s Tombstone. That is the end of R1. Rhino punches Wonder Girl for all 3 OM’s in R2 and only manages 1W, while the Titans put 3W on Rhino. In R3, Rhino finally manages to finish off Wonder girl on OM2, while his defense was stellar at holding out vs. the Titans. Rhino then moves to HG on Aqualad and KO’s him with 1 punch and Raven scores 1W on Rhino to close out the round. Titans win initiative in R4, Starfire takes HG adj. to Rhino and no allies and puts him down, Raven moves adj. to Starfrie and hits Hush from LG for 2W!, Nightwing engages Hush on LG and deals another W. Nitro rushes Raven and att. from LG but gets blocked (4 shield roll on def.). Starfire puts a quick 3W on Nitro while att. from HG. Nitro opts to move up to even ground with Starfire and detonate in a desperate gamble to pull out a win (see results above). Raven transfers 1W to Nitro with Soul Self (from Starfire), then to end the round Hush scores a takedown of Nightwing when he whiffs on def. and Hush rolls 3 skulls on att. from an adj. att., granting him 1 more W of damage for the sudden KO. Starfire wins initiative in R5 and immediately takes down Nitro (who only had 1 life remaining at this point) on her first att. Hush puts a W on Raven from HG, then Starfire att. Hush at range from LG and ends the game.

Army Test 3
- Does it pass, Yes or No? I have a few suggestions but yes, after finally seeing him SA do some damage (as a result of poor def. rolls and on his second life) I feel he can be a fun addition to C3G.
- What should be the unit's point value? The final results are still looking as though he needs a price drop to me but with that price drop I would draft him from time to time and hope for the best.
- Give a brief preview. I’m using this 3rd test to check out his mutate synergy, which is only Jackal right now. However, Jackal possibly being able to bring him back for a second run could add up to a lot of explosions so the idea here is to try and make the game last as long as possible. Blob will be sent in tie down as many of the Wrecking Crew as possible while absorbing their attacks, while Beast will try to remove OM’s and limit the number of turns the Wrecking Crew can take between full power explosions.
Map: Secret Sub Base
Units: Jackal, Nitro@210, Blob, Beast (800) vs. Wrecking Crew (800)

Spoiler Alert!

Mutant Growth Hormone Usage: Marker placed at the end of R1 & R2. Nitro was dead at the end of R3, with both markers still on his card, but with Jackal’s ability to bring him back into the game the question arises should I remove those markers when he dies?
Special Attack Usage: Start of R4, Nitro has been returned to play as Jackal’s experiment and is still fully charged up (I did not remove any markers from his card when he died or as part of the Experimental Cloning power), he charges out to a spot where all 3 members of the WR can get caught in his explosion and detonates, rolling 1 skull for a 3 skull att., Bulldozer whiffs on def. and takes all 3 W, Wrecker (on HG) only manages 1 shield on 7 def. dice and takes 2W, then Thunderball (also on HG) only gets 2 shields on 7 def. dice to take 1W as well.
Reconstitute Usage: Wrecker is forced to come down off of HG and engage Nitro in order to att. him.
Normal Damage Dealt: Piledriver whiffed on def. when Nitro hit him for a 3 skull normal att., Piledriver only had 1 life remaining and goes down.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Wrecker w/2W, Thunderball w/1W, & Bulldozer w/3W won.

Recap: R1, Blob manages to inflict 1W to Piledriver while the Wrecking Crew fails to dal any W’s to Blob. To start R2, Blob has a perfect att. roll and deals a quick 3W to Piledrver, then Blob whiffs on def. and Piledriver deals 3W right back to him. Piledriver takes another W from Blob and Wreck manages to score a W on Blob as well. Blob tries to finish Piledriver off but fails, while Thunderball hits Blob for 1W from HG to end the round. Thunderball wins initiative in R3 and takes down Blob from HG when Blob whiffs on def. again, triggering the first successful Wrecking Crew of the game, which is just used to move Bulldozer up as no one else is in range. OM1 lost on Blob though so Wrecker takes HG but has no targets in range. Nitro engages Piledriver and takes him out with a normal att. Wrecker att. Nitro from HG but gets blocked (3 shields!), 18 rolled for WC, Thunderball gives it a try though and deals 4W from HG!, another 18 rolled for WC, Bulldozer charges him from 3 spaces out and rolls 4 skulls to put Nitro down, WC roll of 20 now (after not having any successful WC rolls in the first 2 rounds we have 3 in a row here), Thunderball moves up and att. Beast from HG, blocked! OM3 lost on Nitro. Jackal rolls a 20 for his experiment though and Nitro is back in the game in the very next round after getting destroyed! Nitro wins initiative and since he is fully charged up wastes no time running out and blowing up (see above for details), as an experiment now he takes 1W himself as well. Thunderball att. Beast from HG and deals 2W. Beast att. Thunderball to no avail. Wrecker comes down off HG to att. Nitro and deals 3W. Beast leaps adj. to Wrecker and att. but again gets blocked. Wrecker att. Nitro again and hits him for another 3W (on 1 life left) to take him down, WC roll of 7, Thunderball moves up adj. to Jackal and att. for 1W, WC roll of 15, Bulldozer charges Beast from 2 spaces away, 3W puts Beast down. No cloning this round, Thunderball wins initiative and puts another W on Jackal. Jackal fails to deal any damage to Thunderball, Wrecker moves and att. Jackal at range from LG dealing 1W, WC roll of 17, Thunderball att. and gets blocked, WC roll of 18, Wrecker moves adj. on even ground and ends Jackal with a 2W att. (only 1 life remaining).
Final Thoughts: After these games it seems to me that his ability to survive long enough to charge up and then get into a position to inflict the most damage to your enemy while doing the least amount of damage to your own figures is a key component, as such I would actually advocate for his life to get bumped up to 6. I did find it odd when I realized that I could place a marker on his card in the same round in which he blew himself up though, as such I think the Reconstitute and MGH powers be worded to not allow that. I think it would mitigate some of the concern people have about the 2 auto skulls if after blowing up he had to wait another full 2 rounds to get back to full strength. Finally, even with the extra life I feel his points still need to drop some to justify his role as a suicide bomber. He will be a big boom or bust figure when you play him and as such I can’t see myself investing 200 points in him when I can get some pretty good reliable figures in the 180-200 point range already. So this is where I see him:
NAME = NITRO
SECRET IDENTITY = ROBERT HUNTER

SPECIES = MUTATE
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = CRIMINAL
PERSONALITY = DESTRUCTIVE

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 6

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 5
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = 170

MUTANT GROWTH HORMONES 2
At the end of the round, add one MGH marker on each Army Card you control with the Mutant Growth Hormone 2 special power up to a max of 2.

SELF DETONATION SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack 4+ Special.
All figures within “X” spaces of Nitro are affected by this Special Attack, where “X” is equal to 1+ the number of MGH Markers on this card. Add 1 Skull to your roll for each MGH Marker on this card. Roll attack dice once for all affected figures. Affected figures roll defense separately. After using Self Detonation Special Attack remove all MGH Markers from this card.

RECONSTITUTE
After using his Self Detonation Special Attack, for the rest of the round, Nitro may not use any other powers on this card, take any turns, and cannot be targeted by opponents' non-adjacent figures for any attacks or special powers that require clear sight.

[L0B5T3R]

I really appreciate you running the initial for me @Yodaking ! I linked it in the OP. The changes you suggested look good to me. I still wonder if there was a way we could boost him even more. I think he is a fairly formidable villain (especially offensively) and should be costed in the 200 range. He is rarely defeated with fists, it typically takes some creative means to stop him.

While in his gas state, he is essentially immune from physical attacks. It's hard to punch air and all. I wonder if he could be immune from attacks in general after exploding? I know that could be broken but I wonder if we could make it work somehow? I also like the idea of letting him reconstitute after revealing an OM on his card. So you could get him back in time to use his normal attack and gain a MGH marker.

RECONSTITUTE
After using his Self Detonation Special Attack, Nitro may not use any other powers on this card, take any turns, and cannot be targeted by opponents' non-adjacent figures for any attacks or special powers that require clear sight, until an order marker is revealed on this card.

Just spitballin trying to get his value up.

[Yodaking]

Having him not take any damage while in gas form would certainly help him return to harass his opponents some more. Wanting to move into the very heart of your opponents forces before blowing up insures you are easy to engage and attack after ward while in gas form. So taking away that option would give him a chance to reform and fight some more. I feel he should still be out of play for a round though, and lose out on collecting an MGH marker in the same round he detonates. I also feel like you shouldn't be able to hide him in his gas form by not putting any OM's on his card, that could be annoying for your opponent.

The wording you just suggested would still allow for some non-clear sight powers to damage him. Prof. X mental attack, Raven's Soul Self, area attacks that don't target him specifically but encompass the hex he is located on, etc. I think those all work thematically though and give your opponents at least a few options.

[Lazy Orang]

How about:

If there are no MGH Markers on this card, Nitro may not use any other powers on this card, take any turns, and cannot be targeted by opponents' non-adjacent figures for any attacks or special powers that require clear sight, until an order marker is revealed on this card.

[japes]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

How about:

If there are no MGH Markers on this card, Nitro may not use any other powers on this card, take any turns, and cannot be targeted by opponents' non-adjacent figures for any attacks or special powers that require clear sight, until an order marker is revealed on this card.

That's a theme break as people want him to be able to be used without MGH markers.

I think the OM reveal idea works. He wouldn't have any MGH markers on his card but he would still be able to attack.

[japes]

RECONSTITUTE
After using his Self Detonation Special Attack, Nitro may not use any other powers on this card, take any turns, and cannot be targeted by opponents' non-adjacent figures for any attacks or special powers that require clear sight, until an order marker is revealed on this card or the start of the next round.

does that fix your issue @Yodaking

It gives him the chance to come back earlier and not hide out and if he doesn't it makes it so he can't get a MGH marker the round he explodes.

[Yodaking]

I think I could live with it if it is thematically appropriate to have you blow up on OM1 and reconstitute on OM2 to blow up again (with no markers).

*edit* Although I suppose that means if you just blow up every time you take a turn no one could ever attack you back (with a few exceptions mentioned above) and that could be a problem. Maybe make the SA a once per round power then? Even then, if I blow up on OM1 every round then my opponent needs to win initiative to try and take him out. In that case I'd scale his life back to 4 or 5 life then. He would only be rolling 4 attack dice for his SA and only hitting those adj. to him but it would be interesting to see play out.

[Yodaking]

So what are we doing here? Do I need to run any more tests or are we going to move forward with public testing?

[L0B5T3R]

Where we going to try the cannot be attacked while in gas form route?

[Yodaking]

We can, I just need to know what the mechanics are going to be. Might want to get @Ronin in here as well as the CRB for some rules/tactics evaluation on what that change will bring with it.