The Book of Wildcat

[Lazy Orang]

- Theme Test - Tentative Pass - I don't really know the character, but he feels like a top-class striker.
- Mirror Test - Pass
- Bonding Test - Pass - JSA bonding is fine.
- Synergies Test - Pass - Fight Coach is a nice bonus, but not too much.
- Power Check - Pass - He's solid, but nothing that can't be dealt with. What with The Ol' One Two, though, he might be one of the figures in the game most consistently able to inflict wounds.
- Fun Test - Definite Pass - He's tonnes of fun!
- Fun Competitive Test - Pass - His low defence/high life makes him oddly fun to fight - you usually feel like you're getting somewhere.
- Drafting Test - Pass - Most certainly, in a number of builds.
- Usage Test - Pass - All of his powers felt fun and useful.
- Strategy Test - Pass - He’s a really distinct and interesting figure. Choosing a Trainee, as well as what type of build to put him in (there are plenty of options) makes him strategic enough in the drafting stage, and the fact he’s a rare figure whose survivability comes from a high life and low defence makes him even more distinct and interesting. When you then add his two fun, useful and evocative fighting powers, he’s really interesting.

Name Of The Playtest Unit: Wildcat

Army Test 1
Map: Vestige by Dignan (no glyphs)
Armies:
Wildcat, Flash (Jay Garrick), Hawkman (Carter Hall), Atom (Al Pratt), Luke Cage, Swordsman (1,200 Points)
vs.
Satanus, Doctor Doom (Sorcerer), Sub-Mariner, Kristoff von Doom, 1x Doombot, Final Ruin, 1x Healing Energy, 1x Hellfire: Ignition, 1x Hellfire: Fireball (1,200 points)

Spoiler Alert!

Overview of Wildcat’s performance:
Damage inflicted through normal attacks (not including The Ol’ One Two): 3 wounds on Satanus, 1 wound on Kristoff von Doom.
Damage inflicted through Fight Coach: 2 wounds on Doctor Doom
Damage inflicted through The Ol’ One Two: 1 wound on Satanus, 1 wound on Hawkman (while controlled by Doom), 1 wound on Kristoff von Doom
Damage inflicted through Rope-a-Dope: 1 wound on Kristoff von Doom

Swordsman is Wildcat’s Trainee.

Round One

The Menaces claim the initiative. Satanus lumbers forwards.
Hawkman activates the X and the entire Justice Society springs into action, advancing.
Namor flies up into a pool of water on the south-western hill.
Hawkman burns Order Marker 3 and flies forwards before commanding Atom to charge Satanus, striking him from low ground and inflicting a massive three wounds with a deadly blow. Namor flies in to retaliate with Water Avenger, striking Atom for a wound.
Satanus bites at Atom with a normal attack from high ground, inflicting a wound.
Doom invokes Demons, powering himself up.

Round Two

The Justice Society claims the initiative. Hawkman burns Order Marker 3 and flies closer to the fighting. Atom burns the X and strikes Namor square in the jaw with an Atomic Punch, inflicting two wounds.
Satanus bites Atom’s face, inflicting two wounds.
Hawkman swoops in and strikes Namor from higher ground, inflicting a wound. Atom also punches Namor, but to no avail.
Satanus enters a Chomping Frenzy - he bites off Atom’s head before wandering towards Flash and Hawkman, failing to hurt them.
Satanus enters another Chomping Frenzy, biting Flash for two wounds and failing to hurt Hawkman before wandering off, taking a wound for disengagement and engaging Wildcat, failing to hurt him.
Doctor Doom finishes his rituals to reach full power.

Round Three

The Justice Society claims the initiative. Hawkman burns Order Marker 3 and strikes Namor, but fails to hurt him. Flash runs past Hawkman and Namor, swapping them them with a Disorienting Whirlwind, before running up to punch Satanus from higher ground, failing to harm him.
Satanus enters a Chomping Frenzy - first he chomps off Flash’s head, then he fails to harm Wildcat before circling round and biting Luke Cage for two wounds.
Hawkman receives a leaving engagement blow from Namor before flying to higher ground and striking him, knocking him clean out. Wildcat punches Satanus for a wound.
Satanus strikes Wildcat, shockingly only inflicting a wound.
Satanus bites Wildcat again, inflicting three wounds.

Round Four

Satanus claims the initiative and bites Wildcat, inflicting two wounds.
Hawkman burns Order Marker 3 before flying in and striking Satanus from low ground but is blocked. Wildcat punches Satanus for two wounds.
Satanus bites Hawkman, inflicting two wounds.
Hawkman strikes Satanus with a deadly blow, inflicting two wounds. Wildcat jabs at Satanus, failing to hurt him but getting him off guard, before cracking him with a right hook and knocking him out and eliminating the enemy’s next turn.

Round Five

The Justice Society claims the initiative. Hawkman and Wildcat advance to the north-east hill, keeping to jungle cover.
Doctor Doom flies forwards and blasts Hawkman for a wound. He dominates Wildcat, who rushes up to Hawkman and feints with a jab before cracking him across the jaw, inflicting a wound. Kristoff runs forwards and throws a fireball at Wildcat, hoping to harm him and take out Hawkman, but Wildcat is unharmed.
Hawkman swoops in and smashes Doctor Doom for a wound. Wildcat charges in and strikes Kristoff from height, faking a jab before delivering a blow to his gut, inflicting a wound.
Doctor Doom strikes Hawkman, but Hawkman is unharmed. Kristoff moves to equal ground with Wildcat and strikes him - Wildcat hangs back, feigning weakness, but blocks the blow before striking back, though he misses in doing so.
Doom murders Hawkman. Kristoff strikes Wildcat, who fakes him out before punching back, inflicting a wound.

Round Six

The Justice Society claims the initiative. Wildcat punches Kristoff, inflicting a wound.
Doom slaughters Wildcat. Kristoff runs forwards and casts Ignition on Swordsman, but fails to harm him.
Swordsman charges forwards and runs Kristoff through. Luke advances.
Doom heals himself before dominating Swordsman, who turns around and turns his blade on Luke Cage, inflicting two wounds and leaving Luke lacerated, gasping for breath, but alive.
Enraged by how he’s been used to turn on his comrade in arms, Swordsman charges Doom, laying into him with his blade, inflicting a wound. Luke charges Doom and punches him for a wound.
Doom clasps his hands around Luke Cage’s throat, choking the life out of him.

Round Seven

Swordsman lays into Doom, managing to inflict a wound on him thanks to the tutelage he has received under the watchful eye of the late Ted Grant.
Doom strikes Swordsman, who blocks the blow with his blade.
Swordsman, again owing the strength of his swordarm to Wildcat’s training, runs Doom through... but finds metal and wires rather than flesh and blood. A Doombot!
The real Doom flies forwards and blasts Swordsman from range, before Dominating him, forcing him to retreat.
Swordsman gathers himself, flies forwards and fires a blast of fire from his Makluan Sword at Doctor Doom, inflicting a wound.
Doom flies to higher ground and blasts Swordsman with a bolt of mystic power, inflicting a wound.

Round Eight

Swordsman claims the initiative and charges Doom, laying into him from low ground to no avail. (Just have to share this though - his first attack came up all blanks, meaning Wildcat allowed him to reroll the whole attack! It was blocked, sadly, but if he’d hit, that’d have been awesome! )
Doom ends Swordsman’s life.

Marauders victorious - Doctor Doom 2 wounds

Overview: That was loads of fun! First time playing Satanus and the Justice Society, and I really like both of them! I was also impressed by Jacques Duquesne's fortitude and resolve here - he may have lost to Doom, but he achieved more than he should have done, and some of that's down to Ted Grant's training. Swordsman is definitely one of the better options for Wildcat’s training, what with the multi-attacks on Swordplay, but it’s not too powerful anyway and I don’t expect there’ll be too much swing. It’s a solid, neat bonus, but nothing overwhelming.
As for Wildcat - he's awesome! As I've mentioned before, my family follows MMA - I'm not massively into it myself, but I follow it to a degree. Wildcat feels just like a top class, superhero-level striker, and The Ol' One Two is a ridiculously fun, useful, and evocative power. 9 Life 3 Defence also gives him a defensive style not often seen in C3G - in Classic you'd get high life, low defence figures as often as you'd get low life, high defence ones, but that's not been the case in Superscape, so it's always nice to see one. I imagine he'd pair really nicely with Jay Garrick - that defence bonus should help that 9 Life last him longer and also give him more opportunities to set-up a Rope-A-Dope - it’s just unfortunate Flash ended up in Satanus’s stomach before he could help Wildcat out.

Army Test 2
Map: Violation by nyys (heavy snow, normal ice, no Glyphs)
Armies;
Wildcat, Power Girl, Green Lantern (Alan Scott), Liberty Belle, Hourman, 1x Green Construct (Shield) (1,320 points)
vs.
Heimdall, Volstagg, Hogun, Fandral, 1x Fire Ant Swarm (1,320 points)

Spoiler Alert!

Overview of Wildcat’s performance:
Damage inflicted through normal attacks (not counting The Ol’ One Two): 2 wounds on Volstagg.
Damage inflicted through Fight Coach: 1 wound on Volstagg
Damage inflicted through The Ol’ One Two: 4 wounds on Volstagg
Damage inflicted through Rope-a-Dope: 1 wound on Volstagg.

Heimdall places the target of the Bifrost Bridge near the Justice Society’s start-zone.
Hourman is undergoing training with Wildcat.

Round One

Hourman injects himself with Miraclo.
Asgard claims the initiaitve, and the Fire Ants tunnel forwards. Fandral, Hogun and Volstagg move through the Bifrost and immediately strike Justice League start-zone. Fandral lays into Liberty Belle from high ground, inflicting three wounds. Hogun strikes Hourman, who blocks the blow. Volstagg strikes Hourman, inflicting two wounds.
Liberty Belle punches Fandral in the face with a deadly blow, inflicting three wounds and knocking him into the Bifrost - he ends up next to Heimdall. Hourman punches Volstagg, inflicting a wound.
Fandral goes back through the Bifrost and runs Liberty Belle through.
Green Lantern flies forwards, claiming height and knocks Fandral out with a green boxing glove. At Power Girl’s command, Hourman breaks away from Volstagg, taking a blow before claiming equal ground with Hogun and punching him for a wound, knocking him back one space.
Volstagg runs into combat with Wildcat, but Hogun is stopped by a cage made by Green Lantern.
Hourman punches Volstagg for a wound.

Round Two

The Justice Society claims the initiative. Volstagg takes a bite of meat, healing two wounds and bolstering his defence. Green Lantern flies next to Wildcat and engages Volstagg, before recharging his ring. Power Girl commands Hourman to punch Volstagg, inflicting a wound.
Volstagg punches Green Lantern, who protects himself by manifesting a shield, but is still battered for three wounds and knocked back.
Green Lantern manifests a shield behind Wildcat before striking Volstagg with a green boxing glove, but fails to harm him.
Hogun charges Hourman and strikes him, but is blocked.
Wildcat punches Volstagg in the gut, inflicting two wounds.
Volstagg strikes Wildcat, who, thanks to the Green Construct, defends. Hogun strikes Hourman, who blocks the blow.

Round Three

The Justice Society claims the initiative. Volstagg imbibes meat and mead, healing two wounds and bolstering his defence. Wildcat jabs at Volstagg, distracting him before cracking him with a left hook, inflicting two wounds. Hourman punches Volstagg, inflicting a wound thanks to Wildcat’s training.
Volstagg strikes Wildcat, who blocks the blow thanks to Green Lantern’s shield construct, and Wildcat strikes back, inflicting a wound on Volstagg. Hogun cracks Hourman over the head, killing him.
Volstagg eats the last of his provisions. Wildcat jabs at Volstagg, feinting, before punching him in the abdomen, inflicting a wound.
Volstagg punches Wildcat with a deadly blow, inflicting four wounds and breaking the shield construct.
Wildcat feints before striking Volstagg again, inflicting a wound.
Volstagg knocks Wildcat out.

Round Four

The Justice Society claims the initiative. Power Girl flies up and punches Volstagg from height, but he blocks the blow.
Hogun strikes Power Girl, but she blocks the blow. Volstagg strikes Power Girl, inflicting three wounds and knocking her into the bifrost - Heimdall forces her back into her start-zone, but she still ends up next to Volstagg.
Power Girl moves to higher ground and strikes Volstagg, knocking him clean out.
Hogun smashes Power Girl, inflicting two wounds plus one more for Bludgeoning Strike.
Power Girl smashes Hogun on the chin, inflicting three wounds and sending him flying backwards.
Hogun charges Power Girl and she blocks his blow.

Round Five

Power Girl claims the initiative and socks Hogun on the jaw, inflicting a wound and leaving him nearly defeated.
Hogun knocks Power Girl clean out.
Green Lantern recharges his ring.
Hogun finds himself trapped in a green cage, unable to move.
Green Lantern flies to height and knocks Hogun out with a green boxing glove, eliminating the enemy’s next turn.

Round Six

Heimdall claims the initiative and travels through the bifrost as the fire ants tunnel forwards. He strikes Green Lantern, who manifests a shield and blocks the blow.
Green Lantern recharges his ring.
Heimdall strikes Green Lantern, but is blocked.
Green Lantern strikes Heimdall with a green boxing glove, inflicting a wound.
Heimdall strikes Green Lantern, who manifests a shield and blocks.
Green Lantern recharges his ring.

Round Seven

Green Lantern claims the initiative and strikes Heimdall with a Green Boxing Glove, inflicting two wounds.
Heimdall strikes Green Lantern, but is blocked.
Green Lantern strikes Heimdall to no avail.
Heimdall strikes Green Lantern, who manifests a shield, but hopelessly - it is cleaved through with ease, and Heimdall runs him through.

Asgard victorious, Heimdall 4 wounds, 1 Fire Ant Swarm.

Overview: I have a confession to make - I forgot about Heimdall's God of Vigilance just about the whole game. That being said, once again I loved playing the JSA (and the Asgardians), and Wildcat was one of my favourites. This guy's awesome.

Thoughts On The Tested Unit's Cost, Balance, & Draftibility:

I’ve already said most of what I want to, so I’ll just add one thing, that requires I give you a little background. I grew up with an older brother who was (and is) fascinated by martial arts - he practiced Taijiquan, he read about it, he sparred with one of his friends (and often me...), and later on got into following MMA and even took a systema class for a time. Naturally, this rubbed off on me to a degree, and I’ve come to appreciate some of the principles of martial arts as well as the differences between fighting styles.
As such, I really love it when the principles of a character’s specific fighting style, what sets it apart from others, are represented on a figure’s card, distinguishing him from other fighters. Don’t get me wrong, Close Combat Expert and Master Martial Artist are fine, standard powers for when you want to go for something simple, but I’m increasingly coming to prefer it if we can represent an actual style in a more distinct and accurate way, and make fights between these sorts of combatants really showcase their own specific skill sets, and the individual way they fight to the fullest. It’s one of the things I like about Batroc the Leaper, though his version of savate is definitely of the exaggerated, bouncy, ‘no real human can actually ever do this and it would be impractical if you could’ comic style. It’s what I was trying to achieve with Splinter’s Breaking Balance power, trying to convey a fighting style that used an opponent’s own weight against them, that tried to take their balance and then exploit it - and it’s what Wildcat’s achieved here. I can just imagine him feinting with a jab, forcing an opponent to block before swinging for their jaw with his real strike.
I hope we have more fighters like Wildcat and Splinter in future - fighters who display the actual principals and merits of their fighting styles as opposed to the many other different ones out there. I would love to see characters who display how their own type of fighting compares with Batroc’s savate, Zangief’s wrestling, Splinter’s ninjitsu and Wildcat’s boxing, rather than generic martial artists all the time whose power is just ‘good at fighting’. I think there’s room to be more interesting and creative than that, and I love seeing it on this card. Even if it were only for that, Wildcat would become one of my favourites, and it’s my favourite thing about him.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Scapemage

There was a lot of talk around this, and most people agreed that because Wildcat is doing training in the game, it doesn't make sense for him to be training people like Batman and Black Canary, who already have the training from Wildcat represented in their cards.

Plus, Ronin was talking about doing a Protege Black Canary down the line.

[Scapemage]

Thanks, LO! Adding to the OP now.

I'm a bit ahead of the vote here, but I put the cards up in the OP. These are my first cards in a long time, so please give them a look for any errors. Also, I was having a little trouble getting the PDFs to save, so please check those as well.

[Tornado]

Satanus love!

Great tests and analysis but that is just old hat for L_O.

Yea

Scape is a freakin' LD machine.

[Arkham]

Cards looking mostly good. Here's some things I noticed for now:

1. Comic Art is a bit low quality, perhaps try and find a bigger version of it.
2. The spacing between the powers is too much. Standard is 5.0, and can go down to 3-4 I believe but that's rarely necessary. I'd refer to the creating a card thread for sizing and all that.
3. The background color behind the name and comic logo, you'll notice under the blue background color, there's a thin edge gradient line. It looks a little off-color/yellowish. You'll want to go into the FX, it has a satin effect on it, change the default color from the yellowish it's set at to a greyish of the same lightness. So just drag it over to the left of the gradient box to be all grey. That should keep that discoloration from happening, and then just make sure to do that for whatever template you're working from so you don't have to repeat in the future.
4. The green sight circle on the target zone thing is a little small.
5. The JPG quality of the card in the OP looks a little blurry, make sure it's set on max quality?
6. I believe the PDF images should be on the left side of the paper, so double check the art thread, but I believe it's 0.59 and 1.75 as your spacing.
7. Maybe give the background a slight gausian blur to make the figure stand out more.
8. The fog at the bottom, the tips of the fog(whatever layer that is), could be a little lighter since the room is so well lit.

Those are the main things that stick out. I'll double check when I have more time, but that should be it.

[Scapemage]

Originally Posted by Arkham

Cards looking mostly good. Here's some things I noticed for now:

1. Comic Art is a bit low quality, perhaps try and find a bigger version of it.
2. The spacing between the powers is too much. Standard is 5.0, and can go down to 3-4 I believe but that's rarely necessary. I'd refer to the creating a card thread for sizing and all that.
3. The background color behind the name and comic logo, you'll notice under the blue background color, there's a thin edge gradient line. It looks a little off-color/yellowish. You'll want to go into the FX, it has a satin effect on it, change the default color from the yellowish it's set at to a greyish of the same lightness. So just drag it over to the left of the gradient box to be all grey. That should keep that discoloration from happening, and then just make sure to do that for whatever template you're working from so you don't have to repeat in the future.
4. The green sight circle on the target zone thing is a little small.
5. The JPG quality of the card in the OP looks a little blurry, make sure it's set on max quality?
6. I believe the PDF images should be on the left side of the paper, so double check the art thread, but I believe it's 0.59 and 1.75 as your spacing.
7. Maybe give the background a slight gausian blur to make the figure stand out more.
8. The fog at the bottom, the tips of the fog(whatever layer that is), could be a little lighter since the room is so well lit.

Those are the main things that stick out. I'll double check when I have more time, but that should be it.

I appreciate the feedback. I was using A3n's old thread for sizing but I forgot to do the power spacing.


Interesting note on #5 though... A3n's thread specifically says to save JPG at quality 5 (out of 12). I thought it weird but I just went with it. We should definitely update that thread or create a new one with all the updated art procedures.


Anyways, I'll get to these updates tomorrow during downtime at work.

[Arkham]

It's possible that's what is desired(jpg quality), but I've always been saving them as the highest. Reason being, when I would print cards, I always just copied the JPG from the thread and post it into word and print just that card on 4x6 photo paper size. I may be the only one to do that, but the card stuck out to me as lower quality which eh. If there's a good reason for it(such as bandwidth, makes sense).

[japes]

Originally Posted by Scapemage

I appreciate the feedback. I was using A3n's old thread for sizing but I forgot to do the power spacing.


Interesting note on #5 though... A3n's thread specifically says to save JPG at quality 5 (out of 12). I thought it weird but I just went with it. We should definitely update that thread or create a new one with all the updated art procedures.


Anyways, I'll get to these updates tomorrow during downtime at work.

For #5 I don't use max quality but it's definitively higher than 5.
For #3...we need to check the template then...I thought it was just me but if it's showing up for Scapey as well then it's in the template.

[Scapemage]

Cards updated with all the changes. Thanks again @Arkham for the feedback. I did double-check the PDF settings, the spacing is correct. I couldn't find a better quality comic image, so I decided to go with a different one instead.

[japes]

Looks much better...

Pre-Yea

[Yodaking]

The figure link isn't working, was curious to see the other angles available. I think it might look better if the mini was at a 90 degree angle instead of the current 45 degree angle, such that it looks more like he is punching the punching bag in the foreground. Right now it just looks like he is punching out into the air.

[Scapemage]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

The figure link isn't working, was curious to see the other angles available. I think it might look better if the mini was at a 90 degree angle instead of the current 45 degree angle, such that it looks more like he is punching the punching bag in the foreground. Right now it just looks like he is punching out into the air.

The current photos were available from Hahma on the Mini Photo Depository. I can poke around for different photos. I'd rather not wait until I'm home next to take some photos myself, but it is an option if we feel it's needed.


EDIT: Akihiro's Flickr includes a photo, but it's the same angle.