The Book of Statesman

[IAmBatman]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM
NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: STATESMAN
VERSION TESTED

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = STATESMAN
SECRET IDENTITY = MARCUS COLE

SPECIES = INCARNATE
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = CHAMPION
PERSONALITY = UNYIELDING

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 5

MOVE = 6
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 6
DEFENSE = 7

POINTS = 350

FREEDOM PHALANX
After revealing an Order Marker on another figure that has this special power and taking that figure's turn, you may take a turn with Statesman, during which he cannot move. You may not take any additional turns.

TANKER
If a non-adjacent figure you control within 3 spaces of Statesman would receive one or more wounds from a normal attack, you may move Statesman adjacent to the defending figure. If you do, and the defending figure has the Freedom Phalanx special power, instead of placing wounds on the defending figure, you may place one Wound Marker on this card.

HAMMER OF JUSTICE SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack 4.
All figures adjacent to Statesman are affected by this special attack. Roll attack dice once for all affected figures. Each figure rolls defense dice separately. After attacking with this special attack, if you rolled 1 or more skulls, place each affected figure on any empty space within 2 spaces of its original placement. A figure moved by this special attack does not take leaving engagement attacks.

SUPER STRENGTH

FLYING

Army Test
Map: Sewer Labyrinth
Units: Wonder Woman (JL) (310), Green Arrow (JL) (210), Statesman (350), Manticore (130) (1,000) vs Fantastic Four (1,000)

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: Initiative Justice League. Green Arrow advances.
Thing and Mister Fantastic advance.
Manticore advances.
Invisible Woman and Mister Fantastic advance.
Statesman advances.
Human Torch blasts Statesman for a wound. Thing advances. Invisible advances and fails to hit Thing. Mister Fantastic hits Statesman for two wounds.

Round 2: Wonder Woman sheds a JL Marker. Initiative Fantastic Four. All four members surround Statesman and attack, but none can hit (Invisible Woman is still at range).
Manticore glues Human Torch, then fails to hit him. Statesman whiffs a special attack on Thing, Mister Fantastic, and Human Torch.
Human Torch attacks Manticore, who emergency teleports next to Invisible Woman. Thing fails to hit Manticore. Invisible Woman moves away and fails to hit Manticore. Mister Fantastic can’t hit Statesman.
Statesman fails to hit Human Torch. Manticore hits Thing for a wound from height.
Thing hits Manticore for a wound. Mister Fantastic hits Statesman for a wound.
Wonder Woman punches Invisible Woman for a wound from height disadvantage. Green Arrow sheds a JL Marker and fails two attacks from height on Thing.

Round 3: Wonder Woman sheds a JL Marker. Initiative Fantastic Four. Human Torch takes a swipe, fails his Flame On roll on Statesman, and fails to hit Green Arrow. Thing fails to hit Statesman. Mister Fantastic hits Manticore for two wounds.
Manticore hits Mister Fantastic for a wound. Statesman attacks Thing from height, then falls to Rock Wall Defense 4.
Invisible Woman fails to hit Manticore. Mister Fantastic hits a whiffing Wonder Woman for three wounds from height.
Manitcore fails to hit Invisible Woman. Green Arrow sheds a JL Marker and punches Invisible Woman for two wounds.
Human Torch avoids the swipe, Flames On Green Arrow for two wounds, then punches out Manticore. Invisible Woman blasts Wonder Woman for two wounds from height. Thing KO’s a whiffing Green Arrow from height. Mister Fantastic can’t hit Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman hits a whiffing Mister Fantastic for two wounds.

Round 4: Wonder Woman sheds her last JL Marker. Initiative Wonder Woman, who fails to hit Mister Fantastic.
Wonder Woman’s lasso stops Human Torch from flaming on and she blocks attacks from him and Mister Fantastic.
Wonder Woman hits Human Torch for a wound.
Wonder Woman swipes Human Torch, then he Flames On for the win.

Unit Summary: Statesman had some good tanking here, but the Fan Four got way too many activations with all four figures and ran the Justice League of Heroes off the map.

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): Inflict (0) wounds.
• FREEDOMN PHALANX: Used to activate Statesman (2) times
• TANKER: Used to move (0) times and used to absorb (0) wounds
• HAMMER OF JUSTICE SA: Inflicted (0) wounds and moved (0) figures

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Thing with 5/6 Life, Mister Fantastic with 2/5 Life, Invisible Woman with 2/5 Life, and Human Torch with 2/5 Life win.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Grundy’s Grave
Units: Statesman (350), Manticore (130), Positron (220), Black Canary (JL) (220), Green Lantern (John Stewart) (JL) (280) (1,200) vs Valkyrie (350), Barzon Zemo (170), Mandarin (280), Graviton (400) (1,200)

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: Initiative Justice League. Green Lantern advances.
Graviton advances and throws Valkyrie and Zemo alongside him.
Black Canary advances.
Mandarin advances and throws himself up alongside his allies.
Manticore advances and snipes Mandarin for a wound.
Graviton moves Black Canary over, but can’t wound her.

Round 2: Initiative Masters of Evil. Mandarin tosses Black Canary, fails to punch her, then hits her for two wounds with the Energy Rings. She misses her cry.
Positron advances and whiffs an attack on Zemo and Valkyrie. Manticore glues Valkyrie, then fails to hit Mandarin from height.
Mandarin tosses Positron into Mandarin’s glue range, but not adjacent to anyone. Then he punches Black Canary for a wound. Then he fails his Energy Rings roll.
Black Canary goes Into the Fray and can’t move and fails an attack on Mandarin. Green Lantern snipes Mandarin for two wounds.
Mandarin tosses Green Lantern into Zemo’s threat range, but not close enough to Canary to save her. Mandarin then KO’s Black Canary with the Energy Rings and she fails her cry.
Black Canary had OM3.

Round 3: Initiative Masters of Evil. Mandarin throws Positron, engages Green Lantern, fails to hit him, then hits him for one wound with the Energy Rings.
Manticore glues Valkyrie, then hits Mandarin for a fourth wound from height. Positron can’t hit Graviton, but does KO Mandarin with his special attack. The rings go Sonic the Hedgehog style.
Graviton moves forward to try to block off access to all the rings, then fails to throw Green Lantern for three straight tries.
Statesman moves forward, grabs the Energy Rings, and blasts Graviton for two wounds, which puts one wound on Green Lantern. Positron has his turn cancelled by Adhesive X Trap.
Graviton picks up the Electromagnetic Rings and uses them to toss Statesman, then fails an attack on him from height.
Statesman can’t escape Gravitational Grasp or hit his Energy Ring roll and Positron fails to hit Zemo.

Round 4: Initiative Masters of Evil. Graviton tosses Manticore with the rings, then throws Statesman three times, but only for one wound.
Green Lantern falls for the glue trap.
Graviton drops the Electromagnetic Ring and goes to pick up the Energy Ring, then he throws Positron, then throws Manticore twice, for wounds each time. Then he fails the Energy Ring roll.
Statesman sneaks around a tree, takes the Electromagnetic Rings, tosses Graviton, then punches him for one wound. The Energy Rings go flying. Positron fails to hit Graviton.
Graviton takes a swipe from Statesman, but picks up the Energy Rings. He throws Positron but can’t hit any wounds. He hits Positron for two wounds with the Energy Rings, which puts one wound on a tree that is destroyed and hits Positron for a wound. It also puts one wound on Manticore.
Manticore can’t move or hit Graviton. Positron whiffs his special attack on Graviton.

Round 5: Initiative Justice League of Heroes. Statesman can’t move and Positron fails to hit Graviton with his special attack.
Graviton throws Green Lantern for a third wound. Energy Rings KO Positron and Manticore.
Statesman advances and KO’s Graviton.
Valkyrie advances, takes the Energy Rings, fails to hit Green Lantern with an attack, then he uses the “X” to save himself from the Energy Rings.
Statesman engages Valkyrie, but can’t hit her.
Valkyrie knocks out Green Lantern, then hits Statesman for two Energy Ring wounds.

Round 6: Initiative Statesman, but Zemo traps him in glue.
Valkyrie takes height on Statesman and KO’s him.

Unit Summary: He has good survivability, so he’s a decent place to put Freedom Phalanx markers, especially since the bonus no movement turn works better for his buddies than for him. I didn’t really get much use out of his special attack in either game. I could see the potential for utility, it just didn’t really show up in these two matches. I would’ve tried to use Tanker a couple of times here, but there just weren’t many normal attacks coming from the enemy. Pretty nasty grouping of enemies, but he had a decent showing. Still, I feel like he’s coming in a tad soft overall at his cost.

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): Inflict (3) wounds on (Graviton (3))
• FREEDOM PHALANX: Used to activate Statesman (0) times. With no range and no ability to move, it was better to use Statesman to activate those with range.
• TANKER: Used to move (0) times and used to absorb (0) wounds. The Freedom Phalanx just weren’t attacked with normal attacks.
• HAMMER OF JUSTICE SA: Inflicted (X) wounds on (X) and moved (X) figures, including (X)

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Baron Zemo with Full Life and Valkyrie with Full Life win.

___________________________________________________________

[FreshFoods]

Thanks Bats! If Joshua's 2nd game is similar to his first, he could use a bump. I'll wait for him to finish, but I'll probably do 6 Life.

[IAmBatman]

After sleeping on it, I worry a bit about how useful his power set is.

Like the first power is needed, but he usually isn't going to get the bonus turn from it, he's going to give it, because it's a bit tougher for him to reliably get off an attack without moving since he has no range. I guess in the right match up (which I probably didn't play) he can use the bonus movement a lot from his tanking power to get engaged more.

The second power basically just meant I didn't target him or I tried to move figures around so that it couldn't trigger. So I guess it affected the game, but it didn't really trigger. I suppose it's actually somewhat useful for the opponent, though, since it's easier to hit his allies than him.

The third power just doesn't hit hard enough to be worth it most of the time over his normal attack unless you really want a special for some reason. The movement seems nice in practice, but he's a guy you kind of want to be engaged for the most part so he can tank hits and get his bonus attack in.

I think the powers all have use on paper, but I found them hard to pay off in practice and I'm not sure they synergize all that well with his role on the team.

Still, a bump in life couldn't hurt, and I'd consider bumping the special attack by 1 to potentially make it more of a consideration over his normal attack more often.

[FreshFoods]

With you and Josh's games, he's at 3-8 right now so he definitely needs some help. I do think Manticore and Positron are in good spots, with Statesman being the weak link.

What if I did 6 life, and HoJ had a small movement + 5 attack? It gets him a bit tankier, and would make choosing Statesman for Freedom Phalanx have more of a threat range to it. So something like ;

HAMMER OF JUSTICE SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack 5.
Before attacking with this power, you may move Statesman up to 2 spaces. All figures adjacent to Statesman are affected by this special attack. Roll attack dice once for all affected figures. Each figure rolls defense dice separately. After attacking with this special attack, if you rolled 1 or more skulls, place each affected figure on any empty space within 2 spaces of its original placement. An opponent's figure moved by this special attack does not take leaving engagement attacks.

[IAmBatman]

Letting you move before attacking with the special would give it a ton more utility. Good call. I think those changes seem good.

[FreshFoods]

Cool. I'll make those changes and see if Joshua can run those in his 2nd game.

SP updated.

[Arch-vile]

You probably need to say “cannot move normally” in the bonding power, as the current wording prevents him from moving with the special attack.

[FreshFoods]

Good catch, thanks Arch.

[FreshFoods]

2nd game is in from Joshua, with the updated HoJ. Dominant victory for Team Statesman, but their crew seemed to have better synergy ;

Playtest 2
Name of the Playtest Unit: Statesman

Army Test:
Map: Sacred Shrine
Units: Statesman, Positron, Manticore, Hercules, Moon Knight vs Red Hulk, Quick Silver, Flash, Robin and the Mandarin.

This match saw Statesman lead his group of God inspired heroes to an overwhelming victory. The game started with Quicksilver becoming quickly entangled with Statesman and quickly going down. The use of the newly modified hammer of justice along with Positron's Neutron blast reeked havoc on Quicksilver with a very effective 1-2 punch. Red Hulk and the flash quickly entered the skirmish as well and again found that Statesman's Hammer of Justice quickly repositioned them in view of Positron's bomb. Knocking out Quicksilver and Flash pretty quickly. With them out of the game the Mandarin tried to turn the tables but didn't even have time to make a difference as Statesman's normal attack quickly overwhelmed his defenses as well. Moon Knight used Frenchie Airdrop and his crescent darts to drop in behind Red Hulk and finish him off. At this points the team of heroes quickly hunted down and finished Robin.

The game ended with a perfect victory with no heroes down and out. Remaining Health Statesman (2); Hercules (2); Manticore (4); Positron (4); Moon Knight (5)

Unit Cost, Balance Draftability:
The changes to Statesman really helped. The 2 move for Hammer of Justice was great. As an example Positron dealt damage to Red Hulk adding heat markers, I then jumped Statesman in to move Red Hulk away from the heroes so his end of round roll didn't have an affect. It was a great strategy and made Statesman a lot more fun. The 6 helped me play a little more aggressive with him, however, I would still like the ability to Tank for people who aren't just Freedom Phalanx. If I could take damage for anyone in my army I would use it more. Just a thought, but I really enjoyed him more with those two little changes.

General Thoughts:
I like the changes and will definitely be using Statesman in future games with Positron partnership. Like I said I might allow his tank to take damage for anyone.

[FreshFoods]

Should I do one more game myself with the buffs so we have more than one PT, and make sure it all looks good?

[Arch-vile]

Sounds like a solid plan.

[JoshuaQuinn]

I am just now realizing this entire conversation was here. I won't say to much since Fresh posted my second play test. I found him more fun the second time. Allowing him to move and use the hammer was useful. This time I didn't do much damage (my opponent had high defense) but it was helpful getting to move him around. It was often good to use him first to set up people and then use Positron to do some damage. Thanks for the first opportunity. It was really fun.