The Book of Gali

[Soundwarp SG-1]

If all the pips were 5s people would assume it was a reference to the the Sherlock Holmes story The Five Orange Pips. And we can't have that.

[Arch-vile]

Nope, that was a forgotten update when I changed everything to 5. Good catch!

[Arch-vile]

FYI Soundwarp I added some new mini pics to here and Lewa (in case he ever needs a card update). I added some detail on the paint jobs.

[Ronin]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Gali @150 points

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Gali @150, Lewa, Baron Zemo (Heinrich), Hydro-Man (650) vs Venom (II), Zombie, Angel (Warren), Demogoblin (650)

Spoiler Alert!

[COLOR=red]Summary: this one took a while to play out, between low OM efficiency and defensive powers messing things up. The enemy team was generally a bit toothier, but they had bad luck on their auto-wound rolls. Gali got to stick around for a while and got a lot of hits in as a result. She and Hydro-Man were able to set each other up for each others' water powers pretty well.

Notes: dealt 2 wounds to Venom (with defense reduction bit of Water Control). Dealt 3 wounds to Zombie. Used the "everything is Water" effect to let Hydro-Man Water Tunnel & use his SA twice. Took a wound from Hellfire Vindication. Used the disengage from Water Control to let Lewa go after Venom. Used the Water Control to nuke Venom's defense for a Zombie attack. Put the last 2 wounds on Angel and took him down, across a couple attacks. Used the "all water" Water Control effect to slow Zombie down. Eventually got taken down by Demogoblin

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes):
Zombie with full Life, Demogoblin with 1 Life

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Gali @150, Lewa, Baron Zemo (Heinrich), Hydro-Man (650) vs Hush, Black Tarantula, Two-Face (I) (650)

Spoiler Alert!

[COLOR=red]Summary: ended up being a Crime Lord steamroll - Zemo got OHKOed, was a big problem. Gali also got moved way up in the enemy attack priority this game. Still, Hydro-Man and Lewa actually had decent showings, but just couldn't keep up with Black Tarantula's healing - they had 5 wounds on him over the course of the game, but not anything like fast enough to take him down.

Notes: dealt 3 wounds to Two-Face in one (water-boosted) attack. Took 1 wound from Black Tarantula in 1 attack. Used Water Control to let Hydro-Man Water Tunnel. Used Water Control to slow enemy movement. Took 3 wounds from another Black Tarantula attack. Used Water Control to subtract Tarantula's defense. Got taken out by Two-Face.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes):
Black Tarantula with full Life, Hush with 3 Life

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: Probably messed up by putting a low-efficiency army up against a competitive healer in both games. In general, Water Control feels like a pretty cool suite of effects. I think she'll always have a place in water armies - pretty good stat block for her points, if you can guarantee water's around. I didn't get much use out of the Toa d20 boost here, but a lot of that was just down to her only d20 power to boost being a reactive thing. I think once Kopaka and Tahu are in the mix, it'll come up more.

[Arch-vile]

Thanks Ronin! Glad she felt useful at least.

[Ronin]

Yeah, she feels plenty useful. I think she would have had a better showing, W/L wise, if I'd gone all-in on her as a water piece and set aside the Toa synergy for now, since Lewa wasn't super helpful in those games. My first instinct was to try and do it all though. At least it caught me up on the faction before I start building on it, though!

[MrNobody]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Gali

Army Test 1
Map: Castle Dracula (Custom Map)
Units: Team 1 (700): Gali (150), Lewa (140), Meggan (205), Scorpion (205)
Team 2 (700): White Canary (210), Hasbro Cap (220), Harley Quinn II (180), 1st Doctor (90)

Pre-game thoughts: Just a Toa (well, Gali and Lewa) build, with Meggan filling in. This custom map has 14 water tiles that are at height 0, but are near some of the highest points of the map - perfect for Lewa to knock enemies into.

Summary of the game:

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: T1 wins initiative
-Troops advance, but no attacks are made

Round 2: T2 wins initiative
-Gali blocks Harley and White Canary (WC) from advancing with a flood of water
-Harley inflicts 3 wounds on Gali
-Meggan inflicts 2 wounds on Harley
-Cap inflicts a wound on Meggan

Round 3: T1 wins initiative
-Meggan copies Gali’s powers and inflicts a wound on WC
-WC inflicts a wound on Meggan
-Meggan inflicts 2 wounds on WC
-WC inflicts a wound on Meggan

Round 4: T1 wins initiative
-Meggan takes out WC
-T2 had OM1 on WC, so they lose a turn
-Lewa takes out Harley
-Cap takes out Meggan
-T2 had OM3 on Harley, so they lose a turn

Round 5: T2 wins initiative
-Cap takes out Gali
-Cap and the Doc flank Lewa, inflicting a wound
-T1 had OM1 on Gali, so they lose a turn
-Cap inflicts 3 wounds on Lewa
-Lewa inflicts 2 wounds on Cap
-Cap takes out Lewa
-T1 had OM3 on Lewa, so they lose a turn

Round 6: T2 wins initiative
-Cap inflicts 2 wounds on Scorpion
-Cap counterstrikes Scorpion, inflicting a wound
-Cap takes out Scorpion


Special power usages:
Normal attack: 0 wounds inflicted
Water Control: 2 uses of 1st pip, 0 uses of 2nd pip, 0 uses of 3rd pip

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Captain America (2/5 wounds), The Doctor (0/6 wounds)

Post-game thoughts:

___________________________________________________________

Army Test 2
Map: Castle Dracula (Custom Map)
Units: Team 1 (750): Gali (150), JL Aquaman (370), Black Manta (230)
Team 2 (750): Captain America (240), Avengers Black Widow (230), Wolverine (280)

Pre-game thoughts: Trying out Gali with some water dudes.

Summary of the game:

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: T1 wins initiative
-Black Manta (BM) inflicts a wound on Wolverine
-Gali inflicts 2 wounds on Wolverine
-Wolverine tears through Black Manta, taking him out

Round 2: T1 wins initiative
-Aquaman inflicts 2 wounds on Wolverine
-Cap inflicts a wound on Aquaman
-Aquaman inflicts 2 wounds on Wolverine
-Wolverine inflicts 3 wounds on Auaman
-Aquaman (with some defense draining help from Gali) takes out Wolverine
-Cap takes out Aquaman

Round 3: T2 wins initiative
-Cap inflicts 2 wounds on Gali
-Gali inflicts a wound on Cap
-Widow inflicts a wound on Gali
-Widow takes out Gali


Special power usages:
Normal attack: 3 wounds inflicted (2 on Wolverine, 1 on Captain America)
Water Control: 2 uses of 1st pip, 1 uses of 2nd pip, 0 uses of 3rd pip

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Captain America (1/5 wounds), Black Widow (0/5 wounds)

Post-game thoughts: The Gali/Aquaman combo has a lot of potential to be absolutely terrifying, but it requires a little bit of setup, and probably some allies to run interference. Black Manta getting straight-up shredded by Wolverine meant T1 just didn’t have the strength to hold out long enough for it to really feel devastating.

___________________________________________________________

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: I echo previous sentiments - she feels a bit lackluster now, but seems like she’ll improve a lot once her allies show up. I’m mainly worried that she’ll be more useful in a water-based army than in an actual Toa army, but hopefully toa synergies will be robust enough that she can do both.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: I had a lot of fun with her. She’s one of those designs where you can make big plans that end up falling through cause she dies too fast, but I think that’s to be expected of a 150 pt. unit.

Splish splash.

[Arch-vile]

Thanks Nobody! Gali hasn’t had a single win, but I’m not sure that’s entirely on her. She encourages some jank builds and really needs more Toa (and Toa synergy). It may be best to put her on hold until more Toa are designed? Or is there a boost you guys have in mind? I feel like we passed Lewa a little weak, so I’m not looking to repeat that mistake here.

[Ronin]

I think she feels useful, but yeah, she's kinda weird and she doesn't have a home yet. I think it'd be totally reasonable to go to editing here, but put her on hold. Kopaka's right around the corner.

If we do end up wanting a buff here, I'd be looking at either +1D and/or adding to the pips in Water Control - I think a defensive one would be a good deal and on brand for her.

Something else to consider for Toa Unity - might be worth dropping the 'no enemy control' bit of that? I think it's adding kinda niche/counter-drafty value and I don't think it was really stressed in testing. If we ever got as far as the thematic figures that do that (your Makutas and Rahkshis and what have you), we could design them to make the enemy roll the d20 so Gali provides a resistance.

EDIT: Actually, now I'm thinking about it, it might make more sense for me to switch up my order and do Tahu next, then Kopaka. Tahu seems more helpful for getting a bead on Gali in a Toa-faction context, and his leadership should work with just two others.

[Arch-vile]

I like those ideas. So I'm thinking we switch to something like this, then stick Gali on Hold while we wait for Tahu. We should get a good feel for points by running them together. I'll check with @MrNobody to see if he agrees with that.

NAME = GALI

SPECIES = TOA
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = GUARDIAN
PERSONALITY = BENEVOLENT

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 5

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 5
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 4

POINTS = 150

WATER AFFINITY
Gali does not stop her movement when entering water spaces. Add 2 dice to Gali’s attack while she is within 2 spaces of a water space.

TOA UNITY
When rolling the 20-sided die for any friendly Toa within 5 clear sight spaces of Gali, you may add up to 3 to the roll. An opponent may never take temporary or permanent control of any Toa you control within 5 clear sight spaces of Gali.

WATER CONTROL
When any player begins to take a turn, you may choose one of the following for the remainder of that player's turn:
• all spaces within 5 spaces of Gali are considered water spaces instead of their normal terrain type; or
• enemy figures on a water space within 5 spaces of Gali subtract 2 from their Defense number; or
• Gali and all friendly figures within 5 spaces of Gali never take any leaving engagement attacks.
• Gali and all friendly Toa within 5 spaces of Gali add 1 to their Defense number.
Each option may only be chosen once per round.

[MrNobody]

Hmm...I always like when the "choose one pip, but you can only choose a pip once per round" powers have 3 pips, for symmetry purposes. But I do think that defense boost would help a lot and make her more of a faction piece.

I kind of like the control shield part of Toa Unity, but it doesn't feel needed if we're pushing text space.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

The anti-mind control thing still fits fine on the card with the new pip added.