Ataraxis the Starlich Public Playtesting

[Muskie]

I have now played her four times and enjoy the figure very much. I like that she is not an order marker dump (with bonding) so that you still are working how to work the OM. She is wonderfully thematic and plays an important roll in the army. I appreciate the 5 range beacause it gave her some protection from range (the victim must be within 5, so the undead can be at 4). I played with 4 range, and liked the 5 better for finding some protection from range.

[BodaciousBlood]

Originally Posted by Captain Stupendous

Hey, thanks so much for the playtest bodacious! Glad to hear Ataraxis is landing so well for you; she's one of my favorite upcoming designs as well. I was just curious, did the movement penalty aspect of her aura end up affecting anything this game? I know you had previously said you thought that part of the ability could be removed, and wondered if this game did anything to change your mind.

You know what... It really didn't affect it again. I thought it would considering the Slashers ability. But as I understand it, they can still disengage and use their Strategic Retreat ability as it is not causing a leaving engagement attack.

Plus with Morgoloth, the goblins were able to disengage freely. That also negated that power a bit.

It still felt like it was never utilized and has lower utility than the rest of her card.

[kevindola]

I had a nasty experience with it once testing against Avernus who was really neutered not being able to disengage, but outside of that it seems like it hasn't come up so much. But boy that Avernus game was frustrating for me.

More like Greater Scaredy Elemental.

[BodaciousBlood]

Played with her again today. Not much need for a full play test report. Pretty similar findings. This one I played with another person piloting the other army (Romans, Mogrimm, NGS, MBS) still not much reason to want to disengage. My thoughts are this: very crippling to the few figures that want to leave engagement (Avernus, Valgaurd), but if those are the only reasons that power exists… maybe best to cut it. The card feels complete without it, imho.

Each game I’ve played, both myself and the opponent have thought this figure very fun to play with and against.

[Blue Trails]

Does Terror Enhancement Field prevent figures with Disengage from leaving an engagement? Similarly, can a special power like Carry, Goblin Retreat, or Spear of Summoning move a figure affected by Terror Enhancement Field out of an engagement? I ask because I recently playtested Ataraxis, but I am beginning to suspect I misunderstood this power during the game.

[SchismaticSounds]

Originally Posted by Blue Trails

Does Terror Enhancement Field prevent figures with Disengage from leaving an engagement? Similarly, can a special power like Carry, Goblin Retreat, or Spear of Summoning move a figure affected by Terror Enhancement Field out of an engagement? I ask because I recently playtested Ataraxis, but I am beginning to suspect I misunderstood this power during the game.

Good question. With the wording being for figures that would be taking a disengagement attack, I think abilities like teleports, carry, retreat and therefore disengage would still work since they ignore disengagement attacks.

I like seeing a synergy for terrifying figures introduced, but am a bit questioned of whether the subtracted defense and engagement lock is too much together.

[Blue Trails]

Originally Posted by SchismaticSounds

Good question. With the wording being for figures that would be taking a disengagement attack, I think abilities like teleports, carry, retreat and therefore disengage would still work since they ignore disengagement attacks.

I like seeing a synergy for terrifying figures introduced, but am a bit questioned of whether the subtracted defense and engagement lock is too much together.

Yeah; that makes sense. My table ruled that the power worked more like Cyberclaw and blocked figures from leaving engagement under any circumstance, and the result influenced the game to such a degree that I doubt much useful information could be gleaned from a report. I might see if I can throw together a proper playtest over the weekend to experience the unit as intended.

For what it's worth, I'm not worried about with Terror Enhancement Field's power level as written. Consensus among other playtesters seems to be that the defense drop is appropriately powered and the movement-restricting effect has negligible impact outside of certain matchups, while the most reliable method I've found for simultaneously capitalizing on both parts of the power involves scaring people with the Shades of Bleakwoode. That's fun, but it's also expensive and tricky to play competitively.

[Blue Trails]

PLAYTEST REPORT

540 points
Map: ZEPHYR
Glyphs: Wannok

Army A (eastern start zone): Ataraxis, Specters of Aldorn x2, Shades of Bleakwoode x2
Army B (western start zone): Wildwood Monarch, Wildwood Sentinel x2, Wildwood Runner x4, Bol, Kira Jax

Survivors:
Wildwood Monarch (2 wounds)
Wildwood Sentinel (second generation)
Wildwood Sentinel (first generation) (2 wounds)
Wildwood Runner x2 (first generation)
Bol
Kira Jax

Summary:

Spoiler Alert!

Early game:
The Specters prioritize the northern part of the map to exploit the Wildwoods' inferior mobility while leaving a few ready to grab Wannok, as the Wildwoods slow roll through the center, keeping the Monarch closer to the heights and sending a single Sentinel to Wannok. A few Order Markers are given to Ataraxis, allowing her to establish her Terror Enhancement Field near relative height in the north and take an unsuccessful potshot against the Monarch, who draws near enough to be locked down by a Specter before it can move out of Ataraxis's aura and intercept the detachment moving along the heights. The Specters unsuccessfully attack a Runner and lose a squad member in the process.

Round 3:
Wildwoods win initiative and clear out three of the Specters closest to their start zone. The first wave of Specters swarm Army B's start zone, diverting a few bodies along the way to grab Wannok and keep the Monarch and the frontmost Sentinel engaged, but the Wildwoods withstand the initial assault and retaliate while repositioning Runners to minimize their potential losses at the cost of two wounds on the engaged Sentinel. The Wildwood Monarch engages Ataraxis on OM 3 and deals a single wound to the Starlich before she can escape to the relative height near Wannok via Necrotizing Wormhole, where she whiffs an attack against a Runner. The glyph destroys the wounded Sentinel, which is quickly replaced as the Wildwood life cycle progresses. The Specters take heavy casualties, losing five members this round.

Round 4:
The Wildwood army wins initiative again and destroys two more Specters attempting to reach their Runners, but lose the reseeded Runner to a third Specter that is promptly squashed by the Monarch. With its initial swarm nearly exhausted, the undead army pivots to the Shades of Bleakwoode on OM 3, ending the round with a single Shade in position to Soul Devour the Wildwood Monarch, and unfortunately lose a Specter to Wannok.

Round 5:
Initiative is won by the Wildwoods, allowing the Monarch to destroy the Shade to which it is engaged while a newly regrown Runner dashes to the rock outcrops. The Shades use their highly superior mobility to evade the Wildwoods, chasing said Runner and pushing into the Wildwood start zone while a Sentinel futilely attacks a Specter at Wannok. Two Runners are destroyed this round, and a Shade ends the round with a one-wound attack against the Monarch, which has been unable to leave Ataraxis's Terror Enhancement Field. Finally, Wannok wounds the Sentinel nearest the glyph.

Round 6:
Wildwoods win another initiative roll, regrow a Runner, and attack Shades engaged to the Monarch and a Runner near the start zone, destroying only the latter. The former Shade unsuccessfully attempts to Soul Devour the Wildwood Monarch, then destroys a nearby Runner. The Wildwoods destroy two more Shades and Ataraxis, whose Phylactery is placed on the Sentinel that dealt the killing blow. This leaves the Wannok-holding Specter and a lone Shade as the undead army's last figures; the Shade ends the round by flying to engage the Monarch. The Wildwoods minorly misplay the situation by allocating another Wannok hit to the Sentinel near the glyph.

Round 7:
The testing army desperately needs another figure on the board to maintain a prayer for victory. The surviving Shade is in position to Soul Devour the Monarch and has a clear flight path to attack the nanobot-infected Sentinel from height, but the Wildwoods squelch this plan, winning initiative a final time and destroying both opposing figures.

Power Usage:
NECROTIZING WORMHOLE: used once to gain height and once to escape an engagement with the Wildwood Monarch; targeted a Specter both times.

TERROR ENHANCEMENT FIELD: used on nearly every normal attack by the entire army, resulting in 1 wound on the Monarch, 3 wounds across both Sentinels, and 1 wound on a Runner. TEF-aided Soul Devour was attempted once to no success; threat of power combination diverted two Order Markers from the Wildwood Monarch to a Wildwood Sentinel.

NANOBOT VIRUS PHYLACTERY: used once to infect a Wildwood Sentinel; could not respawn before game ended.

Normal Attack: used twice; whiffed against the Monarch and a Runner.

Comments:

Spoiler Alert!

Very fun, thematic figure. I didn't have the chance to see Nanobot Virus Phylactery in action, but this was a fair showing of Ataraxis's other powers. I enjoyed "castling" with Necrotizing Wormhole, as the power provided an unique tactical decision to escape potentially nasty engagements.

The Starlich primarily played the role of a cheerleader in this game, as the army I tested was intended to see just how much mileage I could squeeze out of Terror Enhancement Field, alone. The Specters of Aldorn can play the role of cheap-ish swarming melee and became surprisingly potent within TEF; trading three Specters for a Wildwood Runner on height and a Sentinel is pretty good for a 2-Attack squad. Moreover, the Shades of Bleakwood served as fair "pins" due to their high Move and solid Defense, allowing me to easily keep the tougher WIldwood heros from reaching Ataraxis for a few rounds after pivoting away from the Specters, and Terror Enhancement Field seemed like the perfect support power for a squad of weak attackers with a scary ability that is nullified by leaving engagement.

I was purposefully greedy with the Shades this game, as I expressly chose them over something tougher like Skeletons of Annelintia to see if Ataraxis could make Soul Devour any more competitive. Although my choice to split the Shades between the jobs of hunting Runners and threatening the Unique Wildwoods with Soul Devour meant I never engaged a single Wildwood with multiple Shades, I can speculate that this would be a situation in which the engagement-locking aspect of Terror Enhancement Field would be useful, as the loss of even a single Wildwood to Soul Devour would have been devastating. For this same reason, the Wildwood army actually placed a couple of Order Markers on Sentinels once the Shades entered the fray. In hindsight, I would have been better served by playing more conservatively and moving a bit more intelligently, but I was pleased with Ataraxis's performance nonetheless.

[Vydar_XLIII]

Originally Posted by Vydar_XLIII

Ataraxis the Starlich Summary:
Number of times Necrotizing Wormhole was used: 2 (The second was in Round 6 and wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the battle report.)
Number of times Necrotizing Wormhole wounded a figure: 0
Number of opponent’s defense rolls were affected by Terror Enhancement Field: 16
Number of opponent’s defense rolls were affected by Terror Enhancement Field and Deathly Touch simultaneously: 12
Number of disengagements denied due to Terror Enhancement field: 1
Number of times Nanobot Virus Phylactery placed Ataraxis on a Unique Hero’s Card: 2
Number of times Nanobot Virus Phylactery placed Ataraxis on the space of a destroyed figure: 2
Damage Dealt: 2 wounds on Q10, 2 wounds on Queen (round 6)

Ataraxis’ theme is on point. I love the theme of a lich’s phylactery being inside nanobots that parasitize new host bodies to resurrect her. SO COOL. I love how she is a boon to the Skeletons of Annellintia (which she practically seems custom made for), the Zombies of Morindan and the Specters of Aldorn. Getting all 3 of these undead squads in the same synergy web is really cool and I can see a draft pool being built around them.

I think I’m in the minority here, but I don’t want Terror Enhancement Field’s movement restriction removed. It came in pretty clutch forcing Q10 not to exit the Field and therefore allowed Ataraxis to get her second Res. I think the goal of the movement restriction is to keep opponent’s heroes within 5 of Ataraxis so she can Nanobot Virus them. There may be an argument to be made for the movement restriction (or the whole power) only effecting small and medium (and large?) figures. Huge figures like Tor-Kul-Na and Nilfheim shouldn’t be scared of no ghost. (See what I did there?!)

I have 2 concerns, but they are minor. First, with 4 squads of Specters in tow, the stacking defense drops got dirty. 7 attacks were made on 0 defense bees over the course of the game. That might be an interaction that some might consider un-fun to play against. The bees were so squishy anyways, it didn’t seem to matter much but if I was playing with 2 defense Knights, I might be a little more salty about it.

Second, I’ve heard it said that Agent Skahen is 130 points and 2 figures because you always take Otonashi with her as Oto gives Skahen a get-out-of-jail-free card the first time she gets cornered in the start zone. Ataraxis is 180 points and 2 figures because you always take Marcu with her. The soft synergy here is incredible. Marcu goes and grabs a glyph and is now in the middle of the battlefield ready to be a Phylactery when Ataraxis needs. Marcu can basically guarantee that Ataraxis gets a second life. On top of that, he is terrifying and so you can pull the move my GF made to win. Ataraxis makes Marcu better, and that might be something of an unintended consequence.

See battle report Here.

[AndreThaGiant]

This report might be kinda swiss cheese as it's my first one, but I tried to document it as best as I could.

520 points
Map: Ticalla Sunrise
Glyphs: Wannok, Ulaniva

My Army: Ataraxis, Skeletons of Annelintia x3, Isamu, Marcu, Bol, Otonashi
@XThorSavageX Army: Kalagrith, Greenscales x3, Raelin, Ulfrid

Survivors:
Ataraxis (1 wound)
4 Skellies
Isamu


Summary:

Spoiler Alert!

R1: Thor wins initiative.

-Raelin zooms up to a double-hex height.
-Skellies trudge across the marsh.
-Kala flies up to meet Raelin with Greenscales lagging behind.
-Ataraxis wormholes with a skelly across the marsh, which allows her to get height on the 3-hex for a pop shot on Raelin (who is in my terror field) for 2 wounds.
-Kala scorches the earth under Ataraxis and 1 skeleton for 1 skull- easily blocked by both.
-Skeletons develop more and 2 of them engage Kala.
-Kala only takes 1 wound from the 2 disengagements, to scorch the frontline. She flies over 3 skellies and Ataraxis. Damaged were Ataraxis (1 wound) and 2 skeletons, who were both necromanced.
-Ataraxis wormholes with a backline skelly on height (while maintaining her terror field) to pop shot the only greenscale out of Raelin's aura for the kill.
-Greenscales flood ataraxis and take her down [luckily at this point I have Nanobot access to all 4 of my low-cost heroes in the spawn], only to Nanobot to Otonashi.

-Skellies have the last OM, and 3 (maybe even 4?) have Kala surrounded. They proceed to slap 4 wounds on Kala (5 total).
-Wannok wound goes to Marcu.
~Round~

R2: I win initiative.

-Oto utilizes her tricky speed bonus from Bol to sprint up to Raelin for a quick 2 wounds (2/2 skulls, 0/3 shields feelsgoodman).
-Kala regular attacks a skeleton for the kill to avoid further disengagement wounds. (successfully necromanced the skeleton- 3 ready to be animated).
-Skeletons finish off Kala.
-Wannok wound goes to Marcu (2 total).
~Round~

R3: Thor wins initiative

-Ulfrid comes out to play.
OM 1 & 2 are on Otonashi at this point, in attempt to bring Ataraxis back. Otonashi is killed by a Greenscale and Ataraxis takes her place, and Bol inherits OM 1 & 2. 3 more skeletons fall (2/3 necros), and Bol dances around inflicting 0 damage.
-Bol then dies to Ulfrid.
-Skeletons move up for a nice phalanx around Ataraxis.
-Wannok wound goes to Marcu (3 wounds).
~Round~

R4: I win initiative. Thank. God.
[The stakes are high at this point, with 5 skeletons in the pipeline waiting to be reanimated on Ataraxis' card.]

-Marcu flies over to get in range of Nanobot.
-Greenscales surround Ataraxis for 1 wound, another wound on Marcu, and a skeleton kill.
-Ataraxis wormholes with Marcu (who's on height) and kills the below greenscale.
-Marcu is killed by Ulfrid.
-Skellies reanimate 1 and fall back to plug all chokeholds for Ataraxis, 1 of them gets a blank height attack on Ulfrid.
-Ulfrid retreats to Wannok to force my hand.
~Round~

R5: Thor wins initiative
[all of my OM's are on skellies, as I still have Isamu in range for Nanobot]

-Thor moves Ulfrid up to regular attack a skelly for blanks.
-That skelly took that personally, and triple-skulled Ulfrid for the kill (the first wound I put on him xD, the rest were from his special).
-The Greenscales that were left in spawn struggle to participate in the endgame, and The skellies keep Pez dispensing from Ataraxis' card to overtake the numbers game and ultimately win.

Power Usage:
NECROTIZING WORMHOLE: Used thrice; once aggressively, twice defensively. Thor's feedback was that it should be instead of moving. The way that I utilized it made it quite difficult for him to get at her. Perhaps this power could be more balanced if used once per round? Twice per round with markers? Looking forward to playing more to determine.

TERROR ENHANCEMENT FIELD: The defense debuff is nice. Even nicer with the Specters, I imagine. The field is specifically nice on Ataraxis. With her personality being changed to terrifying, you can feel confident putting OM's on her since her attack is more productive. The movement restriction seems very difficult to counterplay. I'll touch on that more in the comments.

NANOBOT VIRUS PHYLACTERY: Used once on Otonashi, with Marcu & Isamu on standby, in range, in spawn. This proved extremely effective on cheap heroes. I can't imagine the OM stress on the more expensive/harder to kill heroes. It worked better this way anyway, as I didn't have much points leftover after Ataraxis & x3 skellies.

Normal Attack: Used thrice with great success.

Comments:
Entertaining Mechanics and challenging decision-making gave me a great first impression of Ataraxis. She gives the undead some love with a little power swing, while having an escape mechanism to stay out of danger. Not to mention her Nanobot, which brings me satisfaction (and my enemies brain pain). I have to echo @kevindola concerns about the lack of size restriction of the lockdown on her terror field. Small & Medium make way more sense to me than Large & Huge. I'm sympathetic for Thor's Kalagrith, who should/could have scorched my army. A mere 2 SA's before she was incapacitated.

Anyway, I have a good feeling the lady from space will be my favorite design out of the starfinder packs, and I'm looking forward to playing her more!

Thanks and keep doing what you're doing C3V!

[SchismaticSounds]

Ataraxis... what a guy.. er gal.. Lady.

Playtest Results: @kevindola

Spoiler Alert!

Point Total: 550
Map: Armamaent by Flash_19
Glyphs: Attack +1 & Initiative +8. Bracers of Teleportation & Giant Hunter Stone.

Player 1 - Army: Ataraxis, Ornak, x2 Blade Gruts, Torin, Iskra, Rechest, Bol, Isamu.
Player 2 - Army: x4 Sacred Band, Marcus Decimus, x2 10th Reg

Which units survived? x3 Sacred Band and 2 10th Regiment

Report/Flow of game:

Round 1:

Spoiler Alert!

Nothing to exciting. 2 Turns on Sacred Band. 1 On 10th Reg. 1 Turn on Torn, Iskra, then Ornak, allowing a turn for Marcu and Ataraxis following with a wormhole swap on Marcu.

Round 2:

Spoiler Alert!

Marcus grabs Bracers of TP. Sacred Band lands on +8 Initiative Glyph. 2 Attacks. 1 on Torin and a Grut don't land.
Iskra Misses an attack (forgot I don't have Rechets)
10th Reg lands on Atk +1 glyph. 2 Attacks on Iskra leaving 3 wounds.
Torin Biffs an attack but also moved adjacent to Iskra. Torin takes 3 wound by attacks from Marcus and Sacred Band.

Round 3:

Spoiler Alert!

Team 1 wins initiative even with the -8 disadvantage.

Ornak and Blade Gruts go in, picking off a couple Sacred Band in the fray.
Torin is slain with a Blade Grut. Glyph of Astrid is really doing some damage here.

Ornak gambles it all and goes for the 10th Reg blocking route to the 10th on +1 Glyph. Kills the Reg. with 1 skull. Gruts kill the Reg on Glyph and deal 2 wounds to Marcus.

10th Reg runs back onto Astrid Bayonet killing a grut.

Turn 3 for Team 2. OM on Ornak
Marcu Sneaks behind Marcus. Dealing 3 wounds with Marcus under Terror Field. Iskra kills the 10th on Astrid under Terror Field, healing another wound.

Sacred Band runs back on Initiative Glyph, Deals a wound to Marcu and kills a Grut.

Round 4:

Spoiler Alert!

Team 1 wins Initiative again with -8.

Marcu deals 1 wound to Marcus Gallus, killing Marcus.
Sacred Band jumps on Atk +1. Deals 5 wounds to Marcu and kills 1 Grut.

Blade gruts kill 1 SB.
SB kill a grut and Marcu.

Ataraxis goes for an attack and misses. Iskra kills 10th on Astrid and has healed fully.
10th jump on Glyph of Dagmar. All attacks miss or are blocked.

Round 5:

Spoiler Alert!

Team 2 wins Initiative

Ornak takes 2 wounds and 1 grut picked off.
Gruts kill 1 SB.

SB kill Ornak.
Iskra Kills 10th Reg.

SB Kill 2 Gruts.
Grut Kills 1 SB.

Round 6:

Spoiler Alert!

SB deals 2 wounds to Iskra & kills last grut.
Iskra kills SB.

SB lands on Astrid. And deals 3 wounds with 2 attacks on Ataraxis, killing her. Her figure goes on Iskras Card.

Iskra kills an SB.
x3 SB attack Iskra dealing. Iskra rolls 2 shields on 2 attacks that went through, blocking them. Iskra kills another SB.

Round 7:

Spoiler Alert!

Trade off continues with Iskra in a dominating position where only 2 same level Sacred Band can attack at a time and if a Sacred Band goes on the Attack Glyph, she gets a height advantage attack on them.

A sacred Band is able to sneak to the back and start attacking Isamu.

Iskra takes 2 wounds, heals 1, takes another, heals another 1.

Final turn, 10th Reg manage to kill Iskra, returning Ataraxis. Iskras last marker moves to Bols card who fails an attack on an SB.

Round 8 & End Game:

Spoiler Alert!

All markers on 10th. All on Ataraxis.
Team 2 wins Initiative with +8. It's all downhill from here.

10th deal 3 wounds, killing Ataraxis.

Rest of game: Bol manages to kill 2 10th Reg before getting blasted, then SB kills Isamu.

Ataraxis use:
Wormhole: Used once at start of game to position with Marcu.
Terror Field: Used x7 times.
Nanobot: Used once on Iskra

Attacked once, missing.
Defended. Twice was just barely killed with a last wound from an attack.


It took a moment for me to realize all of Ataraxis abilities did not require clear sight, So my wormhole on her was a bit unnecessary at the start and put her out of range of Torins first attack which even though was only 1 skull, would have helped build up an initial setup perhaps.

3 Things I forgot during this match.
#1 Marcus having the Bracers of TP which would have helped a lot actually if he was able to escape the clutches of the Terror Field.
#2 Started assuming Iskra had Rechets which altered my turn Judgment with her.
#3 A Castle Wall piece in the center of the map since I only had 2 pieces out. This proved to be an important spot during some of the game and may have skewed some results.


Terror Field was super nice when in use and was an asset to this teams synergy. Ornaks turn 3 was also very nice to cash in, though he was incentivized to go in deep with bonds to contest the attack glyph location. Leading to his demise. The numbers of Sacred Band and 10th was very overwhelming with 2 important glyphs. Holding +8 Init and +1 Attack through most of the game undoubtedly gave a deciding advantage.

Iskra did have it good for a while though picking off one at a time whoever got on the attack glyph, with Terror Field's help. Until luck ran out.

I quite liked playing Ataraxis, and the ability to wormhole felt potentially very helpful. It will be fun to see her or play her on different maps.

I did not feel like she made up for her points in this match (Nor Torin for that matter), though. If she had survived that last attack and also been able to Phylactery once more, I would feel less this way.

[Captain Stupendous]

Map: Jabberwock

Army 1: Janos, Maekor, Bambina, C'Rik, Etiana, Maltis Tez (Schismatic Sounds)
Army 2: Blade Gruts x2, Ataraxis, Isamu, Marcu, Iskra, Ornak, Bol, Torin (Cpt. Stupendous, winner)

Which units survived? 1 Blade Grut, Ataraxis Iskra and Isamu at full life
Etiana with full life and Maltis with 1 life remaining (conceded).

Schismatic and I each opened the game by developing our armies toward the height on the wannok side of the map. I led with Torin and Ataraxis, planning to keep the Blade Gruts in reserve until I’d taken out Maekor and C’Rik. I was able to reach the lvl 3 shadow tile with Torin, partially because my opponent didn’t realize that double space figures receive shadow bonuses if only one side is on a shadow space. Schismatic engaged Torin with Maekor and Bambina, and the three spent several rounds duking it out, with Torin killing Bambina and getting Maekor down to 1 life before he was finally finished off by C’Rik stabbing him in the back.

During this time, I was also putting some OMs on Ataraxis, as she was on height and in a good position to shoot Janos. The Explorer leader whiffed two defense rolls, allowing Ataraxis to deal 5 wounds to Janos before he finished her off. When she died, she haunted Maekor, where she would remain for most of the game.

Although Ataraxis went down, Blade Gruts were able to finish off Janos. Maltis Tez had taken some wounds from Wannok earlier, and C’Rik was able to take out Ornak. As the dust settled going into the endgame, I had a full life Iskra, Isamu and a Blade Grut vs Maekor, C’Rik, and Maltis Tez, each with 1 life remaining, and a full life Etiana. Iskra was able to finish off C’Rik, and after Isamu successfully finished off Maekor to revive Ataraxis, Schismatic conceded.

How useful were playtesting units' powers and how often did they come into play?

Normal: 5 wounds on Janos

Defense reduced: III

Revived I (would have likely revived at least two more times had game played to end)

Any additional comments (theme, balance, fun factor with and against)?

I really enjoy playing Ataraxis. She plays a unique role as a high point total cheerleader. I still think that the engagement lock aspect of Terror Enhancement Field clutters up the design, as it is functionally a separate fourth power and seems in testing to be either irrelevant or game-changing, depending on the matchup. It also strikes me as unthematic that a terror ability PREVENTS enemies from fleeing. It would make more sense if the ability paralyzed enemies with fear, preventing them from moving entirely, but this isn’t the case as affected figures are still able to freely circle terrifying enemies.

I’ve also written at length about my concerns with the current iteration of the starfinder designs, but I’ll just note that my opponent seemed to struggle with the complexity level of the designs, frequently forgetting to use abilities, or misreading/misremembering exactly how all the different bonding triggers worked. To some extent this is just to be expected when playing a new faction for the first time, but I do wonder how much the complexity level of the abilities/bonding powers played into this. I’ll leave @SchismaticSounds to comment more on his experience playing the faction.

Version tested

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = ATARAXIS THE STARLICH

GENERAL = UTGAR
SPECIES = UNDEAD
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = LADY
PERSONALITY = TERRIFYING
SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM/5
BASE SIZE = NORMAL SINGLE

LIFE = 3
MOVE = 5
RANGE = 5
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 4
POINTS = 160

NECROTIZING WORMHOLE
Before moving, you may choose a small or medium friendly figure within 5 spaces of Ataraxis. Switch Ataraxis and the chosen figure. If the chosen figure was not Undead, it receives 1 wound. Figures moved by Necrotizing Wormhole never take any leaving engagement attacks.

TERROR ENHANCEMENT FIELD
Opponents' figures within 5 spaces of Ataraxis roll 1 fewer defense die against terrifying figures and cannot move or be moved by any special power on an Army Card or Glyph if the movement would cause a leaving engagement attack from a terrifying figure.

NANOBOT VIRUS PHYLACTERY
When Ataraxis is destroyed, you may remove all wound markers from this card and place Ataraxis on the card of any Unique Hero within 5 spaces of Ataraxis. For the entire game, if a Unique Hero with your Ataraxis on its card is destroyed by a normal or special attack or a leaving engagement attack, place Ataraxis on a space the destroyed figure occupied, if possible.