The Book of Blackhawk Squadron

[Matt Helm]

This passes

Woo hoo. Thanks fellas.

[Karat]

I believe @tcglkn has already offered to hit this initial too.

[tcglkn]

Yep. Currently working on the Court of Owls since I wasn’t sure when this would be ready but I should be able to hit these in the next few days.

[tcglkn]

Not really any direct synergy here besides being able to move figures. Anything I should focus on in this initial? @LordVenoc

[IAmBatman]

I might try like Man-Bat, Vulture, and Man-Bat Assassins. They can all do passive movement stuff and help line up figures for the special attack.

[tcglkn]

Good suggestions. Star-Lord can also use his SA to move them around.

Also do we have miniature photos here? I was only able to get one of the figures but I got three copies of it so I was planning to use that for my squad but I'll need photos of the right and left figures in the OP.

[Ronin]

I have these minis, so I could provide photos if need be.

[tcglkn]

That would be great!

[tcglkn]

C3G INITIAL PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Blackhawk Squadron

Version tested:

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = BLACKHAWK SQUADRON

SPECIES = HUMAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE SQUAD (3)
CLASS = PILOTS
PERSONALITY = DAUNTLESS

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 1

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

POINTS = 160

COORDINATED TACTICAL MOVEMENT
After revealing an Order Marker on this card, instead of moving the Blackhawk Squadron normally, you may move up to three figures you control. At least one of these figures must be a Blackhawk Squadron Pilot.

AIRSTRIKE SPOTTER SPECIAL ATTACK
Range Special. Attack 5.
For each Blackhawk Squadron Pilot you control, you may choose one unengaged unique hero or unique squad figure you control within 8 straight line spaces of that pilot. All figures occupying spaces in those straight lines between the chosen figures and the pilots are affected by the Airstrike Spotter Special Attack. Roll 5 attack dice once for all affected figures. Each figure is only affected once, never gets height advantage and rolls defense dice separately. No Blackhawk Squadron Pilot can attack normally in the same turn that at least one pilot attacked with Airstrike Spotter Special Attack.

STRATEGIC RETREAT
Blackhawk Squadron Pilots do not take leaving engagement attacks from figures that are engaged with at least one other figure.

Army Test
Map: X Marks the Spot
Units: Blackhawk Squadron (160), Commander Rogers, Man-Bat, Angel, Zombie (800) VS Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones, Casey Jones (800)

Spoiler Alert!

Damage Dealt: Killed Iron Fist 4/5 wounds and 1 wound on Jessica Jones

Coordinated Tactical Movement: Useful, but not overwhelmingly so

Airstrike Spotter SA: Tricky to set up but put 1 wound on Jessica and 3 wounds on Iron Fist

Strategic Retreat: Didn't come up, but seems useful

The SA was tricky to set up, but I was able to pull it off with all 3 figures onces and was able to get 3 wounds on Iron Fist before the first Pilot died. Next SA attempt was a whiff and then I wasn't set up for it any more so I got a normal attack off and finished off Iron Fist. Commander Rogers and Zombie were doing some work each round to pick off on the fighters, but the rest of the figures were there mostly to help set up the Pilot's SA and they didn't do so very successfully this game.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Casey Jones with 2 life left and Jessica Jones with 1 life left

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: X Marks the Spot
Units: Blackhawk Squadron (160), Robot, Star-Lord, Angel, Vulture (800) VS Nico, Molly Hayes, Karolina, Chase, Old Lace and Gertrude (800)

Spoiler Alert!

Damage Dealt: Killed Karolina and Chase with one SA and dealt 1 wound to Molly.

Coordinated Tactical Movement: Useful with Angel and Vulture to move extra figures and ocassionally used on Star-Lord to keep him in position.

Airstrike Spotter SA: Pulled it off once and rolled 5 skulls which dealt 4 wounds to Karolina and leath 3 wounds to Chase

Strategic Retreat: Didn't come up this game with Angel around.

Definitely felt like the Pilots earned their points this game, the ability to move Angel, Vulture, Robot and Star-Lord here and keep everyone together was nice. Then I could put OMs on Robot and choose which Hero was in the best spot to attack. Actually made a decent army core and the Runaways had a hard time dealing with it when Karolina got KOed by the SA late in round 2.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Robot with no wounds, Angel with 1 wound, 1 Pilot (basically stopped using them when the second one died this game)

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: X Marks the Spot
Units: Blackhawk Squadron (160), J. Jonah Jameson, Civillians x3, Captain America (Harbro), Moon Knight (750) VS The Chief, Robot-Man, Elasti-Girl, Negative Man, Negative Spirit (750)

Spoiler Alert!

Damage Dealt: Killed Negative Man

Coordinated Tactical Movement: Useful for keeping Captain America and Moon Knight together.

Airstrike Spotter SA: Was able to set it up and kill Negative Man, but that was it this game.

Strategic Retreat: Used with the Civies this game to set up a SA on Negative Man

Robot man was the Menace this game

This Civillian build didn't really pan out as I had planed. Knew they didn't work exactly with the Pilot's SA but thought they might help with their Retreat power in getting the Special Attack set up better but at least in this game it didn't work out how I envisioned. Also the Doom Patrol was just pretty solid and with their double activations they were able to clean up pretty easily once they took down Cap and Moon Knight.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Chief at full health and Elastigirl with 3 wounds.

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: They felt pretty on the money for the cost here, I liked the Coordinated Movement power more than I thought and understand better why LV was pushing me to maximize that over maximizing other ways to move them.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: As a Unique Squad without any synergies really, I can see drafting them just for the Coordinated Movement and Special attack and being plenty happy with that! Solid fun design. The Retreat power felt mostly like trinket text but definitely can be useful for setting up the SA.

[tcglkn]

Kinda hard to build armies around a Unique Squad without direct synergies but these feel solid. Looked at Man-Bat Assassins, but they can only move a figure if they wound them so it seems bad to pair them with a Squad.

[IAmBatman]

Not sure how much help the Civvies are in that last one, since you can't really use them to line up the attacks. I guess they can lockdown the enemy, though?

[tcglkn]

Totally thought I could use them on the special attack. But tying down still seems useful.