AotV Playtesting Thread (Volunteers needed!)

[S1R_ART0R1US]

Would love to have a playtesting tournament with the AotV designs! By my count there's 14 figures which seems like a good number (the recent C3V playtesting tournament had 17).

[Captain Stupendous]

Originally Posted by S1R_ART0R1US

Would love to have a playtesting tournament with the AotV designs! By my count there's 14 figures which seems like a good number (the recent C3V playtesting tournament had 17).

@Astroking112 and I were just talking about this a little while ago; it’s definitely something we’d like to run, hopefully early next year

Thanks for your interest; it’s always encouraging to hear peoples thoughts in spite of te slower pace as of late.

[destroyer]

count me in!

[NecroBlade]

After this weekend's 3x300 tournament, I brought along AotV armies to test. Since the total of out 12 units so far plus RotV = ~2700 points, I went with the format and made three groups of 3x300(ish) armies. I managed to split them so:

Points: 900/895/900
Figures: 16/16/17
Cards: 9/9/10
AotV Cards: 4/3/5
Heroes: 6/6/6
Squads: 3/3/4
Double bases: 1/1/1

It didn't quote work out that we got to use them that way, though, between playing another game first and some players leaving for other commitments. In the end, four armies (chosen at random) including 6 AotV cards got played.

Map for both games was Frostmire with Wannok and Initiative +8.

Game 1: Deathwalker 9000, Vlad III, Zettian Guards vs Airborne Elite, Sgt. Drake, Dienekes

• Round 1: No Drop. Team won initiative and advanced DW9K on OM1. Dienekes followed moving toward Wannok so he could threaten anything that went near it.
  OM2 Zettians formed up with DW9K and Drake went around the other side.
  OM3 DW9K fired an Explosion at Drake but no damage, Drake continued forward (could have engaged DW9K but from low ground where a Zettian could double engage and lock him in).
  
• Round 2: No Drop. Initiative again. With no good options for getting another shot at Drake, DW9K moves to take a shot at Dienekes, who blocks all with height and jungle. Drake finishes his flanking maneuver to get at Vlad for 3 damage.
  OM2 Vlad Impales Drake for 2. Drake finishes off Vlad.
  OM3 DW9K's Explosion to Drake again does no damage. Dienekes moves to Wannok, the wound killing a Zettian (clever plan to kill Vlad first).
  
• Round 3: No Drop. Initiative seeing Drake kill the other Zettian (he could've gone after DW9K on height, but the odds of killing the Zettian were better and the Zettian would've been in the way if DW9K disengaged to take shots at Dienekes; this forced DW9K to deal with Drake first and maybe only have one shot at Dienekes before Wannok ended the game). DW9K rolls 5 skulls to finish Drake.
  OM2 was on Drake, so DW9K starts his attempt on Dienekes, but doesn't hit.
  OM3 Dienekes stays put on Wannok. DW9K hits him for 2, but Wannok is successful and wins.

Unfortunately this matchup wasn't able to really showcase either AotV card. Really the only takeaway was that players felt it would be hard to justify OMs on Vlad (in this, or more 'normal' games; I'm also just noticing that his OP says 125 points which seems like way too many when he was at 90 before). Maybe 6 Move would help?

Game 2: Ozuul, Velnesh Alphas vs Tetsuo Tyrell, Ne-Gok-Sa, Marro Warriors, Honored Soul Guides*

• Round 1: Initiative who lead with MW OM1. Ozuul advances.
  OM2 MW get 3 shots from height into Ozuul for 1 damage and one shot at a Velnesh kills it. Remaining Velnesh get two attacks on MW and kill 1.
  OM3 MW kill another Velnesh and deal 2 more to Ozuul. Ozuul takes Wannok and a normal attack to kill a MW. Wannok wound goes to Tetsuo (go Mind Jack!).
• Round 2: Initiative OM1 on MW who move to water to clone, 1 success. Velnesh was hoping to take out a MW, but after losing Initiative opts for NGS instead but is blocked.
  OM2 MW take Initiative Glyph and a shot at the Velnesh, who Blinks to engage Tetsuo and an HSG (who isn't really tied down thanks to Stealth Flying, but may be forced to move if it doesn't want to get attacked). Ozuul moves to height to bide his time and line up for a Crush.
  OM3 Tetsuo kills the Velnesh. Ozuul moves in with a normal attack on NGS first, 4 skulls... 4 shields.
• Round 3: Initiative OM1 sees Tetsuo take height and Overclock for 6 dice into Ozuul, but rolls 1 skull which doesn't his and misses MJ (+2). Ozuul safely disengages and pulls in NGS and an HSG (engaged to both). 2 skull Crush is met by exactly 2 shields from all three...
  OM2 Tetsuo Overclocks again this time for 2 damage to Ozuul (3 Life remaining), but no MJ (+3). Ozuul repeats a 2-skull-Crush-no-damage turn.
  OM3 NGS fails Mind Shackle and damage on Ozuul. Ozuul's 2 skull Crush finally manages 2 wounds on NGS.
• Round 4: Initiative OM1 Tetsuo's Overclock does no damage and no MJ (+4). Ozuul rolls 1 for Crush which doesn't damage anything.
  OM2 HSG escape the splash zone to position on height/toward Wannok. However this allows Ozuul to disengage (hit, 2 Life) and pull in Tetsuo to Crush him, a MW, and an HSG. Only 1 damage to Tetsuo.
  OM3 MW leave Initiative Glyph but can't hit Ozuul. Ozuul rolls a 4 skull Crush to kill Tetsuo, the MW, and the HSG.
• Round 5: Initiative OM1 Ozuul pulls in the last 2 MW but 1 skull doesn't kill either. Final HSG sacrifices itself for Tetsuo but he completely fails Overclock and MJ anyway.
  OM2 Ozuul's Crush kills both MW. MW had the OM.
  OM3 Ozuul's normal attack hits NGS for 1 (3 Life). NGS moves to height and hits for 1 (1 Life Ozuul).
• Round 6: Initative OM1 Ozuul climbs level and kills NGS.

Despite the terrible start losing 2 Velnesh quickly and several Crushes to no effect, Ozuul manages to come back and earn his 200+ points. Tetsuo rolled equally poorly, though. Thoughts from the players on these AotV units were: not much on the Velnesh, since they went down quick, but still find their theme and powers fun. Tetsuo just unfortunately didn't realize his potential, MJ seems fine at 19 since it never went off (and at best it would've been an inconvenience to Ozuul since he didn't have much of a team to turn on). Floated the idea of increasing the Overclock bonus even more, especially given his low Defense. HSG good that they're cheap since they don't do much on their own and Last Will usually makes them a later-game piece, but Last Will is a fun ability to try. Last Will was also the only ability deemed leaning toward the complex side, but I think we knew that and it's a very thematic power. Floated the idea of them exploding or something else when removed to give them something else to do, but I don't think that fits the design (and would probably raise their points). Another idea was to place the Hero adjacent to the HSG before destroying it (instead of destroying it then taking the exact space) and I could get behind that as a way to open up some options. Finally, Ozuul is pretty swingy, but 6 Move feels necessary to give him the potential he finally lived up to at the end of the game, whereas he could much more easily have been avoided and shot down with only 5.

*tested with the latest version