The Book of Nitro

[Yodaking]

yea

[japes]

YEA

[L0B5T3R]

This passes to Public Playtesting!

[Ronin]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Nitro

Army Test
Map: Ivy's Greenhouse
Units: Nitro @200, Lex Corp x3, Doc Ock, Wizard (945) vs Scarlet Spider (Kaine), Nite Owl, Robin (Dick), Batgirl (Babs), Batgirl (Cass), Catgirl, Red Arrow (945)

Spoiler Alert!

Doc Ock managed to charge in and tie up some Vigilantes early on as Wizard and the Lex Corp get into positioning and start blasting away. Eventually the Vigilantes take down Ock and start threatening the Criminals, even putting 3 wounds on Nitro. But Nitro's charged up by then, and he takes an LEA to get into position, then blows up. He comes up with a good roll and sacrifices Wizard to take out Nite Owl and Batgirl, cramping the Vigilante's efficiency and letting the surviving Lex Corp agents mop up the scraps of the Vigilante army.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): not used
• Self-Detonation: used 1 time at +2 Markers. 3 skulls rolled up to 5. OHKO'd his allied Wizard, dealt 1 wound to Batgirl (Cass) (destroyed), 2 wounds to Nite Owl (destroyed), 2 wounds to Scarlet Spider
• Dispersed: irrelevant, killed by Scarlet Spider immediately after he exploded
• Damage Taken: 3 wounds in 1 attack from Scarlet Spider, 1 wound from an LEA from Scarlet Spider, 1 wound from Scarlet Spider's Stingers (destroyed)

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): 3 Lex Corps Security

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Army Test
Map: Ivy's Greenhouse
Units: Nitro @200, Penguin II, Poison Ivy II, Vulture, The Hood, Doctor Octopus (1000) vs Original X-Men (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

Nitro doesn't play into this one as much, because the Mutants manage to take him down before he can blow up, on their way to a fairly dominant victory.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): not used
• Self-Detonation: not used
• Dispersed: not used
• Damage Taken: 0 wounds in 2 special attacks from Iceman, 0 wounds in 1 attack from Jean, 5 wounds in 2 attacks from Beast (destroyed)

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Professor X unwounded, Jean with 3 wounds, Beast with 1 wound

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Army Test
Map: Ivy's Greenhouse
Units: Nitro @170, Star-Lord, Angel (Warren), Robot, Super-Skrull (Rl'nnd) (1000) vs Captain America (C3G), Bucky, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Iron Man Mk IV (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

Nitro gets a decent explosion in that hits the entire enemy team - and unfortunately, his own Super-Skrull. He does take out Iron Man, which is really nice, since he has ways of messing with both Angel and a Dispersed Nitro, but he didn't get much damage in on the Avengers' big melee hitters, which is what doomed Team Guardians - he really needed to get some decent damage on one of those guys to derail the Avengers Machine.

He manages to get a couple more uses out of it - he can't get attacked after being Dispersed, so he blows up at the start of the round a couple times to forestall the Avengers finishing him off.

This leads to a weird scenario where the Avengers had killed off the rest of his team and were just circled around Nitro, hoping they could win initiative so they could get a crack at him. Because as long as Nitro keeps getting initiative, he can keep Dispersing himself - some figures have ways to get around that, but the Avengers didn't. (At least, as I'm reading the current version of Dispersed - the intent is to prevent adjacent attacks, right?)

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): not used
• Self-Detonation:
  • First use: rolled 2 skulls, up to 4 with MGH Markers. 1 wound to Iron Fist, 1 wound to Luke Cage, 1 wound to Captain America, 3 wounds to Bucky (destroyed), 3 wounds to Iron Man (destroyed), 3 wounds to friendly Super-Skrull
  • Second use: rolled 1 skull, no markers. Dealt 0 wounds to Luke and Cap
  • Third use: rolled 3 skulls, no markers. 2 wounds to Iron Fist, 0 wounds to Luke Cage
• Dispersed:
• Damage Taken: 0 wounds in 1 special attack from Cap, 1 wound in 1 special attack from Iron Man, 4 wounds in 2 normal attacks from Cap

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Captain America with 2 wounds, Iron Fist with 2 wounds, Luke Cage with 2 wounds

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: That SA definitely packs a lot of punch. Feels okay to me, balance-wise, but it's hard to say for sure from this sample size.

UPDATE: Might be worth talking about using Dispersed as a stalling tactic, but seems okay still at the lower point cost.

[L0B5T3R]

Thanks a ton @Ronin looks like there wasn't anything you would change to him here? I appreciate you running those and I got them linked.

[Ronin]

Nah. No tweaks based on what I saw there. It's possible he might need some down the line, but with so much of his value coming in the form of 1-2 big attacks, you'll probably need a couple more games before you can draw any conclusions.

[Arkham]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE TEST UNIT Nitro

___________________________________________________________

Army Test 1
Map: Custom
Units:
Nitro(200), Penguin II(140), Black Mask II(150), Two-Face II(170), Hush (220) (880)
vs.
Luke Cage(190), Iron Fist(260), Wolverine(280), Jewel (150) (880)

Spoiler Alert!

Attack Damage:
2 wounds on Wolverine.

Self Destruction SA:
(2 MGH markers) 2 wounds on Iron Fist, 3 wounds on Wolverine, kills Two-Face.

Disperesed:


Notes:
Iron Fist is Hush's Vendetta.
Cage puts 2 wounds on Two-Face.
Penguin removes Investment marker to protect Two-Face.
Iron Fist destroys Black Mask, Cage puts 1 wound on Two-Face.
Iron Fist puts 4 wounds on Nitro.
Penguin removes Investment marker to protect Two-Face.
Cage puts 2 wounds on Hush.
Wolverine kills Nitro, Cage puts 1 wound on Hush.
Penguin removes last Investment marker to protect Hush.
Hush puts 3 wounds on Iron Fist.
Hush kills Iron Fist.
Wolverine kills Hush.
Wolverine kills Penguin.


Wolverine with 2/6 wounds, Luke Cage with 0/5 wounds, Jewel with 0/5 wounds.

The idea was to have a bunch of leaders to take Nitro up to the opponents over the course of 2 rounds, doing what they could damage wise while he charged up, with Penguin protecting in key moments. However, this did not go well for the Crime Lord army. They were taken out pretty easily, even though Nitro and Hush managed to do a little damage.

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Army Test 2
Map: Custom
Units:
Nitro(200), Kang II(400), Harley Quinn(130) (730)
vs.
Luke Cage(190), Iron Fist(260), Wolverine(280) (730)

Spoiler Alert!

Attack Damage:
3 wounds on Iron Fist, kills him.

Self Destruction SA:
(2 MGH markers) 3 wounds on Wolverine, 1 wound on Cage, 2 wounds on Iron Fist.

Disperesed:


Notes:
Harley and Nitro start on Hang's card.
Harley is placed on the battlefield on Round 1 Turn 2, and uses her Smilex Bomb. No wounds are caused but she removes the X from Iron Fist and 3rd OM from Cage.
Nitro gains a MGH marker.
Fist puts 1 wound on Kang, Cage puts 1 wound on Kang.
Fist puts 1 wound on Kang.
Nitro gains a MGH marker.
Kang places Nitro.
Wolverine kills Kang.
Wolverine puts 2 wounds on Nitro.
Nitro gains MGH marker.
Cage kills Nitro.
Wolverine puts 2 wounds on Harley.
Wolverine kills Harley.


Cage with 1/5 wounds, Wolverine with 0/6 wounds.

This was a little bit closer, and had Wolverine been finished off I think Nitro's team could have won, but alas it did not go down like that. Kang used Harley first to bomb the 3 opponents, but it did no damage, however it did remove a couple OMs. Kang endured some attacks, while dishing out some attacks of his own as well as Orbital Assault. He was buying time for Nitro to charge up. He unleashed Nitro after 2 rounds, for some decent damage, but after that it started to fall quickly. Kang was killed off, then Nitro, then Harley.

___________________________________________________________

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: He's an interesting unit. He seems a bit all or nothing. Each use I had with Self Destruction led to a total of 4 skulls, both times with 2 MGH markers. So it was a decent attack, not great, but managed to do some nice woundage. Ultimately, it's hard to nail down point range. He's got a bit of a glass jaw at 4 defense and 5 life, with Criminals not having the best defensive synergy. He's good for a one-off area of effect power attack, and I like the after effects of Dispersed. It can protect him for a bit until you're ready to get him in the mix again. Though, with him not able to be chosen for turns by an OM hub or charge up MGH markers, you'll likely want to take a turn with him just to get it going again. Point wise, I lost both games rather decisively, so it's hard to tell. 200 feels fair, depending how other games have panned out for him.

[L0B5T3R]

Thank you kindly @Arkham . It seems like there is a little oomph missing here. It makes me want to revisit this idea:

Originally Posted by quozl

This way he can't get hurt or do anything but if he was your only figure left, your opponent will win since he's off the battlefield.

Although instead of another marker you could probably just say remove him, and later place him back within 1 space of his original placement. You could also say, "begining of the next round or when an OM is revealed on this card..." Any thoughts on this? If not maybe a defensive boost?

[Soundwarp SG-1]

If he's supposed to work with Kang like that he'll need some sort of 'even if Nitro is not on the battlefield' language added to Mutant Growth Hormones I believe. As powers are normally considered 'turned off' while no one controls the figure unless otherwise stated.

[Ronin]

Yeah, I know I've misplayed that before with other figures, but technically he shouldn't be able to shoot up while he's on Kang's card.

EDIT: And now I see I FAQed it the other way in Kang's thread. That's not actually right, updating it.

[Arkham]

Originally Posted by L0B5T3R

Thank you kindly @Arkham . It seems like there is a little oomph missing here. It makes me want to revisit this idea:

Although instead of another marker you could probably just say remove him, and later place him back within 1 space of his original placement. You could also say, "begining of the next round or when an OM is revealed on this card..." Any thoughts on this? If not maybe a defensive boost?

I don’t think that change is really necessary. I don’t believe his Dispersed aspect is lacking anything. He played fine to me, his points may just need to come down a tad. I feel a similar comparison would be to Radioactive Man. They both have powerful AOE Special Attacks, with certain factors attached to them that require their survival to stay around long enough to keep pumping out. However, I’d argue Radioactive Man with his 1 higher defense, 3 higher range, and decent auto-woundage abilities potentially makes him the stronger unit. So with that in mind, I’d just say Nitro could come down a bit in points to become a better draft than at 200. I see at one point after the initials Yoda suggested 170, so I’m not sure what happened to the discussion for it to stay at 200, But I feel dropping the points to 160-180 would feel more accurate to me rather than changing any mechanics.

[L0B5T3R]

Ok cool, I suppose my preference is to find a way to bump his cost to the 200s. I believe thematically that is where he belongs, but if i'm alone on that or getting him there would make him too swingy or whatever than I could settle for 170 range.