The Book of Shriek

[Karat]

Cool, I dig your reasoning.

[IAmBatman]

Looks good.

[Lord Pyre]

I dig it.

[Ronin]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Shriek (take two)

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Shriek @160, Carnage (440) vs Batwoman, Batgirl (Babs), Nite Owl (440)

Spoiler Alert!

Shriek and Carnage stepped out at the start of the first game and then took the first initiative. Carnage moved up the field but couldn't get in range of anyone. Batwoman and Nite Owl moved up and put a couple wounds on Carnage. Carnage had the next OM and bounced it to Shriek, because she had an opportunity to move up and occupy a key spot next to Carnage on height (and softening someone up for Carnage to kill can be nice for Kill Crazy anyhow). Shriek scored a couple wounds on Batwoman. Batwoman and Nite Owl tried to go after Carnage, but he swung away, leaving Batwoman engaged to no one (and therefore preventing Nite Owl from attacking on his Vigilante Team-Up turn). Carnage had a big turn where he polished off Batwoman and then put 3 wounds on Nite Owl when they both whiffed on defense. Batgirl and Nite Owl retaliated with a couple wounds on Shriek.

The Vigilantes get an initiative swing and manage to take down Shriek, then pop Carnage for a couple wounds to bring him down to 1 Life remaining. Kind of a crazy turn that swings the whole match. Carange gets an attack in, but whiffs it. The Vigilantes just barely take Carnage out on the next turn, with Carnage falling to Nite Owl's attack.

Real crazy match - seemed like Team Carnage had it in the bag, but the dice had other ideas. I liked how Shriek felt here, though. Having a little more reason to personally attack and mix it up feels more true to the character, and it adds a little more decision-making to how you play her.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 2 wounds to Batwoman in 1 attack (boosted by Carnage Family)
• Kill Here Often?: used at start of game
• Carnage Family: took 1 turn
• Bad Vibrations: subtracted 2 dice from Batwoman's defense 1 time, 1 die from Batwoman's defense 1 time, 1 die from Nite Owl's defense 1 time
• Damage Taken: 4 wounds from Batgirl in 2 attacks (destroyed), 0 wounds from Nite Owl in 1 attack

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Nite Owl with 1 Life, Batgirl with 4 Life

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Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Shriek @160, Carnage, Weapon X, Harley Quinn (I) (800) vs Baron Zemo (Heinrich), Red Skull, Shocker, Rhino (800)

Spoiler Alert!

Kind of a mixed start for Shriek here: she batted the Cube away from Skull super early, but got brought down to 1 Life really quickly by Skull, who figured her for an easy mark for Master Motivator turns. Fortunately, she didn't get polished off (because Skull wanted another easy activation out of her) and she managed to stick around long enough to see Carnage annihilate Skull on a 7-skull attack roll. She lowered defenses for another Carnage attack on Rhino and then a Smilex on Shocker and Rhino, but then Zemo moved in and picked her off.

The match swung pretty strongly in favor of Team Carnage after Skull and Shriek went down, with the game ending after Shocker destroyed Carnage on an all-skulls roll, but then was himself destroyed by the recoil.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 2 wounds to Red Skull in 1 attack (boosted by Carnage family)
• Kill Here Often?: used at start of game
• Carnage Family: took 1 turn
• Bad Vibrations: subtracted 2 dice from Red Skull's defense 1 time, 1 die from Red Skull's defense 1 time, 1 die from Rhino's defense 2 times, 1 die from Shocker's defense 1 time
• Damage Taken: 1 wound from Rhino in 1 attack, 2 wounds from Red Skull in 1 attack, 1 wound from Zemo in 1 attack (destroyed)

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Harley Quinn with 1 Life, Weapon X unwounded

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Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Shriek @160, Carnage, Deadpool, Harley Quinn (I) (855) vs Professor X, Jean Grey, Polaris, Toad, Wild Child (855)

Spoiler Alert!

Shriek got an early turn when Cletus was bubble trapped,and successfully wounded Polaris to free Carnage from the trap. Other than that she mainly hung back and whammied people while Cletus, Wade and Harley went nuts. She tanked a weird number of potshots from Jean and Polaris trying to take her down, which was a big contributor to the success of Team Carnage here. Eventually Toad went on a little tear and took her out, though. Team Carnage had the game pretty well in the bag at that point, though.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 1 wound to Polaris in 1 attack
• Kill Here Often?: used at start of game
• Carnage Family: took 1 turn
• Bad Vibrations: subtracted 2 dice from Polaris' defense 1 time, 1 die from Polaris' defense 2 times, 1 die from Jean's defense 3 times, 1 die from Wild Child's defense 2 times, 1 die from Professor X's defense 1 time, 1 die from Toad's defense 3 times
• Damage Taken: 0 wounds from Polaris in 3 attacks, 0 wounds from Jean Grey in 2 attacks, 4 wounds from Toad in 2 special attacks (destroyed)

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Carnage with 3 Life, Deadpool unwounded

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: This version feels a lot better to me than the last one. Really enjoy playing the card. Couple decent sized wins here, though.

A lot of that is, I think, the inherent boom or bust of putting all your eggs in Carnage's basket, rather than Shriek being particularly busted. And, admittedly, I was testing against builds with a lot of mid-level guys, which Carnage likes going up against if he can't get squad builds to murderlize. Still, probably an argument for a cost bump moving forward.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Yeah, I think a lot of that is Carnage being swingy and going against armies that play to his strengths. But considering she’ll also have Carnage II to play around with eventually, I could see bumping her a tad.

[Ronin]

Proposing we move Shriek to public testing at 180.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Yea

[japes]

yea

[Karat]

Yea

[IAmBatman]

Healing Factor figures are always going to skew the win margins in lower point games, as they tend to either fall or heal up to almost full/full in a win. Looks good overall!

yea

[Ronin]

This passes!

Thanks guys.

[Arch-vile]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Shrek

Army Test
Map: A Couple Puddles
Units: Shriek, Carnage, Scorpion (Mac Gargan) (660) VS Psylocke, Emma Frost, Phoenix (650)

Spoiler Alert!

Shriek and Carnage move up. Shriek moves up. Phoenix wounds Shriek. Carnage wounds Phoenix. Phoenix puts 2 wounds on Shriek. Carnage puts 2 wounds on Phoenix and the phoenix fire kills Shriek. Phoenix puts 3 wounds on Carnage.

Phoenix wounds Carnage. Carnage returns the favor. Phoenix wounds Carnage. Carnage kills Phoenix. Psylocke is blocked. Scorpion uses his acid blast and is blocked.

Carnage puts 2 wounds on Psylocke. Psylocke kills Carnage. Scorpion is blocked. Psylocke is blocked. Scorpion is blocked. Psylocke whiffs.

Scorpion kills Psylocke, costing the Mutants OM1 and OM2. Scorpion moves out. Scorpion puts 3 wounds on Emma Frost. Frost turns diamond and is blocked.

The rest of the game is just a slugfest between Frost and Scorpion. Scorpion eventually wins.


Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Scorpion with 1 wound wins.

Shriek did almost nothing this game and died quickly, so she felt like a waste of points. I’ll try and protect her more next game.

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Army Test
Map: A Couple Puddles
Units: Shriek, Carnage, Green Goblin (690) VS Red Skull (Hasbro), Shocker, Mysterio, U.S. Agent (695)

Spoiler Alert!

Carnage & Shriek move up. Carnage moves up. US Agent puts 3 wounds on Carnage. Carnage puts 2 wounds on US Agent. US Agent is blocked. Carnage wounds US Agent. US Agent uses Shield Ricochet against Shriek (4 skulls), which kills her in one hit. Carnage dodges the ricochet.

Carnage flees US Agent and puts 2 wounds on Mysterio. Shocker is blocked. Carnage wounds Red Skull. Shocker puts 2 wounds on Carnage. Carnage attacks Mysterio (hoping for a kill to activate Kill Crazy), but Mysterio switches with Shocker, who takes 3 wounds. Shocker then kills Carnage.

Goblin wounds US Agent. US Agent puts 3 wounds on Goblin. Goblin kills US Agent with a pumpkin bomb then kills Mysterio with his normal attack. Shocker is blocked. Goblin kills Shocker. Red Skull wounds Goblin.

Goblin wounds Red Skull. Skull whiffs. Goblin kills Red Skull.


Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Green Goblin with 4 wounds wins.

Again, Shriek did little but her army won anyway.

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: She’s really fragile and I felt she didn’t do much in my games besides lowering opponents’ defense by 1. Despite that her allies won both games, but it wasn’t due to her. Cool design but unfortunately it’s hard to get much out of these tests.