Mirmer the Hologram - Pre-Auggies Discussion

[Tai-Pan]

MIRMER THE HOLOGRAM



This is using the Star Wars figure "Battle for Hoth General Veers, Hologram #14"


Bio-
Mirmer the Hologram is the first creation to be turned out of Vydar's secret production facility, where the Kyrie general plans to utilize the technical knowledge of the beings he summons to be able to create a fighting force in case he loses access to the wellsprings. Despite being devoid of any offensive capabilites, Mirmer can relay vital information to his allies. Mirmer still has a couple of bugs to work out: for some reason, certain attacks can cause such disturbance for the hologram that it switches off. And he has an annoying personality.


Concept-
The idea was to have some kind of scout that is only good for scouting, with some kind of spy-like ability for relaying information or recon to his allies. Mirmer can't attack anything, but he offers a boost to his allies by relaying detailed reports about enemy positions, allowing them to strike at the weakest points. As a hologram, he should be immune to normal attacks, but with a special attack or ability he can be taken out. I decided against having more than one life because it makes no sense how a projection can take damage: it's either on or off. His defense is high because even with a special attack I didn't want him to fall right away. Part of my thought process was a powerful enough attack like an explosion or magic or something like that would disrupt the projection and cause it to cease existing, but this would be some kind of fluke that happens for unknown reasons. He's worth a lot more when the enemy doesn't have a special attacker, but special abilities like the Marrden hounds' plague can do him in quickly. I hoped to make him expensive enough to where the points he would take away from a fighting army would help compensate for the fact that he may very well stick around until the last figure on his side dies.

Cost-
This guy seems so different that I didn't have a whole lot of reference. Marcus and Finn give the same attack boost, but are also decent heroes in and of themselves, whereas Mirmer is solely support. Mirmer had to be expensive enough to where the bonus he offers to his allies is offset by the lack of additional soldiers, based on a 500-600 point army.

Synergy-
He's a scout, so he gets a +2 move boost from Mittens.

Name-
The name is a mix-up of Rimmer, the Hologram from Red Dwarf, for anyone who might know that old series.




I really enjoy putting creative energy into my favorite game, but I no longer live with my HeroScape, nor do I have any of the miniatures for my customs. If somebody has the mini and could help me with size, or if someone likes the way something turned out and would playtest him for me and send me battle reports, that would be awesome.

[lefton4ya]

Cheap Taelord aura, I like it. You are right about playtesting needed for costing and if I get a game in soon I will try by proxing him. However Finn is only 10 points more and I would rather take him in most cases, so he probably can be lowered in cost.

[awesomeunleashed]

I would say
"cannot be targeted for a normal attack"
and
"remove him from the battlefield."

Otherwise, I would say he just needs playtesting.

[Tai-Pan]

Oh, perhaps the wording is a little off. I changed the card on my computer and I'll try uploading it in the morning. If a figure attacks an enemy figure that is within 2 clear sight spaces of Mirmer, your figure gets the boost. So ranged figures can be boosted as well if Mirmer is spying out the enemy position.

[Tai-Pan]

Originally Posted by lefton4ya

Cheap Taelord aura, I like it. You are right about playtesting needed for costing and if I get a game in soon I will try by proxing him. However Finn is only 10 points more and I would rather take him in most cases, so he probably can be lowered in cost.

Finn only offers a boost for melee units. Mirmer offers a boost for all units. And Mirmer is unique in that he has an aura in which the enemies have to be for units to have a boost. If the enemy keeps on the move, they can avoid him. He's not very good for turtling tactics like Taelord or other boosters so far. He works more like a bunker-breaker against turtled armies, or as a homing beacon on kill-areas through which your enemy will have to go. If Mirmer's in the right spot, shooters from all directions can hit the units with a boost. I really don't know how different this kind of an aura would be.

[Scytale]

Fascinating concept and well-realized. I haven't a clue how to cost the guy, though. Against a normal attack-only melee army on a map or scenario with a choke point, backed by powerful ranged units, this guy will be worth way more than 70pts. On the other hand, if the opponent has a ranged special attack, he's worthless.

[Tai-Pan]

Thanks Scy.

The question is, how do you price something that has a huge variance on performance?

Some of the worst things that can happen during a game are mindshackles, negations, and auto-destroys. The units that can do that are between 90-140 points and include a d20 roll. If they're hot, they're worth a lot more than those points. If they're not, they're not worth a lot (some exceptions).

Other units have a huge potential in that they can attack, attack, attack. Frenzy is a theoretically unlimited potential to take turns, and a DW8K or Laglor in the right spot with the right rolls can rip up the enemy as well.

As for boosts, you've got an 80 point figure that's undercosted and gives a defense boost roughly equal to the attack boost that a 180 point figure that's overcosted gives. Soldiers, among whom some of the strongest figures in the game are, can be boosted by a 100 point figure that also has many other functions.

The potential for runaway potential is there in many situations. I think the trick is finding something that generally works. Mirmer is like nothing else in the game. If you want to avoid the boost he gives your opponent, you can run away from him. An order marker spent on him keeping him close to his targets is an order marker that's not on anything that can attack. He can be parked somewhere to create a dead-zone where figures stay away to avoid be shot by boosted ranged figures. I imagine his best use would be as a turtle-breaker. If you send him in among turtling enemies, they're going to have to decide to hold position and give you an attack bonus (which actually might just neutralize their position if it's on height or with cheerleaders) or move some place else. A special attacker in an army can deal with Mirmer fairly easily, and that adds some excitement in playing rock-paper-scissors with the units. The Mirmer player has to try to take out the special attacker or keep Mirmer away from it while his opponent tries to take Mirmer out or hold the special attacker in reserve to counter Mirmer when he comes.

A worst case scenario would be, as you said, Scytale, a bottleneck somewhere with Mirmer parked in the middle, backed up by range, facing only slower melee figures. However, give me a handful of Reavers and a squad of 4th in the same position, and that's a bad spot to be in anyways.

I think that generally, a melee army is a moving army, and with only an aura of 2, an army can go around Mirmer or will be through his aura fast enough to where it wouldn't be devastating.

I'm starting to think more and more that 70 might be a bit high.

As a counterdraft, the Wyrmlings and some of the Elementals should be able to take care of him, and all for less than 50 points.

[Scytale]

Originally Posted by Tai-Pan

A special attacker in an army can deal with Mirmer fairly easily, and that adds some excitement in playing rock-paper-scissors with the units. The Mirmer player has to try to take out the special attacker or keep Mirmer away from it while his opponent tries to take Mirmer out or hold the special attacker in reserve to counter Mirmer when he comes.

It's worth noting that only ranged special attacks can take him out, since he is never considered engaged. Well, not necessarily just range attacks; some figures like Jotun and Gurei-Oni can hit him as a secondary target.

[Tai-Pan]

Originally Posted by Scytale

It's worth noting that only ranged special attacks can take him out, since he is never considered engaged. Well, not necessarily just range attacks; some figures like Jotun and Gurei-Oni can hit him as a secondary target.

Hmm. That one sent me back to the rulebook. I couldn't find anything that a figure with a range of one could only attack figures it's engaged to. Do you know where that is?

In any case, that is perhaps more thematic, but more troublesome for play. I'll have to take a look at a list of figures and see who can do anything to this guy.

[Tai-Pan]

Units that can take Mirmer out:

Black Wyrmling 30
Red Wyrmling 30
White Wyrmling 30
Blue Wyrmling 35
Fire Elemental 35
Roman Archers 55
Johnny Shotgun Sullivan 65
James Murphy 75
Erevan Sunshadow 80
Estivara 80
Atlaga 90
Heirloom 90
Marrden Hounds 90
Ne-Gok-Sa 90
DW7K 100
Gurei-Oni 100
Jorhdawn 100
Mind Flayer Mastermind 100
Pelloth and Drow 125+
Shades 100
Airborne Elite 110
Laglor 110
Rhogar Dragonspine 110
Sharwin Wildborn 110
Grimnak 120
Kaemon Awa 120
Runa 120
DW8K 130
Kee-Mo-Shi 130
Tul-Bak-Ra 130
DW9K 140
Othkurik 140
Sudema 140
Cyprien 150
Q10 150
Mimring 150
Sonlen 160
Moltenclaw 170
Drake (SotM) 170
Q9 180
Nilfheim 185
Sujoah 185
Zelrig 185
Braxas 210
Tor-Kul-Na 220
Jotun 225

That's 46 units, and most of the ones that cost more than Mirmer does would go on to do great and mighty deeds after dealing with Mirmer. A change to somehow make it to where non-ranged special attacks would work against him as well would add just a few to the list, but I think it's long enough, especially considering that many armies have a special attacker to deal with a number of other units.

I think the units most affected would really be camping, turtling units with normal attacks like the 4th, the 10th, Omnicrons, Blastatrons, Aubriens, etc. and those are all very powerful ranged units that can use a knock-down, especially when they're turtling.

[Scytale]

Originally Posted by Tai-Pan

Hmm. That one sent me back to the rulebook. I couldn't find anything that a figure with a range of one could only attack figures it's engaged to. Do you know where that is?

Hrm... I think you might have me there... the rulebook isn't quite clear on this point. The 2nd edition rulebooks says: "A figure with a Range of 1 can attack a figure only from an adjacent space." Normally adjacency of opponent's figures and engagement are the same thing, but your wording points out the distinction. Mirmer can be adjacent but not engaged, and according to the rule above can still be attacked by a Range 1 special attack. Curiously, all figures can protect Mirmer from these attacks in a Tandros Kreel sort of way -- any other figure would be engaged and this rule would come into play: "If one of your figures is engaged with one or more other figures, that figure can only attack those figures."

This is all nit-picky stuff though that wouldn't be obvious to a casual player. I would much rather you change the power to "never makes leaving engagement attacks". I think that does what you want without making the adjacent/engaged distinction. A range figure adjacent to Mirmer wouldn't be able to target anything else, but that figure could simply move away to take the shot then.

[Tai-Pan]

I changed it in the offline version. Now it reads "Mirmer the Hologram may never attack or make leaving engagement attacks"