The Book of Spider-Army Recruit

[IAmBatman]

Seems pretty straightforward.

[tcglkn]

My concern is Uncommon stacking with the first power, how is the wording there? @Soundwarp SG-1

[MrNobody]

Still a lingering reference to Spider-Verse Recruits in that first power too.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Originally Posted by tcglkn

My concern is Uncommon stacking with the first power, how is the wording there? @Soundwarp SG-1

As long as the 'and no more turns for you bucko' lingo is there they can't stack with each other.

Like each Spider-Army Recruit's power will separately trigger, but after the first one it doesn't matter since the rest can't do anything.

Some other stuff to look over:

Should be "figure you control named Spider-Army Recruit" to match how we do name synergy now. Uncommons see each other as separate people.

The no additional turns might need to be more clear that you still get the turn with whoever you revealed the OM on? Pretty sure it usually is. Unless we're just ruling that 'additional turns' means 'turns other than the normal one you get from revealing an OM' or whatnot.

Right now you can have a Spider-Army Recruit bond with him/herself, which is a bit weird. A bit tricky to stop that given they can route their bonding to each other. Maybe like:

After revealing an Order Marker on the card of a figure you control with the Swing Line or Web Swing special power and before taking a turn with that figure, you may take a turn with another figure you control named Spider-Army Recruit, or up to other figures you control named Spider-Army Recruit if neither attacks during its turn. You may not take any additional turns.

Not sure if it's clear there that the another/other means 'other than the dude you revealed an OM on' instead of 'other than this Spider-Verse Recruit' though.

[tcglkn]

I think this covers all of those concerns:

SPIDER-VERSE SUPPORT
After revealing an Order Marker on the card of a figure you control with the Swing Line or Web Swing special power and before taking a turn with that figure, you may take a turn with another figure you control named Spider-Army Recruit, or up to two of those figures if neither attacks during its turn. After using this special power, you may only take a turn with the figure that you revealed an Order Marker on this turn.

[Lord Pyre]

Haven't caught up here until now. I obviously like the idea, but their bonding power is redundant with Anya's. Not sure if there's a way to make them complement each other rather than competing, but otherwise looks good. I suppose they're a decent backup if Anya dies quick.

[tcglkn]

I think they fill similar yet different roles. Kinda like the various Robins with Batman.

[Ronin]

The "another" in that spot prevents your last one from bonding with anyone, right? Could they have like a 'no bonding with Uncommons' type restriction if we wanted to prevent self-bonding?

[tcglkn]

C3G INITIAL PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Spider-Army Recruit

Version tested:

Spoiler Alert!

NAME = Spider-Army Recruit

SPECIES = Mutate
UNIQUENESS = Uncommon Hero
CLASS = Refugee
PERSONALITY = Selfless

SIZE/HEIGHT = Medium 5

LIFE = 3

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

POINTS = 100

SPIDER-VERSE: SUPPORT
After revealing an Order Marker on the card of a figure you control with a Spider-Verse, Swing Line, or Web Swing special power and before taking a turn with that figure, you may take a turn with another figure you control named Spider-Army Recruit, or up to two of those figures if neither attacks during its turn. After using this special power, you may only take a turn with the figure that you revealed an Order Marker on this turn.

AMATUER WEB SLINGER
Instead of moving with this Spider-Army Recruit, you may choose a non-adjacent small or medium figure within 4 clear sight spaces of this figure. Place this figure adjacent to the chosen figure or place the chosen figure adjacent to this figure. Figures moved by this special power will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

SWING LINE 4
Instead of its normal move, this Spider-Army Recruit may move up to 4 spaces with Swing Line. When moving with Swing Line, this Spider-Army Recruit has the Flying special power, but may not move up or down more than 40 levels in a single swing, and will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

SUPER STRENGTH

Army Test
Map: Artic Redoubt (1 random glyph in the Fortress)
Units: Spider-Man (Peter - Spider-Verse), Spider-UK, Spider-Knight, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Army Recruit x2 (100 each) (1000) VS Sinister Six (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

Normal Attack Damage: Only a couple of wounds between the two of them on Kraven and Electro

Support: This is a great power, you can have them swing up early to screen for your more important pieces and then skip attacking with them to move multiple figures around in one turn.

Web Slinging: This is what the faction needed, just a little more help maintaining battleground positioning.

Swing Line: Present and accounted for

This was a close match, Spider-UK ended up falling early to Sandman, which made it hard for the Recruits to have a strong impact, but the fact that they gave some redundancy to Peter's bonding power and cheap annoying Spiders to help trigger it as well was exactly what Peter needed. He shone this battle and was able to take down Doc Ock not long after UK fell otherwise the Six would have crushed them. While they didn't deal much damage themselves they were able to use their web slinging to put the Six at height disadvantage for the other spiders a lot. It came down to a dodgy Peter vs Vulture and Peter landed a key Spidey Sense roll to take Vulture out.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Peter Parker with 3 wounds.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Artic Redoubt (1 random glyph in the Fortress)
Units: Spider-Man (Peter - Spider-Verse), Spider-UK, Captain Universe, Spider-Man (Assassin), Spider-Army Recruit x3 (100ea) (1300) VS Black Lantern (William Hand), Black Lantern (Uncommon) (x3), Scar (1300)

Spoiler Alert!

Normal Attack Damage: They were able to take down 1 Uncommon.

Support: Again this power felt great.

Web Slinging: Didn't feel quite as powerful this game, because it just felt like positioning mattered a tad less against the BLs.

Swing Line: Present and accounted for

Again it felt good to have some nice support for Peter as a Spider-Verse Leader, but ultimated some poor Spidey Sense rolls let the Spiders fall apart quickly when then BLs started charging up. Wasn't too much of a game here, but the Spiders all felt fine, just caught some of that Parker Luck.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Scar unwounded, Black Hand with 3 wounds, 1 Uncommon with 3 wounds, 1 Uncommon with 2 wounds.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Artic Redoubt (1 random glyph in the Fortress)
Units: Spider-Man (Otto), Ghost-Spider, Captain Universe and 2x Spider-Army Recruit (100ea) (1000) VS Fantastic Four

Spoiler Alert!

Normal Attack Damage: Took down Invisible Woman and got 1 wounds on Human Torch before falling

Support: Being able to have turn efficiency when Otto's plan falls apart felt good. Purposely didn't include any Otto support here to see if they helped his consistency and it felt pretty good.

Web Slinging: Really helped to mess with Reed and Human Torch

Swing Line: Present and accounted for

Things were going well for the Spiders, they got past the front line and surrounded Invisible Woman early (easy for them to do) and took her down, but then they left Human Torch with 4 wounds for 2 turns and Thing took down Captain Universe and Ghosty in one hit each... Mister Fantastic felt like he might get there on his own in the end when he finished off the two Uncommons but Otto proved he was Superior.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Otto with 3 wounds.

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: These played a little better than I expected, supporting the slightly inconsistenly leadership in the faction. They really play nicely with Peter which is great in my opinion because he certainly felt like the weaker of the two sometimes but now they both have options.

[tcglkn]

I propose we move to public playtesting

[Lord Pyre]

Yea

[Arch-vile]

yea