The Book of King of Spades

[fret_gurglo]

Originally Posted by Ronin

I'll plan my armies tonight, probably run em tomorrow morning.

Awesome. Thanks

[Ronin]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: King of Spades @200 points

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: King @200, Ace @250, Groot (Baby), Rocket Raccoon (II) (750) vs Cyclops (I), Mirage, Jubilee, Angel (Warren), Rover, Mastermind (750)

Spoiler Alert!

Narrow win for the Royal Flush Gang in this one. King and Ace pulled off some bonding turns, but King didn't deal a ton of damage before going down, and never knocked any OMs off anyone.

Ace and Rocket really dominated in the endgame, thanks largely to the X-Men just not having the firepower to break their defenses quickly.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): not used
• Enhanced Charisma: 1 roll, 0 successes.
• Explosive Cards: 1 wound to Angel in 1 attack of 4, 1 wound to Rover in 1 attack of 4, 1 wound to Cyclops in 2 attacks of 4
• Royal Flush: 4 rolls, 3 successes (2 due to X reveal)
• Damage Taken: 1 wound from Cyclops in 1 special attack, 2 wounds from Jubilee in 1 special attack, 2 wounds from Mirage in 1 attack (destroyed)

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Rocket with 2 Life

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: King @200, Ace @250, Groot (Baby), Rocket Raccoon (II) (750) vs Black Canary (I), Green Arrow (I), Red Arrow, Robin (Dick), Oracle, Atom (Ray) (750)

Spoiler Alert!

King did some real damage in this one, largely by virtue of being ignored - the enemy was more focused on trying to use Canary to bring down Rocket and Ace instead of spending a lot of time on King. Meanwhile, King was able to swoop around and do some damage while Rocket and Ace ate up a lot of attacks from Canary and eventually brought her down. He also tied up Ollie and kept him from attacking a few times with Cupid's Arrow, which was a big win.

Once Red Arrow started actively hitting King (because Canary failed in her "assassinate Rocket" mission), he dropped in a couple turns.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): not used.
• Enhanced Charisma: 1 roll, 0 successes.
• Explosive Cards: 1 wound to Robin in 4 attacks of 2 (destroyed). 0 wounds to Black Canary in 1 attack of 4. 4 wounds to Green Arrow (destroyed) in 5 attacks of 4. 3 wounds to Oracle in 2 attacks of 4. 3 wounds to Red Arrow in 1 attack of 4.
• Royal Flush: 5 rolls, 2 successes.
• Damage Taken: 1 wound from Robin in 1 attack, 4 wounds from Red Arrow in 5 attacks (destroyed).

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

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: King @200, Ace @250, Groot (Baby), Rocket Raccoon (II) (750) vs Black Canary (I), Green Arrow (I), Red Arrow, Robin (Dick), Oracle, Atom (Ray) (750)

Spoiler Alert!

Replayed the last one. This time I spared a couple more OMs on the Archers early, before charging Canary into the thick of it. Also didn't entirely ignore King this time, being a little more wary of his utility in tying up the Archers while activating Rocket/Ace.

Rocket dropped hard early in this one, on a botched defense roll, instead of being an endgame pest. That put a cramp on the Royal Flush Guardians' style.

King again engaged Ollie and distracted him, but this time, Ollie was getting OMs because Ace downed Canary, so King dropped pretty fast. Still did some damage and kept a couple attacks off Ace, so that was worthwhile. Ace managed to finish off Ollie, but Roy brought him down immediately afterward.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): not used.
• Enhanced Charisma: not used.
• Explosive Cards: 1 wound to Robin in 4 attacks of 2, 2 wounds to Green Arrow in 2 attacks of 4.
• Royal Flush: 1 roll, 0 successes.
• Damage Taken: 2 wounds from Red Arrow in 2 attacks, 0 wounds from Black Canary in 1 special attack, 0 wounds from Robin in 1 attack, 3 wounds from Green Arrow in 1 attack (destroyed).

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Red Arrow, Atom and Oracle all at full Life

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: I deviated a bit from the SP and played him at lower points based on fret's impressions; I thought it would be more useful to have that data than not have it. He felt fun at that level. His powers and bonding with Ace can be potent, but you're paying quite a bit for Ace to unlock that, and King himself isn't any great shakes as an attacker (or defender). You've gotta get him in the mix to leverage his short-range attacks and Enhanced Charisma, and he drops pretty hard as soon as the enemy starts paying him any mind.

The interplay with Ace is interesting, and fun - I supplemented with generalist stuff here to get more reliable bonding turns, since the RFG isn't all there yet. Ace needing an OM for his OM rearrange is interesting - usually that kind of restriction just means that the figure gets the X all the time, but in this case he actively wants the X elsewhere. I was a little worried about that tension going in, but ended up enjoying it. I usually found myself going 1, 2, X on King, 3 on Ace. (Except when moving Rocket up early or when things went south in the endgame, natch). Ace being able to rescue OMs off King makes that sort of strategy a lot more viable.

There were a few times where revealing the X wouldn't swing the outcome of a roll for Royal Flush, but since it was King's last OM of the round, I popped the X to add 3 to it anyway, so that Ace would then be able to use Ace up the Sleeve. Current wording doesn't disallow this, but not sure it's intended. I'd for sure leave it in, just wasn't sure if that'd been talked about and people were aware of it.

Theme question: should he be a Metahuman, based on the bio?

I'd advocate for dropping King a bit lower even than I played him here and putting a few more points onto Ace. I think 450-480 or so for the pair is reasonable based on what I'm seeing, but I think Ace is a much bigger chunk of the value than King. He's a way bigger physical threat that commands attention, on top of the leadership powers.

[tcglkn]

Originally Posted by Ronin

I'd advocate for dropping King a bit lower even than I played him here and putting a few more points onto Ace. I think 450-480 or so for the pair is reasonable based on what I'm seeing, but I think Ace is a much bigger chunk of the value than King. He's a way bigger physical threat that commands attention, on top of the leadership powers.

Test looks good to me. I would agree that it seems Ace is the more valuable of the two, that's why we left Ace in Editing as we finalize at least a couple more of the Gang.

Starting an entire faction from scratch is tough, but I like what we have going here.

Any interest in bumping King's life up by one to represent his immortality better or do we just want him cheaper? Seems like the top 2 members of the gang should be the two strongest.

[Ronin]

I could see his Life coming up a hair if we wanted his points to come in higher. Comfortable leaving that call up to fret.

And yeah, I agree that this faction is coming along nicely, especially for one that's interconnected to this extent and has pieces that are tricky to test in isolation.

[tcglkn]

Probably would be happy with fret's call here and just going to Editing, since these guys will get plenty more testing together.

[Yodaking]

I'd be okay with 6 life for him, then Queen & Jack can be at 5, and maybe 10 at 4?

[fret_gurglo]

Originally Posted by Ronin

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: I deviated a bit from the SP and played him at lower points based on fret's impressions; I thought it would be more useful to have that data than not have it. He felt fun at that level. His powers and bonding with Ace can be potent, but you're paying quite a bit for Ace to unlock that, and King himself isn't any great shakes as an attacker (or defender). You've gotta get him in the mix to leverage his short-range attacks and Enhanced Charisma, and he drops pretty hard as soon as the enemy starts paying him any mind.

This was my experience with him too. He's not a very strong attacker, nor does he have any really great defense. And although his Enhanced Charisma is difficult to use, I found it more of a deterrent, keeping enemies from ending their turn adjacent to King. He greatest power is bonding with Ace.

Originally Posted by Ronin

The interplay with Ace is interesting, and fun - I supplemented with generalist stuff here to get more reliable bonding turns, since the RFG isn't all there yet. Ace needing an OM for his OM rearrange is interesting - usually that kind of restriction just means that the figure gets the X all the time, but in this case he actively wants the X elsewhere. I was a little worried about that tension going in, but ended up enjoying it. I usually found myself going 1, 2, X on King, 3 on Ace. (Except when moving Rocket up early or when things went south in the endgame, natch). Ace being able to rescue OMs off King makes that sort of strategy a lot more viable.

Yup. 1, 2, X on King (or soon to be lowest card) and 3 on Ace. Same way we played every game too. This OM requirement on Ace will prevent 15 possible turns per round and limit it instead to only 11 (still alot though)

Originally Posted by Ronin

There were a few times where revealing the X wouldn't swing the outcome of a roll for Royal Flush, but since it was King's last OM of the round, I popped the X to add 3 to it anyway, so that Ace would then be able to use Ace up the Sleeve. Current wording doesn't disallow this, but not sure it's intended. I'd for sure leave it in, just wasn't sure if that'd been talked about and people were aware of it.

Absolutely intended and encouraged. As the faction grows, it will force a player to decide when to flip the X. You may want to use Ace up the Sleeve with Ten for the better attack position as King does not have much range, but then you may not have it when you need it later.

Originally Posted by Ronin

Theme question: should he be a Metahuman, based on the bio?

I've gone back and forth on this. When we took off his Immortality Power, I simply reverted King to a time in his life before he acquired this power. If we do increase his Life, then I'm fine with it going back to Metahuman.

Originally Posted by Ronin

I'd advocate for dropping King a bit lower even than I played him here and putting a few more points onto Ace. I think 450-480 or so for the pair is reasonable based on what I'm seeing, but I think Ace is a much bigger chunk of the value than King. He's a way bigger physical threat that commands attention, on top of the leadership powers.

Thank you for the tests. Looks great. I think the final point totals will be determined when the faction is complete. My goal is King to be about 220-230, but it sounds like he is not even at that level right now.

[fret_gurglo]

With Ronan's tests, I propose the following changes.

Life increase from 5 to 6
Species change from Human to Metahuman
Point value of 220

I've also been considering dropping his Move from 6 to 5 (and therefore all future others too). I found flying 6 to be very quick and perhaps not really needed. Thoughts?

[Ronin]

Cool.

I'd definitely go 6 Life Metahuman, if you want to pump up his value a bit.

I could go either way on 5 vs 6 Move - I don't think he strictly needs 6, but some of his best plays for me were just getting in the way and being annoying, so I kinda like his ability to engage quickly.

[tcglkn]

I agree with Flying and a move of 6 being really fast, like all the changes you suggested here.

I would consider 210-200 here even with the changes and maybe upping Ace by 10 points too.

[fret_gurglo]

I'm going to let this settle a bit, in case anyone else has a thought or opinion. I have no problem boosting Ace's cost if that's needed. I did want King a little more than 200 though. Another thought to maintain his value is to increase his X OM bonus to +5 instead of +3 to both his roll options. I'm not in strong favor of this, but it is an option.

[tcglkn]

Yea if you want him a little more than 200 I think the changes you suggested are good. Thought you wanted him cheaper which is why I suggested it.

Pretty much have the cards good to go here and am looking forward to Queen starting up!