The Book of Spike

[Scapemage]

yea to inital.

[Yodaking]

yea

[Zettian Juggernaut]

Yea

[Ronin]

This passes.

[Karat]

Quick clarification question. Are you kosher with Undying Dedication letting him not end the movement within 3 spaces of his partner or is that meant to be a requirement? As currently written, I'd say he can move and not end the movement within 3 spaces of his partner if he was too far away at the start of his turn (space restriction could help resolve that) or if there were an opponents figure between him and his partner.

For reference:

UNDYING DEDICATION
At the start of the game, you may choose a Unique Undead Hero or Unique Slayer Hero that you control to be Spike's Partner. After moving and before attacking with Spike's Partner, you may move Spike. Spike must end this move within 3 clear sight spaces of his Partner, if possible.

I highlighted the clause my question regards. I question it because if that is a requirement of the movement, we have typically restricted the unit from using that movement unless he/she/it meets the ending conditions.

[Ronin]

That's intentional, yes.

I wouldn't make it a 'must move closer in order to move' kind of thing - it's not a 'Spike is compelled to run at something' power so much as it's just a 'Spike tends to stay close' kind of thing.

I'd flip the requirement so that he has to start his movement within a certain range, to maintain that theme, before I made it so that he couldn't move if he couldn't move close.

[Ronin]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Spike

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units: Spike @190, Buffy (400) vs Swordsman, Zombie, Walker x2, Roamer (400)

Spoiler Alert!

The two teams collided pretty early on here, with the map being small and with neither one having a hard time mobilizing the troops. Spike moved up and did some key damage to Swordsman (1 wound through Sucker Punch and 1 through an LEA that he was able to force), but Swordsman's offense was a lot for Buffy to deal with.

At the end of the first round, Swordsman and Buffy each had 1 Life left, and Zombie had 3. Spike had a wound, but healed himself back to full. All the common zombies were on the board. Team Buffy almost gambled OM 1 on Buffy, but decided against it because there was a Walker that was set up in Walking Dead range - Team Buffy decided not to go for the play that had a 50% chance of a burnt OM even if they won initiative.

So Spike got all the OMs in round two. He lucked out and took down Swordsman with his first OM, then a Walker with his second. Zombie broke away from the action to grab his Amulet for himself, while Spike dusted the other Walker. Zombie's gambit succeeded - he managed to snag the amulet (not a given with his d20 roll to take turns while you don't have it), heal a bit, and charge back into the fray to finish off Buffy, replacing her with a Walker.

So at the beginning of round three, the score is that Zombie and Spike are both unwounded. One Walker and the Roamer are in play. So at that point, the Spike-Zombie slugfest begins. Spike immediately takes a huge upper hand by knocking the Amulet away from Zombie.

The match takes a few turns to play out, as Zombie heals faster than Spike, but Zombie also has a pretty good chance of not getting to attack. Mercifully, Spike has solid 3-4 skull attack rolls and takes Zombie out in a few hits. After that Spike, mops up the Roamer.

Fairly substantial win for Spike. After Swordsman went down, the zombies just didn't really have the right tools to really hurt him.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 1 wound to Swordsman in 1 attack (destroyed), destroyed 3 Walkers in 3 attacks, 8 wounds to Zombie in 3 attacks (destroyed), destroyed 1 Roamer in 1 attack.
• Undying Dedication: moved throughout the first round, while Buffy was still alive. Was able to screen for Buffy a bit, and set Swordsman up for an LEA.
• Sucker Punch: 2 rolls, 1 wound to Swordsman. Knocked the Amulet of Damballah away from Swordsman.
• Healing: healed 2 wounds
• Damage Taken: 1 wound from an LEA, 1 wound from Walking Dead, 0 wounds from Zombie in 3 attacks

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Spike unwounded

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units: Spike @195, Buffy, Star-Lord, Nebula, Groot (Baby) (1000) vs Original X-Men (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

More the sort of performance I was expecting from Spike in this one. He moved up with Buffy and was able to hang on the front line for a while. He didn't obstruct enemy movement as much as he wanted because Jean was able to yank him out of the way, but he did have pretty good luck with his Sucker Punch rolls (which were nice because they trigger before Professor X has a chance to shut you down with Psychic Defense X), and he absorbed a few attacks.

Buffy outlived him this time. The X-Men had a tough time cracking Buffy and Star-Lord's defenses. They did eventually manage to break through, though. It looked like the X-Men were going to take it: Beast, Iceman, Angel and Professor X were all still standing and Nebula (last woman standing on Team Guardians) had 1 Life remaining. But of course, Nebula is a terrifying auto-wounder when she's on her last legs. She managed to assassinate Professor X (and an OM with him) to give herself a fighting chance, and Iceman couldn't crack her defense, giving her a narrow win.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): not used
• Undying Dedication: moved 4 times.
• Sucker Punch: 4 rolls, dealt 2 wounds to Jean and 1 wound to Professor X.
• Healing: healed 2 wounds.
• Damage Taken: 2 wounds from Telekinesis, 2 wounds from Jean in 3 attacks, 2 wounds from Iceman in 1 special attack, 2 wounds from Beast in 2 attacks (destroyed)

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

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units: Spike @190, Judge Mortis, Judge Fear, Living Mummy (700) vs Black Canary, Robin (Dick), Green Arrow (Ollie), Speedy (Roy), Aqualad, Oracle (700)

Spoiler Alert!

Spike chooses Mummy for Undying Dedication and moves up with him here. Spike works well as a blocker for Mummy, to help limit his engagements, and gets an auto-wound in on Dinah. But then Spike takes 4 wounds from Robin in one go in a lucky hit, and drops early.

Underwhelming performance from Spike, but the Dark Judges prove really disruptive to Team Arrow, resulting in a razor-thin Undead victory.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack):
• Undying Dedication: moved 3 times.
• Sucker Punch: 2 rolls, dealt 1 wound to Black Canary.
• Healing: healed 1 wound.
• Damage Taken: 1 wound from Black Canary in 1 special attack, 6 wounds from Robin in 3 attacks (destroyed)

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Judge Mortis with 4 wounds

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: I'm comfortable sending him forward at 200: small cost bump for the solid performance here. Three wins, but two of them by super narrow margins, and Spike didn't particularly feel like he was driving those results (especially in game three).

Great showing in the first game, but I think that was a peculiarity of the match-up more than anything. Not convinced Spike is really all that tough to take out for most armies.

Digging how he plays, and the Undead/Slayer synergy gives him some different options for army-building. Teaming with Buffy in a Star-Lord army is definitely attractive (and probably the number one thing to test further), but he also felt like a useful piece in the Dark Judge build.

[IAmBatman]

Pre-yea for public testing at 200. I agree with your thinking.

[Ronin]

Let's send him to public testing at 200.

[Tornado]

Yea
Any chance I could get more detail on how that last battle played out?
Just curious if you teamed the Dark Judges with Mummy or sent them out as a pair(which I am not sure if I have ever tried).

[Ronin]

Mummy and Spike led out and basically teamed up to take out Black Canary so she couldn't murder the Dark Judges. Then the DJs were the 'second wave' after Spike and Mummy went down.

Fear was able to mantrap Speedy to contain Speed Shot, and Mortis' auto-wounds helped him cut through Robin. The DJs were up against all 3-4 defense types, so they were able to actually do some damage on offense. I think if Team Arrow had a second bruiser besides Canary, the DJs would have been in trouble, but they didn't meet that kind of resistance.

EDIT: well, they were in trouble anyway, it was a super narrow win. But they would have been in deeper trouble up against more muscle.

[Scapemage]

Yea at 200.