The Book of Demona

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Ronin

Meant to be unrevealed OMs, I'm guessing?

Yeah, that's an oversight I meant to fix.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Ronin

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Demona

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units: Demona @270, Crimson Bands, Iron Patriot, Captain Marvel (Billy Batson) (970) vs Captain America, Bucky, Luke Cage, Swordsman, Blue Beetle, White Tiger (970)

Spoiler Alert!

Kind of a huge opening here - Iron Patriot won the first two initiatives without Immortal Hatred, and took down Swordsman and Bucky in the first round on some botched defense rolls, giving Billy an opening to do some damage on Cap.

In the second round, Demona gets more involved. Blue Beetle drops and blasts Norman and Demona, but they both shrug it off. Demona retaliates by binding Ted and moving 3 OMs to his card. (She had the 2, 3, and X... fully planning to use Wisdom of Solomon to pull that 3 over to Billy and not actually have to invest in that many turns with her, though). Then she pops Luke Cage for a wound.

Ted ended up rolling a 20 and breaking out of the Bands immediately (not even Strange could have prevented it), but the Avengers were still stuck taking turns with him all round and not bonding him with Luke.

In rounds two and three the game got a little less lop-sided because Billy started rolling like crap and couldn't quite finish off Steve. Norman takes out Ted, but finally gets taken down by the Crime Fighters. Luke and Ava then go on a tear and also dismantle Billy, drawing the match down to Demona vs Crime Fighters.

Demona made a last stand and took out Luke Cage (thanks in part to finally swinging an initiative with Immortal Hatred), but didn't have enough in the tank to also take on Ava.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 3 wounds to Luke Cage in 3 attacks (destroyed), 2 wounds to White Tiger in 1 attack
• Arcane Plot: Cast Crimson Bands on Ted, moved 3 OMs to his card.
• Immortal Hatred: Swung initiative one time. Demona was last woman standing on her team, so didn't get a chance to resurrect.
• Climbing & Gliding: used Flying one time
• Damage Taken: 0 wounds from Blue Beetle in 1 special attack, 2 wounds from Luke Cage in 1 attack, 4 wounds from White Tiger in 3 attacks (destroyed)

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): White Tiger with 2 wounds

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units: Demona @270, Captain America, Zombie, Baby Groot, Oracle, Crimson Bands (895) vs Karai, Hand Ninja x3, Scorpion (Hanzo), Typhoid Mary, Boomerang (895)

Spoiler Alert!

Originally had Demona up against a Mutant army, but I realized last-second that probably didn't make much sense for testing Immortal Hatred, so I scrapped it and reworked.

Demona took more of a lead this time and took some of the brunt of the Hand's initial assault. Groot got wiped out and Demona started taking wounds early. The Hand lead out with Boomerang and Typhoid in addition to the ninja horde, as cannon fodder to build up Scorpion's vengeance.

Demona binds Boomerang in the second round, and forces a couple OMs onto his card (though only one ends up being a numbered one). She then OHKOs Typhoid, with some help from Oracle.

After that, she does some damage to Karai, but she gets overrun by the Hand Ninja eventually. They take down Steve first, then Demona, leaving just Oracle. They have one turn to try to bum rush Oracle and keep Demona from resurrecting, and they pull it off.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): destroyed 2 Hand Ninja in 2 attacks, 4 wounds to Typhoid Mary in 1 attack (1 due to Oracle) (destroyed), 3 wounds to Karai in 2 attacks (1 due to Oracle)
• Arcane Plot: Binds Boomerang, moves 1 numbered OM from the Hand to his card.
• Immortal Hatred: Swung no initiatives. Army wiped out before she could resurrect.
• Climbing & Gliding: used Flying one time.
• Damage Taken: 3 wounds from Typhoid Mary in 3 attacks, 1 wound from a Hand Ninja in 1 attack, 2 wounds from Karai in 2 attacks (destroyed)

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): 3 Hand Ninja figures, Karai with 3 wounds, Boomerang and Scorpion unwounded

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: I liked her a lot better in the first army (funky OM stuff) I tried than in the second one (straightforward generalist Cap thing). Not a bad thing, though. Makes her a hair more niche, but I have a hard time imagining "more cards with some generalist mechanical appeal, but NOT with stat-boosters" as a bad thing.

Didn't see the resurrection happen because there's not really a lot of incentive to take her down before other figures. (But then again, living into the endgame because no-one wants to have to kill you twice is just another kind of immortality. ) That might be different if her initiative boost was especially important? Like if I was going up against Demona + Joker or something and she was in my face while Joker was chilling in the start zone, I'd have a harder time turning down an opportunity to put her on ice. She might also be a higher-priority target if I felt like I could stop her from springing her big spell at a key time, of course, but I found her wanting to spring that pretty early on, while she was in good health and still a safe place to put OMs.

Just my two cents based on the way she played for me, but I'd skip the Corpse Marker stuff and go back to a simpler "adjacent to a figure you control" style resurrection. I think the current implementation is a little heavy-weight for something that may or may not come up.

Looks good! Sounds just about right for what I want for her. I'd personally be happy moving forward with this, but I'm thinking wait on Tornado's test?
I'm keeping the Corpse Marker, at least partially because it's not just about her - it establishes the aesthetic for Macbeth as well, and it feels a lot better to me

[Lazy Orang]

Actually, I think I'm probably going to try to move forward like this - I gave her a couple of extra tests in the Initial for Stone to Flesh, and if we move forwards this way, I can ask @Tornado to run the tests for that instead, if that's okay by him?

[Tornado]

I can run her in a Petrify test if that is preferable.
A little swamped right now.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Tornado

I can run her in a Petrify test if that is preferable.
A little swamped right now.

That'd be awesome, chap. Thanks.

[Yodaking]

Sounds like a good plan.

[Lazy Orang]

I Propose Moving to Final Editing.

Any movement on the mod here, @Soundwarp SG-1 ?

[Soundwarp SG-1]

I’ll have something by the end of the week.

[johnny139]

We're going with a blue Corpse Marker on the battlefield? Still not really a fan of that, and I think going with a literally named marker (corpse or otherwise) is my least favorite implementation of them all. I'd rather go with Nitro's aesthetic here or just do something with leaving her figure on the battlefield or what have you.

[Tornado]

Yea

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by johnny139

We're going with a blue Corpse Marker on the battlefield? Still not really a fan of that, and I think going with a literally named marker (corpse or otherwise) is my least favorite implementation of them all. I'd rather go with Nitro's aesthetic here or just do something with leaving her figure on the battlefield or what have you.

Leaving her figure on the battlefield presents all sorts of complications I don't want to get into, and there's no guarantee it'll sit in a way that looks/feels right. I'd theoretically be okay with Nitro's aesthetic, but generally speaking, this is already decided.

[MrNobody]

I’d be wary labelling it as already decided when 2 of your playtesters specifically mentioned they weren’t fans, along with several other people.