The Book of Black Manta

[Arkham]

This passes to Public Testing.

I’m thinking we may just keep this one in-house for testing. Could make for a nice surprise SSE to coincide with Aquaman’s movie release later this year.

[Ronin]

Aquaman is coming out almost right on Christmas, so the movie's probably getting a TMNT SSE to accompany it.

I was hoping for Black Manta to start building some DC villains/Injustice stuff.

I'm okay with sprinkling the extra small SSE here or there into the release schedule, but only if we maintain our current higher rate of output for a while.

[Lazy Orang]

Also, let's be honest here... does anyone really give a flying crap about the DC films anymore? I mean, it would have been cool if we'd been able to release Hela to coincide with Ragnarok (just saw that last night, btw - bloody awesome! ), but the Martha-verse is dying slowly and painfully, and the only interest I can see being possible to muster is that sort of perverse fascination one would get from watching a car-crash, where one wishes to look away, but cannot.

[Ronin]

Fwiw, since Manta is one of the more requested characters (he dominated that character poll I used to run), I'd like to test him publicly if only to let the public know he's on the way. I'd rather keep Cyborg Superman under our hats, of the two. Not hugely opinionated, though.

[Lazy Orang]

Not really seeing the need to hide either of them, honestly, but then I don't know the characters. The only character I kind of want I to hide when we get to it is Infinity Gauntlet Thanos - now that's someone I feel ought to be a surprise.

[Yodaking]

I'd also just run him through the public and use him in a wave booster. You all know I love my movie tie in releases, but as Lazy has pointed out the excitement just isn't there for the DC films (or Sony films not produced by Marvel for them, and Fox is limited to a case by case basis). It actually worked out for us that the Inhumans were not ready for that TV show, it was terrible on so many levels. Better to only have our releases associated with happy thoughts.

[Arkham]

I guess ultimately it was less about the SSE, and more about we don't really need to post everything in the public, as most of our testing comes from in-house. So it doesn't really seem necessary to throw everything out to the public.

That said, I have no issue with this particular design being sent to the public, it was more of a suggestion on holding some things back.

[Ronin]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Black Manta @240 points

Army Test
Map: Mole Hills
Units: Black Manta, Hawkeye (II), Vulture, Martian Manhunter (I), Ragdoll, Oracle (1000) vs Original X-Men (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

Attempted to use Manta to knock Professor X down a peg (with a mobility boost from Hawkeye), and at least pressure Chuck into burning his X OM, but Manta only came up with a couple skulls. Chuck forewent Psychic Defense X and defended against the attack.

That was about all Manta got to do, though. Jean chucked him away from the battle a ways, and then Cyclops picked him off. He died with an OM on his card, just before he could take another turn.

Pretty close match, but the X-Men see it through.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 2 wounds to Professor X in 1 attack (Professor X rolling at -2)
• Projectile Arsenal 3 Special Attack: not used
• Water Strength: not used
• Concussive Energy Beam: used 1 time, 1 success. Moved Professor X to low ground
• Damage Taken: 3 wounds from Cyclops in 2 normal & 1 special attacks (destroyed), 1 wound from Telekinesis, 0 wounds from Jean in 1 normal attack

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Iceman with 3 wounds, Beast with 3 wounds, Angel unwounded

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Mole Hills
Units: Black Manta, Hawkeye (II), Vulture, Martian Manhunter (I), Ragdoll, Oracle (1000) vs Captain America (C3G), Bucky, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Iron Man Mk IV (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

Black Manta looks like he might go down early, but he racks up some wounds on the Avengers with a double-shotgun SA, most notably Iron Fist, setting him up to be taken out by Martian Manhunter. Even more critically, he sticks around long enough to land a big attack on Iron Man to take him out.

Overall, Manta's pretty essential in taking out Luke's bonding partners, which sets the Manhunter team up for victory in the endgame. It's a pretty close-run thing and it looks like the Avengers have the edge going into the endgame, but Hawkeye manages to get a big all-skulls roll to take out Captain America and a couple OMs with him. Luke Cage fights back, but Hawkeye has height and Oracle working for him (plus a headstart afforded by those OMs that went down with Cap). The Avenging Archer takes out Luke to win the day.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 0 wounds to Captain America in 1 attack, 3 wounds to Iron Man in 1 attack (destroyed) (boosted by Oracle, Iron Man at -2 Defense due to Concussive Energy Beam)
• Projectile Arsenal 3 Special Attack: 1 wound to Luke Cage, 3 wounds to Iron Fist, 1 wound to Iron Man, and 0 wounds to Captain America in 2 attacks
• Water Strength: not used
• Concussive Energy Beam: used 3 times, 1 success. Moved Iron Man and subtracted from his Defense
• Damage Taken: 0 wounds from Iron Man in 3 special attacks, 3 wounds from Luke Cage in 2 attacks, 0 wounds from Bucky in 1 attack, 1 wound from Captain America in 1 special attack (destroyed)

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Hawkeye, Ragdoll and Oracle, all unwounded

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: Cool power-set. I like seeing Prowler's SA reused (with an extra attack die). He's got some nasty attack potential, but not the durability you might expect at his point level - cool hard-hitting glass jaw figure.

[Arkham]

[Tornado]

Playtests from Lobs.

Originally Posted by L0B5T3R

Playtests are in!

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Black Manta @240 points

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units:
Black and Attack: Black Manta (240), Mrs. Marvel, Punisher VS. X-Men: Professor X, Wolverine, Deadpool, Angel.

Spoiler Alert!

This game started off brutally for Mrs. Marvel, getting killed off on Deadpool’s 1st two attacks. Black Manta had a good game, eliminating Deadpool and using his abilities to good effect. Unfortunately, after the unlucky destruction of Mrs. Marvel, the X-men had it too easy. Punisher put up a fight but couldn’t keep up with Wolverine’s healing.

Unit Summary: Used Concussive Energy Beam successfully twice to pull Deadpool off height and eliminate him.

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 4 wounds to Deadpool in 1 attack after using Concussive Energy Blast.
  (Special Attack): 2 wounds to Deadpool after using Concussive Energy Blast/Projectile Arsenal (Destroyed).
• Damage Taken: 3 wounds from Deadpool in one attack. 1 wound from Wolverine (destroyed).

Who won? List of figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): X-men are victorious: Professor X 4/4 Life remaining, Wolverine 1/6, Angel 4/4

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units:
Black and Attack: Black Manta (240), Tempest, Hydro-Man, Spell: Temporal Inversion (650) VS. Captain America (Hasbro), Bucky, Batman 2 (w/ First aid kit, flashbang, smoke pellets), Robin (Tim Drake) (650)

Spoiler Alert!

Tempest and Hydro-man head out early and pepper the high spots with water. Tempest is able to soften up Robin but is eliminated by the little sidekick. Black Manta takes height with water and deals big wounds to Cap but is shot down after failing 2 CEB rolls. Hyrdo-man is able to sit on height and takes out Batman with a massive 6 skull roll. He does big damage to Cap and takes out Robin. Cap comes in for the final kill regardless.


Unit Summary: Black Manta succeeds in pulling Batman off height with his Concussive Energy Beam, but fails to hit him with his Projectile SA.

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): Deals 3 wounds to Cap from height on water after using CEB.
  (Special Attack): Used SA for two attacks of 3 but both fail to injure Cap.
• Damage Taken: 1 wound from Cap’s Counterstrike, 2 wounds from Cap, and a final 2 wounds from Cap (Destroyed, all wounds received while on water)

Who won? List of figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Cap and friends are victorious: Captain America with 1/5 life remaining, Bucky 4/4


THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: Good offensive potential makes for a valuable pick with a good chance of earning his points.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: I really like the offensive options for Black Manta. There's obviously some map dependency but a partner who can throw down water help. His Concussive Energy Beam is really fun, I like the 50% odds. Overall super fun design.

[Yodaking]

Kind of looks like he could use a points drop to me.

[Arkham]

It's worth noting that the first game's points were mismatched. Black Manta's team was at 775, whereas the X-men were at 875.

The 2nd game was even, and finished pretty close.

I'd say he maybe could come down by 10 points. I do think we probably have enough data to call this good if we want. I ran several games for Initials + Ronin and Lobs games. I'd be fine pushing him through at 230-240. I'll let Ronin weigh in to ultimately decide.