The Book of Cosmo

[Yodaking]

Originally Posted by Arkham

If you raise it by 40 dropping the ants in favor of the cops, I'd suggest dropping War Machine for Gamora or She-Hulk instead. They are far more reliable than War Machine has ever been for me, personally. Maybe I've just had a bad run with him.

I'd support that route as well. War Machine has not always been able to live up to his 270 point billing in my games either. She-Hulk & Gamora provide some counter healing too.

I would however worry that Gamora one shot kills Black Adam with her God Killer power and then you don't have anyone left worth healing up with Alfred. Any way to get a 2nd good human into that army to heal?

Looking at Chameleon now and I'd think you would want to impersonate CA. Then if you deal a W it removes the revealed OM and takes away the bonuses he is giving out.

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Yodaking

I'd support that route as well. War Machine has not always been able to live up to his 270 point billing in my games either. She-Hulk & Gamora provide some counter healing too.

I would however worry that Gamora one shot kills Black Adam with her God Killer power and then you don't have anyone left worth healing up with Alfred. Any way to get a 2nd good human into that army to heal?

Looking at Chameleon now and I'd think you would want to impersonate CA. Then if you deal a W it removes the revealed OM and takes away the bonuses he is giving out.

I specifically want a ranged, potentially multi hitting flier, so I'm not going with either of the green girls here.
Thanks for the tip with Chameleon, though - I hadn't realised Impersonate removed revealed OMs too, that's worth remembering.

[Yodaking]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

Ummm.... Not sure what you mean. Thor is in the Avengers build in this game, not Cosmo's, and I'm not sure why I'd save him for the second test rather than use the first when he's just running in the Avengers build. Also, this CA is much more useful than the Hasbro one, IMO, unless I'm running a more squad based build or one where I don't want OMs on him. This Avengers build is one I've used in a couple of tests before, and it's done fairly well for me - it may not be absolute top tier, but it's a good, decently strong, thematic, fun build in my experience. Thor is there to provide a flying heavy hitter to go head-to-head with someone else's, throwing around 9 dice for attack and defence when paired with Cap. And, honestly, I like throwing in ants if I have 10/20 points left - if they tie down someone's movement or force them to shoot someone harmless insects for a turn, then, for that price, they've done their job, and they don't require OMs. Often, Skrull Infiltrators are arguably better for that role, but also easier to forget on account of not being on the board, and, in this build, where so much is put into making sure Black Adam doesn't die, probably couldn't be deployed effectively. For 10 points, forcing Thor to either kill some ants or risk a leaving engagement attack if he wants to attack my hospital seems worthwhile to me.

I like War Machine, though I grant that if you're unlucky or protect him badly and allow him to get a few wounds prior to activation, it can be a bit crippling, he still has a strong short ranged attack, is potentially scary to go near, and has a pretty strong long ranged multi-attacking special, and a fast flying speed. I suppose I could swap him out for Cable, attempting to maintain the ranged backup he's meant to provide, but I'm testing on Fulcrum, and Cable's going to struggle for mobility. I suppose I could swap Thor out for Stark's Hulkbuster suit and swap out Rhodey for someone at 340 (perhaps a Lantern), but I think I'm pretty happy with this set-up. As I've said, it's worked for me before.

I was saying that if you took out the ants (-20 points) and added in a second set of Beat Cops (+65) you end up with your Cosmo Army at 1040 points. Then you can add 40 points to the Avengers army to balance them out. I suggested adding the 40 points to Thor's 430 points and getting two figures for 470 points that CA can put Avenger Markers on. I also like Arkham's idea of adding the 40 points to War Machine (270+40=310) and swapping him out for She-Hulk (310). Just throwing ideas out there since you asked. In the end I think you should play armies and units you feel most comfortable and confident with. If you have some good tactics already worked out for that Avengers build, then run with it.

[Yodaking]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

I specifically want a ranged, potentially multi hitting flier, so I'm not going with either of the green girls here.
Thanks for the tip with Chameleon, though - I hadn't realised Impersonate removed revealed OMs too, that's worth remembering.

I've never played Chameleon either, just looking at the card now and it jumped out at me that you remove all OM's from the card, both revealed and unrevealed. Bucky bonds with other and thus shouldn't have any OMs to remove, but CA should have at least 1 per turn.

[Lazy Orang]

Yeah, I'm comfortable with this build - I genuinely think a couple of ants will be more help here than excess Beat Cops (odd as that sounds - the cops are just there to sit next to Alfred and die for him, and I can't get a full extra squad next to him, so getting more in there would require faffing around with OMs and moving them into position, which isn't going to work so well, whereas the ants can just tunnel up to Thor if I win initiative and force him to either waste a turn attacking them or risk a LEA), and War Machine, while I get your points and have sometimes been disappointed by him in the past, has worked well for me before, and I fundamentally think a flying ranged sniper/multi-attacker will be more valuable to the Avengers tactically and on this map than a ground pounding bruiser. Plus, he can bond with Bucky, which is a nice bonus. Anyway, even if his Targeting Computer's damaged, his Armour Piercing Rockets make for a decent backup.

Originally Posted by Yodaking

I've never played Chameleon either, just looking at the card now and it jumped out at me that you remove all OM's from the card, both revealed and unrevealed. Bucky bonds with other and thus shouldn't have any OMs to remove, but CA should have at least 1 per turn.

Why did I say Frame Bucky? That's exactly not what I was going to do - I meant to say that Bucky was nice and squishy and would be a good guy to target and frame someone else for his murder! Sorry, my fault, brain fart there. But yes, the Chameleon tip should be helpful - I have played him before, once or twice (big Spidey fan ) but didn't clock that he removed revealed OMs.

[Lazy Orang]

Okay, I've decided not to go with the Beta Ray Bill/Thor plan - not only am I unsure how I'll get it to work, it also seems to me like something you can already do more effectively with Cyborg vII, given that his teleport is easier to use and both Beta and Thor are Champions who'll give him a marker. Instead, I'm thinking this for Test Two:

Cosmo
Poison Ivy
Harley Quinn
Masahiro Arashi
Gamora
Bullseye
Talia al Ghul

I've never played Ivy before, but I was wondering from the start about teleporting someone outside the enemy start-zone to slow them down, and she seems like the best option, after careful consideration, at least on the right map. Harley will come out with her, and they will take a turn together early, where Harley will chuck her bomb at the enemy, hopefully weakening them before the primary engagement. This will be Round One.
After Round One, the opening strategy will have been completed, and we move onto Stage Two. Gamora and Bullseye will, alternately, starting with Gamora, be teleported to the front lines, in places where they can assassinate a key hero. Gamora, when harmed, will be teleported back to base to heal up a bit, giving Bullseye the opportunity to take over, before returning to the front when he's killed. Masahiro will provide Order Marker management/security, only moving to the front lines if he's confident in victory or he's being pushed back and his start-zone is threatened. He will also use Ruthless Command to put out hits on enemy heroes he wants dead. Talia is there because I had 110 Points left and, quite honestly, her point in this army is to be someone Masahiro can let his frustration out on by eviscerating should one of his other assassins fail him. It's.... kind of a raw deal she's got, honestly - should have read the small print.
They'll head up against Professor X, Cyclops, Beast, Wolverine, Storm and Angel. It's a good, strong, thematic, 1,200 point X-Men army I've had luck testing with a few times.

[Tornado]

That looks delightful. Nice build.

[Lazy Orang]

Okay, I had a window today to do the first test for Cosmo - I'll try to get the second in on Monday evening (BST).

Name Of The Playtest Unit: Cosmo
Army Test 1
Map: Fulcrum (no glyphs)
Armies:
Cosmo, Black Adam, Alfred Pennyworth, Blob, Jubilee, Chameleon, 1x 5th Precinct Beat Cops, 2x Fire Ant Swarms (1,000 points)
vs.
Captain America (C3G), Bucky, Thor, War Machine (1,000 points)

Spoiler Alert!

Overview of Cosmo’s performance:
Wounds inflicted through normal attacks: None
Order Markers removed through Telepathic Paralysis: None
Attacks blocked through Psychic Defence X: 1 from Thor on Black Adam.
Continuum Cortex used once to teleport Black Adam back to the start-zone and next to Alfred Pennyworth to heal, once to teleport Chameleon to a hill on the front lines in a position to shoot Bucky and frame Thor.

Round One

Chameleon Impersonates Thor.
Cosmo claims the initiative, two Fire Ant Swarms tunnel forwards and Black Adam flies forwards.
Bucky advances, firing his Machine Gun at Black Adam to no effect. Steve charges Theo, but fails to hurt him.
Black Adam punches Cap for two wounds.
Thor flies forwards, throwing Mjolnir at Black Adam but failing to hurt him.
Black Adam’s punch is absorbed by Cap’s shield.
Thor flies to height and strikes Black Adam for two wounds with an attack of 10.

Round Two

Chameleon Impersonates Thor.
Cosmo claims the initiative, two Fire Ant Swarms tunnel forwards, engaging Thor and Captain America respectively. Black Adam punches Captain America for a wound.
Bucky opens fire at some ants, but fails to harm them. Captain America punches Thor for two wounds.
Black Adam punches Cap for a wound.
Thor strikes Black Adam for a wound.
Black Adam is teleported back to his start-zone and next to Alfred Pennyworth by Cosmo.
Thor is forced to murder some ants.

Round Three

Chameleon Impersonates Thor.
The Avengers claim the initiative, and Black Adam heals a wound. Bucky charges some Ants, but blanks. Captain America kills the ants.
Cosmo teleports Chameleon to the top of the eastern hill.
Thor swoops in and smashes the impostor for two wounds.
Chameleon slips from Thor’s grasp and fires a shot at Bucky, inflicting a wound and frames Thor for the attack, eliminating the Avengers’ last turn.
Black Adam stays where he is while Alfred fails to patch him up.

Round Four

Chameleon Impersonates Thor.
The Avengers claim the initiative, and Black Adam heals a wound. Thor swoops in and strikes Chameleon, miraculously inflicting only one wound and knocking him back two spaces.
Chameleon moves up the eastern hill, and, still in the guise of Thor, shoots Bucky dead, framing the Asgardian for Bucky’s murder and eliminating the Avengers’ last turn.
Cap runs up the eastern hill.
Black Adam sits still while Alfred patches him up.
Blob and Jubilee advance, and Jubilee throws her fireworks at Thor and Captain America, knocking Steve out.

Round Five

Chameleon Impersonates Thor.
The Avengers claim the initiative, and Black Adam heals his last wound. Thor swoops in and finishes off his doppelganger, eliminating his opponent’s first turn.
Thor flies down and flings Mjolnir at Cosmo, inflicting two wounds.
Black Adam attempts to strike Thor, but Cosmo commands him to stop.
Black Adam sits still while Alfred patches him up.
Blob and Jubilee advance, and Jubilee throws her fireworks at Thor and Captain America, knocking Steve out.

Round Six

The Avengers claim the initiative and Thor takes a wound from leaving engagement to reposition for a God of Thunder Strike, killing Cosmo and inflicting three wounds on Jubilee.
Laurie moves to strike Bucky, inflicting a wound.
Black Adam engages Thor and strikes him for a wound.
Thor retaliates, inflicting two wounds on Black Adam.
Black Adam strikes Thor, but is blocked.
Thor smashes Black Adam for two wounds.
Black Adam hits Thor, but is blocked.

Round Seven

The Avengers claim the initiative and Black Adam heals a wound before Thor smashes him for two more.
Black Adam punches Thor for a wound.
War Machine, believing Thor would be dead by now, flies forwards and fires three Armour Piercing Rockets at Blob, one of which inflicts two wounds on the Mutant.
Black Adam breaks Thor’s skull open.
War Machine flies down and opens fire on Black Adam from height, inflicting a wound.
Black Adam flies in and punches Rhodey for two wounds.

Round Eight

Black Adam claims the initiative, smashing Rhodey for a wound and breaking his Targeting Computer altogether.
Rhodey very luckily slips away and opens fire with his Armour Piercing Rocket launcher - one rocket goes wild, one very luckily enters Black Adam’s skull, killing him and eliminating the remainder of the enemy’s round, and the final one bounces off the Blob.
James Rhodes fires three more rockets at the Blob, but none of them harm him.
War Machine opens fire with another salvo - two missiles miss wildly, while one inflicts two more wounds on Fred Dukes, leaving the obese mutant bleeding out and near death.

Round Nine

War Machine claims the initiative and fires three more rockets at Blob, none of which have the intended result.
Blob charges in and strikes War Machine, but cannot penetrate the armour in his weakened state. Jubilee runs up, punches Rhodey... and knocks him out. Yeah, kind of embarrassing for Blob, but the result’s the same.

Cosmo’s team victorious, Blob with 4 wounds, Jubilee with 3 wounds, Alfred unwounded, 3 5th Precinct Beat Cops.

Overview: Okay, that was an interesting game. Chameleon was extremely fortunate to survive that long, and Black Adam also got lucky with that initial strike on Thor. In the end, that's a really strong build, but you can't put all the responsibility for that on Cosmo's door. Black Adam wouldn't have healed up half as effectively without Alfred, and Chameleon was really helpful for keeping the Avengers busy while Alfred patched Theo up. I could see a boost to 160, because this guy has some amazing potential, but he's not looking broken to me.
I'd also like to point out just how much of a glory hog/surprise badass Jubilee was this game - knocking out both Captain America and War Machine was pretty damn impressive. She always seems to be far more impressive than she ever should be in my games.

[Yodaking]

Yeah, Jubilee has had some outstanding games on my table too. It is surprising how lucky I seem to get with her attack.

[TrollBrute]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Cosmo

Army Test
Map: Country Road
Units: Cosmo (160), Loki (420), Baron Heinrich Zemo (170), Aaron Cash (75), Deadpool (285), Angel (90) (1200) VS Cosmic Boy (260), Timber Wolf (260), Wildfire (280), Lightning Lad (180), Saturn Girl (220) (1200)

Spoiler Alert!

Unit Summary:
Damage w/normal: none.
Continuum Cortex: removed X, X, and 3 OMs to move Deadpool, Aaron Cash, and Cosmo in the first round
Telepathic Paralysis: never attacked
Psychic Defense X: 5 times used

This was a tricky one for OM placement, and Loki ended up with most of the turns, of course, but Cosmo sure did his thing. He used the Cortex on the second OM of the first round to put Deadpool, Cash, and himself on the bridge. The Legionnaires are quick and hard hitting, so they hit Cash for a couple wounds before the end of the first round. They would later take him out at the start of the second round using Saturn Girl’s autowounds. The early focus on Cash gave the other team a chance to get the X OMs on Cosmo and start moving up the rest of the team though. With two chances to block turns each round, Cosmo kept the Legion from doing much damage at all in rounds two and three, essentially preventing all of round three because the Legion lost one OM to Loki one-shotting Lightning Lad.

Loki’s God of Mischief roll finally failed in round four, and that removed an OM from Cosmo. That was the round Cosmo went down, and Baron Zemo as died at the end of the round. Deadpool was still hanging around, as well as Loki and Angel. Loki started off the next round by taking out Cosmic Boy (who failed all of his Magnetic Throw rolls), leaving only Wildfire and Timber Wolf on the Legion. The two Legionnaires put up a really good fight, and did take out Deadpool, but Loki was too much for them, even with failing all his God of Evil rolls.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): R7T1: Loki with 6/7 wounds, Angel with 1/4.

Army Test
Map: Country Road
Units: Cosmo (160), Star-Lord (250), Robot (210), Meteorite (170), Bishop (170) (1000) VS Jason (175), Martian Manhunter (300), Red Skull (220), Diablo (140), Blob (165) (1000)

Spoiler Alert!

Unit Summary:
Damage w/normal: none.
Continuum Cortex: removed 2 and 3 OMs to move Meteorite and himself in the first round
Telepathic Paralysis: 1 OM (X) removed out of 1 attack roll
Psychic Defense X: 3 times used

Despite Cosmo’s team getting an early lead, and holding that for a while, this came super close, and they ended up losing. I did forget to roll for Jason a couple, and had he come back again, this wouldn’t have been quite as close. Cosmo was used early to get himself and Meteorite onto the bridge, which was a huge advantage that they held for most of the game. Bishop plopped down on the other side of Meteorite, so she was well protected. Blob engaged Bishop and held him down, while Skull, Jason, and MM went after the others. Skull struggled majorly thanks to Meteorite, and MM had trouble taking out Cosmo. Jason was the MVP of the early going for team two. He tied down Robot and Quill, then later used the Cube to deal the final wound to Cosmo, followed by taking out Robot with his attack. Meteorite went down early the next round, and from there the game started to change.

At this point it was Bishop and Quill against Manhunter and Blob. The fight between these four lasted about as long the rest of the game, as MM rolled great on Defense for a while, but so-so on Attack. He eventually took down Quill, and ganged up on Bishop. Eventually, Bishop got desperate and used up all his markers to deal 3 wounds to Manhunter over 4 attacks. He won Init on the next round, but couldn’t wound Blob, who didn’t miss his shot and knocked Bishop out.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): R11T2: Blob with 5/6 wounds.

___________________________________________________________

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: 160 doesn’t feel far off, but he’s definitely a very useful unit. These games gave him a nice map to use, and he took full advantage of it. The Cortex has enough restrictions on it to keep it from being too strong, but it’s still a nice power. TP won’t come up much, but it’s a nice bonus when it does.

Psychic Defense is probably his big power right now. He’s a lot cheaper than Xavier and offers other uses outside of Mutant builds, so it allows for new builds. The Loki + another ‘X’ user is good strategy. One minor thing that could help is to limit those builds is to limit Cortex to being used when OMs are revealed on Cosmo only. It only hurts for the round or two when you want to teleport figures, but it does weaken it slightly, as you can’t use one of the turns placed on Loki and use both Xs for the Cortex.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: Not exactly the direction I would have chosen for Cosmo, but he’s a fun unit that hits a lot of his theme well. Lots of fun options in Star-Lord builds, and he offers some cool new strategies.

[Arkham]

Thanks for the tests!

With 14 games in the bag, he's gone 6-7-1 counting initials, and if 160 is the preferred ending point, I have no objections.

[Yodaking]

I think you should give Lazy a chance to turn in her second test and claim her PT points, but 160 is looking okay to me right now. TB made a good point about opening up Psychic Defense X to non-mutant builds for a fairly cheap price so I'm thinking err on the side of caution here.