The Book of Red Lantern (Bleez)

[Scapemage]

The trick wouldn't have been possible before this design as it is. I don't like the idea of a power that is supposed to benefit the user (in this case, Supergirl or Mera) detracting from an ally when it did not have any negative before. This also creates a weird circumstance where Bleez spends the marker and then it becomes questionable whose card it "belongs" to for Raging Plasma.

[IAmBatman]

Yes, thus my proposed wording changes. Assuming I actually get to testing any time soon (might be this weekend) I'll test it with your intended interaction.

Edit: Oh, and lest it get lost, I'd also recommend changing the part I bolded in my initial post on the last page to "the defending figure" or something like that for clarity.

[Scapemage]

@Ronin thanks for signing up here too! Since Bats is running two games with only Reds, I will please ask you to run one of your games in an army not built around Reds (see some of the earlier tests, I had LV do this and he had some interesting army ideas).

[Ronin]

Sure thing.

I'll also try and take a look at the wording concerns here. Should have some games in by Saturday night.

[Scapemage]

Thanks! Just to clarify, the intent is to allow Bleez to take markers and then Supergirl and Mera to "create" new markers with Raging Plasma.

[IAmBatman]

My tests are all set up to run in my office. Hoping to finish by some time on Friday!

[IAmBatman]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: RED LANTERN (BLEEZ)

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Bleez (350), Red Lantern (Mera) (300), Atrocitus (360) (1,010) vs Green Lantern (John) (340), Green Lantern (Hal) (350), Green Arrow (Oliver) (150), Speedy (Roy) (90), 5th Precinct Beat Cops x1 (65) (995)

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1: Initiative Red Lanterns. The round is spent with all three Red Lanterns moving up, GL John bussing up Green Lantern, Speedy, and a Beat Cop, then going back for the other two Beat Cops, and Green Arrow sniping Bleez from 10 spaces out for a quick two wounds thanks to a defensive whiff.

Round 2: Initiative Team Green. Green Arrow’s bow snaps and he fails to attack.
Bleez snags a Red Battery marker from Mera and advances behind cover, halfway to Green Arrow.
GL John advances with the other two Beat Cops in tow.
Bleez engages Green Arrow from height, rolls a measly 2 skulls on 8 attack dice, and Green Arrow blocks.
Green Arrow activates Speedy, who fails a ranged attack on Bleez. Green Arrow disengages, Bleez fails the swipe, then Green Arrow hits Bleez for two more wounds. With full Battery Markers already, Raging Plasma doesn’t trigger.
Bleez engages Green Arrow and KOs him. Treacherous Rage does not trigger.

Round 3: Initiative Red Lanterns. Bleez engages Speedy and a Beat Cop on even height and KOs the Beat Cop.
GL John engages Bleez and KOs her. Bleez used Raging Plasma to cause one wound on GL John on the way out.
Bleez had the remaining OMs, so GL John uses the rest of the round to advance himself, Speedy, and two Beat Cops.

Round 4: Initiative Red Lanterns. Mera engages two Beat Cops and KOs one. The other defends. She loses her last Battery Marker and takes one wound from Depths of Rage.
Speedy fails an attack on Mera.
Atrocitus advances, sees a fully charged GL John Stewart with one wound and all the remaining Order Markers, and Rage Vomits all of his Battery Markers to kill GL John Stewart.
Atrocitus engages and KOs Speedy.

Round 5: Initiative Team Green. GL Hal Jordan flies to just out of his attack range.
Mera KOs the last Beat Cop.
GL Hal Jordan engages the two remaining Red Lanterns and hits Atrocitus for a wound, but Fearless Charge doesn’t hit.
The three combatants trade shots, with GL Hal Jordan taking one wound and Atrocitus taking a second wound.

Round 6-7: The three combatants trade blows until Mera squeaks out a win with one life left and no battery markers.

Unit Summary: Bleez ran ahead of the pack here, hoping to take advantage of Treacherous Rage, but its effects (other than the attack boost) only lasted a round and never triggered, and the opponents used range to mostly avoid Raging Plasma. She did some damage before going down, though. Her team had 15 more points than Team Green, but Team Green had a bit more synergy and flexibility. So far she feels balanced at 350, but I could see her going down 10-20 and being fine.

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): KOed Green Arrow and one Beat Cop.
• RED POWER BATTERY 2: This helped Bleez move fast and hit hard, but dice rolls and lack of range held her back.
• TREACHEROUS RAGE: Used to take a marker from Mera in Round 2. With no way here to remove markers from Bleez except through Raging Plasma, she wasn’t able to activate this more than once.
• RAGING PLASMA: She removed one Battery Marker to use this to cause 1 Wound on GL John Stewart on the attack that KOed her.
• Damage Taken: KOed in Round 3.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Mera with 1/6 Life and no Battery Markers wins.

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Custom
Units: Bleez (350), Red Lantern (Mera) (300), Atrocitus (360), Red Lantern (Kara Zor-El) (370) (1,380) vs Mister Fantastic, Thing, Invisible Woman, Human Torch (Johnny Storm), Silver Surfer (400) (1,400)

Spoiler Alert!

The plan this time is to have the Red Lanterns advance in a clump, send some of the others to loosen up the enemy, then have Bleez do her Treacherous thing to try to finish some off.
Round 1: Initiative Fantastic Four. Both teams position on opposite hills.

Round 2: Initiative Red Lanterns. Bleez advances. The Fan Four advance. Mera advances. Mister Fantastic has Thing and Silver Surfer advance and Surfer hits Mera for two wounds from range. Atrocitus advances behind cover. Invisible Woman and Surfer advance, then Mister Fantastic hits Mera for a third wound.

Round 3: Initiative Fantastic Four. Invisible Woman repositions, Mister Fantastic engages Mera but can’t hit her (she burns a marker trying and failing to hit him). Mera attacks and hits Mister Fantastic for a wound.
Thing advances. Surfer takes height on Mera and puts two wounds on her (she recovers her Battery Marker). Mister Fantastic takes out Mera, but she hits him with two wounds on the way out from Raging Plasma.
Atrocitus engages Mister Fantastic and sheds two Battery Markers with Raging Plasma to finish off the Scientist. Mister Fantastic takes OM3 with him.
Supergirl flies in and engages Invisible Woman and hits her for four quick wounds, then Reckless Rage drains her two Battery Markers, but doesn’t result in any wounds.

Round 4: Initiative Fantastic Four. Thing advances, powered up by Invisible Woman, and Clobbers Supergirl for 4 Wounds. She recovers both of her Red Battery markers from the double attack.
Atrocitus engages Invisible Woman and finishes her by draining his last Red Battery Marker for Rage Vomit.
Thing is depowered and can’t hit Supergirl.
Supergirl hits Thing for four quick wounds.
Thing can’t hit Supergirl.
Bleez advances.

Round 5: Initiative Fantastic Four. Thing hits Supergirl for a wound.
Bleez takes a Battery Marker from Supergirl, hits Thing for a wound with her normal attack, then finishes Thing with an unblockable die from Treacherous Rage.
Surfer uses the “X” and hits Supergirl from height for one wound. Supergirl regenerates a marker.
Supergirl one-shots Human Torch. Reckless Rage scored a wound first (I think that’s how the timing works?) and Treacherous Rage would’ve triggered, but Human Torch was already gone.
Surfer hits Atrocitus for one wound.
Bleez engages Surfer but can’t wound him.

Round 6: Initiative Red Lanterns. Bleez takes on Surfer this round.
Bleez hits Surfer for a wound, he hits her for two wounds but takes one back from Raging Plasma, then Bleez hits Surfer for 3 wounds (and he burns OM3 to save himself).
Bleez goes again, and finishes Surfer with a 5 skull attack.

Unit Summary: The combination of auto-wounds and quick, hard hitting attacks took the Fantastic Four out before they could really hit the ground running here. Bleez was part of that, with 2 auto-wounds (one each from Treacherous Rage and Raging Plasma) and 6 wounds from her normal attack. This time Atrocitus being able to so easily cut the head off of the snake (Mister Fantastic) helped the Red Lanterns easily close the 20 point deficit, which would suggest a cost drop is not in order for Bleez. Between the two tests I’d say she’s in a good spot as is.

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 1 Wound on Thing, 5 Wounds on Silver Surfer.
• RED POWER BATTERY 2: Hard hitting!
• TREACHEROUS RAGE: Took a marker from Supergirl in Round 5; did 1 Wound on Thing in 1 attempt.
• RAGING PLASMA: 1 Wound on Silver Surfer.
• Damage Taken: She took 2 Wounds.

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Bleez with 4/6 Life and 2 Markers, Supergirl with 1/7 Life and 0 Markers, and Atrocitus with 5/6 Life and 0 Markers win.

___________________________________________________________

[IAmBatman]

On a side note, after playing, I found the timing of the mechanics in both Raging Plasma and Supergirl's Reckless Rage to lack clarity. That's something I'd love to see ironed out on both fronts (would affect Bleez, RL Mera, and RL Supergirl).

[Scapemage]

Thanks for the tests! I can understand a wish for clarity on timing those powers. Looks like she did great in Game Two. Let's see how Ronin fares.

[Ronin]

Got my armies set up, but haven't had a chance to run games yet.

Originally Posted by Scapemage

Thanks! Just to clarify, the intent is to allow Bleez to take markers and then Supergirl and Mera to "create" new markers with Raging Plasma.

I'm not sure creating one is easily achievable in an intuitive way. I think it's just hard-coded that markers limit powers in most cases, so it's a big leap to get people to think "Oh, I can just pull a marker out of nowhere mid-game". The current wording on Raging Plasma definitely doesn't really allow for that.

You could maybe do something where Bleez has you set some aside at the start of the game, though, and let recharges come from that pool, so it's not such a big deal for her to steal them?

Something else to clarify: is Treacherous Rage meant to work when a Ravager inflicts wounds with auto-wounds, or only with a normal attack?

Also, what clarification did you want to see on Supergirl, Bats?

[IAmBatman]

RECKLESS RAGE
After this Red Lantern attacks a figure she was not engaged with at the start of her turn, you must remove all red Battery Markers from this card. After removing one or more red Battery Markers from this card with this special power, the defending figure receives a wound for each blank rolled by this Red Lantern, and this Red Lantern receives a wound for each blank rolled by the defending figure.

The timing is just a bit wonky and confusing. You remove the markers after the attack, but after removing the markers you have to trigger effects based on the attack roll. To me, "after" an attack means in terms of literal gameplay, I'm sweeping up the attack dice and moving on. As a solo tester I typically use the same dice for attacking and defending as well, so having to stop and mentally track blanks is a bit confusing.

All of which is to say that first "After" seems like it should be a "before," but now that I think about that, it would mess up her offensive bonus.

Maybe something like this?

RECKLESS RAGE
After this Red Lantern attacks a figure she was not engaged with at the start of her turn, if there is at least one red Battery Marker on this card, the defending figure receives a wound for each blank rolled by this Red Lantern, and this Red Lantern receives a wound for each blank rolled by the defending figure, then you must remove all red Battery Markers from this card..

I know that doesn't seem that different in terms of the timing of the power triggering, but not having to interrupt the attack and dice calculating portion to pick up markers, but doing that afterwards is helpful for mechanical clarity, I think.

[Ronin]

I'm okay with that tweak.