The Book of Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes)

[L0B5T3R]

Well with the new baby and starting a new career in a week I’m gonna be down on the playtests for decent chunk, unfortunately.

[L0B5T3R]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Blue Beetle @240 points


Army Test
Map: Custom
Give a brief overview: Fairly even match. Early hits from BB helped set the tone.
Units: Blue Beetle (240), Nightwing (200), Tempest (210), Lagoon Boy (90) [740] VS. Luke Cage (190) Spider-Man (250) Iron Fist (260) Kick-A$$ (40) [740]

Spoiler Alert!

Game Summary: 1st rounds mostly held jostling and positioning in the middle of the board. BB got some licks on Iron Fist but couldn’t put him down for good. Spider-Man web slung Lagoon Boy and eliminated him easy. Luke also got some wounds on BB from a height disadvantage even with 2 blue markers on BB’s card. Eventually, Tempest eliminated Iron Fist while on his water space. After that Titans took to wailing on Luke as much as possible. BB swapped out a red marker for a blue giving him 1 red and 3 blue after that. After wounding Luke twice BB failed his Sentient Scarab Suit roll and wounded Tempest. The biggest swing came on a 5 skull attack from Nightwing on a whiffing Luke Cage. After seeing Luke drop, BB knows its all about waiting till Spidey misses his Spidey Sense roll, so he goes 4 blue markers. With Spider-man having a single life left, Tempest went for the win by placing a water tile adjacent. Unfortunately it missed both Spider-Man and Kick-Ass but put the final wound on BB. With some back and forth brawling, Peter eventually drops. Tempest and Nightwing easily dismantle Kick-Ass.

Unit Summary: Lots of offensive rolls for BB and he performed really well, putting Iron Fist in danger early on.

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 3 wounds to Iron Fist, in 3 attacks. 1 wound to Luke Cage in 1 attack. 2 wounds to Spider-Man in 3 attacks.
• (Failed SENTIENT SCARAB SUIT rolls): 1 out of 3
• Damage Taken: 3 wounds from Luke Cage in 2 attacks. 2 wounds from Spider-Man in 2 attacks. 1 unblockable from Tempest (destroyed)

Who won? List of figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Titans with Nightwing 4/4 Life REMAINING, and Tempest 2/4.

Army Test
Map: Custom
Give a brief overview: Good offensive showing in the early game. Big risk with a medium return from BB swings things for the Patriots.
Units: Blue Beetle (240), Nightwing (200), Superboy (240), Krypto (80) [760] VS. Captain America (240), Bucky (60), Uncle Sam (240), Falcon (140), Ant-Man (85) [765]

Spoiler Alert!

Game Summary: Winning initiative in round 1 and 2 was huge for the Titans as they were able to swarm up and grab some height. The attacks were fairly back and forth and a good number of wounds were dealt in the early game. Titans were afraid of Uncle Sam and kept the heat on him when they could. Uncle Sam knocked out BB in 2 attacks. Superboy? More like Superbad….. at rolling attack dice. Kon-El took 5 turns or so to knockout Falcon. Nightwing is able to eliminate Uncle Sam who for the first time had no OMs. Captain America takes charge and drops a whiffing Nightwing with a 5 skull attack. Some fisticuffs between Ant-Man and Superboy result in Scott Lang’s demise. Cap and Bucky combo of SAs are too much and Superboy comes down to single life. Cap’s shield takes out Krypto with OM3 on his card. On the last turn of round 6 Cap rolls a brutal 5 skulls and eliminates the Kryptonian Titan.

Unit Summary: With 3 grey markers in round one he attacked Uncle Sam from height and in his 3 attacks he dealt 2 wounds. BB saw a good opportunity in round 3 to get 8 att on Uncle Sam and took the shot he dealt 2 wounds in the first attack but failed his Sentient Scarab Suit roll. Without any blue markers though Uncle Sam hit back hard with 4 wounds in a single attack. On the next OM BB is destroyed by a 5 skull attack from Uncle Sam. BB only dealt 160 points worth of damage here after the risky decision to engage Uncle Sam with 0 blue markers.

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 4 wounds on Uncle Sam in 4 attacks.
• (Failed Sentient Scarab Suit rolls): 1 out of 1 (wound to Nightwing)
• Damage Taken: 6 wounds from Uncle Sam (0 blue markers)

Who won? List of figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Patriots win with Captain America 5/5 Life REMAINING, Bucky 4/4.

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: Blue Beetle provides some punch for the Titans and he can be what you want him to be.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: Intuitive marker management. Blue Beetle can be a jack of all trades which is pretty darn fun. I like being able to swap his marker strategy as the game develops. In hindsight he should probably be tested with some boosters as the tripple attack can be scary.

[Scapemage]

Big win for Titans without Arsenal. Good one! Can't wait for more

[L0B5T3R]

Updated my previous playtest with the second game.

[Scapemage]

Great games! I've asked both the public testers to provide one game without full Titan builds, so we'll see what turns up there.

[Scapemage]

Originally Posted by Ericth74

Here are my playtest results. Let me know if you have any questions or need more info.

Eric

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Blue Beetle 240 points
Army Test
Map: Mountain Spring
Units:Nick Fury, Human Robot, Black Widow, Shield Agents x2 vs Blue Beetle, Nightwing, Starfire, Robin(70), Speedy(80)
Game 1:

Normal Attack Damage:
R1T1 1 wound Shield Agent range - dead
R1T3 1 wound Shield Agent - dead
R2T1 1 wound Nick Fury
R2T1 1 wound Nick Fury

ADAPTIVE SCARAB SUIT
Changed all 3 times he had turns

SENTIENT SCARAB SUIT
Successful 4 out out 5 rolls, the only roll of 1 there wasn't a target to select

Recap – Drop team is Fury, 3 Shield Agents

Round 1: Drop team drops. Shield Agents set up Kill Box S.A. But its blocked by Robin. Nightwing reveals x-marker, Blue Beetle kills an Agent, rolls a 1 but nobody is within 5 spaces. Nightwing kills an Agent. Fury puts 4 wounds on Starfire. An Agent kills Starfire. Lost order marker on Starfire. Fury puts a wound on Beetle from range. An Agent puts 2 wounds on Beetle. Another Agent rolls 4 skulls against Beetle only to have Beetle roll 4 shields. A third Agent puts a wound on Beetle. Beetle kills another Agent.

Round 2:Nightwing reveals an x-marker, Beetle gives Fury 2 wounds on 3 three attacks. Agent kills Beetle. Fury gives Nightwing 3 wounds. Lost order marker on Blue Beetle. Fury and 3 Agents all have attacks blocked by Nightwing. Nightwing S.A. kills an Agent and puts 2 wounds on Fury. An Agent kills Nightwing. Fury kills Robin.

Round 3: Agent gives 1 wounds to Speedy. Speedy kills an Agent. Fury gives Speedy a wound. Speedy kills the last Agent.

Round 4:Fury kills Speedy


Who won? Agents in a landslide. Maybe the quickest 800 point army game I’ve played.
List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes):
Fury 1 of 5 life left
Human Robot 4 of 4 life left
Black Widow 5 of 5 life left

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Army Test
Map: Ivy's Playground
Units:Captain America (240), Iron Man (240), Black Panther, Spider-Man(160, Bucky vs Baron Zemo (170), Blue Beetle, Firebrand, Namor

Game 1:

Normal Attack Damage:
R2T1 1 wound Cap
R2T1 2 wounds Cap
R2T1 2 wounds Cap – Dead
R2T2 1 wound Bucky
R2T2 2 wounds Bucky
R2T2 1 wound Bucky – Dead

ADAPTIVE SCARAB SUIT
Took 3 turns with Beetle changing all 3 times

SENTIENT SCARAB SUIT
Successful all 4 rolls

Recap – All Caps teams are Avengers and all Zemos team are Masters of Evil

Round 1:All Movement

Round 2:Blue Beetle attacks Cap doing 5 wounds killing him over 3 attacks. Ironman does 2 wounds on Blue Beetle, but takes a wound from Namor. Beetle kills Bucky doing 4 wounds over 3 attacks. Ironman kills Blue Beetle over 2 attacks. Namor kills Ironman.

Round 3:Black Panther attacks Firebrand and misses but Namor give Panther a wound in defending his teammate. Firebrand kills Black Panther with a S.A. Spider-man S.A. Namor for 1 wound.

Round 4:Firebrand gives Spidey a wound. Spider-man S.A. Firebrand for a wound but takes 1 from Namor again defending his teammate. Spidey gives Namor a wound. Spider-man takes another wound from Namor.

Round 5: Namor kills Spidey.(Spider-Man failed on all but 1 roll for Spider Sense!)

Who won? Masters of Evil
List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes):
Zemo – full4 life
Firebrand – 3 of 4 life left
Namor – 4 of 6 lift left


THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY:
GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: At first glance my thought was that this guy was over powered. His easily attained extra attacks were going to be too strong. After playing 2 games with him, I was kinda right. Both games I played were a little strange in that they were both blood baths. In game 1, 4 figures died just in round 1 and Beetle took 4 wounds. By round 2, 4 dead and more wounded. So I had some really hot attack dice, and or poor defense. Game 2 was more of the same. At 240 points you expect Blue Beetle to be strong and be able to last with 6 life. In my games I went on the attack mode with him, trying to take advantage of his flying and multi-attacks. In game one it back fired some as he went down kinda quick, but in game 2 he was able to deal major damage which is my worry for him being too strong. Its easy to put 2 attack markers and 2 defense markers fly to height and get 3 attack of 6, add in some type of boost like Zemo or Cap now you are talking 3 attacks of 7. I don’t think there is enough of a penalty for adding attack markers, I was able to get an extra attack too often, and at no real risk if he goes in solo. He did go down quicker than expected, but he also is going to be a big target because of his attack. If I was a voting member I’d say he has to go back to the drawing board for a tweak or two.

Very interesting analysis. @L0B5T3R , can you comment more on your experiences with his power level? Ericth74 could have been on a hot streak, because I did not achieve multi-attack turns with Blue Beetle very often given the heavy penalty on the die roll. Maybe -3 for each Red Marker? Would like to hear your thoughts.

[L0B5T3R]

That plus one from Zeno against Cap is what pushes him to another level. It’s just that 3 attacks can be vicious especially with height obviously. So height and one booster is 3 attacks of 5 even with 0 Markers. Throw one red marker and it’s pretty nuts with little downside especially if you put 3 blue markers on him.

You could go -3 for each Red Marker or just limit it to two attacks.

[Scapemage]

I like two attack limit per turn more. -3 may be too punishing without boosters. I'm glad boosters were tested, I didn't think of that interaction before. I'll make the change and inform LV.

[Scapemage]

Results from LordVenoc.

Originally Posted by Scapemage

Thank you, very insightful. No worries on any delays, I'm glad you were later as to get a go with the 2 attack limit. We'll do some more tweaking backstage to reign him in.

Reigning in to 2 attacks per turn was definitely wise. His powers feel right, he's just too easy to throw all red on. I can resonate with this a bit from my games. I don't want a major power change here, so I think the logical step is to reduce Life to 5 and also make the roll harder by calling for 4 or lower rather than 1 or lower. This makes the roll as follows:

3 attack = 80% chance to attack again
4 attack = 70% chance to attack again
5 attack = 60% chance to attack again
6 attack = 50% chance to attack again
7 attack = 40% chance to attack again

This at least makes it harder than 50/50 for full red markers (it was easier than 50/50 before). I'm going to send for another test set with these numbers and see how it goes. I don't mind the points moving in either direction, but I want there to be good reason not to go full red every time.

[Ronin]

Okay, this guy's up next for me. What kinda tests are we looking for?

[Scapemage]

Titans all around this time. Particularly information on which marker combinations were used and how often, since 4 red 0 grey 0 blue was overused before.

[IAmBatman]

Arsenal and Nightwing seem key.