The Book of Indigo Lantern (Uncommon)

[johnny139]

We could invent a species for the little bat critter (Chiropteran?), but since they're meant to represent a variety of creatures to begin with, and our prior Indigos are both Unknown, I'd rather stick with that here.

[LordVenoc]

What about something like this for the end part:

At the end of each round, roll the 20-sided die once for all Indigo Tribesmen you control, on a roll of 6 or lower, remove all indigo Battery Markers placed on opponent's cards by figures you control.

I suppose I'd want it to continue post death.

Scratch that. With the theme we're going with it should probably stop if they die. I intend for Proselyte to carry it on if they die, but that'll be bookkeeping there. As long as one Tribesmen is out, it should continue.

[LordVenoc]

Updated wording to hopefully better clarify intent. If there's nothing further,

I propose we move to initial playtesting.

[Lord Pyre]

Yea

[IAmBatman]

Mechanics are clearer. I'll trust the special eyes squad to work out the grammar with you in Final Editing. Yea for initial.

[johnny139]

Yea

[Arch-vile]

yea

[tcglkn]

Yea

[LordVenoc]

This passes.

If anyone has some decent army ideas to run against these guys, I'm all ears for sure. I don't want to run them solely against paper armies, as that'll likely skew the cost (but those are very necessary to see the strength).

[LordVenoc]

Two games down, and as of now, I'm not super impressed. Emotional Purge is probably more work than its worth against non-turn based synergy armies. And a 6 to take out all the work sucks. It can be easy to get that momentum back, because it isn't like the Indigo's were attacking in all this weakening of you. Game 2 shows it can be effective against synergy, but honestly that game had 2 major whiffs on defense by the Wrecking Crew that could have (but didn't) tip the game. So I think we need a bit of course correction, but I'm not entirely sure what. I'll think on it some tonight.

EDIT: More thoughts at bottom.

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM
NAME OF THE TEST UNIT Indigo Tribesman
Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units: Indigo Tribesman x2 (120 each), Indigo-1, Indigo-2 (850) vs. Oracle, Black Canary, Green Arrow Oliver, Red Arrow, Batman (III) (850)(1010 Points)
Unit Summary
Damage: 0 wounds dealt
Abilities: Placed 3 markers.

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1 – The Tribe goes for an early SZ disruption, with Munk porting Indigo 1 and a recruit up to the nearby high ground, and immediately plopping a battery marker on Roy. Munk copies the recruit to place a marker on Canary and the left behind recruit advances. Even weakened, Canary knocks out the recruit in one punch, and Green Arrow puts 2 wounds on Munk. Not feeling confident in taking anyone out, Indigo-1 sacrifices an attack to allow the second recruit to come up and place a marker on Green Arrow. 8 is rolled, and markers stay.
Round 2 – Archers and Friends go first, but Ollie and Roy can’t scratch Indigo-2. He takes a swipe from Canary to place his final marker on Batman. Bats spends a JL marker to make Ollie’s 16 a 20 (Dinah’s boost helped too), putting two wounds on the Tribesman. Bats kills Munk. Indigo 1 puts 2 wounds on Canary. 6 is rolled, bye-bye 4 placed markers.
Round 3 – Bats helps Ollie get another 20, though this time Indigo-1 blocks. Recruit places last marker on Dinah, but is immediately killed by Ollie. Bats doesn’t hurt Indigo, but she gets revenge for her tribe, rolling all skulls and killing Dinah.
Round 4 – Bats and Ollie take out Indigo-1

Who won and how many wounds did they have? Archers and friends win. Batman, Ollie, Roy, and Oracle all unwounded.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units: Indigo Tribesman x2 (120 each), Indigo-1, Bane, Gert Yorkes (800 points) vs. Wrecking Crew (800 points)
Unit Summary
Damage: 1 wound dealt.
Abilities:

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1 – Advancement happens. Tribesmen move up first, with Indigo warping in with Bane later. First marker is placed on Wrecker. Final two markers are placed on Bulldozer and Thunderball. 8 is rolled, markers stay.
Round 2 – Wrecker puts 2 wounds on a batteryless recruit. Indigo 1 puts 3 wounds on Wrecker, and then 2 more. Bulldozer gets a pair of wounds on Bane. Tribesman places the final marker between the two of them, as the other manages to finish off Wrecker. 7 is rolled, markers stay.
Round 3 – Bane from height fails to scratch Bulldozer. Thunderball takes a passing swipe from a Recruit. Thunderball kills a recruit. Indigo-1 gets 3 wounds on Piledriver. Indigo-1 gets two more wounds on Piledriver (who whiffed). Bulldozer risks a passing swipe to try and remove the indigo markers by force, but doesn’t quite kill the final recruit. 18 is rolled, so markers stay
Round 4 – Thunderball risks a passing swipe and takes out the last recruit, unlocking the full power of the Wrecking Crew again. Bulldozer wound Bane. Thunderball fails, as does a second go round with Bulldozer. Bane wounds Thunderball. Indigo-1 removes a marker to protect herself from Piledriver and then Bulldozer, who both pound away another pair of attacks, wounding her once. That marker removal did let her take out Piledriver and wound Bulldozer.
Round 5 and on – The fight is intense, Bane gets a miraculous 3 hits on a whiffing Bulldozer. Too little too late, as Bane is trounced by Thunderball, and Bulldozer takes out Indigo 1. Poor Gert Yorkes didn’t even stand a chance.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Wrecking Crew win. 4 wounds on Bulldozer, 5 wounds on Thunderball.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units: Indigo Tribesman x2 (120 each), Indigo-1, Bane, Gert Yorkes (800 points) vs. Wrecking Crew (800 points)
Unit Summary
Damage:
Abilities: All 4 markers placed.
Dice Whiffs: Indigo Tribe: Offense 0. Defense: 4 (Dead Tribesman, Indigo-1 would have died if no markers to defend, Indigo-1 knocked from height, Bane takes 3 wounds.)
Wrecking Crew: Offense 1 (Wrecker failed to finish off last Tribesman) Defense: 2 (three wounds on Bulldozer, Bulldozer killed)

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1 – Advancement happens. Tribesmen move up first, with Indigo warping in with Bane later. Two markers placed on Wrecker and Thunderball respectively. Indigo-1 warps up with Bane, and another marker is placed on Piledriver.
Round 2 – Piledriver goes first, and doesn’t lose his marker (13). He doesn’t do much, but he calls in Bulldozer, who kills the recruit, and the surviving recruit hits Bulldozer with a dose of compassion. Wrecker rolls (16) keeps the marker, then goes after the recruit, giving it a wound. Indigo-1 wounds Piledriver. Recruit is hurt again by a Thunderball (11), and Indigo-1 wounds Piledriver 1 more.
Round 3 – Wrecker and Bane can’t do much at the start. Piledriver, however, breaks free of the control of compassion. Indigo-1 has to burn a marker to protect herself from his pounding fists, hitting him back for one wound. Bulldozer (14) charges and causes Indigo-1 to burn her last marker and wounds Piledriver again.
Round 4 – Wrecker goes (14) and kills the Tribesman, unlocking the Crew. Thunderball goes and fails to wound. Bane tries to hurt Wrecker, but fails in a 4v4 roll. Bulldozer finally puts 2 on Indigo-1 as she kills Piledriver.
Round 5 and on – The fight is intense, Bane wounds Wrecker, but Thunderball knocks Indigo-1 from height. She is luckily able to move right back up and roll 4v1 to take out Wrecker, who had taken a passing swipe to go after her. Bulldozer takes a swipe to charge down Bane, knocking him to 1 remaining life. Indigo 1 hits him back for three after a whiff, which Bane follows up on killing Bulldozer on his second whiff. Thunderball takes out Indigo-1 and then goes to eliminate Gert.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Wrecking Crew win. Thunderball unwounded.

_____________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl
Units: Indigo Tribesmen (120)x2, Indigo-2, Arkillo, Sinestro Corps Soldier x2 (1040 points) vs. Professor X, Wolverine, Deadpool, Warpath (1045)
Unit Summary
Damage:
Abilities: 3 of 4 markers placed. 2 bonding turns.
Dice Whiffs: Indigo Yellow: Offense 0. Defense: (Inidigo-2 whiffs and dies against Deadpool, Arkillo wounded 1)
Mutants: Offense 2 (Deadpool miss early attack, Nightcrawler attacking last Tribesman) Defense:

Spoiler Alert!

Round 1 – Round 1 starts light, with only a Tribesman taking a wound, until Deadpool nearly dies to a massive attack by Arkillo before he’s protected by Professor X.
Round 2 – A Tribesman takes a hit from Wolverine, but Indigo-2 manages to Eviscerate Professor X for 3 wounds. He gives up his attack so that the near-dead recruit can place a battery marker on Wolverine. Nightcrawler softens him up after moving X to safety, then Deadpool moves in to finish Indigo-2 off. The Yellows put 3 wounds on Wolverine. Tribesman goes down to Deadpool, and Arkillo takes a wound on a whiff. Marker placed on Warpath.
Round 3 – X Men start, with Nightcrawler only getting a single wound on the remaining Tribesman. Deadpool knocks him down to one wound remaining. That Tribesman goes and can’t risk disengaging, so places his final marker on Nightcrawler. Wolverine (rolls 5, marker removed) slaughters the Tribesman, and then goes after a soldier, who dies even faster. Arkillo only rolls a 4 on his Eviscerate, but the 6 skulls he rolls are more than enough to kill Wolverine. The remaining Soldier takes a swipe to go after Professor X, who spends his X to block. Arkillo is hit once, and the Soldier spends both of his batteries to stay alive. Warpath takes 2 wounds, and the Soldier manages to walk up and barely punch out Professor X.
Round 4 – Yellows start, but another botch on Eviscerate basically seals the battle, as he fails to finish off Warpath. Deadpool kills the Soldier, and one last autowound from Warpath kills Arkillo.
Who won and how many wounds did they have? Mutants win. 4 wounds on Warpath, 0 on Nightcrawler.

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GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT:
Definitely not great. The bonding isn’t spectacular because there are so few options to work with that aren’t attacking for Lanterns in general. I don’t know that we need to change that, as I think constructs for the Indigos (or pairing them with greens to mooch green constructs) may make that work out okay. For now though, I do think the effect of the markers needs to last after death. The die roll is already relatively easy to hit, but once they start getting placed these guys get a massive target on their relatively flimsy heads.

[MrNobody]

What if they just completely disrupted a figure’s ability to take a turn at all? I know it’s a bit of a competitive worry, especially with an Uncommon unit, but could be a possibility.

[LordVenoc]

Originally Posted by MrNobody

What if they just completely disrupted a figure’s ability to take a turn at all? I know it’s a bit of a competitive worry, especially with an Uncommon unit, but could be a possibility.

Probably steps too much on the Star Sapphire uncommon. But that isn't a bad unit to look at to maybe get it figured out. Maybe rolling every time the figure takes a turn? Then there isn't an all hard work gone moment and helps it stay relevant against folks that give out free attacks but not free turns.