The Book of Black Swan

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

Any chance we could hold off on the initials of any new units until the MK and April stuff's done? I think we have a much better chance of finishing this stuff up in time if we don't get distracted by units that aren't going to see the light of day for a while, cool as they may be.

I wasn't about to break from my usual pattern, no. (EDIT: To clarify, I always hit stuff in the public before my own initials. Not changing that now that we're in crunch time) (EDIT TWO: Realized after I typed up that initial post that it could be taken super dismissively. )

[Lazy Orang]

Originally Posted by Ronin

I wasn't about to break from my usual pattern, no.

What does that mean? What's your usual pattern?

[Ronin]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

What does that mean? What's your usual pattern?

Sorry about the vagueness of the post. Clarified it, but clearly not in time.

Swan is not the next thing on my priority list.

[Ronin]

C3G STANDARD PLAYTEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Black Swan

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl (both glyphs are Orbital Laser Control)
Units: Black Swan @300, Black Panther, Shadow Demon x3 (890) vs Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Iron Man Mk IV, Scarlet Spider (Ben) (890)

Spoiler Alert!

Running her with the Shadow Demons to make it easy to spread OMs, and pump up the number of destroyed Heroes to juice up Everything Dies.

It worked out pretty well for her here. She hovered near the edge of the battle and took pot-shots at Danny and Luke early on while the Shadow Demons moved up. Being able to bond with Swan did a lot for the Shadow Demons' efficiency. The Shadow Demons also managed to score some auto-wounds, and took out Luke on a 20 for Touch of Death that dealt two wounds to finish him off.

Solid win for Team Swan - she definitely does a lot for the Shadow Demons' draftability.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 5 wounds to Iron Fist in 3 attacks (destroyed), 3 wounds to Luke Cage in 3 attacks, 0 wounds to Iron Man in 1 attack, 5 wounds to Scarlet Spider in 9 attacks (4 evaded by Spidey-Senses) (destroyed)
• Black Counsel: made Panther a Destroyer
• The Black Order: used for bonding throughout
• Everything Dies: used in last round to subtract 5 from lone Scarlet Spider's initiative roll. Turned what would have been a lost initiative into a tie, which Scarlet Spider won after all. So... almost, but not quite, a difference-maker.
• Damage Taken: 0 wounds from Iron Man in 3 special attacks, 1 wound from Luke Cage in 1 attack, 0 wounds from Scarlet Spider in 4 special attacks

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Swan with 1 wound, Panther with 1 wound

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Conflict Chernobyl (no glyphs)
Units: Black Swan @300, Black Panther, Shadow Demon x3 (890) vs Wrecking Crew, Angel (Warren) (890)

Spoiler Alert!

Ran the same army against the Wrecking Crew this time. The Wrecking Crew handled the Shadow Demons a lot more effectively, but Swan still managed to get some good hits in.

OM management got a little tricky toward the end, because Swan was lower on Life, Panther was in okay shape, and all the Shadow Demons were dead. Swan didn't want to take higher-numbered OMs, but she needed to take them in order to try to deal with the Wrecking Crew quickly (bonding with Panther on an early OM). Interesting to see that tension in the power come into play here.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 2 wounds to Piledriver in 1 attack, 4 wounds to Wrecker in 2 attacks, 3 wounds to Bulldozer in 2 attacks (destroyed), 2 wounds to Thunderball in 1 attack
• Black Counsel: made Panther a Destroyer
• The Black Order: used for bonding throughout
• Everything Dies: subtracted 5 from Wrecking Crew initiative in round 3. Didn't make a difference in initiative, lost anyway.
• Damage Taken: 2 wounds from Wrecker in 1 attack, 0 wounds from Bulldozer in 1 attack, 3 wounds from Thunderball in 4 normal attacks (destroyed)

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Thunderball with 5 wounds, Angel unwounded

___________________________________________________________

Army Test
Map: Ivy's Greenhouse
Units: Black Swan @330, Thanos (Hasbro), Sub-Mariner, Shadow Demon x2 (1200) vs Original X-Men, Spider-Man, Jubilee (1200)

Spoiler Alert!

Black Swan finally had a game where her defense rolls didn't measure up, and she got taken out by the X-Men pretty early on after a botched defense. She did get an attack in on Professor X that forced him to use Psychic Defense X and opened him up to Thanos, but that was all she really accomplished.

Swan going down early really set the Destroyers up to fail, and they got rolled by the X-Men.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): 0 wounds to Professor X in 1 attack (1 blocked by Psychic Defense X)
• Black Counsel: made Namor a Destroyer
• The Black Order: used for a few bonding turns
• Everything Dies: not used
• Damage Taken: 1 wound from Cyclops in 2 normal attacks, 4 wounds from Iceman in 2 special attacks (destroyed)

Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Only Spider-Girl destroyed. Professor X with 2 wounds, Jean with 1 wound, rest of X-Men team unwounded

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: Doesn't feel like she has enough connective tissue with Thanos yet to really test a bigger Thanos and the Destroyers (cannot stop thinking of that as a band name) build. I think that'll get more feasible as we see more Black Order members designed.

She can be pretty effective in a smaller match, though. She was rolling hot in both the first two games, which contributed to the big win against the Crime Fighters and almost beating out the Wrecking Crew.

There's some tension between wanting to sidekick with her and wanting to keep her alive so that she can stick around for Everything Dies and take OMs late in the game. Screening with a big Destroyer or two and kiting with Swan felt like the right play for sure.

The Shadow Demons can be nice for tie-down, and to throw a few extra bodies into the Everything Dies count. They feel a little too pricey to load up on, though.

Cyborg Superman as a bonding partner, and Ozy shenanigans, would be the two things I'd prioritize exploring in further testing. Wouldn't mind seeing a game with Doomsday either, to see the regeneration synergy in action (especially since we'll be going for a similar mechanic on Corvus). I think 300-320 is the right range, going forward.

[Ronin]

Proposing we send her to public testing at 300.

Cost might float up depending on how she looks with Ozy.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

Yea

[Karat]

Yea

[Tornado]

Yea

[Yodaking]

yea

[Ronin]

This passes

[Yodaking]

Anything specific you wanting to see tested or are concerned about here Ronin? Big fan of Namor & Black Panther so I'm leaning towards those two for the two tests. I can run her with Ozy though if you are more concerned with him, he's one of my favs too.

Would pitting her against one of them instead of having them as an ally be worth exploring here? I don't feel like any of them have any great synergy that changing an opponent's card to a Destroyer would really mess with anything, unless maybe she was facing a Star-Lord army that already had a Destroyer in the army.

Maybe pair her up with someone who really wants to win initiative? Joker? Iron Patriot? Viper? At her price point I'm not sure about how that will really work out.

[Ronin]

Yeah, I'm not too concerned about putting her against any of the Kings or Visionaries - I think that'll be more of a thing once the Illuminati is more established. I'd definitely like to see one with Ozy - using Namor or Panther as her recruit in the other sounds cool to me. Otherwise, whatever Destroyer stuff you want to put together is cool with me.

I'm kind of curious about seeing her with Gauntlet Thanos at some point to see how that goes, but I don't think it's pressing.