The Book of Ravage

[Yodaking]

The Book of Ravage

C3G IDW WAVE 29
CHRISTMAS IN JULY


Comic PDF


Mini PDF

The figure used for this unit is a Hasbro figure from the War for Cybertron: Siege set.
Its Wave, Product, & Figure name are Micromaster Wave 2 / Soundwave Spy Patrol / Ravage.

The figure used for this unit is a TAKARA TOMY figure from the Transformers Siege set.
Its Wave, Product, & Figure name are Wave 3 / Ravage.

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Character Bio - Ravage believes unwaveringly in the Decepticon cause, and Megatron embodies that cause. To better serve Megatron and the Decepticons, Ravage has become a most efficient and deadly war machine. Sometimes he's a talker, other times he just growls or hisses at anything that isn't Megatron or Soundwave. (tfwiki.net)
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• Base Clarification: Ravage is a single-spaced figure

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-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:

• As a Cybertronian, Ravage has these Cybertronian Synergies.
• As a figure with the Cassette Storage special power, Ravage may be placed on the battlefield and activated by Soundwave's Eject! and Relay Orders special powers.

Outgoing Synergy:

• Ravage's Cassette Storage special power allows him to start the game on the Army Card of a figure with the Eject! special power. Those figures include: Soundwave and Sir Soundwave.

Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses:

• As a figure with a special attack, Ravage can interact differently with these special powers.

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• N/A

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial playtest: Yodaking
• Second playtest: MrNobody
• Third playtest: Soundwarp SG-1
• Art: Comic, Figure, Background
• Art by Scapemage

[Yodaking]

NAME = RAVAGE

SPECIES = CYBERTRONIAN
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = HUNTER
PERSONALITY = CUNNING

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 3

LIFE = 5

MOVE = 7
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 4
DEFENSE = 5

POINTS = 110

CASSETTE STORAGE
At the start of the game, instead of placing Ravage in your Start Zone, you may place him on the Army Card of a figure you control with the Eject! special power.

POUNCE ATTACK
You may ignore Ravage's height of 3 when moving up or down levels of terrain. When attacking an adjacent figure with a normal attack, add 1 automatic skull to whatever is rolled if Ravage was not engaged at the start of your player turn.

ARMOR PIERCING ROCKET SPECIAL ATTACK
Range 5. Attack 4.
For each skull rolled when attacking with this special attack, the defending figure subtracts 1 from its defense. Ravage can only attack a non-adjacent figure with this special attack and can only use this special attack once per round.

[Lazy Orang]

I'm not a fan of Stealth Pounce - it almost never comes up for me and is why I almost never play Black Panther. When 'pouncing things' is the main thing I remember Ravage doing rather than a nice bit of added flair, that feels off. It seems like the main thing this guy has going for him right now is the Rocket, which, again, feels a bit weird - I don't object to it, and I don't know him from the comics, but I can't remember him firing it once in the cartoon. I'd rather see more focus on pouncing with his normal.

[Yodaking]

Pretty happy with his power set as is. Just want to make sure I'm understanding how Stealth Pounce would work with Cassette Storage/Eject!

For reference (on Soundwave's card):

EJECT!
After revealing an Order Marker on this card, instead of taking a turn with Soundwave, you may remove one friendly figure that is not destroyed from this card and place it on any unoccupied space within 2 clear sight spaces of Soundwave. Take an immediate turn with that figure and you may not take any additional turns with other figures you control.

Will I be able to chose a figure on the battlefield for Stealth Pounce while Ravage is still on Soundwave's card, then place him on the board and take a turn via Eject!, getting the auto-skull on a normal attack vs. the chosen figure on that turn? That was my intent, that he could pop out of Soundwave and Pounce on someone right away without needing a shadow tile or wall to hide behind. If the wording or rules doesn't allow that to happen, can we make it work that way?

Other unresolved issue is the personality, not sure what to go with there. He's kind of a mean, nasty type. Any synergy related personalities come to mind that might be fun here?

Last thought is that if he's coming in over 130, I'll most likely drop the defense down to 4 first and see if that can drop him into the 120-130 range. I feel he should be just under Laserbeak and at a different price point so you have a little flexibility when drafting Soundwave and want to include one tape.

[Lazy Orang]

If we can get that interaction working, then I'll do a 180 on my stance and say I actually like Stealth Pounce a lot here.

[Yodaking]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

I'm not a fan of Stealth Pounce - it almost never comes up for me and is why I almost never play Black Panther. When 'pouncing things' is the main thing I remember Ravage doing rather than a nice bit of added flair, that feels off. It seems like the main thing this guy has going for him right now is the Rocket, which, again, feels a bit weird - I don't object to it, and I don't know him from the comics, but I can't remember him firing it once in the cartoon. I'd rather see more focus on pouncing with his normal.

See my last post about how I envision the pounce working with Soundwave. When out on his own scouting/spying for Soundwave, he's usually seen hiding in the shadows before pouncing on someone so it seemed like a good fit as long as the Eject!/Storage interaction works as intended. I don't want him to get too expensive here.

As for the APR power, the original toy came with a set of missile launchers that fit into the holes of the cassette tape when he transformed. So it's pretty iconic for him to have for anyone who grew up with the toy. You are right though that he didn't shoot missiles on a regular basis in the comic/cartoon though, which is why I really like reusing APR here. It's already limited to once per round and has an unengaged restriction, so he should really only be using it once in a great while. It gives him an occasional ranged option though if he needs it, where his melee attack will be his go to move.

[Yodaking]

Originally Posted by Lazy Orang

If we can get that interaction working, then I'll do a 180 on my stance and say I actually like Stealth Pounce a lot here.

[Yodaking]

I'm also hoping that Relay Orders from Soundwave will help him Pounce some once ejected. If someone moves out of LOS with him but is still inside his threat range, then he can suddenly get that OM he needs. Because you are right, it can be tricky to set up for Black Panther.

[Yodaking]

*edit* I pulled this from the IDW All Hail Megatron comic:



This is a pretty nice one of just him, and he's got the missile launchers too.



Actually finding a lot of images of him with the missile launchers.




(If this one is used, the Cobra symbol on his shoulder will need to be removed, it is from a IDW comic book though so a good choice overall.)



Could use this image where he's with the Baroness as a little tease for the future:

[Yodaking]

[Yodaking]

Anyone have any thoughts on the figure background? He's usually lurking in the shadows, but I'm not sure how well shadows will work as a background for us.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

The first two options there are from a video game, not sure if that's a no-no or not. The third would need to have the Cobra insignia photoshoped out, but that's easily done. For background, maybe like a modern mineshaft or something? Something dark with metal bits and nothing too noticeable scale-wise.

EDIT: Also why are we listing the figure as Takara Tommy? The Hasbro and Takara releases have been identical to each other for a while now, so there's no reason to use the Takara one over the Hasbro one. Also, the Takara line is just called 'Transformers Siege' and Ravage is part of Wave 3 there.