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I recently played a game with the Honored Soul Guides, and I thought I could help this project by sharing my results. I will say, the phrase "There can be only one Human Champion" on the MacDirk Warriors' Army Card has never before seemed so apt.
PLAYTEST REPORT
475 points Map: THE BOROGROVES by Typhon2222 Glyphs: Valda (West), Wannok (East)
Army A (southern start zone): Sir Gilbert, MacDirk Warriors x4, Honored Soul Guides Army B (northern start zone): Kato Katsuro, Ashigaru Harquebus x3, Ashigaru Yari x2, Isamu
Survivors:
Kato (2 life)
2 Harquebusmen
Isamu
Summary:
Spoiler Alert!
Round 1:
Army B wins initiative.
This round was mostly positioning from both sides. Army B forms an Ashigaru wall in front of Kato, who sits on the western side of the board. The mobilizing Ashigaru take height and send a spearman and two gunmen to cover Wannok. Meanwhile, Gilbert and the MacDirks slow roll to the west, with the knight taking cover near the rock outcrop to avoid Harquebus attacks and the squaddies reaching into the shadows at the center of the map. On OM2, the Honored Soul Guides fly up to the same outcrop and attack Gilbert to bolster the MacDirks, resulting in two wounds. This round's Jandar's Dispatch rolls were small, but they allow a MacDirk to grab Wannok on OM3, killing a Yari. One clansman falls to an Ashigaru potshot, but no other casualties occur.
Round 2:
Army B wins initiative.
OM1:
The Harquebus finish advancing and post up near Valda, with one gunman taking the glyph, and the Yari move to block access to Valda and engage the MacDirk front lines; a barrage of Ashigaru attacks destroys three more MacDirks one the first turn, including the Wannok holder. Gilbert then moves up to draw fire from the vulnerable MacDirks and whiffs an attack against a Yari, while the MacDirks assert themselves by reentering the shadows to destroy two Harquebus and a Yari, and then tying down the Yari near Wannok.
OM2:
The Yari and Harquebus each destroy two MacDirks, with the Harquebus refraining from firing upon Gilbert to prevent the MacDirks from growing stronger. This gives Army A the chance to kill the Valda holder with Gilbert and advance more Warriors along the western hills, destroying a Yari in the process.
OM3:
Two Yari engage and destroy the last MacDirk near Wannok, a third Yari falls back to cover the path to Kato against a potential MacDirk rush, and the Harquebus fire three Wait-Then-Fire-boosted shots at Gilbert from height, leaving him with one life remaining, then launch a single failed attack at a nearby MacDirk. In response, Army A moves Gilbert into the shadows near Valda to prolong his survival, then rolls well for Jandar's Dispatch, allowing four MacDirks to engage and destroy three of the Harquebus on height; the fourth whiffs an 8v1 versus the glyph-holding Yari, whom Gilbert also failed to harm.
Round 3: Army B wins initiative.
OM1:
This is a big turn for the testing army. The eastern Yari rush a MacDirk near the southern spawn zone, while the western Yari engage Gilbert and the MacDirk; meanwhile, one Harquebus ties down another MacDirk and two members of the sole Harquebus squad left in Army B's start zone spread out to repair Kato's screen. One MacDirk is destroyed by the effort, but Gilbert destroys the Valda-holding Ashigaru to even things out, then rolls well on Jandar's Dispatch to throw a MacDirk into the opposing start zone, where it engages Kato. The daimyo perfectly blocks the 7v4, but the three other MacDirks destroy a Yari and a Harquebus near Valda and one Yari in the southern spawn zone.
OM2:
The remaining two Yari engage Gilbert and the MacDirk fighting Kato, destroying both, but the following Harquebus volley fails to take down any Warriors. In response, the MacDirks destroy two Harquebusmen near the northern rock outcrop, tying down another in the process, and enter the central shadow area for protection until the Honored Soul Guides can revive their champion the next round.
OM3:
The Yari attack a MacDirk near Kato and one of the Soul Guides in the south, trying to limit the number of times Gilbert can return, but are can only destroy the MacDirk. The Harquebusmen fire three shots at the MacDIrk in the north, but fail to deal a wound. One Harquebusman subsequently falls to two MacDirk attacks in the shadows, while the other two MacDirks unsuccessfully attack the Yari near the Soul Guides.
Round 4: Army A resurrects Sir Gilbert using the Honored Soul Guides' LAST WILL power, then wins initiative.
OM1:
Gilbert moves into the cover of jungle and shadow to better his odds at surviving for a full round and uses a fortuitous Jandar's Dispatch roll to fling three MacDirks into Army B's start zone; Kato survives two more 7v4's with three wounds inflicted, and the third Warrior is unsuccessful in damaging the only target within his reach: a Yari. The fourth MacDirk mops up his own Yari opponent in the southern start zone. This gambit is ultimately unsuccessful, though, as the three northern MacDirks are promptly destroyed by the Ashigaru.
OM2:
Sir Gilbert slowly moves toward Valda, sticking to the shadows and using Jandar's Dispatch to pull the last surviving MacDirk and Soul Guide with him, but he is destroyed by the approaching Ashigaru.
OM3:
The last MacDirk races two Harquebusmen to Wannok; the Ashigaru win and use the glyph's power to destroy the MacDirk.
Round 5: Army B wins initiative and activates Isamu while waiting for the final Soul Guide to enter the range of the Harquebusmen. The Soul Guide is forced to approach Wannok but cannot close to attacking distance in a single move, and it is shot and destroyed by the Ashigaru on the next turn.
Power Usage: LAST WILL: used round 4 on Sir Gilbert; approximately 130 points worth of damage inflicted STEALTH FLYING: used three times to scale uneven terrain Normal Attack: used once each; two wounds inflicted
Comments:
The MacDirk Warriors were my first thought when I saw this unit, and the Soul Guides worked about as well as expected here. Last Will effectively gave the MacDirks a precious second chance at victory after losing Gilbert, but I made some mistakes that prevented me from capitalizing on it. I would be willing to pay more than 50 points for the Honored Soul Guides in this specific composition, but I think that Raelin would be a better investment for most armies as the Soul Guides' points increase.
I would consider this one of the HSGs' stronger uses: the MacDirks love having their champion alive with a single life, hate losing said champion early in a game, and don't mind leaving the champion in a different area of the map with the Soul Guides; moreover, Sir Gilbert can move the Soul Guides without spending an Order Marker. Interestingly, the MacDirk army was transformed into something reminiscent of a Wildwoods army, although the Soul Guides are easier to stamp out than are the Wildwood Runners, and it is significantly more dangerous to leave the MacDirks' Champion alive with low life than it is to treat the Wildwood Monarch that way.
Finally, I agree with the thought that the HSGs are much better with bonding. Maybe you could give them the ability to freely move Order Markers onto a figure they revive on a turn-by-turn basis, similar to Rygarn's Chrono Key. That way, a player doesn't lose as much if a non-bonding Last Will recipient dies early.
If anyone is interested in a playtesting exchange, I am happy to make a swap. Drop a line in this thread
Also if someone in this group would be interested in running a playtest tournament it might generate more interest. I wont set up the threads or advertise, but I would be happy to generate the games and matchups and sign up googledoc if someone gives the maps/glyph sets and units
If anyone is interested in a playtesting exchange, I am happy to make a swap. Drop a line in this thread
Also if someone in this group would be interested in running a playtest tournament it might generate more interest. I wont set up the threads or advertise, but I would be happy to generate the games and matchups and sign up googledoc if someone gives the maps/glyph sets and units
I'll gladly take you up on that offer once my classes settle down.
We've discussed an online playtest tournament before, but we wanted to let C3V's PPT finish first. Running one is definitely a good idea, but I'm not very experienced in the OHS scene. I know that @Captain Stupendous is more active in that regard, so he might have some additional insight on what a fun yet valuable format would be. I'd be happy to help with doing the legwork once we figure out a format.
Is there a general timeline for when it would be convenient for us to have the tournament? I don't want to step on any toes if it can be avoided.
Rule of thumb would be to schedule the start of it near the end of an OHS tournament regular season if you wanted to aim for the most down time. Those run pretty regularly so I wouldn't worry overly much about conflicting.
It also depends on how you would like to run the scheduling. 1 game/week like the OHS event or 1 game/2 weeks like Classic League or VC Playtesting tourneys.
Is it something you're all ready to launch from a format and unit readiness perspective?
Rule of thumb would be to schedule the start of it near the end of an OHS tournament regular season if you wanted to aim for the most down time. Those run pretty regularly so I wouldn't worry overly much about conflicting.
It also depends on how you would like to run the scheduling. 1 game/week like the OHS event or 1 game/2 weeks like Classic League or VC Playtesting tourneys.
Is it something you're all ready to launch from a format and unit readiness perspective?
Thanks for the clarifications on timing! Conflicting with other events was one of my main concerns, so I'm glad to hear that it shouldn't be a big issue.
We're not ready to launch one yet, I think. There are a couple of units that are realistically close to being finished, so we need to discuss which units should be in the tournament and what format would be the most valuable. In terms of timing, I think that it'd be best to give players 2 weeks to play their games so that the commitment is easier for them.
I'm planning to sit down sometime next week and pick through potential maps and narrow down our unit list. @Captain Stupendous@NecroBlade@flameslayer93@Scytale, any thoughts on which units we want to prioritize? My first thought is that the Velnesh Alphas (and perhaps Pyria?) are close enough to finalization that we might eschew them here, but almost any other unit formally in Testing would be fine to include.
Would love to have a playtesting tournament with the AotV designs! By my count there's 14 figures which seems like a good number (the recent C3V playtesting tournament had 17).
Would love to have a playtesting tournament with the AotV designs! By my count there's 14 figures which seems like a good number (the recent C3V playtesting tournament had 17).
After this weekend's 3x300 tournament, I brought along AotV armies to test. Since the total of out 12 units so far plus RotV = ~2700 points, I went with the format and made three groups of 3x300(ish) armies. I managed to split them so:
It didn't quote work out that we got to use them that way, though, between playing another game first and some players leaving for other commitments. In the end, four armies (chosen at random) including 6 AotV cards got played.
Map for both games was Frostmire with Wannok and Initiative +8.
Game 1: Deathwalker 9000, Vlad III, Zettian Guards vs Airborne Elite, Sgt. Drake, Dienekes
Round 1: No Drop. Team won initiative and advanced DW9K on OM1. Dienekes followed moving toward Wannok so he could threaten anything that went near it.
OM2 Zettians formed up with DW9K and Drake went around the other side.
OM3 DW9K fired an Explosion at Drake but no damage, Drake continued forward (could have engaged DW9K but from low ground where a Zettian could double engage and lock him in).
Round 2: No Drop. Initiative again. With no good options for getting another shot at Drake, DW9K moves to take a shot at Dienekes, who blocks all with height and jungle. Drake finishes his flanking maneuver to get at Vlad for 3 damage.
OM2 Vlad Impales Drake for 2. Drake finishes off Vlad.
OM3 DW9K's Explosion to Drake again does no damage. Dienekes moves to Wannok, the wound killing a Zettian (clever plan to kill Vlad first).
Round 3: No Drop. Initiative seeing Drake kill the other Zettian (he could've gone after DW9K on height, but the odds of killing the Zettian were better and the Zettian would've been in the way if DW9K disengaged to take shots at Dienekes; this forced DW9K to deal with Drake first and maybe only have one shot at Dienekes before Wannok ended the game). DW9K rolls 5 skulls to finish Drake.
OM2 was on Drake, so DW9K starts his attempt on Dienekes, but doesn't hit.
OM3 Dienekes stays put on Wannok. DW9K hits him for 2, but Wannok is successful and wins.
Unfortunately this matchup wasn't able to really showcase either AotV card. Really the only takeaway was that players felt it would be hard to justify OMs on Vlad (in this, or more 'normal' games; I'm also just noticing that his OP says 125 points which seems like way too many when he was at 90 before). Maybe 6 Move would help?
Game 2: Ozuul, Velnesh Alphas vs Tetsuo Tyrell, Ne-Gok-Sa, Marro Warriors, Honored Soul Guides*
Round 1: Initiative who lead with MW OM1. Ozuul advances.
OM2 MW get 3 shots from height into Ozuul for 1 damage and one shot at a Velnesh kills it. Remaining Velnesh get two attacks on MW and kill 1.
OM3 MW kill another Velnesh and deal 2 more to Ozuul. Ozuul takes Wannok and a normal attack to kill a MW. Wannok wound goes to Tetsuo (go Mind Jack!).
Round 2: Initiative OM1 on MW who move to water to clone, 1 success. Velnesh was hoping to take out a MW, but after losing Initiative opts for NGS instead but is blocked.
OM2 MW take Initiative Glyph and a shot at the Velnesh, who Blinks to engage Tetsuo and an HSG (who isn't really tied down thanks to Stealth Flying, but may be forced to move if it doesn't want to get attacked). Ozuul moves to height to bide his time and line up for a Crush.
OM3 Tetsuo kills the Velnesh. Ozuul moves in with a normal attack on NGS first, 4 skulls... 4 shields.
Round 3: Initiative OM1 sees Tetsuo take height and Overclock for 6 dice into Ozuul, but rolls 1 skull which doesn't his and misses MJ (+2). Ozuul safely disengages and pulls in NGS and an HSG (engaged to both). 2 skull Crush is met by exactly 2 shields from all three...
OM2 Tetsuo Overclocks again this time for 2 damage to Ozuul (3 Life remaining), but no MJ (+3). Ozuul repeats a 2-skull-Crush-no-damage turn.
OM3 NGS fails Mind Shackle and damage on Ozuul. Ozuul's 2 skull Crush finally manages 2 wounds on NGS.
Round 4: Initiative OM1 Tetsuo's Overclock does no damage and no MJ (+4). Ozuul rolls 1 for Crush which doesn't damage anything.
OM2 HSG escape the splash zone to position on height/toward Wannok. However this allows Ozuul to disengage (hit, 2 Life) and pull in Tetsuo to Crush him, a MW, and an HSG. Only 1 damage to Tetsuo.
OM3 MW leave Initiative Glyph but can't hit Ozuul. Ozuul rolls a 4 skull Crush to kill Tetsuo, the MW, and the HSG.
Round 5: Initiative OM1 Ozuul pulls in the last 2 MW but 1 skull doesn't kill either. Final HSG sacrifices itself for Tetsuo but he completely fails Overclock and MJ anyway.
OM2 Ozuul's Crush kills both MW. MW had the OM.
OM3 Ozuul's normal attack hits NGS for 1 (3 Life). NGS moves to height and hits for 1 (1 Life Ozuul).
Round 6: Initative OM1 Ozuul climbs level and kills NGS.
Despite the terrible start losing 2 Velnesh quickly and several Crushes to no effect, Ozuul manages to come back and earn his 200+ points. Tetsuo rolled equally poorly, though. Thoughts from the players on these AotV units were: not much on the Velnesh, since they went down quick, but still find their theme and powers fun. Tetsuo just unfortunately didn't realize his potential, MJ seems fine at 19 since it never went off (and at best it would've been an inconvenience to Ozuul since he didn't have much of a team to turn on). Floated the idea of increasing the Overclock bonus even more, especially given his low Defense. HSG good that they're cheap since they don't do much on their own and Last Will usually makes them a later-game piece, but Last Will is a fun ability to try. Last Will was also the only ability deemed leaning toward the complex side, but I think we knew that and it's a very thematic power. Floated the idea of them exploding or something else when removed to give them something else to do, but I don't think that fits the design (and would probably raise their points). Another idea was to place the Hero adjacent to the HSG before destroying it (instead of destroying it then taking the exact space) and I could get behind that as a way to open up some options. Finally, Ozuul is pretty swingy, but 6 Move feels necessary to give him the potential he finally lived up to at the end of the game, whereas he could much more easily have been avoided and shot down with only 5.
500 pt armies
Chose to use 0 Glyphs Team 1
Wo-Sa-Ga
Nilfheim
Dienekes
Ujushisa Pride
Team 2
Tetsuo Tyrell
Alabaster Sentinels
Katryn Vada
Pyria
Nephda
Team 3
Ozuul
Krug
Izumi Samurai
Velnesh alpha
Team 1 Ran out quick with the Pride and got good dmg on Ozuul but then died, they seemed to struggle to get all 3 adjacent to each other on this map, I like the thematic nature of combined heat but with the double base it really makes them difficult to maneuver around (Though the 7 moved helped with this a bit, this map was difficult for them.
This was followed up with Pyria from team 2 getting too close to Wo-Sa-Ga and getting Coil crushed before able to do much.
Meanwhile, team 3 charged in with Ozuul and Krug, Ozuul was the meat sheild but got tied up with the Pride and was unable to use his crush (as they are "large") Dying eventually to Dienekes getting the final blow.
Krug eventually did Krug things using leaving engagements to rack up a little dmg so his Atk was crazy, ran into the middle of most of team 2 and just went nuts killing things. Meanwhile Team 1 put in work with Nilfheim whittling down the squads with his Ice Shard Breath using Flying to stay out of range and pick them off.
Final Thoughts
Team 1 Wasn't able to use Dienekes as much as I wanted I tried to get him up to use the combat Challenge but was just too slow to keep up with the Pride. The Pride Burned hot and quick but died down quick. I think having a few squads of them would be really fun on a little more open map
Team 2 kept forgetting about the Alabaster Sentinels Stone form and kept using them early Honestly he kept forgetting about most of his abilities (as it's been a while since we've played)
Team 3 said they didnt really enjoy Ozuul because of how they got Jammed up on this map and with the Pride. We were also confused if the Velnesh alpha shift ability allows them to ignore Hight (on our map teleporting on to the pillar) really enjoyed the shift/blink (felt like the Spider man web swing 4 response)
Team 2 Was Eliminated first
Team 1 and 3 came down to Nilfheim vs Krug with Nilfheim winning out
The Alabaster Sentinels are here to charge headlong into battle! Nephda is also here, bringing healing waters from shore to shore.
And the Ukushisa Pride have also entered the chat; catch them before they flame out.