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April O'Neil

MrNobody

Just A Head
April O'Neil

C3G2_AprilO'Neil.png


Card PDF

NAME = APRIL O'NEIL
IDENTITY = N/A

UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
SPECIES = HUMAN
CLASS = SIDEKICK
PERSONALITY = RESOURCEFUL

SIZE/HEIGHT = MEDIUM 5

LIFE = 3

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 3
DEFENSE = 3

POINTS = 50

UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION 4
At the start of the round, you may maneuver April up to 4 spaces. After an allied Fighter or Ninja rolls a d20, if there is an enemy within 4 clear spaces of April, you may add 4 to the roll.

TMNT ALLIANCE
Once per round, when an unrevealed Order Marker is removed from the card of an ally in the TMNT faction, you may place that Order Marker on this card.

TMNT PROTECTION
If an enemy targets April for an attack, you may reveal an Order Marker on this card to have a TMNT ally gain a move action. If that ally ends that move action adjacent to the enemy, roll 2 damage dice against that enemy.

FACTION = TMNT
PUBLISHER = IDW
KEYWORDS = N/A
SYMBOLS = N/A
WORLDS COLLIDE: Outside of their Master Splinter, April is perhaps the greatest ally of the Ninja Turtles.

Resources and Rulings
  • The suggested figure for this unit is a Heroclix figure: Arkham Origins #010 / Barbara Gordon
  • See this card's wiki page for synergies and strategies!
Credits
Updates
  • N/A
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Everything is as we discussed in the workshop! If she feels underpowered, I think the best move is to make her d20 booster better.

Unsure on the direction for figure/art here, if anyone has suggestions let me know!
 
I would increase the d20 boost now before testing even starts, say +3. With her needing to be 'rescued' for it to even trigger, I don't see it being used all that many times before she's taken out.

Another thought would to have her grab 1 OM per turn rather than per round. Then if you opt not to burn through all 4OM in one go, you can get her multiple OM's per round to run around with. Or keep the limit to one OM per round, but then let her give that OM to someone else?
 
It doesn't really matter how many OM she saves...she's still not worth having an OM so that power is pretty much doing nothing for me. She's a 50 point d20 boost and that's it. It would be nice if she could actually do something with that OM

From the workshop...

My only complaint is that her big thing is saving those OM that they waste on Turtle Power...yet she can't really do anything with that OM. So is it really getting you anything?

other than that I'm fine with were we landed on all the Left Box stuff and the name of the d20 power.
 
Since we are changing Casey anyway since we'd at least want him to have a d20 power, keep her recovering one Marker per round and then we can let Casey recover another one?
 
If you're going for the comic version of April this is probably the one you want, though the arguably more iconic one (yellow jumpsuit reporter) has had comics as well I think. This one though is 019 from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
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Would be nice if she could do something with that D20 though. If it stays a once per round power, I don't think moving that OM to a Turtle or Fighter at the start of your turn would be too strong. Or instead of a turn with April, you can take a turn with a Turtle or Fighter, that way Leo can't abuse it with his power.
 
She needs some type of free movement power. In her current state she's not getting an order marker if I'm playing her.

Maybe something like:

Investigative Journalism
During setup, choose an opponents figure to be her Investigative target. Whenever her target ends an ordered activation you may maneuver April O'Neil 3 spaces.

Or

HUNTING DOWN A STORY
If you win initiative you may move April O'Neil up to 5 spaces.


Something needs to move her besides an OM to make her useful. At least that's my opinion.
 
I’m fairly certain that’s the Mirage April figure, which is technically a different continuity from our Turtles. (IDW)

Would that extra move be in addition to her essentially free turn every round, Eric? I was hoping that would be enough to have her feel active.

I’m down to give her more to do on her turn, I’m just not sure exactly what? It can’t be too powerful if we want to keep her at 50 points. I mainly just don’t want her to feel like Kick-Ass, who has such a cool power but never gets to use it cause he gets KOed so easily.

And yeah, I’d love to make Turtle Ally a reusable power we can stick on Casey or Leatherhead or whoever.
 
She needs some type of free movement power. In her current state she's not getting an order marker if I'm playing her.

Maybe something like:

Investigative Journalism
During setup, choose an opponents figure to be her Investigative target. Whenever her target ends an ordered activation you may maneuver April O'Neil 3 spaces.

Or

HUNTING DOWN A STORY
If you win initiative you may move April O'Neil up to 5 spaces.


Something needs to move her besides an OM to make her useful. At least that's my opinion.

That's pretty much my point. She's not useful having an OM yet her "main power" is saving an OM from Turtle Power that she then uses to do.....

Also those power titles won't work here. This isn't meant to be the cartoon version. She's the ally of the IDW turtles.
 
I’m fairly certain that’s the Mirage April figure, which is technically a different continuity from our Turtles. (IDW)

Would that extra move be in addition to her essentially free turn every round, Eric? I was hoping that would be enough to have her feel active.

I’m down to give her more to do on her turn, I’m just not sure exactly what? It can’t be too powerful if we want to keep her at 50 points. I mainly just don’t want her to feel like Kick-Ass, who has such a cool power but never gets to use it cause he gets KOed so easily.

And yeah, I’d love to make Turtle Ally a reusable power we can stick on Casey or Leatherhead or whoever.

It is the Mirage version but it's at least closer.

IDW
April1shot.jpg
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latest


I use this figure personally but we are purposely leaving the power titles vague here so that if someone wants to pretend it's reporter April they can.

1047628.jpg
 
I had a thought, what if, instead of this:
NINJA TURTLE ALLY
Once per round, when an unrevealed Order Marker is removed from the card of a Ninja Turtle you control, you may place that Order Marker on this card.
We did it more like:
NINJA TURTLE ALLY
Once per round, when an unrevealed Order Marker is removed from the card of a Ninja Turtle you control, you may place that Order Marker on this card, and if that Ninja is a Turtle, you may maneuver April up to 4 spaces.

Another thought is letting her have a simple bonding if she rescues an OM. Which could look something like:
NINJA TURTLE ALLY
Once per round, when an unrevealed Order Marker is removed from the card of a Ninja Turtle you control, you may place that Order Marker on this card, and if that Ninja is a Turtle, you may maneuver April up to 4 spaces and, for the rest of the round, you may activate Ninja Turtle you control after activating April.
Though with that second change, you may not need the maneuver but it could be useful for setting up that d20 boost.
 
I think giving turtles and extra activation will make her way over the 50 points. But if maybe it was something more...

Once per round, when an unrevealed Order Marker is removed from the card of a Ninja Turtle you control, you may place that Order Marker on this card. If there is an OM on this card, after activating an allied Ninja or Fighter you may activate April.
 
That could work really well, but at that point you still don't really want the OM on her specifically :ponder:
 
It's a cool design, but I agree she's really not going to add much. I'll just shoot her once to get her out of the way then focus back on the turtles. I like how the "free turns" works, but if she's the only one moving around the game board, she's a real big target for the opponents' last two turns. She won't survive long enough to do anything.

If she could give her OMs back to a turtle somehow, that might be cool. A protection power like what Robin (Tim) and Vassago have could help a little bit. But also if we're adding maneuvers, then her 50 points might start to be pushing it.

One thing she'd be good at though is being a vehicle driver. If she's in a Gundam, then you get Turtle Power, and then her free turn can do some damage. Of course she couldn't use her d20 power then, but putting her on a motorcycle might also be decent just to get into position better.
 
It's a cool design, but I agree she's really not going to add much. I'll just shoot her once to get her out of the way then focus back on the turtles. I like how the "free turns" works, but if she's the only one moving around the game board, she's a real big target for the opponents' last two turns. She won't survive long enough to do anything.

If she could give her OMs back to a turtle somehow, that might be cool. A protection power like what Robin (Tim) and Vassago have could help a little bit. But also if we're adding maneuvers, then her 50 points might start to be pushing it.

One thing she'd be good at though is being a vehicle driver. If she's in a Gundam, then you get Turtle Power, and then her free turn can do some damage. Of course she couldn't use her d20 power then, but putting her on a motorcycle might also be decent just to get into position better.

Not something I want to block...but I for sure don't want it to be a need to get use out of her 50 points. Because then we fall back into the 1.0 trap of the TMNT team not being worth their points.

I know folks want her driving the 100 point Turtle van but just don't want it to be a must.
 
Hmmm...if she can't use her D20 power in the Van it's also probably not the best wording.

Another thought...

If taking a turn with her is never worth it...then how about a power that triggers of using the marker as a currency. Like she can remove an OM from her card to get some bonus...

Also her needing to be close to the turtles to use the d20 boost is kind of sad since now you need to use those OM just to move her up...
 
Not to blow this whole thing up but some discussion on Discord today lead to this idea.

Lois lane is 100 points and lets you get an extra activation with SUPERMAN. So maybe a one extra turn with a Turtle or Casey per round wouldn't blow up her points. Here is a Lois inspired design look..

UNCOVERING SECRETS
At the start of the round, after Order Markers are placed, you may move April up to 4 spaces. When a Fighter ally or Ninja ally rolls a d20, if April O'Neil is within 4 clear spaces of an enemy, you may add or subtract 1 from the roll.

TURTLE PROTECTION
If an opponent's figure is engaged with a Ninja Turtle or Fighter you control, that opponent's figure cannot attack April.

NINJA TURTLE ALLY
Once per round, when an unrevealed Order Marker is removed from the card of a Ninja Turtle you control, you may place that Order Marker on this card. Instead of that ordered activation you may activate an allied Ninja Turtle or Fighter.
 
Okay, here's where I'm at.

I honestly really like the Turtle Ally/Uncovering Secrets setup in the OP. (Hypothetically, I could hate it once I play it. :lol:) I really love how the Turtles are playing as a core group now, and I feel like April being a machine for more Turtle turns would kind of upset the careful balance they have going on right now. (It's really cool how you never know which Turtle is going to be the MVP, I feel like an extra activation with a Turtle of your choice would mess with that a bit.)

So I'd be way more interested in finding something cool she could do on her own activation vs. handing out more Turtle activations. But I also view this more as a group LD than my LD so I'm not deadset on anything!
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Hmmm...if she can't use her D20 power in the Van it's also probably not the best wording.
Side note, I really wanted to give the van a Gundam Sandrock-style power so April has a reason to sit in it after we removed the Getaway Driver power. I worked Donnie so he'd benefit from that too. Something like this:
SENSOR ARRAY
If the Turtle Van is occupied by a TMNT figure, any figure within 8 clear sight spaces of the Turtle Van, other than its occupants, is considered within 4 clear sight spaces of that figure for abilities on that figure’s card, other than special attacks.
(Wording isn't perfect but hopefully it gets the idea across.)
 
Okay, here's where I'm at.

I honestly really like the Turtle Ally/Uncovering Secrets setup in the OP. (Hypothetically, I could hate it once I play it. :lol:) I really love how the Turtles are playing as a core group now, and I feel like April being a machine for more Turtle turns would kind of upset the careful balance they have going on right now. (It's really cool how you never know which Turtle is going to be the MVP, I feel like an extra activation with a Turtle of your choice would mess with that a bit.)

So I'd be way more interested in finding something cool she could do on her own activation vs. handing out more Turtle activations. But I also view this more as a group LD than my LD so I'm not deadset on anything!
----------
Hmmm...if she can't use her D20 power in the Van it's also probably not the best wording.
Side note, I really wanted to give the van a Gundam Sandrock-style power so April has a reason to sit in it after we removed the Getaway Driver power. I worked Donnie so he'd benefit from that too. Something like this:
SENSOR ARRAY
If the Turtle Van is occupied by a TMNT figure, any figure within 8 clear sight spaces of the Turtle Van, other than its occupants, is considered within 4 clear sight spaces of that figure for abilities on that figure’s card, other than special attacks.
(Wording isn't perfect but hopefully it gets the idea across.)

The Uncovering Secrets power I proposed is only adding the beginning of round move for her so that at least lets her have a chance at staying in range. Otherwise I don't know if she's worth drafting if you can't get the D20 boost unless you are wasting OM to move her up.

The rest is worth discussing to see if we can find a reason for her to have an OM and it be worth it. Like I said many times, the thing that holds them back from competing with any other 1000 point army is that you are only getting 4 activations per round plus an April turn (which is worthless). Splinter doesn't come into play until one is defeated and all he does is save whatever OM they may have had...which odds are you already used Turtle Power at least once that round so OMs to save are not that available.

So yes the Turtles play great at 700 points now...but how do we make them a worthwhile 1000 point army?
 
I'll agree that while I think the current rendition of the Turtles holds up well at 700, once you start going over that, you'll probably want more turn efficiency to keep up with higher point enemy teams.

I might tweak Turtle Protection a bit, especially since you're letting others protect her currently:

PROTECTIVE ALLIES
If an enemy is engaged with an ally that shares April's faction, that enemy cannot attack April.
 
If we make an April turn feel useful, they're getting 5 good turns per round, fairly early in the round. That doesn't feel far behind the standard 6 activations per round that many faction have. If we do more TMNT Allies with the same power (Casey? Leatherhead?), that can go up to 7 turns, which seems pretty great.

Trying to think of alternatives though...what if she had a bonding power more of a once per game thing? So she does her cool thing early on, gets taken out, and the game goes on. (Or hides in the Turtle Van to dole out more longterm d20 boosts)
 
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