Ran a test with Pyria yesterday. Note that I played Pyria as Medium 4, which had a significant effect on this map - Medium 4 seemed like the right height after comparing her to hexes instead of checking what you all had in the OP
Map: Sear by Dignan
Glyphs: 2 defense glyphs, 2 random treasure glyphs
Army 1: Pyria, Brunak, Ornak, Blade Gruts x3 (450 pts)
Army 2: Mimring, Otar, Arrow Gruts x3, Swog Rider x3, Brute Gruts (455 pts)
Which units survived?
2 Arrow Gruts, Mimring with 4 wounds, Otar with 1 wound, Brute Gruts
Mimring got onto the bridge in the first turn and started roasting Blade Gruts, while Brunak took one defense glyph and got Pyria to the bridge, where she pinged a Swog. Mimring tried tying up Pyria while firelining Brunak and sleeping gruts, but she hopped the bridge and got to the rock on the other side. Arrow Gruts tried to bring her down but she was rolling 4 defense dice with height and she wrecked havoc. Eventually Otar rolled in and pulled her off her perch, and then she fell pretty quickly, but not after dealing considerable damage. Mimring had destroyed Ornak and probably half the blade gruts, and eventually won a tense and drawn out duel with Brunak, and from there it was just about wiping out the last gruts.
How useful were playtesting units' powers and how often did they come into play?
Twin Flamethrower is a beast. 2 3-skull attacks and a 2 skull attack did some serious damage. It was a interesting mechanic positioning figures around Pyria trying to minimize her ability to move around while also minimizing the potential damage from her special attack. I am wondering tho, can Pyria attack a non-adjacent figure with one fire-line while she is attack an engaged figure with the other fireline? (That's how I played it)
Pyria destroyed 4 Arrow Gruts, 2 Swog Riders, and put 4 wounds on Mimring (220-ish points of damage?)
Any additional comments (theme, balance, fun factor with and against)?
Pyria can do a lot of damage. This was probably a strong map for her, where Brunak can get her on the bridge with a defense glyph on turn one. Still, Pyria does a lot. Her normal attack with its range has some nice utility. I don't think that decreasing her range to 6 would be a bad idea. Plus, Twin Flamethrower has some nice versatility in comparison to Mimring's original Fireline: It can reach figures as far apart as 7 hexes, and you don't need to worry about accidentally hitting your own figures that are behind a figure 3 spaces away. Mimring's greater threat range is obviously a big deal, but it's something to keep in mind.
The Ornak army probably would have been stronger with a Fen Hydra.
I think she feels quite nice as an Archmage - a somewhat beefy-if-squishy hero with some offensive potential. to that point, I don't think Death Knight bonding is a good direction for this design. I don't think an Archmage should have that sort of explicit synergy, afterall, I think its arguable that part of Sonlen's design is that he's NOT a wizard.
Points-wise, 120 is certainly in the right range, but I'd need to play her some more to get a better feel.
Let me know if there's anything I can do to help this project get rolling! I'll try to get some more testing on Pyria in, and then maybe Ozuul.