The Book of Anti-Monitor

[IAmBatman]

The Book of The Anti-Monitor​

C3G DC SUPER SECRET EXCLUSIVE 1
CRISIS IN TIME​

Comic PDF​

Mini PDF​

The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the Crisis Anti-Monitor Action Pack set.
Its model number and name are #225 / Anti-Monitor.​

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Character Bio - The Anti-Monitor is not only an enemy of the Green Lantern Corps, but he is an enemy of the entire Multiverse. Billions of years ago, on the planet Maltus, there existed a race of beings, blue-skinned and immortal. One of these beings, Krona, was a scientist obsessed with the origins of the universe, even though a taboo existed amongst the ancient Oans concerning the viewing of the origins of the universe. Krona created a machine that allowed him to see into the moment of creation. Somehow, his experiment disrupted the process of creation, with terrible consequences." One of these consequences was Anti-Monitor, technically Monitor of the Anti-Matter Universe, and he became obsessed with wiping the Multiverse, including the well known Universes of Earth I and Earth II completely out of existence!
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-Rulings and Clarifications-

• Base Clarification: Anti-Monitor is a double-based figure.
• Anti-Monitor is an Event Hero and follows Event Hero rules.

-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:

• As a Destroyer, Anti-Monitor has these Destroyer Synergies.
• As a Huge figure, Anti-Monitor has these Huge Synergies.

Outgoing Synergy:

• N/A

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-Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses-

Immunities

• As a figure with the Flying special power, Anti-Monitor cannot be affected by aspects of certain special powers. Current Special Powers that Interact Differently with the Flying special power.
• As a figure with the Super Strength special power, Anti-Monitor cannot be affected by aspects of certain special powers. Current Special Powers that Interact Differently with the Super Strength special power.
• As an Event Hero, Anti-Monitor cannot be affected by aspects of certain special powers. Current Special Powers that Interact Differently with Event Heroes.
• As a Huge figure, Anti-Monitor cannot be affected by aspects of certain special powers. Current Special Powers that Interact Differently with Huge Figures.

Benefits

• As an Event Hero, Anti-Monitor interacts differently with certain special powers. Current Special Powers that Interact Differently with Event Heroes.
• As a figure with the Super Strength special power, Anti-Monitor interacts differently with certain special powers. Current Special Powers that Interact Differently with the Super Strength special power.
• As a Huge figure, Anti-Monitor interacts differently with certain special powers. Current Special Powers that Interact Differently with Huge Figures.

Weaknesses

• As an Event Hero, Anti-Monitor interacts differently with certain special powers. Current Special Powers that Interact Differently with Event Heroes.
• As a figure with the Flying special power, Anti-Monitor interacts differently with certain special powers. Current Special Powers that Interact Differently with the Flying special power.
• As a Huge figure, Anti-Monitor interacts differently with certain special powers. Current Special Powers that Interact Differently with Huge Figures.

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-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-

• N/A

-Heroscapers Community Contributions-

• Initial playtest: Bats
• Second playtest: Hahma
• Third playtest: Griffin
• Rebasing Tips

 

[IAmBatman]

NAME = ANTI-MONITOR


SPECIES = ENTITY
UNIQUENESS = EVENT HERO
CLASS = DESTROYER
PERSONALITY = MALEVOLENT

SIZE/HEIGHT = HUGE 20

LIFE = 30

MOVE = 4
RANGE = 6
ATTACK = 6
DEFENSE = 6

POINTS = 1600

MASTER OF TIME
If you win initiative and at least one Order Marker is on this card, you may immediately remove one unrevealed Order Marker from one Army Card of each opponent at random.

ERASE FROM EXISTENCE
Once per round, after moving and instead of attacking, you may roll the 20-sided die once for each enemy figure within 3 clear sight spaces of Anti-Monitor. If the figure is a Squad figure and you roll 8 or higher, destroy it. If the figure is a Hero figure and you roll 20 or higher, destroy the Hero.

MASTER OF SPACE
After you complete a turn with any figure you control, if an unrevealed "X" Order Marker is on Anti-Monitor's card, you may reveal it and immediately take a turn with Anti-Monitor. During this turn, instead of moving normally, you may place Anti-Monitor on any unoccupied spaces within 10 spaces of Anti-Monitor. When Anti-Monitor moves with Master of Space, he will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

SUPER STRENGTH

FLYING

Spoiler Alert!

Design Notes:

Basically, my vision of this guy is to test the upper limits of what a Heroscape figure is capable of. The proposed Event Hero status is part of that. Basically, having a 1,000+ point figure taken out with a single D20 roll just cannot fly.
He's decently hard to wound, but not impossible. He's just going to take a long time to kill with wounds - hopefully long enough to earn back his points.
In order to facilitate that further, there are some fun time/space manipulation powers here to let him maximize his turns in a round and minimize those of his enemies.
And before anyone asks - yes the figure does fit on two hexes (see the mini photos).
I look forward to reading your thoughts!

9/27 the range on Erase From Existence is dropped from 6 to 3.
9/27 adjusted the wording on Master of Space to clarify that you can only use the power after you take a turn, not after an opponent takes a turn (to avoid turn interruption with bonding units).
9/28 Event Hero rule added under clarifications and a line added preventing opposing players from taking temporary or permanent control over him, since both of these things would automatically end 1,600 point games on D20 rolls.
10/1 Updated the Event Hero rule, changing it from this:

SPECIAL RULE (EVENT HEROES): Event Heroes cannot be destroyed by any terrain rules or special powers on any Army Card or Glyph that do not cause wounds. You may never take temporary or permanent control of an opponent's Event Hero.

to this:

EVENT HEROES
Event Heroes are never destroyed without first taking enough wounds to be destroyed. If a terrain rule or a special power on any Army Card, Glyph, or Destructible Object would automatically destroy an Event Hero, that terrain rule or special power instead inflicts 4 wounds on that Event Hero. Players may never take temporary or permanent control of an opponent's Event Hero.

10/12 Talked to Griff on the phone and for the sake of clarifying some turn order issues, added an "immediately" to Master of Time and removed the Order Marker and no movement restrictions from Erase from Existence.
10/13 Erase From Existence capped at once per round to alleviate some of Griffin's concerns. I ran two additional army tests with him either way and found no discernible differences in results, so I'm fine with this change.

 

[A3n]

I love it. Getting accurate costing could prove difficult though. I don't think Master of Space needs to be reeled at all. I like it just how it is with the below correction:

MASTER OF SPACE
After the completion of any turn, if an unrevealed X Order Marker is on Anti-Monitor's card, you may reveal it and immediately take a turn with Anti-Monitor. During this turn, instead of moving, you may place Anti-Monitor on any unoccupied spaces within 10 spaces of Anti-Monitor. When Anti-Monitor moves using Masters of Space, if he is engaged, he will not take any leaving engagement attacks

Cheers

 

[Hahma]

Looks cool, as I had expected from you mentioning some ideas before on the phone. Though as I got razzed for not having some feet in some pictures of Commish Gordon, you might get razzed for not having the top half of Anti-Monitor in your pictures.

You might be the only one to have this figure, so you might have to break out the Bat-Camera again on this one.

 

[IAmBatman]

Yeah, I know. Only one of those pictures is usable on a card, so I'll need A3n to tell me if it's usable enough. The others were just taken to show people that, "hey, he does fit on two bases."
On playtesting, I think the standard type of playtesting is out for this guy. It's army tests or nothing, because you simply can't draft enough squads to go after him and fit in a regulation start zone, and there are no heavy hitters powerful enough to tackle him alone (though I do think Thor is a good draft against him). So I'm thinking we'll just need to do four or five army tests on him for every test.
I do think his cost will probably waver in a range in the hundreds of points rather than in the tens, but I think we can narrow it down fairly accurately.
I'm glad you're on board with Master of Space. As for the "Masters Space" wording, I forget which official wording Griff pointed me to on that one. Hopefully he can post today and remind me.
Though if the official precedent isn't working for us in the wording and it just sounds awkward, I have no issues going in another direction.

 

[IAmBatman]

So, other than maybe adjusting some wording, should I just start testing this guy? I figure since I'm asking for such extensive army testing on this guy, I ought to bear the brunt of it.

 

[IAmBatman]

C3G PLAY TEST FEEDBACK FORM

NAME OF THE TEST UNIT ANTI-MONITOR

- THEME TEST/ Check to see if there are any powers or stats on the test unit card that does not accurately reflect the theme or likeness of what the character would and could do. Also consider destructible objects, and whether or not this characters powers should affect them.
PASS

- MIRROR TEST/ Check to see if the unit were played against itself, if there would be any loops that would upset the balance of the Game.
PASS

- BONDING TEST/ Compare the unit card with all possible currently existing Bonding abilities to make sure there are no continual Bonding possibilities that do not stop appropriately or do not stop at all. This is to prevent loops in Bonding.
PASS

- SYNERGIES TEST/ Compare the unit card with all possible currently existing synergies to make sure there are no factors that could break the game by making any unit to powerful or too weak.
PASS

- POWER CHECK/ Consider the test unit and all existing units and all glyphs to compare to and check for any powers that could be over amplified and break the game. Each power must define when it takes place, who or what it affects, and What are the stipulations on the power if there are any.
PASS

- FUN TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play.
PASS

- FUN COMPETITIVE TEST/ Consider whether or not the design was fun to play against.
PASS

- DRAFTING TEST/ Consider whether or not this design is worth drafting.
PASS

- USAGE TEST/ Consider whether or not all of the powers on this card were used or at least usable.
PASS

- STRATEGY TEST/ Consider whether or not the design offers any real strategy or interesting tactics to the overall game.
PASS

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- Army Test/ Does it pass?
Map: Martian Warzone: The Heat
Units: Anti-Monitor (1600) vs. Thor (430), Hulk (370), Iron Man (240), Captain America (220), Punisher (180), Spider-Man (160) (1600)

Spoiler Alert!

In about seven rounds, Anti-Monitor wins it with 24 wounds! It felt like it could've gone either way, but horrible Spidey-Sense rolls and Erase from Existence hitting 20s on both an unwounded Hulk and an unwounded Cap early in the game swung this one. I think the range on Erase From Existence is probably waaaay too high! I think lowering it to 4 or even 3 is a good idea - otherwise you're just playing the odds, because eventually you'll take everyone down. He definitely felt killable, though, just like it was going to take a while!


Retest: I lowered the range of Erase From Existence to 3 and tried this again. Anti-Monitor won in round 9 with 25 wounds. So this one is close to balanced, but I need to run some tests with others and see if his cost needs to go up or his life needs to go down. I think I'd prefer the former, as 30 life seems like a fun challenge thus far! Besides, this guy regularly takes on the entire DC Universe, so he shouldn't be easy.
No D20 rolls landed for Erase From Existence this time despite probably rolling for it 25 times or so. He did win initiative a whole bunch, though, which was helpful.


Take Three: Anti-Monitor couldn't get any luck with Erase From Existence and only had so-so luck with winning initiative. Hulk and Thor both got height on him a lot and he took two wounds from lava field. The Avengers won this one after eight rounds with Cap and Hulk dead (Hulk did over half the damage!) and Thor down to 1 life. Spidey, Iron Man, and Punisher were never activated and never attacked. This game with the last one considered together make me feel good about 1600 thus far.

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- Army Test/ Does it pass?
Map: Martian Warzone: The Heat
Units: Anti-Monitor (1600) vs. Professor X (220), Wolverine (280), Beast (170), Angel (90), Deadpool (285), Scarlet Witch (285), Colossus (260) (1590)

Spoiler Alert!

Test One - this was my closest test yet! Anti-Monitor pulled it off after 9 full rounds with 2 life left! Scarlet Witch made a great (aka annoying and hard to kill) end gamer, and her Curse prevented Anti-Monitor from using his X-Marker turn a couple of times. Deadpool's Wise Cracks kept Professor X alive a lot longer than he would've stayed alive otherwise, especially with Angel having been Erased From Existence early in the game. Wolverine's claws put a lot of wounds on Anti-Monitor, and Colossus' stats were useful against him. Beast was nice to help rebalance some of the Order Marker inequity. Deadpool also got on height and used the double attack to get in a few nice wounds. This one really felt like it could've gone either way, and given the 10 point cost difference, I'm pretty happy with him winning with just 2 life left. 1600 points feels great so far and I'm probably going to trim down the overall number of tests I'd planned to about 6 or so total!

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- Army Test/ Does it pass?
Map: Martian Warzone: The Heat
Units: Anti-Monitor (1600) vs. Superman (400), Batman (200), Martian Manhunter (300), Flash (250), Green Arrow (150), Black Canary (190), Robin (120) (1580)

Spoiler Alert!

Some poor attack rolls from Anti-Monitor (a lot of 1 skull on 6 dice rolls) and timely defense by Black Canary (4 shields to stop her final wound, followed by four Fists of Fury attacks, initiative, then three more Fists of Fury attacks, with Robin and Green Arrow attacking each time as well) helped the JLA here. Superman is hard for Anti-Monitor to take down, but Anti-Monitor almost had it accomplished when Superman finally toppled the giant. The JLA won on turn 2 of Round 8, with Superman having one life remaining, 3 life on Batman, 1 life on Robin, full life on Flash, and dead Martian Manhunter, Green Arrow, and Black Canary. Anti-Monitor never attempted Erase From Existence. He also took two wounds from lava field, something none of the heroes did. I'd say this one could've gone either way, but the dice hurt him a bit, and I'm still feeling great about 1,600!

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- Army Test/ Does it pass?
Map: Martian Warzone: The Heat
Units: Anti-Monitor (1600) vs. Mr. Fantastic (235), Invisible Woman (215), Human Torch (225), Thing (325), She-Hulk (310), Plastic Man (145), Iceman (150) (1605)

Spoiler Alert!

Anit-Monitor wins after a full 7 rounds with 5 life left. After he took out Mr. Fantastic (first), Order Marker management fell apart for the Fan Four. He managed to kill Human Torch without the Torch ever attacking once, using Flame On 4, or, importantly, going Nova. Thing did manage to get in 2 Clobberin' Time attacks of 10, which accounted for about 6 of Anti-Monitor's wounds. Master of Space was great for cornering Invisible Woman. He couldn't do it until he killed off Mr. Fantastic (who didn't have that great of defense rolls on 9 dice), but after that, he toppled Invisible Woman, killed Human Torch, and finished Thing, leaving the substitutes to finish him off. He kept using Master of Time to prevent Iceman from attempting to freeze him. She-Hulk was a decent matchup, but she couldn't do enough on her own. This one seems to balance the JLA test in the other direction pretty well. Did I mention that I'm feeling pretty good about 1,600 points?

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- Army Test/ Does it pass?
Map: Martian Warzone: The Heat
Units: Anti-Monitor (1600) vs. HYDRA Agents x4 (320), Abomination (320), Madame HYDRA (140), Red Skull (190), Thanos (360), Venom (150), Pyro (120)

Spoiler Alert!

The Avenger Villains win in 6 rounds after poor defense and D20 rolls doom Anti-Monitor. Red Skull helped the villains avoid losing any Order Markers, as did the HYDRA Agents. Anti-Monitor killed Pyro, Abomination (who put a lot of wounds on him first), and two HYDRA Agents, and put one wound on Madame HYDRA and put three wounds on Red Skull. Venom was never activated and Thanos was untouched (but got in a lot of nice attacks from height). Just too much attrition here for Anti-Monitor, but if he'd had better defense rolls (he whiffed or rolled 1 shield several times) I think this one would've been closer. I think 1,600 is his ceiling, but since I've seen him win 1,600 point battles more than once, I'm not eager to lower him from it. We'll see what other testers think!

 

[IAmBatman]

I took the last line off Erase From Existence referencing it not being used on Event Heroes, because I realized the Event Hero special rule would cover that.

 

[Hahma]

Looks like a whole bunch of Army tests there Bats. Though that's about all you can do with a guy like this. I look forward to seeing how it goes and which armies do better against him. Though being able to remove an OM from the opposition and auto destroy them on a 6 or higher within 6 spaces plays no favorites, I guess other than opponent's with range greater than 6.

It would be neat to see Prof X have Colossus move up and use FBS to throw Wolverine (7 space range for him) and then have Wolvie go for the next activation. Though maybe you'll have to pull the ol' Griff cheese special and wound Wolvie a few times yourself so he can have the two extra attacks before AM auto-destroys him on a 6 or higher.

As long as he doesn't have healing powers, opponents will just have to whittle him down over time. The tough part for the opponent will be OM management because not only can AM remove an OM by winning initiative, but he can easily auto kill a unit within 6 spaces, so you don't want to stack OMs either. You don't want more than one figure within 6 spaces of him at the same time if possible unless they both go in and can lay down some good damage before dying, and the best bet for something like that would be Prof X getting two attacks against AM per turn with Mutan Mind Link.

Interesting stuff indeed.

 

[IAmBatman]

Just doing a couple of preliminary tests to see if anything feels "off." I'll let you guys know as I add to the list. Don't feel like my starting a playtest means you can't still suggest/request/insist on changes! If there's anything you don't like/hate/want to suggest, I definitely don't want to stop you.

 

[IAmBatman]

Completed the third army test right now (Avengers special) and both teams were definitely in it, but Anti-Monitor had the D20 luck he needed. He only won initiative about once, though, so the OM removal didn't come into play much. I think the range on Erase From Existence needs to be drastically lowered - otherwise he's rolling it for about half the map every time, which means he's got pretty good odds of taking some major players out given all the rolls. I'm going to try it at range 3, I think.

 

[Spidey'tilIDie]

auto destroy them on a 6 or higher[/B] within 6 spaces plays no favorites, I guess other than opponent's with range greater than 6.

Am I missing something here? I read on 20+.

Completed the third army test right now (Avengers special) and both teams were definitely in it, but Anti-Monitor had the D20 luck he needed. He only won initiative about once, though, so the OM removal didn't come into play much. I think the range on Erase From Existence needs to be drastically lowered - otherwise he's rolling it for about half the map every time, which means he's got pretty good odds of taking some major players out given all the rolls. I'm going to try it at range 3, I think.

This would alleviate my one concern.

 

[A3n]

one question from your army test:

Do 24 wound markers fit on an army card

 

[Hahma]

auto destroy them on a 6 or higher[/b] within 6 spaces plays no favorites, I guess other than opponent's with range greater than 6.

Am I missing something here? I read on 20+.

No, it was me that misread it. It was right before going to bed last night when I posted that and I must have been half asleep already. 20+ isn't bad at all then of course.

Man, I've been messing up lately, got my mind on too many things and getting scatter-brained.



After reading the test, it seemed like it could have gone either way really. I mean he only had 6 lives left and he was able to take out unwounded Hulk and Cap with Erase. That's some luck there and if Hulk were still around he could have had a decent chance of putting final 6 wounds on AM. Of course you said AM only won initiative once, so even if he didn't take out Hulk and Cap, he could have messed them up if he had won even half of the initiative rolls. Even if you lower the range for Erase, he still has his big ranged attack that can handle all but the longest of ranged guys and Master of Space can still move him to within 3 spaces of an opponent many times, map permitting.

Overall, I'm really digging the concept and such. I don't know anything about AM, but I trust your interpretation is solid and the mechanics look easy enough to understand. I think the high life and the dentable defense is a good way to handle a guy like this as he can still last a really long time and dish out substantial damage while he keep taking wounds.

 

[IAmBatman]

one question from your army test:

Do 24 wound markers fit on an army card

Actually (and we might recommend this in the first post at some point, I used those big red markers I got from my tub of markers to act as 5 wounds, so whenever I got up to another grouping of 5, I'd swap in one of those. Made it a lot easier!).
I'm glad you guys are digging the design here! It's one I've been really wanting to do for a long time and I'm pretty confident already that we can make someone with this crazy high of a cost work in the game. In fact, with the D20 range changes, I might just run a redo test versus the Avengers today. I'm going to take my time on this one, since he's basically an army all himself!

 

[IAmBatman]

Added a second Avengers test with the changes. I think the results are promising.

 

[Spidey'tilIDie]

I just wanted to comment really briefly that Anti-Monitor is both thematically accurate and seems way better than I originally thought. Definately a case where Playtesting turns out better than Theoryscaping.

 

[IAmBatman]

Sweet. In a few I'm going to add another playtest - Hulk leading first instead of taking wounds and then rolling well doomed Anti-Monitor in this one. He killed Hulk and Cap and took Thor down to one life, but everyone else (Punisher, Spidey, Iron Man) had full life left at the end. He had decent initiative luck and no luck with Erase From Existence. 1600 is feeling good so far!

 

[A3n]

@ Bats, is it a possible tactic to have a healer sit back & then attack with one or 2 at a time & when they take wounds run them back for healing whilst attacking with another one or 2? Will that work or will he stop that easy enough? If it works it might be just a slow way to whittle him down.

Cheers

 

[IAmBatman]

Well he can definitely use his X-Marker to come into your startzone to go after the healer, so you'd have to protect the healer, but it seems worth a shot. I've got Alfred in one of my tests coming up, so I'll be trying some type of maneuver like that. I think I'm going to try to run each of these army tests three times to get a firmer idea on cost and ... well ... because he's a lot of fun to play!

 

[A3n]

You know I think I have worked out why I can't get any good at playtesting. I don't get the fun in playing against myself & trying to think for both sides.

Cheers

 

[IAmBatman]

Hey, you're talking to a guy who used to play chess against himself all the time ... and with zero luck in that game, there's a lot less to keep it exciting. But it still was.
I think I almost prefer solo scape right now (but, since I don't have a lot of other options anyway ...). Just watching the story unfold and thinking through the strategies with the powers ... man, fun stuff.

 

[IAmBatman]

Great X-Men test! He beat 1590 points worth of Mutants with 2 life left. Very close, and felt very balanced. I'm pretty happy with where he's at right now, but I want to run about 3 more Army tests. I'll have to try some pricey squads against him to see how that goes.

 

[A3n]

Do we have enough playtesting support to keep this guy in house? So we can do a surprise release with him.

Just a thought.

Cheers

 

[IAmBatman]

I'd love to keep him in the sanctum if Griff and Hahma are willing ... I definitely think a crazy, "big" design like this is something it'd be fun to keep to ourselves.
Oh, and poor rolls doomed Anti-Monitor against the JLA. I find when going up against him it's nice to have a hard to kill figure locking him down to occupy his time as a damage soak. Superman and Thor both fill this roll well.
He lost by a number of points to an army costed at 20 less than him, but I think he still feels worth his points (and I didn't even roll for Erase From Existence, which could've wildly swung the game at any point).