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The Book of Atlas

Ronin

Symbiotic
Site Supporter
The Book of Atlas

C3G MARVEL SUPER SECRET EXCLUSIVE 55
JUSTICE, LIKE LIGHTNING...


C3G_Atlas_comic.png

Comic PDF

C3G_Atlas_mini.png

Mini PDF

The figure used for this unit is a Heroclix figure from the Fantastic Forces set.
Its model numbers and names are #016 / Goliath or #017,018 / Atlas.

_________________________________________________________________
Character Bio - Recruited as a henchman by Heinrich Zemo, and then put through the same process that gave Wonder Man his powers, Erik Josten started off his super-career on the wrong side of the law. Originally calling himself "Power Man" (and then "Goliath", when a certain someone objected to his original choice of moniker), Josten clashed with the Avengers both on his own and as a member of the Masters of Evil.

Josten's life began to turn around when he joined Helmut Zemo's incarnation of the Masters of Evil, who disguised themselves as a new team of heroes: the Thunderbolts. Though the team was founded with villainous intent, Josten and most of his fellow team members found themselves loving the heroic lifestyle, and turned on their leader. Though Atlas struggles with mental instability and the demons of his past, he's committed himself to heroism, and is fiercely loyal to his fellow reformed teammates.
_________________________________________________________________

-Rulings and Clarifications-
  • Base Clarification: Atlas is a single-spaced figure.
  • Q: If Atlas has only 1 Life remaining, can Ionic Imbalance still activate?
  • A: Yes. When the number of wounds taken from an attack or special power exceeds the remaining Life of the figure taking the wounds, that figure is still considered to have received all wounds from that attack or special power.

    So when you're adding up the number of wounds Atlas would take from an attack, if that number is 2 or more, you have the option to use Ionic Imbalance, even when Atlas has only 1 Life left.
_________________________________________________________________

-Combinations and Synergies-

Incoming Synergy:
Outgoing Synergy:
  • N/A
Immunities, Benefits, and Weaknesses:
_________________________________________________________________

-Strategy, Tactics and Tips-
-Heroscapers Community Contributions-
  • Initial playtest: Ronin
  • Second playtest: Arkham
  • Third playtest: Lazy_Orang
  • Fourth playtest: Midgieboy3
  • Fifth playtest: Tiranx
  • Sixth playtest: Ronin
  • Playtest Summary
  • Art: Comic, Figure, Background
  • Art by Arkham
  • Erik Josten created by Stan Lee, Don Heck, and Jack Kirby
  • Atlas persona created by Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley
  • Comic Art by Tom Grummett, Gary Erskine, and Chris Sotomayor
 
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Re: The Book of Atlas (Design Phase)

NAME = ATLAS
SECRET IDENTITY = ERIK JOSTEN

SPECIES = MUTATE
UNIQUENESS = UNIQUE HERO
CLASS = CHARLATAN
PERSONALITY = REPENTANT

SIZE/HEIGHT = HUGE 8

LIFE = 5

MOVE = 5
RANGE = 1
ATTACK = 6
DEFENSE = 6

POINTS = 270


IONIC IMBALANCE
Whenever Atlas would receive more than one wound from a normal or special attack, before placing Wound Markers, you may roll the 20-sided die.
  • If you roll 1 or lower, all figures adjacent to Atlas receive two wounds and Atlas is destroyed.
  • If you roll 2-5, place Wound Markers normally.
  • If you roll 6-16, the most wounds Atlas can receive from this attack is one.
  • If you roll 17 or higher, Atlas takes no wounds from the attack, and all figures adjacent to Atlas receive one wound.

GIGANTIC REACH
Atlas may add 1 to his range when attacking a figure whose base is no more than 6 levels higher than his height or 6 levels lower than his base.

SUPER STRENGTH
 
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Re: The Book of Atlas (Design Phase)

Comic Art:
Spoiler Alert!


Trying to see if I can find any usable art that actually shows his face from when he was wearing his first Atlas costume (which is the one that has the mini), but no dice so far. The difference between the two is mostly just in the color scheme (and a little bit of bulk in the gauntlets/boots/shoulder pads).

UPDATE: Spent a fair amount of time looking and I'm striking out on that front, so the choices for comic art are:
a) the Declan Shalvey piece where he's in his original costume. I do really like that one, but you can't see his face, which I don't think we usually do.
b) one of the ones featuring his second costume. I like that costume better, but it doesn't quite match the original, color-scheme wise.
c) Arkham showed me a pretty solid-looking recolor of one of the latter, designed to make it look more like Atlas' original costume.

I'm not too opinionated here. I like any of the above options, and I'm not sure how important matching the comic and mini costumes is to the art team. I'll leave it up to art team wisdom.

Background Art: Trying to find something city-ish with some buildings to give Atlas a good sense of scale. Here's what I've got so far
Spoiler Alert!
 
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Re: The Book of Atlas (Design Phase)

Two reused power for a character I don't know well enough to comment on the theme of - so I'm happy with what you have here. :up:
 
Re: The Book of Atlas (Design Phase)

One thing I wanted to mention is that I was planning on using the Repentant personality to set up a synergy with Songbird (on her end). Currently, the only other guy with a Repentant personality is Radioactive Man, who is also a thematic Songbird pair.

I just wanted to make sure there's nobody Repentant and unthematic lurking in the sanctum that would throw a wrench into that plan before I go ahead with it.
 
Re: The Book of Atlas (Design Phase)

I don't know the character at all, but the design looks like a fun, elegant tank. :up:
 
Re: The Book of Atlas (Design Phase)

No issues here. There's a somewhat similar character On Deck right now. They've got similar stats (6/6 vs 5/6) and both have Gigantic Reach, but I think the other powers and different factions set them apart plenty.

One thing I wanted to mention is that I was planning on using the Repentant personality to set up a synergy with Songbird (on her end). Currently, the only other guy with a Repentant personality is Radioactive Man, who is also a thematic Songbird pair.

I just wanted to make sure there's nobody Repentant and unthematic lurking in the sanctum that would throw a wrench into that plan before I go ahead with it.

I didn't check everyone's cards, but I got all likely candidates and I think you're safe on that front.
 
Re: The Book of Atlas (Design Phase)

I went and edited one of your comic options, the one I thought would make the best comic art. I edited it to have the color scheme of his classic outfit. It looks good on a card, and any flaws will be hidden when it's actually printed out smaller of course. Let me know if this helps:

hIGKDXH.jpg
2vmyirc.jpg
 
Re: The Book of Atlas (Design Phase)

I didn't check everyone's cards, but I got all likely candidates and I think you're safe on that front.

Cool, good to hear.

I went and edited one of your comic options, the one I thought would make the best comic art. I edited it to have the color scheme of his classic outfit. It looks good on a card, and any flaws will be hidden when it's actually printed out smaller of course. Let me know if this helps:

Ah, thanks, that might come in handy.
 
Re: The Book of Atlas (Design Phase)

Simple stuff but looks good. :up: I could see his Life coming down to 5 if he proves too strong. Fine with testing from here, though.

One thing I wanted to mention is that I was planning on using the Repentant personality to set up a synergy with Songbird (on her end). Currently, the only other guy with a Repentant personality is Radioactive Man, who is also a thematic Songbird pair.

I just wanted to make sure there's nobody Repentant and unthematic lurking in the sanctum that would throw a wrench into that plan before I go ahead with it.

Out of curiosity - is this a factional (repentant Thunderbolts) or conceptual (repentant people) power? My experience with Songbird could put it either way. If it's the latter, even if we did have other Repentant figures lurking around, I can't imagine it being an issue.
 
Re: The Book of Atlas (Design Phase)

I was shooting for the latter, so it probably wouldn't be a big issue if someone else had the personality. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anyone that could be problematic.

And I thought about dropping his Life to 5, yeah. That'll be my go-to if he's coming in a little high in testing.
 
Re: The Book of Atlas (Design Phase)

Looks cool. Wasn't the Goliath that died in Civil War a black dude?
 
Re: The Book of Atlas (Design Phase)

Yes.

I look forward to seeing this faction form. I've got plans for a Charlatan of my own, so if I can get the points soon I'll probably put him up for a public design vote!
 
Re: The Book of Atlas (Design Phase)

Looks cool. Wasn't the Goliath that died in Civil War a black dude?

Yeah. The first Goliath was actually Hank Pym, in one of his earlier attempts to reinvent himself. Then Hawkeye started using Pym Particles and took the name for himself, and then after him came Erik, and then the guy who died in Civil War (who actually existed before Erik, but as "Black Goliath", and streamlined to plain ol' Goliath a little while after Erik dropped the name).

I look forward to seeing this faction form. I've got plans for a Charlatan of my own, so if I can get the points soon I'll probably put him up for a public design vote!

I'm planning on filtering them in slowly at first, but the Thunderbolts are gonna be my main long-term priority for a while. Really love their corner of the MU, and it's going fun to be able to piece them together in C3G.
 
Re: The Book of Atlas (Vote for Initial)

yea sorry missed this one in some confusion while doing Adminny things yesterday! :)
 
Re: The Book of Atlas (Vote for Initial)

This passes. I should have the initial up this weekend. EDIT: Gonna be a couple more days. Had a few things come up and I want to wrap Kal-L first.
 
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Re: The Book of Atlas (Initial Playtesting)

NAME OF THE TEST UNIT ATLAS

Heavy Hitter or Mid-Level Hero Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes
- What should be the unit's point value? 270-280?
- Give a brief overview. Looks like a pretty good spread of results for Atlas. He has some trouble with healing factored folks, and he really lives and dies on his d20 rolls. Three wins, two losses and one draw.
Map: Sewer Labyrinth
Spoiler Alert!

_____________________________________________________________
Squad Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes
- What should be the unit's point value? 270-280?
- Give a brief overview. Atlas narrowly wins one and narrowly loses one. He doesn't like multi-attacks, but melee squads run the risk of setting themselves up for a big Ionic Imbalance hit. This happened in the second game and turned the game around for Atlas.
Map: Sewer Labyrinth
Spoiler Alert!
_____________________________________________________________
Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes.
- What should be the unit's point value? 280-300?
- Give a brief overview. Atlas gets some good mileage in this one. His attack rolls are just average, but Team 2's are much worse; just 37% skulls. On top of facing a very low caliber of attack, Ionic Imbalance also comes through for him big time, allowing him to salvage a game that looked like it was turning against his team.
Map: Sacred Shrine
Units: Atlas (280), Red Skull, Robot, Doctor Fate (1000) vs Ms. Marvel, Valkyrie, Wonder Woman (1000)

Damage Done: 5 wounds to Ms. Marvel (destroyed) (3 attacks, 1 wound from Ionic Imbalance), 3 wounds to Valkyrie (dest) (3 attacks), 5 wounds to Wonder Woman (3 attacks, 2 wounds from Ionic Imbalance)

When they were KO’d: N/A

Ionic Imbalance: Used 2 times (out of 2 possible times). Prevented 2 wounds and dealt a wound each to Ms. Marvel and Wonder Woman. Prevented destruction and destroyed Wonder Woman.

Gigantic Reach: not used

Spoiler Alert!

Who won and how many wounds did they have?
Atlas with 3 wounds and Doctor Fate unwounded win Round 5, Turn 2.
_____________________________________________________________
Army Test
- Does it pass, Yes or No? Yes.
- What should be the unit's point value? 270-280?
- Give a brief overview. Bad luck on both sides here. Team Zemo takes an early edge when Reed comes up short on a series of Fantastic Leader 4 rolls, but then Atlas takes himself out of the game and puts Team Zemo in a hard spot, allowing Ben and Sue the chance to save the day.
Map: Sacred Shrine
Units: Atlas (280), Red Skull, Baron Zemo (Heinrich Zemo), Meteorite, Ragdoll, Skrull Infiltrator x2 (1000) vs Fantastic Four (1000)

Damage Done: 2W to Human Torch (destroyed) (1 attack), 3W to Mister Fantastic (destroyed) (2 attacks), 1W to Thing (1 attacks)

When they were KO’d: Round 3, Turn 5

Ionic Imbalance: Used 1 time, out of 1 possible time. Destroyed Atlas and dealt 2 wounds to Thing, destroyed a Skrull Infiltrator.

Gigantic Reach: Used twice to attack past Red Skull from height, once to keep distance from Ben and avoid Rock Wall Bounce Back

Spoiler Alert!

Who won and how many wounds did they have?
Ben with 3 wounds and Sue with 4 wounds win Round 6, Turn 3.
_____________________________________________________________

THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT'S COST, BALANCE, & DRAFTABILITY: Slightly unreliable, but with good d20 rolls he can be a monster. Still thinking about dinging him one point of Life, but he's definitely close on cost.

GENERAL THOUGHTS ON THE TESTED UNIT: I'm happy with where Atlas is. Feels like a thematic play.
 
Re: The Book of Atlas (Initial Playtesting)

After thinking it over, he did do pretty well for himself in the mid-level/heavy hitter tests with rolls that weren't too great. I think my preference would be to lower his Life to 5 and if it turns out his price point needs to come down a little, I'm alright with that.

I'm proposing we move Atlas to public playtesting at 5 Life.

@IAmBatman -yea
@johnny139 -yea
@TrollBrute
@SirGalahad -yea
@Karat -yea
@Viegon -yea
 
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