The Losers Game

Over the next several weeks, I'm going to be playing games where the heroes are consistently taken from the bottom of the statistical heap.  I'm doing this somewhat in response to the "Character so and so needs help" threads, but mostly out of curiosity.  I enjoy the play of all the heroes on the bottom except Bunker - who I'm hoping to learn to love.  I won't be playing official alternate characters (e.g., Rook City Wraith) or house-ruled characters to keep the games statistically significant.

The current update shows Absolute Zero, Mr. Fixer, Bunker, Ex-Pat, and Fanatic leading the crew.  Four of the five will be default group for my occasional solo games.

I'll post "Battle Reports" as they come.  I think my focus will be more on how fun the game was, rather than than the win-lose.

Perhaps I'll be able to convince some of my partners-in-defeating-crime to play some of these games.  We'll see.

 

I might join you in this, although I'll just be running with AZ-Bunker-Fanatic. Either way I wish you all the best of luck! :D

 

This sounds fun. I too might join you in this. 

 

I know that bunker and AbZ are considered bad because they require set up and destruction is just devastating to them. Expat and fixer are considered underpowered by some and the stats seem to show it. I have no idea why fanatic is up there. Maybe because she kills herself with little recovery options to play?

Fanatic is relatively difficult to play effectively. She has a lot of really strong options, but they're also really situational. If you're not noticing when those situations arise, you're going to fall on your face. That's my $0.02.

All are welcome!  I think that the difference between Fanatic and Chronoranger, the 5th best hero, is only around 8%.  My guess is there's a few world changers - the Batman and Reed Richards of the worlds, a few street level guys - the Daredevils, Ragmen, and Steaphie Browns*, and the rest of the heroes.

Fanatic just one in the "rest of the heroes" category who caught.

 

*I really enjoyed Batgirl IV, but I think every would agree that she would be one characters who'd be on the list of "losers".

I was toying with the idea of doing a series with the bottom 4 against the 10 villains I have (Base + Rook City + promo Baron/Omni), just to get a feel for how they all performed in the different situations (ie did Bunker underperform because he got a bad draw or because he just couldn't do anything against this villain). It wouldn't have any statistical strength, because I'm not going to go against each villain 100 times or anything, but more to improve my personal feel with those 4 (fwiw, I love Fixer, really enjoy AZ and Bunker, and... tolerate Expat :-p). I still may try it, though like I said, I really couldn't draw any conclusions from such a small scale.

I am not of the opinion that we need to be stastically significant here.  Just play the games and enter them into the database, if you're so inclined.  The point is to see how this team, which would be the PL-8 characters in a PL-10 world (to use Mutants and Masterminds terminology) would perform.

Posting observations is just gravy after the fun of it.

Great stuff, Amnachaidh. I totally agree that you should focus on whether it was fun or not (which wouldn't have statistical significance anyway). All of the arguments about hero strengths stems from some players not having fun with weaker heroes and others that do have fun with them. I can't wait to see your reports.

Game 1 -- Mr. Fixer, Bunker, ExPat, & AZ vs. Ambuscade in the Silver Gultch

Statstical Results - Heroes Win, No Incapcitations

MVP - Bunker - with the flexibility between the 3 guns.

Fun - 3/5

Danger 2/5

Shining Moment - Mr. Fixer's Grease Gun being used to roll the Explosives Wagon down to hill to explode safely.  "To attach this Zerk Fitting on to this wagon hub is to play Tethro Tull on a harpsicord", Mr. Fixer

This was a quick game - perhaps five-seven rounds.  Absolute Zero didn't really get a chance to attack - he tanked the entire game until the last round.  It really felt like a John Woo shoot-out, with Ambuscade's automated turret and custom hand cannon responding to Bunker's flak cannon, omni-cannon and/or gernade launcher and Ex. Pat's assault rifle and/or Pride and Prejudice.  The villain's initial draw had a turret, a sonic mine, and his cloaking device.  Mr. Fixer was solid continual damage, until the grease gun saved the heroes from some significant damage.

I don't recall ever having a super-fun game with Ambuscade.  It's a cat-and-mouse game, where more often than not it's the villain who's the mouse.

Great report. Not surprised about the result. Ambuscade is usually pretty easy. Also, he can't break your stuff which is one of the reasons some of these heroes are at the bottom.

j1hopki1 -- Thanks!

Game 2 – Absolute Zero, Ex-Pat, Mr. Fixer, and Bunker Vs. Miss Information in Insula Primalis

Statistical Results - Heroes Win, Absolute Zero Incapacitated from Miss Information’s Hit Back on Impale, last round

MVP – Luck.  Mr. Fixer’s Grease Gun mitigating Miss Information’s Hit Back, and drawing another Grease Gun

Fun - 5/5

Danger 5/5

Shining Moment – The turn after Miss Information flipped, when Absolute Zero was able to destroy many of her ongoings, and Mr. Fixer's Grease Guns negated all the hit backs. 

As easy as Abuscade was, Miss Information was hard.  The equipment heavy team was having a very bad day with the assistant.  Luck was with them, as sufficient clues came up in around five turns. Bunker found himself to be throwing out equipment that would normally go into play an be useful or feed an omni-cannon to protect Absolute Zero from being “frozen out” of the game.  (Sorry – can’t resist a pun).  In retrospect, I should have probably flipped it and had |0| feed the equipment destruction cards and let Bunker shoot the heck out of her, once she flipped

The villain deck’s multiple damage instances worked well with the environment deck’s obsidian fields, unfortunately. Luckily, Mr. Fixer’s grease gun came out on turns 2 and 3 after the Miss Information flipped, allowing the heroes to pound the helpless assistant with reprisals and nerfing the T-Rex.

As it stands, on the fourth turn after flipping, Absolute Zero was killed by the “hit back” from an impale played on villain character card.  If not for the two grease guns in hand, the game would have been very different.  As it stood, though, there was less than 12 hit points remaining amongst the remaining 3 heroes.

 

Game 3 – Absolute Zero, Ex-Pat, Mr. Fixer, and Bunker Vs. Kismet in the Ruins of Atlantis

Statistical Results - Heroes Lose

MVP – Jinx Cards.  T-Rex.

Fun - 4/5

Danger 4/5

Shining Moment – Watching Kismet deal all heroes 7 damage – one from a card, plus 6 for jinxes on board.

If Miss Information worked these characters dependence on equipment, Kismet worked the rarity of ongoing destruction in their decks. During the game, no Jinx went out of play until the hero charcter’s incapacitation.  The game ended with all heroes incapacitated, and Kismet in the mid-20s.

The game started with Mr. Fixer becoming a magnet for Jinxes, ultimately ending the game with four. He could not tie his shoes without taking damage, discarding a card, and sneezing. I was hoping to pull the card “driving mantis” to redirect the damage, but it never happened.  Sadly, Mr. Fixer was out of the game many rounds before he was incapacitated.

Ex. Patriot drew her shotgun immediately and stayed with it the entire game.  The solid four points a turn, plus the occasional amo card, minimized the damage her “two left feet” jinx caused.

Absolute Zero again tanked, but with a lucky start and a decent series of one shot draws managed to do significant, if insufficient, damage to Kismet.  The Fragile Bones card, allowing him to do an extra point of damage to himself, improved his self-healing very nicely.

Bunker was uninspiring but solid. He managed to get his grenade launcher out before various Kismet cards disappeared his hand.  The Omni and Flak cannons never showed.

The environment did a very large amount of damage this game, with the Kraken accounting for two characters (Bunker and Ex. Pat)

I believe that this is winnable, but this time the cards were not in the heroes’ favor.  A Flak Cannon and a turret mode would have been close enough to turn the tables, and with the addition of the driving mantis would have been.

I intend to replay Kismet with the squad, perhaps switching out Bunker for Fanatic, or playing H=5 Solo.  We’ll see.

Something to note about Kismet's front side is if a hero deals another hero 4 damage it destroys a Jinx. If possible, setting up Fixer with Grease Monkey, Dualcrow Bars/Pipe Wrench, and Harmony her could of hit Absolute Zero for 4 fire, thus destroying a Jinx and allow Absolute Zero to either regain it or attack again. Same if Expat ever got Incediary Rounds.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is your overriding impression with the losses you run into (if I get time, I may run a game or two with the same group and report my results here). They're all so equipment/ongoing dependant and have poor card draw (unless Bunker gets Recharge Mode or Ammo Drop out) that if you get unlucky card draw, they'll have a hard time catching up.

Bunker has pretty good card draw, I always thought.

I don't even use the old Absolute Zero anymore. Or the old Bunker, really. I feel like the Freedom Six versions fix all kinds of problems. They are so much more fun. It's really too bad that Greater than Games won't release an alternate Fixer or Expatriette. I'll just keep using my Fixer house rule I guess. I don't use one for Expat, though.

I think it depends with him.  Some villians don't put out a lot of targets so ammo drop suffers.  His other card draw is good if you are skipping the use of a combat power.  I do agree that he should be able to catch up a bit by using those extra draw powers instead of attacking.  In general between spending turns getting to good cards and turns getting them out he can take a while before he is set up to shine.  It takes much less time to get to where he contributes, but can take a long time to get into a really strong position with him.

Amnachaidh,

Congrats on the Miss Information win. Especially with these guys. When I play her I feel like I barely every use anything but innate powers.

As I mentioned, I think the Freedom Six version of Bunker and |0| could have beaten Kismet. You really don't want AZ to tank against her since she ramps up pretty quick. If the villain isn't using DR you want to use him fast and loose. Also, the ongoing destruction Engine of War does is way better than extra draws.

I agree that the new Absolute Zero is far better.  I feel it is much murkier with Bunker.  First, there are several villains that don't use ongoings, and some that may never draw them, making Initialize infinitely more useful than Locomotion for those fights.  Second, while nobody loves ongoing destruction more than me, Engine Bunker runs out of cards so fast.  There are many games in which, even if his Locomotion has been clutch, I find myself wishing he could do some old-fashioned Initializ-ing.  The problem is allayed somewhat if he gets Ammo Drop early, or if he can keep a gun out.  (Much like Expatriette, really.) 

I decide which promos to use based on the team and villain; if I expect AZ to tank, or at least need to do some healing, I'll use his original version for just that extra bit of healing early-game.