As mentioned in another topic, I've been extracting scenarios both from the Tactics comics and from phantaskippy's great alternate skirmish modes and putting them onto a single 4x6 card each. This way, when we want to play Tactics, my group can flip through the cards to find the gameplay experience we're in the mood for, read the simplified setup instructions, and get our game on with minimal fuss. I hadn't posted them to my site yet because I haven't had time to test them all and I wanted to make sure I hadn't missed something important in the translation/simplification process. But people on the forums here have expressed an interest in testing them out and giving feedback, which is fantastic, and will speed up the process of getting them finished and posted on my site.
In the .zip file you'll find:
- Countdown (beat Baron Blade before he blows up the FF tower)
- Deconstruction (stop Omnitron-V before his drones eat the city)
- Mean Streets (thwart the Operative's plans to take over Megalopolis)
- Mind Swap (defeat Ambuscade and his ever-changing team of mind controlled heroes)
- MistStorm (save the citizens and/or stop Proletariat from stealing shards before the wall of mist destroys everything)
- Pylon Control (kitmehsu's super fun skirmish variant. This is the one my gaming group always goes back to)
- Shardball (secure the shards before Citizen Dawn and her citizens can steal them)
Just print each one out, fold it in half and tape it so you have a front-and-back card.
Any feedback you want to give will be helpful. If I've missed some important part of a scenario from the comic, let me know. If there's something fundamentally flawed about one of these one-shots, tell me. If you've got a cooler name for a scenario than I do, I'd love to hear it. If you think the layout of the cards can be altered to improve readability, I want to know that too.
I have plans to eventually turn a couple more of phantaskippy's ideas into these one-shot cards: Tag Team (with options for normal tag teams and team eliminaton), and King of the Mountain.
I'd like to do the Monorail one too, but I haven't tried it yet and I worry that setting up the track would be a pain. Maybe there's a simplified version that's more like WoW's Silvershard Mines battlegrounds map where you have carts starting in the middle of the map and traveling out on a few tracks to end points, and whoever controls the cart when it hits the endpoint scores the point. Something like that would have a few shorter tracks rather than one long loop, so may be easier to set up (?)
In any case, let me know what you think of the One-Shots.
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
well for one slight correction, I was the one who submitted the Pylon control to phantaskippy's thread, it was the only one he didn't come up with. also on pylon control you cut off at the end of the gameplay section just before scoring
So sorry, kitmehsu! I knew you'd contributed to those alt. skirmish modes, but I lost track of who'd contributed what. It's totally true that my gaming group loves the pylon control mode the most, so thanks so much for that one.
And thanks for catching that bit of text that's cut off. I've updated the file with the fix.
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
I'm interested in the reasoning behind the changes you made to the deconstruction scenario. In the original, Omnitron-V starts in a different location, is not a target, and cannot use any powers or actions other than those listed on Drone Deployment. This scenario always seemed to favor Omnitron-V anyway, so why would you make him stronger? I'm especially curious about the change of location. In the original, he starts lower down and closer to the heroes. The only way I've ever seen the heroes win this involved using that-- Absolute Zero belines to omnitron and builds an early wall to cut off half of Omnitron-V's field of vision. with unobstructed line of site to Basically every 3/4-height hex on the map, it's really hard to contend with The massive drone swarms that Omnitron can summon.
If you do still prevent omnitron from moving, and just didn't mention it on the card, I could see a reason for the change in that Omnitron himself covers up 6 normally uncontested health markers. That would require setting him on the three high hexes, though, not giving him the fourth hex as an option.
Is there a reason for Omnitron's immobility in the comic scenario other than to fit the narrative of Omnitron rebuilding itself across the series of scenarios? I figured in a standalone one-shot scenario, there wasn't any reason to forbid the villain from moving. This is one of the ones I haven't had a chance to try out yet, so it's entirely possible that the villains are overpowered, but if there's a way to fix it without requiring one side stay in the same spot the entire fight, that seems like it'd be more fun.
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
Well, the side doesn't stay in one place the whole time, Omnitron-V does. The villain team (drones) is actually hyper-mobile. In fact that's the issue. They can be summoned at basically any 3- or 4-elevation hex on the map, and they can move afterward. Coupling this with the fact that two more spawn AND two can either spawn or take turns after every hero turn can make it really hard to deal with, and the only way I've found is blocking LoS with AZ, which is not an option in your setup.
Edit- elaboration: Basically, the villain team really consists of the drones, and omnitron is just a stationary drone-summoning machine. That's also why he's not a target. He's not a character in this scenario, just a spawnpoint.
I understand that he's not a character in the comic version of the scenario. That's not the situation in the one-shot scenario. Are you saying you've played the one-shot scenario and the one-shot scenario is unbalanced? Or are you just pointing out the difference with the comic version?
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
Pointing out the difference, and questioning the reason for the change. Without some sort of incapacitation reward, there is no possible benefit to the heroes for Omnitron being a character in this scenario. Only Omnitron stands to benifit, and since it seemed to me to have the clear upper hand in the comic scenario, I am confused as to why it should be given more advantages, while the heroes are nerfed (due to reduced potential for blocking off sightlines).
In any case, I do love the card-style format. it's simple and elegant, and has significant potential to streamline setup. Nice work, and thank you.
Edit: Reading your first post again, I see that you did in fact adapt the one-shots from the comics, so I removed some wondering about that in order to clarify the remainder of the post.
It's the one I play the most, I wish I did come up with it.
Wow, sometimes I can't seem to stop typing once I've started. I never intended this post to be so long. Everything's in there for a reason, but I've summarized at the bottom if you aren't that interested.
To answer your question, no, I have not played the one-shot version of the scenario yet, but I've played the comic one several times, and it's always seemed to favor Omnitron. Since the changes you've made grant Omnitron new options, and take away options from the heroes, I'm concerned that they can only make the discrepency worse. Admittedly, this is a conclusion based on extrapolation, rather than direct experience, which is why I'm simply raising concern, and questioning the changes rather than outright stating that I've found it imbalanced.
If you have found it's balanced, awesome! In fact I'd love to hear more about how it works for you, and what sorts of hero strategies you find successful. I would test it myself, but since my concerns are largely based on the fact that the only strategies I've found effective in my many attempts at this scenario involve tactics which your changes render impossible, I'm pretty sure I'd find Omnitron tough to beat. If the scenarion is balanced, that balance most likely involves hero teams/strategies which have not yet occurred to me.
That is, of course, unless I've forgotten something else that worked, which is possible, since the last time I played the comic scenario was months ago (when I played it repeatedly, even compulsively, mostly because Omnitron always seemed to win, and I was determined to figure out how to stop him.) In fact as I think about it more, I think there was one other strategy that worked once for the 20-health version that didn't involve blocking off LoS, but only AZ could save the heroes if Omnitron was considered to have won the previous scenario, and notwithstanding that one exception, Omni was wickedly tough to beat even with the 20-point goal. I have more experience with the game now, so it's possible I'd find the heroes' task easier if I tried again, but I doubt it. I didn't have the expansion then, though, and Unity in particular seems well-suited to drone whack-a-mole, so that might be an answer.
In any case, when I read the one-shot version, alarm klaxons sounded in my head and I had flashbacks to those first few weeks with the game, struggling with this scenario night after night. I had concerns, and thought I'd share them with you. Now I have. A lot. So you can take it for what it is and I'll (finally) shut up about it now. Please don't take any of this as anything other than an earnest effort to help; I apoligize if I've come off like a jerk.
TL/DR: My concerns are based on experience with the comic version combined with analysis of the changes made. While I believe them to be well-founded I could be wrong, so take them however you will. Anyway rest assured I'm only trying to help you improve what's already a great resource, and I apologize if my attempts are misguided.
Gotcha. I hadn't played the Omnitron scenario so wasn't aware that the comic scenario was weighted towards the villain (that's one of the things which annoys me about the comic scenarios, that they're not each balanced in and of themselves). I was able to play the Omnitron one this weekend though, and here's what I found:
1) Making Omnitron a movable target doesn't seem to be as much of an advantage as you'd think because he spends most of his time using his actions to make the drones tear down buildings, so he doesn't actually fight as much as you'd think.
2) We did feel like it was weighted towards the villain and made a couple of notes for things to change. We're going to swap a couple of tiles so Omni doesn't start out with so many 2-hp buildings in his starting zone, and we're going to see how giving him only 1 free drone placement per turn differs from the current 2 free drones he gets.
We also tried out the Mean Streets Operative one-shot scenario. That one was weighted towards the heroes, so we're going to make some changes there too to see if we can bring things more into balance. We're going to:
1) Swap the villain and starting locations. The way it is now, the villains start out crunched together on a tile with lots of tall buildings and not much room to maneuver.
2) We're going to spread the startings spots for the villains out so they start on multiple tiles rather than a single one. That way the Underbosses can get started pooping out thugs and taking over territory more quickly.
3) We're going to allow the villains to rez one Underboss per round. The way it is now, Underbosses are perma-dead when incapacitated and it's really brutal.
4) We're going to try to buff Operative herself by giving her the card which makes her Tonfa & Blade power unlimited as a always-on scenario power.
I'll post updates to the cards later tonight.
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
I like the idea of taking an unbalanced comic scenario and tweaking it so it's balanced. You're right about Omnitron not moving much. In fact, the first time I played this scenario, I missed the part about him only being able to take the "Drone Deployment" actions and not being a target, but it didn't matter, because those were the only actions I ever wanted to take anyway, and the heroes never attacked him because there was no benefit to doing so. Of course, tactics sequence made the heroes' situation even more untenable. My main concern with letting him move was the same as with starting him higher up and farther from the heroes-- it takes away the one consistently successful hero strategy I found, namely blocking LoS with an early ice wall. I actually like your approach better. Absolute Zero shouldn't be required to make the hero team viable, and simply balancing the scenario, while letting Omni move and take other actions opens up different heroic possibilities while keeping AZ from becoming OP. If you do allow omni to use other powers, though, you may want to ban tactics sequence; it's brutal.
Just a thought-- did you consider simply lowering the number of drones the heroes need to take out to win? It seems like this would be an easy thing to balance: you could play the scenario a few times as-is and see how many drones the heroes typically score by the time Omni gets to 20 health tokens, then pick a number that they get to about half the time.
I really like your ideas for "Mean Streets". The villain situation in that one always felt clunky and awkward to me. Out of curiosity, how did you deal with the Thug movement? Specifically did you count "closest" in terms of hexes or movement points, and did you path around obstacles if it was faster, even though less direct? I was never quite sure how that was supposed to work. In any case, your balancing ideas sound really promising. Another one that occured to me was resolving ties differently. There are two counts that have to be made to determine the winner: counting the number of targets on a tile to determine its controller, and counting the number of controlled tiles to determine the winner. As written, if either of these counts is tied, it is decided in favor of the heroes. If one or both was given to the villains, that might balance it some. Or it might be too much. I don't know. It's just a thought.
One last thought I had about several of these scenarios, and also some of the other alternate skirmishes, involves the use of range one in scenario-specific powers. I believe this is meant to be more restrictive than simple adjacency, but the way the rules are written, reach would apply, so Wraith could potentially take control of a pylon from a whole tile away, for example. I expect this is unintended. If so, it might be worth noting that reach does not apply to such powers.
I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
edit: proofreading
We considered it but decided to make the other changes first to see what that got us. If it turns out the other changes get us close to balance, tweaking the number of points needed for each team to win should get us the rest of the way.
We ran into a different problem with regards to Thug movement than I ever would have expected. It's a long story (sorry).
On the very first turn, the player controlling Tachyon decided he was going to be an idiot and he ran her the full length of the map so she could punch Operative. This, of course, left Tachyon completely surrounded by villains and she quickly got incapped. In the scenario, whenever a hero is incapped, each Underboss gets to place a Thug in an adjacent hex. Since all the Underbosses were still stacked up in their starting positions, that starting tile got instantly overrun by Thugs. Yay for me (the guy controlling the villains), I thought.
However, even though Tachyon's move began as just a stupid thing to do, it turned out to be very useful because every time Tachyon stood back up, she didn't want to move for fear of setting off the wall of Thugs surrounding her, so she stayed where she was and got murdered again. More incap meant more Thugs pooping out and more and more Thugs littering the streets of that starting tile.
But because of the movement rules for Thugs (at the end of the round, they move towards the nearest scenario objective in their line of sight), all of the Thugs could only move towards that starting tile's scenario objective. That meant that even though I had 10 or so Thugs on the map by the second round, I couldn't get them to spread out and go for other objectives. None of the rest of the city was being overrun, just that starting tile, and it was REALLY overrun.
To add insult to injury, so many Thugs were getting put out by Tachyon's "incompetency", that by the time I had Underbosses in place to actually put Thugs where I wanted them, there weren't any left in the box to use -- they'd all been placed and all had clustered around one or two scenario objectives. So what began as a dumb move could also be seen as a shrewd strategy -- get your opponent to cluster all their Thugs in a few tiles you write off as overrun, and get so many out that there aren't any more to take over other tiles.
So while I didn't make any changes to Thug movement with my first round of updates to the scenario, I won't be surprised if I have to do that eventually.
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
Lol, that's great. I've run into the thug-clustering problem before, and even worried about it causing token limit issues, but it never has, and it's certainly never happened in such a spectacular and amusing fashion. She couldn't get out with hypersonic assault huh? Too crowded to get to an unnocupied hex without mobility?
After every Thug was on the map and all of the hero player's other heroes were in position, she played whichever power lets you ignore hazard spaces and attack everyone in a cardinal direction (is that Hypersonic Assault?). Even worse, she did it three times in a row because she had the other power out which lets you take an action a third time if you did it twice before. So it was like she took a vicious lawnmower of death to my lawn of Thugs. Oh, the humanity.
So, yeah, the scenario needs a little tweaking to make it more villain-friendly, for sure. :)
Spiff's SotM site: www.spiffworld.com/sotm
Hey, at least you got your tokens back!