With Halloween right around the corner, Dracula and his band of monsters are coming to MCP! AMG have just given us our first good look at what they bring to the table in the latest Panel to Play, and I'm going to give my thoughts on the spooky boys in this article.
N'Kantu, The Living Mummy
Starting us off, we have Nkantu, The Living Mummy. 4,2,4 defences and 5/5 health on a 3 threat is above average for his threat level and there's no surprises in him being size 2 with a medium move.
His builder Swarili Strike, being a 5 dice range 2 builder is fine and the additions of a size 3 push on a wild and the Hex condition on a hit and a wild are both nice additions. Access to displacement is always a big plus - especially when it's Size 3.
For 2 power, Sever Soul is a 6 dice, range 4 spender. Access to a range 4 Mystic attack that's also throwing 6 dice at your opponent is nothing to be sniffed at on a 3 threat character, he also doesn't have any other way of spending power on his card so he's going to have a lot of spare power to be doing this regularly. It's also generating him a Soul Token on damage dealt so it's another incentive to be using this regularly.
Living Death lets Nkantu spend any number of Soul tokens, for each token spent he can remove a condition, remove a damage or gain a power.
Undead Empowerment is another way for him to spend his tokens, for every token spent he can count a skull result as a wild - not only is this useful for adding additional damage, it's also useful for the triggers on his builder.
Alchemical Curse is the standard Damage Reduction 1 that we've seen in the game many times. Add this to his 4/2/4 defences and he's going to potentially take some effort to take off the board.
Anubis's Soul Harvester allows Nkantu to generate a soul token when another character is dazed or KO'd. Note, it's not just allied characters, your opponents characters are included in this too. This superpower coupled with his Sever Soul means he's never going to be short on tokens, though he can only hold 3 at a time so it encourages you to be spending them regularly.
Overall, Nkantu looks like a really solid 3 threat. He's got the potential to be dishing out a healthy amount of damage whilst not being quite as squishy as we're used to seeing other characters of his threat level.
Service To Anibus was revealed as one of (if not only) N'Kantu's tactics cards. This is another way of dumping both his power and his soul tokens in the form of a Mystic area attack - which does cost him an action due to the Active: Action tag. This has the potential to be a huge attack, given the range can be up to an Area 3 (for a maximum of 3 Soul Tokens) and up to 10 dice (for a maximum of 10 power spent), whilst also giving each target Hex should you roll the Hit and a Wild trigger on each attack.
Frankenstein's Monster
Next up in the spotlight, is Frankenstein's Monster. 4,3,3 defences is about average for a 4 threat, but 7/7 health is more than average. Size 3 and a medium move is as expected and it's also expected that he's going to be on a medium base so he's going to be very mobile.
An interesting design choice here as Frankenstein has a gainer instead of a builder. A 6 dice range 2 gainer is fine and the push trigger going up to Size 4 is excellent, you will need both a wild and hit trigger for this one though.
For 1 power, Thick Skull is a 5 dice range 2 attack with automatic stagger if damage is dealt on the attack. Having access to stagger is great especially when your not relying on a trigger, though having to do a damage on a naked 5 dice attack is often going to be dicey.
Monsters Fury is his spender for 4 power, a 6 dice range 2 attack initially but this does have the stipulation that he adds dice according to the amount of damage he's taken. This does also have a Size 4 medium throw which is nice, however you do need to roll a hit and a wild to trigger. This probably isn't going to be an attack you use until he's taken a decent amount unless your specifically looking for throw instead of the push as the naked attack is identical to his builder.
For 2 power, Frankenstein has access to a charge, a medium move and a medium base with range a 2 attack is a fair distance so he'll be able to cover some ground without having to waste an action moving should he have the power.
Franks Rampage is a Size 4 medium terrain throw for 3 power. A good way of dishing out extra damage, having access to throwing Size 4 terrain is always good and he's able to throw this a fair distance.
Replacement Parts lets Frankenstein remove 2 damage from himself - healing is always valuable on high health pool characters and adds to his survivability.
Overall, I think Frankenstein's Monster is fine, I do worry slightly that he's often going to be power starved with him only having access to a gainer whilst having lots of ways to spend power. Unless he's under a leadership that generates him additional power, the reality is he's just not going to have access to enough power to do everything on his card.
Hideous Monster was revealed as one of Frankenstein's tactics cards. This is very similar to Heroes for Hire with the range 1 place and bodyguard, only he does not get a throw at the end. Instead he rolls dice equal to the amount of damage has has and for every crit and wild rolled the enemy character suffers a damage and is then pushed if it takes damage - of which there is no size limit. I quite like this card, it's a bodyguard whilst also additional mobility for Frankenstein. It's also a good way to try and punish an attacking character that might be low on health with the damage out of activation.
Werewolf By Night
Moving on to Man's (Or Monster's?) Best Friend, their loyal pooch Werewolf By Night. 4/4/2 Defences and 7/7 health is probably about right for a 5 threat, whilst also being Size 3 with a medium move.
Savage Slash is his 6 dice range 3 builder. The target character gains Bleed if damage was dealt and there's also a mandatory Range 1 place on a wild. I'm not a fan of a mandatory place IF you roll a certain way. I'd much rather this was a place without a trigger and you know it's going to happen or there was a "may" stipulation and you choose whether or not it triggers.
Lethal Lycanthrope is his spender, a 7 dice range 2 physical attack for 3 power. This has an automatic Size 3 throw at the end of the attack which is always nice when there's no stipulation included and on a hit the target also gets the Bleed and Hex conditions.
Werewolf has access to a short pounce for 3 power, him being size 3 synergises well with this superpower with 4 damage potentially coming into the target character should they collide.
Unearthly Howl for 2 power works in a similar way to Rogue's Mutant Absorption with the power drain (without the damage), it has slightly further range but less dice and has the additional stipulation that you can also give the target Slow or Root for each skull rolled.
Midnight Massacre is a clap back attack for 3 power, a good way to deal out additional damage out of activation as well as potentially also providing additional movement should you hit the place trigger on the attack.
Healing Factor 2 is also great on a model with 14 health, he's going to take some resources to take off the board.
Werewolf by Night has clearly been designed to be a pure damage piece with his many ways to do out of action damage. With the throw on his builder giving him access to some displacement and his Healing Factor 2 giving him plenty of survivability, he's got lot's of options to contribute to the game.
Now to look at his tactics card, Phases of the Moon, and this gives you an option to choose 1 of 2 effects. For New Moon he can spend 1 power before using a Midnight Massacre superpower and gains 1 defensive re-roll for each special condition the attacker has as long as he's contesting or holding an objective token. Full Moon does the opposite and gives him 1 re-roll on his attack dice for each special condition the target has, however he can no longer contest or hold extract objectives. The effect lasts until the end of the game.
Werewolf has lots of ways to give out conditions and so do the rest of his friends so the conditions stipulation isn't going to be an issue. What might be more of an issue, is Werewolf holding or contesting an objective token, or in the case of Full Moon just not being able to hold an extract at all. I do like this card, but I think it's going to be situational as to when you take or use it.
Dracula
And now for the main man himself.. Dracula.
Again, like Werewolf by Night, I think his standard array of stats is what we should about expect for a 5 threat, though Size 3 is maybe a bit surprising given he is just a human (all be it a bloodsucking one).
Ancestral Blade is his 7 dice range 2 builder and on a hit the target gains one of Bleed, Slow, Root or Hex - more conditions for the rest of the gang too.
For 1 power, Dracula can use Blood Feast, which is a 6 dice range 2 attack and heals him for each damage dealt. The target character also gains an automatic Bleed.
Fury of the Vampyr is his Mystic spender for 4 power, and it's an 8 dice range 3 attack - however if the target has Bleed he can re-roll any number of dice in his attack. Dracula has a number of ways to give out Bleed so this synergises well with the rest of his kit, and 8 dice with re-rolls can certainly pack a punch. This attack also has an automatic size 4 throw after the attack resolved - not for the first time in this article, Size 4 throws are very good.
Hypnotic Stare for 2 power is a bow - advance a character short within range 3. Note, there's no direction or size stipulation on this - a really good displacement tool and a really good way of pulling people in to Dracula for those Range 2 attacks.
Eternal Hunger is a clapback for 2 power. There's no stipulation on what attack he must use on this either, so he can either builder for the power generation, Blood Feast for the potential heal or spender for maximum dice and potential re-rolls.
His Shapeshifting superpower is a completely unique superpower in the game. When he begins a move action he may spend 1 power, and choose one of the Bat, Wolf or Mist Effects. This makes him really flexible on how he wants to get around the board with either a long move or flight or gives him additional healing as well as removing all special conditions.
Unholy Vampiric Immortality allows Dracula to gain 1 power and heal 1 damage for each character within 3 of him with the Bleed special condition, note this is all characters, so both allied and enemy characters.
Dracula is a fantastic 5 threat with some of the best healing mechanics we've ever seen in the game. He's going to be super hard to take off the board whilst also having access to a number of different displacement options and a fantastic spender that can pack a punch.
The final card to be shown in the Panel to Play, was Dracula's leadership card for his affiliation - Thralls of Dracula. This gives him the Bloodlust leadership, once per turn an allied character may pay 1 power and choose an enemy character within 2. The chosen enemy character gains Bleed, if they already have Bleed, Dracula may remove 1 damage from himself instead.
Now, there's been a bit of confusion over the leadership and it concerns whether the allied character removes the damage or whether it's Dracula. Because the card states that Dracula gains the following leadership ability and the ability states that THIS character may remove 1 damage from itself, the leadership is only affecting the character who has the ability, therefore only Dracula can benefit from the heal.
I'm not a fan of this personally, and I'm of the opinion that leaderships should benefit the whole squad and not just a single character. Dracula also already has access to a mass amount of healing, so it's just adding to what he already does well.
I really like the characters in this release and think they're going to bring some exciting new things with them, it's just a shame the leadership doesn't live up to the rest of the release.
I hope you enjoyed this article, as ever thank you for reading and keep being Omega.
Please check out our sponsor www.protechgames.com for all your MCP needs.
Comments