Overpower: Power Balance - New Custom Expansion!

[Kenshin]

Ok, even though I passed off the rules initially, my brother who I play with INSISTED we give them a shot, so ended up playing with the new rules for the past week. You know what? Surprisingly - the rules actually work. Most of them anyway.

I tried making the teams that worked really well for me before, like with Wolverine and Sabretooth. After I started making the teams, I realised how the balance works. After putting both Wolverine and Sabretooth on the team, I couldn't actually fit any other level 7 or level 8 characters on the team anymore. I HAD to put two level 6 character on the team. Originally, this really annoyed me, but after playing with these level 6 characters that I have never played with EVER before, it really started to grow on me.

My brother than came up with teams that had mostly level 6 characters and could play with your new multi power rule and make use of all your new double shot cards. He made Apocalypse, Green Goblin, Vision and Lizard who is a new character. He lost to start off with, but after he knew how to use the double shot cards, and those really strange multi power teamwork cards, he actually started winning. We've now tried so many other combinations and we've now been playing with all these characters we never EVER used before. I haven't really tried the any power stuff yet, but am looking forward to it.

I think your battlesite rule doesn't make any difference really. Both of us still don't attack the battlesite, so I don't really find it's a useful change. It doesn't even make a difference using the any hero cards either.

But overall, it actually seems to work. I really like using the characters I couldn't use before, and actually have them win. It would be actually good to play a game against YOU Power Balance, since you came up with the rules, and see what you can do with the cards!

[PowerBalance]

TheTrooper - Sure, I fully understand a tight financial situation. We've all been there before. Don't wait too long to obtain them once the next batch comes in, as if I do run out, I'd have to print a whole new batch again, and meet minimum requirements all over again. LOL.

Kenshin - Awesome! Great to hear you've had so much success with the new rules. I'd love to hear your ideas for other decks that you've created, so I can play test them myself. Some others who have also play tested the cards have given me a fair bit to think about, and even opened up new strategy ideas too.

The new Battlesites rules can be a benefit to the game. If you do have a team heavy on Activators, destroying the Battlesites can give you a real advantage. The introduction of Venture contribution to Hits on the Battlesite also give further incentive to attack it. Even being able to stop DoW and Power Leech before it comes out with people using Any Hero cards can be worthwhile. Give it a try and you'll see what I mean.

Ha ha - well, I guess, technically, you're only a 4-5 hour plane flight from me. Definitely happy to play with you - look me up if you're in the area!

[gameplan.exe]

so, I've now thoroughly read through this revision. while I can't say for sure, until I get my sets and play it out, I'm feeling very conflicted! LOL

Positive Impressions*
• Multipower Power card restriction, requiring it playable in all types
• Multipower Power card now able to be used as needed type for specific uses (e.g. w/AE Specials)
• New KO standards for Battlesites

Negative Impressions*
• Sum Deck penalty based on the inclusion of Any-Power cards.
• Homebases acting as Battlesites when using Any Hero cards.
• Homebases disallowed from using variant character cards.
• Homebases having re-written Inherent Abilities.

Undecided Impressions*
• New valuation of Characters.
• Follow-up attacks made together.

*Impressions subject to change with no notice 

Here's a little more expansion on my impression, having played a few more games with the set (albeit against myself, but it allowed a little more controlled testing, maybe).

I made two Homebase decks; Department H was Any Heroes and Danger Room was Battlesite (X-World). With the DeptH team, I focused on Teamwork card attacks, since it's already good at them and that was a significant change to the rules. With the Danger Room deck, I focused on combines (AE and DoubleShots) because, again, it can be a strength for the team (given that Gambit and Iceman have them, plus one from the Battlesite). Danger Room also ran the Serpent Crown and Book of the Darkhold, to get Beast and Iceman to the 4m usage, as well as Gambit.

Generally, I still didn't attack the Battlesite(s), because I forgot about the new KO rules*

The teamwork follow-ups being made with the initial attack seemed like a significant change. It definitely made a difference in how they were played offensively, from both sides too. Unless I already had card advantage, I don't think I ever made 3 attacks at once. It's hard for me to tell how much of a difference it made in terms of being able to defend it differently, though, because I was never committing to 2 follow-ups. So, the idea of playing a DoubleShot to block 2 follow-ups never really came up. In general, I don't think this rule change achieves it's desired effect, or at least not how it was perhaps conceived to achieve that effect.

The combines - BIG difference in attack prowess. On more than a few occassiopns, I found myself pressuring quite a bit by combining an AE with a multi.

*more to come - gotta get back to work!

----------------------------

Okay, so the more to come is now 

So, I'm going to build another two decks without homebases. I'll make one strictly max-6ers, and the other try to hit at least a few max-8ers (if not actually 4), but not with the new character valuations... Essentially, I don't necessarily think the new point system is effective - or at least as effective as some of the other elements for balancing. Given the complexity, I think it might just be better to leave the Sum Totals alone. That is to say, I don't think it's "worth" it to implement that particular change...

From there, I think I'll mess a little with the Any-Power rule about Sum Totals... maybe there could be a 4-point penalty still for using the duplicates, but take it from the normal rankings (76 to 72, 72 to 68, 67 to 63, 62 to 58, and 58 to 54).

For now, I'm also going to leave the Teamwork Follow-Ups traditional, and see how well these max-6ers can handle it. I don't know how much I'll end up using the combine strategy... but if I'm using Gambit (which seems likely  ), I'm sure I'll use at least one AE!

More evaluation to come, I'm sure.

[thetrooper27]

I think that the multipower power card rule and the new double shots are a big help in giving spectrum strategy a boost.

I think teamworks should remain traditional, doubleshots should be made at the same time.
The anypower restriction is iffy... not to mention that, though I know alot of work went in to calculating each characters new total, the point value doesn't truly reflect the playability of each character any better than the old point system.  It limits the number of max 8'ers you can have on the team, and I know that was a big desire for Power Balance, so mission accomplished there.  But you're hard pressed to play 2 max 8 guys on your team, if you can even do that.  And without the right mix of specials, max 6'ers are still really vulnerable. 

My best team so far using all the Power Balance rules as designed is:

Grifter, Alpha Flight, Viper, and Hawkeye (r)

I don't have many teams to measure it up to, though.

[BasiliskFang]

is the 76/80 point rule in effect for teams of all numbers of grids (12-16)?

Can 3 grid characters use the 5 multipower? Adding 11 characters who can use them.

Does the fusion rule still apply?

When you were going your whole math formula thingy, you forgot to account for the fact that to KO something you only need to hit 3 types not 4.

Therefore, 3 grid characters are certainly just as effective as 4 grids in-game.

Since your whole formula for new points is based up on "Spectrum K.O." effectiveness (I agree it is certainly 95% of KOs that occur).

This formula also punishes the usage of certain characters by greatly increasing their cost. (Wonder Woman 20=>24, 20% increase)

I think 3 grid characters should have an added extra 25-33% to whatever cost you gave them already.

My favorite teams so far:

71.6:
Iron man3
Spider man3
Dr doom3
Venom3

~80:
Beyonder
Galactus
Beast3
S. Witch3/Mojo3

75.8:
New Warriors
Sauron
Backlash
Hydra

[PowerBalance]

BasiliskFang - Good to hear from you again. I found it really difficult to make it fair to use the 3-stat and 4-stat characters together, for the reasons relating to use of the MultiPower cards. I ended up making it so that all the 3-star characters could be used together to make a team to fight 4-stat teams, but couldn't be used on the same team unfortunately. The rule for 3-stat character teams is a maximum of 60 points.

If you find a fair way to use the 3-stat and 4-star characters on the same team, then let me know! I'm open to suggestions.

With regards to the mathematics, it was more about the ability to create spectral variance, rather than how many power types to KO that was calculated. So, a character that has access to a wider range of power types to a higher level was given a bigger weighting. Otherwise a character than can play 3 power types vs a person who can play 5 power types would have the same weighting, and this wouldn't be fair!

Yes, it's true that some characters are more "expensive" than they were before, but this was carefully calculated. Unfortunately, another level of balance that hasn't been addressed, and really needs to be so is the specials available to each character. This task would be too big to take on, as it would be very difficult to calculate mathematically which specials are more effective than others. Best way would be trial and error, and this empirical approach could take ages to fine tune!

[BasiliskFang]

Thanks for the reply.

2 more questions:

Can 3 grid characters use the 5 multipower?

Does the fusion rule still apply?

[PowerBalance]

Can 3 grid characters use the 5 multipower?

Yes, they can. But since they don't have an Intellect rating, the 5 MultiPower is considered not to have Intellect icon. (Didn't want to make a 5 MultiPower just for the 3 stat characters!)

Does the fusion rule still apply?

Yes, any other 3 icon MultiPower card fuses with the 5 MultiPower card.