Wyldhunt wrote:I don't have a good grasp of how balanced he would be, but here are some things that jumped out at me:
Hellebore wrote:
A Solitaire is equipped with: Solitaire’s weapons. Your army can only include one SOLITAIRE model.
...
The Kiss of death and oblivious caress strategms are not usable during a blitz Attack
Technically, as written the solitaire would never be able to use those stratagems because "Solitaire's weapons" aren't technically a kiss/caress and thus don't give him the necessary keywords.
The solitaire comes with those keywords already in his keyword list, so I wanted to make it clear that the blitz is a distinct attack option.
Wyldhunt wrote:
WEAPON. . RANGE TYPE . S AP D ABILITIES
Solitaire’s weapons Melee Melee +2 -3 2 -
Solitaires weapons. 6". Pistol D6. 6. -2. 1 blast. (basically using the monofilament as a deathspinner pistol)
(Shooting)
The pistol feels slightly weird to me. It's a pistol, so you can shoot it in melee, but it's blast, so you can't shoot it in melee. But that's not really a problem. Once upon a time, the neuro disruptor was one of the solitaire's iconic weapons, so giving him a different "pistol" is odd. Plus, my understanding of the embrace is that it basically fans out a bunch of monofilament wires (anime style), so this seems like it would kind of step on the embrace's toes. Like, why would the embrace be a thing if you can do basically the same thing with a kiss? But that's all meta nitpicking.
It's purely to represent the monofilaments of the melee weapons as a ranged weapon, a different weapon technique if you will. He is still equipped with a kiss and an embrace (hence the keywords - the solitaire weapon name is used to allow for a more powerful version on him rather than tying him to the existing profiles). I just like the visual. Not sure where the concept of the neurodisruptor being his iconic weapon comes from - the 2nd ed one didn't use it and I think it was introduced in gav thorpe's fan list in citadel magazine back in late 90s/early 2000s for 3rd?
Wyldhunt wrote:
Impossible Form: This model has a 3+ invulnerable save. This model can never take more than 1 wound from a successful attack.
Path of Damnation: This model can never have a Relic or a Warlord Trait. This model ignores mortal wounds on a 5+.
Seems like he's really leaning on these to survive. They might be fine, but I worry that they're a really annoying combo that will detract from your opponent's experience. Ignoring all wounds on a 3+ is pretty beefy on its own. Then you're also reducing your opponent's multi-damage weapons down to the same level as a combat knife. Then you're also ignoring a third of their damage output from mortal wounds. Basically, this combination of rules ignores a lot of possible counterplay options while also leaving him as susceptible to lasgun/bolter shots as 3 marines.
So on one hand, you punish your opponent for trying to use the tools they paid points for, and on the other, these rules don't really offer any protection against your opponent's most common forms of offense. Again, not saying it's unbalanced, but it might just be frustrating? Consider as an alternative simply giving him a pile of Wounds. So your opponent can feel like he's steadily making progress against the Solitaire, but the Solitaire will be more durable against all sources of damage (representing plot armor/mad skillz basically).
Given the 1 per army restriction, I see him as a special character without a name, so was looking at similar special character and other character unique damage reduction rules. ie, the no more than X damage per phase rule used by Abaddon, thraka, C'tan and Phoenix Lords, the ignores mortals of the custodes and so on.
I find the no more than x damage lost a more annoying rule, as for many characters it's basically 'we will only count 1-2 of your successful attacks and all others are ignored', despite putting 6 or more down...
The same kind of frustration happens with those characters, so you're better off just piling lots of crappy shots on them to get a couple of failed saves until you max out their damage limit than waste extra potent attacks on them instead.
Another option could be:
Impossible form: 3+ invuln, once per phase this model reduces a successful attack's damage to 0. That gives you a few tactical options and choices to make.
You could also have an invigoration aspect, where their they kind of draw power from their performance and heal as they fight. So if they roll a 6+ on their invuln save, they regain a wound. The more they cavort about and perform, the more energy they draw to themselves. It also means that the enemy heals him as they attack him, making him appropriately frustrating.
Wyldhunt wrote:
Blitz: Once per battle, in your Movement phase, when this model makes a Normal Move, it can Blitz. If it does so, until the end of the turn, add 2D6" to this model’s Move characteristic choose one of the following blitz profiles to use:
WEAPON. . RANGE TYPE . S AP D ABILITIES
Destroyer blitz Melee Melee +4 -5 4 make 5 Attacks with this profile
Wailing blitz Melee Melee +1 -2 1 make 20 Attacks with this profile
To clarify, are these bonus attacks on top of his normal ones, or do these replace his normal attacks? Either way, I could see Destroyer Blitz feeling frustrating to face due to the high damage, but I haven't crunched numbers to see how it compares to other high damage characters. It just seems like being able to either double your strength and damage or make 20 attacks with a single model might be annoying for opponents.
I also want to have an avatar of the laughing god (ie a Great Harlequin hq) which I'll probably put up at some point.
Looking forward to seeing it!
These are profile replacements - once per battle they may switch to S8
AP-4
D4 A5, or S5
AP-1 D1 A20, to show how they can take down a monster, or a swathe of chaff in the blink of an eye. I have this cool visual of them running up and around a Keeper, anime style, running down their arm stabbing and slicing limbs off before it has a chance to retaliate, or rocketing through an ork mob leaving a dozen blood gouts behind.
Iracundus wrote:It may be a low effort attempt but I would just use the existing Solitaire statline but make the Blitz effect (beyond the mobility effects) make all damage inflicted be Mortal Wounds for that turn.
That would help bypass the current situation of a Keeper of Secrets having its daemonic save (which is not classed as an invulnerable) against the Solitaire, considering we have depictions in the fluff of Solitaires defeating them.
Doesn't that mean the keeper can still save because it's not an invuln?
MW don't affect daemonic saves do they?
I'm actually not really a fan of the concept of the blitz attack anyway - it was also introduced in that citadel magazine army list and didn't really have any basis or much logic to it.
If Blitz is anything it would probably be a strategem in the current paradigm (and I could see it following your idea - something like 2CP blitz, the solitaire converts wounds to
MW when it rolls a 4+ to wound). And following the current design trend, he'd have two attack profiles:
WEAPON. . RANGE TYPE S
AP D ABILITIES
Solitaire’s Kiss Melee Melee +2 -3 2 -
Solitaire's Embrace Melee Melee +1 -2 1 Make two attacks for each attack when using this weapon.
