COACH'S CORNER: Giants - Part Two

Giants - Part Two

Synechdoche

First off, the model... meh.

If you know that you are up against a "turtling"-style team, like a Forge Father, Brokkr, or a non-Striker team - pretty much anyone who will have to retain the ball over time to control the pace of the game, the Synechdoche might be a pretty good choice you. Also good against Hobgoblins... just saying, taking control of a Hulk and Slamming the little guys on the Hobgoblin team is a sweet idea.

The Synechdoche's stat line is for crap, I mean awful, but that isn't why you are taking him. You take him for the ability Mind Control. With this ability you can take control of a player from the opposing team and basically have them hand over the ball, or set themselves up for a Slam, or move out of the way, whatever. Mind Control is a great ability, but a seasoned coach will pick up on the tactic pretty quickly. He won't be able to stop it, but he might be able to mitigate it some.

The question is, does this ability warrant only having 5 players on the Pitch and the expenditure of 15 MC. Cheap for a Giant, expensive for a regular MVP.

Grade: B

Brank ‘BOOM-FIST'

I am a sucker for this model. I love it.

Talk about making Big Mech completely redundant, wow. Brank has a 3+ Armor, due to being a Keeper, and Can't Feel A Thing. Taking him out is nigh impossible! And with his 3+ Strength, he is a force to be reckoned with on the Pitch.

He is slow... Forge Father slow, but for once, it doesn't really seem to matter. I mean, he even has a 4+ Speed-jealouos much Brokkrs? :-)

Oh yeah, and Skill matters some, he has a 4+ there too.

'Boom Fist' is not bad at all for an anchor piece on the Pitch. He is a big stompy thing that is almost unkillable. Plop him down in the 3 point Strike Zone and... nothing, just let him sit there, forever.

And he looks so cool!

Grade: A -

Skarathron

Model, ok I guess...

A fast, Threatening Jack with Stretch. I am not seeing the appeal. Really, just not. I would rather take Alpha Simian over this guy-though in all frankness, I am not sure I would ever take a Giant Jack.

For 20 MC, give me a Striker MVP and a Guard MVP, over Skarathron any day.

Am I missing something here?

Grade: C -

Karadon

Crazy shark guy. Not crazy about the mini, it's ok though.

A Threatening Keeper with a Strength 3+, not bad at all. This is the damage-dealing other side of the 'Boom-Fist' coin. He has a Move of 5, so average on that. Speed 4+, so average on that. Skill 5+, eh, not great for a Keeper. But of course, with the better Armor (seemed to be misprinted as 4+ in the book, it should be 3+), he is still a monster. Pun intended.

You could do worse than Karadon for 19 MC, I put him up there as one of the better Giants for sure.

Grade: B +

So that puts my tiers of Giant Assessment as the following:

Tier 1 (A range)
Nameless Spawn - The Irresistible Force
Brank 'BOOM-FIST' - The Immovable Object

Tier 2 (B range)
Dozer - Our Lady of Wrecking Face
Karadon - Giant Shark of Destruction
Synechdoche - Strange ... the... the.. Greatest Player of All-Time Ever... I must serve Synechdoche...

Tier 3 (C range)
Skarathron - Big 'ole Fast Spider-Thing
Alpha Simian - Dreadball's Monster Ape
Barricade - Rolling Wrecking Ball

Tier 4 (D range)
Big Mech - Big Disappointment

COACH'S CORNER: Giants - Part One

The next two Coach's Corners are going to be a two part look into the Giants of Dreadball, in a literal sense. Giants are an interesting aspect of the game that, quite honestly, very rarely see play in my neck of the wood. I think the main reasons for their absence are:

1. We tend to play a whole lot of one-off games.
2. In our last league, there weren't any Giants "for sale"... or maybe there were and no one "bought" any.
3. Until very recently, only two of our local players had any Giants (and one was a rare attendee of game nights). 

We are trying to get more on the Pitch now though. So, we'll see. We have talked about doing more Exhibition Games rather than just straight-up one-on-one games.

I am splitting the section up into two parts:

1. Part One is going to be a look at the Giants released in Season 3. This is the section below. 
2. Part Two are the Giants from the Season 6 book, which are available already.

So, let us commence with Part One...

Giants - Part One

Alpha Simian

First off, I really dig this mini. Alpha Simian is a great sculpt. He looks very cool and was one of the poster children for Mantic's Giants.  

Ok, so first off he is a Jack, meh. But he has Slide and Stretch, hmmm, getting better. And he has a Speed of 3+... ok, now we're talking. In addition to that, he has a Skill of 4+. Throwing from or to a Giant is nice too, as you choose the "front hex"-they are hard to block. I am seeing a decent addition to the scoring side of a team.

So, decent at Slamming, and good at getting to where he needs to be and ball-handling. Is he worth 19 MC? Is he worth 19 MC when you compare him to other MVPs, like The Praetorian for 11 MC, or even Mellisandra for 10 MC (both from the same Season 3 book)? Well, probably not. At least, not as far as my play style goes. 

Grade: C 

Barricade

Next up is Barricade. The mini itself is alright. I like that it has wheels. :-)

He's a Guard with a Move 6 which is great, but a Strength 4+, which is pretty middle of the road. He also has Stretch, Threatening and Comin' Through! All these abilities are good. The is all about barreling through your opponents and Slamming them from a decent distance away. Oh, and a Speed 3+... huh, that is unexpectedly good.

He is meant to be a cannonball, rocketing through the opposing team. I wish he were a regular-sized player though-this is really an overall trend in my way of thinking with Giants. For  cost of 18 MC, I can get me Buzzcut, or a Grak, and still have enough left over for another MVP (not necessarily a good one, but another body on the Pitch, which of course Giants count as 2 players).

Grade: C +

Big Mech

Very cool Deadzone-styled model. I love it!

Threatening, awesome! Can't Feel a Thing, excellent! Strength 3+, yes! Showoff, ok. Jack, what the ...

Had Big Mech been a Guard, he would have been SO MUCH BETTER, but alas, he is a Jack. And as bad as it is to be a Jack in regular DBO, being a Giant Jack is worse.

Sure, he is hard to take out, very hard to take out. Sure, he hits like a ton of bricks. But his effective Slam range is one hex away. Ugh.

I mean, I get the big Gorilla being a Jack, and he is a decent one at that, but I see Big Mech and my brain screams, "GUARD!" 

I can't see a situation where I couldn't find something better to spend 19 MC on.

Grade: D 

Dozer

The model is fine... 

Guard, Threatening, and a 3+ Strength, now we're talking. I realize that she has a Move of 4, so she is slow, very slow, but she is finally a Giant worth really looking at! She has a Threatening Slam with 6 Dice on a 3+, with Brush Aside, nice! Very nice!

Plus, wanna hit her in the back? She ain't having it! With Teleport, she is outta there! This is a nice mitigation of one of the weaknesses of the Giants.

For 19 MC, she is a fair purchase. There might be better uses of your MC, but at least this one does not feel like a ripoff.

Grade: B +

Nameless Spawn

And finally, we have the Cthulu monster that apparently scares the bejesus out of everyone! Nice model for that!

Here we have a Guard, with the so-so Strength 4+ stat, but... but... but... THREATENING AND GOTCHA! Unholy crap! This Giant is freaking crazy. You realize, of course, that means you are on a 6 Dice Strength 4+ Slam against an opponent that is rolling minus two Dice (or minus three if you thought ahead and put another player Threatening him)! 

The Nameless Spawn is a murderer. Period. This creature excels at casting opposing players into an early grave. And yeah, go ahead and try to Slam him head-on... go ahead, at your minus 2 Dice. Good grief.

Oh yeah, and a Speed 3+ is pretty nice too!

Now 21 MC, that is still a steep price. If you had the perfect combination of MVPs, you could probably get a more powerful bang for your 21 MC... maybe. If it is an important game, and let's face it, what game isn't? The Nameless Spawn is not a bad choice.

Grade: A -

Next week, the second wave of Giants...