Help with a concept: Angel of Mons

[Scarlet Shocker]

If you're familiar with the legend of the Angel of Mons, you might already know where I'm going with this.

 

If you're not and are interested, there's some further reading is available at the links below. As a brief historical context, the retreat from Mons was a humiliation for the BEF, but it also prevented Germany from conquering France very quickly and thus ending WWI before it had started. Chances are the world order would have been very different had that occurred.

 

But I'm not here to talk counter-factual history. I'm here to talk about the concept of the Angel of Mons in the context of our beloved game. I've rolled her on live, on Score and here but I've never quite gotten down something that truly satisfies so she's languished in various iterations - including a Mercs MM/TA

 

Obviously some form of arrow is essential and I see her more as a support character than an aggressive front line toon - her legend is one of helping the troops of the BEF survive, and get out of there rather than taking the fight to the enemy. And of course the longbow as a weapon of war is central to the English British mythos - Crecy and Agincourt (no not that camp in the Rogue Isles) Henry V and all that - the Longbow is an icon of British history.

 

There's been some chat about TA defenders that persuaded me to revive her - and I'm wanting your input and suggestions to see what you come up with. I'm pretty sure TA is the main part of her armoury, the real question is what is the rest?

 

I already have a Plant/TA troller and I'm working on  a Sonic/TA Defender so those are out and on live I had a cool Fire/TA troller so I probably don't want to revisit any of those, applying the rule of "been there, done that" to this scenario.

 

Over to you, good people.

 

Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_of_Mons

 

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/Bowm849.shtml

 

 

[Nyghtmaire]

That was a fantastic short story. Thank you for sharing! 
 

After reading, my initial inclination would be for an Illusion/TA. Seems it would capture the force multiplier aspect of the “vision” while phantom army (copying player costume) gives the impression of the angelic host. Superior Invisibility to mimic appearing from the heavens with flight as one of the power pools. 

[Scarlet Shocker]

Thanks. In its day it was perhaps as popular as the Orson Welles version of War of the Worlds - people genuinely believed in the Angel in a kind of Arthurian resurrectionist way.

 

I had thought of Illusion but...

 

I'm gonna say it...

 

I'm not so fond of Illusion as a set. I have a Mercs/TA which in the mid-30s is distinctly underwhelming - which does give the whole "army thing" and I must admit I'd not taken into account the fact you can make your pets appear different in Illusion these days. That might make it different.

 

Flight is definitely one of the pools. Her costume is winged - it kind of had to be I guess - and winged creatures running on the ground seems to be a bit silly.

[kito]

If you want a longbow  I would say Blaster Or defender, If you want to be more Support I would go Defender, blaster if you want more Dmg. (possibly Sentinel if you want to be less squishy)

 

I would guess Defender. SR/Archery. "singing" is often a thing angels do.  Power I would guess as Flight/Leadership/boxing/Super speed Epic power could be anything I would probably go with a white Fire. 

for me I would skip over the "making" an army power and maybe just go with Time the logic being the angel pulled people from time to help over making ghosts or there own army and now runs there time power to make 7 hero's enhanced and better helping the angle for w/e its doing the angel pulling them from time to be on there team? leaving the Power Set as Time/Archery, But maybe I just misread the story but the bowman are not angels so the bow should go to the Ghost over the angle witch changes the possible power set you could use?

[Scarlet Shocker]

interesting response @kito thanks.

 

I believe the story morphed from the Bowmen to this Angel that appeared on the battlefield with an army of archers (referencing Agincourt in the process) to save the BEF from certain defeat (and thus prolong the "Great War")

 

A question has occurred - is it possible to turn Illusion Pets into longbow lookalikes? That would fit nicely into the lore of the story and Paragon. Longbow and Agincourt and the colours are very English in culture - the Cross of St George, and let's face it Longbow seem to mostly be a bunch of high powered soccer hooligans most of the time. So it would be good to bring them to battle with "Cry God for Harry, England and St George" (not sure Meghan would be too chuffed tho but that's another story) 

 

I'm not a huge fan of Illusion as a controller set and I've played a LOT of trollers in my time - I find the claims made for it are no necessarily superior to other troller primaries and it seems to require a good deal more management than other sets. But giving it a different look and feel might mitigate that.

 

I kinda like your idea of Time, but again I'm not a fan of time, as a power set.

 

A sentinel deffo won't work. There's no real secondary I see that fits with the concept and I am also leaning far more towards /TA than Archery

 

I think this is one reason I find it hard to fit the concept to the game. Hence this board 😄