Heroclixin’s photographic record of Super-Strength characters who can hold their own object tokens continues! Today we’re looking at the brilliant Dr. Henry Pym, GIANT-MAN:

 

No problem at all to squeeze it under his right armpit. Be back Thursday for another edition of Token Totin’!

Also overlooked in the My Custom Mods series was this one.

VENUS (Hammer of Thor #052)

Aside from the dots-for-eyes phenomenon that’s plaguing HeroClix paint jobs in recent sets, there doesn’t seem to be anything to mod here…

…or is there?

Right side…

…left side.

Hey! They painted over her sleavage!

She’s ALWAYS flashing the sleavage. (And it always brings the boys to the yard.)

This painting error is unfortunate. So I:

  • Painted the white on her left sideboob to match her right sideboob.

Now THAT’S character-accurate!

And that, at last, concludes My Custom Mods for the forseeable future — until, of course, something else gets screwed up or isn’t quite comic-accurate to my liking. Then…I just might do something about it. :)

Be here next week for a new feature: the thought process behind each of the DC cards with art.

Dr. Manhattan (#005) 276
Ozymandias 83
The Comedian (#006) 83
Rorschach 57
Nite Owl  (#003) 53
Silk Spectre (#002) 46 
= 596 points. 

Ever since I scored the $100 collector’s set for a simple trade of a chase figure, I’ve been hoping for a 600-point build to run the whole team in. Finally got the chance last Wednesday in a four-way against:

Brian and his Brotherhood: Magneto, Juggernaut, Mystique, Pyro (all from Giant-Size X-Men) and Black Tom Cassidy;

Bill’s William Stryker, three Predators X, and five Purifiers;

Terry’s White Lanterns: Flash, Sinestro, Bart Allen and Deadman.

The battlefield was two fitted-together 2 x 3 GridReality maps, so our starting areas were set up like this (mine in red):

_  _

_  _

instead of this:

_
|  |

MY STRATEGY:

With Dr. M taking up the lion’s share of the team build and the only one who could so much as break a wall without help, I’d need to be careful that he didn’t get KO’d too soon. Trouble was, he lacks moving attack ability, so first strike is almost impossible. Therefore, I’d need to try to use Comedian and Silk Spectre to ping targets with Running Shot or Charge/Flurry respectively on foes softened up by Ozymandias’ Outwit.

The White Lanterns were directly across from me, but there were fortunately plenty of walls between us. The Brotherhood  was engaging the Purifiers on my left, giving me a little breathing room there as well.

TURNING POINTS

  1. Comedian took early shots on Juggernaut (unsuccessfully) and Pyro, leading to the latter’s KO. Silk Spectre later won a KO on Black Tom.
  2. The White Lanterns retreated to my side of the board to regroup after defeating Stryker to cripple the Purifiers. I decided it was time to deal with them and moved in close with Dr. M. Didn’t work so well, though, and he took  damage. Only moving in close with Nite Owl to tie up the Psychic-Blasting Sinestro saved Big Blue.
  3. Unfortunately, Nite Owl’s attempts to fight failed, but he stalled the foes long enough for the rest of the team to support one by one.
  4. But they started to get hit one by one, too. Rorschach crit missed against Deadman. Bart Outwitted Ozy and he went down. Silk Spectre tried tying up, but only for a while. Dr. M crit missed himself and had to teleport for the Vine to heal back to a good click.
  5. With the Brotherhood completely wiped out, the remaining Purifiers tangled with the Lanterns, taking the heat off my depleted Watchmen. This gave both Spectre and Comedian a chance to heal on the Vine while the Lanterns began to drop under the Predator X assault.
  6. In the end, an Enhanced Comedian, surrounded by Predators X, wore them down with Sharpshooter shots until all three of my figs could take out all three of the beasties in a single turn (to avoid the stat boosts they get when one is KO’d) for the win.

I didn’t expect an actual win, but this team played about as I expected.

  • Dr. Manhattan: The team rises and falls with him, of course. Interestingly, though, he really didn’t deal the most damage. Instead, he drew most of the fire and used support powers of TK and PC even more often to enhance the rest.
  • Ozymandias: He was fine in the early game with his Leap/Climb mobility and Outwit, but he’s usually a quick KO when I play him despite his above-average DV+Super Senses. It’s very difficult to use his extra Outwit without pushing, and he really can’t afford to be pushed.
  • Comedian: the MVP. Even though his damage is low, he somehow managed to deal more clicks than Dr. M! Running Shot and Sharpshooter ability gave him the flexibility to fight as needed even when based. His consistent AV made his shots actually land.
  • Rorschach:  Usually one of the best Watchmen, he was almost utterly ineffectual this time around. Still he was fine as tie-up just long enough to keep Deadman from healing others, at least.
  • Silk Spectre: MVP runner-up. For a chick with 1 damage all dial long, she sure had a big impact. She scored a solo KO on Black Tom, and, late-game, was able to Vine up to her mid-dial Enhancement to help Comedian make his game-winning performance. She even got to use her range-granting SP to take out one of the Predators X.
  • Nite Owl: It seems he always only serves as weak, easily KO’d tie-up fodder. Such was the same today, but his contribution was vital nonetheless.

Watchmen are nothing like a min/max team. But they can be played with finesse to pull off surprising feats.

Heroclixin’s photographic record of Super-Strength characters who can hold their own object tokens continues! Today we’re looking at the those superheroic brothers, Hawk & Dove:

Sure, you’ll almost never play this poorly designed duo (Don, the “Dove” half of the pair, never did reach his true potential, so it’s actually character-accurate), but it’s nice to know that between the two they can tote the token with ease.

Be back Thursday for another edition of Token Totin’!

Rookie Aquaman (Icons #025)

This was a nice sculpt, but it’s specifically of the then-veteran Aquaman with the watery left hand, not the green-gloved classic rookie. I decided to fix that.

Somehow I missed talking about this one earlier in the series, even though it was done well before my ambitious Experienced Aquaman modification. Probably because it’s such a minimal repaint:

  • Used a Sharpie to color his briefs black.
  • Painted in green gloves with Testors enamel.


Completed 2007. Next week, I finally wrap up this feature with a sexier —  if even more minimal than this week’s — repaint.

Heroclixin’s photographic record of Super-Strength characters who can hold their own object tokens continues! Today we’re looking at the master of Apokolips, Darkseid:

See how it wedges (barely) between his chin and the clear plastic oval of his flight stand thingy.

Be back next Tuesday for another edition of Token Totin’!

So there was a 1200-point Modern Age game coming up soon, and I had a dilemma. SO many of my favorite themes and builds can’t be done in the Modern format, thanks to the recent (and somewhat premature, in my opinion) retirement of Avengers, Justice League, Mutations & Monsters and Crisis sets.

With the loss of Spectre, Black Adam, Liberty Belle and Black Canary, my Modern Age Justice Society build tops out at around 950 points. Where I once could mount a formidable Iron Campaign of Tony Stark-designed suits, I’m now stuck between severe underbuild (over 80 points!) and overbuild. Even the Wonder Woman phase I’m going through doesn’t add up well…not until I can get the 190-point convention exclusive in my hands. In the meantime, I have to fill with generic Amazons, but not enough to satisfy my appetite to swarm.

Maybe I could run all my GSX Sentinels again, this time at full power? BZZZT!…they cost 1300 points. Atlantis? AAAGH. 900 points. Legion of Super-Heroes? Only TWO Modern Age pieces now…can’t even build a 300-point team without doubling up on one of the worst figs in the game.

And it just goes on and on like this. Other faves are too inexpensive, and I’m just not interested in running another Green Lantern Gravity Feed team or Avengers or X-Men team.

So, I said, screw theme. I’m just playing my FAVORITES!

Groot 152
Namor (Secret Invasion) 150
Aquaman (Brightest Day) 105
Wonder Woman (DC75th) 100
Star-Lord 90
Batman (DC75th) 77
Mysterio (Web of Spider-Man) 75
Armor 66
Rocket Racer 60
Rorschach 57
Impulse (DC75th) 49 -or- The Spot 51
Madrox (Giant-Size X-Men) 44
Madrox (Giant-Size X-Men) 44
Molly Hayes 43
Robin (Brave + Bold) 43
Night Nurse 27

I wound up playing four games with this team over the weekend, finishing with an overall 2-2 record (the first being an untimed casual match and the other three in a tournament). But rather than chronicle the actual matches, I’ll simply talk about each character’s performance:

_______________

Aquaman (Brightest Day)

Did well as a taxi and frightfully powerful clean-up hitter. But he really needed to be a more front-line fighter and always took too long to get in the fight. The lack of objects for his Super-Strength by the time he could fight was a liability.

_______________

Armor

Soooo key for my weaker pieces with her 18 Defend. It’s no coincidence that my worst loss involved her getting one-shotted.

_______________

Batman (DC75th) 77

Love that Smoke Cloud Maneuver, even though he was KO’d in half the matches. Took too long for him to really get in the mix. Like BD Aquaman, I should have leveraged that solid 11 AV sooner.

_______________

Groot

His slow movement made him more like mobile blocking terrain + Yellow Lantern caretaker than the deadly brick he should have been. He was never KO’d in a game but never scored any in turn, either.

_______________

Impulse (DC75th) 

Only played in 3 of the 4 games, Impulse just couldn’t get any speed going in the two losses.

_______________

Madrox (Giant-Size X-Men) 

Purely for support, they never got the dupe rolls or a shot at Flurry.

_______________

Molly Hayes

She was thoroughly inactive in the two losses, getting KO’d in one of them, but she scored two more KOs for my list: R Kang (Infinity Challenge) and Pretty Boy.

_______________

Mysterio (Web of Spider-Man)

His Probability Control was the saving grace of my team. It’s telling that his LOF was often blocked in the two losses.

_______________

Namor (Secret Invasion) 

Mighty as ever, except in the final crushing loss when he not only never made an attack, but didn’t even cause any damage via Aquaman’s “Undead Sea” trait when he was KO’d. That was a huge disappointment, as the last time I played the two sea kings together I’d forgotten to activate Aquaman’s trait.

_______________

Night Nurse

An earlier build lacked this, my favorite LE from Web of Spider-Man. Having a medic was a great help in the two wins.

_______________

Rocket Racer 

Despite taking early damage in most games, Rocket Racer seemed to survive every game. I perhaps should have used him more aggressively to tie-up in the last match.

_______________

Robin (Brave + Bold)

Similarly, I think I held him back far too long. Using him to tie up enemies might’ve given my bigger melee fighters just enough time to save the day.
_______________

Rorschach

Ended up being the main tie-up thanks to his ability to push.

_______________

The Spot 

Only used him in the first game. The requirement of LOF for his SP made it too difficult to use, so I dropped him for Impulse.

_______________

Star-Lord 

The sole ranged threat of my team, he truly delivered on his ability. With Defenders to back up his lame DV, he was worth every point.

_______________

Wonder Woman (DC75th) 100

She also didn’t disappoint, hitting and carrying and lending her JSA TA to the wild card.

_______________

Overall, this team is no good for tournament play. While it’s fine for untimed matches, too much of its muscle can’t get involved until too late. But any chance to run this many of my favorites is worth even getting smacked down. :)

Sorry for the lack of an update yesterday. I’d intended to start a brand-new feature to replace my just-completed the year-long “My Custom Mods” feature. But not only have I been too sidetracked to get it ready, but I’ve recalled not one, but TWO extra repaints that I forgot the first time around! So look for a couple of bonus weeks of My Custom Mods.

Continuing the photographic record of Super-Strength characters who can hold their own object tokens, today we’re looking at Alloy from the DC Giants Collector Set:

Giants like him typically hold their objects well (if a bit unconventionally).

Be back Thursday for another edition of Token Totin’!

Continuing the photographic record of Super-Strength characters who can hold their own object tokens, today we’re looking at Gennady Gavrilov, the Crimson Dynamo of Armor Wars:

 

See how you can squeeze the token between his head and shoulder pad?

Naturally, this also works for Gennady from the still-tournament-legal Iron Man Classics set.

Be back next Tuesday for another edition of Token Totin’!