As I checked my inventories of clix stuff and old articles, it occurred to me that I never finished this Event Dial series! There were still two left to go. Here’s the second and final one.
Read the introduction to the series HERE to get caught up on the whole premise and to link to the rest of the articles if you’re a recent visitor or follower and missed them the first time around.
E103 ATLANTIS ATTACKS
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THE SETUP: Each force must include at least one character with the Dolphin or Dolphin-transporter speed symbol.
WHAT IT MEANS: Time to get in the pool! More importantly, it show this dial as one of the reasons I started this whole series: some dials have to be specifically built for. In this case, you have to use one of those swimming characters in your collection.
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TURN THE DIAL: At the end of each round.
WHAT IT MEANS: Standard steady-moving dial.
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Mark of the Brides (yellow, slots A-E): As a free action, a player can give a Mark of Set token to an opposing character that is adjacent to a friendly character. Each player can do this only twice per game.
WHAT IT MEANS: At some point, a thus-Marked fig is going to get into serious trouble. Try to field a character that can fight at a range so it’s less likely to get Marked. Conversely, consider using a high-speed character with Leap/Climb, Phasing/Teleport to get next to an enemy you want to Mark yourself!
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Death of Namor (lime, slots B-E): Remove a friendly character from the battlefield. All friendly characters with a point value less than that character’s modify their damage by +1 while this ability appears.
WHAT IT MEANS: Choosing a high-point tentpole as your “Namor” can make the remainder of the team dangerous, so it might be worth losing your big hitter for most of the game for this reason (especially if said tentpole has been saddled with a Mark of Set token). Two things to note, though:
- Youcan really only pick one character, despite how long this condition lasts.
- You don’t have to pick any character.
Whatever you do, you’d better consider the next few conditions…
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War Zone: New York (blue, slots C-J): Treat all clear terrain as water terrain. Characters that possess the Dolphin or Dolphin Transporter speed symbol modify their attack and speed values by +2.
WHAT IT MEANS: Swimmers rule. Field plenty of them! If you chose to kill off “Namor,” these characters will be quite buffed. Fliers/Phasers/LeapClimbers can get around the mobility problem.
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Becoming Serpent Men (brown, slots E-F): All characters can use Blades/Claws/Fangs and Toughness.
WHAT IT MEANS: Close combat is the flavor of the day, and it overlaps with “Death of Namor” and “War Zone” enough to make a swarm of low-cost swimmers really attractive in this scenario.
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Summon the Seven Brides (orange, slots F-I): Once per turn as a free action, you can move any character that has a Mark of Set token to any square on the map that is not blocking terrain.
WHAT IT MEANS: Whatever your plan is, this just blows it the heck up. Don’t field characters or team abilities that utterly depend on positioning to work, such as Batman Allies or Defenders. They’ll find themselves plucked out of hindering terrain or away from higher-defense pals, respectively.
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The Serpent Crown (black, slots H-J): Choose a friendly character. The character can use Energy Explosion, Telekinesis, and Mind Control, and is healed of 2 damage whenever a character that has a Mark of Set token is defeated.
WHAT IT MEANS: The destruction of your game plan continues. Whoever’s the most wounded of your pieces could get a nice second wind here.
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Demogorge the God-Eater (red, slots J-K): At the beginning of each player’s turn, the character with the highest point value on each other player’s force is dealt 1 penetrating damage.
WHAT IT MEANS: With this condition, the destruction of your game plan, whatever it was, is complete. It’s also one more good reason to make sure your tentpole is off the field thanks to “Death of Namor.”
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The Return of Namor (cyan, slot L): On your turn, put the friendly character removed from the battlefield in Death of Namor in any unoccupied square fully healed; you can give the character an action as a free action.
WHAT IT MEANS: Your tentpole (or whoever) is back and wreaking havoc upon the remnants of the game. And guess what? Because this dial lacks a red line, you can start the whole cycle again.
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SUMMING IT UP: The last of the Event Dials, it again epitomizes the reason I wrote this long-running series. Some dials absolutely can’t be sprung upon unsuspecting players due to build requirements. And some dials are more fun when you can plan for its bonuses and minimize its detriments. Not one you can pick up and play, Atlantis Attacks is nevertheless one of the best E-dials due to its laser focus on its theme.
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That does it for the Building For the Event Dial series. Hope you’ve enjoyed and benefitted from it.
Next: This weekend I continue the Atlantis love with an in-depth (heh) look at the keyword.