This event dial is one of the reasons this series was written, as it cannot be played with certain teams.

THE SETUP: All characters are Unique.

WHAT IT MEANS: The “highlander” rule is in FULL effect. Leave the generic swarms at home.

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MORE SETUP: Before the beginning of the game, each player must choose one of his or her characters and secretly write the character’s name on a piece of paper.

WHAT IT MEANS: This is the Culprit, and this is why you can’t run multiples: it wouldn’t do to cheat and claim the Secret Invasion Spider-Man that got KO’d just happened not to be the one who’d make you lose on points.

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TURN THE DIAL: At the end of each round.

WHAT IT MEANS: Straightforward progression.

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WIN CONDITIONS: THE CULPRIT REVEALED: When victory points are being totaled, all players must reveal the name of the character they wrote down. If that character survived the battle, its player receives additional victory points based on the character’s point value.

1-49 = 100 victory points

50-99 =  75 victory points

100-149 = 50 victory points

150-199 =  25 victory points

200+ =  0 victory points

WHAT IT MEANS: Survival points make a comeback in HeroClix! Try fielding some mid-cost but survivable pieces to be the Culprit…or avoid the potential loss by making it the heavy.

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MURDER! (Red, slot B): At the beginning of the round, each player (starting with the first player) chooses an opposing character. Deal the chosen character 2 penetrating damage. A character can be chosen and damaged by this effect only once.

WHAT IT MEANS: You’d better not field a character who’s too top-loaded with a power or powers you depend upon. By round 2, kiss those clicks bye-bye. (You may want to decoy opponents into hitting a character who gets BETTER on click three.)

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VOTE TO MINDWIPE (Black, slots C-G): At the beginning of the round, each player receives a number of votes to the number of characters he or she currently has in the game and must vote for only one of the following options: 1) All team abilities are ignored; 2) all feats are ignored; or 3) all characters gain Earthbound. The option that receives the most votes is in effect until the end of the round. If multiple options have the most votes, all options with that number of votes are in effect.

WHAT IT MEANS: Having those cheap pieces on the board could pay off here. Just be careful not to mess yourself up; it wouldn’t do to expose your Batman Allies by voting for option 1. In fact, it may wise to not field such crucial TAs at all. Also note that this condition is present the rest of the game.

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ONE AGAINST THE JLA (orange, slots D-F): If a character is attacked more than once in a round, modify that character’s defense value by +1 for each time it has previously been attacked during the round (+1 for the second attack, +2 for the third attack, etc.).

WHAT IT MEANS: Tentpoles probably get the most benefit from this effect, but it’s fine for anyone getting dogpiled.

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SUMMING IT UP: This dial is one you absolutely have to plan a little for in advance, since you can’t run your cheeseburger multiple OOTS Batman squad. And as said above, running team abilities like Batman Ally might not be a good idea.

(In fact, maybe you just shouldn’t run Batman at all.)  

You also have to be a little strategic in protecting your Culprit as well. You don’t want to telegraph its identity by playing too conservatively, but you don’t want to give up extra points either. What to do? WHAT TO DO?!?

Well, one thing to do is to watch this space this weekend for the next Crisis…an INFINITE Crisis. Between now and then, look for the 2nd part of a series of Agents of Atlas battle reports!