Building for the Event Dial [part 20]: Ragnarok

Read the introduction to the series here.

E101 RAGNAROK

What, it's the end of all things AGAIN?

WHAT TO BRING: Characters cards and/or keyword lists to make sure the  characters are accounted for correctly.
THE SETUP: All characters on a player’s force that have the keyword possessed by the most characters on that force (or the character that has the highest point value, if the characters possess no common keyword) are that player’s “Asgardians”. Any remaining characters are that player’s “Monsters”. Then, characters that have the Asgardian or Monster keyword can choose to become part of the group matching their keyword. Place eight objects on the battlefield instead of six, and do not replace any of them with special objects.
WHAT IT MEANS: Themed teams will lose out on some of the conditions and effects of the dial, so you might not want to build one. Super Strength will have a field day.
TURN THE DIAL: At the end of each round.
WHAT IT MEANS: Steady-moving event dial.
Treacherous Loki  (brown, slots A-C): Choose a friendly character. The character can use Outwit and Perplex.
WHAT IT MEANS: You might want to field anti-Outwit tactics (Stealth, Fortitude, Outsmart, certain team abilities) because you WILL be facing the power. By the same token, building in a character to best use this effect would be a good strategy. But you don’t really have to, since you can switch your “Loki” from turn to turn.
A Mob of Mjolnirs  (lime, slots A-C): Monsters can pick up objects as if they possessed Super Strength. All objects deal 1 additional penetrating damage when used in an attack.
WHAT IT MEANS: No need to build in Super Strength to use all those extra objects…at first. But because the effect doesn’t last long, it doesn’t hurt to have some actual Super Strength on the team.
March of the Trolls (blue, slots C-E): Monsters modify their speed values by +2.
WHAT IT MEANS: Move and attack powers get a boost here, so try to fit some among your non-Asgardians. It also helps your monsters act as good tie-up sacrifices.
Rally at Vanaheim (black, slots E-F): Asgardians can use Regeneration.
WHAT IT MEANS: The majority of your build gets a second wind (maybe). Here it pays to build in piece that actually has Regeneration among your Asgardians and feat it with Automatic Regeneration to get extra mileage from this effect.
Fall of the Trickster (yellow, slots G-J): Characters can’t use Outwit or Perplex.
WHAT IT MEANS: Suddenly all those powers and abilities you were so worried about earlier are safe. Now’s a good time to push the advantage, especially in conjunction with the next (and concurrent) dial effect…
The Odin Force Returns (cyan, slots G-J): Choose a friendly character. The character can use the following powers as if it had a range of 12: Energy Explosion, Psychic Blast, Pulse Wave, and Quake.
WHAT IT MEANS: Field someone with high attack value and Running Shot and try to make sure they survive to this point so they can viciously explode your enemies to cinders.
Last Battle (red, slots I-K): Once per action, Asgardians given an action or declared the target of an attack can modify one of their combat values by +1 until that action resolves.
WHAT IT MEANS: No Perplex (thanks to “Fall of the Trickster”)? No problem!
All That Remains (orange, slot L): The game ends immediately. Each player receives 10 fewer victory points for each character on an opposing force that was not defeated.
WHAT IT MEANS: Here’s where building a bigger force (that survives) can yield some dividends. On the other hand, KOs are still king, and and smaller team of beaters will give up fewer points (again, if they survive).
SUMMING IT UP: This dial is about speed-fighting to the absolute death, gaining as many KOs as possible in 11 rounds. Build for such and throw caution to the wind.

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