After improving an anemic 1-2 record to 5-4, it was time for the final test of the Guardians in a 300-pointer.

Phyla-Vell 138 + Protected 8 + Alias 3
Star-Lord 90 + Contingency Plan 12
Bug 44 + Lunge 5
= 300 points.

FIRST MATCH against Morrison’s Avengers:

Dr. Strange 149 + Brilliant Tactician 20
Captain America 72 + Vendetta 6
Spider-Man 50

I won the map roll and threw us in Prison to blunt Cap’s range advantage. Morrison turtled way too long to get the useless benefit of Dr. Strange’s Defend (since, as I kept telling him, Strange cannot share his Perplexed-up defense with Cap). Gave me a chance to shoot Cap off Running Shot and force Strange to come after me. That didn’t work out for me at first, as Bug and Star-Lord took hits and became mostly useless.

But when their retreats forced Strange to base them, Star-Lord scored a major Ranged Combat Expert hit to put Strange on his late dial. Sole survior Phyla-Vell managed to KO Strange for the win.

SECOND MATCH against Lenny’s Martial Artists:

Daredevil 81 + Stunning Blow 10
Gamora 73 + Protected 8
Captain America 72 + Contingency Plan 12
Hand Ninja 38

He picked the Docks. I picked the land end to squeeze his approach. Wasteland was my BFC. And I gave him a fright with a Star-Lordly Running Shot at Captain America RIGHT PAST the Ninja he thought he was hiding behind (because the Sharpshooter ability ignored enemy figs for line of fire, even if they’re stealthy). Lenny’s themed PC nullified the hit, though, so I used my backup plan of immediately taxiing Star-Lord across the water where Gamora could not reach, and Captain could not Running Shot without blowing Contingency Plan tokens on his range. While Lenny took lonnnng turns trying to figure what to do, Phyla-Vell took alternating shots at Gamora and Cap, Perplexing Cap’s damage down every turn.

Unfortunately, Star-Lord had nowhere to run and couldn’t fight back effectively and eventually Cap hit him enough times. Once he was gone, I really had to go on the offensive again and just didn’t have the time to make up for the lost fighters with Phyla.

THIRD MATCH against Paul’s Monsters of Asgard:

Paul set up a sudden Charge up my stairs using the Rainbow Bridge that would either sacrifice Bug and/or Star-Lord or render Star-Lord and Phyla-Vell unable to counterattack. So I decided to spring the trap, hoping Bug would hit Super Senses and cause Ulik to waste his Meteorite.

He didn’t. Took 5 to the dome, fortunate not to be one-shotted. (I really should have used Phyla-Vell as the target to absorb the hit with Protected.) Worse, I’d set up in a manner that kept Star-Lord from seeing more than one enemy, so he couldn’t help much beyond minor shots on a single Rock Troll.

Bug went down, but then Paul made his big mistake by Charging and flying into base with Star-Lord. His Combat Reflexes-enhanced defense dodged the attack and his Galactic Marksman SP allowed him to steadily dispatch both Trolls (Phyla was enough to handle the Fire Demon). Meanwhile, Ulik was forced to tromp around to the back stairs.

Phyla blocked that access for some time, her DV being high enough to weather many attempts to hit her. In fact, she took far more damage from Ground Zero misses than from Ulik. In the end, I wiped Paul’s team and only lost Bug. 2-1.

Total Guardians of the Globe win-loss record: 7-5. Not bad, considering most of the losses were very close matters or the result of cheating*** or gross user error**** or both.

I’ll wrap up the series with a character-by-character wrap-up. See ya then!