F.U.N. Fights full of FAIL

One of the things that keep me humble is how badly I still manage to muck up in this game after all this time.

Part of the reason is that I’m always, ALWAYS trying out unfamiliar figures. Other times it’s due to straight-up mental error.

And then there’s dice.

Evil, capricious, uncaring dumb DICE

Evil, capricious, uncaring dumb DICE

Take this weekend’s fight using the new AvX Spider-Man at 125 points and the No Man’s Land Batgirl I’d finally got. I didn’t make any real misplays with either. He just managed to miss about six of the seven or eight attacks he attempted with objects, while she missed or critically missed her early Flurry tries and had her 18+ DV easily tagged. Add to that a Deathlok with an aversion to successful shooting and it’s a wonder that I clawed 2 victories out of the three, nearly making it to the sudden death final match.

So yeah, sometimes the dice just kill ya. But more often, it’s massive user error, like in the Iron Man Marquee. Here’s my sealed team:

Guardian 100
Dreadnought 50
Justin Hammer 54
Shaman 92
= 296 points. I fight my bud Paul, who’s fielding Controller, Mandarin+Black Light ring and Iron Man 038. I’ve got his whole team on their last or next-to-last clicks when I decide not to Outwit Iron Man’s Pulse Wave, thinking he won’t risk catching his Controller in the blast. But I forget that even though Dreadnought, a giant, has been punching at Controller, the smaller enemy is not tied up and thus pushes to move away for IM to single-target Shaman with knock back to KO him (thanks to the crit-miss push from a few turns earlier). Lesson Learned: Just use the Outwit, fool!

It gets worse. As sharper-minded readers have already noticed, Paul’s team outweighed mine by some 80 points. That’s because this event was 400 points, not 300. ARRRGH!

I was allowed to add to my build for the next two rounds — a Sasha Hammer and the Hammer Industries ATA. And while I handily won my next two rounds, I never once thought to use her trait that keys off a friendly Justin Hammer.

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Unfamiliarity hurts me a lot. The next day, I ran a whole game with The Penguin [Arkham Origins] without thinking to use his Outwit special. Worse, MUCH worse, I was running Iron Monger [Invincible Iron Man] on the same team, in total obliviousness to these traits:

  • CORPORATE TAKEOVER: Iron Monger is a wild card, but can only copy the team ability of an opposing character instead of a friendly one. When Iron Monger is copying a team ability, opposing characters can’t use that team ability.
  • PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE: Iron Monger can use Perplex, but only to modify opposing character’s defense value by -2.

Both might’ve helped in a match against an Avengers Initiative shooter. But the match was really a training session for a new player, so maybe it’s just as well that I didn’t go balls to the wall this time.

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Sometimes the FAILfactor comes in my choice of team build, as in this force for an 1100-point “Make a theme” event. I went with this:

all the things

The Thing [Secret Invasion] 100
She-Thing [Secret Invasion] 50
Thing [10th Anniversary] 128
The Thing [10th Anniversary] 82
Thing [Galactic Guardians] 140
The Thing [Fantastic Forces] 83
Thing [Chaos War] 70
Thing  [Clobberin’ Time] 75
Benjamin J. Grimm [Secret Invasion] 100 
Angrir 235 + Lunge 5
+ FF ATA 
+ Generator
+ Eleha’al Vine

There were no theme team bonuses, so I lost map roll and ended up on the Bioshock Infinite starter map, one that is pure hell for a boot speed team like this one. The Things just got shot and shot and shot at before ever getting into Charge range, and then missed all their attacks.

There's those dice again.

There’s those dice again.

The Lesson Learned in this match was also my User Error. I hid only my best attackers too far off to the side, which blunted my attempts at counterattack with the others. I also didn’t push nearly enough, which meant the Fantastic Four TA was basically worthless (to say nothing of the FF ATA, which requires, oh, ACTUALLY LANDING ATTACKS to get the KOs to activate the thing).

I should have hid ALL my force off to the side, to limit lines of fire to the Things. Then, perhaps, the enemy would have to venture within the Charge range of several Things rather than just one or two.

As it was, though, the combination of a disadvantageous field and matchup, bad play and and worse dice equaled a perfect storm of FAIL.

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The last example involves Resources, which are difficult to handle in the best of circumstances. In this case, I’d retreated my tentpole fig to a rooftop to avoid a coming counterattack from a close-combat foe while remaining in LOF to make my own followup later. But I’d neglected to check whatever was showing on the Book of Skulls resource dial, and so I inadvertently remained in sight of an Outwitter…who WASN’T an Outwitter when I ended my turn.

I HATE resources, because of the Lesson Learned: When a Resource is on the team, characters no longer do what they’re designed to do. So assume they’re dangerous and always ask what a so-equipped foe is capable of now.

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Tomorrow, some Token Totin. Then Friday, the long-awaited fate of my Wolverine collection, past, present and future.

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