Top Ten Needed Changes in 2014: part 1 of 4

No. 10 [tie]
Injustice League team ability

This was on the 2011 list and it still hasn’t changed for the better. Worse, there are actually new characters recently given the TA, and it never gets used. So the No. 10 Most Needed Change in HeroClix is to change this:

“Whenever a character using the Injustice League team ability attacks an opposing character that was attacked by another character using the Injustice League team ability this turn, the action does not count toward your available actions this turn.”

to this:

“When a friendly character makes an attack, attacks made by other characters using this team ability against the same opposing character don’t count toward your available actions this turn. At the end of your turn, remove an action token from each character that used this team ability to make an unsuccessful attack this turn.”

It maintains the original gangpile-on-one-guy spirit of the TA but gives it some use for today’s much smaller teams.

No. 10 [tie]
Regeneration

Same as before, using Regen should never cause pushing damage.

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No. 9
Iron Pharaoh’s Golden Falcon, Soaring trait

The game’s trend toward positioning-free play is worrisome. This one goes beyond previous attack-from-start-zone offenders in that the Falcon’s LOF can’t be blocked by ANYTHING on an outdoor map and that it’s impossible to tie up or attack or ANYTHING.

In fact, there’s a rumor that the set Iron Pharaoh appears in, Invincible Iron Man, may have been designed before Wolverine and the X-Men and that the outrageous original version of that set’s Spiral figure was intended as a silver bullet against I.P. and others bad game design decisions like him.

 

If only WizKids would realize that silver bullets are also bad game design decisions. But they haven’t yet, and so the below rewrite is the No. 9 Needed Change:

“GOLDEN FALCON, SOARING: When Iron Pharaoh is first placed on the map, place a Falcon special terrain marker in an adjacent square. Give Iron Pharaoh a free action to move this marker up to 3 squares. Iron Pharaoh can draw lines of fire and count range (up to 3 squares) from the Falcon marker for a single action using his printed damage value and Improved Targeting: Ignores Hindering Terrain, Ignores Elevated Terrain, Ignores Outdoor Blocking Terrain, Ignores Characters.”

It’s enough that he can attack around corners or, in time, from clear across the map. He shouldn’t have the ability to counter with Outwit AND shoot a target for massively enhanced damage.

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Next: More broken stuff that needs repair

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