Lately, with some less-well-stocked kids joining or rejoining our Saturday tournaments, we old heads have had to scale back the complexity of our build scenarios. No more 2000-point “every character must be green and LEFT-HANDED” build restrictions. So the scenario for this game was that each character on your 400-point team had to share a common standard power on the dial.

My take: I chose Super Strength, so I could play:

Superman (Crisis #100) 317

I’d recently acquired him in a very easy trade from a fellow with an irrational hatred of the character and was itching to try him out. But I was leery of running a one-man-army with only Fortitude and a lone Telekinesis character in a 400-point build. It’d completely overwhelm and demoralize the newer players while the seasoned ones would be able to tear Big Blue apart, bit-by-bit. Conversely, running Supes with no defense against Outwit just to add a 2nd attacker is sheer suicide. Oh, what to do to make this chase piece work?

A: Add another chase piece.

If Outwit was the problem, I simply needed to add my own Outwit…perferably on a character that could copy Superman’s team ability to see through Stealth while remaining generally safe from the power itself. 

Spider-Woman (Secret Invasion) 79 + Vault 3

was the perfect solution. With her trait making her able to wildcard offense-oriented TAs like Superman’s, she’d be able to blunt enemies’ Outwit capabilities even in Stealth. Her Speed SP would make her well able to get around and stay hidden as well. And she’d be a capable 2nd fighter to take a little heat off Superman, too.

Round one vs. PAUL, who’d picked Blades (V Bron, U Elektra (Infinity Challenge), The Demon’s Head, LE Boon) Claws (Timber Wolf) and Fangs (Vampire Lackey, Captain Mako) as his chosen power. He chose the Crash Site but I Ordinary Day’d his Crosswinds. We both used Vines and Kinetic Accelerators. At first it looked like I’d have no problem beating him, but the presence of four Mystics on a seven-person team and the Shield Disruptor Paul put out there gave me some pause. I denied the first strike by Outwitting T. Wolf’s Charge on the Accelerator. Paul responded with T.Wolf flying in Charge range of both and both Elektra and Boon threatening Spider-Woman in particular. I retreated to take full advantage of Superman’s range edge, but took the Disruptor away with Spider-Woman first. 

Keeping The Demon’s Head’s Outwit in check with Spider-Woman (thanks to her ability to copy Superman Ally ability and thus see the stealthy fellow), I had her toss the Disruptor (destroying it) at Timber Wolf to put her on her 2nd click. Meanwhile, Superman got based by Boon and the battle was truly joined.

It becomes a bit of a blur, here. Superman dealt some hits, but I picked the non-Mystic targets when I could and thus didn’t use the free attack quite as often as I’d have liked. Spider-Woman held off the Vampire Lackey, Mako and Wolf by herself (a bit easier thanks to her SP Outwit) but she was KO’d trying to take on V Bron, the last player on Paul’s team to advance. Superman finally got Crossgen’d to his HSS clicks and began taking the other team out with extreme prejudice. Things got interesting when V Bron made a full Regen roll and Supes actually slipped to his Toughness clicks, forcing me to commandeer Paul’s Vine object and heal up a bit (lest I take a huge BCF hit or critmiss or something). In the end, I wiped his team but lost Spider-Woman. 1-0.

ROUND TWO vs. LENNY 

R Ant-Man, Rampaging Hulk+Fortitude, Gamora+Protected, Benjamin J. Grimm (Secret Invasion), all of whom have Charge. I picked the Castle and he OD’d my Wasteland. I put out the Accelerator and Generator/Dumpster (the Dumpsterator) while he used the Meteorite and Vine.

I parked my pair on the Castle wall and waited. And waited, as Lenny wisely stayed out of my range. Eventually I got a tad impatient and blasted away a wall, which gave Ant-Man room to move and hide in clear LOF to Superman. That forced me to move Spider-Woman off the wall to counter-Outwit Ant-Man. Lenny responded by bunching his fighters in the drawbridge area near the midpoint of the map, and Ant-Man inside the room on his side of the map. 

So now people were in range of Superman’s Charge, but it was a perilous choice. If I hit any one of the three, the other two (and probably the third as well) gang up on the Man of Steel, which could be fatal if Ant-Man gets free to Outwit him. So I went for the lone Ant-Man in the room instead, also moving Spider-Woman nearby. A turn later, Ant-Man was done in.

Lenny had to regroup a bit, after that. Rampaging Hulk leapt to occupy the Vine Lenny had hid in the room while Gamora and Grimm moved to Charge range just around the corner. That turned out to be a mistake, not tying Superman down; I simply flew him back to my Castle wall, with Spider-Woman following again. Now Supes had clear LOF to Grimm and Gamora, forcing Lenny to move both or take an attack next round.

Got R. Hulk to waste his Meteorite on Spider-Woman while Superman Charged Gamora while she couldn’t use Protected for big damage. It landed her on Outwit, though, so I had to make sure Spider-Woman could keep the Deadliest Woman In The Universe Outwitted…a bit tough to do with Rampaging Hulk in her face! Double-teamed now by the unhittable Gamora (simply couldn’t roll that 7 I needed!) and the unlucky Grimm, Superman eventually beat down the orange fellow. A critmiss landed him on HSS just as time expired. 2-0.

FINAL ROUND vs. BRYCE, a 12-year-old who picked a team of Outwitters: Iron Man (Secret Invasion), Batman (Icons promo), Batman (Origin promo) and E Deathstroke (Cosmic Justice). He picked his beloved Junkyard but I stymied him a bit with Atlantis Rising, fielding the Vine and Accelerator again.

That was a bit more Outwit than Spider-Woman could handle at a time, so I had to be a little cautious. Byrce moved Iron Man and the Bats behind the elevated and Deathstroke in a bit of hindering. I needed to get rid of at least one source of Outwit, so I decided to go for Icons Batman, the biggest Outwit threat due to his ability to Leap/Climb away. Superman Charged and hit him…right BACK onto L/C and Outwit. Feh. But I had a contingency in Spider-Woman, who leapt over by herself to base and counter Iron Man’s Extremis power. Byrce’s counterattack with FCBD Batman failed, and Superman finished Icons Bats off.

Then, in a rather fiendish move, I pushed Spider-Woman to attack Iron Man (missed) then Vaulted where the Batman had been so she could counter both the remaining Batman and Iron Man’s defenses with her special adjacency-Outwit. But unfortunately, Superman critmissed an attack, that left Iron Man free to bump his damage up for a full-power repulsor blast for 5 non-reduced clicks! A followup with FCBD Batman left me near-dead. Fortunately, all Bryce’s easy followup rolls missed. WHEW!

His Close Combat Expertise countered, Superman broke away for the Vine’s healing. He flew to it, leaving Spider-Woman alone to deal with Tony, who’d been knocked onto his Charge+Outwit clicks. She countered his Outwit, then pushed to hit him for a few more. Atlantis Rising slowed down Deathstroke and Batman considerably as Superman slowly healed. 

As the enemies closed in, I got Supes to HSS and abandoned the Vine, which Iron began using. Before he could get too healthy again, I HSS-pasted him onto his last click but didn’t think to Outwit his Regen, which gave him a good roll. Frantic to take out Iron Man, I did another HSS driveby but missed and had to settle for a KO of Batman. In the end, Supes and Spider-Woman got cornered by Iron Man and a still-full-health Deathstroke and the 12-year-old Bryce took those points to wipe me for first place!

WIN/LOSS: 2-1. This was an awesome game, for a number of reasons. 

1. both of us were on the verge of losing at any time. 

2. it validated my decision not to cheese up E-2 with the one feat he needed to be nigh-invincible against the kids, while remaining solidly competitive against the rest.

3. I was glad to see one of those kids win over us older folks fair and square, and I particularly like this kid. Bryce is a quick study and a great sport (both in spite of and because of his friendly trashtalking streak). Plus, he always plays that Iron Man, which endears him to my own inner-12-year-old who loves playing Iron Man.

Next report will star a team featuring a gorilla, a Nazi and an alien with a taste for superhero chess. See how the Time Stealers fared in HeroClix next time!