So I got to a venue too late and too broke to get in the scheduled Fear Itself event and instead joined a battle royale with this team:

Clark Kent (Man of Steel 009) 115
Lois Lane (Man of Steel 00) 39
Harve Bullock (Streets of Gotham 016) 32
Roy Raymond, Jr. (Batman 026) 74
Miranda Tate (Dark Knight Rises 012) 70
Pepper Potts (Iron Man 3 007) 70
= 400 points of plainclothed clix…no costumes, no weapons, nothin.’ I had a few pieces running for the first time.

VERSUS three others in a battle royale:
MATT with Superboy (Teen Titans 026)+Belt, Kid Flash (Teen Titans 039), and something I can’t recall. Solstice, maybe?
DOMINIQUE’s Thanos (Galactic Guardians 045) and Terraxia.
JASON fielding Superman (Man of Steel 101) and Superboy (Teen Titans 026). And I think that’s all.

I knew that Thanos was the big threat, but Matt & Jason went at it first anyway because they’re noobs. I crept about toward Thanos, using Stealth (thanks, Harvey for giving it to yourself and fellow detective Roy) for cover. Eventually, I made my move:

  1. Based Thanos with Roy Raymond Jr. for the -1 DV trick
  2. Knocked down T’s DV further with PD TA
  3. Perplexed it down one more time with Miranda…
  4. …so she could Mind Control him to kill Terraxia nearby!

But Thanos himself missed, leaving me with Miranda taking MC damage and Roy all set to just get one-shot by Thanos. :(

Fortunately, 5 damage is not enough to one-shot Roy, so he lived to use Outsiders TA for many more rounds to come. That proved key to dealing with Matt’s Superboy’s Belt-fed modifications.

In the end, it was only Lois Lane and Kid Flash. A late misplay cost me a shot at a most unlikely victory for the overachieving star reporter.

By piece:
Clark Kent (Man of Steel 009)
Traited Stealth and SP Willpower made him the solid core of my team’s offense. I happily landed on his second such click, with HSS and Perplex. Maybe I erred in healing him off it (though with only a natural 8 AV, who could blame me). Great piece that literally flies under the radar.

Lois Lane (Man of Steel 007)
Amy Adams, as noted above, nearly won the whole shebang with her nosy reporting ways. A fine use of 39 points.

Harvey Bullock (Streets of Gotham 016)
Key for his ability to Stealth fellow cops and detectives. His TA also came into play. All told, he was worth way more than his cost.

Roy Raymond, Jr. (Batman 026)
Been wanting to get this unusual figure on the field. He’s tricky to use because his Outsiders and maxxed-Outwit beg for him to stay away from the fight. But his Combat Reflexes and ability to -1 adjacent DV means he ought to be in foes’ faces. With no Stealth or other defense against range, his 16 DV is an easy target. Use with care…but do use him on plainclothes teams like this one.

Miranda Tate (Dark Knight Rises 012)
Still one of my faves, she had so many ways to mess with the team (Perplex. Outwit. Mind Control). Both underestimated and a priority target, she always served her purpose on this force. On a future build, I’ll want to couple her with Bruce Wayne 003 from her set to gain Batman Ally TA and a Defense boost.

Pepper Potts (Iron Man 3 007)
Great for drawing fire early on — as she need not fear being one-shot — then for fighting after taking the big hit. Gwyneth is a winner for this theme. On a Golden Age team, I’ll run her with Loner for the DV boost.

That is, if I can still fit her on after adding the ultimate plainclothes clix piece: 

crispus

Crispus Allen (Arkham Asylum 101).

—-

Tomorrow, one more installment of “Token Totin’ Titans,” and I think I’m done with the set (minus a few whose high rarity have kept me from readily getting pix: Wonder Girl 065, Wonder Woman 068 and Zookeeer). Then on Friday, a look at a F.U.N. Force I’d like to run.

Continuing the photographic record of clix from the Teen Titans set with Super Strength that can hold the game’s cardboard object tokens. Today, let’s look at this pair:

One can bend Changeling’s forearm a tad to reveal a gap between it and the clear green tiger form for a solid and appealing hold. Meanwhile, his sometime fellow Osiris has a less secure hold under his raised arm.

Over on the Ravagers side of things, the OTHER Beast Boy manages:

It’s actually under his right knee. This is an OK hold, but there’s another, more dynamic one available:

The balance is precarious, but it works as pictured.

___

Back on Thursday for another teen titan fig with a grip.

I added art to DC cards to make ’em prettier. Here’s the latest, another feat from Justice League:

JL_F006_Unstoppable

From Final Crisis #6. Doug Manke draws a fighting-mad Superman smashing walls like they’re not there.

Next week, more feats from JL.

There were SO many other feats that were great but couldn’t quite make it to the top 10. Here are some of Heroclixin’s other favorites:

10. Camouflage (Sinister and Secret Invasion):  This 8-pointer was nicely balanced by preventing range attacks but not all line of fire while next to blocking terrain, giving Outwitters a shot at nixing the Shape Change prerequisite. It’s at the bottom of my list because it often restricted mobility on many maps.

9. Loner [Secret Invasion]: 5 points to boost DV on a non-themed character? Sure! The prevalence of themed teams and keywords made this a tough play most of the time, though.

[tie] Rip It Up [Fantastic Forces]: 20 points is a LOT to pay not to ever be able to use heavy objects. But it also ensures a Super Strength team never runs OUT of objects, so it sort of balances out in the end.

8. Opportunist [Crisis]: This might be Heroclixin’s favorite feat for just filling out points. But for the sacrifice of a few early-game actions, this 10-point card can really pay off later by turning near-misses into solid hits. I like that it modifies the die roll, not the attack value, circumventing the Rule of Three.

7. Alias [Secret Invasion]: 3 little points, small enough to fit on any force, that can get your big guy out of an attack of opportunity. It’s a bit too one-size-fits-all for Heroclixin’s taste, but it’s just right for its disposable nature.

 

6. Inside Information [Mutations + Monsters]: Spend 4 points, get a +2 AV boost against your own keywords. Great little feat that’s almost always worth running.

5. Unstoppable [Fantastic Forces and Justice League]: A nice inexpensive feat that helps ground-pounding bricks a lot — but not TOO much, like the similar but overpowered Swingline did. Ignoring  hindering terrain is fine, and it’s finely balanced by the wall-busting ability only working during move actions.

4. Outsmart [Mutations + Monsters]: It’s not as Outwit-proof as Fortitude, but Heroclixin’ prefers less point-and-click strategies anyway. This 10-point feat has the dual benefit of being way cheaper and helping allies not get countered, too. Don’t get to use this as often as I’d like.

 

3. Not So Special [Brave and the Bold]: The last great feat in Heroclixin’s opinion, this 3-point card is a no-brainer for standard-powered pieces. It’s lost a few steps because there practically ARE no standard-powered pieces any more.

2. Submerged [Icons]: Swimmers have needed all the help they can get. This 5 points to stay unseen in water is among the best help the marine set could pay.

1. Takedown [Mutations + Monsters]: This fan-made feat might be the best feat card ever made, working perfectly in flavor with its prerequisite powers Incapacitate and Plasticity. Priced perfectly at 6 points. It’s perfect!

 

 

 

 

 

The two very best feats.

#2

jlF003

20 points. Expensive, but such a simple way to make our whole team better as needed every round. There’s probably no better use of 20 points on a team with, of course, the prerequisite Perlexer and allied beneficiaries.

 

 

1

aaF002

5 points. The inexpensive price is what vaults this one to the top of the feat heap. It suddenly makes a HOST of Leap/Climbers and Close Combat Experts highly viable move-and-attack pieces, opening up tons more positioning options than before. But it’s also quite balanced since its two-square reach really isn’t that overwhelming. It’s the perfect example of a great feat card and it’s a real pity that more weren’t this fun and awesome.

 

___

 The very worst feats.

 

#2

DCCDBoosterCards.indd

9 points. Even when Soaring was a thing, this feat was useless. +2 movement for move actions really was not a big deal without the ability to carry. Breaking away from other soaring characters came into play about the same number of times more than one character occupied soaring status: almost never. And the cost? At least seven points too many.

 

 #1

mmF002

12 points. Couldn’t have been much worse if they’d just written “only this one Colossus character and that one Wolverine figure can use this feat, once, EVER.” I mean, have you ever seen so many arbitrary conditions to use a power?

  1. Same team symbol required. This kind of makes sense, but cuts out so many combinations.
  2. First must have Super Strength. OK, that’s fine.
  3. Second must have Toughness. Sure, that’s fair. Need to be able to survive the impact. But…
  4. …not Invulnerability. Not Impervious. ONLY Toughness. Here’s where it gets stupid. And we’re not done.
  5. Can’t have more than 3 damage, either. Which is ridiculous, because…
  6. …It costs both a power action. Ugh. So you’re burning up two actions for one light attack! Really?!
  7. Hit or miss, it’s a one-time-use feat…
  8. THAT COSTS 12 POINTS.

Feats are supposed to increase a character’s flexibility. This one is the definition of INflexible. That’s why it’s the worst feat WizKids ever attempted.

___

Tomorrow, a bonus: Heroclixin’s favorite F.U.N. feats!

 

Feats were even more game-warping than Resources, as will become clear as we look back at the top five of the Top Ten feats ever:

#5

muF102 awF003

8 points for the other feat that broke the game. It’s perfectly costed and perfectly balanced but probably should have been one of the game’s few “unique” feats like Loner or Saboteur: one per force. As it was, entire teams would be outfitted with this ultimate “get out of jailhouse damage free” tactic, necessitating the rule change of no more than 10% of a force build being feats.

4

lgF001 awF007

10 points. A simple way to make weenies a legit threat on the board. This feat used to be required to make Energy Explosion any damn good, and Poison still gets a lot of mileage from it. A bit annoying because of the total lack of prereqs.

 #3

lgF003

10 points per character. Point for point, for a long time this was possibly the best 20 (or more) points one could spend in HC. If you had the Oracle (Legacy) figure, so much the better.

_______

WizKids used to just throw away money on these stinkers that no one wanted to even pull, let alone play, like the #5 worst feat:

aaF103

5 points. I don’t like disposable feats in general; paying points for a one-time effect seems unwise. But if the effect is more or less guaranteed, then it’s not so bad.

This one is so bad.

It requires getting hit to work. It requires taking DAMAGE from that hit to work. It requires the hit being close combat to work. And all of this has to happen to a character of 60 points or more, so no putting it on a fig one might not mind risking the points to use this feat.

We’re not done with the drawbacks. It requires a high die roll of 9 or higher to work. All to deal just 1 damage (or maybe 2 if it’s a crit). Better hope the target doesn’t have Toughness.

Succeed or fail, it’s costing you 5 points. There’s just no reason to ever field this weak attempt at payback. Can you believe this was a TOURNAMENT PRIZE?

#4

MV_DoFP_Cards.indd

2 points per character. Gets on the list partly for teasing me every time I thought I’d found a cheap feat to fill out those last few leftover points on a team. Then I’d be cruelly reminded that it’s 2 points per character. So on the average force, you’re paying 6 to 10 points for a feat that only works once.

  • …When you’ve already lost your bigger pieces.
  • …Then you give up the feat’s 6-10 points to the opponent, too, after its single use..

“Revenge” is what you’ll seek against the dude who MADE this feat and put it in a collector set, of all things. But it wouldn’t be the last:

#3

2099F001

10 points. So it’s like using Support, except you remove action tokens — and clicks of life! No thanks. No thanks at ALL.

 _______

Tomorrow: The very best of the feats…and the worst of all.

Feats have pretty much gone the way of the dodo outside of Golden Age games. As we look at the best, it becomes clear why WizKids scaled them back.

____

#8 

avF001 lgF007

10 points. For a long time it was the only way to make Incapacitate a relevant power, due to Incap’s high cost for such little effect. This feat brought it into the limelight. Now, Stunning Blow is even better, allowing it to tack on regular damage on top of the penetrating variety available against pushed targets.

#7

muF100

5 points per character. This feat broke the game for a while there. Allowing a strong attacker nonstop actions round after round is beyond powerful.

#6.

lgF008

20 points. What blocked line of fire? So frustrating to play against, so good to use. WizKids tried to redo this concept in a more balanced fashion with 2009’s same-cost Elite Sniper back when feats were still legal in Restricted (the Modern Age of the day) but no one uses that card anymore if this one’s available.

______

Feats as bad as #8 probably contributed to the mechanic’s demise:

muF002

6 points. So ineffective — it has a penalty of -1 AV, can’t affect foes with Charge, Multibases, and now, Combat Reflexes — and for what? To get enemies a few squares away, only for them to just base you again? You’d have better odds at just making a breakaway roll. Overcosted by half at least.

 #7

mmF007

15 points. It’s a great idea: Take a cheap shot at a foe (with an AV bonus!) to rile them up into doing something rash. Two problems, though. 1) It was easy for opponents to get around the Taunt effect by taking every other action possible, thus eliminating the feat’s ability to REALLY manipulate his actions. 2) The card’s too dang expensive to not have a guaranteed effect. Bleh.

#6

ioF007

20 points. This feat would’ve been great if it allowed the wildcard to still actually be a wildcard so that fellow wildcards could use the Siphoned TA. But to actually LOSE abilities while gaining more should cost a LOT LESS than 20 points.

 _______

Tomorrow: Some of the very best and worst of the feats.

Once upon a time in HeroClix, long before the game-warping reality of Relics and Special Powers and Resources, there were Feats.

>

They’ve pretty much gone the way of the dodo — the last one released was the print & play Frog Legs way back in fall 2010. So Heroclixin’ is quite confident that this Top Ten list should be its definitive one on the subject.

____

Heroclixin’ really tried to avoid ties this time, to the degree that great feats including Nova Blast and Nanobots got shoved off the list. But two 12-point feats refused to be ignored for the #10 spot:

mmF001

12 points. Because Regen still hasn’t been fixed and paints a bull’s eye on any piece that bears it, this feat is money on anyone with more than a click of the power.

(tie) Contingency Plan 

jlF007 

12 points. Another feat that made us take notice of a power — in this case, Leadership — that was just so much junk before. Its time is a bit past, now, but it’s still one of the best feats ever made.

#9. Fortitude

avF003

25 points. One sure way to deal with the threats of Outwit and Exploit Weakness turning your man of steel into such a dude of kleenex. One didn’t run a tentpole team without it in Golden Age — at least, not before the age of the Resource dial.

________

Not all feats were good. Some were awful wastes of points. Here’s the #10 worst feat ever:

Large Object

lgF005

3 points per 100. The effect — trading object damage for attack bonus — was a good idea. It was the stupid cost scaling that makes it fail. Losing the damage output was enough. It would have topped the list had it been worded in non-optional language.

9. Tactics

svF005

20 points. I can’t think of this feat without hearing the Rurouni Kenshin closing credits song in the same name in my head. The card’s not absolutely terrible — it does gives Leadership another boost — but the cost is way high at 20 points. There are way better feats to use on the power.

 _______

Tomorrow: More of the best and busts of the feats.

I added art to DC cards to make ’em prettier. Here’s the latest, another feat from Justice League:

JL_F003_BrilliantTactician

It’s pretty. More to the point, Brainiac 5 (as drawn by Barry Kitson on the cover of Legion of Super-Heroes #1) is the prototype of the feat.

Next week, more feats from JL.