We attended Realms Open Championship States tournament for Georgia this year instead of running one like in 2015. After testing a number of teams, we settled on one whose majority of pieces were due to rotate out of Modern Age by July. If we were going to see how this force was going to fare in top-flight competition, this was the time.

INHUMANS

Thane [Guardians of the Galaxy 060] 115
Maximus [Guardians of the Galaxy 038] 75
Ms. Marvel [Avengers Assemble 055] 66
Lockjaw [ Inhumans Fast Forces 006] 25
Triathlon ID card 5
Nova ID card 5
SHIELD Level 1 ID card 5
Pym Particles  2

Sideline: Alpha Primitive [Guardians of the Galaxy 018], Hydra Agent H [Nick Fury:Agent of SHIELD 014b] 30 or SHIELD Recruit [Nick Fury:Agent of SHIELD 007a], Nova [Guardians of the Galaxy 031], Triathlon [AvAs 013a]

= 298 points. The point of this team was to play Ms. Marvel on a competitive team. Thane is the obvious threat, but she’s the hidden weapon that’ll surprise and score. And though the team lost in a play test vs. friend Rob’s vicious force, it only did so due to missing nearly every attack. Considering another team I tried got utterly obliterated even with better dice rolls, I felt OK about this one’s chances of meeting my personal goal: To win at least twice in four rounds.

ROUND ONE

WHO + WHAT: The super-nice player Chase brought a not-so-nice team: Brainiac Skull Ship, Adam Strange and Solaris with Pandora’s Box.

WHERE: My United Nations.

HOW IT WENT DOWN: I gave the Ship a very wide berth, opting to maybe take on the weaker figs on Chase’s force.

He came with Adam Strange and missed, leaving me a huge opportunity — one that I ruined the turn before thanks to the Avalanche Effect I’ve talked about in earlier posts. Here’s how I essentially lost:

• Using the Alpha Primitive’s free action movement, I moved within Solaris’ line of fire, planning to close in on Chase’s starting area hidey-hole. At his cheapest point cost, Solaris couldn’t attack my guy.
• But Solaris was able to Outwit all Alpha Primitive’s powers.
• That meant I had to burn an action to bring in the other Alpha Primitive. [I needed the Empower, I thought].
• I also had to use an action to Call In ID character Triathlon, whose 2nd Flurry attack failed thanks to Shape Change.
• And then I was out of actions, unable to finish off Strange before he was able to teleport to safety. All because I moved that Alpha Primitive.

0-1.

ROUND TWO

WHO + WHAT: Lindy again, whom I face in the second round of WizKids Open just a few weeks ago. She ran Mr. Mxyzptlk, Freddy Freeman, and Yondu with Pandora’s Box.

WHERE: My Jean Grey Grounds.

HOW IT WENT DOWN: Early on, I lost an Alpha but forced Lindy to waste an ultra heavy in the process and overextend a little. But then it was pretty much miss, miss, miss and miss AGAIN, either outright or thanks to Mxyzptlk.

Seriously, I was on the verge of quitting this whole game for good during this round. [Nah, not really.] Especially when Freddy, who’d been hit once to mid-dial, healed to full while Pulse Waving my whole force. I’m done.

Or I was until Thane one-shot the two-tokened Freddy for 6 penetrating damage and an unlikely win. 1-1.

ROUND THREE

WHO + WHAT:  Derek Cook Jr. fielded Nick Fury [Nick Fury:Agent of SHIELD 056], Engineer, and astral Professor X [Uncanny X-Men LE]

WHERE:  UN.

HOW IT WENT DOWN: I holed up and took an early lead when Derek based me with Professor X, who died easy. He then used a savvy ID Call In to bust down my door, forcing me to split my team. But scored Engineer with Thane as Alphas tied up Nick long enough for the bell. 2-1.

ROUND FOUR

WHO + WHAT:  Grant used Nick Fury, Gluttony, SHIELD Space Rig, Shazam lite

WHERE:  His Danny the Street

HOW IT WENT DOWN: He was all set to shoot with impunity for turns after turn before I could get to him on this restrictive map. I saw one chance: Perplex Thane’s range, TK him to roof, Running Shot in zigzag motion to Pulse Wave Nick. Crit hit for a one-shot! Wiped the rest eventually. 3-1! I made the cut to Top 8!

ROUND FIVE

WHO + WHAT:  Jennifer used chase Sunfire, Nick Fury and Mercury with Pandora’s Box.

WHERE: UN.

HOW IT WENT DOWN: As is my usual game plan on this map, I crept around to her side to hole up in the room as Jenn got Fury positioned. My called-in Nova missed him, but Thane didn’t, landing Fury on another good click. But his Shape Change thwarted Triathlon’s potentially winning Flurry, allowing Jenn to slip away again! This girl seems to have my number, and not in the good way.

3-2 with a Top 8 finish was way better than I hoped. But……

I don’t think Ms. Marvel landed a single attack all tournament long, despite her being my supposed secret weapon. Instead she called in ID cards or just whiffed her many tries.

One of Heroclixin’s goals is to discover which figures with Super Strength can hold their own action tokens. Because boys’ toys hold their weapons.

Here we show how those in a Civil War hold their heavies and lights awesomely [Ms. Marvel, Stature, Vision], lamely [Hercules, Doc Samson, Spider-Man, Hulkling] and hilariously [Goliath].

We’re on a quest to take photos of every character in HeroClix with the Super Strength power holding their object tokens.

Today we feature a figure that was unavailable to us when we documented the Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD set back in 2015:

Hulkbuster Mark II [Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD G001] achieves one of the best-looking holds we’ve ever seen in our investigation.

Heroclixin’s on a mission to document how every fig with Super Strength can hold its own weapons.

Winter Soldier [Captain America: Civil War 009] grips the token under his robo-arm, slightly:

…while Giant-Man [010] has to settle for this crotch grab.

This was originally going to be an exhaustive article listing Heroclixin’s top things we’re going to miss that’s retiring this summer and those elements we can’t wait to be gone. But it got too hard, especially once we:

• removed all our Top Ten Favorites affected. Because then…
• it was difficult to find other figs we cared about as much. Also…
• The list of stuff we disliked was pretty much just “every resource and team base and Marvel Zombie and War of Light entity.” Boring.
• We also wanted to do it set-by-set…at least one from each. But there’s a LOT of stuff rotating out. It began to look fairly daunting.

We found ourselves in a bind with small sets such as AvX. Our favorite there is Black Panther, but we’ve been non-plussed with that figure from the beginning. So we weren’t all THAT sorry to see him go, especially with 3 superior versions now in Modern Age and a fourth on the way in summer’s Civil War.

So we’ll be missing our favorites:

• Deathlok [Wolverine and the X-Men 011b]
• War Machine [Invincible Iron Man 029b]
• Aquaman [War of Light 029]
• Swamp Thing [War of Light 053]
• Drax The Destroyer [Guardians of the Galaxy Movie 013]
• Black Widow [Captain America: The Winter Soldier 003]
• Legionnaires Timber Wolf, Chameleon Girl, Wildfire and  [Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes]
• Nova Corps Officer [Guardians of the Galaxy Movie 004]
• Angel [Days of Future Past 005]
• Superior Spider-Man [Deadpool 060]
• Falcon [Captain America: The Winter Soldier 006]
• Triple M’s of Mirage, Magik and Magma [Wolverine and the X-Men 004, 034, 073]
• Multiple Man [Wolverine and the X-Men 013]
• Captain America and Black Widow [Captain America: The Winter Soldier 017]
• Batman [Gotham City Strategy Game 001]

But there are also these that will be mourned here in Heroclixin’ land.

Giganta [Legion of Doom Fast Forces 006] I made her SO effective but no more giant Quaking taxi action.

Superboy [SLOSH] Just like that, Modern Age Legion teams lost a great inspiration.

Captain Marvel [ 019a] She’s leaving just when this team showed but before it got its final member, Ms. America [who is a long shot to appear in mid-summer’s Spider-Man if at all this year].

Shang-Chi [Deadpool], who never seemed to perform up to his promise.

And — ironically, because we hated them — we’ll miss the sheer creativity that resources and entities admittedly allowed for in the competitive scene. It’s too soon to say what the modern de-emphasis on such off-the-map effects will do, but Heroclixin’ hopes the game doesn’t slip into a different sort of rut.

—or— “How To FAIL at HeroClix in Every Conceivable Way.”

So I played my Ginger Girl team of
Giganta [Legion of Doom Fast Forces 006] 100
Crystal [Inhumans Fast Forces] 100
Harlequin [World’s Finest] 90
+ Hulkbuster Torso 10

= 300 points

Heroclixin’s written about Giganta before. The same tactic of pushing her to start non-stop Quaking enemy formations was still viable, so I wanted to field her one more time in Modern Age before her June 1 retirement. Same went for FF Crystal, who would be my chief support piece and secret weapon with her supreme Barrier and Smoke Cloud and Telekinesis skills. Finally, Harlequin was the face of the future and the lead attacker on this mini-swarm crew. The Torso would give her the armor needed to survive to the end of these matches.

I was under no illusion that this team would make the cut to the four elimination rounds, or even have an overall winning record. But I was going to have some F.U.N. trying, and would claw at least one earned win, I figured.

I sort of figured wrong.

ROUND 1, In Which I Meet My Once-Per-Tournament Game-Killing Rookie Error Quota

Faced Nick “Balls of” Fury [NFAOS 056] equipped with Brainiac [SM/WW], Jean Grey [Uncanny X-Men Fast Forces 002], Weasel, Blind Al, and Indigo Power Battery which would force me to get very close to fight. Fine; that’s what I wanted anyway. According to plan, I soon got to where Giganta could Quake the first three listed about. But both Fury and the Decoy-assigned Jean got their Shape Change rolls, and Weasel wasn’t KO’d either, leaving me in a bad spot. From there, it was a hard-fought game of trying to counterattack the unscathed Fury to recover from the lost attack opportunity, especially with Jean able to keep him and his support extra mobile.

It wasn’t until round 2 that I remembered Giganta’s Battle Fury.

ROUND 2,  In Which I Suffer The Worst Critical Hit Ever And Am Buried In An Avalanche

Here I faced Superman [Trinity War 050] equipped with Parallax and with the Sinestro Corps Battery. Whoof…-2 AV against a steady 20 DV. I had to ensure  as much attack opportunities as possible to have a chance, so I forced him to over extend a bit, giving me a shot on Superman with Harlequin’s Jack In The Box. I needed an 11 to hit but didn’t mind trying because Giganta’s Flurry, Harlequin’s Psychic Blast, and Crystal’s penetrating damage Smoke Cloud were all coming behind it.

I rolled the absolute worst: a 12.

The critical hit knocked him out of range of ALL those other attacks and didn’t even result in any more damage because of Invincible. Worse still, Superman’s SP immediately healed the damage done.

Later in the round, after losing both teammates, Harlequin made a half-Sidestep to stay in hindering terrain. But she got stranded there by his Hypersonic Speed hit and I couldn’t do a SINGLE ______ THING to even give her a chance at fighting back, running away, any useful thing because of that solitary, meaningless Sidestep…the Avalanche Effect.

ROUND 3, In Which I Am Blindsided and Distrust My Own Gut and Am Undone By A Judge’s Ruling

My opponent fielded Iceman [Uncanny X-Men 051] equipped with Proselyte and assigned Greed [Trinity War S104], Greed [Trinity War 065] equipped with Ion and assigned Omega Drive, and Atomica [Crime Syndicate Fast Forces 007] all with the Indigo Battery. Winning map, he selected the Thunderbolts Sub and crept up the hall with Sidestep, using free Barrier to wall up.

I guess after two straight losses, I got skittish and forgot my game plan: to rush the enemy before they are ready. And so I passed up a chance to Charge Giganta up to smash his Barrier and punch him while carrying Harley who could Sidestep in the gap and sic Jack on ’em. Thus I was shocked when he Outwitted Giganta through walls (Omega Drive) so the Super Strength-imbued Iceman could one-shot her.

From there, I found Harlequin unable to act when Iceman used Sidestep to activate his Ice Wall attack that froze her completely in place until the end of the turn. And here is where the judge killed any chance of my comeback: He ruled that the Ice Wall’s end-of-turn removal prevents end-of-turn free actions. I didn’t think it was the right ruling, but I couldn’t argue why at the time.

Here’s why, as told in the official WizKids Info Network’s rules forum, in relation to another “end of the turn” effect with identical timing:

• Free actions may be given during the end of the turn phase, but not after clearing action tokens.

So yeah. I could have at least put up a fight with the free actions granted by her trait. Maybe it’s enough to KO Atomica, at least.

ROUND 4, In Which I Am Denied A Fair Fight.

My poor showings and other players dropping out left me with a bye.

ROUND 5, In Which Wits and Dice Fail. 

My final foe had a two-headed team of Steve Rogers [NFAOS 051] equipped with Ion and Balls Fury. He got map and picks the Age of Ultron New York map, one that has virtually no cover against Fury. So I forced him to come to me, a little bit. Out of caution, I built a Barrier for Crystal, knowing the building was no cover against this pair.

I am SO TIRED of losing to off-map stuff. In this case, I didn’t build quite enough Barrier to cover for Ion-granted TK and Crystal was crippled.

I wasn’t out of it yet, though, managing to KO Fury and wear Rogers down good and well even after Giganta and Crystal fell. But in the end, I couldn’t roll a stupid 6 to hit a stupid 16 for just a stupid two damage in three stupid tries to win.

———

Sigh. I’m so glad so much of what doomed me in Rounds 2 and 3 — batteries and entities — is going away. I need to figure out how to stop pratfalling like in Rounds 1 and 5 and avalanching like in Round 2. And I suppose I need to be ready to argue the general rules that I seem to know better than most. This is the second time I’ve been undone by a reasonable-sounding but incorrect ruling on basic powers and timing at one of these big events this year.

Heroclixin’s going back a little bit to catch up on its quest to photograph every Super Strength fig holding its object token. Here’s the crowd from the Batman V Superman micro set and related Fast Forces:

A new HeroClix set is on the cusp of wide release, so here’s Heroclixin’s customary pocket checklist to aid your collection efforts.

UncannyX-Menchecklist

We attended some pre-releases this past weekend. And as is our wont, Heroclixin’ got photos of characters with Super Strength holding their object tokens because boys’ toys are supposed to hold their weapons! And we start with Thunderbird [Uncanny X-Men 004], Beast [051] and Juggernaut [030 and 039]: