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Yep, yours truly is part of the judging staff for the HCRealms.com HeroClix tournaments at Dragon*Con, Atlanta’s gi-normous sci-fi/fantasy/comic/gaming convention this Labor Day Weekend.

Yes, you read that right: fellow HeroClix-related website HCRealms.com is sponsoring this year’s Dragon*Con HeroClix gaming. Check out this link for a full list of events, build your teams, and come on down to play! There are LEs, custom maps and HCRealms T-shirts (co-designed by yours truly) to be won!

Alas, Heroclixin’ proper won’t have any swag to hand out this year. Maybe next time. Worse, I won’t be there for the first day of festivities, Friday, due to work (that’s the downside of becoming gainfully employed. I was totally gonna bring out Diana’s Wardrobe for the win). But the rest of the weekend, you can find me in the bottom floor of the Hyatt hotel helping to make sure ‘clix games run smoothly and according to the rules.

Oh, and one more thing…I’ll be in costume at least one of those days. Nothing flashy, though. I wonder if you can guess what character I’ll be. HINT: In keeping with the Heroclixin’ site’s theme, it’ll be a character who’s been clixed. A few times, even!

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Heroclixin’s photographic record of Super-Strength characters who can hold their own object tokens continues! Since we’re on a sort-of “captain” theme, here’s another you’ll almost never use: the Captain Britain from the Ultimates universe:

It’s not as secure as it looks! You have to jam the token between his head and his LEFT arm.

Be back next Tuesday for another edition of Token Totin’!

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Forgive me for failing to properly schedule yesterday’s Card Arts update. I hate when I do that.

Continuing the photographic record of Super-Strength characters who can hold their own object tokens, today we’re looking at one of the first character-carded figures — and one of the worst sculpts ever — Captain America from 2007’s Avengers set:

He might be a spindly-limbed, elephantiasis-afflicted monstrosity, but he sure can tote an object token under his arm nicely.

Be back Thursday for another edition of Token Totin’!

EDIT: Sorry I mistakenly titled this one “Gargoyle” by mistake! (Though the sculpt is so bleedingly ugly that the error may be almost excusable.)

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clockwise from top left: The Spot, Super-Adaptoid, Armadillo, Nightshade, Chameleon, Rocket Racer, Living Laser, Mentallo, Puma, Scientist Supreme. And, of course, MODOK in the center.

I recently got the new MODOK (Captain America #050), and so want to run a near-complete M.O.D.O.K.’s 11 team.

MODOK (Captain America #050) 160
Super-Adaptoid (Captain America #020) 175
Scientist Supreme (Captain America #033) 97
Armadillo (Captain America #036) 89
Nightshade (Captain America #027) 72
Mentallo (Captain America #010) 71
Chameleon (Web of Spider-Man #019) 66
Rocket Racer (Web of Spider-Man #044) 60 + Outlaws ATA 1
Puma (Web of Spider-Man #012) 56 + Outlaws ATA 1
The Spot (Web of Spider-Man #051) 51
= 899 points.

There’s no questioning that this is a F.U.N. team. There’s hardly a hint of the powergames that usually go on in 900-point teams. It’s also Nifty, being based the Super-Villain team-up comic.

That leaves only the matter of Usefulness. How in the world will I make this team work?

Well, it’s going to be a little bit like planning a heist, I think.

Naturally, MODOK is going to be the main perceived and actual threat. It’ll probably do for me to run counter to usual wisdom and use my highest-point fig, Super-Adaptoid, as tie-up and blocker. His Shape Change and long, hulk-up dial make him ideal as a damage sponge. With him being a wildcard, though, I need to leverage the Sinister Syndicate TA provided by Chameleon (who’s only good for this one thing, really) to bump up the AV of my third mobile attacker, Rocket Racer.

For the Racer to make any sort of impact, his 2 damage is gonna need Scientist Supreme’s Outwit. That’ll make her a target, so she’ll need to Mastermind damage to Armadillo, chiefly. I must resist the urge to fully hurl him into the fray. Mentallo will try to take up some of that offensive slack with Stealth-busting penetrating shots and HYDRA aid to fellow shooters like MODOK and Nightshade.

Mobility’s going to be an issue, as there’s just one taxi for the whole team in The Spot. And frankly, he may be better reserved for receiving Nightshade’s Werewolf Serum, which turns him into a potentially lethal teleporting buzzsaw of Flurry/BCF on the right map. Setting up that opportunity is going to be difficult, though. I’ll need to rely on Puma in the meantime, keeping him next to WCs and fellow Outlaws to receive the needed movement boost to get in close.

MODOK’s 11 is a team that’ll live and die by the effectiveness of its swarm potential; no hanging back and sniping with this crowd. Neither, though, is it a melee-capable group. Mid-range is the ideal zone; close enough for Scientist Supreme to use her super-Outwit and for Rocket Racer to take ranged shots while getting boosted by HYDRA and Sinister Syndicate.

Can the Eleven pull off this caper? We’ll have to wait for the next Modern Age 900-point game to see!

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Heroclixin’s photographic record of Super-Strength characters who can hold their own object tokens continues! Today we’re looking at Zangief, the Russian wrestler from Street Fighter!

It’s not as secure as it looks! You have to jam the token between his hip and the red spin trail. (It’s not like you’re going to be holding it for long anyway before you use the Street Fighter TA to move and spinning-piledrive someone with it.)

Be back next Tuesday for another edition of Token Totin’!

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Heroclixin’s photographic record of Super-Strength characters who can hold their own object tokens continues! Today we look at an occasional teammate of last Tuesday’s Token Totin’ figure (Bane), the goth-y Black Alice, who holds her token similarly:

 

Bet you didn’t realize her hand wasn’t glued to her extra sculpt element, either!

Be back Thursday for another edition of Token Totin’!

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Continuing my new feature (replacing “My Custom Mods”) in which I talk a bit on how I selected artwork for feats and battlefield conditions that didn’t come with art, originally, let’s look at:

I had to move the text up higher on the card considerably to make room for the art, and at this early stage of the CardArt project (when I wasn’t even very serious about it), I did a lot of things pretty sloppily. If you look closely, you can see where I just moved the text, background and all.

Even more problematic was the art. Though the inspiration was never in doubt — it was from the conclusion of a JLA arc in which half the team was mind-controlled by villain Despero into fighting the rest — the scan was an issue, given that the double-paged spread had a big honking seam in it.

The final version of the card is mostly corrected in Photoshop, but you can still totally see where the seam was. It’s certainly better than my original effort, though:

And it’s crooked, to boot. As I’ve said, I didn’t care so much back then.

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Heroclixin’s photographic record of Super-Strength characters who can hold their own object tokens continues! Today we look at a remake of one of the earliest Token Totin’ figures, Bane!

Despite — or because of — the Bat-breaking sculpt, Bane can hold a token in addition to Mr. Wayne.

Be back Thursday for another edition of Token Totin’!

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This is a new feature (replacing “My Custom Mods”) in which I talk a bit on how I selected artwork for feats and battlefield conditions that didn’t come with art, originally.

Last time, I debuted with Madness. I’m sticking with Icons’ Battlefield Conditions for the next installment, INFILTRATION:

There’s no one better suited for the card art than Batman, but I’m not particularly a fan, so I didn’t own many comics starring the hero. Fortunately, I was an occasional reader of  JSA. This image came from an issue of JSA in which ol’ Bats is caught sneaking around a crime scene. And honestly, I can’t think of many other images of Batman that better illustrate this BFC!