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Detail of Runaways 18 (vol. 2), in which a member does NOT fail to die. 🙁 But they're all still alive in HEROCLIX!!!

 

The last time I ran this comic-accurate team of the underage progeny of supervillain parents, I found them to be weak yet better than expected, sporting a lot of surprising tricks and mobility but lacking in offensive ability.
Now, with Web of Spider-Man, original members Chase Stein, Gertrude Yorkes & Old Lace, Karolina Dean, Molly Hayes and Nico Minoru have a new friend in Victor Mancha, another teen “born” to a supervillain.
Victor Mancha 96
Nico Minoru 84
Karolina Dean 55
Gertrude Yorkes & Old Lace 54
Chase Stein 45
Molly Hayes 43
= 377 points. Enough room for feats or the Runaways ATA (at 3 points per Runaway keyword).
__________
TOURNEY ONE: All characters must have the Kid of Teen keyword. No feats or BFCs.
Basically, this was identical to my “EAT IT, GRANDPA” scenario in the newest section of the site. Perfect time for this build:
Victor Mancha 96
Nico Minoru 84
Karolina Dean 55
Gertrude Yorkes & Old Lace 54
Chase Stein 45
Molly Hayes 43
+ Runaways ATA 18
+ Yellow Lantern 5
= 400 points. With Molly safeguarding the AV-boosting Lantern, Victor would get better odds at landing hits and thus giving the rest of the team a resultant bump to their follow-up attacks. Here’s how it actually went:
FIRST, against Paul’s Kara Zor-El, Dream Girl, Shrinking Violet, X-23 (Web of Spider-Man), Wolfsbane (Web of Spider-Man) and Dawnstar, I landed the first hit against Dawny with a one-two shot on the wall she hid behind (thanks, Karolina-backed-by-Nico’s-Staff-of-One’d-Enhancement-followed-by-Victor). Kara was the next to fall victim to Victor’s shots.
Things got dicey, then. Nico got KO’d in short order by Shrinking Violet and Wolfsbane despite a surprise use of Poison against both. Vic stayed tied up for a long time, leaving the still-Invulnerable Kara, well…invulnerable to most everyone else. And Molly ended on the short end of the claws of X-23. Fortunately, I finally took down Kara, Wolfsbane and Vi in the end to make up for the losses of Nico and Molly.
SECOND and final round, I faced Conrad’s Nico, Firestorm (Justice League), Wiccan, Spider-Girl, Robin (“Emo” Crisis vet) and Vet Spider-Man (Ultimates).
The kid still plays recklessly even after a couple of years. (His math wasn’t so good this time, either.) He jumped Robin to a rooftop to counter Karolina’s Energy Shield/Deflection without making sure he’d stay Stealthed. The landed hit wasn’t worth it when Vic knocked Robin off the roof for 5 total damage. From there I used my superior rules knowledge to thoroughly pounce on every mistake he made.
Conrad actually got a little rules-lawyery when I forgot to declare Chase Stein’s Close Combat Expert. But hey, he’s keeping me honest, and if it helps him play better, I’m for it.
End result: I KO’d all but Firestorm and lost only Karolina and Gert & Old Lace. As winner, I got  LE Daken.
__________
TOURNEY 2: 400 points, Modern Age.
I used the same team in this casual home game.
FIRST ROUND I faced Andy, using Iron Man/War Machine, Peter Parker, Ben Reilly and a Nurse on my chosen Prison map.
Key moments:
  • As I hunkered down in a hallway, Andy made a crucial misstep in using his Kinetic Accelerator. He got a high enough roll to make a Running Shot attack on my Victor Mancha, but none of us saw it until well after his move action was made. (And, in any case, he should’ve declared the Running Shot power action from the start anyway, according to the rules of this special object — which he’s only started using because I use it all. The. TIME 😉 )
  • Vic’s counterattack on the big duo was a critical miss. Two moves later, I realized I could have used the first of my three themed-team Probability Controls to reroll the attack. Ugh.
  • But that was a blessing in disguise as it left Chase free to run the team away from IM/WM without pushing.
  • Between IM/WM’s frequent misses and Psychic Blasts/Outwits from Vic and Nico, the Runaways, er…ran away with a surprise victory, KOing the 300-point duo and Ben Reilly/Scarlet Spider while losing only Molly and Gert & Old Lace.
THEN I faced the host Thomas and his Cosmic Spider-Man, Batgirl (Arkham Asylum) and Checkmate Knight (white) on my choice of the Arena map.
Unable to target any of the opposing figures (due to their Batman Ally-granted Stealth) and with Cosmic Spidey able to, via his HSS and his never-blocked Line of Fire trait, attack my pieces at will, I spent much of the game cowering my team in one of the corners. Though I eventually got the  Checkmate Knight, my whole team was slowly wiped out in the least fun game I’ve ever played against a non-colossal character.
(Digressional rant: Cosmic Spider-Man is a point-and-click character…as in, “point it at your opponent’s characters and click their dials.” It takes no actual strategy to play him effectively. Heaven forbid you actually do use strategy when playing him, like Thomas did in this team build and game. Extreme HSS, 10 range, Power Cosmic, perma-Line of Fire AND a wild card? Really? In good conscience, I can never give fellowship to a player who uses him unless they’re using him against a powerful colossal figure.
Digression over. Back to Runaways.)

Piece-by-piece:
Chase doesn’t have the sexy AV or DV, but he’s such a key to this team it’s not even funny. His ability to carry the team in and out of trouble was invaluable in the first games (even if I didn’t use it so well a couple of times). It’s telling that he was the first target of the CSM team.
Gertrude Yorkes & Old Lace were useless except for taking theme PCs and occasionally forcing drive-by damage with their AV SP; in both tourneys they were KO’d in a single round of attacks. I need to either use them to plug up Hypersonic Speedster lanes on indoor maps or hurl them at foes to using Nico’s occasional TK after Vic’s softened a target up for the Runaways ATA.
Karolina was little else but an attack magnet and damage sponge. But that’s OK now that she’s not the only shooter or natural 10 AV on the team.
Molly was hobbled by her Super Strength forcing me to choose between her doing extra damage with an object or being taxied. More often she served as the best tie-up piece on the team.
As Nico lives or dies, so too does the team. That’s how it used to be, anyway, before Victor Mancha, a true attacker for the team who combines elements the others only provided piecemeal before: double-digit AV and Running Shot for a ranged threat (Dean), good damage (Molly) and a way to deal with Invulnerability-plus (both Molly and Nico, sometimes), strong defenses (Molly), taxi skills (Chase, Dean), and via his Indomitabilty, extra actions (Nico). His being able to press the attack or hasten the retreat makes the rest of the team better as well.
I want to play a Golden Age version of the team with Feats and Battlefield Conditions. Contingency Plan is a given on Nico to boost stats as needed. Armor Piercing, while good with Gert & Old Lace’s auto-damage “Arsenic” SP, might be too many points to put on this inefficient duo. Instead, Gert’s BF Chase can get excellent use from Lunge to give him move+attack ability in addition to taxiing pals. The 5-point Yellow Lantern is probably still the best use of the remaining 6 points to help Vic land his all-important Running Shots. With no team abilities, both the Alpha Strike and Disbanded BFCs work well on this build.

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Many apologies to readers faithfully following the My Custom Mods feature. I’ve missed my usual Monday deadline by a couple of days. To make amends, I’ll likely do a double feature on Monday, Oct. 11.

In the meantime, there’s a new feature you might’ve missed: SCENARIOS. It’s a page full of (mostly) simple ideas to both change up the usual mode of play and, perhaps, to lessen certain players’ reliance on the same 20 figures every stupid week. 🙂

Just click the tab at the top right. And hey: feel free to leave your scenario ideas in your comments here! If I like ’em enough, I’ll add ’em to my list!

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Apologies for the lateness of this update, readers. Although I’ve got a bunch of mod articles in the can, I seem to have forgotten to upload (or forgotten where I uploaded) two of the photos for this extra-large Skrull edition of My Custom Mods.
In Secret Invasion, a bunch of characters got both human and Skrull dials, but the sculpt itself was either human- or Skrull-looking, regardless of which dial it had. So, upon deciding I wanted to retain each figure, I decided to repaint their respective sculpts to fit the dials.
But, I soon found out, it was often a bit more involved than simply mixing in the right ratio of white, yellow, red and brown acrylic paint for the flesh tone I was seeking.

Human YELLOWJACKET (Secret Invasion)

Here’s what I did to make Yellowjacket human:
  • Used a needle file to shave down his big Skrully chin.
  • Painted his black mask a bit more (down to his upper lip), covering his eyes.
  • Painted the rest of his exposed face in a (human) flesh tone.
  • Painted in new white eyes on his mask just below the originals.
  • Painted in a new mouth.
  • Painted over the Skrulls team symbol on the dial base.

That's a human Pym, there.

Completed late 2008. Fixing him was more complicated than I anticipated!

Human MS. MARVEL (Secret Invasion)

  • Used a needle file to shave down her Skrull chin a little bitty bit.
  • Painted her exposed skin to a flesh color.
  • Painted in gritted teeth in her previously wide-open mouth.
  • Painted over the Skrulls team symbol.
Completed late-2008. Surprisingly simple to be so dramatically better-looking :).

Skrull DUM DUM DUGAN (Secret Invasion)

The lone human-appearing version of the Skrull sculpts, Dugan was the simplest of all to alter:
  • Painted his flesh green.
  • Painted over the SHIELD team symbol.

Completed late-2008.

Human ELEKTRA (Secret Invasion)

  • Used a needle file to shave down her big Skrully chin.
  • Painted her exposed skin to a flesh color.
  • Painted in eyes and red lips.
  • Painted over the Skrulls team symbol.

She's better this way. (Actually, I may have taken and uploaded this pic before painting in her lipstick.)

Human CAPTAIN MAR-VELL (Secret Invasion)

  • Used a needle file to shave down his big Skrully chin.
  • Filed down his pointy ears, but not completely.
  • Painted over the tops of the ears in yellow to match his hair.
  • Painted his exposed skin to a flesh color, including the bottom half of his ears.
  • Painted in white eyes on his mask.
  • Painted over the Skrulls team symbol.

Now THAT'S a human Mar-Vell — er, wait. He's actually NOT human.

Completed late-2008.
Next week: another alien made tackle-box friendly.

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IRON MAN (Secret Invasion)

I’d like to say this mod was all my idea, but I can’t.
At all.
Here’s the original:

Also known as the Robert Downey Jr. sculpt.

Neat, unconventional sculpt. In fact, the sculptor revealed that he was under instructions from Marvel to specifically do an un-helmeted Iron Man sculpt.
But someone on HCRealms.com thought it’d be neat to put his held helmet on instead of his head, and did. It looked simple enough to do, and I’d done more radical mods already, so here’s how I proceeded:
  • Cut Robert Downey Jr.’s head off with a hobby knife.
  • Carefully cut the Iron Man helmet from the left hand.
  • Used a heated push pin to poke a small hole in both the neck stump and the corresponding point on the helmet.
  • Stuck a straight pin in the hole, then cut it off about 1.5 mm above the neckline.
  • Glued down the new head and swiveled it to a new facing position.
  • Painted the left side of his head and left hand where they were once joined together.
  • Painted the eye slits, chest unibeam and palm repulsor in white.

Completed mid-2008. Photo by Antonio Cade.

Again, not even remotely original; there are probably a dozen other guys on HCRealms alone who did the same. But it’s among my mods, so here it is.

Next Monday, I bring another Marvel icon down to earth.

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FALCON (Avengers)

Despite the fact that the sculpt is absolutely comic-accurate:

from "Ultimate Nightmare" #2.

…I’ve never liked it. And why would I? This is a character whose only power is flight and the sculpt is of him crouched on the floor…
…in mid-air.
Um…really?
Emboldened by my successful re-position of Danger Room Storm’s cape, I attempted a similar approach with this piece. Here’s my process used:
  • detached the wings off the extra-large flight base with exacto knife.
  • using the same knife, cut away the fight base until only the flight peg remained.
  • put figure in hot car to increase malleability.
  • resculpted in new position and run under cold water to set.
  • placed in freezer to fully set.
The problem, I found, was that the crouching position was the real issue, and no amount of hot car time would stretch those legs out. The result:
…this total “bleh” of a mod completed mid-2007. Well, they can’t all be resounding successes, and I’m not hiding the failures in this series!
Next: making a resounding success from a manufacturing error.

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They’re looking down on me in contemptuous disappointment. (Except Venus. She’s laughing at me.)

Last time I wrote about this themed team, I fretted about feats. But in the new Modern Age format, feats (and battlefield conditions) are disallowed. Fortunately, the team still works fine — in theory — with just a few bystanders and Special Objects.

Jimmy Woo 46
M-11 59
Gorilla-Man 61
Namora 76
Marvel Boy (Hammer of Thor) 102
Venus 125
Thug (Avengers) 7
Thug (Avengers) 7
Thug (Avengers) 7
Thug (Avengers) 7
+ Yellow Lantern object 5
+ Indigo Lantern object 5
+ Tombstone 0

= 500 points. (Or so I thought.)

FIRST ROUND: As the odd player out, I took a bye round, facing the judge Thomas’s League of Assassins: Ra’s Al Ghul, Talia Al Ghul (both from The Brave and the Bold), Merlyn, a Man-Bat Assassin and two each of League Assassin and League Elite. My first mistake was not caring which end of the Stealth-friendly Dawn of Time map I picked. Bad decision against a dangerous sniper like Merlyn. I crept behind blocking terrain to go after safer game until Thomas came after me.

Marvel Boy had to break away for his life while only a clutch Regen roll saved M-11 from the junkheap. Gorilla-Man went down swinging, and Namora finally got untied to deliver a key blow to KO Ra’s al Ghul.

I lost Gorilla-Man and a pair of Thugs but KOed Ra’s, an Elite and the Man-Bat Assassin for the win. 1-0.

SECOND ROUND: Young Brandon was my opponent. I picked the BPRD water map against his Lex Luthor and Brainiac, Kryptonite Man, BN Atom and Goodness & Mercy. I lost Marvel Boy but somehow got a win anyway by KOing Goodness & Mercy. And it was a win I didn’t deserve, because although the boy has picked up the game very quickly, he was still green enough to thoroughly forget to use the Superman Enemy team ability, which could have wreaked utter and absolute havoc on my team. 2-0.

CHAMP ROUND: It was the League of Assassins again, this time vs. Andy. He ran Bronze Tiger, The Sensei, BB Talia al Ghul, BB Ra’s al Ghul, Merlyn, a Man-Bat, and finally some Assassins and Elites. He picked the Graveyard and arranged his team in a solid defensive formation.

This game was fraught with FAILs.

  • Namora never made an attack due to my inability to get within Charge range of possible targets and my unwillingness to push her…positioning FAIL.
  • I completely forgot about Gorilla-Man in a late-game tag-team round that absolutely cost Namora her life…actions FAIL.
  • I wasted round after round Incapping an Elite with Venus instead of, say, Mind Controlling the guy (or picking a different target to do her bidding)…supreme power-use FAIL.

So while I KOed Ra’s and Merlyn, the loss of my pogs, Marvel Boy, M-11 and Namora were way too much to handle.

FINAL: 2-1. Despite the technically winning record, this wasn’t a good outing for this team at ALL. In addition to the FAIL-infested final round and the preying on Brandon’s inexperience/TA FAIL, I was hobbled by my chosen Special Objects. The Yellow Lantern, while great for M-11 when he took a hit and Marvel Boy’s late-dial, kept the robot from making some needed close attacks early on. The Indigo simply sat uselessly in a corner somewhere. Worst of all, the Tombstone deprived Namora of her much-needed heavy object boost, as she inevitably was the first targeted. She really needed the Kinetic Accelerator to be able to get into the fight earlier.

But, as I insinuated earlier in the team build, I inadvertently overbuilt by a 7-point pog. It didn’t end up making a difference, but I say it’s appropriate that I didn’t win the tourney. I’d be having to return a prize.

I’m determined to run Atlas again in Modern Age. Next time, I’ll use only the Yellow Lantern (it’s still quite useful; if M-11 gets hit off Super Strength and onto Psychic Blast, he actually gets an AV boost), the Accelerator and a normal heavy object to give Namora a real shot in the fight. And I’ll remember that Venus has Mind Control, and use the power, darnit.

In the meantime, I ran half the squad in a rare 200-point tourney:

Wouldja believe this is pretty much the only image of these three together alone?

Namora 76 + Warbound 5
M-11 59 + Warbound 5
Jimmy Woo 46 + Warbound 5 + Book of Destiny 4
+ Kinetic Accelerator, Eleha’al Vine and Generator.

= 200 points. I’d never used Book of Destiny before, and I never will again, because of the first round: my pal Lenny with a typically min/maxxed team of Captain America (Hammer of Thor)+ Contingency Plan, Iron Fist (Secret Invasion)+ Lunge, and R Mantis. He picked the Graveyard map and set up most of his team behind the wall. Namora failed her Accelerated Charge on Fist and she fell to his and Mantis’ combined assault when the following M-11 was forced to drop Lenny’s Shield Disruptor nearby after Cap knocked him off Super Strength.

  • In retrospect, I completely should have left the Disruptor where it was. Namora was well out of its range and it affected neither M-11 nor Woo. FAIL.
  • It was also foolhardy to make the Charge without enough Acceleration speed to take M-11 along and ensure the Warbound effect could continue unabated. Warbound FAIL.
  • Finally, I neglected to put Namora in adjacent water terrain during the Charge, where she may have had a chance to heal via her SP. Positioning FAIL.
  • Oh, and Book of Destiny, which I thought would negate Iron Fist’s Super Senses? Well, it does nothing of the sort, so I cursed myself for not putting Inside Information on Woo like I started to, which would have been incredibly useful against this enemy team of Martial Artists. Bonus Feat FAIL!
  • Bad as those gaffes were, though, the biggest FAIL here was my actually forgetting to use Woo’s Leadership, robbing him of an absolutely critical shot attempt on a weakened Iron Fist that may have saved Namora. (Seriously, I’m the type who rolls for Leadership when it’ll have no effect at all, just so I won’t forget it when it matters. And here, I forgot it when it mattered. The hell?!?) EPIC FREAKING FAIL.

It came down to Woo against a battered Mantis and full-health Cap; the latter just stood by nursing Contingency tokens while Mantis healed on the Vine from all the damage Woo dealt her (enough to KO her at least twice if not for that dang special object). Woo won the battle but Cap won the war. 0-1.

SECOND round was against young teenager Conrad, who, despite playing steadily, is still a bit reckless and careless. He ran a one-woman team of LE Nova (Critical Mass) who, despite her Power Cosmic team ability allowing her not to be completely outactioned or Outwitted, simply could not stand against the effectiveness of my Warbound combo. Nova dealt damage to Woo but was a relatively quick KO. 1-1.

THIRD, I faced veteran Paul’s bug team: Wasp (Infinity Challenge)+ Contingency Plan, Yellowjacket (Secret Invasion human) and LE Ant-Man. I won the roll and picked the water map. Scored a first strike on YJ, and though he was able to retaliate and take down Namora, M-11 caught up to finish the job. Then it was a matter of rolling high enough to get Ant-Man or Wasp (with their DVs of 20 and 19, respectively), who had to come to me to stand a chance of winning. Both fell.

FINAL: 2-1. I actually ended up winning the tournament, so it wasn’t completely full of FAIL. Still, the sheer number and severity of mental pratfalls in that first round leaves me unsatisfied. Atlas will rise again!

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Left to right: Ant-Man, Valkyrie, Moon Knight, Beast, Nova, Steve Rogers, Black Widow. (Not pictured: Sharon Carter (

I love the Secret Avengers lineup and comic. It’s the best of Marvel’s Heroic Age Avengers launches. But I thus far cannot truly make the team work in HeroClix.
Part of the problem is that they’re not all made, yet. Ant-Man Eric O’Grady is a different guy from the five versions of Dr. Hank Pym as Ant-Man in the game. He’s decidedly not smart enough to rate even the Supernova Rookie’s single click of Outwit or the Experienced’s and Vet’s multiple Perplex clicks. (Maybe one. But not multiple clicks of it.) The old Stealth-heavy LE, on the other hand, could work as O’Grady, who’s a bit of a coward and would hide out until the battle’s done. But the points don’t quite work out. Consequently, I tried crossing universes to sub in The All-New Atom. The movement’s a little low, but he works for the character, right down to the surprising close combat ability.
(gallery or-figure-046)
(hoping the official heroclix.com script works here. If not, you know where to go to see the official dial.)
The other character who’s not quite right in his existing clix forms is Nova Prime. Whether of his Vet  Nova version or the LE Super-Nova, they simply don’t represent the character’s power level well at all.

This guy...

…does not equal…

...THIS guy. At ALL.

But looking over other figures with the Nova Corps keyword, I find that Air-Walker from Hammer of Thor is absolutely a match for the current character. He’ll work for builds of 800 or higher.
(gallery th-figure-044)
(In fact, I was inspired to make a Nova Prime mod to go on this dial. You’ll see it eventually in My Custom Mods feature, updated every Monday!)
Steve “Ex-Captain America” Rogers isn’t in the game, so one must substitute an existing Cap. The Hammer of Thor version is as good as any.
Here’s the base 800-point team I played, then:
Air-Walker 201 (as Nova Prime)
Valkyrie 145
HoT War Machine 137
M+M Beast 73
HoT Captain America 72
CL Black Widow 59
Sharon Carter 50
AV Moon Knight 38
R The All-New Atom 24 (as Ant-Man Eric O’Grady)
= 799 points. It went an anemic 1-2, due to multiple mental FAILures.
FIRST game, I picked the Space Map but faced a team of Kingdom Come Flash, Superman & Flash, and The Flashes that was able to first-strike me from clear across the board anyway. It cost me Valkyrie and Black Widow for a loss that even taking out SuperFlash couldn’t prevent. My main FAIL, besides giving up the alpha strike, was running Atom-as-Ant-Man well away from everything to tie-up The Flashes. Um, WHY? They’re Hypersonic. It worked a little bit, as he drew some attention and survived thanks to a Super Senses roll. But still…bad move, when he could have blocked some line of fire to bigger targets.
SECOND game was on the Junkyard against my bud Lenny. His team of Green Scar, OOTS Batman, BB Wizard Shazam, M+M Marvel Girl, Gamora and someone else I can’t recall was formiable but beatable. But I made two terrible FAILs that cost me everything:
  • Did not cover Air-Walker-as-Nova, giving OOTS Bats a free shot that killed his move+attack powers and blunted the cosmic hero’s effectiveness for the rest of the game.
  • Forgot that Green Scar had the Unstoppable feat and so did not use the 24-point Atom-as-Ant-Man to tie up the monster. Cost me Air-Walker and the game.
  • On top of that, every potential KO hit was Probability Controlled into a miss by The Wizard Shazam via his no-line-of-fire-needed Special Power.
THIRD was on the Graveyard against The Wizard Shazam AGAIN, SR Loki, and some other characters I can’t remember that gave my range-heavy team fits. My FAILs?
  • Moving Atom-Ant-Man first, leaving Valkyrie with no cover when I moved her last. The enemy Wiz got an improbable hit on her to immediately send her running for the Vine. Atom-Ant at least eventually tied up Loki to keep him out of the fight, but I truly lacked much opportunity to lay fire on the one guy I could safely attack.
  • Again getting Nova-Walker pasted early and often through careless positioning. A must-hit RCE shot (instead of a more conservative HSS run)negated by WizShazam left him open to multiple counterblasts taking him out in short order.
Other general FAILure:
  • Moon Knight was useless in these battles, as I thoroughly FAILed to use him as the Stealth wall or tie-up piece he is.
  • Really needed Outwit a time or two. FAILed to realize Beast has it on his 2nd click.
Disappointed by this outing of my newest favorite team. But I recently got a chance to make amends with a feated-up 900-point version!
Air-Walker 201 (as Nova Prime) + Elite Sniper 20
Valkyrie 145 + C.Plan 12 + Inside Info 4
HoT War Machine 137 + Warbound 5 (Soldier)
M+M Beast 73 + Lunge 5
HoT Captain America 72 + C.Plan 12 + Warbound 5 (Soldier)
CL Black Widow 59 + Opportunist 10
Sharon Carter 50
AV Moon Knight 38 + Warbound 5 (Soldier)
LE Yellowjacket 41 (as Ant-Man Eric O’Grady) + Takedown 6
= 900 points (82 in feats).
FIRST game I beat the Asgardian team of Thor & Loki, the Warriors Three, and 2 each of Asgardian Warriors and HoT Valkyries I’d brought as a backup team(which the young host of the shebang played against me in this bye round). I picked the Prison map which helped me against the big duo’s range even though it hampered my Cap. Once Thor & Loki overextended, I was able to Charge with Valkyrie for big damage (using the Com Dish) and others got him to his final click. A final click Moon Knight pushed to use his self-damaging SP to KO the duo first for the margin of victory.
2nd match was on the Junkyard (my pick) against HoT Ronan the Accuser, Immortus, BN Wonder Woman, 2 Jason Bloods, Clark Kent and someone else I can’t recall. I dealt plenty of damage but no KO blows due up to 4 PC rolls per attack. We had a draw and I won the roll-off. My FAIL in this game was not pushing Beast to Outwit sooner to make sure more of my damage stuck (as Immortus did a lot of Masterminding to Ronan and/or PC’d my rolls) or attacking softer targets for easier points.
3rd and champ match was against veteran Paul’s Skrull team of Ms. Skrullvel, two Warskrulls, Capt. Skrull-Vell, Skrullojacket, and a passle of Skrull generics on his choice of the Lab map. My FAIL? “Nova” critmissing the game’s first attack, stranding him in full view of the enemy team and forcing me to drop his passenger Moon Knight in front as a sacrifice. It was only dumb luck that Nova didn’t take any damage after Moon Knight was gone. My next FAIL was jumbo-sized Valkyrie blocking what little line of fire I had after fairly clobbering Ms. Skrullvel with a key Charge, preventing my team from ganging up on her and enabling the impostor to break away and run just as the time ran out.
We played on, though, giving me still more opportunities to FAIL:
  • After successfully using Yellowjacket to tie up and block enemy Outwit, I got extra careless and gave a Warskrull a narrow view to counter Valkyrie’s defenses, enabling enemies to easily gang up on her and take her down. Ant-Man FAIL…AGAIN.
  • Earlier Outwit FAIL with Beast also contributed to that tragedy.
  • Feat FAIL. Because this tournament was at a slumber party full of mostly kids, I didn’t use the superior Trick Shot feat over the slightly less-useful Elite Sniper. But really, feat use is optional. I didn’t have to use it against the kids, and I needed it against Paul thanks to the Valkyrie-in-the-way FAIL.
  • More feat FAIL. I forgot to use Inside Information. It would have helped against the Warskrulls.
  • And MORE feat FAIL: Warbound kept Cap from taking more shots. Maybe if Moon Knight had been around to take a token for Cap…but no. FAILed to make that happen, even before the unfortunate loss of Moon Knight.
  • One more bit of feat FAIL: Similarly, building up Opportunist tokens kept Widow from making more of an impact. This team can’t afford the lost actions, it turns out.
In the end, I still won, getting Paul’s whole force. But all that FAILure troubles me.
SECRET AVENGERS sum-up of FAILure.

Ouch!

“Ant-Man”
Played by two stand-ins — The All-New Atom and LE Yellowjacket — he did fine as a tie-up piece and cheap blocker. When I actually used him as such. These games probably go a lot better if I were consistent in this tactic.
Beast
I used him as what he is — the team’s ONLY source of Perplex and Outwit. Trouble is, he really ought to offer more for his points while the cheapies  should fill his role. But they don’t. So inthe backfield he must remain.

"I'm not a cowardly lion...why must you treat me as one?"

Black Widow
She ought to be great. She really should. Anti-Stealth, Willpower, 3 damage and Incap…but she really only took damage early and often. Only the Opportunist feat, which held her back at first, made her worthy after taking the damage (since she retains the prerequisites most of her dial). I guess that’s something, but…

Oh, for--! Stop being so dramatic and GET UP!!!

Captain America
He invariably never seemed to get into the game until far too late. Was I being too conservative with him? But then, I’m forgetting that in at least half these games he was hampered by walls.
Moon Knight
He’s pretty much just a meat shield or diversion. He’s either a total non-factor or he’s 38 points given up.

This is what happens when you try to sneak up on armed criminals at night wearing all WHITE, boys and girls.

That’s what I want to say, anyhow. But he did land the KO blow on a piece 9.5 times his cost and saved Nova “Air-Walker” Prime from near-certain death in that last game. So he’s won a permanent spot on this team in my book.
“Nova”
Air-Walker was a huge bust. Best used for that opening HSS but unable to take so much as a critical miss or Mystics feedback, he’s way too fragile at over 200 points with 17 DV and Super Senses. On the other hand, he’s the 1st strike piece this range-heavy team kinda needs when faced with constricting maps and Stealth.

Hypersonic FACEPLANT.

Sharon Carter
Another cheap Stealth shield I could never quite leverage for anything ELSE. But that’s mainly due to Wizard Shazam (or just plain poor rolls) causing her SHIELD beneficiaries to miss whenever she made her damage-enhancing action. I wonder if I should push her more freely to get to her diet Perplex SP.
Valkyrie
Ah, Brunnhilde. So versatile with both Charge and hit&run skills. So mighty. So fragile. The team fairly rises and falls with her. If she does fall, or can’t hit, they’re done. If she can land at least that one titanic hit while on her topdial, they’ll win.

Alas. It's all too often this.

War Machine
His reliance on range is a problem. He’s only been KOed in one game so far, but he hasn’t laid down the KOs he really ought to be, either.

I don't think I'm using him right.

Actually, that’s not it. It’s that these Secret Avengers lack a dedicated brick or two. (Compare to this Heroic Age team.) They need someone who can Charge a big ol’ rock into someone’s face and stay there to deliver continued beatdowns despite retaliation. War Machine could be that guy, if he weren’t such a Running Shooter. Valkyrie could do it, if only she weren’t stuck with Super Senses. Ditto for Air “Nova Prime” Walker.
The team is also short on support powers. (Again, compare to the Heroic Age Poster team). No PC. No starting Outwit…and to get it, you give up the only real Perplex. No Support. No TK. Val’s mid-dial Enhancement you hope you never see. And Sharon’s SHIELD ability is only good for range, which is not the S.Avengers’ weak point.
(Maybe I really should relent and use the Rookie Ant-Man anyway. Eric O’Grady’s not that stupid.)
Ah well. I love the comic so far, and I think the team still has what it takes to be competitive. Just need to watch out for those FAIL moments. Speaking of which…my next article looks to be about the Agents of Atlas. And yes…it’s also kinda full of FAIL. Keep an eye out.

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EMERALD EYE OF EKRON (Collateral Damage)

Original look.

As the name indicates, this LE version of Emerald Empress represents the Eye itself and not the woman who wields it. I wanted the sculpt to represent that.
Here’s how I did it:
  • Cut the Eye off her hand.
  • Got a Green Flame/Fire figure from the same Collateral Damage set.
  • Cut Fire’s leg off at about mid-calf (in a “V” shape to give the Eye a better space to glue in).
  • Glued the Eye to the leg with modeler’s glue.
Completed mid-2006.
I have to be careful with this mod — it’s broken a few times. Perhaps I’ll use a more flexible glue to bond it together next time. Despite its fragility, this was the first major customization I ever did, multilating two figures to do it. I don’t regret it one bit — this is just cool, yo.
This also emboldened me to attempt an even more ambitious mod that I’ll highlight next time.

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Over my years of HeroClix collection and play, I’ve dabbled in another aspect of the hobby — modifying existing sculpts into customized versions. Thus far, I’ve teased readers with a few pix in an article here and there, but rest assured I have plenty more to share, from barely-noticeable repaints to major reconstructions.

Each article will detail in brief my process in doing the mod, proving that you don’t have to be an expert sculptor or use a lot of Green Stuff to make your pieces your own!

I hope to make this a regular feature — perhaps weekly. What do you think?

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It’s been up for about a week now, but now it’s time to officially reveal my DC feat and battlefield condition cards with art added.

http://heroclixin.wordpress.com/pix-and-downloads/dc-cards-with-art/

Check ’em out and print ’em out!