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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!

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Seriously. I can’t believe some of the utter FAIL I’ve still been experiencing in HeroClix games lately.

Black Adam. I seem to make stupid tactical FAILs with this character more than any other. Back when he was new back in the Crisis events, I’d do ridiculous things like:

  • use his Impervious 254-point body to shield a 61-point medic from Outwit-equipped snipers. Barely escaped that game with a victory thanks to the time limit.
  • Hit Crisis Spectre hard with a Hypersonic hit and neglected to use the rest of his movement, leaving him completely vulnerable to the wounded but still-dangerous giant. I lost that game, snatching defeat from the very jaws of victory. Giant Hypersonic FAIL.

Lately, I’ve pulled Black Adam back out of the tacklebox. And I’ve made the same sorts of utter FAIL:

  • Used Exploit Weakness on a near-dead KC Shazam instead of HSS, leaving him vulnerable to repeated Lunging Stunning Blows from HoT Daredevil. Utter Hypersonic FAIL.
  • Didn’t use his full HSS speed with a full-health enemy V Icons Superman on the board, and didn’t really have much of a reason why I didn’t get him out of reach. Worse…I didn’t use his lower-pointed passenger to block line of fire to him. About three different FAILs. In one action.

Now with a new Black Adam as part of the Shazam! and Black Adam duo, I had another chance to do well by him…or not. See, I put Lunge on the guy (since he has Close Combat Expert much of his dial) and went to town, using the feat to get a quick one-hit-KO of Max Mercury. But later, I took a HSS chance to try to take out an enemy Brave + Bold Superman and lacked the speed to get back to relative safety.

Wasn’t until much later that I realized I’d forgotten Lunge, that would have given me the extra movement to not get so easily ganged up on by BB Superman and Wizard Shazam. Amnesiac FAIL.

In the same game, I utterly forgot BB Metallo was Indomitable, thus losing crucial attack chances. Lost that game. Double FAIL.

In the game previous, I didn’t use Goodness & Mercy’s SP Willpower to chase down a healing enemy. SP FAIL.

These FAILs paled next to today’s though.

Scenario: My Extant, way up on points and on his 1st click against enemy Flash (Justice League Super Rare) has a shot at long range. Afraid my 10 AV isn’t enough hit an 18 DV + Super Senses, I Phase in close. Flash proceeds to alternately Flurry, Hypersonic and generally pummel my weakening Extant to KO.

I wasn’t finished. Same tournament, tired of trying and failing to hit an enemy Black Flash, I pursue and base a wounded Max Mercury hiding on an Eleha’al Vine. Max uses Flurry to land 8 consecutive attacks to deal (with the other White Knight) my reducer-less Extant a bitter defeat.

Extant has full-dial Phasing and a 10 range. 10 RANGE! WHY WAS I BASING NON-STEALTHED CHARACTERS THAT COULD USE FLURRY….TWICE?!?

Worst bit of FAIL since forgetting to play my TKer in the last FAIL article.


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Read the introduction to the series here.

E101 RAGNAROK

What, it's the end of all things AGAIN?

WHAT TO BRING: Characters cards and/or keyword lists to make sure the  characters are accounted for correctly.
—
THE SETUP: All characters on a player’s force that have the keyword possessed by the most characters on that force (or the character that has the highest point value, if the characters possess no common keyword) are that player’s “Asgardians”. Any remaining characters are that player’s “Monsters”. Then, characters that have the Asgardian or Monster keyword can choose to become part of the group matching their keyword. Place eight objects on the battlefield instead of six, and do not replace any of them with special objects.
WHAT IT MEANS: Themed teams will lose out on some of the conditions and effects of the dial, so you might not want to build one. Super Strength will have a field day.
—
TURN THE DIAL: At the end of each round.
WHAT IT MEANS: Steady-moving event dial.
—
Treacherous Loki  (brown, slots A-C): Choose a friendly character. The character can use Outwit and Perplex.
WHAT IT MEANS: You might want to field anti-Outwit tactics (Stealth, Fortitude, Outsmart, certain team abilities) because you WILL be facing the power. By the same token, building in a character to best use this effect would be a good strategy. But you don’t really have to, since you can switch your “Loki” from turn to turn.
—
A Mob of Mjolnirs  (lime, slots A-C): Monsters can pick up objects as if they possessed Super Strength. All objects deal 1 additional penetrating damage when used in an attack.
WHAT IT MEANS: No need to build in Super Strength to use all those extra objects…at first. But because the effect doesn’t last long, it doesn’t hurt to have some actual Super Strength on the team.
—
March of the Trolls (blue, slots C-E): Monsters modify their speed values by +2.
WHAT IT MEANS: Move and attack powers get a boost here, so try to fit some among your non-Asgardians. It also helps your monsters act as good tie-up sacrifices.
—
Rally at Vanaheim (black, slots E-F): Asgardians can use Regeneration.
WHAT IT MEANS: The majority of your build gets a second wind (maybe). Here it pays to build in piece that actually has Regeneration among your Asgardians and feat it with Automatic Regeneration to get extra mileage from this effect.
—
Fall of the Trickster (yellow, slots G-J): Characters can’t use Outwit or Perplex.
WHAT IT MEANS: Suddenly all those powers and abilities you were so worried about earlier are safe. Now’s a good time to push the advantage, especially in conjunction with the next (and concurrent) dial effect…
—
The Odin Force Returns (cyan, slots G-J): Choose a friendly character. The character can use the following powers as if it had a range of 12: Energy Explosion, Psychic Blast, Pulse Wave, and Quake.
WHAT IT MEANS: Field someone with high attack value and Running Shot and try to make sure they survive to this point so they can viciously explode your enemies to cinders.
—
Last Battle (red, slots I-K): Once per action, Asgardians given an action or declared the target of an attack can modify one of their combat values by +1 until that action resolves.
WHAT IT MEANS: No Perplex (thanks to “Fall of the Trickster”)? No problem!
—
All That Remains (orange, slot L): The game ends immediately. Each player receives 10 fewer victory points for each character on an opposing force that was not defeated.
WHAT IT MEANS: Here’s where building a bigger force (that survives) can yield some dividends. On the other hand, KOs are still king, and and smaller team of beaters will give up fewer points (again, if they survive).
—
SUMMING IT UP: This dial is about speed-fighting to the absolute death, gaining as many KOs as possible in 11 rounds. Build for such and throw caution to the wind.

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It’s that time again: another brand-new HeroClix set. Considering that this time last year we didn’t think we’d ever see one, I for one am quite grateful.

One thing I am not so grateful for, though, is WizKids’ ceasing to print the handy little checklists they used to pack in every booster. Yes, I’m sure they’re an ultimately needless expense, but the company could offer downloadable and printable PDF versions.

Fortunately, I’m a fairly talented graphic designer myself, so I’ve been crafting my own checklists since WizKids stopped doing theirs in Secret Invasion. Now that I have my own little HeroClix blog, I figured I should share.

BBpocketchecklist

BBpocketchecklist (updated April 17, 2010 with added AE point cost for Etrigan and minor spelling/name changes [for instance, “ATOM & HAWKMAN” is now properly spelled “THE ATOM AND HAWKMAN”))

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For the past couple of years, I’ve done Top Ten lists of HeroClix on Pojo.com (in addition to semi-regular reviews, which I once planned to archive here. That’s probably not happening). In honor of the return of the game, I’m back with a Top Ten HeroClix of 2009 list.
…
…wwwhich pretty much means a Top Ten Hammer of Thor HeroClix list. 😀
But actually, HoT was absolutely packed with excellent pieces, so selecting these top 10 was every bit as difficult as in previous years with 3-4 times the sets.
So, without further delay, here’s #10!
==================================

...but he's Number ONE with the BULLETS.

Star-Lord
boot symbol
90 points
Team: Defenders
Keywords: Guardians of the Galaxy, Soldier
Range: 8 x 2
DIAL: http://wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/gallery/
STRENGTHS: “Galactic Marksman” is a fantastic Special Power. It gives him the choice to boost his AV +2 against a single target or his damage +2 against two. Coupled with his Running Shot and Sharpshooter ability, he can truly lay down some hurt at range or up close. Defenders TA shores up his Combat Reflexes-enhanced DV (assuming you run some higher DV’d teammates with him). His AV rises, making him fairly pushable. He’s also got Leadership to aid the team (and possibly himself).
His late dial gains Stealth and Ranged Combat Expert to remain a threat.
WEAKNESSES: His 16 DV is pretty mediocre, and it only gets worse on his back half. If he can’t find two targets, his damage is too low on his early dial. His dial is short for his point cost.
CARDS TO CONSIDER: CONTINGENCY PLAN can offset the AV penalty on his double-target option of Galactic Marksman. The KINETIC ACCELERATOR is good to boost his Running Shot range. And if you’re not running him with any other Defenders, go ahead and put the powers-protecting GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY ATA on him.
IN SUM: A figure riddled with weaknesses nevertheless got a lot of support from readers to make the top 10 list because of its incredible versatility. Star-Lord is much better in practice than he looks on paper.
#9 is hardly a lord, taking us out of the stars but not out of the heavens…!

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Lately I’ve been making incredibly bad blunders in the game.
Even a couple of years into HeroClix, I regularly would make about one big rookie mistake per tournament. But these recent mental pratfalls take the cake!
=====================
Exhibit One: “Girrrl, I Got Your Back — oh, Never Mind.”
I was playing my 200-pt FOXEY LADIES team: Ghost Fox Killer 68 + Loner 5, Crimson Fox 44 + Lunge 5, E Vixen 38 + Lunge 5 and R Vixen 33
(Crimson Fox is one of those pieces I didn’t like at first but grew to love a little bit. I just don’t get that many chances to play her. This little theme was perfect.) And even in a 4-man battle royale opposing a Super Skrull from Supernova and a Contingency Plan-equipped Hammer of Thor Captain America teamed WITH “Out of the Shadows” (OOTS) Justice League Batman, they were holding their own, totally.
But you read the title of this blog post, right?
So we were on the Legion of Super-Heroes indoor map. Cap was cowering on the elevated portion and I took it upon myself to fight and tie him up with a Lunging E Vixen. I had him on the ropes, but Experience Vixen was taking damage, too…Cap’s no joke. Worse, OOTS Bats was waiting in the wings to warp to an object and blast her.
Fortunately, I had Rookie Vixen free and available to block Batman’s only possible line of fire. And even if she paid the ultimate price, E Vixen’s Suicide Squad TA would kick in and she’d heal at least 1 click, maybe 4. And so I moved R Vixen to that square.
And then, unthinkingly, I changed my mind and I moved R Vixen to another square. For no good reason.
E Vixen was quite reliably KO’d in short order. Meat shield FAIL.
====================
Exhibit Two: “That’s Why I’m Called INVINCI — oh, wait.”
It was a 3-way battle royal on the Arena. Invincible had just made a successful HSS KO of an enemy Thor. But instead of retreating well behind the battle lines, where remaining teammates Angstrom Levy, Omni-Man or Atom Eve might be able to shield him or back him up, I put him next to a weakened opposing Spider-Man…where my TK-equipped other opponent easily plonked down a Meteorite-carrying M-11.
Six clicks gone one easy die roll later. Hypersonic Speed FAIL.
====================
Exhibit Three: “Yeah, Let’s start CLOSER to danger.”
In a 400-point tourny using the Fantastic Four and Power Pack with the FF ATA, I picked three apt battlefield conditions:
Assembled. That’s good for a team full of the same team symbol.
Resistance. That’s even better for this team.
…Infiltration. Wait…what? Instead of Ordinary Day? Really?
It might look like a little thing, but it truly cost me the final championship match through this string of events:
  • I was unable to cancel out Deep Shadows, which
  • Allowed Lamppost Batman to hide in plain sight, which
  • Allowed him to Charge + Flurry + Lunge at his top speed value over and over, whereas he’d normally be much more constrained.
  • And with that many attack rolls, a 19 DV is going to get hit, sooner or later. In my case, sooner. And often.
BFC Selection FAIL.
====================
Exhibit Four: “So bad I can’t even write something cute here to minimize it.”
Once again playing a Guardians of the Galaxy team (700, 50% Floor Hammer of Thor), this time with the keyword:
V Starhawk 144 + Spotter 5
Phyla-Vell 138 + Protected 8
Star-Lord 90 + Contingency Plan 12 + Inside Information 4
E Vance Astro 70 + Ambidexterous 16
Rocket Raccoon 65
Yondu 53
R Aleta 51
Bug 44
= 700 points.

I found myself facing, first round, this team:
Thor & Loki 362
+ Immortal Contempt 10
+ Sidestep 10
+ two more feats I can’t recall. (Surprisingly not Protected or Thunderbolts, though.)
Sif 93
Asgardian Warrior 37
Asgardian Warrior 37
Asgardian Warrior 37
Asgardian Warrior 37
Asgardian Warrior 37
Yeah, pretty daunting. He won map and picked the Lab. Not much room to use my several ranged attackers.
That’s not what broke me, though. We got to a spot where I made some short-range Running Shots on his Warriors instead of Thor & Loki, not wanting to take Mystics damage just yet. That left the big duo free to push and Running Shot me or Duo Attack me…unLESS I used Bug to tie them up for a turn. It’s almost certain doom for him if he does. But he’s only 44 points and might hit Super Senses, anyway, even for both attacks. That pushes Thor & Loki and leaves him open for Phyla-Vell and others next turn, perhaps. No-brainer.
I ended my turn without moving him.
Consequently, T & L force me to burn all 3 of my theme PCs, my Protected, and they still manage to Sidestep next to Phyla to hit her with a heavy object and all but KO her. All because I refused to sacrifice a 44-point figure.
Really?
REALLY?
I mean, didn’t I write this review on the guy?
FAIL. On so many levels.
====================
Example Five: “Extinction Event Due to Stupidity”
600-point 4-way Battle Royale. I play an Animal theme on my choice of the Docks map:
Devil Dinosaur & Moon Boy 151
U Hawkman 115
Shathra 99
Sauron 77
Thor, Frog of Thunder 72
Gertrude Yorkes & Old Lace 54
In a battle royale against a bunch of New Avengers directly on my left, both Thor and Thor & Loki on my right and a quartet of Green Scar, Gamora, Susan Richards and CT Nightcrawler across the way.
Surrounded by all this, with my dinosaur-centric, by-far weakest team on the board, what do I do? Forget about first-turn immunity and move nearly everyone. I get triple-teamed almost immmediately and eventually wiped out with ease.
The worst of it is that I didn’t actually forget about first-turn immunity. I left two characters behind just for that purpose, and one was the first action I took. I can’t explain why I didn’t consider the rest of the team.
Consistent strategy FAIL.
====================
Exhibit Six: “How you like that handicap, sir?”
Some of you readers may have noticed that in Exhibit 4 I burned only three theme PCs on a team build that should have had four.
That’s because it wasn’t until I started to write up this article of fail that I realized I’d forgotten to actually put R Aleta on the field for all three games.

FAIL. EPIC FAIL.

I was going to write about what I learned from all this, but I’m too mad and depressed now. So I appeal to you, reader. What are some of your “favorite” personal moments of total FAIL in HeroClix?

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Dunn-duh-duh-DUNNNN-DUNN, Dunn-duh-duh-DUNNNN-DUNN...!

Ever since I saw the classic scene using the piece in Apocalypse Now, I’ve loved Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries.” So when we got a new set of Valkyries in Hammer of Thor, I set about getting a new set of the Sinister set’s versions to run this team.
RIDE OF THE VALKYRIES
SR Valkyrie 145 + C. Plan 12 + Protected 8
V Sin. Valkyrie 71
Brunnhilde 69
E Sin. Valkyrie 60 + Unstoppable 5
R Sin. Valkyrie 44
HoT Valkyrie 38
HoT Valkyrie 38 + Invigorate 10
= 500 points.
FIRST, I faced Paul’s Warriors Three (again), V Wildcat, E Jean Grey (Infinity Challenge), V Avalanche (Infinity Challenge), V Pyro (Infinity Challenge), Amanda Waller (Crisis) and Lian Harper. I picked the Junkyard map and assembled my team behind and upon the elevated portion of it. This gave SR Valkyrie a safe place to perform Move & Attack attacks from — with a decent AV thanks to Contingency Plan — and, because that ability is not a power action (but a move action), I could use Invigorate to remove the token afterward.
That allowed me to immediately remove Jean Grey’s TK threat and greatly reduce the Warriors’ attack ability. Even when Fandral came to the roof to Outwit her Leadership, he soon took 4 clicks to the face.
Unfortunately, despite deep damage, Jean, Fandral and Volstagg all managed to get away from my encroaching Valkyries. I only scored a KO on Wildcat and lost Brunnhilde, for a narrow victory despite my dominance of the game. 1-0.
THEN, I went against Conrad’s HoT Thor, Fenris Wolf, Gharskyght and HoT Spider-Man. I used the same strategy against the boy, with similar success despite Thor being a FAR more dangerous piece to this team than the Warriors Three, whom I was able to hold off by camping on a rooftop. That wasn’t an option against Thor. Fortunately, Thor failed his alpha strike on big Val and it was my game to lose. KO’d Thor, Gharskyght and Spidey and lost zip.
FINAL: 2-0. This was actually a nice redemption for a failed 200-point version of the team run about a week earlier:
200 point battle royale, first player out. No pieces over 70 points.
Brunnhilde 69 + Unstoppable 5
HoT Valkyrie 38 + Invigorate 10
HoT Valkyrie 38
HoT Valkyrie 38
= 198 points.
Lenny played SI Iron Fist + Protected + Lunge, V Mantis, V Mockingbird and Swarm. Paul ran Jimmy Woo and 4 HoT Ninjas. Conrad’s team was V Nocturne, Shatterstar, R Blink and R Sprite. Basically, Paul and Conrad fought while Lenny decimated my Valkyries despite my potential action advantage. A Lunging Iron Fist was utterly unstoppable. I was the loser, Lenny the winner on points.
(we now return you to the event dials and Atlas articles in progress.)

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E100 PLANET HULK

It's more than just a trophy for winning the Mutations & Monsters tournaments back in Fall '07.

Read the introduction to the series here.


WHAT TO BRING: see “The Setup.”

THE SETUP: When building their forces, each player can also choose characters with a combined point value of up to 200 points per 300 points of the game’s build total; no character chosen this way can have a point value more than 40 points. These characters are reinforcements. They remain outside the game until called upon by the Rebellion effect.
WHAT IT MEANS: This event dial absolutely must be built for in advance. It’s one of the reasons I wrote this series of articles!
—
TURN THE DIAL: Immediately after the resolution of a critical hit, and at the end of any turn in which a character takes 4 or more damage as a result of a single action, and at the end of each round.
WHAT IT MEANS: Despite the length of this dial, it will move fairly quickly.
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EXILE (Black, slots A-F): When a character is 4 or more squares from all other friendly characters, modify its defense value by +1.
WHAT IT MEANS: Field advance tie-up pieces to base enemy snipers and prevent them from attacking your team, or use the bonus to be aggressive with your main attacker(s) if that’s your style of play. Consider taking extra advantage of this effect by combining it with the LONER feat if you’re not running a keyword theme. Keep in mind that the Rule of Three will come into play and possibly nullify the defense bonus if an affected character has, say, Combat Reflexes or Energy Shield/Deflection. You’ll want to avoid running characters with powers or Team Abilities that require adjacency such as Mastermind or Justice Society if you want to use this effect.
—
OBEDIENCE DISK (Cyan, slots B-F): All characters’ Willpower are ignored. When a character uses a special power, give it an additional action token after the action resolved (the extra token deals pushing damage normally).
WHAT IT MEANS: Absolutely avoid using Special Powers like the plague…unless the character has the Indomitable ability, Power Cosmic/Quintessence, or some other means of avoiding pushing damage other than Willpower. Even in these cases, this effect prevents you from getting the usual extra round of actions, so it may be better to forget about using SPs entirely. Strongly consider going with some old-school non-SP’d pieces in this game!
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GLADIATOR (Red, slots C-J ): Any character that can’t use or doesn’t possess Blades/Claws/Fangs can be given a power action to use Blades/Claws/Fangs as a free action, but the maximum result of the roll to replace its damage value with this effect is 4. If damage dealt to or taken by a character is not otherwise reduced, roll a d6 when the character takes damage. On a result of 4-6, reduce the damage dealt by 2.
WHAT IT MEANS: A character with high attack value but low damage potential would be good for this.
—
ANARCHY (orange, slots I-O): When making an attack roll, roll 3d6 and choose two dice to be the result of the roll.
WHAT IT MEANS: More attacks will succeed during this phase, so if you’ve been biding your time, this is the moment to strike! If you’re running a themed team, you may want to use your bonus Probability Control rolls now, especially given the next condition coming up immediately…
—
REBELLION (yellow, slots J-X): At the beginning of each player’s turn, that player must choose a character from his or her Reinforcements and put it into his or her starting area. Once the character enters the game, it is considered part of the player’s force.
WHAT IT MEANS: Those extra 200 points of characters begin to enter the game and will remain until the end. If you’re running a themed team, your new Reinforcements have to match the keyword or they will break the theme when they enter and cause you to lose any unused bonus Probability Control rolls, so either A) build some or all of them into the theme or B) use up the PC rolls before adding the keyword-unfriendly pieces to the match. Also, build them to make an impact to the game. (I recommend Perplexers.)
—
ALLEGIANCE (Blue, slots K-S): The first time (only) Allegiance shows in the slot, each player must choose a character to be the Leader of his or her force. Friendly characters adjacent to their Leader modify their defense values by +2. If the Leader of a force does not have an action token at the beginning of its controller’s turn, it must be given an action that turn.
WHAT IT MEANS: Because you gain a defense boost for adjacent allies, it might be prudent to build in a highly mobile Reinforcement piece to enter the game first to act as Leader. That way, it can immediately back up (and, perhaps, taxi out of harm’s way) wounded primary pieces.
—
POSSESSED BY THE SPIKES (Green, slots N-T): Once during each player’s turn, one of his or her characters can be given a power action to use Mind Control as if its range value were 6.
WHAT IT MEANS: Pretty straightforward. No way to build for this; it adds an element of randomness to the late-game action.
—
CHEMMING (Gray, slots T-X): When one of your characters has resolved an action, you can give the action token for the action to any friendly character that has zero action tokens and that is 8 or fewer squares away from your character and to which your character has a clear line of fire.
WHAT IT MEANS: This is Warbound-plus! The Indomitable (or Power Cosmic/Quintessence) character(s) you fielded for the OBEDIENCE DISK effect will pay off big here both as a giver or recipient of tokens. Willpower works, too, but you’re less able to plan for using it at this stage in the game. Also note that this is in force until the end of the game.
—
ARMAGEDDON (Brown, slot X): At the beginning of each round, roll a d6. Deal all characters penetrating damage equal to half the result.
WHAT IT MEANS: Because this is a red-lined event dial, there’s no escaping this deadly effect. Regeneration might be helpful, but really, the best bet is to try to get as many KO points as you can before ARMAGEDDON does everyone in.
—
SUMMING IT UP: This long event dial is a blast. Aside from the Reinforcements effect, it’s not too unfriendly to most any team build you can cobble together. You just have to make sure you have enough cheap pieces in your collection to act as Reinforcements.
Since we’re going in chronological order, the next installment will begin reviewing the first DC dials from the CRISIS set. Look for it soon!

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E006 TIME BOMB

THE SETUP: Up to four time bombs can be played in this game. Beginning with the second player and continuing around the table, each player places one time bomb event dial in any square of clear or hindering terrain that is also 4 or more squares from all starting areas and other time bombs. If there is no square in which a time bomb can legally be placed, it can’t be played.
WHAT IT MEANS: This is the only dial so far that can be used in multiples, and, as such, is a tad more collectible than the rest.
—
MORE SETUP: A square occupied by a Time Bomb is considered to be hindering terrain. A Time Bomb can’t be moved or destroyed.
WHAT IT MEANS: You can’t do this. 🙂
It also means more squares for Stealthy figs to hide on! But note that occupying does not equal adjacency, so this character would not be able to defuse the Bomb (or, weirdly, even be affected by its detonation).
—
TURN THE DIAL: At the end of each turn, roll 2d6 and subtract from the result the number of other Time Bombs on the battlefield. Turn this Time Bomb if the result is 6 or more.
WHAT IT MEANS: The clock is ticking, but not at a predictable rate.
—
EXTRA WIN CONDITIONS: 30 additional victory points for each Time Bomb defused to the team whose character defused it.
WHAT IT MEANS: It’s another way to win. But since you may well spend many more points trying to defuse Time Bombs, it may not be worth it. You decide.
—
CAN’T SMASH…WHICH WIRE TO CUT? (red, slots A-H): A character adjacent to this Time Bomb can be given a power action to make a close combat attack roll. If the attack roll is 14, this Time Bomb is defused and removed from the game. If the result is 11-13 or 15-17, turn back this Time Bomb once.
WHAT IT MEANS: You may want to field pieces with mediocre Attack Values. This is because, statistically, 7 is the median roll and you’re aiming for an exact result of 14. These characters should be cheap and devoted solely to your “bomb squad.” Also note that even most failing rolls will help keep the Bomb from reaching the next condition, DETONATION!
—
DETONATION! (yellow, slots D-H): At the beginning of each players turn, that player rolls a d6. On a result of 1 or 2, this Time Bomb immediately makes an attack using Pulse Wave as if it had an attack of 10, a range of 8, and a damage value of 3. after the attack is resolved, remove this Time Bomb from the game.
WHAT IT MEANS: You’ll still want to field a defuser or two. Although the latest HeroClix rules prevent adjacent characters from making ranged attacks, the Time Bomb is not a character and would thus still be able to Pulse Wave. In this worst-case-scenario, having at least one defuser there would minimize the damage to other characters (or at least only sacrifice itself if the only piece in range).
—
SUMMING IT UP: Time Bomb is a simple, mostly unobtrusive event dial. More than any of the others, Time Bomb is like playing a Battlefield Condition.
That wraps up all the e-dials one could pull in Mutations and Monsters boosters. Next is the grandest one of all, the first Limited Edition dial: PLANET HULK! Be there!