So early this summer, I got the latest Falcon pieces and built this force:

Falcon [Sinister 055] 30
Falcon [Sinister 056] 46
Falcon [WizKids M17-007] 50
The Hydra (Falcon) [Earth X 026] 50
Sam Wilson [Sinister 207] 53
Falcon [Sinister 057] 57
Snap Wilson [Sinister 219] 60
Falcon [Avengers Black Panther Illuminati] 60
Falcon [Civil War Storyline 023] 70
Falcon [Avengers Black Panther Illuminati] 75
Falcon [Avengers 036] 75
Falcon [Avengers Assemble 017] 75
Falcon [Captain America Winter Soldier 103] 75
Falcon [Captain America 030] 79
Falcon [Captain America Civil War 008] 85 + I’m With Cap 5
Falcon [Captain America Civil War 004] 95 + I’m With Cap 5
Falcon [Captain America Winter Soldier 006] 105
Captain America [Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD 049] 130

=1280 points of every single Samuel Wilson/Falcon in HeroClix. Needed something suitable to face it with. Hey, look what added up to just about the same points?

Archangel [Critical Mass 042] 68
Warren Worthington III [Critical Mass 214] 71
Angel [Danger Room 003] 50
Archangel [Mutations and Monsters 034] 95
Archangel [Giant-Size X-Men 104] 86
Archangel [Giant-Size X-Men 049] 99
Angel [Giant-Size X-Men 031] 50
Archangel [Wolverine and the X-Men 067] 99
Angel [Days of Future Past 005] 74
Dark Angel [Uncanny X-Men 049] 200
Angel [Uncanny X-Men 035] 75
Angel [Uncanny X-Men Fast Forces 003] 50
Angel [Xavier’s School 061] 60
Angel [Xavier’s School 051] 60
Angel [WizKids M-019] 65
Angel [X-Men Regenesis 015] 70
Angel ID card [Xavier’s School XID-016] 5

=1277 points of (nearly) every Warren Worthington III in HeroClix circa July 2019.

Played on the ROC Ziplines map.

Angels made the first move, having the range advantage. GSX Angel’s full Charge with a light object nailed 105-point WS Falcon despite his being almost on the back row, costing his ability to give himself and Cap Sidestep or Enhancement or Empower, which would have been a problem against Dark Angel:

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST: Opposing characters of 75 points or less modify their attack and damage values by -1 when attacking Dark Angel.

And Dark Angel was the next big attack to come, especially after the advance Falcons (Civil War and prime) AND one of Redwings UTTERLY failed against GSX SR Archangel due to dice and Shape Change.

Dark Angel landed another hit on WS Falcon to remove him from the board and Regenesis Angel Charged deep into the midst of the shooting Falcons to prevent them from ganging up on the elevated Dark Angel — bashing LE Falcon (and costing the team one of its Leaderships) in the process.

The Falcons now needed to either break away from or KO these two Angels (Regenesis and GSX) to try to deal with Dark Angel. But first things first: Civil War Falcon used his auto breakaway Charge to Quake SR Archangel and a corps of other Angels centered around the XXS SR for a massive critical hit! That would free up prime Falcon to try against Dark Angel after the big guy hopefully got softened up by Captain America and the ranged Falcons over 75 points.

Unfortunately, out of five separate attacks, only one range and one close attack each against Dark Angel succeeded and he was left on his deadly Hypersonic Flurry Blades clicks with two of the Falcon squad ripe for the wings of death, no breakaway even needed.

TURNING POINT

Dark Angel missed both attacks, one critically.

That sent him running (and willingly pushing) to a far corner to eventually heal with his SP Regen. But without that massive threat on the Angels’ side (and him being harrassed and forced to rely on his heals rather than fighting in earnest), eventually the Falcons were able to overwhelm the mutants, despite a valiant stand.

I am going to replay this match next year (with build total boosted to 1400, likely) when the new Captain America-centric set is released, as another version of Falcon as Cap will be available. Then I can add in both the Regenesis LE prize Archangel and the new Dark Phoenix set SR (and maybe one of the old Critical Mass figs that were relegated to ID Card duty this go-round) and see if the mutants will be ascendant this time…!

Heroclixin’ has written about The Authority a number of times, it being a whole team that was my collective No. 2 favorite of 2014. In 2017, it was joined by Planetary to combine for one of the two most damaging rounds ever played.

Itching to play this team, I wound up accepting/making a challenge against my good buddy Chadd to see if I could keep my success streak with the squad going.

At first we were going to do a simple, friendly 1300-point match with him playing an appropriately villainous squad of Crime Syndicate. But when Ambrose Chase was revealed in spring 2019, it threw the points off. Then Chadd came up with an Apokolips force to be reckoned with: a bunch of Female Furies from Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls set joined by Steppenwolf, Brimstone (both from 2015’s Superman/Wonder Woman) and led by the fearsome Darkseid [Justice League Strategy Game 005]!

Whoa, so strong. This 1400-point team hurls the Furies at you, tying you up with Knockout, Stompa, Harriet and especially Lashina while Bernadeth poisons you slowly. Meanwhile, Granny, Barda and Supergirl PPB you to death from range.

And then there’s Darkseid in the back, shooting through nearly everything with a double power action SP for penetrating damage.

I saw no way to victory or even a fun game with Jenny Quantum on the team. Having 3-4 Probs on a team but only ever getting to use one takes away one of my main weapons. And she and Jenny Sparks don’t exist in the same time, anyway. So she had to go and we took the build total down to 1300 points.

But I was still worried for my squad. Most of these pieces are nearly 5 years old and power creep in Heroclix is real, y’all. If I was going to stand any chance in this matchup, I needed to bring my A (for “Authority”) game and not play by the seat of my Planetary as usual.

I built this stand-in force to practice:

Bernadeth [Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls 040] 50

Knockout* [Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls 006] 50

Mad Harriet [Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls 022] 50

Stompa [Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls 007] 50

Lashina [Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls 056] 75

Big Barda [Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls 023a] 125

Granny Goodness [Harley Quinn and the Gotham Girls 046] 125

Steppenwolf [Superman/Wonder Woman 058] 135

Brimstone [Superman/Wonder Woman G003] 150

Lex Luthor [Rebirth 051] @100 (standing in for the Supergirl I didn’t yet have)

Darkseid [Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes 044] @ 350 (in place of the Darkseid I don’t own)

=1260 points

This Darkseid has similar Outwit resistance and 10-range line of fire cheating as the SJLSG version — for lighter damage (5 damage, non-penetrating) but greater swing (Running Shot) and greater frequency of attack. He might be *better* than the other one.

And here’s “Planetarauthority”

Ambrose Chase @ 90 + Force Field 10

Apollo @ 200 + Alias 3

Doctor @ 110 + Force Field 10

The Drummer 40

Elijah Snow @ 120 + Stunning Blow 10

Engineer @ 175 + Invigorate 10

Jack Hawksmoor + Lunge 5

Jakita Wagner 80 + Unstoppable 5

Jenny Sparks 125 + Contingency Plan 12

Midnighter @ 100 + Opportunist 10 + Infiltrate 2  

Swift 90 + Lunge 5

=1297 points.

Lots of feats. Part of this practice game’s purpose was to see if they’re necessary.

I chose a semi-random map among three old ROC prizes. Ended up indoors, an advantage to Authority but not much.

Immediately, my initial intended moves with the Authority (TK with both Engineer and Jack) were nullified by having absolutely no lines of fire. So I set up very conservatively behind blocking.

On the Apokolips side, I also advanced immediately out of the start zone to not get caught in the Jack Hawksmoor effect.

TURNING POINTS

Despite a double-layered Barrier built by Snow, Lex and Barda smashed it to give Darkseid a shot on Midnighter, who barely lived. Then I BoomTubed with Granny and Sidestepped Lashina to thoroughly gum up attack lanes. No one was going to be able to move without encountering her 3-square Plasticity zone.

But in advancing her, I’d miscalculated the number of range attacks Lashina was vulnerable to and still had enough actions left to deal more clicks. Lashina was KO’d, Granny was grievously hurt (by Jenny), and Bernadeth was left near death while Midnighter got evac’d to get healed by Engineer the same turn (and de-tokened by Invigorate).

It was still a tough fight for the Authority, as Brimstone, Luthor and Stompa really put some work in. But while their momentum slowed and Darkseid ever threatened, the good guys never lost progress, eventually taking even him down with Ambrose, Apollo, Engineer, Elijah and Jakita left standing.

———

“REMATCH”

I thought I needed to run this practice again. I accidentally forgot to actually put Knockout on the team, and I thought she could be a really key addition for just a few extra points. I also remembered I had Superman, God of Strength to stand in for the 200-point Supergirl piece (removing the Lex Luthor). Finally, I needed to see how the team would do on a less constricted map.

 

Current mood/situation:

I played a lot of HeroClix in 11 days. I want to write about it all but it’s too much. Still, watch this space for a bunch of battle reports including:

 

THE ROAD TO DRAGONCON

Training, training, and more training with Planetary/Authority

 

FLASHBACK TO MOMOCON 2018

Legion vs. Starfleet

 

BATTLES OF DRAGONCON

Phoenix Fight: Jeans Grey vs. Cyclopses

Bat-Fam vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Planetary/Authority vs. Starfleet

Challenge of the X-Men/Titans

Duel of the Faves 2018 Edition

 

But what’s fresher on my mind and memory was the trip to HeroClix World Championship at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee.

Upon learning that Worlds would be a mere six hours away by car this year, I decided to cross off an item on my bucket list and attend, if even only for a day trip. Heroclixin’ Board Member Taylor vowed to come with. (Sceritz is too busy promoting his promising new comic Scorpio to be able to afford the trip.)

Fortunately, longtime clix buddy Brian R. had the idea and foresight to suggest staying overnight for a special package that included a pair of convention exclusive LEs — each of which represented a must-have for Taylor and I. So the three of us piled into my car and headed west.

Once there, we picked up some convention exclusives on our wishlists and then dove into multiple battle royals using the soon-to-release X-Men The Animated Series: The Dark Phoenix Saga set.

We had a grand time at Worlds, where 14-year-old HeroClix prodigy Isaac Arnold-Berkovits won the world championship (after taking the U.S. National title in 2018 and the ROC World Cup even earlier in 2015). It was a bucket list item for me, but the three of us all started making plans to try attending in 2020 if it were to be held at Graceland again — and to perhaps make a longer trip of it.

As is our custom here at Heroclixin’, we present a pocket checklist for X-Men The Animated Series: The Dark Phoenix Saga. Click and download from the link below:

 

X-Men2019checklists

As a bonus, here is a mini-checklist for the summer 2019 Storyline OP event, X-Men:Regenesis:

XMenRegenesis