After Part I, Part II and Part III, it’s time for the last part of these changes: the Comprehensive Rules. And they start with this new card design:

I’m not sure how much I like this change.

• YES, having the Improved symbols next to everything else important is good.
• But wait NO, the team symbol ISN’T next to everything else important. So what the heck
• YES, the full sculpt image is kinda nice.
• But NO, I do not like the wasted space on the back.
• Especially because NO, I do not like the loss of flavor text.
• YES, the lighter design is kinda nice-looking.
• But NO the dial info is more cluttered and harder to read — AND on the front, which we didn’t like when they first proposed it in 2016 and we still don’t really like now. But…..¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But this isn’t a game changer. Actual game changes are game changers. And there are a few!

 

SPIDER-SENSE TA!

• The Spider-Man team ability is no longer wild card but now Super Senses on a 6 or +1 if they already can use Senses. A welcome change even though some weird characters will suddenly get extra dodgy (Luke Cage).

 

KNOCK BACK PAIN

• It’s confirmed: Hitting walls/blocking or falling off elevated deals 1 damage. With boosts to Quake, Force Blast and less immunity from knock back since the 2021 change, this could get wild. I’m here for it.

 

R.I.P. TEAM TEAMS

They’ve nerfed Themed Teams in two important ways.

• Every themed team gets +3 to first player roll, regardless of team size, because the old “+3 to your opponent’s roll” language was very confusing. I think they SHOULD have made it exactly like the Rule of Three, but they didn’t ask me. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (This game would be way better if they asked me)
• Theme Team Prob is GONE. They said a lot of flimflam about it only really aiding alpha strikes which, like old-school Super Strength attacks, they’ve kinda been dialing back (while still making figs like Sky Tyrant ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ). So they just removed it. I’m kinda very OK with this even though I kinda hate it.

 

WALL CLIMBING … SORTA

• One change we saw coming in the look at the PAC last week but now is confirmed: Every character can climb elevation. They just have to immediately stop (like in the old hindering terrain movement rules) when they switch elevation unless they have the right improved movement or at the red diamond transition point. This stops easy tactics of bottlenecking rooftops against non-fliers, for instance. (There’s a related rule keeping you from setting terrain up at the transition points, too.)

This is a FANTASTIC change and we can’t wait to see how dynamic it makes gameplay.

 

ACTIVE PLAY

• So this one is a little complicated. For ages, if two or more effects had simultaneous timing, the active player would decide the order of resolving those effects. Now, the players owning each effect, starting with the active player, will choose the order, sort of. It’s hard to explain without coming up with some corner case example, so I’m not gonna bother. The short version: The attacking player doesn’t get to just order stuff to their own advantage anymore.

 

SHRINKING SIDELINE

• Old rule allowed you to pack 3 sideline pieces per 100 points of the build, MAX: 15. Now it’ll just be 2 per 100. But anything can go on the sideline, not just things with a specific interaction with a starting element. I like this change a lot — in the height of the ID card era, it was sooo common to see way more pieces off the field than on it. And that’s just wrong IMO.

 

That’s it! This is a much more substantive rule shift than they said at the outset. But overall they’re mostly positive in my opinion. What say you? Leave a comment!