I was so proud of myself. I had a team of Chris Claremont-era New Mutants all set for this 800-point Golden Age event:

Cannonball [Wolverine & the X-Men 071] 92

Mirage [Wolverine & the X-Men 004] 75

Magma [Wolverine & the X-Men 073] 77

Wolfsbane [WizKids M15-002] 64

Warlock [Wolverine & the X-Men 046] 164

Sunspot [Wolverine & the X-Men 018] 76

Lila Cheney[WizKids M17-015] 25

Magik [Xavier’s School 038] 75

Cypher [Xavier’s School 021]  70

Karma [Xavier’s School 022] 40

+ New Mutants ATA 4

=798 points

 

It faced Mateo’s Deadpool Corps theme of Pool Captain, Headpool, Venompool, Hulkpool, Pirate Deadpool with the Merc Jet special terrian on the ROC Prison map.

And boy did I do poorly.This entire team and game was a near-total failure. Almost nothing went right:

• Marched the whole squad next to the Merc Jet because…? It’s not like I had a lot of ranged shooters good at taking cover there. Mirage’s 7 range is about the extent of it, and she’s just an Incap piece. FAILURE: Mental
• She was also one of the only figs I left behind because I forgot Lila carries FOUR, not three. FAILURE: Mental
• Opted to try to TK Karma for her to try to Mind Control three of the ‘Pools, after Perplexing her 10 AV to 11. FAILURE: Mental (You’ll see)
• But Pool Captain, the main need-to-hit target, got his Shape Change. FAILURE: Dice
• Then I missed the other two available targets by one. FAILURE: Dice
• Karma in turn failed her Shape Change to get one-shot. FAILURE: Dice
• It wasn’t until MUCH later that I remembered that Warlock’s Perplex allows +2 to most stats so Karma’s missed MC actually would have landed. FAILURE: Mental
• I then tried holing up in a room because that worked OK in this game. But I picked a very wrong room, allowing Pirate Deadpool to Running Shot open a wall for an easy shot with Pool Captain…
• …especially when Mirage rolled 1 on her Shape Change SP that gives a DV boost on 3-4. She was crippled for the rest of the game. FAILURE: Mental/Dice
• Subsequent attacks on Pirate and Captain with Cannonball, Sunspot and Wolfsbane all failed, multiple turns in a row. FAILURE: Dice
• Magma and Warlock, in position to either fight or Poison, got the chance to do neither. She was one-turned and he was stuck mostly trying not to die with Regen but too open to enemy fire thanks to my bad positioning. FAILURE: Mental
• Cannonball was KO’d turns later, unable to ever break away. FAILURE: Construction (you’ll see) and Dice
• Sunspot was also never able to break away. Wolfsbane was ALSO never able to break away, and so Cypher was as useless in this fight as in the 1980s comics. FAILURE: Dice
• Magik tried to get the near-dead Mirage to where she could at least KO the Parrot Bob bystander (and its annoying Perplex) but the bird broke away and Mirage was an easy KO. FAILURE: Dice
• Eventually Magik got back to her remaining teammates Sunspot, Wolfsbane and Cypher and was able to evac them to a better vantage point instead of being tied down against Pirate Deadpool. And Sunspot, later hit onto Running Shot Pulse Wave, actually scored my only KO of the evening when Parrot Bob was caught in the blast. But he was not long for the world, and his blast also caught Wolfsbane, who was then unable to follow up. FAILURE: General
• Cypher, despite a STOP and Shape Change, was KO’d in a single turn. That left just Wolfsbane, whose unkillability factor finally failed, and Magik, who finally got forced to become the Darkchylde but died immediately. FAILURE: General

UGH!

I mean, this isn’t a really optimized team, sure, and those Deadpool figs are massively powerful with their comic panel powers and Rainbow markers and speech bubble abilities. But I had kind of the worst time running this team as well, from construction on down.

By piece:

CANNONBALL

I chose the 92-pointer from WATX because he had the right look for the era and the points worked out best (the 125-pointer is too costly and not any better). But I should have stuck with the best option in my collection: the 75-point version from Deadpool & X-Force, which brings more mobility, damage and longevity.

CYPHER

His Outwit protection was useless against a team with no Outwit. But he was misplayed as well, being stuck in the back row when he needs to be a meat shield in front to become a fighter.

KARMA

I hate Mind Control, but she ought to work. Didn’t. Team rises or falls with her to an extent.

LILA CHENEY

Vital taxi, but I missed an ATA moment that might’ve saved the more important Warlock after her use as a taxi might have expired.

MAGIK

Still one of the worst figures in Modern Age, but I wanted to pull off the switch to the Darkchylde version. Problem: She only gets Prob when she loses her armor and all her fighting is up close. She’s just a mess and the switch is hardly a lock. But she’s too costly at 115 and I lose that extra taxi.

MAGMA

Want her to work SO MUCH. Maybe one day.

MIRAGE

Another who needs to lead off with her range (being the only actual shooter of team) and mild protection of Shape Change-plus.

SUNSPOT

Decent bruiser (Willpower is key) who transforms into a shooter late game but he didn’t work out this time.

WARLOCK

I always misplay him. Never pick right power. Forget his +2 Perplex. Either hold him back or overextend, never succeed. No M+A kills him and I feel like the vehicle option is bad.

WOLFSBANE

Only thing that worked for the team was her wild dial. Did not roll a single bad result until the final turn of our 2.5 hour game. And because she worked…

NEW MUTANTS ATA

…THIS worked. She absorbed so much damage.

———

I’m going to try this force out again sometime. But I will likely swap Magik and Mirage into their Regenesis options — assuming I can get both pieces.