Heroclixin' ...it's all about F.U.N.

MY "kooky quartet" of Avengers.

Captain America (Hammer of Thor) 72
SR Hawkeye (Avengers) 56
SR Wasp (Avengers) 37
SR Scarlet Witch (Avengers) 35
+ Eleha’al Vine 0
+ Kinetic Accelerator 0
+ Dynamostat 0
=200 points.

FIRST MATCH: Charlie answered the question: “Who Watches the Watchmen?” by running Rorschach, Nite Owl, and the 83-point Comedian. I got to pick the Monument map, which is very good for Cap. Despite getting the first shots off, I made a crucial error by choosing to attack The Comedian with Scarlet Witch instead of running her away. The misogynist took her right out before taking down Hawkeye and Wasp. Cap was too much for Nite Owl to pin down, though, and he finished the rest of Charlie’s team. 1-0.

SECOND MATCH: Jessica attempted to blind me with Scientists Dr. Octopus (Secret Invasion), Beast (Mutations & Monsters) and Goliath (Secret Invasion). She’s a solid player but still a fairly recent one; she’d never seen Captain America in action before. Once Doc Ock was knocked off his Outwit, I had an easy time of it, losing only Hawkeye for the win. 2-0.

FINAL MATCH: Vic played an unofficial Black Lantern Corps theme of Nekron and Black Hand (Justice League). Vic decided to tie up only Cap instead of my whole team with Nekron, enabling Scarlet Witch to easily spirit Cap away. Clutch breakaway rolls in subsequent rounds also helped seal a victory as I whittled away at the dark villain.

UNDEFEATED! At 200 points, this Avengers team is very solid for a number of reasons. A) The Avengers team ability gives them an unparalleled action and positioning advantage, especially because B) two of them are dedicated taxis. C) Cap’s power enables the team to maintain great offensive pressure even when Hawkeye is hampered. But that doesn’t mean Hawkeye is useless, as D) he represents a 2nd source of 3 damage to deal with Invulnerability/Impervious. E) Wasp makes a good tie-up piece, too, and F) Cap’s Leadership allows that 3rd attack to really maintain the offensive or land a KO blow.

Truth be told, I almost skipped this week. I played zero games last weekend, which is unusual for me. But I had this one in the vault (played back last spring or sometime) and decided to stick to my schedule.

I love playing Atlas even though they’re tough to win with.

Venus
HoT Jimmy Woo
Gorilla-Man
Namora
M-11
AV Thug
AV Thug
AV Thug
AV Thug  
=395 points.

FIRST match was against Lenny and his sharp cheddar cheese team of SI Dr. Strange, OOTS Batman, Gamora, and HoT Captain America on my choice of the Armor Wars Lab map. Ugh! Two pieces with nearly unlimited Line of Fire powers and two ultra-effective cheap fighters — all with an effective 18 or better defense!

This was a real chessmatch at first. Lenny quietly bided his time while I largely refused to attack. If I dared attempt a Charge with Namora, no matter how I positioned her she’d be counterattacked by all four of Lenny’s fighters (thanks to Cap and the Doc’s unique line of fire abilities) and have nearly zero chance to survive. So I made him burn actions with convenient Thugs as targets so I could make a safer approach by tying up Cap and bringing Venus in close to multi-Incap targets (careful to block Batman’s line of fire). Eventually KO’d Cap but lost Gorilla Man and 3 Thugs for the loss. 0-1 (which felt like a win against all that cheese, though).

SECOND was a match against Lenny’s teenage friend Tony: Odin, HoT Spider-Man and Asgardian Warrior. His inexperience won this for me — he refused to push Odin most rounds despite the character’s ability to do so without cost via the Power Cosmic team ability. That allowed my sorely wounded Namora and Venus to escape while Thug after Thug tied up Odin long enough to preserve my 96-28 victory. 1-1.

FINALLY I went vs. Conrad: HoT Cap, Kurse, M+M Wolverine and Spider-Thor, once more on the Armor Wars map. The teenager remains a somewhat reckless player, but this time his tactics were pretty solid as he smashed my cover behind walls, my Accelerator, and constantly stole my reusable Generator to use against me.

Fortunately, Namora was able to land her initial attack, getting Wolverine out for an insurmountable lead. Venus was also invaluable against the Impervious Kurse, Incapacitating him over and over. Lost G-Man and all Thugs but wiped all but Cap for the win.

FINAL: 2-1. This was the first time I’ve really gotten Venus into the thick of things, and she worked out all right with her Incap-everybody SP. I wasn’t afraid sometimes to not use her Mastermind to gain her Perplex. Similarly, as Thugs dwindled and my need for extra actions waned, I opted to push Woo to his Perplex clicks as well, usually using his SHIELD TA to do it.

Namora continued to disappoint. If she misses that initial Charge, she’s kinda done. But when she works, she works oh so well, as in the last match. Gorilla-Man was close to being MVP with his KO of Batman and taking tons of damage for Venus and tying up foes and landing a crit hit on Odin and whatnot.

But the element most key were the Thugs. These pogs, representing the faceless minions of Atlas, served many roles such as blocking LOF, tying up, MM fodder and even the occasional attack. This Modern Age team doesn’t work half as well without them.