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The Iron Campaign.
The first time I played an all-Iron Man team was in February 2008, an 800-pointer made up of Hulkbuster and some of the Armor Wars pieces. It went an anemic 1-2, with one loss being at the hands of an all-Hulk team and my own unwitting, first-time use of the Krakoa The Living Island Battlefield Condition that hurt me WAY more than them, and the other loss being a total wipeout (thanks in no small part to a single-target Pulse Wave that got Probability Controlled FIVE TIMES into a successful hit). A later game that June with the same point build garnered an identical record due to my non-calling for many T-Bolt Mystics damage clicks (though this time I won over an all-Hulk team). Yet another mostly-Iron Swarm team from August (a 2000-pointer half made of the Illuminati and the other half Iron Man figures) got the same 1-2 result.
So, for my birthday last week, I finally got to run a huge swarm of every Iron Man-related figure in my collection!
V Iron Man (X-Plosion) 189 + Trick Shot 20
Iron Man 188 + Brilliant Tactician 20
V Iron Man (Armor Wars) 172
Hulkbuster 165
Iron Man (Supernova) 160 + Stunning Blow 10
Iron Man (Avengers) 154
Tony Stark 150
Iron Man (Ultimates) 144
E Iron Man (Armor Wars) 135 + Mercenary 15
V War Machine 124
Spider-Man (Avengers) 111
E War Machine 109
U Iron Man (Mutations & Monsters) 100 + Protected 8 +Vendetta 6
Anthony Stark 100 + Outsmart 10
U Iron Man (Armor Wars) 89
R Iron Man (Armor Wars) 89
Guardsman 32
= 2300 points.
In a battle royale against Psicardi’s “ladies’ night” team featuring Ms. Marvel (Skrull), Wonder Woman (Arkham Asylum), Moondragon, Chase Spider-Woman and a full 6 Cuckoos, among many more; Lord Timothy (aka Bilbo3000) and his Parallax, CR Mordru, AV Ares, Magus, SN Thanos, Immortus and more; and Lenny’s JL Superman, AV Silver Surfer, SI Iron Man, CR Green Lantern, Gamora, Iron Spider, CR Green Arrow, OOTS Batman and the like.
RESULT: Took 75 points, lost 344, by far the worst showing on the map.
The next day, I got a fun game in a 6-person Battle Royale, again playing an Iron Man squad:
Iron Man 188
U Iron Man (Mutations & Monsters) 100
Paramedic 8
= 296 points.
RESULT: I was the first one wiped, since we had a special rule that prevented teams from pouncing on the nearest enemies (and me from targeting most of the weaker players on the board).
The NEXT day, I got another shot with an Iron Team:
SI Iron Man 188 + Inside Information 4 + Thunderbolts 10 (Ultimates)
AV Spider-Man 111 + Lunge 5
Spider-Girl 77 + Lunge 5
This game was a Father’s Day holdover in which 2 figures on the team had to be a father and his offspring.
RESULT: I beat Nathaniel Richards, his son FF Reed Richards, his son Franklin Richards, V Corsair and his sons V Havok and V IC Cyclops and a couple more pogs. Lost the Spiders, though.
Finally, I played one more Stark swarm:
U Iron Man (Mutations & Monsters) 100
Anthony Stark 100 + Outsmart 10 + Alpha Flight 0
U Iron Man (Armor Wars) 89 + Alpha Flight 0
R Iron Man (Armor Wars) 89 + Alpha Flight 0 + Armor Piercing 10
= 398 points.
against a Warskrull, V Vampire Lackey and White Martian x3 team and a JL team of CR Green Lantern, CR Green Arrow, OR Carter Hall and LE Atom.
RESULT: I was wiped first and scored no KOs.
So, with my weekend record a dismal 1-3, my Stark Industries-centric teams have sunk to a sorry 4-9 record.
This just cannot be tolerated. I REFUSE to leave it at this. I WILL make the Iron Man swarm a success. Looking back at my losses, I see some common factors besides the poor dice rolls:
–the worst BFC selection possible for a match.
–forgetting key abilities like Mystics or the Alpha Flight AV boost.
–not leveraging this theme’s range advantage for all its worth — or having a contingency for when it can’t.
–inability to deal the damage when needed.
Most of the above elements are user error, not build-inherent. And future posts will detail

Thus begins the Iron Campaign.

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I often refer to my Inner-12-Year-Old when I play Iron Man in HeroClix, and the above cover is a big reason why. It was at that age that I first discovered the character.

(Interestingly, the first issue I ever bought was the last one starring Tony Stark in the armor for nearly 2.5 years. As a young black kid yearning for superheroes who looked like me, I was instantly hooked by James Rhodes becoming Iron Man.)

Anyhow, a lot of years have passed since then. It took the great movie to get me truly interested in Iron Man again. But even before then, thoughts of that classic cover always sparked a desire to play an Iron Man swarm team.

The first time I played an all-Iron Man team was in February 2008, an 800-pointer made up of Hulkbuster and some of the Armor Wars pieces. It went an anemic 1-2, with one loss being at the hands of an all-Hulk team, and the other loss being a total wipeout (thanks in no small part to a single-target Pulse Wave that got Probability Controlled FIVE TIMES into a successful hit).

A later game that June with the same point build garnered an identical record due to my non-calling for many T-Bolt Mystics damage clicks (though this time I won over an all-Hulk team). Yet another mostly-Iron Swarm team from August (a 2000-pointer half made of the Illuminati and the other half Iron Man figures) got the same 1-2 result.

So, for my birthday last week, I finally got to run a huge swarm of every Iron Man-related figure in my collection!

V Iron Man (X-Plosion) 189 + Trick Shot 20
Iron Man (Secret Invasion) 188 + Brilliant Tactician 20
V Iron Man (Armor Wars) 172
Hulkbuster 165
Iron Man (Supernova) 160 + Stunning Blow 10
Iron Man (Avengers) 154
Tony Stark 150
Iron Man (Ultimates) 144
E Iron Man (Armor Wars) 135 + Mercenary 15
V War Machine 124
Spider-Man (Avengers) 111
E War Machine 109
U Iron Man (Mutations & Monsters) 100 + Protected 8 +Vendetta 6
Anthony Stark 100 + Outsmart 10
U Iron Man (Armor Wars) 89
R Iron Man (Armor Wars) 89
Guardsman 32

= 2300 points.

In a battle royale against Psicardi’s “ladies’ night” team featuring Ms. Marvel (Skrull), Wonder Woman (Arkham Asylum), Moondragon, Chase Spider-Woman and a full complement of six Cuckoos, among many more; Lord Timothy (aka Bilbo3000) and his Parallax, CR Mordru, AV Ares, Magus, SN Thanos, Immortus and more; and Lenny’s JL Superman, AV Silver Surfer, SI Iron Man, CR Green Lantern, Gamora, Iron Spider, CR Green Arrow, OOTS Batman and the like.

RESULT: Took 75 points, lost 344, by far the worst showing on the map.

The next day, I got a fun game in a 6-person Battle Royale, again playing an Iron Man squad:

Iron Man (Secret Invasion) 188
U Iron Man (Mutations & Monsters) 100
Paramedic 8

= 296 points.

RESULT: I was the first one wiped, since we had a special rule that prevented teams from pouncing on the nearest enemies (and me from targeting most of the weaker players on the board).

The NEXT day, I got another shot with an Iron Team:

SI Iron Man 188 + Inside Information 4 + Thunderbolts 10 (Ultimates)
AV Spider-Man 111 + Lunge 5
Spider-Girl 77 + Lunge 5

This game was a Father’s Day holdover in which 2 figures on the team had to be a father and his offspring.

RESULT: I beat Nathaniel Richards, his son FF Reed Richards, his son Franklin Richards, V Corsair and his sons V Havok and V IC Cyclops and a couple more pogs. Lost the Spiders, though.

Finally, I played one more Stark swarm:

U Iron Man (Mutations & Monsters) 100
Anthony Stark 100 + Outsmart 10 + Alpha Flight 0
U Iron Man (Armor Wars) 89 + Alpha Flight 0
R Iron Man (Armor Wars) 89 + Alpha Flight 0 + Armor Piercing 10

= 398 points
against a Warskrull, V Vampire Lackey and White Martian x 3 team and a JL team of CR Green Lantern, CR Green Arrow, OR Carter Hall and LE Atom.

RESULT: I was wiped first and scored no KOs.

So, with my weekend record a dismal 1-3, my Stark Industries-centric teams have sunk to a sorry 4-9 record.

Crunched.

Crunched.

This just cannot be tolerated. I REFUSE to leave it at this. I WILL make the Iron Man swarm an unqualified success. Looking back at my losses, I see some common factors besides the poor dice rolls…mostly elements of user error, not build-inherent. Future posts will detail those errors, team-by-team, build-by-build…and I’ll analyze the strengths, weaknesses and roles for each Stark-designed suit made in HeroClix.

And I will play Stark Industries swarm teams until I win out!

Thus begins the Iron Campaign.

Stay tuned.

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I finally got the new super rare Despero figure from the Arkham Asylum set and wanted to try out the Time Stealers keyword themed team. 

A Nazi, an ape and an alien walk into a bar...

A Nazi, an ape and an alien walk into a bar...

AA Ultra-Humanite 177
+ Outsmart 10
Per Degaton 90
+ Protected 8
+ Outsmart 10
AA Despero 88
+ Contingency Plan 12
Dr. Jeremiah Arkham 2
Movie Star 3
=400 points
My plan: Once Contingency is all planned for, use Despero’s TK to get 1st strikes with Ultra-Humanite, force rerolls with Per Degaton and keep him next to the white ape for maximum anti-Outwit from Outsmart. 
FIRST ROUND was against 
Batman (Icons) 102
Lex Luthor (Justice League) 161
Cosmic King 80
Captain Gordon 50
My opponent was Ademba, an inexperienced lad, so I chose not to inflict my Bright Lights on his Stealth-heavy team. I picked the Days of Future Past map, and he chose to start indoors. 
He didn’t place his crew efficiently, so I was able to get into prime TK position for a first — but unsuccessful — strike on Lex. In fact, Lex was fairly untouchable for largely the whole game, while Per Degaton took multiple shots. Demba’s inexperience in positioning cost him a pair of opportunities at Outwit and saved me near the end when I got Batman and managed to Barrier off an otherwise clear line of fire from Cosmic King, also untouched. 1-0.
SECOND MATCH was vs. Matthew, a young soldier on leave from Iraq. He played:
SI Doom 249
M+M The Leader 116
Howard the Duck 35
On the Dawn of Time map, I Disbanded the field. Using the Dynamostat to give myself a bit of cover from the far-seeing (and shooting) Doom, I rushed where Matt camped his trio across the river with Ultra-Humanite and Per Degaton. Despero, hit very early and very hard, went stumbling for my Eleha’al Vine in the corner.
So a deadly dance began around Matt’s Force Field Generator…how to get U-H to paste someone with the Meteorite without getting blasted through Invulnerability by Doom. Doom would phase away (after either failing to Outwit thanks to Outsmart or, more often, BEING Outwitted by one of the Time Stealers), and I would either chase and base both Psychic-Blasting foes. Leader was the easier target, so I concentrated on him (and, via Mastermind, the Duck). Safely out of the line of fire, I marched my pogs to back up Ultra-Humanite’s own Mastermind defenses. Meanwhile, Despero made the slow recovery process on the Vine.
Losing Per Degaton but up by the KOs of Leader and Howard, I then turned all attention to Doom, who broke for the Vine himself. Despero was near full health and managed to hold out while U-H slowly rumbled to his aid. But Despero was swiftly losing the battle when time was called for my win. 2-0.
FINAL ROUND was against Jazhmin, a teenager whose soft-spoken nature hides a cunning and aggressive play style. She’d rolled her opponents with:
X-23 35
Arachne 50
Shang-Chi 58
Reed Richards (Secret Invasion) 100
Spider-Man  (Secret Invasion) 50
Super-Skrull X-Men 106
On the Dawn of Time again. She ran her crew into hindering too close to Despero, and I finally got to use his Dangerous Game SP to jank Spidey next to Ultra-Humanite for a Meteorite-enhanced one-hit-KO. From there, my multiple Outwitters kept Richards in check* and the Time Stealers were able to dismantle the girl’s team after a long but completely one-sided fight.
WIN/LOSS: 3-0. Was slightly surprised that this team did so well. I’ll have to try these time-traveling despots again sometime!
*DOOM would have been jealous. 

 

AA Ultra-Humanite 177 + Outsmart 10
Per Degaton 90 + Protected 8 + Outsmart 10
AA Despero 88 + Contingency Plan 12
Dr. Jeremiah Arkham 2
Movie Star 3

=400 points

My plan: Once Contingency is all planned for (by waiting a few rounds to go on the attack), use Despero’s TK to get 1st strikes with Ultra-Humanite, force rerolls with Per Degaton and keep him next to the white ape for maximum anti-Outwit from Outsmart. 

FIRST ROUND was against 

Batman (Icons) 102
Lex Luthor (Justice League) 161
Cosmic King 80
Captain Gordon 50

My opponent was Ademba, an inexperienced lad, so I chose not to inflict my Bright Lights on his Stealth-heavy team. I picked the Days of Future Past map, and he chose to start indoors. 

He didn’t place his crew efficiently, so I was able to get into prime TK position for a first — but unsuccessful — strike on Lex. In fact, Lex was fairly untouchable for largely the whole game, while Per Degaton took multiple shots. Demba’s inexperience in positioning cost him a pair of opportunities at Outwit and saved me near the end when I got Batman and managed to Barrier off an otherwise clear line of fire from Cosmic King, also untouched. 1-0.

SECOND MATCH was vs. Matthew, a young soldier on leave from Iraq. He played:

SI Doom 249
M+M The Leader 116
Howard the Duck 35

On the Dawn of Time map, I Disbanded the field. Using the Dynamostat to give myself a bit of cover from the far-seeing (and shooting) Doom, I rushed where Matt camped his trio across the river with Ultra-Humanite and Per Degaton. Despero, hit very early and very hard, went stumbling for my Eleha’al Vine in the corner.

So a deadly dance began around Matt’s Force Field Generator…how to get U-H to paste someone with the Meteorite without getting blasted through Invulnerability by Doom. Doom would phase away (after either failing to Outwit thanks to Outsmart or, more often, BEING Outwitted by one of the Time Stealers), and I would either chase and base both Psychic-Blasting foes. Leader was the easier target, so I concentrated on him (and, via Mastermind, the Duck). Safely out of the line of fire, I marched my pogs to back up Ultra-Humanite’s own Mastermind defenses. Meanwhile, Despero began the slow recovery process on the Vine.

Losing Per Degaton but ahead by the KOs of Leader and Howard, I then turned all attention to Doom, who broke for the Vine himself. Despero was near full health and managed to hold out while U-H slowly rumbled to his aid. But Despero was swiftly losing the battle when time was called for my win. 2-0.

FINAL ROUND was against Jazhmin, a teenager whose soft-spoken nature hides a cunning and aggressive play style. She’d rolled her opponents with:

X-23 35
Arachne 50
Shang-Chi 58
Reed Richards (Secret Invasion) 100
Spider-Man  (Secret Invasion) 50
Super-Skrull X-Men 106

On the Dawn of Time again. She ran her crew into hindering too close to Despero, and I finally got to use his Dangerous Game SP to jank Spidey next to Ultra-Humanite for a Meteorite-enhanced one-hit-KO. From there, my multiple Outwitters kept Richards in check* and the Time Stealers were able to dismantle the girl’s team after a long but completely one-sided fight.

WIN/LOSS: 3-0. Was slightly surprised that this team did so well. I’ll have to try these time-traveling despots again sometime!

*DOOM would have been jealous.

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Lately, with some less-well-stocked kids joining or rejoining our Saturday tournaments, we old heads have had to scale back the complexity of our build scenarios. No more 2000-point “every character must be green and LEFT-HANDED” build restrictions. So the scenario for this game was that each character on your 400-point team had to share a common standard power on the dial.

My take: I chose Super Strength, so I could play:

e2super

Superman (Crisis #100) 317

Spider-Woman (Secret Invasion) 79
+ Vault 3
=399 points. I wanted to try out my brand-new Earth-2 Superman, but was leery of A) running him with Fortitude and consequently being the only fighter on the team as a result or B) not using Fortitude and being subject to taking massive damage from enemy swarms thanks to his defenses being Outwitted. Spider-Woman was the perfect solution; with her trait making her able to wildcard offense-oriented TAs like Superman’s, she’d be able to blunt enemies’ Outwit capabilities even in Stealth. Her Speed SP would make her well able to get around and stay hidden as well. And she’d be a capable 2nd fighter to take a little heat off Superman, too.
Round one vs. PAUL, picked Blades (V Bron, U Elektra (Infinity Challenge), The Demon’s Head (Legacy), LE Boon) Claws (Timber Wolf) and Fangs (Vampire Lackey, Captain Mako) as his chosen power. He chose the Crash Site but I Ordinary Day’d his Crosswinds. We both used Vines and Kinetic Accelerators. At first it looked like I’d have no problem beating him, but the presence of four Mystics on a seven-person team and the Shield Disruptor Paul put out there gave me some pause. I denied the first strike by Outwitting T. Wolf’s Charge on the Accelerator. Paul responded with T.Wolf flying in Charge range of both and both Elektra and Boon threatening Spider-Woman in particular. I retreated to take full advantage of Superman’s range edge, but took the Disruptor away with Spider-Woman first. 
Keeping The Demon’s Head’s Outwit in check with Spider-Woman (thanks to her ability to copy Superman Ally ability and thus see the stealthy fellow), I had her toss the Disruptor (destroying it) at Timber Wolf to put her on her 2nd click. Meanwhile, Superman got based by Boon and the battle was truly joined.
It becomes a bit of a blur, here. Superman deal some hits, but I picked the non-Mystic targets when I could and thus didn’t use the free attack quite as often as I’d have liked. Spider-Woman held off the Vampire Lackey, Mako and Wolf by herself (a bit easier thanks to her SP Outwit) but she was KO’d trying to take on V Bron, the last player on Paul’s team to advance. Superman finally got Crossgen’d to his HSS clicks and began taking the other team out with extreme prejudice. Things got interesting when V Bron made a full Regen roll and Supes actually slipped to his Toughness clicks, forcing me to commandeer Paul’s Vine object and heal up a bit (lest I take a huge BCF hit or critmiss or something). In the end, I wiped his team but lost Spider-Woman. 1-0.
ROUND TWO vs. LENNY (IconsSupes)
R Ant-Man, Rampaging Hulk+Fortitude, Gamora+Protected, Benjamin J. Grimm (Secret Invasion), all of whom have Charge. I picked the Castle and he OD’d my Wasteland. I put out the Accelerator and Generator/Dumpster (the Dumpsterator) while he used the Meteorite and Vine. I forget what the BFCs were. 
I parked my pair on the Castle wall and waited. And waited, as Lenny wisely stayed out of my range. Eventually I got a tad impatient and blasted away a wall, which gave Ant-Man room to move and hide in clear LOF to Superman. That forced me to move Spider-Woman off the wall to counter-Outwit Ant-Man. Lenny responded by bunching his fighters in the drawbridge area near the midpoint of the map, and Ant-Man inside the room on his side of the map. 
So now people were in range of Superman’s Charge, but it was a perilous choice. If I hit any one of the three, the other two (and probably the third as well) gang up on the Man of Steel, which could be fatal if Ant-Man gets free to Outwit him. So I went for the lone Ant-Man in the room instead, also moving Spider-Woman nearby. A turn later, Ant-Man was done in.
Lenny had to regroup a bit, after that. Rampaging Hulk leapt to occupy the Vine Lenny had hid in the room while Gamora and Grimm moved to Charge range just around the corner. That turned out to be a mistake, not tying Superman down; I simply flew him back to my Castle wall, with Spider-Woman following again. Now Supes had clear LOF to Grimm and Gamora, forcing Lenny to move both or take an attack next round.
Got R. Hulk to waste his Meteorite on Spider-Woman while Superman Charged Gamora while she couldn’t use Protected for big damage. It landed her on Outwit, though, so I had to make sure Spider-Woman could keep the Deadliest Woman In The Universe Outwitted…a bit tough to do with Rampaging Hulk in her face! Double-teamed now by the unhittable Gamora (simply couldn’t roll that 7 I needed!) and the unlucky Grimm, Superman eventually beat down the orange fellow. A critmiss landed him on HSS just as time expired. 2-0.
FINAL ROUND vs. BRYCE, a 12-year-old who picked a team of Outwitters: Iron Man (Secret Invasion), Batman (Icons promo), Batman (Origin promo) and E Deathstroke (Cosmic Justice). He picked his beloved Junkyard but I stymied him a bit with Atlantis Rising, fielding the Vine and Accelerator again.
That was a bit more Outwit than Spider-Woman could handle at a time, so I had to be a little cautious. Byrce moved Iron Man and the Bats behind the elevated and Deathstroke in a bit of hindering. I needed to get rid of at least one source of Outwit, so I decided to go for Icons Batman, the biggest Outwit threat due to his ability to Leap/Climb away. Superman Charged and hit him…right BACK onto L/C and Outwit. Feh. But I had a contingency in Spider-Woman, who leapt over by herself to base and counter Iron Man’s Extremis power. Byrce’s counterattack with FCBD Batman failed, and Superman finished Icons Bats off.
Then, in a rather fiendish move, I pushed Spider-Woman to attack Iron Man (missed) then Vaulted where the Batman had been so she could counter both the remaining Batman and Iron Man’s defenses with her special adjacency-Outwit. But unfortunately, Superman critmissed an attack, that left Iron Man free to bump his damage up for a full-power repulsor blast for 5 non-reduced clicks! A followup with FCBD Batman left me near-dead. Fortunately, all Bryce’s easy followup rolls missed. WHEW!
His Close Combat Expertise countered, Superman needed to broke away for the Vine’s healing. He flew to it, leaving Spider-Woman alone to deal with Tony, who’d been knocked onto his Charge+Outwit clicks. She counter his Outwit, then pushed to hit him for a few more. Atlantis Rising slowed down Deathstroke and Batman considerably as Superman slowly healed. 
As the enemies closed in, I got Supes to HSS and abandoned the Vine, which Iron began using. Before he could get too healthy again, I HSS-pasted him onto his last click but didn’t think to Outwit his Regen, which gave him a good roll. Frantic to take out Iron Man, I did another HSS driveby but missed and had to settle for a KO of Batman. In the end, Supes and Spider-Woman got cornered by Iron Man and a still-full-health Deathstroke and the 12-year-old Bryce took those points to wipe me for first place!
WIN/LOSS: 2-1. This was an awesome game, for a number of reasons. 
1. both of us were on the verge of losing at any time. 
2. it validated my decision not to cheese up E-2 with the one feat he needed to be nigh-invincible against the kids, while remaining solidly competitive against the rest.
3. I was glad to see one of those kids win over us older folks fair and square, and I particularly like this kid. Bryce is a quick study and a great sport (both in spite of and because of his friendly trashtalking streak). Plus, he always plays that Iron Man, which endears him to my own inner-12-year-old who loves playing Iron Man.
Next report will star a team featuring a gorilla, a Nazi and an alien with a taste for superhero chess. See how the Time Stealers fared in HeroClix next time! Super Strength. 

I’d recently acquired him in a very easy trade from a fellow with an irrational hatred of the character and was itching to try him out. But I was leery of running a one-man-army with only Fortitude and a lone Telekinesis character in a 400-point build. It’d completely overwhelm and demoralize the newer players while the seasoned ones would be able to tear Big Blue apart, bit-by-bit. Conversely, running Supes with no defense against Outwit just to add a 2nd attacker is sheer suicide. Oh, what to do to make this chase piece work?

A: Add another chase piece.

3211887799_413d443e96If Outwit was the problem, I simply needed to add my own Outwit…perferably on a character that could copy Superman’s team ability to see through Stealth while remaining generally safe from the power itself. 

Spider-Woman (Secret Invasion) 79 + Vault 3

was the perfect solution. With her trait making her able to wildcard offense-oriented TAs like Superman’s, she’d be able to blunt enemies’ Outwit capabilities even in Stealth. Her Speed SP would make her well able to get around and stay hidden as well. And she’d be a capable 2nd fighter to take a little heat off Superman, too.

=399 points.

 

Round one vs. PAUL, who’d picked Blades (V Bron, U Elektra (Infinity Challenge), The Demon’s Head, LE Boon) Claws (Timber Wolf) and Fangs (Vampire Lackey, Captain Mako) as his chosen power. He chose the Crash Site but I Ordinary Day’d his Crosswinds. We both used Vines and Kinetic Accelerators. At first it looked like I’d have no problem beating him, but the presence of four Mystics on a seven-person team and the Shield Disruptor Paul put out there gave me some pause. I denied the first strike by Outwitting T. Wolf’s Charge on the Accelerator. Paul responded with T.Wolf flying in Charge range of both and both Elektra and Boon threatening Spider-Woman in particular. I retreated to take full advantage of Superman’s range edge, but took the Disruptor away with Spider-Woman first. 

Keeping The Demon’s Head’s Outwit in check with Spider-Woman (thanks to her ability to copy Superman Ally ability and thus see the stealthy fellow), I had her toss the Disruptor (destroying it) at Timber Wolf to put her on her 2nd click. Meanwhile, Superman got based by Boon and the battle was truly joined.

It becomes a bit of a blur, here. Superman dealt some hits, but I picked the non-Mystic targets when I could and thus didn’t use the free attack quite as often as I’d have liked. Spider-Woman held off the Vampire Lackey, Mako and Wolf by herself (a bit easier thanks to her SP Outwit) but she was KO’d trying to take on V Bron, the last player on Paul’s team to advance. Superman finally got Crossgen’d to his HSS clicks and began taking the other team out with extreme prejudice. Things got interesting when V Bron made a full Regen roll and Supes actually slipped to his Toughness clicks, forcing me to commandeer Paul’s Vine object and heal up a bit (lest I take a huge BCF hit or critmiss or something). In the end, I wiped his team but lost Spider-Woman. 1-0.

ROUND TWO vs. LENNY 

R Ant-Man, Rampaging Hulk+Fortitude, Gamora+Protected, Benjamin J. Grimm (Secret Invasion), all of whom have Charge. I picked the Castle and he OD’d my Wasteland. I put out the Accelerator and Generator/Dumpster (the Dumpsterator) while he used the Meteorite and Vine.

I parked my pair on the Castle wall and waited. And waited, as Lenny wisely stayed out of my range. Eventually I got a tad impatient and blasted away a wall, which gave Ant-Man room to move and hide in clear LOF to Superman. That forced me to move Spider-Woman off the wall to counter-Outwit Ant-Man. Lenny responded by bunching his fighters in the drawbridge area near the midpoint of the map, and Ant-Man inside the room on his side of the map. 

So now people were in range of Superman’s Charge, but it was a perilous choice. If I hit any one of the three, the other two (and probably the third as well) gang up on the Man of Steel, which could be fatal if Ant-Man gets free to Outwit him. So I went for the lone Ant-Man in the room instead, also moving Spider-Woman nearby. A turn later, Ant-Man was done in.

Lenny had to regroup a bit, after that. Rampaging Hulk leapt to occupy the Vine Lenny had hid in the room while Gamora and Grimm moved to Charge range just around the corner. That turned out to be a mistake, not tying Superman down; I simply flew him back to my Castle wall, with Spider-Woman following again. Now Supes had clear LOF to Grimm and Gamora, forcing Lenny to move both or take an attack next round.

 

Got R. Hulk to waste his Meteorite on Spider-Woman while Superman Charged Gamora while she couldn’t use Protected for big damage. It landed her on Outwit, though, so I had to make sure Spider-Woman could keep the Deadliest Woman In The Universe Outwitted…a bit tough to do with Rampaging Hulk in her face! Double-teamed now by the unhittable Gamora (simply couldn’t roll that 7 I needed!) and the unlucky Grimm, Superman eventually beat down the orange fellow. A critmiss landed him on HSS just as time expired. 2-0.

FINAL ROUND vs. BRYCE, a 12-year-old who picked a team of Outwitters: Iron Man (Secret Invasion), Batman (Icons promo), Batman (Origin promo) and E Deathstroke (Cosmic Justice). He picked his beloved Junkyard but I stymied him a bit with Atlantis Rising, fielding the Vine and Accelerator again.

That was a bit more Outwit than Spider-Woman could handle at a time, so I had to be a little cautious. Byrce moved Iron Man and the Bats behind the elevated and Deathstroke in a bit of hindering. I needed to get rid of at least one source of Outwit, so I decided to go for Icons Batman, the biggest Outwit threat due to his ability to Leap/Climb away. Superman Charged and hit him…right BACK onto L/C and Outwit. Feh. But I had a contingency in Spider-Woman, who leapt over by herself to base and counter Iron Man’s Extremis power. Byrce’s counterattack with FCBD Batman failed, and Superman finished Icons Bats off.

Then, in a rather fiendish move, I pushed Spider-Woman to attack Iron Man (missed) then Vaulted where the Batman had been so she could counter both the remaining Batman and Iron Man’s defenses with her special adjacency-Outwit. But unfortunately, Superman critmissed an attack, that left Iron Man free to bump his damage up for a full-power repulsor blast for 5 non-reduced clicks! A followup with FCBD Batman left me near-dead. Fortunately, all Bryce’s easy followup rolls missed. WHEW!

His Close Combat Expertise countered, Superman broke away for the Vine’s healing. He flew to it, leaving Spider-Woman alone to deal with Tony, who’d been knocked onto his Charge+Outwit clicks. She countered his Outwit, then pushed to hit him for a few more. Atlantis Rising slowed down Deathstroke and Batman considerably as Superman slowly healed. 

As the enemies closed in, I got Supes to HSS and abandoned the Vine, which Iron began using. Before he could get too healthy again, I HSS-pasted him onto his last click but didn’t think to Outwit his Regen, which gave him a good roll. Frantic to take out Iron Man, I did another HSS driveby but missed and had to settle for a KO of Batman. In the end, Supes and Spider-Woman got cornered by Iron Man and a still-full-health Deathstroke and the 12-year-old Bryce took those points to wipe me for first place!

WIN/LOSS: 2-1. This was an awesome game, for a number of reasons. 

1. both of us were on the verge of losing at any time. 

2. it validated my decision not to cheese up E-2 with the one feat he needed to be nigh-invincible against the kids, while remaining solidly competitive against the rest.

3. I was glad to see one of those kids win over us older folks fair and square, and I particularly like this kid. Bryce is a quick study and a great sport (both in spite of and because of his friendly trashtalking streak). Plus, he always plays that Iron Man, which endears him to my own inner-12-year-old who loves playing Iron Man.

 

Next report will star a team featuring a gorilla, a Nazi and an alien with a taste for superhero chess. See how the Time Stealers fared in HeroClix next time!

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I had intended to start a series on event dials with this post, but got heavily sidetracked by my job search, daily life and, of course, more HeroClix games. 

June 5, 2009

SevenSoldiersbanner

VS.

 

batman-symbol2

Frankenstein 98 + Opportunist 10
Klarion 76
Zatanna 72
Bulleteer 69 + Unstoppable 5
R Mister Miracle (Origin) 64 + Loner 5
SR Shining Knight 48 + Double-Time 5
U Guardian (Collateral Damage) 47
= 499 points

 

Batman (Arkham Asylum chase #99) 120 + Protected 8 + Opportunist 10
Batman (Arkham Asylum) 64
Nightwing 79 + Contingency Plan 12 + Takedown 6
Batman (Justice League) 75
Robin (Arkham Asylum) 66
Captain Gordon (Arkham Asylum) 50
= 490 points

Of course, he won the map roll (themed team bonus) and picked the Justice League Bank map. I picked the non-vault side and used the Kinetic Accelerator, Meteorite and Mass Absorber as my special objects. Lenny packed the Meteorite and Eleha’al Vine.

BBeyond taxied big Bat to office (so latter could freely build Opportunist tokens and throw down endless Smoke Clouds) while NW, Robin and OOTS Bats took positions on lobby and tellers’ desks. With Zatana I set Klarion to block LOF on the opposite end, careful to keep Klarion JUST outside Robin’s potential 7 range with his Tear Gas SP. Shining Knight brought Bulleteer to the KA right behind them. Miracle took Guardian to Frankenstein stayed in the starting area to build Opportunist tokens. 

Mr. Miracle and Klarion boosted Guardian’s speed and damage to Charge Batman off OOTS. I then moved Shining Knight to protect Guardian, but a  bad placement error got SKnight incapped by Nightwing for 1, then Meteorite’d by Batman Beyond for 1st KO. 🙁

Klarion got a HUGE SSenses to dodge BatBeyond’s crithit for 5 (base 3 + self-Perplex damage + crit bonus). OOTS Bats broke from Guardian and ran to the Vine. Meanwhile, I finally got Frankenstein on the move, picking up the Mass Absorber on the way.

Bulleteer got a good KA boost to try to one-shot Gordon with the Meteorite, but missed. To help protect her from a potentially crippling Charge+Flurry from big Batman, I plunked Miracle in the way, hoping his Loner-juiced DV would help him live through such an assault. Out in the lobby, Batman beyond took a boosted hit from Guardian but got knocked back onto hindering terrain and safe from a followup hit.

Big Batman took his shot at Miracle, who Super Sensed the first nearly-guaranteed (thanks to 5 Opportunist tokens) Flurry hit attack but not the second. 

Finally, I had big Bats exactly where I wanted him.

Mr. Miracle used Willpower to Leap/Climb away with Bulleteer in tow, clearing a narrow line of fire for Frankenstein’s successful Indomitable Running Shot, which forced Lenny to burn Bats’ Protected. A followup pushing Charge with Guardian dealt actual damage.

A combo attack of Robin and OOTS Batman finished Guardian off, and both Gordon and Batbeyond retreated to the office behind the Bats. I taxied Klarion in position to attack him, but Nightwing incapped the witchboy and Gordon used Summon the Bat to jank big Batman well out of harm’s way.

Zatanna taxied Klarion in pursuit of the Arkham set Batmen while Bulleteer attacked OOTS Batman for another few clicks. Zatanna suffered the wrath of big Batman to become a 3rd KO, and again he got Summoned out of harm’s way.

Frankenstein had momentarily tied up Nightwing to protect Bulleteer from being shot up or Incapped from behind. But now that Bulleteer was finished with the finally-KO’d OOTS Batman, Frank was failing breakaway after breakaway (causing big problems in the other room, as Klarion and Miracle were ill-equipped to handle big Batman and the rest). Meanwhile, Robin had moved to Perplex Nightwing’s damage for hit after hit, pinging Frankenstein bit by bit. Finally, as Bulleteer fell at last, I swung for the hills against Nightwing while I still had Opportunist tokens to burn and later rolled well on a Blades roll. That dealt with the Contingency Plan problem and most of NW’s life. 

Eventually it came down to just Frank and Miracle against Nightwing and Robin. Frankenstein got taken down, and Miracle chased down the last-click ‘Wing. Unfortunately, this left Miracle on HIS last click…no match for the near-full AA Robin.

But…WOW. What a match! I really expected to get fairly rocked and socked against this powerful Bat-team but actually took it to the distance. Seven Soldiers really ARE better than they look.

 

Next week, look for reports on the Time Stealers and how I played Earth-2 Superman without Fortitude in a 400-point build.

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After largely dominating in a pair of friendly games, it was time to put the Seven Soldiers of Victory through a real test in a tournament.
ROUND ONE
Opponent: PAUL
Team:
Spider-Man (Avengers)
Hercules (Secret Invasion)
Wasp (Universe Starter)
Spider-Woman (Armor Wars)
Sersi
Ant-Man (Infinity Challenge)
Hmmmm. Yes, this team was a bit more optimized than the one he’d played last night, with a great lead hitter in Herc and solid support in Sersi (TK) and Spidey (Outwit). Plus he had a themed team and picked the Avengers map. I picked the trench side with a Kinetic Accelerator special object to give me a shot at a first strike with Bulleteer and her Meteorite.
Paul use Spidey to counter Bulleteer’s Charge and thus prevent her getting to Hercules. In the meantime, I needed to get into position for actual fighting, but in a way that wouldn’t leave anyone open to Hercules’s Charge range after being moved by Sersi’s Telekinesis. Zatanna carried Klarion to a large patch of hindering to hide in, just beyond Hercules’ Charge range.
Or so I thought. Klarion WAS in the big demigod’s reach and took both hits of a Meteorite-boosted Flurry! Only Toughness saved the witchboy from instant KO.
Well, the bait was good and taken (though I hadn’t exactly planned it thus). I needed Bulleteer to retaliate, so I took a Running Shot with Frankenstein to ping Spider-Man off Outwit and get my Charge back. Thus re-empowered, Bulleteer would have just the boost she needed from the Kinetic Accelerator to Charge through the hindering (thanks to Unstoppable) with the Meteorite.
But first, I needed a good Regeneration roll for Klarion. Got the best, to land on his best click: Stealth + Duo Attack-granting SP + Probability Control. Nice!
Bulleteer landed her attack, which softened up Hercules considerably for Guardian and Klarion to finish him off. Frankenstein, for his part, was a bit tied up with Ant-Man, Wasp and Spider-Woman but someone managed to tag both ladies to send Spider-Woman running and Wasp off the board.
Paul retreated to his healing Eleha’al Vine and my forces gave chase (Miracle taxiing Guardian ahead and Zatanna carting Klarion). Bulleteer had Spider-Man cornered on his Vine when time was called. I’d lost none and KO’d Wasp, Spider-Woman and Hercules. 1-0.
ROUND TWO
Opponent: TIM
Team: Stone-faced cosmic despots
Thanos (Supernova) +
Darkseid (Crisis) + Outsmart + Protected
=495 points
OK, here was a real test! I picked the Icons park map. At all costs would I avoid the vast killing field in the middle, instead planning to bunker on a rooftop and use a Kinetic Accelerator to perhaps get a first Charge in a Meteorite. But Tim decided to rush me down, basing Bulleteer (and Outwitting her Strength) before she could move.
Had to proceed very carefully here, in order to stand a chance.
1. Break Bulleteer away by plunking Shining Knight diagonally between her and Darkseid.
2. Fly Zatanna to a back edge of the roof where she can see Bulleteer’s eventual attack square —
3. — and so her passenger Klarion can see Frankenstein for Perplex.
4. Hold Frank back a little bit longer to build up one more Opportunist token.
Next turn, Bulleteer picked up the Meteorite, Charged through the hindering terrain and hit Thanos for a solid 4 with the Meteorite. Frankenstein followed with an Opportunist-boosted Running Shot to turn a Probability Control-forced miss into a hit for three damage (thanks to Klarion’s  Perplex). To wrap up, I walked Klarion between Bulleteer and Darkseid so the latter couldn’t Outwit the shiny gal’s Invulnerability — the only thing that saved her from swift oblivion when Thanos punched her in the face for 7 damage (natural 5 + Close Combat Expert).
I should have taxied Klarion instead of walking him; I found myself on prime fighting clicks after Darkseid’s counterattack but unwilling to push for it. At least Darkseid took Mystic damage and burned his Outwit on countering Shining Knight’s Flurry.
Thanos got smacked to Regen and then out of the game, as did Guardian. But now it was my whole team on Darkseid, and he eventually fell. 2-0.
ROUND THREE
Opponent: LENNY
Team: Gotham
Batman (Arkham Asylum chase #99) + Opportunist
Batman (Arkham Asylum)
Nightwing + Contingency Plan + Takedown
Batman (Justice League)
Robin (Arkham Asylum)
Captain Gordon (Arkham Asylum)
Thanks to his fielding a themed team (Gotham) Lenny won the map roll and picked the Dawn of Time. I played Rushed Assault to blunt his assault. That turned out to be a mistake, as Lenny didn’t take the bait and bided his time WAY longer than he had any need to. Meanwhile, my outgunned team simply could not afford to waste a single attack on the Rushed Assault penalty, especially knowing that then nothing would slow the Bats from whaling on me. So we literally went at least 40 minutes of the 50-minute game without making any attack rolls.
I really wanted to chide Lenny for waiting so long. With Perplex, a full Contingency Plan stock, a team nearly full of double-digit Attack Values and three theme-team Probability Controls (provided he shut off his Bat-Stealth for line of fire first), he really had little chance of missing that first attack. To be fair, though, I didn’t give him easy targets: Mister Miracle with 19 Defense (thanks to Loner) + Super Senses or Frankenstein with Invulnerable 19 DV (thanks to a snatched Tombstone of Lenny’s).
Finally, Lenny took a shot at Frankenstein, who I’d set up ready to attack Nightwing (having forgotten that he had Takedown). The intentional whiff took out the Tombstone, giving Watchtower Batman an easy shot for three.
I gave the game away then, when, to tie-up that Batman, I Perplexed Guardian’s speed to Charge him in a failed attempt (despite having Probability Control). Batman did not fail to Flurry Guardian for the game’s only KO, as time ran out just two minutes later.
In retrospect, then, Rushed Assault was a horrible choice with no way to counter its effects myself. Halfway through the game, I should have broken someone away to threaten Captain Gordon.
WIN/LOSS 2-1. 4-1 total record.
This team looks like a hot mess on paper: only two team abilities, no wildcards to benefit. Only one character with greater than 6 range, and she can’t crack Invulnerability without help. The heavyweight starts with just a 9 Attack Value. Bulleteer is overcosted. At this point level, they seem plain outclassed.
What they do bring to the table is a pair of Perplexers and Probability Control to help out the low Attack Values. A few feats also bring out extra potential:
Opportunist on Frankenstein is superb…you have to hold him back early in the game, but once he starts, the Indomitable monster doesn’t have to stop and those built-up tokens make it hard for him to miss.
Shining Knight is MADE for Double-Time. While Frank’s biding his time, she can taxi either Guardian or Bulleteer in close to a target of opportunity, tying up the foe for a Charge next round. And with her Defense double-Perplexed by teammates, she might survive to push and Flurry (again, double-Perplexed) the next round to finish off or soften up whoever her fare Charges and hits.
Bulleteer + Unstoppable = a surprisingly capable attacker, either as a backup or frontliner. Twice in these games, the feat got her in position to make improbable hits. Invulnerability makes her short dial seem longer.
Loner makes the highly-mobile Perplexer Mr. Miracle nigh-untouchable. If he IS touched hard enough, he gets to take over PC duties from Zatanna.
As for the non-feated, they work out in the end, too. Klarion is a linchpin of the team; his Stealth and Mystic TA protect him from a lot of attacks while his Perplex makes the rest of the team work. He becomes a solid fighter down his dial.
Zatanna serves well to fly him around and help with Probability Control — as well as serving as bait for attacks. That worked out for me as she was able to make Frankenstein more dangerous with her Enhancement.
And Guardian truly shines on this team, as he’s the ultimate clean-up guy, Charging in after Frankenstein has softened everyone up. It’s when I failed to use him as clean-up that he fell.
And so a team I intended to play just for fun has turned out to be a true dark-horse winner. It’s not top-tier by any stretch — the final match showed that — but it’s better than you’d think!
Next post will either be a battle report on today’s “Zero-Range Brawl” — no ranged attacks allowed) or the first of a series of articles on how to build teams to play the controversial Event Dials first released in the Mutations and Monsters set of fall 2007. Keep an eye out for it!
Did they stand or fall in a real tournament?

Did they stand or fall in a real tournament?

After largely dominating in a pair of friendly games, it was time to put the Seven Soldiers of Victory through a real test in a tournament.

ROUND ONE

Opponent: PAUL’s Avengers

Spider-Man (Avengers)
Hercules (Secret Invasion)
Wasp (Universe Starter)
Spider-Woman (Armor Wars)
Sersi
Ant-Man (Infinity Challenge)

Hmmmm. Yes, this team was a bit more optimized than the one he’d played last night, with a great lead hitter in Herc and solid support in Sersi (TK) and Spidey (Outwit). Plus he had a themed team and picked the Avengers map. I picked the trench side with a Kinetic Accelerator special object to give me a shot at a first strike with Bulleteer and her Meteorite.

Paul used Spidey to counter Bulleteer’s Charge and thus prevent her getting to Hercules. In the meantime, I needed to get into position for actual fighting, but in a way that wouldn’t leave anyone open to Hercules’s Charge range after being moved by Sersi’s Telekinesis. Zatanna carried Klarion to a large patch of hindering to hide in, just beyond Hercules’ Charge range.

Or so I thought. Klarion WAS in the big demigod’s reach and took both hits of a Meteorite-boosted Flurry! Only a low Meteorite roll and the witchboy’s Toughness on the 2nd hit saved him from instant KO.

Quite the marksman with Opportunist!

Quite the marksman with Opportunist!

Well, the bait was good and taken (though I hadn’t exactly planned it thus). I needed Bulleteer to retaliate, so I took a Running Shot with Frankenstein to ping Spider-Man off Outwit and get my Charge back. Thus re-empowered, Bulleteer would have just the boost she needed from the Kinetic Accelerator to Charge through the hindering (thanks to Unstoppable) with the Meteorite.

But first, I needed a good Regeneration roll for Klarion. Got the best, to land on his best click: Stealth + Duo Attack-granting SP + Probability Control. Nice!

Bulleteer landed her attack, which softened up Hercules considerably for Shining Knight (who’d jumped between Herc and Klarion to protect the latter) from further attack), Guardian and Klarion to finish him off. Frankenstein, for his part, was a bit tied up with Ant-Man, Wasp and Spider-Woman but someone managed to tag both ladies to send Spider-Woman running and Wasp off the board.

Paul retreated to his healing Eleha’al Vine and my forces gave chase (Miracle taxiing Guardian ahead and Zatanna carting Klarion). Bulleteer had Spider-Man cornered on his Vine when time was called. I’d lost none and KO’d Wasp, Spider-Woman and Hercules. 1-0.

ROUND TWO

Opponent: TIM’s stone-faced cosmic duo of despots

Thanos (Supernova)
Darkseid (Crisis) + Outsmart + Protected

OK, here was a real test! I picked the Icons park map. At all costs would I avoid the vast killing field in the middle, instead planning to bunker on a rooftop and use a Kinetic Accelerator to perhaps get a first Charge in a Meteorite. But Tim decided to rush me down, basing Bulleteer (and Outwitting her Strength) before she could move.

Had to proceed very carefully here, in order to stand a chance.

1. Break Bulleteer away by plunking Shining Knight diagonally between her and Darkseid. This also would deny Darkseid an attack upon or further Outwit of Bulleteer
2. Fly Zatanna to a back edge of the roof where she can see Bulleteer’s eventual attack square —
3. — and so her passenger Klarion can see Frankenstein for Perplex.
4. Hold Frank back a little bit longer to build up one more Opportunist token.

BANG!

BANG!

Next turn, Bulleteer picked up the Meteorite, Charged through the hindering terrain and hit Thanos for a solid 4 with the Meteorite. Frankenstein followed with an Opportunist-boosted Running Shot to turn a Probability Control-forced miss into a hit for three damage (thanks to Klarion’s Perplex). To wrap up, I walked Klarion between Bulleteer and Darkseid so the latter couldn’t Outwit the shiny gal’s Invulnerability — the only thing that saved her from swift oblivion when Thanos punched her in the face for 7 damage (natural 5 + Close Combat Expert).

I should have taxied Klarion instead of walking him; I found myself on prime fighting clicks after Darkseid’s counterattack but unwilling to push for it. At least Darkseid took Mystic damage and burned his Outwit on countering Shining Knight’s Flurry.

Thanos got smacked to Regen and then out of the game, as did Guardian. But now it was my whole team on Darkseid, and he eventually fell. 2-0.

ROUND THREE

Opponent: LENNY’s Gotham Knights

Batman (Arkham Asylum chase #99) + Opportunist + Protected
Batman (Arkham Asylum)
Nightwing + Contingency Plan + Takedown
Batman (Justice League)
Robin (Arkham Asylum)
Captain Gordon (Arkham Asylum)

Thanks to his fielding a themed team (Gotham) Lenny won the map roll and picked the Dawn of Time. I played Rushed Assault to blunt his assault. That turned out to be a mistake, as Lenny didn’t take the bait and bided his time WAY longer than he had any need to. Meanwhile, my outgunned team simply could not afford to waste a single attack on the Rushed Assault penalty, especially knowing that then nothing would slow the Bats from whaling on me. So we literally went at least 40 minutes of the 50-minute game without making any attack rolls.

I really wanted to chide Lenny for waiting so long. With Perplex, a full Contingency Plan stock, a team nearly full of double-digit Attack Values and three theme-team Probability Controls (provided he shut off his Bat-Stealth for line of fire first), he really had little to no chance of missing that first attack. To be fair, though, I didn’t give him easy targets: Mister Miracle with 19 Defense (thanks to Loner) + Super Senses or Frankenstein with Invulnerable 19 DV (thanks to a snatched Tombstone of Lenny’s).

Finally, Lenny took a shot at Frankenstein, who I’d set up ready to attack Nightwing (having forgotten that he had Takedown). The intentional whiff took out the Tombstone, giving Watchtower Batman an easy shot for three.

I gave the game away then, when, to tie-up that Batman, I Perplexed Guardian’s speed to Charge him in a failed attempt (despite having Probability Control). Batman did not fail to Flurry Guardian for the game’s only KO, as time ran out just two minutes later.

In retrospect, then, Rushed Assault was a horrible choice with no way to counter its effects myself. Halfway through the game, I should have broken someone away to threaten Captain Gordon.

WIN/LOSS: 2-1. 4-1 total record.

This team looks like a hot mess on paper: only two team abilities, no wildcards to benefit. Only one character with greater than 6 range, and she can’t crack Invulnerability without help. The heavyweight starts with just a 9 Attack Value. Bulleteer is overcosted. At this point level, they seem plain outclassed.

What they do bring to the table is a pair of Perplexers and Probability Control to help out the low Attack Values. A few feats also bring out extra potential:

Opportunist on Frankenstein is superb…you have to hold him back early in the game, but once he starts, the Indomitable monster doesn’t have to stop and those built-up tokens make it hard for him to miss.

Horsewoman of this apocalypse.

Horsewoman of this apocalypse.

Shining Knight is MADE for Double-Time. While Frank’s biding his time, she can taxi either Guardian or Bulleteer in close to a target of opportunity, tying up the foe for a Charge next round. And with her Defense double-Perplexed by teammates, she might survive to push and Flurry (again, double-Perplexed) the next round to finish off or soften up whoever her fare Charges and hits.

Bulleteer + Unstoppable = a surprisingly capable attacker, either as a backup or frontliner. Twice in these games, the feat got her in position to make improbable hits. Invulnerability makes her short dial seem longer.

Loner makes the highly-mobile Perplexer Mr. Miracle nigh-untouchable. If he IS touched hard enough, he gets to take over PC duties from Zatanna.

As for the non-feated, they work out in the end, too. Klarion is a linchpin of the team; his Stealth and Mystic TA protect him from a lot of attacks while his Perplex makes the rest of the team work. He becomes a solid fighter down his dial.

Zatanna serves well to fly him around and help with Probability Control — as well as serving as bait for attacks. That worked out for me as she was able to make Frankenstein more dangerous with her Enhancement.

Freeze, POLICE!!!!

Freeze, POLICE!!!!

And Guardian truly shines on this team, as he’s the ultimate clean-up guy, Charging in after Frankenstein has softened everyone up. It’s when I failed to use him as clean-up that he fell.

And so a team I intended to play just for fun has turned out to be a true dark-horse winner. It’s not top-tier by any stretch — the final match showed that — but it’s better than you’d think!

Next post will either be a battle report on today’s “Zero-Range Brawl” — no ranged attacks allowed) or the first of a series of articles on how to build teams to play the controversial Event Dials first released in the Mutations and Monsters set of fall 2007. Keep an eye out for it!

by ·1 Comment
May 22, 2009
500 points
My take: Seven Soldiers of Victory (Grant Morrison’s version)
Frankenstein 98
+ Opportunist 10
Klarion 76
Zatanna 72
Bulleteer 69
+ Unstoppable 5
R Mister Miracle (Origin) 64
+ Loner 5
SR Shining Knight 48
+ Double-Time 5
U Guardian (Collateral Damage) 47
= 499 points
Paul put together a decent Justice Society team:
E Mr. Terrific
V Stargirl
V Ray
V Damage
V Wildcat
E Hawkgirl (Unleashed)
E Dr. Mid-Nite
Ma Hunkel
Speed Saunders
I won the map roll and picked the World War Hulk NYC map. No battlefield cards or special objects. I hunkered my team behind the elevated trailers and waited as Paul similarly bunkered ehind blocking terrain with only Mr. Terrific exposed.
I knew I had to deal with Mr. Terrific ASAP. His Outwit would be a serious problem and I didn’t want to risk him getting pushed to Stealthed Probability Control. So I was glad when Paul taxied him (with Stargirl) in full view of the field in preparation for Outwitting anyone I put out there. Better still, he didn’t chain the 17 defense value (in Vet Damage) either.
I went for Mr. T, using Shining Knight’s Double-Time to carry Bulleteer and tie-up both Terrific and Stargirl. With most of Paul’s lines of fire blocked by the double-based Knight, I set up my Perplexers to boost her to 18; her Defense was sufficient to avoid all Paul’s attack rolls. A turn later, Mr. Terrific fell to Bulleteer’s heavy-object Charge and Knight’s Flurry.
Shining Knight was the first of my figs to fall (to Wildcat), but then Frankenstein was in the mix, and Opportunist made sure Frank didn’t miss. Dr. Mid-Nite got easy healings on his wounded thanks to JSA lowering DVs to, Hawkgirl’s 12. Fortunately for me, he critmissed once to keep Wildcat from getting back to full. 
A wounded Zatanna still showed her worth by using Enhancement to boost Frankenstein’s Running Shot to massive levels and thus ending the threat of the enemy that hit her, V Ray. As Guardian and Miracle polished off Wildcat, Hawkgirl and Stargirl, Ray retreated with Dr. Mid-Nite in vain flight. Brought them to ground for the wipeout having only lost Bulleteer and Shining Knight.
I was so surprised by this performance, I decided to run them in the real tournament the next day. See how that went next time!

Welcome to the first of an occasional series: My Favorite Teams, where I discuss some HeroClix builds I enjoy fielding at every opportunity. 

Last Friday, I played a 500-point friendly match with Paul (while all the usual regulars were apparently seeing “Terminator Salvation”). This was my chance to play my Seven Soldiers of Victory team (Grant Morrison’s version)!

Seven Soldiers of Victory vol. 4 TPB

Seven Soldiers of Victory (left to right): Klarion (and cat Teekl), Shining Knight (and winged steed Aragon), Zatanna, Frankenstein, Guardian, Bulleteer and Mister Miracle.

 

Frankenstein 98 + Opportunist 10
Klarion 76
Zatanna 72
Bulleteer 69 + Unstoppable 5
R Mister Miracle (Origin) 64 + Loner 5
SR Shining Knight 48 + Double-Time 5
U Guardian (Collateral Damage) 47

= 499 points

Although this is the team almost exactly as it appears in the comics, save Mr. Miracle whose clix is based on the original Scott Free character instead of his former protegé Shilo Norman who stars in Seven Soldiers, it’s not a keyword-worthy themed team since Miracle doesn’t have the Seven Soldiers keyword. This is actually quite appropriate because the team never assembled in one place (indeed, many never encountered each other at all).

 

Paul, for his part, put together a decent Justice Society team:

E Mr. Terrific
V Stargirl
V Ray
V Damage
V Wildcat
E Hawkgirl (Unleashed)
E Dr. Mid-Nite
Ma Hunkel
Speed Saunders

…but Ray’s and Hawkgirl’s lacking the Justice Society keyword prevented him from getting the theme bonus. I thus won the map roll and picked the World War Hulk NYC map. No battlefield cards or special objects. I hunkered my team behind the elevated trailers and waited as Paul similarly bunkered ehind blocking terrain with only Mr. Terrific exposed.

I knew I had to deal with Mr. Terrific ASAP. His Outwit would be a serious problem and I didn’t want to risk him getting pushed to Stealthed Probability Control. So I was glad when Paul taxied him (with Stargirl) in full view of the field in preparation for Outwitting anyone I put out there. Better still, he didn’t chain the 17 defense value (in Vet Damage) either.

I went for Mr. T, using Shining Knight’s Double-Time to carry Bulleteer and tie-up both Terrific and Stargirl. With most of Paul’s lines of fire blocked by the double-based Knight, I set up my Perplexers to boost her to 18; her Defense was sufficient to avoid all Paul’s attack rolls. A turn later, Mr. Terrific fell to Bulleteer’s heavy-object Charge and Knight’s Flurry.

Shining Knight was the first of my figs to fall (to Wildcat), but then Frankenstein was in the mix, and Opportunist made sure Frank didn’t miss. Dr. Mid-Nite got easy healings on his wounded thanks to JSA lowering DVs to, Hawkgirl’s 12. Fortunately for me, he critmissed once to keep Wildcat from getting back to full. 

A wounded Zatanna still showed her worth by using Enhancement to boost Frankenstein’s Running Shot to massive levels and thus ending the threat of the enemy that hit her, V Ray. As Guardian and Miracle polished off Wildcat, Hawkgirl and Stargirl, Ray retreated with Dr. Mid-Nite in vain flight. Brought them to ground for the wipeout having only lost Bulleteer and Shining Knight.

I was so surprised by this performance (and the team similarly dominated the first time I played it early this year against a Hellfire Club team of Black King, Black Queen, Emma Frost, E Sunspot and Mastermind) that I decided to run the same team in the real tournament the next day. See how that went next time!

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DATE PLAYED: May 17, 2009
POINT TOTAL: 400 points
SCENARIO: 2nd Amendment (all sculpts must have guns)
My take: KANGs
V Kang the Conqueror + Protected + Inside Information
R Kang (Supernova) + Lucky Break
R Kang (Supernova) + Armor Piercing
This was a last-minute switch from a vague idea of wildcard abuse. I wanted to keep things simple for my first opponent Andy, an almost brand-new player whose collection is very small. But I also wanted to build a team capable of facing down anything my other, more savvy sparring partner would bring to the table. So I spent some time giving Andy a bunch of figures from my trade stock instead of picking out Battlefield Conditions. He was then able to build a half-decent gun-toting swarm:
Punisher (Secret Invasion)
R Tessa
Bishop (Mutations and Monsters)
Maverick
The Hood
E Silver Sable
R Skullbuster
R Skrull Agent
He won the map roll and picked, from my collection, the Rooftops from the Galactus tournaments. Lots of open space, so we pretty much got right into the mix like 19th century armies. I quickly nailed Skullbuster for a solid hit, sending her running, and Punisher didn’t last long under the Kangs’ fire. But then things went well south as a combination of hard hits and Masters of Evil pushing took down both my Rookies and a crithit forced my Vet onto the late half of his dial. Outnumbered and outactioned, Kang…was conquered. Wiped out by the newbie…and this time I didn’t even help him that much! 0-1.
I took the bye and watched (and kibitzed for the new player) until the 3rd and final round against Lenny:
SR Nick Fury (Secret Invasion) + Contingency Plan + Brilliant Tactician
SR Winter Soldier
Deathstroke (Crisis)
Bucky
WHAT A GREAT TEAM. He won the roll and put us on the Secret Invasion Crash Site map. Lots of hindering terrain for his Stealthy team, immediately making me regret not picking any Battlefield Conditions for this tournament, because today of all days I would certainly — CERTAINLY — have used Bright Lights. No DOUBT. I used a Dynamostat to give my Kangs a bit of cover, but Fury boosted his own damage to get rid of it and thus keep his main attackers more than free to light up my Kangs. I lost the game when I broke one Kang off to tangle with Winter Soldier but missed the followup attack. Soon I was down to two figures and only had Bucky as a viable target; sure, I could hit Fury easily (13 attack + 2 for Inside Information), but he’d only use his Special Power to warp away and leave Kang the Conqueror wide open for Winter Soldier and Deathstroke’s counterattack. (Perhaps I should have done it anyway, to remove the Brilliant Tactician + Contingency Plan + Outwit combo!) As it stood, I only KO’d Bucky and got wiped out.
Again, this was a superb team. What it lacks in mobility it makes up in range power and protection against same. Fury buffs the team with either his Perplex/BT/Plan combo or with his SHIELD TA (never used in this game), Winter Soldier is the sniper, Deathstroke is eminently able to handle close combat (as well as serve as a 2nd sniper/Outwitter) and Bucky is the bait/tieup. And, on top of all else, it’s a themed team (Soldier), so he didn’t actually have to eat that inconsequential critical miss he rolled, late-game. It’s got no blind spot, really. (Sure, it’ll have problems against a Hypersonic squad, but who doesn’t?)
Looking back on the game, I still had some chances to turn the game around a bit:
–Splitting my team was a poor strategy. Better to have double- or triple-teamed any one of his pieces to mitigate the swarm effect he was able to use on me at every turn.
–Lenny had placed the healing Eleha’al Vine in a very safe nook of the map, and I had counter-placed a Dark Cauldron to nullify it. I regretted that later, as it would have been an ideal spot to regroup and force Lenny out of his Stealthy comfort zones.
–And, again, hitting Fury would have been worth it to get him out of the mix for a while.
Next post will be about one of my favorite comic-accurate-but-not-quite-a-keyword-theme-team, Seven Soldiers as reimagined by Grant Morrison in a megaseries of miniseries a few years back. Keep an eye out!

DATE PLAYED: May 17, 2009

POINT TOTAL: 400 points

SCENARIO: 2nd Amendment (all sculpts must have guns)

 My take: KANGs

 

V Kang the Conqueror + Protected + Inside Information
R Kang (Supernova) + Lucky Break
R Kang (Supernova) + Armor Piercing

 

 This was a last-minute switch from a vague idea of wildcard abuse. I wanted to keep things simple for my first opponent Andy, an almost brand-new player whose collection is very small. But I also wanted to build a team capable of facing down anything my other, more savvy sparring partner would bring to the table. So I spent some time giving Andy a bunch of figures from my trade stock instead of picking out Battlefield Conditions. He was then able to build a half-decent gun-toting swarm: 

 

Punisher (Secret Invasion)
R Tessa
Bishop (Mutations and Monsters)
Maverick
The Hood
E Silver Sable
R Skullbuster
R Skrull Agent

 

 He won the map roll and picked, from my collection, the Rooftops from the Galactus tournaments. Lots of open space, so we pretty much got right into the mix like 19th century armies. I quickly nailed Skullbuster for a solid hit, sending her running, and Punisher didn’t last long under the Kangs’ fire. But then things went well south as a combination of hard hits and Masters of Evil pushing took down both my Rookies and a crithit forced my Vet onto the late half of his dial. Outnumbered and outactioned, Kang…was conquered. Wiped out by the newbie…and this time I didn’t even help him that much! 0-1.

 

 I took the bye and watched (and kibitzed for the new player) until the 3rd and final round against Lenny: 

 

SR Nick Fury (Secret Invasion) + Contingency Plan + Brilliant Tactician
SR Winter Soldier
Deathstroke (Crisis)
Bucky

 

 WHAT A GREAT TEAM. He won the roll and put us on the Secret Invasion Crash Site map. Lots of hindering terrain for his Stealthy team, immediately making me regret not picking any Battlefield Conditions for this tournament, because today of all days I would certainly — CERTAINLY — have used Bright Lights. No DOUBT. I used a Dynamostat to give my Kangs a bit of cover, but Fury boosted his own damage to get rid of it and thus keep his main attackers more than free to light up my Kangs. I lost the game when I broke one Kang off to tangle with Winter Soldier but missed the followup attack. Soon I was down to two figures and only had Bucky as a viable target; sure, I could hit Fury easily (13 attack + 2 for Inside Information), but he’d only use his Special Power to warp away and leave Kang the Conqueror wide open for Winter Soldier and Deathstroke’s counterattack. (Perhaps I should have done it anyway, to remove the Brilliant Tactician + Contingency Plan + Outwit combo!) As it stood, I only KO’d Bucky and got wiped out. 

 

Again, this was a superb team. What it lacks in mobility it makes up in range power and protection against same. Fury buffs the team with either his Perplex/BT/Plan combo or with his SHIELD TA (never used in this game), Winter Soldier is the sniper, Deathstroke is eminently able to handle close combat (as well as serve as a 2nd sniper/Outwitter) and Bucky is the bait/tieup. And, on top of all else, it’s a themed team (Soldier), so he didn’t actually have to eat that inconsequential critical miss he rolled, late-game. It’s got no blind spot, really. (Sure, it’ll have problems against a Hypersonic squad, but who doesn’t?)

 

Looking back on the game, I still had some chances to turn the game around a bit:

 

–Splitting my team was a poor strategy. Better to have double- or triple-teamed any one of his pieces to mitigate the swarm effect he was able to use on me at every turn.

–Lenny had placed the healing Eleha’al Vine in a very safe nook of the map, and I had counter-placed a Dark Cauldron to nullify it. I regretted that later, as it would have been an ideal spot to regroup and force Lenny out of his Stealthy comfort zones.

–And, again, hitting Fury would have been worth it to get him out of the mix for a while.

 Next post will be about one of my favorite comic-accurate-but-not-quite-a-keyword-theme-team, Seven Soldiers as reimagined by Grant Morrison in a megaseries of miniseries a few years back. Keep an eye out!

 

 

 

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SCENARIO: 600-point four-way Battle Royale
MY TAKE:
Crispus Allen 197
Black Manta (Arkham Asylum) + Submerged 73
Goliath (Secret Invasion) 58
Power Man & Iron Fist 136
Cloak & Dagger 109
R Black Panther (Universe) 27
SCOTT’s take
Ganthet 286
Metron 195
AV Wonder Man 117
LENNY’s take
JL Superman + Fortitude + Protected 259
AA Wonder Woman + Contingency Plan 260
OOTS Batman 75
PAUL’s take
FF E She-Hulk 127
F4 LE Johnny Storm 100
Tharok 100
MM E Spider-Man 97
FF LE Sue Storm + Fantastic Four 49
Crystal 62
Medusa 57
We played at the Docks, which made Black Manta VERY happy. Power Man & Iron Fist weren’t pleased with having to slog through the water, though. 
Paul got the first points when Scott moved Wonder Man within range of a single target Pulse Wave by Johnny Storm. Scott decided to focus on Paul’s team in general and Sue Storm in particular. “I don’t wanna be swinging at 19 defense all night,” he said. Apart from a shoot-for-the-moon transporter drive-by from Black Manta, I left his two Quintessence pieces alone to tangle with Sue and Co. huddling on or near the Vine on the corner rooftop.
I advanced carefully, keeping Crispus well out of the fray, Cloak & Dagger in cover and Power Man & Iron Fist behind Goliath and others, trying to get an angle on Superman or Wonder Woman in particular. 
I at last got a shot at the Man of Steel with Power Man & Iron Fist, but forgot that Fortitude would nullify the Exploit Weakness. Missed, anyway. Then CRITICAL-missed with Crispus Allen. A followup attack with Cloak & Dagger got Lenny to burn his Protected rather than eat even the reduced damage. That opened Supes up for…
…Black Manta!!!! Rolled highly enough to hit Supes’ 19 DV through hindering with Psychic Blast. And as soon as he could move, Superman broke away to the relative safety of the roof. 
Yes. It’s true. Superman ran from Black Manta. Like a little girl.
(Well, OK, to be fair, there was also Power Man & Iron Fist and Cloak & Dagger to contend with, so in actuality he was retreating from them as well. But still. 🙂 )
Goliath managed to tag OOTS Batman (thanks to Scott using his Metron’s Probability Control to give me a reroll or two) but fell to a sniper shot from Paul’s Johnny Storm. Meanwhile Lenny had taken the most points within the initial time limit by KOing She-Hulk and Metron in the massive rooftop melee. We played on since the night was still young and things were getting good. Especially for me, as Power Man & Iron Fist pasted Batman on the way up there.
Because Crispus was on his worst click, I pushed him past it to tie up Wonder Woman and Superman, trusting that Scott’s Ganthet wouldn’t take any opportunity to shoot him. It worked; his Mystics TA is a great deterrent. Unfortunately, it didn’t deter another critical miss, so while he was able to nullify Wonder Woman’s powers nicely, he didn’t do a lot of damage. Indeed, he was taking a great deal of damage, ending up on his last click.
Which brings us to the absolute turning point of the game. Crispus was next to Superman, who had Force Blast and a token. Because Force Blast isn’t an attack, it would circumvent both Super Senses and Power Man & Iron Fist’s Defend (which I was finally remembering to use) while NOT triggering Mystics and slam Crispus into the map edge for knockback damage — and a KO. But Lenny obviously didn’t realize it’d be a knockout blow and didn’t want to push Superman. Crispus was alive — barely.
Cloak & Dagger got to the roof to set up for a followup attack on various targets, using Black Panther as a meat shield. BP soon fell to Paul’s short-range shots. But again, Black Manta dealt serious damage to otherwise hard targets with his Psychic Blast. Between him and my duo figures on the roof I took both Wonder Woman and Superman’s points.
That left Scott’s Ganthet as the major threat on the map. He’d retreated clear to the other side of that end of the map to use the healing Eleha’al Vine that Lenny had placed, and with his Quintessence-granted ability to push and not take damage, he was healing up FAST! But I still had the remains of Paul’s Fantastic Four TA team to deal with — especially after Spider-Man finished off Black Manta before the helmet-clad pirate could get back to the Submerged safety of the water. Fortunately, the only other targets left were very weakened Crystal and Tharok; I made very sort work of them. 
Cloak & Dagger used Stealth to creep up on a full-power Ganthet, encouraging the Guardian of the Universe to retreat from their threat of Psychic Blast. That cleared the way for Crispus Allen to make his way to the Eleha’al Vine for his own use, guarded by Power Man & Iron Fist’s 18 Defend. (Yes, they were still on their top click.)
Ganthet perched on a nearby roof for easy shots on Crispus, forcing me to sacrifice Cloak & Dagger, then Power Man & Iron Fist, to stall for Crispus to heal as much as possible before Paul’s Outwit-wielding Spidey could get into the mix. Crispus got back to an Impervious click and then managed to finish off Ganthet and Spider-Man for the win.
Keys to victory
Black Manta with Submerged is surprisingly good. In fact, Black Manta with anything is surprisingly good. His “Pirate” SP gives him just enough flexibility to work around his mediocre stats and make him a threat with his transporter move+attack. 
Knowing the dials of friend and foe. 
Using opponents’ tactics against them. Paul’s bunkering ’round his Eleha’al Vine drew attention that way, keeping me from being double teamed early on. Later, Lenny’s Vine would prove an advantage for both Scott and me. 
Next post, I’ll tell how Lenny cured me of ever playing a tournament again without considering Battlefield Conditions. EVER.

 

THE SCENARIO: 600-point four-way Battle Royale

 

MY TAKE:

Crispus Allen 197
Black Manta (Arkham Asylum) + Submerged 73
Goliath (Secret Invasion) 58
Power Man & Iron Fist 136
Cloak & Dagger 109
R Black Panther (Universe) 27

 

SCOTT’s take

Ganthet 286
Metron 195
V Wonder Man (Avengers) 117

 

LENNY’s take

Superman (Justice League rare) + Fortitude + Protected 259
Wonder Woman (Arkham Asylum) + Contingency Plan 260
Batman (Justice League common) 75

 

PAUL’s take

E She-Hulk (Supernova) 127
LE Johnny Storm (Secret Invasion) 100
Tharok 100
E Spider-Man (Mutant Mayhem) 97
LE Sue Storm (Fantastic Forces)+ Fantastic Four 49
Crystal 62
Medusa 57

 

We played at the Docks, which made Black Manta VERY happy. Power Man & Iron Fist weren’t pleased with having to slog through the water, though. 

 

Paul got the first points when Scott moved Wonder Man within range of a single target Pulse Wave by Johnny Storm. Scott decided to focus on Paul’s team in general and Sue Storm in particular. “I don’t wanna be swinging at 19 defense all night,” he said. Apart from a shoot-for-the-moon transporter drive-by from Black Manta, I left his two Quintessence pieces alone to tangle with Sue and Co. huddling on or near the Vine on the corner rooftop.

I advanced carefully, keeping Crispus well out of the fray, Cloak & Dagger in cover and Power Man & Iron Fist behind Goliath and others, trying to get an angle on Superman or Wonder Woman in particular. 

 

I at last got a shot at the Man of Steel with Power Man & Iron Fist, but forgot that Fortitude would nullify the Exploit Weakness. Missed, anyway. Then CRITICAL-missed with Crispus Allen. A followup attack with Cloak & Dagger got Lenny to burn his Protected rather than eat even the reduced damage. That opened Supes up for…

…Black Manta!!!! Rolled highly enough to hit Supes’ 19 DV through hindering with Psychic Blast. And as soon as he could move, Superman broke away to the relative safety of the roof. 

Yes. It’s true. Superman ran from Black Manta. Like a little girl.

(Well, OK, to be fair, there was also Power Man & Iron Fist and Cloak & Dagger to contend with, so in actuality he was retreating from them as well. But still. 🙂 )

Goliath managed to tag OOTS Batman (thanks to Scott using his Metron’s Probability Control to give me a reroll or two) but fell to a sniper shot from Paul’s Johnny Storm. Meanwhile Lenny had taken the most points within the initial time limit by KOing She-Hulk and Metron in the massive rooftop melee. We played on since the night was still young and things were getting good. Especially for me, as Power Man & Iron Fist pasted Batman on the way up there.

Because Crispus was on his worst click, I pushed him past it to tie up Wonder Woman and Superman, trusting that Scott’s Ganthet wouldn’t take any opportunity to shoot him. It worked; his Mystics TA is a great deterrent. Unfortunately, it didn’t deter another critical miss, so while he was able to nullify Wonder Woman’s powers nicely, he didn’t do a lot of damage. Indeed, he was taking a great deal of damage, ending up on his last click.

Which brings us to the absolute turning point of the game. Crispus was next to Superman, who had Force Blast and a token. Because Force Blast isn’t an attack, it would circumvent both Super Senses and Power Man & Iron Fist’s Defend (which I was finally remembering to use) while NOT triggering Mystics and slam Crispus into the map edge for knockback damage — and a KO. But Lenny obviously didn’t realize it’d be a knockout blow and didn’t want to push Superman. Crispus was alive — barely.

Cloak & Dagger got to the roof to set up for a followup attack on various targets, using Black Panther as a meat shield. BP soon fell to Paul’s short-range shots. But again, Black Manta dealt serious damage to otherwise hard targets with his Psychic Blast. Between him and my duo figures on the roof I took both Wonder Woman and Superman’s points.

That left Scott’s Ganthet as the major threat on the map. He’d retreated clear to the other side of that end of the map to use the healing Eleha’al Vine that Lenny had placed, and with his Quintessence-granted ability to push and not take damage, he was healing up FAST! But I still had the remains of Paul’s Fantastic Four TA team to deal with — especially after Spider-Man finished off Black Manta before the helmet-clad pirate could get back to the Submerged safety of the water. Fortunately, the only other targets left were very weakened Crystal and Tharok; I made very sort work of them. 

Cloak & Dagger used Stealth to creep up on a full-power Ganthet, encouraging the Guardian of the Universe to retreat from their threat of Psychic Blast. That cleared the way for Crispus Allen to make his way to the Eleha’al Vine for his own use, guarded by Power Man & Iron Fist’s 18 Defend. (Yes, they were still on their top click.)

 

Ganthet perched on a nearby roof for easy shots on Crispus, forcing me to sacrifice Cloak & Dagger, then Power Man & Iron Fist, to stall for Crispus to heal as much as possible before Paul’s Outwit-wielding Spidey could get into the mix. Crispus got back to an Impervious click and then managed to finish off Ganthet and Spider-Man for the win.

Keys to victory

  • Black Manta with Submerged is surprisingly good. In fact, Black Manta with anything is surprisingly good. His “Pirate” SP gives him just enough flexibility to work around his mediocre stats and make him a threat with his transporter move+attack. 
  • Knowing the dials of friend and foe. 
  • Using opponents’ tactics against them. Paul’s bunkering ’round his Eleha’al Vine drew attention that way, keeping me from being double teamed early on. Later, Lenny’s Vine would prove an advantage for both Scott and me. 

Next post, I’ll tell how Lenny cured me of ever playing a tournament again without considering Battlefield Conditions. EVER.

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DATE PLAYED: May 3, 2009
POINT TOTAL: 600 points
SCENARIO: Must be either all Teen Titans or X-Men.
My take: 80s X-Men
M+M Colossus 158
M+M Storm 100
Sinister Wolverine 94
+ Cannonball 4
AW V Psylocke 75
+ Takedown 6
Longshot 66
+ Lunge 5
Dazzler 48
V Havok 44
=600 points.
My plan: Use the Kinetic Accelerator to get Wolvie in the fight at the best moment, Longshot to force re-rolls, and support from range with Psylocke, Colossus and Storm.
Only one opponent: Paul, who fielded the New Mutants:
V Sunspot + Armor Piercing
V Cannonball + Damage Shield + Armor Piercing
V Moonstar
U Warlock
E Magik
V Magma
V Karma
V Wolfsbane
Sadly, his team didn’t qualify for a theme bonus, and he really needed it despite winning the map roll (I forgot to apply my theme bonus to my roll, thinking he had a themed team at first. Double-checking revealed our error). He picked the Prison map to blunt my range advantage. I fielded Bizarro World (appropriate given the X-Men fighting the junior team in a jailhouse) and Paul plunked down Low Gravity.
I moved second turn, getting an immediate long-range shot on Magik with Storm before bunkering in hindering with Psylocke and Colossus. I knew she was in Cannonball’s Charge range but trusted her 19 defense and Takedown combo to protect her. A Kinetic-Accelerated Charge on Moonstar (who’d missed a crucial Psychic Blast at Colossus) with Wolverine failed to boost his speed enough to reach her, leaving him out and vulnerable. Fortunately, her push attempt on him failed as well. 
Cannonball’s crithit on Storm was foiled by a theme-PC by Psylocke; though it left her pushed, Storm was saved from damage. That left ol’ Sam tied up by Storm, Psylocke (who Tookdown him in a later attack, knocking him past Impervious) and Colossus (who eventually KO’d him with the Satellite Dish 3D object). Warlock carried Karma in for a Mind Control attempt on Longshot but the lucky guy forced a failing re-roll, and Dazzler took advantage of the Low Gravity BFC to bounce Karma off the walls again and again to KO both her and Moonstar. 
When time was called, I’d scored Cannonball, Moonstar, Karma, and Warlock, losing none for the win. We played on and Wolverine was the only X-Man to fall, with Magma being the last New Mutant standing.
This was a fun team, but I really missed Perplex. In a future trial, I may swap out the feats I used in favor of Contingency Plan on one of the Leadership pieces to give the team that extra little oomph. 

 

In this week’s scenario, the build limit was 600 points with all characters having to be either all Teen Titans or all X-Men.

My take: 80s X-Men

M+M Colossus 158
M+M Storm 100
Sinister Wolverine 94 + Cannonball 4
AW V Psylocke 75 + Takedown 6
Longshot 66 + Lunge 5
Dazzler 48
V Havok 44

=600 points.

My plan: Use the Kinetic Accelerator to get Wolvie in the fight at the best moment, Longshot to force re-rolls, and support from range with Psylocke, Colossus and Storm.

Only one opponent: Paul, who fielded the New Mutants:

V Sunspot + Armor Piercing
V Cannonball + Damage Shield + Armor Piercing
V Moonstar
U Warlock
E Magik
V Magma
V Karma
V Wolfsbane

Sadly, his team didn’t qualify for a theme bonus, and he really needed it despite winning the map roll (I forgot to apply my theme bonus to my roll, thinking he had a themed team at first. Double-checking revealed our error). He picked the Prison map to blunt my range advantage. I fielded Bizarro World (appropriate given the X-Men fighting their own junior team in a jailhouse) and Paul plunked down Low Gravity.

I moved second turn, getting an immediate long-range shot on Magik with Storm before bunkering in hindering with Psylocke and Colossus. I knew Psylocke was within Cannonball’s Charge range but trusted her 19 defense and Takedown combo to protect her. A Kinetic-Accelerated Charge on Moonstar (who’d missed a crucial Psychic Blast at Colossus) with Wolverine failed to boost his speed enough to reach her, leaving him out and vulnerable. Fortunately, her push attempt on him failed as well. 

Cannonball’s crithit on Storm was foiled by a theme-PC by Psylocke; though it left Psylocke pushed, Storm was saved from big damage. That left ol’ Sam tied up by Storm, Psylocke (who Tookdown him in a later attack, knocking him past Impervious) and Colossus (who eventually KO’d him with the Satellite Dish 3D object). Warlock carried Karma in for a Mind Control attempt on Longshot but the lucky guy forced a failing re-roll, and Dazzler took advantage of the Low Gravity BFC to bounce Karma off the walls again and again to KO both her and Moonstar. 

When time was called, I’d scored Cannonball, Moonstar, Karma, and Warlock, losing none for the win. We played on and Wolverine was the only X-Man to fall, with Magma being the last New Mutant standing.

This was a fun and surprisingly potent team, but I really missed Perplex. In a future trial, I may swap out the feats I used in favor of Contingency Plan on one of the Leadership pieces to give the team that extra little oomph. And to be fair, it was the New Mutants I faced. Not exactly heavy hitters!

 

Next time, I’ll tell the story of how Superman fled in mortal terror of Black Manta.

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Weirdest Rolling Game Ever.
Friday night, I played a three-way 200-pointer with Paul and Scott.
My take: X-Men Origins Reunion
U Wolverine (Sinister) 94
+ Automatic Regeneration 12
Gambit (Mutations & Monsters) 90
+ Lunge 5
Paul’s team: World’s Finest and “friend”
U Superman (Origin)
U Batman (Origin)
U Red Ghost
Scott’s team: Age of Apocalypse refugees…and foes
Cyclops (Mutations & Monsters Exp.)
Jean Grey (Mutations & Monsters)
The Hood
Henry Gyrich (Fantastic Forces)
The weird thing about this match was that well over 90% of all missed attacks — and there were a lot of misses — either showed a 1 on a die or missed by one. Additionally, of the 6 or so Regeneration or Claws rolls I made in the game, all but two were rolls of 1. 
Highlights:
I picked the Danger Room backyard and narrowly missed seeing Wolverine immediately pasted by Cyclops’ Psychic Blast due to my unwise placement of the berserker. I soon based Batman on a roof and pushed to hit him. This left him open to Jean’s Mind Control, but she made one of the many misses of the game. 
Red Ghost, using Bat-Stealth (and his own) hid on my object to avoid Gambit. I used Gumbo’s double target to blast it out from under him if I missed my primary target, Batman.
Scott’s beat-up Cyclops ran to Paul’s healing Vine at Paul’s suggestion (since Scott is more of a collector returning to the game after a long absence). Perhaps I should have warned Scott that Paul is as crafty as he is nice, as that move sent Cyke far away from his teammates and easy pickings for the hotly-pursing Superman (who, incidentally, would thus avoid Jean’s Outwit and range attack powers). 
Batman continually avoided KO by Gambit and Wolvie due to those constant “missed by one” rolls and timely Leap/Climbs away.
Scott was the first out, having taken the brunt of Superman’s might, leaving my hurt Wolverine and Gambit to take him (still on or near his top-dial), Batman and Red Ghost. Those aforementioned bad Regen rolls didn’t help, but I eventually got a solid result to give Wolvie a 2nd wind. Gambit getting hit to Cajun Charm (his short-range SP Perplex) was also key.

 

Friday night, I played a three-way 200-pointer with Paul and Scott.

My take: X-Men Origins Reunion

U Wolverine (Sinister) 94 + Automatic Regeneration 12
Gambit (Mutations & Monsters) 90 + Lunge 5

Paul’s team: World’s Finest and “friend”

U Superman (Origin)
U Batman (Origin)
U Red Ghost

Scott’s team: Age of Apocalypse refugees…and foes

Cyclops (Mutations & Monsters Exp.)
Jean Grey (Mutations & Monsters)
The Hood
Henry Gyrich (Fantastic Forces)

The weird thing about this match was that well over 90% of all missed attacks — and there were a lot of misses — either showed a 1 on a die or missed by one. Additionally, of the 6 or so Regeneration or Claws rolls I made in the game, all but two were rolls of 1. 

Bizarre.

Highlights:

  • I picked the Danger Room backyard and narrowly missed seeing Wolverine immediately pasted by Cyclops’ Psychic Blast due to my unwise placement of the berserker. I soon based Batman on a roof and pushed to hit him. This left him open to Jean’s Mind Control, but she made one of the many misses of the game. 
  • Red Ghost, using Bat-Stealth (and his own) hid on my object to avoid Gambit. I used Gumbo’s double target to blast it out from under him if I missed my primary target, Batman.
  • Scott’s beat-up Cyclops ran to Paul’s healing Vine at Paul’s suggestion (since Scott is more of a collector returning to the game after a long absence). Perhaps I should have warned Scott that Paul is as crafty as he is nice, as that move sent Cyke far away from his teammates and easy pickings for the hotly-pursing Superman (who, incidentally, would thus avoid Jean’s Outwit and range attack powers). 
  • Batman continually avoided KO by Gambit and Wolvie due to those constant “missed by one” rolls and timely Leap/Climbs away.
  • Scott was the first out, having taken the brunt of Superman’s might, leaving my hurt Wolverine and Gambit to take him (still on or near his top-dial), Batman and Red Ghost. Those aforementioned bad Regen rolls didn’t help, but I eventually got a solid result to give Wolvie a 2nd wind. Gambit getting hit to Cajun Charm (his short-range SP Perplex) was also key.

So that was the weirdest streak of rolls I’ve ever seen in a HeroClix game. Anyone else had bizarre games like that?