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

Heroclixin’s on a mission to document how every fig with Super Strength can hold its own weapons.

Winter Soldier [Captain America: Civil War 009] grips the token under his robo-arm, slightly:

…while Giant-Man [010] has to settle for this crotch grab.

This was originally going to be an exhaustive article listing Heroclixin’s top things we’re going to miss that’s retiring this summer and those elements we can’t wait to be gone. But it got too hard, especially once we:

• removed all our Top Ten Favorites affected. Because then…
• it was difficult to find other figs we cared about as much. Also…
• The list of stuff we disliked was pretty much just “every resource and team base and Marvel Zombie and War of Light entity.” Boring.
• We also wanted to do it set-by-set…at least one from each. But there’s a LOT of stuff rotating out. It began to look fairly daunting.

We found ourselves in a bind with small sets such as AvX. Our favorite there is Black Panther, but we’ve been non-plussed with that figure from the beginning. So we weren’t all THAT sorry to see him go, especially with 3 superior versions now in Modern Age and a fourth on the way in summer’s Civil War.

So we’ll be missing our favorites:

• Deathlok [Wolverine and the X-Men 011b]
• War Machine [Invincible Iron Man 029b]
• Aquaman [War of Light 029]
• Swamp Thing [War of Light 053]
• Drax The Destroyer [Guardians of the Galaxy Movie 013]
• Black Widow [Captain America: The Winter Soldier 003]
• Legionnaires Timber Wolf, Chameleon Girl, Wildfire and  [Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes]
• Nova Corps Officer [Guardians of the Galaxy Movie 004]
• Angel [Days of Future Past 005]
• Superior Spider-Man [Deadpool 060]
• Falcon [Captain America: The Winter Soldier 006]
• Triple M’s of Mirage, Magik and Magma [Wolverine and the X-Men 004, 034, 073]
• Multiple Man [Wolverine and the X-Men 013]
• Captain America and Black Widow [Captain America: The Winter Soldier 017]
• Batman [Gotham City Strategy Game 001]

But there are also these that will be mourned here in Heroclixin’ land.

Giganta [Legion of Doom Fast Forces 006] I made her SO effective but no more giant Quaking taxi action.

Superboy [SLOSH] Just like that, Modern Age Legion teams lost a great inspiration.

Captain Marvel [ 019a] She’s leaving just when this team showed but before it got its final member, Ms. America [who is a long shot to appear in mid-summer’s Spider-Man if at all this year].

Shang-Chi [Deadpool], who never seemed to perform up to his promise.

And — ironically, because we hated them — we’ll miss the sheer creativity that resources and entities admittedly allowed for in the competitive scene. It’s too soon to say what the modern de-emphasis on such off-the-map effects will do, but Heroclixin’ hopes the game doesn’t slip into a different sort of rut.

—or— “How To FAIL at HeroClix in Every Conceivable Way.”

So I played my Ginger Girl team of
Giganta [Legion of Doom Fast Forces 006] 100
Crystal [Inhumans Fast Forces] 100
Harlequin [World’s Finest] 90
+ Hulkbuster Torso 10

= 300 points

Heroclixin’s written about Giganta before. The same tactic of pushing her to start non-stop Quaking enemy formations was still viable, so I wanted to field her one more time in Modern Age before her June 1 retirement. Same went for FF Crystal, who would be my chief support piece and secret weapon with her supreme Barrier and Smoke Cloud and Telekinesis skills. Finally, Harlequin was the face of the future and the lead attacker on this mini-swarm crew. The Torso would give her the armor needed to survive to the end of these matches.

I was under no illusion that this team would make the cut to the four elimination rounds, or even have an overall winning record. But I was going to have some F.U.N. trying, and would claw at least one earned win, I figured.

I sort of figured wrong.

ROUND 1, In Which I Meet My Once-Per-Tournament Game-Killing Rookie Error Quota

Faced Nick “Balls of” Fury [NFAOS 056] equipped with Brainiac [SM/WW], Jean Grey [Uncanny X-Men Fast Forces 002], Weasel, Blind Al, and Indigo Power Battery which would force me to get very close to fight. Fine; that’s what I wanted anyway. According to plan, I soon got to where Giganta could Quake the first three listed about. But both Fury and the Decoy-assigned Jean got their Shape Change rolls, and Weasel wasn’t KO’d either, leaving me in a bad spot. From there, it was a hard-fought game of trying to counterattack the unscathed Fury to recover from the lost attack opportunity, especially with Jean able to keep him and his support extra mobile.

It wasn’t until round 2 that I remembered Giganta’s Battle Fury.

ROUND 2,  In Which I Suffer The Worst Critical Hit Ever And Am Buried In An Avalanche

Here I faced Superman [Trinity War 050] equipped with Parallax and with the Sinestro Corps Battery. Whoof…-2 AV against a steady 20 DV. I had to ensure  as much attack opportunities as possible to have a chance, so I forced him to over extend a bit, giving me a shot on Superman with Harlequin’s Jack In The Box. I needed an 11 to hit but didn’t mind trying because Giganta’s Flurry, Harlequin’s Psychic Blast, and Crystal’s penetrating damage Smoke Cloud were all coming behind it.

I rolled the absolute worst: a 12.

The critical hit knocked him out of range of ALL those other attacks and didn’t even result in any more damage because of Invincible. Worse still, Superman’s SP immediately healed the damage done.

Later in the round, after losing both teammates, Harlequin made a half-Sidestep to stay in hindering terrain. But she got stranded there by his Hypersonic Speed hit and I couldn’t do a SINGLE ______ THING to even give her a chance at fighting back, running away, any useful thing because of that solitary, meaningless Sidestep…the Avalanche Effect.

ROUND 3, In Which I Am Blindsided and Distrust My Own Gut and Am Undone By A Judge’s Ruling

My opponent fielded Iceman [Uncanny X-Men 051] equipped with Proselyte and assigned Greed [Trinity War S104], Greed [Trinity War 065] equipped with Ion and assigned Omega Drive, and Atomica [Crime Syndicate Fast Forces 007] all with the Indigo Battery. Winning map, he selected the Thunderbolts Sub and crept up the hall with Sidestep, using free Barrier to wall up.

I guess after two straight losses, I got skittish and forgot my game plan: to rush the enemy before they are ready. And so I passed up a chance to Charge Giganta up to smash his Barrier and punch him while carrying Harley who could Sidestep in the gap and sic Jack on ’em. Thus I was shocked when he Outwitted Giganta through walls (Omega Drive) so the Super Strength-imbued Iceman could one-shot her.

From there, I found Harlequin unable to act when Iceman used Sidestep to activate his Ice Wall attack that froze her completely in place until the end of the turn. And here is where the judge killed any chance of my comeback: He ruled that the Ice Wall’s end-of-turn removal prevents end-of-turn free actions. I didn’t think it was the right ruling, but I couldn’t argue why at the time.

Here’s why, as told in the official WizKids Info Network’s rules forum, in relation to another “end of the turn” effect with identical timing:

• Free actions may be given during the end of the turn phase, but not after clearing action tokens.

So yeah. I could have at least put up a fight with the free actions granted by her trait. Maybe it’s enough to KO Atomica, at least.

ROUND 4, In Which I Am Denied A Fair Fight.

My poor showings and other players dropping out left me with a bye.

ROUND 5, In Which Wits and Dice Fail. 

My final foe had a two-headed team of Steve Rogers [NFAOS 051] equipped with Ion and Balls Fury. He got map and picks the Age of Ultron New York map, one that has virtually no cover against Fury. So I forced him to come to me, a little bit. Out of caution, I built a Barrier for Crystal, knowing the building was no cover against this pair.

I am SO TIRED of losing to off-map stuff. In this case, I didn’t build quite enough Barrier to cover for Ion-granted TK and Crystal was crippled.

I wasn’t out of it yet, though, managing to KO Fury and wear Rogers down good and well even after Giganta and Crystal fell. But in the end, I couldn’t roll a stupid 6 to hit a stupid 16 for just a stupid two damage in three stupid tries to win.

———

Sigh. I’m so glad so much of what doomed me in Rounds 2 and 3 — batteries and entities — is going away. I need to figure out how to stop pratfalling like in Rounds 1 and 5 and avalanching like in Round 2. And I suppose I need to be ready to argue the general rules that I seem to know better than most. This is the second time I’ve been undone by a reasonable-sounding but incorrect ruling on basic powers and timing at one of these big events this year.

Heroclixin’s going back a little bit to catch up on its quest to photograph every Super Strength fig holding its object token. Here’s the crowd from the Batman V Superman micro set and related Fast Forces:

A new HeroClix set is on the cusp of wide release, so here’s Heroclixin’s customary pocket checklist to aid your collection efforts.

UncannyX-Menchecklist

We attended some pre-releases this past weekend. And as is our wont, Heroclixin’ got photos of characters with Super Strength holding their object tokens because boys’ toys are supposed to hold their weapons! And we start with Thunderbird [Uncanny X-Men 004], Beast [051] and Juggernaut [030 and 039]:

Something we don’t do often here at Heroclixin’ is comment on the state of the game or give reactions to new sets and rules and whatnot. So F.U.N. Reflections is a new occasional series intended to do just that.

_______

We are somewhat disappointed in Uncanny X-Men’s character selection. First, out of about 70 slots, only 16 are of never-before-clixed characters. The rest are remakes. Granted, some, such as Omega Red, are sorely needed. And all are meant to replace older versions finally headed for retirement in June. But that leads to our other complaint.

Fully HALF the remaining characters have two or three other same-named versions in the set, robbing slots for the younger New X-Men. I’m a fan of Cyclops, but even I didn’t want three versions of him.

It makes sense in cases like the young, All-New X-Men version of Jean Grey versus her original Phoenix incarnation. But in other cases we see stuff like Nightcrawler’s two not-so-distinct dials and sculpts. It’s weak sauce.

Speaking of weak sauce, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mouser Mayhem starter set came out, and veteran players noted two things right away.

• There are only four figures that come with it instead of the customary six, and all four range from mediocre to worse.
• The Mouser bystander pogs that come with the set do not have point values, so they are unusable in the HeroClix game.
• To all this, we at Heroclixin’ say: GOOD.

Usually, when a new starter set drops, we vets are all over that product like spring pollen on a wet car, seeking to get new copies of the latest ruleset, stock up on object tokens, and add new metagame-worthy figures to our collections — leaving actual new players with nothing to learn the game with.

This time, though, WizKids may have been crazy like a fox:

1. First delaying TMNT’s release until AFTER the Civil War starter set’s street date, drawing sales to that product.
2. Second, stocking the TMNT starter with deliberately weaker elements to further discourage vets from poaching all copies, leaving some merch for players brand new to the game. This is an item I think WK intends to have some shelf life.

So those are Heroclixin’s musings for mid-April. We’ll have a lot more to say as we aim to make this a mostly weekly feature of the site.

Time to continue Heroclixin’s quest documenting how characters with Super Strength hold object tokens. Because standing on it is weak sauce and confusing. Putting it on the card is even WEAKER (and borderline cheating in our barely humble opinion because it’s sort of hidden).

So here’s how to be awesome instead in World’s Finest.

OK, so Supergirl [World’s Finest 056] is NOT that awesome, only being able to lean it on her face like this.

Wonder Woman [063] can hold it very well, though. Be careful with this one; her wings can be a little bit fragile.

Robotman [005] barely gets a grip.

Element Man [040] normally only manages the lame token lean. But he’s flexible enough at the ankles to safely bend him back to securely tuck the object between his stat slot and his arms.

Earth’s mightiest mortal Shazam [065] can hold his object like so.

Fellow strongman Superman [061] doesn’t do it quite as solidly, but it’s more than sufficient.

It’s taken a while for us to gather the names, set numbers, rarity levels and point costs of these pieces, but it’s complete. Click the link below to download your own checklist as you track down those chases and exclusives.

2016_CTD_checklist