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More Super Strong figs that can hold their own object tokens, by hook or crook.

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Earth-2’s Batman [Superman/Wonder Woman 002] gets temporary Super Strength via a trait. So here’s how he holds objects for those two or three turns

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Supergirl [053a] holds a token under her cape pretty well.

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Hat [], who gets temporary S.Strength with his trait, can only lean objects on his chest.

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Here, a player has to carefully balance the token on the arms and head JUST SO to achieve a hold with Wonder Woman [066].

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Superman [065] does it well.

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Not much to say here. It’s a job for Superman [100].

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The Atom [G001] does a massive job of holding — well, balancing, really — an object as seen.

 

 

 

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jla-jsa-thanksgiving

It dawned on me that I’ve been playing this game for a solid decade now. And Thanksgiving seems a fine time for Heroclixin’ to mark my Top Ten moments in 10 years of, well, Heroclixin’.

 

FIRST MOMENT

Getting that V Skullbuster: It wasn’t the first HeroClix fig given to me — that was Cosmic Justice Penguin — but this was the one that caught my interest, being a relatively fringe character that was yet made in plastic form. WHY THIS MOMENT MATTERED: It accurately illustrated that in HeroClix, ANY character was fair game, and that as much as any reason, got and keeps me ‘clixin’.

Also, as Tim Cummings, the giver of the ‘Clix, quipped: “The first one’s free, my brutha!!”

 

SECOND MOMENT

Buying V Aquaman: It was my first HeroClix purchase, done on a trip to my cousin’s 2005 high school graduation in my old college town of Columbia, Mo. [Mizzou-RAH!!!!] WHY THIS MOMENT MATTERED: Remember that “first one’s free” quip? This sent me down the collector’s path of getting figs of characters I like.

 

THIRD MOMENT

Pete’s box ‘o ‘clix: My friend Peter was getting out of the game in July 2005 as I was getting in. For the low price of just $10 or $20, I got a double-sided tacklebox full of figures. WHY THIS MOMENT MATTERED: At the time, I had no pieces with which to make trades, and I still wasn’t buying boosters. This gave my collection a real infusion to allow me to get the pieces I really wanted.

 

FOURTH MOMENT

That Collateral Damage brick…and a half: Until now, I’d only bought on impulse or for sealed events here and there. But I was drawn in by the Giants Collector’s Set due the summer of 2006 and the only way to order it was to buy a brick of 8 boosters. I was already interested in the majority of the character selection, so I plunked down the money.

And then, when I didn’t see my No. 1 wanted fig in those boxes, I immediately ponied up for half a brick more. WHY THIS MOMENT MATTERED: I was all in, now.

 

FIFTH MOMENT

So I went to a big clix event in early 2006 with this team:

Superman [Icons ]
Jean Grey [Infinity Challenge ]
Joker [Icons ] + Armor Piercing
Lockjaw [Fantastic Force 003]
Ghost Widow [City of Villains]

…or somesuch. This team was built to win it all, or at least to place highly. I went 3-1, my only loss coming to a brilliant but shady young player running a similar team (who later wound up being disqualified for being shady). Out of a field of 20-something players, I placed something like fifth or sixth: just out of the running for the excellent top prizes such as Galactus but still possibly able to randomly draw a great LE such as a Dark Phoenix or Hal Jordan or one of the still-high-dollar Cosmic Justice pieces.

I got LE Hephzibah.

Even at the time, this would be a bad prize in a home venue, much less an event with the kind of swag STILL ON THE TABLE that would go to players who placed worse than me. At the time, I chalked up to God punishing me for my mean cheese team.

WHY THIS MOMENT MATTERED: I realized that building a team solely to win isn’t any fun when I DON’T win.

 

SIXTH MOMENT

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In spring 2006, I built a pre-keywords theme team based on this graphic novel and, for the first time, went 3-0 at my venue.

Mr. Terrific [Legacy 018] 80
Batman [Legacy 084] 111
Power Girl [Legacy 027] 120
Shazam! [Unleashed 088] 166
Plastic Man [Hypertime 100] 40
Dr. Fate [Unleashed 071] 113
Green Lantern [Collateral Damage 051] 167

It may have certainly helped that a couple of the strongest players weren’t there. But I’ll take it!

WHY THIS MOMENT MATTERED: My first win, and one done on my as-yet-unnamed F.U.N. terms.

 

 

SEVENTH MOMENT

Judge a dead game: In autumn 2008, I’d just stepped up to take and pass the required judge test to become my venue’s new judge. And then, less than a month later, WizKids was closed and HeroClix effectively done. But I took the reins of our play group and we never stopped running events.

WHY THIS MOMENT MATTERED: I’d gone from merely an avid player to one actively involved in the game’s very survival.

 

EIGHTH MOMENT

Heroclixin’ launches in early 2009. 

WHY THIS MOMENT MATTERED: You’re reading it.

 

NINTH MOMENT

Dragon Con 2009: I was out of work due to the Great Recession and couldn’t afford to go to things like comic book conventions. But some friends suggested I sneak in and only pay for the gaming tickets I’d need to play. I don’t usually break rules like that, but I was persuaded, having not been to the huge Atlanta event since the early 1990s.

Oh, my. It was like coming home.

WHY THIS MOMENT MATTERED: HeroClix got me back into the con scene and, specifically, cosplay, a new hobby and introduced me to so many new people. It also got me involved with the folks who run the Realms Open Championship, which I am still a volunteer for.

 

TENTH MOMENT

In 2011, toward the end of my long layoff due to the Great Recession, I was gifted a Wonder Woman [WizKids D-001] by an HCRealms member I’ve never met, sometime after I lamented there that it was a highly desired figure that I had zero chance of acquiring in my financial state.

WHY THIS MOMENT MATTERED: Such kindness from a relative stranger. Part of it was Christian brotherhood, but this moment has been repeated in smaller fashion with non-theists, too. Heroclixers are the nicest gamers of all.

 

BONUS MOMENT

I had a few big event victories in 2014: A ROC top 8 finish in March, a shared first place in April, a win for an extra AvX grand prize package. It was nice to know that in between my usual FAIL moments, I can still bring some real game at times.

But, y’know…it’s more important to have F.U.N. Happy Thanksgiving, players!

 

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Occasionally, we’ll look ahead at a set’s offerings to see what we’re most excited to play, and why.

SUPERMAN II [Superman/Wonder Woman 019a]
That Incap that trumps Willpower and the like looks super-Useful despite his Friendly-looking 2 damage. A Nifty addition to the Black Box theme of all-African-looking characters and to the growing “Wait, That’s Not Superman” theme of Superman archetype figs such as Hyperion, Blue Marvel, Omni-Man and others.

CLARK KENT [Superman/Wonder Woman 026]
Finally a reporter Kent done right (compared with the decidedly not-Super edition in 2010’s The Brave and the Bold) with the Superman Ally team ability (i.e., his X-ray vision), Probability Control (his moving at super-speed to affect the environment) Outwit (ditto, plus his keen reporter instincts) and the SP to become Superman for an instant. Very Nifty piece for our Plainclothes theme!

LORI LEMARIS [Superman/Wonder Woman 042]
We like Atlantis teams, so she and her fellow MERMAID girlfriends will join with Aquaman or Namor on a water map soon in these parts.

KRYPTO [Superman/Wonder Woman 050]
A figure that old WizKids [2002-200] promised would never be remade gets new life with NECA/WizKids [2009-present]. It’s Nifty to run a dog on a team and we like Animal themes anyway. For just 50 points, the Man of Steel’s best friend is a solid fighter, too. He’s not at the top of our list, but we’ll definitely keep him if we find him in the shelter of a booster box. 🙂

RED SON CHASES [Superman/Wonder Woman 061, 065, 066]
Overall, this set is not populated by a great number of must-haves for Heroclixin’ — which is good news, because the biggest “must” of the set is the chase Wonder Woman [066] we need to complete our Diana’s Wardrobe of all Wonder Woman costumes. To a lesser degree, we also want to eventually acquire Red Son Superman [065] for the comparably completist Kal’s Closet theme of Superman costumes and Batman [061] for similar reasons.

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Hey, there was a pre-release at my venue. Two of ’em, in fact. So Heroclixin’ got as many shots of figures with Super Strength holding object tokens as possible.

 

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yes, Jimmy Olsen [027] gets Super Strong when he turns into Turtle Boy. No lie

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Lord Satanus [046] has a devilish hold on his object tokens
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Superman II [019a] can only manage the ol’ chin-and-stat-window hold. Such a pacifist20151021_200138

The three main Wonder Woman pieces [002, 018 and 033] can’t do much better than to lean the object on their bodice.

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We should have gotten the photo from behind to show how his long ponytail is doing the heavy lifting here

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First Born [037] uses traited Super Strength.20151021_195959 20151021_195729

Steel [012] gets a hold on things with, as usual, his hammer

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yes, Amazon [005] is using her ponytail to hold the token

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We had a grand time at the Realms Open Championship as part of the judge staff. I was wondering how well I’d enjoy the ROC finals without the unparalleled experience that is DragonCon surrounding it.

The answer: Just fine. It’s actually a more purely HeroClix function and improved, not lessened!

Personal highlights:

  1. Meeting the Generation Clix trinity of Skyler, Chase and ROC participant Travis on Friday. I’m enjoying these guys’ semi-weekly podcast on all things HeroClix and they are very cool in person. (I may be featured in a little spot during a brief interview about becoming a ROC judge.)
  2. Winning Fellowship in former HeroClix Worlds champion Jeterey’s late-night Minions game format despite going 1-2 thanks to the worst error I have ever made in a HeroClix game in a long and humiliating tradition of making incredibly terrible errors in HeroClix games. More on that in a future post.
  3. Meeting my weekend roommate, Ryan of Glass Cabinet Hobbies. What a cool, friendly fellow! I need to eBay more clix from his store. If you got a chance to view any of the live stream from the event, that was his voice you were hearing most of the time.
  4. Re-encountering faces from previous ROC events and getting to recall their names with only a few embarrassed questions!
  5. Encountering familiar HCRealms screen names and getting to shake their hands and share war stories, techniques and smiles.
  6. As always, working with the ROC staff is an absolute pleasure!
  7. And, of course, seeing the ascent of the 2015 ROC World Cup champion, 10-year-old Isaac, who straight-up outplayed nearly all challengers — including the theretofore zero-loss Phillip, whose team was runner-up in Worlds as well (but against the grossly overpowered — and still banned from ROC — Felix Faust). I’d noted Isaac’s play earlier in a battle royale and thought at first that, while skilled, he was simply having fun tagging along with his dad. But no, he came to compete.

    When I heard how Isaac dealt with a new friend’s team, one that I thought was impressively outside the box compared to the rest of the meta, I remarked, not for the last time, that this kid was scary good.

  8. Seeing the last of the HCRealms “HeroClix is like chess with superpowers” T-shirts I conceptualized years ago. Made me feel nostalgic and a little proud.
  9. Last but not at all least, getting to meet the man behind the Starting Over podcast, Edward Shelton, aka Darklogos. Dude is even sharper than I knew from our previous encounters via interviews and correspondences. It was worth leaving the hotel much later than I intended to hear him school a newer player of my acquaintance onto the path to better play. Edward was talking to John, but yours truly was listening, too, and assessing his own deviance from the path that would lead to the top table.

    Part of it is Heroclixin’s commitment to F.U.N. play. It’s truly the path that suits me best. But Mr. Shelton made a driving point of encouraging our younger friend not to try so hard to netdeck the metagame or be so in awe of the best players, but to instead learn what his own actual style of play is and to grow excellent by being himself. Perhaps, then, I may be able to grow into an excellent HeroClix player in my own F.U.N. manner.

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Although such hyper-competitive gaming isn’t Heroclixin’s purview, we are going to be there as part of the judging staff this weekend in Atlanta, Ga., Oct. 16-18! Come say hey to me, Rurouni KJS! I’m the short black guy in the judge shirt and glasses. There’s an off chance I may even play in one of the side events.

Go to Hcrealms.com for further official details such as registering for the badge — it’s free — and learning about the events.

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Last week Several weeks ago, we wrote of a F.U.N. team of characters from April with the word “black” in their names. It worked out, so we tried another version in August:

Black Widow [Avengers Assemble 065] 200
Black Panther [Age of Ultron] 140
Black Knight [Age of Ultron] 115
Black Manta [Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes 039] 97
Black Lightning [Batman] 87
Black Canary [Streets of Gotham 003] 62
Black Talon [Deadpool] 60
Black Death [Kick-Ass 2] 35
= 769 points

The basic strat was to use Black Talon to Mind Control a teammate and jumpstart the offense that way, while using Black Death and Canary as timely tie-ups. But I was going to have little time to execute, as I had to go to work in a little over 2.5 hours.

FIRST, I faced Aaron’s DC team of Superman, Batman from Trinity War (Wait, didn’t we DO this already?), New 52 John Constantine, Cosmic Boy [Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes 001], Lucius Fox [Batman] and Aquaman [Trinity War 018] at 60 points.

Turning Points

  • The Canary in the Mine: Superman immediately used his X-ray eyes to KO Canary in a single shot when I misjudged Batman as the true threat instead of as the TKer of Supes. Oops.
  • Aquaman? Doesn’t He Just Talk to Fis—AH, MY SPLEEN!!!!! I got a tad too aggressive with Black Panther, leaving him within Charge range of the 60-point Aquaman, who got double-Perplexed to a 13 AV to rather easily hit BP for 6 after an aces Blades/Claws/Fangs roll. At least I later scored a KO of the sea king myself.
  • Carrying the Plague Almost Kills Me: Black Widow taxied Black Death to block one line of fire, but really I should have walked the 35-pointer to base Batman.

Superman escaped to consign me to a 60-62 loss for an 0-1 record.

 

SECOND was Lenny’s themed team of Justice League Dark: Frankenstein, Tim Hunter, John Constantine, I Vampire, Zatanna, Madame Xanadu, Black Orchid and Blue Devil, all from the main Trinity War set. This was exciting; I’d never seen them all played together before!

Turning Points Lessons Learned

  • Never overextend Black Panther. You’d think I’d have learned from last game. But his ability to hide from line of fire can lead to overconfidence in his effective 19 DV. He took a first critical hit blow from Black Orchid — after a rerolled crit miss! — and Frank cleaned up for the first score of the game. All because I wanted to Outwit the Vampire’s Charge to protect Black Widow, who’d roundly missed her attack on Blue Devil. I didn’t take into account all the other Charge characters who could and did attack.
  • Never gum up line of fire. I had a lot of range on my team. But my overaggressive Panther placement led to enemy melee forces and my own brawler Black Knight blocking my firing lanes. Thus I couldn’t effectively get Black Manta and Lightning into the fray…OR use Black Widow’s “smoke” trait to get cover where I needed.
  • Never Leap/Climb the Stealthy gal out in the open… right in the Outwit’s face. While I kinda needed to get Black Canary where she could do some good, I may have chosen a different spot. Speaking of choices:
  • Who to hit? Blue Devil? John? Or Xanadu? Canary had based all three. I chose the Devil. And missed. NEVER CHOOSE THE DEVIL.
  • Never say die. Things begin to turn around. At last, my shooters got a clear LOF to Zatanna, and thanks to the Outsiders TA, we take her. And then Tim Hunter, as well, followed by Constantine! Victory is at hand.
  • …until, at the last minute, Madame Xanadu shifts to successfully reroll a Charging Frankenstein’s miss into a 6 BCF one-shot kill of Black Lightning as time expires. Xanadu haunts me.

Xanadu dies in every game I see her in now.

 

FINALLY, Morrison’s Avengers on the old Cap Helicarrier map: Deadpool [Thunderbolts Fast Forces], Captain America [Avengers Age of Ultron 102], Iron Man [Mutations And Monsters 200], and 100-point versions each of Hank Pym [Age of Ultron], Spider-Man and Thor [Avengers Vs. X-Men], and Hulk and Iron Man [Original Avengers].

Turning Points

A Thor Too Far. Morrison overextended Thor and I took those points early on.

…Failing Even In Undeath. Using Black Talon to revive Thor, I tried to single Pulse Wave Spidey. But…crit miss.

HULK SMA…oh. A potentially Panther-crippling Charge was wasted on a bad attack roll, which left the rest of the game in little doubt. I lost Black Death, Manta and Talon but got Hulk, Iron Man and Pym for the margin of victory. 1-2.

This team suffered for a total lack of Probability Control. Wish I’d remembered Black Cat [Deadpool 023]! I also didn’t realize special objects were allowed; I would have included an Opened Hydrant for Black Manta’s benefit.

By piece:

Canary: Mostly dead weight. Black Cat takes her spot from now on.

Death: Still a superb tie-up blocker. He’s always on this team.

Lightning: Outsiders TA is solid, but he’s soooo soft. I like him too much to leave him off the team, though.

Manta: Another fixture on the team, able to serve as taxi, shooter, wildcard.

Panther: Much more of a finesse fig than I initially appreciated.

Talon: Again, the piece that makes this a surprisingly competitive F.U.N. team.

Widow: A beastick that this team usually lacks. The Smoke Cloud is clutch.

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No promises on the next article. That bit me last time.

 

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Please forgive us for Heroclixin’s long silence. Late August and September has us consumed with conventions DragonCon and Anime Weekend Atlanta in these parts. Let’s continue with our photographic record of figures holding object tokens.

 

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Thor [Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD 050] has a mighty hold via her lightning.

 

 

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Namor [054] is even better with a perfect grip under his right arm.

 

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Because they’re identical, sculpt-wise, this photo of the non-prime version can stand in for Union Jack [043b] holding a token with the stat slot and his chin and right wrist.

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Hulk [052] has to use his fingers to make this hold work. But when it works, it’s a smashing success.

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That’s just about all there is to show in Nick Fury. We’re missing Blazing Skull [038] and our not-quite-completed Hulkbuster MKII [G001]. We’ll get to them eventually.

Next Tuesday look for a slow catchup on Age of Ultron.