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

The Legion got a couple more characters in 2005’s Legacy — but just got a little bit closer to being viable.

Wildfire (Legacy 043-045) and Drake Burroughs (Legacy 203)
This figure finally gives the Legion a decent starting AV of 10 for more than one click (on the Vet, at least) and Running Shot+4 damage on ALL FOUR versions, from the 89-point Rookie to the 123, 127 and 145 Experienced, LE and Vet, respectively. A long and well-armored dial full of Toughness and Energy Explosion rounds out the anti-matter package. Hidden Charm: When you see 12 DV on any of his versions, push with abandon because he’s only a click or two away from last-click Impervious and Phasing to make him a solid mid- to late-game tie-up/meat shield blocker, though with only 10 DV, so pair him with one of the Defend members.

Kid Quantum (Legacy 031-033)
She brings Incapacitate to the team with Running Shot and 3 targets. That’s all she does, though, aside from a bit of Leadership on the 80-point Vet. Her DV is a bare 16 and 6 range isn’t quite long enough to make her all that effective. Opponents will just see easy points to be scored. Don’t even bother with the 2-target, 4-range Rookie; her 8 AV and 4-click life is a waste of 49 points. Hidden Charm: use the 61-point Exp. on a high-build-total Legion team for best results. If she slows down the enemy even once, she’s gotten her value back. Try to bump up her 9 AV for the attack if at all possible.

Next: Did the Legion suffer Collateral Damage?

The Legion would reappear in the next DC set, Unleashed. But the same problems would persist: The characters’ combat values would still be subpar and they would still be all wild cards….mostly.

Brainiac 5 (Unleashed 019-021)
The smart kid of the Legion, Brainy is the team’s first and cheapest source of Outwit at just 40 points for the Rookie. And like his teammate Saturn Girl from the previous set rocked Perplex and little else, so too is his dial compLETEly bare apart from the Perplex he gets AFTER Outwit. Twelve more points buy a click each of Toughness and Mastermind on the Experienced — good luck finding fodder on a Legion team — and the 58-point Vet doubles up on both powers. The LE, Querl Dox, has a totally different powerset: Incap, Defend, Leadership and Exploit Weakness for 47. All are basically useless due to his terrible stats.  Hidden Charm: B5 has one role — to Outwit or Perplex ’til he’s dead. He’s gonna need help not dying with only 15 or lower DV and having to be within 6 squares to be of use. Fortunately, there’s a Legion maneuver that Heroclixin’ calls the “bunker formation” that he can benefit from, allowing him to help his team. We’ll discuss it more in future installments.

Chameleon (Unleashed 037-039)
Holy junk, what an awful opening click on the Rookie. 7 AV, 14 DV, 1 damage. And the AV goes DOWN from there. At least there’s a bit of Plasticity and a full dial of Shape Change to help save his 30 points. 44 and 58 get a 15 DV Toughness and a click of life on each level up. All have Blades/Claws/Fangs, Incap and Poison in some order in the Attack slot. Hidden Charm: The Rookie pushes straight onto Poison. So pair him with a higher DV ally with Defend and go tie up a soft target.

Supergirl (Unleashed 077)
She wasn’t a Legionnaire when this set first arrived; that would happen later, with the addition of keywords. Unfortunately, she still brings the same LSH problems of the era to the team: unconscionably low values for a 133-point figure, especially on defense. On the plus side, she brings the Superman Ally team ability for her wild card friends to copy at last. Kara Zor-El (Unleashed 218) is much like Supergirl, only rocking the LSH TA and losing opening Running Shot for Charge and an extra click each of Impervious and Super Strength for one point less. Hidden Charm: On a big enough LSH team where she’s not a main fighter — and I really hope a gal of her cost that only has one click of 10 AV and THREE TIMES more clicks of 8AV or worse than clicks of 9AV ISN’T a main fighter — either can be used to soak up shots for better pieces with her 9-click-long dial.

Shvaughn Erin (Unleashed 204)
She’s really only an honorary Legionnaire, being their liason on the Science Police force of their time. And she has the same rubbish stats. But she’s another cheap Leadership fig, and she actually has useful powers in Running Shot and Energy Shield/Deflection. Hidden Charm: A rare non-flyer on the Legion, she can be carted about for all manner of formations and setups.

Next: The Legacy of the Legion

The first appearance of the Legion in HeroClix were these lackluster teens cursed with low defenses in 2003’s Cosmic Justice set — we’re talking zero armor and peaks of 15 here —and a team ability that was useless to them unless one broke theme and ran them with non-wildcards. The addition of keywords to the game years later did little to help, as a Legion team still was almost all wild cards.

By piece:

Cosmic Boy (Cosmic Justice) is dial-long wild card Telekinesis. That’s really all that need be said. Neither the 45-point Rookie nor the 61-point Experienced figs have anything else of worth to offer. The Vet adds two starting clicks of Leadership for 68 — whoopee. The LE Rokk Krinn has a run of Force Blast for 8 points more. Hidden Charm: What you see is what you get. Cos is all TK. Push him to do it every turn he can — he can take it. Use the 45-point Rookie for best results, or if you really need the extra action sometimes afforded by Leadership, spring for the Vet.

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Saturn Girl (Cosmic Justice)
At least she starts with a 9 AV. With her long run of Perplex and opening click of 8-range Mind Control, this Rookie telepath actually has a bit of utility. The Exp and Vet both nudge up to 10 AV, a click each extra of MC and Perplex alike, but there’s really no call to spend the extra 15 and 32 more points over the Rookie’s 44 unless you just REALLY want the 10 range on the Vet. Don’t even THINK about spending 72 on the Imra Ardeen LE. Hidden Charm: The Rookie is still among the LSH’s cheapest Perplexers, and pushable in that role. Keep her in the back at all times, bumping those stats as needed. The other two have some potential as Mind Controllers.

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Live Wire (Cosmic Justice 046-048)
The rookie is the dirt-cheapest of all Legionnaires (22 points) and nigh-useless with only 7 AV and 0 damage Ranged Combat Expert. That’s right: base him and he’s nothing but low-DV, 4-click-long tie-up. Unless sacrificing him’s part of your strat — say, as part of using a Legion Lost ATA-gained TA — steer clear. The Exp. and Vet only pack on extra points and a click of life apiece but are similarly pointless. For more than double the rookie’s cost, the 50-point Vet STILL only has one click of 2 damage and AV over 8. Hidden Charm: The Rookie is the least expensive 8 range flier in the whole game. Equip him with the Spotter feat to aid better shooters. Using the Legion Lost ATA well could make Live Wire a surprise danger — by chaining a decent AV to him with Batman Enemy, for instance. 

Next installment: The Legion Unleashed…?

Welcome to a new occasional Heroclixin’ feature called F.U.N. Focus, in which we take an in-depth look at a character or team or, as in this case, an entire keyword: The Legion of Super-Heroes, in anticipation of the full-size Superman and The Legion of Super-Heroes set releasing later this month.

Building a F.U.N. all-Legion of Super-Heroes team has been an exercise in frustration for many years. The vast team of superteens has long had a number of problems to overcome that other similarly sized rosters don’t:

• It’s lacked many attackers with greater than 10 AV.
• It’s lacked multiple support-power pieces: Only one starting-click Outwitter in Modern Age and ZERO healers.
• It’s composed almost entirely of fliers and so severely lacks the action advantage that a force with taxiable characters can employ. Or, to put it another way, it’s a swarm team that can’t really swarm.
• It’s also almost lacking in Willpower/Indomitable — fewer than five total each compared with literally dozens in the other big teams — which compounds its difficulty swarming.
• It’s also almost entirely made up of wild cards.

Most of these problems are mitigated when the characters are teamed up with non-Legionnaires that they can carry and copy. But the Legion ought to be formidable in its own right. This is a team that’s taken on Darkseid, for crying out loud. Or, as a quote from one of their comics — and ATA cards — goes:

“So you’re like the Teen Titans of the future?”
“No, we’re the Justice League of the future.”

This problem just came up in a multi-player game recently. I ran a 500-point all-Legion team and was the last to fully engage because every one of my characters had to waste actions just moving around and couldn’t safely push, while the other five teams either had Willpower or taxis or both.

This 10-or-so-part F.U.N. Focus series will take a look at the progression of the Legion in HeroClix and how well each piece works on an all-Legion squad, ending with a sort of rating:

 This piece has a role best reserved for a huge Legion team.
 The piece is fine for most Legion teams of any size.
 This piece must be considered for any Legion team, big or small.

Finally, one of the charms of the Legion is that even the weakest members have something to contribute. This series will highlight each piece’s Hidden Charm.

The first installment will use the Legion Time Bubble to go back in time to 2003…on Monday. Be there!