Sorry I missed Tuesday’s update. Here’s Superboy (Teen Titans 026) in token-holding action:
…yeah. He DOESN’T really hold it, beyond the lame “lean it on his butt” method shown above. I guess it works, sort of.
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More to come next Tuesday.
Battle Report: No Man’s Land month 6 (take 2)
I was in some kind of quandary. I could not decide which team to run.
Last go-round, I’d run a pretty min/max force with three good attackers backed by a full pit crew that did barely better than squat against teams that weren’t even the roughest out there. So this time I decided to run teams that were more F.U.N.
But, again, I couldn’t decide. Would it be:
Vixen plus two each of Killer Croc (No Man’s Land) and Black Lightning with a Bat Signal?
An all-Batman squad of Zur-En-Arrh, the Streets of Gotham marquee, Speeding Bullets and the 200-point Batman, also with a Bat Signal?
or
Justice League International, starring the 200-point Batman, Guy Gardner, August General In Iron and Rocket Red with the Utility Belt?
I often decide these with a random die roll. But I second, third, fourth and FIFTH-guessed this time around. In the end, I chose to go with the JLI troupe, trusting the flexibility of the Utility Belt.
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The first round was a slow affair slowed further by my opponent’s total unfamiliarity with his team (all the NML LEs except Lock Up, who was swapped out for Scarecrow). Hits were rare. I won it on a roll-off at the end.
Second round I was up against a Birds of Prey team complete with Big Barda and Oracle. I lost it early with my decision not to go immediately to the Rebreather tactic. Guy Gardner was alpha-struck and my team never recovered, esp. after Red’s fortuitous Energy Explosion was rerolled into a miss.
Third match was another disaster against Superman-as-Batman, Mr. Freeze, Harley Quinn, a Joker Thug, Void and a Joker who could Mastermind to nearly all of them. Early hits on Freeze were healed away by Void, my Stealth was of little use against SuperBat, and I simply couldn’t land the needed KO blows once Red and Guy were clobbered to near-uselessness by the Belt-wearing Kryptonian. I got Void and the Thug but lost more.
Final round saw me facing another SuperBat, along with a Mystic Batman, Black Queen and Deathstroke. I made some headway against this team, KOing the middle two (and an Alfred) but fell victim to the sheer power of the Kryptonian, who wiped me out in a few late-game blows.
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Another dismal 1-3 performance. What made it worse is the feeling of not having any real answer to the Utility Belt and high armor/defense — and the knowledge that the Vixen-led team DID have those answers. Two Outsiders would’ve handled the +2 threats of the Belts, my whole team dealt penetrating damage, and the bruisers were unshootable in water.
More than anything, it was the team that, in truth, was closest to my heart. But I blinked and didn’t run it in favor of a team that had the stupid Utility Belt on it. Feh.
Thus ends my little flirtation with powergaming, such as it was. It’s just not enjoyable unless I’m winning. I’d much rather try to work a F.U.N. team into tournament-contending shape going forward.
Card Art #25: Pounce
Continuing this ostensibly weekly (but more like monthly) series talking about DC feats and BFC cards that I went back and customized with artwork for fun. (Here’s a link back to the original concept.) Today, Card Arts continues with Origin’s Feat cards.
The next feat of the set is Pounce, the feat that used to make folks glad to see Leap/Climb and low damage on the same click:
One of the covers from the “Villains United” miniseries or one-shot featuring a leaping-at-you Cat-Man seemed right, though ironically, the Vet version of the character represented by the image doesn’t meet the prereqs for Pounce. Oh well.
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Next time, Card Arts continues with an Origin feat that will be defunct in a few weeks. But not yet!
F.U.N. Forces: Teen Titans additions
This is an occasional article I plan to include in Heroclixin’ whenever a new set drops.
See, while some players collect X-Men or Justice Society characters, I have…odder themes that I like to complete. It’s why, even in a set like Teen Titans that I have almost zero interest in, I still find pieces that I look to acquire to complete or complement my odd themes.
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Arrowette (Teen Titans 006) and Arsenal (Teen Titans 036) are, of course, both archers. Once in a great while, I like to build teams composed of nothing but characters wielding the bow and arrow.
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Early on in my involvement in HeroClix, I endeavored to build a top-flight, competitive team of all-black characters. Back in 2005, that was impossible. But as the years have passed, some solid pieces of the African persuasion have been made and I can build teams that can challenge all but the GenCon-level forces.
Anyway, I still collect them all, so in addition to Static (045), a character I actually like, I’m also seeking out Skitter (048), Tattooed Man (071) and both versions of Cyborg (026 and 063) even though there are plenty of alternate versions of him by now.
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Longtime Heroclixin’ readers will recall a humongous article I wrote about the Atlantis keyword, so it’s no surprise that the common Aquaman (015) and the super-booster-exclusive Aqualad (075) are both on my wishlist.
That Atlantis article needs an update, soon.
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“Diana’s Wardrobe,” a theme in which each Wonder Woman figure is wearing a different costume, once had me chasing every version of the character. The far-too-silly-looking TabApp figures broke me of that particular streak of completism. A similar theme called “Kal-El’s Closet: What the Well-Dressed Superman Is Wearing This Season” was also similarly nixed (but more because of the difficulty/expense of acquiring costly pieces such as White Lantern Superman). But if I can score either of the Justice League team base Trinity figs — Superman (066) or Wonder Woman (068) — then sure, I’ll add ’em to the mix.
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Red Star (012) is the latest addition to a theme I’m tentatively work-titling “Red Dawn” in which I play the whole game in a Russian accent with figs like Black Widow, Rocket Red, Darkstar, Ursa Major, Void, Crimson Dynamo and more such comrades. Apart from this team, though, I have zero affinity for the character.
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Finally, there’s Fairchild (020), a rare female character with the Scientist keyword. I still want to play all these smart chicks who “Blinded Me With Science.”
Token Totin’ TITANS (part one)
A new set brings more Super-Strong figs to photograph toting their object tokens. And we’ll start with the first of several versions of Wonder Girl:
She holds a token tenuously but well between her lasso hand and her left leg.
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Lots more to come next Tuesday.
Teen Titans pocket checklist
Time for another one of these. Download, print and enjoy.
Check in tomorrow for, perhaps, the first of a series of Teen Titans’ Token Totin’ posts. (It all depends on whether I pull any Super Strong pieces!)
Card Art #24: Coordination
Continuing this ostensibly weekly (but more like monthly) series talking about DC feats and BFC cards that I went back and customized with artwork for fun. (Here’s a link back to the original concept.) Today, Card Arts continues with Origin’s Feat cards.
The next feat of the set is Coordination, a double-edge feat that unblocks lines of fire for some of those characters who need it:
This pic from the ’07 series “JSA vs. Kobra” fit the bill, even if it’s a bit better than the feat it illustrates.
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Next time, Card Arts continues with an Origin feat that’s a DC reprint of a Marvel favorite.
Battle Reports: No Man’s Land 6
I played in No Man’s Land Month 6 recently.
Big Barda (Streets of Gotham) 148 + Utility Belt 10
Guy Gardner (Streets of Gotham) 142
Black Lightning 87
Void (Streets of Gotham) 70
Oracle (Streets of Gotham) 50
Bruce Wayne (Batman 202a) 50
Dr. Thomas Wayne (Streets of Gotham) 43
= 600 points.
This was not a F.U.N. team. This was a “ready to compete for the win” team. Barda is the best alpha-strike piece in the game. Guy was there to back her up or soften targets for her. He also granted her and Black Lightning a DV boost. BL functioned not only as a good 3rd attacker and range threat, but his Outsiders TA could nerf the stat bonuses of enemy Utility Belts.
Then I had a full-blown S.T.O.P.P. pit crew in the other four pieces:
- Support: Void and Dr. Wayne
- Telekinesis/taxi: Bruce Wayne (TK) and Void (super-taxi) and Oracle (her SP for untokened JL allies). Later, Guy gets TK, too.
- Outwit: Void
- Perplex: Bruce and, later, Oracle
- Probability Control: Void
They also had Willpower when Dr. Wayne is adjacent, allowing for extra actions without taking pushing damage. This team should’ve rocked.
It didn’t.
In Round ONE, it fairly well handled a team headed up by Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. But said piece was wearing the Belt and landed huge hits while on its +2 slots to score exactly ONE MORE KO point than me: 279-278.
Round TWO, against a full WildCATs team, went a little better. It took me too long to KO Spartan, but I won with 200 points and lost none.
Round THREE was a disaster. We spent about 40 of the 50 minute round jockeying for position. I made a bold move to one-shot his Belt wearer, but he’d picked the Super Senses +2 slot and made the dodge. Left out in the open, my Barda was KOed in a single turn after my misplay of forgetting the Belt’s ability to short-circuit my Outsiders TA (and I could’ve easily blocked the needed Line of Fire).
Round FOUR went mostly well until I got a little overconfident and did not retreat far enough. Lost the game on the very last play as time expired.
A very disappointing 1-3 finish for a team that, by rights, should have gone at least 2-2 instead. All the more reason to play F.U.N. going forward, because this doesn’t work for me.
Top Ten Winners/Losers in 2013’s changes: #2 & #1
#2
ENERGY EXPLOSION!
Hard to use, hard to explain, and hard to justify ever using on any click that could shoot out a wall instead, Energy Explosion has long been one of those stepchildren of attack powers. For while it was potentially powerful against multiple hit targets, getting that shot was usually difficult and not worth the trouble if even +1 damage got you to 3 damage or better. And if you had a SP or trait granting you some other ranged combat action power, like Penetrating/Psychic Blast or Pulse Wave? Fuggedaboudit; you’re using one of those two 90% of the time.
The 2013 ruleset addresses all that in the following ways:
- EE is no longer a ranged combat action, but activates when one is made, more like Blades/Claws/Fangs. So just as Exploit Weakness + BCF = possible 6 penetrating damage, so does PPB + EE = penetrating “splash” damage.
- Instead of dealing damage to the “splashed” characters based on “number of hits,” which was sometimes powerful but super-complicated, it’s based on the shooter’s number of targets. This is a vast upgrade because a 3-target EE shooter no longer has to fire at a big cluster of targets to deal the big splash damage.
To illustrate: In the past, Lightning Lord could target Ult. Cap, Arachne and Bucky Cap and deal damage via EE accordingly…
Moon Knight, who’d normally be untargetable thanks to Stealth, and Spymaster take some heavier damage due to being adjacent to two hit targets. But by and large, most are only scratched (and Aquaman, who’s got Invulnerability, isn’t even tickled).
Now, with the 2013 rules, Lightning Lord deals EE damage like this:
Whoa, that’s a BIG DIFFERENCE! Good thing ol’ L.L. only has a 9 AV, huh?
Oh, he’s a wild card? Copying Batman Enemy? With Joker As Sgt. on his 11 — or 12 — AV click?
This explosive leap in usefulness makes the orange attack power the #2 Winner of 2013.
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Speaking of leaping:
LEAP/CLIMB.
Once the darling power of cheap tie-up figs everywhere, the king of mobility has lost its automatic break away might, only granting the +2 to the roll. It also lost the “Improved Movement: Characters” bit that would allow it to slip past enemy lines with ease. Most of the time, the Leap/Climb piece won’t have trouble doing so, but Plasticity (and certain other SPs and abilities) will trip it up.
Though still plenty useful, Leap/Climb is the #2 Loser in 2013, because the orange speed power is so much less than what it was.
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And now: the NUMBER ONES!
PLASTICITY!
It was long one of the lamest of all powers. Sure, it worked great at tie-up against most opponents, and helped minimize its users’ vulnerability to tie-up. But there were nearly 800 dials with Leap/Climb; nearly 300 with Hypersonic Speed and close to 650 with Phasing/Teleport. Once you add the Improved Movement pieces and the Giants and Colossals, you’ve got a full third of all characters in the game ABSOLUTELY IGNORING an opponent’s Plasticity.
So two of those powers/abilities were stripped of their automatic breakaway skills. That still left another third or more of all characters in HeroClix able to freely move around Plasticity via Flight or some other ability. That’s where Plasticity’s true upgrade comes in: the ability to gum up its surrounding squares for movement. Suddenly:
- Hypersonic Speed characters with zero range can’t hit and run, or even run up and hit.
- Leap/Climbers can’t bypass Plasticity to the rear guard.
- Neither can fliers.
- Or even colossals!
Plasticity doesn’t do squat against Phasing/Teleport (it ignores characters for movement) or vehicles (same) or certain types of Improved Movement. But the blue Speed power has been fantastically upgraded and will have a far greater impact on the game than ever before. It’s easily the #1 Winner in HeroClix’s 2013 rules revision.
And the #1 loser:
HYPERSONIC SPEED.
Although HSS has been nerfed a couple of times (full range to half; option 2 gone), it remained the one power that truly had no hard counter the way nearly every other power did…until now.
Losing automatic break away was the first blow, with HSS instead getting a +2 to the roll instead. But the changes to Plasticity make that a true hard counter to the brown speed power if its user has 0 range.
So say goodbye to the days when a HSS figure could easily and merrily stay just out of reach in the late game if you didn’t have Outwit to stop it. Now all you have to do is base the speedster, and you might have a chance at a fight.
It’s still pretty much the best power in the game, but it’s also pretty much the #1 Loser in 2013 because it’s gone from being as close to an auto-win standard power as exists in the game to merely being the best.
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That’s it! I, for one, am very much looking forward to these changes, which will tip the balance a bit more to the melee end of things while not invalidating the power of range. And, of course, there are the brand-new PAC powers of Sidestep, Precision Strike, Invincible and Empower!
But that’s ahead in June. For now, I’m off to go see Iron Man 3. Have F.U.N. clixin’!
Top Ten Winners/Losers in 2013’s changes: #4 & #3
#4
FORCE BLAST
There were fewer powers less useful than Force Blast, before. Though occasionally good for stopping a tie-up threat or dealing easy knockback — and knockback damage — to a properly positioned high-DV, unarmored target, for the most part the purple Speed power was just so much wasted points in the slot. Usually, your power action was better spent doing something else — ANYTHING else.
But in 2013, Force Blast now has a passive effect — its user’s hits can always generate knockback, if they like. So that enemy shooter you just hit can get shoved out of retaliation range. Or that fig that had your buddy tied up gets pushed away.
Such a simple, elegant upgrade to a power that needed one makes Force Blast a welcome #4 Winner in Summer 2013.
It’s not alone in the slot, though.
(tie)
RANGED COMBAT EXPERT / CLOSE COMBAT EXPERT
Hardly useless, the pair still get an upgrade from merely dealing +2 damage to getting the option to modify AV +2 instead, or granting +1 to both stats. Putting the “expert” in these powers rates a shared spot in the #4 Winner’s spot.
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The #4 Losers also tie.
PROBABILITY CONTROL.
One of the three “free-range” supporting powers, Prob Control now finds its effect hacked from the old default 10 squares to six, or whatever its user’s range is, whichever is higher. Whoops, it just got a lot harder for the likes of John Constantine or Destiny to affect the game from the safety of the back field. And with PC’s outsized effect on HeroClix games, these characters will be taking more fire than before.
There’s no rerolling this result: Probability Control will be the #4 Loser in HeroClix this summer.
(tie)
PERPLEX
Another of the three “free-range” powers, Perplex also finds its effect hacked from the old default 10 squares to six, or whatever its user’s range is, whichever is higher. That’s actually sort of good news, as a fellow Perplexer might be able to buff your range to get to ‘Plex a target — or use one of the other powers affected by this new rule.
But this is still a heck of a blow to this most versatile of supporting powers. No amount of modifiers keeps Perplex from sharing the #4 Loser slot in 2013.
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#3 in the “Win” column:
MIND CONTROL
This power has needed an upgrade for a while, appearing among the ten powers/abilities/rules needing a change about this time last year. My suggestions went a bit too far (3-die roll and ignore hindering terrain for LOF). I didn’t even consider the worst aspect of Mind Control: that after all those die rolls the power needs to be effective, you’re still taking automatic damage for controlling anything more than a peon. If you’re dealing with a tentpole, or worse, a colossal, you could very well hurt yourself badly for very little return.
(Case in point: I once tried to use Mouth of Sauron to MC colossal Thanos in a last-ditch effort to turn the game for my cause. Mouth succeeded; Thanos did not. Mouth was instantly KO’d by the unavoidable damage.)
Well, Mind Control has improved in a big way. First: it’s more flexible, being a combat action instead of a power action and thus making it compatible with Running Shot or Charge (in those cases where game effects allow these Speed Powers to coexist). Second: up to 150 points can be MC’d safely, and Third: only one click of damage is dealt for higher costs.
Mind Control is still an iffy power for its expense (you still have to land the attack, then possibly have to break away the target from its erstwhile allies, or land an attack on same, then take your feedback damage at worst and your action token at the very least). But it’s a darn sight better than it was and so is the #3 Winner in 2013.
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The Loser is also mental.
OUTWIT
One of the three “free-range” powers like Probability Control and Perplex, Outwit also finds its effect hacked from the old default 10 squares to six, or whatever its user’s range is, whichever is higher. And it’s worse for Outwit than for the others because while they can sit in relative safety in the rear guard rerolling allies’ attacks and boosting their stats, the Outwitter has to get the enemy in range, leaving the Outwitter itself far more vulnerable to attack.
Outwit is so much more dangerous to use now that it’s the biggest loser of the “OPP” triptych, and the #3 Loser of all.