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Number 10

APP

Accomplished Perfect Physician (Crisis 044)

This member of China’s team of superheroes super functionaries is one of the better healers in the game with his starting 10 Attack Value and 17 Defense backed by Super Senses. A full dial of Leap/Climb enables him to easily get out of adjacency if based, and a mid-dial pair of Outwit clicks in between the Support ones make hitting him off Support a problem for foes.

He’s at the bottom of the list, though, because at 61 points, he’s really pricey for a medic to have only a  full dial of 1 damage despite his attack powers of Incap, Quake or Psychic Blast. Worse yet, his speed value is pretty poor; he might not be able to get where he needs to go!

Still, with a power on every slot, it’s not hard to be down with A.P.P. for a medic that can contribute a little bit more than just healing. He’s the #10 best medic in Heroclixin’.

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Number 9

night nurse

Night Nurse (Web of Spider-Man 102)

She’s the first on our list to sport the Willpower + Support combo which, in a less crowded field, would rate a figure a spot automatically. A solid 9 AV — about the minimum you want for a top-flight medic — and a low 27-point price help her as well. What gets her on the list for sure is her ability to temporarily boost patients’ DV after a heal attempt.

Very much a Support specialist, she doesn’t contribute anything else and is a fairly easy KO with low DV and no real defensive abilities. But she’s one of the best at nursing wounded allies — #9 in Heroclixin’s estimation.

She ties with another lady:

JaneFoster

Jane Foster (X-Plosion 206)

Thor’s mortal gal pal was the first in HeroClix to  sport the Willpower + Support combo, making her one of the best of the old set. She rates low on the list for dirt-poor starting 8 AV and 13 DV. But at 16 points, the LE version of the Paramedic is one of the absolute cheapest medics in the game and has an outsized effect on matches as a result.

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Sorry for the long absence. Went out of town for a mere weekend and got all out of my groove. Let’s get things back on track with a seasonal focus. This being the time of good cheer and good works, December’s top ten will put the spotlight on the salvation of your army: Medics!

red_cross

Back in the early days of HeroClix, one of the most effective powers was Support. Here’s a common scenario of the time: Vet Black Adam gets hit for 4 clicks, taking two after a failed Impervious roll. A second attacker shoots with Ranged Combat Expert for 2 more clicks. Finally, a third shooter pings him for 1 after Invulnerability.

Three successful attack rolls. TWO failed Impervious rolls. But one mistake is made by the aggressor: they’re all ranged attacks, leaving Black Adam free next turn to push and run to the medic still in the starting area 8 squares away. He does, and the 10-point Paramedic easily rolls the 7 needed to succeed in the Support roll. Then she rolls a 6 for the final result, healing all five damaged clicks and putting Adam back at full strength with just TWO good rolls in his favor to the attacker’s FIVE against.

Support needed a change, and it got one in 2006  in the “minus 2, minimum 1” language. Now, in the above scenario Black Adam has a  50% chance of healing just 1 click instead of only a 15% chance of same. There’s also zero chance of erasing more than half of a full-length 11-click dial with two rolls. Finally, it’s just more realistic (well, as realistic as a game starring little plastic superpeople could be) — it’s much easier to wreck than to build, not the other way around.

What makes a great medic?

  • Ability to HIT. Simply put, the medic needs to be able to land the Support roll.
  • Ability to HEAL…now! The medic must be ready to work in the early rounds of combat. Mid- to late-dial Support simply can’t be counted upon. Support needs to be on click 1 or 2.
  • Ability to HELP and HARMONIZE with your build total. Because Support is easily thwarted by adjacent foes, the healer can’t be the front-line fighter, so it doesn’t  make sense to spend major points on a dedicated medic. No, the best healer is one who’s never needed and thus won’t suck up a lot of your build total. Low cost, or some other supporting power that won’t use up actions, is ideal.
  • Ability to HIDE or HINDER attacks. Back in the early days of Support, a standing adage was “Kill the medic.” Therefore, survivability is key, be it through high defense, mobility, team abilities or powers.
  • Ability to HEAL…again! Pushability is key. Thanks to the random nature of die rolls, you will certainly need to try Support rolls more than once, eventually. Whether it’s through Willpower or multiple clicks of Support, the best medics should be able to heal in consecutive turns if need be.

So there’s the setup. Be here tomorrow for numbers 10 and 9 of the game’s best healers!

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#3

Taskmaster (Chaos War 047)

The 139-point Tasky is on the high end of the Leaders of the list, costwise. But with his ability to automatically boost the Attack and range of adjacent allies upon a successful Leadership roll, he’s well worth the points — especially because he also sports Enhancement regardless of his rolls! Add to that his great numbers, wild card ability, Thunderbolts ATA and power-copying trait, and it’s no wonder the trainer of super-villains everywhere steals a spot high on the list.

 

#2 is on the side of the law:

Commissioner Gordon (The Dark Knight Rises 027)

At 99 points and only 5 clicks long, Gordon looks like he might be a better fit for retirement than leading the troops. But look at what his Leadership SP brings: 1) it effectively works on a 4-6, with 4  only adding an action, 5 working normally and 6 dropping tokens from two pals sharing a keyword/TA with him. He’s also got Defend (with 18 DV!) and PD to benefit his adjacent friends.

They also benefit Gordon; his trait gives him Mastermind to protect those five short clicks, and it works on pricer pieces if they share his keywords or TAs. Oh, and he’s got Outwit and Sharpshooter and Indomitable, too.

It’s a wonder that between him and Batman that Gotham hasn’t become Disneyland.

The #1 Leadership piece in Heroclixin is also a Gothamite:

Nightwing (Batman Fast Forces 003)

Dick Grayson has the best version of Leadership yet: he can treat any adjacent ally as cheaper for the token removal. It just doesn’t get any better than that. He’s a good crackin’ figure beyond that, too, with Outsiders TA and great numbers and powers.

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#6 is

Captain James T. Kirk (Star Trek Away Team 001b)

The famed skipper of the U.S.S. Enterprise is the next boss on the list. Like almost all of the rest, His version of Leadership comes with a bonus: when he rolls 3-4, he can throw a token on an opposing character within 3 squares. Given that he starts with Charge and Combat Reflexes and has the Federation Away Team TA to enable him to make a strike as far as 17 squares out, he’ll have ample opportunity to affect foes that way.

The downside is that he might be too isolated from fellows for them to take full advantage of the normal effects of Leadership. But that’s on the player to ensure that doesn’t happen to Heroclixin’s #6 Leadership piece.

#5 is another from a non-comic property:

Bartolomeo d’Alviano (Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood 004)

His Leadership SP not only works as normal, but he can drop a token off a friendly as much as 55 points more than his 70 AND from four squares away! Aside from his super-Leadership, though, he’s just a competent melee fighter. Still, Bart’s the #5 pick for Heroclixin’s list.

#4 can barely fight at all, being crippled:

Chief (Crisis 036)

Unlike many others on this list, The Chief’s SP Leadership “Manipulate” doesn’t really grant extra actions to your total for the turn. Instead, players will usually opt to build tokens that give pushing allies a 66% chance of avoiding the pushing damage. The ability to essentially give pals Willpower much of the time is potentially powerful.

But Chief makes the top half of the list despite his lowish 63-point cost because he’s packed with a half-dozen team-enhancing powers including “Manipulate:” Outwit, Perplex, Mastermind (that works on higher point figs that share his Doom Patrol and Scientist keywords), Outsiders TA and Support. It’s more than enough to earn his spot as Heroclixin’s #4 Leadership piece.

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Finally: The top three Leadership figures in Heroclixin’s Decision 2012.

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#10

Maria Hill (Avengers Movie 011)

At a mere 51 points, Maria Hill is FAR too inexpensive to rate as a good general Leadership piece in the modern game. But her Special Power makes her great for SHIELD generics: she grants +AV to adjacent allies with the keyword. Combined with the Willpower she gets via the same SP, she benefits fellow SHIELD mooks greatly. Moreover, since SHIELD team tend to be composed of swarms of low-cost characters, the extra actions of Leadership are much needed.

Because she’s a great piece for the power on the SHIELD teams she’s most likely to appear on, Cobie Smulders Maria Hill is Heroclixin’s #10 top Leadership piece.

Next is a bad guy:

#9

Moloch The Mystic (Watchmen 018)

At first glance he looks just like a mere Mind Control piece with zero defenses besides Shape Change, but he’s got a great form of Leadership that grants the user of the extra action Willpower. That character could be himself. You just have to be sure to declare which of your actions of the turn is going to be the extra one.

His long 10 range enables him to stay out of the main fray better than many, and his Underworld TA means he’s likely to carry or be carried by fellow Underworlders. His 79 points puts him a sweet spot, points-wise, to be a great boon to the teams he’ll show on. He’s Heroclixin’s #9 top Leader.

 

#8 (tie)

Capwolf (Captain America 061)

Superman (DC 75th Anniversary 050)

Both sport special Leadership that allow, on a 6 roll, the ability to remove a token from himself instead of a cheaper pal. Capwolf’s is a little better still, as it’s a trait instead of a first-half-of-dial SP and he can opt to drop the token off any adjacent Animal instead of himself. He’s also 100 points to Supes’ 120, with better AV, a full dial of BCF and Super Senses and nearly as much Battle Fury. But Superman is better in a fight, with a full dial of Toughness, JSA TA to help his or allies’ DV, perma-Leap/Climb, the ability to be carried and Indomitable. He’s also a slightly better general leader.

Both tie as the 8th-best Leadership figs.

 

Back to SHIELD for the next:

#7

Steve Rogers (Captain America 031)

A Leadership trait and solid 99 cost would seem to put Rogers even higher on the tops list. And when you consider that he outright grants his adjacent Avengers- and SHIELD-keyworded pals the SHIELD or Avengers TAs, respectively, his Leadership is almost incidental to his utility on the team. Add to that his high AV as well. His weakness is a total lack of armor, making him a tempting target for KO. But Rogers is still the #7 best Leader by Heroclixin’s standard.

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Next: The next three leaders elected by Heroclixin’.

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I had another Top Ten idea I was preparing for this week, but it occurred to me that with America voting in the next leaders of the free world tomorrow, Heroclixin’ ought to list the Top Ten best Leadership pieces in the game.

What qualifies one to be a great leader?

  • The right point cost. It can’t be too low, because you want to be able to remove tokens from cheaper teammates upon successful rolls. But a leader too costly could crowd out the build total, leaving you with no other characters to use the extra actions granted by Leadership.
  • The ability to stay adjacent to allies with minimal effort. Your leader needs to always be in position to remove tokens from less-costly allies with the 5-6 roll. That means being a taxi or being taxiable.
  • Using that adjacency for something other than Leadership. It only works a third of the time, so the Leader really ought to have something else to benefit — or benefit from — adjacent allies.
  • Starting Leadership. Pushing to get to the power is useless. But…
  • No more attractive power on click #2. Nightwing (Crisis 029) is a prime negative example: though he begins with Leadership, unless a player is either using one of the feats associated with it (Inspiring Command, Contingency Plan) or married to leveraging his top-dial Incapacitate, Nightwing’s nearly always going to get pushed to click #2 for his Perplex. A better leader will not require feats and will get some actual mileage from the power.
  • Finally, the leader should have followers to benefit from the Leadership. Does she have any teammates that are a natural fit for her style (via team abilities, keywords or whatever)? This is taken into account.

 

 

 

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OK. Those are the ground rules. Starting tomorrow, see what Heroclixin’ voted as the 10th, 9th and maybe 8th best Leadership figures in the game!

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Continuing Heroclixin’s photographic record of Super-Strong figs that can hold objects, again. Here we continue  the DC HeroClix 10th Anniversary roundup!

I mentioned yesterday that I observe All Saints Day (though I’m not a Catholic). Frankly, I only do so nominally, if at all. It’s still fitting that today’s photo is of the closest thing in comics to sainthood, Superman!

As you see, Superman (DC 10th Anniversary 021) has plenty of room in the booth for the object! One can also squeeze the older, thinner objects between his cape and the back of the booth.

Since it’s Thursday — formerly known as Thor’s Day — here’s a pic of Thor  (Marvel 10th Anniversary 005):

A token fits under his tricep, barely.

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Heroclixin’s taking a few days off in preparation for November’s Top Ten list, to begin either Monday or Tuesday.

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Some of you old heads out there might remember the above game. It certainly topped my wishlist that Christmas.

Anyway, it’s what I titled this recent scenario at my venue:

  • Colossal figures, old and new, are encouraged for this Golden Age event! No feats or resources are allowed for colossals, but they are encouraged for non-colossal figures. 1800 points, 7 actions.

I built my team to A) survive Ziran tests if anyone brought it and B) to play as many never-before-played colossal dials as possible:

Giganto, The Mole Monster  (Galactic Guardians) 300
Giant-Man  (Chaos War) 300
Uatu The Watcher  (Galactic Guardians) 400
Master Mold  (Galactic Guardians) 700
Mole Man (Galactic Guardians) 47
Donald Blake (Chaos War) 33
Jane Foster (X-Plosion)16
=1796 points.

Other teams on the tables included:

Vic’s Thanos (issue 5, I think) and Dormammu with Iron Man and Scarlet Witch;

Paul’s old-school Galactus;

G.O.’s Mark II Sentinel and Nemesis with smaller toughguys like Worldbreaker, Scarlet Witch/Wonder Man and Brainiac;

Bob’s colossal Dark Phoenix and Master Mold with a horde of Orcs and Warg Riders!

Young Sebastian’s all-Dr. Manhattan team, ranging from the 1200-point Jon Osterman to the 105-point giant;

and Bryce’s team with no colossals at all.

FIRST I faced Blue, a new guy who fielded a full-power Master Mold (1500 points) and Sentry & Void. I picked an indoor map and crushed Sentroid with little trouble. That left his Mold free to build Sentinels. But that only offered up free extra points for me to gain a slim 50-point advantage for the win (having lost my own 300-point fig in Giganto).

NEXT, despite being the lowest-point 1-0 non-bye player, I somehow had to deal with the one piece I thought would go 3-0: Cosmic Multiattack Galactus! Paul picked a wide-open map and that was practically my loss right there. I tried to use some strategy by blocking with Uatu, then Giganto, but I made two critical errors:

  • I was blocking for Master Mold, the only one on the team who could withstand the big G’s Psychic Blast. So I should’ve used him to block for the others;
  • I forgot JUST HOW LONG 16 range really is. Galactus could move 6 squares to one-shot my medic in the starting area — and did. Feh.

FINALLY, I had another overpowered cosmic dude to face: Jon Osterman Dr. Manhattan (1200 points), Dr. Manhattan 005, Dr. Manhattan 012 and Silk Spectre & Dr. Manhattan. I got map and used Ookaara. My young opponent, Sebastian, picked the elevated outdoor side.

He spent the first several rounds refusing to budge from his starting area, much less entering my killbox, and I spent those turns setting up said killbox.

Finally, I remembered that I had him trapped already. I busted a couple of squares of blocking terrain so that Giant-Man could start shoving the elevated side of the map over and over and over until the blue man group quit hiding and came to fight!

Unfortunately, that kid is a pretty savvy player. He waited just long enough for me to shove colossal Jon onto his Pulse Wave clicks, then Phased down and exploded me over and over while I futilely tried to counterattack a 21 DV. Impervious was rolled when I actually did hit. I was just fortunate to not lose any of the three-figure-cost pieces.

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Though the event was designed for colossals, I was very pleased that the eventual winner, having beaten both the original Galactus AND the above-mentioned Dr. M team, was Bryce’s colossal-free force including Iron Man / War Machine with the full Infinity Gauntlet, Captain America (Hammer of Thor), Iron Man (Secret Invasion), Dr. Strange (Secret Invasion), Professor X (Giant-Size X-Men), Immortus, Morgan Le Fay (Chaos War), Mr. Fantastic (Secret Invasion) with Brilliant Tactician, Alfred Pennyworth (Dark Knight Rises), The Wizard Shazam (Brave and Bold), Batman (Dark Knight Rises), and Namor (Secret Invasion). Truly, a force that could contend with colossals, and did!

Happy Halloween to those who celebrate it. Me, I’m more of an All Saints’ Day fellow, which will be highlighted a bit with tomorrow’s Token Totin’ feature. See you then!