I’m part of the judge staff at Dragon*Con this year, and I might be called upon to play a bye round in the event of uneven pairings.
Here’s what I’d play around 9 AM in the 400-point modern Age named keyword tournament:
Vision (Chaos War 100) 185
Giant-Man (Chaos War) 75
Hawkeye (Avengers Movie 208) 65
Sharon Carter 45
Mockingbird 25
+ X-Kryptonite 5
= 400 points, plus all four sideline Morph pieces for Pym.
As I said Thursday, I’m part of the judge staff at Dragon*Con this year, and I might be called upon to play a bye round in the event of uneven pairings.
Here’s what I’d play around 6 PM in the 500-point Star Trek tournament:
U.S.S. Defiant 100
U.S.S. Excelsior 150
U.S.S. Hood 100
U.S.S. Enterprise-A 75
U.S.S. Equinox 75
= 500 points. The rules require either all-Federation or all Klingon, and I’ve played all my I.K.S. ships. So it’s the Feds’ turn!
I’m part of the judge staff at Dragon*Con this year, and I might be called upon to play a bye round in the event of uneven pairings. I’ve pre-posted my potential teams for each event for your vicarious weekend reading pleasure.
Here’s one of the GREAT teams I’d play in the 1 PM 300-point Golden Age tournament:
THE GREAT TEN
August General In Iron 100
Ghost Fox Killer 68
Accomplished Perfect Physician 51
Seven Deadly Brothers 30
Seven Deadly Brothers 30
+ Yellow Lantern 5
+ Indigo Lantern 5
= 299 points. BFCs: Alpha Strike, Ordinary Day, Disbanded
-OR-
GREAT LAKES AVENGERS
Deadpool (Web of Spider-Man) 158
Squirrel Girl 59
Doorman 45
Dinah Soar 25
+ Great Lakes Avengers ATA 12
= 299 points. BFCs: Ordinary Day, Armor Wars, Infiltration. Plenty of F.U.N. factor, here.
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There’s also the “Court of Owls” game at 600 points at the same 1 PM time. Here’s my team:
The Dark Knight (Collateral Damage) 100
Batman (Fast Forces) 100
Batman (Crisis) 90
The Bat-Man (Superman) 81
Batman (DC 75) 77
Batman (Dark Knight Rises 201) 75
Batman (Arkham Asylum) 64
+ Yellow Lantern 5
+ Red Lantern 5
=597 points. It’s actually a “highlander-friendly” Batman team, with each being a different character: “The Dark Knight Returns'”over-the-hill Bruce Wayne, New 52 Wayne, Jean-Paul Valley, Thomas Wayne, Dick Grayson, movie Bruce Wayne, and Terry McGinnis.
As I said Thursday, I’m part of the judge staff at Dragon*Con this year, and I might be called upon to play a bye round in the event of uneven pairings.
Here’s what I’d play in the 9 AM 600-point Modern Age tournament:
AQUAMAN & FAM
Aquaman (Superman) 156 + Flashpoint ATA 4
Aquaman (Justice League) 111
Aquaman (DC 75th Anniversary) 106
Aquaman (Brightest Day) 105
Ocean Master 65
Mera (Justice League) 51
= 598 points. F: It’s AQUAMAN. How beast could it be? U: Pretty tough, actually. Enough to threaten many teams at the cost and one that actually benefits a bit from certain characters taking the KO. N: Atlantis teams are one of my favorite things to play in this game, and it’s been too long since the last one.
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There’s also the “Other Age” game at 500 points at the same 9 AM time. Here’s my team:
General RAAM 151
Dee Jay 75
Aragorn 75
Master Chief & Cortana 150
Lt. Hikaru Sulu 40
=491 points. I figure all the “other” ages ought to be represented on the team! Unfortunately, barring a last-moment ruling, the Star Trek Away Team won’t be allowed as it came too late to be included in the tournament rules setup. And I haven’t gotten mine yet, anyway.
A couple of weeks back, an unexpected team won it all at GenCon’s HeroClix World Championship: Scarlet Witch (Chaos War Fast Forces 006), Wasp (Chaos War 030) and Morgan Le Fay (Chaos War) with a fully loaded Infinity Gauntlet.
I was pretty pleased to have already bought one fairly cheaply off eBay about a week earlier.
A playable piece with fellow Avengers, she is, but I didn’t want to just run her with a standard team build or, worse, just ape the World Champ’s team (no matter how much I like that new Wasp figure).
Not Nifty enough. Without the “N” in F.U.N., you get something a little rude, at best. 🙂
But what to play? The answer came in a second piece I’d been wanting to try out: Crystal.
Also a redhead.
Add to that 227 points any of a number of similarly coiffed Black Widow pieces:
The 35-pointer Avengers movie version leaves the build just two points to much to fit a full 40-point Infinity Gauntlet. Sad.
Same problem with the 75-point The Covert Avenger from the starter version…two points over the max.
The 60-point Captain America Widow lacked the Avengers keyword and would smash the keyword theme to pieces. I was tempted to use her anyway due to Marvel Knights ATA to give Morgan Stealth.
That left the other movie Widow, the 50-point “Takedown” girl.
Morgan Le Fay (Chaos War) 122
Crystal (Chaos War) 105
Black Widow (Avengers Movie) 50
+ Iron Man Briefcase 12
+ Secret Avengers ATA 10
=299 points.
Not bad. It’s a bit more Friendly than the championship team, lacking the ultra-support and Mystics threat that Scarlet Witch offers but not sacrificing all Utility with a mobile attacker like Crystal to back up Morgan. Widow gives Morgan anti-Stealth shooting powers and functions well as tieup for her allies. Both Avengers loan the Outwit/Perplex-blunting Secret Avengers ATA, too. And Morgan can suPerplex either of her Avenger pals slaves.
And, of course, the fact that they’re all red-haired babes makes it Nifty enough for me to play.
How will it actually play, though? Gonna have to wait for a future Battle Report for that.
As I said Thursday, I’m part of the judge staff at Dragon*Con this year, and I might be called upon to play a bye round in the event of uneven pairings. Here’s what I’d play in the 6PM Avengers Vs. X-Men event:
AVENGERS
Giant-Man (Chaos War 200) 300
Wasp (Chaos War 030) 77
Wasp (Chaos War 016) 75
Wasp (Avengers 059) 37
= 489 points, plus possible replacement/Merge pieces Ant-Man (015), Hank Pym (014), Ant-Man (173) and Ant-Man and Wasp (053). It’s Friendly and full of Fellowship with the Hank-and-Janet theme; its Usefulness is in the Morph trait, as well as the sheer mountainous might of colossal Giant-Man; and he’s the Niftiest thing about this team.
X-MEN
Colossus/Wolverine 190
GX Archangel 99
Fast Forces Rogue 75
Armor 66
GX Angel 50
+ Iron Man briefcase 12
= 492 points, plus Split sideliners Colossus (Ultimates Rookie) and Wolverine (Web of Spider-Man or Chaos War). Any team with Fastball isn’t unFriendly in the least, but it’s certainly Useful (as are Archangel and Rogue). This team is admittedly a bit short on my usual Neato factor, but for once I don’t care.
This is a different sort of “Token Totin'” in that it’s not about what Super Strong characters in HeroClix can hold object tokens.
Rather, it’s about the fact that some super FANS in HeroClix are toting prized objects for the gaming at Dragon*Con in Atlanta starting tomorrow.
There’s a ton of prizes ranging from Gale Force 9 tokens to LEs to Fin Fang Foom to Thanos to Giant-Man and way, way more.
Here are the events, briefly (visit Dragon*Con’s site for fuller details). Ones in red are qualifiers for the Champ game in blue:
Yours truly is part of the judging staff, so if we’ve never met face-to-face, this’ll be your chance! And if we have an odd-number pairing in any of these events other than the Saturday morning ones or the Championship, I may be playing the bye round with a pre-made team. If, for any reason, you can’t be at Dragon*Con yourself, you can amuse yourself by visiting Heroclixin’ at the above scheduled intervals to see what sort of F.U.N. team I might be playing at the time.
Well, not exactly “revenge.” It’s just another tournament for the colossal Thanos that I actually qualified for this time.
The same parameters applied: 500 points of elements from Chaos War, Galactic Guardians or Incredible Hulk only. And I still lacked the chaeese* figures of the day (Sentry and Void or Thanos 049), so I again opted for something strange…and stranger.
DRS. STRANGE AND STRANGER
Stranger (Galactic Guardians 043) 213
Dr. Strange (Galactic Guardians 028) 196 + Avengers Response Unit ATA 3
Dr. Strange (Galactic Guardians 206) 75
Astral Dr. Strange (Galactic Guardians 014b) 13
= 500 points, with 2x replacement Astral Dr. Strange (Galactic Guardians 014a).
ROUND ONE I again faced a bunch of Annihilators: the Fast Forces versions of Gladiator, Beta Ray Bill, Quasar and Ronan the Accuser, as played by returning player Ricky. And again, I won handily, losing only a single Astral.
ROUND TWO was against the dreaded Dr. Doom chase, Sharon Carter, Replica, Adam Warlock and the medic Donald Blake. Tracy, one of the best players from back in the day, was unfamiliar with much of this just-pulled team. So despite triumphing over a Sentry/Void team, he fell to the multi-vector assault that was my team.
ROUND THREE was against Vic, another returned player who has come back with a vengeance. His team: Thanos 049, Scarlet Witch, AIM Renegade and Punisher 011. This was the other chaeese tentpole I was worried about; time to see how I’d hold up.
Vic’s team was viciously effective at the killbox technique. Punisher’s penetrating blast was Perplexed and Enhanced to a staggering 5, and Barrier made it impossible for Dr. Strange to interfere.
But I’d built this team to survive the dreaded Thanos killbox strategy and was well on my way to having a fighting chance of winning in an upset, because I’d landed on Stranger’s “pick any power” SP. So, picking Colossal Size and Hypersonic Speed, I tried to one-shot the AIM Renegade to stop any more Enhancement/Barrier/HYDRA hijinks.
But…
Yep, got all but stranded and was forced to base the Psychic Blasters to cut off that threat, at least.
Just like that, my underdog team’s fighting chance slipped to needing a miracle.
Thanos opted to attack the wide-open Stranger himself.
Whoa! There was my miracle! Thanos was pushed and on a soft click, and Stranger picked Poison and damaged all four foes for free.
Unfortunately, that was about the last true success I had in the game despite Dr. Strange managing to get Thanos to his 2nd-to-last click. Once the bigger Dr. Strange was gone, the lesser was stuck with no way to damage Thanos, except by critical hit. But neither did Vic want to chase me down, for fear of a potentially game-killing crit miss.
RECORD: 2-1, and the final match came a lot closer than I might’ve figured. Vic was sweatin’!
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It’s off to Dragon*Con with Heroclixin’ for the next several days. Come and see me in the HeroClix corner of the gaming room if you’d like to meet me! Ask for Mr. Sampson. There’ll be tons of Battle Royales, qualifying tournaments, a Supremacy League board and the famous Quarter Table.
A few weeks ago, I nearly wrapped up the photo record of how Chaos War figures could hold their object tokens, but lacked the convention exclusive Giant-Man from the set to test and shoot.
Well, thanks to friends who went to GenCon, I’ve managed to get the shot.
Big Pym holds old-school tokens with ease: between the middle and ring finger of his right hand and the index and middle digit of his left. The newer, thicker tokens fit even better in his left hand.
And with that, the Token Totin’ Chaos War edition’s a wrap!!!
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Speaking of conventions, yours truly is headed to Dragon*Con starting Thursday through Monday. Updates may be slim to nonexistent, as I will not have internet access for much of that time. But I’m hoping to have a little F.U.N. Friday piece in the meantime, and to do a most unusual Top Ten starting Wednesday, Sept. 5.
Continuing this 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 moves on to the next DC set: Origin.
I actually forgot about this battlefield condition until I started writing this post. I’d never made an art version of it. So I started thinking, “What piece of DC art published prior to early 2007 would best illustrate a humongous amount of damage dealt all at once?”
Didn’t take long at all to recall the controversial scene where Wonder Woman does the only thing she thinks can to stop Maxwell Lord from making Superman a killer.
Art’s by Rags Morales.
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Next time, Card Arts continues with more BFCs of Origin.