Got shots of a few more Super Strengthers in Chaos War:
From left, we have The Unspoken, who pretty handily holds his fun-Token as shown. The Sentry’s fits under his cape. And the latest Ms. Marvel’s right fist and sash belt work together nicely to make a firm grip.
More Chaotic action on Thursday. Tomorrow, look for a rather unconventional battle report.
Back to regular rotation of talking about DC feats and BFC cards I went back and customized with artwork for fun.
Still on Collateral Damage set, but moving on to its feats, here’s Inspiring Command:
There’s no DC character that evokes this card’s spirit better than Superman, and this stirring Howard Porter panel from the end of Grant Morrison’s classic JLA run fit the card to a tee.
A few weeks ago, I shared Heroclixin’s Top Ten Needed Remakes. But similar how the list of 2011’s Worst inadvertently left out the truly #1 worst figure of last year, there’s one that should’ve made the list of remakes. And since we’ve now learned that a new Scarlet Witch is due to appear in today’s power leap era of clix, I think we can squeeze this guy on:
Hobgoblin (Infinity Challenge / Universe)
Even by the standards of this earliest HeroClix set, the loaded-down-with-the-too-expensive-Incapacitate-power Hobby we saw in these sets was a worthless pile of garbage that didn’t come close to representing one of Spider-Man’s greatest foes.
Any new Hobgoblin dial ought to resemble the latest Green Goblin we got (Web of Spider-Man 058) — heck, a sculpt mod and repaint would be welcome! — with a trait reflecting original Hobgoblin Roderick Kingsley’s penchant for dumping off ringers dressed in spare Hobgoblin suits to evade capture and preserve his secret identity. Something like this:
“HOBGOBLIN UNMASKED…? At the beginning of the game, secretly choose a character with a lower point value than Hobgoblin (but more than half his value) and write its name on a piece of paper. Once per game, when Hobgoblin would be KO’d, if the chosen character is within 6 squares of Hobgoblin, reveal it, KO it instead and place Hobgoblin on his last non-KO click in the square it occupied. Hobgoblin can immediately use Regeneration as a free action.”
It’s been 10 years, WizKids. Time to do justice to this worker of INjustice. It’s one of Heroclixin’s most-needed remakes — so readers, feel free to replace the choice you disagreed with most with this one.
Pretty behind on this set, as money issues are keeping me from getting much of it at all. I’m also late getting this up. But that won’t stop this photographic record of how each Super-Strong character can hold object tokens on the sculpt.
From left: Ultron Drone holds it easily among the smoke. Space Phantom (who can temporarily use Super Strength sometimes via their respective Special Powers) holds his more tenuously, leaning it on his chest and barely trapped with his elbow. Wonder Man holds his securely just like his future self (and sculpt-swap) Hollywood did in Galactic Guardians. Iron Man Drone does as Space Phantom does, but a little better.
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I’ll surely have a bit more after Saturday’s sealed game. Probably. In the meantime, Friday will act as an addendum to the Most Needed Remakes list from several weeks back, and perhaps I’ll get another installment of Card Art up.
As ever, Heroclixin’ supplies the pocket-sized checklist for the new set.
Sorry, readers for the lack of updates last week.
I had planned to do my customary Top Ten list in the first week of the month like I do most months, this time on the new rules that kicked in July 1. But every time I sat down to write it up, I found myself either uninspired and bored with it or unable to write a decent countdown.
I don’t think I’m burning out. It’s just that unlike in last year’s rule overhaul, it was much harder to I.D. clear winners and losers, much less rank them.
So, here’s a super-condensed version for you:
WINNERS
LOSERS
So you see, there really wasn’t a whole lot to write home about this year. S’okay. Now it’s on to the new Chaos War set releasing this Wednesday. Expect the latest Heroclixin’ pocket checklist and a Chaos War edition of Token Totin’ this week as well.
Welcome again to the photographic record of how all the sculpts of characters with the Super Strength power can hold object tokens.
I’m pleased to present a brand-new piece, Chaos War’s THOR:
He holds it under his arm (and hammer handle) and on the base. It’s not the best hold out there, but it’ll get the job done.
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Tomorrow will either be the introduction to the new monthly Top Ten list or a callback to an old one.
I was torn between a highlander-friendly all-Batman and Robin (and Alfred) team, a nearly full complement of Runaways, and a Red Hulk/Leader-led Intelligencia squad for a recent 400-point tourney. Because the last team had the most never-before-played pieces, I went with it:
Red Hulk (Incredible Hulk 028) 187
The Leader (Incredible Hulk 014) 100
Humanoid (Incredible Hulk 001) 40 x 3
= 398 points. No room for an Additional Team Ability of any kind. So how’d this team do in the potentially ultra-competitive Infinity Gauntlet event?
FIRST ROUND was against Charlie’s Justice Society: Shazam and Black Adam, Wonder Woman (DC 75th Anniversary 051), Mr. Terrific (DC 75th Anniversary) and Dr. Fate (WizKids D-002) on the event-required Collector’s ship map. I made two critical mistakes of such degree that it reminded me of the “FAIL scale” I came up for on my all-Alter-Ego game played last summer:
The rest was just clean-up. Got skunked (wiped out with 0 victory points).
SECOND round, CC brought the Infinity Watch: Gamora (Galactic Guardians), Mole Man (Galactic Guardians), Drax (Galactic Guardians 011) and Adam Warlock (Galactic Guardians 032). This time I was actually doing OK, getting Drax tied down with a Humanoid and knocking Moley off Outwit. But Red Hulk continued to miss attacks, and I made my FAIL level 2: Even though I remembered to use the Humanoid’s Poison, I totally overlooked Red Hulk’s far better version of the power. (The only reason this isn’t a level 3 is because the Poison wouldn’t have saved me. Only actually landing an attack would.) Got skunked again, not even taking out the very wounded Mole Man or last-click Gamora.
FINALLY, Paul W. joined me on the loser table to see who the biggest loser would be: his Metropolis team of Eradicator, Superman (Superman 001), Mercy Graves and Fast Forces Lex Luthor, or my thus-far (un)Intelligencia.
I managed to draw out his deadly All-Star Superman out to Outwit my Leader from 10 out, out of Leader’s retaliation range and with Eradicator ready to make a deadly Psychic Blast, too. But I jumped Red Hulk out to Outwit A.S.Supes (and Poison Lex) and a pair of Humanoids to tie up all Superman’s buddies with Plasticity. Meanwhile, with Leader free to Outwit again, the little bighead deactivated A.S.S’s Hypersonic and Indomitable, stranding the Kryptonian for Rulk to push to L/C with a heavy and one-shot him.
It would’ve worked if not for a FAIL level 1 dice roll that, in retrospect, was actually a massive FAIL level 3.
See, before getting Poisoned, Lex Luthor managed to punch Rulk for 1 damage, knocking him to a 10 Speed instead of 11. In my mind, for some reason, I seemed to think that meant he could only L/C 5 squares to clobber Superman instead of the 6-square limit his SP actually calls for. So I pushed Leader to TK Rulk out to jump the 5 squares, landing a solid hit…that A.S.S. Theme Probability Controlled into a miss. That completely unnecessary TK left Leader unable to Theme Probability Control that miss into a hit.
FAIL level 3. BIG TIME.
A.S.S. proceeded to immediately crithit Rulk into his AE clicks and too far away to even maybe get into the fight later. And though I wasn’t skunked this time — I got Lex and his girl Mercy, at least — the game was essentially over with that.
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Piece-by-piece:
Red Hulk: His very light defenses on opening click blunt his effectiveness a lot. It cost me in EVERY SINGLE MATCH as he was far too easily damaged by heavy and light hitters alike. But some more aware play on my part would certainly have alleviated that some. You can’t totally stop dice fails. You can stop stupid moves.
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The Leader: With Rulk failing miserably, he needed to be able to fight more. But with him either hurling big Red into the fray or support him with Outwit from the safety of hindering terrain, he never could provide the backup Rulk sorely needed. He’s no secondary attacker despite his solid AV.
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Humanoids: Pulled a pair of regenerated ‘oids in the first two games, resulting only in extra victory points. Too weak to be good cleanup (and lacking the object pool to make good use of their Super Strength beyond a single shot or so) and too slow to be great tieup, they’re a tad disappointing. On the other hand, they have that Strength, the Poison, the respawn ability (with the right Leader, of course) and the Willpower to make them a credible threat even as they tie down targets with Plasticity, and ALL of those qualities came into play. They just need more effective fighters for them to back up.
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All in all, the Intelligencia was, well…the UNintelligencia in my game. Not even the ATA could’ve helped me here. But maybe it’ll help the team in the next Battle Report in a couple of weeks. (Next is the monthly scheduled Top Ten.)
I don’t know if I can DO this anymore.
I picked up the Dark Knight Rising Starter set of HeroClix this week, and was disappointed with some of the quality control. The figures were fine — no breakage, the cards were pristine.
But the map…the MAP!
It was very poorly folded, with corners not matching or anything. After years of excellently folded maps in every single HeroClix release I’ve ever seen, this was a new low. Also, the coating on the map appears to have not been quite dry when folded, resulting in glued-together portions of the map that peeled and make the map look like it’s endured a year of rough play instead of being brand-new.
Worse still was the rulebook. It, too, was folded over in half — which is kind of intolerable given that the 2011 rulebook fit in three different starter sets (Lord of the Rings, Street Fighter and Avengers Movie) just fine. For some reason, instead of printing the 2012 version at the same size, they went back to a larger format, necessitating the crude foldover.
But back to the subject du jour. The new tokens in the starters now are TOO FAT to do most of the Token Totin’ methods!
The newer, fatter one is on the left. The original style, on the right.
It’s a bit distressing to me. (Not really.)
Anyway, the series will continue. But it will continue with the old-style tokens, with notes as to whether the new tokens can be held without damaging them as well.
Welcome again to the photographic record of how all the sculpts of characters with the Super Strength power can hold object tokens.
I’m pleased to present one of the very latest strong clix in the game: the diabolic scheming muscleman, Bane:
He holds it tucked just under his chin and propped up on his left arm.
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