Upcoming Games: Assemble Your Avengers!!

And this just covers the rosters from their first 30 years. Hickman's run alone probably doubled that number...

And this just covers the rosters from their first 30 years. Hickman’s run alone probably doubled that number…

Quick local game announcement for SE Michigan Clix’ers!!

Comics & More in Madison Heights is back in action exactly one week from today! Wednesday, May 27th at 6:15pm, we will be running a game called “Assemble Your Avengers!”

The Rules: Your team must be a 400-point, Golden Age AVENGERS-keyworded Named Themed Team! Avengers ID Cards are legal, but must follow normal ID card rules (and of course you must have the corresponding figure on your sideline).

-Relics, Resources and Bystander/Horde Tokens are NOT allowed as part of your Build UNLESS they are brought into play via a power or Trait possessed by one of your characters (For example, the new Rick Jones Chase figure brings special Bystander tokens into play at the start of the game and when certain conditions are met during the game–that is legal for this game).

She Hulk Lawyer

Special Stipulations (aka The Legalese):

-The Avengers Team Base may not be played in this event (for reasons that will become clear in a moment);
-Note that the rules for this game mean that you can still use certain pieces like CW049 Morgan Le Fay if you wish; even though she doesn’t have the Avengers keyword, an Avengers Themed Teams that includes her is still a Themed Team.
-This field DOES include non-carded figures; you can consult resources like the Units section of HCRealms.com to figure out which old figures have the Avengers keyword and which do not (Hint: Rookie Infinity Challenge Black Panther does, Veteran Infinity Challenge Black Panther does not).

The Entry Fee:

There is no specific entry fee per say; all we ask is that you purchase at least 1 Comic Book, Action Figure, Heroclix Booster Pack or Gravity Feed Pack when you get to the store as a thank you to the owner for hosting this event.

The (Avengers-Themed) Prizes:

-The overall winner will receive an AVX#T001 Avengers Team Base! You may recall that this bad boy was given out exclusively to Avengers players in the last month of AvX!! Well, if you missed out then, are new to the game (or if you just want another one), come on down and win one! But that’s not all! With that Avengers Team Base, the overall winner will also receive the Rare Red Hulk and Common Daredevil from the Deadpool expansion, both of whom work with this very Team Base! All cards are, obviously, included.

-Second Place gets a Rare Shang-Chi figure w/card from the Deadpool expansion!

-The Fellowship Prize is a Fear Itself #021 Dr. Strange w/ card (and one of the few Dr. Strange figs with the Avengers-keyword! What can we say–it’s the Theme of the night!).

So come on out for a fun night of Clix, and continue to check this site for future Comics & More game announcements!

-And for anyone looking for your regularly schedule Critical Missives column, click here for Ninwashui’s take on the best ways to use AVAS037 Manifold!

Also, look for a new article on building armies around each of the new Avengers Assemble Chases coming very soon to the front page!

Until then, Stay Safe, and Watch Where You Draw Your Lines of Fire!

Local Tournament Report: War of Light Month 6!! (Or, The Second Night of Clix-Mas!!)

Local Tournament Report

Welcome to Evening Two of the Twelve Nights of Clix-Mas, a Critical Missives event that basically involves us trying to bring you new content for 12 straight days (leading right up to Christmas!)!!

(If you missed The First Night of Clix-mas, you can catch up right here!)

Tonight, we’re gonna go local and take a peek at how War of Light Month 6 finished at my local venue Comics & More in Madison Heights, Michigan!!

War of LIght Cabinet

We finally played Month 6 of War of Light!

Who won? Who lost? Who took home the big prize?! Let’s go to the tape!

What I Played:

I didn’t open any figure with a point cost more than WOL054 Morro‘s 123. This was definitely new ground for me; every other month, I’ve gotten at least one thumper, if not more (tales of my ridiculous WoL luck can be viewed here and also here–particularly Round 3 of that second recap).

Well, my luck changed for Month 6. I ended up using:

WOL054 Morro123 Points

WOL011B Hal Jordan (Blue Lantern)104

WOL033 Sister Sercy66

WOL015 Arisia75

WOL016 Soranik Natu70

Plus the Orange Lantern Battery with the Decoy, Crossbow, Catapault, Mallet & Nurse.

=500 Points

That is what you would call a hodgepodge of little people.

Actually, this is what you call a hodgepodge of little people. Only in Hollywood, where diversity is practically a religion that is forced on every citizen, would a studio be allowed to make a movie about seven dwarves and not cast a single actual little person in any of the roles.

Actually, this is what you would call a hodgepodge of little people. On a related note, I’d forgotten how “meh” Snow White and the Huntsman was a few years ago. And why were there EIGHT dwarves again?

On paper, I think this is easily the worst team I fielded during this whole six-month adventure. But the game isn’t played on paper–it’s played on tables! Usually folding tables, actually.

Regardless, let’s get to Round 1!!

Butcher Entity

ROUND 1:

Versus:

WOLo44 Fatality – 180

(Possessed by WOL066P Butcher) – 25

WOL023 Mongul165

WOL016 Soranik Natu70

Plus the Green Lantern Battery (w/ various Constructs including The Shield)

FIGHT!!

In Round 1 I faced off once more against my once and future nemesis Roberto! This game was tense early on, with Fatality getting the first strike in on Morro. Luckily for me, this put Morro onto his Pulse Wave clicks.

The one advantage I really had here was an abundance of TK and support powers. Roberto also had Soranik Natu for TK, but I was able to keep his big hitters away from me for most of this match while picking and choosing my shots, wimpy as they usually were.

After a LOT of positioning, I was finally able to take out his Mongul with consecutive Pulse Waves from Morro (among other shots) over two turns. Then time was literally called right after, during my final move on that second turn.

The Verdict:

I won a close match with just 1 opposing figure being KO’d (Mongul). If there had been more time, I’ve no doubt Roberto would have cleared my side of the board. I was definitely overmatched here; my bag of parlor tricks would have only worked for so long. Also, Roberto did not have the best luck rolling, either.

"Oh, for the love of God, why do I keep smelling nutmeg!"

Oh, for the love of God, why do I keep smelling nutmeg?

(That’s an Elementary reference, btw.)

ROUND 2:

Versus:

WOLo41 Hal Jordan (Parallax) – 250

WOL058 Galius Zed (Black Lantern) – 140

WOL033 Sister Sercy – 66

Plus the Green Lantern Battery (w/ The Shield, Crossbow and a Decoy)

FIGHT!!

Parallax (Hal Jordan) is a monster. Just an absolute badass. He won me month 2 almost single-handedly. He has one flaw, though–he doesn’t fly. Therefore, I took this fight to the many-tiered R’yut side of the map after I got lucky and won Map Roll (I had a 50/50 shot). Galius is another potentially deadly piece, but again, he walks, and my opponent could only Carry one at a time with Sister Sercy. Eventually Galius and Sister Sercy made it up a few elevation levels before the majority of my troops shot down Sister Sercy from up on the mountaintop.

Parallax having to make the long walk to Mordor on his own meant that he wasn’t a factor for most of the game. I managed to do a little damage to Galius Zed once he made it to the top, but with the Shield assigned to him, I found it hard to hit with most of my attacks. Zed finally drilled Arisia and knocked her off the mountaintop, which put her on her last click, but also out of harm’s way. The judge called time shortly after.

Content with my victory all but assured, I passed to my opponent for his last turn (since he went second) before I realized that Parallax had climbed enough of the mountain to get a perfect shot off on Soranik Natu. This was a terrible mistake, but there was nothing I could do about it now. Soranik Natu has 6 Clicks with Toughness top dial, but Parallax has 5 native damage up top plus the Crossbow, which he used to pump his damage up to 7!

My only saving grace here was that I had been consistently taking away Probability Control with the Orange Lantern Battery, so my opponent would only have one shot to KO Soranik.

Her Defense was 17. Parallax’s attack was 12 (with the Ring Bonus). Yup. A roll of ‘5’ would beat me on points, 70-66. My opponent let his dice go…

And rolled a stinkin’ ‘3.’

Oh, man! By all rights, I should have lost this game. As it was, I barely squeaked by. Here’s an photo of the immediate aftermath of our match:

luckyoldman2

The Verdict:

I really shouldn’t have, but I did win this one 66-0 after KO’ing just one of my opponent’s figures (yet again). If I can somehow pull out this next match, I may set a record for fewest points scored in a winning month.

ROUND 3:

Versus:

WOLo37 Karu-Sil – 95

WOL048 Firestorm – 140

WOL030A Guy Gardner – 103

WOL033 Sister Sercy – 66

WOL003 Sinestro Corps Recruit50

Plus the Yellow Lantern Battery (w/ the Red Power Ring and a bunch of Constructs)

FIGHT!!

This was a match against Matt (from yesterday’s article). We played on the same map, so the first couple turns were all about racing to the top of the map. The difference was, Matt had a few different guys who could fly. Firestorm, in particular, would prove to be quite difficult to deal with. He took out my Sister Sercy pretty quickly, while I retaliated by taking out his Sinestro Corps Recruit.

Eventually, he used The Pack from Karu-Sil’s base to take out Soranik Natu and Arisia and to really beat up Blue Lantern Hal Jordan. Things were definitely going his way, but once Soranik Natu and Arisia were KO’d, I got to finally use Morro’s Trait and place them on Morro’s card. Suddenly Morro was actually pretty intimidating.

Matt still had most of his team left, but I had Firestorm within KO Range, then hit him with another attack… which Matt quickly Prob’d. Then I rolled a ‘3.’

That, my friends is Karma!

Time was called shortly after.

The Verdict:

Even with Firestorm’s KO, I wouldn’t have had enough points to win. Had the game gone on, I would have given myself about a 20% chance of pulling it out with Super-Morro (see what I did there?!). Matt’s a great player though, and he deserved to win. The truth is he just outmaneuvered me, and his strategy absolutely worked.

The Final Result:

Matt won Month 6. While I won two of my three rounds and played in the Championship Match, my point total was so minuscule that I probably finished close to last. Still, when you totaled all the results from all the Months together, I’m proud to say that I was able to claim one last prize…

The Spoils:

photo (21)

(One Last Cool Moment: My venue actually had a second Nekron to give away! Our Judge gave a pretty cool speech about how the Fellowship winner this Month was someone who attended every month, had to drive a decent way each time and who was always gracious whether in victory or defeat. He was talking about Matt, my Round 3 opponent and the player who won the month. It was a really neat moment, and Matt looked pretty shocked. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. Congratulations, sir!)

 

Well, that’ll do for Night number 2 of the 12 Nights of Clix-Mas!!

Join us tomorrow night for… Ninwashui’s Top Ten Flash Set Review!!

Local Tournament Report – 10/15/14 Comics & More

Local Tournament Report

 

Okay! Here are the results from The Build 6, the game I had been preparing for earlier in the week!

The Format: 300 points, Modern Age, Anything Goes. Although those who play too much cheese will henceforth be shunned and be nicknamed “Limburger”.

Where is a robotic fly swatter when you really need it?

“Hmmm… I see my 3D graffiti project is already ahead of schedule.”

What I Played: “A Superior Way to Die”: (Scientist Theme)

DP060 Superior Spider-Man (w/ secret Avengers ATA)

IIM037 Iron Monger 2.0

(Sideboarded) DP099A Spider-Bot (Mark 2) * 2

(Sideboarded) DP099B Spider-Bot (Mark 1) * 6

Total= 300 Points

 

The bloodiest game of basketball ever played...

The bloodiest game of basketball ever played.

Round 1: Facing DP050 Wolverine and X-23 (Magik shard) , DP007B The Professor (Emma Frost Shard), DOFP011 Destiny, AVXR100 The Phoenix Force (all shards).

An indoor map was chosen for this battle. I started this match the way I would start every match tonight:  by adding two Spiderbot Mark 1’s to Superior Spider-Man’s base on turns one and two, which gave SSM +2 to his Super Senses rolls for the remainder of the game.

Early on, it was a standoff. My opponent slowly moved up his Duo Figure and The Professor. He had no range, so he couldn’t hit me, but the Duo’s Trait (SNEAK AND KILL: Wolverine and X-Men can use Sidestep and Stealth. Unhindered lines of fire drawn to Wolverine and X-23 during an opponent’s turn are blocked unless Wolverine and X-23 have 2 action tokens or are adjacent to an opposing character not on its starting click.) combined with the Professor’s Defense Special Power (SECRET MASTERMIND: When adjacent to a friendly character, The Professor can’t be targeted by opposing characters.) meant that I couldn’t target his figures with a ranged attack either.

As he advanced, I retreated. I tried to hold Wolverine and X-23 in place with a Plasticity-sporting Spiderbot. Poison from the Phoenix Force made that a non-issue. Finally, I saw an opportunity. He was placing his figures in such a manner that I couldn’t shoot past the two that were advancing and hit destiny. However, I was able to roll a 6 for spider-bot creation and place it so that it could move and tie up destiny the same turn. That kept Destiny out of the fight for almost the rest of the game. Unfortunately, that put me close enough to his other figures that I knew I was going to get Charged that next turn.

The Professor moved up next to me and to tried to Outwit Superior Spidey’s Super Senses. I reminded my opponent of my ATA, and he did nothing with The Professor’s Outwit at that moment. Then he Charged and used Blades/Claws/Fangs with Flurry with his duo figure. Both attacks missed! Wow! I didn’t even have to roll Super Senses. That is some bad luck for my opponent. On my turn, I struck back and hit with a heavy object I was holding and the Duo took 3 (because of the Colossus Shard) That was my second action token. Then, on his turn, Superior suffered double Poison from both The Professor and W/X-23. They missed two more attacks due to Super Senses and then also missed their healing roll with a 1! Now that Spider-Man was injured I could ignore W/X-23’s hiding trait and attack them from range. Iron Monger did just that and hit them for two more damage. I took the Action Tokens off Superior.

On my opponent’s turn, Superior took two more Poison damage and healed for one click. When control was ceded back to me, Superior Rid Himself of That Weakling Parker (RIDDING MYSELF OF THE WEAKLING PARKER: Give Superior Spider-Man a free action and roll a d6. Once per game, on a result of 3-6, for the rest of the game modify Superior Spider-Man’s attack and damage by +1 and damage dealt by him can’t be reduced below 2.) via a Special Attack Power and proceeded to Flurry W/X-23 for the KO. Unfortunately, he took Mystics damage for it and was down to his final click. Iron Monger mopped up The Professor on the next turn taking another Mystics damage in the process. He was left on click three.

Meanwhile, Destiny had finally evaded my Plasticity bot and was on the run. It took several tries but my team finally cornered her, with Iron Monger ready to attack. Superior used Perplex on Iron Monger–then my opponent reminded me of Destiny’s IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAN AGAINST THE FUTURE Trait (IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAN AGAINST THE FUTURE: After an opposing character within 8 squares uses Outwit, Perplex, or Probability Control and actions resolve, deal that character 1 damage if it has not already taken damage from this effect this turn.). Yup! I had just KOed my Superior Spider-Man by using Perplex! Smart. Veeeerrrry smart!

I KO’d Destiny shortly after that, but what should have been a rout turned out to be very close in points.

 

Who is Krampus? He destroys hopes and dreams. Especially mine it turns out...

Who is Krampus? He’s a Christmas monster who destroys hopes and dreams. Especially mine, it turns out…

Round 2: Facing WKWK-002 Krampus (w/Utility belt), SLOSH042 Helspont, DP018 Blind Al, NMLR100 Utility Belt w/NMLR101 Gas Pellets/Smoke Grenade. FYIThis was the best combo team I have ever seen.

The game started off innocently enough. I made a Spiderbot, attached it, and moved up towards my opponent. Then the combo struck…

My opponent used Blind AL to do one damage to Helspont. Helspont used his I INFILTRATED YOU LONG AGO Movement Special (I INFILTRATED YOU LONG AGO: Give Helspont a double power action and select an opposing character of a lower point value. Place Helspont and the chosen character in each other’s squares, and after actions resolve, Helspont may be given a close or ranged combat attack as a free action.) to switch places with Iron Monger 2.0. He’s now next to Superior Spider-Man and he gets to make a free attack. He misses but that’s not the bad part. Iron Monger is now next to Krampus. Krampus is obviously still in his starting area. Krampus uses Capture (with +3 to attack due to Blind Al’s Perplex, the Belt’s bonus, and a Perplex from Helspont). Iron Monger is captured. I haven’t even had my second turn yet and I’ve lost half my team…

The rest of the game plays like any normal game. It’s mostly a one-on-one with Helspont versus Spider-Man. I attached a second Spiderbot to Superior’s base. Over the next ten turns we exchanged attacks back and forth. I had a good streak going of hitting my Super Senses rolls. He wasn’t landing anything. Plus I had spawned some extra Mark I Spiderbots and at least twice they were able to use Exploit Weakness to do damage to Helspont. Unfortunately, for every attack that landed the next attack was stopped short by a Shape Change roll and when Helspont hits Shape Change, he automatically heals one click. All of my characters were only hitting for one at a time and he managed to heal as much as we were hurting him.

At one point Spider-Man lands on click 5 and it looked like he could finally turn things around by Ridding Himself of That Weakling Parker, but then Spidey missed Super Senses for the second turn in row and was KOed shortly after. Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeecccch!!!

astros-butt-slide

This is what it’s feels like to face a first turn Krampus capture.

So… that happened.

 

"Obviously, the embodiment of Will is a floating space shark fish. With crazy, shimmery fins. What the $@#& were YOU expecting?"

Giant glowing space sharks. Why does it always have to be giant glowing space sharks?

Round 3: Facing M10A009E Iron Man (Possessed by WOL068P Predator) and AVX102 Lei-Kung the Thunderer (Possessed by WOL062P Ion).  Entity Theme Team. The entire game the Entities gave only some minor stat bumps. However, the powers they granted were ridiculous. Ion granted Lei-Kung Impervious, TK, and Outwit. Predator granted M10 Iron Man Shape Change along with the Quintessence and Mystics Team Abilities.

I started the game by attaching two Spiderbots to Superior before we closed in on each other. My opponent got in the first shot by using TK to move up Iron Man. Iron Man targeted Iron Monger 2.0 and missed. Due to elevation Iron Man had been forced to come close enough to my forces that I could make a Plasticity Spider-Bot adjacent to Iron Man. I did that and passed turn. My opponent responded by moving up Lei-Kung to Outwit Plasticity, and Iron Man tried to break away for a Running Shot. He missed the break away roll and was now double tokened. And then it was my turn.

Spider-man Charged in for a hit with a heavy item on Iron Man, but Impervious reduced the damage to just one. Iron Monger took a ranged shot and missed Iron Man. While it was still my turn I created another Spiderbot adjacent to both Lei Kung and Iron Man. My Opponent realized he was now stuck, but in short order he wisely figured out that he could use Lei-Kung’s Quake to push the bots away before they exploded, but each turn I was remaking them as fast as he could Quake.

That’s pretty much how the game went. Spider-man eventually took enough close combat damage from Iron Man (and pushing damage) to get to click 5. Once there, Doc Ock Rid Himself of That Weakling Parker and things really looked bad for my opponent. Iron Man was KOed by a Flurry the next turn. Then it was my team versus Lei Kung. At one point it looked like he would KO Spider-Man with Precision Strike, but he missed and I used Outwit to counter that power for the rest of the game. Lei Kung stuck around for a quite a while using Quake and Impervious to hold me off, but I was able to KO him just as time was being called.

The Result: My team managed to take second place out of the 6 people attending. With no Resources, Entities, or Team Bases, I was proud of that result.

What I Learned:

  • There now exists a combo that can ruin your team before your second turn. I checked and in the other two games that team played the combo didn’t quite work. In the first game Speed Demon crossed the board in two turns (which he had since Krampus had to double token to try his Capture maneuver) to KO Krampus before he could remove a Captured Iron Pharoah from the game. In the other match, Krampus actually rolled a three and missed the Capture roll. However, in my game the combo was completely deadly and unstoppable. Assuming the best Hypersonic character in the game isn’t left free on the board and your opponent can roll better than a three, I don’t know how you stop this combo. It can even take out a 200 point team base in one shot. It’s stupid and broken. Don’t get me wrong, I think my opponent was a genius  for playing it, but I am kind of bummed something like that exists in HeroClix at the moment. [Editor’s Note: I actually kind of love it. It’s creative, and there’s still a lot that can go wrong–especially if you’re up against a good Hypersonic piece, as you pointed out. And with Flash on the horizon, we’re about to get a bunch more good to great HS pieces. Also, wouldn’t Super Senses and Shape Change also potentially throw a huge monkey wrench into that combo? So, y’know… seems fair to me. Especially since it worked out for me but not for you. Ha!]
  • It thought Helspont was well worth his points during my Slosh Review, but I had never seen him in action before. It turns out I was right.
  • Superior Spider-Man was well worth his points. I want to try him again soon with some other figures on his team. Maybe with Zola next time. The one thing I would never do is play him without the Secret Avengers ATA. That is absolutely required to get the best out of him.
  • Iron Monger 2.0 was only okay for his points. The threat of exploding Spiderbots was neat, but it really happened only once the whole day. Without his Trait getting much use he’s really just not worth the points.