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Though I lacked the participation points to play for colossal Thanos, I was able to get in a side event under the same parameters: 500 points of elements from Chaos War, Galactic Guardians or Incredible Hulk only.

Lacking the chaeese* figures of the day (Sentry and Void or Thanos 049), I opted for something strange…and stranger.

DRS. STRANGE AND STRANGER

 

Stranger (Galactic Guardians 043) 213
Dr. Strange (Galactic Guardians 028) 196 + Avengers (Heroic Age) ATA 2
Dr. Strange (Galactic Guardians 206) 75
Astral Dr. Strange (Galactic Guardians 014b) 13
= 499 points, with 2x replacement Astral Dr. Strange (Galactic Guardians 014a). My strat was to use the lesser Dr. Strange’s Energy Shield-sharing power to bolster defenses against the inevitable alpha strike against my not-so-mobile team until I had A) enough Astrals to start shooting with the big Dr. and B) Stranger could get to his 2nd click and start HSSing about.

ROUND ONE I faced sparring partner Lenny’s Annihilators: Cosmo, SR Gladiator and the Fast Forces versions of Quasar and Ronan the Accuser. I won handily, as I was able to get first Outwit then shot on Gladiator to blunt his threat. Lenny doesn’t handle gameplan adversity very well and I was thus able to run the table on him from there.

ROUND TWO was against the venue’s usual judge, who was allowed to play in this side event. He had the dreaded Sentry and Void, plus two Fast Forces Scarlet Witches and the medic Donald Blake.  AND a Gamma Bomb. Dude came to win. But he almost didn’t when he (and I) forgot that Astral Dr. Strange doesn’t force break away rolls and he stayed still a couple turns longer than he should’ve. It gave me a chance to close on his side of the map and eventually beat Sentroid as low as  his last click, forcing repeated heals via Support and Regeneration.

But then, with Stranger pushed and on his next-to-last-click, I made the absolute worst User Error I have EVER made in a HeroClix game (yes, even worse than the worst of the baker’s dozen I made in this classic failing effort). I forgot to pick Colossal Size at the start of the turn before (uselessly) moving Dr. Strange, thus denying Stranger the Colossal Stamina ability to make an attack with two tokens. That turned an unlikely win for me (as a hit would’ve KOed Sentroid) into complete and utter defeat in two turns.

ROUND THREE was against Melinda, a fairly new player who usually only plays Lord of the Rings characters. Her husband built her a team of Defenders: Silver Surfer (Galactic Guardians o36), Hulk (Galactic Guardians o27), Captain America (Chaos War 001) and Dr. Strange (Galactic Guardians 206). She was very aggressive; a little too much so. I managed to wipe her team while only losing a couple of Astral projections.

 

 

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All in all, it was a decent day of clixin’. I played a team that’s the essence of F.U.N. that challenged even the most terrifying non-colossal character in the game. If I could only eliminate those User Errors!!!!!

* Chaeese = Chase and Cheese, combined.

 

 

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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.)

Here’s the last of the Collateral Damage set’s feats:

I sure took a lot of art from JSA. This artist was Stephen Sadowski, I think, (Peter Snejbjerg, actually) and the issue guest-starred Batman. This image of Batman, whose main shtick is Stealth, running through the shadows was fitting, I think.

There was one more feat in the set that came with the Man of Steel mailaway figure called “Look! Up In The Sky!” It’s not included because, like Divebomb, it’s at least partly based on the obselete Soaring mechanic. It was also a poor use of points in any case. 9 points for +2 speed…but only on move actions.

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Next time, Card Arts moves on to the next DC set: Origin.

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A few weeks ago, Heroclixin’ began analyzing how a street-level set like Dark Knight Rises is at least a little overpowered. Sometimes grossly so. We saw how the Common, Uncommon and Rare bits threaten to break the game with their Power Leap Factors of 1 through 5. Now let’s conclude with looks at the Power Leap Factor of the Marquee and DKR starter pieces (#s 100-106) and the mass market figures (#s 201-210).

Batman 100: As first glance, this version of Bats looks soft and underpowered and overcosted with only six clicks of life and a bit of Toughness. He doesn’t even start with Outwit. Then you note his trait that gives him hefty bonuses when played with the Gordon figures in the set (and we’ve already noted how great a Power Leap Factor one those guys has). And THEN you note his other trait giving him penetrating damage AND an effective 12 AV against his target as long as he’s attacking from Stealth or elevated (which, being Batman, is gonna be almost always). That’s ridiculously good, even for Bats. Power Leap Factor 4.

Batman 101: Meanwhile, the starter Batman is considerably less powerful for only 5 less points: one fewer target and range, worse defenses, a barely usable SP and no traits. He does start and finish with several clicks of Outwit and Perplex, respectively, across a long 8-click dial. But as Batman figures go, the Power Leap Factor here is just 0.

Catwoman 102: Her trait means she’ll almost never be attacked by any character lacking a moving attack or anti-Stealth ability, and Leap/Climb is always good on sneaky Outwitters like her. Power Leap Factor 4, easily.

Bane 103: Only two clicks of damage reduction is wholly outweighed by his A) effective +1 AV vs. teams/keywords for himself AND his team, B) Flurry + Super Strength-on-the-2nd-attack SP and C) Regen to Willpower combo. Power Leap Factor 3.

The Joker 104: Shape Change seems a bit odd, but Ledger Joker does tend to use disguises pretty often. Power Leap Factor 0

Harvey Two-Face 105: Prob Control? Penetrating Blast? Exploit Weakness? STEAL ENERGY? None of these powers make any sense on this character, really, except to make him playable. That rates Power Leap Factor 5.

Sgt. Gordon 106: Kinda silly that he just gets powers out of the blue from teammates. Power Leap Factor 3.

Batman 201: Unparalleled moving attack ability, Exploit Weakness and a sky-high 12 AV (cheapest fig to start the game with such in years) is balanced to Power Leap Factor 3 by his inability to be stat-boosted by allies.

Bruce Wayne 202: Leap/Climb, again, is thoroughly misplaced. Why’s he get range? SMH. Only his overall high cost holds his Power Leap Factor to a modest 2.

Catwoman 203: Another Selina boasting a high Power Leap Factor (3) due to her ability to steal objects, Flurry, Perplex, and push freely with Indomitable. The 3 range is what pushes her over the top.

Bane 204: Not too bad, actually. Perma-Toughness/Mastermind, RCE and Perplex are all held back by poor speed and mediocre AV. Power Leap Factor 0.

Rachel Dawes 205: Why does an assistant district attorney get Stealth? Or Mind Control? Answer: Power Leap Factor 1, just for the sake of a little playability. At least the anti-Poison/Incap trait is actually story-based.

John Blake 206: He’s definitely an exceptional cop in the film (hence the Indom.), but neither the Underworld TA nor the Sharpshooter is really backed up by the film. He’s also got that trait of Outwitting team abilities. Why? Power Leap Factor: 3

The Joker’s Henchman #3: Power Leap Factor 1, ’cause there’s little out of place with this piece other than the 17 Defend from a nameless mook. And that appears mid-dial, so it’s hardly a concern.

The Joker’s Henchman #4: Power Leap Factor 1 for his penetrating damage Energy Explosion. Why’s he rate that SP?

The Joker 209: What’s with the penetrating damage SP? It’s conditional enough to only call for a low Power Leap Factor rating by itself, but the lonnnnng run of Probability Control after click 1 is excessive enough to bump it to 2.

Arkham Asylum Escapee 210: Power Leap Factor 0…nothing overpowered here.

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For a street-level set, Dark Knight Rises sure brings the cheese in terms of scale.

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We had a recent 1200-point anything goes tournament. Promo pieces, feats, Star Trek ships, whatever — it was all legal.

Me, I had some pieces that’d languished in my unplayed fig box for nearly a year. Time to try ’em out.

Unfortunately, my fellow players brought out the velveeta (not cheese, but close). First, I faced a Brute team of Movie Hulk, Mighty Thorr, Wolverage, Big Figure surrounded by Thugs, all led by Sentry / Void. Then I had the “pleasure” of battling an all-Thanos team of the chase, the 150-pointer and the 800-point “Issue 1” colossal.

  • A-Bomb: Camouflage really helped him out, especially when chase Thanos snatched him but put him next to blocking terrain. His 19 DV also held up, even against the 12-13 AVs of the Thanosi. Too bad he wasn’t able to hit so much.
  • Arkham Asylum Inmate: Only good for resetting the Gamma Bomb. Otherwise completely overmatched.
  • Elite Zealot: Despite his starting with Leadership and Outwit, he was useless at both due to adjacency issues and immunity-to-Outwit opponents. Really needed to be more aggressive with him, but my team was very movement-challenged. (It didn’t help that Issue 1 Thanos knocked him off his sole movement click at game’s start.)
  • Gollum: Very useful for his support powers, but the little slinker took himself out via those very powers.
  • Hawkeye (Chaos War): The only piece of the team to perform well at ALL. Which, unfortunately, made him a victim of colossal  Thanos’ power to remove Hawkeye temporarily from the game when the archer managed to damage the mad Titan.
  • Master Chief (Battle Rifle): Disappointing. Lack of movement powers hobbles the Halo star. I pushed off his sole top click of Outwit to my regret.
  • Morg: Too glass-jawed. Perhaps on a team with TK, he’d have done better. As it was, he was just easy meat for first Sentry / Void and then chase Thanos. Seems like I’ve never seen this piece work.
  • Mouth of Sauron: If I had any chance in these games, it was because of this fellow. Being able to Demoralize and knock stats down -2 from behind cover is HUGE. In fact, I might have salvaged a win in the first game had I used him better. Unfortunately, I made most of my user errors with him, in A) his placement for Prob Control, B) opening him up to Outwit at a crucial moment and C) making a suicidal Mind Control of colossal Thanos (who missed BOTH his Multiattacks — it was that sort of game).
  • Nebula: her trait is so useless in these modern games where bringing objects is optional. If only she had more keywords to fit onto more teams! Or a slightly higher AV. Or damage. SOMETHING!
  • The Sharpshooting Avenger: Scored an early hit on 150-point Thanos and was useful for his SHIELD TA. Still pretty much the last version of Hawkeye I’ll ever pick for a team. Why did I trade for him, again?
  • Thor (Avengers Movie 201): Not bad, aside from the critical miss against Issue 1 Thanos that sealed my loss, big time.
  • U.S.S. Yeager: Worthless outside the Trek game thanks to single digit AV and 2 damage.

 

In fact, 2 damage was my problem across the board, as I lacked the ability to harm the Thanosi at all aside from a few characters. Had similar issues with the Brute squad.

In general, my unfamiliarity with pieces and the more highly competitive nature of the forces I tend to face these days make using untried characters a losing proposition. I think I’m going to resort to something I haven’t done in years: playing solo games on my dinner table.

Seriously, the last time I did that, the Olympics were being played in BEIJING. So maybe, as this article is published, yours truly will be watching the Games and playing a game simultaneously.

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Tomorrow, a new Token Totin’ figure. Then, on Friday, the wrap-up of my Dark Knight Power Creep Rises series.

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Continuing the photographic record of just how each character with the Super Strength power can hold their object token (the old ones, anyway. The newer ones found in the Avengers and Dark Knight Rises starter sets might be too thick) somewhere on the sculpt unassisted.

Back in May, I hardly saw hide nor hair of the Avengers Movie’s Frost Giant Champion to shoot it toting an object token. But at last behold…!

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Time to resume 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.)

Continuing with the Collateral Damage set’s feats. Next up is Movethrough:

 

The artist is the great Alan Davis, from a 2000 JSA cover. The feat was basically designed to help boot speed characters, especially giants like the above Atom Smasher, get to the targets they wanted. Back then, giants didn’t ignore smaller characters during movement and had a two-square adjacency zone instead of just being able to punch from two away. So while it made giants superb tie-up figures, it was also an incredible weakness because most giants are priced as fighters, not cheap tie-up. Now that giants move more like fliers, this feat is largely obselete on them. It still has some use for standard-sized walkers, though.

Here’s another feat that’s not seen that much anymore:

The attack bonus granted by Ambush usually isn’t worth exposing the attacker from its Stealth. It’s still a neat feat, though. This Val Semeiks art from “JLA: Foreign Bodies” of Batman apparently delivering a surprise blow to the arch-villain Kobra fit the card perfectly.

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Next time, Card Arts continues with the final feat from Collateral Damage.

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Now we’ve come down to the #1 duo in HeroClix:

Thor and Loki (Hammer of Thor 057)

Despite weighing in at an unmatched 362 points for a single-based figure, they’re clearly the choice.

  • They start with Running Shot and 10 range to get the carnage started. They bear Invulnerability through a trait so it can’t get countered and Shape Change to avoid attacks altogether.
  • They’re Mystic, so opponents won’t want to target them much, anyway.
  • They’re Indomitable, so they can push immediately next turn.
  • They’ve got Perplex to make their ensuing Duo Attack deal out a crippling 11 clicks, potentially.
  • They’re single-base fliers, so TK can yank ’em back or send ’em forth, depending, and they won’t have much problem maneuvering themselves.
  • Their AV never dips below 10. Their DV, 16. Damage is usually 4 or better.

Their only drawback is the DV SP, which saddles them with the range-killing Battle Fury. It also gives Exploit Weakness, so we’re over it.

Being a superb fig and one that certainly makes great use of the Duo symbol makes these oft-feuding half-brothers the single best Duo in HeroClix.

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“That’s all good and well, Heroclixin,'” someone is saying. “YOU can actually GET these Super Rare chase collector Buy-It-By-The-Brick-eight-sets-ago figures. How about the rest of us who want to use just regular duos that didn’t make the list?”

Glad you asked. Here are some tips on how to play all duos to the maximum degree.

Boost their damage. Just as powers like Energy Explosion or Incapacitate grow exponentially better with multiple arrows, so does Duo Attack benefit from higher damage. (You’ll note how many of the  characters on the list had great damage numbers as a plus.) So field some Perplex or Enhancement to easily increase Duo Attack’s output.

Telekinesis. If they can be moved with the mind, then do it. Most duos made prior to Brave & Bold were single-based.

Find ways to push duos safely. Most of the time, they’re going to have to get into position first. Therefore, the sooner the duo can start attacking in earnest, the better. There are some ways to grant Willpower or something like it to duos lacking it: Edward Nigma, Harvey Dent (Dark Knight Rises 017), Warbound or the new Asgardians ATA, to name a few. And, of course, just know the duo’s dial and be willing to push onto a new click.

Probability Control. The strength of Duo Attack is that it means more attack rolls. Might as well make ’em count. Similarly…

Outwit. It’ll take some dial memorization, but try to time your Duo Attack when you can hit a countered target both times with the defense power still countered (at least until WizKids actually fixes Outwit the way I’d like).

Blue Beetle and Booster Gold. The number 8 duo makes other duos better, remember? And as Super Rare figures go, this piece is easy to acquire.

And then there are duo-specific feats to consider:

Sidestep. The first duo feat, this 10-pointer grants 4 squares of movement in between Duo Attacks. The lack of free breakaway keeps it from being a must-use. But it can be really handy.

Show Off. When the first shot KOs a target, you can pass on making the 2nd attack and not give the duo an action token. Obviously, this one is pretty circumstantial, especially for lower-damage duos. Not worthless, but not really worth the 6 points if you have other options.

Power Barrage. Another 6-point feat, this one grants a free (but weaker) attack after one of a number of Attack powers are used. Another one that’s not remotely a slam dunk of a feat.

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That’s all, folks. Heroclixin’s taking a short vacation. On Wednesday, expect a new battle report, probably highlighting some more newly played pieces. We’ll pick up on the look at The Dark Knight Rises set in a week.   Until then, have F.U.N. Heroclixin’!

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Man, good duo figures are hard to come by. Numbers 10-8 were either Super Rares or part of a $100 collectors’ set. The next three? All chase figures. And it gets no easier from here:

#4 is actually the Big Three:

Avengers Prime (Chaos War 060)

At a staggering 400 points, this duo trio figure is by far the priciest on the list. That buys you a LOT of damage potential, much of it through Duo Attack. After an opening salvo with Running Shot thanks to the Iron Man-themed Speed SP, one best uses the same power to Perplex the trio’s damage  +1 to then deal out a possible 11 CLICKS in the followup Duo Attack.

Duo Attack is almost always a better play than using any of AVP’s regular powers if targets are available on the opening clicks of the 400-point dial. For the 300-pointer, it’s less of a slam dunk. For example on click 2 (or 5 on the full dial), do you opt for a single shot for 4 penetrating damage, or roll the duo dice to land a possible 7 that might get reduced? Do you Flurry for 8 or Duo for 4, hopefully KOing the target to follow up with a weaker ranged shot?

This dial has a lot of mostly wasted points on myriad abilities that can’t be used in combination, sometimes not even through the “Trio Attack” trait. And with such high cost, they’re gonna get swarmed heavily, especially since they have many of the usual peanut duo mobility issues (at least they fly, though). Nevertheless, their sheer power is enough to make them one of the best duo figs in Heroclixin’s estimation.

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#3 are the stars of New Avengers: The Reunion:

Hawkeye and Mockingbird (Chaos War 054)

Another star-crossed couple — literally, this time, as Mockingbird was once kidnapped for years by Skrulls — ranks high on the list of great duo figures. Why, especially with them having the same no-TK-no-taxi boot speed peanut base issues as so many others?

Transporter Move and Attack. This ability gives them a bit more flexibility than most for moving past enemies on the way to their real destination. The sky-high 12 AV also helps their cause in attacking.

Sharpshooter. Similarly, this gives them cleaner lines of fire for potential Duo Attacks.

Most of all, though, they’ve got a Duo-ready SP that allows ’em to replace ranged Duo Attacks with Smoke Cloud, Incapacitate or Energy Explosion. So Hawkeye can take a leading shot with Mockingbird following with Smoke Cloud to hide them from counterfire. Or they can opt to Incap a Mystic target and then Energy Explode a cluster elsewhere for much more cumulative damage than the usual -1 damage 2nd duo attack would net.

These birds’ weakness is that they have zero armor, so they will take any and all damage that gets past Super Senses. And although they start with Stealth, the peanut base prevents them from ever getting fully hidden into hindering terrain with a single move (since the “back” end of said figures must travel through the square the front end moved through — and hitting hindering terrain immediately stops movement). But with their offensive prowess and excellent Duo ability, they take the #3 spot among the top Duos of Heroclixin’.

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#2 are the stars of The Dark Knight Rises:

Batman and Catwoman (The Brave and the Bold 100)

Their AV is weaker than most others’ on the list. They’re peanut based and thus impossible to taxi or TK. They’ve got no armor, little range and a fairly hefty price point for all that weakness. Why are they the #2 Duo of Heroclixin’?

It’s all about the SP “Double Pounce.”

  1. It’s Leap/Climb. That circumvents any problems getting the big peanut base fully hidden to use their Batman Ally TA.
  2. It’s a free Duo Attack after using Leap/Climb. It’s better than Charge or Running Shot.

With Outwit to soften the target up and Willpower + Combat Reflexes to help press the attack or survive counterattacks, BatCat makes up for its weaknesses in a big way. And this is without even mentioning the ability at the start of the game to steal one of the enemy’s special objects. Batman and Catwoman earn this near-top spot of the list handily.

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Tomorrow: The number one duo figure in Heroclixin’s Top Ten and a bonus duo-related list.

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Man, good duo figures are hard to come by. Numbers 10-8 were either Super Rares or part of a $100 collectors’ set. The next three? All chase figures.

#7 is this emo couple:

Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man (Chaos War 059)

Weighing in at a hefty 225 points, this star-crossed pair makes the list almost purely because of Wanda’s contribution: her Chaos Magic SP:

With it, they can render even normally uncounterable opponents powerless in any given area. Sure, it’s a little too random to depend entirely upon it, but it’s a free action.

After they get into position with Running Shot, Scarlet Wonder will rely on Duo Attack to deal most of their damage. With Probability Control to better ensure either shot lands, and a hefty 4 damage to lead to potential 7 clicks, there’s ample reason to do so on the opening four clicks of life.

Late in their dial, they get a SP that causes them to deal penetrating damage to high-cost figures. Combined with Duo Attack, they can utterly decimate tentpoles.

They’ve got all the drawbacks of double-based duos: unCarryable, unTKable and, with only a modest 8 starting boot speed, they may find it tough to move around. They also don’t push well — it’s tough to leave that first Chaos War click in favor of Super Strength, even if they upgrade to 11AV and Impervious (and you’d rather force opponents to take Mystics damage digging through all that armor anyway).

Nevertheless, Scarlet Witch and Wonder Man are a solid enough figure on their own that’s only made better by having Duo Attack at their disposal. They rate #7.

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#6 is the smallest duo:

Ant-Man and Wasp (Chaos War 053)

These wee folk have a few tricks up their pint-sized sleeves. Most notable is their trait which, like a mirror version of the Mystics TA, deals unavoidable damage against adjacent foes for misses against them (either by those adjacent enemies or others shooting at the insect-size couple). This probably accounts for the bulk of their weighty 168-point cost.

They also have Poison and Exploit Weakness to further trouble folks in melee.

With that latter power, twinned with first Charge to get in close and then Plasticity to stay nearby, there doesn’t seem to be much call to use the Duo Attack ability.

But there is, because Ant-Man and Wasp can be TKed or effortlessly carried by almost ANY ally, thanks to their single base and Tiny Size ability. When a duo doesn’t have to burn actions getting into position to use the Duo Attack, the ability gets that much better. Against soft targets, it’s the preferred move.

With this better mobility than nearly any duo in the game along with their ability to deal lots of free and/or penetrating damage, Ant-Man and Wasp are the #6 duo in Heroclix.

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#5 :

Thor and Hercules (Chaos War 059)

This demigodly duo is all about massive damage, period. Once they complete their opening Charge + Exploit Weakness, this Indomitable, Impervious fig can deal out 7-8 clicks via Duo Attack.

And you’ll want to use the ability as often as possible, since missing the first attack means +1 to all their stats for the 2nd shot.

Once Impervious is lost, they get Invulnerability that can’t be countered and boosts DV each time they’re targeted in a turn. Decent defense against Outwitters and swarm attacks.

Boot speed and a big peanut base are the usual liabilities, and with only average 6 range and a sky-high 300-point price, Thorcules can still be overwhelmed and thus “only” rates #5 on the top duos list.

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Tomorrow, it’s 4, 3 and 2.