So a clix-playing friend invited a number of other players to his place for food and then a fight. I came up with this scenario: We each build five 200-point teams and play one at a time. As a force is KO’d, place one of your remaining teams in the starting area (with immunity until your next turn) and two standard objects on the map. Continue until last man standing.

The idea was to play a lot of figures in one game without the lonnnng turns that massive-point games end up having.

Here were my teams (unplayed pieces in green):

1. Aldrich Killian, Brandt, Extremis Brute and AIM Agent (Clobberin’ Time)
2. Radagast and Ancient One
3. Black Mask (Streets of Gotham), The Penguin (No Man’s Land) and two False Facers.
4. Mammoth and Shimmer, both of Teen Titans set
5. Ridge and Fairchild (020)

We played on the Dawn of Time map with Time Zones.

Mr. P started with The Ray, Secret and Empress. Mr. V had Jennifer Kale and Hannibal King. Mr. L ran Selina Kyle and Poison Ivy (No Man’s Land).

All three took advantage of my too-aggressive positioning to destroy ExBrute. THEN they converged on my depleted team. Why am I so persecuted…?

Similarly, Radagast and Ancient One spwaned in the middle of a poop tornado. All sorts of minor user errors (Running Shot AWAY from A-One’s Enhancement. Leaving A-One open to shots from King. Outwitting GF Superboy’s Running Shot instead of his single-target Pulse Wave with Radagast the only one in sight) added up to quickly being down two teams while others were just starting up their second squads.

The Gotham Underworld team did a little better. Would’ve done way better if I’d remembered the False Facers’ Poison more often, especially in conjunction with Black Mask’s Outwit. Eventually couldn’t handle the amount of attacks hurled at the team, and I was soon on Team 4, which was VERY short-lived despite landing an attack or two. Double Outwit is a (rhymes-with-“witch”). It took some time for Shimmer to get KO’d so I could bring out my final team.

I think I made a big fail in every turn with this duo, starting from the moment I placed them in the starting area. I’d put Fairchild ONE SQUARE outside her 6 range, losing a great opportunity to Mind Control. I used Ridge to jump and Quake a trio of enemies (Cyborg, Raven and Solstice) but ONLY managed to hit the Mystic — bye-bye, Impervious. I used Fairchild to Mind Control an enemy Nightwing, who proceeded to miss and prove again that the power still sucks. Even worse, poor Ridge took a solo Pulse Wave (something I could’ve prevented by moving the MC’d Nightwing in range of said Pulse Waver) to end up near-dead.

And then there was one. Not much of a threat to anyone left on the board, my Fairchild was largely left alone. I tried my best to stay out of others’ way.

Mr. L’s All-Star Superman finally came out to play, but he was hampered by not one, but TWO Inertia pieces on the board. A testament to the strength of that piece is that he still had little problem wiping the board clean of the remaining teams even without Hypersonic Speed.

I had a chance to affect the game in an improbable way as Fairchild caught up with Superman with two tokens. She landed her hit, but it rolled off his Impervious hide. And that was all she wrote. (In the end, the last other remaining team of Red Robin and Bunker, both of Teen Titans main set, took down the Man of Steel.)

The “bring new teams in” mechanic was a pretty fun way of keeping things moving and getting a lot of figs out there. Will have to try this scenario in a real tournament.

I was in some kind of quandary. I could not decide which team to run.

Last go-round, I’d run a pretty min/max force with three good attackers backed by a full pit crew that did barely better than squat against teams that weren’t even the roughest out there. So this time I decided to run teams that were more F.U.N.

But, again, I couldn’t decide. Would it be:

Vixen plus two each of Killer Croc (No Man’s Land) and Black Lightning with a Bat Signal?

An all-Batman squad of Zur-En-Arrh, the Streets of Gotham marquee, Speeding Bullets and the 200-point Batman, also with a Bat Signal?

or

Justice League International, starring the 200-point Batman, Guy Gardner, August General In Iron and Rocket Red with the Utility Belt?

I often decide these with a random die roll. But I second, third, fourth and FIFTH-guessed this time around. In the end, I chose to go with the JLI troupe, trusting the flexibility of the Utility Belt.

_____

The first round was a slow affair slowed further by my opponent’s total unfamiliarity with his team (all the NML LEs except Lock Up, who was swapped out for Scarecrow). Hits were rare. I won it on a roll-off at the end.

Second round I was up against a Birds of Prey team complete with Big Barda and Oracle. I lost it early with my decision not to go immediately to the Rebreather tactic. Guy Gardner was alpha-struck and my team never recovered, esp. after Red’s fortuitous Energy Explosion was rerolled into a miss.

Third match was another disaster against Superman-as-Batman, Mr. Freeze, Harley Quinn, a Joker Thug, Void and a Joker who could Mastermind to nearly all of them. Early hits on Freeze were healed away by Void, my Stealth was of little use against SuperBat, and I simply couldn’t land the needed KO blows once Red and Guy were clobbered to near-uselessness by the Belt-wearing Kryptonian. I got Void and the Thug but lost more.

Final round saw me facing another SuperBat, along with a Mystic Batman, Black Queen and Deathstroke. I made some headway against this team, KOing the middle two (and an Alfred) but fell victim to the sheer power of the Kryptonian, who wiped me out in a few late-game blows.

______

Another dismal 1-3 performance. What made it worse is the feeling of not having any real answer to the Utility Belt and high armor/defense — and the knowledge that the Vixen-led team DID have those answers. Two Outsiders would’ve handled the +2 threats of the Belts, my whole team dealt penetrating damage, and the bruisers were unshootable in water.

More than anything, it was the team that, in truth, was closest to my heart. But I blinked and didn’t run it in favor of a team that had the stupid Utility Belt on it. Feh.

Thus ends my little flirtation with powergaming, such as it was. It’s just not enjoyable unless I’m winning. I’d much rather try to work a F.U.N. team into tournament-contending shape going forward.

This is an occasional article I plan to include in Heroclixin’ whenever a new set drops. 

See, while some players collect X-Men or Justice Society characters, I have…odder themes that I like to complete. It’s why, even in a set like Teen Titans that I have almost zero interest in, I still find pieces that I look to acquire to complete or complement my odd themes.

____

Arrowette (Teen Titans 006) and Arsenal (Teen Titans 036) are, of course, both archers. Once in a great while, I like to build teams composed of nothing but characters wielding the bow and arrow. 

___

Early on in my involvement in HeroClix, I endeavored to build a top-flight, competitive team of all-black characters. Back in 2005, that was impossible. But as the years have passed, some solid pieces of the African persuasion have been made and I can build teams that can challenge all but the GenCon-level forces.

Anyway, I still collect them all, so in addition to Static (045), a character I actually like, I’m also seeking out Skitter (048), Tattooed Man (071) and both versions of Cyborg (026 and 063) even though there are plenty of alternate versions of him by now.

_____

Longtime Heroclixin’ readers will recall a humongous article I wrote about the Atlantis keyword, so it’s no surprise that the common Aquaman (015) and the super-booster-exclusive Aqualad (075) are both on my wishlist. 

That Atlantis article needs an update, soon.

____

“Diana’s Wardrobe,” a theme in which each Wonder Woman figure is wearing a different costume, once had me chasing every version of the character. The far-too-silly-looking TabApp figures broke me of that particular streak of completism. A similar theme called “Kal-El’s Closet: What the Well-Dressed Superman Is Wearing This Season” was also similarly nixed (but more because of the difficulty/expense of acquiring costly pieces such as White Lantern Superman). But if I can score either of the Justice League team base Trinity figs — Superman (066) or Wonder Woman (068) — then sure, I’ll add ’em to the mix.

____

Red Star (012) is the latest addition to a theme I’m tentatively work-titling “Red Dawn” in which I play the whole game in a Russian accent with figs like Black Widow, Rocket Red, Darkstar, Ursa Major, Void, Crimson Dynamo and more such comrades. Apart from this team, though, I have zero affinity for the character. 

____

Finally, there’s Fairchild (020), a rare female character with the Scientist keyword. I still want to play all these smart chicks who “Blinded Me With Science.”

A new set brings more Super-Strong figs to photograph toting their object tokens. And we’ll start with the first of several versions of Wonder Girl:

She holds a token tenuously but well between her lasso hand and her left leg.

––––

Lots more to come next Tuesday.