Every time a scenario is announced, the first thing I do is try to fit an Aquaman to it. Thus, I built and played three different Atlantis/Aqua team builds for three different scenarios.

SCENARIO ONE: 600 point Modern Age DC only

BD Aquaman 105
AN Aquaman 106
AN Mera 85
Ocean Master 65
Tempest 116
Starro Aquaman 70
Aqualad 40
= 587 points.

I faced a Titans team of Red Arrow, White Lantern Superboy, Bart Allen, Liberty Belle, Beast Boy, Donna Troy and Miss Martian on the constricted Sciencells map. Despite some early failure to roll that cost Starro Aquaman his life and the utter difficulty in mobility this map presents for non-flyers,the turning point saw the remaining Aquamen double-teaming Superboy for the big KO of the game. Lost Tempest, StarroAqua and Aqualad but wiped the enemy. FAIL moment(s): Thoroughly forgetting to use BD Aquaman’s Undead Sea trait to punish enemies.

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SCENARIO TWO: Six Degrees of (Keyword) Separation. Each character must have a keyword, and share that keyword with one other character, who must share a different keyword with a different keyword…and so on until both six characters and 600 points are reached.

BD Aquaman 105
Tempest 116
Zauriel 117
AN Aquaman 106
Starro Aquaman 70
AN Mera 85
=599 points. Atlantis to Mystical to JLA to Justice League of America to Ruler.

Narrowly beat a team led by AV Iron Man and WS Deadpool (KOing the former along with WS Wolverine and M+M Archangel) but got absolutely SKUNKED by a team led by Skrulluminati, CL Nick Fury and HoT Cap.

Both games I tried to TK Zauriel out to Pulse Wave, failed, and got him KOed less than a turn later. In the second, not only did I have a total range and mobility disadvantage, no objects (due to the Damage Control feat), but, worst of all, I had a very poor plan of addressing these issues that vitally depended on me hitting my rolls and my opponent missing his.

Ninety percent of my attack attempts (either by Skrull roll, or, more often, ice-cold rolls) failed and nearly that proportion of his attempts succeeded. So…so much for that. Lesson Learned: Move to minimize the opponent’s advantages instead of making it easier for him!

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SCENARIO THREE: No Fly Zone: No fliers allowed. Transporters OK.

This is my home venue, and these guys can’t stand it when I play Atlantis or Aquaman. But…they allowed transporters, and I wanted to try out the new Atlantis ATA.

AN Aquaman 106
BD Aquaman 105
V Icons Aquaman 71
JL Starro Aquaman 70
JL Aquaman 68
E Icons Aquaman 56
V HT Aquaman 41
R Icons Aquaman 39
R HT Aquaman 27
+ Atlantis ATA 16
=599 points.

But I was under the impression that feats and BFCs were banned this tournament. Upon learning they weren’t, I dropped the ATA and added Submerged to E Icons Aquaman and Armor Piercing to the Brightest Day version for an actual final cost of 598 points.

I chose the Aruna Temple map, which is about 60% water. My opponent’s largely ranged team of WS Bullseye, AN Green Arrow, AN Deadshot, Barry Allen, Lt. Marcus Stone and about a half-dozen PD generics stayed way on the other side, forcing my wide-open Aquamen to take fire on the way there.

No problem; my cheaper Aquamen had deep enough dials to make it to them, tying up the Sharpshooters long enough for the heavier-hitting fishmen to score KOs. Additionally, my fodder took so many attacks to put down that the Undead Sea trait racked up a fair amount of damage, too. I took out Green Arrow, Bullseye, Deadshot and a couple of cops, losing only my HT Rookie and Vet.

Next, I got stuck on the Graveyard against HoT Cap, Green Scar, Gamora, WS Nightcrawler and V Psylocke (Armor Wars) but washed it out with Atlantis Rising. Took a lot more damage in this game and handed out a lot more via the Undead Sea as well, knocking Nightcrawler off his kidnapping clicks.

Keeping Scar and Gamora tied up with HT Vet gave me a shot, but an ill-timed double-target critical hit on E Icons and R HT Aquaman by Cap knocked me out of position, possibly costing me an improbable victory as I was forced to waste bigger attackers on Nightcrawler instead of being able to focus on Green Scar.

It didn’t help that all those attackers couldn’t hit Nighty’s simple 17 DV in five straight attacks.

A final positioning FAIL allowed the otherwise tied-up Gamora to Outwit BD Aquaman just in time for a last-second KO by Green Scar. Also lost Starro, E Icons, R Icons, AN Aquaman for a crushing defeat, only KOing Psylocke. Lesson Learned: Don’t let frustrating dice failures shake me out of decent tactics…such as staying out of Outwitters’ sight!

Final round was on the Bridge map against the new Ares, Warlord and BN Flash times TWO. I perched JL Aquaman on the tower to Perplex everyone, kept my crew in the water so no one could reach them, and did hit & run attacks until I’d wiped them all out. Lost Starro, and R HT.

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With that game, I’ve been pretty much done with Atlantis/Aquaman-centric teams, having run just about every iteration possible. I even got a shot at using the Atlantis ATA. So it appears that my Aqua-holism is cured!

(Until I reacquire one of the Fantastic Forces Sub-Mariner pieces to use the ATA on. …ugh…starting to get the shakes…!)