Finally, Morrison finishes off his look at the Armor keyword with the heaviest of the metalheads:

Tentpoles

Kurse

Class – High point brick

Kurse right here is tie-up piece numero uno. He’s quite pushable, meaning Shellhead is excellent for this guy. With 3 clicks of Regeneration, he will land and will probably stay on Regen for at least 1 turn, so the Automatic Regeneration feat should help you stay on the useful clicks.

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Destroyer

Class – High Point Bruiser & Corner Stone

Destroyer reminds me rather pleasantly of Hammer of Thor Ultron: similar Charge, high attack, long range, and high damage. Not necessarily the most synergistic combination, but still brutally effective from all directions. Pack along some peons to make full use of his Life-Force Possession SP later in his dial.

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AV Iron Man

Class – Corner stone

Personally, I never was able to use him to any real effect, but if played better than I did, he can be quite useful. His dial is similar to, but less effective than HoT Beta-Ray Bill’s. But this guy offers Ultimates TA and eventually Outwit. Use that 10 range and 12 speed to steer clear from reprisals and outwiters. Between flight and Ultimates, make sure always to have hindering between this guy and the enemy; he needs the defense boost.

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SI Iron Man

Class– Corner Stone

A much more effective Iron Man comes with your choice of a combo better than Impervious or Invulnerability, and in both instances you still get Perplex. Every click offers something useful. Stark doesn’t go down swinging unless his friends are packing some attack boosts, so Recharge might help him stay top dial, with Perplex, Outwit, and 11 attack.

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V Steel

Class – high point bruiser

In many ways, Steel is even better than the aforementioned SI Iron Man. He still packs Outwit, his attack never drops to the 8 of his predecessor, his ending defense is 17 rather than 15, and 1 more click of 4 damage (Steel’s damage never drops to a 2 either). Many would complain about his lack of Running Shot, but his speed is decent, and unlike most of the other figures in this review, he is absolutely equally useful in close and range. His dial also reminds me of Destroyer’s. Note that Steel comes at a lower cost than either Iron Man or Destroyer. With his sturdy and consistent dial, this is certainly one figure made to proclaim “Leeerrrooooy Jeeeenkins!” with.

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WoS Iron Man

 

Class – High point corner stone

Iron Man is similar to SI’s Iron Man, except he trades Avengers for the more useful S.H.I.E.L.D. TA. This character is a lot more straightforward to use:

• fly around
• shoot
• get shot at
• shoot again (for 6 or 5 damage with Ranged Combat Expert)
• get shot at again
• clear
• get shot at
• get rid of the chump who has come to base him (with free Force Blast)
• Outwit somebody and shoot

…and repeat these last couple of steps until he gets KO’ed (in virtually every game he will, 202 points is a huge target, and the middle to end dial is soft). But in this time Tony should have made at least 4 attacks, for a total of 15 damage. Indomitable should help to make sure that he can pop off his attacks. The worst aspect of the figure is his sculpt.

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Iron Man / War Machine

Class – High point corner stone

The most expensive figure with the Armor keyword, but Tony and Rhodes sure do deliver: only 2 clicks of defense less than 18, 3 clicks of 4 damage and outwit, starting 12 attack, and attack that never goes below 9 (SI and WoS Iron Man take note). If you can alpha strike on his first click (Tony can bring along his Mandroid friends from S.H.I.E.L.D.), you can deal 16 damage with 1 figure in 1 turn. If the game allows feats, IM/WM demands Power Barrage, which gives them a third attack with each attack after you set up.

(Actually, it doesn’t. The feat doesn’t work with Duo Attack, and because they don’t actually possess the prerequisite powers on their Attack SP — they only use them — Power Barrage is only good for them on their first three and dead-last clicks. — Editor RKJS.)

Running Shot, Indomitable, Outwit, Duo Attack, high attack, and high damage is almost the perfect combo. With any three turns, you should be able to deal at least 11 damage. Then middle dial, Tony and James pump up offensively with duo-compatible Psychic Blast and Ranged Combat Expert, meaning that in 1 turn mid dial, they could deal 9 damage or 5 penetrating damage, or 5 raw and 2 penetrating damage.

(Again, not exactly. You can only pick one of those powers for the attack(s); you don’t get to use RCE for one attack and PB for the 2nd, but RCE for both, one or none. Same for PB [or Incap, but who’s really gonna pick that?] — Editor RKJS)

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That does it for Morrison’s look at the Armor keyword. I’d like to thank him for allowing me to post these here on my site. Here’s hoping he’ll try his hand at this again in the future!

As for Heroclixin’, I may start a little offshoot of my Friday F.U.N. feature that focuses on individual characters over full-blown teams, but I’ll probably take a break and start that next week.

Speaking of next week,  Monday is the beginning of the end: the last few of My Custom Mods. There’s less than 5 left (which is why I’ve been dragging my feet on updates to that feature — I’m running out of material)!