Read the introduction to the series here.

WHAT TO BRING: see “The Setup.”

THE SETUP: When building their forces, each player can also choose characters with a combined point value of up to 200 points per 300 points of the game’s build total; no character chosen this way can have a point value more than 40 points. These characters are reinforcements. They remain outside the game until called upon by the Rebellion effect.

WHAT IT MEANS: This event dial absolutely must be built for in advance. It’s one of the reasons I wrote this series of articles!

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TURN THE DIAL: Immediately after the resolution of a critical hit, and at the end of any turn in which a character takes 4 or more damage as a result of a single action, and at the end of each round.

WHAT IT MEANS: Despite the length of this dial, it will move fairly quickly.

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EXILE (Black, slots A-F): When a character is 4 or more squares from all other friendly characters, modify its defense value by +1.

WHAT IT MEANS: Field advance tie-up pieces to base enemy snipers and prevent them from attacking your team, or use the bonus to be aggressive with your main attacker(s) if that’s your style of play. Consider taking extra advantage of this effect by combining it with the LONER feat if you’re not running a keyword theme. Keep in mind that the Rule of Three will come into play and possibly nullify the defense bonus if an affected character has, say, Combat Reflexes or Energy Shield/Deflection. You’ll want to avoid running characters with powers or Team Abilities that require adjacency such as Mastermind or Justice Society if you want to use this effect.

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OBEDIENCE DISK (Cyan, slots B-F): All characters’ Willpower are ignored. When a character uses a special power, give it an additional action token after the action resolved (the extra token deals pushing damage normally).

WHAT IT MEANS: Absolutely avoid using Special Powers like the plague…unless the character has the Indomitable ability, Power Cosmic/Quintessence, or some other means of avoiding pushing damage other than Willpower. Even in these cases, this effect prevents you from getting the usual extra round of actions, so it may be better to forget about using SPs entirely. Strongly consider going with some old-school non-SP’d pieces in this game!

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GLADIATOR (Red, slots C-J ): Any character that can’t use or doesn’t possess Blades/Claws/Fangs can be given a power action to use Blades/Claws/Fangs as a free action, but the maximum result of the roll to replace its damage value with this effect is 4. If damage dealt to or taken by a character is not otherwise reduced, roll a d6 when the character takes damage. On a result of 4-6, reduce the damage dealt by 2.

WHAT IT MEANS: A character with high attack value but low damage potential would be good for this.

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ANARCHY (orange, slots I-O): When making an attack roll, roll 3d6 and choose two dice to be the result of the roll.

WHAT IT MEANS: More attacks will succeed during this phase, so if you’ve been biding your time, this is the moment to strike! If you’re running a themed team, you may want to use your bonus Probability Control rolls now, especially given the next condition coming up immediately…

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REBELLION (yellow, slots J-X): At the beginning of each player’s turn, that player must choose a character from his or her Reinforcements and put it into his or her starting area. Once the character enters the game, it is considered part of the player’s force.

WHAT IT MEANS: Those extra 200 points of characters begin to enter the game and will remain until the end. If you’re running a themed team, your new Reinforcements have to match the keyword or they will break the theme when they enter and cause you to lose any unused bonus Probability Control rolls, so either A) build some or all of them into the theme or B) use up the PC rolls before adding the keyword-unfriendly pieces to the match. Also, build them to make an impact to the game. (I recommend Perplexers.)

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ALLEGIANCE (Blue, slots K-S): The first time (only) Allegiance shows in the slot, each player must choose a character to be the Leader of his or her force. Friendly characters adjacent to their Leader modify their defense values by +2. If the Leader of a force does not have an action token at the beginning of its controller’s turn, it must be given an action that turn.

WHAT IT MEANS: Because you gain a defense boost for adjacent allies, it might be prudent to build in a highly mobile Reinforcement piece to enter the game first to act as Leader. That way, it can immediately back up (and, perhaps, taxi out of harm’s way) wounded primary pieces.

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POSSESSED BY THE SPIKES (Green, slots N-T): Once during each player’s turn, one of his or her characters can be given a power action to use Mind Control as if its range value were 6.

WHAT IT MEANS: Pretty straightforward. No way to build for this; it adds an element of randomness to the late-game action.

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CHEMMING (Gray, slots T-X): When one of your characters has resolved an action, you can give the action token for the action to any friendly character that has zero action tokens and that is 8 or fewer squares away from your character and to which your character has a clear line of fire.

WHAT IT MEANS: This is Warbound-plus! The Indomitable (or Power Cosmic/Quintessence) character(s) you fielded for the OBEDIENCE DISK effect will pay off big here both as a giver or recipient of tokens. Willpower works, too, but you’re less able to plan for using it at this stage in the game. Also note that this is in force until the end of the game.

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ARMAGEDDON (Brown, slot X): At the beginning of each round, roll a d6. Deal all characters penetrating damage equal to half the result.

WHAT IT MEANS: Because this is a red-lined event dial, there’s no escaping this deadly effect. Regeneration might be helpful, but really, the best bet is to try to get as many KO points as you can before ARMAGEDDON does everyone in.

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SUMMING IT UP: This long event dial is a blast. Aside from the Reinforcements effect, it’s not too unfriendly to most any team build you can cobble together. You just have to make sure you have enough cheap pieces in your collection to act as Reinforcements.

Since we’re going in chronological order, the next installment will begin reviewing the first DC dials from the CRISIS set. Look for it soon!