This sight is often terrifying to see in the rearview mirror.

This one can be terrifying to see on the HeroClix map.

“What?” someone’s asking. “In a game that has the nigh-indestructible Bug (Batman V007) in it, you list the COP CAR as number one?”

Yeah, I do.

First, it’s got all the ridiculous advantages that all the new Vehicles do: auto-breakaway, taxi ability, range attacks out of adjacency and long, long dials full of long power runs at a heavy discount.

It’s also a great support piece, with Enhancement and Perplex for adjacent allies (who it’s likely taxiing anyway).

But it’s the Pilot Abilities that make the GCPD Cruiser (V004) leap to the top.

Cuffed To The Bumper, activated by any “GCPD” or “Gordon” piece, gives the car Plasticity coupled with a complete nerfing of the automatic breakaway abilities that usually render Plasticity useless. More than that: those characters can’t fly, giant-step or even TELEPORT past it! With a 2×4 base, this ability gives the Cruiser an unprecedented degree of board control!

Clear The Streets is even worse: by simply moving through an opponent’s square, the Cop Car can deal 1 penetrating damage (WHAT Impervious roll? Hello, Mystics?) and completely reposition it 3 squares away.

Just by MOVING. No attack roll needed. And with Willpower, do it twice.

The GCPD Cruiser is a silver bullet to so many tactics in HeroClix.

• Stealth. Knock Batman in the open.
• Mystics. “Clear The Streets” isn’t an attack.
• Charge/multibase/Great Size’s ability to ignore knockback. “CTS” doesn’t care.
• JSA/BatEnemy/Syndicate/Defenders chains. Busted.
• Hypersonic/LeapClimb. Cuffed by bonds made of Kryptonite-irradiated adamantium alloy with multi-phase dampeners and mystical wards on ’em, apparently.
• Damage reducers.
• Attack avoiders (Shape Change, Super Senses, Combat Reflexes).

And probably more I forgot to name. There are some crazier combos out there, but none are encapsulated in one piece like this, and the Cop Car probably goes a ways toward shutting many of those combos down anyway.

At just under 100 points to activate all this, the GCPD Cruiser is the most torrid tactic of 2012.

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OK, that end this “Top Ten” that replaced the usual “best of” list. But while this one showed the worst stuff players had to face, it in no way represents the actual worst pieces of 2012. That’s coming next week, as the retrospective continues! Stay tuned.