My longtime clix buddy Lenny and I periodically have big matches between themed forces — Avengers vs. JLA, Marvel Knights vs. The Hand, Asgard vs. enemies of the Golden Realm, what have you.

Anyway, he’s been keeping score, apparently, between these big matches. And he wanted a final deciding fight between his Inhumans and my Guardians of the Galaxy — the latter being an old favorite theme of mine to which Lenny is largely responsible for introducing me.

The Inhumans have gotten a LOT of new juice lately, while GOTG has waned a bit. So I loaded this team for the best Inhumanity could bring to bear. We played this a few months before Corona World began.

 

My GUARDIANS:

Adam Warlock [Galactic Guardians 004] 165 points

Aleta [Supernova 043] 51 points

Bug [Hammer of Thor 001] 44 points

Charlie-27 [Galactic Guardians 012] 92 points

Cosmo [Avengers Infinity 039] 70 points

Drax The Destroyer [Guardians of the Galaxy Movie 013] 94 points

Gamora [Guardians of the Galaxy Movie Vol. 2 006] 65 points

Groot [Web of Spider-Man 049] 152 points

Major Victory [Guardians of the Galaxy 005] 95 points

Mantis [Avengers Infinity 030] 50 points

Martyr [Guardians of the Galaxy 040] 160 points

Nebula [Guardians of the Galaxy Movie Vol. 2 015] 100 points

Nova [Avengers Infinity 032] 150 points

Rocket Raccoon [Guardians of the Galaxy Movie 018] 100 points

Star-Lord [Guardians of the Galaxy 030] 110 points

Yondu [Guardians of the Galaxy Movie Vol 2 016] 100 points

The linchpins of my team are Star-Lord, who allows all GOTG figs to share the highest defense value of the team, which is Rocket Raccoon’s 19 DV.

 

Lenny’s INHUMANS:

Alpha Primitive [Guardians of the Galaxy 018] 30 points x2

Black Bolt [Avengers Black Panther Illuminati 042] 145 points + Reality Gem 5 points

Black Knight [Earth X 032] 100 points

Crystal [Chaos War 044] 105 points

Gorgon[Guardians of the Galaxy Fast Forces 005] 150

Karnak [Guardians of the Galaxy Fast Forces 004] 100

Lockjaw [Avengers Black Panther Illuminati 059] 40

Maelstrom [Captain America 049] 225 points

Maximus [Guardians of the Galaxy 038] 75 points

Medusa [Avengers Black Panther Illuminati 030] 50

Ms. Marvel [The Mighty Thor 037] 90 points

Ronan The Accuser [Guardians of the Galaxy 020] 153

Talon  [Guardians of the Galaxy 022] 60 points

Thane [Guardians of the Galaxy 060] 115 points

Triton [Earth X 048] 100 points

This team is surprisingly … old. I expected a few more of the newer, better Inhumans like those seen in Earth X. But in truth, Lenny has the best of those on this force anyway, and he’s also using one of the strongest of the older days: Maelstrom, who delivers a -2 speed penalty to any of my force within 8 squares! His strategy will revolve around that huge debuff to my ability to attack with my mobile fighters.

———

I picked the Savage Land map from X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga, an outdoor map with a mountain peak and hindering everywhere.

Lenny set up most of his force on the mountain, with Maelstrom positioned where he could limit nearly every one of my many Charge and Hypersonic figures from doing, well, much of anything. But in the process, he blocked most of his Probability Control. It’s a good thing for him because my first attacks were unsuccessful, leading to the first of the game’s

TURNING POINTS:

I built a Barrier to dissuade Lenny from counterattacking Nova after his miss … Thane could have otherwise REALLY messed him up. But he really didn’t have to. He was pretty secure in his spot … he thought.

But my goal was simply to clear a shot on Maelstrom. Then, once I could hit that piece to click 5, he becomes a giant and my whole ranged force could light him the absolute hell up before he could fight back effectively

And that’s what happened. With Maelstrom gone, the Guardians could really get into the fight proper.

Lenny also continued to play very conservatively, which played right to my game plan of going HAM.

And nowhere was that more exemplified that with Yondu and this SP:

WHISTLING ARROW ATTACK: Give Yondu a range combat action targeting a single opposing character. Each time he hits and the attack resolves, he may make a range attack targeting a single opposing character that has not yet been targeted this action, counting range and drawing lines of fire as if he occupied the square of the character most recently hit. Each hit character is dealt 2 damage instead of normal damage.

He shot an Alpha Primitive. Then another. Then Thane. Then Black Knight. Then Ms. Marvel. Then Black Bolt and finally Ronan, never rolling less than an 8! A combo of Barrier and TK kept Yondu safe from counterattacks for a turn.

THEN HE DID IT ALL OVER AGAIN. SAME SEQUENCE. SAME HITS.

This was by far the most success I’ve EVER had using this chase Yondu.

Started rolling badly toward the end, but the victory was well and truly mine. Lost only Bug, Charlie, Drax and Yondu.

Highlights

Bug, as always, served his role as tie-up sacrifice, delaying and distracting the dangerous Thane from going after bigger game.

Drax The Destroyer actually reached his chosen target, Ronan, in a F.U.N. bit of movie accuracy. Unfortunately, his proto-STOP clicks didn’t work once.

This was the first game I’ve ever used Martyr in where she didn’t end up living down to her unfortunate name. I think her getting to pair up with Nova as a fellow HSS hitter took heat off her for once.

This was also the first time I managed to get good use out of swapping Adam Warlock out for Magus and back again.

Despite being an old-school version, Groot was invaluable as a vector for Star-Lord to use his SP Outwit to nix powers from near total safety. And speaking of Star-Lord…

…him and that chase Rocket Raccoon are just a mean combo. 19 base DV for the whole team and Outwit anywhere. I expected a much stronger Inhumans team and so loaded for bear.

———

I think this wraps up our Guardians vs. Inhumans matches, with it in 2-1 the GOTG’s favor. I gifted Len a bunch of Inhumans pieces that were gathering dust and he didn’t have, so we both left happy.

Next match of ours will be either Asgard or mutant-based. But the when depends on what happens in Corona World…