Welcome again to my once-or-twice weekly presentation of characters with Super Strength who can hold their own object tokens.
In anticipation of the upcoming Lantern-heavy DC 75 set, here’s Arkillo, who totes his token in an unusual way:
It is NOT for eating. It is for BEATING.
Truth be told, I almost skipped this week. I played zero games last weekend, which is unusual for me. But I had this one in the vault (played back last spring or sometime) and decided to stick to my schedule.
I love playing Atlas even though they’re tough to win with.
Venus
HoT Jimmy Woo
Gorilla-Man
Namora
M-11
AV Thug
AV Thug
AV Thug
AV Thug
=395 points.
FIRST match was against Lenny and his sharp cheddar cheese team of SI Dr. Strange, OOTS Batman, Gamora, and HoT Captain America on my choice of the Armor Wars Lab map. Ugh! Two pieces with nearly unlimited Line of Fire powers and two ultra-effective cheap fighters — all with an effective 18 or better defense!
This was a real chessmatch at first. Lenny quietly bided his time while I largely refused to attack. If I dared attempt a Charge with Namora, no matter how I positioned her she’d be counterattacked by all four of Lenny’s fighters (thanks to Cap and the Doc’s unique line of fire abilities) and have nearly zero chance to survive. So I made him burn actions with convenient Thugs as targets so I could make a safer approach by tying up Cap and bringing Venus in close to multi-Incap targets (careful to block Batman’s line of fire). Eventually KO’d Cap but lost Gorilla Man and 3 Thugs for the loss. 0-1 (which felt like a win against all that cheese, though).
SECOND was a match against Lenny’s teenage friend Tony: Odin, HoT Spider-Man and Asgardian Warrior. His inexperience won this for me — he refused to push Odin most rounds despite the character’s ability to do so without cost via the Power Cosmic team ability. That allowed my sorely wounded Namora and Venus to escape while Thug after Thug tied up Odin long enough to preserve my 96-28 victory. 1-1.
FINALLY I went vs. Conrad: HoT Cap, Kurse, M+M Wolverine and Spider-Thor, once more on the Armor Wars map. The teenager remains a somewhat reckless player, but this time his tactics were pretty solid as he smashed my cover behind walls, my Accelerator, and constantly stole my reusable Generator to use against me.
Fortunately, Namora was able to land her initial attack, getting Wolverine out for an insurmountable lead. Venus was also invaluable against the Impervious Kurse, Incapacitating him over and over. Lost G-Man and all Thugs but wiped all but Cap for the win.
FINAL: 2-1. This was the first time I’ve really gotten Venus into the thick of things, and she worked out all right with her Incap-everybody SP. I wasn’t afraid sometimes to not use her Mastermind to gain her Perplex. Similarly, as Thugs dwindled and my need for extra actions waned, I opted to push Woo to his Perplex clicks as well, usually using his SHIELD TA to do it.
Namora continued to disappoint. If she misses that initial Charge, she’s kinda done. But when she works, she works oh so well, as in the last match. Gorilla-Man was close to being MVP with his KO of Batman and taking tons of damage for Venus and tying up foes and landing a crit hit on Odin and whatnot.
But the element most key were the Thugs. These pogs, representing the faceless minions of Atlas, served many roles such as blocking LOF, tying up, MM fodder and even the occasional attack. This Modern Age team doesn’t work half as well without them.
The dial is right...but the sculpt isn't.
While the Rookie and Experienced versions of this character both bear the “Destroyer” tagline and the Wing symbol, the vet version not only lacks both, but he has a radically different appearance:
He’s actually physically smaller than his more hulking Destroyer incarnation, but as initially drawn in the Guardians of the Galaxy, he’s still quite buff. That’s why I didn’t want to go the route many other talented modders did in choosing a smaller character to modify.
Longtime readers of Heroclixin’ will recall my Guardians of the Galaxy series and how their appearance in this game made me a fan of the comic. And, as this Mods series shows, I’m often motivated by a desire for comic-accuracy in doing these sculpt repaints and modifications.
In fact, Drax here was actually one of the first mods I revealed on this site, way back during my first Guardians of the Galaxy campaign. But now you get to learn the process:
Better now.
Completed late-2009, in time for my blitz of Guardians of the Galaxy teams that followed shortly after.
NEXT WEEK: A stupid revamp gets a cool mod.
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I almost certainly have had one, but this was written and set to publish earlier in the week.
OK, so I revealed my grand plans to bring a new feature to Heroclixin’ (almost) every weekday last week, but stopped short of the pressing the “Publish” key on this one because I figured I should explain my team-building philosophy a little.
I, primarily, am a fun HeroClix player. First, I am Friendly. I dislike playing teams designed to crush all comers. I’ve faced those teams and found the experience unpleasant. It’s also more challenging to play a less-than-optimized build and still win with it. I mean, which delivers bigger bragging rights: going 3-0 with a Warbound Skrull Ms. Marvel+SI Nick Fury or with The Runaways?
This doesn’t mean I like to lose. Therefore, most of my teams will still have a degree of Utility to make them effective against all but the most highly competitive builds. No auto-losses!
Finally, probably the biggest element of my team-building philosophy is the “Neat-o” factor. I almost always run with a theme of some sort that I hope will bring a smile or at least a nod of appreciation from my fellow players.
So there, in a fairly torturous acrostic-ized nutshell, is my approach to this feature and to the game at large: It’s all about FUN.
Example of a team I ran back in June for a Modern Age 400-point game requiring that characters share a generic keyword:
Crispus Allen 197
Edward Nigma 60
The Question (Arkham Asylum) 37
Gotham City Detective 27
Gotham City Detective 27
Gotham City Detective 27
= 375 points. Although a team with 3 Outwitters and 4 Enhancement pieces may not look all that Friendly, consider that the team has zero move and attack powers, limited range, and little protection from same — and I could just as easily have run the Batman/Catwoman duo to address all three weaknesses and had room for another figure. All the same, it has plenty of Utility in the powers I named, along with Nigma’s powerful SP. Finally, though (and the other reason BatCats was never a consideration), the team’s Neat-o factor is that all are wearing suits and ties. They’re the Sharp-Dressed Detectives.
FUN team-building at its best. Hope you’ll visit next Friday for more!
I’m away from my computer, celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday with family. But in case you’re visiting today, I thought I’d schedule a relative feast of pics for you.
In fact, because it contains a Thanksgiving dinner scene, the nerdcore 2002 film Spider-Man has become something of an annual broadcast tradition. So enjoy this Spider-centric edition, and have a happy Thanksgiving!
"Is he strong? Listen, bud...he's got radioactive blood!" From left: Vet Spider-Man (Sinister), Spider-Man (Avengers), Unique Spider-Man (Armor Wars), Unique Scarlet Spider (Sinister), Spider-Woman (Secret Invasion) and Spider-Girl (Secret Invasion).
Not to be outdone the Spider-ladies can heft their heavies:
Finally, here’s one more Spidey for you, the LE from the 2007 Sinister set:
The ORIGINAL pole-dancing, armored Spider-Man!
Don’t have the latest Spider-Men pictured yet. But if you readers have any photos of HeroClix characters holding their objects, send ’em to me at heroclixin@yahoo.com with your name/screenname and location. If I don’t have that character pictured, or you’ve shown me a new way of Token-Totin’, I’ll publish the pic in this space and give you credit.
I was headed to a 200-point Modern Age tournament and wracking my brain trying to decide between three different builds. Suddenly I considered my most-recent clix acquisition, and a perfect force came to mind:
“Who, me?!?”
Bullseye (Web of Spider-Man) 117
Norman Osborn (Web of Spider-Man) 66
+ Thunderbolts ATA 16
+ AE Green Goblin and AE Iron Patriot
+ Kinetic Accelerator 0
+ Eleha’al Vine 0
+ Dynamostat 0
=199 points.
Oh yeah. Highly effective AND comic-accurate, with the fun random factor of whether Norman will be Unbalanced or not. Bullseye is one of the game’s ultimate ranged figures, and Norm’s SHIELD TA works well with that.
FIRST MATCH was against John’s furious females including the also-Thunderbolted Moonstone (Hammer of Thor), Elektra (Secret Invasion human) and X-23 (M+M). I picked the Prison map and Ultimates as my T-bolts TA, while John chose Mystics.
I forced him to push Moonstone when I telegraphed my intent to Running Shoot her with the Sharpshooting Bullseye right past the Stealthy Elektra he was hiding behind. That worked against me, though, as my later shot on Moonstone landed her squarely on her late-game Phasing/Outwit combo.
Elektra moved in an scored a pair of great Flurry hits to threaten and eventually KO Bullseye. He’d worn down her and X-23 enough for Osborn to finish them off. So it came down to Norm on my Vine alternately healing from Moonstone’s hits and vainly shooting back until she KO’d him with a knockback into the wall. Perhaps I should have used the Alter Ego power instead of healing one of those times. Still a great game and fairly appropriate ending. 0-1.
SECOND MATCH: Brian’s HoT Ultron and hot Megan Fox.
Er, I mean Lilah from the Jonah Sex set.
I mean Jonah Hex sex.
I mean SET. Jonah Hex SET.
Anyway.
I picked the new Monument map from Brightest Day and chose Mystics as my TA. Immediately, Ultron threatened to Charge one of my pieces and I considered pushing to pre-emptively strike. But it was too high risk for too little reward, so I let Brian make his move to successfully pound Bullseye for 4 clicks.
Had him just where I wanted him, now.
Osborn easily moved to Outwit Ultron’s defense and Bullseye easily hit back for 4 clicks of his own. A turn later, he pushed to hit Ultron for 4 more, dealing knockback this time.
(It’s at this point that I remember I forgot to call for the big bad robot to take his Mystics damage from his first strike. CRAP.)
Ultron takes a shot that finishes Bullseye, but the resultant Mystics feedback takes him down for a double KO. That leaves Norman free to choke Lilah like he did that other poor brunette in The Pulse. 1-1.
FINAL MATCH was against Vic, a player from my home venue who’d traveled with me to this one. He had a detective theme of Martian Manhunter (Brightest Day) and Question (Arkham Asylum). He picked the Secret Invasion Crash Site map.
He jumped right out at me, basing Bullseye with both characters before I could get rid of his Yellow Lantern object. It was the right move; for while I made short work of Question (forcing it with a themed-team Probability Control), Manhunter knocked Bullseye right out of his best clicks and out of adjacency, allowing him to one-shot Norman, who’d had to push to use the theme PC. Darn near made me regret loaning the Question to him.
FINAL WIN/LOSS: 1-2. Good team, but I think I could have done a little better in my losses by switching to Iron Patriot in the first and maintaining my range advantage as long as possible in the other.
I love 200-point games. They’re very focused and quick to play when compared with the slog that larger-point games can become.
Welcome to Token-Totin’, a visual journal of HeroClix sculpts that can hold the game’s object tokens. Today’s subject is REV Clayface (and LE sculpt-mates Basil Karlo and Ultimate Clayface) from 2006’s Collateral Damage.
It fits neatly & easily between the wall and his left leg.
Even with his hands full, he can tote his token! Sadly, the one Modern Age version of Clayface from Batman Alpha is also the only one of the six (!) figures with this sculpt that doesn’t have Super Strength.
This 2004 representation of the X-Man Rachel Summers is pretty good both from a playability and sculpt standpoint. But in 2007, a new version of Miss Summers was released in the Days Of Future Past action pack that looked even better, replacing the painted firebird effect with translucent plastic:
…representing her past life in the future as the mutant-tracking Hound.
(…It’s a long story.)
Unfortunately, Hound is appropriately named. She’s a dog. Her dial is probably the worst for her cost range in the whole game unless you can somehow ensure she lands on — and stays on — the two good clicks in the middle of her 10-click dial. With a DV that never tops 16, that’s a tall order.
Faced with this piece I was never gonna play with a sculpt that was even better than the good sculpt on a figure that I would play, I decided to make a change:
Completed late-2009.
NEXT WEEK: Finally learn the process behind one of the very first mods I showed off on this site, nearly a year ago…!
One of the things players like most about HeroClix is the ability to play out scenarios starring their favorite characters. For me, that sometimes manifests as a desire to play a team consisting only of several versions of a favorite character. (For example, back in late spring I played a 1000-point team consisting of enough Batman figures to place a different one in my starting area every time the ladies sing his name in the old theme song.)
Despite that, I’ve almost never run an all-Aquaman team for a couple of reasons:
Consequently, running all-Aquaman teams has kinda been like asking to go 0-3 in the average tournament. But as I stated in my far-too-long-for-a-single-post Atlantis breakdown a few weeks back, the Brightest Day Aquaman really changes things, as you’ll see after the break.
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I got to the venue late and was surprised to see that, for once, the guys actually got started on time! Good for them! Informed of the 500-point Golden Age format, I used my bye-round time to build my Aqua-team :
Aquaman (Brightest Day) 105 + Armor Piercing 10 + Lunge 5 + Alias 3
Veteran Aquaman (Icons) 71
LE Aquaman (Justice League) 70
common Aquaman (Justice League) 68
Experienced Aquaman (Icons) 56 + Submerged 5
Veteran Aquaman (Hypertime) 41
Rookie Aquaman (Icons) 39
Rookie Aquaman (Hypertime) 27
+ Opened Hydrant 0
+ Com Dish 0
+ Eleha’al Vine 0
= 500 points. Lots of Leadership and JLA team ability would boost my Aqua-swarm’s action advantage. Submerged feat on the sole ranged character offered a little security and board control. But above all, Armor Piercing ensured BD Aquaman’s “Undead Sea” trait would ping even the thickest-skinned assailants.
FIRST game was against Derrick, aka “Legendkilla,” a long-absent player making his return to the game. He was rolling with The Flashes, The Flash & Green Lantern, and X-23 (Web of Spider-Man). Unfortunately for him, I won map roll and picked the mostly-water Aruna Temple from BPRD set. I also used the Debris battlefield condition to give the Aquamen plenty of extra objects to wield.
With The Flashes slowed to half their speed, I was free to concentrate on the other duo figure and X-23. Alternating between HSS attack with BD Aquaman, range shots with E Icons and punches from whomever BD carried the previous turn, I took them both out and lost only the Icons Rookie for an easy win. 1-0.
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NOW it came down to the championship match against Vic’s Skrull squad: Super-Skrull: Illuminati, Skrull Emperor (both In Contact With Oracle), Skrull Warrior (Supernova) and two Skrull Infiltrators. He picked the Lab map. I forgot to use either of my remaining battlefield conditions (Ordinary Day or, of course, Atlantis Rising). But this map’s indoor nature was fine, as it gave me a great spot to hide my Opened Hydrant to ensure water for my Aquamen.
Things almost went immediately south for me, though. Although I’d parked my Brightest Day Aquaman behind the Submerged Experienced Icons version, I’d inadvertently left a narrow path where Skrulluminati could potentially Running Shoot him. I wasn’t worried, since Aquaman’s Invulnerability would absorb the blow and land him on his range powers. But I didn’t anticipate:
And on top of it all, I completely forgot to use my Alias feat! 
Fortunately, he rolled 5, one short of what he needed.
That utter disaster averted by dumb luck, we went about the business of actually fighting. Which, thanks to the Skrull team ability and Shape Change and Skrulluminati’s sky-high DV, meant a lot of missing opportunities on my part.
My opponent, for his part, had to tread carefully lest he trigger the “Undead Sea.” It was a close, tightly contested (and congested) game; in the end, I only lost my Icons and Hypertime Rookies while taking out all three Skrull generics.
FINAL: 2-0 (3-0 with the bye).
OK, so this game could have gone very, very poorly if not for that miss. But considering that that attack of opportunity wouldn’t have been possible at all if not for the In Contact With Oracle feat (which I hate with a passionate hatred) and my own not-quite-paranoid enough positioning, the Aqua-squad performed well, winning me the tournament!
As alluded to earlier, Brightest Day Aquaman was the key, providing not only a deterrent via his trait, but a super-capable, mobile attacker and taxi in and of himself. JL Aquaman helped a lot by pumping BD’s AV during his hit & runs. The Lunge feat gave BD a way to offset the Carry penalty so he could bring a friend to base his target, hit or miss. The Toughness-laden Icons Rookie proved the best for that role. The Hypertimes stunned opponents with their nigh-endless-for-the-cost dials and occasionally got the odd attack through (no one expects the thrown objects).
I’d love to try the team out again, swapping out Armor Piercing and Alias for Contingency Plan on one of the four pieces with Leadership. And although it’s a bit riskier if I face enemy Super Strength, I think I’ll swap out the Com Dish for the longer-lasting Generator.
Brightest Day Atlantis attacks bear an undefeated record of 4-0 up to this point. Will the winning waves continue? Or will the tide recede? Stay tuned to future installments of the Wednesday Battle Reports to find out!
In an effort to more regularly update my blog, I’m adding 2.5 new features to the site!
I’m already doing My Custom Mods on Mondays, even though I’m currently running low with only 12 or so left in the can (which is one reason I wasn’t so gung-ho about getting the latest mod up yesterday). I don’t see many new mod projects coming up in the near future, so I may need to replace this feature with a new one soon. Any ideas?
Next is Token-Totin’ Tuesdays/Thursdays, which begs some explaining.
Ever been annoyed when an opponent Charges his boot speed brick in to smack your guy for 5 clicks with an object you thought he was standing on, not holding?
Yeah, me too. People forget that the game rules state that when a character picks up an object, the player must “Immediately place the object token someplace that indicates the character with Super Strength is carrying the object.”
It ought to be obvious when a Super-Strong character is hefting an engine block and not sitting on it. And, surprisingly, it easily can be!
These are toys, and anyone who was once a boy knows that action figures need to be able to hold their weapons. So I did a survey to see which sculpts, of the characters with Super Strength (or a Special Power granting use of same), can hold a standard object token somewhere — anywhere — on the sculpt. The only criteria is that the token should be able to stay on the model with minimal assistance while moving the figure on the board.
This new feature, then, is simply a once-or-twice-weekly photograph journal of how every character with Super-Strength can hold the standard HeroClix object token.
Some will be obvious. Some, surprising. Some, hilarious. All will make your little plastic superhero gaming that much more awesome.
First up: ATOM SMASHER from the DC Giants Collector Set!
Make sure you balance the token on his right hand’s knuckles and on the wrist band of his left arm.
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Wednesdays will be battle report day. If I’ve had a HeroClix match the previous week (and I most likely have), that’s when it’ll be posted. Add it to your reading list along with your new comics!
Thursdays will add a new Token Totin’ pic (or possibly double up if I missed Tuesday). Then, on Friday, I’m starting a new feature: Friday Force-Building, where I’ll talk a bit about pre-built team ideas. Maybe they’ll inspire your teams for the weekend’s games — or you can inspire me and others with yours listed in the comments!
What do you think of these ideas? Comment below!