Scenario : Planet Hulk

We played the Planet Hulk event dial this past Friday and I think it went pretty well. I know I came up with a screw everyone else strategy that didn't include playing against one piece (or group of pieces) - Galactus. I have to hand it to Jeff - way to get in an awesome figure that decided the game!

I played a wildcard abuse team. My main strategy was to get Deathstroke into the fray and take out as many figures as possible. Deathstroke had 3 initial wildcard abilities he could use including Batman Ally, Ultimates, and Mystics. The rest of my intial 600 point build included Namor, Nightshade, OOTS Batman, Ultimate Quicksilver, and Dawnstar (for Quarry & wildcard).

Ferru had an Injustice League team, and was my teammate. He had Lex Luthor (another wild card!), Black Manta, Solomon Grundy, and Bizarro.

Brian played an Illuminati force without their friend Blackbolt but with their good friend Spiderman. This was Namor, Professor X, Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man and Spiderman.

Jeff had a Galactus team, with Galactus's left foot, his right foot, and the rest of him.

What I learned: When played as a force, with other figures, Galactus (and any other colossal) dominates the game. At the onset I saw how the game would unfold. We creep forward to the edge of his 16 range and wait. Galactus comes forward and blasts away all the rocks. His supporting figures fly forward and bring us out to attack. We split our efforts with 1/4 taking on the oncoming support figures and 3/4 going against Galactus once we got into position.

That's how the game went. I'm sure Brian would have LOVED to have had a TK'er launch Namor at our forces once Galactus was in range. He'd have mopped the floor with us. Alas he didn't know Galactus would be played and he had his team. I only say this 'cause I wish I had a TK'er to launch my Namor into the fight while Brian approached.

The event dial was the only anomaly that kind of worked in everyone's advantage. Just when we started taking losses did the 'roll 3 dice, choose 2' appear. That mechanic ROCKS. It almost guarantees a hit - although there was one miss! We were able to take out Iron man and Namor with that. However it cost us our Namor in the efforts.

As a kind of last ditch effort, I ran Quicksilver up to Galactus and attacked. After the attack, which was unsuccessful, I used the maneuver feat to move Galactus behind Quicksilver and next to our forces. This makes NO sense but there isn't a rule against it. So there, Quicksilver can lift buildings now.

We landed a few shots on Galactus but it was too few. We started to get our reserves in at some point and for the better part all they did was die. Jeff fed us some Manbat Assassins and the planet started blowing up per the event dial. In 1 turn all of my forces died. 3 turns later Galactus fell to the planet. Then Ferru's endless stream of Moloids came in as did Jeff's Multiplex forces. The game ended because there was no way for either side to KO the other since the planet would kill either player before they reached the other side!

Based on points, Jeff came in first, Brian in second, I came in third and Ferru finished last.

My only criticism of this scenario is that 600 points of figures + Galactus with an outdoor map is insane. There really isn't a way to narrow the field between teams we played. Is Galactus overpriced - hell no! Jeff committed 600 points to a figure that can't be countered outside of perplex and can make 2 attacks per turn against 3 targets with a 16 range. If we had say Earth-2 Supes + a TKer- those 600 points would have fallen in 1 or 2 rounds to a figure that is ~1/2 the cost! Does anyone have the E-2 Supes... no, but still...

I know if I make a scenario in the future, I'll be posting some type of eratta as far as the figures go. Collossals permitted or if there is a special condition nullifying the bonuses that the collossals get (such as seeing stealth, mystics damage, taking tokens, etc.) - basically to handicap them to make the game slightly more balanced if a team is lacking an Earth-2 Supes to take them out.

Hmmm, here's a thought - a team game similar to Friday's but requiring 2 teams of 400 points of figures + each team gets one collossal. A kind of gladiator arena game - you can either go collossal on collossal or have the collossal take out the other team's force or even make the collossals non-player figures w/ scenario rules as to how they attack....

The Clown Prince of Crime

I don't know about you guys, but when I got home yesterday, I had an unpleasant surprise waiting for me. My Arkham Asylum envelopes had been returned to me. They're out of The Clown Prince of Crime figure. I still haven't received my Secret Invasion envelopes though and I'm surprised that the Arkham envelopes came back quicker. So, I guess if you haven't gotten your Clown Prince of Crime figure than you probably won't.

Waiting on that Super Skrull Illuminati?

I shot off the following email to WizKids asking about my Super Skrull Illuminati figure - the Buy it by the Brick figure for Secret Invasion (if you're on this site you probably didn't need that explained!).

Wizkids -

I was wondering what the status is with the Secret Invasion buy it buy the brick figure. I know that the SSI figure was being reprinted and both I and a coworker have not received our figures.

I've received the last few buy it buy the bricks within a few weeks and I was getting concerned that this figure was not being sent out, etc.

Thank you for your assistance!

Bill

Their reply was:

Hi Bill,

Unfortunately there will be no reorder of this figures due to circumstances beyond our control. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Thanks!

Rose

So I guess they were closing up shop a while back because around late August they were telling people that they would have the figure reprinted.

SI was by no means my favorite set and the SSI figure would have been cool to have , yet kind of unplayable. I don't think there are any playable BitB figures and aside from the Dark Beast. I think the BitB figures are really more collectible than playable - hence World's Finest. I do want my Clown Prince though - but that's only 'cause I think he'll be fun to play even though he'll probably give my opponents at least 300 points thanks to his 'KO' ability.

WizKid's announcement is quite timely...

I kept this to myself and Brian - only because we work a few desks away and he always hears my bitching.

I think I'm done with buying HC for now and if the company is going away then I feel like a winner 'cause they quit before I did. I got my credit card bill and only then did I feel the 'owww' of a $125 purchase - for a hobby that I haven't participated in and probably will not be able to for the next few weeks. Additionally I've reached a sort of critical mass with these miniatures as they occupy most of my closet.

I am not thrilled with HoT aside from getting the Runaways. I really don't want any more duplicate Marvel heroes (aside from a damn Wolverine - am I the only one who doesn't have one?) in the set. I don't want Thor or Hulk or Cap or Iron Man or any incarnation of Hank Pym. I want them to complete their sets - I would have been thrilled if SI had included X-Men:FC Angel to complete the set. I'd also like a Illuminati Black Bolt as well as some way to make the Illuminati figures all not suck (for their total point cost) but hey - whatever.

I really am not thrilled with the preview of '09 - Batmobile?!?! WTF! Bold and the Brave - team ups - can we say Wonder Woman and Superman for a total ass kicking? I'm sure that would be the chase in that set with a point value of at least 350. I would have loved a GA & Batman duo - which would have probably been the SR, but hey - whatever, we got Worlds Finest. The '09 Marvel set also looks/sounds dumb - it celebrates the 70th aniversary of Marvel. The figures include the 'Fastball Special'... NO! You have Colossus with that as a power already - just give us the Wolverine which negates that damage and I'll be thrilled. I really want a new (Out Of the Shadows class, re: common and semi-overpowered for points) Wolverine.

The upside to WK folding is that this allows us to construct new scenarios, have different game formats, etc. during the 50 or so weeks that WK had tournament / release games scheduled. I think that killed the game a bit, especially during Crisis. I think 5 weeks to celebrate a new set is good and then switch to open tournaments with legal sets. I know we all tried to keep the Marvel U and DC U separate during the tourney but it always seemed to showcase the same series of figures.

Sadly, even though I enjoy the redesign from Avengers on - each newer set, especially SI, seems to have over powered the new sets vs older ones. Indomitable as well as various charge+flurry combos don't seem to have the proper point costs assigned to the figures making each of them a damn steal! Just give it up for Spiderman or Hercules! Now let's pit any of the new figures against figures from older sets and see which wins.

I just foresee this trend increasing and in a few years we'd have a broken Amazo, for instance, with all powers available on every click with high stats and that figure would probably cost around 250 or so points. Hmmm, that'd be a great design - Amazo has a white power that reads "wild card ability - he possesses all powers of any figure that he can draw line of fire to within 8 squares" or something like that. He'd have a replacement value for his stats which would give him the highest value for figures within his line of sight. It'd be a totally cool figure as he'd be a clone of the best of the team that he is facing off against. Damn, I now want this figure.

Anyhow - I digress, it's sad in a way that the company that produces new figures may be wrapping up shop - but that does leave us with a ton of figures that we've all acquired as well as the freedom to use them as we want to for future games. I don't see this as a bad thing - I'd love for Topps to end the line, retool it, and bring it back in a year for HC 3.0.

What I'd love to see represented in a relaunch or modification, is a change of how some figures work. Mr. Incredible should have a laughable attack but a beefy 20-22 defense, ie. you need box cars each time to hit him. That's his comic representation. You don't need to KO everyone in the time limit.

I'd also love to see constructs enter the game - like scientists can build things (Mr. Incredible again!), etc. Add a little RTS element to the game. I've mentioned this with Brian as well - I don't see how the current rules can support this. HC's gameplay is you bring everything at the start of a game and nothing new enters the game after deployment.

Them's my $.02.

Annoucements!

http://www.wizkidsgames.com/wk_article.asp?cid=41914

So yeah, what does this mean?

Will we see the LE figures for Arkham Asylum?

Will Hammer of Thor come out somewhere close to on time?

Will Hammer of Thor come out?

If it does come back, will Topps take the opportunity to make a HeroClix 3.0? Will these be sweeping changes, incompatible with old figures, or rolling changes like the cards and special powers?

Can we put together good games without WizKids? (Answer: Yes)

See everybody Friday!

Last Night's Game

Last night was the last 300-pt sealed tournament this year (I think). Ferru and I were the only participants. Ferru pulled a team of Jay Gerrick Flash, Penguin, Nightshade, and Kid Devil. I pulled a team of Bizzaro #1 and the Riddler (unrelated note: Does anyone else think it's weird that Bizarro doesn't have Super Strength?).

I played Deep Shadows in the beginning thinking I could hide Bizarro behind a Stealthed Riddler for awhile, but I blew that plan really early on. I instead sent Riddler out by himself to start Incapacitating Kid Devil, but then the Flash started beating on him. I suppose that served as a nice distraction that allowed Bizarro to knock out Kid Devil and Nightshade in three punches (Nightshade, thankfully, went down in one, minimizing Mystics-based damage), but the Riddler went down after that, allowing the Penguin to Outwit Bizarro's defense while Flash dealt a couple of blows and knocking him down to his Toughness clicks. Now, Bizarro's Toughness clicks have Defense values that start at 18 (I think) and keep getting worse, so Flash and Penguin had a tough time getting in any blows after that (even with Flash's Probability Control to help his side and confound Bizarro's attempts to hit Penguin), so, for the endgame of the fight, Ferru and I basically rolled dice at each other for who knows how long trying to beat some ridiculously heavy odds. Ferru won with a last hit from the Flash after I finally decided to Force Blast the Penguin out of the way, not for any good reason, just because I wanted to actually hit something.

I like the Penguin figure in this set, it's tougher than it looks and even gets a little Willpower near the end of its dial. Bizarro is a little strange Defensive-wise, I may just have to play as him again just to get a grip on how to (and not to) use him. Riddler should have more Stealth and less Leap/Climb (and wouldn't Psychic Blast make more sense than Exploit Weakness for a back-row manipulator/confounding variable?), but his ability to (IF the dice roll right) Incapacitate as a free action is a neat interpretation of his shtick.

Next week is a 300-pt, 50% floor event. Who's bringing the all-Multiplex team?

Namor

I really like this piece. No, really. I think this piece is the best in the set. It's incredibly well balanced - with move and double-attack (flurry) as well as a pretty beefy defense (values and powers) and a deep dial. This is what I want in a primary attacker. You throw on fortitude and you're looking at what pieces like Doomsday or the Hulk could have been. I would LOVE to see a new Doomsday with a dial like this - just to get him on even keel to take down Supes.

Without Fortitude, Namor runs the risk of being mopped up by a Batman-esque team easily. Throw in a perplex or 2 and some outwit to get rid of the charge power and you're Namor's practically toast. At 150 points, he's one of the best valued pieces in the set for what he does. You don't get indomitable but I mean really, do you need it. His dial doesn't dip much - in fact it goes up at some point and since it's so deep you can push a few times and not worry. Lastly this piece rounds out two teams that have been lacking a piece of sizable strength, or defense - the Defenders and the Illuminati. The Defenders, obviously, since Namor possesses that team's symbol - which gives a much needed boost to the Defenders defense pool. The Illuminati, which should be a dominant theme team, finally get a piece worth 150 points. I don't think anyone will be whipping out Professor X or Iron Man in a competitive game; Mr. Fantastic is decent for the points but doesn't really get to be game breaker. I would love for a bonus if you field all 5 - like infinity gems or some other condition that let you form Voltron, but alas that is not part of this fine game. A great Illuminati team is probably at least 3 years away - pending that comics remembers that the Illuminati exists.

This brings me to open up the conversation I had with Brian, who asked what I might play this week if I played. My team would have been a "fuck this Marvel set, I'm taking it out on everyone" and the team would include:
Skrull Ms. Marvel w/ Protected
Namor w/ Fortitude & Protected
Gee
Spiderman x2

That comes out to 499 points. I'd have used Ms. Marvel to pick off secondary attackers while launching Namor w/ Gee at the primary attacker. Ms. Marvel would end her move at some point near Gee so that she can pick Gee up and place him next to Namor when he has to move on to another target. We've already established that Ms. Marvel is a bitch of an attacker - this would be a total dick move because she'd get reduced to a transport / harassment piece. Spidermen on the other hand would just tie up any piece that doesn't have a breakaway for free (leap/climp or hypersonic) or get in between the line of sight of a support piece w/ outwit or probability control so they can't affect the main battle.

This team is incredibly offensive with no support on its own - just remember to use protected when you need it and not to push Namor too often until the protected is popped.