Crisis Week 3

On Friday we played the third week of the Crisis games. The teams were 50% floor, meaning that half of the points had to come from the Crisis set. That said, I don't think any figures came from outside of Crisis. Feats were another matter.

As a special element, we played with Devilance the Pursuer in the game, simulating the events of 52 issue #9! See the previous post for his rules. Please note that we only had one Devilance figure, so the other game used a D&D fig of appropriate size... same dial, though. So that's who the green guy is in some of these shots.

I fielded a Teen Titans team, picked for the Super Strength necessary to best use the Lance. The idea was, he'd go down, drop the Lance, and I'd use it to clean up the other team. Turned out that wasn't really necessary, as in all the games, Devilance was a secondary target compared to the opponents, and nobody could risk being caught based with him, let alone based with him and being shot in the back by the opponents you ignored. Anyway, I fielded Captain Marvel Jr, Robin, and Wonder Girl. Turn Donna into Cassie, and this lineup actually appeared! I played Monster Hunter on Cap Jr. to help with Devilance.

Jeff fielded a Metal Man team, with Gold, Lead and Tin, and two Irons. This team was a little two easy to get caught by Devilance, but proved really tough! Also, we need rules to state what happens when a Bot's target successfully Shapechanges.

Ferru fielded a genuine bonefied Crisis team, with Monitor and Harbinger. I think they had some neat tricks but lacked the power to take down Devilance.

Bill fielded Supergirl and Green Arrow, along with Ace from the Challengers of the Unknown. I was unaware how much ass Ace kicks! 9 attack, 17 defense for 8 points, how did I get through the Starro games without seeing this? Also, Supergirl was awesome.

In game 1, I played Bill, while Jeff played Ferru. Bill and I started cautiously, staying outside of the 8-radius square that was most of the map to avoid triggering Devilance. I sent CM3 to get an object while Robin went to ground in the forest. Meanwhile, Supergirl landed on the Kinetic Accelerator (prizes from week 1, which finally arrived!) In turn 3, Bill used this to rev up SG to 14 move, streak across the map, and tag Robin with a heavy object for 5 damage! Cap Jr. tried to return fire, but missed her 18 defense, then got hit, and it was all downhill from there. I'm not sure I damaged Supergirl at all, actually. I was able to use Wondergirl to lure Devilance into attacking Green Arrow, but he eventually broke away (speeded up thanks to the Kinetic Accelerator again) and he and SG slowly took down Devilance from full to nothing... over something like 20 turns. Bill defeated my team, killed Devilance, and recovered the lance, earning 586 VPs!

In the other game, Jeff got stuck in with Devilance while Ferru took potshots. I heard that Ferru made the mistake of assuming that Monitor got his "take an action token at any time" power to start, when it's actually not until click 4. Ferru took the pot this time, with Monitor recovering the Lance!



In game two, winners and losers battled like. I took on Jeff, while Ferru played Bill. Jeff charged into battle, moving his Metal Men in a line some four squares from Devilance. I hung back, sending Cap. Jr off to the edge of the map (totally copying Bill and using a Kinetic Accelerator and a Generator this game) while Robin and Wonder Girl stood at thw edge of the woods. Devilance took off to charge the Metal Men, and I made sure he based all of them. They then proceeded to make an impressive number of break-away roles and swarm around him to attack Wonder Girl and Robin. Captain Marvel Jr. came to their rescue, zooming in with a Critical hit that did 7 damage to Iron (armor outwitted, 3 base, 2 more for the heavy object, one for Monster Hunter, one for the crit, kill in one blow!) and continued the assault every other turn so that the Irons didn't last too long. Devilance finally defeated Gold, the one Metal Man who couldn't break away, and came after me (by way of Lead and Tin). With Monster Hunter helping Cap Jr I cleaned up Devilance to get the victory.


Ferru got stuck in with Devilance while Bill exploited the situation. Ferru tried to switch his Monitor and Harbinger, but I'm not sure it was to his advantage. I didn't see a lot of this game, so guys, fill in the blanks if you can. Bill was victorious in this round as well, putting him nearly 600 points ahead of his nearest competitor!

In Game 3, I faced Ferru while Bill played Jeff. Ferru and I ended up battling around the rock, which blocked Devilance's view... he didn't trigger until the end of the game. I jacked up CM3's speed by 4 using the Kinetic Acellerator, tagged the Monitor, and retreated a bit. Next turn I had to push Cap Jr. again to avoid Monitor's 11 attack, so I lost Hypersonic Speed. Meanwhile, Wonder Girl and Robin were creeping up around the outer edge of the map. Monitor was finally taken out, and I knocked Harbinger back a square, which put her in site of Devilance and sent him running in. Her Hypertime ability kept him away on the first turn, but soon the two-front attack wiped out Ferru's team. I, meanwhile, was facing an undamaged Devilance, and had expended myself past my ability to take him out confidently. I ended up using Robin's perplex to give either Wondergirl or Cap Jr's attack the boost it needed to crack Devilance's 18, but they were sporting 9s and 8s at that point, and it was grim work. Meanwhile he was quaking each time he could, at one point slamming Robin into the rock and giving him 3 clicks at once. Still CM3's Monster Hunter paid off and I took him down to achieve total victory.

Meanwhile, Bill wasn't faring well against Jeff. Green Arrow couldn't run and damage the Metal Men, and was taken out. Supergirl was also damaged, though she landed back on Hypersonic Speed. But Jeff's piece advantage meant he kept coming up as the target of Devilance's attacks, and took a lot of hits from the Bot. It came down to Supergirl versus Lead and Tin, and some luck put Bill out ahead. There was some question of victory points... Devilance had done the KOing for Gold and the two Irons, so what did Bill claim? In the end, Supergirl KOed Lead and Tin, giving Bill at least 100 points for the match and a clear win for the night.


So we all had a good night of play, and some ideas to revise the bot rules. Some things we floated:

1) Bots should have to move the shortest possible distance between points. Too often players used thier ability to control placement to their advantage.

2) The Bot turn, coming third as it does, gives a large advantage to the second player. I don't know a good fix for this... maybe more random reactions?

3) Shapechange and Hypertime were hard to deal with. The best way to handle this, we decided, were to rule out the beneficiary of these powers as a Target and go through the logic again.

4) As written, Quake was neutered, as only one possible figure was opposing on each Bot action. We decided that, for purposes of Quake and Energy Explosion, all figures would be opposing. It's just better that way.