The Next Crisis Game: World War III!

Here's the scenario we have planned for the next Crisis game:

OPEN WEEK We encourage our judges to design and run their own events in this week between official events.

Scenario: World War III: Black Adam, feated up to 300-400 points, is placed in the center of the map. All players deploy on one map. Black Adam takes the last turn and attacks a random legal target each turn through what will probably be a complicated mechanism (bring lots of die types!). All the players field teams, and KOing Black Adam is worth an additional 200 VPs. The game ends with Adam's KO, and victory is decided on points. Black Adam can be substituted for Mordru, Darksied, or Worlds Finest if available.

That was my text a few months ago. What would we change? Here are my thoughts:

1) Black Adam will start in one of the four center squares of the map. He will use the feats Fortitude and Repulsor Shield, and will cost 304 points.

2) No player is allowed to field Black Adam. That would be silly.

3) The scenario called for Black Adam to be worth additional VPs... and this would encourage everyone to assault him together. He could be worth an additional 196 points to net 500 to the winner. The argument against this is that KO credit will likely go to the player that takes off the final few clicks, not necessarily to the person who concentrated the most on him. On the other hand, his last clicks have Impervious, so this cherry picking may be harder than it seems.

4) I didn't note the size of player teams. I think 600 points is doable, since we will all play on one map. The evening should go quickly with only one massive game to play. This will also get us used to building 600 point teams. Let's do 600 points Unrestricted, DC only figures but no limits on Feats or BFCs. For these Unrestricted games, printouts of cards are fine, or figures using printed dials. This is in case anyone wants to bring out In Contact with Oracle, or Oracle herself!

5) Play should be on the full Crisis map unless people are sick of it. The Battle for Metropolis map is also good.

6) Black Adam will use a modified version of the Robot Rules first used with Devilance in Week 1. See the figure below. The Robot still considers opponents in four states, listed in order of preference: Caused Damage Last Turn, Adjacent, Threatened, and Visible. However, it will randomly determine between targets of the same category. So if Black Adam is in the center of the board on his first click, he defines an 11-square area which he can charge. But if the players move 15 separate figures into this area, he will charge one random target, no matter who is closest. This should take the advantage off of the final player in the turn order.



I think that pretty much defines the game. Anything I haven't thought of? This is all open to debate, especially about the Victory Point swing.

Crisis Week 7

Hiya again! I'm taking this opportunity to write up Brian's write up since he's been all Spectreish, ie. moody. Speaking of which, the Spectre was finally played this week!

This was also a theme game - Find Ray Palmer! There were 12 bystander tokens, all placed face down. One of them was Ray Palmer. Rescuing any bystander - which was take a bystander to your starting zone, dropping them off, AND having them there at the end of the game - would yield 10 extra victory points. Rescuing Ray Palmer yields 200 extra victory points. Bystanders do not hinder line of fire and you can run over / stand on top of them. Bystanders cannot be KO'ed.

Ferru played The Spectre and Trigon. This was a very simple yet incredibly tough team to play. Ferru was able to use Trigon as a tie-up piece - or at least that's how the team seemed to play out. As you can see from the poses in the pictures, these two have just come off of spring break and Trigon's got a wicked tan, The Spectre never got out from under his towel. I'd like to think Trigon is still yelling "Kegger!"
Jeff also played a huge figure team, his was World's Finest. This piece looks awesome - did it play awesome? Let's find out.Brian played Sinestro, Green Lantern, Flash and Kid Flash. He tossed Maneuver onto the Flashes as well as Warbound onto Flash and Green Lantern. As you can see from this picture, he had a very manly team however one of them is different - can you tell me who that is? That's right, I'm looking at you - prancing Sinestro.
I played a wildcard - stealth - mystics team. This team included Deathstroke, Batman, Klarion, Green Arrow and Dawnstar. I really wanted Dawnstar in last week - for Quarry and wild card abilities so I basically re-ran the team I had the week before again with her in it. I slapped on some feats to round my points out at 500 and called it a day.
Game 1: Me vs. Ferru.
This was painful. I deployed my team to work in 2 phases. 1 was Dawnstar / Klarion who were to act as the Ray Palmer search and rescue squad and the rest were to engage the enemy. This worked wonderfully except that the enemy that I engaged was Trigon. Green Arrow successfully blasted his way to death by virtue of the Mystics team ability. I'm sure he got hit - but he did the most damage and got knocked out either before Trigon or when Trigon was taken down. Time was called on our game before the Spectre could take out the rest of my team. I kind of screwed up by targeting Trigon with my strongest attacker - I should have went after The Spectre first. Anyhow - this match ended with Ferru finding Ray Palmer and getting those sweet 200 extra points.
Brian vs. Jeff
This is where Brian or Jeff need to fill in the blanks. From the picture I can safely say that Green Lantern and Sinestro are waving at or doing the Black Panther salute to World's Finest! Come back soon!
Game 2: Me vs. Jeff.
Once again I got my pieces into position and Jeff moved World's Finest into position as well. I outwitted Super Strength and Charge and the battery that is World's Finest began shooting. Luckily I was spared the attack however the favor was not returned in kind. No, World's Finest was hit for a full clixs worth of damage. This dropped the figure from Indomitable to eh, it's Batman with Supe's head - as Jeff put it. I don't remember if World's Finest landed a blow or not, but they were dealt with really quickly through outwitting defense, etc. [Note: this is why I hate the figure - huge but vulnerable!] I was able to rescue Ray Palmer as well as take down World's Finest.
Brian vs. Ferru.
The Spectre wins! Maybe Brian has more to say.
Game 3: Jeff vs. Ferru.
I think this picture says it all - The Spectre vs. World's Finest with a side of Trigon. Once again - The Spectre wins!
Me vs Brian.
This was a game of stealth and shooting. We both got our pieces into position and Brian came out to attack first. He targeted my Green Arrow but failed to connect with an attack. Ollie didn't quite care for that and called in his support. My entire team fired on Sinestro and took him down in one turn. That was a big price to pay for attempting to attack Mr. Queen.

Brian did make excellent use of Maneuver by pulling my stealthed figures out of hiding with Kid Flash - if only the attack rolls complimented this, the game would have been completely different. I didn't give the maneuver strategy much thought - but it is fantastic especially in this set of stealth - and giving the feat to Kid Flash (or any cheap land speeder) is just a brilliant idea.

So that's about how it wrapped up. Tonight is the "Special Restricted 500 point" game which should be interesting - no Marvel or Indy clix / BFC / Feats! I guess that means we're playing with Vanilla clix as there isn't anything really exciting Feat-wise from the DC restricted (tournament legal) sets.

Worlds Finest

This piece has so much potential considering that the figure represents the team up of Batman and Superman.

Here it is, in it's glory:


It's got 18 clicks on it, it's got both the Batman and Superman team abilities, it's got flight! So why is this clearly awesome clix crap? Because for most of the dial it's got Batman's stats.

You pay 500 points, which is a hell of a lot for a figure, for something that costs ~350 points for 2 separate figures. You lose a unit as this figure can only act once per turn. Good fucking luck building a theme team - you'll need a 1000 point game to really round anything decent out - and even that is pushing it. Lastly, you're missing outwit protection. You need to add Fortitude to make sure that those sweet first 4 clix on the dial, where Superman is the dominating force, don't get wiped away by someone outwitting the Impervious defense.

What is wrong with this piece - in my estimation, the piece works this way. Batman, in a hurry to get to the fight, brings his Kryptonite ring - he doesn't keep it in the lead case on his belt, he puts that bling on to front his style to the world. He then meets up with his main man Supes. They bump knucks and get on with the fighting. This was clearly an oversight because by click 5, Batman is the team. No Hypersonic and weak as hell defense. 3 more clix later and the piece is now a non-moving turret. Hopefully you've based your opponent so you can hit 'em hard, otherwise you're wasting time. Finally the piece ends with Batman clearly carrying Supes on his shoulders, as the piece uses Super Senses as damage avoidance with no reduction. I'm sorry - since when did Supes lose any damage reduction? At least make up some shit like a lesser impervious with -1 instead of -2 damage reduction. You should also have some built in outwit protection - you got a duo with Batman for fucks sake - it should take 2 instances of outwit to actually outwit a power, I'd say for all duo figures but especially for something with Batman attached to it!

I guess the only thing that works here is that you don't take pushing damage. Fuck it, play an 800 point game, warbound this piece with "The Mighty Thor" - just to be retarded and throw in 9 Lian Harpers to round the team out.

This Friday's Crisis Game

I had big plans for this Friday's Crisis game, but I don't think it's going to come together. This is what I presented originally:

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Crisis Week 7, Floor:50% 500 pt.

Scenario: Baby Universe: Players attempt to conquer an undefined universe forming out of the Bleed. Play a crayon game, in which each player can color in five squares anywhere on the map each turn. Information on crayon games here:

http://d-r-m.blogspot.com/search/label/game%20night
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That would be cool, and I almost had a way to make 3X3 foot maps of plain grids... but it fell through this morning. Let's save this one for later. In it's place, I propose using the scenario meant for last week.

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Scenario: Search for Ray Palmer. Play is on a map with 12 flipped bystander tokens. Clix can rescue the tokens by ending movement on them... the bystanders are now carried as if they were friendly figures. Spend a power action to flip the token to determine which is Ray Palmer. If Ray is in a player’s starting area at the end of the game, an extra 200 VP is awarded. All other bystanders in the starting area are worth an extra 10 VPs. Bystanders that are not in a starting zone at the end of the game generate no points. Bystanders are not locked down once they are in a deployment zone, but can be captured by the other player.
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We'll keep it at 500 points, Floor 50%. This means that the possible swing from a dedicated rescue is 310 points... but I think we've shown from our earlier games that throwing your team into the scenario is a good way to get killed. Feel free to suggest changes to the point total. I think I have enough Horrorclix Bystander tokens to supply both ongoing games.

At 500 points, we should play 1 hour 10 minute games. If we start at 6, we won't end until 9:30 at the earliest. So let's try to start as soon as possible... Uh, I guess that message goes out to Bill and myself, who's pre-game Happy Hour has been cutting things a bit close in recent weeks.

Crisis Week 6

Hey folks - I'm sitting in for Brian this week as he missed the game because of some parent visiting thing.

This week there were some choice theme teams as well as a pretty interesting team that used a couple tricks.

Ferru fielded a Gotham City team, which is a team that I've contemplated fielding. For his 400 points, Ferru fielded JL Batman, IC Robin, IC Nightwing, IC Batgirl and IC Red Hood. 3 Feats rounded the team up to 400 points. I hadn't even thought of Red Hood - but he's a damn good figure even though he's a Batman Enemy.



Jeff fielded a trick team, for lack of a better word. Each clix was built around a trick that could be used to control the game. Jeff's lineup included IC Piper and Trickster, IC Psycho Pirate, JL Chronos, JL Captain boomerang and 2 pogs - Mera and that power house - Lian Harper! Jeff added the Fortitude feat on Psycho Pirate so there would be no chance of outwitting his -2 perplex power.


I fielded the timely "Roommate Team" of Darkseid and Mary Marvel. I was shocked and dismayed to find that 'roommate' is not a keyword so I didn't get my probability control! What I did get was 3 feats for my clix, Darkseid ran Fortitude and Protected and Mary Marvel also had protected.

Game 1 was me vs Jeff. Jeff went first and ran out exposing himself to a HSS speed attack as well as a blast from Darkseid thanks to his 12 range. That is if I could connect. I was able to juke and jive with Mary Marvel to weaken the clix that could break through either Darkseid or Mary Marvel's defense (Impervious / Invulnerability). Piper and Trickster really didn't shine in this match up as poison does nothing to if there is damage reduction. Psycho Pirate is also a fun clix except that his damage avoidance won't trigger if he's attack via range. I'd really like to revise that clix to make it that figures within his range need to roll doubles, not just close combat. Why this is a problem is vs either Mary Marvel OR Darkseid - who are flyers - I'd get a choice in the matter and the obvious choice is range. Yeah, I'd love to see how that revision would change the clix. Chronos was useful for his PC as well as Incapacitate, something Psycho Pirate also used. Captain Boomerang vs Darkseid was dealt with quickly as one hit blew right past his Mastermind. At the end of the game, Darkseid and Mary Marvel remains standing, loosing a few clix to pushing through Incapacitate as well as a critical miss.

Game 2 was Jeff vs. Ferru. Gotham City is known for 2 things - Outwit and Stealth. Both were used in full force in this matchup. This team neutered every trick that Jeff's team could throw out by either not granting line of sight, as is the case with PC, Perplex, or ranged attacks; everything else was outwitted. This game was interesting to watch as the Gotham City team gave no quarter until Red Hood critically missed. His stealth was then lost and he fell to various attacks. Aside from that, the Trick team was systematically dealt with and fell to Batman.


Game 3 was Me vs. Ferru. I was worried until I remembered that I had Fortitude on Darkseid. This basically gave me a strong advantage of Darkseid being the perfect Batman Killer. I went first and Ferru moved in to tactically take down the roommates - Batgirl was placed on an object, giving her cover. On my next turn I pushed Mary Marvel to attack her and critically missed. This was quite advantageous as she keeps her HSS but also gains Super Strength, so while moving away from Batgirl she picked up the object exposing her! This forced Ferru to push her to get her out of Darkseid's blast - which would be coming on the next attack! Unfortunately Mary lost HSS at the end of her move through the pushing damage, but she got things moving! Darkseid eventually moved into the lower middle of the map, placing him within 6 squares of the Gotham Team, which let him use Omega Beams to cut through stealth! Darkseid became a blasting station that couldn't be outwitted and he began taking out all the high damage threats that he could. Mary Marvel eventually fell to the 'capes but Darkseid remained supreme. Each Batman figure has 5/6 clicks and no reduction - Darkseid does 4/5 damage, the last click on any Gotham clix has them around a "better than average" pog so that became my goal - either cripple or KO and that is what happened.


So in short, my reign of dominating this tournament continues. This week we go to 500 points which means "World's Finest" is finally playable! So we're looking at the potential 1 figure team or finally a Spectre team!

Crisis Week 5

This past week we played the straight Crisis campaign from WizKids. It was our first week on the crazy Dawn of Man Plus Timezones map, and that added complication enough! The teams were 400 points, 50% Floor. This was our second week at 400 points and it was pretty great... at this level one can really fill out a team.

I played a Titans team, with Nightwing, Nightwing and Starfire, Wonder Girl, and Liberty Belle. That's two Nightwings, but I justified this with the rationale that NW&SF plays like a straight Starfire piece. Anyway, this team sucked and I hate it. The Titans are dead to me. I blame Devin Grayson.

Jeff revealed his Star City team, and the rest of us quaked in our boots! Green Arrow (Ollie), Green Arrow (Connor), Green Arrow (Year One), Black Canary, Red Arrow, and Speedy! This team could really dish out the damage, and it was hard to pick the right target with all of the bowman running around.

Ferru had been paying attention and brought the Metal Men: Doc Magnus and Platinum, Lead and Tin, Mercury, Gold, and two Irons! We've played this team at least once before in the tourney, but the 400 point cap allowed Ferru to field everybody, plus an extra Iron to boot. As Jeff said, every team always needs more Iron. But this was a great team, with Irons tying the whole field up, Gold sniping, Doc buffing everyone's attack, and Mercury getting at least twice his value out of every game.

Bill played a team around Deathstroke, with Batgirl giving him permanent stealth, Clarion giving him Mystics, and Wonder Girl as the requisite brick. With only one wild card, I'm not going to call this wildcard abuse. This is the "Take On the Whole Justice League in Identity Crisis" Deathstroke, so I blame Brad Meltzer for Bill's success.

In the first game, I played Jeff, while Ferru played Bill. We placed our map squares with no real rhyme or reason save one: the beach would not be tolerated. No-one liked water after the previous game. Jeff's line of archers came at me and did a lot of damage to Wonder Girl and Liberty Belle (I expected those 18 Defenses to last longer!) But they couldn't deal with Nightwing's stealth or combatants blocking shots to Starfire. The game ended with the two Nightwing figures chasing the elder Arrow and landing a KO with minutes to spare. Bill had a good close combat team and was able to deal with all the armor facing him, and Ferru's Metal Men fell to Deathstroke, helped by Mystic damage.

In the second game, I played Bill, while Jeff's archers went against Ferru's knights. That was a great game to see start out, two lines of figures coming at each other in a fashion rare for Heroclix. Uh, I don't really remember who won, but I think the VP total was close. I came at Bill when he put his whole team stealthed in a patch of forest. Deathstroke was Loyaltied Mystics to Klarion, so the witch boy had to go... unfortunately Nightwing was hit for something like 6 damage on the second round by Wonder Girl (he took one from a team Probability Control that didn't help). Bill rolled great for the first four turns and ripped my team to chunks. His luck turned after that, but he was just mopping up.

In the third game, I played Ferru while Jeff played Bill. I couldn't deal with Ferru's giants, and Jeff couldn't deal with Bill's stealth (helped by Deep Shadows, the unkindest cut!). So that was that, two very onesided games. I forgot to capture one of them on film, sorry.

Bill was the winner, which means my challenge was unanswered. I can't make the game next week, so I'm counting on Jeff and Ferru to do my dirty work. Make him bleed. I recommend Superman Allies, now that we're out of Floor.

Crisis Week 4.5: Shrinking Universe!

Last Friday we had a gap in the HeroClix Crisis tournament, yet we met anyway! What a dedicated gaming group we are! We played a game without prizes using the following scenario:

Play a KO match on a map that collapses by a one-square diameter ring at the end of every round. A map that starts 26 X 26 squares should shrink to 4 X 4 in 24 turns. Once the map reaches 4 X 4 squares, the shrinking stops, and the game continues to KO. All antimatter squares block line of sight. As soon as a figure enters an antimatter square, they must stop moving. Ending a turn in the anti-matter wall, or being knocked-back into it, results in a figure taking one penetrating and 2 normal damage.

We debated quite a bit about these rules... the original scenario was developed by me before the new set was released, with all of its strategic-repositioning special powers. All of a sudden Darkseid, Wonder Girl, and Supernova could one-hit, one-kill! We took down the damage so that the wall would be survivable (but still kill quickly) and sped up the wall so that it advanced at the end of the 2nd player turn. There were a lot of variables that needed playtesting, but I think we hit on just the right combination, and came out of this with a night of really good games. So thanks to all the Clix Mafioso for their input.

I fielded a team flawed in concept, but still effective due to its simplicity. I wanted to get Darkseid out and start Omega-effecting figures out of the universe. Of course, once I was at the shop, I realized that Darkseid couldn't draw line of sight to an anti-matter square, and that wasn't going to work. But you play with what you bring. I finished out the team with a custom Cosmic Justice Despero I made, mostly because the Avengers Abomination sculpt was so good it needed a good dial to go on. I also gave Darkseid Fortitude and Trick Shot (more on that later).

Jeff realized that knockback would be a killer in this game, and designed a team immune to it. All giants and double-basers: Atom Smasher, Plastic Man, Chronos, Vigilante, and Flash. This team had to get stuck in more than was good for them, but Plastic Man turned out to be a really good piece.

Ferru fielded a Titans team with a ton of pieces: Nightwing, Tempest, Wonder Girl (lil' Donna), Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Speedy. With six figures he had everyone out-actioned. Plus Kid Flash had his ForceBlast power, turned from annoying to lethal by the scenario. Oh, and Nightwing was impossible to hit, but everyone knows that already.

Bill built a Justice League of America team, with Green Arrow, Black Canary, Green Lantern, and Batman. This team could be devastating, and had a lot of stealth, but more than anyone else seemed to get caught in the antimatter walls. Bill also fielded a Chals pog and a Shield Disruptor, which made up for his lack of armor.

In the first game, I played Bill while Jeff played Ferru. Bill advanced cautiously, forgetting that Green Lantern could carry his whole team. I charged into the center of the map to hide behind an object, not realizing that this was a shield disruptor. Then Bill came at me and missed three times, while I responded and Omega-moved Green Arrow instead of doing four damage to him. Oh, and also, Bill pointed out that Trick Shot, my 20-point expenditure that was going to let Darkseid blast the hiding Batmans of the world, was an illegal feat, as he had neither of the prerequisites. So we ended the first two turns cursing ourselves for all the bush-league crap we were displaying. The game continued with GA being hit by the advancing wall twice, Green Lantern and Batman pummeling Despero, and Black Canary taking a pity Omega Beam after basing Darkseid. At the end of the game, Batman and Darkseid were the sole survivors. Bats ran in to the safe 4x4 square and based Darkseid on the edge of the oncoming wall. I had a choice between dealing three damage to Batman or taking it from the antimatter, and I chose a failed break-away roll... turns out Batman was three clicks away from dying! So that was game in Bill's favor... valuable lesson learned, know your dials (and read your feats).

Jeff and Ferru had a lot of pieces to move around, and their game went slower. Flash and Kid Flash seemed to be running around, but the water gave Flash more trouble than his sidekick. Ferru came out on top, but it seemed close. Guys, please fill in the details if you can!

In game two, I played Jeff with Ferru battling Bill. I think we were all going into this second match wiser about the mechanics... I also switched out my illegal feat for another Fortitude on Despero. I once again took center stage while Jeff's army slowly advanced... they were all impossible to knock back, but also couldn't be transported. After transport, Despero knocked Atom Smasher down by 4 clicks, and suddenly Jeff's force had only one figure that could damage: Plastic Man. Still the game went on, since Plas's powers made him hard to stamp out. Despero was easily based, but I took it slow so Darkseid could keep his Phase/Teleport and get to the center safety zone no matter what. I won the game once I finally took out Flash.

Bill and Ferru went at each other, with Ferru using Tempest, Aqualad, and Nightwing as an impenetrable shield against all of Bill's shots. Again, I'm spotty on the details, but the game came down to Nightwing and Batman in the 4x4 square trading blows, each finding it impossible to hit the other. Bill came out on top.


In the final game, I played Ferru while Jeff played Bill. By now we had our armies down to a science: I took the center of the board, ignoring cover for end-game safety. I faced a perfect formation, four Titans behind the unhittable Nightwing/Aqualad combo. I tried to Omega-effect through the stealth but kept rolling 2s, 3s, and 4s (I had a lot of critical misses for the night!). Eventually I was able to take out Wondergirl, the team heavy hitter, and only Tempest's Perplex could make a hit stick. Ferru pulled out a great late-game move when Kid Flash force-blasted Darkseid into the antimatter wall, and I thought it was over. But Darkseid was heavily armored and just took one click, coming out and finishing the twerp. I think Tempest was the last to go... my team had triumphed on more armor than strategy.

Bill took advantage of all his stealth against Jeff... Jeff needed Chronos's Probability Control to protect himself from the Leaguers, and he could never draw line of fire to do so. Green Lantern did the heavy lifting to finish off the double-base team.



With three wins, Bill won for the night. He's really cleaning up in these Crisis games! So that's our open challenge: take Bill down a peg.

Again, I think we did the rules right, although this scenario would play differently on different maps. The map shrunk to just 16 squares of water, and this really affected the end games... figures had to run from the antimatter walls and got stuck in the river. Next week we let WizKids come up with our crazy scenario, and play with the full Crisis map sections, but no other mods to the game as written. 400 points, 50% floor, see you there!