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.