Final Crisis?

Do we want to play this week? This is what we have planned:

OPEN WEEK(s) We encourage our judges to design and run their own events for this week. Note that this break includes only one weekend, but two sets of weekdays.

Unrestricted, 600 points

Scenario: Battle at the Source Wall: The Source Wall is in danger of being seized, and the armies battling over it are awash in the GodWave. Both the Captain Universe and the Dial H for Hero dials are in effect, possibly multiple copies of each. All players deploy on the Anti-Monitor map. If there are even numbers of players, players are allied with each other (to form two forces) for the first 15 turns.

Let's all respond in the comments no later than Friday at noon whether or not we plan to play. Myself, I'm leaning towards sitting this one out. Maybe I want to play the 300-point Championship Qualifier on June 6th as the final hurrah to retiring pieces. Or maybe I want to skip the month of June entirely, and only play in Championship Qualifier Week 2. Get this, from week 2:

NOTES: Players cannot win more than one invitation, and once they win, cannot play in any others or they may be disqualified.

So if we play on June 6, the winner isn't allowed to play on July 11th. Good system if we actually coveted the invitation, but as is, maybe we just want to hold off play until we can break out those shiny new Batman and F4 pieces.

So, playing or not?

Crisis Week 11: Anti-Monitor and Pals!

Last Friday we played the final organized game in the Crisis series. The prize was an event dial, which is pretty worthless, but I was actually excited about this one, due to the cool sculpt. Bill was out, so Ferru, Jeff, and I were three players competing for three prizes. Drama!

Jeff took advantage of the 600-point cap to field big pieces that he hadn't played a lot. Doomsday and Ganthet pretty much made the team, but Mercury was added to fill things out. Oh, and Doomsday had Fortitude.

Ferru dominated last week with Starro, and tried the same tactic again with the Anti-Monitor. He did not leave the light on enough.

I also brought the Anti-Monitor, but decided to play another team. There's a chance that an Anti-versus-Anti fight would never end! I fielded a Gotham City theme team, with Batman and Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, the Man of Steel, and Owlman. There was also a Jimmy Woo pog to eat 10 points and to help Owlman's CSA ability. Knowing that Starro or Anti-Monitor could be about, I gave everyone Monster Hunter (save the pog).

Ferru and Jeff got higher rolls than I did, and played first. Jeff won the map roll and chose the Galactus Rooftop map, stating that a fight versus the Anti-Monitor had to be epic! Ferru moved to the exact center, and Jeff ran Doomsday and Mercury up to meet him. Ganthet sat back in the deployment zone, trading 12-range shots for the rest of the game. Anti-Monitor hit with some Quake attacks, pushing Mercury off the building and Doomsday back. Jeff pushed Mercury to death and prevented a healing role, but for the rest of the game it was Heal, Heal, Heal. You've really got to dish out the damage on him, or he can outlast anything. There was a lot of missed attacks from both teams, but over the next hour Doomsday went down, then Ganthet. Ferru won!

Playing the winner, I fielded my Batman team against Ferru. All that Outwit, and nothing to do with it! Ferru gave me my choice of maps, and I chose the Hindering-laden World War Hulk map. I ran into cover and waited for the Anti-Monitor to charge up the middle. He did no such thing, sadly, running to my left and taking on my un-stealthed pieces (Man of Steel and Owlman). Now based, I struck out: Man of Steel had the Energy Container and Monster Hunter, doing 6 clicks of damage after the armor (and then running). Owlman, Nightwing, and Batgirl also chimed in to hurt for two or three clicks apiece. Surrounded by stinging insects, Anti-Monitor used Pulse Wave and dealt four of my pieces one damage. That killed my pog, costing him a healing roll. Ferru did heal next turn, rolling an 11, but he was on a 6-Damage click and only got 5 back. I did that five and change with my attacks, and KOd the colossal figure.


In the final game of the night, I faced Jeff. Between Doomsday's Fortitude and Ganthet's Quintesence, there was only 25 points I could Outwit. However, Doomsday had the Monster keyword and would be a good mark for me. I won the map role and stuck in the ruins of New York. I hid my team in the shadows, and Doomsday charged up the middle, basing Batgirl and Owlman. Mercury based Batman and Robin, while Ganthet maneuvered around the side of the battle. I guessed where Unstoppable would show up, using Batgirl and Owlman to hit Doomsday down to his first click of it, then using Man of Steel to cover the distance to his second occurrence on the dial. Doomsday went down after that, but Ganthet appeared, basing Nightwing and hitting him for four. Now exposed, Ganthet took the brunt of my team and went out in a few turns.

So I had a fun night, and we finished early to boot! I learned that Monster Hunter is awesome: Crisis introduced lots of Giants, and the feat was the only thing that made it possible to hurt the Anti-Monitor. I have a bad tendency to throw away my extra points on Protected, without giving it much thought, but Monster Hunter may be a better use of these extra points.

This week's game

Here's our WizKids scenario:

Crisis Week 10, Special Unrestricted 600 pt. Note that this Special event uses part of the Unrestricted figure pool, but is not to use any unofficial rules or scenarios. It follows the rules for Constructed (Unrestricted) events, with the following addition: The only legal HeroClix sets for this event are Hypertime, Cosmic Justice, Unleashed, Legacy, Icons, Collateral Damage, Origin, Justice League, Legion of Super Heroes, and Crisis, along with the Green Lantern Corps Pack and the various giants Packs. Also note that at least one dial of the Sinestro, Spectre, and Starro colossal figures will be legal for this event.

There will be a combined 5% limit on feats and bystander tokens for Phase III; that is, no more than 5% of any build total can be made up of these two elements in this phase. Battlefield conditions and special objects are subject to their normal restrictions.

I had a scenario proposed for this week, but it's pretty lame:

Scenario: Which Team Reigns Supreme?: All theme teams are under an additional restriction to use only team-based keywords, such as Justice League, Teen Titans, or X-Men, and not generic keywords, such as Soldier, Teen, or Mutant. Possibly, all teams must be theme teams. Use standard map rolls to determine the map.

Interestingly, this describes a mechanism that didn't exist at the time, but now does: Generic and Specific keywords. I don't want to limit the game on our special All DC week, so I say nuts to it. Let's play all DC figures, all possible teams, all possible maps. Bring your maps: if you win the rolloff, with a bonus from theme teams, you get to choose the map. This is a standard HeroClix rule we almost never play with.

Crisis Week 9: Red Skies!

Last Friday we played the ninth week of Crisis. Which for us is at least week 11, because we've played on the breaks. No one to blame but ourselves, but god damn it we are all looking forward to a month between the end of this and the beginning of Secret Invasion. Next campaign? Let's use the break weeks as breaks.

Anyway, we played 600 points, 75% Floor. I think outside of sealed drafts, this was officially the most restricted game ever run. We also played on the Galactus Rooftops map, with all of its clear terrain, because, hey! There's been a lot of goddamn Batman running around!

I played Spectre, Mordru, and Rookie Shazaam. Spectre and Mordru put me up to the cap, and Shazaam filled out the team... they're all mystical, but I didn't have enough figures to be a theme team.

Jeff played a team full of figures he hadn't played yet. Mammoth, Shimmer, Ace, King and Queen, Karate Kid, Accomplished Perfect Physician, Speedy (or was it Roy Harper), and Dr. Sivana. Eight figures!

Ferru played World's Finest, which took a lot of guts after the drubbings we've witnessed. Well, he beat me with them... The 500 point piece was backed up with Wonder Girl and Batwoman.

Bill played a Titans swarm: Robin, Nightwing, Kid Flash, Wally West, Red Arrow, Roy Harper, Donna Troy, and Wonder Girl. Nice theme here of older and younger versions, except for the two Kid Flashes. But Bill wanted his speedsters to Maneuver, and didn't have the points for a 100+ adult Wally Flash.


In the first game, I played Ferru, while Bill went up against Jeff. Ferru had choice of sides, and of course put his World's Finest in the water tower. I foolishly let that stand, rushing across the field to take out his supporting characters. Once that was over (or mostly over), Shazaam was dead and Spectre had been hammered off his best clicks. I retreated and World's Finest mopped up. Meanwhile, Bill sent the Wallys out among Jeff's team of grounded figures, dropping people like they were hot to the street below. Ferru and Bill won their respective games.

In the second game, I played Jeff, while Ferru played Bill. I was more cautious and let Jeff come to me, but my opening gambit with Shazaam was a critical miss, knocking off Hypersonic and leaving him stranded. Spectre took a lot of heat and eventually went down, but the wounded Shazaam and Mordru were able to finish things off. In his game, Bill won sides and wouldn't surrender the water tower. Once World's Finest had no hiding spot, they faced two outwits and four attacks a turn, and that was that.


In the final game, I played Bill, and Jeff played Ferru. I don't know who won the Jeff vs Ferru game, but the picture I have shows no Worlds Finest. So I'm going to go out on a limb and congratulate both Jeff and Dr. Sivana. In my game, Bill's Titans took the water tower. I took the building opposite it on the map and offered to decide the game on random roll. Well, what is there to do? An out-actioned team can't be on the offensive too... Bill was a good sport and came at me, killing Shazaam while I killed Robin. At that point it was a long, drawn out struggle, with Bill scrapping up three damage (from Enhancement and Perplex he did okay) and I trying to kill Titans that I would need sevens to hit... it's hard! He did Maneuver four or five times out of spite: with flying giants, it was hard to use it meaningfully. We called time after an hour, and I had killed 30 points more than he did.


Bill won the night, but it was close. I came in last, but beat Bill for the first time since we were playing Marvel characters. It's pathetic how much joy I received from this truly marginal victory.

This week's game

It's Crisis Week 9! Here's some weird stuff that will apply to this Friday's game, and for the next two weeks afterwards. From WizKids:

We encourage judges to consider running 60-minute rounds for this month’s events. It is up to the judge to decide the round length based on the needs of the players and the venue, but it must be announced before the tournament begins and be consistent for all rounds.

There will be a combined 5% limit on feats and bystander tokens for Phase III; that is, no more than 5% of any build total can be made up of these two elements in this phase. Battlefield conditions and special objects are subject to their normal restrictions.

There is no recommended map for this phase; any HeroClix map with the modern HeroClix color designations can be used.

And Week 9 itself: Crisis Week 9, Floor:75% 600 pt.

I propose playing the Red Skies of Crisis using the Galactus Rooftop map. I've got one, so we need one more.

For your convenience, some math. 30 points of feats and bystander tokens is all we're allowed, and 450 of your points have to come from Crisis.

See everyone this Friday!

Crisis Week 8.5: World War III

Last Friday we played during an official WizKids off week, and created our own scenario. To recreate the end of 52, we wanted to have Black Adam in the middle of the map, with everyone trying to stop him. But the Black Adam published by WizKids was a tad anemic, especially compared to four 600-point teams. We thus did a last minute substitution of Earth 2 Superman for Adam. He got Fortitude and Repulsor Shield to make him scarier, at a total cost of 367 points. He was worth 500 victory points to whomever could bring him down. To us, he represented Superboy Prime, another character people have been dogpiling on recently.

Our map was a Metropolis map with the four Dawn of Man sections placed on it. This turned out to be really important, as Superboy Prime was surrounded by blocking terrain and couldn't see his foes. Until he was KOed, the war was conducted on the exterior of the map, behind walls that blocked his awareness. We tried to improve our bot rules with randomization targets, and maybe we could improve this further with some random movement if the bot isn't triggered? A d8 could determine the direction... something to think about.

I fielded a team of Legion founders, plus friends like Mon'El, Supergirl, and Batgirl. They were okay, although I didn't find as much use for my copied Batman ability as expected.

Jeff fielded Reign of the Supermen! Well, with Young Superman subbing in for Connor Kent, Batman-team Superman in for the Eradicator, Cyborg Superman, and Recovery Suit Superman. Where's Recovery Suit's gun?, we all asked.

Ferru fielded a Justice League 1,000,000 team, with Superman 1,000,000, Batman 1,000,000, and Hourman III. Hourman doesn't need the 1,000,000 after his awesome series (a Peyer-Morales joint).

Bill played a team of time travelers: Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Rip Hunter, Supergirl, Lightning Lad, and Dawnstar. He also played some special objects, including a shield disruptor next to Superboy Prime! Stupid bot, it's not in his rules to react to objects!

The game started with everyone cautiously edging around Superboy Prime in the center. Jeff advanced, I split my team (half behind Jeff's Superman column, half engaging Ferru in a building), Ferru skirting some walls, and Bill cautiously doddering behind a building. Superboy Prime had four targets after everyone took their turns... all of Jeff's team. He stayed put and shot Recovery Suit, I think, crippling him. This pattern would continue, Superboy Prime taking chunks out of Jeff's dials while he fought back, and actually took the bot down! So that was 500 VPs for Jeff, and he was left with his Stealth Superman relatively undamaged.


I snuck around to the other side of the board (along the back, which took forever) while Bill engaged Ferru. Superman 1,000,000 was the Dawnstar quarry for the game, and he just couldn't hold up to Supergirl. Batman also fell. At this point, I tried to pounce on Bill's team, hoping that Ferru had done some damage. Unfortunately he was still in fighting shape and mopped me up.



At the end of the game, Supergirl and Rip Hunter took on Stealth Superman. He had lost some clicks, but Supergirl still had her 18 defense. Bill took the piece, and had much more victory points than Jeff. Bill wins!



Pictures to come.