Push!
Kept busy today, and just as importantly I kept away from work for the day. I still need some sleep -- didn't get anywhere near enough last night and when I dropped for a brief nap in the late morning, and with a gaming day coming up over at Crypt Leak & Abbygal's on Saturday I'll need to be rested.
I prepared the main meal - a hit-as-you-please one - for Saturday at the same time I was waiting for Friday's dinner to finish cooking. Simmering in the crock pot is a beef stew I'll make final adjustments to in the morning.
Extremely unseasonal warmth -- which became sticky Friday as some rain started to fall -- has been cleared out by the system that swept across so much of the nation in the past 36 hours. We're headed for highs around 30 degrees cooler Saturday than the near 70 we saw Friday, and that's fine with me. For many of you similar drops have happened, and in some cases that's meant snow and ice.
As for the game day prep, I still draw the task of putting teams together for each of the players, including trying to put together general guides for each player -- a mix of design notes and user's guide. I don't mind at all -- as many a player has noted, building teams is often the most fun part of the process.
Time's gotten away from me, though, and while the other players are all covered and I do have other teams to choose from, a couple of the most tempting ones are perhaps a little too good for me to play in this format. No one currently in the mix should have an unfair advantage, as each has its strengths and Achille's heels... not that I'm going to go into those at this stage, pre-game.
There's definitely going to be great deal of Mind Control on the map, bolstered by the recent arrival of the Mental Shields card, which not only protects a character with Mind Control or Willpower from being mind-controlled by another player, but also protects the mind-controller from taking the usual 1 click per 100 points penalty. Three of the teams have Mind Control on them, two of these with 12-range MC pieces, while the other has a range of 10. Whichever team I choose, unless I pull together another one (always a possibility, as there are so many pieces I've been interested in trying out) mine won't have Mind Control on it. Regardless, the potential for Player A to Mind Control Player B's beat stick and use it against one or more of the other teams is going to be strong, especially once they all become comfortable with the idea that a mind-controlled piece can operate even if it has two tokens on it and can't be used by its own player that turn.
At last word Eric G. - whose Extreme X-Men team was one I put together to him (working from a very helpful character list) back over the Thanksgiving weekend - won't be able to make it Saturday. He's been pressed into obligations by his family. However, his brother (who's also pulled into it) wants to be back home in the afternoon, so it's possible Eric will be back in time to come join us. CL & A have left it as an open invitation.
We'll see.
This'll be Jason O's first game, but he's a studious and game-savvy sort who's been looking into the details, so I suspect he'll get into the groove of it more quickly than most.
While I won't get into the notes I did on each -- meant for the user's eyes -- I will list the rosters as they currently stand (some last minute rearrangement of a Feat is still a possibility) are as follows (these are 500 pt builds, btw.):
Ladies first, we have...
The Abbyotches
You-hoo can-nah-aht escape mee! (Crypt Leak's team, the title being a joke going back to a bit of over-acting in a 1966 Iron Man cartoon.)
Eric’s Extreme X-Men
Most likely some sort of report on all this before I give up the weekend.
Now, though... I'd better get to bed soon.
Tags: Heroclix game day
Kept busy today, and just as importantly I kept away from work for the day. I still need some sleep -- didn't get anywhere near enough last night and when I dropped for a brief nap in the late morning, and with a gaming day coming up over at Crypt Leak & Abbygal's on Saturday I'll need to be rested.
I prepared the main meal - a hit-as-you-please one - for Saturday at the same time I was waiting for Friday's dinner to finish cooking. Simmering in the crock pot is a beef stew I'll make final adjustments to in the morning.
Extremely unseasonal warmth -- which became sticky Friday as some rain started to fall -- has been cleared out by the system that swept across so much of the nation in the past 36 hours. We're headed for highs around 30 degrees cooler Saturday than the near 70 we saw Friday, and that's fine with me. For many of you similar drops have happened, and in some cases that's meant snow and ice.
As for the game day prep, I still draw the task of putting teams together for each of the players, including trying to put together general guides for each player -- a mix of design notes and user's guide. I don't mind at all -- as many a player has noted, building teams is often the most fun part of the process.
Time's gotten away from me, though, and while the other players are all covered and I do have other teams to choose from, a couple of the most tempting ones are perhaps a little too good for me to play in this format. No one currently in the mix should have an unfair advantage, as each has its strengths and Achille's heels... not that I'm going to go into those at this stage, pre-game.
There's definitely going to be great deal of Mind Control on the map, bolstered by the recent arrival of the Mental Shields card, which not only protects a character with Mind Control or Willpower from being mind-controlled by another player, but also protects the mind-controller from taking the usual 1 click per 100 points penalty. Three of the teams have Mind Control on them, two of these with 12-range MC pieces, while the other has a range of 10. Whichever team I choose, unless I pull together another one (always a possibility, as there are so many pieces I've been interested in trying out) mine won't have Mind Control on it. Regardless, the potential for Player A to Mind Control Player B's beat stick and use it against one or more of the other teams is going to be strong, especially once they all become comfortable with the idea that a mind-controlled piece can operate even if it has two tokens on it and can't be used by its own player that turn.
At last word Eric G. - whose Extreme X-Men team was one I put together to him (working from a very helpful character list) back over the Thanksgiving weekend - won't be able to make it Saturday. He's been pressed into obligations by his family. However, his brother (who's also pulled into it) wants to be back home in the afternoon, so it's possible Eric will be back in time to come join us. CL & A have left it as an open invitation.
We'll see.
This'll be Jason O's first game, but he's a studious and game-savvy sort who's been looking into the details, so I suspect he'll get into the groove of it more quickly than most.
While I won't get into the notes I did on each -- meant for the user's eyes -- I will list the rosters as they currently stand (some last minute rearrangement of a Feat is still a possibility) are as follows (these are 500 pt builds, btw.):
Ladies first, we have...
The Abbyotches
Morgan Le Fay 112 pts + Mental Shields 15 pts + Camouflage 8 pts = 135 pts
Invisible Girl R 37 pts + Alt Fantastic Four Feat 0 pts = 37 pts
She-Hulk (SN) E 127 pts + Unstoppable 5 pts = 132 pts
Crystal 62 pts+ Constructed 14 pts = 76 pts
Dagger V 69 pts
Black Cat E 32 pts
Elektra LE 19 pts
500 pts...then it's...
You-hoo can-nah-aht escape mee! (Crypt Leak's team, the title being a joke going back to a bit of over-acting in a 1966 Iron Man cartoon.)
Mandarin vet. 141 ptsJason’s Janissaries
+ Mental Shields 15 pts
+ A.P. 10 pts
+ Stunning Blow 10 pts
+ Force Field 10 pts = 186 pts
Atlas V 125 pts
+ Thunderbolts 5 pts (to Batman Ally)
+ A.P. 10 pts = 140 pts
Vulture (FF) vet 53 pts
Pyro vet 42 points
+ Construct 14 pts
+ Trick Shot 20 pts = 76 pts
Skrull Infiltrator R 25 pts
Hand Ninja 17 pts
Total 497 pts
Binary U 128 pts...and, if he can make it...
+ Armor Piercing 10 pts = 138 pts
War Machine 109 pts
+ Armor Piercing 10 pts
+ Shellhead 10 pts = 129 pts
Moondragon 71 pts
+ Mental Shields 15 pts.
+ Automatic Regeneration 12 pts = 98 pts
Valkyrie V 71 pts
+ Armor Piercing 10 pts = 81 pts
Black Panther E 36
+ Sunder 3 pts
+ Swingline 10 pts = 49 pts
Forbush Man 4 pts
499 pts.
Eric’s Extreme X-Men
Sage vet 78 pts + Brilliant Tactician 20 pts = 98 pts.
Cannonball vet 111 pts.
Storm vet (Danger Room) 40 pts.
Bishop experienced 71 pts + 12 Automatic Regeneration = 83 pts
Gambit vet 51 pts.
Rogue vet (Fantastic Forces) 95 pts + Automatic Regeneration 12 pts + Shellhead 10 pts. = 117 pts
500 pts.What I'll be playing... well, I'll have to find out first.
Most likely some sort of report on all this before I give up the weekend.
Now, though... I'd better get to bed soon.
Tags: Heroclix game day
Comments
I haven't yet managed to play with my Morgan piece, but she's interesting, since under my House Rules, her Shape Change ability gives her a 5-6 chance to reduce a target's Defense to 0. That, plus the triple targeting Mind Control, gives her an excellent chance to be a real menace.
On Mandarin... whew! If you're going to load him up that much, you'd better keep him back on the periphery and use that superior range of his. It's a pity he only has one click where Trick Shot will work.
Under my House Rules, Mandarin is a fabulous Outwitter, too, with that 12 Range and relatively high attack values in his opening slots.
I can't for the life of me figure out how you give a 30 foot giant built in Stealth, but, hey, I guess it works... in fact, given that giants can be targeted from anywhere on the board, it's a big help. But I still can't figure out how it works.
I see you've used the new Construct Feat Card twice. It's a nice idea. My House Rules allow a Barrier to be set up right on top of an opposing figure, effectively imprisoning it for the following turn, but as I discovered recently, there's nothing that will stop a Phasing fig from inexorably proceeding across the board... except this Feat. It's something the game badly needs. After all, there's always some plot device reason in comics why a particular character can't go through that wall, or teleport into that room.
Hope you had a good time today.
Also, since Morgan had Camouflage on her, so long as she stayed adjacent to blocking terrain she was invisible to long range attacks.
Mandarin did well reasonably, not taking any damage other than from pushing. He did stay in his starting area, though.
Though he doesn't tend to shrink, it's fairly clear that Atlas can change size at will, so I'm rationalizing it as being a bag of tricks he simply hasn't fully unlocked. If I had to put something else in as an explanation I'd say Techno/Fixer came up with some way to mask him based on his being an energy contruct (like Wonder Man) rather than flesh and blood.
In practical terms I wouldn't field a giant without either built-in stealth or loading him up with the really expensive Feats, starting with Fortitude. Otherwise it's just a race to see who gets the victory points for felling the giant.
Construct's a useful one, yeah, adding a nice boost to the Barrier bunch.
Sometime today I'll make at least a brief follow-up post on how the day went.