Oct.13-19 - More Returns and Changes

Heroclix: Legacy Update
(Set due March 2 -- Five weeks from today)

I try to cut myself off from more info only to find it being sent to me now. Well, if I'm going to know then I'm going to pass it along.

Pictured here is one of the upcoming Feat cards, Armor Piercing. With this 10 pt card attached to a character even someone with a low Damage can get a click of damage through abilities that reduce damage, and a character with Poison can now poison anyone they're adjacent to, since that's automatic damage dealt, not even requiring a roll of the dice. Slap this on your Man-Thing and do damage to anyone. (Just don't use that example if you 'splain it to your mom.) Cloak, Diablo, Firestar, Viper, Arcane, Clayface, Poison Ivy, Joker and others, with and without Poison, will benefit from this. So will those with Energy Explosion. (Hey, H! Clobberin' Time's vet Hawkeye just got another boost! And that vet Boomerang you recently ordered, with its three targets, has really been helped, too.) Even rolling low with Blades/Claws/Fangs against a normally protected opponent will still result in damage if the attacker has this card attached to him. Not a bad investment for 10 build points, especially in a larger game.

As a sort of weakened flip side to this, there's another card in the set (though I don't have a shot of it nor do I know how many points it will cost) called Damage Shield. Its prerequisites are one or more of the following: Close Combat Expert, Combat Reflexes, Energy Shield/Deflection, Flurry, Hypersonic Speed, Impervious, Invulnerability, Poison. The text reads: "Choose a character. When the character is the target of a succesful close combat attack, the attacker is dealt 1 damage after the attack resolves." So, if someone attacks someone with this power and the attacker doesn't have any damage-reducting powers (Impervious, Invulnerability or Toughness) he'll take a click of damage in return. It could be seen as a weak cousin of the Mystics Team Ability, which deals irreducable damage to any attacker.

I continue to be impressed with how these new game mechanics are breathing new life into the game.

One last item in this block is a new Battlefield Condition card: Bright Lights: "When determining line of fire, ignore Stealth and team abilities that duplicate the effects of Stealth." With that card in place all of the stealthed characters stand revealed and open to ranged attacks. From the high and mighty experienced Batman to the low and despised rookie Black Panther, they're no longer protected.