The Tease of Things I Don't Need

Another Armor Wars update

Pure clix (and comics-related) geek material. Nothing to see here. Move along.
More information on Armor Wars has been emerging, the next Marvel Heroclix set coming up November 9th -- 4 weeks from tomorrow. (As ever, click on an image for a larger view, which will pop up as its own page.)

One of today's revelations was the details on Quicksilver, whose sculpt I decided to cap this entry with, from the 52 pt. rookie member of the Brotherhood of Mutants, the 62 pt. experienced Avengers member, the 105 pt. veteran X-Men affiliate, and the Sir Pietro Maximoff LE. Here, on the right, is the vet's dial, which leads with Energy Shield instead of the Super Senses the rookie and experienced versions do.

While, apparently, the Quicksilver of today is operating some two magnitudes or more above the speed levels those of us who followed the character a decade or more did, set designer Seth Johnson decided to amp all of his stats, so we're left with someone within a hair of being as fast as DC's Flash. I don't know if that'll ever sit completely right with me -- the Quicksilver I knew was superhumanly fast, but could only dream of breaking the sound barrier. The Q of today - reportedly affected by some lame writer's introduction of "Isotope E" (the sort of thing that makes talking about superhero comics to non-fans tougher than ever) - now runs from North America to locales across the Atlantic (Europe or off the coast of Africa) in four or five minutes. A history of the character can be found in his Wikipedia entry.

Eh. Well, really... do I think the speeds assigned the clix version's a justified level of speed? No. Do I mind? Not especially. I have far more playable versions of Quicksilver coming and I'm looking forward to them.

Also debuted today were the cost and stats for the Black King. Sebastian Shaw is a 116 pt unique piece coming in the set, with the Brotherhood TA and a "hit me and see what happens" dial that's generally appropriate for the character. Ten clicks of life, with some support to help keep him from being ganged up on by heavy-hitting snipers and Outwitters, he should last long enough to do some damage. Drop him next to some range-hitting monster to keep it from targeting the rest of your force, and let Shaw dare him to take a poke at him.

Another of today's revelations was a new Battlefield Condition: Armor Wars. The card's not especially well-written, but the gist is clear after a careful reading. If anyone has Impervious, Invulnerability, Toughness, or some other effect that reduces damage from an attack, then the attack deals 1 more click of damage. The upshot - at least until some dimwit rules interpreter from WizKids reinterprets it? If one's going to play a team with pieces who have damage avoidance powers - Super Senses, Energy Shield/Deflection, Mastermind, etc., or no Damage slot power at all - then playing this card will help you deal more damage to the average opponent's team while not helping them do damage to your team.

On the flip side of this, we have the 10 pt Feat card: Shellhead. (For the uninitiated, "Shellhead" is a friendly nickname for Iron Man.) This card can be applied to any character who has Impervious, Invulnerability or Toughness, giving them an extra measure of protection when the character's left vulnerable by taking two actions in a row, or otherwise being left with two tokens on it - leaving it unable to act the following turn. At that time, with this card, the character gains a +2 to its Defense, making it more difficult to hit.

A Feat that came up earlier - the end of last week? - is Protected. This single-use, 8 pt. card allows any figure with less than two tokens on it to completely avoid damage from any attack. Appropriately enough, the image on the card is Captain America protecting himself from a blast from Ultron. (Inappropriately enough, they chose a shot from a stretch of Avengers where Cap was using a photonic shield instead of his trusty, corporeal shield.) This sort of "instant" effect that a player can trigger in the middle of an opponent's attack, will likely upset some players and excite others. The newly clarified rules in the Icons rulebook (pg 29, I believe) make it clear that only one copy of a given Feat can be placed on a character, so while this 8 pt pass is potent a player won't be able to lay two, three or more of them on a single character. So far, it strikes me as another comics-appropriate addition to the game.

I have nothing positive to say about any level of the Crimson Dynamo in this set -- frankly, while the sculpt is nice, all levels of it are IMHO crap. Seth apparently based it on some miniseries version of the "character"... and based on one friend who actually read it Seth screwed it up by making this a relatively low-powered piece. Eh. No level of the piece is likely to be one I'll reach for.

Similarly, I was less than impressed with much of the approach to Cannonball. On the first count, in my estimation, the rookie and experienced versions were shorted in terms of their defense. This is a character who, while using his powers, is supposed to be essentially immune from harm... and his rookie has nothing more protective than a 16 Defense and Toughness? The experienced gets a little Invulnerability, though that sounds more impressive than it is, and that same 18 Defense. Still, yes, this is a game of approximations and compromises, and Sam isn't always in action mode, so, yeah, I'd be fine with all that. After all, in the end this is just another flying Charge piece, something that doesn't fit my usual style of play and which I'd most likely find a better character to use. In the end, it's of little consequence to me.

So, what spoiled things for me and put a bad taste in my mouth concerning this piece? Seth's approach to the prize version of the character, the Sam Guthrie LE. Suffering from the delusion that all clix players want the prize LEs to be uniquely playable, he decided to make the LE for this piece both the first single-based Transporter in the game, and the only one in this set. This gives the LE a sort of Hypersonic Speed Lite, allowing him to fly in, try to hit someone, and then move along -- something his veteran version, at least, should have had. It also makes the LE the only version that can use the Double-Time card without pushing. Of course, on the opposite side to all this the LE is bereft of any Charge, and even with a Perplexer and In Contact With Oracle the move and attack Transporter option won't be of any practical use after the 4th click.

Once the dust settles it's not really a problem beyond me continuing to simply not like prize-only pieces. If it can be played in a game then it should be open to all to at least have a chance of pulling it from a booster or sending away for it online or from a magazine. (No, buying it off eBay from a venue shark or a profiteering envoy doesn't count.)

Finally - well, at least as far as I'm taking it today - we have another of the pogs. Certainly no one I was looking forward to, but one I'll be happy to cruelly include in some games: HERBIE. The bystander that demands to be treated as an object! Hurl him at opponents, or simply use him as a cudgel! Pack a Nanobots card, so you can mock his screams as he's cruelly disassembled at the atomic level. This is the type of piece home rules were made for.