Oct.13-19 - More Returns and Changes

The Fists & the Flurry

Now that my head's been cleared by the ammoniac wake-up slap of the new work week (and sent into a whirl anew, but that's another issue) , I'll take a stab at fleshing out a little of the action (as best I recall it) of this past weekend's clix battle (previous post), and combine it with a response to the first comment H added to it.

I definitely enjoyed playing, but found myself too drained by both the twisted hours the weekend took and a few other things of more tiresome varieties that needed doing or at least looking into. By that time the season finale of Deadwood was upon me, and the fetid breath of the new work week puffing in my face almost immediately on the far side of that. All combined, my energy level was too low Sunday to get into details of the game beyond copy and pasting of notes concerning the teams and word of how long the game lasted.

This will not in any way be a play-by-play, but simply some details that I both recall and consider worth noting.

The map we used was from the Danger Room set - as we'd done last time - but we went for the flip side of it, which was indoor.


It frequently limited long-range actions, but experience shows that's a good thing as the game still tends to favor ranged combat. Also, it gave us walls to potentially kick holes in, something which A did on her first turn since I'd given She-Hulk Unstoppable. No one else did it the rest of the match, though, which was as likely as not a consequence of my forgetting to reinforce terrain-blasting (turning blocking terrain into hindering terrain rubble, which would open lines of sight) in a match where I was trying to render advice to all players.

To the West was Eric's mutant team: Bishop V, Soldier X V, Psylocke (AW) V, Forge, Blink V, Domino V, Gambit V and Moonstar V. Packed with Running Shot on four of them, Outwit front-loaded on two and emerging before long on a third, plenty of Stealth, a little Perplex and the only Transporter on the map.

To the North were Crypt Leak's Defenders: Dr. Strange (FF) V, Nighthawk V, Valkyrie V, Silver Surfer, Hulk (Mutant Mayhem) V and Patsy Walker LE. Lots of damaging power there, and the rainbow dial of Dr. Strange. Nighthawk's Leadership provided some action options, as did his flight, Charge and Willpower. Valkyrie's Defense Values, Charge and Blades/Claws/Fangs were all assets.

To the East was A's Femme Fatale assortment: White Queen E, Moondragon, Spiral, She-Hulk V, Elektra (IC unique), Phoenix (unique from Ultimates set) and Morgan Le Fay. Mind Control in spades, some excellent ranged attacks in general, a Telekinetic player, some horrific damage to dealt by the ladies with swords, and some lithe, green muscle.

...leaving me the South for my indifferently chosen Brotherhood team: Magneto (Ultimates) unique, Pyro (IC) V, Rogue (FF) R, Sabretooth (Ult) V, Scarlet Witch (FF) R, Cain Marko (FF) and Avalanche V. A tough TK piece with a solid ranged attack, two Barrier pieces, one with Ranged Combat Expert and the other with Pulse Wave, a flying, super-strong Charging piece, a grounded one with even more impressive stats, and a stealthed Probability Controller.

The first battle on the map was on my second (possibly third, but probably just the second) turn, when Magneto hurled Cain Marko (Juggernaut) out onto the map where he picked up an engine block and charged the Silver Surfer, taking the gleaming one 4 clicks down his dial. This is a move, I must note, which was possible because CL moved immediately into the game with placements near the center of the map. They were good, potentially commanding points, vulnerable only because I pulled that TK launch + Charge trick, something we hadn't run across in our previous game.

This placed Cain in the thick of foes, and though it took a while to do him in and he thrashed around a bit, doing some more damage along the way, he was - eventually - the first to fall.

Hulk and She-Hulk eventually ended up exchanging blows in that patch of greenery just to the right of center.

Moondragon launched Phoenix out onto the map a few turns in, where she set off a Pulse Wave that hit five opposing pieces for a click of damage each.

The Camouflage Feat on Morgan Le Fay let her move out onto the map and remain virtually invisible by standing beside some blocking terrain. The Shape Change the feat keyed off of saved her more than once from a close combat attack, forcing the would-be attacker to do something else, momentarily convinced she was an ally.

Eric's X-team spent nearly the entire game in a small section of the map, up to and to the left of the bracketed pool of water, meaning that there was a great deal of blocking terrain separating them from most of the rest of the action, whereas CL's move towards the center and relatively open spaces (plenty of hindering terrain, but not so much blocking) from the center out towards where my and A's forces were left the three of us almost immediately engaged in battle..

Consequently, and because it was E's first game, A, CL and I ended up mostly beating on each other, leaving Eric to face mostly worn-down pieces late in the game.

The first team to completely vanish were the Defenders, as he'd been the one to have to deal with attacks from all three teams - where he'd set up on the map made him primary targets for Eric. This happened roughly around the point where A opted to head for bed, turning her team over to CL. After Cain, I lost Scarlet Witch when Spiral made a flurrying attack with her blades. Avalanche fell - as CL noted in the comments on the previous piece - when Morgan mind-controlled Rogue and had her slam her unsuspecting teammate with a motorcycle.

Sabretooth got in some good hits and while he had a stretch of bad regeneration rolls he did bounce back nicely at least twice, moving from near death to even regaining his Charge at one point.

I forget if it was Sabretooth or someone else who was the target, but once when Bishop took a shot and only needed a 4 or better to hit, he rolled a 3. I pointed out that his Domino could see Bishop, so he had the option of a re-roll. He rolled a 2. Indignity upon indignity, as his weapon backfired on him. Still, as CL mentioned in a separate post he took mutliple hits -- admittedly, late in the game when just a couple clicks of Damage were being dealt -- and persisted. He had those two clicks of Regeneration at the end of his dial, too, enabling him to potentially bounce back as far as his second click, with its Running Shot and Attack Value of 10.

Pyro suffered a long, slow death following a push and some hits. I suggested he'd had to replace his flamethrowers with oxygen tanks to keep body and soul together. There was a pathetic little battle going on late in the game as Pyro and Spiral, each the merest shadow of his former self, wheezed at each other as they took feeble swings, occasionally knocking the other down a click. They were such non-entities, and Eric's mutant minions were finally starting to get on the move, so for a time we left them to each other.

In terms of sheer points KOed, though it might have shifted towards the end of the game, CL was in the lead. Eric, certainly, had the most characters standing at the end. Magneto was still almost completely fresh - two clicks in for pushing - but in any practical terms he was all I had left.

The final two hours seemed to almost leap from hour to hour.

Apparently fun was had by all, so it was a success. Another person at work's expressed some interest, so... we'll see.


H had some comments on the previous post, and while I did respond to some later ones at some length - it was faster than a full post, and Blogger was having some fits at the time anyway - I left these for later. I'll place his comments as indented quotations.

The X-Men team you listed is very similar to what I end up facing here whenever I play Super Drama Teen, although she usually puts Cain Marko on her force as well. The Femmes Fatale team has several figs I don't possess myself (Spiral, Phoenix, the Vet She Hulk) and I probably would have put the Enchantress on any such team I built... but Morgan LeFay is a much better version of that particular idea.

I know Juggernaut's joined an X-Men team in recent times, so that makes sense. If and when the time rolls around (most likely sometime in 2007, once the football season's over) I'll see if he wants to tweak the lineup.

I had the Enchantress (the Marvel one, that is -- I was sticking to the Marvel pieces for these early games -- though I definitely agree that the DC one is wonderful) set aside as part of a Masters of Evil team:

Baron Zemo 90 pts + Swingline 10 pts + Indomitable 5 pts = 105 pts.
Executioner rookie 56 pts + Shellhead 10 pts + Armor Piercing 10 pts = 76 pts
Enchantress 91 pts + Shellhead 10 pts = 101 pts
Whirlwind vet 41 pts + Shellhead 10 pts + Armor Piercing 10 pts
+ Force Field 10 pts + Heightened Reflexes 10 pts = 81 pts
Black Knight vet 77 pts + Thunderbolts 5 pts (to MOE) + Shellhead 10 pts = 87 pts
Radioactive Man vet 80 pts + Thunderbolts 5 pts (to MOE)
+ Armor Piercing 10 pts + Shellhead 10 pts = 105 pts
Blizzard vet 53 pts + Force Field 10 pts + Armor Piercing 10 pts
+ Shellhead 10 pts = 83 pts

...which I had most intentions of playing this past Saturday.

The switch to the Brotherhood team was a last moment affair. I believe that while I wasn't looking for a steamrolling team (the Alt TA FF & Friends team I'd put together, with Cloak, Dagger, Iron Fist and Cage on it would have fit that bill) I also didn't want one too easy to overwhelm, with too much dependence on close combat. Besides, I'd wanted to finally run a character with multiple clicks of Regeneration with Automatic Regeneration in place, especially a Charging, Flurrying Blades/Claws/Fangs piece like that Sabretooth.

The Clobberin' Time Enchantress is an iffy piece, with no damage-reducer better than Toughness and a max, opening Defense of 15, an opening AV of 9, then 8, and down from there (and it's really the "down from there" I'm concerned with)... she's can potentially be useful, but she's fragile. I was going to use her mostly for theme, but also to give a solid run for the new MOE Team Ability -- hence she and the rest all having Shellhead. Since the new TA lets them take three actions in a row who'll be more likely to have two tokens on them at a time than these folks?

Oddly, I was just thinking about my Morgan LeFay fig yesterday as I was watching JUSTICE LEAGUE episodes off the DVD SuperFiancee rented for me. The two parter with the Demon guest starring was one of the weaker entries there, although, as always, it was nice to see other characters from the DCU brought to life in animated form. (Equally disappointing from a plot perspective, but even more fun from in a guest star context, was the three part, overly belabored "Savage Time", which featured appearances by the Blackhawks and Sgt. Rock and Easy Company.)

I haven't watched those in a while - back when Cartoon Network was running them - but I enjoyed them, too.

Lately I've been starting to turn over in my head your old idea for having figures move one at a time, alternating among the players.

That's a direction I could see experimenting with, though going with it strictly will screw around with Leadership.

I agree that the whole dynamic of the game as currently set up is to make people maneuver as best they can to get in the first big attack, because as a general rule, whoever attacks first manages to win. I can remember games I'd play in Florida against Corey and his clique, where there would be six of us playing, and Corey would inevitably hang back and let everyone else get involved in fighting each other, before he'd come in and take a single devestating turn with his entire force against the highest point figure currently on the board. Generally, given that such games always had time limits on them, this was a winning strategy... once he'd managed to take down someone's big Kingdom Come fig, he'd then retreat, and usually no one could make up the deficit before 10 o'clock rolled around.

Once a game becomes competitive as a game, with winning being the central aim, these things happen. When we reach a stage where we don't feel a player's lack of experience warrants cutting him a break, I suspect one of us will say "Hey! He's hanging back, waiting for us to knock each other down. Get 'im, Ray!"

That style of game play always led to bad feelings, and I would very much like to develop a mechanism that would make more interaction a part of the game... some kind of array of defensive options that a player being attacked could take, perhaps, like dodging, or deploying specifically designated defensive powers as free actions, or something like that. I haven't given it much thought, but I'd vastly prefer some development like that, to what Seth is doing to address the same problem. I just don't LIKE playing with figs whose attack values top out at 9; it strikes me as ridiculous, in a game where characters like Taskmaster have an attack of 11.

The dials and the limited numbers of attributes are likely going to make any attempts at balanced, broadly-applied defensive options a frustrating affair. Giving everyone the same options will likely level the playing field too much, and there's a need to be careful not to lean too heavily on a stat's significance. Still, it's a worthy aim and a reasonably natural next step with house rules.

There are some things I have problems with in the formal game, but I'm nonetheless enjoying each set and the touches being taken to correct the imbalance in the game towards ranged attacks, and towards dials that remain useful rather than being front-loaded. The tweaking of the powers -- something which is now set into being close to an annual thing -- and Feats that key off one or more powers, continue to make the sets interesting for me. Withholding TAs from people who deserve it and saving really cool, special - and, worse still, historically (comics history, that is) significant character versions for prize LEs are the two things I am truly bugged by with Seth's approach. The frequency of 9 AVs... not so much. I'm comfortable with not only an overall, ongoing evolution of the game, but even a straight-on, stripped down view that perhaps the average attack roll is more likely to miss than hit. I see a great many 9 AV vs 16 DV match-ups, where a statistically average roll of 7 will hit.

A great deal's going to depend on the rules one's playing under and the size of the build. The powers and stats are being made and tweaked to work under the official rules and for 300 pt teams. As soon as we start to step outside that it's going to become more imbalanced. Now that we're seeing a return of generics -- and judging from what I know of Supernova it's with a vengeance -- I'm hoping we'll see (via a Feat or two) some mechanics to allow extra actions to low-point swarm teams.