Odds & Ends Again
(Cleaned up, corrected and mildly expanded the following day, when I'm less addled and once I've seen some of the official rulings.)
A little mid-weekend surveying.
A skin flare-up's left me terribly uncomfortable. I'm finally a little under control, but the meds have me disoriented.
I made progress on my next zine for Legends. The MCs are under way. I would have gotten much farther but a creative challenge from one of the members took me down a path that burnt more time than it should have.
I took care of most of the comics organizing and bagging, though as I contemplate moving some of these downstairs I'm faced with a much larger mess. Once bagged, though, stacks of comics become a tower of planes with low friction. Whee! Thanks to DC I could even do a 52 Pick-Up joke. I could, but I won't.
No new comics arrived yesterday, so I know the drill. Presumably sometime tomorrow they're emerge from the ass end of the Windy City and show up on the move again.
Apparently listening to concerns from the fans, and with the pre-release events for Origin coming up two weeks from yesterday, Wizkids added the Battlefield Conditions, Feats and Bystanders for the set to the Origin gallery.
Too much there for me to get into in exhaustive detail right now beyond some quick, first observations. I'll likely look back on this later with a tinge of embarrassment over what I missed noting or misconstrued during my quick run-through.
One repeat in the bunch, with Pounce being protected from retirement (for anyone who cares -- it's mainly significant in getting an insight into what the current game designer is endorsing) finally getting officially into a DC set.
There are some interesting boosts given to existing powers.
Mind Control can now be used to give a friendly character a second action in the same turn via the 14 point Compel.
We finally have a means of using (potentially) Force Blast at range via Repulsor. There's a -1 to the Attack Value, but it gives an opportunity to deal some damage in addition to the push back. An additional advantage is that if one has Force Blast showing and is playing Repulsor using that card (ie taking the -1 to the Attack Value) then any ranged attack, including one using Energy Explosion, will result in the characters being knocked back. So, an EE hit could scatter a cluster of pieces.
Thwart not only allows for the temporary nullification of a Feat Card on an opposing piece, but adds a 15 point option to someone with Mastermind since the prerequisite is either Outwit or Mastermind. This is the first time a Feat itself can be nullified. Since previously someone could effectively switch off most Feats by Outwitting a prerequisite power I appreciated the special touches used to make this both special and more long-lasting. This is an excellent card for any piece that's strong on Mastermind and/or Outwit since it enables them to be more useful through various turns. Since Thwart is a Power Action a character showing Outwit could use this as an action to nullify someone's Feat while still using Outwit as a free action on the same turn.
TAs get picked on by Outwitters via Dissent. Since the text of the card starts with "When the character uses Outwit it may choose to counter..." and both the Power Cosmic and Quintessence says their powers cannot be countered, it's likely to be tricky. We already know that the Disbanded! Battlefield Condition nullifies Power Cosmic and Quintessence for a game, but it does so by simply stating that TAs are ignored. The language of "countering" will likely be the key in the ruling.
Indeed, I've just checked on this and the official ruling is that Dissent can't turn those cosmic TAs off.
The somewhat unfortunately-named Mercenary provides a somewhat awkward way to bring a piece with no TA onto a team for as little as 10 points or as much as 20. It'll be more significant for bringing in lower- to moderate-point pieces. The first thought was that this could bring Jay Garrick into the JSA fold, but it would only be in effect while adjacent to JSA members who are of a higher point cost. At the moment that's not all that many -- the Golden Age Starman, the new vet Hawkman and seven others. It would have to be a fairly high-point JSA team.
Disintegrate is a 7 point card that amps up Exploit Weakness, Close Combat Expert and even Poison with a free, pre-attack, destruction of an adjacent object even if it's being carried or stood on. I expect this one to see plenty of use because it's inexpensive, adds a useful layer to several powers, and people not only want to get rid of objects others are using for Stealth but may be sick of seeing opponents using Nanobots on every team.
Coordination is a long-overdue, 6-point fix for a themed team, allowing them to functionally duck and allow a teammate to get a clear shot. It'll mostly get used as a specialized form of Trick Shot, wherein a ranged hitter will be protected by one or more, better-defended teammates.
Triage is a 10-point gamble, potentially allowing a Support piece to heal more than one teammate in the same action.
Entrench gives a 5-point boost to Defend and Enhancement pieces, though since it's just against knock-back and critical hits my initial reaction is that I don't expect it to get much serious use.
Oh, they posted the Animal Master LE, too. If I ever see it on the battlefield I hope to be running a piece with 5 Damage and Super Strength, and get to smash him with a heavy object, taking him out in one blow. Sure, I'll take a click of damage in Mystics retaliation, but it'll be worth it.
The Battlefield Conditions I'm not going to comment on now, nor the bystanders.
Too else much to do today.
(Cleaned up, corrected and mildly expanded the following day, when I'm less addled and once I've seen some of the official rulings.)
A little mid-weekend surveying.
A skin flare-up's left me terribly uncomfortable. I'm finally a little under control, but the meds have me disoriented.
I made progress on my next zine for Legends. The MCs are under way. I would have gotten much farther but a creative challenge from one of the members took me down a path that burnt more time than it should have.
I took care of most of the comics organizing and bagging, though as I contemplate moving some of these downstairs I'm faced with a much larger mess. Once bagged, though, stacks of comics become a tower of planes with low friction. Whee! Thanks to DC I could even do a 52 Pick-Up joke. I could, but I won't.
No new comics arrived yesterday, so I know the drill. Presumably sometime tomorrow they're emerge from the ass end of the Windy City and show up on the move again.
Apparently listening to concerns from the fans, and with the pre-release events for Origin coming up two weeks from yesterday, Wizkids added the Battlefield Conditions, Feats and Bystanders for the set to the Origin gallery.
Too much there for me to get into in exhaustive detail right now beyond some quick, first observations. I'll likely look back on this later with a tinge of embarrassment over what I missed noting or misconstrued during my quick run-through.
One repeat in the bunch, with Pounce being protected from retirement (for anyone who cares -- it's mainly significant in getting an insight into what the current game designer is endorsing) finally getting officially into a DC set.
There are some interesting boosts given to existing powers.
Mind Control can now be used to give a friendly character a second action in the same turn via the 14 point Compel.
We finally have a means of using (potentially) Force Blast at range via Repulsor. There's a -1 to the Attack Value, but it gives an opportunity to deal some damage in addition to the push back. An additional advantage is that if one has Force Blast showing and is playing Repulsor using that card (ie taking the -1 to the Attack Value) then any ranged attack, including one using Energy Explosion, will result in the characters being knocked back. So, an EE hit could scatter a cluster of pieces.
Thwart not only allows for the temporary nullification of a Feat Card on an opposing piece, but adds a 15 point option to someone with Mastermind since the prerequisite is either Outwit or Mastermind. This is the first time a Feat itself can be nullified. Since previously someone could effectively switch off most Feats by Outwitting a prerequisite power I appreciated the special touches used to make this both special and more long-lasting. This is an excellent card for any piece that's strong on Mastermind and/or Outwit since it enables them to be more useful through various turns. Since Thwart is a Power Action a character showing Outwit could use this as an action to nullify someone's Feat while still using Outwit as a free action on the same turn.
TAs get picked on by Outwitters via Dissent. Since the text of the card starts with "When the character uses Outwit it may choose to counter..." and both the Power Cosmic and Quintessence says their powers cannot be countered, it's likely to be tricky. We already know that the Disbanded! Battlefield Condition nullifies Power Cosmic and Quintessence for a game, but it does so by simply stating that TAs are ignored. The language of "countering" will likely be the key in the ruling.
Indeed, I've just checked on this and the official ruling is that Dissent can't turn those cosmic TAs off.
The somewhat unfortunately-named Mercenary provides a somewhat awkward way to bring a piece with no TA onto a team for as little as 10 points or as much as 20. It'll be more significant for bringing in lower- to moderate-point pieces. The first thought was that this could bring Jay Garrick into the JSA fold, but it would only be in effect while adjacent to JSA members who are of a higher point cost. At the moment that's not all that many -- the Golden Age Starman, the new vet Hawkman and seven others. It would have to be a fairly high-point JSA team.
Disintegrate is a 7 point card that amps up Exploit Weakness, Close Combat Expert and even Poison with a free, pre-attack, destruction of an adjacent object even if it's being carried or stood on. I expect this one to see plenty of use because it's inexpensive, adds a useful layer to several powers, and people not only want to get rid of objects others are using for Stealth but may be sick of seeing opponents using Nanobots on every team.
Coordination is a long-overdue, 6-point fix for a themed team, allowing them to functionally duck and allow a teammate to get a clear shot. It'll mostly get used as a specialized form of Trick Shot, wherein a ranged hitter will be protected by one or more, better-defended teammates.
Triage is a 10-point gamble, potentially allowing a Support piece to heal more than one teammate in the same action.
Entrench gives a 5-point boost to Defend and Enhancement pieces, though since it's just against knock-back and critical hits my initial reaction is that I don't expect it to get much serious use.
Oh, they posted the Animal Master LE, too. If I ever see it on the battlefield I hope to be running a piece with 5 Damage and Super Strength, and get to smash him with a heavy object, taking him out in one blow. Sure, I'll take a click of damage in Mystics retaliation, but it'll be worth it.
The Battlefield Conditions I'm not going to comment on now, nor the bystanders.
Too else much to do today.
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Comments
Choose a character.
Give the character a power action. Place a thwart token on a target feat card assigned to a character that is 10 or fewer squares from the character and to which the character has a clear line of fire. The target feat is ignored until a character to which it is assigned is given a power action specifically to remove the thwart token.
As such, it's pretty much a long awaited Outwit that works on Feat Cards.
Similarly, DISSENT is an even longer awaited Outwit that works on Team Abilities. In fact, DISSENT is Outwit, it utilizes the power Outwit but switches its target to a TA rather than a power.
I suspect I'll simply have both powers, Thwart and Outwit, work the same way as Outwit does under my House Rules -- doing it from range works as a ranged attack, doing it from an adjacent square is automatic. Either way, I think both cards are much needed additions to the game.
As I first read them I was clear on how Thwart was targeting Feats, but by the time I did the write-up they'd blended in my mind.
Having Thwart and Dissent work as Outwit does under your house rules does seem the best solution for absorbing them, yes.
I was at the worst juncture in skin problems when I hastily put that post up, still being very jumpy and having difficulty focusing because of my skin, while the meds were starting to dull me in general.
You didn't mention PROTECT THE INNOCENT, which seems to be intended to counter awful teams like the one with all the Lian Harpers on it.
Also, my recollection of COORDINATION is that lines of sight will be open both ways... which is to say, a shooter will not be blocked by their teammates when they shoot, but they will also not be blocked by their teammates when they are being shot AT. So it's kind of a double edged sword.
Ah, well, such is the way of Clix. It could be that the original intent was as we figured but playtesting found it led to too much abuse as ranged gunners could hide behind powerful teammates and attack in a way that didn't seem very heroic either..? Or, it could simply be a mistake in wording that everyone's stuck with. At this stage it doesn't matter.
I didn't give attention to Protect The Innocent both because it was a Battlefield Condition (and so something one could only use once in a tournament) and because it was something leaked and briefly discussed back on January 9th.
I'm sure it will see a good deal of use as people attempt to foil the plans of bystander abusers, but it's not something like a Feat that one would build a team with the specific idea of using it. Of course, with Thwart soon to be in play we can't even presume that Feats paid for will get as much use as intended.
I do like your observations on how it would be helpful for a Brilliant Tactician, though. That's... well... brilliant.