AZS
02/20/2003, 09:55
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Welcome to my reviews and thanks for reading.
I’m writing these to start discussions, have some fun, and I hope you will too.
These reviews look at stats, cost, playability and strategy in the context of 200 and 300 pt games. Also, while I have nothing against mixing sets, to make this a little easier, these are only discussed in relation to the Marvel Universe.
Feel free to object or agree with anything! If you have a valid point, I’ll be more than happy to back you up.
Today’s Infinity Challenge character is: Rogue
Rogue has the auspicious honor of having a whole type of figure named after her. A`la “Rookie Rogue Syndrome” or ‘RRS.’ This ailment stems from a figure being on a flight base, but not actually flying. The only other figures that currently suffer from RRS are Manbat and Dove in DC. Apparently WizKids was able to find a much needed cure for RRS and administered it to Clobberin’ Time for Rookie Invisible girl who can now go through life without the stigma (and oft seen mods) of RRS.
Aside from RRS, Rogue’s ‘thing’ is her Steal Energy. While the power itself doesn’t really properly represent her comic counterpart, it is still fairly useful in the game. Rogue also isn’t bogged down with lots of super powers to jack up her cost, she’s tough and she’ll steal your strength. She doesn’t need much more than that.
Steal Energy plays out like a cross between willpower, regen, and a sort of inverse Incapacitate. Or something like that. It’s a close combat power that allows the figure to heal one click of damage after a successful (damaging) attack. Since the power doesn’t manifest until the second click on all of Rogue’s versions, don’t worry too much about pushing Rogue to hit since you can clear next turn and then hit with SE to heal back up. Sort of a single click yo-yo.
It may seem obvious that there’s no need to have Steal Energy on the very first click since she’s got nowhere to heal back to, however if it had been put there it would have let her push to hit on the first click without taking damage. (or to be specific, take a click of damage and then heal a click for SE after a successful attack.) But that’s a non issue since it ain’t there. Instead we’re left with a blank first click where, at least in the later versions, Super Strength would also have been a nice addition.
The Rookie is the original RRS who seems to fly but can’t touch the sky. Most people write her off because of this, but that’s a little premature. Even though she’s grounded, the Brotherhood team ability lets her move around the board without eating up your actions. She’s tough and has decent average starting stats. Nothing exceptional, but fairly playable for 38 pts. She may not be tournament worthy, but on a themed Brotherhood team she can be fun. There’s not much else to her. SE helps her be somewhat self reliant, and being able to continue attacking without taking damage is a nice touch. So you can send her out into the field alone to mix it up and let her fend for herself. But don’t put her up against anyone dealing serious damage or Steal Energy will only be a stop gap measure on her way to KO.
The Exp Rogue drops her Brotherhood affiliation and falls in with Charlie and his X-crowd. The X-men team ability acts very much like Steal Energy by exchanging clicks of damage. The difference is you’re swapping the damage among Teammates instead of handing out beatings to your opponent. And using the ability costs the person receiving the click an action (sort of like using the Shield ability costs the Shield agent an action).
Well the team ability doesn’t add anything specific to Rogue’s playability. I suppose you could use it in a pinch to give her a click of damage and then let her attack to get it back, but since the receiver of the damage gets an action token, it would be a couple of turns later before Rogue could use Steal Energy to attack and heal that click back. Anyway, its one of those team abilities that is sort of neither really good or bad, but just sort of there with some uses in certain situations.
Exp Rogue originally had the distinction of being the cheapest figure in the game with Invulnerability. Rookie She Hulk has usurped that honor, but Rogue is still a good deal for her points. She has a high movement for a flier, and the 3 starting damage is decent. Attack value and defense are mediocre at 9 and 15. But she’s tough and even with a low defense she’ll be hard to kill. Add in her steal energy to gain back clicks and your opponent could be chipping away at her all game and still not KO. Though that’s pretty unlikely if your opponent has really set his mind to the task. However, if he’s focusing on taking out Rogue, then the rest of your team is free to move in.
In the Vet version Rogue comes into her own with a better attack value for not many more points. But its Charge that really sets her apart. This lets her fly in for an attack carrying a teammate like Wolverine to make a double attack. Rogue’s 3 damage softens the victim up and then a follow up by whomever she’s carrying to finish the job. A nasty 1 – 2 punch that doesn’t take a lot of points to pull off. In a 200 pt game this would be just over 1/2 your team, but in 300 pt games it can be far less than half, freeing up a lot of other points for any other nasty combos you want to unleash on your opponent.
Rogue has 2 clicks of Charge, and if played right with her Steal Energy you have the ability to continuously keep her on those first two clicks. (as long as you don’t take too much damage.) She also does 3 clicks of damage for a while, so you don’t lose a whole lot by pushing. This is one of the rare times that pushing is suggested with a figure that has Invulnerability. Where as typically giving up that click of defense is not recommended, in this case its not too difficult to get it back quickly. Plus using her and pushing will continue to take advantage of her Charge to get and keep two big hitters in the melee and keep your opponent off balance.
The Charge power in a flier is a big benefit for those who want to play a close combat Melee game. This lets you get both figures into the mix and fighting rather than just having one brawler with a loser vulture taxi dragging his butt around the board. Add to that the fact that Rogue is deceptively hard to kill and pair her with someone like wolverine who has regen and you have a fairly self sufficient couple. This is also one of cases where the X-men team ability can be useful. If Rogue has taken some damage and you need to heal her back up, give a click to wolverine and then let him regen it away. It may take a couple of turns to pull this off, but it can still sometimes be better to park Wolvie in some stealth and let them share a little healing than it would be to run all the way back across the board to a medic.
Still, it’s a rarity that this combo is going to be anything more than moderately effective, and its certainly not something to build a healing strategy around, but in a bind it can be a quick fix.
Overall the Skunk Haired energy thief has her uses. She’s not a tournament front runner for a reason, she just doesn’t have the guns or the attack value to be a huge threat. But in friendly competitive games (because hey, we all want to beat our friends, even when we’re playing for fun), Rogue can be effective and long lived. Throw her into the mix with another brawler and let your opponent spend his efforts trying to take her down while in the meantime you’re moving your other guns into position for a serious beating.
Welcome to my reviews and thanks for reading.
I’m writing these to start discussions, have some fun, and I hope you will too.
These reviews look at stats, cost, playability and strategy in the context of 200 and 300 pt games. Also, while I have nothing against mixing sets, to make this a little easier, these are only discussed in relation to the Marvel Universe.
Feel free to object or agree with anything! If you have a valid point, I’ll be more than happy to back you up.
Today’s Infinity Challenge character is: Rogue
Rogue has the auspicious honor of having a whole type of figure named after her. A`la “Rookie Rogue Syndrome” or ‘RRS.’ This ailment stems from a figure being on a flight base, but not actually flying. The only other figures that currently suffer from RRS are Manbat and Dove in DC. Apparently WizKids was able to find a much needed cure for RRS and administered it to Clobberin’ Time for Rookie Invisible girl who can now go through life without the stigma (and oft seen mods) of RRS.
Aside from RRS, Rogue’s ‘thing’ is her Steal Energy. While the power itself doesn’t really properly represent her comic counterpart, it is still fairly useful in the game. Rogue also isn’t bogged down with lots of super powers to jack up her cost, she’s tough and she’ll steal your strength. She doesn’t need much more than that.
Steal Energy plays out like a cross between willpower, regen, and a sort of inverse Incapacitate. Or something like that. It’s a close combat power that allows the figure to heal one click of damage after a successful (damaging) attack. Since the power doesn’t manifest until the second click on all of Rogue’s versions, don’t worry too much about pushing Rogue to hit since you can clear next turn and then hit with SE to heal back up. Sort of a single click yo-yo.
It may seem obvious that there’s no need to have Steal Energy on the very first click since she’s got nowhere to heal back to, however if it had been put there it would have let her push to hit on the first click without taking damage. (or to be specific, take a click of damage and then heal a click for SE after a successful attack.) But that’s a non issue since it ain’t there. Instead we’re left with a blank first click where, at least in the later versions, Super Strength would also have been a nice addition.
The Rookie is the original RRS who seems to fly but can’t touch the sky. Most people write her off because of this, but that’s a little premature. Even though she’s grounded, the Brotherhood team ability lets her move around the board without eating up your actions. She’s tough and has decent average starting stats. Nothing exceptional, but fairly playable for 38 pts. She may not be tournament worthy, but on a themed Brotherhood team she can be fun. There’s not much else to her. SE helps her be somewhat self reliant, and being able to continue attacking without taking damage is a nice touch. So you can send her out into the field alone to mix it up and let her fend for herself. But don’t put her up against anyone dealing serious damage or Steal Energy will only be a stop gap measure on her way to KO.
The Exp Rogue drops her Brotherhood affiliation and falls in with Charlie and his X-crowd. The X-men team ability acts very much like Steal Energy by exchanging clicks of damage. The difference is you’re swapping the damage among Teammates instead of handing out beatings to your opponent. And using the ability costs the person receiving the click an action (sort of like using the Shield ability costs the Shield agent an action).
Well the team ability doesn’t add anything specific to Rogue’s playability. I suppose you could use it in a pinch to give her a click of damage and then let her attack to get it back, but since the receiver of the damage gets an action token, it would be a couple of turns later before Rogue could use Steal Energy to attack and heal that click back. Anyway, its one of those team abilities that is sort of neither really good or bad, but just sort of there with some uses in certain situations.
Exp Rogue originally had the distinction of being the cheapest figure in the game with Invulnerability. Rookie She Hulk has usurped that honor, but Rogue is still a good deal for her points. She has a high movement for a flier, and the 3 starting damage is decent. Attack value and defense are mediocre at 9 and 15. But she’s tough and even with a low defense she’ll be hard to kill. Add in her steal energy to gain back clicks and your opponent could be chipping away at her all game and still not KO. Though that’s pretty unlikely if your opponent has really set his mind to the task. However, if he’s focusing on taking out Rogue, then the rest of your team is free to move in.
In the Vet version Rogue comes into her own with a better attack value for not many more points. But its Charge that really sets her apart. This lets her fly in for an attack carrying a teammate like Wolverine to make a double attack. Rogue’s 3 damage softens the victim up and then a follow up by whomever she’s carrying to finish the job. A nasty 1 – 2 punch that doesn’t take a lot of points to pull off. In a 200 pt game this would be just over 1/2 your team, but in 300 pt games it can be far less than half, freeing up a lot of other points for any other nasty combos you want to unleash on your opponent.
Rogue has 2 clicks of Charge, and if played right with her Steal Energy you have the ability to continuously keep her on those first two clicks. (as long as you don’t take too much damage.) She also does 3 clicks of damage for a while, so you don’t lose a whole lot by pushing. This is one of the rare times that pushing is suggested with a figure that has Invulnerability. Where as typically giving up that click of defense is not recommended, in this case its not too difficult to get it back quickly. Plus using her and pushing will continue to take advantage of her Charge to get and keep two big hitters in the melee and keep your opponent off balance.
The Charge power in a flier is a big benefit for those who want to play a close combat Melee game. This lets you get both figures into the mix and fighting rather than just having one brawler with a loser vulture taxi dragging his butt around the board. Add to that the fact that Rogue is deceptively hard to kill and pair her with someone like wolverine who has regen and you have a fairly self sufficient couple. This is also one of cases where the X-men team ability can be useful. If Rogue has taken some damage and you need to heal her back up, give a click to wolverine and then let him regen it away. It may take a couple of turns to pull this off, but it can still sometimes be better to park Wolvie in some stealth and let them share a little healing than it would be to run all the way back across the board to a medic.
Still, it’s a rarity that this combo is going to be anything more than moderately effective, and its certainly not something to build a healing strategy around, but in a bind it can be a quick fix.
Overall the Skunk Haired energy thief has her uses. She’s not a tournament front runner for a reason, she just doesn’t have the guns or the attack value to be a huge threat. But in friendly competitive games (because hey, we all want to beat our friends, even when we’re playing for fun), Rogue can be effective and long lived. Throw her into the mix with another brawler and let your opponent spend his efforts trying to take her down while in the meantime you’re moving your other guns into position for a serious beating.