AZS
03/06/2003, 07:32
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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: Nightmare
Nightmare.
This guy doesn’t get a lot of respect. Why is that? Well for starters, you have to keep him out of reach of small children.
Have you seen his sculpt? They won’t let you take him on an airline because he’s a deadly weapon. Captain Pointy.
But deadly sculpt aside, this guy isn’t half bad a first glance.
He starts with a 14 attack value.
Let me reiterate that for everyone in the back row, he’s got a freakin’ 14 attack value!!!!!!!! That is THE highest starting attack value in the entire game. The whole game. Everyone. Only Thanos has a higher AV, and that’s 3 clicks into his dial!
Let me put it in perspective, with a 14 attack value you would need to roll a critical miss in order to have any chance of missing like 90% of the figures in this game. (*not an actual figure, just a guestimate.). Your opponent has a 17 defense? You need a critical miss not to hit.
Want to take out a Unique Wasp? No prob, you only need a 5. Invisible girl got you down? You only need a 4 to knock her block off.
And its not like the starting attack value is just a one click wonder. His AV stays high for the whole dial. On his 5th click its still a 12. People are impressed unique Wolverine starts with a 12.
Imagine getting rid of the stress of “will I hit or miss?” because you needed a 6 or 7 to hit.
~Gone.
You’re just rolling the dice for fun at this point. Maybe you can get a critical hit. Maybe you can roll knockback to put someone into the wall. But you hardly have to worry about missing.
Nightmare’s other stats are very nice as well. He deals 3 damage for a long 5 clicks, starts with a high 18 defense, and even movement is very good at a consistent 10.
On the surface this guy has a lot going for him so far.
For super powers he doesn’t really shine with incapacitate and Invulnerability, but he does have half a dozen clicks of something rarely seen in IC and CT, Enhancement. This power adds 1 click of damage to ranged attacks (including, but not limited to: EE, Incapacitate, and Mind Control). Basically Enhancement is just like the SHIELD team ability with 2 major differences, it doesn’t cost you an action to use (yay!) but it cannot be used with RCE (boo!).
But here is the real kicker, they gave enhancement to a Melee figure. :confused: Nightmare is only good for close combat, yet he has a super power that specifically only works with ranged combat? Kinda counter intuitive.
There are circumstances where you can put this to use, but they are few and far between. When Nighty is in Close Combat, you can place a ranger one square outside of the target but still in base with Nightmare so the ranger can shoot in. Another option is to use Nightmare with a flier (read: Taxi) with Running Shot. This way the flier can use enhancement while at the same time getting Nightmare into position for melee. There are probably a few other combos, but they’re not coming to me at the moment.
You might wonder why just using Nightmare to boost damage isn’t a suggestion. Well, even before Xplosion announced a bunch of new Enhancement enhanced figures who would be good for this, using Nightmare like that was still not a great idea. Why use a very expensive figure solely to boost the damage of a ranged attacker? Sure you’re saving an action versus using a Shield dude, but even then you could work it out between points and leadership to make that more viable than Nighty. But the biggest reason is that if Nightmare is on your team, you should use him! Use the big attack value and good damage. Use the deep dial and high defenses, don’t just leave him perched on a rooftop helping a ranger and out of combat!
So in the end, 6 clicks of Enhancement ends up being a novelty prize on the character more than an actual useful power. Too bad too, because it has such great strategic advantages.
Enhancement aside, Nightmare also has gobs and gobs of Incapacitate. *Sigh* Ok, I think maybe I’ve reached the end of my ‘incapacitate bashing.’ Yeah, the power probably costs a couple points more than it should for its usefulness. And yeah, it does have some significant, if limited, potential, but that’s not why it such a disappointment to see it on Nightmare’s dial. Its because it is just unnecessary. Its overkill. And what’s worse is that it can only be used in close combat, at a point where ‘Mare is already dealing 3 damage.
There have been occasions while facing figures with Invulnerability when Incapacitating them to push for a click was better than hitting for 3, and 1 gets through. But in nearly all other circumstances dealing the straight 3 damage is going to be better.
So if Enhancement is...difficult, and incapacitate is unnecessary, what else is left? ‘Mare also starts with 3 clicks of Invulnerability and a sustained high defense. This makes him both hard to hit and hard to hurt. Always a good thing. He also has a substantially deep dial of 10 clicks and Steal Energy on the last 2 to help keep him life support. So he’s just all around tough to kill. But not that tough, specifically, he only has 1 mere click of toughness after Invulnerability and then nothing. So if your opponent can hit that continued high defense of 16 (after toughness), then he’ll take damage naturally and burn through the rest of his clicks.
Playing Nightmare; Even though he has a high movement, you should still spend the points to give him a taxi. Why spend all those points on ‘Mare just to have him wander around on the board limited by elevation and hindering terrain when you can fly him up for a same turn beating? So while his 10 movement is nice, it doesn’t help him a whole lot.
If you feel you can keep him from taking significant damage, push him if you need to with full confidence that his stats don’t fall for at least half his dial. But if he’s going to take even minimal damage then be careful, because like mentioned above, after Inv is gone, he can go down hill quickly with just a few hits. Your opponent will have to make a real effort to take him out though, because even without toughness he still has a deep dial, but for 163 points I’m sure he can muster the motivation.
And that cost, 163 points, is the real crux of any discussion about Nightmare. In the end, he’s very useful, very hard to kill and can hit pretty much anyone you want. But, is that worth the price? Maybe, but probably not in tournament play. He’s just too limited and to reliant on his transportation to be really effective. And if your opponent takes him out that’s a huge chunk of points for him and a probably the majority of your team, meaning its very unlikely you could make up those points without him.
In friendly games though, especially high point games, he can certainly be effective and fun to play. Plus your opponent is bound to underestimate him and not realize what he can do if you manage to get him into melee.
But even if you don’t plan on playing him, at least you have the comfort of knowing that he can be put to good use as a very effective back scratcher. *aaaahhhhh*
If you would like to keep up with when these reviews are posted, you can subscribe to the review list thread (linked in my signature). It is updated whenever a new review is posted so you'll never have to hunt around on the board to find the latest post.
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: Nightmare
Nightmare.
This guy doesn’t get a lot of respect. Why is that? Well for starters, you have to keep him out of reach of small children.
Have you seen his sculpt? They won’t let you take him on an airline because he’s a deadly weapon. Captain Pointy.
But deadly sculpt aside, this guy isn’t half bad a first glance.
He starts with a 14 attack value.
Let me reiterate that for everyone in the back row, he’s got a freakin’ 14 attack value!!!!!!!! That is THE highest starting attack value in the entire game. The whole game. Everyone. Only Thanos has a higher AV, and that’s 3 clicks into his dial!
Let me put it in perspective, with a 14 attack value you would need to roll a critical miss in order to have any chance of missing like 90% of the figures in this game. (*not an actual figure, just a guestimate.). Your opponent has a 17 defense? You need a critical miss not to hit.
Want to take out a Unique Wasp? No prob, you only need a 5. Invisible girl got you down? You only need a 4 to knock her block off.
And its not like the starting attack value is just a one click wonder. His AV stays high for the whole dial. On his 5th click its still a 12. People are impressed unique Wolverine starts with a 12.
Imagine getting rid of the stress of “will I hit or miss?” because you needed a 6 or 7 to hit.
~Gone.
You’re just rolling the dice for fun at this point. Maybe you can get a critical hit. Maybe you can roll knockback to put someone into the wall. But you hardly have to worry about missing.
Nightmare’s other stats are very nice as well. He deals 3 damage for a long 5 clicks, starts with a high 18 defense, and even movement is very good at a consistent 10.
On the surface this guy has a lot going for him so far.
For super powers he doesn’t really shine with incapacitate and Invulnerability, but he does have half a dozen clicks of something rarely seen in IC and CT, Enhancement. This power adds 1 click of damage to ranged attacks (including, but not limited to: EE, Incapacitate, and Mind Control). Basically Enhancement is just like the SHIELD team ability with 2 major differences, it doesn’t cost you an action to use (yay!) but it cannot be used with RCE (boo!).
But here is the real kicker, they gave enhancement to a Melee figure. :confused: Nightmare is only good for close combat, yet he has a super power that specifically only works with ranged combat? Kinda counter intuitive.
There are circumstances where you can put this to use, but they are few and far between. When Nighty is in Close Combat, you can place a ranger one square outside of the target but still in base with Nightmare so the ranger can shoot in. Another option is to use Nightmare with a flier (read: Taxi) with Running Shot. This way the flier can use enhancement while at the same time getting Nightmare into position for melee. There are probably a few other combos, but they’re not coming to me at the moment.
You might wonder why just using Nightmare to boost damage isn’t a suggestion. Well, even before Xplosion announced a bunch of new Enhancement enhanced figures who would be good for this, using Nightmare like that was still not a great idea. Why use a very expensive figure solely to boost the damage of a ranged attacker? Sure you’re saving an action versus using a Shield dude, but even then you could work it out between points and leadership to make that more viable than Nighty. But the biggest reason is that if Nightmare is on your team, you should use him! Use the big attack value and good damage. Use the deep dial and high defenses, don’t just leave him perched on a rooftop helping a ranger and out of combat!
So in the end, 6 clicks of Enhancement ends up being a novelty prize on the character more than an actual useful power. Too bad too, because it has such great strategic advantages.
Enhancement aside, Nightmare also has gobs and gobs of Incapacitate. *Sigh* Ok, I think maybe I’ve reached the end of my ‘incapacitate bashing.’ Yeah, the power probably costs a couple points more than it should for its usefulness. And yeah, it does have some significant, if limited, potential, but that’s not why it such a disappointment to see it on Nightmare’s dial. Its because it is just unnecessary. Its overkill. And what’s worse is that it can only be used in close combat, at a point where ‘Mare is already dealing 3 damage.
There have been occasions while facing figures with Invulnerability when Incapacitating them to push for a click was better than hitting for 3, and 1 gets through. But in nearly all other circumstances dealing the straight 3 damage is going to be better.
So if Enhancement is...difficult, and incapacitate is unnecessary, what else is left? ‘Mare also starts with 3 clicks of Invulnerability and a sustained high defense. This makes him both hard to hit and hard to hurt. Always a good thing. He also has a substantially deep dial of 10 clicks and Steal Energy on the last 2 to help keep him life support. So he’s just all around tough to kill. But not that tough, specifically, he only has 1 mere click of toughness after Invulnerability and then nothing. So if your opponent can hit that continued high defense of 16 (after toughness), then he’ll take damage naturally and burn through the rest of his clicks.
Playing Nightmare; Even though he has a high movement, you should still spend the points to give him a taxi. Why spend all those points on ‘Mare just to have him wander around on the board limited by elevation and hindering terrain when you can fly him up for a same turn beating? So while his 10 movement is nice, it doesn’t help him a whole lot.
If you feel you can keep him from taking significant damage, push him if you need to with full confidence that his stats don’t fall for at least half his dial. But if he’s going to take even minimal damage then be careful, because like mentioned above, after Inv is gone, he can go down hill quickly with just a few hits. Your opponent will have to make a real effort to take him out though, because even without toughness he still has a deep dial, but for 163 points I’m sure he can muster the motivation.
And that cost, 163 points, is the real crux of any discussion about Nightmare. In the end, he’s very useful, very hard to kill and can hit pretty much anyone you want. But, is that worth the price? Maybe, but probably not in tournament play. He’s just too limited and to reliant on his transportation to be really effective. And if your opponent takes him out that’s a huge chunk of points for him and a probably the majority of your team, meaning its very unlikely you could make up those points without him.
In friendly games though, especially high point games, he can certainly be effective and fun to play. Plus your opponent is bound to underestimate him and not realize what he can do if you manage to get him into melee.
But even if you don’t plan on playing him, at least you have the comfort of knowing that he can be put to good use as a very effective back scratcher. *aaaahhhhh*
If you would like to keep up with when these reviews are posted, you can subscribe to the review list thread (linked in my signature). It is updated whenever a new review is posted so you'll never have to hunt around on the board to find the latest post.