BadHumours
07/25/2011, 12:58
Two days ago, I played in the 500/250 floor event at Comix City Too in Madison, TN. The format was 500 points, Golden Age sans feats, with at least 250 points coming from the Captain America set. We had a decent turnout of somewhere between 10 and 16 players. Here’s what I played:
Soldiers
89 ca001 Captain America
83 ca040 Captain America
98 ca043 Darkstar
69 gsx017 Domino
100 sec104 The Thing
61 aa022 Hitman
500 Points
My friends and I toyed around with several other teams before I settled on this one. Our Quasar/Nick Fury team had quite a bit of power, but had difficulty with Stealth (Jesse, a player I didn’t have the chance to face, solved this problem by adding HoT Cap). Our HYDRA build was wonderfully annoying and had the potential to completely shut down some teams, but I didn’t like the thought of giving my opponents so many essentially free 25 point HYDRA agent kills. Maelstrom/Professor X looked nasty, but I had trouble figuring out how to fill out the team. My friend Ian ended up playing the duo with Nightshade, SI Spider Man, and some researchers, going on to win several rounds before missing the top 4 on points.
The Soldier team, on the other hand, had answers to everything I expected to see. Everyone on the team, with the exception of Hitman, does at least three damage. Probability Control and Perplex ensure that I hit much more often than I miss, and Darkstar is simply a beast. I knew we would be playing on the Helicarrier maps where hindering terrain is at a premium, so creating my own was essential to my ability to hide behind my stealthy figures. Because I did not anticipate a lot of flying or leap/climb figures, I also figured that the Smoke would come in handy for limiting my opponents’ movement. This prediction proved to be correct.
Round 1: Jason, with Avengers. Helicarrier 1.
Jason is an excellent player and a wonderful sport. His team, like mine, featured Bucky Cap and Peanut Cap, adding Falcon to take advantage of the bff trait. He rounded out the team with Avengers Black Panther, Hawkeye, and CA Black Widow, the latter two with the Thunderbolts ATA. Seeing Darkstar, he chose Ultimates.
I felt that my team had a decent chance in an out-and-out brawl, but the amount of running shot on his team gave me pause. So instead of charging straight in, I moved my Soldiers as a column into the narrow space between a helicopter (blocking terrain) and the side of the board, hiding behind Domino, Hitman, and a Smoke Cloud extending two squares in front of the pair. Hawkeye and Black Widow took potshots through the cloud, but were stymied by Domino’s energy shield and Hitman’s 18 defense, copied from Peanut Cap via the Defenders TA.
With my Cap and Thing threatening to charge in next turn, and the smoke cloud keeping his Caps away, he sent in Falcon and Black Panther to plug the gap while Steve and Bucky began working their way around behind me. I attacked with Hitman, flew him out with Darkstar, and charged Black Panther with my Cap and Thing (finishing Panther with Quake, so as not to lose Thing’s object). Falcon and Domino traded hits until a critical miss took her off the board, but Falcon fell to Peanut Cap soon after, allowing Thing to Charge in and one-shot Hawkeye with his heavy object during extra turns, giving me the round.
Over the course of this round, I rolled three critical hits. Jason was a little incredulous, but he handled it with dignity.
237-69
Round 2: Stephen, with Scientists. Helicarrier 4.
Stephen had another take on the Maelstrom/Professor X combo, featuring Scientist Supreme and, of course, a swarm of researchers to Enhance Professor X. He won the die roll, and positioned Maelstrom and Scientist Supreme atop elevated terrain. I worked my way through the maze of corridors on my side of the map over the course of a few turns while he quietly waited. Finally I took up position with Domino and Hitman in the doorway protected by Smoke Cloud, with the rest of my team huddled around them using their support powers. I sniped at him for a turn, damaging Scientist Supreme, before he shot out a wall with Maelstrom, missing Bucky Cap with his Professor X attack.
I went on the offensive, running out with Peanut Cap and throwing my shield, killing Scientist Supreme and damaging Maelstrom. I converged on Maelstrom with all my firepower, including a close combat shot from Thing with a heavy object, and managed to drop him to his last click. He responded by pushing Professor X to blast Thing for 5, rolling doubles to my dismay. With Thing no longer basing Maelstrom, he was able to administer his own blast for 5, dividing it among three of my characters to maximize his healing.
Next round, I Charged in with Cap, basing him once again, and cleared with the rest of my team. He passed as well, and on my next turn, I managed to whittle him down to his last click again before I had to pass the turn over. Professor X blasted Peanut Cap, rolling doubles again (a crit, in fact), but I pointed out that double-base figures do not take knockback, so he settled with finishing off Cap with Maelstrom before dying under assault from the rest of my figures. At some point, time was called, and the round ended before I was able to finish off the rest of his figures, but not before he was able to take out Domino.
323-152
Round 3: Craig, with some pounders. Helicarrier 2.
Craig was playing a straightforward but terrifying team of The Captain, Luke Cage, and HoT Thor. He won the roll and positioned himself atop a plane, ready to throw Asgardian doom down on the whole map. I attempted to re-create the situation from the first round by hiding behind a helicopter, but Craig, having none of that, simply shot a hole in it, exposing Thing. Not wishing to push my figures off of their high-damage first clicks against Craig’s team of Impervious monsters, I chose to Perplex Thing’s defense up and move Domino (who had been carried by Darkstar) into hindering terrain with a view before clearing with the rest of my team. Thor hit him anyway for (5 – 2 =) 3 damage. Whatever, it’s Thor.
On my turn, I moved Hitman into the middle of the board and moved Bucky up into Running Shot range. I Perplexed up Thing’s speed before using Darkstar’s Telekinesis to catapult him 8 squares almost straight forward, putting him in position to Charge five squares and smack Thor with his heavy object for 3 damage of his own. Thor and Luke Cage finished off Thing, but Peanut Cap charged in and, with help from the rest of my team, put Thor to rest. Luke Cage charged in and brawled with Cap for a while, and the rest of my team sniped from afar, slowly whittling him down. Seeing Darkstar’s Psychic Blast, Craig took her down with two attacks from The Captain. Eventually, Luke Cage knocked Peanut Cap down to his last click, allowing him to Outwit The Captain’s Impervious, enabling Domino and Hitman to do a few clicks of damage to him, reducing his effectiveness somewhat. Luke Cage finished off Peanut Cap, but died under assault from Bucky Cap and Hitman the next turn. Time was called, so the match ended at
324-287.
I’m not sure how that match would have ended without time controls. I still had Bucky, Domino, and Hitman on their top clicks with two theme probs against a wounded Mjolnir Cap, but his Invulnerability would have kept me from doing very much damage to him at a time. Meanwhile, his damage output was still high enough to nearly kill any of my figures with one shot. The outcome was in doubt.
Top 4: BA, with Robots. Helicarrier 3 (my tour is complete!).
BA is running a fun team with Super Adaptoid, tons of little Adaptoids, and Ultron. He advances with his Adaptoids, hiding them on a row of objects. He properly keeps Ultron back as reserve. I simply place Domino on elevated hindering, move my Soldiers just outside of Ultron’s range, and pass the turn. Over the next few turns, Domino snipes Super Adaptoid down to his much more effective last clicks (whoops), but everyone else continues the stand-off with minimal repositioning. Finally, I move Thing up behind some blocking terrain, positioning him to Charge/Quake the adaptoids, and BA moves Ultron up to give him a shot at Thing. I use Darkstar’s Telekinesis to fling Thing all the way across the board and push him to smack Ultron with a heavy object. Ultron stays alive with Mastermind for a turn or so, but eventually he goes down under assault from Domino, both Caps, and Darkstar. Hitman continues shooting Adaptoids left and right, and eventually Thing and Peanut Cap manage to finish off Super Adaptoid, leaving his smaller brethren to fall quickly thereafter.
499-0.
Craig and I end up in first and second, and we each receive a Scorpio Key and a map for our efforts.
I was extremely happy with how my team functioned in the Captain America floor metagame. Each figure on the team pulled its weight individually, and the figures worked together extremely well. On the other hand, the team brought with it quite a few difficult decisions. Because my strategy often revolved around keeping the team tightly clumped together, every move had to be carefully plotted, with many lines of fire calculated. My victories in the last two rounds depended strongly on my ability to use Telekinesis, and the new rules make figure placement extremely important when using that power. All of this combined with my usual methodical rate of play definitely cost me points due to time limits in nearly every round.
Like all events at Comix City Too, this was a very fun event, well run with a friendly competitive atmosphere. My thanks go to
Mark for running such a wonderful store,
Sean for all of the work he does organizing these events,
Jon for allowing me to use his figures, and
all of my opponents for keeping things friendly and not saying a word of reproach to my slow play and constant fiddling with Smoke Cloud tokens.
I look forward to next time, guys.
Soldiers
89 ca001 Captain America
83 ca040 Captain America
98 ca043 Darkstar
69 gsx017 Domino
100 sec104 The Thing
61 aa022 Hitman
500 Points
My friends and I toyed around with several other teams before I settled on this one. Our Quasar/Nick Fury team had quite a bit of power, but had difficulty with Stealth (Jesse, a player I didn’t have the chance to face, solved this problem by adding HoT Cap). Our HYDRA build was wonderfully annoying and had the potential to completely shut down some teams, but I didn’t like the thought of giving my opponents so many essentially free 25 point HYDRA agent kills. Maelstrom/Professor X looked nasty, but I had trouble figuring out how to fill out the team. My friend Ian ended up playing the duo with Nightshade, SI Spider Man, and some researchers, going on to win several rounds before missing the top 4 on points.
The Soldier team, on the other hand, had answers to everything I expected to see. Everyone on the team, with the exception of Hitman, does at least three damage. Probability Control and Perplex ensure that I hit much more often than I miss, and Darkstar is simply a beast. I knew we would be playing on the Helicarrier maps where hindering terrain is at a premium, so creating my own was essential to my ability to hide behind my stealthy figures. Because I did not anticipate a lot of flying or leap/climb figures, I also figured that the Smoke would come in handy for limiting my opponents’ movement. This prediction proved to be correct.
Round 1: Jason, with Avengers. Helicarrier 1.
Jason is an excellent player and a wonderful sport. His team, like mine, featured Bucky Cap and Peanut Cap, adding Falcon to take advantage of the bff trait. He rounded out the team with Avengers Black Panther, Hawkeye, and CA Black Widow, the latter two with the Thunderbolts ATA. Seeing Darkstar, he chose Ultimates.
I felt that my team had a decent chance in an out-and-out brawl, but the amount of running shot on his team gave me pause. So instead of charging straight in, I moved my Soldiers as a column into the narrow space between a helicopter (blocking terrain) and the side of the board, hiding behind Domino, Hitman, and a Smoke Cloud extending two squares in front of the pair. Hawkeye and Black Widow took potshots through the cloud, but were stymied by Domino’s energy shield and Hitman’s 18 defense, copied from Peanut Cap via the Defenders TA.
With my Cap and Thing threatening to charge in next turn, and the smoke cloud keeping his Caps away, he sent in Falcon and Black Panther to plug the gap while Steve and Bucky began working their way around behind me. I attacked with Hitman, flew him out with Darkstar, and charged Black Panther with my Cap and Thing (finishing Panther with Quake, so as not to lose Thing’s object). Falcon and Domino traded hits until a critical miss took her off the board, but Falcon fell to Peanut Cap soon after, allowing Thing to Charge in and one-shot Hawkeye with his heavy object during extra turns, giving me the round.
Over the course of this round, I rolled three critical hits. Jason was a little incredulous, but he handled it with dignity.
237-69
Round 2: Stephen, with Scientists. Helicarrier 4.
Stephen had another take on the Maelstrom/Professor X combo, featuring Scientist Supreme and, of course, a swarm of researchers to Enhance Professor X. He won the die roll, and positioned Maelstrom and Scientist Supreme atop elevated terrain. I worked my way through the maze of corridors on my side of the map over the course of a few turns while he quietly waited. Finally I took up position with Domino and Hitman in the doorway protected by Smoke Cloud, with the rest of my team huddled around them using their support powers. I sniped at him for a turn, damaging Scientist Supreme, before he shot out a wall with Maelstrom, missing Bucky Cap with his Professor X attack.
I went on the offensive, running out with Peanut Cap and throwing my shield, killing Scientist Supreme and damaging Maelstrom. I converged on Maelstrom with all my firepower, including a close combat shot from Thing with a heavy object, and managed to drop him to his last click. He responded by pushing Professor X to blast Thing for 5, rolling doubles to my dismay. With Thing no longer basing Maelstrom, he was able to administer his own blast for 5, dividing it among three of my characters to maximize his healing.
Next round, I Charged in with Cap, basing him once again, and cleared with the rest of my team. He passed as well, and on my next turn, I managed to whittle him down to his last click again before I had to pass the turn over. Professor X blasted Peanut Cap, rolling doubles again (a crit, in fact), but I pointed out that double-base figures do not take knockback, so he settled with finishing off Cap with Maelstrom before dying under assault from the rest of my figures. At some point, time was called, and the round ended before I was able to finish off the rest of his figures, but not before he was able to take out Domino.
323-152
Round 3: Craig, with some pounders. Helicarrier 2.
Craig was playing a straightforward but terrifying team of The Captain, Luke Cage, and HoT Thor. He won the roll and positioned himself atop a plane, ready to throw Asgardian doom down on the whole map. I attempted to re-create the situation from the first round by hiding behind a helicopter, but Craig, having none of that, simply shot a hole in it, exposing Thing. Not wishing to push my figures off of their high-damage first clicks against Craig’s team of Impervious monsters, I chose to Perplex Thing’s defense up and move Domino (who had been carried by Darkstar) into hindering terrain with a view before clearing with the rest of my team. Thor hit him anyway for (5 – 2 =) 3 damage. Whatever, it’s Thor.
On my turn, I moved Hitman into the middle of the board and moved Bucky up into Running Shot range. I Perplexed up Thing’s speed before using Darkstar’s Telekinesis to catapult him 8 squares almost straight forward, putting him in position to Charge five squares and smack Thor with his heavy object for 3 damage of his own. Thor and Luke Cage finished off Thing, but Peanut Cap charged in and, with help from the rest of my team, put Thor to rest. Luke Cage charged in and brawled with Cap for a while, and the rest of my team sniped from afar, slowly whittling him down. Seeing Darkstar’s Psychic Blast, Craig took her down with two attacks from The Captain. Eventually, Luke Cage knocked Peanut Cap down to his last click, allowing him to Outwit The Captain’s Impervious, enabling Domino and Hitman to do a few clicks of damage to him, reducing his effectiveness somewhat. Luke Cage finished off Peanut Cap, but died under assault from Bucky Cap and Hitman the next turn. Time was called, so the match ended at
324-287.
I’m not sure how that match would have ended without time controls. I still had Bucky, Domino, and Hitman on their top clicks with two theme probs against a wounded Mjolnir Cap, but his Invulnerability would have kept me from doing very much damage to him at a time. Meanwhile, his damage output was still high enough to nearly kill any of my figures with one shot. The outcome was in doubt.
Top 4: BA, with Robots. Helicarrier 3 (my tour is complete!).
BA is running a fun team with Super Adaptoid, tons of little Adaptoids, and Ultron. He advances with his Adaptoids, hiding them on a row of objects. He properly keeps Ultron back as reserve. I simply place Domino on elevated hindering, move my Soldiers just outside of Ultron’s range, and pass the turn. Over the next few turns, Domino snipes Super Adaptoid down to his much more effective last clicks (whoops), but everyone else continues the stand-off with minimal repositioning. Finally, I move Thing up behind some blocking terrain, positioning him to Charge/Quake the adaptoids, and BA moves Ultron up to give him a shot at Thing. I use Darkstar’s Telekinesis to fling Thing all the way across the board and push him to smack Ultron with a heavy object. Ultron stays alive with Mastermind for a turn or so, but eventually he goes down under assault from Domino, both Caps, and Darkstar. Hitman continues shooting Adaptoids left and right, and eventually Thing and Peanut Cap manage to finish off Super Adaptoid, leaving his smaller brethren to fall quickly thereafter.
499-0.
Craig and I end up in first and second, and we each receive a Scorpio Key and a map for our efforts.
I was extremely happy with how my team functioned in the Captain America floor metagame. Each figure on the team pulled its weight individually, and the figures worked together extremely well. On the other hand, the team brought with it quite a few difficult decisions. Because my strategy often revolved around keeping the team tightly clumped together, every move had to be carefully plotted, with many lines of fire calculated. My victories in the last two rounds depended strongly on my ability to use Telekinesis, and the new rules make figure placement extremely important when using that power. All of this combined with my usual methodical rate of play definitely cost me points due to time limits in nearly every round.
Like all events at Comix City Too, this was a very fun event, well run with a friendly competitive atmosphere. My thanks go to
Mark for running such a wonderful store,
Sean for all of the work he does organizing these events,
Jon for allowing me to use his figures, and
all of my opponents for keeping things friendly and not saying a word of reproach to my slow play and constant fiddling with Smoke Cloud tokens.
I look forward to next time, guys.