onew0rd
05/05/2003, 23:01
Pretty long post. Ignore my grammar/typos. This is a casual report for casual readers. Take of your grammar/spelling police badge at the door. Enjoy!
So I get to the venue about 30 minutes before scheduled time. I quickly ensure no one is playing Flaming Janitor. Since no one is, I pull my "Firelord-Free-Environment Team".
Wall of Ninja
V Hand Ninja (Ranged) x 3
U Elektra IC
U Nightcrawler
R Vulture
U Green Goblin
V Psylocke
E Paramedic
Why 3 Ninjas? A pal of mine, Rene (Silver Lantern), theorized 3 Ninjas with a Psylocke for Enhancement behind them would be quite a good formation. He was right. With a possible 9, 10, 9 attack for the three and all dealing 3 damage this is something I wanted to try out. In a couple of friendly games, it proved it's effectiveness. If your opponent plays little to no stealth, it gets very sick. If their team is packed with stealthers, it loses it's effectiveness. Still tweaking it, but definitely a neat concept with some merit. Enough to explore further anyways.
Green Goblin is the ideal taxi plus he can hold his own in combat. If you haven't played with him, give him a shot and you'll see what I mean. If you don't have him, get one. Almost a staple in any 300 point team I build. 10 move + perplex + Willpower...the comsummate utility piece. So many options. An amazing clix. 62 points is a chunk, but I have yet to regret it.
Elektra Unique is IMO the most potent 36 points of death you can field. For 36 points you get the same offensive Firepower as many BCFers twice as expensive + 2 ranged attacks. She's fragile, but for 36 points she's a true bargain.
Nightcrawler is the horse I'm riding into town on. Hopefully I'll ride him out. At 83 points he is a load. But HSS is lethal to anyone who lacks alot of mobility and he's the perfect stealth killer. Fly him with GG. Perplex damage to 3, run out pop a stealther, run back, last attack with Ninja on ex-stealther. This happens ALOT. 18 def + SS means range guys with attack of less than 11 have the cards stacked against them. If being taxid by GG it will be almost impossible for your opponent to taxi,base,attack him due to the amazing mobility.
Psylocke is a great BCFer and her stats stay solid throughout her dial. She did alot with Enhancement and got the occasional attack in, but mostly she just stood behind the wall of Ninjas and picked her nose. Possibly a waste to play with in this team, but definitely a good figure who has a good many uses.
Paramedic is what it is. A necessary evil and a better way to spend 10 points than a V thug.
On to the tourney...
First round I am playing this cool dude with Xmen Team
R Colossus
E White Queen
U Shadowcat
R Shadowcat (I wasnt sure if he could play with both and didn't really care, so I didn't mention it)
R Jean Grey
R Logan
R Paramedic
E Paramedic
We jockey for position, he does some pushing with Jean then gives her a click via Xmen ability to pump up Colossus and I get a little too aggressive. I attack Jean for 3 and run a couple of steps back. He has Jean pushed. Colossus pushes next turn and Nightcrawler gets charged by colossus because, well I didn't know about the charge. He needed a 10 or so to hit and he rolls an 11! Oops, my bad, Nightcrawler. I fail supersenses and all of the sudden the game becomes: Mission:Save Nightcrawler. I feel like a jackass for not being familiar with all the new figures. I still have HSS and am able to get away thanks to all his guys being pushed. I push, pop Jean Grey, and get a good distance away. I eventually get GG there. My opponent thinks for a bit and makes a critical mistake. GG is pushed and B2B with Nighty. He chooses to attack GG with White Queen! If he had attacked Nightcrawler, and I fail the SS, he's KOd. I don't know what overtook him, but I was relieved. He walks into my Ninja wall when chasing Nightcrawler and Elektra joins the party. He KOs her, Vulture and a Ninja. I kill Logan, Jean, Shadowcat R, Medic, Medic. I get one click away from killing Colossus because I got too conservative towards the end. I win on points but barely.
Next Match I play another cool guy. He had a crazy team with all BCFers! Blade E, Vampire Lackey, Taskmaster E, Lady Deathstrike, Logan V, Elektra U, and a medic I think. Scary but he lacked mobility. This game starts with me rolling 4 or less at least 8 times. Seriously. At one point I rolled 2 3s and a 4 in a row!!! Then a 2!!!! A crit miss after rolling 2 3s and a 4!!! What are the odds!!! All the while I am trying to pull off a very sneaky tactical move. I feign like I'm going to hide on some hindering terrain with my Ninjas. So he starts running all his BCFers towards them to push through. After they rest, I instead double back and am able to get onto a small sliver of elevated terrain with all three ninjas and block the stairs with one of them. Now all his BCFers are on the ground like sitting ducks and next turn I can move my Psylocke up and start the Ninja madness!! What happens next was impossible to account for. He has Elektra as his only ranged guy within range of my Ninjas. He sees that all his guys are prone so he takes a shot. His first attack he knocks a ninja off the roof killing him. He then moves a Taskmaster out of stealth and places him in the open running towards my "fort". I move Psylocke up and push a ninja to take a shot at Taskmaster. I roll a 4. This is amazing. I have literally only hit once the intire game. The next turn he pushes Taskmaster and rolls a 12 and knocks the second Ninja off the rook!!!! Not looking good for me. His stealthers have overrun my position, 2 Ninjas have died, 30 minutes have passed, and I have done a total of 2 damage (To a medic with Nightcrawler...by rolling a 4!) Lady Luck is sitting on his lap and I've got jack ####. He rolls Leadership with 6s like 4 times in a row and his bladed juggernaut of an army is marching forward. We are both laughing at the odds of all this and he starts missing. I start hitting dice rolls and I don't stop.
ADVICE: I stayed patient here. Alot of times the rolls won't go your way and you get desperate. You push when you normally wouldn't, you take risks when you shouldn't. Take this into consideration the next time you have missed a couple times in a row. Most of the times, just run the business as usual. It will even out in the end.
END ADVICE.
Nightcrawler is just too good in this type of situation and eventually my team gets into it's zone. He can never even base Nightcrawler the whole game while I'm just perplexing and attacking for 3 from far away every other turn.My mobility and Nightcrawler basically whittle him away. I lose 2 Ninjas, Green Goblin (who got gangbanged by Logan, Blade, and Vampire Lackey, but took out Blade and Hurt Logan in the process) and Psylocke. This game was a perfect example of why taxis are so obviously critical. He had me way outgunned but my flyers allowed me to choose my hits.
My third match I play against another nice guy who has:
Spiral
Destiny
R Black Panther
U Elektra (Notice the trend)
U Wasp
V Storm
Paramedic
Jean Grey
This guy had bad luck and I basically came in and massacred his team. I hate to say it that way, but I know that he knows that I know that it was due to die rolls that I was able to take him down so easily. Case in point...At one point he TKs a Spiral into my wall of Ninjas. He freemoves destiny in and he needs a 5 or 6 to hit my guys with Flurry BCF. I shrug and resign myself to strategize for the rest of the game minus 2 ninjas. He critical misses, rerolls, 3, reroll, 4. That was sad. At that point it didn't really matter though because Nightcrawler and GG had eliminated his Storm, Elektra, and Medic. My Elektra had killed his Wasp in one 6 point BCF! (I love that!). Either way seeing Spiral fall to pieces that way was sad. She caught a couple of Nunchuks to the dizzome and I killed her a turn or two later. I killed Jean Grey somewhere in there and he gave me the Destiny with a good 20 minutes on the clock. So another clean sweep! Again Nightcrawler was too much for him. I make it a point to eliminate outwitters with him. First priority. If they outwit HSS, he's basically an 83 point daredevil (=not good).
I finished in second in points to a guy I didn't play who killed all his opponents teams and never lost a figure. I found out the prizes were CT prizes and that made me sad. Then I found out the Doom LE relegated for 2nd place would go to Fellowship. Double Frown. I won a Sweet Dominic Pietros (who's availabe for trade ;) ) and can't wait to play there again. Cool people, great judge, nice venue. Good times all the way.
In closing, I think the only legitimate problem with my team was lack of leadership or freemove. I loved the team but had too many people to use them all efficiently. At least half the time someone was standing around sitting on their hands. Be it Elektra, Vulture, or my Ninja Wall. I would prob take out one of the two and replace with a freemovin, leaderhip unit. Nevertheless, the team did me well so I would prob recommend it and play again. I'll write again if I get enough positive feedback and when I play again.
onew0rd
So I get to the venue about 30 minutes before scheduled time. I quickly ensure no one is playing Flaming Janitor. Since no one is, I pull my "Firelord-Free-Environment Team".
Wall of Ninja
V Hand Ninja (Ranged) x 3
U Elektra IC
U Nightcrawler
R Vulture
U Green Goblin
V Psylocke
E Paramedic
Why 3 Ninjas? A pal of mine, Rene (Silver Lantern), theorized 3 Ninjas with a Psylocke for Enhancement behind them would be quite a good formation. He was right. With a possible 9, 10, 9 attack for the three and all dealing 3 damage this is something I wanted to try out. In a couple of friendly games, it proved it's effectiveness. If your opponent plays little to no stealth, it gets very sick. If their team is packed with stealthers, it loses it's effectiveness. Still tweaking it, but definitely a neat concept with some merit. Enough to explore further anyways.
Green Goblin is the ideal taxi plus he can hold his own in combat. If you haven't played with him, give him a shot and you'll see what I mean. If you don't have him, get one. Almost a staple in any 300 point team I build. 10 move + perplex + Willpower...the comsummate utility piece. So many options. An amazing clix. 62 points is a chunk, but I have yet to regret it.
Elektra Unique is IMO the most potent 36 points of death you can field. For 36 points you get the same offensive Firepower as many BCFers twice as expensive + 2 ranged attacks. She's fragile, but for 36 points she's a true bargain.
Nightcrawler is the horse I'm riding into town on. Hopefully I'll ride him out. At 83 points he is a load. But HSS is lethal to anyone who lacks alot of mobility and he's the perfect stealth killer. Fly him with GG. Perplex damage to 3, run out pop a stealther, run back, last attack with Ninja on ex-stealther. This happens ALOT. 18 def + SS means range guys with attack of less than 11 have the cards stacked against them. If being taxid by GG it will be almost impossible for your opponent to taxi,base,attack him due to the amazing mobility.
Psylocke is a great BCFer and her stats stay solid throughout her dial. She did alot with Enhancement and got the occasional attack in, but mostly she just stood behind the wall of Ninjas and picked her nose. Possibly a waste to play with in this team, but definitely a good figure who has a good many uses.
Paramedic is what it is. A necessary evil and a better way to spend 10 points than a V thug.
On to the tourney...
First round I am playing this cool dude with Xmen Team
R Colossus
E White Queen
U Shadowcat
R Shadowcat (I wasnt sure if he could play with both and didn't really care, so I didn't mention it)
R Jean Grey
R Logan
R Paramedic
E Paramedic
We jockey for position, he does some pushing with Jean then gives her a click via Xmen ability to pump up Colossus and I get a little too aggressive. I attack Jean for 3 and run a couple of steps back. He has Jean pushed. Colossus pushes next turn and Nightcrawler gets charged by colossus because, well I didn't know about the charge. He needed a 10 or so to hit and he rolls an 11! Oops, my bad, Nightcrawler. I fail supersenses and all of the sudden the game becomes: Mission:Save Nightcrawler. I feel like a jackass for not being familiar with all the new figures. I still have HSS and am able to get away thanks to all his guys being pushed. I push, pop Jean Grey, and get a good distance away. I eventually get GG there. My opponent thinks for a bit and makes a critical mistake. GG is pushed and B2B with Nighty. He chooses to attack GG with White Queen! If he had attacked Nightcrawler, and I fail the SS, he's KOd. I don't know what overtook him, but I was relieved. He walks into my Ninja wall when chasing Nightcrawler and Elektra joins the party. He KOs her, Vulture and a Ninja. I kill Logan, Jean, Shadowcat R, Medic, Medic. I get one click away from killing Colossus because I got too conservative towards the end. I win on points but barely.
Next Match I play another cool guy. He had a crazy team with all BCFers! Blade E, Vampire Lackey, Taskmaster E, Lady Deathstrike, Logan V, Elektra U, and a medic I think. Scary but he lacked mobility. This game starts with me rolling 4 or less at least 8 times. Seriously. At one point I rolled 2 3s and a 4 in a row!!! Then a 2!!!! A crit miss after rolling 2 3s and a 4!!! What are the odds!!! All the while I am trying to pull off a very sneaky tactical move. I feign like I'm going to hide on some hindering terrain with my Ninjas. So he starts running all his BCFers towards them to push through. After they rest, I instead double back and am able to get onto a small sliver of elevated terrain with all three ninjas and block the stairs with one of them. Now all his BCFers are on the ground like sitting ducks and next turn I can move my Psylocke up and start the Ninja madness!! What happens next was impossible to account for. He has Elektra as his only ranged guy within range of my Ninjas. He sees that all his guys are prone so he takes a shot. His first attack he knocks a ninja off the roof killing him. He then moves a Taskmaster out of stealth and places him in the open running towards my "fort". I move Psylocke up and push a ninja to take a shot at Taskmaster. I roll a 4. This is amazing. I have literally only hit once the intire game. The next turn he pushes Taskmaster and rolls a 12 and knocks the second Ninja off the rook!!!! Not looking good for me. His stealthers have overrun my position, 2 Ninjas have died, 30 minutes have passed, and I have done a total of 2 damage (To a medic with Nightcrawler...by rolling a 4!) Lady Luck is sitting on his lap and I've got jack ####. He rolls Leadership with 6s like 4 times in a row and his bladed juggernaut of an army is marching forward. We are both laughing at the odds of all this and he starts missing. I start hitting dice rolls and I don't stop.
ADVICE: I stayed patient here. Alot of times the rolls won't go your way and you get desperate. You push when you normally wouldn't, you take risks when you shouldn't. Take this into consideration the next time you have missed a couple times in a row. Most of the times, just run the business as usual. It will even out in the end.
END ADVICE.
Nightcrawler is just too good in this type of situation and eventually my team gets into it's zone. He can never even base Nightcrawler the whole game while I'm just perplexing and attacking for 3 from far away every other turn.My mobility and Nightcrawler basically whittle him away. I lose 2 Ninjas, Green Goblin (who got gangbanged by Logan, Blade, and Vampire Lackey, but took out Blade and Hurt Logan in the process) and Psylocke. This game was a perfect example of why taxis are so obviously critical. He had me way outgunned but my flyers allowed me to choose my hits.
My third match I play against another nice guy who has:
Spiral
Destiny
R Black Panther
U Elektra (Notice the trend)
U Wasp
V Storm
Paramedic
Jean Grey
This guy had bad luck and I basically came in and massacred his team. I hate to say it that way, but I know that he knows that I know that it was due to die rolls that I was able to take him down so easily. Case in point...At one point he TKs a Spiral into my wall of Ninjas. He freemoves destiny in and he needs a 5 or 6 to hit my guys with Flurry BCF. I shrug and resign myself to strategize for the rest of the game minus 2 ninjas. He critical misses, rerolls, 3, reroll, 4. That was sad. At that point it didn't really matter though because Nightcrawler and GG had eliminated his Storm, Elektra, and Medic. My Elektra had killed his Wasp in one 6 point BCF! (I love that!). Either way seeing Spiral fall to pieces that way was sad. She caught a couple of Nunchuks to the dizzome and I killed her a turn or two later. I killed Jean Grey somewhere in there and he gave me the Destiny with a good 20 minutes on the clock. So another clean sweep! Again Nightcrawler was too much for him. I make it a point to eliminate outwitters with him. First priority. If they outwit HSS, he's basically an 83 point daredevil (=not good).
I finished in second in points to a guy I didn't play who killed all his opponents teams and never lost a figure. I found out the prizes were CT prizes and that made me sad. Then I found out the Doom LE relegated for 2nd place would go to Fellowship. Double Frown. I won a Sweet Dominic Pietros (who's availabe for trade ;) ) and can't wait to play there again. Cool people, great judge, nice venue. Good times all the way.
In closing, I think the only legitimate problem with my team was lack of leadership or freemove. I loved the team but had too many people to use them all efficiently. At least half the time someone was standing around sitting on their hands. Be it Elektra, Vulture, or my Ninja Wall. I would prob take out one of the two and replace with a freemovin, leaderhip unit. Nevertheless, the team did me well so I would prob recommend it and play again. I'll write again if I get enough positive feedback and when I play again.
onew0rd