DC HeroClix Sneak Peek - Circe

[Draddog]

<TABLE BORDER="0"><TR><TD><IMG SRC="/images/cosmicjustice/cj079.gif"></TD><TD><FONT SIZE="1"><P ALIGN="CENTER"><TABLE BORDER="1"><TR><TD COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT SIZE="1"><B>Unit Name:</B> Circe</TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1"><B>Unit Num:</B> 079</TD><TD><FONT SIZE="1"><B>Point Cost:</B>67</TD><TD><FONT SIZE="1"><B>Team:</B> Mystics</TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1"><B>Unit Num:</B> 080</TD><TD><FONT SIZE="1"><B>Point Cost:</B> 80</TD><TD><FONT SIZE="1"><B>Team:</B> Injustice League</TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE="1"><B>Unit Num:</B> 081</TD><TD><FONT SIZE="1"><B>Point Cost:</B> 99</TD><TD><FONT SIZE="1"><B>Team:</B> Mystics</TD></TR>
</TABLE><P><B>Game Design Note/Play Tip</B><BR>A big baddie from Wonder Woman and the JLA, Circe is a powerful spellcaster who has the ability to dish out damage as well as mess with people’s heads. Her dial is much longer than you’d expect for someone who doesn’t look particularly tough, but she is a creature of myth, so she starts at seven clicks and increases by one in her Experienced and Veteran versions. Her dial depth coupled with her defense, which starts out all right and gets only better when Energy Shield and Toughness are added (at different points on the dial), ensures that she’ll be around for a while. As for her offense, she’s been around for a while, so she has a good attack value that will help to ensure that she hits with her magical blasts and Mind Control – which she has for quite a few clicks in her Experienced and Veteran versions. Later in her dial, she gains a couple of clicks of Incapacitate to reflect less-powerful spells that can still inconvenience and trouble your opponent. Add in flight and the Mystics team ability and she’s a serious threat in a way we haven’t really seen before.</TD></TR></TABLE>

[spitfire06]

yes

[EmperorNorton]

She looks great.

[EmperorNorton]

Who sees it coming...Mystics Team Ability being the new source for wildcard abuse?

[Grinner]

This looks much better than the poor quality shots we've seen off of E-bay!

She looks to be a good figure, playable too. But I'm not too sure how she's going to stack up against her arch-enemy Wonder Woman. At least she's not nearly helpless against her, like Xavier v. Maggie ;)

[Mr Deadpool]

SWEET! She looks great!
Cat

[jjs-thump]

she looks great. Does anyone know you all the AE in the set?

[Miraclo]

Not bad. Too early to say without knowing the true AV stats (which someone's doubtless already posted somewhere) but she appears to be a nice addition.

[daedalus25]

Wow! That's a gorgeous sculpt now that I can see it up close. Four week wait for me =\ *holds his breath*

[Greenandgold]

In higher point games, a mystic will definitely be a must.

[daedalus25]

Originally posted by Miraclo
Not bad. Too early to say without knowing the true AV stats (which someone's doubtless already posted somewhere) but she appears to be a nice addition.

Check this site's UNITS section.

[EmperorNorton]

Yeah, Exp. and Vet. are in the units section, but what about the Rookie?

[ThePope]

She'll be a member of my Legion :)

[Basil Elks]

Oooooooo, Aaaaaaaaahhhh, Oooooohhhhhh, Weeeeeeeeee.

Nuff sed

[Gacy's Clown]

Mystics are gonna be sick. Contemplating whether to attack or not will be mindnumbing. YAY!

[DS-00-0, FSD]

67 point Mystic??

She's gonna be brutal if her attack values are even close to useable. The Exp has been spoiled at an 8 range, ten starting attack. If her R starts off at 9 attack, six range, she'll be playable, especially with a bunch of Wildcards.

[DaLuvster89]

Sweet - I think the Mystics TA will definately help her compete w/ WW a bit...

[melon_head]

Who is she AE's with. The preview of WW shows her with a dark green base. anybody have any ideas?

[Puuka]

her base looks the same color as Aquamans? I thought Wonder Woman had a darker base (Green?)

[BatGambit]

Not too bad looking of a fig, although Circe is definily not among my top...20.... 30? favorite comic book villains. ;) The sculpt is a mixed bag in my opinion... gorgeous detail (even the face is fairly decent for a change) but the post leaves a bit to be desired, just a standard evil diva pose. ;) I like her, though, and can't wait to finally try to see if the Mystics team ability is as vicious as it sounds!

[Brigadier M]

A guy I know who went to Philly brought a vet wonder woman back with him. She and Circe have the same AE base. The preview pic was wrong.

M!

[FoxInStocks]

Yeah, go look at any of the pics of WW up on eBay. She has a yellow base...they must've changed the color between the preview and actuall release.

[kraven]

Well i guess its true!:(

Jon L must of quit heroclix, there is no designer note for Circe!

[Manchine]

I cant wait for the Mystic Ability. Doombots and Doom With Mystics. Drool.

[ducko5]

She looks good here, but she looks AWSOME in real life.

[spam01]

Oh, that's nice. My injustice league just got a little better.

[raphael76]

Remind me someone. Does the Mystics team ability with the one click of damage avoid things like Impervious and Invulnerability?

[Thanosied]

Well her sculpt looks good and I have seen her Vet stats and I would put her in my top 10 playable characters from this set as of right now. I have to admit I am not a huge fan by I can respect her prowess and powers in a fight she gives the JLA some problems with the gods crossover so I give her props for that. All in all an above average figure just below the god characters.

[Phantom]

I don’t think Mystics will be that bad. Circe’s the only one with a couple clicks of Toughness, meaning one or two solid shots will take them down with only a couple of clicks of damage in return for your trouble. Or better yet – Mind-Control one of their teammates into doing the attack for you, forcing THEM to take the click.

[I_Blame_You]

Originally posted by Manchine
I cant wait for the Mystic Ability. Doombots and Doom With Mystics. Drool.

Yeesh....hadn't thought of that one yet....

[savasyn]

Who'd of thought, another CJ figure with incapacitate!

Other than that "door prize power", she looks pretty interesting.

[m1s1n]

So I'm not a big DC guy, and basically what I'm wondering is this-- Is Circe pronounced Zerk-See as in Xerxe from the Odessey? Is she supposed to be the same? And if so does she turn people into pigs?

Oh yeah, the mystics will throw an interseting new twist into the game that I've been looking forward to.

[sol]

I will definitely be fielding the R or V version....Wildcard Abuse, here I come...

Oh, btw I already have a team with Taskmaster, LE Doom and Mordru (got him at WWE).

[Brainiac 16]

{yawn} I would have prefered a different choice for this week's preview, someone maybe that those of us not buried in comicbook lore might recognize.

[Brigadier M]

Originally posted by raphael76
Remind me someone. Does the Mystics team ability with the one click of damage avoid things like Impervious and Invulnerability?

Sure does. From the DC PAC:
Mystics: When this figure takes damage from any attack, it retaliates with a magical blast that does one click of damage to the attacker. This point of damage is not reduced by toughness, invulnerability or impervious. All other special abilities act as normal.

Originally posted by m1s1n
So I'm not a big DC guy, and basically what I'm wondering is this-- Is Circe pronounced Zerk-See as in Xerxe from the Odessey? Is she supposed to be the same? And if so does she turn people into pigs?


I've only seen it spelled Circe, but I believe she is meant to be the character from Greek Myth. In the Rock of Ages storyline from JLA, she in fact turned Plastic Man into a pig. It was kind of pointless though, since he still had his plastic powers and simply changed back:rolleyes:

M!

[skeevo666]

Circe = sur'see

Xerxe = zerk'see

:)

[Phantom]

Originally posted by Brigadier M
Sure does. From the DC PAC:
Mystics: When this figure takes damage from any attack, it retaliates with a magical blast that does one click of damage to the attacker. This point of damage is not reduced by toughness, invulnerability or impervious. All other special abilities act as normal. Ooh... so does this mean Super-Senses has a chance to dodge it?

[GL2814]

I still prefer Vet Zatanna if you just want the team ability. Sure her attack of 8 isn't impressive, but she does do 3 damage and can fly people around for 55 points (good for picking off smaller support pieces). Played her last night with a doombot and Black Cat. Noticed that Mystics seem to just either a) have heavy hitters focus on smaller characters to wipe them out without getting two much damage instead of targeting your own heavy hitters or b) just prevent people from attacking certain pieces all together (usually my doombots are always the first to fall, but last night they survived both games w/o a scratch).

Vet Circe does seem good though since she can actually be useful (of course she's must more costly).

[insurgo]

Will be good for Sersi the Eternal mod too.

[herohowdy]

Wow an injustice leager. She is the only 1 i know of is there another? Circe does look cool, that mystic ability and toughness will go a long way.

[GL2814]

Grodd and Joker are IL. And I'm pretty sure Grundy and Manta are too.

[djensen47]

I think the sculpt is plain and generic especially compared to Firestorm and Starfire. I think this one looks like repaint! It's almost as bad as the solid redness of the Crimson Dynamo.

However, the playability of this figure looks high.

[Lex Luthor]

Vet Brainiac13 is also an IL teammate.

I cant wait to mastermind damage onto Circe, wouldnt this activate her TA? :ermm:

[LuckyJ]

mmm...Dark Phoenix mod, anyone??

This is one of the characters I'm looking forward to the most. She's got the numbers Enchantress should have had.

And I'm really starting to get mad about postings everywhere saying Incapacitate is such an awful power. Actually, it's not. It's a strategic power. And it is most suitable when it is layed out on the dial like it is on Circe (as opposed to Enchantress, Leader, Mandarin, etc). They could have given her 3 or 4 more clicks of it and put her way past 100, but they didn't. But I think I would have preferred her be an even 100 points in case she's mind controlled. Think that was on purpose so a mind controller wouldn't take a Mystic click and a MC click?

[bullseye100]

a mystic, yeah!!!!!!!!

[Comte]

I cant wait to mastermind damage onto Circe, wouldnt this activate her TA

If it did that would be sick! YOu could attack doom, doom punts if off to cher and two clicks of damage...man that would suck.

[daedalus25]

If it does indeed work that way, it's only 1 click of damage, not two. Doom didn't take any damage in this case, so the Mystic ability wouldn't activate on him.

[GroovyBoy]

Thank God the venues I play at don't mix universes very often (my name is Ultron, the stealthed Mystic - gimmie a break while you rape the living carp outta the game).

[JonL]

Circe isn't a mod of Phoenix.

We don't do many mods and those we do are really obvious -- like the two versions of the Wasp.

All characters get their own sculpts. And we wouldn't ever use a Marvel figure as the basis for a DC figure. It simply wouldn't and couldn't happen. They all get their own sculpts.

Oh, and GroovyBoy; shut up! You suck! How's everything?

Best,

Jon Leitheusser
Game Designer
WizKids

[m1s1n]

Wow, the game designer just laid the smack down.

[Thanosied]

Its good to know Jon still has a sense of humour, hows it going? So what game are you leaving us for and how much input did you have in Cosmic Justice? Well nice to see you back on the realms again and on better terms. Sorry for being an A$$ last time :). But please don't leave HC before you remake me that Thanos you talked about so long ago. :)

[DFlash]

Originally posted by Comte
I cant wait to mastermind damage onto Circe, wouldnt this activate her TA

If it did that would be sick! YOu could attack doom, doom punts if off to cher and two clicks of damage...man that would suck.

Actually, I believe that it will be even better to mastermind to other figures, like Doombots and other MoD, Legion or Spidey figures that would strategically handle the damage while giving the 1 clix back to the attacker while the attacked figure will keep its stats. And the mystics figure may even be completelly out of the scene. That will be a gamebreaker!!!

[JonL]

Don't worry, that wasn't a smackdown. GroovyBoy is a friend from college. I just haven't heard from him in a while.

Thanoseid, no new Thanos yet, but I'll be sure to talk to Jeff about it.

I did all of Cosmic Justice as well as Indy and the HeroClix set that comes out in the fall. You won't be rid of my legacy too quickly.

Best,

Jon Leitheusser
Game Designer
WizKids

[GroovyBoy]

Dear Ex-Lead Designer:

I suck? I suck?!?!? You don't visit, you don't call, you don't write! I bet you're gonna use some stupid Clix convention in Philadelphia as an excuse.

You coming to Origins? I'm running the World Drunken Heroclix Championships in my hotel room. First place is a modified Frank "Shecky" Schlichting LE. You should stop by and show the faithful how you use to knock em back in earlier days...

[skeevo666]

Maybe yr little Antarctica flag scared him off . . ?

[GroovyBoy]

The continuing lack of an ozone layer does tend to frighten a few...

[drgnoftyr]

and i believe jon l the person said she'd be easy to mod into a dark phoenix.... but i just wanna say good job on cosmic justice and thanks for all your hard work and putting up with all of us ....

[Frontman]

Originally posted by Brainiac 16
{yawn} I would have prefered a different choice for this week's preview, someone maybe that those of us not buried in comicbook lore might recognize.

She's not that unknown. She was a member of the Injustice League, while Grant Morrison was the head writer. (Now, I know folks have read that version of the JLA more than others.)

They can't all be all-known figures. Seeing some of the more obscure figures at least gets you thinking of what you may or may not do with them.

For me, the figure looks great, and I agree with someone (didn't quote twice, sorry) that this is a dark Pheonix conversion all the way.

PEACE!!!!

Tim

[VandalSavage]

The thing I find interesting is the little blurb that Incapacitate is for the lesser spells that she may cast...yet it also represents the Powerful ability of Transmutation of Matter that Firestorm uses so often...:rolleyes:


Mr. Savage

[Frontman]

Originally posted by VandalSavage
The thing I find interesting is the little blurb that Incapacitate is for the lesser spells that she may cast...yet it also represents the Powerful ability of Transmutation of Matter that Firestorm uses so often...:rolleyes:


Mr. Savage


Heh good point.

As far as INcapacitate is concerned, I think its a great ability. Its getting used a bit too much, but think about it. The problem with representing super powers that don't really exsist in the real world is #### tough. What kind of a rules system can be created to represent someone like Firestorm or even that matter, something as simple as Plastic Man or Mr. Fantastic? How unwieldy (yet so comic-bookish) that someone can't be knocked back past any ajoining spaces that includes someone like Reed or Plastic Man? Or even better, give the recipient of the knockback a free 1 turn charge for bouncing off of his team mate? It's been seen in the comics, so "we should be able to do that in the game."

My point is, (and this isn't griping on Mr. Savage, more of a general comment, so Vandal, please don't take anything said as a personal attack, more like an overall comment about Heroclix gaming) that it takes quite a bit of fudging to make a superhero game work. A true representation of a superhero would stink, as most of these guys you can't hurt, let alone keep down.

Just a few thoughts.


PEACE!!!!

Tim

[LuckyJ]

Jon L.

The Phoenix comment was vague. It should read, "Circe will be a great place to start in making a Dark Phoenix mod."

Sorry about that.

However, Saturn Girl looks remarkably like Phoenix.

[VandalSavage]

Originally posted by Frontman
Heh good point.

As far as INcapacitate is concerned, I think its a great ability. Its getting used a bit too much, but think about it. The problem with representing super powers that don't really exsist in the real world is #### tough. What kind of a rules system can be created to represent someone like Firestorm or even that matter, something as simple as Plastic Man or Mr. Fantastic? How unwieldy (yet so comic-bookish) that someone can't be knocked back past any ajoining spaces that includes someone like Reed or Plastic Man? Or even better, give the recipient of the knockback a free 1 turn charge for bouncing off of his team mate? It's been seen in the comics, so "we should be able to do that in the game."

My point is, (and this isn't griping on Mr. Savage, more of a general comment, so Vandal, please don't take anything said as a personal attack, more like an overall comment about Heroclix gaming) that it takes quite a bit of fudging to make a superhero game work. A true representation of a superhero would stink, as most of these guys you can't hurt, let alone keep down.

Just a few thoughts.


PEACE!!!!

Tim


Frontman,

I agree with what your saying...I think for game balance some super powers suffer and some shine...I would love to see some new powers introduced, but I'm not complaining!

Mr. Savage

[Kingofkod]

I'm pretty sure masterminding the team ability won't work since you have to recieve damage from an attack and mastermind damage doesn't count as an attack. The same way super senses doesn't work with mastermind damage.

[Thanosied]

Okay I didn't know who half of those bigtime U's where until I saw some stats and did some research. For this I mean Amazo, Eclipso and Despero. All these 3 would wallop alot of JLA'ers and are tough as hell. Well thanks for making us alot brighter and releasing some very powerful figs.

Oh yeah I think you might have to give me that room number Groovy Boy all bring my Hoe Train along. :) I got hoe's in different area codes. But yeah Jon excellent job on this one your work just keeps getting better.

[GroovyBoy]

Did I mention Firelord is banned from the World Drunken Heroclix Championship? Apparently Wasp had a restraining order put out against him and, well, let's say I have more fun staring at Janet than Fire....

....hooker bombs, on the other hand, display the exact lack of morals that the WDHC is trying to promote!

[Bluebeard]

Mystics question: Is the damage taken from the Mystics ability stopped by toughness/invulnerability?

[DaLuvster89]

Nope.

[The Charlatan]

She looks okay. Just okay, certainly not great. I mean, look at Dr Strange! Now there's someone with magical powers! Circe is just too skimpy in the spells/powers department. And she's no match for her Archenemy, Wonder Woman. In fact, with a base damage of only 2 and no RCE or Psychic Blast, her Mystics Team ability is the ONLY way for her to get past WW's Impervious. By the time WW gets to her Toughness clicks, Circe with be in her KO clicks.