Hi. I played in a local tournamanet last night where the teams were all rookies (500 points). My opponent ran a team that included 2 Jinx's and Dr. Fate. He also had a couple of Legionnaires and Batman. Everybody who could copied Batman's TA stealth, and generally enjoyed good range attacks. We were on the old outdoor truck stop map.

I ran a mostly Titans team with a Wonder Woman and Supergirl. No TK on my side. As it went, my opponent took out Wonder Woman straight away (outwitting her toughness, mind controling an adjacent Nightwing (who clocked her), and it was all downhill from there. He was clearly a much better player than I, but it was the continual re-rolls that really were the hardest to overcome. I ended up with only 2 rolls the entire game which weren't affected by Probability and missed them both! On one occasion I needed an 11 to hit and rolled it 3 TIMES consecutively, but there were more probabilities than elevens in the end.

The judge suggested afterward that I needed to have charged Batman (to rid my opponent of his "brick" and eliminate the stealth, but I don't know how I could have managed that with all those probability rerolls. --Maybe it was the best option but not very appealing if you know what I mean.

Any suggestions on general tactics in this situation?

Him (as much as I remember):

Jinx x2
Dr. Fate
Wildfire
Saturn Girl
Batman (Hypertime)
Easy Company Medic

Me:

Nightwing
Cyborg
Raven
Impulse (with Armor Piercing)
Troia
Wonder Woman,
Supergirl
Demon

(No Battlefield conditions played)

Slap Nova Blast on CYborg and add some TK. You'll take out 2 of the 3 PCers right away. (As long as you hit I mean).

Oh, he also had Circe. Knew I was forgetting one.

Sounds good, but I'd have to have it in my pocket and I didn't. I'd also have to march Cyborg up into the middle of them (as his 6 range for the blast is halved). My opponent was pretty spread out too (we both were actually). Additionally, rookie Cyborg has only 1 click of pulse wave. Any odds on him keeping that click in the "probability field"?

The TK would avoid you "marching him out there". You could bump him up to the exp or vet version. Remember that pulse wave ignores all powers and abilities so PC in you pulse wave range is ignored.

As for keeping him on that click, nova blast makes him take to clicks so he won't be on it anyway. Just make the shot count.

Thanks. I appreciate the suggestions. My only problem was it was a rookie-only tournament so I was stuck with a rookie Cyborg. If I was smart enough to have added TK to the team (which I wasn't) I could have done as you suggest, but isn't there a NAATK rule? Or does that only apply to the TK-er? If it applies to the TK-ed, then Cyborg would have had to sit there in the probability field for a turn, and it just doesn't seem likely he would have kept his click of Pulse Wave with my opponent knowing there was a Nova Blast waiting...

Unless it was a house rule of your venue there is no NAATK rule in Heroclix (that's why most teams feature TK).

ah-HA! So that explains it. Thanks.

How to deal with Probability Control:

(1) Block line of sight. This can be as simple as moving characters up in the faces of the PC-ers. Or when you charge, make sure to charge in a place where the PC-ers can't see you. Of course, it's not always that easy. The map choice can make a big difference. In a wide open map, it's harder to avoid the PC lines of sight, but you can often make it so that only one PC-er can see you. Powers like Barrier can be very helpful in this regard. So can stealth.

(2) Hurt the PC-ers. Obviously, you wouldn't've been able to shoot the Jinxes since they have stealth thanks to Batman, and you'd probably have a hard time shooting Dr. Fate. Solution: use close combat (charge, HSS, or TK) on Batman and Dr Fate. Then you can take out the Jinxes (or hurt 'em enough so they lose PC). Also, Supergirl is anti-stealth, so team her up with some wild cards who can make more use of team ability than she can to take out Batman.



(3) Pulse Wave as suggested will work (especially with Nova Blast and TK, as suggested).

(4) Have PC of your own. Sure it can get silly when both sides are making one die roll get rolled over and over again, but it works.

(5) Use up his PC. That is, have a minor character make an unimportant attack. If it hits to do, say, 1 point of damage, will your opponent make you re-roll? If not, great, you've just done damage. If so, great, you've used up one of your opponents re-roll opportunities. Then, make another attack with another character. Etc. A power that's great for this is BCF. If you hit with BCF, does your opponent make you reroll the attack roll or wait to make you reroll the BCF die roll? And if he makes you reroll the BCF die roll, you still might get an incredible result (always happens: I make someone reroll 4 damage, and they get 5 or 6 damage instead).

Oh another possibility: Make sure you have no chance of failure. Then PC can't hurt you. By "no chance", of course, I mean a minimal chance. If you have an attack of 12 vs a defense of 15, PC isn't gonna help that much, even if he has three PC-ers. I realize 11+ attacks aren't common in rookies, but there's Taskmaster, Hawk, and IC Juggernaut. Oh, and don't forget Rookie Con Artists can help pump your attack value... but you didn't hear that from me.