Are you tired of the same ole cutthroat thing, when playing games or building your Heroclix teams? Do you long for the opportunity to play a more comic accurate game, but lack inspiration? Would you like to add an extra element to your game, the next time you and your friend slap down a map?

Well, my friends step right up to this installment of Sabre’s Lair, and let Darth show you the way………….

Click on replies to see the rest of the article.

Welcome Back to Sabre’s Lair.

Tying HeroClix to Its Roots: Comic Accurate Teams! # 5:

This part of my series, is intended to provide readers with the inspiration to build and play Heroclix teams that are comic accurate, in what is essentially a designed scenario. Teams in this part of my series will focus on specific comic battles or events, and will be taken directly from comic book stories that have taken place. I am not some comic expert nor am I some Heroclix master. I'm just someone who gets a great thrill out of playing teams that are based on actual comic stories, and I would like to promote more of this in the game.

The last time we were together (7/20/05), we took a look at some Heroclix teams, which were taken directly from comic book stories. Those articles focused on the history of some of comic’s most well known teams, as well as some of the different line ups that have appeared throughout their history. While it is my intention to get back to those types of articles, I also plan on adding articles that focus on comic specific events. In particular team vs. team battles that have graced the pages of the comics that I read and love. Some times, these articles will pit teams that worked together against one another.

These teams are designed for fun, and are designed to be played at specific point levels. Since they are themed teams, they will not make use of points to action efficiency. They are also designed to include figures that have actual team symbols on their dials that adequately reflect their affiliations to specific teams, whenever possible. Figure levels, will only be looked at, to determine how a figure fits on a team within a specific point total, not as a representation of where a character was at a particular point in their career. I will try in earnest, to make teams that use figures that are more easily available, so that everyone has an opportunity to run the teams that I post.

I hope you find enjoyment and inspiration within these articles, as I find great pleasure in brining them to you.

Darth Sabre’s Theme Teams: Comic Specific Team Battles

Story Summary: The X-Men are in New York City, enjoying the Christmas holiday, when suddenly, they are attacked by a squad of mutant-hunting Sentinels, that are dispatched by Dr. Stephen Lang. During the confrontation, Jean Grey, Banshee, and Wolverine are captured. Professor Xavier, the X-men’s mentor and founder, is later captured while he is out on s fishing trip, with his friend, Dr. Peter Corbeau.

The remaining X-Men discover (with Dr. Corbeau’s assistance) that their teammates are being held in space, in an old space station formerly belonging to SHIELD. Dr. Corbeau sneaks them in as a flight crew on a space shuttle belonging to Starcore and heads to space to rescue their friends.
After reuniting with their captured teammates, and wiping out the Sentinels, Cyclops and Jean Grey make their move, in an attempt to capture Dr. Lang. The pair is ambushed and captured.

The other X-Men then find themselves in a confrontation with the original X-Men, who want to destroy them!

After a long, hard fought battle, in which the New X-men spend more time getting trounced, than they do fighting effectively, Wolverine discovers that there is something amiss. After ferociously cutting down Jean Grey, he exposes the original team for what they are- Sentinels designed to duplicate the original X-men’s abilities, take out the New X-Men, and begin the world wide extermination of mutants. The X-Men, regaining their focus, make short work of the X-Sentinels, and then turn their attention to Dr. Lang, who attempts to escape. In the scuffle, Dr, Lang is killed, and the space station is damaged, and is set to destroy. The X-Men escape the massive explosion just in time.

Note: This story takes place in Uncanny X-Men #98-100 (April, 1976- August,1976).

X-Men Recommended Reading:

• Essential X-Men Vol.1 (Reprints Giant-Sized X-Men #1, and Uncanny X-Men #94-119)

Sources:

• http://xmen.webhop.net/
• http://www.uncannyxmen.net/db/characters/
• Essential X-Men Vol.1

Greater Love Hath No X-Men…(450 pts)

Thinking that they are facing their predecessors, the New X-Men find themselves against Dr. Stephen Lang’s X-Sentinels-mutant-hunting robot replicas of the original X-Men. (This scenario takes place in Uncanny X-Men #100-August 1976)

The New X-Men:

• Colossus V * w/ Unstoppable-116 pts
• Banshee V w/ Force Field- 100 pts
• Wolverine E * (IC) w/ Automatic Regeneration- 73 pts
• Storm V w/ Force Field & Armor Piercing- 72 pts
• Nightcrawler V w/ Swingline & Double-Time (or Passenger)- 76 pts
• Fastball Special*-12 pts

BFC:

• Assembled

Total- 449 pts.

Pros: Colossus, Banshee, and Nightcrawler have move and attack abilites. Storm and Banshee are fliers that can carry their team mates into battle. Nightcrawler and Colossus are able to ignore hindering terrain when using their move and attack abilities. Wolverine can use the X-Men TA to heal his teammates, and then use Auto Regen to heal himself. Colossus + objects= pain.

Cons: Storm and Banshee provide the only natural range for the team. Storm and Wolverine are the only characters that cannot move and attack at the same time. This team is outnumbered by the team that they are facing.

Strategy: You can use Passenger or Double-Time to get Nightcrawler into his HSS clicks, and either get him into play faster, or have him carry out a teammate. I would probably pair up the two figures who don’t have mobility powers, with two that do, so that they can be carried into combat and complete follow-up attacks. The other team has a range advantage, so use hindering terrain to make it more difficult to hit your figures. Don’t be afraid to use Wolverine to exchange clicks of life with his fellow X-Men, as he has Auto Regen, which could get him his lost clicks back. Fastball Special could catch an opponent off guard.

Note: Uncanny X-Men Issue #100 is the very first time that Wolverine and Colossus utilize the “Fastball Special” maneuver that they are so famous for, which is why I included the card on the team.

The X-Sentinels:

• Cyclops V (IC) w/ Trick Shot & Swingline-108 pts
• Alex Summers SR w/ Force Field & Armor Piercing-55 pts
• Polaris R w/ Force Field-60 pts
• Archangel V w/ Force Field-78 pts
• Beast V (XP) w/ Swingline-90 pts
• Jean Grey R-31 pts
• Iceman R-26 pts

BFC:

• Assembled

Total- 448 pts

Pros: This team has lots of range which can be used to your advantage. Cyclops, Archangel, and Beast are able to move and attack. Cyclops and Beast are able to move and attack, without worrying about hindering terrain. Beast has the added bonus of having Perplex, to help out his teammates. Jean Grey and Polaris can use their TK to get Cyclops, Beast, and Archangel out into combat. After she’s done TK’ing her team mates, Jean can be used to heal her teammates, through the X-Men TA. Energy Shield/Deflection + the toughness provided by Force Filed can make members difficult to damage. This team has some pretty good damage dealing potential. Iceman’s barrier can be a boon, when trying to protect members from ranged attacks. 3 fliers are on the team, adding to the mobility. Outnumbers the New X-Men team.

Cons: Figures are fragile, and one solid hit can render them virtually useless. Jean and Iceman have little damage dealing potential

Strategy: Use the TK provided by Polaris and Jean to get Beast, Cyclops, and Archangel into battle, so they can attack asap. Have Polaris follow them while carrying Jean, so that Polaris can take out figures that have been damaged by Cyke and Beast. Make use of hindering terrain to increase the defense of figures with ES/D. Use Iceman, to cast barriers that can protect your X-Men from ranged attacks.



Parting Recommendations: The scene was set on a space station, with a lab. So for more authenticity, you can use the STAR Labs map, pr the Armor Wars map. Also, in the first issue of the arc, the New X-Men (along with Cyclops and Jean Grey) were attacked by Sentinels, while in the streets of New York City. So one could build a New X-Men team with them, and go against a 500 point Sentinel Big Figure team on the Metropolis Outdoor map.

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this article. Feel free to discuss and exchange ideas. Let me know what you think. If you see any place where I can make improvements or have ideas for future articles please feel free to PM me.

Visit the Lair’s Library of Past Articles:

• The Uncanny X-Men
• The Justice Society of America
• Alpha Flight
• The JLA, Pt. 1
• The JLA, Pt. 2

Well done, and interesting as usual.

Nice work. I love to recreate comic battles and have accurate teams with my clix. Sometimes it's a challenge based on power levels of the clix involved tho.

For example, I've been reading the Essential Super-Villian Teamup and there's a great story with the Red Skull and his thugs vs. Doctor Doom, Captain America and the Shroud. I'd love to make a game based on this, but we all know in an actual game, the Red Skull, no matter how many thugs he has, would probably be wiped out by any version of Dr. Doom. There's also no clix version of Shroud, so I would need a proxy.

Any thoughts on an "Inferno" scenario?

Synth

A nice way to look at one of my favorite teams. That is a great way to see a theme team in action. With all the additions to the teams lately, theme teams are much more possible and alot of fun to play. I look forward to the future articles and how to build quality teams out of these clix.

I can see that your an Xmen guy, and that's not a bad thing at all to be. I can't wait till you hit other themes Like Avengers (should provide to be a doozy with their eer changing line up)....

While I am not a big X-man reader, this general type of article is my favourite. (I guess I'm about to brown-nose here ) I would LOVE to see this series continue regularly - it accomplishes several things

a) Gets me interested in a team I might not have tried
b) Gets me interested in comics I might not have read
c) If I DO read these comics, it lets me see someone else's take on the team, and gives me a good 'baseline' to tinker with
d) (Obviously) promotes themes, and diversifies figure use.

Bottom line - thanks for this!

Now for the self-serving part - If you get time, I would love to see your take on a team or teams from Marvel's Ultimate Universe - It is currently too young to have too much diversity, but even Feat choice would be interesting to read.

Thanks again!

I've been working on an Inferno scenario for awhile now. It could be a great thing, if WK was to create the rest of the Marauders, Sym, 616 Dazzler, Sunspot, Gossamyer, and some demon generics. I suupose the X-terminators played their part in the ordeal as well.

But I suppose with enough imagination, you could proxy some of those. You do have a bulk of the main players available in:

Cyclops
Jean Grey
Beast
Iceman
Archangel
Goblin Queen
Sinister
N'Astirh
Wolverine
Sabretooth
Colossus
Storm
Rogue
Longshot
Psylocke
Havok
Harpoon
Vertigo
Polaris (as Malice)
Arclight
Magneto
Black King
Selene
White Queen
Cannonball
Magick
Warlock
Moonstar
Wolfsbane
Boom-Boom

I may have missed some,but that's most of them.

Thanks. I get as much enjoyment of making and playing those types of teams, as I do writing the articles.


Well, I don't know if they are quality teams, but they certainly are fun to build and use.

I always have things brewing in my mind with other teams besides the X-men, and I hope to touch on the Avengers soon. Before Fantastic and Armor Wars, things were a little hard with them. Now, I think that there are more line-ups that are available. So I look forward to doing something with them soon.

I'd use Passenger with Nightcrawler over Double Time.
With the X-men TA, you can Passenger with Colossus (activating NC), have Colossus trade hits (activating Colossus, deactivating NC), then Passenger with Colossus again (now both have been activated).

I included both, because both can be equally effective, and I wanted to present options. I'm a big fan of options and versatility. But more often than not, I'd agree with what you stated.

I'd say for V Cyclops Armor Piercing is best since he has 3 bolts.

Though with those 3 targets, he can still only do 2 damage. His 3 target thing was much better by the old multi-shot rules. Though with Beast's Perplex, it's more viable. So I guess it depends on how you plan to use him. I personally would keep him in one spot and use RCE, using the RS only when I can't get off a shot otherwise.

For sure, this is a good article idea!!!

I made some kind of list a couple of months ago, when I was tired to see "Avengers theme teams" using Songbird as their taxi - yes, I'm a Thunderbolts fan, and the only way Songbird would throw away an Avenger would be by kicking...well...you see...

It's not updated, but it is:

bravo Darth, theme teams are mt personal way to play!

I love that AW gave us a practicly full new Avengers team to play!
i musta played (and not all that effectivly yet i must say) the new avengers a good 4 times now, and only won once...