Earlier in the week I reviewed the Alpha Flight alternate team ability, and presented a few teams for more competitive play. Today, we’re going to look at the first appearance of Alpha Flight, as they hunt Wolverine and the X-Men through Canada, and present a more thematic team for those of you wanting to play our friends from the Great White North.

This article introduces the first roster of Alpha Flight, using them in a 500 point team to fight the X-Men with. Follow the link to hunt down those trespassing mutants . . .

Synopsis: After helping Sunfire in Japan, the X-Men’s plane is brought down by a freak snowstorm. Vindicator and Alpha Flight try to get Wolverine to come with them peacefully, though the situation quickly escalates after he refuses. Alpha Flight captures Wolverine and Nightcrawler, and the remaining X-Men are left to try and rescue their teammates.

E Aurora – 60 points
-Armor Piercing – 10 points
LE James MacDonald Hudson – 99 points
-Vendetta – 6 points
LE Narya – 66 points
E Northstar – 61 points
-Armor Piercing – 10 points
E Shaman – 66 points
LE Walter Langkowski – 93 points
-Lunge – 5 points
Alpha Flight (on all) – 24 points
=500 points



Hi there! For those of you that don’t know already, tidge is on a well-deserved vacation, and I’ve been given the honor of guest-writing this article. I just felt that Alpha Flight deserved a more thematic representation after reviewing their alternate team ability; if you haven’t read that article yet, it’s right here. Go ahead; I can wait as long as you need.

As for the team, it’s actually better than I thought Alpha Flight could do at a higher (than 300) point value. It might be a little LE-heavy, but the Limited Edition figures listed are not only very good, they’re also pretty cheap on the secondary market. If you’re serious about playing Alpha Flight, you should definitely pick these figures up. It’s like building any of the Double Dog Dare decks InQuest Gamer would do for Magic: the Gathering; the stuff is undervalued and thought weak by most people, and goes for a lot cheaper than it probably should.

This was the first appearance of Alpha Flight, which is why there’s no Box, Puck, Wildheart, or various incarnations of Wolverine; most of those characters were added during the Alpha Flight comic series. Let’s get a look at those dials now!

aw041 E Aurora
Team: Avengers
Range: 8
Points: 60
Keywords: Alpha Flight, Mutant

12 9 16 2

11 9 16 2

10 8 15 2

10 8 15 2

10 7 14 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

A 14 square ranged attack is nothing to sneeze at, even if it doesn’t do much damage. Aurora can attack from outside the range of most characters, and proves that you don’t need Telekinesis to get in the first strike. Even if she carries someone else (though Northstar makes a better taxi; see below), it’s still a 12 square range when you factor in her Running Shot. Once she slips into Hypersonic Speed, Aurora is best used for slipping behind enemy lines and dealing with all of those nasty support pieces your opponent fields. Her short dial is to be expected of someone of her point value, but don’t think she’s a one-and-done attacker; most people will be more worried about your other figures to pay too much attention to her.

sv206 LE James MacDonald Hudson
Team: Avengers
Range: 8
Points: 99
Keywords: Alpha Flight, Armor, Scientist

10 10 17 3

8 10 17 3

9 9 16 3

9 9 16 2

8 8 15 2

8 8 15 2

9 8 14 2

10 7 14 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

The leader of Alpha Flight, James here is another strong ranged attacker. He can strike from up to 13 squares away, and can crack most damage reducers doing it. He also has Invulnerability, meaning that he can take hits just as well as give them out. Super Strength on his opening click means that, even if someone bases him to stop him from shooting, he can deal a crapton of damage using an object. He also has some pretty decent stats near the top of his dial, which makes him the obvious front-man for the team. The lack of Leadership is frustrating, but everyone has the Avengers team ability, which means you’ll probably never be out-actioned; still, it would have been nice to pull action tokens off of your characters. Vendetta is a flavorful addition; he was hellbent on taking Wolverine into custody, and can be equally devoted to bringing down your opponent’s biggest threat, which should be easier to hit once you call the Alpha Flight ATA on them. A solid piece, though he’s liable to tank after taking a few hits.

mm210 LE Narya
Team: Avengers
Range: 0
Points: 66
Keywords: Alpha Flight, Mystical, Police

9 9 15 2

7 9 16 2

6 9 15 2

8 8 15 2

7 7 13 2

7 7 13 2

8 6 14 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

It’s unfortunate that Narya here was made before the advent of special powers, as it would have been far easier to represent her shapeshifting powers now than it was then; it hurts knowing that Earthbound is used to show her as a large attacking creature. Still, this one has Super Strength, which is a good trade-off for the Invulnerability her higher-point versions have. You’ll want to throw at least one of those objects you have her use if you can, since the odds are that she’s not going to get a close combat attack in with one of them. Blades/Claws/Fangs just makes her more dangerous as you go further down her dial, though at this point you’ll want to be adjacent. Early and late dial Stealth are her in an escapable form; she can serve as a mobile line-of-fire blocker in the early and late game for Walter or James, if you need to shield them from oppressive ranged attacks.

mm068 E Northstar
Team: Avengers
Range: 0
Points: 61
Keywords: Alpha Flight

12 9 16 2

12 8 16 2

11 8 15 2

11 7 15 2

10 7 14 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

With high speed and the Flight/Carry combo that all fliers have, Northstar will probably start the game by carrying Walter Langkowski into battle. Once you have deposited your furry friend next to whomever you feel needs to die first, Northstar becomes a first-class harasser, running circles around most pursuit while tearing apart weaker support figures or short-ranged figures without damage reducers. Even with the Armor Piercing feat he’s not likely to do much damage to a tentpole figure, so don’t use him that way; he’ll probably end up being wiped out if you do. Instead, use him to pull Walter and Shaman wherever they’re needed most, and maybe to take out any healers or pesky Perplex/Probability Control/Outwit/Enhancement bots your opponent’s got parked in the back.

aw050 E Shaman
Team: Avengers
Range: 6
Points: 66
Keywords: Alpha Flight, Mystical

6 9 15 2

6 8 15 2

6 8 14 2

5 7 14 1

5 7 13 1

4 6 13 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

The ultimate support figure for this team, Shaman shouldn’t have to make a single attack roll, if you play your figurative cards right. Perplex is an awesome ability, and he can easily wield the Brilliant Tactician feat if you feel you need it; I went with Armor Piercing on the twins so they could deal damage against a one-man army. The real treat is that he has almost a full dial of Barrier and Support. Use Northstar to slingshot Walter back to him whenever he needs a fix, then use Barrier to block line of fire so he doesn’t just get shot to shreds before he can get back in the action; it’s meaner than you think. He does have Psychic Blast and Incapacitate, but with his short range you really don’t want to have to use them. Same goes for the Outwit; if you get to the point where you have it, he’s probably going to die soon anyway.

mm212 LE Walter Langkowski
Team: Avengers
Range: 0
Points: 93
Archenemy: Sasquatch (Green)
Keywords: Alpha Flight, Scientist

6 8 14 1

10 10 17 3

9 9 16 3

8 9 15 3

8 8 16 2

7 8 15 2

7 8 14 2

7 7 14 2

6 7 13 2

6 7 13 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

Once you get past that first click of nothingness, Walter can destroy most figures he gets the drop on. With the choice of using an object or simply hitting them with Close Combat Expert, there’s not really a time where you want to do the base 3 damage his first two useful clicks provide. Lunge just makes him worse, since he can agilely bounce from one near-beaten foe to a fresh one in a heartbeat. He also has a full dial of damage-reducing powers, and his defense is extremely healable if you need to visit the medicine man listed above. A simple brick, Walter is an extremely viable figure in this team.

Now, since this is “technically” an X-Men book, I feel it is my duty to provide the obligatory roster the X-Men had with them when they first encountered Alpha Flight (using mostly Golden Age figures to make it fair, with a Wolverine that’s enough points to make Vendetta flavorful), just so you have something to play against if you decide to take this team out for a test drive.

aw024 Banshee – 90 points
ffgsx002 Cyclops – 75 points
ui066 Storm – 52 points
ct085 Nightcrawler – 83 points
ui062 Colossus – 95 points
gx009 Wolverine – 103 points

=498 points

And there you have it! Hopefully I didn’t do too badly, but I guess we’ll see. Anyway, see you around!

Too bad old Puck isn't available.

Every time I have tried to use the Alpha Flight figures (my favorite team I might add) they always get wiped out. I do have bad dice luck most often, but one would think the law of averages would have come into play at least once; but to no avail.

oh, and me was hoping for an article about x-men team !

great article & one of THE all time best X-MEN stories

Great article!
I hope alpha flight gets remade soon.

Great article! I've always liked Alpha Flight and I would love to see a much needed update as well.

Nice write up!

I've always enjoyed the X-Men/Alpha Flight stories. As soon as Mutant Mayhem debuted I scrambled to put together an Alpha Flight team...too bad it took several sets before it could be really completed.

Too bad Vindicator in Ultimates was so bleh. She lead my AF team for the first few games, but the team was only so-so. Snowbird and Sasquatch were the hurdles in the early AF team builds, you just couldn't get their worth out of them...everything anchored on the other guys. This was the real challenge, b/c the better pieces were plagued with move and attack powers but hopelessly stuck on 2 damage and mediocre attacks with no "theme" access to prob. Compound this with the less than average defenses and any game w/ an AF team was an uphill battle.

Now with the new ATA, they tried to address their primary deficiency. I'll give the designers this.

My .03

nice article. i usually used vindicater on my roster and slap contingency plan on her.that helped mitigate some of the lower a/v on some of the team. then later on she can switch to offense and lose the leadership after its served its purpose.

Excellent write up as usual! One of my favorite Sunday morning reads.

With the flood of new Avengers, could I recommend a comic book to look at? Avengers 222 features Egghead's Masters of Evil (all are now available). It also features an interesting Avengers line-up.

Alpha Flight has always been one of my favorite teams, but they definitly suffer from old dial design.

You have Nightcrawler from CT listed (for initials only), but it should be FF

Why not use Danger Room Storm and free up 12 pts?
Also, using the E version of Banshee gives you 13 more pts to play with....

Which means you get to build the team around WoS Nightcrawler for 86 pts.

Nice article. A new Alpha Flight is needed instead of more Avengers.

Time for an Alpha Flight Fast Forces, methinks.