Sometimes the basics aren’t enough. Sometimes you need a little something extra when it comes to your choice of team ability. And when that happens, you need an Alternate Team Ability. But which one suits your play style, and why should you even play it? Hopefully I can help you with that.

This time on Alternate Team Spirit: Fantastic Force!

Greetings, my fellow Clixers, and welcome to another episode of Alternate Team Spirit! Today we look to the past, when this ATA was good, and then to the present, where it’s . . . not as good. It’s time for Fantastic Force!


But I promised you a look at the past, and so we will. The Fantastic Force ATA is a reprint of an older ATA, though it has been updated to make it a little more fair and to prevent the abusive teams the old version used to spawn. Here it is:


Seriously, that’s what the Fantastic Four ATA used to do. The teams that used it typically put one version of Invisible Woman (who had a lot of cheap versions with really high defenses) in the corner of the map furthest away from the opponent, then used the heaviest hitting versions of the rest of Marvel’s First Family to wipe out the opposition while being pretty much untouchable. It was a little up in the air as to whether or not wild cards could copy the team ability for a while, and this spawned (at my venue, at least) a few teams that used Invisible Woman and the best wild card figures you could get your hands on. It was a colossal pain to deal with, and the change to the rules preventing wild cards from using the team ability (again, at least at my venue) put a stop to this nonsense. But when NECA took over WizKids, they realized that this mess would not stand. Hence, we got the Fantastic Force ATA.

Out of the Fantastic Four ATAs available, this one is not exactly the best. It’s the most expensive of the three, and the benefit basically mimics the Defend power, only it works for just the characters using the team ability. It means that you can’t just hide Sue Storm in the back while your Ben Grimm, Human Torch, or whoever you have on the team uses her high defense the whole way across the map. Instead, you have to put your high defense figures (which have a tendency to be a little soft on damage reducers) up front with your heavy hitters in order to get the best use out of your team ability. It makes a huge difference in playstyles, and is a good challenge to use effectively.

In Action
We’re at that point in the article where I put together a team showing off how to use the team ability reviewed, and we’re going to have a challenge. Putting together a Fantastic Four team isn’t terribly hard normally (since the original four typically add up to a round number), but now we have to figure out how to squeeze this ATA on as well. Fortunately for us the point of Heroclix isn’t always to build perfectly themed teams, so we can mix and match different rosters to try and build a team that works. I was originally planning on posting a team played against me during the old days (when the ATA was free and what-not), but decided that it wasn’t really necessary. Anyway, here goes:

si101 V Mr. Fantastic
Team: Fantastic Four
Range: 6
Points: 100
Keywords: Fantastic Four, Illuminati, Scientist

9 10 17 2

8 10 17 2

8 10 16 2

8 9 16 2

8 9 15 2

8 8 15 2

7 8 15 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Speed) Pliable: Mr. Fantastic can use Leap/Climb and Plasticity

(Defense) Ductile: Mr. Fantastic can use Super Senses and Barrier (as if he had a range of 0). When a Barrier terrain marker placed by Mr. Fantastic is destroyed, roll a d6; on a result of 1, deal 1 damage to Mr. Fantastic.

(Damage) Inventive Genius: Mr. Fantastic can use Perplex, but he can modify the target's combat values by +2 or -2 if he is targeting himself of another character with which he shares a keyword.

It was a tough call between Mr. Fantastic and his LE counterpart, but in the end I chose to use this version because of his “Inventive Genius” power and “Ductile” power’s Barrier. He also has the ability to use Brilliant Tactitian, which can turn his entire team into monsters if you have a Fantastic Four theme team (which this will be). It’s worth mentioning the Reed Richards LE, since he has the option to negate a character’s entire roster of non-special powers (which, with his Golden Age legality, gives him a good list of targets to choose from) and can negate critical misses/make hits more likely on friendly characters he can see which share a keyword with him. Since they cost the same amount of points, it’s not hard to change them out and decide which one you like to use more.

si001 E Spider-Man
Team: Spider-Man
Range: 6
Points: 50
Keywords: Avengers, Fantastic Four, Reporter, Scientist

9 10 17 3

9 10 17 3

8 9 17 2

8 9 16 2

8 8 16 2

8 8 15 3

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Attack) Web-Punch: Spider-Man can use Flurry. If he makes two successful attacks against the same target using Flurry, instead of dealing damage with the second attack he can instead give an action token to the target if it has zero or one action token.

It’s a little depressing that this is still the “go-to” Spiderman for so many teams that use him, but what a figure. He has solid stats for his point cost, can make multiple attacks for most of his dial (with the option of putting a token on the target on his second attack), and is extremely mobile. As the game wears on, you can hop him next to a damaged figure to give them a boost to their defense (which is easy due to his full-dial Leap/Climb), and offers an option for Storm to use her X-Men team ability. He even has an option for a ranged attack, just in case you have the time for one last shot before closing with your opponent. Awesome for 50 points, and would still be awesome for more.

gx048 V Storm
Team: X-Men
Range: 9
Points: 86
Keywords: Deity, Fantastic Four, Hellfire Club, Morlocks, Ruler, X-Men

10 10 17 3

8 9 17 2

8 9 16 2

7 10 16 3

7 9 16 2

7 9 15 2

6 8 15 1

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Damage) The Weather Witch: When Storm occupies a square of outdoor terrain, modify her damage and range values by +1 and she possesses 2 targets.

While a thematic Fantastic Four team would use Human Torch as their ranged attacker, I’m using Storm because of her Telekinesis and longer range. That Telekinesis is important for throwing your Thing out into a better position to use his “It’s Clobberin’ Time” power, as well as repositioning your characters to use your team ability better. She has a natural 9 range, which can become a 10 if you’re playing on an outdoor map (which you should pick if you win map choice), which gives her either a 14 or 15 square threat range with her Running Shot. “The Weather Witch” also gives her a 4 damage, which makes her attacks stick more. Her Energy Shield/Deflection protects her from range on its own, and gets better if you have her next to The Thing or your Invisible Woman of choice (if you use her), as does her late-dial Combat Reflexes. The only drawback is that her X-Men team ability has limited usefulness on a Fantastic Four team, since there are only a few characters with that keyword and either the X-Men team ability or a wild card team ability to copy it with.

ff205 LE Sue Storm
Team: Fantastic Four
Range: 6
Points: 49
Keywords: Celebrity, Fantastic Four

7 9 19 2

7 8 18 2

6 8 17 2

6 7 16 1

5 7 15 1

5 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

While I really wanted to keep the team at the right point level to use Brilliant Tactician, the only Fantastic Four figure that would let me do that had a full dial of Defend (which is useless when using this team ability), so I went with the next cheapest figure, which is another version of Invisible Girl. Sue here was the cornerstone of the old-school Fantastic Four teams, and still makes this team work better. Her main uses are to stay next to either Storm (long-range figure) or Mr. Fantastic (support piece), and to use her Barrier to help control the board. Her 19 defense will make any figure on this team very hard to hit, but she’s not really front-line material; in fact, you really don’t want to have to rely on her attacking ability at all. She’s pretty much the only figure on this team that can’t hold her own in a fight, but if she ends up in combat then you’ve already lost. Use with caution.

si104 V The Thing
Team: Fantastic Four
Range: 0
Points: 100
Keywords: Brute, Fantastic Four, Soldier

7 10 18 4

7 11 18 3

6 11 18 3

8 10 17 3

8 9 17 3

7 9 17 3

7 8 16 3

6 8 15 4

6 8 15 4

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Speed) It's Clobberin' Time: The Thing can use Quake. Give the Thing a power action; he can move up to his speed value and then as a free action either (1) use Quake or (2) make a close combat attack.

(Defense) Yancy Streeter: The Thing can use Toughness and Willpower.

(Damage) Yer Ever-Lovin' Pal: At the beginning of your turn, if the Thing is adjacent to one or more friendly characters that have one or more action tokens, roll a d6. On a result of 5 or 6, you can remove an action token from one adjacent friendly character, or two adjacent friendly characters if they and the Thing all possess a single common keyword.

This Thing has everything you’d expect from the muscle of the team: lots of Super Strength, damage reducers, high attack and damage values, and a long dial. He also has a great move-and-attack power, half a dial of Willpower, crowd control options with Quake, and the ability to manipulate action tokens to keep your other figures rolling. That “Yer Ever-Lovin’ Pal” power means a lot more on this team, since you need to be adjacent to your teammates to use your new team ability, and this lets your defense ‘bot keep up with you in case Ben gets moving. He’s a solid close combat attacker for the team, and provides you with, in most cases, all the muscle you need.

ih035 E Wolverine
Team: Fantastic Four|X-Men
Range: 0
Points: 70
Keywords: Fantastic Four, X-Men

8 11 17 3

8 10 17 2

7 10 16 2

7 10 16 2

6 10 15 2

6 9 15 2

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

KO KO KO KO

(Special) My First Non-X Team: Modify Wolverine's attack value by +1 if other friendly characters on the map possess 3 or more different team symbols among them.

(Speed) Lunge: When Wolverine is given a close combat action, immediately before making the attack he may automatically break away and may move up to 2 squares.

Thanks to our eclectic mix of characters, Wolverine has a 12 attack on his first click and, if you can keep your other figures from dying, never drops below a 10. That’s to start. He also has the ability to move himself 2 squares any time he wants to make a close combat attack without having to worry about breaking away, which can be brought into play a lot quicker with Storm’s Telekinesis and ability to Carry and mixes well with his Blades/Claws/Fangs or his Exploit Weakness (though not all at once, of course). He can act as a healing battery for Storm or Spiderman with his X-Men team ability, and is able to heal himself back with his Regeneration. He’s pretty good for his points, and gets better with this particular mix of figures.

All right, so we have 485 points worth of figures at the moment; how do we get this to 500? The Crimson Gem of Cyttorak is always a good choice, especially since we have a large amount of close-combat or short-range figures. Unstoppable is a perfect choice for The Thing, and Lunge is just wicked with Spiderman. All of these cost 5 points, which makes our team look something like this:

Mr. Fantastic (Secret Invasion) – 100 points
-Fantastic Force – 5 points
Spiderman (Secret Invasion) – 50 points
-Fantastic Force – 5 points
-Lunge – 5 points
Storm (Giant-Size X-Men) – 86 points
-Fantastic Force – 5 points
Sue Storm (Fantastic Forces) – 49 points
-Fantastic Force – 5 points
The Thing (Secret Invasion) – 100 points
-Fantastic Force – 5 points
-Unstoppable – 5 points
Wolverine (Incredible Hulk) – 70 points
-Fantastic Force – 5 points
Crimson Gem of Cyttorak – 5 points

Total – 500 points

Final Assessment
How the mighty have fallen. When it was Fantastic Four, this ATA was one of the most built-around team abilities in the game. Now that it’s Fantastic Force, it’s become a lot harder to cobble together a truly devastating team based around it. Not that I’m saying it’s downright terrible; it’s just become a lot less game-breaking than it used to be.

That’s all for this one; come back next time when Object of Desire stays old-school to cover the ranged attack for the everyman. Until then, happy Clixin’!

I find this ATA very useful in my ground and pound FF teams mostly due to the high 18 defense being a standard first click on most of the newer and a few great older characters. It's given me great use especially with the 10th Anniversary Storm and the older (but still very affective) Avengers Black Panther.

Think of this ATA as an Addition and never a replacement because the Fantastic Four team ability never sucked to begin with.

You point out a definite advantage to the new ATA over the old: the old one prohibited the use of the original FF TA. The new one doesn't so the FF still have their healing capability on top of the defense sharing.

ATA stands for ADDITIONAL Team Ability; not Alternate Team Ability.

I recommend the FF ATA+Brilliant Tactician+Coordination in high point games. Everyone having 21 defense is simply brutal.

For me it was a case of over-compensation. The original ATA was an abuse, lending protections that weren't supportable from a comics-accuracy standpoint. The new one limited matters too much for my tastes. Still, sure, it stressed the important aspect that they're essentially family and are watching out for each other.

On the team-building front, I don't know that I could get myself to go with a Sue that couldn't do much more than create barriers and provide the defense boost for those who are adjacent to her, though to be fair that pretty much was most of what she did during the Lee/Kirby run... and even less during the first two years (they were bi-monthly until issue #7) until she picked up the force field powers in issue #22. Up until then she was mainly the invisible hostage more often than not.

Completely off topic, I dislike the art they chose for the newer card. Aside from Ben I wouldn't recognize any of the others without the insignia. "Reed" looks like a soccer houligan.

Shouldn't this be "Additional" since they aren't alternate anymore (Edit I see chrisdosmil agrees)

It was ONLY used with the Sue Storm LE from Fantastic Forces, with that 19 defense and low cost, and (at my venues at least) never with other FF members... just with tons of Wildcards like V Taskmaster, Hellboy, V Persuader, V Emerald Empress, Prometheus etc

I don't get the distatste for this ATA. It's the Defenders/JSA TA for 5 pts per character. and they keep their Original TA so theres never an easy choice in terms of how to deal the team damage: Do you focus fire on one, having to hit an 18 over and over again, or do you spread out damage and let them heal up every time you KO one. I played a 1000 pt game with Doom on the team the other day and I swear he took 20 damage over the course of the game.

Hellboy needed that ATA .

Heck we need a newHellboy, not the one we deserve, but the one who doesn't quote that stupid ending from Dark Knight.

Justice for Hellboy... and Atomic Robo. We need a duo of them. I think I saw a pic of them in someone's Avatar somewhere.

What you suggest sounds nice, I may have to try that...

It's not foolproof. It requires your entire team to clump together...or at least line up. It limits your mobility and potentially leaves you vulnerable to a massive Pulse Wave...which I believe would ignore the defense modifications.

Still, could be very effective if done wisely.

I sort of always justified it (both in my head, and to my angry friends) that Sue was hanging back and making the whole team invisible, thus harder to hit. How that made Alicia Masters clone herself a bunch of times, I have no idea. I'm actually really glad they modified that ATA, because I didn't like what it turned me into, lol.

Also don't forget that the new ATAs are treated like regular team abilities. Any wildcard can copy them (unless otherwise stated). So you can take cosmic spidy or dr. doom and kang, and effectively keep a solid 19 defense and be used as a bruiser