WoS figure review: FIRESTAR

Spider-Man's Amazing friend lives up to her adjective. This Diva's dial has a dual TA granting her Wild Card in addition to Avengers free movement. Free move taxis are always a welcome addition to a team, helpful for early positioning or late repositioning without eating up actions.

Flight and Running Shot keep her mobile and work well with her ranged attack power options swapping back and forth between the crowd controlling Energy Explosion and damage penetrating Psychic Blast.


It's a little disappointing that she doesn't receive one click of 10 attack, maybe on her second or third spot for incentive to keep pushing. As it is, she'll want to push off her best defense to go mobile, giving opponents an easier time dealing with her. Here the Poison on her Fantastic Forces version is sorely missed - an incentive for ground pounders to stay away from her.



Don't push too much - she drops fast although Energy Absorption may help her rise like a Phoenix from the ashes. She might go out with a bang with an 11 av, but more likely it'll be a wimper of a swan song as that bare 15 Defense really signals "shoot me before I can Pulse Wave." In all her power set and team abilities make a nice package.



Speaking of packaging - the sculpt, representing her Perez/Busiek era Avengers membership, leaves a lot to be desired. In terms of complaints however, it's a minor one, and die-hards can swap it out with the Mutant Mayhem sculpt easily.



Her cost pushes the limit of a secondary attacker and she's not a World Champion tournament winner but with several fun (read: non-min/maxed) Keywords, Firestar should be a blast for themers to play. Competitive in WoS sealed events, this figure will also shine in games of 400+ points, where she has enough TAs to copy, and friends to taxi.

Baseball Season was late this year...

With the latest All New, All Different Marvel HeroClix set X-Fans were treated to yet another Wolverine, one with an incredible healing Trait. Players have been talking about Logan's healing factor, strategizing his uses with X-Force and Wild Cards in sealed events, but so far no one has said anything about the classic combo...

FASTBALL SPECIAL

There's really no mystery why people haven't been talking about it. Since Fastball Special was introduced as a game mechanic it proved to be a dud.


Mutant Mayhem debuted the famous power play as a feat, with wordy text only a rules lawyer could decipher and make work:

Prerequisites: Chosen characters must have the same team ability printed on their bases; see feat text.

Choose two characters; if one of them is KOd before this feat is used, remove the feat from the game.

Give both characters a power action when they are adjacent: The first character must have Super Strength and the second character must be grounded and have Toughness and may not have a damage value higher then 3. The first character makes a ranged combat attack against a single opposing target within 6 squares. Place the second character in any square adjacent to the target to which the first character has clear line of fire. If the attack succeeds, the second character deals the damage. Remove the Fastball Special from the game after the attack resolves.

So, every second Sunday when the moon was in the house of Orion, at the exact moment when a seven headed calf gave a goatsmilk popscicle to a three horned faun as the clock struck midnight the Fastball Special feat was used - which is to say in the 5 years since the feat was created I never saw it played once, over hundreds of games.

Still, fans wanted that comic flavor, and when Special Powers rolled around, Game Design tried again with a replacement pitcher.


It's a slightly more usable version, one that players have tinkered with, using the Outsiders ability to negate modifiers on the thrown character. It's the restrictions that prevent it from being used often. For starters, initial damage from the ranged attack is a measly two - not enough to hurt Invulnerable figures, and barely enough to make a Toughness equipped opponent flinch. This relegated Colossus to target a soft defense figure (or have a source of Outwit nearby to make it stick).


Further setbacks include attack and damage modifier penalties, but the biggest drawback was the unavoidable damage taken from the throw - unless the fastball figure's second click was better than the first, it seemed there was little point to giving up a click of life on a figure that was moved adjacent to (read: within retalliation range of) an opposing figure. In short:

Only a crazy man would want to get thrown

Enter WoS Wolverine. His second click is the same as his first. His claws offset damage modifiers. He has an 11 attack, modified to a decent 9. But the biggest selling point is Wolverine's ability to heal automatically at the beginning of his turn, offsetting the unavoidable damage. With no move and attack of his own, the X-Force leader makes a perfect missile except for one thing.

An Adamantium skeleton should count as a heavy object.

At the very least, if Pete's only dealing 2 damage, make it 2 penetrating damage - the Russian throws fast and hard.

The new Fastball Special is not a perfect set-up and some players will hesitate to push six click Logan down to five - but it is a step closer to comic accuracy. Wolverine is able to shrug off the impact with ease, something the Healing Factor Trait showcases.

The Fastball Special should be feared.

For my money, a dream version of Fastball Special would earn players bonus victory points every time it's used in game to hurt a figure, with double points awarded if an opponent actually gets KO'd by the attack. I'd like to see more combos and power plays, more examples of comic accurate teamwork with victory points rewarded as an incentive... enough incentive that an opposing player would try and stop the pitch from being thrown.

Hopefully Wizkids is practicing their pitches and we'll get to see a better version of the throw in the 2011 season.

New Heroclix Rule: Keyword Completion

I'm proposing a rule of completion: when a new keyword is introduced, there should be enough figures in the set that possess the keyword to run a 300 point team.

Web of Spider-Man gave players a complete set of U-Foes, a playable force of Dark Avengers, a H.A.M.M.E.R. army, and while it wasn't "new" the Outlaws were rounded out with 6 new members (adding to the initial 2) capable of making 300 point modern age teams.


First Rule Violation: It's understandable that Game Design couldn't fit every member of M.O.D.O.K.'s 11 into the set, and while the 4 teammates that appear are welcome, they only total 233 points. Another ~ 67 point figure would have been welcome, and helped reach that 300 point goal. As it is, fans are left waiting (and hoping) for the next set to round out the team with other members like Armadillo, or Mentallo.



Second Violation: Perhaps an even bigger insult is the Marvel Divas, a four person team of grrrrl power, hailing from the 2009 mini-series by Roberto Aguirre-Sacas. WoS included Firestar and Black Cat, leaving out Patsy Walker (Hellcat) and whatever name Monica Rambeau is calling herself these days (Photon? Pulsar? Captain Marvel?).

While my wife nor I didn't care for the mini-series (the characters never felt honest, I suspect because it wasn't written by a woman) I do enjoy the four leads visual appeal (Ginger, Platinum, Brunette) and would like to field them on a HeroClix map. Others hoping to play a Modern Age line-up of Marvel's riff on Sex and the City (and Birds of Prey) will have to wait.


Hopefully, fans will not only see the theme team completed in the next Marvel set, but the Divas will also total an even 300. Currently the girls add up to 133 points, leaving room for a 60-70 point Hellcat, and a 90-100 point "Ms. Phot-ul-vel." As it is, comic accurate 'Clixers can field the fab four using older Golden Age version, but at best the team adds up to 275 points - far shy of that round 300.



Asking for Keyword Completion on the Divas is not asking a lot - their series spanned four issues, and ended. Web of Spider-Man had room to squeeze those last two Divas in. Instead, fans are left waiting, and hoping that the figures get remade, and not sent to limbo with the Morlocks and Serpent Society members.

WoS figure review: WOLVERINE

THIS IS NOT A HAMMER

There's a saying that goes: when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. In terms of strategy, hammers are all some people (Norman Osborn?) know how to play with - aggressively swinging that mallet, they wildly rush in hoping to kill everything. Normally, this sounds like Wolverine's style, but here the game designers gave us a different take. This is tactical Logan, the stealthy X-Force leader, and it takes a thoughtful mind to make the best of him.


I had the luck of playing this figure in a Battle Royal, and he proved his chops time and again. I purposely positioned so that he wouldn't get swarmed, and after the rest of my team pinged away at the opponents Wolvie'd go in for the kill. Most players lacked move and attack, and no one wanted to base the 11 AV - Snikt-ster for fear of swift and brutal retalliation.

This Wolverine is a bully.

He's best served as a mop up piece, or when picking on figures that can't dish back much damage, and don't require much effort to KO. One on one, this X-Man will rarely get KO'd by simple 2-3 damage figures, healing up constantly, reducing damage with Toughness. Enemies already worn down by the fight will have a hard time dealing with Wolverine, who is never afraid to push to attack.

Wolverine's healing trait enabled me to move into position and attack, or even push just to base certain figures, knowing that the most damage they'd deal wouldn't KO him. I had to keep reminding myself though, that I shouldn't rush into battle, and at one point fell back and regrouped rather than exposing myself to the possibility of getting surrounded by heavy hitters.


Wolverine is going to do well when he's facing figures that can't afford to push, or don't have Willpower, Indomitable or otherwise don't take pushing damage. He'll shine when he's not faced with the threat of someone dealing 4+ damage in a single attack.

Sure, some players have complained about his short dial, although the Trait makes it infinitely long. Other's complain he's too easy to one-shot - but then so are most figures in the Modern Age era where a base 4+ damage value is not uncommon. Yes, Outwit wrecks him - just like it wrecks almost EVERYONE ELSE (and really, Stealth and clever positioning should protect him from LoF). Bottom line:

If you're throwing him into a battle where he's outnumbered and expecting him to survive you're playing him wrong.

In terms of a HeroClix toolbox, WoS Wolverine is NOT a hammer. My advice? If this figure doesn't work out for you - put Logan away, and stick to using Thor - he has plenty of hammer swinging experience.

Get Ready For A Fist Fight!

The back alley brawl returns with Web of Spider-Man. I'm not talking about the battlefield condition, nope, I'm noting the set is overflowing with low to no ranged attack figures, putting an emphasis on old fashioned fisticuffs. Nearly half of the figures in the set have 0 range.

More than 60% of the figures in WoS
lack a range value better than 4.

On the flip side only 3 characters have 10 range (Cosmic Spidey, Bullseye and X-ray). The 8 figures with an 8 range are tent poles - mostly expensive, around 100 to 150 points, and easily take up a good chunck of a 300 point build total, leaving little room for support.

Take a look at the breakdown:
0 range - 26 figures
2 range - 3 figures
4 range - 14 figures
6 range - 10 figures
8 range - 8 figures
10 range - 3 figures

If you do pull a ranged heavy team, be sure to use the WoS map to your advantage - elevated terrain makes for good sniping. Keep moving though, rather than get boxed in and forced into hand to hand. Water Terrain will make it difficult to reach those flying, Running Shot figures.

Frontal assaults will prove daunting to the mobility challenged teams - unless you’re willing to slog through Water Terrain, (and there's plenty of Leap/Climbers in the set) this is a battlefield with about a 4 square wide bottleneck.

Get ready to run up and punch someone in the face.

Highly mobile tie-up pieces are a must and players should think of potential sacrificial pieces when building teams - someone to Leap/Climb or Phase/Teleport adjacent to a rooftop sniper if only to buy their teammates time to cross that bridge.

If you're a cautious, conservative, defensive minded player be prepared to change your play style. This set and map are not for timid players.

Web of Spider-man debuts the long awaited appearance of Spider-Man’s first “supervillain” (the mugger who shot Uncle Ben doesn’t count) better known as Russian Actor Dmitri Anatoly Smerdyakov Kravinoff. Or is he? As a Master of Disguise you never really know.

By all accounts he’s a normal human who has used costumes and technology to impersonate people from Daily Bugle Publisher J. Jonah Jameson, to Incredible Hulk nemesis General Thunderbolt Ross (apparently he has a thing for cigar chomping military hot heads). He’s even copied Peter Parker at one point.

picture courtesy HCRealms.com

His clix dial showcases mimicry abilities a Skrull would be jealous of, and given the amount of people he’s fooled over the years you have to wonder why this guy wasted his time fighting Spider-Man and robbing banks when he could have been a multi-million dollar multiple Oscar winning actor.

Unfortunately his combat prowess is all stage training. Chameleon has a sordid history of defeat, not only at the hands of Spider-Man, but also his supporting cast. Mary Jane took a Louisville Slugger to his kneecaps, Aunt May fed him some Ambien laced oatmeal cookies. In short, the guy knows how to lose.

picture courtesy HCRealms.com

Chameleon’s Heroclix dial represents his rather timid nature - he’s lurking in the shadows (Stealth), using some chemical concoction (most likely Rohyphenol) to Incapacitate his victims, and wearing disguises (Shape Change) to avoid detection.

Perhaps the most interesting defensive ability on his dial is Mastermind, if only because you have to ask - do I really want to keep this guy on my team? Do I really need to save his 9 AV to share with other Syndicate team members? Some Perplex or Outwit would go a long way in helping me decide.

One thing is certain - while he can’t do a lot of damage...
... the Chameleon is annoying.

For starters, Stealth is going to block Line of Fire, which means an opponent will have to get up close to deal with him. Once there, he’ll use a disguise to confuse would be assaulters - half of all attacks will avoid him, and even if he does take one to the chin, he can pass the damage off with Mastermind.

Judging by his stats, Chameleon is not an attack piece - he’s an annoying tie-up piece.

Someone who’s hard to get away from.
Someone who uses cunning disguises & manipulations to get his way.
Someone who drugs you when you’re not looking.
Someone who wears a smoking jacket?
Oh my gosh!

He’s the Continental!