Scarlet Witch: Creeping Me Out for Years

I hated Brian Michael Bendis for taking one of my favorite characters and turning her into a raving loon as a vehicle for rebooting the Avengers. And then perusing some older issues of the Avengers I realized, maybe BMB wasn't that far off.

Wanda's always walked a fine line between helping her teammates and killing them with her uncontrollable "Hex" powers. Like the Witch from Wundagore mountain shows, she's forever been on the edge of losing her mind, a loose cannon capable of accidentally harming friend and foe alike.

Take this exchange between Scarlet Witch and Electro for instance.

Wanda pulls a Vader Force Choke on this poor two-bit villain, and could have easily killed him. It's not the act so much that bothers me, but her teammate's reactions.

Captain America for instance. A guy who has fought in the bloodiest war in history, and has no doubt seen gruesome dismemberments, Nazi torture victims and the like takes one look at Wanda and has a WTF moment.

Rather, it was "What the Blazes?!?!?!", but we know what you meant comics code Cap.

Is that fear in your eyes Steve? His response says it all. "UM.... Yes!" So what do you expect from someone who can bend reality to shape her will, giving birth to mutant twins from an android father, or wiping the mutant gene out of existence.

Or most of the mutants anyway (since we can't just get rid of Marvel's best selling titles!). Still, with that kind of power cap is right to be scared. Scarlet Witch could conceivably do anything, including making Steve Rogers her love slave. SHe wouldn't do that though.... would she?

So in hindsight, the crazy was there to begin with. Brian Michael Bendis just connected the dots.

Superman or Elseworlds?

So the Superman checklist was revealed, (awhile ago, I know...I know) and compared to my list there's actually a lot of difference. Many of the characters I figured would be in the set, didn't make the cut.

No Lana Lang Insect Queen? Now she'll never get made. And what about the Furies? And then there's just the bizarre choices. No Jimmy Olsen? No Mxyzptlyk? No Krypto? Sigh.

Here's where my list matched up with WizKids:

• #1 Intergang Agent
• #7 Superman Robot
• #8 Gangbuster
  
• #9 Zod
• #11 Sun Boy
• #14 Steel
• #18 Parasite
• #19 Ursa
• #20 Supergirl
• #22 Superman
• #26 Superwoman (Lois)
• #29 Maxwell Lord
• #31 Superboy (classic)
• #33 Silver Banshee
• #34 Non
• #35 Bruno Mannheim
• #37 Magog
• #39 Lex Luthor
  
• #43 Lobo
• #44 Brainiac 5
• #52 Eradicator
• #54 Darkseid
• #58 Cyborg Superman

24/60. In short, I suck at predicting these things.

It is interesting to note that this is the closest thing we've had to an Elseworlds set ever. Between the All Star contingent, the Flashpoint sub-theme, and the variant chases, there's no less than 15 out of continuity figures. And that doesn't even include the Kingdom Come guys, or the Legion who are constantly going through alternate timeline reboots.

There's also a few figures I suspect are holdovers from DC75. Human Target, for instance isn't exactly a Superman staple, and while Swamp Thing has had encounters with the Man of Steel, he more or less screams 75 years of DC! Swampy probably had to be delayed due to storyline reasons, I'm not sure it was known that he came back with the Brightest Day when 75 was released.

Seven Deadly Brothers feels completely out of place (and is another that was better suited for DC75, which just adds to my conspiracy theory that DC75 had a bunch of Skittle Lanterns shoved into it at the expense of a few other figures.

My GenCon Experience: Thursday

Thursday morning came fast and with it the long walk to the convention. Fortunately as insiders we bypassed the legion of gamers lined up to get in we helped set up the Spinmaster tournament area then had a couple hours to walk about and take in the 'Con, enjoying all the colorful costumes and people along the way.

We stumbled into the paint and take where I fell in love with this Hillbilly Goblin model from Wyrd miniatures,


while my wife painted this Mouseling pirate. Both minis and paint were FREE (with con admission).

Captain Frosttail of the Icy Seas...

We then went to work helping run the Stratego events while demoing Stomple at the next table over. Stomple caught on like a super-flu virus, contagious to passers by as the shine of the marbles, and the CLACK sounds they made when falling through the board, drew people in like rubberneckers at a train wreck.

The more people we taught, the more they wanted to show their friends how to play. Because the rules are so simple it got to a point where people I had just taught how to play were explaining it to their friends (and other strangers) and so on.

After the Exhibit hall closed and the last Stratego event ran, I quick changed into my Mouse tee


and we headed over to the Old Spaghetti Factory for the HCRealms.com member appreciation dinner, where I finally got to meet and greet many people I have only known through online communication. We sat with a table of gamers from the Boston area and enjoyed dinner and conversation that didn't just revolve around games.


Later in the hotel lobby we had a four player Battle Royal of Epic Proportions - my Mole Man was on the prowl looking for objects to steal, and I managed to snatch up a Scorpio Key, A Black Lantern, and the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak before XLII's X-men thwarted my heist.

Play of the night went to a Juggernaut-empowered Moloid who KO'd Larry's (HCRealms Tyroman) FF Sinestro - no easy feat with Sinestro being on his Invulnerable clicks and Molo-naut having only a 2 damage.

Heh.

My GenCon Experience: Wednesday

The Best Four Days in Gaming isn't just a hype filled slogan, it's truth. I realize I'm a bit late in posting this, but since this was my first big convention I thought it was worth sharing my experience.


My wife and I arrived in Indianapolis Wednesday night to help the Spinmaster team as demo monkeys, and I got on the floor just in time to see the exhibit hall as it was being set up, with forklifts dumping carpeting and crates everywhere in a flurry of activity.

The Redakai Booth

I made the rounds looking at booths and marking out where I wanted to go the next day, including the Cool Mini or Not area, Reaper booth, and WotC castle.

Reaper Minis

I also stopped by WizKids to geek out over some unrealesed 'Clix previews including the Pathfinder minis, Lord of the Rings sculpts, and Halo clix. My personal highlight - DC Superman sneak peeks including Sensor Girl/Princess Projectra, a split (100/200 point) dial Supergirl, and Silver Banshee.



We picked up our weekend uniforms, tee-shirts featuring classic Stratego icons and then strolled over to restaurant row where we enjoyed some boneless chicken wings.


Heading back to the hotel we found the lobby buzzing with gamers, including HeroClix and I got to chat up Mike and Mike from Calgary, who were both playtesting World Championship teams. I ended up playing a pick up game and had a lot of fun losing. Little did I know the fun was only just beginning.

Just Read It: Apathy

Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


"The world is your oyster, and you are addicted to shellfish," reads the bumper sticker logo that becomes a life motto for Shane, the lead character of Apathy. Fans of Chuck Palahniuk will love this book that reads like a murder mystery/film noir for the Gen X & Y crowd - those disaffected, jaded and cynical souls fed up with consumerism and societal norms will find there's some humorous life commentary for them on every page. The lead character is one you don't necessarily root for, but follow because he's just so strange that you wonder what he'll say or do next. Packed full of oddball (yet interesting) characters from deaf Marlene to the firework peddling Mobo the prose somehow keeps these larger than life personalities all in the realm of believability, and the writing style keeps the pages turning, which is everything you want in a good read.



View all my reviews

Gen Con 2011: Stomple and Stratego!

Yesterday I wrote about Stratego, a game with simple, easy to learn rules that is capable of layers of complex strategy. Today I'll mention Stomple, another Spin Master game that falls into the same category (think: Chess, Go!, Pente, Catan, etc.) of easy to learn rules, with layers of possible tactics.

Stomple is a multi-player (2-6) game where the goal is to score points by being the last man standing. The game board is a simple grid, with multicolored marbles spread randomly throughout. Each player is given a "Stomper" with the objective on their turn to "stomp" out another player's marbles by pushing down on them (marbles drop into the bottom half of the board). If you begin your turn and don't have any marbles adjacent to your stomper, you're out!

There's a few other intricacies; "chain" stomping an opponent's row of the same colors for instance will get you closer to victory. Players can also warp at any time to a marble with the same color as their Stomper, possibly providing a lifeline to someone who gets painted into a corner (at the expense of Stomping that color - making it a one time trick).

The real strategy is how to rack up points effectively. The game awards points to the last player on the board, with bonus points for other remaining marbles that do not correspond to Stompers in play like tiger eyes. Beware - in desperation to stay in the game those Tiger Eyes are often sacrificed. The key to victory is making sure you isolate your own color of marbles from others so opponents can't knock out a "warp" spot that could save you late in the game.

It's a fun family game that is enjoyed by players of all ages. There's also a glorious cutthroat aspect lurking underneath as well, the kind that can easily turn into one of those long standing blood feuds between competitive siblings (not that I'd know *anything* about that).

I mention Stomple and Stratgeo here, not just because they're great games, but also because I will be working at GenCon this year helping promote these game lines. Spin Master has some great tournaments lined up in Indianapolis, with events for both adults and the 12 and under crowd, and they're offering some good prizes to boot.

Come on out, bring the kids, sign up, have some fun and say hi! I guarantee you'll have fun even if it means losing all your marbles. I also recommend giving the updated Stratego a try as well! Hope to see you there!

Strategy and Stratego

I've recently been addicted to an updated version of Stratego, the classic board game of capture the flag warfare that combines elements of chess and concentration in one tidy package. Similar to Battleship, each player has their forces hidden to the other player, with each piece having a designated power number attached to it. The higher the number, the stronger the piece. Unlike chess, attacking a piece does not insure it will be removed from the field.

For the uninitiated the main challenge of Stratego has always been the unknown factor of figuring out what your opponent's game pieces are while memorizing their location on the game board so you can position to eliminate them with a higher numbered piece of your own. Simultaneously, you must craft a strategy to protect your side of the map from an invasion.

Stratego teaches basic strategy on a grid-like map that is no stranger to HeroClix players. In fact, I suspect Stratego may be a great "gateway drug" to HeroClix, as the two share many similarities beyond the map. Positioning, pawn sacrifice, and a battle plan are the three major components to reaching a victory in both games.

I was delighted to find an updated version of Stratego on shelves now by Spin Master, makers of the widely popular Bakugan collectible element game and the party game Stomple. Packaged and presented to the Halo generation of gamers this new edition comes with a few changes that streamlines game play and speeds up play time.

For starters, the new set removes 10 pieces from each side, effectively tightening up the board which automatically makes games faster by placing the flags a row closer to the opponents. Additionally there are a few new pieces that have a move and attack ability.

The Scout for instance, can move full speed vertically or horizontally to "check" a piece, or capture a flag. With a power level of 2, Scouts are not very strong though they do trump a few figures like the Spy (whose sole job is to assassinate the opposing #10 piece) and the other move and attack piece - the Spotter.

The Spotter is an entirely new figure to the game, and has an ability to "guess" what an opposing piece is before he checks it. If the guess is correct that piece is removed from the game no matter what it is. All pieces from 10's to Bombs fear the Spotter who does not have to give up ground when he attacks (as in chess a Stratego piece normally occupies the square of a piece they removed from the board).

The game keeps staple mechanics like the unmoving Flags and Bombs, and bombs still have the ability to eliminate any figure that "checks" them - except Miners (and Spotters). The nice thing about the new game is speed - average game time, from set up to finish is probably around 30 minutes or less, depending on the experience you have with the board. The more you play the faster it goes. I highly recommend the new "Halo" Stratego to anyone who likes board games that have simple rules and are also capable of complex strategies.