Giant Size X-Men Fast Forces (available today!)

Professor X

Cyclops

Beast

Wolverine

Rogue

Iceman

War of Light Fast Forces (available today!)

Atrocitus

Larfleeze

Sinestro

Saint Walker

Indigo-1

Star Sapphire

Thanks to Figures.com for the hook-up. More discussion tomorrow!

Tournament Report: War of Kings

Last week, I posted about themey rulers that would satisfy the requirements for our (then) upcoming War of Kings tournament. In that report, I also noted that there might not be that many actual qualifying rulers played because many of our players just don't read comic books. Turns out I was right, but a surprising number of theme fitting rulers did make appearances on teams. Below are images of the teams we had in play that night, followed by a short battle report from my perspective. Also, I'm not a photographer. Like everything else on this blog, that too will be an evolving skill.

Anyway, first up we have Hydra team 1, played by Jason -

This team revolves around Strucker and Red Skull...not sure who was the leader or who has the Infinity Gauntlet assigned.

Next up is Universal Church of Truth, played by Connor -

Magus is the holder of the Infinity Gauntlet on this team, as well as the Ruler.

Next up we have the Inhumans, played by Taj -

Black Bolt is the ruler, here. He also included Ronan from the Annihilators Fast Forces pack, who I missed the Inhumans keyword on.

Kevin went with the Illuminati -

Black Bolt was the ruler, but Dr. Strange has the Infinity Gauntlet.

Hydra team 2 was played by Kelly -

Not sure who was the ruler, Strucker or Skull, and not sure who had the Infinity Gauntlet.

Next we have the Gaurdians of the Galaxy, played by fellow judge and blogger, Allan -

Here, Groot is the ruler. We even got in a Supernova piece in Vance Astro.

The Atlantis team was piloted by Lew -

 Aquaman headed up the team on theme, but Hulkmariner was doing the heavy lifting! The Gamma Bomb was a nice touch, in a world of Infinity Gauntlets.

Finally, we have the Avengers, submitted by none other than the Sheriff -

Namor was the ruler. Basically, I wanted Steve Rogers to pick up the Nova Helmet. He did in one out of 3 games.

The field was pretty diverse, with the only overlap being from Hydra. Black Bolt and Ronan showed up, but no one from the Shi'ar side of the war.

I played -
Allan (bye) - Guardians of the Galaxy - Win
Kevin -  Illuminati (probably my favorite game, as it was Illuminati vs. Illuminati in that one, plus Steve picked up the Nova Helmet) - Win
Lew - Atlantis - Win

All three games I played were tough games. It took two turns of misses to finally knock out Allan's Drax. I couldn't get rid of Mr. Fantastic and Dr. Strange kept pooping out ghosts I had to KO, and I had to hold on against the Gamma Bomb in the final match against Atlantis. The end result was that I won the tournament, advanced to the center of the Supremacy League board and defended once (against Kevin...Lew couldn't challenge based on board position). The biggest thing, though from my perspective, is the Avengers won it all...them being my favorite team and all.

I wish I could have played some of the other teams, but there's only three rounds. For people who hate the Infinity Gauntlet, I have to say - "Why?" No one playing it ranked very high in the end. The top 2 teams (Avengers and Atlantis) didn't have it. It's annoying, but it doesn't run every tournament it shows up in.

Next up for tournament reports will be Infinity Gauntlet 6, for the Collector. In the meantime, keep those dice off of snake-eyes!

Duo Figures: The Revenge

(Originally, I was going to write about the Top 10 figures in Avengers Movie, but Wizkids gave us some much better to talk about. That article will be up some time in the near future. Maybe. Onward and upward is how we do it around here, and Wizkids is keeping us busy with new stuff all the time now.)

Today, Wizkids announced two new abilities that will be added to the 2012 HeroClix rulebook of great importance to the future (and past) of the Duo Figure mechanic. Split and Merge are new abilities added to the Duo Attack symbol and the fist attack symbol, respectively that allow for the replacement of figures found on a Duo Figure dial with individual representations or the replacement of two (or more) figures individually to be replaced by a Duo Figure that represents those same characters. Instead of trying to explain the mechanics of this without reference, I will simply reprint the mechanics as presented by Wizkids here.

Merge -

When this character is adjacent to other friendly characters that each represent one distinct qualifying character listed on a Duo character’s character card and all of them have no action tokens, give this character a free action to replace all of them with that Duo character, the same number of clicks from its starting line as this character. The combined point value of the qualifying char acters must be equal to or greater than the point value of the Duo char acter (unless that Duo character previously used the Split ability to be replaced by these same characters). The Duo character can’t use the Split ability this turn. This ability can’t be countered. 

Split - 

Give this character a power action if it has no action tokens. Replace this character with one or more qualifying characters each from a different entry listed on this character’s character card. The qualifying replacement character(s) must have either qualifying name and total no more than this character’s point value (unless those characters previously used the Merge ability to be replaced by this character). Replacement character(s) are assigned an action token and can’t be given an action this turn. Replacement character(s) begin a number of clicks from their starting line equal to the number of clicks from this character’s starting line. This ability can’t be countered. 

Whew. That's quite a mouthful. Still, with minimal need for explanation, these are fairly straightforward rules changes. Which I like. They add a new dimension to the game, but aren't going to be something that will take over the entire tournament landscape. Why? Because Duo Figures themselves never did that. Either they cost enough to seem overcosted, or are so economical that it might not be worth the trouble to split the duo into two (or one, because you can do that) figure(s).

There are many other rules implications and figure interactions that will come into question as these new mechanics roll out. In fact, there is a thread up just for that purpose on hcrealms.com right now, headed up by Norm "nbperp" Barth seeing heavy rotation on the board (as one might expect). I'm sure this discussion will be ongoing until it releases with the 2012 PAC, as GenCon is right around the corner. As new wrinkles pop up, I will update this post if they are 'news worthy'.

I spent some time looking at the existing Duo figures we have and considered some of the best and worst options (in my opinion, of course) for team building were one to take advantages of these new abilities, coming soon to a PAC near you.

5 Good Reasons to use these abilities -

World's Finest - What's not to like about World's Finest being Split into any Superman or Batman with a real name of Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne? At 500 points you can do some pretty hilarious stuff with this figure, just be sure to do it before click 7 or 8, as most Batman figures top out around 7 or 8 clicks. Obviously, you'd need to be playing a pretty high point game in the beginning to make this worth doing but hey - the "Real Names" on World's Finest are Superman and Batman. NOTE: This may or may not work since the name on this figure is "World's Finest", but I will do some further research and post the results here.

Thor and Loki - at 362 points this one has some real possibilities and you could stay reasonably within Modern Age or near Modern Age (IE Hammer of Thor's pending 'retirement'). One combo I liked was Hammer of Thor Super Rare Loki and Avengers Movie Gravity Feed Thor. Another one is FCBD Thor and Super Rare Loki from the Frost Giants team pack, also from Avengers Movie. With these guys, though we are just scratching the surface. Thor is set to get at least two versions in the upcoming Chaos War set and these may turn out to be even better choices than those.

The Flashes - Another high point but not terrible duo, you can actually get some fully powered versions of Barry Allen and (recently absent in comics and clix) Wally West on the map. I even have a team of Flashes I could use to try this mechanic out already built.

Cap and Bucky - This one Wizkids used as a possible example, and it was a good one. You could split this one into the Movie versions of Captain America and Bucky (50 points), with the Cap being the Howling Commandos team pack version at 70 points. More likely, though, I can see the amazing Hammer of Thor Rare Cap being the Cap side of the duo. You could also split them into two Captain Americas, as the Bucky Cap from Captain America gravity feed is also 50 points. Convenient.

Iron Man / War Machine - 150 or 160 Point Iron Man from Avengers Movie and FCBD War Machine at 137 could easily meet this and you'd get a pretty awesome split out of it.

This isn't an exhaustive list. I didn't want to go into every 'good' duo figure Split/Merge combo, just highlight some possibilities.

3 Maybe Not as Good Reasons to use these abilities - 

Any Duo under 138 points. In general, the figures that could go onto a Duo character and vice versa are more than 50% of the cost to split or merge them. Of course, if there is a duo with figures cheap enough below the 138 pt 'threshold', then it would be cool to go nuts.

Blue Beetle and Booster Gold - This is a great figure. So great it is easily greater than the sum of it's parts. However, it is an 82 figure which means there aren't too many Blue Beetles or Booster Golds in more modern eras of the game cheap enough to merge or split into that would make it worth doing. Sure, the old Hypertime versions of both would LOVE to Merge into this duo, but because of how great the duo is, why would I bother doing that rather than just play the duo itself?

The Flash and Green Lantern - 200 points even. Sounds like a winner, right? Well, it is and it isn't. Barry Allen and Hal Jordan usually come in around 120-180 give or take a few points, by themselves. To get them both, you'd have to go back to Justice League to get decent versions worth splitting into. Obviously, they are good versions to merge into this figure. And this figure is somewhat broken.

Again, this list isn't exhaustive. Also, it is purely opinion. There isn't enough data to make a true prognostication on how good this will or won't be in practice. Also, I don't think this will be the catch all band-aid mechanic it is already being touted by some to be for quick and cheap healing of characters.

"War of Kings" Themed Rulers

The upcoming tournament at Legends Games and Comics is "War of Kings". The tournament follows the following format:

Legends Silver Age. Build a 600 pt. force consisting of one figure with the Ruler keyword of at least 130 points. ("Legends Silver Age" means all figures going back to Infinity Challenge are allowed, minus any house ruled illegal figures, but no cardboard elements may be used). While I believe there will be little to no "War of Kings" teams directly related to that storyline (as that would require more than 4 of 9 people to read a comic book), I will be focusing on the Ruler keyworded figures that apply to the build for the tournament.

War of Kings follows the events of the Kree/Shi'Ar War (or rather the latest) and it's effects on the galaxy at large. As such, there are key characters the build is designed to support although they are not required to be played. We will start with the Kree  (or more likely Inhumans) side of the War first.

BLACK BOLT

042 Black Bolt (Incredible Hulk, SR) - As ruler of the Kree as well as the Inhumans at the time of War of Kings, Black Bolt comes in well above the minimum point cost for a character allowed as a Ruler for "War of Kings", at 193 points. He is a powerhouse figure, with the Sharpshooter ability and lots of Pulse Wave and Psychic Blast to damage characters without restriction. He boasts 3 arrows with a 9 range, high defenses with Impervious up front and high damage values. His greatest contribution may come from his "She Speaks for Me" Special Power (Black Bolt can use Leadership. He can use it normally, or if he's adjacent to a friendly character named Medusa and succeeds at his Leadership roll, he may instead remove an action token from each adjacent character that shares a keyword with him and add that many actions to your action total this turn. ) Additionally, when paired with his wife, (Galactic Guardians) Medusa (themed but alas not legal as her point cost is too low to qualify for the build), his attack values (and hers) are permanently bumped +1 as long as they are in squares adjacent to each other. This means you won't be using Pulse Wave as much, but then again, you may not need to. Like most figures, Black Bolt does have some drawbacks. Chief among them for this version is the complete lack of movement powers. Because of this, Black Bolt will have to spend time positioning himself to attack. As a Sharpshooter, he can ignore opposing characters for LOF purposes, but this only addresses this issue partially. Because he has Flight, though, he can carry Medusa around with him for that +1 attack.

Of the three possible choices available, only this version of Black Bolt will allow you to build a Kree theme team (which was also erroneously left off of Medusa but added via Legends house rules).

096 Black Bolt (Sinister, Unique) - A legal, if unlikely, choice for Black Bolt could be the old Sinister Unique Black Bolt. He is unlikely mainly because a little over half of our players are newer players and thus won't have this figure. However, he is a decent choice with Running Shot, Perplex and a 10 range with 4 starting damage. Also, being Black Bolt, Galactic Guardians Medusa bumps his attack value by +1 as described in the Incredible Hulk SR write up. This Black Bolt might be considered more "squishy" in that he has no reducers until mid dial, starting with Defend and a mediocre 17 defense value, but his range is superlative when matched against today's figures. This allows better positioning for his most likely build: Inhumans. Still, I would probably choose another version either because of one's toughness and the other's overall economy.

104 Black Bolt (Incredible Hulk, LE) - Also fitting the bill for this tournament, this version is the Skrull Impersonator who was active during World War Hulk who eventually revealed himself to the Illuminati and ended up dead at the hands of Namor, The Sub-Mariner. This version, coming in at 133 points is more mobile than his other Incredible Hulk counterpart, but only about as mobile as the Sinister version due to Running Shot. He also starts with Leadership, so you can front him on a team of Rulers, Skrulls or Inhumans and possibly remove tokens, but not as efficiently as the true Black Bolt. 2 arrows with the modern day status quo of a shorter 7 range makes him mobile, but not nearly as effective as the Sinister version of Black Bolt. Because his name is "Black Bolt" he benefits from Medusa's trait, giving him +1 to his attack when adjacent to her.

A word on all versions of Black Bolt - The one team build I would likely skip would be the generic keyword team "Ruler". The reason for this is the general expense of Ruler figures. It is much easier to get a themed team with non-generic keywords in general, but because of Black Bolt's point costs, Inhumans would be the optimum build (in my opinion) followed by Skrulls for the LE version. However, if your aim is to go sans keyword team any could do the trick with the right support.

RONAN THE ACCUSER

006 Ronan the Accuser (Galactic Guardians Fast Forces) - For the Kree, Ronan the Accuser makes a good economical choice for a Ruler in that he is only 1/4 of the total for a 600 point team at 150 points. In addition, you could opt for the slightly less themey Annihilators build with Gladiator as well. More on him, later. Ronan sports a Special Power called " Universal Weapon" (Ronan the Accuser can use Incapacitate, Penetrating/Psychic Blast, and Pulse Wave.), giving him a bevy of offensive choices to dispatch opposing characters. He is stout defensively with Impervious, Invulnerability and Toughness which can help him stay around for a while. He has Flight, Charge, Running Shot, Close Combat Expert and decent damage values with a decent range. Solid, but nothing to write home about.

031 Ronan the Accuser (Hammer of Thor), Uncommon - The Kree can greatly benefit from this version of Ronan, who also fits the Ruler portion of the build at 130 points. He is not as mobile an attacker as his more expensive Annihilators version, but he is arguably just as potent. He sports 2 arrows with an 8 range and 4 upfront damage with an impressive 12 attack value. He starts with Impervious and later has Invulnerability and Toughness. Should he take some damage, he gains a Special Power that may more greatly benefit a Kree team in "Ruler of the Empire" (All adjacent friendly characters with the Kree keyword modify their attack values by +1.) . The lack of mobility may hurt him a bit, but this Ronan clocks in with 9  clicks of life, giving him more overall staying power than the Fast Forces version.

That covers the Inhumans/Kree contingent of "War of Kings". Now we move to the Shi'Ar galaxy with it's then-ruler, Vulcan and the ruler of the Shi'Ar by the end of War of Kings, Gladiator.

VULCAN

045 Vulcan (Giant-Size X-Men), Rare -  The third Summers brother, Gabriel Summers AKA Vulcan became the Shi'Ar Majestor by marriage when he became the consort of Deathbird, eldest heir to the throne after killing D'Ken the mad emperor. Clocking in at a hefty 275 points, he is powerful, but his statistical values are somewhat hampered by the Power Cosmic team ability. This is not to say Vulcan is not a formidable figure. He is. Both of his Special Powers bear noting. The first, "Omega-Level Energy Absorption" (Modify Vulcan's attack and damage by +1 for each time he was targeted by a ranged combat attack since your last turn.) appears on his attack slot and gives him increased statistics when an opponent misses any attacks on him (limited by the Rule of Three). This makes up for any statistical weakness he may have in part. The second, "Sway, Darwin, Petra" (Vulcan can use Incapacitate, Perplex and Quake) helps with this as well. Vulcan starts with 4 damage, drops to a 3 on click 2, and goes back up to 4 for 3 more clicks and switches between Hypersonic Speed and Runnning Shot for much of his dial. Defensively, he has a good defense with Invulnerabilty. He has a 10 range. There isn't anything terrible about him, but he may be eclipsed by flashier figures.

GLADIATOR

003 Gladiator (Galactic Guardians Fast Forces) - The Annihilators pack version of Gladiator comes in at an even 200 points. His abilities and statistics are typical of a figure in this point range (which is saying something these days) with a 10 move (with Charge) 11 attack (with Super Strength) 17 defense (with Impervious) and 4 base damage. His range is a meager 6, which is par for the course in todays game of reduced ranges. However, what really increases his cachet in every statistical regard is his Special Power "My Confidence is Your Downfall" (If a friendly character has not been KO'd this game, Gladiator possesses the Power Cosmic team ability and modifies his combat values by +1.). Not only does this give him the ability to push with Willpower preventing push damage and powers that can't be countered (with exceptions), but his power is greatly increased in general as long as no friendly figures are KO'd. To help ensure this ability sticks, play beefy figures with him. Annihilators is clearly the best choice, but Rulers would probably work as well. Shi'Ar is probably the one team I might avoid due to the likelyhood of an opponent being able to eliminate a figure worth a smaller amount of points, but even there it is a viable team build for an experienced player. Because his Special Power requires you to KO a friendly character to Gladiator, this Gladiator is perfect to become the focus of an attacking force. If you must deal with this Gladiator wrecking figures, it may be problematic to KO other figures on his team. However, be sure to avoid (or better yet defeat) figures with Exploit Weakness or Penetrating / Psychic Blast. This is my favorite version of Galactic Guardians Gladiator, as I believe this is the toughest nut to crack between the two versions available, but I hesitate to fully back him due to the build total of 600 points where he comes in at 1/3 of your team.

040 Gladiator (Galactic Guardians), SR - Besides one player (my buddy Lew), mostly everyone I know favors the Super Rare version of Gladiator over the Fast Forces version. The choice doesn't mystify me exactly, but I feel strongly that the FF version is able to better hold up a team than this one. That's not to say I don't like this one (Gladiator is one of my favorite Marvel characters), but I've had much greater success with the Fast Forces version due to the teams I use him with. This Gladiator is statistically more impressive at first blush than the FF version, with 5 printed damage and the always excellent 12 attack. He also boasts starting Hypersonic Speed - a crowd pleasing favorite. Again, not hard to see why people might prefer this one. His trait "My Confidence is My Strength" (Each time an opposing character takes damage from Gladiator's attack, place a Confidence token on this card. Give Gladiator a free action and remove any number of Confidence tokens from this card; Gladiator can use Perplex targeting himself once for each Confidence token removed this way.) gives him a form of Perplex you can "save up" for when you really need it, but it relies on Gladiator actually dealing damage. Damage that can be evaded, or equally unlikely, missed on an attack roll by Gladiator. However unlikely, I saw this happen at last week's tournament. No Perplex for Gladiator - ever. Then he got whomped. I think the real difference between the two is this Gladiator needs to be "hidden" from attack, whereas the Fast Forces wants you to try and take him down first while his equally formidable Annihilator buddies wreck you from a distance. Still, assuming it works out that you do damage for Gladiator you will have a boost for him later in the game. However, I question how many times you will attack and damage with Gladiator to fulfill the 'any number of tokens' in the first place.

That wraps up our Shi'Ar Rulers for "War of Kings" coverage. The above figures offer a good selection of options for the tournament, but just using Ruler keyword figures in general that fit the build could be very successful, if a prospective player has access to them. That, however is outside the scope of this particular article.

Next week, I will post an article covering the results of our "War of Kings" tournament and some (or perhaps all) of the teams our players brought to the event. Before that, I will post another article featuring what I feel are the top 10 figures from the Avengers Movie set.

Til then, may your clix never see their KO slots and your dice never come up snake-eyes.

WELCOME

Welcome to the "Sheriff of Legends" HeroClix "Authority" blog. I created this blog about 6 years ago, with the intention of writing HeroClix related and inspired articles, but my busy life and greater interest in actually playing and collecting HeroClix rather than writing about it (but I have done my fair share of that, too in other venues).

So, why "HeroClix Authority"? I know the term "authority" chaps the butts of gamers collectively everywhere, so the inclusion of a word I myself chafe at in my mind bears some explanation. Why am I an authority on Heroclix?

I've been playing HeroClix for 10 years (actually will be 10 years this June), nonstop without pause. This includes during the dark times, during the "hiatus" where we all waited with baited breath on whether or not our great game would return to routinely raid our wallets. I've been here, and always will be here. By being here, I've seen every "era" of HeroClix and very rarely as only a casual observer.

Up until Lord of the Rings, I've owned a copy of every single HeroClix available for inclusion in a legal game of HeroClix starting from Infinity Challenge. To do that, I had to become an expert collector, and let me tell ya, that ain't easy. I know how to collect - quickly, efficiently, relatively inexpensively.

I've been a judge almost as long as I've been playing...pretty much since August of 02, where I was the first official HeroClix judge in Pittsburgh, PA. This has always kept me abreast of the rules and on the 'inside' of the game. I must admit, though, many times I felt like being a judge was either a hassle or "lame" - in terms of the name - which is how I became "Sheriff of Legends". One day, while judging a tournament at my long time venue, Legends Games and Comics I said (as a joke) I didn't want to be called a "judge" anymore, and I would be known henceforth as "The Sheriff of Legends" or as "The Sheriff" for short. It stuck, and so by the time I set up this blog 6 years ago, it was the obvious title. I've taught many people how to play, and collect HeroClix.

I've been a regular poster on HCREALMS, since I've been playing. hcrealms only hosts the largest collection of heroclix players on the planet in the premier heroclix discussion board on the internet. My handle there is "sol" - which stands for amongst other things "Sheriff of Legends" - Clever, right? YMMV on the quality of my posts, but there it is.

As a player and collector (with the above credentials), I can tell you I've won most of the prize figures in my collection. I also got a lot of choice ones from the Judge program, but I have definitely won most of them. My reason for trotting that out is, I like to think I am also a pretty good player. Back in the day I top 8'd Regionals and even won one. I got lucky, but that's part of the game.

All of that is to say that the HeroClix Authority part of the title is earned and not made up. Also, because like Odin, there is purpose to everything I do it is a deliberate act to set myself up as an authority on the subject of HeroClix from the customer perspective. I'm sure I'll be made fun of by all the other experts out there, but hey - I'm not as modest.

The other question that no one has actually asked, but needs to be addressed is "Why now"? I mean, this blog has sat unloved and unused for 6 years, right? The answer is a bit complicated, but a large portion of the reasoning is segmentation of interests. Another reason is practice writing original content and writing web "copy", which segues into my career as a web designer developer. Oh, and while I mention that, don't be surprised to see radical changes (or just small changes) to this blog while I tweak the presentation.

In the coming weeks and months I'll be posting a lot of original content about Heroclix from my perspective, including team building, reviews, and marketing commentary. Every once in a great while, I might also write about other games I play, as HeroClix doesn't exist in a vacuum, and since it is HeroClix that is my primary gaming interest the others don't support a blog of their own.

One thing I want to foster here is the idea of community and conversation. In further blog posts, I will attempt through my limited writing capabilities to write blogs that are open to comment, addition, heck - even argument. The idea of this blog is not to spout hard, inarguable "facts", but totally open and approachable opinions that generate discussion and greater interest. While I am the "authority", I am far - so far - from the only authority - or even the best authority. But I will always strive to be the best authority I can be. Also, it is definitely a part of the plan to have guest blogs and be a guest blogger myself to other blogs in the HeroClix blogosphere. In fact, I'm already a contributor to Al's Clix Cave Cantina, another fine HeroClix related blog right here at blogger.