"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.