Tomsey and I got together for a game at his place, for which he’d put together the excellent new table of terrain, which you’ll see in the photos. We played at 50 points, with me taking my list up to 49 by adding Wolverine, Captain America and Black Widow in addition to my 30 points comprising Deadpool, Hawkeye, Daredevil, Elektra and Black Panther. Tomsey was running Dark Avengers, and had picked Sentry, Ares, Ms Marvel, Iron Patriot and added on Venom to the starter pack.
Set-up and Deployment
We ran through the table and decided on the following sizing:
Size One: street signs
Size Two: trees, concrete barriers, bench, wheelie bin (must’ve assumed it was full!)
Size Three: statues (both the stone and bronze ones)
Size Four: cars
Size Five: trucks
Size Six: buildings, shipping containers, crane
That done we decided to play the Relic scenario out of the rulebook, and we each placed our relic as close to our deployment zone as we could.
I kicked off deployment, and decided from the start I’d have a tight group in the centre of my deployment to maximise Cap’s Leadership and bodyguard abilities. I also had three characters with Infiltrator, which was a massive advantage in this scenario. For the three Infiltrators, I placed Black Panther on the far relic to grab and run, figuring he had the best defence and agility, then had Black Widow on my left flank and Elektra on my right flank, both out of line of sight to run in and support Black Panther.
Round One
Tomsey wins initiative this round, and Iron Patriot keeps his craziness under control.
Sentry activates first, making a one POW move and throws the nearby car at Black Panther. Black Panther must’ve been asleep, as he’s hit after failing his agility test twice.
Black Panther gets up, grabs the relic he’s sitting next to, and then makes a two POW move back towards the bulk of the team.
Ares makes a move forward, then Pounces (special ability allowing a 4” move) onto Black Widow, and does an overloaded grab on her, which just hits, and throws her into Flamin’ Amy’s Burrito Barn.
Wolverine activates next, and makes a two POW move towards the nearby relic.
Venom rushes forward, and makes a Symbiotic Tendrils attack (four POW, two damage, Ensnare/1, template attack) on Wolverine which misses.
Daredevil uses his Grapple Stick to displace on to the relic, and then picks it up before moving away from the Dark Avengers team.
Iron Patriot flies forward, and makes a Repulsor Blast attack (two POW, two damage, 8” range attack with overload +1 damage) on Elektra, however misses.
Cap makes a two POW move forward, then a one POW move with Agile, to get into contact with Wolverine, and makes a grab on him to throw him at Venom. Wolverine uses Fastball Special (once per game, one POW reaction, which allows an attack to be made when thrown) to make a Snikt attack (two POW, two damage, irresistible, melee) on Venom which misses. Cap then follows up with a Shield Bounce attack (three POW, two damage, 8” range, irresistible) on Venom which also misses.
Tomsey elects to use his pass from having fewer models here.
Deadpool uses his Bodyslide ability (once per game, displace to anywhere on the board) to get into contact with Venom, and overloads an Armour Buster attack (once per game, two POW, two damage, Irresistible and Distract/2) on him. It hits, and also goes critical.
Ms Marvel activates and flies forward to get into contact with Deadpool, before making an overloaded grab and throw. The grab is successful, and she throws him at Cap, who easily dodges out of the way.
Hawkeye lines up Venom with Dead Shot (once per game, four POW, four damage, 18” range), and overloads it for the extra dice. He scores a critical hit.
Elektra makes a two POW move, then a one POW move with Agile to get into contact with Venom, and makes a Sai Strike (two POW, two damage, melee) which hits.
Black Widow is last, and she gets up and moves towards Venom, making a Widows Bite attack (two POW, one damage, range 6”, overload for Stun/2), but misses.
At the end of the round, I receive one victory point for controlling both relics.
Round Two
Tomsey wins the initiative again, and Iron Patriot fails his Hidden Goblin check this round even with the Scientific re-roll.
Sentry activates and flies up and lands in the centre of the main part of my team, before using his Fury of a Thousand Sons attack (once per game, seven POW, five damage, 5” expansive wave). Cap and Black Panther are able to dodge, taking half damage, but Daredevil fails to dodge, and Deadpool is knocked down so both take full damage. This also hits a considerable amount of scenery as well, clearing out a lot of smaller pieces nearby.
Daredevil uses Grapple Stick to move behind Flamin’ Amy’s Burrito Barn to hide from the Dark Avengers. I’ll note here that having since re-read the FAQ, I’m now aware I can’t use displacement abilities when carrying the relic, so technically I couldn’t have made this move. It did feel a bit overpowered being able to use displacement abilities and moves with the relic!
Ares is up next and moves into contact with the knocked down Deadpool before making an Axe of Zeus attack (three POW, two damage melee which can’t be overloaded), however he misses! Angered by this, he picks up Deadpool and throws him into the nearby garbage truck, which sees him enter the red zone and become KO’d.
Black Widow activates and moves into contact with Venom, then makes a Mixed Techniques attack (two POW, one damage, Distract/1 and Awkwardness/1). This hits putting distract and awkwardness on him for my other characters.
Venom activates and makes a two POW move over to Cap, then picks him up and tosses him at Black Panther who dodges out of the way.
Cap gets back up after the throw and makes a two POW move to the middle of the table, positioning for Leadership bonuses.
Ms Marvel moves forward and throws a Force Blast (three POW, two damage, 10” ranged attack) at Deadpool which hits. She makes a second Force Blast, but this one misses leaving Mr Pool alive.
Deadpool regains consciousness, gets back to his feet, moves into contact with Venom and makes a Stab-Stab attack (two POW, two damage melee attack), which he overloads. This hits, but no critical is forthcoming, even with his Master Fighter re-roll.
Iron Patriot launches his Tactical Missiles (once per game, five POW, three damage, Explosive/6, 14” range) at Elektra, who spends a POW for Defensive Improvements, seeing Iron Patriot miss.
Elektra activates, moves back into contact with Venom and makes a Flip Kick attack (once per round, three POW, three damage, Push/2, melee), which misses.
Hawkeye moves slightly and makes an overloaded Specialist Arrow attack (once per round, two POW, two damage, 12” range) on Venom, rolling TRIPLE EIGHTS for the critical (where was that on Elektra’s Flip Kick!). He follows up with a Standard Arrow attack (two POW, one damage, 16” range) on Venom also hitting.
Black Panther makes a two POW move towards the corner of the table, trying to stay out of the way and protect the relic.
Wolverine moves up to Venom and Ares and makes an overloaded Snikt attack on the former. This hits and sees Venom Incapacitated. He then uses The Best There Is (once per game, four POW, four damage Melee attack with irresistible that can be overloaded for Push/4) on Ares, which scores a critical hit, dealing out five damage.
That sees the end of the round, and as I make Stamina checks my pain mounts as Black Widow, Deadpool and Black Panther are all KO’d. This also sees Tomsey receive a victory point from Black Panther dropping the relic as he losses consciousness.
Round Three
Tomsey picks up initiative for the third round, and Iron Patriot keeps Hidden Goblin under control again.
Ms Marvel is up first, making a Force Blast attack on Deadpool, which hits and sees him Incapacitated. She follows up with a second Force Blast on Black Widow, which also hits.
Elektra activates and makes a Sneak Attack (once per game, three POW, three damage, Distract/2, Melee/4) on Ares, which goes critical and activates Assassin on a DOUBLE EIGHT roll! She then spends one POW to move into contact with him, and makes a Sai Strike which also goes critical, although no Assassin this time.
Ares, infuriated by Elektra’s love taps, grabs her and throws her into the wall of Flamin’ Amy’s Burrito Barn before hightailing it away.
Wolverine makes two move actions with Agile to catch up to Ares and makes an overloaded Snikt attack on him, which scores a critical hit seeing Wolverine bury his claws into Ares back, Incapacitating him.
Iron Patriot fires a Repulsor Blast at Black Widow which Incapacitates her, then fires another two Repulsor Blasts at Cap, both of which hit.
Black Panther recovers from his KO, grabs the relic he’d dropped and moves further away from the action to protect it.
Sentry flies over to Black Panther and makes a Death Blow attack (once per game, four POW, four damage, critical +3 damage, irresistable) which hits, followed by a Leadkick (two POW, two damage, Push/4, melee), which also hits and Incapacitates him.
Hawkeye uses Hook Arrow (once per game displace up to 12” in line of sight) to contact the relic Black Panther dropped, picks it up, then moves back away from Sentry.
Cap is up next and double moves to place himself between Sentry and Hawkeye, before using his remaining power to make a Shield Bounce attack on sentry which misses.
Daredevil moves further behind the Burrito Barn, carefully staying out of everyone’s way…
I score a further victory point from controlling both objectives, and Cap passes his Stamina roll, remaining conscious.
Round Four
I win initiative this round! Iron Patriot also keeps Hidden Goblin hidden.
Elektra gets up and moves into contact with Ms Marvel, launching a Flip Kick attack which hits empty air as Ms Marvel goes intangible (grants immunity to physical attacks for the round).
Ms Marvel moves towards Hawkeye and throws a Force Blast at him, which hits.
Wolverine activates and makes a double move into contact with Ms Marvel, launching a Snikt attack before realising she is intangible and can’t be hit!
Iron Patriot moves into contact with Hawkeye and makes an overloaded grab, which just misses on the back of Hawkeye improving his physical defence.
Cap activates next, making an overloaded grab and throw on Iron Patriot, which hits and sees him fly into Sentry.
Sentry charges at Cap, however his attempted grab is swatted away. He then makes a Sentry Strike attack (four POW, three damage, melee attack), which Cap uses Shield Block to prevent.
I retain both relics at the end of the round, yielding another victory point, and Cap stays conscious passing his Stamina roll.
Round Five
I win initiative again, and Iron Patriot keeps Hidden Goblin under control.
Cap goes first and makes a grab and throw action on Sentry, which hits, and tosses Sentry at Iron Patriot, slamming into him and knocking them both to the ground.
Ms Marvel activates, moving over into contact with Hawkeye, and throws him at Wolverine, who manages to get out of the way.
Wolverine reacts by running over to the relic and Ms Marvel, grabbing the relic first then making an overloaded Snikt attack on Ms Marvel which hits. He follows up with a second Snikt attack which misses.
Sentry gets back to his feet, flies over to Wolverine and attempts to grab him. Wolverine uses Defensive Improvements, but this turns out to be unnecessary as Sentry misses.
Hawkeye gets up and nocks a Specialist Arrow, which he unloads at Ms Marvel, however the shot goes wide. He follows quickly with a Standard Arrow which manages to make contact.
Iron Patriot gets up and makes a move towards the main brawl in the park, throwing a Repulsor Blast shot at Cap which misses, and a second blast which is overloaded which hits. This pushes Cap into the red zone, but he manages to stay conscious.
Elektra moves up to Ms Marvel and overloads a Flip Kick attack, which scores a critical hit and pushes her back.
Still holding both objectives at the end of the round, I score a further victory point, and we both pass all the KO tests we need to make.
Round Six
I win initiative for the round, which evens up the board for initiative wins this game. Iron Patriot passes his willpower roll so Hidden Goblin does not trigger.
I activate Wolverine first, who makes a double move using Agile towards the ice cream truck in an attempt to get away with the relic.
Sentry is straight after Wolverine, flying over into contact, grabbing Wolverine and slamming him into the truck. He then levels a Leadkick at him, but misses.
Cap moves into contact with Ms Marvel and makes a grab and throw on her, tossing her into a nearby tree, away from the relics. He then moves forward and uses Avengers Assemble (all friendly models within 8”are pushed up to 4” towards him), which pulls Elektra and Hawkeye closer to the uncontrolled relic.
Iron Patriot moves up and fires three Repulsor Blasts at Hawkeye in quick succession, only one of which hits.
Hawkeye grabs another Speicalist Arrow and fires it at Ms Marvel, this time finding his mark on the prone character. This achieves a critical which sees Ms Marvel Incapacitated.
Elektra makes two move actions on to the uncontrolled objective, and picks it up.
Daredevil uses Grapple Stick to get back into my deployment zone (further tho the previous note, I think I could’ve either used a two POW move, or repositioned him the previous turn if I had of know about the inability to displace with the relic).
This sees the Superhuman team controlling both relics in my deployment zone for a further two victory points this round.
With that, I take the game five victory points to one, and the Superhumans prevail over the Dark Avengers!
Conclusion
This game was much more of a slugfest than the others I’ve played, likely due to Cap and Wolverine bringing that bruiser ability into the list. Despite that, I think I focussed much more heavily on the scenario, whilst Tomsey focussed a bit more on trying to take down my team. Having the numerical advantage was massive here, as early on I was making three uncontested activations at the end of the round.
Elektra was definitely the star of the show this game, with the Sneak Attack on Ares getting Assassin and her mobility allowing her to run in and influence fights. That said, there seems to be a lot of synergy in my team, with the infiltrators able to grab relics and move them back so my opponent is forced to come after me, whilst I’m concurrently bringing in Wolverine and Cap to protect the weaker team members.
I’m not sure my mistake on the displacement while holding relics was a crucial decider in the game, but it certainly allowed me to get Daredevil further away turn two than he otherwise would have. That’s the key rules learning from this game.
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