Nik and I had the opportunity to play a game at Mind Games one Sunday arvo. He bought a JLA team comprising Swamp Thing, Starfire, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Batgirl and Black Canary. I was running my Superhuman team including Captain America, Wolverine, Deadpool, Black Panther, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Daredevil and Elektra.
Set-up and Deployment
We randomly rolled between three missions in the FAQ and got Power Zones, which were potentially the rifts between worlds that have allowed for the JLA/Superhuman showdown. We had an urban board, with the power zones being in the relatively open corners of the board, and our deployment zones in among tall buildings in the opposing corners. We didn’t agree terrain sizes up front (I think I was too excited to get playing!), but over the game we agreed size four for trucks, size three for cars and billboards, and size two for phone boxes. This saw the cars and trucks a little smaller than recent games I played, which didn’t impact the game overly, given the relative position of the power zones.
I deployed with the intention of Cap and Wolverine flanking my left for the power zone on the opposite side of the board, Hawkeye to snipe from the top of the building (a mistake, as his range barely gets him to the bottom of the building!), Daredevil and Deadpool to move out to the power zone on my right flank, and then my three infiltrators all clustered around Swamp Thing who was near the power zone on my side of the table.
Round One
Nik uses Batgirl’s Perfect Plan ability straight away, allowing him to pick the initiative token.
He then activates Swamp Thing and throws the truck next to him at Black Panther and Black Widow, with both dodging easily. He then moves into the power zone.
Black Panther moves up to Batgirl and attempts a throw but misses.
Batgirl responds with a Sneak Attack (once-per-game, three POW, three damage, melee/4 with Distract/2) which hits Black Panther, and she then moves away.
We then make a series of moves with no other action using Wolverine, Starfire, Hawkeye, Wonder Woman, Daredevil and Green Arrow in that order.
Black Widow attempts to move into the power zone but fails, so switches tack and makes two Bullet Barrage attacks on Swamp Thing, with one hitting and one missing.
Canary activates and moves, then uses her Pounce ability (once-per-round 4” move) to further close the distance to the power zone on my side.
Elektra moves into the power zone with Swamp Thing and makes a Flip Kick attack (once-per-round, three POW, three damage melee with Push/2) on him, however we learn that Swamp Thing’s Toughness/2 ability prevents him from being pushed – so my plan to get him out of the zone is foiled.
I make a stamina roll for Black Panther as he’s in the pale and he is KO’d!
Round Two
Nik wins initiative again this turn and starts with Batgirl who moves into contact with Black Panther. She then makes an overloaded Batarangs attack (once-per-round, two POW, one damage, range 8”) on Elektra which misses, before wailing on the KO’d Black Panther with a basic Strike (two POW, one damage melee attack).
Black Panther regains consciousness, springs up and makes an overloaded grab and throw on Batgirl, which hits and crits. He tosses her through a nearby phone box, leaving her dazed.
Canary moves then makes a Canary Cry attack (once-per-round, three POW, three damage, spray attack with Stun/1), hitting Black Panther, causing him to go into the red zone but remaining conscious.
Black Widow moves over the prone Batgirl and makes two Mixed Techniques attacks (two POW, one damage, melee attack with Distract/1 and Awkwardness/1), both of which hit.
Swamp Thing is up next, and he makes an overloaded Altered Limb attack (three POW, two damage, melee/3) on Elektra, hitting her.
Daredevil uses his Grapple Sticks ability (displace up to 12”) to move between the adjacent buildings.
Green Arrow moves to the edge of the building and makes an overloaded Standard Arrow (two POW, one damage, 16” range) attack on Black Panther, however epic dice fail ensues with two 2’s and a one rolled!
Hawkeye moves to the building corner to try and get range to something (anything…) but falls short.
Wonder Woman makes another big move towards the power zone on the far side of the table to me.
Deadpool moves out on to main street, still hedging as to which way he’s ultimately going to head.
Starfire flies over the edge of the building she’s on, close to the power zone on the far side.
Elektra makes a Flip Kick Attack on Swamp Thing but misses.
Cap and Wolverine both move into the zone on the far side of the table to me, successfully passing the roll.
With that, I pick up two victory points for having uncontested control of a zone. Batgirl loses consciousness after the beating she took this turn, however Black Panther somehow remains standing.
Round Three
Nik wins initiative again this round.
Batgirl regains consciousness and gets up, using her Batclaw ability (once-per-game can displace up to 12” away) to move towards a nearby car. She spins and throws a Batarang at Black Panther but misses.
Daredevil uses Grapple Sticks to get down to street level, and then uses Billy Clubs attack (two POW, two damage, melee/4 with Stun/1) on Swamp Thing but isn’t able to connect.
Green Arrow activates and fires off two Standard Arrow attacks at Black Panther, both hit, with one causing a critical, seeing Black Panther incapacitated.
Elektra makes a Flip Kick attack on Swamp Thing, and hits, then preserves additional POW to allow for defensive improvements later in the round.
Canary moves forward and makes a Canary Cry attack on Black Widow, however she passes her agility test and only takes half damage.
Deadpool makes a two POW move towards Canary, however remains somewhat alone in the middle of the table.
Nik and I both use passes at this point, his from having fewer models, me from Black Widow’s Strategist ability (granting one pass per round).
Starfire flies down to the street, then fires a Starbolt attack (once-per-round, three POW, three damage, 8” which can be overloaded for Explosive/4) at Wolverine, however misses.
Black Widow activates and makes an overloaded Widows Bite attack (once-per-round, two POW, one damage, 6” range, can be overloaded for Stun/2) on Swamp Thing, hitting him and causing Stun/2. This is followed up with a Bullet Train attack (two POW, one damage, 12” range can be overloaded for +1 damage) which misses.
Swamp Thing makes an Altered Limb attack on Elektra but misses.
Hawkeye uses his Hook Arrow ability (once-per-game displace up to 12” within line of sight) to get down on to the top of a car. Then fires off a Specialist Arrow (once-per-round, two POW, two damage, 12” range) at Starfire, only causing one damage due to her energy resistance.
Wonder Woman moves into the zone with Cap and Wolverine.
Cap attacks Wonder Woman with Shield Strike (once-per-round, two POW, one damage, irresistible can be overloaded for Stun/1) but misses.
Wolverine makes an overloaded (for dice) The Best There Is attack (once-per-game, four POW, four damage, irresistible melee attack which can be overloaded for Push/4) on Wonder Woman, scoring a critical hit.
No victory points are scored this round, with both power zones contested, and everyone remains conscious.
Round Four
I win initiative at last and start off with Elektra. She continues her slug fest with Swamp Thing, making an overloaded Flip Kick attack which hits.
Wonder Woman uses her Lasso of Truth ability (once-per-game, three POW, 4” range, gives target -4 to speed and -2 to physical and energy defence until end of round) on Cap, then launches a Lethal Blow attack (once-per-game, four POW, three damage, melee with Critical causing +2 damage) on him. Cap uses Shield Block, cancelling the attack, and Wonder Woman moves back away from the now angry super soldier.
Cap picks up Wolverine and throws him at Wonder Woman, who dodges out of the way. Wolverine uses Fastball Special (one POW, can make a free Snikt attack when thrown) but misses her.
Swamp Thing makes an Altered Limb attack on Elektra which hits, and makes a second attack but misses.
Daredevil unloads on Swamp Thing with two overloaded Billy Clubs attacks in a row, with the first being a critical hit and the second hitting.
Canary moves into contact with Black Widow and makes an overloaded Strike (two POW, one damage melee attack) which crits.
Wolverine makes two Snikt attacks (two POW, two damage, melee attack with Irresistible) on Wonder Woman, the first landing a critical hit and the second hitting.
Green Arrow uses Hook Arrow to get down to street level, then uses a Punch Arrow (once-per-round, two POW, two damage, 8” range with Stun/2) on Deadpool, which hits.
Deadpool moves forward and makes a Bang-Bang attack (two POW, one damage, 10” range) on Canary, which scores a double eight critical – Assassin activates causing the damage to double all the way to two!
Batgirl moves back towards the action and throws a Batarang at Black Widow which hits.
Black Widow makes an overloaded Mixed Techniques attack on Canary which hits, then follows up with the same again but misses this time.
We both use our passes again.
Starfire moves into the zone with Cap and Wolverine and makes a Final Beam attack (once-per-game, four POW, four damage, 12”, Dazzle/3) on Cap which hits.
Hawkeye moves forward and fires two Standard Arrows at Wonder Woman but fails to hit both times.
In further epic fail, Swamp Thing and Elektra both fail their KO rolls, leaving that power zone uncontested by either of us this round!
Round Five
Nik wins initiative again!
Wonder Woman moves into contact with Cap and making a Sword of Athena attack (three POW, two damage, melee with irresistible) which misses, then launches a Lethal Blow, which Cap Shield Blocks.
Daredevil makes two Billy Clubs attacks on Swamp Thing, both hit given he’s KO’d, and then attempts to move into the power zone, but fails.
Swamp Thing wakes up, makes an Altered Limb attack on Elektra, but groggy from having woken up he misses her unconscious form with a roll of double one’s. He then attempts to use Paralysing Roots on Deadpool, however Deadpool springs out of the way easily. He then makes a second Altered Limb attack on Elektra, this time hitting.
Elektra fails to wake up.
Green Arrow fires an overloaded Punch Arrow at Deadpool, which hits despite defensive improvements. He follows up with an Explosive Arrow (once-per-game, two POW, two damage, 12” range with Explosive/3), which scores a critical hit.
Deadpool, somewhat battered and low on POW after Green Arrows attacks, moves into the power zone and into contact with Swamp Thing.
Canary activates and makes a Canary Cry attack which hits Black Widow, Deadpool and Daredevil, but all of them make their agility rolls, limiting the damage taken.
Black Widow moves into the power zone and into contact with Swamp Thing and makes two Mixed Techniques attack, one crits but the other misses.
Batgirl attempts to wake up, but stays asleep.
We both use our passes at this point.
I mistakenly try to activate Elektra again here (and fail again…), didn’t pick up on this at the time so apologies, Nik!
Starfire activates and fires Starbolts at Cap which hits, and then makes a second successful Starbolts attack racking up some damage.
Cap activates and uses Avengers Assemble (all friendly models within 8” of him can immediately move up to 4” towards him), with Wolverine moving into contact with Wonder Woman (I realised after this that I should’ve activated Hawkeye first to get him in range of this). Cap then makes a Shield Strike on Wonder Woman which misses, followed up with a Meteor Kick (two POW, one damage melee attack) which hits.
Wolverine activates, making two overloaded Snikt attacks on Wonder Woman, one of which goes critical.
Hawkeye moves forward and uses Dead Shot (once-per-game, four POW, four damage, 18” range) on Wonder Woman, but misses.
Swamp Thing and Black Widow both fail their Stamina checks and are KO’d. This gives me control of one power zone with Deadpool, netting another two victory points.
Round Six
I win initiative this round.
Deadpool makes an overloaded Stab-Stab attack (two POW, two damage melee attack) on Swamp Thing and hits, before making another Stab-stab attack which also hits.
Swamp Thing fails to wake up, probably due to Deadpool repeatedly stabbing him with katanas…
Elektra does wake up this round and feeling refreshed from her nap Flip Kick’s Swamp Thing, thereby incapacitating him.
Canary moves and then makes a Canary Cry attack which picks up the majority of my team (Black Widow, Deadpool, Elektra, Daredevil), everyone passes agility except the KO’d Black Widow.
Black Widow fails to regain consciousness.
Green Arrow fires an overloaded Standard Arrow at Elektra, which scores a critical hit and incapacitates her. He then makes the same attack on Black Widow, which also hits.
Daredevil uses Grapple Sticks to get into contact with the incapacitated Batgirl and makes two Billy Clubs attacks, both hit but no critical, so she is not incapacitated from this.
Batgirl recovers from her KO and throws a Batarang at Black Widow, which scores a critical and incapacitates her.
Wolverine makes a Snikt attack on Wonder Woman, she attempts to use Indestructible Shield (cancel a physical or energy attack on an agility roll), but fails her re-rolled agility to cancel the attack, and Wolverine dispatches her. He then moves into contact with Starfire and makes an overloaded Snikt attack but misses.
Starfire shoots an overloaded Starbolts at Cap, who Shield Blocks but fails his re-rolled agility! She then follows up with a Lead Kick attack (once-per-round, two POW, two damage, melee with Push/3) which crits and incapacitates Cap.
I score a further two victory points for holding a power zone uncontested, as well as a further victory point for incapacitating Swamp Thing as he had more than ten POW.
Conclusion
With that I take a seven to nil victory over the JLA in an interesting mission. I got a couple of big advantages here, with throws not allowed in the power zones, as well as starting with more bodies on the field, as well as benefiting from some good luck on the way through. Elektra being able to go toe-to-toe with Swamp Thing as he couldn’t throw her out of the zone was huge for me, and allowed me to continue putting chip damage on him throughout the game. Also, Wonder Woman and Starfire being unable to deal with the Cap and Wolverine duo was also huge for me, as I was expecting to surrender that flank with all my other models swamping Swamp Thing.
Interestingly, the centre of the table was largely ignored this game with both teams making a bee-line towards the power zones from their deployment zones. This is in stark contrast to the previous missions I’ve played which are all largely focused on the centre.
I’ve found in the last couple of games that playing on the table with tall buildings in the corners is somewhat challenging. It limits my visibility and ability to move models around, and without the ability to fly, my team is usually stuck on the ground walking around like plebs. Also, whilst having Hawkeye or Green Arrow perched on top of a tall building feels right, in practice, their range isn’t high enough to shoot directly down to the ground, let alone anywhere of import to the battle. Something for me to think about as I build out a modern day terrain collection.
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