Welcome back to another week of Clix Bait! I’m glad you’ve decided to spend some time with me this week, and I welcome you to share any questions or comments you might have to my temporary home at Mid-South Heroclix, which you can find by following this link. For players in the region, it’s also a great place to post and find out about events nearby.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to play in the second month of the X of Swords event that was hosted by Lemonjuice McGee’s in Somerset, KY. As always, it’s a great place to play, and it was nice to see a lot of new players sitting at the tables for it. I had a really fun team to play, centered around Death equipped with Skybreaker, and Risque to make sure Death could get into position. Cable made for a cable secondary attacker, and Nanny is great in the format. I didn’t win the event, but I did a lot better than the first month, and just had fun playing with people.
I will throw out one complaint about the event – I still don’t like the respawn rules for this event. I get the argument that it keeps people from being shut out of the game, but I feel like there needs to be a balancing factor. When a player walks away from a table with 690 points, there’s something wrong with the system. It’s probably not fair for me to complain without putting forth a potential solution, but this one is complicated, and I’m writing this after just getting home, so I haven’t had time to formulate a good plan.
But, I guess I could do some brainstorming here. I agree that you don’t want someone to be completely removed from the game, but with every piece coming back, a reckless player can feed a savvy player pretty easily. Maybe when the final piece a player controls would be KOed, that player could choose one piece to bring back into play. And that piece would come in equipped with the sword that that player started with. It would slow down scoring a bit, but prevent a player from being shut out, and would give the player some tactical flexibility in choosing which piece would best benefit them given the board state. It also prevents rapid repeat kills of the smaller, weaker pieces.
Another fun idea, although I don’t think it necessarily fixes the potential shut out, would be a dodgeball format. What I mean by this is whenever a player eliminates an opposing piece, they could bring in one of their own eliminated pieces, like the way you bring in an eliminated player in dodgeball when you make a catch. If the table focuses on one player, then there could still be that painful elimination, but it does add a fun factor to a battle royal that might be worth looking out.
But anyway, that’s just my thoughts. Let’s have some fun with or usual batch of features. I have another set of averages to look at this week, heading back into the world of Marvel with X-Men: Rise and Fall. I’m also working to complete last week’s Politician team, with a bit of a focus on the Tarot, and checking the budget, of course. We’re also going to take a look at the Hellfire Gala set, and see if it’s worth fitting into your budget. We’ll finish up with a discussion about a way to bring creativity to the table at official events. Enjoy!
Continuing our look at set averages, we find ourselves looking at the X-Men: Rise and Fall set. With headliners like Emperor Gladiator and Blackheart, you might expect this to be an all-around great set, but comparing the set to Future Foundation and Wonder Woman 80, you might be surprised about the results. Let’s take a look.
Link – XMRF Quick Stats
When we discuss power creep, we tend to think of it as a pretty steady progression over the sets, but that’s not always the case. As I was compiling the numbers, I really noticed a significant drop in stat efficiency in the pieces. Keep in mind, efficiency is not the same as power…and attack values were definitely trending upwards slightly for the set. But you’re also not getting the same depth of dial for the point cost, and while it’s not reflected in the pure numbers, you’re not getting the same strong power choices either.
Defenses are also trending down this set, making it so that only the top tier pieces are really worth attention. I suppose the same could be said for any set, but it feels more true here than in other sets I’ve evaluated. The handful of pieces that are worth pursuing are actually not efficient by the numbers, but rather have tricks that are allowing them to stretch their dials, so it feels a bit like WizKids was trying to compensate for the creep with this set. Just my opinion there.
Anyway, next week is going to be a combo evaluation, as I combine the Eternals Movie set with the Fantastic Four event set. I probably should skip over the sets, seeing how liitle the pieces get played from those sets, but I like to be thorough.
Last week, I laid the foundation for a politician team, but I didn’t really have time to finish the build, and I wasn’t really feeling great about it. I’ve had some time to look at it, and I’m still not really feeling great about the build, but I’ve been able to do some tweaks on it that make me feel a bit better. Let’s get back into it!
Link – Chris Cottrill – Political Process Update
Since I’ve already broken down the basics of the build, I’m just going to dig in to the additions. I started by looking at a Tarot deck for the team, but the cards that make sense for this team actually cost more than the core of the team itself, and I really don’t think they make enough of a difference to the team to warrant the expenditure. If you really want to see the deck I came up with for it, ask me about it, and if I have enough interest, I post it to the Mid-South Facebook page.
The Sideline needed some love, though, and there was definitely room for that. Norman has three options for Secret Identities, but after evaluating them, the cheapest option is all you really want for this build. That special Perplex will benefit all the Dooms on the team, making him a great support piece. He’s not much on the offense, but none of his Secret Identities are, and he at least has Running Shot. X-Teams are still prevalent enough to call for a couple of Sentinels on the Sideline, and Skrull Spies are always good to have. Just remember – because you have them on your sideline doesn’t mean you HAVE to bring them in. Watch for the points that are going into your opponent’s tally, and choose accordingly.
I really like Doom 2099 right now, and there are a lot of ways to go with him, but I’m not sure this is the right road. Norman Osborn is interesting against Apocalypse, but not much else, and even in that match-up he may not really be worth his points. I just wanted to see what the build might look like, as he come up in build conversations I’ve had. To be honest, if you have an efficient means of eliminating pogs, then Apocalypse becomes easier to handle (at least the single Apocalypse build…triple Apoc is something that I’m still not sure how to approach). But this build sneaks in under $100, at $97.41, according to Troll and Toad pricing. Given the commonality of many of the pieces, I feel pretty confident you could get a better deal within the community.
Pre-orders are available now for the Hellfire Gala set, and you can go to the WizKids shop by following this link to get your order in, but should you? This is a more difficult question than normal, as this isn’t a set I look at from a purely play perspective. I mean, yeah, they’re game pieces which are meant to be played, so you can definitely assign a tier value, or however you rate your meta figures. On the other hand, I, and many of my readers, have a thing for aesthetics, as is evident when you start looking at the customs we talk about. So is it worth it?
I suppose the core of the play question is precisely how valuable is their shared trait, and how well might it play with others:
“HELLFIRE GALA: Once per turn for all characters with this trait, when a friendly character with the X-Men keyword attacks and the attack roll includes exactly one 5, you may replace the other die with a 5.”
So if a character with the X-Men keyword gets a five on either die of an attack roll, you can make that attack roll a 10. This means, on average, you’re going to be able to hit 20s, which isn’t bad. The odds of rolling one five on 2d6 isn’t horrible, either, so it’s nice. Then each individual piece has it’s own trick once those double fives are rolled, which would each need to be evaluated on their own merits.
Jean Grey has potential with the damage she can do when using Mind Control. Add her Precision Strike to make characters with Super Senses less comfortable, and I could see her as a possible piece of an X-Swap. Wolverine is a really solid close combat piece, as being able to Exploit with Blades on multiple targets is a combination that will make some opponents question their approach. But the all-star of the set is Polaris, with a free TK. The value of TK may have dropped a little with the new equipment rules on the way, but placement effects are still very powerful, and free is always good. The chance to place opposing characters is an interesting tweak, too, so I feel like you’re going to see her in some games.
When you consider the cost of Venom Magneto, if you’re looking for that free TK, then this set is definitely worth the $70 price tag. But then, Venom Magneto still does a lot more for cheaper, so keep that in mind when you do your value calculations. Then there’s the other side of the coin…
These are beautiful pieces, for the most part, and as a collector, I feel the need to own them. Some places are even having pre-order sales, so you might be able to find a deal if you look. They come with a nice collector display case, too, so if you’re like me and have a special display shelf for your favorite pieces, this would make a cool centerpiece.
When you’re playing in bigger events, you’re limited on the creativity you can bring to the table. Yes, you can repaint your minis, but there are limits to what’s acceptable there. You can’t bring 3D maps, and you can’t bring custom figures. Well, not standard custom figs…one area that you’re allowed to bring are custom bystanders. This week, I thought I would go through the typical types of things people bring to the table as bystanders, and where you might get them.
Most common are bystander tokens. I used to love to print out the tokens designed by Don’t Feed Bears, but sadly, they’ve gotten out of the design world, and have even pulled their old designs off Facebook. That’s not to say you can’t still get nice tokens, however, as Big Bully Games has some really great tokens you can order by following this link. Their shipping times are good, the product is quality, and the price is fair. So if you don’t have the time, skill, or money to go for some of the more elaborate options, then I highly recommend you check them out.
A more cost-effective, but labor intensive method, is making repaints/resculpts. I’ve done quite a few of these, and can vouch that some are more difficult than others. It can be as easy as simply repainting an existing piece and reworking the dial, as my Orchis Soldier mini shows below, or more elaborate as my Gang of Harleys. The good news is that many of these can be made from bulk commons that you’re never going to do anything with, so you’re not wasting things that you’ve already picked up. But as I’ve said, there’s a bit of work that goes into it, so you need the time and a bit of practice to make this go well.
A somewhat easier, but a bit more expensive method, is 3D printed method. Judge Cheats makes some fantastic 3D printed bystanders, but I don’t think he sells them. Still, you can go to sites like Cultz3d (link), Yeggi (link), or Makexyz (link) to find some files to print if you have your own 3D printer. The best part about these minis is that you have a clean slate to paint on, and it is MUCH easier to paint on these than trying to repaint Heroclix pieces. Paint just doesn’t stick well to the pre-painted Heroclix pieces.
You can also use bystanders to express your sense of humor. Dials are pretty easy to modify (just follow this link to HCTools for a great dial-printing resource), so you can really add anything to a dial to give your opponents a chuckle during the game. My favorite joke mod I made was this Charged-Up bystander that I made using a Thomas the Tank Engine toy I picked up for about four bucks. I saw another player do the same thing with a Mystery Machine toy.
So yes, the rules don’t allow you to have modified pieces from your main force to avoid confusion, but you can still bring some fun and interesting things to the table. If you have some custom pieces you’d like to share with us, I invite you to email your pictures to clixbait@digitaledengames.com and I’ll be happy to feature your work. If you’re a designer that’s looking to get your custom tokens in the hands of players, let me know, too. Thing like that makes both players and sellers happy, and I have no problem with that!
Sorry we’re a little light on the content this week, but I got out what I wanted to talk about, and it just wasn’t as much as normal. I’ll be honest, I’m anxious to finish my numbers evaluation, as it’s not as interesting as I’d hoped it would be, but I don’t want to start something and not finish. If I get time in the coming weeks, I may try and speed it up and wrap it up a bit quicker. Fingers crossed, but this won’t be that week, as I’m heading to Atlanta for the Gorillaz concert. You didn’t need to know that, but I’m looking forward to it, and I want to talk about it!
On another note, next week will have a typical team build, but November is going to be a project build that your input will be vital for! Each week, I’ll be posting polls to get your input on what direction the team should go. We’ll be starting off with a poll after next week’s blog to determine what the centerpiece of the team should be, so look for the question, and don’t be afraid to share the poll with others.
With that, I will bid you all a good week, and I look forward to bringing you more ramblings next week!
Clix Bait 