Clix Conundrum

I haven't put anything since before Thanksgiving -- never even running a post on Mutations & Monsters post-release -- but I'm in the mood for at least a little catch-up and early considerations for this next, DC set, due to hit stores February 20th.

Ultimately, this, as with most of my blog entries, is a place for me to collect my thoughts on an issue. Hopefully it'll be of some passing interest to someone else, but if so that's a bonus. Here I'm in a run-up to whatever buying decision I'll be making on the set.

So far the Crisis gallery only has six items in it.

The first one shown to us was the Buy It By the Brick mail-away World's Finest duo. A duo piece on a larger (Sentinel-sized. covering 4 map squares) base, this 500 pt piece at least initially appears destined to be much more likely a collector's piece than a serious draw for gamers. More seriously dangerous, independently-moving Batman and Superman combinations are out there to be had, plus Feats, for much less than the 500 pts. While the dual TA (it has both Batman and Superman TAs) is a fun first for the game, it's important to remember that a base that size means they'll have to find a great deal of hindering terrain if they want to use the Batman TA effectively for protection. Any square not over hindering is a target.

As a side note on the piece, while I understand the thematic interest in having this piece represent those Batman/Superman team-ups, would it have been such an affront to have included some form of Justice League keyword? At it stands they're only open for Detective, Gotham City, Metropolis and Reporter theme teams. Granted, any theme team they'd be a part of would have to be huge and include a good number of low-point pieces, but I'm all about the options in this game.

Next shown was another piece with a large point cost: Mordru. As an official preview, it included a write-up by Seth.

At 245 points, the rare (piece #42) Mordru is ones sanity demands one put 25 points for Fortitude on in order to protect what those points were spent on. The lack of any move and attack powers will most likely mean considerable time as a target. Indeed, while it's still around (Armor Wars will be retiring this summer) I'd be tempted to go whole hog and spend another 25 points on Repulsor Shield. While Fortitude imparts protection from Outwit and Exploit Weakness, Repulsor Shield extends that protection to Force Blast, Psychic Blast and and Ranged Combat Expert.

It would help if we had a clarification whether he has the 10 range Seth mentions in his write-up or the 12 shown on their site.

The next two were added earlier this week: Batwoman and Kid Flash.

To be honest, I don't care about Batwoman enough to spend the time on the piece just now, so the confusion from having at least the base in the picture on their site plainly being for Batgirl, with a seventy-something point value and the Batman Ally TA... I'll at least wait until clearer info is up for her.

As for the Kid Flash (Wally West), this is a neat-o little 45 point piece, which I think sufficiently highly of to take the time to represent it below:
Really, while the lack of Super Senses and/or Energy Shield/Deflection might give one pause, the 18 Defense and ability to move over and through everything, added to the 18 Defense, helps considerably. This is a fine package for 45 points. Two clicks of Hypersonic Speed Option 1 followed by three of Charge. On his second and third clicks he gets a Flurry effect built in, and on those three Charge clicks he also gets a special power that enables him to use Force Blast as a free action, so if he wants to shift an opposing piece during his turn -- perhaps even the one he just finished Charging, creating some space between them -- he can do it without having to burn an action on it.

Today, Dawnstar and Jericho were added.

Dawnstar's an effective addition to the Legion of Superheroes team. At 60 points she's a flying Hypersonic Speed (via the Special Power: Tracker) piece with front-loaded Willpower and another Special Power, Quarry, which lets her choose one opposing piece at the start of the game which her and all of her teammates get a +1 against to their Attack Values. While her maximum Damage of 2 won't see her striking fear into the hearts of pieces with Invulnerability or Impervious, she's going to be very useful. Cheesy players may decide to play more than one of her, since (unless it's FAQed away) her Quarry could be stackable. Put two of her on the team and one could either get a +1 boost against two of the opposing pieces or a +2 to one, if there's someone with a high Defense Value to crack.

It's going to take a little time to get used to fliers not having flight stands anymore. I know that the case was there Mordru and the World's Finest team above, but it really stands out when someone with wings comes up.

Jericho has the same, wordy Possession special power Deadman was given in the Justice League set, which is to say that many may not want to field him. Though Jericho can at least do some direct attack damage. At least with opening Willpower he can theoretically move into position on one turn and roll to take possession the next, providing his clock hasn't been seriously cleaned in between.

General write-ups for Harbinger, Uncle Sam and the Infinite Crisis Event Dial were really the first things given to us, just before the holidays. I've still not used any of the Event Dials -- more a matter of opportunity than desire -- and the final call on Harbinger and Uncle Sam awaits seeing their stats; How cool dial tricks and options are vary considerably with the stats.

So far the only confirmed pieces are:
Commons:
#2 Classic Titans Kid Flash
#7 Jericho

Uncommons:
#17 Red Hood (Jason Todd)
#19 Batwoman
#22 Dawnstar

Rares:
#35 Uncle Sam (Transporter) 140 pts
#39 Harbinger 50 pts
#42 Mordru

Super-Rares:
#53 Black Adam
#60 Monitor
Spectre (Giant) Super-Rare
Nightwing (disco costume)and Starfire (Duo) Super-Rare

And those we don't yet know the rarity of:
Superman (unknown version)
Batman (unknown version)
Forerunner
Flash (Barry)
Wonder Woman (Titans of Tomorrow Armor?)
Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner - new costume)
"evil" Mary Marvel
Supernova

At 20 -- many of them still very poorly defined -- that's theoretically one third of the set. Still, only five of those are full reveals. It's still far too scant a list of info for me to make any order decisions about.

Going back to this past November, we had a sneak peek article in a gaming magazine that was really more of a press release, given that it was written by Brand Manager Mark Tuttle (click on the image for a larger view):

... the key points of which are that this set will contain:
* A character that's over 300pts
* TWO Full superhero teams
* ONE Full super villian team
* ONE double based figure
* more than one giant
* more than one Duo figure

Of course, we don't know if counted among the giants will be Uncle Sam, who gains giant status, or Harbinger, who gains Duo status, each at some point on their dials due to Special Powers.

Current front-runners for the 300+ piece are the new Spectre and Superman Prime. I'm hoping for the latter, as it'll be more representative of a piece with Silver Age Superboy/man abilities, and I'm hoping to have a Spectre I might more readily field as part of a Golden Age JSA team and be able to play the team at or below 700 points.

Hopefully the accelerated previews we're seeing this week will continue, with a main write-up and official sneak peek happening each Friday.

So far the set's looking good, but I've not been bowled over yet. The new rarity scheme is making cold-buy collecting problematic -- something I've talked a bit about before and plan to again when I do a quick catch-up piece on Mutations & Monsters perhaps later this week.