Saturday, July 12, 2008
Secret Invasion: The Countdown
In the way of too many blogs, I'm sure, I started putting some info into would-be posts months ago but never got around to posting anything. In part it's because I already get much of my thoughts out in posts over on HCRealms. In part it was simple distractions. In part if was just that sense that I would be wasting time and filling cyberspace with nothing of any importance.
I'll pepper some shots of various sculpts from the set throughout this piece.
Today, I've just decided to spill out what I want to about the upcoming set and recent changes, knowing that few will ever see it and that it's here entirely because I wanted to type it out.
We've been getting sculpts and dials from the July 23 Secret Invasion expansion, a Marvel expansion where Wizkids and Marvel have worked together to tie in a clix expansion to an ongoing story arc. Skrulls have been infiltrating Earth's military organizations and superhero teams and now a more open invasion has commenced. While I'm not thrilled with the creative forces behind the event, and so have been largely skipping the central comics elements thusfar, the concept's a good one and offers the theme for what could be a solid clix set.
Shown above is this set's Iron Man, a 188-point piece, a fairly powerful one as would be hoped for the point investment. His Special Power allows him to use Perplex and Outwit on his first three clicks, with the proviso that if he hasn't used Outwit that turn he'll also have Super Senses.
While I don't expect to see mine until about the 22nd - as part of my comics order in this five-week (for purposes of comics releases) month - the Fantastic Four starter set came out. Along with it came a revised set of rules, including some significant changes, some of which want to note before coming back to the upcoming set.Potentially the most significant change is that Perplex - the ability to change a stat on a dial up or down by 1 - now lasts until the beginning of that player's next turn. Previously it was something that evaporated at the end of the player's turn, and so would mostly be used to ensure an attack or increase its damage. Sometimes it would be used to get a little more reach out of an attack or boost one's Speed, but that was largely it. Now it can be meaningfully used on Defense stats, potentially helping characters to avoid being successfully attacked. Via more than one Perplex piece - or by one of the few capable under special circumstances of altering a stat by 2 - the opportunity is now in hand to frustrate an opponent anew.
Some players have declared this a huge mistake, something that will see virtually unhittable Defense numbers as ones with already high Defenses of 18 are boosted to 19, 20 or 21, and with special accommodations even higher. I suspect we'll find out if this is the case soon enough. For my part I'm mainly seeing it as an additional bookkeeping elements -- something else we'll need to keep track of from round to round.
Additional changes involve some new breakdowns in and limitations on abilities.We now have a Carry ability, which is automatically granted to those with appropriate symbols - pieces with the wing and any of the Transporter symbols - and now including Giants. Some new limitations come with this. Anyone carrying someone takes a -2 to his Speed, which makes sense. It will especially cause people to second-guess whether or not to have Charge, Running Shot, Hypersonic Speed or Transporter pieces carry anyone. This will especially be a concern for the Charge/Running Shot pieces because it'll cut down the ground covered markedly. A Running Shot piece with a Speed of 10 would see his normal Running Shot max Speed of 5 (half of the original Speed) further cut by 2, so he can now, while carrying someone, only move up to 3 spaces and then attack.
Standard (non-flying) Giants can only carry when they have no token on them. And... the Carry ability is open to being Outwitted.In fact, Outwit now has more potential targets. In addition to the powers and abilities that were always options, Outwit can now be used to shut off the above mentioned Carry, or the completely separate Flight ability. It can be used to turn off Giant Stride, which is to say the new combined ability to carry another character and to not have to stop upon coming adjacent to an opposing character.
While on the subject of Giants, I'll also note that they no longer need to stop two spaces away from other characters -- although they still can, since they can still make close combat attacks from that range -- and other characters no longer have to (absurdly) stop two spaces away and be forced to roll for breakaway before being able to Charge or otherwise move adjacent under their own power. Friendly Giants (those who are on that player's team) can now be moved Telekinetically, too.
Telekinesis is now largely altered, too.TK range is now cut to 8, but characters with TK can now also reach out up to 8 squares away to grab objects or characters, and a careful observance of that 8-space limitation has to be made. I've found it easiest to think of it as drawing a triangle with sides a maximum of 8-spaces long, the vertices being the character with TK, the target of the TK action, and the final location of the character or object being TKed; of course, the character using TK has to be able to see each of the other location.
If one's trying to pull a friendly character out of a tight spot (the character is adjacent to an opposing piece) via telekinesis, it's necessary to roll for breakaway. Previously it was just an easy yoink!
Another change involves the destruction of common objects: They no longer leave debris. So, if Batman's hiding on or behind a desk, destroy the desk and Batman's now revealed.
Some additions to the game are Traits -- an inherent ability that can't be countered. A superb example is on the new Doctor Strange we're getting in Secret Invasion. (Look closely at the pic -- his astral form is rising from his body.)Strange's Trait is Eye of Agamatto, which allows him to ignore the effects of characters and hindering terrain when determining line of fire. So, if someone's within 10 spaces of him and not blocked by blocking terrain, Strange can see them and use any of his powers on them.
Other additions are special variations on the Attack and Defense symbols on the dial. One is a diagonal bar running across the Defense shield symbol, which stands for Indomitable. It's built-in Willpower. Another is a crosshairs in place of the Attack symbol, indicating Sharpshooter. A Sharpshooter is now the only type of character who can use ranged attacks while based. The old rule of allowing flying characters to use or be the target of ranged attacks with adjacent pieces while based is gone, which is a tremendous relief to characters with Combat Reflexes, helping to make the power worth its cost.
Indomitable and Sharpshooter are also among the items that can be Outwitted.
As of yesterday, we have twenty seven of the sixty pieces previewed in one place or another from the set -- twenty eight if one includes the brick mail-away.Along with the new and very welcome Dr. Strange, mentioned above, we have several new team-powered Super Skrulls (X-Men, Avengers and Illuminati - that last one being the brick mail-away), a Cloak and Dagger Duo, a fantastic Namor, a Punisher, Howard The Duck, Impossible Man, a somewhat less clever than he should be Mephisto, a proper Nick Fury, Attuma, Atlantean Warriors, a first appearance Spider-Slayer (complete with JJJameson's face in the viewscreen), a new Annihilus, Mole Man and Moloids, among others. The official set gallery only has some of the info. The best collection point for info is the HCRealms SI dials thread, which is current as of today with the dial info we've seen via various sources, which starts with the pieces in the FF starter, since they're officially part of the Secret Invasion set.
The list, such that we know so far is:
Commons:
001- Spider-Man (Not quite right, this is more like a cheap-but-potent Guest-Star Spidey.)
002- Moloid
003- Tombstone
004- Iron Fist (Haven't seen the dial yet, but it's the modern, very stripped-down costume - pragmatic, but unattractive, it may as well be painted on him - and the card we saw indicates it's going to be similar to what we saw with the Fantastic Forces version -- which should work nicely.)
007- Atlantean Warrior
010- Grey Gargoyle
Uncommons:
019- Captain America (The Truth version.)021- Iron Man
024- Spider-Slayer (No powerhouse, but an interesting, nostalgic choice.)
028- Attuma
030- Punisher
031- Mole Man (Fairly cool Special Powers to allow him to tunnel, be stealthed and carry someone, but lacking any Damage above 2 and even a single click of Incapacitate, so Ben can just laugh him off. At 50 points he's super cheap for what he brings, but he and his Moloids will absolutely need allies and/or Feats if they're going to be anything but a minor nuisance.)
Rares:
033- Dr. Strange
035- Howard the Duck (Pretty much destined to be a dead duck unless allies can keep the heat off him, but if they can then he might be a good source of Perplex once he gets off that first click.)
038- Speedball (Fast, hopefully difficult to hit, able to deal at least a couple clicks of 3 Damage and, with luck, able to bring some surprises with the right dice rolls. Not someone to count on, but he might be a fun 77 points to field.)
039- Cloak and Dagger (A Duo and a Transporter. A good combination in general, they may prove a tad too easy to damage for their 109 points. Powers give them the potential to deal damage to anyone, but the max Attack Value of 9 may make that difficult.)
040- Doom (The "Unthinkable" version, where he briefly made a Faustian deal to see how he would have been had he concentrated solely on the dark arts and been willing to make inhuman sacrifices, including killing and tanning the skin of his girlfriend to make mystical armor.)
041- Spider-Girl
044- Super Skrull: X-Men
045- Namor (Not an inspiring sculpt, but a generally marvelous 150 points; it's unlikely anyone will ever bother pulling out the Fantastic Forces vet again.)
Super Rares:
051- Nick Fury (A tad ugly in the face/jaw, and perhaps a bit more Fury than some might have wanted at 100 points, but a clever dial and a good leader for some SHIELD force.)
052- Impossible Man053- Skrull Emperor
054- Gamora
055- Mephisto
056- Annihilus
059- The Sentry (The sculpt has a repulsive "look at my super package!" aspect, but the dial's both fairly potent and representative of the character. Unfortunately, he's still a character that shouldn't be in the mainstream Marvel U...)
060- Super Skrull: Avengers
BIBTB:
061- Super Skrull: Illuminati
Also nearly certain to be in the set, as they're referenced in the FF RULEBOOK as part of examples:
Lightspeed
Gee
Energizer
Mass Master
Gravity
Dr. Octopus
She-Thing
Adam Warlock
Clea
Ringmaster
Sharon Carter
Immortus
Kristoff
Malice
Elektra (Skrull)
Goliath
Ms Marvel
Spider-Woman
July 23rd is a just a week and a half away, so it's really just a matter of when the complete set list and more details breaks. We're fairly sure there's going to be some twist in the bunch - most likely some hidden Skrull versions that are likely to be too close to another Chase piece mess for comfort. But... we'll see.
As this will be the only Marvel set of 2009 I'll likely be trying to milk this one for enjoyment as long as possible. Maybe it'll help lift me out of the long, dry spell on these blogs.
Comments:
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Of all the rule changes, the one that bugs me is the change to wildcards and Defenders/Sinister Syndicate (and JSA/Batman Enemy, I assume). Now a wildcard can't share their values, they can only use the values of characters who actually possess the the ability, which just seems like needlessly weakening those TAs.
In contrast, I really don't think Outwit needed the boost, and I'm not sure about Perplex, either.
In contrast, I really don't think Outwit needed the boost, and I'm not sure about Perplex, either.
Definitely annoying, those TA changes that ultimately limit the use of wlldcards. It's as if they were responding, almost drunkenly, to old concerns.
I didn't bother to get into them here because I was already rambling and it felt like a tangent; I should have split this post into a Secret Invasion one and a separate one on the rules changes. As noted, I tend to get most of my reactions out in HCR thread posts, which is the largest part of the reason this
place is strewn with virtual cobwebs.
The changes to Perplex and Outwit are ones I want to ride a little before I pass judgment.
The Perplex change strikes me as something of a potential bookkeeping headache, but I'll be interested to see whether it'll find itself used more for Defense boosts or Attack Value/Damage reductions on opposing pieces. The former's the one most of us ran to mentally, I suspect, but the latter options are the ones that will likely have more teeth. As ever, it's going to depend on the teams and circumstances.
With Outwit... I agree that it was hardly a power in need of a boost - if anything, there have been good reasons raised again and again for why reigning it in a little would be in order - but I'm interested in seeing how creatively this is used now that there are other targets (Flight, Carry, Indomitable and Sharpshooter) for it. Now there's less reason to let a turn go by without using it, unless, I suppose, one's the new Iron Man using Extremis. That player will have to decide if turning off something relatively minor is worth not having that Super Senses roll for added protection.
Thanks for coming by and commenting!
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I didn't bother to get into them here because I was already rambling and it felt like a tangent; I should have split this post into a Secret Invasion one and a separate one on the rules changes. As noted, I tend to get most of my reactions out in HCR thread posts, which is the largest part of the reason this
place is strewn with virtual cobwebs.
The changes to Perplex and Outwit are ones I want to ride a little before I pass judgment.
The Perplex change strikes me as something of a potential bookkeeping headache, but I'll be interested to see whether it'll find itself used more for Defense boosts or Attack Value/Damage reductions on opposing pieces. The former's the one most of us ran to mentally, I suspect, but the latter options are the ones that will likely have more teeth. As ever, it's going to depend on the teams and circumstances.
With Outwit... I agree that it was hardly a power in need of a boost - if anything, there have been good reasons raised again and again for why reigning it in a little would be in order - but I'm interested in seeing how creatively this is used now that there are other targets (Flight, Carry, Indomitable and Sharpshooter) for it. Now there's less reason to let a turn go by without using it, unless, I suppose, one's the new Iron Man using Extremis. That player will have to decide if turning off something relatively minor is worth not having that Super Senses roll for added protection.
Thanks for coming by and commenting!
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