We Will
Hear The Lamentations of Their Women
HeroClix, page two
The
Variations
Included
in the basic rules are "scenarios," which give you the option
of having an actual plot to your game. Otherwise, it's pretty
much Secret Wars time, which makes you The Beyonder, and frankly,
it takes too much time to put on the silver jumpsuit and get
a perm.
The scenarios
provide different goals other than "wipe the other guys out,"
even if you are playing with all of the Injustice League and
Lex Luthor isn't here to tell you that you can't kill them.
Sometimes you just have to get your guys across the map to
a designated warp space that will plunge you into Hypertime.
It could just be a matter of a hostage rescue. And then, all
right, it could be just kick the other guys' butts.
Should
you exhaust the scenarios, the HeroClix website occasionally
offers new ones online. Price guide Scrye Magazine also offers
their variations.
Aiding
some of your characters in the butt-kicking would be objects
strewn about the map that can cause extra damage. We now highly
recommend getting the extra adventure kits that feature three-dimensional
objects. Once you've gotten all the stupid jokes about the
lamppost out of the way, they add a new level to the game.
The adventure
kits also come with "plot cards," which work similarly to
scenarios. As a nice twist, though, you work for plot points,
not necessarily damage points. And the worm can easily turn
with this one. Each player keeps his individual plot a secret,
so even though one can have taken out a vast number of his
opponents' characters, he could lose as long as his opponent
still completed his plot.
Co-editor
Michael Goodson calls this dumb luck, but I call it all part
of my plan.
Lessons
Learned In The Fanboy Planet Offices
Put
Together The Team You've Always Wanted To See. That's
what it says on each and every booster pack. Sure. Go ahead,
as long as that team has a long range combat expert, the ability
to turn off an opponent's power (or powers), probability control,
and at least one damage of 4.
You
may want to see a team of Gotham City Police, but in the
greater scheme of things, they're not likely to stand up
well against one Firelord. And then you've got a webmaster
rubbing it in your face all the time.
Understanding
Continuity Will NOT Help. The player most likely to win
is the one who does not know that Arcane is a man. Barring
such an event, it will be the guy who keeps referring to Black
Cat as Catwoman.
Choose
That Which Is Right And Good. Unless you want to win,
in which case you'll gather as many Ultrons in one place as
possible. He only loses in the pages of The Avengers,
and that may just be for contractual reasons.
The
Figures
Of
course, what has made fans really take this game to heart
is its simple collectibility. Though in recent years both
Marvel and DC have done a good job in producing action figures
of obscure characters, the HeroClix model offers almost
unlimited possibilities at a much lower price point.
What
that really means is that if you've always wanted a figure
of the Golden Age Flash, you can have him in miniature for
slightly more than you might pay for the DC Direct figure.
Ah, that fabulous secondary market. But at least you can
actually play with him. When all your co-workers have gone
home.
How
about a Checkmate Agent to sit on your desk? You can have
him. Ditto SHIELD. And Hydra. And, embarrassingly enough,
those stupid beekeepers at AIM. All that and the promise
of many more to come.
For
the most part, these figures also look pretty good, especially
in light of their size. The DC sculpts tend to be better
than those for Marvel, with slightly better faces. That
DC set also introduced a slightly easier to turn dial, using
the HeroClix ring. Please don't forget to take it off when
you're finished playing.
The
"It's Clobberin' Time" expansion has rectified the imbalance
in a lot of cases, including utilizing the ring. In particular,
the members of the Fantastic Four show improvement. Unfortunately,
Reed Richards looks like somebody squeezed his prominent
Mister Fantastic with no mercy. But The Thing looks at least
as good as he did in his Hanna-Barbera series back in the
seventies, and The Human Torch is a flaming vision. Nobody
in the office actually has an Invisible Girl/Woman yet,
but we have high hopes.
Already
WizKids has announced another Marvel expansion set, Xplosion.
(Only one guess as to which group gets featured heavily
in that - you're right! It's The New Warriors!) Cannily
timed for release before X-Men 2, the few sculpts
shown on their page look to be another leap forward for
the Marvel figures.
The
Future
WizKids
keeps their projects pretty tightly under wraps, but aside
from Xplosion, they have announced "Indy Clix," which will
feature characters from smaller imprints like Image, Dark
Horse, and CrossGen. Announced last summer, the release
date currently stands for sometime this summer, and nobody
has leaked exactly which characters might appear. (I'm bucking
for a Simon Archard and perhaps a Citizen Pain.)
Though
Marvel has now had three sets on the block (and a Sentinel),
DC seems woefully underrepresented by comparison. Once Xplosion
gets released, there will be well over 300 Marvel figures.
DC only has 132, if you include the Wizard exclusive Superman
and the giant Sinestro figure now scheduled for January
22 release.
However,
some clues do exist on the DC checklist. They have a team
ability affiliation for the JSA, but only two characters
qualify: Hawkman and the unique Flash. The Teen Titans only
have four. Completely unrepresented so far, though, are
the Legion of Superheroes, the Mystics, and the Green Lantern
Corps, which has a potentially magnificent team ability,
just no team members.
Even
the ad copy for Sinestro plays coy, mentioning what a great
foe for Green Lantern he will be, but an even better one
for Superman. While nothing has shown up even hinting at
a DC expansion set, we've got our fingers crossed for a
May or June surprise.
As
for the future of Fanboy Planet involvement, we've quietly
decided to branch out and experience an official tournament,
to give better coverage of the HeroClix experience to you
loyal readers. Just don't count on us winning any prizes.
