A League of Shields: Captain America

My son was listening in on a heroclix conversation the other day. We were talking about characters who shared the same basic name and that we thought would work well in a team.

Yesterday, my son came to me with six Captain America figures. He did very well for being 9 years old. All of them were different people (see backs of cards) and they fit well for a four hundred point team.

Double space Captain America from the new set
Captain America (who was actually Bucky/Winter Soldier) from the new set
US Agent from Avengers
Patriot from Avengers
Red Guardian from the new set (Captain America)
Black Captain America from Secret Invasion

Yes, they are a ground force and maps can determine their win or lose. However, they are surprisingly versatile. You have six figures on a 400 point team which works for themes. I know, I know, Patriot doesn't share a keyword, so it would have to be accepted for custom by the judge. But just look at them, it works! By the way, they all have something to do with super soldiers, even Patriot thanks to a blood transfusion. So tell me why they can't be a theme team?

Anyway, you have four chargers with decent movement and attack. You have two running shots, two rolls for leadership, one perplexer, two Defender's team ability and two Avengers team ability. Even without leadership, you can move your whole team into position on your first turn because of Avengers team ability. You only have one with willpower, but smart use of him can make or break the game. Push when there's an advantage. You use double space Cap's running shot to a point where he can charge on the next turn and pick up his shield on the way. Swarm a target with charging Captains and start scoring knock outs. Wolverine and Cyclops went down really fast thanks to that.

I played Wolverine, Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Archangel and I had some bad die rolls. Still, once the gap was closed on an indoor map, it was practically over. My son learned to concentrate attacks on a single figure and scored knock outs quickly. Yeah I had to help him a little because he's still learning. Regardless, this League of Shields turned out to be a very good team. Long range and open maps are their enemy, but they have a good defense mode to carry through that.

Try it and let me know how it works for you!

Captain America case review

I bought two cases of Captain America and after careful consideration, I'm ready with my review. As usual, I'm going to talk about manufacturing and condition of the pieces as well as playability and some other things I noticed over all. Of course, it's just my opinion and you may feel differently on some points. Kind debate is always welcome.

So, first, the condition of pieces and manufacturing. These are actually really well made and solid pieces. In two cases I had only one figure missing an arm entirely, two that came off their bases (no problem with super glue), and two with arms to reattach. This appears to be the same solid plastic used for the Giant Sized X-men set. Some have a bit of a gloss coat but I find that cool looking. The dials turn really well, better than I've seen so far. In one case only two needed help. In the second, about four wouldn't budge at all, but that makes for six in two cases. A few others I adjusted because they were a little tight, but seriously, great job. And the best part is the sculpts in being able to turn those dials. Thank you Wizkids and Neca for managing to not make any sculpts that stand on a skinny little piece of plastic that feels like it's just going to break when you try and turn the dial! All of these figures are in solid poses that make dial turning and grip that much easier. I couldn't be happier on that one!

Keywords are at an all time high with this set. I'm actually quite happy to see the rebirth of Hydra and AIM. I remember when it was more cannonfodder than anything in both teams. There just weren't many characters, especially from the same set, that you could build for Hydra. Now, you have them all in one set and they can be a fairly decent threat. MODOK's 11 has grown some teeth, especially with the big head himself. But, as usual, not all keywords are created equal.

My first keyword problem is Nomad. Nomad has no keywords. He should have soldier or warrior at least. He was trained by how many Capt. Americas? Check his card, it says "two". I'll play him as a soldier anyway, but he should have the keyword. Gameplay is far too dependant on keyword themes, so there shouldn't be any pieces without at least one. Next there's Batroc's Brigade and Lady Liberators. At least you can find most of the Lady Liberators and maybe get a pass from the judge on keword, or will anyone even play it? It still makes me wonder how keywords get picked. I am glad to see Great Lakes Avengers get filled in a bit more and expansion for the Hand is okay too.

New strategies in duo based figures has been touched on. I know there are plenty of them out there, but most of them are duo figures or transporters, and not just a single figure with double base. I can see how this gives Cap some extra fighting room, but it also makes him a bigger and easier target.

Traits; there's an interesting trait that's surfaced and I like it. This has been done with some white powers before and also with the Warriors Three. Duo traits that give characters a bonus for being together is neat. I especially like the one for Black Panther and Storm, allowing them to use support on each other. Black Panther is kind of expensive though, more than he's ever been. I don't like that.

For my chases I got Capwolf and Rojhaz. I like Capwolf and what he can do for the animal keyword. For that matter, there's some good possibilities for that keyword still in this set.

This set gives a wide range in build possibilities and points. The Winter Guard makes an easy 400 point team while the Secret Warriors can do an easy 300. Ranged combat is getting a little more diverse with more odd numbers to ranges, but I guess that's okay.

Now for the biggest question of all, the removable pieces. I have to say these have been well made for the most part. I worry about small pieces like Cap's shield and the Scorpio Key getting lost but the fireball and invisible shield are pretty cool. I shake my head at the mechanic of the Weapon X tank and Cap's iceberg. I may work out in game play, but I just can't put "wait's to be used" into a good strategy. I would play it just to mess around, but four rounds of just sitting there isn't worth 70 points to me. So, sorry, I'd love to have Weapon X for my collection, but I have two other Wolverines that trump him because I don't have to wait to use them. They also have the built in healing factors. So Cap on ice and Weapon X get my vote for least playable. I'll be back with more heroclix fun soon so stay tuned.

Captain America: A marketing strategy?

Part of Wizkids' blockbuster year is the Captain America set and it's going to be presented in an interesting way. The set will be in two parts. One will be the standard set with five piece boosters, just like any other set. The other will be a set of single piece boosters with figures that won't be available in the other part of the series.

Now, if this works for them, this could be one of the most ingenious marketing ploys ever. It could seriously rake in some extra revenue for the company. On one side you might think this spreads manufacturing a bit thin to make a two part set like this. But consider this; the standard booster with five figures in it is set for 11.99. This doesn't take into consideration the cost of packaging because I don't know how much that is, but (for sake of discussion) let's say you're paying about a 1.25 for each figure in the box. Now, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the single piece boosters will be at least 2.99 but I think more realistically they'll be 3.99 for just one figure. That's with less packaging than a large booster, no way it costs more than the larger booster. It would be a bad business move otherwise.

Is it a marketing experiment? Probably. If it comes out right, I wouldn't be surprised if you see sets like that again. But will you really want to put money into two sets of boosters to get your set of figures? Will you be able to afford it in the current economy? That's another angle that could hurt this idea, bad timing. With the current economy, trying to get people to pay for two sets of figures may not work out so well. At the very least, it may sell very slowly, putting a dampener on it's profits.

I'm not saying that people won't want to buy, I know they will and I'm only speculating on intentions from a marketing point of view. I have no statement of intentions from anyone. Just my thoughts on the matter. As for me, I don't know if I will be able to buy two sets of boosters or if I do, it will take me a lot longer, putting me out of the running compared to people who can buy it all out. That leaves me in the trade bracket and good luck there when I couldn't buy enough to trade with in the first place. But that's another story.

As promised, I now give you the answers to the last blog's picture puzzle. I know it was kind of hard to see, any done in the future will be on less space so easier to contain. I still hope someone enjoyed it, anyway:

-There are 10 custom figures (sorry if I listed that wrong): Doctor Who, The Unknown Soldier, the Beyonder, Super Skrull, Madcap, and Superskrull Sinister Six, Dr Strange and Clea, Yellow Jacket and Wasp, Colossus and Shadowcat, and Thor and Sif. Robin is altered, but not technically all "custom". Just altered.

-The four custom duos are all of dating couples (what they have in common).

-There are 8 tiny red dice

-3 Multiple mans

-the figure without a dial is Juggernaut.

-6 Assassin's league members

-2 Wolverines

-5 spider type characters: Spider Girl, Ghost Widow, Spider Woman, Arachne and Tarantula

-5 Archers: Green Arrow (with Batman), Red Arrow, Bullseye, Hawkeye, and the alternate Green Arrow.

-3 sentinel fists lying around

-Shadowcat is moving through a wall

-Robin is mopping the floor

Did I miss anything?