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!

Great fan films

Well, I'm a week away from loading up a big truck to move across states. A new adventure awaits. So, with all the major movies coming up, I thought I would use this blog post to pay homage to some of the greatest (in my opinion) of those vids every made. I hope you enjoy them!

There's no knocking great CGI and this vid on some popular Marvel heroes proves it:



But what really impresses me is live action filming. This may not be top of the mark, but it is enjoyable.



Hey, I liked it alot and wish they would have made more. Of course that is a costly endeavor. So let's look at another one:



That's a production of Bat in the Sun and you should take some time to watch the shows on their youtube channel HERE. This most recent is the longest of their works and a little stiff in places. It's still very enjoyable work as fan films go.

NEXT:



Now this stomps the snot out of the five minute Grayson Film that circulated some years ago. It's about as old, but the effects and makeup are super, especially for a fan film. That's not to put down Grayson, because it totally rocked too. And people do need to remember that these are FAN films, not full budget productions, so what they did really was over the top.

I hope you enjoy these films and the pro ones opening up in theaters this summer. I'm sure I will!