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C3G Strategy - June 2017

Posted June 12th, 2017 at 01:04 PM by HS Codex

C3G Strategy Guide
Maxima
By: Ronin



Analyzed Statistics

Left Box Breakdown
Species – Alderacian
Uniqueness – Unique Hero
Class – Queen
Personality – Proud
Size/Height – Medium 5

Maxima has a wholly unique species and her class is shared with only one other C3G figure, Mera. As a result, she can fit very easily into Star-Lord builds. Otherwise, there’s nothing noteworthy going on in her left box. Medium 5 unique heroes are C3G standard.

Statistics Breakdown
Life – 7
Move – 7
Range – 4
Attack – 5
Defense – 6
Points – 345

Maxima is a high-end figure that delivers a lot in the way of raw stats, before you even make your way to the special powers.

Powers Breakdown

SEEKING A MATE
At the start of each round, if Maxima does not have a Mate on the battlefield, you must choose a Unique Hero other than Maxima with the Super Strength special power on the battlefield. The chosen figure must be the Unique Hero with the highest Attack number listed on its card among Unique Heroes on the battlefield. After her Mate takes a turn, you must move Maxima as close to her Mate as possible, moving up to a maximum of 7 spaces. When moving with Seeking a Mate, Maxima will take any leaving engagement attacks.

This is Maxima’s centerpiece power. There are some strict requirements on what figures can be chosen as Maxima’s mate: the chosen figure must have the Super Strength special power and must have an attack at least as high as all other unique heroes on the battlefield (which includes Maxima and her attack of 5). So generally, her mates are going to be real heavy hitters: guys like Martian Manhunter, Superman and Thor. Being able to move Maxima for free is the real draw here, but it again comes with significant restrictions in that she has to move as close to her mate as possible, and the movement may set her up to take leaving engagement attacks.

LOVER’S FURY
Add 2 to Maxima’s Attack number when attacking an adjacent figure. When rolling dice for a normal attack against an adjacent figure or for a leaving engagement attack with Maxima, if Maxima is adjacent to her Mate, all blanks rolled count as extra skulls.

Two extra attack dice against adjacent figures is a nice boost that makes Maxima a real heavy hitter. Having the option of closing in for a 7 die attack or having a ranged attack of 5 makes for some nice offensive options. And there’s another huge pay-off here for working around all those restrictions in Seeking a Mate. Counting blanks as skulls is never a bad thing, but on a bruiser like Maxima, it can yield some truly mighty attack output. Those big Lover’s Fury attacks can be tricky to set up, but they’re well worth it.

PSYCHOKINESIS 13
Instead of attacking with Maxima, you may choose a figure within 4 clear sight spaces of Maxima and roll the 20-sided die. If you roll 13 or higher, you may either inflict 1 unblockable wound on that figure or, if that figure is small or medium, you may place that figure on any empty space within 4 spaces of its original placement. Placed figures will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

This is Maxima’s least used special power, as it’s typically outshone by her powerful normal attack. It’s a handy option for situations when you know her normal attack will get shut down by a power like Psychic Defense X, or when there’s some exceptionally critical chance to move an enemy figure. Most likely, it will see minimal use.

SUPER STRENGTH
FLYING

And of course, Super Strength and Flying provide Maxima with the full “flying brick” package.


In Depth Analysis

Seeking Friend, or Seeking Foe?
The first question you need to ask yourself when building a Maxima army is, of course, “Who should Maxima’s mate be?” Her mate might be a friendly hero or an enemy one, but you’ll often want the former. You can plan your own army, but you can’t plan your opponent’s. So if you want to know what you’re doing with Maxima, you need to provide some good mate options yourself. Maxima’s mate will likely change over the course of the match, and you may end up without much of a choice in the matter, but it’s a good idea to have at least one good candidate in your own army.

When Maxima’s mate is in your army, you essentially have a pair of heavy hitters that can move up together. Maxima’s movement is restricted by needing to move adjacent to her mate, but you’ve still got a lot of attack power that you can move into the field all at once. And Maxima’s attack boost from Lover’s Fury means that she probably wants to stick right close to her mate anyway. Simple, but nice.

If you’ve got Maxima and her mate in the same army, there is a question of redundancy and managing turns between the two, since her mate is likely to be another big hitter. Generalist order marker managers like Baron Zemo can be super handy here. If you’ve got an army like Maxima, Superman, and Zemo, you can easily use Zemo to activate Superman when you need to move him and Maxima, and then Maxima when they’re already in position, for that big Lover’s Fury attack.

Barking Up the Wrong Tree
When Maxima’s mate is in the opponent’s army, you’ve got a more complex dynamic going on. She can really hound her mate, and you might even be able to pressure an opponent into not taking a turn with her mate, or not moving near friendly figures, in order to keep from setting Maxima up for big attacks with Lover’s Fury. And there’s also a little less redundancy in the “opponent as mate” scheme, since you’re not necessarily doubling up on heavy hitters.

Despite all the positives, there is a pretty significant downside to having an enemy mate. Namely, you’re giving the opponent some say in when and where Maxima moves. A canny foe may well make Maxima eat some leaving engagement attacks or set herself up for a big hit.

Regardless of what you intend at the start of the match, you’ll have to throw out that plan and start over if Maxima outlasts her first choice of mate. Weigh your choices carefully whenever it comes time to pick a mate. You’ll get some movement efficiency either way, but the best choice will likely come down to situational factors-of-the-moment.

Queen of What Army?
So how exactly do you build around Maxima? She’s very easy to put into Star-Lord builds, and she also likes being paired with other heavy hitters, so she can slot into builds where a few other big guns synergize with each other—say, a largely Kryptonian army, or an Asgardian one, or even a Justice League build. Fitting her into a Justice League army often requires an exceptionally high points ceiling, but Maxima generally likes that anyway. Trying to build around her in the 1000 point arena severely limits your options in terms of finding a good mate and managing her other needs, though there are things that work. Besides working with Zemo and a heavy hitter, as mentioned earlier, you can also try pairing her with Martian Manhunter (I) and filling out the remainder of your army with cheap figures that leverage Martian Manhunter’s free figure movement.

Maxima can be one of the hardest hitting figures around, but getting the most out of her requires some serious planning. Seek mates with care!
Total Comments 1

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Tornado's Avatar
Great review and a newer figure to boot.

Nice!
Posted June 12th, 2017 at 05:16 PM by Tornado Tornado is offline
 
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