[Soundwarp SG-1]

Alrighty, finally got my tests done. Sorry for the delay, but I finally remembered the other good combo for Justice Like Lightning that I wanted to test, Commander Rodgers, so I ran a quick game with him yesterday. I had another game, but that was just the Bolts sans company, so I'm not going to bother finishing the write-up for that one.

NAME OF THE PLAYTEST UNIT: Citizen V @190 points

Army Test 1
Map: Island Plane Crash (No E-Glyph)
Units: Just Us, Like Low Key: Citizen V (190), Meteorite (210), Songbird (180), Atlas (270), MACH 1 (200), Loki (420)- 1470 total vs Armored Avengers: Ms Marvel (350), Thor (430), Captain America C3G (240), Bucky (60), Scarlet Witch (285), Armor (100)- 1465 total

Spoiler Alert!

Game Summary:

Nothing too complex here, just trying out the double X Charlatan combo. It works ok, but ultimately Loki is still a very limited figure for his points and the Charlatans can already get turn efficiency every player turn through Songbird. Since none of the Charlatans really do all that much during their own turn (except for Meteorite once a round), I found I didn't much care who I was getting an extra turn with more than once a round anyway, so Loki felt a bit redundant considering the points invested in him. The Loki combo will get more interesting if we get more Charlatans with juicy offensive abilities though and it is at least useful for moving all the Bolts up as a team early game to keep their multiple defensive powers properly layered.

The game was mostly just a straight smackdown, with the Avengers hitting harder but the Bolts generally having better defensive plays. It helped that most of the Bolts didn't care all that much about Scarlet Witch's Curse, which was the only real disruptive power the Avengers had. Ultimately though the Bolts just couldn't get enough offense going on and eventually they fell to the real heroes.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack):None. Got off some attacks on Scarlet Witch at one point, but her Hex stopped everything cold.
• Justice, Like Lightning...: Used with Loki to activate it twice a round, though Loki did cost them OM during one round Zemo still used the X to turn a Atlas and Songbird turn into an Atlas and Meteorite turn.
• Charlatan Coordination: Bumped up Support Fire into a wound on Thor at one point, didn't change any results otherwise.
• Swordplay: Got one extra attack with it against Scarlet Witch, but her Hex denied any more bonus attacks.
• Damage Taken: Eventually went down from attacks by Scarlet Witch and Armor.

Result: Scarlet Witch hangs out with 2 life remaining while a 1 life Armor keeps her company, so much for no more Mutants.

Army Test 2
Map: Sewer Labyrinth
Units: V for Victory: Citizen V (190), Meteorite (210), Songbird (180), Atlas (270), MACH 1 (200), Commander Rodgers (260)- 1310 total vs Fantastic Five: Mister Fantastic (235), Invisible Woman (215), Silver Surfer (400), She Hulk (310), Iceman (150)- 1310 total

Spoiler Alert!

Game Summary:

The idea here is Rodgers and Zemo combined give you almost total OM freedom without having to move up Rodgers prematurely. Overall, I found it a fair bit better than the Loki combo, as Steve just gives you so much more bang for your buck than Loki and as I said before I rarely cared about who the second Bolt taking a turn was anyway. Atlas especially likes having a little security in case he has a bad Ionic roll since he tends to be the most in your face Bolt.

Like the first game, this was mostly just a lot of dice being thrown around. However, this time the other team had an advantage in both offense and defense. What the Bolts had was reliability though, and they where able to last long enough to exploit a weak round on the F5's part thanks to Meteorite eating an OM on Mr. F and a few cold D-20 rolls on his part. After that round both Sue and Reed where dead, and even though the Silver Surfer eventually tore through the Bolts in exchange, a well-rested Rodgers was able to finish out the game for the forces of 'justice'.

Unit Summary:

• Damage Done (Normal Attack): None, Zemo never really wanted to attack as he was too important to move into melee range and wasn't terribly well-suited to doing anything against the F5 anyway.
• Justice, Like Lightning...: Turned first Oms on Rodgers into Charlatan turns for as long as he was alive.
• Charlatan Coordination: Saved Atlas from blowing himself up once, none of the other boosts mattered, but it was still a nice security blanket.
• Swordplay: Not used
• Damage Taken: Obliterated by a ticked off Silver Surfer in one attack towards the end of the game.

Result: Rodgers dodgers on alone at 2 life.

Overall: Citizen Zemo is a lot of fun to play. He provides a lot of useful features to the Bolts team and Justice, Like Lightning encourages you to try some funky combos with them. He'll only get more interesting once more Charlatan options become available as he'll be able to branch out a bit from the 'those five guys and a special guest star' army type he's sort of set in at the moment.