Insane Clown Posse versus the X-Men.
Round 1: Initiative Insane Clown Posse (ICP). Joker “reorganizes” the X-Men so that Angel ends up with turns 1 and 2. Angel uses these to move around Cyclops and Jean, while Joker moves up, carrying his scary-doll, Chucky, with Harley in tow, then the Joker Goons take two turns, which have Deadpool and Zsasz following them. Lots of ranged attacks on Cyclops here, but he has height and a jungle piece and stays safe. Jean and Cyclops end the round, with Jean KOing a Joker Goon with her normal attack, and Cyclops avoiding a swipe to hop down and target two Joker Goons and Harley (on height) with his optic blast. He fries the goons, but Harley flips away unharmed.
Round 2: Initiative X-Men. It’s on now! Prof X. activates Jean and Cyclops. Jean fails at everything she tries to do. Cyclops lines up a big Optic Blast that puts 1 wound on Zsasz, 1 wound on Deadpool, 2 wounds on poor Chucky who didn’t need to be targeted to be hit, and 2 wounds on Joker.
Joker Goons go, hitting Cyclops from height for two more wounds. Then they activate Zsasz, who blanks on his attempt to kill Cyclops. Then the final Joker Goon sacrifices himself so Zsasz can go again, but Zsasz whiffs again! The Kill Count stays at zero.
Prof X rinses and repeats. Jean throws Harley into Cyclops’ line of fire, wounding Harley once, then fails to hit Joker from range. Zsasz is out of the firing line but Cyclops still has plenty of targets. He rolls 4 skulls, which hit for 1 Wound on Deadpool, no wounds on Harley, kills Chucky before he could get into action, and puts 2 wounds on Joker. Luckily for Chucky, Play Dead saves him from taking any of those wounds and Harley’s Acrobatic Maneuver (which triggered after the attack, so I ruled Chucky was still actually attacked, though it’s a tad confusing) combined with Barbie Mode pulled Chucky out of the firing line and adjacent to Cyclops.
Zsasz circles Cyclops to make Child’s Play relevant and attacks. However, he straight up kills Cyclops with his attack, so Child’s Play doesn’t trigger. Harley is halted by Psionic Grip, then throws her Smilex Bomb at Jean (she had a good cluster of targets elsewhere, but Psychic Defense X would’ve cancelled it on a decent roll). Unfortunately, she blanks on six dice for the bomb!
Prof X. has Jean toss and wound Harley again, then fail to wound Harley on a normal attack (Harley flips away one space). Beast engages Deadpool and fails to wound him.
Joker can’t wound Beast from height, then Harley can’t wound Jean.
Prof X. has Jean try and fail to toss Harley, but Jean’s attack comes through when Harley whiffs on defense and Harley falls. Beast can’t hit Deadpool, but finishes Joker. Deadpool heals a wound at the end of the round.
Round 3: Initiative ICP. Zsasz circles around to be adjacent to Beast and Chucky and hits Beast for a wound. Child’s Play triggers for the first time and with the Psychopath bonus hits 16 exactly (so close!). Zsasz attacks again and wounds Beast a second time. Child’s Play, with the bonus, is a 7, and just misses wounding Zsasz.
Prof X. goes Jean and Beast again, with Beast putting 2 wounds on Deadpool and whiffing on Zsasz. Jean can’t throw or hit Deadpool.
Deadpool goes, moving zero spaces to reposition Chucky with Barbie Mode to be adjacent to both Beast and Jean, slices Beast to get him down to 1 Life, and then Child’s Play just hits for 17 with the Psycho bonus and finishes off Beast! Then Deadpool shoots and hits Jean for one wound and Child’s Play hits a natural 18 to put on a second wound. Deadpool heals back up to 3 Life.
Jean tries and fails to throw Chucky, whose engagement is keeping Deadpool shielded for now. Then she attacks Chucky, gets enough damage to kill Chucky, but Play Dead saves him from any wounds again. Iceman moves up and hits Deadpool for a third and fourth wound with a special attack, but can’t roll high enough to steal an OM.
Zsasz can’t move thanks to Psionic Grip and is rendered useless (wish I’d had that one on Deadpool!).
Jean fails to throw Chucky and fails to hit him with her attack. Iceman KO’s Deadpool.
Round 4: Initiative X-Men. Iceman puts one wound on Zsasz and can’t steal an OM. Jean fails her throw on Chucky and her attack would’ve killed him but Play Dead again converts two wounds into none.
Chucky activates, moves to even height with Jean, and hits her for a wound with his normal attack. Then he rolls a 10, one off from finishing her with Child’s Play. Jean fails to throw Chucky, but does kill him again. He’s just playing, though, but finally takes a wound this way, putting him down to 1 Life. Iceman puts a third wound on Zsasz.
Zsasz kills Jean, getting his second Tally Marker, then hits Iceman for one wound. Then Angel swoops in and saves Iceman.
Prof X. has Angel try and fail to finish Zsasz from height, then Iceman succeeds in putting down the Psychopath. It’s down to Angel, Prof. X, and Iceman versus Chucky and Mad Hatter.
Hatter finishes the round, but can’t make it to engagement.
Round 5: Initiative X-Men. Angel can’t hit Chucky, but Iceman does, and Play Dead rolls another skull. Chucky finally is finished. Chucky had OM1, so Prof X’s crew goes again. Angel hits Hatter for two wounds and Iceman finishes Hatter before he can do a thing.
Unit Summary: I didn’t get my value back for several of the Insane posse here, most notably Joker, Deadpool, and Mad Hatter. I definitely did for Chucky. He felt like the hardest to kill of the bunch and a relevant piece of the offense with his auto-wound power. If I’d played one of the Psychopaths more as a shark with Chucky in tow (probably Deadpool) rather than mixing and matching so much, I think it would’ve worked out better. The X-Men were just more cohesive here.
- Damage Done (Normal Attack): Jean Grey (1 Wound).
- Barbie Mode: Useful for passive travel. Its defensive effects were completely nullified here by Optic Blast. Harley used it along with Acrobatic Maneuver to reposition Chucky mid attack at one point, but since it was an AOE that had already been rolled, I ruled he still had to defend it. Barbie Mode was very useful in preventing him from taking Whirlwind attacks from Beast when he was adjacent to try to use Child’s Play.
- Child’s Play: Used (x5), Wounded allies (x0), Nothing happened (x3), Wounded enemy (x2) (1 Wound on Beast, 1 Wound on Jean)
- Play Dead: Saved him from 2 wounds and death in Round 2, and 2 wounds and death in Round 3, and 2 wounds and death in Round 4, then 1 of 2 wounds and death in Round 4, couldn’t save him in Round 5.
- Damage Taken: Falls in Round 5.
Who won? List figures remaining in the winning army (include life remaining for heroes): Professor X and Angel each with Full Life and Iceman with 3 Life.