[davidlhsl]

I have enough time during lunch break to knock out a disclaimer and guilty confession: I grew up more with Mad Magazine and Star Wars than I did with comic books. I did borrow some Fantastic Four comics from a friend, but I’m completely unfamiliar with the X-Men. In drafting the C3G team, I didn’t even know the “good guys” from the “bad guys.” So you’ll probably notice, if you haven’t already, that the characters I describe might not fit their actual personalities that are familiar to you.

You may also notice during the report that I may misinterpret a special ability or two (or seventeen). For example, I just noticed that the Invisible Woman doesn’t have any hit zones and that her Team Force Field only applies to normal attacks. That didn’t affect results of the preceding battle, as she was knocked out in melee combat. If you do notice something that I’m playing incorrectly, please point out these mistakes. If a newcomer reads the report, he or she may use it as an example for how to play the game. I used to play Avalon Hill wargames all the time in my twenties, so it’s humbling to struggle sometimes with the interpretation of some of these units (not just SuperHeroscape, but the entire series) now that I’m in my mid-40s.

I do have an overall narrative that I want to pursue with these reports, but I’ve planned the narrative in such a way that it isn’t dependent on the outcome of any of these battles. If I modify or change the results of the battles, then this wouldn’t be a true battle report. So I will play both sides to the best of their, and my, abilities; and I will strive to be fair to both sides during the battle. I have a method of making random decisions, such as which order markers to remove and which glyphs to place.

I’m looking forward to bringing you the report; which will likely span several days due to my desire for a fuller, and hopefully more entertaining, narrative. But before we begin, the Fantastic Four are on the way to the Flash Fire battlefield. That is where we will pick up when we continue…