HelmAverse Supers - Reinforcements Arrive

[A3n]

Umm, are you really adding the descriptive title to his name?

[Matt Helm]

I'm guessing that you are not a fan of the descriptive title approach.

Normally, I wouldn't be either but my kids and I talked about the historical (or more like legendary) name of Merlin (the Magician) and his Camelot roots. When we read the name, we think of wizards with conical hats and magic wands.

In addition, Merlyn of the DC world has gone by many names including the Dark Archer (ironically, he too goes by Merlyn the Magician and his identity is Arthur King... kind of early age comic silliness).

Anyway, it wouldn't be new ground as Heroscape has plenty of similar cards such as:

Official Valhalla - "Raelin the Kyrie Warrior" and "Thorgrim the Viking Champion"
Official Marvel - "Incredible Hulk"
HelmAverse Supers - "Mighty Thor" (in fact, the name Thor is very similar in its historical significance and why I went with the adjective)
HelmAverse Havokscape - "Colossor the Dim" and "Stalwart the Forge" (both of which were lifted straight from the Battleball box and rulebook by the way)

That was our thinking when we discussed his name (we don't use secret identities on the cards) and the need to have it stand out as a definitive character separate from any other Merlyn/Merlin named cards.

Since I'll never get to any Knights of the Roundtable in the HelmAverse, I can be convinced to lose it, but I'm not sure I'm there yet.

Any thoughts on your aversion to it?

[Matt Helm]

While I await A3n's opinion on the descriptive name for "Merlyn The Dark Archer" and before I post my updates to Joker and Robin (coming soon for both), I wanted to throw out another Avenger.

I think he doesn't need to be complicated and is more or less just a flying muscle man. With that said, I've designed a sort of gambling unit for those who want a little drama (or Hollywood) in their games. And yes, I know that "1 less..." is not grammatically correct and it should be "1 fewer..." but Heroscape (as well as some other games rules I found on the internet) has already set the precedent to use the "less" language incorrectly. I consider it game "slang".

------------------------------------------------
WONDER MAN



HUMAN
UNIQUE HERO
ADVENTURER
ARROGANT
MEDIUM 5

LIFE: 6
MOVE: 5
RANGE: 1
ATTACK: 6
DEFENSE: 7

POINTS: 270

CONFIDENCE LEVEL
When Wonder Man attacks a figure that he was not engaged with at the start of his turn, before rolling attack dice, roll the 20-sided die.
If you roll a 1-4, roll 1 less attack die.
If you roll a 5-12, roll attack dice normally.
If you roll 13 or higher, roll 2 additional attack dice.

FLYING
When counting spaces for Wonder Man’s movement, ignore elevations. Wonder Man may fly over water without stopping, pass over figures without becoming engaged, and fly over obstacles such as ruins. When Wonder Man starts to fly, if he is engaged he will take any leaving engagement attacks.

SUPERSTRENGTH

[chas]

These are some very interesting cards! Do you think more 'movie version' cards will come out after the next Avengers film, when we see how they roll?

[Sherman Davies]

Originally Posted by Matt Helm

And yes, I know that "1 less..." is not grammatically correct and it should be "1 fewer..." but Heroscape (as well as some other games rules I found on the internet) has already set the precedent to use the "less" language incorrectly. I consider it game "slang".

Actually, "less" is correct usage here because you're referring to a singular, not a plural (in this case, one die). "Fewer" is used when referring to plural people and things that can be counted - fewer cars on the road, fewer cookies in the jar, etc...

[Matt Helm]

@Sherman Davies - I thank you for the grammar lesson and the support. When I looked into it further, I found that much of the choice between less and fewer is also pure personal preference of the user. The history of the language supports that the speaker/writer really could use the term they most prefer. I'm a less man through and through.
@chas - It's interesting that you use the word "interesting"when describing the cards. I could totally see a blind date being describe on both ends of the spectrum whether you say "I found her very interesting" or "she's an interesting looking girl". I think the word interesting can be categorized with "nice" and "terrific" in that depending on the inflection in your voice, it may have different meaning.

I'm just teasing you, I'll take it as a compliment. As for releasing updated versions after the movie, that's not usually my style. I like one all encompassing version for each costume. In my world it should be generic enough to play like the comic, the cartoon, the movie, the TV show or the general non-comic fan's general knowledge of our modern day mythos.

I'm not saying it can't happen though as I do have two kids in the house who may fall in love with an aspect of the movie versions and then beg me to tweak my designs. We'll have to wait and see.

[Matt Helm]

I let the boys test drive a few of the new designs last night and for the most part, they had a ball. Helm, Jr. complained a bit about balance because he lost both games but considering I made them swap teams between games, I'm not sure how he came to that conclusion.

Helm, Jr started with:
- Wonder Man
- Quicksilver
- Merlyn The Dark Archer

Lil'Hem started with:
- Ultron
- Scarlet Witch
- Beast

Yes, I said Beast. He's not yet posted here but I think he may be ready to go so we let him join in the Helmdeer Games.

Ultron ended up being the focus obviously and proved to be swingy but not dominant. Lil' Helm rolled a 20 on his first Mind control of the Game and took over Quicksilver who had made the mistake of coming in too close. Helm. Jr had been firing arrows at Ultron from afar hoping to get a Kill Shot (may rename that) but couldn't really hurt him.

Lil'Helm immediately used his new Quicksilver to the fullest and ran him on a suicide mission to engage Merln and negate his range. After inflicting a few wounds, Merlyn ended up taking down his former ally with a perfectly timed Kill Shot.

Meanwhile, Lil' Helm was trying to maneuver Scarlet Witch to help Ultron but it was hard to catch her up to a flier. By the time she got in to help on die rolls, Wonder Man was in Ultron's face and dealing him damage.

Together though, Ultron and Scarlet Witch did put a few wounds on Wonder Man while Beast put the finishing hits on Merlyn and then kept into the fray behind Wonder Man. After Wondy took down Ultron, Beast got revenge on Wonder Man and won the game for Lil' Helm.

Switching sides in game 2, Helm, Jr. charged forward with Ulton and Scarlet Witch while leaving Beast behind for later. He went full forward with attempting Mind Control on wonder Man to swing the power on his side. While focusing on that, Wonder Man, Quicksilver and Merlyn were able to wound Ultron pretty good.

Helm, Jr though he had the came in the bag when he finally mind controlled Wonder Man (who only had one wound). In doing so, though he had run Ultron down to 1 Life left as he was using Scarlet Witch to aid his Mind Control rolls rather than helping defend Quicksilvers Hyperstrike.

At one point he stared at his missed roll and was debating what to do about rolling it again (due to Wanda's power) or waiting for a defensive re-roll since Quicksilver was set to go one more time before the round ended.

He listened to me and did not try Mind Control again. Then when Quicksilver hit his Hyperstrike with a 15, Scarlet Witch made him re-roll only to see a 16 work anyway. Ultron was dead, Wonder Man went back to Lil'Helm and Scarlet Witch was a dead duck in the following round before Beast could come help.

Helm, Jr. conceded the game but was upset because I had convinced him to play the odds. To satisfy him I reset to that point and he rolled a 20 to Mind Control Quicksilver. He now had everyone but Merlyn so he tried to flee with Ultron and let the rest of his team chase down Merlyn. In an amazing move, Merlyn jumped off an overpass into some water and took a long range 3 die shot at a weakened Ultron. He amazingly hit the three skulls for the Kill shot and flipped the game in an instant. Wonder Man (with only one wound) and Quicksilver were back... and the game was in his hands. If he had missed that last roll, Helm, Jr had the easy win.

Overall both Ultron and Merlyn are very swing characters while Wonder Man and Beast were straight forward and consistent. Scarlet Witch was real fun to watch as she was totally about strategy, placement, and timing the odds. She played exactly how I had hoped (as did Quciksilver who was not quite as annoying to defend against as Flash but had some similar challenges due to his speed and second attack like strike).

The final analysis was that Ultron should probably concentrate on trying to Mind Control weaker figures so that he can throw them at the enemy and let the wounds fly. When he Mind Controls a powerful character with a lot of Life left, the opponent focusses all attacks on Ultron to get that big figure back. The bigger the Mind Controlled victim, the big the target Ultron puts on his own back.

In the end, Helm, Jr. was not happy with the luck factors as it worked against him in both games. Lil'Helm of course loved every minute of it. Both said they would happily draft any one of them again in our master games so I guess that is a good start.

I do need to add Superstrength to Ultron and post the stats for Beast so hopefully I'll get to that soon.

[Sherman Davies]

Sounds like a good time was had by all. You really need to organize a Helmaverse game day for the Long Island crew one of these days; we played a mixed Shermanverse/Classic scenario this past Saturday that was a blast. It initially was just supposed to be myself, @acefrehley , @Sir Dendrik and @Taeblewalker (Grishnakh was away at a convention so had to skip this month's meeting), but the unexpected addition of Sir Dendrik's fiancee, not to mention a friend of @Grishnakh who brought along his two boys, turned a four-player scenario into a six-player extravaganza with me sitting out as game master. If I'd known the Helm clan was in a Heroscape mood this past weekend I would've called you in and we could've had eight or ten-player madness!

[Matt Helm]

One of these days, Sherman, one of these days. It would be nice to have some new folks take a stroll through the HelmAverse for a change.

Sounds like you guys did have fun in your universe and I would expect nothing else. Still remember how gracious you were to let Helm, Jr slide into your spot the last time we came by. You are an awesome game master, my friend.

[Matt Helm]

Played another quick 3 way battle last night and I was very pleased with how the units worked. It's tough to judge costing when playing with 3 because players team up against whomever is winning so the games usual play evenly regardless of the teams.

Helm, Jr tried a tough to kill healing type team with Luke Cage, Wolverine, Deadpool and Sabretooth.

Lil'Helm wanted thumpers and took Superman, Wonder Man (proto type) and Hellboy.

Mr. Helm went with Team Evil = Ultron, Super Skrull and Grundy.

It wan't even close most of the way and for first time in forever, Mr. Helm took his boys to school. They teamed up on Ultron at first but I used Grundy to look up some engagement and they made the mistake of confronting each other far away from Ultron so he survived most of the early fray with half his life.

From there, Grundy took out Hellboy but Luke Cage finished off Grundy and I loved the way the three of them played against each other. It was a little rock, paper scissor action with Hellboy getting some bad rolls.

Eventually, Superman took down Sabretooth but then got bested by Wolverine. Ultron put down Deadpool and then miraculously Mind Controlled Wonder Man (who he purposely wan't attacking.

Wonder Man then went on to go pound for pound with Wolverine who barely came out on top due to better rolls. He was barely alive when Super Skrull Coil Wrapped him and finished the job. By the time Luke Cage came over, Super Skrull did the same to him and ended the game along side a 4 Life remaining Ultron.

If Wonder Man didn't come under Ultron's power, the outcome would have been a lot closer and could have gone to anyone.

[Matt Helm]

Geesh, I hate a triple post but I do want to take a moment and request a Superstrength symbol get added to Ultron. I fear that his font size will shrink significantly but hopefully the now powered A3n can make it work:



Please add Superstrength symbol.

[A3n]

Ultron updated.
Merlyn added.