SuperHeroScape™: SHIELD and Skrulls 10/8

[NecroBlade]

Originally Posted by Tornado

Cool. Is Negotiation mandatory?
I think it needs a may in there if not.

Nah, rather than writing "you may" over and over again, I found it easier to treat all powers as optional unless there's a must. You'll notice there is a "may" in Tumbling Assault, though, but that's just because it's grammatically necessary.

Originally Posted by Matt Helm

I know you a different writing style than I do but would this help:

Negotiation
Before moving, you may reveal the "X" Order Marker on this card and choose an enemy figure adjacent to Beast. The player controlling the chosen figure must remove the unrevealed Order Marker with the lowest numerical value from that figure's card.

Now that I read this wording I do think mine would benefit from swapping the order of the reveal and choose. Thanks!

===============

I missed my normal weekly window, but here are the next two Heroes of Wave 1:

Bullseye



Small updates on aesthetics and wording. Sharpshooter got leveled up to Expert Marksman. The auto-kill portion remains the same, but now there's an added 60% chance for a wound (70% total to kill a Squad figure). Points stayed the same since his powers still overlap, trading threat range (5M+7R=12 vs 10) and brute force wounding for finesse to get around some defenses (Advanced Armor for example) and the high roll, but it does make him a little more well-wounded against swarms.


Doctor Octopus



Bigger changes here. Climb and Claw remain, but Throw rolls got tweaked back to Jotun's official numbers (14/11). More importantly, Telescopic Tentacles is now a Special Attack, with the same Reach-like restrictions. It's not as powerful, but also doesn't weaken as he gets wounded. Speaking of wounds, his 5L/5D is what he always would've been if I hadn't adjusted to mimic the Hydra before. Since he's a little less punchy, I dropped his points by 20.

[NecroBlade]

Moving right along...

Human Torch


Dropped Move, Range and the Attack of Supernova by 1. Also simplified the attack because "once per round" is already enough of a limit. Simplified Flame On! as well, because it felt silly to have a second roll after the passing swipe roll. This does improve the power, too, since any failed attempt against him hits the swiper* automatically. Oh, and he's Rebellious instead of Arrogant, though he keeps the points ending in 5, dropping 10 points in total. Not 100% sure he wasn't pulled back a little too far comparatively, but in exchange for the -1 Move, Range, and special attack he gained flexibility with the SA and better disengaging.


Invisible Woman


Invisible Shield, now Force Field, works with non-Teammates now and also 10% better with Teammates. While her grey hit zone (not pictured) and Stealth Flying helped, her stats were still pretty middle-of-the-road and now she has a stronger presence with her unique power. Also went up 10 points (keeping the F4 on balance so far).

*

Spoiler Alert!

[NecroBlade]

Punisher



Here's a different take on the Punisher. I think I'll still go back to the "punishment" version, but here's one that's more one man army, less punishment. He gains a special attack and the white marker is armor instead. It's a little more straightforward and less unique. Dropped his points by 5 for this version, which can't get the stat boosts.


Sandman



A lot happened here. Finding a way to represent his invulnerability without overshadowing other healers was tricky. He kept some kind of weakness to water, since it adds a tactical dimension. Instead of -2D, it's -1A/-1D in part because of his stat changes (+1L, +1A, -1D), and the timing also changed. Previously, unless he was stuck in the middle of a giant pond or Doc Ock had him 'clawed, he wasn't ever taking damage that way. Now he can be knocked back or otherwise moved into it to really capitalize on his negative element. Sand Body is a bit more versatile, and again now boosts both stats. Healing is a little slower (but again, versatile) and he has another defensive power. I may try to work Reach back in there (so he has it only on land/sand spaces) if I can get the wording right (especially because it would match the art ). Finally, Shifting Sand really boosts his toughness. It's sort of double shields against attacks, but protects from other damage as well. Water plays a part here, too. With new offensive and defensive potential, he shot up 60 points.

[Tornado]

I would like Kevlar better if it were may.

[NecroBlade]

Originally Posted by NecroBlade

Nah, rather than writing "you may" over and over again, I found it easier to treat all powers as optional unless there's a must.

Originally Posted by Tornado

I would like Kevlar better if it were may.

It is.

[Tornado]

Ahh, yes forgot. Nice.

[NecroBlade]

Super Skrull here gained a base Range of 4 and lost the Fireball SA. Rock Wall also became your normal Tough. Both changes were part of trying to keep him aligned more or less evenly with "minor" versions of the F4 and their powers.

• Human Torch: Flying shared with Invisible Woman and threat range (6M/4R) shared with Mister Fantastic.
• Invisible Woman: Flying shared with Human Torch and head-only hit zone (like Zombies of Morindan; not pictured on the card yet)
• Mister Fantastic: Elastic Wrap and threat range shared with Human Torch
• Thing: Tough and toughness (6A/D/L; see also below)

Points stayed the same since changes were mostly lateral moves. Tough works against ranged attacks, but is probably slightly weaker against melee. He can't multi-attack any more, but can throw 6 (7 with height) at range now.




While Super Skrull lost a power, Thing gained one. And an Attack die. his points went up 60 as a result.

That (elastic) wraps up Wave 1 and all of the officially known figures (again)! Join me next time when I dive into the revamped Wave 2 heroes.

[Tornado]

I really like your Super Skrull. Very Matt Helm.
Love the idea of the hit zone, though I would go so far as having none instead of just his head though I dig anything that is a nod to the Zombies.
In Elastic Wrap, could 'Adjacent enemy' be swapped for 'Engaged'?
Good stuff.

[NecroBlade]

Originally Posted by Tornado

I really like your Super Skrull. Very Matt Helm.
Love the idea of the hit zone, though I would go so far as having none instead of just his head though I dig anything that is a nod to the Zombies.
In Elastic Wrap, could 'Adjacent enemy' be swapped for 'Engaged'?
Good stuff.

MH was certainly one of the influences there. I borrowed the head hit zone so it's a weaker version of Invisible Woman's whole grey zone. I'll definitely take that word shortening into consideration, thanks!

===============

And now the Wave 2 reboot! Starting with a couple classic foes.



Daredevil kept his Radar Sense and most of his stats. His ranged attack got rolled into the basic stats, which gave him room for another power, plus a new once since they're relatively niche. Blind Justice gives him extra utility against a handful of enemies within the first 50 and a few more beyond. Hear them Coming makes it hard for enemies to hide from him (including the aforementioned grey hit zones!). Although he went up 40 points and now matches Spidey, he's out of his shadow a little bit on thematic differences and having a full normal ranged attack in place of being quite so dodgy.




Almost the same before. Dropped a defense and 20 points. I went back and forth on removing Criminals and adding Mercenaries to Contract Hit, but in the end it didn't make sense in light of Daredevil and general Criminal/Crime Lord synergies. So I simply added Mercenaries instead, and layered Criminal synergy will just be what it will be. Similar to Daredevil, there are a few units affected in the first 50, but Kingpin's options expand to well over two dozen beyond that.

[NecroBlade]

Loki now has Range 5 for magical attacks. His Move lowered to 5 since he has more threat range, though he can still Teleport instead. Trickster God is the same (except the name) as before. Mind Exchange is gone in favor of Shapeshift Mischief, representing Loki's illusions and tricking enemies into attacking each other. He went up 60 points, mainly due to the big ranged attack. Oh, and neither he nor Thor are Warriors any more, now he's a Mastermind.




Thor is a Champion. but he hasn't changed too much besides that. Lightning Strike has less chance of hitting and only does one wound at a time, but now it has the potential to hit a lot more figures. Add 20 points for even more one-man-army status. Coincidentally, these brothers pair up to make a 700-point (695 thanks to Loki) team.

[NecroBlade]

New version of Magneto drops 1 Defense and costs 20 points more in favor of increasing his MoM range (both targeting and moving) to 5 and adding 5% to his first roll. So a little more offense, a little less defense, that's it.




Now a Leader instead of a Queen (though I do like weird bonding synergies, so maybe I'll pretend she still is for Crypt Guardians ). Storm's Range (normal) also increased from 4 to 5. Between that and changing Gale Force Winds (which had ridiculous reach in its previous version), her goal is to kite and drop lightning on everyone. And she should because she's relatively fragile. Speaking of Lightning Storm, it got minor buffs against Robots and figures on water (like Thor's lightning). She'll have to duke it out with other Ranged figures, but GFW can mess up movement for masses of melee opponents.

[NecroBlade]

The previous Mandarin had all the ring powers on his card; this time he joins the Glyph party (in the spoiler below). Electromagnetic Rings will let you move Mandarin now, but you have to roll for other figures, and only moves 2 spaces instead of 5 (like previous Storm's Gale Force Winds, it turns out moving more than a couple spaces is a bit too powerful). Energy Rings also get shuffled, having lost its "before moving" timing to Electromagnetic. Although they reach a bit farther and the roll is just lower, they replace Mandarin's attack, cutting down on is offense somewhat. Matter Manipulation Rings stayed the same. Finally, Mento-Intensifier Ring changed from a ranged Mindshackle to Mind Exchange (with the matching timing change), so it has less long-term impact, but more immediate benefit. Overall, Mandarin retains a lot of utility, but managed to go down 20 points. Oh, and because of Glyph rules, don't forget when he dies you only get to leave one ring Glyph behind (the rest are destroyed). Choose wisely. On a related note, that's an interesting side effect of the Infinity Gauntlet I didn't mention: since the Gems are placed on the Gauntlet, they stay with it, as they're not dropped separately and therefore subject to the one-per-space rule.

Spoiler Alert!

Just the one new Hero for today, since it's actually 5 cards to digest.