HelmAverse Supers - Reinforcements Arrive

[streaky2007]

Hi Matt,

I've just played my first game of Helmsverse HeroScape. I actually managed to get my wife to play with me. As per my collector-mania, I only included figures I have the official scultps for in the draft (when my orders from Troll & Toad and Strike Zone arrive, I'll own the whole set).

I played with The Thing, Batman Beyond, Hawkgirl & War Machine.
My wife played with Supergirl, The Flash, Juggernaut & Green Arrow.

We played a deathmatch on the 'Under the El' map.

Spoiler Alert!

I won initiative thanks for Batman special power and moved The Thing up the ladder. My wife moved Supergirl onto the bridge. I moved Hawkgirl up onto the bridge. She moved Supergirl again, getting adjacent to Hawkgirl and rolled 5 skulls with her normal attack. I rolled no shields and Hawkgirl was dead on turn 2 of the first round! Later in the game I also lost War Machine in one go with a charging attack from Juggernaut when he rolled 9 attack dice! Towards the end of the game, I had The Thing and Batman Beyond each with 1 life left and my wife had The Flash with 1 life left and she just beat me!

I'd just like to say that I LOVE this set of figures. No offence intended, but these are much more simplified than some of the C3G figures, and they'll get much more play with my wife and other newer players.

Also, I have all your Havokscape stuff (and more) that I hope to have a chance to try out soon.

And finally, I've been working on some more ideas for HellboyScape, but I need to find out which font Garada used and how to pull off some of the photo editing tricks (it's all very new to me).

Thanks for all your good work!

Steve

[Griffin]

Originally Posted by streaky2007

No offence intended, but these are much more simplified than some of the C3G figures, and they'll get much more play with my wife and other newer players.

I don't think that will offend anyone at C3G at all. We know that we have embraced the more complicated side of SuperFanScape where Matt has stayed much closer to the simplified version of the OfficialSuperScape. Everyone has their own preference, and anyone that is looking for a more true to the spirit of the original Marvel game is gonna really appreciate what Matt has done here. He is one of the few that has worked very hard at keeping his artistic and wildly creative side in check by sticking to the template that the official game has given us. It is great to see how each individual designer and group has its own "personality" in their products.

[Matt Helm]

Thanks for the kind words Streaky and for the test drive of the HelmAverse supers. And I certainly don't take offense to the adjective "simple" when describing my designs. I'm getting older by the day and kind of need the simple style to enjoy my gaming... and it really helps the fair play when competing with kids such as my son and my young nephews. As Griff stated, the C3G and HelmAverse are completely different niches and I hope you plan on continuing to play with both depending on your mood and your competition... just remember which one gives you a better chance of having the ladies play along .

And I still haven't abandoned the super side of our custom world. One of these days I'll finalize a few in limbo and the first one out of the box may actually be one I didn't count on.

[streaky2007]

Hi Matt,

I've just finished playing our third game of Helmsverse HeroScape with my wife. She asked to play HeroScape with me! The awesomenes of your cards cannot be overstated. I'm glad that there's a chance for more in the series. It's great that you've covered most of the teams already (we played The Defenders tonight - Hulk, Silver Surfer, Sub-Mariner & Doctor Strange vs. Abomination, Thanos, Attuma & Super Skrull). It came down to Abomination and Silver Surfer each with 1 life going head-to-head - my wife won out for the heroes meaning she's won 2 out of 3 now. Dr. Strange's "1 shield blocks all damage" is mean!

I've listed all the official cards and your cards into their respective teams and added ones I'd love to see in red. Are any of these on your list, and if not, would you consider them? PS - You rock!

FANTASTIC FOUR
Mr. Fantastic (245)
Invisible Woman (240)
Human Torch (185)
The Thing (300)
She-Hulk (230) [also Avengers]

AVENGERS
Falcon (130)
Wasp (140) [also Defenders]
Hawkeye (180) [also Defenders]
Giant Man (200)
Iron Man (240)
Thor (380)
Black Panther
Vision
Scarlet Witch
Quicksilver

DEFENDERS
Dr. Strange (250)
Namor (290) [also Invaders]
Silver Surfer (320)
Hulk (370) [also Avengers]
Nighthawk
Valkyrie
Clea
Beast [also X-Men and Avengers]

JUSTICE LEAGUE
Green Arrow (160)
Hawkgirl (210)
Flash (260)
Green Lantern (290)
Wonder Woman (300)
Martian Manhunter (310)
Superman (390)
Aquaman
Hawkman
The Atom
Firestorm

INVADERS
Captain America (220) [also Avengers]
Bucky (80)
The Torch (200)
Toro (80)
Union Jack (130)
Spitfire
Blazing Skull

BATMAN FAMILY
Batman (180) [also Justice League]
Robin (120)
Nightwing (170)
Azrael (180)
Batman Beyond (180)
Batgirl
Black Canary [also Justice League]
Catwoman
Huntress

X-MEN
Wolverine (250)
Cyclops
Jean Grey
Storm
Gambit
Rogue
Colossus

JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL
Captain Marvel (350)
Blue Beetle
Booster Gold
Captain Atom
Guy Gardner
Fire & Ice

MARVEL KNIGHTS
Spider-Man (160)
War Machine (220)
Power Man [also Fantastic Four]
Iron Fist
Ghost Rider
Daredevil
Elektra
Punisher
Black Cat

DC VILLAINS
Joker (150)
Lex Luthor (200)
Mr. Freeze (210)
Brainiac (330)
Black Adam (350)
Darkseid (370)
Doomsday
Cyborg Superman
Bizarro


plus, I'd love Iceman and Firestar, just so Spidey could hang out with his Amazing Friends.

Thanks again for everything

Steve

[Uchiha Blood]

I don't know if anyone else has had this problem, but when I downloaded your customs onto a flash drive, the image appeared to flatten out and became unreadable. However, the image size remained the same so it may print to normal size.

[A3n]

Originally Posted by Uchiha Blood

I don't know if anyone else has had this problem, but when I downloaded your customs onto a flash drive, the image appeared to flatten out and became unreadable. However, the image size remained the same so it may print to normal size.

What do you mean by flatten out? Was it any particular ones or all of them?

Cheers

[Griffin]

Apparently, Uchiha was expecting a pop-up Impossible man, but was instead, flattened by the idea of a 2 Dimensional card.

[Matt Helm]

Originally Posted by streaky2007

I've just finished playing our third game of Helmsverse HeroScape with my wife. She asked to play HeroScape with me! The awesomeness of your cards cannot be overstated. ...

... Dr. Strange's "1 shield blocks all damage" is mean!

.... PS - You rock!

I'm gushing. Your praise is much appreciated and I'm so happy to see these cards get some play... especially when they are used in a family game night.

And you don't have to tell me about Dr. Strange's power, after all , he is the Sorcerer Supreme. My son seems to always play him because he knows how easy it is to roll 1 shield. The only thing I can tell you is that Spidey and Venom work well as they pound him with web attacks and cut down on his defense dice. Otherwise, don't make the mistake I do and torture yourself with focusing on him too soon... attacking him can be a turn waster.

I love your list of additional figure suggestions and believe me wish I could fill them all out. I definitely hope to do Black Canary and I have an old card for Blazing Skull (done with Garada) that really needs some write up updating to be considered worthy of the HelmAverse.

Other figures I've started on include Black Knight, Phantom Lady, Hellboy and probably the one most likely to see daylight first, Titanium Man. Some of the others you mentioned might make it eventually but in the meantime, check out the A3n created (and fully endorsed for the HelmAverse) customs for Raven, Nightwing and Shocker. And if you check out davidlsl's battle report thread, he'll show you that a Sherman Davies custom card can usually fit in with these cards pretty easily (check out Nightcrawler).

I know I've said this before but the internet is amazing. The words get written in New York, the art is completed in Australia, and the end result gets printed and played in the UK. That's amazing.

[Uchiha Blood]

Originally Posted by A3n

What do you mean by flatten out? Was it any particular ones or all of them?

Cheers

All of them. They appeared to keep the same width, but the height was compressed to about 1/20th of the height it should be. My computer still read the image dimensions as correct, but the image didn't reflect it.

EDIT: Here's a pic

It's hard to see but in the left window, it says the image is 1023x940, however, in the right window this is not evident.

[Balantai]

Out of curiosity, Matt. Is the reason you don't have plans to make many other figures because you don't own many other figures?

[Matt Helm]

Yes, that is a major reason. I have several criteria for deciding to design a card and the availability, affordability, and quality of the mini are all huge factors.

For example, Streaky mentioned Spitfire of the Invaders as one possibility. I did have her mini and she was on my original list way back but the scale is way off and the paint job is pathetic. The mini looks real bad to me on a Heroscape board and my OCD prevents me from taking her on. I eventually decided not to rebase her and gave the mini to my son for his collection.

Other minis are either too expensive, not readily available or just plain lame. I never really saw a Jean Grey or a Cyclops that I really liked and therefore haven't even thought of tackling them. I know the Wolverine and the Sabretooth I used were both older sculpts a bit on the ugly side but the scale is right, the paint jobs are of the classic lunchbox looks and the costs were cheap enough for me to pick up quite easily.

Another factor is the unique usefulness of the character. I have no current plans to create a Quicksilver because he is essentially the Flash. Hawkman is not on my list because to me, he's already represented in Hawkgirl. When I chose to do the generic versions of the characters and purposely avoided role playing aspects of their personalities, I limited my possibilities for fringe characters.

Luckily, with Hawkeye being on a Skycycle, and the cooler Green Arrow sculpt having the three arrows, I was able to come up with both iconic characters without redundancy. I wouldn't mind doing that for Aquaman but I'm not thrilled with the available sculpts (I have the one where he is jumping out of the water) and also find him to be a more boring version of Sub-Mariner anyway.

Another dark horse factor is the spontaneous idea for a power I sometimes have. Supergirl was an example of someone I never intended on doing (because I already had Superman and Wonder Woman) but when I was staring at the mini in a comic shop near my brother's house, I suddenly got the initial idea to incorporate a Kryptonian's Super Breath based on Mimring's Special Attack with a Jotun throw element. Therefore, I bought the mini and ultimately pursued the write up.

I do have some minis sitting in a box (like Doc Oc and two versions of Storm) that may inspire me someday.... we'll see.

[Lord Pyre]

Originally Posted by Matt Helm

Other minis are either too expensive, not readily available or just plain lame. I never really saw a Jean Grey or a Cyclops that I really liked and therefore haven't even thought of tackling them. I know the Wolverine and the Sabretooth I used were both older sculpts a bit on the ugly side but the scale is right, the paint jobs are of the classic lunchbox looks and the costs were cheap enough for me to pick up quite easily.

The new Xmen set that recently came out has a GREAT looking Cyclops and Wolverine! I have them both, the Cyclops is replacing my current "Ultimate" version, but I still prefer Wolverine without the yellow costume, but the mini looks so good I might interchange them if I don't trade it off.

But yeah, the lack of a decent, cheap Jean sculpt is saddening. I was expecting one in the Xmen set, and was surprised when there wasn't.