HelmAverse Supers - Reinforcements Arrive

[Matt Helm]

Newbie's winning on a tangible board is like when a toddler gets their first taste of apple juice. You cannot stop the sudden addiction to sugar.

After many texts/chats, and the canceling of other plans, we invited J-Strikes over to play another round of Heroscape on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. He was amazed at how different the experience could be with a change in terrain theme. This time we had a four way battle in and around a quinjet hanger. Using castle pieces on three sides and a rocky shore leading to water on the open fourth side, the structure surrounded a plastic toy quinjet (really large sight blocker). J-Strikes was impressed.

This time, Lil' Helm wanted Thanos, Ultron, Scarlet Witch and one squad of the Agents of SHIELD. Reigning champ J-Strikes decided to try out Jon Jonnz, Azrael, Wolverine and Merlyn. Yours truly fielded Namor, Iron Man, Silver Surfer and Nightcrawler. Helm, Jr. just couldn't go without Dr. Strange, his new favorite Luke Cage, Green Arrow, Red Skull and the Ninja Turtles (first time they were play-tested in such a large scale battle).

This game was crazy. J-Strikes was annoying Helm Jr. while I went after the very scary Ultron. Namor was wounded enough to bring some Imperious Rex damage to Thanos and Ultron (thanks to some switching around by Jr's Dr. Strange) but before I could heal him in water, Ultron took control and he was seemingly lost to me for the rest of the game. I then tried to rescue him by sending Iron Man after Ultron but Lil' Helm killed my IM with the traitorous Namor.

Eventually the Silver Surfer took out Ultron giving me back Namor who ran to the water to heal. Very quickly I lost the Surfer and was only left with Nightcrawler and Namor. Meanwhile Helm Jr. was tearing through some of J-Strikes team with Luke Cage who was supported by Green Arrow on high ground while the TMNT and Red Skull protecting the ladders.

Then came my first lucky streak in ages. Namor won a close one against Thanos and then ran the water to heal again. After wiping out Lil' Helm, I then surprised Helm Jr. by launching Namor from the water to crush Green Arrow. This spared J-Strikes temporarily allowing him to heal Wolverine. John Jonz and Azrael went down during some mayhem and before Power Man and Namor ended up locking horns, Nightcrawler surprised Red Skull and took him out with some amazing Bamf moves.

When most of the dust settled, Wolverine was destroyed and it was Matt vs Junior. Luke Cage took out Namor but was left with 1 life. Nightcrawler swept in and Bamf'd him out of the game leaving him and 3 turtles in the grand finally.

Unfortunately for Jr. the turtles were on a catwalk at the top of the castle wall too high to risk falling damage. One by one Nightcrawler would bamf them off the wall and take them out. With two life left Nightcrawler beat the last turtle and Big Daddy Helm was the winner for the first time in ages.

It was glorious and I should have retired. All of us were very happy with how the Turtles played and everyone wants to use them next. I ended up taking photos of them which I can send to @A3n if he still has Photoshop and is willing to make the card. If not, I completely understand.

The next day Lil' Helm fielded them in a one on one battle against me used to playtest the X-Men I've been working on forever. Wonderman and Deadpool were taken down by the beta versions of Cyclops, Jean Grey and Storm but two turtles survived for a Lil' Helm victory.

I did learn several things over the last two weeks:
1) The 3 X-men just aren't quite ready. They are close and I hope to finish them real soon.
2) Flash and Quicksilver could use a slight edit to wording, especially since my kids want me to design more speedsters
3) Lex Luthor could use a slight upgrade to make him more useful. That should be done soon, too.
4) J-Strikes is hooked. Even when he got beat pretty bad in his second game, he wants to play a whole lot more.
5) I love this game... and the Heroscaper community that helped me get into the Superscape custom world.