New to the Scape - Need some advice

[Geet]

So, I picked up a copy of Marvel Scape during Thanksgiving break and after a few games absolutely fell in love with it! I have since then picked up 1 ROTV set, 1 SOTM, 3 Castles (1 too many I think, but they were only $19 each), two large figure only expansions, and a few small expansions.

Anyway, I've been playing with my friend, and he is convinced that the Marvel guys are way superior to the regular guys and he only picks them during draft. He'll occasionally grab a cheap squad if he needs to fill some points. This unfortunately has made the game somewhat boring to me, because now I am restricted to what I can draft. I have to either draft a really expensive unit or another Marvel character, or lucky die roll one shot one kill dudes like Deadeye Dan or Ne-Gok-Sa. It seems every game is the Hulk or Thanos vs. my army of specialized anti-Big Dude figures. The funny thing is that I've won every game we've played except one, yet he still continues to pick the Marvel characters. I'd just like to try out some different strategies since I'm still pretty new to the game.

Any suggestions on what I can do to add some variety to our games? I've thought about banning Marvel characters, but I do like them and will occasionally pick one of the "cheaper" ones like Spider-Man myself. I've tried doing different types of scenarios like Defend the Castle, but with all those fast moving flying Marvel guys, it's not really much different than a total elimination game.

BTW, I love the heroscapers site... I've gotten lots of good strategies off of these boards, and I've used a few maps I found here too!

[Wind Lane]

I've had it used against me, but using the Shades from wave 6 will work nicely against those Marvel figures since it lets you still them from him. Ne-Gok-Sa also does this, but it's harder to pull off, though with Su-Bak-Na you can increase your odds. You could also use Ki-Mo-Shi to steal them, and she does it better than NGS does.

Nothing says "go ahead and put all your points in one figure all you want" like a army built around stealing that lynch pin and using it against his former friends.

[Elginb]

Our house rule is that once a figure has been drafted for one game, you can't draft it again the rest of the day/evening. This forces you to use different figures and develop new tactics. Personally, I think Heroscape would lose a lot of flavor if everybody stuck to only their favorite units and didn't explore the sheer variety available.

[Wind Lane]

That's a good house rule. Keeps things fresh.

Another combo that works well on big game is the Blastatrons/Gladiatrons combo. Use the Major to get an even better lock down.

[Tiranx]

The warriors of Ashra are a good pick. In a game I played with my wife, she surrounded Thanos with them and took him out for the win. The Deathreavers that conveniently come with the Warriors of Ashra are also good at this. Just surround those big Marvel guys and make them take multiple leaving engagment hits. This wont work for Silver Sufer and as long as you dont try poke at Spider-man or Venom, they are pinned for a while. Also just to promote our Wave five figures, Crixus is really good too because he only takes one wound if he rolls shields who cares that the Hulk is rolling eleven dice if all he can hurt you is one wound.

[Geet]

Elginb, I really like your suggestion of only using a particular figure once. I think that would work out the best because that would still allow you to use your favorite guys sometimes, but force him to think of new strategies each game.

Wind Lane, I just picked up a squad of Gladiatrons at lunch today, so I'm excited about seeing what I can do with them. I've been using Deathreavers a lot to keep his dudes in place, but the Gladiatrons look like they could actually cause a few wounds themselves, not to mention their holding power seems to be much more effective. Now if I could only find some Blastatrons...

Tiranx, I never thought of Crixus! I have him, but haven't drafted him yet. He looks pretty solid, especially since he has a high attack as well.

[ej]

Have a dog? Claim your dog ate your Marvelscape figs.

[Dr. Weirdscaper]

Welcome to the site Geet.

It's always good to meet another HS player in the ATX.

The Incredible Hulk is 370 pts.
For that many points, you could get Hulk Light a.k.a. Krug,
and 6 squads of Arrow Gruts, and still have enough points
left over for a little red ninja. Arrow Gruts have
BEAST BONDING, allowing Krug to attack along with the Arrow Gruts.

Oh, and Krug gets to attack twice.

[Ted]

Well it sounds as if you have the problem well in hand but I will offer another solution. you can do a game every once and a while of just squads. if you shuck off the heros he might see how cool the squads can be and change tactics on what he is willing to play.

try to suggest differnt scenarios as well that call for smaller points. if you play a 200 point game it rules most of the power hitters out.

[aerofool]

One thing thet got my wife off of her hero binge was the fact that she was always grossly outnumbered. Especially when I play sammurai, zombies, marro or orcs.

[ullardefeatsall2]

tell him you want to play heroscape only