C3G Faction Strategy Guides

[Arch-vile]

We thought it'd be a fun idea to write some strategy guides for the various C3G factions for those unfamiliar with the many different factions out there. We have a few written up in Sanctum, so we'll post one every so often so there can be some discussion around each one. I hope these encourage everyone to try out a faction they haven't tried yet, or try out an old favorite again! Let us know what you think.


Faction Strategy Guides:

• Avengers
• Bat-Family
• Crime Syndicate
• Defenders / Heroes For Hire
• Dragon Ball Z
• Fantastic 4
• Flash Family / Team Flash
• Injustice League
• Justice League
• Justice Society
• Lanterns:
  • Black Lanterns
  • Green Lanterns
  • New Guardians (Lanterns of all the Corps)
  • Orange Lanterns
  • Red Lanterns
  • Yellow Lanterns
• Outsiders
• Rogues
• Sinister Six
• Slashers
• Spider-Verse
• Suicide Squad
• Superman Family
• Teen Titans
• Thunderbolts
• X-Men
• Xenomorphs
• Young Justice

[Arch-vile]

Black Lanterns Faction Strategy

Overview
The Black Lanterns are a unique Lantern corps, as they are the only corps to start off with their battery markers uncharged (for most members), though they have the ability to recharge those batteries throughout the game. Because of this, Black Lanterns tend to have a bit of a steamroller type effect - whether they win or lose, it's typically by a landslide.

Black Lanterns rely on having battery markers to use their special powers and save them from death, and they get those battery markers by killing enemies. Strategically going after weak targets to recharge your markers rather than going after the biggest threat on the board is usually a good strategy with the Black Lanterns.

Important Black Lanterns

• Guardian of the Universe (Scar) (300) - Scar is an essential part of the faction, as she boosts the Black Lanterns' Attack and d20 rolls. If you're using the uncommon Black Lanterns, it's often a good idea to use The Black Lantern Corps to put a few battery markers on your Black Lanterns for the first several turns of the game. That can give them enough survivability to start killing things on their own, thus recharging their own markers. Scar can also kill things to recharge your Black Lanterns without a d20 roll, which can be very effective if your opponent has some nearly-dead figures nearby.
• Black Lantern (Uncommon) (175) - The bread and butter of the faction, the uncommon Black Lanterns do nothing particularly well but are cheap for the faction and quite durable with battery markers. They're slow but can swarm and get two attacks per turn. Never send these guys out uncharged! Send out Black Hand first to get some kills or charge their batteries up with Scar first.
• Black Lantern (William Hand) (475) - Black Hand is a big expensive beat stick, and the only Black Lantern that starts the game with his battery markers fully charged. You'll want to send him out first to charge the rest of your corps. His Black Hand power is a nifty source of autowounds for the more dodgy figures out there.
• Black Lantern (Crispus Allen) (525) - Spectre is a powerhouse, with crazy durability and insane movement potential with Haunting. Use him to get close to an opponent's leader that would usually be safe in the start zone, and kill them. Gaze of Death is an extremely powerful defensive power. Using your other Black Lanterns to kill figures and charge up Spectre's battery markers means you have a reliable source of autowounds and turn disruption.
• Black Lantern (Ronnie Raymond) (350) - Firestorm plays similarly to the uncommon Black Lanterns, in that he needs to be charged up before sending him out to fight enemies. Once he's charged up, Firestorm can lay down a ton of autowounds or multi-attacks with the combination of Deathstorm Matrix and Black Ring Rampage.
• Nekron (1300) - While he has no necessary synergy with the Black Lanterns (Nekron is an army all by himself!), it felt right to discuss Nekron's strategy here. Nekron can grant all Black Lanterns the ability to remove a black battery marker to save themselves from death - especially handy for the fragile Black Lantern (Ronnie Raymond). Nekron's playstyle is typically going to be sniping with his long range and using Black Lightning Special Attack when figures get close. Use Death Incarnate for autowounds against particularly nasty opponents, otherwise save your battery markers as extra life for Nekron.

Army Build Examples:

1000 Points

• Guardian of the Universe (Scar), Black Lantern (Uncommon) x4
• Guardian of the Universe (Scar), Black Lantern (Ronnie Raymond), Black Lantern (Uncommon) x2
• Black Lantern (William Hand), Black Lantern (Uncommon) x3
• Black Lantern (William Hand), Black Lantern (Crispus Allen)

1300 Points

• Guardian of the Universe (Scar), Black Lantern (William Hand), Black Lantern (Uncommon) x3
• Guardian of the Universe (Scar), Black Lantern (William Hand), Black Lantern (Crispus Allen)
• Nekron

Black Lanterns by point total:

Spoiler Alert!

175 - Black Lantern (Uncommon)
300 - Guardian of the Universe (Scar)
350 - Black Lantern (Ronnie Raymond)
475 - Black Lantern (William Hand)
525 - Black Lantern (Crispus Allen)
1300 - Nekron

[Yodaking]

Great ideas here Arch. I don't expect it to be anytime soon, but I'll try to contribute something at some point.

[FreshFoods]

Really pumped to see this thread get started! This goes pretty hand in hand with my unit strategy thread, I'd love to contribute to this one sometime.

---

Black Lanterns are pretty interesting among the Lanterns, they're a SUPER feast or famine faction from my experience. I've run the Scar + Ronnie + 2x Uncommon build, and I spent all of round 1 using Scar to place markers on my other 3 figures. I gave up some ground sure, but once the lanterns started rolling they could fly up and tear someone apart. Ronnie is really fragile for his price, so you generally have to accept that he's probably going to die at some point ; you just want to make sure you've crippled your opponent more before that happens.

[IAmBatman]

This is also a great place for folks to post requests for guides! If there's a faction y'all want to know better but don't really understand, let us know, and you can probably convince one of us to write something up (or at least chat about it)!

I know a lot more of these will be dropping in the near future as some of the factions we've been working on make their way to the public, so stay tuned!

[Ericth74]

I'd be interested in seeing something about the Teen Titans and the Thundebolts.

I've played the Titans a few times but have always gotten crushed, I'm sure I played them wrong.

Thunderbolts look interesting but there's a lot going on, I haven't figured out their dance steps yet.

[Ronin]

I'll try and write something up for the Thunderbolts this weekend.

[Ericth74]

That would be great, thanks!

Originally Posted by Ronin

I'll try and write something up for the Thunderbolts this weekend.

[IAmBatman]

I will say at least that for the Titans the key pieces are Nightwing, Raven, Starfire, and Superboy (Kon-El) with Changeling and Arsenal being of secondary importance.

Nightwing is the leader. Round one you usually want the 3 and the X on him to Titans Go when you're in range to attack or set up for next round's attack. After that, you want 1 and X on him to try to hit as hard as you can at the start of the round.

Raven mostly wants to stay nearby Nightwing and Starfire to move wounds off of them (not too many at once!) and transfer them to the enemy.

Starfire is the priority target for the opponent, so screen her, protect her, and hold her back. Your goal is use her as the offensive engine of the army, triggering off of wounds on others, which means others need to be wounded before she gets in the mix.

Superboy is there to protect Starfire primarily but also Nightwing and Raven if she's close to death. Try to keep him unengaged so he can turn whatever wounds the other Titans take into single wounds on him (which Raven can then absorb and transfer to the enemy, or which Starfire can play off of to attack).

Changeling is a nice piece in that he has a high life for a low cost, so Starfire usually has more multi-attack opportunities with him around. He also has a diverse tool set for attacking the enemy.

Arsenal helps with bonus movements and activations. Ideally he sets things up so Starfire stays safe, Superboy stays out of engagement, everyone stays in range for Titans Go, and Arsenal gets a extra attack off for each of your player turns.

A sub-faction of Young Justice stuff should be out later this year that really adds to and expands what the Titans do and they have a lot of neat other pieces of course (I like Tempest as an auto-wounder and Magical Defense figure to combo well with Raven, for instance, and Aqualad, Kid Flash (Wally), and Speedy (Roy) all have synergies worth considering). But the above is the basics at least.

[Yodaking]

I also really like having Wonder Girl (140) in my Titans army. I really regretted not having her for my Con army. Figure movement is just a huge boost to the core team of Nightwing/Raven/Starfire. Your opponent bee lines for one of those 3 and you can use the lasso to pull them away.

[Ronin]

Helmut Zemo's Thunderbolts Faction Strategy

Important Links

• List of Charlatans
• List of Charlatan Synergies

Overview
Helmut Zemo's Thunderbolts can be a little tricky to pick up; they don't work off a traditional Order Marker hub, and they've got a lot of passive powers that require attention to placement to leverage. They've got a lot of tricks up their sleeves, though.

Key Synergy Pieces
These are the engines that drive the Charlatan ship. Songbird is essential in almost any Charlatan build, but Citizen V can be foregone in smaller games (<800 points or so). As the Thunderbolts are rooted in the Charlatan class, Songbird's Thunderbolt Redemption special power is necessarily not used in Thunderbolts builds. You'll find her quite worthwhile without it, though.

• Songbird (180) - Mel bonds with other Charlatans and also boosts their defense. She's no great shakes as an attacker, but a ranged attack of 4 is nothing to sneeze at either. She's best played conservatively - the enemy is probably coming to her, so don't overextend her for the sake of getting an attack in. You want to make sure you're keeping her close to the rest of the gang for the sake of her support powers anyway. Keep her in the middle or back of the group, and put her on whatever high ground (or other advantageous terrain) is available.
• Citizen V (Helmut Zemo) (190) - Zemo is the leader of the Thunderbolts, and the second-most important source of Charlatan synergy. Zemo's leadership style is limited, but comes with a bundle of tricks. His "Justice, Like Lightning..." special power lets him activate two Charlatans, instead of whatever figure you actually revealed an Order Marker on. Getting two turns once a round may not seem like outstanding leadership, but there are some significant upsides. One is that he's providing flexibility for a faction without an Order Marker hub. The second is that you're still revealing an Order Marker on the first figure. There a couple figures in-faction that can leverage this (Techno and Jolt, primarily), but it also allows him to incorporate 'guest stars' that work off of revealed Order Marker mechanics into a Charlatan build. As a f'rinstance, Captain America's stat-boosting works off of having a revealed Order Marker on his card. You can reveal an Order Marker on Captain America to boost your Avenger-Thunderbolts, then use Zemo to give two of those figures turns instead of taking the turn with Captain America. This ability to rope non-Charlatans into the build makes him helpful for building big armies around the T-Bolts. Less significantly, he also provides +/-1 to Charlatan d20 rolls, as a minor perk for the Charlatans that use the d20.
  
  Leadership aside, Zemo is packing impressive attack power, as a 5 Attack figure with Swordplay. However, he is a bit defensively fragile and leans on the other Thunderbolts to keep him alive. Using him offensively is high-risk, high-reward. You'll likely want to keep him in the back of your army at first, and only come out swinging once your army is depleted.

Important Thunderbolts

• Meteorite (210) - Karla is one of the nastiest, most disruptive figures in the game. As a ranged flier with Intangiblity, she's already solid at kiting. Manipulation is a nasty trick for killing enemy Order Markers, and Blinding Light, by denying enemy clear sight, straight up shuts off a lot of enemy special powers if they get too close to her. Nasty. A lot of enemies will target her early for this reason, needing to take her off the board in order to access their full skillsets. Make sure to keep her in range of Songbird's defense boost, and consider her positioning carefully. She's one of the Thunderbolts' best attackers, and likely to be an early target, so you may want to move her to high ground to boost her attack/defense. On the other hand, a lot of enemies will have to engage her in order to deal with her (unless they have ways of wounding her from range that don't rely on clear sight), so you may want to use her to lure enemies to low ground.
• Jolt (80) - Hallie is fragile, but a cheap auto-wounder, and also boosts the Move of other Charlatans (plus a d20 boost for Atlas and MACH-I). Her boost works off of a revealed Order Marker, so she's a decent candidate for getting Order Markers that Citizen V diverts to other Charlatans with Justice Like Lightning. She can survive in a scrap for a while, largely by virtue of not being a priority target (generally - be careful against enemies that pick on weak figures). Having her close to the action makes it much easier to sneak in an auto-wound here or there.
• MACH-I (200) - Abe offers some auto-wound potential with Support Fire, but it's not something you can count on. It does benefit from the d20 boosts that Jolt and Citizen V provide, as well as Meteorite's ability to force engagements. He's a solid normal attacker, and Evasive Flying gives him a lot of ability to choose who he goes after. He benefits from being unengaged to get Support Fire rolls, but often the value of tying someone down on the front line will be higher. His special attack is handy for providing a little movement for the other Thunderbolts and keeping their various aura effects properly layered. It also lets him move Jolt to trigger her auto-wound power.
• Atlas (270) - Erik is the big front-line brawler of the group: defensively stalwart, with a big normal attack. The main thing to keep an eye on is managing his placement to score potential Ionic Imbalance wounds. Keep him away from your own guys (but not too far away) and engage key enemy pieces with him. He's a bit slow-moving, and doesn't like LEAs, so he enjoys the movement from MACH-I's SA as well as the move boost from Jolt. Ionic Imbalance is also the most potent d20 effect for Citizen V and Jolt to boost, and the one where they're most likely to make a difference (with its multiple thresholds).
• Techno (150) - Norbert is the second-cheapest Charlatan. He's a bit of a swiss army knife. He doesn't look like a huge threat, but Reckless Engagement can beef up his Attack number if you're willing to play risky with him and let him rely on Meteorite and Songbird to stay alive. Like Jolt, he also has a good trick for interacting with Citizen V's Justice Like Lightning: you choose his Tech-Pac effects when you reveal the Order Marker on him, regardless of whether or not you take a turn with him. Most of the effects don't matter when he doesn't take a turn, but the defense subtraction does. So if he's engaged, you can dock the defense of figures he's engaged with, then use Zemo to bounce your turn to more potent attackers.
• Hawkeye (Avengers) (220) - What's this Avenger doing here? I'll have you know Clint took over leadership of the Thunderbolts after they turned on Zemo, and this guy is also perfectly suited as a fallback leader in-game. He's not a Charlatan, so he doesn't benefit from the hard Charlatan synergies that Citizen V, Songbird and Jolt provide. But he does actually work on a mechanic that's similar to Citizen V's - you can reveal your Order Marker in one place, but then take your turn with Hawkeye. Hawkeye's version is more limited in who you get the turn with (just Hawkeye), but actually a bit more generous in that the figure who got the Order Marker still gets its full turn, just not its attack. This means that Jolt and Techno's tricks that they can pull with Justice, Like Lightning still apply here. But, even better, figures still get their not-attacking tricks on their turns, and Hawkeye can cut through a lot of defensive powers the T-Bolts can't deal with on their attacks anyway. So MACH-I or Atlas could reposition on their turn (to set up placements for their passive powers) and then let Hawkeye attack. More nastily, Meteorite or Jolt could do the same thing, but they also both have offensive powers they could use on a turn they gave their attack to Hawkeye (Meteorite's Manipulation and Jolt's Hyperkinetic Blitz). Also consider that he can still replace a figure's attack on a turn they bond with Songbird, and Citizen V can use Justice Like Lightning to get around the Order Marker requirement on Hawkeye's leadership power. Hawkeye doesn't have enough Avenger Markers to go around, but he's still a solid add-on to a Thunderbolts army, providing some additional flexibility once some of your key pieces have started to drop.

Currently Charlatans don't have other options outside the core thematic group. It's a class that's looking to expand, though!

Army Build Examples:

600 Points

• Songbird, Atlas, Techno

800 Points

• Songbird, Atlas, Techno, MACH-I

900 Points

• Songbird, Atlas, Techno, Jolt, Hawkeye (Avengers)

1000 Points

• Songbird, Atlas, Techno, Meteorite, Citizen V

1200 Points

• Songbird, Atlas, Techno, Meteorite, Citizen V, MACH-I

1300 Points

• Songbird, Atlas, Techno, Meteorite, Citizen V, Jolt, Hawkeye (Avengers)
• Songbird, Atlas, MACH-I, Captain America, Citizen V, Hawkeye (Avengers)

1500 Points

• Songbird, Atlas, Techno, Meteorite, Citizen V, MACH-I, Jolt, Hawkeye (Avengers)

[japes]

This is one of my favorite small factions to play and even I picked up a couple tidbits here. Thank you for creating this one Ronin.