R1 – Toad moves out. Red Skull sends Angel to Carry Punisher to a 2 level height. Cyclops takes OM 3 off Mystique’s card and puts it on Toad’s and has Iceman move 4 spaces. Red Skull has Angel Carry Punisher to higher ground near Toad and Angel attacks with height vs. Toad but misses. Toad Stealth Leaps to height and Tongue Lashes Angel to lower ground closer to Toad’s SZ and then attacks adjacent Punisher with Caustic Phlem but whiffs. HYDRA Agents move and attack Toad with height and miss. Red Skull uses Ruthless Mastermind to move and attack Toad but he misses too.
R2 – Red Skull moves Angel 2 level height to be out of Cyc’s normal attack range and out of LOS for Optic Blast as well as being within 3 spaces of Punisher, RS and 3 Hydra Agents. Cyclops had wanted to hit Angel with Optic Blast S.A. but now moves a few spaces and has Jean Grey take a turn and she moves, fails to Throw Punisher and misses him with her normal attack. Red Skull has Punisher attack with height vs. JG with his Assault Rifle and he kills her. Cyclops moves OM from Iceman to Toad and attacks Angel from 8 spaces with his normal attack but his 3 skulls are blocked and Angel moves to height with Guardian Angel. HYDRA Agents move and 1 attacks with height vs. Toad and puts 1 wound on him, and 1 can attack Cyclops but misses. Red Skull uses RM to move and attack Toad but misses. Toad fails Tongue Lash vs. Punisher but can’t reach him now with CP, so he attacks and kills nearby HYDRA Agent.
R3 – Cyclops puts OM 3 from Mystique’s card to Iceman’s and moves I.M. 4 spaces, then Cyclops misses a HYDRA Agent with a 2/2 attack. HYDRA Agents move and 1 misses Toad, 1 attacks with height vs. Iceman and misses and 1 misses Cyclops. Red Skull uses RM to attack Toad with height with a 4 skull attack but Toad matches that with 4 shields. Toad misses Tongue Lashing Angel, but kills another HYDRA Agent with Caustic Phlem. Red Skull has Spiderman move and attack Toad with Web attack but he misses. Iceman Slides adjacent to HYDRA Agent and kills him with Deep Freeze. Red Skull has Punisher attack Toad with Rocket attack but Punisher only manages 1 skull which is easily blocked.
R4 – HYDRA Agents move and 2 attack and miss Toad, but one puts a lucky wound on Iceman after I.M. whiffed vs. a 1 skull attack. Red Skull uses RM to attack and put 1 wound on Toad. Iceman attacks an adjacent HYDRA Agent and kills him. Red Skull has Punisher attack Toad with height with his Rocket and he rolls 3 skulls, but Toad rolls 2 shields with the 2 defense dice he’s allowed to roll and takes only 1 wound. Cyclops takes OM 3 off Toad’s card to put on Mystique and moves Toad out of LOS of RS, Punisher and HA’s. Then Cyclops attacks RS with height from 8 spaces but his 3 skull attack is blocked by 3 shields from RS. Angel stays put with GA. Red Skull has Punisher attack Iceman with his Assault Rifle, but he misses. Mystique moves and misses an attack vs. a HYDRA Agent with a 1/1 attack.
R5 – Mystique moves adjacent to a HYDRA Agent and attacks Red Skull for 2 wounds. Angel uses GA to carry RS further away. HYDRA Agents move and 1 misses Mystique with an attack and another one misses Toad with an attack. Red Skull moves and misses DOD vs. Toad but attacks normally with height for a 4/0 attack that puts Toad down. Iceman moves to height and attacks Punisher with Deep Freeze with a 4/0 attack that puts Punisher 1 wound away from death. Red Skull has Punisher attack Iceman with the Rocket for 1 wound. Cyclops moves and attacks Angel with Optic Blast for 2 wounds. RS has Spidey move adjacent to Iceman but he whiffs the attack.
R6- Cyclops attacks Angel again with Optic Blast and kills him. HYDRA Agents move and 1 already adjacent to Mystique puts 1 wound on her, 1 misses Iceman and 1 misses Cyclops. Red Skull stays put on height and hidden from Cyc and attacks Iceman for 1 wound. Iceman attacks the adjacent Spidey but Spidey Sense kicks in avoid the attack. RS has Punisher attack Iceman with the Rocket attack and he kills him. Mystique misses Punisher with a 1/1 attack. RS has Spidey engage Mystique (b/c she’s adjacent to Hydra Agent) and Spidey takes no wound but misses with a 2/2 attack.
R7 – Mystique moves to height (still being adjacent to HA) and attacks Spidey for 1 wound. RS has Spidey engage Mystique again but he takes 1 wound from ES and misses her with another weak attack. Mystique leaves engagement with Spidey and attacks and misses Punisher. RS has Spidey engage Mystique again for another ES wound and he misses again with a 1 skull attack. Cyclops moves and attacks Spidey but misses. HYDRA Agents move and 1 engages Mystique and dies with ES 19, 1 that’s already engaged to her (forever now) whiffs an attack on her and another one that has height over Cyclops puts 1 wound on him. Red Skull stays put.
R8 – Mystique leaves engagement with Spidey while staying adjacent to the 1 HA and attacks but misses Punisher. HYDRA Agent leaves engagement from Mystique for no wound and that one and another one miss her with attacks, while the third HA with height misses Cyclops. Red Skull stays put. Mystique moves to height and kills Punisher. Red Skull has Spidey engage Mystique again and he doesn’t take a ES wound, but he rolls another crappy 1 skull attack to miss her again. Cyclops attacks Spidey with Optic Blast but SS kicks in to avoid the attack. RS has the already engaged Spidey attack and miss Mystique yet again.
R9 – Mystique attacks with height vs a HA but misses with a 1/1 attack.. 3 HYDRA Agents move and attack Cyclops with height to put 2 wounds on him with one lucky 2/0 attackRed Skull moves and misses with DOD vs. Marcu but attacks normally for 1 wound. Cyclops kills a HYDRA Agent. HYDRA Agents move and miss Cyclops with 2 attacks. Red Skull misses Marcu. Cyc puts 1 wound on Red Skull. Red Skull moves around ruin to be able to see Spidey again.
R10 – RS has Spidey swing away from Mystique to get adjacent to Cyclops but whiffs on the attack (Spidey has rolled the worst attack dice ever in this game). Mystique moves adjacent to a HA and attacks Red Skull to kill him with a 4/2 attack. Red Skull dead no turn. Cyclops kills Spidey with a 4/1 Optic Blast attack after Spidey misses SS. HYDRA Agents move and miss Mystique with an attack and put 1 wound on Marcu. Marcu kills a HA.
R11 – HA move and attack Marcu for 1 wound and miss Mystique. Mystique moves to height but whiffs attack on HA. HA move and whiff attack on Cyclops and miss Marcu. Mystique does her Spidey imitation and rolls another crappy attack of 1/1 w/ht vs. HA. HYDRA Agents miss Cyclops but put 1 wound on Marcu. Mystique kills a HA.
R12 – Mystique kills the last HYDRA Agent.
Cyclops with 3 wounds, Marcu with 4 wounds and Mystique with 1 wounds survive for the victory.
HYDRA Agents did better this game as the map was more spread out and I could take advantage of RM bonding better to move Red Skull around. Though, the biggest thing for the early part of the game was having Angel around to help Red Skull stay alive and get into better position with GA. Angel also helped Punisher. So some of the RM bonding was certainly aided early on by having Angel at Red Skull’s side.
The good news, if my count is right, is that the HYDRA Agents put 3 wounds on Marcu, 3 wounds on Cyclops, 1 wound on Mystique, 1 wound on Iceman and 1 wound on Toad and bonding allowed RS to put last wound on Toad. While this seems impressive, they still lost, though not as bad as Army Test 1. Also, the Mutant army didn’t have squads to get multiple attacks and they didn’t have heroes with multiple attacks or explosive type attacks. The closest thing they really had to that is Jean Grey with a Throw/Normal attack but the Throw requires luck as well as the wound for it and she died early on. Cyclops has his Optic Blast to get multiples, but it’s really hard to pull off a lot of the time and can often put Cyc in a vulnerable position afterward. So really, the RS/HA team did pretty well and could have done better if Spidey had shown up to play, but then again, they could have gotten slaughtered had there been multi attackers on the other team via either squads or unique heroes. Also, their one power besides bonding doesn’t work if opponent only attacks one at a time.
Right now, at 60 points, they are 20 points apiece and more expensive per figure than Thugs who also have bonding and a power that is automatic on certain terrain. So I would be hesitant to have the HYDRA Agents any higher than 60 points at this point.
(at this three-stooges dialogue of a thread, right now!)