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[Stran Tannish]

So today Wizkids made a big announcement for Marvel heroclix in the next expansion (Sinister, to be previewed in another thread) and its companion starter set, the X-Men Danger Room!!

This will be a starter set with six predetermined figures, two new battlefield conditions, and two new 3D objects. Much like the DC: Icons starter set, it's going to be designed with teaching the game to new players in mind. However, where the figures in the Icons starter made two 100-point teams, speculation is placing these figures in two 200-point teams. The figures to be included in this starter are Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel, Beast, Colossus, and Storm.

Rest assured as soon as stats are posted they will be here as well.

[Tiny]

Well, speaking of the X-Men. I am in possession of one Jean Grey Phoenix with Walters name on it.
On top of that I may have found a way for you to find a Venue if you want to run events.
Please send me the Zip code for were you are located, when in school and when your off.

Tiny

[Stran Tannish]

Unfortunately this is not a preview for any of the new figures to be released in Danger Room. However, as I said before there will be a new revised rulebook included that will go into effect when the product is released. The first of those rules was the brand new mechanic for Combat Reflexes that I mentioned in the Sinister thread. Now here's another one.

Now, the Masters of Evil have a pretty decent team ability, stated here:

"When two or more friendly members of this team are adjacent to the same member of an opponent's force, they may each make a close combat or a ranged combat action against that character using only one action from your allotment of actions for the turn. All characters attacking in this way receive an action token."

Meaning that you can attack more often, but they all get tokens for doing it. Now, they're changing the team ability to something even more...well...evil:

"A Masters of Evil team member may be given an action when it has two action tokens on it. If it does, do not place an action token on the team member after the action resolves; instead, deal it 1 unavoidable damage. At the end of your turn, do not remove action tokens from a member of this team that has been given an action during that turn."

In essence, anyone with the MoE TA can double push. Very valuable when you absolutely just need to hit something and take it out before it does the same to you. I foresee some very interesting game situations with this.

[Stran Tannish]

http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/marvel/figuregallery.asp?unitid=10650

That's right, the first figure from the Danger Room has been posted, and it's none other than the X-Men's fearless leader: Cyclops. What they set out to do with this set was expand on the idea from the DC: Icons starter. Whereas there you had the figures to make two 100-point teams; here, the six figures included can make 5 different 100-teams, 5 different 200-point teams, and by putting them all together one big 300-point team.

So first up is Cyclops, weighing in at 40 points with the X-Men team ability (there's a shock). For what he's worth he's very effective. Starting with decent stats, he also gets energy explosion and, due to his vast field experience at dodging ranged attacks while doing his own blasting, a few clicks of energy shield. As his damage value goes down he gets some ranged combat expert so he can continue to blast away, and finally a couple clicks of psychic blast where he unleashed the full force of his optic beams and can pretty much hurt you no matter who you are.

Stay tuned next week for whoever they decide to show us next.

[Tiny]

Are you shore about that, last thing I read said that the box set was going to include 2 - 200 point teams because teaching the game with 100 point forces dose not work so well.

about cyclops, how can you call him a fearless leader when he has no clix of of leadership?

Yes and on top of all that, when did they decide to make the figs in the starter set Veterans and not experienced. Those stats stink for a Vet Cyclops.

[Stran Tannish]

As for the point totals, it's what I read on the Wizkids site, so I'm just telling it like I saw it.

Fearless leader? Always, with those clicks of ES/D he could put himself in harms way pretty often.

What you may have in mind for a vet Cyclops sure, but for just a 40 point figure, he's pretty darn good.

[Tiny]

I agree for 40 points its not bad, but until you explained the energy shield, I could come up with no reason for him to have it.  Wouldn't his experience in getting out of the way also be seen in his close combat stats. He has always been the best fighter on the X-men without enhanced physical abilities.

My other question after seeing the stats is, can you use psychic blast and ranged combat expert at the same time?
I think the answer is no.

[Stran Tannish]

You're correct sir. I believe that they are both power actions, and as such cannot be used together. So you either have the option of doing a lot of damage to someone without any damage reducers, or consistent damage to someone with damage reducers. I enjoy figures that have that kind of diversity on their dial.

[Stran Tannish]

http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/marvel/gameresources.asp?cid=40724

This week Wizkids has released a preview of the new 3-D objects that will be included in the Danger Room pack. In addition to these new objects, there will be a revision of the object rules in the new rulebook, the full scope of which you can read about on the link.

The two objects are what I'll be concentrating on, however. First you've got the generator, which brings back a special rule that was very popular on an older 3-D object. It's a heavy object that is not destroyed after use. Instead it just drops into an adjacent square to the target.

Then there's the new light object: the broken drone. Similar to the laser turret special object from collateral damage, it allows a continual ranged attack from a figure that may not have any range. It only does 1 damage, but it isn't destroyed. Of course, someone could just choose to chuck it at an opponent anyway. Options, that what this game is all about.

Next week they'll take a closer look at the new Powers and Abilities Card. I can't wait, especially after the change to combat reflexes.

[Stran Tannish]

http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/marvel/figuregallery.asp?unitid=10651

And here I thought the special objects would be all that they would post today. Boy was I wrong.

Here we have all of the information for the new Jean Grey figure to be included in the Danger Room set. Once again, for only 50 points, she's not all that bad. Not that many powers, but what she does have packs a wallop. A couple clicks of mind control near the beginning let her manipulate anyone on the field, and especially if you're running a scenario with only the figures out of the set, she doesn't have to worry about the feedback damage for figures over 100 points. On top of that, she's got attack powers through her entire dial. She starts with some telekinesis, then her attack value beefs up and she gets some incapacitate. Finally she ends up with some psychic blast. In essence, you can just park her in a safe spot with a wide range of vision, and just let her go to town. Not to mention she has a really consistent defense value, starting at 16, and not going lower than 14.

I'm really liking these X-men figures, and can't wait for the next one.

[Stran Tannish]

http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/marvel/products.asp?cid=40739

More of the changes coming to the Heroclix were announced last night with the changes being made to the powers and abilities card included in the Danger Room pack. Some make powers more useful, some less useful, and some are just clarifications. So without further ado, let's jump right in.

Earthbound: Not only grounds flyers, but also shrinks down giants now. I'm sure some people saw this coming what with the fact that Giganta from DC: Giants had this power. It will allow for some very creative dial designs for future giant figures who may grow and shrink over the course of a fight.

Force Blast: HUGE CHANGE! Now instead of moving the target back a number of spaces equal to the character's damage value, it's the result of a die roll, moving someone anywhere from one to six spaces away. This makes some older figures much more useful as it's a better chance for lower point figures to get away from big bruisers.

Hypersonic Speed: Option one (the move option) is now a power action, and has been limited. Now, if a ranged attack is made during the move, the character's range is halved, making it sort of a reverse running shot. This reigns in severely overpowered characters such as V Icons Superman.

Pulse Wave: Only a minor change here, now in order for it to work there must be an opposing character within range. So no more using this just to get your own figures off of their starting click. Of course that hasn't really been a major problem ever since the old "hooker bomb" strategies.

Psychic Blast and Exploit Weakness: Clarification only here. These powers now deal "penetrating damage," with cannot be reduced by toughness, invulnerability, and impervious. This is as opposed to "unavoidable damage," which cannot be reduced by ANY power, including willpower.

Shape Change: They've practically doubled the effectiveness of this power. Whereas an attack could only be avoided on a roll of 6, now it's on a roll of 5 or 6, giving some older characters a new lease on life, as it were. Now if this also affects similar team abilites (Skrull, Danger Girl) then I have the feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of those figures in the future.

Support: Finally, this power has been slightly limited. In keeping with regeneration, the result of the die roll is now reduced by 2, to a minimum result of 1. It makes it more effective than regen, which has a minimum of 0, but makes it more difficult to keep your heavy hitters at the top of their game.

Next week we'll hopefully see the rest of the figures, and then get more into some of the Sinister figures.

[Stran Tannish]

http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/marvel/figuregallery.asp?unitid=10827

Angel has arrived!

This figure's not all that beefy with mediocre attack and damage values. Where he really shines are in his mobility and defense, making him a very effective taxi if nothing else. He starts and ends with charge, and enjoys energy shield along his entire dial with a base defense that doesn't go below 15, and that number is only on his last click. Essentially he's very good at getting into and out of trouble, while bringing his friends along for the ride. All of this with the obvious X-men team ability for only 50 points.

Enjoy!

[Stran Tannish]

http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/marvel/gameresources.asp?cid=40751

Today we've got two more of the Danger Room figures: Beast and Storm; leaving of course only Colossus left.

At 40 points, Storm probably has the most in the way of powers so far. Starting out with a fair attack value, stealth, and ranged combat expert; those quickly give way to energy explosion and force blast (which works very well with the new rules). Energy shield shows up to give her defense a much needed boost, and on her last click she has smoke cloud to help her stick around even longer. Her dial is not very long, but for what you'll want her to do, it doesn't have to be.

The beefiest figure so far, Beast is 60 points and loaded for bear. While he's a great attack piece with the powers that he's got, he's also a good support piece as well. He starts off with charge, super senses, and perplex to give himself or others a much needed boost. After those all go away he gets leap/climb and combat reflexes (which again rocks with the new rules), followed by some flurry. Finally on his last click he goes back to leap/climb along with some outwit, making him very eligible to be the X-men's brilliant tactician.

Colossus should show up be the weekend I think, so next week we'll finally have some more previews for Sinister. Keep an eye on that thread.

[Stran Tannish]

They're teasing me.

The Wizkids site says that the stats for Colossus are up, yet when I go to the correct page he's nowhere to be found.

Gerf?

Oh well, hopefully it'll be up sometime today, so that I can share with all of you wonderful people.

[Stran Tannish]

http://www.wizkidsgames.com/heroclix/marvel/figuregallery.asp?unitid=10830

So after almost a whole day of teasing, Colossus is up. And I've gotta say, for 60 points i'm not all that disappointed. Sure he's not an immense-damage powerhouse, but in a "starter set" he really shouldn't be. I'd say he's perfectly fine for the kinds of teams you'll be making out of the Danger Room.

His speed value is mediocre, but as a guy made out of metal he's not going to be very fast. A front loaded slot of charge gets him into place, however, to start dealing some decent damage. Couple this with super strength for four clicks with decent attack values and a starting damage of 3, and he'll be able to deal out plenty of hurt. Five clicks of toughness with a starting defense of 17 also help to keep him around to continue punishing enemies. He's also got the most clicks of life out of any of the Danger Room figures: 8. That's one more than Beast and two more than just about everyone else.

So there you have it. There might be some other stuff they release (I hope) for Danger Room, but next wednesday look forward to the next preview from Sinister.