May 2022

 Bring on your Meta team, I'm going to play what I'm going play.

Empyre

 Well, one minor surgery later and it's clix night at Stourbridge Wargamers.

Decided to have fun, winning wasn't necessary.

Detective

Assassin

X-Men

Empyre is also released, but only the starter and a few choice figures for me.

I really wasn't happy with the majority of sculpts in X-Men Rise and Fall, but they do seem to have improved this set.

Halloween Heroclix

 🎃 Halloween Heroclix 🎃

At Wayland's Forge

Legion of Monsters

Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, Morbius and Manphibian

Monster

Vampire Batman, Man-Bat, Blight, Grim Reaper, Vampire, Witch

Far from Meta, but great fun.

Happy Halloween 🎃

Heroclix Unlocked!

Finally the UK lockdown rules have been relaxed, I'm double vaxxed up and ready to roll some dice.

My laptop is pretty much dead, so I'm flip flopping back to the blog as I can't easily update the website, but please still check out www.ugavine.com

First Heroclix game in over year.

Had four teams;

- a Fantastic Four team without the main cast.  Instead I had the recent She-Hulk, Blackbeard, Black Panther, Adolf Impossible and fast forces Doctor Doom.  Actually won against a Trinity team from the new Wonder Woman 80th set.  New Superman is tough, but Batman is not that great.

- JLU Animated next with Amazo with Batman and The Question as support.  Lost against an Outwitting Doctor Doom, mystical being Amazos weakness.

- and no luck for my new Amazons team, though that was totally down to my traditional bad dice rolling.

- finally I threw in an old team of Captain America, Spider-Man and Hulk.  Went up against OP kit Dormammu, but was lucky enough for Hulk to get knocked onto his special Click 11.  And it was game over Dormammu.

Great day of Heroclix at Wayland's Forge.

Justice League Unlimited

Justice League Unlimited

And just as I said I was done with the Lockdown posts my brick of Justice League Unlimited lands on my doorstep.  So let's a little peek at the latest set.


So There you have it, 10 Boosters worth, minus The Wonder Twins Chase (which I've left boxed).  

Not had a detailed look, but 022 Batman does have an ability similar to what the Grim Reaper has in the Undead set;  When Batman damages an opposing character with an attack, after resolutions deal that character 1 unavoidable damage. If that character is not KO'd, immediately heal it 1 click.

The Rare figures

Amanda Waller, Blight, Shade, Speedy, Supergirl, Green Arrow and Amazo.

Instant favourite there us Supergirl.  She doesn't get made as often as she should, and this is a nicely detailed figure for a Rare.

Super-Rare

Booster Gold, Big Barda and Ace (from the royal Flush Gang)

Well, Darkseid wold have been nice, but can't complain.

Team-Up Cards

There are around 100 of these to collect, so I won't be doing that.  I pulled four in my Brick.

These alternate cards give added Traits granting an extra power if your Team-Up mate is also on your team.

Now I just have to wait for Lockdown to be lifted so I can use them.  Stay safe.

Heroclix LOCKDOWN Randomness - coming soon

Heroclix LOCKDOWN Randomness

COMING SOON!

Okay, I've done a week of this so this is my last Lockdown Randomness post.  I may well change the blog to be more generic gaming, by that I mean Role-Playing Games, Board Games and Wargames.

Anyway, what has Wizkids got in store for the future of Heroclix?

Well they certainly don't seem to be slowing down anytime soon.  Sure, there is a delay to shipping due to the Lockdown across the world, but here is what has been announced for the next 12 months...

Justice League Unlimited

This 5-figure booster release with a Starter set and Token set.

17 Commons (plus 1 Prime)
17 Uncommons (plus 1 Prime)
16 Rares (plus 1 Prime)
15 Super Rares (plus 1 Prime)
8 Chases

https://wizkids.com/heroclix/dc-comics-heroclix-justice-league-unlimited/

Fantastic Four Cosmic Clash

The Fantastic Four finally return to Heroclix.  This starter set contains everything up to 4 people need to play HeroClix.  The Starter is to be followed up by a full set. But the Starter set includes;

6 HeroClix Figures
6 HeroClix Character Cards – 18 Object and Terrain Tokens
4 Full-Color Maps
2 Six-Sided dice with the Fantastic Four logo
1 HeroClix Powers & Abilities Card
1 HeroClix Core Rulebook
Scenario/Campaign Rule Cards
12 Double-Sided Bystander tokens

https://wizkids.com/heroclix/marvel-heroclix-fantastic-four-cosmic-clash-starter-set-6-figure-starter-set/

HeroClix Spider-Man/Venom Absolute Carnage

Another full set is expected, so that probably means Fast-Forces and Tokens pack too.

House of X / Power of X

I've just bought the comic TPB so excited about this one.

Another full set is expected, so that probably means Fast-Forces and Tokens pack too.

And sorry, but that's all for now folks.  Take care.  Stay Safe.

Heroclix LOCKDOWN Randomness - Heroclix Review

Heroclix LOCKDOWN Randomness

Heroclix Review

by Ugavine

So, Heroclix, where to begin on this quite epic Super Hero game?  Heroclix is a collectible Miniatures game primarily based on Marvel and DC comic characters and has been going now for over 15 years.  The game allows players to collect the figures which come pre-painted then build teams to fight each other on one of the many maps provided.

Heroclix uses the unique Clix mechanic, where the characters stats and powers are on the base which turns as they take damage to reveal different stats and powers; some figures get weaker while a few, like the Incredible Hulk, get stronger until they are KO'd.  Hey kids, no one dies, they're just knocked out or defeated.  Other than a few early sets each figure also comes with a stat card explaining the abilities and powers, and even adding a few special ones the characters can use.  There are many Powers such as Super Strength (allowing a character to use heavy objects in an attack), Charge (you can move and make a close combat attack), Outwit (cancels an opponents power) and so on and so on.  All of these are referenced on the PAC (Powers and Abilities Chart) which comes in starter sets.

Gameplay.  Players take it in turns to give their characters actions, the number of actions you have  depends on the size of the game or by the scenario rules you are using.  Each time you make an action you give your character a token.  The next turn you mostly rest, clearing the token. You can 'push' to take an action but take damage yourself (unless a Power says otherwise).  And I really cannot go into the full list of powers and their interactions, it can get complicated.  And that can be seen as either the strength or weakness of the game.  Some power interactions are complicated and, it's best to just go with the rules rather than think about the logic, but then there are enough players to please those that want simple play and those that want complicated strategy and synergy between their characters.

Teams.  One of the big plus's of the game is that all the figures from the sets are compatible meaning you can make some fun teams, especially with the vast array of characters available.  Also there are different versions of characters from their various comics, you can play a low 50 point Batman as a support character or the 200pt combat monster.  What about the Batmobile, and the Batcave?  Yep, available too.  Want to team Superman with the Green Goblin, Spider-Man with Batman or give Michaelangelo from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Infinity Gauntlet, all possible.  That's silly, you'll be saying you can team Spider-Ham with Ace the Bat-Hound next... yep.  As well as TMNT those extra sets also include Yu-Gi-Ho! Kick-Ass and Eddie from the heavy metal band Iron Maiden.
 

Collecting.  This is where you either love or hate the game.  There are all kinds of ways of getting figures, and some are pretty difficult to get, such as Convention Exclusives or Prize figures which end up fetching high prices on the secondary market.  Generally the figures are bought in packs of 5 random figures called a Booster.  Rarities in these sets are usually Common, Uncommon, Rare, Super-Rare and Chase.  As a minimum you should get a Rare figure in every Booster.  There is a 1 in 4 chance of getting a Super-Rare and 1 in 20 of getting the Chase.  Set sizes vary but are often around 60 figures.  If random collecting is not for you you can usually buy the figures from online shops or auction websites.  Many forums and trade groups also offer ways to get figures you want.

Quality.  This is a bit of a downside, but do remember you are buying mass produced pre-painted figures.  Figure quality can vary drastically, and mistakes are supposedly frequent, although to be honest the worst I've had is a misprinted stats card and a figure come off it's base, which was easily fixed with a dab of glue.  The Common figures generally, but not always, have less detail than the Rare's.  And while I have seen some poor figures, the recent Owl from Defenders/Avengers War set is quite poor, the Chase figure of Sunfire in the Uncanny X-Men is superb.  I genuinely believe that if quality could be addressed this would be one of the greatest games on the market.

Getting started.  Starter sets can be few and far between, but these do include a map the rules and several figures.  It also includes the PAC, this is the Powers and Abilities Chart, and is vital to understand the Powers.

Fast Forces give a group of related figures ready to play.  The early versions of these also included a map, the current ones sadly don't.

Maps.  For a starting player this seems to be the biggest problem, especially as starters are hard to find and Fast Forces no longer include them.  I generally get mine from playing in events at my local games shop, otherwise you will have to look online for these as they are not available to buy other than a couple of the expensive Premium quality ones.  But many Heroclix players will have spare maps they're sure to part with.

Overall.  It's a difficult game to judge, it has so many ups and downs.  For many gamers the collectible nature instantly puts them off, and the vast amount of hard to get figures means you will be extremely frustrated, or broke, if you are a completionist.  Quality is also a let down.  But at the heart of it all is this great fun game with Super Heroes with near infinite variety; a 300 point skirmish or a 2000 point epic fight against Galactus!  

I am going to give the game 4 Squirrels out of 5
Heroclix is one of my favourite games, but I cannot justify 5 Squirrels to a collectible game with varying quality.