Tag Archives: Supersystem 3

Mr. Freeze

Mr. Freeze has long been one of my favorite bat-villains, due in large part to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s brilliant, iconic performance in the 1997 film Batman & Robin.

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OK, maybe not.

But I really do love Mr. Freeze. Especially any episode of the Batman Animated Series in which he is featured (voiced by the late, great Michael Ansara).  He is also really cool (pardon the pun) in the Batman: Arkham City video game, as well as the Arkham Origins downloadable content “Cold, Cold Heart.”

I’ve been rebasing and repainting a lot of Heroclix lately, but they’ve mostly been Marvel clix. I’ve been sadly neglecting the DC line. I decided to have some fun with this one and make a really nice conversion I can base a scenario or two around.

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Anyway, here’s what a Heroclix Mr. Freeze looks like out of the box.  That’s a stock photo, not the actual model I used. I really need to remember to photograph these clix before I repaint them, but this kind of happened as a side project.

The Mr. Freeze model has a removable helmet and shoulder piece, which is good since the helmet is so opaque it obscures the face almost entirely.

From Wikipedia: Mr. Freeze (Victor Fries) is a scientist who must wear a cryogenic suit in order to survive, and bases his crimes around a “cold” or “ice” theme, complete with a “freeze gun” that freezes its targets solid. In the most common variation of his origin story, he is a former cryogenics expert who suffered an industrial accident while attempting to cure his terminally ill wife Nora Fries. 

I like him because he’s actually a bad guy you can feel sorry for. Freeze does some bad. bad things, but it’s all for love of his wife.

Here are a couple of better shots that show him without the helmet. I considered adding a bit of snow to his gun barrel and the tanks on his back to simulate frost, but decided against it. The smoke is from a this Marvel Ultron clix model:

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I also used the Ultron model for Mr. Freeze’s wife, Nora. I painted her a frosty blue and based her on a dime, which, coincidentally, is exactly the right diameter to use if you want to place her in this spiffy bio-tank, made by RAFM.

The other miscellaneous sci-fi machinery was made by TMP’s Russell95403, I think it goes well as lab decor. For the ice piles, I used Chris Palmer’s method described here, using sea glass. I think they look great and I’ll be making more ice soon.

So now I have Mr. and Mrs. Freeze ready to go for a nice Supersystem 3 scenario.

And that-dare I say it?- is pretty damn cool.

 

Day of the Octopus!!!!

Back in the day, I was a big fan of the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG from TSR (still am, in fact). I thought some of their adventures might make fun scenarios for Supersytem 3, and it turns out I was right! First up is the introductory adventure included with the basic set: MSH0: Day of the Octopus!

A brief synopsis: That tentacled creep Dr. Octopus is at it again! This time his scheme is to become “Supreme Ruler of New York City” (yes, really). To that end, he has created a 30-foot tall robot duplicate of himself that will destroy Manhattan unless the heroes can stop it! (Because, you know, that’s  the best plan an insane, genius nuclear physicist could come up with.)

FYI ALL of the published adventures, as well as the rulebooks for TSR’s Marvel Super Heroes are available at Classic Marvel Forever in PDF format, and they’re FREEEEEEEE! Many of them are delightfully terrible, with questionable storylines, lame villains, and encounters that make you scratch your head and ask WTF??? But all of them seem easily adaptable to SS3, and 99% of the heroes and villains used in all of them are available as Heroclix models!

Without further ado, the dramatis personae:

The heroes (L-R): Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Captain America, and the ever-lovin, blue-eyed Thing!

The main villains (L-R): Beetle, Scorpion, Dr. Octopus, Radioactive Man and the Fixer! (Fixer looked different back in the day, but this newer version is the only Clix model of the Fixer, so I’m stuck with it.) And of course, looming menacingly in the back: The Octodroid!!!!!

As is usual with most starting adventures, the heroes far outclass the villains. I assumed the bad guys would need some help, so I added Constrictor and these killer robots as reinforcements. The robots are repainted and rebased Horrorclix Carnage Bots.

If you’re wondering about the Octodroid, he’s this old Toy Biz Marvel figure, spray-painted silver. I picked him up on eBay for 8 bucks including shipping. Not bad, eh? Onto the game!

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An otherwise quiet day in Manhattan. Ben Grimm, Peter Parker and Steve Rogers are all spending some personal time in the park. Thing is buying a hot dog and feeling sorry for himself. Peter is having a picnic with Aunt May. Steve is on a date with his girlfriend, Bernie Rosenthal. Captain Marvel is on duty at Avengers Mansion (remember, this adventure was from 1984!)

All the heroes notice two well-known goons, Turk and Grotto, entering a building across from the park. They are up to no good! All the heroes in the park start to make their excuses and head over to the building, just as a huge explosion blows out the front wall! Who emerges but Grotto, accompanied by Turk, in full Mandroid armor!

(If you’re asking WTF??? allow me to explain: A suit of Mandroid armor was on display in the lobby of the building. You might think there would be extra security, or that the suit of Mandroid armor would be somehow neutralized for display purposes, like a cannon at a park, but you’d be wrong. It’s just sitting there in a glass case in the lobby, along with the plans for a new power source made by Tony Stark. Or it was. Until Turk stole it.)

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Alerted by the explosion and able to fly at lightspeed,Captain Marvel arrives on the scene instantly. The Thing wastes no time rushing across the street and ruining Grotto’s day before closing with Turk! And at that moment, the super-villains arrive!!!

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What are they doing here? What could they want? The heroes have no time for speculation, because combat erupts!

Thing beats up on Turk, but fails to KO him. Meanwhile, Spider-Man webs Turk to the ground. Turk is entangled!

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Captain Marvel and Beetle exchange energy blasts! Captain Marvel is wounded!

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After firing off a blast of radiation at Thing, Radioactive Man gets slammed by Cap’s shield and gets KO’ed instantly! (Cap rolled a ton of goals to hit, and it carried over to damage. Radioactive Man rolled poorly, and that’s all, folks!)

Scorpion shoots at Spider-Man, but fails to hit. In the next round, he bounds atop the building closest to the web-slinger, but before he can close, Spidey webs him to the roof! Meanwhile, Thing takes out Turk once and for all.

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On the other side of the park, Captain Marvel gets the worst of it in her fight with Beetle and is KO’ed! Cap takes out the Beetle with a shield toss, and Thing rips up a lamp post and cancels Christmas on the Fixer! With three villains KO’ed, the bad guys bug out and flee the table! But not before a sinister-looking steel tentacle snakes up from a nearby grate and steals the plans for a new power source…the villains’ goal all along! This was but a diversion! Mu-hu-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

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In the original TSR RPG adventure, the heroes had to search for clues to find Dock Ock’s hideout. But we jumped right into it! The heroes track Doc Ock to his lair in an abandoned warehouse, where he awaits them with Scorpion and Constrictor!

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“It’s Clobberin’ Time!” Doctor Octopus barely has time to activate his security robots before the Thing is in his grill. He decks Doc in two rounds, which made for a very quick end to this scenario. Meanwhile, Captain America shield-bashes Constrictor into submission! All in all, not a good round for the villains. But as he lapses into rocky-fisted-induced unconsciousness, Doc Ock manages to activate his most villainous automaton:The Octodroid!

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BEHOLD! THE OCTODROID MARCHES!!!

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The Octodroid begins its path of destruction, shattering buildings to the left and right. The heroes move quickly to intercept! Spidey tries to web its legs together, but the Octodroid will not be bound! Captain Marvel fires a blast of energy, inflicting damage. In response, the Octodroid pauses its attack on New York to fire at the heroes with the plasma cannons contained in its tentacles, but fails to hit any of them.

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Then after a few more exchanges, Captain America once again saves the day. He hurls his shield with uncanny precision, striking the Octodroid in its eyes! Something shorts out and the Octodroid comes to an abrupt halt, toppling over a few seconds later. New York is saved! (Once again, Captain America rolled a shit-ton of goals that failed to be resisted by the Ocotdroid. Even I was surprised by how quickly the robot fell!)

This was a lot of fun and I plan on adapting more of the published TSR adventures to SS3 soon. Up next: MSH-1: The Breeder Bombs, featuring the X-Men!

 

 

 

 

Rebasing and Repainting Heroclix

I own a lot of Heroclix miniatures, but I don’t play Heroclix. Instead I use them with my favorite Superhero rules system, Supersystem 3.  I use Heroclix miniatures because I game with established Marvel and DC comics characters rather than creating my own heroes. (Until recently, there was a terrific online  archive of SS3 stats for Marvel and DC Heroes, but that seems to have disappeared. Bummer.) I never liked the Heroclix system. The dials really annoy me, and it doesn’t seem right that heroes gain and lose powers as the dials get clicked.  For example: I think Superman should be able to use his heat vision whenever he wants to fry something, not be limited as to when he can use it based on how much damage he’s taken.

There are a lot of companies making superhero miniatures in 28mm. I would get into some of them, but my fellow supers enthusiast from across the Atlantic, Carrion Crow, has already done that comprehensively over at his blog, and there’s really nothing I can add. (Incidentally, Carrion Crow has done a bunch of articles on converting Heroclix that are well worth the read, as they’re quite inspirational and really show the versatility of these miniatures, even for games outside the Supers genre.)

So why use Heroclix? The answers should be obvious, but…

  • Heroclix have been around for almost 15 years. The range is vast, and chances are you can find a clix model for almost any hero in the Marvel or DC Universe at this point. Most characters, in fact, have multiple sculpts and/or versions.
  • As you will soon see, Heroclix are easy to repaint and rebase (and convert, should you wish to do so).
  • With the exception of some promos and unique figures, most Heroclix models are cheap and easily obtainable. Online retailers such as Miniature Market and Troll and Toad offer a large selection of secondary market singles. eBay is a good place to pick up singles and lots, and don’t underestimate your local Craigslist listings! I picked up a lot of clix on Craigslist.
  • Many Heroclix models can be used for games outside the Supers genre. Thugs, criminals, aliens, cops, and military clix can all be adapted to other games such as pulp, horror or sci-fi, to name but a few. And don’t forget there were several sets of “Horrorclix” as well. Some are tough to find nowadays, but they’re every bit as useful across genres.
  • You can use Heroclix for other games without doing a thing to them, if that’s your preference. They come pre-painted and if you can overlook the dials, they’re ready to go out of the box. Convenient.

The quality of the sculpting and the factory paint jobs seem to have an inverse relationship over the years, at least in my opinion. In the beginning, the sculpting seemed to be generally ok, while the factory paint jobs bordered on the atrocious. As the years and releases accumulated, it seems the reverse is now true. Scale, especially when compared to the earlier releases, is disproportionate. But the paint jobs are generally better.

Still, they’re not good enough for me, so what follows is a tutorial of sorts on working with Heroclix, specifically rebasing and repainting them. I will say in passing that converting Heroclix is a breeze, as they’re made of fairly soft plastic, so weapon/head swaps are easy. (Again, if conversions are your thing, I highly recommend Carrion Crow’s Buffet over in the sidebar, as well as Dick Garrison’s Rantings from Under the Wargames Table.)

Rebasing Heroclix

Base Designs

Heroclix bases have changed over the years. Above you can see the three types of bases. On the left is the original design, in the middle is the original “flying” base design, and on the right is the current design.  A few words about each:

Original clix came with a different-colored ring on the base, denoting the experience level of the model (Yellow=Rookie, Blue=Experienced, and Red=Veteran). This made a difference in the Heroclix points cost for including the model on your team. (A more experienced version of a hero cost more points.) Silver or other colored rings denote unique, promo, or special versions of heroes and villains. Some of these can get quite expensive to purchase on the secondary market, although many, especially from the older sets, have come down a lot in price.

Generally speaking, a more experienced version of a model costs more money on the secondary market, but this isn’t always the case. Regardless, many of these miniatures used the exact same sculpt regardless of experience level (see above) which is great news for those of us who don’t use them for Heroclix, as any version will do. So, just buy the least-expensive version available!

Flying bases come in two varieties, shown above. As you can see, the Human Torch model sits on a plastic disc that fits over the top of the flying base. In contrast, the Green Lantern model has a peg on his foot that fits into the flying base. For whatever reason, flying bases no longer exist in the latest Heroclix sets, and even models that fly are sculpted on the ground, like Ms. Marvel above. I only rebase the flight stands in the “peg-leg” cases like Green Lantern. When rebasing models such as the Human Torch, I pop them off the plastic discs and rebase them without flight stand. (That’s my preference, but YMMV).

The newer bases are bigger and blockier, and have no color rings denoting experience levels (something else they decided to do away with, it seems). Fair warning if you plan on rebasing miniatures on these bases: they are MUCH harder to work with than the earlier colored bases. models are now sculpted onto a plastic crescent, and it’s often easier to remove the crescent from the dial than to remove the model from the crescent.

Rebasing Technique

There are several ways you can remove a Clix model from its dial. First is brute force, which I don’t recommend. Bigger models, such as the Hulk above, can be wrested off the dial without much worry of damaging the model, but why risk it?

The second way is by using a hobby saw or Dremel to saw the figure off the dial. Again, I don’t recommend this as at high cutting speeds, the plastic will melt. This stinks, and can also alter the shape of the model’s feet.

The best method I have found to remove a Heroclix model from its base is the following. First, throw the model (or the flight stand) in the freezer for at least an hour. This makes the plastic brittle. Then, remove it from the dial with a pair of nippy cutters. If you go slow enough, it should pop right off with no problem. Note that clix models with thin legs are vulnerable to snapping even if this method is used, particularly if you don’t take the time to cut slowly. One good thing about Clix, however, is even if they snap, the break is usually clean enough that you can heal it with some superglue. That was the case with the rebased and repainted Judge Dredd model above, and you can’t tell the difference now.

Rebasing Choices

Once you have the model off the dial, it’s up to you what kind of base you want to put it on. I find that Heroclix adhere readily to resin bases with superglue, but you may want to take the added steps of drilling and pinning in order to secure a firm transplant. The Dr. Strange model is based on an old metal RAFM fantasy base. He’s a good example of a transplanted peg-mounted flying base.  Electro is glued to a Micro Arts Studio Tech Base. Power Man is based on an Armorcast Urban Base, while Iceman is based on a piece of MDF, snow-flocked and enhanced by me.

Again, the choice to rebase or not depends on how much you hate the dials. I loathe them, but I’ll still use Clix models on the dial in a pinch. If you want to see an example of an AAR using rebased an repainted Clix (as well as other models), check one out here. If you want to see a Supersystem 3 game using unaltered Clix, look here. I think the first game looks better, but both were a blast regardless.

Repainting

As I said before, it’s no secret to anyone with eyes that Clix models generally have poor paint jobs, especially the early releases. As you can see in the picture above, repainting a Clix model really achieves some dramatic results over the factory paint job, and repainting is a surprisingly easy and often fast option for those who can’t abide poorly painted figures (like me). Above is a before and after comparison. Although not a true before and after, as they are different figures, you can see what a factory painted miniature looks compared to one I’ve repainted. The one on the left is a new “Superman Robot”, which I repainted and rebased to be a perfectly adequate Superman. The one on the right is Marvel’s Beetle. I added highlights rather than a giving him a full repaint.

Step 1: To strip or not to strip?

While it’s easy enough to strip metal miniatures, plastic miniatures such as Heroclix pose a problem, as the chemicals used on metal miniatures will most likely melt plastic. There are many threads on the net regarding stripping plastic miniatures and the best way to do so. Some say Simple Green is the way to go, as it’s non-caustic and won’t melt your plastic miniatures into goo. I haven’t tried it, so I can’t speak to its effectiveness. In fact, I don’t strip Heroclix miniatures at all!

Step 2: Priming and painting

Since I don’t strip my Clix, I have no need to prime them. The factory paint job is perfectly fine as a first coat. Although some of the early Clix models are so heavily painted that you may find subsequent coats obscure detail, this is usually a problem with individual models and is easily remedied by simply using another figure.

In many cases, repainting a Heroclix model is merely a matter of adding highlights rather than starting from scratch. This Northstar miniature was painted with highlights only. In contrast, the green on Iron fist was originally red (it was the only version of him I had), so I needed to paint a dark green basecoat on and highlight from there. Captain America was originally a much lighter blue. I repainted him a darker blue and highlighted upwards.

These criminals and henchmen were completely repainted to give them some variety.

In the above picture, the Thing was given a black wash over his original paint, and then highlights of orange. In addition, I trimmed his eyes because they were way too big on the original paint job. Radioactive Man was repainted a darker basecoat and highlighted upwards, much like Captain America.

Step 3: Going fast

If all you’re doing is highlighting the existing paint job, you can blow through repaints in record time and still enjoy quality results. But here is another tip to speed-painting Clix:

Heroclix generally use the same paint shades, as seen in the picture above. If you want to repaint a lot of Clix all at once, it makes sense to grab a handful of miniatures that use the same colors and do them in batches. Of course, if you need specific heroes and villains, this may not be an option in the short term. But, if you’re planning a game down the road, you may want to paint some miniatures you may not have a use for immediately simply because you’re painting similar colors on the miniatures you do need. For example, even though I have no immediate plans for Superman, I painted him at the same time as Captain America and the Fixer because they use the same colors. Neat, huh?

I plan on doing more Supersystem gaming in the near future, so watch this space for more Clix repaints and AARs!

Alpha Flight

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Don’t ask me why I did this. For those who don’t know, Alpha Flight is the first all-Canadian superhero team, created by John Byrne (a  Canadian) in 1979. Byrne is legendary for his artwork on X-Men and Superman, among too many other credits to name.

Alpha Flight made their debut in X-Men #120, and soon had their own book. The thing is, Alpha Flight kinda sucks. I mean, to call them second-raters is an understatement. To call them third-stringers is still a kindness.

Still, I thought I’d have some fun and repaint and rebase some Heroclix for Supersystem. So here they are.

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Starting in the back, R-L: Snowbird, Guardian, Aurora, Northstar. Front row, L-R: Marinna, Sasquatch, Puck and Shaman.

Despite being a  really lame team (and that’s being kind), most of the Clix sculpts are pretty good. To me, Shaman, Snowbird and Puck really stand out. Shaman required the least in the way of repainting; he actually had a pretty good paint job right out of the box. The others, however, required a bit more effort to make them look good.

Now I have to find something for them to fight.

(WEN-DI-GO!!!!!!)

Expect a new SS3 After Action Report featuring Alpha Flight soon!!!

 

Batman vs. Two-Face: A SuperSystem 3 Scenario and AAR

Well, ZeDecember didn’t really work out as planned, mainly because I got distracted halfway through it and failed utterly to rekindle my painting spark. Some of that was due to the holidays, some due to real life, and some due to the fact that I’ve been in a painting slump lately.

One thing I have been doing is re-reading lots of my old comics and playing copious amounts of Batman: Arkham City on PS3. Yeah, I know I’m late to the party, since this game came out in 2012, but I’ve never been one to rush out and buy a new game when I have dozens of games I haven’t even opened yet just laying around. Suffice it to say, however, that aside from playing PS3, I haven’t done all that much for the past couple of months.

In an effort to get my ass in gear, I came up with a scenario for SuperSystem 3 involving a “Year One” Batman and Captain Gordon vs. Two-Face. Even Year One Batman is pretty damn formidable (my build came in at 120 points) despite his inexperience, and Two-Face just isn’t all that powerful a villain (my build came in at 71 points), so I had to tweak the rules a bit to make it more of a challenge for Batman. Here is what I came up with:

The Scenario: Two-Face decided to rob the Gotham Savings and Trust building. Actually, the coin decided for him. He put together two squads of highly trained goons, came up with two plans, and went to work double-quick.

A specialized GCPD SWAT team, led by the arrogant and trigger-happy Lieutenant Branden, arrives on the scene shortly afterward.  Also rushing to the scene, hoping to avoid the certain collateral damage that is to occur when Branden and his team is unleashed, is Captain James Gordon. But neither the SWAT team nor Two-Face counted in the new player in Gotham City: The Batman.

Forces: One player controls Two-Face and his two squads of goons. The other player controls Batman and Captain Gordon. The SWAT team begins play under the control of the hero player, but that may change (see below).

Setup: The board represents a section of Gotham City. The buildings are mostly not important, but there needs to be a building big enough to represent a bank, complete with interior.  The bank has 2 exits and several windows. Two getaway cars are parked outside the bank on either side. There should be a separate escape route off the board for each getaway car.

Deployment: Two-Face and his goons begin play inside the bank, looting. Gordon begins in a squad car on one corner of the opposite table edge, while Branden and his SWAT team deploy on the other corner. Batman may be deployed anywhere on the board, but must begin at least 20” from the bank.

Objectives: Two-Face wins if he can loot the bank and make his escape off the board by one of the predetermined escape routes, or if he kills Batman. Batman wins by stopping Two-Face.

Special Rules:

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The Coin: Any time the Two-Face player wishes to do something where there are two clear alternatives, he must flip a coin and let the coin decide.  Examples include choosing which way to exit the bank, choosing which getaway car to use, choosing which escape route, choosing who to shoot at, etc. The only exception to this is that Two-Face can always elect to shoot at Batman without tossing a coin.

Two Squads: In order to give Two-Face better odds than he would otherwise enjoy, he is allowed two squads of Veteran henchmen for this scenario.

Looting the Bank: At the start of the game, roll a d3. The result is how many rounds Two-Face and his goons must spend looting the bank before they can attempt their escape. Looting the Bank is a Difficult (2) Mind roll. Two-Face doesn’t have to make the roll (but he has a better chance of doing it than his henchmen).

THE COPS

SWAT Team: Lt. Branden is a bit of a psycho, and is just as likely to shoot at Batman than at Two-Face or his goons. If the SWAT team ever has line of sight to Batman, they activate immediately and open fire.  This happens outside the normal activation sequence and control of the SWAT team reverts to the Two-Face player for as long as they have line of sight to Batman.

Gordon Takes Command: If Captain Gordon can get within 10” and has LOS to the SWAT team, he can effectively take command and the SWAT team will not fire on Batman. This command is lost if Gordon ever leaves command distance, however.

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Batman won’t attack cops no matter how much he may want to.

“What are you??!” Batman has a special power for this scenario: Fear Aura. Anyone in short range must make s Difficult (2) Resolve roll or be afraid. Batman gets +1D to Attack and Defense rolls against models he has frightened until they make their Resolve roll. Two-Face is immune to this power.

RESULTS:

I gamed this scenario a couple of weeks back. Sorry, no pictures this time. I played Two-Face, while my friend took the role of Batman and the cops. Although it was fun, it had its share of problems.

First, it’s not all that hard to keep Batman out of the SWAT team’s view, so he never had to worry too much about getting shot at by Branden and his men.  This could be further abused by the fact that the same player has control of the SWAT team and Batman at the start of the game, so if they wanted to be unscrupulous about it, they could basically ensure that Batman stayed far away from the SWAT team. (My friend didn’t do this, however. He’s a good sport.)

Second, the game quickly degenerated into the SWAT team and Gordon firing away at Two-Face’s goons (and vice-versa) for most of the game, without either side really doing any significant damage to the other. I think this is because they were too similar. They had the same Vitality, similar stats, and they were all Veterans.

Third, even with a big screen of goons to hide behind, Two-Face is just no match for Batman. Although he managed to flee the bank, Batman brought him down in short order without too much trouble. Two-Face spent three turns just trying to break out of Batman’s Entangle power while Batman waded through his goons without breaking a sweat.

It was fun, however, and we both enjoyed the randomness of the coin tosses and the moment when Batman got to use his Fear Aura on the goons in the bank.

More Heroclix Repaints

Took a break from my usual stuff to paint up some more Heroclix for use with Supersystem 3.

First up: The Wrecking Crew. Thunderball, Piledriver, The Wrecker, and Bulldozer. Although they’re a bunch of losers, I’ve always like the Wrecking Crew. I have to say that the Piledriver miniature is one of the worst miniatures in the Heroclix line. He doesn’t even scale well with the other Crew members. I really like the sculpts on the other three, however.

Next up: the original Uncanny X-Men! Iceman, Marvel Girl, Angel, Cyclops, and Beast. I’m pretty happy with the team overall. Iceman’s base is the only one I made from scratch, the rest are modern urban and tech bases from various companies. I was reminded how much I hate painting yellow when I did this team, as yellow is notoriously difficult to shade without it looking like crap. I think Cyclops looks the worst, but I can live with it.

Night of the Sentinels: A Super System 3 Scenario and AAR

I recently picked up four Heroclix Sentinels from some Craigslist sellers, and decided I needed to use them for Super System 3. I came up with the following scenario, and played through it with some friends the other night.

The Scenario

A young mutant’s powers have just manifested for the first time. Cerebro ranks this unknown as potentially one of the most powerful beings on the planet.  The X-Men are sent to recover him and bring him back to the Xavier Institute for his own safety and security.

Unfortunately, S.H.I.E.L.D. has learned of this mutant and is taking no chances. Acting Director Maria Hill quickly dispatches two of her best recovery teams to the area, hoping to bring the mutant in as quickly as possible. When she learns of the X-Men’s involvement, she authorizes the use of Mark VII Sentinels. It is imperative that the mutant in question be brought under S.H.I.E.L.D.’s control, to be used and/or terminated if necessary, and Maria Hill isn’t one for leaving things to chance.

Meanwhile, the mutant in question, Reggie Bowers, is cold, hungry and scared out of his mind of his new powers.

Forces: One player controls the X-Men: A team of 6-10 would be best (about 750-800 points), depending on the power levels of the heroes chosen. The other player controls two recovery teams of 6 S.H.I.E.L.D. agents each (henchmen), led by one agent in Mandroid armor. One recovery team is made up of veterans, giving them double Vitality. The S.H.I.E.L.D. player will also control the Sentinels, but there are special rules for them.

Setup: The game is played on a 4’x6’ table, divided into sextants of 2’x2’.  Each side deploys their forces on either of the short sides. The X-Men player may deploy all his models at the start of the game. The S.H.I.E.L.D. player may only deploy his Recovery Teams and the Mandroids at the start of the game.

Place at least 4 counters in cover in the two middle sextants of the board. The counters should be numbered in some way to distinguish each from the others. These represent possible hiding places where Reggie has gone to ground.

Special Rules

Reggie: Reggie has the following stats: Strength : 3 Agility: 4 Mind: 2 Resolve: 2 Vitality 5 AP: 6. His powers play no part in the scenario, as he can’t control them yet and is too scared to try.  He begins the game in hiding. The four counters represent possible hiding places. At the start of the game, assign Reggie one of the numbers on the back of the counters. At any point during a model’s turn, if that model is within 6” of a counter, it can try to spot Reggie. Make an opposed Mind vs. Reggie’s Agility contest. If the model wins, flip the counter over and look at the number. If it doesn’t match Reggie’s number, it’s not him. If it does, the model has spotted Reggie. Remove all the counters and place the miniature representing Reggie on that spot.

At the start of every subsequent turn, if Reggie is not in base contact with another model, he will move away from any model towards cover at his full AP (6).  If he is in base contact with a model, he will move with that model up to that model’s AP total or Reggie’s, whichever is less. This represents Reggie being herded along by either side. If the model herding Reggie is KO’ed, Reggie will move randomly again at the start of the next turn until he is in base contact with another model.

Reggie cannot be attacked by either side (they want him alive), and he will not fight. He will move with any model that gets into base contact with him, but can only move as described above. He may be grabbed and moved along faster;, however, he will actively resist any attempts to grab him, and may be hurt unintentionally during a rescue attempt (see below).

Sentinels: At the start of the turn, beginning on Turn 2, the S.H.I.E.L.D. player may deploy a Sentinel in any sextant he wishes. It can activate as normal on the turn it comes into play. Every second turn thereafter (i.e. turn 4, 6, 8, etc), and/or any turn immediately following the destruction of a Sentinel, the S.H.I.E.L.D. player may deploy another Sentinel in the same manner.

The following exceptions apply:  if Reggie has been revealed, the S.H.I.E.L.D. player must deploy his Sentinel in the same sextant that Reggie currently occupies.

Sentinel Grab: If a Sentinel successfully grabs Reggie, he is rendered unconscious immediately and will not resist on subsequent turns. Reggie will regain consciousness if freed (see below).

Rescuing Reggie:
If any model (other than a Sentinel) successfully grabs Reggie, Reggie will resist to the best of his ability each turn until he either gets away or is carried off the board. Note that if Reggie breaks free from a flying model he will suffer falling damage. If a model carrying Reggie is attacked and missed, there is a chance Reggie will be hit (same as firing into close combat). If a model carrying Reggie is hit for at least 2 Vitality, the model drops Reggie and Reggie is free to move on the next turn.

If a Sentinel drops Reggie, he will suffer falling damage (3D) unless a model catches him. A model attempting to catch Reggie must be in base contact with the Sentinel or possess the Bodyguard power, and must pass a Difficult-2 Agility Roll or Reggie hits the ground. If he’s not killed by the fall, Reggie will regain consciousness immediately and can act normally on his next turn, but he will be prone (2AP to stand up).

Winning the Game: A player wins the game either by wiping out the enemy team or by getting Reggie off of their side of the board. If this happens, the game ends immediately, regardless of any remaining models on the board. If Reggie dies during a rescue attempt, the player attempting the rescue loses immediately.

How it all played out:

In my game, the X-Men were controlled by four of my friends in teams of two heroes each, while I controlled S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Sentinels. The X-Men consisted of Storm, Cyclops, Rogue, Wolverine, Colossus, Iceman, Gambit and Longshot.

While the game was too long to detail turn by turn, I’ll share some highlights. I assumed that the hunt for Reggie would take a while, as there are four places he could be. In the meantime, S.H.I.E.L.D. might get a couple of shots off at an X-Man or two, and vice-versa. Turns out Reggie was discovered by Turn 2, thanks to Iceman’s ability to move pretty fast and take Longshot along with him. This duo approached a random marker and was able to make the opposed Mind vs. Agility check to spot Reggie, thanks in part to Longshot’s Fortune power. By Turn 2, Reggie was being herded along towards the X-Men’s side of the board, far, far away from S.H.I.E.L.D.

Thankfully, with Reggie now revealed, I was able to deploy a Sentinel right where he needed to be on Turn 2. This was able to delay the X-Men, hopefully long enough for S.H.I.E.L.D. to catch up. That didn’t happen, but the Sentinel made quick work of Longshot (which was a good strategy for me, as Fortune is a power that can really hose your opponent) and caused Reggie to run away randomly for a turn.

Unfortunately for me, on Turn 3, Wolverine and Rogue took out the sentinel in spectacular fashion. Wolverine is the best he is at what he does, which is shred robots like wet tissue. His Soul Fire ability makes it so that instead of resisting damage with their Physical Resistance (which is formidable), the Sentinels had to resist with their Mind (which is far less impressive). Wolvie took the Sentinel from 11 Vitality down to 1 in one shot, whereupon Rogue finished it off with a Power Dive.

Turn 4 allowed me to deploy another Sentinel, so I wasted no time in doing so. Over the course of the next few turns, I would get all 4 Sentinels on the board, the X-Men would get Reggie to within 1″ of their table edge, only to have a Sentinel rip him from their grasp and high-tail it across the board with the hapless Reggie in his fist. My S.H.I.E.L.D. guys would do absolutely nothing of consequence. They failed at every opportunity to inflict damage, and they were so slow, they barely got anywhere near the action for most of the game.

Except for these guys.

First, I must confess to a certain bias. I hate Gambit. I always have. I find him to be a stupid character with a stupid premise. I hate his costume. I hate his powers. I hate his stupid Cajun accent and his stupid telescoping quarterstaff. In short, I hate Gambit. A lot.

Which is why I found it so vexing that despite shooting at his stupid Cajun ass EVERY TURN with EVERY AVAILABLE MODEL, I was unable to wound him enough to kill him. I even resorted to swarming him en masse, thinking that sheer weight of numbers would overwhelm him. Well, not even 6 highly trained S.H.I.E.L.D agents, one Mandroid, and a fire team of S.H.I.E.L.D. veterans taking intermittent potshots at the melee could drop Gambit. The fact that my friend provided smack-talk in Gambit’s Cajun-accented voice after every failed attempt (Honh Honh Honh, mon ami!) only added to my misery.

The most dramatic moment came at the end of the game, when a Sentinel carrying Reggie made a beeline to the other side of the board, with Iceman and Wolverine in hot pursuit. Iceman tried in vain to entangle the Sentinel in ice so that Wolverine could get close enough to do what he does best, but he was unable to entangle the Sentinel successfully. Also, on the last turn, out of sheer spite, I had my remaining Sentinel charge Gambit hoping to smear him across the pavement.

It didn’t work. Gambit survived.

So although I won the game, I still feel like I lost.

The Menace of Ultron Part 2: A Super System 3 AAR

A few nights later we picked up where we left off. My friend Chris couldn’t make it, so we decided this was that moment in so many comic books where the two hero teams combine to fight a common enemy! Matt quickly chose Captain America as his new, combined hero team leader. He figured if there was one guy besides Professor X that Cyclops would defer to, it would be Cap.

Turn 3

The heroes got initiative.

SNIKT! Wolverine charged down the alley and ripped into Dreadnought #1. His adamantium claws are pretty impressive against mindless robots. He netted 6 Vitality of damage to the Dreadnought, dropping it to 1 and kniocking it back 5 inches!. Despite this, Dreadnought #1 was barely able to remain upright. But the Dreadnought’s electrified armor shocked him back for 7 Vitality! (Turns out we were doing this wrong; Wolverine shouldn’t have been shocked for anywhere near that much damage. But what the hell. It’s cinematic.)

In response, Dreadnought #1 ran forward and attacked Wolverine, but missed.

 

Iron Man fired of a repulsor blast at Ultron and hit. What’s impressive is he actually managed to do 3 Vitality worth of damage, as Ultron rolled miserably to resist.

In response, Ultron attempted  to telekinetically grab Iron Man and bring him into hand to hand. Problem is, that’s not how the power works. TK grab just roots someone to the spot. Even if it succeeded (which it didn’t), it wouldn’t have left me with a  lot of tactical options; but since I had already spent the points to use the power this round, I was stuck with it. The first of several of my blunders.

Storm used her wind control to transport both herself and Colossus 9″. Then they landed.

Dreadnought #2 attacked Wolverine and hit; combined with his Damaging Aura, the attack did a total of 4 more Vitality damage and knocked him back 2″ into the wall of a nearby building.  Wolverine was starting to look pretty battered.

Cyclops fired at Dreadnought #2, but missed.

Madame Hydra used her short-range teleport ring to get to the top of a nearby building. Once there, she took a shot at Storm and hit, but Storm managed to avoid any damage.

Colossus moved towards Ultron, intent upon closing with him in hand-to-hand combat next turn.

Dreadnought #3 fired at the approaching Colossus and hit, but the big mutant just shrugged it off.

From behind a pile of junk, Hawkeye took a shot at Ultron and hit, but did no damage.

The Vision floated towards Ultron, still intangible and out of sight for any ranged attack.

Captain America threw his shield at Dreadnought #3, and scored a whopping 17 goals on his attack! The end result, however, was not as impressive: the Dreadnought suffered 4 Vitality worth of damage, leaving it with 3. Cap used his remaining AP to move through the alley to assist Wolverine next turn, retrieving his shield along the way.

Turn 4

The initiative was a tie, broken by Captain America’s higher AP total. The heroes went first.

Storm took off and blasted Madame Hydra with a lightning bolt, but missed.

Ultron used his Dominate power on the weak-willed Colossus and succeeded, meaning he would be able to control Colossus when Matt activated him next. Then he moved back into the park.

Captain America flung his shield in a spray attack, attempting to hit both Dreadnoughts, but only hit  one. It resisted all damage. In return, Dreadnought #1 charged Cap and attacked, scoring enough net goals to drop his Vitality to zero and knock him back into the building. (Matt really rolled terribly on his defense rolls.) Captain America was KO’ed!

Wolverine spent 4 AP to Regenerate, scoring 8 goals, restoring 8 Vitality! Back in the fight, he used 6 AP to Flurry, scoring a net of 7 goals of damage on each Dreadnought, enough to destroy them both! Take that, Bub! Then he moved past their smoking and sparking bodies towards Ultron, his intentions obvious.

Dreadnought #3 used all his power pool for his Damaging Aura and left nothing for Ranged attack, so if he wanted to do anything, he’s have to attack in melee. I knew that Colossus wouldn’t fight back, so I figured I might take the opportunity to do some damage to Colossus. This was blunder #2. The Dreadnought charged and did 2 Vitality of damage, knocking Colossus back 4″ and knocking him prone.

Iron Man shot at Dreadnought #3 and hit, but did no damage. Then he flew atop the same building as Madame Hydra, getting into position to ruin her day next turn.

But Madame Hydra teleported away, this time to the street. She shot Cyclops for 5 Vitality of damage, almost knocking him out. Then she used her remaining AP to close the gap, moving into hand-to-hand.

Cyclops fired at Madame Hydra at point-blank range and missed. Maybe he was still seeing stars from her shot.

Hawkeye took a shot at Madame Hydra, attempting to Entangle her. He missed, and also missed Cyclops, who he could have hit by accident.

The Vision continued to drift closer to Ultron, still intangible.

Of course, Matt waited until the last possible second to activate Colossus, who was mine to control. Unfortunately for me, I had to spend 2 of Colossus’s measly 5 AP just to stand up after being knocked prone by the Dreadnought. Even with his extra movement, Colossus couldn’t reach Hawkeye this turn to punch him into next week like I wanted. And at the end of the turn, control of Colossus reverted back to Matt.

Turn 5

With Cap KO’ed, Matt nominated Cyclops as his new team leader. This allowed Ultron to seize initiative for the first time this game.

 

With Wolverine bearing down on him, Ultron did the sensible thing. He fired at Wolverine with full power. Unfortunately, he missed. So he did the next best thing. He used his remaining AP to move farther away.

That didn’t help him for long. Wolverine charged and easily closed the gap, but despite scoring 8 goals to damage Ultron, the robot was able to resist all damage.

Madame Hydra shot at Cyclops at point-blank range, but she missed.

Vision finally got into the fight and tried a phase attack against Dreadnought #3, but missed.

Colossus charged into combat with Madame Hydra, attacking her from behind and knocking her senseless. Madame Hydra was KO’ed!

Hawkeye successfully Entangled Dreadnought #3, rooting it to the spot. Despite this, Iron Man still missed when he shot at the Dreadnought moments later.

Finally, Storm blew Dreadnought #3 to pieces with a lightning bolt that did 6 goals of unresisted damage. Dreadnought #3 was destroyed!

Turn 6

Ultron, now alone, faced the combined forces of Iron Man, Vision, Hawkeye, Cyclops, Storm, Colossus and Wolverine. It was pretty clear he’d be defeated eventually, and it was getting late, so we called it a night. Victory to the heroes!

The Menace of Ultron Part 1: A Super System 3 AAR

Well, I finally got my table finished for good and invited a couple of pals over for some gaming. I figured since I had so much fun with it last time, why not play some Super System 3? So before they came over I came up with a scenario, grabbed some Heroclix and set the table.

I decided to use more powerful characters this time around, so I chose the X-Men and The Avengers as hero teams. They needed an appropriate menace, so I hunted around until I came up with someone so badass they would just HAVE to team up to take him down: Ultron. I didn’t paint any of these miniatures: you can thank underpaid Chinese laborers for that.

For the X-Men, I chose a pretty powerful foursome: Storm, Colossus, Cyclops and everyone’s favorite psycho, Wolverine.

The Avengers’ roster is nothing to sneer at: Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man, and the enigmatic Vision.

The bad guys: Madame Hydra and a squad of Hydra Goons…

…who just activated Ultron and a small squad of Dreadnoughts.

I originally set up a 48″ x 48″ surface, but I realized that with this many miniatures on the table, all ranged attacks would likely be at medium range or so. When given the choice of using the full 4′ x 6′ table, my friends wanted to go for it. So we threw some more terrain down and the result is shown above.

We got most of the stats for the heroes and villains from this site. My friend Matt chose the X-Men;, his brother Chris picked the Avengers. That left yours truly as the bad guys. HAIL HYDRA!!!!

Each side chose their team leader, which determines how many dice you’ll roll for initiative.  Chris and I made the obvious choices: Captain America and Ultron. Matt, bless his heart, chose the more thematically-appropriate leader for his team and picked Cyclops, even though Wolverine would have given him a better dice pool for initiative.

The Scenario

It goes without saying that if you live in Manhattan, you get used to a lot. Seems like every other week there’s a super-powered threat to the city that the Fantastic Four or the Avengers has to deal with. But it’s still a tribute to the average New Yorker that a 6 block area was evacuated so soon after the emergency broadcast went out. Then again, the nature of the emergency certainly lent some urgency to the mass exodus: Ultron.

The SR-71 Blackbird activated it’s VTOL engines about 90 feet over the apartment block. Moments later, aided by Storm’s winds, four of the mutants known to the world as the Uncanny X-Men touched down and quickly assumed a practiced formation.  Wolverine sniffed the air. “They’re this way,” he said, tugging his cowl in place and moving swiftly southward.

“Take point, Logan,” said the team’s leader, Cyclops; not that Wolverine ever waited for an order. “Ororo, go topside and look around. Colossus, you’re with me.”

“Understood,” said Storm, as a sudden gust of wind bore her aloft. The giant Russian said nothing, but a crackle of energy as he transformed into his osmium-steel form was acknowledgment enough. He fell into place a half-step behind Cyclops as they trailed after Wolverine.

 

Two blocks to the east, the whine of the Quinjet’s engines faded as the now-empty aircraft shot out over the water, leaving behind four of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, The Avengers.

“Our limo is only a phone call away,” said the metallic voice of Iron Man. He turned his attention from the Quinjet’s remote controls inside his helmet display. “The X-Men have touched down about two blocks from here to the west. I’m reading the hostiles are a couple of blocks south. And Cap, they know we’re here.”

“Avengers, Assemble!” said Captain America, unslinging his star-spangled shield from his back. “Hawkeye, Iron Man: gain some altitude and see what you can find out. Vision, back me up. These idiots have no idea what they’ve done by activating Ultron. We need to put him away fast, people. Let’s move!”

“Way ahead of you, Cap,” said Hawkeye, leaping atop a nearby abandoned truck, as Iron Man’s boot jets propelled him skyward. “Less chatter would be nice.”

Captain America ignored him. “Vision, if you get a chance, don’t hesitate. Take it.”

The android’s face was unreadable. “Acknowledged, Captain.” They moved southward together.

 

“Head northeast and engage the Avengers,” said Madame Hydra, loosening her plasma pistol in its holster. “Fire at will. I want them destroyed.”

“Hail Hydra!” chorused seven of her best soldiers, snapping to attention. A moment later they were off, following her command. She had no illusions about their chances of success, but they were expendable. The most important thing was that they occupy the heroes long enough so that she could get away with Ultron. Activating him had been no easy feat, but the payoff would be well worth it. With the robot in Hydra’s ranks, there was nothing the nefarious organization could not accomplish!

Her cruel smile vanished as she saw the robot was moving away on his own, taking her three Dreadnoughts with him. “Where are you going?” she demanded. “Stop! I am in command here!”

Ultron turned and regarded her for a moment. “May I suggest you allow me free reign? I would be much more useful to you.”

“Why would I do that?” she sneered. “You are mine to control!”

“Because I am smarter, more powerful, and infinitely better suited to the task of command than you are. I have the brain engrams of Dr. Henry Pym, making me, at best estimate,approximately 6.2 times more intelligent than you. If that were not enough, my cybernetic mind can perform 360 million complex calculations per second. And I, unlike you, have fought- and defeated- the Avengers before and am intimately acquainted with their tactics and strategy, particularly with regard to fighting me.”

Madame Hydra glanced around for support, but found only the cold, robotic eyes of the three Dreadnought robots. She suddenly felt very alone. Ultron awaited her answer.

“Very well, act as you see fit,” she said. “But remember that I am in command here, robot, and you will obey me, should I give the order.” She followed after her soldiers.

Not for long, you stupid cow, thought Ultron. He turned wordlessly and strode north, through the park. His internal processors quickly wrote and executed an algorithmic program whose sole purpose was to find a way to override Hydra’s programming.  In the meantime, he would eliminate the X-Men and allow Madame Hydra and her poltroons to occupy the Avengers until he could get there. Then he would destroy them all, including those who would dare to call themselves his master.

Turn 1

We rolled for initiative. Not surprisingly, Captain America scored the most goals, followed by Ultron and finally, Cyclops; making the order Avengers-Hydra-X-men.

Not a whole lot happened the first turn other than movement. The Avengers and X-Men began to move south. The Hydra goons and Madame Hydra circled the park to the east and moved to engage the Avengers. Ultron and the three Dreadnoughts went north towards the X-Men.

Matt wanted Wolverine to go over a parked car rather than around it. We decided Wolverine could probably easily do that, so a quick Agility check was made and passed, and we decided he bounded over the car with no penalty to movement. Likewise Chris wanted Hawkeye to gain some higher ground, so he had him leap atop the cab of a stationary fuel truck. Another quick Agility check was made and Hawkeye gained his perch.

Storm and Ultron both took to the skies on their turn. Ultron spotted Storm a long way off and took a shot at her at long range. He missed. That was pretty much turn 1 in a nutshell.

Turn 2

The initiative order was the same.

From atop the fuel truck, Hawkeye could just about spy the top of a Dreadnought’s head through the trees in the park. It was all he needed. He took his shot and hit, but the Dreadnought shrugged off the damage easily.

The Hydra goons continued to move forward as a group. They didn’t get far.

Storm fired back at Ultron. Despite the long range, she hit him squarely with a bolt of lightning from the heavens, but failed to damage the robot.

Iron Man flew around a building and targeted the group of Hydra henchmen with his ranged attack, scoring seven goals. The goons failed to resist even one. The last thing the Hydra soldiers saw was a bright flash as Iron Man’s Uni-Beam knocked them senseless. Scratch one group of Henchmen!

Ultron continued to move north, but veered to the east, over the park wall. He couldn’t resist taking a shot at the hated Iron Man. He missed.

Wolverine moved south into an alley between two buildings, making a quick Agility check and hopping over a concrete parking barrier, on a beeline towards the Dreadnoughts.

Vision activated his Density Decrease power and started levitating. He took a long range shot at Ultron with his solar gem and hit, but failed to do any damage.

One Dreadnought continued towards the alley to the north, straight towards Wolverine. He took a shot at Storm flying above, but missed.

Colossus moved south, making a quick Agility check and hopping a jersey barrier with no penalty to movement.

Captain America decided to throw his shield at Ultron, with predictable results. It ricocheted harmlessly off the robot’s adamantium body.

After just watching her whole squad of “expendable” soldiers get expended, Madame Hydra moved towards cover, taking a few shots at Captain America. But Cap had his shield back by then, and her shots were blocked with ease.

Cyclops fired off an optic blast at  an approaching Dreadnought but his shot went wide. The Dreadnought took a shot at Wolverine, but missed. The last Dreadnought responded to an unspoken robotic command from Ultron to join him on the flank. Of course, the wall was in the way, but that’s no problem for a robot with energy blasters. There are no rules for attacking obstacles in SS3, so we just ruled that the wall had a Resistance of 4. It failed to resist the Dreadnought’s blast, so down it went.

It was at this point that we had to break due to circumstances beyond our control. We decided we’d pick it up in a few nights and left the table as is.

The Gun Store Heist: A SuperSystem 3 AAR

I have lots of HeroClix miniatures, but I never really got into the game. I hate the dials. While they’ve gotten better with each new release, some of the early miniatures were almost impossible to turn on the dial, resulting in more than one broken miniature from normal play. I lost count of how many Scarlet Witches I snapped off the dial, usually at the ankle.

Another thing that has improved with each new release is the overall quality of the paint jobs. Some of the early sets were atrocious. Even though they’ve improved, I touch up or completely repaint most of my HeroClix miniatures that I play with.

A little while ago I purchased SuperSystem 3 at the recommendation of pretty much everyone who plays superhero miniatures games. I decided it was time to try out my new gaming table, so I threw some scenery down, came up with a quick scenario and grabbed some Clix. First: our cast of characters:

Heroes for Hire

I’m a huge fan of Power Man and Iron Fist, so I decided they would be my heroes. I own a full run of the comic from the 70’s-80’s. Power Man is my favorite.  These are both repaints. Especially Iron Fist, since the figure I had was the “Experienced” one with the red costume, and that’s just wrong. I popped them off the dials and rebased them on urban bases.

Daughters of the Dragon

Hanging with our heroes are the gals from Nightwing Restorations, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing. Misty is Reaper’s Ebony Foxx, Mod Heroine (50179), and Colleen is RAFM’s Asp, Assassin. Asp doesn’t really look like Colleen Wing, but she’s the only modern girl with a katana I could find. (For some reason, the angle of this picture makes it look like someone beat the shit out of Misty Knight. She looks better than the picture would indicate.)

The Bad Guys: Constrictor, Scorpion and Shocker

I picked some bad guys of a similar power level. All of them have ranged attacks, too, which could be a challenge for the heroes, most of whom like to fight hand-to-hand.

Scorpion's Goons

Of course the bad guys need some henchmen, so I added some repainted and rebased Henchmen and Criminals, too.

The Scenario

Scorpion was never much of a deep thinker, but he knew one thing: guns meant money. If he could load up on guns (and bring his friends), he could make a killing. Guns were always in demand. Whatever he didn’t sell he could outfit his gang with. Maybe knock over an armored car or something down the road. Shocker and Constrictor, both recently out of jail, were looking for a piece of the action. Scorpion figured  his gang should be able to deal with any cops that show up. And if any super heroes try to butt in, the three of them should be able to handle it.

Power Man, Iron Fist, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing are enjoying a night on the town (in costume, of course) at the Gaslight Lounge. Just as they’re leaving, they hear a loud explosion followed by an alarm.

“That’s the next block,” says Misty. “The gun shop!”

Colleen draws her katana. Luke Cage cracks his knuckles and stretches his neck. “Looks like we get to bust some heads, eh, Fist?”

But Iron Fist is already in motion, moving swiftly across the street towards the sound of the alarm. Misty draws her trusty .357 Magnum just in time to see several rough-looking men begin to load a truck with crates. They notice the heroes and draw their own guns.

It’s on!

Setup

Initial Setup

I placed the thugs near the entrance of the gun shop, along with two vehicles. Their job was to load these trucks up and make off with the guns. The Shocker just blew the front door off the shop and is supervising the loading of the pickup, along with the Constrictor, who is supervising the loading of the Hummer. The Scorpion is atop an apartment building, overlooking the battle. The heroes are just coming out of the Gaslight across the street.

Round 1

I designated Iron Fist the leader for the heroes, and Scorpion the leader for the villains. The villains won the initiative for the first round.

Shocker jumps off the back of the truck and moves to the main street where he can get a clear shot at anyone coming around the corner of the Taco Temple. Meanwhile, Misty moves to cover behind a fence and shoots at the henchmen across the street. Despite having some cover from the dumpster and Hummer, Misty manages to drop 3 of the henchmen with some well-placed shots from her .357. Rubber bullets, of course.

The remaining three henchmen return fire, but miss Misty Knight. Iron Fist uses all his Action Points to move across the street towards the Taco Temple, trying to close the gap with the villains as fast as possible. The Constrictor makes his way around the other side of the Taco Temple towards Misty, intent on stopping her from dropping any more of the gang. Power Man moves his full AP, 7″, across the street, and walks right into Scorpion’s plasma blast. Scorpion scores 3 goals, enough to hit Cage smack in the chest. But damaging him is another matter. Aside from shredding his shirt, the blast does nothing to Cage but make him mad. Finally, Colleen darts across the street, using her full AP to get as close to Constrictor as possible.

End of Round 1

Round 2

This time around, the heroes get the initiative.

Misty fires at the Constrictor, wisely perceiving him to be the biggest immediate threat, but he bullets ricochet harmlessly off his armored costume. Since he’s not afraid of Misty’s rubber bullets, Constrictor wastes no time attacking Colleen. He scores enough net goals to entangle her in his electrified coils. Colleen is trapped and takes 4 vitality as the coils begin to constrict!

Colleen tries to break free and barely succeeds. She uses the rest of her AP to close the distance with Constrictor, but she can’t attack. The henchmen open fire on her scoring an impressive four goals, but Colleen scores five, so all of them miss.

Iron Fist runs at the Shocker, leaping into the air and delivering a vicious aerial back kick! He scores a net total of 8 goals to hit, which translates (after bonuses) into 13 goals worth of damage! Shocker’s padded costume allows him to resist 7 goals, but he still takes 6 vitality, which drops him to 1! Shocker is knocked back 4″ and is knocked prone. He’ll feel that one tomorrow.

Ka-POW!

Shaking his head to clear it, Shocker rises to his feet and levels a blast at Iron Fist. He manages to hit Iron Fist, scoring 3 vitality worth of damage. Iron Fist is knocked back 2″, but his Instant Stand power allows him to easily keep his footing and avoid being knocked prone.

Power Man rips a lamp post out of the ground and advances across the street.

Scorpion sees Iron Fist flatten Shocker. He climbs down the building and aims his tail at Iron Fist. He uses the rest of his AP and fires, but Iron Fist easily dodges.

Round 3

The villains get initiative.

Have a lamp post!

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what Luke Cage wants to do with that lamp post. Thankfully, Scorpion is no genius. He fires his plasma blaster directly at the advancing Power Man, once again hitting him squarely. He achieves an impressive 6 goals, but Power Man shrugs the blast off yet again, taking no damage. In response, Power Man hurls the lamp post at Scorpion.  Scorpion is a pretty agile guy, so he manages to dodge out of the way completely. Cage spends his remaining AP to move 3″ closer to Scorpion.

Shocker backs off 3″ (getting some distance away from Iron Fist seems like a smart thing to do) and fires his vibro-gauntlets at Iron Fist again, but can’t seem to get a bead on him. Iron fist charges Shocker and in a flurry of blows drops the super-villain once and for all. Shocker fails his Resolve roll to stay on his feet and is KO’ed!

Constrictor decides putting some space between him and the katana-wielding Colleen Wing might be a good idea too, so he attempts to break away from combat in order to try to entangle her again. Unfortunately, since he doesn’t possess Combat Reflexes, Colleen Wing gets a free attack on him as he turns tail and runs. Turns out turning your back on a katana is a bad idea. Colleen slashes through his armored costume, doing a net 3 goals of damage. Constrictor curses and bleeds. Then he uses his remaining AP to move away 3″ and attack Colleen. His steel coils lash out and batter her for 5 goals, dropping Colleen to the ground like a wet bag of dirt. Colleen is KO’ed!

Misty Knight uses all her AP to get as far away from Constrictor as possible, and also get out of the line of fire of the Henchmen.

The Henchmen open fire anyway but miss Misty.

Round 4

Iron Fist rolls an impressive 7 goals to Scorpion’s 2, so the heroes get initiative.

Power Man charges the Scorpion, but fails to inflict any damage. Scorpion lashes out with his tail, intent on smacking Power Man’s head from his shoulders, but Cage dodges.

Constrictor moves closer to Misty by 3″ and tries to entangle, but Misty is too quick and gets out of the way. In response, she fires at Constrictor and hits, but once again fails to do any damage.

The Henchmen move towards and fire upon Iron Fist. They manage to hit him, but he resists all damage from the shot. He moves into base contact with the henchmen group. His Foresight power nullifies any extra combat dice the henchmen would have received for outnumbering him 3 to 1. Iron Fist attacks, and in a disappointing roll only manages to net one goal. Still, that’s enough to drop one henchman.

End of Round 4

Round 5

The heroes manage to hold onto initiative 5 goals to 4.

Luke Cage decides to try to end this quickly, so he winds up and throws a haymaker right at Scorpion’s jaw. Scorpion sees it coming a mile away and Power Man whiffs badly.

Constrictor attacks Misty, entangling her in his coils. He does a net 4 goals of damage, dropping Misty to a mere 3 vitality. Misty tries to break free, but not even her bionic arm can loosen the Constrictor’s coils!

The remaining two Henchmen attack Iron Fist in hand-to-hand, with predictable results. Iron Fist easily avoids their blows and neutralizes both of them with a battery of punches and kicks!

There's a reason he's called "The Living Weapon", you know...

Finally, Scorpion attacks Power Man, but fails to do any damage.

Round 6

The heroes score initiative yet again.

Misty tries to escape the coils of the Constrictor once more, but can’t. She doesn’t have enough AP for a second try. Constrictor starts pumping electricity through his coils. Misty grits her teeth from the pain but manages to resist any damage.

Iron Fist hears his lady-love screaming in agony, and uses all his AP to rush to her aid. He gets close to Misty, but that’s all he can do this round.

Scorpion finally manages to land a blow on Power Man for a net 2 goals of damage. Luke Cage loses 2 vitality, but easily resists the knockback. Power Man throws another haymaker and misses again.

End of Round 6

Round 7

The villains manage to seize the initiative this round.

Constrictor wastes no time in finishing Misty off. His electric coils shock her for a whopping 7 goals. Misty fails to resist any damage and fails her Resolve roll. Since she only had 3 vitality left, she is KO’ed!

Iron Fist charges Constrictor. He reaches down deep…summons his chi…channeling the power of his chi into his fist…until that fist becomes…LIKE UNTO A THING OF IRON! Thus strikes the mystic warrior of K’un L’un!

Iron Fist scores 8 goals on his attack. Constrictor only manages one. After all bonuses, Iron Fist nets 6 goals, which is enough to KO Constrictor. Constrictor fails his Resolve roll and is KO’ed!

Scorpion attacks Power Man again and misses, but is smart enough to know when he’s beaten. He uses his remaining AP to leave combat and flee up the side of the building. Power Man gets a free attack on him as he breaks away, but Scorpion proves too fast and scampers 5″ up the side of the building.

In response, Power Man walks over to another lamp post and rips it out of the ground.

Round 8

Both Iron Fist and Scorpion roll 5 goals for initiative. However, since the heroes’ AP total is highest, they get initiative.

Power Man moves 3″ closer to the building and hurls the lamp post at Scorpion. He hits, scoring a net 5 goals of damage, dropping Scorpion’s vitality to 3. I decide that getting smeared by a lamp post while clinging to a building might make it difficult to keep your grip, so I have Scorpion make a Difficult (3) Agility check to keep his grip or he’ll fall right into Power Man’s lap. Scorpion gets the required 3 goals and manages to hold on.

"You haven't seen the last of me!"

Scorpion chooses to flee and fight another day. He takes to the rooftops, vowing revenge! Game over!

End of Turn 8, and End of Game!

And that’s how my first foray into SuperSystem 3 worked out. I’m excited to play more games with different heroes. Although it was solo play, this game took me less than two hours, and that’s with me looking things up every other turn. I think once I get a good handle on the rules, games like this will go fast, allowing several scenarios or campaigns to  played in one day.