Intimate setting.
As you can see the 4 dark areas are bases, the white tiles are road which give you +3 movement as long as you stay on the road. This particular map is somewhat small so I'd have no problem drafting a lot of people with 1 range. Typically due to the size of the map having too many people with only 1 range can be a downfall. With that said let's get to drafting....
Look at all those characters, well over 100
We have 3 ways of drafting. First is everyone gets a certain amount of points (say, 2000) and roll a d20 for order and start picking. The second is an auction draft where we go through alphabetically and auction off characters. The third and most popular method is random draw. This is the most complicated but assures a wild mix of characters every time. We have characters separated into tiers. (Support, Low, Medium, High). We then decide how many of the top 3 tiers we get. This game we decided to get 5 Low (3 random, 2 picked) 5 Medium (3 Random, 2 picked) 4 High (2 Random, 2 Picked) and 3 untradeable choices (1 random from random tier, 1 picked from random tier, 1 picked from high tier). You can also trade 1 Low tier for 2 support tier or 2 of a lower tier for 1 of the tier above it. Also there are random trades along the table with 1 character from each tier and a veto. Yes it is confusing at first and text doesn't do it justice. But it all starts with a roll of the dice.
Dem Bones
So we'll be following my team, I decided to get Lobo again even though I have had bad luck with him. Sentinel Mk. III is my high tier guy so I always get him unless someone randoms him before me. And of course I gotta get Weather Wizard (who I would have never thought of getting had we not drafted this style, makes you learn new characters). So here is my team after draft and before trades.
Punisher, Emma Frost, Two Face, Lizard, Weather Wizard, Zatana, Dr. Fate, Batman, Colossus, Deadpool, She-Hulk, Hulk, Sentinel Mk. III, Lobo, Elektra, Mandarin, Abomination
Pretty solid team. Not too happy with Emma Frost and Two Face but that's why we have trades. I think I will trade up two from low tier to get a mid tier given that I'm not too fond of any of them other than Weather Wizard. Let's check out how it looks post-trade
Punisher, Two Face, Weather Wizard, Wolverine, Dr. Fate, Batman, Colossus, Deadpool, Lex Luthor, She-Hulk, Zauriel, Sentinel Mk. III, Lobo, Elektra, Mandarin, Abomination
So as you can see Lizard got randomly traded for Blob. I then sacrificed Emma Frost and randomly sacrificed Blob to trade up and get Lex Luthor. Zatana was Traded for Wolverine and Hulk was traded for Zauriel (after I vetoed Sentinel Mk. III for Zauriel). Let's get the characters on the table.
It's going down!
Now I have my cards and figures, red damage markers and hit dice are ready. I also have my order markers (I chose green this game) and my glyphs for Mandarin and Batman. Let's place them on my base and get to it!
Ready for battle!
I've got my team ready. Weaker and support characters behind the walls, ranged characters in the back, and tanks up front. Let's get out there and fight.
Welp...
Not a great start. I sent She-Hulk and Sentinel Mk. III out into the middle to start dealing damage. Lobo I sent out onto the road but not too far. She-Hulk had a hell of a time against Solomon Grundy controlled by Stephan. Strong character out early is never a good sign.
Here comes Zauriel
I decided to bring Zauriel out and was able to take care of Grundy and join this battle on the right. Doomsday at the top is Leeper's. Black Adam is Stephan's and of course Zauriel at the bottom is mine.
Son of a bitch..
So Black Adam was able to take care of Zauriel, two strong characters gone early but I'm not out of it by any means. Sentinel took care of Black Adam but now I have Mentallo taking control of my characters. Luckily I have an ace in the hole against mind control. Mandarin and anyone adjacent to him can not be controlled by other figures. Time to teleport him with Dr. Fate and try to take down Mentallo.
He's the hero we need...
So I brought Mandarin right to Stephan's base. My plan got foiled a little bit by Leeper randomly bringing Nova over and getting 3 wounds onto Mandarin (he has 5 health) none the less I decide to use my energy rings and do damage to a figure withing 3 clear sight spaces. I rolled a 19 which is 3 automatic wounds. I know I wanted to go after Mentallo at first but with Superman right there, 3 wounds right now is huge so I chose Superman.
Whoa wtf?
So Hulk came on over while Mandarin was doing his thing. Luckily I have him surrounded by Lobo (6 attack) and Wolverine (4 attack +1 for being higher) Hulk is a beast but I have my characters placed well and both have healing abilities. Time to let loose.
RIP Mandarin 2013-2013
Looking back I think I got too aggressive with Mandarin. Keeping him in my base would have kept a lot of people from being controlled by Mentallo or Gorilla Grodd (who died early anyway). He's not a HUGE loss to me but losing his glyphs doesn't make me happy. Also I still have this Hulk problem...
Dead sucka!
Getting rid of Hulk without him doing a ton of damage is huge since he gains attack die for every wound he has on him up to a maximum of 5. (Base attack 6 so he can roll up to 11 attack die) Dr. Fate came in and helped, Lobo actually got the kill. My plan now is to retreat to my base for a bit and heal Lobo up. (he's at 3 out of 6 life).
Bullshit
So apparently my base is the party area. Lobo was able to fully heal. Leeper brought Nova close, Stephan (via Mentallo) brought Nova right into my base. Tyler then decided bringing Captain Marvel over was a good idea and eventually Stephan brought Red She-Hulk close. Nova ends up getting killed while Doomsday comes in to take his place. Sentinel was killed by Red She-Hulk and we eventually called it a night. Two players ended up losing 4 characters and 2 players lost 3. All in all a pretty even battle....so far.
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