Ok, so I went rogue- I got away on a weekday over at Astonishing Comics during a wild game build I read about on Facebook- 1,000 points, Anything goes! I had no clue what I’d be up against but I had recently bought the Desolation of Smaug Starter Set based on the Hobbit movie- I quickly added up the points and came up to a little over 900. So, I had my base team and just add a few more items and I guarantee no one else would be playing these pieces! Let’s take a closer look at my team.
Let’s start with Bilbo- he’s…..not much to look at, honestly. He has a trait and a special power that will probably not come into play ever. Even with my addition of the Green Battery, the attachments aren’t considered relics. I did have an idea with him and at the time, I could still wild card Mystics. Starting Perplex and a good amount of life- this would easily be a 50 pt dial today though.
Thorin Oakenshield is kind of a basic melee attack piece. Some damage reduction to help deflect blows, various close combat attacks interspersed through his dial- he’s not very exciting, you can say that. He does have built in Willpower though. I guess that’s something.
I’m a fan of Bard the Bowman- he says to me…options. Very good range and his attack power just gives him nice options- do you need the penetrating damage on a character? Do you need a Perplex, do you just need to hit the attack? Pairing him with other characters on this team he fits in very nicely.
Legolas here feels extremely point heavy- Starting with a17 defense with only Super Senses isn’t filling me with confidence on a 125 pt piece. But, he’s not here to take hits- he’s here to dish them out. He’s got a ton of mobility and can hit from pretty far away. He’s also not doing as much damage as you’d want him to but perhaps he’s pinging several characters at once with his EE & Precision Strike combo power (at this time: you could still multi-target with Precision Strike.) Let’s see how he plays.
Besides being a huge Evangeline Lilly fan (I’m a die hard Lost fan), I loved her in these movies and I’m a huge fan of this dial. She also starts with a 17 Super Senses, but has Willpower full dial, starts with Perplex and a great Speed Power that gives her both protection and aggressive melee action. I was very excited to try this piece out.
Gandalf the Grey, our big point piece- his figures are always a strange mix of powers. Let’s start with him being a Mystics- he also has themed Probability Control. Starting with Outwit, Pulse Wave, Running Shot as well as TK, but with only a 10 attack? Really weird mix of powers. I honestly didn’t know what I had on my hands. He mixes in to close attacks, to ranged, to support. All I knew was I had a 250 pointer that could always use Probability Control and wing it from there.
We have a double based Orc here, Hunter Orc, to be more precise. I’ve always liked this figure as I like it’s opening potential for a strike, using Charge, perhaps it’s Willpower to get in close to someone and the ability to use the double base to get an attack on someone with clever placement. He doesn’t have a lot of life and it’s probably rare you would get the Duo attack or the Split/Merge power on so I kind of throw those out. Split/Merge as a power action always felt like a waste. There is some good potential to get a nice hit or two out of this character.
With Azog here, a bit like Thorin where you have a close combat fighter with a not super exciting dial. That 12 attack is nice and you want to get that attack off. This is a guy I wouldn’t be too concerned with getting in close and possibly trying to pull off a Duo Attack as his attack and damage numbers are pretty strong. His Warg powers probably, again, not going to come into play, so this team doesn’t give a lot of options; everyone knows their role on this squad.
To round out my team, I added a few more pieces to get 1,000:
I tossed on a single Worker Spider, as I really, really like the utility of this piece: Leap/Climb with an 8 speed so he can move around and use that Empower- and when he’s stable, you can use Barrier- for 10 points!
So, this is my favorite LOTR piece. He’s from the original Lord of the Rings starter set and he’s just loads of fun. He breaks away automatically and ignores characters during movement and starts with Outwit. Plus, Indomitable. That’s all this character ever does. Runs around and Outwits people. Love him.
I finished off with the Green Power Battery- still pretty fresh in the War of Light and didn’t get a lot of chances to use it and I thought it could enhance this team a lot. I added the Crossbow, the Shield and the Scissors.
=====================================================
Game #1:
So, Greg is obviously not the Nostalgia Critic, but he was very tall, and very awkward; really hard to make small talk with him. He brought the triple threat of SLOSH Darkseid, Guardians Thanos & DC 10th Anniversary Brainiac- so a basic point and click monstrous team of over 300 points each. I was not super excited to be facing this team but I did win map roll and chose a Middle-Earth map I brought called House of Beorn which really only had this giant blocking square house and some hindering here and there and that’s it. He chose the open area and I started behind the house; this proved to help me out immensely.
I was really able to just ping this guy down, slowly with my massive force. I’m just sticking and moving back behind the house. Greg plays like card players who get frustrated when a newbie makes a play they shouldn’t make and starts winning; he’s a slow player, but he gets frustrated and basically brings Brainiac behind the house after me; at that point, I just take him apart and eliminate him.
He gets more frustrated at that point and does start attacking easy to hit characters in his way, taking out both my orcs riding on Wargs; but I continue my assault with Bard and Gandalf hitting bit penetrating attacks on his big guns. Add some luck into my match and I come out on top and take the match. It was pretty damn surprising!!
I win 1,000- 175.
=================================================
Match #2:
So, Mike I played last time I was here at Astonishing and beat him in an X-Men build game; this night, he was not playing around. He brought Zombie Galactus @ 1,000 pts. So, he either put zero thought into his team or just wanted to use Zombie Galactus. I won map and stayed on the Beorn’s House map since I had some success on it.
This game is quick. Galactus starts with a 20 defense and he stays way back from me waiting for me to make my move. So, I do – I make all these moves and make like 4-5 attacks against him and maybe one landed for little to no damage and then he immediately Pulse Waves me with Multi-Attack. This is all that happened over and over again until he Ko’d my whole team. He really targeted Gandalf right away (which is smart) but man, was this match no fun. That happens sometimes.
I lost 0-1,000
=========================================================
Game #3:
Jessie v. Logan
I also played Logan last time I was here and he was a good kid- his Dad was with him again and he really talked me up this time. Logan played a ton of Fear Itself pieces incl. Colossus (which he played last time), Angrir, Nul, Greitoth, as well as Red Hulk from the Deadpool set.
Logan had already gotten better and made some really good moves. We played on the other side of the Beorn’s map which was the Lair of Smaug.
This was a fun map which a lot of little elevated runways down and up. I have in my notes that I Ko’d both Red Hulk and Angrir giving me a total of 385 points. I have that Logan Ko’d from my team the following: Bilbo, Ringbearer, Hunter Orc & Tauriel which would give him a total of 249. But, I distinctly remember feeding one of my pieces to Colossus who he was making some really great placements and moves with but was having some terrible dice luck. I’m pretty sure I put Gandalf front and center and just let him get some points out of this one, so I’m going to call that that happened.
Logan takes it 499-385.
====================================
Final Thoughts:
I’m glad I played these figures as the Lord of the Rings pieces never really felt like they matched up well against the comic book figures. In the right environment, I think they can do okay. I really loved Bard the Bowman from the starter set; he never not helped me every single game. Tauriel as well; I put her out there and it cost me a couple times. The combo of Bilbo & Frodo walking out in hindering and using Perplex and Outwit; it cost me in the last match but I didn’t mind. Gandalf was a tough, tough figure who did probably the most damage next to Bard. And Ringbearer is an all time classic for me.
bobombblast 