So I’ve unboxed a brick of Halo 10th Anniversary Heroclix and reviewed the set. Now the fun part – actually playing with the figures. I built a team and took it to Yottaquest in Mount Healthy, Ohio to play in a 600 point golden age tournament. I’ll walk you through my team building process and give you a run down of how the team performed.
First, while it’s a 600 point golden age tournament, there is a stipulation to it. You only start with 300pts on the map. Once 150 points of your team are KOed you bring the remaining 300pts into the game. So while it is a 600 point game, you are really building two separate 300 point teams.
Since I’m only using figures from the Halo set, it would be silly not to build a theme team, and get the bonus to your map choice roll along with the theme team probability control. Other than a few characters, everyone in the set is a solider. If you want to go video game accurate, you can easily run either a UNSC or Covenant team. I decided to go with the UNSC since I wanted to test out Master Chief. Specially I went with the 150 point Master Chief with Cortana. He starts with Running Shot and Stealth, along with Psychic Blast with an 11 attack and 3 damage with Outwit. This is a mobile character with a good attack value and the ability to ignore damage reducers who can also cancel an opposing character’s power. This is just far too good to pass up. his invulnerability helps him last a little longer than his Spartan comrades as they only have toughness. His stealth protects him from range and lets him provide cover for his teammates. What’s not to like? So I pick him, leaving me with 150pts for my first team. Now to pick his backup.
This is where things get interesting. Most of the UNSC
are over 80 points. With 150 points left, my choices are limited if I want to run two Spartans with Master Chief. I end up choosing Spartan with Dual Magnums for 80pts. He has Running Shot with two targets and a special power that lets his range attacks deal penetrating damage 33% of the time. His 3 damage is the highest you’ll see out of the UNSC, so that’s respectable. He is also suited for close combat unlike most Spartans, having both Super Strength and Flurry. He also adds two to my grenade pool combined with the one grenade Master Chief and Cortana bring, it brings my grenade total to three. Now I’m left with 70 points, my UNSC choices are limited now. Only the Marine with SMG, Marine with Battle Rifle, Master Chief with Shotgun, Spartan with Battle Rifle, and Master Chief with Oddball will fit on my team. I immediately rule out the Master Chiefs. I really don’t like playing with multiples of named characters, and I’m not changing now. So that leaves me with the two Marines and one Spartan. I ended up going with the Spartan with Battle Rifle for 70 points. For one it brings me to a nice 300pts, plus I get Running Shot with a 3 damage and two more grenades, bringing the grenades total to five. He won over the marines due to the two grenades and the fact he possesses Toughness, making him more durable than them as well.
Now to build the second 300 point team. When this team comes into play I’ll have already lost at least ¼ of my 600 point team. Also characters will be scattered on the battlefield, so I’m looking for characters that can damage multiple figures with one attack. I want to be able to weaken my opponent’s figures as quickly as possible. I’m not going in expecting any one hit kills, since I’m not going to have a base damage over 3. It doesn’t meant there won’t be opportunities to deal 1 or 2 clicks with multiple figures though. My first choice is Sgt Johnson. He’s 89 points with Energy Explosion, Leadership and +2 to my grenade pool. Energy Explosion can effect multiple characters but it only deals one damage. So if a character has a damage reducer it won’t hurt them. To get around this I put the Armor Piercing feat for 10 points on Johnson, so he’s always dealing 1 damage. So that bring this cost to 99 points. His leadership will remove action tokens from friendly characters, letting them be used more frequently and effectively increasing my damage output potential. Now I have 201 points to work with. I decide to go with two Spartan with Needlers, costing 82 points each. They can target two characters and when they do if both hits and they assign at least one damage to each target, one of those targets takes penetrating damage. They also have Running Shot, helping their mobility and add one each to my grenade pool. This bring my total number of grenades for the team to nine. So now I’m up to 263. That leaves me only 37 points left, which means if I want to add one more figure to my team it must be the 26 point Marine with SMG. Instead I decide to round out the rest of my teams with Feats. In Contact with Oracle (ICWO) on Sgt Johnson and the two Spartans with Needlers costs 30 points. Just pretend the redhead in the wheelchair works for United Nations Space Command. This gives me plus 1 to any of my combat values anytime I give the character an action. It’s kinda like an un-outwitable self perplex. It’s awesome and hard to pass up in a golden age tournament. So that leaves me with 7 points left. None of the feats in this point range are striking my fancy. Most of the feats in this range are too situational or I’m lacking the appropriate prerequisites. I finally decided to go with Lucky Break on Sgt Johnson. When he makes an attack roll, if one of his dice comes up as a 1, I can reroll that die. It makes for nice critical miss insurance, with the only draw back is you can only use it once. One you use Lucky Break you remove it from the game. I’m now up to 298 and I’m content with my team.
For my three objects, I pick Eleha’al Vine giving me access to some much needed healing. The Tombstone which will give the Spartan with Dual Magnums +2 to his defense and the Aerial Baffler with stops characters from flying within 4 squares. I do not have any flyers so it won’t hurt me, but could cause some havoc on a team that relies on flyers.
Now to finish of my team I need three Battlefield Conditions. Power Dampening Field is my first choice. It causes damage values higher than 3 to become 3. Since my highest damage value is 3, this will have no effect on me, but will harm those playing big figures like Superman or Black Adam. Here is a choice that could harm me, but will harm my opponent more I hope. Inertial Interference Field. It reduces 2 from any damage dealt during a Running Shot, Charge or Hypersonic. This is specifically to be played against a charge or hypersonic heavy team. Yes it will hurt me too, but I think my team would be high vulnerable to a person playing yo-yo with a hypersonic figure. My final one is Radiation Leak. It subtracts 3 from all support or rengeration rolls. I do not possess either power, so no harm to me but it could be lethal to my opponent who uses either power.
Here is my Final Team
Master Chief with Cortana 150pts
Spartan with Battle Rifle 70pts
Spartan with Dual Magnums 80pts
Sgt. Johnson 89pts
+ ICWO 10pts
+ Armor Piercing 10pts
+ Lucky Break 5pts
Spartan with Needler 82pts
+ ICWO 10pts
Spartan with Needler 82pts
+ ICWO 10pts
Total: 598pts
Objects:
Eleha’al Vine
Tombstone
Aerial Baffler
Battlefield Conditions:
Power Dampening Field
Inertial Interference Field
Radiation Leak
Now let’s see how it does in the 600 point Golden Age Re-enforcement Tournament.
The first game sees me pitted up against a team consisting of Manhunter Grandmaster; Lois Lane, Superwomen; the 75pt Lucy Lane, Super Women; 200pt Supergirl and the Joker from Batman Alpha. Thanks to the theme team bonus, I win map choice. I pick the deck of the S.H.I.E.LD. Helicarrier, thinking open terrain will help me against the hypersonic powers of Manhunter Grandmaster and Supergirl. I start with Master Chief and Cortana and two Spartans. My opponent starts off with Manhunter Grandmaster, Lois Lane, and Joker. I move my pieces to adjacent to the jetfighter on the helicarrier, seeking cover and end my turn. My opponent marches up the map in the wide open, leaving his pieces exposed to an all out assault on my part. With a combination of Master Chief’s physic blast and outwit I make short work of Manhunter Grandmaster. Since he’s a 172 point piece, reinforcements are triggered for my opponent and Supergirl and Lucy Lane comes into play. Fortunately I’ve only advanced a few rows from my starting area, so they are on the opposite side of the map and will take a few turn to become into combat. To make a long story short, I end up quickly disposing of my opponents figures losing only a 70pt Spartan the entire game. So after the first round of the three round tournament, I’m 1-0, with 576 points scored.
In round two I’m facing the 200pt Black Adam, Cave Carson, the uncommon Pyslocke from GSX, 150pt Superman and the Master Chief and Cortana figure I am using. I decide to play a battlefield condition this round: Power Dampening Field. This hinders Black Adam greatly limiting his damage to 3 points a turn, when normally he has to the potential to one hit KO several of my figures. I win map roll again pick the same map. I also mimic the same opening move as well, wanting to draw my opponent to my side. That way when reinforcement come into play, he has to spend several turn moving his into position, were mine are read for combat once they appear. He moves his figures up and I hold my position. He then sends Black Adam in and attacks Master Chief and Cortana. I take a hit but only take one click of damage thanks to the Power Dampening Field and my damage reducers. I then start attacking Black Adam back and in the process of trading attacks, Master Chief and Cortana goes down, bringing in Sgt Johnson and his Spartans. One they are in play, they take out Black Adam. Now my opponent’s Superman and Master Chief and Cortana come into play. It ends up bring a brutal battle that sees me lose Sgt Johnson and the 70pt Spartan, but I still emerge victorious. This was thanks to the Power Dampening Field. Without it, Superman and Black Adam’s high damage and super strength would have destroyed the UNSC. Going into the third and final round I’m 2-0 with 1174 points.
My final match pits me against Black Flash with the Armor Piercing and Protected feats, Johnny Quick with Armor Piercing, experienced Destiny, Tarot, and Imperiex with Nova Blast and Protected. I win map roll once again pick the same map and use the same opening move. My two Spartans end up getting based by Black Flash and start taking poison damage. Blash Flash becomes a difficult target for me to hit with his 19 defense perplexed up to a 20. I need to roll a 10 to hit him and it’s not happening. I’m able to get a couple potshots of with Master Chief on his supporting figures, but not before both Spartans fall, triggering the deployment of my reinforcements. Focusing on building up my attack value as high as possible, I’m finally able to get a hit on Black Flash. After cracking that tough shell, he falls rather easily, but not before wrecking havoc with his poison leaving my remaining figures weakened. Now Imperiex come into play. I’m able to take all of his support pieces but Imperiex proves too much. His Outwit with 5 damage runs roughshot through my team. I’m able to get Master Chief to the Eleha’al Vine and heal some but it’s all for naught. It ends up being a one on one duel that Imperiex wins. His 19 defense proved to hard to hit for the UNSC but they put up a valiant effort. I end up 2-1 with 1472 which is good enough for second place.
Overall not a bad showing for the Master Chief and friends, but I do see where they are vulnerable. Characters with a high damage value and mow through them. Black Adam swinging a heavy object and one shot KO most of them. Also their 10 attack with few ways to increase it, means characters with a high defense like Black Flash or Imperiex will be too difficult to hits, making the UNSC look like a squad of stormtroopers. I will say they are fun to play though. I really like the new grenade mechanic; it makes even the weakest character dangerous when they have a cache of grenades their disposal. Even though I lost the final round, it was still a fun night of Heroclix at Yottaquest. Now I just have to wait for the next Golden Age tournament, so I can pair Master Chief with Iron Man. Power Armor for the win!
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