Super Mission Force: Savage Land Stouche

I finally got a chance to play a game of Super Mission Force, only more than a year after its having been released. I played at the Axes and Ales Wargames club in Preston, Melbourne, with Viv (of Knights of Dice fame) and Ara (from Mana Press). Yes, the Melbourne wargames scene is so small that I know both those guys. Anyway, I found some nice stat cards for the game here: 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4ZYoPOUliCbSHRfY3JvQ25XeE0
Sorry I can't find the original link right now, so I can't credit the creator, but if they're yours, tell me and I'll correct that here. 
I wanted to play a couple of games before I started creating my own characters, just so I had an idea of how various powers and skills worked. 

 One of the gorgeous tables at Axes and Ales, made for Tribal (from Mana Press), but it works perfectly for the Savage Land as well. 

 The clash was between Team Bat (Batman, Robin [Tim], Nightwing and Batgirl [Babs]) and The Avengers (Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow and Beast). 

 Hawkeye was easily the most effective model on the table, taking out Nightwing and injuring Batgirl. 

Much as can happen with SuperSystem, the combats became bogged down with little progress. 

Batman made an early move for the objective (the statues in the centre of the table), but ended up stuck nearby. 

Team Bat are surprisingly colourful as a group. 

Another glimpse of the clustercuss that knotted itself near the objective. 

Captain America flings his mighty shield! But neither Batgirl nor Nightwing yield, nor take any damage. 

Batman and The Boy Wonder stalk through the jungle. 

Viv wishes I'd printed the cards a little larger. 

Batman and Black Widow clash. 

  As is appropriate, Hawakeye pulls off a risky shot into combat, taking down Nightwing and winning the game for the Avengers. Boomerang arrow Katie, trust it. 

After my first game, I can't say I'm all that enamored with Super Mission Force. From what I've been reading on various blogs, the Lead Adventure Forum and the Super Miniatures Gaming Facebook group, SMF is possibly the best thing Scott Pyle has ever produced. Sorry, but I'm not seeing it. I will play a few more games before I render any verdicts, but at the moment, SMF seems to have all of the problems that SuperSystem has, but sacrifices the granularity in favour of fast character creation. I like that attack and damage have been reduced to one roll, but that doesn't stop combats from bogging down as they always seem to in Goalsystem games. The good news is, I'm keen to play more rules with Supers in mind, maybe I'll find something that covers the bases I'm looking for other than my own Ultimate Alliance stuff.