Miniatures Finished: NewGen [EQ]

Feels good to have teams painted up and ready to go. More incentive to get games in. This time 'round, my mutant villains, or are they just misunderstood? 

NewGen
There has been a team of mutant "adventurers" present since superhumans began appearing in numbers in the 1980s. The current incarnation, led by Natural Selection, is the fourth, coming after the original, heroic, NewGen of the 1980s, where Edward Caan (Wildcat of the Equalisers) got his start as a hero. Since that time, the team has been led by Athena, operating as a mutant rights terror cell, then by The Machiavellian, as a team of heroes again, until her recruitment into the Equalisers. With the name going to waste, Eco-warrior and former member of Counter-Culture, Deborah St Johns (Natural Selection), decided to put together a team to battle environmental exploitation and corporate greed wherever she could find it. 

 Glock-Roach, Creepy Crawler, The Freerunner, Natural Selection and Chupacabra 

 Natural Selection (converted Reaper), Glock-Roach (Superfigs) and Chupacabra (Harlequin) 

Natural Selection (Deborah St Johns): In juvenile detention for property damage done in Animal Liberation Front attacks, Deborah St Johns volunteered for an experiment in exchange for a reduced sentence. One of only five survivors gifted amazing powers, Deborah escaped under the leadership of Aaron Webber (Argon) and the group (named Counter Culture) rampaged through the Western United States for several days before being stopped by the Equalisers. Deborah escaped when the Equalisers compound was destroyed by Pendragon Security and went underground for a time, bartering her power to destroy anything organic she touched to the highest bidder. Eventually, Deborah decided to make her own destiny and seized control of the now-leaderless NewGen, turning the disparate mutants into a killer strike-force for her own personal brand of social justice. 

Glock-Roach: Glock-Roach says that he comes from another Earth, an Earth destroyed by a mad god, where he was a king and battled on the last day of creation alongside the strongest heroes the world had ever seen. Everyone thinks Glock-Roach is full of it. Actually a mutated Roach rather than human, or so he claims, Glock-Roach is pretty clumsy, a bit of a coward and not much of a shot. Why he is tolerated in the kind of NewGen that Natural Selection is trying to build is not clear, but time may tell that he may be more than he lets on. 

Chupacabra: The first of Natural Selection's new recruits, this skinny, unassuming, Mexican street urchin has abandoned his "slave name", going only by Chupacabra, embracing the radical teachings of Malcolm X, The Mutant Scion and Ayn Rand. Born with barely-functioning eyes and a rasping sucker for a mouth, Chupacabra was abandoned on the street by his family as a baby, reverting to instinct to survive, leaving a trail of "drained" corpses, both animal and human, behind him. When legends of the terrifying "vampire" began to circulate, Chupacabra was soon hunted by the authorities; rescued by Natural Selection, the boy has since developed a taste for violence and depravity. 

The Freerunner [Matheus Ilabaca] (Reaper), Creepy Crawler (Horrorclix) and "pets" (D&D Minis)

The Freerunner (Matheus Ilabaca): Once the most promising up-and-coming sprinters in the world, Matheus had his Olympic dreams dashed when a routine blood-test revealed his mutant heritage. For a time, Matheus attempted to challenge the IOC legitimately, but his public mutant nature worked against him and he quickly ran out of money and was still banned from competing in any professional competition. Embittered, Matheus followed up a cold-call offering to help his mutant rights crusade; before hew knew it, Matheus was rechristened "The Freerunner" and was striking a more physical blow than he had originally intended. Matheus tries not to use his super-speed to kill anyone, but he secretly admits that he enjoys getting his revenge. 

Creepy Crawler: Another "lost soul" recruited by Natural Selection, Creepy Crawler was living in New York subway tunnels, living on rats and garbage when he was asked to join the team. Creepy has the ability to communicate with vermin, small creatures like rats, spiders and lizards, directing them to attack his enemies and protect him from the returning blows. Creepy rarely speaks, preferring the company of his pets. Consequently, it is difficult to gauge just how dedicated he is to the cause, but he does seem to get a kick out of the fear he can cause when a swarm of rats bursts out of a nearby sewer grate to attack someone.

Name: Natural Selection (Deborah St Johns)

BP: 85

Affiliation: NewGen

AP: 10

Strike: 6

Strength: 3

Dodge: 6

Sense: 3

Toughness: 3

Mind: 4

Resolve: 5

Damage: 7

Powers

Soul Fire – Melee Attacks may hit against Resolve rather than Toughness

Drain 6 (Limited) – 2AP after a successful Strike Attack, allocate up to two dice to each Physical Attribute. May not reduce Attributes below 1D. p 42

Weapon +4D

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KO

Name: The Freerunner (Matheus Ilabaca)

BP: 85

Affiliation: NewGen

AP: 9

Strike: 6 (1)

Strength: 2

Dodge: 8 (3)

Sense: 4

Toughness: 3

Mind: 3

Resolve: 4

Damage: 2

Powers

Foresight – Counts one less for in Multiple Combats, may re-roll one scenario die

Super-Dodge 3 - +3D to resist fall damage

Super Strike 1 – May use Strike for Initiative

Hyper Move – Charge 6 (1) roll, 5” per Goal. Ignores vertical distances.

- No Penetration: May not move through Terrain

- Hyper Attack: 4AP Attack 6 (1) Damage, does not gain Charge bonuses.

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KO

Name: Chupacabra

BP: 85

Affiliation: NewGen

AP: 7

Strike: 5

Strength: 3

Dodge: 5

Sense: 8 (2)

Toughness: 3

Mind: 2

Resolve: 6 (1)

Damage: 3

Powers

Super Sense 2 (X-Ray Sight) – May draw LOS for Charges through terrain

Sense Weakness – 2AP TN3 Sense Roll, +2D on next Attack against target in LOS

Kinetic Absorption (Sponge 3) – After taking Damage, make a 6 (4) Roll, for every 2 Goals, gain 1 Vitality. For each Vitality gained, add 1D to Strength, Strike, Dodge or Toughness. No more than 6D can gained each turn and no more than 2D to each stat.

Super Resolve 1, Instant Stand

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KO

Name: Glock-Roach

BP: 85

Affiliation: NewGen

AP: 10 (7)

Strike: 8 (1)

Strength: 2

Dodge: 6 (2)

Sense: 4

Toughness: 4

Mind: 2

Resolve: 4

Damage: 2/6 (2)

Powers

Super Strike 1 – May use Strike for Initiative

Super-Dodge 2 - +2D to resist fall damage

Massive 1 - +1D Strike to hit this Model

Multiple Limbs 2 – May hold two extra objects

Unlucky – Opponent may force Glock-Roach to re-roll any one dice pool once per game

Climbing (Vertical Charge) – May move and Charge up walls

Ranged Attack 6 (Super 2, Short Range), Instant Stand, Extra Move 7

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KO

Name: Creepy Crawler

BP: 85

Affiliation: NewGen

AP: 5

Strike: 2

Strength: 2

Dodge: 4

Sense:  6 (1)

Toughness: 3

Mind: 3

Resolve: 4

Damage: 2

Powers

Climbing (Vertical Charge) – May move and Charge up walls

Extra Forms – 3AP place Creepy Crawlies within 15”, Activate independently, Boon.

- Renewable – Can recreate KOed Creepy Crawlies

Invisibility – 2 AP +2D Dodge and Strike against Foes, +2D Doge to resist being spotted

Super Sense 1 (X-Ray Sight) – May draw LOS for Charges through terrain

Cowardly – When a friend within 15” is KOed, make a TN4 Resolve roll or be Terrified

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Name: Creepy Crawlies				BP: 54
Affiliation: NewGen				AP: 6 (6)
Strike: 5 (1)	Strength: 1	Dodge: 4	Sense: 6 (1)
Toughness: 3	Mind: 1	Resolve: 1	Damage: 5
Powers
Super Sense 1 (X-Ray Sight) – May draw LOS for Charges through terrain
Climbing (Vertical Charge) – May move and Charge up walls
Super-Strike 1 – May use Strike for Initiative Rolls
Instant Stand – Cannot be Knocked Down
Weapon +4D (No Grabs), Extra Move 6
Henchman Team, 6 Members

 

Superhero Media: Myth Hunters

Another good find on Netflix, though I had seen a couple of episodes on SBS2 a couple of years ago, I was glad to be able to give the whole series a go. Labelled as a "documentary", Myth Hunters does look pretty sensationalist on the surface, searching for the "hidden truth" of Crystal Skulls, Noah's Ark and the Holy Grail. However, what Myth Hunters is about beneath the surface gloss is the men and woman who have dedicated their lives to finding these mysterious items, amazing people like Karl Mauch, who discovered amazing anthropological sites and was about as close to Doc Savage as any real person could ever have been. For those who consider documentaries "light entertainment", this may well be worth a quick binge between Attenboroughs. 

What Myth Hunters can offer the supers gamer is plenty of fodder for Golden Age gaming. Especially if you're keen on the idea of inter-war Mystery Men going toe-to-toe with "fiendish" Nazi magicians, seeking a fast path to world domination, Indiana Jones style. True, Indy has already dealt with crystal skulls, the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail, but items and places like the Germanica, King Solomon's mines and El Dorado are ripe for interpretation in miniature, with Lobster Johnson or Phantomah ready to defend against the terrors of the Third Reich. I can see Lobster Johnson tangling with Baron Blood over a ruined temple in my future already! May also be an excuse to paint up Kroenen and some more zombies, who knows what power the Book of Thoth holds, after all? 
 

If you're an avid Pulp Alley gamer, give Myth Hunters a watch, you won't be disappointed with what you find. I was hoping for something good to paint to, but I was rewarded with a programme with a decent amount of thought put into it and some great reconstructions. I'm off to paint some more Golden Age heroes and Nazi agents.  

First Game of Batman Miniatures Game

Well, it had to happen sooner or later, I played a game of BMG. I admit that I've been wary of the game, the miniature price point vs quality was of concern, but mostly I just feel that I have a couple of good Supers Miniature games already, so why drop $80 on a book just to use a smaller variety of figures? But, a couple of club mates wanted to give it a try, so I broke out the city terrain (with new, Deep Cut Studios mat) and some DC Superheroes. 

 The new mat really makes the table pop! 

The scenario was pretty simple, Bane (played by Clayface) had just robbed the Bank of Latveria and Green Arrow was out to stop him. No turn limit, just playing out the game to test the rules. 

 Baneface steps out of the local branch, having made a major withdrawal. 

 Star City's green-clad, socialist archer, Oliver Queen, swings into action! 

 Green Arrow looses a trio of shots, wearing down Bane before he can move! 

 As one of the world's greatest mercenaries somehow forgot to bring a weapon, he dives for cover in the shadow of a nearby Dodge. 

 Without a target, Ollie is forced to re-position... 

 ...running along the monorail line like a true hero. 

 Bane is so sinister, he neglects to "Touch On" his myki. Also, the station is evidently unlit at night, so it may be Frankston. 

 Green Arrow finally gets close enough, but I misjuged the CPs and didn't get a chance to shoot. 

 Bane charges up the carriage... 

 ...decking our hero in one hit. 

I can't say I'm in love with the BMG rules after one game, even taking into account that we only had one character per side and didn't know the rules. I like that points have to be allocated before actions, but I'd prefer doing that before turn order is decided, rather than after, just to add to the strategic thinking. I like that characters draw from the same special rules, rather than each having unique ones, but the downloadable stat cards that we had didn't seem to tell us much and there was a lot of flipping back and forth in the book, just to find out that a character had a re-roll or similar, the kind of information that could be on the card with a simple symbol. I'm sure I'll play more games in the future, as some of my clubmates are more keen on the Batman mythos than me, but with SuperSystem, Pulp Alley and Ultimate Alliance, I don't see this as being a major challenger. Plus, I can hardly get people playing SS4, so I'm not keen on the competition either.

Superhero Media: The Flash - Season 1

I cannot decide if The Flash is what Arrow is trying to be, or what it should have been from the start. Actually, scratch that, it's obvious to anyone that Arrow has always wanted to be a programme about Batman, but didn't get the rights. In contrast, The Flash is what it wanted to be from the outset; a programme about Barry Allen being The Flash. Unfortunately, Barry comes with his infamous "Rouges", such illustrious names as Captain Cold, Heatwave, Plastique, Professor Zoom and Weather Wizard. Poor Barry must figure out how being able to move almost faster than light can help him beat these terrible foes. Barry may not be quite as smart as people keep saying. What's great about The Flash is that we see Barry using his powers just to help out the people of Central City, getting cats out of trees, helping people across the road, that sort of thing. The kind of thing DCU heroes are known for; how about that old joke about Superman stopping to help someone pick up their dropped groceries? 

Like Arrow, Barry is supported by an ensemble cast, Cisco, Caitlin, Joe West and Dr Wells all know his identity and help him out in a manner that would make Spidey's head spin. This works when the writers decide to expand the team as well, Firestorm becomes a semi-regular, in addition to crossovers with the Arrow and Atom. There is a recurring motif of running, sometimes towards something, at other times away, hinting at a larger meaning behind Barry's powers, the resolution being that Professor Zoom may have created the Flash? It's not clear what the grand scheme is, but hopefully it gets resolved in seasons to come. For those who enjoy the comic references in Arrow, The Flash peppers them a bit quicker and much thicker, from Cisco's naming of villains to the last episode, which drops Rip Hunter, Jay Garrik, The Time Chasers, 52 and Earth Two all in about five minutes. 
 

 

When it comes down to brass tacks, I'd have to say that I prefer The Flash over Arrow, the action is more heroic, the plot is less convoluted and the romance is less in-your-face every episode. Put simply, The Flash is more of a superhero programme, and that's what I tune in for. Barely a single episode goes by without Barry suiting up and saving someone, or beating up a nasty "meta" with a power like exploding, because the Flash lacks the iconic Batman villains that Arrow routinely steals. What I've heard about season two sounds good, I'm sure I'll be checking it out soon. Until then, run Barry, from all your shitty villains.

Ultimate Alliance: Civil War - Part I

With the recent battle between Batman and Superman having left an entire city in ruins, the Superhero Registration Act is primed to be signed into law by Congress. This creates a divide in the superhuman community, with Captain America coming to represent those making a stand against the Act and Iron Man leading those working for it. Some heroes, such as Doctor Strange and Superman, elect not to take a side, staying out of the brutal conflict between friends and colleagues. 

Yes, Little Wars Melbourne approaches again and it's time to prepare for some super-heroic action! This year, I'm capitalising on the big summer movies, especially Captain America: Civil War, with two teams of mixed heroes going toe-to-toe. I'm yet to finalise the teams, but so far the playtests are going well and I may even be ready a little early!

Pro-SRA Deployment 

 

Standard table glamour-shots.

The fight we all paid to see! 

 

The ground shakes as Luke Cage and She-Hulk come to blows! 

 

Iron Man wasn't expecting a ninja strike from the shadows. 

 

She-Hulk brings down Captain America. 

 

 

Cage flees to fight another day. 

I think I have the team balance right at the moment, expanding it to six-hero teams and a couple more play tests should see me right. This time around, there's not so much to prepare, so hopefully I can add some real polish to the game. Excelsior!  

Superhero Media: Arrow - Season 3

Now, finally, in the third season, we can see the nerds that write Arrow really trying to bring out the superheroes. The prevalence of "Oliver Queen is Batman" and love triangle BS is much less and there is more superhero action than ever before. That the villain of the season being Ras'al'Ghul and the League of Shadows is a bit annoying, but taken as a backdrop to the idea of the team coming together, it works in the world that Arrow has built. So who forms this, "league of justice", if i may coin a term? The Arrow of course, and the Flash, Black Canary, Arsenal, Blue Beetle (sorry, the Atom) and Token Black Man, aka John Diggle. Ok, so it's hardly the New Avengers or the Secret Warriors, but at least we're getting a team in a television programme that's better than Heroes. Not that such a thing is beyond the reach of anyone reasonably competent. The cynic in me knows that it's all a lead-in to Champions of Tomorrow, but I'm determined to enjoy it while it lasts. 

Now that I consider it, it was the team-up episodes of Arrow that most interested me this season. Maybe it's the Marvel fan in me, wanting to see a shared universe of characters, coming together to fight a foe to powerful for any one of them to overcome individually. It's just a shame that said foe is occasionally Captain Boomerang. I mean, say what you like about the over-proliferation of Spider-man in film and television, but at least the villains are iconic and have many a point of difference between them. No one is likely to confuse Doctor Octopus with The Lizard, though the two do share the idea of science twisted to serve nefarious ends. Many of The Arrow's foes are so similar to each other, and to him, that they blur, and here, a few months after having watch the programme, I'm struggling to remember any of them other than Merlyn, Captain Boomerang and The Daemon's Head. 
 

Given the advent of the Netflix Marvel series, I feel that some of the initial shine has come off Arrow. With the limits of American network television, Arrow only has so much room to grow. There will come a point where there isn't a big enough audience for how "comic bookish" the programme has gotten, and I just hope there's a satisfying ending when that moment comes. Arrow is morphing into something that it hasn't really been yet, the first real representation of a comic book hero in prime-time, live action since Adam West's Batman. I wish them luck. But I still want Ollie in a Robin Hood hat with boxing glove arrows. 

Miniatures Finished: Neighbors and Science!

Steady progress has resumed and, with Little Wars Melbourne 2016 on the way, plans are in motion, but more on that later. 

 Totoro, X-Ray (another U-Foe), Atomic Robo and Jack o' Lantern. 

 Lantern and X-Ray are both Clix from one of the better eras of sculpting, as such, I've only had to do a little inking work and touch-ups. 

 Atomic Robo is a 3D print, very expensive and of reasonable quality as a wargames miniature. I'm not sold on the printing process as of yet, I still prefer polystyrene and whitemetal. Totoro is a toy and another "celebrity civilian", he'll be standing at the bus stop or monorail station during display games.