Who wants to learn to play heroclix? (Online?)

[Zoom]

Powers: wizkidsgames.com/v3/products/heroclix/downloads/2011HeroClixPAC.pdf
Maps: www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/
List of Figures: hcrealms.com/index.php?page=units





There's a new heroclix set out today and I am reminded that there are tons of comics fans on this website who probably don't play this game.

You can of course go to your local comic book shop, pick up a few boosters, ask if they have tournaments and then learn how to play.....or you can say screw spending money, screw reading rule books, we'll just get Zoom to teach us and then play online.


So...who wants to play?

[Matezoide]

teach me,oh,great master Zoom
*bows*

[Morpheus]

I'm interested.

[Supreme Marvel]

I don't have the patience for that.

[Zoom]

Here's a character we're all familiar with, Bucky Cap.

Up on the top left part of Bucky's dial, between the Avengers A and the picture of his shield is a number: 89. This number is Bucky's "point cost" which represents the figure's relative power level. A generic SHIELD Agent might come out to 19 points. Superman might be around 250. When you create a heroclix team, you and your opponent agree to a certain number of points, say 300. So you pick characters to be on your team until you get close to 300 point of figures.

Then you set up your figures on a map that looks like this:
www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/map2.jsp?map=IB

At the top, bottom, left and right of the map are purple outlined areas. These are called starting areas. You choose one and put all your dudes in it.


Back to Bucky's dial. There are five stats that are on the bottom end of the dial as shown here


Starting at the top left and going counterclockwise, the first stat, represented by a boot, is Bucky's speed. When Bucky moves, he can move nine spaces. The fist (10) represents Bucky's attack or accuracy. The shield (18) represents his defense. The explosion (3) represents his damage. The lightning bolt (6) represents Bucky's range. When making a ranged attack, Bucky can shoot anyone within 6 squares of himself.

When a figure makes an attack on another figure, the attacking player subtracts his attack from his opponent's defense. This is the number he needs to roll on two dice to hit and deal damage. You take the attacker's damage stat and turn the target's dial times equal to the attacker's damage stat.

So let's say Bucky is fighting Sin.


Bucky's attack is a 10 and Sin's defense is a 17. Bucky needs a 7 to hit Sin. If he hits, you'd turn Sin's dial 3 times because Bucky Cap's damage value is a 3.

So now, Sin's using these numbers instead of the ones she starts with.


As a figure takes damage, his stats generally go down. Bucky, for instance, starts with a 9 speed, 10 attack, 18 defense and 3 damage. But if he starts getting punched and shot, his stats fall until he's only moving with a 6 speed, hitting with a 9 attack, dodging with a 15 defense and hitting with a 1 damage. You can't really expect a guy who's about to bleed out to fight as effectively as when he's fresh and uninjured. The only stat that doesn't go down is range.

However, certain characters (like the Hulk) just get stronger the more you hit them. Other characters (like Wolverine) might get a boost to attack and damage at the end of the dial while their defense falls rapidly to show the character cutting loose.

Once a figure takes enough damage, their stats stop being numbers and are replaced with red KOs. This means the character is knocked out (or killed, if you prefer) and they're removed from the game.


Everybody with me so far?

[Matezoide]

so far,so good,but i got 2 little questions

1) what's the highest valor in the dice that is used in this game? it is obviously not six
2) upon attacking,you actualy need to throw the dice twice or is that determined by something else?

[NorCalCO]

My son and I play and have probably 130 different Marvel characters in our collection right now. We just ordered a case of the Captain America 5-Pack Boosters today as well. I'll try to take a pic or two later and post them up in here. We are pretty new to it, but it's a lot of fun. Very involved and sometimes complicated rules though.

[Pirateking69]

Sounds pretty fun

[Zoom]

Jul 13, 2011 19:34:39 GMT -5 Matezoide said:

so far,so good,but i got 2 little questions

1) what's the highest valor in the dice that is used in this game? it is obviously not six
2) upon attacking,you actualy need to throw the dice twice or is that determined by something else?

1) Six sided. You roll two of them to attack so 2-12.

2) You just roll two dice or a die twice each time you attack.

[Morpheus]

Everybody with me so far?

Yep.

[Zoom]

Before I forget, when you make an attack, if you roll doubles, stuff happens.

Double 1s is a critical miss. Your gun backfires, you pull a muscle, your opponent counters with an elbow to your face or whatever. The attack automatically misses and the attacker takes 1 damage.

Double anything else (if you hit) means knockback. The character takes damage as usual and moves away from the attacker (in a straight line if possible) equal to the damage they took. If they are knocked back into a wall, blocking terrain or the high edge of elevated terrain (I'll get to that in a bit), they stop and take another click of damage. If they fall off the side of a building or a cliff, they take 2 extra clicks of damage. If they run into another character (friendly or not), they stop.

Double 6s is a critical hit. It automatically hits, does an extra point of damage and adds knockback.




Next, we'll go over actions, movement and terrain.

In general (unless you're at a tournament and the judge rules differently...or if you're just in the mood for a weird game), each team gets one action for every 100 points of characters on their team. So if you're playing a 300 point team? On each turn, you get 3 actions.

Each character can only be given one action a turn plus free actions.

There are fives types of actions.
1) Move action: Move a character as many squares as you want, to a maximum of their speed value. (So 9 spaces in Bucky's case)
2) Close combat action: Make an attack against an adjacent figure. A figure that's diagonally next to your figure counts as adjacent. A character on a different elevation than your character (I'll get to elevation in a bit) does not count as adjacent nor are two figures adjacent if there is a wall between them.
3) Ranged combat action: Make an attack on someone within your range but not adjacent.
4) Power action: Some powers require this. Don't worry about it for now.
5) Free action: Some powers require this. They don't count towards your action total and they don't give you an action token.


Each time a character is given an action (except a free action), he takes an "action token." You can put a mancala bead next to them, put a poker chip under them, whatever. For the online game, there are little blue and red dots you can drag across the map to but next to your figures. Each time a character doesn't taken an action (except free actions) during your turn, you take away all their action tokens, also known as "clearing" your action tokens.

If you give a character an action token and they already have an action token on them (meaning they took an action last turn, too), they take 1 damage. This is called "pushing" damage and represents fatigue. No figure (well, unless they have a power that allows it) can take an action if they already have two tokens on them. They have to clear.


If you move one of your characters next to an opposing figure, you must immediately stop and both figures become "tied up." Neither figure can make ranged combat attacks and neither can move away without rolling 1 die. On a result of 1-3, you're stuck. On a result of 4-6, you "break away" and can move as normal.




There are several kinds of terrain.

If you look back at our map
www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/map2.jsp?map=IB
you'll notice lots of green outlined terrain in the middle (C14 for instance). This is called hindering terrain. If you make a ranged combat attack against someone and they are standing in hindering terrain or there is hindering terrain between the two of you, they get +1 to their defense, representing taking cover behind tables, rubble, computers, bushes or whatever. Also, if you move onto a square of hindering terrain, you must immediately stop. If you start your move in hindering terrain, your speed value is cut in half, rounded up.

Near the top of the map (H2), you can see blue outlined terrain. This is water. Water works the same as hindering terrain on movement, stopping you when you move into it and slowing you down if you're on top of it. However, it provides no cover and no defensive bonuses.

There is brown outlined terrain (P17) which is called blocking terrain. You can't move into it or through it and it blocks your line of sight altogether, so you can't make ranged attacks if it's between you and your target. Blocking terrain can be destroyed, though. You just make an attack against the blocking square with a damage value of at least 3. You don't have to roll dice or anything, just put a "rubble" terrain marker over it, as shown here.
www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/map2.jsp?map=IB&c1=x-283y266
Now, it's hindering terrain instead.

Walls (like the line between H6 and H7) are the exact same as blocking terrain, only they're between squares instead of taking up the whole square. You still can't shoot through them and you can still destroy them with a 3 damage shot or punch. Destroying a wall puts rubble on both sides of where the wall stood, like so.
www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/map2.jsp?map=IB&c1=x-283y266&cv1=x-667y-556

Switching maps real fast, I'll show you the last type of terrain. Red outlines show elevated terrain.
www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/map2.jsp?map=RB

If there's a red line between two figures, they can't make close combat attacks against each other. It'd be like trying to punch a guy on the roof of a house while you stood next to the house. However, you can still shoot the guy. You can only shoot a guy on the edge of elevated terrain.

So these guys can shoot each other
www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/map2.jsp?map=RB&f1p1=x-594y-148&f1p2=x-533y-219
But these guys can't
www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/map2.jsp?map=RB&f1p1=x-594y-148&f1p2=x-501y-219

Stairs or ladders, like square D10 are considered adjacent to both elevations.

So if you look at this situation
www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/map2.jsp?map=RB&f1p1=x-534y-57&f1p2=x-500y-129&f2p2=x-568y-94&f3p2=x-600y-160
Orange1 can close combat attack the guy at the top of the stairs (blue1) and the guy at the bottom (blue2) but he still can't punch anyone on the other side of a red line (blue3)



Still good?

[Zoom]

Jul 13, 2011 19:40:27 GMT -5 NorCalCO said:

My son and I play and have probably 130 different Marvel characters in our collection right now. We just ordered a case of the Captain America 5-Pack Boosters today as well. I'll try to take a pic or two later and post them up in here. We are pretty new to it, but it's a lot of fun. Very involved and sometimes complicated rules though.

I picked up two boosters today.

Got Baron Zemo, Black Panther, Crimson Dynamo, Hardball, Viper, Sin, Jack Flag, Mentalo, and a SHIELD specialist and a howling commando.

Not really my favorite characters (I'm looking for Squirrel Girl and Armadillo) but not a bad group, either.

[Matezoide]

with ``clicks`` you mean we turn the dials,correct?

are ranged attacks able to knock the opponent away as well?

[Zoom]

Yes. You take a "click" of damage, you turn the dial once. It makes a clicky noise.

Yes, ranged attacks can cause knockback, too.

[Matezoide]

ok,so far so good,though it is kinda of complicated

[Zoom]

Yeah, it's kinda complicated at first.

Then we'll get into powers and it'll stay complicated forever.

[Zoom]

Real quick, I want to point out two rules I forgot.

1) You can't shoot through figures. Superman can absolutely charge forth to protect the rest of your team and take fire for them. Alternatively, you can hide behind Jason Todd so that the bad guys have to kill him first before they can get to your team.

2) When you put your team in those purple outlined starting areas, you also place 3 object tokens, light or heavy (you can't do more than 2 of either type) on the board. Objects act as hindering terrain but they can be destroyed by a 3 damage attack (they don't leave rubble) or they can be picked up and used as weapons by characters with super strength, which I'll get to later.




Okay, here's the complicated part: powers, abilities and traits

You can absolutely play without powers and in fact, if you seem overwhelmed, you can play a couple games without these rules until you get the hang of the rest of it.

That said, playing without powers in the long run is like assigning numbers to heroes and villains, moving them around a bit and then rolling dice. With powers and abilities, it's like actually pitting these heroes and villains against each other and the strategic options go through the roof.

Keep in mind that you DON'T have to memorize any of this. There's a very helpful document right here
wizkidsgames.com/v3/products/heroclix/downloads/2011HeroClixPAC.pdf
that you can use to double check what everybody's powers are at any time during a game and if you ever find yourself at a tournament without knowing what each power does, just ask the guy you're playing.


To give you an idea of how powers work, I'll start with Bucky Cap, again.



Bucky's first power is his Avengers team ability. See that yellow A on his dial? That says that Bucky is a card carrying member of the Avengers. The X-Men, Fantastic Four, SHIELD, Hydra and a few others all have their own team abilities, too. The Avengers symbol means that Bucky Cap gets free move. You remember how 300 point teams get 3 actions? Well when Bucky Cap moves, his action doesn't count. He still gets a token but you can do 3 other things, which helps if you've got a large team of low cost figures.





See the colors on Bucky's numbers? Each color corresponds to a power, usually having to do with the stat it's attached to.

Bucky Cap starts with gray speed, green attack, orange defense and brown damage.

Gray speed is called Running Shot. Bucky can take a power action to move up to half his speed value (rounded up, as always) and then make a ranged combat action. Bucky doesn't have to move into range, rest for a turn and then shoot you. He can run into range and attack right off the bat.

Green attack is called Super Strength. This allows Bucky to pick up objects while moving. You place the object under Bucky Cap's dial to show he's carrying it. Light objects means Bucky gets +1 to damage when he makes a close combat attack. Heavy objects mean he gets +2 to damage. Alternatively, Bucky can throw the objects with a ranged combat attack. Light objects have an 8 range and do 2 damage. Heavy objects have a 6 range and do 3 damage. So basically, Bucky can either hit harder or increase his range because he can throw a big rock further than his gun can shoot.

Orange defense is Toughness and it means that when Bucky Cap gets hit, he subtracts 1 from the damage he takes. 1 damage figures can't hurt him at all.

Brown damage is Perplex and it allows Bucky to take a free action once a turn to modify one of his own stats or one stat on a figure that he can draw line of fire to and is a maximum of 10 squares away from him. Is the bad guy one square out of Bucky's range? He perplexes it up. Is the bad guy's defense too high? Bucky perplexes it down. Maybe Bucky just wants to hit a little harder or move a little further. He just perplexes his speed or damage up.

As Cap takes damage, though, he switches his strategy and his powers change.

Red damage is Ranged Combat Expert. He takes a power action and then makes a ranged combat attack for +2 damage.

Green defense is Energy Shield/Deflection (ESD) and it means Cap gets +2 defense against ranged attacks.

Purple damage is Close Combat Expert. He takes a power action and then makes a close combat attack for +2 damage.

Green speed is Charge. Bucky can take a power action to move up to half his speed (still rounded up) and make a close combat action.





Now you may have been wondering why it matters if you take a power action or a close combat action. Here's why it's important. Bucky takes a power action to use Charge, moves 4 spaces and then punches somebody. He can use an object since those just add to the damage of close combat attacks. However, he can't get the +2 damage from Close Combat Expert because that requires another power action and all he can do after moving is a regular close combat action. There are other powers that simply require close combat actions. Bucky could use those with charge.

Of course, you don't really have to remember this. You can just be like "Does this power work with this power?" and then the person you're playing or the judge or me or whoever will tell you. Yes, you'll look like that kid trying to play chess and asking which direction horsies can move and we'll all laugh at you but you'll get over it or else grow to resent us and our knowledge of board game rules.





That's it for Bucky. He's a run and gun guy who's ingenuity allows him to surprise his foes and alter the situation. Mid dial, he stands his ground and takes down the enemy with well placed shots. Late dial, he defends himself with his shield and gets into melee range where he can use his cybernetic strength and fighting skills to beat the snot out of evil. That sounds like Bucky Cap, doesn't it?

Heroclix strives to give an accurate and fun play style to all their figures, allowing you to have battles that feel like they're out of the comics. The rules take some getting used to but it's pretty easy to play as long as you've got one person that knows them well.

If anyone wants to play a small game with 2 or 3 characters each to try it out, just post a couple of your favorite characters. Or you can use the search box on this website
hcrealms.com/index.php?page=units
to see what figures are available.

[Strafe Prower]

I'm very interested! I am up for a practice/test run.

[Matezoide]

Yup,i am in for a practice match where Zoom kicks my ass

[NorCalCO]

Mods, any chance of getting this thread pinned as, thanks to Zoom, it is turning in to a very good resource for Heroclix players?