What's the deal with the Doom Patrol?

My first entry was an ode to a team which has yet to be defeated and can be found here http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/blog.php?b=3041

Now we're swiiming on the opposite end of this pool and taking a look at the Doom Patrol. If you haven't figured it out by now I have NEVER won a game with the Doom Patrol. I'll admit I haven't used them in a little over a year now but there's a reason believe me.

A guy in our group is a big Doom Patrol fanboy, so when the Chief came out in Crisis we gave him first whack. Game result? Annihilation against the Teen Titans, and I'm talking about the kid Teen Titans from Crisis plus some older figs. He must have rolled 4 or 5 critical misses which attributed to his loss of course. The day after I decide to try them out against a JSA team not a good first outing as they got smashed as well and again critical misses ruled the day with 3 or 4. Coincidence? Let's find out.

Another guy decides to give them a whirl and surprisingly enough maybe 1 or 2 critical misses but, there might have been a total of 20 attacks that were missed because he rolled 1 under. Yep even with Perplex and Outsiders team ability he just couldn't land a decent hit when it counted. So thus began the curse of the Doom Patrol, to this date no one in or gaming group has won a game with them!

So last night again like I said it has been a while since I've used them so I decided to bust them out knowing my opponent was using New Warriors a team I consider to be in the lower tiers of competitiveness when it comes to theme teams. I figured if they were going to redeem themselves this was their chance.

The full team plus Contingency Plan make it 700 points exactly, I used this feat because I knew I was going to need whatever little Perplex I could get. We played on the Swamp Base map from Gridreality (keep up the great work guys) and the match started very identical as we both hid behind the walls. A missed Running Shot from Spider-Girl left her exposed to a TK assist from Mento throwing Rex Mason at her and nailing her for a critical hit!!! Wow first ever with this team! In came Rita Farr and since I had used Outsider TA on her Rita smashed her for 3 more, a great start for this team.

They quickly retaliated sending in Speedball and Namorita to clobber Rex and Rita respectively and Night Trasher got into position Outwitting Beast Boy's charge keeping him neutered. My turn Mento another TK assisted Robotman into action smacking Firestar for 3. Beast Boy and Elongated Man were secluded off to the side in a room tied up by Scarlet Spider and Night Trasher duking it out. Rex took another hit and landed on his regen click which I rolled a 1 to regen, Tk'ed him back to Chief who healed him for 4! Robotman who was also taking a beating got Tk'ed back by Mento as well and was healed for 4! Things were looking great for the Doom Patrol!!!

But because they were exchanging blows and I pulled them back for healing this allowed the New Warriors to close in and start tying up multiple characters not allowing Chief to Support. And since Rita Farr was out this left me a little outnumbered. I retaliated in kind though removing Firestar and Spider-Girl. My opponent was using a really smart strategy using EE from Cloak and Dagger to hit my Robotman and the adjacent Firestar who was healing because of her SP. He was purposely pushing Gee to get tied up and get killed by Negative Woman who had Poison so he could heal his whole team and it worked.

Things weren't looking good as I needed 8's and 9's to hit most of his team, even with the Chief Perplexing and Contingency plan tokens I wasn't getting the rolls. Until Beast Boy hit a quake roll sending Scarlet Spider and Night Thrasher reeling. Elongated Man charged and took out the Thrahser! Robotman was tying up Cloak and Dagger who couldn't get passed his Invulnerability. Chief was tied up by Namorita and Speedball and was surviving as his MM fodder Mento also reached Perplex and kept their attacks down to 7 needing 8's to hit Chief he couldn't get the rolls. After Scarlet Spider was removed it was all she wrote for the New Warriors and Beast Boy came in swinging with another Quake and offed Justice and Namorita with the help of Chief.

Negative Woman then tied up Cloak and Dagger and Poisened them to death with the help of Robotman dealing some damage. A complete team effort is what it took for them to be victorious. At the end of the game I had rolled 3 critical hits 2 of them by Rex!

Not a bad ending for the team who we thought would never win a game. Beast Boy's Quake's saved the day and who knows maybe it's a sign of things to come in DC75! Until then may this inspire you to keep playing the Underdogs and never give up!