It’s Christmas Eve and our heroes (or villains) have been so busy saving the world (or with their nefarious schemes) that they haven’t had time to do their Christmas shopping and the mall’s almost cleaned out. They’ve got to get in and grab some gifts before the mall closes. But it’s every man for himself! Don’t think just because you grabbed that last Tickle-Me Elmo that it’s yours until you’re safely home!
Map: The Mall
Build: 500 points
Starting Areas: Both teams start in the “Parking lot” (columns 16-24) opposite each other.
Special Rules:
In addition to regular objects, each player may place 5 gift tokens on the inside portion of the map. They may be picked up if during a move action a character passes through a square adjacent to the token. It does not require Super Strength to pick them up, and they do not act as hindering terrain for LOF purposes. A character may not carry more than one gift token at a time. A character that is carrying a gift that takes damage from the attack must drop the gift in an adjacent square. If a character gets to his starting area with a gift token, they may remain there and are immune to attack. Or they may leave the gift there and go back for more. Characters in the starting area may be holding no more than one gift at a time, any additional gift tokens in the starting area are considered unattended. Unattended gift tokens, even in the starting area may be stolen by opposing characters.
The exterior wall of the Mall has been specially reinforced, to prevent super-criminals from robbing them. The exterior wall cannot be destroyed and it cannot be phased through. No shortcuts.
Scoring: The game ends after 12 turns. In addition to any KO points a team scores, they get an additional 25 points for every gift that is in their starting area, and 10 points for any gift being carried by a character but not in their starting area.

For this one I'm playing DC Heroes, and I found myself gravitating toward a Teen Titans theme team. It's the Giant-Size Teen Titans Christmas Special

Nightwing CR 79
R Wonder Girl (CR) 60
Kid Flash (CR) 45
Beast Boy (AN) 60
Speedy (CR) 45
E Starfire (IK) 77
U Cyborg 80
R Raven (IK) 54

500

Initiative roll is 10, for all that it's going to matter.

My team guest stars the Uncanny X-Men!

Cyclops 110
Storm 86
Colossus/Wolverine 190
Nightcrawler 86
Sprite 30

503 total

Inish is 6....

Not sure if I got this right, you tell me. The placement of the packages is the real question.

Cyclops GX B17
Storm GX B18
Nightcrawler WOS B19
Colossus/Wolverine B20
Sprite R B21

HO J6, LO C20, H17

Christmas packages: D3, I3, C8, E12, D15

http://www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/...&u5=x-374y-387

"Snow flurries? Really? But the weather forecast predicted 50 degrees...Mein Gott, Ororo is this your doing?" Nightcrawler asks.

"What good is it to a weather witch on Christmas Eve without the frigid weather to match, my friend?" Storm asks.

"Is this right? I mean, I'm Jewish anyway but are we really going to break into the mall on Christmas Eve and steal gifts?" Sprite asks.

"Rob the rich to give to the poor," Colossus says putting a gentle hand on her shoulder, "What better purpose could be have?".

Sprite gushes. "If you say so, Peter....".

"We're not stealing, X-Men," Cyclops says, "But we've been offworld fighting the Brood all month. Professor Xavier suggested we do our 'shopping' tonight, while the malls closed. We'll pay for everything we take."

Wolverine snorts.

"You got a problem with something, Wolverine?" Cyclops asks.

"Not with the shopping. If ya ask me shopping on Christmas Eve when the mall's closed is the only sane time to do it during the holidays. No....my senses are telling me somethin' Cyke. And that is that we ain't alone."

Nightwing CR X17
R Wonder Girl (CR) W17
Kid Flash (CR) W18
Beast Boy (AN) W19
Speedy (CR) X20
E Starfire (IK) W20
U Cyborg W21
R Raven (IK) W22

HO P16, K5
LO M11
Gifts N2, S5, V9, V12, T14


http://www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/...&u5=x-374y-387

Wolverine/COlossus should be a double-base. And remember you can't phase through or break the exterior wall of the mall, but the interior walls are fair game.

Turn 1 of 12

Nightwing - Leadership 3

Wonder Girl taxis Nightwing. Donna to P19, O19 for Dick.

Starfire taxis Speedy. Starfire to O14, Speedy to N15

Raven to Q17

Kid Flash to P14

Beast Boy to P15, changes to Cheetah form.

Nightwing CR O19 (Stealth)
R Wonder Girl (CR) @ P19
Kid Flash (CR) @ P14
Beast Boy: CHeetah (AN) @ P15
Speedy (CR) N15
E Starfire (IK) @ O14
U Cyborg W21
R Raven (IK) @ Q17

http://www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/...&u5=x-374y-387

"I can't believe it took us until 5:00 on Christmas Eve to beat Brother Blood!" Kid Flash complained. "We have to hurry!" He was off like a shot.

"Dude!" Beast Boy called out. "Wait for me!" He changed into a cheetah and ran after him.

"I don't understand why this is so important," Raven said. "Granted, I'm no expert on these things, but I thought the season wasn't about gifts."

"Not really," Cyborg elaborated, "but people do like to give gifts to their loved ones. And tonight I don't mind saying it, but I love you guys."

"That's sweet, Vic," Donna said. "I think Gar and Wally are still kids at heart when it comes to Christmas, and like the receiving part just as much."

"I don't doubt it," Nightwing said, "but aren't we all kids at Christmastime?"

"We do not have an equivalent on Tamaran, but when I see the joy this Christmastime brings to you all, I can't wait to experience it."

"Uh oh," Raven said.

"What is it?" Donna asked.

"We're not the only ones here for some last minute shopping."

Kitty to J18.

Storm tks Kurt to J17.

Kurt carries Kitty to F14, she's E13. He releases Kitty and they both pick up gifts.

Cyclops to E17.



Cyclops GX @ E17
Storm GX @ B18
Nightcrawler WOS @ F14
Colossus/Wolverine B20
Sprite R @ E14

HO J6, LO C20, H17

Christmas packages: D3, I3, C8, E12, D15

http://www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/...&y1=x-157y-500

"No offense to you Titans but we were here first. And the X-Men won't go home empty handed," Cyclops says.

"X-Men spread out!" he commands.

Nightcrawler teleports with Sprite in his lap.

"And I thought Walmart was crazy, katzen!" he says.

Kitty can't pick up the object...yet:

She could certainly just pick it up at the start of her next movement though.

Neither she nor Nightcrawler match their positions between the recap and the map. Or Cyclops for that matter.

Turn 1 of 12

Nightwing - Leadership 4

speedy to U13, grabs the gift in V12, ends T13

Cyborg to N15

Nightwing CR O19 (Stealth)
R Wonder Girl (CR) P19
Kid Flash (CR) P14
Beast Boy: CHeetah (AN) P15
Speedy (CR) @ T13
E Starfire (IK) O14
U Cyborg @ N15
R Raven (IK) Q17

http://www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/...&y1=x-157y-500

"Nightwing?" Speedy looked to their leader.

"I don't want to fight these guys, not on Christmas Eve. Not if we don't have to," Nightwing said. "But if they get in our way..." Speedy ran off to grab a sweater. Cyborg moved up with his friends. The rest of the Teen Titans eyed the X-Men warily.

Positions corrected.

Cyke to I21 attacking Cyborg. Needs 6, rolls 8. 3 to him after toughness.

Cyclops GX @@ I21
Storm GX B18
Nightcrawler WOS D14
Colossus/Wolverine B20
Sprite R E13

HO J6, LO C20, H17

Christmas packages: D3, I3, C8, E12, D15

http://www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/...&y1=x-157y-500

"I got somethin'!" Cyborg says lifting the gift in his hands. He's quickly zapped in the chest and drops it.

"Now step back from that Easy Bake Oven nice and slow," Cyclops says.

Okay, it's on.

Turn 3 of 12

Nightwing - Leadership 6

WG to N11, Nightwing in M11

Raven Phases to M10

Starfire taxis Cyborg, RS to H14, Cyborg in I15. Targets Nightcrawler. SC is 5. Sprite then, AV9 on DV16. Gets 4. Raven makes it 7. SS is 4. 4 to Sprite.

Kid Flash to I4, grabs the gift in I3

Beast Boy to R7

Nightwing CR M11 (Stealth)
R Wonder Girl (CR) @ N11
Kid Flash (CR) @ I4 w/gift
Beast Boy: CHeetah (AN) @ R7
Speedy (CR) T13 w/gift
E Starfire (IK) @H14
U Cyborg @ I15 (3)
R Raven (IK) @ M10


http://www.ianparmenter.com/hcutils/...&y1=x-157y-500

"Cyborg!" Starfire gasped. "So this is how you X-Men celebrate peace on Earth and goodwill to men? Then so be it." Angry, she flew to the store where Nightcrawler and Kitty had gone, unleashing her starbolts. Nightcrawler instinctively Bamfed away, but Kitty wasn't so lucky.

"Ooh!" Kid Flash said. "An iPod!"