Are they any good? I know some Halo teams are really good (Even in other games, Jackal Snipers are insanely good shots), but sometimes you want to Shoot then Chainsaw someone, and we don't have Doom Guy (yet).

Not interested in the Locusts, just want some COG Gears to go with my Chief.

i'd say if you're a fan of the characters, then go for it. they aren't amazing in terms of playability or anything and their stats don't really stack up compared to today's modern numbers but they can still b fun and have their uses.

I always had fun with them. Especially Ole Cole Train...

Sounds like me. Guess I'll grab them, but if I'm not playing a casual match I should probably leave them at home?

Good Ole Cole Train...

Quick summary of my thoughts on the GOW figures
Marcus Fenix: Decent enough top click. 11/3 on offense, now standard 18 defense, the ability to take cover after a shot, yeah that's usable. However, taking even one hit brings him to a horrible place. 9 attack just isn't usable for anything. Later on he can be more of a berserker type, especially if you pair him with a Defend piece, but consider him extra squishy.
Dominic Santiago: Unusable
Augustus Cole: Unusable. Even if you get him onto his gun, he's still less playable than your standard range piece.
Damon Baird: Would have potential with better stats. Abilities are nice, but his stats just spoil everything he brings.
Anya Stroud: Good try, but too expensive for what she brings.
Mauler: The team ability is all that makes this special. Exploit Weakness is an interesting bit to tack on, but 9 attack makes that a problem.
Locust Drone: If you want to make use of the team ability, this is the cheapest way to do it, and honestly, you could do worse for the points. It's still not good, but it fills an interesting niche.
Kantus: Unusable
General RAAM: Ooh, is that a 12 I see? Definitely overcosted for what he does, but there's a lot of interesting here. The low defense makes him suspect in my eyes, but if you bring any of these to a fight, this is probably one of the best candidates. Maybe keep him in more of a back line role, though.
Skorge: Not as bad as most of the pieces I see here, but still pretty bad.

Overall, yeah nothing here really holds up. They're 8 years old now; power creep is a thing. However, I can see how they'd make for good games against each other. The stats are bad compared to today's pieces, but they can do work in a vacuum. Have you tried the GoW board game, though? I highly recommend it.

Ah, I have not. So what I'm pulling from this is that Fenix and RAAM are the only ones that can still have a purpose or a slot in a casual game of HeroClix?

"Casual" is all in how you define it. Most of these figures are not going to hang with the new plastic. However, there are things you can do. Like I said, they seem to work fine in a vacuum. Put them against other figures from their age and I'm sure you can have fun. I'm sure you could get some entertainment value in GoW vs. Halo. However, this is ultimately the way of old indy licenses. My Yu-Gi-Oh pieces are mostly obsolete, and I suspect even Mystical Elf might lose her footing in a year or two. I got in far too late for Street Fighter to matter. Marvel/DC have the advantage in frequently getting characters remade so that the people you like stay relevant.

Casual as in bring whatever, play for fun, not to curb stomp.

Ouch...surely we have capped? Or will we go into 35 defense and such? The only way to go is down, or else we get god-tier commons. That, or we UPDATE GEARS AND HALO COME ON NECIDS

*Ahem* So I think I'll grab Marcus, just to have him alongside the Halo bois. Maybe one day my FLGS will have a Indy-only tournament...

"Throw a (frag) Grenade" is a pretty amazing ability; it's one I wish were still in the modern game. I can't argue against the weakness of the stats in today's era.

In their time, I played several events using only the Locust Horde. I feel that the Locust Horde was one of the first HeroClix 'generic villain' factions to be a theme from which I could build a 'pure theme' force and still be successful with in play. Attacking multiple figures (from range, mostly ignoring lines-of-fire) along with "improved movement" and a potential repositioning of foes was really quite a bag of tricks for an experienced player.

Digression:

In my opinion, there haven't been many faction pure themes that can do as much with so few figures to choose from. The Soldier of the Dead's Oathbreaker comes to mind, as do The Foot (from Unplugged). Some of the Star Trek factions have very good 'generics', but they really only shine when they get one-or-more 'bosses' improving them.

The big two comic properties have some decent villain generics, but more often than not it is a small number of generics backing up named dials that are individually powerful; I'm immediately thinking of The Hand and to a lesser extent The Hive. Even newer keyword factions like Wakanda and a somewhat older Atlantis (both universes) which *could* have modern stand-alone generic dials only excel when paired with shared-keyword named characters. Ditto for most Tolkien factions when played without horde stacks.

Locusts are the competitive faction with regards to the Gears of War set I could build a legit team with Locusts and still win a tournament even in today's game, not "worlds" or "nationals" team but the type of team one brings to a local venue. General Ramm is a BEAST within that set and pretty brutal on soldier teams in general he hits WAY above his pay grade. As for The CoGs I'd play only in a friendly event not saying their bad it's just they play better when used with characters from other sets and poorly when played within their own set.

They will beat the crap out of the wee clix.

Ah. Maybe I will pick up RAAM and a couple Drones, maybe a Mauler. Just to shake up the DC/Marvel stuff at the FLGS. And yeah, considering I would mostly do Casual Play, the COG Gears sound good.

Expect nothing less from Marcus 'Not the fraking tomatoes' Fenix.

The Locust Team Ability is partial why they're so good it's Phasing Teleport with the added effect that adjacent characters are knocked back one square. So throw up some blocking terrain, phase next to a character, and either pinball them to death or push the character off a roof

Technically the Locust TA is just one opposing figure, not all, but yeah it's a useful TA, indeed. The only thing is that Sand does the same thing so much better at a similar cost.

Hmmm. What about the COG's team ability? Wasn't it something like running shot plus cover?