ARTICLE BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Having being around ever since Hypertime hit the shelves, I actually went rogue on my DC-only group and started to amass Infinity Challenge and Clobberin' Time figures.

Ever since then, I've collected every last single piece ever created for the game of Heroclix. Then I started to lament about the lack of theme cohesiveness amongst the figures.

Then came out Avengers and a load of keywords. My dream had become reality. It gave me unparalleled creativity with team builds and I've not stopped building a team or two daily ever since then. I've even gone out of my way to fit in a certain figure, even if it weakened the team overall...it's all about accuracy with me, baby!

With that as the basis for my articles, I'll be talking about teams I intend on running during that weekend's matches, the reasons I chose specific figures, and the strategy I'm hoping to employ.

The goal with this is to encourage team building based on non-generic pieces and to provide feedback to those seeking pure comic-like teams.

Most times than not, I will be strictly in-universe. As in, every last single element of a team will be from a single universe. In very rare cases, I will be using feats from another universe if only to optimize a team's performance, but I usually bristle against that. I'm that much of a purist

So, without further ado, here's my entry for this weekend's battle!

(for the purposes of this article, it was last week's battle, after E2 cleaned off the Legion of Doom in 10 minutes BATTLE REPORT IN 1st POST)

However, before I move onto the content, I'd like to throw a shout-out there for:

1) A specific keyword team (either generic or non-generic) you'd like to see me build and run against my group.

2) Give me YOUR keyword team and I'll tinker with it, coming up with perhaps wholesale changes or minor tweaks here and there.

This would expand the concept of my Theme Team Articles, not restricted to only MY teams but the Heroclix Community's, as well.

Okay, without further ado, here they shamble!!!

MARVEL ZOMBIES!!! 500 points
Hulk (SN LE)
Wolverine (SN LE) w/ Protected (M&M, just 'cause Wolverine was on it )
Colonel America (SN LE) w/ Protected (AW) & Heightened Reflexes
Spider-Man (M&M Rare) w/ Pounce
Giant-Man (M&M Uncommon) w/ Homing Device
Iron Man (M&M Super-Rare)
Janet Pym (M&M Bystander)

Also starring "The Last Bastion Of Humanity":
Amadeus Cho (trying to revert the Hulk back to Banner)
Betsy Ross-Banner (Likewise)
Jimmy Woo (remaining SHIELD member, runs into the pair above)
Frankie DuChamp (unlucky city cop caught in the middle of the chaos)

500 points on the nose.

BFCs: Ordinary Day, Disbanded!, Nowhere To Hide

I know, I know, my bashings of the "generic keyword world" notwithstanding, this is practically a minor generic keyword. Who doesn't like running monsters, especially ZOMBIES?!?

That said, I played every possible Zombie made for Marvel, focusing on ensuring my mobile Zombies are going to be as useful as they can get. I especially focused on Colonel America as he was going to carry the brunt of my ranged attacks, so I slapped Heightened Reflexes to give him pseudo-Super Senses and Protected to shrug off at least one attack.

Spider-Man was my other mobile attacker, quite a nasty one at that with Pounce, the ability to regain lost clicks through Steal Energy, and miss retaliation attacks outright with Super Senses.

Knowing that without Outwit, most of these Zombies would be made short work of, so Giant-Man was a no-brainer. Slapping Homing Device on him would give me an out against stealthed figures.

I was also sure that the opposition would gun for Hulk ASAP with what his Flurry/SE/WP combo enabling him to return to top-click with ease. Wolverine, with his high AV and decent DV with Willpower, could be overlooked since he does not have range and very low movement, but with Iron Man serving as a taxi, Zogan (Zombie Logan!) should be able to get around just fine. Iron Man provides some more range with his excellent 8 range and the team also benefits from much-needed Perplex, 4 clicks of it.

The Janet Pym bystander token is just icing on the cake.

The Last Bastion Of Humanity was something fun I put together to represent the few remaining human survivors, some of them having direct relationships with some of the Zombie characters.

For battlefield control, I packed some Ordinary Day to ensure I wouldn't get hosed by some BFC with a severe drawback for my force, Disbanded! because it wouldn't affect the TA-less Zombies in any way, and Nowhere To Hide to reduce the amount of hindering terrain for stealth-heavy teams.

BATTLE RESULTS: So, after E2 cleans up the floor too easily, too quickly, I tell my pal not to digress and that he would actually have more fun the 2nd game. So, I watch him pull out some sort of mish-mash Avengers team: SI Iron Man, AV Moon Knight, Two Gun Kid, Cap & Bucky, and SI Punisher. Not too bad, a bit heavy on range but with Moon Knight and Cap/Bucky, he had some close-combat options. Dual Perplex and Outwit (Cap/Buck & IM for the Perplexes and Iron Man has Outwit) was going to be a problem for my team, especially not being as mobile as he was.

Luckily, I was running theme and easily won map roll, choosing the Armory Lab from Armor Wars because the layout somewhat benefited my slow team with the multiple sectioned off rooms allowing me to slowly move up and counter whatever was coming in quite a narrow corridor as opposed to a wide open and large area.

So begins our game, I have Giant Man carry up Cho, Iron Man with Wolverine, Hulk, Spidey, and the Colonel hoofing it over. My pal counters with getting most of his guys within a good measure of my team, easily picking apart a few with well placed Running Shots or TGK's Transporter M&A.

I clear but not before moving up the rest of the bystanders and he clears as well.

Here comes the crucial turn where ANY movement on my behalf would definitely get me within his RS/Charge range of IM and Cap/Bucky, especially with two Perplexes. So, with a Protected to burn on the Colonel, I decided he would have to be bait and I Perplex up his DV to 17 and carry him right behind an object with Iron Man. I situate Wolverine then Hulk right behind Iron Man, moving up Woo right next to the Colonel to give myself at least some sort of return fire should Woo survive the oncoming assault.

Sure enough, pally boy sends Iron Man on a strafing run but eliciting not to use Perplex on his Attack and totally misses both Woo/Colonel with a roll of 3, so his non-use of Perplex was short of brilliant as he could now pump up Cap/Bucky and IM's Defenses when I take my next turn. Moon Knight moves into an object resting in front of the Colonel and C/B moves right to MK, just outside of the Colonel's range. TGK also moves within nice M&A range and still being able to duck out of my teams' sights. Iron Man Outwits the Colonel's RS, somewhat foiling my plan for the follow up. At least I didn't have to burn Protected or any of my theme PC.

Now I've got only one option and it's to Perplex the Colonel's range to 5, which was just enough to tag up Iron Man, but I was needing a massive 10 and it was quite a miss for me but with Woo having Willpower, I chanced a PC but still missed. Figuring I needed to at least neutralize Iron Man's Perplex/Outwit SP, so I charge up Cap/Bucky with Giant Man, needing yet another difficult roll, a 8 this time. I miss, so I PC it, miss...one theme PC left, so I use it...yet another miss. I at least get the chance to Outwit IM's Extremis. Realizing it's all but downhill from there for me, I decide to bum-rush Iron Man with Wolverine and Punisher with Hulk.

Much to my surprise, he passes and clears the entire force!!! No push to at least whittle some of the threats down, especially Wolverine and Hulk, with what Punisher having Willpower. I dutifully remind him of this, he still passed figuring he would be in better shape to react twice than be a sitting duck with some of his figures pushed. Valid and sound, I'd say.

If not for my dice waking up and starting to fire on all cylinders, starting with Giant Man and Wolverine teaming up to take IM down a few notches, Outwitting the Invulnerability and Zogan's 11 AV wasn't about to miss this time. This landed Tony on his regular Outwit, negating at least one more source of Perplex. I then sent Spidey on a Pounce against Cap/Buck and it lands for 3 straight-through. This also serves as tie-up so Cap/Bucky and Moon Knight couldn't retaliate against Giant Man and the Colonel. I also moved up Janet Pym and Ross-Banner within movement range of his force so I could possibly move them into position for tie-up or LOF blocking two turns later.

Comes up his turn and he follows through on Spider-Man with Cap/Buck and Moon Knight but I hit both SuperSenses rolls! Punisher misses Hulk outright but he salvages it with an Iron Man whack on Wolverine for 4. TGK misses the Transporter M&A follow up on Wolverine and his 4 actions are all used up...1/4 dice-wise, turning the tide of battle into my favor, especially with the Colonel, Iron Man, Hulk free of tokens and ready to rip into him.

Needlessly to say, short work was made of the opposing force with Hulk's 3 +HO on Punisher, Giant Man's over-everybody's-head charge to Iron Man knocking him for 4 more (3 +LO). Spider-Man pushed and moved over to base TKG and slow him down some. That opened up LOF for the Colonel to attack his "living" counterpart for 4 with Iron Man's Perplex assist.

Between all my hits and his misses, dropping him to measly AVs, he was swinging wildly for the next two turns, hoping to take anybody out, just ANYBODY. He managed to drop only...Janet Pym.

Expecting a loss that turned into a resounding win was quite a surprise, but that goes as far as to tell you that theme teams have inherent advantages, especially with the map roll and theme PCs, despite my theme PCs totally failing me this game. It was the crucial map choice that allowed me to seal the victory.

Be sure to post your thoughts, reactions, and what not! Don't forget, I want a keyword or two from y'all, as well as your own theme teams to be picked apart and reassembled with winning and having fun in mind!

Your feats could be re-worked (or Pogs Removed)


No Lunge on Hulk or Nanobots on Captain America is a downright shame

Lunge is DC, so there

As for Nanobots, I'm not too sure but I do see that it would've allowed me to push him incessantly and regain the lost clicks via an object.

Not bad of a suggestion there!