I've wanted to put together a 300 pt. Alpha Flight team for a while, but I've also wanted to make sure that it was also a playable, half decent team. That isn't to say that there aren't alot of good Alpha Flight pieces, it's just that there are also alot of bad ones.

I've been a fan of Aurora for a while, but I was disappointed with her REV incarnations. They just didn't seem to do justice to a mutant of her power level. The only incarnatino of Aurora that really seemed like her was the LE, which is one of th emost accurate representations of an Alpha Flight character that we've got.

So, I recently picked up the Aurora LE and decided to put together a playable Alpha Flight team. Here is the result:

R Weapon Alpha (because Alpha Flight isn't Alpha Flight without Mac! WHEN OH WHEN WILL MARVEL LEARN THAT?)
69 pts

LE Jeanne-Marie Beaubier -
66pts

E Box - not a founding Alpha Flight member, but definitely an early recruit. Madison was an awesome character in the comics, and his clix rendition is very suitable.
125 pts

I have 40 points left over. I could either fit in E Marrina or R Puck. The choice is obvious:

R Puck
38 pts

Puck gets in because he fits the classic Alpha Flight team like a glove.

Of course, the Alpha Flight ATA is a must.

Box'll soak up hits ad get healed while Aurora and Mac do the grunt work. Puck is just annoying. Real simple strategy.

Any thoughts?

Ever since Supernova, I've used this team as the classic Alpha Flight:

R Weapon Alpha 69
R Northstar 52
R Sasquatch 80
R Puck 38
E Aurora 60

Total: 299
Theme: Alpha Flight; +5 to map choice, 2 theme team PCs


Yes, I concur, that the LE of Jeanne-Marie is the best of the Hypersonic Twins. The E is pretty effective as well -- the Running Shot doesn't make her move as far, but she does get all 8 of her range that way. For a "true" rookie feel, you could downgrade her to the R and have 11 points for feats.

I also like the LE Walter Langkowski as the best Sasquatch, if you have more points available.

After these initial figures, as you increase points, I'd look to add:

Shaman
Box
Vindicator
Wildheart
Snowbird
Marrina

But I'd rather upgrade to V Puck, LE James MacDonald Hudson, etc.

Man, I wish I had the LE Mac. What a good piece.

If I had him, then the possibilities would be endless. It kinda bothers me that the best Alpha Flight pieces seem to be the LEs. Even the Talisman LE is amazing, even though it doesn't have the keyword or the TA.

How did your rookie Alpha Flight team manage? My fear with that build is mostly that Sasquatch just isn't all that effective. I really, really want the Walter Langkowski LE.

From my experience with playing theme teams over the years (in the true sense of the phrase, not referring to just keyword themes) Alpha Flight is one of the most competitive.

I would highly recommend trying to fit a Shaman in if you can. He's probably the best all round Utility support player in the game, with decent attack potential as well. Puck is always a must use, and the potential of two hypersonic pieces is always nice as well.

After that Mac and Box are pretty good, and the rest are fairly meh. I like to put in Sasquatch for higher point games but he ain't great.

Oh...Wildchild is pretty good though once you push him.

I like Alpha Flight teams, but they do have some pretty big disadvantages. The biggest problem IMO is a lack of mobile ranged combatants - the options are pretty much U Vindicator (who hasn't aged well), E Aurora (damage output is too low), V Vindicator (expensive) and LE James Mac (the best choice, IMO). I don't consider LE Jeanne-Marie to fill this niche as her 6 range is a bit short.
The fact that they only have a handful of figures with support powers, most of them being Shaman, is a bit of a problem as well.
Still, there are a lot of good figures with the keyword - any team that can incorporate two flying, low-cost Hypersonic Speed pieces is bound to do well!

Being a 300 point build kind of hurts Alpha Flight, too. Some of the most effective pieces are right around 100 points (Box, Vindicator/LE Mac, LE Walter), so if you try to build a team with a couple big guns like that, all the sudden you don't have room for the wonderful back-up pieces like the twins, Shaman, or Puck.

In a 400 build, I've had a lot of success with the following:

SV054 Vindcator 123
+ Protected 8
MU008 Box 125
AW040 Aurora 50
+ Armor Piercing 10
MM067 Northstar 52
+ Armor Piecing 10
AW034 Marrina 20
+ Alpha Flight on everone

---> 398

Box stays back for awhile, using his Perplex to either up Mac's damage or DV as needed. The twins zip around either pinging the big guns or demolishing support characters. Marrina gets up in someone's face, takes a big hit, and then still survives to tie-up a second turn because she 5 clicks deep for only 20 points (and maybe gets a lucky hit with CCE before going down). Then once the opposition has been softened up, Box comes in to clean up.

A similar team that might work in 300 is:

SV052 Weapon Alpha 69
+ Alias 3
MM070 Sasquatch 80
+ Lunge 5
AW040 Aurora 50
+ Armor Piercing 10
MM067 Northstar 52
+ Armor Piecing 10
AW034 Marrina 20
+ Alpha Flight on everone
---> 299

You are losing all the Perplex, but the twins are still there to harass and Sasquatch can dish out some big damage if he can get into position (Lunge helps with that). Marrina is still there to tie-up characters (and you will definitely need it with this build). Hopefully Weapon Alpha and Sasquatch can dish out enough damage before going down that the twins can clean up. Dropping Sasquatch to make room for Shaman or V Puck could also help (and you might even have enough points to upgrade Marrina to E for Charge/Blades), but that places that much more emphasis on the twins trying to KO instead of harass since you'd lose Walter's (potentially) big damage.