Well, a little rough around the edges, but not a bad start.

I think it's important to note that both the DD and Elektra of yore have 2 more clix of life than the modern generics. I think this is more indicative of a shift in heroclix's gaming philosophy than a power creep.

Back in the early sets the figures were designed to live long enough to make it to a medic, and this was considered playability when coupled with a decent starting click.

Now, it seems that the idea for playability is based around not needing to run to a medic after the first click. As such, we see shorter, stronger dials. While the Hand Ninja's effectiveness isn't immediately obvious after the first click (most of his points are sunk into his special power), this philosophy is very apparent in the Asgardian generics.

great article.

one problem though. the only way to make the xpl ninja have an 11 attack at range would be to fire against a fig on elevated, a giant, a colossal or by using feats or support powers. the 3rd ninja (hydra fig) would block line of site otherwise.

Rob

Clarification: I agree with this statement as far as I understand it. Look at the cheapest figure in HoT. No bystander tokens. Which makes Phanlanx solidier the cheapest non-named character. He is 31 pts! Here is what I beleive: in ye olde days, 31 pts could darn near get you a Named Super-hero. With SUPER POWERS (or super-abilities).

Case in point, the Hand Ninja is 38 pts. While he doesn't necessarily play better than a figure around his cost (that's evidence to me of no power creep), he now costs more than named characters of yesterday. That is evidence of a boost in Superpowers, and point cost creep, which I uncleverly named (and forgot the hyphen) Super-power creep.

It is a change in gaming philosophy.

For more evidence of this, read the continuation of this article in two weeks!

You're not wrong. I think we agree, but are seeing different things.

I guess my point was that the early heroclix were designed with survivability first in mind (see IC 30pt R Black Widow: 6 clix, terrible stats, two vanilla clix), while the newer ones seem to be designed around functionality until they die (see Phalanx soldier) which just happens sooner (only 4 clix, but all useful)

I think that the reason that this article wasn't as successful as I intended was because my hypothesis ran counter to the article's conclusion.

I believed that it was ridiculous that any non-powered generic should be 30+ points. It was my intent to show this. Somewhere between the first draft and what you've read, I learned that I was drawing the wrong conclusion, at least in this instance. The paradigm shift makes this 38pt Hand Ninja still function as a generic, most notably in it's short life and low defense. The Clix of old still have a good chance of taking him out, despite the similar point costs.

The other part of the article was to compare the 40pt Henchman LE from AA against the 44 and 47 pt Batmen from older sets (most of it is already written). It is still odd to me that we have non-powered generics in similar point cost to a named character, such as Batman. However, my second assessment is that Batman should be able to take the Henchman out. If this is true, then the Henchman still functions as a generic, despite the 40pt cost. Again, this runs counter to my original theory that this is a case of super-power creep where it doesn't belong.

Thanks for your great points Jak, have some rep

Nice Article.

Some thoughts....

I really like the Vet and LE Elektras from Critical Miss...
Willpower should really help in a swarm match.

I often run The Mandarin alongside the Hand (presumably he worked with them in Heart of Darkness)

Other good Hand tie-ins...
Psylocke
Echo/Ronin

And also for just a few points...
The Thug pog from Avengers looks an awful lot like a Ninja.

I think that this is what is on the Hand Ninja flyer when they recruit, that you learn how to one-shot people for the KO.

Your collection isn't complete until you've snagged several of the Universe set ninjas (no archenemy dial base, so you can pop the XP Elektra in with the team).

I have a few Universe ones - like 3 or 4. The venue I play at lets me field the 2 LE ninjas with the rest of them despite technically being arch-enemies. In friendly games no one really cared either.

Wow, taking "print and play" to a whole new level!
That'll be cool for "fun games" at FGS, Tony!
And pretty cool!

Very interesting reading.

Do you think the word "AttacK" at the end of the Hand Ninja's "From the Shadows" ability is worded incorrectly and should have said "action" instead?

Aren't close combat actions and close combat attacks the same thing?

Where I play it was judged that BCF triggers with Hypersonic speed, and that is a close combat attack as well.

Hi and welcome to the Realms!

If you and your group are new to the game, there are many great resources to be had. Firstly, pick up a copy of the Fantastic Four Starter set rules, which is also located here under the "units" section. It has the current rules, and will explain all about the different types of actions and attacks you can do.

For example, you couldn't use BCF with hss speed. HSS allows a free ranged or close combat ATTACk as a free action. BCF requires that a close combat ACTION (like charge) be given to activate.

Hope that helps!

Thanks. Right after posting I took a trip to the Rules forum and did a little research. Things are pretty smooth.

A Heroclix judge has been telling us for years that you could combine HSS + BCF. Good grief, this judge has it all wrong.