The impact a map can have on a game is often overlooked. A good strategy incorporates a tactically-sound map choice. But when it comes to locale, sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees. We're here to help you make smart decisions when it comes to HeroClix real estate.
Official Title: Prison 42
Environment: Indoor
Map on Reverse: Stamford
Dimensions: 24" x 36" (16x24 squares)
Set: Civil War OP
Status: Modern

SPECIAL RULES: For a 4-Player game, players start in the Starting Areas indicated by (dashed purple line) and (dashed orange line) is considered the edge of the map.

The Civil War maps continue to Prison 42! As before, I wanted to mostly talk about this as a standard map, but I'll be talking tactics if you want to play a casual 4 player game here or even if you want to look at this map just for the Civil War OP specifically.


Making Yourself At Home:

eMouse' Atlas being better than my cell phone, here's an overview of the map.


Going back a little bit to Stamford, this map is almost the opposite. While Stamford was very open and kind of had a killbox in the center of the map with the crater and a lot of ways to direct motion to the outside of the map, this map is much more closed off without actually restricting movement going towards the center. There's five antechambers in the map, and each one of them provides some cover, but has at least two ways in or out, so it's less defensible. Additionally, there's a lot of blocking terrain spread around the map, though the larger collections of blocking terrain are A.) pulled back near each starting zone, and B.) move vertically, so they'll harder to hide behind.


The two side antechambers look like good places to find cover AND move up, but be careful because they have entrances on either side, so your opponent might have just an easy of a time moving up to attack you. The center antechamber only has entrances to the side, so it's a little harder to move in to, but each of those entrances is two squares wide. Keep in mind that it requires about a 10 movement to run in and find cover, but that based on where you move, an opposing character with Running Shot only has to move about 6 to be able to line up a shot at you. Moving closer to your opponent's side of the antechamber is a better way of getting cover, and it should leave you protected from both Running Shot, and most characters with Charge, but will require a movement of 12 to get to.


Short of that, you can still hide behind the antechamber. Since you have the option of moving first, you shouldn't have any problems getting to the outer walls behind the antechamber, and there should be room for 2-6 team members to hide while still restricting opposing lines of fire, and set a trap for when they come your way. In order to shoot, your opponents will have to move up at least squares to get a direct line of fire, which cuts out most Running Shot characters. Additionally, TK is restricted here as there aren't a lot of places where two characters can draw long lines of fire from their starting zones except on the ends. If you do see a character with TK on the ends like that, it's very easy to predict where they'll be, and even easier to just head on to the other side of the map.

Hypersonic Speed can work well here. Depending on your Movement, you could conceivably attack someone from your starting zone behind the other side of the central antechamber, and move in to cover afterwards. A better option might be to only move up a little and use the walls and antechambers to give you plenty of options to move and then hide.

Otherwise, short and medium range characters are really good for this map. It's difficult to get a long line of fire, and even though there's only a few places with Hindering terrain, there's plenty of walls to keep behind. This is a great map for setting and springing traps, so keep that in mind when choosing this map. Alternatively, you could turtle, and this would restrict a lot of lines of fire until they close in on you, but it's more difficult to predict what angles they'll be coming from, making it less defensible that other turtle maps.


So, let's talk 4-player. The nice thing about this map is that each starting zone is covered by Blocking terrain on either side. While this doesn't make you completely protected, it does give you a nice wall to restrict who's coming in. Turtling is a great strategy with 4 players if the goal is to survive at the end. However, as popular as Battle Royales are right now, it's usually not a good idea in those scenarios, as the goal is to score as many points as you can, and in a 4 player game, doing that in an hour usually means you're cutting your game short, and limiting your opportunities to score points. That said, this is a fantastic 4 player map for turtling, and even in Battle Royales, the people who move out too far early can get punished really easily. The antechamber in the center makes it difficult to attack the person diagonally away from you, and you're more likely to end up fighting one of your immediate neighbors.


So a few things to keep in mind about moving out of the starting area. This map isn't particularly large, and overall, it's not hard to cross for opponents looking to find you. Moreover, when you move out first, you're giving your characters an action token AND making it easier for opponents to attack you. Counting Reach is extra important here because one wrong move can really leave yourself open early on. The action you're giving yourself to move out is also important, because it means that if you do get attacked, you have one turn to counter attack before you generally HAVE to clear. In the meantime, if your opponent was able to move up to attack you in the same action, they still have a second round of attacks coming the next turn before they have to clear. Make good use of taxis so your primary attackers are rested and ready to go the next turn. Additionally, while I don't normally recommend turtling in a 4 player Battle Royale game, waiting until your opponents are otherwise occupied, and then moving to steal a few kills a turn later might not be a bad idea here.


If you do decide to move forward, the antechambers might seem like the best place to set up a forward base. They're halfway between starting zones, and they each have a little bit of Hindering terrain for additional cover. That said, none of them are particularly difficult to get in to, so if you need more cover, you might also consider moving in to the space between the antechamber and the blocking terrain that borders your starting zone. This works better for the north and south antechambers, but basically since it's further away from your opponent's side of the map AND so narrow, it's an easy forward base to place characters when you want to move out. I recommend plugging it with someone with ESD. Now you have cover AND a forward base to attack from. It might seem a little counterintuitive since it's only a few squares outside the starting zone, but those few squares make a huge difference on a map this small.

Lastly, while overall unlikely, if you don't use objects and none of your opponents doesn't use objects, consider using your two objects to completely wall one of your opponents in. It's less likely in Civil War, but it might come up, and it'll slow someone down really well in a 4 player game where they would rather move quickly.

For Civil War, this can be a pretty decent map either way. Anti-Registration characters might have a hard time Charging around here, so be careful where you go. Pro-Reg characters might have a bit of an edge, as even with all of the blocking, it's easier for them to get the first shot off, and characters like She-Hulk can really ruin your day with that 11 attack Charge for 6 damage through blocking. Characters like Jester are also not bad since he can basically flood an entire area of the very limited map with bots to tie up opponent's and block their shots. However, even for Anti-Reg, this is a great map overall with all of the clear paths littered with blocking to cut down on lines of fire. Just do what you can to move up and catch your opponent off guard, and you should be able to lead Cap's forces without too much trouble.


Stuck in a Lease:

So if your opponent chose here, they're probably looking at doing short or mid range teams. The bad news is that there's no difference in starting zones, so you can't really pull an advantage there. The good news is that there's still a few options based on what your team is like, and where they want to go. If your opponent is hiding behind the center antechamber, keep a little distance so they can't spring their trap without leaving themselves exposed. You might even consider placing your characters behind either the blocking terrain off to the side, or the antechamber closest to your starting zone so you can force them to extend themselves out if they want to attack you. Shooting walls might help open things up a bit if you're looking for that, but keep in mind a lot of these walls come in groups of two, so it might not get you as far as you wanted.

For the 4 player version, I'd recommend turtling a little more, especially if you're playing a team not appropriately suited to this map. Don't turtle too much if you're trying to score points, but definitely take a moment to feel out where each of your opponents are going, and how much of a threat they are to you. Once most players have committed to attacking one opponent, it's much easier to pin them from the other side, and snipe kills that another opponent softened up for you. Don't just watch who you can gain access to, pay attention to which of your opponents can snipe kills from you as well, because I guarantee that while they're waiting for you to finish your turn, that's what they're really thinking about.


Vacation Spots:

I like this map more than Stamford for casual play. Being an Indoor map with lots of Blocking terrain means that it slows down the action, and adds a few more layers to combat instead of devolving down to a simple free for all. It's still open, so there will be plenty of action, but the action will be coming from different directions and sources, and I think that makes for a more exciting casual game. Moreover, if you're in to scenario play, the blue teleporter pads could be a really fun thing to either teleport to other maps or just different parts of this map, and they're already marked in dotted purple. Just an idea to our local scenario writers. ;D

It's Getting Kinda Crowded:

This is another map that's basically designed for 4 players or 2 players, so it's easy to set this up. Additionally, the map design is a little bland, which works well for a Prison, and the map can easily be used to connect to itself infinitely, giving the antechambers and walls slightly more depth as you're moving around.

I Think I’m Gonna Like It Here:

I already outed Civil War She-Hulk as a competitor here. Being able to Charge through Blocking terrain can be really huge in a place like this. Additionally, this is another great map to use Vanisher, as you can make huge strides in to the center with the rest of your team. Characters that like to be close in, but don't possess Stealth can do really well here as well, and I'd love to mention some of the Spider-Verse characters, since one or two of them would have no real problem hiding behind different walls, moving in close, and calling the rest of them to help out once you engage. My recommendation would be someone like Silk. Another Pro-Reg character you might like is Songbird, who can Sidestep around and use Barrier with the natural contours of the map to heavily restrict opponents.

This Side Up:

Theme: 2/5

Honestly, while there's plenty of space looking stuff, there's very little to identify this as a Prison of any kind, especially as a superhero Prison. Chaos War had a Negative Zone Prison map that had cells and sciency stuff. It even had a cool purple outline around the edge to make sure you knew that this wasn't in a normal place for a Prison. Compared to that, this feels like a step back

Clarity: 2/5

Honestly without the faded blue orbs on the map, it would be hard to differentiate anything. Dark grey background with Grey/Black Walls makes the rooms difficult to see, and they put little darker grey circles everywhere seemingly out of spite. This map didn't have a lot going for it in theme, and most of what is interesting is covered up by grey on grey on grey color schemes. I didn't mark it off for being a 2 AND 4 player map, but I'm torn there. I really like WK acknowledging 4 player maps, and making it flexible is great, but either way it adds a lot of lines that one way or another won't be making their way in to your game. It's just busy when it shouldn't be.

Tactical Impact: 3/5

It's definitely good for setting the pace of the battle, but this still leaves plenty of options to teams that aren't playing your way, so I'm marking it down for that.

Balance: 4/5

The nice thing about this map is that it doesn't shut out most teams. While the map is closed off more than most, it has plenty of ways to get in and out of different areas of the map, so it's a good place for people to decide where and how they want to fight.

Terrain Diversity: 2/5

Walls and Blocking with a few hedges of Hindering here and there. It's hard to fault it for that since there isn't a lot of reason this map would have Water or Elevated, or even a lot of Hindering, but it is what it is.

Overall: 3/5

Despite the low scores ,I do really like this map. In 2 player, there are several other maps that do similar things, and several of them do their things a little better. This is still a really decent map, and I particularly love the 4 player variant since it's good for both offensive and defensive teams.

In the Neighborhood:

Technodrome
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=565612

The Sewers
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=353959

Negative Zone Prison
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=389441

Well, that's it for this time. Until next time, enjoy the scenery, and don't forget to Register (for tournaments).

Excellent coverage for a fun map!

Prison 42 was the best map for the Civil War SLOP event, especially with HSS (Speedfreek) or Barrier (Songbird), imho.

In Constructed, a 2x2 colossal makes a nice "plug" to block either passageway.

Thanks for the great article!

Awesome job as always! I know you are super busy.... Please cover possibly the most fun maps in the game: the Hidden Temple and the Lost Fountains!

I'm glad you guys liked it. I love the Hidden Temple and Lost Fountains. I've been trying to get personal copies since they were released, but it's a hard map to find, and my venue owner likes to keep his. I'll work them in to the queue though!